#vampau

“This is where they live?” 

“Huh? Yeah.” Jonghyun barely looks up from his phone when Taemin asks him the question. It's cool that Taemin is seeing the grand manor for the first time with its high towers and gnarled trees and gothic windows and everything, but Jonghyun has seen it a hundred times before and he has sportsball to pretend to be interested in if he wants to fuck that cute human at the gym anytime soon. It's been a while since he's wanted to sleep with a jock and he's sure the rules have to have changed since the last time.

He grabs the wrought-iron gate and yanks it open, beckoning Taemin to follow him with an impatient hand. Above them, the moonlight gives them enough light to not trip over the cobbled stone pathway up to the front doors. On the porch, Taemin rings the doorbell and Jonghyun impatiently taps his knuckles on the black wood until they're let in.

"Oh, it's you.” Jonghyun doesn't even need to look to know that the dickhead receptionist has scrunched their nose at him as usual. 

"Sure is," he says, brushing past them and into the entrance hall. Twenty-something years has not sweetened his opinion of them one bit. 

"Is this your new little project?” they sneer as Taemin follows behind him.

Twenty-something years hasn't made them any better at being petty, either. It's not even fun to be enemies with them. "Mind your own business,” Jonghyun says, and he pulls Taemin into the waiting parlor without a glance back. "They know we're here," he tells Taemin, taking a seat on one of the expensive leather couches. "Vampire stuff. You know how it is. Just hang out for a little bit.” And he gets right back to his phone. 

He should probably be offering Taemin some advice; it's not every day a baby vampire gets to meet the elders to celebrate reaching their first decade. But as Taemin's mentor these past ten years, Jonghyun has learned how he works. He picks up on Jonghyun's tense moods, taking Jonghyun's worry as justification for letting his own anxiety swallow him up. So if Jonghyun doesn't make a big deal out of this, neither will Taemin.

Since when has college sportsball been important? Is he supposed to care about two entire separate leagues? What the fuck. Maybe he doesn't want to sleep with the cute gym guy as much as he thought he did. Not if it requires this much effort to seduce him. Then again, he does smelly really fucking good.

"This is all so tacky.”

“Wuh?” Jonghyun tears his eyes away from his phone. Taemin is standing in the middle of the room, hands on his hips, frowning underneath his wavy black bangs. He looks at Jonghyun and gestures around at the walls.

"All of this,” he says. "The decor. The black and red. The fancy lace. Crystal chandelier.” He points up at the ceiling. "This literally looks like, like, the goth mansion from the sims. You told me they only moved here a century ago. They had to make this place look like this on purpose. Did they become vampires and decide to become stereotypes too?” Walking to one of the recliners, he feels up the cover on the back of it and apparently decides that it's too fancy and pretentious because he lets go of it with a scoff. "Am I supposed to be impressed by these old rich assholes?" he asks.

Jonghyun frowns right back at him. Rude. "You're supposed to be respectful, at least," he says. The elders are the ones that gave Taemin a sentient afterlife, and the ones that keep vampires safe from hunters, and the ones that use all of their wealth to do on the ground charity work and public services for humans that the government refuses to do. So what if they want to live in a cliche. "Also," Jonghyun says, not bothering with reminding Taemin of everything the elders are good for. They can do that if they care enough to. He crosses his legs and his arms, raising his eyebrows at his baby mentee. "You're one to talk. What have you done since you became a vampire, mister fly all the way to Paris to film a slutty dance video of yourself in front of the original Gates of Hell?" 

"Okay," Taemin says loudly. He crosses his arms and sets his jaw, the image of the defiant, grumpy, confrontational vampire he was during his first year. As he's learned more and grown more used to his new life, he's calmed down a little, but he does pull this mood out when he's feeling particularly defensive. Jonghyun wonders if Taemin knows that it doesn't work on him anymore and now he just thinks it's cute. "That's different," Taemin says. "That was – first of all, you're the one that wanted to go to Europe. Second of all, I liked dancing before. And third of all, I'm literally weird queer deconverted catholic. It wasn't stereotypical, it was defiant. It was empowering. It was reclaim. Reclaimary? Atory? Recl–re–”

"Reclamation.” 

"It was a reclamation.” Taemin continues without missing a beat. "This," he gestures around the room again, "this is like. Ooh, I'm a spooky vampire, I want to suck your blood, bluhh.” He draws the collar of his jacket up and speaks in the dracula accent, wiggling his fingers and baring his fangs, then rolls his eyes. "I'm just saying, it's a little tryhard.”

"Maybe we just like the way it looks.” 

"Jesus –” Taemin jumps a mile when Jinki speaks behind him. Jonghyun, who watched Jinki walk into the room, smiles broadly at his mentor. 

"Hi Jinki,” he says. He's looking way too handsome as always with his square glasses and pushed back hair and rumpled suit. Even more so now that he’s smiling so amused at Taemin. Smugness always did look good on him. Jonghyun has to take a moment and catch his own breath. 

"Hi honey,” Jinki says to him, so much warmth in his voice that Jonghyun has to take another couple of moments.

“Christ,” Taemin mumbles into his hands. He hasn't blushed in 10 years, but Jonghyun still knows that if he could he would be neon red right now. "You can't do that to me, Jinx," he groans.

Chuckling, Jinki gets an arm around Taemin's waist. “Come on, birthday boy," he says. "Let's go tell the others what you think about their home decor.” 

He guides Taemin out of the room, mumbling and whining into his hands the entire time. Jonghyun watches them go, shaking his head. So much for Taemin not being nervous. He's still pretty sure that Taemin will make a good impression, or at least not embarrass himself any more, but he calls, "be nice to him!” At JinkIis back anyway.

Taemin might be a gremlin and annoying and way too much of a handful to deal with, but all the same. He’s Jonghyun's gremlin. Jonghyun is the only one that gets to snap at him. Anyone else will get a full show of his fangs no matter who it is. Even if it's one of the elders. He doesn't care.