Bad Blood [NoRenMin] ✔

40

Lucas' body is on the floor. Jaemin's hands are shaking, and his arm is still firmly wrapped around Renjun.

He can't seem to tear his gaze away from Lucas. His face is frozen and something akin to cracks are notably forming along his face. As though he's turning to stone. Jaemin hasn't seen anything like it. Staring at it for a moment longer, Taeyong's words hit him again and he's fumbling in his pocket. Only when he pulls out the box of matches (they were going to use lighters, but Taeyong decided that matches would be easier given their situation) does he release Renjun from his hold and take a step forward. He tosses the lit match at Lucas' body and turns away as the flame spreads.

"Jaemin," Renjun murmurs. He's in front of him, hands still fisted at his sides as if he were trying to stop himself from reaching out. Jaemin reminds him that that couldn't possibly be the case.

When he turns around, Renjun is holding out a piece of cloth. "You're bleeding." Sure enough, he is. Jaemin presses the cloth against the side of his hand. Head lowered, he quietly goes over the thoughts that whirl through his head.

"You lied," he finally says in response. He looks away from Renjun. "To Lucas."

"I don't think I know what you're talking about," he replies, but he's lying again.

"You said you didn't want to believe, but you did, didn't you? You wanted it to be true," Jaemin supplies. "You wanted me to be a hunter." He turns around to look at Renjun. They're standing far away from what has now become a full on fire (or at the very least, it looked like someone was starting a bonfire in the middle of nowhere.) He stares quietly, watching the way a stricken expression forms across his face before he's biting on his lip. Jaemin doesn't rush him into talking; he's thinking about what he's going to say.

Renjun runs a hand through his hair. "Do you know how much it kills me?" he whispers, wide eyes looking up at Jaemin in a mixture of desperation and horror. "It kills me that I have to survive on blood. That I'm not dead, but I'm not alive either." He's messing up his hair; it's standing out on all ends and he's shaking. "I hate it," he whispers. "So, yeah. I needed you to be a hunter."

Jaemin watches him quietly. He's pushing the growing urge to step forward and hold him and tell him it will be okay; he can't do that. Not here and not now. Not ever, perhaps. It's difficult imagining that Renjun, who was always soft-spoken and smiling and sweet and completely raw with emotion when it came to, hated what he was. More so difficult knowing that he didn't want to be what he was to the extent of dating a hunter in the hopes of being found out.

"You used me?" Jaemin finally asks. His voice is distant and unrecognizable to his own ears.

Renjun's face pulls, but he doesn't deny it.

"I don't want you to die," Jaemin admits. He's stepping forward and has a hand around Renjun's wrist.

"Jaemin, I need to die. It's not optional." He's smiling sadly and all Jaemin wants is to hug him. He doesn't know why he won't step forward, but something is stopping him.

"So you used me then," he queries in defeat. Letting go of his wrist, Jaemin takes a step back. His voice trembles as he continues, "So that you could get me to kill you?" He's still shaking and he can't seem to stop. Rather than allowing himself to stand in front of Renjun and shake the way that he is, he makes his way over to one of the pillars and slides down. Renjun can be heard following after him.

"At first, Jaemin. Only at first. But—"

"No buts, Renjun. Be straight with me for one second, will you?" When he looks up, their eyes meet and Renjun is smiling.

"That's ironic," he murmurs, joining Jaemin at his side. Their shoulders brush against each other and after a moment of silence, Renjun slips his arm around Jaemin's shoulder.

It's been so long since they sat like this, and Jaemin cannot even begin to explain how much he has missed it. Somehow, Renjun was giving him exactly what he needed.

"Jaemin," Renjun murmurs softly, glancing down at him with a softened gaze. "I'm a vampire. I go against the laws of reality."

"You're not alive," Jaemin says aloud. "Nor dead." He's mostly repeating the line Renjun had said.

"No," he replies, "And I should be. I should have died those years ago," he whispers softly. His grip around Jaemin tightens gently and Renjun's cheek grazes against his own and there's a wetness that surprises Jaemin. It takes Jaemin a moment to realize, however, that it wasn't Renjun crying, but him.

"But you're not dead," Jaemin blubbers softly. He hates that he's crying; he doesn't know why he's crying. Just that the mere idea of Renjun being dead was unsettling. It hurt. Heart clenching and chest tightening sort of hurt that wouldn't just go away. Certainly not if Renjun died.

"But I have to be."

"Says who?" Jaemin demands, pulling out of Renjun's hold. He stands up, hands shaking again and fuck he wishes he would just stop shaking.

"Says me. And science. And hunters," he emphasizes the word with an accusing look at Jaemin. A reminder that he was a hunter before he was a boy in love. Renjun starts to stand when the sound of rushing footsteps echo in their direction. They turn around in time to catch Kun in the doorway.

"We have to go," he urges. "Hospital."

He spares Renjun a glance only to be shoved in the direction of the doors. "Go," Renjun says. "We'll continue this again."

"I'm holding you to that," Jaemin whispers. With that, he turns around and hurries out, following Kun to the car. On their way, they pass a few fires which Jaemin can only assume were once vampires. He can't tell who is who, and so, as he hops into the car, he reminds himself to ask someone later.

You better stay alive, Jaemin thinks to himself, staring quietly out of the window and cloth still pressing hard against his wound. Or I won't forgive you.