[Fic] Feel: Part 6
Jan. 22nd, 2009 08:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lotus_beautyTitle: Feel (aka that Twilight fic)
Author: LotusBeauty
Rating: PG-13 to NC-17
Type: Multi-chapter
Pairings: JaeChun, ot5 eventually
Genre: AU, fantasy, fusion, comedy/drama/emo, loltribute
Summary: See part 1
Notes: Don’t start with me. Deep down, you know you wanted it. Reference post here.
Disclaimer: Not mine, never were.
Part 1: Face the Gun / Good Luck
Part 2: Voice on the Radio
Part 3: LONG SHOT PENNY
Part 4: No Way to Say
Part 5: Unafraid
Interlude: Rowdy Rumble
6: Girlfriend
Micky sat on the aisle with Kendra between him and Jae, and Lilly was to Jae’s right. This wasn’t a terribly bad setup, besides the fact that they were watching Jenna and her friends practicing their talent show skit on the stage to some American pop song about some girl wanting to be a guy’s girlfriend and hating his current girlfriend. Jae felt like it was a train wreck and he just couldn’t look away as he had this very distinct feeling that Jenna was singing to him. Kendra and Lilly sitting to either side of him didn’t help. Jenna was also off-key a lot so Lilly and Kendra were trying very hard not to laugh as Micky grinned openly, enjoying the entire affair thoroughly as he slightly bopped his head to the beat. He mustn’t have seen this before in his lifetime. Then again, was he alive? Jae shook the myth from his head and turned his attention to the stage again. Once the song was over, Jenna’s friends watching the practice hooted and hollered as the two girls next to him stood and cheered. Mocking was an understatement, but Jenna didn’t seem to understand it and thanked them.
Micky clapped with an impressed expression. “I think that went rather well.”
“Just wait until everyone is sighing and making gaga eyes over your singing,” Kendra threatened and Micky looked mock horrified. Kendra threw a ‘what did you do to him?’ look at Jae who just shrugged. Micky had been just that much more social since they’d gotten together. He had a feeling it confused people more than anything but that they assumed Jae had brought him out of his shell and into the world of the living—literally, in his case. This wasn’t the first time there had been a reaction to Micky’s change in personality, nor that of his brothers. They seemed to have changed their minds about the whole blending in idea.
At lunch, Micky had plopped down right next to Jae and grinned, much to Jae’s amusement as he was distracted from working on sketches for art with Ara. Directly after this, Junsu walked by and ruffled Micky’s hair and Max followed right behind to make it even worse. Somehow, the vampire’s hair fell perfectly fine once they were finished. Jae could only feel annoyed at the fact that it looked even better than before.
“What’s the matter, BooJae?” Micky had asked. The entire table hushed immediately and stared as Jae gaped in embarrassment at the vampire.
“It doesn’t mean what you think it means!” Jae told them with wild hand gestures before snapping at Micky in Korean, ”You said you’d only use that in private!”
“Did you just call him boo?” Chester asked as Jenna looked positively white.
Micky laughed. “He’s right,” he said pointing at Jae. “It doesn’t mean what you think.”
“Boo means …like ‘not’ in Korean, right?” Kendra asked, frowning as she wracked her brain.
“And his name means something like ‘in’ or ‘to be’ in English.” Micky grinned as everyone thought this over. “You guys have seen him with that blank look on his face right? There’s nothing wrong, he’s just totally not there. I’m basically calling him an airhead because he likes to space out.”
Jae glared and wished he could crawl into a cave and hide as everyone laughed. Did he really look so blank when he was thinking? How had he managed to hit the nail on the head and define the matter so simply? Micky had apologized as Jae fumed in Biology class. Later, on their way through the stage to practice for the talent show, Micky had pulled him into an abandoned dressing room to apologize with his lips, but without any words. Jae distinctly recalled liking this apology better. It had more feeling.
“So when are you going to start discouraging Jenna more?” Lilly asked casually, bringing Jae back to the present. “She seems very determined to make you hers.”
He glanced over to see Jenna giggling with her friends and she caught his eye to wave at him. He gave a reluctant wave back before turning to Lilly with a flirtatious smirk. “I might have to start being more forward with some other girls,” Jae replied as he took a page from Micky’s book and touched Lilly’s chin with a smile. “How’s this?”
Lilly blushed and pushed his hand away as she laughed nervously and stammered, “G-god JJ, don’t do that! It’s too inviting!”
“Hey, you’re pretty good at that,” Micky said with a crooked grin.
“I wondered where you learned it from.” Kendra sent a very obvious look to Micky who shrugged and flashed a smile.
“What can I say? I’m just that good,” he replied without one shred of modesty.
“Who do you think I should flirt with to discourage her?” Jae asked.
“Everyone,” Ara said as she joined the group. “Sorry I’m late. Big discussion about…oh, never mind. What’s going on?”
“How did you know what we were talking about?” Kendra asked as they all rearranged the folding chairs to face each other.
“Is it difficult to figure out that question?” She asked with a laugh. “If he flirts with everyone, she’ll think that he doesn’t stay with one girl for long and will give up.”
Jae nodded as he agreed she had a point. He looked to Micky who winked. Jae had a feeling his boyfriend would enjoy seeing him flirting with other girls, the bastard.
“She’ll get so angry that he’s not flirting with her though,” Lilly laughed.
The discussion went on for a little while as Chester joined the group and suggested that Jae flirt with guys as well to really throw her off. Micky casually offered himself up for this behavior and it seemed that everyone liked this idea. Kendra looked away and tried very hard not to laugh as Ara found scribbling in her planner very interesting. The topic of conversation moved toward other things as more people joined them and finally Micky and Jae were called to the stage for a practice. They flew through the performance easily and were soon making their way back to the group—which was hooting and hollering at them—when Junsu’s name was called. Surprised, Jae turned to see the vampire making his way up to the stage, looking as gorgeous as ever. The music soon started and then he began to sing.
Jae had been about to sit down at this point. He was about to lower himself to the chair when Junsu’s voice floated over the gymnasium and he stopped in complete shock at the perfect pitch of the vampire’s voice. Gravity took over from there as Jae completely missed his chair and fell straight to the floor. Micky was the only person who seemed to notice, as everyone including Jae was stunned by the beautiful voice.
“Are you okay?” Micky asked worried.
Jae shook his head to clear it from the spellbound state he’d found himself in. “Um, yeah,” he replied absently.
“How come you don’t act like that when I sing?” the vampire asked in Korean with a pout.
Jae could only stare at him in surprise. Was he jealous? A smirk made its way onto Jae’s lips. “I think someone’s ego was bruised.”
Micky grumbled something about sharing and crossed his arms as he looked away. Jae had to bite his bottom lip to keep from laughing out loud. He had a feeling he would be the one to be apologizing later, and had an idea of just what to do when he did. As he finally situated himself in the chair, he realized that Jenna’s red hair was next to him and glanced at her to see that she was enthralled by Junsu’s singing. Luckily, he managed to scoot his chair closer to Micky’s without her noticing or even being put out. Once Junsu was finished with his song, everyone was on their feet clapping and cheering. The teacher in charge of the talent show approved his entry and Junsu gave a little bow to thank him.
Micky glanced at Jenna as she gave Junsu a starry-eyed look. “Yellow fever,” he muttered to Jae, who snickered.
“You’re going down,” Junsu said with a happy grin.
“You’re cheating.” Micky crossed his arms.
“Cheating?” Jae asked.
“He’s using that ability I showed you the other day,” Micky reminded him. “What word would you use for it?” he asked in English.
“Uh…” Jae stared at them both dumbfounded. Junsu then tried to use it on Jae as the young man gave him an exasperated look. “Your dazzle doesn’t work on me,” he retorted as the bit of silver faded from the edge of his eyes.
“Huh.” Junsu looked mildly surprised before he recovered. “I like that word, dazzle. I do dazzle onstage, don’t I?” he grinned. Jae had a feeling that if he had a tail, it would be wagging excitedly.
Jae laughed as Micky rolled his eyes and replied, “He could always deter them instead.”
“It works that way?” Jae asked, surprised.
The two vampires nodded and Junsu answered, “It works both ways.”
“Huh.” Jae thought on this for a moment. “Is this why girls don’t tend to go near you?” The two grinned in reply and Jae’s eyebrows knitted together in annoyance. “I want this ability now.”
“We should go!” Lilly exclaimed from the group to their side, distracting them from the conversation.
“Go where?” Jae asked as Kendra and Ara moved toward his group and Max walked into the gymnasium to lean on Junsu, who didn’t seem pleased about being used as an armrest at first.
“I was in a city east of here to see a movie with my cousin, and afterward she took me to this awesome Korean restaurant,” Chester told them. “I figured you guys and Ara might like it.”
“Please?” Ara begged.
Jae smiled and patted her head. “Only for you,” he said as she squealed and hugged him. He didn’t really get why she was asking and hanging on him until he saw Jenna fuming about the hug at the edge of the group. Ara was sneakier than he’d thought.
It was a little after five o’clock on a Friday night and the drive wasn’t too long, so everyone divided up into different cars and started the drive out to the other city. Jae ended up in the backseat of Junsu’s car with Micky beside him and Max in the passenger seat. He’d wanted to ride with Kendra and Ara, but Kendra had practically shoved him into the backseat with Micky who then promised not to break him on the way. No shame from those two, he thought with a shake of his head.
When Micky clicked his seatbelt off, Jae saw Junsu roll his eyes in the rearview mirror and turn it away before cranking the music up. He supposed that was about all the privacy he was going to get since Micky seemed quite intent on doing something unadvisable in the backseat. Jae crossed his arms and mock glared at the vampire for a moment until he sighed and sat back. Jae took the chance to unhook his seatbelt and lean over to capture the vampire’s lips. Micky, surprised but composed, slid down the seat until Jae was atop him. Apology accepted.
Time moved too fast unfortunately and Junsu warned them that they were coming up on the city soon. They groaned in disappointment from the back which made the other two laugh in response.
Max turned to look at them from his seat. “That was hot,” he said with a grin, the heat in his eyes capturing Jae for a moment. “Can I join next time?” Junsu smacked his shoulder and he pouted when the driver glared as Jae pursed his lips together to keep from laughing. “It was just a suggestion!” Max protested. Before Jae could give the offer any thought, Junsu lectured Max on privacy and pulled into the restaurant parking lot.
“You remember Changmin’s power?” Micky asked to receive a nod. “From what he was thinking, our feelings are extremely strong for one another,” he commented as Jae glanced curiously at the taller vampire exiting the car. He then found himself wondering if he should call the vampire Max like all of the other students. As they were getting out of the car, Chester ran into the busy restaurant to arrange for tables and returned with a 30 minute wait. No one seemed bothered by the wait and decided to investigate the shops around the town before returning for food. Micky and Jae wandered off in the direction Chester pointed for a music shop with Junsu and Changmin following them.
Once they found the store and were inside, they split up to different areas. Jae was flipping through some of the rock CDs when Micky came over and pointed at Junsu, who had sampling headphones on and was—grooving was the only word he could think of—to the music. Jae snickered and moved to a headphone set to listen to the samples as well. He was fascinated by the scanner interface that gave him a track list and reviews, and found himself typing in other random CDs to listen to them and read more about them. It wasn’t until he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket that he pulled the headphones off.
—Where are you?—
Jae blinked at Micky’s text and looked around to realize they had left him to head back to the restaurant and he checked the time. Damn, the time had really flown while he was listening to the music.
—You forgot me? — He texted back as he left the shop and headed back in the general direction of the restaurant.
—I thought you nodded when I told you it was time to go—
Jae rolled his eyes and turned the corner. He hadn’t even known Micky had tried to get his attention. He sent back an apology and looked up. He stopped—this didn’t look familiar. He looked around and moved back to the corner he’d turned and skidded to a stop when he saw a group of older men, who were rather large and a bit taller than him, loitering outside of a bar notice him. They called to him, asking if he was lost, laughing as Jae turned and quickly walked back the way he was going.
—I think I’m lost— He sent to Micky as he kept walking and glanced back. Two of the men were following him. Great. His phone vibrated.
—Seriously? —
—YES—
He glanced back to see the men still following him and turned another corner. This was getting ridiculous. He had no idea where he was and knew they were trying to herd him somewhere, but what could he do? Okay, this street looked vaguely familiar, but he wasn’t sure. Anxious, Jae walked faster and turned another corner—to find the other two men that hadn’t been following him. He would have turned to run if the first two hadn’t followed him around the corner at that moment.
“There you are!” the tallest waiting in the dead end called to his friends. “You found her.”
Jae stopped. HER? “Excuse me?” he asked in annoyance.
They all leered at the retort as Jae found he was surrounded and his feet stumbled backwards. When his back hit the brick wall of a building, he realized he was completely outnumbered and defenseless. The tallest man moved closer than the rest and looked him up and down lecherously for a moment before frowning. He then squinted before smiling.
“Well, well, well.” he chuckled. “It’s not a girl. It’s just a very pretty boy,” he told them as they all laughed. “Not that it changes much.”
Jae’s eyes widened in horror as he realized what the man’s words meant. He would have expected something like this in a large metropolitan city, but in a small town like this? Did they really have nothing better to do in this small town? Jae shrank back against the wall as he desperately wished he’d taken some sort of self defense class instead of just working out. He might have been able to escape. The man moved closer and grabbed Jae’s chin as he tried to free himself from the grip as he felt another hand unzip his coat before moving up his torso, under his shirt. He squirmed in disgust at the touch and considered the urge to retch right then and there.
“Don’t touch him.”
Jae’s eyes widened at the voice as the man turned to see just one figure standing behind him—Micky. The other three men were on the ground unconscious.
“Who are you?” the man asked as he held Jae back against the wall with one hand and flipped out a knife with the other.
Suddenly, the weight on his chest was gone and the man was on the ground. Jae stared at the unconscious man in shock and looked up to see Micky staring down at the man.
“I told you not to touch him,” he said darkly.
Jae gaped at him, unable to force words out of his mouth for a moment. “Is… is he dead?”
“Dead?” Micky raised an eyebrow before glancing at the men with cold eyes. “Please, I wouldn’t waste my power on doing something like that. No, they’ll just have nasty headaches when they wake up.” He turned a worried look on the younger man. “Are you okay?”
Jae nodded—then shook his head as Micky pulled him into a tight hug. He could feel himself clinging to Micky, not wanting to let go. He felt so helpless; so pathetic. He couldn’t even defend himself. Jae didn’t even realize he was shaking until he heard Micky telling him to calm down and that it was fine now. Now he felt really pathetic and didn’t want to show his burning face. Micky coaxed Jae to let go and convinced him that he needed to sit down and eat something. Jae nodded and let himself be led to the restaurant where everyone was waiting and began to wonder if they were worried about him.
“I’m glad you’re alright, BooJae,” Micky finally said as they neared the restaurant. “I’m sorry I left you alone back there.”
“It’s not your fault,” Jae replied softly. He was surprised when Micky squeezed his hand; he hadn’t even noticed they were holding hands this whole time. It was too bad that their hands slipped apart as they entered the restaurant, but everyone greeted them with a small cheer. Jae felt his face heat in embarrassment when Micky explained that he’d gotten lost, thankful he’d at least left out the other part as everyone chortled over the story. When he looked up, Kendra was looking at him sympathetically and then ever so slightly jerked her head at the table. Jae was shocked to see the only two seats left were at opposite sides of the tables that had been lined up and one was right next to Jenna. So much for the hard-to-get kick she’d been on. How did she manage to orchestrate this?
Micky pointed at an empty table next to the end of the group’s table and asked a waitress if they could sit at it. She granted him permission to take it he and shoved it over with the other tables, adding it at the end before steering Jae to one chair and ordering two waters. Lilly was next to Micky and Chester was at Jae’s left, both of them quietly asking if Jae was alright. He told them he was fine and grabbed his water as the waitress set it on the table, downing the majority of the liquid before taking a breath. Jae softly apologized to Chester and said he was just embarrassed about getting lost in such a small city. The young man laughed lightly and replied something about Junsu saying his name before everyone realized he was missing.
Jae glanced up at Junsu who was staring at his menu, but he glanced up to let his eyes catch Jae’s for a moment. The vampire’s eyes held a look of worry and Jae had a feeling he’d seen what was about to happen and sent Micky after him. He was now extremely grateful for the vampire’s ability, but how Micky found him, he would never know. After that, dinner seemed to fly by. He drank two more glasses of water and poked at his food until Micky cleared his throat and gave him a stern glare. Jae ate half of it. The one thing he remembered the most about the evening was being shocked that the vampires ate the food that they’d ordered. Changmin seemed to have eaten about twice as much as everyone else. Jae was confused about this and ignored it for the moment since it really wasn’t important at the time.
Once dinner was over, everyone pooled money in the middle of the table for the bill and a great tip by most everyone’s standards as the waitress had put up with them without any fuss or bad mood. Everyone stumbled out of the restaurant with contentedly full bellies and piled into the cars to make their way home. Home sounded like a good idea at that point. Sometime during the car ride Jae passed out against Micky and didn’t remember anything after that. When he started to wake, he stretched a little to find that he was… on a bed?
Jae opened his eyes and blinked a few times to clear them as he saw his bedside table in the darkness. He rubbed his eyes as he sat up and wondered just how he’d gotten to his bed.
“I carried you.”
Jae jumped and turned to see Micky sitting on the chair from his desk. “I hate it when you do that!” he hissed at the grinning vampire.
“Well, if it’s any consolation, this book is really boring,” Micky replied and held up a copy of Wuthering Heights, the book Jae was reading in his English class.
“More depressing than boring,” Jae replied as he rubbed his face and sighed with a little smile. Leave it to Micky to make a very strange situation seem so insignificant. “How did you get me here?”
“Like I said, I carried you,” he said as he set the book on the desk. “Your dad was worried until you started snoring when we were standing outside the door. Changmin almost lost it right there. Junsu had to walk away to keep from laughing out loud.”
“And you stayed?” Jae ignored the rest as he was a little surprised that his father wouldn’t suspect something.
“Ah, well I ‘left’ with Junsu and Changmin, but I snuck in through the window to make sure you were okay when you woke up.” Micky smiled a little and got up to move from the chair to the side of the bed. “Are you okay?”
Jae’s gaze fell to his hands, which were fiddling with the edge of the blanket that had been laid on him. How thoughtful for the person who’d saved him from god knows what. “I don’t know. It almost doesn’t feel real now, but I know it all happened.”
“You got very lucky. If Junsu hadn’t been there or even if I hadn’t been there, things might have turned out very differently,” he said softly.
“I know.” Jae nodded as he watched Micky’s hands steal his away from the blanket and squeeze them. “Thank you.” He sighed in relief when Micky leaned closer to rest their foreheads together. He wished he could have had this moment here instead of being forced into the social situation and having to lie right after the exchange had happened.
“I was really scared.”
Jae pulled back to gaze at the expression of worry on Micky’s face. It was only lit by the pale moonlight filtering in through the window, but Jae could still see it. He reached up to touch a hand to Micky’s cheek before leaning closer to kiss him gently and felt the vampire respond immediately. Jae felt himself being pulled into a tight hug when the kiss ended and held Micky just as tightly. He felt Micky breathe in deeply and wondered if Micky was getting his fill of his scent before he had to leave for the night.
“Will you stay?” he whispered.
Micky pulled back and nodded. “If you want me to.”
“I don’t know. Some guy who carries me to my bed and then sneaks in my window later to watch me sleep? He’s gotta be a stalk—err uh… keeper,” Jae said with a grin before Micky grabbed his pillow and whacked him in the head with it. Totally worth it.
“BooJae,” Micky said teasingly with a smile before stealing another kiss. “You really want me to stay?”
Jae nodded and tilted his head when Micky’s eyes got a wicked gleam. “What is it now?”
“I can’t believe he thought you were a girl,” he said with a touch of amusement.
Jae’s mood darkened for a split second. “I’m often told I’m prettier than most girls, so I’ll take it as a compliment.”
“Hmm, does that mean I’m into boys who look like girls? Should I call you my girlfriend now?” It was Micky’s turn to take a pillow to the head. He gave Jae a sideways grin as he ran a hand through his hair that fell perfectly as always. How the hell did he do that?
Jae then excused himself to the bathroom to ready himself for bed and take out his contacts before he returned to his room to change into sleepwear. Micky just watched him passively from the bed as he pulled an old t-shirt on.
“Something wrong?” he asked the vampire.
“No, why?”
“I figured you’d be more interested if I took off my clothing in front of you,” Jae said with a shrug as he returned to the bed. As he sat, Micky got up and started to strip his clothing, right down to his underwear. Jae stared in surprise at his sudden move.
Micky grinned suddenly. “I sleep in my underwear or nothing.” He stole a quick kiss and plucked Jae’s glasses off. “And I didn’t think now would be the time for my normal lecherous behavior.”
Jae nodded reluctantly but had to agree. They settled themselves under the blankets comfortably as another thought emerged in his mind. “You knew just what to do. Did you know someone else that went through this?”
“Someone very close,” Micky said as he pressed a kiss to Jae’s shoulder from behind. “They weren’t so lucky.”
“Did they die?” Jae asked nervously.
He was silent for a moment. “They weren’t that lucky either.” The statement made Jae shiver nervously at his tone, and Micky apologized softly. “Maybe you’ll get to talk to him about it someday.”
Jae contemplated that last statement silently, wondering if it had been one of Micky’s brothers. They hadn’t been lucky enough to die because of the mercy of a particular doctor maybe? It was then he noticed how Micky’s normally cool body began to warm along with his under the blankets. How interesting. With a sigh, he pushed the thought from his mind and relaxed in his—his—boyfriend’s arms. It felt nice to belong to—no, with someone.
~***~
^_^v
Part 7
Author: LotusBeauty
Rating: PG-13 to NC-17
Type: Multi-chapter
Pairings: JaeChun, ot5 eventually
Genre: AU, fantasy, fusion, comedy/drama/emo, loltribute
Summary: See part 1
Notes: Don’t start with me. Deep down, you know you wanted it. Reference post here.
Disclaimer: Not mine, never were.
Part 1: Face the Gun / Good Luck
Part 2: Voice on the Radio
Part 3: LONG SHOT PENNY
Part 4: No Way to Say
Part 5: Unafraid
Interlude: Rowdy Rumble
6: Girlfriend
Micky sat on the aisle with Kendra between him and Jae, and Lilly was to Jae’s right. This wasn’t a terribly bad setup, besides the fact that they were watching Jenna and her friends practicing their talent show skit on the stage to some American pop song about some girl wanting to be a guy’s girlfriend and hating his current girlfriend. Jae felt like it was a train wreck and he just couldn’t look away as he had this very distinct feeling that Jenna was singing to him. Kendra and Lilly sitting to either side of him didn’t help. Jenna was also off-key a lot so Lilly and Kendra were trying very hard not to laugh as Micky grinned openly, enjoying the entire affair thoroughly as he slightly bopped his head to the beat. He mustn’t have seen this before in his lifetime. Then again, was he alive? Jae shook the myth from his head and turned his attention to the stage again. Once the song was over, Jenna’s friends watching the practice hooted and hollered as the two girls next to him stood and cheered. Mocking was an understatement, but Jenna didn’t seem to understand it and thanked them.
Micky clapped with an impressed expression. “I think that went rather well.”
“Just wait until everyone is sighing and making gaga eyes over your singing,” Kendra threatened and Micky looked mock horrified. Kendra threw a ‘what did you do to him?’ look at Jae who just shrugged. Micky had been just that much more social since they’d gotten together. He had a feeling it confused people more than anything but that they assumed Jae had brought him out of his shell and into the world of the living—literally, in his case. This wasn’t the first time there had been a reaction to Micky’s change in personality, nor that of his brothers. They seemed to have changed their minds about the whole blending in idea.
At lunch, Micky had plopped down right next to Jae and grinned, much to Jae’s amusement as he was distracted from working on sketches for art with Ara. Directly after this, Junsu walked by and ruffled Micky’s hair and Max followed right behind to make it even worse. Somehow, the vampire’s hair fell perfectly fine once they were finished. Jae could only feel annoyed at the fact that it looked even better than before.
“What’s the matter, BooJae?” Micky had asked. The entire table hushed immediately and stared as Jae gaped in embarrassment at the vampire.
“It doesn’t mean what you think it means!” Jae told them with wild hand gestures before snapping at Micky in Korean, ”You said you’d only use that in private!”
“Did you just call him boo?” Chester asked as Jenna looked positively white.
Micky laughed. “He’s right,” he said pointing at Jae. “It doesn’t mean what you think.”
“Boo means …like ‘not’ in Korean, right?” Kendra asked, frowning as she wracked her brain.
“And his name means something like ‘in’ or ‘to be’ in English.” Micky grinned as everyone thought this over. “You guys have seen him with that blank look on his face right? There’s nothing wrong, he’s just totally not there. I’m basically calling him an airhead because he likes to space out.”
Jae glared and wished he could crawl into a cave and hide as everyone laughed. Did he really look so blank when he was thinking? How had he managed to hit the nail on the head and define the matter so simply? Micky had apologized as Jae fumed in Biology class. Later, on their way through the stage to practice for the talent show, Micky had pulled him into an abandoned dressing room to apologize with his lips, but without any words. Jae distinctly recalled liking this apology better. It had more feeling.
“So when are you going to start discouraging Jenna more?” Lilly asked casually, bringing Jae back to the present. “She seems very determined to make you hers.”
He glanced over to see Jenna giggling with her friends and she caught his eye to wave at him. He gave a reluctant wave back before turning to Lilly with a flirtatious smirk. “I might have to start being more forward with some other girls,” Jae replied as he took a page from Micky’s book and touched Lilly’s chin with a smile. “How’s this?”
Lilly blushed and pushed his hand away as she laughed nervously and stammered, “G-god JJ, don’t do that! It’s too inviting!”
“Hey, you’re pretty good at that,” Micky said with a crooked grin.
“I wondered where you learned it from.” Kendra sent a very obvious look to Micky who shrugged and flashed a smile.
“What can I say? I’m just that good,” he replied without one shred of modesty.
“Who do you think I should flirt with to discourage her?” Jae asked.
“Everyone,” Ara said as she joined the group. “Sorry I’m late. Big discussion about…oh, never mind. What’s going on?”
“How did you know what we were talking about?” Kendra asked as they all rearranged the folding chairs to face each other.
“Is it difficult to figure out that question?” She asked with a laugh. “If he flirts with everyone, she’ll think that he doesn’t stay with one girl for long and will give up.”
Jae nodded as he agreed she had a point. He looked to Micky who winked. Jae had a feeling his boyfriend would enjoy seeing him flirting with other girls, the bastard.
“She’ll get so angry that he’s not flirting with her though,” Lilly laughed.
The discussion went on for a little while as Chester joined the group and suggested that Jae flirt with guys as well to really throw her off. Micky casually offered himself up for this behavior and it seemed that everyone liked this idea. Kendra looked away and tried very hard not to laugh as Ara found scribbling in her planner very interesting. The topic of conversation moved toward other things as more people joined them and finally Micky and Jae were called to the stage for a practice. They flew through the performance easily and were soon making their way back to the group—which was hooting and hollering at them—when Junsu’s name was called. Surprised, Jae turned to see the vampire making his way up to the stage, looking as gorgeous as ever. The music soon started and then he began to sing.
Jae had been about to sit down at this point. He was about to lower himself to the chair when Junsu’s voice floated over the gymnasium and he stopped in complete shock at the perfect pitch of the vampire’s voice. Gravity took over from there as Jae completely missed his chair and fell straight to the floor. Micky was the only person who seemed to notice, as everyone including Jae was stunned by the beautiful voice.
“Are you okay?” Micky asked worried.
Jae shook his head to clear it from the spellbound state he’d found himself in. “Um, yeah,” he replied absently.
“How come you don’t act like that when I sing?” the vampire asked in Korean with a pout.
Jae could only stare at him in surprise. Was he jealous? A smirk made its way onto Jae’s lips. “I think someone’s ego was bruised.”
Micky grumbled something about sharing and crossed his arms as he looked away. Jae had to bite his bottom lip to keep from laughing out loud. He had a feeling he would be the one to be apologizing later, and had an idea of just what to do when he did. As he finally situated himself in the chair, he realized that Jenna’s red hair was next to him and glanced at her to see that she was enthralled by Junsu’s singing. Luckily, he managed to scoot his chair closer to Micky’s without her noticing or even being put out. Once Junsu was finished with his song, everyone was on their feet clapping and cheering. The teacher in charge of the talent show approved his entry and Junsu gave a little bow to thank him.
Micky glanced at Jenna as she gave Junsu a starry-eyed look. “Yellow fever,” he muttered to Jae, who snickered.
“You’re going down,” Junsu said with a happy grin.
“You’re cheating.” Micky crossed his arms.
“Cheating?” Jae asked.
“He’s using that ability I showed you the other day,” Micky reminded him. “What word would you use for it?” he asked in English.
“Uh…” Jae stared at them both dumbfounded. Junsu then tried to use it on Jae as the young man gave him an exasperated look. “Your dazzle doesn’t work on me,” he retorted as the bit of silver faded from the edge of his eyes.
“Huh.” Junsu looked mildly surprised before he recovered. “I like that word, dazzle. I do dazzle onstage, don’t I?” he grinned. Jae had a feeling that if he had a tail, it would be wagging excitedly.
Jae laughed as Micky rolled his eyes and replied, “He could always deter them instead.”
“It works that way?” Jae asked, surprised.
The two vampires nodded and Junsu answered, “It works both ways.”
“Huh.” Jae thought on this for a moment. “Is this why girls don’t tend to go near you?” The two grinned in reply and Jae’s eyebrows knitted together in annoyance. “I want this ability now.”
“We should go!” Lilly exclaimed from the group to their side, distracting them from the conversation.
“Go where?” Jae asked as Kendra and Ara moved toward his group and Max walked into the gymnasium to lean on Junsu, who didn’t seem pleased about being used as an armrest at first.
“I was in a city east of here to see a movie with my cousin, and afterward she took me to this awesome Korean restaurant,” Chester told them. “I figured you guys and Ara might like it.”
“Please?” Ara begged.
Jae smiled and patted her head. “Only for you,” he said as she squealed and hugged him. He didn’t really get why she was asking and hanging on him until he saw Jenna fuming about the hug at the edge of the group. Ara was sneakier than he’d thought.
It was a little after five o’clock on a Friday night and the drive wasn’t too long, so everyone divided up into different cars and started the drive out to the other city. Jae ended up in the backseat of Junsu’s car with Micky beside him and Max in the passenger seat. He’d wanted to ride with Kendra and Ara, but Kendra had practically shoved him into the backseat with Micky who then promised not to break him on the way. No shame from those two, he thought with a shake of his head.
When Micky clicked his seatbelt off, Jae saw Junsu roll his eyes in the rearview mirror and turn it away before cranking the music up. He supposed that was about all the privacy he was going to get since Micky seemed quite intent on doing something unadvisable in the backseat. Jae crossed his arms and mock glared at the vampire for a moment until he sighed and sat back. Jae took the chance to unhook his seatbelt and lean over to capture the vampire’s lips. Micky, surprised but composed, slid down the seat until Jae was atop him. Apology accepted.
Time moved too fast unfortunately and Junsu warned them that they were coming up on the city soon. They groaned in disappointment from the back which made the other two laugh in response.
Max turned to look at them from his seat. “That was hot,” he said with a grin, the heat in his eyes capturing Jae for a moment. “Can I join next time?” Junsu smacked his shoulder and he pouted when the driver glared as Jae pursed his lips together to keep from laughing. “It was just a suggestion!” Max protested. Before Jae could give the offer any thought, Junsu lectured Max on privacy and pulled into the restaurant parking lot.
“You remember Changmin’s power?” Micky asked to receive a nod. “From what he was thinking, our feelings are extremely strong for one another,” he commented as Jae glanced curiously at the taller vampire exiting the car. He then found himself wondering if he should call the vampire Max like all of the other students. As they were getting out of the car, Chester ran into the busy restaurant to arrange for tables and returned with a 30 minute wait. No one seemed bothered by the wait and decided to investigate the shops around the town before returning for food. Micky and Jae wandered off in the direction Chester pointed for a music shop with Junsu and Changmin following them.
Once they found the store and were inside, they split up to different areas. Jae was flipping through some of the rock CDs when Micky came over and pointed at Junsu, who had sampling headphones on and was—grooving was the only word he could think of—to the music. Jae snickered and moved to a headphone set to listen to the samples as well. He was fascinated by the scanner interface that gave him a track list and reviews, and found himself typing in other random CDs to listen to them and read more about them. It wasn’t until he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket that he pulled the headphones off.
—Where are you?—
Jae blinked at Micky’s text and looked around to realize they had left him to head back to the restaurant and he checked the time. Damn, the time had really flown while he was listening to the music.
—You forgot me? — He texted back as he left the shop and headed back in the general direction of the restaurant.
—I thought you nodded when I told you it was time to go—
Jae rolled his eyes and turned the corner. He hadn’t even known Micky had tried to get his attention. He sent back an apology and looked up. He stopped—this didn’t look familiar. He looked around and moved back to the corner he’d turned and skidded to a stop when he saw a group of older men, who were rather large and a bit taller than him, loitering outside of a bar notice him. They called to him, asking if he was lost, laughing as Jae turned and quickly walked back the way he was going.
—I think I’m lost— He sent to Micky as he kept walking and glanced back. Two of the men were following him. Great. His phone vibrated.
—Seriously? —
—YES—
He glanced back to see the men still following him and turned another corner. This was getting ridiculous. He had no idea where he was and knew they were trying to herd him somewhere, but what could he do? Okay, this street looked vaguely familiar, but he wasn’t sure. Anxious, Jae walked faster and turned another corner—to find the other two men that hadn’t been following him. He would have turned to run if the first two hadn’t followed him around the corner at that moment.
“There you are!” the tallest waiting in the dead end called to his friends. “You found her.”
Jae stopped. HER? “Excuse me?” he asked in annoyance.
They all leered at the retort as Jae found he was surrounded and his feet stumbled backwards. When his back hit the brick wall of a building, he realized he was completely outnumbered and defenseless. The tallest man moved closer than the rest and looked him up and down lecherously for a moment before frowning. He then squinted before smiling.
“Well, well, well.” he chuckled. “It’s not a girl. It’s just a very pretty boy,” he told them as they all laughed. “Not that it changes much.”
Jae’s eyes widened in horror as he realized what the man’s words meant. He would have expected something like this in a large metropolitan city, but in a small town like this? Did they really have nothing better to do in this small town? Jae shrank back against the wall as he desperately wished he’d taken some sort of self defense class instead of just working out. He might have been able to escape. The man moved closer and grabbed Jae’s chin as he tried to free himself from the grip as he felt another hand unzip his coat before moving up his torso, under his shirt. He squirmed in disgust at the touch and considered the urge to retch right then and there.
“Don’t touch him.”
Jae’s eyes widened at the voice as the man turned to see just one figure standing behind him—Micky. The other three men were on the ground unconscious.
“Who are you?” the man asked as he held Jae back against the wall with one hand and flipped out a knife with the other.
Suddenly, the weight on his chest was gone and the man was on the ground. Jae stared at the unconscious man in shock and looked up to see Micky staring down at the man.
“I told you not to touch him,” he said darkly.
Jae gaped at him, unable to force words out of his mouth for a moment. “Is… is he dead?”
“Dead?” Micky raised an eyebrow before glancing at the men with cold eyes. “Please, I wouldn’t waste my power on doing something like that. No, they’ll just have nasty headaches when they wake up.” He turned a worried look on the younger man. “Are you okay?”
Jae nodded—then shook his head as Micky pulled him into a tight hug. He could feel himself clinging to Micky, not wanting to let go. He felt so helpless; so pathetic. He couldn’t even defend himself. Jae didn’t even realize he was shaking until he heard Micky telling him to calm down and that it was fine now. Now he felt really pathetic and didn’t want to show his burning face. Micky coaxed Jae to let go and convinced him that he needed to sit down and eat something. Jae nodded and let himself be led to the restaurant where everyone was waiting and began to wonder if they were worried about him.
“I’m glad you’re alright, BooJae,” Micky finally said as they neared the restaurant. “I’m sorry I left you alone back there.”
“It’s not your fault,” Jae replied softly. He was surprised when Micky squeezed his hand; he hadn’t even noticed they were holding hands this whole time. It was too bad that their hands slipped apart as they entered the restaurant, but everyone greeted them with a small cheer. Jae felt his face heat in embarrassment when Micky explained that he’d gotten lost, thankful he’d at least left out the other part as everyone chortled over the story. When he looked up, Kendra was looking at him sympathetically and then ever so slightly jerked her head at the table. Jae was shocked to see the only two seats left were at opposite sides of the tables that had been lined up and one was right next to Jenna. So much for the hard-to-get kick she’d been on. How did she manage to orchestrate this?
Micky pointed at an empty table next to the end of the group’s table and asked a waitress if they could sit at it. She granted him permission to take it he and shoved it over with the other tables, adding it at the end before steering Jae to one chair and ordering two waters. Lilly was next to Micky and Chester was at Jae’s left, both of them quietly asking if Jae was alright. He told them he was fine and grabbed his water as the waitress set it on the table, downing the majority of the liquid before taking a breath. Jae softly apologized to Chester and said he was just embarrassed about getting lost in such a small city. The young man laughed lightly and replied something about Junsu saying his name before everyone realized he was missing.
Jae glanced up at Junsu who was staring at his menu, but he glanced up to let his eyes catch Jae’s for a moment. The vampire’s eyes held a look of worry and Jae had a feeling he’d seen what was about to happen and sent Micky after him. He was now extremely grateful for the vampire’s ability, but how Micky found him, he would never know. After that, dinner seemed to fly by. He drank two more glasses of water and poked at his food until Micky cleared his throat and gave him a stern glare. Jae ate half of it. The one thing he remembered the most about the evening was being shocked that the vampires ate the food that they’d ordered. Changmin seemed to have eaten about twice as much as everyone else. Jae was confused about this and ignored it for the moment since it really wasn’t important at the time.
Once dinner was over, everyone pooled money in the middle of the table for the bill and a great tip by most everyone’s standards as the waitress had put up with them without any fuss or bad mood. Everyone stumbled out of the restaurant with contentedly full bellies and piled into the cars to make their way home. Home sounded like a good idea at that point. Sometime during the car ride Jae passed out against Micky and didn’t remember anything after that. When he started to wake, he stretched a little to find that he was… on a bed?
Jae opened his eyes and blinked a few times to clear them as he saw his bedside table in the darkness. He rubbed his eyes as he sat up and wondered just how he’d gotten to his bed.
“I carried you.”
Jae jumped and turned to see Micky sitting on the chair from his desk. “I hate it when you do that!” he hissed at the grinning vampire.
“Well, if it’s any consolation, this book is really boring,” Micky replied and held up a copy of Wuthering Heights, the book Jae was reading in his English class.
“More depressing than boring,” Jae replied as he rubbed his face and sighed with a little smile. Leave it to Micky to make a very strange situation seem so insignificant. “How did you get me here?”
“Like I said, I carried you,” he said as he set the book on the desk. “Your dad was worried until you started snoring when we were standing outside the door. Changmin almost lost it right there. Junsu had to walk away to keep from laughing out loud.”
“And you stayed?” Jae ignored the rest as he was a little surprised that his father wouldn’t suspect something.
“Ah, well I ‘left’ with Junsu and Changmin, but I snuck in through the window to make sure you were okay when you woke up.” Micky smiled a little and got up to move from the chair to the side of the bed. “Are you okay?”
Jae’s gaze fell to his hands, which were fiddling with the edge of the blanket that had been laid on him. How thoughtful for the person who’d saved him from god knows what. “I don’t know. It almost doesn’t feel real now, but I know it all happened.”
“You got very lucky. If Junsu hadn’t been there or even if I hadn’t been there, things might have turned out very differently,” he said softly.
“I know.” Jae nodded as he watched Micky’s hands steal his away from the blanket and squeeze them. “Thank you.” He sighed in relief when Micky leaned closer to rest their foreheads together. He wished he could have had this moment here instead of being forced into the social situation and having to lie right after the exchange had happened.
“I was really scared.”
Jae pulled back to gaze at the expression of worry on Micky’s face. It was only lit by the pale moonlight filtering in through the window, but Jae could still see it. He reached up to touch a hand to Micky’s cheek before leaning closer to kiss him gently and felt the vampire respond immediately. Jae felt himself being pulled into a tight hug when the kiss ended and held Micky just as tightly. He felt Micky breathe in deeply and wondered if Micky was getting his fill of his scent before he had to leave for the night.
“Will you stay?” he whispered.
Micky pulled back and nodded. “If you want me to.”
“I don’t know. Some guy who carries me to my bed and then sneaks in my window later to watch me sleep? He’s gotta be a stalk—err uh… keeper,” Jae said with a grin before Micky grabbed his pillow and whacked him in the head with it. Totally worth it.
“BooJae,” Micky said teasingly with a smile before stealing another kiss. “You really want me to stay?”
Jae nodded and tilted his head when Micky’s eyes got a wicked gleam. “What is it now?”
“I can’t believe he thought you were a girl,” he said with a touch of amusement.
Jae’s mood darkened for a split second. “I’m often told I’m prettier than most girls, so I’ll take it as a compliment.”
“Hmm, does that mean I’m into boys who look like girls? Should I call you my girlfriend now?” It was Micky’s turn to take a pillow to the head. He gave Jae a sideways grin as he ran a hand through his hair that fell perfectly as always. How the hell did he do that?
Jae then excused himself to the bathroom to ready himself for bed and take out his contacts before he returned to his room to change into sleepwear. Micky just watched him passively from the bed as he pulled an old t-shirt on.
“Something wrong?” he asked the vampire.
“No, why?”
“I figured you’d be more interested if I took off my clothing in front of you,” Jae said with a shrug as he returned to the bed. As he sat, Micky got up and started to strip his clothing, right down to his underwear. Jae stared in surprise at his sudden move.
Micky grinned suddenly. “I sleep in my underwear or nothing.” He stole a quick kiss and plucked Jae’s glasses off. “And I didn’t think now would be the time for my normal lecherous behavior.”
Jae nodded reluctantly but had to agree. They settled themselves under the blankets comfortably as another thought emerged in his mind. “You knew just what to do. Did you know someone else that went through this?”
“Someone very close,” Micky said as he pressed a kiss to Jae’s shoulder from behind. “They weren’t so lucky.”
“Did they die?” Jae asked nervously.
He was silent for a moment. “They weren’t that lucky either.” The statement made Jae shiver nervously at his tone, and Micky apologized softly. “Maybe you’ll get to talk to him about it someday.”
Jae contemplated that last statement silently, wondering if it had been one of Micky’s brothers. They hadn’t been lucky enough to die because of the mercy of a particular doctor maybe? It was then he noticed how Micky’s normally cool body began to warm along with his under the blankets. How interesting. With a sigh, he pushed the thought from his mind and relaxed in his—his—boyfriend’s arms. It felt nice to belong to—no, with someone.
~***~
^_^v
Part 7
