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Sixteen, and Hyuck’s already one of the most powerful witches on the coast. Uncontained power is tricky, though. And fickle. So he practices hard to contain it, reads until his eyes are so dry they could start a forest fire, repeats spells to get the inflection right until his vocal cords snap, mixes potions to perfection until his wrists crack every time he moves.
It pays off.
Largely due to all of the workers at Neo Culture adopting him into their little family (which aside from an incredible support system and wealth of knowledge granted him a 30% discount on all of their wares), but still. He was proud.
Taeyong took special interest in him, making him dinner when he stayed too late practicing and lending him books from his personal library.
Three months in to his journey and he already had as much control as most adult witches.
Five months later and he’d tweaked enough potion recipes, scribbled enough notes onto errant napkins and impulse-bought sticky notes, and changed enough incantations to publish his own book of spells.
Seven months in to his journey, seven long months of work and toil and sweat, and he finally felt good enough. Secure. Like no matter what else he learned, or accomplished, if that was a lot or nothing at all, he’d be happy with what he’d managed to do. Like he’d explored every part of his magic, turned himself inside out until his power was laid bare on Taeyong’s kitchen table.
He’d done nearly all of what he’d wanted to. All except for one very important thing.
Every witch needs a familiar. Every witch worth their salt, anyway. And if Donghyuck was going to do anything, he was going to do it right, so after exhausting every avenue of magic and working himself half to death, he began to research familiars.
He was 18 when he gave up. It had been a long year-and-a-half of skulking around animal shelters and pet shops, searching for that special spark. He’d never found it.
Power is important when looking for a familiar. So is intent. Through all of Hyuck’s research, he’d noticed a common theme; your familiar will always be just for you. Their magic is attuned with yours. Through all of the studying, dating back to ancient oral stories up to recent studies participated in by broke college students, nobody has been able to pinpoint what makes a familiar a familiar.
Maybe he just wasn’t good enough. Not meant to have a familiar. And so he decided to let it come to him, if he was to have one.
-
It was muggy out as he made his way home from Taeyong’s, a styrofoam container of leftovers and a new book on botany clutched tightly in his hands.
Something clanged in the alley next to him, hitting a garbage can with enough force to knock it over, sending aluminum cans and wrappers spilling out onto the grimy sidewalk, rolling with intent to the street. Hyuck stopped a soda bottle with his foot, saving it from impending traffic.
For a moment, he debated stopping to pick it all up, because even though the city isn’t the cleanest place he cared enough about the environment to not want all of the plastic running amok. But, like, ew. Garbage? On his bare hands?
For a moment he actively forgot that he could use magic to levitate everything back into place, dazed and tired from a long day of breathing in potion vapors and getting chastised by Ten for not chopping the dandelion stem fine enough.
By the time he snapped out of it and muttered the necessary spell under his breath, whatever was in the ally started making more noise. Hyuck backed up cautiously, still focusing his energy into the spell.
He yelped as a small black cat tumbled out of the alleyway, flipping down from a window ledge and landing gracefully on its paws. Insistently, it purred at Donghyuck, looking up at him with rich brown eyes. Unsettlingly human rich brown eyes. Donghyuck prayed that it wasn’t feral before walking warily towards it.
For a reason he couldn’t explain, he was drawn to it.
Meowing loudly over the rush of traffic and general din of the city, it didn’t back away from him, nor did it rush towards him. Just sat in place, crying. Despite how thin it looked, the pitch black coat gleamed in the neon light a nearby sushi restaurant shone down on them. It’s nose looked wet, and it could move fine. It wasn’t sick, probably, just a little hungry.
“What’s up, little guy,” Hyuck whispered, unsure of how, exactly, he was supposed to speak to a cat.
And, really, why had he stopped anyway? The city was littered with stray cats and dogs, and last time he’d stopped to check on one it had turned out to be a raccoon, which was an unpleasant experience for both of them. For days after there were news reports about a ‘glowing, unnaturally fast raccoon’ terrorizing the streets of urban South Korea. His bad.
“Meow!” the cat said back, because it was a cat, and therefore couldn’t speak.
Hyuck wished that he could speak to it. Somehow, magic hadn’t advanced that far. Some were born with the innate talent to at least understand what the animal generally meant, leading to interesting research, but out of all of Hyuck’s powers he wasn’t born with that. Except for with pigeons, sometimes, for some reason.
All at once, the cat raced towards him, butting it’s head against his pant leg. It left dark fur over the black fabric, somehow still visible though they were the same color.
As soon as they made contact, a rush flooded through Hyuck’s body. Flopping over onto it’s side, the cat whined gently, resting it’s head on his boot. It was like when he learned a particularly hard spell, accessing a dormant corner of his magic, or drank a potion that enhanced his senses. Everything felt hyper-realistic from the smell of fried dough from the corner a few blocks down to the glow of street lights from all around him.
“Oh,” Hyuck realized, and the cat looked up at him questioningly, “Shit.”
And then he picked his new familiar up, and walked the three blocks home with a bundle of content cat in his arms. He’d really need to invest in a lint roller.
-
“Oh, congrats, man!” Jeno smiled at Hyuck, leg blocking one of his curious cats from lunging into the hallway and into the big, exciting world.
He’d just gotten home with the nameless cat and let him into his apartment to reign terror as he pleased. Nothing dangerous was out, anyway, and somehow Hyuck knew he was lice and flea free. Safe. Clean. Made just for him.
Jeno’s illegal legion of cats was infamous throughout their building; even their superintendent knew, but turned a blind eye, because though Jeno’s magic energy wasn’t that strong he’d been born incredibly charming to make up for it.
Opening the door, he welcomed Hyuck in with the grace of someone who’d been his friend for years. Truly the kind of guy to give a stranger the shirt off of his back. Hyuck made a mental note to bake him cookies. And maybe treats for his cats, too.
“I have wet and dry food, do you want some of both?” Jeno asked, rummaging through a cupboard that was overflowing with cute cat toys and spare water bowls.
Hyuck stepped forward and peered at the cans, “That one is real chicken, right?”
Jeno laughed and said yes, that it was the best brand in the country, and that he’d done extensive research before purchasing it.
A cat materialized out of nowhere and jumped onto Hyuck’s shoulder from the counter, making him jump and let out a very undignified yelp. Jeno was practically a saint, but that didn’t mean he could hold back his laughter at Hyuck’s terrified face.
The cat purred like he was laughing along.
Hyuck scooped what little of his pride was left up along with food, bowls, and a couple of toys, all loaded into an old litter box that Jeno’s cats had apparently ‘grown out of’, whatever that meant. Jeno refused to accept any money, claiming that it was a ‘familiar finding’ gift. Such a nice guy. Hyuck left two twenties in the candy bowl he left next to the entrance. And took a Snickers bar.
-
“Mark, c’mere!” Hyuck called, making soft noises and patting the couch next to him.
He’d settled on the name Mark after learning his cat was, in fact, a boy. Something about giving pets mundane, human names was hilarious to him. Joe and Bill were among his other top choices, but Mark seemed to respond best to that name, so he stuck with it.
Tearing around the corner, Mark jumped from ten feet back and landed perfectly onto the couch, settling down immediately. Hyuck handed him a piece of cooked chicken and watched as he ate contentedly. Picky and spoiled. Just like his owner. It was only day three, and they already got on like a forest on fire.
“Rrow!” Mark pawed at Hyuck’s leg, begging to be pet. Hyuck shifted his phone to his non-dominant hand and awkwardly scrolled while petting his needy cat.
-
On day four, Hyuck came home from class to see something that looked staged. Mark was sitting on the couch, upright like a human, with the remote under his paw. He flipped between channels before settling on the last half of Spiderman: Homecoming. Every pet owner has wondered what their animals do while home alone. Nobody would expect this.
Hyuck watched incredulously from the doorway, but ultimately let him continue.
If a cat can contain a powerful magic spirit, why shouldn’t it be able to watch television?
-
Day five and Hyuck woke up to Mark perched on the counter, milk toppled over and dripping onto the floor. He happily dug his face into a bowl of cereal, which he’d somehow managed to make.
After no adverse reactions, Hyuck allowed Mark to have cereal every morning.
-
Mark had gone to the bathroom on the toilet since the day Hyuck had brought him home. Sure, it had taken some getting used to, but now hearing the toilet flush in the middle of the night or being interrupted mid-shower by a potty-trained cat wasn’t out of the ordinary for him.
“Oh my God!” Chenle screamed from the doorway of Donghyuck’s bathroom.
Sometimes he forgot not everybody knows how special Mark is. Chenle refused to go in the bathroom unless Hyuck checked it for him first from then on.
-
“That one?” Hyuck pointed to a blue stuffed bear.
Mark, sitting lazily in the children’s seat in a shopping cart, placed a possessive paw on it. Hyuck threw it in the back of the cart, and Mark butted up into his arm.
They were shopping for Mark’s one-month anniversary. One month since he’d scared Hyuck half to death, barrelling full tilt out of a dirty alleyway and pestering him into bringing him home. And he’d do anything for him.
Since he’d found Mark, the quality of his spells had increased by leaps and bounds. He thought he had explored every nook and cranny of his magic, but with his help he’d been discovering new things every day. Overall he felt much stronger having Mark’s magic accompanying his.
Magic is old, and complicated, and widely believed to have slithered out of a starless, timeless, Godless void and possessed humans, way back when the world was nearly all ocean. Some people get magic that was split from the same part, and that makes them soulmates, people who operate so well together their magic becomes one once they meet.
Familiars are a scaled down version of that, magic that hadn’t found a human home developing some sort of sentience and taking the form of an animal.
And they only find the pure of heart, those deserving it, those powerful enough to handle sharing magic between beings. Hyuck is so, so lucky to be granted Mark. Lucky in many areas, actually, lucky to be powerful and steady and intuitive, able to handle himself.
“I love you, baby,” he mushy-talks to Mark right there in the middle of the pet store, scratching the sweet spots beneath his ears, uncaring of any passersby.
-
Donghyuck has been seeing a man named Chan for two weeks now, and it’s still young romantically, but they’ve known each other for years, and that’s why it’s so comfortable to be having him coming around to his tiny apartment.
Usually he is self-conscious of his haphazard decorating skills and the flurry of books, papers, and unwashed potion vials spread across his living area, but Chan understands. He’s a witch too, not as powerful naturally as Hyuck but impeccable at brewing potions. Clutter is normal to him.
Since Hyuck got Mark, he hadn’t had Chan over. He was ready for that to change, though, so he jokingly asked Mark to make himself scarce while he danced around his kitchen and made popcorn.
His familiar is out of sight, cozied up in his bedroom, when the doorbell rings. A faint meow sounds through the house, but other than that he doesn’t show himself until halfway through the bad action movie Chan had brought for them to watch.
“Mrrow!” Mark jumped onto the couch and laid a paw on Chan’s lap, testing the waters.
Chan shifted uncomfortably, waving a hand at Mark, “Shoo.”
What kind of person literally ‘shoo’s an animal away? Do people really do that? Hyuck shares a knowing glance with Mark, who purrs softly and settles himself down onto Chan’s black jeans without a second thought.
Maybe he just thought it was comfortable, but Hyuck liked to think that he did it just to be a little shit. Again, just like his owner. Hyuck was so proud. He reached a hand out to rub between Mark’s ears, but he wasn’t fast enough.
Chan shoved the cat off of his lap and onto the floor, where he landed with a yowl. “I don’t know how you can deal with such an annoying pet.”
Mark whined from his place on the floor, licking at his foot. He’d hit it against the coffee table on his way down. Hyuck replayed the scene in slow motion in his head, over and over, trying to stop his magic from surging out of his body and killing Chan.
Usually he has control. Lots of it. Patient, practiced, well-intentioned. All words that could be used to describe him. Now, though? He feels as if he’s freshly sixteen, bushy-eyed and bright-tailed or something like that, surging with magic so powerful it renders him ill and threatens to rip his insides apart.
“Get. Out,” he said through gritted teeth, fists clenched with the effort of not lashing out. Chan stayed rooted on the couch while Hyuck crouched to his knees to comfort Mark. He seemed mostly fine, just annoyed. Still, he couldn’t believe Chan would be so cruel.
Chan scoffed. “You’re going to throw away years of friendship for what? A cat?”
Obviously he knew nothing about familiars. Isn’t pure-hearted or powerful enough to have one. To feel that connection. Hyuck told him as much, coloring his sentences with curse words and a few actual curses. Chan looked stormy as he got up, gathering his things.
Obviously, Hyuck didn’t really know him. He felt disgusting for even considering having a serious relationship with him. How could he be so nasty to a helpless animal?
Hyuck stood, threw his coat at him, and ushered him out of the door. When he locked it behind him, he heard a crashing noise from the living room. Mark had probably knocked over the popcorn bowl.
“Are you okay, Markie?” Hyuck cooed as he walked back into the living room, voice trailing off as he took in the sight in front of him.
A very naked, and very human, man was stood wide-eyed in his foyer, a throw pillow held in front of his abdomen. His cat was nowhere to be seen. The popcorn bowl was, in fact, knocked over.
“Holy shit?” Hyuck said, which wasn’t meant to come out as a question but, like, holy shit. Holy shit!
-
Taeyong freaked out when Hyuck called him, understandably. Thankfully he believed that it wasn’t a prank, both from the raw panic in Hyuck’s voice and the photographic evidence that his cat had, in fact, turned into a man. A human man. His cat. A man. A human.
An hour after the call and they’re both in Hyuck’s car, en route to an unfamiliar address that Taeyong had text him. Mark was wearing Hyuck’s clothes, pulling the sleeves of his sweater over his hands and clenching his fists.
“This is, like, really weird,” Hyuck blurted while they sat at a red light, breaking the awkward silence. Neither of them had known what to say, so they’d kept it to a bare minimum, Mark asking to use the shower and borrow clothes and use Hyuck’s phone to try to contact his friends.
All he had learned was that his real name was Minhyung, but he was fine with being called Mark, and that he’d previously been researching a flower that was supposed to be used in truth serum potions. He’d gotten so excited describing that, how it could impact the world so greatly, because their current truth serum was shoddy at best.
One day he’d been running tests in a lab. The next he was fading in and out of awareness, prowling the streets of South Korea as a cat.
Still, Hyuck half expected Mark to not reply. They’d spoken barely ten words to each other since they’d gotten into the car.
Surprisingly, Mark laughed, voice strained from not speaking for so long, “You’re telling me, the guy who turned into a cat, how weird this is?”
“You saw me naked,” Donghyuck said, voice shrill, “Dancing to ABBA!”
Mark pointed an accusing finger at him, “You watched me eat from a kitty bowl!”
Honking sounded behind him, and Hyuck pressed hard on the gas, shooting forwards. Mark braced himself on the dashboard, not used to being person-sized in the car instead of curled up in the back on the floor, in a bed of blankets put there just for him.
“Oh please, you ate more human food than I did,” Hyuck looked over at him, smiling wide.
Seeing a human is jarring, but he still feels familiar. His hair is the same black of his coat, his eyes the same shining brown. Still magically compatible with Hyuck in every way, but now it’s stronger, like if Hyuck tried to cast Mark would cast too, until their magic was indistinguishable from one another’s.
The rest of the car ride passes comfortably, Mark babbling until his voice is no longer coarse, drinking from his potion-infused tea and telling stories of where he’s from.
When they pulled up at a large, imposing mansion, Hyuck only knew it was the right place because he spotted Taeyong’s soccer Mom minivan.
“Here?” Mark asked, eyes wide. He makes that expression a lot, nose scrunched up in disbelief, somehow looking even more adorable than when he was a fluffy feline.
Hyuck turned off the car and hopped out, walking around to open Mark’s door. “Taeyong has some, uh, weird friends.”
He helped Mark out of the car, because his legs weren’t used to being that cramped and had gone momentarily numb, and then walked down the imposing driveway, gravel crunching under his feet.
-
“Interesting,” Doyoung said as soon as Hyuck finished explaining their situation, scanning Mark with curious eyes.
He’d been sat inside with Taeyong and Ten when they’d walked in, cup of coffee in his hands and tortoiseshell glasses low on his nose. When he shook their hands hello, his hands thrummed with thinly veiled power. Smiling transformed his face like magic, excitement sometimes getting the best of him as Hyuck told their story.
“This is something that would only happen to our Hyuckie,” Taeyong ruffled his hair and poked at his sides, trying to elicit a laugh.
Hyuck just huffed and scooted closer to Mark, who looked entirely out of his depth.
“Mark, will you tell us all of the dumb shit he did in front of you?” Ten said, smile feline and sly, making Mark flush.
“Well, I, uh,” Mark began, but Doyoung cut him off, standing abruptly and motioning to follow him.
-
In the back of the mansion sat an expansive library, shelves backless and full of books that pulsated with magic. When Hyuck probed at the spells he could tell some of them were very old, encryption spells and the like, while some were newer fire and damage proofing ones to keep the tomes in good condition.
Doyoung sat and got to work, perusing books and asking Mark and Hyuck questions periodically. The pair dug through their own books, researching familiars and soulmates and curses. There they were, pursuing wisdom. Surrounded by ancient books and enchanted candles. Researching things they’d never had to learn about before.
As much as he hated to admit it, Hyuck was kind of in his element. He’d missed really digging deep into research. Mentally, he made a note to ask if he could come back to borrow some books and absorb some knowledge.
Everything was relatively calm until Mark turned, briefly, back into a cat, meowing loudly and in a panic.
“What the fuck!” Hyuck yelled, startling the three other very confused witches into action.
Doyoung took the opportunity to scan him for magic. Apparently that was one of his specialities, identifying spells that had been used on items or people, which definitely came in handy. Taeyong went up to Doyoung’s room to get new clothes, because Hyuck’s had been mysteriously tore to shreds when Mark transformed. Ten simply cooed over Mark, who batted him away and hissed.
“You said he was working on a truth serum?” Doyoung’s head shot up, eyes lit with realization, “He could have had some powerful enemies.”
“What does that mean?” Hyuck asked, half-focused on frantically scanning a book for any helpful information.
Doyoung hummed and picked Mark up, placing him on a table. “He’s cursed, definitely. I have a few candidates in mind, but if he turns back I’ll have to ask more questions.”
“If?”
Taeyong chose that moment to come bounding down the stairs, a t-shirt and sweats that were probably more expensive than Hyuck’s entire wardrobe folded neatly in his hands.
-
Half an hour later and Mark was suddenly human again, coughing up hair from his tongue and curling into a ball. Hyuck wanted to let him rest, but Doyoung insisted on asking him questions before he turned back.
Mark answered the questions like a champ.
While in cat form, he was only half aware of his human consciousness, fading in and out of a place he could only describe as a void. The first time he’d changed it was because Hyuck’s concern for him reached down into the void and yanked him out, the power of his magic snapping him back into consciousness. He didn’t know what triggered the second shift.
After an hour of questioning, Doyoung finally came to a conclusion.
“Okay, so, Hyuck, you may want to sit for this,” he began, book open in his hand and sweater sleeves cuffed up to his elbows, looking for all the world like a scholar, “You’re soulmates.”
Blunt. Extremely, incredibly blunt. And shocking. Almost as shocking as his cat suddenly turning into a human. Actually, after everything that had happened in the last 24 hours, it was hardly the biggest shock in the world.
“Okay,” Hyuck said, and then promptly passed out.
-
When Hyuck came to, Mark was curled up to his side, still laying on a plush velvet couch in the library. Taeyong was asleep on Ten’s lap, and Doyoung was pouring over a book, cup of coffee in his hand. Hyuck was beginning to suspect it wasn’t just coffee.
He must have woken up from passing out at some point, and decided to just fall asleep. Stress was never something he’d handled well. Still, having a completely human Mark next to him was reassuring, because the weight of his body and magic had become a constant in the last month, and though he was physically bigger his presence was the same.
“What do I do?” Hyuck whispered, figuring Doyoung would appreciate the direct approach. Skirting around the issue would do neither of them any good.
Honestly? Hyuck was not having a hard time believing the soulmate theory. Their magic felt so right with each other, their banter so easy, their emotions so quick to bubble to the surface; Hyuck had never felt anything like it.
Doyoung sighed and said, “As cheesy as it is, I believe the only way to fix this is true love’s kiss.”
Hyuck laughed quietly, as to not wake Mark up, “I mean seriously. I didn’t know you even had a sense of humor.”
Doyoung fought to keep a smile off of his face at the teasing, “I am funnier than you will ever be. And no, I’m not joking. Mark will stay a cat until he finds and confirms his true love.”
It made sense. Finding your soulmate was nearly impossible, with all of the witches in the world. Finding your soulmate in cat form would be infinitely harder. Whoever had cursed Mark had wanted to ruin his life without having the karma of killing him. Ruthless.
Mark’s head rose from Hyuck’s chest, eyes heavy with sleep, “True love’s kiss? Am I dreaming?”
Hyuck laughed and smoothed Mark’s bedhead down, who pushed up into his hand. Old habits die hard. “You’re lucky, Markie. You have the greatest soulmate in the world!”
And then, half-asleep, Mark leaned up and pecked Hyuck’s lips, right in front of Doyoung, who let out an embarrassed noise of surprise that did little to mask Hyuck’s own.
His lips were dry, and the angle was awkward, but it was still the most powerful thing Hyuck had ever felt. Mark was skittish, and tried to back away, but Hyuck chased his lips. Their magic surged forwards, filling Hyuck’s chest with warmth like when he cast particularly hard spells.
And all of the negative energy that had been weighing on Mark dissipated, and he melted into Hyuck’s arms, and neither of them noticed when Doyoung got up and left.
“I’m never going to be a cat again,” Mark whispered, forehead resting on Hyuck’s, smile splitting his face in half.
Hyuck leaned in for another kiss, “Meow for me one last time?”
Mark let out a strangled laugh and swung his leg around his lap so he was straddling him, “Never again. Unless you ask really, really nicely.”
Soulmates. They were soulmates. Destined to be in love, to complete each other, to open new realms of possibility. And even if Mark had seen Hyuck cry over countless cheesy movies and burn countless packs of ramen and sing countless off-key songs in the shower, it wasn’t uncomfortable.
And Mark was a human. Solidly. Forever.