The Crescent Crown (Minsung Royalty AU)

Growing Pains

Felix shot up in the middle of the night with an intense thirst. He ripped his blankets off, suddenly feeling like he was overheating and went down to the kitchen. It was dark but his eyes had always adjusted quickly to the darkness so it wasn't too hard to navigate his way downstairs. 

He downed a glass of water, but he wasn't nearly satiated. The heat must be getting to him, he thought. Felix drank another, and another, but he was never satisfied. As his confusion grew, he saw a faint light from around the corner, soon followed by Minho.

"Lix?" He said, his voice sounding so far away from where Felix was. It felt like an out of body experience, his body and mind completely separated. His vision was hazy and the thirst kept growing, the sound of his own blood pumping was deafening. 

"Are you okay?" Minho asked, taking a step closer. Suddenly his scent felt overpowering and Felix stumbled back, holding onto the counter to stop himself from falling. His hand flew over to cover his mouth. Was he... salivating? 

"I'm fine," Felix lied. Of course it wasn't true but he couldn't think straight with the metallic scent surrounding him. 

Minho eyed him suspiciously. "Are you acting weird because you're still mad at me? Look, about Jisung-"

"I'm not mad," Felix responded quickly, screwing his eyes shut. "Seriously, I'm fine. Just go back to bed."

"You're acting weird," Minho took another step forward, and Felix took a step back. "If something's wrong you can tell me."

Felix was growing increasingly frustrated with him and was desperately trying to say anything that would get Minho to leave. 

"I need space," He forced out, his voice sounding strained. "We'll talk tomorrow, okay? Please, Minho."

Minho stared at him for a moment, his expression suspicious, but eventually he nodded and silently walked away. Felix sucked in a breath once Minho was gone and the air didn't smell like blood. 

Blood, he realized in a panic. He was craving blood. If he were in a more stable state of mind he would be appalled by the thought, but in his thirst-crazed state all he could think of was the ice box. He was sure there was fresh meat in there, raw and still bloody. 

Before he could comprehend how disgusting it was, he was biting into the raw meat and letting blood drip down his chin and stain his clothes. Clarity only blessed him when he had nearly sucked the whole cut dry. 

He wiped his mouth the back of his sleeve and stared in horror at the scene. What the fuck was that? His stomach churned with disgust at himself, which was quickly followed by fear. The thirst came so suddenly and violently he didn't have a moment to think about where it was coming from. What possibly could have possessed him to crave blood so badly?

Felix made quick work of cleaning up any evidence of his late night snack, now gagging at the sight of the meat. He washed his hands until they felt raw, hoping the soap would seep into his skin and cleanse whatever demon had taken over his body. The weight of his crescent necklace suddenly felt so heavy, like he wasn't worthy of bearing the name of the moon goddess anymore. He ran his thumb over the smooth crystal and looked out the window at the waning moon, his mind running in circles.

There was probably a logical explanation for all of this. He had heard of people not eating enough and going on rampages in search of the vitamins they were lacking. This could all be some really weird iron deficiency thing that didn't matter. But for the life of him, he couldn't shake the feeling that whatever had come out of him tonight wasn't a one time visitor. 

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Changbin threw back a shot of what Jisung assumed was whiskey as they soon as they made it back to his house. Well, house wasn't exactly an accurate descriptor. It was a little loft stacked on top of the bar he owned with just enough room for two people to move about in without being directly on top of each other. The building itself had 3 completely different uses. The part where Changbin lived, the bar, and the basement. Even Jisung didn't go down to the basement if he didn't have to.