A/N: Hey everybody! Surprise! I'm back with an early update this week for a variety of reasons. One, because I am utter trash for vampires and Jumin Han. So putting them together=insatiable writing and scenarios. Two, one of the most horrible elections America has ever seen. Disappointed as I am, I won't say much as I'm sure you've all had enough of the results. I just wanted to release this to bring everybody a little joy in such trying times. Stay strong, everyone, I'm here for all of you.
I'd like to thank you all once again for your enthusiasm regarding my writings. It's so amazing to be able to reach so many people and receive such kind praise, I don't know if there are any words of gratitude that would suffice to say how much it means to me.
As usual, thank you so much to all who read/favorited/left a review for this story so far! I hope you all enjoy this newest part!
Note: As always, MC will be referred to as MC in this story in the third person instead of blanks or Y/N. In addition, this story contains minor spoilers for Jumin's route.
Of Secret and Love (Requested Vampire Jumin Ficlet/One-Shot)
After living together for a year or so it proved nearly impossible to keep secrets from each other, not that they necessarily kept many. But she never expected his to be quite so shocking. They still laughed about how MC found out from time to time.
Jumin had excused himself from the table one night when he had an obligatory work-related phone call, and MC didn't want her own glass of wine so much as a sip. So instead of sullying a glass and wasting the drink, she simply took from the one he had poured beforehand. Knowing he wouldn't mind, she leaned forward and tipped the drink back. But as soon as it washed over her tongue it had the most peculiar, metallic flavor that had her coughing and spitting it out immediately into her napkin. She scrutinized the wine glass as if it had attacked her, wondering what on Earth was wrong with its contents. Had somebody, perhaps the chef, poisoned the wine? He had been drinking it without so much as a qualm minutes prior, surely he would have been just as shell-shocked by the appalling flavor.
When he returned to the room seconds later, he looked up from the pages in his hands with burgeoning concern. "I heard you choking, MC, are you all right?"
"Yeah," She reassured, clearing her throat and wincing at the lingering aftertaste. She moved into the kitchen to retrieve some water and spit it out in the sink before she asked.
"Jumin?" She kept her voice light, nonchalant as she sat back down in her seat.
"Yes, love?"
"What's in your wine?"
"Blood," He replied without pause, in autopilot as he read the paperwork he had brought with him and jotted something down, pressed for time for a particular project he was working on. He rarely ever took out work during his time with her, but she respected his occasional haste just as he did hers when she was on the final stretch for her book drafts and articles.
She stopped and stared. She couldn't have heard him right, but at the same time he rarely ever lied or misconstrued information.
"Blood?" She worked to keep her voice from shaking, hoping he wouldn't notice and continue while he was distracted.
She should have known better than to think he would miss the slight tremble. He looked up with his brows furrowed, wondering why she was frightened as he sensed her sudden physical reaction to whatever fear she had conjured. He replayed the conversation in his head, trying to pinpoint a stimulus when his eyes widened and he put the pages down slowly.
"Damn..." He cursed, his hand rising to cover his face.
MC took a deep, shuddering breath, trying hard to be rational but struggling.
"Why?" She choked out, the word a strangled whisper as she tried not to sound betrayed and horrified. "Why was there blood mixed in with your wine?" Her voice grew progressively quieter with each word, shaken.
Tension suffused the air as he struggled to think of a reply, the penthouse too small to contain the charged silence. It felt ready to collapse in on itself, no unlike their relationship if he didn't choose his next words carefully. Terrified that he would lose her, but determined to be honest with her, he finally chose to tell the truth.
"Because," His voice was so hoarse the word was near inaudible. He tried again. "Because I'm a vampire." He fiddled with his cufflinks, staring at his hands.
He waited, listening closely to her reaction. He waited for her to scream and shout, to rip her hair out, to make indignant demands, or hurl harsh curses...he was prepared to accept whatever she threw at him. He knew he deserved it for keeping quiet about what he really was for so long. He had set aside the dread in the hopes that he would never have to face the inevitable terror that would overtake her the moment she found out; that he would never have to watch her tremble and stumble back, trying to get as far away from him as possible like everybody had all his life. He had been able to defy all odds in meeting her and earning her love despite his disturbed state over a year ago, but could he overcome her revulsion for something as intrinsic as what he was?
He sat, fidgeting-waiting and wondering and consumed with anxiety in the painful quiet. Until finally, finally heard something other than her shallow breathing.
It was the only thing he wasn't ready to hear.
Her chair scraped back as she stood abruptly, footsteps taking her further and further away from where he sat.
She made her decision.
Jumin felt his throat constrict and his chest burn, whatever was left of his heart set aflame. One hand rose to loosen his tie as he struggled to breathe while the other closed around where the beating muscle throbbed and twinged, fingers flared and nails digging into the skin as if to rip it out.
It was only when he heard the loud crash of something colliding with the wall that he looked up, the front door closed and untouched.
Wait, she hadn't…?
When he heard another thud from the right in the direction of their bedroom he leapt up so fast that the back of his chair slammed against the floor, dashing towards the hall where he found her crumpled against the wall unconscious.
"MC!" The ragged word was ripped from his lungs, the first time he ever raised his voice in her presence. He lifted her gingerly and checked her vitals with panicked urgency. She was a little cool to the touch and clammy, but otherwise uninjured because she had used the wall as a crutch. The ailment ebbed as quickly as it came; he had barely lifted her bridal style before she regained consciousness.
"Ju-min..." She muttered, squeezing her eyes shut as a wave of dizziness assaulted her exhausted mind and her head sank back against his chest.
"Sh, I'm here love. Easy," He urged with a mellifluous murmur, maintaining his composure for her sake. He knew she needed him to be calm right now, but a man could only have his heart mangled so many times in the space of five minutes before it weighed on him. It was only his relief that she had stayed that kept him upright.
He laid her gently on the bed before he elevated her legs and took in her physical state again. Everything seemed normal. "Are you okay? I'm calling the resident doctor-"
"No," She grabbed his arm, halting him in his tracks. "I'm fine, I just fainted." Her words were sluggish as she fought off the light-headedness.
He frowned, brows furrowing. "Still, I'm not a professional, what if something's wro-"
"No." She said firmly as she struggled to sit up, her voice stronger than before. When she managed with his help, he noticed she let go of his hand immediately as opposed to her habit of letting the contact linger.
He couldn't remember a time he had regarded what he was with such absolute detestation.
"Jumin?" He expected hatred but all he encountered was the tumultuous swirling of hurt and confusion in her eyes, like the ocean during a maelstrom. "Please explain."
He sighed, pulling up a chair while a hand rose to knead the nape of his neck. "Where to begin..." His gaze strayed to a corner of the room, away from the navy eyes lancing him to his seat.
"Well, I suppose I'll begin by saying that I was born like this. Vampires live among the human population with ease, as our differences are not great enough to be conspicuous. I grew up like any other child would of vampire parents-and other than a certain dietary addition-" He cleared his throat, afraid to say the word lest she faint again. "Lived peacefully. All children are taught from an early age the necessary precautions to hide themselves from prying eyes." He shrugged. "I had grown so comfortable with you that I became careless..."
There was a pause as MC took everything in. She didn't know how to feel about it quite yet, but she knew she was willing to hear him out. She wanted to understand why he had kept it a secret for so long. "Why didn't you just tell me?" She finally asked, the most prominent of all the questions bombarding her mind.
"It is not an easy thing to admit to. People riot through the streets for the sake of an unfavorable soccer game turnout. Entire nations commit genocide for the sake of scapegoating their societal unrest. Do you really believe they would not attack us as a minority as soon as they understood we were different?" The question wasn't an accusation so much of a statement of fact, one that history had proved time and again.
Okay, he had her there.
"It was the last thing on my mind when we met; you changed so much about me in so little time that I forgot about it entirely. You were the first person to accept me as I was, without patronization or disgust. At that point in my life, nobody had ever been able to accept who I was, much less what." He rubbed a hand over his mouth in consternation before he let it fall. "I never considered it a possible hindrance or a point of dispute because I was never close enough to anybody for the issue to arise, human or otherwise. It simply was, it wasn't something I actively thought about."
"When I realized that-someday-I would have to tell you, hesitation rendered me speechless. Every time I tried, the moment was not ideal or the words seemed to elude me." He shook his head, ashamed of himself as he stared at the oak-paneled floors.
"After a while, I understood why. I was afraid-" He laid his elbows just above his knees, leaning his chin on his interlaced hands. "Afraid that I would lose you, that this time you would be repulsed beyond all desire to stay and walk out that door forever without another word. What if you could never look me in the eye again? What if you recoiled from me, as you are now? What if you hated me? What if you vanished from my life?" The questions came quicker and quicker, crashing together and infused with dismay.
"Those questions plagued me day and night." He was unable to speak above a whisper, pausing as she watched the knuckles on his interlaced hands blanch.
"Nothing I can say will make my silence right, I know that." He acknowledged, his normal volume returning. "But at the very least, can you understand why?" He implored.
His earnest supplication was a reminder of his desperation that fateful day so long ago, the same wounded man asking her to understand his fears and woes. She curled up her knees and hugged them despite his light protests to her sudden shifting, her heart breaking. She should have known his fear of abandonment would linger no matter how much she tried to reassure him, that it wasn't something that just went away on a whim.
But had she made him feel like he couldn't be honest with her? She never wanted him to be so afraid of her leaving that he wouldn't confide in her, wouldn't trust her to listen and be there for him.
"I do understand...but did I really seem so unreasonable to you? So untrustworthy? Did you really think I wouldn't give you the benefit of the doubt?" She asked, immensely troubled by the prospect of her unintentional neglect.
But he stopped her before she could continue, shaking his head. He reached out to hold her hand, perhaps to soothe her, before he thought better of it. "Of course I trust you. But this isn't a normal secret," Instead he fiddled with his cufflinks, averting his gaze. "As with you moments ago, people react to this kind of news unpredictably. My mother didn't mind it, she was one and content so long as she had all the money in the world. My father could have been a centaur for all she cared." He managed a wry, half-smile before it fell. "But my stepmothers and his girlfriends..." He trailed off, hoping it would be explanation enough.
"I see…" MC replied, at a loss for words herself. But the more they talked about it rationally, the less scared she felt. She almost felt foolish for reacting as she had, drastic and ridiculous. Like he said; just because he was different didn't mean he was dangerous. He was still the same heartfelt, logical man she loved more than anything else. If she could look past his former emotional repression, why couldn't she accept something as simple as a physical difference? Why should that diminish everything they had built between them?
"As for the blood in my wine, that is generally the way I prefer to consume it." He forged on, knowing she still had important unanswered questions. "And before any wild speculations are made as to the source, my father and I donate to causes dedicated to the humane retrieval of blood for both medical and vampire needs. I have never, ever forcibly taken from anyone or condoned it." His head lifted and silver eyes bore into hers, veritably piercing with conviction. "And more importantly, I would never do that to you, MC."
MC exhaled a breath she hadn't known she had been holding, sagging forward. She doubted he would ever be able to do something remotely inhumane, but the reassurance made the twisting knots in her stomach ease. Of course. He couldn't stand the thought of animals suffering, how could she ever believe he could stand to let other human beings suffer for the sake of his own needs?
In a matter of minutes his even explanations assuaged her, diffused the stifling tension that had saturated the penthouse ever since his accidental admission. Every lingering uncertainty was cleared, leaving nothing but her feelings for him behind. Maybe he wasn't human, but he was still Jumin.
And that was enough.
Unable to help herself after causing him so much inadvertent fear, she slid down the bed and into his arms, hugging him tight around the torso to erase all of his doubt and anguish. "I'm sorry." She mumbled into his chest, ashamed and embarrassed at her own insensitivity, but determined to reassure him. "I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. I love you, Jumin. Every part of you."
Shock made him stiffen for a moment before he melted in her arms, embracing her just as tightly and burying his face in her hair. "I love you more." He murmured back, close to her ear.
She waited until his hands stopped trembling and the tension in his body disappeared; the long, deep breaths of her scent his own panacea. She smelled like wildflowers and lavender soap, as sweet and mild as she was. "Impossible." She scoffed playfully as she burrowed closer to his beating heart, each steady thrum bringing her peace.
He pulled back, huffing with the same good humor as his eyes gleamed. "Don't tempt me to prove it." He warned before he laid his forehead gently against hers, his eyes sliding shut.
"How was I ever lucky enough to find you..." He took hold of one of her hands from around his waist and pressed a light kiss to her knuckles, reverent.
The next few hours found the two of them laying on the bed in each other's embrace, as if the constant contact could ward away every second of the night's preliminary woes and wounds. Legs entwined, MC had her arms around his neck. She played with the silken strands of his hair, occasionally stroking his facial features and admiring the tendons and hollows of his throat. Sometimes her arms would descend to his shoulders blades where she traced the stark lines of bone and muscle that made up the mesmerizing expanse of his back, drawing patterns and words thoughtlessly across it like a beloved canvas. Revelling in her touch he had one hand cupped around her head, fingers intertwined and playing with the long strands of honeyed gold while gently caressing her ears. His other arm was wrapped around her waist, a smooth thumb gliding over the curve of her waist to the swell of her hip in a slow circuit. Now and then, his hand met whatever slight skin was showing at the base of her shirt and she would resist the temptation to bite her lip at the heavenly sensation.
"So tell me more," She urged. Her expression was bright and open as she looked to him, attentive.
His eyes lazily traveled from her collarbone, perhaps a future target of his ardor, to meet hers. "About what?" He asked, as if there was nothing more important than taking every aspect of her in as she was right now.
"About what," She mocked with a deep voice. Though it was an abysmal attempt to copy him, she was rewarded with the sound of a chuckle. The delighted sound was music to her ears, more euphonious than the ringing of any bells. "About being a vampire! I want to understand. What's it like? Do you have fangs? Why can I still see you in the mirror? Why don't you burn in the sun? Can-"
He pressed a light finger over her lips with a mildly amused look. "One question at a time, princess. I'll try to answer to the best of my abilities."
"Most of what you touched upon are all myths. We do not burn in the presence of sunlight, or lack a reflection, or fear any item of the Christian faith. If the latter had been so, I would have been dead a long time ago." He remarked with a wry smirk. "Stakes and silver are not lethal either. Believe it or not, the only thing that can kill us is complete decapitation."
She gaped at him. "Did the movies get anything right?" She demanded with ample humor, outraged.
He chuckled again. "It would appear not. We don't brood or sparkle either. At least, not to the extent that those cringeworthy movies depict." He muttered, his face scrunching so adorably at the notion that is was her turn to giggle.
"Anyway, from what I have been able to glean after interacting with other humans, real vampires possess: minimal need for sleep, more acute senses, heightened speed, strength and stamina, increased cell proliferation leading to the illusion that we do not age, said increased cell proliferation also healing wounds in a fraction of the expected time and warding off all disease, fangs, and the necessity to consume blood."
"That explains why you never sleep." She nodded seriously.
He stared at her, deadpan. And they called him a gap moe.
"But you know what that means! Bring on the fangs!" She enthused, curious.
He hesitated. Talking and joking about being a vampire was one thing, but to be faced with indisputable evidence that they existed and he was one? After her reaction earlier, he was still anxious about anything related to blood-drinking.
His voice grew quiet, sobering as he looked to her with a frown. "Are you sure about this, MC?" His hands moving to retreat from her form until she protested, cuddling closer.
"Of course. I was just overwhelmed before, too jarred and surprised to think about why you kept quiet or how you might have felt about it. That was entirely on me." She said firmly. "I made the decision to love you, and that means loving every part of you, foreign to me or not." Her gaze softened, and she smoothed back the hair over his eye with a fond sweep of her hand.
Somewhat mollified, he reached out to take that hand in his, interlacing their fingers and staring at them intertwined before he sighed. Then she watched as his canine teeth elongated enough to protrude from his lips, tipped with razor sharp points.
"Whoa, spooky..." She stared, entranced.
He resisted the urge to hide under the pillow centimeters away from him. The longer she stared, the longer he waited for the terror to hit her as he looked back. His gaze was neutral and blank as anticipation made him more and more tense with every second.
"Wait a minute," She finally looked away, completely disregarding him as she cupped her chin with a forefinger and thumb, a realization dawning. He noted with surprise that there was no hint of trepidation on her face as she muttered, squinting. "What's tomorrow?"
He raised a brow, back to normal at this point. "October twenty-fifth. Why? Is somethi-" His eyes widened, certain he knew where she was going with this as a Cheshire grin surfaced, mischief dancing in her eyes. "Oh no." He muttered. That expression never bode well for anyone involved.
"Oh yes! I finally know what we're doing for the RFA Halloween Party!" She crowed, ecstatic as she jumped from the bed. "C'mon Jumin, don't just sit around! I've procrastinated enough on this, let's get started!"
Jumin stared at the ceiling for another minute, wondering whether he was the luckiest man in the world or the most imperiled. When he finally rose from the bed with a grin and followed her out the door, he decided he was both.
And he wouldn't have it any other way.