Explanations Wanted

"You're pretty cool Soo." Said Tao affectinately nicknaming the smaller boy as they walked home together, Baekhyun having already walked back some hours before. 

"Pardon?" Kyungsoo looked surprised.

"Well, you're not freaking about the whole Baekhyun's being a vampire thing. Although I guess I didn't freak out when I found out either."

"Aren't you a vampire as well?" Asked Kyungsoo as he looked at Tao, who then laughed.

"A vampire? No no no no, of course not! No, I hate the taste of blood, some of us do have an appetite for it you know, but me, I hate the stuff, I've no idea how Baekhyun can swallow it, it's disgusting."

"Right." Kyungsoo had always been good at going along with things, just agreeing even though he wanted to argue, accepting these were the way things were, moving house whenever his mother wanted even though it meant he had to also move school and completely uproot his life each time. 

This was the same, something unexpected had popped up and he just had to accept it. But it was also different. Vampires were real, he'd accepted it so easily, because he wanted it to be true. He'd always wanted to believe in things that didn't quite make sense, and although vampires and werewolves weren't exactly Santa Claus and the Easter bunny, they were the closest thing that he'd probably ever encounter.

"So what are you then?" Kyungsoo asked curiously.

"I'm a mermaid!" Said Tao excitedly and Kyungsoo blinked.

"You don't look like a mermaid."

"That's because I'm in my human form." Tao anticipated Kyungsoo's next question and continued talking without missing a beat. "I asked a friend of mine, a fairy, to turn me into a human, even though if I don't make a contract with a human I'll turn into sea foam, but every spell has to have a pay-off and I thought how hard must it be to fall in love? People in books do it all the time! But where was I? So yeah, he turned me into a human, he's staying at my, well, our house actually, do you want to meet him too?"

Kyungsoo's head was spinning; Tao sure did like to talk, and he'd only caught about half of it so he decided to just nod his head, which caused Tao to smile excitedly.

"Awesome! I can't wait to introduce you!" Kyungsoo wondered if he'd regret the mirgaine that had led to him taking a nap in the nurse's office. 

He wasn't worried about calling his mom to tell her where he was going. It wasn't like she'd be home anyways. Tao and him walked down a few alleyways, and he was starting to get out of breath when Tao stopped outside a large, blue house that fit into the seaside village perfectly, surrounded by pink, yellow and orange houses. Kyungsoo looked at it. How different was it the the mangey appartement he was living in. 

Tao knocked at the door and a few seconds later Baekhyun appeared, a slight grin on his face when he saw Kyungsoo.

"You brought company."

"You're the one who asked me to bring him along." Said Tao and turned to Kyungsoo, whispering slightly. "He begged me to bring you over you know, he's scared you're going to spill and we'll have to move school and it'll be his fault."

Kyungsoo couldn't help but giggle as Baekhyun raised his eyebrows at Tao, who was completly failing at being discrete.

"No. He wanted answers, and as thank you for not 'spilling' as you put it, I thought I might as well give them to him."

"This is so cool." Said Tao and ushered Kyungsoo in. "Come in, come in. You know I never thought there'd be a human at this house..."

Tao chatted away, which caused Kyungsoo to slowly relax, as Baekhyun closed the door behind them and motioned for them to move forward and Tao led the human thorugh the house and into a large, open room, with a brown L-shaped sofa, small table and large TV facing it. Tao threw himself down on the sofa and there was loud grunt from behind the back of the couch. 

"Tao!" A male voice said annoyed and Tao was pushed off the sofa, landing on the floor between the sofa and coffee table with a loud thump.

"Sehun..." He whinged. "What was that for?"

"Jumping on top of me." Said the boy, sitting up and Kyungsoo was able to put a face to the voice. "Obviously idiot."

Sharp defined features, blonde hair and icy eyes, he may not be Kyungsoo's type (not that he had one, and even if he did it would not be a tall, tanned brunette with soft chocolate eyes), but there was no denying how handsome he was.

Sehun caught his eyes and Kyungsoo quickly looked down. 

"Who are you?" Sehun stood up, dusting himself off and stepping over Tao who was still rolling around on the floor.

"This is Kyungsoo." Baekhyun walked in, a pile of books in his arm, which he threw down on the coffee table. "Get up Tao. You remember, the human I told you about."

"Oh yeah." Sehun looked at him coldly and Kyungsoo tried not to shrink under his gaze. "I hope he knows how to keep his mouth shut. Seeing as you're determined to not wipe his memory."

Baekhyun grimaced. "You know I'm not good at that. I could wipe his entire brain."

"What?" Kyungsoo squeaked. "M-my memories?!"

Sehun rolled his eyes. "Chill, Baekhyun's hopeless so looks like you'll be getting to keep them."

"Why can't you?" Suddenly asked Tao, popping up from the sofa. "Not that I want Soo's memories to be gone of course."

"I'm fresh out of magic. Thanks to someone." Sehun glared balefully at Tao who ducked his head, a sheepish smile on his face.

"Oh yeah. Sorry about that."

Sehun rolled his eyes and gave Kyungsoo a quick once-over before turning to Baekhyun. "Well, do whatever you want."

"Thanks." Said Baekhyun sarcastically.

Sehun went back and sat down on the sofa, Tao pulling himself up and curling up next to him, the two shifting around to get comfortable, Sehun's head eventually ending up on Tao's lap and Baekhyun motioned for Kyungsoo to come and sit down. All four of them sat on the couch, Tao and Sehun curled up on one side, with Baekhyun sitting in the corner and Kyungsoo on the other side. 

"Right, you wanted some answers." Baekhyun prompted the boy who was nervously fiddling with his fingers, still reeling from the revelation that Baekhyun could erase his mind. 

"U-um..." He stuttered, trying to think, to be honest, although Tao had put him at ease, the appearance of Sehun had set him back on edge and he feeling rather scared. 

Baekhyun knew Kyungsoo was nervous. Not only could he smell it rolling off him in waves, the poor kid was sitting straight up like a poker and his eyes couldn't keep still, they were darting around the house, almost like he was looking for an escape route. 

"You can relax, I don't bite." Baekhyun couldn't help but grin. "At least, I won't bite."

Tao giggled and Kyungsoo smiled slightly, his posture relaxing as he leant back against the sofa. Baekhyun nodded.

"That's better. Now, questions."

"What do you eat?" Kyungsoo dove right in. 

"Blood." Baekhyun answered cheekily but elaborated at Kyungsoo's frown. "The council takes care of it."

"The council?" Kyungsoo questioned. 

Baekhyun nodded. "They take care of intergrating supernatural beings into the human world. They were the ones who decided it'd be better for humans not to know about us, after witches were almost exinct in the 1690s and there were..." He paused. "Other less public occurences. They're the ones who cover up when one of us goes rogue, or when we get...discovered."

"You mean like now?"

"Not everyone is as nice you as Soo." Interjected Tao who was lying against Sehun's chest, the male having gravitated from Tao's lap to the back of the sofa, who'd fallen asleep, his face taking on a lot more youthful look when he was asleep. "Some people, well, they don't like us being free, or they want us to show our powers, or they want us for experiments."

Kyungsoo swallowed his throat having gone dry for some reason as Baekhyun nodded alongside Tao.

"The council takes care of my diet; they send me blood, and I don't ask questions. They send me pills that let me be in the sun without burning to death." Baekhyun shrugged. "They're basically the ultimate all-seeing all-knowning government of the supernatural world."

"Right..." Kyungsoo blinked, and he decided things would go easier if he just took everything in his stride, after all, it made sense.

"As for what Tao is..." Baekhyun continued.

"I'm a mermaid." Said Tao enthusiastically, sitting up from Sehun's chest, who then fell back into Tao's lap, but then spoke quieter when he noticed Sehun's sleeping form on him. "You know about mermaids right?"

"Like The Little Mermaid?" Why Tao thought Kyungsoo would know anything about mermaids when less than three hours ago he'd thought humans were the only ones on the earth with the capability to talk, he didn't know. 

Tao pouted. "No, we're better than that."

"No you're not." Sehun mumbled from his lap and Tao flicked his forehead.

"Go back to sleep."

"I don't get it." Said Kyungsoo. "How can there be so many different...species that no one has a clue about?"

Baekhyun cocked his head to the side for a second and then shook. "It's complicated."

"Is it? Kyungsoo hadn't meant to sound so sarcastic.

Okay maybe he had. 

But Baekhyun had answered some of his questions; he might as well answer all of them.

Baekhyun laughed and Tao giggled as the vampire grabbed the books he'd put on the coffee table and opened one, flipping through it and cleared his throat and eyed Kyungsoo.

"You better be ready for this." He shifted slightly.

"Right, so there's four basic races, for the four basic kingdoms. There was the humans on the land, the sirens of the sea, the angels of the sky and the demons of below. At first they were pretty much isolated, but years passed and they began to mingle, and soon they even fell in love, and conceived children. Interspecies children are extremely rare, because it's unlikely for the bloods to successfully mix, so even if a child is born, it's unlikely for it live for long. But some of them survived; and they were the first vampires, werewolves, mermaids, fairies etcetera. So, basically." Baekhyun slammed the book shut. "There's four pure races, and then however many hybrids, who are nowadays also considered purebloods, because for all intents and purposes, all the purebloods, except humans, have died out."

"What?" Tao and Kyungsoo asked the same time and the latter giving the mermaid a are you serious look because wasn't Tao already supposed to know these things?

"Hey, I've never heard any of this before! We only do mer-modern history not ancient history!" He retorted defensively. 

Baekhyun rolled his eyes. "Basically, a pureblooded human and a pureblooded demon makes a pureblooded vampire, even though it's technically a hybrid. However the supernatural council classifies hybrids as mixes between supernatural creatures and pure humans, as there's barely any demons, archangels or sirens anymore; they became exinct ages ago, humans are the only ancient race that still remain. So there are no demon-human hybrids, as they are just vampires, however there can be a vampire-human hybrid."

"Right..." Kyungsoo nodded slowly. "So if demons and humans make vampires, what else?"

Tao perked up. "There's tons of subspecies isn't there?"

Baekhyun picked up another book and began to read.

"The council classifies everything...let's see; vampires can be born or made, as can werewolves. Vampires can be born from a demon and a human or two pureblooded vampires, humans can also be turned into vampires through a pureblooded vampires bite or blood transfusion from pureblood vampires, however only humans, other supernatural creatures are immune to a vampire's venom. Werewolves can be born from an angel and demon or two werewolves, however they do not need to be pureblooded unlike vampires. Werewolves can also bite humans however unless they mate, the change from human to werewolf will only last until the next full moon. Demons and sirens make banshees, they are extremely rare as sirens and demons rarely met and banshees are inherintenly female. Sirens and humans make mermaids, and male mermaids a extremely rare as the siren X chromosone is usually a lot stronger than the human Y chromosone, mermaid may also have children however if they are not pureblooded the offspring will be more human and less siren as time passes, the siren blood maybe even completely disappearing if it not brought back into the family. Sirens and archangels offspring are djinns and are even rarer than banshees as the babies are often stillborn due to their body being put under a lot of pressure because of the large amount of spiritual power they exibit when still a fetus. Angels and humans make fairies, and fairies can only be born from two other fairies or archangels and a human, as the offspring of a fairy and human is known as a pixie. Similarly, the offspring of werewolves and angels are shapeshifters and vampires and angels are dark angels."

"That gave me a headache..." Moaned Tao, who was then hit in the head by Sehun. 

"You asked." Said Baekhyun, looking rather pleased as he put down the book and turned to Kyungsoo. "So, anymore questions?"

"No, no, I think that answered all of them." Said Kyungsoo, looking slightly overwhelmed and Baekhyun smirked.

"You are awed by my knowledge."

"That you read out from a book." Said Sehun, his eyes closed, making Tao jump.

"Weren't you asleep?" Asked Baekhyun eyebrows raised.

"Your nattering woke me up."

"You mean our deep, meaningful and intellectual discussion woke you up." Tao piped up and Kyungsoo chuckled.

The conversation went back and forth, the three, and at times four, laughing and chatting the evening away.