They walked all night without seeing even a single house or hut. Once Kyuhyun had deemed it safe, they had switched to the road that followed the coastline where Ryeowook let go of the other’s hand. The air tasted a little salty and a constant wind seemed to be blowing, sometimes with more, sometimes with less force. Ryeowook was grateful for his coat that kept him mostly safe from the winds and Kyuhyun repacked some of their belongings at one point so that Ryeowook could use his piece of fabric as a scarf, wrapping it over the lower half of his face as well in a futile attempt to make his nose stop running. To a certain extent, he already missed their cramped but therefore warm storage room.

As if the cold wind wasn’t bad enough, a soft drizzle came with the early morning hours, steadily growing worse until both of them were soaked wet. Even Kyuhyun’s cheerful explanations about the rain washing away their traces and so actually working in their favor couldn’t do anything to brighten Ryeowook’s mood.

When the sun rose, they moved back into the woods, walking parallel to the road yet hidden from view and Ryeowook’s main focus shifted to not falling and keeping pace with Kyuhyun. They walked mostly in silence which Ryeowook assumed was in a good part his fault—he was simply too tired and cold to talk or follow any conversation. The rain slithered into his clothes, intensifying the wind’s chill. If he hadn’t already caught some disease, Ryeowook was certain that he’d have caught a cold or flu after this night.

“This way,” Kyuhyun suddenly said, making Ryeowook look up and then change his course a little.

“Why? Is someone coming?”

“No. But I think I saw something over there that we can use as a shelter.”

Ryeowook immediately perked up at the prospect of getting out of the rain, but the next, more excited step instantly reminded him to be careful when he nearly lost his balance on the wet mix of dead leaves and mud.

“Careful.” Kyuhyun held him up by his upper arm just a moment before Ryeowook regained his balance, nodding to show that he was fine. They didn’t have to walk much further until Ryeowook also finally spotted the small hut that he assumed Kyuhyun had referred to.

Not too much later, Kyuhyun opened the door and the worry that they were breaking into someone else’s place was overshadowed by Ryeowook’s relief to finally be out of the never-ending rain. He dropped his bag and it landed with a splashing sound. How were they supposed to get all of their belongings dry anytime soon?

“I’ll get firewood,” Kyuhyun announced and left the hut just as Ryeowook turned to face him. He spotted Kyuhyun’s bag near the door, so he brought it further inside. Afterwards, he took off his coat, squeezing as much water as possible out of it at the door, not wanting to drench the floor. He went through the other clothes from his bag and anything else that he could squeeze the water out of. Kyuhyun re-entered the hut at one point and got a fire started while Ryeowook worked on getting their blanket as dry as possible, surprised to find some spots still relatively untouched by the rain. Once he was done, he hung the blanket up on the clothes line near the fire that was barely long enough to fit the blanket.

“Take off your clothes, too.”

“Excuse me?” Ryeowook turned to Kyuhyun, blushing when he found the other merely in his undergarments.

“Silly, we’re both soaked, all of our clothes have to dry.”

“B-but… we don’t have anything else to put on.”

“Your point is..?” Kyuhyun finished laying out his clothes and turned around. “You and I are both men, so there’s nothing wrong with getting undressed.”

“But I’m…” The words ‘a prince’ died on Ryeowook’s lips and he looked away. No, he wasn’t a prince anymore. Was it normal for commoners to do this kind of thing? He hadn’t even undressed in front of his brothers in years, only a few selected servants had seen him like that in a very long time.

“If you’re uncomfortable, why don’t you use one of the blankets to cover yourself?” Kyuhyun suggested and nodded towards the bed.

Ryeowook turned towards it. Was it really okay to use those blankets? “Will we use them anyway?”

“I didn’t plan for either of us to sleep without a blanket, so yes.”

Ryeowook hesitated, then he went over to the bed. He glanced over his shoulder to find Kyuhyun having turned around, so he peeled himself out of his wet clothes, trying to press some water out of his undergarments as well before he grabbed one of the blankets and securely wrapped it around himself.

“Do you want me to take care of your clothes?” Kyuhyun offered and Ryeowook turned to him, looking back and forth between the clothes and Kyuhyun for a moment before he nodded.

“If that’s not a bother for you?”

“Not at all.”

“Thank you.”

Kyuhyun smiled at him, then he got up and wrung out Ryeowook’s clothes, laying them out afterwards to dry as well. “There’s something I have to try,” he announced and closed the door, followed by the blinds, then he looked around carefully. Ryeowook simply watched him from where he had sat down by the fire, grateful for the source of warmth. After endless seconds of silence, Kyuhyun nodded, his expression relaxing, and he opened the blinds again.

“What were you looking for?”

“If there’s any light coming in through any cracks. If too much sunlight had been shining in, there would have been hardly any use turning you here and staying here, would there?”

“Could you see it properly despite the fire?”

“Yes, don’t worry.” Kyuhyun sat down by the fire, reaching his hands out toward it. “We’re lucky, this place was built well.”

“Maybe we should have just stayed on the ship until Tianjin and you could have turned me in that storage room,” Ryeowook said in a half-joking, half-serious manner.

“Oh yes, my bad! What better place to turn someone than a tight space cramped with humans, such a perfect place for a newborn!” Ryeowook blushed, making Kyuhyun laugh. “You didn’t quite think that through, did you?”

“Is it really that bad?”

“I wish I could say ‘no’. You probably won’t remember part of it, or maybe only very vaguely, but even when you wake up consciously, the fight isn't over. And until that point… I’ve seen various reactions during the turning process. Some stayed unconscious until that point, some woke up and nearly would have started a massacre if it hadn’t been for others holding them back. I’m hoping that you belong to the first type since you don’t have a rough personality—or at least I haven’t seen you acting rough with anyone so far. But sadly, our normal behavior isn’t necessarily connected to how we will behave during that time.”

Ryeowook stared into the flames, trying to wrap his head around the idea of insatiable hunger, so violent that it would govern his senses, but his mind refused to connect such images with himself. “Do you know how you were during that time?” he asked quietly, afraid to touch a subject that Kyuhyun wouldn’t be comfortable talking about but also hoping to get more answers, a clearer image.

Kyuhyun remained silent and when Ryeowook looked up, he could see the pain on the other’s features, making his heart sink. “From what I’ve been told, I wasn’t exactly… calm.” Kyuhyun spoke slowly, like he was searching for the right words, and his voice sounded a little pressed. “I mean, my element is fire, that should tell you all you need to know about my temperament, though it has become much better. But regarding that time…”

“You don’t have to talk about it.”

“I know. I won’t go into detail.” Kyuhyun looked tense, as if he was fighting an inner battle, and it took a while until he finished his sentence, “Not everything that I went through during that time is very clear in my memory. For many reasons. And I trust the memories about others more than those that have to do with me.”

“Why?”

Kyuhyun shook his head and raised his gaze until their eyes met. “Let’s just say that I will do my utmost best to provide a safer and more comfortable company and space for you than what I was given back then.”

Ryeowook nodded, affection and thankfulness spreading warmth through him, mingling with and partly overlapping his worry and compassion for Kyuhyun, and he smiled, reminding himself that there was nothing he could do to change the other's past anyway. “I’m glad that you’re in a better place now than you were then.”

“Me too.” There was so much sincerity in Kyuhyun’s voice that Ryeowook couldn’t help but wonder once again what kinds of circumstances Kyuhyun had been turned in, but he pushed those thoughts away. His family took their place. How far had the search troops already come? Did they know where they were? Were his brothers doing alright?

“Fate has a lot in store for you, too. A reunion, for certain, a path very different from what you expect.”

The words were there, without a warning, and the memory of those eyes fixated on his own for a surprisingly long time only faded slowly as he suddenly laughed. “The shaman was right.”

“Come again?”

Ryeowook looked back at Kyuhyun whose pain had been replaced by confusion. “Remember that one day at the spring festival when you complained about a certain smell lingering on me?” Kyuhyun nodded slowly. “Well, I went to a shaman that day. Actually, Hyukjae-hyung and Donghae-hyung dragged me and then forgot to pay, of course, but that’s not important. The point is that that day, the shaman told me that I would be reunited with someone and ‘a path very different from what I expect’ was awaiting me. Now look at me!”

Kyuhyun rolled his eyes. “Oh come on, that was probably a shot in the dark. Unless she was a vampire and can indeed tell the future, I think it was actually a lucky guess.”

“But even so! No, no, don’t get me wrong, I don’t really believe in any of that, but still, she was right. I just remembered that.”

“Doesn’t that kind of behavior cast a bad light on the elite? Going to shamans, I mean.”

“It’s not like I went there by free will! But my two brothers love to fool around and try absolutely everything. I wouldn’t have gone to see that shaman otherwise, believe me.”

“If you say so.”

Ryeowook shook his head lightly, adjusting the blanket a little because he started to feel really warm on the front. His clothes were finally drying and warmth replaced the damp coldness and he yawned. “What will you do during the turning? I mean, while I will be unconscious…”

Kyuhyun shrugged. “During the days, I’ll probably pay some visits to the village that should be somewhere nearby. Maybe I’ll find the person whom this hut belongs to and I can repay him somehow without letting on that we’re staying here for a short while. And at night, I will be here, of course.”

“In case I do something.”

“And to take care of you and make sure that nothing unexpected will get in the way.”

Ryeowook looked at the fire again, watching the flames flicker up, reaching out before they went down, the next ones taking their place. “Thank you, Kyuhyun. Thank you for taking on all these hardships and for turning me.”

“You’re welcome. But believe me, I wouldn’t do this, if I didn’t want to do it.” Rustling attracted Ryeowook’s attention and he looked over to Kyuhyun who had stood up. “Are you ready?”

Ryeowook nodded and rose to his feet a little more slowly, making sure to stay covered by the blanket. The thought of what was about to happen was scary, yet seemed somehow far away. Technically dying? Being revived? Insatiable hunger? Losing control because of that exact hunger? No matter how much Kyuhyun described it, it was so far away from Ryeowook's reality.

“Do you want to lie down?”

Ryeowook blushed at that suggestion. But what were his options? As far as he knew, he’d lose consciousness in a matter of seconds anyway, so lying down would probably indeed be better than sitting up or standing. “Should we make a bed on the floor?”

Kyuhyun clicked his tongue. “You’re getting the bed.”

“I thought it won’t make a difference?”

“I’m not having you sleep on the floor, little prince.”

“But you’re the one who will actually feel it!”

“I’ve slept on far worse than that. Go.” Kyuhyun motioned towards the bed, yet Ryeowook shook his head.

“But I’ll be unconscious the whole time. Yah!”

Instead of listening to him, Kyuhyun grabbed him by the shoulders and led him to the bed without allowing further protest. “How low would I sink to not let my company take the bed.”

“But I’m allowed to let my company use the floor?”

“Don’t they say that you’re supposed to respect your elders? Don’t you learn that anymore?”

“So what age were you when you were turned?”

“I was definitely born before you, so you listen to me, and I’m saying that you’re getting the bed.”

“That’s not fair!”

“That’s the system you people implemented. Deal with it.” Kyuhyun turned him around and made him sit down, grinning.

Ryeowook threw a playful glare at him. “Well, will you at least allow me to get comfortable then?”

“Anything for you, my little prince.”

Ryeowook scoffed and waited for Kyuhyun to turn around before he pulled the blanket into place, but when he wanted to lie down, he suddenly felt frozen in place. What if something went wrong? This was the moment. What if they were discovered while he was still unconscious? What if the owner of this hut found out and threw them out? What if Kyuhyun wasn’t able to do it for some reason?

“Kyuhyun?”

“Yes?”

“I’ll be alright… won’t I? This will work out, right?”

“May I turn around?”

“Yes.”

Kyuhyun did as he had said and sat down on the side of the bed. He gently rested one of his hands on top of Ryeowook’s while the other caressed a strand of Ryeowook’s hair behind his ear. “Yes, Ryeowook, you will be fine and this will work out. Come on, look at me.” Ryeowook raised his gaze and was met with Kyuhyun’s smile. “Trust me. Because of all the changes, things will feel different after being turned and they might seem scary sometimes, but I’ll be right there with you. You won’t be alone with any of this.”

At one point, Kyuhyun’s hand had come to rest against the side of Ryeowook’s face, so he leaned into the touch, taking a deep breath, hoping it would calm his fluttering heart. Kyuhyun’s thumb caressed Ryeowook’s cheek, going down a little. Brushing over his lips. Kyuhyun’s eyes followed before he slowly shook his head, laughing softly, almost breathlessly.

“Look at you—not doing anything and still tempting me.” Ryeowook blushed, but he couldn’t look away when their eyes met again until Kyuhyun shook his head. “You’re really making me lose my focus. But are you ready?”

Ryeowook’s heart beat faster, though he wasn’t sure whether it was from the moment, from fear, or from anticipation, but he nodded nervously and lay down. Kyuhyun followed his movements, hovering over him, leaning closer. Ryeowook his lips that felt too dry all of a sudden and Kyuhyun’s eyes immediately wavered before he shook his head, obviously trying to collect himself.

“Ryeowook…”

The memory of Kyuhyun's lips brushing over his cheek on the night of Kyuhyun's offer flashed through Ryeowook's mind and another kind of excitement joined his overall nervousness. “Didn’t you say I’d have to agree to everything if I want to come with you?”

Their eyes met and a resolve seemed to break down in Kyuhyun. Just a moment later, he leaned down and kissed Ryeowook.

A firework of emotions lit up inside the prince who barely got the chance to respond before the contact disappeared only to re-appear on his neck, pressing a gentle, tingling kiss on the sensitive skin. A sudden, sharp yet brief pain followed and Ryeowook gasped. His eyes fluttered open before closing again on their own accord and a heavy sleepiness replaced his former nervousness and the whirlwind of emotions he had felt, covering them like a blanket until only tiredness and coziness remained. A vague thought told him that he should stay awake, but before Ryeowook could fully grasp it, sleep embraced him tightly.