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Music was a heavy pulse in Jungkook’s ears, reverberated in his chest when he met the gaze of the man stumbling into his path. The guy’s gaze was heavy with intent, held the subtle glassiness of someone who had already enjoyed several drinks, and Jungkook picked up on the man’s obvious interest with a tense buzz of his senses. It should have been his best-case scenario, the solution to a problem he could no longer ignore. But there was something so predatory about the way the man seized Jungkook up, he found his eyes widening and body freezing like he was prey in front of a big, hunting cat. It hadn’t been intentional, had been the same knee-jerk reaction he’d always suffered in the face of such sexual blatancy, but it was clear the man in front of him had gotten the unintentional message loud and clear. And before Jungkook was able to shake off his unfortunate rigor and scrape together his measly resources of courage, the man was already moving on with a wink that couldn’t have spelled “your loss, sugar” any clearer.
And wow, he couldn’t have been more right. It truly was Jungkook’s loss. Something that became glaringly obvious when the wave of shooting pain in his gut had him biting down on a sharp groan the next second. Like his body could literally sense the lost opportunity and was punishing him with the sensation of claws raking down the inside of his stomach.
Had he not been such a complete failure and disappointment to his entire race, a simple smile or mere crook of his finger would have probably been enough to have a willing volunteer sidling up to him and taking care of the entire problem.
It was what incubi did, how they lived and survived. It was what Jungkook should be doing – feed off his conquests’ pleasure and lust and leave a trail of well-pleasured and satisfied humans in his wake.
Only Jungkook couldn’t do any of that. He was a half-blood – half incubus, half human – and a pathetically powerless one at that. He wasn’t immortal, he didn’t have the power to make humans want with a single look. Neither was he gifted with the ability to heighten someone’s pleasure with the mere touch of his hand.
All that spoke of his partial demon heritage were his tiny horns, a tail that was a bitch to conceal, an admittedly fortunate immunity to human diseases and a big dick that had once scared off the girl he’d been dating in his third year of high school. She’d snuck her hand down the front of his pants during one of their more heated make-out sessions and neither of them had been the same after that. Then there was the most inconvenient incubus trait of them all, especially considering his pathetic lack of powers.
The need to feed off other people’s lust and pleasure.
Food and sleep alone weren’t enough to sustain him, could only keep him going for so long. He needed sex to keep his energy up and his dry-spell was starting to reach a pathetic, not to mention critical length. Unfortunately Jungkook felt in no way equipped to change that dire outlook.
Even for human standards he’d always been too shy and awkward, so reluctant to speak up and make his presence known. During his younger years his teachers had even suspected a speech-impediment, before it had become clear that Jungkook simply hated the weight of people’s gazes on him. It had taken him a long time to get over the worst of his aversion to being on the receiving end of any kind of attention. Learning to interact with people outside of his family had been a painful and often humiliating experience. All of which had been made worse by the fact that everyone who knew of his demon heritage expected him to be good at it. To this day talking to strangers or people he didn’t know well was still a challenge for him, making the concept of flirting seem like an almost insurmountable task.
Which was why he was currently standing in a dark corner of this club, hiding away in the shadows like the worst kind of low-life voyeur and painstakingly feeding off the sexually charged atmosphere. It was a poor substitute for the real thing – the surge of energy he got from the feeling of someone else’s skin against his own, the sound of another person’s moans of pleasure and the heady shot of power he experienced after pushing someone over the edge into climax. But for now the second-hand buzz would have to suffice.
It had been a long time since he’d been forced to set foot into a club for any other reason than to have a bit of fun with his friends, but after his boyfriend of two years had dumped him a few weeks ago for being too needy, too dependent on him, Jungkook had been running dangerously low on energy. His hair had started to lose its natural shine, he was hit by intense waves of exhaustion several times a day and the gnawing hunger in his stomach that couldn’t be slaked by any amount of food was starting to grow too powerful to ignore.
He was constantly distracted at work, to the point that his supervisor had been forced to reprimand him several times already. Which wasn’t just embarrassing, but also went against everything Jungkook had worked so hard for. He took pride in being able to hold a job – not a claim a lot of incubi were capable of making. But the steady plummeting of his energy levels was threatening everything he’d worked so hard for, was making the mere task of dragging himself out of bed in the morning a kind of Herculean effort.
And it needed to end. It needed to end now. Jungkook knew that all too well.
He also knew that hanging out on the fringes of the packed club would get him nowhere fast. If he was hoping to pick up enough second-hand buzz from the club-goes around him to store up at least a minimum of his energy reserves, Jungkook would have to move considerably closer to the action. Watching from a distance – and trying not to overheat with mortification – as couples ground against each other on the dancefloor and groping hands found their way underneath short skirts and down the back of tight jeans would never be enough. He’d have to be right there, picking up the currents of sexual energy from a few inches away – as creepy and depraved as that would make him feel.
So with his conscience and reluctance clawing at him and fighting against the force that was his rising desperation, Jungkook hesitantly started to make his way closer to the swaying mass in the center of the club. Strobe lights had spots dancing across his field of vision, the music keeping pace with his steady, but tentative steps. He wasn’t sure if it was actually the steamy atmosphere on the dancefloor or simply his mind playing tricks on him, but the second he started winding his way through the throng of dancers directly in front of him, it felt as if sweat started filming over his body in a thin layer.
His gaze swept over a couple making out enthusiastically to his right and his gaze automatically skittered away despite his effort to stanch the reflex. His nape and cheeks felt hot with embarrassment, as his heart picked up its pace behind his rib cage. But before he could work up enough courage and force his eyes back towards the two girls, a wave of movement went through the crowd and someone’s shoulder collided directly with Jungkook’s chest. With the air being punched out of him for a fleeting moment, he stumbled exactly one step back, before a pair of hands settled securely on his hips and steadied his overbalanced body.
In the love stories Jungkook liked to read once in a while, authors often talked about that magical spark chasing the protagonists’ first contact, an almost telepathic awareness of each other before they even meet. He experienced none of that. There was no low buzzing of sparks through the layer of Jungkook’s black tshirt, no unexplainable knowing. But then he craned his neck around, determined to thank whoever had saved him from falling on his ass in the middle of the dance floor, and he got his first look at the person behind him.
Just like that words proceeded to die a miserable death on his tongue.
The grip on Jungkook’s waist tightened by a few degrees, but the realization was swallowed by the static of his chaotic thoughts, with only one word piercing heavily through the tangle.
Beautiful.
He’d grown up with a stunningly beautiful half-incubus brother – one that wasn’t lacking any of the powers that should have been Jungkook’s birth right as well – had a best friend that turned heads wherever he went, but he didn’t think he’d ever met a person so physically flawless before. And where those perfect features could have run the risk of making him appear almost unreal, there was something inherently vibrant about the man. Something about the slope of that nose, the razor-sharp line of his jaw and gentle curve of his eyebrows.
He couldn’t be too specific with the temperamental lighting of the club, but his hair was most definitely some shade of red. The artfully ruffled strands long enough to brush against his eyebrows and hide his forehead from sight. His skin held a warm, healthy tan that not even the artificial glare of those strobe lights could conceal. But in the end it were his eyes that completely drew Jungkook in. Slightly widened as the man held the half-demon’s stunned gaze, framed by long lashes and dark – so dark – they sent an exhilarated shiver down Jungkook’s spine.
Somewhere in the back of his mind – from the part that hadn’t been completely paralyzed by the appearance of the other man – a voice was frantically screeching at him to move, to say something to break the frozen stalemate that was bound to turn awkward any second. And he would have, if it hadn’t been for the almost overwhelming reluctance to break the spell both of them were caught up in. He felt weightless and flushed with a heavy heat at the same time. Like his body couldn’t decide if it would simply float away without the man’s hold on him or melt into an overheated puddle where he stood.
Jungkook felt downright overwhelmed by the crash of sensation, the zing of energy skittering across the inside of his skin, before his little reservoir of demonic powers identified the origin of the feeling. It wasn’t just Jungkook’s attraction wrecking havoc, but also the fact that he could sense the other man’s sexual awareness of him as well.
As if the other man had somehow picked up on his thoughts, he startled out of his trance, hands snapping back and inching just a bit away like he’d burned himself on Jungkook. The sudden lack of warmth and touch was so disappointing, so sobering, it would have sent the half-demon fleeing in embarrassment if it hadn’t been for the steady thrum of their mutual awareness permeating the air around them. As it was, Jungkook barely caught himself before taking a step back to follow the stranger. It seemed as if a beautiful face and instant chemistry were enough to have his rationality taking a – hopefully temporary – leave. Just a few seconds ago the packed dancefloor had made him feel caged and claustrophobic. But all of a sudden the air at his back seemed downright chilly.
It was that last, way too powerful thought that had Jungkook turning around and backing away a healthy step, fighting his body’s instinct to stay where he was – to move closer instead.
“Thank you,” he forced himself to spit out the words he’d all but swallowed with this tongue before, but the stranger in front of him barely seemed to notice. The man’s gaze tracing over Jungkook’s face was almost palpable in its intensity, leaving a trail of flushed heat in its wake.
“Bless everything.” Even over the rhythmic noises of the club the stranger’s voice sounded almost crystal clear in his ears and twisted the knot of pleasure in his gut just a little bit tighter. It was deep, melodic and all Jungkook wanted was to sink into it and never come back up for air. “Please tell me you’re single.”
For all his focus on the delicious sound of his voice, the meaning of the slightly taller man’s words was completely lost on Jungkook, his brain not quite able to keep up as he stared at the subtle fullness of the stranger’s lips. “Huh?”
It was a good thing he was too mesmerized to feel embarrassed about the impression he was undoubtedly making on the human.
“Are you in an exclusive relationship with someone? Someone who’d kick my ass if I made a move on you?”
Out of mere habit, Jungkook almost shot back an instinctive “yes, my boyfriend”. Then he realized that no, he didn’t actually have a boyfriend anymore, because the guy had dumped him five weeks ago and that was the whole reason he was creeping around in the middle of a packed dance floor like a fucking pervert. So instead he just silently shook his head, eyes glued to the guy’s mesmerizing face and watched it light up like the sky on the 4th of July.
“Any objections to me kissing you then?”
That was the point where Jungkook should have probably started asking questions, where he should have at least given his next decision a split second of thought. Instead he just swallowed thickly and croaked out a no that was most likely drowned out by the sound of the pulsing music. The half-anticipatory, half-panicked fluttering in his stomach only picked up a notch at the way the stranger’s expression brightened at his reply.
“Thank god. I’m Taehyung, by the way.”
“Jungkook.”
That was all he got out before the distance between them shrunk to nothing. His one and only conscious thought – before his brain decided to take its leave – was, his lips really are as soft as they look.
The electrical current that went through his body when the stranger moved just a little closer, pressed his lips just a little more firmly against Jungkook’s had him tingling all the way to the tips of his fingers. And at the same time that he urged his uncooperative body to raise the arms that were just awkwardly hanging at his side, the angry gnawing of hunger in his belly simply stopped.
Tentatively settling his hands down on the stranger’s – Taehyung’s – hips, the sigh he let out was one of pure relief. The only problem was that it had the other man pulling back to look at him with a questioning look, before the way Jungkook instinctively chased the touch of their lips had him moving back in with his mouth tipped up at one side. Jungkook tipping his head back a bit seemed to be all the encouragement the stranger needed.
With his head slanted to the side, the man had Jungkook’s lips opening for him with an almost playful nip to Jungkook’s bottom lip, hard enough to make the half-incubus jolt in his place, but not nearly hard enough to actually hurt. Surprisingly the little bite also startled Jungkook out of his passive enjoyment of the kiss. So when Taehyung licked carefully into his mouth, Jungkook tightened his grip on his waist and gave his tongue a little flick in return. It had the man arching closer with a sound of warm encouragement.
To Jungkook the unashamed sound of pleasure was like a shot of caffeine directly to the vein. Heady, powerful and so good it woke a desperate curiosity to find out what else would make the other man moan like that.
By the time they pulled apart to draw in some much-needed air, Jungkook felt just a tiny bit drunk on the brain-meltingly good kiss. Surprisingly, Taehyung looked almost as shell-shocked as Jungkook felt. He looked at the half-demon as if his hair had just changed color directly in front of him, but Jungkook was a bit too distracted by the blissful absence of pain in his body to worry about that. Somewhere between the first lick of the other man’s tongue and that sigh of approval, the painful sensation in his gut had turned into almost satisfied purring instead.
“Uhm... wow, okay. So... that happened.” Somehow Taehyung’s voice sounded even deeper than before, with just enough added roughness to have goose-bumps raising the tiny hairs on Jungkook’s arm. “Not that I’m regretting this or something like that, but I just want to let you know that I don’t usually kiss strangers like that.”
“Their loss.” The words tumbled off Jungkook’s tongue without any control or intent on his part, his brain to mouth filter completely eroded by the spine-meltingly delicious kiss and low hum of energy inside of him.
A quick widening of those dark eyes and then the expression on the slightly taller man’s face transformed into a box-shaped smile so dazzling, Jungkook actually found himself blinking several times.
“You really are the cutest thing I’ve seen all week. Hell, all year probably. Baby animals and my roommate’s adorable baby nephew excluded,” the man said with such unbothered honesty, Jungkook felt his lips twitch up in a small, fond smile. He could actually feel the sappy emotion spreading across his face and worked hard to school his expression into something more acceptable – considering the short duration of their acquaintance.
And honestly, as a demon being called cute should have been a prick to his pride. Instead he was standing there, eyes unable to move away from the man in front of him and he could actually feel himself flush with a mix of pleasure and shyness.
“Okay, so uhm... what I was trying to say, before I went completely off track, is that my friends might have dared me to kiss a total stranger. I promise I’m not some weird pervert that goes around slobbering people he doesn’t even know.”
For the first time Taehyung looked slightly embarrassed and the reversal of roles should have probably made Jungkook feel better. Instead something went a little cold inside his chest at the words.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, they’re idiots, I’m really sorry. They’re also watching, so don’t look. I’m planning to ignore them for the rest of the night. But I’m telling you just in case you see a bunch of losers staring at us with dumb-ass smiles on their faces. So don’t freak out.”
Taehyung was still talking, but Jungkook had trouble keeping up with the other man’s word, mind stuck on the part where the other man had just told him his reason for kissing Jungkook had been a dare.
I should have known.
The thought was heavy with self-deprecation. People didn’t just kiss someone out of the blue like that. People especially didn’t kiss Jungkook like that.
“Sorry for not telling you before, but they told me I wasn’t allowed to explain it, since that would ruin the whole purpose of the dare.”
“No, it’s okay.” Jungkook mumbled, probably too low for Taehyung to understand, but his throat felt uncomfortably tight and he doubted he’d be able to speak up properly. At this point all he could hope for was to make it out of this situation without looking like a total loser who got his feelings hurt by a perfectly harmless dare.
“Can I buy you a drink?”
The unexpected question had Jungkook’s head coming up with a snap. And suddenly his heart was back to beating a frantic drum in his throat.
“You... you want to?”
“Of course.”
The answer came so quickly, rolled so matter-of-factly off the other man’s tongue, it immediately soothed some of the familiar doubts that had started creeping up in the back of his mind. And Taehyung’s smile? That smile was so warm, so bright, the half-demon couldn’t have turned down the invitation to save his life.
By some miracle that Jungkook wasn’t going to question, they found two open seats at the bar and by the time they had their drinks standing in front of them the half-demon was waiting for the usual nervousness to settle in. The fact that it had yet to make an appearance was almost as alarming as the way Taehyung was watching him over the rim of his glass of gin tonic.
“Thanks for the drink,” Jungkook mumbled, just to have something to say.
“Seriously, don’t mention it. It’s the least I can do after the way I practically attacked you on the dancefloor.”
It was said with an easy smile, but there was something in the way Taehyung kept those dark eyes fixed on him that made Jungkook’s nape feel strangely hot.
“I’m... uhm... pretty sure I got as much out of that as you.”
Taehyung didn’t even know how helpful those blissful seconds on the dance floor had truly been. He’d felt like a starving man being offered a small, but highly nutrient snack.
And magically, Jungkook must have said something right, because Taehyung was smiling at him again – box-shaped smile so big, his eyes closed with it.
Apparently not even his shyness had any chances against the power of that smile, because Jungkook didn’t quite know how it happened, but within a few minutes they were talking. Flirting even, if Jungkook’s instincts weren’t completely skewed at this point, and it didn’t make the half-demon feel like he was about to explode out of his skin with discomfort.
But then Taehyung made it really hard not to enjoy their back and forth, when he was so willing and good-natured about filling and bridging Jungkook’s awkward gaps in their conversation. It quickly got to the point where the half-incubus stopped over-thinking every single thing he said and actually let himself talk about the first things that came to mind and ask Taehyung questions in return – the other man happily answering all of them, no matter how banal. All that without worrying if he was making a total fool out of himself.
“Right?! Diamond no Ace is at least as good as Haikyuu, but so many of my friends dropped it because they said they didn’t like the first few episodes. Like, seriously, who even does that? Everyone knows not to judge an anime by its first several episodes. You’ve got to at least give it a chance,” Taehyung huffed, clearly enraged by the fact that people didn’t appreciate what was possibly one of the best sport anime ever.
“Season two is where things get really interesting though. I didn’t think I could get even more invested in that anime, but it actually happened.”
Taehyung’s entire face lit up at Jungkook’s words, as if the half-demon had just told him they’d get to spend the next hour petting a bunch of fluffy puppies. It was enough to make him feel strangely powerful. This was what he missed by avoiding talking to people he didn’t know. This satisfaction of feeling a connection over the strangest topics click into place. It was a heady feeling and Jungkook desperately wished for things to stay like this for a little longer.
“I know! I was so mad when the third-years graduated and left the team, but somehow that’s exactly what the team needed to grow even closer together. And then there’s Sawamura’s-“
“Is this still part of the dare?”
Jungkook didn’t even realize he’d blurted out the words, had actually interrupted Taehyung mid-speech, until the other man’s surprised expression registered. It had vicious heat flooding his face, had him flushing all the way up to his ears. But now that he’d already started he knew there was no use in not finishing it. Making a bit more of a fool out of himself wouldn’t make a big difference anymore.
“It’s just... I like talking to you and I also really liked kissing you. So if this is just you finishing your dare, I really hope you’ll do me this favor and just tell me. I promise I won’t storm off and leave you hanging. We can still finish up whatever it is you need to do to complete the dare, but I’d just... I’d just like to know.”
He was practically giving off steam of mortification by the end of his little speech, blood rushing loudly in his ears and challenging the heavy beat of the club’s music. And still he somehow found it in himself to hold Taehyung’s gaze, to not lower his head and run off like his instincts were screaming at him to do.
“No,” Taehyung replied – suddenly looking oddly vulnerable – and had Jungkook’s breath catching in the back of his throat. “The dare ended with the kiss. I just like looking at you.”
Jungkook thought he’d already reached the peak of this night’s emotional roller coaster ride, but Taehyung kept talking and the half-demon felt the heavy stutter of his heart inside his chest. “And making you blush and looking at you finally relax and watching the way your eyes light up when you talk about something you’re clearly excited about. I especially like that you’re doing that while talking to me. It’s... nice,” Taehyung ended, almost lamely and with a light blush dusting the apples of his cheeks, as if he hadn’t quite planned on that level of honesty.
And in that moment Jungkook understood what the term ‘heavy infatuation’ truly meant.
There Taehyung was, painfully honest, looking determined and surprised by himself in equal measures and it was more than enough to make Jungkook realize it was time for him to come clean about his own secret. Keeping the fact that he was a half-incubus from Taehyung wouldn’t be fair. Even if it was a reality he often wished he could ignore, it wasn’t something to be kept from someone who had kissed him and looked like he might be interested in doing it all over again.
“I... have to tell you something as well.”
Throat tight with nerves, he put down his drink and threaded his fingers together in his lap instead. He knew he’d just be waving his arms around awkwardly otherwise.
Talking had never been his strength, so instead of trying to summon his ability to put words together in a way that actually made sense, he simply uncurled his tail from around his stomach and let it unfurl slowly from beneath his shirt. He always kept it hidden away in public, but at this point he was pretty sure that showing Taehyung would be easier than trying to explain.
He knew Taehyung didn’t notice immediately, didn’t realize what was going on, too focused on staring at Jungkook’s face with an inquiring tilt of his head. And really, Jungkook couldn’t blame him. The lights in the club were dimmed to the max, with strobes from the direction of the dancefloor breaking up the moody darkness once in a while. So he slowly raised his tail higher, until the vaguely knife-shaped and black-scaled tip reached Taehyung’s field of vision.
He could pinpoint the exact moment Taehyung caught sight of it.
The other man startled upright in his seat, gaze flying over Jungkook’s shoulder as if he expected to find an incubus standing there. Not finding anything, he swung it back towards the half-demon and his eyes widened considerably as realization set in.
“You’re...” Taehyung began, voice just a little thinner than usual, before his gaze snapped to the top of his head where the horns that usually went with the tail should have been. He could actually see the cogs in his mind grinding into motion, furiously trying to comprehend if he was really looking at what he thought it was. “Are you... an incubus?”
Here goes.
“Half-incubus,” Jungkook croaked, nervously clearing his throat, “but yeah. My father was an incubus. My mother is human.” The words felt like he had to squeeze them through his gravel-lined trachea.
So maybe he wished he could have spent just a little more time with Taehyung before his confession, but he’d rather have Taehyung leave now, instead of having to face the other man’s shocked horror and regret later. And so he braced himself for Taehyung’s rejection, with his white-knuckled grip on the edge of the bar turning into his sole point of grounding.
It took him a few moments to realize that – except for that first moment where he’d spotted Jungkook’s tail – Taehyung didn’t look especially alarmed or even surprised. Instead he was watching the tail Jungkook had curled around his own leg in an unconscious move of timidity with a look of puzzled fascination, before he raised his gaze back up to meet Jungkook’s.
The half-incubus had always felt uncomfortable showing his tail to people. It had been a long time since the sight of a tail or horns or the flashing of red eyes had shocked or scared normal humans. Especially in clubs and bars the sighting of demons was no rarity. So far, Jungkook had seen at least three other incubi prowling around his club, their tails on proud display and horns peeking out of their perfect bed hair. All of them had been in the company of at least one enchanted human.
And still Jungkook hated the way it drew people’s gazes towards him, how it always – always – changed the way people looked at him. Like a part of them was still waiting for him to attack them on the spot, despite knowing better.
He wasn’t quite sure what to make of Taehyung’s silent acceptance when he’d expected him to simply push up from his seat and leave Jungkook alone with his almost finished drink.
“Well,” Taehyung finally found his voice again and had Jungkook going even more motionless in his seat, “can’t say I expected that, but it actually makes so much sense.”
Before Jungkook could recover from his surprise at Taehyung’s mild reaction and ask what he meant by that, the other man was talking again. “I always thought incubi were supposed to be... flirtier. More obnoxious, you know? Not that I’ve met a lot of them before. I don’t really go out that much.”
By some miracle, Jungkook actually managed to get his voice to work. “I never said I was a good one. That’s probably where the ‘half’ part of half-incubus comes into play.”
The sound of Taehyung’s easy laughter had the last remainder of anxiousness in his stomach releasing with a quiet pop and with something that felt a lot like wonder, Jungkook realized that this was it.
Taehyung had found out Jungkook was an incubus, he’d spent approximately fifteen seconds being surprised by it and then he’d acknowledged the fact and obviously moved on.
Screw infatuation, Jungkook thought. He was pretty sure he’d just fallen a teeny tiny bit in love with the guy.
“So he knew you’re an incubus? That you need sex to survive?”
On a roll with the honesty thing, Jungkook had made use of his strange surge of adrenaline and courage and told Taehyung about his reason for being at the club as well. And ultimately the story of his boyfriend breaking up with him because he just hadn’t been able to deal with the pressure of kind of being responsible for Jungkook’s survival.
“Half-incubus, but yeah, he knew. I wasn’t going to keep that kind of thing from the person I dated and had sex with regularly. Apart from that, it might be easy to hide the horns and tail from most people, but that’s not exactly possible when you practically live with someone.”
“Wait, did you just say horns? You have horns?”
Taehyung’s voice had gone up a few degrees, his eyes alight with something that looked a lot like excitement.
“Yeah, but they’re… they’re kind of,” Jungkook stumbled over his words, feeling his cheeks growing hot with embarrassment. So instead of struggling with the challenge of coming up with the right words to describe them, he gave up on that again and went with the alternative that had worked so well for him before.
He simply curled his fingers around Taehyung’s wrist and guided his hand to the place where his horns were hidden away in the strands of his hair. He felt the jolt go through the other man at the sudden skin-to-skin contact and almost started to purr at the pleasant buzz of energy that was suddenly spreading outwards from that point of touch. There was no mistaking the fact that Taehyung enjoyed the feeling of Jungkook’s hand on him and both his human and incubus side were blissfully happy about that.
His throat felt strangely tight as Taehyung’s fingers started carding through his hair, but he made himself speak again through sheer force of will. “Since I’m not a pure-blooded incubus they stopped growing shortly after I turned five. So if I keep my hair at this length it’s enough to hide them.”
He could pin-point the exact moment Taehyung’s searching fingers found one of the little horns concealed by his hair. His entire body went motionless for three whole seconds, before he surged off his seat and stumbled forward with a quiet gasp, body crowding against Jungkook’s like he was a second away from climbing into his lap. He didn’t sound shocked or disgusted, instead the airy, slightly choked sound held such pure delight, Jungkook’s skin came alive with an electric buzz.
It was as if Jungkook’s horns had suddenly developed impossible nerve endings, his entire body reacting to the way Taehyung carefully ran the tips of his fingers over the short, helical nubs.
“Oh, they’re adorable.” The other man’s eyes were bright with wonder, his deep voice two thirds air, as if Jungkook’s underdeveloped horns were the best thing since the discovery of cherry-flavored lube. It was only in the back of his mind that the half-incubus wondered how it was possible that every word slipping over those soft-looking lips made his stomach flare with heat. “Why would you hide these away?”
“They’re kind of a dead give-away.”
“Yeah, but wouldn’t that make finding someone to help you with your whole ‘need sex to survive’ problem a lot easier? I know for a fact that there are a lot of people out there who’d jump at the chance to hook up with an incubus. Especially one as cute as you.”
Those last words were spoken in a low coo, Taehyung’s eyes going just a little bit darker as he ran his thumb over the tip of Jungkook’s horn in a circular motion, and the half-demon felt his cock give a little twitch of interest. And it would have all been fine, if traitorous heat hadn’t risen to his cheeks to betray how much of an awkward mess he truly was.
“That’s… I mean… what I’m trying to say is,” Jungkook stuttered, tongue feeling heavy and uncooperative as Taehyung kept up the maddening motion of his finger. “People would look at my horns and tail and see a ticket to a night they’ll never forget. I’m only a half-incubus, though. Those people, they’d… they’d expect the whole sex demon experience and I can’t do that for them. And I’m sure you’ve already noticed this, but I’m not exactly good at… this.”
Jungkook motioned awkwardly between Taehyung and himself and had the other man’s lip tipping up into a charmingly lope-sided smile.
“You’re doing fine.”
Taehyung seemed like he had been about to say something else when his eyes suddenly widened and the hand in his hair stopped moving.
Jungkook just barely bit back a whine of protest.
“Wait, wind back for a bit. What do you mean ‘I can’t do that for them’? What exactly is it that you can’t do?”
And that was the part he’d been dreading since the moment Taehyung had made it obvious that he wasn’t bothered in the least by the fact that Jungkook was only half human. This was the part where he’d have to come clean about how much of a failure he truly was. How everything Taehyung thought to know about incubi simply didn’t apply to Jungkook.
Swallowing through a throat that was growing tighter by the second and almost wincing at the ashen taste spreading through his mouth, he gave in to his waning confidence and lowered his gaze to the front of Taehyung’s shirt.
“I don’t have any of those powers. I can’t heighten your arousal or make you feel good with a simple touch of my hand. The stories you hear about sex so intense you’re ruined for everyone else for the rest of your life? Forget about that. There would be no earth-shattering orgasms, no mind-blowing pleasure. All I can offer is plain old sex and seeing how my ex dumped me without much of a second thought, I don’t think I was even especially good at that. I’m basically an incubus on perpetual training wheels.”
Way to convince this guy not to high-tail it on the spot, a sarcastic voice, that sounded alarmingly like his older brother, piped up from the back of his mind, what a genius strategy to get yourself laid, loser.
Breath trapped in his lungs, he waited for Taehyung to take a decisive step away from him and forced himself to drop the hand that had somehow found its way to the other man’s waist.
“Oh.”
Not knowing what to make of the breathy exclamation, Jungkook’s gaze snapped back up to Taehyung’s, only to find the other man looking at him with wide, almost-but-not-really worried eyes. But before he could make sense of the puzzling sight, something dark and determined flittered over the slightly taller man’s face and Jungkook knew what was going to happen before Taehyung even moved forward.
He wasn’t going to stop it.
Moving clumsily, on the brink of a sudden desperation Jungkook couldn’t quite understand, Taehyung bridged the distance between them and lowered his lips back onto Jungkook’s with enough force to have the half-demon’s teeth cutting into the inside of his lips. It only made Jungkook press himself closer to the human’s body. The hand that had been affectionately fondling his horn until a few moments ago gripped the hair at the back of his head and held him firmly in place as he heightened the pressure and had Jungkook’s lips parting for him without hesitation. Taehyung’s heady taste, his subtly citric scent and the warmth surrounding him had Jungkook’s brain hazing pleasantly, steadily pushing back his confusion at having the other man all but melting into him when he’d expected him to shy away instead.
“Come dance with me.”
It was a rough murmur against his lips and Jungkook was on his feet and moving after Taehyung, hands holding on to the older man’s waist from behind, so quickly, for just a second the half-demon wondered if maybe it was Taehyung with the magical powers after all. The magnetic pull Jungkook felt towards him seemed eerily similar to the spell he’d been put under during his teenage years. It had been his older brother Wonwoo who had noticed and forced the witch to release Jungkook with his transformed claws curled threateningly around her neck.
To Jungkook the minutes that followed felt more like foreplay than they felt like dancing. Taehyung’s back pressed to his front, Jungkook’s lips mouthing at the spot just beneath the older man’s ear and hands a steady weight on his waist as their hips rocked together to the beat of the music. It was frantic desperation and a greedy savoring. A slow melting of his core and the chills of sensation down his back. It was a steady hum of energy and breathless loss of control. Nothing existed except for Taehyung and the next beat, the next grind of his hips against the other man’s and the choppy sound of their breathing. Then Taehyung was turning around, pressing his forehead against Jungkook’s and meeting his gaze with a look of such undisguised hunger, he felt it echoing the sharp yearning inside his chest.
He wasn’t entirely sure who made the first move, who pushed or dragged whom forward, who took the first staggering step, but a few moments later they were somehow at the edge of the room. With a surge of courage that came from the same spot that hummed with the awareness of Taehyung’s pleasure and desperation, he stepped up to the slightly taller man until there was no more space left between them and kissed him.
Jungkook kissed Taehyung with a certainty that would have robbed the oxygen from his lungs if Taehyung hadn’t already done such a good job with it. And when the older man opened his mouth for Jungkook with a sigh that he felt, rather than heard, Jungkook allowed himself to taste, to chase the slightly bitter taste of gin on Taehyung’s tongue, and tilted his head to the side until they found the perfect angle.
When Taehyung drew back, Jungkook wanted to whine, had to consciously stop himself from chasing those soft, slightly bruised lips. That was before he realized that the other man had no plans of going anywhere, simply had to take a few moments to draw in a few gasping breaths, his hand still tightly curled into the strands of the half-demon’s hair. He clearly didn’t plan on letting Jungkook go anywhere, so the incubus lowered his mouth to nuzzle at Taehyung’s jaw instead, drawing in his addicting scent – a scent that was starting to take on a slightly salt-tinged edge.
“Need you, Jungkook.” A sharp gasp as Jungkook trapped the skin of his neck lightly between his teeth. Not enough to hurt or bruise, but with enough pressure to make sure Taehyung was fully aware of the claim. “Fuck, please touch me.”
Unable to do anything but obey the gasped order, Jungkook let his hands slip down over Taehyung’s hips until his palms cupped the back of those drool-worthy thighs. Heat and want punching through him at the encouraging sounds Taehyung fed into his mouth, he started kneading the other man’s thighs where they met his ass and reveled in the way Taehyung’s hips automatically started rolling against his own. Grip tight on the human’s supple flesh he spun them around, swallowed Taehuyng’s surprised gasp and crowded him backwards until his back hit the wall and the older man was shielded from the crowd on the packed dance floor.
Taehyung tasted of abandon, of barely chained desperation and a salvation that had always seemed just a step out of reach. But with the other man clutching him close like this and heat building up in the almost non-existent space between them, it didn’t seem quite so unattainable anymore. With this man that he had met barely two hours ago he felt free to take what he needed, what his demon half had been starving for so painfully. So he took, tightened his grip on Taehyung’s delightfully round ass and let his hip roll forward in a move so instinctive, it was clear a part of him had been born for this. Born to drag those sharp, pleading moans from Taehyung, to have him arching desperately where he was trapped between the wall and Jungkook’s body and then repeat the motion until the other man’s hands where grappling frantically against his back.
The way Taehyung clutched at his shirt made it seem as if he was scared Jungkook might move away from him, might stop when pleasure was clawing so sharply at their insides. The incubus almost wanted to laugh. No power on earth, no being from hell could have dragged him away from Taehyung’s keens of pleasure now. No demon or mage, no living creature on this planet could have kept him from dragging his mouth across Taehyung’s jaw, from settling his lips over Taehyung’s thundering pulse and suckling at the salty skin until the other man’s voice turned sharp and ravenous with greed.
“Fuck, Jungkook!”
Taehyung’s hips jerked abruptly against his own and even the layers of their clothes didn’t prevent the rush of sensation at the drag of the other man’s hard cock against his own. So he shifted just the tiniest bit to the side, until he could wedge his leg between Taehyung’s and let the other man rut against his thigh instead.
Nothing could have been more satisfying than listening to the shaking keen it dragged out of the other man. Nothing could have brought him more pleasure than watching his head drop back against the wall, eyes wide and unseeing.
There was a seemingly endless second of complete calm. For just a moment their gazes met with electrical intensity, before Jungkook tightened the muscles of his thigh and Taehyung jolted with a deep mewl, hips kicking into frantic motion again. The half-demon’s own gasp was dragged from somewhere deep in his chest, hot air skittering over Taehyung’s sweat-dampened skin, and the hard tug on his hair had him chasing the sound with a pleased little whimper. It was the type of noise that would have usually had him flashing hot with mortification. But the way Taehyung’s body tightened in response to the soft exclamation, the way it immediately had him repeating the not entirely gentle tug, had Jungkook’s inhibitions crumbling away like brittle wood under a rumbling landslide.
Being vocal during sex wasn’t something he was used to, but Taehyung’s hungry reactions to every little sound escaping through Jungkook’s lips made the thought of holding them back feel almost sacrilegious. So he let Taehyung hear what he was doing to him, allowed himself to breathe out the pleas and curses he’d always trapped behind tightly clenched teeth and watched the other man fall beautifully apart in his arms.
“Want you so much, Tae.”
His hips stuttered on every other roll, the painfully good friction almost enough to make him lose control. But he clenched his teeth, deliberately tightened the muscles of his thighs and watched Taehyung’s eyes grow glassier with every drag of their bodies against each other.
Then there was the way the human was biting down on his lips, as if suddenly too shy to let the moans escape that were steadily rising in pitch. Not that he was actually succeeding. A steady stream of gasps and keening exclamations of Jungkook’s name saturated the air between them and when the incubus lowered his head back to the curve of Taehyung’s neck and dragged his teeth across his throbbing pulse point at the same moment that he hitched the other man a little more firmly against his thigh, he felt Taehyung seizing up against him with a barely muffled cry. The other man’s hands were grasping desperately at the fabric of his shirt, hips kicking futilely where he was trapped between Jungkook and the wall and with a last croak of “god yes, Jungkook” he felt Taehyung tumble straight into the pulsing waves of his climax.
It had energy crackling across his skin like static and the sensation, coupled with the near-painful tightening of Taehyung’s grip on his hair, was enough to have him following Taehyung over the edge, while the other man rode out his high on a low, drawn-out moan.
The peacefulness that stole over Jungkook in the wake of that was so complete, the pulse of power inside of him so powerful, he had to lower his spinning head to Taehyung’s shoulder as they clung to each other like survivors of a ship-wreck. He was barely aware of the way he curled his tail around Taehyung’s thigh.
“So what you’re saying is,” a small gasp, “that you weren’t influencing my attraction or pleasure? Not once during all of that?”
If Jungkook had loved the sound of Taehyung’s voice before, it all but sent him to his knees now – hoarse, deep enough to raise the tiny hairs all over the demon’s body in primal awareness and gasping for air that they had stolen from each other’s lungs. And Jungkook felt punch drunk on the sensation and pleasure – his own and the one he still felt rippling over him in waves from the man standing in front of him. Which was just one of the reasons why it took his sluggish brain so long to realize that Taehyung was referring to their previous conversation.
“N-no, I can only sense it.” Jungkook himself sounded as if he’d just learned to talk. As if he had to forcefully pluck the words from his brain. Which honestly wasn’t too far from the truth. “I can feel it making me stronger, feel it feeding into my own, but that’s it.”
“Hell,” Taehyung breathed out, a look of wonderous disbelieve spreading across his face and replacing some of the sleepy contentment in his eyes. “That should probably alarm me more than it does.”
“Wh- what?” Jungkook stuttered, blinking at Taehyung in rising confusion. He just wasn’t making any sense. Shouldn’t a human be happy he wasn’t being influenced by some demon’s creepy sex magic?
“I mean, I was so sure you were bolstering my attraction with your demon powers. That would have explained so much.”
“I’m still not following.” Instead his head was spinning, mind still hazy with pleasure, and having Taehyung so close, his heavy, contentment-saturated scent thick in the air, definitely wasn’t helping.
“Jungkook, I’m telling you, I’ve never been this attracted to anyone in my entire life. I took one look at you out there on the dance floor and I wanted to climb you like a tree. And once you told me you were a half-incubus it suddenly made so much sense. I thought, yep, I’m obviously reacting to his incubus magic. I mean, it sounded like the most logical explanation. But now you’re telling me you don’t have those type of powers. That means all the fantasies and urges I’ve had since the moment I ran into you are all mine and I’m not quite sure what to make of that. I never considered myself a sexual deviant before.”
Jungkook’s mouth went completely dry at the sound of that, eyes going wide and breath hitching loudly enough to have Taehyung’s eyes flashing with something almost predatory.
“I guess the ‘shy, awkward bunny with the body of a sex god’ vibe just really does it for me.”
“What kind of fantasies and urges are we talking about?”
“You’ll see,” Taehyung murmured, giving him a slow, cryptic smile full of promise and Jungkook’s heart pounded along to the flutter in his stomach, before it slowly settled down to a less worrisome rhythm. “So... this thing between us, it’s really making you feel better? Stronger?”
Taehyung gave his nape a light scratch in the wake of those words and Jungkook had never been so tempted to start purring before. His eyes fluttered close, his head tipped forward in a silent plea for Taehyung to keep going. The heady surge of warmth inside his chest when the soft petting resumed told him that Taehyung enjoyed touching Jungkook nearly as much as Jungkook enjoyed being touched by him.
“Mhm,” he eventually hummed in confirmation, realizing he hadn’t answered Taehyung’s question, too distracted by the other man’s touch and how much he enjoyed having those hands on him.
“That’s so hot.” Taehyung’s voice dropped so deep, Jungkook actually felt something hot and gooey bubbling low in his belly. “What does it feel like?”
It wasn’t anything the demon could put into words, but even though he’d only met Taehyung a short while ago, something told him the other man wouldn’t be satisfied until he gave him at least some sort of explanation.
And his urge to satisfy, to please the man that was still touching him so affectionately was almost scary in its ever-growing intensity.
“Like a quadruple shot of espresso. Only without the nervous skitters. Or the nausea.”
Just like that Taehyung’s head dropped forward until his forehead rested against Jungkook’s shoulder and it took the young demon a few moments to realize the other man as shaking with barely restrained laughter. There was a glow of mirth in Taehyung’s eyes when he collected himself enough to look back up. “I’m guessing you’re not much of a coffee drinker then?”
“I prefer hot chocolate.”
“A hot chocolate drinking incubus.” He sounded like it was the best thing he’d head all year.
“Half-incubus.”
“Right, half-incubus,” Taehyung corrected himself and Jungkook wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the smile on the other man’s face, but it was gentle and almost fond. The warmth that spread through his chest at the sight had nothing to do with the rush of sexual energy. “Then what do you say we’ll go clean up a bit, ditch this club and then head over to my place instead? I promise to make you the best cup of hot chocolate you’ve ever had.”
“Are you trying to bribe me with hot chocolate right now?” Jungkook made himself shoot back, simply for the sake of it. Both of them already knew what the half-demon’s answer to Taehyung’s offer would be.
The change of expression on Taehyung’s face was so abrupt, so stark, it was almost disorienting, but then he leaned in, lips just barely grazing the shell of Jungkook’s ear, and the low rumble of his voice had the half-demon going light-headed with want. Then his words started to register and Jungkook’s brain ground to a stuttering halt─
“I’ll even add those little marshmallows and whipped cream.”
─before he broke out into laughter so powerful, the only thing that kept him from stumbling a few steps back was Taehyung’s secure hold on him.
✲
He was just buying time, Jungkook had to admit to himself, as he spit the mouthwash into the sink and gave his reflection in the mirror of Taehyung’s bathroom a last, nervous glance. He’d been standing there, gargling and swishing around the minty liquid for so long, his tongue and the roof of his mouth were starting to feel numb.
I look fine. It’s fine.
His hair no longer looked like a bird had decided it would make the perfect nesting place, the dark rings beneath his eyes that had been his faithful companion for the last several weeks had all but disappeared overnight and his breath was as minty as it would ever get. So with a fortifying breath, Jungkook turned the lock on the door and stepped out into the hallway. He shuffled down the hallway and had to consciously keep himself from hiding his hands in the sleeves of his sweater. The demon had stolen it out of Taehyung’s closet and it was big even on him, which meant Taehyung had to be all but swimming in it whenever he wore it. The image that popped up in his mind was such a pleasant one, Jungkook was actually too preoccupied to feel nervous as he followed the sound of Taehyung’s voice down the hallway and stepped into what appeared to be the living room. The sight that greeted him there had him faltering in his steps.
Taehyung looked alarmingly soft and appealing, sitting there in his washed out, graphic shirt and with his adorably messy bed-hair falling across his forehead and randomly sticking up in other places. He clearly hadn’t been worried about the state of it after climbing out of bed and it only made Jungkook feel even sillier about his earlier primping in the bathroom. Then his gaze was snagged by the line of hickeys leading down to the collar of Taehyung’s shirt and the half-demon felt himself blushing slightly at the sight. It seemed as if Jungkook had gotten a little carried away the night before, but the other man hadn’t complained, had simply tightened his grip on Jungkook’s hair as he’d sucked mark after mark into that deliciously golden skin.
“Holy shit!”
Jolting out of his distracting thoughts and gaze snapping up he found Taehyung had noticed his arrival and was looking at him with wide eyes, spoon frozen halfway to his mouth and steadily dripping milk down onto the table. Not that anyone except for Jungkook seemed to notice. The other guy in the room – considerably shorter, with messy dark hair and sleepy, but piercing eyes – was looking at Jungkook with a similar expression, just heavier on the confusion. Then his gaze jumped to the tail Jungkook hadn’t bothered to hide beneath his borrowed sweater and surprise pushed away the confusion. Taehyung had mentioned a roommate, so that was probably him.
Jungkook hadn’t been sure what to expect of Taehyung this morning. A hopeful part of him had believed the strange ease and connection of the night before would hold up, while a more rational part of him told him to prepare himself for the horrible morning-after awkwardness to settle in. But despite all the scenarios he’d come up with since he’d woken up alone in Taehyung’s bed – and there had been many – the possibility of the other man looking at him as if he’d never seen him before had never even crossed his mind.
“Damn, Taehyung.” The man Jungkook thought – hoped – was Taehyung’s roommate grumbled, voice deep and slightly rough, with a hint of an accent Jungkook couldn’t really place. “Did you get wasted and forgot you brought someone home last night? Did you not notice him in your bed when you got out of it this morning?”
Shock had Jungkook stilling at the words. Had Taehyung been drunk last night? He had seemed perfectly sober, but the way he was looking at Jungkook now, as if he’d just seen a ghost walk into his living room, made him suddenly question his previous certainty.
“I’d expect shit like that from Hoseok, but I thought you knew better,” the shorter man groaned, looking completely done with the situation. But Taehyung didn’t even glance in the direction of his roommate, just kept on staring at Jungkook with that wide-eyed look of shock on his face. Then Taehyung opened his mouth and Jungkook felt his heart skip a beat at the sleep-roughened sound of his voice.
“You’re... glowing.”
Oh.
That was when the nuances of the expression on Taehyung’s face started to pierce through Jungkook’s shock and confusion. The other man had sounded like he was one step from tripping over into awe and maybe the look on his face didn’t so much look like he’d never seen Jungkook before, but rather like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
He’d forgotten that Taehyung had never seen him well-rested and fully energized before. He’d been riding the tail-end of a more than month-long dry spell when he’d run into Taehyung the night before and he sure as hell hadn’t looked his best. But the make-out session at the club, followed by those two rounds of stupendously great sex last night had gone a long way of restoring Jungkook’s depleted energy. He’d also slept better than he had in a very long time, with Taehyung curled up against him and nuzzling gently at his nape.
Suddenly feeling shy under the heavy scrutiny, Jungkook pulled up his shoulder and raised his arm to cover his nape, a nervous habit he’d been trying to break for years.
“It’s the... uhm,” a quick glance at Taehyung’s roommate, “you know, incubus thing? That’s kind of what happens to us after good sex. It’s our equivalent of the ‘healthy meal, bubble bath and eight hours of uninterrupted sleep’ routine.”
He wasn’t entirely sure what he’d said, but Taehyung’s eyes actually went wide again at the words.
“So what you’re telling me is that you’ll just keep getting more attractive every time we sleep together?” Taehyung actually seemed a bit alarmed at the thought.
Jungkook on the other hand felt his brain – and heart – tripping at the implication that Taehyung was planning on repeating the events of the previous night. It was hard to make himself reply calmly while his heart was vibrating giddily in his chest.
“It’s not going to get much better than this. I was just really drained and you kind of, well, gave me the necessary boost last night.”
He couldn’t believe he was talking about this in front of Taehyung’s roommate, but the older man seemed to have forgotten they weren’t actually alone in the room. At least until said roommate suddenly spoke up again, definitely sounding a little pained. “This is the strangest conversation I’ve ever heard. And I’m Taehyung’s roommate, so I’ve heard a lot of questionable shit.”
That had Taehyung turning towards the guy with a sardonically raised eyebrow.
“Did you or did you not discuss the consequences of a weather-controlling technology that doesn’t even exist with Namjoon for over two hours last week?”
“I was drunk. And you know that’s just what Namjoon does. He starts talking about the strangest theories and after listening to him for a few minutes he brainwashes you into believing they actually make sense.”
“I think that’s just because you’re ridiculously soft on him, Yoongs.”
It had the dark-haired man spluttering and turning back to his own breakfast – a gigantic cup of coffee and two slices of dry toast – unintelligibly grumbling something under his breath. It wasn’t lost on Jungkook that he didn’t actually deny Taehyung’s claim.
Obviously satisfied with the result of their short argument, Taehyung returned his attention to Jungkook and the way he was looking at him – soft, but unblinking – had the incubus curling his tail around his thigh instinctively.
“You know, the fact that sex with me has you looking like this,” a heated sweep of his gaze over Jungkook’s body, “is a serious turn-on.”
Jungkook would have probably turned towards Taehyung’s roommate at his long-suffering groan, if Taehyung hadn’t chosen that moment to push out of his chair – soggy cereal completely forgotten – and start stalking towards the half-demon with heated determination in his gaze.
“It think we should make you glow a bit more, don’t you think?”
“Can’t hurt,” was Jungkook’s enlightened reply to that, too busy reeling Taehyung in with a hand on his waist as soon as the other man stepped into reach.
“Oh, come on!” The incubus still didn’t look at Taehyung’s roommate, but the guy sounded as if he was glaring at them. Jungkook couldn’t quite find it in himself to care, not when Taehyung was leaning in to let him taste the small smile on his lips. “I’ve got Namjoon coming over in less than an hour and I don’t need your sex noises to make things weird!”
“We’ll be done by then,” Taehyung threw over his shoulder, already pushing a very cooperative Jungkook back towards his room, before he looked at him with an unholy sparkle in his eyes. It had the giddy flutters in his stomach picking up again. Only made worse by the added whisper only Jungkook could hear. “Probably.”