Chapter Text
24 October, 2019
The question comes completely at random, while Jaehyun is patiently attempting to heal Biscuit’s injured wing.
“You use sigils and stuff a lot.”
Jaehyun glances over towards Johnny, who is leaning casually on the headboard eating dried fruit. “I guess? Is it a bad thing?”
“No, it’s pretty cool,” Johnny says and offers his birds a few berries. Biscuit attempts to hop forwards and grab it but Pearl flutters up and steals it midair. “I mean, they’re really useful sometimes. Would really suck if you lost your voice or something, though.”
Jaehyun laughs and keeps working. Marble flutters down to his shoulder. “Hopefully that never happens.”
“Yeah but if it does, you have all your other magic. And me.”
“And you,” Jaehyun agrees. “By the way, have you seen my black paint? I need to renew some of the sigils on my bat.”
“Just use your navy blue paint, it won’t make a difference.”
That’s the end of any magic-talk, with Johnny giving in and locating Jaehyun’s black paint for him and Jaehyun repainting some of the worn sigils on his bat.
It does get him thinking, though. As Snow Whites, they all have magic in their voices. Jaehyun has some of the weaker magic, even if he’s got a great singing voice. Still, if he really wanted to he could use elemental magic; all it would take was more practice. Many people thought he should have.
But he didn’t. Instead, Jaehyun channeled all his magic into runes and sigils. Protective spells woven into the hems of his clothing, a fire sigil painted onto Johnny’s hand one day just for fun, Taeyong’s gifted set of knives with carefully carved runes on the handles.
It’s not like he’s the only Snow White to go the more hands-on way, focusing more on using magic as an aid instead of a weapon. And combat-wise, Jaehyun makes up for his inherent disadvantage towards magic with physical skill and protective runes. As far as Snow Whites go, he’s actually pretty good.
Still, it’s an interesting thing to think about.
“What’s buzzing about in that pretty head of yours?” Johnny asks, lightly patting Jaehyun’s cheek. The compliment never fails to make him a little flustered, no matter how much Johnny calls him cute or pretty or any variation on the word.
“Nothing much,” he says and can’t help but smile at Johnny, lining some of his sigils with silver. “Just thinking. It isn’t weird, right?”
“Your magic?”
“Yeah,” Jaehyun says. “I could have done elemental or something similar. But I didn’t.”
“But you didn’t,” Johnny agrees and his smile is soft, fond. “I think your style of magic is great. Maybe not the most common, but you wield it very well.”
Jaehyun smiles at the compliment. Johnny pokes his dimple teasingly.
“Besides,” he adds, smile turning into a cheeky grin, “it’s hot when you use a bat.”
At that Jaehyun has to laugh, hitting Johnny lightly on the shoulder. “Stop.”
He doesn’t say that Johnny is also very attractive wielding his own magic or, worse, a sword. By the looks of it, Johnny knows what he’s thinking because he laughs, eyes sparkling with bright cheer.
Jaehyun has fought vampires, exorcised all sorts of spirits, chased down witches and warlocks. But right now his biggest enemy is his own skin, easily reddening under Johnny’s gaze.
14 February 2012
Looking back, meeting Jaehyun was the best thing that had happened to Johnny.
Of course, he hadn’t known that back then. All Johnny knew was that he was wandering around in the lower pits of hell (that was literal) one moment and the next moment he was dragged away by forces unseen.
Furious, he turned towards whoever had summoned him only to meet the eyes of a scrawny kid holding a dagger and looking utterly confused.
“Who are you?” Johnny demanded and scrawny kid’s eyes suddenly flicked towards something else.
“Watch out!”
Johnny spun around and shifted, leaping to rip the opponent into dust with sharp claws and teeth then shifted back. Scrawny kid stared up at him with wide, amazed eyes.
“Send me back!”
“Uh, I don’t know how? Sorry.”
“How did you even summon me?”
“In my defense,” scrawny kid said, holding a hand up, “you were supposed to be a sword?”
Just then a sword dropped down and Johnny, surprised, caught it. It was a nice sword (not like he’d ever say that) but. Still.
He was dragged out of hell for this?
“I guess it worked,” scrawny kid said hesitantly, taking a small step back when Johnny stepped forwards. “Please don’t, uh, don’t kill me?”
Obviously Johnny attempted to kill him and scrawny kid, surprised, jumped away like some sort of rabbit. So, they really had a great start.
25 October 2019
“We’ve got a new task,” Jaehyun says as they head to the mess hall together. Johnny hums, more busy with attempting to paint a sigil on his arm. He was doing it completely wrong and Jaehyun, with a laugh, corrects him. “Be careful with that - if it’s done wrong you could get something completely different. I’ve seen some pretty weird things happen.”
The strangest one by far was someone’s hair turning into a thousand miniature cats, which must have been terrifying. Jaehyun hadn’t believed it - until he’d accidentally turned his notebook into a flock of doves and nearly fallen off his bed. He had managed to turn it back, but a few doves had remained.
Johnny sighs. “This is harder than I thought.”
“Everyone says that,” Jaehyun comments. His own arms are decorated with sigils; black circling his wrists, neat symbols decorating his palms. “Runework needs a lot of time to master. You have to be able to do them fast and on the fly.”
“I could never do that,” Johnny says. “It’s already taking me forever to do this one.”
“Just practice,” Jaehyun reassures. “Maybe not when we’re moving though.”
“Yeah, good point.”
They walk in comfortable silence for a bit before Johnny speaks up again. “We have a new task?”
“Yep,” Jaehyun says, nodding. “A gang of goblins in the USA. I think the city was, uh, Chicago?”
“Oh, Chicago,” Johnny says. “I’ve been there.”
“You’ve been everywhere,” Jaehyun points out. “Even Antarctica.”
“Yeah but Chicago’s actually kind of nice. Antarctica’s a bit too cold for my taste, y’know?”
Jaehyun doesn’t, actually, but the freezing conditions didn’t sound very nice. Johnny attempts to finish his sigil, gets knocked into by a stray crane and the stencil slips, a long line of black running down Johnny’s forearm.
“Sorry!” someone yells as she chases down her crane.
“It’s okay!” Jaehyun calls back and grabs Johnny’s arm quickly. “Here, let me… ”
He pulls a cloth out of his pocket, soaks it with cleansing solution, and wipes off the ink. “I can put it on when we’re no longer walking, okay? Or you can do one on me.”
“I’ll go for the second option,” Johnny says, staring at Jaehyun’s fingers. “Think it’d be easier.”
“Sounds good,” Jaehyun says, letting go of Johnny’s arm. He snags the stencil, too. “We’d better hurry, or Mark will have stolen our spot.”
Johnny laughs and scoops Jaehyun up effortlessly, ignoring his surprised squeak. “Let’s go then.”
He’s blushing by the time Johnny stops at their unofficially designated table. Taeyong scans them up and down and a slow smile creeps over his face.
“Put me down, you beanpole,” Jaehyun says but can’t help giggling as Johnny sets him down gently and plops down next to him. “God, you’re horrible.”
“Complete opposite of god, actually,” Johnny jokes and Jaehyun laughs even more. Warmth bubbles up in his chest, making him feel light and giggly. “Hey, Taeyong.”
“Hey Johnny,” Taeyong says and he’s grinning, Yuki curled next to him in a ball of white fur. “How are you guys? Doing good, I hope?”
“Pretty good,” Jaehyun says. “I’m gonna get lunch. Do you guys want anything?”
“Soup, please,” Johnny calls after him as Jaehyun heads for the lunch counter. Something spicy, probably.
“Noodles, thank you,” Taeyong adds.
Doyoung and Usagi have joined them when Jaehyun gets back, a large tray gripped in his hands. “Oh, hey hyung! Do you want me to get you anything?”
“I’ll just get it myself,” Doyoung says and smiles warmly. “Eat something.”
“Yeah, eat something,” Johnny says and pats a spot next to him with an inviting smile. “I still have to draw something, remember? And I want that sigil.”
“Right, yeah,” Jaehyun remembers and sits down, holding out his right arm. “Go ahead. Be careful - I don’t want to end up cursed or anything.”
“I’ll do a few glyphs, then,” Johnny says, lips pursed as he starts to draw. The ticklish feeling is familiar and Jaehyun picks up a piece of pork with his chopsticks, starts to eat.
“What are you writing?” he asks, looking over briefly. Mark has joined them, talking cheerfully with Taeyong. Doyoung comes back with his own food.
“Hello,” Johnny says, finishing the first letter and moving onto the second. “Or something like it, anyway. It’s a greeting.”
“Cool,” Jaehyun says and continues eating. “You should eat your soup, it’ll get cold.”
“Eh, I’ll just warm it up again.”
Their conversation is comfortable, lighthearted. Jaehyun nags Johnny about eating until he finally agrees (solely because Jaehyun threatens to freeze his soup with a sigil). The ink on his arm steadily dries. It’ll wash off in a day or two.
14 February 2012
“Jaehyun,” another kid stated, staring at them both with a white fox draped over his shoulders. Johnny, resigned to being stared at, poked, and prodded, just sighs. “What did you do?”
“I just tried to summon a sword, I swear!” Jaehyun protested, holding his hands up. “I got a sword but he also came along and I don’t know what happened? Only I have no idea how to send him back. And you’re the expert so help? Please?”
“You summoned,” mystery kid said, arms crossed, “a demon. While trying to summon a sword.”
“Yes?”
“You need to get better at summoning magic then,” Johnny said, voice acidic. He missed… well, no he didn’t. Hell was exactly what its name was. But he definitely didn’t want to be here of all places, accompanied by a fifteen year old.
“I summoned the sword, didn’t I?” Jaehyun shot back and then exhaled, slumping. “Sorry. This is just… weird.”
“Oh is it?” Johnny asked, dripping with sarcasm. “Really. Couldn’t have realized.”
Red spread over Jaehyun’s ears and cheeks, amplified by the paleness of his skin. “Sorry, again. For, uh, bringing you here.”
And now Johnny felt bad for snapping. Ugh.
“Do you know how I can get back?” he asked. “I’d really rather not be here.”
“Okay, Jaehyun’s not that bad,” mystery kid said. “But fine. Where’s Mrs. Kim? We should get her help.”
“Oh yeah, good point,” Jaehyun said, lighting up. “I’ll get her.”
“No, stay here,” mystery kid said. “Don’t kill each other while I’m gone, please.” And then he’s out the door, which left Johnny with Jaehyun in the room.
“So,” Jaehyun said, looking nervous. He shifted back and forth on his toes, not meeting Johnny’s eyes. “Uh, welcome to my room? It’s not much. Don’t touch that - Biscuit will hate it.”
“Biscuit?” Johnny asked. “Sorry, what now?”
“He’s a dove,” Jaehyun explained and stuck his fingers in his mouth, whistling. A grey figure flew out from the corner of the room and landed on Jaehyun’s shoulder. Another one flew past Johnny to land on Jaehyun’s other shoulder. “That’s Biscuit and that’s Marble and Pearl is gone somewhere but she’ll be back by night.”
“Where did you get those?”
“Uh, failed on a sigil and transformed my notebook into a flock of doves. Some stayed behind.”
Johnny snorted. He’s not too surprised, honestly. “You’re a novice or something? Runes aren’t that hard.”
Jaehyun’s face coloured, irritation and embarrassment warring with each other. The former won out. “For you, maybe. It’s a little harder for us.”
“Sure.”
Of course, Johnny figured out later that runes were, in fact, difficult. And he’d apologize eventually for being a complete jerk. Then, though, having been yanked unceremoniously onto the mortal plane by a random kid, he was perfectly alright with what he’d said.
27 October 2019
“Wake up.”
Jaehyun groans at the disturbance. He’s warm. And not willing to wake up right now, thank you very much.
A deep voice chuckles and Jaehyun has the quiet thought that it sounds like summer, full of pleasant warmth. How funny. “Seriously, Jae. We’re landing soon.”
Landing?
With a deep sigh, Jaehyun opens his eyes and stares right at Johnny, whose face is close enough that Jaehyun can make out his eyelashes, stark against his skin and oh no.
“I’m awake!” he yelps, startling a passenger who glares at them. “Sorry. But. We’re landing?”
Johnny laughs again. “Yep. You were completely tuckered out by the time we boarded this flight. I had to carry you to your seat.”
Why hadn’t he used his energy rune. Why hadn’t he used his energy rune.
“God, I’m so sorry,” Jaehyun groans. For the third time Johnny laughs and would he please stop doing that, it was messing up Jaehyun’s heartbeat. “Where’s Pearl?”
“Down there,” Johnny says and points to a cage beneath them. “She wants out.”
“It’s okay, Pearl,” Jaehyun says, leaning down as far as he can. “You’ll be out in a bit.”
Pearl glares up at them with a beady eye and ruffles her feathers, cooing irritably. Jaehyun reaches in with a finger and she butts her head against it.
“You are a perfect Snow White, huh,” Johnny murmurs, though his voice is soft enough that others can’t really make it out. “Great voice, has magic, birds.”
Jaehyun laughs, thinks of the baseball bat or the knives that he’s pretty sure the original Snow White didn’t own. Then again, the original Snow White didn’t have access to any of those, so.
Who knew, though. If she’d lived in modern times, maybe she would have been like him. Jaehyun takes a moment to imagine Snow White, clad in a dress surrounded by woodland creatures while wielding an ink-covered bat ready to bash in some heads, and grins. That would be pretty epic.
“And bat,” he can’t resist adding, looking up at Johnny who grins back, eyes crinkling.
“The bat completes the look.”
It’s early morning when they finally land. Jaehyun, with Johnny in tow, heads straight for a sign that proclaims the baggage carousel to pick theirs up.
“You really should decorate your bag,” Johnny comments as Jaehyun grabs his. “It’s so plain.”
“Yours is the exact same, though?”
“Ah, but you’re mistaken. See, I have pinned a pink bear to the front.”
Jaehyun takes a quick peek and - yep, there was a pink bear. He laughs.
“Guess I’ll sew something on, then,” he says. “How about… a watermelon.”
“That’s too boring. Try a rainbow of bears, like me. Personally,” he adds, twinkle in his eyes, “I think it’s appropriate.”
For a second, they hold each other’s eyes before breaking away. Jaehyun presses his laughter into his hands. Johnny snickers but there’s a hint of pink on his cheeks.
“Did you really just make that joke?”
“You know me, Jaehyunnie. You know I would.”
“Incredible,” Jaehyun says through giggles. “You should add a few more bears, then. Yellow and blue. I’ll sew them on for you.”
“Perfect. We’ll match.”
They’re staying in one of the safe rooms, owned by the Snow Whites. Jaehyun drops his bag next to the bed and sets Pearl’s cage on the nearby table, opening the door. She hops out immediately and does a thorough tour of the room before coming to land on the top.
“You take right side and I’ll take left?” he asks. They’re pretty used to sharing at this point. Usually Johnny will shapeshift into some random animal (he’s been leaning towards canines lately) and they’ll snuggle together. Fact about demons; they radiate heat like the sun. Great during winter, worse during summer.
“Works for me,” Johnny shrugs, depositing his stuff on the other side. It’s a little weird, considering that the room is made for one person not one person and one demon, but they’ll make it work. If worst comes to worst Jaehyun will just break out a ton of shrinking sigils and they’ll do it that way.
They really should do origami or something. It might help, what with the unique living situation and all. Besides, Jaehyun had seen those little birds and butterflies and flowers people folded and they were all super cute.
Maybe Johnny would like a paper bird. Or flower. Or both. Maybe a whole forest. Jaehyun can easily see himself going overboard and accidentally filling the entire room with paper creations. It would be fun until he actually had to navigate the place and would probably end up squashing everything.
Still, origami.
“You hungry?” he asks and Johnny flashes him a bright smile. Hints of sharp teeth peek out. Aww.
“Nah. You?”
“I’m good,” Jaehyun says and keeps folding his clothes. Johnny lightly bumps his hip - or not so lightly, considering Jaehyun accidentally stumbles and catches himself with a hand on the dresser.
“Are you okay? Sorry, I didn’t mean to bump you that hard.”
“It’s okay,” Jaehyun says and gives Johnny a smile. “Just be careful, kay? You’re pretty strong and I’m only mortal.”
He doesn’t mean it as much more than a joke but Johnny gives him another, slightly fanged grin that, without Jaehyun’s permission, makes him shiver a little. “Humans sure are fragile. Like you.”
Okay, rude. “I have a baseball bat covered in sigils and I can darn well use it.”
“Bet.”
Jaehyun narrows his eyes and pauses in his folding. “You really want to take that?”
Johnny laughs and before Jaehyun can go for his bat snags his wrist and they fall onto the ground in a pile. His attempt at wriggling out doesn’t last very long. Boosted strength was a pain to fight against without magic use.
“Why are you strong, god.”
“Wrong deity but it’s the demon blood,” Johnny says and Jaehyun, again, attempts to get out of the grip around his waist. “Gotta be tougher than that, Jae.”
Jaehyun huffs, rolls his shoulders back and arches up into a backbend as fast as he can. Johnny lets out a surprised exhale and it gives Jaehyun enough slack to get out temporarily. He sticks his tongue out like the mature adult he is. “Ha.”
“Oh, it’s on.”
14 February 2012
“Right,” Mrs. Kim said slowly, nodding as her hummingbird copied the motion. Johnny watched, shoulders drawn up in wariness. Jaehyun and the kid called Taeyong stood next to each other. The doves were still perched on Jaehyun’s scrawny shoulders. “So you were fighting a few scamps and summoned a sword.”
“Yeah,” Jaehyun agreed, blinking wide eyes. Johnny didn’t bother muffling his snort. With a subtle wince, Jaehyun continued. “And I also summoned him. Somehow.”
“How old are you again?” Mrs. Kim asked, tilting her head.
“Fifteen,” Jaehyun said. “My birthday was today, actually. Weird.”
“And when were you… ”
“Created?” Johnny asked dryly. “Why do you want to know?”
Impressively enough, Mrs. Kim didn’t flinch at his angry gaze, just regarded him with patient calm. “I need to confirm that this is what I think it is.”
“What is that?” Taeyong asked. He sounded worried.
“I think that you - ” she pointed at Johnny - “are Mr. Jung’s familiar.”
Two gazes turned to Jaehyun; one filled with shock, the other with both horror and fury. Jaehyun shuffled back and one of his doves cooed loudly, fluffing its wings up.
“I’m sorry,” Johnny said through gritted teeth. “But I’m his what?”
“Familiar - I’m sure you have heard of the term,” Mrs. Kim said and clasped her hands over her sternum. The hummingbird fluttered back and forth agitatedly. “It’s when - ”
“I know what it is,” Johnny interrupted. Jaehyun frowned at him briefly and then flinched away from his harsh stare. “But him? I’m bonded to him?”
“Alright, stop,” Taeyong snapped and the small fox actually growled. “You’re being a complete jerk for no reason. Jaehyun hasn’t done anything.”
“I didn’t ask to be bonded to some random kid,” Johnny snapped right back, standing up. He towered over everyone at his full height and it satisfied some crueller part of his heart - whatever his heart was. “How is this fair?”
“You think Jaehyunnie wanted to be bonded to you?” Taeyong hissed out, standing on tiptoe to stare Johnny in the eye. “Yeah. He didn’t. I don’t like that he’s bonded with an asshole like you, either. But notice how he’s actually trying to be nice instead of snapping at every opportunity?”
Johnny exhaled, frustrated. “Just - break the bond or something. I really don’t want to be here.”
“I’m afraid we can’t do that,” Mrs. Kim said, ridiculously calm even with a demon standing within two meters of her. “It would, quite literally, rip you both apart.”
As much as Johnny wasn’t really willing to be bonded to Jaehyun, he would also rather not get ripped apart.
Still. This was stupid.
“Just stay here, please,” a voice said tiredly and it was Jaehyun, still with his dumb doves and dumb wide eyes and this time when Johnny glared at him he didn’t break the line of sight like before, shoulders drawn closer to his torso but a strength in his eyes Johnny hadn’t noticed. “I’d rather not get ripped apart and I don’t think you want to get torn to bits, either. It’s not… good - I know you don’t like me - but we can be civil towards each other, right? This could be fine?”
Johnny exhaled harshly. He couldn’t believe that this was happening.
“Fine,” he snapped and when Jaehyun offered a hand, hesitant, Johnny just ignored it. “I’ll stay here. Don’t expect me to be all heroic or anything, though.”
Taeyong snorted. “You sure you want this, Jae? If you want you can just stay in my room.”
“I’ll be alright,” Jaehyun said and of course smiled. “Don’t worry, Taeyong hyung. We’ll, uh, we’ll be okay.”
He had dimples. Who had dimples, even?
(At this point Johnny was just being petty.)