Honey Won't You Let Me In - Part 2

[surgicalfocus]

Title: Honey Won’t You Let Me In – Part 2

Pairing: Baekhyun/Chanyeol

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Romance, Vampire!AU. Sort of inspired by Let The Right One In.

Length: Four parts

Word Count: ~5,800

Warnings: Mild language, implied love scene. Any lyrics used do not belong to me.

Summary: Possibly a better love story than Twilight.






[Dear listeners, it’s official. I never thought I’d hear myself say this at all, let alone on the air, but… I think I’m in love. Do you have a favourite love song? If you do, call in and dedicate it to your special someone. Here’s one of mine.]




+ + + + +




“Hey…” Taeyeon pipes up suddenly, “what do you think makes people bad?”

Chanyeol flicks through his comic and shrugs. “I dunno... I guess when they do bad stuff. Why..?”

“Because… I think I might be bad.”

Chanyeol rests the comic on his knees and looks at her questioningly. “Why? What did you do?”

“It’s not so much something I did,” Taeyeon replies, chewing her lip nervously. “It’s something I am.”

Chanyeol stares at her blankly. “I have no idea what you’re on about..”

Taeyeon sighs and shakes her head. “Never mind.”


They sit together quietly for a while before Taeyeon finally breaks the silence again.


“Chanyeol… what do you want to be when you grow up?”

“I don’t know,” Chanyeol replies thoughtfully. “I love music, so maybe I’ll work in radio or something. Or I could be a comedian... but I’m not that funny.”

Taeyeon shrugs. “I think you’re funny..”

“And yet you never laugh at any of my excellent jokes,” Chanyeol grumbles. “What about you..?”

“I’m not sure. I’ve never really thought about it.”

“You must have some idea..”

Taeyeon seems lost in thought for a moment. “If I had the choice, I’d like to be anyone but me,” she says quietly. “That’s all I know.”

Chanyeol groans. “Gosh, what’s with you today..? If I give you a present, will you stop being so depressing?”

Taeyeon eyes him curiously. “What is it..?”

“I was going to wait a bit before I gave it to you, but I suppose you can have it now,” Chanyeol says, searching around in his pockets for something. “Now close your eyes and hold out your hands."

Taeyeon does as she's told, and Chanyeol pulls a bracelet from his pocket while her eyes are closed. He drops it into her cupped palms and her eyelids slowly flutter open.

"I made it for you. See? It's got your name on it."

Taeyeon turns the bracelet over in her hands, admiring it carefully. It’s made of brightly coloured threads woven together, complete with white plastic beads that spell out her name. Her silence makes Chanyeol nervous, and he sits there watching her for what feels like a lifetime until he can't bear it anymore.

"Well... do you like it..?"

Taeyeon looks up at Chanyeol with wet eyes. Without warning she leans forward and presses her lips to his cheek, lingering there for a moment before pulling away, and when she moves back her eyes are downcast. Chanyeol feels his face burning up, and he opens his mouth to say something, but the words stick in his throat like his mother's clumpy fried rice.

Taeyeon scrambles to her feet and catapults herself out the door. Chanyeol doesn’t have it in him to stop her. He sits there holding his fingers to his cheek, repeatedly trailing them over the spot where she kissed him; for how long, exactly, he doesn't know.


With his hand still glued to his face he gets up and wanders back to the house.




+ + + + +




“Thank you for dinner,” Baekhyun says when they reach the front door of his apartment, “it was really nice.”

“You barely even ate anything, as usual…” Chanyeol points out, “but… you’re welcome.”

“Hey. I need to watch my figure, you know..”

Chanyeol buries his face in Baekhyun’s neck and covers it in kisses. “How about I watch your figure for you..?”

“Hey… easy, tiger. Not in the hallway..”

“Well, I guess this is goodnight, then,” Chanyeol sighs, and he leans in for a kiss, but Baekhyun presses a finger to his lips before he can do so.

“Not so fast,” he whispers, “you’re not going anywhere tonight. I want you to stay with me this time.”

“What,” Chanyeol laughs, “so soon..?”

Baekhyun pouts at him. “Don’t make fun of me… I’m serious. I just needed some time, that’s all.”

Chanyeol hesitates for a moment. They’ve been dating for a few months now, and Baekhyun has neither given nor accepted an invitation to stay over in that time. He hadn’t really been expecting a sudden change of heart. Not just yet.

“Please, will you come in?" Baekhyun pleads quietly, "there’s something I really want to show you.”

Chanyeol swallows the lump of anticipation in his throat and manages a nod. “Okay. If you want me to..”

“I really want you to,” Baekhyun whispers, smiling shyly, and he takes Chanyeol’s hand, gently leading him through the front door. He closes the door behind them and Chanyeol looks around as light floods the living area. But for a single chair and a small television set on the floor, the room is completely bare.

“It’s, uh… empty in here…”

“Yeah, well… I haven’t been living here long.”

“I envy your detachment from material things…” Chanyeol replies, “I’ve always wanted to de-clutter, but I could never bring myself to do it. My record collection won’t let me.”

Baekhyun shrugs and looks around the room. “I move around a lot, so it seems pointless to accumulate piles of stuff… this is the longest I've been in any one place for a good while. But I've never had much of an attachment to objects, anyway. The only things I consider to be truly priceless aren’t tangible.”

“What are they?”

Baekhyun shrugs off his jacket and dumps it over the lonely chair in the middle of the room. “Forgiveness, and peace of mind. Both are hard to come by, and maybe that's why they’re worth so much to me. They always seem to be just out of my reach..”

Forgiveness for what, Chanyeol wants to ask, but his lips won't form the words. Somehow it seems too delicate a question.


“What about love..?”


Baekhyun pauses and looks up at Chanyeol. He suddenly seems so tired and ancient; those world-weary eyes don’t belong in a face so young.

“I've never really known what it is to love,” he says quietly. “I’m not even sure I know what love is.”

“What if I said I wanted to change that?” Chanyeol replies, and Baekhyun eyes him warily.

“Why..?”

“I've always felt that love was something I could easily do without, but something about you makes me want to change my mind.”

Baekhyun looks amused. “Oh really..?”

Chanyeol nods and cautiously steps closer, taking both of Baekhyun’s hands in his own. “I think you’re the most beautiful, fascinating person I’ve ever met. And it’s really hard for me to say things like that, so you’ll just have to take me at my word.”

Baekhyun nods and smiles up at him. “Okay.”

Chanyeol moves closer still, leaning down until their foreheads touch. “So… what did you want to show me?”

Baekhyun looks into his eyes for a moment without uttering a word. He lets go of Chanyeol’s hands, slowly walking backwards, and he begins to unbutton his shirt, still looking Chanyeol right in the eye as he lets it fall to the floor. Chanyeol follows him, enslaved by those piercing eyes, his mind already possessed by thoughts of kissing that beautiful mouth - and maybe more, if Baekhyun will let him. His heart pounds so loudly in his ears that it drowns out the deafening silence in the apartment.


The pull is magnetic. He can feel himself slipping away, and there is no fighting it.


By the time they reach the bedroom, Baekhyun is almost entirely naked, left with nothing but his underwear, and he sits himself down in front of a keyboard set up in the corner.

“Sit down. I want to play something for you,” he says quietly, and after switching the keyboard on, he sits there with his eyes closed and his fingers resting lightly on the keys. Chanyeol sits down on the bed and watches him anxiously for some time.

At last Baekhyun’s eyelids flutter open and he begins to play. It’s a beautiful song, so haunting and complex; it pins Chanyeol to his seat, knocking the wind right out of him, and he can barely move or breathe for the whole time Baekhyun is seated in front of that keyboard.

Baekhyun turns his head towards Chanyeol as soon as he’s finished playing and smiles. “What do you think..?”

Chanyeol moves behind him and gently wraps his arms around Baekhyun’s shoulders, pressing soft kisses to the side of his neck.

“Thank you. It was wonderful.”

Baekhyun tilts his head a little for Chanyeol’s benefit and hums happily. “I’m glad you liked it.”

“Do you often play like this..?” Chanyeol asks, allowing his hands to roam over Baekhyun’s chest.

Baekhyun shivers a little at the unexpected touch and closes his eyes. “Like what?”

“Practically naked.”

“Only on special occasions,” Baekhyun laughs. He turns his head to the side, his eyes meeting Chanyeol’s for a moment, and Chanyeol leans down to kiss him because he can’t hold back anymore. He finds the taste of Baekhyun’s kisses strange and nostalgic. It’s a little like all those times he cut his tongue on a sharp piece of rock candy as a child, the sweetness mingling with the faint coppery tang of his own blood, and somehow he can’t get enough of it.

“Come here,” Baekhyun says quietly. He gently pulls Chanyeol towards the bed, pushing him down onto it, and presses his lips to his ear. “Now kiss me.”

“Where do you want me to kiss you?”

“Everywhere,” Baekhyun whispers. “Everywhere, anywhere, wherever you like. Please, just kiss me.”

“And what if I like every little bit of you?” Chanyeol whispers back; their mouths are so close that they’re almost touching again, but not quite. “What do I do then?”

Baekhyun’s breath is warm on his lips, and he can almost taste it.

“Then kiss every little bit of me.” Baekhyun breathes the words out, leaving them to hang in the air for a moment until the silence swallows them up, but that look in his eyes remains burned in Chanyeol’s memory long after they stop speaking.

Chanyeol does as he’s told, lightly brushing Baekhyun’s lips with his own, then moving to his neck, and slowly trailing kisses down to his shoulder. Baekhyun trembles beneath him, consumed with longing, perhaps, or trepidation, or both; his skin feels cold at first, but it seems to grow warmer with each kiss, and his heart beats hard and fast, a dull thud underneath Chanyeol’s fingertips.

“You really are lovely,” Chanyeol whispers into the soft skin of Baekhyun’s stomach, but all the words on his mind sound absurd and unfinished. They could never do Baekhyun enough justice on their own.

Baekhyun whines softly in the back of his throat, his fingers tangling themselves in Chanyeol’s hair, but he stops him before he can go any further.

“Wait.”

Chanyeol lifts his head reluctantly. “What’s wrong..?”

“My turn,” Baekhyun says gruffly; it comes out a growl as he pushes Chanyeol down, pinning him flat against the bed with an unexpected strength that seems at odds with his small, fragile-looking body. He leans forward to run his tongue over Chanyeol’s neck, tracing around his pulse over and over with the very tip. Chanyeol can’t help but gasp in response.

Baekhyun tears himself away with some difficulty and tugs at the hem of Chanyeol’s shirt.

“Aren’t you going to undress too..?” he asks, already breathless with anticipation, and Chanyeol hesitates for a moment.

“Yeah,” he says quietly, “I’m just a little nervous, that’s all.”

Affecting nonchalance to the best of his ability, Chanyeol gets up off the bed and begins to undress himself. With his hands shaking like they are, it takes him far longer than it should to unbutton a simple dress shirt. He unbuckles his belt and steps out of his trousers in a leisurely, deliberate manner, trying to calm his nerves by stalling for time, but the tension in the air only seems to thicken with each passing second. It’s painfully obvious that Baekhyun feels it as much as he does, standing there watching in silence with his hooded gaze and slowly running his tongue over his lips. He swallows so loudly that Chanyeol can hear it.

Chanyeol stands there at last with his clothing pooled at his feet, and looks down at himself, gently trailing his fingers over the red welts covering his arms and chest -- unsightly souvenirs from a short time spent in the sun earlier that day. He can feel a pair of dark eyes burning into his exposed flesh, but Baekhyun says nothing; he just looks at Chanyeol with that unreadable expression.

What does he feel? Pity? Revulsion? It’s not like he doesn’t know about it; Chanyeol’s condition had briefly come up in conversation a few times before. But hearing about it and seeing it in the flesh are two entirely different things, Chanyeol thinks to himself. He wants to know Baekhyun’s thoughts, but he doesn’t want to know them, at the same time.

Baekhyun holds out his arms. “Come here.”

Chanyeol does as he’s told and Baekhyun grabs both of his hands, pulling him closer.

“Does it hurt..?” he asks quietly.

“It hurts sometimes. It’s mostly just… itchy. It’ll be gone by the time I wake up, but it always comes back again, and I really wish it wouldn't.”

Baekhyun nods, but remains silent, and Chanyeol leans down to kiss his forehead.

“What are you thinking?” he whispers.

“I think you're just...” Baekhyun begins, but the words die somewhere in his throat.

What? Chanyeol is dying to ask. You think I'm what..?

“…I don't know why you were nervous about this,” Baekhyun says, his voice cracking a little. “Did you really think I would care..?”

Chanyeol shrugs. “I don't know. Maybe.”

Baekhyun shakes his head. “The only thing I care about is not hurting you.”

“You won’t hurt me.”

Baekhyun nods and hesitantly trails his hands over the bare skin on Chanyeol’s arms, gently tracing the red bumps with his fingers.

“Can I..?”

“Yes,” Chanyeol whispers, and he doesn’t know what he’s agreeing to, exactly, but if it involves Baekhyun then he doesn’t really care.

Baekhyun pulls him down onto the bed without another word, and they kiss each other feverishly, as though their lives depend on it. At first Chanyeol is apprehensive about being devoured and dissected and explored for the first time in a long time; he feels like a bundle of newly awakened nerves and a pounding heart and little else, reduced to a quivering mess at the mercy of Baekhyun’s mouth and hands, but it’s so wonderful to be wanted like this, even if it’s only temporary.

Even if it’s just for tonight.

“If only kisses would make it go away...” Baekhyun whispers, “then I'd have an excuse to spend all my time kissing you.”

Chanyeol laughs. “We'd never get anything done.”

“That wouldn’t be such a bad thing..” Baekhyun points out, and he’s laughing too. For reasons he can’t quite explain, Chanyeol can feel tears forming at the corners of his eyes. He quickly blinks them away just as Baekhyun lifts his head again.

“Are you alright?” Baekhyun asks, looking concerned. He must have seen. “Am I making you uncomfortable..?”

Chanyeol shakes his head. “No. Not at all.”

Baekhyun nods quietly and continues where he left off, hiding little kisses in secret areas of Chanyeol’s body that Chanyeol himself had forgotten about, like the insides of his elbows, and the spaces beneath his ribs. Who are you, Chanyeol wants to ask, and if he had the ability to say anything right now, he would.

“I think you’re a liar,” he playfully accuses.

“What do you mean..?” Baekhyun asks. He’s kissing Chanyeol’s neck now, and he’s breathing heavily, and it tickles.

“You might claim you don't know what it is to love, but your actions say otherwise.”

Baekhyun stops what he’s doing and sits up, looking down at Chanyeol in amusement.

“What, this? This is all stuff I've learnt from girlie mags and corny romance novels,” he says, his mouth twitching, and then he laughs. It's such a bad lie that even he has to laugh at it, apparently.

“Don't say that,” Chanyeol groans, “you're wrecking the moment..”

“Sorry,” Baekhyun says, smiling sheepishly, but the look in his eyes is one of such unfathomable tenderness that it makes Chanyeol's head hurt, in the same way it does when he thinks about things far beyond his comprehension; things like the size and age of the universe, and how he came to be here, and why.

He wants to believe that Baekhyun could be at least a small part of the reason why. He wants to believe it so badly.

Baekhyun settles himself on Chanyeol's stomach and resumes tracing patterns on his skin absent-mindedly.

“If I told you that I think you're beautiful, what would you say?” he says softly.

“I'd say thank you,” Chanyeol replies, “but I think you're far more beautiful than I am.”

“And if I told you that I think you're really sexy,” Baekhyun continues, even more quietly, “would you believe me?”

“I'd believe you, but I wouldn't necessarily agree.”

Baekhyun leans forward until their faces are impossibly close together, his eyes fixed on Chanyeol’s.

“And if I told you how much I want you right now, what would you do?”

Chanyeol smiles. "You’re making me go cross-eyed. And I’m all yours.”


Baekhyun captures Chanyeol’s lips with his own once more, and for the time being, at least, he seems to have no further questions.

“You’re right – I am a liar,” he whispers in Chanyeol’s ear. “I’m falling for you so fast that it scares me, and I want you, I really want you..”

His voice is quiet and urgent, and Chanyeol’s mind is too scrambled to come up with a coherent reply. He can feel just how much Baekhyun wants him while they’re both pressed together like this, gently rubbing against each other; Baekhyun sings perfectly in time with the rhythm of their bodies, his moans low and breathy and melodious, and Chanyeol has never heard anything so beautiful, so incredibly sexy, in all his life. It makes him think of a thousand songs at once - slow, sensual songs. Songs about sex. Songs like sex on fire and sex and candy and sexual healing and--


No. Not Sexual Healing. Anything but Sexual Healing..


(Sorry, Marvin.)


Please, Chanyeol begs his brain; this really isn’t the time to plan a sexy playlist... But to shut his mind off and settle for inner silence is the hardest thing to do at a time like this, when all he wants to do is rifle through his thoughts, sort them into categories and alphabetise them like they’re his much-loved record collection. Left to his devices, he’d dwell on them and drown in them endlessly. There’d be a song for each precious second that slips through his fingers, one for every lovely little detail; one for how good Baekhyun smells and tastes, and another one for what his skin feels like – so very soft – and one for every erotic sound that spills from his lips. A song for all the things Chanyeol wants to remember fondly in future, when Baekhyun inevitably realises he can do better, and decides to put an end to it all.


And now an inside voice is screaming at him; pay attention. Don't fuck this up. Please don’t fuck this up.

I’m begging you.


“Chanyeol…” Baekhyun whispers, and this time he can’t even finish his sentence. Chanyeol wants to know what might have happened to make him so hungry for human contact, but maybe he’s just lonely. It’s a feeling that Chanyeol is well acquainted with, much better acquainted than he’d like to be. There have been plenty of times when he’d look in the mirror and run his own hands over himself and imagine what it would feel like if he were someone else; someone else touching him; someone else trailing their fingers over the masses of bumps, the skin so rough and red and unappealing... and there is always that same thought, in the end.


I wouldn’t want to touch me.


“Baekhyun, please,” Chanyeol breathes desperately, because the bad thoughts are back again, and he is too helpless and exposed to fight them. He’s strung so tight that he’s ready to snap, and he’d love nothing more than to regain some form of control over these feelings; to be the one pushing Baekhyun against the bed; to put his hands and lips all over Baekhyun's body and make him feel so good that he’ll completely forget Chanyeol is even there, and then maybe these old wounds won’t ache so much anymore. But Baekhyun already has him so paralysed with pleasure that he can’t move. He can barely breathe.


“Shhh… let me…” Baekhyun whispers, soothing him with kisses, and he goes on to do the most exquisite, indescribable things; things that make Chanyeol forget all about himself instead.



+ + + + +



"Where is he? Where the fuck is he?"


Chanyeol winces as Jongdae slams his head on the ground, pushing his face into the dirt.

"Ugh… who..?" he groans, “I don’t know what you’re talking about..”

"Don't play dumb with me, you little bitch. My dog. What did you do to my fucking dog?"

"I don't know where your freaking dog is-- ah!"

"Tell me where he is, or I'll make you wish you'd never been born."

"Like you don't do that to me already.." Chanyeol mutters, and he gets a mouthful of dirt as a reward.

"Shut up. Just shut the fuck up. You two, hold him down for me.”

Jongdae yanks Chanyeol's snapback off his head, tosses it away like it’s a Frisbee, and begins to forcefully roll up the legs of his trousers.

“Sehun, pull his shirt up."

"But... Jongdae..." Sehun says, sounding more than reluctant.

"Just do it, I said."

Almost as soon as the sun hits him directly, Chanyeol feels his skin warm up and begin to tingle, and he wants to cry because he knows all too well what’s coming. Within minutes the tingling becomes a burning, itching sensation, and he thrashes about in an attempt to break free, but three pairs of hands have him pinned to the dirt, and he can't move.

“Please, let me go...” Chanyeol cries. He’s sobbing like a baby, and it’s so fucking embarrassing, but it hurts and he's so dizzy. “I'm… I’m not meant to be in the sun…”

“Jongdae, maybe we should let him go now…” Minseok says worriedly, “we might kill him or something..”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Jongdae sneers. “Hey, bitch - how long do you think we'll need to hold you here before you bite it?”


Chanyeol passes out before he can answer.



* * *



Chanyeol wakes up to someone shaking him. Go away, he wants to say, but his mouth is too dry to form the words. His lips feel like rubber.


I’m clearly dead. Please, just let me be.


"Chanyeol..? Are you okay?"


Okay, he thinks, so maybe I’m not dead.


And then his whole body is engulfed in stinging, burning pain.

Yep. I’m definitely not dead…

Chanyeol opens his eyes one at a time, which feels like a monumental task in itself, and looks around, taking in his surroundings. His vision is so blurred that it takes him a moment to work out where he is. He rubs his eyes and when he opens them again he finds Taeyeon kneeling beside him, buttoning up his school shirt.

Why is she buttoning up his school shirt? There’s blood on her hands. The bracelet he gave her is stained with it.


Why is there blood on her hands…?


His body feels like it’s on fire.


"Taeyeon?” he groans, “Am I… am I in the park..?"

"Yes. Some kids were holding you captive here, so I got rid of them,” she says quietly. “You passed out. You should see a doctor, you’ve broken out in hives all over the place…”

Chanyeol groans again. "What do you mean, you got rid of them..?"

Taeyeon shrugs. "There were only three of them.”

Chanyeol sits up, although not without incredible difficulty. “’Only’ three? What do you mean, ‘only’ three..?!”

“They were hurting you, so I made them stop. That rash looks awful, I really think we should get you indoors.."

“Oh, god,” Chanyeol groans, allowing himself to fall back onto the dirt in defeat. “If they didn’t kill me already, then they really will at school tomorrow…”

“No they won’t,” Taeyeon says, her voice strangely icy. “They won’t bother you anymore.”

Chanyeol stares at her, horrified. “What did you do? Kill them..?”

Taeyeon shakes her head. “No. I just gave them something to cry about, that’s all.”

Chanyeol looks at her suspiciously. “Is that your blood, or theirs..?”

Taeyeon hesitates for a moment. “Uh…”

Chanyeol sighs. "You know what…? Don’t answer that..”

“What was it all about, anyway..?” Taeyeon asks quietly. She pulls her jacket off and throws it over Chanyeol’s body to cover him, although why she’s still wearing a leather jacket in the middle of summer is anyone’s guess.

“They were hassling me about Jongdae's dog. Apparently it's gone missing..”

“That dog that always chases you..?”

“Yeah…” Chanyeol nods, “that one.”

Taeyeon shrugs. “I took care of it.”

“What do you mean, you took care of it..? Where is it?”

“At the moment? It's in my backyard, pushing up daisies.”


At first Chanyeol thinks he misheard her. Surely she meant the dog was digging up daisies, not pushing them up...


...Oh.


“You murdered it..?”

“Murdered is a strong word...” Taeyeon says, biting her lip. “Anyway, if it was terrorising you constantly then I think my actions were justified.”

“No.. Just... No! You can't just go around killing people's dogs, you freak!” Chanyeol snaps, hauling himself to his feet, and he immediately regrets it. His head starts to swim and he nearly falls to the ground again, but Taeyeon catches him just in time.

"Chanyeol, you know you're not supposed to be in the sun this long,” she says gently, “they could have made you really sick. I couldn’t just stand back and let it happen..”

"I'm fine,” Chanyeol says angrily, “I don't need you fighting my battles for me... People already think I'm enough of a weakling as it is. That's why they make my life hell, remember?"

Taeyeon frowns. It’s that same frown she always wears; the closest thing to an actual expression Chanyeol has ever seen on that otherwise permanently blank, unreadable face. "I was only trying to protect you.."

"Well, don't. Please, just... stay out of this. All I wanted was a friend. A nice, normal friend who would treat me like a human being. Vigilante justice was not in the job description..”

Chanyeol pushes Taeyeon’s hands away and makes a second attempt at struggling to his feet. His head is aching and spinning and he feels like he might be sick and his skin is itching and burning and he wants to go home.

He needs to go home.

"Chanyeol, at least let me help you get home.." Taeyeon says calmly, trying to reason with him, but Chanyeol shakes his head.

"No. I'm fine, thanks. Just… leave me the hell alone.”

He walks home by himself, half-expecting and half-hoping for Taeyeon to follow him anyway.

She doesn’t.



+ + + + +



Chanyeol wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of a door closing somewhere in the background. He sits up and rubs his eyes, looking around the room.

Baekhyun’s room. He’d forgotten that he slept over.

But where is he..?


Frowning, Chanyeol tosses the covers aside and rolls out of bed, not bothering to clothe himself. He opens the bedroom door and wanders out into the corridor, noticing a rectangle of light projected onto the living room floor. It’s coming from the kitchen.

Baekhyun’s probably just in there having a midnight snack, Chanyeol thinks to himself; he hardly ate anything at dinner, as usual.

“What’s cookin’, good-lookin’?” he singsongs as he bursts into the kitchen, and Baekhyun lifts his head up in surprise, having been slumped at the table only seconds before. His face is covered with what looks like congealed blood. There’s even more blood soaked into parts of his t-shirt, blooming like big red poppies in the soft jersey fabric.

Baekhyun blinks dazedly for a few moments and makes an unidentifiable squeaking sound when he sees Chanyeol standing there. He leaps to his feet and hurriedly wipes his mouth on the back of his hand, but the action has no effect whatsoever on the dried blood caked onto his face, and if Chanyeol wasn’t so busy being horrified he would probably have laughed.


"Baekhyun, what the… oh my god…”


"Chanyeol,” Baekhyun says in a timid voice, “I.... I thought you were asleep.."

Chanyeol covers his mouth with his hand. It’s definitely blood… he can smell it from where he’s standing, all sickly and metallic. “Baekhyun, what have you done..? Are you hurt..? Did you hurt someone..?”

"It's not what it looks like.." Baekhyun says, his voice cracking a little. He begins to slowly back away, his eyes wide and frightened.


Well, I’m not entirely sure what it looks like, Chanyeol thinks to himself, but it sure as hell doesn’t look good.

It's okay. It's fine. I might still be dreaming.

I'm going to close my eyes now, and when I open them, my boyfriend won't be standing in his kitchen drenched in someone’s blood.


When Chanyeol opens his eyes again, Baekhyun is still standing there in his bloodied clothing, staring at him like a petrified animal.

“I feel sick.." Chanyeol mutters, pulling one of the chairs away from the kitchen table and sinking onto it. He buries his face in his hands. “That’s… that’s a lot of blood. Please tell me that’s not your blood, Baekhyun. Actually, don’t tell me that’s not your blood… I don’t want to hear that either..”

Baekhyun bites his lip, looking incredibly guilty, but he begins to relax slightly.

“What did you do…” Chanyeol mumbles, peeking through his fingers and regretting it instantly. He’s never been good with blood. “Did you go out and stab someone..?”

“No,” Baekhyun replies, shaking his head vigorously, “I… this isn’t human blood. It’s… animal.”

Chanyeol blinks at him in disbelief. “Are you trying to tell me you’re into nightly animal sacrifices now..?”

“No, of course not…”

"Who - or what - are you, then?” Chanyeol asks quietly. “Please, just tell me the truth.”


Baekhyun sighs and lets his hands fall by his side helplessly.

“I need blood to live. There’s no other way for me to put it.”


Chanyeol is suddenly overcome by the urge to laugh hysterically again.

“So… you’re a vampire, in other words..?”


Baekhyun shifts uncomfortably on his feet. "Yes. Well... kind of."


"What do you mean, 'kind of'...? You either are or you aren't.."


"If your definition of a vampire is someone who lives on blood, then yes, I’m a vampire,” Baekhyun says quietly. “But if your definition of a vampire is someone who turns into a bat and flies and lives forever in a big castle and sleeps in a coffin and has no heartbeat, then you might need to rethink your perception of what a vampire is, because none of those things apply to me. And I don’t feed on humans. Not… not anymore.”

Chanyeol stares at Baekhyun for a long time in silence, trying to mentally process what he just heard.

Either he’s fucking crazy, or I am.

“But you have before..?”

Baekhyun nods, seemingly unable to speak.

Chanyeol swallows nervously. “Do you have, like… fangs, and shit..?”

Baekhyun doesn’t answer. Instead he reluctantly opens his mouth, revealing two pairs of sharp, elongated canines.

"Okay, nope,” Chanyeol says, walking backwards in the direction of the door with his hands held out in front of him. In the back of his mind it occurs to him that he’s still standing there in his undies, but that hardly seems important right now. “Just... nope. Nope, nope, nope… those definitely weren’t there before…”

“Chanyeol, wait...” Baekhyun pleads, “I can explain..”

Chanyeol stops moving and exhales forcefully with impatience, but he nods in agreement. Baekhyun doesn’t appear to pose an immediate threat, at least not for the moment, so he’ll hear him out.

"Okay,” he says wearily, “but this better be fucking good.."

Baekhyun sniffs and wipes his mouth on the back of his hand once more. He leaves the kitchen for a moment and Chanyeol can hear him rummaging around in one of the other rooms, apparently looking for something. After several minutes he returns and drops an object onto the table - a bracelet made of different coloured threads all woven together. There are several white beads with black letters on them, spelling out a word or a name that Chanyeol can’t quite make out.

Baekhyun looks on in silence as Chanyeol picks up the bracelet and studies the tiny letters more closely, his eyes widening.


"This... I gave this to..."


Taeyeon.


"Taeyeon," Chanyeol says, his voice cracking. “I gave this bracelet to my friend Taeyeon when we were kids. And then maybe a month later she was gone. She just… left, and never came back..”

Baekhyun merely nods, apparently lost for words.

"Why do you have this?” Chanyeol asks, waving the bracelet around frantically. “Where is she? What did you do to her..?”

Baekhyun has the audacity to look confused. “I didn’t do anything to her…”

Chanyeol lets the bracelet drop back onto the table. “You killed her, didn’t you..? You turned her into another… whatever it is you are…”

“No, I… Chanyeol--”


Chanyeol doesn’t wait around to hear anything else before he runs out the door, and this time Baekhyun lets him.



+ + + + +



Chanyeol knocks loudly on Taeyeon’s front door, muttering his rehearsed apology to himself. She must still be mad… she hasn’t come to the treehouse for five days now. He’s knocked on her front door everyday for the past three of them, and each time there hasn’t been anyone at home. Not her, not her mother… no one.


Maybe they’re just pretending not to be home to get rid of him, but that seems like wishful thinking.


He checks his watch – a plastic, neon-green, dinosaur-shaped monstrosity he traded twenty tokens for at the local arcade. 5.29pm.

She should have been at the treehouse an hour ago.


He knows Taeyeon is a little unusual. Well, no, that's putting it mildly – she’s fucking crazy - and therefore she’s probably not the best person for him to be spending time with, but…

She’s all I have, he repeats to himself. She’s all I have.


Chanyeol knocks and knocks until his knuckles start to sting, but there’s still no answer.

Where the hell is she?


He calls out her name, yells it over and over, but only the wind dares to whistle a reply.




_____________________________________________________



Part Three