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As a vampire, Taeyong didn't need food. He liked some of it, sure - mostly things that were either made of sugar and chocolate or fried - but he didn't need it. So when he rushed out of the practice room looking as though he was on the verge of death by frustration with a harried statement about needing to find candy canes, they should have known something was up.
In retrospect, they'd all been really stupid. Taeyong didn't care for mints much, he was never the first to leave the practice room, and he was a fucking vampire.
Taeyong had arrived home with six boxes of candy canes, and started on one once he'd washed his hands and feet.
The room was filled with irritating non-stop crunching sounds from then on. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Followed by the sound of a plastic wrapper being compressed and tossed into a bin and a few minutes of blessed silence.
Then there would be the crinkle sound of Taeyong unwrapping another candy cane and chomping through it with alarming speed.
It was okay for everyone else who didn't have to be near him, but for his boyfriend-slash-roommate Doyoung, it wasn't really okay.
Taeyong sat in the middle of the large bed they shared (well, actually two beds pushed together) and gnawed furiously on the stupid candy stick. He'd bite a good chunk off with the combined strength of his powerful jaw and hard teeth, then shift it all around mouth as he crunched it up noisily into small pieces. Rinse and repeat, without the rinse. Doyoung was used to Taeyong's ridiculous candy habits, but this was a new extreme. He put up with it for three consecutive candy canes before he lost it.
"Could you stop it?" he demanded.
Taeyong stopped abruptly in mid-chew and looked up at him with large bewildered eyes. And that was another thing about the vampire thing - Taeyong didn't have to blink unless he wanted to. He didn't have eyes that dried out. Doyoung was too often at the receiving end of a never-ending gaze with eyelids that never fell, and it tended to jam his thought processes.
Taeyong stared at him more. Doyoung fidgeted. "Yeah, just...stop," he said feebly.
And like a predator energized by easy prey, Taeyong snapped back to normal at Doyoung's slightest show of weakness. "No way," he said in a defiant, measured tone, and deliberately took another bite of his candy cane, eyes on Doyoung's all the while. Crunch crunch crunch. Doyoung really needed to invest in some earplugs. He threw a pillow at Taeyong in vexation and stormed out of the room.
That was the first day.
---
On the second day, Taeyong was twice as bossy as usual during practice, and three different people approached Doyoung throughout the day to beg him to get a handle on his boyfriend. It was mighty foolish of them, because obviously Doyoung would have already done something if he could. Taeyong didn't grant boyfriend privileges in making people suffer, and he might have looked hot when irritated but he wasn't very nice to spend time with.
There were, however no candy canes involved.
---
On the third day, Taeyong was slightly apologetic and nice all the way. Doyoung had no idea what had made him so weird over the past few days, but it was good to have him back.
He didn't think he was imagining that Taeyong was somewhat tense, however.
At night, he was so distracted with writing lyrics that he'd chewed a hole in the straw he was using to drink from his blood bag. Doyoung kindly fetched him a new one and massaged his shoulders. It seemed that work-related stress was getting to him.
---
On the fourth night, Taeyong started grinding his teeth really really loudly while sleeping. (Apparently fourth-generation vampires needed sleep and slept at night.) It was impossible for Doyoung to sleep through it.
Doyoung shook him awake, and he snarled, bottom-lip curling with his perfect white teeth bared. They glistened, even in the dark. The cute gaps in the front where fangs were going to grow didn't look half as cute when he was mad.
He elbowed Doyoung in the stomach and glared. Fucking vampire night vision made that easy for him to aim right and it hurt. Doyoung should have remembered that his boyfriend took to sudden awakenings terribly and prodded him with a pole instead.
"You were grinding your teeth," Doyoung informed him with as much condescension he could load his voice with at four in the morning. He had to let Taeyong know that he didn't have a right to be mad - only Doyoung did.
Taeyong came to his senses. He rubbed Doyoung's stomach gently with his cool hands in apology and kissed it better. Doyoung couldn't stay mad.
"I'm sorry," he mumbled guiltily. His eyes, bright in the dark, were wide and sad. It was annoying how cute he was when he was being difficult.
Doyoung sighed, and melted against his side. "Go back to sleep," he said.
---
On the fifth night, Doyoung was very sure Taeyong didn't sleep at all.
"Don't be stupid," Doyoung said when he woke up on the sixth morning.
---
By the seventh day, both of them were highly-strung, and everyone was sick of them.
"It's like when your parents fight," Jaehyun said, except that nobody had been fighting, and Doyoung and Taeyong weren't parents.
"Well, you try getting him to go to sleep," Doyoung muttered.
Taeyong, who was on something like his sixtieth straight hour awake, protested loudly. "I am sleeping," he insisted, fooling nobody.
Doyoung didn't know why everyone was sighing at him instead of Taeyong.
---
Then Taeyong fell asleep early that night, cute and cosy as a baby, very clearly exhausted. It was great. Doyoung had no clue what he had been holding out on sleep for.
---
Until he was rudely woken up a few hours later by Taeyong's teeth chewing at the juncture between his neck and shoulder. They were sharp and wet and uncoordinated. It was one thing when he did it in a sexy way. This wasn't it.
In fact, it'd taken him a few moments to figure out what it was because it was so ridiculous.
He pushed Taeyong away roughly, but his flesh was snagged between Taeyong's incisors. He let out a loud yelp.
"Dude what the fuck?"
Taeyong was startled awake by his shout. He detached himself from Doyoung and skidded so quickly to the edge of their bed that he almost fell over.
"I'm sorry!"
His jaw was slack in horror, and his lips were still moist with saliva. Doyoung stared back at him, equally mortified.
Really, what the fuck was that?
Then he noticed something. Right at the gaps between Taeyong's luminescent vampire teeth were two little sharp points poking their way through gum. One on the left, and another on the right, right where his fangs belonged. They were probably growing from his bottom jaw too.
He blinked.
"Taeyong. Are you...teething?"
Taeyong couldn't blush, but if he could he would be the colour of a cherry. He ducked his head down.
"Yeah," he muttered, and he looked so embarrassed that Doyoung's heart went out to him.
"Does it hurt badly?" he asked gently.
Taeyong slouched pathetically. "Mm-hmm."
He didn't meet Doyoung's eyes, even as Doyoung pulled him over to give him a hug.
"Poor baby," Doyoung simpered, only a little bit sarcastic. Taeyong didn't punish him with more than a small pinch. "Is this why you ate all those candy canes? You should have said so. I wouldn't have said anything then."
Taeyong burrowed his face into Doyoung's shoulder to avoid looking at him. He spoke into Doyoung's shirt.
"Huh?"
Taeyong raised his head a fraction. "Wasn't working that well anyway. These teeth want to bite people." He chanced a glance at Doyoung's face and buried himself again.
Doyoung blinked. He had been doing that a lot.
Then he stroked the back of Taeyong's neck. "I wouldn't mind that much," he said cautiously, unsure if he really believed it.
Taeyong shook his head. "You would mind," he said with certainty. "You minded tonight. It'll wake you up."
Doyoung scowled because he hated when people told him what he as supposed to think. "I said I wouldn't," he repeated stubbornly. "If I do I'll just kick you out to live on the couch."
"Or we could just separate the beds," Taeyong pointed out, wholly unimpressed.
Doyoung honestly hadn't considered that. There were reasons people weren't usually awake in the a.m. hours before sunrise.
Then his brain went over the fact that Taeyong was teething and biting people, and that he'd be mature enough to drink from Doyoung in a couple of months.
It was supposed to feel good.
Doyoung blushed.
"Don't go biting anyone else now," he warned. "It's just me."
Taeyong looked at him with his shiny vampire eyes and beamed.
Yeah, Doyoung would suffer for a few more nights if it meant he'd never have to share.