Chapter Text
Hoseok was used to Hopinmrion staying close to him at all times. She had always been partial to smaller forms, when she still changed as a child. Since she had settled in her final form, an agile striped chipmunk, Hoseok was accustomed to her finding a place to sit inside his jacket, hood or bag.
Today however, after only 5 minutes on the ice and experiencing him nearly falling on his ass 3 times, she informs him she'd feel much safer watching from the bleachers where she was 'less likely to become a furry pancake, thank you.' Hoseok had abashedly wobbled his way to the edge of the rink where she had been all too quick to leap from his neckline and run for the area where there were already quite a few daemons patiently watching their partners, albeit most of them were larger and not physically able to join their partners on the ice. Hoseok had thought that maybe once he wasn't worrying about protecting her he might be a little more able to find his feet on the skates. Alas, he’s still unable to fathom how the people around him are happily gliding along on what are essentially two knife blades. Instead he sticks safely to the walls, always within arms reach in case he needs something to hang on to in order to stay on his feet.
After a while he begins to feel confident enough to look up from the spot on the ground exactly one metre in front of him. He tries to look around the rest of the ice rink. He doesn’t make more than a quick sweep around him before he sees that it is a lot busier than it had been earlier. He can’t even begin to wonder how long he has actually been here when a heavy weight suddenly collides with his back.
He makes an instinctual grab for the edge and, having now had a lot of practice, manages to stay upright as he quickly bursts out with an ‘I’m so sorry.”
Strangely, he hears his sentence echoed, and when he turns around he comes face to face with another man looking at him with wide eyes and an apologetic expression. “Sorry, it’s my fault.” The other man says again, this time with a small smile. “Are you okay?” Hoseok, who had been expecting someone grumpy yelling at the rookie skater to stop taking up space, is a little taken aback.
“What?” He says, eloquently.
“You- I hit you, didn’t I”
“But, because I was in your way?”
For a short moment, they look at each other in mutual confusion before Hoseok nervously giggles. “Well, I’m sorry.”
Before they can say anything else however, Hoseok feels a pull and identifies a ruckus coming from the stands. With a sinking feeling in his gut, he glances up one last time at the warm eyed stranger and muffles out a “Sorry, I need to go see-” just in time to realise that once again the stranger is speaking in time with him. By some unspoken understanding, the other man quickly nods, takes his arm and helps Hoseok to the exit of the rink considerably faster than he would have managed alone.
When they get off the ice and slightly less of Hoseok’s attention is focused on staying upright, he tunes in to the unmistakable sound of his dæmon’s voice, and another dæmon shouting in response. He makes his way over, the other man keeping pace close beside him. As soon as he reaches the spot he saw his chipmunk head off to, he identifies the cause is his dæmon scurrying circles around a large ball of brindle fur also sat on the stands.
“Hobi?” He calls out as soon as he gets close enough to draw her attention over to him. As soon as he does, she darts away from the pile of angry fur it appeared she had been antagonising, and launches herself towards Hoseok, with a shout of ‘Hoseokie!”
Meanwhile, the stranger from the ice rink quickly steps forward and places his hand on top of the growling lump, which he can now see has the snarling face of a cat, pointed directly at himself, or rather the chipmunk in his hands.
“Hobi, what happened?” He says to her, at the same time hearing the stranger saying something similar to his own dæmon. Then he hears a sharp voice coming from the other dæmon.
“That rat was pawing all over me. I was just trying to show it some manners.” She says in a snide tone, which sets Hoseok on edge as he feels a spike of emotion come from Hope. He tries to dampen it down, knowing that his dæmon is not particularly adept at disguising her emotions when he hears the other man scolding his own dæmon.
“Agust, politely. You’re not starting a fight here.”
“No, I’m finishing one.”
“You pointy toothed rag, I wasn’t trying to fight.” Hopinmrion shoots out from between Hoseok’s fingers and he feels her vibrating with a pent up rage at the accusation.
“Hey, okay, we need to calm down and talk.” He tries, this time meeting the other man’s eyes instead of the angry gaze of the cat dæmon before him. For a moment he notices how strikingly similar he actually looks to his dæmon.
“Yeah, let’s talk like proper adults.” This he aims with obvious intent at his dæmon, and sits on the seat next to her. The cat quickly climbs into his lap and settles down in a manner Hoseok can only describe as possessive, before turning her yellow eyes straight back onto Hoseok and Hope.
The noise the dæmons had originally been making had already attracted attention, both from those on the ice rink and the other spectators around them. So to try and assuage some of those eyes, Hoseok gingerly sits on the bench at least an arm’s length from the reach of the menacing cat and smiles hesitantly at the other man. “So, she’s with you?” He states inanely, but is rewarded by a smile appearing on the others face that crinkles his eyes in a very infectious way. It only seems to get worse when the cat on his lap lets out a very obvious grumble.
“Right, this is Agust. She’s not usually like this.”
“ She isn’t usually pounced on from behind by a rodent.” She says very clearly, eyes never leaving Hoseok’s hands.
“I did no such thing.” Hope argues, feet resting on Hoseok’s fingers to openly face and challenge the cat.
“Hobi. Why don’t you tell me what happened yourself?” Hoseok asks, gently bouncing his finger to make sure she’s listening to him and not the cat she is currently locked in a staring contest with. Hoseok gives a quick look at the stranger but it seems they miss each other as the other man looks down to watch the reaction of his own dæmon.
“I was just sat where you left me, with a good spot to watch you flailing about out there.” Hoseok feels his cheeks start to warm so he keeps his head ducked. There is still a small chance, after all, that this strangely handsome stranger didn’t notice his uncoordinated ineptitude on the rink. “When her highness over there sat down practically on top of me.”
“You lie. Scrawny as you may be, I’m not blind.” Agust snapped back quickly. Hoseok would feel the need to defend his dæmon, if he wasn’t strangely touched by the way he spots Yoongi’s hand tighten on the back of the cat’s neck in reprimand. As he ducks his head to avoid his small smile being seen, he sees Hope looking up at him, head tilted and eyes slightly narrowed in confusion.
“I didn’t attack you either! I just tapped you to let you know someone was already sitting here.”
“Agust, is this true?” The stranger says gently in a carefully measured tone to his dæmon, who scowls on his lap.
“Are you calling me a liar now too? So happy you convinced me we were coming out here today.”
“No one’s calling anyone a liar. Just trying to find out the truth.” Hoseok speaks up, trying to be helpful but the golden eyes just fix on him instead of his chipmunk. He feels strangely laid bare before her gaze.
“No lies. You do enjoy embellishing the truth, though.” The other man says, this time an amused tone coming across and Hoseok feels his lip curve at how the man very charmingly knows exactly how to deal with the temperament of his partner.
His peacemaking attempt falls flat though, when the cat yowls out “I see. You turn on me the minute you find a pretty faced boy.”
The other man sputters out a reprimanding “Agust!”, Hoseok feels his cheeks rapidly turning pink - if they weren’t already - and he can feel Hope’s feet paddling excitedly in his hands as she now looks between his and the stranger’s faces as if on the verge of yelling something out herself.
Choosing to avoid that, he quickly moves his free hand to clamp down on top of her, trapping her small form between his palms. Her escape attempt involves a lot more giggling and squirming than an actual concerted effort.
“Sorry, sorry.” The stranger is saying as Hoseok gets his emotions in check and for some reason the ridiculousness of the situation makes him burst out laughing.
When the other man looks up at him quickly with a confused expression, he simply shakes his head and says, “We need to stop apologising to each other.”
“Right, you’re right.” He says in reply, a captivating smile overtaking his face as he looks back at Hoseok. A muffled growl draws their attention back. “Okay, but someone still needs to apologise or at least admit they’re in the wrong.”
“If you think-” Agust starts protesting but Hoseok is already lifting Hope up to a level with his own face.
“Is it possible that this has something to do with what we talked about, Hobi? Something about respecting everyone else’s personal space?” He asks and Hope, finally released from the cage of his hands, gives him a reproachful look.
“She started it.”
“I didn’t ask that. I just asked if you have something you need to say.” He guides with his most patient voice.
In the pause that follows, Hoseok hears the other man speak to the cat on his lap, gently stroking her head so she finally looks at him.
“Maybe you could also admit that you can sometimes be a little sharp with other people when it comes to defending your pride?” Rather than try to retort, Agust chooses to treat him with a stony silence.
Hoseok raises an eyebrow at Hope and she glares back at him before sighing. “Fine. Maybe I didn’t think before I tried to get her attention. But-”
“Ah, wait a minute.” This time it’s the other man who softly speaks up to stop Hoseok’s dæmon from continuing. “Agust?” He leaves the prompt hanging.
The cat turns her eyes back towards Hoseok and Hopinmrion. Hoseok feels like he can practically read the calculations happening behind her eyes, looking him up and down. Finally she speaks, as if with a huge effort. “You have told me I can be a little quick to shut others down.”
There’s a short moments pause before the man huffs out a laugh. “I think that’s the best we can hope for.” He says, another apology obviously hovering on the tip of his tongue.
“I could hope for one more thing?” Hoseok says, possibly finding the courage to speak up somewhere between his own gaze caught on the other man’s pretty, self conscious smile and the small chipmunk nearly vibrating her encouragement through his palm. When the man looks up and nods to allow Hoseok to continue, he dares to speak. “I’d like to hear your name.”
“Oh.” The other man says, and underneath it he hears the cat echo the same word although over his heart beating in his ears, Hoseok can’t decipher her tone. “I’m Yoongi.” The man looks down at the cat before his eyes dart up to meet Hoseok’s own. “And you?”
“Hoseok. I’m glad we ran into each other.” He laughs lightly and the no-longer stranger, Yoongi, looks a little abashed at the reminder of their literal run-in.
“Right. Not a great start. I am sorry for that, and for-”
“I’d never ask someone to apologise for our dæmons not getting along. That’s between them alone.” Hoseok cuts him off. While Yoongi does look absolutely precious when he’s blushing, Hoseok was serious about there having already been enough apologies.
“Yeah, plus I’m not going to let Hoseok fight my battles for me.” Hope says in what he recognises is her faux sweet voice, and somehow the cat falls straight into her trap.
“No one is fighting my battles, I’m done wasting energy on somebody I could step on.” She snarls back and for the first time Yoongi actually looks slightly annoyed.
“Enough.” He sighs out, exasperated but calm enough that he doesn’t need to raise his voice. Hoseok wonders if he ever could, looking at the soft looking man in front of him, he couldn’t imagine any kind of vitriol in his body. “That’s enough, Agust.”
While Hoseok was distracted, he didn’t immediately notice Hope preparing to leap before she has already crossed the space between them and is sat very close to Yoongi’s knee. Yoongi seems to have frozen, mostly because it is simply not acceptable to touch another person’s dæmon, especially someone you just met. Undeterred, she leans forwards and sniffs him very delicately before returning to climb Hoseok’s side.
“You know, despite her, I think I could learn to like him.” She gives her report, not attempting to lower her voice at all. This time it’s Hoseok’s turn to groan as the warmth shoots to his face and ears, even as he wishes to hide his face.
“No apologies.” Yoongi says, even before Hoseok could try. “But for our own sakes, maybe we could get out of range of their commentary and go back out on the ice?”
Hoseok finds himself shaking his head before he finds words. The sudden movement even has Hope reprovingly chittering at him.
“No, that’s okay. Actually I was quite happy for the excuse to sit it out.”
Yoongi’s face falls slightly and Hoseok feels a slight panic inside him. “Oh. You don’t like skating?”
“More like I don’t feel the need to make a fool out of myself.”
“Oh? Not at all, everyone starts somewhere. It just happens that I’m a great teacher.”
“I really did only come here to keep my sister company. But she and her fiancee seem quite happy without me there. I can just keep Hobi company here.”
“No, I’m fine.” Hope chooses to unhelpfully speak up, drawing a glare from Hoseok that he tries to hide. Based on the low chuckles he hears from Yoongi and possibly Agust, he failed on multiple counts.
“It’s just an offer. Feel free to stay here with Agust too.” Yoongi says with a slight smirk because right on cue, the brindled cat turns her narrowed golden gaze on him.
Not to say that he is scared of facing the sharp tongue of the dæmon, Hoseok quickly rethinks which option might be more fun for him as he gets to his feet once again and carefully allows Hope to jump back onto the bench seat.
Yoongi also stands after convincing the cat to climb off his lap and with a small - and quite adorable - smile towards Hoseok, he makes his way over to the ice rink.
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It is half an hour later, which is more than enough for Hoseok, that they are making their way back to where they left their partners.
“Okay, I may have exaggerated the teacher part a little. But at least I kept you upright,” Yoongi says as they’re stepping off the ice.
Unfortunately, before Hoseok can make a comment about Yoongi being much better company than the railing he had been skating with before, he sees with a sinking feeling that Hopinmrion is sat at one end of the bench, body pointedly facing away from Agust who is a good two metres away. Both pairs of eyes are watching them as they approach however.
“Oh no.” Hoseok mutters to the man next to him and Yoongi chuckles next to him.
“Hoseok, I’ve had fun spending time with you-” He starts and Hoseok already feels his stomach plummet at the ‘but’ that he hears approaching. In truth he felt like he had barely scratched the surface of what he could enjoy talking to Yoongi. He had hoped there would be more time to explore it. However he couldn’t fault Yoongi if he chose to follow his dæmon’s instincts. Since it seemed like their partners were determined not to get along, it would be understandable that he would pick his dæmon over a basic stranger he just met. “But it looks like we’re going to have to convince our dæmons of that fact.”
It takes a moment for Hoseok to comprehend how Yoongi finished his sentence. Only the hopeful lift to the end of his sentence clues him in.
“Oh! You mean-”
“I hope Agust’s stubbornness doesn’t put you off maybe meeting up again sometime?”
“No. I mean yes! I would like that.” Hoseok blurts out at the realisation that his doubts go both ways. “I’d like to meet you again, definitely.” The happiness at the simple fact that maybe Yoongi also had as much fun as he did is strong enough to push up his cheekbones in a genuine smile, his eyes crinkling.
For a moment, he sees Yoongi give a double take at his smile, mouth slightly open as he thinks of something to say. Hoseok almost wants to prompt him until he replies, “Okay. Okay that’s great. Maybe... you’d like to have my number?”
Hoseok continues to smile as they take off their skates and change into normal shoes again, something he is very loudly grateful for. As they walk back to reunite with their dæmons, they happily exchange phone numbers and Hoseok already starts wondering what excuse he can use to message Yoongi next.
Agust is highly affronted that as Hoseok and Yoongi approach her end of the bench, Hopinmrion runs straight past her and launches herself to Hoseok’s jacket, climbing to his shoulder. Before she can even snarl something out though, Yoongi quickly steps to her side and mutters out a “Play nice.”
She looks up at him while Hoseok coos over Hope, and gives Yoongi a measured look. “You mean you’re actually serious? We have to see the rodent man again?”
“Agust!” Yoongi starts to sound truly annoyed, even as he glances worriedly at Hoseok.
“It’s fine.” He says reassuringly, reaching out without thinking to take Yoongi’s wrist in his hand. “I don’t take it personally. And besides, I’m excellent at winning people over.” He gives Yoongi a last warm smile.
Unfortunately Hope decides she’s not done antagonising the moody cat, meeting her eyes and flicking her tail tauntingly. Just as Agust starts growling low in her throat, Yoongi hurries out a “So, until next time?”
Hoseok recognises the attempt to diffuse a situation as it is, not a dismissal. Who knows what these two might have been saying to each other while they were alone, as they certainly don’t seem to have mended anything between them. Hoseok nods and with a slightly lingering pat on Yoongi’s shoulder, makes his way over to find his sister.
It’s only an hour when Hoseok thinks of the perfect message to send Yoongi. He types out a message. The attached image shows Hobi comfortably napping on the side of his best friend’s tiger shaped dæmon.
See. Told you Hobi and I are skilled at winning over big cats :)
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