They ran. And this time, Ryeowook didn’t close his eyes. This time, his mind could easily process what was happening and how fast it was happening. Even trees that stood in his way weren’t a problem because his reflexes were good enough. He could see his surroundings so well that it might have as well been midday.

There was only one problem.

“Kyuhyun, wait for me!”

Kyuhyun slowed down and eventually came to a stand. Ryeowook stumbled against a nearby tree, holding himself up by its trunk, panting.

Kyuhyun chuckled. “You don’t exactly do a lot of sports at court, do you?”

“I told you that my day… consists of studying. No running. Nothing like that.”

“But isn’t it the royal family that leads the army?”

Ryeowook nodded. “My brothers.”

“Why not you?”

He stood a little straighter, finally catching his breath. “I’m the youngest one. Of course it’s my older brothers who have to learn how to lead the army and guide our country.”

“But what about you?”

“What about me?”

“You’re also a prince. Or, well, were.”

Ryeowook shrugged and nodded ahead, so they continued to walk—at a fast pace, but it was still walking. “My role would have been to assist and advise my brothers. Unless something happened to my older brothers, I wouldn’t have been assigned a high role in the military but would have remained in court.”

“But don’t you have actual advisors at court?”

“Of course we do.”

“Then what exactly would have been your role?”

“Well, I wouldn’t be a normal advisor, of course, but a trusted one. And if my brothers weren’t around, then I would have been the one to make the decisions. Of course there are also the banquets and all the other events where it’s important to show presence and beneficence, but my main role would have been to assist my brothers in ruling the country righteously. But enough of court-talk. Why didn’t you tell me that while I can run much faster, I can’t run longer?”

“Well, a lot of us improves, but we do have to put some active work into other areas. For how long we can run just happens to be one of those things. Just like almost every human has two legs but can’t run long distances without some practice, we also need to get our bodies used to running a lot.”

“How unfair. Then what do I do with the ability to run so fast?” Ryeowook pouted.

“You could train it?”

“That’s not the answer I was hoping for…”

Kyuhyun laughed. “Ready to give it another try?”

“Do you want to tire me out that quickly?”

Kyuhyun clicked his tongue. “It’s called ‘practice’. The sooner we start, the better. So catch me if you can.” He winked, then spun around and ran off.

“Yah!” Ryeowook also started running, trying to catch up with Kyuhyun or at least not lose him, but he could tell that the other wasn’t running at full speed.

☆ ☆ ☆

Ryeowook had no idea where exactly they were nor how they had arrived. His throat hurt worse than it had during his disease and it felt drier than a desert, but his legs that could barely hold him up and a leaden exhaustion left only room for him to focus on one necessity: sleep.

They were in some hunter’s hut, a typical place for them to spend the night—or day—as it seemed. Ryeowook noticed that the scent was a little different from the hut where he had been turned, but he could barely focus on it from where Kyuhyun had stalled him at the table while he prepared their beds. Ryeowook wanted to protest that it should definitely be Kyuhyun sleeping on the bed that night, but even speaking was too much of an effort. He already had to pay attention to opening his eyes again after blinking…

“Come on over, little prince.”

“I’m not a little prince,” Ryeowook mumbled and raised his gaze to where Kyuhyun was sitting, patting the spot on the bed next to himself. Was he really expected to move?

Kyuhyun rolled his eyes lightly. “Come over anyway, you should feed.”

“I’m not hungry. Just tired.”

“You should feed nevertheless before going to sleep, trust me.” Kyuhyun patted the spot once more, so Ryeowook slowly pushed his aching body up, making his way over to the bed, letting himself fall onto it as soon as he arrived.

“Turn around.” Ryeowook raised an eyebrow, making Kyuhyun chuckle. “You’re a newborn. With all due respect, I’m not letting you get that close to somewhere as vulnerable as my neck.”

“Then how will we do this?” He wanted to protest that he wasn’t even that hungry and really just wanted to go to sleep, but the pain in his throat and the promise of relief from this pain stopped him.

“From the wrist—the second most common spot for us to feed from.”

Ryeowook nodded and turned around dutifully. He felt Kyuhyun scoot closer, then an arm appeared in his vision, resting comfortably on his shoulder without pressure. The other’s scent surrounded Ryeowook and something inside him came awake, something mightier and stronger than anything he had ever felt.

He took Kyuhyun’s arm with both his hands, the blue-ish vein on the inside of Kyuhyun’s wrist automatically attracting his attention. His fangs grew and a sudden all encompassing hunger overcame him, overruling his senses, and he sank his fangs into the soft skin, tightening his grip when Kyuhyun flinched. The full, dark taste nearly made Ryeowook moan and he drank a little faster, the viscous liquid drowning out everything else. The velvet texture brought immediate relief to his aching throat, simultaneously quenching and intensifying the hunger. He wanted, no, needed more!

There was a light pull on the arm and Ryeowook instinctively held on tighter. No. His! There was another, more determined pull on the arm and something inside him cheered in triumph when he could nevertheless keep on drinking, keep on cherishing the velvet taste.

A flame suddenly lit up right next to his head. Ryeowook pushed the arm away and jolted back in less than a heartbeat. A body behind him restricted his retreat, making him jump up and spin around in time to see even the last bits of delicious red disappear as someone else's tongue over the small wounds.

His heart was racing and at the same time, confusion replaced the craving. He blinked, suddenly feeling a lot clearer than he had just a moment ago, while he tried to comprehend what had just happened. Guilt and a deep fear flooded him and he took another step back. He could hear birds chirping outside, welcoming the nearing day, their songs too loud for him to only hear it at this point. What else had been blocked out by the sudden, sense-governing need for blood, by this… this… He had no words for the almost primitive feeling that hadn’t left room for anything else.

“I’m sorry,” Ryeowook whispered, quickly shaking his head and taking another step back when Kyuhyun rose to his feet, but the other seemed unfazed by his protest and had reached him with just two steps. Kyuhyun took his hand and the contrast of Kyuhyun’s warm touch made Ryeowook realize how cold he was. He tried to pull his hand away, but this time, it was Kyuhyun who held on tightly enough that the contact wasn’t broken.

“Don’t be. I knew what I was getting us into. I can protect myself. But do you understand now why I insisted on you to feed tonight?” Ryeowook could merely nod, the realization of what had just happened leaving him without words. “Maybe you were right, maybe you would have been fine waiting until we get up again—but the longer we wait, the greater the hunger will be and the more difficult it is to get it back under control. The mere absence of blood might not have been enough for you to regain control.”

But he hadn’t even been that hungry, at least not compared to how tired he had been. How bad would the situation have been if he had actually felt hungry? “Is it always like this?”

Kyuhyun shook his head lightly. “No, it’ll get better. It’ll need some training, something that some of us refuse to undertake for all their lives or even choose to ignore the things they learned. But I’ll help you overcome this phase where the hunger can govern all your senses, I’ll help you control this.” An amused smile appeared on Kyuhyun’s lips that seemed so strange and out of context to Ryeowook. “And hey, like this, you’re even making me appreciate my power even more.”

Ryeowook frowned. “But your power is so beautiful. And that’s not even the point. The point is how… I hurt you and—“

“Don’t. You didn’t hurt me.”

“You did flinch.” Though the actual feeding process was already a bit hazy, even his memory governed by the animalistic need, he still remembered that part clearly. “I must have hurt you.”

“You’ll learn the techniques of how to do that better as time passes. There are a few things I’ll explain to you eventually, but for now, our main focus is to help you stay in control even while you’re feeding. Everything else can come with time, okay?”

“But—“

Kyuhyun shook his head and smiled softly, leading him back to the bed and sitting him down. “Let’s sleep for now. Tomorrow will be another long day. Or night, to be precise.”

“I don’t think I can sleep just yet…”

“Too much excitement, huh?” Ryeowook nodded and looked away. “Then how about we lie down and talk for another while?”

Ryeowook gave another nod and mechanically got under the blankets, lying down on his side, curling himself into a small ball. The bed was low enough that there wasn’t much of a height difference between the two of them. “Can I ask a question?”

“Suddenly asking that again? You can just ask your question directly, you know?”

Ryeowook looked away. “Sorry, it’s just… What you said earlier… it didn’t sound like you enjoy your power…”

Kyuhyun remained silent, then he turned to lie on his back. “That’s not quite it,” he started eventually. “I told you that I found out about my power through an accident. And it took a long time for me to learn how to control it because for a while, I was actually afraid of it. I was afraid of all the damage that I was able to cause, had already caused, and was certain I would cause in the future. It took a lot of time and lots of conversations with the others who had been turned by my sire and later also with those whom I met on my journey before my fear fully transformed into respect and I finally truly learned how to control it. That doesn’t mean that accidents have become impossible—if I get overwhelmed, my power may come out as a means of protection. But I can cope much better with it by now and I have learned how to extinguish my fire.”

“I hope I won’t have an active power.” Ryeowook pulled his blanket a little higher. It didn’t smell as clean as he would have liked, but he ignored it for the sake of feeling more comfortable and somewhat safer.

Kyuhyun looked over at him and their eyes met, his expression unreadable. “It’s very likely that you have an active power, to be honest.”

“Why?”

“Well, the passive ones are just there, you can’t switch them off, so we most likely would have noticed such a power already—unless it’s something that you think simply comes along with being a vampire. That happens most if not even all of the time with passive powers.”

Ryeowook thought about it, but then shook his head. “There’s nothing I can think of. Aside from the things that you told me about, nothing has changed.”

“You know what would have been fun?”

“Hm?”

“If you had gotten the power to run for as long as you wish. I don’t think we would have figured that one out anytime soon.”

Ryeowook couldn’t help the brief smile that appeared on his lips. “But honestly, I don’t want to have an active power. I don’t want to hurt anyone, not even accidentally.”

Kyuhyun smiled at him, but suddenly, he sat up. “Speaking about hurting and accidents, how is your arm doing?”

Ryeowook unwillingly sat up as well and pushed the sleeve up as far as possible, but he couldn’t see any of the burn marks anymore. He looked at Kyuhyun who frowned in concentration before he shrugged.

“You really must have been lucky earlier and the feeding probably did the rest of the healing.”

“Feeding can heal us?”

Kyuhyun nodded and lay down again, so Ryeowook did the same, still watching the other. “Kind of, yes. It can speed up the recovery process. And when we’ve spent ourselves, for example by using our power too much, it can help us regain our energy. Sleeping will usually do the rest, just like it does for humans: eat something, sleep a little, and you’re as good as new.”

Ryeowook yawned and closed his eyes. The leaden tiredness returned to his body and Kyuhyun’s assurances eased his mind as well. “Kyuhyun?”

“Yes?”

“I’m glad that you’re by my side.”

_____________________________________________________________________

Happy holidays!