Archive of Our Own

“I was a king once, you know.”

Wonwoo tried very hard not to roll his eyes as he shifted his phone to his other ear so he could stir the ramen in the pot in front of him. The noodles were simmering and Wonwoo’s mouth watered slightly as he got another whiff of the broth. It was nearly done. He set his spoon aside for a second to get a bowl down from his cabinet. He cradled the phone between his ear and shoulder as he began to pour the broth and noodles into the bowl, his uncle obliviously continuing on the whole time. Wonwoo made sure to make vague grunts of agreement every so often so his uncle would think he was listening. He’d heard the story a dozen times before.

When he was a bastet cub, young enough to have trouble shifting into his human form and still able to fit on his uncle’s knee, the old man would tell Wonwoo all about his time as king of a mythical castle far away. Wonwoo’s tiny claws would knead into the corduroy of his uncle’s trousers as the man rambled on and on about the large castle he used to live in, the hallways full of colorful flowers, elegant tapestries, and of course the expansive cast of characters that existed as his loyal subjects.

Wonwoo’s father had told him afterwards that most of the stories were exaggerated, that calling his uncle a ‘king’ was generous when his kingdom wasn’t ever recognized by any official governments so it was, at best, a micro nation. His childhood imagination was never dissuaded by that though, and more often than not Wonwoo fell asleep dreaming about flying through the snow gently falling over the dark spires of an ancient castle. As he got older and more jaded, Wonwoo realized that his father had been right and that his uncle had likely been exaggerating most of his experiences for the benefit of Wonwoo’s younger self, but that never fully extinguished the lingering wistful daydreams that Wonwoo occasionally had of the place, not that he ever told another living soul about them.

Reality was much harsher. Wonwoo had gotten a job at a delivery service straight out of college, his wings making him an ideal employee for the firm and getting him some much needed job security. That said, it was nowhere near the job he’d always envisioned for himself. That’s not to say he expected to be the king of a tiny nation like his uncle always claimed to be, but Wonwoo wanted to do something more worthwhile than dropping packages on doorsteps all day, dragging himself home, eating dinner while half watching whatever drama was currently airing between six and eight in the evening, maybe reading a few pages of his book and then falling asleep only to wake up the next morning and do it all over again. He snapped out of his mental spiral as his uncle wound down in his retelling of old stories, and after a few more shallow pleasantries Wonwoo hung up with a lackluster goodbye.

It could be worse, Wonwoo thought as he shoved his phone in his pocket and carried his bowl of ramen over to the flimsy wooden TV tray he’d set up in front of his couch. He could have to deal with a longer commute time if he didn’t have his wings, which he heard from his coworkers was one of the worst parts of their job. Speaking of wings, Wonwoo stretched out his appendages, careful to avoid knocking over his ramen in the process. He couldn’t help the groan of relief as the muscles tensed and relaxed, finally getting some time to rest after a long day of flying against the strong air currents. The ends of his wings brushed the ceiling of his small apartment.

Wonwoo took a second to examine his feathers. Some of the glossy black feathers had become crooked, and he noted that he’d lost a couple on his right wing. It was probably from the delivery that took him through a forest, where he’d accidentally clipped his wing against a tree. He frowned as he straightened some of his quills, but concluded that there was nothing that would greatly impact his flying ability. His boss would be thrilled, at least Wonwoo assumed he would be considering the man never showed any expression other than vague displeasure.

By the time Wonwoo had finished examining his wings, his ramen had cooled off to being just lukewarm rather than steaming hot and the noodles had gotten slightly soggy. He sighed and picked up the bowl anyway, briefly toying with the idea of walking the thirty steps needed to get back to his microwave but ultimately deciding against it. He flipped on the TV to some unremarkable romantic comedy drama, blankly watching the two leads dance around each other for another episode as he robotically lifted noodles into his mouth.

By the time he had finished the bowl, the episode had ended and an equally unimpressive procedural crime show was playing. Wonwoo flipped off the TV before standing and picking up his bowl. He walked over to his sink to dump out the remaining broth and start scrubbing down the bowl with a well used sponge. It was a routine, one he went through on autopilot as he finished washing and drying his one dish and set of chopsticks before laying them out on a hand towel to dry. He then moved back toward his bedroom to put his pajamas on and grab his book off the nightstand.

It could be worse, Wonwoo thought again as his eyes drifted shut later that evening, book tossed carelessly to the side with his bookmark sticking crookedly out of the top, But it could also be a whole lot better.

“You need a break. Your job sucks and you look dead inside,” Mina said before taking a pointed sip of her strawberry milkshake. Even her russet colored wings managed to twitch at him judgmentally. Wonwoo couldn’t resist the urge to roll his eyes, wincing when his sister kicked him under the table.

“Ow!”

“You deserved that,” she said unrepentantly. Wonwoo moved to kick her back but she quickly moved her legs out of the way, anticipating the move.

Wonwoo was only left with the option of leaning back in his chair and glaring around the tiny cafe they were currently seated in. He wasn’t pouting, he wasn’t. “Did you just invite me to lunch to insult me?”

“That was part of it,” Mina said, “But maybe I also just really wanted to see you before the holidays?”

“What, we don’t see enough of each other during the holidays?” Wonwoo snorted, “Just tell me why you’re here. Did you finally decide what you wanted for Christmas?”

“Yes,” she said, “But also something’s come up.” She finally locked her phone and looked up her brother with an apologetic expression. “Mom and Dad are going on vacation for Christmas. Fiji, I think.”

“What?!” Wonwoo blurted, accidentally attracting the attention of the surrounding tables. He flushed with embarrassment and lowered his voice. “And when exactly were they going to tell us this?”

She winced. “They told me in September, so I made plans to stay with a friend over the holidays. I thought they’d told you as well, but I guess they forgot too. I only realized last night when you texted me asking when my flight was getting in.”

“Damn it,” Wonwoo groaned and rubbed a hand down his face. He blew out a long breath. “Well, I guess I’ll tell my boss I can work the holiday then.”

His sister’s eyes narrowed. “No, the fuck you will not,” she snapped. “You’ve already spent all your time working for that ridiculous company, and I won’t let you spend your holiday dropping off packages for people who forgot about their own loved ones until the last minute.”

“Then what do you recommend I do, Mina?” Wonwoo asked. “Christmas is a month away, all the flights are probably either full or out of my price range at this point.”

Mina bit her lip. “I’ll figure something out,” she said. She quickly drained the last of her milkshake and stood from her chair. “Don’t worry, Wonwoo, I have an idea!” She ran out of the cafe with god only knew what kind of plan in mind, leaving Wonwoo gaping in her wake.

It was only a few seconds later after Wonwoo had processed her abrupt exit that he realized she had left him behind to clean up their table and pay the bill.

“Hello?” Wonwoo picked up the call with a frown, concern creeping into his voice when he saw Mina’s name on the screen. He dropped his chopsticks on a napkin next to his ramen, and used his free hand to turn down the drama currently playing on his television. He and Mina hadn’t made plans to call and the only thing that usually had her calling otherwise was if there was an emergency.

“Tell me I’m the best sister ever!” Mina said in lieu of a greeting. Wonwoo relaxed slightly when he heard the lack of urgency in her voice, but he was still confused.

“Why should I?”

“Because I just found out what you can do for Christmas instead of just ordering Chinese takeout and getting drunk watching the Hallmark channel!” She said cheerily.

“Wh- I was not going to watch the Hallmark channel!” Wonwoo protested. This was strictly a shitty Netflix movie house.

“So you were still going to order Chinese takeout and get drunk?” Mina deadpanned.

“I don’t tell you how to live your life,” Wonwoo said.

He could practically hear his sister rolling her eyes. “Whatever. Now you don’t have to do that!”

“And what do you have in mind for me?” Wonwoo asked, leaning back on his lumpy couch. Part of him was intrigued as he rarely had plans aside from his normal evening routine. If he could spend Christmas doing something even slightly different, then it would probably be the most exciting night he’d had in at least five months. Then again, he and his sister had wildly different ideas of fun and he wouldn’t be surprised if Mina’s plan involved dressing up as a reindeer and sliding headfirst down a mountain.

“I got Uncle Moon to let you use his old house for the month!”

Wonwoo’s wings fluffed up in shock. He definitely hadn’t been expecting that. “You’re lying.”

His uncle was notoriously protective of his old property, despite the fact that he had long since moved out of the old castle and into a retirement community. The only person Wonwoo knew of that was allowed to enter the place was a housekeeper that his uncle paid twice monthly to clean the place. Even though his uncle never seemed to run out of stories about the castle, Wonwoo had only seen it a handful of times in person.

“I am not!” His sister replied. “I just called him and asked and he said yes!”

“I’m calling him,” Wonwoo said, pulling the phone away from his ear.

“Hey, where’s my thanks?” His sister cried just as Wonwoo hit the ‘end call’ button. He immediately pulled up his contacts to scroll to his uncle’s name. His finger hovered for a second over the call button. What if his sister had been messing with him? She knew how much the old stories had meant to Wonwoo and she could have been using it as a prank, he couldn’t imagine his uncle willingly giving up the keys to his old manor after all, but if she wasn’t lying…

He pressed call.

“Hello?” The tired voice of his uncle answered.

“Hi, Uncle Moon,” Wonwoo said, “Sorry, did I wake you up?”

“Oh no,” his uncle said, “I should probably be up anyway. I missed making dinner at my normal time.”

“Sorry,” Wonwoo repeated.

“It’s no problem,” his uncle assured him, “Did you call for a reason though, Wonwoo?”

Wonwoo hesitated for only a second before asking, “Are you really going to let me use your old place?”

His uncle laughed. “Ah, the castle? Yes, your sister called about that earlier. I told her that I could call you myself, but she insisted she would let you know. I think she’s expecting you to buy her a meal for doing so.”

“Hm,” Wonwoo grimaced, “I guess I will. But are you okay with me staying there? I know how much that place means to you-“

“It’s fine,” his uncle cut him off, “I think you’re ready to handle the responsibility of such a place, don’t you?”

“Uh, I guess,” Wonwoo said, brow furrowing at his uncle’s choice of words, “I’ll make sure I keep it clean.”

“Mm, yes, be sure to do that too,” his uncle hummed, “Now, when will you be by to pick up the keys?”

Wonwoo had set up his time off to go through the last three weeks of the year as he hadn’t had any reason to use the time previously that year, and unfortunately his company didn’t roll his hours over into the next year. When he’d taken the time off he had no idea how he’d fill the three weeks he had, but now that the prospect of exploring his uncle’s castle was on the table Wonwoo couldn’t stop the excitement that was bubbling up inside him.

“I can be by Friday after work,” he said.

“That works for me,” his uncle said, “It would probably be best if you left early as well given the blizzard that’s supposed to blow in soon. Now, if that’s all, I have a game show coming on in a few minutes.”

“Oh, alright,” Wonwoo said, “Thank you so much for letting me use your place though, Uncle Moon.”

“It’s no trouble at all, Wonwoo,” his uncle said, “In fact, if it goes well, maybe you can start stopping by there more often.”

They hung up soon after and Wonwoo went back to his messages.

Me

Thanks

Brat

I told you I wasn’t lying!!! You owe me lunch again!!

Me

I guess I’ll buy you lunch

How do you feel about barbecue?

Brat

Wow so generous

Me

It’s your Christmas present

Brat

Haha don’t think you’re getting out of buying an actual present

You did get me an actual present right?

Wonwoo?

Bitch

Wonwoo had gotten the keys for the castle from his uncle with little incident. His uncle had also handed over a few other documents that included things like the location of all the nearby stores, numbers for repair services if necessary and the wi-fi password. And with that, Wonwoo packed his suitcase for three weeks (mentally thanking the spirits that the castle had an in unit washer and dryer) before piling all his suitcases into his small car. In any other circumstances he would fly down himself, but with all his luggage the car was necessary.

The drive was six hours long, seven with the stops Wonwoo took for food and bathroom breaks. Wonwoo felt the tension he hadn’t realized he’d been carrying melt off his shoulders as he listened to audiobooks all the way down and the scenery of the city grew more and more distant. The landscape eventually gave way to towering pine trees and soon rolling, snow covered hills. Wonwoo was already starting to daydream about the next few weeks. Any time he spent not exploring the castle he planned on flying around the countryside and taking in the wintery atmosphere.

Finally he refueled at the last small town that he planned on stopping in. The castle, according to his online research, was at least a thirty minute drive from any other people and only reachable by the one road through the icy hills. Wonwoo could hardly wait. He was sure the wide smile he had on his face unnerved a few people at the gas station, but Wonwoo barely noticed them. He was finally going to go to the place he’d been dreaming of since he was old enough to know what a dream was.

The actual castle was just as imposing as Wonwoo remembered when he first drove his small car through the large gate that surrounded the castle via the lowered drawbridge. The chains of the drawbridge were all covered in icicles, and Wonwoo wondered if they were even operational anymore. Perhaps that could be something to investigate during his stay he thought, giddy at the idea of being able to explore an actual castle.

He parked his car right outside the front door and stared up at the imposing structure. Most of the castle was as tall as a five story building with the towers on all four corners stretching up at least two floors higher. There were large windows set into the wall around the perimeter ever twenty feet or so, and on the one side Wonwoo could see there was a large stained glass window depicting a bastet, in a regal looking lion form with large brown wings, hovering over a comparatively small city. Wonwoo wondered if there were other scenes on the other side of the castle.

Unwilling to wait much longer, Wonwoo grabbed as much of his luggage as he could carry, it would probably take at least three trips to get all his things in, and hurried toward the front door. It wasn’t snowing out at that moment thankfully, but the sun was already dipping lower in the sky despite the fact that it wasn’t even dinner time yet.

The door itself was imposing, even, likely fifteen feet tall and made of a sturdy looking wood with a large brass knocker set in the middle of the door. Wonwoo wondered if he should knock first, but then reasoned he was the only person there and pulled the keys out of his pocket. He fumbled with the large key for a few seconds, but eventually managed to shoulder the door open. It was as heavy as it looked, he realized, and he wondered if he’d gain muscle over the holiday just trying to get in and out of his house.

The inside of the castle was even more impressive than the outside. The ceiling was at least thirty feet over his head. Wonwoo could probably spread his wings and take off even indoors. A large chandelier rigged with electric lights hung overhead. The sides of the entryway were lined with rich maroon colored velvet tapestries, each bearing the embroidered image of a golden bastet. There were also torch holders on the sides of the halls, though each now held lightbulbs instead of fire. Wonwoo wondered if his uncle had told the housekeeper to set up the castle for his arrival. If so, Wonwoo would definitely have to ask his uncle for the housekeeper’s information so Wonwoo could send a thank you card.

The far side of the entryway led to a grand staircase that traveled up to the far wall and then split both left and right to the floor above. Still on the first floor were two hallways on either side of Wonwoo. The one on the right led to what looked like a sitting room with a few visible portraits and statues that Wonwoo could see. The one on the left looked like a more modern common area with a large flat screen television and a few couches and armchairs.

Wonwoo shivered as a burst of cold wind blew in behind him from the still open door. He sighed as he realized he’d have to go back out multiple times to get the rest of his things. Part of him wanted to get to exploring right away, but he knew he needed all his things just to get settled in for the night. And so, Wonwoo began the long process of carrying various suitcases, boxes and bags from his car into the castle. He was briefly glad he had sent out all his Christmas presents for friends and family early so he wouldn’t have to deal with those while he was all the way out here.

Forty five minutes later, Wonwoo was standing back in the entryway with all his belongings strewn around him. He mentally groaned at the thought of lugging them all to wherever his bedroom was. At least he wasn’t still out in the cold. Bastet were better at handling cold environments, they had to be to deal with the lower temperatures at high altitudes, but that didn’t mean Wonwoo enjoyed being in cold for long periods of time, especially if all he was doing was hauling heavy things around.

But now, Wonwoo thought, was the chance to finally do what he’d been dying to do and explore the castle a bit. He left all his belongings in the entryway, looking first for a bedroom. He’d take all his stuff over to it once he found a suitable one.

He started first down the hallway on the right to the room with all the portraits and sculptures. It looked to be a large drawing room with a few stiff looking armchairs draped with dust covers. The room felt even bigger now that he was inside it. The carpet was plush and maroon in color and the wallpaper was striped maroon and white like a candy cane. The walls were also lined with portraits, mostly oil paintings but also a few photographs and watercolors, that spotted the wall at random intervals. Wonwoo recognized a pair of frames to be side by side renditions of his uncle in both his human and lion bastet form, but most of the others were of people he didn’t recognize. One was a girl with wildly curly red hair, one of a man in an old time ship captain’s uniform, one of a boy in a red and white polka dotted shirt, the list went on and on. Wonwoo thought it would probably take an entire day if he tried to catalog them all.

He turned back to the rest of the room. Aside from the armchairs, there was a low coffee table in the middle with a ceramic set of coasters on it. On one of the walls was a large, oak desk set up with an ink bottle and feather quill (was that one of his uncle’s feathers? Gross) and a few notebooks. The other side of the room held a half full bookshelf that held a number of well worn books about photography, history and even a couple poetry novels. 

This room, Wonwoo thought, would probably be really creepy if the lights were off. Then again, most of the painting subjects were fairly young. Wonwoo didn’t think most of them would be very scary, even in low light. Honestly the most unnerving portrait was probably the one of his own uncle, and Wonwoo had stopped being scared of him the moment his uncle had started telling him stories. He left the room, flipping the light off on the way out.

Next he puttered around the more modern living room. The flat screen television was nice, at least fifty inches, and the couches in there were uncovered. There weren’t any gaming systems that Wonwoo could find, but it wasn’t as if he’d expected his uncle to have any. Wonwoo had brought his own consoles just in case, and he was pretty confident he could hook them up with little issue. The room itself was sparsely decorated otherwise, only two sets of couches, a loveseat, another coffee table and a large landscape painting of the castle hanging on one wall.

The living room had an opening that lead to what Wonwoo assumed was the dining room if the long wood table lined with chairs was any indication. A couple chandeliers hung over the table, and Wonwoo counted at least a dozen open seats on either side of the thing. He wondered if his uncle had ever entertained that amount of people. The walls of the dining room had more paintings, now scenes of meals. A bit redundant, but hey, Wonwoo would probably enjoy staring at the picture of a cat with a big bowl of milk while he ate.

The dining room branched off into two more rooms, one on the far wall and the other on the right side. The one on the far wall lead to a spacious kitchen, fully stocked Wonwoo discovered as he started opening the fridge, pantry and various cabinets. At least he wouldn’t need to worry about food while he was here. Wonwoo resolved that he really needed to write a thank you card for the housekeeper.

He returned to the dining room and went through the other door to find another sitting room like area. This one looked more like a library. Wonwoo gaped at the floor to ceiling shelves that stretched across two of the four walls, each one packed to the brim with books. He wouldn’t be running out of reading material while he stayed here, that was certain. The other wall had tall windows that would let a substantial amount of light into the room during the day. On the final wall was a large stone hearth with a neat stack of firewood sitting next to it. Wonwoo was glad he wouldn’t have to go out and chop the wood himself. There were more couches and armchairs in the room, each with a side table nearby. One couch had a noticeable divot on one end and the side table near it was stained with water rings and riddled with scuff marks. Wonwoo ran his fingers over the impressions and imagined his uncle sitting in that very spot with a book and a mug of tea or maybe that hot chocolate mix he was always so fond of. Wonwoo had plenty of memories of those stories his uncle told accompanied by the scent of hot chocolate with a hint of peppermint.

The library led back to the entryway through a door Wonwoo had missed earlier. There were probably a number of other rooms on the ground floor that he had yet to find (he was sure the portrait room led somewhere else also) but Wonwoo was pretty tired after his seven hour drive and just wanted to find the bedrooms at this point. He returned to the entryway and started up the nearby grand staircase.

The second floor had doors on either side of the floor that opened in the middle so that he could peer down into the entryway. On the left side were three doors while there were two on the right. The two walkways reconnected by a thin strip of carpet above the front door to the castle. Wonwoo decided to start on the right and work his way around. He opened the first door he came to on the right side and found a bathroom. The floor was marble and the bathroom contained a shower, sink and toilet. It was likely a guest bathroom. Wonwoo shut the door and continued into the second door. A guest bedroom, Wonwoo supposed given that the bed was fairly small and the room was decorated impersonally with only a bed, closet, side table and half empty bookshelf present.

The third door was what Wonwoo thought had to be the master bedroom. The carpet was maroon, like all the carpet in the house that he’d seen so far, and there was a large four poster bed with a canopy set against the far wall. The room also contained a large writing desk with a leather backed chair,  two bookshelves full of yet more novels, a wardrobe and chest of drawers, a cushy looking armchair with side table, and a door on the left side that Wonwoo imagined led to the master bathroom. Another flat screen television, smaller than the one downstairs, was mounted to the wall opposite the bed. He was pleased that he found the room so fast and, given the location, it looked like he could just fly his bags straight from the entryway to the door. His uncle must have planned it this way.

There was another sizable stone hearth on the left side of this room with a stack of firewood set helpfully beside it along with an iron poker and a small broom and dustpan to sweep up ashes. Wonwoo was definitely going to take advantage of it, though it seemed the castle had a more modern heating system installed as well if the small thermostat on the wall next to the light switch was any indication. After he was satisfied with a slow circle of the area, Wonwoo felt good about laying claim to the room.

Leaving the room, Wonwoo examined the two doors on the other side of the hall. One led to another guest bedroom while the other led to yet another hallway that branched off to more doors on the right side. Opening all those revealed smaller guest bedrooms. He guessed that this is where all the manor staff lived while his uncle kept them here. Only one of them had any kind of personal affectation, a stuffed camel that was funnily enough tucked under the covers of the bed. The camel was clearly well loved, its two humps sagging slightly from being handled while a few ragged stitches ran along its sides holding it together. He wondered if a guest had left the toy there, or if his uncle had bought the poor thing himself.

Satisfied with his exploration for the moment, Wonwoo went back to the walkway and jumped over the bannister, wings unfurling to slow his descent, and landed lightly on the entryway’s maroon rug. Thus began the slow task of hauling all his luggage to the master bedroom. Wonwoo was briefly grateful his delivery job had more then prepared him for the arduous task. Twenty minutes later, Wonwoo had moved into the large room and locked up both his car and the front door. His stomach rumbled, reminding Wonwoo that he hadn’t eaten since the rushed lunch of fast food he’d had now five hours ago.

He made his way back downstairs toward the kitchen. All the driving and work of moving in had made him too tired to give much thought to cooking. He simply grabbed a box of pasta from the pantry and made a quick dinner of spaghetti and some fresh looking baguettes he found in the bread box. It wasn’t very fancy, but it was filling and soon Wonwoo could feel the bed calling his name as the weariness settled into his bones.

Wonwoo quickly washed his plate, cup and silverware in the sink and dumped them in the drying rack, resolving to put them away the following morning. Afterward he walked around to make sure all the lights he could find were off and put out the torches in the entryway. The last thing he needed was to set the place his grandfather had guarded so carefully to catch on fire. Luckily, it looked like the only torches were in the entryway and the rest was just run by electricity. It was good for making a first impression at least.

He flew back to his room, beyond tired, and quickly changed into his pajamas and brushed his teeth. He didn’t even bother unpacking any of his suitcases, resolving to do it in the morning. At the moment the only thought in his head was collapsing on the bed with its heavy looking blankets and soft mattress. Shit, was this memory foam? Wonwoo barely had enough presence of mind to plug his phone into its charger (thank god there was an outlet right next to the bed) and set his glasses on the nightstand so he wouldn’t roll over and crush them before flopping face first on the bed and falling instantly into a deep sleep.

Wonwoo woke up to light shining directly into his eyes. He groaned and rolled out of the beam of light. The muscles of his back, still stiff from his drive the previous day, protested as he languidly stretched. His wings rustled as they fanned out behind him, black feathers shining in the rising sun. Wonwoo took a moment to revel in the fact that he hadn’t been woken by an alarm for the first time in spirits knew how many months.

Speaking of alarms, he rolled over to check his phone. He had ten new messages. Five were from his sister demanding to know if he got in alright, two were from each of his parents asking the same, one was from his boss confirming his time off and also wishing him a good holiday and two were from his uncle about details he’d forgotten to tell Wonwoo about the castle. Wonwoo spent a few lazy moments replying to his sister that he made it in alright and to stop blowing up his phone, telling his parents that yes, he found the place alright, one message of thanks to his boss and a confirmation to his uncle that he understood the notes about trash day and where the fire extinguisher was.

After about an hour of scrolling around social media, Wonwoo’s stomach made him very aware that he hadn’t eaten in- he checked the time- over ten hours. As much as he was loathe to pry himself out of the comfortable spot he’d made in the bed, he couldn’t ignore his bodily needs any longer. He swung his legs out of bed and was briefly grateful for the plush carpeting in the room. He couldn’t imagine getting up and having to walk on cold stone floors all day. He briefly rooted around in his suitcase for a hoodie and a pair of warm winter socks his sister had gifted him the year prior for Christmas before trudging down the hallway and then the staircase toward the kitchen. He yawned. He supposed he could’ve made it there faster if he’d flown down, but it was too early for flying (despite it being ten in the morning).

He was instantly alarmed when he heard the clanging of pots and pans from the kitchen. His uncle had told him he was supposed to be alone aside from the housekeeper stopping by on the Thursday of his second week, but maybe they had forgotten something and needed to get back in? Wonwoo couldn’t imagine who else it could be since he was pretty sure the housekeeper was the only other person who’d had the keys to get in. His heart rate picked up and Wonwoo was very abruptly wide awake.

He looked around the dining room, seizing an empty brass candlestick from the dining table as he crept closer to the door to the kitchen. It was probably just the housekeeper he continuously chanted in his head, though he still held the candlestick up like a bat just in case. In retrospect he probably could have just shifted into his bastet form, little could combat a full on flying panther, but Wonwoo had just woken up and wasn’t thinking very clearly.

When he reached the door he wondered if he should knock. If it was the housekeeper, he wouldn’t want to startle them while they were in the middle of something, but he was also not entirely certain whoever was on the other side of the door was a burglar who would either bolt or pull a weapon. Decisions, decisions, Wonwoo thought semi-hysterically as he hovered in the dining room with a candlestick in one hand, his phone set to dial 911 or maybe his mother in the other.

‘This is my temporary house,’ Wonwoo internally said. If it was really the housekeeper, he’d just apologize afterwards for looking like he got lost on his way to the Clue convention. Mind made up, Wonwoo burst through the door and was immediately greeted with a loud scream, which automatically prompted him to start screaming in return.

What he found inside the kitchen was a man standing at the stove with a pan of (now half-spilled) hash browns frying on one of the burners. The man was young, probably not much older than Wonwoo. He had shaggy brown hair and was wearing a simple combination of a light blue button up with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows over dark wash jeans. Over his ensemble he had tied a black apron to protect the rest of his clothing. The man’s startled brown eyes darted from Wonwoo’s face to the heavy candlestick and then back. He was clearly not holding any weapons, unless he was going to the same Clue convention as Wonwoo and planned on using the frying pan as a murder implement.

There was a brief moment where they just stood in silence staring at each other, trying to judge if the other was a threat. The hash brows sizzled quietly in the background.

Finally Wonwoo lowered his candlestick, adrenaline giving way to embarrassment. He cleared his throat awkwardly. “Are you the housekeeper?”

The man blinked at being addressed before speaking. “I’m Seungcheol. Uh, I live here. Moonracer didn’t tell you about me?”

Wonwoo frowned. Moonracer? Oh wait, that was his uncle’s nickname. He thought he remembered his father mentioning it once or twice at a family reunion. “Uncle Moon?”

“Uncle?” Seungcheol said with a frown before his expression cleared, “Oh, you must be Wonwoo! I remember your uncle talking about you visiting! Sorry, I would have introduced myself when you got in, but I must have been asleep.”

It was Wonwoo’s turn to frown now as he couldn’t recall seeing any sign of another person, much less a whole other person, when he’d been exploring the day prior. Seungcheol must have been in a separate wing of the castle, Wonwoo thought, which would also make sense if the other didn’t hear Wonwoo come in. The place was big enough that Wonwoo was sure it was easy to miss people coming and going.

“It’s alright,” Wonwoo said, “Nice to meet you. Sorry about the whole…” he waved the candlestick in his right hand.

Seungcheol grinned. “It’s fine. I probably would have done the same in your place. So you’re here for the next three weeks then?”

“Yeah,” Wonwoo nodded, “I got a lot of the details about the place from Uncle Moon but I’ll probably go around by myself later to check it out.”

“Do you want me to show you around?” Seungcheol offered.

“I don’t want to bother you,” Wonwoo said, “I’m sure you have other things to do.”

Seungcheol shook his head. “Not really. This place has been pretty quiet since your uncle left. A lot of the former residents moved out then.”

“There were other people here?” Wonwoo asked, curious.

“Oh yeah,” Seungcheol said, a faraway look in his eyes. “This place used to be packed. All the guest rooms were filled and there were people even sleeping on the couches in the living room. It was always loud, but it was fun.”

“It sounds nice,” Wonwoo offered.

“Yeah it was a great- hey, do you smell something burning?” Seungcheol asked. He looked down and yelped when he saw the hash browns in his pan had turned into a charred black mess that smoke was starting to billow off of. “Oh shit!”

Seungcheol yanked the pan off the burner as Wonwoo raced over to the sink to turn on the tap. Seugcheol rushed over to stick the pan under the stream and drop it into the sink, as they both backed away from the mess. Wonwoo coughed as he shoved open the tiny window above the sink to let the mixture of smoke and steam out. When the vast majority of the smoke was gone, Seungcheol turned to Wonwoo with a sheepish expression.’

“Uh, I was fixing brunch, but…” he gestured to the mess.

“That’s fine,” Wonwoo said, “Are there any other pans?”

“Yeah.” Seungcheol walked over to one of the cabinets over the large counter space and opened one to reveal a veritable plethora of pots, pans, and other cooking implements.

“I can make eggs,” Wonwoo offered.

“I’ll make bacon,” Seungcheol said.

“Should I trust you with a burner after that?” Wonwoo teased. He didn’t know why, but something about Seungcheol felt comfortable and familiar. Part of Wonwoo just wanted to sit down and talk to the other about everything despite the fact that they had just met.

Eventually they did sit down at the dining table with plates of eggs, bacon and some sausage patties Seungcheol had found in the fridge. Wonwoo dug into the meal eagerly, inwardly impressed at how good the food was. How did it taste so much better here compared to all the times he’d made the exact same foods back home? Perhaps it was the ingredients, or perhaps it was the company.

Seungcheol wasn’t exactly the most talkative, but he was at least more conversational than Wonwoo. With little prompting, Seungcheol had launched into a couple of stories about the past residents of the castle. Wonwoo didn’t mind listening, in fact he was interested in hearing about the colorful characters his uncle had shared residence with. Seungcheol had stories upon stories about a girl with curly red hair and a patchwork dress who loved baking and always filled the house with the smell of fresh bread, a man with chestnut brown hair who insisted on taking his horse everywhere around the house, a boat captain with a thousand stories of sailing the open sea and a few from diving below its waves and even an ostrich that had once roamed the stone hallways of the castle.

Wonwoo didn’t even care if the stories were true, he just enjoyed hearing of a world so fantastical that his younger self would have been entertained for hours trying to imagine such a unbelievable environment. They only paused long enough to wash the dishes and move to the portrait room. Once there, Seungcheol and Wonwoo pulled the dust covers off one of the couches and flopped down on it. The older then pointed at paintings, seemingly at random, and told Wonwoo stories about each person. Apparently all of the portraits were of former residents to the castle, and each had at least three amusing anecdotes to accompany them. Hours dragged by like this, and it was only as the sun was starting to set that Seungcheol looked out the window at the pink colored sky in surprise.

“Sorry,” Seungcheol said, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly, “I didn’t mean to hold you for so long.”

“Don’t be,” Wonwoo said, “I enjoyed hearing about this place.”

“I didn’t let you do much exploring today, though,” Seungcheol said with a grimace. He stood from the couch and straightened his clothes. “Let me at least show you your uncle’s favorite room as compensation. I promise I won’t talk your ear off tomorrow.”

“It’s really fine,” Wonwoo said, also getting to his feet, “But lead the way.”

And lead the way Seungcheol did. Wonwoo followed the older man through the portrait room and to a door in the back of the room which, upon opening, revealed a short hallway to another wide open chamber with ceilings so tall that Wonwoo was sure it would be large enough to spread his wings in. There were other hallways branching off this one, but Seungcheol purposefully led Wonwoo to the back left side and up a set of stairs to a closed off room. He produced an iron key from his pocket as a locked door came into view at the top of the stairs. Seungcheol unlocked the door and pushed on it but the door didn’t budge.

“This door always gets stuck,” Seungcheol said, “You just have to put a little-“ he grunted as he shoved his shoulder against the wood, “Umph into it and-“ He shoved again, and the door finally swung inward. Seungcheol stumbled as the door did so, but managed to catch himself. “See?” He said, trying to look nonchalant, “Nothing to it!”

Wonwoo laughed. “Piece of cake.”

He opened his mouth to tease Seungcheol more, but when he saw the room on the other side of the door, his jaw hung open in awe. The room was clearly a workshop of some kind with a large overhead dome skylight that let the fading rays of sunshine in to illuminate the space. The workshop was circular in shape consisted of two levels connected by a short staircase. The bottom half of the circle featured a couple of workbenches strewn with neatly organized rows of tools. Screwdrivers, wrenches, hammers, and saws of all shapes and sizes were neatly hanging from hooks on the walls. The floor, though there was clearly an effort to keep it swept, was strewn with bits of sawdust and scraps of leather, satin, wool, and more.

Wonwoo could see where all the remnants came from, as half of the second level held wooden crates full of bolts of fabric in seemingly every color and pattern. Balls of yarn overflowed from wicker baskets, and a tiny desk and lamp with a huge sewing machine sat shoved in one corner. A shelf was pressed flush against the wall, and Wonwoo could see plastic tubs full of sequins, glitter, feathers, buttons, and plenty of other accents.

The other half of the top level held an assortment of lumber. Planks of wood were stacked, seemingly by color, up in dusty pyramids on top of palettes. Some of the wood was cut to various lengths already. When Wonwoo finally went up the stairs to examine it, he could see pencil marks denoting the measurements of each piece. The walls of top level, wherever they were free that is, were lined with cork boards covered in sketches. From what Wonwoo could see, there were a wide variety of subjects. Plans for wooden trains, sketches of clothes for dolls, lists of future tasks still unfinished, swatches of paint pinned seemingly at random, and even photographs of the family tacked carefully to the side of the boards.

Wonwoo lightly ran his fingers over a sketch of a toy boat. His uncle’s notes lined the bottom in graphite, some crossed out angrily by red marker and others underlined excitedly in black pen. “This is incredible,” Wonwoo said, unable to fully enunciate what he was feeling.

“He loved his workshop,” Seungcheol said. The other had been respectfully quiet as Wonwoo had walked around the whole workshop, occasionally picking up fabric, wood or tools just to hold them in his hands.

“He came back here a lot?” Wonwoo asked. He couldn’t remember his uncle ever talking much about his workshop. When he was much younger his uncle would gift him with wooden toys and stuffed animals before Wonwoo reached the age where he was more interested in video games and books. He didn’t think until now that his uncle might have made all those old toys himself.

“Every day,” Seungcheol said, “In fact, someone usually had to come back here to get him for meals or else he’d be working from sun up to sun down.”

“I never knew that,” Wonwoo said. A flash of guilt passed through him as he wondered how much there was about his uncle that he didn’t actually know. They stayed in the workshop for a few more minutes as the sun finally slipped below the horizon, the workshop darkening significantly without the natural light.

The two of them headed back to the kitchen to cook dinner, a fairly quick preparation of stir fry with rice on the side. They ate in relative silence this time, Seungcheol apparently worn out from talking and Wonwoo trying to digest everything he’d heard and seen that day. He was already making plans on what to examine the following day based on all the stories Seungcheol had told him about hidden alcoves and the large gardens located behind the manor. His wings were itching to be put to use flying over the area.

After they’d both washed their dishes, Seungcheol bid Wonwoo a good night before retreating to one of the guest rooms. The same one, Wonwoo noted, as the one the stuffed camel had been in. Wonwoo wondered if the camel was actually Seungcheol’s or if another resident had given it to him as a memento.

Wonwoo himself headed back to the master bedroom and took a long bath after starting a fire in the hearth. He relaxed as the room warmed up significantly, finally opening one of his books and getting through a good portion of it before the bath water started to lose heat. After he had pulled the plug and changed into his pajamas, he was feeling appropriately tired from the long but entertaining day he’d had.

When he finally drifted off to sleep that evening, he dreamed of a workshop full of toys, bright with sunlight, where porcelain ballerinas spun and leapt across the floor, model trains chugged along criss-crossing tracks, and a stuffed lion roared from the top of a high shelf.

Wonwoo resolved to go flying the day afterward. After a quick breakfast of cereal and fresh cut fruit with Seungcheol, Wonwoo went back upstairs, put on a thick sweater and his padded coat and trudged to the castle’s back door and outside. Luckily it wasn’t currently snowing, but a clean white blanket of snow still covered the ground and a few of the surrounding trees. There were a few large, square planters that Wonwoo was sure usually held a garden or possibly some flowerbeds, but now the planters were empty and snow-covered.

He stomped through the snow to a fairly open area with no trees around and stretched out his wings, each spanning at least eight feet in length. He rolled his shoulders and heard his joints pop quietly before beating his wings a couple times in preparation. Then he let out a long breath, feeling a slight breeze against his face, before breaking out into a sprint with his wings beating hard to give him some lift.

His feet lifted of the ground slowly before he caught and updraft and quickly gained altitude. Wonwoo continued to flap his wings until he got a good amount of height and caught a nice current that allowed him to coast with wings lazily outstretched. He soared over the landscape, the world a wash of white beneath him. The only thing that gave the land any depth were the shadows of snow drifts that occasionally popped up.

Wonwoo dipped his right wing to bank back around toward the castle. The large structure seemed small at this altitude, its towers barely larger than Wonwoo’s thumb, and yet his enhanced eyes were able to pick out every stone and window that lined the structure. His eyebrows lifted in interest as he noticed a small open air garden in the middle of the castle, the entrance to which he still had yet to find. That would be a nice challenge the tomorrow afternoon, he thought, lazily hovering over the area for a while to take in the carefully trimmed hedges and large central stone fountain.

He eventually headed onward though, following the same road he drove in on. The road was empty, as expected. It wasn’t like there was much in that direction aside from the castle. For a while all he saw was white with a narrow strip of black asphalt, when suddenly something caught his eye. Wonwoo flared his wings to a stop, slowly flapping to hover as he squinted at a speck of orange half buried under the sea of white.

Wonwoo descended slowly toward the orange blot, cautious of it despite the fact that it wasn’t moving. He landed softly on the snow, boots crunching as he approached the object. Even at this distance he still couldn’t quite make out what the shape was, given that it was half-buried in the snow. Minutes later he stood over the orange blob. Up close he could see it looked like a bit of fabric, perhaps a piece of clothing. He relaxed upon seeing it was clearly just fabric. He leaned down and seized the fabric, noting how soft the material was even through his knitted gloves.

The object pulled free of the powdery snow easily, and Wonwoo realized he wasn’t holding a piece of clothing lichee had originally suspected, but a small stuffed animal, a bright orange cat with faded hints of black markings that Wonwoo couldn’t quite make out. It felt similar to a beanie baby, once Wonwoo had squished it a bit and felt tiny grains of some kind move around inside. The stuffed cat was clearly in bad shape, waterlogged from the snow and mud, and one of its black button eyes was missing. Wonwoo felt a tug on his heartstrings for the poor creature. It had clearly been forgotten or thrown out.

He couldn’t explain why exactly he did it, but Wonwoo cradled the limp toy in one arm and took to the sky again with a flap of his wings. He soared back toward his castle without any delay, a half-formed idea swirling around in his head. He landed out behind the castle and hurried back through the gardens and into the back door. Wonwoo let out a sigh of relief at the warm air that greeted him, stamping his boots with already melting snow off on the small mat placed near the back door before taking off his boots and coat completely. Wonwoo padded through the halls, hair still damp with snow and windswept by his earlier flight, and nearly crashed into Seungcheol who was coming out of the kitchen at the same time Wonwoo was entering.

“Shit, sorry,” Seungcheol said, “I was just-“ he froze as his eyes landed on the stuffed cat (cheetah? Leopard?) in Wonwoo’s arms. “Who’s this?” He asked, gaze scrutinizing the toy with more interest than Wonwoo had expected.

“I just found him in a snow drift,” Wonwoo said. He wasn’t quite sure why he’d classified the animal as a ‘he’ but something about it just felt right. “He was half-buried.”

“Poor thing,” Seungcheol said, “Looks like he needs a bath though.” The other was right, the stuffed animal was stained by mud and slush.

“Do we have any big pots or anything?” Wonwoo asked.

“Here, I have a plastic bucket that usually use to make kimchi.” Seungcheol pulled a large plastic bucket out of the pantry, and Wonwoo pulled down some dish soap to squirt in the bottom. He briefly wondered if he should be using washing detergent or something instead, but he wasn’t sure how safe all the chemicals were and he only had tide pods anyway, so he just stuck with the dish soap.

Soon the bucket was full of warm, soapy water, and Wonwoo dunked the dirty stuffed animal into the bath. He was lucky, Wonwoo thought wryly, that it wasn’t a real cat, or else he’d undoubtedly have to deal with yowling and likely a few claws to the face. He’d had enough claws to the face courtesy of his sister when the two of them would play fight growing up.

He scrubbed the cat gently with a hand towel, doing his best to get the dirt stains off the animal’s fur, and probably accidentally rubbed off some more of the animal’s marking’s in the process. He grimaced but pressed on, determined to see this whole thing through now that he’d already come this far. By the time he was done, the animal was even more waterlogged than it had originally been, but its fur was at least a bright orange now rather than a mottled burnt orange color. Wonwoo frowned thoughtfully at the creature’s single black button eye. Perhaps if he took it up to the workshop he could-

“Here, put it in front of the fire to dry,” Seungcheol said, startling Wonwoo out of his thoughts. He hadn’t realized the other had left while he was washing the stuffed cat, but as he followed Seungcheol he found that the other had indeed lit a fire in the library room’s hearth. Wonwoo laid a towel out in front of the fire and deposited the newly washed toy in front of it. The cat sagged sadly from the weight of water soaking it through, but it looked to be in much better condition than it had when Wonwoo picked it up. Part of him was proud of that, and then was abruptly embarrassed about how proud he was at taking in a stuffed animal of all things.

“Thanks for helping me,” Wonwoo said, turning to Seungcheol. “That was probably pretty weird for you.”

Seungcheol was smiling though as he waved Wonwoo off. “It’s no problem. In fact, your uncle used to do the same thing.”

“In his workshop?” Wonwoo said, recalling the expansive room full of all kinds of odds and ends for toys.

“Yeah,” Seungcheol said, “He loved fixing up unloved and unwanted toys and then finding them new homes. We had so many around here.”

“What happened to all of them?” Wonwoo asked. He couldn’t recall seeing many toys laying around aside from that one camel in the guest room.

Seungcheol shrugged. “They left when everyone else did.”

“Oh,” Wonwoo said, frowning slightly. He wished he could have seen some of his uncle’s finished work.

“Why don’t you give it a shot?” Seungcheol said, nodding toward the stuffed cat.

“What?” Wonwoo balked, “Me? I don’t know how to fix toys.”

“Neither did he at first,” Seungcheol said, “But he learned how to, eventually.”

Wonwoo looked at the tiny cat and grimaced. “I’d probably just end up making it worse, and I think that poor thing has suffered enough already.”

Seungcheol laughed. “I doubt that. I think you could surprise yourself.”

“I’ll think about it,” Wonwoo sighed. If nothing else it could at least be something to do for the next couple weeks.

Later that evening Wonwoo returned to the library to check on the stuffed animal. The cat was much drier now, but still slightly damp when Wonwoo went to pick him up. He extinguished the fire in the library and headed back up to his room, lighting the fire in there instead. He set the cat down in front of the new fire on another hand towel. It may have been a trick of the firelight flickering across the animal’s face, but Wonwoo could have sworn its small thread mouth was tilted up at the corners.

The next day Wonwoo woke up and was pleased to find the stuffed animal completely dry, orange fur shining brightly in the sunlight. He carried the stuffed animal down to breakfast table with him and sat it in front of one of the open chairs. He wasn’t sure why he felt the need to do so, but it just felt wrong to leave the animal back in his room.

“Someone’s looking better,” Seungcheol said, eyes curving up in a smile when he laid eyes on the fluffier cat.

“Yeah,” Wonwoo said, carrying a bowl of yogurt with nuts and fresh cut fruit in it toward the table. He sat down in his chair opposite Seungcheol and started shoveling yogurt into his mouth. “I think I will try and fix him up, actually.”

“Really?!” Seungcheol asked, eyes shining. He then slapped a hand over his mouth and coughed as if nothing had happened. “I mean. Really?”

Wonwoo was a bit taken aback by the other’s eager reaction, but nodded. “I want to give it a shot. I don’t think there’s much to take care of except his missing eye. And maybe repainting whatever his spots were.”

“Did he have spots?” Seungcheol asked, squinting at the faint black outlines on the cat’s fur.”

Wonwoo shrugged. “I don’t know. But he’s probably a leopard or a cheetah or something, right?”

“You know as well as I do,” Seungcheol said. He then smiled. “I’m glad you’ll be using that workshop again. It’s a shame it’s been empty for so long.”

“It really meant a lot to Uncle Moon, huh?” Wonwoo said.

“It meant a lot to everyone at the castle,” Seungcheol said. “It was a place for second chances.”

Wonwoo laughed. “How poetic.”

“Maybe so,” Seungcheol said, and Wonwoo could hear the note of wistfulness in the other’s voice. “Anyway, I’ll be cleaning up around the house today, but if you need anything just holler.”

“Cleaning?” Wonwoo said, “Do you need any help? I can wait on fixing up the cat-“

“No!” Seungcheol blurted, “I mean, it’s fine! It’s just one room.”

“You’re cleaning up one room?” Wonwoo frowned as his spoon scraped up the last of his yogurt.

“Yeah,” Seungcheol said, “We might be having company soon.”

“Company?” Wonwoo blinked, “My uncle didn’t mention anyone visit.”

“Don’t worry,” Seungcheol said, getting up and collecting his dishes. “I’ll handle everything. It’s possible they won’t be coming at all, I’m just erring on the side of caution.”

“Alright,” Wonwoo said dubiously, getting up and collecting his own bowl and cup as well. “Just let me know if I need to do anything.”

“I’ll be sure to tell you,” Seungcheol assured him.

The workshop was much more inviting during the day, Wonwoo thought, his fingers trailing over all the plastic tubs full of so many different supplies that he felt like he’d just walked inside a craft store. The last time Wonwoo had been in here he had been impressed by how much variety there was collected together, but now the sheer amount of options was nearly overwhelming. Wonwoo grimaced as he managed to find a metal cookie tin full of sewing supplies after ten minutes of searching, but any box full of buttons eluded him.

He carried the cookie tin back to the large wooden work table that the stuffed animal was currently sitting on and deposited next to the cat. He was probably imagining things, but it felt like the animal’s one button eye was judging him for not being able to find his way around the workshop.

“I’m doing my best,” he protested, for some reason feeling the need to defend himself to the toy’s unwavering gaze. Predictably, there was no response. Wonwoo grumbled as he went back to pulling tubs down from the shelf to look for buttons suitable for the cat’s other eye.

After another fifteen minutes of frustrated searching, Wonwoo finally found a large plastic tub full of an assortment of buttons. He sighed in relief as he pulled the bin down and headed back over to the worktable. He set the tub down on the other side of the cat and started rooting through it for black buttons.

Unfortunately, Wonwoo had little luck with his search, as after about ten minutes of sifting through the bin, he had yet to find a suitable button. One would think that finding a black button would be the easiest thing in the world, but as Wonwoo pulled button after button out of the bin with increasing desperation, he still couldn’t find one to match the black button already sewn to the cat.

Every one he managed to fish out was either too big, too small, or the wrong color. He wasn’t sure how long he looked through the bin, but eventually he gave up and sat back to examine the three potential buttons in front of him. One was far too big but was at least black like the other one, one was black but flower shaped, and one was nearly the same as the other button save for the fact that it was bright blue.

Wonwoo sighed and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. It fucking figured he couldn’t even find a black button to fix a toy. After an embarrassing amount of time spent deliberating between the three options, Wonwoo finally settled on the blue button, dropping the other two back into the button bin. Never to be seen again, Wonwoo thought wryly as he carefully threaded a needle with some blue thread. Thread, at least, he’d found easily in the tin of sewing supplies.

Wonwoo was not very good at sewing. He’d taken a home economics class as required in high school and managed to pass with a perfectly decent B as a grade. He’d been terrible at embroidery, though, poking himself in the fingers far more than he managed to poke the cloth in front of him. He remembered being bitter in the weeks following the end of class as he waited for his fingertips to heal, unable to work his game controllers properly due to the stinging pain and the clunky bandages wrapped around his fingers.

That said, Wonwoo could at least sew a button. It was one of the few things he managed in that class, next to making a passable cake and properly ironing a shirt (a skill that had saved his ass quite a few times in college). So it was with a measured amount of confidence that Wonwoo set about carefully lining up the blue button with its black counterpart on the opposite side of the stuffed cat’s head before starting to secure the button into place with thread.

It didn’t take too long with how small the button was, and Wonwoo was inordinately pleased with himself when he tested the eye to see it didn’t wobble from loose thread. He was suddenly struck with a sense of wonder over how many times his uncle had done the exact same thing in the exact same spot, if his uncle had been similarly pleased every time he managed to fix a toy properly. It was satisfying, far more so than anything that Wonwoo usually did during his normal days back home. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad to try and learn more hobbies like sewing for when he had to return home.

Wonwoo set the cat down and went back to the shelf to put the bin of buttons back up and begin searching for fabric paint. Luckily, this bin was much more easily located with all the bottles of paint taking up space in a large crate on the bottom shelf. It was much heavier than the button bin, and Wonwoo grunted as he lifted the crate from it spot and hauled it back down the stairs to the work table. It landed on the table with a heavy thud, and Wonwoo dreaded the thought of having to haul it back once he was finished.

He selected a smaller paintbrush from the wooden holders screwed into the table and pulled out a large bottle of black paint. He squirted a dollop of the paint onto a plastic paint tray he found near a large industrial sink tucked away in a corner of the workshop. The sink had dried paint splatters around the edges Wonwoo noted as he grabbed a tray off the edge. At least he knew now that the sink would be able to handle paint going down the drain without risking clogging up the pipes.

Wonwoo dipped his brush in the paint, wiping the excess off on the edges of the tray, and hesitated for a moment with his brush hovering over the cat. The black markings were really hard to see, he thought. It didn’t help that none of his immediate family were marked bastets, his sister being a mountain lion, his mom and dad being a panther and a cougar respectively, and his uncle being a lion. He thought there might be a cousin who was a leopard on his mother’s side, but he’d never seen the other in a full shift at the family reunions.

Well, Wonwoo thought, What’s the worst that could happen? It wasn’t like there was anyone around to judge Wonwoo’s attempt, so he lowered his brush and went for it. In retrospect, Wonwoo probably could have looked up what a leopard or cheetah’s markings looked like on his phone, but he wasn’t really thinking as he dotted spots all over the cat’s fur.

The end result wasn’t too bad, in his opinion. Wonwoo was vaguely satisfied with the spot distribution all over the cat’s fur, and honestly, they looked fairly convincing as cheetah spots. He had just picked up the cat to examine whether he should paint the end of the animal’s tail, as well, when he heard the door behind him opening. He spun to see Seungcheol standing in the doorway with a plate holding a grilled cheese sandwich in one hand a bowl of tomato soup in the other. It was at that moment that Wonwoo realized how much time had passed in the workshop as his stomach growled.

“Did I miss lunch?” He asked sheepishly.

“Yes, but don’t worry about it,” Seungcheol said, grinning as he brought over the food to the worktable. “Your uncle missed lunch all the time too.”

“Thanks for bringing this back,” Wonwoo said, picking up the sandwich.

“You’re welcome,” Seungcheol said, “Dig in.”

He moved around the work table as Wonwoo did so, leaning over the stuffed cheetah(?). “I see you got our friend all fixed up.” Amusement colored the other’s tone.

“Yeah,” Wonwoo said, around a mouthful of bread and cheese, “I couldn’t figure out what kind of markings he had, so I just made him a cheetah.”

“I’m sure he’ll let us know if you’re wrong,” Seungcheol said cryptically. Wonwoo raised an eyebrow, but said nothing else. The older straightened and turned to face Wonwoo. “So, how did it feel to use the workshop?”

“It’s hard to find stuff around here,” Wonwoo admitted. “There’s so much.”

Seungcheol nodded in agreement. “Your uncle never liked to throw things out. The other side of the coin to being into restoration, I guess. Turns you into a hoarder.”

“That makes sense,” Wonwoo said with a grin. “His new place is full of stuff, too.”

“How is he doing there?” Seungcheol asked, sitting down on one of the spare benches.

“He’s fine,” Wonwoo said, “He likes all the card game nights at the resident center, and I think he’s made some friends there.”

“That’s good,” Seungcheol said, “I was worried about him when he left the castle for the last time.”

“Yeah, he’s doing fine,” Wonwoo said. A thought struck him. “Do you want to call him sometime? I have his number.”

Seungcheol’s eyes widened. “Is that alright?”

“Yeah, of course,” Wonwoo said. He set down his half eaten sandwich and wiped his fingers on a napkin that Seungcheol had been smart enough to bring with the meal before fishing his phone out of his pocket. He unlocked his phone and swiped to his uncle’s contact information. “Here,” he said, holding the phone out to Seungcheol.

Seungcheol took the phone hesitantly, as if he was being offered something fragile and precious, not Wonwoo’s shitty old phone with a crack running from the bottom to the middle, only barely held in place by the phone’s screen protector. “Are you sure?”

“Uh, yeah?” Wonwoo said, confused. “He’d probably be happy to hear from you so you can tell him I haven’t burned down his castle yet.”

Seungcheol laughed. “Alright, thank you.” He looked around. “Uh, do you mind if I…?” He pointed to the door.

“Oh yeah, sure,” Wonwoo said, waving the other off. “I don’t need to hear your conversation.”

“Thank you again,” Seungcheol said before scampering out of the room, eyes locked onto the phone. He nearly ran into the closed door of the workshop on his way out.

Wonwoo shook his head fondly as he turned back to the food on the table. He wondered if Seungcheol knew that grilled cheese and tomato soup used to be one of his favorite meals growing up. He’d been a bit of a picky eater as a child, and his relatives had been forced to make grilled cheese at family reunions or else Wonwoo would refuse to eat his meals. He still got teased by his parents to this day about his eating habits.

He picked up the sandwich and looked at the stuffed cat on the table. “I’d share, but I don’t think you’d be able to have any,” he said to the animal. It said nothing, and Wonwoo leaned back in his chair to look out the skylight over his head. He idly wondered if there were any other things in the castle that needed fixing.

Later that evening, when the paint was finally dry on the cat, Wonwoo moved the stuffed animal from the workshop back to the dining room. Seungcheol admired the finished work with an amount of enthusiasm that made Wonwoo feel oddly happy. Maybe it was because of how much time he’d been speaking with the other over the course of the few days he’d been in the castle, but Wonwoo found himself truly valuing the other’s opinion and feedback when it came to his work. He wondered how it was possible to have this level of familiarity with a near stranger in such a short amount of time, but Seungcheol had never given Wonwoo a reason to question his judgment.

That night as the two of them headed upstairs to sleep, Seungcheol stopped Wonwoo as he was about to take the newly repaired animal back into his room. Wonwoo was originally going to put the animal in one of the chairs in his room, but Seungcheol proposed that the cat take up residence in one of the guest rooms.

“Like the camel?” Wonwoo asked when Seungcheol suggested the idea.

Seungcheol jolted in shock. “You saw the camel?”

“Yeah,” Wonwoo said, “He was in one of the guest rooms. The one you sleep in, actually.” He tilted his head thoughtfully. “Actually, now that I think about it, have you seen him? I could probably fix him up too. I think he’d lost some stuffing or something and I could probably fix him up. I mean, I’m not great at seam ripping but I could probably sew him back together. Hopefully.” He smiled at the end to show he was joking, but Seungcheol looked vaguely pale for some reason at the prospect.

“Uh, no, I haven’t seen him,” Seungcheol said quickly. “He might have gotten moved while I was cleaning or something though.”

“Dang,” Wonwoo said, “Well, let me know if you find him.”

“Will do.”

“Anyway, you said we should put the cat in a room?”

Seungcheol seemed to recover from whatever was troubling him, because he perked up significantly. “Yes! We can just put him in the room next to mine. I think he’ll really brighten up the place.” And, well, Wonwoo couldn’t really argue with that. Despite the nice furnishings, all the guest rooms in the castle were fairly basic in decoration. The only personal touches Wonwoo had seen in the room next to Seungcheol was a generic painting of a vase of flowers.

“Works for me,” Wonwoo said. He and Seungcheol walked into the middle room in hallway on the other side of the master bedroom. The room was as nondescript as Wonwoo had remembered, but was at least clean. He realized this must have been the room that Seungcheol had talked about cleaning earlier. He hoped that whatever guest the other had been potentially expecting enjoyed cats.

“Looks good,” Seungcheol said once Wonwoo had placed the stuffed animal on the bed, propped against the pillows.

“He looks comfortable,” Wonwoo joked.

“I hope he likes it enough to stay,” Seungcheol said, though his words lacked the teasing tone Wonwoo’s did. Wonwoo’s brow furrowed slightly in confusion, but Seungcheol turned back to him with a smile and the odd moment dissipated. “Anyway, any plans for tomorrow?”

“Not really,” Wonwoo said, easily switching conversation topics. “I was going to fly into town if we needed groceries.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Seungcheol said, “I have plenty. But if you want to try something else, there’s a great diner in town next to the toy shop and the tailor’s store. Lots of people here go there for the burgers.”

Wonwoo hummed thoughtfully. “Do you want to go there for dinner?”

“Sure,” Seungcheol said, “Oh, but our guest might be here tomorrow…”

“You don’t know when they’re coming?” Wonwoo asked.

“He’ll let us know in the morning if he is,” Seungcheol said, “Look, don’t worry about it for now. If he does show up, well hopefully it won’t be a problem.”

“Alright,” Wonwoo said dubiously.

They bid each other good night and Wonwoo headed back to the master bedroom, methodically going through his normal evening routine. It was only as he placed his book to the side and then his glasses next to it that his mind drifted back toward the stuffed cat sitting in the middle guest bedroom. He dreamed of an orange cat with black spots dancing through the snow.

“HOW COULD YOU?!?!”

Wonwoo was rudely shaken back into wakefulness by a pair of hands forcefully gripping the collar of his pajama shirt and a voice shrieking into his sensitive ears. He instinctively raised his hands to clamp over his ears, but the shaking continued. He pried his tired eyes open to see the blurry man who had a hold on his shirt.

“Wha?” Wonwoo slurred despite the hands over his ears, still half asleep.

“You did this to me!” The man yelled, “Polka dots! Who puts polka dots on a tiger?!”

He finally dropped Wonwoo, and said person thudded back onto the bed. His eyes stared unseeing up at the hazy figure in front of him. He blinked a few times to clear his eyes. His tongue felt like it was stuck to the roof of his mouth, and his limbs felt like they were weighed down with lead. He wondered if he was dreaming and if he should just roll over and go back to sleep.

“Hey! Don’t ignore me!” The person yelled as Wonwoo was about to do just that. Apparently it wasn’t a dream, Wonwoo thought as he was forcibly rolled back over with the mystery person hovering over him. Honestly, Wonwoo probably should be more alarmed by the stranger in his room who, for all he knew, could be a murderer bent on killing Wonwoo for… some reason.

“Ugh,” Wonwoo managed.

It was at this moment that his bedroom door burst open and Seungcheol rushed in, looking wild eyed and appropriately disheveled for the hour (which Wonwoo discovered was a little after three in the morning after the surreptitiously rolled over to glance at the digital clock on the night stand). Seungcheol stared for a few long minutes at the potential murderer and then at Wonwoo and back to the murderer.

“What’s going on?” Seungcheol asked, sounding confused. At least he didn’t sound like he was in life threatening danger, Wonwoo thought. He then flipped on all the lights in the room, making everyone let out noises of complaint as their eyes were assaulted by the sudden light.

“He ruined my fur!” The stranger yelled, pointing at Wonwoo.

“Can this wait until morning?” Seungcheol asked.

“No!”

“Yes,” Wonwoo muttered, rolling back onto his side and shoving his head under his pillow.

“No!” The stranger said more forcefully, dragging Wonwoo back out from under his pillow. Wonwoo groaned as he was forced back into the light. As he reluctantly flipped over to deal with the situation he found himself in, he squinted at the newly revealed features of the stranger.

The mystery man was wearing slightly oversized blue pajamas, haphazardly buttoned up as if the other had thrown them on in a rush. Wonwoo vaguely recalled a similar pair being in every guest room and wondered why the other had chosen to wear such an outfit to a robbery. The most eye catching detail about the stranger though was the man’s bright orange hair with black roots and splotches showing through, as if whoever had dyed it had gotten distracted halfway through.

Wonwoo’s mouth ran away before he could catch it. “What’s with your hair?”

There was a beat of silence as the man stared at Wonwoo with his jaw hanging open, as if stunned by Wonwoo’s audacity, before the other lunged at Wonwoo in an attempt to strangle him by the collar once more. At this point Seungcheol had crossed the room and was grabbing the man, trying to haul him off Wonwoo.

“This is your fault!!” The man yelled, as he was hoisted backward by Seungcheol, “You and your shitty paint job!”

“He didn’t know!” Seungcheol was yelling, “He thought you were a cheetah!”

“What cheetahs are orange?!” The man screamed, voice hitting a pitch so high that Wonwoo winced. “Do I look like Chester McFuckin Cheeto to you?!”

“What is going on?” Wonwoo groaned, rubbing his hands over his face.

“Look,” Seungcheol said, hauling the orange haired man toward the door of the bedroom, “Let’s all go to sleep and we can deal with this over breakfast in the morning.”

The man in Seungcheol’s arms momentarily stopped struggling and stared at Seungcheol skeptically. “Will you cook me food?”

“Yes,” Seungcheol said, exasperation mixed with exhaustion lacing his tone.

The man mulled over the proposal for a few seconds. “Fine,” he said, going limp in Seungcheol’s arms before turning back to Wonwoo. “But this isn’t over between us! Not by a long shot!” Even though Wonwoo couldn’t see Seungcheol’s expression without his glasses on, he could practically hear the other rolling his eyes.

“Good night, Wonwoo,” Seungcheol said, dragging the man the rest of the way out the bedroom and shutting the door behind them.

Wonwoo sat there for a few minutes, staring blankly at the canopy of his bed before getting up to turn off the lights Seungcheol had flipped on and heading back to bed.

The next morning Wonwoo sat at the dining table across from Seungcheol like usual, though this time the orange haired man that he’d half-hoped he’d dreamed up was sitting next to Seungcheol and glaring at Wonwoo over the rim of his glass of orange juice. Orange juice, Wonwoo noted with a hint of amusement, that was only a few shades lighter than the man’s bright orange hair. The man’s expression soured farther when he realized where Wonwoo was looking.

“Stop looking at it!” He snapped.

“Sorry,” Wonwoo said, eyes dropping back to the man’s face. The other had narrow eyes that tilted sharply up at the corners, and he was briefly surprised to see that the man had heterochromia. One of his eyes was a deep void black, and the other was an equally magnetic bright blue. Wonwoo blinked before tearing his gaze away so he wasn’t staring rudely.

“So why don’t you introduce yourself to Wonwoo?” Seungcheol said, cutting off a triangle of his French toast before dragging the piece through syrup and popping it into his mouth. “The right way this time.”

The man grumbled for a moment, but huffed out a sigh. “Fine. I’m Kwon Soonyoung.”

“Nice to meet you,” Wonwoo replied automatically, despite the fact that his earlier meeting with Soonyoung was anything but pleasant. “So, uh…” he wondered how to phrase his question, “Why were you trying to kill me this morning?”

“I wouldn’t have killed you,” Soonyoung pouted. “I just wanted to ask why you decided this was a good idea!” He pulled on a tuft of bright orange and black hair.

“What?” Wonwoo asked, bewildered. “I didn’t do anything about that.”

“Yes, you did!” Soonyoung said, jumping out of his chair. “You were the one who cursed me with these spots forever and ever!!”

“Soonyoung,” Seungcheol said, gaze looking heavenward as if asking for strength, “Wonwoo didn’t know you were a tiger.”

“How could he not know?!” Soonyoung yelled, slamming down his silverware with more force than necessary. Some of the orange juice sloshed out of Wonwoo’s cup at the impact. “I’m bright orange!”

“What are you two talking about?” Wonwoo asked, now thoroughly confused.

“You ruining my life!” Soonyoung said. Wonwoo wondered if the other was always this dramatic.

Seungcheol sighed. “He also saved your life.” Soonyoung seemed to deflate slightly at that.

“Yeah,” Soonyoung said, seemingly loathe to admit it.

“Hold on,” Wonwoo said, holding his hands up, “I don’t remember ever meeting you before, much less saving or ruining your life.”

“He’s really slow on the uptake, huh,” Soonyoung said, giving Seungcheol a dry look.

“This is hardly something most people come to expect,” Seungcheol said, though he very notably did not dispute Soonyoung’s words. He turned to Wonwoo before the other could protest. “Wonwoo, do you notice anything…familiar about Soonyoung?”

“I feel like he’s someone I’d remember,” Wonwoo said, very pointedly looking at Soonyoung’s hair.

“I told you to stop looking at it!” Soonyoung shrieked.

“Well, it’s just very noticeable!” Wonwoo sputtered.

“No thanks to you!”

“OKAY,” Seungcheol cut in, glaring at both of them as if they were misbehaving children. “Anything else you notice?”

Wonwoo huffed at the older’s tone, but looked over Soonyoung again. He once again noticed the other’s mismatched eyes, and frowned as a certain memory tugged at his brain. Unbidden, he recalled the time he spent the day prior hunched over a bin full of buttons searching for the perfect one, only to come up with a bright blue counterpart.

“No fucking way,” Wonwoo said, squinting at Soonyoung.

“Good job,” Soonyoung said sarcastically, wincing when Seungcheol elbowed him. Wonwoo was silent for a long moment, studying Soonyoung, before he stood and leaned all the way across the table to jab Soonyoung in the chest.

“Ow, fuck!” Soonyoung cursed, rubbing his chest and slapping at Wonwoo’s hand. “What was that for?!”

“You’re not full of beans,” Wonwoo said, sitting back in his seat. Soonyoung had felt as human as he did, not like a large stuffed animal stuffed with grain or plastic beads or whatever. Seungcheol cackled as Soonyoung continued to complain. “So then… you’re the cat-“

“Tiger!” Soonyoung interjected. “I was a tiger! And then you drew spots all over me!”

“Oh,” Wonwoo said, several things sliding into place with the sudden revelation. “I. Uh, sorry.”

“Finally I get an apology,” Soonyoung sighed.

Wonwoo stared down at his French toast, wondering if it too will suddenly turn into an actual human person and he would have to deal with the reality of that as well. He doesn’t know how long he stares at his food, but he heard Soonyoung whisper an ‘is he okay?’ To Seungcheol at some point.

“Wonwoo?” Seungcheol tried. Wonwoo finally lifted his head to stare at Seungcheol. “Are… you doing alright?”

“I think I’m having a crisis,” Wonwoo said honestly, feeling a bit like he was hovering above his body.

“What, why?” Soonyoung said, actually looking slightly concerned.

“You’re a toy,” Wonwoo said, “And you became a person.”

“Yeah,” Soonyoung said, “Oh, don’t worry. It doesn’t always happen.”

“Just sometimes,” Seungcheol confirmed, “And just with toys. At least here it’s just with toys.”

“Here?” Wonwoo asked, voice cracking slightly at the end.

“Hey, don’t worry about other places,” Seungcheol said. “Just know that sometimes in this castle the toys come to life once they’re fixed up.”

“Then my uncle…” Wonwoo realized.

“We used to have a lot of guests,” Seungcheol confirmed, “Don’t worry, they really all did move out eventually. Found some good homes.”

“Oh, well that’s good,” Wonwoo said, slightly hysterically.

“Hey, do you need to, like, lay down or something?” Soonyoung asked.

“Uh, maybe,” Wonwoo said, “Can I do that?”

“Absolutely,” Seungcheol said quickly, “Don’t worry about dishes, we’ll get those.”

“We will?” Soonyoung asked, making a face.

“Just go lay down,” Seungcheol said, ignoring the human (tiger?). He reached across the table to pat Wonwoo’s hand reassuringly, but paused inches away before retracting his hand. Wonwoo almost felt guilty about the uncertainty he saw cross Seungcheol’s eyes, but he really needed time to process everything he’d just learned. In a daze, Wonwoo got up from the table and headed back up toward his room.

He flopped down on his back on the large maroon bed, starting up at the canopy. Alright, so toys came to life sometimes. Great. What was he supposed to do with that information? He could try and tell someone, but he doubted anyone would believe him, especially if the toys could just turn back into their inanimate forms. He could go running for the hills, but that would hardly solve any of his problems and all his stuff was in the castle besides.

Wonwoo pulled out his phone and scrolled to his uncle’s contact before hitting the call button.

“Wonwoo?” His uncle’s voice crackled down the line, comforting despite everything.

“Uncle Moon,” Wonwoo said. He hesitated wondering how to begin.

“Is everything alright at the castle?” His uncle gently prompted after a few seconds of silence.

“I’m fine,” Wonwoo said. “Seungcheol’s fine too,” he added as an after thought.

His uncle chuckled. “Good, good. Thank you for loaning him your phone. It’s been a while since I was able to talk to Seungcheol.”

Wonwoo squeezed his phone. “Uncle Moon,” he said, “We got a new visitor.”

“Oh really?” His uncle said, sounding interested but not surprised. “What are they like?”

“He’s a stuffed tiger,” Wonwoo said, “Or was. I don’t know how it all works.”

There was a beat of silence.

“So you’ve used the workshop?” His uncle said.

“I did,” Wonwoo said. “Is that what brings them to life?”

“Sometimes,” his uncle said, “Sometimes they already have some spirit in them, but others they need someone to help them bring it out.”

“I fixed his eye,” Wonwoo blurted, “And I painted the wrong pattern on him. He wasn’t happy.”

“Oh really?” His uncle laughed.

“I thought he was a cheetah.” Wonwoo laughed a bit at the words himself.

“You’ll learn,” his uncle said.

“Uncle Moon, I’m confused,” Wonwoo said.

“About what?”

“I don’t know what to do about all this.”

His uncle hummed. “Do they make you uncomfortable?”

Wonwoo thought of how Soonyoung had shook him awake and how, despite the other’s actions, Wonwoo had never been truly afraid of him. Even given how displeased how Soonyoung had been at the breakfast table, Wonwoo hadn’t thought the other would do anything to hurt him.

“Not really,” Wonwoo said.

“Then what do you want to do?” His uncle asked. The other left the question open, tone free of judgement regardless of Wonwoo’s choice.

“I…” Wonwoo bit his lip, “I heard that there were once a bunch of them who lived in this castle.”

“There were,” his uncle said.

“I heard it was lively.”

“That’s certainly true.”

“I think I’d like to hear what that sounded like.”

His uncle laughed. “You can, if you put your mind to it.” There was a shuffling of fabric and Wonwoo assumed his uncle was switching his phone to his other shoulder. “They don’t always show up.”

“I know,” Wonwoo said. “But I’d still like to meet some more.”

“You can do that,” his uncle said.

“Okay.”

“And Wonwoo,” his uncle said.

“Yeah?”

“I’m proud of you.”

Wonwoo flushed with warmth. “Thanks, Uncle Moon.” As their conversation wound down a final question popped into his head. “One more thing.”

“Hm?”

“Is Seungcheol…?”

“You’ll have to ask him,” his uncle said, though Wonwoo could hear the smile in his voice.

“Okay. Thanks. Love you.”

Wonwoo finally headed back downstairs around lunch time. He couldn’t find Seungcheol, but he did find Soonyoung in the portrait room. The other was staring up at all the pictures with his mouth hanging slightly open. Wonwoo held back a laugh at the other’s slightly glazed expression. He channeled every inch of his mother’s voice and said, “Your face is going to freeze like that.”

Soonyoung jolted and looked over to the doorway Wonwoo was standing in. “It’s you!” Soonyoung stood up quickly. For the first time since Wonwoo had met the tiger, the other looked unsure of himself. “Are you… feeling alright?”

“I’m still sort of blindsided by the whole thing,” Wonwoo said, “But I think I’m starting to come to terms with it. Sorry if I alarmed you earlier.”

Soonyoung beamed. “Hey, it’s no problem. I’m sure you weren’t prepared to realize all this stuff today.”

“So…” Wonwoo said, “Do you know if there are any others like you then?”

“I mean, all kinds of toys can develop souls,” Soonyoung said with a shrug. “As far as I can tell there’s not really any rhyme or reason for it. Some just have souls and others don’t.”

“Can you usually tell when they don’t?” Wonwoo gestured to Soonyoung.
“Yeah,” Soonyoung said, “It’s pretty obvious to us.”

“Huh,” Wonwoo said.

“So are we cool, then?” Soonyoung asked, nervousness edging into his voice despite his best efforts.

Wonwoo pretended to think for a moment, he’d mastered holding a blank expression after years of delivery work, before breaking into a sincere smile. “Yeah, we’re cool.”

The tension the tiger had been holding seemed to drain out all at once. “Good,” he said, returning Wonwoo’s grin, “I was hoping you wouldn’t throw me back out on the streets.”

Wonwoo’s stomach twisted. Such a thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. He didn’t think he had the heart to ever turn someone out on the streets, despite his initial wariness of Soonyoung’s state. “I would never.”

“I know that now,” Soonyoung said.

“Uh, so,” Wonwoo began, “Would you like to come to dinner with me and Seungcheol then? We were planning on eating at that diner in town this evening.”

He knew he’d said the right thing when Soonyoung’s eyes brightened. “Hell yeah I would!”

Wonwoo laughed. “Well, that’s still a few hours from now.”

“What do you have to do around here until then?” Soonyoung asked.

“There’s a library,” Wonwoo offered. Soonyoung made another face that had Wonwoo holding back chuckles. “I also brought my Switch.”

He perked back up. “Ooh! I want to play Mario Kart!”

“You know what Mario Kart is?” Wonwoo asked.

“Of course I do, my owner-“ Soonyoung froze, “I mean, I’ve played it before.”

Wonwoo decided not to pry any further as hurt briefly flashed in the other’s eyes before his smile came back, a bit strained at the edges now. “I have Mario Kart,” he said, “But I don’t think you’ll be much of a challenge.”

“Ah, them’s fightin’ words,” Soonyoung said, already racing toward the entrance of the portrait room, “You’ll be eating them soon!”

Wonwoo laughed as he followed after Soonyoung at a much more relaxed pace. He still needed to talk with Seungcheol about everything, but for now he allowed himself to bask in the satisfaction of meeting a new friend.

The diner wasn’t very remarkable, at least from the outside. He had very nearly walked past it if Seungcheol hadn’t tugged on his arm and stopped him. The exterior of the diner was plain brick with a large window that didn’t stand out next to the tailor’s store or toy shop that bookended it. The only thing that announced its existence was a thin sign over the window that read Rock With You in faded blue letters. It really needed a fresh coat of paint, as the ends of the R and Y were flaking off.

Despite the unassuming appearance, the inside was warm and cozy. It was decorated to have a retro sort of vibe with record sleeves hung up on the walls and the ceiling was edged with neon blue, purple and yellow lights. The floor was checkerboard black and white tiles and the main dining area held metal tables with chairs and booths upholstered in red vinyl. A large jukebox sat tucked away in one corner, and Wonwoo could hear music from the 80’s being played softly over the din of people chatting. There was a good amount of similar rock era paraphernalia scattered around the diner as well, guitars, drumsticks and even a keyboard were mounted to the walls.

The diner, despite the fact that the three of them had made an effort to leave early for dinner, was fairly crowded. It looked like there wasn’t a particular demographic that the place catered to. He could see families, elderly couples, groups of teenagers and a few solo diners seated at the counter on swiveling metal stools upholstered with more red vinyl.

A waitress approached the three of them, not even batting an eye at Soonyoung’s bright orange and black spotted hair. “Table for three?” She asked, already pulling three plastic covered menus off a stack from the entrance counter. Wonwoo was at least slightly more comfortable seeing that she wasn’t forced to dress like someone out of the 50’s or something.

“Yes,” Seungcheol said.

“Table or booth?”

“Booth, if possible.”

“Follow me,” She took off weaving through the tables, and they all hurried to follow after her. Wonwoo tucked his wings in tightly to not accidentally smack any of the furniture and other diners. They were led to a booth near the back next to a small hallway that Wonwoo assumed the restrooms were down. She set down their menus and was gone with a, “I’ll be back in a few minutes to get your drink orders.”

Wonwoo slid into the left side of the booth while Seungcheol and Soonyoung slid into the other side. He picked up the menu and scanned through the entrees. It looked like the food was fairly standard for this kind of diner, mostly burgers and steaks. There was a whole page devoted to milkshakes, so Wonwoo assumed they must be a specialty.

“The Green Day is my favorite burger,” Seungcheol said, making Wonwoo look up from his menu. The other was pointing to a burger that was stacked with avocado, tomatoes, cheese and peppers. “But their most popular one is the Muse.” It was then that Wonwoo noticed all the main entrees were named after famous bands. 

“I’m getting the Queen,” Soonyoung said, “What about you?”

Wonwoo looked back at the menu and looked up and down the burger list. “Uh, the Nirvana one looks interesting.”

It was then the waitress reappeared, pen and paper in hand. “You all know what you want to drink?”

“Yeah, and we’re ready to order too,” Seungcheol said.

“Alright,” she said, “Will this be separate or together?”

“Together,” Seungcheol said quickly before Wonwoo could interject. He just smiled when Wonwoo shot him a look.

“Go ahead.”

“I’ll have the Green Day and a double chocolate milkshake.”

Soonyoung looked up from where he was very seriously looking at the milkshake list. “I’ll have the Queen burger and how big are these milkshakes?”

“The glasses are about this big.” She held her hands about a foot apart.

“Okay, I’ll take a peanut butter milkshake.”

“And you?” She looked at Wonwoo.

“Can I have a Nirvana and, uh, a banana chocolate shake?”

“Sure thing. Anything else?”

The three of them shook their head. “That’s it,” Seungcheol said, gathering up their menus and handing them to the waitress.

“I’ll have that right out,” she said before she was gone again.

“So you were right about how popular this place was,” Wonwoo said, looking around the diner once more. Though there were still open tables, he was sure the place would fill up once the dinner rush hit. It seemed like a lot of people in the small town liked the place.

“Yeah, it’s been around forever,” Seungcheol said, “A few decades at least. I think the original owner ran it for around forty or so years and then her kids took it over for the last five years.”

“That explains the retro vibe,” Soonyoung said, looking particularly entranced by the bubbles rushing through the jukebox machine sitting twenty feet away. “Uh, do either of you have a quarter?”

Wonwoo pulled out his wallet and dug through the change pocket for one. “Here.”

“Thanks!” Soonyoung chirped before bounding over to the jukebox.

Seungcheol laughed. “He’s got a lot of energy.”

“Something tells me we haven’t even seen half of it,” Wonwoo agreed.

“So,” Seungcheol began, drawing the word out, “How are you doing with all of this?”

Wonwoo sighed. “I’m not going to lie, I was shocked at first.”

“That’s a normal response,” Seungcheol said.

“I’d never expected something like this,” Wonwoo said, “I mean, I’ve seen spell casters enchant toys to run around and dance before, but never a toy becoming a person.”

“It takes a special type of magic,” Seungcheol said, “Magic that your uncle’s castle is overflowing with.”

“Is it something about the workshop?” Wonwoo asked, curiosity piqued.

“That’s part of it,” Seungcheol said, “Another part is your family’s bloodline in particular. King, uh, your uncle Moonracer was particularly adept at bringing toys to life, and it was part of his life’s passion as well to see all the toys find new, loving homes. Your mother had some of it, but she was never as devoted to the work.”

“I see.” Wonwoo frowned. “She never told me.”

“She probably didn’t know if you were capable,” Seungcheol said, “It can skip generations.”

“Couldn’t I at least have been tested for it?”

“You were at one point,” Seungcheol said, making Wonwoo jolt in his seat.

“I was? I don’t remember doing that.”

“It was when you were very young,” Seungcheol recalled. “Your parents took you to the castle to see if you were able to use the magic.”

“And?”

“And there weren’t any signs of it then,” Seungcheol said. “Maybe you just weren’t ready at the time. Either way, they all just assumed you didn’t have the ability.”

“I wonder what changed, then,” Wonwoo said.

“Who can say?” Seungcheol shrugged. “I don’t know enough about magic to try and explain.”
“I don’t think many people know much about magic,” Wonwoo said, “That’s why it’s magic.”

“You might be right,” Seungcheol laughed.

A thought hit Wonwoo. “So if you knew about me being tested all those years ago…”

“I was there,” Seungcheol confirmed, “And before you ask, yes, I am like Soonyoung.”

“I knew it!” Wonwoo declared triumphantly, “You’re the camel, aren’t you?”

Seungcheol looked slightly embarrassed. “I can’t believe you saw that. I only planned on laying down for a second before you got in, but by the time I woke up I saw your car was already here and all your things were in your room.”

“It’s all good,” Wonwoo said, “I thought you were the housekeeper at first, though.”

Seungcheol shook his head. “Nah, she went home to visit her family for the holidays. I told her I’d keep the place running.”

“So how many people know about you then?”

“Just her and your uncle,” Seungcheol said, “Oh, and all the other residents who lived there previously.”

Wonwoo thought about all the stories he’d heard from Seungcheol over the past few days. He wondered if all the prior residents, the other toys, were in good homes now. “Cool.”

It was then that Soonyoung returned from the jukebox with a wide smile on his face. “Whatcha talking about?”

“Just some things about the castle and Wonwoo’s uncle,” Seungcheol said, “What song did you pick?”

“Oh, just Welcome to the Jungle,” Soonyoung said. “They have a pretty big selection though! Can we come here again sometime?”

“We just got here,” Wonwoo laughed, “We haven’t even tried the food.”

Soonyoung waved off the comment. “It’s still a cool place!”

“I mean, I don’t mind coming here again,” Seungcheol said.

Wonwoo gave in. “If the food’s good, I wouldn’t mind it either. I’m still here for a few more weeks anyway.”

They made small talk about the diner and what they planned to do later that evening- Soonyoung voted for a Mario Party tournament, Seungcheol wanted to play a board game and Wonwoo wanted to watch a new show that had just been released on a streaming service- and ultimately decided on what to do by playing rock-paper-scissors. Wonwoo ended up winning despite Soonyoung whining that the other had cheated somehow. The tiger wasn’t given much time to complain, though, as their food arrived and soon they were all too busy stuffing their faces to argue anymore.

Seungcheol had been right, Wonwoo thought, the food was good. The burger was grilled to perfection and the milkshake was cold and creamy. Both of his companions seemed to enjoy their meals, as well, Soonyoung excitedly exclaiming how good his burger was and Seungcheol diligently guarding his fries from the other’s wandering fingers. It was the first time in many months that Wonwoo had been able to sit down at a restaurant with good company, and as their meal went on he wondered why he didn’t do this more often.

It was probably because he didn’t have many friends back home, he realized as he waited for Seungcheol to pay their bill up at the front counter. Usually he would just spend the night in his apartment, even on the weekends, as the thought of going out to eat by himself was too depressing even by his standards. Maybe he should make more of an effort to meet new people. Or, he thought, maybe he just needed friends like Soonyoung and Seungcheol.

As they headed back to the castle, Soonyoung starting up the argument again that Wonwoo had somehow cheated at rock-paper-scissors, Wonwoo found himself already dreading the day he would have to leave.

“You know,” Seungcheol said over the breakfast table the following morning, “There were a lot of other projects your uncle never got to before he had to leave.”

“What?” Wonwoo asked. He looked up from where he’d been staring at Soonyoung with a mixture of awe and disgust. The other had been trying to shove an entire banana in his mouth at once and was starting to make gross hairball choking noises as he attempted to swallow. “Sorry, I just,” he gestured to the wheezing tiger.

“Oh, wait,” Seungcheo leaned over to pound Soonyoung on the back, and the other eventually coughed up a slimy chunk of banana. Thankfully it was at least onto a plate instead of the nice white tablecloth.

“Gross,” Wonwoo said.

“I thought I could do it,” Soonyoung said mournfully. He reached for the bit of banana to cram it back into his mouth. Wonwoo felt his own appetite die at the same time.

“So other projects,” Wonwoo said, slightly desperate to distract himself from the spectacle the tiger was making.

“Right,” Seungcheol said, clearing his throat and very deliberately looking away from Soonyoung. “He had a bunch of plans laid out, but eventually he couldn’t put off moving into his new place, especially when I was the only one left to help around the castle.”

“How many projects did he have left?”

“Only three,” Seungcheol said, “He really tried to finish his waiting list, but I told him he had to go before he had a heart attack. He spent way too much time back in the workshop.”

“Do you think I would be able to finish those projects?” Wonwoo asked dubiously. Sure, he could sew a button and paint some spots, but he was nowhere near experienced enough to attempt any of the schematics he’d seen lining the cork board in the workshop.

“They’re pretty simple,” Seungcheol said. “Just a few stitches or some glue, sand and paint. I promise, even a child could do them.”

Wonwoo poked at his slowly cooling eggs. While a part of him was excited at the prospect of trying to fix more toys, a larger portion of him was worried about what might happen if he screwed up. He glanced at Soonyoung’s messy black and orange hair. That mistake had been harmless and even funny in retrospect, but if he screwed up something more important…

“You’ll be fine,” Seungcheol said with a knowing look. “And if you make a mistake, I’ll help you fix it.” Wonwoo felt something inside him ease at the sincerity in the other’s words.

Wonwoo let out a long breath. “You have a lot of unfounded faith in me.”

“You seem pretty capable to me,” Seungcheol said with a grin. “So…?”

“I’ll do it,” Wonwoo said.

“Great, I’ll show you where they are after breakfast,” Seungcheol said, “Now eat up, your food’s getting cold.”

Wonwoo dutifully picked his fork back up and dug back into his eggs and sausage. He was still slightly anxious about fixing up more toys, especially if they turned out to be like Soonyoung, but he was sure that Seungcheol would at least be able to reverse his accidents. He wondered when he started having so much unfounded faith in the other as well.

True to his word, Seungcheol dug out a box from under his bed after breakfast and Wonwoo followed him back to the workshop. Once there, Seungcheol had gently pulled out all the broken toys and laid them on the work table for Wonwoo to look through. Wonwoo breathed a nearly inaudible sigh of relief to see that all the damage was, as promised, not too severe.

One was a small stuffed pink teddy bear who was missing an ear and had white cotton puffing from the hole in its head. There were a few loose threads attached to its right paw, indicating that it had once had something sewn to it. The two other toys were, oddly enough, tied together by a white silk ribbon that had been knotted so hopelessly tight that Wonwoo doubted he’d be able to undo it. One of the bound toys was a black felt crow who had lost most of its feathers. The other was a plastic Eastern-style dragon whose paint was flaking off, especially around its face which had gone nearly completely white from handling.

“I think I can do this,” Wonwoo said.

“That’s the spirit!” Seungcheol said cheerfully. He headed toward the door. “I’ll give you some privacy, but I’ll be back around lunch time.”

“Thanks,” Wonwoo said. “Wait,” he said, making Seungcheol stop right before the door, “Are they all going to…?”

“They might,” Seungcheol said, “But we won’t be sure until you fix them.”

“Okay,” Wonwoo said, the anxiety he had about possibly screwing something up returning tenfold.

“You can do this,” Seungcheol said, giving Wonwoo a reassuring smile. “I know you can.”

Wonwoo let out a breath. “I can do this.” The door shut behind Seungcheol, and suddenly Wonwoo felt very alone. “Let’s start with you then,” he said, picking up the pink bear.

He couldn’t find a fabric that matched the bear’s pink fur in color exactly and he didn’t want the ear looking slightly off, so he decided to swing into a wildly different type of fabric thinking that the mismatched aesthetic might be more appealing. He selected a pink and white floral patterned cloth and cut out two half circles to make the ear before stuffing it with cotton and sewing the new ear onto the bear’s head. It was a little lumpy and clearly a homemade fix, but the colors still worked with the bear’s palette and Wonwoo thought it looked pretty good for someone who had only sewn a handful of times before.

The bear’s missing item was much more of a challenge though. Wonwoo had no idea what had once gone there, and none of the bear’s design indicated what it might have held. Wonwoo spent more time than he’d like to admit sorting through small stuffed accessories looking for anything that might work. He ended up with a tiny stuffed red heart, a miniature stuffed microphone that was probably from Build-A-Bear, and a plastic gray dumbbell. He eventually picked the microphone.

“You look like a singer,” he told the bear, even though there was nothing about the bear that indicated that. He sewed the microphone into the bear’s hand anyway.

The other toys were a little harder to fix. The ribbon tying the two together was even more difficult to remove than Wonwoo had thought. Not only had it been knotted tightly, there was a hardened substance drizzled over the knots- glue maybe?- that had locked them in place. He wondered why a child might tie their toys together, but then again Wonwoo had used to throw his toys in the laundry hamper and called it jail whenever he deemed the toys had been mean, so maybe it was something similar. After at least half an hour of trying to unknot the ribbon, Wonwoo eventually gave up and grabbed a pair of scissors to cut off the tie.

Once freed, he started with the crow. The good news was that the bird was only missing a few feathers, and Wonwoo easily found replacement black feathers in a bin on the shelves. He glued them on carefully, making sure they were all smoothed down properly. He briefly entertained the idea of using some of his own feathers for the bird, but decided that might be weird if the toy actually came to life. As he was laying the feathers down, a thought struck him to add just one colored feather on either side for flair. He grabbed two red feather and glued them down at the tips of the bird’s wings.

The dragon was the most complicated one. Wonwoo had almost zero experience with painting, let alone painting miniatures. Back in college, one of his roommates who had been really into Dungeons & Dragons always had miniatures drying on a paper towel on their kitchen counter. The one time he’d convinced Wonwoo to try it, Wonwoo had probably ended up with more paint on his fingers than on the figurine. The paint had smeared on the blank gray miniature, and Wonwoo had decided to leave the designs to his roommate.

Now, though, Wonwoo felt uneasy as he sat in front of the plastic dragon. Paint bottles were lined up neatly on the left side of his work table, a few dollops already squeezed out onto a palette sitting next to a cup of water, while a row of paint brushes in all sizes sat on his right. He had spent probably another half hour organizing everything to delay the inevitability of having to paint the dragon.

“It’s not hard,” Wonwoo said, trying to psyche himself up. He reached for the smallest paint brush he could, the bristles no wider than maybe a centimeter. “Just get started.”

He carefully dipped the end of the brush into the red paint, scraping off the clumpy excess on the sides of the palette. At least there was enough paint still on the dragon that he could tell what colors it originally used to be. The last thing he wanted was another Soonyoung situation where he got yelled at because of his paint job.

Wonwoo started slowly, each brush stroke taking far more effort to make then it probably should. However, he soon lost himself in the rhythm, slowly gaining confidence as he retouched all the scales along the dragon’s body. The paler red of the dragon’s underbelly went smoothly, as did the golden spikes lining the dragon’s back. Wonwoo was even impressed by how good the dragon’s golden horns turned out.

He was growing more confident as he painted the dragon’s mouth, brow furrowed in concentration as he squinted at the dragon’s tiny white teeth and long pink tongue. When he painted the dragon’s white talons, he recalled all the times growing up when his sister had forced him to help her paint her nails and chuckled under his breath at the memory.

It was all going well, a little too well, when disaster struck. Just as Wonwoo was lifting more gold paint from the palette to paint the end of the dragon’s tail, a clump of gold paint dropped from the brush and landed on the dragon’s head. He gasped involuntarily, scrambling for the nearby roll of paper towels to blot at the paint. In the end, the dragon’s head was mostly still red, but there were still streaks of gold running down its face. He grimaced. If this dragon did turn out to have a soul, he was definitely going to hear about this. He resolved to just suck it up and take whatever words the other might have for him since he couldn’t repaint the area until the paint dried.

Seungcheol reappeared just as Wonwoo was putting the finishing touches on the dragon’s paint job. He jolted as the door swung open, wings fanning out behind him and nearly leaving a streak of gold paint across the dragon’s hide, but narrowly managed to avoid making the paint job even more of a mess.

“Sorry,” Seuncheol said, though Wonwoo could hear amusement in the other’s voice, “Didn’t mean to startle you.”

“I wasn’t startled,” Wonwoo blatantly lied as he tried to straighten out his wings nonchalantly, “I was just stretching.”

“Right,” Seungcheol said. He walked over to the work table, looking over Wonwoo’s progress. “It’s looking good.”

“Thanks,” Wonwoo said, “Though the dragon had a bit of a mishap.” He pointed to the dragon’s gold streaked head.

“You know,” Seungcheol squinted at it, “It doesn’t look that bad to me.”

“I doubt the dragon will be happy,” Wonwoo said wryly.

“Who knows?” Seungcheol said, “The dragon might not come to life at all.”

And Wonwoo wasn’t quite sure how to feel about that statement. Sure, he’d been shocked to find out that Soonyoung and Seungcheol were toys come to life, but now the thought of a toy not coming to life left him feeling oddly disappointed. Seungcheol clearly saw the conflicting emotions playing out on Wonwoo’s face, as he gave the other a pat on the shoulder.

“Come eat lunch,” he said. “I made kimchi jjiggae.”

Wonwoo’s stomach rumbled and he coughed in embarrassment. “I can’t believe it’s that time already,” he said, getting up from the bench. “It feels like it’s only been an hour.”

“Your uncle used to lose track of time back here, as well,” Seungcheol said fondly. “Something about this place just made him want to stay here. Probably would have slept here too if I didn’t yell at him.”

Wonwoo smiled. “Well, I have no desire to do that yet. My back already hurts enough just standing up.” He could feel his muscles already stiffening from spending the morning hunched over the work table. He’d have to take a hot bath that night if he didn’t want to wake up with aches and pains the next day.

“Alright, old man,” Seungcheol teased.

“Shouldn’t I be saying that to you?” Wonwoo asked as they left the workshop, “You’re older than me, right?”

“Probably not much,” Seungcheol said. “Time’s a little weird when you’re…” he gestured to himself.

“I guess.” Wonwoo said.

“Anyway, let’s hurry,” Seungcheol said, “Soonyoung’s dying to find out if he’s going to meet some new people.”

After a short lunch where Soonyoung hounded Wonwoo with questions about his work on the toys, cackling when he heard that one of them had a similarly messed up paint job, Wonwoo returned to the workshop to finish painting the dragon. It didn’t take too long, considering he’d gotten most of it done before lunch, and soon enough he was sitting the dragon in front of the hearth in his room to dry before setting the newly repaired teddy bear and crow in one of the guest rooms.

“We could put them in separate rooms,” Seungcheol said, “But it might be disorienting waking up not near anyone else.”

Wonwoo had nodded as if that had made sense before heading back to the master bedroom to take the long bath he’d promised himself earlier. Maybe Seungcheol was right, Wonwoo thought as he slowly sank into the hot water. Maybe he was getting old. No, he was only in his twenties. That wasn’t old, right? He glanced as his wings, held carefully out of the large tub, with worry as if feathers might start falling out the moment he looked at them. Luckily, his wings looked as full and healthy as they always had. He shook his head and picked up the book he’d laid next to the tub. He was too young to be having an existential crisis.

The next morning, Wonwoo awoke with a squirming anticipation in his gut. He didn’t even know if he wanted to open his eyes, wondering if any of the three toys had somehow come to life. Maybe he could just stay like this, pretending to be asleep forever until someone shook him awake like Soonyoung had. No, he was strong than this.

He slowly cracked his eyes open and jerked back when he found a pair of eyes staring directly back at him, inches from his face. “Ah!” The man, whoever he was snickered at him, as Wonwoo frantically blinked the residual sleepiness from his eyes.

The man stepped back from the bed thankfully, and Wonwoo was finally able to take in the full identity of whoever had decided to wake him up with a heart attack. The newcomer was short and thin with coppery red hair. A pair of golden antler-like horns jutted from his scalp just above his temples. Bright red scales defined the corners of his eyes and edges of his cheekbones, and as he turned his face in the sunlight they shimmered golden. There were also tracks of gold that trailed down his forehead, around his eyes, and down to his chin. But that wasn’t the most shocking part, as what had startled Wonwoo in the first place was that the other’s eyes were golden. It wasn’t in a golden colored iris sort of way, no, the man’s eyes were entirely gold with no indication of irises or pupils anywhere.

“Finally,” the man said, crossing his arms over his chest, “I was wondering how long you were going to pretend to be asleep.”

“You,” Wonwoo started, “You’re the dragon.”

“Good job,” the man said, tone teasing, “Must have really been wracking your brain for that one.”

Wonwoo opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by a large black shape hurtling into the room and slamming into the dragon’s side. Minghao let out a yelp of surprise, but managed to stay on his feet. Wonwoo quickly realized that the unknown shape was another man, this one with black feathers trailing up and down his bare arms to under the thin black tank top he was wearing, though the feathers flared red at his wrists.

“Minghaooooo!!!!!” The man cried, “We’re finally free!!”

“And not a moment too soon,” the newly named Minghao muttered, pushing at his apparent companion. “Jun, get off me.”

“But I missed you!” The man said, though he did eventually release Minghao.

“We’ve been tied together for ten years,” Minghao said dryly. “I’m sure you’ll survive one night by yourself.”

The man- Jun?- pouted, but then his eyes landed on Wonwoo and he brightened again. “Oh, you must be Wonwoo then! I’m Junhui, but you can call me Jun!”

“How do you know my name?” Wonwoo asked, thoroughly overwhelmed by all that had occurred within ten minutes of him waking up.

“We can still hear when we’re in our other forms,” Minghao said.

“Oh,” Wonwoo said. He then abruptly flushed. “Uh, then did you hear…?”

“You have a nice singing voice!” Jun said brightly as Minghao snickered. Wonwoo buried his face in his hands and groaned.

“So when’s breakfast?” Minghao said, not letting Wonwoo wallow in his misery and instead jabbing at the man’s shoulder.

Wonwoo dropped his hands. “Uh, whenever, I guess. We can go see if Seungcheol is up.” Though he was loathe to leave the warmth of his bed, he dragged himself out from under the covers, tugged his winter socks on and padded out of the master bedroom with Minghao and Jun on his heels. “So if you two became human, did the bear-“

“He told me if I woke him up, he’d kill me,” Jun said quickly as Wonwoo headed toward the spare bedroom.

“The pink bear?” Wonwoo asked, raising an eyebrow.

“He doesn’t fuck around,” Minghao agreed.

“Ohhkay…” Wonwoo said, abruptly changing directions for the stairs. “Well, Seungcheol and Soonyoung are usually up by now, anyway.”

“Oh, we know Seungcheol!” Jun said, “He kept us company when we couldn’t assume our other forms.”

“It’s too bad he couldn’t fix us himself,” Minghao said.

“He can’t?” Wonwoo asked.

“No,” Minghao said, “Not magically at least. I’m sure he told you that your family’s bloodline is special.”

“Yeah, he did say that,” Wonwoo said, “Apparently they tested me when I was younger and didn’t think I had the right magic. I don’t know how I got it later.”

“Maybe you’re a late bloomer,” Jun said.

“Maybe,” Wonwoo snorted. They headed through the dining room and Wonwoo could already hear the clang of pots and the sizzle of meat on a skillet coming from the kitchen. His nose picked up the scent of bacon, ham and hash browns along with sliced apples.

“I’m hungry,” Jun said, “I haven’t eaten in ten years!”

“And the last time we were awake we had to eat tied together,” Minghao said.

“Wait, so why were you two tied together?” Wonwoo asked.

Minghao’s expression soured. “Our last owner decided we were fighting so they tied us together to make us get along before gluing the knots. His parents thought it was too much of a mess and didn’t even bother trying to untie us before they threw us out.”

“They threw you out?” Wonwoo blanched.

“We were in a dumpster for two days before your uncle rescued us,” Jun said conversationally. “We were pretty lucky because the garbage truck was coming later that day. We probably would have been incinerated.”

Wonwoo felt slightly ill thinking about that. “I’m sorry,” he said, though he wasn’t quite sure what to apologize for.

“It’s not your fault,” Minghao said, giving Wonwoo an odd look.

“It’s just part of life for us toys,” Jun said. “We all know that our lifespans can be pretty short.”

Wonwoo still felt oddly guilty for the actions of their previous owner, even if he knew there was nothing he could have done to prevent that. Before he could follow that particular thought any further and start delving into misguided self-pity, Soonyoung burst out of the kitchen doors, arms laden with silver platters loaded with bacon and ham.

“Oh, hey!” He beamed at Wonwoo, “Are these the new guys? Since you two are new, you can be my minions now!” He set the platters down on the table and walked up to the two new arrivals, sizing them both up.

“Okay,” Jun said easily.

“Hang on,” Minghao protested. “We’ve technically been here longer than you!”

“Yeah, but I came to life first,” Soonyoung said. “So, minions it is!”

“Soonyoung, go grab the- Oh, hello,” Seungcheol looked over to Minghao and Jun as he walked out of the kitchen with a large plate of hash browns in his hand. “You must be… Minghao and Jun?”

“Hey, Seungcheol!” Jun grinned.

“Nice to finally meet you in person,” Seungcheol set the plate down on the table and walked over to hug both Minghao and Jun. Jun accepted the hug easily, but Minghao looked like he was enduring it more than enjoying it. “It’s about time.”

“First things first,” Minghao said, he slugged Seungcheol on the shoulder.

“Ow!”

“That’s for keeping us in a shoebox under the bed,” Minghao said, shaking out his hand.

Seungcheol pouted as he rubbed his shoulder. “I didn’t want you guys to get lost!”

“You kept my minions in a box under the bed?” Soonyoung asked, looking offended at the very thought.

“I didn’t mean anything by it!” Seungcheol yelled.

“We are not your minions!” Minghao snapped at the exact same time.

There was a beat of silence that Wonwoo used to pull out one of the chairs. “So…breakfast?”

Everyone looked around at each other before Jun cracked up laughing. The tension in the room dissolved and Wonwoo could see Jun and Seungcheol both smiling as they slid into their chairs across from him and Soonyoung. The tiger immediately started doling out portions onto Jun and Minghao’s plates declaring that he had to be a good leader and care for his minions, words which earned him a kick in the shin courtesy of Minghao.

“So,” Seungcheol said, “What about the other one?”

“He’s asleep,” Jun said, brushing one of his stray feathers off the table “But he should be up soon. He’ll probably get hungry eventually.”

As if on cue, the door to the dining room slammed open. Wonwoo jerked in his seat and looked over to see a man with a very tired “don’t speak to me until I have eaten” kind of expression on his face striding over to the table. He took the seat next to Wonwoo, plopping down heavily in the chair and immediately reaching over the table for the hash browns and a plate.

Wonwoo blinked down at the newcomer. He was short and had bright pink hair the same color as the teddy bear’s fur. He was wearing at white T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants he had clearly pilfered from the guest room’s wardrobe given that the outfit didn’t quite fit properly. Up close now, Wonwoo could see fluffy round ears poking out from under the man’s pink hair. One was bright pink, but the other was made from floral patterned cloth. He stared at the cloth ear, and found himself raising a hand unconsciously toward it.

“Stop looking at it!” The man yelled, noticing Wonwoo’s hand. His cheeks flushed red with outrage and he yanked a beanie that Wonwoo had missed from his back pocket. He crammed the beanie over his hair and ears. “This is all your fault!”

“That sounds familiar,” Soonyoung muttered.

“Sorry,” Wonwoo said, dropping his hand, “I just, uh, sorry. I couldn’t find another pink fabric that matched.”

“So you chose floral?!” The man yelled.

“Woozi,” Seungcheol began.

“Jihoon!” The man snapped, spearing some hash browns angrily on his fork. “It’s Jihoon.”

“Jihoon,” Seungcheol said, hands spread placatingly. Jihoon huffed but didn’t comment further.

“You changed your name?” Jun asked, looking bewildered.

“I don’t want anything that girl gave me,” Jihoon spit. He leaned across the table again and stabbed a piece of ham with more force than necessary before bringing it back to his plate. Wonwoo turned to Seungcheol and raised his eyebrows. Seungcheol grimaced and made an expression along the lines of ‘I’ll tell you later’.

“So, Jihoon,” Wonwoo said carefully.

“I still haven’t forgiven you for this,” Jihoon said bitterly. Wonwoo didn’t have to ask to know the other was talking about his ear.

“Uh, sorry,” Wonwoo said, “But also didn’t you have a microphone?”

Jihoon relaxed slightly. “Yeah, it’s up in the room,” he said. “That part was…better than I expected.”

“What did you have before?” Wonwoo asked.

Jihoon rolled his eyes. “Some stupid ‘Happy Birthday’ balloon.” Minghao and Soonyoung both snickered and Jihoon shot daggers at them.

“I guess we should get this out of the way first,” Seungcheol said, “Are you all planning on staying?”

Wonwoo froze, fork with a some ham on it pausing halfway between the plate and his mouth. He’d actually never thought that the newly met toys might want to leave as soon as they came back, but now that he considered it he felt stupid for not thinking they might want to go. After all, the castle’s previous residents had all moved out except for Seungcheol. He didn’t know why, but part of Wonwoo felt a pang of sadness thinking that the others might leave as soon as Wonwoo met them.

“Hell yes, I’m staying,” Jihoon said plainly. “Where else am I going to go?”

“I’d like to stay as well,” Minghao said, “As long as you don’t shove us back under the bed again.”

“You’re never going to let that go, are you?” Seungcheol sighed.

“Not on your life,” Minghao said, with a sharp toothed grin.

“I also want to stay!” Jun chimed in, “The food here’s good!”

“Is that really your reason?” Jihoon sighed.

“Yep!”

“Well, I’ll get some more guest rooms made up,” Seungcheol said, “But two of you will be in the other guest wing, and if we get more boarders you might have to double up.”

“Fine with me,” Jihoon said, “As long as they don’t touch anything on my side.”

“I’ve already lived tied to this idiot for ten years,” Minghao said, jerking a thumb at Jun, “I’m sure I could room with him if need be.”

“Aww, Minghao, you do care!” Jun beamed.

“I’ll kill you in one shot.”

“What about you?” Wonwoo said quietly to Soonyoung.

The tiger looked up from his bacon, surprised, before grinning. “Wonwoo, if I wanted to leave, I would have left a long time ago.” A tiny part of Wonwoo was relieved that all of the others planned on staying. He knew he shouldn’t be so invested having only known some of them for an hour or two, but being around so many friendly faces was refreshing, especially since his usual day consisted of only seeing people for as long as it took to sign the package receipts.

“We’ll get all your rooms fixed up then,” Seungcheol said, looking to Wonwoo.

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Wonwoo said, “You might need to tell me what to do though.”

“I can do that, no problem,” Seungcheol said, waving a hand. “Finish your breakfast and we should be done in plenty of time before lunch.

It did go quickly. Seungcheol had kept the castle in pretty good condition over the years, and it didn’t take long to clear out one of the guest rooms in the long upstairs hallway with two beds for Minghao and Jun (Jihoon had opted to take the last remaining large guest room). The dragon and the crow didn’t have any belongings yet, so both of them just moved some clothes from the fairly extensive wardrobe in the large guest room into their own. Wonwoo could tell Minghao was a bit disappointed by the lackluster clothing selection, and wondered if the other had any money to go shopping for new outfits. He brought the idea up to Seungcheol, who had brightened at the idea of a shopping trip and produced a black credit card from his wallet, much to Wonwoo’s astonishment.

“It’s your uncle’s,” Seungcheol said with slight embarrassment. “He left it here in case anyone at the castle needed anything.”

“Huh,” was all Wonwoo could think to say in response. His uncle, he thought, must have really loved this place to take such good care of it even after he left.

“If you need it-“ Seungcheol said, offering the card.

Wonwoo shook his head and pushed the card back to Seungcheol. “He left it with you for a reason,” he said, “I have my own money anyway.” Seungcheol had given him a small smile at that and put the card back in his pocket.

At lunch, Wonwoo brought the idea up to all the others, and both Soonyoung and Minghao had jumped at the idea of a shopping trip. Jihoon had looked slightly interested when Wonwoo had mentioned the album store in the town mall, and Jun had just looked excited to have the opportunity to go out.

So they all piled into Wonwoo’s car after lunch- Soonyoung had lost the rock-paper-scissors tournament and been forced to turn back into his stuffed tiger form to fit them all in the car- and they headed off toward town. The mall was about a thirty minute drive away, but it was a pretty good sized mall with a number of both chain and local shops inside. Wonwoo watched all his companions’ eyes shine as they took in the scale of the mall.

All of them were dressed to cover up their non-human features. Jihoon had his ears shoved back under a beanie, while Soonyoung had done the same with a bucket hat. Jun was wearing a long sleeved sweater to cover up his feathers. Wonwoo wasn’t quite sure what Minghao did, but the other’s horns had vanished and a face mask covered up most of his scales along with sunglasses to cover his golden eyes. In passing it might look like he was wearing gold eye shadow, but that was far less alarming than any of his other features. Though non-human traits weren’t really uncommon, seeing a gold painted dragon or a person with clearly stuffed ears might cause some alarm for the general public.

“Okay,” Seungcheol was saying as they stood in front of a directory, “Meet back here in one hour, alright? You all have your watches?”

The other toys all dutifully raised their wrists to hold up an assortment of watches Seungcheol had scavenged up from around the castle. It had ended up being a real mish-mash of watches, with Minghao wearing an expensive looking-Rolex, Jihoon a sleek digital watch, Soonyoung a plain-looking silver one, and Jun a bright pink Minnie Mouse timepiece. Wonwoo, for his part, was grateful he had his phone to keep the time, or else he was sure Seungcheol would have made him haul around the grandfather clock.

After they all mapped out where they were going, the group split up. Wonwoo was left with Junhui as Soonyoung and Minghao darted off toward a clothing outlet and Seungcheol and Jihoon headed in the direction of the album store. Wonwoo looked to Jun, who looked absently content.

“Where are we headed?” Wonwoo asked.

“Don’t know,” Jun said with a shrug, “I don’t really need anything.”

“I don’t either,” Wonwoo said. He looked over the lit up directory again. “Want to go to the toy store or something?”

“Sure!”

They headed off toward the escalators. All around the mall was decorated for Christmas, now only a couple weeks away. There was a large tree on the opposite side of the mall near the food court that Wonwoo could see, and he was pretty sure Santa’s grotto would be stationed there. He recalled going to the grotto with his sister when he was younger to sit on Santa’s lap, his parents taking embarrassing photos that would inevitably end up in the family Christmas cards.

The two of them reached the escalators and headed up, weaving around groups of shoppers. Wonwoo held his breath as they passed a group of teenagers, trying not to show weakness. Jun continued on obliviously, even waving to some of the people they were passing.  Wonwoo shuddered at the thought of being perceived by strangers.

“Jun,” he said, thinking he should at least make conversation with his friend (were they to that stage?) if he wasn’t going to with strangers.

“Yeah?”

“Minghao said you were tied together for ten years,” Wonwoo blurted, before mentally smacking himself in the head.

“Yeah, we were,” Jun said, still looking cheerful.

“Was that,” Wonwoo searched for the words, “hard?”

Jun tilted his head thoughtfully. “I mean, it was hard mostly because it was hard to be tied up with glue sticking everywhere. It wasn’t hard because of Minghao.”

“Oh,” Wonwoo said.

“Yeah,” Jun said, “Minghao’s cool. He’s really talented, too. I know it really hurt him to have that kid scratching at his face all the time, but he never complained about it. Not even when we were tossed out.”

Wonwoo flinched once more at hearing that the two of them had been discarded. “I can’t believe that happened.”

“It happens all the time,” Jun said, “And we weren’t really surprised. The kid who owned us had so many toys. He would play with toys and then get bored of them quickly. Honestly, we lasted a lot longer than we thought we would. There were dozens of other toys that came and went in the time we were there.”

“That sounds wasteful,” Wonwoo said.

“Probably,” Jun said, “But his parents spoiled them. I think he stopped liking us after we got stuck together, even though he was the one who did it. For a while after that we were just sitting in the toy box hoping his parents wouldn’t find us. They did after about three months of us hiding in there, and you know how the rest goes.”

They walked in silence for a few minutes.

“That still wasn’t right,” Wonwoo said, “They could have tried to fix you like I did.”

“Even if they did, he probably wouldn’t have wanted us,” Jun said, “Kids get bored easily.”

Wonwoo sighed. “I just wish-“
“Hey,” Jun cut him off, “We’re here now. Not that kid’s house, and not the dump. You and your uncle helped us when no one else would. And we’re doing a lot better now, okay? So don’t bum yourself out too much.” He grinned. “After all, it’s Christmas.”

Wonwoo smiled. “Yeah, it is.” He still couldn’t fully get past the situation that Jun and Minghao had been in, but Jun was also right in saying that he shouldn’t keep dwelling on the ‘what ifs’, especially since everything had worked out in the end. Wonwoo shook his head and resolved that since it was impossible to change the past, he would at least make an effort to make sure all the residents in the castle were comfortable now.

The toy store, when they finally reached it, was fairly small. Wonwoo had expected that it might be based on the size of it on the directory. The front of the store was filled with some of the latest toys he’d seen on TV ads, remote controlled cars and tracks, dolls based on cartoon characters, stuffed animals that each looked softer and squishier than the last, and a number of board games and puzzles. Wonwoo had a brief moment where he worried Jun might actually be uncomfortable by coming to a toy store, but he was quickly proven wrong when the other picked up a squishy pillow shaped like a cat and started cooing at the design.

“Doesn’t it look like me?” Jun asked, holding up the cat to Wonwoo.

“You’re a crow,” Wonwoo said.

Jun pouted. “But I also look like a cat!” Wonwoo wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that, but Jun wasn’t really paying attention. 

He set the pillow back on the stand before heading off to look through the board games. Wonwoo wandered deeper into the store, eyes roving over doll houses and action figures absentmindedly. He really didn’t need anything here. He’d already sent off all his Christmas presents, and he didn’t have any relatives who needed toys like this anyway. Maybe they could pick up a board game, he thought. They definitely had enough people in the castle now to justify springing for a party game, especially with the snowstorm forecasted the following week that would likely trap them in the castle for at least a few days.

Mind made up, Wonwoo turned around to head back toward where Jun was in the board game section when something caught his eye. In the back corner of the store was a clearance bin with a beat up sign declaring that all of the bin’s contents were less than $5. He walked over slowly and glanced into the bin. He quickly saw why as soon as he spotted a puzzle box with a note taped to it declaring “missing pieces”.

There was a train with a lopsided wheel, an improperly weighted toy boat, plastic action figures with bent or missing weapons, stuffed animals with lopsided eyes and smiles and much more. Wonwoo’s heart squeezed as he examined all the broken toys. He knew couldn’t take all of them with him, but he couldn’t bear to leave all of them there either. In the end, he picked out a stuffed orange rabbit holding a guitar who had a tear along its side that nearly ripped off its arm and a robotic looking dog with a glossy blank face that was scratched up and chipped around the edges.

He walked over to Jun to see the other squinting at the description on the back of a board game. Jun looked up at Wonwoo’s approach, and his eyes widened as he spotted the toys in Wonwoo’s arms. Wonwoo resolutely did not pay any attention to his ears warming as Jun’s eyes darted from the toys to Wonwoo and back again.

“Who’re they?” Jun asked, nodding at the toys.

“I, uh, I just felt like I should help them,” Wonwoo said, his words feeling awkward once spoken.

Jun grinned. “You gonna rescue every broken toy you come across?” He asked.

“I know I can’t,” Wonwoo said, “But I at least want to-“

“Hey,” Jun said, “I think it’s impressive. It’ll be nice if we have some more guests at the castle.” He leaned down to look at the bunny and dog. “My name’s Jun and the one holding you is Wonwoo. He’s gonna fix you up, so I hope you’ll introduce yourselves to us soon.” Jun straightened back up and beamed at Wonwoo, and suddenly the bastet didn’t feel so foolish for picking up the toys.

“What were you looking at, then?” Wonwoo asked.

“Oh, this board game here’s about making potions,” Jun said, pointing to the box he’d been holding, “And that one’s about building a city. I guess I was just hoping we could pick one up? But also I understand if we don’t have the money.”

“I think it’s a good idea,” Wonwoo said, and the other brightened. “There’s a blizzard that’s supposed to hit next week, so we’ll probably be stuck at home. It’d be nice to have something to do in case the power goes out or we get bored of watching TV.”

“Yes! Okay, let me show you a few I liked!” Jun dragged Wonwoo around the board game section pointing left and right as Wonwoo grinned. He hugged the two toys in his arms tighter to his chest.

When the two of them finally regrouped with the others (ten minutes late, Jihoon was quick to say), all of the others noticed the toy shop bag dangling from Wonwoo’s hand.

“Oh, great, the castle’s going to be even louder,” Jihoon said, though he didn’t sound too mad at the prospect.

Seungcheol’s eyes softened. “I guess I’ll look into setting up more rooms.”

Later that night in the workshop, Wonwoo sat at the table, stumped. He’d managed to patch up the bunny’s side and arm with little issue, even painting a little design on the bunny’s guitar, but the robotic dog still left him confused. He had changed the dog’s batteries and discovered the toy would turn on with a brush of his fingertips across its glossy face (he couldn’t do much about the cracks and chips aside from putting a sealant over it), but he still couldn’t figure out what it was supposed to do otherwise.

The dog didn’t seem to respond to voice commands, and would only bark once when he touched it. Wonwoo was a bit worried. He didn’t know anything at all about robotics. If there was something wrong with the dog’s software, he was screwed. He’d asked Seungcheol about it, but the other admitted to being just as clueless about the dog’s function as Wonwoo. After dinner that night, as Wonwoo sat nearly banging his head on the table, Jihoon walked into the workshop.

“Still working?” Jihoon asked, taking a seat on one of the other benches.

“Yeah,” Wonwoo sighed. “I can’t figure out what to do with this dog and I’m too scared to open it up to check in case I break him further.”

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Jihoon said. He got up and walked over to the table to look at the dog. He picked up the tiny robot and turned it over before setting it back down. He tapped its face and the dog let out a metallic “arf!” In response. He jumped, grimaced and backed a step away from the dog. “You might have to look up a manual online.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Wonwoo said, “But I don’t know how to start searching. Like, I don’t think ‘robot dog’ is going to give me what I need.”

Jihoon hummed. “That’s true.” He frowned as he spotted the rectangular port on the dog’s side. “Hey, what’s that?”

“It’s a port of some kind,” Wonwoo said, “I don’t know what it’s for, though.”

Jihoon blinked. “I think I know.”

“Really?” Wonwoo asked, turning to Jihoon with wide eyes.

“Yeah,” Jihoon said, “Do you have your phone or something?” Wonwoo dug out his phone as Jihoon moved to the second floor of the workshop and started digging through the bins. Eventually he resurfaced with a thin cord that had a lightning plug on one end and what looked like a USB port on the other. “Aha!” He walked back down to the work table. “Okay, plug this into your phone and then plug the other end into the dog.

Wonwoo did so. “Wow, this must be a pretty recent toy, then.”

“Yeah,” Jihoon said, “It probably just got banged up on delivery and that’s why it was in clearance.”

As soon as the cord was plugged the cord into the dog, the dog sat up straight and barked happily. Jihoon flinched again, Wonwoo noticed. Its glossy face lit up with brightly colored dots.

“Do I need to download an app for it then?”

“Nah,” Jihoon said, “Go to your music.”

Wonwoo tapped open his music library. “Now what?”

“Pick a song,” Jihoon instructed. “And just watch.”

Wonwoo opened one of his playlists and hit the first song on it. The dog immediately started reacting. It rocked on its rounded back legs and waved its front paws in the air. Its plastic ears flipped up and down and its face lit up to the beat of the song. It barked happily and landed back on its front paws, head bobbing rhythmically as if it were vibing to the music.

“Oh my god,” Wonwoo laughed, watching the dog rock back and forth.

“Music dog,” Jihoon said, though he was edging away from the dog every time it barked.

After a few minutes of watching the dog, Wonwoo turned the music off and unhooked the dog from his phone. The dog’s face lit up a sad-looking blue. Wonwoo mentally promised to give him more music later.

“Thanks, Jihoon,” he said, turning to the pink haired man. “I never would have figured that out.”

“It’s no problem,” Jihoon said dismissively. “Clearly the dog appreciates music, and is therefore tolerable.”

“Do you not like dogs?” Wonwoo asked.

Jihoon’s expression darkened. “No.”

“Why?” Wonwoo asked, before he could stop himself. “Uh, sorry. You don’t have to answer if it’s too personal.”

Jihoon sighed, tugging at his beanie. “No, it’s fine. It was a long time ago.”

“That doesn’t necessarily mean it would hurt less to think about,” Wonwoo said.

“I…” Jihoon started. “I want to get it off my chest. My last owner wasn’t the best. Or, well, maybe that’s just from my perspective. I’m sure she was a perfectly nice girl, she just didn’t take care of her toys much. She got me for her eighth birthday.”

“The balloon,” Wonwoo said.

Jihoon snorted. “Yeah. It was stupid-looking, so I’m glad you picked something else. Anyway, she didn’t like me very much. Apparently I was too childish. She decided to use me as a dog toy instead.”

“Oh no,” Wonwoo said.

“I mean, it’s not like she knew I had a spirit,” Jihoon said. “But I still got thrown around a lot and she would play tug of war with her dog using me. One time my ear came off.” Wonwoo grimaced, remembering how he had replaced the ear with a floral printed cloth.

“Sorry about that,” he said.

“You know, it’s kind of growing on me,” Jihoon admitted. He pulled off the beanie and reached up a hand to brush over the mismatched appendage. “Anyway, I got pretty beaten up and sewn up and re-beaten up. It was miserable. I kept wondering why they didn’t just go buy a dog toy instead because I definitely wasn’t meant for this kind of wear and tear.”

“One day she was throwing me around at the park for her dog to fetch and I ended up flying over the fence around the edges of the park. I landed in a creek. She wanted to climb the fence to get me, but her dad wouldn’t let her. They just left me there,” Jihoon said bitterly.

“That’s… a very careless way to treat anything, even a toy,” Wonwoo said. “You have a right to be mad at her.”

“I know,” Jihoon said, “But what can I do about it now? She’s probably much older and honestly I’m kind of tired of being angry about it. It does me no good to remember those times aside from ruining my day. I don’t really want to waste any more of my life being mad at her, especially since I’m in a better place now.”

Wonwoo was suddenly very glad his uncle had seen and picked up Jihoon. Had the man been flying over the creek and spotted Jihoon’s pink fur in the same way that Wonwoo had spotted Soonyoung in the middle of a snowdrift? He shuddered to think about what would have happened to Jihoon if he’d just been left there, exposed to the elements.

“I’m glad you’re here now,” Wonwoo said, putting as much sincerity as he could into his words.

Jihoon looked startled, and then flushed in embarrassment. “I’m glad to be here, too,” he mumbled, not looking at Wonwoo.

Wonwoo turned back to the dog and bunny lying on the worktable. “You know, I was worried that rescuing all these toys would be a waste or just self-indulgent, but I think I’m finally starting to see the good it can do.”

“Hopefully these two will be interesting,” Jihoon said. “And I’m going to make sure that Soonyoung doesn’t grab them before me. I want minions too.”

Wonwoo laughed. “I’m sure Minghao would get mad if he heard you call him Soonyoung’s minion.”

“He can be as mad as he wants, doesn’t make it less true.” Jihoon shrugged as he stuffed the beanie back on his head. “You should head to bed, though. It’s getting late.”

“Where should I put these two?” Wonwoo gestured to the newly refurbished toys.

“Eh, I think the room next to Jun and Minghao is open. Might be a little dusty, but we’ll fix it up tomorrow.”

Wonwoo nodded and scooped up the dog and rabbit. “Do you think they’ll actually come out to meet us?”

“Dunno,” Jihoon said, “But I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t want to.”

Wonwoo was awoken by the faint sound of guitar strings, a gentle sleepy melody that nearly lulled him back into another hour of unconsciousness, but he pushed through the syrupy drowsiness to sit upright in bed. He stretched lazily, relishing the way his wings extended to their full length. He could rarely stretch his wings back home given how low the ceiling in his apartment was, and in fact often had to tuck them in as he moved around to avoid knocking them against the walls and furniture.

The music continued as Wonwoo swung his legs around and padded out of his room. The noise sounded like it was coming from the downstairs lounge. He made his way through the hallway and down the stairs. The song sounded familiar, but Wonwoo couldn’t quite place it. Maybe it was something he’d heard on the radio? He reached the lounge area and found the guitar player along with another man sitting on one of the large squashy couches. The guitar player looked up when Wonwoo entered.

He was fairly tall, even with his limbs folded up on the couch, and looked a little older than Wonwoo. He had bright orange hair that was swept off his forehead and two orange bunny ears poked out from between the strands, drooping flat from his head. He wore a plain pink colored shirt with blue jeans and Converse. In his hands was a shining wooden guitar, polished so brightly that its tan body and dark brown neck gleamed even under the house’s lights. Wonwoo could see an orange sunburst design painted at the bottom of the guitar’s body, one he recalled putting there himself the day prior.

The other man sitting on the adjacent couch looked a few years younger. He had black hair and was wearing something that looked almost like a face mask over his nose and mouth, but the piece shone like plastic or polished metal. He wore a large pair of silver headphones over his ears, a gray hoodie over a plaid shirt with a gray T-shirt underneath that and a pair of jeans. He also wore a pair of Converse, and honestly Wonwoo had no idea where all the shoes were coming from unless Seungcheol had a secret stash of sneakers somewhere. The man with the face mask didn’t even blink as Wonwoo entered, clearly absorbed in his own world as his head bobbed to the music in his headphones.

This in itself presented a bit of a mental conundrum as Wonwoo could see two black floppy dog ears, similar to the bunny’s in shape, sprouting from either side of the man’s head, but the headphones were placed over the man’s head where a pair of human ears would be. Were the black ears decorative? Did he have human ears as well? Was he just able to listen to the music by virtue of his heightened dog senses even though the headphones weren’t over his ears?

“Good morning,” the man with orange hair said, eyes crinkling up in a smile. The words jerked Wonwoo out of his crisis over dog vs. human anatomy.

“Morning,” Wonwoo replied automatically, looking between the two new faces. “You must be the new…residents?”

The former bunny laughed. “Yep! I’m Joshua, that’s Vernon.” He pointed to the other man, who was continuing to vibe to his music. “Vernon.”

Wonwoo heard some mumbled words coming from the man, slightly muffled from the face mask that sounded vaguely like, “-I only got a few dollars.”

“Vernon!” Joshua tried again, louder. He rolled his eyes when he got no response from the dog. The bunny set his guitar aside and leaned across the gap between the couches to swat the other man’s knee. “Vernon!”

Vernon jolted, letting out a metallic sounding noise. The front of his glossy face mask lit up with blue and red dots. His head whipped around to spot Wonwoo still standing in the entryway. Wonwoo shifted under the other’s gaze, feeling unsure in his pajamas. “Oh, hey!” His voice came out with a robotic tone apparent at the end of his words. He stood up from the couch and crossed the room to Wonwoo, holding out a fist. “I’m Vernon!”

“I’ve heard,” Wonwoo said, tentatively giving the former dog a fist bump.

“What?” Vernon tilted his head to the side.

“I said ‘I’ve heard,’” Wonwoo said, a little louder.

“Take your headphones off,” Joshua said, getting up and walking behind Vernon to yank the headphones of the the other’s ears.

“Ow!” Vernon yelped. Wonwoo tried not to look too interested in trying to figure out whether the other had human ears, though he tried to surreptitiously peer at the sides of the other’s head. Unfortunately, his examination wasn’t as subtle as Wonwoo had hoped, since Joshua snickered at him.

“Two sets of ears, and he doesn’t listen with either of them,” Joshua said, lifting one of Vernon’s floppy black dog ears to reveal a normal looking human ear where one should be.

“Stop that!” Vernon whined, face mask lighting up pink in what Wonwoo supposed was embarrassment. The dog swatted Joshua’s hands away from his ear before covering both ears protectively with his hands.

“I have two sets as well,” Joshua said to Wonwoo, lifting one of his bright orange ears to reveal his own human ear.

Wonwoo blinked. “I’m not really sure how to respond.”

Joshua laughed. “That’s fine.” He dropped his ear. “Why don’t we head back for breakfast? I think Seungcheol and Minghao mentioned having French toast for breakfast today.”

Wonwoo’s stomach took that moment to loudly remind him of its presence. “Uh, sounds good,” Wonwoo said, hoping his ears weren’t burning as much as he thought they were. Joshua’s eyes shone with amusement, but he headed back toward the dining room without another comment, leaving his guitar carefully propped up against the couch pillows.

Inside the dining room, a spread was already growing on the table. Wonwoo could see a large platter of French toast, but there was also a deep dish full of biscuits smothered in sausage gravy and a few bunches of fresh bananas sitting in a glass bowl in the center of the table. Wonwoo’s stomach growled again, but the sound was thankfully drowned out by Soonyoung taking that exact moment to burst out of the kitchen, arms laden with empty plates and hands full of napkin wrapped silverware.

“He’s finally up!” Soonyoung called through the doors to the kitchen before heading over to the table to start setting up places.

“Need help?” Wonwoo asked, already taking a stack of plates from Soonyoung.

“Thanks!” The tiger chirped cheerfully as he dashed around the table to lay down silverware. “And I see you already met Joshua and Vernon! Jihoon wanted to claim both of them, but Seungcheol said he should get a minion too, so they split them.”

“We never agreed to that!” Joshua called.

The two new arrivals had taken their seats on the ends of the table. Joshua was trying to keep Vernon from putting his headphones back on, making the other pout in response. The bunny managed to distract Vernon by ladling biscuits and gravy onto their plates. Soon they were joined by Minghao, Jun and Jihoon, all carrying various plates of toast, jars of jam and tiny butter dishes respectively. Seungcheol was the last out of the kitchen, barely managing to take off his apron and hang it on a hook near the doors before joining the rest of them at the table.

“What are you all waiting for?” Seungcheol said, looking around the table, “Dig in!”

As if they had been waiting for a cue, the rest of the table burst into sound. Wonwoo barely managed to yank his hand back from Soonyoung’s butter knife as the tiger reached for the butter dish. The younger apologized around a mouthful of biscuits and Wonwoo shook his head with a fond smile and reached again for the French toast. Further down the table he could hear Jihoon having a one-sided argument with Vernon about whatever music the dog was listening to (it was apparently audible through his headphones) while Minghao, Jun, and Seungcheol were discussing the board game Jun had bought the other day.

Wonwoo turned to Vernon with interest to see if the other would remove his face mask to eat. There were slices of French toast on the plate in front of the dog, and Wonwoo stared as the other speared a triangle of the toast, lifted it toward his still covered mouth and- 

Wonwoo blinked.

The toast was gone.

Where did it go??? Wonwoo thought as he watched Vernon repeat the process with something between horror and fascination. The second bite of toast disappeared just before it made contact with the man’s face mask, and Wonwoo still had no idea what was happening to the food. Wonwoo’s eyes met Seungcheol’s for a brief moment across the table, the other clearly having watched Vernon’s meal as well.

What the hell? Wonwoo mouthed. Seungcheol shrugged helplessly, wide eyes scanning back to Vernon. They both spent the rest of the meal trying to figure out where on earth all the food that Vernon ate was going.

Later that afternoon, Wonwoo decided to go flying once more. The rest of the castle’s occupants had scattered shortly after cleaning up breakfast. Jun and Minghao had pulled down Jun’s new board game to start reading through all the rules in preparation for a later game night. Jihoon had challenged Vernon to a few rounds of Mario Kart, Seungcheol had gone to set up a room for Joshua and Vernon, and Joshua and Soonyoung had headed off toward the castle’s ballroom (“There’s a ballroom?” “It’s a castle, Wonwoo. Of course there’s a ballroom.”) so Joshua could take advantage of the room’s acoustics for guitar practice and Soonyoung could try out some- his words- “sick dance moves”.

The weather outside was alright for flying. There was less of a breeze than there had been previously, meaning Wonwoo’s wings would have to work that much harder, but the sun was at least out, which meant Wonwoo wouldn’t have to worry about frost building up on his feathers. He took off quickly, wings pumping hard to get him some lift. His muscles strained slightly from lack of use, but soon enough he got back in the rhythm and slowly climbed into the sky.

The landscape was largely unchanged from the last time he’d surveyed it. Still miles and miles of untouched white snow stretching out in all directions with a smattering of trees around breaking up the landscape. Wonwoo tugged down his snow goggles as the light reflecting off the snow threatened to blind him. The world was immediately tinted blue. Though it would save his eyes from the strain and headaches, he worried that wearing the goggles would keep him from spotting…well, anything worth spotting. A part of him hoped he might find another castoff toy, while another part worried about running into anything. Though Seungcheol had yet to complain, Wonwoo was sure the other was sick of clearing out rooms for use based on toys Wonwoo would pick up on a whim.

No, he thought. It was better if this was just an uneventful trip. He contented himself with watching a few birds flutter back and forth in the trees, hunting for berries and nuts amongst the thick branches. Something in his bastet brain made him want to chase the small animals, but Wonwoo suppressed the thought with practiced ease. At least he wasn’t in his full panther form, or he doubted he would be able to have resisted the urge.

Further along he soared over the small town. The large mall he’d gone to the day prior with his friends- were they friends?- seemed small from so high up. Despite the fact that Wonwoo’s eyes could pick out the people who raced around the parking lot below him, he couldn’t make out all the details due to his goggles. He wondered how many of the many shoppers were carrying bags full of toys for the holidays and whether those toys were going to long-lasting homes.

He eventually landed outside a cafe after about an hour or so of circling around the town and forest. He was starting to get cold and planned on picking up a hot drink before heading back to the castle. When he landed, he scared a couple exiting the cafe by dropping to the ground too fast. He apologized furiously before folding his wings in tight and heading inside.

His goggles and glasses underneath fogged up immediately due to the warmth in the building. He reached up to pull his goggles down around his neck. He rubbed at his glasses’ circular lenses to clear them of cloudiness before glancing at the cafe’s menu. It was past lunch time, and he was sure everyone back at the castle had already eaten. Flying also tended to burn a lot of calories, a fact that Wonwoo had forgotten until he reached into his pocket where he usually kept a protein bar while on his job and found it empty.

The cafe itself was small but modern. There cash registers were manned by a number of teenagers and young adults, likely locals, and although it was probably an hour or so past lunch time, a good amount of the square tables and booths set up around the dining area were filled. Wonwoo got in line behind a young woman who was looking down at her phone and glanced up at the large menus mounted over the register counter. He grimaced at the prices, much higher than what he usually saw, but he couldn’t help the way his stomach twinged upon seeing the assortment of warm sandwiches and wraps.

The line moved quickly enough, and soon Wonwoo had ordered a steak and cheese wrap with a hot chocolate and shuffled out of line with a plastic number stand in hand to place on his table. He found a small two-person table tucked away in a corner and sat down, setting his number on the edge of the table, before pulling out his phone. He’d definitely been ignoring his phone for too long, if the number of messages and missed phone calls were any indication.

He quickly texted his sister and parents to give them an update on what he’d been doing. His sister had sent back a barrage of messages almost immediately, most of them gently teasing him for become a recluse that spent all his time in his castle fixing up toys. His mother had sent back a rambling message recalling her time in the town he was in, asking if Rock With You was still there, which he quickly replied to saying it was and that he’d enjoyed the burgers they served. He also made a mental note to call his uncle later that night to update the man on Wonwoo’s current situation, and also to hand the phone off to Seungcheol at some point. The other always seemed happier after talking to Uncle Moon.

Wonwoo had just started mindlessly playing one of his time-killing apps when a tray was set in front of him. He looked up and felt his mouth water slightly at the sight of a sandwich with perfectly toasted bread heaped with perfectly grilled steak and slowly melting cheese, still steaming slightly.

“One steak and cheese sandwich with a medium hot chocolate?” A bored looking teenager asked.

“Yeah, thanks,” Wonwoo said.

The teenager nodded absently as she swiped the number from the end of Wonwoo’s table. “Enjoy.”

And enjoy Wonwoo did, happily digging into his meal with gusto. He nearly burned his tongue on both his sandwich and hot chocolate, but it was worth it. The food tasted as good as it smelled. A part of Wonwoo wanted to come here again with the others from the castle. They’d probably have to pull together a couple of tables though, Wonwoo thought, but he could already hear Soonyoung’s excited exclamations and Minghao’s pleased hums if he brought them here. He wondered when he got so used to having other people around so much that he found himself missing their voices when they were apart.

Fully refreshed after a hot meal, Wonwoo tossed his trash and made his way back out onto the cold sidewalk. At this point he was full and a bit sleepy, and he was resolved to head back to the castle as soon as he let all the food in his stomach settle a little bit more (he’d made the mistake of flying right after eating one too many times before, and was not eager to repeat the long bouts of nausea he had usually following the experience). He ended up wandering up and down the streets, window gazing at all the holiday displays around the downtown area.

He was particularly interested by the toy shop standing near the Rock With You restaurant. The last time he’d seen it the store had been dark, closed for the evening, but in the daylight it appeared much more interesting. There was a large ferris wheel in the store’s window, nearly as tall as Wonwoo himself. It was decorated with red and gold ribbons with a huge red bow in the center of the wheel. All the individual seats were occupied by various toys, from a stuffed teddy bear in a red dress to a large model robot holding a candy cane. Wonwoo found himself smiling as he watched the wheel turn. He was just turning to leave when he realized a woman behind the front desk was waving at him, gesturing for him to come inside the store.

Wonwoo looked around to see if there was anyone around him that the lady could have been waving to instead as he didn’t recall ever meeting her in his life, but there was no one on the street. He looked back inside and pointed to himself, mouthing the word, ‘Me?’

She nodded impatiently, waving harder. Wonwoo blinked, wondering if she’d mistaken him for someone else. Either way, it wasn’t like he had anything he was doing, so he moved to the shop’s door and swung it open. A gentle bell chimed as he entered.

The inside of the store was just as captivating as the outside display. Model train tracks lined the edges of the store over Wonwoo’s head, and a tiny train chugged along them and let out a whistle at random intervals. The walls themselves were full of shelves stacked high with board games, puzzles, model sets, dolls, books, and more. In one corner in the back sat a small model train set with a few low, squashy chairs and bean bags arranged in a circle. In the other corner was a playhouse and kitchen set with plastic tables and chairs set out. To his left was another circle of beanbag chairs set up in front of an old looking television, currently playing Frosty the Snowman. The whole store smelled vaguely of peppermint, and Wonwoo could hear Christmas songs playing faintly on some speakers tucked away in the back of the store.

“Over here,” the woman who had been waving at Wonwoo called. She was standing behind a counter with a cash register set off to the side of the store. She looked to be in her fifties or sixties, probably as old as Wonwoo’s uncle was if not older. Her graying hair was pulled back into a bun at the base of her skull, and she was wearing a comfortable looking Christmas sweater and jeans under a bright red apron. The name Mrs. Kim was embroidered over her heart on the apron. Her eyes were a warm brown, and Wonwoo saw the wrinkles of laugh lines left around her eyes and near the corners of her lips.

“Uh, hello,” Wonwoo said, bowing slightly, “Sorry, have we met?”

“Oh no, dear,” the woman said smile tugging at her lips, “Apologies for calling you over out of the blue. I should introduce myself first. I’m Mrs. Kim, and I’m a friend of your uncle’s.”

“Oh,” Wonwoo said, confusion clearing slightly, “You knew Uncle Moon?”

“Yes, he and I would play bridge with a few other old fogies down at the community center on Saturdays,” she said with a touch of humor clear in her voice. “Your uncle talked about you and your sister a lot.”

“Really?” Wonwoo asked, surprised. He’d only really seen his uncle at family reunions two or three times a year. He wasn’t sure what kinds fo stories the other man might have from so few interactions.

“Oh yes, always talking about you winning some kind of story competition or your sister’s gymnastics awards,” she said.

“Ah,” Wonwoo said, flushing.

It had been a while since he’d entered any writing competition, at least since he’d graduated college three years ago. He’d entered a few during his time in college, and even won or gotten runner-up in a few, but had fallen out of the habit of writing after he’d taken up his job at the delivery company. Sometimes he’d look up the competitions he used to submit to, but most nights he was too exhausted both mentally and physically after work to even think about opening his laptop to write. He still read, at least, but he felt like his motivation to write was waning with each passing day.

“Do you still write, dear?” The woman asked, as if reading Wonwoo’s thoughts directly from his head.

“Uh, no,” Wonwoo mumbled, ears heating. “I haven’t had much time lately.”

“Shame,” she tutted. “I read one of your short stories and I loved it.”

Wonwoo blanched. “You did?”

“Of course! Your uncle would send me the links to all your competitions and I saw yours always posted near the top,” she said. “I particularly loved the one about the boy flying to the moon.”

That particular story had been one of Wonwoo’s first, a short piece that he’d originally written for one of his creative writing classes. They had been asked to write about one of their childhood dreams, and instead of writing about his dream of being a famous author that he’d had since middle school, Wonwoo had chosen to write his piece about when he was a young bastet who dreamed of flying to the moon since he’d thought it looked like a large wheel of cheese and had wanted to chase all the mice who lived on it. His professor had apparently seen something in Wonwoo’s ramblings and asked if Wonwoo would consider submitting the story to a local creative writing competition. Seeing nothing to lose, Wonwoo had agreed and was surprised when he’d gotten a letter announcing that his story had won.

His parents had come down to his college to celebrate, dragging his sister with them, and they took an embarrassing amount of photos as Wonwoo went up to accept his award during the ceremony. Wonwoo still had the plaque sitting up on his dresser back in his apartment, though now it mainly gathered dust and reminded Wonwoo of a time where he felt like he was going somewhere.

“I’m glad you liked it,” Wonwoo managed, though it suddenly felt like the room was too small and his chest was too tight.

“You’re very talented,” Mrs. Kim continued, oblivious. “I hope to read more of your work someday.”

“Maybe,” Wonwoo said noncommittally.

“Anyway, that wasn’t why I dragged you in here. Goodness, I got off on a tangent,” she laughed, “Your uncle called me the other day and asked that if I saw you I give you these.”

She ducked down and rustled around with a bin under the counter. While she was busy, Wonwoo tried to focus on breathing again. He was sure the woman didn’t mean to make him feel bad about himself, but Wonwoo couldn’t help the regret and shame that filled him every time he thought about how he’d abandoned his dream of being an author after he’d struggled to find a paying job at any publishing house. His parents had always encouraged him to go back to writing, but Wonwoo had always pushed them off, saying that he wanted to save up some money first, since it wasn’t guaranteed his manuscript would get chosen and published anyway, and he needed steady income.

At first he’d planned to work for a few months, a year at most, to build up his savings, but soon one year became two became three, and eventually Wonwoo couldn’t build up the courage to pick up a pen anymore. Every time he stared down a blank piece of paper or the blinking cursor of a word document, it felt as though the words that had once felt like they were bursting to leave him no longer existed in his head at all. Eventually he became so discouraged that he threw himself in to his job, instead, and tried hard to stop thinking about whatever career could have been.

“Here they are!” Mrs. Kim announced, dropping a cardboard box on the counter and snapping Wonwoo out of his thoughts. “Goodness, your uncle is lucky I never lost these after all these years.”

“What are they?” Wonwoo asked, reaching for the box.

“Open it and see!” Mrs. Kim said.

He pulled the flaps of the box open and blinked down at the contents. Inside was a small tin windup toy soldier, a stuffed ball of fur (a seal?), and a well-worn large plastic dinosaur. “My uncle told you to give me this?” Wonwoo asked questioningly, pulling out the toy soldier and realizing the toy had a small metal windup key taped to it.

“Yes,” she said, “Your uncle always seemed to love fixing up toys. He never got around to picking these up before he left for the assisted living home.”

“Oh,” Wonwoo said, carefully placing the soldier back into the box. “I guess I’ll take them then. How much are they?” He pulled out his wallet.

“Don’t worry about it,” Mrs. Kim said, waving off Wonwoo’s offered money. “Just take them, they’ve been waiting around long enough. It’s not like they’d sell, anyway, given how they’re all broken.”

“But I can’t just-“

“You can,” she insisted. “Just make sure they have a good home, yes?”

Wonwoo deflated at the stubborn glint in the old woman’s eyes and shoved his wallet back in his pocket. “Thank you, then.”

“No problem, dear,” she said, giving Wonwoo a gentle smile. “I look forward to seeing them again, all fixed up.”

Wonwoo blinked. “Then do you know-?”

“Now, shoo,” she said, speaking over Wonwoo. “I have to head in the back when my replacement comes in or else that kid will break all the stock to be shelved.”

Wonwoo was unceremoniously shoved back out on the street with the box of toys, the door jingling slightly as it swung shut behind him. He glanced down at the toys. They stared back innocently at him. He wondered why his uncle had trusted these with him. He hoped the repairs wouldn’t be too extensive. He supposed he could look up videos on toy restoration, but he knew it would take much longer than a few weeks to learn everything there was to know about the profession.

With a sigh Wonwoo folded the flaps of the box carefully back down over the toys and looked at the clear sky overhead. No clouds, he thought. His mother used to say that was a good omen. Feeling slightly more optimistic, Wonwoo hugged the box to his chest protectively, extended his wings, and took off back toward the castle.

Seungcheol had merely shoved Wonwoo toward the workshop with fond exasperation when the other had explained the situation to him. Apparently Seungcheol not only knew about, but was also friends with Mrs. Kim. She had visited the castle a few times when his uncle had lived there, and Seungcheol made an effort to visit her shop after Uncle Moon had departed.

“She never told me about these, though,” Seungcheol had said as Wonwoo pulled the three toys out of the box. “She must have really been waiting for you then.”

Though Wonwoo was pleased at the time by both Seungcheol and Mrs. Kim’s confidence in him, it quickly turned to despair as he realized he wasn’t quite sure how to fix all the toys in front of him. The seal luckily just needed a good washing and quick patch job in its side that had been leaking air. Once Wonwoo had managed to seal its side with hot glue and a round of stitches, the inflated seal floated in a bucket of water just fine.

He wished the other two toys could be so easy. The wind-up soldier couldn’t manage to walk a straight line, and kept falling down or bumping into things. Wonwoo tried to make a few adjustments to the soldier’s feet with a pair of needle nose pliers, but no matter which way he adjusted the toy’s base, it would inevitably list to one side before falling over. He eventually gave up, deciding to look for any videos in the morning on YouTube for ideas on how to fix it and just ended up giving the soldier a fresh coat of paint.

The dinosaur was an equally tricky fix. At first, Wonwoo had thought the toy had just needed a paint retouch as well, something that would be relatively easy to fix (though Minghao and Soonyoung had both roasted Wonwoo for his painting abilities). Unfortunately, he quickly realized that the plastic tyrannosaurus was missing much more than just a few paint spots, namely its teeth. Wonwoo balked at the situation. He’d never tried to patch something like this. Hell, he could barely sew, let alone craft a whole new set of teeth for a plastic toy.

Wonwoo groaned and buried his head in his hands. “I’m sorry, man,” he mumbled to the toy, “I don’t know how to make teeth.” The dinosaur toy did not respond.

In desperation, Wonwoo dug through the shelves for anything that might be able to substitute for the missing teeth. Despite his uncles extensive collection of supplies though, there wasn’t much that would work. In the end, Wonwoo really only managed to find a set of plastic glow in the dark vampire fangs that he brought back down to the table. 

“How about these?” He asked halfheartedly, showing the fangs to the dinosaur. He wasn’t sure if it was just a trick of the light or his own tired mind that the toy managed to look disapproving. Wonwoo dropped the fangs on the table with a sigh. “Work with me here.”

“How’s it going?”

Wonwoo jumped and spun around to see Seungcheol standing in the doorway. “You keep doing that,” he said, pressing a hand over his racing heart.

“Sorry,” Seungcheol laughed. “I just wanted to let you know that it’s time for dinner. Soonyoung is making something called ‘Hurricane Tacos’ and just from the name alone I decided it was best if I wasn’t in the kitchen.”

Wonwoo cracked a smile. “That’s probably a good call.”

“But also I wanted to see what you’re working on.” Seungcheol walked over to the work bench to examine the toys. “Looks like the seal’s doing fine.” He lifted the seal out of the bucket of water, poking it in the side a few times to test its buoyancy.

“Yeah, he was the easiest to take care of,” Wonwoo sighed. “The other two, though…” He picked up the toy soldier and wind-up key and turned the key a few times before placing the soldier back on the table. The soldier took a few tottering steps forward before veering heavily to the right and soon falling over.

“Ah,” Seungcheol said with a sympathetic grimace.

“I’ve tried messing with his feet to offset his balance, but nothing works,” Wonwoo said, before picking up the toothless dinosaur, “Also, he needs teeth.”

“Oh, teeth?” Seungcheol said, taking the tyrannosaurus from Wonwoo. “I think I might actually have an idea for this one.” He set the toy back down on the bench. “Follow me.” 

Seungcheol turned to start heading out of the workshop. Wonwoo trailed behind him curiously, wondering where they might be going that would fix a dinosaur’s dental problems. The older led him down a series of hallways so confusing that Wonwoo wasn’t sure he’d ever find his way back until they came to a tall, modern looking door.

“Your uncle was always fond of old-fashioned toys,” Seungcheol said, “But sometimes modern solutions are necessary.”

He opened the door, and Wonwoo’s jaw dropped as he took in what was inside. It looked like the printing lab he’d been to at his university. One of his friends had been an industrial design major, and the labs in the arts and design building had been extensive. The labs had included laser cutters, oversized printers that used more kinds of paper than Wonwoo had ever heard of, three foot long paper cutters and much much more.

This room was much like that with large machines strewn around the area, though many of them looked to be switched off. Stacks of paper lined a shelf in the back of the room while even larger rolls of paper leaned against the walls. Around the walls pictures on glossy photo paper were also taped up. Some, Wonwoo realized, were of people he recognized from the paintings in the portrait room. Many were in black and white, but there were a few color photos of former residents clearly taken on the castle grounds or in the nearby town. Wonwoo reached up a hand to brush over a photo of a group smiling at the camera from a booth in what was obviously Rock With You.

“Over here,” Seungcheol said, snapping Wonwoo out of his daze as the other crossed the room toward a small machine next to a computer in the corner. Wonwoo dropped his hand from the photo and made his way over to where Seungcheol was booting up the computer and the machine beside it. The computer’s fans kicked on and the small machine hummed to life.

“What’s this?” Wonwoo asked.

“It’s a 3D printer,” Seungcheol explained. “You can use it to print basically any shape you want as long as you have the model image for it.” He started feeding a white filament looking thread into the printer.

“So we can print teeth here,” Wonwoo realized.

“Bingo,” Seungcheol said, patting the machine as he finished up. The computer announced it was online with a cheery musical sound. Seungcheol moved to the computer and clicked on an icon on the desktop. “For shapes like this your uncle would usually use-“

Wonwoo tried to keep up with Seungcheol, he really did, but he was the kind of person who really only used his laptop for gaming or staring at blank Word documents instead of writing. So much of what Seungcheol said went right over his head. By the time the other had paused to take a breath, Wonwoo felt like the time he’d just stepped into a class for the wrong major and been too embarrassed about his mistake to leave in the middle of the lecture. Not only had he missed one of his first classes of the year because of it, but the amount of jargon he’d had to comprehend had left him with a headache for the rest of the day.

Eventually Seungcheol created some kind of three-dimensional model of a curved, cone-like shape that he rounded the top of to look more like a tooth. He then cloned it a dozen times to make a full set of top and bottom teeth, while Wonwoo watched in admiration.

“You’re really good at this,” Wonwoo said.

Seungcheol laughed. “I had to do it a lot for your uncle. He couldn’t figure out the machine himself.” Wonwoo felt a sudden rush of kinship for the man. “You know,” Seungcheol said as he continued clicking around the program, “Your uncle always mentioned that he wanted to show you this room.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Seungcheol said, “He said he wanted this place to be the first place your novel was printed out.”

Wonwoo felt his stomach dropped abruptly. “Oh.”

“So you’re a writer, then?” Seungcheol continued obliviously.

“Used to be,” Wonwoo mumbled.

Seungcheol paused, mouse hovering over the ‘Send to Printer’ button, and spun to face Wonwoo. “Do you not write anymore?”

“I don’t really have the time,” Wonwoo said reflexively. The same words he’d given everyone in his family and all of his friends every time they asked. “I’m focused on work.”

“Hm,” Seungcheol hummed, “It always sounded like you loved it so much, though. Your uncle would always tell us about the stuff you wrote in college.”

Wonwoo shifted. “I did. I just… I don’t have time anymore.”

“Don’t have time for your dream?”

“Can we not talk about this?” Wonwoo snapped. He deflated almost instantly as hurt flashed across Seungcheol’s face. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude, but… I just don’t like talking about it.”

Seungcheol’s expression turned to one of empathy, so sincere that Wonwoo felt like he couldn’t meet the other’s gaze. “Okay.” Seungcheol turned back to the computer and clicked the print button.

The machine hummed to life, and Wonwoo watched blankly as the three-dimensional models on the screen began to appear in the real world, layer by layer. For a moment the only noise was the sound of the printer moving back and forth to build the models. Wonwoo wallowed in the feelings of guilt in regret that swirled in his gut. First Mrs. Kim, now Seungcheol. Spirits, this just wasn’t Wonwoo’s night.

He’d been perfectly happy ignoring the fact that he’d basically abandoned his dream and let himself settle for a job that was paying the bills but not very fulfilling otherwise, thank you very much. At least, he told himself he was. Was he really? Probably not, but it wasn’t like he was going to do this forever, right? This was just for a little while, until he got enough saved. But… the more he thought about it, the more Wonwoo wondered if he ever was going to be able to build up the motivation to go back to writing. The industry was notoriously hard to break into, and it wasn’t like he had any connections to publishers. Was it even worth it to try and go back to it?

“You know Wonwoo,” Seungcheol said, snapping Wonwoo back to the present. “I know you said you don’t want to talk about it, and I don’t want to press you, but I do want to say that I really enjoyed reading your works.”

“You’ve read them?” Wonwoo asked.

“Yeah,” Seungcheol said. “Your uncle read some of them out loud to all of us actually.”

“Oh, spirits,” Wonwoo groaned. Did his uncle just send his stuff out to everyone? Actually, he probably did, knowing his uncle. 

“It was good!” Seungcheol rushed to reassure him. “We all loved them. I actually-“ he cut himself off with an embarrassed look.

“May as well tell me,” Wonwoo said, resigned to whatever he was about to hear.

“Uh, nothing,” Seungcheol muttered.

Wonwoo raised an eyebrow, “Nothing?”

Seungcheol sighed. “I actually had one of your stories printed out.”

Wonwoo blinked. “What?”

“It’s embarrassing, I know,” Seungcheol said, burying his face in his hands, “I just really liked it and I didn’t want to have to keep coming down to the computer to read it!”

“Oh,” Wonwoo felt his own ears burn red, “Uh, thanks. I guess.”

“Let’s never speak of this again,” Seungcheol said. 

Wonwoo was initially inclined to agree when a thought struck him. “Which story was it?”

“Huh?”

“Which story did you print out?”

“Shhhh!” Seungcheol hissed even though they were the only ones in the room. “It was…okay, you have to swear not to tell anyone.”

“I swear,” Wonwoo said, looking at the other expectantly.

Seungcheol sighed. “It was the one about the house on the cliff.”

Wonwoo’s eyes widened. That definitely hadn’t been one he’d expected. He’d thought Seungcheol would choose one that he’d won an award for, or at least placed at all. The story the other was referring to was one Wonwoo had written in high school. It hadn’t placed at all, though he had received an honorable mention toward the bottom.

The story was about an old abandoned house on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea, left to cloud over with dust and rot. It existed on an uninhabited island, near to be seen by another person after its owner passed away. As the years went, more and more of the tiny house collapsed, like a rock being chipped away by the waves. It wasn’t until nearly thirty years later that the house was discovered by a lighthouse keeper, whose light just happened to catch on the house’s last intact window. In the end the lighthouse keeper set out in a boat to investigate the house, but the ending was left open as the waves were high and the trip was long. It was uncertain if the lighthouse keeper would ever reach the island or, if he did, if there would be anything there worth finding. Wonwoo wasn’t sure why Seungcheol had chosen such a story to print out and keep close, and he asked as much.

“I guess I just like the thought of abandoned things being found,” Seungcheol said.

“There could have been nothing left there,” Wonwoo said.

“There was a house,” Seungcheol said.

“A long abandoned one.”

“But a house nonetheless. And even if there’s no gold or valuables left in it, isn’t it enough to just find the house there?”

Wonwoo paused. “Maybe.”

Later that night, well after dinner, as Wonwoo glued the freshly printed teeth into the dinosaur’s mouth, he thought again about the story Seungcheol had mentioned. It had been something he’d written on a lark, and at the time he felt like he had been dragging it kicking and screaming into existence. He didn’t even have the energy at the end to edit it much, which is probably why he placed so low in the competition, but something about it still seemed to resonate with Seungcheol.

Lost things being found, huh, Wonwoo thought. He looked down at the toys in front of him. I wonder if any of those would be a good story. For the first time in a long time Wonwoo felt his hands itch for a pen and notebook, ideas already starting to swirl in his head.

Once upon a time there was a king that ruled nothing of value, but had a castle full of laughter…

The next morning Wonwoo awoke to distant screams of joy and exasperation, some he recognized like Soonyoung and Joshua’s, and others were new to his ears. He quickly sat up, swung his legs out of bed and rushed to get dressed. He almost didn’t realize there was a smile on his face until he glimpsed his expression in the mirror as he ran a brush haphazardly through his hair. He made his way down the hall and stairs quickly, though he tried not to look too eager. In the living room, he found a group huddled around the television playing Super Smash Bros, four of them sitting shoulder to shoulder with eyes locked on the screen while the others egged them on.

Soonyoung let out a shriek of outrage as a blue shell slammed into his car, sending him end over end as Joshua cackled and sped past him. A young man with a determined glint in his slit pupil eyes, currently in fourth place, leaned forward over his controller as if that would make his cart accelerate in response. Wonwoo could see dark green scales edging up and down the man’s neck. The final player, a tall man with dark blue colored hair groaned as he skidded on a banana peel.

“Honestly, this isn’t fair-!” The blue haired man began. There was a chorus of boo’ing and jeers from the onlookers.

“‘This isn’t fair!’,” Soonyoung repeated mockingly as he sped forward to catch up with Joshua’s cart. “You’ve been saying that over and over, Seungkwan. Maybe you just suck at this game!” Seungcheol and Minghao both snickered at Soonyoung’s impression.

The newly named Seungkwan gasped. “You-!”

“Of course he does,” the man with slit pupil eyes cackled. “He’s been in eighth place the whole time!”

Seungkwan abandoned the game to shove the man.  “You shut up, Chan! You should respect your elders!”

“You aren’t that much older than me,” the man said, rolling his eyes, though his fingers never slowed on the controller. He dropped a few more banana peels behind him. “And if you’re so decrepit, maybe you should hand over your controller to someone else for the next game!”

“It’s my turn!” Vernon declared, glossy face mask lighting up green and yellow in excitement.

“Hey, you were behind me!” Seungcheol protested.

“No, he was first,” a new face that Wonwoo hadn’t noticed previously said.

The new arrival had fluffed up brown hair, dark brown eyes and- Wonwoo’s eyes widened- something that looked like a port or hole of some kind set into the left side of his neck. The port didn’t seem to bother the man much, though a hand did come up to scratch absently around the edges.

“Wonwoo’s up,” Jihoon said, finally noticing the man’s arrival.

“Huh?” Seungcheol spun and smiled at seeing Wonwoo in the entrance to the living room. “Oh, morning! We have some new faces around here!”

“I can see that,” Wonwoo replied, walking in to sit on the couch next to Junhui, who had been quiet the entire time and was clearly still half asleep. “Morning,” he said quietly to the former crow.

“Morning,” Junhui replied sleepily, though he smiled at Wonwoo and patted the other on the back a couple times.

“So who are the new arrivals?” Wonwoo asked, looking at the three additions to their group.

“This is Seungkwan,” Jihoon said, thumping the blue haired man on the back. “And that’s Chan.” He pointed to the man with green scales. Neither man acknowledged Jihoon’s words as they both abandoned their controllers in favor of punching and shaking each other while trading insults.

“Uh, should we…stop them?” Wonwoo asked.

“Nah,” Jihoon said, “They’re apparently just like that. They don’t usually have big fights though, or so we hear.”

“No big fights,” the man with the port in his neck said with a pure white grin. “They just like to tease each other.”
“And this is Mingyu,” Minghao said, poking the man in the shoulder. “He’s apparently the oldest of their group.”

“Yep!” Mingyu said, grinning at Wonwoo, “Thanks for fixing us all up! It’s nice… to… meet…..” Wonwoo panicked as the man’s cheerful expression slowly fell before the man slumped over across Jihoon’s legs without warning, eyes staring glassily into space.

“Uh?!” Wonwoo said. “Is he okay?”

“Mingyu’s down again,” Minghao stated tonelessly, looking unconcerned. No one else in the living room seemed fazed by MIngyu’s sudden collapse either, making Wonwoo wonder if he’d stepped into a weird episode of the Twilight Zone.

“Who has the key?” Seungcheol asked.

“Over here!” Vernon held up a small metal windup key before leaning over the couches to hand it to Jihoon.

“Spirits be damned, Mingyu,” Jihoon grumbled, accepting the key and rolling Mingyu’s body to the side, exposing the port on the man’s neck. Jihoon inserted the windup key into the port and turned it a few times, a small clicking sound coming seemingly from inside Mingyu’s chest. “That should be good.”

Mingyu’s eyes refocused and he sat back up quickly. “You!” He finished his earlier sentence with a smile. Wonwoo wasn’t sure exactly what expression he was making in that moment, but it was clearly bewildered enough that Junhui started snickering and lightly slapping Wonwoo on the shoulder.

Wonwoo stared blankly at Mingyu for a few seconds, trying to make sense of the surreal experience he’d just had. “Uh…Nice to meet you too.” He turned to Seungcheol with an expression that hopefully read as ‘what the fuck?’

Luckily, Seungcheol seemed to understand. “Mingyu’s that wind-up soldier you were fixing,” he explained.

Well. That explained the windup key. Wonwoo still felt slightly unnerved by the way the other had just fallen over.

“Should we be worried about him, with the whole…?” Wonwoo made an indecipherable hand motion.

“No, I’m fine!” Mingyu said, “As long as someone remembers to keep winding me up every so often, I should be okay.”

Jihoon handed the windup key over to Wonwoo. “You should probably be the one to hold onto this,” he said, “I’d just forget to check up on him.”

“Are you sure?” Wonwoo asked, though he still took the key.

“Yeah,” Jihoon said.

“You seem like you’d be the best option,” Mingyu added, “You look responsible.”

“It might just be the glasses,” Minghao muttered.

“Fuck off, Joshua!”

Wonwoo turned back to the television to see that Joshua’s cart had crossed the finish line first, just a few inches ahead of Soonyoung’s. Both of the other carts were frozen on the track since Seungkwan and Chan had long since abandoned the game. Joshua raised his arms triumphantly as the screen flashed to the placements. Soonyoung let out a cry of frustration and tossed his remote to the side as his character showed up on the second place spot.

“Thank you, thank you!” Joshua said to an imaginary crowd, “You’ve all been lovely!”

“Best two out of three!” Soonyoung demanded, picking up his controller once more.

“Breakfast first,” Seungcheol cut in, plucking the remote from Soonyoung’s hands. “Everyone has to help.”

There were a few scattered groans from around the living room, but the group all slowly started getting up from the couches, stretching and moving toward the kitchen. Vernon returned all the controllers to the Switch stand to charge, and Jun grabbed Wonwoo by the arm to drag him back toward the kitchen.

“We can just do setup,” Jun said, “That way we can let the others cook.” Wonwoo wondered if any of the new arrivals were good at cooking.

It turned out that Mingyu was probably the best at cooking, even better than Seugncheol, who had been making all their meals up to that point. Mingyu seemed to know his way around the kitchen already, and aside from nearly face planting into a pan full of hash browns before Wonwoo wound him up again, he cooked a meal that smelled so enticing that Wonwoo was already salivating. Part of him wanted to ask Mingyu if he could just cook every meal, at least until Mingyu nearly dropped two large dishes of eggs and sausage tripping over a barely visible crack in the floor. Jun and Wonwoo just barely managed to catch the plates in time before they shattered on the tile, while Minghao grabbed Mingyu from behind to stop the man from eating the ground, himself.

“Sorry,” Mingyu said, ears reddening in embarrassment, “I don’t have great balance. Or motor functions.”

Wonwoo grimaced, remembering how the night prior he’d been unable to figure out how to fix the toy soldier’s strides. “Sorry, I couldn’t figure out how to fix all of you.”

“It’s fine,” Mingyu said, straightening back up. Minghao warily released the man, though he hovered nearby as if he thought Mingyu might fall over the moment he attempted to take another step. “I’ve always been balanced incorrectly. I think it was a manufacturing defect.”

“I can look up some videos to see if I can fix it,” Wonwoo offered.

“Don’t worry about it too much,” Mingyu said, “I’ve just gotten used to it at this point. A little clumsiness never killed anyone, right?”

“Right…” Wonwoo said. He resolved to look up some videos about toy repair later that night anyway.

He and Jun headed back out to the dining area and set the plates of food in the middle of the table before taking up open spots on the right side. Wonwoo turned to his right to see he was sitting next to one of the new arrivals,.Chan, if he remembered correctly.

“So Chan, you must be the dinosaur?” Wonwoo asked as he spooned heaps of hash browns onto his plate.

“That’s right!” Chan said, flashing Wonwoo a sharp smile. Wonwoo blinked as he noticed the row of sharp white serrated teeth sitting in the other’s mouth. Wait, they weren’t exactly serrated, now that he looked closely. It was more like they were ridged from…

“The 3D printer?” Wonwoo blurted without thinking.

“Huh?” Chan asked, “Oh, my teeth?” He opened his mouth wider so Wonwoo could get a better look. The teeth looked just as sharp and solid as normal teeth would be, but there were small ridges on the teeth like they’d been built up layer by layer. “Pretty cool, right? It was a great idea that you and Seungcheol had.”

Wonwoo nodded as Chan speared a sausage link and popped it into his mouth. “Are they comfortable?”

“I don’t really notice them, so yeah I guess,” Chan said with a shrug, “They don’t feel any different from how your teeth probably feel. They don’t hurt, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“That’s…good,” Wonwoo said. “No trouble eating?”

“Nope!” Chan replied, “Which is good, because if we couldn’t eat then I’d have a problem.”

“You don’t even need to eat,” Seungkwan chimed in from across the table.
“You don’t either, but look at you stuffing your face!” Chan shot back.

“Stop yelling at the table,” Seungcheol said from further down.

“I wouldn’t be yelling if this little shit didn’t keep provoking me!” Seungkwan protested.

“You should just ignore him,” Jihoon said, “It’s what I do.”

“Hey!” Chan said.

“If he manages to get under your skin then I’m making him my minion,” Soonyoung declared. “Minion #3, go get me some orange juice!”

“Number three?” Chan asked.

“Numbers 1 and 2,” Soonyoung said, pointing at Jun and Minghao.

“I never consented to that,” Minghao snapped.

“I’m number 1, right?” Jun wondered. He turned to Minghao. “We can both be 1 if you want! 1 + 1!”

“Jun, that’s not the issue. I don’t want to be a minion at all,” Minghao muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Why not?”

“Just look at him!” The dragon waved a hand at Soonyoung, who was in the process of building a house out of waffles and then laughing maniacally every time it collapsed.

Jun tilted his head in confusion. “I don’t get it.”

“Spirits above,” Minghao muttered, stabbing his sausage with more force than necessary.

“I would like to also be number 1 if Minghao doesn’t want to,” Chan said.

“Sweet!” Jun said, patting Chan on the back.

“Why do you get minions when I just have Vernon?” Seungcheol huffed.

“Huh?” Vernon said, looking up from his plate. His headphones were crammed back on his head.

“I said…oh, never mind,” Seungcheol said.

“You can be my other minion,” Jihoon said to Seungkwan. “You, me, and Joshua are all stuffed animals, so we have to stick together.”

“There are other stuffed animals here, though?” Seungkwan replied.

“But we’re the really cool ones,” Joshua said, ignoring more of Seungcheol’s protests. There was a round of boo’ing from Soonyoung that Jun joined in out of instinct.

Wonwoo laughed as the table dissolved into arguments over what the superior types of toys were, Seungkwan and Minghao looking ready to throw hands over the debate while Joshua continued to throw fuel on the fire with offhand comments between bites of hash browns. Junhui tried to step in and mediate, but his comments were even more nonsensical than the original argument, which started up another round of yelling.

Wonwoo turned to Chan. “Don’t use any of them as role models.”

“Why not?” Chan asked, “I’m sure at least one of them can throw a punch.”

Whether or not any of them could throw a punch was still up for debate, but Wonwoo quickly realized that many of them could throw a snowball. Following the breakfast cleanup and a few hours of personal time- which Wonwoo had spent reading his book- Seungcheol had declared after lunch that they should have a snowball fight. Chan, Seungkwan, Soonyoung and even Joshua had quickly agreed, but even the uninterested ones like Vernon and Minghao said they had nothing better to do and also agreed to participate.

They all bundled up in coats, scarves, and winter boots before trudging out into the snow. The snow from above had appeared to be a beautiful, shining white blanket that stretched out in every direction. From the ground, though, the snow was about eight inches high, and Wonwoo could already feel his toes losing warmth, even through his winter boots and thick wool socks.

They split into two groups, on one team Wonwoo, Jun, Minghao, Seungkwan and Jihoon. On the other was Seungcheol, Joshua, Vernon, Chan, Soonyoung and Mingyu. Seungkwan had argued for a while that the teams were unfair due to the unbalanced number, but quickly gave up and started bluffing that their team would be able to wipe the ground with the other members despite the uneven distribution.

The teams retreated to opposite sides of a large empty fifty feet of snow field behind the castle. As Wonwoo’s team circled up, it appeared that Wonwoo and Jihoon had been made unofficial leaders. When Wonwoo had asked why, the others had just shrugged, Seungkwan muttering something that sounded like “it’s your house”.

Unfortunately, Wonwoo’s team, while fairly competitive, didn’t have much in the way of strategy. Most of Jun and Minghao’s ideas consisted of bull rushing the other group with snowballs flying everywhere. Seungkwan just sounded like he wanted to get revenge on Chan and Soonyoung. Jihoon didn’t really seem to care how they strategized as long as he got to sling snowballs around while screaming. He insisted this was a form of stress relief that he found online, though Wonwoo doubted thought the other just wanted to shove snowballs down people’s jackets.

So it looked like it was up to Wonwoo to come up with some kind of plan. He looked around and saw a bunch of trees off to their left, probably thirty or so feet away, that ran the length of the field behind the castle. An idea struck him.

“Okay everyone, I have a plan,” he said. “I need you all to cause a distraction, though.”

Seungkwan scoffed. “Please, is that all?”

~~~~~

The snowball fight began, loud and chaotic. Both teams started packing snowballs as soon as Mingyu blew a whistle. Jun and Minghao set to work building snow forts for their team to duck behind, while Jihoon and Seungkwan rushed in with kamikaze attacks on the other team before sprinting away.

Joshua and Sooonyoung did the same to their team, rushing up with armfuls of snowballs and hurling them at any exposed player while the rest of their team built up their own snow forts into a long snaking barricade.

Minghao popped up from behind one of the snow barriers to breathe fire at an incoming snowball, melting it in midair.

“Cheating!” Joshua yelled, “That’s cheating!”

“How the hell are children allowed to play with you?!” Soonyoung’s outraged voice yelled from across the field.

Minghao stuck his tongue out before lobbing his own snowball at Joshua’s shoulder and ducking back behind the barricade. Jun jumped out from behind his barrier and was immediately pelted with snowballs from a distance as he advanced ten feet forward and started to build a new barrier. Minghao rushed up to join him. Jihoon and Seungkwan returned to their side to refuel as Joshua and Soonyoung headed back to their end. There was a temporary cease fire as both sides moved closer to each other and rebuilt their defenses.

Wonwoo, for his part, had long since taken advantage of the chaos to run off into the tree line. He was pretty sure none of the members on the other team had noticed his disappearance, Seungkwan and Minghao more than covering for his absence with their respective yelling and fire spurts. Wonwoo moved quickly but quietly, flitting behind the trees as he edged closer and closer to the other group’s side.

As he reached level with the other team’s position, he began to pack snow together into a large ball. He heard the snowball fight start back up in front of him and watched Minghao and Jun rush the other team this time, Jun cackling as he dumped snow on top of Chan’s head, and Minghao pelting Mingyu mercilessly as the other man screamed and ducked back. Seungcheol and Vernon had been the ones to rush Wonwoo’s team this time, and Seungcheol wasted no time in paying back Jihoon for the earlier assault. He heard Seungkwan squawk in outrage and Vernon laugh loudly.

Wonwoo finished making his large snowball, and slowly stood. He cradled the heavy ball of snow to his chest. It had to weigh at least ten pounds, and was the size of a large cat. He let his wings unfurl behind them, shook the feathers out, before soundlessly taking off into the sky over the trees. The world grew distant below him as Wonwoo climbed higher and higher until he was at least fifty feet overhead.

The two teams had taken a break again to move even closer, now only ten feet apart. Wonwoo moved forward to hover over the opposing team with his large snowball. He took a moment to savor the crisp, cold winter air on his tongue. The two teams below them jeered at each other as they rebuilt their defenses or restocked their ammunition.

“Hang on,” he heard Joshua say. “Where’s Wonwoo?”

Someone, it sounded like Jihoon, laughed evilly, and that was Wonwoo’s cue.

“Look out below!” He yelled, before finally letting go of his snowball.

Shrieks broke out from the other team as his heavy snowball dropped right in the middle of their camp, smacking both Seungcheol and Mingyu directly and showering the rest in snow from the impact. Wonwoo couldn’t help but laugh as Chan started spitting curses strong enough to strip the paint off a car and Soonyoung flipped him off with both hands. Seungcheol and Mingyu had both collapsed under the weight of the snowball, and now lay sprawled facedown in the snow. Joshua was screaming something intelligible in another language, while Vernon just laughed.

“Jeon Wonwoo!!” Soonyoung screamed, “Get down here so I can-!”

Wonwoo never found out what Soonyoung planned on doing as a snowball smacked the other square in the head, knocking him to the ground.

“Call me a minion again!” Minghao screamed, as he launched another snowball at Soonyoung’s back as he tried to get up.

The opposing team turned to see that while they’d been distracted by Wonwoo, the rest of his team had rushed forward to bury them under a barrage of snowballs. They scrambled to retaliate, but Wonwoo’s team was merciless. He watched as Seungkwan shoved a handful of snow down the back of Chan’s jacket while the other shrieked. Minghao had pinned Soonyoung and was rubbing snow into the man’s bright orange hair. Jihoon had sat on Seungcheol’s back and was using his legs to keep Mingyu down as well with a wide smirk on his face. Jun had wrapped Vernon in a bear hug, but the other didn’t seem to be struggling, simply accepting his fate with his eyes curved upward in a smile.

Wonwoo watched Joshua look around to find his team incapacitated. The man looked up at Wonwoo, and shook his fist. Wonwoo laughed before tucking his wings and diving toward Joshua. He watched the man’s eyes widen, bunny ears folded back as Wonwoo’s wings snapped back out feet from the ground before speeding toward Joshua. The man screamed and started running, rocketing away from the group as Wonwoo sped toward him.

The other was fast, Wonwoo had to give him that, as he chased Joshua across the snow. Joshua’s floppy ears jostled in the air, and the world blurred past Wonwoo. The bunny finally stumbled when he turned back to see Wonwoo just a few feet behind him.

“Stay away!” Joshua shrieked.

Wonwoo laughed and surged forward, seizing Joshua around his torso under his arms and lifting the bunny effortlessly into the air.

“Wonwoo!” Joshua shrieked, voice pitching higher as his feet left the ground. “Wonwoo, put me down!”

“Hm,” Wonwoo hummed, pretending to think as they climbed into the sky. “Are you sure?”

“Well, not now!” Joshua said as their friends shrank to the size of ants below them.

“No, no,” Wonwoo teased, “If you’re really uncomfortable, I can let you go.”

Joshua gripped at Wonwoo’s arms, squeezing hard enough that Wonwoo winced. “Jeon Wonwoo, I swear to the spirits that you better not-!”

“Woah!” Wonwoo said, banking his wings into a sharp turn. Joshua screamed and tightened his grip.

“WONWOO I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!!”

Wonwoo laughed even as Joshua smacked at his arms, but did start descending after that, flying slowly back toward their friends. Joshua continued to threaten him as they got closer to the ground, insulting everything from Wonwoo’s appearance to his heritage, property and any potential future offspring.

When Wonwoo finally released Joshua on the snow, the other took a few wobbly steps forward before collapsing on the snow while Wonwoo laughed. “Come on, Joshua,” he said, “Flying is fun, isn’t it?”

“You’re dead to me,” Joshua muttered into the snow, but Wonwoo could see the other’s eyes squinting like he was trying not to laugh. The rest of their friends came over, Joshua’s team began pretending to give Joshua CPR, while Wonwoo’s team came over to give Wonwoo congratulatory back slaps.

“Your plan worked out!” Jun said cheerfully.

“It was barely a plan,” Wonwoo said.

“But it still worked!” Jun insisted.

“I got to smash Soonyoung in the head with a snowball, so I’m happy,” Minghao said.

“We should do this again,” Jihoon said, looking pleased with himself.

“Yeah, that was great!” Seungkwan agreed. He brushed bits of snow out of his hair.

“Alright,” Joshua announced. Wonwoo looked over to see the other had gotten back to his feet and was trying to look like he’d been unaffected by the impromptu flight.

“Do you yield?” Wonwoo asked, trying not to laugh.

Joshua sniffed, “Of course not.”

“I can take you on another flight, then, if you want,” Wonwoo said, taking a step forward.

Joshua shoved Soonyoung in front of him. “Take him up if you want.”

“Actually, it looked pretty cool,” Soonyoung said, black and blue eyes shining.

“But no,” Joshua said, “We don’t yield, but we would be willing to agree to a ceasefire over hot chocolate.”

Wonwoo turned to his team for their input. He got a few thoughtful expressions from Minghao, Jihoon and Seungkwan, but the atmosphere was broken by Jun yelling, “Hot chocolate!” While throwing his arms up in excitement. Everyone broke into laughter at Jun’s exclamation.

“The people have spoken,” Wonwoo said, extending a hand to Joshua. “Truce?”

“Truce,” Joshua agreed. The rest of the members cheered and started trudging back to the castle.

Wonwoo tugged Joshua closer before releasing his hand. “Hey, are you really okay after that? I know it can be a bit disorienting to be in the air, sorry. I should have asked first.”

“I’m fine,” Joshua laughed. “It was actually pretty fun after I got over the screaming.”

Wonwoo smiled. “If you ever want to head up again I can take you.”

“Thanks,” Joshua said, “But I think there’s probably going to be a line now for that.” Wonwoo grinned as they both headed back into the warmth of the castle.

The blizzard blew through the area that evening, just as the forecast had predicted. Wonwoo was glad that at least the power hadn’t gone out in the castle when he looked out to see fluffy white snow piling up outside the window. It had to be at least a foot deep at this point, and he was sure it would only get higher as the day continued.

That day was spent in a sort of lazy comfort, the group passing time by playing board games and video games for most of the morning and afternoon. In the evening, they all changed into their pajamas and gathered back in the living room with blankets and bowls of pretzels, popcorn and candy to binge watch movies. Wonwoo laughed when Jun had screamed and grabbed Minghao in a panic in the middle of the horror movie they’d watched, only for the dragon to unexpectedly choke on the kernel of popcorn he’d been eating. Mingyu had pounded the other on the back until Minghao had coughed up the kernel in a burst of flames. When Wonwoo had gone to bed that night after sending a few texts off to his family and friends, he felt more at ease than he’d been in a long time.

The days passed rapidly in this relaxing way, Wonwoo feeling like he’d momentarily stepped into a snow globe or a suspended moment of happiness. Part of him wished he could just stay here. However time marched on, and one day Wonwoo jolted as he checked his phone in the morning and realized that Christmas was only two days away.

“How could you forget?” Soonyoung asked around a mouthful of Cheerios at the breakfast table.

“I just lost track of time,” Wonwoo replied.

“Well, we still have to decorate,” Seungcheol said. “I think I remember where your uncle kept all the decorations.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll all help,” Jun said, beaming.

“We will?” Jihoon asked.

“Why not?” Jun said, “It sounds like fun!”

“Sounds like work,” Jihoon grunted.

“Where’s your holiday spirit?” Joshua asked.

“Probably buried under fifty layers of commercialism,” the bear replied.

“Boooooo,” Minghao drawled, “Don’t criticize the very reason for your existence.”

Jihoon huffed. “You shut up.”

“Alright, alright,” Seungcheol mediated, “We’re just decorating a bit for the holidays. There’s no need to start ranting about capitalism or commercialism or whatever you kids are into these days.”

“So what kind of decorations are there?” Vernon asked. Wonwoo frowned as a spoonful of cereal disappeared right in front of his eyes as Vernon brought it to his mouth, but somehow the spoon itself remained untouched. He still couldn’t work out what was happening there.

“He had a few trees,” Seungcheol said, “Lots of ornaments and ribbons that could be wrapped around the stair bannisters. Oh, and we also changed out the tapestries in the entryway and had special holiday plates and things.”

“Do you really think we could get this all done in just a couple days?” Seungkwan wondered.

“There’s eleven of us,” Wonwoo said, “Surely it can’t be that hard with this many people, right?”

It was that hard.

The problems began when they’d found all the boxed up plastic trees that his uncle had kept in a large storage room. Some of them were fairly normal sized, around six to eight feet in height, but one of them was at least twenty feet tall. Seungcheol had said that tree was meant to stand in the high-ceilinged entryway and suggested that they just skip it that year, but Wonwoo’s mama didn’t raise a quitter even if she raised a fool. And so, he squared his shoulders and resolved to haul the large, vaguely musty smelling tree out to the entryway.

With Seungcheol, Soonyoung, Joshua, Minghao, Mingyu and Vernon’s help while Seungkwan and Jun directed, the group hefted the tree on their shoulders and started down the hall toward the entry way. Their main problem, upon reflection, was allowing Jun and Seungkwan to direct them. The duo would give wildly conflicting directions as the group navigated the tree through the hallways, meaning that quite a few pictures hanging on the wall fell victim to their ungraceful bumbling.

Of course, Jihoon and Chan were no help, laughing loudly as they all smashed into pictures, knocked decorative plants and candlesticks off tables, and even managed to botch a turn so badly that Mingyu ended up tripping into Wonwoo and then sending the top of the tree launching into Seungkwan’s face. It didn’t help that Mingyu ran after energy after that, forcing Wonwoo to have to try and wind Mingyu back up with the other crushing him under his weight while all the others screamed about having to carry the trees themselves. Not the best start, but whatever.

Following the tree debacles, the group set out decorating. This, at least, went a lot smoother. Wonwoo was grateful that his wings allowed him to decorate the higher branches with lights and ornaments, but the lower branches were somewhat of a mess. Apparently Chan and Seungkwan had gotten competitive over who could decorate a tree better, and the lower half of the large tree was crowded with ornaments, tinsel, popcorn garlands, sprigs of holly, candy canes, and even a few paper lanterns that Wonwoo was pretty sure didn’t even fit the holiday.

“Whose is better?” Seungkwan demanded as soon as Wonwoo touched back down on the ground.

“What?” Wonwoo asked.

“Whose side is better?” Chan asked, getting uncomfortably close to Wonwoo as Seungkwan crowded him from the other side.

Wonwoo scanned the tree and quirked an eyebrow. “They both look terrible.”

“Told ya,” Jihoon said, looking over the scene as he gnawed on a candy cane he’d obtained from somewhere, a Santa hat sitting crookedly on his head. “You both suck.”

“But one of us sucks less, right?” Chan insisted.

“Uh,” Wonwoo looked over the branches again. “I guess the left side is better?”

“Ha!” Chan said, “Mine is better!”

“I just said it sucks slightly less,” Wonwoo said.

“Same thing!”

“It is not!” Seungkwan growled.

“Can you two stop fighting for two minutes?” Joshua sighed as he entered carrying an armful of bright red fabric.

“What’s that?” Wonwoo asked.

“Holiday tapestries,” Joshua said, setting the pile down and picking up a piece of fabric and flapping it out.

Wonwoo sneezed as the fabric unrolled, at least twenty feet in length. The red banner was edged with golden embroidery interspersed with green sprigs of mistletoe. At the bottom was the same image of a golden lion that was on the current tapestries, though this one featured white and silver snowflakes surrounding it. Wonwoo picked up a corner of the tapestry and ran his fingers over a beaded mistletoe.

“It’s beautiful,” he said.

“Yeah, well I hope you keep thinking that, because there are five more of these,” Joshua said with a wry smile, glancing up at the maroon tapestries currently hanging around the entryway.

Wonwoo made a face. “Do I have to?”

“You’re the only one who can get up there,” Joshua said with a shrug.

Wonwoo groaned but set about the tedious process of pulling down the already hanging tapestries and then putting up the new ones. This involved a lot of moving up and down, adjusting as Joshua directed from the ground, and threading the metal edged loops at the over the near invisible metal hooks the tapestries all hung from. By the time Wonwoo finished the sixth tapestry, his arms were aching from working with so many things overhead.

Mercifully, Seungcheol called them all to take a break from decorating for lunch. As he made his way back to the dining room, he saw that Soonyoung, Vernon and Mingyu had managed to decorate the living room with dozens of hand painted porcelain houses so it looked like some kind of winter village. It looked good from a distance, but as he got closer he noticed a few odd scenes taking place amongst the tiny houses.

“The baker’s wife is currently investigating her brother’s murder,” Soonyoung said over the table when Wonwoo brought it up. “He was found with a candy cane lodged in his back. Vernon nodded solemnly along with the tiger’s words.

“Also the bookstore owner’s wife is having an affair,” Mingyu said, “But the florist found out and is using it as blackmail.” Wonwoo nodded along as the three of them continued to explain the drama of the Christmas village to the rest of the table. He was pretty sure that Minghao was getting invested in the story, if the way the dragon continued to press Mingyu for details on the florist’s demands was any indication.

After lunch, Wonwoo made his way back into the portrait room to see that Jun and Minghao had decided to decorate by making paper Santa hats to stick on all of the portraits while dangling tinsel from the desks and couches. He laughed as he watched Minghao struggle to hang a large wreath at the windows. The other glared at him until he took pity and help him hang it up.

“So what’s this?” Wonwoo asked, pointing to one of their additions to one of the sculptures in the room. A large black bird wearing a Santa hat had been placed on the sculpture’s shoulder.

“It’s the Christmas crow!” Jun replied cheerfully.

“The…Christmas crow?” Wonwoo said, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah! You know, the crow that brings presents and shiny things to all the good girls and boys!” Jun replied. Though he was smiling, the other didn’t appear to be joking.

Wonwoo glanced at Minghao, who just shrugged. “Cool,” he eventually ended up saying as Jun beamed.

Afterward he headed back to the kitchen to find Seungcheol making trays and trays of cookies. His mouth watered as he looked over all the cooling chocolate chip, gingerbread, sugar, and peppermint cookies strewn around the counters. He reached a hand out toward a red sprinkle covered sugar cookie, only to have his hand smacked with a wooden spoon the minute it was an inch away from it.

“No eating,” Seungcheol said, waving his spoon threateningly at Wonwoo though his eyes sparkled with humor.

Wonwoo pouted. “Why not?”

“Wait until after dinner, or you’ll ruin your appetite,” Seungcheol said.

“No, I won’t,” Wonwoo replied, “I have a separate stomach for cookies.”

Seungcheol laughed. “Just wait.”

“Just one, please,” Wonwoo begged.

“No,” Seungcheol said, as he put another tray of uncooked cookies into the oven and closed the door. “I already had to turn away Soonyoung, Vernon, Seungkwan, Chan and Jun, so it wouldn’t be fair to let you have one.”

“I own this castle, you know,” Wonwoo joked.

“Then as the host, shouldn’t you go last?” Seungcheol laughed.

Wonwoo blanched. “You know, on second thought I can wait.” They both laughed. 

“Then you can help me decorate,” Seungcheol said, handing Wonwoo a bottle of green sprinkles.

Wonwoo took the bottle and began to shake it over some already iced sugar cookies while Seungcheol began dipping some of the others in chocolate. “So how is it?” Wonwoo asked after a few minutes of comfortable silence as they both decorated.

“How is what?” Seungcheol asked.

“How is having the castle full again?”

Seungcheol paused, a cookie raised inches from the dipping chocolate. It took him a few seconds before replying, not that Wonwoo minded. “It’s nice,” he finally said, though his tone implied a lot more. “It’s really nice.” Wonwoo turned to see the other had a small smile on his lips.

“I’m glad,” Wonwoo said. They continued to decorate until the timer went off for the oven and Seungcheol pulled out another steaming hot tray of cookies. He set them on a wire rack to cool.

“You know,” Seungcheol said, wiping his hands on a dish towel. “Chan and Seungkwan found some things while they were decorating?” 

“What?”

“Over there,” Seungcheol nodded to the far end of the counter. Wonwoo looked to see two Christmas ornaments, a plastic angel with its halo snapped off the wooden rod that protruded from its head and a wooden reindeer missing an antler.

Wonwoo sighed good-naturedly. “Looks like we’ll have more company in time for Christmas.”

“It’s that time of year,” Seungcheol agreed.

Christmas Eve began with a bang, more accurately a dull thud that shook Wonwoo back into the land of the living. He sat up groggily, blinking blurriness out of his eyes and reaching for his glasses when the thud came again. The second thud was followed by a worrying crash of something breakable followed distant laughter and indistinct jeers. Wonwoo hurried out of bed, not bothering to change out of his pajamas as he headed into the entryway.

What he found was Seungkwan, Jihoon and Chan crowding around the Christmas tree as someone else that Wonwoo had never seen before whining as he rubbed his lower back. Though Wonwoo didn’t know the newcomer, he had a pretty good idea who he was dealing with when he spotted a pair of antlers sprouting from the other’s head from under messy black hair. One of the antlers had a sprig of holly wrapped around it. Wonwoo recalled thinking it’d be a nice touch when he fixed the reindeer ornament up the day prior.

“Look, now you’ve gone and broken something,” Jihoon lectured, pointing to the shattered shards of what Wonwoo guessed had once been an ornament.

“I didn’t mean to!” The reindeer whined, “I just wanted to to do better than Jeonghan?”

“Well, now you see that I’m the one that belongs up here,” a voice called from above. Wonwoo’s gaze shot up to the top of the tree. He found that sitting at the top of the tree was a man with chin length wavy blond hair and a mischievous grin. He glanced down at Wonwoo from the top branches before jumping down, white wings fanning out behind him as he floated to the ground.

“You’re the angel, I presume?” Wonwoo asked needlessly.

“Jeonghan,” the angel said, smiling. “And that’s Seokmin.” He pointed to the still pouting reindeer.

“I could be on top of a tree!” Seokmin pouted, crossing his arms. “Look at my antlers! They’re good decorations!”

“And yet it’s always angels,” Jeonghan said.

“Sometimes it’s stars,” Seungkwan said.

“I saw someone put a snowflake up there once too,” Chan added.

“But angel tree toppers are superior,” Jeonghan said, waving away all their words. The reindeer opened his mouth to protest, but was interrupted by more voices from upstairs.

“Are those the new guys?” Jun’s voice called. Wonwoo looked back up to see the crow leaning over the bannister, nearly falling over the railing only to be dragged back by Minghao.

“Dibs!” Soonyoung yelled.

“What, no!” Jihoon yelled back. “These two are mine!”

“What?” Jeonghan said.

“It’s just a thing,” Wonwoo said. “They want minions.”

“I’m not a minion,” the angel said.

“Too bad, minion,” Jihoon said, overhearing the conversation.

“That’s no fair!” Soonyoung said, rushing down the stairs, “Why do you get four minions while I only have three?”

“Not your minion!” Minghao snapped. Soon after the rest of the castle’s residents joined them all downstairs to greet the new arrivals.

“Fine, we’ll let them choose,” Soonyoung allowed. “Whose minion do you two want to be? Mine, Jihoon’s or Seungcheol’s?”

“None?” Jeonghan said.

“Uh,” Seokmin said, eyes darting nervously between the three as if worried he’d offend one of them.

“You have to pick!” Soonyoung insisted.

“You really don’t,” Minghao said, thumping his ‘leader’ on the back.

“If we do have to choose,” Jeonghan began, eyes calculating, “Does that mean our leader has to do things for us?”

“Every leader has to take care of their minions,” Soonyoung said while Seungcheol and Jihoon vehemently disagreed.

“Thanks, boss!” Jeonghan said, clamping an arm on Jihoon’s shoulder while the smaller protested. “Now go get your loyal minion something to eat!”

“Wh-?” Jihoon protested.

“Please?” Seokmin asked, eyes wide with innocent expectation, causing whatever rant Jihoon was clearly building up to to falter.

“I don’t-“

“Yeah, go get them something to eat,” Seungcheol said, clearly suppressing snickers at Jihoon’s expense.

“Jihoon’s making us food!” Soonyoung declared loudly to the group, who broke into cheers.

Wonwoo sighed, but smiled as Jihoon erupted into outraged shrieks as he was dragged back toward the dining room, protesting the whole way. He looked to Seungcheol, who had watched them all go with a fond look in his eyes.

“What do you think?” He asked.

Seungcheol grinned. “I don’t know. But we’ll have a full table for Christmas.”

The evening was spent watching more Christmas movies, eating cookies and popcorn and maybe drinking a little too much mulled wine until half the room was participating in slightly tipsy karaoke. Seokmin screamed so loudly when he and Chan managed to pull off a perfect score that Wonwoo was surprised the windows didn’t crack. Both Seokmin and Jeonghan, it turned out, were incredible singers, and actually many of the group performed well, none of them scoring lower than an 85.

As the night wound down, they all came to an unspoken agreement to end the night together in the living room. They dragged in blankets and pillows as they popped another movie into the TV and barely watched it as they wasted time chatting about the holidays, their former owners (or family in Wonwoo’s case) and what they planned to do for Christmas the next day. Wonwoo fell asleep in the middle of one of Seokmin’s stories about some department store he’d been displayed in previously.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, he felt gentle fingers combing through his hair. He wondered if he was dreaming, but Seungcheol’s voice just managed to filter through his drowsy mind before he fully fell asleep.

“You really grew up well,” the other said. Wonwoo’s consciousness faded before he could manage to ask Seungcheol what he meant.

On Christmas Day, Wonwoo awoke with Soonyoung’s knee in his stomach and Chan latched onto his arm like a limpet. As he glanced around, he could see most of the others were asleep still, piled together like a group of sleeping puppies. Part of him wished he could take a picture so he could blackmail them all (especially Jihoon, who was clutching onto a large pillow shaped like a candy cane), but he instead just managed to extricate himself from the pile without waking any of them up. Chan’s brow furrowed when Wonwoo managed to escape his clutches, but the other simply rolled over and latched onto Vernon’s arm instead as the other’s mask slowly lit up with blue dots as he snored.

Wonwoo only managed to tear his eyes away from the pile as the sound of something sizzling reached his ears. He quietly left the rest of the group snoring and headed into the dining room. The sound grew louder and he could smell the enticing scent of sausage now. When he pushed open the kitchen doors Seungcheol startled, nearly sending the sausages in his skillet flipping across the stovetop. Wonwoo almost laughed at how similar it was to his first meeting with the older, though at least he wasn’t holding a candlestick this time.

“You scared me,” Seungcheol laughed, pushing the sausages back into the middle of the pan.

“Sorry,” Wonwoo said, “I’ll knock next time?”

Seungcheol shook his head. “It’s fine.”

“Were you really going to try and make breakfast for twelve other people by yourself?” Wonwoo asked, surveying the ingredients already laid out over the counters. Nearly every available surface in the kitchen was covered in cartons of eggs, packs of bacon, stacks of uncooked toast, bowls of fruit and freshly made pancake batter.

“Uh,” Seungcheol looked sheepish, “I thought I could manage it before everyone woke up.”

“You know the food would be cold by the time you finished the last thing,” Wonwoo said.

Seungcheol grimaced, “Okay, so I didn’t quite think everything through.”

“I’ll grab Mingyu, Seokmin and Jeonghan,” Wonwoo said. “The least we can do is help you make breakfast.”

“Thanks,” Seungcheol said.

“Thank you for already getting everything out,” Wonwoo said, “We probably would’ve spent an hour just arguing over what we were eating if you hadn’t.”

And with that, Wonwoo headed back out to wake some of the others, all of them dutifully trudging back with Wonwoo into the kitchen and getting started on breakfast preparations. It all went a lot faster with more hands, and Mingyu especially was good at cooking and kitchen management, well at least until he started winding down and Seokmin had to catch him before he squashed all the fruit he’d been chopping.

By the time all the food was done, Wonwoo could see that the rest of the group had woken up and had started setting up the table without being asked. He wondered if Joshua had managed to wrangle all of them into agreeing, since usually Soonyoung and Chan did all they could to avoid having to help with setup.

Breakfast was noisy. Wonwoo was briefly reminded of all the holiday breakfasts he’d shared with his sister when they were younger, the two of them stealing food off each other’s plates when their parents weren’t looking, or occasionally flinging things at each other’s heads. He grinned as Soonyoung took aim with a strawberry at Seokmin’s open mouth before launching it through the air. The strawberry arced beautifully before landing directly in the other’s open mouth, and Seokmin stood up to a loud applause from the others at the table.

“Don’t play with your food!” Seungcheol said, though it was half-hearted at best.

The breakfast went on a lot longer than most other meals had. Some of the others started telling stories about past Christmases they’d experienced at other owners’ houses. Jun and Minghao talked about how their owner had received both of them in a stocking. Soonyoung boasted that he’d been his owner’s favorite gift when she was six had received him on Christmas. 

Things turned a little more somber when Vernon and Joshua mentioned that they’d both been in the toy store at this time the year prior, but back then they’d been on the shelves instead of the clearance bin. Wonwoo’s heart squeezed as he listened to them recall watching all the other toys being bought during the Christmas shopping rush, leaving the two of them to collect dust on the shelves due to their factory defects. They’d apparently been transferred to the clearance bin in February afterwards, meaning they’d been sitting there for nearly a year when Wonwoo had found them.

Thank god for Jun, though, as the other had simply said, “At least you’re here now.” And that apparently had been all that was needed to brighten the mood around the table.

After they’d cleared the breakfast table, they all headed back outside to mess around in the snow. Soonyoung, Seungkwan, Jihoon, Chan, Joshua and Seungcheol had started another snowball fight, Minghao, Jun and Mingyu had decided to make snowmen, and Jeonghan, Seokmin and Vernon were making snow angels (or more accurately Jeonghan was laying on his back in the snow and claiming he was a snow angel while Seokmin yelled that he was cheating and Vernon dumped snow on the reindeer).

Wonwoo decided at that time to join in in making snowman, more accurately a snow cat, while idly listen to Minghao lecturing Mingyu and Jun about the fashion style the snowman had. He wondered where Minghao had learned so much about fashion, wondering if the other had somehow managed to find some magazines or books in his uncle’s extensive library, or if there was a computer hidden somewhere in the castle that Wonwoo had yet to locate. Either way, the other was very emphatically trying to make a snow vest for his snowman, whereas it appeared that Jun had given up on trying to make his resemble a snowman entirely and had instead decided to pile snow as high as he could while sticking branches in at random intervals. Mingyu had gone very generic with his design, his snowman having three balls for its entire body, two arms and two tiny rocks for eyes.

“I guess you’re not sending your snowman down the runway for Fashion Week?” Wonwoo said, looking up from his snow cat.

Mingyu laughed, “No, I probably shouldn’t even attempt something like that. My guy would probably end up looking like he was hit by a truck.”

“Not even a pair of sunglasses?” Wonwoo said.

“He doesn’t need them,” Mingyu said, shaking his head, “He’s very secure in his own self image.”

“Tremble in fear of my creation!” Jun suddenly bellowed. Wonwoo looked over to see that the snow tower the other had made now stood at least seven feet tall and looked like some kind of ominous snow monolith.

“What the hell did you make?” Minghao asked, grimacing at the dirty pile of snow and branches.

“I have created a great tower of prophecy!” Jun declared.

“It looks like you just made a pile of sh-“

“It spells your doom!” Jun yelled before Minghao could finish his sentence, then laughing maniacally and pushing the snow tower over on Minghao’s snowman. The dragon screamed in outrage as his fashion forward snowman was buried under the avalanche.

“Jun!” Minghao yelled, but the other was already cackling and running away. “I’m going to murder you and deep fry your fucking chicken legs!!”

“Huh,” Wonwoo said, watching Minghao chase Jun directly into the line of fire of the snowball fight, both of them immediately getting pelted by snow from both sides.

“Nice snow cat,” Mingyu offered, ignoring the distant sound of Minghao breathing fire at people.

“Thanks,” Wonwoo replied. “Yours is…round.”

“Thanks.”

Wonwoo laughed as he watched a stray snowball nail Seokmin in the back of the head, the reindeer spinning around in outrage and accidentally whacking Vernon with one of his antlers in the process, causing the dog’s mask to light up with red and green dots. Of course, this caused the two of them to be dragged into the snowball fight (and in turn dragging an unwilling Jeonghan) while Mingyu and Wonwoo watched.

“Do you think we should-?” Mingyu jerked a thumb toward the fight.

“We could,” Wonwoo hummed, “But wouldn’t you rather me fly you up to one of the towers so we can pile all the snow together and then I can carry you over them for a flyover snow drop?”

Mingyu’s eyes curved into crescents. “I’d love that.”

Wonwoo was loathe to see the day end, but eventually it just got too dark and cold out for them to remain in the snow any longer. The evening was spent cooking and eating the large dinner Seungcheol had picked up. The group happily chatted for hours over honey baked ham, baked potatoes, buttery green beans with bacon, sweet potatoes and even a fruitcake that none of them dared touch. At one point Chan had poked the bread with a fork and they had all watched with wide eyes as it crumbled under the fork’s tongs. Even Seungcheol had agreed at that point that it was probably better off being decorative.

Later they had retreated to play another round of Mario Kart while eating snacks and teasing each other each time someone went off course, but eventually they all began to get too tired to stay up much longer. They retreated to their rooms with a chorus of good nights, and Wonwoo tried not to feel too bereft when he returned to the master bedroom alone. He knew the sinking feeling in his gut came from the knowledge that his time at the castle was slowly ticking to an end.

He picked up his phone as he slipped under the bed’s covers, scrolling through all his family and friends’ holiday wishes before replying to a few of them. The last one he noticed was a notification from his mother. He tapped on her message and his eyes widened when he saw the photo attached.

Mom

Your uncle was going through some old albums and sent photos of your first Christmas!

How cute!

In the photo was a very young Wonwoo, chubby cheeked and swaddled in festive red and green onesie. His black tail poked out from the back of the pajamas and curled around his leg as his tiny wings fanned out from behind his back, barely a foot in total wingspan. That wasn’t what caught his attention though. Clenched tightly in Wonwoo’s small fist was the neck of a poor stuffed camel, brown fur matted from handling.

There was no mistaking it, that camel was the same one that Wonwoo had seen in the guest room. He texted his mother back with shaking hands.

Me

I had a camel?

His mother replied quickly. He must have caught her just before she went to sleep as well.

Mom

Yes!

It was your favorite toy!

When you were old enough to walk, you dragged him everywhere

Me

I don’t remember that

Mom

Probably because you lost him when you were three at a family reunion

You were so sad haha

You cried for hours

Me

Oh

Mom

Well, don’t stay up too late!

Merry Christmas

Me

Don’t worry, I’m about to go to bed

Merry Christmas

Wonwoo set aside his phone, thoughts racing. Though part of him wanted to think there was no way that the camel in the photo and Seungcheol were one in the same, another part of him felt it made sense. Perhaps, he thought, that was why Seungcheol had always felt so familiar to him. Perhaps part of Wonwoo had known all along who Seungcheol really was. Wonwoo jolted as he recalled the other’s words from the night before.

You really grew up well.

Seungcheol had known the whole time, Wonwoo realized. Seungcheol… god, Wonwoo had abandoned him. He knew that technically he’d been three and hadn’t meant to lose the other, but did Seungcheol know that? Did he resent Wonwoo? Hate him, even? He’d deserve it, Wonwoo thought, he’d deserve it for abandoning Seungcheol to a life of an unwanted, outcast toy.

But the other hadn’t been angry with Wonwoo, though. That was a thought that left Wonwoo equally confused. Seungcheol hadn’t treated Wonwoo coldly, or acted like he blamed the other for abandoning him all those years ago. In fact, Seungcheol had only been cheerful and helpful where Wonwoo was concerned. The other had guided Wonwoo around the castle, told him all about the place’s history, and even helped Wonwoo with repairing the other toys. Surely he wouldn’t have done that if he still resented Wonwoo, right?

Wonwoo eventually fell asleep turning all these thoughts over in his mind. His last thought before he slipped into unconsciousness was that he needed to talk to Seungcheol, alone preferably, and he needed to apologize.

The next day Wonwoo woke up feeling like shit. He hadn’t slept well, tossing and turning with uncertainty as he dreamed of Seungcheol rejecting, hating him, and demanding that Wonwoo leave immediately. Privately Wonwoo could admit that such a course of action was unlikely for the other. He was sure if Seungcheol had actually wanted him gone, the other would have expressed as much already. That said, Wonwoo couldn’t help the guilt that saturated him as he slowly made his way downstairs.

“Hey Won-woah, you look bad dude,” Soonyoung said, eyes widening as he took in Wonwoo’s appearance.

“Thanks,” Wonwoo replied dryly.

Soonyoung grimaced. “Sorry.”

“Have you seen Seungcheol?” Wonwoo asked instead of drawing out the already awkward conversation.

“He’s in the kitchen like always,” Soonyoung said, “Do you need to go back to sleep?”

“I’m fine,” Wonwoo said, though neither of them believed the words, “I just need to talk to him. Is anyone else back there?”

“Not yet,” Soonyoung said, “Though I think Joshua and Chan were going to help him with breakfast prep today.”

“Thanks,” Wonwoo said, not waiting for a reply as he started back toward the kitchen.

He trudged slowly through the dining hall, dread growing with each step as he came closer and closer to the kitchen. He could hear the clanging of pots and pans coming from inside. He nearly turned and ran, tail tucked between his legs, but what stopped him was the thought that if he didn’t do this now he’d probably regret it for the rest of his life. And so, heart heavy with worry, Wonwoo knocked on the kitchen doors.

“Come in!” Seungcheol’s voice called brightly. Wonwoo wondered if it would stay that way.

He slowly pushed through the doors. “Hey.”

“Oh hey, Wonwoo!” Seungcheol said from where he was setting out pots on the counter, “You finally learned to knock?” He laughed before turning. His expression fell into one of concern when his eyes landed on Wonwoo. “Are you feeling alright?”

“I’m fine,” Wonwoo said.

“You don’t look fine,” Seungcheol said, leaving the pots on the counter and turning fully to look Wonwoo up and down. “Did you catch a cold or something?”

“No, I just… didn’t sleep well,” Wonwoo replied uncomfortably. Fat lot of good his English degree was doing him since he couldn’t seem to come up with any words, Wonwoo thought bitterly. But honestly, what was he even supposed to say in this situation. ‘Hi, sorry I abandoned you when I was three, but I totally forgot I even owned you and you’ve been really nice to me so I hope you don’t hate me?’ Yeah, not the best opener.

“Maybe you should go back to sleep,” Seungcheol continued. Wonwoo felt his guilt grow at the other’s genuine concern.

“How can you be nice to me?” Wonwoo blurted, mouth running ahead of his brain.

“What?” Seungcheol’s expression morphed into bewilderment.

“How can you be worried about me when I abandoned you?” Wonwoo asked, and wow okay he guessed he was just going all out.

Seungcheol’s mouth fell open into an ‘o’. There was a very long pause as they both stared at each other. “You remembered?” Seungcheol finally asked quietly.

“My mom sent me a picture,” Wonwoo said, fumbling his phone out of his pocket. “It’s… she said it was my first Christmas.” He opened the message, eyes not meeting Seungcheol’s as he pulled it up before turning the phone around. “That’s you, right?”

Seungcheol drew closer and looked at the photo. Unexpectedly, he smiled. “Yeah, that’s me. You were cute back then.”

“But I abandoned you!” Wonwoo said.

“You lost me,” Seungcheol said, “You were three, Wonwoo. I don’t know about you, but I personally think it’s dumb to hold a grudge against a toddler.”

“But…but,” Wonwoo sputtered. “You should hate me!”

“It was an accident,” Seungcheol said.

“But I-“

“Wonwoo,” Seungcheol said, rolling his eyes as he set Wonwoo’s phone to the side. “It was a long time ago. And it’s okay now. Your niece found me under her couch a week later. She didn’t know whose toy I was, so she gave me to your uncle since she knew he collected them. He fixed me up and I’ve been fine here ever since.”

Wonwoo’s shoulders sagged. “I just… I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t mean to,” Seungcheol said gently.

“I know but… I should have been more careful,” Wonwoo said. “I should have, I don’t know, looked harder for you.”

“It’s in the past,” Seungcheol said. “I’m not mad about it. Sometimes toys get lost. It happens.”

“I should have-“

“Should have, should have, should have,” Seungcheol muttered, “That doesn’t matter. Have you listened to any of the others? Most of them have sad stories, and in most of their cases a number of things should have happened that didn’t, but you know what? That doesn’t matter because they’re here and they’re cared for today.”

Wonwoo sighed. “I just don’t get how you aren’t mad at me.”

“I just don’t think it’s healthy to hold grudges,” Seungcheol said with a shrug, “No other reason.”

“I’m still sorry,” Wonwoo said.

“Then apology accepted,” Seungcheol replied.

“I feel like I should be trying to make it up to you somehow.”

“If you feel bad about not being there before, just be here now,” Seungcheol said, patting Wonwoo on the shoulder.

“Okay,” Wonwoo said.

“Good,” Seungcheol said with a grin, “Now, let’s talk about when you plan on heading out.”

Wonwoo groaned. “Don’t remind me. I have so much to pack.”

“You’ll be here for the rest of the week, right?” Seungcheol asked.

“Right,” Wonwoo said. “Then I’ll leave in the morning on Sunday so I can get back for work the next day.”

Seungcheol grimaced. “Right, you work.”

Wonwoo laughed, feeling the last of the heavy atmosphere dissipate. “I do.”

“You should quit,” Seungcheol said bluntly.

“What?” Wonwoo asked, half laughing though it quickly died when it became clear that the other was not joking. “I can’t do that!”

“But you’re not happy there,” Seungcheol scowled, crossing his arms over his chest.

“No, but I need to pay the bills and things!” Wonwoo said.

“Can’t you do anything else to do that?” Seungcheol said, “Something you might enjoy more?”

“It’s not that easy to get a stable job with an English degree!” Wonwoo said, “There aren’t a lot of positions!”

“What about doing copy writing?” Seungcheol speculated, “You could do that.”

“I mean, yes, but-“

“Or an editor at a publishing house or something,” Seungcheol continued. “Or maybe working at a book store or library? Or-“

“Seungcheol!” Wonwoo blurted. “Please, just… stop.”

Seungcheol sighed. “I just don’t want you to be somewhere you aren’t happy, Wonwoo,” he said.

Wonwoo looked away. He knew that his job wasn’t the most exciting, but he also had bills and rent to worry about. He’d always convinced himself that he’d make time for his passions eventually, someday, when the money was there and he could support himself. But no matter how much he saved, it never felt like it was enough. It never felt like he could ever really be secure enough to step away from from his job and pursue his actual dreams of writing.

He paused as he realized that he really, truly was deeply unhappy where he was.

Wonwoo had always thought it was just apathy or a temporary displeasure, but now he saw that he’d really been in a rut. He was slowly losing motivation, not just to write, but to do anything for himself. His days had become a blur of getting himself to work and back with breaks only to pick up the necessities or maybe once in a while read a book. This wasn’t what he’d envisioned doing with his life.

“You don’t have to do it immediately,” Seungcheol said softly, as if sensing the turmoil going on in Wonwoo’s head. “I just hope that someday, when you’re ready, you’ll be able to pursue what you love.”

Wonwoo drew in a shaky breath before letting it out. “I do too. But… I’m scared.”

“What do you mean?”

“I…I’m comfortable where I am. At least, I thought I was. I thought I was content. I don’t know what’ll happen if I take that risk to pursue my own dreams. If I stay where I am, I could stay comfortable for the rest of my life,” Wonwoo said.

“But will you be happy?”

“I don’t think so.”

“What would it take for you to be happy?”

“I don’t know.”

Seungcheol hummed. “Well, that answer doesn’t have to come right now. It doesn’t have to come tomorrow, or next week, or even a year from now, but someday I hope you’ll be able to find something that makes you really truly happy.”
“Thanks,” Wonwoo said. “I’ll think about it.”

At that moment, the doors to the kitchen burst open to admit Joshua and Chan. More distantly Wonwoo could hear the raised voices of Soonyoung, Seungkwan and Seokmin- were they doing karaoke?- while a few others cheered them on. It sounded like Minghao and Mingyu were debating different dishes from around the world while Jihoon was yelling futilely at Vernon about his headphones and how the other often missed what people were saying.

What makes me happy, Wonwoo thought. He didn’t have the answer yet, but he thought he might be on the right path.

[One year later]

“Well, congratulations on the new position,” Wonwoo’s boss said, clapping Wonwoo a little too hard on the shoulder. Wonwoo forced a smile as he tried not to wince in pain. “We’ll be sad to see you go, though. You were one of the best workers here.”

“Thank you,” Wonwoo said, “I am very grateful for the opportunity you gave me.”

“None of that formality,” his boss laughed, “And let me know if you ever need a letter of recommendation. I’d be happy to write you one.”

With one final bow and a few more exchanged pleasantries, Wonwoo stepped out of the deliveries office for the final time. He couldn’t help the smile on his face as he strode into the parking lot and got back into his car. He probably looked a bit mad to any of the drivers he passed on the way home, but he couldn’t keep the grin off his face.

When he pulled back into his apartment’s parking lot, he marched straight into the management’s office to declare that he would not be renewing his lease. The bored employee there expressed shallow sentiments about regretting to see him go, but said they were happy that Wonwoo had found work somewhere else.

“A remote position as a copywriter,” Wonwoo had explained when the woman at the desk had idly asked what he’d be doing.

“That’s nice,” she said, clearly not all that interested in Wonwoo’s reason for not renewing.

“It is,” Wonwoo said, good mood not dampened in the slightest. He signed all the forms agreeing to have his things moved out by the final day of the month before finally heading back to his apartment. He flopped down on the couch and pulled out his phone as soon as he set down, grinning when he saw he already had a message waiting in his inbox.

Camel

Did you do it yet?

Me

Just signed all the papers today

Last day at work too

Camel

Nice

His phone beeped, announcing he had a call. He checked the number.

Me

Hang on, my sister’s calling

“Yeah?” Wonwoo said, picking up the phone.

“Rude,” his sister said, “I call you to talk to you after all this time to comfort you after losing your job-“

“I didn’t lose it, I left,” Wonwoo said, rolling his eyes.

“Whatever,” Mina sniffed, “And here I was going to treat you to dinner.”

“You?” Wonwoo said, “You were going to treat me?”

“Yes, you asshole.”

“I must have fallen through a portal to another universe,” Wonwoo teased, “Who are you, and what have you done with my sister?”

“Fine, go eat your shitty ramen and watch terrible dramas, see if I care!”
“No, no wait, please buy me food!”

“That’s what I thought,” Mina’s tone softened, “But seriously, congrats on finally quitting your shitty job.”

“It wasn’t that shitty-“ Wonwoo said.

“It was shitty,” Mina said, “It was shitty because it made you sad.”

And really Wonwoo couldn’t argue with that. “Thanks,” he said instead.

“You’re welcome. Now, I also called to ask what you’re doing for Christmas.”

“Mom and Dad are going on vacation again, huh?” Wonwoo said.

“Yes, last minute as always.” He could practically hear Mina roll her eyes. “So what are you doing? Do you need to tag along on my holiday trip with friends?”

“As appealing as that sounds,” Wonwoo said dryly, “I have a new place to stay now.”

“Oh right,” Mina said, “I still can’t believe Uncle Moon gave you the keys to that old place.”

“It’s nice,” Wonwoo said.

“Sure, who wouldn’t want a decrepit old castle that’s probably crawling with ghosts and bugs?”

“There aren’t any ghosts,” Wonwoo said.

“So there are bugs?” Mina asked.

“No, I-“

“Enjoy your bug castle,” Mina said cheerily.

“There aren’t any bugs!”

Mina laughed. “But seriously, are you going to be alright there by yourself? You already were alone last year…”

“I’ll be fine,” Wonwoo said, smiling, “I’ll have company.”

“If you’re sure,” Mina said. “I’ll call you later then to make sure you’re not dead and being eaten by all your castle bugs.”

“I swear to the spirits-“

“See you at dinner, love you!”

Wonwoo stared blankly at his phone as his sister hung up on him. “Asshole.” He rolled his eyes fondly as he pulled his messages back up.

Me

I’ll be down on Friday with my stuff

Camel

Great! I’ll get all the others to help you move in

It’ll be nice having you around again

Wonwoo smiled.

Me

I’m looking forward to it