Chapter Text
Alhaitham’s fangs ached as he glared down at the mountain of paperwork before him. “Fuck’s sake,” he muttered, signing off on yet another denial for a funding request.
Unable to concentrate any longer, he reached into his minifridge and retrieved the last dregs of a bloodbag. With a grimace, he twisted off the cap and downed the remaining few drops - disgusting, but necessary.
Being a vampire hybrid - one of the few in Teyvat - wasn’t the stuff of grim, dated fairytales, centuries-old sheet-white creeps unable to step into the sun. He wasn’t immortal, though he enjoyed enhanced strength and a slightly longer lifespan than usual given his genetic proclivity for good health.
Unlike the ancient creatures of lore, hybrids needed both food and water and a small amount of blood to sustain them. Society had adapted over time to allow for less primitive methods of obtaining it like blood bank programs; attacks were virtually unheard of, and feeding from humans was a relic of the past.
Two weeks ago, though, a mechanical failure at the Sumeru City Blood Bank had spoiled their entire supply. This bag was his final lifeline.
The matra were setting up a supervised donor system to draw blood from volunteers, have it tested, then provide it to the vampire in need the following day... but due to Alhaitham’s particular need for B-negative blood, rare enough on its own, no suitable donors had come in.
As he set down the empty bag, a knock echoed throughout the silence of his office. Alhaitham’s irritation flared as he glanced at the door. Given his hungry, weakened state, he had even less patience than usual - he had already cancelled all of his meetings that day to avoid any interaction.
“What?” he called gruffly, pushing the blood bag into the trash next to his desk so he wouldn’t have to endure the inevitable look of disgust from whoever it was. The door swung open to reveal Kaveh - a burst of vibrant energy in an otherwise dreary day. A reluctant smile tugged at Alhaitham’s lips.
“Hey, Haitham,” Kaveh murmured softly, his beautiful crimson eyes shimmering with warmth as he closed the door with a gentle click.
“Hi.”
“Mm, you have some blood on your lip.” Kaveh slid his thumb along his own bottom lip and glanced down at Alhaitham’s in the same spot. His voice held no hint of the disgust Alhaitham had come to expect from everyone else... but that was just Kaveh, kind and understanding where others were not, to a fault. “Were you just feeding? I know the shortage is pretty bad. You still have enough to get by?”
“I just finished my last bag,” Alhaitham replied, reaching up to wipe away the lingering drop of blood with the back of his hand. He rolled his eyes at Kaveh’s answering stern expression. “It’s no big deal, I’ll manage until they restock. I’m sure the shortage won't last that long. They said they’ll contact me as soon as any B-negative comes in.”
He leaned back in his chair as the faint ache in his fangs sharpened. He hadn’t fed enough for weeks... but there was nothing that could be done about it, so there was no use complaining.
Kaveh’s eyebrows knitted together, a frown pulling at the corners of his lips. As he stepped forward and rested a hip on the side of the desk, he fixed Alhaitham with a determined stare. “You’re going to become malnourished soon. You’ll get sick... not to mention you’re even more of a pain in the ass than usual when you’re hungry.”
Alhaitham raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you expect me to do? Go prowl around and munch on a stranger, hope they have the right blood type so I don’t keel over, and then get arrested for violating the feeding statute?”
“Alhaitham, you haven’t fed properly for a while now.” Alhaitham opened his mouth to retort, but Kaveh held up a hand. “Don’t bother trying to deny it, I’m not stupid. Plus your staff were complaining about how insufferable you’ve been lately when I walked in.”
Traitorous assholes.
Kaveh tilted his head to the side and tapped his neck. “But I, um... I got my blood tested this morning; I’m B-negative. You know my medical history, my blood’s clean - I know you’re all weird and puritan about it, but why don’t you just feed directly from me? The matra’s emergency system is better than nothing, but they’re understaffed and slow. Even if I went down to donate right now, it’d be days before it got to you.”
He stared blankly at Kaveh, momentarily taken aback by the amount of thought he’d put into Alhaitham’s predicament. A dizzying surge of both dread and arousal rushed through him as he imagined drinking from Kaveh, burying his fangs in the smooth skin of his throat - both from primal, vampiric desire and a far more simple human urge to experience that sort of intimate closeness with him.
When Alhaitham was young, he’d vaguely wondered why vampires had ever had the desire to drink straight from a person rather than from a bag - the mere thought of biting someone seemed repulsive to him.
... Until he met Kaveh.
He’d been sitting in the library, his small eleven-year-old body drowning in his Akademiya robes, when he’d caught sight of Kaveh scanning a nearby bookshelf. As Kaveh had reached up for a book on a high shelf, his robes pooled around his shoulders and revealed the column of his throat in its entirety. Alhaitham’s eyes had locked in on his neck as something primitive and powerful lit up every cell in his body all at once.
His fangs had dropped into his mouth for the first time that day.
Shaking off the reverie, Alhaitham exhaled sharply and closed his eyes for a moment to calm himself. When he opened them, Kaveh was watching him intently, his gaze unwavering and expectant.
“What, you’re really just offering yourself up like a human blood bag?” Alhaitham asked incredulously, his voice rougher than intended. “You know it’s dangerous, right? Painful?”
“I’m sick of watching you waste away. You look like shit. Just... let me help. I don’t care if it’s painful, I can handle it.”
“I could hurt you, Kaveh. Badly.”
Kaveh rolled his eyes. “You’re not going to hurt me.”
The air shifted as Kaveh’s offer settled between them. Alhaitham’s mind spun with conflicting thoughts - the practicality of survival versus the terror of risking the one thing he’d always controlled: his overwhelming desire for Kaveh. Risking Kaveh himself.
He drew in a slow breath and stared at Kaveh's exposed neck. Since he’d started rationing his supply, he’d been waking up in a cold sweat multiple times a night with lingering images his brain had conjured of Kaveh spread out beneath him as Alhaitham fed from his throat.
Clenching his fists, Alhaitham muttered, “I... I can’t.”
Kaveh sighed. “You’re almost done with work, right? Just... think about it at least. Okay? I’ll go home and start on dinner, and we can talk about it tonight - hopefully you’ll come to your senses and let yourself feed from me then. Anyway, I came by to bring you this just in case you weren’t doing well since you seemed extra crabby when you left for work this morning.” Kaveh held out a small pouch of pills that looked handmade. “Heme iron from Tighnari. To keep you from croaking, you stubborn ass...”
As Kaveh walked toward the door, Alhaitham tried to form a reply, to protest, anything - but the words wouldn’t come.
“Think about it. Please,” Kaveh said softly, then shut the door with a click.
Alhaitham groaned and dropped his forehead forward onto his desk with a dull thunk. “Fuck.”
By the time Alhaitham arrived home later that evening, the ache in his fangs had deepened. He locked the door behind him and kicked off his shoes in a daze, drawn in by the fresh, warm, inviting scent of food... and of Kaveh. He followed the smell to the kitchen.
Kaveh hummed as he stood before the stove, damp hair pulled back in a loose bun, clad in a flowy white shirt and small cotton sleep shorts that left his golden-brown thighs on full display as he mixed spices into a steaming pot.
Alhaitham frowned. He was already having to concentrate all of his self-control on denying himself Kaveh’s offer, and the tantalizing addition of his exposed skin was fragmenting Alhaitham’s already weakened resolve.
What business did Kaveh have looking this beautiful all the time? Asshole.
Kaveh turned to smile at him, thankfully oblivious to Alhaitham’s wandering gaze. “Hey Haitham, curry’s almost ready.”
“Alright,” he managed, his voice slightly strangled as his stomach clenched with more than one kind of hunger.
He didn’t even realize he was staring again until Kaveh turned and raised an eyebrow at him, gesturing to the side of his neck Alhaitham’s eyes were unknowingly fixated on.
“Did you think about it?” Kaveh asked softly.
Alhaitham nodded jerkily, his gaze lingering on Kaveh’s throat for another moment before he managed to lift it to the swirling scarlet of his eyes - which were only marginally less distracting.
“I did.”
Kaveh hummed thoughtfully as he carried two steaming bowls over to the table. “And...?”
“I still think you’re completely insane,” Alhaitham said slowly, gaze fixed on Kaveh as he took a seat across from him. “But I suppose I don’t really have many other options right now.”
Kaveh studied him for a moment. “So you’ll feed from me, then?”
Alhaitham took a deep breath, searching Kaveh’s beautiful crimson eyes for any hint of hesitancy.
“I will,” he said quietly after a long pause. “With precautions. You have to have a knife handy and promise to use it if I -”
Kaveh cut him off with a snort of laughter. “You’re so ridiculous. Fine, whatever you need to feel better,” he responded nonchalantly as he took another bite of curry.
Alhaitham stared at him blankly, baffled by his blasé attitude. “Kaveh, I could kill you. Do you understand that? I’m - you should be fucking scared of me. What is wrong with you?”
Kaveh merely waved a hand dismissively. “Yes, yes, you’re very scary. Terrifying bloodthirsty vampire out to get me,” he muttered sardonically. “Now will you please just eat your damn food so we can get on with it? I’m tired.”
Alhaitham shook his head in disbelief and sighed heavily as he picked up his spoon. “You’re an idiot.” He paused after taking a bite. “... Good curry.”
“Glad you think so, since it’s apparently going to be my last meal.”
“This would hardly be a suitable last meal.”
Lifting a hand to his chest, Kaveh gasped melodramatically. “Just for that, I’m charging you for dinner next time.”
“Archons know you need the mora,” Alhaitham muttered, his nerves settling slightly from their usual easy banter, familiar and comfortable. Kaveh kicked him gently under the table.
Their feet came to rest beside each other, ankles brushing together... yet neither of them moved away.
As they finished eating, the heaviness settled back into Alhaitham’s psyche. He cleared the table with shaky hands, his anxiety simmering - uneasy and eager in equal measure.
“Are you sure about this?” Alhaitham asked again, staring at Kaveh intently as he dried off his hands.
Kaveh sighed and fixed him with an exasperated expression. “Yes, for the thousandth time, I’m sure, you oversized mosquito. Where do you want to do it?”
Alhaitham’s stomach did a somersault. Kaveh’s tone was so matter-of-fact - like it was some mundane task, not something that could irrevocably change their relationship.
“The... couch, I guess. More comfortable for you. And Kaveh, seriously,” he swallowed hard as they walked into the living room. “This is dangerous. If at any point I get too, um... overzealous, or if I hurt you, or take too much - anything. I need you to promise me you’ll stop me. No matter what. Okay?”
Kaveh nodded as he flopped down onto the divan, patting the cushion beside him and fixing his bun to draw his hair away from his neck. “Yeah, I got it,” he said carelessly as Alhaitham settled next to him, their thighs brushing together.
With a heavy sigh, Alhaitham held up up a sharp knife made of silver from the kitchen - it wouldn’t kill him if he got stabbed with it, but it would definitely be painful enough that he’d stop whatever he was doing if he lost control.
“Knife,” he muttered, pressing the handle into Kaveh’s palm.
Kaveh took it with an exaggerated eye roll and set it on the coffee table. “What, no cutting board? Garlic?” Alhaitham shot him an unamused look - as a hybrid, his discomfort with garlic was akin to a mild allergy, but Kaveh still made sarcastic comments about it whenever he got annoyed with Alhaitham.
Alhaitham didn’t dignify him with a response. After a moment of silence, Kaveh relented with a soft sigh. “Okay, okay. I promise I’ll poke your eye out if you go nuts. Happy?”
Alhaitham ran his thumb and forefinger over the bridge of his nose and clenched his jaw. “Kaveh, I’ve never fed from a person before, only ever from bags. I don’t know how I’ll react, how you'll react - there’s not much information on direct feedings for hybrids since it’s not usually... you know. Acceptable. To feed this way. But it’ll hurt you, it’s not going to be pleasant.”
Kaveh shrugged, lounging back against the cushions as he tucked his feet underneath himself. He rested his head in his hand and shifted sideways, elbow against the back of the couch. “Well we’ll just have to find out then, won’t we?”
Alhaitham sat quietly for a moment, trying to calm himself as his eyes fell to Kaveh’s neck. It was as beautiful as the rest of him, smooth and tan... and achingly vulnerable.
The tension in Alhaitham’s jaw doubled. If he lost control, even for a second, he could kill Kaveh. Fidgeting on the couch, he began to second guess his decision... but Kaveh, ever the perceptive little pain in the ass, seemed to read the reluctance in his eyes immediately.
“Hey,” Kaveh murmured, the teasing note fading away from his voice. “I bet it won’t be that different from drinking from your bags, okay? Just... take a deep breath. It’s okay. You’re not some mindless, instinct-driven animal with no control over your own body. You’re not going to hurt me. I trust you.”
Alhaitham’s resolve wavered. Archons, how many times was he going to be taken by surprise by this man’s perfection? He could only fall so hard. The soft blanket of Kaveh’s unyielding trust soothed him a little, though, and he took a deep breath to steady his nerves.
“Okay,” he grunted as his eyes dropped to Kaveh's neck once more, sliding closer to him on the couch. “It’s going to hurt no matter what, even if I’m gentle, so... I’m sorry.”
Lifting his fingers to the side of Kaveh’s neck closest to the couch, Alhaitham coaxed his head down toward the cushion to reveal the other side of his throat.
Kaveh tilted his head pliantly to expose the soft skin of his neck. Alhaitham gently traced his fingers along his throat - savouring one of the rare instances he could indulge in such intimacy with Kaveh without revealing his true feelings.
He leaned in and tentatively brushed his lips against Kaveh’s skin, just above the vein that throbbed with his pulse. Kaveh inhaled sharply before relaxing again as Alhaitham nosed at his neck.
Alhaitham was taking too long to get started, but he couldn’t help himself - Kaveh’s smooth skin was tantalizing in more ways than one. “Are you... Kaveh, are you absolutely sure about this?” Alhaitham murmured, his fangs descending into his mouth as his eyes fluttered closed.
“Yeah,” Kaveh breathed, his voice slightly less even now. Fuck, was he scared? “Yeah, go ahead. It’s okay.”
Alhaitham inhaled slowly, allowing Kaveh’s scent to envelop his senses as his body tingled with something unfamiliar - tense and anticipatory. It was as though the vein beneath Kaveh’s soft skin was calling out Alhaitham’s name, beckoning him in with a powerful lull like a siren’s song.
Kaveh didn’t flinch as the tips of his fangs came to rest hesitantly on his throat, and with one final, resolute breath, he gave in. Thumb caressing the other side of Kaveh’s neck as he held him in place, Alhaitham punctured his skin with a gentle bite.