Chapter Text
It was getting dark early that day. The clouds had been lingering around for so long that anyone could sense the storm coming. And it came hard and violent. People of all species were running around to get home because finding shelter was useless as the storm was obviously not going to stop anytime soon.
Mingi entered the first tavern he saw, dragging a hollow aura around him. The tavern was almost full, the only ones who paid attention to him were the ones who could somehow sense magic. He sat in front of the bar, letting his long coat hang on his back, and not removing his military-like cap. The bartender, a guy with blueberry hair and a tired face went to him immediately. As he made no facial expression in front of Mingi, the latter assumed he was either not able to sense magic or that he had a really good poker face. Either way, Mingi felt reassured.
“Good evening, what can I get for you ?”
“Just a rum with lime please.” Even the deep exhausted voice did not startle the bartender one bit. Yeah, he was not new to the job.
The blue-haired man sighed, obviously tired too. “I need your species and age ?” He asked before pulling a species encyclopedia out. That encyclopedia was required in all multi-species places that offered alcohol because remembering the legal drinking age of all of them was hell on earth.
“Oh, I’m a mummy, and I’m-” The bartender interrupted him. “That’s enough for me, I'll be right back with your drink, sir.”
It was only then that Mingi noticed that the man sitting right next to him had his head on his hands. Literally.
His head and neck were not stuck on his shoulders, but he was holding them in his hands to reach the straw of his drink. The guy, dressed in motorcycle riding attire did not seem to be wary of him, so he decided to ask.
“Hum, excuse me ?” His head manually turned to him. “Yes ?”
“I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but, why don’t you just… pick up the drink and let your head on your shoulders ?” Mingi tried asking with so many hand movements that it was obvious to anyone that he was confused.
“Oh, it’s alright! It’s just that I had my head on my shoulders all day and I’m kind of tired so I took it out.”
Mingi nodded at the dubious explanation while his drink arrived. He thanked the bartender and took a sip of his rum. The other customer kept looking at him, and at some point, he asked.
“It’s my turn to risk sounding insensitive, but… Are you cursed? Your aura looks kind of… hexed.”
Mingi sighed and looked at his drink before turning to his right to answer the other guy.
“No, I am a curse actually. I’m a mummy. I might curse you if we interact for too long, though.” The customer seemed interested, so the mummy sighed, drank half of his rum and got back to him.
“So basically, I can’t control who I’m cursing, unless I recite a spell of something. Every Time I get a bad emotion, I end up cursing the nearest person in sight. I might even curse myself.” He ended up chuckling. “It’s the story of my life. There are few people whom I can’t cast a spell on for some reason but yeah, no one is really safe.”
The other customer smiled empathically before putting his head back on his shoulders.
“I get it. I can curse people too! I am Yixing, nice to meet you, I’m a dullahan.” he extended his hand to him. Mingi took it. “My name is Mingi.”
“My head tends to put itself on fire when I get a strong emotion but I guess that’s nothing compared to you. How old are you ?”
“I am 3 388 years old and I have been awake for about 254 years.” He said finishing his drink.
“Oh, you’re quite young! I am 902 years old, I died at 31.”
“Damn. Sorry- that was rude.” Yixing just laughed telling him that it was no big deal. The dullahan looked at him with compassion, an expression he didn’t see often coming from strangers. Mingi was used to people not getting close to him when he was walking on the streets or in the queue in a shop, worried about the aura he was surrounded by.
“Maybe I can do something for you! I know a rather powerful sorcerer. I could ask him to help me train you so you could control your magic.”
“Do you really think it’s possible ?”
“Of course! I don’t see why it wouldn’t be. I don’t know if we can do something about your aura though.”
“It’s okay, I really want to try because I don’t have any resources right now.” Mingi pursued his lips.
They exchanged numbers before Mingi paid for his drink and left the tavern. The poor mummy didn’t even notice that he had cursed Yixing. But thankfully, Yixing was practically immune to curses so it didn’t last long before the beetles that appeared around his head disappeared.