Monster (Monster!T.O.P x Reader)

Monster

There was no denying that you were in love with someone other than a human. How that came to be, you couldn't exactly remember, but it was the only truth you knew. To everyone else, Choi Seunghyun was a monster, but to you, he was so much more than a species or a label.

The term was actually 'Darksider', but people would rather refer to them as beasts and monsters. Darksiders are humanoid creatures that have the ability to control what little magic this world has. They are strong and determined, but often violent and reckless. Darksiders were born to look nearly the same as humans, but with brightly coloured eyes and canine fangs similar to that of a mythological vampire. Their skin would be pale and smooth, never showing a single blemish, but often bore sprawling tattoos that would appear when they were using magic. In pitch darkness, their eternal sight would be visible; multitudes of bodiless eyes would surround them in a cloud of hazy bright light. Darksiders also had a much longer lifespan than humans, able to extend their life for up to 800 years.

While Darksiders have been around for nearly as long as the human race has, hardly anyone understood them. They were feared and hated, so much to the point that all of them went into hiding almost 300 years ago. Some tried to blend in as humans, and some found solitude hiding in the wilderness, but their numbers recently began to dwindle when the humans prioritised hunting them down. Whenever a Darksider was captured, it was broadcast as breaking news, reported over the PA systems of every school, workplace, and home.

Darksiders that were caught by humans were sent to gigantic prisons. The facilities were a cloaked lie: they were supposed to incarcerate Darksiders for 'the protection of humanity', for the greater good. But, those prisons were really built to experiment on captive Darksiders: to try and discover new ways to kill and fight wars, test medication and chemicals instead of using animal or human trials, and discover the way to slow the ageing process. The prisons were large, closed off facilities that were covered with concrete walls, thick chain link fences laced with a magic blocking material, and endless spools of barbed wire.

~

Choi Seunghyun had survived as a human for the majority of his life. He blended in well, wearing brown eye contacts and creating illusions around his face to hide his sharp teeth. It wasn't until he met you that he ever let go and allowed himself to be who he was, instead of becoming something completely false. You were the only human who would ever accept a Darksider into their arms without fearing pain or death. You were the only human to ever want to kiss the lips of someone who could very well tear yours out by accident. You were the only human to love a Darksider, to love a monster so deeply that it wouldn't matter if your life hung in the balance.

To you, Seunghyun wasn't a monster. He was just Seunghyun. For that reason among hundreds of others, he loved you. It was you, a human - someone on the other side - that made him feel free and fearless. Seunghyun became brave around you. He was less closed off, less angry, less prone to lashing out at every little thing that annoyed him. He would long to hug you, to kiss you, something he had previously promised himself that he would never do. His Darksider nature was gone when you were with him, and Seunghyun was finally happy, after 200 years of fearing getting caught. Love and emotion were no longer weaknesses to him, and they were transformed into a strength.

But, Seunghyun's happiness was soon the object of his downfall.

~

Seunghyun sat in his cell with his head down, staring at the concrete floor. He couldn't remember what day it was anymore, but the thought of you kept him going. He went through round after round of vigorous torture, injections and test battles, surviving with the last faint image of you in his mind's eye. He would spend his days strapped to a table or in an arena with a beeping collar around his neck, hearing the cackles of the humans when he tried to get away from canon shots and gunfire. Then, he would spend his nights in a small, cramped cell with four other Darksiders. The last ones left alive in the sprawling prison, at least to his knowledge.