“Hyung” Junhong whines as they walk down the shockingly empty streets of Hongdae “I’m hungry”

Himchan rolls his eyes “Patients is a virtue Zelo”

“What about them?” Junhong asks, pointing to a couple walking down the street with linked hands.

“Didn’t your maker teach you anything?” Himchan sighs “You know we aren’t allowed to attack humans”

“I wasn’t going to attack them” Junhong says exasperatedly “I was going to ask them politely if they wanted to get off of”

“That sounds immensely wrong” Himchan chuckles “and illegal”

“Like you don’t do it” Junhong scoffs

“I do no such thing” Himchan sounds affronted “and even if I do” he adds when he notes Junhong’s raised eyebrow “I’d definitely not admit it in public…because obviously it’s a crime”

Junhong rolls his eyes “Where is this club anyway? I’m starving”

“Listen” Himchan sneers “I didn’t even want to bring you but your master just had to leave you in my charge”

Junhong pouts “I would have been perfectly fine on my own”

Himchan scoffs “Yeah right”

“I don’t know why he couldn’t just ask Youngjae hyung to watch me”

“He took Youngjae with him” Himchan answers offhandedly

“Then I should have been allowed to go too” Junhong whines

“You’re still too young”

“No I’m not” Junhong huffs

“I don’t know what Yongguk saw in you that he wanted to keep” Himchan groans

“I’m gonna telling Yongguk hyung you said that” Junhong pouts

“He wouldn’t care” Himchan smiles devilishly at the younger “plus I have him wrapped around my finger”

Junhong scoffs “So do I”

Himchan glares at the younger “I’m his mate”

“I’m his progeny” Junhong defiantly throws back

Himchan growls lowly at the other “What does that have to do with anything?”

“You’d understand if you had a progeny” Junhong quips

“Daehyun is basically my progeny” Himchan argues

“No he isn’t” Junhong laughs “You both share the same maker, it’s totally different”

“What would you know?” Himchan scoffs “I don’t see you running around with a progeny”

“You know I’m too young to turn anyone”

“I don’t see what’s so great about progeny anyway” Himchan says “You and Youngjae only ever seem to bring Yongguk trouble”

“Whilst that is sort of true” Junhong laughs, pushing Himchan’s shoulder “He’d be lost without us”

Himchan has to smile at that “That’s probably true” he laughs.

“Are we there yet?” Junhong whines

“Almost” Himchan yells “Just shut up”

Junhong huffs but he keeps his mouth shut.

As they continue walking, in silence, because even Junhong was smart enough to sense when he’s pushed the boundaries with Himchan a little too far, he smells something so overpowering and delicious it makes his vision blur and his head spin.

“What is that?” Junhong questions “It smells like…” he doesn’t even have a word in his vocabulary to describe the pure utter joy the smell brings him.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Himchan questions “I don’t smell anything but garbage, sweat, alcohol and ”

“That” Junhong points to nowhere in particular “You can’t smell that?”

“No” Himchan says assuming the youngest was delirious from hunger “Come on, the club is really close, we’ll get you something to drink”

Junhong nod’s not fully paying attention to the elder’s words.

As they continue to walk towards the club the smell intensifies, and Junhong, for lack of his normal composure, is moments away from tearing down every building in Seoul just to find the source. He’s just about to do something—although he’s not entirely sure what the something is—when a door to an old dance studio opens.

There is a still moment when everything in Junhong’s world stops. The intense colors Junhong is used to fades into the background, all sound and movement stopping. And Junhong knows, without a doughty, that the person who had just exited the building was his. His. And he was going to taste his blood if it was the last thing he’d ever do.

Junhong springs forward so fast it catches Himchan off guard.

“Junhong” he yells as his vampiric eyes catch Junhong gripping some poor teenage so fast and hard it even makes Himchan wince, before flashing into the alleyway next to the building. The movement so fast no human eye could have perceived it.

He had to act fast. Attacking a human was a crime; punishable by death.

The true death

He couldn’t let that happen. Yongguk had asked him to keep an eye on Junhong. He couldn’t let his mate down. How would that look? He’d only been watching Junhong for three days. Three ing days and the boy just had to have a lapse. Why couldn’t he have done this when his master was around?

Himchan flashed into the same alleyway Junhong had dragged the teen down. But the sight in front of him is not what he had expected.

Junhong was covered in blood, holding the teen close to his body as he rocked back in forth.

“I didn’t mean to” he was saying, blood tears running down his cheeks “It was an accident. I’m sorry”

“W-what’s going on?” Himchan asks shakily “Why are you crying? Jesus, if Yongguk finds out he’s going to kill me. You need to get up so we can dispose of his body”

“No” Junhong shouts “You have to save him”

“What?” Himchan yells as quietly as possible, it wouldn’t be good to have people wander into the alley. They had just essentially committed a crime.

“He’s basically dead” Himchan argues “His heart is so faint I can barely hear it”

“I didn’t mean to” Junhong cries pathetically “he just smelled so good”

“Yeah, well, you screwed up, it happens” Himchan says “Now let’s get out of here before someone notices us”

“I can’t” Junhong cries, blood flowing from his tear ducts “you have to save him. Please”

“I-I…” Himchan sputters “what do you mean save him?”

“Turn him” Junhong says, hope lacing his words “Please, you have to change him”

“But” Himchan says “Why?”

“I…” Junhong doesn’t really know why he’s irrationally attached to the practically dead teenager in his arms “I’m too young, I can’t change him”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Himchan yells

“Please” Junhong begs “I need him”

“You need him?” Himchan yells “You certainly have a funny way of showing it, seeing as you basically tried to kill him a few moments ago”

“Please” Junhong begs again “Please”

Himchan sighs, he’d never really thought about having a progeny. He never really wanted one. Someone bound to you for eternity, loyal beyond even that of mates. But he couldn’t just let the kid die. And from the way Junhong was acting you’d think the boy was his progeny or something. Or something. Something along the lines of…

“No” he says quietly “It can’t be”

“What?” Junhong asks, the unconscious teens face genteelly.

“Is he your…mate?”

“What?” Junhong asks, tightening his grip on the teen, he looks down.

And suddenly it makes since. Everything makes since. Every single thing in the entire universe suddenly makes since.

“Oh. My. God” Junhong is suddenly panicked “You have to change him” and this time he isn’t asking, he’s threatening “Now” he growls out, low and menacing. And Himchan suddenly understands what Yongguk saw in the boy all those years ago, the reason he’d changed him, the reason he kept him around.

“Fine” Himchan agrees. It’s not like he could let the teen die, not with the knowledge that he might actually be Junhong’s mate. That would be the most despicable thing he could do to another vampire.

Junhong smiles, relief flooding his features as he looks back down at the teen “Don’t worry” He whispers “everything is going to be alright”

†   †   †

It’s shocking how easily they managed to drag the nearly dead teenager out of the alleyway without anyone noticing. It wasn’t even that hard to haul his lifeless body through the miles of woods that cloaked their home from the living population of Seoul. And Junhong managed to dig a deep hole in the backyard at a shockingly productive rate.

“All done” he cheers as he jumps out of the hole, covered in dirt and the teen’s blood.

Himchan rolls his eyes before kicking the lifeless body of the teen into the hole.

“Careful” Junhong screams

Himchan rolls his eyes again “You seriously don’t have any room to talk” he smirks, jumping down into the hole as well.

“Zelo” Himchan calls, looking up at the younger vampire “just be aware that it might not take”

Junhong nods, looking at the bloodstained body of the boy he presumes is his mate.

“Then I’ll just have to live with the fact that I killed him” he says and Himchan smiles sadly at the younger. He couldn’t imagine a greater pain. Losing your mate; killing him.

Himchan shakes the thought from his head and crouches next to the boy. He bites his neck, just above one of the puncture wounds Junhong had caused. He smiles at the taste as he pulls away, his lips, it had been a while since he last tasted real human blood.  Laying down next to the teen, he bites his wrist and lets his blood drip into the teens’ mouth.

“Fill it up” Himchan calls, shutting his eyes, his arms wrapped protectively around the unconscious male. And that’s exactly what Junhong does; he fills up the hole, creating a makeshift grave. Hopefully one the teen would immerge from.

Junhong sits by the grave all night. Only leaving to go into the house when the sky starts to lighten, a tell tale sign the sun was about to arise.

But even as he climbs into his coffin his only thoughts are on the teen he’d attacked, he even had the audacity to prey to the God the living claimed abandoned creatures like him. He’d never wanted to curse someone into this life so much as he did now.

†   †   †

As soon as the sun set Junhong was out the door. Pacing around the grave like a madman. He couldn’t hear a heartbeat but he wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing.

It was well past midnight and neither Himchan nor the unnamed teen had emerged from the grave.

“What’s taking them so long?” Junhong questioned as he continued to pace back and forth.

“What are you doing out here?” He heard his maker call, instantly stopping him in his tracks “Where is Himchan?”

“Uh” Junhong said, rubbing the back of his hair sheepishly “In the ground”

“Why?” Daehyun laughed walking over to the freshly packed dirt “you annoy him so bad he killed himself?”

“No” Junhong yelled

“Leave him alone Daehyun” Youngjae sighed going over to stand next to his ‘brother’

 “Aww, you’re no fun” Daehyun said, punching Youngjae in the shoulder.

“Why is he in the ground Zelo” Yongguk asked, authority dripping from the voice, Junhong had no choice but to tell him the truth.

“I accidently attacked a human and he almost died but then I begged Himchan to save him because I think he might be my mate” Junhong said so fast the three vampires almost didn’t catch it.

“Your mate?” Yongguk and Youngjae say at the same time.

“Himchan’s created a progeny?” Daehyun asks “But…why?”

“I told you” Junhong huffs “I think he might be my mate”

“Still” Daehyun says “Himchan with a progeny? Am I seriously the only one who can’t picture it?”

“He is getting old” Youngjae shrugs

Daehyun laughs as Yongguk furrows his eyebrows

“If Himchan is old what does that make me?” he asks

“Ancient” Youngjae and Junhong chorus, high fiving at their shared sibling like minds.

“Jesus” Daehyun frowns “are me and Himchan that lame?”

“No” Yongguk answers “you’re more annoying”

Youngjae and Junhong laugh but it soon cuts off when they hear the distinct sound of dirt being moved.

“It’s happening” Junhong says excitedly

They only have to wait a few minutes before a hand punches through the dirt.