How Donghae finds out that the dead man is actually a vampire is a wild adventure in itself. Long story short, the dead man tried to take a bite out of a squirrel on his way out of the hole and Donghae put two and two together and now here they were, in Donghae's bare living room.

“You’re a living, breathing vampire!”

“Actually, I am not alive, per se, so thus I cannot be ‘living’, or ‘breathing’. And my name is Hyukjae, by the way,” the vamp oh so helpfully points out.

Donghae pulls at his hair. “You’re a ing vampire! What the ? Does this mean that everything else is real, too? Werewolves? Unicorns? Parallel universes!? Does ing Hogwarts exist!?”

It’s safe to say Donghae is losing his mind. How can he not? What was he supposed to do now? Call CNN? The police? Who the do you call to report the frigging undead!?

“I think you’re getting ahead of yourself,” the vampire says, watching casually as Donghae has a mental breakdown.

Hyukjae looks uncomfortable with the situation, and Donghae actually calms down when he realizes that maybe, just maybe if he stopped causing a scene, the vampire would spare his life and hopefully leave without taking a bite out of Donghae.

It takes a few minutes, but Donghae convinces himself that this whole thing is fine, finding out vampires are real is fine, everything’s fine.

Yeah, ok, sure.

When Donghae does finally calms down long enough so that he’s in his right senses once again, the awkwardness settles in. Hyukjae’s sticking to his end of the room on the single blue couch in the room, eyes roaming everywhere, especially outside onto the quiet paved streets, and Donghae is sticking to his end of the room.

It's really hard not to stare. Not only is the man –– creature?–– sitting in his living room a vampire, but he's really, really attractive. Like I would sell my left kidney to be with him kind of attractive.

Donghae gulps loudly when those eyes finally find him again, hovering at what he gauges as a safe distance in the living room archway, playing with his fingers and standing on pinched toes as he waits for almost certain death. He would've hauled  ever since he kicked the vamp away from him in the yard, but the guy had walked into his house (unwelcomed, mind you) and Donghae was too scared to do anything but meekly follow. So he's left shifting nervously, praying for a quick death, and waiting for the vamp to say something.

But all he does is eerily stare, first at every corner of the room, and now at Donghae. He's looking at Donghae, blinking slowly like he's trying to process something.

After a long while, Donghae gets antsy and decides to try his luck. "So you're a vampire, huh?" He's trying to play it cool, but his voice cracks towards the end. He hopes vampires aren't like bears. He once read online that bears can smell fear.

"What year is this?" The vampire asks instead, ignoring the comment. If this were any other situation, Donghae would've given him a lecture about being rude, but you know Donghae doesn't want to die yet, so he clears his throat and straightens out his voice before he answers.

The vampire's eyes widen a bit before they go back to normal too quickly. "Is that so?"

Donghae nods. "What… what year are you from?" The question sounds like something you'd ask a time traveler, not some guy buried in your backyard. What even would be more appropriate? What year did you get buried alive? Why are you a vampire? Are you going to eat me? my blood? Whisk me away to some secret vampire society and then my blood. Have you always been a vampire? How many more of them are you? Do you turn into a bat? Sleep in a coffin?--well I guess you were. Can you maybe stop staring? Are all vampires this good looking? Why are you wearing a straitjacket?

The questions are plenty, but Donghae bites his tongue. He's still waiting on an answer to his first question.

The vampire finally averts his eyes to look out the window overlooking the paved street and the neat little row of houses opposite Donghae's. "My last recollections are from 1680."

"Jesus Christ!"

It takes Donghae a moment to realize that the reason Mr. Vamp is giving his a dry stare is because he'd just shouted the name of the lord in front of some kind of Satan creation.

"Sorry! Sorry, I just— that's just like a really long time."

The vampire doesn't say anything, just looks back at Donghae. He doesn't seem particularly swayed by the news. Maybe he doesn't really care.

It’s another minute before Hyukjae finally decides to do something other than sit and stare and ignore Donghae’s questions.

He gets up, one fluid movement despite the heavy looking rusted straight jacket. Donghae gets momentarily distracted by those legs, long and slender and clad in black. Broken shackles around the ankles, but Donghae chooses to ignore that little detail.

Then Hyukjae starts walking towards him and Donghae remembers the whole vampire thing. Oh he's doing it now. He's gonna my blood and dump my body in the hole.

But before Donghae can spin around to the front door and dash, Hyukjae's in front of him.

Donghae is startled into taking a step back. Damn that face. It's so … perfect. Donghae feels hot under the collar. Standing right in front of him, he has to look up a fractional bit. And by god, if Donghae hadn't just uprooted the man from his backyard, he'd be on him like white on rice.

"I'm thankful to have been found by you, Donghae. Thank you for your hospitality. I'll be on my way now."

Wait, what?

"You're leaving?"

Don't go handsome stranger. Donghae almost slaps himself when he's about to say it out loud.

“You’re leaving? Just like that? Don’t you want like… directions or something?”

“Directions to where?” Hyukjae asks, an eyebrow lifted as he waits for Donghae to realize how illogical his question is. “It’s been well over three hundred years.”

Donghae’s about to ask where exactly Hyukjae plans on going, but then he realizes that he should be happy the vamp was leaving without Donghae having to grab his shovel and threaten to call the cops. If anything, Donghae should be showing him to the door.

So Donghae clears his throat and nods.

Hyukjae doesn’t offer him any goodbyes, just leaves with a slight bow of the head, and once again, Donghae’s little house is empty and breezy and he’s all alone.

Good riddance.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Two hours later, Donghae still hasn’t moved from his living room. He’s sitting on the floor in the middle of the room. There’s a box lying open in front of him. It’s a clothing box that, aside from the one shirt sitting forgotten in Donghae’s lap, is still full and untouched.

As soon as Hyukjae had left, Donghae had tried to carry on as if the encounter hadn’t happened, but Donghae couldn’t stop getting distracted.

No matter which way you look at it, Donghae just had a run-in with a supernatural creature and it wasn’t something he could just shake his head at and forget.

He does try, but every time he begins unpacking the box, his mind will wander and he’ll find himself thinking about vampires and werewolves and fairies and monsters, and no boxes get emptied as he spaces out.

He decides to call it a day when the sun begins to dip below the houses.

Donghae goes to close all the front windows he’d opened, noticing that there was a slight change in the clouds. They looked much more grey now, signaling rain to come.

Donghae sighs, hoping the house doesn’t have any leaks. He’s almost sure it does, but he can still cross his fingers.

When he’s done locking up the house, he’s about to head upstairs, but then realizes that the electricity hasn’t been set up yet.

Donghae’s no wimp, but it’s still scary sleeping in the new house for the first night in complete darkness. Especially now that he knows things like vampires exist.

So he makes a U-turn away from the stairs and goes over to the kitchen, and digs through a box labeled Desk Stuff until he finds his battery powered lamp.

He brings it to his new room, and tosses and turns for a good hour before the exhaustion kicks in.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

It’s around 3 a.m. when the sound of glass breaking startles Donghae awake and he comes down the stairs armed with the lamp — shade and everything— only to find a soaking wet undead thing pathetically standing around in the kitchen like he doesn’t know what to do with himself.

Donghae gawks at the sight.

“What are you doing here? And why are y— Did you break down my door?” Donghae shrieks in horror as he catches sight of the back door ripped right off its hinges, thrown uselessly outside in the rain.

The vampire clears his throat, and straightens out his posture as if trying to look intimidating.

Donghae isn’t about to get bullied by some guy in a straitjacket, though, so he squares his shoulders as well. It’s hard to tell who’s winning, though, because they both look equally pathetic and very much un-intimidating: Donghae in his happy bunny matching pajama set holding his lamp, and the vampire leaking onto the tiles and looking like a wet raccoon.

“I was thinking it might be best if I remained in your company for the time being. I owe you for waking me, and it is only fitting that I remain by your side until my debt has been repaid.”

Donghae, despite still being half asleep, pieces the situation together quickly. “You’ve got nowhere else to go,” he states flatly, giving the vamp a dry stare.

Hyukjae’s lips twist down as if Donghae’s particular wording offended him. “That’s not what I said.”

Donghae’s got a good mind to shove the man back outside into the rain, but he scoffs instead. Hyukjae’s lucky he’s so handsome.

Donghae rolls his eyes. “Alright, alright, you can stay the night. Just promise me you won’t jump me and try to drink my blood.”

Hyukjae looks unamused. “It is highly unlikely I would jump you and drink your blood. I can’t remember the last time I’ve taken blood from a human.”

Donghae shrugs off that bit of information, not really caring so long as he can hurry up and get to bed. “So we have a truce, then.”

“An agreement?” The vampire asks for clarification, and Donghae nods, sticking out his hand.

“Yes, an agreement. I let you stay for the night and you keep your teeth to yourself.”

Hyukjae once again pulls a flat face, but does agree to the terms.

Rain was still pouring in through the opening where the door no longer stood, but Donghae could worry about that tomorrow. Besides, the neighborhood was supposed to be safe, and plus, he had a frigging vampire in his house— a robber was the last of his worries.

Donghae gets Hyukjae to follow him upstairs to the bathroom where he tells him (with resistance) to sit on the toilet seat.

Donghae helps Hyukjae cut through his strait jacket with a pair of gardening scissors.

Hyukjae’s quite robust underneath the strait jacket, and Donghae has a hard time averting his eyes. What can he say? A nice set of abs is a nice set of abs, regardless of if they were on a dead guy.

He then gives him a towel and tells him to dry off and change into clothes that he brings.

But the vampire is a stubborn one. “My body is not as fragile as a human’s. The rain doesn’t do anything harmful."

“Oh stop your fussing and dry off already,” Donghae snaps, shoving the towel at him again.

“But that shirt looks like it’s made from a very cheap material, and I have very sensitive skin.”

Donghae looks back at the striped pajama set he’d offered him. He’s mildly offended, but he did buy it at a flea market so he can’t really defend it. “Do you want a t-shirt instead?”

“I don’t know what a t-shirt is.”

Donghae fights the urge to roll his eye for the nth time. “Just dry off,” he said in a stern, no-room-for-discussion voice, but Hyukjae still refuses.

Donghae has no time for this; he wants to go back to bed. So he does the drying himself. Of course it’s met with lots of struggle, but the vampire ends up with his legs folded pretzel style, broody and moody and annoyed from having been defeated as Donghae scrubs away at his head.

Surprisingly, the more Donghae scrubs, the less the whole vampire-in-my-house thing bothers him.

And after wrestling a shirt onto the vamp and not getting angry teeth torn into him, Donghae has regained confidence and is now a man of no fears.

Thus, he doesn’t hesitate to push Hyukjae onto the couch in the living room with nothing more than a flimsy pillow and a mediocre "goodnight" before slinking up the stairs to his bed.

He locks the door and then blissfully curls up under the sheets. The vampire issue will sort itself out in the morning— right now he needs his sleep.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

The vampire issue does not, in fact, “sort itself out” in the morning because Donghae comes downstairs (again armed with the lamp because you can never be too sure) only to find Hyukjae rummaging through his boxes, more specifically a clothing box. Even more specific, the tiny box with his delicates.

“I know this is a new era and all, but I thought only women wore silk undergarments,” he says, holding up a pair of red, silk boxers (very short, very tight boxers) up for Donghae to see.

Donghae is across the room in a flash, snatching the piece of cloth away, red faced and glaring. “T-They were for a special occasion.”

“But how can they be special when there are a few more in here?”

“Stop going through my stuff!”

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

The first week is a weird one.

He's never had a roommate before. Were they supposed to keep their space? Were they supposed to be best buddies?

Donghae chooses space and he's caught between awkwardly avoiding Hyukjae while at the same time trying to catch a glimpse of the undead supermodel.

That works for about one day though before Donghae catches Hyukjae tearing through his newly packed coat closet.

“What’re you doing?” Donghae asks as he comes up behind him, readjusting the box of DVDs he was taking to the attic.

“There’s a strange beeping noise and I can’t find where it’s coming from,” Hyukjae says, head still in between the coats.

Donghae tilts his head for a moment but then hears it. “Oh, that’s just the coffee maker.”

Hyukjae’s head pulls out of the closet, hair ruffled and mouth in a frown, clearly agitated with the sound.

Donghae takes it upon himself to leave the DVDs in the hallway and show Hyukjae to the kitchen.

“What an odd contraption. You said it makes coffee? But where does it get the ingredients from? Oh, and what exactly is coffee?”

It’s a process, explaining the mechanics of the coffee maker and Hyukjae’s hundred questions doesn’t help. In the end, Hyukjae demands a taste test, and it proves to be successful when his eyes widen the slightest bit and finishes the cup before Donghae can tell him that might not have been the best idea. But Hyukjae’s a vampire, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

It takes about two full days to unpack and rearrange everything. During that time Hyukjae diligently keeps out of the way and lets Donghae decorate his house.

But there’s actually not that much stuff, and since Donghae’s never had such a big place before, there’s hardly even anything. The house looks so bare.

He brings his dilemma to Hyukjae who helpfully suggests more furniture. So the two go shopping.

Donghae’s low on money so he’s trying to squeeze his pocket. But of course Hyukjae’s not helping because the vamp has an expensive style and keeps pointing out all the high end pieces that Donghae can't afford.

Thus, they reduce to thrifting –furniture thrifting. And although Hyukjae complains about how unstable everything is, he helps Donghae and the two spend the day picking out shaky secondhand tables and chairs.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

By the fourth day, Donghae’s tired from all the moving. He needs a mental break. Said mental break comes in the form of introducing his ancient roommate to the miracle of automobiles.

Donghae, sadly, doesn’t have a car to show Hyukjae. He does however have a bus pass, and the two board the East bound bus on a Sunday morning when there are fewer people out, allowing Hyukjae to ‘oo’ and ‘ah’ freely as the bus does its thing and rolls around town.

After showing him around the city and watching him go wide eyed at the tall buildings and cars and people, Donghae takes him to the biggest mall in town and the two peruse the shops and ogle at things Donghae can’t afford.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

By the end of the week, it’s no secret that Hyukjae’s addicted to coffee.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Hyukjae gets triggered by Donghae’s “lack of cleanliness”.

To be honest, Donghae doesn’t think he has a problem with tidying up, and after watching Hyukjae repack the food pantry in al