Mama's Boy
Moonless NightsMinho waved goodbye, bowing slightly as the witches and Jinki left to go have dinner together and talk more comfortably, turning with a small smile to Grandmother and Taemin. "Are either of you hungry? I'm sure there's still food here somewhere," he chuckled, Taemin joining him because Minji was constantly hungry. He nodded once Grandmother answered in the affirmative, going to the kitchen so she and Taemin could discuss some things privately in the living room. He was happy to find a nearly fully stocked room, but it would only make sense that Minji and Jinki would go shopping. Cooking for Grandmother had his stomach twisted in nervous knots, but he knew that he would be able to make something worthy of such an esteemed woman.
It was tempting to nick his finger on purpose to add a little blood to the chicken as he cut it, but Minho was certain Taemin would be upset and Grandmother would think him foolish for trying too hard. So instead, he added several spices to some flour, coating the small pieces of chicken thoroughly before they went into the oven. Broccoli went into a pan to steam, and cooked pudding was in another. Minho bit his lip with worry as he tried to think of something else to add, sliding some plain bread into the oven to toast on a whim. Tea was already made, so he just worried himself over even smaller details until he had a counter full of food that he was too scared to present.
"Hyung?" Taemin's voice jumped Minho out of his daze. "You do plan on having us eat that, right?" the vampire smiled softly and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend, pressing his lips to the taller male's neck gently. "Penny for your thoughts, baby?" he added as he hugged Minho a little tighter.
The human sighed with a small smile and placed his hands over Taemin's. "Just... Thinking thoughts about things..." he chuckled without much amusement. He turned to kiss Taemin's cheek, taking all the food and drinks to the table so the three of them could eat. Once he called for Grandmother gently, he pulled out her seat politely and stayed uncharacteristically quiet while their meal began.
"I know it's not my business, Minho, not exactly," Grandmother finally spoke up and gazed at the human thoughtfully. "However, I was wondering if you'd talked yet to Taemin about the things we discussed. He might like to know what you've been thinking," she explained quietly.
Taemin's head perked up and he stared at Minho. "What have you been talking to Grandmother about? Why haven't you come to me about it?" he asked quickly, his brow furrowing because he'd always thought that he and Minho could talk about anything together.
"Calm down, you silly," Minho smiled at his boyfriend. "I've just had some things to think about, some big changes that might be happening," he told Taemin vaguely, then laughed softly when he just got a puzzled look. "Grandmother asked me if I've thought about joining the coven, and I told her yes. She asked if I would want to become a vampire, and I told her yes, but I wasn't sure when would be a good time. I told her I only want you to do it. And she asked about me telling anyone, and the only person I could think of maybe needing to tell was my mother," he informed the youngest vampire, biting his lip as he looked at Grandmother and Taemin both. "The thing is, I left my mother under less than pleasant circumstances. Things were never the same, and we only speak two to three times a year. I just don't know how to tell her, if I want to bother telling her at all. I can't imagine she would want to come in the coven with me, and it's just a big mess between my head and my heart..."
Taemin's eyes widened and he slumped back in his chair, gaze lowering to his lap before he sighed slowly. "I can't imagine anything that could separate a parent from a child like that. I mean, I didn't have all that long with my parents, and I love all my family or friends even more because of that..." he murmured sadly, trying to remember arguments he had with Jonghyun or Jinki's parents, or Grandmother, or anyone. He just couldn't think of anything that would make him leave badly.
The elder, but definitely not elderly, woman reached out to take Taemin's hand. "Let's let Minho explain himself, Taemin. I'm sure you can't understand it now, but you know that each family, each person, is different. Our family is close, but I know you have friends who talk back to their parents, scream at them and throw the sorts of tantrums you threw for things like not being allowed to eat a brownie and ice cream sundae for breakfast when you were seven..." she clicked her tongue, though her expression was still endearing.
Minho nodded slowly and let out a deep breath. "I grew up with a close enough family, but there were pressures because my family has always been fairly well off. And with me being the only child, more specifically the only son, I was expected to marry well and take over the company after I worked my way up..." he explained quietly, dragging his teeth over his lip slowly. "My father got sick on an overseas trip, and he died before the treatment worked, so everything got kind of fast tracked and there was even more pressure. My mom and I grew even closer, but there were still a lot of things that we never got around to really talking about..."
"Things like you liking boys?" Taemin ventured quietly, and he felt guilt begin to creep over him. He was a boy. Minho liked boys. Minho liked him. What if he was the reason that Minho and his mother were on such bad terms? The young vampire bit his lip nervously, waiting quite impatiently for Minho to continue.
The human nodded slowly and smiled at his boyfriend. "I was living on my own when we met, remember? This all happened like six years ago, so stop worrying about being the cause of what happened, you silly silly boy," he shook his head at the vampire, his fingers rubbing in circles against each other, patterns that happened when he was feeling nervous or awkward.
"I never brought anyone home to meet my parents, because there was never any need. I had no girls to bring home, and my two boyfriends had accepting and understanding parents who let me be at their home instead of forcing me to break the news to my own parents," Minho explained the ease of keeping such a secret. "However, once my mother was alone and she was the one in charge of arranging it to marrying me off to someone for mostly business reasons, we started to disagree on some things. At first, I was able to just tell her I wasn't ready. And, it was true. I was in no place to try to be married and be a good partner for anyone. I could barely keep my own life together, let alone a life I was sharing with someone else.
"I finally had to tell my mother I was gay, and it didn't go over too well. She was shocked, slapped me, accused me of trying to get out of my duty to get married and make babies. It was a big scene, but it seemed like things had calmed down for a while. She convinced herself that it was purely a phase, and she let things be, for a while..."
Grandmother rose to get a box of tissues, just in case. She wasn't sure who might need them first, Minho or Taemin, but she set them in the middle of the table so it didn't seem like she was expecting either of them to cry. After offering Minho an encouraging smile, she nodded for him to keep going.
Smiling sheepishly at the tissues, Minho smiled back at the two vampires. "After she felt like it had been long enough, like I'd gotten it out of my system, my mother arranged a meeting between myself and the daughter of another affluent family. We got along well enough, but certainly not the way my mother had intended. It was easy to become friends, but she didn't exactly have any interest in me, either. I told my mother that I couldn't, wouldn't marry her, and it caused an enormous fight. There was more screaming and she threatened to disown me if I continued to disrespect the family so..."
"That's horrible," Taemin frowned as his hand tightened around Minho's unconsciously. "Did... Did she really disown you?" he bit his lip even harder, looking at Minho with a mix of sorrow and pity on his face.
Minho only smiled at his boyfriend, although there was obvious sadness in his gaze. "My mother gave me a deadline, and I thought hard about what I wanted to do. I spoke with my supposed fiance, and I told her about my preferences. She understood, and even though we both knew that if we married, I would be the best husband I could be, that it just couldn't develop into something romantic. I told her I didn't think it would be fair to her, and she said it wouldn't be fair to me, either. My mother was furious, and she left me with just enough money to get by. My grandparents set me up with a substantial amount of money, but I can't access anything unless I..." he trailed off, taking a small breath. "Until I marry someone."
Grandmother nodded slowly as she understood the young man's predicament, trying to cheer him with a rare warm smile. "Our coven accepts mates of any kind of couple. Even before our country's laws began allowing a couple such as yourselves to marry, our coven has been open for anyone to marry whom their hearts desire," she told the human quietly.
Even though Minho had vaguely read something about marriages, he'd been too busy reading about all the laws he needed to make sure not to break. He nodded at the woman, letting a small sigh of relief leave his lungs. It was too much to try to hold in, and just telling Taemin and Grandmother what had happened was making him feel immensely better.
"How long have you been living on your own, Minho?" Taemin asked gently. "I mean, you were living at home before you got your apartment, right? So when you had this falling out with your mother, you left at that time and haven't really gone back?" he inquired softly.
As the human nodded, he let out a long sigh. "The last night I lived in that house, my mother told me I was a disgrace and a failure and that I had no right to be her son when I wasn't doing my duty to her," he bit at his lip again, seeing the pain on Taemin's face from the news. "Baby I'm okay. It hurts sometimes, but I knew it was coming already, and I've accepted how she feels about me. It was never about me being gay. My mother simply wanted things to go her way, and almost none of those things could happen unless I married a woman and did things her way," he sighed again, reaching out to take Taemin's hand and smile at him.
Grandmother took a sharp breath in as she turned to look at Minho. "I understand how difficult it would be to speak to your mother again, especially after this much time. However, have you considered whether or not to contact her about this? I know that our coven does not have the popularity of the business world, as we pride ourselves on such discretion. But we do have money, and power, and if you were to marry Taemin at some point, it seems you would be quite wealthy as well," she mused quietly, blinking slowly at the human as she let him think it over.
"I've thought about this situation a few times already, and I still have yet to make a decision," Minho revealed with yet another sigh. "I fear that if I tell her everything, the only reason she'll accept it is just that I'll be marrying into the wealth and power of the coven. I still don't think she's going to accept me for who I am, but she'll allow it because it would seem profitable to her," he told his boyfriend and the wise woman.
"You really think your mother would feel like that? Even after all this time, do you really think all she cares about is the money and prestige?" Taemin asked his boyfriend quietly. "I would give anything to have my parents back, and can imagine your mother misses you dearly," he sighed as he tried again to figure out how a mother and child could get so detached from one another.
Minho nodded slowly and let out one last, long sigh. "I'm going to have to just talk to her in person and see how things go. If we get along well enough, then I'll think more about telling her everything?" he tried, smiling a little when Grandmother and Taemin both gave him encouraging looks.
"I'm coming with you."
"You... I'm going to see my mother, who threw me out because I'm gay and didn't want to marry some girl just to make her happy," Minho looked at his boyfriend even stranger than he had when he found out he was a vampire. "And knowing all that, you want to come with me? You being my male romantic partner who happens to be a vampire?" he confirmed, shaking his head in disbelief as Taemin only nodded and smiled at him. "Fine..."
~*~
Minho hadn't been more nervous in his entire life than when he pulled up to the large home he'd grown up in. He had called his mother's assistant before even leaving his own apartment, and this was actually the second day he'd planned on coming. The first day, apparently his mother had a big meeting and seeing him would only distract her from her work. Naturally, he respectfully -cowardly- stayed away. Now that he was there, he turned to Taemin and frowned. "It's not too late, you know. We could scrap this whole stupid idea and make it look like I died in a freak boating accident," he tried, but Taemin stayed silent, opened his door, and started walking to the house.
"Taemin, wait... ," Minho sighed, scrambling out of his car and catching up with his boyfriend just before they reached the front door. He closed his eyes and took three deep breaths before ringing the doorbell, the sound of it through the door nearly deafening. "Tae, I don't think I can-" he was cut off by the door opening, and it took him several seconds to remember to open his eyes and give a small bow in greeting.
"Hello, Mo-"
Slap.
Taemin's eyes were wide as the woman he'd seen in pictures as Minho's mother slap the human firmly across the face. Then he smiled, because she pulled her son closer and hugged him against her body tightly. The woman lost her composure a bit more and let a few tears out, sniffling them away and wiping her face as she smiled from the embarrassment of not looking absolutely perfect.
"Does that mean we can come in?" Minho ventured, his soft voice and meek tone doing nothing to hide how stunned he was from the greeting.
Victoria Choi inhaled sharply and wiped the last of her tears before nodding. "Yes, of course. Come in, you and your friend. Well, I suppose a boy you bring home after all this time would have to be more than a friend, now wouldn't he?" she offered quietly, turning slowly to give the boys room to come in.
Minho let out a sigh of relief when Taemin walked through the door, because he had no idea how he was going to do this if Taemin wasn't allowed inside. He reached out for Taemin's hand and squeezed tightly as they followed his mother to a small sitting room to talk. And what a talk it would be.
"Your name, young man?" Victoria asked of Taemin once tea had been brought in, head tilted as the boy answered. "You don't look a day over sixteen..." she commented, eyebrows lifted at Minho suspiciously.
Minho rolled his eyes a little at his mother's suggestion that he was some sort of cradle robber. If anything, it was the other way around. "I have some things to talk to you about, Mother, some very important things. Many of them will be hard to believe, but I would hope that you can listen first and then ask questions," he began then took a very deep breath. It was easy enough to that Taemin was his boyfriend, and not as hard as he'd thought to explain to his mother how powerful the Lee family was. Well, he was using the word 'family', but he was truly talking about the coven.
"Now, the thing that's going to be harder for you to believe is not who the Lee family is, but what they are," the man said quietly and glanced at Taemin first before he cleared his throat. "Taemin, and his whole family, they are vampires," he started, letting his mother work over what he'd just said for a moment.
"Vampires? You expect me to believe that Taemin here, who came to my home in broad daylight and drank this rich garlic infused tea, is a vampire?" Victoria shook her head at her son. "Minho, I can accept that you're gay. I can even accept that you're likely going to marry this sweet young man and be very wealthy. But do not-"
"Insult you by trying to make this whole reunion some kind of joke," Taemin finished for her, deciding it was time to speak up for himself and save his boyfriend the stress. "I understand how strange it must be, Mrs. Choi, to see your son after all this time and then to have him speaking like a crazy person. However, it's the truth. I, as is my whole family, am a vampire," the man said firmly, closing his eyes only for a few seconds before opening them to show the woman his bright red irises. He opened his mouth as well, letting her watch as his already sharp canines elongated into the fangs he fed with.
"I can read your mind, Victoria Choi. I can see what you're thinking and what you're feeling. Minho isn't in some sort of cult and no he isn't a vampire. Not yet, anyway. He didn't stay away from you because he was angry, he stayed away because he was afraid. He was afraid that you either wouldn't or couldn't accept him as he is, and he contented himself with the life he had. Minho has never stopped loving you or missing you, and even now he's terrified that you're going to throw us out. Not that he's far off, since you're considering calling someone from security right now. Myungsoo, was it?"
"You... You can't be..." the woman shook her head in disbelief. Vampires weren't real, were they? But here he was with his red eyes and fangs and reading her mind . "What the hell is going on?" she demanded.
Minho sighed. "I told you, Taemin is a vampire. He was hurt one night, and he drank from me, and I decided to learn more about his world. We spent a lot of time together, and we fell in love. It's been a little over a year now that we've known each other, and I've loved him over half that time. I'm sorry this is all such a shock, but I wanted you to know everything. I intend to join their family, first as a human and then as a vampire, and I wanted to tell you first because you're my mother," he explained quietly. "I had to tell you because in order for me to see you at all after the change, you have to know first. If you can't accept it, then this really will be the last time I ever see you again, Mother," he whispered, lowering his gaze as Taemin placed his hand on Minho's shoulder soothingly.
Victoria stared intensely at the pair before her, then let out a very long sigh. "Very well, then. If you feel like you need to be a vampire, I don't see how I can stop you any more than I stopped you from being gay. You are my son, Choi Minho, and I love you. As your mother, of course I worry for your safety and I don't like the thought of someone killing you. However, if your choice is to become a vampire, I can't see any reason why I would try to stand in the way of your happiness again," she told him, tone rather defeated as her shoulders slumped.
With the biggest hurdle over, Minho and Taemin were freer to explain more about how they had come to be together, and what it actually meant for Minho to join the coven. The woman was pleased to be informed that she would be allowed to join the coven as well, as a human, of course. But anything that would keep her closer to her son would be a welcome opportunity. She was still thoroughly saddened that she would likely never be a grandmother, but she could pester them about adopting children for her to spoil later. It was late in the evening when they were finally finished talking, so Minho took Taemin to his old bedroom to stay the night.
Taemin let out a few laughs when he saw the human's room. And he had no idea how Minho's mother had ever had any doubts about her son's orientation. Taemin was gay, but, ", Minho..." he chuckled, grabbing a pair of skin tight leather pants that he was sure Minho needed half an hour to work onto his body. "You need to bring these with you, need to," he grinned, gasping loudly when his snooping showed him that his boyfriend had once had a makeup phase. And it wasn't just BB cream and chapstick. There were at least five different kinds of eyeliner, a dozen different kinds of lip gloss, and oh... The jewelry.
"Yeah yeah yeah, take it all in, Taemin," Minho shook his head, hiding his blushing face in his closet as he looked through a few shirts he had actually missed over the years. He hadn't been able to take as much as he wanted when he left, and he hadn't been allowed back to retrieve his things. His eyes widened when he remembered something else, and he prayed no one had gone looking through his things. There was a decent layer of dust, but it seemed that his room was cleaned periodically. He sighed in relief when he looked under his bed and there was a thicker layer of dust on an old boot box. And old boot box that did not contain boots. Minho looked around and made sure Taemin was occupied before peeking into his naughty box, the batteries all in one corner and single condoms or lube packets scattered between a few various s and s. He cleared his throat as he slipped it back under the bed, freezing when he realized that his boyfriend was standing over him.
"Whatcha got there, Minho?" Taemin asked quietly, reaching for it himself when the human didn't answer. He looked between the box and Minho's face several times before grinning broadly. "Doesn't it always feel great to play with old toys? I still enjoy building with my Legos sometimes, or coloring a book," he started, letting his boyfriend calm before going for the attack. "Let's play with your toys, Minho."
A/N: I just can't stop giggling about that last bit with the toys and the... Someone should slap me like Minho's mama did him.
So, there's that. It's still probably going to be a little rocky between Minho and his mom, but they'll work on it.
Also, for anyone who's like 'They can't get married wth you doing?' This is a fictional story and I'll do whatever I please.
So, there's that. It's still probably going to be a little rocky between Minho and his mom, but they'll work on it.
Also, for anyone who's like 'They can't get married wth you doing?' This is a fictional story and I'll do whatever I please.
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