Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

***Taehyung POV***

Taehyung was walking alongside Yoongi on the familiar path back to their apartment. He had mostly been trying to process everything in silence running through the scenarios and conversations repeatedly. Pixies. Magic. Witches. Seoul not Daegu. Pixies. Magic. Witches. Seoul not Daegu. Pixies. Magic… He really was exhausted but everything was swirling around in his head and eventually his need for answers outweighed his exhaustion.

“So let me get this straight. I somehow was led to a magical door by these magic bugs,” 

“Pixies.” Yoongi interjected.

“Right. Pixies. And I just got a job at a magic shop in Seoul walking into a door that was in a pond… in Daegu. The owner is a purple haired witch named Namjoon. Wait… why is he not a wizard? I thought only girls could be witches.” Taehyung continued like he hadn’t been interrupted.

“Witch is a gender neutral term.” Yoongi said taking the extra time to steer Taehyung back towards their apartment while he was too focused on what had just happened.

“Okay. Anyway aside from Namjoon there is Jimin and Chanyeol, the guy who doesn’t like me and keeps getting hit in the head by overhead beams in the shop, and who are the other six?”

“What do you mean? There were only us five… and the two pixies that you brought in."

“No. There were eleven of us. The five of us on the ground floor and six people upstairs.” Taehyung was positive about this. They couldn’t go around convincing him that this was real life then say he hallucinated the one thing that seemed the most real out of all of it. 

“You might have just seen some of the guests wandering around looking for… wait did you say upstairs?” Yoongi finally stopped pulling Taehyung to a halt along with him.

“Yeah, upstairs, I didn’t notice it at first, because of the balcony I guess, but there was definitely an upstairs , or are you going to say I hallucinated that too.” Taehyung’s voice was a little sharper than he’d intended, but after the past few months of living under a bridge, having the crap beat out of him every time someone up and decided that they had a problem and he was the root of it, being rejected from every job in the area to the point where he almost couldn’t even afford food he thought maybe he deserved to be a little bit of a brat.

“You didn’t hallucinate that. You shouldn’t be able to see it, but it’s real.” The sigh that left Yoongi wasn’t patronizing; he just sounded tired as he looked at the lollipop in his hands like it was broken. 

“What’s with the lollipop?” Taehyung asked, trying to relax into an easier conversation. Surely the little piece of candy would be easier to understand than the rest of it.

“It’s a memory.” 

… maybe not.

“A memory?” Taehyung repeated. The sucker was a greyish color and only just had a tinge of its former pink hue left to it. Taehyung made a face as Yoongi popped it back into his mouth then back out again to answer him.

“Yeah. It’s something Namjoon can do, but it isn’t working.” Yoongi said before putting it back in his mouth. The frown was a little less prominent with his mouth enclosing the little circular bulb and the paper stick hanging off to the side.

“How so? Besides the fact that I’m pretty sure it was pink when you had it earlier.” Taehyung said. 

“That’s normal. That’s how it takes the bad memory.  The bad memory goes back to the shop, Namjoon might show you where later since you work there now. I stayed away too long.” He popped the little candy out of his mouth once more and this time it came out vantablack and looked like something taehyung would never want near him let alone to put in his mouth. Yoongi tossed it into the nearest trash can and it disappeared leaving nothing, but a puff of smoke similar to what you’d see coming off a cigarette or a freshly lit match in its wake.

“So I guess you’re going to come back with me next time too then?” Taehyung said.

“Guess so.” Yoongi reached into his jacket pulling out a set of keys and unlocking the door to their apartment.  Taehyung darted off to his room and crash landed on his bed with a bounce. 

“Jeez kid you act like you haven’t seen a bed since you left.” Yoongi followed him at a slower pace, an amused smile on his face.

“I kind of haven’t,” he replied trying to burrow himself into the overstuffed duvet and pillows on his bed. Yoongi was quiet. Different from his usual quietness. It was expectant and waiting for taehyung to fill it. He found he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to remember all the hard times he’d fallen on. His mom was safe, His sister was safe and now by some luck- er- magic he was too. Yoongi just kept waiting. Then it was Taehyung’s turn to let out one of those tired, bone weary sighs.

“After I got my mom and my sister out of there I stayed behind. For a few weeks I was living in the old apartment and everything was going smoothly.” Taehyung inhaled and sat himself upright so that he could see Yoongi while he was explaining all of this.

  “I was able to clean up the mess from the fire and the attack and get the place back in some sense of order. My stepdad was in the hospital for a while. Burns, bruises, and they had to remove the glass from his side... I… uh… I made a mistake, but it was 'self defense so it was okay' they said,” he let out a humorless chuckle. His hands were jittery and betrayed how shaken he really was with everything that had happened.  He still wasn’t sure he quite understood any of it fully.

Taehyung continued his story recounting how he first arrived in the shop and explaining about the dogs, that in particular had Yoongi laughing for some unknown reason, meeting Namjoon, and how he wound up right back at his home the same night. Yoongi seemed particularly bothered about the news that he’d decided to stay under the bridge rather than coming directly back to Seoul and their apartment, but he let Taehyung continue on anyway.

From there he continued, going into the events that had led him to the shop again today even going as far as to mimic the whistle that the head pixie had made. Which resulted in yet another shock for the night. He had a stowaway. This one was smaller and somehow looked familiar with him. It waved and smiled and when he shook his head actually looked a little hurt letting out a small lackluster whistle in response and sinking down again.

“He’ll come around. He can already see you again so it’s a start.” Yoongi spoke up from his spot in the door.

“Huh?”

“The pixie. He’s been with you since before we moved in together. That one and the other little one. Said you were friends when you were a kid playing in your  grandmother’s garden and that the night your dad died they promised to stay with you. That’s a cruel promise to make fair folk take on, kid. You left one of them in the shop too by the way. It’s probably going to be livid when you go back if it hasn’t gotten lost trying to find you already; that shop is a big place.” 

“I don’t get it.”

“What?”

“Any of this. Why me?”

“Honestly?”

“No Yoongi I want you to lie to me again. What do you think?”

“Honestly I don’t know why. I don’t know why the pixies were around for your childhood. They usually only go to children who have magic in their blood. I don’t know why the shop likes you and I don’t know why I was drawn to staying and looking after you either. There’s just something about you.” Yoongi admitted.

“So now I have a magical magnet attached to me? And that’s why you decided to be my friend?” Taehyung asked. This was getting to be too much for him. The idea that whatever this is was the only reason Yoongi was his friend. Had taken him into his apartment. Was anything real about any of the things he believed.

“No, Tae. At least not the only reason,” Yoongi said.

“Not the only reason but still a part of it.” It was a statement and not a question. Yoongi visibly winced.

“How big of a part?” Yoongi didn’t answer him, choosing to stay quiet and study his boots instead. 

“How big of a part Yoongi?” He repeated and Yoongi opened his mouth to say something but he was stopped before he could even start.

“Never mind. Just get out. I don’t want to know tonight.”

“Tae, I-”

"Nope. Out." Taehyung pointed to the door earning a raised eyebrow and a scoff both of which he returned in full force until Yoongi left the room closing the door with a soft click.

***Yoongi POV***

He still couldn't believe Taehyung's ability for denial. The answers to his problems and the trouble he'd been going through all this time were staring him right in the face. Hell, most people would love nothing more than to hear that they were special, that magic was real, and yet here Taehyung was, shutting Yoongi and that reality out just because it didn't fit. Maybe not so much that it didn't fit, now that Yoongi thought of it, but maybe that Tae thought he didn't fit. With that thought hanging in the air Yoongi turned and headed back across the living area towards his own room. He didn't know why he was sitting here thinking about ways to nurse Taehyung's wounds when as his memories kept reminding him he had his own open and gaping right in front of him. 

"....It's your own fault you know. You could have saved her but you didn't," his thoughts echoed around in his head along with fractured images of a memory  of a woman only barely hidden away from him that kept trying to break through. He was definitely going back to the shop tomorrow. He wasn't exactly sure why, but he knew he didn't have a choice. 

***Namjoon POV***

The jar on Yoongi’s shelf took a little longer than usual to fill and when it did there was only a half formed mass of ichor floating around in it. That in and of itself was odd, but then again Namjoon still wasn’t sure how this particular part of his magic worked. For all he knew this had happened because Yoongi was finally learning to cope with his memory. Something that, according to the elder, was in no small way connected to Namjoon’s newest employee. He still wasn’t entirely sure why he’d agreed to hire on the mundane, but something in the shop had persuaded him. He learned early on that when the shop wanted something it was best just to go along with it. They knew better than he did... usually. This time though he couldn’t help but wonder if the shop was just acting to spite Chanyeol or not. He examined the other jars in the storage room all of them containing varying levels and forms of colored smoke and nodded. None of the others looked like that and only one was showing signs of him being paid another visit. 

Jung Hoseok- carnival. 

It had been about three months since Namjoon had seen Hoseok. The animist rarely came into the shop. He rarely had a need to. Most of his ingredients for his spellwork were nature based and he usually went hunting and scavenging on his own for them. A firm belief that in order to be one with the nature around them he had to find everything he needed in a natural way underneath the light of the sun or out in the drizzling onslaught of rain. Hoseok was a happy go lucky type and it had mystified Namjoon the first time that the vibrant witch came looking for him for something that wasn’t one of the hand bound leather grimoires. 

“Hiya Joon, you got a minute?” Hoseok came up to him with a slight bounce in his step like he  was only seconds away from dancing... or running.

“Yeah, what’s up ?”

“Someone told me you could remove bad memories… I… Uh… Here!” Hoseok pulled a candy bar out of his pocket and shoved it at Namjoon who fumbled trying to keep it from falling. Memories were precious, especially the ones that turned into physical objects like this, only the most powerful and shaping memories could do that. 

Hoseok for his part looked guilty and like he couldn’t really understand what had just happened. He was looking at the candybar like it was a snake and for all Namjoon knew that could have been what it looked like to the orange haired witch in front of him. The objects memories made were never a certain thing and could probably look like any number of things at any given time. 

“Come with me.” Namjoon said turning towards a door that was tucked off to the side that looked like it was situated next to an old ticket booth for a movie theater carved into the wall of the shop.

“Wait here. When I find what you need you’ll know what you need to do.” Namjoon began to look  around at the jars and objects until he found a perfect little vanilla cake sitting on the shelf with eight little pre lit candles sticking out of the top. Placing the candy bar in the jar  behind it and grabbing the cake he went back to the window.  

"Is this what you were looking for?" Namjoon asked. He knew the answer, but this was still part of the ritual. When Hoseok's hands touched the plate for a small moment gone was the animist witch he'd grown to know and in his place was a small dark haired boy with a wide grin on his face. 

"My mom made me this cake. She's the best!" The boy who must have been an eight year old Hoseok smiled wearing a snaggle toothed heart on his face as he took the plate and then everything was as it had been. Hoseok was walking away after having blown out the candles and happily swiped a line of icing off the corner the once white plate turning blacker in his clutch by the time he reached the waste bin by the stairs the entire plate was black and being tossed away looking strangely like a pill bottle as it fell from his hand before disappearing in an instant. The jar now had a label with Hoseok's name and the word carnival scrawled on it. A deep purplish black liquid had replaced the candy bar filling the jar to the brim and Namjoon looked piteously after the receding form of the normally jovial witch. 

***Taehyung And Yoongi POV***

Monday morning rolled around Taehyung was up again at five and over enthusiastically fixing a full meal of what would probably look to Yoongi  like a little of everything in their fridge when he finally woke him up to eat. To be honest it kind of was, but Taehyung had been living off prepackaged food this entire time so they’d gone to the grocery store to restock the fridge yesterday after Yoongi got paid; the idea of making eggs and pancakes and whatever else he fancied for breakfast was too good to pass up. If Namjoon held to his word, by the end of the week, he'd be contributing to the apartment again too; who cared if he indulged himself a little?

It was almost seven when he'd finished cooking and knocked on Yoongi's door to wake the other up. There was a groan from the other side of the door and Taehyung let out a chuckle. Some things never changed. Even so, today everything was different. 

Before returning to Daegu, Taehyung was just like Yoongi. All his classes were after noon and you had a hard sell of getting him to get up before ten, even with the bribery of food. When you did, he was sluggish to respond, his hair mussed up into a poor imitation of a birds nest with one side, whether it was the left right or straight on from the back tamped down flat to give the rest of the locks their oddly voluminous appearance because of the length of his hair being just at the base of his neck when it was dry. 

Now, however, he was usually up at sunrise or a bit before depending on what he was doing during the day and since Namjoon had said eight Taehyung had set his alarm for five just to have time to be leisurely with getting ready and eating breakfast. It was easy to take his old habits for granted before but now he realized that, even if this part of his life wasn’t the most glamorous, it was definitely full of small luxuries. Taehyung thought back to a few nights before and the argument with Yoongi feeling guilt spool a little in his stomach. They still hadn’t really talked about it, but maybe the breakfast would make up for it.

Yoongi finally clambered out of his room almost hitting Taehyung in the face with the door and giving him a look that implied that he almost wished it had. His mood only managed to become a little less sour when he saw the food spread out on the table. The two of them sat down and began to dig in, both making the appropriate greetings and a few appreciative hums when they’d bite into something that sparked more interest than something else. Otherwise, it was mostly a quiet affair.

After eating Yoongi was in a little better of a mood and went about packing away their leftovers deciding which ones would be good for lunch later and separating those from the ones he put in the fridge so that Taehyung could pack them up and carry them with him. He wouldn’t let it be said that he didn’t take care of the kid. Especially not by Chanyeol. Yoongi had years on the technopagan, though you’d never get him to admit how many, having spent most that time frozen at the age of either twenty-four or Twenty-six like all witches did until they found the people they were meant to belong with. At one point he’d been almost sure that it would be Jimin, but here they were... 

“It’s seven thirty.” Taehyung reminded and Yoongi winced. He was going to kill Namjoon for not giving Taehyung the night shift before this was over. There were roosters still asleep at this hour. A small sound like a kitten yawning hit his ears and he watched as the little pixie that had been in Taehyung's pocket that night came floating up out of the younger’s room and landed on the top of his head nestling in a little bit. Taehyung must have gotten used to it being around or had simply just forgotten again because the weight was still familiar to him even if the sight wasn’t.

The two boys took the path up through the hanok village once again where the shop was unsurprisingly waiting for them. Roses spiraled up the side of the wall and window boxes bloomed with flowers even where the neighboring buildings only had wilted husks due to the Seoul heat.

“Hey, what do you think Namjoon’s going to have me doing to...day?” Taehyung asked, his voice faltering as he and Yoongi walked through the door to a pandemonium that had been expertly hidden from the outside. 

***Namjoon POV***

“Get it!” One of them shouts as they see the little winged creature zooming across the shop. It’s been flying around taunting them for three days coming in some time while they were in Scotland and every time they thought they had almost shooed it out of the shop it turned around and flew right back in. At the moment, they were all coming at it from different directions; one with a mop, another wielding a broom and the last a vastly oversized butterfly net that was only god knew how old and made of yellowed bamboo. For all their magic, the extra pixie flying around, and the antigravity spelled sections of the shop they still couldn’t catch one small fairy. It and the shop had begun to mock them and frankly Namjoon was tired of their shit.

“Ugh just face it; we are never going to catch that thing.” Chanyeol complained after winding up at the bottom of a dog pile when they all crashed into each other yet again and watching the pixie that had said it belonged to Taehyung trying to chase the menace down from the rafters.

“If I catch it I’m eating it.” Jimin grumbled. Chanyeol and Namjoon both started laughing hysterically with Namjoon disentangling himself from the middle of the pile and Chanyeol haphazardly rolling out from under Jimin and onto his back tossing the mop aside in a show of defeat.

 This was absurd. Everything about the three witches being hoodwinked by a creature that was no bigger than the palm of their hands was absurd and Jimin’s words were the last crack on their sanity. The laughter was infectious and that’s how Taehyung came in and found them. The three shopkeepers on the floor with wooden handles and fabric ends scattered between them. All three of them cackling and having it echoed by the tinkling of the bell over the shop’s door and the high pitched giggles of something well out of sight. He’d learned not to question the oddities when they happened. It just made his head hurt to hear the explanations. 

“Do I want to know?” He asked when he got over to them, helping each up one by one and finding it hard to stamp down a few chuckles of his own at their laughter as Jimin was wiping tears from his eyes and Joon was brushing off his pants. Chanyeol was collecting the strange assortment of cleaning tools and shaking his head trying to sober himself up and Yoongi had decided at some point to help.

“We were trying to catch the damn fairy that’s been in here stealing things and tearing up the books,” Namjoon told him. Taehyung raised an eyebrow then looked around. That explained the laughter… or it would if this still didn’t sound eight shades of nuts to him. He’d only known about the shop for a week coming in and out to try and get a better feel for the place in that time and sometimes the strange stuff that was said and done still didn’t make sense to him so he just explained it away with some fragile excuse about magic that he still wasn't sure he believed and let it go. He had to admit he still hadn’t figured out the ceiling thing and the pixie he’d met a week ago had been playing a game of out-of-sight until Taehyung doesn’t look to the point that, if it weren’t for Yoongi, he’d have probably forgotten it again.

 However he didn’t dwell on any of it too long. He needed the roofs over his head more than he needed to question the logic of the places and people he was throwing his lot in with. He rolled his eyes, his brain still stuck on how nuts this all still sounded, when  he remembered something his grandmother had said when he was a kid. Something he’d just brushed off after the car accident because she was an old lady and they said crazy things all the time.

“Honey.” He muttered then ducked over to the counter where someone’s tea cup and a bear shaped container sat and came back with the saucer and a generous amount of honey on the plate. He had to stop the pixie he’d carried with him from grabbing some of it on the way back but eventually managed to sit it on the nearest display case. 

“Hey that’s mine! Wait what are you-” Chanyeol started to protest.

“Don’t feed it.” Jimin whined.

“If you feed that thing it is your responsibility,” Namjoon warns.

“Wouldn’t be like it's the first member of the fae he’s taken responsibility for or did you forget about the pixies?” Yoongi finally added in his own rhetoric to the situation his eyes following Taehyung to see what he’d do.
“Will you guys shush. I want to see if it works. My  grandma said the vegetable garden was full of them when I was little and that they ate up the vegetables if you didn’t make other arrangements. I thought she was just getting old and confusing them for Baepsae. I had to constantly shoo those silly birds out of the area because they tried to eat the crops. She also said to use honey to catch it. Her favorite saying in life…  You’ll catch more Fairies with honey than vinegar Taehyung so always be kind.” He mimics her voice, but trails off when he realizes he’s gone from just regular talking to musing out loud. Sure enough a tiny bullet of color came zooming towards where he’d laid the little sauce cup and Taehyung’s eyes widened. Holy crap. There really was a fairy. He had seen the pixies, part of him always knew they were there, and the shop was real enough sure, but this was an actual honest to bits fairy. 

“Holy shit,” He whispered his eyes fixed on the little creature.

Varicolored wings fluttered similar to a butterfly’s behind its back while it was scoping out the bowl to decide if it was safe to eat. Satisfied the dish wouldn’t kill it, the creature scooped up a little with its hand and crammed it rather greedily into its mouth. Taehyung scooted closer and sat his chin down on the shelf earning a high pitched screech that sounded like a cicada and hurt his ears as the little creature noticed him scoot closer and ducked behind the plate of honey as a result. The pixie that had stayed with him came out of  Taehyung’s pocket being joined by a second one only moments later and they both stood defensively in front of the human boy looking between him and the other creature. Taehyung rather than jumping and backing off like what the others expected reached up a finger and tapped it gently, but firmly on top of the head earning two little panicked bird chirps from the pixies, their wings bristling as they waited to see if the fairy would retaliate. 

“Now you stop that. I am not going to hurt you. I brought you the honey so behave.” Taehyung scolded, earning scoffs from Yoongi and Chanyeol. The fairy stuck its tongue out and went back to eating the honey and eyeing Taehyung warily. 

“I just want to make a deal with you. I want to give you a flower box outside. You can’t be happy here with all the dust and closed windows and giant things.” He said, the fairy kind of frowned at this looking at him like he was the weird one which was ridiculous considering he was the human here. It looked like it was considering his words for a minute then pointed at the honey bowl as if trying to negotiate.

“Honey? You want honey too? I can possibly do that, but you have to return the things you took.” Taehyung rebutted and earned a small cicada noise that was more an indignant grumble than outright angered screeching it had been before. It was the sound of success in Taehyung’s mind.
“It’s settled then. No more stealing or tormenting this shop. Return every object that you took from this shop and you get a flower box in the window outside to come and go from as you please and a thimble full of honey brought by me only if I can manage it. Deal?” He said holding out the same finger he’d hit it on the head with before and cringing a little at the sticky feeling that came with the two tiny honey covered hands wrapping around it to shake and their deal was finished.

“I don’t believe it.” Chanyeol muttered. The two pixies gave amazed whistles and climbed back onto Taehyung resting wherever was comfortable for them. One had taken residence in the hood of his jacket while the smaller of the two nestled back into the denim pocket on his chest watching for any other excitement. 

“That was all it took?” Jimin demanded and the fairy turned to him sticking its tongue out yet again and Taehyung realized that it was actually forked like a lizard’s and encased in a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Thank god this had gone in his favor, but then he thought back to a multitude of strange little scars he’d gotten when he was a kid out in the vegetable fields. 

“Couldn’t be.” He refuted and shrugged off the memory. The little creature in the meantime released Taehyung’s finger and went back to its snack with a cheshire grin and slurping up the honey with a newfound enthusiasm until it fell over, stomach full and sleeping.

“You really are full of surprises.” Namjoon commented when they were done relocating the honey drunk fairy and had taken the dish back to the kitchen. 

***Hoseok POV***

Hoseok had been down lately. He knew it was time for another visit to Namjoon to make another trade, and he hated it. Ever since he’d made that first trade it was like he’d mentally driven a wedge between himself and  the other because he was worried that the elder wouldn’t feel the same about their friendship. He remembered the first time he’d traded his memory with an astounding level of mortification about the whole ordeal. He’d really just gone in and thrown the memory at the other witch foolishly trying to run out more than once after it had  been handed over.

 The next couple of times he’d at least found a place in the cafe room to devour the cake and forget in peace hoping that Namjoon wouldn’t think less of him for not being his normal cheery self and waiting for his memory trade to work so that he could get back to business as usual. Plants were fickle things and just like animals, humans and the rest of the universe they could tell when someone was unhappy and in some cases fed off that unhappiness proselytizing and becoming ill with it themselves to the point they would wilt or in their worst cases die. Hoseok, being an animist, had an empathy for all living things and could feel the pain coming off the plants as real and palpable as seeing a child cry. He hated making anything sad. Even when he had to harvest his spell ingredients he would talk to the plants and animals he got their pieces from and make sure that he was only doing so in a way that was mutually beneficial to all of them. 

“Hey, Hobi, you mind making me another set of those tea jars? Jin  is still having trouble cleansing himself.” Jeongguk came into his home sitting a backpack down on his table and passing over a few ingredients along with a few won to cover the payment and an empty jar for the tea to be placed in. At least the ingredients were fresh this time. Hoseok had a feeling that’s why it didn’t work before, but he didn’t comment. 

“That’s what he gets for dabbling in dark magic for so long. He’s lucky he didn’t make a deal with that thing . It could have turned him into a lesser demon.” Hoseok wasn’t usually one to judge magical paths, but the path Seokjin had taken back in the nineties put a lot of people at risk and Hoseok had already seen once what could happen if a witch lost themselves to the demons they invoked with black magic. It wasn’t pretty and thinking of Seokjin like that was something he never wanted to see come to reality. 

“Like I’d let that happen. Come on, give me a little credit,” Jeongguk protested.

“If you hadn’t come along when you did, where would we be? Just because you had a lucky one off with your sigil for attraction you can’t get a big head. That’s what Jin did and look where that’s gotten him. He only just now woke from the coma and is still cleaning smut off his soul.” Jeongguk had the good sense to look ashamed after Hoseok finished what he was saying, but it didn’t ease the elder’s discomfort with the truth of it all.

He’d met Jeongguk in 2005 when the younger had interfered with Seokjin’s ritual. It had ended in Jin being knocked into a coma and an upper level demon losing its tether to the mortal realm. Jeongguk had come to Hoseok to see if he could help wake the elder with an herbal remedy of the most directly opposing form of light magical practice he could think of. Animism. 

Animism was a practice steeped in life and the balance and harmony of all living things. Compared to Jeongguk’s own chaos magic and its penchant for being unpredictable and steeped in the truly grey areas of magic it wasn’t the stronger of the two, not by a long shot, but it was the most effective for that situation. It had also resulted in the lesser demon Kai harassing him and warning the light witch of what happens when he interferes with the affairs of the darklings. According to Jimin that encounter had also afforded him a smudge on his aura. Which is probably why he’d had to ask Namjoon for the memory charm to begin with. He wouldn’t have even known such a trade was possible if it weren’t for Seokjin. Maybe that was one thing in his favor, but as he thought about how he could remember nothing of his mom past his eighth birthday  and the next morning when she told him they were going to the carnival he really wasn’t so sure. 

“You did a good job foraging today. These are some of the freshest ingredients I’ve been brought in a while. They might actually work better this time and you may not have to worry much longer.” Hoseok praised. Jeongguk’s answering smile shined and Hoseok handed him the jars. 

“Remember, both of you three times a day for the next three days.”
“I got it. Bye!” Jeongguk ran out of the door and didn’t even spare a backwards glance.

Hoseok smiled. He really did love Jeongguk’s visits. Speaking of visits it was past time for him to make one of his own. Hoseok closed and locked the place on his way out, being mindful to stick to the brick path he’d made so that he wasn’t stepping on any of the plants. He climbed onto his bicycle and muttered a simple perpetual motion enchantment and Namjoon’s name and the wheels started to turn, the handlebars pointing in the direction he needed to go and he sat back enjoying the slight breeze and the warmth of the sun. 

He arrived at the door pausing to stop and talk to the flower-box's newest inhabitant. 

“I can’t believe they let you stay.” He spoke his voice changing to match the language of the fairies. He earned a few chitters in return and the tiny creature pointed to a thimble of honey and described a witch that sounded like none of the three workers he’d met.

“Wow, I guess you are really lucky this time friend. Try not to get into any more trouble okay?” The little fairy waived him off and he went inside.

“Hello! Is anyone here?!” 

“Up here Hoseok,” Namjoon called from what sounded like the third floor. He was probably on the upside down floor. Sure enough as Hoseok was walking up the stairs Namjoon was walking down changing orientation at the side by side archways built into the wall. Upon first glance it just looked like a strange ornamentation as one was upright and the other was reversed and they appeared to simply be an extra carving on the wall and not actual doorways, but as Namjoon neared the first it rippled and was mirrored by the second as he stepped back out. 

“Time for your trade again?” Namjoon asked and nodded at the Snickers bar that was now in Hoseok’s hands. You wait right here and eat your candy bar and I’ll come right back.  

“I didn’t even realize it was there… Do you think she ever felt bad about that day?” Hoseok’s voice filled with raw sadness and Namjoon’s heart broke for his friend.

“You know I can’t answer questions like that. The memories are different from the everyday objects I touch. I can’t see your mother with this… I’m sorry,” Namjoon said. Hoseok didn’t know why he’d thought maybe this time the answer would change. In his defense though magic was a living thing that grew and changed in some creatures. Witches were one of those since they weren’t in a stasis like vampires and fae, but they weren’t as volatile in their changes so as to be unpredictable like shapeshifters and spirit based creatures either. Their magic for the most part changed in predictable ways. It lived and breathed with them.

“I know. I was mostly thinking out loud is all.” 

“Come on. Best get this fixed up for you.” Namjoon replied. The two of them headed back down the stairs next flight and nearly slammed right into someone that Hoseok didn’t recognize. Namjoon let out a squawk of surprise and fumbled with the candybar sighing in relief when he managed to catch it in one piece cradling it close to his chest like it was a precious jewel. The other boy wasn’t so lucky as the candles he’d been carrying tumbled out of his too full arms and rolled out of reach a few of them spitting off sparks of energy as they went. Those must have been made with live ingredients. Flowers or herbs. The essence of those things was always preserved the best in wax. 

“Sorry, sorry. Namjoon don’t step there!” The newcomer warned right as Namjoon was about to set his foot on a candle and Namjoon quickly lifted his foot as the candle was snatched out from under it. 

“Got it. I still haven’t figured out how you make that staircase work.” He mumbled referring to the upside down flight that he had most likely been trying to get into on the very same landing.

“You still don’t believe you can get up there.” Namjoon chuckled.

“It’s not funny! It’s a wall; walls don’t open Namjoon.” 

“No, your walls don’t open Tae, mine do all the time and you’re just mad because they aren’t opening for you. You just take too many things for granted,” Namjoon teased. It was the first time in a long time Hoseok had seen Namjoon like this. He almost seemed as young as he looked. The exchange was something foreign to him but not as foreign as the next thing that happened. 

“Why don’t you six stop laughing at me and come down here to help with these then?” The boy demanded looking up at the empty ceiling. Hoseok looked at Namjoon who just shrugged and gestured at the wall which was now displaying an open staircase waiting on the other boy to enter.

“I guess that will work… so lazy I swear.” The boy grumbled heading for the open frame, climbing up the stairs and fumbling a little with the candles again when he started to walk upside down.

“That’s Taehyung. Hired him about a month ago. He’s a funny little mundane isn’t he?” Namjoon asked. His face and voice betrayed how extremely fond he already seemed of the boy with the short time he’d been… Namjoon’s words caught up to him.

“Mundane?”

“He’s not actually mundane. To be honest none of us know what he really is besides an enigma.” Namjoon said glancing around like he thought maybe Taehyung or someone else was listening. He still sounded incredibly enamored in Hoseok’s opinion.

“I take it he doesn’t know either then?”

“No, and any time one of us brings it up he shuts us down. It’s like his brain can adjust and accept the realities around him as it happens but any time that something directly magic happens in regards to him he refutes it faster than anything. Like the ability to open the doors or walk upside down. If he doesn’t think about it he just walks right in and does what he needs but if you try to tell him he can do those things then he refutes it.” Namjoon looked like he was mulling over a particularly interesting puzzle while he talked about it. It occurred to Hoseok that they may be looking over the obvious.

“He probably has a block. Someone in his family, maybe?” He suggested.

At the mention of the word family a memory broke through of him waiting by a carousel. The sun had set and the park was closing. A security guard came up to him and tried to get him to come with him. Hoseok of course refused. This man was a stranger and his mom had promised to be right back. If he just waited she’d come. She’d be there. She promised. He was still holding onto the candy bar having wanted to share it with her. Snickers were her favorite. So he wanted to share. When the sun finally set and it became obvious she wasn’t coming he finally agreed to go with the officer stopping only to throw the little candy bar in the garbage on the way to the gate. She never came looking...  

***Namjoon POV***

Namjoon saw the moment that the memory broke through. The pure agony on Hoseok’s face was unlike any expression he’d ever seen before and hoped he would never see again on his usually jovial friend. Namjoon let out a curse as Hoseok started to cry and the memory in his hands started to crumble like ash. If he didn’t get the exchange made then he didn’t know what kind of damage it would do to Hoseok’s mental state. Taehyung came down the stairs right at that moment and upon hearing the sounds of sobs immediately ran over to the two of them. 

“What happened?” He asked panic clear on his face.

“Just look after him. I- I messed up.” Namjoon couldn’t keep the distress out of his own voice as the emotion from the memory cascaded over him as well. Lost. Alone. Betrayed. Abandoned. Unloved. They hit him in repeated waves and the turbulence of it rocked him to his core. He’d only had a memory deteriorate on him once and he remembered what happened that time with painful clarity. Seokjin had needed him and he’d failed. He wouldn’t fail Hoseok. He couldn’t. He ran down the aisles and rounded the corner to the booth not even bothering to question when he ran straight through a wall that was never meant to be a door or the shelves on the other side of it. He searched and searched, finally finding the cake sitting grey and waiting in its usual spot. The grey concerned him but at least it wasn’t turning to ash in his hands as he grabbed it and replaced it with the half gone Snickers. He came running out and practically shoved the cake at hoseok who looked at it with a specific amount of disgust.

“You have to eat it.” Hoseok shook his head, swiping at his eyes and hiccuping a little.

“Hoseok please,” Namjoon begged. 

“T‘s a lie.” Hoseok whimpered.

“I know, but you have to eat it. You know how this works. A lie until you can face the truth.” Namjoon finally got him to take the cake and the fork and Taehyung nodded his own encouragements keeping an arm firmly wrapped around Hoseok. Namjoon was once again struck by the strangeness of his newest employee. Taehyung didn’t even blink when all of a sudden a child was sitting in his lap still crying even while he ate the grey cake he just kept on holding him and murmuring soft words of nonsensical comfort even when Hoseok was back to normal and looking at the two of them confused as to why they were all sitting on the ground. 

“We almost didn’t make the trade in time.” Namjoon explained. 

“How is that possible? I usually come in plenty of time.” Hoseok asked. He still hadn’t moved from Taehyung’s arms. Namjoon wondered if it was that he still needed solace or if Taehyung’s embrace was really that comfortable. It looked comfortable. Namjoon could still feel the echo of the sadness that he felt coming from Hoseok’s memory and he instantly shrugged off the want to have Taehyung’s arms around him. If Taehyung hugged him while he was like this he wouldn’t be able to control what he read off the other. Thoughts, emotions, memories, none of it would be private or hidden from Namjoon. He didn’t want that. He hated spying on people and even more so without their knowledge or permission.

“I don’t know.” Namjoon finally replied after a too long silence when he couldn’t come up with an answer.

“But this isn’t the first time that something has gone wrong,” Taehyung was the next one to speak. 

“What do you mean?” Namjoon asked.

“Don’t you remember? The day I started work Yoongi had to come back. He said that the sucker didn’t work that time.”
“Yeah, but he stayed away longer. That doesn’t have anything to do with this.” Namjoon said matter of factly. He was positive the two incidents were different. They had to be. If they weren’t then something was wrong. Whether with him or the shop he didn’t know and he didn’t like the possibility of something being wrong with him or the shop again. His mind wandered back to Seokjin and the black magic he’d been involved in and he shuddered a little. There were creaks and groans in the shop that seemed to be an imitation of the sentiment. 

Hoseok finally stood from where he was sitting in Taehyung’s lap and helped the younger up. As they were standing Jimin appeared. 

“Is everything okay? Oh Hobi I see you met Tae- Were you crying? Hobiii…” Jimin whined and tried to hug the elder and went straight through him. Taehyung could barely stifle his laughter and Hoseok didn’t even bother to hide his. 

“He’s fine. I messed up, but we fixed it.” Namjoon said. Guilt was still nagging at him. Hoseok shouldn’t have had to suffer like that. He needed to be more careful. Jimin nodded like he understood. To be honest he probably did. He was there that day. 

“Why don’t we all go downstairs to the cafe room and I’ll fix everyone a cup of tea?” Jimin suggested before flickering out of existence. He was probably already in the kitchen and had just felt the distress of either the shop, Namjoon, or Hoseok. Probably all three of them. Taehyung seemed to be looking over Namjoon’s shoulder at someone or something, but Namjoon just shrugged it off. He did that sort of thing often even occasionally talking to someone like he had earlier. It was just something he did and who was Namjoon to say that someone wasn’t there? He’d caught glimpses of others before and definitely heard the shop’s voice on more than one occasion so it could just be that Taehyung had an ability that he and Jimin didn’t. Each being’s magic was personal to them, but Taehyung’s was shaping up to be unlike anyone else Namjoon had ever seen. He would definitely have to look into glamour magic and what sort of ability could counteract it so easily that the user didn’t even have to cast a counterspell that was for sure. 

***Taehyung POV***

“Where’s the cafe room?” Taehyung asked. Hoseok had already gone towards the stairs and was out of his sight, but he had lingered behind to wait for Namjoon. He’d never been through any of the doors in this place except the front door and the strange ones that led to the varying staircases. 

“It’s on the other side of the kitchen,” Namjoon told him like it should have been obvious.

“There’s a kitchen?”

“Of course, where do you think Jimin and Chanyeol make potions and spells for the shop?” 

“I didn’t know they did. Thought maybe you guys had a supplier.”

“Tae we are the suppliers.” 

“You know what I mean. This place is huge and I haven’t even seen half of it. You all just usually tell me to man the counters. Jimin just now started to have me carrying things to the upper floors.” Taehyung said.

“That’s probably because of Chanyeol to be honest. I’ll talk to them.” Namjoon promised.

“I still don’t get what Chanyeol’s problem is.”

“It’s complicated, but you’ll have to ask him or Jimin about it one day. It’s not something I should talk about.” Namjoon replied. Taehyung nodded. 

“Something about me being mundane again, right?” Namjoon nodded his answer to that question and Taehyung hummed an acknowledgement. It always seemed to come down to that. It had only been a few weeks though. Maybe things would change the longer he was here. That was a funny thought, wasn’t it? He’d only been immersed in this world for a short amount of time, but he was already so very willing to trade the way things had been for the way things were in the magic shop. This strange and beautiful place was something he doubted he could ever truly understand, but even if he couldn’t he didn’t want to give it up. This place had no equal anywhere else in the world. This place wasn’t just warm it was warmth and comfort and it felt like this place needed him. Not only that, but it felt like this place wanted him. 

“It’s a lie.”  Hoseok’s comment about the little grey cake came back to his mind unbidden pulling up bitter memories. Was this entire place a lie? Did that make Namjoon and the others an illusion of warm and good things as well? He still knew so little about this place and about Namjoon. Why had he been so insistent with Hoseok earlier? Why did he look so haunted? Would it be something again like the situation with Chanyeol if he asked? Even more pressing was the query of whether or not Taehyung even wanted the answers to the questions he had about this place and about his role here? Would he ever want to know more or would he just keep taking things for granted because they kept a roof over his head? One thing was for sure he wouldn’t find out his answers today.