Work Text:
“bam? what’s wrong?”
bambam shakes his head, closing the door behind him as he enters the house. he avoids eye contact with jinyoung, the witch squinting his eyes suspiciously as bambam brings up his hood. “you’re acting strange.”
“i’m not being strange,” bambam mumbles, clenching his hood tightly. “‘s nothing. leave me alone.”
mark comes up behind bambam, yugyeom and jackson trailing behind in confusion. mark makes a motion to show jinyoung that he’ll tug down bambam’s hood. jinyoung nods, and mark takes a deep breath before quickly tugging down bambam’s hood.
bambam yelps, scrambling to pull it back up, but jinyoung says sternly, “bammie, look at me.”
bambam whimpers and looks up at jinyoung, who hisses angrily at bambam’s bruised cheek and bloody nose and split lip. “what happened?”
“th-the villagers,” bambam whispers, tears forming in his eyes as he lets yugyeom inspect him carefully. “some -- some of them jumped me.”
jaebum and youngjae come downstairs at the commotion, and youngjae yelps at the sight of bambam, immediately rushing over and checking his injuries. knowing that he’s worrying everyone, especially his two boyfriends, bambam lets his tears fall, the fairy sobbing into yugyeom’s shirt as he hiccups, “th-they tried to r-rip my wings, too, a-and i got scared and turned tiny and f-flew back here…”
yugyeom growls a bit at this, eyes flashing red dangerously. jackson swiftly turns around, walking towards the door, and bambam calls out timidly, “j-jackson? where are you going…?”
“out.”
bambam’s eyes widen, realizing what he’s going to do, and he escapes from yugyeom’s grasp, saying, “d-don’t go! don’t do anything, jackson, p-please…”
however, in his exhaustion, there’s a little poof of fairy dust, and yugyeom reaches out to catch bambam, since he had turned tiny and passed out.
jackson’s eyes glow gold, and he gives mark a quick peck, hissing, “i’ll be back” before leaving the house.
jaebum moves to go after jackson, but jinyoung grabbed his wrist, shaking his head. “you can’t go out in sunlight, bummie. we’ve been over this.”
jaebum sighs in exasperation and nods. jinyoung leads youngjae and yugyeom up to his workroom, the latter cradling bambam in his hands carefully.
mark looks over at jaebum, humming, “i haven’t seen jackson be that protective over one of us in a long time.”
“i can’t blame him,” jaebum sighs. “it was only me, jinyoung, and jackson when bambam came around. i’m sure jackson told you the story -- no? we basically found bam almost dying at the door. jackson was the one that found him, jinyoung was the one to heal him, and i was the one to calm him down and keep him company. i guess jackson seeing bambam all weak and beaten all over again triggered that memory, since he said he never wanted to see bam look like that again.”
mark hums again, biting his lip. “i hope he won’t do anything too rash.”
jaebum chuckles darkly, shaking his head. “knowing jackson and how protective he really is over bam, he’ll definitely do something rash.”
after jinyoung (with some help from youngjae) clean up and heal bambam’s wounds when he turns back to his human size (which took about thirty minutes), bambam’s immediately awake, whining about jinyoung being strict and keeping him in bed.
“you need to stay in bed, you have a mild concussion,” jinyoung scolds, which makes bambam huff even more. “don’t give me that look. you know i’m just worried over you…”
bambam falters, seeing the sincerity in jinyoung’s eyes, and he sulks, grumbling, “fine… but i’m gettin’ up as soon as jackson gets back!”
jinyoung sighs and nods, knowing that this is the closest to a compromise they’ll get. yugyeom immediately curls up next to bam, kissing his bruised cheek, the tip of his nose, then his lips. bambam giggles shyly as youngjae joins them, letting them cuddle him and shower him with affection.
jinyoung smiles gently before leaving the room quietly. before, he would’ve glared openly at yugyeom, not wanting the incubus to be with the fairy or his fellow witch. however, now, he lets them be, after seeing the way yugyeom had truly panicked a while ago when bambam’s life was on the line.
he goes downstairs, going straight to jaebum and curling up against the vampire. jaebum coos and holds him close, and mark gives jinyoung a small knowing smile.
“you know,” jaebum sighs, playing with jinyoung’s hair, “i have a sneaking suspicion that these weren’t just human villagers that hurt bam.”
“oh?” jinyoung furrowed his eyebrows as mark nods to jaebum’s statement in agreement. “what do you mean?”
“it feels as though they were.. i guess, supernatural beings, like us, you could say,” jaebum shrugs. “mark thinks they were--”
“incubuses,” mark states lowly, shaking his head. “it could seem absurd to you all, but it’d… it’d make sense.”
“how so?” jinyoung asks, sitting up, eyebrows still furrowed.
“yugyeom and i were exiled, remember?” mark sighs, playing with his hands. “we’re not supposed to actually fall in love with those we fool around with. yug’s especially lucky that youngjae joined the relationship way after we were exiled, or else he would’ve received a punishment that’s worse.”
“so how does this relate to the people jumping bam being incubuses?”
“since we’ve been exiled, there’s always a few that’ve always hated us who try to come for us,” mark sighs, and his expression looks a little guilty, as though he believes the current situation was his fault. “jackson was there with me the last time it happened -- it was the last time i saw him get so angry and protective. before they went away, they told us that they’ll come for the person they know is close to yugy… and that’s bam.”
jinyoung takes a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. “why didn’t you or jackson tell us anything?”
“i thought it was an empty threat,” mark whispers, now playing with the tear on his jeans at the knee anxiously. “everything -- everything the others say when they try to get to me and yug, they’ve all been empty threats before… so i didn’t think it would’ve happened…”
mark avoids eye contact with them, bouncing his leg anxiously as he waits for them to respond. jaebum sighs for what feels like the hundredth time already and says, “it’s not your fault. i get where you’re coming from, the same almost happened with me and nyoung. but next time, please tell us, okay?”
mark nods, still keeping his head down. jaebum nudges jinyoung, who bites his lip and says, “markie, it’s really okay. i’m not going to hold a grudge against you or anything.”
mark nods again, and at that moment, the door opens and closes, jackson padding in in his wolf form to mark, who coos softly and scratches behind jackson’s ear. jackson lets out a tiny whine and paws at mark’s jeans, and mark chuckles, “turn back to a human, baby, i can’t understand you like this.”
jackson leaps onto the couch before turning back into a human, and he curls up against mark with a large grin on his face. he’s bloody and bruised, and mark shakes his head fondly. “what’d you do?”
jackson just grins widely, waving happily at jinyoung and jaebum, who both snort at him in exasperation. “i did a thing.”
“i heard jackson!!” bambam exclaims as he runs downstairs, yugyeom and youngjae rushing behind him. youngjae looks at jinyoung, saying, “we tried to keep him in bed, but…”
jinyoung waves away the explanation in understanding, and bambam curls up on jackson’s lap, pouting up at him and whining, “i was really worried! don’t do that again! wait -- you’re hurt, too!! oh no…”
“i’m fine,” jackson shrugs. “nothing much. really!” he adds hastily when bambam pouts more. “i’m fine! i promise!”
“but what did you do?” bambam says timidly.
jackson purses his lips, shushing bam dramatically. however, a few seconds later, he thumps his chest and hiccups, and a small piece of cloth comes from his mouth. he grins sheepishly at bambam, who yelps, “did you eat them?!”
“that’s gross,” jackson says, scrunching up his nose. “i just went overboard. they’re not eaten, i promise.”
“b-but… did you kill them?”
jackson winks at bambam, who huffs and sulks as mark ruffles his hair with a sympathetic smile.
(“can i play with your wolf form, though?” bambam whispers after a while. “bummie won’t let me play with nora.”
jackson hums and immediately changes back to his wolf form, stretching leisurely across mark and bambam’s laps. bambam squeaks with joy, immediately scratching behind jackson’s wolf ears. “good puppy,” bambam grins, and jackson snorts, relaxing against bambam and letting the fairy pet him.)
((as long as it made him happy, then jackson was fine with it.))