o1. A Song for Waking
Title: A Song for Waking
Character(s): Kyuhyun, Sungmin
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 6000
Summary: The City lies in restless slumber, in exhaustion and defeat. Its streets are scarred and winding, lonely roads that lead to nowhere, around buildings that glitter and crumble in the same instant. The City has a name, but it's not worth remembering. The City sleeps, but on some nights...it wakes up.
Notes: AU, first in a series. Pairings will eventually be various. Huge thanks to fuminshou_neko for betaing. ♥
Kyuhyun has only lived here for a couple of weeks, spending most of that time going to class, working a crummy job at Wal-Mart, and doing homework in the evenings. He has a miniscule apartment off-campus which doesn't really do wonders for his social life, but it sure does help along his 'starving artist' image. He figures the pissy couple upstairs and the single mom with three kids next door are a fair enough trade for the frat parties and other drunken revelry of college life.
In any case, it's the first time he's walked the streets in the dead of night and nothing looks familiar in the dark, so one or two or several wrong turns later he's hopelessly lost. His watch tells him it's a little past two and his eight A.M. music theory class is not going to be a happy place, if he ever manages to find his way back. The last bus ran an hour ago, and Kyuhyun kicks himself for being stingy. A little bit of bus fare couldn't have hurt; he isn't working extra hours so he can sleep outside on a bench.
He can't tell if he's wandering into a more desolate part of town or if it's just the late hour that explains the empty sidewalks. Granted, he doesn't live in the most happening area (he's never even laid eyes on the ritzy districts), but his are the only footsteps shuffling along the uneven pavement. Cities should be louder than this, full of obnoxious noises and an abundance of people, he'd prepared himself for all of that when he left his aunt's house in the suburbs to go to school here.
Kyuhyun wets his lips in the dry, autumn air, and shoves his hands deeper into his pockets. It's still warm this early in the season and for a moment he can recall summer nights on his back porch, watching fireflies fade in and out while his mother bids him goodnight, leaving the light on until he decides to go inside. He thinks of his room and sitting at his desk with the window open, listening to the cicadas while worrying a pen between his teeth and staring down at a blank sheet of notebook paper. He would doodle in the margins as it got late, then wake up the next morning with his face flat on the desk and his pen on the floor, his head full of music without words.
The day when his music turned into a symphony of screeching tires and shatterglass was when the words finally came. They'd been scrawled on a folded piece of paper and kept inside his breast pocket during the funeral, but they weren't released into song until he'd arrived here. In the middle of unpacking, he started the first verse and finished the chorus before he sat down on the floor of his bare apartment and wept.
The song would sneak into other moments, sometimes just the tune he'd hum while stacking shelves or making dinner, and sometimes he would even smile. He smiles now, and the first syllable is deep and smooth and perfect, swallowed up by the dim streets as it's meant to be. Kyuhyun takes care not to sing too loudly, not because he might disturb the neighborhood but because these words are not meant for others. His song keeps him company until it comes to a whispering end.
He's left standing at a corner and a car passes by, startlingly mundane, as if nothing had been allowed to move until this point. Across the street, a dog barks and whines, slinking its way into an alley. Kyuhyun looks over his shoulder down the block he'd just walked but finds nothing abnormal about it. He's scrutinizing the street sign next, trying to evoke some familiarity out of it, when a voice makes him jump.
"Are you lost?"
There's a boy sitting on the steps in front of a building and Kyuhyun can't help but stare because he hadn't been there a moment ago. He's impossible to miss, dressed in a bright pink hoodie and equally pink Converse sneakers peeking out from dark jeans. His arms are folded over his knees and he's leaning forward slightly, head tilted in curiosity that matches his innocuously-posed question.
"I- Yeah, I am." Kyuhyun finds himself grinning sheepishly despite the strangeness, quelling the odd feeling in his stomach until the boy offers a sweet smile that unnerves him all over again.
"I know the City very well, maybe I can help."
The City, Kyuhyun feels the words leave an imprint, because the city is rather big, and he sounds rather sure. "That would be great," he says and feels awkward, stumbling over his address but is relieved when the boy nods.
"That's not far. Go down that road for about two blocks and take a left at the intersection. That will put you on Arcadia Avenue, near the university, and you'll probably be fine from there. Are you a student?"
"First year," he answers, cheered with the prospect of getting home, though he proves to still be conversationally inept. "I just moved here. Um, obviously. Sorry. I really need to be going, but thanks for your help, you're a life-saver."
The boy laughs, unreasonably delighted, but the sound is pure and pleasing - musical, Kyuhyun thinks, and warms to the peculiar stranger with that connection. He waves goodbye, and on the way home he's restless with what he suspects is an unsung song, taking it with him into his dreams.
* * * * *
The sun starts to emerge from behind gray clouds for the first time all day as Kyuhyun stands at the crosswalk, waiting for what must be the longest light in the world to turn. He's slightly damp from being caught in the drizzling weather, clutching his bag and thinking of the disappointing grade he received on his Chemistry exam and the even more disappointing meeting with his professor. He has an appointment scheduled on Saturday with a classmate tutor, and it's good thing he had no social life to speak of before because he certainly lacks one now.
The signal changes at last when he hears, "I take it you found your way back the other night."
Kyuhyun stands still while everyone around him surges to cross the street. He doesn't notice them. The boy is wearing pink again, a gentler shade of shirt that drapes unbuttoned over a white tank. A heart-shaped pendant hangs from a chain around his neck and sunlight glints off of more silver at his ears, partially curtained by dark, feathery hair. Soft-looking lips curve into a charming smile, hinting at neat, pearly teeth.
"Thanks to you," Kyuhyun says, glancing at the crosswalk, but doesn't move.
The boy breathes a sigh of relief, eyes closing for a moment and his tone is light and teasing. "I’m glad. I wondered if I should have walked with you. It's not the worst neighborhood, but I'd have felt awful if something had happened." He cracks one eye open and feigns indignation. "What's that grin for? You think I'm a wimp, don't you?"
"No," Kyuhyun answers honestly, going by his gut feeling rather than the pretty, pink exterior - though that was the reason behind his evident amusement. "Looks can deceive."
"They sure can." He nods wisely, a hand on his chin, and leans forward a tiny bit. "I'm Sungmin, by the way."
"Kyuhyun," he says hurriedly, embarrassed by the late introduction. "Are you also a student?"
Sungmin shakes his head. "Nope, but I have friends at Arcadia and I live nearby. Are you hungry? A new bubble tea shop has opened up and I can attest that it's marvelous."
It turns out that Sungmin's ringing endorsement of the restaurant is half due to the fact he works there a few days a week, and half due to genuine enthusiasm for the drink. More importantly, he can get Kyuhyun a discount. He's not technically allowed to, but a one-hit-kill smile is all it takes to convince his co-worker, a cute young high school girl who is easily flattered.
"She's going to get fired once the manager finds out just how often she lets the good-looking male customers pay down," Sungmin whispers once she's out of earshot. Kyuhyun merely raises a brow and the boy winks. "I'm too cute to fire."
He snorts and reaches out to pinch Sungmin's cheek, the skin baby-soft between his fingers. "I bet you're a hit with little old ladies."
Batting the hand away and rubbing the abused side of his face, Sungmin pouts. "Maybe if I wanted an endless supply of candy and stories about "the good old days". No thanks. Instead of accumulating second-hand old-person smell, I'd rather bask in the attention of sexy, mature women. Now they adore me." He leers a little and Kyuhyun nearly chokes on his laughter.
* * * * *
It's as though they've known each other for years. Sungmin is magical, that's the only excuse Kyuhyun can find to explain the awe and contentment he feels. He opens like a book to him, rambling long into the night about himself, his hopeful dreams and his mundane classes. Nothing is inconsequential, and Kyuhyun hordes details about Sungmin in return. The boy can say very little, but he'll drop gems of facts so precisely polished that they can't be unintentional.
"How old do you think I am?"
Kyuhyun glances nervously. He tends to assume they're around the same age, but the fact that Sungmin is asking makes him doubt. "Older than you look, clearly."
His teeth flash in a grin. "I'm twenty-one."
"...Man, I thought you were going to shock me. I'm disappointed now."
Sometimes Sungmin laughs in a way that makes Kyuhyun think he's missing the joke, but as soon as he starts to feel bad there's an arm flung around his shoulders and he's being dragged to the nearest ice cream shop.
Sungmin doesn't mention his family much, but he's currently living with some friends in a large apartment and he used to be a student at Arcadia. "It got boring," is his reason for dropping out, which is ridiculous to Kyuhyun until he realizes how deep Sungmin's apathy sometimes runs. Sungmin loves trendy things, changing things, it's why he's into bubble tea and why Kyuhyun's place is accumulating a pile of the most popular magazines, but fads never stick and when they're gone, they're gone.
Kyuhyun thinks that maybe he's one of those trends and trips over himself trying to stay ahead of the game. Even in small gestures, like discreetly adding a box of pink-sprinkled sugar cookies to the groceries while they're out (Kyuhyun has gathered that the color pink is a constant, not a trend), since Sungmin has taken it upon himself to make sure Kyuhyun eats right, though he acts like a frugal housewife in the process.
"You spoil me," Sungmin accuses while nibbling on a cookie, lying on his stomach on the floor with a fashion magazine spread in front of him and his feet in the air. He's wearing socks with fuchsia and electric blue stripes.
Sitting hunched over his homework, Kyuhyun tries his hardest to concentrate and not respond with more than a vague sound of consent. He fails. From the corner of his eye he watches Sungmin lick crumbs from each pad of his fingers.
* * * * *
Kyuhyun has to admit he's being a little obsessive when he finds himself mumbling around the grooved bite marks of his pen, "I wonder if I should rearrange the furniture." A second later he realizes he just spoke out loud when he's supposed to be studying with his Chemistry tutor, and he's appropriately appalled by his own rudeness.
There's a long, embarrassing silence from his classmate, who finally sighs and drops his head into his hand, making Kyuhyun flinch guiltily. Kibum is a busy person, a member of the Student Government Association and frequent teacher's aid, he doesn't usually have one-on-one sessions but made an exception for Kyuhyun. "It's not that I mind you spacing out, it happens. But competing with home decoration for your attention, now that's just insulting."
"I'm really sorry," Kyuhyun apologizes, half-mortified. "I didn't mean to, well, I'll pay attention, I promise. Thanks for helping and coming all the way here. I, um. Sorry."
Kibum smiles brilliantly, showing there are no hard feelings. "Hey, I live off-campus too, it's not that much of a hassle. But seriously, what's wrong with the furniture?"
Kyuhyun spares a glance for the beaten-up old couch, the chipped tables (the one they're working at has a wobbly leg and needs to be propped up by a few of Sungmin's older magazines), and the T.V. that always looks dusty even when it's not. "Aside from the obvious?" He gets a laugh out of Kibum and grins a little, shaking his head. "All right, the furniture is hopeless. I'll stop wasting your time now."
"Right, there's a test this week." Business-mode Kibum is back. "So let's review what I was trying to say earlier..."
* * * * *
Kyuhyun ends up wide-awake at an indecent hour, ignoring the fact he has work in the morning and playing half-baked tunes on his keyboard (Sungmin thinks he should get a real piano but Kyuhyun laughs and says it wouldn't fit anywhere. Sungmin then tells him to get a bigger apartment). But he knows it's not the music that's the problem, he already has that recorded with perfect pitch in his head. It's the blank notebook that he's avoiding, twirling his pen between his fingers, dropping it, picking it up and biting the end (Sungmin says one day he'll get a mouthful of ink and lately has taken to replacing them with lollipops).
He stares blankly out the window after forcing himself to put the pen down, lacing his fingers together and chewing on his lip instead. The view from here is decent at least, offering a good look at the neighborhood from five stories up. Scarce lights dot the cityscape in this part of town and Kyuhyun wonders if it's eerily quiet and still outside again. His eyes drift shut, remembering, blocking out the noise of the apartment.
(Sungmin remarks that the City sleeps, during the day as well as the night, because in a sense it's a forgotten place in a neglected corner in the world that isn't worth more than a passing glance. People don't refer to it by name if they've lived here long enough, and nobody comes here with grand intentions. "We're all refugees here," is the way he puts it, one arm dangling out the open window as he leans on the sill. "It gets boring sometimes," he adds, and Kyuhyun hesitantly asks why he bothers to stay.
"Because," Sungmin answers with a small, secret-sharing grin, "There are times when everything wakes up.")
Kyuhyun opens his eyes and sees his reflection transparent on the dark outlines of the city. Late at night with a song in his head and the words just perfect, that's his fulfillment. It's the moment he sings his first song alone, it's the daylight when he's stopped in his tracks by a boy. It's this song, right now. Vigorously, he takes up his pen and starts scrawling all over the paper. He crosses words out, fills words in, lips moving silently, then softly, while the ink flows.
I'm not dreaming anymore...
* * * * *
Soon the anxiety sets in.
He doesn't go to work in the morning and just barely manages to call in before crashing. Kyuhyun sleeps the whole day and wakes up feeling disjointedly empty; he doesn't register much until he receives a text message from Sungmin ("how was work~? want to watch a movie later? ♥"). He smiles while reading it, begins to reply... His fingers still upon the keypad and his mind just blanks. After a few minutes of struggling he gives up, sets his phone down, and wonders when his hands started to shake.
He gets a second text while pretending to do his homework and this one makes him wince a little ("working late again? all work and no play makes kyuhyun a dull boy!") But still, when he tries to send a message all he does is stare at the screen. He attempts to call and dials the first four digits before everything comes to an agonizing halt.
Not knowing what else to do, Kyuhyun grabs the sheet of paper containing the finished lyrics and crumples it up, demanding his words back. He aims to throw the ball into the trashcan, misses by a mile, and sometime during the night he retrieves it anyway.
* * * * *
The lyrics get jammed into his pocket when he goes to class, burning a hole in his jeans throughout music theory and distracting him horribly during the Chemistry test.
"You look like shit," Kibum states in a blunter-than-usual tone afterwards.
Kyuhyun isn't surprised he appears as wretched as he feels, nodding mutely with his pen between his teeth. He's vaguely sorry that Kibum's help was useless in the end and he's a tad concerned about his chances of passing the course, but more important is the list of increasingly annoyed messages stored in his cell that he doesn't know what to do with.
Kibum sighs in a way that seems like he's frequently long-suffering and, oddly, reaches out to pat him on the head. Kyuhyun is somewhat gratified for the sympathy even though he doesn't deserve any. "Don't worry about it," Kibum says, and Kyuhyun sinks into his seat because the test is the least of his worries.
His phone vibrates and he checks it out of some recently-discovered masochistic tendency.
"Avoiding someone?" Kibum asks with a hitched brow when he doesn't answer it.
Kyuhyun's expression is pained, frustrated, and spectacularly unclear, but Kibum only hands him his bag and turns him towards the door, plucking his pen from his mouth as well.
"That's a terrible habit." The pen-chewing or the avoiding? "Go home and sort yourself out. Nothing is going to make sense on its own."
He takes Kibum's advice and skips his next class, no big loss, he can't even remember what subject it is or what building it's in. He manages to navigate back home on auto-pilot and spends some time pacing in what little area there is, when a knock on his door makes him stop.
He opens it and Sungmin is there, head lowered, looking smaller than ever and twisting a ring on his hand nervously. Lifting his face, his eyes are impossibly wide and imploring and Kyuhyun honest-to-God feels like the worst asshole on the planet - so he's understandably shocked when Sungmin suddenly scowls and jabs a finger at his chest.
"You don't look dead or dying or otherwise incapacitated. Assuming you haven't contracted a dreadfully contagious disease, are you going to let me in or not?"
Kyuhyun wordlessly moves aside and Sungmin enters, glancing around the room suspiciously. Finding everything normal, he wheels around, hands on his hips, and waits for an explanation. Kyuhyun takes the lyrics from his pocket and holds them out like an offering.
Sungmin never lacks in expression; as he reads, the angry, irritated lines leave his face. His eyes track down to the bottom of the paper, double over and do it again, with something akin to amazement. "This is..." He catches sight of Kyuhyun, anxious and embarrassed and still a bit miserable, and pulls him over to sit down on the old, battered couch. Curling up to his side under the shelter of his arm, Sungmin holds the wrinkled paper out in front of them both. There's a moment of silence, then, "Why couldn't you say anything?"
Kyuhyun has been asking himself that question all day and the only answer he can come up with sounds stupid even in his head. He inhales and exhales deeply, slowly, before saying aloud, "Some things- Songs like this, they're meant to be private. But I needed to tell you, because you made this song happen. I just had no other way of expressing it, and... See, I'm really stupid."
"You are," Sungmin readily agrees, and it would hurt if Kyuhyun didn't so thoroughly deserve it. "You're lucky you write so well and I might forgive you. If you sing to me."
Kyuhyun's quiet laugh is a little thick and heavy with the relief crashing upon him, but once his calm settles he's happy to comply. He starts the song and Sungmin rests his head on his shoulder, Kyuhyun's fingers shifting lightly through his soft hair. Neither of them move for quite a while and Kyuhyun eventually drifts to sleep, and Sungmin remains very still.
* * * * *
Kyuhyun wakes up sometime in the middle of night. The room is dark and Sungmin is gone, but a spare blanket has been draped over him and he can still detect the other's lingering sweet scent. If not for the soreness in his neck from the lumpy couch, Kyuhyun would have stayed put. On his way to the bedroom, he turns on a light and notices Sungmin's stack of newest magazines in the trash. He pauses for a heart-dropping second and attempts to convince himself it means nothing, but he proceeds to hardly get any sleep for the rest of the night.
The next day at school passes by like normal (he wants to thank Kibum for his counsel but his classmate is disappointingly absent) and he texts Sungmin after class, before work. At his job, during his break he nervously calls. By evening there's been no response and he's something of a wreck.
This is another reason why Kyuhyun was afraid, that Sungmin would get bored and move on once he got too attached. It could be retribution too, but Kyuhyun doesn't know Sungmin to be cruel. He knows that there's steel beneath all the pink fluff, but Sungmin has only been truly angry that one time. And he knows that Sungmin doesn't care to keep things, he just...lets them go.
He tries to call again, but his expectations are clear as he pulls on his coat. He's walked about a block when it occurs to Kyuhyun that he still doesn't know exactly where Sungmin lives, but that's not enough to make him turn around. Mouth set in a stubborn line, he heads for the general area where they first met.
The City is loud tonight; wet, cold, and disgusting too. But it's not very late and he passes several people on the way, asking around.
"Um... Hi." The girl sitting on the bench at the bus stop looks up, her expression politely blank. She's young and startlingly pretty without being heavily made-up, holding a book open in her hands, so it's probably her 'I'm getting hit on, how can I make him go away?' face. "Sorry to bother you, but I'm looking for a friend. I know he lives around here, but-"
"Oh, I'm not from this area," she interjects, right as the bus arrives and she gets ready to board. "I'm sorry I can't help. Good luck."
Next he tries asking a store owner who's closing for the night. The elderly man shrugs apologetically. "A lot of young people come by, but I don't know any of 'em real well. You can try the ice cream shop around the block."
He thanks the man and follows his directions, finding the tiny little parlor scrunched between a movie rental place and a hair salon. A group of teenagers are mingling around outside
"Excuse me," he awkwardly approaches the clique, "I'm looking for someone. Do you know a Sungmin Lee?"
There's a chorus of no's and a few shakes of the head, most of them disinterested at best. So much that that idea. Kyuhyun thanks them anyway and moves on.
"Wait." One of the guys detaches himself from the circle and strides over, speaking low. "I know him. Why are you looking?"
"He's a friend," Kyuhyun says hurriedly, hoping he isn't being taken for some weird stalker. "I haven't heard from him in a while-" Does twenty-four hours count as 'a while'? Maybe when Sungmin is concerned. Kyuhyun's phone bill has never been so high. "-I'm just worried."
"Worried, huh?" He ducks his head and scuffs his sneaker against the pavement, looking back up with a wry twist to his lips. "Guess you don't know about Sungmin."
"What?" In the space of a heartbeat, dozens of possibilities flash through his mind, each more dreadful than the last.
"Look, man, it's complicated. Word is..." He stops to sneak a look over his shoulder at his friends, still gathered in front of the store. Leaning in some more to speak quietly (his breath smells like mint ice cream and his eyes are a complimenting shade of green, uncommonly bright), he suggests, "Walk with me a bit and I'll fill you in."
Kyuhyun follows in troubled silence for a distance, then he's startled out of his anxious thoughts by the guy asking him, "How long have you known Sungmin?"
"A couple months," he answers, brow furrowing while he makes the calculation. It's not that it seems long or short to him, but the concept of time itself throws him off. Sungmin just has that effect. Kyuhyun doesn't notice whether or not his reply makes an impact, but he does notice with a sudden chill that the air is quiet. No cars, no wind, no people.
That's when a red flag goes up in his mind and informs him this could be a Bad Idea, and he remembers with painful clarity Sungmin's joking about him wandering around alone. The feeling increases tenfold when the stranger leads him towards the sketchiest alley Kyuhyun's ever seen. He isn't that desperate or stupid, so he lingers near the entrance, letting the streetlights draw his boundary. The guy himself is pretty scrawny, but who knows what else is back there. "About Sungmin... Can you tell me now?"
"Well... You won't believe me, but... I guess." He takes a couple steps forward and Kyuhyun relaxes, then finds himself yanked completely off his feet and slammed into the brick wall. When the stars fade from his vision, he's pinned by one arm pressing against his throat, and it's the same, seemingly unimpressive kid leaning in as if it's nothing at all. "Obviously, Sungmin left you in the dust. Don't know why, don't care. But hey, good news for me."
Kyuhyun is starting to feel faint from the lack of air and the rambling isn't number one on his list of priorities at the moment. When the pressure relents he gasps out, "What are you on?" - which, in retrospect, is not the best thing to say in such a situation.
Fortunately, the comment only provokes a grin. The guy braces his hands on either side of Kyuhyun's head but doesn't have the height to tower. Kyuhyun steels himself and pushes off from the wall, tries to shove and slip past - his hopes rise in a split-second of freedom before they plummet with fingers clamping around his arm like a vice. He sucks in a painful breath when his back meets the rough wall again.
"Nice try. You wanted to know what's going on though, so stay a while and I'll show you."
Kyuhyun still thinks he's on drugs and the impossibly huge pupils, shining eerily, support that argument. ...The abrupt appearance of long, sharp canines, on the other hand, makes all thought processes grind to a halt. He manages to cling to the idea that it's an elaborate prank until those teeth - those are fangs, oh God, what the hell - graze his neck. Kyuhyun shrinks away from the skin-crawling touch, like dragging needles lightly over his skin, but the hold on him doesn't let him twist far.
There's swift, stabbing pressure, and a wave of accompanying nausea that makes the world spin while his breathing seems much too loud. He can feel his blood rush and the liquid trickle that's soon overlapped by the quietly obscene sounds from a mouth on his flesh. His arms are gripped so tight they're going numb but he scrabbles at the body trapping him anyway, curling his hands into fists that land stiff, ineffective punches.
All of a sudden the weight is ripped away, leaving Kyuhyun to slide to the ground in a daze. The body is thrown against the wall next to him and there's a harsh crack where the guy- where the vampire's head connects with it. He's fazed for a moment, shaking it off and stumbling forward until Sungmin's leg snaps out and kicks him back into the brick. Snarling, he stays put.
Sungmin gives his most angelic smile, eyes glittering black. "Have we learned a lesson today?"
"You should put a collar on your pet if you're going to let him roam around," the guy spits, and this time the kick catches him across the face.
That, more than anything else, indicates the depth of Sungmin's anger. Kyuhyun thinks he saw a few teeth go flying and feels a great surge of vindication. Reminded, he reaches up to gingerly touch the wound. It's surprisingly numb, though the sight of his bloody fingers makes him shudder and scrub them against the damp, dirty pavement. Even the grimy asphalt is better than that.
"Amazing, you know I'm impressed," Sungmin says with so much cheer, that if Kyuhyun were the other guy, he'd be very, very afraid. Especially when Sungmin drops the sweet tone for something bone-chillingly casual. "It takes a lot of balls to move in on one of my own. Kind of cute in a retarded way. I'm super nice, so I'll let you go with a slap on the wrist." It's not a slap so much as another kick to the solar plexus, but while he's down and wheezing Sungmin turns and offers Kyuhyun a hand up.
* * * * *
He doesn't remember his apartment lights being this bright and he feels like he's under acute observation, sitting in the chair with his shirt off so Sungmin can clean the wound. Kyuhyun stares at the stains and cracks in the ceiling or the peeling paint of the walls, flinching at the sting of disinfectant while Sungmin mutters darkly about "the God-forsaken places that ugly mouth has probably been." He finishes after applying a large, pink band-aid, and promptly seats himself in Kyuhyun's lap.
"So," Kyuhyun still evades his gaze, "I was really stupid again, wasn't I?"
Sungmin hums, considering, and grabs Kyuhyun's face to look him in the eye. "No, this time it was me. I'm sorry." His thumbs brush gently over his cheekbones.
"I...thought you were leaving," Kyuhyun haltingly admits and a part of him is still devastated when Sungmin nods.
"That was the plan. I wasn't being mean, honest, but I was selfish. There's a quote from a movie I haven't made you watch yet, "Humans are cowards in the face of happiness." I guess it applies to vampires too."
"Vampires," he repeats slowly, his hands coming up to mirror Sungmin's gesture and touch his face. "...I take it Hollywood is all wrong." Kyuhyun inwardly congratulates himself for starting this conversation with a straight face, though he's too drained (that's a horrible pun) to muster up any more shock.
"Mmhmm. Well, to be fair, stakes through the heart are about as deadly as they should be, as are a number of other morbid things. But sunlight obviously doesn't make me burst into flames, garlic is a fantastic seasoning, and I find churches lovely places to visit." His hands have traveled lower to trace idle patterns across Kyuhyun's shoulders. His eyes have lowered too, and Kyuhyun gets his attention again by kissing him lightly.
"Tell me everything?" And stay, please?
"Actually," Sungmin's mien becomes deadly serious, "I am under orders to not return home until you're satisfied, and then I have to bring you along to meet my housemates so you can thank them. And I should give them my thanks as well." He traces the hot pink band-aid with a certain scowl.
"Um. How many of you-I mean, how many vampires are there? Is it just this city, or..."
"Everywhere. I don't know what the percentage is, but chances are I'm not the first you've met. We don't exactly go around advertising it and there are...rules. Laws. Think of it like a secret society. If you're wondering about the body count..." He laughs at the look on Kyuhyun's face, who's trying to keep his features neutral but ends up somewhat pained. "Masses of blood-drained victims are a little conspicuous. Animals will suffice, though that's a bit tougher to manage in urban areas like this. Also disgusting, since most of the fare consists of rats and pigeons." He has to stop and giggle at Kyuhyun again.
"There are deliveries, actually- It's true! If you take a look in our fridge, you'll see. You know how people can order groceries delivered, it's a bit similar. None of it's human blood, at least not where we get them from."
"There's a difference?" Kyuhyun isn't sure how much he wants to know anymore.
"You bet. I doubt you want to hear the details about the finer points of vampire cuisine though," Sungmin teases, before becoming serious again. "But, you should know humans are special. That's why a lot of us can't keep strictly to the safer diet and there are plenty who refuse to. You should be fine because of me. I told you I'm not a wimp."
"I never doubted!" Kyuhyun protests, though Sungmin ignores him.
"Oh, but my sweet and innocent image is probably ruined now." He pouts, and Kyuhyun rolls his eyes.
"Don't worry, kicking someone's teeth out is a very sweet gesture." There's still something satisfying in the way the mere mention makes Sungmin's lip curl.
As if sensing his thoughts, Sungmin narrows his eyes. "Don't get in trouble often, you hear? I'm too dainty to rescue you all the time."
"I'll keep that in mind."
* * * * *
"I'm home! And I brought somebody." Sungmin announces, peeking around before opening the door fully to let Kyuhyun in. Instantly, he makes a face. "Why is this place still a mess?"
"Hey, most of it is your mess, from your tantrum. And hello, Kyuhyun, nice to meet you. I can now decide with confidence that you are not, in fact, an alien as was previously thought," says the boy emerging from the hall. He's still dressed in his pajamas and has a baseball cap atop his head. Behind him, yawning widely-
"Kibum?" Kyuhyun gapes.
His classmate - the responsible, most-likely-to-succeed student with the million-dollar smile - waves and falls unceremoniously onto the couch. "Hi. Congratulations. By the way, you can retake the Chemistry test next Wednesday."
Kyuhyun feels like he's dreaming, but then Sungmin starts leaning on him and having an armful of Sungmin is okay even in bizarre dreams.
"The crazy one with no fashion sense is Donghae. You see what I put up with? Kyuhyun, I want to live with you. You'll have an excuse to get a bigger apartment."
There's an ulterior motive behind Sungmin's innocent tone, and Kyuhyun points out, "You just want a place big enough for a piano."
Sungmin doesn't deny it, having discovered a new passion for music - specifically, Kyuhyun's music. He smirks a little. "That, and a bigger bed. Anyway, this is all of us at the moment, unless Shiwon or Eunhyuk returned last night?"
Two people shake their heads and Sungmin doesn't appear at all surprised. He turns around in Kyuhyun's arms. "So there you go. Welcome to my world."
"I'm really not dreaming, right?" Kyuhyun mutters, and slight mess aside, the place looks normal enough. It's positively gigantic compared to his tiny place. His gaze sticks for a moment on the kitchen, thinking of what Sungmin said about the refrigerator stock.
Sungmin follows his line of sight, laughs, and smiles, showing a hint of fang. "You're not dreaming."
end
Sapphy: *does a happy dance* And so the series is officially underway! I'm super excited about this, Sy and I have a lot of fun things planned. I hope people enjoy it. I had the idea for a vampire AU after a dream - I can't even remember what it was about - and things snowballed from there. This first story turned out a lot longer than I expected and I'm occasionally twitchy over the entire cliche, but mostly I'm pleased to write Sungmin with some steel to him. He's not a helpless, fragile little thing! But he's really good at pretending to be.
Bonus! Name the movie Sungmin quotes for extra win! No prizes except a pat on the back.
Thank you for reading~
Character(s): Kyuhyun, Sungmin
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 6000
Summary: The City lies in restless slumber, in exhaustion and defeat. Its streets are scarred and winding, lonely roads that lead to nowhere, around buildings that glitter and crumble in the same instant. The City has a name, but it's not worth remembering. The City sleeps, but on some nights...it wakes up.
Notes: AU, first in a series. Pairings will eventually be various. Huge thanks to fuminshou_neko for betaing. ♥
Kyuhyun has only lived here for a couple of weeks, spending most of that time going to class, working a crummy job at Wal-Mart, and doing homework in the evenings. He has a miniscule apartment off-campus which doesn't really do wonders for his social life, but it sure does help along his 'starving artist' image. He figures the pissy couple upstairs and the single mom with three kids next door are a fair enough trade for the frat parties and other drunken revelry of college life.
In any case, it's the first time he's walked the streets in the dead of night and nothing looks familiar in the dark, so one or two or several wrong turns later he's hopelessly lost. His watch tells him it's a little past two and his eight A.M. music theory class is not going to be a happy place, if he ever manages to find his way back. The last bus ran an hour ago, and Kyuhyun kicks himself for being stingy. A little bit of bus fare couldn't have hurt; he isn't working extra hours so he can sleep outside on a bench.
He can't tell if he's wandering into a more desolate part of town or if it's just the late hour that explains the empty sidewalks. Granted, he doesn't live in the most happening area (he's never even laid eyes on the ritzy districts), but his are the only footsteps shuffling along the uneven pavement. Cities should be louder than this, full of obnoxious noises and an abundance of people, he'd prepared himself for all of that when he left his aunt's house in the suburbs to go to school here.
Kyuhyun wets his lips in the dry, autumn air, and shoves his hands deeper into his pockets. It's still warm this early in the season and for a moment he can recall summer nights on his back porch, watching fireflies fade in and out while his mother bids him goodnight, leaving the light on until he decides to go inside. He thinks of his room and sitting at his desk with the window open, listening to the cicadas while worrying a pen between his teeth and staring down at a blank sheet of notebook paper. He would doodle in the margins as it got late, then wake up the next morning with his face flat on the desk and his pen on the floor, his head full of music without words.
The day when his music turned into a symphony of screeching tires and shatterglass was when the words finally came. They'd been scrawled on a folded piece of paper and kept inside his breast pocket during the funeral, but they weren't released into song until he'd arrived here. In the middle of unpacking, he started the first verse and finished the chorus before he sat down on the floor of his bare apartment and wept.
The song would sneak into other moments, sometimes just the tune he'd hum while stacking shelves or making dinner, and sometimes he would even smile. He smiles now, and the first syllable is deep and smooth and perfect, swallowed up by the dim streets as it's meant to be. Kyuhyun takes care not to sing too loudly, not because he might disturb the neighborhood but because these words are not meant for others. His song keeps him company until it comes to a whispering end.
He's left standing at a corner and a car passes by, startlingly mundane, as if nothing had been allowed to move until this point. Across the street, a dog barks and whines, slinking its way into an alley. Kyuhyun looks over his shoulder down the block he'd just walked but finds nothing abnormal about it. He's scrutinizing the street sign next, trying to evoke some familiarity out of it, when a voice makes him jump.
"Are you lost?"
There's a boy sitting on the steps in front of a building and Kyuhyun can't help but stare because he hadn't been there a moment ago. He's impossible to miss, dressed in a bright pink hoodie and equally pink Converse sneakers peeking out from dark jeans. His arms are folded over his knees and he's leaning forward slightly, head tilted in curiosity that matches his innocuously-posed question.
"I- Yeah, I am." Kyuhyun finds himself grinning sheepishly despite the strangeness, quelling the odd feeling in his stomach until the boy offers a sweet smile that unnerves him all over again.
"I know the City very well, maybe I can help."
The City, Kyuhyun feels the words leave an imprint, because the city is rather big, and he sounds rather sure. "That would be great," he says and feels awkward, stumbling over his address but is relieved when the boy nods.
"That's not far. Go down that road for about two blocks and take a left at the intersection. That will put you on Arcadia Avenue, near the university, and you'll probably be fine from there. Are you a student?"
"First year," he answers, cheered with the prospect of getting home, though he proves to still be conversationally inept. "I just moved here. Um, obviously. Sorry. I really need to be going, but thanks for your help, you're a life-saver."
The boy laughs, unreasonably delighted, but the sound is pure and pleasing - musical, Kyuhyun thinks, and warms to the peculiar stranger with that connection. He waves goodbye, and on the way home he's restless with what he suspects is an unsung song, taking it with him into his dreams.
* * * * *
The sun starts to emerge from behind gray clouds for the first time all day as Kyuhyun stands at the crosswalk, waiting for what must be the longest light in the world to turn. He's slightly damp from being caught in the drizzling weather, clutching his bag and thinking of the disappointing grade he received on his Chemistry exam and the even more disappointing meeting with his professor. He has an appointment scheduled on Saturday with a classmate tutor, and it's good thing he had no social life to speak of before because he certainly lacks one now.
The signal changes at last when he hears, "I take it you found your way back the other night."
Kyuhyun stands still while everyone around him surges to cross the street. He doesn't notice them. The boy is wearing pink again, a gentler shade of shirt that drapes unbuttoned over a white tank. A heart-shaped pendant hangs from a chain around his neck and sunlight glints off of more silver at his ears, partially curtained by dark, feathery hair. Soft-looking lips curve into a charming smile, hinting at neat, pearly teeth.
"Thanks to you," Kyuhyun says, glancing at the crosswalk, but doesn't move.
The boy breathes a sigh of relief, eyes closing for a moment and his tone is light and teasing. "I’m glad. I wondered if I should have walked with you. It's not the worst neighborhood, but I'd have felt awful if something had happened." He cracks one eye open and feigns indignation. "What's that grin for? You think I'm a wimp, don't you?"
"No," Kyuhyun answers honestly, going by his gut feeling rather than the pretty, pink exterior - though that was the reason behind his evident amusement. "Looks can deceive."
"They sure can." He nods wisely, a hand on his chin, and leans forward a tiny bit. "I'm Sungmin, by the way."
"Kyuhyun," he says hurriedly, embarrassed by the late introduction. "Are you also a student?"
Sungmin shakes his head. "Nope, but I have friends at Arcadia and I live nearby. Are you hungry? A new bubble tea shop has opened up and I can attest that it's marvelous."
It turns out that Sungmin's ringing endorsement of the restaurant is half due to the fact he works there a few days a week, and half due to genuine enthusiasm for the drink. More importantly, he can get Kyuhyun a discount. He's not technically allowed to, but a one-hit-kill smile is all it takes to convince his co-worker, a cute young high school girl who is easily flattered.
"She's going to get fired once the manager finds out just how often she lets the good-looking male customers pay down," Sungmin whispers once she's out of earshot. Kyuhyun merely raises a brow and the boy winks. "I'm too cute to fire."
He snorts and reaches out to pinch Sungmin's cheek, the skin baby-soft between his fingers. "I bet you're a hit with little old ladies."
Batting the hand away and rubbing the abused side of his face, Sungmin pouts. "Maybe if I wanted an endless supply of candy and stories about "the good old days". No thanks. Instead of accumulating second-hand old-person smell, I'd rather bask in the attention of sexy, mature women. Now they adore me." He leers a little and Kyuhyun nearly chokes on his laughter.
* * * * *
It's as though they've known each other for years. Sungmin is magical, that's the only excuse Kyuhyun can find to explain the awe and contentment he feels. He opens like a book to him, rambling long into the night about himself, his hopeful dreams and his mundane classes. Nothing is inconsequential, and Kyuhyun hordes details about Sungmin in return. The boy can say very little, but he'll drop gems of facts so precisely polished that they can't be unintentional.
"How old do you think I am?"
Kyuhyun glances nervously. He tends to assume they're around the same age, but the fact that Sungmin is asking makes him doubt. "Older than you look, clearly."
His teeth flash in a grin. "I'm twenty-one."
"...Man, I thought you were going to shock me. I'm disappointed now."
Sometimes Sungmin laughs in a way that makes Kyuhyun think he's missing the joke, but as soon as he starts to feel bad there's an arm flung around his shoulders and he's being dragged to the nearest ice cream shop.
Sungmin doesn't mention his family much, but he's currently living with some friends in a large apartment and he used to be a student at Arcadia. "It got boring," is his reason for dropping out, which is ridiculous to Kyuhyun until he realizes how deep Sungmin's apathy sometimes runs. Sungmin loves trendy things, changing things, it's why he's into bubble tea and why Kyuhyun's place is accumulating a pile of the most popular magazines, but fads never stick and when they're gone, they're gone.
Kyuhyun thinks that maybe he's one of those trends and trips over himself trying to stay ahead of the game. Even in small gestures, like discreetly adding a box of pink-sprinkled sugar cookies to the groceries while they're out (Kyuhyun has gathered that the color pink is a constant, not a trend), since Sungmin has taken it upon himself to make sure Kyuhyun eats right, though he acts like a frugal housewife in the process.
"You spoil me," Sungmin accuses while nibbling on a cookie, lying on his stomach on the floor with a fashion magazine spread in front of him and his feet in the air. He's wearing socks with fuchsia and electric blue stripes.
Sitting hunched over his homework, Kyuhyun tries his hardest to concentrate and not respond with more than a vague sound of consent. He fails. From the corner of his eye he watches Sungmin lick crumbs from each pad of his fingers.
* * * * *
Kyuhyun has to admit he's being a little obsessive when he finds himself mumbling around the grooved bite marks of his pen, "I wonder if I should rearrange the furniture." A second later he realizes he just spoke out loud when he's supposed to be studying with his Chemistry tutor, and he's appropriately appalled by his own rudeness.
There's a long, embarrassing silence from his classmate, who finally sighs and drops his head into his hand, making Kyuhyun flinch guiltily. Kibum is a busy person, a member of the Student Government Association and frequent teacher's aid, he doesn't usually have one-on-one sessions but made an exception for Kyuhyun. "It's not that I mind you spacing out, it happens. But competing with home decoration for your attention, now that's just insulting."
"I'm really sorry," Kyuhyun apologizes, half-mortified. "I didn't mean to, well, I'll pay attention, I promise. Thanks for helping and coming all the way here. I, um. Sorry."
Kibum smiles brilliantly, showing there are no hard feelings. "Hey, I live off-campus too, it's not that much of a hassle. But seriously, what's wrong with the furniture?"
Kyuhyun spares a glance for the beaten-up old couch, the chipped tables (the one they're working at has a wobbly leg and needs to be propped up by a few of Sungmin's older magazines), and the T.V. that always looks dusty even when it's not. "Aside from the obvious?" He gets a laugh out of Kibum and grins a little, shaking his head. "All right, the furniture is hopeless. I'll stop wasting your time now."
"Right, there's a test this week." Business-mode Kibum is back. "So let's review what I was trying to say earlier..."
* * * * *
Kyuhyun ends up wide-awake at an indecent hour, ignoring the fact he has work in the morning and playing half-baked tunes on his keyboard (Sungmin thinks he should get a real piano but Kyuhyun laughs and says it wouldn't fit anywhere. Sungmin then tells him to get a bigger apartment). But he knows it's not the music that's the problem, he already has that recorded with perfect pitch in his head. It's the blank notebook that he's avoiding, twirling his pen between his fingers, dropping it, picking it up and biting the end (Sungmin says one day he'll get a mouthful of ink and lately has taken to replacing them with lollipops).
He stares blankly out the window after forcing himself to put the pen down, lacing his fingers together and chewing on his lip instead. The view from here is decent at least, offering a good look at the neighborhood from five stories up. Scarce lights dot the cityscape in this part of town and Kyuhyun wonders if it's eerily quiet and still outside again. His eyes drift shut, remembering, blocking out the noise of the apartment.
(Sungmin remarks that the City sleeps, during the day as well as the night, because in a sense it's a forgotten place in a neglected corner in the world that isn't worth more than a passing glance. People don't refer to it by name if they've lived here long enough, and nobody comes here with grand intentions. "We're all refugees here," is the way he puts it, one arm dangling out the open window as he leans on the sill. "It gets boring sometimes," he adds, and Kyuhyun hesitantly asks why he bothers to stay.
"Because," Sungmin answers with a small, secret-sharing grin, "There are times when everything wakes up.")
Kyuhyun opens his eyes and sees his reflection transparent on the dark outlines of the city. Late at night with a song in his head and the words just perfect, that's his fulfillment. It's the moment he sings his first song alone, it's the daylight when he's stopped in his tracks by a boy. It's this song, right now. Vigorously, he takes up his pen and starts scrawling all over the paper. He crosses words out, fills words in, lips moving silently, then softly, while the ink flows.
I'm not dreaming anymore...
* * * * *
Soon the anxiety sets in.
He doesn't go to work in the morning and just barely manages to call in before crashing. Kyuhyun sleeps the whole day and wakes up feeling disjointedly empty; he doesn't register much until he receives a text message from Sungmin ("how was work~? want to watch a movie later? ♥"). He smiles while reading it, begins to reply... His fingers still upon the keypad and his mind just blanks. After a few minutes of struggling he gives up, sets his phone down, and wonders when his hands started to shake.
He gets a second text while pretending to do his homework and this one makes him wince a little ("working late again? all work and no play makes kyuhyun a dull boy!") But still, when he tries to send a message all he does is stare at the screen. He attempts to call and dials the first four digits before everything comes to an agonizing halt.
Not knowing what else to do, Kyuhyun grabs the sheet of paper containing the finished lyrics and crumples it up, demanding his words back. He aims to throw the ball into the trashcan, misses by a mile, and sometime during the night he retrieves it anyway.
* * * * *
The lyrics get jammed into his pocket when he goes to class, burning a hole in his jeans throughout music theory and distracting him horribly during the Chemistry test.
"You look like shit," Kibum states in a blunter-than-usual tone afterwards.
Kyuhyun isn't surprised he appears as wretched as he feels, nodding mutely with his pen between his teeth. He's vaguely sorry that Kibum's help was useless in the end and he's a tad concerned about his chances of passing the course, but more important is the list of increasingly annoyed messages stored in his cell that he doesn't know what to do with.
Kibum sighs in a way that seems like he's frequently long-suffering and, oddly, reaches out to pat him on the head. Kyuhyun is somewhat gratified for the sympathy even though he doesn't deserve any. "Don't worry about it," Kibum says, and Kyuhyun sinks into his seat because the test is the least of his worries.
His phone vibrates and he checks it out of some recently-discovered masochistic tendency.
"Avoiding someone?" Kibum asks with a hitched brow when he doesn't answer it.
Kyuhyun's expression is pained, frustrated, and spectacularly unclear, but Kibum only hands him his bag and turns him towards the door, plucking his pen from his mouth as well.
"That's a terrible habit." The pen-chewing or the avoiding? "Go home and sort yourself out. Nothing is going to make sense on its own."
He takes Kibum's advice and skips his next class, no big loss, he can't even remember what subject it is or what building it's in. He manages to navigate back home on auto-pilot and spends some time pacing in what little area there is, when a knock on his door makes him stop.
He opens it and Sungmin is there, head lowered, looking smaller than ever and twisting a ring on his hand nervously. Lifting his face, his eyes are impossibly wide and imploring and Kyuhyun honest-to-God feels like the worst asshole on the planet - so he's understandably shocked when Sungmin suddenly scowls and jabs a finger at his chest.
"You don't look dead or dying or otherwise incapacitated. Assuming you haven't contracted a dreadfully contagious disease, are you going to let me in or not?"
Kyuhyun wordlessly moves aside and Sungmin enters, glancing around the room suspiciously. Finding everything normal, he wheels around, hands on his hips, and waits for an explanation. Kyuhyun takes the lyrics from his pocket and holds them out like an offering.
Sungmin never lacks in expression; as he reads, the angry, irritated lines leave his face. His eyes track down to the bottom of the paper, double over and do it again, with something akin to amazement. "This is..." He catches sight of Kyuhyun, anxious and embarrassed and still a bit miserable, and pulls him over to sit down on the old, battered couch. Curling up to his side under the shelter of his arm, Sungmin holds the wrinkled paper out in front of them both. There's a moment of silence, then, "Why couldn't you say anything?"
Kyuhyun has been asking himself that question all day and the only answer he can come up with sounds stupid even in his head. He inhales and exhales deeply, slowly, before saying aloud, "Some things- Songs like this, they're meant to be private. But I needed to tell you, because you made this song happen. I just had no other way of expressing it, and... See, I'm really stupid."
"You are," Sungmin readily agrees, and it would hurt if Kyuhyun didn't so thoroughly deserve it. "You're lucky you write so well and I might forgive you. If you sing to me."
Kyuhyun's quiet laugh is a little thick and heavy with the relief crashing upon him, but once his calm settles he's happy to comply. He starts the song and Sungmin rests his head on his shoulder, Kyuhyun's fingers shifting lightly through his soft hair. Neither of them move for quite a while and Kyuhyun eventually drifts to sleep, and Sungmin remains very still.
* * * * *
Kyuhyun wakes up sometime in the middle of night. The room is dark and Sungmin is gone, but a spare blanket has been draped over him and he can still detect the other's lingering sweet scent. If not for the soreness in his neck from the lumpy couch, Kyuhyun would have stayed put. On his way to the bedroom, he turns on a light and notices Sungmin's stack of newest magazines in the trash. He pauses for a heart-dropping second and attempts to convince himself it means nothing, but he proceeds to hardly get any sleep for the rest of the night.
The next day at school passes by like normal (he wants to thank Kibum for his counsel but his classmate is disappointingly absent) and he texts Sungmin after class, before work. At his job, during his break he nervously calls. By evening there's been no response and he's something of a wreck.
This is another reason why Kyuhyun was afraid, that Sungmin would get bored and move on once he got too attached. It could be retribution too, but Kyuhyun doesn't know Sungmin to be cruel. He knows that there's steel beneath all the pink fluff, but Sungmin has only been truly angry that one time. And he knows that Sungmin doesn't care to keep things, he just...lets them go.
He tries to call again, but his expectations are clear as he pulls on his coat. He's walked about a block when it occurs to Kyuhyun that he still doesn't know exactly where Sungmin lives, but that's not enough to make him turn around. Mouth set in a stubborn line, he heads for the general area where they first met.
The City is loud tonight; wet, cold, and disgusting too. But it's not very late and he passes several people on the way, asking around.
"Um... Hi." The girl sitting on the bench at the bus stop looks up, her expression politely blank. She's young and startlingly pretty without being heavily made-up, holding a book open in her hands, so it's probably her 'I'm getting hit on, how can I make him go away?' face. "Sorry to bother you, but I'm looking for a friend. I know he lives around here, but-"
"Oh, I'm not from this area," she interjects, right as the bus arrives and she gets ready to board. "I'm sorry I can't help. Good luck."
Next he tries asking a store owner who's closing for the night. The elderly man shrugs apologetically. "A lot of young people come by, but I don't know any of 'em real well. You can try the ice cream shop around the block."
He thanks the man and follows his directions, finding the tiny little parlor scrunched between a movie rental place and a hair salon. A group of teenagers are mingling around outside
"Excuse me," he awkwardly approaches the clique, "I'm looking for someone. Do you know a Sungmin Lee?"
There's a chorus of no's and a few shakes of the head, most of them disinterested at best. So much that that idea. Kyuhyun thanks them anyway and moves on.
"Wait." One of the guys detaches himself from the circle and strides over, speaking low. "I know him. Why are you looking?"
"He's a friend," Kyuhyun says hurriedly, hoping he isn't being taken for some weird stalker. "I haven't heard from him in a while-" Does twenty-four hours count as 'a while'? Maybe when Sungmin is concerned. Kyuhyun's phone bill has never been so high. "-I'm just worried."
"Worried, huh?" He ducks his head and scuffs his sneaker against the pavement, looking back up with a wry twist to his lips. "Guess you don't know about Sungmin."
"What?" In the space of a heartbeat, dozens of possibilities flash through his mind, each more dreadful than the last.
"Look, man, it's complicated. Word is..." He stops to sneak a look over his shoulder at his friends, still gathered in front of the store. Leaning in some more to speak quietly (his breath smells like mint ice cream and his eyes are a complimenting shade of green, uncommonly bright), he suggests, "Walk with me a bit and I'll fill you in."
Kyuhyun follows in troubled silence for a distance, then he's startled out of his anxious thoughts by the guy asking him, "How long have you known Sungmin?"
"A couple months," he answers, brow furrowing while he makes the calculation. It's not that it seems long or short to him, but the concept of time itself throws him off. Sungmin just has that effect. Kyuhyun doesn't notice whether or not his reply makes an impact, but he does notice with a sudden chill that the air is quiet. No cars, no wind, no people.
That's when a red flag goes up in his mind and informs him this could be a Bad Idea, and he remembers with painful clarity Sungmin's joking about him wandering around alone. The feeling increases tenfold when the stranger leads him towards the sketchiest alley Kyuhyun's ever seen. He isn't that desperate or stupid, so he lingers near the entrance, letting the streetlights draw his boundary. The guy himself is pretty scrawny, but who knows what else is back there. "About Sungmin... Can you tell me now?"
"Well... You won't believe me, but... I guess." He takes a couple steps forward and Kyuhyun relaxes, then finds himself yanked completely off his feet and slammed into the brick wall. When the stars fade from his vision, he's pinned by one arm pressing against his throat, and it's the same, seemingly unimpressive kid leaning in as if it's nothing at all. "Obviously, Sungmin left you in the dust. Don't know why, don't care. But hey, good news for me."
Kyuhyun is starting to feel faint from the lack of air and the rambling isn't number one on his list of priorities at the moment. When the pressure relents he gasps out, "What are you on?" - which, in retrospect, is not the best thing to say in such a situation.
Fortunately, the comment only provokes a grin. The guy braces his hands on either side of Kyuhyun's head but doesn't have the height to tower. Kyuhyun steels himself and pushes off from the wall, tries to shove and slip past - his hopes rise in a split-second of freedom before they plummet with fingers clamping around his arm like a vice. He sucks in a painful breath when his back meets the rough wall again.
"Nice try. You wanted to know what's going on though, so stay a while and I'll show you."
Kyuhyun still thinks he's on drugs and the impossibly huge pupils, shining eerily, support that argument. ...The abrupt appearance of long, sharp canines, on the other hand, makes all thought processes grind to a halt. He manages to cling to the idea that it's an elaborate prank until those teeth - those are fangs, oh God, what the hell - graze his neck. Kyuhyun shrinks away from the skin-crawling touch, like dragging needles lightly over his skin, but the hold on him doesn't let him twist far.
There's swift, stabbing pressure, and a wave of accompanying nausea that makes the world spin while his breathing seems much too loud. He can feel his blood rush and the liquid trickle that's soon overlapped by the quietly obscene sounds from a mouth on his flesh. His arms are gripped so tight they're going numb but he scrabbles at the body trapping him anyway, curling his hands into fists that land stiff, ineffective punches.
All of a sudden the weight is ripped away, leaving Kyuhyun to slide to the ground in a daze. The body is thrown against the wall next to him and there's a harsh crack where the guy- where the vampire's head connects with it. He's fazed for a moment, shaking it off and stumbling forward until Sungmin's leg snaps out and kicks him back into the brick. Snarling, he stays put.
Sungmin gives his most angelic smile, eyes glittering black. "Have we learned a lesson today?"
"You should put a collar on your pet if you're going to let him roam around," the guy spits, and this time the kick catches him across the face.
That, more than anything else, indicates the depth of Sungmin's anger. Kyuhyun thinks he saw a few teeth go flying and feels a great surge of vindication. Reminded, he reaches up to gingerly touch the wound. It's surprisingly numb, though the sight of his bloody fingers makes him shudder and scrub them against the damp, dirty pavement. Even the grimy asphalt is better than that.
"Amazing, you know I'm impressed," Sungmin says with so much cheer, that if Kyuhyun were the other guy, he'd be very, very afraid. Especially when Sungmin drops the sweet tone for something bone-chillingly casual. "It takes a lot of balls to move in on one of my own. Kind of cute in a retarded way. I'm super nice, so I'll let you go with a slap on the wrist." It's not a slap so much as another kick to the solar plexus, but while he's down and wheezing Sungmin turns and offers Kyuhyun a hand up.
* * * * *
He doesn't remember his apartment lights being this bright and he feels like he's under acute observation, sitting in the chair with his shirt off so Sungmin can clean the wound. Kyuhyun stares at the stains and cracks in the ceiling or the peeling paint of the walls, flinching at the sting of disinfectant while Sungmin mutters darkly about "the God-forsaken places that ugly mouth has probably been." He finishes after applying a large, pink band-aid, and promptly seats himself in Kyuhyun's lap.
"So," Kyuhyun still evades his gaze, "I was really stupid again, wasn't I?"
Sungmin hums, considering, and grabs Kyuhyun's face to look him in the eye. "No, this time it was me. I'm sorry." His thumbs brush gently over his cheekbones.
"I...thought you were leaving," Kyuhyun haltingly admits and a part of him is still devastated when Sungmin nods.
"That was the plan. I wasn't being mean, honest, but I was selfish. There's a quote from a movie I haven't made you watch yet, "Humans are cowards in the face of happiness." I guess it applies to vampires too."
"Vampires," he repeats slowly, his hands coming up to mirror Sungmin's gesture and touch his face. "...I take it Hollywood is all wrong." Kyuhyun inwardly congratulates himself for starting this conversation with a straight face, though he's too drained (that's a horrible pun) to muster up any more shock.
"Mmhmm. Well, to be fair, stakes through the heart are about as deadly as they should be, as are a number of other morbid things. But sunlight obviously doesn't make me burst into flames, garlic is a fantastic seasoning, and I find churches lovely places to visit." His hands have traveled lower to trace idle patterns across Kyuhyun's shoulders. His eyes have lowered too, and Kyuhyun gets his attention again by kissing him lightly.
"Tell me everything?" And stay, please?
"Actually," Sungmin's mien becomes deadly serious, "I am under orders to not return home until you're satisfied, and then I have to bring you along to meet my housemates so you can thank them. And I should give them my thanks as well." He traces the hot pink band-aid with a certain scowl.
"Um. How many of you-I mean, how many vampires are there? Is it just this city, or..."
"Everywhere. I don't know what the percentage is, but chances are I'm not the first you've met. We don't exactly go around advertising it and there are...rules. Laws. Think of it like a secret society. If you're wondering about the body count..." He laughs at the look on Kyuhyun's face, who's trying to keep his features neutral but ends up somewhat pained. "Masses of blood-drained victims are a little conspicuous. Animals will suffice, though that's a bit tougher to manage in urban areas like this. Also disgusting, since most of the fare consists of rats and pigeons." He has to stop and giggle at Kyuhyun again.
"There are deliveries, actually- It's true! If you take a look in our fridge, you'll see. You know how people can order groceries delivered, it's a bit similar. None of it's human blood, at least not where we get them from."
"There's a difference?" Kyuhyun isn't sure how much he wants to know anymore.
"You bet. I doubt you want to hear the details about the finer points of vampire cuisine though," Sungmin teases, before becoming serious again. "But, you should know humans are special. That's why a lot of us can't keep strictly to the safer diet and there are plenty who refuse to. You should be fine because of me. I told you I'm not a wimp."
"I never doubted!" Kyuhyun protests, though Sungmin ignores him.
"Oh, but my sweet and innocent image is probably ruined now." He pouts, and Kyuhyun rolls his eyes.
"Don't worry, kicking someone's teeth out is a very sweet gesture." There's still something satisfying in the way the mere mention makes Sungmin's lip curl.
As if sensing his thoughts, Sungmin narrows his eyes. "Don't get in trouble often, you hear? I'm too dainty to rescue you all the time."
"I'll keep that in mind."
* * * * *
"I'm home! And I brought somebody." Sungmin announces, peeking around before opening the door fully to let Kyuhyun in. Instantly, he makes a face. "Why is this place still a mess?"
"Hey, most of it is your mess, from your tantrum. And hello, Kyuhyun, nice to meet you. I can now decide with confidence that you are not, in fact, an alien as was previously thought," says the boy emerging from the hall. He's still dressed in his pajamas and has a baseball cap atop his head. Behind him, yawning widely-
"Kibum?" Kyuhyun gapes.
His classmate - the responsible, most-likely-to-succeed student with the million-dollar smile - waves and falls unceremoniously onto the couch. "Hi. Congratulations. By the way, you can retake the Chemistry test next Wednesday."
Kyuhyun feels like he's dreaming, but then Sungmin starts leaning on him and having an armful of Sungmin is okay even in bizarre dreams.
"The crazy one with no fashion sense is Donghae. You see what I put up with? Kyuhyun, I want to live with you. You'll have an excuse to get a bigger apartment."
There's an ulterior motive behind Sungmin's innocent tone, and Kyuhyun points out, "You just want a place big enough for a piano."
Sungmin doesn't deny it, having discovered a new passion for music - specifically, Kyuhyun's music. He smirks a little. "That, and a bigger bed. Anyway, this is all of us at the moment, unless Shiwon or Eunhyuk returned last night?"
Two people shake their heads and Sungmin doesn't appear at all surprised. He turns around in Kyuhyun's arms. "So there you go. Welcome to my world."
"I'm really not dreaming, right?" Kyuhyun mutters, and slight mess aside, the place looks normal enough. It's positively gigantic compared to his tiny place. His gaze sticks for a moment on the kitchen, thinking of what Sungmin said about the refrigerator stock.
Sungmin follows his line of sight, laughs, and smiles, showing a hint of fang. "You're not dreaming."
end
Sapphy: *does a happy dance* And so the series is officially underway! I'm super excited about this, Sy and I have a lot of fun things planned. I hope people enjoy it. I had the idea for a vampire AU after a dream - I can't even remember what it was about - and things snowballed from there. This first story turned out a lot longer than I expected and I'm occasionally twitchy over the entire cliche, but mostly I'm pleased to write Sungmin with some steel to him. He's not a helpless, fragile little thing! But he's really good at pretending to be.
Bonus! Name the movie Sungmin quotes for extra win! No prizes except a pat on the back.
Thank you for reading~