Drain me [SKZ fanfiction] Lee Felix

Talking corpses

She's nowhere in sight when he arrives at her workplace. There's a decently large body on a brancard and another smaller one on her work table though. She must've stepped out in a hurry as the smaller one has a gaping hole in their stomach and a bunch of tools are scattered over the counter nearby.
Felix grabs the clipboard balancing on the edge of the counter and brings his right arm in the air so his light blue sweater sleeve falls down a little so he has a hand free to browse through the documents.
Ah, the smaller one has died from an allergy and the other has been found dead in his home a few days prior, cause of death unknown. Both men reached the age of sixty something and both families want half open casket funerals.
Felix notices she forgot to finish her full sentence on the form belonging to the smaller body and he mindlessly grabs around him for a pen to fill in the missing detail. He hums softly whilst dotting down the missing few words and makes little turns walking between the stainless steel table and the brancard.
"Uegh—,"
He looks up hearing a sound and first thinks the girl has arrived back down, but the door towards the workplace doesn't open. He frowns and looks from right to left through the room. His mind is focussed on finding out the weird sound and he drops the pen back on the counter whilst still holding on tight on the clipboard.
"Bweuh..."
He slowly walks up with cautious steps towards the big fellow on the brancard where he definitely heard the noise come from. He's dead, right?
Felix observes the laid down corpse with a big frown, even walking around the body to make sure he isn't missing something. It wouldn't be the first time he witnessed a dead man coming back to life, but this man isn't showing any of the signs of being turned at all.
Felix's curiosity is at its peak and with his sweater paw covering his hand he stretches out his limb towards the body. Slowly coming closer and closer, his eyes focussed on the lifeless being in front of him to make sure he's really that. A lifeless, dead body.
He's holding his breath even though he doesn't even need to breathe and if he would still have a heartbeat, it would've beaten out of his ribcage. With a trembling finger stretched out he quickly pokes the belly of the body.
"Hwueeeaaalgghhh!"
The screeching sound coming out of the corpse throws him off so much Felix gives a short yelp and stumbles back, losing his balance as his feet won't move with him and him flailing his arms behind to keep himself up. There's a lot of noise when the clipboard in his hand clangs against tools on the counter making stuff fall over like a game of dominos and a wet, smudging sound can be heard when he tries to stay up by grabbing wherever. When he looks back one of his hands and a good part of his light blue sleeve is buried deep into the guts of the cut open body and with another shriek he pulls his arm out, only to fall to the other side and pulling a large tub filled with unknown bodily fluids over himself, barely missing his face, but staining his light blue sweater and pants.
"Why?!" he wails loudly, not hearing the hurried steps on the stairs and the door to the workplace slamming open.
Everything is as if frozen in time for a moment. His big, fear filled eyes meet her even worried filled ones which are scanning the room before stilling on him.
She's still wearing her safety gear, but without the hood and face mask and her hair falls over her shoulder as she hangs on the doorframe watching the scene.
"Everything alright?!"
The spell is broken and time seems to continue when she quickly turns around.
"Y-yeah! Nothing to worry about! I tripped over something!"
Her colleague yells something about her being more careful, but she dismisses it quickly before closing the door behind her and cautiously walking over to him before halting and grabbing a face mask laying around.
"Stay still!" she warns him, not losing eye contact whilst walking over to her office. When he slowly nods she grabs a spare set of her scrubs and points at his stained clothes.
"First change. Questions come later," she warns him and she points at the ground for him to leave his stained clothes there.
He doesn't need another second to follow up her orders and he travels in a blink of an eye to snatch the scrubs out of her hands, remove his clothes and bolt over to the back to change into them. For her it must've seemed like he didn't move from his spot and when he's done he awkwardly stands next to the big fellow laying on the brancard, eying it suspiciously whilst the plastic fabric of the scrub rubs uncomfortably against his bare chest and legs.
He watches how she glares at him from the corner of her eyes before walking over to the mess to examine the damage.
"Thank god," he hears her mutter when she turns back to him. "You're lucky you're already dead," she deadpans at him. "Anyone else getting intestine juice over them would've needed at least two shots and a night in the hospital in case of vomiting their brain out from some infection. Let me clean this up and finish Mister Heul over here and then we talk. And don't you dare disappear from me! Go sit in my office or something."
Her stern voice makes him bolt to said place to obediently sit down in the chair with his hands folded in his lap and his eyes downcasted to the floor. He shivers looking down to his hand. He can still feel it sink down in the guts of the body which brings up a scala of long lost memories. It never gets easier. And these innards were cold! Even worse!
When he finally dares to look up he can see how she cleaned the mess on the ground and threw his shirt and pants in the sink to let them soak with some dish soap. She's already back on working on the smaller body, rummaging through its belly to place things back where they should respectively be, wiping her hands clean on a rag before grabbing a curved needle and thread. He can't help but shuffle closer, out of the office and peeking around the corner of the door to see what she's doing.
"Can't sit still?" he hears her say with a low voice and he pulls his shoulders up to his ears as if he's a little kid caught red handed. She chuckles and pulls her hand back in a big movement, needle in the air between her fingers and a large piece of the tread attached. "Well, If you can stomach it, you're free to watch," she says before beginning to stitch up the skin of the body.
She works diligently. He's observing her with big eyes and much curiosity. After a few minutes he shrieks again when the big corpse behind him lets out another gurgling sound.
"Ah, is that what caught you off guard? Freaky right?" she snickers and he whips his head towards her wanting to deny everything, but she's not even looking at him, focussed on finishing her stitches with a smirk on her face.
"It's the gasses," she explains. "Mister Choi-Hwan has been lying dead in his home for a few days before they brought him here. His intestines are already breaking down rapidly which creates gasses. I was planning on making some quick incisions to relieve some of them and then put him back in the cooler, but there was something urgent going on upstairs and they needed my help. Your curiosity must've made you act before thinking, huh?"
She shakes her head a little, tying up the thread and placing the needle back on the counter where her other tools are laid out. "Gasses can leave a body in two ways. The back exit or the front one. Gasses leaving through the throat can move the larynx which makes the corpse 'talk'. I personally find it more entertaining that way than when the gasses escape through the back exit."
He hasn't said a word in the time she started talking and now he's even afraid to open his mouth. Maybe if he stays silent, she won't lay the connection and think he's just another random vampire showing up around her.
He witnesses how she finishes her work on the smaller corpse, uses a specific tool to de-gass the bigger one and places both back into their coolers to work on later.
He wants to offer his help when she groans whilst pushing the tray of the bigger body, but with the lack of using his voice she just waves him off and finishes her work herself. After closing the door she walks back to the sink, poking a bit at his still dirty clothes and drains the water before dropping the wet fabric in a plastic bag she places on the floor.
He follows her to her office where -before she enters- she removes her gear and afterwards plops down in her chair, letting out a big sigh.
"Well? You can sit down," she points at the wooden chair opposite of her desk and he awkwardly lowers himself down.
"You're more talkative normaliter."
His face pales and he dryly swallows looking up to her. Of course she already connected the pieces. Ugh, what a total embarrassment. He had envisioned their meeting in person to be a lot more impressive. Not him getting scared, covered in corpse fluids and ending up being scolded whilst sitting in these itchy clothes. After witnessing so many cute and wholesome meetings of people this is his reality.
He doesn't even dare to see her face and fumbles with his fingers. She looks at her hand and starts counting.
"That time at the bar? The ball boy? Park stranger sharing his food? Man at the grocery store? Guy with the annoying bag? And not to forget cool mystery boy staring holes in the back of my head. Did I forget one?"
His lips part practically stunned with her remarks.
"You knew all this time?" he flaps out and she gives him a big smile.
"Ah, and the stranger from the shadows. Now I've got them all I think."
He clasps his hand in front of his mouth, noticing he just gave himself away and her smile continues in a light chuckle.
"You're not the only one good at watching your surroundings," she winks at him and he gets flustered in an instance.
"Although, I must say you—,"
"No need to say!" he interrupts. "I know my face and voice don't match in the slightest." He almost mumbles the last part and she frowns at him.
"I wanted to say you look a lot cuter than what I expected for a vampire, but then again, Jisung also looks like a dork half of the time and so does Chris."
He's taken aback with her unexpected words and he flits his eyes at her to see if she's honest with it. He's met with a pair of genuine eyes showing him nothing more than sincerity.
"T-thanks," he mumbles, quickly averting his gaze back to his fumbling fingers.
"I was afraid you would freak out after seeing me."
"Hm? Why would I? If anyone, it should be you. I'm the one talking to dead people."
Her tone is calm and tinted with a smudge of amusement. "I'm happily pleased to finally connect the voice to a face for a fact. Knowing you're a baby gives me a better feeling instead of doubting an ancient vampire stalked at me at night."
Her smirk is broad and he can't help but react before seeing through her teasing.
"I did not stalk you and I'm not a baby!" he retorts, closing his eyes when he sees her smile and cursing at himself. "Scrap that! I didn't say a thing."
She giggles and leans back in her chair, satisfied with his reaction.
"So... Can I finally get a name to link to the face and voice as well? Calling you a stranger in the shadows feels not fitting anymore."
He hesitates for a moment before saying; "Lee Felix."
"Felix... It somewhat fits nicely with your face," she mutters shyly. "You know my name already, right?"
He even shyly nods back and says her full name.
"You can just call me Lorey. I'm more western orientated anyways."
There's a small pause in their talk. Both not knowing what to say or how to start. She looks over at the time on her phone and exhales before standing up.
"Well, I'm not gonna do anything else today, so why not finish up together? It will be less awkward to talk with moving hands and I would love to clock out for once before the dark settles outside."
Her tone is so light he needs to do a double take. "No big revelations, shock or any other unexpected emotion?" he asks her and she simply shrugs.
"I'm either numb to fear for your species or there's something wrong with my brain. Probably the latter. Besides that, we've already talked for quite some time, it's not like you're a complete stranger to me, right?"
She's grabbing her stuff and pats around in search of her keys. Felix spots them on the corner of her desk and slides them over the surface. She gives him a bright smile. "See? We're already a great team."

"Yeah, that place has a special menu with a lot of fat free options. I already called the owner to ask. Hm, no. Skip the cat café and instead go watch the swans at the park. She'll only sneeze her lungs out surrounded with fur. Ugh, use your brain, you idiot! Hm? No, I have company. Yeah yeah, movie night next friday. Hang up will you?"
She groans out loud after hanging up and slouches down on her couch.
"Was that Bang Chan?" he asks and she nods.
"He got permission from the hospital to take her out for dinner again, but that idiot has no idea about decent food, so he asked me for suggestions."
He hands her a can of soda she gladly takes from him before sitting down as well. It's been a few days since he clumsily exposed himself and since then he shows himself a lot more often to talk to her to get to know each other better. Their talks differ from the lighthearted talks they shared before to their deep talks about their concerns about life and how to deal with unwanted emotions, mainly from her side towards Bang Chan and Han Choi Hyuna.
"You could've said to find a good place himself?" he suggests.
"I knowwwwww," she says with a stretched out moan. "I don't know what hurts more, hearing him consulting me and putting in effort for his future girlfriend or the fact or the fact he trusts my opinion so much he blindly follows it up. I could suggest a horrible place to them so she gets food poisoning if I want and he would take her there pouring the poison straight in her mouth if I tell him!"
"But you don't," he finishes her tiny rant. "Because you also want to root for them and are in fact not an evil being even if your mind wants to play the bad guy."
She scoffs at him and leans her head on her fist, looking up at him from her lower position.
"For such a babyface you have such wise words."
"I am not a baby," he retorts. "Although my face may look young, I've already told you I've lived for a good ninehundred years."
"Nine Hundred and seventy eight years to be precise," she mocks him with a smile. "But you never told me your human age. Or turning age. Whatever you call it."
Her eyes have that same glint again and he rolls his eyes at her while she eagerly sits up with her hands on her knees in waiting for him to tell her another one of his life stories.
He secretly enjoys telling her different stories he has witnessed through the years and how he had lived through time as time changed. Sometimes he let her in on some personal stories, gaining even more of her curiosity which made his non beating heart swell a little with pride.
"Let me ask you first. What do you know about the history of vampires?"
Her face scrunches with his sudden pop quiz, but she looks at the ceiling whilst gathering all her knowledge before speaking.
"Humans get turned by vampires into vampires. Something about having a lot of their venom in your system whilst dying. Biting alone doesn't turn them that way. Vampires have been there since the beginning of time. Or at least, they get depicted in history books dating back to the first written statements of humankind. Is that right?"
He chuckles at her reciting and shakes his head.
"Most of it is right, but we haven't been there since the beginning of time. Or at least, our generation. See, the very first vampires were mutated humans. Their genes were changed by some kind of virus, resulting in their awakening. Every three- to four thousand years vampires are threatened to go extinct. And when the human population grows, a new variant of the virus awakens a new form of vampires. I'm what's called a vampire from the third generation, meaning I was one of the few being the very first ones awoken from the new virus."
She's hanging on his lips with his lecture. He heard her nag about the lack of knowledge Bang Chan wants to share multiple times and the voices in his head warn him not to share anything as it will only give the council more reasons to pose her as a threat. On the other hand his mind loves how her eyes glint and how she shows him genuine interest in everythings he shares with her. Thanking him and promising him she won't use any information in a bad way. She also shares knowledge he wasn't even aware of. Like how she and Bang Chan have experimented a lot with the blood she provided him from the funeral home and how they managed to keep her friend from going rampant with him feeding from the already deceased.
"So, you were alive somewhere around the middle ages?" she pulls him back to the here and now.
He nods and closes one eye to pinpoint the year. "I don't remember much of my human years. Only that I got sick one day and woke up buried six feet down. It was days before my engagement I believe. They thought I died, only for me to claw my way out of my coffin and go rampant in the village I lived in. Not the prettiest memory."
He sees her swallow and for a split second he's afraid she will judge him for his horrible actions, knowing he had done even worse after his awakening.
"You must've been scared and confused," she says to his surprise. "I- I've seen how Chris was when he just turned, but he at least had me to be with him. I can't imagine how it must've felt not only waking up, knowing people you loved buried you and then being a slave to the first waves of hunger."
It's as if she experienced those moments of thirst and longing to blood herself with the pain coming through her voice and her eyes filled with compassion.
His whole body craves to pull her closer in a hug to thank her for her emphatic words, not making him out for the monster he is, instead he gulps and smiles weakly at her.
"It wasn't, and tasting blood for the very first time is still engraved in my brain. After that I met the others. The very first ones awakening in the third generation, forming what we now know as the council. But let's not talk too much about that. To sum everything up, I was a human till I turned twenty one. Marking this year my ninehundred and ninety-ninth year walking on earth."
He sees how she lets sink in all the information before sorting what grasped her attention the most.
"You were about to be wed at twenty-one?!"
He sighs and laughs out loud as of course, she would filter out the most unimpressive thing out of all of it to question. Not him being almost a thousand years old, nor his obvious notion to the council, no, she chose the unthinkable thing of being wed at what at that time was seen as an old age.
"You're so unbelievable," he laughs, gaining an indignantly look back.
"Pardon me? I'm simply impressed you were once in the position you almost married the love of your life!"
At that he laughs even harder. "There was no such thing as marrying out of love in that day or age," he scoffs. "I was seen as already past my prime and the girl I was supposed to marry was around fifteen? We got engaged so our families could share their dwindling wealth and survive. I didn't even know her name, let alone her face! Nada romance, only convenience."
She pouts and picks up her can of soda to throw it in her recycling bin before sitting back in her spot to stare at her nails.
"That's sad," she pouts. "Did you ever love someone after that? There must've been someone in a thousand years of time?"
You. You, you, you! His brain screams at him and he forcefully pushes the voices to the back of his mind. No, he was NOT liking a human! There was no lovestory for him anymore. His role was to observe others find happiness or tragedy. He is supposed to stand on the sideline, not being a main character himself.
He bites his tongue and smiles at her.
"There have been a few. But almost all of them date back to my first two hundred years being a vampire I believe. After that I only dabbled in some simple flirting, hooking up with the intent of using them for their blood or straight up killing them if their existence posed trouble. The last person I truly loved told me she got pregnant."
She lets out a gasp and holds both her hands in front of her mouth, ushering to finish his story to which he scrunches his nose.
"Vampires aren't fertile. I knew she lied and obviously slept with someone else. I got angry and murdered her secret lover out of spite. After that I drained her till she died and swore to never fall for another human being."
"Wah, that sounds like such a heartfelt tragedy."
He sighs and flicks her forehead. "Clue. Of. The. Story. Be. Afraid. Don't. Romanticize," he reprimands her with a pause between every word to engrain it in her human brain, but all she does is giggling and grasping his finger to put it down.
"I already told you, you don't scare me! If you tell me you've murdered over a million people, my brain still sees your baby face and pretty freckles and dismisses it as no threat. I'm sorry!"
He can't help but smile at her hearing her words. She's all but the calm and collected girl he observed over these past months. Outside of her home and when talking to her colleagues she's always sharp and diligent. Even when talking to her crush, she's nothing like how she's behaving around Felix. Carefree, giggling and above all, everything except serious and silent. He isn't sure why that is, but he takes pride in the fact he can give her that safe space to lose the stuck up mode and relax. He wants to protect Lorey.