Hakyeon finds him by a tree as usual, after wandering around the forest for an hour or so. He’s sore still, from the beating earlier.

But that much was expected, with him roaming around the woods and neglecting his duties as both a son and a soldier. His father is none too happy but he cannot bring himself to stay at home and pray as he should when he knows He is out there, in the snow, all alone. “I’ve lost you again.” He complains, half heartedly as the man turns to him. “How are you tonight?”

“Won’t your parents be worried about you, hummingbird? Slipping away every night to meet a stranger in the woods.”

“There is none of that.” He says, crouching beside him on the snow, and He scoots a little to the side so they can share the tree trunk. “I am not a child.”

“Aren’t you?” He smiles, as if amused.

“I’m not.”

“Then forgive me.”

“I will, but only because I enjoy your company.”

“Do you now? Is that why you keep coming back?”

“Perhaps.” He smiles then, looking at the way the wind whiskers His hair away like a living breathing creature. He is too beautiful.

A tragic kind of beauty, a cold one, looking distant, always guarded.

“You are different from them, from everyone else.” He voices his thoughts, trying to contain his fast paced heart when His ocean blue eyes turn to him. Eyes that could drown him.

Kill him.

Easily.

“Am I?” He speaks in questions and Hakyeon tries not to be too obvious about his infatuation.

“Yes…” He looks at the light clothes He’s wearing and takes a breath. “I’m very much convinced you are something different.”

“I never said I wasn’t.” He turns his eyes to the sky again. “You never asked.”

“And what are you then?”

“I’m a monster.” He says, in that soft voice of his, whispery, like telling a secret. “And I’ve been called much in my life… Evil, demon, strix, strigoï, vetala, akulah. Words, words, words…” He grabs Hakyeon’s wrists and presses him to the snow. “And still you spend your nights chasing me through the woods, you and your fluttering heart and your fragile bones… Wasting your limited time on me.” His hold is like iron, unmoving, like a marble statue. “And I can’t help but ask myself… Why would you?”

“Because I like you…”

“Like me?” He chuckles again. “Oh, hummingbird there isn’t anything in here to like, there are only things you should avoid…” He leans down, hair falling off on his eyes, reflecting the poor light in that unsettling way they usually do, as the torch dies slowly by the snow. “Such a lovely human… Oblivious to how little time you have… How small and delicate you are, how young and naive you are.” He smiles again. “So sweet, so mortal…” He leans down and Hakyeon can see, through the poor light as his eyes shift to an even more vivid shade of blue and he feels himself shiver.

Not from the cold.

Not from fear.

And when His sharp teeth scrape across his neck he feels himself breathe in, and when He bites down he cries out but not entirely from pain.

The real weight of His body pressing him down into the snow, the real heat of His body seeping through the light clothes He wears, skin he wishes he could feel.

And when He backs away just the slightest bit, breathless a