It Might Just Come Back To Bite You (BTS Vampire AU)

Interlude 2: Midnight Munchies (sickfic)

The blood-replenishing elixir always leaves a bitter taste in his mouth, and Jungkook can't quite hide a grimace as he swallows it down.

Seokjin's lips twitching up in a wincing sympathetic smile as he sinks gracefully into a crouch in front of the ornate cushioned chaise where Jungkook is seated, slipping the empty vial from the younger man's lax grip and pressing a cool glass into his hands.

"Here, darling," the vampire murmurs. "This should help. And you need to rehydrate."

Jungkook takes a few hasty gulps of the faintly citrusy beverage to rid his tastebuds of the lingering bitterness, flashing Seokjin a grateful look over the rim of the glass. Jin regards him in return with a soft, fond sort of smile, but his eyes are studying the hybrid's face closely, clearly searching for any signs of lingering discomfort.

This careful, methodical assessment of his wellbeing is as much a part of their established post-feeding routine as the glass of electrolytes, and although Jungkook had been expecting it, he still squirms a little as the warm brush of Jin's magic ghosts over him from head to toe, his skin tingling at the phantom touch. It isn't necessarily an unpleasant sensation, but Jungkook's always been a little ticklish, so it takes a great deal of willpower to sit still without breaking eye contact to allow the vampire to finish his examination.

Back when he'd first moved into the mansion, Jungkook would often use Seokjin's post-feeding assessment as an excuse to hold a one-sided staring contest (for his own entertainment, of course); a game that he'd continued lose time and again without fail, much to his growing frustration. It wasn't until a full month into his cohabitation with the coven that he'd eventually caught Taehyung smothering a giggle at his antics, and upon further interrogation the fledgling had eventually confessed that vampires as old as Seokjin don't actually need to blink, at least not for significant periods of time.

Because of course they don't.

As it turned out, Jin had been entirely unaware of Jungkook's ongoing attempts to engage him in regular staring contests (or so he claimed), and had appeared mildly befuddled when the hybrid came stomping into his private study following Taehyung's confession to voice an impassioned complaint about the matter. Still, to his credit, the Primus had abruptly ended his phone call with the mayor of Seoul in favour of pulling a definitely-not-sulking Jungkook into his lap for an apology cuddle, so forgiveness had come swiftly.

And in fairness, staring unblinkingly into Seokjin's eyes on a regular basis hadn't exactly been a hardship for Jungkook.

Hell, he's doing it again right now.

"Kookie," Jin prompts with a soft smile, after what's likely been a full minute of silent staring, the vampire reaching up to brush Jungkook's fringe back from his forehead. "Finish your drink, poppet. We don't want you getting a headache."

The gentle fussing is familiar, and it fills Jungkook's chest with a pleased sort of warmth even as his smile turns faintly, teasingly exasperated.

"I feel fine, hyung," he promises, but gulps down the rest of the liquid all the same, knowing well enough that arguing with the Primus will get him nowhere.

Given how gently Tae and Jimin had been feeding from him over the past half hour - slow, careful little sucks, liberally interspersed with tender nuzzles and tiny chaste kisses to the pinprick bites on his wrists - it's unlikely that his nestmates have taken more than a pint between the two of them, which is about as much as Jungkook used to donate at the local blood bank once every few months, at least before his university workload began taking a toll on his health. And the clinic phlebotomists had certainly never given him a freshly brewed blood-replenishing elixir to compensate for the loss, or doted on him quite so fretfully as the hyungs seem to do whenever he offers to feed them.