#suppose this would be a no magic/normal human au

[draco-glacialis]

Agatha: I never said I was gonna get back together with them. But I was thinking, they're in town, would it be the worst thing in the world if I gave them a call?

Jen: No. No, Agatha, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. It would be the fourth worst thing. Number one: a super volcano. Number two: an asteroid hits the Earth. Number three: All the Evel Knievel movies are lost. Number four: Agatha calls Rio. Number five: Alice gets eaten by a shark.

Alice: I’m Alice, and I approve the order of that list.

[yourlocalmissingtexture]

Staring daggers (lovingly) at my boyfriend for getting a song from a musical stuck in my head because it’s in his hypothetical AMV for the (even more) unhinged AU version of my mad scientist character

The song is “Alive” by Anthony Warlow from the Jekyll & Hyde musical btw

[quadrantadvisor]

DPxDC Danny/Jason Soulmates AU WIP

-

Jason's timer read 044389:21:08, when the display suddenly went dark. 44,389 hours. Five years, 24 days, 13 hours, 21 minutes, and 8 seconds until he was fated to meet his soulmate.

Or not. Because the time stopped.

It wasn’t supposed to happen. He did his research, and with the resources at his disposal (namely, a batcomputer,) he knew for a fact that there should be no way to defy the fate of a timer. People had tried. Avoidance, isolation, putting a hit out on your own suspected soulmate. Nothing worked. Trying to delay the inevitable put you on the path to meet it. Sure, there were people who lamented the unfairness of their own situation, who were devastated they never got time with their soulmate, famous deaths on opposite sides of a battle, etc. But soulmates always, always met eachother, face to face.

Not him, though. His soulmate was dead. Five years early.

Bruce didn’t get it. Dick wouldn’t talk about it. Alfred only looked at him with pity in his eyes.

Jason wasn’t sad that he was the only person on the planet who’d never meet his soulmate. He was fucking angry, because it wasn’t fucking fair. It was another person in his life who was supposed to care about him that he’d never get to have.

So when he found out he had a mom, somewhere out there, who he’d never had the chance to meet… he had to go. How could he not?

-

It was Sam who noticed, when it happened. Danny had just finished a stupid fight with Boxy, and he, Sam, and Tucker were finally ready to call it a night. Danny de-transformed and grinned, shaking the thermos proudly. “Gonna get these guys back into the Ghost Zone,” he said, when suddenly-

“Danny!” Sam yelped, and snatched at his arm.

Danny stumbled, nearly dropping his precious cargo. “Whoa, Sam, what-?’ he stopped, looking as she turned over his arm, baring his wrist.

His timer was dark, like people who’s soulmates were dead. The numbers still showed, faintly, but they were stationary. The countdown had stopped.

Ice spread through Danny’s veins, like the cold that rushed through him when he went ghost, but worse, so much worse.

Danny’s ghost form didn’t have a timer, which honestly freaked him out, but as a human it had always behaved completely normally. When he turned back, it would be there, the time having elapsed just the way it was supposed to. It had been so reassuring. He was alive. He’d make it at least five more years, and be able to meet his soulmate, who would hopefully be able to accept him the way he was. He wanted that so badly. He wanted someone beyond his friends to talk to, to know him as a person and a ghost. He wanted to not be afraid anymore.

He’d just passed the five year mark, not that long ago. He’d been so excited to be that much closer to someone so important.

And now something was horribly wrong.

“Dude, that’s jacked up,” Tucker said, noticing the problem with wide eyes.

“Did anything happen today?” Sam asked, her expression hardened with determination. “Did you notice anything weird while you were transformed?”

Danny shook his head. “No, no it- it was running while we were at school, and we’ve been fighting ghosts since then. I don’t know when it would’ve…” Danny could barely make himself speak. “Is it my fault?” he said, almost to himself. “Did I spend too much time as a ghost and it just-”

Sam gripped at his hand. “No, Danny, it isn’t your fault. Whatever the problem is, we’re going to figure it out, okay?”

“Yeah man,” Tucker added, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, maybe your parents can actually help this time? Weird magic science is kinda their thing, right?”

Sam looked less sure, but nodded all the same. “You’re going to meet your soulmate. Okay?”

“Okay,” Danny said, quiet, looking down at the stopped numbers on his wrist.

-

Edit: Added a readmore

[warning-heckboop]

A little something based on a sort of spin-off of @bunnieswithknives's Nature au that my partner and I came up with while chatting. The premise is under the cut because it's kinda of long :')

Conversation taken directly from Discord for efficiency's sake. Regular text is my own, bolded is @adhdemizel

The animal they witness the shooting as is a deer. The last animal Dale sees them as before they reveal their true form is a wolf

I have this concept based on the Nature au in my head of an actual changeling witnessing Dale shoot Dev, and because fae are all about rules and stuff, the changeling travels across the land as various animals until it finds Dale again, only to then reveal its true, monstrous form in the process of ripping Dale's own leg off. Because an eye for an eye and all that jazz

Using magic to blend in or to cover more ground, and finally finding them and SERVING JUSTICE--

After they rip Dale's leg off, Peri comes to investigate all the screaming because he's worried for Dev's safety, and he and the now-a-wolf-again fae, who's soaked in blood, lock eyes, and Peri sees the familar glint of magic, and he knows

Just an actual random changeling who lived in the forest. They aren't a god parent, but rather an independent fae

They have no tie to Dev, other than witnessing his injury, and then feeling the urge to restore the balance that Dale disturbed

They're acting on their own, but do you think they see Peri, another magic creature, and feel like he failed? Disappointed that they had to step up and make things right for another fae's human?

Mmmm not necessarily! I feel like an independent fae would still know the basics about god parents, and how strict the rules they're bound by are. I think they'd be more so angry at the god parent system overall

Peri, also angry at the god parent system

Secretly grateful for this other fae doing what he couldn't

Maybe he's supposed to report to Jorgen about this rogue fae, to keep them from hurting anyone else. But he doesn't

Turning away to let something huge slide because it was in defense of a kid he couldn't protect

I like to think that even Jorgen would have let it slide, if he'd known. Dale deserved it

He'd tell Peri he dealt with it as needed, but literally all he did was go "nice" and shred the report

The other fae goes back home and let's others in the area know to watch out for a one-legged fae hunter with sharp red hair, just in case he tries again

He probably would try again. Now that he knows they're real, he's determined to catch one

That might have been one benefit of Peri actually telling Jorgen--Jorgen would have wiped Dale's memory and made it seem like a normal animal attack

Do you think he'd drag Dev along again?

Oh, certainly. He needs bait, and he can't risk anymore of his own limbs. It was Dev's fault he messed up as bait the first time. He needs to make up for that failure

He plates his prosthetic with iron for extra protection

Not permanently, because it's unsightly, but also not for Dev. He doesn't want anything to ward fae away from Dev.

Surely any changelings who saw Dev would know he's much too young to be the hunter they were told about.... Right?

Fae have impossibly long lifespans, he might look like a child, but all humans seem too young to them

You're right. And he matches the description so perfectly...

I guess it will have to be up to Peri to protect him, when he comes down to it. Lord knows Dale has better things to do

Dale, not-so-secretly hoping Dev gets into a confrontation so he can swoop in- not to play the hero in any way, but so Dev doesn't get in the way again

[galaxygirl8880]

@nerdpoe I saw ur krs doesn't get instant au and i wrote something short for it 👉👈

There are no thoughts running through Raon miru's head as he stared at the rubble in front of him.

At his human. Cale, who is inhaling raspy, short breaths. There is blood pouring out of his mouth. He looks like he is in pain.

How-

What just happened?

They were at camp. Everything was peaceful. Choi hah was sharing stories of his homeland, everyone was telling jokes and laughing and singing songs. There was- an earthquake? The mountain must have been unstable. The prince said there was an abandoned mine nearby that needed to be sealed off because of rising bandit activity. Cale had only accepted because Raon, Ohn and Hong wanted to go on a vacation-

It was supposed to be an easy, fun trip. Then they noticed the shaking and the falling rocks and not even Choi han could have helped without making it worse. He had panicked. He was relaxed and happy and wasn't thinking properly when the Boulders started falling.

Cale stumbles the slightest bit and Raon is the first one to get to him. The dragon lowers him down gently with magic as Ron starts checking his vitals, getting him to breath.

Raon miru is ashamed to say that there was a moment of silence where no one could move. Once Cale is cleared for transport, the dragon gets ready to teleport everyone back home.

It feels like his ears are stuffed with cotton, the only thing in his line of sight being Cale covered in his own blood. Cale does not fall unconscious until he is laid back in bed and a healer is called. But he does not speak. And Raon does not know what to think.

---

The dining hall is dead silent. Cale is sleeping and Jack had been called to keep a close eye on him.

Raon would love to be by his human's side and count the seconds until he woke up again but...

Cale saved them.

(Again.)

And he did it using- well. That's what raon wants to know. And he wants to know so he can ban Cale from using it ever again.

Raon miru would do anything to never hear that sound come from Cale Henituse's throat ever again.

Cale is not one to cry. He is known for his levelheadedness. Even in situations where a normal man would break. Its one of the reasons why he is so dependable, trustworthy, the shield of the roan kingdom. (His human hates that nickname but it doesn't mean it's not true in a way.)

In that moment of weakness, cale opened his mouth, let out the most gutteral scream-

and decimated the entire mountain.

'indescribable. Full of anguish and fury and sorrow.' Is what the people that were with Cale that day agreed on when reporting back to Alberu. A scream that wouldn't belong anywhere but the funeral of your most precious person.

A scream that fuels Raon's drive to be stronger. So that Cale will never be in a situation where using that is the only way out.

Raon hears Choi han make the same promise to himself later that day while at Cal's bedside. While Raon, Ohn, and Hong are trying to distract themselves by drawing together (it's not working). He knows that the other two heard it as well by the determined look they all shared and he knows that they are thinking the same thing.

---

When Cale woke up, (A few people cried. Choi han included.) he was banned from talking by Jack and Ron and Eruhaben and raon and Rosalyn and the kids and-

Cale was not allowed to talk.

Meaning he had to listen to everyone lecture him while being unable to retort. He was given a pen and paper that was mostly filled with apologies and attempting to avoid any questions about the mysterious ability. Cale could only eat soup for the time being because of the internal wounds in his throat. Ron stuck to sweet, room temperature tea for fear of the acidity of his usual blend aggravating his throat more.

Eruhaben and Ron drilled it into his head that he could never use that ability ever again. (Cale privately apologized in his head because he would do so in a heartbeat if necessary. The ancient dragon and assassin pretended as if they didn't also know this.) Hong thinks he heard Ron and Cale have a heart-to-heart. Although it was Ron questioning him and fast responses in the form of writing for Cale.

Alberu did not mention the reports of citizens in the nearby town being scared of the scream that came from the forest. The sadness some felt from the sound. His royal highness feels a bit guilty for being thankful that he did not have to hear Cale's ability.

Rosalyn was quick to create a device so Cale can communicate better, something to play the writing outloud. And if she spent a bit of extra time in Cale's room where she braided his hair, sharing new stories about her siblings when asked, then that's between them.

---

I feel like if roan has a version of sign language then everyone would make the effort to learn it. Even though Cale can still technically speak, no one wants him to strain himself. (Vitality of the heart fixed most of it but they weren't hearing it. He still gets phantom pains sometimes so Cale is quietly grateful for their support.)

[reallyromealone]

Title: Tokyo revengers omegaverse

Chapter: 8

Fandom: Tokyo revengers

Characters: Tokyo revengers ensemble

Fic type: series

Pairings: Toman/ tenjiku x reader

Warnings: male reader, reader insert omegaverse, angst, slow burn, one sided, au, Omega male reader

Notes: oh look two series chapters finished

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Thankfully wakasa gave him his pipe, the beta taking long drags as he used his magic to keep the fuckers away.

The oils completely masked the scent of the Omega, after a day the alphas slowly calmed down enough to be reasoned with, all sitting on their knees as Emma ripped into them "I leave for two seconds! And you assholes ruin an omegas life! He's probably traumatized!" She seethed as her brothers looked anywhere but the blond Omega who was about to burn this place to the ground in anger.

"We just wanted him as ours!"

"How would you react if some knothead alphas acted like that to me?! You should be ashamed of yourself!"

When (name)s heat finally ended, he was hesitant to leave the room but the pups dragged him out "we will protect you!" Takemichi said all heroic like, the pups not understanding the situation but wanting to support their new friend "we can see if uncle Tai can make us yummy treats!"

The three toddlers chatted away with (name), surprisingly affective at easing his worries as they wandered towards the kitchen area.

"Now when he gets out, I expect grovelling and an apology!" Was what the four heard as they walked past the great Hall and the toddlers perked up at the voice "Aunty!" Little Inupi was the one to chirp out, bouncing on his little feet as he ran to push open the door, the other toddlers following suit.

(Name) looked extremely anxious as the pups wandered off to this person whom he didn't know but promptly reminded himself that these weren't his pups.

These were Shinichiros pups.

The blond Omega smiled down at the pups who stared at her with stars in their eyes.

Then she looked up to lock eyes with the poor Omega her brothers clans had been terrorizing.

Demon or human, omegas had a way of communication to show they weren't a threat.

A soft chirp passed her lips and she watched (name) perk up at the sound and return the gesture and visibly relax....until he saw the alphas who terrorized him.

"Did you assholes not remember what I said?" Emma's voice was cold as she stared down the alphas, the alphas immediately groveling before (name).

This was unheard of, alphas bowing to an Omega...well (name)s never seen this.

"We formally apologize for the awful behavior we presented...we hope this doesn't ruin any chances of you coming with us" both Izana and Mikey said bowing, lest they face their sisters wrath.

Could they take her? Absolutely

Do they wish to have shinichiro mad at them? No because that is worse than anything.

"I just...don't understand" (name) sighed "I-I don't understand how me helping someone lead to me having my whole world torn from me..."

Emma looked at the omega sadly, knowing from one Omega to another how... difficult alphas can be.

"Well you're normal life is off the table sadly, is there anyway for them to provide they are worthy of you"

(Name) liked Emma, she spoke to him like a person not a commodity.

"I don't want to be a breeding tool... I'm a person with wants and goals" (name) said honestly "they see me as this commodity, a prize to lord over the others head"

"You wish to be seen as an equal"

"Yes"

"Will you let them earn the right to be your equal?"

"...I suppose but...just I don't want them to be overbearing"

"That is something I can't promise seeing as my brother's look at you like you hung the moon"

Both clans stared at (name) like he was a god and in a way he was.

Demons held great value and care to male omegas as they could do what many couldn't.

And (name) sadly was surrounded by the most obsessive and possessive alphas.

"So that settles it, prove to him that you are worthy of his love"

♥️

Kisaki was prepping, having gathered supplies to kill (name) and any demons who get in his way.

But...would it be enough?

What Kisaki didn't know was it wasn't just a demon clan... It was nearly four clans I'm one space.

Kisaki blinded by rage didn't understand that this was a death sentence lunar moon or not.

Even if he did realize this... He wouldn't have cared.

He would sacrifice ten people or a thousand if it meant (name) died.

To kill the cursed Omega who took everything from him.

And he knew he had the best weapon of attack.

❤️

(Name) Was happy to have another Omega to talk to, someone who was absolutely not afraid to rip her brother's a new one "at this rate, their clans are better off merging" she mumbled and (name) tilted his head a bit confused "it would ease tensions and stress for you to choose" she continued and (name) nodded.

A part of him wanted to run away and hide but he knew that was impossible especially as they already set their sights on him, he was rarely alone save for using the washroom and even then he had littles following him occasionally.

The pups were cute but had no boundaries just like their uncles.

"(Naaaame)~" speak of the devil.

Literally.

Mikey walked in merrily into the sitting room with a bouquet of flowers "humans like these right?" He asked sweetly, really pushing up the charm to woo the other as Emma rolled her eyes "Mikey those flowers are toxic to human omegas" she said simply and Mikey just set the flowers on fire "what flowers?" He said simply before walking out the room angrily.

"They mean well but they have no idea how humans work" she sighed as they continued their tea.

[larluce]

Merlin as a Arthur's familiar/Arthur's shapeshifter falcon AU

Tagging @ww1301 , @dsabian , @theroundbartable , @theplatanitosqueal , @stressed-but-chill , since you loved the concept and wanted more ❤️

For more context. Link to the other parts here → PART 1 , PART2 (You're here), PART3

Arthur and Merlin are eating quietly in this sort of picnic they’re having. Though he started this tradition between them to make Merlin eat more human food, Arthur really just enjoys passing time with his bird friend in his human form.

Merlin: (with food still on his mouth, casually) Arthur, can we mate?

Arthur: (coughs, almost shocking on his drink) What?! 😳

Merlin: Can we mate?

Arthur: (still processing) You... Where is this coming from?

Merlin: My friends believe it's time I mate with someone.

Arthur: (finally understanding and sighs) You mean your bird friends?

Merlin: (Nods and takes another bite of his food) They think it's weird I haven't mate with any bird yet. Apparently it's important I do it before I get too old.

Arthur: Too old? Merlin, you're 16!!

Merlin: How do you know? I don't even know how old I am.

Arthur: I don't, but you look younger than me. So you must be at least 16.

Merlin: Do you want to mate or not?

Arthur: Do you even know what mating is?!

Merlin: Sex. I'm not an ignorant and I had a lot of proposals from other merlins, even before arriving Camelot.

Arthur: (feeling jealous and ridiculous cause he's jealous of some birds? Really?) Then why do you want to do it with me? Why not some of your bird friends?

Merlin: (blushing a little) I don't... like them like that.

Arthur: (in shock for a second, but then smirks) You find me attractive?

Merlin: (dismissively, but still blushing) For a human, yes. And I'm half human too. I think. So mating shoudn't be a problem.

Arthur: (screaming inside cause he's been having feelings for Merlin for a while though he's still in denial, but still weirded out with the situation) Well, I'm... really flattered... I guess. I also find you very attractive for a.. half-human-half-bird-magical-entity. But I don't want you to do this just because your bird friends told you to or because you think you "have to". The first time you do this should be with someone you love and trust and when you're ready to do it.

Merlin: (confused) But... I do trust you.

Arthur: But you don't love me.

Merlin: I do!

Arthur: I mean in a romantic sense, Merlin.

Merlin: Oh... (thougthful for a moment) I don't know. Birds normally don't care about that, They just mate. I don't know how romantic love is supposed to feel.

Arthur: (to himself) I need to get you more human friends.

Merlin: But you're right. I'm not ready for mating. And, since we're both male, I don't know who's suppose to do the flying dance to the other in order to mate. I guess it would be me, cause you don't have wings.

Arthur: I need to get you more human friends asap!

[cuubism]

@magnusbae a surprise for you. finally, more silly rabbit au

--

Dream always listened intently when Hob spoke about his workday. Dream had mentioned, at least once, actually coming to Hob’s lectures to “experience his expertise in person.” Yet somehow, none of this had translated in Hob’s mind into the actual, heart attack-inducing experience of seeing Dream walk into his lecture hall.

He hadn’t really believed it would happen. Not for lack of trusting Dream’s word, but because his presence seemed so incongruous. This was Hob’s normal life. His normal human life of work and chores and errands and bureaucracy.

Dream, meanwhile, was from Hob’s other life, the one made of secret meetings in taverns with an ethereal stranger, the life that knew that magic, in some way, was real. That life seemed, in some ways, realer, for all that it was brief, hidden, threaded between lifetimes of normality. Being with Dream was to dip back into a deeper well of truth he usually had to lock away; his own truth, their truth.

That was not a life that was supposed to be striding down the stairs of his lecture hall and taking a seat in the front row.

“So, um…” Hob trailed to an uneven stop halfway through his description of the first printing press. Dream just smirked at him from where he’d sat down. He’d taken off his coat and everything, as if he really was settling in to listen to the lecture.

A few students’ heads swiveled in his direction, drawn by Dream’s not-so-subtle entrance and Hob’s uncharacteristic stumble. Dream’s gaze didn't leave Hob's.

“So.” Hob forced himself back into motion. “So, in 1482—”

It was only his years of experience that got Hob through that lecture without breaking, and even then, it was a close thing. Every second, he could feel Dream’s eyes on him. Saw more than one of the students looking at Dream, too. God, what was he doing here?

But Hob did manage it, and ignored the curious glances of the students as they filed out of class, leaving only Dream behind. Dream, who stalked over to him with a predatory little smile, stopping by the podium where Hob was shutting his laptop.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” Hob asked idly, trying to pretend Dream’s presence here, in this normal part of his life, wasn’t throwing him completely off balance.

“I merely wanted the see the professor at work,” Dream drawled.

Hob chuckled and leaned in quick to kiss him on the cheek. “Not much of a show, to be honest.”

Dream’s brow pinched as if he hadn’t quite gotten the reaction he expected. “Does it bother you for me to be here?”

“No, no, of course not.” Hob held Dream’s arms tight, made sure he was looking at him. “I always want to have you wherever I am.”

Dream’s expression eased, and he tilted his head, waiting for the other half of Hob’s explanation he knew was forthcoming.

“It’s just… a bit odd to have you in such a normal place,” Hob tried to explain. “This is like… my ordinary life. And you, you’re anything but ordinary. I got used to thinking of our meetings as… kind of separate from all this, I guess. Like, you know. A dream.”

Or perhaps it was Hob’s ordinary life that was the dream, for everything snapped back into multicolored focus whenever he saw Dream himself.

“I have not been around for much of this… normal life,” Dream conceded. “I do wish now that I could have seen more of it.”

“I know. It’s okay.” Hob rubbed up and down his arms. “Though not sure how interesting you’ll find it all, to be honest.”

“Everything about you is interesting to me,” Dream said. He seemed completely sincere about it, too.

“You’re sweet.” Hob kissed him on the cheek. It was flattering—if occasionally unbelievable—to be interesting to The King of Dreams. Though Hob supposed Dream had had vanishingly little normality in his long life, to the point where what should have been mundane had become novel.

“I only hope I am not a disturbance,” Dream said. “You have always managed your life independently. I do not wish to derail it.”

Hob sighed. “My love, even if you were a disturbance, which you are not, I wouldn’t care? I love this job, don’t get me wrong, but you’re so much more important than that.”

Dream’s brow furrowed. “You have always held life most dear.”

“Well, life, sure, but life has infinite variations, doesn’t it? This version falls apart, I’ll make a new one. So long as you’re there.”

Dream still seemed confused, and Hob couldn’t have that. He couldn’t have Dream questioning his importance in Hob’s life.

“Look, you like pictures, right? I’ll draw it for you.”

Hob picked up a blue marker and drew a series of circles on the board, all in a line, touching end to end. “See those? That’s my life. Well, each of my lives, every time I have to start a new one. See how they’re all separate and only touch once one’s had to stop? Well.” He picked up another marker, this one black, and drew a line through the middle of the series, from one end to the other, bisecting each circle. “That’s you. Now do you get the difference?”

“I would have said that your ‘lives’ were more like concentric circles, compounding on each other, not in series,” Dream said, but it sounded weak, an automatic retort.

“The timeline accuracy doesn’t matter. This—” Hob touched the black line. “This matters.”

Dream studied the line. “That is a heavy meaning to draw from me,” he finally said.

Hob stepped back into his space, laid his hands lightly along his hips. “You’re the king of dreams, don’t people make meaning of you all the time?”

“Through me,” Dream said. “But you. See it— in me.”

How could I not? Hob thought. When you’re… it. You’re so much of it. “That’s what it’s like when you love someone.”

“Love,” repeated Dream, with the same awe he seemed to feel every time Hob said it.

“So yeah,” Hob said, “you can join my normal human life if you want to. Only don’t complain to me when it can’t compare to the crazy spectacles of your dreams.”

“You could not be uninteresting to me,” repeated Dream.

Hob leaned in to kiss his cheek again. “Sweet thing,” he said, and felt Dream’s tiny smile against his lips.

Dream clutched onto his hand as Hob packed up the rest of his things, and Hob let him, even though it made the process twice as long. “So did the lecture compel you, then?”

“I know these historical facts, but I enjoy your retelling of them,” Dream said. “However, the students seemed distracted.”

“Ha! That’s your fault, love.” He started leading Dream towards the door. “You created a spectacle. They’ll be mad curious now.”

“I was attempting to be unobtrusive,” Dream said with a frown.

"Oh, unobtrusive, is it? That's what that devious little look meant, hm?"

"...To draw your attention," Dream conceded. "Not the students'. I was affecting an appearance of average humanity.”

Hob snorted. “My love, I don’t think you could be convincingly human if you committed the rest of your eternal existence to the study of it.”

He led Dream out into the hall, and closed and locked the lecture hall door behind them. Dream’s nose scrunched adorably. “Oh? What am I doing wrong, then?”

“For one, you’re too pretty.” Hob tugged him close and kissed the tip of Dream’s nose. “Pretty like a fairy tale creature that’s meant to lure you into the woods. Don’t you dare change it, by the way!” he added, and Dream smirked.

“Is that all?”

“Nope. The other thing is, it is impossible to look at you…” he stepped in close to hold Dream by his hips— “and forget that you are a king.”

Dream raised an eyebrow. “You seem to forget frequently.”

“Willfully ignoring is not the same as forgetting,” Hob told him, grinning. “Besides, I’m not one of your subjects. It’s my job to ignore it and get you to let your hair down.” He scrubbed a hand through Dream’s already-messy hair, which Dream made no move to stop. “But I picked out the regality on you all the way back when we first met, it’s all in your jaw, and the tilt of your brow, and your spine—” he touched each spot as he spoke— “and especially in those eyes. Humans might play at being kings, but you are a king. Divine right and all. You’re a king from another world, a story, or—” he smiled— “a dream.”

“You have made a proper study of me.” They were standing very close now, hovering in the doorway to the lecture hall.

“Only for seven hundred years,” Hob told him. “Still think there’s lots to learn in Dream Interpreting, though.”

Dream touched his face to Hob’s cheek, leaning in close. “Interpret, then.”

Hob turned and kissed him, hands falling to Dream’s hips as Dream’s fingers curled around his jacket. and for a long moment, he forgot they were meant to be going home, as the wet heat of Dream’s mouth kept him firmly in place.

“Um. Professor Gadling?” squeaked a nervous voice from beside them, and they  broke apart, still holding onto each other.

One of Hob’s younger students was standing there, blushing furiously, binder held tight to their chest as if it could somehow block the embarrassment of witnessing their professor snogging on campus.

Hob could just see Dream smirking out of the corner of his eye, and poked him in the side. “Yes, Lily?”

“Um.” The student’s blush only deepened. “Do. Are you still supposed to have office hours after class?”

Fuck.

Hob looked at Dream. The bastard looked triumphant now. He sighed and turned back to his student. “No, I don’t think so. But email me and I’ll find time for you, okay?”

“Thanks,” they whispered, and practically fled, scurrying back down the hall.

Hob turned to glare at Dream. “Now look what you’ve done.”

“Me?” said Dream, duly offended. “Govern your own behavior, Professor. I am an unobtrusive bystander. I am not even here.”

“Oh, unobtrusive my arse, you—”

But Dream was gone, only a swirl of sand and a tiny smirk left in his wake.

“Bastard,” Hob swore to the empty hallway. Then went to go find him, inevitably, at home.

[semisolidmind]

i know it's all about the lion's den AU rn and as usual I am FEASTING on the content (excuse the crumbs) but there's an idea that won't leave me alone-

what if Peaches was not human, but an immortal from the beginning? How much would change? I know the whole appeal of these AUs - I mean, that's why I love them and I absolutely love this lil corner of the fandom. but I've been kinda diving into the whole immortality biz in Chinese myths for my oc, so now I'm curious.

Peaches could be someone cultivating and practicing Xian (i hope I'm using that right) for years, or consumed pills/elixir of immortality somehow, or a demon who is oddly very kind and empathetic - would the bois still love her just as much? How different is the dynamic now even if Peaches retains her core personality traits?

love your work! and hydrate before ya diedrate

ive been thinking about this, and i kinda like the idea of immortal reader being an attendant of the heavenly peach orchard.

not super high up the ladder, but not at the bottom either. her powers are limited to helping plants grow just a little bit, creating temporary barriers, and being able to float the way all celestials can. the higher-ups figure that since no one is bold or stupid enough to steal from heaven, they don’t need any extra security in the immortal peach groves.

you can take a guess as to how reader meets the monkeys.

they show up to the orchards, ready to fight their way to the peaches, but instead of some overpowered celestial soldiers guarding the orchard, it's....one immortal maiden. just the one. but she doesn't seem all that powerful, soooooo...

...maybe she'd agree to let them take a few without too much trouble?

the monkey bros go the "oh don't mind us we're just a couple of cute lil monkeys, here to cause adorable and harmless mischief" route in their approach to getting reader to let her gaurd down.

they approach her while she takes a break from pruning some dead branches. she's understandably surprised and suspicious about these two seemingly normal monkeys who've snuck in, but... they are pretty cute. and tame; they let her pet them and give them scritches. perhaps they're one of the heavenly official's pets. reader supposes that they can stay for a while.

wukong and macaque play their parts, get reader's guard down, and steal a couple dozen peaches each. reader notices, but there's not much she can do beyond shooing the monkeys out with a broom (and her soft heart barely allows her to do that). she knows that if she reports it, those cute lil monkeys will be hunted down and killed.

she supposes she could put in a request for higher walls around the grove, or more barriers (she still wonders how the boys managed to get through the first ones), but with how slowly things get done in the bureaucracy...it'd be a very, very long time until it was even brought up in court.

besides, even then....they're monkeys. animals. she won't place blame on them for being what they are. those little cuties probably had no idea that the immortal peaches were any different from the ones on earth.

she could never stay mad at their adorable lil faces anyways.

---

reader, despite what you might think, has a pretty laid back job. once all her chores for the day have been completed (those magic trees don't really need much beyond the essentials to do their thing), she has a good amount of free time to sit and, you guessed it—read.

macaque (because of course, he has to be the first one to fall in every au) decides, on a bored whim, to go visit that nice attendant they stole from not too long ago. perhaps he'll collect some intel while he's up there.

he finds her after a bit of searching. reader sits in a secluded corner of the grove, leisurely turning pages and enjoying the shade. macaque, still disguised, sidles up to her. reader notices, seeming surprised to see him before her face morphs into... a rather adorable pout. perhaps she thinks she's being intimidating.

'damn, no wonder the bureaucracy didn't think they needed any more security,' macaque thinks sarcastically. such a fearsome maiden they've chosen to guard the immortal peaches.

while reader takes a minute to admonish him about stealing, it isn't long before she sighs and gives up on her lecture in favor of scratching him gently behind his ears. he churrs low in his chest. her whole demeanor is as soft and sweet as the peaches she guards (her hands as well, he notes, pressing into them).

macaque laughs internally. a fearsome maiden, indeed.

macaque manages to wiggle his way into reader's lap, pulling her attention from her book. she knows she should be trying to scare him off, but...just—just look at him! he's so cute, and she's too pulled in by how cute he is to notice the oddly powerful aura he seems to exude (far too powerful to be a normal monkey). he enjoys her touch for a while longer before he hears the far-off call of his annoying brother, wondering where he is. he bumps his head into reader's hand by way of goodbye before running off to shadow away more secretively.

reader watches him go, sighing. she really should shoo him away next time.

---

macaque keeps coming back. and reader continues to be unable to kick him out.

with very few visitors and no one else to talk to, reader begins to tell him everything that she overhears during the day; the officials don't think anyone is listening when they air out their gossip as they walk by the orchard. she doesn’t know it, but she’s saving macaque the energy of using his powers to gather this intel on his own.

the six-eared demon makes a habit of showing up to the grove to laze around with his favorite maiden and listen to her read, using “spying” as the excuse he gives his brother for why he's been running off so often. reader seems to have accepted that he won't be leaving her alone any time soon, and he takes full advantage. macaque comes to think of reader and the secluded corner of the grove as his own little peice of heaven.

of course, sooner or later, wukong joins in. he's a bit angry that macaque didn't just say he was visiting the peach orchard and it's attendant; he wouldn't have minded, he would've come with! macaque doesn't bother trying to explain that he didn't want to share.

but share he does, seeing as wukong greedily takes all the attention from reader he can get. the monkey king finds himself enamored with the maiden who's hands and heart are as soft as the fruits she tends to. he won't admit it (it may hurt his carefully crafted "ruthless demon king" image if he did), but wukong is a cuddle bug when it comes to reader. everything about her is just so soft, and she's so kind, and she always smells like peaches—he could spend hours laying on her chest as she reads.

he just feels so...peaceful, with her.

the boys are entangled in reader's life, visiting whenever they can and butting into whatever she happens to be doing. they see her day to day happiness (brief conversations with the lower maids she's friends with), and her struggles (the two monkeys bore witness to the officials taking their anger out on reader over something trivial, their rage towards heaven growing stronger). the two grow more and more attached to her as time goes on.

and so they begin to work a small abduction into the grander scheme of their plan.

---

sooner or later, the monkey warlords properly raid heaven. they and their demon army storm the jade palace, murdering servants, footsoldiers, and as many officials as they can. the monkey king and the six-eared macaque lead a massacre so bloody it stains the palace walls red. wukong especially holds back none of his rage, getting caught up in his hatred for heaven and zealously continuing to shed as much celestial blood as he can.

during a lull in the chaos, macaque, covered in vicera, makes his way to the immortal peach grove. with the battle coming to a close and the demon forces being driven back, now is as good a time as ever to snatch up a special “peach” for himself and his brother.

he finds said peach preoccupied with a gallant attempt at protecting herself and a few lower maids from a demon soldier, using a series of barriers. the soldier breaks the barriers almost as fast as reader can make them, rapidly pushing her and her companions into a corner. reader puts up a brave fight, but she's a celestial attendant, not a celestial warrior.

macaque calls out to the soldier, halting their attack and telling them to regroup with the others and prepare to move out. the soldier complies, crassly assuring the women that they’re about to be nothing more than bloody pulp on the garden wall. no one has ever gone against the shadow general of the demon army and lived.

macaque waits until the soldier is out of sight before leisurely approaching the still quivering group of maids and their determined, but exhausted looking guard. reader tenses as he steps closer. she feels a horrible sense of dread crawl down her spine when she gets a good look at him.

the dark fur, the shape of the mask marking on his face...reader feels tears start to bead at the corners of her eyes.

this entire time, she'd been petting and coddling the six-eared macaque. the second in command of the dreaded demon army has been sitting right in front of her and she had no idea. reader can barely keep her breathing steady.

and if this is her dark-furred companion, then the lighter-furred one must be…oh stars.

…she let the monkey king in.

she practically threw open the doors for him. she didn’t report them when she should have, she knew there was something strange about them but she was so sure they were just normal animals—oh stars above, if the jade emperor ever discovered this, she’d be executed.

but…but reader steels herself. she can deal with that later. her friends are counting on her.

now, she’s certainly not expecting the blood-covered demon general across from her to be open to bargaining (he could just kill all of them now, but reader gets the feeling he wouldn't be merciful enough to end it quickly). and he knows exactly what leverage he has over her, she can see it in the smug look on his face.

but she tries anyways.

“let them go, please,” she begs breathlessly, arms shaking from the strain of maintaining her magic. the least she can do is buy her friends a moment more. “do whatever you want with me, but they are blameless.”

macaque chuckles, the sound reverberating lowly between the trees. whatever he wants, huh? oh, sweet peach. she should know better than to give him so much leeway.

“that is tempting. if that’s the case, then perhaps you’ll go with me willingly,” he muses, tail swaying slowly. his fangs glint dangerously when he smirks.

“don’t fight, and no harm will come to them. that, and your secret will be safe with me. honest."

reader doesn’t believe him. she can’t, but she and her friends are so low priority that calling for help would be useless. if the demon army has been as effective as the screaming would lead her to believe, the celestial host has much bigger problems than rescuing a gardener and some lowly maidservants. and with the chance that she’ll be seen through and blamed for every gory death that's happened beyond the walls of the peach groves...

she doesn’t have a choice.

reader slowly, cautiously lowers her barriers, despite the worried cries of the maids behind her. they cower closer together as reader takes a slow step closer to macaque.

with a flick of his wrist, reader is struck by a sleeping spell so potent she falls into macaque's waiting arms like a lead weight. the demon gathers his beloved into his hold with a gentleness that doesn't fit his gory visage.

he sinks into a shadow, leaving the maids to clutch each other and cry at the loss of reader and the near loss of their own lives.

---

reader wakes up days later in the royal bedchambers of the stone palace. she startles at seeing the monkey king and the six-eared macaque laying on either side of her, stripped to just a loose pair of pants each. she herself has been changed to a comfortable silk robe, her own clothing nowhere to be seen.

reader feels a cold sludge in her gut. she scrambles out of the pillow pit, kicking a few into the face of one of her captors as she goes. she checks herself over, looking for bite marks, claw marks, anything to indicate the two demons sharing a bed with her had violated her in any way. she looks, and breathes a heavy sigh.

she finds nothing.

"we figured we'd wait until you were awake to start marking territory," the tired, yet still somehow smug voice of the monkey king chimes from behind her. reader turns to see the demon leveling an amorous look her way. his gold and crimson eyes burn like fire in the low light.

reader ignores him in favor of falling to her knees and burying her face in her hands. now that she has a moment to think, her failure has decided to take centerstage; she was the one who let the monkey king into the jade palace, she let him steal the immortal peaches, she's the one who carelessly shared all the gossip that told them when the best time to attack would be, she's to blame for all the lives lost—

"hey. y'know we would've raided heaven even if we hadn't met you, right? it's not your fault," macaque says, propping his head in his hand to look at her. he doesn't have the decency to hide how he's sizing her up, poison purple eyes glowing whilst tracing her curves. reader shrinks into herself a bit more.

"yep. don't feel too bad, peaches. i was never gonna spare any of those bureaucrats in the first place," wukong adds. "and besides, none of those guys cared about you anyway, so why feel bad?"

reader sobs, pressing her hands to her eyes. she knows. she knows how callous the officials could be, but that doesn't mean they deserved to die. it doesn't mean the servants and foot soldiers who were only following orders deserved their fates.

she hears movement, then feels a set of strong, furred arms wrap around her. wukong rests his head on her shoulder. he nuzzles his nose against her neck. she feels his warm breath and the glance of deadly sharp fangs when he speaks.

"they didn't deserve the mercy you seem to think they did."

---

wukong places a seal on reader's powers. what little defense she had against them is gone with the placement of a brand-like marking in between her shoulder blades (and a few more along her shoulders made with his teeth).

reader can't do anything. wukong won't let her leave, and even if she could, the heavenly court will have her executed if she goes back. so, she remains on the monkey king's mountain.

she didn't think she'd share a fate with the precious fruit she'd failed to protect.

[daechwitatamic]

Of Ruin: Chapter 14 | KTH

(banner by @itaeewon)

Of Ruin (Masterpost)

Rating: NSFW - minors dni Genre: vampire!au magic!au royalty!au, s2l, slow burn, eventual smut, angst and fluff

Summary: Taehyung of House Rune, Prince of Infracticus has been cursed. You’re the human world’s leading curse-breaker. It should be simple. But unraveling the curse becomes the least of your problems in the face of a world on the brink of civil war… and the love you start to feel for the prince.

A/N: Thank you endlessly to @sailoryooons for betaing!!! 💕 Also thank you to @casuallyimagining for looking over these fight scenes for me!

//

Section Warnings: language, angst, uhhh fighting and explicit violence, blood and injury, tense situations with dangerous vampires, uhhhhh multiple murders wc: 6.3k

“You are not supposed to be here.”

“I left,” you admit, sagging into one of the worn chairs and letting your head fall into your hands. It’s late now, nearing dinner time, and you know Dr. Kim would normally be leaving. “I can go home. I meant to go home. But I left there and started walking and… ended up here.”

He regards you for a long minute. Then, as if he’s made a decision, he sits across from you. You’ve been just like this many times - he behind his desk, you across from it, working out a curse or a class-schedule - but it feels different this time.

You’re so ashamed you can barely stomach it.

You’ve never run away from anything in your life, not like this.

You explain it all, you leave nothing out. The dangers you faced, the mistakes and missteps. The way you learned what you really are, and began learning how to do something with it. How you’d slowly worked the curse to a tipping point. How you’d slowly fallen in love with Prince Taehyung, how you’d thought he felt the same.

But Taehyung throwing around words like Queen… it feels like too much. It feels like something you shouldn’t have, don’t deserve, haven’t earned. It feels like a trick or a trap, and you ran scared like a little bunny.

You tell him all of it.

When you’re done, you watch his ancient face for signs of what he’s going to say, if he’s going to chastise you for letting a job get so out of control.

You take in his expression and your heart sinks.

“You’re going to tell me I have to go back, aren’t you?” you lament, shoulders slumping.

“No, my dear,” Dr. Kim says kindly. “I’m going to tell you to go home.”

“Home?” you echo. “What, you mean, like… go home and sleep on it?”

“No.” He shakes his head. “Go home. To your family.”

—

Dr. Kim had never really understood the way things were with you and your family. You forgave him for it long ago - he clearly had a very different situation. You’ve learned that even more in the past few months spent with his grandson. But even though you know how pointless his advice is… you follow it anyway.

It’s a long train ride to your hometown, and you spend it pressed to the window, watching the backsides of buildings flash by until they give way to the greens and browns of the countryside.

You think about what you might say. You think about what your parents might say back.

You try to remember the last time you’d even spoken, before your assignment to Infracticus, and you can’t recall.

You spent last night alone in your apartment. It had felt all wrong, somehow - like it belonged to someone else. It occurred to you, as you’d walked through your living room, a hand trailing absently over the knickknacks and clutter, that you hadn’t missed any of these things while you’d been gone.

You’d slept fitfully, with the lights on, bolting upright every time you heard footsteps in the hall.

You walk from the train station; the season has turned in the time you’ve been gone, and the air is biting and cold, stinging your face and the inside of your nose. You slip your hands inside your sleeves, wishing you’d grabbed a heavier coat on your way out the door.

You stop a few houses down, leaning against an old, wooden fence. You watch your childhood home silently, rubbing absently at your chill-bitten nose.

You imagine going up and knocking on the door - because it’s been nearly a decade since the days you were comfortable just breezing in and out of their home. You imagine sitting down at the kitchen table, a steaming mug of tea between your frozen fingers, heating up by degrees. Imagine telling your parents, yes, I’ve been on assignment, actually. In Infracticus.

You imagine your father joking, I’m surprised you didn’t find a way to stay.

That’s exactly what you’d done, without even meaning to.

Is this visit supposed to be goodbye? Is it an attempt to ask for their blessing? How can you expect that - of any parent? How can you walk into their house, uninvited, and ask them to tell you goodbye?

Even if it isn’t forever - even if you can promise visits, regular communication - how can you expect anything like the permission you seek? It isn’t fair of you to even ask.

You stand in the cold and think to yourself that maybe you’re best off just leaving things how they are. Maybe keeping them from the truth is better for them.

Because this is what you’ve figured out, the knowledge you’re grappling with: regardless of Taehyung’s feelings for you… you’re going to ask him to turn you.

Even if he doesn’t love you, even if he doesn’t want you to rule with him, you’re going to walk away from your mortality.

The curse calls for the end of a life, and so your mortal life will end.

What happens after - with Taehyung - remains to be seen, it’s true. But you’d been wrestling with this question for days: would you be willing to give up your mortal life to save his immortal one?

Dr. Kim had heard the indecision threaded through your story, and had sent you here, knowing you needed clarity.

And it worked - everything is very clear as you stand alone on the street you grew up on, knowing there’s no place for you here.

You’d never built anything here. You hardly had anything to say goodbye to. No friends were blowing up your phone wondering where you’d been. Your parents didn’t even know you had gone in the first place. Even the university, your job, had simply slipped another professor into your place.

But Infracticus… Taehyung… those things fit.

You’d felt it in the way your magic slipped into the cracks of his, how they fused together easily, perfect counterparts.

You’d felt it in the way you could exist together quietly with the waves of the sea crashing just ahead of you.

You’d felt it in the way his hand wrapped around yours, the way he tried to stay a step ahead of you, moving obstacles out of your way.

You’d felt it in his heavy, hooded gaze, in his mouth against your skin, in his useless heartbeat against yours.

You fit next to him. Maybe - with time, with him - you could build something. In fact, you could build a lot of things. If his vision of the future really came to be, you could do a lot, could play a real part in creating something good, something lasting.

All you’d ever done here was daydream about a world you had no place in.

You’ll have a place there now - either leading at Taehyung’s side, or existing under his rule. Neither seems like a bad option.

It doesn’t feel real. But neither did any of it, at first. If things go how you plan, you’ll have plenty of time to adjust.

You pull your phone out of your pocket and check the train schedule, turning on your heel and heading back the way you came.

Unlike when you left Taehyung, you don’t look back. There’s no reason to.

—

You get back to the city in the early afternoon, and you go directly to the university. Dr. Kim looks up calmly when you enter his office, and simply says, “That was faster than I expected.”

You snort, the tension breaking, and he shuffles some papers as you take your usual chair.

“Well?” he asks, not looking up.

“I think you already know,” you say flatly, but he doesn’t hear you, because the sound of your voice is drowned by heavy footsteps and frantic knocking on the already-open door.

Dr. Kim’s eyes twinkle when he spots whoever is behind you, and you whirl in your chair, jaw dropping.

It’s, of course, Prince Taehyung, but he’s flanked by Satuel and Namjoon. All three of them are in jeans, and the sight of the prince dressed like one of the students here would make you laugh out loud if you weren’t so shocked by their presence.

He steps through the doorway, frowning deeply, eyes on you, and says, darkly, “I didn’t fake anything.”

As if this sentence has been itching to burst from him since you laid the accusation at his feet two nights ago, as if he couldn’t take his next breath until he refuted the very idea.

“What are you doing here?” you ask, standing.

“Come in, come in,” Dr. Kim says urgently, “and close that door before someone sees you.”

Maybe someone closes the door. Maybe they leave it open. Maybe a tornado rips through the room and carries everyone else away. You don’t know, because all you can see is Taehyung’s dark eyes, shining with emotion as he chokes out, “How could you just leave?”

“I had some things I needed to figure out,” you murmur.

He steps closer to you, filling the space, and reaches for your hands. “I never faked a thing,” he repeats, like this is the line he rehearsed. “I tried to explain, but you left so fast. My father may have told me he wanted me to pursue you, but all of it was real. I didn’t care about your magic or what you could bring to the family - I just wanted you.”

And, well, you’ve known that all along. But it’s nice to hear him say it.

Your eyes find the floor, head full of all the other things you two need to talk about. “Okay,” you say quietly.

“Okay?” he parrots, an edge to it. “Okay what? Okay, you’ll come back?”

You look up, but not at Taehyung. You look at Namjoon, and then over your shoulder at Dr. Kim. “I have to go back,” you say. “I figured out what we have to do to break the curse for real.”

—

You hate the feeling of everyone’s eyes on you in the crowded room, but now that everyone is settled in and ready to listen, you have no choice but to speak.

“Namjoon is the death magic expert,” you say, shooting him a little sideways glance. “So, chime in if something seems off. But I was looking at what we have… and reading similar cases… and I think we tried to get around the life for a life counter too quickly.”

“No,” Taehyung says immediately. “We’re not ending a life -”

You hold up a hand, silencing him. “It’s not your decision to make,” you say evenly.

His face contorts. “What are you talking about? Of course it is.”

You shake your head. “It’s mine. We’ll end my life - my mortal life.”

You have to clarify it twice to be heard over the outroar. Taehyung damn near stomps his foot with his cry of protest, and Dr. Kim has risen to his feet. Even Satuel looks struck, her eyes uncharacteristically wide.

“You mean,” Namjoon says slowly, the first one to piece together what you’re saying, “you’ll turn?”

You watch his face carefully for any hints at what he’s thinking, how he feels about this news. “It would work, right?” you ask, even though you’re about ninety-two percent sure on your own. “It’ll count as a life ending? Technically?”

He shoots a nervous look at Prince Taehyung, and then at his grandfather, like he’s not sure which one of them will be more infuriated by his answer. “I… I think it should, yes.”

To your right, Taehyung says your name, voice strangled. “That’s the plan?” he asks, as if begging for someone to tell him he’s got it wrong. “I have to turn you during the counter-curse to satisfy the end of life thread?”

You hold his gaze, your stomach knotting, your throat tightening until you can barely breathe. “Will you?” you ask, the words paper-thin.

He shakes his head, but it doesn’t seem like he’s saying no. “And then what?” he demands. “Have you thought about what this would mean?”

“Extensively,” you say flatly.

He looks around the room for help, his expression stricken. None comes.

“You can’t,” he says, imploring. “There are so many things that could go wrong - what if there’s some kind of attack, and I die? What if my father refuses to pass over the crown, and throws us in jail for trying? What if it does go as I’ve planned, but I go to trial and I’m found guilty for what happened the first night of the curse?”

You hear exactly what he’s really asking - What if you give up your entire life here and it turns out to be for nothing?

You frown. “Taehyung, you can’t live your life based on the worst-case scenario. Maybe none of those things will happen. But even if they do… don’t think that my turning has a… a price that you have to fulfill. I’m not turning just so I can be with you.”

His face goes blank. Before you can process what you’ve done wrong, Namjoon beans you in the forehead with an eraser off his grandfather’s desk.

“Say that better,” he instructs.

“Ow!” you protest, but the distraction helps you catch up to the moment. You meet Taehyung’s eyes even as you bend down to pick the eraser up off the floor. “What I mean is,” you say emphatically, “it doesn’t have to be any kind of commitment. I’ll turn because I want to, and because it will save you, and then… we’ll have time - all the time in the world - to see what comes next. Right?”

Taehyung’s jaw clenches and unclenches as he thinks. He looks around again. “Someone else weigh in here,” he begs, finally. “I can’t agree to this, can I? It’s too much.”

“Maybe we should let you talk alone?” Namjoon suggests, and you look at him, full of gratitude. But, of course, he’s been there all alone, has seen what was happening between you and Taehyung long before you were willing to admit it yourself.

“I’ll take you to the staff room for coffee,” Dr. Kim tells his grandson. “You can catch me up on the situation. But Prince Taehyung’s guard really ought to stay close to him.”

Satuel nods smartly. “I can stand in the hall,” she says, and you fight back a smile, knowing she’s choosing to give you a little privacy.

When they’re gone, Taehyung sags, letting himself sink into the misery of the situation.

“This is not a sacrifice I can allow you to make,” he tells you, eyes round, mouth pulling down unhappily at each corner.

You lean back against Dr. Kim’s desk, considering your words. “It’s not so much of a sacrifice,” you try to explain. “You’d be giving me something, not taking anything away.”

He watches you carefully as he says, “But you couldn’t come back. I mean - for a long time, as you adjust. And then, after, only at certain times, with permission… you’d give up this whole world?”

“Those permitted visits over an immortal life will probably add up to be more time here than I would have had normally,” you point out. “Just not all at once. And maybe, when I come visit… you could come with me?”

He doesn’t speak, just holds your gaze and nods tightly.

You shrug, toying at your bottom lip. “Then that’s already better than what I have now.”

He crosses to you, then, taking you in his arms, and you let him. You allow yourself just one second to be scared and unsure, and then you lean back to look up at him. “I want to do this,” you promise. “No matter what happens after. Even if you decide I’m boring and you fall in love with someone else and -”

He scowls. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m just saying,” you tease, smiling a little. “Even if the worst happens - whatever version of the worst you want - I still choose this.”

He shakes his head. “I don’t know if I can do it,” he admits. “I don’t know if I can hurt you like that.”

“I’ll be okay,” you promise, though this is the part that’s scary - the turning process. “I’ll be okay, because I know you’ll be there. I know you’ll take care of me.”

“Yes,” he pouts, “but who will take care of me while I’m panicking over you?”

“Namjoon,” you say sagely, pleased when a laugh rips through him, rumbling in his chest.

He sighs. “We’ll be okay?” he asks.

You don’t think he means individually. But you include it in your answer when you squeeze your arms around and say, confidently, “We will. I know we will.”

He leans down to kiss you, softly at first, his lips light against yours. Then, more firmly. You melt against him, happy to be held, happy to be loved, happy to see a solution shimmering in the distance.

“You know,” he says softly, when he pulls away, “I don’t want to add any weight to this… we can see what happens after, like you said. But… I consider you my intended. That’s just… that’s how I feel.”

A shiver runs through you, thrilling and terrifying both at once. “There’s time for that after,” you say, accidentally repeating what Namjoon had told you once. “I promise.”

—

Taehyung and Satuel leave first, though she practically has to drag him.

“Promise you’re following us,” he demands on his way out.

You laugh. “As soon as we nail down this countercurse, we’ll head straight to the Ostium.”

“Don’t even stop for food,” he warns, but you know it’s a joke. Or, partly a joke.

“Not even fries?”

He considers this, then turns to Satuel. “Actually, can we stop for fries?”

She rolls her eyes. “Come on. You need to be back before midnight.”

This sobers everyone.

“Perhaps for the last time,” you say hopefully.

“Don’t say that if you aren’t sure,” Taehyung says darkly, and then kisses you goodbye, right in front of everyone, like he doesn’t even care.

“I love you,” he says, low, and you feel it down to your toes. “Don’t do anything foolish until you’re back with me.”

“Roger that,” you try to smile.

Satuel and Taehyung disappear down the hallway, so lightning quick that you can’t even watch them walk away.

Dr. Kim goes to start a pot of coffee.

Namjoon gives you a wry, knowing smile, and begins to organize paper and pens.

The three of you work all night, and it’s after four in the morning when you finally sit back, set down your pen, and declare it ready.

—

It’s still before sunrise when you pass through the Ostium, pausing to bandage up your hands after crossing - you were prepared, this time.

It’s clear right away that something is very wrong; not only is Satuel not there to pick you up, as agreed upon before she left, but the Ostium isn’t even manned. The whole building is empty, your footsteps echoing as you cross to the door leading out into Infracticus.

Your heart racing, you turn to look at Namjoon. It’s clear he’s thinking the same thing.

“What the -?” you start, as you step out of the Ostium into the pre-dawn purple. A coach is parked there, a team of amarisca hitched and ready to go.

Beside you, Namjoon shouts, already starting to run. Too late, you see the prone body on the ground, on the other side of the carriage.

“Satuel,” you manage, covering your mouth in horror, as you round the corner and spot her. Namjoon crouches, holding her up. Thick, viscous sangru - what Infracti have instead of blood pumping through their bodies - pools around her, as black as her eyes. It looks like an oil spill around her. You spy a gash on her neck, but there must be more.

“The palace,” she gasps, her wild eyes finding yours. “The prince.”

“Go,” Namjoon instructs. “I’ll stay here, I’ll help her -”

You don’t wait for the rest. You tear around the side of the carriage and start fumbling with the clasps of the first amarisca until it’s free from the rest of the team.

You turn back to where Namjoon is still cradling Satuel’s unmoving body. “The prince has a private stable at the beach,” you call to him frantically. “Get her there - I’ll send help as soon as I can.”

Namjoon nods in understanding, his face drawn and desperate, and you dig your hands deep in the amarisca’s mane and throw a leg over, urging it to move, clinging tightly as it begins its rocking gait over the road leading to the palace doors.

The palace looms in the distance, and you urge the amarisca to go faster, squeezing your calves and whispering pleas, though the latter does nothing for you. It seems like it’s not even getting closer, though the trees stream by you on either side.

Please let him be okay, you think as you frantically ride. It’s almost dawn - he would just be coming out of the curse, any second now. If the palace is under attack, would it be a hindrance or a help for him to be only beast?

Finally, the palace seems to grow in size, looming over you as the road curves around an approach.

You’re knocked from the amarisca’s back so quickly that you don’t have time to register what happened, hitting the ground with an unattractive grunt as all the breath is knocked from your lungs.

“Fuck!” you scream, as soon as you can inhale, pounding a fist against the dirt, because you failed, didn’t even make it to the palace, and now you’re going to die at the hands of some random Infracti, at the side of the road -

“Shut up,” the Infracti hisses, tugging at your arm, and you go limp because you think you might recognize his voice.

“S-Seokjin?” you whimper, turning to see if you’re right. You are, but he doesn’t answer you as he pulls you swiftly away from the road. Now you’re less sure you’re about to die, but it’s unclear.

“Listen,” he says, quietly, tugging you behind some brush and crouching. You follow his lead, eyes wide. “We’ve got about thirty of us infiltrating the castle. Probably a few teams are already in. They’re going after the royal family - that’s their only goal.”

“You’re - what?” you stammer.

“Focus,” he snaps. “I’ll help how I can, but I’m not going to out myself, and neither will Jungkook. Get in there, find Taehyung, and get him out. I don’t care where you go with him - just out of the palace. Don’t worry about the King and Queen, protect Taehyung. Can you do that, witch?”

You nod, unable to speak, mind already flying through your memories of the palace corridors, trying to think of the fastest way to the rooms where Taehyung spends his cursed nights.

“Go,” he urges you, releasing your arm. “I’ll cover your back as best I can until you’re inside.”

“Thanks,” you let out hollowly, taking a steadying breath. And then you run.

—

The first set of doors you come across is locked from inside, but you press your hands to the metal mechanism and call for all the magic you can reach until you hear gears turning, and - finally - a telling click.

You let yourself inside and quickly scan the corridor. It’s deserted - which is honestly a bad sign. The guards are somewhere else, which means there’s already trouble somewhere else.

You jog, making sure to peer around every corner, knowing that if any of the Score soldiers hear your heartbeat or smell your blood it’ll be over before you can even fight it. But there’s not much you can do, and you’ll be safer once you find Taehyung, so you hurry on until you reach the wing where he spends his nights.

You hear voices before you see them, but you round a corner to find a crowd of guards - Taehyung’s guards. He’s standing at the far side of the group, dictating orders. Over their heads, he spots you, does a double take. You watch him close his eyes for the barest second, relief clear on his face, and then he’s waving you over even as he continues speaking to the Infracti closest to him.

“Change of plans,” he’s saying as you approach, breathless. “The ten of you, join that group, get my parents to the safe room.”

“But, Maiesti, that leaves you without -”

“I don’t need you,” he says, sure, looking at you. “Not now that she’s here. My parents are sitting ducks. My venefici can fight with me.”

A few Infracti call out orders, and they separate into three groups, filtering out of the hallway in waves, leaving you and the prince quite alone.

“Did you just send away all of your guards?” you ask, horrified.

“My parents need them more,” he says, tone steely. “I’m not going to run - I’m going to take out as many of them as I can. Will you stay and fight with me? ”

“Taehyung,” you say frantically, trying to break through his resolve and get him to hear you. “They got Satuel - I had Namjoon take her to Potato’s stable, but it looked really bad.”

He stands there, frozen, caught between fighting for his family or saving his trusted guard. You know what choice you’d make, but you wait silently, anxiously shifting from foot to foot, and let him get there by himself.

“Alright,” he says finally, clearly displeased. “Fastest way to the stables is through here.”

—

Taehyung gets what he wants anyway. You hardly get anywhere before stumbling across a pack of the Scores.

They’re ready for you - five of them, all crouched defensively - likely heard your traitorous human heartbeat. But they don’t know who you are; they don’t know what you can do.

You send a blast towards their feet, which knocks three of them onto their backs. Beside you, Taehyung moves like liquid, in a way you’ve never seen before, a dark blur vanishing from your side and reappearing down the corridor, locked hand-in-hand with one of them, snarling viciously as they clash.

You can’t just stand and watch; the second Infracti you’d left standing is zipping towards you, a flash of motion, and you throw a wall up around yourself. He hits it with a sickening crunch before falling to the ground. Down the corridor, Taehyung seems to have finished off the one he was wrestling with, and is now rolling over a second man, fangs bared and black with sangru, growls and snarls rippling out of both of them.

You can’t watch, can’t keep an eye on him, because the two remaining Scores are up and they are pissed. You don’t have a single second to think, you can only react. You throw a hand towards the ceiling, shouting the spell you’ve favored since the beginning, and a large chunk of stone falls with a boom that rattles your bones, nearly knocking you off your feet. Dust flies into the air, and you shield your eyes, coughing a little.

You take stock of the situation as soon as you can see again. You only got one of them with the chunk of ceiling, and you can hear Taehyung still fighting on the other side of the unsettled dust. Which means there’s still one -

He’s on you. You don’t even know which direction he came from, but you’re on the ground and he’s snarling over top of you, fingers digging into your upper arms, black eyes narrowed in effort, fangs bared.

You kick and buck, trying to get free enough that you can use your hands and try to throw a spell, but nothing works.

“Taehyung!” you scream, and then the weight is off of you - as if the Infracti was never there. You sit up, frantically, and then you find him - rolling in battle just feet away, snarling and snapping at a sandy-haired body that growls loudly back.

Jimin.

You run for Taehyung, but he meets you halfway, hands reaching for yours desperately. There’s a smear of sangru down his face, but he seems okay.

“Jimin,” you pant, pointing behind you, and Taehyung vanishes into a flash of color again, rushing to help his friend.

By the time you reach them, it’s over. The Infracti that had pinned you lies still on the ground, his head at an angle that makes your stomach lurch.

“You have to get out,” Jimin blurts. “They’re here for you, they only want you.”

“We’re going,” you say, trying to give Taehyung a tug. He doesn’t budge. A growl rumbles from his chest, but it’s subdued. He’s not fighting, just frustrated.

“I know you want to fight,” you say, still tugging, “but Satuel -”

“Shhh,” Jimin says suddenly, holding up a hand.

You freeze, listening.

They’re already here.

They come in that formless blur of color, surrounding the three of you and stilling, their bodies filtering back into view.

Everyone is moving at once. It’s impossible to keep track of anyone, friend or foe. All you can do is try not to become anyone’s prey.

You choose a direction and slam a burst of magic at them. It knocks two of them back, but there are more coming for you.

Your fear gets the better of you; you forego defensive walls and arc your hand over your head, shouting a spell that’s meant to cut, one of the few offensive moves you’d practiced what feels like ages ago.

Time slows as you watch black sungru spurts from an Infracti’s chest, her eyes rolling back as she staggers to her knees before dropping.

Another Infracti flies towards you, lightning fast, face contorted, fangs ready. Somebody tugs you out of the way, and you stumble after them, getting it together enough to throw up a wall between you and the attack.

You glance backwards enough to see that it’s Jungkook who saved you, but you can’t dwell on it. Just ahead of you, Jimin’s raking his teeth across someone’s neck, sangru bubbling down their throat in the wake of his fangs. He drops the body unceremoniously and launches himself at another.

You look around frantically, trying to find Taehyung. You don’t find him before you’re grabbed from behind. You scream, feeling fingertips digging painfully into your upper arms. You throw your head back as hard as you can and hear the crunch as you make contact.

You spin around wildly, throwing a blast that sends your assailant flying across the corridor. He crumples to the ground, and you turn away, going back to your search for Taehyung.

You spot him just as one of the Scores leaps onto his back, the same way they’d done to you moments ago. Taehyung twists in the other man’s grasp and gives a brutal kick; the Score staggers away and Taehyung launches himself at his attacker, knocking them both to the ground. When Taehyung bares his fangs and lowers his head, you look away. But you still hear the scream cut short into a feeble gurgle.

To your left, Jimin is grappling with one of them, their hands locked. You throw a protective wall around yourself and inch closer, trying to determine if you can help without hurting Jimin, too.

Jimin spots you, his eyes widening.

“Back up!” you yell, trying to make your way closer.

His face goes taut and he gives you a nod, understanding what you mean to do. He gives the Infracti he’s fighting a mighty shove, successfully putting a few feet between them.

You attack instantly, before the gap can be filled, sending a blast so strong that it knocks Jimin backwards, too. He lands gracefully, having only been grazed, and gets up quickly, looking between you and the Score you’d just flattened against the stone wall.

“Nice shot,” he breathes.

“Help Taehyung,” you answer, panting.

You both take off down the hall to where you’d last seen the prince. He and Jungkook stand alone, two more bodies motionless on the ground between them. They’re both breathing hard.

“We have to go,” Taehyung manages, as soon as he spots you.

Jimin steps towards Jungkook and for a second you panic, thinking he doesn’t know that Jungkook is on your side, but instead of fighting they seem to hug - clasping the back of each other’s necks and pressing their foreheads together for one breathless second before breaking apart again.

“Stay safe,” Jungkook says. It comes out like a warning.

“You, too,” Taehyung says, and steps past you, grabbing for your hand as he goes. “We’re almost out - let’s move.”

—

Day is breaking in full when you finally breach the palace’s walls.

“Hurry,” you say needlessly, rushing to the stone stairs that lead down to Taehyung’s private stable. You hope Namjoon made it there, you hope Satuel is still hanging on.

You’re shaking so bad that you miss a step, adrenaline wreaking havoc on your systems. You catch yourself on the banister and continue on, Taehyung and Jimin right behind you.

There are no guards at the stable, and you burst through the door in a rush. Namjoon jumps to his feet, a rake in his hands like a weapon.

“It’s us, it’s us,” you blurt out, trying to look past him. “Is she - are we in time?”

“I really don’t know,” Namjoon admits, lowering the rake and letting you all inside. Jimin closes the door carefully, locking it from the inside.

You make your way into the empty space beside Potato’s stall, where Satuel’s body lies. She’s unmoving; it doesn’t seem like she knows you’re there.

“Okay, Healer,” you say, looking at Taehyung.

He kneels by his guard’s side, examining the places where she was ripped open. He shakes his head. “This requires more than I’m capable of.”

You step closer, kneeling beside him. “What if I help?” you suggest.

He looks at you, something unreadable flashing across his face. “You think you could?”

You nod. “If we merge magical signatures, the way we did for the ritual? You should be able to pull from my power - borrowing from me. I’ll be like… a battery?”

He smiles despite the desperate situation.

“Alright,” he says. “Let’s try - we’ve no time to spare.”

You settle onto your bottom on the dirty, wooden floor. Taehyung takes your hand, and you close your eyes and focus on your breathing, inhaling and exhaling as slowly as you can with fear still running rampant through your system.

After a few minutes - admittedly longer than normal - you feel your magic rise up inside you, warm and soothing and ready. You feel the familiar sensation of it reaching for Taehyung’s magic, little tentative tendrils poking around until they find the empty spaces between his.

The feeling when the two magical signatures meet and accept each other is euphoric, and you fight not to lose yourself in it, to stay focused.

Beside you, Taehyung starts running his hands over the visible gashes, the places where it seems like chunks are missing. The skin stitches itself back together easily under his touch, but you can tell it isn’t enough. Satuel doesn’t stir, her unfocused eyes staring blankly at the ceiling above you.

You can feel it, the exact moment when what he’s trying to do becomes too much for Taehyung’s magic. It pulls on yours sharply, an alarming sensation behind your ribcage.

You inhale. You exhale. You don’t fight it. You let him tug magic from you, you tell your systems that you trust him with all of it.

Taehyung doesn’t give up, keeping his hands above Satuel’s undead heart, letting your magics both flow into her, fixing what’s been broken, restarting what’s shut itself down.

She blinks - that’s the first sign. Her eyes blink once and then focus on Taehyung, and then slide shut. They stay shut, which alarms you, but then you see her fingers twitch.

“Your Majesty,” she breathes, eyes still closed. You sag with relief, and you feel your magical connection to Taehyung untangle, your magic curling back up inside you, tendrils coiling back up and retreating.

Taehyung closes his own eyes, but he doesn’t release your hand. Behind you, you hear Namjoon press closer.

“Rest,” Taehyung says. “All of you. We should be safe here. Rest.”

You settle in on the floor, backs against the wooden walls of the stable, eyes on the door. You listen to the ocean pound the shore outside, listen for the cries of gulls to warn of danger. Namjoon sits to your right, his tight gaze on the door. Prince Taehyung crouches to your left, ready to spring to his feet.

It’s over an hour before Taehyung’s guards find you, inform him that the palace is clear.

“My parents?” Taehyung asks, standing and brushing hay and dirt from his pants.

“The King and Queen are perfectly alright,” the guard tells him with a quick bow.

Taehyung straightens beside you, and you recognize him in royal mode, even before his voice comes out cold and controlled. “Very well. I need Satuel to be taken to the Elders for proper healing. And tomorrow morning I’ll be having an audience with my father and the curse-breakers. Please inform him.”

The guard bows again and backs out of the doorway, probably to go get backup to help move Satuel’s weakened body. You look at Taehyung quizzically, but you don’t feel afraid, not with his hand still in yours.

He meets your gaze evenly. “A year ago,” he says, still cold, which means he’s scared, “my father made me some promises, and broke them. Tomorrow, he’s going to make me a few more - and you’re going to help me make sure he can’t break them again.”

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!!!!! I can't believe there's only two more after this!!!! It's all coming to a close!!

thank you so much for reading!!! chapter 15 will go up next week as planned!

[shepscapades]

Hi there! Your dbhc au is lovely and I love it very much! Between base level knowledge of hermitcraft, base level knowledge of detroit: become human from rtgame’s playthrough, and extra extra headcannons about deviancy and all that that entails (I forgot androids can’t eat… the post-game au that I love and follow made it so that they could haha…) I love the way you’ve incorporated androids and deviancy to hermitcraft!!!! Not to mention how electric (pun intended) your art is!!!! <3

One question! Are we working with minecraft death mechanics (aka respawn)? What happens when the androids shut down, normally? It’s just a reboot them type of scenario?

(ignore how long I scrolled down your blog for uh haha… oooo you did not see the timestamps of the posts i reboggled ooo /j)

First of all!!! Thank you so much for your kind words!!! <3 Delighted to report that probably at some point doc and xisuma will develop some kind of way for the android hermits to have the option of eating food… I don’t really have any idea of when that happens in the timeline though LOL

The respawn mechanics question is super interesting!! the way I see it in my head, yes… yeah I think respawning is a thing, some kind of magical innate quality of the world I suppose, connected to whitelisted players/entities or what have you. Naturally, when Xisuma begins to “whitelist” deviated androids, it establishes them as players part of the world, the same way the other hermits are! I think in my brain, most respawns in general are inconsequential… in the way that players don’t necessarily retain scars when they die and respawn, unless it’s a particularly painful or meaningful death? That’s kind of how I’ve always seen respawning anyway!

So when it comes to the androids, I think when Xisuma whitelisted them/ reprogrammed them as player entities on the server, he also programmed a way for androids to detect… things that would normally do damage to biotic/ organic players, in a superficial “taking damage” sense? So while androids don’t necessarily feel… “pain,” they have a pain sensor/set of hearts like normal players that will “go down” the same way a normal player’s would even if their shells aren't taking lasting physical damage that would require tangible repair. They aren’t completely removed from the damage, though, because I think Xisuma probably also works up some kind of system that would create similar “feelings” that a player might feel when taking damage? For example, as an android takes “damage,” it might trigger a certain fear, panic, or surprise response (such as up-ticks in thirium pump rate, a slight degradation in motility functions (like fumbling with motor skills when you’re nervous/panicking), or brief stalls in processing power (the same way you might hesitate in surprise)). So even if they don’t feel pain the same way, their experience would pretty closely mimic pain responses in humans/organic players!

The vessels themselves are harder to explain I suppose… such as a body being left behind on a server when a player can’t respawn, but you could probably explain the androids the same way you would explain other player respawn mechanics, like a body disappearing when a player “‘chooses to respawn,” stuff like that.

“Shutting Down” tends to be treated differently than dying or respawning, though. A shutdown is most similar to a permanent death, unless an android is voluntarily rebooting, in which case they would probably use the word “reboot” rather than shutdown. For sleeping or other “low-power” modes, androids kind of go into “low-function” states that have specific protocols and stuff like that, some kind of stasis state that xisuma or doc have programmed specifically to mimic sleep. Shutdowns usually only happen when an android loses the ability to function, somehow. Runs too low on thirium to function, self-destructs from stress, any other reason an android would stop working all together and require maintenance to turn back on. So when Etho shuts down at the end of s8 it’s because he doesn’t realize he has a been leaking thirium for so long and ends up not being able to function, and when Xisuma/Doc shut him down at the end of Destruction, it’s a force-shut down (you’ll see how soon enough LMAO).

THATS SUCH A LONG RAMBLE LOL but hopefully that answers your questions!! I’m gonna go back and start tagging posts like this with #dbhc mechanics for anyone who is curious about the application of androids on the server :]

[starlightkun]

❧ word count: 22.3k ❧ warnings: cursing, inaccurate descriptions of constellations bc this is a fantasy world ❧ genre: fluff, mild angst, slow burn, blind date, strangers to idiots friends to lovers, modern magical creatures au, college au, werewolf sungchan, human reader, ft. siren shotaro & various magical neos (and another extra special guest appearance!), same universe as strawberry sunday ❧ extra info: this work is set in the same universe as strawberry sunday but can be read as a standalone! there is no continuing plotline between fics in this universe, they simply take place in the same world/magic system and may have overlapping characters (neos may pop up in more than one work!) ❧ author’s note: so this is technically the spiritual threequel to my two werewolf jeno fics (pupsick + abh) but you still don’t have to read those to understand this one at all! this is absolutely meant to be read by itself! and this one is also very self-indulgent, from the a.c.e song title to werewolf sungchan, i had a very great time on this one, hence the word count. if you guys have even half the fun reading this as i did writing it, you’ll have a blast. enjoy! ❧ sequel

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ explore the strawberry sunday universe more here!

baby i’m your changer, changer, love is not a danger

Reclined on the plush, soft grass of the front lawn of your college with your hands behind your head, you basked in a particularly lovely patch of sunlight. It was January, the very beginning of the year and the semester, meaning that this would normally be a very chilly and unpleasant endeavor. Except you were sandwiched between two dryads. Dryads weren’t in and of themselves extra warm like dragons or werewolves, nor could one dryad on their own change the weather—and would most likely be influenced by it rather than the other way other—but if you got two together, and they were in a good enough mood, they could generate a little bubble of springtime around them. And for some reason, Jaemin and Donghyuck were in exceptionally high spirits today.

You knew the two dryads from Magical Botany Club, which you had joined your freshman year after you’d managed to kill the small cactus that your parents gave you as a housewarming present for your dorm. They were the only ones who didn’t immediately label you a lost cause, and instead saw you as a challenge. Now, your junior year, your apartment was a jungle to rival that of a dryad’s home, and you were even Vice President of the club this year.

After a long, refreshing inhale followed by an even longer exhale, you finally asked, “So what’s got you in such a good mood? It certainly can’t just be finalizing the calendar of club activities this semester.”

Jaemin was club President, and Donghyuck the Secretary/Treasurer, so this little sunbathing session before the start of the semester on Monday was really supposed to be an Executive Board meeting.

“Who, us?” Jaemin replied innocently.

“No, I was talking to the cardinal on Donghyuck’s leg,” you retorted sarcastically, gesturing to said bird that had also settled in to enjoy the cozy rays.

“We’re not planning anything,” Donghyuck said in the same tone as Jaemin.

You propped yourself up on one elbow to look down at your friend properly, narrowing your eyes at him suspiciously. “I just wanted you to share whatever good news you had, I didn’t think you two were planning anything, but now I definitely do. What’s going on?”

“Donghyuck, you idiot!” The other dryad hissed at him.

“What is it? Don’t tell me you and that fairy are going to try to convince your human friend that aliens are real again. Leave that poor guy alone, he’s got enough on his plate just dealing with all of you being real and jerks to him.” You scoffed disapprovingly, remembering when they recounted that story to you at club a couple years ago. You had been tempted to check on Renjun yourself when you spotted him at the library the next day, but you didn’t know him personally, and didn’t think he’d appreciate it in the moment. Especially not since he looked like he was really focused on his work at the time, so you just let him be.

“It’s nothing like that, I swear,” Jaemin promised. “It’s nothing bad at all.”

You sat up all the way to be able to look at both of them at once. “Okay, what is it then?”

Donghyuck sat up too, the cardinal hopping up to his shoulder. “Long story short, we have a friend that we want to set you up with.”

“No thanks, guys.” You shook your head.

“You won’t even let us tell you about him?”

“I’m not really looking for anything right now. Not after my ex—”

Jaemin pushed his phone screen in front of your face then, a picture of a guy on it. It was presumably the friend they wanted to set you up with. He was around your age, tall—if where his head was in comparison to the doorway of this building was to be believed, wearing a black leather jacket. It looked well-worn, though, as if it might not have been his originally, handed down or thrifted at least. And yeah, he was cute, you weren’t blind. But you also knew not to just eat with your eyes, or else you’d get a tummyache.

“Seriously, Jaemin?” You looked at your friend over the phone screen. “You think I’m that shallow? One picture and I’m going to throw everything away?”

“Dude, show her the—” Donghyuck flapped his hand at the other dryad insistently.

“Oh, right, right.” Jaemin nodded as he began swiping and tapping on his phone fervently.

Donghyuck kept talking to you, “Of course we don’t think you’re shallow. We always meant to tell you about him, too. His name’s Jung Sungchan, he goes here, too, he’s a werewolf, he’s really nice, uh… Jaemin? Some help?”

You let out a sound that was a mix between a snort and a scoff. “Yeah, he sounds great.”

“Okay, he’s really more Jaemin’s friend than mine, sorry,” Donghyuck admitted. “Jaemin? What’s taking so long dude?”

“I don’t know! I can’t find it for some reason, I think he deleted it!” Jaemin muttered, his voice panicked. “I’m checking Jeno’s Instagram right now.”

“So Jeno knows him?” You asked. You didn’t know Jaemin’s werewolf roommate as well as you knew the two dryads, but you did know that they were all friends. “Are they in the same pack?”

“No, they actually know each other through Jeno’s… Ha! Found it!” Jaemin yelled out in celebration, flipping his phone around for you to see.

It was another picture, this time of Jeno standing next to the person you now knew to be named Sungchan. They were at what looked like a u-pick strawberry patch, each proudly holding up a large bucket filled to the brim with strawberries. Sungchan was in a white tank top—a brave choice for a strawberry farm—and shorts. Despite the outfit showing off a lot more of him than the last picture, it was his bright, happy grin that caught your eye, and you had to consciously make sure your gaze didn’t linger too long on the picture.

Turning your attention back to your friends, you prompted Jaemin, “Well? Do you know any more about him than he goes to our college and is a nice werewolf that knows Jeno?”

“Right! Yes!” Jaemin sat up straight at attention as you saw Donghyuck do a little fist pump of victory out of the corner of your eye. “He’s tall—”

“I can see that, he’s like almost two heads taller than Jeno; I meant his personality. This isn’t me saying yes, by the way.” You pointed to yourself and Jaemin talking. “This is me gathering data. I wanted to take time for myself after what happened with my ex, remember? I think it might be enough time, but I need a bit more than ‘he’s nice’ to get me out there.”

“Of course, of course. I really appreciate you even considering this for us,” he squeezed your arm for a moment before letting it go. “He’s really smart, Dean’s List every semester, uh, it might take a minute for him to warm up at first, but once he does, he’s funny, and insightful. And he doesn’t have that constant go-go-go energy that werewolves usually do, he’s so much chiller, so if you were worried about that, don’t be.”

“And, sorry, I know he’s your friend, but I have to ask…” You winced. “He’s not one of those werewolf guys that only dates human girls as like… you know… an ego thing?”

Donghyuck snorted, “Oh he’s not, promise.”

Tension you didn’t know you’d been carrying in your shoulders relaxed at that. “Good.”

“We do have to tell you one thing though,” Jaemin grimaced.

“What?”

“This isn’t just a random set-up because we think you guys would be cute—”

“Oh God, what’s wrong with him?”

“Nothing! Nothing!” He rushed to reassure you. “Like, that part is true, we do think you’d be a good match.”

“Let me guess: the ‘but’ that follows that sentence is related to the ‘long story’ that Donghyuck mentioned earlier?”

Jaemin nodded reluctantly. “Yeah… long story long, Sungchan made a deal, and his end of it was letting us set him up with anybody of our choosing.”

“You’re using a date with me to punish him?” You stood up, brushing the grass off your back. “Yeah, hard fucking pass. Thanks, guys, you really know how to make a girl feel special.”

“No, not a punishment!” Jaemin scrambled to get to his feet as well. As you walked off, the air around you turned cold again, marking when you left their bubble of spring. He called after you, “Y/N! I’m sorry! Please!”

You didn’t want to go back to your empty apartment yet though, so you found yourself meandering into a familiar storefront. Jasmine & Pearls, a boba tea shop just around the corner from your college campus. There was only one customer ahead of you in line, and you stared blankly at the menu just to look at something. You weren’t feeling very adventurous today, so you’d probably get your regular go-to order. After the customer before you had been helped, you shuffled up to the counter, messing with your phone case to pull your punch card out of the back of it.

“Hey, Y/N!” Shotaro, the siren working behind the counter today, greeted you cheerily.

The iridescent pink scales under the tip of his button nose and apples of his cheeks shimmered in the fluorescent lights, making him look like he had a perpetual hint of rosy blush across his skin. That, and his cherubic smile could almost make you forget what those scales and his flashing silvery eyes really meant—he was a siren, could lure you to your death if he so wanted to. Obviously, he didn’t want to, had no reason to, and that would literally be a murder charge nowadays, but you nevertheless found it fascinating that such a being was just here serving you boba tea.

A few months ago, you realized that you came here probably too often once all the workers knew your name, but by then it was too late. It was just too convenient, delicious, and pleasant of an atmosphere for you to feel ashamed enough to stop coming.

“Hi, Shotaro.” You smiled back at him. “Just a regular honey milk tea with boba, please. No charms today.”

“On it!” He accepted both your punch card and credit card from you. After handing them back, he spun around to make your drink, and you went to go wait for it at the bartop at the other end.

Curious, and with nothing better to do in that moment, you pulled up Jeno’s Instagram on your phone. From the main grid on his account, all you could see was pictures either with or of his partner. Cute. Then you finally saw one of them at a strawberry patch, Jeno in the same outfit as the picture Jaemin had shown you before. You clicked on that one, and sure enough it was a whole set of photos. You swiped through to find the one of him and Sungchan holding the buckets of strawberries. And Sungchan was tagged.

You looked up at Shotaro. The customer ahead of you still hadn’t gotten their drink. You checked the notifications on your phone. Nothing new to reply to. Well, here it goes. You clicked on his account.

And he was private. Well, good for him. Internet privacy.

You went back to Jeno’s Instagram to check if Sungchan had maybe appeared in any more posts. You just wanted to see if you could glean anything more about him.

You finally found him again in what looked like a big group trip to Cape Solaria at the end of last summer. There were probably fifteen people here at least. He popped up in a few different shots, playing beach sports with Jeno and some other guys that you didn’t recognize; joining in on throwing some poor small guy—who you presumed to be a witch, judging by the ritual tattoos he was covered in from neck to ankle—into the ocean; and sitting around a campfire roasting marshmallows with Jaemin and Renjun. And in every single one, Sungchan had such a genuine, pure, joyful smile. Like he was fully enjoying the moment and the people with him. Yeah, maybe you were projecting, but... surely it wouldn’t hurt to give it at least one chance?

“Y/N? Hello?” Shotaro was calling for you from the counter, shaking a drink that was presumably yours.

You snapped your head up, sheepishly turning your phone off and stuffing it away in your pocket. The other customer was nowhere to be seen; it was just you and the siren.

“Sorry, sorry.” You rushed up to accept the cup.

“It’s alright, you seemed like you were in the zone.”

You grabbed a straw, punching it out from the plastic wrapping. “In the zone of a little cyberstalking, as much as I hate to admit.”

“No shame here, we all do it. Who was it? Can I see?” He grinned mischievously.

“No,” you said flatly, stabbing your straw through the top of the drink. “My friends want to set me up.”

“Want to? Sounds like you haven’t said yes.”

“Perceptive.” You took your first sip.

“But you were cyberstalking them... So, you’re considering?”

“Ugh, I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Why not? Human lives are short.”

“Right. Thanks for that reminder.”

The bell above the front door rang then, announcing the entrance of another customer.

“Always here to help,” Shotaro patted your forearm before walking back to the register to greet the newcomer.

Two weeks later and you were nervously double-checking the name of the restaurant and the time that Jeno had sent you. Yep, this was it, and you weren’t weirdly early. You couldn’t believe how strange this felt, going on a date again. Comparing your outfit to the casual café as you walked in, you felt only a little better that you weren’t overdressed or underdressed either.

Your eyes scanned the building for Sungchan. You’d done enough cyberstalking on your own time in addition to the photos that your friends kept showing you to hype you up that you were certain you’d recognize him easily. It looked like you’d gotten here first. It was seat-yourself, so you might as well grab a table for the two of you.

You’d just come to a stop in front of a little two-seater and took your purse off to hang off the back of your chair.

“Y/N?” A voice came from behind you, accompanied by a gentle tap on your shoulder.

You spun around, immediately face-to-chest with someone. Looking up, you did, in fact, recognize the face of Jung Sungchan. He was admittedly cuter in real life than in the multitude of pictures that Jaemin and Donghyuck had continued to show you in preparation for the date. You didn’t want to know what they’d been doing to prepare Sungchan.

“Hi, Sungchan?” You still phrased it like a question, watching as the man’s features relaxed into an easy smile of recognition.

“Yes, hello.” He raised his arms up slightly at the same time that you did, and you realized that the both of you were now presumably having the same internal debate about if you were supposed to hug your blind first date hello as a greeting.

Ultimately, the two of you did go in for an awkward short hug, and you let out a nervous chuckle, feeling the warmth radiating off of him in the brief contact. You immediately looked down at the table, “Uhm, should we sit?”

“Of course, yeah.”

And as the two of you sat down on opposite sides, you looked up from your fidgeting fingers to your date’s face, not expecting his brow to be furrowed as if he were troubled by something, his gaze affixed on you.

You shifted in your seat uncomfortably. “Is everything okay?”

“You’re not wearing any perfume...” He commented, and you let out a minuscule sigh of relief. That’s all it was, he was just a bit put off that you hadn’t put on a perfume like one might’ve normally done for a date. A detail that he would’ve of course picked up as a werewolf.

“Not that I expect any brownie points for this, but I uh, I didn’t want to overwhelm your nose, in case there were any smells you’re particularly sensitive to,” you explained, picking up the menu that was already sitting on the table.

“You did your research.”

“Oh, I’ve dated a couple werewolves before, actually.”

“Really? You got a type or something?” As soon as the word were out of Sungchan’s mouth, he went to take them back, seeming surprised even at himself, “Sorry, that was—”

“No, no, I get it,” you cut off his apology, your tone reassuring. You knew that there were people who had a disturbing preference for werewolves, so you could understand why you dating now three werewolves might initially look a little suspicious. “Uh, I went to a kind of small high school. Private school. There were a couple of packs in my area that sent like all of their kids there, so my graduating class ended up being like 75% werewolves. It was just kind of statistics, I guess.”

“Oh, okay. Sorry about that, again,” Sungchan apologized once more, relaxing in his seat a bit more as he actually started to peruse his own menu.

“Anyway, that’s not a great first date topic.” You forced out a light-hearted chuckle.

“What’s not?”

“Past relationships? I think that’s third or fourth at least, don’t you?”

“Mm, yeah, of course. Sorry.”

Desperate to redirect the conversation to a much lighter, neutral one, you asked, “So what’s your major, Sungchan?”

“Earth Sciences.”

“Geology or Climatology track?”

He perked up at this. “Meteorology and Climatology.”

“And what made you want to study that?”

“Well, at first I thought I wanted to study astrophysics, but it was too much math and too little actual space. But I really liked my Intro to Weather class I took my first semester to cover a random credit so I switched to that and it stuck.”

“Wait, was it a morning Monday-Wednesday-Friday with Professor- Professor...” Suddenly, the memory struck you. “Oh! Hwang? Fall semester three years ago?”

“Yes, I believe so...” He answered, head tilting with intrigue.

“I think I had it too!”

“Really?”

“Yeah! I took it to get that Science credit as well.”

“I’m sorry to say that I don’t remember you at all.”

“It’s okay, I don’t remember you either,” you laughed, just amazed at the coincidence. “It was a big auditorium.”

Sungchan must have figured out what he wanted, as he set down his menu and leaned his elbows on the table to give you his full attention. “So what are you studying?”

“I’m an Interdisciplinary Major,” you told him happily, thrilled that the conversation was going much more smoothly now. “I was a bit indecisive, too. Except I couldn’t find one thing that stuck like you did. So I chose two: Sociology and Magical Creatures Studies.”

His eyes dropped from yours as he scoffed under his breath, sitting back in his seat.

And there went your pleasant conversation again.

“What was that?” You asked tersely.

“I didn’t say anything.” He shook his head like he was trying to clear the unpleasant tone from the conversation, but you weren’t going to let him go that easily.

“No, but clearly you have an opinion. So go ahead.”

“Not really, I was just wondering if you’ve even dated anyone that wasn’t a werewolf.”

You crossed your arms over your chest. “You think my major is just me cruising for a new boyfriend or something? Very expensive and essay-intensive compared to dating apps.”

“I didn’t mean it like that, Y/N,” Sungchan held his hands up, looking back up at you again. His features turned apologetic. “I just… I don’t know, I’m sorry.”

“So were you going to actually ask me that if I didn’t confront you, or were you just going to make assumptions?”

“That really was rude of me,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “But, I mean… how do you ask someone something like that without coming off as a bit rude?”

“I suggest phrasing it like a genuine question instead of an accusation.”

“Right.” He took a second as if to compose himself, then asked, his tone much more conservational, “So, you said you dated a couple werewolves in high school. Uh, have you dated anyone else since coming to college, then? Before this?”

You did your best to return your own voice and manner to civility as well. “Dates here and there, but as for serious relationships, just one, I dated a human guy briefly.”

“And why did you break up? If you don’t mind telling me. I get it if it’s too personal.”

“It’s fine. He cheated on me.”

“So you’re of course looking for loyalty. Like, you know, a dog.” Sungchan fired back spitefully.

“Okay, I think we’re done here, Sungchan,” you declared, putting both your hands on the table to prepare yourself to stand.

“Y/N, I’m so sorry,” he rushed to try to apologize for the umpteenth time that night, but you’d heard plenty by now.

“No, it’s fine, really,” you assured him, still moving to get up out of your chair and grab your purse. “You’ve obviously had some bad experiences in the past, none of which I’m privy to. It’s not fair to you to constantly be suspicious that your date has ulterior motives for being with you. But it’s also not fair to me to have to constantly defend myself either.”

He was quiet at that.

You continued, “We both deserve to be able to relax and have fun, and that’s clearly just not going to be able to happen. It’s okay, sometimes things just don’t work out. So, I’m going to go, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.”

And with that, you turned around and left the café.

The ringing of the bell above the door of Jasmine & Pearls barely registered in the back of your mind as you lumbered right up to the cash register the next day.

“Good afternoon, Y/N!” Shotaro greeted you cheerily.

“Hi, Shotaro...” You couldn’t muster up anything close to his level of enthusiasm, letting out a sigh. “Same old, same old, please.”

“Uh oh. Sounds like the date didn’t go so well?” He surmised, ringing you up then starting on your order.

“No, it didn’t,” you leaned against the counter to keep talking to him. “Barely lasted ten minutes.”

“That’s rough. You end it or did he?”

“I did. It was for the best but still... I thought I was going to really like this guy.” Based off nothing but social media posts and word of mouth from friends, but you really were hopeful. You’d had a good feeling, and had trusted Jeno, Jaemin, and Donghyuck. And it blew up in your face.

Note to self, never fucking trust those three again.

“Don’t feel too bad, Y/N. Seems like it’s going around.”

“What do you mean?”

“My roommate’s date last night was a bust too.”

“We should make a club,” you chuckled cynically.

“Or I can set you up?” The siren offered hopefully.

“Thanks, but I’m good. I said I was going to take some time to focus on myself after my last relationship, and I meant that. Last night was me testing the waters, and I fucking drowned.”

“That special, huh? Or, I guess not, in the end.”

“Well, at least now I know, you know? No ‘what if’s to mess with.”

Shotaro enthusiastically slammed your drink down in front of you. “Hell yeah, Y/N. A clear head.”

“Exactly.” You pulled the cup over to you.

He put the packaged straw down on top emphatically. “Fuck that guy.”

“Bit extreme, Shotaro, but I appreciate the sentiment,” you grinned, hitting the straw against the counter to pop it out from the plastic wrapping.

“You’re coming to our Valentine’s Day event next month though, right?” Your friend asked, pointing to the poster taped to the wall advertising the event. The evening of February 13th at the boba shop, with a special themed drinks menu and activities to do.

“Of course. Wouldn’t miss it.”

“Great!” He beamed at you.

“Anyway, I’ve got to go, and you’ve got more customers. See you.” You took your drink with you towards the exit that a whole gaggle of high schoolers had just come through, waving to the siren over your shoulder.

“Bye, Y/N!”

Pulling open the door of Jasmine & Pearls some weeks later, you were immediately greeted by an array of red, pink, and white. The entire store had been redecorated for the event. A short stage was set up against the far wall of the dining area, a small photobooth in another corner, and a station where you could learn to make an origami heart, if the pictures on the instructions taped to the wall above it were anything to guess off. The shop was already bustling and buzzing with energy, filled with couples and groups of friends. All in all, it looked like it was shaping up to be a successful night for them.

You got into possibly the longest line you could remember having waited in at Jasmine & Pearls in a while—you’d learned the rush times and had become a pro at avoiding them in order to get your boba fix as quick as possible—and continued looking around with a smile on your face.

Unfortunately, you were flying this one solo. Your friends were all either working or studying tonight, and you weren’t going to flake after already promising Shotaro just because you couldn’t find someone to come with you. But you could have plenty of fun by yourself. And, you didn’t make any promise to stay the whole night. You’d stay just to finish your drink and maybe make an origami heart or two, depending on how good you were at them.

Finally, it was your turn to order, and you walked up to the register already with a big smile on your face.

Shotaro was manning the register while another employee fulfilled the orders. Your friend’s face lit up immediately. “Y/N! You made it!”

“I told you I would. Did you doubt me?” You questioned in mock offense.

“Not for a second,” he declared. Pointing to the little standee menu that was on the counter, he asked, “So what’ll you have? I recommend one of our specials for the occasion, obviously.”

You looked over the three new drink options that were advertised as for tonight’s event only. One in particular caught your eye, strawberry milk tea with heart-shaped brown sugar tapioca pearls, and an added feel-good charm. “That Lovebug sounds good.”

“Perfect! I knew you’d get that one! Coming right up!” He rang you up, but only took your credit card from your hand. “Sorry, no regular punch cards tonight. Instead, every purchase of a drink comes with a special event-only punch card.”

“Oh?” You raised your eyebrows as he handed you a small pink card with four circles on it, one already punched out with a heart-shaped hole punch.

“Yep! If you complete all the activities we have tonight, you can redeem it for a free drink! You’ve already gotten a punch for purchasing a drink, then we’ve got the photobooth—” he pointed to the large box. “Just bring your photo strips up here, and I’ll punch the card for you. And the origami, same thing. They don’t have to be professional, as long as you tried, just show them to me, and I’ll give you another punch. And then my boss, Baekhyun, is going to be hosting Valentine’s Bingo in like ten, fifteen minutes. He’ll punch everyone’s cards who participates.” He gestured to the stage, where you now saw a man starting to mess with a microphone and small table. “Don’t worry, you can play single.”

“Huh. Sounds good to me.” You tucked the card into your pocket. “Thanks, Shotaro.”

“Your drink will be out in a second!”

When you finally heard your name being called out by the other employee, you walked up and took the cup from him gratefully. It was another siren, who you weren’t nearly as familiar with as Shotaro, but you still offered Yuta a smile as you accepted the drink.

You looked at the heart-shaped boba at the bottom of the cup fondly. “Cute. Thanks, Yuta.”

“Of course! Now enjoy the ambiance.” Yuta shooed you away with a smirk.

You saluted him casually. “Heard.”

Meandering around the store, you took in the kitschy decorations in various heart, Cupid, rose, and arrow shapes all around. Despite your own striking out in the romance department as of late, you couldn’t find yourself wanting to muster up any morosity for the atmosphere. It was too endearing, and you were someone who just loved love. And maybe the feel-good charm in the boba pearls was doing its job pretty well.

Legally, Jasmine & Pearls couldn’t sell any charms that had effects as strong as alcohol, drugs, or hexes, or they’d need special licenses for that, but the little charms and enchantments available in some of their boba options could influence one’s mood for a short amount of time. Feel-good, tranquility, energy, focus, that kind of stuff.

A lot of the tables had been pushed to one side to make room for the stage, so you took your drink to the bar seating that was against a window, keeping your eye on the figure on stage. As he was readjusting the microphone, you caught a flash of scales under his skin, realizing that he too was a siren, and suddenly the employment choices felt a bit more intentional than coincidental.

Red and pink heart-shaped confetti had been sprinkled along the bartop, and you brushed some of it aside to be able to set your cup down. You were humming along to the love song playing over the speakers as you scrolled on your phone when you swore you heard your name. Straightening up a little, you listened carefully for it again.

“Y/N?” Someone gently tapped on your shoulder this time.

You turned around atop the stool you’d been sitting on, not prepared for who was behind you. Jung Sungchan was standing there, hands stuffed in the pockets of his worn black leather jacket. Honestly, you hadn’t thought much about him since your date five or six weeks ago. Your focus had been on school— with this being your junior year, you had a lot to get together in order to be ready to apply for grad schools, Botany Club, still going to work, and keeping up with friends around all this somehow. One failed date that wasn’t even in your top five worst dates hadn’t really been keeping you up at night. And yet somehow here he was.

You were sure that the surprise was evident on your face, and you probably left just too long of pause hanging in the air before you finally said something. “Oh, Sungchan, hi.”

“I thought that was you. Hey.” He offered a friendly smile.

“How are you?”

“I’m—” He was cut off by a distant shout of his name that only got closer.

“Hey! Sungchan!” It was Shotaro, the siren approaching with a prepared drink and straw, shoving them in the werewolf’s hand. “Dude, you can’t just walk away from the counter like that while we’re making your drink, then I have to come chase you down when you don’t hear your name.”

Sungchan accepted it from the employee guiltily. “Sorry, Shotaro.”

“Anyway! I’m glad you two have met.” Shotaro beamed at the pair of you, throwing an arm around Sungchan’s neck. “Y/N, this is my roommate I was talking about, Jung Sungchan. Sungchan, this is Y/L/N Y/N, she’s a regular here and goes to our college.”

Your eyes widened minutely in alarm as you suddenly connected way too many dots. Oh god, Shotaro’s roommate had an awful date, Sungchan is Shotaro’s roommate, you and Sungchan had gone on a date that night, the very same date you had also complained to Shotaro about. And who knows what terrible things Sungchan might have told the siren about the date, about you. After all, you had been the one to walk out on him.

You felt like you were going to puke as Shotaro gave Sungchan a sharp slap on the shoulder, winked at you behind his roommate’s back, and walked back to his station behind the counter.

After a heavy, long, awkward pause, Sungchan finally spoke up. “So… what did you get?”

“Oh, uhm… the Lovebug. What about you?”

“Me too, same. Lovebug.”

Another pause as you watched Sungchan open his straw and poke it through the plastic seal covering the top of the drink.

“So are we going to address the elephant in the room?” You decided to just get it over with.

“Which one? I feel like we have a whole herd at this point.”

You couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Okay, fair. I meant Shotaro. I’ll be the first to admit that I confided in him after our—I’m sorry to say but—disaster of a date.”

“That’s a generous assessment, actually.” Sungchan agreed. “And I told him about it too. I mean, we live together, it was hard for him not to notice when I came back home less than an hour after I left.”

“Ah, yeah…”

“I didn’t say anything bad about you, by the way. I told him it went horribly, because I ruined it, of course, but you were perfectly lovely. Truly way more level-headed than I deserved.”

“Oh, no, Sungchan,” you tried to reassure him. “Really, like I said before— Sometimes things just don’t work out.”

“I know. But still, I treated you awfully, and I am really, really sorry about that.”

“Thank you.”

A crackling came from the speakers up front, snapping your attention back to the man on stage. Baekhyun had gotten the microphone connected, and you saw Shotaro darting from the stage to his spot at the register as his boss called for everyone’s attention. “Hello? Hello? Great, this is working.”

He flashed a dazzling smile to the small crowd. “Hi, if you don’t know me, I’m Byun Baekhyun, I own Jasmine & Pearls here. If you’re in line, don’t panic, we’re not starting quite yet. I just wanted to thank everybody for coming out here tonight, this is honestly a much better turnout than we had expected. I, of course, also want to thank my two incredible employees, Shotaro and Yuta, for working tonight too.”

The two sirens behind the counter both waved as they got a round of applause, then everyone’s eyes were back on Baekhyun.

“We’re going to be starting Valentine’s Bingo in about five minutes or so. I just want everyone to know that you will need a partner for this. So if you came out here by yourself, find another single person out there and you know… get talking.” He grinned, and you swore his gaze lingered on you and Sungchan for a millisecond too long to be coincidental. “Okay, awesome, I’ll be back up here in five to get it started.”

Your eyes flashed over to your friend that was working, remembering exactly when he told you that you could play the game by yourself, and now suddenly you needed a partner. Shotaro was contentedly ringing up a customer’s order, though, seemingly not even paying you nor Sungchan any mind.

“So, uh, want to partner up? For the bingo?” Sungchan asked, then rushed to tack on, “Unless you’re waiting for somebody?”

“I’m not waiting for anybody,” you smiled, gesturing to the stool beside you for him to sit down.

“How have things been with you?”

“Good, they’ve been pretty good. Just a lot of school and Bot Club.”

“Bot Club?”

“Magical Botany Club. I’m the Vice President this year.”

“Oh, cool. So that’s how you know Jaemin, then.”

“Yeah, yeah. Him and Lee Donghyuck, we’re all on the board together.”

“How’d you get into it?”

“Because I sucked at gardening,” you admitted with a laugh. “My freshman year, my parents gave me this cactus to have in my dorm, and I killed the thing somehow. They can survive in deserts and the most extreme climates in the world, and it perished in my dorm room. I joined Bot Club hoping for some tips, and everyone just immediately thought I was beyond help. Jaemin and Hyuck were the only ones who actually took the time to help me. And it took a lot of time.”

Sungchan was smiling too, genuinely. “You must have grown to really like it, to stick around after getting your cactus caretaking tips.”

“Yeah, I do.” You nodded. “What about you? How’s school been for you?”

He grimaced a little. “Could be better, honestly.”

“Oh no? Why? What’s wrong?” You frowned.

Before Sungchan could answer, another person had approached the two of you. It was Baekhyun, a stack of square bingo cards in one hand and box of markers in the other. His silver eyes seemed to glitter in the lights as he smiled at you, his opalescent scales refracting a whole rainbow of colors where they sat just under his skin along his cheekbones, bridge of his nose, and forehead.

“Hi!” He greeted the two of you cheerfully. “Are you two together?”

“Oh, uh, yes,” Sungchan nodded, reaching out to grab your bingo sheet and marker before the store owner flitted off to the next pair of customers.

He set them down on the counter in between the two of you, but your focus was still on your conversation.

“So what’s wrong, Sungchan?” You asked, taking another sip of your drink.

“I mean, it’s just been a bit stressful is all,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “One of my professors asked me to do research with him, and then I took an SI position with another professor too, on top of all my classes. Just kind of got a lot on my plate.”

“Oh, okay. But that sounds like a great opportunity, at least. Your professor asking you to do research with him.”

“It is, it’s some seriously cool stuff.”

“What’s—”

Baekhyun clearing his throat into the microphone from the front cut you off, and you gave the werewolf an apologetic look.

“Sorry. But I do want to hear about it later, Sungchan,” you squeezed his arm before turning around to face the stage.

“Alright, we’re going to be getting started then.”

As Baekhyun kicked off the first round of bingo, you found yourself tapping the marker against the bingo card as you sat there. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Sungchan awkwardly leaning over as he tried to look at the sheet too, and you realized you’d been hogging it.

“Oh, sorry, here,” you moved the sheet more into the middle, at the same time that you scooted your stool over towards him to lessen the gap between you. “Is that better?”

Sungchan’s shoulder was just behind yours as he looked over you at both the card and the stage. “Yeah, yeah, thanks.”

“Did you want to mark them off? Sorry, I just grabbed it without thinking.” You offered the permanent marker out to him.

“No, it’s all yours.” He shook his head, then tapped his finger to the middle spot. “But you did forget the Free Space.”

“Oh, shit, thanks.” You crossed it off with an X.

Baekhyun called out number after number, and you and Sungchan worked together to search the small card for them.

You clicked your tongue as you couldn’t find the one the shop owner had just called out, and were about to pick your cup back up to take another sip of your drink, when Sungchan spoke up happily.

“Found it!”

“Oh, where?” You hovered the marker over the card, scanning the little letters and numbers.

“Right there.” He’d pointed, but his hand was gone too fast, and you lost it again.

“Wait, where?”

“Right…” he reached over to wrap his own hand around yours that was holding the marker, and dragged it over to the correct square. You giggled as he guided your hand to draw a messy X like you were a toddler learning to write your letters for the first time. “…There.” He finished, letting go of your hand.

“Ahh, okay,” you nodded slowly. “I see… I’m illiterate.”

“Well, I wasn’t going to say it.”

“Hey!”

Sungchan laughed as you gave a half-hearted smack against his chest, and you couldn’t help but smile too. After all, it was your self-deprecating joke first.

He patted your back, apologizing through his chuckles, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“Apology taken under consideration.”

“Oof, I don’t like the sound of that. Anything I can do to better my chances here?”

“Hmm,” you hummed, pretending to think as you tapped the capped end of the marker against your bottom lip.

Sungchan watched you, his elbow resting on the bartop and his cheek in his hand. The only thing separating you two was the bingo sheet, the game which you weren’t even focused on anymore. Your back was entirely turned to the stage now, gaze set only on the werewolf next to you.

Just as you’d parted your lips to make your proposal, you happened to hear Baekhyun announce the next number.

“O13!” The siren’s voice carried well through the speakers. “O13!”

You let your eyes flick down, immediately catching on that open square on your card. And it completed the row. You marked it off, a giddy grin spreading across your face as you went to elbow Sungchan. “Look!”

“Oh damn! Nice!” He raised his hand, as did you, as he called out. “Bingo! We got bingo!”

Baekhyun’s features lit up as he stopped his progress of reaching for the next bingo ball. He practically purred into the microphone, “Well, well, seems like we’ve got our first bingo. If one of you could read it out so I can double-check it, then we’ll see about getting you two your prizes.”

Sungchan called out your five spaces, and Baekhyun nodded with each one, the room erupting into applause when he declared that you two had won that round.

“Alright, come up here so I can give you your prizes and punch your tickets.” The siren waved you up.

You looked to Sungchan expectantly, and he gestured for you to go up ahead of him. Instead, feeling a bit uneasy with the entire café’s eyes on you, you latched onto his forearm and dragged him up right alongside you.

“So you each are getting a gift card to the shop—” He handed you two small cards, then turned around, where Yuta had appeared with a couple more items. Baekhyun then handed each of you a denim baseball cap that had the logo of the shop on the front in lilac purple thread. “And Jasmine & Pearls embroidered hats. Thank you so much for coming here and playing.”

You accepted both prizes from him, feeling over the embroidery on the cap with your finger.

“And if you’d give me your event punch cards, I’ll go ahead and give you your punches now, since you unfortunately, won’t be allowed to play to win again. Fairness and all that.”

You and Sungchan handed over your punch cards, and the siren gave each of you another heart-shaped punch before giving them back.

“Now, we will be playing two more rounds, so don’t worry if you didn’t win this time,” he announced to the rest of the crowd as you and Sungchan headed back to your seats. “I’ll hand out brand new cards to everybody, and we’ll restart. Y/N and Sungchan, you’re free to play again for fun, if you’d like. You just can’t play for profit.”

Sungchan looked over at you in a silent question, and you shook your head. You were happy to play and win just the one time. After all, with everybody else still occupied, this would be the perfect time to do the other activities with little to no lines or crowding.

“No thank you, we’re bingo-ed out for tonight,” Sungchan called out, and the host nodded graciously.

“Very well. Everybody else hold tight while I come around to distribute new cards.”

As the two of you finally sat back down at your seats and looked over your prizes, you realized that you had never introduced yourself to Baekhyun. Not when he had passed out the cards, nor when he was giving you your prizes. But he knew your names. You snapped your head up towards the counter suspiciously again, but Shotaro was once again minding his business, cleaning out one of the machines.

Sungchan was readjusting the sizing of his hat, then finally pulled it on, offering you a lopsided grin. “What do you think?”

“Looks good on you.” You tapped the brim of it, feeling a familiar airiness in your chest, one that you hadn’t felt in some time. “You wear baseball caps a lot?”

“For sure, so I’ll get good use out of this.”

“Wear them for fashion or do you play a lot of sports?”

“Oh, uh, both, I guess? I like how they look, and I usually wear them when I’m out playing whatever to keep the Sun off my face, yeah.”

The pictures from Jeno’s Instagram of Sungchan on their trip to Cape Solaria suddenly came to mind, and you diverted your eyes down to the gift card in your hand as your skin started getting warmer and warmer. At this rate, he was going to be able to hear your heartbeat picking up the pace and the idea of that in and of itself was embarrassing enough to make it gain even more speed.

“So…” Sungchan inhaled, and you looked up with both your eyebrows raised.

Admittedly, you’d completely forgotten where the two of you were in your previous conversation. “Hm?”

“Do you want to finish the other two punches together?” He asked. “I know they’re not partner things, but we’re both here, and everyone else is busy doing bingo, so it’s probably the best time to do them and—”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking.” You grinned at him, standing up off your stool. “I’d love to, Sungchan. Besides, you’re still supposed to tell me about your research, remember?”

His features lit up as he followed you over to the origami station. “Right, right! Are you sure you want to hear about it, though? It’s on climate change and how it affects human disease, it’s a little doomsday-ish.”

“Ah, perfect for the holiday.” You pointed to the giant paper cut-out of a cartoon Cupid hanging above your heads, then reached for your first square of red paper. “I’m sure, go for it.”

“Okay, cool,” he beamed at you, grabbing a piece of patterned pink paper.

As Sungchan walked you through all the intricacies and machinations of the topic that his research with his professor was on, you were genuinely happy at how much you understood. He didn’t mind slowing down to answer your questions, or explain concepts that you didn’t know already. And you two could have an actual conversation tangential to the topic, because you had taken a Magical Conservation class just last semester that dealt directly with how climate change was affecting a lot of magical creatures, such as sirens who typically lived in and around glaciers that were now losing much of their native habitats due to the lack of year-round sea ice at the poles. And all the while, you both tried your damndest to make an origami heart.

“Okay, what the fuck?!” Sungchan huffed, cutting himself off in the middle of a thought about disease vectors. He smacked his crumpled piece of paper that looked nothing like a heart onto the table. “I’ve taken engineering classes, how am I getting bested by a primary school arts and crafts project?”

“It’s not a—”

“It literally says ages 8 and up on the instructions.”

You pressed your lips together in a line. “Ah. So it does.”

Yours didn’t look much better. It seemed as though you were both getting bested by a project meant for children.

“Well, Shotaro did say we just had to show him we tried and we’d get the punch,” you reminded him.

“No, no, I can get this,” he shook his head, grabbing a fresh sheet. “I just need to focus, and not talk while I do it. You’re too much of a distraction.”

“My apologies, I’ll be quiet this time,” you chuckled, covering your mouth with your hand as you leaned against the table to watch him try again.

He made every fold with precision, but you found that you weren’t really watching him fold so much as you were watching him. His brow was set in concentration, a small crease emerging in the knit of his brows, his eyes narrowed slightly, and the very tip of his tongue poking out from between his lips. It was cute, adorable, endearing, everything in the thesaurus, and you could’ve sat there and watched him fold origami hearts all night if he wanted to, punch card and free drink be damned.

Sungchan stood up straight, his features relaxing into a proud grin as he held his completed piece up for you to see. It was definitely a heart this time, a simple baby pink color, and you were amazed at how straight the lines were.

“Nice, Sungchan!” You praised him. “That’s what those engineering classes were for, huh?”

“I wasn’t going to let some project for ages 8 and up that Shotaro picked out get the best of me!” He declared, and you could practically see his chest puffing out with pride. “I’m not going to give him the satisfaction.”

You couldn’t help but laugh. “So that’s what this was? Fragile STEM major ego?”

He narrowed his eyes at you. “Isn’t sociology a science?”

“I think you’re the first hard science major to ever say that.”

“It ends in -ology.”

“So do phrenology and astrology.”

“Fair. But seriously, is it not?”

“It is. But usually, you engineering and whatnot majors don’t like to consider us ‘soft sciences’ like sociology and anthropology and psychology to be ‘real sciences,’ whatever the hell that means.”

“Ohh, yeah… I’ve got better shit to do than tell a scientist that they’re not a scientist.”

“Like make children’s crafts.”

“Exactly.” He gave you another smile brighter than the Sun.

You nodded firmly. “A much better use of your time. Now, are you ready to take these to Shotaro?”

“Yeah, let’s go!”

As the two of you walked up to the counter, you continued your earlier conversation, “And I will remind you that I’m actually an Interdisciplinary major, and also study MCS. Both of which are considered humanities, a label that I wear with pride, even more so than the ‘soft science’ one.”

A smile tugged at the corner of Sungchan’s mouth as he looked down at you. “Noted.”

Shotaro was standing at the register, hands folded over each other and a smug smile on his face as he watched the two of you approach together. “Well, hey, guys! Congrats on your win!”

“Thanks, Shotaro.” You smiled back, holding your paper heart out to him. “We did the origami too.”

Sungchan held his up too, and you could see the proud look on his face as he did so.

“His is a lot better than mine,” you admitted as the siren took just a second to appraise them. Seeing the two side-by-side, yours was a bit misshapen, folds across parts that were supposed to be flat from you having to undo and redo parts over and over again.

“That’s okay! You guys just had to try,” Shotaro reminded you, picking up the hole punch. “Punch cards please?”

With just one punch left, you and Sungchan headed over to the photobooth in the corner. It was set up so that you didn’t have to pay for any of the films. Sungchan climbed in first, and you watched nervously where his head almost hit the top of the entrance.

“Goddamn this thing is tiny,” he observed as soon as he had poked his head in past the curtain.

“Is it small or are you a giant?” You asked pointedly.

Sungchan had fully entered the photobooth then, and retorted back, “Get in here and find out.”

As you parted the curtain and put just your first foot in, you immediately realized how cramped the two of you were going to be. “Okay, maybe a bit of both.”

“Uh-huh.”

Sungchan was already sat on the bench, and pressed himself as far back into the corner as he could to give you enough space to sit next to him. Your leg was squished in next to his, and his arm ended up around your shoulders. He was warm, as expected for a werewolf, whose body temperatures all ran naturally higher than humans.

As he shifted his shoulders and arm to settle around you, he double-checked, “Sorry, is this alright? It’s tight in here—”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine,” you turned your head to give him a smile, but were instead caught off-guard by just how close his face was to yours. If either one of you shifted forward right now, you would hit noses. Your breath hitched in your throat as you made eye contact with him. Oh, he could definitely hear your heartbeat in the tiny space afforded by the photobooth, surely as clear as you could hear it thudding in your own ears. God, you’d always thought he was cute, but something about being so close, and the lights in here hitting the angles of his face just right, he was striking, handsome. You curled your hands into fists in the material of your pants, not trusting yourself not to grab him and do something too wildly out of pocket.

The screen played a short melody at you, knocking you from your trance, and you turned your focus back to your task.

Pressing a couple buttons on the touchscreen, you looked between the height of the camera and Sungchan, squinting. “Is your head even going to show in frame?”

Sungchan swallowed, then cleared his throat before he spoke, as if his mouth had gone dry. “Guess we’ll find out after.”

“Alright, it’s a four-cut.” You announced after skimming the easy illustrated instructions. “You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.” He gave you a thumbs up.

“Okay. 1, 2, 3.” You pressed the start button before sitting back in your seat against him again.

You smiled and held up a peace sign for the first one, and in the split second of the flash going off, you heard the werewolf next to you curse under his breath, “Fuck! That’s bright—” accompanied by the feeling of him flinching back, and immediately followed by a distinct thud.

Turning around as much as the space could allow for, you saw Sungchan curled in on himself, his eyes squinted shut presumably both in pain from the flash and from where he had just smacked the back of his head against the wall of the photobooth, judging by the hand he was cradling it with.

“Ooh! Sungchan, are you alright?” You asked through giggles, unable to get over the comical thunk! sound that his head had made.

Another flash went off, startling him into hitting his head again with another bonk! and this time you couldn’t help but burst out into full-bodied laughter, turning back toward the camera to not laugh directly in the poor guy’s face. You could barely see the third and fourth flashes because your eyes were squeezed shut as you laughed, running out of air and having to prop yourself up with a hand on Sungchan’s knee to not keel over.

Finally, you started sobering up enough to squint your eyes back open, and through your tears, you saw Sungchan smiling down at you as well.

“Alright, I don’t know if it was that funny…” he sighed, still holding his head.

“I’m-I’m sorry,” you tried to apologize through your wheezes. “It was the sound, and the two in a row, it was just too much for me. I’m not laughing at your pain, I promise. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m alright. Thanks.” He reassured you, dropping his hand from his head and resting it on the one that you still had on his knee. “I… I really like your laugh.”

Your hand suddenly tingled. “Oh. Thank you…”

After a beat, he shifted his gaze from yours. “So where do the films print out at?”

“Uh, on the outside of the booth. Should be two, one for each of us.” You said quickly, getting up to exit the booth and put some space between the two of you again.

Sungchan followed you out, and you easily found the dispenser, where there were in fact two film strips. He grabbed them for you, looking over them first. A smile spread across his face as he continued holding them, and you started getting antsy the longer that you hadn’t seen them.

“What, are they that bad?” You asked with a light chuckle.

“What?” He snapped his focus up to you.

“You’ve been smiling at them for an awful long time. Did I blink or something?” You joked, knowing very well that you were laughing for half of them.

He sucked in air through his teeth, shaking his head regretfully. “Yeah, I think for your own sake, I should keep both of these. I mean, I look great but—”

“Sungchan, let me see!” You reached for them, but he yanked his hand back from you at the last second.

You lunged for them again, but he once again kept them just out of your reach, a sly grin on his lips. The next time you tried to grab them, he held them above his head, and he most unfortunately had a significant height advantage over you.

You were already in his personal space from grabbing for them before, practically chest-to-chest (well, really chest-to-face), and now had to crane your neck straight up to look at them. With a huff, out of breath, heart racing for more than one reason now, you weakly pulled on his shoulders as you pouted, “Sungchan, please!”

“Here, I warned you.” He said melodramatically, handing you one copy of the film strips.

You eagerly held it in both hands, scanning over the four pictures on it. The first one was normal, it looked like Sungchan had taken your lead and both of you were smiling and throwing up peace signs. The second one was where everything went to chaos. Sungchan was wincing in pain in the corner, holding his head, as you had the back of your head to the camera, one hand reaching uncertainly towards him. In the third, you were turned back towards the camera, a little blurry as you laughed, and Sungchan was squinting one eye open to look at you. And in the last one, you were still laughing, leaning on Sungchan for support as there was nothing but simple joy on your face; and Sungchan’s features had relaxed out of pain as he gazed down at you with a fond smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Not as wide as yours was, but no less dim.

“These are so cute! You liar!” You elbowed Sungchan in the side.

“You didn’t let me finish. I look great, but you look radiant.”

“Good save.” You joked, but couldn’t suppress the smitten grin that wormed its way across your face. “And I’m keeping mine.”

Sungchan reached into the pocket of his jacket then, pulling out his pristine, baby pink origami heart from earlier. He held it out to you. “I-I wanted you to have this, too.”

“Aw, Sungchan…” You accepted the paper heart from him.

“Feel free to throw it out when you get home, I get it.”

“Hey, stop that.” You pinched his forearm where the sleeve of his jacket had fallen down. “Don’t do something sweet and then immediately take all the sincerity away by covering it with a layer of self-deprecation. If you’re going to be a sweetheart, own up to it or don’t do it at all.”

He rubbed at the back of his neck, and you could see a flush creeping up from his collar to his cheeks. “You’re right. I wanted to give you that, sans trash can.”

You were beaming, tucking it into the inner pocket of your jacket and patting it. “Thank you, Sungchan. I’d offer you mine, but I think it really should go in the trash.”

“Look who’s not taking her own advice, hm?”

“Alright, if you want it,” you sighed, taking your own lumpy attempt at the origami heart out of your pocket and handing it over to him.

Sungchan plucked it from your fingers smugly. “Thank you.”

“I expect you to be buried with that now, by the way.”

“I’ll be sure to write it in my will.”

The two of you were still chuckling as you walked up to the counter again, your film strips and punch cards in hand to show them to Shotaro. Your siren friend reviewed the pictures with a shit-eating grin on his face.

“You guys are so cute,” he commented so very subtly. “But uh, what happened here, Sungchan? Did you hit your head on something? How did you manage that one?”

As you covered your mouth to hide your giggles at the memory of the double bonk! resurfacing, Sungchan took his film strip back from his roommate. “Alright, are you going to give us the punches or not?”

Shotaro punched the final heart-shaped holes into both your cards. “And with that you’ve completed all the punches! Unfortunately, you can’t redeem the free drink tonight, but by all means, you are more than welcome to stay and hang out some more. We’ve got extended hours tonight, so you can keep doing the activities if you like, or just, you know… stay and chat or something.”

“Right, thanks, Shotaro.” Sungchan led you away with a hand on your back.

You ended up back at your original seat that you had sat at for the bingo game. The game finished while you were in the photobooth, the other patrons now milling around the shop again. Some were sitting, sipping on their drinks and enjoying each other’s company, others at the origami stations, others lining up at the photobooth, and still others back at the register ordering again. You looked down at the film strip in your hands before tucking it away safely with Sungchan’s origami heart. Looking around, you saw that Baekhyun was making rounds now that he was done hosting bingo, greeting customers and having conversations with everyone he stopped to talk to.

You didn’t want to leave yet, to have this night be over, to have your time with Sungchan be done. At least not without knowing if you’d see him again. This had been fun, really fun, and you wanted to see him again. Every bad first impression of him you’d gotten from your date had been wiped away.

“Hey, Y/N?”

You snapped your focus back over to him at the sound of his voice, trepid and unsure. You offered him a reassuring smile as you replied, “Yeah, Sungchan?”

He had taken his hat off, and was messing with the seam along the bottom band nervously. “I know I already said this, but I really am sorry for everything I said to you before. I was so incredibly wrong about you.”

“And I’ve already said thank you, so I suppose I’ll say I forgive you this time.” You squeezed his forearm. “So would you stop apologizing now?”

“I know we can’t start over completely, but…”

“Yes?” Your voice pitched up hopefully, your heart soaring along with it.

“Friends?”

Splat. Your heart plummeted back down with tremendous velocity.

It took all your willpower to keep your face from showing the disappointment you’d felt, and even then, you were sure it still fell minutely. You slapped on a rehearsed, customer service smile for him, too shocked that you’d apparently misread everything so badly to do much more than go through a script of what you should say. “Yeah, sure. Friends.”

Sungchan beamed at you, another heart-stopping, adorable, lopsided grin that now made your chest squeeze painfully. “Okay, great! Thank you, seriously!”

You threw open the door to Jasmine & Pearls the next morning so violently that it swung back the other way and rang the bell twice.

“Shotaro.”

The siren perked up to greet you. “Oh, Y/N! Back to redeem that free drink already, huh?”

“Sungchan here?” Your eyes flicked around the shop warily. You couldn’t see him, but now that you knew that the two of them were roommates, you had to be more careful.

“Oh, I see.” Your friend grinned, crossing his arms over his chest. “No, you just missed him, actually, he had class, popped in on his way to campus.”

“Thank god,” you groaned, collapsing into a stool near the pick-up counter, face in your arms.

“Uh, I’m going to make you a drink. Your usual?”

“Sure…” You mumbled, the sound even more muffled by your arms.

As Shotaro prepared the drink, he picked your conversation back up. “Now, what happened? You two looked like you were having a lot of fun last night. Not to pat myself on the back too hard.”

You lifted your head up just enough to rest your cheek on your arms so your friend could hear you when you spoke. “Did he tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“Remember that awful date I went on last month?”

“Vaguely.”

“And Sungchan went on a bad date the same night.”

“Yeah. Did he do some kind of ‘all cards on the table’ confessional with you to try to scare you off?” Shotaro sighed, tossing his hand towel over his shoulder and putting his hands on his hips. “Listen, don’t worry, I know he says he ruined his date that night, but really he’s a big puppy—don’t tell him I said that, he’ll tear my throat out.” He paused, as if realizing what he had just said. “And don’t worry about that ‘tear my throat out’ thing either, I swear he’s super sweet. Honestly, something must have been wrong with that girl, he’s not—”

“It was me.” You cut him off bluntly.

“Huh?”

“Sungchan and I were each other’s terrible date that night.”

The siren slapped a hand over his face with a groan. “Oh my god, what did he do?”

“Now you think he did something? Two seconds ago, you swore there was ‘something wrong with that girl.’” You raised your eyebrows.

“Yeah, but I know you, Y/N. Him saying he fucked up and made you walk out? I can believe that.”

“We don’t have time to unpack all of that, but thanks, I guess.” You settled your cheek in your hand instead. “Anyway, it was all a mismatch at the time. He had his reasons, and I had mine, and I left. I didn’t harbor any ill will towards him, nor had I even thought about him until last night.”

Shotaro snorted, placing your finished drink in front of you. “Oh, well, can’t say the same for him.”

“What?”

“Whatever he did, he felt terrible about it. He kept talking about how he wanted to apologize to you, but he didn’t think you’d want to see him.”

You blinked at him. “Seriously?”

“I just thought it was like when you accidentally say ‘you too’ when the waiter tells you to enjoy your food and then you can’t stop thinking about that interaction for the next six months.”

Remembering the gist of your very short conversation from your one and only date with Sungchan, you shook your head. “No, not quite.”

“But it seems like you two made up last night, right?” Shotaro asked, head tilted.

“Yes, last night was so much fun. It’s what our first date should have been. We got to talk, and get to know each other, and joke, and laugh, and maybe flirt a little bit; and he’s funny, and smart, and a lot of fun...” You explained, trailing off pitifully at the end.

“So what’s the catch?”

“Well, I don’t know why I thought that at the end of the night, when he said,” you dropped your voice to mimic Sungchan, “‘I know we can’t start over completely, but—’ I don’t know why I thought that was going to be followed up by him asking me out, but it wasn’t.”

The siren’s jaw dropped. “It wasn’t?”

“Nope. Friends...” You said with weak enthusiasm, giving him two thumbs-up and a feigned smile as if you were being held at gunpoint.

“Ooh, Y/N...” Shotaro grimaced.

You dropped your head into your hands in defeat. “And somehow I feel even stupider than I did leaving that date.”

“I’m going to ask him what the hell he’s thinking.”

“No the fuck you’re not!”

“Y/N—”

“I told you this in confidence, Osaki Shotaro, not so you could you blab how pathetic I am right back to him!”

“But I just did that with him to you.” He pointed out innocently. “Seems a bit unfair.”

“Thanks for just agreeing with me on the pathetic part.”

“Well—”

“You’re not helping!”

“I’m trying!” He threw his hands up in exasperation. With a sigh, he came up to lean against the counter, voice turning sympathetic once more. “Look, Sungchan probably just thinks that you would want nothing to do with him romantically after he ruined it so stupendously last time. So he doesn’t even want to put you in the awkward position of rejecting him again— or, he at least thinks you would reject him again.”

“You really think so?” You asked quietly, watching a bead of water run down the side of your cup.

“Best I can come up with.”

And all the hope in your chest puttered out like a limp, half-filled balloon. “So that was a guess.”

“I’m a siren, not a mindreader, sorry.”

“Ugh, I’ve got to go. Thanks, Shotaro. For the boba. You were useless otherwise.”

“Bye!” Your friend waved to you cheerily.

Being friends with Sungchan was pretty easy, actually. You already had a lot of the same friends (it was sort of weird that you hadn’t met before that date, you realized), and as long as somebody else was there, it was easy to ignore the ever-present, ever-growing crushing pain in your chest whenever you were with him. You didn’t like that it was like this, you hated being that person pining over one of their friends who had explicitly said that they just wanted to be friends. You’d tried to get yourself to feel like this about other guys—the cute phoenix in your Criminology class, or the funny gryphon that you were partnered up with for a project in your Introduction to Interdisciplinary class. But it was useless, your thoughts always came back Sungchan. And you weren’t friends with him in hopes that one day it would be different, either; you really didn’t want to be that friend. You were just enjoying Jung Sungchan, in whatever capacity you got him in.

And right now, that was a rather tenacious study buddy. When you’d off-handedly mentioned an upcoming test that you hadn’t studied for yet, he immediately made you compare schedules so that the two of you could do a study session before it. So now you were reviewing flash cards of some key concepts as Sungchan was hunched over a notebook of his own. Working on his research with his professor, you were pretty certain. He switched between his computer and handwritten notes so frequently that you weren’t sure how he kept it all straight, and all the numbers and Greek letters and letter letters made your head swim trying to decipher it. As long as it all made sense to him.

It all mostly made sense to you when he would explain it to you, if you were actually listening to the words he was saying and not just thinking about how nice his voice sounded, or how pretty he looked that day. Your brain was truly rotting from the inside out.

And you two were alone. You didn’t know if he had invited any of your other friends and they couldn’t make it or if this was a “just us” thing. That was something that he did that always made it so hard for you to keep your rule of never hoping for more. Sometimes you two would hang out and invite Shotaro and Jaemin and Jeno and Jeno’s girlfriend and maybe even some more of their friends that you weren’t as familiar with; and sometimes when you’d ask if you should invite anybody, Sungchan would reply with a shoulder shrug and a casual non-explanation that this should be a “just us” thing. You could never delineate what made an activity worthy of a group invite or a “just us” thing.

You stared at your screen with immense focus. Not on what was on the screen, your thoughts had long drifted from dryad folk tales and were now in an endless rumination on what the hell a “just us” thing was. You’d been to group study sessions and study sessions with just Sungchan. Group movie nights and movie nights alone with Sungchan—those were an especially bittersweet kind of awful, as he liked to share blankets. Group dinners and dinners with just the two of you. So what made something a “just us” activity? What was the—

Something in your periphery caught your attention, and snapped you out of your pensive thoughts that you’d been stewing in. It was a small, white, origami heart being pushed up from the bottom corner of your computer screen. You took it, smiling at Sungchan across the table from you, who sat up straight now that he no longer had to reach so far to deliver it to you.

Upon second glance, it looked like the heart was made out of notebook paper from his spiral notebook with notes on it in blue ink. You squinted to make out some of It in his messy scrawl, but gave up after reading just a portion of a complicated, technical word.

“Thanks, Sungchan.” You ran your fingertip along the crisp edge of the paper heart.

This had been one habit he’d picked up since the Valentine’s Day event at Jasmine & Pearls, he now made origami hearts whenever his fingers grew restless and he had access to a suitable piece of paper that could be torn to size if needed. You were usually the target of receiving them and now had a steadily growing collection in a small jar on your coffee table. You didn’t have it in you to throw them away.

“Something wrong, Y/N?” Sungchan asked. He had presumably noted the intense way you’d been staring at your screen the moments prior. “Or is the material just that bad for your test?”

“Ehh…” You sighed, rolling your neck out. “Just tired. Ready for the semester to be over, you know?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Is this made of your notes, by the way?” You held up the origami heart.

“Stuff I had to rip out and redo, I messed it up.”

You then stood up to crack your back, groaning at the cathartic cracking sounds that came with it. “God, I think my spine needs to be folded up like that origami, holy shit.”

“Fix your posture,” Sungchan snorted. “You sit like a little shrimp using a computer.”

Your jaw dropped as you put a hand to your chest, unsure of whether to laugh or be offended. Ultimately, you keeled over with laughter, having to plop back down in your desk chair—hunched over—to catch your breath again. Sungchan was watching you with a fond smile, reclined back in his chair with some not very great posture himself.

“A shrimp?”

“A little shrimp,” he corrected you. “A cute little shrimp using her little computer and fucking up her back in the process.”

“Alright, it’s not my fault you’re literally a tree. Anybody is a little shrimp compared to the man who almost broke a photobooth because he was too tall for it,” you teased him back through the fresh squeezing of your chest at him calling you ‘cute,’ even if it was followed by the words ‘little shrimp.’

“You’re never letting me live that one down, huh?”

“Never. I’ll be telling that story at your funeral, where you’ll be buried with my mangled origami heart, remember?”

“You’re banking on the fact that you’re going to outlive me in this scenario.”

“Right, my bad. Werewolves are the hardier species, so obviously you’ll outlive me.”

“Well, statistically—”

“Statistics say nothing about the power of spite, Sungchan. I will outlive you out of spite, so that I can tell that story at your funeral. And if not, I will have a backup recording of me telling that story, and in my will, have orders that it be played at your funeral.”

“You’re going to put it in your will to make sure you have the last word in case I outlive you? Which, statistically, I will.”

“Yes.”

The two of you held your defiant eye contact for another moment before you burst out in coordinated laughter, all tension fizzling out.

“I do expect that fucked-up origami heart to go down with you, though,” you pointed at him through your laughs, still only half-serious.

“Only if one of the hundreds I’ve given you by now makes it down with you,” he nodded, holding his pinky finger out.

You linked yours with it. “Deal.”

“Deal.”

As you walked out of the library together after you’d finally determined that your studying was over, Sungchan checked his watch.

“You doing anything else tonight?” He asked.

“Nothing in particular.” You shrugged. “Eating dinner. Sleeping. Why?”

“Want to come over?”

“Is Shotaro going to be home?”

“He’s closing at the shop today I think.”

You bit the inside of your cheek. Apparently sensing your hesitation, Sungchan nudged your side as he teased, “What? Am I not fun enough for you? You need Shotaro there to convince you to come over, too?”

“Yeah, you’re such a snoozefest, Sungchan,” you wrinkled your nose, elbowing him back. “Taro’s the only thing that keeps me from falling asleep every time I’m over at your place.”

“You hurt me, Y/N.”

With a melodramatic sigh, you relented, “I suppose I’ll make an exception. But I will nap where I see fit if you bore me too much.”

“I’ll take my victories where I can get them.”

At Shotaro and Sungchan’s place, you followed Sungchan into his bedroom. Normally, if Shotaro were home, the three of you would all hang out in their living room. But it was just you and Sungchan.

He toed his shoes off and flopped onto his bed face-first, spread-eagle.

“Oh, and who were we worried about taking a nap?” You scoffed, taking his desk chair. He had a gridded whiteboard above his desk that was mostly taken up by a to-do list of upcoming deadlines. But a small area labeled “Notes” by the company who made it was dedicated to pictures instead: the film strip of you two from Valentine’s Day at Jasmine & Pearls hung there by a magnet in the shape of a hurricane, a picture from the group trip to Cape Solaria from last summer under a tornado, and another of a younger Sungchan and Shotaro (early high school if you had to guess) at an arcade pinned by a tsunami.

Your friend rolled over onto his back. “I’m not napping, just basking.”

“Basking? In what?”

“Being done with today.”

“Have a bad day?”

“Just long. Had a long week, long semester, long three years.”

“Mm, felt that,” you agreed, knocking your own shoes off and folding your legs up in the desk chair.

The two of you were quiet for a while, and you would’ve thought that Sungchan had actually fallen asleep, if you couldn’t see that his eyes were open as he apparently just stared at the ceiling, his chest rising and falling with even breaths. You let the silence remain, content to just rest your arms on the back of the chair with your chin atop them, and look at him.

“Y/N?” He finally spoke, his voice soft.

“Yeah?”

Sungchan’s head lolled so he could look over at you, his warm brown eyes focused on your face. He had an unreadable expression on his features; not one of sadness, or pain, or really much of anything. It was like he didn’t even know what he was feeling. “Have you gone on a date? Since... you know, the one we went on?”

You blinked. You weren’t sure what exactly you were expecting him to say, but it wasn’t that. After a moment, you shook your head. “No, I haven’t. Have you?”

The corner of his lip twitched, but from your positions, you couldn’t tell if it was pulling towards a smile or a frown. “No.”

Another beat of silence. You continued staring at each other.

“Do you want to?” He asked, his voice so unnaturally devoid of intonation that you once again couldn’t glean the purpose of this discussion.

“What?” The word tumbled out of your mouth fast, defensively.

“I-I mean, are you going to? Like, is there anybody...?”

You looked at him, taking a good few seconds before you answered. He at least seemed nervous now, stuttering, his eyes flitting between you and the ceiling fan.

“No.” You answered plainly. No qualifying statements: any attempts at expounding would just land you in trouble. “You?”

“No...” He echoed. “You would tell me, right? If you were?”

This felt like a trap. Not from Sungchan, you knew he wasn’t like that, but from the Universe, somehow. And no matter what you did, you were going to fall into the spike pit.

“Yeah, Sungchan, of course.” You mustered up your well-practiced casual smile. “Always need approval from the counsel of friends for that kind of stuff.”

He did smile at that—not a full one with teeth, and it didn’t reach his eyes—but he smiled and nodded. “Good. Got to make sure they’re not a weirdo. You know there’s all kinds of magical creatures who will just date human women for the ego trip in bed, right?”

“I did know that,” you chuckled. “But thanks for looking out for me.”

“Always am, Y/N. And I always will be.”

Rocking back and forth from your heels to your toes nervously, you kept your eyes trained on the apartment door in front of you. Sungchan knocked on it. Your actions were stopped by your friend grabbing your arm and pulling you back down to flat feet.

“Y/N, I told you it’s going to be fine, seriously. They’re your friends, too,” he reminded you for probably the twelfth time that day.

When he’d randomly texted you earlier that morning asking if you wanted to go to Jeno’s birthday party with him tonight, you were very hesitant to accept. Mostly because you hadn’t received an invite from the birthday wolf himself. But after some more pestering from Sungchan, you gave in. Maybe if you didn’t have such a weak heart, you would’ve been firmer on your no. But instead, here you were, having signed your name under Sungchan’s on the birthday card the two of you bought on your way over, a gift card tucked inside with enough money pre-loaded on it to cover a nice meal for Jeno and his girlfriend.

“Then why didn’t he—” Your whispered question was cut off by the door swinging open, the bright smile of Lee Jeno greeting you.

“Hey guys, come on in!” The werewolf opened the door even wider, not seeming surprised at all to see you there next to Sungchan. He gave the both of you hugs after closing the door behind you.

You patted his back in the hug, offering a sheepish smile, “Hey, Jeno, Happy Birthday. Sorry to just show up. Sungchan insisted it was fine…”

“Oh, don’t worry about it! Everyone knows if we’re inviting Sungchan that we’re inviting you, too. It’s cool.” He said brightly. “You want something to drink?”

Trying not to get stuck on that little information bomb he’d dropped so casually, you looked around the fairly packed apartment, recognizing most everyone who was there, including a couple people by the drinks table. “You know, I see Jaemin and Donghyuck over by the drinks, I’ll go get it myself. Thank you, though, and Happy Birthday again.”

Jeno perked up in a different direction as if he’d heard his name being called—which he very well could’ve with his superior hearing—and he took off, disappearing into the kitchen. You’d been to Jeno and Jaemin’s place a few times before, mostly to hang out with Jaemin over the time that you’d known the dryad from Bot Club, and more recently, a couple times for group hangouts since Jaemin, Jeno, Jeno’s girlfriend, and Sungchan were all friends.

“I’m going to get some food,” Sungchan nodded towards the same direction Jeno had gone in. “Want anything?”

You stood on your tiptoes, unable to discern any of the options they had available, other than the fact there would be a lot of it to feed the werewolf guests. “Just get extra of whatever you think I’ll like, I’m not very hungry right now.”

“On it.”

While he went to do that, you made your way across the living room to the two dryads you had spotted earlier, both standing by the drinks table.

“Hey…” You said, still feeling awkward despite Jeno’s easy acceptance of you.

“Y/N! Hey!” Donghyuck greeted you cheerily.

“You made it!” Jaemin gave you a one-armed hug.

“Sounds like you were expecting me then?”

“Well, yeah.” Donghyuck said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world (which was bewildering to you, considering you didn’t even know you were coming until this afternoon).

The two dryads exchanged a look.

“I mean, Sungchan was coming, so…” Jaemin shrugged.

Donghyuck peered around the party. “Speaking of, where’d your wolfboy go?”

“He went to get some food. And he’s not. my. wolfboy, you little shit.” You glared at him. “And don’t call him a wolfboy either, you know he doesn’t like to be called stuff like that. Call Jeno ‘puppy’ or whatever all you want but leave Sungchan out of it.”

“I thought he didn’t like dog terms, but wolf terms he was fine with, since he is a werewolf.” Jaemin said.

“Yeah.” Donghyuck nodded.

You put your hands on your hips with a frank sigh, “As if wolfboy isn’t also diminutive and meant to—”

“Woah, abort, abort, Y/N’s going into Renjun-mode.”

Jaemin looked over at the other dryad regretfully. “Worse than Renjun-mode, this isn’t just educational.”

“You two are so obnoxious, I’m going to stage a coup in Bot Club one of these days,” you declared with a scoff.

“Hey...” Another voice entered the conversation from over your shoulder, and you looked up to see Sungchan stepping in between you and Donghyuck, a plate loaded up with food in his hand.

“Speak of the wolf and he shall appear.” Donghyuck had a wicked grin on his face. You were amazed sometimes that he wasn’t a fairy.

“What were you guys talking about? Y/N didn’t look happy.”

“It was nothing, Sungchan, don’t worry about it.” You tried to reassure him, sending pointed stares at each of the dryads with you.

Donghyuck was apparently not going to let up, though. “Hey, Sungchan, you down to do a little thought experiment with me?”

“Thought experiment?” The werewolf echoed.

“Yeah, just real quick. I ask you a hypothetical question, you give me a hypothetical answer. Just for fun.”

“A thought experiment with Donghyuck. Sounds thrilling, sure.” Sungchan agreed humorously, popping a piece of food in his mouth.

“So, if someone were to call you dog-like terms—which we know you’re not cool with and would never do—who would you most be okay with doing that?”

The werewolf narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Why would anybody do that?”

“It’s a thought experiment, Sungchan, come on. Play in this space with me!” Donghyuck whined, shaking the other man’s shoulder.

“Let’s rephrase then,” Jaemin joined in, a mischievous glint in his eye. You looked around to make sure Chenle wasn’t secretly listening in or something, because this surely had to be the work of your fairy prince acquaintance. You spotted the fairy very engaged in his conversation with his dragon roommate Jisung and a few other people. It seemed like the two dryads really were just deciding to be the absolute worst all on their own.

“Narrower scope. Would you be okay with, for example, Y/N calling you stuff like that?”

“Why would she do that?” Sungchan asked, confused.

“Yeah, why would I do that?” You asked, angry. They were clearly trying to get at something specific, make him admit something.

Jaemin offered an example, “Well, you know, Jeno’s girlfriend calls him ‘pup’ as a term of endearment.”

“And why would I do that?!” You repeated, feeling your stomach drop to the floor at how exactly he stressed those words.

“We’re getting off-topic here, it’s all hypothetical, remember?” It was amazingly Donghyuck who sort of saved you. “We know Y/N would never do it. But like… if she did, for some reason unbeknownst to us, what would you do? Would you be okay with it?”

Sungchan’s brow was furrowed as he seemed to genuinely contemplate this while he ate another bite of food. You, meanwhile, were plotting how best to kill two dryads. You knew enough from Bot Club, maybe a super-strong version of the magical weed spray you used would work... Were dryads more plant or more person?

“Well…” The werewolf finally began his answer, seeming to choose each word carefully. “Since I know Y/N, I know that if she were, in this batshit, hypothetical scenario, to do that, that she wouldn’t mean it in a derogatory way. So I guess I’d be more okay with her doing it than other people. Definitely more than you two weirdos who are posing this thought experiment that isn’t fun at all.”

“Thank you, Sungchan.” Donghyuck grinned at him, then turned to Jaemin. “I thought that was very fun and enlightening. What about you, Jaemin?”

Jaemin nodded thoughtfully. “I had a great time. Y/N?”

“You guys are so fucking annoying.” You groaned, grabbing a piece of food from Sungchan’s plate. “Leave me out of your thought experiments next time, please.”

The spring semester ended not long after Jeno’s birthday party, and you very thankfully didn’t have to take any summer classes, freeing up a lot of spare time for you. Sungchan, on the other hand, had to take a couple courses in order to make sure he would graduate on time. While you jokingly whined and complained when he told you about it, you were secretly relieved to have extra reasons to avoid him. As terrible as that sounded.

This afternoon, while he was in class, you had gone down to the river with Shotaro and Yuta, who miraculously both had a day off work at the same time. You didn’t even realize Jasmine & Pearls had enough employees to let the both of them take the same day off.

You were sat in your pop-up chair on the small beachy area, pulling your phone from your bag to check it while the two sirens continued lazing about in the waist-deep water. There was a text from Sungchan from a few minutes ago, and as you opened it up to read it, you realized that he was just sending you a funny picture he’d found somewhere online.

[you: aren’t you supposed to be focusing on class right now?]

“Sungchan?” Shotaro called out to you knowingly.

“What?” You yelled back, holding a hand up to shadow your face from the sun. Looking around your chair, you grabbed your baseball cap that you’d won in Valentine’s Bingo, pulling that on now that you were out of the water.

“You’ve got this little smile on your face that you only get when Sungchan texts you.”

“No I do not.”

Yuta stood up from where he had been floating on his back, shaking the water out of his hair as he asked you with a smirk, “So you don’t have a text from Sungchan on your phone screen right now?”

Your phone buzzed then, a welcome excuse to not have to answer that.

[sungchan: allegedly]

[you: i don’t want you whining to me when you fail that class]

You clicked your phone off, showing them the blank screen. “Nope, nothing on my screen.”

“You’re such a liar,” Yuta sighed, saying it as if it were as simple of a fact as the sky being blue or the grass being green. He trudged through the water up the shore until he could join you, plopping down in his chair next to yours. They had both kept their legs this afternoon instead of bringing out their tails, and he kicked his apart as he got comfortable.

Shotaro jogged up from the water too, grabbing the cooler and rooting around in it for a second. After securing the other half of his sandwich from the lunch that you all had eaten earlier, he sat down next to Yuta, taking a big bite from it.

You took Yuta’s lead and settled back in your chair, closing your eyes and just enjoying the warmth of the late afternoon Sun.

“He talks about you all the time, by the way.” Shotaro cut into your peace and quiet. If you had something within arm’s reach other than your metal reusable water bottle, you would’ve thrown it at him.

“Shotaro...” You groaned, rolling your eyes. You didn’t even need to ask who he was talking about.

“Seriously! ‘Y/N and I did this today.’ ‘Don’t wait up for me, I’m going to the movies with Y/N.’ ‘Y/N told me this funny story today.’ ‘Did you know such and such about this or that? Y/N’s so smart.’” He admittedly did a pretty good Sungchan impression. You would’ve laughed at it in any other context, but instead you were just annoyed.

“Yeah, well, we’re friends. We hang out, and do things together. He’s going to be talking about me,” you snapped. “He talks about you a bunch too. Because you guys, you know, live together. He also talks about his professors, and Jeno, and—”

“But it’s not the same.”

“Really?”

“Really.” He insisted.

Shotaro clearly wasn’t going to let up, so you momentarily engaged this line of thinking, hoping you could squash it. “What’s so different, then?”

“He’ll find just any reason to bring you up, for one. We’re grocery shopping? ‘Oh, Y/N likes this flavor.’ ‘We should pick this up for when Y/N comes over.’ ‘Shotaro don’t get that, Y/N doesn’t like it.’” His impression turned more high-pitched and whining. “We’re watching TV? ‘This reminds me of when Y/N and I did this...’ ‘I bet Y/N would love this show, we should watch it the next time she comes over.’ ‘Y/N has a shirt just like that character.’ We’re hanging out with other people? ‘Hey Sungchan, what uh, what are you giggling at on your phone over there?’” He first kept his normal tone of voice, then switched into his over-the-top fake-Sungchan. “‘Oh, Y/N just texted me something funny. But it’s an inside joke, so you guys wouldn’t get it, sorry.’ ‘Man, I wish Y/N could’ve come, sucks she had to work.’”

“Are you done?” You asked tersely, unamused.

“I could go on ad nauseum—”

“One could argue you already have.”

Yuta snickered.

“—but let’s call it there.”

“Thank God.”

Shotaro wasn’t done with his spiel yet, though. “I have had multiple friends, when he’ll first bring you around somewhere, quietly ask me if you’re Sungchan’s girlfriend and they like, missed when you two started dating.”

“I get it, I get it.” You said firmly, bringing a hand up to rub your face.

“Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Y/N, you’re an MCS major, I’m sure you’ve heard about what can happen to werewolves if there’s something discordant in their lives that isn’t alleviated?”

“You think he’s going to get pupsick because he’s allegedly got a crush on me?” You sputtered out in disbelief, your voice caught between a chuckle and a scoff at how absurd that sounded to you.

“It happened to Jeno.”

“Yeah, but he’s Jeno. With all due respect and no intention to kinkshame, he probably lets his girlfriend put a collar on him.”

Yuta shot up as he cackled, slapping his knee and coughing. He scrambled to grab his water bottle, taking a couple sips as he struggled to catch his breath.

Shotaro pushed on like you hadn’t said anything, “Now, I don’t want to have to put up with a pupsick Jung Sungchan, do you? That sounds awful. For me, obviously, since I live with him.”

“Shotaro, you are half-right about one thing.”

“And what’s that?” He asked smugly.

“I am kind of an MCS major. So I also know that Sungchan isn’t overly touchy with me, he hasn’t given me anything of his that smells like him, he doesn’t feed me, or do any other pre-mating behaviors that are ingrained in werewolves.” You ticked them each off on your fingers. “Look, I hate stereotyping you guys by your species. But if he’s apparently so down bad that he can’t help but talk about me every waking second of the day, wouldn’t at least one of these things that are literally instinctual to him have happened?”

Shotaro raised an eyebrow. “You do know that he’s half-werewolf, right?”

“What?” You blinked at him.

“Yeah, his mom’s a werewolf, and his dad’s a human.”

You’d had an MCS class on the Effects of Modern Integration, which had a unit specifically on the subject of cross-species offspring. Some species could have offspring together while others couldn’t, it depended both on genetic similarity and compatibility of their magic. With humans having no magic, that left only genetic similarity as a factor, making them a lot more compatible for producing such cross-species offspring. Werewolves and humans were one of the more common pairings to have such offspring, as they had one of the most extensive histories of living together.

Sungchan’s behavior on your first and only date immediately sprung to mind. His hesitance around humans dating werewolves just because they’re werewolves. “Are they...?”

“Happily married. They helped us move into our apartment last year.” Shotaro apparently knew exactly where your question was going. “But yeah, Sungchan’s half-human. As best I can tell, he’s kind of like a super-zen werewolf. Able to control everything a lot better than full werewolves because all of the wolf instincts and stuff aren’t as powerful.”

“He still shifts?” Despite the estimated number of half-werewolves being greater than the confirmed population of sphinxes, unicorns, and phoenixes combined, there was little actually known about them academically. It was all word of mouth, as no large-scale study had been able to be done on them. They were apparently reluctant to come forward and make themselves known to researchers. And their friends.

“Yeah, every full moon. Which I think is why he really just considers himself a werewolf.”

“I didn’t know,” you admitted, biting the inside of your cheek as you were still absorbing this information.

“Anyway, he can probably control whatever pre-mating instincts he does have a lot better than full werewolves!”

“And he’s probably doing that because he knows that you know what pre-mating behaviors look like and thinks you would get weirded out.” Yuta suggested, finally entering the conversation instead of just letting you two go back and forth over him. “Since you’re kind of an MCS major.”

“Exactly!”

You pursed your lips, an uneasiness creeping up on you about the whole situation. “I don’t know guys…”

“You said he doesn’t feed you?” Yuta questioned thoughtfully.

“No, he doesn’t. And you two are around us plenty, have either of you ever seen him try to?” You asked pointedly.

“No, but what Shotaro was saying about grocery shopping. He always buys your favorite foods, flavors he knows you likes, even makes Shotaro put stuff back that he knows you think are unappetizing.”

“I’ve never asked him to do anything like that.”

“And yet he does. Now, overly touchy is subjective. Does he—”

“No, we’re not doing this.” You cut him off, crossing your arms over your chest.

“Doing what?”

“Dissecting mine and Sungchan’s friendship and putting it up on a conspiracy board. I’m not playing. And if that’s all you guys are going to do, then I’m leaving.”

Shotaro jumped in, “Y/N, why can’t you even consider that—”

“Because he already asked to be friends and I said yes,” you said angrily, feeling your blood finally reach its boiling point. “I knew what I was getting myself into, and having you guys trying to convince me that it’s something that he already said it’s not, isn’t fucking helping.”

They were both quiet for a beat, and you clenched your jaw. You couldn’t keep sitting right now, you had to go somewhere, do something. If you stayed here, somebody’s feelings were going to get hurt. You stood up, stuffing all of your things haphazardly back into your bag. “Actually, fuck it, I’m leaving anyway.”

“Y/N, we didn’t mean to—”

“I know, you think you’re trying to help or whatever the fuck. But just drop it, okay?” You shoved your feet back in your shoes and slung your bag over your shoulder. “I need to go or I’m going to end up saying something nasty that I don’t really mean and regret it. I’ll see you guys later.”

And with that, you took off, leaving the chair you had borrowed from Yuta on the shore. You took your baseball cap back off to mess with your damp hair as you speedwalked down the city sidewalks. All the angry energy from wanting to just go off on your friends was still coursing through you, and despite Yuta having to pick you up and drive you the couple miles or so to the river, you figured that you might as well walk the whole way back home to blow off steam.

A little more than halfway home, your phone buzzed in your hand with a call, and you glanced at it intending to just send it to voicemail. But it was Sungchan. You stared down at it as you waited to cross a street, an unsure thumb hovering over your screen.

Glancing between your phone and the crosswalk signal, it changed to walk, and you rushed to cross. The call went to voicemail.

Just a few seconds later, your phone lit up with the missed call, a voicemail, then a text from him. You sighed, clicking on the voicemail first.

“Hey, Y/N,” Sungchan’s voice came through clearly. It sounded like he was outside, probably on campus and fresh out of class, if you had to guess by the time. “It’s Sungchan. Obviously. Uh, anyway, I just got out of class, wanted to see if you maybe wanted to come over? I know you’re supposed to be with Shotaro and Yuta, but Shotaro just texted me and said—well, it’s kind of a long story. Just let me know if you can come over, and I’ll tell you when you get here, okay? I’m headed back to my place right now. Okay, bye.”

Shotaro.

Still fucking meddling after you asked him to drop it. If you were less than halfway back from the river, you’d turn around and throttle him.

You checked the text from Sungchan.

[sungchan: hey! i’m out of class. are you busy?]

[you: i can be over in twenty. is that okay?]

You shifted uncomfortably as you stood in front of the front door to Shotaro and Sungchan’s apartment. Your hair wasn’t as damp thanks to your long walk in the hot Sun, and your skin was dry, but you still held yourself as you stared down the center of the white door. You hadn’t knocked yet. You didn’t want to know what Shotaro had told Sungchan, having already convinced yourself that it was everything. That you were about to walk into Friendzoning 2: Electric Boogaloo, this time with Letting Y/N Down Easy. It made your stomach churn, your chest squeeze like a vice around your heart, and your head feel like it had been cast in lead.

You shifted your weight between your feet on the welcome mat, trying to muster up the strength to just knock on the fucking door, when it swung open.

Sungchan was in a pair of dark sweatpants and a dark red t-shirt from your school’s astronomy club—dated for fall two years ago. He offered you a familiar smile, stepping back from the doorway to make room for you. “Hey, I thought I heard you. Come in.”

“Hey. And thanks.” You nodded, slipping by him into his apartment.

Wordlessly, he started leading the way further back towards his room. You longingly looked at the wide-open space of the living room as you disappeared down the hallway. In his bedroom, you saw his desk taken up by his laptop and a spread of notebooks and papers. His bookbag was in his desk chair.

“Sorry, I know that’s your usual spot, but I was doing some homework.” Sungchan had noticed where your gaze was focused. He patted the foot of his bed as he went to sit down against the headboard. “Come on, you can sit with me for once.”

You swallowed and nodded, stepping back out of your shoes and setting your bag down. Climbing onto the end of his bed, you sat with your legs criss-crossed, fidgeting with your fingers in your lap.

“So why did Shotaro text you?” You decided to just go straight into it. No small talk or pleasantries about his class or what homework he was working on. “What’d he say?”

“He told me that he told you that I’m half-werewolf,” Sungchan said bluntly. “I figured I owed you a bit more of an explanation.”

Oh. Well that wasn’t what you were expecting at all.

“You really don’t owe me anything, Sungchan,” you shook your head, your eyes trained on his comforter. “You don’t have to explain who you are to me if you don’t want to.”

“I want to.”

It was a touching sentiment, but it felt like a hot knife right in your gut. He wanted to because he cared about you as a friend. Not in the same way that you cared about him.

You could only manage a soft, “Okay…”

“It’s not some big secret, really. I’m not ashamed of my dad or anything. I love him, he’s a cool guy.” Sungchan started, and you felt like that first part was more to reassure you that it was okay for you to know. He was pointing to a picture that you’d seen a countless number of times before, hanging next to the mirror above his dresser. It was of him at his high school graduation, flanked on either side by his parents, proud, beaming smiles on all of their faces. You’d always assumed they were both werewolves when you’d looked at that picture, and only ever noticed that Sungchan got his smile from his mom, and his nose from his dad. The height difference between his mom and dad never really registered to you, as Sungchan towered over both of them, but now you did see that his mom was almost a head taller than his dad. Not a trait intrinsic to either species, just more of a trend.

But then, his tone turned a little more pensive, “I just... don’t tell people at first because I get a whole slew of questions, from the mundane stuff like ‘How was it growing up with one werewolf parent and one human parent?’ Which like... I don’t know, it was like growing up with two parents? To the people who think that I’m some oddity and therefore they can just ask me completely unprompted about what my dick looks like. And then at the end of it, it doesn’t really matter anyway. I’m just some dumb mutt to them, no matter how you look at it.”

“Sungchan—” His name came out of your mouth instinctually, pained, as you could only imagine what he had experienced to ever be able to call himself that, even cynically as he was doing now.

“It’s okay. I don’t really care about those kinds of people.” He reassured you, offering a small smile. “That’s why I don’t waste my time on them anymore. I just say I’m a werewolf, and eventually they’ll find out more if they need to.”

“I’m sorry, that Shotaro just—”

“Y/N, it’s fine, seriously. I’m okay with you knowing. I know you’re not going to be weird about it. And Shotaro knew that too; I’m sure however it came up in conversation, it made sense for him to tell you.”

You thought about the context of when Shotaro revealed Sungchan’s lineage, wincing minutely. “Okay. Thanks.”

“You can ask me questions, I don’t mind since it’s you.” He then added teasingly, “Come on, Miss Magical Creatures Studies, I know you want to…”

“Not because I think you’re some oddity to be studied, but because I care and I want to understand more about you…” You prefaced your question. “Shotaro said that you still shift every full moon. Are your shifts any different than full werewolves?”

“From what I can tell watching other wolves shift, it’s not as painful, for one. So, bonus!” He said the last word with mock excitement. “The shift itself doesn’t last as long. And some wolves, especially younger ones who are going through their first shifts, tend to get kind of moodier in the days leading up to the full moon. I never got that. Just, everything is kind of… less for me.”

“Everything?” You asked, brows furrowed with confusion.

“My senses are more heightened than a human’s but less than the average werewolf, when I’m not shifted.”

“Ah.”

“And I probably wouldn’t fare great in a werewolf arm wrestling championship,” he tacked on lightheartedly.

“Damn, I had you signed up in one for this weekend,” you joked, clicking your tongue in the back of your throat in fake disappointment. “Put money down and everything.”

He played along, “Well, I guess I can still try for you.”

You smiled to yourself, then looked up at him as you took a deep breath. Whether or not you two were here because you cared about each other in different ways, you at least still cared about each other. And you’d be an idiot to throw out that kind of connection. You’d have to suck it up, hunker down, and connect with him on his terms.

“Thanks for being so open about this with me, Sungchan. I know it wasn’t your choice to tell me, and I know you already said it wasn’t a secret either. But still, I feel... very grateful that you would want to share any part of yourself like this with me.” You tried to pick your words carefully, to convey as much genuine emotion as you could without veering too far into romantic territory. You could still easily picture yourself saying something like this to Jaemin, or Shotaro. Maybe not Donghyuck, though.

“Ah, what’s that?” Sungchan squeezed his eyes shut, a bashful smile coming to his face.

“What’s what?” You asked with a breathy chuckle, feigning offense. “Am I not allowed a moment of sincerity?”

“No, you’re not.” He said it in an overly joking tone, so you knew that he wasn’t actually upset with you.

“And why not?” You mimicked his tone.

He sighed, teasing falling from his voice as he fully leaned back against his headboard, seeming to take you in for a few seconds before answering. “Not if you’re going to be looking at me like that when you’re being all sincere.”

“Like what?”

“Never mind.”

“No, no sir. You do not get to start an avenue of conversation like that and not finish it,” you pointed at him accusingly. “What am I looking at you like?”

The werewolf held your gaze steadily as he said, “Like you want something more.”

You felt your stomach drop as you rushed to get up from his bed, putting even more distance between the two of you. “I’m sorry, Sungchan. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

He knew, he knew, he knew.

“Y/N, don’t get me wrong, please.” Sungchan stood up after you, grasping your hand before you could run out on instinct. His grip was loose so that you could leave if you wanted, but the presence was enough to let you know that he still wanted you there, to listen to him. His hand was warm as it held yours, but it burned like you’d grabbed red-hot metal. “I-I think you’re one of the most incredible, smart, fantastic people I’ve ever met. And I’m so grateful that you gave me a second chance.”

“But you don’t like me like that. Yeah, I can see where this is going.” You shook him off, searching the floor for your bag and shoes. This was going to be embarrassing, putting sneakers back on after getting rejected like that.

“No, I do.”

Sungchan’s words stopped you in your tracks, and you slowly turned back around to face him again. Your heart was a drum banging in your ears, you couldn’t trust that they weren’t all—your heart and your ears—playing tricks on you.

“You… what?” You were dumbfounded, staring up at him with a mixture of disbelief and thinly-veiled suspicion. You’d spent far too long convincing yourself that he just liked you as a friend to throw it all out over three words.

“I was going to ask you on another date, that night at the boba shop, I really was,” he explained. “But I realized just how lovely and wonderful you were. And I thought that you didn’t deserve... all the hatred that would come with it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I love my parents, but growing up I got to see firsthand just the worst sorts of people… The things that my parents would be called, that I would get called, by other humans and other werewolves. It’s gotten a lot better, but I mean, Jeno’s girlfriend got called a knotslut at the park out of nowhere. And you don’t deserve to have that be your life.”

You narrowed your eyes up at him. “You think you’re not worth it?”

It was his turn to be thrown off-guard. “What?”

“You think that you, and being with you, aren’t worth it?” You reiterated.

“I wasn’t really thinking of it like that,” he admitted, scratching the back of his head.

“Do you think that? That you’re not worth it?”

“Well now that you say it like that, no, I don’t think that.” He frowned thoughtfully, his brow set with determination.

“And, I know you didn’t mean it like this, Sungchan, but you took the choice away from me. For a very sweet reason, I acknowledge that. But you didn’t give me a say in the matter. Imagine how that makes me feel.” You sighed, watching guilt flicker across his face. “I’m not going to pretend like I know at all what it was like for you growing up. Or what it’s like now. But I can tell you that I want this, that I want you. I want to be there for you, just like I know you’d be there for me if something ever did happen.”

“Of course I would be,” he declared.

Taking a step closer to him, you tentatively let a familiar airiness return to your chest, chasing out the painful squeeze that had been suffocating you since February. “See? We’ll have each other, Sungchan. Someone calling me something won’t matter as long as you’ll be there with me afterwards. You don’t have to prevent everything bad ever from happening, just hold my hand afterwards until it’s all better, okay?”

“Okay,” he nodded resolutely. “I can do that.”

“And I’ll do the same for you. Deal?” You held your pinky finger out to him.

He hooked his with yours. “Deal.”

Sungchan lowered your connected hands, and you watched curiously as he unlinked his pinky, only to turn your hand over with both of his and trace gentle circles into the palm of your hand with his pointer finger.

“Y/N?” He murmured.

You snapped your focus back up to his face at the sound of his voice, trepid and unsure. He was still gazing down at your hands as you replied, “Yes?”

“I know we really can’t start over completely now, but…”

“If you say ‘friends’ right now, even as a joke, I’m going to kill you with my bare hands, half-werewolf strength be damned.” You whispered through gritted teeth.

He sputtered out a chuckle, shaking his head fondly and the circles on your palm never slowing. “No, no, I wouldn’t do that to you. That would be a terrible joke.”

“Good.”

“I was going to ask...” He inhaled shakily, finally drawing his eyes up to yours. “If we could try that date again?”

A smile pulled at the corners of your mouth, and you nodded quickly. “Yeah, Sungchan. I’d love that.”

Sungchan beamed at you, a heart-stopping, adorable, lopsided grin that now made your chest flutter with hope. “Okay! Thank you, thank you!”

You couldn’t help but giggle at his enthusiasm. “You’re welcome.”

Leaping to your feet at the knock that just came from your front door, you ran to answer it. You threw the door open, abuzz with excitement.

It was just about a week later, and you and Sungchan were finally trying that date again. You’d actually seen him once in the intermittent days, at a previously scheduled group movie night at Jeno and Jaemin’s place. The two of you were all knowing smiles and questionably accidental bumps and brushes of skin under the blanket that you shared that night.

But tonight Sungchan was in your hallway, smiling nervously down at you. “Hi.”

“Hi, Sungchan.” You fidgeted with your shirt. He had specifically told you to dress casually and comfortable, but you still felt weirdly underdressed, even seeing that he was in a t-shirt and jeans himself.

“These are for you,” he said quietly, bringing out a bouquet of flowers from behind his back.

As you accepted them from him, you immediately realized that they were made of paper, intricately folded tulips, lilies, and roses of all colors. You couldn’t help but let out a small gasp, thinking about how much time it must have taken him. “An origami bouquet. Oh, Sungchan…”

“I figured you had plenty of hearts by now…” He said as he flushed from his neck upwards.

“They’re beautiful.” You got on your tiptoes, putting a hand on his shoulder to steady yourself as you pressed a chaste kiss to his cheek. “Thank you.”

His cheeks were bright pink as you turned around to set them down inside, then looked back to him expectantly. The werewolf led the way out to the parking lot, except you didn’t see his car anywhere around. There was a familiar old blue pickup truck, however, which he was walking towards.

“Your car in the shop or something?” You asked curiously. “Why are you driving Yuta’s truck?”

“Utility.” He answered cryptically, opening the passenger door for you.

“What does that mean?” You questioned with a chuckle, scooting into the middle of the bench seat.

You’d gotten your seatbelt situated by the time Sungchan had walked around and opened the driver’s side. He didn’t seem to have been expecting you to be in the middle, pausing for a second, and looking around flustered as he climbed into the truck too.

“It’s a surprise, like I said,” he muttered, fastening his own seatbelt and starting the truck.

Sungchan drove with one hand on the wheel, the other on his leg next to yours. You drummed your fingers on your own knee contemplatively.

“Sungchan?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I hold your hand?”

“Wh— Yeah, of course.” He laughed shakily as you laced your fingers with his. “You don’t need to ask me about stuff like that.”

“Well you’re so tense right now that I was afraid that if I just grabbed your hand, you might freak and crash the car.”

He cringed. “So you can tell?”

“Yeah, I can tell.” You patted his arm with your other hand. “What’s got you so wound up? It’s just me.”

“Well, yeah, it’s you,” he repeated. “I’ve already messed up so many times with you. I don’t want to fuck up again.”

You contemplated this for a second, watching the passing streetlights. “Think about it like this: Could you possibly fuck up again worse than our first date?”

“I hope not.”

“Then you’re already off to a great start.”

“Y/N, I think you need higher standards,” he said without an ounce of humor or joking in his tone.

You couldn’t help but burst into laughter at that. “Sungchan, you made me an entire origami bouquet and organized a whole night out to surprise me. I think my standards are pretty okay.”

“Alright, but you’ve got to promise that this is my last chance. Like, three strikes and I’m out. Seriously, if I was some other guy, I would’ve told you to throw me to the curb a long time ago.”

You looked over at him incredulously. “Are you seriously advocating against yourself right now? Is this some kind of reverse psychology flirting technique that I’ve never heard of?”

“No, I’m just not going to stop being a good friend because you’re on a date with me. I told you I would always look out for you, and I meant it, even if it’s not in my best interest.”

Nodding with a raised eyebrow, you decided to take his advice at face value. “Okay, your input is noted as part of the council of friends’ round table on my new guy.”

You saw a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. “Good.”

“So, did you tell Shotaro what we were doing?” You asked, curious now that the topic of friends had been brought up.

“I told him we were hanging out.”

“Did you tell him it was a date?”

“No. Did you?”

“If I did, do you think you would have gotten out of your apartment unscathed?” You snorted.

“Fair point.”

The car ride passed with mostly idle chitchat, until he made a turn away from the city center, off onto a back road that you were unfamiliar with. The buildings gave way to trees, the streetlights being replaced only with moonlight and the headlights of the truck or any lone car that you would pass occasionally. A while later, the asphalt became a dirt road, the trees around you getting thicker and thicker. You looked around in interest as he slowed the truck to a stop in a clearing.

“We’re here?” You asked, looking over at him. Your eyes had long adjusted to the nighttime, and you could clearly make out his features.

“We’re here,” he confirmed with a nod, turning the vehicle off.

Sungchan climbed out, helping you down with a hand, and you immediately knew why he’d had both of you dress casually. You were in the middle of the woods, being led to the back of the truck by the hand by your date. He opened the tailgate, and let go of your hand to hop up into the empty bed.

“Wait there,” he requested, now well and good towering over you.

You nodded.

He retrieved a large duffel bag from the truck bed, and you looked curiously at everything he brought out of it. Pillow after pillow, blanket after blanket. The truck bed soon looked like a bed bed, and Sungchan came back over to plop down on the tailgate, toeing his shoes off and setting them aside at the end. He gestured to the bedding with little fanfare.

“All done!”

You hopped up next to him, pulling your shoes off as well and putting them away next to his. Looking at him with a knowing smirk, you nodded to the fact that the two of you were still sitting up. “Now what, Sung?”

“Ah, you’re going to make me spell it out?” He rubbed the back of his neck, ducking his head awkwardly.

“No,” you laughed. “I’m not.”

He took that as his cue to lay down first, leaving an open space right beside him. You settled into his side with no hesitation, resting your head on his chest as he pulled a final fluffy blanket over the two of you. Being a half-werewolf, Sungchan was pretty warm, but you were grateful for the extra comfort anyway.

Up above you two was a gorgeous expanse of a night sky. A waxing gibbous glowed down at you, stars twinkling and winking in and out at irregular intervals.

“It’s so peaceful…” He murmured quietly, shifting under you, still settling in.

“I don’t know, it’s kind of scary out here…”

Sungchan moved to sit up slightly, looking down at you with concern. “Really? You think so?”

“Yeah, what if there’s wolves?”

“Oh my god you’re so annoying,” he groaned, even as he readjusted his arms to hold you closer.

You, meanwhile, were giggling maniacally at your incredible joke, hiding your face in his shirt as you tried to recover. “You mean I’m the funniest person you know.”

“In your dreams.”

Looking back up at the sky, you pointed to a random speck of light. “Do you know what star that is?”

“Which one?” Sungchan asked, craning his head to try to get in your line of sight.

“I don’t know, any of them.” You dropped your hand back down to his front. “You’re in astronomy club, tell me about them, you big Earth Science nerd. Which I say with great affection and fondness.”

“Okay, so you see the Moon?”

“That’s not a star. I do know that.”

He chuckled, which you felt underneath your cheek. “I figured as much. So, starting at the Moon, if you go due North—” he pointed, and you tried your best to follow the path of his index finger. “The first and brightest star you can see. See it?”

“Yep!” You nodded, seeing the exact star he was talking about.

“Then go the right, just a little, there’s a pair of twin stars, see them?”

“Mm… mhm! Yes!”

“Okay, down, and over to the right some more, we’re tracing out the top of a head, then we’re going back up, there’s another pair of twin stars, you see?”

You squinted, losing the top of the head he was talking about, but finally found the second set of twin stars he’d mentioned. “Yeah, found them!”

“Cool. Straight down from that pair, we’re going to find one, two, then over to the left to get the chin, over and up to get the other cheek, and up to round out the head.”

You nodded, vaguely able to picture what he was talking about. “Okay… so whose head was that?”

“Oh, I get to teach Miss MCS Major something!” Sungchan teased.

“Interdisciplinary major…” You reminded him under your breath.

“So that was Lykos, the great wolf in the sky. As in, lycanthropy.”

“Back when scientists thought werewolves were humans with an affliction that could be passed on to other humans. The quote ‘condition’ they were diagnosed with was lycanthropy.” You easily pulled a basic definition of it from class. “Of course we know now that’s not true. Like witches, werewolves are an entirely different species, not just a variety of human. And there’s never been any credible account of a werewolf turning a human into a werewolf.”

“Why is it that humans just think everything is also a human, even when it very clearly is not?”

“Well, if I were to give us humans benefit of the doubt? Uh, to relate to it? Empathy? Recognition of yourself in the other? I mean, it’s better than labeling everything a monster and hunting it down. Which, we also did a bit of.”

“Us monsters did plenty hunting of you guys, too.”

“You say as if you’re not also half-human.”

“Hey,” he frowned down at you suspiciously. “Are you recognizing yourself in the other with me right now? I think we should really save that for the second date—”

“Oh, shut up!” You gave his front a smack as you let out an indignant scoff.

Sungchan was kicking his legs under the blanket as he laughed from his stomach, and when you looked up at him, you saw his eyes squeezed shut tight as he cackled. You watched him with a smitten smile, unable to even pretend to be annoyed for any longer as his guffaws petered out to chuckles then to giggles until he eventually sobered up, and settled his gaze with a heart-stopping grin on you.

The two of you were quiet for a moment, just looking at each other, then he broke the eye contact, turning his eyes back up to the stars. “Uhm— I didn’t finish telling you about Lykos.”

You settled back into your spot, and with your ear to his chest, you could hear that his heartbeat was faster than it’d been before. You wondered if he was thinking the same thing about yours in that moment.

“So, Lykos,” Sungchan picked up where he’d left off before. “You can easily find him by starting at the moon to find his left ear. According to werewolf stories, Lykos was the very first werewolf that we’re all descended from. Because he was so great and powerful, once he passed, his soul ascended to be in the stars to watch over all of his descendants.”

“Wow…” You looked at the stars harder, willing Lykos’ shape to be a little more visible to you than before.

“In astronomy, though, the two twin stars that make up his left ear are called LK 1C04 and LK 2C04. They’re both red giants.”

“Are they going to explode any time soon?”

“Stars are kind of always exploding,” he explained enthusiastically. “They’re perpetually combusting and performing nuclear fusion. Well, most stars, if they haven’t run out of fuel yet.”

“What about when they run out of fuel then?”

“Depends on how big they are. LK 1C04 and 2C04 are both red giants, so when they run out of fuel, they’ll turn into white dwarves. So instead of being a burning ball of gas, they’ll just be emitting a very faint light from the remaining energy leftover from their previous nuclear fusion reactions that they can no longer perform.”

“So they don’t get to go out with a bang.”

“No, not really.” Sungchan pointed up at the sky again. “Okay, you remember Lykos’ chin?”

“Yes…”

“So that’s actually the end of the tail of a squirrel, according to some dryad traditions, or a gecko in some human ones.”

Sungchan sketched out the next constellation for you, then relayed the accompanying folk tale. Some scientific factoids would be interspersed too, and you loved hearing the enthusiasm in his voice as he told you about something he was very clearly interested in. And at some point, with his legs tangled up in yours, your hand curled around his waist, your cheek pressed against his chest, his hand casually rubbing up and down your back underneath your top as he still spoke so eagerly, you found your attention slipping away from black holes and how legends of ancient wyvern society said this or that about some other constellation. You were suddenly grabbing him by the collar with two hands and yanking him over to look at you.

“Y/N?” He asked, absolute bewilderment in his features.

“Jung Sungchan, I’m going to say this once, and please don’t take this the wrong way,” you murmured, holding eye contact with him very seriously. “You’re very attractive when you talk about things that you’re passionate about, and if you don’t kiss me right now I think I’m going to explode.”

Sungchan didn’t need to be told twice, reaching up to cup your cheek. Despite your rather blunt and unromantic request, he still tenderly guided your lips to his. Your eyes fluttered shut as you melted into the kiss, the grip you had on his collar relaxing. His mouth was soft as he moved it ever so slightly against yours. His thumb stroked over your cheekbone, the hand on your back pulling you even closer to him. One of your hands grabbed his waist to anchor yourself down to something on Earth.

It ended all too soon for your liking, though. You were pretty sure you could kiss Jung Sungchan forever. He pressed one more quick kiss to the corner of your mouth before leaning back to drink you in.

“You’re so beautiful…” he murmured, stroking your cheek again.

“Sung?” You whispered.

“Hm?”

“Do you want to kiss me again?”

He nodded, and you leaned forward to bump your nose against his. A giddy smile spread across your face.

“Good. Me too.”

sequel :･ﾟ✧｡･:･*

⤷ blog masterlist  ⤷ anthology masterlist

[goodolddumbbanana]

[SUPERHERO AU] ASK AND ANSWER

Can you smile a little bit, Eclipse? You are making me look really bad right now, how unkind of you~~ (-Pre Dazzle-)

They two just beat the shit out of each other. Nothing new, guys, don't worry. I'm pretty sure Solar will get out, some way...

--- ANYWAYS, SOME FACTS:

- Sun used to call himself SUN when he still terrorized the world. He changed his name to The Kid napper after he met Jack and Dazzle.

- Solar hero's name is Eclipse. He is retired now, because the main threat (SUN) has disappeared but he still gets in front sometimes if something really bad happens.

- Earth is a billionaire, who is the daughter of Creator, the man that Sun has killed.

- Moon has his part time job as a scientist for the mafia. He uses them, of course, just to find someone.

1. Is Jack still Solar's son?

Yes. And he also has a terrible childhood.

Jack was born in a laboratory, an attempt to create weapons to protect humanity. Solar, as the earliest and most advanced Eclipse model who still remained, was responsible for the construction and handling of this pumpkin.

The project got cancelled because the head scientist disappeared, and Jack got scrapped, terminated right after that.

Solar doesn't care about Jack at first, (because reason related to this head scientist - Nexus) but seeing his creation just got thrown away and got saved in the hand of his hatred of the enemy (SUN) really changed his mind.

Luckily Jack got zero memories about that time and just grew up normally, like a good pumpkin that baby boy is. Until now....

2. Is Moon a parent in this?

Moon is still aroace. But recently, he just took on an apprentice named Molten.

3. What is Sun's tragic backstory? Why did he go ape shit?

Let's just say, something is not supposed to push too much. And also, Sun has no one, except Dark Sun.

4. What is Solar's power? What is Sun's power?

Sun is the nuclear bomb, the destroyer. He has the power of the actual Sun on his side. He is actually the one punch man in this universe. His magic is so powerful, he can just snap a finger and the universe just broke in half like a TWINK. No one can fight him at the physical level. The only way to stop him is to lock him down, and this, still not a good solution.

Solar has copy power. He can copy, absorb any type of power but only at the medium level and he can only forever possess this type of power if the person he copies is dead.

For example, if he copies Sun, he will have the power to fight God, as long as he keeps eye contact with Sun. But if Solar eats Sun, he will keep Sun's power forever.

Fun fact: Solar is super strong, has the ability to control machines, and change colour. (Fun questions, how many people Solar has eaten?)

5. Why did dazzle become a heroine?

She suddenly has power. She can fly, and also senses other emotions. (There are two people she couldn't sense anything from, her dad and that funky villain that she fight at night. )

Also, because Jack thinks it would be funny to be heroes.

6. Was Sun always a villain or did he start as a hero that turned bad?

He was just an assistant at first. He has no relation regard on the villain field, despite all people around him just ending up to be villains. Naive, easily to get startled, and optimistic. An idiot. He is still an idiot now, but with super power.

7. Why does he avoid Nexus' name?

Some people have stabbed his back. Nexus is just the only one he thought they would never do that to him.

8. Most importantly, what's the toxic yaoi ?

Anything happens between Dark Sun and Sun, anything happens between SUN and Solar pre Dazzle.

[imagionationstation]

I wanted to ask about your wendy bird Au and well....is it wrong that I want to hug Leo (TMNT 2012)? And I want to know how exactly his brothers want to live in Rise's world? P.S; sorry if I'm bothering you

No, it’s NOT- I DO TOO 🥺

THIS KID JUST LOVES HIS BROS SO MUCH

HE IS GOING TO ALREADY HAS WOULD KILL FOR THEM

A universe without his brothers by his side is a universe that he would not last five minutes in. Splinter told him to take care of his brothers. And now that they’re constantly apart, Leo can’t ensure their safety. Leo can’t keep them safe. And they don’t understand the threat. They’ll fight him when he tries to explain. He could lose them to a false set of brothers. A fake Splinter who isn’t right.

So he has to take matters in his own hands.

He just lost his father. They all lost their father. He can’t lose them. He can’t. And he’s not going to stand by and watch as any set of brothers dimension endangers their safety.

He’s their Sensei. Splinter told him to be a father. A father makes the hard choices for his family. He’s the Sensei. He can fix this.

He loves them so much. He just wants to spend time with them and too many uncontrollable people variables keep getting in the way!

But if the variables are gone, then the bad influences are gone.

He’s a master ninja. He can solve this problem under the radar.

He can. He has too. For his sake his brothers’ sake.

So things can go back to the way that they’re supposed to be.

HE’S LITERALLY JUST SO SAD

BOY COULD USE A HUG AND MAYBE SOME CHAINS

His love for his brothers is both the problem and the solution.

What makes him think they wouldn’t fight back?

Hmm. Exact reasons?

Altogether: It has more family. The ache of losing their father exists, but now there’s more family to fill that gap. Family who knows what it means to live with ‘this whole situation’ and under the Hamato legacy. Family who have secured safety in their world when the 2012brothers’ won’t stop tearing itself apart. And their world doesn’t even need them. It has the Mutanimals. It has the reformed Foot.

They could leave and go somewhere where humans are fooled by simple disguises. Somewhere with turtles like them. Somewhere with an entire Hidden City where they’re average and normal.

Mikey can expand his horizons. He can go to movies! The store! Do normal person things! Buy treats! Wear clothing in his size! Play with magic things that he definitely shouldn’t be touching! Smile at people and earn smiles back! Have friends born naturally without murderous intent! HE CAN GO TO A HIGHSCHOOL LIKE APRIL’S!!

Raph no longer has to fear every single being they come across. There’s an entire Hidden City where no one cares. Literally no one cares. Mikey’s an idiot and he somehow fits right in? Raph doesn’t know how that happened but he’s satisfied. He doesn’t have to look over his shoulder. He can focus on other things. Like vandalism artistic choice on city walls. And beating up pirates. And you better believe he’s going to try to sneak off to the Battle Nexus.

Donnie takes the longest to come around, but once it occurs to him that there’s an actual possibility to be perceived as normal there? To actually be acknowledged as an inventor/chemist among fellow ‘mutants’? To work with people at his caliber who DON’T belittle him at every available moment? To learn under Don and Draxum and so many other intelligent Yokai? Heck, once he gets his hands on a brooch, he can BE human! It opens up so many opportunities for him. For all of them! They can be more than sewer freaks! They can become people! People with colleagues and jobs and lives!

Why wouldn’t that tempt them to stay?

[dafodils-on-the-moon]

!!!! So many questions bc I love this with all my heart <3 First, it's freaking hilarious that he became jester because he was "difficult to handle." LOVE that. Second, I gotta know, what does everyone else think about him? Arthur? Gwen? Morgana? Is Morgana doomed to die by the hands of a COURT JESTER?????

Ok so. Crucial part of this Au: Uther knows Merlin in Balinor’s son but does NOT know abt the magic. Merlin does not know about being Balinor’s son. Uther kept him cause he thinks it would be a good idea to have a dragonlord on hand that's loyal to Camelot, given what he's keeping under the castle.

Also I'm very aroace and don't wanna write romance for a while, so no romantic Murther.

Instead, Uther raises Merlin and Arthur as brothers. He deeply encourages the loyalty to one another as keeping Merlin loyal is essetail and Merlin is a very valuable asset that bears protecting. He emphasises to Arthur that as the eldest, Merlin is his responsibility and he should take care of him. Merlin is his younger brother.

Arthur takes to this role like a wildfire. Protective as SHIT over his new baby brother (Merlin is two years younger), esp. Since he was… not doing too hot when he first got to the castle. He was greiving and seemed *terrified* and didn’t speak at all for months. He was sickly too, for reasons no-one could pinpoint. Arthur had made it his mission to cheer Merlin up, as no one should be that sad. He and Merlin communicate at first via drawings.

He only seemed to improve after he started talking quietly to an imaginary freind he named “Kiggah.” It seemed to help cause merlin slowly started talking to Arthur and then in general and his health imrpved too.

Yeah… Merlin’s imaginary freind is Killgarrah lol.

Killgarrrah, or Kiggah as a now 5 year old Merlin could pernounce, is getting a major overhaul in this AU. His is going to be far far less of a bastard. Cause dragons are too cool for him to be the absolute worst.

In this AU Kiggah actually cares more THAT HIS ENTIRE RACE WAS ERADICATED than that he was trapped under the castle. Cause, fr, that is not the part id focus on. Also I gave him a family before, sorry man. Kiggah was also really really fond of dragonlings and hatchlings and was very excited to see the hatching of his first great-grandhatchling before the purge. Ow.

Anyway, Merlin is TERRIFIED of being in Camelot. He’s terrified he’s going to say something wrong and reveal his secret and die. He blames himslef for his mother’s death (cause he’s like 4 1/2 and thats normal for kids that age) and more specifically, his magic. So he supresses the shit out of it, which is why he’s so sickly.

Kiggah senses Merlin basically killing himslef and tries coaching Merlin into using his magic again. Adopts Merlin as his own hatchling. Kiggah doesn’t know Merlin’s dad is Balinor, but he DOES know he’s emrys, magic itself. As a result, Kiggah views Merlin as a fellow magical creature and raises him accordingly. He… doesn’t really get how human hatchlings are supposed to work.

Merlin starts acting weirdly dragonlike. His growling, he’s biting people, hee’s climbing everything, hoarding things and has a major fixation with fire. He is gettign “difficult to handle” as UTHER, assumes this is just how dragonlordlings are, (good gracious), but needs a way to coverup the fact he’s raising one.

Fooleswurth, nuerdodivergent in ye-old times, sees Merlin and his like “haha verily. Reminds me of when I was that age, I was just the same. He must have “The Jester’s Spark, haha.”’ Uther goes “yes and” and now fooleswurth has an apprentice and Uther has a way to explain why his ward is so weird.

Anyway, Kiggah is NOT excited about Merlin’s new older sister, but Merlin loves her. He is very excited for whenever Morgana’s magic manifests. She grows on Kiggah. (Esp. With all teh trouble she gives Uther). Morgana’s going to be fine.

She and Merlin get on like a house on fire. Gossipy bitches. Morgana sics Melrin and his “jester’s privolegde” on bothersome nobles to insult them into the ground.

Gwen becomes Morgana’s maidservent, and she Morgana and Merlin are great friends.

[lilacmingi]

ALICE IN WONDERLAND AU ♤ PART 1: JUNGKOOK

My works are 14+ ONLY. If you’re under 14 DO NOT read/interact with me or my works

Pairing: White rabbit!Jungkook x fem reader

Word count: 2,270

Note: Next installment in the BTS Alice in Wonderland AU series is here! The intro chapter did fairly well last week. I was surprised to see how many people were liking it!

Once past the doorway, you made your brief descent down the stone steps and onto the walkway that led through the cluster of odd plants. This place was strange, unusual, and nothing like anything you had ever seen in your entire life. All the mushrooms and plants were huge compared to you, making you feel a little nervous due to their intimidating size. You flinched when a huge bug of some sort zoomed past you, a loud buzzing sound following as it flew by. Glancing up, you saw a dragon with a set of thin, iridescent wings.

Dragonfly. Clever.

You proceeded down the path, your curious eyes scanning your new and unfamiliar surroundings. Suddenly, you remembered the chunk of cake you brought with you, pulling it from your pocket. Having learned your lesson the first time, you only took a small chunk from the cake, hoping it would be enough to return you to your normal height. Taking a small bite of the magical sweet, you started to grow taller until you were back to your usual self.

You chuckled proudly to yourself, feeling a sense of pride for getting the hang of the size-altering cake.

With your height back to the way it should be, you proceeded down the stone pathway, getting a closer look at the greenery and vegetation that grew along the trail. You hadn't the slightest idea where you were, but one thing was for sure, this was not your home. You were in an entirely new world. A fairytale land of some sort that looked like it came right out of a storybook.

Maybe when you fell down the rabbit hole, you hit your head and were knocked unconscious and this was a dream. Though that wouldn't explain the fact that you saw a half bunny half man in your backyard.

Your train of thought was derailed when you spotted the suit-clad bunny hybrid you chased earlier standing in the middle of the pathway with his back turned to you. Not wanting to announce your presence and risk him taking off again, you stayed silent and approached him, clamping a hand on his shoulder causing him to flinch, spinning around on his heel to face whoever had grabbed him.

"You! How did you get down here?"

"I followed you. How else do you think I got here?"

He chewed on his bottom lip while his captivating eyes scanned you up and down as if to asses your appearance.

"Good." He finally responded, giving a single nod of approval.

"Good?" You echoed.

"There are some people who want to see you. They haven't seen you in years and they've all been eagerly awaiting your return."

"What? Who's they? Listen, bunny boy, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

"He'll explain when you get—wait. What did you just call me?"

"You never told me your name, so I got creative." You shrugged.

"My name is Jungkook." He huffed, one of his his bunny ears twitching a little in agitation.

You chuckled softly.

"What's so funny?"

"Your ears." You pointed. "They're very expressive."

"Of course they are." He straightened his coat.

"Can I touch them?" You asked tentatively.

The tips of Jungkook's human ears turned pink, as did the apples of his round cheeks.

"I suppose." He lowered his head ever so slightly so his bunny ears would be easier to access.

You stepped forward and reached your hand up to stroke one of them, feeling the soft fur under your fingertips, taking notice of the way he pulled his bottom lip between his teeth.

"Soft." You murmured, pulling your hand back.

Jungkook cleared his throat, taking a brief glance up the trail.

"We should go."

"Right. Lead the way."

If this really was a dream, you might as well see how it plays out.

The low heels of Jungkook's loafers tapped lightly against the stones of the walkway, the rhythmic beat accompanied by the occasional crunch of a small gravel under his shoe soles.

"What is this place?" You inquired, breaking the silence that hung in the air.

"If I recall correctly, last time you were here you called it Wonderland."

"Last time I was here?"

"You really don't remember, do you?"

You hesitated with your response, flicking through past memories, none of them having been made in a place like this.

"No. Should I?"

"You should. Then again, you were very young. Don't worry. He'll explain it to you."

"Who's he?"

"You'll see. Just wait until we get there."

Wonderland. You thought.

That's a good way to describe this place, especially considering it's eccentric and fairytale-like appearance.

You stole a glance at Jungkook just as his nose twitched, scrunching up a little which made him look akin to a real bunny. It was an endearing sight and made a warm feeling of adoration spread in your chest. Looking at Jungkook gave you the same emotions as looking at a cute animal, except he was more man than animal.

"I overheard you talking to yourself earlier. What were you so late for?" You questioned.

"Bringing you here."

"Is that why you were in my rose garden? You were looking for me?"

"Yes." He nodded. "I was watching you and hoped that I could coax you down the rabbit hole. He asked that I bring you here. Though, I wasn't sure if it was you or not. You've changed quite a bit. That's why I was a little freaked out. You see, I'm not exactly supposed to be seen while I'm out there."

"Out there?"

"In your world." He clarified.

You cast your eyes to the ground, dragging your shoes against the stones.

"What's so important about me?"

"I'm not sure I can reveal that. Again, he'll tell you everything. I promise."

"Right." You sighed. "Who is this guy that you're bringing me to?"

"It's best he introduce himself."

"Is there anything I can call him by?"

"Hatter. That's what we call him sometimes. It's somewhat of a nickname."

"Hatter." You murmured thoughtfully. "That sounds vaguely familiar."

"Maybe you're remembering." Jungkook beamed, showing off cute bunny-like teeth, his eyes glimmering with hope.

"You're adorable." You spoke under your breath, not intending for him to hear. It was more so you gushing quietly over his endearing expression.

He turned to you, his eyes scanning you up and down as a small smirk played at his lips.

It was then that you realized he heard you.

You were quick to look away and focus your gaze to the trail below your shoes in an attempt to avoid eye contact with him.

Jungkook came to a stop, placing his finger under your chin to turn your head back towards him. His bright eyes seemed slightly darker, some unknown emotion swirling in them as he took just a moment to scan your face, quietly taking in your reaction.

"That's funny. I was thinking the same about you, dear Y/n."

You swallowed, a violent rush of warmth blossoming across your cheeks at his bold and flirtatious response.

He tittered amusedly, gently holding your chin between his thumb and index finger so you couldn't look away.

"Surely you're not flustered just from that."

You opened your mouth to speak, but no words came out, as Jungkook's charms rendered you totally speechless.

This is definitely a dream. You thought to yourself. Why else would someone as handsome as Jungkook be flirting with you? This kind of thing never happens in real life.

You were too occupied with your thoughts to notice Jungkook's face inching closer, your wide eyes immediately darting down to catch a glimpse of his pretty pink lips, momentarily wondering if they were as soft as they appeared. They were so tantalizing, tempting you to come and have a taste, drawing you in and pulling you towards them. Somewhere in your muddled mind, your conscience reminded you that this man was practically a stranger, though there was something familiar about him, albeit vague. Then again, if this really was a dream (and you're sure it is) it doesn't matter if you don't know Jungkook all that well. In dreams, logic doesn't matter.

You made no efforts to stop the man standing in front of you, staying completely still while you allowed him to come to you, his shallow breaths fanning against your cheeks. Prepared for his lips to touch yours, you were surprised when you felt them on your neck instead, the warm sensation that followed making your knees weak. Your eyelids fluttered closed while Jungkook littered your neck with open-mouthed kisses that took your breath away. One of your hands came up to his dark hair, momentarily carding your fingers through it before they trailed up to brush against the base of his soft bunny ears. Jungkook sighed against the sensitive skin of your neck, his kisses growing more feverish.

After a few more blissful moments, he pulled away, bringing his face up to meet yours, his short, breathy huffs fanning your cheeks as his eyes were trained on your lips. You suppressed a shiver, your eyelids starting to flutter closed as he drew near. Jungkook's lips barely brushed over yours, making your heart rate pick up with excitement for the events that were soon to take place.

Just before he could press his lips to yours, a loud roar ripped through the air and rumbled the ground beneath your feet, causing the both of you to pull away from each other with startled expressions.

"Bandersnatch." Jungkook gasped.

"Bander-what?"

"Come over here." He hastily pulled you into the tall plants that lined the cobblestone path.

You stumbled unsteadily due to his sudden movements, causing you to fall on top of him with a soft grunt.

Both of you were breathing heavily due to the adrenaline, staring into each other's eyes for what felt like minutes but in reality was only a handful of seconds. Your gaze darted down to his lips that you didn't even get to kiss due to the interruption, which was typical for a dream, except instead of waking up, the dream continued.

A loud thump pulled your attention away from Jungkook and towards the noise as you tried to catch a glimpse of the creature through the towering mushrooms and wispy grass.

"What is that?" You whispered, unable to see through the plants that shielded you.

"The bandersnatch."

"What exactly is a bandersnatch?"

"That." Jungkook said pointing at a massive beast that was making its way down the path you were walking on just moments ago.

The appearance of the creature was unlike anything you'd ever seen before. It was covered in white fur with black spots and had the most atrocious face you'd ever laid eyes on. The beast vaguely resembling a dog, except this thing was far from cuddly and was every bit terrifying. Drool dribbled out of its large mouth which was lined with dozens of unevenly sharp teeth that made you uneasy just by looking at them. You released an unintentional gasp at the daunting appearance of the enormous creature, clamping a hand over your mouth as you watched it sniff the air.

"Shh." Jungkook shushed, wrapping his arms around you in order to draw you in closer. His job was to bring you to Hatter safely and that's exactly what he was going to do.

With bated breath, your eyes followed the monster, observing it as it passed your hiding place and sniffed elsewhere, thankfully not catching the scent of you or Jungkook. The both of you let out a collective sigh of relief, your bodies relaxing. That's when the beast stopped, it's head turning back towards the place where you were hidden.

Your body stiffened and your breathing came to a halt, watching anxiously as the beast's nose twitched while sniffing the air. After what felt like ages, the beast turned away and left, allowing you to finally relax.

"The Red King probably sent that thing to come and get you." Jungkook snarled.

His nose was scrunched up while he glared at the creature that was now leaving the area, his arms tightening around you protectively. The first thought that crossed your mind was how surprisingly strong his grip was.

He must be hiding some massive biceps under that tailcoat of his. You surmised.

"I think it's safe. Let's go." Jungkook whispered, helping you to your feet.

He took your hand and crept through the overgrown plants, moving away from the dreaded bandersnatch.

Once he felt it was safe, he guided you back to the pathway where you could actually see where you were going.

"That thing was scary... and ugly." Your face twisted at the memory.

"Dangerous too. We're lucky to have made it out unharmed. I thought for sure it would sniff us out."

"I did too."

You placed your hand on your chest to try and calm the erratic beating of your heart. For a dream, this sure felt real.

There was a rustling sound in the plants that put a halt on your train of thought and caused you and Jungkook to stop in your tracks.

"What's that?" The question slipped out before you could stop it and you found yourself latching onto Jungkook who was the only person there that could possibly protect you from whatever was hidden in the plants.

"I don't know." He murmured, holding a protective arm out in front of you.

The both of you stood in the middle of the pathway frozen in fear until someone stepped out of the thick grass.

➯ Part 2: Jimin

Masterlist ᝰ

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