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jaemin had never known what a home was.
when he thinks back to what his life was in his early years all he feels is pain, remorse and an intense sense of loneliness.
hybrids started out as human experiments. a silly little idea a rich man had, resulting in millions of dollars being spent on funding for an underground project. the government had not been told anything about it and the human experiments were taken off of the streets, people who had no home, no families to worry about where they were.
and when the experiments actually worked the man was quick to splice human dna with almost all animal species, to varying results. at that time it became impossible to hide the success from the world, at least five of every breed of “hybrid” having been created at that point.
hybrids took the world by storm, the rich man marketing them as the new “in” pets. and everybody wanted a hybrid.
that’s when hybrid breeding became the norm. it was a long process. some species, like the dog or rabbit hybrids, took to breeding so well, all of the specimens produced perfect to a fault. others, like the snake or fish hybrids, were often bred with complications, mostly relating to a need of their animal species, and made them a rarer breed and one most people would avoid.
it took a long time to get where they are today, but now 30% of the world's population is made up of hybrids.
one of that 30% is jaemin, bred in a lab roughly two years before the liberation of hybrids. he was a snake hybrid, a banana ball python to be exact, and with his birth came complications. he was born with a lot more scales than the usual snake hybrid and his eyes were completely coal black. his tongue was forked and he needed to regulate a certain temperature or he would get sick. all in all, a hard pet to keep, and not very pretty either.
jaemin’s mother had died in childbirth, so when the hybrids were liberated and the children were sent to hybrid care centres, he was all alone.
he didn’t like it at all in his first centre. the volunteers that worked there had been cruel to the “uglier” or more animalistic hybrids, having assumed they would only have been working with cute puppy hybrids and playful kittens.
they were cruel to jaemin too. often ignoring him, neglecting to keep his room hot enough, making him unable to hold down his meals. at a young age, jaemin learned to steel himself. glaring at anybody who looked his way, lashing out at any prey hybrids to scare them off.
it was self-defense. he felt that trust was not something he could give, that everyone that approached was going to hurt him.
everyone until mark lee.
mark was brought to the care centre when jaemin was seven and he was eight. mark was a cheetah hybrid, real cute, got all of the good qualities that would have made him a perfectly well-bred pet. if the market were still open he would’ve sold for thousands, if not more. he was prestigious. much better than jaemin, who would’ve been sold for ten pounds on a good day. while jaemin was shunned by their peers (encouraged to do so by the staff), mark was like a celebrity, he was wanted by everyone.
which made it all the more puzzling when mark ignored everyone and approached jaemin, one month after they had arrived at the care center.
“can i sit here?” the cheetah had asked one day, after carefully approaching the snake at his usual dining table. jaemin couldn’t lash out like usual, mark wasn’t a prey.
instead, jaemin opted not to reply to mark’s question, simply raising an eyebrow briefly before looking away, a sour look on his face.
he almost groaned out loud when mark wasn’t deterred by his behavior, simply smiling and sitting across from the snake. he doesn’t sit directly opposite, but rather 3 seats down. far enough away to make jaemin upset.
to jaemin’s surprise mark doesn’t talk. simply eats his dinner quietly and leaves. he doesn’t even say goodbye and it leaves jaemin confused. why bother to sit there at all if he was just going to breathe the same air and not say a word?
jaemin was ready to just brush it off as a weird thing that happened, perhaps the cheetah had been dared to join him for one night and mark had sat and ignored him so as to not back down.
it was even stranger, then, that the same thing happened when jaemin sat down for breakfast the following morning.
it becomes like clockwork. every meal time jaemin is approached by mark who asks to sit down and is met with silence. undeterred he sits down to seats away anyway, eats his food and leaves in silence.
if jaemin was confused the first night, after two weeks of it he’s utterly bewildered, perplexed even.
“why are you sitting here?” jaemin asked, one monday evening, his coal black eyes picking apart mark’s face, noting every quiver of his lips as the older tries to decide how to answer.
“you looked lonely,” was mark’s final reply, finally looking up from his food to meet jaemin’s stare. jaemin looks down at his plate immediately. “i thought… i don’t know, i guess that you looked like a good friend to have.”
jaemin was surprised by the answer, so much so that he didn’t know how to respond. he simply raised his only eyebrow not taken over by scales and took another bite of his dinner.
–
the people running the care centre were not happy with mark’s attempts to befriend jaemin for two reasons.
first, mark being seen with a snake hybrid makes him look defective for prospective buyers.
second, they can’t get away with their neglect of jaemin as much. jaemin hadn’t realised quite how bad their… distaste for him was.
mark pointed out to the volunteers that they had not fed jaemin as much food as they usually give the others on his third dinner with jaemin. they tried to explain it away by saying, well, snakes don’t need to be fed that often. but, as mark pointed out, jaemin had a human digestive system. they fed him proper meals after that.
after a couple of weeks, mark started picking jaemin up from his room for meals, so they could walk together, mark chattering away while jaemin stared ahead, pretending he wasn’t as interested as he was. it didn’t take long for mark to notice jaemin didn’t have any personal items in his room. just a bed and a thin sheet. very different from mark’s own room, full of toys and soft pillowy duvets and a comfortable bed.
they were only children and yet, mark realises, jaemin had probably never even seen a toy.
they had been “friends”, though jaemin loathed to call them that, for a few months when the other hybrids started to pull mark away.
it started with subtle comments, a cat hybrid asking mark: “why are you hanging around with his type?”, a hamster hybrid saying; “you couldn’t catch me dead with one of those.” when she knew mark was listening.
mark’s friends, a tiger hybrid and a parrot hybrid, started making him eat with them, pulling him away to do something else when he wanted to hang out with jaemin. it was like clockwork, and jaemin wasn’t surprised.
“it's good,” his handler said one day, “that mark boy wised up and realised he needed to stay away from the likes of you. more trouble than you’re worth, you are.”
jaemin had to agree, he wasn’t worth mark’s time, he’d been telling him so since they became friends but mark had wanted to hear nothing of it.
the interference got to a point where mark, wanting to check on his new friend, burst into jaemin rooms at 4am, waking up the snake hybrid with a jolt.
“mark?” jaemin asked, making out mark’s face in the dark as the eight year old quietly closed the door behind him, “what are you doing in here? you’re going to get in trouble!”
“i don't care,” mark said, a little growl escaping his lips. “the way they’re treating you isn’t fair.”
“i’ve been treated this way since i was born,” jaemin rolled his eyes, “us complication hybrids have had this since the experiments began.”
“it shouldn’t be that way.” mark moved closer, perched on the edge of jaemin’s bed and let his hand rest on jaemin’s foot. somehow the touch gave jaemin some sense of relief.
jaemin sighed, “just because you think it shouldn’t be that way, doesn’t make it magically better, mark, i learned that the hard way.”
“what do you mean?”
“i used to try,” jaemin admitted, looking everywhere but at mark. he wrapped his hands around his own torso as he spoke, “when i was young, i mean. i used to try and make friends. i wanted friends.”
jaemin could feel mark’s eyes on him. it made his face feel hot with embarrassment, “what happened?” mark asked, and it was so uncharacteristically soft for a cheetah hybrid. it made jaemin feel safe, in a way, the first time he had felt that since he was born.
“they hurt me,” jaemin admitted, “they would be… mean when i tried to join in, or even get scared. it just got easier to not try at all. but it's okay,” he tried to comfort mark, “i’m kinda used to being alone now…”
“you shouldn’t be,” mark responded, voice laced with sadness, “and you won’t be anymore.”
“mark, you'll get in trouble…”
“we’ll keep it a secret.” mark promised, “i’ll come and see you like this every night, if you let me?”
jaemin bit his lip as he considered this. on the one hand, it had been so nice to have a friend, even with the distance he forced between himself and mark. but, and jaemin hated to think like this, being mark’s friend will only hurt mark, he’d get him in trouble and then anything could happen to them.
“i just want to help,” mark insisted, sensing jaemin hesitance, “please, i’d really like to be friends…”
and how could jaemin say no?
–
they met in jaemin’s room every night for the next two years. if the carers ever figured out what happened in the middle of the night, they never did anything and for that jaemin would always be grateful.
they could be as awful as they wanted to him during the day and it wouldn’t have mattered to jaemin, because after two years, his nights were spent curled up in bed with mark, gossiping, reading, playing, anything they could do in the quiet of the night.
and while his nights got happier, his days only got worse. the lack of heat in his room was placated during the night by mark’s body heat, (the reason why he finally allowed mark to hug him during his visits), but during the day, if he needed the heat, he was forced to just feel sick or curl under his thin blanket.
the carers got even more cruel, and handled him even rougher day by day. by the time jaemin was nine years old, fresh bruises were common and they were hard to hide from mark.
“we need to do something,” mark told jaemin for the fiftieth time.
jaemin scoffed, “what can we do? we’re orphan hybrids, mark, nobody cares about us.”
“but they should.” mark was the one to say it, but they both knew it was true.
so, they formulated a plan.
they were going to run away.
–
mark packed up some of his clothes, along with a few books and toys for them and jaemin, well, he only had one other change of clothes that he stuffed into his jacket pocket.
“you ready?” mark asked, and jaemin held up his jacket in response. mark nodded to jaemin once, then turned to open the door, only to whip back around when a whimper escapes jaemin’s lips. “jaemin? what’s wrong?”
“i can’t do it,” jaemin cried, shaking his head as tears run down the pale pink and yellow scales on his cheek. “i’m scared, i don’t want you to get hurt.”
“you’re not safe here, jaemin,” mark reasoned with him, “we need to get you help.”
jaemin shook his head again, “but you’re safe here. i can handle a few hits for being ugly, but what happens when we leave and we’re both not safe? is risking living on the streets really better than this?”
“jaemin…”
“we’re not leaving.”
“we need to, minnie.” mark soothed, “we’re gonna go and we’re gonna find another shelter if we have to, maybe that one will be better for you.”
jaemin was fully crying now, tears blurred his eyes as mark pulled him into a hug, “i’m scared,” the snake finally admitted out loud, “i’ve always been scared.”
“you don’t have to be anymore,” mark told him, “i’m here to protect you. i’ll never leave you again.”
after a long moment, both just holding each other softly, jaemin pulled back, looked into mark’s eyes with newfound confidence that only rises when mark doesn’t break the eye contact, like anybody else would, “let’s go.”
they walked out into the night together, hand in hand, and nobody tried to stop them.
–
they were found on the streets one month later, huddled together for warmth and wrapped in a thin blanket a middle aged homeless lamb hybrid had given them.
jaemin was sick, the cold winter air making it hard for him to exist away from the humidity he needed. his scales were shedding but because of the conditions they were sticking to his skin and causing him pain.
mark was trying his hardest to keep jaemin alive but it was difficult. he was barely ten years old and it was hard enough to find food every day.
damn did he try, but he was running out of time and he knew there wasn’t much of it left as he could feel himself grow weaker at the lack of substantial food and water.
the two boys had almost given up, resigned to their fate, when they met doyoung.
doyoung was a volunteer at a local adoption shelter, a government funded one, which means it was a lot better than the place they had left behind.
doyoung was kind when handling not only mark, but jaemin too, something that definitely made mark trust him easier.
the doctors at doyoung’s shelter were gentle with jaemin, who was too weak to even notice them, easing the shedding skin from his scales and placing him on an hiv drip in a temperature regulated room.
“will he be okay?” mark asked doyoung, as his friend was taken away.
“you’ll both be okay now.”
–
life at the shelter was a lot better than the centre. mark and jaemin, no longer having to hide their friendship, were inseparable for the most part. jaemin, especially, was often found glued to mark’s side.
the young snake was untrusting, even knowing the volunteers at the shelter had saved his life. he had thought the same at two years old, when he had been told he was. being taken to safety, away from the labs, only to end up in a place more abusive than the last.
“they’re going to help,” mark reminded him every day, “they already have helped.”
and it was true. jaemin’s (and mark’s) room had a temperature gage he could adjust to his needs. he finally had more than one change of clothes, and blankets and toys. he was fed food portions proportionate to his hybrid type and he had regular health check to make sure his hybrid complications weren’t going to affect him as he grew.
jaemin finds he loves reading, and finds a spot outside, under a tree, that he loves to sit in and bask in the sunlight he rarely got growing up.
he’s sitting there one day, reading alice in wonderland , when he hears a little squeak.
jaemin looked up to find himself face to face with a wide eyed little mouse hybrid, only a couple years younger than himself. he raises his scaled eyebrow at the mouse, worried to speak, in case the mouse was afraid of him.
to his surprise, the mouse gestures to the tree, “can i sit here with you?” he asked, “i usually sit here and, well, i don’t really like change.”
jaemin doesn’t say anything, just nods and looks back down at his book. the mouse scrambles to sit next to him, pulling out a little game device jaemin has never seen before to play with. “i’m jisung, by the way,” the mouse says quietly.
“jaemin.”
“nice to meet you, jaemin.”
needless to say mark and doyoung are shocked when, a few hours later, they come back from mark’s doctor’s appointment only to find the little mouse hybrid asleep on jaemin’s shoulder, the snake stiff as a board as he tried not to move and jostle him.
life was going well for mark and jaemin, there was only one issue.
this was an adoption shelter.
as such, prospective adopters come and go making offers of adoption for various animals.
there's three hybrids that never get offers.
jaemin, as ugly and deformed he is (“you’re not deformed, baby,” he can hear mark tell him) is one of them. nobody wants to adopt a snake hybrid as it is, but an ugly one? a hard pass.
donghyuck, a bear hybrid, is also lacking in adoption offers. bear hybrids were rare and absolutely far too high maintenance. between hibernation naps and strict diets regulating weight, no human would pick them over a low maintenance puppy.
the last, and possibly the most surprising. was jisung, the little mouse. over the years, jisung had grown and grown, his high stature contrasting his mousey nature in a way that made him look awkward and gangly. nobody wanted him because, well, why would they pick an awkward, too big mouse when they could pick a cute little baby one? mouse hybrids were overbreeded, so there’s no shortage of them, anyway.
mark, however, was in high demand.
despite that, he spends years at the orphanage for a simple reason. he absolutely will not go anywhere without jaemin. he had had many an argument with doyoung over it. the older saying jaemin would be safe here and he didn't need to worry.
but mark remembered, even now at seventeen, a promise he had made jaemin seven years ago. a scared ten year old, trying to convince his friend to escape their abusive orphanage together. “i promised i’d never leave him.”
doyoung understands, especially now, seven years later, but it’s difficult to stay impartial when he knows these adopters would be able to provide mark with 24 hour care and attention that he simply struggles with.
“do you ever feel guilty?” donghyuck asks jaemin one day when he’s standing by jaemin and jisung’s tree, annoying them until his best friend, a fox hybrid named renjun, comes back from his therapy appointment. “that mark won’t go with a new family, i mean. he’s getting old, you know. he won’t be wanted soon either.”
“no,” jaemin answers honestly, irritated, as he usually is when donghyuck is around him. “mark’s mine.”
jisung titters in response, “i wouldn’t be able to hold him back.”
“you wouldn’t get it.” jaemin simply replied, because they wouldn’t.
jaemin is territorial to a fault and the snake part of his nature had claimed mark as his a long time ago. he couldn’t let mark go now. maybe it was selfish of him, but after so many years of misery, he thinks he deserved to be a little selfish.
“whatever you say, man,” donghyuck says, and jaemin can feel him exchange a look with jisung across him.
–
when jaemin meets johnny, he hates him. the tall man bonds with mark almost immediately, the two of them playing on the basketball courts together with chenle almost daily.
mark’s other potential adopters had never connected with him like that and, quite honestly, jaemin gets worried and, as a result, cranky.
when mark finally introduces him to johnny, jaemin glowers at him and says nothing, simply wrapping his arms around mark, claiming his territory.
johnny chuckles at the sight and somehow that irritates jaemin more. how dare he find this funny.
“you’re not taking him,” jaemin bites out, ignoring when doyoung scolds him, “he’s staying with me, forever.”
johnny’s eyes widen but he still looks jaemin over with an almost fond smile, “is that so?”
“yes it is,” it’s mark who replies, “it’s like i said, johnny, i’m a package deal. it’s both of us or nothing.”
johnny smiles again, “i’ll keep that in mind.”
johnny comes back often, a couple of times a week. he always talks to mark, between viewing so many other hybrids that doyoung provides him meetings with, he finds time to seek out mark and, by default, jaemin.
they sit in jaemin’s room, usually, johnny and mark talking about anything and everything while jaemin sits, curled into mark’s side, glaring at johnny who simply smiles kindly whenever he catches his eye.
jaemin hates that he’s so nice.
–
meeting jaehyun, johnny’s husband, is very much the same, but there’s something about him that makes jaemin feel safe.
jaehyun introduces him to photography, letting jaemin play with his phone camera one day while the two of them sit under his tree together.
he snaps a picture of jaehyun first, staring in bewilderment at the image on screen. it’s nothing special, jaehyun wasn’t ready and the image is slightly blurred, but it stirs something wonderful in jaemin’s stomach. he just captured a moment in time. it may be a slightly mundane moment to most, but it’s everything to jaemin.
he stands instantaneously, beeline set for mark. he only briefly pauses to make sure jaehyun is following before he’s calling out for mark’s attention.
his photo of mark is silly. mark’s blinking and his mouth is open and it makes jaemin giggle, something rare for anybody that knows jaemin. “jaem, let me see!” mark complains over jaemin’s giggles as the snake slips from his hold to keep the phone away.
mark’s purring and rubbing his cheek against jaemin’s neck when he finally gets to see the picture and he can’t even be mad when he sees it. anything that brings jaemin this much joy is fine by him.
jaemin takes so many pictures that day and it makes him feel so good. jaemin doesn’t even notice when he asks jaehyun if he can take pictures tomorrow. but he does notice that, for once, he’s actually anticipating a visit from one of mark’s potential adopters.
it worries him that he likes them so much.
–
jaemin thinks it's almost too good to be true when jaehyun tells him that he and johnny want to adopt them both.
it takes until he is shown his new room for it to sink in. adorning the walls are framed pictures. not just any pictures, the picture jaehyun had let jaemin take on his phone.
there’s the blurry picture of jaehyun, the grounds of the shelter, a picture of donghyuck, in the distance, trying to kiss renjun’s cheek.
he can see a picture he took of jisung against their favourite tree, the mouse giving the shy little smile that jaemin had always adored. and there’s johnny and jaehyun from a distance.
and there’s chenle on the basketball court, the cat hybrid in the middle of taking a shot, and that’s doyoung with his own adoptee, a samoyed hybrid named jeno.
and in the middle of it all, there is that first picture he had taken of mark, and a photo jaehyun had snapped of them together before he left that day.
seeing all of his and mark’s friends all on the walls of his room, jaemin got emotional. he had come so far from being the reluctant and territorial snake hybrid that had suffered years of abuse and hadn’t had a friend.
“i took those?” jaemin asks, even when he knows the answer.
jaehyun’s smile is warm when he replies “you did. i had them printed out and fram-”
jaemin’s arms wrap tightly around his middle before he can finish, squeezing him tightly, with as much appreciation as he can possibly muster. “thank you,” jaemin mumbles into his chest.
“of course,” jaehyun tells him, “you guys can have anything you want now.”
–
that night, jaemin can’t sleep, not yet used to his new bed. he tosses and he turns, before he gives up even trying to sleep without the one thing he needs.
quietly, careful not to wake his new carers, jaemin pads across the hall and pushes open mark’s bedroom door. “mark hyung?” he whispers into the empty darkness of the room.
“you okay, baby?” comes the reply that makes jaemin absolutely fold.
he surges forward, almost jumping into mark’s bed with him. mark chuckles as he lifts his covers for jaemin to bury himself under and he lets the snake wrap around him. “couldn’t sleep,” jaemin says into his neck.
mark hums, “me either,” he admits, “glad you came in here.”
“do you think they’ll be mad if I didn't sleep in my bed?” jaemin asks, making mark chuckle.
“i don’t think they’ll mind, baby.” he pulls jaemin in close and sighs in content, “now, try and get some sleep, okay?”
jaemin nods and they lay in silence for a moment before he speaks into the quiet again, “they really adopted us both.”
“yeah.” mark replies, voice thick with sleep.
“we’ll get to be together forever.”
“wouldn’t have it any other way, baby.”