Chapter Text
Something wet kept dropping onto Yeosang’s face.
He oh so desperately wanted to peel his eyes open, but his heavy eyelids forced him to continue staring at darkness. It wasn’t like he was just having a dreamless sleep, no, he was very aware of the sounds, smells, and sensations going on around him. His eyelids almost seemed glued shut.
Yeosang reached into the deep corners of his mind in an attempt to remember what was happening and how he’d landed in this situation.
He was with San – and Wooyoung, of course – in their home. San wanted to try out something that he’d been researching and Yeosang was always willing and wanting to help his partner out with those kinds of things since it was the other’s passion in life.
What even happened?
All he could remember was sand – blue sand – and… an hourglass?
The Lunarglass!
Yeosang groaned as he was finally able to force his eyelids open. He was lying on the ground, but he wasn’t in their house like he’d remembered being in before the Lunarglass’ strange magic activated.
He was lying on his back on solid, wet concrete.
It wasn’t raining too hard, but even the little droplets and sprinkles of water that occasionally landed on Yeosang’s body made him shiver just from the frigid temperature.
He slowly rolled onto his side, involuntarily letting out a groan as his body protested against the movement. He had no idea how long he’d been unconscious, but it was long enough for his body to be surprised.
Using his arms to push himself into more of a sitting position, Yeosang took the opportunity to look around his surroundings to figure out where he was.
While the blond had been unconscious, he was still able to hear what was going on around him for the most part. He heard a lot of different noises, thankfully none concerning.
Well, except for the fact that he heard the sounds of several cars driving close by and the horns of other cars setting off in the distance.
There was no way they would be in the city…right?
Yeosang surveyed the area around him and tensed when a shiver ran through his body from the cold. He was in an alleyway that somehow wasn’t covered in trash like he’d heard of so much in the books Seonghwa had given them before.
The mage was the only one of them who left their magic little bubble away from the normal humans that lived in the cities. He was much better able to conceal himself amongst the crowds due to his experience and age. Yeosang had always wanted to visit the cities – or anywhere that had more normal humans really – but it was strongly discouraged by most of the magic community he spoke with.
Their little home was part of a small village that was populated by solely magical creatures and was concealed by magic from those who didn’t have any source of magic running through their veins. That made it more difficult, if not impossible, for normal humans to find (because gods know that those humans will try to use anything powerful to their advantage).
Even the little alleyway was too different from what Yeosang was used to and it sent chills up his spine – well, that along with the cold rain sprinkling on him – going out into the rest of the city would probably, as Wooyoung would say, send Yeosang into a coma…whatever that meant.
Suddenly remembering that Wooyoung and San were both near the Lunarglass as well when it activated, Yeosang whipped his head around in search of his partner and the little familiar.
The cat wasn’t anywhere to be found, but Yeosang couldn’t help the way his aching body jerked forward when he saw San slumped against a small pile of black garbage bags. The other seemed to still be unconscious when Yeosang knelt next to him, hands hovering over the other’s body.
He couldn’t tell if San had any injuries or anything, and Yeosang wasn’t much of a healing witch, but he had to get the dark-haired man to wake up somehow.
Yeosang focused his magic energy into his hands as he laid them gently on San’s wet forehead and chest. The blond had always been praised for his affinity for almost any sort of magic, especially his ability to perform divination – which he wasn’t a big fan of – but he had always been weak when it came to healing. Even San, who focused on his affinity for invocation magic, had been better than Yeosang at healing.
If something ever happened to them in their small little village and the village healer wasn’t available, their friend Kyungmoon, who was a nature witch by affinity, was able to heal them up just as well due to his connection with nature and life itself.
Yeosang was a little jealous, especially at that moment when he was doing his best to get San to wake up. Divination was rare and no one else, even in the surrounding magical towns/villages was able to do what Yeosang could do, but he hated it.
He hated the feeling he got when he used his magic specifically for divination. He hated what he saw most of the time, due to the negative nature the future held, but he was the only one who could do it.
Call him selfish, but he just wanted to be useful to his partner and his friends and divination wasn’t the affinity for that. That’s why he loved helping San with all of his experimental spells and incantations; it made him feel useful.
He didn’t realize he was crying, or even had his eyes squeezed shut in concentration, until they opened again and a few tears fell onto San’s chin.
“San, wake up- please wake up,” Yeosang choked out.
There was always risk associated with the other witch’s experiments, but it never got to the point where they were worried about death. Yeosang knew his partner was breathing and alive – he could feel his energy still – but the irrational part of his brain told him otherwise.
Yeosang couldn’t tell how long he stayed in that position over San, but he was beginning to lose focus as his head swam from what he could only assume was overexertion.
“Hey! Are you two alright?”
His head snapped up and his eyes flew open at the sound of the unfamiliar voice which was a mistake on Yeosang’s part as his vision went dark for a moment before he steadied himself.
He slowly turned his head to see who exactly was calling out to them.
Several meters away stood a tall man who had blond hair with dark roots and a worried expression present on his face.
A ringing in Yeosang’s ears slowly grew louder and he realized he should probably stop putting all of his energy into his unconscious partner.
“Please don’t pass out! I can’t carry both of you,” the stranger said, coming closer to the two witches.
Yeosang didn’t have any energy to protect San from the man – or himself for that matter – he didn’t really have energy for anything; so when the tall blond knelt next to Yeosang and placed a hand on his shoulder, the witch could only let out a shuddering breath.
Meeting the newcomer’s gaze, Yeosang saw how light his eyes were. They almost glowed…white.
Strange, Yeosang’s cotton-filled brain supplied.
“I may seem strange, but I have good reason.”
“ Oh, I said that out loud?” Yeosang asked, his voice sounding slightly muffled in his own ears.
He didn’t know why, but slowly he began to become more aware and things seemed a little less unfocused; he was eventually able to hear the ambient sounds of the city, his own breaths, San’s quiet breaths, and the other man clearing his throat.
He felt like his energy replenished almost too fast.
Yeosang made eye contact once again with the other man as his hand was lowered from Yeosang’s shoulder.
The tall blond gave him a soft smile. “Better?”
Nodding slowly in case the dizziness came back, Yeosang confirmed that he did, in fact, feel a lot better.
The taller man let out a low chuckle and smiled at Yeosang.
“My name is Yunho. I’m gonna help you guys, okay?”
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
There was way too much going on in Hongjoong’s brain for him to pay attention to the conversation the mage was having with the…cat? Man? Catman? Whatever he was.
He was still completely convinced he accidentally did some kind of drug and now there were people playing some elaborate prank on him.
To be fair, it was definitely more entertaining than work. Maybe he should do drugs more often.
“Hey, dude, are you listening?”
Hongjoong blinked and shook his head a little at the call. He locked eyes with the cat-man…Wooyoung, who was still sitting in front of him and noticed Seonghwa had moved to sit on the sofa next to where the other two sat on the floor.
“Sorry,” Hongjoong responded sheepishly and swallowed nervously. “Just got…lost in thought.”
He watched as the other two locked eyes with each other, as though they were silently communicating something, before turning back to him.
“So, we don’t exactly know who you are or where you came from,” Seonghwa started again, “because it seems like you have no idea what’s going on, we’re assuming you’re not from here. Wooyoung said he had a small idea about what happened to you, but I’d love for your side of the story. First of all, what’s your name?”
Hongjoong gulped and nodded, doing his best to avoid any and all eye contact with both men in front of him. “I-I’m Hongjoong. What do you want to know?”
He watched as the two glanced at each other, almost as though they were silently communicating before Wooyoung stood up and stretched.
Hongjoong half-expected a fluffy black tail to hang down from behind the cat-man, but was left almost…disappointed to find nothing there. Then again, he wasn’t looking directly at the guy’s backside; so maybe he was just trying to hide it from Hongjoong-
Wooyoung turned and Hongjoong had to suppress the urge to pout.
No tail.
The redhead watched as Wooyoung took a seat on the couch and patted a spot next to him. “Come sit up here. I’m sure it’s much more comfy than the floor,” he said to Hongjoong. “Scratch that. I know it’s more comfy from personal experience. Especially curling up on top of the backrest. Sannie and Yeosang really did well when they chose the furniture for this place-”
“Wooyoung, you’re rambling,” Seonghwa interrupted. The cat-man effectively shut up, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. The mage motioned for Hongjoong to take a seat. “He’s right though. The couches are almost too good to be true.”
Hongjoong nodded and shakily stood up. His jello legs definitely weren’t going to support him if he tried to stand for very long. The adrenaline rush he’d had when he’d landed…wherever he was, plus when Seonghwa entered and scared the life out of him, definitely took most of his energy. He really needed a nap, but he didn’t know where he was or what was going on. And no matter how cute Wooyoung was as a cat, Hongjoong didn’t trust him, or Seonghwa, one bit.
He finally was able to sit down on the couch, far enough away from Wooyoung that he felt comfortable, but not too far that it was obvious he was nervous around the two.
They were right though. Hongjoong couldn’t help but let his body sink into the couch cushions. His eyes almost immediately became heavier, threatening to close before he could do anything about it.
Now that he thought about it, he wasn’t sure how long he’d been awake for. He woke up early that morning and had a full day of work. Usually that itself was enough to make him crash on his bed after he took a shower. Add the craziness that had occurred, and-
“Are you tired?”
Hongjoong’s eyes flew wide open.
He hadn’t even realized he was falling asleep.
“It’s okay if you need to sleep.” The redhead looked to where Wooyoung sat across from him on the couch. The man was softly smiling at him. “It’d be preferable if you explained before sleeping so Seonghwa can slave away at finding a solution, but I’m sure he can wait a couple of hours.”
“You sure don’t seem in a rush to get your witch back,” Seonghwa quipped, brow raised in question.
His witch?
“I don’t care about San. I want Yeosang back though, but I know he’s strong, so he’ll be okay.”
“Is San not?”
“No,” Wooyoung deadpanned.
Hongjoong’s eyes shot open again in an attempt to keep himself awake as he caught himself drifting off. He really needed to sit up and pay attention. He couldn’t let his guard down in front of these…magical strangers.
“I have a question,” he decided to ask.
Seonghwa motioned with his hand for the redhead to continue. “Ask away.”
“What do you mean by someone being… your witch ?” He asked in an attempt to keep himself engaged in the conversation and hopefully more awake.
Wooyoung grinned at Hongjoong and let out a sigh. “Wow, you really aren’t from here.” Hongjoong rolled his eyes in response.
Before the other could continue and explain, Seonghwa spoke up instead. “Wooyoung is a familiar. I don’t know if you’ve heard of what familiars are,” Hongjoong shook his head in response. “Okay, well, to put it simply: there are many witches who have supernatural companions, or guardians, who protect and assist those who they’re in charge of.”
Hongjoong tilted his head in confusion. “Do not all witches have familiars?”
Wooyoung shook his head as he shifted in his seat. “No, not all. Familiars aren’t all-knowing, or anything like that, but we’re sent to help specific people in order to keep them safe if they tend to be a little more…reckless.”
“That would be San for you,” Seonghwa added.
“But yeah,” the cat continued, smirking, “I was sent more to protect San, but since his partner Yeosang lives here too, I think I’m also his guardian by proxy. I don’t only feel like I need to protect San, but Yeosang just as much.”
“You definitely do more sitting around than anything though, Wooyoung,” Seonghwa teased, earning a scowl from the other man.
Hongjoong couldn’t help but picture Wooyoung’s expression in cat form.
It certainly was an interesting concept to Hongjoong. He’d never thought of something like that – magic – even being real, but there were so many layers to it he didn’t think he would ever understand everything about these people. It seemed as though it was an entire other world than what he was used to. Not only did it seem that way, it was different.
He wasn’t even sure how to explain it to himself, but the place seemed different yet familiar. Whether he was in a different universe or not was still entirely up in the air. This could be an entire hidden world of magic that’s been sitting right under the rest of the world’s nose, or, it was an entirely different place with different laws of nature – that might explain the magic.
Seonghwa cleared his throat, grabbing Hongjoong’s attention.
The dark-haired man shot him an almost knowing smile. “I know you’re tired and this is a lot to take in, but we do need to hear your side of the story if that’s alright.”
“I’ll explain what happened. It’s okay,” Hongjoong replied, running a hand through his red hair.
Seonghwa smiled at him from where he stood.
Hongjoong couldn’t help but notice the other chair in the room that he’d expected Seonghwa to move and sit in. He waited for the mage to make his way over to the chair, but the black-haired man just stood in the same spot, unmoving.
“You're not going to sit down?” Hongjoong questioned.
Wooyoung snorted, making Seonghwa frown. “No, he never sits down here. I think it’s because he has a stick up his a-”
“Wooyoung!”
“What? Am I wrong?”
Seonghwa let out an offended scoff. “Yes, you are-”
“So you’re just asserting your dominance like the alpha you are,” Wooyoung teased with a wicked smirk on his face.
Hongjoong couldn’t help but snort at the comment and wondered if Wooyoung was actually serious or not. If Wooyoung could turn into a cat and his missing friends were witches, Hongjoong wouldn’t be surprised if the whole werewolf dynamic thing was real too.
But Seonghwa said he was a mage; so unless there were werewolves who were also mages, that wouldn’t be possible. Hongjong had read his fair share of fanfics though, and some of them were pretty wild. Nothing was out of the question at this point for him.
The mage stood with his shoulders tense and his mouth open, unable to find a way to respond.
Valid.
“That’s not how that works and you know that,” Seonghwa finally spoke up after several moments.
That’s not what Hongjoong was expecting to hear.
“Are werewolves actually real?” He couldn’t help but ask.
The other two turned their attention to him and Wooyoung smiled, looking like he was about to scheme something. Before the cat could speak up, Seonghwa butted in to respond first,
“Before he says something stupid to try and trick you, just know that they are real, but maybe different than what you know.”
Wooyoung pouted and crossed his arms in front of him. “You’re no fun.”
“Yeah, yeah, you tell me I’m a party pooper all the time,” Seonghwa brushed him off, fully turning his attention to Hongjoong. “Before I tell you more about how things work here and before we get off track again, I need to know what happened to you exactly.”
Hongjoong nodded and took a deep breath before beginning to recount everything that happened since he got out of work late. Seonghwa listened with rapt attention and Wooyoung looked like he was the one about to pass out from exhaustion. Maybe it was because he was a cat or something, but Hongjoong figured that he would lose a lot of sleep, even if he was a cat, if two of his best friends went missing.
That is if he had any friends to begin with.
Once he caught them up to speed on how he found himself in the living room being stared down by an angry black cat, Seonghwa let out a hum.
Wooyoung seemed a lot more focused on the situations at hand once Hongjoong finished his retelling of what happened because the cat-man suddenly let out an ‘oh’ as though something had occurred to him.
“What, Woo?” Seonghwa asked.
“It’s not an hourglass exactly,” he began to explain. That statement alone was confusing for Hongjoong because he distinctly remembered it being an hourglass. Granted, it was a freaky, magic one, but an hourglass nonetheless.
“What do you mean?”
Wooyoung stood up from where he sat and walked over to a table that was a little off to the side and grabbed a piece of parchment that had a lot of notes on it. The other two watched as he then moved over to where an old-looking book lay on the floor.
Hongjoong wasn’t sure how he hadn’t noticed the book before since it was so big, but to be fair he was a bit distracted with the cat.
Once Wooyoung sat down again, he explained what he knew.
“My witch, San, loves studying magical things. Especially ones that aren’t well known.” He paused for a moment and Hongjoong watched as Seonghwa motioned for the cat to continue, assuming the mage hadn’t yet heard Wooyoung’s explanations. “I’m not sure if Seonghwa knows much about what he was studying, but it had something to do with this thing he found called a Lunarglass. Not just an hourglass.”
The man opened up the book he picked up and Hongjoong watched with earnest as he flipped through the pages looking for something.
Wooyoung let out a sound of achievement and aggressively stuck his pointer finger on the page.
Hongjoong moved slightly out of the way as Seonghwa made his way closer to see the page as well.
The redhead noticed that Wooyoung’s finger was placed on an ancient-looking image of an hourglass. The same one that Hongjoong saw before!
“That’s it!” He shouted, shrinking back on himself when the other two flinch at his volume. “That’s the hourglass – or Lunarglass – I saw in the alleyway. I turned that because…I have no good reason. I guess you could say I’m curious to a fault,” he explained with a nervous chuckle escaping his mouth. “I guess I was craving some sort of excitement in my normally boring life.”
“Ugh!”
Hongjoong flinched at the sudden sound from Wooyoung and the book being slammed closed.
“Why are humans always so stupid?” the cat-man hissed under his breath, standing up and tossing the book back onto the couch. “They always touch things they shouldn’t be touching.”
The redhead couldn’t help it when his shoulders curled inwards and his arms wrapped around himself. He always did something stupid, and apparently, that didn’t change even in mystical situations. He was just a screw-up at all times it seemed. He wasn’t sure how he was any different from the witches that started this, but he thought better than to bring it up in front of said witch’s familiar.
They probably had a very strong bond that Hongjoong would never be able to understand or experience.
“Wooyoung,” Seonghwa spoke up, attempting to get the familiar’s attention.
The other ignored the mage and walked over to the other side of the room, facing away from the other two.
Hongjoong watched everything happen, afraid of what thoughts were running through the familiar’s mind. He figured Wooyoung must’ve started thinking about what could’ve happened to both of the witches. He wanted to comfort the familiar somehow, but he figured whatever he tried to say would make it even worse.
The redhead never had the opportunity to be close enough with someone to console them and give them advice or comfort. He was never the shoulder that people would be comfortable crying on. Then again, he never had that either.
He’d been alone for the majority of his life.
His parents were okay. They were never mean to him, but they also were a little distant as if they only had children to take care of for the sake of their image and pleasing their families. That’s how Hongjoong felt growing up. He was grateful for their generosity as he went through college. They supported him in what they wanted to do, but once they passed away, he realized how truly distant they’d been.
Their passing made no significant difference in his life.
His brother became even more distant after that and…
Well, he was alone.
Wooyoung had two people he lived with who he loved and they loved him back – even if the love was different. He had Seonghwa too. The mage seemed to care about the three who lived in the cottage very much.
Hongjoong knew that he would never get close to the mage or the familiar – he was encroaching on their personal and private space for crying out loud – but he still wanted to help them.
He wanted to help them get their happiness back.
Realizing that he’d been spacing out, too deep in his thoughts, Hongjoong finally tuned in to hear that Wooyoung was going off about how humans always do stupid things and ruin everything while Seonghwa attempted to calm the other down.
How did he not realize what was going on around him?
Maybe it was better that he didn’t have anyone who relied on him.
“They’re gone, Seonghwa! I was supposed to protect them. How am I supposed to find them again?” Wooyoung cried out, eyes shining with unshed tears.
The mage pinched the bride of his nose in frustration with one hand with the other hand on his hip. “I don’t know, Wooyoung, but we’ll figure it out, okay?”
“I’m sorry.”
Hongjoong could stop the apology from leaving his mouth.
He didn’t look up from the floor as silence washed over the room.
Hearing an inhale coming from Wooyoung’s direction, Hongjoong curled in on himself a tiny bit more as he prepared for the familiar’s harsh words to hit him.
Before the other could speak up, Seonghwa tutted and the redhead watched as he moved and crouched in front of him.
“You have nothing to be sorry about, Hongjoong. It’s not bad to be curious, and you didn’t know what was going to happen when you touched the Lunarglass .’
He stood up and faced Wooyoung. “You need to calm down. I know you’re hurting about being unable to protect them, but you can still find them. We need you to be in a calm headspace to do that though,” Seonghwa scolded. “You can’t blame Hongjoong for any of this. If anything, we’re lucky that he was the one that showed up and not someone cruel.”
Hongjoong let out a breath he wasn’t aware he was holding.
He went through the series of events in his head, hoping to provide some semblance of a lead for Wooyoung in order to calm him down and make him feel better.
An idea formed in the redhead’s mind.
“Wooyoung-”
“No, you don’t get it!”
Hongjoong flinched as he was interrupted by the familiar. Seonghwa jumped too at the sudden increase in volume.
“I could’ve stopped this all from happening!” Wooyoung continued with a pained expression on his face. “I was the idiot who tilted the Lungarglass after San and Yeosang were ready to give up! It’s my fault any of this is happening!”
“Stop focusing on how it happened and let’s find a solution!” Hongjoong smacked a hand over his mouth telling himself to shut up after the phrase burst through his lips. He couldn’t help it.
His wide eyes met Wooyoung’s shocked ones, not even bothering to look at Seonghwa’s reaction.
The familiar’s brows drew closer as though he was thinking about a tricky problem on a physics exam. “What?”
Hongjoong’s body began to relax slowly as he gained the courage to speak his mind.
“I think I know what most likely happened to them. You probably do too, deep down, but you’re just too worried about them to think logically about this,” he did his best to explain.
Wooyoung scoffed and rolled his eyes. “There’s nothing logical about magic.”
Taking a deep breath, the redhead opened his mouth to explain. “Where I’m from – I honestly don’t know how different this place is from where I’m from – but there’s this thing called Occam’s Razor where the most obvious or simple solution is probably the answer,” he tried to explain. “I think, logically, whatever happened to me happened to them.”
He took a deep breath and continued when he saw that neither of the other two were going to interrupt him. Seonghwa even motioned for him to continue as he had with Wooyoung before.
“I think the spell – incantation thing – was something that switched our places. They’re probably where I’m from right now, which honestly could be worse.”
Seonghwa let out a thoughtful hum. “I don’t think you’re that far from the truth, Hongjoong. That would make the most sense. I remember San talking to me about this before as he was attempting to translate the pages he had. He explained that this was all centered on the Moon. The Moon is related to order after all, not chaos; so there’s no reason for the spell to do something out of what is ordinary nature of the Moon.”
“Shit,” Wooyoung said quietly, moving to sit back down on the couch, albeit a little further from Hongjoong. “I should’ve listened to all the info-dumping San was doing.”
The familiar turned toward Hongjoong, making eye contact with him. “I’m really sorry for acting like that. I won’t make an excuse. You’re in a difficult situation too.”
“Don’t even worry,” Hongjoong reassured, smiling softly at Wooyoung.
Of course his emotions were all over the place and he was really freaked out about everything going on – the yelling and accusations from Wooyoung didn’t help by any means – but he understood the worry that the familiar held. If Hongjoong had people to worry about like that, he definitely would.
“I’m glad you two seem to be getting along again, but a lot is happening and we should probably figure out the next course of action,” the mage interrupted.
Wooyoung let out a huff, crossing his arms and leaning back against the couch as he pouted. “Let me be friends with him.”
Hongjoong blinked in confusion at the statement and Seonghwa let out a deep chuckle. “You guys can kiss and make up more later.”
The redhead choked on his spit and couldn’t help the coughing his lungs were forcing.
“It’s alright if you don’t swing that way,” Wooyoung teased making Hongjoong want to laugh, but because he was still struggling to stop coughing he knew that was a bad idea.
Instead, with a scratchy voice he simply said, “I just don’t swing at all.”
It was then Wooyoung’s turn to choke on his own spit and cough.
Hongjoong smirked when he saw the look of shocked amusement on Seonghwa’s face. The mage gave him a thumbs up and a nod of approval.
“Anyways, while Wooyoung is kept quiet for the moment, sans coughing, I suggest we visit the resident Moon experts,” Seonghwa explained with a smile.
Even though the situation was still serious and the three of them needed to figure out a solution as soon as they could, Hongjoong was glad for the small moment of laughs, even if it was adding to the already crazy rollercoaster of emotions he felt.
He knew they could work together on this.
He knew they’d be able to find a solution and help him get home.
Did he even want to go back home?