it’s nearly 3am, and the last time sanghyuk had seen hongbin it was more than half an hour ago on the dancefloor with both a boy and a girl wrapped around him with their hands in places they probably shouldn’t be in public - honestly, being best friends with hongbin sometimes made sanghyuk question the fairness of life. and now the club’s closing up but hongbin’s still nowhere to be seen, so sanghyuk knocks back the dregs of his drink and resignedly pushes his way outside through the people still milling around the entrance. ing hongbin. sanghyuk’s pretty sure that ditching someone who needs a ride home so that you could go shack up somewhere and have a is breaking at least three or four rules of friendship.

sanghyuk digs his phone out of his pants pocket and presses buttons, waiting for almost ten rings before a voice answers.

“sanghyuk,” taekwoon says, and there is the faintest growl lacing it. sanghyuk looks up at the sky, the moon just two nights away from perfect fullness.

“hyung, did i wake you?”

“no,” comes the expected reply. taekwoon can never sleep during the night when it’s this close to the full moon; awake and bright-eyed all through the night and groggy and lethargic in the daytime.

“hyung, please come get me? i’m outside Future. hongbin ditched me.”

“what do you mean, he ditched you?” taekwoon sounds antsy, irritated, and the ghost of a growl is still there and it’s doing things to sanghyuk’s insides. 

“he’s ing someone - well, two someones, i think. or being ed. i don’t know! he’s just not here. i looked. you know what he’s like, hyung.”

taekwoon doesn’t reply, but sanghyuk can hear the sigh he gives. he feels bad dragging taekwoon out this close to the Change, but he doesn’t really have a choice; both taekwoon and him know there’s no question of sanghyuk walking home alone. hongbin’s going to get it from taekwoon about this - sanghyuk has that at least to look forward to. 

“stay there,” comes the reply finally, taekwoon sounding like he’s moving around his apartment. “i’ll be there soon.”

sanghyuk tries to calm the flutter in his stomach as he waits. he probably should be more nervous about what they might meet on the walk back, but instead he finds himself checking his hair with his phone’s camera and trying out different ways of leaning against the outside wall of the club, all of them awkward and like he’s trying too hard to look cool. taekwoon always has that effect on him.

when taekwoon finally arrives, walking up quietly and looking at sanghyuk with familiar intense eyes sanghyuk nearly trips over his own feet meeting him halfway. taekwoon’s hair is tousled, more than usual, and sanghyuk thinks that there really is no reason for anyone to look so good in black jeans and a simple white tshirt. 

taekwoon inhales deeply when sanghyuk stops in front of him, and when sanghyuk finally realises that taekwoon’s smelling him he blushes, unable to look up. 

“sorry,” taekwoon says, grinning slightly. “can’t help it.”

sanghyuk grumbles a little as they begin to walk, taekwoon rolling his shoulders and clenching and unclenching his fists almost unconsciously. 

“you alright?” sanghyuk asks, and taekwoon gives him a slight grimace. sanghyuk doesn’t know what the pull of the moon on bones and muscles feels like, the mirror telling you human but your blood telling you wolf. 

“why are you best friends with someone who would ditch you like this?” taekwoon’s saying softly, and sanghyuk has to break himself away from looking into taekwoon’s eyes, telltale gold flecks making it obvious what taekwoon is.

sanghyuk shrugs. “he’s not that bad. and i’m okay now, nothing would dare try to eat me now you’re here. you’re scarier than anything else out there,” he tries for levity, but quietens at the look taekwoon gives him. 

“other wolves won’t, or vamps. but you know there’s more than vampires and wolves out there. i don’t have to tell you that,” taekwoon says, a hand squeezing the back of sanghyuk’s neck for emphasis. all sanghyuk registers is the feel of taekwoon’s fingers on his skin.

“i’m learning new defensive spells,” sanghyuk offers, but his confidence belies him once they enter the park, a shortcut to his apartment block. he isn’t that powerful, not yet, but hakyeon’s lent him new books and he’s learning. taekwoon draws him nearer, protective arm around him, and sanghyuk thinks that anything that dares try to interrupt them now is going to face the full force of his wrath. taekwoon lifts his head and sniffs the air and the action is so lupine that it makes sanghyuk shiver, but the kind of shiver that starts low in his stomach and ends in his groin, making his heart speed up. 

taekwoon stops and starts to growl in earnest, a sound that makes the hair on the back of sanghyuk’s neck stand on instinct. he pushes sanghyuk behind him until a tall man emerges from around the corner and stops, seeing them. sanghyuk finds himself clutching at taekwoon’s back, wondering what would happen if the - he closes his eyes for a brief moment, concentrating: vampire, his quick sensing spell tells him - vampire rushes them. the vampire’s eyes flick from taekwoon to sanghyuk and then back to taekwoon, and then raises his hands and backs away, clearly not interested in getting his throat ripped out. taekwoon doesn’t move until the vampire is out of sight, and sanghyuk realises only then that he’s been holding his breath. 

“there’s been more and more of them around,” taekwoon says. “slayer doesn’t seem to be doing her job.”

“i’m sure she’s doing her best,” sanghyuk says loyally, feeling somehow like he needs to speak up for her. he saw her once, out of the back window of hongbin’s car on the way home from another night of debauchery. he remembers it perfectly - it was on the corner of the street near the cinema, in an alley almost too dark to see into. she was fighting three vamps at once, and the way she moved - sanghyuk had been transfixed. she was so tiny but when she kicked one of the vampires in the chest it ing flew.

taekwoon looks at him sideways, amused for some reason. “come on.”

he puts his arm around sanghyuk once again and they resume walking. sanghyuk wonders - wonders if taekwoon can hear how fast sanghyuk’s heart is beating from the feel of taekwoon’s arm around him, if he can smell it on sanghyuk, smell the blood rushing in his veins and feel the heat coming off him. taekwoon darts quick looks sanghyuk’s way ever so often until sanghyuk is sure the blush on his face can be seen for miles. sanghyuk’s slightly taller than taekwoon, but he’s never been so aware of how lethal taekwoon is this close to the Change. his own body is reacting probably on ancient instinct, something that had kept his ancestors alive when in the presence of something this dangerous and powerful; run, or die.

sanghyuk has no intention of running.

they reach sanghyuk’s apartment block in silence and walk up the short flight of stairs up to the flat sanghyuk shares with hongbin - and the moment they get close enough taekwoon raises his head, a gleam in his eye. 

“hongbin got home before you. and you’re right, it is two someones.”

sanghyuk frowns in incredulity. “you can smell that? or hear that?”

taekwoon gives sanghyuk a strange grin, touching the tip of his tongue to the point of one canine tooth, sharper than a human canine tooth should be. sanghyuk stares, arousal so strong he’s getting a little lightheaded.

“can you tell if - are they… are they done?” sanghyuk asks, not wanting to open the door to see or hear his best friend doing things no one should see or hear their best friend doing. 

taekwoon grins again, nodding. “they’re sleeping.”

“ah,” sanghyuk mumbles. “then do you - do you want to come in? for, uh, coffee?”

“coffee,” taekwoon repeats softly, still watching sanghyuk. “really?”

“i make good coffee,” sanghyuk starts to ramble. “so i’ve been told.”

“have you?” taekwoon replies, amused, and he takes a step closer as if just to see how sanghyuk will react and sanghyuk is backed up against his front door and it’s much too close. 

“then obviously i have to try your… coffee.”

sanghyuk can’t breathe. taekwoon has to know how hard his heart is going, and here he is lost in coffee euphemisms and taekwoon’s just watching him with that bastard grin on his face. sanghyuk’s pretty sure taekwoon’s making fun of him, and that just makes him redder.

taekwoon takes one of sanghyuk’s hands and tugs at his fingers slowly, smile playing on his lips. 

“not now, though,” he says, voice soft but with that undercurrent of growl. “i don’t trust myself to enjoy your coffee properly right now. i’d probably drink it too… uh, fast. too rough.”

sanghyuk swallows hard. “i don’t mind if you drink my coffee rough,” he says quickly, and when taekwoon breaks out in low laughter he wants to bang his head on his door. 

when taekwoon stops laughing he brings sanghyuk’s hand to his lips and presses one kiss - just one - to sanghyuk’s forefinger. “i mind. call me in four days,” he says, and it sounds more like a promise than a request. 

sanghyuk nods, all he has the mental capacity for at the moment. taekwoon lets their hands drop and takes his time letting go, jerking his head at sanghyuk’s door in indication that sanghyuk should go inside. sanghyuk opens his door to find clothes and underwear strewn on the floor in a trail that leads to hongbin’s bedroom and he wrinkles his nose in distaste, taekwoon trying to muffle his own laughter at the sight.

“four days,” taekwoon repeats, starting to walk backwards towards the stairwell. 

sanghyuk can’t ing wait.