Work Text:
There’s a nice cafe nestled between tall buildings right on the other side of the University. What many people don’t know, is that in fact the cats sleeping in the windows aren’t part of the decor, but as the owner fondly points out: „kind of like employees themselves“. Said owner likes the cats and the customers like them as well and if said owner, who‘s name is Jimin by the way, loves to shift into his cathybrid form to sleep on his favorite customers lap, then that‘s a secret as well.
It’s a Tuesday morning when Jimins employee calls in sick what means he hast to man the shop himself. He’s not lazy by any means but Tuesday is also the day his favorite customer comes to visit. The moment Taehyung walks in the door Jimin is spurred into action. There’s currently no one ordering from him so he has enough time to get Taehyungs order ready. After all he knows it perfectly. Before the customer even sits down he has a very eager Jimin standing by his elbow with an extra large hot cocoa and an extra large strawberry shortcake “on the house”, the sand blonde smiles bashfully before leaving his customer to his privacy. There’s already a tiny black cat curled up against taehyungs thigh, it’s name is Yoongi and Jimin enviously watches as Taehyung pets the cat.
He misses the searching look from Taehyung‘s eyes that look around the café obviously in search of his favorite kitten. But Jimin is nothing but the perfect host to all of his guests. Most of them are regulars anyways, the usual students and already graduated ones that took a liking to his menu (and maybe the cats as well). He always looks out that everyone is happy in here, but most of all that Taehyung’s supply of hot chocolate never runs dry and the man can enjoy his peace.
By the time the pretty boy gets up and ready to leave, Jimin it’s still not ready with other customers. It comes as a surprise when he picks up the used cup and there’s a number with a short call me ;) scribbled on top. Bold. He likes that. Jimin smiles to himself as butterflies erupt in his stomach.
It takes a few dates for the whole thing to really blow up into „love of my life“ territory. They seem to be a match made in heaven from the start, and one day when Jimin is over for movie night he falls asleep. Obviously his body feels save enough in his surrounding to shift into his hybrid form. So color Taehyung surprised when instead of his pretty dead, there’s suddenly his favorite kitten curled up next to him on the couch.
When Jimin wakes up the next morning, he’s tucked away safely In the fluffy blanket still on the couch while Taehyung is already up and making breakfast. Jimin first instinct is to sift back into his human form and run away. He’s embarrassed that he just shifted without ever having the chance to tell Taehyung who or what he really is.
But no relationship is perfect, it takes time and patience and also work to let everything run smoothly. Their first and biggest problem starts about two months into the relationship. If you ask Jimin, there isn’t actually a problem. But whenever Taehyung comes home these days he’s distant and his boyfriend really doesn’t know what’s the matter. One evening when he wants to sit on Taehyung‘s lap and maybe kiss him a little, The younger man almost Breaks out into tears and shoves him off.
Sputtering, the hybrid can balance himself only at the last second but the confusion is heavy in the air. That night he finds out that Taehyung is kind of anxious to be touched. He gets very easily overwhelmed with lots of physical contact and that’s just the irony because Jimin craves physical attention whenever he can. While Taehyung is overwhelmed easily especially when he starts too much or from people he doesn’t like, Jimin barely gets touched because he’s busy all the time. For a few days it looks like it’s a dealbreaker, love isn‘t the matter but how should they overcome something THAT big?
But one day when Taehyung comes home, around three or four days later, he sees Jimin curled up in his hybrid form making himself small on top of a sweater Taehyung had left there in a hurry just this morning. He comes over to pet the kitten on instinct and like a lightning bolt that crashes through him he suddenly realizes that the usual tight, itchy feeling that comes with being touched (or having to touch) doesn’t start up at all. Not with Jimin in his other form. He doesn’t know why or when this happened but he has zero problem petting Jimin as a kitten all night long even though he would be overwhelmed if his boyfriend was in his human form.
So some times, there are good days where the two of them can be together, can be physical with each other and just enjoy their life as proper boyfriends. But sometimes there’s also days where they just can’t be near any human being after a stressful day. At first Tae doesn’t want to be different, he makes himself be normal, touch his boyfriend even though he’s overwhelmed but it gets harder and harder each time so they do the adult thing to do and talk about it. Like normal human beings. Communication is key after all.
Life’s going well for almost a year and a half before they made a very cute boy named Jungkook who is a bunny hybrid and really really shy. It doesn’t take long for them to add him to the relationship. Everything fits. Jungkook likes physical attention so Jimin and him are a match made in heaven. And with him getting overwhelmed easily and spending a lot of time in his animal form it’s more often than not that there’s Taehyung sitting crosslegged on their bed or a couch and there is a kitten on his lap called around a little bunny.
It’s their first anniversary Together as a couple of 3 The taehyung wakes up and he’s already a little itchy. Usually that means he’s treading the line to get overwhelmed. Immediately feeling guilty he tells himself to “calm the fuck down, you can’t do this. Not today.”
He’s on at all day and of course that means he’s a wreck in the evening.
He comes home to a cozy apartment, there’s vanilla scented candles and soft music playing in the background. The delicious smell of food in the air and yeah maybe they plan to do the do today. So he tries to swallow everything down. He knows how excited his boyfriends are for today, but they planned a lot but not too much just the right balance between being together and having a nice evening. At first dinner is OK. They feed each other little snippets of food they giggle and they have a great time but Taehyung is already dreading the moment where things start to get closer.
They sit down to watch a movie so there’s one boy on each side of Taehyung. And hes telling himself to shut the fuck up for 10 minutes now but then there’s an innocent hand on his own and that’s all he needs to break down sobbing and shaking violently. His boyfriends immediately jump away and look at him. They both surprised since Taehyung seemed fine just a moment ago (he got better at acting over the years) so of course they ask what’s wrong. But before Taehyung can’t even think of answering he feels a bubbling pit of shame start to grow in his belly. He’s up and running to the bathroom to lock himself in a second later.
Instead of what they had planned for tonight, they spend the rest of the day trying to coax their boyfriend out of the bathroom. It’s well past 2 AM and they’re about to call it quits for the night when they hear the door click open. Even though his eyes are swollen and red, Taehyung still looks like an angel. Neither Jimin or Jungkook dare to take a step forward or touch him in any way. It takes another 10 seconds for Taehyung to collect himself and whisper a soft
“I am so sorry, I always make everything so complicated. You don’t deserve this.”
They wait for him to come to them, him carefully reaching out and almost falling into their hug.
Not everything is perfect, but is a relationship really perfect? For the three of them it’s perfect whenever they’re together, and they learn to live with each other.
With all the bad and all the good things that makes them them.
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