life is still going on ; norenmin

15. good things

okay, now, how does jeno watch a kid?

he had no experience — the art of kid watching was unmastered by him and would it be in the future? after today, he'll see. it seems like the perfect opportunity to spend a day with the little vampire if jaemin doesn't come around and attempt to help out, which is a very jaemin thing to do, but a part of jeno didn't want him to.

jeno's got this. he thinks.

"so..." he starts. "wanna play with your stuffed animals?"

yua kept frowning at him but she nodded. "okay. i want colours."

"which one is colours again?" jeno asks, unsure.

"the green one."

"okay, is it — i mean, colours here?" jeno then questions her.

"yes," she nods. jeno smiles at her but she doesn't return it, as he expected, and gets up from his seat to find it. it's not long before he returns with the green lizard, handing it to her.

yua takes it and finally she smiles, but it's not at him. but at least she's satisfied, jeno thinks. for awhile, she's happy enough just talking to colours and acting out a whole movie with him, but at least an hour later, she starts whining.

"when is renjun coming back?" she starts, pouting. "i want renjun!"

jeno felt his short patience starting to already wear thin. "he needs to sleep, yua."

"but i want renjun."

"he needs to sleep," jeno repeats. "he can play later."

yua looks close to crying. crying, the simple act that brings renjun right to her, what brings his attention away from jeno and right onto her. it's completely unfair, but renjun and jaemin'll just say it's him being stupidly jealous of a kid. maybe he was, but jeno feels as if he has every right to be annoyed with her.

then, an idea comes into his head. renjun loved waffles. maybe yua did too! it was definitely worth a shot. "yua, wanna try a waffle?"

yua now looked interested. "a waffle? what's a waffle?"

"a food that's very tasty," jeno answers, feeling hopeful. this was going well enough already. "renjun really likes waffles."

"i want one!" yua then says and jeno screams "bingo!" to himself mentally.

"alright, just stay here so i can go get one for you," jeno smiles at her and for once, yua's smiling right back at him. he quickly gets up off of the chair and heads right into mrs. na's office, looking for the collection of waffles that were hidden away somewhere.

he soon finds them, toasts one, and leaves her office with a big smile, hoping this would work and perhaps he and yua will get along somewhat, even if they merely just tolerate each other. yua sniffed the air curiously when he neared, most likely already having picked up the scent when he was back in mrs. na's office. maybe she's like him and has a great sense of smell, not really quiet on her feet like jaemin or has great hearing, like renjun.

oh, jaemin and renjun. jeno can smile easily at the thought of them.

"here," he handed the waffle to yua, who held it up to her nose. "you just bite it — "

yua, instead, ripped a piece off of it.

" — or tear a piece off, either way works," jeno grinned.

yua took a tiny bite off of the piece she tore off, furrowing her eyebrows for a few moments. jeno waited for her reaction and slowly, her eyes widen and seem to brighten.

"i like waffles!" she bursts out and takes another bite of the piece in her hand, a much bigger one than the first. by the time she's finished destroying the whole thing surprisingly fast, she looks at jeno hopefully for another one without asking.

jeno happily complies with her nonverbal request, smiling at the fact that it was going better than he previously expected.

meanwhile, way off on another more empty part of the huge city, in the flat that belonged to officer nakamoto, winwin was still asleep. his dreams were haunted by the strong, disgusting smell of vampire blood, seeing the huge wounds nabi had gotten before witnessing her getting shot in the head again, then a bullet coming right for him.

he suddenly jerked awake, blinking before looking around. what for? he doesn't exactly know. wait, obviously, he's looking for yuta. but winwin can't see him, but he knows he's somewhat safe in his flat, even if yuta is nowhere to be seen.

a simple sniff of the air proved that everything smelled just like yuta. winwin figures that's enough to make him constantly think about him. winwin shakes his head and sits up, reaching over to his hurt shoulder to peel off the bandage to see what was underneath.

winwin wasn't surprised when new, unbroken skin just grew over his wound though it made him bite his lip when he poked at where he got shot. well, he was fine yet no, he wasn't leaving yet.

but the worst part is — he needs blood. winwin can already feel the same dry feeling his throat always gets every morning before he has his bag of blood that nabi would bring him.

oh, nabi. why did she have to die?

the thought of that just made winwin want to start crying again. he's never been so badly affected by anything in his life, not even being pretty much left behind by any family he had. winwin craved being alone without someone being nearby, but then yuta walks into his life and doesn't seem to stay out of it.

but that's good. now, winwin wants him. nearby, obviously.

also, he wants blood. well, want is an understatement. he needs blood. winwin knew the only way he was getting some was if he went outside to snatch an animal to bite, but he didn't want to leave yuta's place where everything smelt like him. it's almost like his brain suddenly connected yuta's smell to a sense of safety.

but blood, blood is important. more important than yuta's smell.

then, a door opens, revealing yuta stepping out of his bedroom. he smiles at winwin, as if he's happy to see that he was still there.

"your wound did heal by itself just fine," yuta then remarks with gasp when he nears, eyeing winwin's once hurt shoulder.

"told you," winwin says before placing his hands on the sides of his neck. yuta's right there, he has blood, human blood, the sweetest blood of them all —

but no. he can't just bite him. that sense of safety winwin suddenly latched onto would be gone in a flash.

"what's wrong?" yuta then asks.

"nothing," winwin lies. he can do without blood for awhile since his self-control is amazing, at least to him, it is. he'll last without blood. but if kwan and geun never go away, that means staying with yuta for a long time.

staying with officer nakamoto for a long time. as long as winwin feels safe.

"wait, you need blood," yuta says immediately after. "i don't..." his voice trails off as he looks down at his arms, not hidden by his sleeves. "i'm going to do this because i can't think of anything else. bite me."

"bite you...?" winwin would be tasting human blood for the first time. he only ever went off what others had told him what it tasted like, but now he could actually bite a human. yet, he could barely be excited about it.

"yeah," yuta nods. "c'mon, just my neck. just, don't kill me."

"i won't," winwin whispers before leaning in toward the police officer's bare neck. his own breath hitched when his teeth grazed the unmarked skin, he couldn't believe it. he swore to never bite a human, but yuta was offering....

"hurry up, i actually have to go to work today," yuta hisses. "i don't care as long as i don't turn into a vampire, too."

that's enough for winwin to finally sink his fangs into yuta's neck, finally tasting sweet, human blood on his tongue.