Chapter Text
Yugyeom was shaking as he walked across the grass, the sun’s warm rays doing nothing to relieve the cold hard panic that had settled in his gut. He began to walk faster, until he’d broken out to a jog, neck craning as he looked for someone.
All around him was the sound of muffled sobbing and stifled cries, which conflicted just too much with the bright colors and whimsical decor of the circus tents around. Many were wrapped up tearful goodbyes and perhaps ultimate farewells, and a few were simply immobile with shock and despair.
Yugyeom kept moving, however, eyes sweeping past each familiar face to look for the one that mattered most.
“Yugyeom!”
Yugyeom whipped around so fast at the cry of his name he almost tripped over himself, but the next moment he’d fallen to the ground anyways, thrown completely off balance by the weight of another person clinging to him with all his strength.
“Bam…” Yugyeom breathed out, unable to help the relief that flooded through him. He let himself fall back onto the ground, eyes slipping shut as he focused entirely on the body in his arms, pulling the slight figure closer into him as he tried to calm his pounding heart.
“Thank god, thank god, I know they didn’t take very many, but just in case, I didn’t know, what if they’d taken you, thank god thank god….” Bambam babbled into Yugyeom’s chest and Yugyeom only held Bambam tighter, not saying a word yet because they both knew Yugyeom had been frantically looking for Bambam with that same fear in mind.
“But Yubin-noona and Changmin-hyung and….” Bambam broke off with a choked sob and Yugyeom felt his own eyes growing wet, heart lurching.
Yubin and Changmin were the ringmasters of this circus. Heavy emphasis on the past tense, because as of a few hours ago they were no longer so. And in just a few hours, this whole circus would cease to exist altogether.
Why? Because they were a fraud. A total and complete scam. They’d been the most renowned circus around, known for near magic-like performances where their animals responded to the ringmaster’s command like no other, knew tricks and skills beyond anything any other circus had to offer. Never even once was there an accidental death or injury. They’d been hailed as a sensation, travelling the country to put on their show in small towns and big cities alike.
What no one had known was they were all shifters. Every last lion, tiger, elephant, and even monkey. Every last heartstopping act that had left the audience breathless and anxious for the ringmaster’s safety had simply been a perfectly scripted act. A child slipping entirely inside a lion’s mouth? No danger ever existed- that act in particular had featured a father and son.
They still didn’t know how they were found out. But all that really mattered was they’d been exposed, and the populace were raging with fury. All the most prominent members of their circus had been arrested earlier today, and there was no way they could continue on as before.
There was no choice but to disband, to flee with each looking after him or herself.
“Bam, we should go,” Yugyeom finally whispered, willing his voice not to break.
“But where do we go? What can we even do?” Bambam asked back, fingers twisting the fabric of Yugyeom’s shirt.
Yugyeom bit down on his lip so hard he drew blood, and he shuddered slightly. The future was too daunting- in a matter of hours, they’d lost everything. They’d both grown up in the circus, and held no other memories from a time before. Indeed, nearly everyone here came from a similar background- for whatever reason, had no family, or no home to go back to. Yubin and Changmin had been ones to start it all, taking in every lost and broken soul and giving them somewhere to belong. This circus had become their home, their safe haven, their ticket to survival.
Except no longer.
Inhaling deeply, Yugyeom steeled himself before finally detaching himself from Bambam’s hold. He stood, pulling the other boy up with him.
With tears streaking down his face, Bambam looked so fragile, his thin frame shaking and pupils blown with fear and shock. Yugyeom knew his own hands were shaking as well, but he tried to minimize the trembling when he took Bambam’s hands in his own.
“We’ll be okay. We’ll be okay.”
Yugyeom didn’t know if he was trying to convince Bambam or himself by repeating those words in a mantra.
~~
“I’m hungry,” Bambam kicked aside a stick that had been his path, watching it fly through the air before snapping on impact with the ground. Yugyeom, walking ahead of him, sighed noisily in response.
“I’d asked you if you wanted any of the fish, but you said you didn’t, so…”
“Because I’m sick of fish!” Bambam exclaimed, taking two quick running steps before launching himself onto Yugyeom’s back. Yugyeom let out an oomph , pitching forward from the sudden additional weight.
“Get off,” he said as he tried to dislodge him, but with no success as Bambam only clung on tighter, nearly choking Yugyeom in his hold.
“Can’t you catch something else? Please? I’m practically going to turn into a fish from eating so much of it!” Bambam whined loudly and Yugyeom tried to duck his head out of the way, his right ear ringing from the loud volume of Bambam’s voice.
“Fish is great! Besides, if you wanna eat something else how about you go catch it? I do all the work!” Yugyeom whined back in an equally nasal tone, and then gave his body one more vigorous shake. “And get off !”
“Fine then,” Bambam huffed as he lightly leapt off of the other’s back. “I’ll show you how things are supposed to be done.”
Yugyeom looked on skeptically as Bambam stood still to think, his eyes darting left and right to survey the landscape.
They were in a wooded area, and had been for the past two weeks. After their panicked flee from the circus grounds, they’d made it their priority to find a water source, having enough sense to know that water was the most crucial to survival. Lucky for them, they stumbled upon a small stream not long after, and had been following it ever since.
As for a destination, they had none in mind. Their departure from the disbanded circus had been rushed and thoughtless, with their only goal being to leave alive and together. Before the tents started to come down, the most they had time for was to grab the most essential of their belongings, stuffed into two small packs. And for a good stretch of time their travel had been motivated by lingering fear, a desperation to get away and eliminate the possibility of being captured, or worse, separated.
A week into their travels, however, it finally began to sink in that they were safe. Most likely, the officials had never been looking for them in the first place, as they would’ve been taken away as soon as the others had. A sobering thought, as if that were the case they never would’ve had a chance, but it made them all the more grateful.
So since then they only travelled aimlessly, choosing to follow the stream simply because of the convenience it provided.
Unfortunately, that also meant a lot of fish. Yugyeom, despite being raised in the circus environment, seemed to have all his hunting abilities intact whenever he shifted into his bear form. And while Bambam had absolutely appreciated being able to sit back and do nothing, he’d about had his fill of fish.
Ready to take matters into his own hands, Bambam’s eyes narrowed, expression unusually serious as he continued to scan the surroundings.
“Are you serious…?” Yugyeom was still unconvinced, too used to the overly confident declarations Bambam tended to make without anything to back them up.
Bambam ignored his friend, eyes lighting up as he spotted something familiar. He quickly darted over to a large tree, crouching down at its base. Yugyeom watched on curiously as Bambam began to tug on something wrapped around the bottom of the trunk, grunting.
Yugyeom squinted slightly, moving in closer to get a better look. It was just a green vine, extending down to tangle with the exposed roots of the tree, but also upwards into the leafy canopy casting a welcome shade over them.
“What are you doing?” Yugyeom couldn’t help but ask, watching the vine come free after a few more persistent tugs. Bambam only shot him a smug smile, starting to wrap the flexible vine into a neat coil. After circling his wrist four or five times, he ripped the rest off, brushing off his hands as he stood, head craning upwards.
A sharp exhale was all the warning Yugyeom got before Bambam shifted, his clothing falling into a heap as a light gray figure shot up into the branches. A spider monkey, smaller than most would expect (he’d always been able to comfortably perch on top of Yugyeom’s head or shoulders), which also made him surprisingly quick. His size granted him even greater agility, maneuvering through the branches with a practiced ease. Before long, the only sign of him visible from below was the slight rustling of the leaves above.
Yugyeom hmphed, plopping down at the base of the tree to wait as it was clear Bambam wasn’t interested in answering his questions. Luckily, it was just a few minutes later that the small monkey dropped backed down to the ground with something clutched tightly in his hand.
“What’s that?” Yugyeom scrambled to his feet, the smug look on Bambam’s face clearly evident despite the fact that he no longer had human features.
To respond, though, Bambam still decided to shift back, donning his clothes quickly with the mysterious new object held carefully out of view.
“What do you think?” Bambam teased, trying to sound mysterious, but the excited gleam in his eyes quite ruined the effect. When Yugyeom just shot him an impatient look, he cleared his throat, straightening slightly.
“....tada!” Bambam finally brought his hand back into view, proudly displaying the small contraption made of vines and sticks in his hand.
“What…?” Yugyeom immediately edged in closer, hands reaching to touch but Bambam quickly moved it out of reach.
“Don’t touch! And you really don’t know what it is?” Bambam’s voice was teasing again, dangling the fragile looking object above his head, which just so happened to be eye-level for Yugyeom.
Gaze trailing from the stand-like structure the sticks created, to the small loop created by the vines, it finally clicked.
“Is that a noose? You’ve made a spring trap?” Along with surprise, Yugyeom couldn’t quite hide the bit of grudging acknowledgement that crept into his voice.
“Bingo!” Bambam snapped his fingers, grinning. “I learned from Jinwoon-hyung! Remember?”
Yugyeom nodded, but couldn’t help expression his doubt once more.
“But can that flimsy thing really catch anything?”
“Of course!” With his abilities being questioned once more, Bambam finally took offense, scowling at Yugyeom angrily before turning on his heel to walk away
“Just you wait! And I’m not sharing any of it with you?”
Yugyeom had to hide his laughter as he watched Bambam stalk off, shaking his head slightly. It was always amusing and oh-so-easy to get Bambam riled up, and his reactions were the best. Still, for someone usually quite lazy, it was kinda cute to see him so worked up about something.
“Fish still tastes better though…”
~~
A small pillar of smoke rose up and through the trees, dissipating only once it broke through the leafy canopy at the top. It wasn’t threatening or out of control, though, just a bit...thick. It was even more so at the base, the billowing gas spreading outwards from the hissing fire as two figures struggled to bring it back under control.
“Yah Kim Yugyeom you’re not supposed to use wet sticks to start fires!” Bambam shrieked as he tried to bat the smoke away from his clothes, but to no avail. He got a lungful of it instead with his next breath, spluttering and coughing as he stumbled further away from the flames.
“I didn’t! I just broke the branches off a tree! How was I supposed to know that if they’re still alive and green inside they’ll cause smoke too?!” Yugyeom jumped to defend himself. He was still standing close to the fire, having tied a t-shirt around his head to cover his nose and mouth. “And come help me, you monkey, if you want the smoke to stop!”
In the end, it took a good ten minutes before they managed to get their campsite back under control. Yugyeom sank to the ground with a relieved sigh, while Bambam rushed to check on their cooking food.
“Aw man, it’s probably been smoked through already,” Bambam lamented as he carefully lifted one of their cooking sticks from next to the fire, this one with a rather deformed looking squirrel speared through it. It hadn’t even been skinned and the burnt black fur gave it a rather charred look, but after slicing into it with a knife the still juicy meat inside was revealed. “Ah well, at least it isn’t burnt yet.”
In the end, the rather unreliable looking trap that Bambam had put together somehow did manage catch something. While he’d been hoping for a rabbit or something slightly more substantial, his fresh catch was more than enough for him to parade proudly in front of Yugyeom’s face, singing “I told you so.”
Even Yugyeom’s subsequent catch of a good half dozen fish hadn’t been enough to put a damper on Bambam’s high spirits.
“Well, I like smoked fish anyways,” Yugyeom shrugged, carefully picking up one of the fish sticks, blowing on it gently to cool it. On the other hand, Bambam’s impatience had led him to already try to take a bite, leaving him hissing when it burnt his tongue.
“Ahhhh hot hot hot,” Bambam jumped up, fanning his mouth with one hand as he scrambled to look for water. Yugyeom only cracked up at the sight, but was nice enough to hand his friend the bottle.
“Be more patient,” Yugyeom chided, only to earn a glare back.
“You’re just jealous,” Bambam sniffed, tearing into the body of the squirrel with his teeth. He’d hacked away most of the skin and fur, but if anything the cooked squirrel looked even more misshapen than before.
“If you say so…” Yugyeom wrinkled his nose at the sight. “Honestly, don’t monkeys just survive off fruit and maybe bugs?”
“Ewwww! I’m a monkey shifter , okay? Not a monkey!” Bambam punched Yugyeom in the arm twice, and not too lightly either. “Just because you have the diet of an actual bear doesn’t mean I have too. I’m never eating bugs, that’s so gross!” He made a face, clearly disgusted by the concept.
“...True,” Yugyeom conceded. Finally deeming his own meal sufficiently cool, he carefully took a bite, spitting out the bones. “I think real bears eat a lot of insects, too. Fish is fine, but I don’t wanna try stuff like larvae either. Or stuff like dead -”
Yugyeom suddenly broke off with a frown, tilting his head slightly. Bambam immediately took note of the familiar posture, leaning forwards.
“What is it?” Bambam asked, slightly nervous. “You smell something?”
Yugyeom only pursed his lips slightly, his face a look of concentration. After a moment, he gave a short nod sticking his fish stick back in the ground to stand up to move a ways away from the fire.
With the possibility of an unknown threat approaching, Bambam, too, quickly abandoned his meal, following behind Yugyeom anxiously.
“Is it humans? Hunters? Or other shifters?” Bambam couldn’t help but ask again after a few seconds, clearly worried.
“Humans,” Yugyeom responded, growing paler by the second. “Three or four of them, heading straight this way. Fast. God, maybe five minutes away. I should’ve smelled them earlier!” Yugyeom’s hands formed fists as panic seized his system, and he strained to gather more information. “I also smell...metal. I think, they might have guns.”
“Guns?!” Bambam, too, blanched, eyes flitting back and forth as he tried to process this sudden information. “But, why? Why are they heading this way? And fast? Did we…”
Bambam trailed off as he realized the answer to his own question, and both boys turned their gaze on the smoke from their campfire rising high up into the air. It was also then that they realized the stench of the smoke was probably what had prevented Yugyeom from picking up on the threat earlier, but now it was too late to do anything about that.
“But how would they know we’re shifters? We could be regular humans just camping, right? Do we even need to run?” Bambam tossed out a few ideas, trying to be optimistic. Yugyeom bit his lip, brow furrowing.
“Maybe, maybe they saw our tracks? Bear tracks are pretty hard to miss, and if they found a place where the tracks suddenly shifted to human ones…” Yugyeom took a shaky breath, but then shook his head. “But, maybe? If we just stay here and act confused, maybe they’ll leave us alone? Humans can’t identify shifters from regular humans anyways.”
This time, it was Bambam who rejected the idea.
“No, if they saw your tracks already then it’d be a dead giveaway. Two kids, alone in the middle of the woods, far away from any sort of town or city, traveling with only two small packs? We might as well write “shifter” on our foreheads!”
“Then do we run?” Yugyeom asked helplessly. “We’ll go faster if we shift, but no matter what we’ll leave tracks. With how fast they’re going it seems like they have a car or something, and - wait, wait.”
Bambam bit his lip, only able to watch on helplessly as Yugyeom strained his senses.
“I thought I smelled guns, but I’m not picking up on any gunpowder. So I think all they have are tranquilizers probably? No, no, I’m fairly certain. It’s just tranquilizer guns.”
With that new piece of information, a bit of weight lifted off of Yugyeom chest. Just tranquilizers. They could deal with that, right?
But now, given their options…
“Bam, shift and go!” Yugyeom suddenly barked, spinning on his heel to grab their two small packs and thrusting them into Bambam’s hands. “We can’t stay, but if we run they’ll be able to follow my tracks, human or bear. Go up into the trees and hide!”
“What? No!” Bambam rejected the idea without a second thought, turning angry instead. “What the hell, I’m not just going to leave you!”
“We don’t have time!” Yugyeom said back desperately. “It’s the best option! They’re almost here, there’s only three of them, and they don’t even have actual bullets! I’ll be fine, just wait for the right moment, okay? I know you can do it.”
“But I -” Bambam wanted to protest further, but even he could hear the faint hum of an engine approaching. With Yugyeom’s last words at least he understood Yugyeom wasn’t actually telling him to go on without him, but the thought of leaving Yugyeom at the mercy of those humans, even if only temporarily, was unbearable.
But they didn’t seem to have any other choice.
“Are you sure?” Bambam couldn’t help but ask one last time, voice shaky.
“I trust you,” was all Yugyeom said back, eyes unwavering as he stared back at his best friend.
No, Bambam had always been more than just his best friend. And with that thought, Yugyeom felt his heart calm a little, eyes reassuring as he met Bambam’s worried ones.
Bambam finally swallowed, nodding as he steeled himself.
“You shift first, I’ll grab your clothes. Maybe, maybe you can trick them into thinking you’re just a regular bear too.”
Though the probability of that was next to zero, Yugyeom complied regardless, slipping out of his clothes as he simultaneously shifted. Every part of him ballooned in size, muscles rippling and dark, coarse fur sprouting from every inch of his skin. While he’d always towered over Bambam, once his transformation was complete he stood even taller, finally dropping down onto all fours with a slight growl.
Bambam had already taken off, still in human form as the two packs would be too heavy for his smaller form to carry. Presumably, he’d shift after stashing all their stuff somewhere, and then watch from above.
Yugyeom began to pace around the fire slightly restlessly; all that was left was to wait.