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the one where cale is NOT speaking gibberish, thank you

Summary:

Raon burst into Choi Han’s room, eyes wide and panicked, two kittens hot on his trail. Their expressions were much the same as they skidded to a stop.

“Strong Choi Han! You have to help!” The dragon waved his claws around frantically. “The weak human is speaking in gibberish!”

…What?

Notes:

this was a quick 30 minute drabble i did because i was bored. it's probably my shortest fic, now that i think about it, but whatever

20th fic!!! yayyy!!!!

edit: fixed some of the not-gibberish typos grrr

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Choi Han had been having a nice morning. It was bright and early, birds chirping outside, paws padding along the floor, towards his door–

Towards his door? Faintly, he registered Raon’s presence in his mind, and not moments later, the dragon burst into his room, waving his claws around frantically with On and Hong hot on his trail. “Strong Choi Han!” His eyes were wide and panicked as he latched onto his shoulder with the force of a thousand men, the kittens hiding behind him and looking toward the door almost… Fearfully? He couldn’t quite tell.

“What’s wrong? What is it? Is Cale-nim alright?”

“The weak human, he’s– he’s—”

Hong took over speaking for the dragon. “He’s speaking in gibberish!”

Silence took over the room.

“He’s what?”

Cale stepped into the room, looking more tired than usual but certainly fine, and Choi Han faintly wondered if they were playing some kind of trick on him. “C’d tlf ymxiqctr ct rcaaxpcyk,” Cale grumbled.

“...”

“...”

“Cale-nim, did you… Did you just hex me?”

“Tl.” Choi Han couldn’t quite tell what was said, the noises coming from Cale’s mouth were sounds that humans should certainly be unable to make, especially not with such ease, but… The disapproving glare and the monosyllabic (could it be even counted as a syllable?) word the man just sent towards him certainly delivered its meaning well enough.

“...Oh dear.”

Cale scowled. “Fkx nlphy nlt’f gldx ljf pcrkf.” He seemed to think for a moment, before stalking out of the room and making a gesture for Choi Han to wait when he tried to follow. Moments later, he returned with pen and paper. He stomped over to Choi Han’s desk and scribbled something furiously, shoving it in the swordmaster’s face when he was done.

“Cale-nim…”

Git ulj jthxpyfith fkcy?

“I… Can’t read this.”

The redhead before him let out a strangled noise, grabbing onto Choi Han’s shoulders, paper abandoned, and looking at him with the most passion that he’d ever seen him with.

“I’m sorry?”

“C’d rlctr fl vcrkf Rlh.” Cale shook him slightly, a crazed glint in his eyes. “Kx’y tlf rxffctr iniu vpld dx iscwx.”

Perhaps sensing his discomfort, he let go of his shoulders and gestured for Choi Han to follow. He followed like a man with amnesia, hopelessly confused and hoping for some answers approximately now.

They approached a golden dragon who looked dreadfully at them, as though they had ruined his morning just by coming into view. He could understand the sentiment– He’d never seen Cale so energized, which was a good thing, don’t get him wrong, but it also hardly spelt good things when he was.

“Xbmsict nkif’y rlctr lt.” Cale seemed to think for a second, before tacking on another word. “Msxiyx.”

“...What?” Eruhaben looked towards Choi Han for answers and appeared to have aged ten years when all he could do was shrug. “How long has he been like this?”

“Since this morning, as far as I know.” He looked to Raon for confirmation, who nodded along.

“Okay… Did anyone weird come into contact with him at all? Did he go anywhere last night?”

Raon, who kept constant tabs on his human, shook his head vehemently. Eruhaben seemed like he aged another ten years, looking more exhausted than he had just 5 minutes prior. “...It doesn’t seem like magic.” He turned his attention to Cale. “Are you hurting at all?”

A shake of the head.

“Feel weird?”

“C git’f ymxiq pcrkf. Lv gljpyx cf vxxsy nxcph.” Cale sighed and shook his head again. “Lfkxpncyx, C vxxs vctx.”

“Then we’ll try to wait it out.”

Cale let out another strangled noise. He seemed to be doing a lot of that today.

“He can’t write properly on paper, either. It just comes out as a bunch of jumbled letters,” Choi Han noted, feeling very unhelpful.

Eruhaben could only sigh. “Let me know if he seems to feel worse at any point. I’ll look into it, but I can’t make any promises.”

“C git jthxpyfith ulj, ulj qtln.”

Later that day, they met up with Cage. They’d– by which he meant Choi Han, since Cale couldn’t exactly communicate– contacted her to see if she had any insight on the matter to offer. “Fxss uljp Rlh fkif C’d rltti qcss kcd,” Cale bit out the moment she came close enough to hear him.

Cage had promptly burst into laughter, much to Cale’s evident chagrin.

A minute or so later, wiping the tears from her eyes, she let out a sigh. “That’s the most I’ve laughed in a while. Phew.” Choi Han eyed her cautiously as Cale began to look more and more grumpy. “Ah, yeah. You said he couldn’t speak?”

“Yes. He just keeps making… Noises. He also can’t write properly, but he seems to feel fine otherwise.”

She hummed. “And you said it didn’t seem like magic?” Choi Han nodded in confirmation. “Well, hm… Did you get on anyone’s bad side recently?”

The resounding silence was enough of an answer. Yes, yes he had. Many people, in fact. Choi Han figured the man had more enemies than he could think of, and he was constantly getting onto people’s bad side.

“Well, don’t worry. It just seems like a harmless curse. It’ll probably wear off by the time morning comes back around.”

“Fkitq vjgqcrt rlh.” Choi Han still couldn’t understand, but he got the gist of it based on the expression of relief that painted Cale’s face.

The day came and went at a snail’s pace. Cale hardly spoke to anyone throughout it, probably fearing another reaction like Cage’s or simply not wanting to spend the effort on words no one but himself could understand. Choi Han bid his liege goodnight and walked to bed with the hope that the redhead would be comprehensible come morning.

He woke up early, as he usually did, and left his room after fastening his sword to his waist to walk over to Cale’s room.

As he was about to knock, he heard a loud thud against the floor, and a loud exclamation of “VJGQ!”

God help us… Choi Han thought helplessly.

Notes:

i would decode the things for you, but i cant be bothered sorry :(

diy it! fun project for the whole family! shouldn't be too difficult, there is some order to it. emphasis on some.