ii. dreams

“You wont leave me, will you?” Sweet, hot breath fanned across his face, causing deep red embers of lust, joy, pure pleasure to burn brighter within Baekhyun’s heart.

His lover pulled him impossibly closer. Baekhyun was completely intoxicated by him and unable to help himself from cuddling closer, until their noses brushed one another and their eyelashes flirted like butterfly wings. “Never.” Baekhyun replied.

“We’ll stay together?” His love whispered against his skin, causing goosebumps to form on his skin and an excitement to boil up inside of Baekhyun.

“Forever.”

“Promise?” It was hesitant. The sheer weight of that question filled Baekhyun up to the brim with anxiety, nearly making him burst. He could hear the vulnerability in his lovers words, the power being gifted to him, the pure trust.

“I promise, Park Chanyeol, that you are my forever. My eternity.”

Lips softly brushed against each other as the next words were whispered into Baekhyun’s soul to be imprinted forever.

“You’re mine too, Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun’s eyes fluttered open to tears soaking his face and sliding across his pink cheeks and into his fluffy hair. His pillow was damp as he clutched it to his chest, hoping to rid the feeling of excruciating heartbreak that took hold there. His body trembled and he clenched his eyes closed again, trying to breath through the sobs that wracked his small body.

This had been routine on and off for as long as Baekhyun could remember. The dreams started frequenting him more as he grew, but even as a child he had woke to such dreams once and a while. Though as a child, he had never quite grasped the implications of these odd dreams.

He did grasp onto the boy in them though. Tightly.

Baby Baekhyun would spend hours drawing those dark brown eyes with gold flecks, that unruly brown hair that waved so perfectly and parted on his forehead, though he could never draw it right. Baekhyun was just a child drawing stick men, there was no way he could capture the effortless beauty that was the boy of his dreams.

He would show these drawings off proudly to his parents, urging them to look at his best friend who had the prettiest eyes and shiniest hair. His parents would indulge him and his ‘friend’, just like how they indulged Baekhyun’s love of rading his mothers closet to throw impromptu fashion shows, and his obsession with climbing trees. They believed he would grow out of it when he got older.

When Baekhyun told his older brother, Suho, about the boy he often dreamed of and considered his best friend, he just shook his head, pet Baekhyun’s hair and told him it was all a fantasy. The boy wasn’t real and he was just using his imagination. His dreams were just dreams.

It was when Baekhyun first hit puberty though, that the tone of the dreams changed. Instead of going away like his parents had thought, they shifted from happy, playful times, to something much more intense that had him waking up gasping, red and sweaty. Baekhyun dreamt of kisses. Baekhyun dreamt of caresses. Baekhyun dreamt that his boy best friend was doing such things to him. The revelation that he liked boys was strangely freeing... like some elusive part of himself had finally fallen back into place.

His dreams became his safe haven, a place where he could be himself and like boys and just love who he wanted. He felt loved, protected and he could forget the pain of not being his true self. He knew it was just dreams, but they meant the world to Baekhyun and no matter what anyone said, Baekhyun could never help but feel almost a little bit hopeful that somewhere Chanyeol was a real person... Because these dreams with this boy felt so so right.

And so, the years passed this way. Baekhyun finding solace and a safe place within his dreams. Of course, Baekhyun realized these dreams couldn’t possibly be real, but he embraced them all the same. If other people knew, they would probably judge him for having a wild imagination, not wanting to let go of his childish imaginary friend, but Baekhyun was the only one who needed to know. It’s not like it was harming anyone.

Baekhyun sighed, still reeling from the emotional rollercoaster of a dream he had just had. Something had changed this time. Though Baekhyun could remember every single dream he had ever had of this man, he could never remember his name.

“Park Chanyeol,” he whispered into the air as if the name itself was poetry.

His mystery dream boy finally had a name. A name that suited him perfectly. A name that tattooed itself onto Baekhyun’s heart effortlessly.

“He’s having a bad day today.”

There was a snort of disbelief from behind him. “More like a bad century.” Xiumin frowned as he crossed his arms. “He’s been getting worse and you know it Kai!” The vampire hissed, plopping down on a love-seat across from Kyungsoo.

Kai had called the heart of the coven together in the meeting room on the third floor of the complex for a secret meeting. Their complex was perfectly hidden in plain sight; built into the ground under a luxurious club that was the front to gain them money. It spanned three massive floors beneath the surface, enough to house their whole coven and then some.

All of the halls were lit with sconces to cast a soft glow. This was in no way to play up the vampire stereotype, it was simply practical. Vampires and other mystical creatures had far superior sight than humans, so the need for glaring lights would be more of an annoyance than a necessity. That’s not to say there weren’t any electrical lights, there were, they just weren’t often put into use.