椿 [Tsubaki] - Red
Red
When he awoke, it was to the smell of death.
The smell of death and an intense burning in his throat. Cliché as it was, it was the truth, just like how you woke to a growling belly if you didn’t eat enough the night before you slept.
“You’re awake.” A voice reached his ears, and he opened eyes just in time to see a bag filled with something red thrown at him. And somehow, he managed to reach up, catching the bag in time before it slammed embarrassingly into his face.
“Drink it.” Was the explicit order, and his stomach growled in agreement, his body already accepting what he was before his brain could even realize that he was in a cave and that there were dead bodies strewn everywhere, and that the air stunk of battle and sweat.
The one talking mistook the curiosity in his gaze at the surroundings for something else. “Yeah, I know it’s tempting… but remember. Drinking from dead bodies is worse poison than silver.”
Listening to that voice, he pushed that order away, along with the thirst. There was something more important that he needed to see, and his eyes strayed straight to it as he righted himself, his body lighter yet heavier than it had ever been.
He was suddenly aware that the person he was staring at was talking only after his eyes registered that those beautiful lips were moving. And his ears started to work again, taking in sound instead of replaying the loud roar of blood rushing from his head. “-hyun, Kyuhyun! Are you listening to me? I said drink only from the blood pack… I know the smells from outside are distracting, but concentrate on me, alright?”
His attention was gained with that last phrase, and he felt his face contort into the expression he knew as ‘perturbed’. “But I already am.” He protested, his face so guileless that one could immediately tell it was the truth.
Zhou Mi paused, and he stared at Kyuhyun in confusion. It had been years since he had to teach someone he had sired, but he was certain that most newborns would have been tearing at the blood bag and been screaming for more by now, not staring him with doe-eyes and an innocent expression. “Then… what were you…?”
Kyuhyun tilted his head, before he answered, his mouth curving with a sly smile, words surprisingly honeyed. “I was just wondering if you looked just as beautiful with eyes that are supposed to lust only after blood.”
He watched as Zhou Mi blushed the lightest of pinks, and he found that he liked it. So with a soft smile, he continued. “It seems like you are.”
“…Aren’t you thirsty at all?” Zhou Mi asked again, perplexed and more than slightly frustrated.
Of course Kyuhyun was, and when reminded, the flare rose in his throat again at the thought of something red and wet running through it. But at the same time, the thought of that brought Zhou Mi’s features into his mind for some reason. And Kyuhyun realized that Zhou Mi looked healthier than Kyuhyun had ever seen him - his complexion almost rosy, hair strong and healthy, posture straight and handsome.
“You’ve been feeding.” Kyuhyun said - not a question but a statement. And as Zhou Mi’s lips thinned, Kyuhyun knew what he said was true.
“…For me?” Kyuhyun asks after a pause, his sharp mind coming up with the only reason on why Zhou Mi would feed, although his rationality didn’t believe it.
Then Zhou Mi looked away, his eyes embarrassed, and Kyuhyun felt his now dead heart spluttered as if it were alive again.
“Why?” Kyuhyun asked, although his mind supplied that Zhou Mi wanted to make sure that he was strong enough to deal with the newborn craziness Kyuhyun was supposed to have. And because his rationality agreed with it, he added on instead. “…did you turn me into a vampire, I mean.”
That brain and rationality of his had began to gang together, and had just come up with the rational reason of ‘guilt’, when Zhou Mi opened his mouth and plowed down any presumptions that Kyuhyun had.
“Remember the first day I met you?” Zhou Mi said slowly, “the one where I attacked you? Well… I wasn’t after your blood… at all. I was actually going to jump you.”
Kyuhyun’s brain froze, while his downstairs department suddenly leapt to attention. “…What?”
“…Uh…” Zhou Mi thought the question was ignorance and dug through his vocabulary. “Have my way with you?”
Again. “What?”
Zhou Mi was a healthy pink by now - the vampire equivalent of beetroot red. “Fuck you.”
Kyuhyun didn’t know which to be more surprised at - Zhou Mi actually admitting his feelings, or his usage of what was probably classified under ‘dirty words the weird 21st century people use’.
He didn’t know when he had stood up and moved over to Zhou Mi’s side, only that he had, and he was now tilting Zhou Mi’s head upwards so he could stare straight into those lovely eyes.
Before, he hadn’t known that when he wasn’t hungry, Zhou Mi’s eyes were a soft honey brown.
Now he did.
“Why don’t you?” He found himself saying.
It was now Zhou Mi’s turn to play the part of the stunned. “What?”
“I said…” Kyuhyun’s voice was deep as he leaned over, pressing lips against Zhou Mi’s ear, the tips of his new fangs grazing the soft lobe. “Why don’t you?”
Zhou Mi could have said a million of reasons why not. The least of them including the fact that this wasn’t exactly the right place or time, that Kyuhyun hadn’t fed yet, that Zhou Mi was tired, that Kyuhyun was tired, that they had more important and pressing matters to attend to, that this was a cave for goodness sakes - couldn’t they do it somewhere better?
But when Zhou Mi opened his mouth, he found nothing coming out and instead, he turned, catching the lips at his ear with his own.
That night, Zhou Mi showed Kyuhyun exactly what the perk of old age was.
~*~