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Sudden rustling and banging from the kitchen make Minho look up from his laptop. He’s calm about it; mostly curious to see what happened instead of alarmed or startled. He would have been alarmed a few weeks ago, but that was when he’d just let the two hybrids stay at his home and wasn’t used to their presence yet. Or, dualshifters, as they call themselves. They’d been mostly staying outside, like they all agreed, only coming in for a shower or a warm place to take little catnaps, but since it started raining almost nonstop a few days ago he’s seen more of them in here. He doesn’t mind; he picked them up off of the streets so they wouldn’t have to stay out in the cold anyway. Of course, that was when he thought that they were both just regular cats, but that’s an issue that’s already been dealt with.
When he leans over the back to the couch to see what the commotion was all about, he finds the black cat in human form, wearing a fluffy sweater and loose pair of pajama bottoms from the clothes that he bought for the pair of them to wear around the house. He’s clutching one one of Minho’s mugs and a couple of plastic cups to his chest with a bewildered expression, black tail poofy and straight behind him. Minho chuckles fondly. The poor dude must have dropped them trying to get himself something to drink. The mug doesn’t seem to be broken, so he smiles a comforting little smile when Jonghyun turns and blinks at him uncertainly with his big eyes.
“Careful,” he hums, giving him a little nod, and Jonghyun’s face brightens immediately with relief at the news that he’s not in trouble. They won’t tell Minho where they were running away from when he found the two of them as two cold little bundles of black and red fur in an alleyway, but from Taemin’s hostility towards full humans and Jonghyun’s twitchy insecurity, he knows that it can’t have been anywhere good. It’s why he didn’t even think twice about not giving them to the pet shelter once he found out that they were actually dualshifters and not just regular cats. They probably would have been sold right back to the same place. He watches fondly as Jonghyun fumbles to put his plastic cups back into the cabinet before he turns back to his laptop.
Soon after, there’s a soft tap on his shoulder. He turns again with a questioning hum to see Jonghyun again. This time, the dualshifter holds up his container of hot white chocolate mix with a questioning tilt of his head. Minho nods his permission and Jonghyun smiles again, shuffling back to the kitchen to heat up some milk. Minho watches him fondly. He’d told them that they could help themselves to whatever they wanted in his kitchen, as long as it wasn’t obviously expensive or important and they didn’t make a habit of it, but he appreciates that Jonghyun always checks to make sure. Taemin doesn’t, but he cleans up after himself and Jonghyun when the black dualshifter doesn’t, so it evens out, he guesses.
Jonghyun returns a minute later to sit on the other side of the couch and take the tv remote from Minho’s leg. Minho doesn’t mind that he’s invited himself over to change the channel; he was just using it as soft background noise while he worked. It’s all the same. Something else does distract him, though; as Jonghyun curls up in the cushions, sleek black tail curled around around his mug under his hands, Minho notices a distinct lack of… words spilling out of his mouth. Normally he never shuts up, always chatty, always curious, always happy to talk, but now he’s just silent. Minho frowns, a little worried.
“You okay?” he asks gently. Jonghyun looks up with his tiny little smile. He nods, then takes a sip of his hot white chocolate. Minho can’t say that he’s entirely convinced. “Cat got your tongue?” he asks. He grins when Jonghyun’s smile grows a little at his joke, but before he answers, a different voice speaks.
“Yeah, he’s never heard that one before.” Minho raises his brows at the grumpy snap of Taemin’s voice and leans to peer behind Jonghyun, where Taemin’s head is poking out of a cocoon of blankets over the heating vent, dark eyes cold under his red bangs. He’d been curled up there pretty much all day as a cat, soaking up the warmth and pretending like he wasn’t purring louder than the heater itself. Now, he frowns his regular glare at Minho like he’s personally offended by his bad cat joke. Which he actually might be--Minho’s never actually looked up the origin of that phrase. It could be grossly offensive and oppressive to the dualshifter community, or it could just be Taemin’s regular protectiveness over Jonghyun that’s making his ear’s lie all flat on his head. He doesn’t know. He’ll google it later.
“I was just wondering why he was so quiet, is all,” Minho explains. “Sorry if that was rude to say.” He shrugs, and Taemin frowns, puffing up his lips and squinting at Minho like he’s trying to figure out if that’s really all that he was going for there. After a moment, he glances quickly at Jonghyun and then back to Minho.
“He doesn’t talk sometimes,” he mumbles. “He doesn’t feel like it or he can’t find the words or his voice. They said it was selective mutism.” He reaches up to grab for Jonghyun’s mug; Jonghyun hands it to him and he takes a sip, then gives it back. Minho hums. Selective mutism. Huh.
“Neat,” he says, shrugging. As long as he’s not dying from some weird dualshifter illness that steals his voice from him. “If you’re gonna stay human like that, put some clothes on,” he adds, flapping a hand in Taemin’s general direction. “You know I don’t like your human dick germs getting on my stuff.”
“My cat dick’s been on your shit all day long,” Taemin grumbles. “I don’t see what the difference is.” He maneuvers the blankets around his crotch anyway; Minho’s noticed that he just likes to complain about a lot of things that inconvenience him. The difference between his human dick and his cat dick is that human dicks are just fucking weird to see flopping around in a nonsexual way, but he doesn’t feel like arguing his point to Taemin again. Mostly because he’s actually the one that’s wrong in his thinking and he’s just too stubborn to admit it.
Taemin gets up with the blanket wrapped around his skinny shoulders and starts to shuffle off towards the bedroom; Jonghyun reaches for his arm and stops him before he gets passed the couch. Minho smiles as he watches Taemin’s expression immediately soften when he turns to focus fully on Jonghyun. Jonghyun gives him a little smile, then wiggles over to Minho’s side of the couch and leans gently and unobtrusively against his shoulder. Then he pats his lap invitingly. Taemin glances between him and Minho a few times, for enough time that Jonghyun gets impatient and pats his lap again, more insistently this time. Then, he gives in and shifts into a red cat in one smooth motion that still makes Minho a little uncomfortable to watch. It’s the whole face shifting part. Gives him the heebie-jeebies. Something in the smug cat smirk Taemin gives him when he hops up into Jonghyun’s lap tells him that the dualwalker enjoys doing it in front of him.
Jonghyun pulls Taemin’s blanket up over his legs, wiggles to get more comfortable against Minho’s arm, and pets gently over Taemin’s back with his free hand. The most relaxed, contented smile graces his lips as Taemin starts to purr under his fingers and Minho smiles fondly himself. For all of his doubts about picking up two dirty stray cats a few weeks ago, he’s glad that he actually did it.