Walking home from his job as a waiter-bartender-whatever needed done guy, Minho stretched his arms up and stifled a yawn. As he turned the corner for his street, he heard first a groan and then a whimper come from the park equipment usually lit up brightly. Tonight, though, the lights were all out above the playground.

            Tilting his head a little, the dark haired man slowly approached the playground, the large structure formed of slides and stairs and bridges, all brightly colored. Minho stopped as he saw her from behind, long brown hair disheveled. Her knees were folded under her, ankles bound to one of the posts supporting the tallest slide, as were her hands, arms pulled back behind her to keep her in place. Coming closer, the man heard the unmistakable sound of someone sobbing. The smell of blood hit his nose before he rounded the smaller figure and saw what Minho tried to convince himself were not lashes from a whip in the gi-... Boy?

            Minho's eyes zeroed in on the person's bare chest. No s to speak of, not even the smallest hint. He allowed his gaze to slowly travel lower and lower, nodding when he confirmed that it was in fact a boy. A rather cute boy, he noticed when he saw his face more clearly.

            "Umma..." the boy sobbed, squirming a little on his legs to try to get free. Minho slowly circled back around, kneeling behind him to start working on the ropes. It wasn’t much of a struggle to work on the knots, and the man finally untied the damp ropes binding the boy to the pole. He shrugged out of his hooded sweatshirt and helped the boy slip into the cloth, not missing on whimper the movements caused. He smiled softly as the hem fell just under the boy's exposed parts to cover them.

            "Now, let's get you home," Minho said softly. "Well, my home I guess, since you're not really talking or anything. Or should I call the police to let them take care of whoever did this?"

            As Minho knelt down once more to pick the boy up and take him home, he yelped in surprise as the boy pushed him away and jumped over him, pinning him to the ground. Minho opened his mouth to scream, but all that came out was a whimper of fear. This wasn’t how helping a stranger was supposed to work. He squirmed under the boy with his eyes closed, wondering where the sudden strength had come from. Opening his eyes slowly, the man gasped as he saw fire red eyes and fangs growing out of the boy's mouth, accompanied by a low hiss.

            It wasn't until he realized that those sharp fangs were only a mere centimeter from his neck that Minho thought to move. He raised his arms and pushed the boy away, unable still to call him a vampire, even in his mind. Vampires weren’t real, this wasn’t happening, he just needed to wake up, right? But he needed to protect his neck, even in a dream. All the stories he’d heard of said that becoming a vampire was bad news, so maybe as long as he didn’t bite him on the neck?

            "Stop!" the man tried to scream, but his voice came out as barely a whisper. The growling that rumbled in the younger male's throat and the tightening of the hands holding his shoulders caused the darker haired man to freeze, giving the boy just enough time.

            The boy acted too fast, and Minho didn't have the chance to try to fight him off again, his razor sharp teeth piercing thought the skin of the man's wrist. Struggling against the suddenly strong boy only served to deepen the two matching gashes now in his wrist. A small scream finally left Minho's mouth at the pain, and he fell still, unmoving. If it was this bad already, he certainly didn’t need it getting any worse. The pain began to fade gradually, but he could still feel the slowing that were pulling his blood from his vein.

            "Enough..." he finally murmured, moving again slowly. Minho raised his hand and threaded his fingers through the boy's long hair to pull his head back a little, or at least to try. "Please... Please don’t kill me…"

            Finally, as Minho grew weaker and weaker from blood loss, the boy pulled back. His wide eyes were turned back to a shade of brown that Minho couldn't help but find captivating. They searched the man's face, almost frightened. Blood ran down the sides of the boy's mouth, which he quickly and wiped away. Minho was tired, seconds from a sleep he hoped he would wake from still the same, but he caught himself thinking the boy was a touch adorable.

            "I'm so sorry... You’re going to be okay, I promise. I’m sorry, I’ll fix it," the boy whispered, leaning down once more. Minho braced himself for pain, but all he felt was a gentle warmth appearing and vanishing on his wrist, the warmth being moist. A flash of memory went through his mind of a friend’s dog that always people all over. He blinked his sleepy eyes open and watched as the boy used his mouth to clear up every trace of blood from his arm, then continued dragging his tongue over the holes a few more times until they were quite small. The last thing Minho remembered before he allowed himself to sleep was the sound of fabric ripping and more touches to his wrist.

~*~

            "What did you do?" Minho heard a male voice over him. He stayed still, keeping his eyes closed as he tried to clear his mind of the fogginess that had overtaken him. He didn’t quite feel hungover, but he felt a familiar sensation of exhaustion that kept him from lifting himself from the comfortable mattress. Maybe it wasn’t a horrible idea to just stay still and figure out what was going on.

            "I'm sorry, Kibum umma... I didn’t mean to, they had me all tied up and I was all drained and I… It was an accident…" another male voice spoke softly, his arguments sounding weak even to a still groggy Minho. He tried to remember where he’d heard the voice before, but he couldn’t place the sound coming from this boy. No. The boy.

            Minho's eyes flew open and he struggled on the bed he'd been placed on, only to be pushed back down gently and given a glare that told him not to move. After a small nod, he looked around and finally found the boy he'd first mistaken for a girl. Instantly, he shrunk back against the bed with a fear-filled whimper as the fresh memory flashed back into his mind. There was no way this could really be happening.

            Minho slowly stole a glance down to his wrist, hoping that it had all been some sort of terrible dream. He shook his head in disbelief when he saw the bandage over his wrist, pulling his arm close to his chest and cradling it protectively.

            "Taemin," the older of the two standing males said softly, the boy's head snapping toward him. Kibum, apparently, nodded his head toward Minho, then pushed Taemin, since that would have to be the boy's name, right? Taemin was a… was a vampire, and Kibum was his… mother? Minho shook his head and tried to make himself stop thinking so hard. Now he was just getting silly. Taemin took a forced stumble of a step forward to Minho.

            Upon seeing that Taemin was coming closer, Taemin being the vampire who had attacked him, Minho pushed himself to sit on his bed and scooted as far back as possible. He knew he didn’t have anywhere to go, didn’t have a chance of escaping through the one door next to Kibum. But that didn’t mean he had to move closer and offer himself up for dinner, right? His already large eyes were wider than ever before, constantly switching between Taemin and Kibum. He noticed his breathing quicken, and it was all he could do to force his breaths slowly in through his nose and out through his mouth.

            Taemin pulled his bottom lip into his mouth and on it nervously before taking a deep breath and standing up properly. He bowed at the waist until his chest was parallel with the floor, his hair falling over his face and flying through the air as he stood back up after holding the position for fifteen seconds.

            "I am very sorry," he said quietly, stealing glances to Kibum for encouragement and to take a break from looking at Minho. "According to laws six, ten, and eleven of our coven, I am in your debt." The boy took another deep breath and waited on a soft nod from Kibum before continuing. "For untying me to help and save me, for providing me with your blood, and for me attacking you and taking your blood first without any sort of permission, I thank you and apologize from the deepest reach of my soul." He paused once more, his eyes showing plainly that he was having a bit of an inner debate about his next words. "And so, in accordance with the coven’s laws and my own shame, I am in your debt... Master."

~Taemin's Version~

            Taemin shivered when a breeze flowed through the park. It was cold enough being on the ground , but of course they had picked a windy night to leave him there. He was almost surprised it wasn’t raining. He sighed again, closing his eyes to try and keep in his tears as another small sob left his mouth against his will.

            Standing up had proven more impossible than he had expected, so Taemin resumed trying to wiggle out of his ropes or moving his hands close enough to untie his feet. But every time he leaned back to try for the ropes, the painful lines coloring his back from the whip made him jerk forward again. The pole he was bound to may look smooth, but every imperfection dug deeper into his wounds.

            He groaned and pulled harder at the ropes like he could just break them, then he slouched down and whimpered because he knew he wasn’t going home tonight. He’d have to wait until the morning, and hope it wasn’t some poor innocent child that found him like that. Or some erted old bastard. Or anyone really. Maybe it would be better if he just died this time, save himself and his family the embarrassment.

            It was because he was so wrapped up in these thoughts that he didn’t hear a man approaching the playground, just crying softly by himself because this time he’d decided to give up. It was useless anyway. He’d never be able to fight them off. He cried out weakly for his family, wanting them to save him even though he couldn’t bear to let them see him like this. It was this exact conflict that made everything so much harder. To bear the pain himself, or to burden his family with his weakness.

            Taemin looked down when his hands fell to his sides, blinking when he finally noticed the feeling of someone’s hands freeing his feet. His eyes widened when he heard the full, rich blood rushing through the man’s body, too shocked about what was happening to be able to fight against being dressed. He felt his eyes dilating, his vision becoming perfectly clear before covered in a light film of red. He didn’t have time to fight his instincts when the man came too close again, his body taking over to pin the man, the human, to the ground securely. It wasn’t his voice that hissed at the man to be silent, it wasn’t his mouth that clamped onto the man’s wrist, a good enough source with his neck thrashing about.

            “Enough, please… Please don’t kill me…”

            It was Taemin’s ears that heard those words, and it was his cleared mind that was able to make him pull away. He didn’t know what had happened in the last ten minutes, not exactly, but the taste in his mouth and the man below him gave him a pretty bad idea. He searched the man’s face quickly, wiping the blood from his own mouth when he saw the dangerous lack of the red stuff in the man’s complexion.

            "I'm so sorry... You’re going to be okay, I promise. I’m sorry, I’ll fix it," Taemin whispered quickly, leaning in once again to cleanse and seal the wounds he’d created. It took longer because they were so deep, so broken, but he tore the pocket off the sweatshirt and used it to wrap around the man’s wrist just in case. He searched the man’s pockets for a phone, calling one of the only numbers he’d ever bothered to memorize to be picked up. This was not going to be good.

~*~

            Once the man, whose wallet said his name was Minho, was resting in his bed with a proper bandage over his arm, Taemin opened the door into the hallway and lowered his gaze shamefully as he let in his friend.

            “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Kibum hissed, yanking his head up firmly. “You’ve officially ed yourself, Taemin, congratulations. In one night, apparently only twenty minutes, you’ve crossed over three of our biggest laws and put yourself in so much debt I can’t see you getting out. Ever. You’d better pray to everything you can think of that he’s not some bastard who’s going to ruin you,” he growled, then sighed and pulled the younger man in for a tight hug.

            Taemin nodded and held Kibum as tight as he could. He’d never been more scared for his future, not even with the s who had left him there on the playground. They still had limits, but there were no real rules for what this man could do to him.

            “What did you do, Tae?” Kibum sighed when they parted, standing close to the bed with him while they waited on this Minho character to wake up.

            “I'm sorry, Kibum umma... I didn’t mean to, they had me all tied up and I was all drained and I… It was an accident…” Taemin offered weakly, knowing there wasn’t anything else he could really say. He knew what he had done, and he knew the laws, but he didn’t want this to happen. He hadn’t gone hunting or anything, and it wasn’t his fault. But still, here he was.

            Minho’s eyes opened quickly, and Taemin froze when the man scooted away like he was going to be able to run from them. Kibum rolled his eyes and grabbed the man, easing him back onto the bed before glaring him into place.

            “Taemin,” Kibum called again, nodding toward the human and gritting his teeth before nudging the younger forward. Taemin’s feet were planted enough that he nearly tripped walking forward, and he cringed at the way Minho was looking at him. Finally, when he thought he was close enough, but not too close, he took several deep breaths and gave a proper bow, staying down to collect himself enough to face Minho.

            "I am very sorry," he said quietly, stealing glances to Kibum for encouragement and to take a break from looking at Minho. "According to laws six, ten, and eleven of our coven, I am in your debt." The boy took another deep breath and waited on a soft nod from Kibum before continuing. "For untying me to help and save me, for providing me with your blood, and for me attacking you and taking your blood first without any sort of permission, I thank you and apologize from the deepest reach of my soul." He paused once more, arguing with himself about how he should phrase the next part. There was a certain way he was supposed to say things, but he wanted to really apologize more. He couldn’t think of anything else, so he just took another quick breath to finish giving entire control of himself to this human and praying for the best.

            "And so, in accordance with the coven’s laws and my own shame, I am in your debt... Master."