something old, something new | taekook

Chapter 2: A Lesson In Resistance

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A day after walking through the hospital's doors, only hours after waking up to Taehyung's soft words and softer touches, Jeongguk finds himself standing back in the blood stained hallway.

He's dressed in the older vampire's clothes, skin and hair scrubbed clean in the small shower Taehyung had revealed tucked away in the back of his basement hideaway. Taehyung had offered with a teasing smile to help him clean up but Jeongguk had quickly refused, his face burning as he ducked into the small cubicle. However, when he had stepped back out Taehyung had held a hand out and without thinking he had slipped his fingers over his palm, letting the older man tug him close and out of the small room.

His feet shuffle awkwardly as Taehyung stares pensively at the dried, bloody footprints from when he had stumbled upon the vampire the day before.

The guilt that bubbles up threatens to choke him, it's cruel fingers curling tightly around his throat. If it weren't for Taehyung's intoxicatingly filling blood he would have lost his mind all over again at the sight. If he hadn't stumbled into that elevator the result would have been... catastrophic.

"Do not let the guilt consume you, dearest." Taehyung murmurs and Jeongguk looks up from his shoes, fingers twisting together. The man meets his gaze evenly, nothing but honesty in his voice and eyes. "It is not your fault that you cannot control your hunger. That lies solely with your Sire."

Jeongguk swallows and tries to remember who it had been, who the faceless man that had cornered him that dark night had been, but he can't, and he knows Taehyung knows that as well. Sometimes there are flashes in the darkest moments of his thirst, murmurs of a voice he doesn't remember, the memory of a pain he can't feel anymore, but they're nothing more than that. Nothing more than a moment in time that he can no longer recall.

"Is..." He thinks about earlier, how Taehyung had gotten so angry at the mention of his 'Sire', "is that who Jimin is?" He asks, and the vampire finally looks up from the marks on the floor.

Taehyung looks a little surprised by the question but he shakes his head. "Jimin? Oh, no." He says simply. He quietly crosses over the stains and reaches out to gently brush Jeongguk's shaggy hair from his eyes. He doesn't think he's gotten it cut since his life had ended, the scraggly ends falling just below his shoulders. "Jimin is simply a man who should have stopped him."

It barely answers Jeongguk's question, but Taehyung doesn't seem too bothered. He's starting to notice a pattern in Taehyung's vague responses. "Then who is he?" He doesn't know how much he can ask of the vampire but Taehyung only smiles and his hand shifts to cup his cheek gently.

"Such a curious gem, aren't you?" He asks and Jeongguk flushes, unsure whether it's from embarrassment or from the genuine way the vampire speaks. "He is a... dear friend, although I haven't seen him in years."

Something tells Jeongguk that despite how he says years, he means much, much longer than that.

"Come, we need to go upstairs." Taehyung suddenly steps back and Jeongguk blinks as he moves to step around him, towards the elevator. When Jeongguk doesn't immediately follow he pauses and looks over his shoulder, eyebrow raised curiously.

"Upstairs?" Jeongguk asks quietly, eyes wide and heart pounding in his chest.

Upstairs was where the humans were, where the bodies he had left were.

Upstairs was where he had laid waste to a massacre upon the unsuspecting masses.

However, Taehyung only smiles as he holds out a hand and Jeongguk is helpless to stumble forward and take it, fingers twining together on pure instinct. Something about Taehyung's presence makes him melt, makes him want to listen to every word that leaves his mouth.