Kihyun strolls through the streets of his suburban neighborhood, all the cookie-cutter houses setting his extra-sharp canines on edge. Of course, that could also be because he's nearing a certain mortal's home...

He turns up a concrete path towards the house just across the street from his own. The smell of sweet, delicious, savory, intoxicating mortal blood fills his nose as he grows nearer to the house, and he has to control his strength to keep from knocking the door off its hinges as he taps his knuckles against it.

The door immediately swings open, revealing Kihyun’s adorable, delectable, tempting, precious neighbor on the other side.

“Hyung!” Changkyun greets, reaching forward to pull him inside. Kihyun’s icy skin burns at the contact, and it’s all he has in himself to not pull the mortal to himself right then and rip his throat out. His nose tingles with the smells of human life, piping hot takeout food in the kitchen, shampoos and soaps floating in from the bathroom. Warm lighting surrounds them as Changkyun leads them through the house, thankfully not enough to hurt Kihyun’s eyes.

“How’ve you been?” Changkyun asks as they come to the living room. “I haven’t seen you in a while. Has work kept you busy? Have your friends been doing okay? Have you been sick?” The human pauses then, dropping the immortal’s wrist and chuckling softly as he plops down on the couch. “S-Sorry,” he says sheepishly. “I don’t mean to fire off fifty questions at once… I’m just… happy to see you again.”

Kihyun smiles gently, his dark eyes sparkling with an unreadable light as he sits next to the boy, though much more graceful.

“It’s alright, Changkyunnie,” he assures the younger. “I’m sorry I’ve been so busy lately. There’s just been a lot going on.”

A lot of days spent alone in my basement, just thinking about that blood pounding through your veins, Kihyun thinks. A lot of nights drowning myself in other men’s blood just to forget about how much I want you.

“I-It’s okay, hyung,” Changkyun tells him, a light pink dusting his cheeks. “I understand. I’m just glad we could see each other now~” Kihyun inwardly coos, and for the first moment since turning up the walk he doesn’t think about the human dry.

Ever since moving into the neighborhood, this detestably mundane neighborhood that Kihyun only really puts up with because it’s the last place someone would expect to find a vampire, the immortal has been filled with the insatiable thirst he’s certain only the blood of a certain neighbor can satisfy. At first, he’d stayed clear of the mortal, for feeding off the son of the beloved mayor may draw some unwanted attention. But, then, Changkyun had coyly invited him over for a block party, and Kihyun knew then he just couldn’t stay away.

The human had been so adorably awkward with everything he did. He’d fiddled with his too-long sleeves, halfly smiled at every joke, and avoided physical contact as if his life depended on it. Well, that is, except where Kihyun was concerned. He’d clung to the vampire all night, as if he were some sort of security blanket or something, and Kihyun found himself feeling incredibly protective over him.

The feeling struck him as odd at first, as he doesn’t even feel protective over his fledglings Hyungwon and Jooheon. But, the mortal’s blind trust—and obvious crush—seemed to melt his icy heart, and Kihyun couldn’t find it in him to bite him.

Even now, months later after going over to the younger’s house at least once a week for dinner and movies, Kihyun can’t bite Changkyun. He’s tried, oh dear god has he tried, but whenever he’d gotten close, Changkyun would look up at him with those big doe eyes and those plump, round cheeks of his would get all adorably pink and, well, Kihyun just couldn’t.

So, recently, he’d had to distance himself from the mortal for a while. He satisfied himself with the blood of other mortals, but, after all, that was only satisfaction. Now, sitting so close to Changkyun their knees brush together, he feels such satisfaction ebb away. He grips his own knees tightly in an effort to keep himself under control.

“Hyung, have you ever seen Fright Night?” Changkyun suddenly asks, shaking him from his thoughts. “The original, not the remake.” Kihyun smiles wryly, biting back a sarcastic remark about how every vampire movie always has it wrong.

“I’ve never really been into vampire flicks,” he admits, shrugging a single shoulder. Changkyun pouts over at him, his cheeks stuffed full of noodles, and he reaches for the remote.

“That’s just because you’ve never seen a classic like Fright Night,” Changkyun insists. He then turns it on, quickly finishing off his food so he can snuggle into Kihyun’s side as the movie plays.

Kihyun distractedly plays with Changkyun’s hair, ignoring his own killer instinct for the night. He distracts himself from the atrocious movie with the sound of Changkyun’s breathing, his heartbeat. It’s beating a bit quicker than it should, his heart, but that seems to be the norm whenever Kihyun is around.

He knows he could never truly have a life with Changkyun like this, living on thin ice until Changkyun grows old and withers away and dies, and there’s no way he’s killing him. He doesn’t even want to entertain the notion, as he knows this neighborhood would be entirely less tolerable without the mortal around.

I could always turn him… Kihyun finds himself thinking, his gaze flicking to the dark-haired boy as he watches the movie with sleepy eyes. Kihyun smirks, lifting a brow in intrigue.

Now, there’s a thought…