1897

He waited for her to shed tears over her death and consequently, the despicable nature of her new life.

She surprises him, not different from when he discovered her in the burning church. Jaejoong observes this mystery in a form of a young girl, oh how glad he is that he didn’t let her die. He had been bored; so mind-numbingly bored for decades after another – time dragged on so slowly, civilization stands still and everything decays to be born again in the exact same way it once did. But look, what he’s acquired from this expedition brother has forced him to come along to. Well, good for Yunho; finally broken the moon curse and even better for him – he’s been set free.

She woke like an angel; glowing in the dark despite being now a technical walking corpse. Jaejoong will never forget how she looked at him. There was disgust, that couldn’t be helped after all his own blood is responsible for slaughtering her family, but there was also a glint of appreciation, excitement and desire. It was magnificent how vampirism can amplify all the useful inner workings and eradicates all else because the girl isn’t scared anymore. She is ready to live.

It’s a beautiful sight – a once useless human life being freed of all its weaknesses. The girl stands amidst the lavender, the dirty white scrap she calls a dress smeared with blood blowing in the wind along with her golden hair. She’s watching as the fire dies along with the rest of the town she’d known for her whole life to be home.

“What will I do now?” The beauty asks, the unwavering strength in her small voice almost impresses him.

“You’re a smart girl, love,” Jaejoong disguises his mockery with a compliment, “You shouldn’t ask dumb questions. You’re a vampire; you can do anything you wish to.”

Her breath hitches her small hands curl into fists that could hurt if she wishes to. “Don’t call me love.”

“Then what should I call you then, love?”

“Nana,” she replies, a distant look passing over that porcelain face.

“Well, Nana, I wouldn’t fret if I were you,” Jaejoong leans in ever so slightly; please to see that the stubbornness still remains within her, “You have the whole world at your disposal and I can show you,” He slides his hand around her waist, tugging her into him until there is no space between their bodies yet she does not flinch away like he expected. “I can show you all the things you thought you did not want because never knew them to exist.”

One day, Jaejoong thinks, Nana will learn to say her thanks to him for burning down those damned walls so she could see what the world has to offer behind them.

 

 

2014

“Look what the cat dragged in.”

Jaejoong shoots her a look but Nana is still as polite as ever, greeting his sister with an awkward little wave, “Nice to see you too, Boa.”

“Well I see you’ve managed to stick around after all these years,” she comments snidely, descending down from the staircase, “I have to admit that I wouldn’t be seeing you two anytime soon.”

“Did you not want us to visit then, dearest sister?”

Boa softens a little at this. “Of course not, I’ve missed my brother.”

“I’m certainly glad to hear that,” he smirks, glancing over at the blonde vampire next to his side, “It was a long drive from where Nana and I were when we got your invitation.”

The house is very much of Boa’s taste; velvet curtains and dark woods flooring. It’s all very Victorian. Ah yes, his dear sister’s favorite time to be alive. He has no doubt that Yunho had given her free reign over the interior design. Their sister has always had the eldest of the family wrapped around her little finger; ever since the day she was born Yunho had catered to her every whim. Toys when they were younger, clothes when she became more of a woman and less of a girl or even men; his tendency to handle her boyfriends with more aggression than necessary often resulted in a yearlong of temper tantrum from her side. Though he’ll have to ask later whose idea it was to resettle at this dull town and for what reason, exactly.

“Your home is very nice.” Nana compliments, tucking a loose curl behind her ear.

“Thank you,” the tiny brunette’s respond is far from warm as she brushes past her and stands on her tip toe, pressing a fleeting kiss to his cheek, “Yunho will be ecstatic to see you, Jae.”

“Where is big brother? I assume he is too busy trying to keep his army of hybrids in line?”

Boa looks at him pointedly with her hands on her hips. He knows what that look means and he has a feeling Nana does to when she clears and says, “Are we the first to get here?”

“Afraid so,” the other girl replies curtly before turning back to him, “I’ll show your underage girlfriend to your room. Yunho’s in the courtyard.”

Nana gives him a look of reluctance that says “Do you want me to come with you?” and it serves as a reminder that she cares. With a fraction of a smile, he shakes his head and sends her off on her way, making a point to ignore his sister’s expression of disgust.

Making his way to the back of the mansion, Jaejoong observes the lavish decoration that screams royalty. He can imagine the state of the room Nana and him will be staying in for the rest of the week; he’s not going to like it and she’ll giggle joyously as she jumps on some triple king size bed. No pictures hanging, of course, they wouldn’t want whatever enemies they’ve made throughout the past lifetimes to know for sure that the infallible original vampire family has settled in this small town if they’ve ever managed to sneak in. Yunho’s paranoia remains astounding.

And there he is, three decades later. Still as proud as ever; a true kings sitting on his throne with legs crossed as he watches his undefeatable army of smelly mutts with a blood thirsty edge. How long he had spent trying to activate that werewolf gene of his; how much they all had to suffer to make him the most powerful creature to ever grace this earth.

“Jaejoong,” he calls good naturedly, “I would appreciate if you offer some sort of hello. Isn’t it about time that we’re reunited as family again?”

“Forgive me, brother,” Jaejoong smirks for Yunho to see once he swivels around, “I still think it is a bit too early to call us all a family again. You, on the other hand, clearly don’t think so since you’ve summoned me here.”

Yunho clasps a hand over his shoulder once he finally seats himself down beside him. “I disagree but we can continue that debate later on when everybody else arrives. What have you been up to?”

“Oh you know, travelling here and there,” Jaejoong muses, “Nothing as evil as your future plans, I assure you. Nana’s been very insistent that we purchase a home somewhere.”

The older man raises a brow. “I’m surprised she is still sticking around. Did she accompany you here?”

“And why would she not be sticking around, brother?” Jaejoong growls, “To answer your question, yes. Boa is showing her to my room as we speak.”

“My mistake,” Yunho pats him on the back, “I seem to have forgotten how loyal that girl is to you despite the misery you’ve caused her with your dimwitted impulses.”

“Why did you bring me back here, brother?” Jaejoong doesn’t mean to be rude before dinner time but a man can only listen to his brother’s unintentional act of being a prick for so long, “Certainly not to scrutinize my personal business, I hope.”

“Nothing of that kind,” he replies in a clipped tone, dragging his palm across his face, “Brother, I’m afraid we’ve got a real crisis on our hand.”

 

 

 1911

“I’m bored”

“Of course you’re bored,” He rolls his eyes at how much of a parrot she can sound like, “We’ve been trapped here for a month at least.”

If only looks could kill, Jaejoong muses and listens to the floorboards creak noisily underneath her bare feet as she stomps towards him. “You!” She points accusingly, though he suspects she’s showing some restraint by not poking out his eyeball with her index finger, “What is the use of being an original vampire if you cannot even get us pass all these….these stupid, nosey, good for nothing, judgmental –“

“Human?”

“Yes,” She heaves a sigh, dropping down on the splintered chair, “We should not have to hide like this. You, are one of the oldest and most powerful creature to ever come into existence. Is it too much to ask for you to exercise the tiniest bit of that power to get us out of this godforsaken prison?”

Feeling a little sympathetic, Jaejoong slides over to her the tumbler of cold rabbit’s blood. “They will tire and stop gathering eventually –“

“Eventually?!” She screeches, hysterical as she hauls a rather expensive vase across the room, “Is eventually when we are dried of every ounce of blood? Is eventually when you let me ram a stake through my dead heart and parade me through the town like I am a piece of meat?”

“Do not,” Jaejoong grits, baring his teeth for her to see, “Do not test me, Nana. You – of all people, do not speak to me that way!”

“And in what way should I speak to you, my creator?” Nana retorts, her fiery gaze warning him to stay two paces away at all time, “Your refusal to hear the truth appalls me. For twenty four years, I have listened to your insistent preaching of ‘our kind’ – ‘it is in our nature’, you tell me and yet you cannot kill those who stand in our way of survival.”

“This is not a small town, Nana,” He seethes, rising to his feet, “This town is one of the biggest in this whole nation. Are you aware of what you are asking of me? Yes, we are monsters but do we not have mercy, to spare a second of our time, to entertain these people’s fancy that they could rid this world of vampirism –“

“No!” She screams, kicking the door with all the strength left in her, “The only thing I am aware of is that you promised to show me the world and this is not it.”

Never before had Jaejoong dared to lay a hand on this weakling, fragile infant vampire. He could crush her in a second, quicker than she can beg for forgiveness and his mercy. Between his fingers, he’d feel a soft exhale escaping those lips that again and again, curses him to an eternity of damnation. Within her Bambi eyes, he’d watch as they wildly search for god until the lights in them no longer do its dance. He’d squeeze until the very last breath she owes him – that he so kindly bestowed upon her, is returned to the lonely nighttime.

“This,” Jaejoong jerks her towards stained glass window, forcing her still on her feet as he made her watch the true savagery he had sheltered her from, “That’s it precious, take it all in. This – do you see this destruction, this hatred and this chaos? This is a part of the world you choose to live in and don’t you think to ignore it – stop struggling,” he commands impatiently, pushing up her chin to stop the insistent turning away of her head, “You cannot run from it and you will not hide.”

For the first time since that day – that vile hunt at the next village that she can almost forget but never seems to, she has let herself stop and be stopped. That day has left a mark, so ugly and dark on the piece of humanity that refuses to die. It haunts her. He is a company that learns to turn a blind eye, although he senses her guilt whenever he mentions heading into the woods. When he returns, she has helped herself to rabbits and if desperate enough, mice she could find around the house. He had learnt to feed on his own and never ever, in front of her. It had become some sort of an open secret between the two of them – pathetic for their kind, really.

“They remind me of that night,” she rasps so quietly and even more, brokenly, “My family, how they died and when I…”

“When you turned,” he finishes for her, “Yes, when I turned you into a vampire.”

He can feel the slightest of flinching at the word ‘vampire’ but Nana more or less, betrays no reaction. “They’re all going to die – just like my whole family did.”

“They’re mortals, that’s what they do.”

 

2014

Nana felt a gush of wind entering the room and incoming footsteps that were too quiet to be Boa’s latest Manolo Blahnik’s purchase and too slow to be Yoochun’s exuberant ones.

In a flash, she is on the other side of the library and tumbling into the arms of the youngest of this morbid family. Her squeal is louder than she intended for it to be but she is too overcome with excitement to feel embarrassed.

“Woah,” Changmin’s chest rumbles with laughter as he spins her around, “I thought I was being attacked for a second there.”

Despite her joy to see him again, she couldn’t but swat him on the arm for that comment. “Rawr, I must be real scary.”

“The second scariest,” he teases, feigning pain and massaging his ‘poor’ forearm, “Yunho still tops you ‘cause he’s the eldest brother.”

“And pretty much, invincible,” she adds in a sing-song voice.

The last time they had seen him had been in the much dreaded era of disco and awful flared pants. None of the men in this house had come to see the appeal of sporting a mullet or the nauseating scent of hairspray (thank god) – except Yoochun, who had insisted John Travolta from ‘Saturday Night Fever’ was the ‘raddest thing ever.” Changmin had changed very little – even since their very first meeting. He takes to wearing his hair au natural; rolling out of bed and calling it a day. His buttoned down had a few crinkles in them, the sleeves were rolled up and the ends haphazardly tugged into capri pants.

Noticing the lack of baggage in hand, Nana asks, “No bags? Where are you stuff?”

“Nah,” He shakes his head while scratching the back of his head. “I don’t think I’m going to stay over in the house. There’s a motel that’s a couple of minutes away from here. I arrived since yesterday night so all my are over there.”

“How come you’re not staying with us?”

He shrugs noncommittally. “They’re all very difficult people.”

“They’re your family”

“Yeah, they are,” Changin says without missing a beat, “They are my family. They asked me to come here and that’s exactly what I did.”

Sensing that that was the end of the discussion, Nana lets it slide and instead, nods in understanding. They had not left things in the best terms – especially with Changmin. Upon receiving the text message from Boa, Jaejoong had been almost unbelieving that Changmin would come at all but she had known the depth of his loyalty to his siblings despite the role they had played in the tragedy that he would never recover from.

“Well, I don’t know about you but I only came for the dinner.”

He softens a little, looking up at her and breaking into an amused smile, “Yoochun would be crushed when he hears that. He thought you only came to be in his presence for the next five days.”

“Oh yeah,” she snorts, “I enjoy that as much as being staked over and over for the course of next five days.”

“That’s what I said when I bumped into him at JFK last week,” Changmin says with a rather grim expression, “His ego wasn’t convinced.”

“It’s Yoochun,” she reminds him, “Your brother compliments his own reflection every morning as a part of his daily routine.”

Changmin chuckles but his eyes were distant and already mournful. “So what’s your theory on why Yunho wanted the whole family back together?”

“No idea,” she replies honestly, flipping through the ancient copy of ‘Sense and Sensibility’ that she had discarded on the couch at his arrival, “Jaejoong kept saying he only came because he’s been ‘summoned’ and ‘those who refuse the great Yunho, shall be sentenced to a blood shed worse than the red wedding.”

He stares back at her, dumbfounded. “What’s the red wedding?”

“As if! Don’t you ever watch ‘Game of Thrones’?”

His silence supplies her with a definite ‘no’.

Gaping, Nana can only wonder, “What have you been doing with your life?”

 

1911

They take their overdue departure from town and he is vexed.

Rather than having been chased, they had been closed in. Two weeks later, the great people had settled upon a new approach to tackle the town’s monsters. Rather than confronting them with garlic cloves or pitchforks, the humble locals had decided it would be best to wait. To kill? To be killed? No, they, with the uttermost patience, had camped outside their house in silent protest. “Now why would these animals come and feed upon us now if they had not done so from the very first day? Or perhaps they have come to the realization that they are outnumbered and the two of them do not have the power to slaughter them all without being slaughtered first.” So naïve, little humans – Nana had sneered at their simpleton ideas. Yet Jaejoong had held his hand. She could not fathom why he only sat back in his rocking chair, passive as they both got an earful of the intense discussions buzzing from the other side of the cement walls. It was left unspoken but the day had eventually come – they had run out of blood.

Because she had always believed him to know best.

 He had kept them safe all this time, so why should that be any different now? Yes, it was the blind belief of a young girl that would never show signs of growth and was never given any reason to be any older than she was when he had taken her in as his own. And so she did not dare to ask questions, she did not give herself the chance to think. Just like he, she survived on droplets of days old blood mixed with twenty-two year old scotch she coughed to swallow. Try as they might to grapple for time, the day that they would starve could not be avoided.

It had been five days since they last exchanged words. Five days of aimless wandering, five days of isolation and disconnection.

“Get dressed”

Nana had been coiled up, hands wrapped around her bones when a pile of ruffles and bows are dumped on her dirt covered feet.  She almost feels ashamed to be seen by him. The coppery taste of blood lingers on her breath and she could taste the difference between the fluid pumping through human veins and animal’s veins. Her pick for dinner had been a squirrel, she is certain he can smell it on her from miles away.

“You disappeared,” she says frankly, trying to keep her voice stable.

He nods, curt and final. “I found us a carriage.”

Nana sighs with relief as she slowly gets up on her feet. Then, uneasily she could not help but ask, “Did you –“

“No,” he cuts her off roughly, “I compelled them.”

“I –“ she swallows, already running out of words despite the long-running silence that had passed between them, “Talk to me, please.”

But Jaejoong already has his back turned to her.  He barely did this in the years spent together. Whenever they had engaged in a quarrel, no matter how heated or enraged, he had never before refused to face her. Although Nana had suspected all along what was troubling him, she fails to see the reason as to why.

Not only does he not respond, he throws a question at her. “Talk to you about what?”

“About why you’ve been in such foul mood ever since we made our escape,” she huffs like it is the most obvious thing in the world because frankly, it is, “You have shunned me from your mind and drawn up this private space that you refused me entrance.”

“We do not have time for this,” he evades, “Change into these clothes and we will discuss this once we are on the move.”

“No,” Nana protests, “No, we won’t. You will insist on this cycle of pretense – this leaving me in the dark and eluding my queries. Let me finish –“ she places a finger against his chapped lips, “You do not appreciate my concerns, I can not demand you to tell me why it is you are removed as you have been. But I beg of you, please,” she chokes on her words mingled with the tears she had been holding in. Nana does not bother to steady her trembling hands as she cups his jaw within them; tentatively she brushes her thumb across the hollow of his cheeks. “Please let us be separate no more.”

She needs so badly just to feel him. Did he too, feel the same? Time and time, she wishes Jaejoong would give to her, even if only a fraction of it – sick as it was, she wanted to feel the same pain that contorted him into the man that stands before her. How unfair was God, to have allowed their paths to only cross much later in time. How many lifetimes has he missed and how many had she missed? He would always know her inside out and she would always only know him as he allows her to.  

It is simple what Jaejoong does; sweeping her into his arms. It shouldn’t be enough and Nana wishes she was strong enough to ask for more.

“Your wish to always be by my side is a dangerous one, Nana.”

He sighs a weary sigh that is inevitable off late. She doesn’t understand and never will. 

 

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A/N: It's your author speaking and it's been too long since the last update! Rest assured, I've got a lot in store for you and this might be longer than a 5 parter (face it, it's me and this ship - it will definitely be longer than 5 parts) XD