Sleepless Creatures || JOHNYONG

42 🥀 Things to Clear Up

"Bite? Whaddaya mean?" He had too much of a headache to deal with further confusion. "What bite?"

"...You...you really don't remember?"

This was becoming annoying. "Remember what?"

When Johnny spoke again, it sounded like he was worried about stepping in quicksand, and tepidly inching around. "You were drunk and showed up in an uber after 2. And um, we...I bit you. I was stressed, and when you said I could it shouldn't have mattered because you were drunk and I should've taken you straight to the bed and let you sleep it off. Taeyong I'm sorry, I can't believe I did that and I'd completely understand if you—"

"You bit me?" Johnny shut up. Taeyong spoke neutrally. He hadn't even noticed where. "Did you take blood?"

The other man averted his eyes. "Yeah, I did."

"Oh. Okay." Was that all? He thought something bad must have happened for Johnny to have acted like that rather than be pissed at him. He sat down at the table. It helped quell the hangover-induced nausea a little.

"Oh, okay?" parroted Johnny. "Seriously? No it's not. Taeyong, you were basically passed out on my couch! I'm no better than that vampire at the club."

"It's not itchy, I can't even feel where you bit me. So not it's not the same."

"I'm sorry," Johnny repeated, like he hadn't even heard Taeyong.

"Johnny it's fine. Even if I wasn't drunk I would've let you."

"Just because you think you owe me or whatever, it doesn't mean you should feel obligated."

"It's not just that," mumbled Taeyong. He almost wanted to drown himself again for saying that out loud. But at least it shut Johnny up again. "Really, it's fine, all right? When I saw you in class, I thought you looked off. I thought maybe it was just because..." I didn't tell you about the hunters. Taeyong didn't say that. "Do you feel better?"

Johnny opened and closed his mouth like a shocked fish. "...I do."

"Okay." That's good.

"Taeyong, I'm— are you sure? I swear that won't ever happen again."

"Hmm," he hummed in the affirmative.

The two went back to heavy silence. Well, it was definitely heavy on Taeyong's end. Johnny might not have looked pissed, but there was no doubt he wanted to know more about the bomb that had been dropped on him.

There's no better time than the present, idiot. "That night when Ash bit me, she didn't run off. She was staked by a hunter." Taeyong took a breath, and when Johnny didn't interrupt, or look like he was about to kick him out of the house, Taeyong continued, "I had absolutely no idea about them before that happened. I passed out, and woke up in their house. There's a family of them, and they told me they were keeping Ash to help them track down the Untarnished responsible. They fixed up the wound as best they could, and when they asked me about the other bite marks, I told them I didn't know how I got them. They think the vampire, who they know is the Blood Trader, must have attacked me when I was asleep.

"They said because of my blood type, I'd be a target, so they gave me the dagger, and told me about vampire history and the weapons they use. That's how I figured you were Untarnished. But I promise I didn't tell them anything about you."

Taeyong was scared to look up, but he did.

And Johnny still didn't look mad, just curious.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You were helping me sleep. But it was more than...I didn't want you to hate me. I know that's a shitty excuse. I really wanted to tell you. And I tried. But every time I chickened out.