He was young when he first met him, barely the age of eight. He was too young to know how the world work but old enough to know that the number of summer’s he had seen had hindered his chances of getting adopted. Everyone who came to Sunny Hill Orphanage overlooked the baseball diamond to venture to the jungle gym and the nursery. Nobody seemed to want to take him home.

It was like he was stuck with a bad omen at his side. He would look out at the dark sky at night and wonder when it will be his turn. When- if ever- will he get chosen?

He never understood the meaning of the saying ‘be careful of what you wish for’ until that faithful day when he rode in the director’s car.

He stood in the middle of a navy room with six other kids his age. He had never met any of them before but he could tell that they were confused as to why they were there as much as he was. What were they supposed to do? It was like they were waiting for something… but what?

Though it held seven children, the room was eerily quiet. The large space was decorated with porcelain knickknacks that looked like they came from another century. He was afraid to movie even a pinky in case something happened to break. There was a fire place in front of them, burning embers that illuminated their faces in shades of orange. Above it was a painting of a rather important looking man. With all these elements put together, it felt like they were inside somebody’s living room. However, the grim looking men at the back of the room made him think twice about the purpose of this place.

They made him antsy and want to run away.

Just as the thought crossed his mind; the double wooden door entrance blew open, making the white lace curtains on the other side flutter the tiniest bit. In walks a young man in a sharp suit, no older that twenty-five. His hair is slicked back but his eyes look tired, like he just came out of a long business meeting. Following the new comer is a small boy that strides into the room with a confident air to his demeanor. The boy stands in front of the man who has stopped at the middle of the line-up. For a moment there is silence as the boy scans the other children.

“Are these all of them?” the man asked.

“Yes sir,” one of the creepy men at the back of the room answered. “they have met all of your requirements.”

“Well, not all of them. There is still one test.” The man behind the boy chuckled slightly before clearing he throat.

“Children,” he announced. “we have searched through thousands of orphans across the country but all of you have stood out from the rest. By the end of this evening, one of you will be living here. You see, my son here,” he let his palms fall to the boy’s shoulder. “Is looking for someone to keep him…” he paused for a bit, like he was searching for the right words. “company.” He finally decided on. “So be kind to him. For he will choose who will stay.” He patted one of the boy’s shoulders and the kid stepped forward.

The son rounded on the other children, sizing them up and down as if looking for flaws. As he made a full circle he stopped at one boy at the end of the line. The son picked up the boy’s hand and held it for a moment as he looked into the kid’s eyes, smiling a completely different smile then the one he came in with. This one felt more reassuring than anything. By the time anyone got the chance to question what he was doing, the son brought his lips to the boy’s wrist.

“OW!” The orphan screamed. “He bit me! Ouch!” The orphan hit the son and tried to shake him off but the attempted just made the son’s grip tighten. “What are you d- Oh my god! No, Don’t!  I’m going to die, I’m losing too much blood!”

Yet there was no blood at all. The rest of the kids stared at the scene trying to make heads and tails out of what was going on.

“They're vampires.” gasped the girl beside the Sunny Hill orphan in a shaken, airy voice.  It was like her voice was the warning bells to the other children, for they started to make a ruckus. Five of the seven started running for the exit, screaming at the top of their lungs in the process. The one who had be bitten was released, rubbing his injured wrist as the gloomy men were order to get the rest of the kids back in line.

The Sunny Hill orphan stayed in place though. Some may say that he had been too scared to flee. On the contrary, for some reason unbeknownst to him, he was calm with the fact. If this was what it took to finally get adopted, then he’ll do it. And if he wasn’t up to par, then he would ask the adult to totally drain him so he wouldn’t be able to go back to the wretched place he currently resides in.

No one loved him. Heck, his own mother abandoned him. If a family of blood ers didn’t want him, even for his blood- that was saying something for his already minuscule chances with a normal family.

“Be calm.” Was what broken him out of his thoughts. He looked to the door, expecting the others to be trying clawing their way through it. Instead, he found that three of the other orphans were beside him, back in the line-up with the gloomy men holding them in place from behind. He then looked in the other direction to see the same result with the other two. “You’ll only change if you feed from us.” It was the sharp suit man addressing them from behind his son. He must have move when the mayhem started. He looked down at his boy and asked, “What do you think of this one?”

“He’s too loud.” The son pouted in a small voice, craning his neck backward to look at his father. “Plus I don’t want to have to beat him every time I want to feed.”

“Do you want me to hypnotize the rest so they won’t fight back?”

“No, I want to see what they’re really like.”

“I won’t then.”

They moved in front of the next candidate, who was girl. She had backed into the man holding her steady, trying to weasel her way out of his grip as well. The little vampire rubbed her shoulder for a minute before he held her wrist gently and sunk his teeth in. As soon as he did it, the girl let out an ear splitting scream, making the Sunny Hill orphan feel a bit sick. It was over faster that the first, the blood test coming back negative. The son expressed that her blood was flavorless.

They moved on to a girl in pigtails that was crying into the body of her anchor. As the boy lifted his hand to softly wipe away her tears she fainted from fright. Despite this, he tasted her. Proclaiming she ate too much zucchini, he crouched to pat her unconscious head before straighten up and moving on.

That’s when their eyes connected.

Before the vampire could do any of his pre-biting ritual of soothing, the Sunny Hill orphan presented his wrist to him. The vampire spun towards his father.

“I thought you weren’t going to hypnotize them!” He accused.

“I’m not.” There was a gasps in the air from these two simple words.

The son turned around with a look of astonishment on his face. The orphan moved his arm closer and with a small smile, the vampire took the offering gently in both hands. The orphan winced as fang broke skin, but other than that he gave no other reaction to the phenomenon.

It’s was a strange feeling, getting his blood . Though, he wouldn’t say it was unpleasant- just…weird; his veins felt hollow as his blood left him, like they magically turned into a straw just so it was more accessible. He felt a little disoriented, like when you’re hanging upside down from the monkey bars for too long. The more the other took the more his brain felt lighter and problem less. He became happier and care free. He didn’t know if he ever wanted the feeling to stop.

“So?” The man in the suit inquired. You could hear the eagerness in his voice, like he was asking if his son got onto a sports team instead of what someone’s blood tastes like.

“It tastes warm.” murmured the son, his reply muffled by the orphan’s arm.

“Warm is a temperature, not a taste.”

The little vampire unlatched his mouth from the orphan’s flesh, the wound stinging in response, to look up at his father irritably. “Well it just tastes warm okay?” the man shook his head as the son looked back into the eyes of the human. “Is it alright if Daddy has a taste?” He asked politely.

The eight year old blinked, moving his vision to the father then back to the child’s eyes. “Uh… sure, I guess.” He moved his arm towards the full grown vampire and waited expectantly.

It only took a moment for the guardian to sink his teeth into his arm. He didn’t stay there as long as his son; just one and he was standing up right again.

“Ah.” he sighed while wiping the liquid from his lip with his thumb. “I see what you mean.”

“Told you!” The boy sang. “Daddy can I have this one?”

“Are you sure you don’t want to taste the others?” He looked down to the end, which made the three remaining candidates cower.

“He taste the best.” The son chirped.

“As well as the politest. Very wise. If you seek him as your chosen, run along.”

The little vampire beamed up at the elder. He grabbed the human child’s hand and hastily dragged him out the wooden doors of which he came. The orphan, stumbling while trying to keep up with the excited boy, looked back to the closing door just in time to see a grey light emitting from it.

“What was that?” he ask, petrified of the answer.

“Oh that?” the vampire offhandedly said as he ran backward into, what looked like, a half furnished dining room. “Daddy’s memory swipe.” He giggled at the frighten face that the human was making. “Don’t worry; I don’t get that 'till I’m older.” He led them up a flight of stairs at the end of the room. “I’m Tao. What’s your name?”

“Yifan.” The human tripped on a step as he introduced himself. Tao hoisted him back onto his feet and carried on up the stairs and down the hall.

“This is your room” Tao said, opening a door at the end of the hall. It was a moderate sized room with white walls and a lone twin sized bed by the window. “We’ll get someone to get your stuff from your house and put it in here.”

YIfan flinched at the word ‘house’. The kid was defiantly younger than him and didn’t quite grasp the term ‘orphan’ yet. He couldn’t blame him, though it still hurt.

“How old are you?” he asked, just to change the subject.

“Six!” Tao said, holding up the corresponding fingers. Ah, so he was two years younger than him. Strange, the six year olds at Sunny Hill were a lot more annoying than he was. Then again, he had only known the kid for fifteen minutes.

Tao backed out of the room, dragging Yifan as he did, and closed the door. “My birthday was last month, but because we moved I wasn’t allowed to get a chosen until now.”

“A chosen?” Yifan repeated.

“Yeah, you.” Tao beamed at him. “We don’t get or fangs until we're six, and when we do, we have to choose one human to feed on so the other humans won’t get suspithis.”

“Suspicious.” he corrected. “Does that mean you’re going to bit me every day?”  he asked warily.

“No, I only get really thirsty once a week. You’ll be fine.” He walked to the door and stood there with his hands out like it was going to do a magic trick. “This is my room. I still haven’t unpacked all my toys, but I think I have some cars roaming around.”

-------------

Now:

Yifan approached Tao’s door, griping the knob for a second and exhaling before pushing it forward. The threshold opens up to show a dark green room, the morning rays coming from the window making one half lighter than the other. He creeped inside, making sure to shut the door silently before heading to the bed in the middle of the room.

“Master.” He whispers as he looms over the body wrapped in blankets. “It’s time to awaken.” The lump on the bed doesn’t respond. He bends down into a crouched and starts to shake the body’s shoulders. “Master Zitao.” There’s a grumble this time. Yifan sighs before muttering, “Fine,” He reaches over to shake the lump’s side as he cooed “Tao Tao~”

The body rolles over and in a quick flutter of blankets, he was lying face to face beside a dark haired teenager with the covers over both of their heads. “Morning.” Yifan sighs irritably. After ten years of being in the family, Tao never fails to pull him into bed.

“Are you sure?” came Tao’s scratchy morning voice. He lifts the covers enough to emerge his head in the light, and then quickly pulls them over again. “Ah, it’s too bright.” He whines. He stares at Yifan silently for a second, his dark eyes twinkling and his hair in disarray. The silence is comforting, like the feeling you get when you smell a lilac tree. Maybe it’s the fabric softener that is so soothing.

“Did you eat breakfast?” He asks in a soft voice.

Yifan knows exactly where this is leading to. “half an hour ago.” he answers, and even though he should give the precise time, he figures rounding it off a bit won’t make that big of a difference.

“Good.” Tao shows a small smile before reaching over to the other side of Yifan, puncturing the skin on his neck so that his liquid of life slowly descended its way to Tao’s awaiting mouth. As the younger’s taste buds are flooded with the all too familiar drink, Yifan stretches his neck to the angle that Tao prefers to feed from. He goes at it for no more than two minutes before he pulles off and looms over the other. Their eyes connect just like the first time all those years ago.

“Do you feel light headed?” He asks the boy below him. This had become their routine ever since the time Yifan fainted when Tao was eight. He had taken too much at the time, being too thirsty to even realize that Yifan was talking to him. He had gone into a panic state of crying and didn’t stop until an hour after Yifan woke up in the hospital. He swore from that day that he would monitor his intake, no matter how desperate he was for blood.

“No.” Yifan replies. “In fact I feel that you can take some more if you wish.”

“I don’t want to push it.” Tao admits, going to lie back in his place with a content sigh.

“We’ll just save the rest to snack on later.” Yifan jokes, but they both know he doesn’t have a say on meal time. That was the first rule of being a chosen; when you master wishes for blood, you stay still and quiet until they’re done. No matter how much they wish to take.

There have been a few horror stories in the past of vampires running their chosen’s dry. When they first pick them, the vampire would still be undeveloped in taste and not know what flavors satisfy them the most. As they grow, they would get bored with the taste and drain their chosen just so they’ll be able to pick another. That is why it is so crucial for them to pick wisely when their six, the theory that the more accustomed the chosen is to the ideal blood type, the more the vampire will restrain themselves to savor it for another time.

Tao looks appalled at Yifan for making such an incentive and Yifan knows without a word being said that he has screwed up. Tao cares for him much more than a blood bag and he constantly tells him that he should value his own life more. Yifan closes his eyes and whispers out a quick “Sorry, Master.” before engulfing the other in his arms.

They stay like that for a moment, still under the covers as the clock on the wall that Yifan can never seem to block out ticks the morning away.

“Do you remember when we first met?” Yifan says after a while.

“Yeah.” Tao turns his head so he is looking into Yifan’s eyes.

“What did you mean when you said that my blood ‘tastes warm’?” his voice sounds far away, but he’s really gauging how much he is going to get scolded for the simple question.

Instead of being reprimand with a list of thing of why he shouldn’t even be thinking about taste, Tao simply hums and snuggles into his chest before saying, “You know those warm summer days, where there is a slight breeze and all anybody wants to do is lounge around outside? It’s like that. When you tilt your head back against the chair so you can soak up the sun. The feeling of euphoria that spreads from your face to your heart. When you close your eyes to hold onto that moment, expecting the inside of your eyelids to be black, but instead it’s a strangely calming red. That moment. When the world seams at peace and everything could be going down the drain, yet you couldn’t give it a thought. That’s what it’s like.”

Yifan lays their blinking rapidly at the charcoal haired teen. He suspected that if Tao would respond in any way that was not insulted, it would go along the lines of “you won’t understand” not…. this.

“That description is way off from ‘warm’.” He teases, mostly to get rid of his own shock. “I’m glad your vocabulary has improved, though you still can’t pronounce ‘suspicious’ properly.” The remark earns him a punch on the shoulder. He chuckles a bit as he rubs the spot before silence comes between them again.

“So, I’m a summer’s day?” Yifan questions thoughtfully. Tao rolls his dark eyes.

“You’re my summer’s day.” and before the cheesiness of his words can settle in, he rolls off the bed, forces Yifan to his feet and through the door saying, “Out, out, out!”  

With a hearty chuckle, Yifan hustles down the stairs to give the other some privacy while he gets ready. When he gets to the dining room he stops at the window and peek out the curtains to the front yard. The weather was starting to heat up, the earth soaking up all the sun has to offer, making dandelions pop up in the most random of spaces. Soon Mrs.Haung, Tao's mother, will be gathering the household up to battle it out with the weeds to make room for her prize worthy garden. It has been sort of a tradition over the years to spend the last weekend of April in soil. When he was younger, Yifan would be ecstatic to be able to get dirty while helping out his care givers. Since he hit puberty though, he often wonders around this time of year why they go through all the trouble. The mischievous yellow flowers will only seek revenge the following year by growing thicker.

Sighing at the work to come, Yifan heads to the kitchen and grabs an apple from the fruit bowl on the counter. He leans back and rotates the fruit, looking for a good place to start devouring it. He looks up from his search when he hears the side door opening. Mr.Haung walks in, grabbing a spot at the kitchen table as he unrolls the morning paper. Yifan pushes off the counter to slide in the spot next to him. They sit in silence for a while as Mr.Haung scans the front page.  

“Have you woken up Zitao yet?” the man asks, not bothering to look up at him as he turns the page.

“Yes, sir.” Yifan answers then nibbles on the rest of the flesh that is stuck to the apple core.

“Has he decided to feed today?” This has been a routine question for the past four years. Apparently as vampires grow into adolescence they feed more often, yet Tao has been holding back, insisting that he still only needs a dose once a week.  As Tao gets older, Yifan can see the worry grow on his father’s face. Truthfully, even though it’s his blood that he is losing, Yifan is also concern about the other’s intake. It’s partially why he makes the whole ordeal like it’s no big thing. He hopes that one day Zitao will stop worrying about his welfare and start taking care of him-self.

“Yes, thankfully.”

Mr.Haung sighs and his features relax into one of relief. He closes the newspaper and stares Yifan right in the eye. “He has to take more. Once a week is not enough. You have get him to take.”

“I’m trying to convince him but for some reason he won’t take.” Yifan mumble towards his lap. He doesn’t want to keep eye contact with the firm gaze coming from the other. “Do you think he may be getting disinterested in me? What if he didn’t choose correctly? Maybe you really should drain me and find someone else.”

“Listen,” Mr. Haung says and doesn’t continue until Yifan looks at him. “Your blood is one of the rarest out there. Not only does it have everything that our kind needs to survive, but it also gives off comfort. It’s defiantly not the blood. It’s Zitao himself. He cares for you too much to take anymore then the elementary amount. You got to make him take.”

“What do you want me to do?” Yifan gives a single huff of laughter that doesn’t have the slightest amount of joy behind it. “Slice myself open and pin him down?”

“If that what you got to do. Yes.” Mr.Haung’s voice is strained. “The worst thing a chosen can do is refuse his master, the next is let his master dry up.”

Creaking from the staircase interrupted the older man’s lecture. Both of them turn to the disturbance to see Tao descending down the stairs. Mr.Haung leans into Yifan one last time to sternly whisper, “Do something.”, before his son enters the room.

“Morning!” Tao chirps, his mood a complete one-eighty from the aura in the room. The tension lifts as Mr.Haung turns away from Yifan to smile at his son.

“Good morning.” Mr.Haung voice is warm, all evidence of what they were previously talking about well hidden.

Zitao slows down his path to the refrigerator and narrows his eyes at his father. “You weren’t picking on Yifan, were you?” He says suspiciously, opening the door but not letting the man out of his sight.

“Not at all.” Mr.Haung insures. “I was just telling him that there is a meeting coming up.”

“Really?!” Tao exclaims, slamming the door shut and rushing to an empty chair with a glass of orange juice. “Is there going to be others?”

“No, it’s just us this time.”