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1.
Jongho was very much a creature of habit, especially when it came to cleanliness.
Just as every Wednesday was cleaning day, every Saturday was laundry day. He didn’t have any particular reason for designating those specific days as such, except for the fact that that was how Seonghwa always did things, and Jongho saw no reason to change his routine just because he had moved out.
It was only a five-minute walk from his new house to the nearest self-service laundry, a trek that he was happy to make every week with a large tote bag over his shoulder, full of dirty clothes and, on occasion, his bedsheets. It wasn’t usually an eventful journey, except for a week ago when he’d had to chase off a few cougar shifter youngsters that had been tormenting a cowering cat.
Quite frankly, Jongho didn’t like feline shifters much. The animal instinct to play with their food was still alive and well in their forebrain, and all it did was make the vast majority of them rather mean, even to other feline shifters that were smaller than them.
“We’re not scared of you, human,” one of the cougars had snarled thickly as he approached, her mouth full of feline teeth that she was still too young to know how to shift fully.
Jongho dropped his laundry bag on the ground and balled his hands into fists. “Don’t test me, little girl,” he said flatly, and he saw the flash of uncertainty in the youngsters’ eyes at the iciness of his tone. They were only preteens, unfamiliar with humans and unused to prey standing up to them, and they scarpered the moment he took another threatening step forward.
The small black shape he had seen hissing and spitting at them was long gone by the time he turned back, and Jongho didn’t bother to look around any further before retrieving his laundry and continuing on his way. He had done what he could, and what the little cat got up to after that wasn’t any of his business.
The following Saturday, however, an unexpected sight greeted Jongho when he entered the self-service laundry. Atop the machine he usually gravitated towards, the one in the corner with the door that had to be hip checked to shut properly, sat a small black cat. Its emerald eyes were fixed unblinkingly on him as he stared right back at it, slightly baffled by its presence.
“You again?” Jongho said casually as he opened the machine door and began to empty his bag into it. “Who did you get yourself in trouble with this time?”
He didn’t see cat shifters around often, and there was no doubt that this was a shifter, of course. They were one of the rare predatory breeds that tended to settle in human cities rather than magical settlements, because hunters or not, they were small enough to be viewed as prey by most other species.
The cat only blinked unresponsively at him and Jongho shrugged. He plugged in his earbuds and sat down in the nearest chair, pulling a book from the very bottom of his tote bag. A Subversive Perspective on Draconic Music, the perfect read to last him the next fifty minutes while his clothes spun in the wash.
Before he could even flip his book open, however, the cat leapt straight from the top of the machine and onto his lap like a small, menacing ball of teeth and claws. Jongho rocked back, a breath of shock gusting out of his lungs despite the surprising gentleness of the cat’s landing, its front paws pressing delicately against his chest for a moment before it curled up on his thighs.
Jongho looked down at the cat’s glossy black coat in mild confusion as he set a hand gently on its back, scratching through the soft fur. He wondered if this shifter might be a naturist, although those were rare and usually congregated in their own little societies, where they preferred to dwell in their animal forms over their human forms. Perhaps it was only seeking a little safety and companionship in his presence, and Jongho supposed he didn’t really mind. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do right then.
“You’re weird, you know that?” he said out loud, before flipping his book open awkwardly with one hand and holding it up to the side. The cat flicked a single ear back at him, and even though Jongho couldn’t hear it over the music playing in his ears, he could feel the continuous vibration of its contented purrs right through his palm.
The cat was so unobtrusive that Jongho almost forgot all about its presence as his clothes spun themselves clean, his fingers brushing absently through the thicker fur at the back of its neck. It was a warm, solid weight on his lap the entire time, its paws occasionally kneading at his thigh before it stilled again, only the faintest gleam of bright green visible through its slitted eyes.
The moment his machine came to a stop, the cat’s head shot up and it leapt nimbly down to the floor even before Jongho could react. It sat some distance away, tail curled neatly over its paws as it watched him hurry to pack his damp clothes back into his bag so that he could hang them up to dry at home.
“I don’t suppose you’re going to come along,” Jongho said as he stepped out into the sun, and he could only watch in faint exasperation as the cat trotted off in the opposite direction, its black tail waving cheerily behind it like a flag before it vanished around a corner.
He wasn’t surprised, not one bit. Feline shifters often seemed determined to be as contrary as possible just for the fun of it, and that applied no matter how large or small they were in their animal forms. Jongho really didn’t have much patience for even the best of them.
Mingi came by just as he was hanging up the last of his shirts, the mage’s wide, familiar smile already beaming on his face as he called out a friendly greeting.
“You’re just in time,” Jongho said with a small smile of his own. “You can come in when you’re done. I’ll make some tea.” He slipped back indoors, leaving Mingi alone to refresh the protective spells layered thickly all around his home, an effective deterrent to any mischief-makers who might decide to target a lone human in a shifter settlement.
Mingi joined him less than twenty minutes later, small bolts of flickering energy still fading from his fingertips even as he took a deep, appreciative breath of the scent of fresh wood that always permeated Jongho’s home. He sank into an empty chair without needing further invitation, his long legs sprawling out carelessly.
“You had a productive laundry day, I see,” he said, the amused curl of his deep voice making it quite clear that he was teasing.
Jongho scoffed, setting a cup down in front of Mingi before taking a seat opposite the mage. “And I saw a cat shifter too. Domestic cat,” he elaborated with a faint raise of his brows. “Wouldn’t be surprised if it got eaten one of these days.”
Mingi inclined his head slightly, surprise crossing his face at that. “Speaking of cats, a new family of panthers moved in recently – near the grove by the river. That’s prime land, you know. I’ve heard they’re a very old family, long lineage, a bit of a big thing among shifters, apparently.” He paused for a moment to take a delicate sip of the steaming tea. “I’m due to pop by next week to look at a soil erosion problem they’re concerned about, but in the meantime, you’d better be careful.”
Jongho sighed, his expression going sour at the thought. Having the cougars around in all their temperamental unpredictability was already bad enough. Admittedly, there were a couple of bear shifters scattered around the forest, but at least they didn’t tend towards aggression unless provoked.
“Great. I’ll be sure to call you if I need any panther-repellent charms,” he grumbled dryly.
“Or you could call Seonghwa,” Mingi said with a smirk. “Won’t need any charms for him to frighten anyone off.”
2.
It was actually Seonghwa who had bought Jongho’s current dwelling for him.
“Come on, I can afford to get my own place,” Jongho had insisted repeatedly, but Seonghwa had gone ahead to contact Hongjoong anyway.
“I’ve known him for decades. He’ll give me a discount, so don’t worry about anything,” Seonghwa had said, steamrolling all over Jongho’s protests in exactly the way one would expect of a well-meaning parent who had a problem with listening. “How do you expect me to sleep peacefully knowing you’re sleeping in some dump?”
Jongho had almost taken offence at that, but eventually he had sighed and given in anyway, because Seonghwa was the only family he had, and Jongho was much fonder of him than he would ever admit.
The first time Jongho saw his new home, he was speechless for a long moment. He had expected a neat wooden cottage constructed against the side of a trunk or a sturdy loft set high among the branches. Instead, what Hongjoong presented to him was a house grown entirely out of one of the most massive trees in the forest, its insides hollowed out and a set of narrow stairs leading further up the empty trunk to another spacious room.
“How much did he pay you for this?” Jongho murmured, looking all around in a daze of wonder. He set his hand on one of the inner walls, the wood worn impossibly smooth as though with age.
Hongjoong smirked, sharp and amused. “Enough, but don’t you worry about that, little human,” he said airily. “Seonghwa’s old. He’s got more than enough treasure hoarded up to pay for this and then some.”
Jongho began to ascend the stairs, his eyes following the pale green glimmer of Hongjoong winding through the wood before he emerged to step daintily onto the second floor, clearly eager to show off more of his work.
“There aren’t many trees old enough to be this big, you know,” Hongjoong said, pushing open the small window set into the trunk and beckoning Jongho over to admire the view, “and the older they are, the more difficult they are to shape. Took a lot out of me to sing this old thing into hollowing out like this. I threw in a layer of pine resin as pest protection at Seonghwa’s request, so you won’t have to worry about termites and all that. Anything else is your own problem.”
Long used to Hongjoong’s brusqueness, Jongho smiled. “Thanks,” he said, leaning out of the window to see the tree spirit travelling through his walls back down to the ground. Hongjoong was a soft glow of green as he flitted from tree to tree, probably on his way back to the massive old oak that he himself had gained consciousness in so many years ago.
All in all, it was a lovelier home than Jongho could ever have envisioned for himself. Best of all, it was located reasonably near the modern developments that formed the settlement’s centre, a luxury which he thoroughly appreciated after having lived with Seonghwa all his life, who needed so much space that he had to live some ways away from the forest like a hermit.
There would be no more sweaty treks through the trees with bags and bags of groceries for him. The most strenuous walk Jongho made these days was with his full laundry bag.
The following week, weighed down with said laundry bag, Jongho found a familiar face waiting for him at the self-service laundry again. One small paw hung over the top of the machine and the cat’s cheek was pressed against the smooth plastic as it blinked lazily in the direction of the entrance. It barely moved when Jongho entered, only flicked a triangular ear in greeting until the machine was fully loaded and running.
“Should I start bringing a treat for you like an actual stray cat?” Jongho asked once he had taken a seat and found himself with a lapful of purring cat once more. “You really shouldn’t even be here, you know. There’re all sorts of predators around that might like to chase a little thing like you.” Jongho clucked his tongue, not really expecting a response as he stroked at the down-soft fur between the cat’s ears with a single finger.
The cat’s purrs paused for a moment, the only sign that it was even listening to Jongho, before the tiny motor started up again and he sighed. Of course a feline wouldn’t take his advice, or anyone’s advice for that matter. In fact, they’d probably ask for advice just so they could do the exact opposite.
Well, it wasn’t his job to look out for shifters who were being silly anyway. With a shake of his head, Jongho picked up his book – draconic music was proving to be a denser topic to get through than he had expected – started his music and settled in to wait.
Just like before, the cat hopped off his lap like clockwork the moment the washing machine before them quieted, and then it trotted out of the laundry with him before going its own way. Jongho frowned after it for a moment, squinting after it in the sunlight, before starting his short walk home.
He was just hanging his clothes up to dry when sudden movement in a nearby tree made his skin prickle. Well-used to shifter behaviour and how to avoid inciting their instincts, Jongho didn’t make any sudden moves, only turned slowly in the direction of the flash of colour he had spotted in the corner of his eye.
To his surprise, he saw a young man reclined high up in a branch that Jongho had no idea how he’d reached unless he was some sort of bird shifter. The man was looking down at him with a curious, beaming smile on his face, idly kicking his legs back and forth, although he waved the moment he realised that Jongho had spotted him.
“Hello,” the man called. “You’re the human, aren’t you?”
Jongho raised a brow. “Yes,” he said cautiously without raising his voice, knowing that he would be heard either way. He wasn’t particularly offended or surprised – there were other humans around, most of them traders or rather unwise tourists looking for an exotic adventure, but he was the only one to have grown up in a shifter settlement, the only one to wholly belong here just as the shifters did.
To most of them, he was simply the human.
The man’s smile widened, and then in a single sinuous motion that Jongho’s eyes barely had time to make sense of, he rose from the branch and shifted as he moved. There wasn’t the usual pause of rippling fur and extending claws that Jongho was used to seeing. The man’s form simply flowed from one shape to another, a human pushing himself to his feet one moment and then a massive black cat the next, leaping nimbly down to a lower branch.
A panther.
Jongho took half a step back when the shifter thumped to the ground, its head raising to meet his. The panther wasn’t as chunky as a cougar, but a big cat was a big cat all the same, and it was close enough for Jongho to see the faint rosettes scattered across its dark coat. In the blink of an eye, however, the panther was back in his human form, looking thoroughly unruffled.
“My family moved here a couple of weeks ago. We heard about you and I got curious. I’ve never met a human who was raised among shifters.” The man moved forward, the curl of his lip slightly sardonic as he gave Jongho a friendly nudge in the shoulder. “I’m Wooyoung.”
Jongho nodded, unsurprised. “Jongho,” he offered, eyeing Wooyoung warily. “I did hear something about your family moving in a while ago.”
“Did you?” Wooyoung perked up, and Jongho could almost imagine his whiskers twitching with fascination if he’d had any right then. The pupils of his brown eyes were pinpricks of black, more feline than human, his every movement smooth and controlled as he prowled a quick circle around Jongho.
“I do hope we’ll be friends,” he purred, brushing their shoulders together again, and that was pretty much how Jongho met Wooyoung for the first time.
3.
Just like a cat, Wooyoung was uncannily adept at fitting himself into someone else’s space, as Jongho soon found.
And just like a cat, he strolled in and out of Jongho’s life as and when the fancy took him. He liked to pop in on Jongho in the day to see what he was up to, and occasionally he would join in if it was something that took his interest, no matter how little Jongho actually wanted him there.
It was both startling and not, therefore, when Jongho found himself being accompanied by a curious panther shifter on his weekly visit to Seonghwa, of all things. It wasn’t that Seonghwa was particularly scary, although everyone had a healthy amount of respect for him for obvious reasons, but he was just so much older than every other shifter around that he tended to favour the companionship of the elementals and nature spirits over actual flesh and blood.
“He’s not all that interested in other shifters, really,” Jongho said, just a tad apologetic as he glanced over at Wooyoung, who seemed so excited to meet a dragon for the first time. “Honestly, I think he took me in only because I’m human. He was curious at first, and then he got attached.”
“I mean, a little human child running around in the forest on his own? I think I’d be curious too.” Wooyoung laughed, although the way he smacked his lips meaningfully seemed to suggest that his curiosity probably wouldn’t have extended quite as far as raising the kid.
Jongho didn’t think about it as much nowadays, but it had occupied his thoughts heavily when he had hit his teens – where he had come from and if he had really been abandoned in the forest, or if he had merely wandered away from his frantic parents. Seonghwa always said that he hadn’t detected any humans nearby when he had first found Jongho, and Jongho had never doubted him.
It simply wasn’t in Seonghwa’s nature to lie if treasure of any kind wasn’t involved.
He just couldn’t help wondering anyway, about how different his life might have been if he hadn’t gotten lost or dumped in the woods, or perhaps it was better that he never found out. What kind of human abandoned a child in a predator-infested forest anyway?
“It must have been quite an experience growing up here,” Wooyoung observed casually. “You must have been very well-behaved, or I imagine a bear or a cougar might have snatched you up. Not that we make a habit of eating humans, especially now that relations are what they are, but the little ones are just so tempting sometimes, you know.”
Wooyoung shot a sly sideways glance at Jongho, who was a little unnerved that he couldn’t tell if the shifter was jesting or not. It was always hard to tell with felines.
“Even you would think twice before messing with a dragon shifter’s child,” he pointed out with a shrug. “Some people were nasty, but no one ever dared to really touch me. They were all too scared of Seonghwa’s retribution. Some of them have started getting a bit pushy ever since I moved out, but I’m big enough to take care of myself now.”
Wooyoung raised a brow at that, but they reached the edge of the forest a moment later and his attention was instantly diverted. The breeze fluttered against their faces without any trees in the way, blowing Jongho’s hair into his eyes and bringing with it the familiar smell of what he still thought of as home – a unique mix of charred meat and slightly tarnished metal that he had never found anywhere else.
Seonghwa’s unassuming little cottage was visible on the far side of the clearing, still a fair distance away. The clearing was, in fact, exactly the right size for a dragon to rest comfortably in when Seonghwa chose to, and the large swathes of flattened grass they trekked across bore testament to a relatively recent shift.
They found Seonghwa outdoors, grilling steaks of some sort over a brand-new barbecue that Jongho had never seen before. Wooyoung was swiftly invited to join them, and to Jongho’s surprise, Seonghwa seemed to treat the panther’s presence with genuine interest, his golden gaze fixing on Wooyoung curiously rather than passing over him.
“I knew some of your family a few centuries ago,” Seonghwa mused, his nostrils flaring slightly. “I don’t suppose the line is still pure, or have you attained both of your forms already?”
Wooyoung’s teeth flashed in a smile, looking eager to please. “I have,” he said, his chest puffed out with pride. “We’re still going strong.”
Jongho furrowed his brows, looking between Seonghwa and Wooyoung for a moment. “What forms?” he asked, confused.
Seonghwa squeezed his shoulder affectionately before sliding a piece of steak onto his plate. “It’s a special trait amongst very old shifter families, one that’s mostly died out these days,” he said in that vague, infuriating manner that Jongho was so used to. Information that was important to him was very rarely important to Seonghwa, who just wasn’t all that good at explanations anyway.
“What forms?” he asked again impatiently, once he found himself side by side with Wooyoung again, this time leaving Seonghwa’s home. “I’ve never heard of a shifter having two forms.”
Wooyoung grinned, the kind of shit-eating smirk that already told Jongho he wasn’t going to get a straight answer out of the shifter. “I’ll show you someday,” he said cheerfully. “I just know you’ll love my second form.” And then he shifted and bounded off into the forest with a flick of his black-spotted tail before Jongho could question him further.
Two days later found him lugging his laundry down the road on his usual schedule once more, and he wasn’t even surprised to see the little black cat waiting for him as always, its ears pricking in welcome the moment he stepped indoors. It was almost nice to finally have a companion who wouldn’t intentionally infuriate him with words, if only because the cat simply didn’t shift in his presence.
“I really brought you something this time,” Jongho said with a smile, crouching down when the cat leaped down from the top of the machine and padded up to him, its nose already twitching with interest. “It’s supposed to be buffalo, but you can tell me if the advertising was bullshit or not.” Shaking a few treats out onto his hand, he held it out, watching the cat pick delicately at each piece before its small pink tongue darted out to lick every last trace off his palm. It was sandpaper-rough and just a little wet, uncomfortable yet oddly sweet at the same time.
The cat meowed, emerald eyes blinking in satisfaction, before stepping back as if to give Jongho permission to load the machine.
“All you cats,” Jongho muttered, shaking his head in faux exasperation, and somehow he found himself thinking about Wooyoung and his mysterious two forms. Jongho wasn’t typically a particularly curious person – when one lived in shifter territory, it was better that some things remained unknown – but it annoyed him to know that his ignorance was serving as a source of amusement to the panther.
“It’s like he’s just trying to rile me up, you know?” was what Jongho found himself complaining about to the ever-patient cat curled up on his lap. “I don’t suppose you would know anything about this secret form that they have, do you?” He chucked the cat gently under the chin and it tipped its head up imperiously to invite more chin scratches, its eyes closed and what looked like a content smile on its face.
“Not that you should go poking around,” Jongho said hastily after a moment of thought. “I don’t care how old his family is. They’re still dangerous. Wouldn’t want you getting eaten – who’d keep me company every week then?” He smiled, giving the purring cat another pat on the head before retrieving his book. This week it was The Musical Instinct: Inside the Mind of a Human Musician, and the almost-silence that fell over man and cat was comfortably familiar by then.
Fifty minutes later, Jongho looked down at the cat winding its way around his ankles in farewell like a friendly puff of satiny liquid, and he didn’t start his journey home until the little black shape was completely out of sight.
4.
Jongho’s next laundry day went just a little less smoothly than usual.
The path he usually took wasn’t a bustling highway, but he did occasionally pass other shifters out and about on their daily business, even if it was just the single glimpse of a sable streaking low across the ground in hot pursuit of a panicked hare. What he hadn’t counted on was encountering a full-grown coyote shifter out for trouble.
Jongho hardly even gave the man a second glance as he approached, at least until a shoulder was rammed deliberately into his, sending him sprawling back onto his ass in surprise. His laundry bag slid off his shoulder, one of his shirts flapping out onto the dirt.
“Hey,” he said indignantly, immediately shaking the bag off his arm and leaping to his feet. He knew better than to stay down when confronted with a predator of any kind. With the kind of instinct born of long experience, Jongho automatically threw his shoulders back and balled his hands into fists, making himself look as wide as possible as he glared at the smirking coyote.
“Always acting like you belong here among us. Well, let’s see how tough you are without a dragon to back you, little human,” the coyote spat. One side of his lip curled up in a snarl, and Jongho knew that he wasn’t imagining the man’s lengthening muzzle or the way his mouth was suddenly filled with more teeth than should be possible.
“You don’t want to do this,” Jongho warned, but both of them knew that he was screwed if the man finished his shift. With a grunt of frustration, he lunged forward and dealt the shifter a solid right hook to the jaw. The coyote flinched back with a bark of pain, and Jongho didn’t waste a single second more – he simply grabbed his bag and ran, leaving his stray shirt lying in the dust.
He just needed to get to the self-service laundry, where there would be security cameras and the coyote wouldn’t be able to try anything without getting in trouble for it.
It felt like only a second had passed before Jongho heard the ominously quiet thud of paws behind him, but the laundry was already in sight. He put on a burst of speed, his bag of clothes knocking uncomfortably against his side with every pounding step. He could hear the coyote’s short breaths huffing out of its mouth, and then all of a sudden he was flung sideways, claws pricking into his calf as the shifter rammed its now-furry shoulder into him again.
Jongho hit the ground hard, his arm slamming into the step up into the laundry and sending a white-hot bolt of pain through his shoulder and into his brain. He kicked out blindly and missed, but the coyote was already backing away, its ears flat and eyes fixed on something just behind Jongho’s head.
Of course it was the cat, hissing furiously with its short fur all puffed up, still looking just as small and harmless as it always did.
The coyote snapped its teeth once, its eyes flickering to Jongho resentfully, and then it turned tail and fled.
“Wow,” Jongho sighed, more than a little baffled as he slumped back against the floor, the adrenaline slowly draining out of him. “Scary little thing, aren’t you? Guess he really didn’t want a witness.” He turned his head to the side, closing his eyes as the cat mewed and began to nose tentatively at his face.
It took a while for him to regain his breath again, and then he made the short trek back to retrieve his abandoned shirt, his arm twinging with pain the entire way. The cat was endearingly gentle with him for the next hour, leaping up to the chair before snuggling into Jongho’s lap as if it might cause him more damage with a single large leap.
Jongho rested his hand on the cat’s back, feeling the faint knobs of its spine beneath its fur and the smooth motions of its even breaths. “Thanks for being here,” he murmured. “You’re a very big cat in a very small body, aren’t you?” The cat blinked slowly up at him for a moment, and then it started to purr, satisfaction vibrating right through its body and into Jongho’s thighs.
For the first time, the cat accompanied Jongho home instead of going its own way the moment they stepped out of the building. It trailed by his right ankle like a tiny black shadow, occasionally glancing up at him as if to make sure that he hadn’t wandered away. The moment he reached his clothesline and set his laundry bag down, it meowed once before disappearing into the trees, clearly pleased with a job well done.
“Well, bye,” Jongho called, and despite the constant throb of his arm he found that he was smiling anyway.
He bumped into Wooyoung later in the week, or rather he spotted the shifter, for once not striding up to Jongho with a bright smile on his face. Instead, Wooyoung was facing away from him, standing in the shade of the trees just a short distance away from the supermarket that Jongho had walked out of, chatting animatedly to two strangers.
“Hello,” he called cautiously, because he had few enough shifter friends as it was and Wooyoung really wasn’t half-bad for such a capricious feline.
Wooyoung straightened and whipped around in an instant, his familiar grin blossoming into existence at the sight of Jongho staring at him. “Jongho! Hey, come over,” he called excitedly. “I was just talking to San and Yeosang. They’re old family friends, kind of like Seonghwa, you know?”
San waved too, but Yeosang only watched him with an unreadable gaze, the two of them pressed so close together that they looked almost like one body. They seemed like two perfectly normal young men, but Jongho had met enough elementals through Seonghwa to recognise what they were. It was something about the eyes, something quite indescribable that suggested flickering flames in San’s and a rushing river in Yeosang’s.
There was a constant hiss emanating from their feet as well, the leaves beneath San’s bare feet smoking incessantly before being put out by the water that Yeosang must surely be consciously leaking.
“Nice to meet you,” Jongho said politely, cautiously staying half a step behind Wooyoung.
San seemed amused. “Ah, Seonghwa’s child. The last time we saw you, you were only so tall,” he said, holding his hand around waist level and glancing over at Yeosang. The water elemental nodded in agreement, his eyes fixing curiously on Jongho. It made him feel vaguely dizzy, like he was getting seasick just from holding Yeosang’s gaze for too long.
“Well, do come by and visit when you’re free,” Wooyoung continued, clearly picking up the thread of whatever conversation they had been having before Jongho had interrupted. “My family would love to meet you.”
“Please try not to give San anymore reason to wander,” Yeosang said dryly. “I already have my work cut out not letting him burn down this forest by accident.”
Jongho watched them go with fascination, San leading the way as Yeosang trod in his smoking footprints like it was second nature to him, their hands linked tightly the whole time.
“Your family has many interesting friends,” he said after a moment, and Wooyoung snickered as he turned to face Jongho. The amusement on his face faded almost instantly the moment he caught sight of Jongho’s arm, still an ugly patch of black and blue stretching all the way from the side of his forearm past his elbow, before disappearing beneath the sleeve of his t-shirt.
“I’m fine,” Jongho said before Wooyoung could make a fuss about a couple of bruises, but the shifter’s glare didn’t fade.
“Just see if I don’t make that no-good coyote regret it,” he muttered under his breath, and Jongho blinked, strangely flustered by Wooyoung’s obvious concern. He hadn’t even mentioned it was a coyote that had attacked him.
“Oh, can you still smell it on me?” he asked with dismay, resisting the urge to give himself a sniff. It wasn’t like he’d be able to detect anything with his nose anyway.
Wooyoung’s eyes snapped up to his with deceptive innocence. “Something like that,” he said with a winning smile. “You haven’t had lunch, have you? Let’s go have lunch. My treat. I haven’t seen you around in ages.” He pouted exaggeratedly before Jongho could even protest, and then he snatched Jongho’s groceries from him with typical shifter grace.
All Jongho could do was sigh and allow himself to be dragged away – carefully, by his uninjured arm, because Wooyoung was impulsive but never careless. He supposed he didn’t mind all that much – he really hadn’t had lunch yet anyway.
5.
To say that Jongho was surprised to emerge from his home after lunch the next time Saturday rolled around and find the black cat from the laundry waiting would be an understatement. He wasn’t one for gawking, but he did spend an extraordinarily long time staring uncomprehendingly at the familiar small shape seated primly in the middle of the footpath, clearly waiting to escort him to the laundry like he was some sort of invalid.
“Isn’t this a bit much?” he asked with a frown. “I can get around fine on my own, you know.” He pulled the treats out of his bag and crouched down anyway, smiling at the way the little cat eagerly gobbled every bit up.
“You can’t be doing this every week,” Jongho continued disapprovingly. “I think you’re in more danger out here than I am.”
The cat only blinked nonchalantly at him, somehow conveying immense doubt with those bright green eyes before it set off down the road, occasionally turning as if to hurry him along. Jongho sighed, and then he did indeed jog to catch up, although that was more because he was afraid that an eagle might swoop down to carry the poor cat off rather than any sort of protection it might be able to offer him with its very unintimidating presence.
Naturally, they didn’t encounter a single other soul during the short journey that day.
“Well, thank you for your company,” Jongho said with a chuckle as they entered the self-service laundry. He bent down to give the cat a brief scratch on the head before he headed for his usual machine, humming quietly as he counted out his coins. At this point, he had mostly given up on trying to figure out where the cat disappeared off to for the week before they met again. It was clearly managing to keep itself safe and fed, and that was good enough for him.
It leaped onto his lap as it always did the moment he sat down, but this time it lifted its head to rub its soft, furry cheeks against Jongho’s chin, purring steadily the entire time. Jongho froze, confused but pleased all the same. It really was difficult to remember that this was in fact a shifter and not just a very sweet cat that had somehow taken a liking to him, and he had already needed to stop himself multiple times from calling it ‘kitty’ and clucking at it.
Jongho was escorted home once more an hour later by his self-appointed bodyguard, although he ended up stepping outdoors again not long after in order to pick up some packages for Seonghwa, who had flown off a couple of days ago to visit an old friend in some faraway eyrie.
He was only halfway to the town centre when a large dog suddenly ran full tilt across the path right in front of him, fast enough that he barely caught a glimpse of wavy gold fur. Jongho didn’t break stride or even blink in surprise, but what was surprising was the fact that the dog returned a minute or so later, tongue lolling out in a happy grin as it trotted up to Jongho, its feathery tail wagging excitedly.
“Ah, I thought I ran past you,” Yunho said cheerfully once he had shifted to his human form. “It looked like you but I wasn’t quite sure at first. You don’t really smell like you, you know. You’ve been spending too much time with that panther. You absolutely reek of his scent.” Yunho leaned in a little to sniff politely at Jongho before wrinkling his nose.
“Who? Wooyoung?” Jongho asked, baffled. “I haven’t even seen him around today.”
Yunho raised his brows and shrugged. “You must have been going around patting stray cats then. That’s how they lure their prey in, you know – look all cute and weak before going in for the kill.” The shifter sighed and shook his head, his pale hair sweeping into his eyes. “I had to stop chasing cats once the panthers moved in. Too dangerous. You’d think the scent would be a dead giveaway, but cats are just so much fun to chase.”
Yunho pouted, a comical expression on such a tall man, but Jongho had mostly stopped listening right around the mention of stray cats, the pieces of a puzzle he hadn’t even known existed slamming abruptly into place in his head. He stared blankly at Yunho, raising an arm automatically when the shifter finally finished his one-sided conversation and bid him a cheerful goodbye before shifting.
After Wooyoung’s playful reticence about the issue, he had all but forgotten about Seonghwa’s mention of the panthers’ two forms a fortnight ago. Jongho wasn’t one to dwell on mysteries that didn’t involve him, but it was all so obvious now that he was really thinking about it, and he felt rather stupid. Wooyoung had probably been expecting him to put two and two together much sooner, but he simply hadn’t, and probably wouldn’t have if he hadn’t run into Yunho.
Of course Wooyoung was the cat at the laundry. Of course Wooyoung would decide to play bodyguard after the stupid stunt that coyote had pulled. And of course Wooyoung would think it was an absolute hoot to let Jongho find that little fact out for himself.
He’d been played in the exact same way cats played with their food.
“I’m going to wring his stupid little neck the next time I see him,” Jongho mumbled to himself as he continued on his way, perhaps stomping on the dirt a little harder than he usually did.
Felines were trouble – he had known that all along after all.
The thing was that Jongho wasn’t even really mad about it. He could already imagine Wooyoung bursting into hysterical laughter at Jongho’s expense when confronted about his second form, and that would probably be the end of it. Jongho never really knew how to act when Wooyoung laughed around him. The shifter was just always so abominably happy when they were together, and Jongho found it irresistibly contagious.
Wooyoung’s brand of happiness was all cat, which was to say – selfish but loving, and maybe Jongho needed a little bit of that kind of happiness for himself as well.
+1.
“So, two forms,” was how Jongho broached the subject the next time Wooyoung leaped out of a tree to join him on his way home. He raised his brows pointedly and folded his arms across his chest, enjoying the way Wooyoung’s nostrils flared in alarm for a moment before a predictable giggle burst out of him.
“Oh, so you finally realised. You can’t say I told any lies,” Wooyoung purred with a large, challenging shrug, visibly preening with delight at Jongho’s disgruntlement.
“It was a lie of omission,” Jongho said sternly, but the words clearly slipped in one ear and right out the other if Wooyoung’s innocent expression was to be believed. “Why did you even let those baby cougars bully you like that that day?” He eyed the shifter suspiciously, suddenly rethinking every moment of their first encounter.
Wooyoung sighed long-sufferingly, as if he had ever suffered for a second in his pampered life. “You actually came by just as I was about to shift and scare the wits out of them. They would’ve popped back into cubs and it would’ve been hilarious, but you just had to go and ruin it,” he grumbled, wrinkling his nose at the memory. “So of course I had to figure out who you were, this human who would just walk up to some cougars without even a single whiff of fear-scent on him. Very fascinating.”
Jongho rolled his eyes. “They were eight years old or something, if that. Who gets scared of eight-year-olds?” he snorted.
“Eight-year-olds with claws,” Wooyoung pointed out, happily trailing Jongho all the way up to his front door and past the threshold, “as opposed to you, a human, with no claws.” He immediately sat down at the dining table and helped himself to a banana from the fruit bowl while Jongho carefully set aside some of the items he had picked up for Seonghwa.
It wasn’t the first time Wooyoung had basically invited himself in, and Jongho had given up protesting a long time ago.
Instead, he opened the fridge and stared at it for a moment before announcing, “I have…chicken. There’s a bit of salmon if you really want some, but not much.” Before he could straighten, he felt the warmth of Wooyoung’s body as the shifter crowded up behind him in a swift flash of motion, a sharp chin coming to rest lightly on Jongho’s shoulder. With a huff, he jerked his shoulder back slightly, forcing Wooyoung to step back.
“Chicken please,” Wooyoung said excitedly, already side-stepping Jongho and grabbing the entire chicken out of the fridge. “We already had salmon last time.”
It was still a bit of a funny experience for Jongho, to have his guest cook for him in his own home, but if there was anyone who couldn’t be dissuaded the moment their mind was made up, it was definitely Wooyoung. All Jongho could do was try to help Wooyoung out as best he could, which seemed to be a fairly common theme every time they met.
If he wasn’t trying to keep up as Wooyoung dragged him along, he was trying to make himself useful in the kitchen, a place that the shifter seemed uncommonly at ease in. Or he was just trying to figure out why he still put up with Wooyoung at all.
Maybe it was because Wooyoung really was a surprisingly fantastic cook, Jongho decided as he looked at the two beautifully plated cuts of chicken on his dining table. Wooyoung had a small, secretive sort of smirk on his face as he gestured for Jongho to tuck in – it wasn’t the wide, friendly grin of a dog shifter eager for validation but the contained poise of a self-satisfied feline who already knew that he had done well.
Exasperated affection filled Jongho’s chest at the sight and he allowed himself a smile in return – it was impossible not to.
After that, Jongho was quite certain that he wouldn’t be encountering anymore stray cats at the laundry, or anywhere at all really, not when Wooyoung could simply just walk up to him at any time without any need for pretence. Not that there had been a need for it in the first place, but he wasn’t about to try and pick apart a panther’s thought process.
For the sixth week in a row, however, he spotted a very familiar shape atop one of the washing machines the moment he reached the self-service laundry, and he stopped short for a moment in surprise. The cat looked at him with those bright green eyes, smugness somehow radiating from its sleek body as it watched him load the machine.
“Are we really doing this again?” Jongho groaned when he found himself with a very familiar lapful of purring cat for what felt like the thousandth time.
He regretted his words the moment the cat stopped purring and turned to regard him with undeniable mischief glowing in its eyes. It seemed to be saying, Well, if that’s what you want, even though Jongho was quite certain that whatever Wooyoung had in mind would not be what he wanted at all.
Sure enough, with all the suddenness of an unexpected spring shower, the cat seemed to explode outwards into a human shape that instantly wrapped its arms around Jongho’s neck and burst into delighted laughter. Jongho jerked back against the seat of his chair, but not before his hands grabbed onto Wooyoung’s waist out of pure instinct, as if the shifter were ever in any danger of toppling off his lap and onto the floor.
“Hello,” Wooyoung said coyly, looking far too pleased with himself as he wiggled his ass playfully, settling himself more securely onto Jongho’s lap.
Jongho frowned. “Hello,” he grumbled back. “What are you doing here?”
Wooyoung cocked his head, his eyes very bright as he looked at Jongho for a long moment, exactly like a cat calculating if its prey was worth the effort to catch. Jongho blinked as the silence began to drag on, suddenly aware of how very close their faces were and how warm Wooyoung was against him.
And then Wooyoung leaned in close, his breath washing over Jongho’s ear as he murmured, “I came here to ask you out.” There was the same barely discernible rumble in his chest that always made it sound like he was purring even in his human form, and when he leaned back there was no uncertainty in his expression, only smug triumph.
“I thought it’d be nice, since this place is the whole reason we met,” he continued airily, sounding pleased.
Jongho only stared at him, flabbergasted. It wasn’t so much the casualness of the entire situation that had him wrong-footed – shifters were notoriously informal even about long-term relationships after all, and flashy events were the exception rather than the norm. It was the fact that Wooyoung had asked him out at all.
Not another panther shifter. Not even a shifter at all. Just him, just Jongho, a stray human that Seonghwa had picked up somewhere along the way.
The thing about feline shifters was that they were so often fickle and unpredictable. They could be touchy; they could be mean. But once they chose a mate, there was rarely any turning back. When they chose a mate, they meant it.
Jongho wasn’t a particularly talkative person, but he wasn’t often rendered speechless either. Right then, all he could manage was a single word laced with acute disbelief.
“Really?”
Wooyoung shrugged. “Why not?” he asked, like it was the simplest question in the world. “I want you. You’re the most interesting person I’ve ever met. Oh, and those treats were quite delicious.” He grinned, wiggling again in Jongho’s lap as if in imitation of an excited tail flick.
Jongho blinked rapidly for a moment. “Oh,” he breathed, his eyes dropping from Wooyoung’s intent stare to the softness of his plush lower lip. He was very still for a moment, wondering how much of this could possibly be real, and then he tightened his grip on Wooyoung’s waist, tilting his head to meet the shifter’s eager mouth.
Wooyoung let out an excited whine, the almost-purr in his chest increasing in volume until Jongho half-suspected he might have executed a partial shift by accident. The next moment, a long, sleek tail unfurled like falling drapery and curled warmly against the side of his calf, but Jongho only parted his lips for Wooyoung’s questing tongue and didn’t open his eyes again until his laundry was done.