Something Wicked This Way Comes

“Ooh nice, fresh meat.”

Jonghyun’s eyes widen and he backs away from Kibum’s side instantly. “The ? I knew it… I knew this was a trap. Oh my god, I’m going to die.”

Kibum rolls his eyes, cursing his luck that Taemin is home on the day he decides to bring a classmate home from university. He hasn’t done it since The Durham Fiasco, as Jinki had so kindly named the incident, due to whole vampire thing, but things have become so boring around the house lately that he decided to try again. He shouldn’t have.

Where he tries his best to pass for human, Taemin loves his natural skin more than anything; loves the fact that he can change his hair, skin and eye colour with less effort than it takes to raise an eyebrow. Kibum and Jinki have gotten used to the way he changes colours like a flashing billboard sign, but it must come as a shock to someone who’s never dabbled in the occult before.

Especially someone like Kim Jonghyun, who had asked quite nervously, when Kibum invited him over, whether anyone would be at home. “Your mum, maybe?” he had asked, followed by “So what are your neighbours like?”

Kibum can’t really blame Jonghyun for his nervousness. To be invited, out of the blue, to the home of the guy who is known to live with a bouncer working in the infamous red light district – never mind how unbearably nice said bouncer is – and who has a reputation for never inviting anyone to home or even discussing his home life, must be creepy. To be met with Taemin on top of that must be nerve-wracking. That being said, it is completely unnecessary for the man to be backing into a wall whilst haphazardly crossing himself. Especially since he’s an atheist.

“That’s not how you cross yourself,” Taemin says, hair changing from blue to moss to sandy in the space of that sentence.

Jonghyun whimpers.

Regretting very much his decision to bring Jonghyun home to study instead of just meeting him in a café like he does with all of his other course mates – studying wasn’t the only thing he had planned though; he had wanted to show him his albums and clothes and books, and there’s no way he’s dragging all of his precious stuff to and from some random café – Kibum steps between the two of them and glares at Taemin. “ off.”

“Why?” Taemin peers over his shoulder. His eyes flash electric blue. “Aren’t we going to eat?”

Another whimper.

“You know damn well that no eating is going to happen anytime soon,” Kibum says, voice louder than normal. Hopefully Jonghyun will hear, and believe, him.  “We don’t eat people.”

“Spoilsport.” Taemin looks at Jonghyun over Kibum’s shoulder again, this time smiling. Kibum refrains from telling him that his smile isn’t as reassuring as he seems to think it is and instead listens quietly as Taemin says “Hi! I’m Taemin. I’m sure Key-hyung talks about me a lot.”

“Uh…” is Jonghyun’s eloquent reply. Kibum guesses that he’s probably torn between telling the truth – that Kibum has never mentioned Taemin – or lying in order not to anger the clearly magical and dangerous creature in front of him.

“Stop stealing my friend,” Kibum says then. He turns to face Jonghyun, noting with some pride that Jonghyun seems less afraid already. “Sorry, ignore him.”

“You…” Jonghyun seems to be appraising him, as if waiting for him to burst into a bouquet of colours as well “you didn’t tell me you lived with fairies.”

Fairies. Kibum guffaws at the same time that Taemin scoffs in disgust. Fairies. That’s a first.

“I’m a VAMPIRE!” Taemin yells. His eyes rapidly switch between black and gold and his skin has turned the colour of fireworks.

Jonghyun just stares at him incredulously.

“Really, he is,” Kibum adds, when it seems that Taemin is going to sulk and Jonghyun is going to start fearing for his life again. “But we’ve trained him well, so don’t worry.”

“ you,” Taemin hisses. He stomps up the stairs to his room and shuts the door with a bang. Definitely sulking.

Jonghyun looks amazed. “I didn’t know vampires could do that.”

It annoys Kibum, slightly. He changes his hair from blonde to bright pink, before toning it down several shades to settle for grapefruit. “It’s not so hard.”

The open amazement in Jonghyun’s eyes has Kibum blushing slightly. He’s also a little worried about Jonghyun’s lack of self-preservation skills  - really, he shouldn’t be so at ease with being in the presence of vampire so quickly – but he decides not to comment on it.

“So, d’you wanna go up to my room? I was thinking we could get started on… or do you want to have coffee? We just got this coffee machine, I can make you a macchiato if you want.”

“Coffee would be great,” Jonghyun responds.

Kibum makes two cups, and he takes them to where Jonghyun is waiting and, not so discreetly, exploring the house. The latter jumps slightly when Kibum holds the mug out to him.

“It’s okay,” Kibum says “Look as much as you want.” It’s not like he has any secrets lying around in the living room and kitchen. In fact, the kitchen is just like any other kitchen in any other human home; it has a cooker and a fridge and a microwave. The living room has a couch and a television and a coffee table with a few magazines and newspapers lying around. Possibly the only thing out of ordinary would be the blood packs in the fridge.

“Satisfied?” Kibum asks, and Jonghyun turns red with embarrassment.

“Sorry,” he says. “The coffee’s really good.”

“As if I would settle for anything less than good. Come on, let’s go up. My textbooks are all upstairs.”

Jonghyun follows him quietly, but Kibum can practically hear all the questions he has zipping around in his head. Still, Jonghyun has manners enough to keep those questions to himself, which is a rarity in humans; once they realise that Kibum is a vampire, they seem to think that the ordinary rules of etiquette stop applying and they can ask him all manner of uncomfortable things. It partly why they have a policy of not getting attached to humans if it can be helped.  

But Jonghyun is different, Kibum can tell. And for once, he’s curious to hear whatever questions Jonghyun is keeping to himself.

“I know you have questions,” Kibum says, once they’re seated comfortably. “I don’t mind if you want to ask me anything.”

He doesn’t expect Jonghyun’s first question to be about Taemin. “I didn’t offend your brother, did I?”

Taemin is most definitely not Kibum’s brother, but he lets that one slide for now. “He’s just throwing a bit of a strop because I interrupted his fun. He’ll come looking for us soon enough, the nosy little that he is.”

“Why did you bring me here?” is Jonghyun’s next question. Kibum is impressed; most other people would have asked something related to blood and the consumption thereof, but this – Jonghyun is being so cautious of his feelings that Kibum is touched.

“I…” he decides to be honest. “It gets boring, not having any friends other than Taemin and Jinki.”

“So… I’m guessing you don’t eat people?”

Kibum laughs. “No. I mean, vampires did do that, ages ago. Like, all the stories you heard about Dracula, give or take a few dramatisations, are true. But our culture has evolved as much as human culture has, so one sane actually drinks from humans anymore. In fact, if anyone has anything to fear, it’s us… you know, government experimentation and the like.”

“You can drink coffee,” Jonghyun says, pointing at the cup in Kibum’s hand. “And we’ve had lunch together a lot, so you can eat and enjoy human food. And you can go out in sunlight.”

“Yes and yes,” Kibum responds, encouraging Jonghyun to draw his own conclusions.

Jonghyun smiles. “I guess I wouldn’t mind having a vampire study buddy.”

Kibum laughs. “Mind? You should be honoured.”

“Why are you taking this course, if I can ask? Like, is it like Twilight where you have to go to school again and again because you’re stuck at this age and if you don’t people get suspicious?”

Twilight again. Vampires don’t kill anymore, as a rule, but Kibum is willing to make an exception should he ever run into Stephanie Meyer.

“No. And never utter the word Twilight again in my presence.” Kibum grabs a stack of books from the table and walks over to the bed. Jonghyun scoots aside to make space for him. “Have you ever felt like you wanted to be a detective, but at the same time you want to learn how to design couture and how to play the piano and the violin and the flute, but you had to pick one?”

At Jonghyun’s nod, Kibum explains more. “Well, I have all the time in the world to learn these things now. I’ve already got a doctorate in Asian literature from Cambridge and I’ve taken a course from Jimmy Choo on shoe-making. Now I want to study music. We only stay in one place for ten years or so, so when we move on I’ll study something else.”

“That’s so awesome,” Jonghyun replies, his voice coloured with something Kibum hasn’t heard for a long time now; respect. “You must be so brilliant.”

“I think I’m going to be sick.”

Jonghyun jumps from the bed and even Kibum is startled enough to flinch. He looks up and sees Taemin on the ceiling – he must have snuck in just now, when he and Jonghyun were talking. Kibum is just glad he hasn’t said anything that Taemin can use against him later.

“What part of off don’t you understand?”

With a pout, Taemin unsticks himself from the ceiling and falls on Kibum’s bed. Jonghyun backs away minutely. “I’m bored.”

“We’re going to study,” Kibum warns.

“Do you want to study?” Taemin asks Jonghyun. “This is your first time meeting vampires and instead of asking me to your blood you want to do algebra?”

“Taemin!”

“Well…um…” Jonghyun stammers.

“I’ll pull your fangs out if you talk about blood one more time, I swear,” Kibum scolds, grabbing the back of Taemin’s t-shirt and shaking him for good measure. “Also, Jonghyun is a music major, we’re here to study music theory not algebra. You can hang around if you like, but don’t disrupt us.”

It is an utterly useless admonishment. It only takes ten minutes before Taemin has usurped Kibum’s place on his own bed, and he’s currently hogging all of Jonghyun’s attention by trying to make music notes appear on his skin.

“Are you scared of me?” Taemin asks. He darkens his hair and eyes to midnight black and pales his skin to a corpse-like white, and bares his fangs. “If you saw me coming down an alley, would you scream and faint?”

Honestly, as if anyone would be scared of a wannabe vampire in a band t-shirt and skinny jeans. He’d probably be mugged, Kibum wants to say.

But Jonghyun nods. “Yeah, you are.”

“Great, just great,” Kibum mutters as Taemin crows with victory. “Thank you for encouraging this delusion.”

“He is scary,” Jonghyun insists, much to Taemin’s delight, and Kibum sees right through him. He’s winning Taemin over and Taemin doesn’t even know how easily he’s being played.

“Do you like skateboarding?” Taemin asks. “I’ve got a couple of extra ones, I can teach you how.”

“I broke my ankle in a cycling accident, so thanks but no thanks.”

“I’ll take care of you, don’t worry,” Taemin wheedles, draping himself over Jonghyun’s lap. It surprises Kibum, since Taemin is not the type to make friends easily. At least he gets to go out and meet people in university, Kibum realises, whereas Taemin is cooped up here all day. If Kibum is bored and lonely, then Taemin must have it worse.

“I’ll think about it?”

“Cool.” Taemin wriggles around so that his head is pillowed in Kibum’s lap and his feet are resting on Jonghyun’s thighs. “I don’t use a helmet or knee pads, but I’m sure we can find some for you.”

Kibum gives up hope of getting any studying done at all, but secretly, he doesn’t mind. This is better than anything he could have hoped for when he brought Jonghyun home.

Still, by the time the sun sets, Jonghyun has completely overcome the surprise of discovering the existence of vampires. He and Taemin are laughing over vampire move clichés, Taemin’s hair and skin sparkling golden like the sun as he giggles, and Kibum almost forgets that Jinki’s shift is almost done.

It’s only when he gets a text from Jinki, asking whether he wants any human food for dinner, that Kibum realises how the time has flown.

“Jjong, I think you should go now,” he says, body growing cold at the realisation that Jinki could have walked in on them.

Something must have given away his fright, because Taemin stops laughing too. His hair and eyes darken from gold to violet and his skin pales.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Sure,” Jonghyun responds happily, apparently unaware of the change in the mood. Kibum fights to keep a smile on his face; he doesn’t want to scare Jonghyun away. “Bye Taemin, it was nice meeting you.”

“Don’t forget about the skateboarding,” Taemin says.

“I won’t.”

A whole ten minutes pass before Jonghyun gathers his books and bags and shoes and finally leaves, and Kibum huffs a breath of relief at the sight of Jonghyun’s back disappearing down the street. Taemin steps up behind him and drops his head on Kibum’s shoulder.

“I really like him,” he says, hair turning silver and skin tanning in imitation of Jonghyun’s style. “Are you going to bring him back sometime?”

“We shouldn’t get attached,” Kibum says, parroting what Jinki always tells them.

“I like him,” Taemin insists.

Kibum turns around, catching Taemin in hug, and smiles at him; he can tell from the way that Taemin shifts his appearance again that his smile is a sad one. “I know, babe. I like him too. And I’ll try to bring him around again, but I’m not taking any risks. Are we clear?”

It’s a warning that comes not a moment too soon.

The door creaks open behind them and Jinki comes in, carrying take-out containers from the samsyupal place around the corner.

“Is that for me?” Taemin asks excitedly, pushing out of Kibum’s arms to take the bags from Jinki.

Jinki smiles, so kindly that Kibum almost forgets to be afraid. “Yes. And we can finish off the blood packs today. I met Hwayoung this morning, she said she can get us another shipment by the end of the week.”

Taemin flashes blue, red and gold like a malfunctioning traffic light and Jinki laughs at his excitement. Even Kibum can’t keep himself from smiling. At times like these, he can’t express his gratitude to the universe that led to Taemin finding them.

“Come here,” Jinki says affectionately, reaching out to ruffle Taemin’s hair.

That’s when everything goes belly up.

It only takes one sniff for Jinki to stop smiling and to turn serious. “Taemin, what’s that smell?”

“Huh?”

Jinki sniff the air again, and turns to Kibum. “You reek of human.”

Kibum wills himself to appear nonchalant when he’s quaking on the inside. “I had classes today, hello?”

“This isn’t the smell of a crowd,” Jinki contradicts, taking another deep sniff of him. “This is just one person.”

“I had lunch with my classmate.”

“Why does it smell like he’s rubbed all over you?”

Kibum can’t help blushing at Jinki’s choice of words, and curses himself when Jinki’s expression darkens. “He’s the king of skinship. You can go on campus and ask anyone, Jonghyun is just really affectionate. That’s all.”

“Then why does Taemin smell like him too?”

That’s when, to Kibum’s relief, Taemin comes up with a good defence. He wraps his arms around Kibum and presses their bodies together in a clearly intimate embrace, and says to Jinki “Because we were in the middle of something when you got back.”

It’s a brilliant plan; Jinki makes a disgusted face and backs away. Kibum doesn’t quite understand his distaste at his and Taemin’s occasional ual escapades – really, what does he expect would happen if he bars them from having any contact with humans – but he’s grateful for it now.

With a quick kiss pressed to Taemin’s lips in lieu of thanks, Kibum follows Jinki into the kitchen. He’s glad that he took the time earlier to wash the mugs he and Jonghyun had drunk from, since it would be difficult to explain why there are two mugs when only Kibum drinks coffee in this house.

Jinki is heating up blood packs in the microwave. When Kibum moves to stand by his side, he says quietly “I know you’re lonely, but we can’t risk getting close to them. You know that, right?”

And as much as Kibum wants to argue, he just nods and says “I know.”

~~~

well, that's the first chapter up! 

as usual, read, enjoy and comment, please :)