“What were you thinking?”
The thought of rolling around in bed with two brothers. Yan couldn’t bring himself to answer that and just bit his lower lip. Then he felt a hand touch the back of his head.
“Who tied this blindfold so complicatedly? Hold on, I’ll try to undo the knot, and if I can’t, I’ll cut the string.”
“Uh…”
Caught in the casual atmosphere, Yan responded dumbly. As his excitement subsided, other possibilities came to mind.
‘I guess there’s no rule saying Procion’s companion has to be Sirius?’
The person with superhuman strength (Yan was confused whether he could even be called a person) who had thrown him, chair and all, might not be Sirius. They had seemed so close that he assumed they came together, but it was strange that Sirius, who was supposedly busy, would come to New York. As Procion said, it was a city far from the kingdom.
“It’s off.”
The cloth covering his eyes slid down. Even with his eyes closed, the sunlight penetrated his eyelids. Yan opened his eyes carefully. Having no time to prepare for the sudden exposure to light, his eyes stung, and physiological tears flowed.
“Oh dear, were you very scared?”
Somehow interpreting his tears that way, Procion asked. It was clearly a kind voice, but perhaps because it was husky, it was oddly chilling. Yan unconsciously stepped back but found his wrist caught.
“Don’t move carelessly—it’s dangerous.”
“What’s dangerous about it?”
“You’re not planning to face two vampires in your pajamas, are you, Officer?”
That wasn’t his intention, but hearing it put that way, he couldn’t just leave the kidnappers alone. He wondered how well Procion’s companions would handle them.
“If you’re going, at least take this.”
Procion placed something in Yan’s hand. Feeling the trigger, he looked down incredulously and saw it was indeed a gun—though not a real gun but a toy water gun. It was something he had almost thrown away the night before but ended up keeping.
“Why do you have this?”
“Because you dropped it? Can you just discard someone’s gift like that?”
“S-sorry.”
He didn’t remember dropping it—probably lost it during the kidnapping—but Yan apologized readily. After all, he had intended to throw it away. Though he had picked it up again, Procion would have been quite hurt if he knew.
“You didn’t believe me about the holy water, but it’s real. When have I ever lied to you?”
He had never lied. He’d merely concealed his species and sibling relationship.
When Yan looked up sullenly, Procion seemed less confident, brushing his bangs up and avoiding eye contact. Yan extended his hand to him.
“You have a phone, right? Let me borrow it for a moment.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean, why? To call the police, of course!”
“Leave it. This is between vampires.”
“But it’s happening in our neighborhood, not your kingdom! How can you just let those kidnappers do who knows what else?”
Procion’s lips curved upward gently. His gaze was affectionate, as if looking at something cute, but there was also mockery mixed in. Yan didn’t like feeling treated like an ignorant child by Procion.
“My goodness, Yan. Worrying about the welfare of your kidnappers!”
“What are you talking about? When did I worry about the kidnappers’…”
“Those guys are going to die here.”
Procion crossed his index fingers to make a cross. It was truly un-vampire-like behavior. Just as Yan was about to tell him to be serious:
“Because they’ve encountered Sirius.”
Yan froze with his mouth open.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Procion muttered, wondering if Yan had hit his head. But Yan thought he wouldn’t be this dazed even if he had been hit. Because, because…
“So that’s all I was to him.”
“If he had any care for me at all, he wouldn’t have stayed silent all this time.”
“Using me as bait would be a waste of effort.”
His previous thoughts swirled. The conclusion Yan had reached was overturned by the whirlwind before him. A conclusion he had pondered over deeply was changed just by the fact that someone had appeared at this place.
“Sirius came?”
“Yes.”
“He really came…? Why?”
“Obviously to get you, what else?”
Caught in mild excitement, Yan didn’t notice the irritation in Procion’s response.
“I was planning to keep my distance until things were settled, but who knew this would happen. You’re also at fault. How could a police officer get kidnapped by such insignificant vampires, not even S-class?”
The criticism didn’t even scratch his heart. Procion realized Yan’s gaze was dreamy and swore.
“Can you see nothing but Sirius? Do you think I’m just here for a casual stroll?”
“No, that’s not it.”
Coming to his senses, Yan stammered an apology. Of course, he was glad to see Procion too, but having met him just yesterday, he was comparatively less surprised. But such excuses only earned him a cold stare.
“I don’t like it.”
“What?”
The careful question was met with a blunt answer.
“Sharing a brother with my brother! Being twins is inconvenient at times like this—having to share both the throne and partners.”
“…What?”
Good Lord.
Yan called upon a deity he hadn’t even invoked when attacked by vampires in front of the Palace Hotel.
“…What did you say? Twins? What does that mean?”
He had to ask several times, still unable to understand the situation.
Procion answered without relaxing his furrowed brow.
“Sirius and I are twins.”
“What…?”
“Why are you asking again? Is it that surprising?”
“How is this not surprising?!”
So I did roll around in bed with two brothers. And they were apparently twins. Yan bit his lower lip hard. His already compressed lip swelled red. Procion tapped Yan’s lip with his index finger.
“Don’t hurt yourself. And I thought you had already figured it out.”
“How could I figure it out? You never told me!”
“Well, everyone else we’ve met has known just by looking at our faces.”
“…”
On this point, he truly had nothing to say. Now that he thought about it, they did look remarkably alike. But Yan felt wronged too.
“Is having similar eyes, nose, mouth, and ears everything? Your vibes are completely different!”
Sirius, with his black hair and consistently black attire, had an overall dark image. And Procion, with his bright image that made it hard to believe he was a vampire.
Judging by appearance alone, they didn’t look like twins or even brothers.
“Having similar eyes, nose, mouth, and ears is everything. What else should be similar?”
‘Come to think of it, their dicks look similar too.’
Yan swallowed the thought that suddenly occurred to him. This was something he absolutely couldn’t say.
“So, are you calmer now?”
“No.”
Though his response was curt, he was indeed calmer than before. Yan stopped fidgeting with his fingers and let out a deep sigh. There was still much weighing on his chest, but it seemed he had missed the timing to be angry. Besides, it was awkward to complain when they had come by helicopter to rescue him.
“You’re the root cause of the kidnapping anyway.”
“I’m sorry about that.”
Unexpectedly, Procion apologized. Puzzled, Yan turned to look at him. He hadn’t really blamed him. Yan knew the true culprits were the kidnappers.
“That’s why we were planning to keep apart until things settled, but I guess we misjudged. Who knew this would happen the moment we took our eyes off you.”
His tone was as if addressing a child. Yet Yan was a robust man who had passed the police physical fitness test with a perfect score. Though he had nothing to say about being kidnapped so easily due to his carelessness.
“Let’s go now. Tell me your address, and I’ll take you there.”
“Wait, we’re going to my place?”
“Is there somewhere else we should go?”
“We should help Sirius…”
His voice trailed off ambiguously, somewhere between a period and a question mark. As he spoke, he wondered, ‘Do I really need to help Sirius?’ Or more accurately, ‘Can I even help Sirius?’
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
