Chapter Text
The thumps of Hyunjin’s boots echoed in the enormous but desolate castle. He scrunched his nose in distaste once he took notice of the trail of mud and blood that he was leaving after himself. He’d need to apologise to the maids for the extra work they’ll have to do.
Once he reached his bathroom, Hyunjin took off his garments one by one, looking forward to a long relaxing bath. Even if his undead body was incapable of having stiff muscles and he didn’t sweat nor produce unpleasant scent like mortals do, Hyunjin didn’t dare miss a day without the pleasure of sinking his cold bones into the warm water.
Plus, he hated it when his silky brown hair was dyed red by blood.
Tonight’s battle had been successful, his friends lent him a hand and helped him get rid of the coven which tried to take over Hyunjin’s land again.
As the only survivor of the Hwang’s coven, Hyunjin had become the target of almost all other vampires in the world. They would travel for days, weeks, even months, to find him and challenge him to battles in futile hopes that they’ll take him down and rule what rightfully belonged to him.
Admittedly, he used to find it exciting. The thought of facing his opponents with the knowledge that each one would fall down to their knees and their heads would roll down on the soiled ground, used to elate him.
He didn’t even need the helping hand of his dear friends back then. It used to be just him and his blade.
Hyunjin closed his eyes before sinking his head under the water, staying like that for what was probably over five minutes. He didn’t care to count and it didn’t matter anyway. It wasn’t like he needed to breathe.
The fingers of his right hand twitched, similarly to the way they would do each day. Especially on the days of battles. Oh, how he missed to feel the rough but pleasant texture of the hilt, the carved on it roaring dragon which intimidated their opponents almost as much as Hyunjin’s deadly fangs and blood red eyes did.
Even if many people would say it had been just a weapon. It was more than that. Felix was more than that.
He was his comrade.
His best friend.
His bonded.
The one who chose Hyunjin as his master.
The vampire stepped out of the bath, brushing back his wet locks before he grabbed a soft to the touch towel to dry his dripping with water body. He walked naked towards his bedroom, not bothering to spare a look at the familiar sculptures decorating the hallways in his castle. Upon entering the familiar room, which had been his only safe space for centuries, Hyunjin quickly put on a long black gown decorated with white entangled lines.
For many, it seemed laughable that the Hwang coven’s colour has always been white. After all, it was a colour of purity and simplicity. For it to represent a family of vampires had many thinking that it was decided as a joke or a need to taint even the purest of things.
The truth however, was that no matter what creatures they were born as, the Hwangs treasured their human traits, their ability to feel emotions such as anger, sadness, love, even while living as the undead.
White represented their respect to the purity of their human selves.
It showed that unlike many of their kind, they did not look down on what still lived in them, in one way or another.
’Even if they don’t have fangs or can’t run faster than horses, humans still live by the same sources of love and greed. They still go to battles and draw their swords to protect what’s most important. We are no better than them, Hyunjin-ah, never forget that.'
The words his mother had told him again and again while he’d still been a child always put a smile on his face and he could feel the pride swelling in his chest at being a Hwang.
So no.
No matter what, he’d never let any other coven take over what belonged to him.
He wouldn’t let them put their filthy hands on the purity that his parents had worked so hard to keep sacred in their land. But sadly, the battles he had to fight now were lonelier than ever, even with the presence of his most trusted friends who always had his back.
Hyunjin pushed open a hidden closet behind a bookshelf in his room. There, the only thing that rested was a gorgeous closed crate with the family name Hwang carved in pretty white lines. The vampire felt heaviness in his frozen heart as he opened the lid slowly.
The sight of the silver, beautiful sword nearly brought tears to Hyunjin’s eyes. He traced the tips of his fingers against the blade near the base, right over the word ‘Felix’.
’You’re lucky that he’s chosen you, Hyunjin. He is one of the most powerful swords and even if their kind have made a pact to serve the Hwangs, he’d never wanted to be owned by anyone until now.’
Hyunjin could barely contain his giddy smile as he gripped the sword hard enough for its ends to dig in his palm.
‘His name is Yongbok, suitable for the dragon he’s represented with. However, you’re free to choose another name for him, as his master.’, his grandfather explained while the young vampire didn’t take his eyes away from the silver blade.
‘Felix’, he whispered.
Hyunjin wasn’t sure why it felt so right. He had never thought of a name for his future sword, always assumed that he’d use the one that it’s already been given.
But as he held him in his hand, the name Felix came to Hyunjin as easily as the chirping sounds of birds followed the early sunrise.
‘His name will be Felix’, he said loud enough for everyone attending the ceremony to hear this time around.
Maybe he would’ve paid attention to the clapping all around him or the tears of pride building up in his mother’s eyes as she was pulled closer by his father’s side. The only thing he could focus on though, was the way the sword wiggled on its own as Hyunjin held it and the subtle sparks that bursted out of its base.
‘As my lord wishes’, the sudden deep voice resonated in Hyunjin’s head just as the word ‘Felix’ was magically written on the blade by an invisible hand.
‘Hi, Felix’, Hyunjin thought through the bond that he could feel thickening more by the second. A dark but pleased hum invaded his head and if he could’ve, the vampire would’ve felt his heart skipping a beat in excitement.
He finally had a comrade.
He was bonded.
Chosen.
‘The Hwang family, who live by the sword, announce their future heir Hwang Hyunjin and his sword Felix-Yongbok’.
‘I miss you’, Hyunjin smiled sadly and tried not to sob at the silence in his head.
Not wanting to get too emotional tonight, he turned around and walked towards his bed, leaving the shelf and lid open so he could somehow feel the presence of his sword as he laid down on the mattress and stared up at the ceiling.
There were two battles in his life that Hyunjin regretted.
That he hated even thinking about.
The first one was, when the coven who had been the Hwangs most trusted one, had turned their backs on them and invaded the castle.
The Kangs had murdered his mother, father and all of his relatives right before his eyes.
It was only thanks to Hyunjin and his blade, who had together sliced through each one of the opponents’ hearts in anger and tears, that Hwang still existed as a coven.
Once the rumours spread, vampires started attacking the castle, believing that Hyunjin’s success had been led by the anger from his parent’s death and he wouldn’t be as successful in the future.
However, what had happened only fueled him to stand taller, stronger and with fangs and blade sharpened more than ever.
Hyunjin and Felix took down covens after covens.
They were unstoppable.
But they got ahead of themselves.
The second battle Hyunjin regretted and resented was the one where a coven had brought a witch with them.
The witch had casted a spell while they’d been in the middle of fighting.
And she’d broken the bond between Hyunjin and Felix before either of them could realise it.
She’d locked Felix’s soul deeper and deeper in the sword, making him incapable of moving his steel body or communicating telepathically with his master.
She’d broken them.
Hyunjin bit his bottom lip harshly as he felt the wave of agony at the memory. As he thought of losing the most important beings in his life, all taken away from him as if it was nothing.
Leaving him all alone to protect their land and the family name.
The sudden rattling of something in the room made his eyebrows scrunch together and he raised himself up to a sitting position as he stared ahead towards his blade.
The noises disappeared then, leaving Hyunjin in the same silence he’d learned to live with, almost convincing him that he’d made the sounds up. Just then though, even his vampire senses couldn’t pick up on the fast movements of something going straight towards him.
A breeze from the ”whoosh” went past the drying locks of his brown hair and before he could blink, the sharp end of his blade was being pointed towards Hyunjin’s throat. The sword was floating in the air and slightly shaking in what could be compared to aggravation.
‘Fe-lix?’, the vampire whispered, the shock freezing his already cold body entirely. He couldn’t feel a speck of fear even at the threatening position of the sword.
’You liar’, Hyunjin nearly choked at the deep voice in his head and the tears he’d tried to keep at bay for so long that evening finally made their way past the corners of his eyes.
‘Felix’, he could only repeat brokenly, the emotions in him raging uncontrollably, the voice he hadn’t heard for so long finally clear. His chest started to feel full at once as the bond between them was being slowly patched up like puzzle pieces coming together.
’Don’t you dare tell me you miss me after you left me alone for decades.’, the angry timber of Felix’s voice boomed in Hyunjin’s head and as the words slowly processed, the vampire’s round teary eyes narrowed into ones of confusion.
‘Left you alone? Felix that’s not- I tried to-’, Hyunjin raised his hand towards the blade, wanting to both reassure his comrade and to feel the warmth of the bond between them that he knew would wait for him once he’d wrap his hand around the hilt.
’Don’t touch me’, Felix hissed but as if pulled by invisible force, Hyunjin couldn’t stop his hand from moving forward. He was so close that he could almost feel the weight of the sword against his palm.
A growl in his head and a sudden flashing light, so bright that Hyunjin had to close his eyes tight.
The weight he felt then, was not against his hand.
It was on his lap.
‘What-’, he slowly opened his eyes again and the sight that he was faced with had his jaw dropping and eyes almost jumping out of their sockets.
‘You’ve tried to do what, my lord? To find a way to fix our bond? To find a way to bring it back? Well it sure as hell doesn’t seem like it, since someone else has just killed the goddamn witch while you seemed to have enjoyed a lovely time in your precious bath, probably after killing a few vampires with what I guess is a shitty blade that you’ve replaced me with while I was left in your goddamn closet like a-’
The ramble was cut short as the man’s cheeks were covered by the palms of Hyunjin’s hands.
‘Is this really you, Felix?’, he stared in awe, not wanting to pull his eyes away even for a moment. Felix’s wide eyes which were a shiny blue-grey colour until now slowly turned into brown as the form relaxed on Hyunjin’s lap the slightest bit.
‘Of course it’s me, you stupid block of ice’, Hyunjin’s lip twitched up at the nickname that his sword would use whenever he was frustrated with the vampire.
‘How- How is it possible for you to be in human form?’, he traced his fingers against Felix’s face, watching the dotted freckles there in wonder and tapping over them a few times which earned him a roll of the blade’s eyes.
‘I guess that the witch who was killed, the one who broke our bond, was the last descendant of the family who cursed our kind and locked us in the swords for centuries. Now we can transform back to human form as we initially were able to and I can tell you in your face how much of an asshole you are for leaving your bonded alone’, Hyunjin’s eyes returned to Felix’s and he smiled fondly as he tapped the angry crease between the other’s eyebrows.
The fingers of his other hand moved to Felix’s silver hair, the softness of it making Hyunjin gasp as he ran his hand down the strands. Only when his gaze followed the movement, did he notice that the hair was ridiculously long. It was covering Felix’s bare body (which would have had Hyunjin blush if he had fed properly recently), or at least the more intimate parts of it. He was sure that if Felix were to stand up, the hair would reach his calves, maybe even his ankles.
‘Are you going to respond to me tonight or will you just keep ignoring me?’, the frustrated tone that Felix had had until now slightly tilted into one of genuine sadness and the sound was quick to snap Hyunjin out of his thoughts.
‘Sorry, I just- I’m a bit overwhelmed. I didn’t think I’d hear you again, I lost hope that I’ll be able to even feel our bond… Let alone have you in front of me, in human form for the first time, in which you look so-’, he looked away as he cleared his throat once, ‘I wasn’t ignoring you, just surprised, I need a minute’.
He glanced towards Felix again, seemingly incapable of keeping his eyes away from the man in front of him. It looked as if his eyelashes sparkled with small diamonds as the colour of his eyes kept changing from brown to blue hues.
The feeling that consumed Hyunjin as he watched him, was one that he could guess humans feel whenever they’re drowning and lose all air in their lungs.
Breathless.
‘Okay, the minute has passed. Now speak. Defend yourself, vampire’, Felix cocked his head up, the attitude almost breaking another smile on Hyunjin’s face but he tried to keep his expression stoic so as to not anger the blade further.
‘I spent years in attempts to find the witch and when I kept failing, I was seeking out dozens of other ones to ask for other ways to have the curse broken but nobody could help me. They told me they can’t even feel your soul in the sword at all’, Hyunjin tightened his lips as he felt the sharp pain in his chest when reminiscing the words.
‘I thought that she’d killed you. I think the witches thought so too, but they didn’t want to say it in my face’, Felix’s features slowly softened as his eyes turned a lighter brown colour and his body relaxed further on Hyunjin’s lap.
‘I kept you behind the bookshelf because I wanted to at least keep your remains safe, I- I still wanted you close to me’, he tried to look at Felix with all sincerity he had in him, praying that the man would believe each one of his words.
‘So you…didn’t forget me?’, the blade asked with a small voice, his fingers playing with a strand of his silver hair. Hyunjin allowed himself to smile as he placed his larger hand above Felix’s. Just then, the vampire let out a surprised gasp as the warmth from their bond exploded at the tips of his fingers which were in contact with Felix’s skin. The fuzzy feeling made its way down his arm, shoulder, neck, until it was slowly consuming the entirety of his body.
He was sure that the blade felt the same sensations, as his eyes were now shut and his face looked like a mixture of peace and elation at the same time. Filled with sudden greed to feel more, Hyunjin placed his palm against one of Felix’s cheeks again, and opposed to last time he’d done so, their strengthened bond almost made the place they touched sparkle with gold.
‘I’d never forget you, my blade’, Hyunjin murmured and his nostrils flared as he could feel the scent of Felix’s blood rushing in his veins just when the sword’s heart began beating faster. The sweetness he could smell almost blurred his vision so he had to turn his head away from Felix, working himself up to a more composed state.
‘How long since you’ve last fed?’, Felix asked quietly and Hyunjin forced himself not to take another whiff of the other’s scent.
‘Three days, I think. I haven’t had time’, Hyunjin reasoned just as Felix let out a huff.
‘Jesus, it’s a mystery how you survived without me for so long. Was there no one to remind you when to eat, my lord?’, his voice tilted up at the title and Hyunjin puffed out a laugh as he turned back to Felix once he managed to find his composure again.
‘Nope, no one to remind me and certainly no blades to replace you. I’ve been fighting with my body and fangs when you were gone’, Felix’s eyes widened at the admission and Hyunjin heard another beat of his heart skip before the blade’s lips quivered and a wide, blinding smile covered his face.
‘You silly vampire’.
Breathless.
‘Well, you know me’, Hyunjin thumbed Felix’s cheek, his eyes falling to the action, finding it nearly mesmerising. The rest of his sentence died on his tongue as he just stared at the perfection his sword’s human form was.
‘For a blade so sharp, your skin is extremely soft’, he mumbled, not even realising he had actually said the words out loud before Felix let out a squeak.
The unfamiliar sound coming from him had Hyunjin’s eyebrow crook up as Felix’s cheeks became warmer. Finding the reaction entertaining, Hyunjin squeezed Felix’s hand before adding:
‘But I shouldn’t be surprised that a sword so beautiful would look this gorgeous in the flesh as well’, he meant it to be teasing, even if there was a heavier truth to his words that he wanted to admit.
This time though, Felix’s even louder squeak was cut short by another blinding light and before Hyunjin could realise it, his hands were hanging in the air, and on his lap, rested a silver sword with the shape of a dragon over its hilt.
‘You’ve gotten even more annoying with the years’, Hyunjin heard in his head and broke out into a loud laughter that had him throwing his head back.