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Today’s a schedule-free day for them, no plans made whatsoever and no intention to go anywhere outside after countless days of being busy. While Sion made plans with the other members, the youngest two decided that staying home was the move, waking up at noon even. They also thought, why not try and cook a meal for themselves today for a change?
Using whatever they had in their pantry and in their fridge, Ryo whipped up a quick and easy egg-fried rice with some kimchi in there, cutting up some assorted fruits for starters too. Sakuya on the other hand….Ryo didn’t trust him to be in his cooking premises or slice anything to be exact so he was assigned with beverages—two glasses of strawberry milk would do. The two sat down at the table and enjoyed their lunchtime meal
“Isn’t this nice?” Ryo comments.
“Just us and my amazing fried rice that truly no one can try to compare with, I love it today.” Ryo leans back on his chair with arms behind his head, smiling while munching on his food.
“Yeah….but are you implying it wouldn’t be nice if Sion hyung or anyone else was with us?” Sakuya instigates.
“You know what I mean. But also yes, I prefer a meal like this to just be between us”.
“I have to say Ryo, you’ve been getting better at this. Last time it was kinda burnt”.
“If you hadn’t asked me make your bed I would’ve been more attentive to whatever happened on the stove”
“A true chef never abandons post and always keeps an eye on their cooking,” Sakuya claims, pulling a saying out of his pocket.
“Says who?” Ryo questions and giggles.
“I don’t know. But I’m gonna coin that, even without any qualifications to be a true chef,” Sakuya says as he puts 3 grapes in his mouth before biting them all down at once.
“You’re too much Saku. Anyways, it seems like we’re both done so help me with the dishes will you?” Ryo finishes his glass of milk and tidies the table, carrying all the stacked plates in one hand and a pot in the other.
“I’ve got that, a plate nearly fell onto the floor from the pile that Ryo carried, but Sakuya was able to catch it in time.
“Honestly, how could I get by without you?” Placing the dishes in the sink, Ryo cupped Sakuya’s cheeks when his hands were free, startling his partner, to which Sakuya jokingly slapped Ryo’s hands away.
Sakuya offered to wash the dishes for them, as a return favour after Ryo cooked for two of them. Like usual, he’d rinse the plates first before putting any detergent on them, it was a little hard for him to see with his bangs in the way, so he decided to tie his hair up. Only, his hair tie wasn’t where it usually was, which was on the wrist of his right hand, it wasn’t in any of his pockets either and obviously not on his hair.
Leaving the kitchen in a panicked state, he rushes to his and Ryo’s room, to which Ryo saw a mirage of a boy in his pyjamas run there. Even on his desk where he usually keeps his accessories, it wasn’t there, on his bed where he’d sleep, his hair tie wasn’t there. The pink hair tie was a dear item to him, it was given to him by his little sister when he left to Korea so that he could remember her, to lose it this easily and so clumsily just feels awful, something with so much memory and sentiment attached. This can’t be.
“WHERE IS IT?” Sakuya makes a mess in the room, he’s throwing pillows onto the floor and dropping all his accessories just to find his hair tie, basically rummaging through all of his belongings just to find this item so dear to him.
Ryo dashes to the room after hearing Sakuya’s scream, “What’s wrong Sakuya? What’re you looking for?”
“M-my hair tie. The pink one. The one that’s always on my wrist, I can’t find it,” the panicked Sakuya flashes a light under their beds only to be met with candy wrappers and tissues.
“I’ll help you but do you remember where you last put it?” Ryo joins the search.
“No. That’s the problem, I don’t usually put it anywhere because it’s always on me somewhere”.
“Have you checked Sion-hyung’s room?” Ryo asks as a suggestion for where else to look.
“It’s not there. It would never be there. Why would it ever be there?”
“Okay I was just trying to help geez”.
“Well that was stupid. I’m stupid for losing it so easily. How could I just misplace it like that it’s just- just so….” Sakuya chokes on his words all of a sudden, he starts to shake and his cheeks turn pink.
“Sakuya……hold it in,” Ryo stands a distance away from him.
“Ryo, I’m…….so-” Sakuya’s voice becomes more shrill, he’s frozen in place. And then all of a sudden,
POOF.
A cloud of pink smoke that smells like milk fills the room, completely covering Ryo’s line of sight from seeing anything other than himself. He quickly fans everything away just by flailing his hands and after a few minutes, the smoke disappears into nothingness. But the smoke wasn’t the only thing that disappeared. In front of Ryo was a pile of clothes, Sakuya’s clothes, the clothes that he just wore. A small movement was seen under the pile, in the form of a bump, the bump makes it’s way out of the clothes—and there it is, well there he is in fact. Sakuya in the form of a guinea pig— a cute, white guinea pig.
Ryo sighs and facepalms, “It happened again huh?”
What happened is exactly what it seemed like, Sakuya transformed into a guinea pig. The origins of this is unknown but from what Sakuya’s told Ryo, it’s been going on since he was 4 years old. Sakuya doesn’t even know how this was possible, his parents were clueless and anybody who knew of it were just as clueless too despite the many attempts to reach out for help.
Whether it is a curse or a blessing is unknown too, but regardless, Sakuya has to live with it, turning into a guinea pig against his own will when he’s in distress. An emotional response that only Ryo has seen so far out of all his members, a response that only Ryo knows how to take care of.
Whenever this happens, Ryo would pull out an emergency kit out of the closet, hidden by the amount of clothes they have, and said emergency kit was stuff for guinea pigs, a box that had a piece of paper stuck to the side that said ‘IN CASE OF GUINEA PIG’. Following the usual procedure, Ryo scooped up the little guinea pig Sakuya and gently placed him onto his own bed, placing him on top of his pillow in fact, surrounded by all his stuffed animal pals to make him comfortable first.
Out of the box, Ryo pulled out a breadloaf-shaped hideout house that was cozier to reside in than on the bed, also keeps any bit of light away from little guinea pig Saku so that he’d rest well. Ryo also got out his water feeder for him to replenish his thirst in this state, sometimes Ryo would even coddle Sakuya in his arms to make him drink his water.
Despite being a guinea pig physically, he was still Sakuya, meaning he could go and hop on the toilet to dispose of any waste if he wishes, and communicate with Ryo using other methods to get him to understand, like dunking his little feet into ink and spelling out words for Ryo before the rodent gets tired from writing just one word—but even without doing all of that, Ryo knows guinea pig Sakuya well enough to give him what he needs.
On their wall beside the door is a sticky note that says:
- NOTICE ME.
- HUG ME.
- KISS ME.
- FEED ME.
- TAKE CARE OF ME.
All of which were instructions given by Sakuya to Ryo in case he’d transform. Everytime any of the other members came into the room, they’d laugh and be incredibly endeared to them seeing that up on display, thinking it was a display of how affectionate they were when in actually, they were completely oblivious to the fact that Sakuya would literally morph into a small mammal from time to time.
“There. I’ve prepared everything for ya,” Ryo comes back to the room after filling Sakuya’s water bottle up, on the side was a bowl of hay and his hideout beside there as well, a little guinea pig corner in their room. Little Saku hops off of the pillows and makes his squeaky noises as he runs with his stubby legs to Ryo’s hands by the edge of the bed, gently carried to his corner.
“Haha, to think that this’d happen again because you lost your hair tie,” Ryo giggles. “But don’t worry, I’ll find it for you, it’s gotta be here, I know it is,” stroking his finger on Sakuya’s head as he nibbles on his hay which he spat out shortly after.
“Oh, is the hay not doing it for you?” Ryo gets a shaking of a head as a response.
“Hmmm. Wait here, I’ll get you something you’ll really like”. Guinea pig Sakuya had a different kind of appetite in this form, because of his change in diet, sometimes even the most basic of fruits seem incredibly grand to him.
So in comes Ryo with a plate of 3 watermelon slices which in proportion to Sakuya, was like having 3 turkeys in front of him.
“You didn’t get to finish these when we had lunch because you were so bloated but, I guess you’ve built up an appetite already,” Ryo lays the plate down and watches the guinea pig go to town on the watermelon slices, smiling with deep affection watching its stupid little face do its rapid bites on the fruit.
As much as Ryo’s enjoying this, Sakuya needs to turn back to being human as soon as possible, not at Ryo’s request, but at Sakuya’s. For some reason he just doesn’t want to reveal this curse to anyone else but Ryo, but Ryo doesn’t question it since it’s his call, but he knows that the other members would be so adoring towards him, so much so that he’d poof into guinea pig form more often.
“Sion-hyung said he’ll be back by 6pm and right now it’s….2. Hm, I hope you don’t mind Sakuya but I kinda wanna nap for a bit and continue the search later,” Ryo yawns.
Guinea pig Saku looked at Ryo with the most neglectful eyes ever after finishing his 3rd watermelon slice, eyes that scream You’re Napping Without Me? that Ryo just could not resist.
“Alright alright, you can come and join me,” Ryo climbs onto the bed and reaches his arm out. Sakuya dashes towards it and slides into Ryo’s hoodie sleeve, tickling the human as his little feet prance on his skin, making his way upward to Ryo’s collarbone while tucked under the fabric of the hoodie feeling all warm and comfy. The guinea pig’s nuzzling Ryo’s cheek and giving tiny licks to his face with little squeaks in between, Ryo genuinely couldn’t stop chortling at how much affection this rodent was giving him.
“If it were up to me and seeing how much you enjoy being this small, I’d have you stay like this forever. But deep down, you know that I’d rather be with you right now,” Ryo lays his hands over the guinea pig to snuggle him deep down to his chest.
“Remember that day when I clumsily dropped that note behind the sofa? Yeah, that was really awful of me ain’t it?,” Ryo recounts a recent moment.
“You were so distraught over it that I felt a huge surge of guilt at the time, I could barely look at you knowing how disappointed you and probably Yushi was at me”.
“Just remembering it I don’t think I’ve apologized to you enough Saku, even though I got it back, I know how much it meant to you. I could hear from the tone of your voice and how let down you were that at any given moment—you could’ve filled the whole room with a pink cloud of smoke and turned into a guinea pig right there. But ya didn’t,” the mammal dug its face deeper into Ryo’s chest, signaling comfort, maybe showing its appreciation from Ryo’s words. Ryo’s happy to see him like this.
“I used to feel a bit of shame when I introduced everybody to TonTon, bu when I showed it to you and explained everythin’, you showed me that it’s okay to give meaning to things, any thing that’s of importance to me. Just like you and the hair tie your sister gave to you,” fingers run across the furry body of Sakuya.
“You inspire me, you know that right? I hope that there’s a part of me that inspires you too. I love that we’re like this just, just two dudes with nothing more than just mutual love between us, at least to me. Sorry, I sound a little crazy talking to you like this when you’re….this small and under my hands. But I feel that it’s easier to express it to ya this way. Sakuya”.
“Ha…I don’t usually get in my feelings like this, but what do I do when I’ve got a cute little creature like you with me, you bring the emotions out of me everytime. Whether it’s when we’re fighting or when we’re just pouring our hearts out to each other with our late-night talks. Sometimes I feel like you planned this all along. Thank you though.” Ryo rethinks his words and second-guesses himself after straying away from his T side in this situation. There’s nothing he can really do to take it all back so whatever he said was out there, a facet of his vulnerability between him and a guinea pig. So he just accepts it.
“GAHH, I can’t. Come here you little-,” Ryo was close to tears, but the sight of Sakuya was able to prevent any tear from dropping on his face. He picks up little Saku and looks at him deep into his dumb, glistening, black pearl eyes—giving it a small kiss on its head, making Sakuya squeal in Ryo’s hands, popcorning as his screams and shakes. Ryo brings him into his chest once more and hugs him tight to the point of near suffocation, and immediately falls asleep afterwards, with Sakuya passing out too.
Moments have passed that seem like hours. Sakuya, who’s still in guinea pig form, peeps over to Ryo’s phone beside him, lighting up and buzzing. Worried, Sakuya squeaks in Ryo’s ear in attempt to wake him up, no response. Trampling all over his face, no response. So Sakuya with his incisors bit onto the skin of Ryo’s cheeks, which immediately woke him up.
“Hey what was all that for,” Ryo flicks the rodent’s head, Sakuya signals Ryo to look at his phone.
“SHIT!”
While Ryo dozed off, he had received a text message from Sion from 20 minutes ago saying that he’d be back in an hour which means that he’s got about 40 minutes left to get Sakuya back into human form AND find his hair tie.
“Saku, I know you’ve got it in you to change back, like how you usually do. Right?” Ryo only receives unintelligible squeaks back.
“Okay that’s not helping at all. Promise me, that when I find your hair tie, you’ll turn back”
As if it’s something he could do at will. To turn back, his emotions need to be heightened with a similar threshold to when he transformed into a guinea pig, whether it’s out of fear, anger, or from pure joy, that’s what triggers the emotional response.
Ryo’s looked everywhere in their dorm for this hair tie, from the kitchen to under the couches in the living room and to their bedroom. It’s nowhere to be seen.
“I know that you don’t think it’s there, but seriously, my gut’s tellin’ me that it’s in Sion-hyung’s room,” Ryo’s persistent on his initial claim, guinea pig Saku clearly looks annoyed, but in the end he succumbs to Ryo’s decision.
They enter Sion’s room, Ryo saying his apologies in advance, and start rummaging through his bed, closet and drawers. Though his gut feelings were strong, it seems that even with thorough room inspections, he was still unsuccessful with the search for Sakuya’s pink hair tie. However, he noticed that in the laundry basket in Sion’s room, were a pair of trousers that didn’t look like Sion’s at all, so clearly it was either his or Sakuya’s. Taking it out of the basket, Ryo finds out that it is in fact Sakuya’s pants.
He opens them up and searches through each of the pockets on the pants, and there it was, on the right-back pocket, Sakuya’s pink hair tie.
“SAKU!,” Ryo screams to the guinea pig lounging on top of the pile of laundry.
“I FOUND IT. It was in your pocket silly, in the pants you used to practice yesterday, it ended up in Sion-hyung’s laundry basket.”
Delighted, guinea pig Sakuya hops off of there and starts jumping and running around on the floor, doing his squeals that signal his overflowing joy, which made Ryo jump up and down in relief too. Seeing the tiny creature be this happy put tears in his eyes, and he felt proud of himself for eventually finding it too.
POOF (again)
Sion’s room is filled with pink smoke, and in a few seconds disappeared. There stood, in front of Ryo, Sakuya, back as a human, back as the Sakuya he knows and loves. In a heartbeat, Sakuya rushes to Ryo and hugs him, so tightly, exhaling with so much relief that it’s unbelievable—Ryo could feel his pulse just from this hug. Topping it off with a quick peck on the lips which caught Ryo off guard, but clearly left him in enjoyment.
“RYO. I seriously can’t thank you enough. You saved me from literally blowing up,” Sakuya snatches the hair tie immediately from Ryo’s hands and snaps it back onto his wrist, promising that he’ll never lose it again.
“You’re welcome Sakuya, anything for you. But you did in fact blow up…..yeah, it happened again. I mean look at you, you’re standing in front of me bare naked,” Ryo points to Sakuya as he immediately covers himself up with his pants.
“Shit, that’s embarrassing”.
“Hey, nothing’s embarrassing about it, you’re just as cute when you’re like that,” Ryo comments.
Yeah, after Sakuya turns back into a human, his memory gets a little fuzzy (no pun intended). Sakuya’s last memory was only just before he transformed into a guinea pig which was why he was so surprised, but in just a few hours, he’ll regain everything from when he was a little rodent and realise, just how lovely he was as a guinea pig like when he’s himself.
“Well you better get dressed first, and then help me clean everything up. You made me mess up every room in this dorm just for lookin’ for this hair tie,” Ryo nags.
“Alright alright gimme a minute,” Sakuya hurried into the clothes he had on just before he transformed.
Half an hour later…….
“Goodness Ryo! Why do you have so much fur on your hoodie?” Sion gasps at the state of Ryo.
“I-it’s a long story, me and Saku went to the uhhhh pet store for a bit and got into some trouble with one of the guinea pigs over there!,” Ryo states, clearly lying through his teeth, but a lie believable(?) enough to tell Sion and protect Sakuya.
“Of course you did, and how did Saku not get any on him?”
“I was busy being somewhere else in there, I didn’t even know that was happening to him,” Sakuya shrugs his shoulders, also straight up lying.
Sion just lets out a deep sigh, a sigh that clearly says, ‘I just can’t leave these two alone can I?’
Sakuya and Ryo are in front of him, nudging each other and trying to hold in a laugh. Poor Sion.
Later that night…..
Before they doze off to bed, Sakuya managed to get all of his memories as a guinea pig back, remembers how well Ryo took care of him in that state like he always did, the only one who ever took amazing care of him as a guinea pig. The loving looks that Ryo gave him, from his big and pretty eyes, and his pretty smile and face. He couldn’t help but smile before he shut his eyes, unable to sleep, so he turned over to face Ryo for the last time for the night.
“Hey. Ryo,” he whispers.
“Hm?” Ryo turns over, flipping up his eyemask.
“I just wanna say, thank you again. Thank you for it all. I’m really grateful for you and your existence. And yes, you do inspire me, a lot,” After his quick succession of comments he turns over to his side and smiles his way to sleep.
Same thing with Ryo, who slipped in a small “Good night then Sakuya, I love you” while being equally as giddy as he was.
While Sakuya still sees his guineapigification as a curse, it couldn’t be more of a blessing when he’s nurtured and loved this much by his one and only. Hirose Ryo.