Chapter Text
"Can I get twenty on five, please?"
Jungkook groaned mentally but kept a pristine customer service smile plastered on his face as he rang up the gas and bag of gummy worms the customer threw on the counter.
"Sure! 24.63 is your total. Cash or card, sir?"
The older man just stares at him, unblinking, holding his credit card between his fingertips like a cigarette.
"Card, okay." Jungkook sighs under his breath. Desperately trying to keep himself calm and not get fired on a Friday night for punching one of his customers. He finishes the transaction and rips the receipt out of the machine.
"Thanks for coming in! Have a good night!" He says with a fake customer service smile while holding out the receipt for him to take. The guy blinks at him slowly, grabs his gummy worms off the counter, and turns on his heel to leave without so much as a "Thanks, you too!"
As soon as he hears the familiar jingle of the door being shut, Jungkook slumps down on the counter, groaning out loud now that he finds himself alone once again. Working at a gas station isn't the most glamorous job, but they were willing to work around his school schedule and paid a decent wage, so here he stayed.
Jungkook pulls his head up slightly from the counter to glance at the clock on the back wall. 12:15 am it read in bright, glaring red. "Well, at least I only have 45 minutes left." The thought is a vague comfort as he pulls himself up fully, leaning back into a stretch until he’s greeted with a loud 'pop'. The noise and dull ache that accompanies it are yet another sign of how badly he needs to get back into the gym after having slacked since the beginning of the semester, too locked in on balancing his capstone and a more major-focused course load to spare time for anything else.
"Just 45 minutes, Jungkook. You got this," He whispers to himself. The short track over to the full trash cans at the front of the store is uneventful as he brainstorms how he can incorporate more exercise into his already jam-packed schedule. He empties the bins for trash and recycling and ties the bags off. Still deep in thought, he drags both of the heavy bags out through the store's tiny back door into their surprisingly well-lit back alley. With all the strength he can muster at nearly one in the morning — which isn't a lot, he launches both bags into their respective dumpster and turns to go back inside.
Honestly, he really doesn't like being alone out here too long. The vibes are a bit too far right on the creepy scale for his liking, and he very much likes being alive. Though... the life of a vampire did sound a little appealing. Immortality, inhuman strength, and probably loads of other cool perks they failed to mention in the mandatory magical community education course required in every school. Jungkook thinks that being a vampire would feel powerful.
Before he can finish his train of thought and pull open the handle of the station's back door, Jungkook sees a black object speed through the air in his peripheral vision. He whips his head around, trying to pinpoint what in the actual flying fuck he just saw. Dark eyes scan the pitch-black sky carefully, but he can't pinpoint anything. He shrugs, grabbing the door handle again.
Next thing Jungkook knows, he is tackled by what might as well be a freight train, but is actually a tiny little creature. As much as Jungkook almost has a bachelor's degree in Film and Media Production, he's also 21, and doesn't have a fully developed brain. Jungkook blames that on why he decides to pet the small creature. The little black thing slowly unfolds itself from the tight ball it protected itself in upon landing, and Jungkook comes to the abrupt realization that it's a bat. He has never seen a bat up close before, but he decides then and there that they are his new favorite animal.
"Hi! You are so tiny. I could just eat you up!" He coos to the tiny bat. The bat apparently does not appreciate being called tiny and proceeds to make their displeasure known, letting out a loud squeak before flying right up to his jugular and biting in the blink of an eye. Jungkook feels the thrum of pain begin in the side of his neck, a dull pulse that quickly becomes more prominent. "Fuck! Why did you do that? I thought we were bonding!" The creature doesn't reply and soars back into the cover of night.
He searches the sky for the tiny bat that likely just gave him rabies and sighs. It was gone.
Jungkook falls back onto the asphalt of the alley, choosing to ignore all the dirt and grime covering the ground underneath him. Anxiety slowly crawls up his spine as reaches up to touch around the side of his neck, wincing in pain. "Shit," He mutters. The side of his neck is throbbing now like a rapid heartbeat. Feeling around the fresh bite wound, he contemplates if it would be faster to call 911 or to drive himself to the nearest emergency room. Before he can even land on a decision, he feels his body begin to shake. He yanks himself up just in time to not throw up all over himself. The pathetic sound of his own retching echoes through the empty alleyway, his body lurching with every heave until he’s sure there can’t be anything but acid left in his stomach. He manages to move away from the puddle of vomit before losing the strength to keep himself up, falling flat onto his chest.
Losing strength by the second, Jungkook reaches down into his pocket to grab his phone and call for help. Ice jolts through his veins when his fingers grace nothing but air. He must have left it back at the cash register before taking out the trash. Jungkook whines, squeezing his eyes shut to block out the nightmare that his life is shaping out to be. The remaining bit of strength in his body quickly rushes out like a receding wave. Desperately, he tries to think of a new plan to get out of this mess. "Come on, Jungkook! THINK!" He yells into the inky, black abyss surrounding him. The words fall upon death ears as he starts to struggle to pull air into his lungs. He can feel fat tears sliding down his face as his vision slowly fades out.
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Jungkook wakes up feeling groggy and disoriented, like he just worked a full night shift at the gas station and then sat through an 8 am lecture.
The pressure behind his eyes emphasizes the tight strain in his back muscles, pulling a deep groan from his throat as he slowly situates his body into a upright position. He cracks an eye open and quickly closes it again, shrinking back from the harsh light.
Everything feels so big, so loud, so scary. He needs to hide. Now.
Jungkook quickly pulls himself up on wobbly legs, led on by the increasingly desperate, thorny anxiety coursing through his veins, guiding him to find a place where no one would ever think to find him. He searches the mostly empty alley again before his eyes land on the dumpsters behind him. "Perfect," He purrs.
He runs to the dumpster, flipping open the top of it with incredible strength and pulling himself in with a huff. The muscles in his shoulders start to relax when he pulls the inner handle of the lid down, encasing himself in sweet darkness.
Safe. Hidden. His brain purrs. Something in his mind urges him to give into the greedy need to curl himself into a protective ball on top of the bags of trash. He frowns at the powerful stench surrounding him, but something tells him that the trash will help block his scent from attracting any unwanted guests. His giggles bounce of the walls quietly while his brain pushes safe reassurances to him as he dozes off. Safe. Hidden. Safe.
"Aish, you poor thing. How did you end up here all alone baby, huh?" A soft, pillowy voice filters through Jungkook's ears, pulling him gently from the cusp of sleep. He whines out loud and is shushed by the voice.
“None of that now sweetheart.” The voice whispers softly into Jungkook’s ear, and then there are hands sliding underneath him and lifting him up as if he weighs nothing.
Jungkook's eyes snap open at the movement, desperately grabbing the mystery man's shirt, collecting the silky fabric into a tight death grip. He glances down at the ground and then up at the stranger, and his jaw drops. “So pretty, wow. How you’d do that?”
The stranger looks at him for a moment before bursting into laughter, the windshield wiper-like sound carrying across the empty alley. “Sweetheart you are way too precious. My coven is just going to eat you up,” The tall man giggles to himself. “You will have them wrapped around your little finger in no time.” He boops his nose to punctuate the point and then readjusts his hold on him.
Coven?
“You are way too light, little one,” The beautiful stranger mumbles under his breath. The man gets in position to jump out of the dumpster. Jungkook expects to feel the recoil from the landing and clenches his eyes shut in anticipation, but he is pleasantly surprised when he doesn’t.
He squints his eyes open to get a look at the mystery man once again. Jungkook can truly only describe him as an ethereal being. Silky black hair and smooth milky skin, broad shoulders and kind eyes. Almost too perfect. Like time stopped to preserve such rare beauty.
Jungkook thinks he must be dreaming at this point because there is no way he has just been pulled out of a dumpster by someone like this. He is just a college student trying to scrape by and hopefully get a good job in his field upon graduation. But now he feels different? He can't quite put his finger on it, as drowsy as he feels right now, but something has changed about him fundamentally. The new little voice (or instinct?) screams - Reborn. Better. Found. Safe.
What in the hell is happening?
Jungkook starts to struggle in the stranger's hold in an effort to create a little space and get his bearings. He needs to figure out what is actually happening to him because, despite his new inner voice not giving him the creeps directly, he knows it should. Quite frankly, this all should be freaking him the fuck out.
“No, baby. You're much too weak right now to go off on your own. Newborn fledglings need to stay in the nest for at least ten years before they can leave with supervision.” The man tries to reason with him, but Jungkook doesn’t even know what this guy is talking about.
Newborn? Fledging? Nest?
Jungkook tries to struggle harder, but the tall man easily repositions him and puts a stop to his struggles.
“Please, little one! I know everything seems scary, and you have no idea of what just happened to you, but I promise we don’t want to hurt you.”
We? Who is we?
The beautiful stranger carefully brushes his knuckles gently across Jungkook’s round cheek, before moving down to the bite mark on his neck, still keeping him secure in his hold. “Looking at the bite on your neck, it seems like a feral vampire in bat form turned you.” The man pulls his hand away from the bite and back up to cradle his face. His eyes are a deep ruby, almost glowing, even in the harsh yellow lighting surrounding them.
“You poor thing. You were probably so scared, huh? All of these strange new feelings swirling around in your head? Does that sound about right, baby?”
Jungkook feels a shiver race down his body. Everything that this man just described made so much sense, but was he really a vampire now? This has just got to be some terrible dream that his mind conjured up when he probably contracted some kind of horrible disease from that bat. And yet, once he feels the formation of tears in his eyes, he knows this is real.
His breath hitches as he attempts to take in a lungful of air to keep himself calm, but now that the waterworks are going, he couldn’t seem to make himself stop. How was he going to tell his parents? What about school? His job? And now he needed supervision for ten years? Who would take care of him like that for that long? How did being a vampire even really work?
Jungkook feels himself getting worked up, and he needs to calm himself down before he had a whole panic attack in front of this stranger.
Focus Jungkook. You need to breathe.
He tries to suck in another breath but ends up choking on air, fat tears streaming down his face. The fear starts to inch around his heart, the sensation driving him further down into the depths of panic. Fear! Scared! Hurting! His instincts scream. Jungkook whimpers through the onslaught of emotions. Someone, make it stop.
“Oh, honey. None of that now. You have to calm down for me,” The beautiful stranger tries to coax the fledgling into breathing more deeply, but he can already tell that they are beyond any of the normal techniques he would rely on to de-escalate this kind of situation.
“I shouldn’t do this, but I have the feeling you will feel a lot better in a nice, cozy nest than in the middle of a stinky alley. Let’s go home, little one.”