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“Riki, wake up. You’re chewing on me again.”
Jay tries to jostle the other vampire awake but it proves to be an impossible task as every one of his limbs is currently being held hostage by the 6ft1 giant octopus of a boy that has climbed into his bed.
Jay doesn’t understand how it keeps happening.
Riki has got his own room, with a perfectly good bed in it that Jay forked out a lot of money for, and that he should currently be sleeping in.
Every night Riki would bid him goodnight and retreat into said room and then every night, somewhere between midnight and 2AM, he’d somehow worm his way into Jay’s bed without the man noticing.
Riki has only been a vampire for a few months but Jay is convinced that his powers must be something stealth-related because there’s no other explanation for how him and his long-limbed self manages to evade Jay’s own vampire senses like this every night.
The thing is, it would be fine if Riki would just sleep calmly next to him and not use Jay like his own personal body pillow. He was pretty sure Riki would live under his skin if he could with the way he wraps himself around him, their legs tangled under the covers and his head resting on Jay’s chest like an overgrown house cat.
And just as Jay was begrudgingly learning to accept the late-night cuddling, Riki’s fangs had started to grow in and he found himself facing a different problem.
At first he’d been understanding and empathetic when Riki had latched onto his arm and started biting him one evening when they’d been watching a movie on the sofa. Riki had apologized, looking mortified, but it hadn’t stopped there.
After Riki would be done mauling his own hands and fingers to bits like the feral fledgling vampire he was, he would move onto doing the same to Jay’s poor unsuspecting body.
He would come up behind Jay when he was cooking and nibble at the skin of his nape, arms wrapping securely around Jay’s waist to stop him from escaping. Then, much to Jay’s horror, when they would sit down to eat Riki would grab his hand so he could chew on his knuckles in between bites.
Jay does remember, way back when he’d first been turned, how uncomfortable and weird it had felt when he’d been growing his own fangs so he understood Riki’s struggle.
Still, it didn’t mean it wasn’t painful.
He manages to wriggle an arm free and uses it to push Riki’s head away and detach his tiny but still razor-sharp fangs from his aching shoulder.
The boy whines groggily, trying to move his head forwards to clamp down on the flesh again.
“Riki, no.” Jay warns, voice more stern than it was earlier.
It seems to sober Riki up as he stops struggling and instead glares at Jay like he’s committed a grave sin against him.
“Don’t look at me like that. If you don’t stop gnawing on me I’ll be forced to buy you a chew toy.”
“I’m not a dog.” Riki grumbles, brows furrowing as his glare deepens.
“No, but you are a baby so maybe I should get you a teething toy instead.”
“Are all sires this mean to their newly turned vampires?”
“How can you say I’m mean when I let you sleep in my bed every night?” Jay shoots back.
Riki had no comeback to that so he settles back down on his chest with a disgruntled huff.
“But, hyung, it really hurts.” He mumbles after a few seconds of silence, voice muffled by the fabric of Jay’s shirt.
Riki’s voice is small, belonging more to a child than the fearsome supernatural creature he now was, and it makes something twist in Jay’s guts.
It’s not the first time he has regretted turning Riki, even though he knows full well he hadn’t been left with much of a choice.
He’d found Riki bleeding out and close to death after being attacked by the rogue vampire Jay had been hunting down and the decision had pretty much already been made for him.
It didn’t mean it was easy, though, and Jay still feels such guilt when he thinks about how young Riki was, how much life he still had left to live.
He hadn’t expected to care so much for the boy but it was like the moment he’d fed Riki his blood, this invisible string had appeared and bound them together.
Jay had never sired anyone before—Riki was his first and only—and he tries his best even though most of the time he feels like he has no idea what he’s doing.
He runs a hand gently over Riki’s head, smoothing down the soft tufts of hair that have become all tangled up from sleep.
Jay doesn’t know what to say, no words would feel adequate enough to convey how sorry he is or how much he wishes Riki didn’t have to go through this.
So he keeps stroking his head until the other vampire goes back to sleep, burying his face further into Jay’s chest.
The next morning he buys Riki some actual teething toys, making sure he chooses the least baby looking ones. He puts them in the fridge as per the instructions and pulls one out when he catches Riki nibbling on his own fingers again during lunch again.
The boy eyes it suspiciously before shooting Jay an unimpressed look.
“I told you I’m not a—”
“Just give it a try, okay? It’ll make you feel better.”
Riki scowls at the offending item for a few more seconds before snatching it out of Jay’s hand and bringing it to his mouth.
The moment the cool silicone hits his sore gums all the tension melts from his body and he lets out a pleased hum.
“See? I told you.”
Jay ruffles his hair, unable to keep the smile off his face as a warmth blooms in chest at seeing Riki no longer in pain.
Riki doesn’t respond with words but instead plants a wet kiss on Jay’s cheek, smiling so bright that his eyes disappear into crescents, and Jay has never been more grateful that he was the one to find Riki that night.
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