Little King (Seoksoo)

Joshua

Fear. Worry. Guilt. Worry. Rage. Worry.

Joshua opened his eyes. He stared at the ceiling above him slowly coming into focus, much lower than the one from the warehouse. And he was no longer on a hard cement floor but in a comfortable bed. His own bed—he could smell the familiar scent of his detergent, as well as hints of himself and Seokmin.

Joshua felt...different. He was having a hard time coming back to himself. How had he gotten here? He tried to remember.

Joshua could remember...pain. First the sharp pain of traumatic wounds from the crash. Right, he'd been in a car crash. That was coming back to him. But that earlier pain was overshadowed by the last moments he remembered, after Mingyu had pounced.

"Joshua." Seokmin's voice, husky and strained, broke through Joshua's remembrances.

Seokmin was here.

Joshua sat up quicker than he should have been able to, turning to look to the side. Seokmin had a chair pulled up to the edge of the bed and was leaning forward, hands clasped tightly together on his knees. Looking at his vampire, Joshua realized he had never seen Seokmin look truly miserable before. The vampire's normally pristine suit was wrinkled and covered in dirt and other sketchy bits that looked suspiciously like dried blood. His straight dark hair was mussed, and his blue eyes were rimmed in red.

Had Joshua's vampire been crying?

"Hi," Joshua greeted a little lamely. He'd expected his voice to come out as a croak, but he didn't sound even the slightest bit hoarse. Joshua sounded...refreshed. Taking mental stock, he felt refreshed. Which was odd. His whole body should have been one big ache. He should have been in the hospital, especially after Mingyu had...had...

Mingyu had bitten him.

Asshole.

Joshua lifted a hand to his throat, pressing his fingers along the side, but he couldn't feel anything unusual there—no gaping wound, no tender, bruised skin.

"Where is he?" Joshua asked.

"He's...contained. You're safe." Seokmin didn't have to ask who Joshua meant by "he."

Joshua eyed Seokmin, trying to see any obvious injuries, resisting the urge to leap out of bed and into his lover's arms. Seokmin sounded worried. He looked worried. He felt worried. The demon inside him was restless, concerned about his mate—concerned about Joshua.

Hold up.

Joshua really could feel Seokmin's worry. He closed his eyes and focused on the strange sensation, a part of Joshua but also not. Worry. Anger. And love. So much love for Joshua that it was overwhelming in its intensity.

Joshua opened his eyes in time to see Seokmin looking momentarily stunned by the wide grin Joshua suddenly couldn't help. "I can feel you," Joshua explained, awe in his voice.

Seokmin nodded, and there was a spike of another emotion—shame, maybe?—flaring up through their connection. "I can feel you too, little king. It's an effect of the mate bond, I think. Now that it's been...solidified."

Joshua pondered that for a second. Their mate bond had been solidified? Had there been some sort of ceremony Joshua had missed out on while he'd been unconscious?

"You must be hungry," Seokmin said, his tone strangely cautious.

Joshua was, in fact. Hungry in a way he hadn't really felt before.

It wasn't the gnawing feeling in the pit of his stomach he was used to feeling at the end of a long shift without a chance for a lunch break. Or rather, that was there, but there was also a...buzzing under Joshua's skin. Like an internal itch that needed to be scratched.