Nadir ◈ Seungjin

13 ◈ Stigmata

"What?! Seung... Seung, what are you thinking?!?!"

Seungmin tuned his concern out, turning back to Minho in the empty living room, Felix having left the apartment a little while ago with the others. The cold glass of water in his trembling hand the only chill to combat the fever of his skin, how his body was burning up by the minute, slowly, ever so gradually, consuming him into ash and smoke impossible to breathe through. He tried to sip at the water, hoping the refreshing taste of the clear liquid would quench him of his shakes, hoping the chill would seep through the glass enough to ground him down in reality. His unsure quivers crawling along his spine and dread swarming his stomach in it's churning disgust. Unsettling him in every way it could; Reminding him of who he signed his life away to only moments before coming back to Felix's apartment.

"You're getting help from killers to catch a killer!" The vampire seethed. He paused for a moment, his breath coming across ragged and worried, his lips restraining pursing together in that irritated habit, shoulders squared off and rigid. He pushed his hair back from tumbling into his forehead, continuing to rage as he realized, "Killers that may be the killer we're looking for! They're not innocent."

Seungmin kept his nose buried in the glass of water, his other arm folded over his chest to protect himself. Refusing to acknowledge Minho beyond watching his occasional movements. Him and his weak veins that wanted nothing more than to vanish. Disappear and never be seen again. How it cried and sung softly behind his ribs, but all he was able to convey to the other through his filtered throat was, He wandered along, trying to keep as much of him hidden as he was able to. The bandages on his arm that proved his weakness, still needing to be changed from their previous wrap earlier that same day. The thumping of his fragile little heart of glass, protected by it's fake layer of stone ready to be blown over at any moment. The soft trembles, shakes, no, he couldn't allow Minho to see the truth.

Because, surely, Minho was furious.

He told him the truth about the "walk" he said he was going to take to clear his mind. He told him the truth about the pair who cornered him in the café. He told him the truth about Hyunjin and Jisung, them proposing to work together.

Now Minho wanted nothing more than to bite him too. He wanted nothing more than to dig his filed down claws into Seungmin's skin and rip him apart bit by bit, exhuming the blood up from the graveyard of his chilled body. He wanted nothing more than to end him there on the floors of Felix's apartment for being an inconvenience, for making such a reckless and unwise decision without thinking about it, for putting that group of vampires at risk under the threat of a serial killer. That's why his jaw clenched, his hands flung wildly in the air as he spoke, his body was tense, his lips pulled back against those pointed fangs. If he allowed the vampire to see him trembling; He would know he was vulnerable. He would know he would be able to peel the human apart without a single issue.

Seungmin sat down on the couch, still trying to sip calmly at his water to avoid looking at Minho. He kicked a foot out, his toes accidentally crunching against a set of midnight black boots left tossed underneath the coffee table, before he lifted and tucked them up to his chest to not accidentally ram into anything else.

"I— Seung!" The vampire tried again, his hands lacing and lingering on the back of his hair as Seungmin watched the faint declaration of his shadow against the floor pace around the apartment. Wildly, back and forth, seemingly without reason behind it. Those hands staying in their fisted slot as he rambled off to whatever plants were willing to soak in the exhaled carbon dioxide from his inflated lungs, "I mean, what did you agree to? They can't be helping without anything in return, what did you promise them?"

Seungmin kept his eyes down.

They know about the bites, Minho doesn't.

He lowered the glass of water from his lips, glancing down to the reflection looking up at him in the dim lighting. The liquid inside rippled with every uncontrollable shake of his hands, fluctuating with the singing of his nerves, the gentle tidalwave of their uselessness. Their waves interrupting the shadow that lingered. Staring back up to him.