Archive of Our Own

T
I had the worst day
Need you
Come over?

B
What about kai?

T
Staying with his family for the weekend

B
I have class until 8

T
I’ll be waiting

Beomgyu has become a master of being discreet in the hallways of Taehyun’s dorm building. He takes the stairs to avoid being spotted in the elevator and always makes sure the coast is clear before approaching room 506 and giving the door a quiet knock. Usually, he doesn’t even need to knock because Taehyun can already hear – smell – him approaching, and has the door open by the time he arrives so that Beomgyu can slip in unnoticed. Today is no different.

“You’re late.”

“I got caught up talking to the TA after class. What, were you worried about me?”

Taehyun rolls his eyes. “The only thing I worry about with you is your time management skills.”

“I get by just fine, thank you.”

It’s only a second later that Taehyun pulls his own shirt over his head and jumps into bed, opening his arms wide.

“Come here.”

“Impatient tonight, aren’t we?” Beomgyu teases. Though truthfully, same.

“Maybe.”

“Aww, grumpy vampire wants his snuggles,” Beomgyu uses his baby voice just to watch Taehyun’s brows scrunch in distaste. Too easy.

“Never say that again.”

Beomgyu is definitely going to say that again.

Crawling into the bed of a vampire wasn’t Beomgyu’s original Friday night plan. But what was he supposed to do when it was Kang Taehyun asking? The first few times they did this, it was awkward to say the least. Beomgyu wasn’t sure where to put his head or rest his hands, and Taehyun would just sit unmoving, propped up against the wall behind him chiding Beomgyu for wiggling too much. But now, Beomgyu knows exactly where he fits in the nook between Taehyun’s arm and pecs. He knows the vampire is a little ticklish along his ribs, and he waits for just the right moment to accidentally brush his hair along the skin there.

Each time Beomgyu lays his head against Taehyun’s cold chest like this, he’s reminded that Taehyun is in fact undead. There’s no heartbeat to speak of, just icy cold skin that warms from Beomgyu’s proximity to it. When they’re like this, Taehyun becomes warm in ways that extend beyond the physical because Taehyun is a man of many secrets. Namely: despite his cold exterior, he likes cuddles. Cuddling with humans to ‘relieve stress.’ Or, cuddling with one human. That human being Beomgyu.

It makes Beomgyu feel powerful in a way, knowing this secret about Taehyun. It might be the only advantage he has over the vampire.

Right on cue, Taehyun shifts underneath him before Beomgyu hears the distinctive sound of slurping over his head. Beomgyu groans.

“What have I said about the blood bags?”

“I need my protein.”

The blood – the whole concept of drinking blood – still makes Beomgyu squirm a little. Unfortunately, Taehyun seems to find that discomfort amusing and insists on drinking when they’re together. It’s what they do anyway, annoy each other while using each other, and then pretend like nothing happens when they’re out in public.

“If you drip on me again, I will strangle you,” Beomgyu says with all the force he can muster while also remembering the last time it happened. Taehyun didn’t even think about it before bending down to lick his arm, and Beomgyu can safely say he hasn’t gone a day without thinking about it since. It was supposed to be gross, but instead it was…

“I’d like to see you try.” Taehyun chuckles to himself before taking a particularly loud slurp.

This whole arrangement started by accident, really. Beomgyu had a bit too much to drink at Yeonjun’s party, Taehyun was being weird and sitting alone in the dark room that Beomgyu stumbled in to find his coat, and somehow Beomgyu ended up having the best nap of his life right there on the coat pile… in Taehyun’s arms.

They didn’t talk about it after. That was until Taehyun messaged him out of the blue a week later, asking if they could meet. Beomgyu assumed the vampire would threaten him to carry their secret to the grave, instead Taehyun made a proposition. And well, Beomgyu learned he also has a weakness in the form of Kang Taehyun and his big round eyes asking him if they could cuddle again because it was soothing.

Now here they are: two months deep in a secret cuddle buddy relationship, Beomgyu struggling with the fact that he very much likes being held by a hot vampire, and their friends none the wiser. He does it for quality sleep, he reminds himself. University life is hard, and something about being held by Taehyun puts him to sleep faster than any sleep meditation ever could.

And what does Taehyun get out of it? Essentially, Beomgyu is Taehyun’s living heating pad and stress relief ball. Not the most dignified of titles, but he’ll take what he can get. Beomgyu isn’t sure what Taehyun does all night while he sleeps, either: sometimes he reads, sometimes he plays on his phone. But mostly he just… sits there, staring into space. It must be a vampire thing to shut off their brains once in a while — and Beomgyu can understand that much. He does the same every week in his mandatory history of illustration class. But why Taehyun feels the need to do it with a human present — a human cuddled up to him — is still a mystery.

“Where does Soobin think you are tonight?” Taehyun finishes the blood bag and sets it on the nightstand. His hand immediately moves to run through Beomgyu’s hair in a practiced pattern.

Beomgyu hums contentedly. Taehyun’s fingers always feel like magic after a long day. “Pulling another all-nighter at the library.”

“He still hasn’t figured out that the library closes at night?”

“The man has never once set foot in the school library, and I don’t think that will change before he graduates.”

Taehyun’s laugh reverberates through his chest, right against Beomgyu’s ear. It’s soothing, familiar.

“So,” Beomgyu settles in even closer. “Wanna tell me about your shitty day?”

Beomgyu drifts off to sleep like that, with the echoes of Taehyun’s laughter and cold fingers stroking his hair.

“Wake up sleepy head.”

Beomgyu hates to admit that he’s gotten quite used to being shaken awake at 6am and Taehyun being the first thing he sees when he opens his eyes. Taehyun has the usual blank expression on his face, his too-big eyes peering down at Beomgyu where he’s curled up against the younger’s waist and the skin there is now warm to the touch.

Taehyun looks good in the morning, with the early shades of dawn casting pretty shadows along his features and the light catching against the crimson of his irises. Too good for Beomgyu to not say something stupid.

“You know what is unfair?” Beomgyu mumbles, still half asleep.

“Hmm?”

“You get to stay up all night and still look like that.” Meanwhile Beomgyu catches sight of himself in the mirror across from them. Even with a full night of sleep he can see the dark circles under his own eyes and the way his hair is a little flatter on one side from where it pressed into Taehyun. There is nothing remotely attractive about Beomgyu in the morning, and it’s a shame that he now has not one but two vampires in his life to compare his morning form to thanks to Yeonjun’s frequent sleepovers at his and Soobin’s apartment. “As if the world didn’t give vampires enough advantages, you all get to be eternally good-looking, too.”

“I thought we went over this before?” Taehyun snorts at Beomgyu’s early morning candor. He’s used to it by now. Beomgyu should move, get ready, and stop staring at Taehyun whose lips have curled into a smile as his eyes scan Beomgyu up and down and his little fangs poke out above his bottom lip. “Not all of us are hot. The old ones just don’t get out as much.”

“Says you.” Beomgyu huffs, lifting himself out of Taehyun’s arms to crawl off the bed.

Even with the ticking clock reminding Beomgyu that he only has a short time to make himself presentable again before sneaking out unseen, mornings move a little slower after a good night of cuddling. Taehyun is still an ass, Beomgyu still doesn’t like vampires, but in the morning their usual banter is replaced with half-conversations and Taehyun’s genuine smile. It’s like for a few minutes, things are easy between them.

Each time it happens, Beomgyu feels something funny in his chest, almost like a warmth. It makes him smile to himself as he stands in front of the mirror and tries to wrangle his hair into something remotely presentable.

“I thought you were a vampire the first time I saw you.” Taehyun’s voice is quiet when he speaks up. Beomgyu’s eyes instantly lift to meet his gaze in the mirror to scowl at the vampire. “No offense.”

“Did I look that undead at the cafe?” Beomgyu remembers that he had stayed up until 5am the night before Soobin introduced them, but he at least thought he was presentable. Plus, Taehyun should have been close enough at the cafe to smell his blood and know that he was human. Beomgyu scrunches his brows.

“No, not at the cafe.” Taehyun shakes his head.

Taehyun had seen him before? Beomgyu supposes it would be possible for them to have crossed paths on campus, but wouldn’t Beomgyu have noticed him? Beomgyu can’t imagine a scenario where he wouldn’t notice Kang Taehyun.

Something about the way Taehyun’s gaze still holds his in the mirror is too much for sleepy Beomgyu to fully wrap his head around. He needs to get out of Taehyun’s dorm room before his thoughts truly start to spiral. Another side effect of quality cuddles with a vampire, he supposes.

“Well, I’m going to sneak out now before someone sees me.”

Taehyun gives a small wave, not even bothering to lift himself from the bed to see Beomgyu out. “See you around.”

One of the consequences of Soobin dating a vampire is that not only did Yeonjun enter his life a semester ago, but Taehyun did as well. Beomgyu still remembers the first time they all met: the door chiming in the cafe and Soobin waving his too-long arms like a fool beside Beomgyu as if his height alone and the fact that they were practically the only customers in the cafe wouldn’t be enough for him to be spotted.

Beomgyu recognized Yeonjun instantly from pictures on Soobin’s phone – the ones that he’d caught Soobin blushing at and scrolling through on multiple occasions throughout the month previous. Choi Yeonjun with his long legs, sharp eyes, tilted smile, and a confident gait. The Choi Yeonjun who Soobin flirted with – which was already enough of a foreign concept – approached their table with a familiar ease that shouldn’t have been familiar at all.

But it wasn’t Yeonjun who caught his attention. It was the person behind him, a face he’d never seen before around campus with big eyes that were boring right into his soul from the moment their gazes met. Kang Taehyun raised his eyebrow in question, and Beomgyu felt the weight of being under his inspection for the first time. His smirk fell into a nervous lip bite as he greeted everyone, and for a moment, Beomgyu almost thought he looked human.

But Beomgyu knew better.

Despite Soobin’s reminder to play nice, Beomgyu’s discomfort with the whole vampire thing was all too apparent, and Taehyun seemed to take great joy in messing with him because of it. And that is why Taehyun would be the last person in the world any of their friends would suspect Beomgyu of regularly spending the night with. Hell, even Beomgyu is surprised.

It’s not that Beomgyu hates vampires, not really. Humans and vampires have co-existed for centuries, and when he first met Yeonjun and Taehyun, he knew they posed no actual threat to his safety – murder is just as illegal for them as it is for humans. What Beomgyu couldn’t, and still can’t, understand is why vampires like them choose to be part of the human world – attend human university – when their own world has everything they need.

It’s no secret that vampire schools are far more sophisticated and well funded than human universities, or that vampires have the upperhand in almost every way from their physical strength to their wealth. Beomgyu can’t comprehend why they feel the need to show up on human turf, to act human, when they have so much going for them already. Maybe he’s bitter. Vampires have it all, now including his best friend, and Beomgyu is left struggling through life.

That inequality is made all the more apparent each time Beomgyu visits the tragedy that is their university library. Today marks yet another fruitless effort to conduct quality research. He makes it out of the building just before sundown only to end up taking a seat on one of the outside benches to contemplate his next move. He gets as far as holding his head in his hands and groaning in frustration before a familiar pair of sneakers enter his line of vision.

He looks up to see Kang Taehyun looming over him and looking amused at Beomgyu’s obvious misery. He looks good, like always – even if he’s just wearing sweats and a t-shirt in the early spring chill.

“Doing some reading?”

“I wish.” Beomgyu runs his hand through his hair, ready to vent. Usually, he’d save this for cuddle time, but with Taehyun in front of him, the words spill out. “I’m trying to track down this ancient book that I really, really need for my thesis proposal. But of course, our library sucks and seems to have misplaced it…a decade ago. And no one thought to include that little piece of information in the digital catalog. This is on top of the fact the Art History section is already miniscule and outdated.”

“So, rough afternoon?” Taehyun chuckles.

“This is a matter of life and death, Taehyun. And I know one of those things is a foreign concept for you, but I’d like to still have a heartbeat by the time I graduate and not be strangled by my thesis advisor.”

His entire thesis proposal hangs on cross-referencing the research done in one particular book, and if he can’t find it within the next week, Professor Jung will not hesitate to fail him. Beomgyu hasn’t come this far just to fail his thesis before he even properly starts writing it.

“What about interlibrary exchange?” Taehyun offers. “Surely another university has a copy.”

“I’ve already looked into that. It’ll take two weeks at least.”

“Sucks.”

Always empathetic: Kang Taehyun.

“Yeah, well. I’ve learned to keep my expectations low around here.” Beomgyu gives a resigned sigh. Expecting anything resembling organization from the university is an exercise in futility. “Anyway, why are you here?”

“Aside from the fact that I also go to school here, I’m meeting up with Kai for dinner and his class is in the next building over.” Taehyun tilts his head in the direction of the musical arts building. “But I saw you, so I thought it would be rude not to say hello.”

“Hi.” Beomgyu says belatedly, earning him a half smile from Taehyun, just enough for his fangs to catch the late afternoon light.

This is new: actually talking to each other on campus. Usually they pretend to not see each other unless Yeonjun or Soobin are present to force them to socialize. But, Beomgyu supposes, two months of secret cuddling have led to stranger things. Like the fact that Beomgyu actually looks forward to talking to Taehyun these days.

“I’m gonna go. I hope your professor doesn’t murder you.” Taehyun sounds genuine, and Beomgyu is too caught off guard by that fact to respond until Taehyun is already walking away.

“Thanks?”

“You’re home later than usual,” Soobin comments as soon as Beomgyu walks through their apartment door.

Beomgyu makes a show of throwing his book bag on the couch before plopping down next to Soobin and letting out a heavy sigh. “The library took longer than I expected, and then I ran into Taehyun.”

The last part catches Soobin’s attention. “What were you talking about with Taehyun?”

It’s no secret that Beomgyu and Taehyun aren’t really friends – they’re verbal sparring partners at best – despite the overlapping of their friend groups. Or are they friends now? Is there a certain threshold of cuddling, small talk, and obvious ogling that they’ve crossed in the past few months unbeknownst to those around them?

“He was just taunting me about my mortality, as usual,” Beomgyu lies. Technically it’s half true, Beomgyu was complaining about his impending doom at the hands of Professor Jung, and Taehyun seemed unbothered as usual.

“You two are so weird.” Soobin says before shrugging.

Weird is an understatement, but Beomgyu chooses to ignore the comment and changes the subject. “Wanna order in for dinner?”

“Can’t. I’m staying over at Yeonjun’s tonight for the sucky sucky, as they say.”

Beomgyu gags. “No normal person ever calls it that. Only Yeonjun hyung calls it that.”

Since Soobin became Yeonjun’s regular blood source, he’s become more of a fool than usual. The blood loss now has him saying things like ‘sucky sucky’ unironically. Sometimes, Beomgyu wonders what else goes on in Soobin’s head. His best guess is that it’s a lot of cricket sounds and montages of Yeonjun’s ass.

“Whatever. He’s hungry, and I need to go get ready. Will you be alright on your own?”

“I’ll be fine.” Beomgyu rolls his eyes. He’s not a child that needs babysitting. “Don’t lose too much blood that you can’t keep it up after, okay?”

Blood drinking is apparently a very intimate process as Beomgyu has come to learn through Soobin’s colorful descriptions. Unfortunately, he has to live with those images in his mind forever thanks to Soobin’s constant over-sharing.

“Never been a problem before.” Soobin winks before he stands and starts to make slurping noises as he walks away towards his bedroom.

“You disgust me!” Beomgyu shouts at Soobin’s retreating figure.

“Love you too!”

B
Soobin will be out tonight
And my day kind of sucked
👉🏼👈🏼

T
👍🏻
9pm?

“Taehyun-ah.”

“Hmmm?”

“What does my blood smell like?”

With Soobin preoccupied with being a sippy cup for Yeonjun for the evening, Taehyun doesn’t have to go through the effort of sneaking into Beomgyu’s apartment. The other advantages of meeting at his place is that Beomgyu has his own room with all his familiar candles and clean sheets, and he doesn’t have to have Kai’s plushies stare at him in judgment from the next bed over as he shamelessly snuggles closer to rest his palm on Taehyun’s chest. Teahyun is sturdy and comfortable, that’s all.

“Why do you want to know?”

“I’m just curious.” Given the opportunity, Yeonjun will go on and on about Soobin’s blood. Beomgyu can’t say he fully understands the appeal, but having a vampire so close does make him wonder what Taehyun senses when they’re like this. Certainly he has to smell something.

Taehyun takes too long to respond, so Beomgyu assumes he’s not going to get an answer. That is until he feels himself being pulled up from Taehyun’s chest and the vampire angles his nose down to run it along Beomgyu’s pulse point. Beomgyu’s heart starts to beat double time at having a vampire and his fangs so close to his jugular, and the worst part is he knows Taehyun can feel it. Yet, it’s not necessarily scary having a vampire so close. It’s just different.

Seconds pass, and Beomgyu stays still in Taehyun’s hold. Beomgyu can feel the goosebumps springing up along the exposed skin of his arms and the small exhales Taehyun releases against his skin. It tickles a little, but Beomgyu is too caught up in the sensation of being sniffed to even giggle. Taehyun takes one final whiff right against Beomgyu’s skin before retreating, but he doesn’t ease Beomgyu back against his chest like Beomgyu expects. He holds him there.

Their faces are too close now, Taehyun’s eyes looking more crimson than Beomgyu’s ever seen them before.

“You smell like… food.”

Of course he does because that’s what vampires eat: human blood. He should not think that it’s hot to hear Taehyun say that. Does he really want Taehyun to want to drink his blood the way Yeonjun does with Soobin? And when did Beomgyu go from vampire averse to wanting affirmation that he smells edible to Taehyun?

Must be the power of a handsome face and solid pecs.

“Like a five course meal at a Michelin star restaurant?” Beomgyu asks hopefully, still not breaking eye contact.

“No.” Taehyun’s mouth pulls into a measured smirk. “More like cheonggukjang.”

Fermented bean stew. Leave it to Taehyun to choose the stinkiest food he could think of to compare Beomgyu to. Beomgyu deflates, finally breaking free of Taehyun’s hold to pout.

“Ugh, I hate you.”

He doesn’t make it far though before Teahyun is pulling him back in, and Beomgyu crumbles like paper in his hold. Soon, he’s settled back into the familiar nook between Taehyun’s shoulder and his bicep with Taehyun’s thigh thrown over his own, and the vampire‘s palm rubbing comforting strokes along his arm. Beomgyu makes the mistake of letting a contented sigh escape.

“Sure you do, hyung.” Taehyun laughs. “Sure you do.”

T
What is that book you’re looking for?

B
Why do you care?

T
Just tell me

B
[lib link: Park Sergei, Storia Dell ‘Arte]

T
k

B
Don’t ‘k’ me
Why are you asking??
Kang Taehyun!!

Yeonjun is warm. Not in the way of flushed skin and warm breaths – Soobin does enough blushing for the both of them anyway — but in the way he easily slides into the seat on the other side of Soobin, wraps his arm around him, and smiles like that is always where he’s meant to be when he joins them for lunch.

“Binnie and I are going to a show tonight,” he shares excitedly after placing a kiss on Soobin's cheek in greeting, and Soobin still manages a dimpled – whipped – smile even with his mouth full. “The band is pretty popular, I’ve heard.”

Yeonjun then busies himself with pulling something up on his phone at the same time Beomgyu’s mouths Binnie? at Soobin in question.

His friend only shrugs.

Sure, Yeonjun is a bit overboard with his affection for Soobin, but he’s the first vampire Beomgyu’s ever warmed up to, and sometimes Beomgyu thinks Yeonjun never really gave him the choice not to warm up to him because no one else makes Soobin smile the way Yeonjun can.

Yeonjun passes him the phone a moment later, and Beomgyu looks at the digital flier on the screen. The headlining band’s name is familiar.

“Ah, Taehyunnie likes that band.” The words slip out before Beomgyu can stop himself.

“Taehyunnie?” Soobin echoes in question, his mouth still full.

“Why do you know that about Taehyun?” Yeonjun is equally suspicious. His eyes narrow at Beomgyu who wants to cower in place because it’s one thing to fool Soobin, it’s a whole other thing to try and get something by Yeonjun who actually uses his brain.

“He plays their songs sometimes when we—” Blame Yeonjun’s intense stare for the reason Beomgyu can’t seem to shut up and say something to get him out of this situation.

“When you…?” Yeonjun prompts.

“Cross paths… in the library.” Beomgyu finally manages. Beomgyu and Taehyun are both good students, so it’s a logical enough explanation. At least Beomgyu hopes so. Honestly though, admitting that Taehyun is a secret cuddle enthusiast would probably be more unbelievable at this point – there’s a reason they’ve kept it secret this long.

“Okay.” Yeonjun drags the syllable out, clearly not buying it, but dropping it for now. Beomgyu sighs in relief. “You wanna join?”

Beomgyu doesn’t really want to play third wheel to Yeonjun and Soobin making out in a club under the pretense of watching a band – he gets enough of them in his own apartment. Plus, with Soobin out, he’ll have the apartment to himself and that might mean a decent night’s sleep.

“No thanks. I have thesis stuff to work on.” It’s not a complete lie. He does have work to get done, even if he’s missing a critical source.

Yeonjun shrugs. “Suit yourself.”

T
You free?
I have something for you

B
Soobin is with Yeonjun hyung

T
I’ll be over in 20?

“Why are you sparkly?” Are the first words out of Beomgyu’s mouth when Taehyun walks through the front door well after ten pm. He’s in jeans and a low-hanging tank top, and there are distinctive traces of glitter across his cheeks that catch the light as he enters the living room.

Up until tonight, Beomgyu’s known Taehyun in two forms: half-naked and cuddly, or completely casual and always seemingly without a jacket even in the coldest of months. In both circumstances, Taehyun already has the advantage of being undead and attractive on his side; but tonight, Beomgyu can see some effort behind the look, and it’s disarming. It’s not enough that Taehyun is already genetically gifted, now his collarbones have to sparkle.

The real tragedy is that Beomgyu wasn’t expecting Taehyun in all his glittered glory, and is very much in his pajamas with a headband holding his hair out of his face. What a contrasting pair they make.

Taehyun shrugs. “Kai wanted to do my makeup.”

Beomgyu can’t help but giggle at that. There are few people in Taehyun’s life that Beomgyu thinks could force Taehyun to get properly dolled up on a whim, and Kai is one of them. Beomgyu’s actually a bit envious that Kai’s pout seems to work so well on the vampire, when all Beomgyu gets when he pouts is a laugh and maybe a condescending head pat.

“He did a good job.” Beomgyu concedes after too many seconds of just looking at Taehyun.

It’s funny how when they first met, the red of Taehyun’s eyes and the glimpses of his fangs brought a sense of unease to Beomgyu. Taehyun was unfamiliar, cold, intimidating. But now, Beomgyu finds himself drawn to those elements that were once so off putting because he’s seen the way Taehyun’s fangs poke out when he laughs at something Beomgyu says, or the way his eyes soften in the early morning light when he watches Beomgyu stumble around his dorm room trying to wake up. He also knows the chill of excitement he’d felt run down his spine when Taehyun nosed along his pulse point, and how the smooth skin of his chest feels against his own cheek. The deep neckline of his shirt tonight isn’t helping with keeping those thoughts at bay.

“So, you think I look good?” Taehyun takes a step closer Beomgyu, and if he didn’t know better, he’d think Taehyun looks nervous as he waits for Beomgyu’s appraisal.

“Glitter suits you. Really brings life to you.” Beomgyu can’t help but joke. It’s easier to poke fun at the familiar than acknowledge every other thought racing through his mind.

“Very funny.” Taehyun says it in his most deadpan voice, but Beomgyu doesn’t miss the way his lips curl upwards slightly. As Taehyun reaches into his bag, Beomgyu wonders what Taehyun’s face would look like now if he could blush. “Here.”

Something is thrust in his line of vision, and Beomgyu is forced to pull his eyes away from the way Taehyun is expectantly biting his lip and toward the book in his hand. He has to blink a few times to register that what he’s now holding really is what he thinks it is.

“This is…” Beomgyu turns the book over in his hands in fascination. The cover is tattered, the pages yellowed, but he knows the cover art and author from too many minutes of lamenting over it on the school library catalog. Where did Taehyun manage to track it down?

“Vampires keep better records, so it was pretty easy to find at one of our libraries…” Taehyun trails off, as Beomgyu continues to smile down at the book in his hands.

Beomgyu finally looks up, the awe probably all too evident on his face. “You found this for me?”

“You said it was a matter of death.”

“Life or death.” Beomgyu’s life, to be specific. He’s relieved, sure. Now he might be able to finish his proposal on time, and Professor Jung will spare him. But more than the relief he’s feeling, he’s… touched – which is not a feeling he ever would have imagined Taehyun stirring up in him.

“I’m not about to let you unalive yourself over a book.” Taehyun adds as an afterthought, but it’s missing its usual sarcastic edge. His eyes seem to be looking anywhere but directly at Beomgyu, and the way he’s shuffling in place in the middle of Beomgyu’s living room is so unlike him. It’s endearing.

“You’re unbelievable.” Beomgyu’s voice, too, is without any bite – his mouth still pulled in too wide a smile to even properly roll his eyes. It feels like something significant is happening in his living room right now, but neither of them are willing to speak to it just yet.

“You know, you could just say thank you.” Taehyun reminds him after the silence stretches between them for a beat too long.

“Thank you, really.” Beomgyu kicks himself for not saying the words sooner. There’s no real reason for Taehyun to stay now; no excuse of stress or a bad day. But he’s already here, Beomgyu does owe him for the book, and maybe he wants a little bit more time with the vampire. So, it’s no surprise that instead of leading Taehyun towards the front door and bidding him farewell, Beomgyu looks up hopefully to say, “Soobin won’t be home tonight. So if you want to…?”

Taehyun smiles properly for the first time since he walked in the door. “Yeah, I can stay.”

And just like that, Taehyun is back in Beomgyu’s bed, in Beomgyu’s pajama pants, spooning him. That’s definitely new; but Taehyun had let out such a cute sigh when we pulled Beomgyu’s back against his chest, that there was no way Beomgyu was going to pull away.

Despite the new position, it’s all familiar: Taehyun’s strong arms, the fingers that dance along his skin, the small banter they exchange as Beomgyu’s eyelids get more heavy. However, with the book on his desk, and the feeling of Taehyun’s nose brushing along the vertebrae in Beomgyu’s neck, there’s a new kind of warmth in their little secret world tonight.

“You’re sniffing me again, aren’t you?” Beomgyu wiggles when he feels Taehyun exhale against his neck.

“Mmm.” Taehyun squeezes tighter, holding Beomgyu in place and exaggeratedly inhaling. “Doenjang jjigae.”

“Shut up.”

“Stinky human.” Taehyun laughs into the skin of his neck.

It’s a few minutes later, perhaps when Taehyun assumes Beomgyu is already asleep, that the next words come out much more softly. “My stinky pillow.”

Beomgyu’s heart should not skip a beat at that, but it does all the same.

For once, Beomgyu isn’t awoken by an alarm or Taehyun not so gently shoving him awake so that he can sneak out. He stirs completely on his own, a smile already stretching across his face before he’s even opened his eyes because he has another great night of sleep under his belt, and Taehyun’s hand is massaging the skin of his arm.

“Good morning.” He hears a few moments later – the words soft and encouraging Beomgyu to burrow deeper into the sheets. Everything is a little fuzzy in the early morning haze, especially once Beomgyu feels the covers being pulled away from his shoulders, exposing him to the cool of the morning air. He grumbles into the sheets all the same because he was comfortable.

“Too early.” Beomgyu finally opens his eyes to Taehyun lying in front of him, an unreadable expression on his face as he watches Beomgyu adjust to the light of the morning and ultimately give up. Beomgyu wants to take advantage of the weekend and drift back off, his eyes feeling heavy as they fall closed again, but a cold finger tracing along the expanse of his cheek has him once again looking up at Taehyun.

“You have glitter on your cheek.” Taehyun’s voice is soft as he brushes along the skin. Beomgyu’s sleepy mind thinks it feels nice. Everything feels nice right now when he isn’t fully aware of what’s happening.

“And whose fault is that?” He attempts to glare at Taehyun, but all it manages to do is produce a shallow laugh.

Taehyun’s cheeks still sparkle, and it’s enough to hold Beomgyu’s gaze as he lets another lazy smile stretch across his face. Beomgyu knows that aside from the whole wanting to drink human blood thing, there’s very little that is actually intimidating about Taehyun – he’s soft. And maybe the selfish part of Beomgyu thinks he’s special for seeing it like this. It’s hard not to feel special when Taehyun is looking at him with nearly crossed eyes as their heads rest on the same pillow. It’s almost as if…

And then, before Beomgyu can really process what’s happening, Taehyun is closing the short distance between them on the pillow. Their lips press together for only a fraction of a second, before he pulls away, his eyes blown wide.

“You…” Beomgyu mumbles, suddenly more awake than moments before, but still not quite coherent enough to process what just happened aside from saying, “Your lips are really cold.”

Very eloquent. Beomgyu cringes.

“Yeah?” Taehyun lets out a nervous laugh, his eyes searching Beomgyu’s face for any sign of discomfort. “Yours are pretty warm.”

“It’s the blood… in them…”

“You okay?” Taehyun finally asks.

Beomgyu nods. “Just give me a second.”

“Take your time.”

Taehyun hasn’t moved away. His hand brushes through Beomgyu’s hair as Beomgyu blinks at him, still processing. Yes, Taehyun just kissed him. No, he didn’t hate it. It was actually a really nice way to wake up, and he could probably get used to it. But putting that into words when he’s barely awake is hard enough without a vampire centimeters away, staring at him impatiently. Or maybe it's the same way Taehyun has looked at him every morning for the past couple months.

“Could you stop looking at me like that?” Beomgyu disrupts his own train of thought to glare at the vampire.

Taehyun plays dumb. “Like what?”

“Like you want to kiss me again.”

Taehyun quirks a brow. “And if I do?”

“I—”

Well, Is Beomgyu really going to object?

His contemplation is cut short when Taehyun suddenly sits up, breaking whatever moment they were having in favor of looking at the door.

“Too late.” The vampire says.

“What?!” Beomgyu sits up equally quickly. Taehyun is the one who kissed him first, and now ten seconds of contemplation is too long, and he’s lost his chance? “Fine, if you’re going to be impatient about it you can kiss me again!”

Taehyun scrunches his features in frustration. “Not that.”

“Wha—?”

Next thing Beomgyu knows, the door to his bedroom is being flung open, and Kai and Yeonjun clamor into the room. The pair are soon followed by Soobin whose jaw drops when his eyes land on Taehyun in Beomgyu’s bed.

“I told you!” Kai screeches, pointing an accusatory finger right at Beomgyu.

Beomgyu has no idea what’s happening. How did he go from sleepy morning kisses with a vampire to three of his friends in his bedroom looking at him like he’s standing in the middle of a crime scene? The fact that Taehyun is equally frozen in shock is not helping either of them look less guilty under Yeonjun’s scrutinizing glare.

“How did you…?” Beomgyu’s eyes trail between Yeonjun and Kai.

“The first clue was when I found Taehyun’s secret gummy stash. Taehyun doesn’t even eat human food, yet he kept an entire selection on his shelf…” Kai smirks, obviously too eager to divulge the details.

“You said those were Kai’s gummies.” Beomgyu turns to Taehyun in surprise. And to think Beomgyu has felt guilty for eating so many whenever the vampire offered them to him.

The vampire just shrugs. “Kai eats them, too. Sometimes.”

“And then, Beomgyu left his phone on the couch a couple weeks ago.” Yeonjun adds. “I saw all the text previews as they came in from someone called ‘T’. Wanna see you, Need to feel you... honestly, I didn’t know you had it in you, Taehyun.”

“I don’t.”

“We had our suspicions for a while, but when Taehyun suddenly canceled last night after I mentioned that you weren’t coming, we really knew something was up. I even did his makeup,” Kai cuts in.

That explains the glitter that now litters Beomgyu’s pillowcase. Did Taehyun really cancel just to give him a book and spoon him?

Soobin finally pokes his head between Yeonjun and Kai, offense evident on his face. “So this is what you’ve been doing each time you said you were studying in the library all night?”

Beomgyu watches as Yeonjun heaves a heavy sigh and places a placating pat to Soobin’s arm. “Binnie, baby, the library closes at ten.”

“And you’d know that if you ever actually opened a book.” Beomgyu deadpans.

Like most insults directed at him, it goes right over Soobin’s head. “I tell you everything about Yeonjun hyung, and you’ve kept this from me?”

“I never asked for that information. And, we aren’t sleeping together.” Beomgyu quickly defends. Realizing he is currently in his bed, in Taehyun’s arms, with Taehyun shirtless next to him, he feels the need to rephrase. “I mean, we are, but we aren’t. You know?”

“No.” Yeonjun cuts in. His arms are crossed against his chest, and he obviously means business. Thankfully for Beomgyu, his glare is directed at Taehyun. “You’re going to have to elaborate.”

“We haven’t had sex.” Taehyun states simply, and Beomgyu cringes next to him. It’s true, but it feels weird all the same. This intervention is getting to be too much for Beomgyu to process – and Soobin is still glaring at him.

“If you aren’t hooking up then what are you doing all night alone together? Cuddling?” Kai teases.

However, when both Beomgyu and Taehyun’s eyes go wide, clearly not denying the accusation, Kai realizes the truth.

“Oh my god.” Kai is all too excited by the fact. “You guys are… cuddle buddies?”

“Yes.” Beomgyu heaves a deep sigh. He just wants this over with and to collapse back into the sheets – Taehyun’s pride be damned. “Taehyun wraps me in his big, strong arms, and we sleep. Well, I sleep. He watches… me.”

“Creepy, dude.” Kai says to Taehyun.

Taehyun, though bashful, seems unoffended by the accusation. Instead, he tightens his hold around Beomgyu. It’s cold, like always, but somehow it grounds Beomgyu. They can do this, they can fess up. “It’s stress relieving, okay? Plus, Beomgyu hyung looks cute when he sleeps.”

“You think I’m cute?” Beomgyu leans closer into Taehyun to bat his eyelashes. He means it to tease, but Taehyun’s expression is nothing short of fond.

“When you’re unconscious,” Taehyun quickly amends.

Beomgyu’s face drops at the same time Taehyun’s fingers press deeper into his bicep, holding him closer.

“Aww, look at Taehyunnie finally telling Beomgyu how he feels,” Yeonjun sighs dreamily. And wait, what? “My baby is all grown up.”

Really, it’s all too much. Too many voices, too many secrets, too much for Beomgyu to keep up with.

Taehyun tenses around Beomgyu before he responds through clenched teeth. “Hadn’t quite gotten there yet because you three barged in…”

Beomgyu’s never heard Taehyun so annoyed before – even after all the teasing banter they exchange on the regular. And the mention of yet has him far more focused on the way Taehyun avoids his gaze than the way Soobin is rolling his eyes at the same time Yeonjun lets out a gasp.

Yet holds so many promises. It makes Beomgyu feel like the kiss they exchanged just minutes before wasn’t a one-off induced by glitter and the daze of an early morning. It makes him think, hope, that Taehyun has thought about this too – thought about a them that exists outside of secret cuddles and feigned insults.

Yeonjun, too, seems to immediately understand. In the next second, he’s herding Kai and Soobin out of the doorway, his hands lifted in surrender. “We’ll just leave you to it, then.”

Soobin mouths “traitor” at Beomgyu just before Kai pulls the door closed.

Once again, it’s just Taehyun and Beomgyu. Taehyun is still holding him, and Beomgyu is strangely overjoyed by that fact. In all of his imaginings of how this went down, a cuddling intervention never crossed his mind.

“So…” Beomgyu starts. He tries to not wiggle too much in Taehyun’s hold and expose his nerves. He knows this is his moment to be bold – to finally address the elephant in the room that comes from months of cuddling and one chaste kiss. He wants to know where they stand. “What did Yeonjun mean about you finally telling me how you feel?”

“I told you before, I saw you before we met. Around campus.” Taehyun’s words come out stunted, a bit shy. It’s new for Beomgyu to see Taehyun nervous, exposed and honest just for him.

“And…?” He presses.

“And I might have told Yeonjun about this beautiful, maybe vampire dude I kept seeing around. When we met you at the cafe, he kind of put two and two together.”

Beautiful. If anyone should have that title, it would be Taehyun.

“But I’m not a vampire.”

“No, you’re not.” Taehyun shakes his head, chuckling. His hand reaches to attempt to tame Beomgyu’s hair, his touch gentle. “You turned out to be a mess of a human, but I kind of… like that… about you.”

However sweet the gesture is, Beomgyu still frowns. “You like that I’m a mess? Or that I’m human?”

“I like that you’re you.”

It’s simple. Too simple, really. Just like the way they fell together so easily to cuddle, or the way Taehyun meets him quip for quip.

“Cheesy.” Beomgyu reaches to play with Taehyun’s free hand. “So this whole cuddling thing was a ruse?”

“Not exactly. I really do relax when you’re around. Something about teasing you really takes the edge off after a long day.” That earns Taehyun a playful smack to the chest, which only makes his smile widen. “And you seemed more okay… with the whole vampire thing when you were asleep.”

A month ago Beomgyu might have run away screaming knowing that a vampire wanted him, but hearing the words from Taehyun’s mouth now has a smile stretching across his face and his cheeks warming. There’s a charm to Taehyun’s honesty and the conviction in his eyes as he waits for Beomgyu to respond.

“Where does that leave us?” Beomgyu ventures to ask.

Taehyun’s eyes drop to Beomgyu’s lips, his intentions clear as he leans in to whisper against them. “We can add kissing to the cuddling schedule?”

“We can… do that.”

It’s Beomgyu who closes the distance this time, pressing forward with more force than before and letting their lips find a pattern of easy presses. It’s the kind of slow kiss that isn’t leading anywhere, but is exciting all the same because Taehyun’s lips are cold and soft, Beomgyu’s sheets are warm, and Taehyun is smiling into the kiss. Doing so means his fang catches on Beomgyu’s bottom lip, and it makes Beomgyu giggle at the novelty of it all. He’s really kissing a vampire – and he doesn’t hate it. Not one bit.

When Beomgyu pulls away, Taehyun’s eyes are bright crimson.

“So what does my blood actually smell like?”

“Soondae.”

“Kang Taehyun, I swear to god.”

Taehyun shuts him up with another kiss. And no, Beomgyu may not particularly like vampires. But he does like Kang Taehyun. That’s a good enough starting point, in his humble opinion.