#[ so between the two his dislike of vampires is.. just dislike. He can be negotiated with. ]

[aworldofyou]

             I know they’re in cowboy hats but .. this is making me want to put the other members of the YANKTON PACK in Twilight verse to a post to expand on who they are so at least some people know who I’m referencing when I talk about them.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Hi! As someone who’s literary opinion I really trust, I was surprised that you’re a twilight fan? I know almost nothing except commen knowledge things about that series, and I always assumed it was actually bad/un-feminist. What is it that you like so much that others seem to miss? I’m just genuinely curious about your take on the hate it always seems to get vs. it’s actual quality. I’m not gonna judge bc animorphs is also one of those books where you see it and assume it’s bad.

In over 14 years of loving this series, I’m not sure anyone has ever asked me why I enjoy it instead of simply trying to convince me that I’m wrong to do so.  So thank you for that.

First and foremost, I love the Twilight saga because of the vivid detail in Stephenie Meyer’s writing style.  The descriptions are so lush and dense with sensory information that you can practically bite down on them as you read.  Bella and Jacob aren’t just sitting on the beach; they’re sitting on a gnarled log of driftwood, worn smooth at the top from where so many Quileute teens have sat upon it during bonfires but still uneven enough to rock on its branches when Bella suddenly stands to rage at her own mortality.  Meyer describes that log in Twilight, so tangibly and with such economy of detail, that we recognize it immediately when Bella and Jacob return to that spot in Eclipse.  I’ve always disliked the movies, because I’ve always felt that the best part of Meyer’s writing simply did not translate well to the screen.

Secondly, I love the feminism.

Okay, let’s take a quick pause to let everyone gasp and clutch their pearls over me calling Twilight a feminist work.  I will address the criticisms later.  For now, please just hear me out.

Twilight strikes me as a premier example of what Hélène Cixous means when she calls for “women’s writing,” or writing for women, about women, by women, with a strong focus on the concerns and strengths and desires of womanhood.  This is a series about building and maintaining close relationships, both romantic and platonic.  It celebrates beauty, and love, and care.  Bella moves to Forks because she recognizes that her dad is lonely while her mom is quite the opposite, torn between family priorities.  She doesn’t simply subsume her interests to those of other people, but instead actively chooses how and when and where to express her love for her birth family and her found families.  Most of the other major decisions throughout the story — Alice “adopting” Bella, Carlisle moving the family to Alaska, Jacob becoming werewolf beta, the Cullens going up against the Volturi, etc. — are motivated by care and devotion for one’s family and friends.  Even the selfish or morally ambiguous character choices are shown to be motivated by love.  Rosalie tells Edward that Bella died because she genuinely thinks it’ll help him move on.  Victoria creates an army that nearly destroys Forks because she’s avenging James.  Alice abandons Bella and the others before the final battle because if she can’t save her entire family, then she’ll settle for saving her lover before letting him die in vain.

Not only is there a striking concern with love and care, but there’s also a strong commitment to avoiding violence.  Bella’s eventual vamp-superpower proves to be preventing violence and protecting others, an awesome character decision that I’d argue gets set up as early as the first book.  She lives in a violent world — this is a YA SF story, after all — but she has the power to suppress violence and create peace, both in herself and others.  I was already sick of “power = ability to inflict damage” in YA stories well before I knew the word “patriarchy.”  Twilight was one of the first books to convey to me that power could be refusing to do harm in spite of hunger or anger, that power could be shielding ones’ family, that power could be about building enough friendships and alliances to have an army at one’s back when facing an enemy too strong to take on alone.

Closely connected to all of that love and care, I love how much Twilight is about navigating teenage girlhood.  Is it empowering, intersectional, or all-inclusive?  Hell no.  Does it still dare to suggest that a completely ordinary teenage girl could have valid concerns about the world?  Yep.  The main conflict of the story, as Stephen King so derisively explained, is about the romantic entanglements of a teenage girl, and the book therefore has no literary merit.  (To quote my dad’s response: “Bold words from the guy who inflicted Firestarter on the world.”)

There is, indeed, a lot of romance in Twilight.  There are a lot of clothes.  Alice and Rosalie especially spend a lot of time on makeup, and hair, and choosing the prettiest cars and houses.  Twilight embraces all the stereotypically “girly” concerns of adolescence, and makes no effort to apologize for or condemn them.  Bella isn’t particularly good at performing them — she likes but doesn’t excel at shopping, fiercely defends her ugly car as ugly, hobbles through prom on crutches — but she can still enjoy the feeling of being pretty in a sparkly dress while dancing with her sparkly boyfriend.  And Twilight, like Animorphs with Cassie, takes the daring step of treating that feeling as valid.

Speaking of sparkles, I love the commitment to the fantasy concept in Twilight, including the myriad mundanities that Meyer brings with that commitment.  If you have super-speed, why not use it to play extreme baseball?  If you’re a mindreader with a clairvoyant sister, why wouldn’t you two play mental chess games?  I couldn’t tell you, after seven seasons of Buffy or eight of Vampire Diaries, what Spike or Damien or Angel or Stefan does all day when not brooding or lurking in the bushes to creep on human women.  I can tell you what the Cullens get up to.  Emmett and Rosalie work on their cars, usually by holding them overhead one-handed.  Carlisle and Alice read plays, and sometimes talk the whole family into home Shakespeare productions.  Edward and Carlisle debate theology, Emmett and Jasper have dumb athletic competitions, Edward and Esme play music, Alice manipulates stock markets, the twins go shopping online, etcetera.  The Cullens feel real, feel like the vampires next door, in a way that Louis and Lestat simply do not.

To get to the elephant in the room — I just described Twilight as a feminist text! — let’s talk about the other thing the Cullens do for fun: they have sex.  Weird sex.  Kinky furniture-breaking sex.  Sex that Emmett (who would know) compares to bear-wrestling.  These books suck with regards to queer representation, but they are sex-positive.  They feature an old-school Anglican protagonist offering his daughter-in-law a medical abortion.  They treat Edward’s desire for sex only within marriage and Alice’s desire for sex outside of marriage as both being valid.  Like I said, not groundbreaking, even by the standards of 2005, but still more than most teen novels do even today.

There’s a passage from Breaking Dawn that people love to pull out of context as “everything wrong with Twilight in two paragraphs” because it describes Bella waking up the morning after sex with bruises on her arms.  That moment is shocking out of context, to be sure — but in context, it’s the end result of an in-depth consent negotiation that lasts four books.  Bella says that she’d like to become a vampire.  Edward says okay, but only if she spends a few more years living as a human and considering that choice.  Bella says okay, but only if Edward, not Carlisle, becomes the one to turn her.  Edward says they can use his venom, but that Carlisle, who’s an MD, really needs to supervise the process.  Bella doesn’t love the idea of Edward’s stepdad cockblocking what’s supposed to be an intimate moment, and so agrees only on the grounds that she gets to have sex with Edward as a human first.  Edward’s hella Catholic, so he requests that they get married first.  Bella’s super horny, so she demands that the wedding happen within six months.  Edward says that he might hurt her during sex, and Bella says that she wants a little hurt during sex.  They marry.  They bang.  During the banging, Edward makes every effort to be controlled and courteous and gentile, while Bella goes wild and crazy.  The next morning, she has bruises and he does not.  Edward apologizes, but Bella’s actually really into it.  She spends a while admiring her sexy vamp-marked self in the mirror, touches the bruises many times, and reminds us yet again that Bella Swan’s whole M.O. is being a monsterfucker.  Her kink is not my kink, and that’s okay.

To be clear, I think there are other aspects of the romance that get criticized for good reason.  Edward does not negotiate with Bella before sneaking into her room to watch her sleep, and he does make unacceptable use of their power differences when he thinks she’s in danger of being mauled by werewolves.  The text condemns Jacob’s “don’t wanna die a virgin” ploy to manipulate a kiss out of Bella, but not the wider conceit of all the male characters as possessing uncontrollable urges.  Bella’s struggles to adjust to a new town feel very feminine and realistic; her amused tolerance of Jacob’s and Mike’s sexual harassment as the price for their friendship does not.  Werewolf imprinting might be mostly platonic, but that doesn’t make it okay for Meyer to depict it as a form of soulmate bonding that happens with child characters. Those are good points, all around.  I just wish that most of them didn’t come up in the context of post-hoc rationalizations for loathing the femininity of a feminine text.

I’m not calling Twilight an unproblematic series.  I’m saying that it gets (rightly!) criticized for appropriating Quileute culture, while Buffy’s total absence of main characters of color and blatant anti-Romani racism are (wrongly!) not remarked upon. I'm saying that I’ve been told I’m a misogynist for liking Twilight but not for liking James Bond.  I’m saying that there’s a reason people tend to go “oh, that makes so much sense!” when I let them in on the fact that reactive hatred for “Twitards” started and spread on 4Chan, later home of Gamergate and incel culture.  I’m saying that Twilight depicts problematic relationship dynamics as sexy — but then so do Vampire Academy, Blue Bloods, Supernatural, Vladimir Tod, and Vampire Diaries.  All of which take the time to stop and thumb their noses at Twilight, smug in the superiority of having vampires that fly rather than vampires that sparkle, and for thoroughly condemning teenage girls for being girly while continuing to show men inflicting violence on them.

After all, as Erin May Kelly puts it: “we live in a world taught to hate everything to do with little girls.  We hate the books they read and the bands they like.  Is there anything the world makes fun of more than One Direction and Twilight?”  No one has ever called me a misogynist for liking the MCU, in spite of less than a third of its movies even managing to clear the low-low bar of the Bechdel test.  Because people are still allowed to like Harry Potter in spite of its racism, or Lord of the Rings despite its imperialism.  Because hatred for Twilight was never about its very real sexism, or the genuinely silly sparkle-vampires, until it had to justify itself as something other than hate for everything that teenage girls have ever dared openly love.

I enjoy the novels, and I enjoy the fan fiction that tries to fix some of the problems with the novels.  I appreciate the extent to which Meyer has elevated fan culture, and made an effort to acknowledge her own past mistakes.  I would love to be able to talk about my love for the series as a flawed but beautiful work of literature, but for now I’ll settle for asking that the world just let me enjoy it in peace.

[megumis-lashes]

Love Bites!

Vampire! Han Jisung x Reader Part 3 (Final part)

**Contains**: mentions of blood/blood drinking, parental abuse, bullying, fighting, slight swearing, emotional abuse, friends to lovers, werewolf Hyunjin, western high school standards, female reader

Flashback =

> Hello

Jisung’s POV

As much as I was overjoyed at how similar name and I were, I was struggling to hold back my anger. I had already been skeptical on what name had been up to throughout the time she stayed at my place, but hearing about the torture she went through the past few weeks was the breaking straw for me. I was furious. Thankfully I was able to have a solid conversation with her in which I rarely had to lie. Well I wasn’t really lying, more just describing my life while keeping it pretty vague. Yes, I am under a lot of pressure from my parents but it’s for slightly different reasons. I’m the next successor in one of the oldest and most powerful bloodlines in all history. A vampiric blood line. These blood lines are thousands of years older than any human bloodline. My family in particular was responsible for keeping balance among the ‘supernatural communities’. My position was so important that if were to fail in some way, a war between supernaturals and eventually humans could break out. It’s not an understatement to say I’m under a lot of pressure.

After watching a movie with name, she fell asleep on the couch. I carried her to her room and as promised, I finished her homework for her. The last thing I had to do for her was save her record. Before I went to sleep that night I made a small plan as to how I would deal with the bullies.

The next day name and I walked to school together. It was strange to say the least. I hadn’t walked with anyone before so I was worried it would be awkward. Thankfully it wasn’t. She seemed to be an extremely good mood but I could tell she was still a bit anxious about her grades.

“Look name, I promised to take care of it ok! You don’t need to worry! Your grades will be back to perfect by the end of the day!” I comforted her as I threw my arm over her shoulder.

“Alright if you say so.” She chuckled. “I’m really in debt to you aren’t I. You’ve helped me so much I have no idea how to pay you back!” She chided as she rubbed her neck bashfully.

“Name! I’ve told you not to worry about it! The only thing you need to do to pay me back is be my friend!” I exclaimed as we neared the school gates. Her cheeks warmed a bit and she adverted her eye contact from mine. If I had the capability to blush, I’d probably be blushing as well. We arrived at the school gates.

“Ha if you say so! Do you want me to meet you here after school?” She questioned.

“No, no I have something to do after school and I’m not sure how long it will take. Meet me at home?” I would convince the bullies to leave her alone after school but I didn’t want name to know.

“Ok if you say so!” She chided as she started walking through the gates.

“Here I’ll walk you to class!”

“But what about them-“

“Don’t worry about it! They’re just jealous! Try your best to ignore them and if it’s really bothering you I’ll talk to them about it!”

“Alright.”

Name was talking about the jealous stares and whispers that would fill the hallways each time someone ‘popular’ came around. I knew it bothered her as on the first day she was incredibly anxious. I learned to just drown out the noise.

After classes were ended I began to walk back to my locker. I quickly packed my bag and began searching the halls. I needed to find those girls and have a little chat with them. I couldn’t let them continue to hurt people out of jealousy. It was pathetic. I found them huddled around their ‘leader’s’ locker, chatting about the day. I tapped the leader on her shoulder, effectively causing her to jerk around facing me.

“Hi your Mia right?” I questioned keeping my ignorant act up.

“Yes. Did you need something?” She giggled. She was clearly enthused that I wanted to talk to her. He shrill giggles were painful to my sensitive hearing.

“Yes. Would you and your friends mind talking outside? I have some questions to ask you.” I tried to act as nonchalantly as possible.

“Sure!” Well that was easier than I thought. I guess they really are blinded by ‘love’. I led the girls outside to a small clearing in the back of the school. I knew that no one would interrupt us there. Once I was sure they were there to listen, I broke my ignorant act and glared at them with an icy stare. They were still trying to keep their ‘nice girl’ act.

“You wouldn’t happen to be those girl who have been bothering name right?” I questioned, a sly smile on my face.

“Oh whatever it’s not like anyone cares about her. We were just putting her back in her place. She can’t always be at the top of the school.” Their ‘leader’ Mia snapped. It didn’t take much for her to get angry. Her ‘nice girl’ act was quickly left behind.

“Are you serious? Do you know how hard she worked to get where she was? Huh? You don’t know even half of the hardships she’s had to face!” I shouted. I was furious.

“Oh? And what do you care? What is she your girlfriend or something? Don’t make me laugh!” She broke out into a small fit of laughter.

“And what if she was huh? What would you do about it? Oh that’s right I know! You’d blackmail her into staying away from her friends and threaten to ruin everything she’s built for herself!” I countered.

“No way she told you? Haha! You think your little speech will change my mind? I can just as easily ruin you!” She continued to chuckle as she wiped small tears of laughter from her eyes.

“Not on my watch.” I mumbled, blinking my eyes more heavily than normal.

As I blinked them open, the girls gasped in shock. My eyes were a blazing red, my pupils shrunken into the slits of a predator. As I opened him mouth to speak, the girls could see the slight glint of the light on my fangs. I made sure to put on a show for them.

“Has anyone ever taught you that actions have consequences?” I growled. As I shifted slightly forward, the girls cowered back in fear. “What are you!” The girls screamed.

“I’m your worst nightmare.” I smirked. This was kind of fun.

The two girls scrambled away in fear, leaving their ‘leader’ to fend for herself. She shouted back in retaliation, furious that her disciples valued themselves more than her.

“I’m willing to make a compromise with you. None of us have to get hurt.” I mumbled as I leaned against the wall.

“W-what is it?” She asked as she shivered.

“If you promise to leave name alone and never bother her again, then I won’t feel the need to hurt you or your friends.” I scoffed.

“Fine. Just don’t touch me you monster!” I cringed at the name. It brought back bad memories.

“Oh and you are to never mention what you saw here today. You tell no one what you’ve seen me look like. Make sure your little friends don’t start spreading rumors either.” I sighed. The last thing I needed were more conspiracy theories about me.

“Whatever. You win. Just don’t hurt me.” She mumbled as she began to collect herself and run away. I sighed. This week was really difficult.

Name’s POV

Time passed fast. Jisung and I grew closer over the weeks I stayed at his house. We bonded over what I thought were completely negative topics to me. It’s strange how friendship works. At the same time I finally started talking to Hyunjin again. I explained the situation to him and he was furious but then saddened by the fact I didn’t trust him enough to tell him anything about my family. He offered to let me stay at his house out of kindness and competition, as he an Jisung seemed to have some form of dislike for each other. I brushed it off as some childish, competitive thing but some of their interactions were a bit strange. Despite them agreeing to act civil around each other when in front of me, I could still see the icy stares they gave each other when they thought I wasn’t looking.

Compared to my previously hectic life, everything seemed to be a lot less stressful now. It was fall, nearing Halloween, and school was nearing fall testing. Jisung had dealt with my bullies in some magical way. I didn’t see them at all and they never bothered me again. The only reminder of their existence was a small note left in my locker. I found it a few days after Jisung had told them off. It was a short note written on a cute pastel card. The girl’s name was Aimee. In the letter she expressed how sorry she was for not helping me out. She explained how the other two girls had persuaded her to be ‘friends’ with them, although they didn’t treat her that way. She was their little errand girl whom they had also blackmailed in the past. The note was sweet so I thanked her for it and asked if she wanted to be friends. She accepted and we often studied together. The only thing that was seeming out of place in this situation was her handwriting on the note. It was messy and looked rushed, almost as if she was writing quickly out of fear. When I asked Aimee about it she said she was simply late for class and was rushing. Maybe I was just looking to far into it? I would’ve dismissed it entirely if it weren’t for Jisung’s description of what happened.

> “Hey Jisung? I mumbled.

> “Hmm?” He hummed as he glanced my way. It was the day after he had ‘taken care of’ my bullies and I was curious.

> “How did you take care of the bullies? It’s been a full 24 hours and I haven’t even caught a glimpse of one of them.”

> “Oh I just uh... scared them a bit a guess.” He chuckled.

> “Huh? Wait you didn’t blackmail them back did you? Jisung!” I shouted as I leaned forward from my spot on the couch.

> “No haha.. I wouldn’t call it black mail. Think of it as a negotiation of sorts. I’m just so good at my social skills I managed to convince them to leave you alone!” He chided.

> “You think I believe that? Hah just say you blackmailed them I won’t tell! Plus what could you have even said? I mean what’s worse than being kicked out of school?” I questioned.

> “Come on Name I told you I didn’t blackmail them! Just forget about it. It doesn’t matter how it happened just be happy they left you alone.”

> Sensing the slight irritation in his voice I decided to leave it alone.

This whole interaction seemed strange to me. Why wouldn’t he feel comfortable telling me what happened? He couldn’t have done something wrong could he? As much as I wanted an answer, I dismissed it as unimportant. The only issue was Jisung began to act very odd. As it neared the end of the month, I saw him less and less. Whenever I questioned him about it, he simply said he was busy with extra school work and errands. I sure as hell didn’t believe him now. Despite his family’s problems, they were never super focused on Jisung’s grades. He wasn’t a bad student but he definitely didn’t care enough about school to voluntarily spend extra time doing work.

It was a cool Friday in late October. Tomorrow was Halloween. Jisung and I had agreed to watch horror movies tomorrow in Halloween spirit. Despite the recent positive events in my life, I was still on edge. Something was out of place. Jisung had been spending less time at home and his excuses became more and more suspicious. I wanted to dismiss the whole idea but it was still nagging at the back of my mind. It was nearing 9:30 PM. Jisung had told me he was going out with friends today and would be home a bit later than normal. I wondered how long he would be out for.

Bored out of my mind I knew I had to do something. I was beginning to feel anxious and I needed to shake off the feeling. I decided to go for a small walk to get hot chocolate from the small shop in town. I quickly grabbed an oversized hoodie, that just so happened to belong to Jisung, and threw on some boots. I grabbed some cash from my wallet and began to walk to the shop. As much as I hoped the cool air would calm me, walking in the night seemed to give the opposite effect than I wished for. It was pitch black, the only light source being the glowing full moon. For some reason the streets that were typically bustling with some amount of people at all times were empty. No was was around. It was quiet, almost too quiet. Suddenly I heard a ‘howl’ from behind me. The loud noise cut through the silence like butter. I shivered, picking up my pace. I could hear growling from behind me as I walked. I was terrified. My quick pace quickly morphed into a sprint as I dashed across the street to the shop doors. I was almost there. Despite the hot breath I could feel at my ankles, I dared not to look back. I didn’t have anything with me to defend myself this time. Upon reaching the shop doors I slammed inside, shocking the few people at the store.

“Is something wrong miss?” The store clerk questioned my dramatic entry. I knew no one would believe my wild animal story so I quickly made up an excuse.

“Ahh I’m sorry! You see I’m in track and cross country and I like to time myself on how long it takes me to run to certain places! Don’t mind me!” I awkwardly rubbed my neck as I slipped into the store. I quickly put together a small hot chocolate and payed for it. I wanted to get home as soon as possible. As I left the store in a light jog, I decided to take a different way home.

My breathing was cut off short as I was slammed into an alley wall. I had been stupid enough to take a back way through an alley. No one would hear me if I called for help. The thing that had slammed me into the wall was what I assumed to be the same animal that had chased me. It was a jet black creature, its features resembling those of a wolf. It was growing and snarling above me. I was wondering as to why it didn’t kill me yet. Surely it was capable of such an act.

“Hyunjin, come on. You know I never agreed to baby sit you all day, but I don’t think your parents would appreciate it if you murdered some girl in an ally way.” I knew that voice. It was Jisung. And he mentioned Hyunjin? What would they be doing over here? My thoughts were cut short when a person, who I could only assume was Jisung, walked towards the creature in front of me. He seemingly ‘chopped’ the creatures neck, effectively knocking the creature to the ground. As the creature fell to the ground, I was met with the face of the boy I had spent my time with lately, Han Jisung.

The usually hyper boy looked like completely different now. He wore a black sweatshirt and jeans along with black combat boots. His appearance was rather disheveled. The most disturbing features of all were how inhuman he looked. He had piercing red eyes, his pupils shrunken to the slits of a predator. He had blood all over his face, more specifically trailing from the corner of his mouth. His sweatshirt was torn in multiple places, the one that stood out the most were the long claw shaped tears. Through the holes I could see his skin glimmer with blood. He had been wounded somehow.

“N-name?” He stuttered. “What are you doing out here at night?” I shivered. I had no idea how to react to the images in front of me. I was shocked to say the least.

“I c-could ask you the same thing J-jisung! What are you doing?” I questioned. I had never been more confused and concerned.

“Uuhhh..” He scratched his neck nervously. “It’s hard to explain. But it’s not as bad as it looks ok! I’ll explain when we get home....but first....” he mumbled avoiding eye contact.

“Huh?” I was still extremely confused. I didn’t want to just jump to conclusions but he didn’t exactly look innocent. Seeing the confusion etched on my face, Jisung sighed and pointed to the ground. I glanced down and nearly collapsed out of shock. On the ground was Hwang Hyunjin. He looked almost five times as disheveled as Jisung. He was clad in black as well. His shirt was in shreds leaving him practically shirtless. The most shocking detail was his wolf like featured. He had patches of pitch black fur scattered across his skin paired with black ears and tail. From what I could tell he also had fangs. He was sound asleep on the ground.

“Could you help me carry him home? He won’t wake up for at least 24 hours and I could really use your help.” Jisung pleaded. I stumbled back into the wall, almost tripping over my own feet. Then I started chuckling which eventually built into a full blown laughing fit.

“Ji-Jisung! Haha! This is the most elaborate prank I’ve ever seen! It’s hilarious honestly! You just wanted to scare me for Halloween huh! But I’m curious as to how you did it! Hyunjin’s costume looked so realistic!” I squeezed out between laughs. When I looked up I saw Jisung. He had the most dead pan expression on his face.

“Name, we’re not joking or pranking you for that matter.” He stated. I shuffled, my laughter trailing into silence.

“Huh? You’re kidding me.” I didn’t want to believe it.

“Look name, I really don’t want to explain everything in a dark alleyway. If you can help me bring Hyunjin home I promise I’ll explain everything thoroughly.” He began reaching for Hyunjin’s body.

“Please name.” He pleaded, making eye contact for the first time that night. His eyes were still a fiery red.

“Alright, but you sure as hell better explain everything.” I mumbled as I threw Hyunjin’s right arm over my shoulder.

Carrying Hyunjin home was just as difficult as Jisung said. He was taller than both of us and didn’t exactly weigh nothing. It took a solid half an hour to carry him to Jisung’s house. We brought him to another guest room and closed the door. Out of exhaustion, we both collapsed on his sofa.

“Ok Han, explain.” I stated as I made eye contact with him. He was still covered in blood and his hoodie was still iin shreds.

“Actually let me fix your wounds first.” I quickly went to grab a first aid kit and a wet towel. I handed him the towel and told him to wash his face.

“Lift up your sweatshirt I’ll clean your stomach wounds.” I bashfully looked away.

“No don’t worry about those. They’ll heal on their own.” He waved his hands in front of him.

“Jisung those wounds are deep. If I don’t clean them they’ll get infected.” I pushed up his sweatshirt myself, blushing at the contact, and washed his wounds with the towel.

“Name I’m serious you don’t need to do anything! Give them a minute and they’ll be gone!” He pleaded.

“I told you these wounds are deep! You could die if they get infected!” He shook his head and nodded towards the wounds. I went to continue checking them to see something surprising. The wounds were gone. The only sign that they were there at all were the slight scars that remained.

“See I told you not to worry. I don’t die that easily.” He murmured. “The scarring should go away in a couple hours.” I blinked in shock. I sat back on the couch.

“Somehow you now have even more to explain.” I stated, rolling my eyes.

“Alright I’ll explain. But you have to promise me you won’t laugh.” He crossed his arms.

“Fine.” I was ready to hear his explanation.

“Alright so I’ll start from the beginning. I’m not human. I’m what you humans would call a ‘vampire’ as dumb as it must sound.” He sighed and rubbed his neck. “I drink blood for survival but not from humans, from animals. I honestly don’t like it but I would die if I didn’t. I’m the next successor of my family’s blood line, I wasn’t lying when I said that. My parents have always been ‘peace keepers’ of sorts. I have to be strong enough to take the position. It’s a lot of pressure.” He paused to massage his temples. This was clearly difficult for him to explain. “About what you saw today, it’s a full moon. Most ‘supernaturals’ like me are at full strength on full moons as cliche as it sounds. Most typically hunt on those days. For my physical features of course you’ve seen my eyes and healing abilities but I also have fangs of course.” He opened his mouth to show me.

“What about Hyunjin? Is he a werewolf or something?” I chuckled. I was more amused than scared at this point.

“Actually you’re correct! He’s a werewolf, in a similar position to me. He’s the next alpha of his pack. The only issue is he’s terrible at controlling his wolf, especially on full moon days. I’m typically assigned to watch over him on those days, despite the feud between vampires and werewolves.” He explained.

“Wow.” I was at a loss of words. Despite all this I still wasn’t scared. I knew neither of them would try to harm me, at least not out of free will. I was just shocked as all.

“Look name I’m really sorry for keeping this all from you! It’s hard to explain and I understand if you don’t want to be friends-“ I quickly cut him off by pressing my lips to his. A quick peck was enough to make him stop talking.

“Jisung!” I giggled. “You don’t how to worry about it I understand! I know neither of you would harm me and I can see that this is a difficult topic to explain! I’m here for you just like you are there for me!” I smiled. I was happy he trusted me enough to explain this. He blinked in shock. Still processing that I had just kissed him. He quickly broke from his trance and rubbed his neck bashfully.

“Wow I didn’t expect you to take it that well. I honestly thought you would hate me.” He chuckled

“Come on I could never hate you! I do like you after all!” I’m not sure how this conversation ended with a confession, but for some reason I was feeling confident.

“Really? You can like me even while knowing what I really am?” He questioned in disbelief.

“Yep! You’re still Jisung aren’t you?” I giggled.

“Well in that case I like you too!” This time he kissed me effectively stopping me from laughing.

For the rest of that night we watched Halloween theme movies, some of which Jisung ruined by claiming they were all false. Everything seemed fine until we finished the second movie. It was really late now and I was close to passing out. Jisung got up and began to put his shoes and coat on.

“Jisung where are you going it’s really late?” I questioned, rubbing my eyes to stay awake.

“Well you see I was watching Hyunjin the whole time and didn’t have much time to hunt. I’m really hungry.” He confessed while scratching his neck, I nervous habit he would constantly lean into.

“This late though? It’s not safe!” I began to walk to him.

“Name you know I can hold my own ground. I’ll be quick I promise!” He waved his hands in front of him.

“Why don’t you just eat here?” I questioned.

“From where-“ I cut him off.

“From me! I promised to help you! You can drink from me!” I proclaimed. The look on his face said other wise.

“No no absolutely not happening! I never drink from people! I don’t want to hurt you!” He frantically dismissed my idea.

“I know you won’t hurt me! Plus I can always tap you if it becomes to much! Pleassseee! I promise I’ll be ok!” I really wanted him to stay here. Despite his strength, walking outside in the middle of the night wasn’t exactly safe.

“Alright but just this one time! And only a little!” He still didn’t look very convinced. We walked to his sofa and sat down.

“Alright so how does this work?” I asked tilting my head in confusion.

“So I’ll just bite your neck. It will be slightly painful at first but it’ll fade. I’ll be quick I promise. Are you sure you want to do this?” He questioned out of concern.

“I’m sure! I’ll be fine ‘Sung you don’t need to worry!”

He gulped and gently turned my head, giving him greater access to my neck. He brought his face to the area. I closed my eyes, waiting for the pain. He bit down. As he described there was a slight prick of pain but it quickly dissipated. It evolved into a feeling of numbness. It felt kind of nice. We sat there for a few minutes until Jisung pulled away.

“Are you alright?” He questioned, staring into my eyes.

“I’m fine.” I smiled. “I am really tired though.” I yawned. He nodded. He stood up and grabbed a cup of water and a bandaid. As I was drinking the water he placed the bandaid over my small wound. He kissed my forehead and led me to bed.

“Let’s go to sleep.” He smiled.

We both climbed into his bed. I pecked his lips one last time before closing my eyes and snuggling up to him.

“Hey Jisung?” I mumbled.

“Yeah?”

“I think I love you.”

“I think I love you as well”

I smiled and I drifted to sleep. Today had been an even full day.

Also happy belated Halloween :) 🎃

[emmaswanchoosesyou]

Rules & Regulations (1/4)

I’m thrilled to present my contribution to the @cssns project! This got both longer and sillier than originally intended, and I hope you all enjoy it. 

Beta’d by the glorious @wingedlioness and with lovely artwork (including the banner!) done by @eastwesthomeisbest.

Rated T, for violence, language, and annoying bureaucracy. Also on AO3. ~3000 words.

He was a vamp, she was a witch; can I make it any more obvious?

&&&

He wasn’t a heathen.

Well, okay, he was, but that was just part and parcel of being a vampire.

At least vampires weren’t the soulless, lurking-in-the-night creatures of popular imagination. No, they had their souls. (Unless they’d sold it to the Devil, a demon, or witch, but any Tom, Dick, or Harry might do that.)

Killian was in possession of his soul, but he might well have lost his mind.

Emma Swan was driving him well and truly crazy.

He was just doing his best, doing what was required of him to fill the void on the Supernatural and Paranormal Beings and Creatures Council (S.P.B.C.C. for short, though it was still a mouthful) since he had killed Rumplestiltskin.

He was following the rules in a way he hadn’t since 1789, and it…chafed. If you were responsible for the death of a S.P.B.C.C. member, you had to make sure their people—or creatures, whatever--were still represented. As Rumplestiltskin was some unknown kind of imp who seemed unique in his essence in this world, there was no one left to represent, but his seat needed to be filled. Some had argued that Killian’s presence on the Council was just giving the vampires more than their share of voices, but that was rubbish.

For starters, Killian couldn’t stand the lot of them. They were old sticks in the mud, mostly traditionalists who went around wearing capes and talking about bloodlines. The others were Reform Vampires—poncy idiots who went on about better unliving through various serums and who were always on social media trying to manage perception of vampires in the non-magical world.

And for his part, Killian was content to reside somewhere between the two. He was here for some good, old-fashioned vengeance and violence, but one had to be practical as well. It was easier to come by coconut water than find someone’s blood to drink, even with the requisite sodium supplements he had to take. After all, leaving a swath of dead people tended to garner the wrong kind of attention.

And that was the other thing—he wanted to be left in peace to live his unlife, drinking his coconut water and from the occasional willing volunteer (gods, but he’d put on a few pounds during the Twilight craze).

He hadn’t wanted a position on the S.P.B.C.C., hadn’t wanted anything to do with it. But then Swan had descended from the sky like the terrifying bird of her namesake (he was disappointed to learn about the missed opportunity for a pun in her name, as she was in fact not a shapeshifter) and harangued him about “murdering” Rumplestiltskin and having to pay his dues.

Which meant sitting on that bloody council.

Okay, fine, he was a bit at loose ends these days. Having fulfilled his centuries-old grudge and finally offed His Glitteriness Rumplestiltskin might have left something of a void. And sure, sometimes he saw eternity stretching out before him like an unending circle of emptiness, but it was fine.

A voice cut through his musings and he jolted to attention. “Jones? Councilmember Jones? Killian Jones? Captain Hook? Do you have any fucking input for once, or are you too busy thinking about bloodbaths to pay attention to us today?” Emma Swan sounded cranky and irritable and a little like she was considering coming over and introducing a motion to punch him.

He smirked. “Sorry, love, I’m afraid you’ll have to repeat the initial question. I was rather dozing, as it is in fact daytime.”

“Not your love, Councilmember Jones. And for the love, come see me or Granny Lucas after the session,” she said, her golden hair cascading over her hands as she rubbed her temples in exasperation.

Maybe there was still some fun to be had after all.

&&&

Emma was going to murder him. Killian Jones might technically be dead already, but she would happily test out different levels of deadness.

He was impossible.

She was just trying to keep this stupid council with its stupid acronyms and stupid councilmembers running smoothly.

She hadn’t wanted this job, this position. She just wanted to work on her spells and occasional potions, help some people, and pay her bills.

But no, she’d had to go and help people a little too well. Now it was Savior This and Savior That, all for breaking a measly curse and talking a witch queen off the ledge and reuniting her with her love.

She had been going about her life much as she had since she had accidentally teleported away from a crime scene (now that was a tale) where an ex had left her literally and figuratively holding the bag. Emma certainly hadn’t intended the escape she’d made, but she could hardly complain, either. And she’d been curious about how she’d done it, to put it mildly.

A lot of internet searches, the fortunate discovery of a coven that met for a weekly book club at her local library, and maybe-not-coincidental of the discovery of a talking kitten named Henry later, she knew what she was—a witch.

Fast forward a few years, and she’d found a home of sorts up in Storybrooke, and the three of them had opened a little shop selling various magicks and magical items.

To her surprise, Emma had found she gravitated toward light magic, especially of the healing variety, though she was good with technological stuff too. And Henry, once he was grown, was very helpful. He still occasionally knocked over things on her work table, which could be problematic—he was a cat, after all—but his advice was usually sound.

She really hadn’t intended to get drawn into anything more than her perfectly satisfactory life. But then Ruby, werewolf, customer, and sometimes friend, had asked her for help. Unless someone stopped it, there would be a curse enacted.

Regina, Queen of Misthaven, had come to power 28 years before, after deposing the previous queen and her husband, cursing them to eternal sleep. Eternal sleep was eternal in the way that vampires were immortal; it could be interrupted—by death or the rupture of the curse—but would continue until something came along and meddled.

It seemed that becoming queen and cursing her former rival wasn’t enough for Regina, though. Her unhappiness increased, compounded by her magical subjects’ dislike and the distance of the other S.P.B.C.C. members kept from her. She had decided to enact a spell to doom them, all her subjects, to go back in time and live lives of medieval drudgery.

Ruby had no interest in that. To begin with, her girlfriend wouldn’t approve, and she would miss the whole voting thing. Aside from that, saying goodbye to Netflix and electricity was just unacceptable. And Ruby was far from the only concerned party.

Emma was stumped. After all, what could she do? She’d known she was a witch for a decade, and stronger people than her had attempted to do something.

Most people trying to deal with the situation, though, hadn’t had the benefit of being raised non-magically.

Sure, magic could solve a lot of problems (and create them just as easily, but that wasn’t the point). But sometimes? The best solution was good, old-fashioned, and non-magical. In this case, it meant using her investigative skills to find a dragon that had been hiding from the magical world and who was supposedly powerful enough to help.

Well, it turned out that the dragon was an ex-girlfriend of Regina’s, and reuniting the two of them had done wonders. Regina backed down from evil world domination and had even been amenable to the equally non-magical suggestion of therapy.

Maybe there was something to the whole love thing after all.

Once Regina had thawed a bit due to Maleficent’s calming presence, she had tried to break the curse of eternal sleep she had put on Queen Snow and King David...all to no avail. The only spells capable of waking them required a blood relative—a living, breathing, and awake one—and both of them were the only ones left from their families, their only child having disappeared as a baby (another unfortunate result of one of Regina’s spells).

So imagine Emma’s surprise, when, as Regina was attempting show Emma one of the spells that wasn’t working, Henry jumped on her—Emma, not Regina—and clawed her.

She scolded him, not noticing right away that blood was welling up from the gash he’d left on her hand. She didn’t notice when the blood dripped right in the pathway of the spell Regina was casting, or how her eyes widened.

Regina noticed, though. They all noticed when this spell, instead of doing nothing like the previous attempts, woke up Snow and David.

And that was how Emma learned that she was their long-lost child, the missing child of the queen and king.

It had been awkward, to be sure. Finding family you didn’t know you had, accompanied by the weight of royal expectation, took a lot to adjust to. That was to say nothing of having parents who looked the same age as Emma and had last interacted with the world in the ‘80s. (There had been a shoulder pads intervention, fortunately.)

It was...hard. After a life lived on her own and having grown up in the foster care system, Emma wasn’t exactly one for opening up and sharing. But seeing how hard Snow and David were trying to reach out to her, she was willing to try to meet them halfway.

After some negotiating with her parents, they had worked out that in light of Regina’s resignation (and she swore a blood oath to live peaceably with Maleficent all her days, but the fact remained that it left an open S.P.B.C.C. seat), Emma would stand in at the council meetings. And she didn’t have to wear nearly as many poofy robes and old-fashioned witches’ hats as her mother had originally wanted.

Her mother had originally been offered the position, but she had turned it down, citing a desire to catch up on everything she’d missed. To her parents’ glee, Emma accepted the seat when it was offered to her in her mother’s stead. Not only did it give her a way to connect with them, it gave her parents time to connect with each other and the world again, as a lot had changed over the past thirty years. That was a lot of Netflix to binge.

Honestly, it wasn’t the worst. Some days, Emma even enjoyed her work with the Supernatural and Paranormal Beings and Creatures Council. She had put a lot into it, and eventually she’d been elected Speaker for the council, which was pretty miraculous given the tensions between witches/warlocks and vampires.

It hadn’t taken Emma long in the supernatural world to learn about the longstanding enmity between her people and the vampires.

If the non-magical world was to be believed, the real beef was between werewolves and vampires. (But maybe that was the issue—the werewolves were content with the beef, while most vampires didn’t care for cow blood or other byproducts.)

In reality, it was trickier. Sure, there were some tensions between werewolves and vampires—there were between most of the different supernatural and paranormal groups and species—but they mostly got along. In fact, they often played emissary between the vampires and witches, as they had common sociopolitical aims with both.

Emma shook her head—she didn’t have time to get side-tracked musing over her own damn life story and the history of a low-grade feud between magical beings right now. She had council business to attend to.

Council business that, unfortunately, included Killian Jones.

She scowled. That vampire had been a pain in her ass since the first whisper of him she’d heard. He was just...ugh.

On some level, she could accept that in the magical world, he had a right to be on the council as the one who had defeated Rumplestiltskin. The magical world had a convoluted law that boiled down to stating that anyone who defeated another supernatural being in combat could—and should—assume their posts and responsibilities. As an American, she was appalled. It was a lot to take in and reconcile.

And that was to say nothing of the man—or man-pire, as Angel would have said—himself. He didn’t want to be there, that was clear. He was obviously just there to avoid negative legal repercussions of having taken revenge on Rumplestiltskin (for what, Emma was fuzzy on the details). He didn’t much care for the other vampires or anyone else there.

Unfortunately, that made him one hell of a swing vote. He was unpredictable and didn’t follow traditional vampire allegiances, which made his presence on the council...interesting.

Not that she was interested.

She held in a sigh. The council was trying to get some work done on a law that would regulate different supplement vendors and how they could market to supernatural and magical beings, but they were running into all kinds of issues with the different vendors.

Truthfully, Emma found it incredibly dull, but something had to be done to break up the gridlock, and Jones was one of the most likely to be able to swing the vote. It galled her, especially when he couldn’t put on his professional pants and be the grown-up he was. God, he had to be at least 250, so couldn’t he act like it?

She motioned Granny Lucas over. They approached him where he stood talking to one of the faeries, and Emma cleared her throat.

He turned around and smiled. “I was hoping it would be you, luv.”

&&&

Gods, but it was so delightful and delightfully easy to rile Swan. The way her cheeks flushed and her fist clenched...it did things to him.

He was bad man. Or vampire, whatever.

Quite frankly, Killian couldn’t care less about the whether one clan of gnomes or another received the bid or contract to produce supplements. He wasn’t even sure that’s what this session was about, but he knew it was something of that sort. Probably.

Even if he had paid attention, it was worth it to rile Emma. He would say she was delicious, but that had connotations he didn’t intend. He didn’t want to drain her, for Christ’s sake.

There was just something about the reddening of her skin that had him wanting to bite her...just not in a vampire way.

He’d had lovers since Milah died. It had been over two centuries, after all, and he wasn’t a monk. While he’d treated them with the respect due to them as people (or faeries or witches, etc.), none of those relationships had been particularly lengthy or meaningful to him.

And if he could seduce Emma, he didn’t figure she would be either, even if she was a spitfire. Hell, she kept him plenty interested as it was, and he’d only ever seen her remove her jacket once. (It had been to punch one of his fellow fanged ones on the council, and he’d loved every moment of it.)

Whatever transpired, it would be fun.

&&&

“Is something funny, Hook? Are we entertaining enough for you?” Emma bit out.

She was tired. She wanted to go home and curl up in her chair, and have Henry come purr next to her. Or sass her and tell her to feed him, which was probably more likely. Either was better than this.

And then this asshole whose vote mattered had to be the way he was.

She knew he hadn’t listened to her. It wasn’t her fault the minutiae of supernatural government was boring, and 142 other people had done okay with listening.

He wasn’t an idiot. He had survived a long-ass time. As a pirate for most of it, no less. And he’d killed Rumple-fucking-stiltskin. So he had to have a brain in there.

Which meant that his lack of listening was due to boredom, even if he had started smiling during the last bit of her speech—a distant, predatory thing that she knew had nothing to do with supplements.

Her head was pounding. She couldn’t afford to have a loose cannon on the council; she needed him to be invested.

“Look, Jones, what’s it going to take to get you to give a fuck?” she asked, shoulders slumped.

Granny looked at her in surprise. Killian did too, eyes widening before he pasted his signature smirk onto his face.

That stupid side of his mouth quirked up, and he bit his lip in a way Emma knew he knew was lascivious. Bastard. “Depends, luv, on what you’re willing to give.”

Granny snorted and said, “Well, I’ll let you two work this out between you,” and walked away.

Traitor.

She forced herself to roll her eyes. “Nothing you’re implying, buddy.”

“Me? Implying things? Swan, I would never say anything that has a double meaning,” he said, after a very fake and dramatic gasp.

“That’s because they have triple meanings,” she muttered under her breath.

“Sorry, what?” He raised an eyebrow at her.

She smiled innocently at him, “I said, we need to discuss your leanings. For the council.”

He gave her a long, considering look. “Dinner. Invite me over for dinner—” at this, he picked up her hand, turned it over, and pressed a lingering kiss to her wrist, “—and we can discuss whatever you’d like.”

Ignoring the burning where his lips had touched her skin, she pulled her hand away. “Seriously?”

“As the supplement discussions, luv.”

“Fine. Come over at seven tomorrow. I’ll text you the directions,” Emma said, huffing.

He scratched behind his ear, looking uncharacteristically sheepish. “I...I actually don’t have a cell phone.”

“Uh, okay. Do you have a...landline?”

“I do. And email,” he blurted.

She gave a sigh of relief. “Okay, I’ll email you the address later.”

Thank god she didn’t have to actually talk on the phone.