Work Text:
The Collectors
Seungyoon spluttered as he tried to keep his head afloat and failed, swallowing another mouthful of soapy dishwater. He could feel his wings becoming waterlogged, weighing him down along with his massive regret for insisting to split up. This was supposed to be a fun and highly important mission: gathering supplies for the Spring Festival. Yet here he was, about to die on the very day that was supposed to celebrate new life and regeneration. How ironic, he thought bitterly.
He had been so oblivious this morning, rising with the sun, feeling extra motivated today, as if the energy around him was humming and alive. His calendar, which was neatly tacked to the wall with a large thumbtack he had found while scavenging once, said that today was the spring equinox, and the official start of summer. It was circled in bright neon green with several stars around it, and after gazing at it thoughtfully for a moment, Seungyoon ran over to the corner of the room where he hung the various pens he found, selected the purple highlighter, and with some effort due to the writing utensil being about two inches taller than him, made a large checkmark in the middle of the tiny square. Satisfied with his work, he neatly replaced the pen in its spot in the corner (he had his various treasures labeled and organized according to the colors they made) he excitedly began to get ready for today.
His head disappeared beneath the surface again, for what he thought might be the last time, when a strong hand suddenly grasped his own flailing one, pulling him back up. Soon, the soaking fairy was hauled back up past the slippery metallic rim of the sink and into warm arms.
“Seungyoon! Good gods!” that was Jinu, who was holding onto him as if his life depended on it, “You absolute lunatic! You could have died.”
Yoon coughed a few times in response, before relaxing into the hold of his worried friend and closing his eyes.
“Mino and Hoon are going to have a heart attack when they see you.” the elder tisked after a few brief moments of silence as they processed just how severe the situation actually had been.
“Ughhhh.” Yoon groaned, hiding his face into the other fairy’s shoulder. He was definitely going to get a talking to.
“Here, you’re shivering, let’s get you into the sunlight, okay?” Jinu comforted, patting the top of his head, which was still slightly damp and soapy, dampening Jinu’s own clothing.
Yoon’s small backpack was still sitting by the side of the sink where he had left it, along with a few of the items he had already collected: a sugar cube, a ring, a small jar of glitter and a few fake jewels. Jinu picked it up and flung it across the gap between the counter and the island, which was receiving the full morning sun, before picking up Yoon under his arms and flying over, sitting him down, a dripping and slightly miserable puddle of wet wings and soaked clothes.
“What were you trying to get over there?”
Yoon pointed meekly to the disk soap dispenser.
“Bubbles,” he replied sadly, “I had the idea we could use it to make bubbles and have bubble wands for all the little kids.”
Admittedly, it really had seemed like a good idea at the time. On multiple occasions, he had peered over the ledge of the sink into the water and seen the bubbles, and they looked so beautiful when they caught the sunlight and reflected all the colors of the rainbow, just like fairy wings. But it was generally bad manners to go around touching people’s wings, which children tended to naturally like to do, since they had none themselves before the age of 8 or 9, so Yoon had thought that if he gave them bubbles to play with it would both keep them occupied and give the adults some relief from constantly having random small children poking at their wings.
Jinu internally melted at his younger friend’s reasoning, even if the fallen soap dispenser and, obviously, the predicament he had luckily stumbled upon, Seungyoon’s methods of acquiring the substance hadn’t been the most well-planned.
“Oh Yoonie. Your big heart is going to get you killed one day”
Meanwhile a few rooms away, the two other members of the collectors were attempting to open a tube of lipstick.
“Tell me again why we need this?” Hoon grunted as he yanked the top off, which sent him stumbling back across the smooth wooden surface.
“My paints, for the hundredth time! I need a nice red, and this stuff humans put on their lips has amazing color.” Mino ignored Hoon sitting flat on his ass, still holding the top of the lipstick tube, and making no move to help him up. “Come over here and help me.”
“Oh, come over here and help me,” Hoon mocked under his breath, “Hoony do this, Hoony do that. Pfft. And then whenever I need help it's always ‘LaTer’. Aish these kids.”
He heaved himself up and chucked aside the cap. Between the two of them, they were able to carefully twist out the stick of brilliant red. Instantly, Mino whipped out a tiny blade he had jerry rigged together and began carefully and inconspicuously scraping off thick curls into a small jar.
Hoon rolled his eyes and heaved a sigh before glancing around for other things they could grab while Mino was fixated on his idiotic lipstick paint. The room was small, and painted a light pastel green, with a twin bed up against the window and plenty of natural light. The vanity was by far the most useful thing as the closet was considered very dangerous, and the bed didn’t have anything of interest on it besides tons of heavy pillows and a brightly colored comforter. Something over in the corner caught his eye, and he walked closer to examine it. Granted this was not any of the actual items on this list, which included glitter, string and nail polish. Hopefully Yoon and Jinu were collecting what they were supposed to from the kitchen, Hoon had been looking forward to the candied delicacy.
Just as he was about to call Mino over, they heard the sound of buzzing wings before Jinu and then Yoon alighted on the dresser.
“Mission accomplished.” Jinu held up the bag and shook it a few times.
“Ah Yoon you seem a little damp? Get sprayed by the faucet again?” Hoon jokes, ruffling thé younger’s hair.
“No actually I fell in the sink,” came the mumbled reply, intentionally said in a way that Yoon hoped Hoon wouldn’t catch it.
He sent a frantic glance at Jinu, but the elder merely shrugged and turned away, signaling that he expected Seungyoon to tell them what happened.
“What was that now?”
“I said I fell in the sink!” He finally gave up. The other two were going to find out at some point anyway, he may as well own up now.
He braced himself to yet another lecture from Seunghoon about being careful, but none came. Mino, luckily, hadn't heard and was still busy perusing the lipstick collection for new colors. The older fairy just sighed heavily and shook his head.
“You're lucky Jinu was there.”
“You’re not going to lecture me, then?” Yoon’s face lit up.
“No. But you’re going to have to tell Mino.”
“Ughhhhhhh,” Yoon shook the remaining droplets of water off of his wings and flopped down on top of a soft but brightly colored piece of fabric crumpled up on the corner of the dresser.
“So have you guys almost got everything? It’s nearly noon, we should head back soon.” Jinu rifled through the contents of Hoon’s small pouch, humming in approval. “Someone drag Mino away from all of that before he goes crazy. We’re really not supposed to take too much stuff.”
“Ya! Mino! Get over here!” Hoon waved the fourth member of the party over from where he was.
Dragging a bag that was now bulging dangerously, he approached the small group.
“Sorry, I just—uh Yoonie why are you sitting on someone’s bra?”
“I’m—sorry, a what??” Yoon’s eyes grew wide and his mouth dropped open.
“A bra. As in…” Mino made vague motions with his hands as poor Seungyoon shot up from where he’d been sitting.
Hoon was laughing so hard he nearly fell over and all of Seungyoon including his wings had turned a BRIGHT shade of red.
“Ah….Ha….um...oops.” He fumbled around awkwardly, as Mino patted his cheek in reassurance, trying his best to contain his laughter for the sake of the poor embarrassed man.
“Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone.” It was a small reassurance, but it helped a bit.
What was not reassuring, however, was that Jinu’s expression changed as he held up his hand signaling them all to be quiet.
“What is it?” Seungyoon asked, voice barely above a whisper.
“We’re being watched.”
“By a human?!” Fearful terror laced the youngest’s voice, reflecting the similar emotions of the other two.
They all knew the punishment for being seen.
Jinu shook his head lightly, and pointed towards the bed. There, staring back at them with yellowish green eyes was a large cat, it’s rumbling purr suddenly becoming very audible. It opened its mouth a bit and chirped, clearly frustrated that it couldn’t reach them from where they were on the dresser. However, this new development would make leaving quite difficult, seeing as they had to fly over to the window, and the cat was liable to swipe at them, her reach extended by the height of the bed.
“I have a plan,” Hoon spoke finally, handing his bag to Mino, “Here, carry this.”
“Seunghoon if your ‘plan’ involves doing something idiotically reckless then I suggest you take that bag back right now,” Jinu warned, but the other ignored him.
“I’m going to fly down to the floor and distract, you all fly to the window.” Seeing the other three start opening their mouths in protest, he continued, “once I’m on the ground I can easily fly up if she gets too close, and she won’t have the advantage of being on the bed, so she can’t jump nearly as high.”
“I don’t know, hyung,” Yoon mumbled, “cats can jump pretty high.”
“Yes but she’s a fat cat, Yoonie. Look at her.” Mino pointed, giggling slightly.
It was true. The silvery gray cat flicked her tail back and forth languidly, then rolled over.
Without wasting any more time, Hoon jumped off the dresser and fluttered down onto the floor. That caught the cat’s attention and she immediately began to purr, bouncing gracefully off the bed and landing a bit too close for comfort to Hoon. Taking a last look to be sure Hoon was still safe, Jinu grabbed one of the bags and made a gesture with his head towards the window. Reluctantly, Mino and Yoon followed suit. It took all three of them to manage to pull the window open wide enough to get out, and once they were done, Jinu turned to Hoon, who, to his horror, was actually scratching the cat between her ears as she purred contentedly.
“Lee Seunghoon you nearly gave me a HEART ATTACK!” Jinu hissed when Hoon joined them on the windowsill, looking smug. “You’ve done this before haven't you.”
“Maybe.”
“Oh Hyung you’ve pet a cat??? Is she fluffy? Maybe we could use her fur for like a really cool cape or something!” Yoon’s eyes began to sparkle with possibilities.
“Absolutely not, we’re pushing our luck as it is. Let’s get back. We still have a lot of work to do.”
***
Later that night, Mino and Jinu watched sitting perched on a branch as Yoon amazed the kids with bubbles that sparkled all kinds of colors in the light of the firefly lanterns.
“Huh. That’s new. Where’d he get those?” Mino remarked, sipping his rose water.
“Ah that. Did he not tell you about the sink incident this morning? How strange....” Jinu faked innocent confusion as Mino’s eyebrows shot up.
“The. What?? I’ll be right back.”
Jinu’s hair was ruffled slightly by the flurry from Mino’s wings as he flew down to take Yoon aside.
“Oh boy, someone finally found out I see,” Hoon gave a chuckle beside Jinu as he took a seat, watching the festival below.
“Mm. Days like these sometimes it’s hard to forget Yoonie will be king one day.”
“Well, Maybe this is what makes him a good leader. The willingness to put everyone before himself.”
They were silent for a while, listening to the laughter and music drift up towards them as the celebration continued. Hoon lifted his glass delicately to clink it with Jinu’s.
“Happy Festival of Life, Jinu.”
“Happy Festival.”
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