Chapter Text
The first thing DJ thought whenever he remembered there was a core deep inside of him was: “Woah, what the hell.”
He only trusted Superfish’s judgement and hoped that the latter would find a solution to whatever this was.
That hope quickly diminished once the core had started to act up one dreary morning on summer break. With classes out for a few months and college years looming over the newly graduated students, DJ and Superfish could fully focus on carrying out their mission of extracting the core from DJ safely and appropriately, so most days carried on as the rest. It was a nice cycle, and neither DJ or Superfish knew if they wanted it to end yet. Even though that was the goal: to lure the core out of DJ and erase his memories as humans are far too fickle and shouldn’t be trusted with this kind of information. At least that’s the conclusion Superfish came up with, that didn’t mean Superfish wanted to erase any memories DJ may have of him and have to bid goodbye to such a nice phase in his life. If he were honest, he wanted him and DJ to be able to spend every single day like this, like two boys just living their life and learning different things everyday. But the witch knew that was merely an unachievable wish, and his departure was basically inevitable.
That didn’t mean that the two couldn’t drag this out unnecessarily longer, as far as they knew, there wasn’t exactly too much of a rush.
But DJ sometimes had days where the core bothered him so badly–both physically and mentally, that he just wanted to reach inside his chest and rip the magical curse out of him forcefully, although he knew Superfish would never be onboard with something so dangerous. So instead he sat in his bed sulking, it’d suffice for now. Today, in fact, was one of those days. But DJ felt deep inside him that it wasn’t another normal flare-up, it felt more invasive this time around.
A knock at his door interrupted any further thought, DJ groaned and rolled over to the side of his bed, standing and gripping the doorknob unusually tensely as he opened the door. Before him stood none other than Superfish.
“Deeeej, did you forget about our errands today? Why are you still in your pajamas? It’s already twelve-” The witch paused as he looked DJ up and down, the latter did not seem to be in a healthy condition at all. “What’s wrong? Why do you look like death warmed over…?”
“Hello to you too, Superfish. I apologize, I slept in today.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the amount of information that the witch needed and DJ knew that. “I can see that, what’s going on? Caught a cold?”
“No, I’m fine. Just let me get changed, then we can head out. Surely I didn’t disrupt the schedule too badly tod-”
“No, get back in the bed.” Superfish interrupted, voice filled with concern that DJ really didn’t feel like addressing at the moment.
“So straightforward…” DJ mumbled, complying anyway and falling back on the soft mattress, a smirk pulling at his face once he noticed Superfish’s red face at the implications of what exactly he said. “I’m gonna ignore what you said, what’s going on?” Superfish managed through gritted teeth, trying to force down the fantasies he usually formulated late at night whenever he tried to get any sleep.
“Ah, just the core sometimes flaring up, ya’know, nothing out of the ordinary.”
Silence, absolute silence.
“You never thought to tell me that the core flares up?” The witches voice was strained, and the discovery seemed to matter much more than DJ realized. “I didn’t think it was bad or anything… is it?” The human asked, his voice weak. But instead of an answer, Superfish sighed almost dramatically. “Yes, yes it is. Long story short, it means you are slowly adapting into witch biological traits and you’ll have to do things you shouldn’t be able to as a human.” He purposefully left out what exactly he’d have to do, opting for a vague explanation. Hopefully they fix this before DJ has to actually learn how to do witch things, but Superfish knew that was yet another unrealistic wish and it’d be safer for DJ to know how to sustain himself in case of the core taking over his body.
“What?? You couldn’t have let me know earlier?” Came DJ’s terrified and shocked voice
“And you couldn’t let me know about these… flare-ups earlier?” Superfish shot back, that definitely shut DJ up quickly. An uncomfortable tension blanketed over the two before DJ attempted to break the awkward silence. “Like… what kinds of things?”
Superfish really didn’t want to extensively explain the very thing that was probably one of the most pressing matters in a situation like this. Though he had to admit that DJ was right, how could he just leave out this extremely important bit of information? He had dismissively glossed over that entire part thinking it wouldn’t be that much of a concern as he was researching after this entire situation. But Superfish knew it’d be necessary, so he took a deep breath and braced himself to explain one of the most crucial parts of witch biology.
“How do I start…? So, whenever witches reach a certain age they have to do this thing called… bonding.” The word felt like sandpaper rolling off his tongue, Superfish grimaced visibly and DJ tilted his head, probably silently asking what on Earth that was. “It’s where you choose someone and bind yourselves to them, it doesn’t always have to be romantic and most times is like a transactional relationship. At least in Obscaria, witches bond to soothe their instincts and nothing else. You can also sever bonds or change who it is, but both are incredibly grueling processes so it’s easier to just choose wisely who you want to bond with.” Each word Superfish said only sent DJ into an even deeper spiral, was this necessary? It probably was. DJ shifted uncomfortably in his spot on the bed.
“And… will this happen to me?”
“Hopefully not, if we stop it before you start showing symptoms of needing to bond soon.”
“What are the symptoms?”
Superfish went quiet, a book materialized in his grasp and he quickly flipped through the pages, trying to find what they were. “Uh… they’re all on here. Once you’ve experienced the last symptom you need to find a partner quickly or your health will be in danger. But you haven’t started adapting to witch biology just yet so this shouldn’t be a concern.”
“Are you… bonded, yet?” The word felt foreign in DJ’s mouth, even though he’d used it so many times before, he’d never used it in this context. He was in foreign territory and that fact was the only thing he fully knew. Superfish stiffened and appeared deep in thought, as if he was choosing his next words carefully.
“...no.”
“Have you shown symptoms?”
“Yes, but I’m waiting for the very last one to act on it, plus I don’t have many options down here on Earth…” He half joked at the end, but nobody laughed. Instead a sense of dread filled the atmosphere even more. “Superfish… you know that can damage your health, you yourself said that.” The witch nodded slowly as DJ spoke with the most concern Superfish has probably heard him speak with. “I know, don’t worry about me. We should worry about you, I mean, you’re a human. It’ll be pretty bad if your entire biology changes now, adds to my list of concerns, y’know.” Superfish responded as smoothly as he could, DJ weighed his options and shrugged. “I guess you have a point.”
From that day on, DJ always managed to find Superfish whenever the core flared up or whenever anything suspicious was happening. It was a beneficial relationship to both of them, Superfish got to learn many things he probably wouldn't have had this not happened, and DJ didn’t have to deal with this alone. But of course, things never were that easy. Not when a witch and a human were involved.
It wasn’t a surprise when DJ woke up with an unusual amount of difficulty, nausea prodding at his very consciousness, limbs aching at every movement he did. For some reason DJ got the urge to look at the symptoms that Superfish was surprisingly pretty worried about.
So that’s what he did.
The page in the book was titled: The Eleven Symptoms. Ominous much? DJ’s eyes skimmed the rather detailed descriptions of each symptom.
The order in which you’ll experience each of these symptoms can and will be varied, but once you’ve experienced your eleventh symptom you must quickly hurry to find a bondmate, as your life as you know it will be at risk.
-Sudden unusual sadness or loneliness… this can come in the form of feeling lonelier than usual or experiencing a surge in negative emotions…
-Abundant chest pain… you will start to feel an invasive pain in your chest often, and you will know that you’re experiencing this symptom because the pain will grow increasingly obvious as time passes…
-Constant dissociation… you will start to lose focus most times and it’ll interfere with your daily activities so it’s best to find a bondmate as soon as you experience the first symptom…
-Frequent illness… you will find yourself experiencing fevers or other inconvenient sicknesses more often and more intensely…
-True contentness is a rare occurrence… you will start to feel empty most of the time and this feeling won’t go away until you’re bonded…
-Lovesickness becoming more frequent…you will start to hope for a significant other and feel more giddy at anything about love…
-Becoming more alluring… people around you will feel much more drawn to you for unknown reasons, your presence will be more addictive to those who are best fit to be your bondmate, while less desirable to those who are not.
-Being alone will start to feel unbearable… you’ll become dependent on being around others…
-Being drawn to others… you’ll want to constantly be around those who are best fit to be your bondmate…
-Falling into a fever that won’t break… if you experience this before the fourth listed one, you will have only ten symptoms and skip that one…
-Heart rate becoming abnormally high or low… this should be the eleventh symptom you experience, if not then it is the last as if you don’t do something quickly problems will arise…
DJ quickly put down the book, taking deep breaths to calm down. Superfish will extract the core before any of this happens, surely. But a terrible feeling arose in his gut, what if Superfish was too late and he’d actually have to start bonding with somebody?
Hopefully the witch had this under control like he did most other things.