Chapter XIII

Surrender to You

N eeding a moment to fully register what Jeremiah was asking for, Min-jae had to swallow down the incredulity built up in his throat. He'd been incredibly sad to see Jeremiah leave those hours ago, having assumed that would have surely been the last time they'd see each other, but from the manner in which these fingers clung to the back of his shirt, how closely Jeremiah made sure their bodies were touching, Min-jae was rewarded upon registering the fact that his time with Jeremiah was only in its beginning stage.

Bringing his arms from around Jeremiah, Min-jae inspected his face, unable to miss that line of purple bruised beneath Jeremiah's eye. He brought his hand up and brushed a tender sweep of his thumb under the marking. It throbbed as though a heartbeat rested within the top of Jeremiah's cheekbone, but after a second, Min-jae was glad to see the dark color fade, like his mere gesture had been enough to wipe it away.

"Who did this to you?" Min-jae asked.

"It doesn't matter," Jeremiah answered. He didn't want to spend any time speaking about Luca. Their altercation and his actions before, during, and after, were all accompanied by an embarrassment he didn't want to think about. He'd come here to get away from it. "Min-jae," he said, "I just…I know I've come from nowhere, and this is not what you meant, but you said if I needed anything, it could be you. I'm here—."

"For me," Min-jae cut in, the curve on his natural, enticing lips showing what may as well be a note of arrogance from where Jeremiah stood. However, this wasn't hubris looking into Jeremiah; it was Min-jae's relish in knowing he'd made this person feel comfortable enough to follow through with coming to him.

Taking a step forward, Jeremiah caused the back of Min-jae's knees to collide with the sofa, and when the Korean dhampir sat down, his pride was immediately replaced by hunger and bewilderment. He'd offered himself to Jeremiah to essentially be another place to go, or someone to lean on when need be, but the idea of them falling into intimacy hadn't been where he thought this would end up.

Never taking his eyes away, Min-jae followed Jeremiah's hands, oddly captivated by how his fingers worked and shoulders moved in the process of shedding his shirt, each showing of muscle in his arms and abdomen on display and strengthening the refined grace of his body.

Min-jae's eyes fanned from Jeremiah's waistline first, traveling up the surface of his stomach. The ghastly scar from the near-death dealing wound was still present; starting at Jeremiah's belly button, it wrapped around his side and disappeared.

Min-jae then tore his gaze from the scar. While Jeremiah showed no shame in having it, he feared focusing on it might draw out the want to hide it.

In fact…

When Jeremiah brought his arms down and the dark shirt fell from his hand, Min-jae sat forward and heaved a block of courage onto his shoulders. He reached out tentatively, one hand settling at the curve of Jeremiah's waist as the fingertips of his other traced beneath the blemish.

Still so ignorant as to how this scar remained, there was something in Min-jae that wished he could make it disappear. In no way did the scar make Jeremiah unsightly; the idea of anything making Jeremiah unpleasant to look at was impossible.

Extraordinary was a notion that crossed Min-jae's mind, but when the whisper of his name fluttered through the room, and he looked up, taking in the portrait of Jeremiah's bewitching countenance, the shape of his face, intensity, sharpness and color of his eyes, the fullness of his lips, even the slight perk of his nose and how the edge of his jaw seemed so precisely drawn, all of him was unlike anyone he'd ever laid eyes on before.

"Seeing you this way…" Min-jae said, "I can't take my eyes off you."

From the manner Jeremiah's pupils dilated, the admission lifted an air of astonishment into him.

Downing a soreness that attempted to return to his throat, Jeremiah covered the hand in which Min-jae had placed on his hip, giving it a light squeeze to wordlessly indicate what it was he wanted .

Able to pick up on the silent request, Min-jae summoned a minor tier of what strength he'd never quite had use for, his fingers pressing dips into Jeremiah's waist.

This pressure Jeremiah was looking for was welcomed and his breath hitched as Min-jae's other hand smoothed further up to his chest, passing over his tight abs.

Jeremiah's skin was as soft as newly woven silk, his voice the same when Min-jae clutched a little harder and glided his thumb over Jeremiah's nipple.

A breathy release floated to the ceiling, clarity reaching into Jeremiah as a blur of water formed in his eyes. He couldn't find a true answer as to why he was so responsive to this newfound sensitivity; it wasn't like he'd never experienced physical touch before, but this…all of it…every second Min-jae touched him in any way, Jeremiah couldn't stop how much he wanted the simplest of touches to last.

"Come here," Min-jae said, and Jeremiah didn't waste a moment to descend onto Min-jae's lap, straddling him there in the center of the sofa.

Never-ending vibrations generated through Jeremiah's bones, following the trek of Min-jae's hands when they slid around him. As these tactful palms passed their heat traveling up his spine, Jeremiah thought his heart might stumble from the cage holding it in place when Min-jae's fingers at last reached his shoulder blades. In remembrance of the stir initiated when the slits concealing his wings were discovered, Jeremiah's urges erupted when Min-jae pressed directly atop their resistance.

To the best he could, Jeremiah refrained from letting go of a pained whine. Not that any aspect of this hurt to any extent. The rapturous attention paid to him brought forth a desperation he found himself diving deeper and deeper into, so much so that the idea of drowning beneath the waves of Min-jae's attention sounded delightful.

Unable to seal his voice behind clenched teeth any longer, Jeremiah's brow downed when his mouth fell open and an exhale of staggering pleasure rose through him. Droplets streamed from the corners of his eyes when they met the ceiling; the colors of the morning light radiating through the living room swirling together.

Stealing his eyes from overhead, Jeremiah's chest trembled when he breathed out, meeting Min-jae's full concentration as it was placed solely onto him. "More…" he couldn't stop himself from saying, and no hesitation accompanied Min-jae when he undid the secures of Jeremiah's jeans and withdrew what lay inside.

Soaked from the tip of his endowed length to the base, an astonishing amount of precum doused Jeremiah. It was a state he hadn't experienced being in for so long that he nearly burst the second Min-jae wrapped a hand around him, slowly dragging his fist only to turn his fingers teasingly around the overly sensitive tip.

Jeremiah's mouth opened and he let go of a defeated groan, leaning forward to wrap his arms around Min-jae's neck. "T—Touch me," he besought, the plea coming out direly against Min-jae's ear.

Never faltering from the touch tugging Jeremiah's sleek cock, Min-jae turned his nose against the crook of Jeremiah's neck as well, his other hand finding that impression of his wings again which summoned a far more pitched cry from Jeremiah's mouth.

"Ngh," Jeremiah gasped, and his eyes nearly rolled to the back of his head. "Min-jae," he inhaled abruptly. This stimulation was so new, so overthrowing.

I'm going crazy!

That's what Jeremiah believed as the pleasure of this probing of the place his wings could spring from at any given moment grew hotter.

Unable to control it if he tried, Jeremiah's talons elongated and the serpent-like daggers of his top and bottom fangs unleashed themselves as he salivated. He sat up fully in Min-jae's hold, the Korean dhampir sitting forward so that no part of Jeremiah would be out of reach.

Seeming to search for the height of pleasure he was leading Jeremiah to, Min-jae pressured the tips of his middle and ring finger against Jeremiah's wing slit, circled his thumb around the tip of his cock, and while that was enough to draw out a wail of pleasure, Min-jae lastly brought his mouth down around Jeremiah's nipple. He flicked and swirled his tongue, and the moment he nipped his teeth down, Jeremiah's entire body jolted and he ruptured.

"Ahh!" Jeremiah cried out, another newly discovered weakness exploding through him as his cum ejected. He flinched with each torrent, stomach tightening, vision going hazy when Min-jae stroked him until the last tremulous burst carried out of him.

Nowhere near his right state of mind, nor willing to return to it so hastily, Jeremiah nuzzled his nose against Min-jae's cheek, turning his face, and when their breath mingled, he licked Min-jae's lips.

Like a key beckoning access, Jeremiah's tongue sashayed over Min-jae's, the taste of one another meeting in a ravenous kiss. So confusingly lost and found, Jeremiah dropped the last of his indecision regarding what he was doing and what he wanted, and he wordlessly gave free reign over himself to Min-jae. He didn't know why, and he didn't care at this moment why he was entrusting all of himself to Min-jae, but it somehow felt right, and he couldn't back out now.

Turned over so that he lay on the sofa, Jeremiah was carefully undressed until he was in nothing more than his scar-littered skin. He'd never been so marred by features that tarnished his once clear exterior, but Min-jae paid no mind to that. The only thing Min-jae could see as he took in all that was this man laid before him, was the idea that he was somehow permitted to touch, taste, and feel this unmatched being.

In looks alone, there was an immobilizing measure of excellence in Jeremiah that spanned him from head to toe. And here Min-jae saw himself as the most fortunate living being on this planet to behold this fetching entity.

Positioned between Jeremiah's legs, Min-jae undressed as well, tossing his garments every which way until he could be seen for what he was in the flesh. As Min-jae was lean and strongly detailed in ways that garnered his notice, Jeremiah also planted this superb picture of Min-jae in his mind. He was so rare, captivating, and that thought was strangely solidified when a sweep of Min-jae's dark brown, almost black hair fell before his eyes, and he brushed it back with his fingers.

Such an ordinary movement shouldn't have been so attractive, and yet, the spec of yearning growing inside Jeremiah multiplied by ten again and again until it was all-encompassing.

Not sure how to handle the thought of how parched he was for this person, Jeremiah reached up, his own fingers streaming into Min-jae's hair before bringing him down so that their bodies touched. They sank into a kiss that left them breathless, and with each gasp for air, Min-jae grinded down before gathering Jeremiah's tongue again.

They stroked easily together from the amount of cum and precum that'd risen from them but it wasn't enough. It felt so good, and they feasted for more.

"Min-jae," Jeremiah let out between breaths.

"Yes?" Min-jae held himself off, propped on the palms of his hands as this spectacle lay below his shadow.

Unsure how to ask for what more he wanted to feel, Jeremiah held his tongue, but not out of embarrassment. He genuinely wasn't sure what words to use to ask for what he wanted to happen next. In this life, and through what years he'd gathered his experiences, there wasn't much Jeremiah Titus was unfamiliar with now. This, however, would be his first time finding himself on this end of an intimate moment.

Keeping quiet, Jeremiah leaned up on his elbows, and his nose brushed against Min-jae's, a silent purr seeming to leave him when he collected another kiss before turning over onto his stomach.

Faced with Jeremiah's backside, the sharpness of his shoulder blades was seen so closely when his two-toned hair swept to the side, and Min-jae's whole body swelled in further anticipation. "You want this?" he asked. "I want to be sure this is something you want and not something you think you want for the time being."

Turning his face against the cushion of the sofa, Jeremiah spotted Min-jae hovering over him in his peripheral. Why couldn't he just take what was being given to him on a polished platter? Clearly there was no resistance, no dithering in this next step Jeremiah was leading them to! Why hold off?

Despising the seconds now sitting between Jeremiah and his lustful longings, he continued to say nothing more and merely raised his hips. In doing so, his eyelids fluttered when the heat of Min-jae's cock pressed through the crease of his bottom, the head nudging his entry but going no further.

"Jeremiah," Min-jae said again but no answer would be given. Instead, he tucked his nose into the top curve of Jeremiah's shoulder and breathed him in. "If we do this…" he said, planting kiss after kiss along the dhampir's skin, each peck like fire and ice converging. "You can't run from me. I refuse to be someone used and forgotten; you hear me?"

"Y—Yes," Jeremiah fought to say as a tsunami of thirst took over.

Min-jae let the trek of his kisses lead him, stopping over where he knew the slits of Jeremiah's wings were, and he tended to them, feeling jolt after jolt when he kissed and teased his tongue down each. His name came forth in pleasant gasps, each full of approval and heavenly appeals, but Min-jae wasn't stopping there, and he continued down to the small of Jeremiah's back until meeting his bottom.

"Min-jae…" another husky and flowery tune muttered, but the only response was a nip of careful teeth against Jeremiah's skin before a welcomed wetness skimmed down his center and to his entry.

So much of this was new. All of it was new, actually, and Jeremiah found himself fading into a puddle of yen when such wetness circled his hole and entered what little ways it could.

Jeremiah clenched his fists when the hunger for him swelled, the mild lick turning feverish when his cock was grasped and stroked while he was eaten simultaneously. His insides jittered with the pull of Min-jae's hand along his length, precum dripping into a constant course as it puddled and shone like polish on Min-jae's palm.

"Min…" Jeremiah tried, voice floating overhead, the muscles of his thighs tightened, and his waist dropped a little, but in no fashion did Min-jae's tongue ever leave his heat.

Min-jae!

Min-jae!

Min-jae!

The name itself seemed the only word present in Jeremiah's vocabulary, and each melodic call of it dragged more than obsession and yearning into Min-jae's heart. He was stuck. He was content. He was right where it appeared he was needed and wanted to be all in one, and when he sank his tongue once more and collected this piece of Jeremiah no other had ever gathered before, a stitch wove deep into this newly embroidered tapestry that lay over them both.

In these seconds that turned into minutes, Min-jae discovered what true bliss was, and it was this, the descent into Jeremiah Titus. If he were permitted, Min-jae would bury himself here in the succulence of Jeremiah's everything.

At last coming away with reddened, slick lips, Min-jae licked them and breathed, hands latching onto Jeremiah's waist. His eyes mapped the surface of Jeremiah's back and how saturated his own cock was when he aligned. He grasped himself then and pressed against Jeremiah's soaked entry, seeming to prepare himself for the heaven awaiting him.

"In this moment," Min-jae declared, voice partially eager and pained, the thirst of his desires rising when Jeremiah deepened the arch in his spine, like he was shivering from within as he listened to this truth pouring from Min-jae's mouth. "You are mine, Jeremiah. And equally, I am yours. You've bore your nails into me, latched onto me, claimed me all without effort. How I've surrendered to you — I can't understand it, but I can't stop now. You've pulled me in, and I'm not letting go."

"Ha–hmm," Jeremiah let out, trying to say something more, but he couldn't get the words out as forwardly and correctly as Min-jae. How can you say these things? He wanted to know, wanted to reciprocate, but he was sinking so far into Min-jae's all, and his ability to speak was disrupted.

"Don't…" was the first of what Jeremiah could manage. "Don't let go."

Min-jae held his breath the moment he dipped inside, and although Jeremiah suffered in no way as inch after inch of Min-jae's entire length stretched and filled him, he hadn't expected for something so otherwise simple to feel like pleasure personified.

So intimately and so closely, Min-jae filled Jeremiah, gliding in without pause until Jeremiah gasped and squirmed when the deepening stroke struck a point that caused his whole body to jolt.

Jeremiah swallowed a scream when Min-jae pulled out mildly before sinking in once more, striking that source again and again with a controlled roughness.

Songs of bliss muffled into the sofa with every burrow, and when Jeremiah grabbed hold of the cushions beneath him, he propped himself on his hands and pushed back on Min-jae's driving cock .

He's pressing so far into me, Jeremiah winced, holding off any desire to stop these maddening blows. He could hear echoes of Min-jae's admission as his body and mind gripped this new focus; the focus that was solely on Min-jae. He wanted to be someone's, and he wanted to hold onto something good…something great regardless of his dread.

Surely second chances at more were attainable.

Meeting Min-jae in the middle with each channeling thrust, Jeremiah lost nearly every proper thought the instant Min-jae wrapped an arm around him and kissed the slits upon his back, gliding his tongue over their resistance, and that overwhelming collection drove Jeremiah to the edge of this harmony.

"Min-jae," he sobbed, and his body nearly locked when the Korean dhampir stopped, driven to the hilt, and tormenting the bundle of bliss inside of him.

Min-jae secured his hold around Jeremiah. The glide of his hand was followed as it passed up from the bulge pushing from Jeremiah's stomach and to his chest, grabbing hold to keep him close. Each of his fingers pressed like their prints might come off on Jeremiah to mark exactly where they were and where they'd been; their bodies tucked together like pieces of a puzzle whose edges were inclined to fit, wanting to fit, even when in doubt of if they should.

"I want to see you," Min-jae said, his whisper warming Jeremiah's ear.

Struggling from the pressure filling all of him, Jeremiah took in a breath that fought to fill his lungs. Overwrought from all he'd heard and was feeling journeying through him, Jeremiah couldn't outrun the embarrassment of having let himself get to this point he could no longer hide from. He was desperate for these words, starving for this touch, broken down to a point he considered underground. And yet, still he hankered in his resistance.

"N—No," was the shaky answer Jeremiah gave, a word Min-jae hadn't expected to be given with the position they were in.

Why?

"Why show me this side of you?" Min-jae countered, never letting up on the strength of his embrace as he held them together. "Why kiss and cling to me, Jeremiah? Why let me feel you this way if all you're going to do is resist me still?"

I can't let you in, Jeremiah thought, swallowing the knot of indecision at last showing its colors to him. If I let you in, you'll see too much.

"Why can't you just take this for what it is?" Jeremiah said, shutting his eyes to dull the feeling of their burn, and when Min-jae tried to withdraw himself, Jeremiah reached in a panic. He grabbed onto Min-jae's leg to keep him from pulling out and bringing on a separation he didn't want. "Please," he hated to beg, "It's just sex."

"Not to me, it isn't," Min-jae asserted. "If I wanted my first time to be spent with someone who only wanted me for sex, I would have shut the door in your face. I'm not a rag you can use when you're in the mood."

Jeremiah unhanded Min-jae and pulled himself free. When he turned around, the offense looking at him told of how strongly the thought of being used for fulfillment ate away at Min-jae. "I—I'm sorry," Jeremiah apologized profusely, heart twinging from the despair noted in both of them. "I didn't mean it. I'm so sorry, Min-jae."

Wanting to trust this regret looking up at him, Min-jae didn't repel Jeremiah's approach when his lap was graced again, and he was folded into an embrace. "I'm not a plaything, and I won't use you like one either," Min-jae reiterated. "I can't be like the others you've met with in the past or accept a detachment from what feelings I can't help but feel. I don't work that way, Jeremiah."

"I understand," Jeremiah said, cupping Min-jae's face in both hands, and he surprised himself when he let every word coming forth flow as truthfully as a confession could. "I shouldn't have said that. I swear I didn't come here for sex at all. When I said I needed you, I wasn't lying. I wanted to see you so badly, and then you touched me, and I wanted to feel you. All of you. Ever since the moment your name crossed my mind, and you opened the door to me, it was all of you that I came looking for. I can't deny that. I was stupid to try. Please, forgive me."

"How can I trust that?" Min-jae asked. "Prove to me that I'm not disposable."

Jeremiah settled his breathing. "How…?"

Taking in this show of regret and desire for forgiveness, Min-jae mindfully placed the palm of his left hand against Jeremiah's stomach, and the perplexity following the brush of his palm and fingers stayed on him as if not to miss a word of his request. "I want to see you," he said like he had before. "That's all."

Looking down on the hand that lingered against his stomach, Jeremiah blinked and nodded in reassurance. It'd been so long since the last time he could say anyone had seen him. Actually, while the last time honest eyes that'd seen him merely dulled a fragment of his color pallet, Jeremiah couldn't help feeling like what image he showed of himself now was misshapen and crude; the linework of his person was worn in jagged edges and steeped in layer upon layer of smeared ink much darker than before.

How was Jeremiah supposed to be seen when the portrait of himself was now so contrary to what he used to be?

"That's all I want, Jeremiah," Min-jae said. "Let me see you."

At last able to breathe correctly when Min-jae's arms embraced him anew, Jeremiah nodded and laid back on the sofa, the return of heat blanketing their bodies, deepening the truth that Min-jae's overall nearness was unraveling Jeremiah one second at a time.

"What if…" Jeremiah pondered. "What if you don't like what you see in the end? I've come to see that I can be quite ugly."

Min-jae couldn't help thinking the notion of being unsightly was something Jeremiah shouldn't worry himself with. It was true you never really see someone for who they were until you knew them, and while Min-jae couldn't say he knew Jeremiah better than the next person, being here to feel him, look upon him, hear his fears, and gather him so closely in his arms, that alone already peeled back the strips of old varnish diminishing his value.

"You and that word don't go hand in hand," Min-jae said, touching up Jeremiah's abdomen to his chest. It was like he could see the golden glow emitting from Jeremiah's heart, and its nervous hue warmed Min-jae's palm. "Inside and out, you never know someone for who they are unless they show you, and I want to see you, Jeremiah. All of you. The good and the bad, what you think are your worst parts; I want it all, to see a side of you no one else could fathom but me. And the end? Don't be afraid of the end. You'll come to see me standing right in front of you wherever we end up. We'll make it there together if you just hold onto me."

"I can't help but be afraid of it. Of the end."

Min-jae's breath melted the frost forged around Jeremiah's heart. "We're not there yet," he said, suddenly wanting a glimpse of what a future like theirs could look like.

"Yet?"

Yes. Not yet.

Keeping that last part to himself, Min-jae stole Jeremiah's lips as wandering hands explored his back, the electricity for the other rising again without fault, and their tongues turned and twirled together.

From these raw pleasures that sparked after the pause reemerged and took hold, Jeremiah's legs fanned open with every glide of Min-jae's cock against his. He gasped when peck after peck of Min-jae's lips went for his neck, nipping and marking him in careful yet evident and painless bruises. His eyes fluttered open when Min-jae pumped his length, palm and fingers becoming soaking wet, but the wetness was exactly what he meant to gather when he then ran his adept fingers down to the center of Jeremiah's being.

Not allowing his eyes to stray, Min-jae watched closely when Jeremiah winced upon welcoming the deep curl of his fingers. He held onto Jeremiah's ankle to keep him from flinching away and closing his legs, quickly and knowingly driving his fingers nearly as deep as his cock had been able to reach.

The lightning that shot through Jeremiah's spine lit across the dark skies of his closed eyes, and he gasped, his struggle and twists and turns to try and hold back at least some of his voice going unsuccessful with each fuck of Min-jae's fingers.

It was all so good, and Jeremiah could feel the maddening thunder ready to erupt through him, but he wanted so much more of this drive tunneling into him.

"Min-jae!" Jeremiah's watery eyes opened to the captivation staring down at him.

The Korean dhampir looked overthrown by desire, and his cock was practically oozing like a dam with a crack in its surface from how turned on he was.

"Ah-hng! Please, Min-jae," Jeremiah begged, voice breaking from the continuous drill of Min-jae's fingers. He grabbed hold of the sofa cushions, extended nails tearing through to the cotton stuffed inside, and he nearly ripped portions of it away. "Ngh-haah! Ah! Fuck, it's too—! Much! Min-jae! Min-jae!"

Withdrawing his touch at last, Min-jae wasted no time replacing his digits with himself, and he fucked into Jeremiah until the base of his length was reached, and he descended into Jeremiah's open arms. Claws engraved across his back and the smell of blood filled the air, but without the ability to feel how terribly the damage would cause an ordinary human being to hurt, Min-jae simply captured Jeremiah's mouth and turned his hips with purpose.

Bursts of color glimmered across the ceiling every time Min-jae banged into Jeremiah. Soon he found himself straddled and filling Jeremiah's hole with the entirety of his cock. Almost uncoordinated, their feast of kisses was messy and mindless, Jeremiah holding onto Min-jae as he raised and dropped his hips.

So allured by Jeremiah's desperate and sublime expression, Min-jae slid his hands around Jeremiah's back to where he knew he could withdraw the truest of pleasures he could offer along with the sustained spur of his cock.

It seemed, however, the instant Min-jae's fingers pushed their way up and against the slits of Jeremiah's hidden wings, every ounce of control once used to resist the elements that lay within was torn away, and Jeremiah shattered.

Just when he erupted in a shower of cum and much more that sprayed across his and Min-jae's stomach and chest, Jeremiah's eyes went white, and his vocals rang through every square meter of the apartment. So too did his wings spring from their folds and spread across the entire span of the living room; their reach was great and the deadly hooks that curved from their tips scratched the walls and knocked a table lamp to the floor.

In awe and infatuation, Min-jae could no longer hold his build-up, and he came undone; the feeling of his cock pulsing with each surge of cum worsened Jeremiah's attempt to swallow his screams and gather his thoughts.

Enveloped by this absolute heaven, a mind-numbing sensation fluttered through Min-jae as he came and two serpent-like fangs elongated from hidden points in his gums; a pair of lethal features he'd never summoned before. Min-jae's stream filled and overflowed the tight cavity that squeezed and tossed his senses over the ledge, and when he unconsciously bit his lip to muffle the pleasure-filled groan wanting to leave him, crimson painted his maw in a color that spoke to Jeremiah's hunger.

Min-jae's chin and lips were licked clean, and his tongue turned with Jeremiah's who drank down the small flow of blood until the wounds healed over.

As Min-jae's cock released one final pulse, his vision cleared and he sat back as the daze teetering over him tried to win him over. But he wanted to focus, wanted to see and feel and hear everything this moment could bring him. And it was the epitome of ecstasy, of fulfillment that seized him, caressed him as Jeremiah's whole body stroked him.

Clung to with no thoughts of being unhanded, Min-jae turned his face when Jeremiah ducked his nose into the space beneath Min-jae's jaw, inhaling the sum of his subtle tang. "Can I?" Jeremiah questioned in a purr, dragging his tongue against the sensitive spot.

So badly Jeremiah wanted to simply bite down and take what he wanted, but he tried to keep some morsel of self-control regardless of how lost his senses were becoming. His fangs were tingling, his whole body more like, and the inner quiver could be determined with how active his internal shudders were while locked around this young man filling him to the hilt.

"Please, Min-jae. Please. I want it…"

Possessed by Jeremiah's thirst, Min-jae said nothing as he simply turned his neck a bit more, as if opening full access to his jugular, and Jeremiah readily punctured the vein. A rush of red entered his mouth, and he drank it down, stealing all of Min-jae's mild zest as it spread across his tongue and drained into his belly.

A stifled moan surfaced as Jeremiah consumed Min-jae, famished and satisfied to the furthest extent regardless of how dull the taste of a dhampir's blood was. But it was Min-jae's. This essence torrenting through Jeremiah from both ways merged all of his craze into one obsessive collection, an obsession that channeled into him with hooks and bolts unwilling to release him.

Finding a sliver of sanity in his stray thoughts, Jeremiah unfastened his fangs and threw his head back, a drag of air expanding his lungs as he was looked upon as a marvel above all marvels.

Breathing as if he was recovering from a marathon, Jeremiah's low-lidded eyes stayed on Min-jae as he centered himself, licking his lips clear of the last bits of crimson. It was when his sights stayed on the points of Min-jae's own fangs when his impulses took the lead. It would hurt. He knew that. But still Jeremiah found the want to share much more of himself in a way that would be new to Min-jae. Being his first in more ways than sex promised an abundance of fulfillment.

So, he went for it.

Gracefully sweeping the dark half of his hair away from his neck, Jeremiah reached forward and grazed a soft pass of his thumb over Min-jae's bottom lip. He leaned forward, loving the feeling of the other dhampir's length budging inside of him. "Do it," he said. "Take more of me."

"Are you—."

"Yes," Jeremiah cut in. "Take me."

New to this hungry insistence, Min-jae's mouth watered from this ravenous desire drawing him headlong, and he embraced Jeremiah's hot figure, holding him close as he allowed the points of his fangs to pierce the beautifully scented flesh before him.

Min-jae held on tighter when a flinch and a vocal wince surfaced from Jeremiah, but he didn't withdraw as his head was held in place, and he drank the rushing substance.

No, the taste of Jeremiah's blood was not full-flavored or anything compared to the kick provided by that of a human, but it was personal and beautiful and all his own, and Min-jae was grateful to have received this gift placed in the palms of his hands. He swallowed mouthful after mouthful until several seconds went by, and Jeremiah pulled himself free with an ache in his voice.

In the soft grace of the living room, they looked upon one another, a picturesque silence unlike any they'd ever sat in now enveloping their bodies. Despite the lacking flavor of the blood that'd ventured down their throats, there was a little something else that occurred that'd risen in the several seconds it'd taken for their offerings to travel through their systems.

If Min-jae closed his eyes, if he weren't touching the other being fastened to him in this moment, Jeremiah would still vaguely be known to him, and vice-versa. It was exciting and intimate, romantically novel in a manner that wove an impregnable stitch to this person — to Jeremiah.

"I can feel you," Min-jae said to himself, not quite addressing Jeremiah whose thoughts were the same, and they never took their eyes off each other.

Still graced by Jeremiah atop him who looked to need far more time to settle and regain his composure, Min-jae relaxed as he then took in the magnitude of Jeremiah's leathery wings as they moved with a mind of their own. They pulsed behind him but not enough to carry him away.

Their skin was covered in sweat and goosebumps, and Jeremiah's lungs trembled as they filled and released. He blinked at last and the solid white spheres that consumed the contrasting colors once shown looked almost demonic.

A second after Jeremiah had blinked, his colors returned, and he sank within the hold ready to tend to him. Their lips collided and their tongues turned, losing what minutes went by without notice or any care in the world. Nothing else mattered except for the other now present in this room, in each other's arms.

At least not right now, nothing else mattered.

Nearly losing all composure again, Jeremiah's body locked and his mouth fell open, shivers quaking through him when Min-jae's hands explored his back until reaching the start of his wings. They were so sensitive, too sensitive, and he was sure he'd black out at any moment when Min-jae shifted and nudged his insides deeper.

Licking Jeremiah's tongue and stealing one last kiss, Min-jae inhaled deeply as Jeremiah's wings tucked into their compartments as if they'd never emerged in the first place, like they'd merely been a figment of his imagination.

"Min-jae," Jeremiah said, voice so soft and mannered that it almost wasn't recognized. He was still seated in Min-jae's lap and looked upon him like he was both exhausted and nervous. "I know this is only the start. Of what? I don't know, but if at any point you grow unsure of this, if you don't want this anymore, or you see something in me you don't like…I ask that you tell me. Please. Trust and honesty; I broke those vows a long time ago, and the outcome that followed — it was too late and losing it was my fault. I can only change so much before I'm afraid again, so if I relapse, feel free to let me go. You don't have to fight for me. I might not deserve your effort."

Giving Jeremiah's hand a light tug, Min-jae pulled the other dhampir closer and closed his arms, and they sat together as the morning over Seoul passed.

What Jeremiah had said carried so much, so much Min-jae didn't know the full story of, but he wouldn't pressure Jeremiah into saying much more if it might return him to the dark.

"Take your time," Min-jae swept his lips beside Jeremiah's ear, and he turned his nose into the blond half of his hair. "I want to see you for all of who you are someday, but if it takes time to get there, I promise to have patience."

A tremor surfaced in Jeremiah then and Min-jae held him a little tighter than before. Whatever was needed, be it time, attention, patience, or a particular type of compassion, Min-jae swore as he held onto this soul huddled against him, that the honesty and trust that'd been instilled in him from a young age would hold up against any adversary, even if that adversary lay in his arms here and now.

If holding on was what Jeremiah needed, Min-jae would gladly lock himself down where he was and never let go.