Hell Born

*Seonghwa's power outage*

One day I'll do a flashback chapter for how Hongjoong and Seonghwa met. Would anyone actually want that though?

Also, a quick question for scientific purposes, what's your favourite ship in the story so far and who do want to see more of? Asking for a friend 👀

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Lately, Seonghwa had been exhausted. His limbs felt heavy, eyes always ready to close and he constantly felt two seconds away from collapsing. Fortunately (and unfortunately) he knew exactly why. See, while Hongjoong could recharge by sitting in fire and San by generally being his chaotic self, Seonghwa on the other hand needed to consume souls. Sure, the occasional nightmare would do but it was only ever a brief high and would leave him suffering from the dream afterwards. He knew this would be an issue when they moved to Earth and thought ahead.

In a small, black bag, Seonghwa had a collection of soul shards that he'd use to replenish his energy. He'd usually grind the shards and spread them on something but lately he's been taking it directly from the crystal out of desperation. They weren't the most filling things in the world but they were just enough to keep him going. What he didn't anticipate was how quickly he'd run out. However there was a very simple solution to this, but it wasn't something he was too fond of. Inside every human was a soul waiting to be taken. With so much energy inside a living being, it was beyond tempting to steal. It didn't help that Seonghwa was surrounded by humans every day. It was becoming especially difficult to be around Mingi and Wooyoung since he saw the barista so often and San (despite his father's warning) usually brought his friend over after school. He was finding it more and more difficult to control his urges and he felt close to snapping.

Though he had yet to tell Hongjoong, Seonghwa was sure he had noticed after the older was too weak to engage in their usual pleasantries, despite it being midnight, the hour Seonghwa normally thrived at. His husband would constantly ask if he was alright and was always ready to catch him if Seonghwa was close to falling over. He'd even stay by his side in bed at times. The raven-haired demon hated having to trouble him and worst of all make him worry, but was thankful for the help.

Seonghwa felt miserable. By now, his eyes had dulled out and he could barely move. Still, he tried his best to power through as if nothing was wrong.

Which he was failing horribly at.

"Father?" San whispered as he slowly crept into his parent's darkened room. He didn't dare turn on the light, or worse, open the curtain, in fear of his father's irritation. Seonghwa responded with a low huff and San cautiously walked in. "Um...there's a parent-teacher meeting happening at school...do you think you can come?" His father sighed, trying his best to sit out of bed to no avail.

"Sorry Sannie, do you think your dad can go?" Even though it was pitch black, Seonghwa could see his son's disappointment from a mile away.

"Oh...yeah it's fine." Recently, San hadn't been spending much time with his father. He was always either at the café or sleeping. Seonghwa knew it was a problem but genuinely didn't even have the energy to move, let alone go out with him. He wanted to spend more time with San but physically he just couldn't.

Even still, he hated disappointing his son.

"Sannie, wait," He called out. "I'll go."

"Really?" San beamed. "Great! Thank you father!" The teen left with a smile and that was all Seonghwa wanted. Unfortunately, he had yet to find the will to get up.

He was going to need help.

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"I'll admit, when you called me, I was a bit sceptical. Now I see why. This is just sad."