[FIC] Memories

Title: Memories
Characters: Super Junior
Rating: R
Chaptercount: 25/26
Summary: Fifteen people try to find the memories they forgot - or maybe they're just looking for each other.
A/N: A fic written on a hunch. One day I thought; "Super Junior. And vampires. This calls for a fic!" and well.. Here we are? Memories is one of the stories that I'm proud of, despite its sometimes messy storyline. It's also a story that won't be fully understood until you've read it completely. Things will be very confusing as you read, but will also get explained in future chapters. Be warned.

- - - -

There was a huge silence hanging in the room, people staring at Jungsoo or Hyukjae, no one particularly sure how to deal with that revelation. No one except for Misun apparently, who finally mingled in the conversation again, no sign of the generally present confusion on her expression.

“Hyukjae would you allow Jungsoo to take siredom over you for a bit so he can give you your memories back?” she asked calmly, eyes fixing on the vampire next to Sang Mi. The girl herself had gone surprisingly silent and pale, but no one really noticed with all the commotion going on. She watched Hyukjae next to her with worried eyes waiting for his answer to the question. It was a visible relief to everyone present when Hyukjae replied with a ‘Sure, why not?’ as if it was the most normal thing in the world to allow a previous enemy to take siredom over you.

Sang Mi was the only one not looking forward to that, putting a hand on the vampire’s lower arm and asking him with one look to help her out. She must’ve looked very worried and pale indeed, because his eyes immediately changed to green and he focused on no one but her for a moment.

‘Hyukjae…’ she spoke through her thoughts. ‘If you remember them will you also still remember me?’ But what she also sent through without actually wanting to let him know was ‘I love you. You’re all I have left. Please don’t leave me.’ She didn’t show any of those thoughts on her face, but he soon started smiling, reaching out to take her hand. Yet the moment their skins touched, Hyukjae’s eyes suddenly widened and he whirled around to stare at the woman that had moved closer to them, his expression changed into a snarl.

“You.” he hissed, tone so angry that Jongwoon almost immediately moved in between the vampire and his wife, ready to protect her when needed. Misun seemed clueless, but that didn’t mean she actually WAS clueless, the woman was a sly fox really. Sang Mi reached out to put a hand on Hyukjae’s shoulder, a touch that visibly relaxed him. And the moment Hyukjae relaxed, so did Jongwoon.

“Not her.” a completely different voice told them. All heads turned around to see who had spoken. Sang Mi herself turned around as well. Her eyes found one of the many men in the room, but it took a moment for the name to come back to her; Kibum. It still felt surreal to be in the same room with a famous model.

“I studied the lives of all of you to find out exactly what had happened so I would keep my stories the same as the ones that had been told to the public before. What I discovered was something that happened many more years ago. It had been kept a secret to many but as a fellow member I was assumed to know already.” The smile sent to them was dazzling, fangs not visible like on every magazine cover he graced. “Get your memories back first, Hyukjae, you’ll remember as well. You were there when they told me.”

The words spiked Sang Mi’s curiosity, yet seemed to calm down Hyukjae completely. His eyes went to Jungsoo and he hesitated only a moment longer to reach out his hand. But Jungsoo shook his head lightly, reaching out past the hand and pulling the other vampire closer by his wrist. “Back of your neck.” he explained to the surprised expression. “Homin made everyone believe it was the hand, but your hand was crushed beneath a part of the car when I changed you.” He was smart enough not to give the other time to protest before he leaned in. Hyukjae let out a hiss which broke off abruptly the moment Jungsoo’s fangs sank into his skin.

Sang Mi watched in horror as the vampire in front of her seemed to go completely rigid against the one who had just taken siredom over him. When his eyes opened again they were a dull brown, something that scared her more than anything else that had happened so far.

☆.:**´¨`**:.☆

Everyone watched anxiously as Hyukjae gathered himself and straightened up again, pulling away from Jungsoo slowly. All of a sudden he seemed to lose his footing, however, and his eyes turned to his hand in shock. The next moment he started to tremble violently and Jungsoo quickly moved closer to wrap his arms around the other tightly. No one had to read minds to know that something was not completely right with the way Hyukjae was remembering everything.

“When you tell someone to remember through the sire bond they go back just a second to the moment they were changed into vampires.” Misun spoke up softly, her eyes filled with pity for the vampire who was still trembling so hard he couldn’t even stand on his own two feet anymore, having to be kept up by Jungsoo.

It was Heechul who commented on Misun’s words with a soft: “Hyuk seems to have died more painfully than the rest of us then.” His voice was almost emotionless, but the pained expression on his face showed what he really thought about the situation.

Zhou Mi let out a sigh after Heechul’s words, watching Hyukjae go still and then straighten up again. He vividly remembered the moment he himself had regained his own memories. It certainly wasn’t the most enjoyable moment of his life, that was a given. He had gone back to a split second of never ending falling, plummeting down towards a vast ocean, only to never consciously live through the actual collision with the water. He was so lost in his memories that he didn’t notice the tears until he smelled the saltiness. Looking up, he could see Hyukjae clutching his head with his hands.

“It hurts so much.” the vampire whispered and then everything happened at once. Sang Mi threw herself at Misun, yet was intercepted by Jongwoon, who easily kept her from even touching his wife. At the same time both Siwon and Donghae closed in on the suffering vampire only to be kept away by a snarl from Jungsoo, who gathered the younger closer in his arms. Shindong was with them soon too and as the others started to growl at each other, those three seemed to exclude themselves. Zhou Mi was left standing at the side together with Henry, watching the chaos.

“Guys, guys, settle down.” It was Ryeowook who spoke and his usually timid attitude had taken a hundred-eighty degree turn as his eyes took in everyone around him with an almost deadly glare. “What has become of you? You’ve all grown so wary and distrusting. We’re allies here. The ones we should fight are not in this room at this point in time. Perhaps some have tried to do us wrong but everything those with memories have done was try and get our group back together. Why are you thinking now that everyone’s trying to hurt you? Get a grip on yourselves. If you really think someone’s playing tricks on you that must mean you consider yourself weak enough to be misled like that. Trust in yourselves a little more if you don’t trust the others.”

It was hard to stay in place, but Zhou Mi managed, letting his eyes skim the smaller man as he spoke. There was a certain edge to Ryeowook’s voice that had never been there before and a coldness behind his kind exterior that spoke of years spent living a hard vampire’s life. He looked around the room again then to see if anyone had actually listened to the vampire, only to see everyone looking at Ryeowook with the same mixture of amazement and shock he had felt himself when he had heard the kid’s words.

“Now stop staring at me.” Ryeowook gruffly continued when he noticed all eyes were on him, turning around to look at the group of three that were still huddled together. “Hyukjae hyung, you okay?” The only reply he got was a small nod from said person, who looked even more pale than he had done before, the tear tracks still glistering on his cheeks. “So please tell us what Kibummie was talking to you about just before, we’re all very curious I’m sure.”

☆.:**´¨`**:.☆

“That’s not something for him to tell.” Heechul calmly interrupted the whole exchange, sending a wry smile Hyukjae’s way. The still extremely pale vampire smiled back almost invisibly, closing his eyes for a moment and slowly regaining himself again. It was obvious that something had completely knocked him off his feet in a rather negative way. But at least the atmosphere in the room had settled back to a more amiable setting and Jongwoon had put down the no longer trying to kill his wife Sang Mi. Everything had gone back to the cautious but familiar group theme they were used to from earlier.

“And exactly why is it not for him to tell?” a still surprisingly feisty Ryeowook demanded to know in the middle of all that peace, which made the until then silent Siwon speak up.

“Calm down, Ryeowook-ah. If they don’t want to tell that’s their choice. No use making a fuss over everything now.” he spoke in a calming manner, motioning along with his hands. The younger turned to look at him with a frown but after a moment’s consideration seemed to decide that keeping silent again was indeed not such a bad idea.

It was the religious man’s turn then to be the centre of attention, but he didn’t seem to notice. Without much consideration for the whole situation, he simply walked over to Hyukjae and pulled him into a hug. “You okay, Hyukkie?” he asked with a small smile as he patted the other’s back.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Hyukjae replied but the way he allowed the hug to last a little longer showed how much he needed it – and also that he remembered who they were now. “You’re not going to turn into Storm again, right?” he then continued, his voice growing slightly playful. “X-men is cool and all but not so much in real life.”

“Says the one with the green glowing eyes.” Siwon snorted as he let go.

“They happen to be the eyes of my best friend you better watch your words.” Donghae joined in the banter as well, sticking out his tongue at Siwon who merely laughed and pulled Donghae closer to give him a hug too.

“I’ve always thought you were a little soft hyung.” a sudden voice had them all remembering that ‘oh yeah, Kibum’s still here too.’ “You should get a little more aggressive. Give him a hit on his head or something, that’s what I always do.” The next moment Donghae let out a snarl of pain and Siwon was staring wide-eyed at his own hands before looking up at Donghae . The latter was frowning at him by then, turning to look at Kibum a moment later, who was eyeing it all without understanding.

“If you hold siredom over him you could at least tell us, Kibum. And next time you want to hit me, just do so yourself like always. Siwon’s too strong, it actually hurts.” he commented dryly, to which the model frowned in his turn.

“I don’t…” he started, before turning to Siwon. “Sit down.” he stated, eyes growing bigger in surprise as the elder did exactly that. “What? How?” he asked in surprise, yet his expression suddenly cleared as he seemed to remember something. “Hyung, I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” He left a moment of silence, glancing at Heechul once before hesitantly muttering “I give you your freedom back.”

Siwon sat down a moment longer before crawling up. “Okay, that was weird.” he muttered with a frown. “Sorry for hitting you, Hae.”
“It’s quite alright.” said fellow band member reassured him, reaching out to pat his shoulder. It was at that point that Hyukjae suddenly moved and hugged Jungsoo, like the latter had been planning to earlier before Hyukjae moved away.

“Hyung…” he spoke softly, with so much emotion in his voice that it silenced everyone into a kind of amazed silence as they all remembered their own love for some of the people present.

☆.:**´¨`**:.☆

“So what’s next?” Shindong broke that silence after a while, his sight on the future abandoning him at that moment. There seemed to be no future yet for them, at least not one that he could see. A soft sigh escaped him when he realised no one else seemed to have an idea, but before he could suggest something random – just to at least suggest something – Hangeng spoke up.

“I think we should just all decide for ourselves what’s next. It’s not because we’re back together now that we have to stay together. It’d be nice to stay in contact, but we’re not obliged to stay together. it’s not like we’ll still be able to produce music together or anything. He glanced around the room with a small smile, taking in the familiar faces. “I have to admit it’s nice to see you all again. It’s been a really long time since all fifteen of us were in one room together.”

The smile he showed upon saying that was so genuine and warm that for a moment Shindong found himself forgetting the long years of being a vampire. In his memories, he went back to that glorious time almost twenty years ago when they were last together with all fifteen of them. Back then definitely were happier times than what they were in at this point of time.

“First and foremost I think we need to feed and rest, though.” Jungsoo spoke up at that point, making him look up again and focus on the others once more. “It’s been hard on all of you, I’m sure. Jongwoon looks like he’s going to devour a whole city soon and Sungmin’s definitely going to pass out if he doesn’t get any rest in soon.”Agreeing murmurs sounded up from those present and some even nodded, Shindong one of those who merely inclined his head a moment.

“And even if we’d be fit enough, the sun is still up so many of us can’t even risk going out at this point.” Sungmin added to that with a mirthless chuckle. “I’d rather not BE toast for breakfast.” He glanced at the curtains for a moment and seemed to repress a shudder. Kibum was the only one to understand how close he had been to that scene all but a day ago. It felt like weeks had passed already since that moment in which they hid under the cover the younger had provided.

Shindong breathed out air he didn’t know he was holding in, his breathing ceasing again after that as he tucked his hands in the pockets of his pants and looked at the other people present. There were many faces he hadn’t seen in years and – having recovered his memories of those earlier days – he’d love to catch up with, but on the other hand they all felt like strangers to him, a little like what he thought it must feel to them as well.

“Well I suggest those who need sleep can take a rest here.” Heechul offered being the owner of the apartment they were currently residing in. “Seasoning and I will go stack up on blood packs so those in desperate need of it can feed later. The Daywalkers can go their own way whenever they want, the Nightwelps I guess can leave at dusk.” There surprisingly came no protest from the one he had pointed out as Seasoning, the redhead merely leaning against the wall with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

“What will you do after that?” someone asked, but Shindong didn’t get to see who it was when a sudden scene invaded his head and he had to close his eyes to see it more clearly. He stood like that watching the images flash by for what seemed like an eternity but really only was a split second. There was a short moment of hesitation in him and then he replied to the question before anyone else could, slowly opening his eyes as he did so.

“We’re going to take back the Facility.”