Wei Ying was rubbing his arm trying to convey some kind of comfort...but Lan Zhan was lost in thought.

Why couldn't he see his own reflection?

Was it permanent or temporary?

"Look...let's not freak out..." Wei Ying eased the mirror out of his fast grip.

"I'm not freaking out." Lan Zhan said, firmly.

"Not on the outside...but in here? I can feel it. You need to calm down, Pal. Panicking isn't going to solve anything." Wei Ying was saying that to Lan Zhan but he felt he was in dire need of listening to that valuable advice himself.

It had been freaky to see nothing in the mirror except his peeling ceiling and then his own face.

But not Lan Zhan’s face.

Wei Ying had planted his ever so warm palm on Lan Zhan’s chest...and how could such a simple action feel so good?

Lan Zhan was having a super hard time keeping up with his own thoughts too. He was being bombarded by too much information all in one go, plus Wei Ying was right; he was freaking out.

"Hold on!" Wei Ying said excitedly. "I can't feel your heart." He moved his palm around and there was nothing.

Lan Zhan was enjoying this far too much.

Not only the whole attention of this unfairly beautiful man, but his lovely warmth...Lan Zhan was unconsciously leaning forward to soak up as much of it as he could, suppressing the tiny shivers that were wracking through his body.

"Perhaps this t-shirt is getting in the way." Lan Zhan said, some kind of weird sense of self-preservation kicking in. If he could have more of that warmth, he was going to do everything in his power to take it.

And then, in the boldest move of his life, Lan Zhan whisked off the t-shirt that was the last remaining barrier between Wei Ying’s soft, warm palm and his bare skin.

His cool fingers wrapped around that delicate wrist attached to the warmest palm he had ever felt...and he held it in place.

Wei Ying stopped thinking.

Not doable right now.

His brain had malfunctioned when Lan Zhan said something about t-shirts in the way, but then...then...he came face to face with the most chiselled chest he had ever seen.

Right in front of his face.

So of course, his brain shut down.

Lan Zhan was saying something but nothing could go in.

Wei Ying was trying to find names for all those muscles, the way they twitched under his palm...that cool skin...and it was so smooth...flawless like the best quality jade...Wei Ying did not care about a single damn thing right now.

Lan Zhan felt rather smug.

He sensed that Wei Ying was having some kind of breakdown...and it was probably something to do with him...after all, this was rather an intimate position for both of them. But he was in some kind of blissful place, this human contact making him feel as if he was wrapped up in a soft, fluffy blanket.

And the smell.

His mouth watered dangerously.

If he thought Wei Ying’s natural scent was delicious to begin with...then a Wei Ying having nothing but desire soaking through his blood racked up temptation level by a hundred.

At least.

Lan Zhan wasn't even sure how he knew...but he knew.

It would be so easy to lift his wrist up...he was already holding it anyway...up to his lips and just...bite down...

Unconsciously, Lan Zhan did exactly that but on his own lip and the moment the blood filled his mouth, he regained control.

Some control of himself.

He pushed back and out of Wei Ying's reach, hunting for the t-shirt again and then he quickly slipped it on.

Then he stood as far away from Wei Ying as he could, keeping a watchful eye on him.

He could already smell the surprise first, which wasn't that bad...just different...but then there was the hurt.

That was awful.

It smelled bad.

"I'm sorry." He whispered. "It's for your own safety."

Wei Ying plastered on the brightest smile he could manage.

"Don't do that!" Lan Zhan reprimanded him sharply.

Wei Ying looked up at him...the smile leaving his face slowly.

"What?" He asks carefully.

"You were blaming yourself...when it was just as much my fault."

Wei Ying looks surprised.

"How...how can you tell what I'm feeling? You did that before too..."

"It's your blood. It changes with your feelings. Anything positive smells good...like that desire...it was the best thing I have ever smelled in my life. But just now...you were blaming yourself for me moving away...I moved because my control was in question." Lan Zhan explained himself as best as he was able to.

"And that would be a bad thing." Wei Ying whispered.

"A very bad thing." He agreed. Lan Zhan wrinkled his nose again...fear was the worst smell.

He refused to breathe it in...not when it came from the best person alive.

This was the most kindness Lan Zhan had ever experienced in his life. He was a stranger to Wei Ying but that never stopped him bringing Lan Zhan into his home and looking after him. Wei Ying had offered to cook too...and he had taken the day off his work.

"I will not harm you." He promised again.

"But Lan Zhan...you said it yourself...you couldn't control yourself..." Wei Ying didn’t want to feel afraid...but facts were facts.

"I will do better. I promise. Perhaps we can blame any lapse on my part...as being due to my inexperience at...at...this." Lan Zhan gestured vaguely at his body.

"Lapse...?" Wei Ying laughed, wetly. "Is that what we're going to call it?"

"Wei Ying!" He sounded tortured.

Wei Ying’s phone rang, an intrusive, loud noise, jarring their fragile peace.

He scrambled to pick it up.

"Wen Qing! Hi....how are you?" His voice cracked. Wei Ying got up and removed himself into the kitchen.

Lan Zhan did not have the heart to tell him that he could hear every thing they were saying.

Literally.

And that was yet another problem to deal with now.

But this...He did not seem to have a functioning heart.

*********

"Yes! I told you, he's awake now. No need for you to come here. He's fine." Too fine, Wei Ying thought to himself, rebelliously.

That was one fine specimen of...of...

"WEI WUXIAN, ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?" She yelled.

Wei Ying was pretty sure his neighbours were listening to her too, let alone Lan Zhan just in the next room. These walls were thin...

"AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN, HERE? HAVEN'T YOU GONE TO WORK YET?"

Damn! He'd forgotten about her sharp wits. And since her girlfriend was MianMian...it was only a matter of time before she found out about his excuse.

"No...look, I'm fine, he's fine, we're just figuring something out, okay? Nothing for you to worry about. But...I may have lied to MianMian about that...I told her I wasn't feeling well...but I TOTALLY AM!" He had to shout that last bit because Wen Qing had started a predictable tirade against him, and once that started, there was no stopping her.

"YOU BETTER NOT BE SHAGGING HIM, I SWEAR TO GO-"

Wei Ying switched off his phone.

He sauntered back into the living room where Lan Zhan was sitting down again, a comfortable distance from Wei Ying.

Wei Ying tossed his phone on the coffee table and sat as calmly as he could on the opposite end of the couch.

There was a tense silence, and Lan Zhan was still making that face where he might have stepped on dogturd.

Wei Ying just sighed now.

How hard was it for Lan Zhan?

If Wei Ying was feeling overwhelmed by whatever was going on with both of them, because even he knew, the level of attraction he was feeling towards the gobsmackingly gorgeous man was just...unholy....then how bad must it be for Lan Zhan?

But before he could ask, his doorbell rang.

"That must be your lunch." Wei Ying jumped over the sofa in a single lithe movement.

Lan Zhan told himself it was the aroma of barely cooked meat climbing up the stairs and not the superior agility he had just witnessed, resulting in the extra saliva in his mouth.

Wei Ying was already closing the door to his apartment, bringing the bag to Lan Zhan and putting it in front of him.

"Um...do you want to wash your hands? Freshen up first?" He asked, eagerly.

Lan Zhan stood up too quickly, and again he was towering over the smaller man. He wanted to laugh at that, because Wei Ying wasn't short by any means. At a guess, Lan Zhan would say close to six feet. So...had he grown?

Lan Zhan’s normal height was close to that...before.

Before a few nights ago.

The melancholy was back, dropping him into a well of sadness.

His life was never going to go back to normal.

Ever.

Whatever this was...it was here to stay.

That much, he was sure of.

The warmth was back, this time tugging on his hand.

Lan Zhan looked down into those silver swirls of delight, as if someone had thrown a bunch of glitter into Mercury and stirred it around.

Wei Ying was the most beautiful person Lan Zhan had ever seen.

Hands down.

Beyond compare.

"It's this way. We can talk after...after you've had something to eat. I imagine you'll be more comfortable too. No lapses..." He said.

Lan Zhan glanced at his face then...worried that Wei Ying was thinking too much about what he had said, his glib remark about accidentally ending his life. He felt bad about that, though.

But...there was nothing negative on his face.

Wei Ying looked...and smelled normal now.

Maybe it was Lan Zhan who was thinking too much now.

"Here you go." Wei Ying pushed open the door and then he ran inside, an adorable blush on his face as he picked up drying underwear and other embarrassing items from the tiny room.

Still blushing, he left quickly, leaving Lan Zhan to use the facilities.

There were definite changes happening inside his body...Lan Zhan could feel them.

Slowly but surely, his body was morphing into...something else.

He refused to look in the bathroom mirror, choosing to focus on washing his hands instead. The warm water made him realise how he was feeling ... not exactly cold...but a more accurate assessment would be that he missed the warmth.

Missed feeling it.

When he returned to the living room, Wei Ying had set out a plate and cutlery, next to a glass of water.

Lan Zhan thought it was rather odd that he did not feel thirsty...at least, not for mere water, since he had drunk nothing but his own blood in thirty...he checked his watch, thirty five hours.

Even now, he was pushing it away uninterestedly.

He reached for the carton which was still warm, the aroma of barely cooked meat sitting heavily in his nostrils.

He opened the yellow Styrofoam with trepidation...because he had not been lying when he said he was a vegetarian.

He was a devout vegetarian as well, religious about what went into his body...and it was part of his career too.

His motto in life had been a need to show people that they did not need to depend on certain foods to have a great body...and he had proved it.

He had enough money not to have to worry about his job. That income source was as good as dry now, and Lan Zhan was surprised to feel no remorse about that.

"It's going to get cold." Wei Ying said, interrupting his inner dialogue.

Lan Zhan tried to smile.

This was an incredibly difficult thing he was trying to accomplish.

For anyone else, it was simply a matter of lifting the lid and taking a bite.

For Lan Zhan?

No.

There was nothing simple about this.

He tried not to think about the disappointment his uncle would feel, once he found out about Lan Zhan’s new diet. And his brother...?

Would he be able to see them again?

The hand on his arm made him jerk in surprise.

Wei Ying was looking at him with nothing but infinite kindness, more of what he had already showered Lan Zhan with.

"Let's only think about food for now. Trust me, you'll be able to deal with all the rest of the crap on a full stomach, far better than an empty one." He said softly.

Lan Zhan could lose himself in those mysterious silver eyes.

So richly sparkling and bright.

"Eat."

"Mn."

Lan Zhan chopped the steak up into manageable pieces. He knew he was procrastinating...but he was so torn!

His mind would not allow himself to put the first bite inside his mouth, and his tongue was ready to fight the next thought with fire if he didn't start putting something in.

His stomach gurgled noisily.

"You can do it." Wei Ying encouraged him.

Lan Zhan watched the piece of red meat attached to the fork, lifting it up to place inside his mouth. His mind was throwing facts at him, helpful ones that identified the texture and taste to his brain.

So he carried on eating.

One bite after another.

Wei Ying was surreptitiously watching him, pretending to play on his phone but Lan Zhan’s new senses had told him that Wei Ying had yet to actually make a move on his screen.

Meanwhile, bite after bite went inside. The smell was alright...not as wonderful as he had imagined the taste would be. It was still bloody...and that was the best part...that much Lan Zhan could tell.

But when he got to maybe the seventh or eighth piece...that's when he knew something was wrong.

His stomach protested in the most violent way, sending him shooting up. He ran to the bathroom and threw up in the toilet.

Everything.

All that effort of trying to chew that frankly rubbery texture...all for nothing.

When there was nothing but dry heaving left, he felt a warm wet cloth placed on the back of his neck.

He immediately felt better.

But his hunger was back, tenfold.

Lan Zhan took measures, before he returned to the living room. He bit his lip and gladly drank the few drops of delicious blood...but a part of him knew that this wasn't going to last forever.

What would happen when his own blood ran out?

Since his heart wasn't working properly?

This thought filled him with sadness.

Once more, he put his own palm on his heart...or roughly where he thought it should be, and there was....something. But nothing like he was used to, no thumpety-thump of an organ doing its best to beat.

Hardly any rhythm.

When he returned to the living room, Wei Ying had cleared away the disastrous meal, leaving a mug of steaming ginger tea.

Lan Zhan appreciated its aroma, warm and soothing...but he had no desire to consume it.

"So...where were we?" Wei Ying continued, as if they didn't just have a huge drama happen.

"We were talking about...lapses. On my part." Lan Zhan said, and then immediately felt bad.

Wei Ying was allowed to feel scared.

Even if Lan Zhan hated it.

"Yes. We were." He was quiet for a few minutes. "The thing is...I have a son."

Lan Zhan wasn't sure why that gave him a pang inside.

Maybe he was waiting for the addition of another person...and if he had not overheard the conversation Wei Ying had with the person called Wen Qing, he might have assumed she was his wife...and therefore the mother of his son.

"He's adopted." Wei Ying added.

"I have no idea why I feel...so possessive about you." Lan Zhan told him, honestly.

"Let's put that on the side for now." Wei Ying said, with a clear agenda. "As I was saying, I have a son. And while my offer still stands about you staying here...I need to know that my kid is safe...from you." His voice broke at the end.

That now familiar fear was back.

Lan Zhan still hated it.

"What can I do to make this better?" Lan Zhan asked him. "I am learning myself, about myself. I think...given that you are the most tempting thing I have come across since...since the change...I have handled myself quite well under the circumstances."

"You have...you have..." Wei Ying nodded along. "Okay about that...when you say 'most tempting thing' do you mean in a cake or pizza kind of way...or are we talking about hot and desirable kind of way?" This was kind of an awkward conversation to be having with your possible murderer...and Wei Ying knew he was going off topic, but this was the first time someone had expressed an interest in a possibly romantic kind of way...and Wei Ying was only human.

Lan Zhan thought it over.

"Both?" He said uncertainly.

"Alright...that's kind of ... disturbing, not gonna lie..." Wei Ying laughed awkwardly again. "But we'll come back to that one. Why don't you tell me about the things that you feel have changed the most? I mean, aside from the no-reflection thing...I mean, that would freak anyone out..."

"Please...can we not use that particular word in regard to myself?" Lan Zhan asked, still feeling worse than just uncomfortable about it.

"What...word?" Wei Ying asked him, no hint of amusement on his face or his tone.

"Freak." Lan Zhan made himself say it. But it was absolutely necessary in order to define his boundaries.

Wei Ying was sitting next to him in a heartbeat.

Lan Zhan watched as his hand came over and claimed his.

"Sweetheart...I'm sorry. I did not mean anything by it, and I certainly wasn't calling you that. I mean...I would never." He reiterated. His warm thumb glided over Lan Zhan’s knuckles, sending pleasant little tingles of joy across his sharper nerve endings.

"Mn." Lan Zhan was enjoying this soothing touch far too much to disturb it.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked, again all Lan Zhan could see was a need to understand...and simple acceptance.

If Lan Zhan said no, he had no doubts that Wei Ying would respect that, and not ask for anything more.

How refreshing was that?

To be given the freedom and freewill to choose how he wanted to respond...it was a gift beyond compare.

And in an even more bizarre turn, Lan Zhan thought he wouldn't mind telling Wei Ying about himself.

So he took a deep breath...and realised that while his lungs were fine for now...they were not necessarily going to keep working...but he was going to be just fine.

That was another thing to talk about...later.

"Mn."

Wei Ying assumed that meant a yes. He had time still, he didn’t have to go get A-Yuan and possibly JingYi from school for another three hours.

And he wanted to make sure he was bringing them back to a safe environment...that was his first priority.

"When I was six years old, my brother and I were taken to visit my mother...in hospital. I did not know at the time...but that was the last time I would see her. Alive."

His voice sounded level...smooth and deep...but Wei Ying sensed an inner turmoil. He could well imagine the confusion a child would have...six years old...that was the same age as A-Yuan. What would A-Yuan feel, if suddenly Wei Ying was taken away from him?

Just that thought alone, brought tears to Wei Ying’s eyes. He had always been an empathetic person...but thinking about Lan Zhan’s situation and A-Yuan together...made it seem too real.

A white handkerchief was offered to him and Wei Ying took it gratefully, wiping his eyes.

"My kid is six." He said, squeezing Lan Zhan’s hand warmly. "I didn't mean to interrupt. Please continue."

"My uncle...when they said I would not be able to return...I did not take the news well." Lan Zhan said.

He was looking far away, into the distance.

"What happened?" Wei Ying asked, after a while.

"My brother said I screamed and cried. Gave myself a seizure. Ended up staying there for two weeks. When I came out, my mother was dead, and they had already cremated her.

"I did not speak after that. I did not see the point...not when the people around me did not care. I don't think I cared."

"That's why...no hospital...?" Wei Ying had taken his hand into his lap, continuing to run his thumb over the smooth skin of his knuckles.

It was comforting to both of them; Lan Zhan needed the warmth and Wei Ying needed something to do with his hands, a born fidgeter.

"Mn. I cannot go near them now." Lan Zhan admitted, glad for the understanding he was receiving.

"It's alright, you know. Maybe...maybe you should see this," he glanced at Lan Zhan’s body briefly, "as a new start. Maybe whatever is going on with you right now...it's a good thing..."

"What is going on? I do not understand." Lan Zhan felt frustrated all of a sudden.

He ran an agitated hand through his gorgeous hair, and Wei Ying was jealously watching it fall back into place exactly as perfectly as it was to start with.

There was no way he could pull off something like that, in such a cool way. His long hair was wavy and thick and only a bun or a ponytail came anywhere close to taming it down.

"You know...I watched a show...a while back. It was called the Strain."

His beautiful voice was both soothing and melodious...and Lan Zhan was not at all sure of what was happening to him...regarding Wei Ying.

Easily captivating...his every action stole all of Lan Zhan’s attention. He was aware of every single feeling Wei Ying had, right down to the absurd admiration of his hair. He could identify the feeling and put together what it could be regarding the reason.

And even more importantly, he wanted to continue feeling this way about him, all kinds of protective...and deeply possessiveness too...he definitely liked Wei Ying...and perhaps...it went deeper than that.

But as long as Wei Ying was willing to talk, Lan Zhan wanted to listen. His voice was like dark, rich chocolate, coating his throat with an unbelievable smooth, addictive taste.

"It was about...Vampires." Wei Ying paused, wondering if he had mentioned a touchy subject.

After all, neither had said the word up till now, both of them skirting around it and the consequences of what that would mean.

"Go on." Lan Zhan simply said.

So Wei Ying....did.

"Well, it was about lots of characters...but it focused on the doctor who was called in to investigate a plane that landed in a New York Airport...I forget which one. All the passengers were dead, save five...and there was a huge black casket in the cargo hold. That was the Big Bad...but what I found most interesting was the five who survived. Obviously, they were special because a) they survived, and b) they became vampires themselves."

"Is that what you think I am?" Lan Zhan asked him, carefully.

He was not an idiot; he knew about them...more in a passing kind of way. A book had come out recently and it had hit number one on bestseller lists around the world...bringing Vampires back into "fashion".

Lan Zhan only knew because of publicity bombardment rather than an actual interest. But now...he wished he had paid more attention when it was popular.

"Well...it kind of makes sense, right?" Wei Ying knew he was treading through a minefield right now...and he didn't want to upset Lan Zhan in any way...especially if his control was in question. "Can't see your reflection? Check. Blood tastes nice? Check. Sharp teeth? Check. Super strong? Check. Gorgeous to look at? Double check. Check Check."

Lan Zhan let out a huff of laughter.

Wei Ying was staring at him full of wonder.

"Do that again." He demanded.

Lan Zhan suddenly became all kinds of shy.

And even more shocking: Wei Ying climbed into his lap, held his face so tenderly, and kissed him.