Totally Average (just for you) - Eyela (2024)

It’s raining lightly when Yunho leaves his apartment, but that doesn’t dampen his mood. He has good, waterproof shoes, he has his sturdy umbrella and, most importantly, he has a date with his boyfriend.

There’s a spring in Yunho’s step as he makes his way down to the restaurant a few blocks away, arriving just on time. He twirls his umbrella to shake off the extra raindrops still clinging to it before folding it up, wipes his shoes briefly on the doormat, and steps inside.

The restaurant is small and cosy, one they’ve visited together before, and although Yunho hadn’t minded the rain, he’s grateful for the warmth which greets him now he’s out of the weather. He looks around, searching for a familiar face, and smiles involuntarily when he spots him already seated at a table for two in the far corner.

Mingi is frowning deeply at his phone, using the front-facing camera as a mirror as he fusses with his hair. He must have been caught in the rain, damp patches on his shoulders and back, and hair wet and sticking to his forehead. He hasn’t noticed Yunho yet.

“Ah, no thanks, I’m joining someone,” says Yunho politely to the waitress who appears beside him to offer him a table.

He thinks he sees Mingi suddenly sit up in his peripheral vision, but his view is blocked by another waiter passing by, as the waitress in front of him smiles in understanding and moves to take another table’s order.

After, Yunho looks around to Mingi again and blinks in surprise. Mingi’s clothes are dry and his hair is perfectly styled. That’s so weird, Yunho must’ve been mistaken before, but he could’ve sworn…

“Yunho! Hi!”

Mingi’s face splits into that lovely, infectious smile of his as he spots Yunho and waves him over.

Shaking off his thoughts, Yunho hurries over and slips into the seat opposite. Up close, he can see that he certainly must have been wrong before, because Mingi’s outfit is immaculate as always.

Mingi always dresses well, something Yunho finds a little bit intimidating if he’s honest. Today it’s a tan trench coat over a black turtleneck, with a fine gold necklace and matching round wire-framed glasses perched on his nose. His hair is light brown this week – how Mingi changes his hair colour so often without destroying his scalp is a mystery to Yunho – and swept back elegantly. He’s sitting easily, with one leg crossed over the other and his chin resting lightly on one hand, and looks like he’s just walked off the set of a photoshoot for the cover of Vogue.

Yunho glances down at the loose plaid shirt sitting open over his plain t-shirt and his equally plain jeans and tries not to grimace. Mingi’s never given him any reason to think he doesn’t approve of the way Yunho dresses, and Yunho’s never heard him pass comments about anyone else’s outfits either, so he knows logically that there’s no point worrying about it. Still, he can’t help but feel just a little underdressed.

The thoughts are quickly pushed from his head though, as Mingi slides over one of the menus and announces that he’s paying this time since Yunho beat him to the cheque on their previous date, in a tone which leaves no room for argument.

Yunho holds up his hands in surrender before accepting the menu and scanning it briefly, although he’s pretty sure he’ll get the same soup as last time. With his free hand, he reaches across the table and takes Mingi’s in his, running his thumb over his knuckles and smiling wider when Mingi squeezes back.

Mingi has been his boyfriend officially for two months now, and Yunho couldn’t be happier about it.

Mingi is fantastic – gorgeous and witty and whip-smart, with a goofy smile that breaks through his stony exterior like sunlight through clouds when he’s happy. He’s laid-back and confident, handsome and fashionable and so cool that Yunho can’t believe Mingi ever even looked twice at someone like him, but Mingi is genuinely interested in Yunho and his opinions and his hobbies and interests, and they’ve never once run out of things to talk about.

All in all, Mingi is very nearly perfect.

The only downside is that he’s human.

In an average relationship, of course, this would not be considered a downside. However, given that Yunho is no average civilian, but one of a small population of inner-city werewolves, it does rather complicate matters.

Werewolves don’t typically date outside of the magical community, for the simple reason that rather a lot of work has gone into keeping said community a secret from the rest of the world.

Ordinary humans have a nasty habit of panicking, or turning violent, or both when confronted with things they don’t understand, and the various non-human inhabitants had long-since come to the agreement that everyone would be better off if they simply stopped trying to make things work, and kept themselves mostly to themselves.

And, for the most part, it’s not difficult for Yunho to blend in.

The wolf form is optional outside of the full moon, and otherwise Yunho appears, more or less, to look like any other person on the street.

He still has an abnormally good sense of smell and hearing, a few wolfish habits to keep under control, and his fangs can elongate if he gets riled up, but all of that is possible to keep under wraps. Most humans who Yunho befriends in passing have no idea that he isn’t one of them.

The trouble with Mingi is that it’s no longer just a passing friendship.

Yunho didn’t mean to end up dating a non-magical human. It happened by chance, when he and Mingi started frequenting the same park for evening walks. After the fifth or sixth time of passing each other and smiling in recognition, it just made sense to start making small-talk when they crossed paths each night, passing remarks about the weather and such.

That was all fine and normal, but then Mingi had laughed loudly at some stupid joke Yunho had made about the nearby pigeons, mouth stretched into a wide grin and eyes scrunched into crescents, and Yunho had lost control of his faculties and asked if he wanted to go get coffee that weekend. Mingi had seemed surprised, but had agreed readily enough before Yunho could panic and play it off as a joke. It had gone well, and the next thing Yunho knew, Mingi’s number was saved in his phone with a little heart beside it and the rest was history.

Yunho knows deep down that he could be setting them both up for heartbreak some time in the future, since he’s going to have to reveal his true nature at some point if they end up together long-term, but he also can’t go around outing himself to anyone he likes for the sake of his pack’s safety, so Yunho figures they’ll cross that bridge when they come to it.

For now, he focusses on enjoying their date.

Their food, when it arrives, is delicious. Yunho’s soup is just as good as last time, and Mingi is happy with his order too, quickly offering Yunho a piece of pork belly, claiming it’s the best he’s ever tasted. Yunho nods enthusiastically, leaning forward to take the bite Mingi is holding out in his chopsticks, and immediately groans in delight at the flavour.

Mingi’s eyes widen slightly, and it occurs to Yunho a second late that Mingi was actually offering to put the piece of meat in Yunho’s bowl rather than feed him directly. Yunho feels himself turn pink, and giggles, flustered.

“Ah, sorry,” he says, grinning bashfully.

Then he pauses.

Just for a second, it looks like Mingi’s eyes are glowing. Before Yunho can look more closely though, Mingi has ducked his head to look back down at his food and Yunho can’t see his eyes clearly anymore.

“Um… Mingi?” he says uncertainly.

“Hmm?”

Mingi looks up, eyebrows raised inquisitively and eyes dark brown as always.

Yunho stares for a moment, then shakes his head with a muttered ‘never mind’. It must just have been a trick of the light.

Across from Yunho, Mingi is sweating bullets.

f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, if he can’t get himself under control, he’s going to expose himself and ruin everything.

What kind of witch can’t keep his emotions in check for one short dinner date? Lots of us, actually, Mingi’s brain supplies, remembering some of the embarrassing stories his coven have shared, but that doesn’t make him feel much better given the current situation.

The trouble is that witches usually date other witches, or at least other members of the magical community like vampires or fairies, and when that’s the case, the occasional slip of magic isn’t such an issue. And it’s not like Mingi planned to be an anomaly either – he’d always figured he’d find a fellow witch or maybe a nice warlock or dryad to settle down with.

Falling in love with Just Some Guy hadn’t been on the cards.

But then, Yunho isn’t Just Some Guy. He’s the Guy. The ultimate Guy of all Guys.

Mingi’s never met anyone like him, and he doesn’t think he will again.

Effortlessly charming, cheerful and open, as well as being tall and handsome in a friendly sort of way which screams boyfriend material from a mile off. By all rights Mingi should be nervous and self-conscious around Yunho at all times, but instead Yunho has a way of making Mingi feel relaxed and at-ease, like he can be himself around him without having to worry.

The trouble, of course, is that Mingi can’t entirely be himself around Yunho. At least, not until he’s certain they’re staying together long-term, or Mingi would be breaking the rules and potentially putting his coven at risk.

It’s already bad enough that he thinks Yunho might have caught a glimpse of him before he dried himself off with the evaporation charm. It was silly of Mingi to get caught in the rain in the first place, but he’d spent so long agonising over his outfit this evening that he completely forgot to check the weather forecast.

Yunho, of course, had remembered an umbrella, because he’s practical like that, and probably hadn’t spent even a moment overthinking his clothing choices. Yunho is one of those people who doesn’t need to be interested in fashion because he’d look like anyone’s dream boyfriend even if he wore his pyjamas to the restaurant. Clothes that, on anyone else, might look plain or even sloppy just make Yunho look handsome in an extremely comfortable, non-threatening sort of way which makes Mingi do silly things like start daydreaming about doing grocery runs together.

Mingi, however, is quite the opposite. He has the same tendency that most witches harbour, of being extremely finicky about all his surroundings, his belongings, and the general way he presents himself to the world.

It’s a stereotype that all witches are vain creatures, but while that can certainly be true, it isn’t the whole picture. Witches’ magic is based in emotions, gut-feelings, and general vibes, which means something as seemingly innocuous as a poorly-decorated workspace or even a bad hair day can seriously screw with their spellcasting.

Their body is their conduit, so it’s important to feel at ease with themselves, and that includes being happy with the way they’re dressed. Developing a style is important to witches, and they all have their own preferences.

Seonghwa decorates himself in fine jewellery and elegant clothes which make him feel poised and collected, so he feels in control of his magic. Yeosang fills his wardrobe with gentle, flowy clothing – wrap-around shirts with wide sleeves and loose trousers in light cottons and silks which don’t weigh heavily or constrict his movement, so nothing distracts from the free-flowing connection with his magic. Wooyoung covers himself in tattoos – words of affirmation, symbols to represent meaningful relationships – to give himself courage and boost his power, and switches to more revealing clothing if he’s planning on spellcasting so they’re all freely displayed.

For his part, Mingi likes to feel stylish. He’s always had a keen interest in the fashion industry, prides himself on keeping up to date and being able to put his own creative spin on whatever’s in this season. When it comes to spellcasting, he’s found that it helps with the imposter syndrome – that if he looks like someone confident and cool, he can start to feel that way too and not worry so much about all the things that could go wrong.

Conveniently, it’s a strategy which also works on dates. Or at least, it does for the most part. When Mingi’s not busy losing control of his magic and letting his eyes light up.

Casting around quickly for something else to talk about, Mingi makes a somewhat questionable choice.

“Hey, did you hear there was another disappearance?”

Yunho’s eyes widen, and he sits forward attentively.

“I did,” he says quietly. “It’s getting really scary. That’s seven people in three weeks now, all gone without a trace.”

Mingi nods gravely. What’s even scarier is that the magical community is starting to suspect that whoever’s behind these attacks is one of their own. The timing, the complete lack of clues, the fact that it was all healthy, young people in prime fitness who were vanishing, everything pointed to something feeding on the residents of their city. But who or what, no one was yet sure.

“And they’re not showing any signs of slowing down, either,” mutters Mingi.

“Someone will catch them soon, surely,” says Yunho, but he doesn’t sound sure.

“Hm,” says Mingi. “I hope so.”

Both glance around uneasily, as if whatever malevolent presence is out there might be lurking in a corner of the little restaurant with them now.

Just thinking about it makes Mingi anxious, so he’s quick to change the topic again, and the conversation veers into safer, happier waters until they’ve both finished their meals and are ready to go.

Mingi opens his mouth to offer to walk Yunho home, the thought of all those disappearances still fresh in his mind. Unfortunately, Yunho seems to have the same idea.

“Let me walk you home,” he says, getting in just before Mingi.

Mingi hides a grimace. It’s sweet of Yunho to offer first, but inconvenient.

“I’d feel better if I could walk you home,” he tries. “Besides, yours is closer, isn’t it?”

Yunho shakes his head stubbornly.

“I can look out for myself,” he says. “I’d feel better knowing you got back safely.”

“I can look after myself too!” Mingi protests.

The idea of him needing a human chaperone is laughable, but also incredibly frustrating given the circ*mstances.

“Well, I’m bigger than you,” says Yunho, as if that settles it, getting to his feet and holding out a hand for Mingi.

Well, I can create fireballs with my mind, Mingi nearly retorts, but that isn’t an option, so he’s forced to admit defeat.

“Hardly bigger,” he grumbles, allowing Yunho to help him to his feet. “You’re, like, a centimetre taller. If that.”

“I’m also the one with the umbrella,” Yunho tells him smugly, and, alright, Mingi has to concede that point.

Resigning himself to waiting anxiously beside the phone tonight until Yunho eventually texts him that he’s also home safe, Mingi sighs and lets Yunho lead the way back outside.

Luckily, the rain has eased off for now (although really Mingi wouldn’t have minded the chance to huddle under an umbrella with Yunho) so the walk back to Mingi’s apartment is easier than the trip to the restaurant was.

Quite a few people are still out and about, and the path grows crowded as they rejoin the main road. Someone bumps into Mingi, causing him to stumble, and what sounds like a low growl suddenly rumbles through the air.

Wolf, thinks Mingi at once, and looks around sharply, but there’s nothing out of the ordinary around them, just ordinary people hurrying on their way home.

Mingi squints suspiciously. Werewolves are notoriously hard for witches to sense when they’re in their human forms, since they only give off a magical signature when they’re transformed. Other races such as goblins and selkies can detect still detect werewolves by smell even when in human form, but witches don’t have that ability, leaving a rather annoying blind spot.

Still, Mingi consoles himself, even if they had just passed one of the local werewolves, it probably doesn’t matter all that much. Most werewolves in this part of town are part of the main pack, and therefore part of the same Magical Alliance as Mingi’s coven, so wouldn’t cause them trouble anyhow.

Also, for what it’s worth, the blind spot goes both ways – witches are one of the only beings in the magical community that werewolves can’t sniff out, given that they’re just humans with extra abilities, not like pixies or vampires or goblins with their particular species’ scent. So, even if there’s a rogue wolf in the area tonight, it’s unlikely that he’d target them in particular.

“Everything ok?” asks Yunho, sounding a little nervous.

“Yeah, I just thought I heard…” Mingi trails off and shakes his head. “Nothing, never mind.”

Before he knows it, they’ve reached Mingi’s apartment building – a fairly average place conveniently located across from the park where they first met. Yunho stops at the main entrance and turns to Mingi with a smile.

“Thanks for tonight,” he says. “I had a really nice time.”

They kiss quickly, Yunho’s hand going to Mingi’s cheek and lingering there for a second when they draw apart.

“I did too,” Mingi whispers. “Thank you.”

Yunho’s smile widens as he steps back.

“I’ll see you next week?”

Mingi nods.

“I’ll message you.”

He blows Yunho a kiss, then turns and heads inside.

Mingi lives on the top floor, which fortunately gives him a long enough elevator ride to let out some of the energy building up inside him. The second the door closes, Mingi lets out the breath he was holding and feels a glowy golden-pink aura spread instantly over his body. It feels warm and tingly and he bounces from foot to foot and shakes himself with a silly grin until it disperses into the air around him.

“Brrr,” he says, flapping his arms as the last of it fades.

He does wish he could show Yunho what he does to Mingi, this physical representation of the excitement and affection he feels for him, but that’s yet another thing which is going to have to wait.

Stepping out of the elevator, Mingi makes his way to apartment 17 and keys in the code for the lock. It beeps in acknowledgement and clicks open, and Mingi heads inside, toeing his shoes off at the door and nudging them under the rack in the entryway.

“I’m home!” he calls, and Seonghwa’s head pops around the corner at once.

“Mingi!” he says cheerfully, then cranes his neck to see past him to still-open door. “Um… is Yunho with you? Do we need to have a quick clean up?”

He means throwing up a glamour to make the kitchen and living room look less blatantly witch-inhabited.

“No, no,” says Mingi, shooting Seonghwa a reassuring grin and shutting the door behind him. “Thanks, hyung, but I wouldn’t do that without warning you. I’d send a flare first at the very least.”

He hangs his coat on the rack and slopes into the main room.

Although the property chosen by the coven five years ago was a very average apartment like every other one in the building, it has since been modified extensively into a truly eclectic home worthy of four witches.

The kitchen is always full to bursting with a wild mix of equipment and ingredients, from the dried herbs hanging overhead to the different sized pots, pans and cauldrons taking up both the stovetop and the fireplace (which they’d broken multiple regulations to install, and was the reason they’d chosen a flat on the top floor – easier to attach a hidden chimney).

Currently, Seonghwa is bustling around brewing something fragrant and flowery, which is emitting lilac-coloured smoke that hangs twinkling in the air. Mingi sniffs, immediately feeling calmer, and leans over to check the recipe open on the ipad on the counter.

“Drowsiness draught?”

Seonghwa hums.

“A request from Soobin,” he says. “Some of the fairies have been trouble sleeping recently. Apparently there’s a weird energy around the riverside parks. Wooyoung’s flat out today, so I’m giving him a hand with his orders.”

The timer on the stove goes off, and he hurries away to tend to the brew. Mingi leaves him to it, ducking under the wide, open archway that leads into the living room. It looks as homely as ever, jumbled mix of mismatched velvet couches, ornately embroidered wall hangings and patchwork quilts, and one whole wall taken up by their extensive spell book collection.

Yeosang is sitting on the biggest couch, messing with his phone, brow furrowed with concentration.

“Watcha doing?” asks Mingi, dropping down beside him and lounging back.

“Wooyoung still needs a new cauldron,” Yeosang replies without looking away. “Witchcraft Unlimited has a sale on this week, I’m trying to see if they’ve got any of the size he needs in the discounts.” He huffs as he exits out of another product page. “But it looks like these are all cast iron, not brass.”

Then he blinks, and seems to register Mingi’s presence properly for the first time.

“Ah, you’re back!” he says, sitting up a little and smiling. “How was your date?”

Mingi smiles back, stretching his arms up over his head.

“Really good,” he says. “Yunho’s really great, Yeosangie. I like him so much.”

Yeosang beams.

“Good!” he chirps. “I’m happy for you. And…”

A sudden howl splits the night, and he breaks off, eyes wide.

“Wow, that sounded close.”

Seonghwa looks up from the pot he’s stirring and cranes his head through the arch to look out the window.

“Interesting. The local pack don’t usually come this far east in wolf form. Still, they don’t sound distressed, so I supposed it’s ok.”

Mingi nods vaguely. He doesn’t know the werewolves as well as some of the others do – he’s just never really crossed paths with the pack all that much. He knows the pack is split into two sub-packs, the larger one headed by a wolf named Chan and the smaller by Hongjoong, who Seonghwa knows, but that’s about it. He certainly doesn’t know their usual roaming habits, except that Seonghwa is right – they don’t usually hear them from here.

“Um…” Yeosang puts his head on one side. “What were we talking about?”

Mingi chuckles.

“My date,” he says, “But there wasn’t much else to tell. It went fine.”

Well. Apart from the glowing-eye-incident. Mingi frowns as he thinks back to it.

Every witch has to deal with the possibility of their magic manifesting in response to their emotions. Much like a smile or a frown, it’s mostly voluntary and can be controlled, but the odd incident can slip through sometimes if care isn’t taken or emotions are running particularly high. Some witches are far better at controlling it than others, and it takes practice for everyone.

Mingi glances sideways at Yeosang.

“Uh… I don’t suppose you’ve got any tips on keeping romantic feelings from manifesting physically?”

Yeosang looks at him incredulously.

“You’re asking me?” he asks. “Me? Have you forgotten the lamp incident?”

Mingi lets a snort slip before he can help himself.

The lamp incident had occurred when Yeosang and Wooyoung were still dancing around their feelings for each other, when the childhood friends had started their very slow, very belated realisation that the feelings they had for each other really didn’t constitute friendship anymore.

Wooyoung had sat beside Yeosang for a movie night and held his hand, then pressed a quick kiss to the back of it before letting go to get up and grab a drink. Yeosang had gone pink, and a few seconds later, to Yeosang’s horror, his hand had started glowing brightly where Wooyoung had kissed it. Wooyoung had returned from the kitchen to find Yeosang doing an abysmal job of hiding it inside a lampshade, bright red in embarrassment and claiming he was trying to mend the bulb.

Even more ridiculous was the fact that he got away with it. Wooyoung had left in the first place because he could feel his own eyes starting to glow and had needed a minute to calm down, and he was so caught up his own narrow escape that he actually took Yeosang at his word and believed that he was fixing the lamp.

Mingi and Seonghwa, who had the incredible misfortune of witnessing the whole wreck, were generous enough not to hold it over their heads too much, and generally didn’t bring it up unless provoked.

“Yeah, ok, fair,” says Mingi now, slumping back against the couch. “It just got a bit too close for comfort today, and you’ve improved a lot, so I thought I’d ask.”

Yeosang pats his shoulder sympathetically.

“I wish I had a better answer for you,” he says, “But it really does just take time and practice. It got easier the more settled we got in the relationship, but emotions are always going to be running wild at the start. It’s just harder for you now, because you know you have to hide it and it’s adding extra pressure.”

Mingi sighs heavily and nods in reluctant acceptance.

“I just don’t wanna mess this up, you know?” he says. “I really want to tell him the truth, but I know I can’t yet, so I just want things to go as smoothly as possible in the meantime.”

“Is this your non-magic boy we’re talking about?” asks Wooyoung, bouncing into the living room with an arm full of books. “How’s that all going? You still haven’t blown your cover?”

“Of course I haven’t,” says Mingi with great dignity, not bothering to mention how close he’d come this evening.

Wooyoung nods, impressed.

“You’ll have to introduce us soon,” he says.

Mingi eyes his covenmate doubtfully.

“We’ll see about that,” he says.

Wooyoung’s jaw drops and he surges forward to punch Mingi playfully in the shoulder.

“Yah, don’t you trust us?!”

“Not in the slightest,” says Mingi, managing to keep a perfectly straight face just to see Wooyoung’s contort in exaggerated offence.

It doesn’t last, as Wooyoung playfully grabs a handful of Mingi’s sweater and begins jostling him back and forth, and Mingi breaks into laughter, bringing his arms up to defend himself. Yeosang starts giggling too, latching onto Mingi from behind to try and lessen how much Wooyoung can tug him around, and Seonghwa, attracted by their noise, arrives quickly too and begins swatting Wooyoung annoyingly with a tea towel until Wooyoung eventually yields and releases Mingi.

“I trust you all with my life, Woo, you know that,” Mingi says as they draw apart, the room settling down once more. “Just not with my boyfriend yet, ok?”

He looks out the window and smiles.

“Look, things with Yunho are good right now, just as they are,” he says softly. “I don’t know how things will go in the future, but I just want to carry on like this for a bit. That’s all.”

***

As soon as he’s seen Mingi disappear safely inside his building, Yunho is practically bounding away in his rush to find an alley he can shift in. He props his umbrella behind a dumpster where hopefully no one will see it, then drops to all fours.

By the time his hands have hit the ground, they’ve become paws.

Readjusting into his wolf form, Yunho shakes himself vigorously, fluffing out his coat, then he throws back his head and howls. It echoes off the nearby buildings, filling him with satisfaction.

He checks briefly that no one has spotted him, but he doesn’t to worry too much – the Magic Alliance has woven a co*cktail of spells over the city to make it easier for the wolf pack to go unnoticed by the resident humans. Any human who happens to hear or see Yunho in wolf form will automatically assume he’s just a large stray dog, and move on.

If he does end up dating Mingi properly, they’re going to need to get him a nullifying amulet so he doesn’t wonder where Yunho’s gone and where this big dog has appeared from every time Yunho shifts in front of him.

But that’s something to worry about later. For now, Yunho needs to get rid of the manic energy that’s been building up within him the longer he stayed with Mingi.

The park just near Mingi’s building is the perfect spot to do it, now that darkness has fallen and no one else is around. Yunho does a few mad laps of the little park, fully galloping and skidding into the gravel at every corner, until he begins to feel less pent-up. Finally, he lets out one last joyful howl, then trots back to the alley to shift back.

Shaking himself off again as he reacclimates to his human body, Yunho is quick to fix his clothes and retrieve his umbrella.

It’s not too far back to the apartment he shares with his small pack. He keeps an eye out for whatever probably-magical beast is behind the recent attacks, but no one bothers him, and he makes it home without any issue.

Pausing briefly in front of the apartment door, Yunho shoots off a quick text to let Mingi know he made it home safely, then shoulders open the door and heads inside.

He sniffs the air habitually while pulling his shoes off – San, Jongho and their pack leader Hongjoong are all home at the moment, Seungmin and Hyunjin from their extended pack must have been around earlier and left perhaps an hour or two ago, and someone has been out talking to a range of people Yunho is unfamiliar with, and still has their scents clinging. Probably Hongjoong, out doing pack-leader things like liaising with other magical households in the alliance.

Sure enough, when Yunho rounds the corner, he finds the three of them sprawled on the couch watching TV, Hongjoong closest to the door and blinking as though he’s just woken from a doze.

“Mmph,” he says, stretching, “Hi, Yunho.”

“You smell of vampire,” Yunho informs him, wrinkling his nose as he drops into the armchair opposite.

Hongjoong rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, I’ve heard it from the others already.”

“How’s your little human going?” asks San, turning away from the TV with a wide grin.

“He’s taller than you,” grumbles Yunho, slumping down into the unoccupied armchair. “But yes, he’s fine.”

“Just fine?” asks Jongho, not bothering to look away from the movie. “That’s all we get?”

Yunho rolls his eyes.

“What else do you want to know?” he says. “It was a nice, uneventful date. We ate nice food and had a nice chat, and then we went home.”

“And he still doesn’t suspect anything?” asks San, leaning forward.

“No, why would he?” says Yunho defensively. “I can act human just fine! Nothing happened, apart from, well…”

He falters a little, unsure if he wants to admit to his slip up in front of the others. At his hesitation, Jongho finally turns his eyes from the screen, eyebrows raised curiously.

“Apart from…?” he prompts.

Yunho drags a hand down his face.

“Someone bumped into him on the way home and I fully growled before I could reign myself in. It’s a miracle he didn’t realise it came from me. He didn’t, though, so it’s ok.”

Jongho snorts.

“Ooh, getting territorial over him already?” teases Hongjoong. “It must be serious.”

“We got talking about the attacks earlier,” says Yunho, waving a hand. “It made me jumpy, thinking about whatever’s out there going after him next. He’s only human, after all, and we still haven’t figured out what the hell’s taking them.”

“I still think it’s a rogue vampire,” says San. “One somebody’s turned and let loose without proper guidance.”

“Well, the Blood Moon coven say otherwise,” Hongjoong informs him. “At the meeting this afternoon, Seoho said they’ve been out every night this week and never once caught the scent of another vampire they didn’t recognise.”

“This is a big city!” protests San. “A vampire could totally hide here without detection for a couple of months. And all the attacks so far have been at night, haven’t they?”

“Half of the species in town are nocturnal, San,” Yunho reminds him. “And even human killers tend to operate at night. It could be anything, that’s why they still haven’t caught whoever it is.”

“Well, the recent disappearances have been grouped around the southern subway stations,” says Hongjoong, “According to the reports the Alliance heads have been receiving.”

There’s a brief pause.

“Not to point out the obvious,” says Jongho. “But everyone knows who runs the subway tunnels.”

But Hongjoong shakes his head at once.

“It’s not the goblins doing this,” he says. “We all know they like to play tricks and mess with unsuspecting humans, but that’s just harmless fun. Well, mostly harmless, anyway. They’d never go this far.”

“They might if the disappearances aren’t permanent,” says Jongho dubiously. “If they were setting them up to reappear a couple of weeks later with no idea what happened. That would be just their idea of fun.”

“That’s not what’s happening though,” San points out. “No one’s reappeared yet, even the ones who first went missing a month ago, and it’s gotten to the point where not only the non-magical detectives but the Magical Alliance is concerned. The goblins like their fun, but they’re not stupid. They wouldn’t risk the Alliance’s wrath like this.”

“I spoke to Minjae today as well,” Hongjoong adds. “He said he and the others have a noticed a strange malevolent presence in the underground areas, and they don’t like knowing something else is encroaching on their turf any more than the rest of us.”

“But they don’t have idea what it is either?” asks Yunho, frustrated. “Why is it so hard for the Alliance to sort this out so things can go back to normal?”

Hongjoong raises an eyebrow.

“Having a favourite human is really getting you invested in this, isn’t it?”

Yunho huffs irritably.

“I didn’t think any of us were particularly happy about innocent people getting murdered. But yes, the fact that I am currently dating someone more at risk than the rest of us is making me more anxious, thanks.”

Hongjoong ducks his head, chastised.

“Alright, fair, sorry for poking fun,” he says. “And hey, let us know if you want any of us to keep an eye on your human when he’s out and about at night, just in case.”

Yunho smiles.

“Thanks, hyung.”

“What’s his name again? Mingi?” San leans back and frowns. “Why is that kind of familiar? Isn’t that one of the witches in the local coven?”

“Maybe you’re thinking of Minji,” suggests Hongjoong. “Kim Minji, the head coven leader and main representative for the city witches? I was speaking to her just earlier.”

“Huh,” says San. “Guess so.”

“Are we ever going to meet this guy?” Jongho chimes in. “You’ve been going out for a while now, and we haven’t even seen him once.”

“Hey, that’s a thought,” says Hongjoong. “Why don’t you invite him over, Yunho?”

“Yes!” cries San. “I want to meet him! He sounds really fun!”

Yunho’s first instinct is to refuse, to say that Mingi isn’t ready yet to be introduced to the chaos of pack life and the magical world in general. But then, everyone in the pack is used to masquerading as humans outside of their home – surely they can pull it off here too, if only for a few hours (so long as they tidy up a bit first).

And Yunho’s pack is his family – he loves them all dearly, and has already told Mingi a few (mildly edited) stories about their antics. He would love to introduce them to the man who’s quickly becoming one of the most important in his life.

“I’ll… think about it,” Yunho says, and then laughs and shakes his head when the others cheer.

***

Two weeks later, Mingi straightens his collar nervously in the mirror, checking it’s sitting right with the nice necklace he’s wearing today. Yunho’s invited him to his apartment for lunch, to hang out with his housemates.

He made it sound very casual when he suggested it, but Mingi knows this is a big step. Yunho is very close to his housemates, and meeting them feels akin to being invited back to meet the parents and siblings. Mingi is anxious to make a good impression.

He wishes he could invite Yunho to meet his coven too, but that’s something they’ll have to prepare very carefully for, first so they don’t out themselves as witches, and then so they can slowly ease Yunho into the revelation, if they get to that stage.

Mingi is almost finished styling his hair when he hears his phone ring, and turns to see Yunho’s name lit up on the screen. Heart in his mouth, Mingi snatches it up and accepts the call.

“Yunho? Is everything ok?”

“Mingi! Hi!” comes Yunho’s voice, “Sorry for the short notice, but I’ve got a favour to ask.”

Mingi relaxes a little when he doesn’t sound too urgent. With new disappearances still being reported every few days, he’d worried for a moment that he was about to hear Yunho being attacked and calling for help. It’s still daylight, he reminds himself firmly.

“Sure, what is it?”

“I know the plan was to meet in the park before going to mine,” says Yunho, “But I’m not too far from your place and someone just bumped into me in the street, and now I’ve got their coffee spilled all down my front. Would I be able to come up and borrow a shirt from you?”

f*ck.

Mingi looks around his room, at the glowing runes carved into his bed and doorframe, the spell books littered over his desk, the herbs hanging in his window, the crystals spread over every spare surface.

He cranes his neck and glances out the door into the living room, where Yeosang has left his divination cards scattered over the coffee table, Seonghwa is in the middle of a candle-making session, and Wooyoung is stirring an almost comically large cauldron over their main fireplace.

f*ck.

“…Mingi?”

Yunho’s voice startles him back to reality, and he gulps.

“Um,” he croaks, “The place is a bit of a mess right now, to be honest. How about I bring you a hoodie when I come down, and you can put it over the shirt to hide the stains until we’re back at yours?”

Yunho chuckles.

“I don’t think you understand the magnitude of the situation, Min,” he says. “I don’t mind walking around with a stained shirt, but I got a whole cup of iced coffee upended over me. My shirt is soaked. I promise, it doesn’t matter if it looks like your apartment has had a bomb go off in it, I just need to get changed as soon as possible so I can stop feeling gross.”

Mingi curses again internally and drops his head back to stare at the ceiling. He can’t justify turning Yunho away – it’s not an unreasonable request to make of someone you’ve been dating for this long, after all.

“Damn, a whole iced coffee? How did that even happen?” he asks, stalling for time as he looks around his room.

How quickly can he pack everything up and make it look presentable? He starts gathering up his spell books one-handedly, shoving them into a stack with the spines facing the wall so their incriminating titles aren’t showing.

“There was a bike involved,” says Yunho ruefully. “They had to swerve to avoid a car that was going too fast, and then nearly hit a pedestrian, who bumped into another pedestrian, who bumped into me.”

“Damn,” says Mingi again, balancing the phone between his cheek and shoulder as he grabs a velvet drawstring bag and starts hurriedly collecting up his crystals.

“Again, I’m sorry to spring this on you, but I promise I’ll be in and out, quick as I can,” says Yunho, and he does sound genuinely apologetic. “You don’t need to entertain me or anything, and I won’t judge – our place is probably much messier than yours anyway.”

“Ahaha, right,” says Mingi, hoping he doesn’t sound as hysterical as he feels. “Um, how far away are you?”

“Oh, about five minutes, I reckon,” says Yunho. “I’ll walk a bit slower if you need time to kick your dirty laundry under your bed or whatever.”

He laughs, and Mingi laughs along with him, more out of panic than anything else.

“Right! Good. Ok. I’ll, um, see you soon then?” he says. “Let me know when you’re at the door so I can buzz you up.”

“Will do!” says Yunho cheerfully. “Thanks again, Mingi!”

The line goes dead, and Mingi races into the living room.

“Guys! Yunho’s coming here! We need to hide everything!”

Seonghwa and Wooyoung snap to attention at once, listening with wide eyes as Mingi explains the situation. He watches them look around the living room and quickly reach the same conclusion that Mingi had – this is bad.

Most of the time, they’re at least partially prepared to deal with non-magical guests, as long as Yeosang or Seonghwa is free to do some mind-tricks and smooth over whatever details they’ve missed in the clean-up, but that’s when they know in advance that there’s a possibility they’ll be letting an outsider in, and they’ve had time to prepare.

“Can’t I just hypnotise him at the door and make him believe he’s had a tour of a normal apartment?” asks Seonghwa. “Like we do with the landlord?”

“Hyung!” cries Mingi reproachfully, “This is my boyfriend, not our asshole landlord! And I don’t want him dealing with side-effects of memory alteration for our whole afternoon together, you know how disoriented it can make normal humans!”

Seonghwa drags a hand down his face.

“Yeah, yeah, fair point,” he concedes. “Ok, let’s see what we can do then.”

He turns and begins bundling up the candles he was engraving with spell runes, while the other two hurry to clear the kitchen of suspicious ingredients.

“And someone get Yeosang out of the bath!” Seonghwa shouts over his shoulder. “We’re never getting this place presentable without some serious glamours!”

Wooyoung charges into the bathroom without a second’s hesitation, and Mingi hears a startled shout and a splash from within before the door slams shut behind him. Wooyoung bundles Yeosang out the door less than a minute later, in only boxers and a large fluffy towel.

“What the f*ck?” Yeosang whines, pushing damp hair out of his eyes. “What’s going on?”

Mingi quickly fetches Yeosang some clothes while Seonghwa gives him a run-down of the situation, and Yeosang instantly switches into business mode, letting Wooyoung dress him while he starts working his illusion charms on the living area.

Mingi crouches by the coffee table and gathers up the divination cards, watching as the fireplace seems to melt away into the wall, and their tapestry of the three goddesses transforms into a nondescript landscape painting. Yeosang’s eyes glow silver as he works, and silver threads flow from his hands with each gesture, weaving the glamour to cover more and more of the room.

“Someone put the fire out, please, I can’t do anything about the heat and the sound of it,” mutters Yeosang distractedly, and Wooyoung hurries to obey.

The illuminated lines of runic writing on the walls to ward against curses and misfortune (and the ones around the fireplace they’d added to keep the fire contained after a narrowly-avoided accident) fade away too, as Yeosang’s magic continues to creep over the room, disguising all traces of magic and general eccentricity. Mingi takes Seonghwa’s basket of carved candles back to the coven leader’s bedroom for him, and Seonghwa runs to make sure the bathroom is safe too.

All too soon, a chime rings through the apartment, signalling that Yunho is downstairs.

“sh*t, he’s here!” says Mingi, hurrying over to buzz Yunho inside the building. “Yeosang, are you nearly done?”

Yeosang blows out a steadying breath, focussing hard as he turns his attention to the kitchen.

“One more minute, and we should be ok.”

The jars of toad eyes and butterfly wings ripple and become dried beans and lentils, Wooyoung’s cauldron set shrinks into saucepans, and cookbooks previously titled things like ‘Cauldron Classics: 101 potions every witch should know’ are replaced by ‘101 soups and broths for winter’.

“I won’t be able to hold all of this for long,” Yeosang warns, already sounding a little out of breath. “This is a lot.”

“We’ll make it as quick as we can,” Seonghwa promises him, emerging from the bathroom once more. “Mingi, do you have a shirt ready to lend him?”

Mingi curses and practically flies back to his own room, yanking open his wardrobe door and snatching up a plain blue t-shirt. At least he and Yunho are a similar size, which makes things easier. He’s just skidded back into the living room when the doorbell rings.

Yunho is here.

Mingi glances in the hall mirror for a last-second check that his hair is still good, pastes on a smile, then steels himself and opens the door.

“Yunho! Hi! Come in!”

If Yunho notices how frazzled Mingi looks, he’s polite enough not to mention it. Of course, Yunho isn’t exactly a picture of composure either right now, given the state of his attire.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding,” says Mingi, looking down at the dark stain spreading across the whole front of Yunho’s shirt.

“I told you it was bad,” says Yunho with a grimace. “Can’t believe my luck.”

Mingi steps back to let Yunho in, and ushers him through to the living room. Yunho follows obediently, looking around in obvious interest. Mingi’s heart is pounding, and he prays to all three goddesses that they haven’t missed anything major.

“So, this is my place,” he says, waving around vaguely. “And this is Seonghwa-hyung, the…” Mingi blanks briefly, searching for the non-magical equivalent of a coven or household leader, before realising that there isn’t one. “Um. The eldest?”

“A pleasure to meet you, Yunho,” says Seonghwa smoothly. “Mingi’s told us so much about you.”

Yunho bows quickly.

“Likewise! Great to meet you,” he says. “Sorry, I’ll do my best not to drip coffee on your carpet.”

“And this is Wooyoung,” says Mingi, as Wooyoung bounds back into the room, “Wooyoung, this is Yunho.”

“Ah, so we can finally put a face to the name!” says Wooyoung gleefully. “Mingi won’t shut up about you, but he wouldn’t let us meet you earlier! Wow, I kind of assumed he was exaggerating, but you really are all tall and handsome, huh?”

“Ah, thank you?” says Yunho, turning faintly pink and looking a little panicked.

Mingi hurries to move on.

“And Yeosang…”

He locks eyes with the witch, who shakes his head quickly, silver eyes widened with urgency, and Mingi realises with a start that Yeosang is cloaking himself too, so he doesn’t have to act while holding the illusion in place, and he won’t be visible to Yunho.

“Ah, Yeosang must have stepped out,” Mingi amends quickly.

“He just went to the shops!” pipes up Seonghwa quickly. “Anyway, Yunho, please feel free to use our bathroom to clean up and change! There’s a spare washcloth by the sink if you need.”

He looks pointedly at Mingi, who startles before remembering that he’s still holding the shirt.

“Ah, right, here you go,” he says, handing it to Yunho, who thanks him and hurries to change.

The second the lock clicks behind him, Yeosang’s shoulder’s sag, and the illusion of the non-magical living room fades.

“Wow,” he pants quietly, “Covering the whole apartment is harder than I thought it’d be.”

“You’re doing great, Sangie,” whispers Wooyoung, leaning over and kissing Yeosang on the cheek, causing the light in Yeosang’s eyes to pulse a little brighter.

“Wooyoung’s right though,” Seonghwa mutters, nudging Mingi in the ribs and side-eying him mischievously, “He is good-looking.”

Mingi elbows him back, raising his nose snootily.

“I’m aware, hyung. I did tell you that already. Now can we all stop talking please? He’s going to hear us.”

The bathroom door opens abruptly, and everyone jumps as Yeosang’s illusion snaps back into focus.

Stumbling slightly at the disorienting shift, Mingi turns to see Yunho standing in the doorway, dressed in Mingi’s shirt, and staring into the living room.

Looking straight at Yeosang.

Yeosang stares back at Yunho, still-glowing eyes wide in panic. For a long, horrible moment, nobody moves.

Wooyoung stands frozen, eyes darting between Mingi and Yunho.

Mingi races through excuses in his head – this is Yeosang, he’s back from the shops already because he forgot his wallet, he wears coloured contacts sometimes, he’s standing there with his arms out because… he was in the middle of stretching before you came in?

Seonghwa’s hand starts inching towards the charm hanging from his belt that he uses for hypnosis.

Then Yunho looks back to Mingi.

“Sorry,” he says, “Thought I heard an odd noise. Must’ve come from outside.”

The witches practically slump in relief.

“A noise,” says Seonghwa faintly, “Right, right, I see.”

“Haha, how funny!” cries Wooyoung. “Well, don’t you two have a lunch to go to?”

“We sure do!” Mingi manages, voice practically coming out as a croak, “Come on Yunho, let’s head out!”

Yunho looks a little surprised at their urgency, but lets himself be ushered towards the door.

“Oh, uh, ok! It was nice to meet you both!” he calls over his shoulder, before sparing one last curious glance at the corner where Yeosang is still standing, looking about ready to collapse.

Then the door closes behind them with a resounding thud, and Mingi tries not to make his sigh of relief too obvious.

They survived.

The trip to Yunho’s goes mercifully smoothly, and Mingi relaxes a little, hoping that this means Yunho didn’t notice anything amiss at his apartment.

It’s only once they actually reach Yunho’s building that he remembers with a start that he’s meeting the family, and the nerves from this morning suddenly return with a vengeance.

“Hey, you’ll be fine,” Yunho reassures him in the elevator, picking up on Mingi’s fidgeting. “They’re super nice, and they’ll love you!”

Mingi appreciates the thought, even if he isn’t so sure, but he doesn’t have any more time to dwell on it because, the next moment, they’re already at the apartment door.

Yunho ushers Mingi inside, and introduces him to his housemates, who are sitting around the big table in between the kitchen and living area, although they get to their feet when they notice the newcomers.

Maybe most human households don’t have a leader, but it’s plain that Hongjoong fills this role in Yunho’s house. He sits at the head of the table, and Yunho introduces him first with clear deference. Hongjoong looks Mingi up and down interestedly, and the feeling that Mingi is somehow being tested rises.

Then there’s San, whose sharp features give him a lean, hungry look that unnerves Mingi a little until the other man smiles and waves cheerfully, breaking the tension, and Jongho, who smiles and nods calmly but looks like he could probably bench-press Mingi without much effort.

Mingi does his best not to look as outwardly intimidated by the group as he feels as he returns their greetings.

“C’mon, I’ll show you around,” says Yunho. “Not that there’s a lot to see. Um, this is the living room…”

The space looks comfortable, if a little bare in the way of decoration. There are a few big, squashy couches clustered around a widescreen TV, with a few different gaming controllers spilling out of a basket nearby.

Looking around, Mingi notices a lot of short, grey and brown hairs sticking to the sofas and the rug.

“Oh, do you guys have a dog?” he asks, turning.

The reaction is unexpected and immediate – everyone freezes, looking much like Mingi’s caught them with their hands in the figurative cookie jar. Mingi thinks he sees Yunho’s eye twitch.

“We… were… we were looking after one last week!” says San suddenly. “For a friend!”

At once, everyone is nodding enthusiastically.

“Oh, yeah, a friend’s dog.”

“A biiiig dog, yeah, they were on holiday, so we were looking after it.”

“Yep, yeah, that’s right.”

Mingi looks between them, brow slightly furrowed. Why do they all seem so shifty about it? Maybe pets aren’t technically allowed in the building, and they’d had to keep the dog’s presence under wraps.

“You had a dog last week and you didn’t even mention it to me?” he asks Yunho, pouting theatrically in an attempt to lighten the mood a bit. “I’m feeling betrayed!”

Yunho scratches the back of his neck nervously and laughs.

“Ah, yeah, sorry Mingi, it just kind of… slipped my mind, I guess. We’ve, um, looked after the dog before, you see, so it wasn’t like… a special occurrence.”

Mingi sighs dramatically.

“That’s ok, I forgive you,” he says. “…As long as you show me a photo. You took photos, right?”

“Um… I don’t know,” says Hongjoong cautiously. “Did we?”

Jongho pulls out his phone and swipes through a few pictures hurriedly, before nudging San and showing him one, eyebrows raised in question.

“Oh, yeah, that’ll do,” says San, taking the phone and leaning forward to show Mingi. “Here – Jongho took a photo of us having a nap together!”

Mingi leans in to look, and his eyebrows shoot up.

The photo shows a huge beast asleep on their sofa, head in San’s lap. San’s head is tilted back, eyes closed and mouth hanging open, evidently napping too. Mingi’s jaw drops when he registers the size of the thing compared with San, who isn’t exactly small.

“I didn’t realise dogs could get so big,” he says, a little faintly. “This looks like a full-on wolf.”

There’s a beat as the others glance at each other.

“It’s, um, a husky,” says Yunho.

“Husky cross Irish Wolfhound!” says Jongho quickly. “You know how big wolfhounds can get!”

“Oh,” says Mingi, “I… no, I didn’t know that. A wolfhound, did you say? I don’t think I’ve heard of them before.”

“They’re quite a common breed!” pipes up San.

“I don’t know all that many dog breeds,” Mingi admits, feeling more than a little out of his depth here. “I’m more of a cat person, to be honest.”

Someone snorts loudly behind him. Mingi isn’t sure who, as they’re all studiously looking away when he turns back, but he hopes he hasn’t offended anyone, if they’re all avid dog lovers or something.

“I love dogs too,” he assures them, just in case.

“Oh, good,” says Jongho, raising his eyebrows. “You’d have to be comfortable having dogs around if you want to date Yunho. He’s got a… strong connection to dogs, you know.”

“Hahaha,” says Yunho, looking like he’s never heard anything less funny in his life. “Well, let’s eat, shall we?”

He heads to the kitchen, treading firmly on Jongho’s foot on the way. Jongho’s eyes widen and he immediately pushes away from the wall he’s leaning against and follows Yunho closely into the kitchen, muttering something too low for Mingi to hear, but which sounds decidedly threatening.

Mingi stands awkwardly beside the dining table, wondering if he should offer to help bring in the plates or if he’d be intruding.

A low growl rumbles from the kitchen and he startles.

“Ugh,” says Hongjoong, pinching the bridge of his nose, “Sannie, go and tell them to stop messing around will you? And Mingi, please, have a seat.”

Whatever the strange noise was, it quickly vanishes from Mingi’s mind as he realises he’s now sitting alone with Yunho’s hyung. The silence begins to stretch, and Mingi glances around the room, casting about for something to say.

His eyes land on a calendar hanging on the wall, and his eyes light up.

“Ooh, are you into astronomy?”

Hongjoong blinks.

“Sorry, what?”

Mingi points at the calendar.

“You’ve got a big red cross over the full moon for this month,” he says, then faulters, “Or does it mean something else?”

Hongjoong jolts, suddenly sitting bolt upright.

“Oh, no, I mean yeah, that’s for astronomy!” he says. “Yep, that’s – that’s a hobby of mine!”

The others start filtering back to the table with plates of food for lunch (which mostly consists of unusually rare beef, along with one side dish of vegetables hardly any of them seem to touch) and Mingi thanks Yunho with a smile before turning back to Hongjoong excitedly.

“Wow, that’s so cool!” he says, “I love astronomy too, it’s such a fascinating subject!”

If there’s one thing witches know a lot about, it’s the phases of the moon and the paths of the stars. It’s essentially knowledge for their spellcasting and potion making, but also a deep personal interest for many of them, Mingi included.

“Are the rest of you into astronomy too?”

He directs the question at Jongho, since he’s sitting opposite. Now that he’s found some familiar ground, he hopes they can maybe bond over it.

Jongho, however, looks like a deer in headlights at the question.

“Ah, no, that’s uh…” he looks around, “That’s more just hyung’s thing, actually!”

Hongjoong looks ready to throttle Jongho. Mingi wonders if he’s self-conscious about his hobby. He supposes that many humans do have strange ideas about what interests are embarrassing or ‘nerdy’. Perhaps this is one of them.

“Ah, well, I’m quite new to it,” Hongjoong grits out. “So I don’t know much yet, I’m afraid.”

“Oh, well, just let me know if you want any help getting into it!” says Mingi cheerfully. “We’ve got loads of books on it, and Yeosang found us a really nice telescope in the sales last year, I’m sure the others wouldn’t mind you borrowing it for a bit!”

Hongjoong smiles at him, and Mingi is relieved that this one looks a bit more genuine and less alarmed.

“Thank you, Mingi,” he says, “That’s very kind of you. I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.”

The meal goes quickly after that – all of the household seem to be very fast eaters and demolish their servings almost instantly, although they’re kind enough to wait patiently for Mingi to finish at his slower pace.

Mingi’s offer to help with the dishes is firmly turned down, so he settles for thanking them for their hospitality and preparing to leave.

“Would you like me to walk you to the train station?” asks Yunho as Mingi is pulling his boots back on, but Mingi demurs politely.

He can feel the tension of his magic building up again, so the sooner he can be alone, the better.

“I had a nice time,” he assures Yunho. “It really was lovely to meet everyone. I hope I can come back another day.”

It’s the truth, even if Yunho’s housemates had come across as a little odd, and Yunho’s answering smile is so filled with both relief and affection that Mingi has to look away, his irises threatening to light up once more in response.

It’s a relief when he finally bids them all farewell, and the apartment door closes behind him. Mingi closes his eyes hard and opens them again, feeling gold light beaming from them.

Once again, somehow, he's survived.

Back inside the apartment, everyone slumps with relief as the door closes, and Hongjoong collapses onto the couch dramatically.

“The wolf hair,” he says exasperatedly. “How did none of us think of the wolf hair?”

“Yunho vacuumed the carpets, didn’t he?” says San. “What else were we supposed to do?”

“The couches,” says Hongjoong, dragging a finger down the armrest of the one he’s sitting on. “Mingi’s right, it’s everywhere. We just don’t notice it anymore.”

“And why did you show him an actual photo of me?” cries Yunho, rounding on San and Jongho. “Why didn’t you just, I don’t know, google ‘husky’ or something?”

“I thought it’d look like a normal dog to him!” protests Jongho. “Shouldn’t the stealth illusion work for pictures too?”

Yunho runs a hand down his face.

“Well, evidently it doesn’t.” He looks back at the dining table ruefully. “We should’ve thought of the calendar too.”

“How were we meant to know he’d be that observant?” demands San. “Who has the date of the full moon memorised, apart from werewolves?”

“Well, the main thing is that we played it all off,” says Hongjoong. “He might think we’re a bit odd, but no one got exposed! Let’s just call it a success.”

Yunho sighs, forcing himself to calm down again, knowing that really, Hongjoong is right.

“Yeah,” he nods, grinning tiredly. “It wasn’t perfect, but we got through it. Thanks for your help, guys. Really.”

The others smile in return, and San claps Yunho on the shoulder as he passes.

As soon as the clean-up from lunch is finished, Yunho retreats to his bedroom, where he transforms into his wolf form and paces restlessly, mind still running on overdrive.

He wishes they were all on the same page, he and Mingi and his pack, so things didn’t have to be so stressful and clandestine. It must be nice for people dating within their own groups, he thinks a little jealously, to only have to worry about their partners and friends getting along, not about their whole way of life being exposed.

Even for Mingi – for all Mingi had worried when Yunho first called him, his place had looked very neat and normal.

Well, apart from the fact that there had definitely been a fourth presence somewhere in that sitting room. Yunho had kept hearing phantom noises the whole time he was there, little shifts and the soft rustle of fabric coming from the room’s far corner, but there was clearly no one there when he looked. It had made Yunho’s hair stand on end, but he hadn’t wanted to make a fuss since it was clear no one else in the room was aware of it, and he probably wouldn’t have picked up on it without the enhanced hearing which came with his werewolf genetics.

Maybe they have a ghost – even non-magical dwellings end up haunted sometimes. As long as it’s not malevolent, it should be nothing to worry about. Still, Yunho would feel better it he could investigate it further at some point, or get one of his more experienced magical friends to scope it out, just to make sure Mingi and his household aren’t in danger.

He’ll have to remember to ask Mingi about it on their next date.

***

The next date is disrupted, however, as the news comes on the chosen evening that the Magical Alliance has pin-pointed the area of the city where the attacks were taking place, and are preparing to move in.

It turns out that the goblins’ hunch about it being adjacent to the subway tunnels was correct – whatever creature is out there has apparently been lurking in the sewer system, in the elaborate network of underground tunnels below the city streets.

This is an all-hands situation, with every group expected to send as many members as possible to help locate and contain whatever monster has been terrorising their city for the last two months.

Yunho sends a quick text to Mingi, apologising that their date that night will have to be postponed, and receives a reply almost instantly assuring him that it’s fine, as Mingi has had something last-minute turn up as well.

It’s an unlikely stroke of good luck, but Yunho is in too much of a rush to question it, too busy hurrying to join the others and prepare to leave.

They catch the train together and meet with Chan and the rest of the werewolf pack at the western entrance to the tunnels. Chan waves them over as soon as he spots them, and quickly brings them into the loop.

“So, we’re moving through the tunnels in small groups, trying to cover the most ground possible,” he explains. “Someone’s bound to bump into our creature sooner or later, and as soon as we do, we’ll call for backup and get it subdued. The goblins are staying above ground to watch the exits, but the witches and the vampires are starting from the other entry points, and the fairies will be moving between groups as best they can to keep everyone updated.”

Chan looks around at the pack, performing a quick headcount to confirm that everyone’s been able to make it.

“Ok,” he says, “Let’s go with groups of four. Hongjoong, your boys can go with you, and the rest of us will split in two. I’ll take half, and Minho, you can take the others. Everyone, stick to your groups, and howl if you need backup. With any luck this thing won’t be too dangerous to non-humans, but I don’t want anyone taking any unnecessary risks, alright?”

At his stern gaze, there’s a grumble of assent from the wolves.

“Right,” says Hongjoong, rubbing his hands, “Let’s see what we’re up against.”

The trip through the manhole and down the metal ladder doesn’t take long and, thankfully, the smell isn’t quite as bad as Yunho was expecting either. Not that it’s remotely pleasant, but it’s not the punch to the nose he’d been bracing himself for. Also, while the human in Yunho is repelled, the wolf side is fascinated by the constant barrage of information in the rolling waves of scent.

There’s a path running alongside the water, too, so they don’t need to get their feet wet – yet, at least. Chan assured them that the water nymphs are on standby in the closest park to help everything clean and dry themselves off with their water magic at the end of the night, but looking at the dark river of wastewater, stormwater, and… things he’d rather not think about, Yunho hopes he’ll make it through the night without having to touch it.

“Alright,” says Hongjoong, shepherding the group along their assigned tunnel, waving briefly goodbye to the other two groups, “This way, let’s move, let’s move.”

A couple of fairies fly past, staying over the water to avoid kicking anyone in the head by accident (it’s a running joke in the area that the local fairies are all unreasonably tall for their species), illuminating the gloominess together with the wolves’ torches.

As they head deeper into the network of tunnels, Yunho sniffs the air again, trying to ignore the unpleasant odour of waste and damp. Something is familiar. There’s a particular scent in the air, standing out even amongst the eclectic mix of magical creatures out in force in the underground tunnels.

Familiar cologne, along with the underlying natural scent of someone very familiar indeed.

Mingi.

Yunho goes cold, and stops walking so suddenly that Jongho nearly walks into his back.

“Something here smells like Mingi,” he says abruptly, looking around.

Jongho wrinkles his nose.

“That’s a terrible thing to say about someone you love,” he says.

Yunho slaps Jongho in the shoulder.

“No,” he says, “Not the sewer, idiot! I can smell Mingi, I just caught his scent!”

Jongho’s eyes widen, and he inhales deeply.

“Oh, you’re right, something’s definitely familiar. But… but Mingi can’t be here, can he?”

“Mingi?” says Hongjoong, overhearing. “Surely not. Could it be a trace left on you from the last time you saw him, Yunho?”

“The smell’s too strong for that,” argues Yunho. “I think he’s really here, in these tunnels!”

Hongjoong curses and looks around, quickly finding a blue light ahead of them, and cups his hands around his mouth.

“Soobin!” he calls urgently.

One of the fairies hovering over the water up ahead changes direction and arrives in a flutter of wings and glitter.

“Hongjoong? What’s wrong?”

“Can you get a message around to the other groups?” asks Hongjoong, “We might have a human down here!”

Yunho lets out a whimper involuntarily. This is exactly what he was afraid of – Mingi ending up in danger. The wolf instincts inside of him rear up, urging him to shift at once and race blindly after that scent, headlong into the darkness.

“Hey,” says San, noticing Yunho’s struggle, “Hey, it’s gonna be ok. If Mingi did somehow get lured down as the next victim, this is the best possible time for it to happen. We’ve got heaps of people down here on the lookout, ready to find and fight whatever this thing is. We’ve still got time.”

Hongjoong finishes talking to Soobin and turns back to them.

“Ok, Yunho, you’re the most attuned to Mingi’s scent,” he says, “Which way should we go to get to him? Can you tell?”

Yunho tilts his head back, sniffing the air.

“Up ahead,” he says. “We need to keep going this way.”

Hongjoong steps back to let Yunho take the lead, and the group sets off at a brisk trot. Yunho understands that they can’t move much faster, given the unfamiliar terrain and the risk of running into a monster around every corner, but he wants to sprint.

With every step, Mingi’s scent grows clearer, and Yunho grows more agitated, strides lengthening, steps quickening.

“Hey, Yunho,” warns San, “Steady, man.”

Yunho nods vaguely, but his instincts are screaming at him, Not fast enough, we need to go now! Mingi’s in danger!

Before Yunho can stop himself, he’s falling forward, body changing fluidly from man to wolf, already running full pelt as soon as his paws hit the bricks.

“Yunho!” he hears Hongjoong call in alarm, “Wait!”

But Yunho can’t wait, not while Mingi might be in danger. It doesn’t matter if Yunho runs into danger too, he just needs to get to Mingi, now.

Yunho hurtles off down the tunnel, following his nose for the faint trace of his boyfriend, leaving the others behind.

***

At the east entrance, the witches are organising themselves to patrol the other side of the sewers.

“Ok, we’ll take the middle path,” says Minji, gesturing to her own coven, “Goeun, your coven can take the left, and Seonghwa, you and yours can go right. Try to stick together, especially since we still don’t know what this thing is. If you find it, or if you get in trouble, send a flare to me at once.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The other coven leaders bow quickly, and then everyone is moving off, filing purposefully down the different walkways and trying not to pull faces at the smell. Mingi makes eye contact with Gahyeon, who looks like she’s trying not to gag, and grimaces sympathetically.

“I think it’s a water-demon,” says Wooyoung, following Seonghwa down the path they’ve been assigned. “I was talking to Dosie just then and she agrees.”

He fidgets with the ball of light he’s created in his palm, holding it higher so they can see further into the darkness ahead.

“Could be a siren?” Yeosang suggests. “Surely the only way a human would come down here voluntarily is if they were being lured.”

Wooyoung shakes his head.

“Swan says it doesn’t fit a siren’s MO,” he says, “And she’s quarter-siren, so she’d know.”

Mingi shivers.

“I hope she’s right,” he says. “I’d hate to have to face a wild siren.”

“What, like a water demon would be any better?” asks Yeosang with a short laugh.

He breaks off as golden light comes into view at the other end of their tunnel section, squinting into the darkness. Mingi tenses too, before recognising the source of the light and relaxing again.

“Hey, Yeonjun!” calls Wooyoung, waving in greeting.

The fairy waves back, but his face is grim as he pauses to hover over the water in front of them.

“Hey guys,” he calls. “Can’t stop, just passing a message on. There’s a human down here too, possibly being hunted right now! Everyone, keep an eye out!”

“What?” asks Wooyoung, “How do you know? Has anyone seen them?”

Yeonjun shakes his head.

“Word back at the other entrance is that one of the werewolves caught scent of a human he knows!”

Mingi shudders.

“That’s awful,” he says, “I hope we find them in time!”

“Me too,” says Yeonjun, frowning in concern. “Well, I need to keep moving. Tell any others you see to be on the lookout!”

He swoops away, leaving the tunnel dimmer without his golden light.

“Well,” says Seonghwa, “I suppose either a human is very lost, or whatever’s down here has just drawn in a new victim.”

“If the human’s with it already, I don’t like their chances,” mutters Wooyoung, looking around them at the darkness. “No one seems to have spotted it yet, and that means no one is close enough to intervene. I was hoping we could get in before there were any more deaths.”

“We could be closer than we realise!” says Yeosang, trying to sound optimistic. “It could be hiding just around the corner without us knowing!”

“Oh, don’t say that,” says Mingi with another shudder.

“Yeosang’s right though,” says Seonghwa seriously, “We all need to keep our guard up. And…”

He cuts off suddenly, as a high-pitched whinny echoes along the tunnel.

Everyone freezes.

“That… sounded like a horse,” says Yeosang uncertainly. “But… that would mean…”

“A kelpie!” exclaims Wooyoung. “No wonder no one’s found any bodies!”

Mingi’s eyes widen. He’s read about kelpies, but never had the misfortune of meeting one before. The shape-shifting horse-demons who live in rivers or lakes and trick their prey into drowning, then swallow them whole, clothes and all. And now there’s one in the city sewers.

And they’re about to run into it.

“sh*t,” mutters Seonghwa, and begins conjuring a flare to alert Minji.

Before the red light has solidified into more than a few whisps, however, the braying sounds again, from much closer this time, and without further warning a wave of dirty water forms in the tiny tunnel.

So quickly that none of them have time to react, it crashes over Wooyoung, knocking him back against the slimy brick wall. Everyone is yelling in panic, Seonghwa’s magic dissipates, Yeosang darts forward and catches Wooyoung’s arm before he’s swept into the water, and Mingi has every intention of running to grab Wooyoung’s other arm, but just then the orb of light Wooyoung had conjured to light the tunnel for them flickers out.

Plunged into darkness, it’s suddenly much more difficult to balance on the relatively narrow path above the waterway. More splashing, more shouts and more neighing echo and bounce around the enclosed space, leaving Mingi disoriented in the extreme. How far away are the others? Did they just move? Did he just move? The neighing, too loud to be natural, is still rebounding around the bricks, and Mingi crouches into a ball, hands over his head to block it out. Water crashes against the wall beside him, and he shouts and lurches blindly away from it, stumbling further down the path, pressing himself desperately against the wall to avoid falling into the water.

“Seonghwa-hyung!” he calls, and hears his name shouted in return, but he can’t tell where it’s coming from anymore.

He hears another splash, and then a horse-like snort comes from so terrifyingly close that Mingi feels the hot breath and little droplets of water against his skin.

Mingi screams and shoots off a quick blast of fire instinctually. He doesn’t think it hits, but he doesn’t stick around long enough to find out – fear takes over and Mingi takes off down the pathway, groping his way blindly along the slimy wall, moving as fast as his feet will carry him to get away from the kelpie.

Finally, his surroundings seem to fall quiet again and Mingi has a moment to catch his breath. He hunches over, hands on knees, then holds out one hand and pants and wheezes his way through the light incantation.

His own glowing orb forms in his hand, lighting up his surroundings once more, and Mingi straightens as he looks around.

He’s reached what appears to be a four-way intersection. The tunnels stretch in all directions around him, and small metal bridges span the gaps between them. He can’t hear or see any disturbance in the water for now, which presumably means the kelpie has given up its pursuit of him, at least for now. But is it safe to retrace his steps?

Mingi peers back the way he came, the dark tunnel featureless and unremarkable apart from his wet footprints on the walkway.

The others are down there somewhere, presumably, and Mingi needs to get back to them, but he has no way of knowing if an angry kelpie is still lurking in the stretch of tunnels between them.

What should he do now?

“Mingi!”

Mingi nearly jumps out of his skin at the familiar voice, and spins around to see Yunho of all people running headlong towards him from the leftmost tunnel.

Mingi’s first reaction is to make the orb in his hand change shape so it could be mistaken for a battery-powered torch in the darkness, so as not to confuse Yunho.

Then his brain stalls and blanks out for a moment, rejecting the image in front of him because there is no way, no way in the world that Yunho is here. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s impossible.

Is this an illusion? Do kelpies do illusions? Is seeing a loved one meant to lower Mingi’s guard or something?

But then, inexplicably, Yunho reaches him and grabs his arm, and his touch is warm and real and he’s real, here, now, in the sewer tunnel with Mingi.

What the f*ck?

“Mingi, thank the gods I found you!” Yunho pants, eyes wide. “What are you doing down here?”

Mingi gapes at him.

“What am I doing here?” he repeats. “Yunho, what are you doing down here?”

This is disastrous. Yunho can’t be here – he’s just a human! He’s in huge danger!

A sudden thought occurs to him – is Yunho the human one of the wolves mentioned scenting? How does Yunho know any of the werewolves? Or are there two humans running around the sewers right now?

Yunho opens his mouth, but before he can speak, a furious braying interrupts them. Mingi whirls around, heart in his mouth.

“It’s back,” he says tightly. “Yunho, listen to me, we need to get you out of…”

But before he can finish, the kelpie erupts from the water nearby. Mingi gets his first clear look at the monster – a gigantic silver horse with glowing eyes and fangs – before it’s crashing back into the water and sending a huge wave surging towards them.

Mingi only just reacts in time to stumble out of the way – he knows that if that wave hits either of them, it will pull them down into the water and they’ll be drowned. Never mind that the sewer shouldn’t be deep enough to drown in – if the demon can twist the environment enough to create waves of that size and to submerge itself entirely in water that should only be a few feet deep, then it can certainly manage this too.

Thrown off balance by the sudden attack, Mingi can’t stop himself slipping over and landing painfully on the ground. He looks around instinctually for Yunho, but since the pair were standing at a corner of the intersection before having to dodge, he’s disappeared around the bend and is nowhere in sight.

Crap. Mingi needs to get back to him right away, and figure out how the hell he’s going to get Yunho out of here without either of them being hurt.

“Yunho!” he calls, as he hauls himself to his feet.

Just then, a wolf howl echoes through the tunnel.

***

Yunho lands hard and manages to roll to dull the impact, shifting automatically into his wolf form as he regains his feet.

The first thing is he does howl for the rest of his pack – he’s glad he ran ahead to find Mingi, as one wolf’s protection will be better than nothing, but he’s going to need backup, and fast.

Then he races back to round the corner again. He spots Mingi at once, still getting to his feet and looking around wildly, and Yunho bounds towards him, focussed on placing himself between Mingi and the water before the next attack.

He’s definitely going to freak Mingi out a bit, but hopefully he’ll trust a large dog over a screaming horse demon, assuming the Alliance’s illusions still work underground.

At the sound of Yunho’s approach, Mingi spins around with a yelp, arms over his head protectively as he presumably braces for another kelpie attack.

And then, unexpectedly, a bright purple shield of magical energy erupts around him.

Yunho skids to a halt, freezing up in shock.

Mingi… has magic?

But that doesn’t make any sense. How could Mingi have magic? He’s a human, and humans don’t have magic unless…

Then realisation slams into Yunho with the force of a speeding truck, so obvious he wants to hit himself. Mingi is a witch?

“Stupid wolf, you scared me!” scolds Mingi, one hand clutched to his chest. “Gods above, don’t just rush me like that, I nearly blasted you!”

Yunho stares blankly, still in shock. Mingi is a witch. He’s here for the same reason Yunho is – because he’s part of the Alliance. He’s probably here with the rest of his coven, just like Yunho is here with his pack.

“Well, don’t just stand there!” cries Mingi, clearly still flustered. “We need to move! The kelpie is close, and there’s a human here too, we need to find him! He needs protecting!”

He brushes past Yunho, barely looking at him, to check around the corner behind him. He’s scanning the tunnel frantically – for any sign of his human boyfriend, Yunho realises with a guilty start. When he realises that Yunho has apparently vanished, Mingi’s face contorts in confusion. Then, he seems to look at the wolf in front of him properly for the first time. His eyes narrow briefly, then widen as his mouth drops open.

“Wait a second,” he whispers. “You’re not… Yunho? Is that… you?”

At a complete loss for words, Yunho decides it’s easiest to just shift back rather than figure out how to reply. He straightens, automatically brushing off the dirt clinging to his clothes, as Mingi stares.

“Thirteen hells,” says Mingi softly. “You’re a werewolf. This whole time, you’ve been a werewolf.”

“You’re a witch,” says Yunho, equally shaken. “Why didn’t you say so?”

“Why didn’t you say so?” counters Mingi at once.

They’re cut off by the sound of a splash nearby, both immediately snapping into a defensive stance.

“Ok, maybe let’s actually discuss this later?” says Mingi, voice suddenly pitching up in alarm.

“Yep!” says Yunho at once, scanning their surroundings with wide eyes, “Yep, good idea, sounds great!”

Mingi does something with his hands too fast for Yunho to follow, muttering something under his breath, and produces what looks like a long string of glowing red wispy smoke, sparking and crackling intermittently, which he deftly directs to weave into a loose ball, almost like yarn.

“It’s here with me, I need help!” he hisses, and the ball glows brighter for a second, as if absorbing his words, before zooming off down the tunnel.

Yunho assumes it's some sort of messaging system, but he doesn’t want to risk raising his voice to ask. Besides, the idea of Mingi doing magic is still almost too much for Yunho to take in right now.

With bated breath, the pair return to watching the rippling water, trying to pinpoint the source of the movement. They don’t have to wait long.

The only warning they get is a brief shift in the water, a mere split-second before the kelpie explodes out of the stream with a shriek, eyes rolling and nostrils flaring in fury. It leaps for Mingi, who deflects with another flash of purple, but the kelpie seems prepared this time and doesn’t take so long to recover. Before Mingi can brace himself again, the kelpie is diving forward, and Yunho doesn’t allow himself time to think before he throws himself in its path.

He shifts as he leaps, so thankfully it’s the bigger, sturdier body of a werewolf and not a human that the kelpie slams into, but it’s still enough to send Yunho sprawling backwards and colliding painfully with the brick wall of the tunnel.

“Yunho!”

In his disoriented state, Yunho only registers Mingi rushing towards him, and then the whole world is purple. He blinks, shaking his head, and rolls onto one side to see Mingi crouched over him, holding a bright violet shield like a bubble around the two of them.

“Are you ok?” he pants, eye darting wildly between Yunho and the kelpie.

Yunho nods his head, then tries to heave himself up, but his limbs aren’t obeying him and he can’t seem to get his paws under himself. Flopping back down, Yunho looks around them again and howls once more for his pack. He hopes they heard him and are already on their way. He doesn’t know much about spellcasting, but he can clearly see that holding the shield in place is taking a toll on Mingi. There’s sweat beading on his forehead and his arms are starting to shake.

Yunho whines sympathetically at the sight, and Mingi glances over at him again.

“Don’t get hurt saving me!” he scolds. “I won’t forgive you if something happens to you, understand? Not before we’ve had a chance to talk about all this!”

Yunho huffs out a weak laugh.

Another wave of water crashes powerfully over them, and Mingi’s shield falters but holds firm. Mingi groans with the effort and Yunho, not knowing how else to help, howls again.

And this time, finally, he hears a chorus of howls in return. Yunho almost goes weak in relief as his ears pick up the sound of paws galloping closer.

At that moment, another flash of light illuminates the tunnel, from the far end this time.

“The others are here,” gasps Mingi. “Thank the goddesses.”

Yunho turns and sees a small crowd of people hurrying along the pathway, Kim Minji in the lead, hands raised and already glowing.

Above them come the fairies, and not long afterwards the wolf pack floods onto the scene, Yunho’s pack from the left and Chan with the others from the right, barking and growling in answer to the kelpie’s shrieks.

Finally, from the tunnel opposite, multiple pairs of red eyes emerging from the darkness signal the arrival of Seoho and the rest of the Blood Moon vampire coven.

Yunho might have cried from relief if he wasn’t currently in wolf form.

Everything is alright. They’re saved.

The kelpie doesn’t stand a chance against so many at once, so the clash is short and sweet. The wolves and vampires bail it up against the wall so it can’t dive out of sight and escape again, and the fairies and witches get to work subduing it with their magic and have it unconscious in minutes.

“Everyone, stay where you are until we’ve got it contained!” Minji instructs. “I don’t want to risk it waking before we’re done!”

Yunho shifts back to his human form and gets shakily to his feet, taking care to be quiet about it. Mingi stares at him, about ten different emotions flickering over his face. Yunho licks his lips uncertainly.

“Um, hey,” he says. “Good work with that shield around us before. That was amazing.”

“Oh,” Mingi blinks, clearly not expecting the compliment. “Thanks! I, um, specialise in shields and energy-based magic.”

Yunho tucks that fact away for later, still reeling but already excited at the prospect of there being so much more to learn about his boyfriend.

“And thanks for, you know, taking that hit for me,” says Mingi, looking at the ground. “That was brave of you.”

“Oh, that was nothing,” Yunho tries to brush it off, but Mingi shakes his head.

“It looked like it really hurt,” he says, eyes wide. “Are you still in any pain? We can help if you are, Wooyoung is a very capable healer.”

At the mention of Mingi’s housemate, Yunho startles at the realisation that of course, if Mingi is a witch, then his housemates must be his coven.

They glance over at the witches not currently working on the kelpie, who are standing a short distance away, staring openly at them. Yunho recognises Seonghwa and Wooyoung from his brief visit to their apartment, and assumes the pretty dark-haired man standing arm-in-arm with Wooyoung must be the third housemate, Yeosang. They’re all staring at Yunho like he’s grown an extra head. They’d obviously witnessed the shift from werewolf to human a few moments ago.

“Ah,” says Yunho, “This will be interesting to explain to the others.”

Mingi winces, and together they turn to Yunho’s pack at the other end of the tunnel, who are also making no effort to hide their gawking, presumably in reaction to the very obvious shield spell Mingi had still been keeping up when they’d reached the scene.

“Wait,” says Mingi suddenly, “What about the human? Yeonjun told us there was a human lost down here too! I assumed it was you when you appeared, but that’s not right.”

“Ah,” says Yunho, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “Actually, the human was you.”

Mingi turns to look at him quizzically, and he elaborates.

“I caught your scent when we first got into the tunnels, and I panicked. Y’know, since I didn’t know you had magic.”

Mingi laughs in surprise.

“Of course. And because you’re a werewolf, you can pick up my scent from the other side of the network. That’s so wild.”

Yunho laughs too, and they lapse into tired silence.

The kelpie is waking now, but the witches and fairies have already succeeded in shrinking the it down to the size of a very irate squirrel, so all that’s left is to trap it in the silver cage they prepared earlier, ready to release the monster far outside the city.

Once they’re done, everyone will be free to move around again and Yunho and Mingi will both no doubt be bombarded with questions from both their families, not to mention the questions they’re going to have for each other.

For now, though, they’re relieved to have a moment of quiet.

They’ll deal with the fallout of their misunderstanding in a few minutes. For now, Yunho joins their hands, Mingi rests his head on Yunho’s shoulder, and together they watch Siyeon and Bora shrieking and swearing as they try to wrangle the tiny, furious kelpie into its cage without getting their fingers bitten.

Three days later

“Ok, welcome to my home!” says Yunho, opening the door wide, “Take 2, now with less secrets!”

“Huh, it’s not that different,” Mingi notes, looking around as he slips his shoes off. “Not like my place. You’ve got no idea how much panic you caused us, needing to come up and change your shirt on short notice like that.”

Yunho blinks in surprise.

“Really? But your place looked so normal when I saw it?”

Mingi snorts.

“Yeah, because we had a panic-tidy and dragged poor Yeosang out of his bath to cast like five different glamours on the place to make it look like an average apartment.”

Yunho gasps.

“So that’s why I could sense another person in the room!” he exclaims. “And here I was thinking your place was haunted!”

“Ah, of course you would’ve been able to pick up on him, with your werewolf senses and everything,” says Mingi. “Yeah, he was invisible in the corner, focussing on keeping the fireplace and the cauldrons hidden.”

“Wow,” Yunho laughs. “We could’ve done with that when we had you over. We spent the whole day before trying to make the place look more normal, hiding all the piles of spare blankets and dog beds and wiping up the pawprints and everything, and we still somehow missed all that wolf hair.”

“Ah yes, the wolf hair,” says Mingi, “From your friend’s dog.”

He raises an eyebrow at Yunho, who puts on his best I-don’t-know-what-you’re-talking-about smile.

“I knew that beast in the picture was too big for a normal dog!” huffs Mingi. “Husky-cross-wolfhound, my ass. It was a photo of you, I’m assuming?”

“Yeah,” Yunho admits. “I was about ready to throttle San when he showed you. We were hoping the stealth illusion would kick in, but I suppose that doesn’t work on witches, does it?”

Mingi shakes his head, grinning.

“Not in the slightest,” he says. “Anyway, you gonna show me your room?”

Yunho nods and bow like a footman, extending one arm.

“Of course, right this way, sir.”

The pass the calendar on the way, and Mingi scoffs.

“Astronomy,” he says. “You know, I got genuinely excited that we shared a hobby. Thought I could bond with your friends over it.”

“I know,” Yunho nods sympathetically. “It was cute. If it’s any consolation, Hongjoong really did appreciate the thought.”

Then he pauses.

“Ugh, and of course you know all about the moon phases, because you need that knowledge for spellcasting!” He throws up his arms in frustration. “So many hints we both just totally ignored!”

“Hey,” says Mingi, poking him reproachfully, “We agreed not to beat ourselves up over this. We were both trying to do what was best for our covens. Packs. Whatever.”

Yunho swats Mingi’s hand away half-heartedly, then catches it in his own and tangles their fingers together.

“True,” he says. “And Chan and Minji were happy with our self-control and secret-keeping, at least. C’mon, my room’s this one.”

It was true - the heads of their respective groups had congratulated them all on being able to put on a convincing enough show of being non-magical that they'd even managed to fool other members of the Alliance. Once they'd finished laughing at them, that was. And Yunho's pack and Mingi's coven had agreed that it was both hilarious and much more convenient that neither of them were actually normal humans, once the shock had worn off.

Like the living room, Yunho’s room is fairly sparse in the way of decoration, but it has all he needs – a nice, comfortable bed big enough for his werewolf form, a window with a nice view of the park below, a desk for his PC set-up and a comfy swivel chair.

Scattered over the bed is a mix of blankets and clothes, mostly from the rest of the pack to keep their scents close. In fact, Yunho realises belatedly that the clothes aren’t only from his pack, but it’s too late now – Mingi notices at once.

“So that’s where my jacket went!” he exclaims, picking up a stylish grey jacket from the pile before flopping down to sit on the bed. “I was wondering where that was!”

Yunho rubs the back of his head sheepishly as he sits beside him.

“Um… yeah. Sorry about that,” he says. “I needed something with your scent on it to placate my instincts during the full moons, so I didn’t go out and try to find you in wolf form when I was missing you.”

“Aw, that’s actually sweet,” says Mingi. “I guess I’ll forgive you. Can I get it back if I switch out something else though?”

“Of course,” says Yunho hurriedly. “It’s yours, I shouldn’t have taken it to begin with! You don’t need permission to take it back!”

Mingi has only just started assuring Yunho that he doesn’t mind when the front door opens and three loud voices spill into the apartment.

“Ah, the others are home already,” says Yunho, looking over his shoulder at the door ruefully. “Thought we’d have a bit more time to ourselves.”

Mingi tilts his head thoughtfully, then a mischievous expression crosses his face and he gets up.

“Just give me a second…”

Mingi crouches at the base of the doorway and runs two fingers up the side of the doorframe, stretching up to trace along the top of the frame, then bending again to go down the other side. A trail of blue runes appear in the wake of his fingers, shining brightly for a moment, then fading into the wood a moment later.

Yunho watches in bewilderment from the bed.

“Um… what did you just do?” he asks.

“Soundproofing,” says Mingi smugly, sliding back onto the bed beside Yunho with a sultry look in his eyes. “You know. Just in case we wanted to do anything a bit more… boisterous.”

Yunho’s jaw drops, ears turning pink.

At Yunho’s obviously shocked reaction, Mingi turns suddenly shy.

“I mean, not that I’m saying we have to do anything now,” he says hurriedly. “Or anytime. Um. I don’t want to pressure you or anything, or, or rush into it, y’know, I just meant…”

“No, I want to!” says Yunho.

“Because I know we haven’t gone that far yet,” Mingi continues, “and I don’t want to make you feel like we have to now…”

“Mingi!” Yunho cuts off his rambling, “You just surprised me, that’s all! I’m so down for it, I promise.”

He shifts to lie down on his side, holding out his arms for Mingi to join him and smiling when he does.

“The only reason I didn’t make a move earlier was because I was too scared I was going to growl or bite you or something, and you’d have too many questions.”

Mingi giggles at that.

“I was afraid I’d let my magic slip,” he admits. “I’ve seen the lightshow Wooyoung and Yeosang cause sometimes when they go at it. The hallway looks like we’ve got a rave on.”

Yunho’s eyes widen.

“You can lose control of your magic when you have sex?”

Mingi giggles again and shakes his head.

“Don’t worry, it’s just glowing. Nothing dangerous.” He looks up at Yunho through his lashes. “And for the record, you definitely have permission to bite.”

A soft growl rumbles from Yunho’s chest before he can contain it, and he immediately covers his face with his hand.

“Sorry,” he mutters, embarrassed.

“I don’t mind,” Mingi assures him. “I like it. And we don’t have to hide any of this stuff anymore, remember? In fact…”

He closes his eyes for a moment, then exhales steadily.

As he does, a golden light seems to bloom from inside him, illuminating his skin, even through his shirt.

“What’s this?” asks Yunho breathlessly.

“It’s how happy you make me,” says Mingi, snuggling closer.

Yunho watches in amazement as ripples of orange and pink dance across Mingi’s skin like an aurora, beautiful and hypnotic.

It fades after a few moments, and Yunho pouts.

“Noo, don’t stop!” he whines, prodding Mingi’s shoulder like he can switch it back on. “It was so pretty!”

Mingi laughs.

“It only comes in waves,” he says. “Our magic builds up if we get emotional, and that’s the easiest way to let it out if we’re not going to use it. Otherwise, it can start escaping on its own, which can be awkward if we don’t want anyone to notice.”

“There were a couple of times I thought your eyes glowed,” says Yunho in slow realisation. “But all this time, you were holding this back?”

“Ah, and here I thought I’d gotten away with the glowing eyes,” says Mingi, throwing an arm over his face dramatically.

Yunho shakes his head smugly.

“Nothing gets past the wolf,” he says.

Mingi raises an eyebrow.

“Is that so?”

Yunho smirks, and rolls them over so he’s on top.

“Would you like to find out?”

Mingi opens his mouth to reply, but before he can, Yunho hears footsteps pause outside their door and tenses.

“Well, we’re going to have a game of Mario Kart now, in case anyone was wondering,” San announces loudly and pointedly from outside. “With the volume on full.”

“Wait,” whispers Mingi, “What?”

“Mario Kart!” shouts an enthusiastic tinned voice from the living room speakers, followed by a fanfare of trumpets and the jingly menu music, at full volume as promised.

Yunho groans aloud and lets his head drop down onto Mingi’s chest.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

Mingi blinks.

“Are they trying to drive us out?” he asks, bewildered.

Yunho hears the chimes of the game settings being chosen, and laughs ruefully.

“Believe it or not, they’re probably trying to help,” he says. “Wolf hearing is super sensitive, you know? We usually hear everything in this apartment, whether we want to or not. We don’t have any soundproofing spells, so blasting loud music is the most privacy we can give each other.”

Outside, Yunho hears Bowser’s roar and Toad’s shrill yell as they’re selected. He rubs his temples.

“Speaking of, I don’t suppose you can do that spell to keep noise out as well?”

“Sorry,” says Mingi, shaking his head. “Not from here. I’d need to be out in the living room to perform it that way.”

“Ah,” Yunho sighs, “That’s a shame.”

“Do we open the door and tell him about the soundproofing?” Mingi wonders.

“I think that’s more awkward,” says Yunho.

They fall silent again, listening to the sound of revving engines and cartoon sound effects, along with more jingly, cheerful music.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m kinda not feeling it so much anymore,” says Mingi after a long moment.

Yunho sighs in relief.

“Me neither. Cuddle instead?”

“Yes, please.”

They rearrange themselves so they’re on their sides again, arms around each other. After a moment, Mingi wriggles one arm free and holds it up.

“Actually – here.”

Mingi closes his eyes for a moment, concentrating, and the next moment, Yunho’s bedroom ceiling has been transformed into the night sky.

Yunho’s eyes widen in awe.

“It’s beautiful,” he breathes.

“You’re beautiful,” says Mingi without missing a beat, and when Yunho turns to look back at him, gives an exaggerated smirk and a wink.

Yunho snorts and elbows him.

“And you’re cheesy.”

“You love me anyway,” says Mingi, then pauses, suddenly unsure again as he realises what he’s said.

Those three words were another milestone they hadn’t quite hit yet. Yunho, however, just smiles.

“Yeah,” he says. “I do.”

Mingi relaxes back against him, relieved.

“Ah,” he says. “Well, I love you too. So there.”

Yunho giggles and tugs him closer, shoving his nose against Mingi’s neck now he can scent him openly, and laughing harder when Mingi squawks that he’s ticklish and tries to fend him off.

Then they settle down again, cheek to cheek, chest to chest, and legs tangled loosely together.

And, despite the noise of San yelling at Jongho for hitting him with a blue shell still reverberating clearly through the wall, they fall asleep together under the stars.