RE意識 (au contrant) | tvxq, au.
three of - ???
8593w.
ao3
changmin wakes the next morning with a solid warmth pressing against his back and he turns over, more than surprised to see two bright green eyes blinking open at him. he pauses, completely unbelieving as he looks back those eyes, the eyes of his own cat, the cat he was forced to leave behind.
“seraphina?” he whispers as he watches the multicolored panther get up and stretch the length of his forearm with a purr. changmin scoops the cat up and hugs her to his chest, rubbing his cheek against the red and purple tinted black fur. seraphina’s chest rumbles loudly and more nostalgia slams into changmin, bringing blood tainted tears to his eyes that he tries to keep back at the sight of his size shifting demon cat, given to him as a kitten from his mother when he was a boy, right there in his arms. more often that not he would tuck seraphina onto his shoulder and take her with when he’d gone to run with the wolves. he’s missed her when he was taken away on that fire lit night sixty years ago.
changmin allows himself a moment to remember the loss as seraphina nudges against his bare shoulder where the oversized t-shirt has slipped off. “i missed you too.”
“glad to see you’ve not forgotten one another,” yunho’s voice rings out, breaking through changmin’s reverie. changmin turns and sees yunho standing in the doorway, dressed in slacks and framed by sunlight. yunho’s gaze gains intensity when he notes the red tears in changmin’s eyes.
“you kept her,” changmin says quietly.
“jihye kept her,” yunho corrects. “she stays with boa now, but i take care of her when she’s gone.”
changmin says thank you anyway, the sense of surrealness washing over him again. “this is amazing, yunho. all of it.”
“i told boa that you’re here,” yunho smiles at him. “she has a gallery opening tonight and she’ll be on her way back immediately afterward.”
changmin’s throat tightens around another murmur of thanks. seraphina gives a squirm in his arms and he lets go of his tightened hold.
yunho folds his harms and leans against the doorway, nods over to the dresser, small smile never wavering. “i bought you some clothes, too. i figured we were around the same size so don’t worry. they’re in the top drawer with your cellphone. someone found it in the elevator and returned it to the desk some time last night.”
“yunho-” changmin continues when he gets a brow raise, “i’ve said it about three times already. thank you. you didn’t have to-”
“i’m the patriarch,” yunho reminds him. “you’re kindred, changmin. pack. it’s natural.”
changmin watches yunho nearly vanish, gone from the doorway in a flash of demon speed that changmin is sure he wouldn’t have seen if he wasn’t partial to being demon himself. either way he finds he has nothing to say to that, even after last night;s harsh swell of rebellion. after sixty years, in which in the before time yunho had been on the semi-prowl for his blood because of his relationship with his sister, the mere idea of yunho doing anything for him simply because he’s considered pack is foreign in his mind, just slightly beyond comprehension.
changmin’s brain draws a blank the more he thinks on it. he comes up with the solution of accept or go just a tad insane and he allots the situation under accept for now-if he leaves it there long enough maybe it’ll become real.
seraphina jumps from changmin’s lap directly onto the dresser, green eyes boring into his with meaning before nudging a red tinted black paw at the clothing.
“i get it, i get it,” changmin laughs, walking over and peering at the neat stack of clothes, trying to imagine yunho out shopping, coming up with another blank.
changmin drops the borrowed, low hung pajama pants and pulls up the boxer shorts that were resting on top. the jeans go on next-dark wash, straightleg, completely dry, and distressed-and he takes off the t-shirt to don a sweater so soft that he lets out a pleased little sound of comfort. seraphina swishes her purple tinted tail in approval, making herself back at home in changmin’s hold and butting against his chin with a contented purr.
“what’s next, sera,” changmin stage whispers. “if boa’s rowdy ass brothers are around i just might slip into a coffin.” he jokes as he walks out of the room, pausing at the sight of the morning sunlight filtering through the tall windows, hanging bright and gold over the city.
he wonders what the sunsets are like from this high.
seraphina parts from his arms when he hits the bottom of the stairs, darts for a patch of sunlight. changmin grins, can only hope that boa’s flat is similar so that she has had plenty of places to curl up.
“breakfast,” yunho calls from somewhere around the stairs. changmin turns to see him sitting at the far back of the flat by an expanse of windows facing away from the sun and at a long table that can easily fit ten or more. there are only two plates atop it, three obsidian carafes and a mug. yunho sits at the far head, morning newspaper folded under his hands as he waits for changmin.
“thanks,” changmin says, the scent of it tickling at his nose, stomach growling at the knowledge of bacon and eggs. the plate waiting for him is steaming and he sits as yunho gestures towards the carafes.
“there’s orange juice if you want? coffee.” yunho says, pausing as he pushes the empty mug towards changmin.
changmin bites into a strip of bacon, hums-it’s good. “and the third?” he asks around another bite.
“blood.”
dauntless, changmin reaches for the second carafe and pours. he fills the mug halfway, black coffee steaming up against his skin-and then he reaches for the third, pours. he brings the mug to his mouth, takes a sip.
“a-b,” he lets out another mm of appreciation, licks his lips before looking yunho in the eye in mild contemplation. “negative or positive?”
“negative.”
changmin nods, goes back to his bacon and eggs after another sip. “excellent choice, thank you.”
changmin feels yunho’s gaze linger as he continues to eat, but when he spares a glance yunho is eating from his own plate, bright amber eyes scanning the newspaper. still, changmin doesn’t miss the way the corner of yunho’s mouth is turned up.
it’s still a bit of an oddity to see yunho in a simple dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and his markings on display, hair that bright cooper changmin so clearly remembers and eyes the color of the high sun.
seraphina bounds onto the table and mewls in a demand for attention. a little gratful for the distraction of his straying thoughts, changmin feeds the panther a piece of bacon, watching as she takes it and nibbles at it in an almost regal way.
“boa does the same when she has breakfast here with me,” yunho muses, quiet laughter in his tone.
“you don’t?” changmin questions archly, noting the smile in yunho’s eyes, the way they crinkle at the corner just so. certainly something had happened to yunho. though almost a century has passed changmin is more than sure that time itself can’t possibly be the singular cause. yunho is kinder, somehow. maybe even softer.
“of course i do,” yunho tells him.
“i’m vaguely amazed that you haven’t become a fat cat,” changmin slants a look at seraphina, who has the dignity to appear offended, her tail swishing and whiskers twitching.
“now you know that we of the demon variety will not become fat from bacon,” yunho chuckles, finishing his orange juice off.
changmin tsks distractedly as he glances outside to gather the angle of the sunlight, finished with his own plate and ruddy coffee. “lucky kitten,” he says before rising from the table, then,
“listen, yunho,” he starts, voice almost quiet, just a tinge hesitant. “i don’t actually want to go, but as i mentioned, i have school-a test tomorrow, and i really need to study.”
“i’ll drive you.” yunho says plainly.
“that’s really not-”
“boa or i will have to pick you up when she lands, unless you own a car?”
changmin shakes his head, and yunho rises from the table with a nod as he makes a small gesture to the table. “give me a second to clean.”
“let me.” changmin rebuts, insists, already stacking their empty plates. yunho says nothing, watching changmin as he carries off their dishes to the kitchen, rinsing them before placing them in dishwasher. he’s equally silent when they slip on their shoes and leave the flat, seraphina mewling them a goodbye from where she’s curled up under a ray of sun.
a pang of regret stings at changmin’s chest when he notices the ring on yunho’s finger, his hair back to black, eyes to brown, markings gone under the concealment spell.
they take the elevator to the sub levels, the doors opening to a garage park with twin rows of cars, each more impressive than the last.
“the blue ones are boa’s,” yunho tells changmin, following his gaze. “of course they are,” changmin smiles, counting the cars down the rows. “which means you only have two.”
“boa likes to spend,” yunho tells him. “i’m the more financially sensible between the both of us.”
there are two sleek cars, one black, the other one a steel gray that changmin stops at and decides he likes more. he drops his eyes to the grill. audi. he looks at yunho, who looks right back, brown eyes glinting in amusement.
“pretty,” changmin shrugs one shoulder. yunho unlocks the door for him and he slides into the seat. he rattles off his address absentmindedly when yunho asks him from behind the wheel, which goes into the navigation system on the dashboard. the car is nice, but changmin still finds himself with his fingers digging into the seat as yunho maneuvers the car with an ease that can only be born from years of practice.
“fast,” changmin murmurs, trying not to ruin the seat with his grip. yunho has the grace to laugh and the impudence to speed up. the gps skips trying to keep up with yunho’s speed, giving the commands to turn only seconds before the turn itself is missed.
“you ran around with jihye all the time-you even clung to me during hunts on occasion, and my driving frightens you?”
“i kept up in the treetops most of the time,” changmin mutters, sinking into his seat. “there weren’t other cars with us in the bloody woods.”
to changmin’s curiosity, yunho slows down, matches the pace of the other vehicles around them.
“thanks,” changmin breathes, placing a hand to his chest. yunho looks at him with furrowed brows.
“i can hear your heartbeat, as soft as it is,” yunho says slowly, questioning, then quieter. “i can smell your fear.”
something thick and tight knots changmin’s throat, and he swallows around it, forcing his canines not to lengthen.
“my mother died in a car accident. she would have lived.” he says haltingly, quieter. “if it weren’t for the shard of metal right through her chest, she would have lived.”
yunho’s hand tightens over the wheel. “i didn’t know. i’m-” his voice catches, and he turns to changmin with widened eyes. “that’s why your family took you away, isn’t it.”
a bout of nausea washes over changmin. his gums hurt.
“you didn’t know, it’s not your fault. if other cars weren’t around it wouldn’t bother me. i much prefer running, though.” changmin manages a flashing smile, and yunho glances at his teeth. “running with your family is one of the things i always missed the most. you were beautiful in your hunt, relentless. it was an art, and i was an appreciator.”
“i understand.” yunho says, allowing the change in conversation.
grateful, changmin realizes that yunho must miss it too.
“it’s this building,” changmin raises a hand to gesture, right before the gps says to turn. yunho makes a sound as they pull into the parking garage.
“you live here?”
“student living on student loans.” changmin slants a glare at him, laughing a little nonetheless. “my father’s inherited home is nice, but it’s hard to study with two still very much aging teenage sisters bringing their friends over for girl group practice.”
“you’re royalty, i was under the impression that you inherited the fortunes of your line?” yunho looks nonplussed as he parks and follows changmin to the elevator. the elevator is slow, creaks ominously on the way up.
“i walked away from it.” changmin says shortly, almost icily, eyes ahead. yunho says nothing as they reach the sixth floor and step out, recognizing the wall changmin puts up on the subject and respecting it. the atmosphere between them is light still, but yunho’s persona shifts noticeably, his gaze hardening when changmin opens the door to his apartment and lets them in.
“it’s small.” yunho says as he looks around the interior.
changmin rolls his eyes, only a little offended. it’s not as if he couldn’t afford nice things-he does have money, saved up over his traveling years and put away in the safety of his father’s hands-but he’s proud to have started from scratch like a normal person, proud that he has something to actually call his own. he thinks back to yunho’s mention of his royal inheritance and tries not to let out the growl forming in his chest. after his mother died his grandmother had snatched him up and away and tried for years to force him to her will, to take his rightful place on the council-
“student,” he finally mutters finally, breaking abruptly from that train of thought.
“patriarch,” yunho rumbles in return, noting changmin’s petulance.
“meaning?” changmin snaps his teeth, irritation running through him, burning and sudden. he wonders where the yunho from years ago came from-tactless, arrogant, demanding-and where the yunho he’d met just last night took a break to.
“pack is taken care of. you’ll be moving.”
that slow, quiet thing of a growl begins to sound out in changmin’s chest once more as he looks yunho dead on, blue-black eyes gone bright. the rested feelings of rebellion and defiance resurface anew, pulse through his frame angrily. he doesn’t bother to keep it at bay. his lip curls, and his canines lengthen in full.
“i won’t just move because you say so,” the growl grows louder as he goes on, “i’m a fully capable vampire who, despite your instinctual claims, does not belong to you.” changmin reigns to his full height, glowers when yunho’s eyes narrow and his mouth opens to protest, “you are mostly human,” but changmin isn’t done, and he lowers the intensity of the constant rumbling in his chest, holds up a hand.
“please, let me finish.” he says, slightly calmer now that he’s stated part of his piece. "you’ve been on the ‘patriarch’ spiel since last night. it’s appreciated that you care, really, especially considering our history, but i really don’t need to be taken care of. you’re full blooded royalty, your instincts are your instincts. i both respect and understand that, but you’ll do well to spare the respect back. when we parted last it was on shakier grounds, but these grounds are new.
before you go on to try and convince me-don’t lie, i’ll know, besides i can see that you want to-remember that it’s been almost seventy years, and that we’re both different now. the younger, nineteen year old me would have jumped at the opportunity, even twenty four and three years old me would have. but i’m twenty four and forty one years now, and i’ve changed."
changmin stares, and yunho stares back, looking as if he wants to argue. instead yunho slips off his shoes, lines them to the wall, then gestures to the kitchen table and its two mismatched chairs.
“may i?”
the inclination of the head changmin gives is enough permission for yunho, and he sits, waits until changmin sits across from him before folding his hands across the table top and taking a small breath.
changmin crosses his legs, slips into absolute stillness only the dead possess. sixteen seconds ease by. yunho thumbs the concealment ring on his finger, looks at changmin, and says, “i’m sorry.”
changmin’s mouth parts in genuine surprise. the yunho he knew didn’t apologize, much less say sorry and then mean it.
“you’re correct,” yunho starts diplomatically. “i am full blooded and with being a direct line of some of the original wolves my instincts are stronger than most. though hear me when i say that i am your protector, changmin, that i have no choice in it. my ties to you? to my sister? her husband and children, even. those ties runs in my blood and it is something i cannot entirely resist.” he gives changmin a small, almost pleading small. “pardon me in my demanding ways and forgive my reactions in the future, but you. are. pack. pack is taken care of. this time i’ll ask,”
yunho leans back and looks at changmin, completely serious in his intentions.
“there is an empty suite in my building, one right beneath my own. it was jihye’s before she left. it’s yours, if you’ll have it.”
changmin’s brow goes up, yunho chuckles.
“will you move into the building?”
yunho looks at changmin, watches his eyes darken to their usual beautiful murky blue and his posture loosen by a fraction. changmin blinks once, lowers his eyes to the table and crosses his arms.
“i couldn’t,” he says, pausing when yunho lets an almost inaudible disappointed sound slip.
the convincing begins, “it’s appropriate.”
“i can’t,” changmin says it on a soft breath. yunho’s gaze is intense and steady on him and he hates the way he starts to feel small in the confines of his own home. he squares his shoulders again, tilts his chin and faces yunho directly. “i don’t need to be taken care off, i’m more than fine on my own.”
a sudden flicker of anger passes across yunho’s features. for a moment his brown eyes bleed gold, his brows snapping down, looking all for the world as if he wants to punch something. or leave.
“changmin.” his name comes out only slightly edged when yunho says it. “i’m baring myself, changmin. as patriarch and as a person. you’re one of mine and i have a... raw, need to take care of you, even if you decline. i’ll still do it if you do, though just know that it would be more than pleasing to have you closer to me.”
it gives changmin pause, those words. feeling hasn’t crossed his mind once, not in the emotional sense. instinct is one, completely separate thing-especially for wolves, changmin knows. it is another when it twines with one’s literal emotions.
“but-”
“and that pack lives together if it is possible?”
“but i-”
“boa would be thrilled to have you nearer.”
changmin wants to curse. he should’ve known that yunho would use boa as a tactic in the matter, possibly his last resort; changmin and boa had been close during their time together despite her being older. she was an older sister figure, another sibling to him. using boa against him like that is just shy of manipulative. but changmin is mostly human, and it works.
his eyes fall to the table, his facade to the floor as he hugs his folded arms tighter, says quietly, “the apartments are so big.” the idea of living in one of those large, echoing apartments by himself stretches out before him.
“i designed them that way.” yunho is grinning, and changmin kind of wants to punch it off.
“it’ll be lonely.”
yunho’s grin turns into an amused, contemplative smile as he tilts his head just so. “you live alone now,” he points out. “i don’t smell any other consistent scent besides yours.”
“that’s not the problem.” changmin closes his eyes for a moment, then gets up and pours himself a glass of water. “my apartment is is more of the cozy variety. homey. a large place such as that for myself-” he breaks off, the memory of old vintage wood and too many rooms passing through his mind. he sits back down. “it would be too much.”
yunho says nothing, just watches as changmin sips his water and then runs the tip of a finger along the rim.
“there are several rooms in my own suite.” yunho says quietly, at last.
changmin’s eyes fly to meet his. him, living with yunho. “i really don’t think-”
“boa is currently in a relationship with crystal kay, who will more than likely be living with her soon. there no doubt that it would be…” he pauses, mouth twitching upward a fraction. “loud,” he says. “it would be chaos for all involved if their baby brother is living with them when they decide to mate.”
changmin blinks owlishly; he didn’t consider living with boa, though gems sure if given the time he might have, he scratches the thought out with yunho’s very pointedly given information.
“understand, changmin. having found you means finding a member of our pack that we thought gone, lost. jihye had no hopes of locating you, though she tried valiantly. she had your name and your heritage, but given the knowledge of your status in the supernatural world you were kept under tight wraps, even for her. boa looked too, and even i made attempts on their behalf. i’s my responsibility to take care of you, one i don’t begrudge in even the slightest, but also, my sister will never let me hear the end of it. lastly,” yunho pauses, eyeing changmin dramatically.
“lastly?” changmin prompts.
“boa would, without a doubt, make you do it herself.”
“boa-”
“is pack, believes in pack, and by the gods she misses you. if you don’t move she’ll most likely move here. do you think she’d let you out of her sight after so long?”
changmin gets up abruptly, opens his fridge, pulls out a pitcher, pours himself half a cup of blood, tilts the cup to his lips and slams it back, pitcher still in hand, refrigerator wide open.
he wonders if that means yunho would follow, the three of them living in the the tiny apartments offered in the old building. his mind races with the knowledge of werewolf familial dynamics, wars with the idea of considering the instincts of a demon so powerful against his own wishes to remain as is: free. remembering yunho's words, he also fights with the knowledge that his freedom is not technically in any state of jeopardy, that it's just him and his own past experiences hindering him from having this.
not just having it, but having it again.
changmin sets the cup down onto the table with a little more force than necessary, thin ropes of blood streaming down the sides and pooling at the bottom, pretty.
red is smeared across his bottom lip, staining bright against his teeth.
changmin thinks about the werewolf seated before him, thinks about jihye, and decides he wants it.
“fine,” he says after a long, quiet moment, an inflection of resignation coloring his tone. he licks his lips, the tang of copper sharp on his tongue. “i'll allow it. you've yourself a deal this time, jung. i’ll move.”
“and i’ll be taking charge of your tuition.”
changmin’s voice raises an octave, a pitch, maybe two. “what?”
“i hope we don’t have this conversation every time you learn something new,” yunho pinches the bridge of his nose, but there is laughter in his voice. changmin momentarily forgets how to words, forgets the oddly brooding directions plaguing his train of thought. “but-yunho!”
“pack, changmin. patriarch.” yunho flashes his own teeth, lip upturned. “the sooner you accept the easier it will transpire.”
“but-”
“did you know that patriarch is another word for alpha,” yunho chimes in calm, false innocence.
“yunho that is honestly too much-”
“say thank you.”
“-thank you.”
to his trepidation, changmin feels his eyes sting with tears, and he mentally curses his overwhelming emotions and his odd need to cry as of late.
“i’m aware that i’m not being the most gracious,” changmin starts, kicking the refrigerator closed in a minor distraction. “i’m just not very talented in the accepting of… gifts, if you will, of this caliber. i mean-”
"it’s a lot to take in. just think of it differently; keep in mind that this is as natural for me as it’s unnatural for you.
the sense of surrealness comes back with the force of the winds, and changmin sits back down. the edges of his vision blur, from the red tinted tears or the cool feeling washing him he doesn’t quite know or care to tell. there is a plethora of emotions rising throughout him, questions, one prominent over the others:
since when is it natural for yunho to take care of others?
“i don’t know what the hell is happening anymore.” changmin runs his fingers through his hair, tightens them there and tugs. “i feel as if i should be waking up any moment because even when i dreamt of running into one of you again, it definitely wasn’t like this.”
“it’ll come with time,” yunho reassures him. changmin fixes his gaze on him, notes how he looks out of place in his little apartment with his height and stature folded into one of changmin’s old chairs, how stunningly different he is compared to changmin’s own memory.
“i’ll take the empty flat,” changmin murmurs, eyes moving forward to look at nothing again. “i’d hate to bother you like that.”
“it’s quite alright,” yunho insists.
a few of changmin’s lingering curiosities come back to the forefront of his mind, ones like significant others and children. “what if-”
“not that it is your business, i have no intentions of finding a mate, changmin. don’t worry about it. though should you decide to do so the previous offer remains and jihye’s place is yours.”
relief is cool through changmin as he utters another word of thanks. even if yunho is quiet, he’s company. the idea of having a large home to himself is still subduing, almost mind numbing after the time he’d been taken away and practically held hostage in the royal family manor alone. besides, changmin knows that it takes nothing but a thunderstorm to have himself locked in a closet and calling for the cops.
changmin hums, breaking out of his thoughts and mindful of yunho’s gaze as he stands, stretches, moves to rinse his cup in the sink.
“so when do i move,” he asks nonchalantly.
“grab your school things and some clothes and you can make yourself at home within the hour. i’ll handle the rest.”
changmin doesn’t feel surprise this time, just wry amusement that he thinks he’ll be feeling a lot more often. he swishes soapy water in his cup, pours it out and rinses again. he supposes he should be thankful that he doesn’t own a lot of things, even at twenty four and forty one years.
“will it fit in your car?”
“we’ll put it in the trunk.”
with another hum, changmin dries his hands and walks back to his room. he doesn’t have much clothing, or much of anything for a student living from check to check on that matter. he’s positive all the clothing that he has fits into a single duffle with the way he folds his things. by the time he’s finished with both the closet and the dresser he realizes how small his life is, how almost normal. it brings a small, ghost of a smile to his face.
his room is practically bare, nothing but a neatly made twin bed and said dresser, in which on top rest the few pictures of his friends he’d taken. as if needing to bring those and nothing else he pulls a box out of his closet, wraps them in a sweater and gently slides them in.
he sits the box on the table first when he comes out of his room, goes back for the luggage. yunho is silent as changmin brings each piece out, not uttering a word until changmin brings out the third and last suitcase and looks at him expectantly-this wasn’t his idea and he’s sure as hell not carrying it.
“what, weak in your old age?” changmin asks with a raised brow.
“that’s all?” yunho asks, startled.
“student,” changmin reiterates. "besides, i make a point to keep my prized possesions elsewhere far."
yunho nods in understanding and stands, takes the luggage in hand. “what of your school things?”
“in the suitcase with my laptop.”
yunho nods again. he carries the three pieces of luggage as if they’re nothing, and changmin supposes they aren’t, in a sense, though they seem awkward to handle.
changmin wonders, briefly, if he shouldn’t have mentioned yunho’s age.
changmin finishes studying for the evening, closes his laptop, rises with a stretch and a sigh.
“you’re diligent,” yunho comments from behind him.
changmin turns, sees him chopping something up on the counter in the kitchen, and wonders what victoria will think of the situation. he’d tried to call her earlier and was met with her voicemail; he figures that she’s sleeping off a hangover, maybe still with the stranger she'd promised to leave with. changmin left her a voicemail detailing nothing but the basics: that he’s fine and that he’s run into an old friend.
“top of my class,” changmin nonchalantly boasts, more than proud. he had earned that number one in front of his name the normal way: through hours of reading and hard work. he mentally pats himself on his shoulder for resisting to use of his enhanced memory all the while.
“an accomplishment at your university. what do you plan to do after?”
“i’m aiming for my doctorate.”
“ambitious.” yunho smiles, and changmin is once again momentarily struck at the sight of it. “boa will be landing late tonight,” yunho continues. “we’ll most likely see her tomorrow.”
“excellent. i have an early class anyway.”
“do you drive?”
“no. i take the bus.”
“we’ll fix that, then. you should have your own means for getting about.”
changmin squints at yunho, trying not to run up the numbers of what yunho’s trying to spend on him and failing. yunho’s already proven that he’s going to have his way and that he absolutely knows how to do so. to changmin, alpha fits so much better than patriarch, especially since it takes away the vague paternal sense of the matter. changmin reflects with little to no relief that yunho at least doesn’t have any children.
ah. that wave of surrealness again.
“i’m still not entirely sure what to make of this,” changmin admits as he pads over to the kitchen. “i mean, i understand the gist from years prior, but i know nothing of pack for being pack and i’m starting to feel how i imagine cinderella felt. i never did believe that she was too comfortable moving into the palace.”
“you easily adapt, from what i’ve heard,” yunho offers, switching off a burner. “it’ll just take time, and to be fair, at least you won’t have to worry about court politics like cinderella probably did.”
“…. pack politics,” changmin rebuts.
“fairly simple.” yunho pulls plates down from a cabinet. “it’s most definitely not like it once was. your life’s your own and completely yours to command. what you want to do, who you desire to mate, who your comrades are to be-those things, unlike centuries before, are your own to decide. as patriarch, i don’t interfere much.”
"abruptly uprooting me from my home isn't exactly minor interference, alpha." changmin points out, earning an playfully flat stare.
“location is of the exception; the pack is thriving and should jihye return, she and kiyiya would live here with their children. boa and crystal kay will live here once they’ve mated as crystal kay is the last of her kind. since you yourself are not mated, it’s my duty to see to what needs you harbor. your name will be added to my banking account, i’ll handle your schooling fees, and so on.”
“so,” changmin says slowly, crossing his arms over the counter. “what you’re saying is that you’re my fairy god mother.”
yunho gives a glare that promises consequences. changmin sniggers.
“alpha, since you seem to persist on it.” yunho drawls.
“sure, sure,” changmin laughs, for once happy with the familiar. “alpha.”
“so then, what do i get to do, since you take care of me in all of these ways.”
“what you wish.”
“as i wish. really,”
“yes. save for right now-right now you will set the table.”
“ah, but-” changmin groans dramatically, giving into a sudden childish urge. “i thought i could do as i wish?”
“listen to your alpha.”
“fine, i suppose you’re in need of a live in servant.”
“it was you who didn’t want to live alone, was it not?”
“does this rule out any parties?”
“hyunwoo throws a party every friday, feel free do go down six levels and avail yourself.”
changmin almost thinks about it, remembers the nose he broke in the elevator trying to get away from one of hyunwoo’s parties. “i believe i will do without.” he chuckles lightly. “i’m not much of a partier anyway,” a small bit of a smirk touches changmin’s lips, and he catches yunho’s eye, knows they’re thinking the same thing, of a time where changmin and jihye were nineteen and stupid. “not anymore, anyway.”
“you were at one last night,” yunho observes anyway.
“at victoria’s insist. she liked the idea of being someone different for a night.” the image of victoria with her head thrown back and a stranger between her legs flickers across changmin’s mind, and he banishes it to a dark corner, definitely not fighting a blush.
“embarrassed?” yunho notes, brow arching, amber eyes playfully mocking changmin’s moment of discomfort.
“let’s just say that victoria was more than different last night.” changmin notches his won brow, finishing with the plates and silverware as he arranged them on the table in their previous spots from breakfast. yunho follows with a bowl in one hand and a platter in the other, and changmin takes his seat, eyeing the plates with anticipation.
“did you ever become a chef,” changmin half asks as he watches yunho pour them glasses of wine, changmin’s topped off with more a-b negative.
yunho admits that he indeed tried it. “i find that i don’t enjoy cooking to other people’s whims.”
“anyone would be terrified to send a plate back to you,” changmin laughs, relaxing once again. the tension from sitting at his computer and scoring through his books eases out of his body as he takes a sip of his muddy wine, the copper tang strong against the bittersweet juice, mixed just right.
yunho serves himself his food, then changmin’s, and changmin takes note of how yunho’s steak is definitely less cooked than his own.
“you do know that i don’t mind rare, right? i mean, i’m drinking blood from a wine glass.”
“i remember jihye telling me that your father always sent word for your food to be cooked due to your humanly nature,” yunho grins. “but i see hunting with the wolves has rubbed off on you.”
changmin resists rolling his eyes, instead picks up his knife and cuts into his dinner as yunho goes on.
“i talked to my sister,” he says, and changmin freezes into a mode of absolute still for a moment, his slow, quiet heart skipping a beat. if yunho notices-and changmin is sure he does-he says nothing. “kiyiya and jihye plant to come visit you.”
“it’ll be nice to see them,” changmin admits it quietly, almost shy in the weight of the news and how easily yunho delivers it. “what kind of supernatural is kiyiya?”
“he and his family are what to be known as shapeshifters in the wolven variety. a distant descendant of the original line.” yunho’s mouth turns up at the corner. “it’s a part of the reason why his connection with jihye was so… explosive.”
“jihye never got on with others very well,” changmin laughs.
“she got on with you,” yunho says, smile still in place. “but you’re correct. it was a meeting to behold. she was very vehement, and kiyiya was insanely calm towards her and that whiplash mouth of hers.”
changmin’s laughter is cut short by a long appreciative hum as he eats, and they fall into a comfortable silence until they finish. yunho steps into the kitchen and returns, hands changmin a black box.
“there’s going to be a bit of a celebration in lieu of your arrival into the pack when the others get here,” yunho explains when changmin narrows his eyes at him in question. the sweet scent had reached changmin’s nose before yunho had even handed it to him.
“you don’t expect me to eat this myself then, do you?”
“we’ll share.”
changmin slips the sides of the box open and readies a fork, then pauses, holds the box away from yunho, who raises a brow in confusion, his own fork poised. changmin’s eyes narrow again.
“are you allowed to have chocolate?”
yunho’s eyes widen a fraction, disbelief drawing his brows up as he leans back into his seat. “you aren’t serious.”
“very.”
there is a pause, then, “i’m a werewolf, changmin, not a puppy.” yunho says it gently and incredulously, as if explaining the origin of his blood to someone little and that he can’t believe he has to, and changmin can tell that yunho is more than mildly offended.
“canine is canine,” changmin says, dipping a finger into the thick chocolate icing and curling his tongue around it. he about purrs, it’s so rich and good. “never you mind jung, i take it back,” he says. “i’ll eat it myself.”
wordlessly, and faster than changmin expects, yunho takes the box of chocolate cake and places it evenly between them, slices out a piece with his fork and eats it in almost defiant manner.
changmin laughs outright, not resisting the wide smile that forms across his face, and it doesn’t feel any kind of strange to be sharing a slice of chocolate cake with jung yunho, former wolf out for his head and now his liege. the dessert is finished between them almost too soon, and changmin leans back into his seat, hoping that the grin lingering around his mouth does the feeling of content curdling up in his throat some semblance of justice.
“thank you, yunho.”
“my pleasure,” yunho tells him with a smile of his own, then, as he cleans the box and forks up, “have you spoken with your family.”
“it has been considered. my father knows little of you, unlike my mother and her family. he used to worry about me trying to live in the past, so he might have a few choice words when finds that i’m living with a strange demon.”
“strange,”
“yes,” changmin says, meeting yunho’s stare. “it’s quite strange for me as well. you’re hardly the person i remember.” changmin leaves it there, wondering if yunho would offer explanation on what had changed him, something, anything as to why he was kinder, warmer, and not trying to disembark changmin’s body.
“years change everyone, even those who seem unlikely to do so. though i’m the same demon from then, i am also no different. there might be times where i resemble the person you knew then than the person you perceive now.”
changmin’s hackles rise. it’s a warning, he knows, but his instinct stills his body. with an almost uneasy feeling changmin remembers the asshole from the elevator, and how yunho had so casually and matter if factly admitted to breaking his arms. changmin agrees to yunho’s statement with a slight nod-yunho breaking people’s limbs on a whim is definitely a trait of the him changmin once knew.
“this time around though, i am your patriarch, and standing towards you has changed completely. before you were simply jihye’s-” yunho pauses, looking for a word.
“friend,” changmin supplies.
“companion,” yunho says, amber eyes bright. “i had no inclination to deal with jihye or her friends then, not until we got over ourselves and solidified our relationship and familial ties when the council called to us. it more than definitely made our lives easier to be in each other's good graces.”
the mention of the council again. changmin remains still, his eyes hardening. yunho notices, and mistakes it for curiosity.
“it’s a network of demons from every base kind. i speak for the wolf blooded of the entire east just as elder gao speaks for the dragons and lady vinkovic answers for fae. the council is mainly to police our own.”
“and jihye?”
“when jihye mated she became council through kiyiya in the west, though she is second tier. being under my direct jurisdiction, you and boa are apart of the main tier.”
“but jihye is your sister,” changmin furrows his brows, genuinely curious now. the thought of him having a higher importance than his old best friend in her own family didn’t sit well with him. “why isn’t she of the main tier?”
“it was her decision. if kiyiya had come here instead of staying in the americas he would still be first tier here and second to his own. again though, his position made it highly improbable for him to leave.”
changmin mulls over the idea, the sense of it pie wing together and the thought of the council falling away. he looks up at yunho in question. “i’m pack now, right?”
“yes.” yunho says firmly, waiting for changmin to go on.
“what would it mean for me if i decided to marry, then? if i wanted to be with a human.”
yunho chuckles. “i personally doubt that you will, but you will remain pack, along with your significant other and any children you may have.”
changmin rears back offendedly. “why wouldn’t i marry?”
“because you might wish to mate instead.” yunho says simply, lifting a shoulder in a small shrug. “ vampire blood is hard to ignore, I’m sure you know. your heritage alone very well may lead you to a different route in concerns of, ah, reproduction.”
changmin snorts, but his mind still scours over the different people he’s had in his bed, more of them being inhuman rather than not, and decides that yunho has a point. “noted.” he says shortly, ignoring the amused spark yunho’s eyes gain. “but i might need some semblance of normal after the things that have transpired in the years.”
“would you be satisfied with a human?” yunho looks at changmin from where he leans against a kitchen counter and crosses his arms absentmindedly. “supernatural is normal for you, changmin. you were born into it.”
“which means nothing,” changmin retaliates lowly, affronted and blood warming under his skin. “remember that just as you, i am not the same person either. i’ll do as i please.”
yunho looks at him, features blank, calm, looks at him as if he wants to correct changmin for speaking to him in such a manner, and changmin’s hackles rise again, teeth aching to lengthen at the intense stare he’s getting. he tilts his chin in a dare, but yunho opens his mouth and continues leisurely, unbothered. it makes changmin feel just a tad small.
“should you choose to mate with a demon of any kind, you’ll both have the choice to remain within this pack or join the other’s. it is your decision.”
“pack politics,” changmin mutters, letting tension ease out of him. he’s already tired of the thought, sick of the conversation, and he steers. “i will most likely finish my degree before the thought crosses my mind again. I don’t have the time for anything else right now.” he tells yunho, closing his eyes for a moment. “there will be no worries over this for a few years at the least.”
“you have all the time,” yunho says, laughter in his voice at the irony of changmin’s words. “but as you said about the cake, never myself mind.” yunho pushes himself from the counter and walks back to the table, preparing to to clean away of the dishes.
“i’ll do it,” changmin stays yunho’s hand. it’s infinitely warmer than his naturally cool temperature and smooth to the touch, an almost welcome burn to his fingertips. “you do whatever it is you do,” changmin commands gently, apologizing. “i’ll clean.”
“i was actually hoping to hear about your studies,” yunho tells him. “they seem a great deal of importance to you.”
“they are.”
yunho follows changmin into the kitchen, taking their glasses and refilling them with wine while changmin makes quick work of the plates and loads them into the dishwasher. changmin accepts the glass of wine after rinsing his hands, and yunho leads him to settle on the couches in the living room.
“i’m working on teika’s selective works at the moment, though i’m considering switching the center of my dissertation to the manyoshu. there’s a poem in it that i skimmed by only months after i departed the first time.”
“which one?” yunho asks gently, the picture of perfect, polite curiosity.
changmin looks at yunho in a stretch of silence, contemplating. changmin is a private person concerning the things that touch his hardly beating the heart most, and seldom does he share. he looks at yunho and thinks of how he’s changed, of how his bright bright amber eyes hold something genuine, and parts his lips.
“come to me, if only in my dreams,” changmin says at last, quietly. he waits for yunho’s reaction, as it is a love poem, and is silently, sadly, wonderfully and crestfallenly surprised when yunho’s bright bright eyes slip closed, his shoulder falling just so.
“come to me, if only in my dreams, where my head rests upon my arm and not yours-let this veiled moon above and these dark, brooding pines below be witness.”
it is recited with a conviction, the last word said on an almost sigh, yunho’s demeanor shifting to pensive. changmin watches with a dull ache in his chest as a sadness settles over yunho, a weight that makes its seem like he understands more than well what the words of the poem means.
“yes,” changmin says after a moment, breathless, the only thing he can say. “yes, that one.”
“it is a beautiful poem.”
changmin watches yunho’s eyes slit open and slant towards the windows to reflect the lights of the sparkling city below. he feels almost guilty for sharing. he never meant to-and yet his tongue says what he says-
“you seem to know it very well.”
a chuckle without mirth. “that is because i do.”
“i’m sorry.” changmin murmurs, hating that he’s reminded yunho of something he obviously didn’t want to remember. yunho says nothing, eyes still toward the windows and gaze still directed in where changmin can’t follow. changmin sets his glass down, wonders if he’s stepping out of line as he rises from his spot and sits next to yunho instead.
changmin ignores the very real possibility of overstepping his place in yunho’s home and folds in on himself, curls into yunho’s side like jihye would do him when he seemed to need someone. minutes fly by, changmin’s murky blue eyes tracing the lines of the city when he noticed yunho shifting and looks up at him.
“you seemed as if you needed someone,” he says exactly while yunho looks down at him, eyes still dazed as if he’s just coming back to the world they sit in.
“it’s an open secret within the family,” yunho begins. “there’s no doubt you’ll hear of it eventually, but i fell in love when i lived in the south americas.” he admits slowly, almost woodenly, then, with a quiet awe that speaks of long untouched emotion, “she was a force of a woman, a pure amazonian wolf with skin the color of the fawn we hunted together and eyes like the leaves, hair as blue black as night sky.” a distant smile lifts the corner of yunho’s mouth, a smile so kind and sad that changmin’s heart pauses.
“her name was aella, and she chose a human husband.”
“yunho i’m-”
“do not be. aella was drawn to him and the way he hurt, and she healed him. they had a normal life, many children, which she always spoke of wanting. i wasn’t capable of giving her that then.”
changmin carefully eases away to a respectful, still close distance, squeezes yunho’s hand in his own and is mindful of his strength out of habit despite that yunho probably would hardly even bruise if he used his full vampiric strength.
“you’re a good person, yunho, more than people give you credit for, i’m sure.”
changmin stops counting the minutes as they sit, silent, contemplative. there’s a comfort still, and changmin never once in his life thought that he would be comforting yunho, of all people, and he offers his presence freely to him, who’s done nothing but be kind to changmin in return and help his situation since meeting him only a sliver more than a day before.
it solves the mystery, though, changmin thinks. the mystery of what happened to change yunho so drastically, that loving someone enough to let them go altered so much of his ways. changmin knows how much a choice like that damages and though he knows he might witness a happiness surrounding normalcy due to his human natures, he and yunho are the same, perhaps, in the way they loved so strongly and let go. no one remains the same after a decision of that caliber, and the you definitely don’t walk away without burns when the love is genuine.
“you are an odd little vampire,” yunho says at last, gently taking his hand back and sipping from his wine glass before settling it onto the table. he doesn’t ask changmin to move away though, and changmin feels a flicker of victory run up his spine.
“i thought you were aware of that already, and i’m hardly little. i’m sixty five years old, thank you very much.”
yunho’s chest rumbles, his eyes widening just so. “my gods are you young,” he says in vague disbelief. “jihye was born in the same year as you but she’s definitely not sixty five. changmin i’m nearly ten times your senior in years.”
“jihye is a half blooded wolf of royalty.” changmin says flatly. “and you’re pure bred. i’m only a fourth vampire. we age very, very differently.”
“jihye’s first born is almost older than you.”
“wolf.” changmin reiterates, tone amused nonetheless. he knows that yunho has pushed the memories back and has successfully returned to the present with the way he delivers his archly, pointed remarks.
with the distinct lack of awkwardness in the renewed atmosphere, changmin finds himself glad that he offered his comforts, the exact opposite of what he expected.
.[ 02 | 04 ]
.comments are ♥
8593w.
ao3
changmin wakes the next morning with a solid warmth pressing against his back and he turns over, more than surprised to see two bright green eyes blinking open at him. he pauses, completely unbelieving as he looks back those eyes, the eyes of his own cat, the cat he was forced to leave behind.
“seraphina?” he whispers as he watches the multicolored panther get up and stretch the length of his forearm with a purr. changmin scoops the cat up and hugs her to his chest, rubbing his cheek against the red and purple tinted black fur. seraphina’s chest rumbles loudly and more nostalgia slams into changmin, bringing blood tainted tears to his eyes that he tries to keep back at the sight of his size shifting demon cat, given to him as a kitten from his mother when he was a boy, right there in his arms. more often that not he would tuck seraphina onto his shoulder and take her with when he’d gone to run with the wolves. he’s missed her when he was taken away on that fire lit night sixty years ago.
changmin allows himself a moment to remember the loss as seraphina nudges against his bare shoulder where the oversized t-shirt has slipped off. “i missed you too.”
“glad to see you’ve not forgotten one another,” yunho’s voice rings out, breaking through changmin’s reverie. changmin turns and sees yunho standing in the doorway, dressed in slacks and framed by sunlight. yunho’s gaze gains intensity when he notes the red tears in changmin’s eyes.
“you kept her,” changmin says quietly.
“jihye kept her,” yunho corrects. “she stays with boa now, but i take care of her when she’s gone.”
changmin says thank you anyway, the sense of surrealness washing over him again. “this is amazing, yunho. all of it.”
“i told boa that you’re here,” yunho smiles at him. “she has a gallery opening tonight and she’ll be on her way back immediately afterward.”
changmin’s throat tightens around another murmur of thanks. seraphina gives a squirm in his arms and he lets go of his tightened hold.
yunho folds his harms and leans against the doorway, nods over to the dresser, small smile never wavering. “i bought you some clothes, too. i figured we were around the same size so don’t worry. they’re in the top drawer with your cellphone. someone found it in the elevator and returned it to the desk some time last night.”
“yunho-” changmin continues when he gets a brow raise, “i’ve said it about three times already. thank you. you didn’t have to-”
“i’m the patriarch,” yunho reminds him. “you’re kindred, changmin. pack. it’s natural.”
changmin watches yunho nearly vanish, gone from the doorway in a flash of demon speed that changmin is sure he wouldn’t have seen if he wasn’t partial to being demon himself. either way he finds he has nothing to say to that, even after last night;s harsh swell of rebellion. after sixty years, in which in the before time yunho had been on the semi-prowl for his blood because of his relationship with his sister, the mere idea of yunho doing anything for him simply because he’s considered pack is foreign in his mind, just slightly beyond comprehension.
changmin’s brain draws a blank the more he thinks on it. he comes up with the solution of accept or go just a tad insane and he allots the situation under accept for now-if he leaves it there long enough maybe it’ll become real.
seraphina jumps from changmin’s lap directly onto the dresser, green eyes boring into his with meaning before nudging a red tinted black paw at the clothing.
“i get it, i get it,” changmin laughs, walking over and peering at the neat stack of clothes, trying to imagine yunho out shopping, coming up with another blank.
changmin drops the borrowed, low hung pajama pants and pulls up the boxer shorts that were resting on top. the jeans go on next-dark wash, straightleg, completely dry, and distressed-and he takes off the t-shirt to don a sweater so soft that he lets out a pleased little sound of comfort. seraphina swishes her purple tinted tail in approval, making herself back at home in changmin’s hold and butting against his chin with a contented purr.
“what’s next, sera,” changmin stage whispers. “if boa’s rowdy ass brothers are around i just might slip into a coffin.” he jokes as he walks out of the room, pausing at the sight of the morning sunlight filtering through the tall windows, hanging bright and gold over the city.
he wonders what the sunsets are like from this high.
seraphina parts from his arms when he hits the bottom of the stairs, darts for a patch of sunlight. changmin grins, can only hope that boa’s flat is similar so that she has had plenty of places to curl up.
“breakfast,” yunho calls from somewhere around the stairs. changmin turns to see him sitting at the far back of the flat by an expanse of windows facing away from the sun and at a long table that can easily fit ten or more. there are only two plates atop it, three obsidian carafes and a mug. yunho sits at the far head, morning newspaper folded under his hands as he waits for changmin.
“thanks,” changmin says, the scent of it tickling at his nose, stomach growling at the knowledge of bacon and eggs. the plate waiting for him is steaming and he sits as yunho gestures towards the carafes.
“there’s orange juice if you want? coffee.” yunho says, pausing as he pushes the empty mug towards changmin.
changmin bites into a strip of bacon, hums-it’s good. “and the third?” he asks around another bite.
“blood.”
dauntless, changmin reaches for the second carafe and pours. he fills the mug halfway, black coffee steaming up against his skin-and then he reaches for the third, pours. he brings the mug to his mouth, takes a sip.
“a-b,” he lets out another mm of appreciation, licks his lips before looking yunho in the eye in mild contemplation. “negative or positive?”
“negative.”
changmin nods, goes back to his bacon and eggs after another sip. “excellent choice, thank you.”
changmin feels yunho’s gaze linger as he continues to eat, but when he spares a glance yunho is eating from his own plate, bright amber eyes scanning the newspaper. still, changmin doesn’t miss the way the corner of yunho’s mouth is turned up.
it’s still a bit of an oddity to see yunho in a simple dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and his markings on display, hair that bright cooper changmin so clearly remembers and eyes the color of the high sun.
seraphina bounds onto the table and mewls in a demand for attention. a little gratful for the distraction of his straying thoughts, changmin feeds the panther a piece of bacon, watching as she takes it and nibbles at it in an almost regal way.
“boa does the same when she has breakfast here with me,” yunho muses, quiet laughter in his tone.
“you don’t?” changmin questions archly, noting the smile in yunho’s eyes, the way they crinkle at the corner just so. certainly something had happened to yunho. though almost a century has passed changmin is more than sure that time itself can’t possibly be the singular cause. yunho is kinder, somehow. maybe even softer.
“of course i do,” yunho tells him.
“i’m vaguely amazed that you haven’t become a fat cat,” changmin slants a look at seraphina, who has the dignity to appear offended, her tail swishing and whiskers twitching.
“now you know that we of the demon variety will not become fat from bacon,” yunho chuckles, finishing his orange juice off.
changmin tsks distractedly as he glances outside to gather the angle of the sunlight, finished with his own plate and ruddy coffee. “lucky kitten,” he says before rising from the table, then,
“listen, yunho,” he starts, voice almost quiet, just a tinge hesitant. “i don’t actually want to go, but as i mentioned, i have school-a test tomorrow, and i really need to study.”
“i’ll drive you.” yunho says plainly.
“that’s really not-”
“boa or i will have to pick you up when she lands, unless you own a car?”
changmin shakes his head, and yunho rises from the table with a nod as he makes a small gesture to the table. “give me a second to clean.”
“let me.” changmin rebuts, insists, already stacking their empty plates. yunho says nothing, watching changmin as he carries off their dishes to the kitchen, rinsing them before placing them in dishwasher. he’s equally silent when they slip on their shoes and leave the flat, seraphina mewling them a goodbye from where she’s curled up under a ray of sun.
a pang of regret stings at changmin’s chest when he notices the ring on yunho’s finger, his hair back to black, eyes to brown, markings gone under the concealment spell.
they take the elevator to the sub levels, the doors opening to a garage park with twin rows of cars, each more impressive than the last.
“the blue ones are boa’s,” yunho tells changmin, following his gaze. “of course they are,” changmin smiles, counting the cars down the rows. “which means you only have two.”
“boa likes to spend,” yunho tells him. “i’m the more financially sensible between the both of us.”
there are two sleek cars, one black, the other one a steel gray that changmin stops at and decides he likes more. he drops his eyes to the grill. audi. he looks at yunho, who looks right back, brown eyes glinting in amusement.
“pretty,” changmin shrugs one shoulder. yunho unlocks the door for him and he slides into the seat. he rattles off his address absentmindedly when yunho asks him from behind the wheel, which goes into the navigation system on the dashboard. the car is nice, but changmin still finds himself with his fingers digging into the seat as yunho maneuvers the car with an ease that can only be born from years of practice.
“fast,” changmin murmurs, trying not to ruin the seat with his grip. yunho has the grace to laugh and the impudence to speed up. the gps skips trying to keep up with yunho’s speed, giving the commands to turn only seconds before the turn itself is missed.
“you ran around with jihye all the time-you even clung to me during hunts on occasion, and my driving frightens you?”
“i kept up in the treetops most of the time,” changmin mutters, sinking into his seat. “there weren’t other cars with us in the bloody woods.”
to changmin’s curiosity, yunho slows down, matches the pace of the other vehicles around them.
“thanks,” changmin breathes, placing a hand to his chest. yunho looks at him with furrowed brows.
“i can hear your heartbeat, as soft as it is,” yunho says slowly, questioning, then quieter. “i can smell your fear.”
something thick and tight knots changmin’s throat, and he swallows around it, forcing his canines not to lengthen.
“my mother died in a car accident. she would have lived.” he says haltingly, quieter. “if it weren’t for the shard of metal right through her chest, she would have lived.”
yunho’s hand tightens over the wheel. “i didn’t know. i’m-” his voice catches, and he turns to changmin with widened eyes. “that’s why your family took you away, isn’t it.”
a bout of nausea washes over changmin. his gums hurt.
“you didn’t know, it’s not your fault. if other cars weren’t around it wouldn’t bother me. i much prefer running, though.” changmin manages a flashing smile, and yunho glances at his teeth. “running with your family is one of the things i always missed the most. you were beautiful in your hunt, relentless. it was an art, and i was an appreciator.”
“i understand.” yunho says, allowing the change in conversation.
grateful, changmin realizes that yunho must miss it too.
“it’s this building,” changmin raises a hand to gesture, right before the gps says to turn. yunho makes a sound as they pull into the parking garage.
“you live here?”
“student living on student loans.” changmin slants a glare at him, laughing a little nonetheless. “my father’s inherited home is nice, but it’s hard to study with two still very much aging teenage sisters bringing their friends over for girl group practice.”
“you’re royalty, i was under the impression that you inherited the fortunes of your line?” yunho looks nonplussed as he parks and follows changmin to the elevator. the elevator is slow, creaks ominously on the way up.
“i walked away from it.” changmin says shortly, almost icily, eyes ahead. yunho says nothing as they reach the sixth floor and step out, recognizing the wall changmin puts up on the subject and respecting it. the atmosphere between them is light still, but yunho’s persona shifts noticeably, his gaze hardening when changmin opens the door to his apartment and lets them in.
“it’s small.” yunho says as he looks around the interior.
changmin rolls his eyes, only a little offended. it’s not as if he couldn’t afford nice things-he does have money, saved up over his traveling years and put away in the safety of his father’s hands-but he’s proud to have started from scratch like a normal person, proud that he has something to actually call his own. he thinks back to yunho’s mention of his royal inheritance and tries not to let out the growl forming in his chest. after his mother died his grandmother had snatched him up and away and tried for years to force him to her will, to take his rightful place on the council-
“student,” he finally mutters finally, breaking abruptly from that train of thought.
“patriarch,” yunho rumbles in return, noting changmin’s petulance.
“meaning?” changmin snaps his teeth, irritation running through him, burning and sudden. he wonders where the yunho from years ago came from-tactless, arrogant, demanding-and where the yunho he’d met just last night took a break to.
“pack is taken care of. you’ll be moving.”
that slow, quiet thing of a growl begins to sound out in changmin’s chest once more as he looks yunho dead on, blue-black eyes gone bright. the rested feelings of rebellion and defiance resurface anew, pulse through his frame angrily. he doesn’t bother to keep it at bay. his lip curls, and his canines lengthen in full.
“i won’t just move because you say so,” the growl grows louder as he goes on, “i’m a fully capable vampire who, despite your instinctual claims, does not belong to you.” changmin reigns to his full height, glowers when yunho’s eyes narrow and his mouth opens to protest, “you are mostly human,” but changmin isn’t done, and he lowers the intensity of the constant rumbling in his chest, holds up a hand.
“please, let me finish.” he says, slightly calmer now that he’s stated part of his piece. "you’ve been on the ‘patriarch’ spiel since last night. it’s appreciated that you care, really, especially considering our history, but i really don’t need to be taken care of. you’re full blooded royalty, your instincts are your instincts. i both respect and understand that, but you’ll do well to spare the respect back. when we parted last it was on shakier grounds, but these grounds are new.
before you go on to try and convince me-don’t lie, i’ll know, besides i can see that you want to-remember that it’s been almost seventy years, and that we’re both different now. the younger, nineteen year old me would have jumped at the opportunity, even twenty four and three years old me would have. but i’m twenty four and forty one years now, and i’ve changed."
changmin stares, and yunho stares back, looking as if he wants to argue. instead yunho slips off his shoes, lines them to the wall, then gestures to the kitchen table and its two mismatched chairs.
“may i?”
the inclination of the head changmin gives is enough permission for yunho, and he sits, waits until changmin sits across from him before folding his hands across the table top and taking a small breath.
changmin crosses his legs, slips into absolute stillness only the dead possess. sixteen seconds ease by. yunho thumbs the concealment ring on his finger, looks at changmin, and says, “i’m sorry.”
changmin’s mouth parts in genuine surprise. the yunho he knew didn’t apologize, much less say sorry and then mean it.
“you’re correct,” yunho starts diplomatically. “i am full blooded and with being a direct line of some of the original wolves my instincts are stronger than most. though hear me when i say that i am your protector, changmin, that i have no choice in it. my ties to you? to my sister? her husband and children, even. those ties runs in my blood and it is something i cannot entirely resist.” he gives changmin a small, almost pleading small. “pardon me in my demanding ways and forgive my reactions in the future, but you. are. pack. pack is taken care of. this time i’ll ask,”
yunho leans back and looks at changmin, completely serious in his intentions.
“there is an empty suite in my building, one right beneath my own. it was jihye’s before she left. it’s yours, if you’ll have it.”
changmin’s brow goes up, yunho chuckles.
“will you move into the building?”
yunho looks at changmin, watches his eyes darken to their usual beautiful murky blue and his posture loosen by a fraction. changmin blinks once, lowers his eyes to the table and crosses his arms.
“i couldn’t,” he says, pausing when yunho lets an almost inaudible disappointed sound slip.
the convincing begins, “it’s appropriate.”
“i can’t,” changmin says it on a soft breath. yunho’s gaze is intense and steady on him and he hates the way he starts to feel small in the confines of his own home. he squares his shoulders again, tilts his chin and faces yunho directly. “i don’t need to be taken care off, i’m more than fine on my own.”
a sudden flicker of anger passes across yunho’s features. for a moment his brown eyes bleed gold, his brows snapping down, looking all for the world as if he wants to punch something. or leave.
“changmin.” his name comes out only slightly edged when yunho says it. “i’m baring myself, changmin. as patriarch and as a person. you’re one of mine and i have a... raw, need to take care of you, even if you decline. i’ll still do it if you do, though just know that it would be more than pleasing to have you closer to me.”
it gives changmin pause, those words. feeling hasn’t crossed his mind once, not in the emotional sense. instinct is one, completely separate thing-especially for wolves, changmin knows. it is another when it twines with one’s literal emotions.
“but-”
“and that pack lives together if it is possible?”
“but i-”
“boa would be thrilled to have you nearer.”
changmin wants to curse. he should’ve known that yunho would use boa as a tactic in the matter, possibly his last resort; changmin and boa had been close during their time together despite her being older. she was an older sister figure, another sibling to him. using boa against him like that is just shy of manipulative. but changmin is mostly human, and it works.
his eyes fall to the table, his facade to the floor as he hugs his folded arms tighter, says quietly, “the apartments are so big.” the idea of living in one of those large, echoing apartments by himself stretches out before him.
“i designed them that way.” yunho is grinning, and changmin kind of wants to punch it off.
“it’ll be lonely.”
yunho’s grin turns into an amused, contemplative smile as he tilts his head just so. “you live alone now,” he points out. “i don’t smell any other consistent scent besides yours.”
“that’s not the problem.” changmin closes his eyes for a moment, then gets up and pours himself a glass of water. “my apartment is is more of the cozy variety. homey. a large place such as that for myself-” he breaks off, the memory of old vintage wood and too many rooms passing through his mind. he sits back down. “it would be too much.”
yunho says nothing, just watches as changmin sips his water and then runs the tip of a finger along the rim.
“there are several rooms in my own suite.” yunho says quietly, at last.
changmin’s eyes fly to meet his. him, living with yunho. “i really don’t think-”
“boa is currently in a relationship with crystal kay, who will more than likely be living with her soon. there no doubt that it would be…” he pauses, mouth twitching upward a fraction. “loud,” he says. “it would be chaos for all involved if their baby brother is living with them when they decide to mate.”
changmin blinks owlishly; he didn’t consider living with boa, though gems sure if given the time he might have, he scratches the thought out with yunho’s very pointedly given information.
“understand, changmin. having found you means finding a member of our pack that we thought gone, lost. jihye had no hopes of locating you, though she tried valiantly. she had your name and your heritage, but given the knowledge of your status in the supernatural world you were kept under tight wraps, even for her. boa looked too, and even i made attempts on their behalf. i’s my responsibility to take care of you, one i don’t begrudge in even the slightest, but also, my sister will never let me hear the end of it. lastly,” yunho pauses, eyeing changmin dramatically.
“lastly?” changmin prompts.
“boa would, without a doubt, make you do it herself.”
“boa-”
“is pack, believes in pack, and by the gods she misses you. if you don’t move she’ll most likely move here. do you think she’d let you out of her sight after so long?”
changmin gets up abruptly, opens his fridge, pulls out a pitcher, pours himself half a cup of blood, tilts the cup to his lips and slams it back, pitcher still in hand, refrigerator wide open.
he wonders if that means yunho would follow, the three of them living in the the tiny apartments offered in the old building. his mind races with the knowledge of werewolf familial dynamics, wars with the idea of considering the instincts of a demon so powerful against his own wishes to remain as is: free. remembering yunho's words, he also fights with the knowledge that his freedom is not technically in any state of jeopardy, that it's just him and his own past experiences hindering him from having this.
not just having it, but having it again.
changmin sets the cup down onto the table with a little more force than necessary, thin ropes of blood streaming down the sides and pooling at the bottom, pretty.
red is smeared across his bottom lip, staining bright against his teeth.
changmin thinks about the werewolf seated before him, thinks about jihye, and decides he wants it.
“fine,” he says after a long, quiet moment, an inflection of resignation coloring his tone. he licks his lips, the tang of copper sharp on his tongue. “i'll allow it. you've yourself a deal this time, jung. i’ll move.”
“and i’ll be taking charge of your tuition.”
changmin’s voice raises an octave, a pitch, maybe two. “what?”
“i hope we don’t have this conversation every time you learn something new,” yunho pinches the bridge of his nose, but there is laughter in his voice. changmin momentarily forgets how to words, forgets the oddly brooding directions plaguing his train of thought. “but-yunho!”
“pack, changmin. patriarch.” yunho flashes his own teeth, lip upturned. “the sooner you accept the easier it will transpire.”
“but-”
“did you know that patriarch is another word for alpha,” yunho chimes in calm, false innocence.
“yunho that is honestly too much-”
“say thank you.”
“-thank you.”
to his trepidation, changmin feels his eyes sting with tears, and he mentally curses his overwhelming emotions and his odd need to cry as of late.
“i’m aware that i’m not being the most gracious,” changmin starts, kicking the refrigerator closed in a minor distraction. “i’m just not very talented in the accepting of… gifts, if you will, of this caliber. i mean-”
"it’s a lot to take in. just think of it differently; keep in mind that this is as natural for me as it’s unnatural for you.
the sense of surrealness comes back with the force of the winds, and changmin sits back down. the edges of his vision blur, from the red tinted tears or the cool feeling washing him he doesn’t quite know or care to tell. there is a plethora of emotions rising throughout him, questions, one prominent over the others:
since when is it natural for yunho to take care of others?
“i don’t know what the hell is happening anymore.” changmin runs his fingers through his hair, tightens them there and tugs. “i feel as if i should be waking up any moment because even when i dreamt of running into one of you again, it definitely wasn’t like this.”
“it’ll come with time,” yunho reassures him. changmin fixes his gaze on him, notes how he looks out of place in his little apartment with his height and stature folded into one of changmin’s old chairs, how stunningly different he is compared to changmin’s own memory.
“i’ll take the empty flat,” changmin murmurs, eyes moving forward to look at nothing again. “i’d hate to bother you like that.”
“it’s quite alright,” yunho insists.
a few of changmin’s lingering curiosities come back to the forefront of his mind, ones like significant others and children. “what if-”
“not that it is your business, i have no intentions of finding a mate, changmin. don’t worry about it. though should you decide to do so the previous offer remains and jihye’s place is yours.”
relief is cool through changmin as he utters another word of thanks. even if yunho is quiet, he’s company. the idea of having a large home to himself is still subduing, almost mind numbing after the time he’d been taken away and practically held hostage in the royal family manor alone. besides, changmin knows that it takes nothing but a thunderstorm to have himself locked in a closet and calling for the cops.
changmin hums, breaking out of his thoughts and mindful of yunho’s gaze as he stands, stretches, moves to rinse his cup in the sink.
“so when do i move,” he asks nonchalantly.
“grab your school things and some clothes and you can make yourself at home within the hour. i’ll handle the rest.”
changmin doesn’t feel surprise this time, just wry amusement that he thinks he’ll be feeling a lot more often. he swishes soapy water in his cup, pours it out and rinses again. he supposes he should be thankful that he doesn’t own a lot of things, even at twenty four and forty one years.
“will it fit in your car?”
“we’ll put it in the trunk.”
with another hum, changmin dries his hands and walks back to his room. he doesn’t have much clothing, or much of anything for a student living from check to check on that matter. he’s positive all the clothing that he has fits into a single duffle with the way he folds his things. by the time he’s finished with both the closet and the dresser he realizes how small his life is, how almost normal. it brings a small, ghost of a smile to his face.
his room is practically bare, nothing but a neatly made twin bed and said dresser, in which on top rest the few pictures of his friends he’d taken. as if needing to bring those and nothing else he pulls a box out of his closet, wraps them in a sweater and gently slides them in.
he sits the box on the table first when he comes out of his room, goes back for the luggage. yunho is silent as changmin brings each piece out, not uttering a word until changmin brings out the third and last suitcase and looks at him expectantly-this wasn’t his idea and he’s sure as hell not carrying it.
“what, weak in your old age?” changmin asks with a raised brow.
“that’s all?” yunho asks, startled.
“student,” changmin reiterates. "besides, i make a point to keep my prized possesions elsewhere far."
yunho nods in understanding and stands, takes the luggage in hand. “what of your school things?”
“in the suitcase with my laptop.”
yunho nods again. he carries the three pieces of luggage as if they’re nothing, and changmin supposes they aren’t, in a sense, though they seem awkward to handle.
changmin wonders, briefly, if he shouldn’t have mentioned yunho’s age.
changmin finishes studying for the evening, closes his laptop, rises with a stretch and a sigh.
“you’re diligent,” yunho comments from behind him.
changmin turns, sees him chopping something up on the counter in the kitchen, and wonders what victoria will think of the situation. he’d tried to call her earlier and was met with her voicemail; he figures that she’s sleeping off a hangover, maybe still with the stranger she'd promised to leave with. changmin left her a voicemail detailing nothing but the basics: that he’s fine and that he’s run into an old friend.
“top of my class,” changmin nonchalantly boasts, more than proud. he had earned that number one in front of his name the normal way: through hours of reading and hard work. he mentally pats himself on his shoulder for resisting to use of his enhanced memory all the while.
“an accomplishment at your university. what do you plan to do after?”
“i’m aiming for my doctorate.”
“ambitious.” yunho smiles, and changmin is once again momentarily struck at the sight of it. “boa will be landing late tonight,” yunho continues. “we’ll most likely see her tomorrow.”
“excellent. i have an early class anyway.”
“do you drive?”
“no. i take the bus.”
“we’ll fix that, then. you should have your own means for getting about.”
changmin squints at yunho, trying not to run up the numbers of what yunho’s trying to spend on him and failing. yunho’s already proven that he’s going to have his way and that he absolutely knows how to do so. to changmin, alpha fits so much better than patriarch, especially since it takes away the vague paternal sense of the matter. changmin reflects with little to no relief that yunho at least doesn’t have any children.
ah. that wave of surrealness again.
“i’m still not entirely sure what to make of this,” changmin admits as he pads over to the kitchen. “i mean, i understand the gist from years prior, but i know nothing of pack for being pack and i’m starting to feel how i imagine cinderella felt. i never did believe that she was too comfortable moving into the palace.”
“you easily adapt, from what i’ve heard,” yunho offers, switching off a burner. “it’ll just take time, and to be fair, at least you won’t have to worry about court politics like cinderella probably did.”
“…. pack politics,” changmin rebuts.
“fairly simple.” yunho pulls plates down from a cabinet. “it’s most definitely not like it once was. your life’s your own and completely yours to command. what you want to do, who you desire to mate, who your comrades are to be-those things, unlike centuries before, are your own to decide. as patriarch, i don’t interfere much.”
"abruptly uprooting me from my home isn't exactly minor interference, alpha." changmin points out, earning an playfully flat stare.
“location is of the exception; the pack is thriving and should jihye return, she and kiyiya would live here with their children. boa and crystal kay will live here once they’ve mated as crystal kay is the last of her kind. since you yourself are not mated, it’s my duty to see to what needs you harbor. your name will be added to my banking account, i’ll handle your schooling fees, and so on.”
“so,” changmin says slowly, crossing his arms over the counter. “what you’re saying is that you’re my fairy god mother.”
yunho gives a glare that promises consequences. changmin sniggers.
“alpha, since you seem to persist on it.” yunho drawls.
“sure, sure,” changmin laughs, for once happy with the familiar. “alpha.”
“so then, what do i get to do, since you take care of me in all of these ways.”
“what you wish.”
“as i wish. really,”
“yes. save for right now-right now you will set the table.”
“ah, but-” changmin groans dramatically, giving into a sudden childish urge. “i thought i could do as i wish?”
“listen to your alpha.”
“fine, i suppose you’re in need of a live in servant.”
“it was you who didn’t want to live alone, was it not?”
“does this rule out any parties?”
“hyunwoo throws a party every friday, feel free do go down six levels and avail yourself.”
changmin almost thinks about it, remembers the nose he broke in the elevator trying to get away from one of hyunwoo’s parties. “i believe i will do without.” he chuckles lightly. “i’m not much of a partier anyway,” a small bit of a smirk touches changmin’s lips, and he catches yunho’s eye, knows they’re thinking the same thing, of a time where changmin and jihye were nineteen and stupid. “not anymore, anyway.”
“you were at one last night,” yunho observes anyway.
“at victoria’s insist. she liked the idea of being someone different for a night.” the image of victoria with her head thrown back and a stranger between her legs flickers across changmin’s mind, and he banishes it to a dark corner, definitely not fighting a blush.
“embarrassed?” yunho notes, brow arching, amber eyes playfully mocking changmin’s moment of discomfort.
“let’s just say that victoria was more than different last night.” changmin notches his won brow, finishing with the plates and silverware as he arranged them on the table in their previous spots from breakfast. yunho follows with a bowl in one hand and a platter in the other, and changmin takes his seat, eyeing the plates with anticipation.
“did you ever become a chef,” changmin half asks as he watches yunho pour them glasses of wine, changmin’s topped off with more a-b negative.
yunho admits that he indeed tried it. “i find that i don’t enjoy cooking to other people’s whims.”
“anyone would be terrified to send a plate back to you,” changmin laughs, relaxing once again. the tension from sitting at his computer and scoring through his books eases out of his body as he takes a sip of his muddy wine, the copper tang strong against the bittersweet juice, mixed just right.
yunho serves himself his food, then changmin’s, and changmin takes note of how yunho’s steak is definitely less cooked than his own.
“you do know that i don’t mind rare, right? i mean, i’m drinking blood from a wine glass.”
“i remember jihye telling me that your father always sent word for your food to be cooked due to your humanly nature,” yunho grins. “but i see hunting with the wolves has rubbed off on you.”
changmin resists rolling his eyes, instead picks up his knife and cuts into his dinner as yunho goes on.
“i talked to my sister,” he says, and changmin freezes into a mode of absolute still for a moment, his slow, quiet heart skipping a beat. if yunho notices-and changmin is sure he does-he says nothing. “kiyiya and jihye plant to come visit you.”
“it’ll be nice to see them,” changmin admits it quietly, almost shy in the weight of the news and how easily yunho delivers it. “what kind of supernatural is kiyiya?”
“he and his family are what to be known as shapeshifters in the wolven variety. a distant descendant of the original line.” yunho’s mouth turns up at the corner. “it’s a part of the reason why his connection with jihye was so… explosive.”
“jihye never got on with others very well,” changmin laughs.
“she got on with you,” yunho says, smile still in place. “but you’re correct. it was a meeting to behold. she was very vehement, and kiyiya was insanely calm towards her and that whiplash mouth of hers.”
changmin’s laughter is cut short by a long appreciative hum as he eats, and they fall into a comfortable silence until they finish. yunho steps into the kitchen and returns, hands changmin a black box.
“there’s going to be a bit of a celebration in lieu of your arrival into the pack when the others get here,” yunho explains when changmin narrows his eyes at him in question. the sweet scent had reached changmin’s nose before yunho had even handed it to him.
“you don’t expect me to eat this myself then, do you?”
“we’ll share.”
changmin slips the sides of the box open and readies a fork, then pauses, holds the box away from yunho, who raises a brow in confusion, his own fork poised. changmin’s eyes narrow again.
“are you allowed to have chocolate?”
yunho’s eyes widen a fraction, disbelief drawing his brows up as he leans back into his seat. “you aren’t serious.”
“very.”
there is a pause, then, “i’m a werewolf, changmin, not a puppy.” yunho says it gently and incredulously, as if explaining the origin of his blood to someone little and that he can’t believe he has to, and changmin can tell that yunho is more than mildly offended.
“canine is canine,” changmin says, dipping a finger into the thick chocolate icing and curling his tongue around it. he about purrs, it’s so rich and good. “never you mind jung, i take it back,” he says. “i’ll eat it myself.”
wordlessly, and faster than changmin expects, yunho takes the box of chocolate cake and places it evenly between them, slices out a piece with his fork and eats it in almost defiant manner.
changmin laughs outright, not resisting the wide smile that forms across his face, and it doesn’t feel any kind of strange to be sharing a slice of chocolate cake with jung yunho, former wolf out for his head and now his liege. the dessert is finished between them almost too soon, and changmin leans back into his seat, hoping that the grin lingering around his mouth does the feeling of content curdling up in his throat some semblance of justice.
“thank you, yunho.”
“my pleasure,” yunho tells him with a smile of his own, then, as he cleans the box and forks up, “have you spoken with your family.”
“it has been considered. my father knows little of you, unlike my mother and her family. he used to worry about me trying to live in the past, so he might have a few choice words when finds that i’m living with a strange demon.”
“strange,”
“yes,” changmin says, meeting yunho’s stare. “it’s quite strange for me as well. you’re hardly the person i remember.” changmin leaves it there, wondering if yunho would offer explanation on what had changed him, something, anything as to why he was kinder, warmer, and not trying to disembark changmin’s body.
“years change everyone, even those who seem unlikely to do so. though i’m the same demon from then, i am also no different. there might be times where i resemble the person you knew then than the person you perceive now.”
changmin’s hackles rise. it’s a warning, he knows, but his instinct stills his body. with an almost uneasy feeling changmin remembers the asshole from the elevator, and how yunho had so casually and matter if factly admitted to breaking his arms. changmin agrees to yunho’s statement with a slight nod-yunho breaking people’s limbs on a whim is definitely a trait of the him changmin once knew.
“this time around though, i am your patriarch, and standing towards you has changed completely. before you were simply jihye’s-” yunho pauses, looking for a word.
“friend,” changmin supplies.
“companion,” yunho says, amber eyes bright. “i had no inclination to deal with jihye or her friends then, not until we got over ourselves and solidified our relationship and familial ties when the council called to us. it more than definitely made our lives easier to be in each other's good graces.”
the mention of the council again. changmin remains still, his eyes hardening. yunho notices, and mistakes it for curiosity.
“it’s a network of demons from every base kind. i speak for the wolf blooded of the entire east just as elder gao speaks for the dragons and lady vinkovic answers for fae. the council is mainly to police our own.”
“and jihye?”
“when jihye mated she became council through kiyiya in the west, though she is second tier. being under my direct jurisdiction, you and boa are apart of the main tier.”
“but jihye is your sister,” changmin furrows his brows, genuinely curious now. the thought of him having a higher importance than his old best friend in her own family didn’t sit well with him. “why isn’t she of the main tier?”
“it was her decision. if kiyiya had come here instead of staying in the americas he would still be first tier here and second to his own. again though, his position made it highly improbable for him to leave.”
changmin mulls over the idea, the sense of it pie wing together and the thought of the council falling away. he looks up at yunho in question. “i’m pack now, right?”
“yes.” yunho says firmly, waiting for changmin to go on.
“what would it mean for me if i decided to marry, then? if i wanted to be with a human.”
yunho chuckles. “i personally doubt that you will, but you will remain pack, along with your significant other and any children you may have.”
changmin rears back offendedly. “why wouldn’t i marry?”
“because you might wish to mate instead.” yunho says simply, lifting a shoulder in a small shrug. “ vampire blood is hard to ignore, I’m sure you know. your heritage alone very well may lead you to a different route in concerns of, ah, reproduction.”
changmin snorts, but his mind still scours over the different people he’s had in his bed, more of them being inhuman rather than not, and decides that yunho has a point. “noted.” he says shortly, ignoring the amused spark yunho’s eyes gain. “but i might need some semblance of normal after the things that have transpired in the years.”
“would you be satisfied with a human?” yunho looks at changmin from where he leans against a kitchen counter and crosses his arms absentmindedly. “supernatural is normal for you, changmin. you were born into it.”
“which means nothing,” changmin retaliates lowly, affronted and blood warming under his skin. “remember that just as you, i am not the same person either. i’ll do as i please.”
yunho looks at him, features blank, calm, looks at him as if he wants to correct changmin for speaking to him in such a manner, and changmin’s hackles rise again, teeth aching to lengthen at the intense stare he’s getting. he tilts his chin in a dare, but yunho opens his mouth and continues leisurely, unbothered. it makes changmin feel just a tad small.
“should you choose to mate with a demon of any kind, you’ll both have the choice to remain within this pack or join the other’s. it is your decision.”
“pack politics,” changmin mutters, letting tension ease out of him. he’s already tired of the thought, sick of the conversation, and he steers. “i will most likely finish my degree before the thought crosses my mind again. I don’t have the time for anything else right now.” he tells yunho, closing his eyes for a moment. “there will be no worries over this for a few years at the least.”
“you have all the time,” yunho says, laughter in his voice at the irony of changmin’s words. “but as you said about the cake, never myself mind.” yunho pushes himself from the counter and walks back to the table, preparing to to clean away of the dishes.
“i’ll do it,” changmin stays yunho’s hand. it’s infinitely warmer than his naturally cool temperature and smooth to the touch, an almost welcome burn to his fingertips. “you do whatever it is you do,” changmin commands gently, apologizing. “i’ll clean.”
“i was actually hoping to hear about your studies,” yunho tells him. “they seem a great deal of importance to you.”
“they are.”
yunho follows changmin into the kitchen, taking their glasses and refilling them with wine while changmin makes quick work of the plates and loads them into the dishwasher. changmin accepts the glass of wine after rinsing his hands, and yunho leads him to settle on the couches in the living room.
“i’m working on teika’s selective works at the moment, though i’m considering switching the center of my dissertation to the manyoshu. there’s a poem in it that i skimmed by only months after i departed the first time.”
“which one?” yunho asks gently, the picture of perfect, polite curiosity.
changmin looks at yunho in a stretch of silence, contemplating. changmin is a private person concerning the things that touch his hardly beating the heart most, and seldom does he share. he looks at yunho and thinks of how he’s changed, of how his bright bright amber eyes hold something genuine, and parts his lips.
“come to me, if only in my dreams,” changmin says at last, quietly. he waits for yunho’s reaction, as it is a love poem, and is silently, sadly, wonderfully and crestfallenly surprised when yunho’s bright bright eyes slip closed, his shoulder falling just so.
“come to me, if only in my dreams, where my head rests upon my arm and not yours-let this veiled moon above and these dark, brooding pines below be witness.”
it is recited with a conviction, the last word said on an almost sigh, yunho’s demeanor shifting to pensive. changmin watches with a dull ache in his chest as a sadness settles over yunho, a weight that makes its seem like he understands more than well what the words of the poem means.
“yes,” changmin says after a moment, breathless, the only thing he can say. “yes, that one.”
“it is a beautiful poem.”
changmin watches yunho’s eyes slit open and slant towards the windows to reflect the lights of the sparkling city below. he feels almost guilty for sharing. he never meant to-and yet his tongue says what he says-
“you seem to know it very well.”
a chuckle without mirth. “that is because i do.”
“i’m sorry.” changmin murmurs, hating that he’s reminded yunho of something he obviously didn’t want to remember. yunho says nothing, eyes still toward the windows and gaze still directed in where changmin can’t follow. changmin sets his glass down, wonders if he’s stepping out of line as he rises from his spot and sits next to yunho instead.
changmin ignores the very real possibility of overstepping his place in yunho’s home and folds in on himself, curls into yunho’s side like jihye would do him when he seemed to need someone. minutes fly by, changmin’s murky blue eyes tracing the lines of the city when he noticed yunho shifting and looks up at him.
“you seemed as if you needed someone,” he says exactly while yunho looks down at him, eyes still dazed as if he’s just coming back to the world they sit in.
“it’s an open secret within the family,” yunho begins. “there’s no doubt you’ll hear of it eventually, but i fell in love when i lived in the south americas.” he admits slowly, almost woodenly, then, with a quiet awe that speaks of long untouched emotion, “she was a force of a woman, a pure amazonian wolf with skin the color of the fawn we hunted together and eyes like the leaves, hair as blue black as night sky.” a distant smile lifts the corner of yunho’s mouth, a smile so kind and sad that changmin’s heart pauses.
“her name was aella, and she chose a human husband.”
“yunho i’m-”
“do not be. aella was drawn to him and the way he hurt, and she healed him. they had a normal life, many children, which she always spoke of wanting. i wasn’t capable of giving her that then.”
changmin carefully eases away to a respectful, still close distance, squeezes yunho’s hand in his own and is mindful of his strength out of habit despite that yunho probably would hardly even bruise if he used his full vampiric strength.
“you’re a good person, yunho, more than people give you credit for, i’m sure.”
changmin stops counting the minutes as they sit, silent, contemplative. there’s a comfort still, and changmin never once in his life thought that he would be comforting yunho, of all people, and he offers his presence freely to him, who’s done nothing but be kind to changmin in return and help his situation since meeting him only a sliver more than a day before.
it solves the mystery, though, changmin thinks. the mystery of what happened to change yunho so drastically, that loving someone enough to let them go altered so much of his ways. changmin knows how much a choice like that damages and though he knows he might witness a happiness surrounding normalcy due to his human natures, he and yunho are the same, perhaps, in the way they loved so strongly and let go. no one remains the same after a decision of that caliber, and the you definitely don’t walk away without burns when the love is genuine.
“you are an odd little vampire,” yunho says at last, gently taking his hand back and sipping from his wine glass before settling it onto the table. he doesn’t ask changmin to move away though, and changmin feels a flicker of victory run up his spine.
“i thought you were aware of that already, and i’m hardly little. i’m sixty five years old, thank you very much.”
yunho’s chest rumbles, his eyes widening just so. “my gods are you young,” he says in vague disbelief. “jihye was born in the same year as you but she’s definitely not sixty five. changmin i’m nearly ten times your senior in years.”
“jihye is a half blooded wolf of royalty.” changmin says flatly. “and you’re pure bred. i’m only a fourth vampire. we age very, very differently.”
“jihye’s first born is almost older than you.”
“wolf.” changmin reiterates, tone amused nonetheless. he knows that yunho has pushed the memories back and has successfully returned to the present with the way he delivers his archly, pointed remarks.
with the distinct lack of awkwardness in the renewed atmosphere, changmin finds himself glad that he offered his comforts, the exact opposite of what he expected.
.[ 02 | 04 ]
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