Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Minghao’s first memory is fire. The second one is fear and confusion. The third is the screaming.

The small village he was born in wasn’t familiar with magic. It was a small place, fairly distant from other civilizations, a tight-knit community where rumors spread quickly. If one person heard it, the neighbor heard it, and if the neighbor heard it, they told the fruit vendor, the fruit vendor told his next customer, the customer told her husband, her husband told his friends at the pub that afternoon, and by the end of the day, everyone knew.

Did you hear—that Xu boy? Oh yes, how horrible. Their only child, too. What a shame. I feel bad for those poor parents, they didn’t deserve such a thing. It’s scary, isn’t it? We need to steer clear. How awful that we have something like that here. I’ll make sure to keep my son away from him.

They didn’t know what to call what Minghao was born with. What they did know was how to call a child a curse.

It started the day of the fire. It wasn’t anything severe, although if asked, the villagers would come up with a more elaborate story every time. Like a fire growing, Minghao would describe it wryly.

I heard he set the kitchen on fire. No, I heard it was his parents’ bedroom. Really? Rongyi told me it was the inside of their whole house. Don’t be silly, I’m sure Caixia is right and it was the forest behind their backyard, Liangchen could barely stop the fire.

Of course it wasn’t the forest. It wasn’t his parents’ bedroom, much less the entire house. It wasn’t even the kitchen. Talk, talk, talk. That’s all the villagers were good for.

It was the fireplace and a cheap rug. Who cared about that stupid old rug anyway? That’s exactly what Minghao, who had just spilled a glass of juice on it, told his dad when he was scolded for the accident. Minghao felt the anger burn in his veins as his dad glared at him, looked down at him, and that’s when it happened—no flicker, no spark. Like an explosion, the fire sprung to life, wild and hungry.

It quickly ate away at the ugly edges of the rug, starting dangerously close to Minghao’s feet, the sudden panic and frantic attempt to escape leading him to trip and fall backwards, the sound of the collision of his body to the ground deafened by his mother’s screams.

And just as quickly as it started, it stopped. The rug was left smoking, already half-consumed by the inexplicable fire. By the time Minghao returned to his senses after his fall, his father was trying to calm down his mother, in hysterics over her favorite rug being destroyed by the fire.

Then it was the screaming, from his father. The crying was from his mother, and the apologies from Minghao came out confused, garbled, through tears as the screaming just didn’t stop.

Minghao didn’t get to eat dinner that night. When he came downstairs the next morning, the rug was gone. The scorch marks remained. His parents didn’t look him in the eye for days.

It would have been a cruel and unusual thing to accuse a child of, somehow starting a fire out of nowhere—and it was, until it didn’t just stop at the fire. As he grew up, so did the extremes of the phenomena that seemed to surround him. When Minghao got angry, fires would flare up around him, when he got sad, the temperature around him would plummet, when he got upset, plants near him would wilt. Even when he was excited, the ground beneath him rumbled uncontrollably, knocking over dishes and books. There was no end, no limit to the destruction that followed him like a plague. Like a curse.

I’m sorry, he said a thousand, a million times, crying and trying to make himself smaller every time. I didn’t mean to. I don’t know why this is happening.

But of course, it wasn’t good enough. If he had no explanations, how could he excuse his actions?

He must be cursed, all of the villagers concluded, like a death sentence.

And what was a child supposed to think when they had never been told otherwise? The boys at the playground told him that they weren’t allowed to play with him because their mothers had told them Minghao was bad news, stay away. The girls would point and whisper then turn away in fear when he noticed. Shh, look away! He might curse us too!

He swung on the creaky old swings alone, hoping the squeaking rust would drown out the other kids laughing and having fun together.

Parents would lead their children away from him when he walked through the streets, and there wasn’t a person who didn’t at least take one or two steps back whenever he walked past them, eyes down.

He learned to keep his head down early. Not only because of the shame, but because he couldn’t take it—their eyes on him. The way they looked at him. In fear, in horror, in disdain. Their judgmental side eyes and glares weighed on him like a thousand jins of contempt, a guillotine waiting to fall with his next misstep.

Minghao tried, of course he tried, because he couldn’t take any more of the lonely days and nights, when the sun would watch him try to play ball alone, when the moon would hear him beg to be freed of his curse, so he could just be normal, so he wouldn’t have to be so alone anymore.

What he eventually learned was that the best way to avoid the catastrophe he caused was to simply shut down. Anger, sadness, fear, joy, all of it buried deep inside of him, so disaster wouldn’t strike again. So he wouldn’t be such a curse to everyone around him.

It ate him up inside, having to bottle it all up. Not allowing himself to feel anything, to never dwell, never linger on anything that might evoke emotion from him. But even if he didn’t let himself indulge in even small joys, at least he wouldn’t be lonely anymore, right?

That wasn’t enough either. He’s so weird. He never shows any emotions, never looks at anyone. Not only is he a curse, he’s so weird. We need to keep our distance.

So they did. Minghao became even more alone than he ever was.

I wish he’d just leave.

The last straw was on his sixth birthday.

His parents were almost proud of him. Sure, their son never showed emotion, but didn’t that make him such a filial son, never throwing a tantrum, never putting up a fight? Nothing bad had happened for months either. Maybe their son was finally becoming normal. Maybe he wouldn’t be such a curse anymore.

When Minghao’s parents told him they had a present for him—the first one he ever got—the excitement was barely contained, but he managed. He had done well so far. He just needed to keep it together.

They handed it to him together. A coloring book, with flowers and animals. It must have been the upper limit of what his parents could afford at the time, and he couldn’t contain it. His joy, his pride, his appreciation, his love for his parents—

A flash of lightning outside, on a clear, cloudless day, followed by the plants in the kitchen suddenly overgrowing, pulled apart everyone’s attention from the previously happy affair.

When Minghao finished taking stock of the damage, he made the mistake of looking at them.

The look on his parents’ faces. The same look the villagers always gave him. That look that followed him the same way that disaster did—

His father opened his mouth, and before any words came out, Minghao ran.

He ran and he ran, angry flames just barely extinguished by a torrent of rain that followed him, the shrubbery around him wilting at devastating rates. He left behind him a trail of smoke, left behind his home, left behind all of them. His legs burned hot with exertion, body with rage, at everything, at everyone.

He left behind his school, full of kids who would always refuse to play with him and teachers who wouldn’t call on him in class, he left behind his neighbors that always urged their children to stay a little further away from him when he got close, he left behind the shop owners who were reluctant to even let him into their establishments. That old lady who shouted at him for getting too close to her garden, the fruit vendor who didn’t care to pick out good produce for him, the little boy who threw pebbles at him for trying to talk to his friends—

He left behind his parents, who should have protected him. Who should have loved him.

Minghao’s legs gave out eventually and he collapsed to his knees, bones thudding into the damp soil beneath him.

For the first time in a long time, he let himself feel, finally really and truly all alone.

They were horrible, choking sobs, head buried in his hands and body curling in on itself like he’d maybe finally disappear if he made himself small enough. He cried loudly and unabashedly now that no one was around to scold him for it, for causing rainstorms and dropping temperatures, all by himself.

When he ran out of tears, he finally registered how cold it was. The rain had stopped, but the temperature had yet to return to what it was when he left, the cold biting into his bare arms and legs. Minghao rubbed his arms in vain, but it didn’t make him any warmer.

He wished his parents would hold him like he saw other kids’ parents hold them.

“Oh my, what’s this?” A twittering voice suddenly came out of the blue, startling Minghao out of his thoughts. “A human?”

Minghao whipped his head around in alarm, trying to find the source of the sound.

“Oh! You can hear me?”

Something flew right before his eyes. When he reoriented himself, he only became more confused.

“...what are you?” Was the only question he could muster. Sure, he could stand to be a little more surprised at the tiny person with wings flying in front of him, but he was certainly no stranger to unusual circumstances.

“A fairy! Oh, how fun! How come you can hear me?” The…fairy asked, excited as much as Minghao was confused.

“I don’t know,” he said eventually. The fairy frowned, clearly not content with this reply. Minghao shrunk back under the fairy’s disapproval, the grass under his feet drying up as he did. The fairy turned their eyes to the ground to the browning grass and their frown grew even deeper.

“I’m sorry—I’m really sorry,” Minghao scrambled to apologize. “I didn’t mean to do that, I just—it happens and I don’t know why and I don’t know how to stop it and—and I’m sorry, I really am—”

“No, no! It’s okay, no need to worry! Here, let me.” The fairy gently lowered to the ground primly, closing their eyes and inhaling deeply. When they exhaled, the wilted foliage around Minghao suddenly furled back to life, blossoming again right before his eyes.

Minghao blinked, frozen in place. Not because of their actions, but because— 

It’s okay, no need to worry. 

“You’re magic!” The fairy declared when they fixed Minghao’s mistake. They beamed at him. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen a human that can do magic!”

“A human that can do magic?” Minghao echoed.

“Why do you sound confused?”

“Because I am? What do you mean I can do magic?”

“Did you not know you were doing magic?” The fairy asked, fluttering to a stop in front of him.

“No, I was just…born this way.” He swallowed and picked at the nearest blade of grass to avoid the fairy’s inquisitive gaze, vibrant under his fingertips. His voice lowered, afraid to admit the truth. “The villagers called me a curse.”

“That’s so rude!” The fairy declared. Minghao raised his head in confusion, only to be met with their indignant pout. “How could they do that? You’re just magic, how is that a curse?”

“I kept causing everyone trouble,” he mumbled. “I can’t control this…magic.”

“Is that it?” The fairy asked, sounding rather unimpressed. “That’s no fair. If that’s the case, we can fix that, easy.”

Minghao blinked at the fairy.

“Fix it?”

“Of course! Come on, follow me!”

The fairy fluttered up into the air again, beckoning Minghao to follow with a bright smile.

He’s being asked to go somewhere. Someone wants him to be somewhere. Someone wants him to come with them.

He swallows, hope fluttering inside of him like fairy wings.

“Okay—okay!”

Minghao’s life in the forest isn’t the life he imagined for himself, but he wouldn’t trade it for anything else now. Certainly, he wouldn’t have even been able to imagine this if he tried.

He didn’t know there was a place like this inside of the forest to begin with—well, that’s not quite right. This place is the forest, the deepest, truest parts of it.

In the heart of the forest is a vibrant, living ecosystem Minghao would have never fathomed possible. While the outside had always seemed dark and daunting, in the center of it all is bright and thriving. Life thrums in its heart, dazzling in its assortment of flora that seem to invite him, the forest floor dappled with soft moss and smooth rocks. Colorful flowers bloom when he walks by them, vines unfurl under his feet, mushrooms glow softly with each step. Spots of sunlight peek through a thick canopy that seems to shield him from the rest of the world that spent so long shunning him, following him around like he should always be seen. Where the air he once lived in was oppressive and suffocating, the forest is always cool and soothing, courtesy of the air spirits and elementals that reside here. It used to be so noisy, noisy, noisy, but pointless gossip has been replaced by lively chatter and laughter he gets to be a part of, that he’s even the center of sometimes, but only ever in a way that holds him with affection.

But it’s not really about the forest. It’s those who have accepted him since the moment he stepped into his new home.

“It’s like this—” Jeonghan demonstrates again, conjuring an orb of water from his lake and arching it over his head in a smooth, fluid motion. “You have to really feel the water.”

“You say that every time,” Minghao grumbles, scooping up his own orb and keeping it suspended for a few moments to ‘really feel’ the water.

“Of course I do. How else am I supposed to describe it?”

“In something that makes more sense,” Minghao mutters. He tries to arc it over his head—and it splashes on him, equal parts disappointing but magically refreshing in the way that Jeonghan’s lake is. It drips onto his hair, shimmering and cool. Jeonghan is holding back laughter, poorly. “You’re a water elemental! How am I supposed to compete with you!”

“You’re not, I’m trying to teach you.”

“I think you’re trying to make fun of me.”

“Me?” Jeonghan asks, scandalized. “Never. You’re my favorite human ever.”

“Well, Joshua is my favorite water elemental ever," Minghao retorts, much like the child he isn’t, crossing his arms across his chest defiantly. Joshua burbles in delight from under the water.

Jeonghan gasps.

“You can’t say that to me! Seungcheol, tell him he can’t say that to me!”

“You can’t say that to him,” the tree spirit repeats dutifully.

Jeonghan huffs dramatically and Minghao breaks out into laughter. Flowers bloom where he sits. Jeonghan’s face splits into a smile.

“You’re so cute. You’ve grown up so fast, darling. How old are you again?”

Minghao would be offended that Jeonghan doesn’t remember, but it’s not like Jeonghan ages, so Minghao doesn’t blame him for not keeping track of time.

“I’m ten now!” Minghao declares proudly. Well, something like that. It’s not like he’s been keeping track of his birthdays, he thinks bitterly.

“You’re ten now!” Jeonghan repeats excitedly. He immediately turns to Chan, who’s sunbathing on a nearby rock. “What does that mean? How much is ten?”

“Why are you asking me?” He asks flippantly, stretching leisurely. “I’m an elemental too.”

“Does that mean you’re all grown up now?” Jeonghan asks with complete seriousness and affection. Minghao puffs up his chest.

“Very. I’m very grown.”

“Still a baby then,” Jeonghan coos.

“No!” Minghao shouts indignantly. “I’m not a baby anymore!”

“You’ll always be our baby,” Joshua interjects, surfacing from the lake with effortless grace. He grabs Minghao’s face and squishes his cheeks. “You’re gonna be our baby forever.”

Minghao feels his ears burning, but a smile tugs at his face anyway.

Forever, with people who love him for the first time.

“Okay,” he acquiesces. “As long as you want to keep me forever.”

“Of course we do,” Seungcheol says firmly, not letting Minghao even a second of self-doubt. “You belong here. You’re one of us.”

Minghao’s smile grows. More flowers bloom where he’s sitting, brushing up against the glimmering crystals surrounding Jeonghan and Joshua’s lake.

Jeonghan’s face turns fond and he bats away Joshua’s hands to place his own on Minghao’s cheeks.

“We’ll always want you here,” he says, somehow always attuned to what Minghao is feeling.

“I’ll always want to be here,” Minghao swears.

The sunlight that washes over him, forest canopy breathing to let in sunbeams, doesn’t warm him as much as the love he’s surrounded by.

-

Spirits and elementals don’t technically need to eat, able to sustain themselves on the elements they’re associated with, but Minghao still very much does. He decides that tonight, he wants to have mushroom stew and bids his family goodbye, venturing off into the forest alone. As much as he loves his family, he’s grown to cherish time alone, as long as it’s time he chooses.

(“We can come with you if you want,” Wonwoo offered gently the first time Minghao declared he wanted to go somewhere alone, padding around him in circles, his tail tickling Minghao’s legs. You don’t have to be alone anymore, went his unspoken words. Minghao shook his head and smiled.

“As long as I have somewhere to come back to.”

“Always,” Jeonghan promised, arms resting on the edge of his lake. “Come home safe, okay? We’ll be watching over you.”

Home.

“I’ll be home soon, promise!”

“We’ll miss you,” Junhui lamented. “Our little witch, all grown up…”

Minghao grinned and rubbed Junhui’s head between his huge, fluffy ears, a touch he happily leaned into, purring contently. He imagines that a long time ago, if anyone called him a witch, he would have only been more crushed. Now, it’s part of him. It’s who he is. It’s how he’s loved.

“It’ll only be for a few hours!”

“A few hours?!” Jeonghan yelled, suddenly sounding a lot less like he was okay with Minghao leaving, hauling himself partway out of his lake by the hands. “You can’t, we’ll miss you too much!”

Minghao laughed and waved his home a temporary goodbye.

When he came home, much sooner than a few hours later, Jeonghan and the others wouldn’t let him out of his sight, doting on him and excitedly peppering him with questions about his adventure despite the fact half of them already knew, beams of sunlight and adoring eyes holding him like spotlights.

He loves it. He loves being seen. He loves being wanted to be looked at.)

So today he wanders, basket in hand—woven by Hansol, just for Minghao—looking for some nice mushrooms. The earth spirits taught him in great detail which ones were the best to eat and their magical uses, always dedicated to providing Minghao with the best and teaching him everything they know.

Minghao’s happy reminiscing on how much his family cares about him is interrupted by a rustle in the bushes—he pays it no particular mind; probably just a creature scampering around. He hopes it likes mushrooms and head pats, if it comes up to him.

“Whoa—whoa!” Comes a voice, preceding a light thud to the forest ground. Okay, definitely not an animal. Minghao tenses immediately, backing up. He knows the earth and air spirits and elementals that keep watch over the forest would never let anything happen to him, but it’s been a long while since he’s heard any unfamiliar voices, and he certainly can’t sense any magic coming from the source of the voice. A human.

The rustling grows closer and closer, Minghao frozen in place, not sure if he can muster up the courage to run. His heart pounds in his chest, body locked in place. A human. A human. A human.

“Oh!” Comes the voice of the young boy that’s fallen through the thick foliage in front of Minghao, just barely catching himself on his hands and knees.

“Ah!” Minghao yelps, dropping his basket and leaping away from the intruder, almost falling to the ground in the process. Vines spring from the ground to cushion his fall, unlike the unfortunate stranger in front of him. He digs his fingers into the dirt and he scrabbles backwards frantically, the air suddenly beginning to vibrate nervously with Minghao’s tension.

“Gosh, I didn’t mean to scare you! I’m sorry!” The intruder apologizes quickly, standing up and brushing dirt off his knees. He extends a hand to Minghao who flinches away, scrambling to put even more distance between them. Fog rolls in, thickening the air between them. The intruder looks around him, eyebrows pinched in confusion. “What—?”

“Who are you?” Minghao manages to demand, willing his voice to not waver so much. “How did you get here? There’s—there’s supposed to be a protection spell here.” He shakes his head anxiously. “You—you have to leave.”

The intruder pays no heed to Minghao’s demands, instead peering curiously through the fog.

“Protection spell? Like, magic?” He asks in…wonder?

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Minghao insists, fog thickening.

“Why not? You’re also here.”

“I live here,” Minghao bites out, anxiety sharpening into defense as he rises to his feet quickly. Thunder rumbles close by. “This is my home.”

“You live here? That’s so cool!”

“...cool?” Minghao echoes. The air settles around them, just enough.

“Yeah! I’ve never been anywhere so cool. The forest behind the castle is so boring.”

“...castle?” Minghao is growing progressively more confused. The fog dissipates slowly, giving way to the stranger’s face. “Who are you?”

The stranger, who appears to be a boy perhaps around Minghao's age, frowns.

“I’m Mingyu,” he says, like it’s obvious.

“I don’t know who Mingyu is,” Minghao deadpans, fixing Mingyu with a disinterested look before starting to brush non-existent dirt off of his knees.

Strangely, ‘Mingyu’ seems extremely pleased, clapping his hands together, eyes lit up in joy.

“Really?! Oh, thank goodness!”

Minghao eyes Mingyu warily, hands stopped mid-brush.

“Should I?”

“No, no, you don’t have to,” Mingyu insists quickly, waving his hand around like he’s banishing the thought. “Hey, let’s be friends!”

Minghao freezes completely. A human? A human wants to be friends with Minghao? Minghao just barely stops himself from scoffing. A human who wants to be friends with Minghao. How ridiculous.

“I’m not friends with humans,” Minghao replies coldly, arms crossed.

“Why not?” Mingyu asks, looking genuinely curious. “You’re a human too.”

“I’m a witch,” Minghao snaps back. Small flames flicker around him, flaring hot and dangerous with his words.

Mingyu seems unfazed. If anything, he almost seems awed by the little fires.

“Aren’t witches humans?”

“Not to you humans,” Minghao scoffs.

“You don’t know that about me,” Mingyu replies with a frown. 

“I do,” Minghao insists, picking up his basket and checking if he dropped any mushrooms. “You stupid humans are all the same.”

“It’s fine if you think that, but I’m not, if you get to know me.”

“Why would I want to?”

“‘Cus then you’d see not all humans are like that,” Mingyu says bluntly, completely undeterred by Minghao’s caustic rebuttals. Minghao fixes him with a tense glare, but Mingyu’s curious facial expression doesn’t change at all. Minghao sighs.

“Fine,” he relents, just to get Mingyu off of his back. Mingyu’s eyes light up. “But only if you can find me again.”

Mingyu grins, bright even though the remaining fog.

“Deal! Don’t hide too well, okay?”

“Just…get out of here. The forest isn’t safe for you,” Minghao says flippantly, adjusting his basket on his arm before turning around and making his way home.

“But it’s safe for you?” Mingyu calls out.

“Get out of here!”

“I’ll see you soon, mister witch!”

Minghao huffs, rolling his eyes. Ridiculous.

-

“Welcome home, darling!” Jeonghan yells as soon as Minghao comes within earshot of the heart of the forest, where his family and home reside. Minghao grins, running quickly past the subtle fairy ring that protects them from the rest of the world.

“I’m home,” Minghao declares happily, sitting down in front of Jeonghan’s lake, the crystals around it lighting up slightly with his proximity. He places his basket in front of his feet, showing Jeonghan the contents. “I got mushrooms!”

Jeonghan claps excitedly, even though this certainly isn’t Minghao’s first forage.

“They look so good! You did such a good job,” Jeonghan gushes like he does every time, reaching out of the water to pat Minghao on the head. Minghao doesn’t even mind that his hair is getting damp, preening under his attention.

“You smell different,” Jihoon says offhandedly, floating by on a gentle breeze carrying a soft tune. Count on air elementals to pick up on even something like that.

“Don’t be mean!” Jeonghan yells, swatting at the air. Jihoon dodges nimbly.

“What happened out there?” Seungcheol asks, concerned. Hansol nods.

Jeonghan’s face pinches, turning serious.

“Did something happen? Are you okay?”

“Ah…” Minghao starts, picking at the hem of his shirt. “I kind of…met another human…?”

Minghao’s voice drifts off at the end, but the heart of the forest explodes into chaos.

Everyone in his family that isn’t rooted surrounds him quickly, clamoring over his wellbeing. The cacophony of concerned voices all overlap each other.

“Are you okay?” “Did they hurt you?” “Are you alright?” “What happened?” “Do we need to do something about it?” “What did they say?”

“Guys, it’s okay—!”

The noise dies down quickly, but murmurs of concern linger.

“Do we need to strengthen the protection spell?” Seungkwan asks very seriously, fixing Minghao with a worried look.

“Well…he seemed kind of harmless. And I doubt he’ll be able to find his way back anyway. He was just another kid and…” Minghao furrows his eyebrows, still unsure of the interaction himself. “he was kind of interested in my magic?”

There’s silence for a moment too long. Minghao looks up at Jeonghan, who has a deeply conflicted look on his face.

“What?” Minghao asks.

Jeonghan huffs.

“Everyone should recognize how talented and amazing you are, especially those humans, but I’m still suspicious. I can’t let anyone hurt my baby.”

“I’m not a baby,” Minghao says with a smile.

“Always our baby,” Joshua sings from behind Jeonghan.

“If you don’t care about renewing the protection spell, we won’t,” Seungkwan concedes. “We trust you. But we’re here to protect you. You know that.”

Minghao smiles.

“I know. I love you guys.”

The heart of the forest bursts into excitement again, this time joyous. Minghao gets tackled into the soft moss, attacked by all of his family members telling him how much they love him, laughing brightly.

Yes, this is where he’s meant to be.

Minghao truly doesn’t expect to see Mingyu again, but the esoteric hand of fate never deals in Minghao’s favor.

“Mister witch!”

Minghao turns around slowly, in disbelief. His basket falls slack from his arm. There’s no way. It’s only been a week.

“I’m back!” And back Mingyu is, caught in a large bush. Despite his plight, Mingyu seems delighted. If Minghao looks closely, there are vines tying him in place, preventing him from moving any further.

“...you’re back. How did you get back here?”

“Yeah! I came back to see you!” Mingyu declares happily, completely ignoring Minghao’s question.

“You came back to see me.”

“Mhm! But I got kind of stuck, so I’ve just been waiting here.”

“You’ve been waiting here?” Minghao balks. “For how long?”

“I don’t know,” Mingyu muses. “But I’m a little thirsty.”

“You’re—” Minghao shakes his head. “You’re stupid is what you are. Why did you come back? How did you get back?”

“I told you, I came back to see you. That’s all.”

Minghao sighs. Well, he can’t exactly let Mingyu stay here forever. He walks over to Mingyu’s predicament.

“You can let go of him,” Minghao whispers to the vines. They tug at Mingyu a little, away from Minghao’s outstretched hand. No, they refuse. “It’s okay, he’s not gonna hurt me.” Minghao catches himself and looks at Mingyu suspiciously. “You won’t hurt me…right?”

Mingyu shakes his head frantically, eyes wide.

“Never!”

“See? It’s okay.” The vines are stubborn, but after a moment or two they seem to sigh as they slowly unfurl, freeing Mingyu.

“Are you okay?” Minghao finds himself asking for some reason, examining Mingyu’s limbs for any marks. Mingyu nods his head, observing himself.

“Didn’t hurt or anything. I’m okay.”

“Were you just planning on staying like that?” Minghao asks, unimpressed at Mingyu’s lack of self-preservation.

“Well, I knew you’d rescue me,” Mingyu explains with a smile. Minghao looks up at him skeptically, eyebrows raised.

“What makes you so sure about that?”

“You just did, right?”

Minghao has no rebuttal.

“Whatever. You should get home or it’ll get late.”

“No! You promised we could get to know each other if I found you again,” Mingyu pleads.

Minghao’s mouth opens and closes, completely at a loss for what to say.

“Why do you want to get to know me so bad?”

“Why not?”

Why not?

Why would he? If Mingyu got to know him, how much longer would it take for Mingyu to think Minghao is a curse too? How much would it take for Minghao to drive him away, to make Mingyu scared of him? How much longer until Mingyu shuns him?

How much longer until Mingyu looks at him like that too?

“Please?”

As it is, Mingyu’s eyes are wide and pleading. He’s like a dog with a bone, Minghao thinks. One throwaway remark to make Mingyu drop the matter, and now he’s somehow stumbled his way back here, begging Minghao to talk?

“Fine,” Minghao huffs, sitting down, setting his basket primly to the side. Mingyu plops down in front of him unceremoniously. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Tell me about yourself,” Mingyu urges without hesitation. Minghao points at himself. Mingyu nods enthusiastically.

“I’ve never met anyone who lives in the woods. Or a witch! That’s so cool! Hey, tell me about that whispering you did to the vines. I was trying to come and find you and then I got stuck and then they—” Mingyu makes a strange motion with his hands, wiggling his fingers. “—got me.”

“Are you gonna freak out if I tell you?” Minghao asks warily.

“No! Why would I freak out? This is so cool! I wanna know everything!”

“Well…how much do you know about magic?”

Mingyu crosses his arms and ponders deeply for a moment.

“Not enough! It’s kinda like…spells and stuff, right?”

“Sometimes.” Minghao struggles to explain to a non-magic what magic really is. He’s starting to understand why Jeonghan isn’t very specific when teaching him water magic. “I just kinda…do it.”

“Show me,” Mingyu urges, eyes sparkling.

“I already did. Last time.”

“Oh, all of that stuff that happened? That was magic?”

The same kind of uncontrollable magic that chased Minghao out of his hometown. The same kind of magic that labeled Minghao a curse since he was just a child. The same kind of magic that made everyone stay away from him. The same kind of magic only his real family has ever loved him for.

“That’s so cool!” Mingyu yells, suddenly up in Minghao’s face, propelled forwards by his little hands on the forest floor. Minghao leans back quickly, startled by the sudden proximity.

“How many things are cool to you?” Minghao mumbles instead, putting a polite amount of distance between them.

“Everything about you is cool. Doesn’t everybody think that?”

Minghao’s eyes drop to the ground.

“...my family thinks I’m cool,” Minghao responds evasively.

“Are your parents witches too? Do they live here too?”

A howling gust of wind echoes from around them.

“No.”

“Really?” Mingyu continues, undeterred. “What’s your family like then?”

Minghao smiles absently, thinking about his family.

“They live in the forest with me. They’re nature spirits. They all have different jobs in the forest. Hansol was the one who grabbed you.”

“Hansol?”

“Mhm. He’s connected with the ground and vines.”

Mingyu’s eyes go wide and he claps his hands over his mouth.

“Can he hear us?”

“Almost everyone can hear us.” Minghao says sternly. “So you better not be mean to me, ‘cus they’ll know.”

“I swear it on my blood,” Mingyu promises in a strange display of earnestness, back straight and hand held over his heart. It’s a jarring and stark contrast to how he typically acts, vibrant and excitable.

Now that Minghao is looking at him, there’s something…not very village-boy about him. There are crisp lines to all of his clothes if Minghao looks past the dirt smudged on them, likely from the journey here. He holds himself with a confident air that lingers below his playful demeanor, and has an unusual thirst for knowledge. All of the boys Minghao knew were only interested in playing ball or kicking around rocks. And avoiding him, of course.

“Where are you from?” Minghao asks suspiciously. Mingyu freezes.

“Do you know about the Cesulan Kingdom?” He asks hesitantly. Minghao shakes his head. He doesn’t know why he asked; he didn’t even know the name of his village. Mingyu visibly relaxes.

“I’m from there,” Mingyu says simply.

“Are there lots of people?”

“Oh yeah, a ton!” Mingyu spreads his arms wide. “Our population is around five hundred thousand people. Or—something like that.”

“Whoa. That’s a lot.”

“What about you? Are there a lot of people—um, spirits where you live?”

Minghao opens his mouth to talk but a vine tugs gently at his wrist.

“Is it okay?” He whispers down to Hansol. The vine gives him one last tug before pausing. It relaxes its grip and retreats into the ground. It waves a little and Minghao waves back, a smile tugging at his lips.

When he looks up at Mingyu again, Mingyu is looking at him like he struck a fortune, taking Minghao aback. He didn’t know humans could look so excited and he’d certainly never expect it to be directed towards him of all people.

“You can talk to them?!”

“Well, yeah. They’re all alive.”

“Everything?” Mingyu’s eyebrows are just a step away from disappearing into his shaggy hair. “That’s so—”

“Cool?” Minghao finishes, biting back a smile.

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“Hm. Not sure,” Minghao says evasively, rubbing at a smooth rock in the dirt.

“Tell me more cool things,” Mingyu urges, the spark in his eyes not lost.

“I don’t know what’s cool to you,” Minghao replies before realizing the answer. Mingyu blurts it out for him anyway.

“Everything about you is cool! I want to know it all!”

Mingyu’s enthusiasm is equal parts unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and…flattering? Minghao shifts uncomfortably under Mingyu’s awed stare.

“Um…the reason you’re not supposed to be in here is because there’s a protection spell this deep into the forest.” He picks at the grass. “We don’t know how you got in here. Humans aren’t supposed to be able to get this far, only magicals.”

Mingyu crosses his arms and looks comically deep in thought before turning his excited gaze to Minghao again.

“Do you think I’m magic too?!”

Minghao shakes his head with finality.

“No.” He ignores the fact Mingyu deflates a little. “There’s no magic coming off of you. I’d be able to sense it if you had any.” Minghao swallows firmly and digs his fingers into the dirt. “But you don't want to be.”

“Why not?”

How does Minghao explain it? The rejection, the isolation, the side-eyed stares, poorly-hidden whispers, those looks? Mingyu would never be able to understand what a lifetime of never being invited to play with the other kids was like. Minghao hopes so, anyway.

“People don’t like you if you’re magic,” Minghao mumbles, knees drawn to his chest, stare fixed firmly at a stick on the ground. The temperature drops quickly, sharply enough to make Mingyu shiver a little from the corner of Minghao’s eye. Minghao flinches.

“Well, I like you,” Mingyu retorts, sounding unaffected by the cold.

Minghao’s head snaps up to look at Mingyu, searching his gaze for any deception or insincerity.

He finds none.

Minghao fidgets where he sits. Mingyu’s words and persistence have alluded to that, sure, but he’s not sure what to do with the unfamiliar sentiment. He feels a blush rise to his ears and the temperature quickly returns to its ambient state. He looks away from Mingyu, not prepared for the earnestness in his admission and eyes.

“Okay,” Minghao whispers, not sure what else to say.

“What, you don’t like me?”

Shyly, Minghao tilts his head up just a little. Mingyu is pouting and a smirk comes to Minghao’s face.

“Maybe. I don’t know yet.”

Mingyu’s pout grows deeper.

“Well, what do I have to do to get you to like me?”

“You’ll have to find out,” Minghao says casually, slowly unfurling from his defensive position. “Another time. It’s getting dark.”

Mingyu looks up, somehow surprised that the sunset is peeking through the forest canopy.

“Crap—” Mingyu looks back at Minghao, his face upset and conflicted. After a moment, he huffs, standing up. “I’m coming back!”

Minghao just smiles and Mingyu gives him one more unsettlingly earnest look before running off.

“Wait, you never told me your name!” Mingyu calls suddenly, turning around to look at Minghao again.

“My name is Minghao!”

“Bye, Minghao! I’ll come to see you again soon!” Mingyu waves energetically at Minghao, who returns the gesture politely.

“Why do you keep coming back here?” Minghao, after finding Mingyu wandering around helplessly for the second time this week. “I’m sure you have better things to do than hang out with a witch.”

“I don’t!” Mingyu insists loudly, taking Minghao off guard. He covers his mouth, eyes wide, before speaking again, lowering his tone. “Sorry. I don’t. This is the most fun I ever have.”

“...with me?” Minghao asks, tamping down the strange feeling in his stomach.

“Yeah! Hanging out with you is so fun. You’re so cool and interesting, more than anything else at home.”

“What do you do at home?”

Mingyu frowns and looks away.

“Stuff. Boring stuff.”

Mingyu is so interesting in this way. He’s so open and easy to read, but he won’t share any details about his personal life. It feels a little unfair, especially when he asks,

“What are you doing out here without your parents?”

Minghao frowns.

“Who needs parents?”

“Why are you out here without your parents?”

“I don’t need them,” Minghao repeats, sharper this time. Mingyu pulls away, just a little, and Minghao softens in regret. He sighs and holds out an olive branch, a bone for Mingyu to bite, just to see him smile. “If you keep coming, I’ll tell you. Okay?”

Mingyu perks up immediately, beaming like the sun.

“Okay! I will! Pinky promise!”

-

And so he does. Again and again, looking at Minghao with those wide, inquisitive eyes every time. Never any judgment, never any fear.

(Minghao doesn’t know what to do about that, being pinned under the open gaze of a human.)

“Are you sure he’s safe?” Jeonghan asks again, face painted with tender concern. Minghao shifts from foot to foot, playing with the strap of his bag. Mingyu has never been anything but curious and excitable, allowing Minghao to talk about his magic and show it off, looking at him with shining eyes and eager requests to see more. He’s like a shining star, sunlight breaking through the trees during snowy winters, a crackling fire illuminating a dark night.

“I think he’s different,” Minghao replies, because that’s the truest thing he can say about Mingyu without saying that Mingyu makes him feel something warm inside. He doesn’t know what that means, but it makes him happy. Isn’t that all that matters?

“In a good way, right?”

Minghao can’t help the shy smile that pulls at his mouth. He squeezes the strap of his bag tighter.

“Yeah. I think so.”

“Okay,” Jeonghan concedes. He pats Minghao’s calf with a wet hand, the coldness making Minghao giggle. “Stay safe out there!”

Minghao nods, even though both of them know they don’t need to worry about it, not when their family is around.

Mingyu’s appearances are inconsistent, which Minghao understands, of course. He’s got stuff to do, even if it’s boring stuff that Mingyu won’t elaborate on. Minghao would wait, but he doesn’t have to—he won’t admit it to anyone, but he’s developed a…sense for Mingyu’s presence. A warm tug, pulling at him. At the end, every time, is Mingyu.

“Minghao!” Mingyu calls as soon as he spots Minghao. He didn’t need to, but Minghao doesn’t mind his name coming out of a human’s mouth when it’s with joy. From Mingyu’s mouth.

“Hello,” Minghao says softly, sitting down on a smooth rock. Mingyu follows suit, canines showing in his bright grin. “How was your day?”

Mingyu huffs before plopping down on a log.

“Boring. It’s always boring.”

“Boring?”

“They keep making me do stupid stuff I don’t want to do,” he grumbles, digging a little hole in the dirt with his shoe. Minghao notices new things about him every time. He’s never seen shoes like that back in the village. They look…higher quality than he’s ever seen. “But it doesn’t matter. I wanna talk about you.”

“Why are you so interested in talking about me?”

“Because you’re interesting. ‘cus you’re special.”

Special. Minghao can feel a flush rise to his cheeks.

“Because I’m a witch?”

“Because you’re Minghao, duh. And the witch thing is really cool too. But you’re cool.”

Minghao swallows and averts his eyes from Mingyu’s open expression, looking back down at Mingyu’s shoe. The stitching is gold-colored and there are no worn creases like Minghao is familiar with. His pants, too, look like they’re made with a fabric that isn’t rough or too thin or too thick.

“What’s so interesting?” Mingyu’s voice snaps Minghao out of his observational trance. He’s not sure how to explain himself, so he says the first thing that comes to mind.

“You have cool shoes.” Hm. Guess Mingyu’s rubbed off on him.

Surprisingly, Mingyu doesn’t comment on Minghao’s new vocabulary choices. His foot stills and he shuffles as if he can hide them. Minghao looks at him in confusion, Mingyu’s expression guarded again the same way it is when his personal life is touched on too much.

“You really don’t know who I am?” Mingyu asks, strangely quiet.

“I told you I don’t,” Minghao huffs, crossing his arms. “I live in the forest. I don’t even know what my old village’s name was. Or if it had one.”

Minghao regrets the words as soon as they come out of his mouth, because Mingyu’s characteristically sparkling eyes meet his, glimmering with questions in a way Minghao knows will only lead to an excited interrogation.

“Your village?”

“You first,” Minghao deflects. “What were you going to say?”

“No, you. You promised you’d tell me why you’re out here by yourself if I kept coming back.”

Minghao frowns and glares at Mingyu’s determined gaze, but Mingyu doesn’t back down. Minghao sighs.

“Fine.”

Mingyu beams, leaning forward on his palms. Minghao shuffles nervously, not sure where to start. Not sure if he should, but he made a promise.

“I was born in a really small village. And everything was okay, until one day I got really mad and…our living room rug lit on fire.” Minghao shrinks in on himself at the memory. The fear. The confusion. The screaming. “And that kind of stuff just kept happening. If I got really emotional, weird things would happen around me. Fire and dying plants and lightning. Stuff like that.” He swallows and pulls his knees to his chest. “And everyone got really scared of me. They—the other kids didn’t want to hang out with me. Everyone avoided me. They’d always—they’d always…look at me. Like I was scary. A freak.” He buries his face in his knees, voice lowering to a whisper, like it’ll keep the tears in. “...a curse. That’s what they all called me. Those stupid—”

He wraps his arms around his knees, curling up more.

“And—and on my birthday, my parents…they gave me a coloring book. And I got really excited and then all of the stuff started happening and they looked at me and I ran away and I—”

His voice breaks off there, the sobs bursting out of him. Rain falls around him and quickly drenches him, the air growing colder by the second, sunbeams obscured by dark clouds.

Suddenly, warmth envelopes him, startling him, thunder clapping in the distance. Arms. He freezes up at the unfamiliar contact. A human, holding him.

Mingyu’s breath is warm when he speaks into Minghao’s neck.

“They’re all stupid. You’re not a curse. You’re cool. And they were mean for no reason. If they don’t get that you’re super cool, then they’re just dumb.”

Sobs still heave Minghao’s chest, but the words cut through the fog.

A human, telling him he’s not a curse.

The rain keeps falling. Mingyu keeps holding him.

Once Minghao’s crying has subsided, the rain clearing up and the air warming again, Mingyu pulls away slowly, but Minghao grabs him by the wrist by instinct, eyes wide.

Don’t let go of me.

He doesn’t. Mingyu smiles and places his free hand—warm, so warm—over Minghao’s, rearranging their hands so they’re clasped together. Minghao looks up at him, vision still a little fuzzy and feels his heart beat twice as fast.

“I’m sorry that stuff happened. I would hate humans too.” He frowns. “No, I do. I hate all those ones.”

Minghao laughs wetly, wiping his tears away with his sleeve.

“I do too. I hate them all.”

“Then we can hate them together. But you don’t hate me anymore, right?” Mingyu points at himself.

Minghao looks down at the ground, at their held hands.

“I didn’t hate you.”

“Okay,” Mingyu says, a smile evident in his voice. “Good. ‘cus I’m really glad I met you.”

“I’m glad I met you too,” Minghao mumbles.

They share the moment in silence for a little while, the damp air blanketing them thickly, suspending them in a strange space that only they’re part of. Minghao’s world narrows to the golden boy holding his hand.

Minghao looks up at Mingyu, ready to ask him to tell him about himself, but the words die when he finds Mingyu already looking at him with an intensity that makes him squirm. His eyes dart around before finally landing on Mingyu again, unsticking his mouth.

“Tell me about you now,” he says bravely. Mingyu’s mouth parts and his grasp on Minghao’s hand starts to slip, but Minghao squeezes it. Mingyu squeezes back, holding him tightly again.

“Okay.” He takes a deep breath. “My name is Kim Mingyu.”

Minghao looks at him expectantly. Mingyu looks at him like this is supposed to be some sort of revelation to him, but Minghao just raises his eyebrows.

“...I’m the crown prince of the Cesulan Kingdom,” he says quietly.

Minghao blinks at him. Mingyu, for once, looks like he’s trying to distance himself from Minghao. Like he’ll run away. Like hell Minghao will let him, he thinks, gripping Mingyu’s hand again.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” Mingyu echoes, unfreezing a little.

“Yeah. That’s cool, I guess.” 

“Oh. You’re not…you’re not gonna…?”

“Not gonna what?”

Every ounce of tension Mingyu is carrying suddenly leaves him in a flood. If he were magic, Minghao thinks, a sky full of dark clouds would have parted immediately.

“I don’t know,” Mingyu says, turning towards Minghao fully again, squeezing his hand. “Whenever people find out, they’re…weird about it. They treat me differently.”

“Why?”

“I guess because I’m the prince. They think they can get something out of me, or something.”

“Okay. But you’re still Mingyu to me, though.”

The look Mingyu gives him looks like Minghao just turned Mingyu’s whole world upside down. Good. Now Mingyu understands how Minghao feels. Minghao smiles lopsidedly.

“What could I get out of you anyway? You’re in my forest.”

Mingyu cracks a crooked smile.

“My friendship?”

Minghao smiles.

“That’s good enough for me.”

Another moment of silence. The sun shines a little brighter.

“Are you lonely too?” Mingyu asks.

“Not anymore,” Minghao responds immediately. “Because we’re friends, right?”

Mingyu grins again, brighter than the sun.

“Yeah. We are.”

Mingyu takes Minghao’s other hand too.

“Weren’t you lonely? Back then?” He rephrases.

“I was,” Minghao admits. “More than anything. I just wished I had a friend.”

“I’m always like that at the castle,” Mingyu confesses in return. “They just teach me how to do king stuff and no one ever really wants to be my friend. All I’ve ever wanted was to have a real friend.” He looks up at Minghao, with awe in his eyes. “So I’m really glad I met you, Minghao. I’m really glad we’re friends.”

Minghao feels a warmth spread through his body that has only become more familiar to him as he spends more time with Mingyu.

“I am too.”

Mingyu squeezes Minghao’s hands. Minghao squeezes back. It feels like a promise.

-

“Did you have a good day today?” Seungcheol asks warmly, with an undertone of teasing.

“I did,” Minghao admits with a blush. There’s no point in lying to him, but there’s no reason for him to anyway.

“He’s a prince!” Seokmin marvels, floating by on a sunbeam.

“Mhm,” Minghao hums, rocking side to side nervously. “I guess that’s kinda cool. But he’s still the idiot who got here on accident, too.”

Jeonghan laughs, a loud but melodic thing. Minghao takes a seat in front of him and Jeonghan looks up at him warmly.

“Does he make you happy?”

Minghao nods, smiling. Jeonghan reaches out for Minghao’s hands, which he takes happily.

“Then I’m glad you have him,” Jeonghan says affectionately. Minghao holds Jeonghan’s hands and it doesn’t feel the same way it does when it’s Mingyu (and not just because Jeonghan’s hands are cold and wet).

“I am too,” Minghao admits quietly.

As the moons pass, Mingyu’s regular arrivals have become a familiar ritual to Minghao, a source of both comfort and novelty. It feels like fresh blossoms bloom in his stomach whenever he feels Mingyu’s arrival, a delicate thing he’s not sure what to do with yet. Delicate and fragile.

It doesn’t take long for Minghao to begin feeling vines creeping in his chest and up his throat every time Mingyu fails to show up more than three or four days in a row, however. It’s a strange thing, with thorns and fear pricking at the back of his mind.

What if he doesn’t like you anymore? What if what you said the last time scared him off? What if he doesn’t want to be around you either? What if he feels the same way about you as everyone else?

What if he leaves you?

Minghao swallows and tries to shake his head, as if it’ll clear the toxic fungi growing in his skull. He taps his fingers impatiently on the rock he’s sitting on. It feels worse today, and Minghao can’t pinpoint why. Thunder rumbles near him.

As the minutes pass, he gnaws on his bottom lip. A vine reaches out of the damp ground and tugs on his wrist lightly. A cool breeze brushes past his face gently and a sunbeam breaks through the clouds forming above his head, just enough to let him know he’s not alone. Not enough to stifle him completely; never enough to not allow him to feel.

“I know,” he mumbles, stopping his fidgeting long enough to pat the vines and look up at the sky. He takes a deep breath and the clouds break, just a little. “I’ll be okay.”

Right?

-

“Minghao!”

Minghao snaps his head up in the direction of the voice, thunder abruptly stopping.

“Ah!”

The leaves around Minghao rustle loudly and Mingyu all but falls through the bushes, right in front of Minghao, barely catching himself on his hands. Mingyu looks up and pouts.

“Feels like I got pushed,” he grumbles.

Minghao’s hair is ruffled by the wind and he laughs, the sound carried throughout the forest, rippling through the air. The forest seems to breathe a sigh of relief, sun shining through the canopy again.

Mingyu huffs indignantly, unbefitting for someone of his class. Minghao likes that about him.

He plops himself down unceremoniously on the rock across from Minghao and beams when he meets Minghao’s eyes.

“Did you miss me?”

Minghao sticks out his tongue.

“You wish.”

Mingyu’s face falls and Minghao almost feels bad for him, but who else is he supposed to tease?

“Well, I missed you,” Mingyu says with an eye roll, but no less genuine than he always is. Minghao likes that about him too.

“Fine,” Minghao acquiesces, feeling a little raw when he responds. “Maybe I missed you a little too.”

“Really?!”

“I said a little. Not that much.”

Mingyu frowns again, but he crosses his arms and smiles.

“That’s okay. I’ll make sure you like me a lot.”

It’s Minghao’s turn to roll his eyes, but he doesn’t deter Mingyu.

(Maybe Minghao likes him already. Just a little.)

“Tell me something I don’t know today,” Mingyu asks eagerly.

“I tell you something you don’t know everyday. Humans don’t know anything,” Minghao says, his bottom lip pushed up just a little. He doesn’t know why. Mingyu isn’t like other humans—right?

“That’s why I want to know everything,” Mingyu insists.

“You don’t want to know everything,” Minghao says. It’s true. Mingyu doesn’t. Not the disaster that he used to be, before his family helped him learn how to keep his magic under control. “I used to be so horrible.”

“Horrible?”

“You don’t get it.”

“I want to get it. Please? Will you please tell me?”

Mingyu’s big forest animal eyes are a little hard to resist, even when it’s Minghao’s very reputation and Mingyu’s opinion of him at stake.

“It’s not—”

“Pleaaaase,” Mingyu whines. And Minghao can’t do anything but give in, like a footprint sinking into mud.

He picks at his nails before he speaks, just to have something to do. Just so he can avoid looking Mingyu in the eye.

“The other kids would never play with me,” he starts quietly. “Everyone was scared of me. So all of them avoided me. And I really wanted to play with them. It looked like fun, but everyone was scared of what I would do.” He pulls his legs closer to himself. “It’s not like I wanted to. I didn’t want thunderstorms to happen when I got upset. Or rain when I cried. And I did it a lot for a really long time because nobody wanted to be around me. So everyone thought I was a curse and that they should avoid me.” Minghao’s fingers dig into his pants. “I did a lot of stuff that made people really scared of me.”

Instead of anything Minghao would expect to hear, there’s nothing. Mingyu is staring down at the ground, what’s visible of his expression unreadable. Uncharacteristically, he’s sitting stock still, completely silent.

The vines coil around his organs. His feet shuffle restlessly. Minghao tries to say something—anything, just to break the silence, but it looms over them like wet moss.

The silence stretches, on and on. Thunder rumbles in the distance. Mingyu still doesn’t look at him. Something toxic bubbles up in Minghao’s stomach, roiling in his organs.

When Mingyu finally looks up at Minghao again, there’s something unfamiliar in his eyes. He opens his mouth to speak. The poison overflows.

“You’re scared of me too,” Minghao blurts out, like it’s bile.

Mingyu’s eyes widen.

“What? No—”

“You are,” Minghao says, in a rush. A storm suddenly comes crashing down, a crack of thunder startling Mingyu. The fear on his face makes Minghao want to die, but his power isn’t in his hands. There’s a knot in his throat, but the words pour out of him like a waterfall anyway, words crashing like water over rocks. “You hate me, you don’t want to be around me anymore because I’m scary, I know—I know all the humans are scared of me, all of them. I can’t—I can’t do anything right, only my fam—my real family loves me, everyone else just wants to run away from me because they hate me and they’re scared of me and I’m just a curse—”

“Mingh—”

“You hate me!” Minghao wails, wind howling around them. Minghao is unaffected by the weather, but he sees Mingyu try his best to resist being blown around. A sob breaks out of Minghao’s throat. He’s just a human. “I knew it, you hate me, you hate me, you hate me—”

Minghao doesn’t know how much of the wetness on his face is rain or tears. Does it really matter? He and his uncontrollable magic; they’re one and the same. He buries his face into his sleeves, shaking his head frantically.

“No!” Mingyu cries, a sound almost lost through the torrent of rain and Minghao’s own sobs. 

“You do!” Minghao yells back, voice carried on a powerful gust of wind that threatens to topple Mingyu.

“I don’t!” Mingyu shouts, fighting past the wind and clutching Minghao in his arms. Minghao shrinks into himself and tries to shake himself free; Mingyu shouldn’t get so close to him, not when all Minghao can do is be a danger to him, but Mingyu holds on tightly.

“Let go of me,” Minghao says weakly, voice hoarse. Please don’t. “Let go.”

“No,” Mingyu responds bluntly, his voice only making it to Minghao from his proximity.

“You shoul—you shouldn’t be around me. You…you…”

“Says who?”

“Says everyone!” Minghao yells again, trying harder and still failing to wriggle free from Mingyu’s hold, the tears still flowing freely, burning hot down his cheeks. The wind howls ferociously and the deluge of rain only comes down harder.

“I’m not everyone!”

“That’s what you think!”

“You don’t know what I think! Stop telling me that!”

“No! I know every human, you—you all think I’m a curse. I know you hate me too!” Minghao struggles harder, trying to get away from Mingyu’s overwhelming warmth, but he’s much stronger.

“You don’t know anything if you think that! You’re—don’t be stupid!”

“I’m not stupid!” Rocks settle in his stomach; his head feels full of moss. “I’m—” His throat is clogged and he can still barely breathe. “I’m scared.”

His voice is small, almost lost in the storm. Mingyu hears him anyway.

“You can be scared.” Mingyu grips onto the back of Minghao’s robes. “It’s okay to be scared.”

Minghao doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t say anything.

He doesn’t know how long they stay there, Mingyu refusing to let Minghao go, despite his occasional weak attempts to struggle free, Minghao’s hiccuping sobs slowly replacing the natural disaster he’s created. Mingyu doesn’t say anything either, opting to slowly rub Minghao’s back periodically. The fight bleeds out of him slowly, replaced by a bone-deep exhaustion.

The forest is unusually still and quiet, like life itself has been suspended, only punctuated by Minghao’s hiccups and sniffles. As the clouds break, so too does the fog in Minghao’s head. Shame washes over him, nesting deep into his body. He clutches onto Mingyu’s shirt. Mingyu squeezes back.

“I’m here,” Mingyu finally says quietly, fingers smoothing down Minghao’s wet hair. “I’m still here.”

And he is, isn’t he?

“I’m sorry,” Minghao manages to croak out pathetically, clinging onto Mingyu’s sleeves. Mingyu lets him.

“It’s okay to have feelings.”

“Even if they’re scary?” Minghao whispers, scared of the answer. Mingyu pulls back just a little, enough to look Minghao in the eyes.

“I’m not scared of you,” Mingyu says softly. “I was just upset at how people treated you. I didn’t know how to react. I’m sorry.”

Minghao frowns and looks down at the soaked forest floor, the dirt no more than mud, plants drowned in rain. He feels a pang of guilt, for a different reason now.

“You looked scared.”

“I was surprised. Not the same. Even if I was, I’d still stay here.”

“Why?”

“We’re friends,” Mingyu says, matter-of-fact. Minghao looks up, and Mingyu is beaming. Water drips down the sides of face, slipping off the edges of his hair. He’s absolutely soaked, no better than Minghao himself, but he’s as bright as the sun regardless. Minghao tries to dry off the rain on Mingyu’s face with his wet sleeve, only serving to make him more damp. He giggles and Minghao smiles a little at the sound, the sun peeking through the forest canopy. “Duh.”

Minghao doesn’t know what to say. He buries his face in Mingyu’s chest and hopes he can feel his nod.

“I’m sorry,” he finally says again. “I don’t…I don’t know what happened. I’m sorry I’m like this.”

“That’s okay,” Mingyu responds. “I still like you anyway.”

“I still like you too,” Minghao says, in lieu of anything less truthful, murmuring it into Mingyu’s heartbeat.

Minghao can feel Mingyu’s smile in his wet hair.

It’s not very long until Minghao’s family insists they need to finally meet ‘his Mingyu human’.

“It’s not fair that everyone has seen him except me!” Jeonghan whines. “I need to make sure he’s good for our baby!”

“We live in the same lake,” Joshua says. Jeonghan pushes his head back under the water.

“I haven’t seen him either!” Junhui complains, yowling dramatically and brushing his bushy tail across Minghao’s legs.

“You’d scare him away,” Minghao explains patiently. He’s certain that there are no cats more than half of his height in the human world, not to mention Junhui’s eager attitude to novelty.

Wonwoo opens his mouth, likely ready to argue his case.

“You are purple,” Minghao reminds him gently.

Wonwoo closes his mouth.

While foxes weren’t unusual from the woods near Minghao’s village, he’s certain that purple foxes aren’t nearly as common, especially not ones even bigger than Junhui. Soonyoung is running circles around his feet, much too fast for a creature of his size.

“What about me? What about me?”

“You…” Minghao falters. It’s not like a hamster would be a weird animal for Minghao to show Mingyu, but—

“You’re noisy,” Jihoon supplies helpfully. Soonyoung squeaks indignantly and leaps at him, his tiny legs failing to propel himself at the air elemental drifting far out of his reach peacefully.

Minghao takes a step back and observes the scene in front of him: Joshua and Jeonghan fighting and trying to keep the other underwater, while Seokmin and Seungkwan seem to be taking some sort of bet on who’s going to lose. Chan, Seungcheol, and Hansol watch on in passive interest. Wonwoo and Junhui have their heads hung low, apparently whispering to each other and probably scheming, tails brushing together, and Soonyoung is still trying to catch Jihoon, but is clearly running out of energy.

Despite the chaos and occasional shouting, Minghao finds himself smiling fondly.

This is his family.

“Okay, fine,” Minghao relents. “You guys can meet him.”

All attention is directed at Minghao again, and cheers erupt in the heart of the forest.

-

Truthfully, Minghao is worried about introducing Mingyu to his family. It’s not that he’s afraid Mingyu will be scared off by them or anything—he’s proven before he’s not going anywhere. Minghao thinks he trusts Mingyu.

No, it’s more about Mingyu’s reaction to the offer. Minghao likes Mingyu’s exuberance, but this is new territory. Mingyu has looked at Seokmin’s dancing sun beams before and watched Hansol weave his way through the dirt in awe, touching every tree with reverence in case it somehow hurt Seungcheol. He’s been very polite about it so far, but Minghao can tell the question is bubbling underneath the surface, and it might finally be time.

“Hi!” Mingyu greets Minghao enthusiastically today after stumbling through some bushes again, bright smile undeterred by the leaves clinging to his sleeves. Somehow, there’s a stick in his hair and a smudge of dirt on his likely very expensive pant leg. Minghao likes this look on him.

“Hello,” Minghao responds, sitting primly on his rock, prompting Mingyu to plop down on his own. “There’s dirt on your sleeves, by the way. And your pants. And your…you’ve got a lot of dirt on you.”

Mingyu looks down at himself like he’s somehow realizing this for the first time. He shrugs.

“Whatever. I don’t have to be a prince here anyway,” he says, grinning and rolling up his sleeves. He frowns suddenly and shakes his hair like a dog, sending the stick flying out of it. “Oh.”

Minghao giggles. Without thinking too much, he picks one of the flowers out of the ground beside him that had sprouted when he laughed and leans over to tuck it gently into Mingyu’s hair. The contrast of pink on black is striking. His home on Mingyu, more so.

“Cute,” Minghao says quietly, leaning back to admire his handiwork. Mingyu beams, unbelievably bright.

“Really?!”

“I didn’t say anything.”

Mingyu’s smile turns into a pout and he crosses his arms.

“Whatever.”

He reaches over to Minghao’s rock, fingers poised to pluck one of the flowers out of the ground. The proximity floods Minghao’s senses with Mingyu’s shampoo, something strange and unrecognizable. He tries to stop his nose from wrinkling.

“May I?”

Reining himself in, Minghao nods. Mingyu gently picks an orange flower from the ground and blindly tucks it into his own hair before fixing Minghao with a soft smile.

“Do I look cool?”

“Not even a little.”

“Hey!”

Before he can think too hard about it, Minghao capitalizes on his energy to blurt it out, because he knows if he overthinks it he might never ask—and he’s probably being plotted against at this moment if he doesn’t bring it up.

“Do you want to meet my family?”

Mingyu’s indignant look drops off his face in exchange for shock so quickly it’s almost comical.

The forest is awkwardly silent for a few beats. Does Mingyu…not want to—

“Can I really?!” He shouts, loud enough a few birds fly away. His hands cover his mouth before Minghao can even shush him. When he moves his hand away, his voice is almost a whisper. “Seriously? Can I?”

Minghao nods, happiness bubbling inside of him.

“They want to meet you,” he admits. Mingyu’s jaw drops again, even further this time, somehow. “You’re going to catch bugs,” he says lightly, tapping Mingyu’s jaw, prompting it to close.

“Me? Seriously?”

“Duh. Of course they want to meet ‘my hu—’the human’.”

Mingyu doesn’t seem to notice the slip-up, probably still too stunned by this opportunity.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Mingyu urges, eyes sparkling. Minghao smiles and beckons him along; Mingyu practically vibrating with excitement next to him. “Is there anything I should know? Just to make sure I don’t do anything wrong or something! Hey, remind me who everyone is so I don’t make them feel left out.”

The consideration makes Minghao’s heart squeeze.

“I guess so it doesn’t surprise you, Junhui is a really big cat, Wonwoo is an even bigger fox—who’s also purple—, and Soonyoung is a hamster with funny stripes on him. He’s really small but he’s really fast, so try not to step on him. Chan and Seokmin are sun elementals, Jihoon is an air elemental, and Joshua and Jeonghan are water elementals.” Minghao smiles fondly to himself. “He’s like my mom. And Seungcheol is a tree spirit, Hansol is an earth spirit, and Seungkwan is a protection spirit.”

When Minghao looks at Mingyu to confirm if he’s listening, Mingyu is staring at Minghao intently, nodding along like this is the most important information he’s ever received in his life.

“So what’s the difference between a spirit and an elemental?”

Minghao frowns and crosses his arms. It’s a concept that he’s always just…understood, so he’s not sure how to articulate it to a human.

“Well…elementals are like…connected to their elements, but spirits are just…what they are.”

Mingyu stares at him.

“Elementals can look like people. But not always people-size.”

“Ahh, okay, I get it!” Mingyu replies, lighting up. Minghao isn’t sure if he does, but it’s probably good enough. He'll find out soon anyway. “What are they like? Do you think they’ll like me?”

That might be an even trickier question.

“You just have to be really nice to me,” he settles on.

Mingyu nods resolutely.

“I can do that. I swear.”

“Good,” is all Minghao can say, willing away the warmth on his face.

“So how long have you lived with them? Your family?”

Minghao swallows. A light rain trails behind them.

“Since my sixth birthday.”

Mingyu nods, but he doesn’t say anything. Minghao is grateful.

Before Mingyu can open his mouth to ask more questions, they’ve already come to the threshold of Minghao’s home.

“I’m home,” he announces gently, stepping into the fairy circle. “I brought him.”

Mingyu is no longer beside Minghao. He frowns and turns around, where Mingyu is waiting nervously just outside the fairy circle.

“May I come in?” He asks politely, shrunken into himself.

“Oh, he’s so polite!” Junhui coos, pouncing up to them and nuzzling Minghao’s side, who laughs and gives him his favorite head pats, making him preen.

“He’s allowed,” Seungkwan declares. Mingyu’s eyes widen, probably startled by the disembodied voice, but he nods timidly and bows, stepping past the ring hesitantly.

“Thank you for having me. I’m honored to be here.”

Minghao looks around, gauging everyone’s reactions to Mingyu. There’s a sense of apprehension from some, but most of his family is looking on in open curiosity nonetheless. Jeonghan, off to the side, looks like he’s sizing Mingyu up, a suspicious and disapproving look Minghao has never seen on his delicate face before.

“Meow, where do you come from?” Junhui asks, circling Mingyu slowly.

“Oh—I’m, um, from the Cesulan Kingdom. Not too far from here.”

“The little prince, are you?” Seungcheol asks, voice echoing from a nearby tree. Mingyu turns his head around, trying to find the source of his voice, which makes Seungcheol chuckle. Minghao rolls his eyes fondly. It was always Seungcheol’s favorite way to tease Minghao when he first arrived, tossing his voice between every tree.

“Yes, that’s me.”

“I’ve been so curious, how did you manage to get in here?” Seungkwan asks. Mingyu is even more lost, as Seungkwan’s gentle voice covers all of the forest.

“I—don’t know,” he admits. “I just wanted to explore the forest during some of my free time, and I just kind of…got lost. And now I’m here. I’m very sorry.”

“There’s no need to be sorry,” Seokmin says, carried along by a sunbeam. Mingyu can’t seem to help but gape at the sight; a grown man half of his height, simply floating by. Seokmin laughs, bright as the sun. “He’s funny!”

“Well, he’s never seen an elemental before, so be nice,” Minghao pouts.

Seokmin sticks his tongue out, and Minghao returns the gesture. Chan, following close behind, giggles.

“Shouldn’t we introduce ourselves?” Chan asks.

“Roll call!” Junhui yowls, marching figures eights around and between Minghao and Mingyu, the latter of whom is seemingly still trying to process the entire situation. “I’m Junhui. I’m a cat, if you haven’t noticed.”

“I’m Wonwoo,” Wonwoo says, striding up to Junhui, where their tails wind around each other. Minghao still doesn’t know if they do it consciously or not.

“I’m Chan. That’s Seokmin. We’re both sun el—ow!”

“Hey, let me introduce myself!”

“You can introduce yourself too—don’t hit me!”

“I’m Soonyoung!” Soonyoung shouts, voice much louder than his tiny body, jumping up and down in front of Mingyu, would suggest.

“You are a hamster.” Soonyoung squeaks affrontedly at this, immediately turning his efforts to chasing Jihoon, who casually floats a little higher up. “And I’m Jihoon, an air elemental. It’s nice to meet you.”

Mingyu nods dazedly.

“I’m Seokmin!” Seokmin shouts, voice partially muffled by the slap fight he and Chan seem to have gotten themselves into.

“I’m Seungcheol, the tree spirit. Thank you for accepting our invitation, Mingyu.”

Mingyu brightens immediately.

“Thank you for having me! I’m very excited to be here.”

“So polite,” Seungkwan echoes Junhui’s earlier words. “I’m the forest’s protection spirit. I’m responsible for keeping everyone in this forest safe, so I just need to make sure I’m doing my job properly.”

“You always do perfect,” Hansol says, voice tender. Seungkwan gives a shy laugh. “I’m Hansol. Nice to finally meet you.”

“Yes! We’ve seen each other so often, I’m glad we can talk face to…um…”

“Face to face, sure.” There’s a hint of amusement in Hansol’s voice.

“I’m Joshua,” Joshua calls from the lake, floating lazily in the water. “One of our water spirits.”

Mingyu waves at him, but seems to be caught off guard when he sees Jeonghan, whose arms are crossed over his chest, eyes cold.

“Jeonghan. Don’t think I trust you just because we let you in here, human. I know what humans have done to our Minghao.”

Before Minghao can tell Jeonghan to please be nice, Mingyu is important to him, Mingyu speaks up.

“That’s okay,” Mingyu says, bowing deeply. “I understand. I’ll earn your trust one day, if you let me.”

Jeonghan still looks unimpressed, but Minghao can tell the words affect him—just a little. He nods anyway, but doesn’t reply.

“I hope I can earn the trust of all of you,” Mingyu addresses the heart of the forest. “I’m sincerely grateful that you’ve provided Minghao with a home and a family.”

Wonwoo whistles.

“How noble.”

“He is a prince, remember?” Junhui says, brushing against him. “So what’s had you coming back here for so long? Just to see our little Minghao?”

Minghao scowls, ears warming. Junhui flicks his tail and saunters out of his field of view.

“Well—at first. Because I…I didn’t have any friends. Because I’m the prince and all, so that’s all everyone knows me for, and I hate it. So I’m really happy that Minghao is my friend,” he says with a smile. “But I like it here too—the forest. It feels like I can relax here, and I don’t have to be the prince when I’m here. I can just be Mingyu. Minghao’s friend.”

“Then I’m glad the forest let you in,” Seungkwan says warmly. He sounds like he’d be smiling. “I hope you can find a home here too.”

Mingyu beams and spots of sunlight hold him in grace.

“I do! Thank you for letting me in.”

Mingyu turns to Minghao, smile brighter than the sunflecks, and Minghao can only think one thing.

Thank you for staying.