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Waking up to an empty bed never failed to pull an annoyed whine out of Seungmin. Today was no exception when he reached his hands around the bed blindly trying to feel for either of his boyfriends. After spending the night in their dorm, he had forgotten both of the older boys had their own schedules to do today.
Dejected, he sat up with a huff, wiping what remained of his sleep out of his eyes and began plotting what he would spend his rare free day doing. He sulked a bit as he moved around their dorm, pulling on a pair of Hyunjin’s sweatpants and one of Changbin’s sweaters. With how often Seungmin slept over the practical part of his brain told him he should start keeping a drawer of his own clothes at the dorm. But the emotional side of him loved simply stealing things from his boyfriends. It was one of his rights for being their boyfriend after all.
Once he was dressed, Seungmin remembered he had left his phone in the living room the night before so he padded out into the empty apartment. They empty dishes from the night before sat on the coffee table which made Seungmin wrinkle his nose at the mess. None of them had wanted to clean up before bed.
In his defense he had drunk a little too much resulting in Changbin carrying and tucking him into bed. The same couldn’t be said about the other two. Rolling his eyes, like a good partner and house guest he gathered up the dishes and began filling the sink with hot soapy water to wash them. The temperature felt nice to sink his hands into, as he mindlessly scrubbed them. The window above the sink was slightly frosted from the winter air.
Once he was done and patted his hands dry, Seungmin wandered back into the living room remembering he originally was looking for his phone. After checking the time he opened his new messages from the morning. There were a few from Felix, pictures from the New York solo schedule he was on. He sent several of the city and of the baked goods he had tried with messages begging them to try and recreate them when he got back.
Seungmin could only shake his head at the idea of them trying to make anything near as intricate as what Felix had sent. Their past cooking lives flashed through his head as he replied to Felix’s pictures and the baking message with a simple maybe.
The only other message he bothered opening was from Hyunjin telling him he was welcome to stay over as long as he wants since his own dorm was empty without Felix. Seungmin smiled to himself as he hearted the message, feeling rather lazy to type out a full response.
Almost instantly Hyunjin sent another one telling him not to eat too late in the day or touch the butter defrosting on the counter. Seungmin rolled his eyes at his over worried boyfriend before responding with a thumbs up instead. He was weirdly antsy about texting as he closed his messages. Seungmin contemplated scrolling through his phone but eventually settled on ordering food to occupy his time.
He tried to read while waiting, but that didn’t help the restlessness he felt in his body. The realization hit Seungmin when there was a knock on the door and he felt the urge to bark and run towards it. He stilled himself on the couch, waiting for the delivery person to walk away before slowly walking to the door.
It had been a while since he had spent time in his puppy form. Seungmin could only sigh as he retrieved the food, feeling less hungry than before all of a sudden. His body was clearly itching to switch, so much so that it was becoming harder to think or use his motor functions properly.
Seungmin managed to eat part of his food before he had to pack it away into the fridge. He let himself slip, felt himself get smaller and fluffier and way more energetic. It felt great as he stretched his four paws out, testing the feeling out and readjusting to his new center of gravity. Seungmin let out a test, “Woof,” which reverberated around the empty apartment. It riled him up, as he kept barking letting his inner puppy be as vocal as it wanted to be.
It didn’t take much for him to get the zoomies and start running around the apartment. It felt like a roller coaster, the crescendo of adrenaline in him each time he lapped the living room, taking tighter and tighter corners. The sound of his slightly long nails clipping against the hardwood floors encouraged him to go even faster. Seungmin ran laps and laps until he felt dizzy, flopping on the carpet with his tongue out. He lay there panting for a good few minutes before his energy spiked back up. This was the great part about being a puppy hybrid specifically, he almost never ran out of energy in this form.
Bored of running, he settled on jumping up on the couch, an action usually prohibited during puppy mode. But with both boyfriends out of the house who was going to stop him? He clambered his way over to Hyunjin’s side of the couch first, shoving his nose all along the pillow he usually liked to cuddle up against. It smelled like his boyfriend and faintly like his floral perfume. Once he got bored rubbing his face all over Changbin’s side, he crawled to the other end and pressed his face up against Hyunjin’s side. This time he got a rush of citrus notes that had him drooling slightly.
In puppy form Seungmin had a hard time understanding the passing of time. For all he knew it had been hours or days since he had last eaten. His stomach growled significantly causing him to whine into Hyunjin’s pillow. Reluctantly he jumped back down to the floor and scampered over to the kitchen. In his own apartment he and Felix would leave out bowls of food during their off days in case Seungmin went into puppy mode. He often forgot how much he needed to eat until he was in the form. And it was too hard on him to switch out just to prepare food.
He scrambled to the kitchen before remembering he wasn’t at his dorm, nor was anyone home. Seungmin couldn’t help letting out another pitiful whine, sulking back into the living room and eyeing Hyunjin’s stupid pillow from below. He growled at it, as if to intimate it into turning into an orange that he could. It simply sat on the couch mocking him, turning neither into food or into his boyfriend he missed dearly.
Seungmin had to settle for digging through his toy basket. Human Seungmin had whined and complained that they didn’t need to buy him that many toys. After he had shown his puppy form to both boys they had cooed over him and begged him to show them. It resulted in a snuggle fest where he couldn’t even verbally object to, and a very full bin of toys in case he ever decided to return to puppy mode at their dorm.
It was still a weird concept to Seungmin, transforming anywhere that wasn’t his own dorm or around the other half of his members. It wasn’t that he distrusted them but after living for so long with Minho, Felix and Jeongin they felt safe.
Puppy Seungmin was not complaining, as he rifled through the bin, settling on a bone chew toy. It helped, gnawing into the rubber with his tiny teeth, feeling the slight bite and give. It also gave him the impression he was eating, letting him trick his stupid stomach into believing they were fed.
He kept at it even when his jaw began to grow sore and his teeth ached. Seungmin still kept chewing. Seungmin couldn’t stand the hunger that stabbed at his tiny stomach whenever he stopped. He should have pushed through and finished all of his food before shifting. Or at least left it out where he could reach. It was pure instinct that made him drop his bone and clumsily stand back up. He could smell it all of a sudden. A sweet smell that felt like a siren call, as he let his paws pad into the kitchen. It took him a few circles around the counter before he realized where what he was smelling was. On the counter he could tell there was food.
Seungmin was far smaller though, so even if he jumped the counter was far too tall for his little legs to reach. He whined at the distance and scratched lightly at the cabinet door. If he was home with Felix the blond would have already arrived and made Seungmin a snack. He missed Felix. Seungmin resorted to looking around the kitchen before devising a plan.
He wandered towards the dining room, and began pushing one of the chairs over with the flat part of his head. It hurt and took a lot of energy out of his tiny body, moving the chair inch by inch towards the counter. Every so often Seungmin had to stop and lay down, panting from the exertion.
Eventually he got the chair next to the counter and jumped up on the chair. From the halfway point he could tell the delicious smell was coming from a few sticks of butter on the counter. Human Seungmin would wrinkle his nose at the idea of eating straight butter, even regular puppy Seungmin wouldn’t bother. But hungry and lonely puppy Seungmin would.
He left the rest of the way onto the counter, cringing at how the marble countertop felt cold and unfriendly on his paws. Seungmin didn’t care as he dove in, feeling his teeth sink into the now soft butter, easily tearing through the paper. It felt so much better than the bone, even if there was no bite to it as he swallowed mouthful after mouthful.
But the serotonin boost was over instantly once he finished swallowing the last bite. And with it Seungmin regained a bit more of his conciseness. Guilt filled his body as he barked out his distress. He was a bad dog. He looked around the room, noticing the clock was close to five and whimpered in fear. Hyunjin and Changbin would be back soon and he was definitely in for a scolding when they caught him.
Faced with this, he instantly moved to run and hide, misjudging how high up the counter was as he jumped down. The impact on his back leg sent a jolt of lighting up to his head but Seungmin ignored it, scrambling towards the bedroom closet.
Once inside he went draught for a pile of their discarded sweatshirts and nosed his way under curling up as far back. Seungmin tried to breathe in their comforting scents but it only made him whine when he thought about how mad they were going to be. He instead switched to licking over his front paws, trying to destress himself. He couldn’t even think of switching back to the more rational and level headed version of himself. To make it even worse, the butter was beginning to make him feel sick, letting out little gags in-between licks.
Seungmin kept lying there, in the dark of the closet and he almost fell back asleep when the sound of keys in the front door alerted him. His tiny heart beat fast as footsteps and chatter entered the apartment. He didn’t listen very hard until he heard his name and tensed up.
“You said Seungmin was still here when you left this morning?” Changbin asked.
“Yeah he was sleeping, I texted him that we’re having dinner so to hangout if he wanted to stay for it since Felix is still abroad. I see his shoes are still by the door.” Hyunjin replied.
“Seungmin?” Changbin called, his voice shifting in volume as he moved around. It made Seungmin shuffle further back until his tail met the wall.
“Maybe he’s napping? That lazy dog.” Hyunjin laughed before his voice trailed off. “Changbin.”
“I don’t see him in the bedroom?”
“Look.”
Seungmin whimpered, he knew Hyunjin had finally realized what he did and is probably showing Changbin the evidence of him being a naughty dog.
“Oh fuck.”
The sound of two sets of feet rushing around the small dorm, their steps rather frantic, echoed around in Seungmin’s head. Along with that both boys were calling his name out, “Minnie… Minnie…?” and whistling trying to draw his attention.
Seungmin could only pin his ears to his head and try to block out the noise. His paws itched to run towards the sounds and let himself bark at the irritating noise. He suppressed both actions letting out a silent whine to compensate for his inner puppy.
After he didn’t come out he could hear both boys panicking which made Seungmin feel even guiltier.
“Do you think he went back to his dorm?” Changbin asked, his voice sounding slightly breathless.
“In puppy form? You know how long he’s been out of it there’s no way he would be able to unshift so soon. He has to be hiding somewhere.”
It’s quiet after that. Too quiet. Seungmin felt his stomach growl and an instinctual keen tumble out of his mouth which made him press his paw over his eyes. There was no way they didn’t hear it. And right on cue two pairs of footsteps entered the closet, slow as if sneaking up on their prey. He heard the lower cabinets being opened and even the draws were pulled out
Suddenly part of the fabric near his head was moved and light hit Seungmin’s face where his paw didn’t cover.
“Seungminnie!” Changbin’s delighted and relieved voice sounded overwhelming to him. It made Seungmin flinch and wiggle backwards further into the pile of clothes.
“Wha- no! C’mere.” Curse Changbin and his stupidly strong arms as he managed to dig out and pick up Seungmin’s trembling form. He blindly kicked his back legs and tried to scratch them with his front paws.
“C’mon, calm down Minnie. No one’s mad at you. Poor thing.”
Seungmin managed to at least go limp in Changbin’s arms as he stood up and turned around to show the puppy off to Hyunjin. Seungmin tucked his head into Changbin’s neck trying to avoid Hyunjin’s eyes. Changbin just laughed and turned around so he had to face him. Hyunjin just cooed at him, petting his head and giving him a light scratch behind his ears which Seungmin greedily leaned into.
“I’m not mad puppy. I’m sorry I should have remembered you would probably shift today and just put them in the fridge or left you some food to eat.”
Seungmin whined at his words, unbelieving with his ears still pinned to his head in shame.
“Aww he’s a sulky baby,” Changbin teased as they moved from the closet back to the living room.
“We are going to have to take him outside though,” Hyunjin said as he moved to the kitchen. “He’ll throw it all up sooner or later, and I’d rather not scrub dog throw up out of our carpets.
Seungmin growled at that, pressing himself closer into Changbin’s chest as if it would save him from the freezing outdoors. Hyunjin just raised his eyebrows at him, giving him a knowing smile.
“Ah c’mon, we both know it’s inevitable that you’ll be throwing that back up. Butter’s not very good for dogs.”
Seungmin whined back in response and Changbin carried him over to the door and opened it. He found himself pawing at Changbin’s arms to not set him down instead of his earlier protests at being picked up. His attempts were futile as Changbin simply set him down and nudged him away from the door, barring him from scrambling back into the warm living room and hiding under the couch.
Sulking, Seungmin curled up on the steps, refusing to move. Changbin just groaned before returning inside to help Hyunjin. Despite feeling embarrassed at one of them witnessing him throwing up, he felt even more sad at being alone in the cold in such a vulnerable state. He shivered for a few minutes before he relented. He sat up and started pawing at the door and letting out his saddest and loudest whines. Seungmin knew both boys could hear him through the door as he kept it up. He made sure to look as pathetic as possible, no longer feeling any guilt for his actions.
Eventually Changbin returned with his hands on his hips and a dish towel slung over his shoulder as he opened the door. “Minnie…”
Seungmin barked at him, before bounding down the stairs slightly, to which Changbin sighed and followed him down. He sat on the stairs watching Seungmin pace around until he settled on the far corner to throw up. He still felt gross with an audience but once he got it all out and scampered back to Changbin’s legs, he was met with some gentle praise and was returned to his arms.
Coming back inside, he was further rewarded with dinner being ready and Hyunjin waiting on the couch for the two.
“Do you feel better puppy?” Hyunjin asked, opening his arms to take Seungmin from Changbin to let him wash his hands.
He whimpered, nosing into Hyunjin’s neck while he laughed at the attention. “I”ll take that as a yes. You silly dog. I also guess it was a good idea because I couldn't bake, I was going to make chocolate chip cookies. And someone,” he pointed at Seungmin, “would beg too much for one and someone else,” Hyunjin pointed at himself, “would give in and you'd have a tummy ache either way.” He poked his stomach gently as he spoke.
Seungmin only happily barked at him, feeling drastically better with the offensive butter out of his system and his boyfriend’s attention on him.
When Changbin returned the two took turns hand feeding Seungmin parts of their dinner while a documentary played on the screen behind them. Seungmin had so much fun running between both ends of the couch when one of them would call his name and wave a piece of food in front of him. By the time the credits were rolling, all of their bowls were empty and Seungmin had collapsed on the couch, exhausted. He barely managed to shift back before he fell asleep.
“What a good day,” he thought as he felt Hyunjin’s hands petting through his hair, and Changbin draping one of their blankets over him, before he was out like a light.