Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Most kids are scared of the monsters under their beds, he realizes as he grows up, or would’ve gotten over the existence of monsters altogether at this point, but he still clings to the idea that if something truly bad were to happen, the monster would come out to protect him. His mom used to make up stories about the monster under his bed. She called him Johnny and told Donghyuck he would only have to a call on him to be saved.

He hopes to Hell and back that it’s true as his door rattles on its hinges, and angry shouting echoes through the thin walls. It’s his last ditch effort. He reaches under the bed, scared of letting out a word, and knocks on the floor underneath. There isn’t room for a big monster, but if it can protect him, he doesn’t care how logic takes care of things.

Nothing happens. He knocks again insistently with tears blurring his vision. The door gives way and a crack appears, big enough to see his dad’s face, and he lets out a sob and a watery, “Johnny!”

He retracts his hand to hide his face, but something grabs him and pulls hard. He gets the feeling it’s not something pulling him down when another hand appears next to his arm poking under the bed, grasping for something. It catches the edge of his bed drags the rest of itself out.

The monster that comes out looks mostly human, dismissing the dark abysses for eyes, predatorily sharpened teeth and runic markings all over its body. It, Johnny he assumes, gives him a gentle smile and wipes the tears away from his cheek before turning with a snarl to Donghyuck’s dad, who’s just beaten away enough of his door to step through. Dad trips when he sees the creature standing in front of Donghyuck as protectively as a nesting dragon.

He tries to run away at first, but Johnny has no mercy for him. He leaps forward and pins the man to the remains of the door. They both fall through, Johnny on top of him, and he hits his ribs until Donghyuck can hear multiple cracks. He’s familiar with the sound.

He’s not scared of Johnny, though. Johnny is safe, and mother-approved, and Mom is the only person he’s ever trusted. He needs someone to fill that position, and Johnny fits perfectly. Johnny breaks another bone, in his dad’s leg this time, and his dad whimpers for Donghyuck to help him, but the only response he can come up with is a deranged giggle.

Johnny deems his dad injured enough, and comes over to sit down in front of him. He takes Donghyuck’s face in his hands and kisses his forehead before he asks him, “Can I take you home, Donghyuck-ah?”

Donghyuck nods quickly. Johnny casually picks up his bed to reveal a hole in the floor, and gathers Donghyuck in his arms like a baby. Donghyuck would feel more embarrassed if he had the energy, but with all the events of tonight, he’s fighting sleep and tucking his head under Johnny’s chin.

He nearly misses the jump into the hole, and the long fall afterwards combined with the growing darkness lulls him to sleep.

.

He wakes up in a bed bigger than any he’s ever seen, with a thick, pillow-like blanket and even softer actual pillows. There’s a glass of water and a note on a table to his side, and he chugs the former, liquid cool in his throat. He remembers the events of the night before gradually, and doesn’t bother to waste his energy worrying about it.

The note says:

Donghyuck-ah,
I’m your monster. I was assigned to your care when you were born, after I had finished my basic human protection training at five. You’re currently staying at the Monsters for the Protection of Human Children(MPHC) headquarters. I’ve been given permissions to protect you from here until other arrangements can be made or you choose to stay here. If you want me, press the button on your bedside table. Food will be delivered to your room if you choose not to call on me, otherwise I will bring a tray for you. Don’t be shy about calling me! My priority is your safety and comfort.
Sincerely,
Johnny

Donghyuck hurries to find the button, and only hesitates a moment before pressing it. He’ll get food anyway, he reasons, so might as well get Johnny, too.

Johnny arrives quickly with a spark of concern in his void-like eyes and sighs in relief when he spots Donghyuck fiddling with the note. The tray in his hands is steaming, piled with rice and enough side dishes to feed a small army. He carefully puts it in Donghyuck’s lap.

Donghyuck digs into the food, starving, and Johnny stands awkwardly next to the bed for a while before Donghyuck remembers him. He looks up at the tall monster and clears his throat to get his attention, then he pats the spot next to him on the spacious bed. He pouts when Johnny shows reluctance.

“Ah, don’t attack me like that,” he mutters and sits down next to him. Despite all the luxurious pillows around him, Donghyuck leans against Johnny’s side. He eats so much that he can’t stuff another bite down his throat without throwing up, and he’s barely made a dent in all the food, so he puts down his chopsticks and gives himself a moment to process.

“In the note,” he began, Johnny perking up, “you said you were assigned to me. Did they tell my mom?” Johnny considers the question and answers with, “You were an odd case. Your mother was half monster, so she helped train me. I was one of her top students, she always said,” at this he smiles fondly, “so she told the ones in charge of assignments that she wanted me to watch you when she became pregnant with you.”

Donghyuck ponders the new information. “How did you know to attack my dad?”

Johnny stiffens. “I’ve seen it happening. I wanted to step in the first time,” Donghyuck thinks back to his first black eye, before his dad wizened up and started hitting him where his clothes would hide the bruises, “but the higher-ups made me wait. They knew you could contact me, and they wanted to see how long you’d last.” The last part is spoken bitterly.

“But I don’t have to go back?” Johnny growls a little and shakes his head. “Never,” he promises.

Donghyuck leans his head against Johnny’s shoulder. “I trust you,” he whispers, and he feels Johnny nod resolutely as if to reassure him that he will do everything in his power not to break that trust.

Chapter Text

He spends the rest of the day in the room he woke up in. Johnny can’t stay for long: paperwork and reports on Donghyuck’s apparent mental state, he explains, have to be done with him woken up, but he promises that Donghyuck will get more food later in the day, and that he’ll come back tomorrow. Donghyuck isn’t sure how he’ll be able to eat even more, even if the food’s had a few hours to settle.

Johnny leaving freaks him out, though, and he doesn’t let the older creature leave without taking another five minutes to just lean against him. He wants Johnny to stay all day and keep giving him forehead kisses, but he feels like he’s already been too much of a whiney brat to request such a thing. Johnny still gives him a forehead kiss before he leaves, though.

He falls back into the pillows when Johnny leaves, telling him to press the button if there’s an emergency that warrants his presence. He says that like every emergency won’t warrant his presence from now on. If Donghyuck were a little more sure of himself, he’d press the button the second Johnny walked out of the room, and if Johnny asked him what the emergency was, he’d say it was that he missed him.

His cheeks go hot at the thought of it.

Eventually he’s too antsy to stay in bed any longer, so he folds back the covers and crawls out. The bed is bigger than he thought it was, which results in him toppling over the side of it. The floor is covered by a fluffy carpet, and he stretches his toes out to revel in the feeling of it.

There’s a closet next to the door Johnny walked through, and another door on the other side of the room. He opens the former first to find an outfit folded on the bottom. He picks it up revealing a plain white t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants.

Before he changes into them, he checks other door. It opens up to reveal a pristine bathroom with a modest shower, toilet, and sink, towels folded neatly on the counter. He grabs the clothes and proceeds to take the longest and most stable in terms of temperature shower of his life. There are soaps that leave him fresh and clean-smelling, and he resolves to change the bed sheets himself if it means he can sleep in them and leave them smelling as pretty as he does right now.

The bedside table has a shelf that opens up to reveal a tablet, and he spends his morning playing with it. He’s just found Youtube by the time a knock sounds from the door that leads outside. He rushes to open it, and another monster steps through with another tray of food. His eyes, teeth, and markings remind Donghyuck of Johnny, but the similarities mostly end there. This one is shorter than Johnny, and has a different face. He introduces himself as Taeil and smiles sweetly at Donghyuck.

Donghyuck accepts the food, but keeps a short distance between himself and Taeil. He’s not consciously scared of this monster, but he’s still new and not-Johnny. If Taeil notices, he doesn’t show it, and Donghyuck is grateful for it.

Taeil lingers for a few minutes, and Donghyuck hesitates to eat with the attention on him. Taeil finally asks him if he needs anything else, and Donghyuck shakes his head meekly.

“You can leave your tray just outside the door when you’re done with it,” he tells the younger, “and you’re free to explore the headquarters. Any door that you shouldn’t go through will be locked, anyway. If you need it, just shout for help. The other monsters know that you’re here, so they’ll watch out for you.”

Donghyuck nods in acknowledgement of the new piece of information. Taeil stands there for another few seconds before exiting the room.

As soon as Taeil is gone, he dives into the food. He knows his stomach will ache later; it already aches a little now from breakfast, but the food looks mouth-watering.

When he’s done, he places the tray outside his door as instructed and looks up and down the visible hallway. There’s no one close by, so it seems as good a time as any to get out of the room.

He makes it to the end of the hallway and finds an elevator. He’s sure that there’s a greater likelihood of meeting someone in there, so he opens the door next to it and finds a predictable set of stairs going up and down. He listens for anyone coming up or down and decides to hurry lower. He sticks to traveling one floor to avoid getting lost, especially when he’s never seen any of this building before now.

The floorpan is similar to his level, except the rooms have mostly glass walls. It’s intimidating at first, but he braves a few steps. When no one looks up at him, he keeps going. The inhabitants of the rooms look like Johnny and Taeil, and there are six rooms. Only five monsters are scattered among them, all looking close to his age and most with pastel hair colors. They’d look like idols if not for their more underworld features.

He gets caught up staring into one of the rooms with three of them in it. One of them says something to the other two, and suddenly they’re all looking back at him. He hurriedly looks to the ground, but they wave at him anyway. He keeps his face to the ground but shyly waves back. The one with pink hair visibly coos at him.

He decides this has been enough of an adventure and abruptly turns back to where he started. In his rush, he boards the elevator oblivious to the other occupant and goes to press a floor number before he realizes that he has no idea what floor he’s on. A chuckle distracts him.

“Donghyuck-ah, did you meet the Dreamies?”

He hurts his neck looking back. Thankfully it’s Johnny, grinning affectionately at him. He flushes and glances at the ground and up to the buttons, pointedly away from Johnny. The other reaches around him and presses a button, saying, “I gotcha.”

Johnny guides him to his room, a relief since the doors along the hallway all look the same. Johnny holds the door for him as well, and he shuffles in with caterpillars in his stomach. He doesn’t think too hard about how they might become butterflies someday. He sits on his bed, and Johnny moves to exit the room.

“Where are you going?” he asks, with a hint of a whine in his voice. He knows that he’s pouting, so he tries to school his expression before the other notices.

Johnny hesitates for a moment and lets the door shut as he looks back at Donghyuck. “I can stay, if you want, Donghyuck-ah?” He nods meekly. Johnny walks over to Donghyuck and motions to the spot next to him. “May I?” Donghyuck nods again.

Johnny gently sits down next to him, far enough away that Donghyuck could easily avoid touching him, but he scoots over and leans his head on Johnny’s shoulder anyway.

“Did Taeil come in with your lunch?” Donghyuck nods against his shoulder in response. “What did you do this morning?” Donghyuck tells him about the tablet, and Johnny asks to see the games he played. He makes Johnny play, and he wins each one faster than Donghyuck did all morning. Donghyuck vows to practice more.

After at least an hour without interruption, there’s a knock at the door. Johnny gets up to answer it, and Donghyuck realizes abruptly that he’s nearly on the other’s lap.

Someone younger than Taeil or Johnny has a tray of food this time. He almost looks younger than Donghyuck, but he’d not been in the Dreamies’ floor, so Donghyuck’s at a bit of a loss. Johnny smiles brightly at him and something green bubbles through Donghyuck’s gut.

“Donghyuck-ah, this is Mark! He’s only a year older than you, you two should become friends,” Johnny introduces. Mark attempts to wave with his elbow, both hands full with the food.

Donghyuck swallows any resentment and waves back. He rushes forward and takes the tray from him. Johnny chuckles at the two of them, and tells Donghyuck he has to go. Donghyuck suppresses the whine in his throat.

Mark awkwardly walks in behind him. He offers a handshake once Donghyuck puts the tray down, and Donghyuck returns it reluctantly. The young monster clears his throat and tries for conversation.

“Johnny’s really excited to have you here.” Donghyuck feels his eyes widen slightly. “Really?” he questions. Mark bites his lip and nods, “Yeah, he’s been worried about you ever since your mom died, and when you knocked for him, he ran to the upper world portal.”

Donghyuck smiles softly a the new bit of information. “Are there more portals than just to the upper world?” he asks, feeling a little more comfortable with the other. Mark nods excitedly and dives into an explanation of the transportation system. Donghyuck eats while he listens, and nearly chokes on a few bites from laughing. Mark asks him about his interests, and Donghyuck tells him his love of Michael Jackson, ranting about certain songs and pulling out his impression.

After a while, Mark says he has to leave, and Donghyuck hugs him good-bye. It’s late, going by the clock on his tablet, so he curls up under the covers and sings himself to sleep.

Chapter Text

Donghyuck wakes up at six in the morning, body anxious to avoid punishment without the shock he’d been running on yesterday. He jumps and hits the carpeted floor, and oddly enough, that is what makes him remember the events of the last two days. He rubs his surely-bruising hip and stumbles across the dark room to the closet. There’s another outfit there that he doesn’t bother to question with his half-alert, half-sleepy mind.

The shower is just as nice as it was yesterday, steamy and sweet-smelling, so he takes his time. When he’s done, he settles back in his bed and finds a book to read on his tablet.

About two hours later, someone, hopefully Johnny his mind decides, knocks on his door. He gets up to hold the door for them.

He has a big smile on his face that drops for a second when he sees the monster on the other side. One of the three monsters from the one office room greets him with an unwavering smile, “Good morning, Donghyuck, I’m Jaemin!”

A combination of his friendly face and happy tone make Donghyuck shyly offer a handshake once the new monster puts down the tray of food. He warmly returns it, squeezing the proffered hand slightly. Jaemin continues on. “You saw me and my date mates yesterday, though I don’t blame you for running away. You probably couldn’t handle more than one new person without a buffer,” he pauses and considers his own theory, “I wonder if Johnny took you to the cafeterie, you might be okay.”

“There’s a cafeteria?” Donghyuck pouts. “I don’t like being a bother to all of you, if that would be easier, I could eat meals there!”

Jaemin shakes his head with the smile still catching his cheeks but somehow a sad look in his black holes for eyes. “No,” he reassures, “none of us see you as a burden. We’re very eager for your healing, but not in a rush.” Donghyuck wants to argue with him, but then Jaemin stuffs a spoonful of rice and soup into his mouth. He scowls in response, but dutifully chews his bite of food.

“When will Johnny have time to see me again?” he questions awkwardly. Jaemin giggles at him. “I can ask him when I see him later. He always wants to see you, you know?” Donghyuck ducks his head to hide his hot cheeks. Jaemin laughs louder at his actions, and Donghyuck shoves him away. He’s hiding his own snickers when Jaemin shouts, “Treason!”

Jaemin stays around while he finishes his breakfast, and offers him a tour while he’s chasing the last grains of rice with a spoon. “I’ll even show you the cafeteria while no one else is there!” he decides, beaming at his own idea.

Donghyuck excitedly agrees, eager to explore beyond a floor or two with someone who would actually know where they were going.

Jaemin tries to take his tray from him, but Donghyuck clings to it and mumbles something about how, “You went through all the trouble of bringing it to me, the least I can do is take it back!” Jaemin allows it on the stipulation that he take some of the dish-ware to lighten Donghyuck’s load.

They take the elevator despite Donghyuck’s slight fear of bumping into groups of people, and they make it with only one person interrupting their descent. To his instant relief, it’s a harried-looking Mark with a weak smile for both of them. He tries to express his concern, but Jaemin locks eyes with him while Mark is pressing his floor button and shakes his head furiously.

Mark absent-mindedly asks them where the two of them are headed, and Donghyuck wordlessly holds up the tray as an explanation. Mark turns and pointedly asks Jaemin, “Aren’t we supposed to wait to show him the cafeteria?” Jaemin waves him off.

“No one’ll be there, anyway,” he says, and Mark raises an eyebrow at him. He almost hounds him about it some more, but then the elevator gets to his floor, and he rushes out. Jaemin stares at his back and mutters something about, “Overworked.” Donghyuck silently agrees.

They make it to their floor without any more interruptors. Jaemin leads Donghyuck at a leisurely pace and points out different rooms and their function. “All of the ones on this floor are for cleaning supplies and cooking goods, like the fridge and freezer rooms and the pantry,” he narrates as he points to each one in turn, “if you ever need ice cream, there’s a hidden stash in the back of the bottom shelf on the left in the freezer room, but it’s kind of dark ‘cause the light in that corner went out, so just ask someone to go with you.” Donghyuck nodded along, trying to keep up with everything.

At the end of the hall, there’s an arch that leads into a bigger room that looks like it could hold fifty people at full capacity. Jaemin guides him to an open bay window with a sink on the other side and instructs him to put the tray in the sink. He puts the dishes on top of it and pulls Donghyuck back to the elevator.

“I need to get to my job, now, so I’ll bring you back to your room. Come find me if you need me, yeah? You know where to find me,” he winks at him, “and I know how to get Johnny or Mark if you need them and it’s not an emergency. I know you have that button, but it’s a little scary,” Donghyuck nods at this bit, “especially if you don’t want Johnny running to your room ready to fight.”

At this point they’re arriving on Donghyuck’s floor. Jaemin walks down the hall with him, and points out his door, as well as the barely noticeable scratch on the corner. “It’s hard to distinguish, but I could get you some craft supplies and you can make your own sign,” he ponders out loud, before walking away and leaving Donghyuck still standing in front of his room. He sighs when he considers the rest of the morning ahead of him and plows in.

Chapter Text

The rest of the morning passes uneventfully. Donghyuck keeps to his tablet and hopes that Johnny will bring lunch, because he left so quickly the night before, and gosh darn it, Donghyuck misses him. When the time draws near, he goes and sits outside of his room excitedly beaming down the hall in the direction of the elevator, drumming the floor with his fingertips in anticipation.

Finally he heard a quiet ding and stilled his hands. No one was visible behind the elevator doors for a few seconds, but then someone stepped out from behind the side. It’s Johnny, praise the powers that be.

He jumps up, not catching the fond smirk Johnny is sporting, and runs forward to greet him. “I haven’t seen you in forever, Johnny-hyung!”

Johnny chuckles and shifts the weight of the tray in both his hands to just one, so he can wrap the other around Donghyuck’s shoulders. Donghyuck blushes at the close contact and buries his face in the other’s shoulder.

“You saw me just last night, that was less than 24 hours ago, Donghyuck-ah,” he reminds him. Donghyuck pouts against him.

He wants to whine that he missed him, but he’s only come so far—

No, he thinks firmly: he has come so far. He’d never have befriended Mark and Jaemin so easily while he was living with his dad, and he’d never have felt so safe tucked against an older male a few days ago. He’s making fast progress.

He squeezes himself out of Johnny’s arm to open the door for him. Johnny puts the tray down on the bed and turns to offer both his arms for a proper hugs. Maybe the older realizes that Donghyuck is replacing every angry shove, punch, slap with hugs and physical affection as quickly as he can. He wonders if he can do that, switch the bad for the good so that his being is filled with love and not hurt.

Johnny doesn’t let him go until Donghyuck releases him, and than he lets him dive into his lunch. While he eats, Johnny glances thoughtfully around the room, especially at the closet.

“We’d like to get you set up shopping for new clothes on your tablet,” Johnny begins carefully, “and maybe some other things you want as time passes and you get comfortable here.”

Donghyuck chews slowly to give think about the think about the offer. “I’m not sure what I’d like,” it’s a bit of a lie, he’s seen styles he really like, but they seem like they’re for other kids, and he has no idea what he actually likes, probably, “but I can try?” He says it with a raised pitch at the end, and he cringes at himself.

Johnny just smiles at him like he’s made some huge step. “Of course, I’ll show you how after you’re done eating.”

Donghyuck savors his food, and at some point, Johnny sits down next to him, so he leans against his shoulder. When he’s done, he moves the tray to the ground and scoots further into the middle of his bed. Johnny follows, and he realizes he’ll have to reach over the elder to get his tablet. He tries to balance on his toes and hands to avoid sprawling across Johnny’s stomach, but he loses his balance. Johnny lets out a quiet, “Oof.”

He blushes furiously, but completes his mission of getting the tablet and inches back.

Donghyuck passes the hard-won tablet to Johnny, who starts tapping various icons, narrating his actions out loud. Once he’s in the right place, he looks over and asks, “What’s your favorite color?”

Donghyuck ponders the question for a moment. It’s been a while since anyone asked him such a simple question. “Red,” he finally says. Johnny types something into the search bar and a selection of shirts in various shades of red shows up on the screen.

Johnny passes him the tablet and tells him to pick three. Donghyuck first thinks to pick the cheapest ones he can find, but the prices are suspiciously unmentioned. He finally settles on three that look simple, at least, and shows them to Johnny.

Johnny nods and adds them to the cart, still explaining every action to Donghyuck as he goes. “It’s already programmed with your sizes, so you don’t have to search for that. Try to find some bottoms you like this afternoon, and maybe other things if you feel like it.” He passes the tablet back to Donghyuck and gets up.

Donghyuck lets out a noise of distress when he realizes Johnny is about to leave. Johnny looks back at him and smiles softly, offering his hands to pull him up. Donghyuck takes them and settles into a bear hug.

“You’ll be back tomorrow, won’t you, Hyung?” he asks.

Johnny ruffles his hair and kisses his forehead before responding, “Of course, Donghyuck-ah.”

Donghyuck relishes in the touches. He doesn’t feel quite so desperate as he thought he would with Johnny leaving the room.

Once the elder is gone, he tries to shop. He spends most of the time scrolling, unsure about any item, but he makes himself pick two different pairs of jeans. It’s been almost an hour of desperate scrolling when a knock surprises him.

It’s weird, because it shouldn’t be time for dinner yet, but he cautiously calls out, “Come in!” The door practically falls open, and three bodies come in. One of them he recognizes as Jaemin, and he’s a little overwhelmed, but he thinks he can handle the other two if there anything like him.

Jaemin happily skips in followed by the other two and introduces them as, “Jeno and Renjun, my boyfriends!” and he tells Donghyuck they’re here to help him shop.

Donghyuck hands over the tablet too easily, but he rationalizes that if it’s Jaemin, no not can be mad at him for making wasteful choices. Jaemin happily scrolls, taps, glances at Donghyuck with an appraising eye from time to time, and takes advice from his boyfriends. Jeno and Renjun are each a little quieter than Jaemin, but they’re good in their own rights. Donghyuck would like to think he’ll become friends with them.

The afternoon passes quickly after that, and Donghyuck isn’t sure what all Jaemin picked out for him, but he had a lot of fun in the process. He laughed a lot, and made two new friends, and he thinks things are going well.

Chapter Text

Renjun ends up having to drag his boyfriends out—“It was nice meeting you, Donghyuck,” he says with a kind smile, and then turns to the other two with a firm look, “but we have work to do.”—which leaves Donghyuck precious little free time before dinner is probably coming. He spends the time trying to guess who he’ll meet with dinner.

He has less time than he thought, and the knock on the door startles him out of his reverie. “Come in!”

It’s another new face. Donghyuck briefly theorizes that he’s in the process of being introduced to everyone one at a time, and once he’s met all of the monsters in this facility he’ll be allowed to eat in the cafeteria. He wills himself to remember every name.

The new monster introduces himself as, “Yuta,” with a wide smile, “one of Johnny’s year-mates.” Donghyuck offers his hand to shake, and the other takes it enthusiastically with both of his.

“You know, Donghyuck, you’re all Johnny’s been talking about. For good reason, too, you’re adorable!” He looks tempted to pinch Donghyuck’s cheeks, and it’s a little overwhelming, to be honest, but Donghyuck focuses on his statement.

“Johnny-hyung talks about me?” He can feel his cheeks heating up at the thought, and if anything it makes Yuta coo more over him.

“Of course! He’s been wanting to take you here for ages. Even before that, he saw you for the first time when you were born and we were five, and he thought you were a little angel. Taeyong and I were there, you know, and he wanted to fight us for the right to hold you first out of us three. I almost took him up on that offer,” he winked at Donghyuck, “but he would’ve beat me, I know.”

He stays while Donghyuck finishes his meal and chats about the goings on in the 127 unit. It’s the one he and Johnny are in, similar to unit the Dreamies are in. Mark works with the 127 unit half the time, but he’s also the leader of the Dreamies. He remembers seeing Mark in the elevator that morning, rushing and visibly stressed, and connects the image to the role he apparently fills. It makes a great deal of sense.

According to Yuta, Johnny’s still up to his neck in paperwork. When he sees the Donghyuck frown self-consciously, he quickly tells him it’s not his fault. “It’s just our management,” he says with a bitter glint in his eye, “they strongly discourage the removal of children from their homes, never mind that you were getting beaten, and should’ve been free the second you turned eighteen, but no, they wanted you to stay in school and take care of yourself.”

“Why would I be free?” he questions.

Yuta gave him a pursed-lips frown. “Your mother wanted you to come stay here as soon as she suspected your dad of unsavory behavior. She planned it out with Johnny, too. He would’ve done it as soon as she gave him the go ahead, but then she was found dead, and management found the plans when they were going through her things. They shut it down right then, and Johnny was furious, fought tooth and nail with them for months. The compromise was that you’d be extracted when you were eighteen, but,” Yuta trails off.

“But they didn’t,” Donghyuck thinks back to his birthday, “and on my birthday, he only threatened me.”

Yuta nods solemnly. “They used it as proof that your dad was better, completely ignored the day before and then the day after and rationalized that you would call for Johnny if you ‘really needed it,’” He holds up quotation marks with his fingers. “Trust me, kid, if anyone should be feeling guilty right now, it’s them.”

Donghyuck smiles weakly in affirmation. He’s been chasing around his last bite with his chopsticks for a while now, and he finally pops it in his mouth. Yuta’s smile returns easier than Donghyuck’s, and he leans over to pat the younger boy’s back.

“Everyone here already wants to protect you, Donghyuck-ah,” he reassures, “and it won’t be long before they adore you for yourself, once they’ve all met you. After all, I already do!”

He tries to take Donghyuck’s tray, but Donghyuck jumps up to hug him first. Yuta chuckles, but his arms circle protectively around him.

Once he’s finally left the room, Donghyuck collapses into his bed. He tries to process all that Yuta’s told him, but it’s too much for right now, so he focuses on his mom, who had been ready to save him back when his dad was just making threats. His cheeks are wet with sneaky tears, but the ache is accompanied by a bittersweet thankfulness. He knows he is loved and that his mom was willing to go against protocol because of that love.

There’s a suspicious voice in his head whispering that it’s strange she died so suddenly, right when her plans could’ve succeeded. It’s quiet and cowed, not ready to shout, but deep in his mind like a pulsing vein.

He brushes his teeth and gives up pinpointing it to fall into dreamland.

Chapter Text

He dreams of his fourteenth birthday:

His mom had died almost a year before, and his dad had hit for the first time a month later. He didn’t do it every day, but he never seemed to give any warning as to when and why he’d do it. Donghyuck would come home one day after acing a test, completing all his homework early, and making a new friend, and his dad would give him a black eye for “looking funny.”

On his birthday, however, his dad was a relative saint. Donghyuck woke up to breakfast in bed with hot chocolate, and a vague threat that if he acted like a brat about it, he’d pay for it. He played outside all day since it was summer.

Something changes, and he feels it like a tense shift.

In his dream he feels eyes on him. He notices his dad looking out across their lawn with suspicion, and he’s scared for his younger self, wishes so badly that he could go back and protect himself from the storm. In his dream, rain starts to pour down, and this is where he realizes that something is different than it was, because his fourteenth birthday had been entirely sunny, and he had allowed himself the freedom of carelessness.

His dad calls him back into the house and starts to yell at him that the rain is his fault, and his dad’s eyes flash white like a fire. He feels his dad’s wrath surround him like flames, but they never touch him.

He’s trapped there, in the middle of danger but not touched by it, and a hand grabs his shoulder and pulls.

He wakes up to Johnny holding him tightly against his chest. A monster stands behind Johnny with a tray of breakfast and a box in his hands, studying the two of them almost fondly. He gazes into Donghyuck’s eyes with a bittersweet smile. He clears his throat.

Johnny moves back but keeps his hands on Donghyuck’s shoulders and scans his face. “Johnny-hyung,” Donghyuck whispers, “what happened?”

Johnny smiles hesitantly and turns to look back at the other monster. He’s still looking at him as he answers Donghyuck. “Taeyong was supposed to give you your breakfast,” Donghyuck assumes Taeyong is the one he’s looking at, “but you didn’t answer your door, and when he looked in, he could tell you were having a nightmare.”

Taeyong picks up the account. “I didn’t want you to wake up to an unfamiliar face, so I notified Johnny to come,” he pauses, and smiles, “you might remember Mark?” Donghyuck nods. “I’m his boyfriend.”

Taeyong is almost as comforting a presence as Johnny, and Donghyuck can already feel himself warming up to monster. His hair is as pastel as that of the Dreamies, but he’s clearly older and more mature.

He almost forgets his nightmare as Taeyong and Johnny speak comfortingly to him. Johnny stays next to him, combing fingers through his hair, and Taeyong makes sure he eats and tells him the box has his clothes in it, ready for whenever he decides to get dressed. Eventually he finishes his food, and they reluctantly leave him, Johnny asking if he should stay longer at least three separate times.

He takes a long shower and samples all of his new clothes in the mirror. They fit better than any of the thrift store hand-me-downs he’s worn since his mom died, and he feels a little guilty putting them on, but he likes everything, including the surplus of expensive-looking things Jaemin picked out for him.

When he’s dressed, he decided to try exploring on his own again, or at least go down to the Dreamies’ floor and say, “Hi.”

He runs into Mark while he’s stepping out of the elevator and Mark’s getting in. Donghyuck gets a pat on the back and a distracted smile for his greeting of, “Hi, Mark-hyung!” and counts it a victory.

He looks through the windows as he walks down the hall and sees two of the monsters he hasn’t met yet. A short distance past them, he finds Jeno and awkwardly knocks on the door. Jeno looks up and motions for him to come in, giving him a bright eye smile.

“Donghyuck-ah, you’re wearing the shirt Nana picked out for you!” Donghyuck ducks his head bashfully and nods, smiling back at him. Jeno continues, “He was really hoping you’d like everything. You should go see him; he’ll be really happy that you’re wearing it! Not that I’m not happy to see you,” he quickly reassures, “How are you?”

Donghyuck giggles and responds, “Fine. What’re you doing?”

“Daily checkup on my kid.” Jeno’s smile softens, and he chuckles, “He’s going through his emo phase.”

It strikes Donghyuck that most, if not all, of his friends have children or young adults that they’re looking after, like Johnny had, still has, him. He hopes Jeno’s kid knows how cared for he is.

“Eyeliner and everything?” he asks. The monster laughs and nods. “I’ll go find Jaemin, then,” he tells Jeno.

He leaves to the sound of Jeno shouting, “Tell him I love him!” He’s pretty sure the whole floor heard it because the door was open.

The next person he finds is thankfully Jaemin, already looking for him through the window. He excitedly waves at Donghyuck to come in, so Donghyuck does just that.

“Hyuck-ah, I missed you! You’re wearing one of the shirts I got you, isn’t it so cute?” He tells him this while jumping up from his desk to give Donghyuck a hug, and Donghyuck readily accepts it.

“You saw me yesterday, though?” he teases, making Jaemin pout.

“It was hours, Hyuck-ah, didn’t you miss me, as well?” He pinches Donghyuck’s cheeks and clings to his shoulders when Donghyuck swats him away.

They laugh at each other at that, and Jaemin invites him to sit. Donghyuck relays Jeno’s message, but the mirth in Jaemin’s face makes him think he heard it just as Donghyuck suspected he would. When prompted, he tells Donghyuck about his human charge. “He’s in band, and he plays flute, Hyuck-ah, there aren’t any other boys in his section, but he never complains. He’s such a cool kid!”

He spends the rest of the morning there and in Renjun’s office, listening to them gush about their kids, forgetting about nightmares.

Chapter Text

Eventually it’s time for the monsters to go to lunch and for Donghyuck to go to his room. He hopes that whoever comes with his meal will be as friendly as all the others he’s met.

In the elevator he meets a short monster with catty eyes. He shifts the tray in his hands so that he’s balancing it in one of them and offers the other to Donghyuck.

As he shakes the proffered hand the other introduces himself. “I’m Ten!” When Donghyuck opens his mouth, Ten lets out a frustrated groan and rushes out, “Yes, like the number,” before Donghyuck can even respond. He giggles to himself.

“I was gonna ask if it was ‘cause you’re a ten out of ten,” he says with a half shy, half snarky voice. Ten laughs appreciatively, big and companionably.

“No wonder Johnny likes you, kid, you’re a sweetie,” he snaps back. Donghyuck blushes and ducks his head to the clear amusement of the other.

They step out of the elevator together, and Donghyuck dutifully holds the door for Ten despite his obvious free hand. Ten uses it to pat Donghyuck’s cheek.

The tray holds enough food for the two of them—Ten tells him he gets sympathy hunger, so he planned ahead—so they get to know each other between bites. Ten asks him about his interests and talents and he’s the first one Donghyuck tells about how he loves to sing and to dance.

(He wonders if Johnny already knows that he can sing.)

“I can help you with your dancing!” Ten offers, and he goes on to tell him about the studio on a lower floor of the building that he practices in. Donghyuck asks him if he’ll show him where it is when he has the time, and Ten looks down at their finished meal and tells him they can go now if he feels up to it.

When he steps into the studio minutes later, he’s flooded with memories of dance classes he took ages ago. He was thirteen when his mother died, and he took lessons up until then, but he hasn’t had any in the almost five years since then.

Ten turns on some music and begins to freestyle with a masterful control of his body, and Donghyuck is a little intimidated, but Ten pauses after a few measures and grabs his hand to pull him into it.

He keeps a self-conscious eye on his feet, but Ten will have none of it. His chin gets tugged up, and he grins sheepishly. It’s a silly dance, but Ten’s the one who makes it silly. ‘Don’t worry about it,’ he mouths, ‘just have fun!’

They finish the song like that, and the next one as well, loosening up and having fun. Ten keeps making melodramatic faces at him, and he keeps laughing. Suddenly Ten’s eyes widen like he’s just had an idea, and he runs over to the sound system. A fast EDM song starts playing, and he sits down with a pointed look at Donghyuck, as if to say, ‘Show me what you can do.’

Comfortable in his surroundings, Donghyuck shows him.

He’s not aware of how much he’s missed it until this moment. Dancing is something he’s learned to associate with his mother and with freedom, and he’s finally free to do it, so he feels like his mother is a little bit here, too. Tears blur the corners of his vision.

Ten applauds him when the song is over, loud and whooping. Donghyuck lets himself get pulled into a hug, wetting the shoulder of Ten’s shirt a little. He ducks his head to wipe his eyes.

Ten offers to dance for him in return, to give him a break probably, and so Donghyuck sits down with his back up against the mirrored wall. His earlier free styling has nothing on what he’s doing now at an obviously professional level.

He finishes his routine, and Donghyuck’s struck speechless, clapping as hard as he can with a beaming grin. Ten topples down next to him and leans on his shoulder for support.

“Ya know, Hyuck-ah,” he pants, “we’re glad you’re here.” Donghyuck looks over at him almost in disbelief, but it’s gotten easier to believe the monsters when they say things like this to him.

Ten continues on. “Johnny always talked about you. When your mother was alive, the two of them could talk for hours about how much they adored you. Not in the same way, mind you,” Ten chuckles, as if he’s sharing an inside joke, “Johnny’s never felt like he could be your dad, or even your brother, I don’t think.” It’s a hint to something Donghyuck can’t wrap his head around right now. “Johnny’ll take care of you,” Ten asserts, with a decisive nod.

After a while they get up, and Ten swaggers over to the sound system again. He looks back with a mischievous grin and asks Donghyuck if he’s ever learned how to swing. Donghyuck can feel his face light up before he even says, ‘yes.’ They take turns leading each other and Ten teaches Donghyuck a whole bunch of lifts he’s only seen in videos.

They go through a number of partner dances with mixed laughter and a perseverant desire to learn on Donghyuck’s part, and sometimes they take breaks and freestyle something that resembles ballroom.

Late in the afternoon, there’s a knock on the door. Johnny peeps his head in, and he visibly melts when he sees an unaware Donghyuck laughing as Ten twirls him around. Ten winks at him and beckons him over with one hand.

Johnny sees exactly what Ten’s planning, so he skillfully maneuvers Donghyuck into his arms. The human’s eyes open wide in shock, but he readjusts to the other’s height with minimal stumbling.

“Has Ten been treating you well this afternoon?” Johnny asks him, easy smile on his face. Donghyuck nods excitedly.

“Tennie-hyung’s the best dancer ever, Hyung!” Ten preens at the comment and Johnny pouts at him over Donghyuck’s shoulder.

“Are you stealing away my Donghyuck-ah?” Ten laughs, and Donghyuck rushes to correct him.

“He could never, Hyung, you’re my favorite!” It’s irreversibly true, Donghyuck thinks, and he pouts up at Johnny to make sure he realizes that.

Johnny and Ten share another look.

Chapter Text

It’s time for dinner, but Donghyuck certainly isn’t feeling like being cooped up in his room for another meal. He pouts up at Johnny and opens his eyes as wide and sad as possible.

“Can’t I come eat with you and Tennie-hyung and the others, please?” He makes his lower lip wobble a bit under the “please” and knows he’s practically won Johnny over already by the fat the he can hear Ten snickering in the background.

Johnny himself look incredibly conflicted. “I mean,” he considers, “you’ve already met most of the Dreamies, and you’ve gotten along with everyone else you’ve met,” he spares a glance at Ten. Ten raises his eyebrows in an innocent face as if to say, ‘Your call, man,’ and shrugs. Johnny scowls at him.

“You can come if you sit with me,” Johnny finally decides. Donghyuck pumps a fist into the air and cheers. Ten mutters something about him being whipped that Donghyuck and Johnny both ignore.

Johnny offers him a piggy-back ride which Donghyuck happily accepts. Ten trails the two of them whilst rolling his eyes.

As soon as they walk into the cafeteria, Jaemin shouts, “Hyuck-ah!” and his boyfriends go to shush him before they realize what he’s said. They eagerly wave him over, and Johnny drops him to the ground so he can run to their table. He and Ten follow him with fond grins.

He sits across from Jaemin, and Johnny sits next to him while Ten goes to the other table and starts pestering Taeyong, if Donghyuck remembers correctly, from behind. Jaemin asks him about his afternoon, and he dives into an account of all the various styles of dance he practiced and learned with Ten.

Before he gets deep into it, Jeno interjects from beside Jaemin, “I dance, too! I can teach you some hip hop! Injunnie,” he turns and looks at Renjun, “You can teach him contemporary, can’t you? And ballet?” Renjun agrees easily. Jaemin pouts and begins to whine.

“Nono, what about me? I dance!” He whacks Jeno on the side, and Jeno cringes a little, from the hit or the misunderstanding, Donghyuck can’t tell.

“Of course you’ll help, Nana, it’s just you and I are pretty familiar with each other’s dancing styles. Injunnie would have to teach without as much help,” Jeno reassures, giving Jaemin a peck on the nose. Renjun rolls his eyes at the two and sends a meaningful look to Donghyuck as if to say, ‘Get a load of these guys.’

Donghyuck speaks up while Renjun is still looking his way. “I know the basics of ballet, since Mom enrolled me in a beginner’s class when I was really little, but it’s been a while.”

Renjun smirks and said, “You’re probably better than Nomin, then.”

Hearing this, Jaemin makes a sound of outrage and crows that, “How could you use an incomplete ship name to describe us, Injunnie! Norenmin or die!” Jeno thrusts his fist into the air in agreement.

Johnny chuckles at their antics, body shaking to remind Donghyuck that he’s sitting as close to the other as possible. He blushes and tries to scoot away from Johnny as subtly as he can, but Johnny catches his eye and raises a questioning brow at his movement. Donghyuck smiles exaggeratedly and shakes his head in response. Johnny, unconvinced, wraps his arm around Donghyuck’s shoulders affectionately, essentially trapping Donghyuck.

Norenmin looks on, Jaemin outright giggling and Jeno’s shoulders shaking in an attempt to hide his amusement. Johnny doesn’t appear to notice, but Donghyuck scowls at them each in turn, even Renjun because he has a smug smirk on his face.

They continue dinner like that, planning dance practices and movie nights once they discover that Donghyuck’s missed out on most of the major cinematic works of almost the last five years. They ask him how he even entertained himself, and he mentioned the old CD player and the Michael Jackson albums he used to play on repeat and memorize.

“You can access YouTube on your tablet to watch his music videos, Donghyuck,” Johnny informs him helpfully. Jaemin latches on to a different piece of information.

“You sing?” he reaffirms, eyes wide. Donghyuck nods shyly.

“Not that well, I’m sure. I’ve only sung to my mom and in talent shows when I was little, and they let anyone in talent shows in elementary school.” He fails to mention that the other kids’ moms whispered about how he was probably taking voice lessons if he was so talented at such a young age.

Johnny’s giving him that fond look again. (Johnny’s not sure if he believes that Donghyuck is bad at anything.)

“You have to sing for us sometime,” Jaemin decides firmly, and Donghyuck doesn’t bother fighting him on it for now. Johnny mutters something about wanting to be there for it, and he blushes furiously at the thought of singing not only for his new friends but also for his—

—his other new friend. Johnny’s not his anything except friend. His mind traitorously stutters. Wouldn’t he also be his monster?

Donghyuck tries to pretend he didn’t hear what Johnny said.

Jaemin get distracted by his food, and Donghyuck takes the moment of peace to glance around the room. The two Dreamies he hasn’t met are at his table across from Mark, squealing over how cute he is.

Taeyong, Yuta, and Ten, are at another table with some other monsters. Ten notices him looking their way and waves. Yuta and Taeyong see him waving and look over to Donghyuck curiously. They smile and wave at him, too. Taeil notices and nods at Donghyuck.

He feels incredibly warm here, flushed with all the attention. He feels like he belongs here, and it’s almost overwhelming. Johnny pulls him into his side like he can sense Donghyuck thinking so much, and he knows that he can do anything with this new support that surrounds him.

Chapter Text

Johnny walks Donghyuck to his room when dinner is over, and once he’s sure his human has everything he needs for the night, as well as a long bear hug, he goes down to the Taeyong’s lair.

They call it Taeyong’s lair because Taeyong flits about it like an evil genius, as in his element as he is when he’s dancing, and there are usually some suspicious looking beakers and charts all neatly lined up on the counters.

When Johnny walks in, he finds Taeyong and Mark talking in low, concerned voices. Mark is perched on a counter top, an action punishable by death if committed by anyone other than Mark, and Taeyong leans back between his legs so that Mark can play with his hair. They keep on talking when he walks in, only acknowledging his presence with quick glances in his direction.

“The ’00 line really likes him, especially Jaemin,” Mark is saying, “they’ll want to know about the discovery. I know you won’t tell Chenle and Jisung ‘cause you think they’re too young, but you should at least tell his friends, or him, even.” The last part is accompanied by a sharp tug that has Taeyong visibly flinching.

“Mark, we shouldn’t load this onto them. I shouldn’t have loaded this onto you: you’re already stressed enough as it is!”

Mark is the bridge between the older and younger monsters, and he constantly feels like he has something to prove, whether it’s himself or his fellow Dreamies. The trait endeared him to all of them, most of all Taeyong, but it’s also the cause Taeyong’s greatest concern and Mark’s constant stress.

What they’re talking about right now is the fact that Donghyuck’s dad was removed from his house, and they’ve no idea where he was taken or by who. There are enemies of monsters, namely those who endanger their humans, but usually the enemies are other humans.

The first night they had Donghyuck with them, three or so days ago, they had peformed a checkup while he was still asleep to search him for injuries and anything wrong. They’d found evidence of his monster and human genetics from his mother, but also something suspicious along his legs and sides presumptively from his father.

The best way to describe them would be as translucent scales. They were only noticeable under direct light, and there was little difference in their texture to that of Donghyuck’s human skin. They all have their guesses: Johnny thinks siren.

Part-sirens are rare, though, seeing as they didn’t often mate outside their own species. Sirens aren’t like other sea supernaturals that go on land much, either. They tend to stay amongst themselves. The biggest group reported was found in the Bermuda Triangle. Furthermore, sirens don’t get along with their kind of monster, typically. Johnny’s not sure who started it, but he knows management won’t want a part-siren in one of their headquarters.

They can’t ask the enigma himself, though, because Taeyong thinks he’s too young, and the rest of them wouldn’t go behind Taeyong’s back. They argue, sure, but they’ve agreed to give him a week before they get serious.

“Taeyong,” Mark drawls, “one of us will have to tell him and ask him about it at some point. Probably Johnny,” he flicks his head over the silent third-wheeler, “maybe sooner than later.”

Taeyong meets Johnny’s eyes then, and he, Taeyong, quirks his head to the side. “Management hates sirens,” Taeyong tells them. He’s not informing them; he’s reminding them.

Johnny raises an eyebrow and smirks and says, “I thought siren wasn’t a highly plausible consideration.”

Mark rolls his eyes at their exchange. “We’re not exactly bringing it up as a highly plausible consideration to management.” They youngest grabs a sample box from beside him and holds it up to the light, revealing a glimmer barely visible under the glass. Johnny’s seen it before. “His scales point to him being a great deal siren. It’s possible that his father is a pureblooded one.”

Taeyong turns around, still between Mark’s legs, and fixes him with an unimpressed look. “When have you had time to investigate that?” It’s a reasonable question, seeing as Mark is especially busy. Mark just brushes it off and puts the sample down.

“I think,” Johnny begins carefully, “I think that Donghyuck should at least know his father wasn’t human. We don’t have to interrogate him right off the bat or tell him exactly what we think he is, but he deserves to know. He probably has his own suspicion about the scales: who knows how long he’s had them.”

Taeyong practically pouts at him, and he has to suppress a chuckle when Mark does his little ‘I told you so’ dance. “Fine,” Taeyong grinds out, “you can tell him that, and only that, tomorrow.”

“I can’t believe you listen to Johnny-hyung and not me!” Mark whines, smacking Taeyong’s shoulder. There’s not a serious glower on his face, though, so they’re not that worried.

“Only ‘cause you’ve been getting on him about it non-stop,” surmises Johnny, glancing between the two of them knowingly, “Half the time he agrees to things, it’s because you spend ages convincing him, and then one of the rest of us adds an extra two cents that tip him over the edge.”

Mark rolls his eyes at that and pushes Taeyong back a little, so he can slip off of the counter. Taeyong grabs his hips as he gets down, and his hands linger there for a few seconds. He swoops down to peck Mark’s cheek, and Johnny can feel himself shifting further into the background, so he leaves the room. Through the closing door he hears Taeyong mumble, “Go to bed, baby,” and Mark respond, “Only if you come with.” He hopes the two get their much needed rest.

He bumps into Ten going down the hallway. He catches his arm and warns him not to disturb them with a warning look.

“Did you talk to them?”

“I’ll tell Donghyuck the bare essentials about his father tomorrow,” he reveals. Ten allows himself a victorious hop and turns, so he can walk beside Johnny.

“Mark?” he asks coyly. Johnny chuckles and nods.

“You know them,” he says.

Chapter Text

Donghyuck wakes up closer to eight than he has in years. He only has ten minutes before someone usually arrives with breakfast, but if he gets dressed and brushes his teeth quickly he’ll be able to catch them on the way down and walk back to the cafeteria with them. He squirms into a random pair of jeans from where he’s stacked them on the bottom of the closet. They’re a skinny pair that he vaguely remember Jaemin telling him are supposed to be tight. He’ll have to get used to the feeling.

Thankfully the shirt he pulls out is incredibly loose and flowy to his comfort. He decides it’s his new favorite. The pants are firetruck red, he realizes, so they at least look cool.

After he’s gotten rid of the sleepy taste in his mouth, he races out of his room and to the elevator. He must catch it before anyone else, because he rides it down alone. When the door slides open, it reveals Johnny with a hurried look about him and a tray, but the face relaxes when he sees Donghyuck step out. Donghyuck naturally beams at him.

He tries to take the tray from him, but Johnny practically plays keep away with it. “Hyuuung,” he draws out, pouting, but Johnny just laughs at him and walks beside him to the cafeteria. Donghyuck enters the room still pouting, and when Jaemin sees him with such a dour expression he swats at Johnny’s arms in automatic defense of his friend. Donghyuck’s pout turns into a sly mirk.

Johnny finally gives him his tray and tells him he has to talk to him later. At Jaemin’s indignant noise, he tacks on, “In private.”

“He can tell you on his own later, but it’s his information to have first,” Johnny firmly tells Jaemin, along with his boyfriends who are obviously listening in. Donghyuck tries to scarf down his breakfast after that, but a warning glance from Johnny and Jaemin have him slowing down slightly.

Jaemin hugs Donghyuck when he gets up to leave. “Come to the office once Johnny’s told you. It doesn’t have to be about whatever he tells you, but I’ll love the company.” He says it with a reassuring smile that Donghyuck is ever grateful for.

Johnny guides him from the cafeteria and to the elevator with an arm around his shoulders. They go up two floors and the hallway they walk through looks a little like that of the Dreamies, except that a few of them don’t have windows for walls.

Donghyuck can tell which one is Johnny’s by the name plate, and now he has a last name to tie to him that he had never thought to ask for. A traitorous corner of his mind giggles about “Seo Donghyuck, and he blushes firetruck red trying to immediately push the thought away.

Johnny motions to a worn couch, and he sinks into it and feels himself getting smaller. Johnny plops down next to him with a folder he’s picked up from his desk. He doesn’t get any smaller. Donghyuck resists the urge to act grumpy about the unfair situation.

Johnny sits there next to him for a long second, eyes flitting between the folder in his hands and Donghyuck to his side. He finally flips the folder open and angles it, so Donghyuck can read the information on the first sheet. It’s nothing substantial, really, just a description of the scales and their cellular makeup that Donghyuck probably won’t be able to make anything out of.

“When I first brought you here,” Johnny begins, uncertainly, “we did a checkup on you. Just to check your vitals and see if your dad had left any permanent damage.” He leaves it in the air for a moment, and then trudges on, “We found the scales.” Donghyuck stiffens.

“Did you find the gills?” It’s spoken lowly.

“No. Sirens’ gills aren’t visible in their human form,” Johnny places a comforting hand on Donghyuck’s knee, “If that’s what you are, at least. We haven’t drawn any conclusions yet.”

Donghyuck nods slowly. “I pretended I was a mermaid when I was little. Ariel was my favorite Disney princess and everything.” He giggles, “Mom told me I was cooler than a mermaid.”

Johnny nods seriously and says, “Obviously.” He looks down at Donghyuck with a softer look and asks, “Were you scared to tell me? How did you hide it?”

Donghyuck ducks down uncomfortably. “Mom always said I shouldn’t trust anyone with that. Dad said everyone else hated sirens, so what was the difference if he did.”

It sheds light on a few parts, but not everything. Johnny still doesn’t see the logic in hating Donghyuck from any point of view. Donghyuck may not even be mostly human, but he’s still Johnny’s, and he will be protected until Johnny dies. That protection lets up not a moment before, and not for a few years after, if Johnny’s suspicions about the Dreamies and their loyalties prove true.

He gets down on the ground in front of Donghyuck and takes Donghyuck’s hands into his own and looks him directly in the eyes. “I won’t lie, Donghyuck-ah, there aren’t pleasant sentiments for sirens around here, but I can guarantee you that most of us don’t care about you being one. I swear I won’t leave you or hate you.”

Donghyuck eyes him with pursed lips before he falls forward into his arms and clings tightly. “I haven’t been in form in weeks,” he whispers, “haven’t sung in longer.”

“Sing for me,” Johnny urges.

Donghyuck begins to hum something. It’s nonsense at first, then scat, Michael Jackson, ballads. They’re all quiet snippets, and it’s obvious he’s making a conscious effort to tone down his manipulation. Johnny’s enchanted anyway.

Donghyuck tells Jaemin an hour later—“Yeah, so I’m half siren,”—and Jaemin keeps him in his office for a while to hug him and make dumb puns—“I don’t see why you were concerned about this; it cod have been worse,”—that make him want to slap him.

After that, he goes to his room, fills up the bath, and lets his legs meld together into a tail.

Chapter Text

It all comes together like this:

The sirens aren’t trying to hide. They’re gathered in the house Donghyuck used to live in. It stopped being a home for him nearly five years ago, but it works just fine for his kin that apparently welcome each other with open arms. He was never considered one of them. He was a pawn, or bait, or whatever they wanted out of him and got.

They find out when Johnny skims over the security footage of Donghyuck’s house. Later, he’ll tell Donghyuck he saw every beating, and he’ll apologize for not rebelling, and Donghyuck will easily forgive him. Right now, he hasn’t checked it more than passively since they rescued his—not a human, not even a kid, but his, nonetheless—and now he looks at it and sees someone walking into it who isn’t Donghyuck’s dad. He alerts Taeyong, who predictably comes with Mark. They take their turns looking at the footage, including the other shots that Johnny’s isolated of sirens coming and going.

They decide together to ask Donghyuck what he wants to do with the information. Donghyuck is curious, and his eyes are a little dark with the feeling of exclusion. He asks them to let him know what they find out.

Later, when Taeyong and Mark leave, he asks Johnny if it’s okay that he wants revenge. Johnny doesn’t hesitate to nod. “I want to kill him,” Donghyuck whispers with trembling lips, “I want to hurt him.”

Johnny pulls him into his lap and tucks him under his chin. “It’s okay,” he whispers back, “I’ll be in your corner.”

They do a stakeout of the Lee property with noise cancelling headphones. More sirens come in and out of the front door, each with dark looks in their eyes, and they can tell there is some plot in play. It’s reported back to all the monsters and Donghyuck in a conference room, with pictures on a projector and Mark gesticulating wildly. Jaemin and Johnny sit protectively around Donghyuck, and Ten gets up just to stand behind him like a guard, and Yuta gets up to stand beside him. All of the monsters have given Donghyuck their protection, even the ones that haven’t personally met him, and they will prove it to him.

They confront the sirens in the middle of a meeting. Donghyuck is there with them because the rest of them have their trusty noise-cancelling headphones on. Donghyuck has a mouthpiece that he can turn on to tell them stuff.

His father walks to the front with a smirk and sneers at him. “Finally come back with a bunch of body guards?”

Donghyuck doesn’t flinch. “Yes.” He scans the rest, all staring at him like he’s a spectacle, a lab rat. “You know, you always said, ‘Everyone else hates sirens,’ yet everyone I’ve met since the last time I saw you seems to like me. Maybe it’s just your bad social skills.”

The other sirens hiss at that. They open up their mouths and reveal lines of shark teeth, and Donghyuck bares his own in response. Some of them shriek in high tones, and he screeches back at them. The monsters eye their surroundings uneasily, but Donghyuck isn’t scared in the least, for the first time in the long time in this house.

The sirens start to sing then, to overwhelm him with a choir of angelic demons. The weaker among them bow out of the song. They affect each other, and they would affect his monsters, Donghyuck realizes with dread, but he doesn’t feel a thing.

When Donghyuck was a child, he sang in a children’s choir. They went on a field trip once, and they saw an opera. Donghyuck’s not sure why their choir director thought elementary students would appreciate opera, but he had fun on the trip. The lead had the entire audience in the palm of her hand, and the kids returned to school raving about her. Donghyuck had appreciated her, but he’d appreciated the opera as a whole more. The other students had been hung up on that lead. Looking back, that was his first experience with another siren using their powers. This school of them is no different.

He begins to sing back at them. Neither party sings to the other, but at. These are attacks. He sings at them and his father, so close in front of him but harmless, falls first. It’s ironic that this creature that used to have so much power over him is weaker than him in this one area, despite that Donghyuck is less of a siren than he.

They will theorize later that Donghyuck’s mixed blood makes him stronger, not weaker, than others of his kind.

For now, he keeps singing.

They fall, one after the other, toppling into each other sluggishly like zombies. It’s wonderfully pathetic, and when the last one falls, to their sleep or death Donghyuck hasn’t decided, he turns to his friends. They look at him in a combination of awe and pride. This isn’t a side of him they ever thought they’d see, but they don’t sleight him for it.

They take a few in for questioning and put them in soundproofed rooms. They leave the rest with a sticky note on the fridge telling them to hide. It has Donghyuck’s signature on it. They kill Donghyuck’s dad.

“That Christian figurehead, Jesus,” Taeyong considers with a wry smirk, “said that if someone were to cause a child to go astray they should be tied to a millstone and drowned. Too bad that wouldn’t hurt this one.”

Yuta interrogates the sirens they’ve taken prisoner. There was a plan all along to use Donghyuck’s mom or Donghyuck against the monsters, but that didn’t work because in less than a week of rescuing Donghyuck, they geared up to attack.

Donghyuck gets to know Chenle and Jisung. They’re the first monsters he’s met who are younger than him, not counting Jaemin because he’s just as protective as any of the hyungs. They’re protective of Donghyuck as well, but they leave room for Donghyuck to be a hyung himself. He adores them.

He’s not sure of his official, longterm role, but he plays it by ear. He takes some of Mark’s jobs, communicating between the Dreamies and the 127 hyungs. He dances with Ten in their free time, and sometimes others join them, like Taeyong, Jaemin, Jeno, Renjun, Jisung, and Sicheng. He likes it best when Johnny comes.

He sings as he races through the hallways. He pushes no manipulation into his voice.

There’s hinting and cuddling from Johnny. When he turns nineteen, Johnny gives him a bouquet of aster and red tulips.