Wooyoung closed his coat around his shoulders and pulled his boots closer to put the first foot in. For a moment, he wobbled in a poor attempt at regaining his balance on one leg and leaned halfway against the wall. When San reached out for his shoe with a chuckle, Wooyoung allowed him to close the buckles in his stead.
Once they were clothed and ready to go, both of them stepped outside. The air was wet with the constant threat of rain, but no drops fell in the misty morning air of London. Somewhere in the distance, the clop of hooves on the wet cobblestones gave away the early waking of other inhabitants.
San offered his arm to Wooyoung as they stepped out of the building together. Wooyoung's companion wore a corset vest embroidered with silver brocade that wrapped his body snugly. It accentuated his slim waist that flashed every so often through the peek his billowing jacket allowed. Just earlier, San had combed back his hair neatly until only a single strand fell into his forehead that curled enticingly on his skin. The curve of his top hat's brim added to San's foxy features.
Wooyoung wrapped his hand around San's biceps as they descended the stairs and found themselves back in the alley leading to the secluded corner San resided in. Their breath was barely visible in the brisk air as they found their way back to the main street.
"Where are you taking me today?" Wooyoung inquired as he trusted San's sense of orientation to find his way around the city.
"Down to the park near the river. While it's quite bland and grey at this time of the year, I always find the view spectacular," San smiled back. He had smoothly slipped into the elevated speech pattern and the gallant charisma of this era. Wooyoung's stomach was full of butterflies that danced their happy roundelays.
When they met the crossroad to the main street, Wooyoung and San effortlessly blended with the other few people that milled around. Some quick-paced men were on their way to work and some couples strolled around in leisure. The long and extravagant dresses of the women matched their pretty hats with feathers and chains dangling from them. The duo kept to the side of the road so the occasional passing carriage could rattle by without a hitch.
"How about we also go on a carriage ride after we met Mister Choi? We could explore London't picturesque locations and spend a wonderful time in a dry surrounding," San suggested when he picked up on the way Wooyoung's eyes followed the carriages. His inner romantic was a huge sucker for them and riding one with San for a comfortable trip with no destination sounded like a dream to Wooyoung.
"Why not? I would adore to accompany you on that trip."
San smiled a charming smile. It was less bright and beaming than his usual ones. Fitting to the manner of the time, it was more subtle and hid the larger scheme of his emotions behind a secretive curl of his lips. His dimples appeared still and Wooyoung was over the moon with how attractive the twinkle in San's eyes was.
They strolled through London in no hurry. In between, they stopped at a café to drink something and shared a piece of cake. After a refreshment, they finally made it to the River Thames. The channel was less broad than in modern London and the water less murky even if its trip through grey concrete surroundings still took some of its natural beauty.
On their slow walk along the promenade, Wooyoung's steps matched San's. The click of their heels sounded in unison as Wooyoung marvelled at the spread of water and the combination of the trees that were still weak from winter on the side. As San had said, the view was pretty, and it took the constant reminder of the big city off their shoulders.
"I have been meaning to ask you something for a few years now but you will have to help me remember since my memory fails me in this matter."
Wooyoung glanced up at San to search his face. Some mischief shone in his eyes, so Wooyoung prepared for a cheeky question.
"Back in Norway - and I can't believe how much time has passed since then - you asked me some peculiar questions when first learning about my immortality. Do you remember that?"
Wooyoung tilted his head as he recalled. What could San be getting at?
"When we were at your home still?"
"Yes. It was something about my eating habits I think? About how I could use those to sustain my youth."
"Ah," Wooyoung had to giggle. He hid the noise in his gloved hand to hide behind the propriety of the century. "You mean when I asked you whether you eat young people to gain their youth? Yes, I remember."
"Could that have been a certain trope from this time? Recently when I visited an opera about vampires for the first time, their blood-drinking ways made me think of you. I was deeply impressed."
Wooyoung took his hand down and looked out over the river again.
"That was a jest only I could understand back then, yes. I knew that the popular trend of vampires was long not discovered yet, but I wondered whether you might have been an observation of an author rather than vampires being a sprout of creativity."
"Rather than creativity, I much rather think of them as an excuse for marital affairs and inexplicable diseases. Looking back, I found it quite amusing that you mentioned them."
Wooyoung snickered again, glad that San had got the joke a thousand years later. He probably looked back and remembered the moments spent with Wooyoung a lot whenever they missed each other.
"Although I couldn't help but notice the manner you presented it with back then. The vampires I heard of are shrouded in a certain aura of mystery and seduction. Was that what you thought of back then, too?"
Caught, Wooyoung hid his blush by turning his face towards the river. San noticed still, and his inquisitive eyes filled with impish glee.
"So it appears you fantasised about my teeth sinking into your neck to drink your blood," San deadpanned in his teasing voice. Wooyoung squirmed in his spot.
"I wouldn't have enjoyed your presence any less if you had turned out to be a vampire," he hastened to divert the topic. The chuckle that replied to him warned him he was not off the hook yet.
"May I suggest you even would have enjoyed it more? Vampires are undeniably charming even in their greed for the blood of the living."
Wooyoung pouted, upset at the fact that San had remembered that conversation long enough to find Wooyoung out and even agreed with him.
San's chuckle vibrated richly in his chest. His eyes sought a crow that perched in the dead branches of a nearby tree and watched them.
"Fear not. Your scandalous secret is safe with me," San assured Wooyoung. His sugary sweet voice told Wooyoung of his plans to use this knowledge as his weapon later. With a sigh, Wooyoung accepted his misfortune. San was right. He would make for a phenomenal vampire.
Their walk along the river proceeded in peace. The city's noises were more diluted out here to create an atmosphere of serenity. For a while, Wooyoung and San sat side by side on a bench and watched the gentle movement of the water.
The sun broke through the clouds later in the morning and bathed the wet pavement in glinting light. The mere idea of warmth had San sigh dreamily immediately as he took down his hat to enjoy the breeze and the few sunny rays in his hair.
"What did you do these past few centuries? It's been a long time since we last saw each other," Wooyoung prompted his companion to talk after a while. San must have had many adventures over there in America when it was just in its shy beginnings. Maybe he had found the answers there that da Vinci had promised them.
"I feel like times changed a lot in those years. I went to the new world called America with a group of researchers after we last saw each other. They claimed to be some of the first people on the massive continent and wanted to claim stakes there, but it was already inhabited. The people living there were wild and beautiful in their own culture. A folk more untouched than on the other side of the ocean where we had been trading and making progress with each other for so long. They received me with far more understanding than some others did."
Wooyoung pictured it. He had seen the dreamcatcher on San's bedside table when he had entered his flat in London. It was a real one, woven with the spirit-catching skill that the indigenous Americans possessed. If San had an affinity for nightmares, Wooyoung was sure this treasure helped him a lot.
"I stayed there for a while since I felt so welcome with them. But soon the settlers from Europe took most of those areas over and populated the deserts with their guns and horses. I left, then, and turned towards the sea. Despite my ties with Europe, I have to admit that their colonial greed mightily bothered me. It might have been because I spent so much time with those people who got their culture and land taken away. I couldn't help myself. When I met a group of sailors out to steal from the merchant ships passing between Europe and America to import spices and riches for the king's personal use, I joined them on a journey of scavenging."
San's savage grin had Wooyoung gasp. He almost put a hand on San's thigh in his excitement, but he caught himself in time. Instead, he scooted closer, just enough that people passing them wouldn't wonder what had them sticking to each other so much.
"You were a pirate?" The fascination in Wooyoung's voice had San grin broader. For a moment, he forgot his manners to grin like the pirate he had been.
"I was. I sailed among some powerful rogues that sunk the oceans into despair. And yet it was freedom unlike any I ever tasted before."
Wooyoung was delighted. San, living out his rougher personality, charmed Wooyoung again and again. Not that the San of the present times wouldn't get into a lot of trouble for his swaying moral compass, but since the past played with different rules, Wooyoung was glad to hear that San could be his untamed self. Wooyoung would bet his da Vinci drawing that San looked mightily attractive in a billowing white shirt and sitting in the rigging of a pirate ship.
"Were you a pirate throughout their golden era?"
San mildly shook his head and patted his leg.
"I got injured badly in one of our fights. It healed well until now, but back then, I was out of commission for a while. Before I could go back on account, the navy already suppressed most pirate business. So I returned to England to lighten my judgment towards its people until we met here."
When San could barely resist putting his arm around Wooyoung despite being in public, Wooyoung caught the man's arm with his and pulled him back up to his feet. Slowly, they made their way back from where they had come. Their conversation never lost its breathless charm.
"So you came here. Now, who are you in this lifetime?"
With a smile, San scooped up Wooyoung's hand. Their eyes met when San's lips brushed over his knuckles with the barest pressure.
"I am known as Sir Alisander Everly, Earl of Argyll. But you may call me San, my dearest."
Wooyoung's heart leapt in his chest. He had to hide his dorky smile behind his hand when it threatened to take over his features.
"I see you have recycled your name."
"It's a good name," San purred as he led Wooyoung back down the street. Some people passing them looked at them oddly since they were two males holding each other like lovers, but neither of them minded.
"It is; I like it a lot. And this person we are going to search, do you know him already by your high status?"
"I do. We will be able to meet him in a salon; he is an Earl as well. Although not from one of the Scottish duchies."
Excited, Wooyoung nodded. First, they would get something to eat and then they would make the plan on how to best this last person holding information on immortality.
After that, Wooyoung would get all the time in the world to be with San only and neither of them had to think about their obligations anymore.