Work Text:
Step 1 - Give the hybrid space and be patient if it doesn’t show a lot of affection.
The thing is, this isn’t Jaehyun’s first rodeo, not by a long shot.
He grew up in the original Volunteer Hybrid Rescue Team (VHRT) building, their apartment on top of the makeshift clinic and rehabilitation center, the one that had been his parents' passion project before developing into a non-profit, with branches all around the world.
At this point, he could probably write a wikiHow article titled “How to Befriend a ‘Feral Hybrid’ in his sleep.
Could give a Ted Talk or something, if other people cared enough about hybrids and hybrid rights to actually listen to him.
But Mark…
This wasn’t going to be easy, Jaehyun had known that going into this, and yet -
“I know this is scary,” Jaehyun says, the same words he has said plenty of times before. Validating the feelings of a frightened and scared hybrid was important, just like how validating the feelings of a scared human would be.
They weren’t that different really.
(Yet another thing that was a work in progress to get people to actually understand.)
“It’s okay to be overwhelmed, I know that the flight wasn’t…” Jaehyun pauses, choosing his words carefully. He had been adamantly against the muzzle, but the reports that LAPD had put down for Mark labeled him as aggressive and violent, and no sweet talking on Jaehyun’s part had been enough to convince the flight crew to treat Mark like anything other than a feral creature.
Despite the fact that in the days since Jaehyun got approval to take him into the temporary custody of the Volunteer Hybrid Rescue Team (and more importantly, into his own personal custody), Mark had shown none of those tendencies. Instead, he spoke quietly, if at all, kept space between the two of them as much as possible, and overall seemed as though his main emotions were calm, and a little bit - a lot - scared.
Jaehyun just wished he’d say something .
Even if it was the aggressive behavior the file had talked about.
Jaehyun had dealt with all sorts of rescue cases before, most often hybrids that had been abused or trafficked, homeless or sick hybrids a common occurrence, even those rescued from labs that had experimented with the exact sort of DNA mixing that would lead to someone like Mark.
But none of them had acted quiet like him.
“Are you my new owner now?”
The words are small.
Barely a whisper, and had there been music playing in the car, Jaehyun might not have even heard him.
“No, well…not exactly,” this, at least, is a conversation he’s had similar versions of before. “You don’t have to call me that, just Jaehyun is fine, or Jay if that’s too hard to say.” He’d run into rescues from the Americas that have had trouble with Korean names before. “Or Jaehyun-hyung, or just hyung, or whatever really makes you the most comfortable. But you don’t have to call me Master or anything, I don’t care for the term, and you’re not actually my hybrid.”
( Not yet .)
He’d explained the VHRT before, how they were here to help Mark recover and adjust before finding a permanent placement for him, somewhere safe, where he won’t be hurt, or used as a trophy, or whatever else he had come from before this.
Though Jaehyun hadn’t been sure Mark had understood his explanation back then.
There’s another pause.
Long enough that Jaehyun is convinced that Mark won’t say anything at all.
He turns his focus back to the road, navigating them through the streets of Seoul, familiar to him, but definitely unfamiliar to his companion, who gazes out the window with a sense of wonder. Jaehyun hopes this can, at least partly, make up for the no doubt uncomfortable fourteen hour plane ride over here.
But when Mark does speak, Jaehyun is glad he doesn’t miss the whisper of a voice - “Thank you, Jaehyun-hyung.”
Step 2 - Observe the hybrid’s general health.
“When you said a lion hybrid, I was expecting something a bit more…” Taeil trails off.
There’s so many ways to fill in that blank, so many ways the paperwork and documentation that Jaehyun had been given for Mark had tried to.
“It had been hard enough getting the clearance to even bring him here,” Jaehyun admits. “For that exact reason.”
The truth is that it would have been much easier to hand Mark off to the LA branch of the VHRT and let them handle things, maybe stay a week or so to get the paperwork straightened away. Make sure that he adjusted to the center well enough, and that the volunteers there were comfortable dealing with a hybrid of a bit of a bigger caliber than their usual, but something kept drawing Jaehyun back to Mark, and the idea of leaving him behind had felt wrong.
He trusts Taeil (or Doctor Moon, technically, as he had introduced himself to the young hybrid) significantly more than he trusts those doctors out in LA.
If there’s anyone who could see what Jaehyun saw from that first second they met, then maybe it would be Taeil.
“Has he shown any tendencies at all, any violent behavior?” Taeil asks.
Jaehyun frowns.
He knows that it’s Taeil’s job, that he is filling out official paperwork, doing so as a favor to Jaehyun that they’re both masquerading as an official consultation, but he can’t miss the way Mark (who has still barely said a word this entire consultation) seems to curl in on himself even more.
He’d gotten a clean bill of health, no signs of any diseases or fleas (though the hospital in LA had taken care of all of that really, so this was more of a formality), no lingering damage from whatever he had been through before (though the scars from the shock collar, from whatever he had ‘fought’ before still lingered), and Taeil had even removed the bandages from Mark’s hands finally (though the hybrid had refused to look at his hands that - other than the small scarring from the involuntary procedure that damn hospital in LA had performed on him - could have looked indistinguishable from a human’s hands).
“None,” Jaehyun says, to his defense. “Not even the smallest hint of it.”
“His file says-”
“He was just scared, hyung, fuck, haven’t we all lashed out when we were scared?”
Taeil sighs.
This is something Jaehyun’s gotten in trouble with before, his desperate desire to assume the best in people, but normally it works out in his favor, and this time…Jaehyun’s gaze lingers on Mark, he doesn’t want to be wrong.
“Legally, you understand that you have to report if any of that changes,” Taeil says. “That I’ll have to report if it affects one of the staff or other hybrids at the rehabilitation center?”
“That won’t happen.”
“Jaehyun…”
Step 3 - Give the hybrid a place to feel secure.
There’s a proper procedure for this.
The standard quarantine at the hybrid clinic, the usual process, to make sure that the newly rescued hybrid was free of any diseases, could have been avoided thankfully (or not-so-thankfully) due to Mark’s time in that hospital that Jaehyun had rescued him from in LA.
But after that, the VHRT procedure was simply reintegration with other hybrids at the nearest rehabilitation center, until they were stable enough to be found a permanent home.
Taking a hybrid back to his personal home wasn’t unheard of, it’s just -
“Eomma, how is this any different than what you did with Yuta-hyung?” Jaehyun asks. “You and I both know that big cat hybrids aren’t any different than any other cat hybrid, that people just assume the worst without ever giving them a chance.”
His mother is in London right now, he’s not sure about the time difference, but he can’t imagine that it was a decent hour for her to have called him, but well…he figured Taeil would end up letting something slip to someone, and the gossip would inevitably make it back to her.
He’ll blame Doyoung.
He blames Doyoung for a lot of things.
His mother’s voice is gentle through the phone, only sighing softly, “Yuta was eight when we shut that lab down, the ideal age for a companion for our young son - for you - to help teach you friendship, and to be understanding with all types of hybrids.”
“The lesson worked,” he points out.
He can’t see her, but he’s sure she is smiling, just a little at least. “Tell me about your boy then, Jae.”
Mark is asleep on Jaehyun’s couch, probably exhausted from the last two days of traveling.
He didn’t have a guest room, but he was planning a trip to IKEA with Johnny this weekend, where he could pick up what he needed to turn his home office into a temporary home for the hybrid.
Cat hybrids didn’t always need their own space, not like dog hybrids did, could be comfortable sleeping on just about any flat surface, but Mark wasn’t just any cat, and despite how he had reassured his mother, his childhood with Yuta could only be applied to a certain amount when it came to Mark.
“He’s just a baby, eomma, just a cub really,” Jaehyun says, voice soft, as he slips out of the living room and into the privacy of his bedroom instead. “I can’t imagine what he’s been through before this, but from the signs I can see, I have to assume the worst.”
“He’ll tell you, maybe one day, maybe not for a while, but when the time comes,” she says. “You have a way of getting through to people, of getting them to open up to you.”
Step 4 - Discover the hybrid’s favorite treats.
There is nothing quite as powerful as the smell of food being cooked in making even the most skittish of hybrids (or people, for that matter) appear.
Which is why Jaehyun is hardly surprised that the second he starts cooking, Mark appears. He’s done a good job avoiding Jaehyun (despite Jaehyun’s apartment not really being large enough for that) over the last few days, but that stops today.
“Good morning,” Jaehyun says, not looking away from what he is cooking.
He’s not the best cook, and he just really doesn’t want to fuck this up.
Mark’s mumbled, “Morning,” is a step in the right direction.
“Are you hungry?”
He expects a yes, the answer to an obvious question should be an obvious one, but Mark hesitates, waits until Jaehyun finally looks away from what he is cooking to look at him.
“Can I have some,” Mark asks softly. “Just a little, if you have leftovers.”
Jaehyun briefly thinks about the dumpster they had found Mark in, at the way he still seems too thin, the clothes he had borrowed from Jaehyun hanging off of him.
“I’m making it for you,” Jaehyun replies.
He can see how confusion flickers across Mark’s features, his eyebrows knitting together, though he doesn’t say anything.
“At the center, they usually make fish for the other kittens, but I called up my hyung, Yuta, he’s a panther hybrid and he works at the clinic now. You might have seen him when we went in to see Doctor Moon,” Jaehyun speaks to fill the silence. “He said you’d probably prefer red meat instead, but if there’s something you know you’d rather have, I could get that for you next time. How does that sound?”
“I get to choose,” Mark asks.
The question makes Jaehyun’s heart hurt, “Of course, baby, you can choose whatever you like.”
“I’ve never gotten to choose before.”
Step 5 - Provide several comfortable beds for the hybrid to take naps in.
Why had this seemed so easy in the store?
Back when Johnny had been with him, insisting that IKEA furniture was the easiest thing in the world to put together, Jaehyun had been so confident that he could do this.
He was wrong.
Mark is watching him from a pile of blankets on the floor, that are meant to go on the bed Jaehyun is making, but that have been currently reshaped into a place for Mark to curl up.
And fuck it, if the sight isn’t a cute one.
But Jaehyun does not have time to be distracted by cuteness when he is locked in an eternal battle with the Swedish furniture gods.
“Do you want help?”
Jaehyun pauses, help would be nice, and Mark wanting to do something with him was definitely a step in the right direction.
“There’s English instructions around here somewhere,” he explains. “Though, I’m not sure that you’ll do much better than me, these things are deceptively hard.”
He bought Mark a study book, though he wasn’t sure how much the hybrid comprehended it, since Jaehyun still hadn’t gotten much of his background, or even possible education out of him.
There were plenty of hybrids that weren’t educated, that their owners or breeders had simply never bothered to teach them to read, happy to keep them as cute little pets. But times had been changing for a while, and that was less and less common, unless there were special circumstances.
(He’d only encountered one where that was the case in recent years, but he’s pretty sure Donghyuck’s claims of being unable to read were more out of an unwillingness to listen to rules and to pretend not to understand them, rather than an actual lack of education.)
“I’m good at building things,” Mark insists, leaving his blanket pile only for just a second to find the English instructions.
“Like blanket forts,” Jaehyun asks, gesturing to the pile.
Mark’s smile is small, but it is a smile, and a warm feeling spreads through Jaehyun at the sight of it. “Among other things.”
Step 6 - When all else fails, a cardboard box always works.
It’s quite a sight, coming home to Mark curled up in the big IKEA box that his bed had come in, rather than the bed itself.
(The bed that had really been put together by Mark more than anyone else, the hybrid - true to his word - actually surprisingly good at putting things together.)
But Jaehyun can’t help himself from smiling.
The box is a bed, and Mark fits well in it, curled up into the space there, one of the flaps down, offering him the smallest hint of cover.
Jaehyun knows he should probably wake Mark up, remind him that he does actually have a bed of his own now, one that is probably more comfortable than the floor. But he can’t bring himself to do it, to disturb the peaceful way the hybrid seems sleeping, despite his unconventional choice of bed.
Instead, Jaehyun just snaps a quick photo of the sight, before tiptoeing off to his own bedroom.
Step 7 - Slowly introduce your hybrid to other people.
“It’s okay to be nervous,” Jaehyun reminds Mark, not for the first time, and probably not for the last.
They’d arrived at the center fifteen minutes ago, Mark having asked - of his own volition - if it was possible to see where Jaehyun went each day. Jaehyun had been so pleased to have Mark asking for something at all, speaking up about his wants and desires, that he hadn’t even considered saying no.
Not that he would have anyways.
“It’s just to see, right,” Mark asks, his hands holding tight onto the seat belt, not unbuckling yet. “I don’t have to stay, you’re not…even if I…”
Mark trails off.
Jaehyun’s not entirely sure how that sentence was supposed to end, and that makes a small frown tug at his features, desperately wanting the hybrid to tell him what is on his mind. “It was your idea to come visit, but if you’ve changed your mind, I’m happy to turn around and take you home, and-”
“No,” Mark cut him off. “No, I want to meet everyone. I just…I don’t want them to be scared of me.”
“They won’t be,” Jaehyun assures him.
Mark shoots him a disbelieving look.
“They won’t,” Jaehyun repeats. “I’m not going to lie to you, other people might be, or they might jump to the wrong conclusions, but today is going to be easy.”
Jaehyun had made sure that the first few people Mark would be introduced to are a relatively easy group.
Or well, no, maybe easy wasn’t the right word.
Friendly?
Not easily frightened?
“Yuta-hyung is kind of like you, he really does want to meet you, and asks daily about how you’re doing,” Jaehyun explains. “And you met Johnny-hyung briefly, the one who brought the bed?”
Mark nods.
Even though they both know he had hid away when Johnny had helped Jaehyun carry up the bed box.
“His hybrid Donghyuck-ah will be there too, he’s pretty unflappable, if a little dramatic,” Jaehyun continues. “Let’s just start with those three for today, and if everything goes well, we can try for more another day. How does that sound?”
Mark nods again, this time a little bit more eagerly, his dark curls bouncing around his face.
But there’s still some doubts there, enough that even as Mark unbuckles his seatbelt, finally ready to go in, he asks, “What if it doesn’t go well?
“Then you can just hide out in my office the whole day and spend time with me.”
Step 8 - Comfort the hybrid with your voice.
He wakes up to the sound of something crashing, shattering against the floor, the noise so jarring that Jaehyun is instantly pulled from sleep. For a second, he thinks that maybe the noise was just in his dream.
A nightmare in and of itself.
Because there’s silence in his apartment, an unnerving amount of silence, before he hears it- the sound of someone crying.
Not just someone .
Mark.
Jaehyun grabs his cell phone, flicking on the flashlight function to guide himself, afraid that turning on all the lights might startle a probably already upset hybrid. His impulse proves to be a correct one, as he steps out into the main living area of his apartment, following the panicked sounds to his kitchen.
There’s a broken coffee mug on the floor, probably the noise that had pulled Jaehyun from his sleep, but he’s not even slightly concerned with the broken mug, he’s far more concerned with the hybrid at the center of it all, holding one hand close to his chest, ears flat against his head, who quickly curls in on himself the second Jaehyun’s phone’s light flashes over him.
“Mark? What-”
“I’m sorry,” Mark says quickly. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Don’t get mad, please! Don’t get rid of me! I’m sorry! I’m-”
“Hey, baby,” Jaehyun crouches to get onto the ground, onto Mark’s level. “I’m not mad, I promise, just tell me what happened, yeah?”
Mark doesn’t answer right away.
Instead, he curls his right hand closer to his body, curls his whole self inwards, as if to block Jaehyun out, and just mumbles another, “I’m sorry.”
“Are you hurt?”
Mark doesn’t answer.
But Jaehyun’s had plenty of experience reading body language, of humans and hybrids alike, and it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out the obvious. In fact, it’s pretty easy to guess the whole situation. That Mark must have gotten thirsty in the middle of the night, went to get himself a drink, got startled, broke the mug, and then…
The only thing that’s concerning is his extreme reaction.
Jaehyun still hasn’t been able to get Mark to tell him much about his past, but his panicked reaction to a broken mug is more than just the usual fear and guilt, it speaks of past abuse that makes Jaehyun’s blood boil.
The idea that someone could be so cruel to someone as sweet as Mark…
Whoever hurt him before is lucky that they never had to cross paths with Jaehyun.
When Jaehyun speaks it is with a soft voice, careful not to frighten him, “I’m not mad, really, it’s just a mug, and we have plenty more.”
Mark doesn’t answer, but Jaehyun sees a flash in his eyes, as Mark looks up to gage whether Jaehyun’s expression matches his words.
Jaehyun takes that as a sign to continue, “I’m more worried about you. You cut yourself trying to clean it up, didn’t you?”
A nod.
Just a small one.
But enough of an opening.
“Can I see? We’ll need to bandage it up, so that it doesn’t hurt you anymore,” Jaehyun says.
There’s a pause.
So long that Jaehyun almost starts speaking again, anything to fill the void, but slowly, Mark uncurls, holding out his hand, a blood stained palm, dripping from a cut on his thumb (hopefully one that isn’t too deep). “You’re really not mad at me?”
“I’ll never be mad at you.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Step 9 - Cuddle with your hybrid and let it sleep with you to bond.
“Can I really sleep in here with you?” Mark asks, the next night.
Mark has changed into his pajamas, holding his favorite pillow close to his chest, just standing there at the doorway into Jaehyun’s bedroom.
They’d talked about it last night, about how it had been a nightmare (a common recurrence, as Mark had reluctantly admitted) that had draw Mark out of bed in the middle of the night, his hands shaking when he had dropped the mug (and the resulting panic that had awoken Jaehyun).
He’d offered this back then, if it would make Mark feel safer, knowing that it had helped others before.
Though normally, that was more of a situation of putting two hybrids in the same room together at the center, rather than having one in his own bed.
When he mentioned the idea at the center earlier in the day, the responses of his friends had been mostly supported.
He had purposely ignored Doyoung’s warnings of ‘not getting attached’ to the hybrid, insisting that that wouldn’t be a problem.
That had only been a half truth.
The more honest truth would have been that it was too late for that.
That he started calling Mark ‘ his hybrid’ rather than ‘ the hybrid he is taking care of’ in his head long ago.
“If you want to,” Jaehyun replies. “You’re more than welcome.”
Mark doesn’t hesitate for even a second, the instant he has that yes he crosses to room, crawling into Jaehyun’s bed before Jaehyun himself has even started to settle down. He’s sprawled across the side that Jaehyun prefers to sleep on, but he doesn’t have it in himself to tell Mark to move over.
Not when he can already see the way the tension seems to slip away from Mark as he says, “Thank you, hyung.”
Step 10 - Play with your hybrid.
“You’ve really never played basketball before?”
“When would I have?” Mark asks, hugging the ball a little tighter to his chest.
It had been a risk coming out here, technically Mark wasn’t cleared for going into public yet (though Jaehyun’s lawyers were working on fixing that), but it’s late enough at night that Jaehyun is sure they won’t have any real trouble.
Probably.
But neither of them had been able to sleep.
Mark from the nightmares, and Jaehyun too bogged down with everything at work to give his mind a moment's rest. Normally, he would have called Yuta or Johnny, dragged them out to the courts to get his mind off of things, but something had compelled him to drag Mark out instead.
A good decision, considering how happy playing basketball had made the hybrid.
He’d tucked a bucket hat over Mark’s ears to hide them, though there was no hiding the way the hat shifted upwards when he got excited.
Cute , so fucking cute and -
“This one’s for you, hyung,” Mark says, before throwing the ball up in the air again, this time clearly missing the basket on purpose.
Step 11 - Don’t get mad when your hybrid reflexively nips you.
“Mark! Hey, baby, wake up, it’s just a dream.”
It’s his fault.
He’d come back late, the meeting with the lawyers hadn’t gone as well as Jaehyun would have liked, more paperwork and technicalities. When the meeting had concluded, and Doyoung had offered to buy him a drink to take his mind off of things, Jaehyun had accepted like a fool.
Forgetting that the hybrid he was currently fighting the Korean Hybrid Registry over the possession of was the same hybrid that stayed up late every night, waiting for Jaehyun to come home, not wanting to be alone, just in case he had a nightmare.
Things had been going well the last few weeks. Mark had slept peacefully through the night (curled up against Jaehyun, but still, peacefully). Enough that he’d hoped today would be good as well.
His hopes were quickly dashed upon returning home.
“Come, baby, I’m here now.”
He knows he’s making a mistake.
A rookie one.
One that he’s scolded volunteers at the center over before. Rationally, he knows that taking something from a panicked hybrid won’t end well, especially not with the way Mark has the blankets of Jaehyun’s bed wrapped around him, clearly nesting - or would it be denning for a lion hybrid? - but he pulls the blanket away in spite of that, hoping that the movement will be enough to pull Mark from his dream.
The feeling of teeth hard against his hand, sharp canines cutting into his hand, is enough to have Jaehyun gasping out in pain.
All of his attempts to wake Mark before had been a failure, but at the sound of Jaehyun’s gasp, Mark’s eyes snap open. There’s a sleepy haze of confusion and fear there before the realization settles in.
It’s just a second really, maybe ten seconds, before Jaehyun’s hand is freed from Mark’s bite, but it’s enough.
Guilt appears first in the way his ears flatten against his head and-
“Baby, it’s okay, you were just having a bad dream, yeah?”
Mark doesn’t say anything, his eyes just flick down to Jaehyun’s hand and back up again, eyes wide, and then that guilt turns into fear.
“Mark, baby, really it’s okay,” Jaehyun says, reaching out towards Mark with his uninjured hand.
The hybrid is up off the bed before Jaehyun can touch him, darting out of the room, no doubt going to find somewhere to hide. That fear that he had seen in Mark’s expression makes his heart ache, the pain in his hand is nothing compared to the anger in his heart, over what Mark had to go through before this, to fear Jaehyun reacting negatively to what was clearly accidental self defense.
“I promise I’m not mad,” Jaehyun calls out to the unnaturally quiet apartment.
Predictably, Mark doesn’t reply.
Step 12 - Watch for signs of aggression.
“Is this the first sign of aggression you’ve seen,” Taeil’s voice is steady, if a little sleepy, through the speaker of Jaehyun’s cell phone.
He’d called Taeil once he’d given up on trying to find where Mark had hidden, deciding instead to give the hybrid some space. His doctor friend had guided Jaehyun through the process of cleaning up his injury over the phone, with only a slightly disapproving tone.
“He isn’t aggressive,” Jaehyun insists.
He’s been insisting that a lot lately.
“Jae, he bit you.”
“Because he was afraid!”
“I mean, this time sure, but what about next time.”
Jaehyun sighs, slides down onto the floor of the bathroom, taking his phone down with him. He’s still a little tipsy, the world spinning a little, and he’s done a shit job bandaging his hand, but none of that is important.
What’s important is-
“He’s a good kid, hyung.”
“You’ve always had a soft spot for lost causes,” Taeil replies.
Jaehyun flexes his fingers, ignoring the bit of pain.
Mark isn’t a lost cause.
Jaehyun knows he isn’t.
“Aren’t you supposed to be on my side? You work for my clinic,” Jaehyun points out.
“We have a partnership,” Taeil counters. “And I specialize in rehabilitating and rehoming cat hybrids, the normal kind, the ones that can be rehomed.”
“You sound like the fucking hybrid registry,” Jaehyun groans.
“Look,” Taeil says, “I know you want to get rid of the kid sooner rather than later, but maybe the registry is right, maybe-”
“You want to get rid of me,” Mark’s voice is so soft.
Jaehyun jerks his head towards the doorway to the bathroom, the door he hadn’t bothered to shut, because Mark was still hiding and shouldn’t have appeared at all, especially not at the worst possible time.
“I don’t- I mean, that’s not what it sounded like.”
“Jae, I’m going to call you back later.”
Jaehyun doesn’t even register the sound of Taeil hanging up the phone.
“Mark, I-”
“I’m sorry! It was an accident! I’m sorry!”
“I know, baby, I know that. I’m not mad, really. Didn’t I tell you before that I’ll never be mad at you?”
He can see in Mark’s eyes that the hybrid doesn’t fully believe him, but he nods his head in spite of this.
“I’m sorry…”
Step 13 - Get on the same level as your hybrid.
Mark has been avoiding him lately.
It’s not as if Jaehyun could have missed the obvious, and he knows that it is guilt related, because every time they’re in the same room, Mark’s eyes have a way of lingering on Jaehyun’s still bandaged up hand.
They need to talk.
About a lot of things.
But Jaehyun’s not sure where to begin.
He thinks, though, that this might be a start.
Mark had asked, after a week of avoiding Jaehyun, if he could come to the center with Jaehyun, under the guise of wanting to spend time with Johnny’s hybrid (though Jaehyun is pretty sure that Mark didn’t exchange more than a quick hello with Donghyuck before escaping out to the recreational area).
It had taken Jaehyun a few hours of work before he made it out there himself, but it’s impossible to miss Mark. While the other hybrids at the center are all playing together, Mark is a bit away from them, laying under a tree, with just the right amount of sunshine shining through the leaves onto his body.
Mark pretends not to react when Jaehyun lays down beside him, but he can see the way the hybrid shifts towards him just a little, his ears flicking in acknowledgement of Jaehyun’s arrival.
The silence between them can only act as a comfort for so long.
Jaehun speaks first, “I think that we need to talk.”
“Do we have to,” Mark asks. “I’m enjoying my nap.”
“Baby.”
It’s one word, but he knows the power it holds over Mark, because the hybrid shifts, stretches a little before curling up against him. Mark’s nose presses against the side of Jaehyun’s throat in an attempt to scent him (Jaehyun hadn’t fully realized how much he missed that until now), before Mark mumbles, “Sorry.”
He’s been saying that word too much lately.
Jaehyun wraps an arm around Mark, tugging him closer, before pressing a quick kiss to the top of Mark’s head. “You don’t have to keep apologizing.”
“I hurt you.”
“Barely,” Jaehyun says, “And on accident, you think I would be mad over an accident?”
Mark’s silence is telling.
“Mark?”
“Others have been madder over less.”
“I’m not like those who’ve you been with before, I thought you’d know this by now.”
“I do,” Mark says quickly, holding Jaehyun a bit together. “I guess I’m just scared.”
“Scared of what? Of me?”
“No. Of what comes next.”
Step 14 - Watch your hybrid’s tail.
Even though Mark has insisted that he’s fine, and has gone back to normal for the most part, Jaehyun knows that there’s still something on Mark’s mind.
One of the advantages that humans have over hybrids is the ability to hide their emotions. While Jaeyhun can lock his emotions away and never have to unpack them, Mark’s are shown in the way the hybrid parts of his biology react to things.
They’re currently playing basketball, Mark having asked if they could during dinner, and Jaehyun unable to deny him anything.
But instead of his tail moving back and forth as he figures out his next move, or showing any sort of excitement, it’s the same way it had been for the last few days, down and calm.
There’s a bucket hat over Mark’s ears again, but Jaehyun can pretty easily guess why this time his hat is doing a better job staying on than any of the previous times they’ve played.
That, and the fact that Jaehyun is winning -
“You know, if you’re not up for playing, we can just head back-”
“No,” Mark says quickly, stopping dribbling so suddenly that the ball rolls across the court, though neither of them make an effort to go get it. “No, I’m having fun.”
Why do those words feel so forced this time around?
“You sure?”
Mark nods eagerly, a little too eagerly, “You’re just too good tonight, hyung! That’s all!”
Step 15 - Reciprocate head bumps and soft blinks.
He’s so focused on his work that he doesn’t notice when Mark slips into the room, but it’s impossible not to notice the way the hybrid lightly bumps his head against Jaehyun’s shoulder, once, and then once more when Jaehyun refuses to put his laptop down.
“One second, baby.”
There’s a small whining noise, and Jaehyun saves the file that he’s working on, already ready to give in.
After avoiding him for nearly a week, Mark trying to cuddle with Jaehyun on the couch is a step of progress in the right direction that Jaehyun doesn’t want to deny him. He closes his laptop, setting it down on the coffee table, before letting the hybrid settle down into his lap instead.
Mark’s head rests against Jaehyun’s thighs, where his laptop had previously been.
“Needy baby,” Jaehyun teases, running his fingers through Mark’s curls to pet him.
There’s a noise not quite of affirmation as Mark meets Jaehyun’s eyes and blinks slowly, Jaehyun returns the acknowledgement, and a second later Mark’s eyes are slipping shut, at peace, cuddled up against Jaehyun.
Mark can’t purr, being a lion hybrid and all, but Jaehyun is sure he would if he could.
“You okay?”
Jaehyun expects another not answer, but instead, Mark mumbles, “I missed you.”
“You’re always welcome to come to work with me,” Jaehyun reminds him. “You’re the one that chose to stay home.”
“You had lunch plans,” Mark reminds him.
That’s true. Jaehyun had been vague about his plans, but his meeting with Doyoung and his lawyers had been off site. He still technically wasn’t allowed to take Mark anywhere other than the center, the clinic, or his home.
“Just for an hour,” Jaehyun says. “Yuta would’ve loved your help, or you could have played with the kittens, instead of staying here all day.”
Mark ignores his suggestions and instead says, “Stay home tomorrow, please, for me?”
It’s impossible to miss that Mark has been more clingy lately.
More affectionate.
But as much as Jaehyun would like to give in - “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I’ve got some important meetings tomorrow with my lawyers and…’” Jaehyun trails off, he’s avoided talking about the specifics for so long. Wanting to spare Mark from this, from the knowledge of how badly the Hybrid Registry wanted to kick him out of the country on the grounds of ‘safety concerns’.
He’d protect Mark from the entire cruel world if he could.
“If this all goes well, next week I’ll take you around the city, we can make a day of it.”
“Just the two of us?”
“Sure, baby, just the two of us.”
Step 16 - Learn and respect your hybrid’s body language.
It’s done.
Finally, after months of work.
The feeling of accomplishment should be a relief, the official paperwork should arrive in a few days, the courts and the committee finally seeing Jaehyun’s side of things.
For now he has a temporary hybrid passport, for one Mark Lee, lion hybrid, property of the VHRT.
Though Jaehyun hopes to change that last line soon, if Mark wants.
The nervousness of that very question has kept Jaehyun from feeling too much excitement over the news that he finally got Mark cleared. Rationally, he can’t imagine that the hybrid would say no, but Jaehyun’s been considering Mark his hybrid for so long that the idea of any alternative feels almost unbearable.
Still he can’t help the smile that finds its way onto his face, as he opens the door, ready to tell Mark the good news. Maybe they can even order in something special to celebrate. Even if Mark doesn’t want to stay with him… This is still a day to be celebrated.
That smile falls from his face when he opens the door to the sight of a displeased hybrid, sitting on the floor facing the door.
Mark gets up off the floor quickly, the second Jaehyun appears, but his expression doesn’t change.
“You said you were going to be at the center today,” Mark says, words tight and angry.
He’s pretty sure he’s never heard Mark angry before, the change from the hybrid’s usual demeanor is shocking enough that Jaehyun pauses, his house keys still in his hands. It feels like he’s back in high school again, sneaking home with Yuta after they’d gone out for a midnight convenience store run, while his mother sits, disappointed in both of them, on the couch.
“No, I said, I had meetings today,” Jaehyun corrects.
“But you…you implied,” Mark insists.
“I’m sorry you misunderstood, but-”
“I called your phone, but you didn’t pick up,” Mark cuts him off. “So I called the center, because I couldn’t remember if the blue pan could go in the dishwasher or not, and I didn’t want to mess things up, and you weren’t there and…”
Mark looks away.
Jaehyun has spent his whole life among hybrids, could be considered an expert at this point when it comes to reading hybrid body language, and every sign Mark is showing points to one thing - anger .
“I understand that you’re upset that I wasn’t where you thought I would be, but I have some good news-”
“I know all about your good news ,” Mark snaps.
Now it’s Jaehyun’s turn to be confused, “What?”
“Hyuck answered the phone, I’m not even sure why he is allowed to answer the phone, but that’s Johnny-hyung’s problem not mine,” Mark says.
Normally Jaehyun would laugh at that sort of comment, today he stays quiet, still listening as Mark explains whatever has gotten him in such a fuss.
“But I asked if you were there because you weren’t answering your phone,” Mark continues. “And he said that you weren’t there, that you were meeting with some people to try and find me a new owner and…” Mark trails off. “You said that you weren’t mad! That it was an accident! That you weren’t going to get rid of me!”
“Mark-”
“You’re just like the rest of them!”
“Baby, that’s not what I-”
“I hate you!
Step 17 - Avoid resorting to punishment.
“Hyung, I don’t know what to do,” Jaehyun says, as he watches the water boil over the stove.
This was definitely not how he intended tonight to go.
But Mark had run out before Jaehyun could explain, slamming the door to the room that he hadn’t used in a month, and wedging something under the handle so that Jaehyun couldn’t open it. Not that Jaehyun had really tried, when the handle didn’t give he had taken a step back, gone to make a dinner of ramen instead of his previous plans.
They both needed space.
Once Mark calmed down, Jaehyun would explain everything, and they’d both feel a little bad, but things would be okay.
Hopefully .
“What if there’s no fixing this,” Jaehyun continues. “What if he really does hate me?”
He can still hear those three words echoing in his brain on loop.
He knows rationally that they came from a place of hurt and fear, but they hurt Jaehyun more than any other wound has before. Because while he’s been afraid to admit the words out loud, he knows what he feels for Mark in his soul is the exact opposite of that.
Love .
“He doesn’t,” Johnny insists through the phone. “You know that.”
“I know, but I just…” Jaehyun trails off.
He turns off the stove before the water boils over to avoid finishing his sentence.
“Well, if it makes any difference,” Johnny’s voice carries over the phone line. “I know a certain someone, who is very sorry and getting his tv privileges revoked for the next week.”
Donghyuck’s shout of “Hey! No fair!” in the background is unmissable.
Step 18 - Keep your hybrid out of danger.
He gives Mark space.
Because that’s the right thing to do.
Even if his bed feels unnaturally empty without the hybrid beside him, so used to sharing his space with Mark that his absence is like a gaping wound. It’s a wonder he even manages to sleep at all, exhaustion from this whole mess of a day finally overwhelming Jaehyun.
It’s still unnaturally quiet in the morning.
Mark is still hiding away in his room.
Jaehyun cooks breakfast, the exact sort of meal that he knows that Mark will like. It’s a trick that has worked before, because no matter how long the hybrid is mad at him, eventually hunger will win out, and maybe if he can get Mark in a good mood with his favorite foods, he will be more likely to listen this time.
It’s a good plan.
A solid one.
One that is tried and true.
But the fact that Mark doesn’t appear through any of the cooking process, even to lurk in the doorway into the kitchen, is concerning. Dread pools in Jaehyun’s stomach, and once again Mark’s voice echoes in his head, those three angry words.
They need to talk.
He needs to explain things.
To fix all of this.
Jaehyun knocks on the door to Mark’s room, as he calls out, “I know you’re probably still mad at me baby, but you need to eat.”
There’s no answer, so Jaehyun tries the door, expecting the same resistance as last night, but the handle turns easily.
The relief Jaehyun feels at the door being unlocked is short lived, as he opens the door to no sight of Mark.
“Mark? Baby? Where are you hiding?”
He checks under the bed, and then the closet, and then around the rest of the apartment. Each second the feeling of fear grows more and more, because Mark isn’t here…
And if he isn’t here, who knows where he could be or when he could have left, and how could Jaehyun have been such a fool to have not thought of this.
It is his job to keep Mark safe, and he’d fucked up that one thing.
Fucked up everything really.
He doesn’t even want to think about what could happen, Mark out there without Jaehyun, or even a collar or his hybrid passport. The best case scenario would be someone calling the VHRT assuming he was a stray, but there was always the alternative of calling the registry.
The final paperwork hasn’t fully cleared yet, they could take everything back, and then Mark would be gone, taken to a place that Jaehyun might not be able to get him back from.
He tugs on his shoes, grabs his keys, and is out the door before he can even think twice about where he is going.
Step 19 - Listen to your hybrid’s words.
He starts by checking the proximity of his apartment building, the alley out back, as he shoots off a desperate text message to his group chat and friends. Maybe Mark had just gone to the center or the clinic. It would be a bit of a walk from the apartment, but Mark knew how to get there, and had gone to both places before, and at least then he would be safe.
It’s a long shot.
Though he is thankful when everyone responds that they will be searching too.
It’s Yuta’s message though that lingers, that makes Jaehyun hope for something, a simple question of ‘ Is there any place special that he’s been to before? A place you two maybe went together?’
He could be wrong, but there’s only one place that he’s ever taken Mark other than the clinic and the center, and if Yuta is right, then he isn’t too far.
They’ve just never gone during the day before.
Jaehyun runs there, his heart pounding too fast in his chest, trying not to get his hopes up in case Yuta was wrong. The path is a familiar one, to the park not far from Jaehyun’s apartment, to the basketball courts that he takes Mark to when they’ve both had a rough day.
It’s still early enough in the morning, only a few people and hybrids milling around the park, but more than when they’re usually out here.
But Jaehyun doesn’t pay any of those others any attention, not when he rounds the corner to the courts and sees someone sitting there under one of the hoops. There’s a familiar bucket hat over his head, hiding the ears underneath, and a hoodie that Jaehyun knows is his own and -
“Mark!”
The hybrid’s head jerks up.
Any upset that Jaehyun might have felt is washed away when he sees how red Mark’s eyes are, how he shivers and holds onto himself, not running away but so clearly scared and upset.
“Oh thank god,” Jaehyun says, crossing the court in a few strides.
He wants to pull the hybrid into a hug, to reassure himself that Mark really is there, and that he’s safe and that Jaehyun hasn’t lost him.
Instead he holds back, just settles down on the court across from Mark.
“Do you have any idea how scared I was when I couldn’t find you?”
Mark doesn’t answer.
It’s back to how things were in the beginning.
Mark’s silences always seem to be so overwhelming.
“Everyone’s out there looking for you,” Jaehyun says. He’ll have to text them later that he found Mark. “I was so worried that you’d get hurt or lost or that we wouldn’t be able to find you and-”
“I thought you’d be relieved,” Mark says finally, voice tight with tears barely held back.
Jaehyun’s sure his own heart is breaking. “Why would I be relieved?”
“You wanted me gone,” Mark says, like it should be obvious. “So I thought that if I left before you woke up, then you wouldn’t have to worry about finding me a new owner.”
“And you thought that running away was better than talking to me about this?”
“I realized I was wrong a bit ago,” Mark admits with a tiny shrug. “But I was scared to go back just in case you were going to be mad at me.”
“I’m not mad,” Jaehyun says. As he’s said too many times before. “Scared? Sure. But I’ll never be mad at you.”
“I’m sorry I slammed the door, and that I ran away, and that I bit you that one time,” Mark continues. Not letting Jaehyun get a word in at all. “You told me in the beginning that you weren’t my owner, I remember that now, but I guess I just got attached and I’m sorry for that too.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry for,” Jaehyun insists.
He slips his hand into the pocket of his jacket, fingers brushing against what he had bought for Mark yesterday before heading home.
The surprise that he never got to offer.
“I just wish I had heard it from you, not from someone else. It makes sense that you’d want to get rid of me, because I’m awful and humans always want to get rid of me, but I really thought things were different here. I thought we were different. I thought…” Mark trails off. Choking on his tears, unable to finish his sentence.
But Jaehyun has heard enough.
Has put his precious boy through too much in this misunderstanding, and it’s time that he fixed all of this.
“Mark, baby, come here.”
Mark moves lightning fast, pressing himself into Jaehyun’s arms, those tears soaking his shirt, as he holds onto the hybrid - his - as tightly as possible.
“I like you so much, hyung,” Mark says through the tears, “If there’s anything I could do to change your mind, tell me, and I’ll do it. I’ll do anything please, just please let me stay with you. Please.”
“You don’t have to do anything,” Jaehyun tells him.
Mark must not understand, because he holds onto Jaehyun just a little bit together, as if afraid he would slip away, “I’ve never felt safe before you, and I’m scared to lose that, so please, hyung, just give me one more chance. I won’t mess up again.”
Jaehyun’s eyes burn, the tears ready to spill over, but one of them has to be the strong one in this situation.
“You’re not going anywhere. You were never going anywhere.”
“Hyung, I don’t understand,” Mark says, shifting back a little so that he can meet Jaehyun’s eyes, “Hyuck said-”
“He misunderstood,” Jaehyun says, wishing this conversation could have happened under other circumstances, but glad it’s able to happen at all. “It’s true that I was meeting with my lawyers yesterday about changing your ownership, now that all of your official paperwork has come in, but not to someone else…”
The furrow of Mark’s brows and his clear confusion would be cute if Jaehyun’s heart wasn’t still aching. “Then who?”
“I was going to ask you, last night, before everything went awful, but,” Jaehyun digs into his pocket, and pulls out the collar that he had bought last night. It’s a simple one, he would have rather let Mark pick out his own, but Jaehyun had gotten a little bit too excited and caught up in the moment of hoping for Mark’s answer to be a positive one.
He doesn’t have to hope now.
Not when it’s obvious what Mark’s answer will be.
Mark’s eyes widen at the sight of the collar in his hand, and this time the tears that gather in his eyes are from something other than sadness.
“Would you be interested in being mine?” Jaehyun asks.
Mark doesn’t answer right away, doesn’t reach out for the collar, instead he pulls back a little, and Jaehyun braces himself for the worst.
But Mark just shrinks in on himself a little and asks, “You haven’t changed your mind, have you? I haven’t ruined everything by running away, right? Do you really still want me? You don’t want to get rid of me?”
“I would never get rid of you, I love you too much to even consider that.”
“Hyung, I,” Mark starts, but he can’t finish the sentence, the tears too overwhelming, but his hand settles over Jaehyun’s, the one holding the collar, and that seems to be a clear enough answer.
“Come on, let’s go home.”
Step 20 - Use nonverbal communication.
Mark still hasn’t taken the collar off, despite Jaehyun insisting that he doesn’t have to wear it when they’re home, only if they go out and about.
They’ve talked things over.
Jaehyun has called off the search party and reassured everyone that Mark was okay, and that Jaehyun would be taking the next few days off to spend time with his hybrid.
Now the only thing that remains is…
“I’m going to bed, it’s been a long day,” Jaehyun says.
Mark’s curled up on the couch, has been for the last hour, pretending to be asleep, one hand holding onto his collar as if afraid it will disappear, the other wrapped up in the blanket pile he has made around himself.
At Jaehyun’s words the hybrid opens up his eyes.
Jaehyun doesn’t know how to ask for what he needs, isn’t sure he’s able to, but he opens his arms in a silent gesture and is thankful when Mark understands what he means.
Mark abandons his blanket to go to Jaehyun, pressing his face against the side of Jaehyun’s neck in an attempt to scent him.
Jaehyun’s human so he can’t scent Mark back, but he nuzzles him back, hoping that it’s close enough.
It must work, because the next thing he feels against the side of his neck is the press of Mark’s lips, a brief kiss being pressed there, before he pulls back, cheeks red.
Their eyes meet for just a second, before Mark’s eyes flicker down towards Jaehyun’s lips and oh-
Oh .
He’s waited too long for this, warred with himself internally over this, but who is Jaehyun to deny Mark anything, especially not something they both want.
Jaehyun presses a kiss to Mark’s forehead first, then his cheek, and then the briefest and most chaste kiss ever to Mark’s lips.
The redness that had found its way onto Mark’s cheeks grows at that, spreading as he whispers, “Please, hyung, can you kiss me again?”
Step 21 - Praise your hybrid when he brings you a present.
He wakes to the smell of something burning.
And to the sight of Mark in the kitchen, curls a mess, still clearly sleepy, and failing at cooking eggs for breakfast.
“What are you doing?”
“It’s supposed to be a surprise,” Mark groans, “But I’m not good at cooking, they made it look so easy on YouTube.”
“Oh baby.”
It’s impossible to miss the way Mark preens at the pet name, turning off the stove in defeat, to instead press himself up against Jaehyun, hugging him.
“I’m sorry I burned breakfast, and that I woke you up.”
Jaehyun smiles.
He really does have the cutest hybrid in the world.
“How about we go out for brunch instead, my treat?”
“Can we really do that?”
“We can do whatever you want, baby.”
Mark seems to consider this for a moment, before he says, “The only thing I want is you.”
Step 22 - Never let your hybrid forget how loved he is.
Some days he thinks about it.
That call he got from LA.
The way that, against all his better judgment, he had boarded that plane, fully expecting to find a hybrid every bit as feral as the call had described. They’d all warned him that it was a fool's errand that he might not even be able to help.
That it might be a lost cause.
That he might be too feral or aggressive to be rehabilitated.
“Hyung, you know I love you, right?”
Jaehyun narrows his eyes in mild suspicion at Mark’s words.
“What do you want?”
“Kisses,” Mark answered with a smile.
Aggressively affectionate is more like it.
Step 23 - Realize that all the ‘How To’ guides got it wrong.
At this point he could probably write a wikiHow article titled “How to Befriend a ‘Feral’ Hybrid” in his sleep.
But the truth is, it would be much easier to write a ‘How to Fall in Love with Mark’ guide.