Archive of Our Own

it’s almost become expected for the high-pitched scream to ring though the apartment when hoseok goes to take his usual bath. namjoon and yoongi barely look up, because they already know what’s coming. they just wait… and wait… until—

“please collect your fucking corpse! stupid fucking vampire! there’s blood everywhere, you sloppy eater!”

only seconds later, hoseok comes stomping into the bathroom. for a siren, he looks especially livid; it’s frightening, but in a horny sort of way.

“i’m fucking over this,” hoseok says, though clenched teeth. “if i run into one more corpse when i have to hydrate, i’m going to rip his throat out with my teeth. where is he, anyway?”

yoongi just shakes his head, while namjoon shrugs and nods toward the bedroom door of their elusive vampire roommate. “i mean, probably sleeping. it’s the morning; he’s probably just gone to bed.”

“i’m waking him up,” hoseok says. when he marches toward the bedroom door, neither namjoon nor yoongi stop him. they watch passively as hoseok nearly kicks down the door and waltzes in, knowing better than to stop him—an angry siren is not a siren you want to be around.

they watch as he comes back out, all but dragging their roommate behind him, and smile awkwardly as they come face to face with the grumpy vampire.

“you have to stop leaving dead bodies in the bathroom,” hoseok says, once he’s sat down. “we’ve asked you repeatedly to clean after yourself after you’ve eaten. i don’t think i’m being unreasonable by asking you not to leave corpses lying around.”

namjoon and yoongi chime in, too. they may not have been the ones to walk in on a murder scene this time, but they have before. they’ve all experienced it multiple times and still haven’t fully gotten used to the horror of it all. it’s not something you get used to very easily, if at all.

their vampire roommate just looks at them with disdain for a moment, reminding the three of why they’ve never particularly liked their fourth roommate, before softly shaking his head. “you don’t respect me at all. you never have. you know i sleep during the day, and yet you drag me out here. and i have to eat, i don’t know what you want from me?”

“to not leave your food in the bathroom!” hoseok says, jumping to his feet out of frustration. “we’ve tried so hard to stay respectful, we’ve tried to adapt to make you feel welcome, we’ve constantly let everything slide, but enough is enough. why should we respect you, when you don’t respect us?”

“listen,” namjoon begins. he laces his fingers together on his knees and sighs softly. “this isn’t the first or the second time we’ve asked. this is, what? the tenth time? the fifteenth time? i don’t think it’s disrespectful of us to ask you to eat outside of the apartment, or in your bedroom, or, hell, in the bathroom, so long as you clean up after yourself. don’t make us out to be the bad guys, because we’ve tried very hard to accommodate you as much as possible.”

as expected, their roommate isn’t to reason with. he just looks at each of them as though they’ve just insulted his mother right in front of him—or, even worse, as though they’ve just offered him some garlic. “you know what? i won’t stand for this disrespect. i am a vampire. i consume human prey, as i’ve told you time and time again, i have to eat—”

“the problem isn’t that you have to eat,” yoongi tries to reason, feeling hopelessly annoyed, wishing their roommate would just see for once what they’re trying to tell him. “it’s that—”

“i’ll move out,” he says curtly. “i’m obviously not welcomed here, so i’m moving out. i’ll go somewhere where i am respected.”

namjoon wants to intervene. he wants to convince their roommate that there’s a less drastic solution, but he shuts up when yoongi jabs him in the side. when he looks over, he can just about guess what yoongi’s trying to tell him.

let the bastard move out.

“okay,” namjoon says. he looks back over at their roommate.

“okay!” their roommate says, very obviously pissed.

“okay,” yoongi says, with a short nod.

“okay!”

hoseok nods, too. “fine. please, do.”

“i don’t need your permission,” the vampire says, childishly.

and so their corpse problem is solved. it’s, perhaps, not the solution they’d considered, but it may be the best solution yet. they’d never really liked him, the same way he hadn’t ever liked them. it’d be better for all of them.

“you know,” namjoon says, a few days after their vampire problem has left their lives for good. “i love that it’s just the three of us, i really do, but… uh… what are we going to do? i liked the share of rent i had to pay. i don’t want it to go up.”

yoongi and hoseok hum in agreement.

“but we can’t really find another stranger, because look what happened last time,” yoongi says. he groans, and drops his forehead onto the coffee table they’re all sat around.

“that’s not even the biggest problem,” hoseok sighs. “do you remember how hard it was to find that asshole in the first place? there aren’t many beings like us looking for a place to stay, and i don’t want to have to hide what i am in my own home.”

“i also don’t want to have to get used to a new roommate all over. we barely got used to this one,” yoongi chimes in.

they’re all quiet for a bit, while they think about their current predicament. finding a fourth roommate had always been hard for several reasons; not only are they looking for someone who is okay with the fact that the three of them are dating, but they also need someone who is either a mythological creature like them, or aware of their existence. surprisingly, the first condition is the easiest to satisfy.

it’s namjoon who frowns, who cocks his head and purses his lips. “hey… hasn’t taehyung been looking for a new place?”

yoongi’s brows shoot up, while hoseok’s eyes light up.

“that’s right!” hoseok says. “he has! he came to complain just the other day that apartment hunting is going awfully!”

“well…” yoongi says. “what’s stopping us?”

they all exchange a few looks, before they end up nodding and namjoon quickly whips out his phone to call taehyung and see if he’s interested. they all gather around it, until namjoon puts it on speaker so that they can talk between the four of them without a hassle.

in their enthusiasm at having found such a great solution to their problem, there’s one minor detail that escapes them: as far as they’re aware, taehyung doesn’t know what they actually are. taehyung isn’t a mythological creature. taehyung doesn’t know about the existence of supernatural beings. taehyung is just an ordinary human.

they’ll remember soon enough.

when they first propose the idea, sweet taehyung is ecstatic. he’s been so worried about finding a new place, almost positive that it was a hopeless endeavor and that he was going to be stuck with his shitty roommate for a while.

they make quick work of setting everything in motion, taehyung wanting to leave his old place as soon as possible, and namjoon, hoseok and yoongi eager to have him move in.

unlike the three roommates, taehyung realises from the very beginning that he’s going to have to navigate some obstacles when he moves in.

there’s the first obstacle: his crush on the three boyfriends. it’s been there for a while, and he’s never felt the urge to act on it, so he feels like it won’t be too much of a problem. by now, he knows not to blush constantly around them. his feelings for them are merely a nuisance he’s learned to avoid.

he’s a little worried how the situation’s going to change when they move in, considering how much time they’re going to be spending together all of a sudden, but he’s not that worried about his crush. not compared to his second obstacle.

see, like namjoon, hoseok and yoongi, he’s got a bit of a secret he hasn’t shared with them. like them, it concerns his nature. like them, he hasn’t shared quite a big part of himself with them.

taehyung is a witch, and he’s never told his friends, because he believes them to be human and ignorant to the mythological world taehyung comes from.

still, taehyung is confident he can keep it from them. he’s had to before, with his old roommate, which was manageable enough, so he doesn’t see how it’s going to be different this time around. it’ll be okay. taehyung’s prepared.

meanwhile, the three roommates don’t start freaking out until about three days into their new living situation. they’re used to being out in the open and not having to hide their nature and, while they’ve never been the type to flaunt any of their features even in private, because they’re simply not that comfortable doing that, they do have a few habits that are hard to explain to a human.

namjoon, yoongi and hoseok are in the living room, relaxing a little and talking about how happy they are to have taehyung move in with them. since they still haven’t realised the important detail they’ve forgotten, namjoon doesn’t hesitate to shed his human body for a bit and whip out his scales and horns and wings and tail. he goes full imugi for a bit, because why not? he feels like it, and hoseok and yoongi love seeing his natural form, too. he could use a nap while floating calmly.

in a normal apartment, he wouldn’t be able to do this, but they have a very big living room for that reason alone. it’s the reason they need that fourth roommate to still live comfortably. without that fourth roommate, their living cost would start to get uncomfortable.

no one sees the issue with namjoon floating about in his imugi form. he’s not that big when he isn’t at his full potential, so there shouldn’t be a problem. right?

except there is, the moment the keypad of their front door starts beeping, alerting them of the fact that taehyung’s unlocking the front door.

“oh, taehyung’s home,” hoseok says. he smiles widely, happy to have taehyung home to liven up the place with his bright laughter and warm voice. it’s not that his boyfriends don’t contribute to a nice environment at home; it’s just that taehyung is… taehyung. whatever that means. he knows namjoon and yoongi understand without having to be explained in painstaking detail. they understand what taehyung’s like. they feel the same way about him.

“oh, fuck,” yoongi says. “taehyung’s home.”

hoseok’s face morphs into a frown, not understanding where yoongi’s reaction is coming from, until he sees namjoon float around idly in the corner of his eye and realises what’s going on.

namjoon. with scales. he’s so undoubtedly an imugi right now that it’s not even funny anymore—there’s not a human characteristic to be found. taehyung’s going to walk in any moment and see and, most likely, freak out.

this is the important thing they’d forgotten about. taehyung isn’t supposed to find out about them. taehyung doesn’t know.

“joon-ah!” hoseok whisper-yells. he runs straight for namjoon and launches himself right onto his neck, intent on shaking him out of his slumber. meanwhile, yoongi dashes toward the front door in hopes of intercepting taehyung with the shittiest excuse he can come up with in the time it takes to get to him.

by sheer dumb luck, they manage to weasel themselves out of that tight situation. yoongi holds taehyung up long enough that, by the time they make it into the living room, namjoon is sat straight as a ruler on the couch. he’s smiling mechanically to show that he’s very much human, has been very much human this whole time, like he hasn’t just been hovering right over the living room floor to air out his claws and horns and wings.

“we have to be more careful with that,” yoongi says, as soon as taehyung’s left for his bedroom to give his last few things a place in his new room. “he cannot find out.”

namjoon’s too busy rubbing his face and feeling bad for nearly outing them to respond. he feels hoseok’s hand on his shoulder, squeezing and rubbing it and telling him it’s alright, that it could’ve happened to any one of them.

“while we’re at it,” yoongi goes on. he actually sits down now and the frown on his face is so severe that it compels namjoon to look up and glance at him in poorly contained apprehension. “since we all… you know, we all have a little crush on him, let’s also promise not to use this opportunity to get closer to him romantically, okay? it’d be wrong, i think. i mean, not only are we hiding at least half of our lives from him, but we’re the ones who asked him to move in. i don’t want it to look like we had an ulterior motive.”

“i think you’re getting ahead of yourself, hyung,” namjoon mutters. “there’s no way he’d return our feelings, anyway. can you imagine? three guys, who happen to be dating each other, coming up to you and telling you they like you?”

hoseok snorts. “hey, i’d fuck us.”

yoongi sighs in exasperation. “of course you would.”

while they try their best to keep taehyung away from any incriminating situations, there are multiple incidents where they nearly show taehyung what they are.

there are several times where hoseok’s just settled in their bathtub, ready to soak for a little while and let his tail out, when taehyung gets the brilliant idea to step into the bathroom, for example.

luckily, hoseok’s hasn’t been caught yet so far. either yoongi or namjoon have come to his rescue, distracting taehyung long enough for hoseok to slip out of the tub, or, in one particularly lucky case…

“oh, hyung!” taehyung says, as he accidentally walks in on hoseok bathing. he slaps his hands over his mouth and pulls a face. “i’m so sorry, i didn’t realise you were in here!”

hoseok just stares, wide-eyed, thinking he’s been caught, that taehyung’s about to freak out or faint or who knows, really. he hasn’t experienced any human finding out about the existence of merpeople, but there’s a first for everything.

the universe seems to be on hoseok’s side, because he’s chosen today of all days to play with some bath foam. he’s put in so much of the stuff that he’s only visible from his chest up. his tail, by a stroke of luck, is fully hidden underneath the foam. to an outsider, as well as to taehyung, hoseok looks like any regular old human bathing.

hoseok remains frozen while he watches taehyung walk to the sink to grab whatever he’d come for, babbling happily and throwing in a few apologies here and there for walking in on him. he knows he only has to make one wrong move, one twitch of his tail, one splash, for taehyung to see.

“sorry, hyung!” taehyung says. he smiles, and then pulls the door shut. hoseok finally breathes out again and sinks below the layer of foam for a little while to calm himself down.

what the fuck.

he can feel his heart thump against his ribs, while he thinks about his sheer dumb luck, feeling like the universe has just given him a loving kiss on the forehead and a pat on the head.

and maybe it has. maybe the universe has decided to have mercy on him. or maybe it’s something else. maybe taehyung’s just too oblivious to see all the signs.

hoseok doesn’t leave much evidence behind but some wet floors, but it’s a different story for yoongi and for namjoon.

there are the very obvious tells, the same ones hoseok has, of their natural forms. yoongi, as a tiny fairy, could easily hide, but if he were to be caught, there’s absolutely no way he could talk himself out of anything.

namjoon’s imugi form isn’t easy to explain, either, but at least he can pretend to be someone else. all people would see is a dragon form; no one would be able to tell it’s namjoon.

they do have other tells. yoongi leaves a lot of fairy dust behind, for example, which will leave the apartment covered for days after he’s flown around.

taehyung asks after the glitter. he smiles and asks, while laughing, who has been doing arts and crafts, and if he can join in. yoongi laughs awkwardly and says he likes scrapbooking sometimes.

there’s also namjoon, who leaves scales on the floor. it’s inevitable for an imugi, and he cleans up after himself, so it should be fine, except… scales are even harder to explain than fairy dust.

for some reason, taehyung just doesn’t see it. they all know he’s seen the scales. he’s stepped on them multiple times, which hurts. he walks barefoot most of the day and some of those scales can be quite sharp.

yoongi, namjoon and hoseok have held their breath while taehyung stooped to pick up a scale, look at it, shrug, and throw it in the trash. no confused frowns, no questions or commentary. nothing.

they don’t understand how he hasn’t started asking questions yet. there have been so many suspicious moments, so many situations where the three have had to scramble to awkwardly keep him out of the living room while one of them transformed back to their human form.

how could he not see? why is he not asking questions? how could this be?

the thing is, taehyung is far too busy keeping his own magic hidden to pay attention to any of the obvious signs. he does see the glitter and thinks huh, looks a lot like fairy dust, but he thinks nothing of it, because how could there be a fairy in their apartment?

he sees the scales and thinks interesting! those look a lot like imugi scales. they have the same shine and thickness to them and then he shrugs it off, because what would an imugi do here? one of his roommates would have noticed and freaked out if there’d been one in the living room. taehyung would have been tipped off already.

aside from the fact that he’s busy hiding his magic from them, he’s also far too busy figuring out how much magic he can put in their food and drink until it becomes too suspicious.

he’s not poisoning them or anything. he’s not trying to manipulate them, either. he just puts some extra energy in yoongi’s coffee when he looks sleepy in the morning, or he slips hoseok a little magic to warm him up when he complains that it’s too cold outside. sometimes, namjoon’s very groggy when he wakes up and taehyung has just the thing to cheer him up. just a little touch of magic; that’s all. he wants them to be comfortable and happy, warm and awake. he just wants to help them in little ways that come extremely easy to him.

aside from the magic, there’s also a third issue that keeps him from seeing the obvious. his crush. it hasn’t quieted down at all, even though he knows it’s wrong to be lusting after them like that. they’re his hyungs. his roommates. and they’re already dating each other. it’s wrong on so many levels, and yet none of it seems to stop taehyung from feeling the way he does.

he’s so busy trying to push down his feelings that he doesn’t see anything else. he doesn’t see the obvious signs of the supernatural, nor does he see the way namjoon, yoongi and hoseok glance at him in the same way he glances at them when he thinks they aren’t looking.

obviously, namjoon, yoongi and hoseok’s luck is going to run out one day.

it actually comes a lot later than expected. they’re surprised they’ve even made it this far, that they’ve had the privilege of enjoying taehyung’s company as their roommate for such a long time, a whole three months, before it all goes to shit.

there’s a bit of a sequence to it. a series of unfortunate actions that lead to the unfortunate run-in.

hoseok wakes up and can’t immediately shower, because namjoon keeps pulling him back to bed every five minutes to steal some more kisses. by the time he finally manages to pull namjoon’s sticky fingers off his ass, he’s already running so late that he’s going to miss his bus if he doesn’t run out right that second. as it is, he can barely brush his teeth, before he’s barrelling out of the apartment in panic.

it’s fine. he’s done without his morning showers before. he can always soak up some extra moisture in the afternoon—no biggie. truly. it’s all fine.

namjoon and yoongi stay in bed making out for a long while after hoseok’s left. they have the day off and, while they would normally take full advantage of that, they haven’t been able to mess around like this in a while. they know hoseok won’t mind, that he’s cheering them on all the way from work, that they deserve to fool around.

by the time they finally get out of bed and have showered and gotten dressed, it’s well past noon and neither are in the mood to go through the trouble of fixing up some breakfast. it’s yoongi, arms wrapped around namjoon’s chest and kissing the side of his neck, who convinces him to go out and buy some food and—

“we can walk along the han river and pretend we’re exercising. what do you say? we can enjoy some fresh air, hm?”

“we got so much exercise in already, hyung,” namjoon says, even though he’s definitely down, and is already pulling himself free from yoongi’s embrace to go find his jacket and phone.

they leave the house, which normally wouldn’t be a problem. why would leaving the house abandoned for a short while be an issue, after all? they can just lock the place up, it’ll be fine.

see, the problem isn’t breaking and entering.

the problem is hoseok coming home to an empty apartment, already knowing namjoon and yoongi are out—he’s received dozens of selfies and sent some in return, telling them to enjoy and that he’ll be waiting for them at home—thinking he can use this opportunity to soak in the tub for a little while. he’s home alone, anyway, so he won’t be hogging the bathroom. it’s perfect.

right?

well…

the problem with hoseok being alone in the bathroom with his headphones on while he listens to some music, already beginning to doze off after spending not even ten minutes in the water, is that there’s no one to stop taehyung from coming into the bathroom. normally, there’d be either yoongi or namjoon to distract him long enough to alert hoseok, but they’re not here now. no one is, except for hoseok, who thinks he’s alone.

normally, this wouldn’t pose such a problem, since taehyung isn’t set to come home yet. no, taehyung’s supposed to be at work, so hoseok should have ample time to go about his siren business.

except…

taehyung gets home early. it happens sometimes. there’s one day a month where he actually finishes earlier to work on some potions at home. it’s the only time he can truly hone his magical skills. the dream is to one day start a magical business of his own, but he can only do that if he gets enough practice at home.

he figures he can just get home, say hi to his hyungs and tell them he’s tired and that he’s going to take a nap. he can get some brewing done without alerting them. taehyung’s great at stealthily working his magic.

“hey, hyungs!” taehyung says, as soon as he’s kicked off his shoes and stepped into the living room.

he looks around when he’s greeted with silence, only to come to the conclusion that he must be on his own. this is where the last unfortunate action comes into play.

since taehyung thinks he’s alone, he doesn’t knock on the bathroom door first to see if it’s occupied. he assumes it isn’t, since he’s the only one home. it should be fine; there’s no one there, so why knock?

seeing someone in a room you expect to be empty can already cause quite the shock, but that’s not what makes taehyung scream now. oh, no… no, what makes him scream is something different altogether.

it’s not that taehyung is afraid of merpeople. he knows a few of them, and they’re all pretty cool. it’s just that he doesn’t expect it. he doesn’t expect scales, however beautiful—which they are, but he can’t really focus on that at the moment—not does he expect fins, or an entire fucking tail, for that matter

he’s kind of embarrassed by his scream, but he can’t take it back now. he’s already screamed at poor hoseok, who is still sat in the bathtub, eyes wide and mouth open.

hoseok, truthfully, thinks taehyung’s just going to run out or cry, maybe both. but taehyung does neither. he does something very unexpected.

“hyung…” taehyung says softly, once he realises he’s still standing awkwardly in the middle of the bathroom. he shuffles up to hoseok and kneels next to the tub. “i—”

“taehyung-ah.” hoseok swallows thickly. he wishes he’d chosen something with bubbles today. he wishes he had another coat of foam to cover everything up. he wishes taehyung couldn’t see fucking everything.

“you’re…” taehyung says. he extends his hand, as though he wants to touch hoseok’s tail, but he pulls back at the very last second. “you’re beautiful.”

“i… thank you. i’m—”

“i promise,” taehyung begins. he finds hoseok’s wet hand and squeezes it tightly in both of his. “that i won’t say anything. your secret is safe with me, hyung. no one will find out from me. no one.”

since hoseok’s too stunned, he just remains still, blinking at taehyung dumbly and wondering what’s going on. he ends up nodding slowly and going along with whatever’s happening, because he doesn’t really know what else to do.

taehyung ends up leaving hoseok to it after a little while. before he pulls the bathroom door closed behind him, he makes sure to stick his head back inside and lock eyes with hoseok. “hyung, you just soak in the water and don’t worry about a thing, alright?”

“alright…” hoseok says softly.

only once he’s alone in the water, does he go over what’s just happened. only then does he wonder why taehyung hadn’t been scared or shocked. he’`d screamed, which hoseok thought had been of fear, but now he’s starting to think it’d just been of surprise.

why had taehyung not been surprised to learn about the existence of merpeople? how had he accepted it so readily? what was going on?

aside from the confusion, hoseok starts feeling hopelessly endeared the more he thinks about how it had gone down. taehyung had looked so serious while telling hoseok not to worry; he’d looked intent on keeping his promise. 

hoseok tells namjoon and yoongi so, later that night. the three are holed up in namjoon’s bedroom, where, after hearing his two boyfriends talk about their fun day, hoseok breaks the news to them.

they debate what to do. if taehyung hadn’t seemed surprised to learn about merpeople, there’s a good chance he won’t be surprised about the existence of fairies and imugis, either, right? maybe they should tell him. it’d be nice for the three of them not to have to hide in their own home.

ultimately, they decide against coming clean. not yet. they should probably wait a little and see how taehyung truly takes the siren news. who knows? maybe it takes some time for it to fully sink in.

they’ll wait and see what happens. they’ve hid it from him for so long; they can wait a little bit longer.

as it turns out, they actually can’t wait a little bit longer. they have a whole day where taehyung gets to be blissfully unaware of everyone but hoseok. he’s very sweet about how secretive he is, and about how he keeps making sure hoseok’s doing alright and that he has someone to talk to. hoseok feels himself melt a little, adoring how sweet taehyung is.

after that entire day, though, taehyung walks in on both namjoon and yoongi.

they’re just chilling in the living room. they don’t need to look anything but human, they’re just choosing to spend some time in their natural forms, because why not? no matter that hoseok only just got caught, or that taehyung’s bound to find out any day now; they just want to not be human for a bit.

poor taehyung is mildly shocked to find an imugi and a fairy in his living room, but not as shocked as they’d expected him to be. he’s the kind of shocked you’d be when you find people you don’t know in your home; nothing about his reaction suggests he’s shocked about the existence of dragons or fairies.

it’s hoseok, the only one who is human-looking at the moment, who chooses that exact moment to join them in the living room. as soon as he realises what’s happened, he takes taehyung by the elbow and guides him over to the couch, where he gently sits him down.

he waits until namjoon and yoongi are back in their human form, before he sucks in a deep breath and opens his mouth. “hey, taehyung… there’s something we need to tell you.”

taehyung looks from hoseok, sat on the coffee table, to namjoon and yoongi standing behind him. the three of them look apologetic, which makes him snort. he rubs his face and sighs very loudly while shaking his head. “i can’t believe this…” he groans. “i was blind. so blind… i can’t believe… all the signs were right there, in front of my very nose. i saw all the glitter, i thought this looks suspiciously like fairy dust and then i laughed it off. i stepped on your scales, hyung, multiple times and thought weird! that looks so much like an imugi shedding all over the floor! i’m so dumb, so dumb…”

yoongi narrows his eyes in confusion. he steps around the coffee table to sit down next to taehyung, although he makes sure to maintain a safe distance between them, in case taehyung is spooked by them—it doesn’t seem very likely, but he’d rather be safe than sorry. “taehyung-ah, what do you mean?”

taehyung just starts shaking his head. he leans back against the couch and starts laughing uncontrollably. “i just—i tried so hard to, to… hide my magic from you, but you were doing the same to me! we were all tip-toeing around each other for no reason!” he bends over now, slapping his knee while he continues to laugh. he’s never been in such a stupid situation before. he’s been unnecessarily hiding the truth for so long, twisting himself out of what he thought were difficult situations, only to find out none of it mattered.

they wouldn’t have freaked out by his existence. they’re like him. they aren’t human either.

“you’re a witch?” namjoon asks. he crouches on the floor once he gets a nod and wraps his arms around his legs. after resting his forehead on his knees, he just groans loudly, which the others all agree with. “we’re so fucking stupid,” he mutters.

hoseok reaches over to pat namjoon’s head. he snorts, while shaking his head, until a laugh bubbles out of him. the rest all laugh along; it seems like the best, if not only, response to such a stupid situation.

“taehyung-ah,” yoongi says, once he’s caught his breath a little. “you’ve been putting magic in our food and drink, haven’t you? i thought it was suspicious how easily everything you gave me served as a pick-me-up, but i thought it was just you. i thought it was the fact that you gave me stuff that cheered me up, but now…”

taehyung hangs his head a little, cheeks taking on a pink colour as he blushes a little. “yeah… i’m sorry. i would have asked, had you known what i was. i just… thought this was an easy way of helping out. i’m sorry. i’ll ask for permission from now on.”

namjoon sits on taehyung’s other side after he has him scoot over. he pats taehyung’s knee and smiles gratefully. “thank you for taking care of us.”

hoseok hums. he slides off the coffee table to lean his arms on taehyung’s knees. “we’re lucky to have a witch around.”

“yeah,” yoongi agrees. he slings an arm over taehyung’s shoulders and pulls him in a little. “thank you.”

the four were already pretty close to begin with, although becoming roommates had definitely helped in that regard, but finding out they have such a huge part of their lives in common helps them bond even more. they get to complain between the four of them about how annoying it is sometimes to hide your nature from the world, and the small little ways in which they have to hide themselves, and how that starts to chip away at your identity after a while.

they’re all immensely relieved that they get to fully be themselves at home now, without feeling like they’re sneaking around when they don’t want to hide for a little while.

namjoon, yoongi and hoseok tell taehyung all about their previous vampire roommate and taehyung laughs loudly and tells them that he feels for them, he truly does, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t stupidly hilarious.

“ some of my issues with past roommates were related to messes left behind, people not cleaning after themselves or leaving their stuff everywhere. i can’t imagine having to ask a roommate to not leave their bodies everywhere, like… i just—” he snorts.

“stop laughing!” hoseok laughs, as he pokes taehyung in the side. “it was so gross! i slipped on blood so many times!”

“and he’d constantly complain about my fairy dust, or joonie’s scales, but we ask him to clean up his corpses once and he pretends we’re intolerant vampire-haters. we’ve had vampire roommates before, you know, and never had any issues. it’s just that he was a raging asshole.”

aside from their mishaps with their previous roommate, taehyung asks them a lot about themselves, too. he knows a little about imugis, fairies and merpeople, but only the basic stuff. he knows that merpeople have to soak in water to avoid drying out and that fairies leave fairy dust behind when they flap their wings. he knows how sharp imugi talons can be, and that they’re stronger and the strongest metal.

but that’s only the stuff you’re told about by your parents, or your friends and family. these are just basic things that don’t tell him much of anything about what they’re actually like.

so taehyung asks a lot of questions. he spends a lot of time with them individually because he’s curious, because he likes his hyungs and wants to get to know them even better.

similarly, they ask him a lot of questions. they sit with him while he works on potions and ask about his spells and magic, and he’s happy to answer. he loves that his hyungs are so eager to learn more, that he no longer has to hide anything and that he can go all out when it comes to helping them with the use of magic.

the downside of such a wonderful turn of events, though… now that they’re no longer hiding, now that they’re growing closer than ever and truly getting to know each other, is that their crushes run rampant. there’s no longer anything to stop their feelings from taking on a life of their own, which is a problem.

since they’ve realised that, the three boyfriends reconvene while taehyung’s at work.

“okay,” yoongi begins. he clasps his hands behind his back and paces in front of the coffee table. hoseok and namjoon, sat on the couch, watch him quietly. “just because he knows now, just because he somehow keeps getting cuter and cuter, just because we’ve found out he’s been slipping us magic potions to help us through the day, just because he’s been making us new spells to cheer us up… does not mean we should try to romance him.”

hoseok wants to close his eyes and shake his head and pretend he can’t hear a single word coming out of yoongi’s mouth. “i want to romance him. i want to hold his hand and kiss his cheeks and the very tip of his nose. he baked us cupcakes with magic in them. how do you expect me not to ask him for his hand in marriage?”

namjoon just makes a pained noise, which yoongi takes as agreement with what hoseok’s just said.

“we just—” yoongi says. he doesn’t want to say this, it pains his heart to do so, but he knows it’s for the best. “we can’t. we’re his hyungs. we should know better.”

in the spirit of getting to know his hyungs even better, taehyung shyly asks hoseok whether he can come sit with him while he bathes.

“not to see you naked!” he quickly adds on, looking mildly panicked about not having clarified that straight away. obviously, he’s thought of hoseok and the others naked, but that’s not why he asked, he’d never. “i just… want to see your tail, hyung. i only saw a glimpse of it before, but i’d like to… you know. if that’s okay with you.”

hoseok can’t help but coo over taehyung, wishing he could take a picture of his beet red face to show to namjoon and yoongi later, but alas. he’ll just have to remember it vividly so that he can think about blushing taehyung the whole day and describe him into detail to his boyfriends later.

“yeah, knock yourself out! i don’t mind; admire all you want. just make sure to give me tons of compliments, alright?”

hearing taehyung’s giggle makes hoseok blush, too. he looks away, before pointing awkwardly over his shoulder and looking at the bathroom door. “i’ll, uh… get in. give me a second, i’ll let you know when i’m settled. don’t want to flash you, you know?”

taehyung wouldn’t mind that, but he doesn’t say that. instead, he nods and smiles and says he’ll wait and to please take all the time he needs.

when hoseok eventually calls out to him, all settled, tail out and splashing happily in the tub, taehyung steps in shyly. he doesn’t look up at first, approaching hoseok and sinking to his knees, looking down at his own feet, unsure of whether he should look up, or what.

“it’s alright, taehyung-ah,” hoseok reassures him. “it’s nothing you haven’t seen before. you can look.”

taehyung’s face goes from shy and uncertain to wonder and admiration. he sits up a little, gripping onto the edges of the bathtub as he peeks in and gets a look at the way hoseok’s scales glitter in the light of the bathroom. it’s a lot like an artwork; a living and breathing artwork that taehyung just gets to look at for free.

“taehyung-ah,” hoseok says softly, after moving his tail a little and letting taehyung admire it quietly. he beckons taehyung. “come sit closer. why are you sitting all the way at my tail end? come here...”

taehyung scoots over, until he’s leaning his elbows on the edge right at about the height of hoseok’s shoulders. he still glances over at hoseok’s tail every once in a while, itching to touch, but not wanting to be creepy about it.

“give me your hand,” hoseok says, holding his palm up and waiting for taehyung to place his hand in it. once he’s holding onto it, he pulls it down slowly, toward the hip that’s the farthest away from taehyung, just about where the skin starts fading into scales. “here… you can touch. it’s okay.”

hesitantly, taehyung trails his fingers over hoseok’s scales. he’s distinctly aware of the fact that hoseok hasn’t let go of his hand, and that he’s staring at him without interruption. when he looks up slowly, their eyes meet. “it feels…” he swallows thickly. “silky.”

hoseok smiles softly.

“you’re beautiful, hyung. like... gorgeous.”

“so are you, taehyung-ah,” hoseok says. he moves in a fraction of a second before taehyung does. their lips meet in the middle for a soft press, as hoseok’s hand comes up to cup taehyung’s cheek and pull him in closer.

taehyung knows it’s wrong. he knows he shouldn’t be doing this, but he can’t seem to stop. all he wants to do is pull hoseok closer and kiss him stupid and let himself be kissed stupid. his mind screams at him when he moves back, stopping the kiss abruptly. he presses his hand over his mouth. “i’m so sorry,” he whispers. “i shouldn’t have done that.”

hoseok shakes his head slowly. “it’s okay… it’s okay. you did nothing wrong, i promise.”

“but the hyungs,” taehyung says. he bites his lip as he moves back a little, knowing he should be putting distance between them, even though he wants to do the exact opposite. all he really wants to do is crawl right into the tub and claim hoseok’s lap as his own.

“it’s okay,” hoseok repeats. “they won’t mind. i initiated it, yeah? you have nothing to feel sorry for.”

taehyung hangs his head. he nods slowly. “i’m… gonna go, hyung. i’ll—i’ll leave you to it.”

before he can get up and leave, hoseok grabs him by the wrist and gently pulls him back. “you’re okay, right? no bad thoughts? it’s okay, i promise. you’re fine.”

taehyung nods again. “no bad thoughts.” after letting hoseok study his face for a bit, he gets up and leaves quietly.

as soon as hoseok’s dried off and he’s back on two legs, he hurries over to namjoon’s bedroom, where he knows he and yoongi are fooling around, killing time until hoseok’s ready soaking.

they’re in a half state of undress and, while hoseok absolutely loves the sight of it and it’s almost enough to make him lose his train of thought, he knows he has to stay focused. purposefully, he looks at a spot on the wall somewhere just above namjoon. he can still make out what they’re doing, it’s still distracting, but less so.

“yeah, so i accidentally romanced him.”

while namjoon squeaks indignantly, yoongi just hangs his head and sighs very loudly. if hoseok’s failed, it’s only a matter of time before namjoon and yoongi do, too. they’re all about to romance him; no matter how hard they try not to.

when namjoon and taehyung are talking about dragons, one day, the topic of his human body comes up quite naturally. there are plenty of supernatural creatures whose transformation isn’t complete, in that there are several tells they can’t get rid of, no matter how hard they try.

hoseok and yoongi don’t have these tells, since their bodies are already quite human when they’re in their other form—or half-human, in hoseok’s case—but namjoon doesn’t have that luxury. as an imugi, he can’t hide all of his scales; some are just too persistent.

“do you use glamours for that?” taehyung asks, cocking his head. glamours are a topic of interest to him. he likes the idea of being able to change appearances with the help of something as simple as a glamour.

he knows they can be quite harmful when people start leaning on them too much—although namjoon’s case is very different from that—but when used casually, they can be a lot of fun.

namjoon hums. “temporary ones. i tend to buy them online in bulk in potion form. if i get lucky, i can stretch one potion out to about a week, although most last for about five days. the quality of the glamours tend to vary a lot, but buying higher quality ones is not really an option, you know?”

“too expensive?”

“yeah. they tailor them to you, so it makes sense that they’d cost more, but… you know. i can afford a few, every once in a while, but the problem is that i need a steady supply. i have to go out into the human world daily and pass as one. i can’t just throw on a glamour every once in a while, i need to consistently have one on.”

taehyung sucks in his bottom lip while he thinks. his head cocks again, while he looks namjoon’s body up and down as much as possible, appraising him, in a way. “hyung, what if i take a stab at making a glamour for you? i like making them, but i don’t get a lot of practice these days. what do you say? do you want to be my test subject?”

namjoon laughs. “i wouldn’t mind being your test subject, but only if i get to pay you back for it.”

taehyung shakes his head with a grin. “no.”

“taehyung-ah.”

“no. let me practice on you.”

“okay, but only if it’s for practice purposes.”

“we’ll see about that later.”

“no,” namjoon says, grinning, too. “we won’t.”

taehyung just squints at namjoon and purses his lips. if he’s successful, he’ll find a way to convince namjoon to start using his glamours, the same way he’s convinced the others that he doesn’t need to be compensated for the little pick-me-ups he gives them.

“hyung,” he says, tapping his chin and trying very hard not to blush at what he’s going to say next. “if you have time right now, would you want to, uh… strip for me?”

namjoon coughs awkwardly and looks away, taking a minute to compose himself before he looks back over with very reddened cheeks. he nods slowly. “yeah,” he says slowly. “i have time. how… how much do you want me to… ?”

“until your, uh, your underwear, i guess? unless—you know, it’s—” taehyung stops talking to take a deep breath. when he pushes all the air out again, his cheeks puff out, which namjoon laughs softly at. “do you… have… hm, scales… uh…”

namjoon’s blush seems to disappear while taehyung’s grows more severe, as though taehyung’s sucking all the heat out of namjoon’s cheeks and storing it in his own. “i have some around my pubic area, yeah. not on my dick, but…”

taehyung hums, while nodding slowly and trying to come across as casual as possible, as though none of this affects him in the slightest. which it doesn’t. at all. no, obviously not. this is very normal and taehyung isn’t blushing while thinking about namjoon’s dick. “that’s okay. i don’t need to see those, i can just target that area in its entirety and leave it at that. do you wanna… ?”

“oh. yeah. yeah, of course! here? in the living room?”

taehyung would tell namjoon to strip in his bedroom, if he didn’t feel like that would be too on the nose, so he just nods minimally and tries to smile and pretend this is all fine. he attempts to look away while namjoon takes his clothes off, but it’s hard when his muscles shift with every move he makes. the less clothes he has on, the more taehyung can see and the harder it becomes to look away. everything’s too entrancing.

when had namjoon become so toned? how had taehyung missed out on all of this? he knew namjoon was hot, but this hot?

“okay…” taehyung says softly, once namjoon finishes and beams at him so cutely that he can finally manage to focus on something else. he walks around namjoon in a slow circle, trying his best to remain respectful while he studies him and slowly coming to realise just how hard a task that is to accomplish.

like hoseok, like yoongi, namjoon looks beautiful like this. his scales don’t glitter as much as hoseok’s do, but their vibrant colours are pretty all on their own. he has a lot of blues and purples, as well as some greens down at his hips and thighs. around his calves and shins, taehyung spots some yellows, but they’re only lightly sprinkled in.

“i’m going to draw this, okay? just give me a moment; i promise i won’t take long.”

they’re quiet while taehyung crudely draws two human-shaped figures, and then vaguely marks the areas where he finds scales. he holds up the drawing to namjoon with a pleased little grin and asks him if he’s missed any, to which namjoon kind of squints and shrugs, telling him it looks fine and that he’s sure taehyung did a good job.

once taehyung’s put his stuff back down, namjoon remains standing. he looks at taehyung with a weird sort of smile, head cocked a little, almost playfully. “what?” he asks. “anything else you need to do?”

taehyung nods slowly. “yeah, i still have the most important step left.”

“and what’s that?”

“i still have to look at you and tell you how beautiful your scales look, hyung.”

“oh.” namjoon does blush now. “well, go ahead, then.”

taehyung walks around him again, at the same slow pace as before, until he ends up right in front of namjoon again. “you’re stunning, hyung. i love the colours of your scales. each patch looks like a little artwork.”

“do you want to touch?” namjoon reaches for taehyung’s hand and lifts it until it’s at the height of his chest.

“can i?”

“go for it.” namjoon presses taehyung’s hand to the scales right below his collar bone. he watches taehyung’s face while he trails his fingers along the edges and follows a path down his sternum, to just above his belly button.

taehyung’s not sure who initiates it, or when. maybe it’s when he looks up and catches namjoon staring at him that he leans in, or maybe it’s namjoon, leaning down to capture taehyung’s lips in a kiss. maybe they move in at the same time.

whatever the case, when their lips are getting closer and closer, taehyung knows he could still move away and stop what they’re doing. he could simply not kiss namjoon.

the problem is, he really wants to kiss him, so he doesn’t attempt to stop anything at all. he rests his other hand on namjoon’s shoulder, fingers slipping up and around to the back of his neck.

they end up making out in the middle of the living room, standing up, chests pressed together. namjoon’s arms slip around to loop taehyung’s waist and pull him close.

breathing heavily, they part after some time. even then, they don’t let go of each other, and taehyung can’t seem to move his head back to put some distance between them. “i’m sorry,” he whispers. “first hoseok-hyung, and now you…”

namjoon shakes his head. he presses his lips to taehyung’s again, licking at his bottom lip, and then gently sucking it into his mouth.

they kiss for a while longer, until taehyung finally pulls back fully and releases a shaky breath. he doesn’t apologise again; he’s not sure he should. 

“uh…” he licks his lips. when he slides his hand down to let it hang at his side, he brushes his fingers down namjoon’s chest and stomach. “i should…” he presses his lips together. “i’ll go work on... yeah.”

namjoon watches taehyung walk out at a hurried pace. he hangs his head and laughs softly.

namjoon finds yoongi and hoseok in the bathroom, in the tub. they’re lazily making out, with yoongi straddling hoseok. it’s quite a tragedy that he interrupts them, but he has to. he needs to tell them.

“i accidentally romanced him, too,” he blurts out. “i romanced him so hard.”

they look up, clearly startled, unaware of when he’d stepped in. once namjoon’s words have sunk in, hoseok breaks out into a wide grin, while yoongi groans. now that namjoon’s failed, it’s only a matter of days, perhaps hours or even minutes, before yoongi fails, as well.

the three find taehyung sat in the living room not long after namjoon’s informed them of what’s happened. he looks nervous, hands clasped in front of him and resting on his knees, hunched over, sucking on his bottom lip. taehyung’s deep in thought.

“oh, hey, taehyung-ah!” hoseok greets him, smiling happily. he sits down next to him. “you okay?”

taehyung looks troubled when he sees them standing there, looking at him. namjoon’s wearing his sweatpants again, but he’s still shirtless, which is a problem, because taehyung can’t stop looking at him. he’s so naked from the waist up. so very naked. taehyung is a weak man.

“i’m sorry,” he says, directing himself to yoongi, since he’s the only one of the boyfriends he hasn’t kissed yet. “hyung, hyungs, i’m sorry. i knew you were dating, and i still…” he trails off and shakes his head, rubbing his face.

namjoon, taehyung and yoongi turn to look at each other with equal concern in their eyes. they haven’t had time to reassure him after his kiss with namjoon, since it only happened just now, but they probably should have said something right after hoseok. had he been feeling guilty this entire time?

since hoseok is closest to him, he pats taehyung’s knee gently and shakes his head. he attempts to angle his face in such a way that he can look taehyung in the eye, but taehyung does a really good job of avoiding eye-contact. even so, they can see very clearly that he’s beating himself up over the kiss. the multiple kisses.

“you have nothing to be sorry for,” yoongi says, as he comes to sit on taehyung’s other side. “we should be the ones apologising. we should’ve talked to you way sooner about all of this.”

taehyung closes his eyes. he plants his elbows on his knees and hides his face in his hands. “i’ve been thinking… like, i love being your roommate and i really like this place but what if it’s better if i move out?” he mutters. “i, apparently, can’t stay away from you, which is all kinds of awful and i shouldn’t be crossing these boundaries, and—”

namjoon sits on top of the coffee table, right in front of taehyung, while yoongi takes taehyung’s wrists and gently pries his hands away. “you’re not crossing any boundaries we wouldn’t want you to cross, taehyung,” he says softly. “we don’t want you to stay away from us.”

taehyung spies at them through narrowed eyes. “i don’t… understand.”

yoongi is silent for a moment while he thinks about the best way to approach this. he knows, rationally, that the best way would be to just tell him the truth. he’s already kissed two thirds of them, so it shouldn’t be so scary, right?

“taehyung,” he says, deciding on the spot that it is too scary, actually, to use his words. “can i kiss you? i’m kind of jealous that my boyfriends have had the opportunity to, while i haven’t. unless, of course, you don’t want that, which is perfectly fine, of course, but—”

“yeah,” taehyung says quickly. he worries his bottom lip between his teeth. “yeah, okay.” while he’s very confused as to why this is happening, he’s decided he’ll ask questions later. he’s not about to let such a good opportunity go to waste. he’s wanted to kiss yoongi for as long as he’s wanted to kiss hoseok and namjoon.

yoongi doesn’t waste time. he frames taehyung’s face between his hands and pulls him in for a kiss. he pecks him at first, once, and then twice, for good measure, and pulls back enough to see if taehyung’s still okay with what they’re doing. only once he’s confirmed that, does he move back in to deepen the kiss.

even while getting lost in the feeling of yoongi’s plush lips pressed to his, his wet and warm tongue swiping along his top lip and sucking on it lightly, taehyung is aware of hoseok and namjoon’s eyes on them. they’re watching keenly, like they’re enjoying the show.

when they part long enough to take a breather, taehyung glances to the side to find hoseok  looking at them with appreciation in his eyes.

after yoongi pulls back, satisfied for the moment, namjoon leans over to take taehyung’s hand in his. “we like you, taehyung-ah. we have for… a long time. we should have told you sooner. i’m sorry that we let you kiss us without telling you.”

“you like me?” taehyung confirms. “me?”

hoseok hums. he pats taehyung’s knee again. “you. who else could we possibly like, if not you?”

“i like you, too. i felt so bad for liking you, but i couldn’t stop. when i moved in, it just got worse and worse, and… i still shouldn’t have kissed you, before… before saying anything. i’m sorry.”

namjoon leans in a little more. “we’ve all made mistakes,” he whispers. “please, don’t beat yourself up. it’s okay.”

“are you sure?”

“yeah,” yoongi assures him. “we’re very sure.”

“maybe… don’t move out?” hoseok suggests, scrunching up his nose. he laughs when taehyung makes a face and just nods quickly. he presses a kiss to taehyung’s cheek, and then softly grips his chin to turn his face enough to press a kiss to his lips.

namjoon pulls taehyung’s face back to the front to kiss him again, too. once he’s done, yoongi kisses taehyung once more. when they pull back, they smile softly at each other.

“i won’t,” taehyung decides. “i kind of really like this place, and my roommates aren’t so bad, you know?”

they all giggle softly and stupidly, feeling giddy with relief.