parties and unusual aftermaths
Title: parties and unusual aftermaths
Author: ajin
Pairing: Onew/Taemin, mentions of Onew/Minho
Rating: PG-15
Genre: AU, Romance, Supernatural (I guess?)
Word Count: 3,837
Summary: Jinki is drunk. He falls on pavements. Unintentionally adopts a cat.
Author's Note of Doom: Uhm...this is completely different from the last thing I've posted. I haven't planned on writing anything anymore. This idea has been on my mind for some time though and while I originally wanted it to be rather long, I changed the concept and made it a one-shot. To be honest, it's plain weird *coughs*
A belated birthday present for anapp because she is such a sweet cookie *O*
He can’t believe he’s this smashed. People are just blurred images in the background and the doors before him seem to be swimming, moving. Forwards or backwards or maybe he’s moving forwards? He knows it’s him only when his ribs painfully collide with the round knob. He hears someone shouting for him to get back inside. Not that he’s much interested though. The music is loud and getting louder, making his ears hurt. And there seems to be some buzzing involved too which becomes eerily similar to electric charges and explosions. He’s not too fond of the buzzing in his stomach either. It’s a threat to the expensive, awfully green carpet in the corridor.
He stumbles out. Takes a few steps forward, looses the equilibrium, wobbles a bit to the right. It’s dark with a few distant stars on the black sky. The lamps are long not working. When he thinks about it, he never saw them work. By the time he’s observing the night scenery, he’s already hugging the pavement. He’s usually quite clumsy. It’s like his trademark or a special skill. Some people excel at sports, painting, sewing, telling stories. He excels at falling flat on his face. Quite an exotic talent but one nevertheless. It’s only naturally he becomes impossibly clumsy when he’s drunk.
Trying to stand afterwards is like wanting to fly. An unreachable dream. He crawls to the lamp and lifts himself up somehow. Next thing he knows, there’s a cat on the other side of the street. Sitting straight across from him, looking at him almost with a real, ironic smile. Consequently, he shrieks and falls down on his ass.
It gets only better because he can swear he’s heard the cat laugh. Laugh out pretty damn loud. No matter how hard he thinks about it, he’s sure he took absolutely no drugs. He drunk those three drinks and about two beers. Smoked a cigarette or two. Accidently gulped down a vodka shot mistaking it for water. And he must have been talking to himself, thinking aloud because the cat calmly tells him the vodka shot was probably the last straw for tonight. His eyes widen so much they threaten to spring out. He scrambles for purchase and runs for his life.
He wakes up in his bed to the biggest headache he’s ever had. It feels as if there was a metal pot on his head and someone was banging on it regularly. Like one and two and pause and one. He’s blissfully unaware of what has happened after Jonghyung greeted him, giving him a drink to “relax”. Considering the state he is in, he thinks it might actually be better that his mind is so blank.
He vaguely registers some movement to his left when he makes his way to the kitchen to get the aspirin out. When he double checks, he sees a cat. It’s pretty big but slim. The fur is rich and has the colour of redish autumn leaves lying in the warm sun. It looks soft to touch. The cat stretches languidly, looking up. He notices it has unnaturally blue eyes. It throws him off just this bit because he’s sure that cats don’t usually have such blue eyes.
He calls Jonghyun to find out how exactly he got himself a cat. The only thing he learns is that he left the party drunk. He concludes it must have followed him on his way back. When he thinks about it his small flat is big enough for him and a cat. So he keeps it.
“Since when are you a cat person?”, he hears Kibum ask.
They’re at his place, making dinner and having their usual Saturday night in. It might be considered a girly thing but he’s doing it with Kibum after all and so it’s completely all right.
“Have I ever said I don’t like cats?”
The cat is going round and round. It’s wary. Treats Kibum like an intruder, half-hissing when he tries to touch.
“Jinki, how can you live with that…Thing?”, he asks with disgust. “It may be cute but is so wild. I bet it bites.”
“Well, it seems to like me well enough?”
He has to admit it’s rather weird. The cat is so different when it’s only him around. It greets him when he comes home meowing like he wants to say “Hi”. Follows Jinki everywhere and sits down when he sits down. When he’s watching TV, it jumps on the couch and nestles itself in his lap. It seems to almost hum in content when any kind of petting starts.
It was on the second day that it happened. He was reading the Monday newspaper or more like watching the clouds move lazily across the sky. There was a sudden thump and something landed on his lap. When he looked down it was the cat. It didn’t take even seconds and it was sitting comfortably, nuzzling its head somewhere near his knee. Jinki really wanted to touch it. It’s been on his mind all the time for the fur looked so fluffy, so soft. And when he did, he found out he was right. The fur felt almost like silky hair to touch.
“Wait, don’t tell me this thing has no name.” and Kibum seems genuinely surprised.
“…”
“You had this thing for almost a week now!”
When Kibum finishes his sentence, Jinki nearly has a heart attack. The cat is looking straight into his eyes and clearly says that it’s name is Taemin.
“Taemin?”, he barely hears Kibum say because his heart is pumping the blood so fast.
“Huh?”
“Have you just said this thing’s name is Taemin?”
Somehow Jinki finds himself nodding and mouthing a yes. When he looks at the cat again, it’s lazily licking its paws.
Another week goes by. Jinki’s forced himself into thinking that he was just tired, that he hasn’t heard his cat speak. He might remember the voice too clearly but the cat hasn’t said anything since then. That logically should mean it wasn’t the cat. The thing is Jinki can swear he’s never known that a name like Taemin existed.
“What are you thinking about?”
When he hears the same voice again coming from behind, he jumps. Turns around so rapidly his shoulder bumps into the door frame. He automatically clutches at his arm. Of course it’s the cat.
“Are you still surprised?”
This time he notices how its mouth moves and the none-existent brows shoot up. The cat sighs.
“For someone so smart, I thought you would have caught on the fact that I speak already. I’m not a cat so don’t think about me as such.”
Jinki knows his mouth is hanging open but cannot stop. Because he’s sure the cat, no Taemin, can read his mind.
“What are you then?”, he manages to stutter out.
“I’m Taemin.”
“Wasn’t that your name?”
“It is but it’s who I am at the same time. Has no one ever told you that names are powerful? They shape the personality of their bearer,” Taemin says while sounding overly wise.
“Why do you look like a cat then?”
“Because I want to look like one.” and that seems to be all Jinki gets today because Taemin turns away and proceeds to act like a typical cat. Not uttering even a word no matter what Jinki asks.
He feels tired for the work is getting so hard. His boss is being an ass more often than not. Even making him do night shifts sometimes. He can barely remember what free weekends look like. Hence, when he gets one, he wisely decides to get smashed. Jinki accepts Jonghyun’s invitation and goes out. He drinks too much again but meets some nice and handsome guy. He’s name’s Minho and he seems pretty much to be his type. Maybe a bit too silent but attractive enough. The rest is unimportant because he wants into his pants.
They stumble through his door. The party was in full blast but they left early. Things were getting obviously out-of-hand. He thinks Minho uses a bit too much tongue but knows exactly where to touch. They actually manage to make their way to his bed without breaking anything or tumbling down. He’s pretty impressed with himself. He notices that Minho is working on his pants. That’s when he hears it, a soft “huh?”. The cat is standing in the doorway, looking not entirely pleased. Minho has his hand down his pants though so he lets it slide. Ignores everything and everyone else for the rest of the night.
He wakes up to a shout. The guy next to him is up. His hair is completely disheveled and he’s only wearing jeans. Then, he notices a huge red scratch on his side. It goes from the shoulder blade to the hip bone and looks rather fresh.
“God, your cat is too wild. I’m out.” and before he can say anything, he hears the door being slammed.
Taemin is sitting innocently on the floor, next to the bed. Eyes wide open like he’s trying to be cute.
All Jinki can say at the moment is “What the fuck”.
Nevertheless, Taemin takes to sulking and ignoring him and Jinki has to admit it royally sucks. He has no idea when or how but he got used to having the cat keep him company day and night. He had friends of course and occasional one-night stands. Still, he sometimes felt lonely, having his flat just to himself. It’s changed the moment the cat invaded his life. Almost as if he was living with another person, albeit a not too talkative and rather presumptuous one.
It’s a good few days later. Jinki almost gives up on trying to pacify the cat. He’s tired again and additionally feels pretty down. Even friendly meowing would be enough to lift his mood up. He kicks the door open, throws his bag into the corner and makes his way to the kitchen. He doesn’t get too far. Sitting on a chair eating his expensive-as-hell cherries, is a boy. He’s definitely a bit younger than Jinki and has a quizzical smile on his face.
“Welcome home, Jinki.”
“What? I mean…I..wait..Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my house?” he shouts. A lot louder than he thought because he sees the boy wince.
“It’s me, you dumbass. Taemin.”
He can see the boy roll his eyes in this overly familiar way. His hair is auburn in colour, shoulder length and looks silky and soft. His eyes are impossibly blue. He seems to be a bit shorter than Jinki and is so slim. All bones and muscles and thin, pale skin. Jinki gulps. He honestly finds Taemin beautiful beyond words.
“Is that why you said you’re not a cat?”
“I guess?”
“You guess?”
“It’s not important what or who I exactly am.” and he laughs to himself.
Jinki is still immobile. Even though he technically has known Taemin for what seems like forever, he feels scared. For his skin seems to be too transparent and his beauty out of this world.
“Are you going to change from a boy to a cat again?” he timidly asks.
“I can do that but I don’t plan on changing my form. This one is nice.”
Jinki quickly discovers that Taemin in the human form is an annoying, little minx. He reminds him of the tiny fairies he read about in elementary school. The ones that looked impossibly pretty but were more cunning than a fox. He leeches off Jinki any time he can, has constant fun on his account. There’s one thing that Jinki particularly dislikes.
Even though Taemin is no longer a cat, he sees invading Jinki’s lap as completely natural. So when Jinki switches on the TV, he knows what’s going to come next. Taemin shifts and makes himself comfortable, half-nuzzles his head into Jinki’s neck. Consequently, Jinki starts to automatically feel warm. Not in the way he felt warm when Taemin was a cat. It makes him shift and stutter and dig his fingers into the couch. Taemin acts like it’s nothing and talks straight into Jinki’s ear. Leaves puffs of breath near his jaw. All Jinki can do to save himself is chant in his mind that Taemin is really a cat.
Kibum’s reaction is a reverberating squeak. Completely undignified but so very his.
“Who is this creature?”
“It’s Taemin. He’s a friend,” Jinki calmly explains.
“But wasn’t your cat named Taemin?! Were he is? Oh my god!” Kibum’s hands theatrically go up and he plops down onto the couch.
“Uhm…you see…well…”
“The cat disappeared a few days ago. It was actually my cat,” Taemin butts in.
“Oh really now?”
“Yes really.” and Taemin quite audibly hisses.
Kibum is up in a matter of seconds and looks absolutely scandalized.
“Has he just freaking hissed at me?”
“Kibum, calm down.”
“I can’t believe you, Jinki. You lose that thing and get yourself a jailbait boy toy who’s identical to your cat.”
Surprisingly, it seems that once Taemin is sure that Kibum poses no threat, he changes fast. Jinki can swear that he knows exactly what to do to make Kibum coo over him like he’s the cutest boy in the whole universe. Pushes all the right buttons. Jinki has knows him since they were three and built sand castles in his garden. Even back then Kibum would complain about him all the time. Affectionately but still. He’s almost jealous of how easily Taemin wraps him around his little finger. Or maybe he’s jealous of something entirely else.
When Kibum leaves, Taemin flashes him a triumphant smile.
“I’m good, right?”
Jinki just stares. He’s thoroughly confused. For Taemin suddenly looks so old, almost ancient in the way he acts. His expression's shouting that he’s above.
“How old are you?”, he asks without thinking. Shuddering inwardly because he’s scared.
“Old enough.”
The answer tells him nothing and he can’t help but wonder why Taemin used the word “enough”.
It’s been at least a month since Jinki went out. He spends most of his time at work or with Taemin at home. Taemin still confuses the shit out of him but he’s determined to ignore it all. Because when he doesn’t think so much, it’s fun. Way too much fun. However, he’s not the only determined one.
Jonghyun calls him and bullies him into spending the night out. Telling him that no matter how love sick he is, he needs a life. Jinki would like to disagree that attending parties equals having a life. Not that Jonghyun is interested in his opinion and just shouts at him to fucking not be late. Then, slams the phone down. Jinki actually hears that and nearly falls down.
He doesn’t even have to say a word for Taemin looks like he knows everything that was said although he was not standing behind.
“Just go. It’s fine.”
Jinki is sure that it’s anything but fine. He can tell because Taemin’s frowning and looking quite pissed off. No, scratch that. Very pissed off.
“No really. It’s. Fine.” and it’s uttered with clenched teeth but he knows it would be futile to argue.
“Do you want to go with me?”
The only answer he gets is a sarcastic laugh.
Jinki vows he’s never going to listen to Jonghyun again. He’s more wasted that on that very first time. People don’t exist to him. There’s just noise and foggy substance around. He can’t even move without breaking something or landing face down. It’s a hopeless situation and Jonghyun forcefully drags him into his car. It takes them more than twenty minutes to cross the distance from the front door to the garage. Somewhere on the way, already in the car, Jinki says thank you and pukes on Jonghyung’s leather back seats. If Jinki was conscious enough, he would be throwing himself out of the car to save his life. The state he’s in is the only reason he gets home alive.
When Taemin opens the door, he’s not too amused. His nose scrunches in disgust. He says nothing though and takes Jinki from Jonghyun’s arms. It’s seconds after the door is shut. They find themselves a mess of limbs on the cold floor. It makes Jinki involuntary shudder and press himself into Taemin this much more. The way Taemin is digging his fingers into his sides tells him he might be crushing the boy. He tries to move. All that does is make his elbow hit Taemin straight in the gut.
“Jinki, move to the fucking right!”
He groans because it’s all too foggy again but obediently rolls to the right.
Next thing he remembers he’s in the bathroom and feeling incredibly better. Taemin is sitting cross-legged next to the sink, looking at him with slightly worried eyes. His hair is just this bit longer and makes him look even more inhuman. So very pretty. With the big, blue eyes. And that milky skin almost blending with the white tiles.
He unconsciously moves forward and their knees collide. Not that he takes notice and just extends his hand so that he can touch the auburn hair. Taemin’s eyes automatically shut. That spurs him on and he leaves a fleeting touch from his ear and along his jaw. He swears he can hear the other boy purr just like when he was a cat.
He’s so close now that their lips almost touch. And he really, really wants to close the remaining distance but before he can do it, he’s completely out.
He wakes up to Taemin’s face. He looks worried but somehow irritated. Pokes Jinki repeatedly in the side.
“Wake up, you idiot. It’s already half past 1.”
Jinki sits up too quickly and bumps into Taemin’s forehead.
“Slow down. It’s Sunday so you can relax.”
“How did I get home last night?” and Jinki is genuinely curious because once again he remembers close to nothing.
All he gets in response is a sigh.
“You were so shit-faced, you puked in Jonghyun’s car.”
When he hears that, he wants to crawl back under the covers and die. His friend loves the car more than his girlfriend and parents combined.
“He said it’s the first time though so he won’t skin you alive.”
And even though Taemin is acting like everything is peachy, Jinki can sense it’s not.
“What did you do prior to appearing before me as a cat?” Jinki asks one evening.
They’re sitting in the living room, just lazing around. Or more like he is while Taemin stuffs his face. It came as a big surprise, Taemin’s enormous appetite. When he was a cat, he wasn’t too interested in what he ate or in eating in general. Now all he seems to do while Jinki is at work is cook. Not that he’s complaining because he gets to eat it all too.
He hears the boy choke.
“Huh?”
“I asked you what you did-”
“I’ve heard you the first time.”
Jinki looks up at the words and catches Taemin staring. His eyes are narrow like a cat’s and seem to be calculating and analyzing and are hostile.
“Why is that any of your concern?”
“Well, we’ve lived together for so long…”
“No matter who I am or where I was, I clearly did not like it and found you on purpose.”
“On purpose?”
“I don’t think that human beings are interesting, to be honest. You create so much unnecessary drama and can be unimaginably stupid.”
“Then why me?”
“Because somehow you seemed different in a way that I can’t really explain. Just drop it. I like you well enough.”
Jinki thinks that his heart shouldn’t be constricting so rapidly and his insides fluttering like mad. The feeling is a bit too familiar for his liking. He’d rather it didn’t concern a cat.
Ever since he tries to distance himself. When Taemin sits next to him, he shifts uncomfortably and tries to escape, pressing himself into the side of the couch. When he leans down to whisper, Jinki flies. He can’t help it though. He will never admit to himself that he’s in love with the mysterious, beautiful boy-cat he picked up from the streets.
It seems that Kibum and Taemin are on good terms because Kibum storms into his flat unannounced one day.
“I’m taking my son shopping. You can stay at home and continue acting like a total ass,” he huffs.
“Son?”
“Yes, Jinki. My son. Now excuse us while we go have some fun.” and Jinki can’t protest any further because he gets the door slammed in his face. Both Taemin and Kibum are out.
He’s bored out of his mind by the time they are back. He flipped through all the possible channels and watched a ton of stupid programs. Started reading some book he bought ages ago and left to gather dust on the coffee table next to the couch. He even did all the dishes and cleaned the floors with a sponge. He’s in the bathroom polishing the tiles when he hears the door bang.
“We’re back! Where are you, you idiot?”
Jinki peeks out from the bathroom in his pink apron, looking completely like a tired housewife.
Next thing he registers is Kibum’s characteristically forced laughter.
“You should be left alone more often if it makes you clean so thoroughly. Nice apron too.”
“Oh, shut up.”
“Whatever. I need to go now. You two play nice.”
The moment he looks at Taemin, he’s gone. He has no idea what Kibum did but it makes him look incredibly hot. His hair are completely straight, the fringe falling a bit into his eyes. There’s some eyeliner and it makes them look so much more cat-like. His jeans are tight and fit him so well that Jinki cannot make himself look up. When he finally does, Taemin smirks.
It all makes him tense, his hair stand up. Especially when Taemin starts inching towards him, looking like a predator trying to corner his prey. Before he knows it, he’s trapped against the bathroom door.
“Why are you so tense?”
“It’s nothing. I’m not.”
“Really?” he can hear the teasing tone in Taemin’s voice. “Because it seems to me, I make you hard.”
Jinki splutters loudly and tries frantically to get away. To absolutely no avail.
“I might have appeared out of nowhere but I don’t plan on leaving any time soon.”
Somehow it seems to be all Jinki needs. As if suddenly he understands everything and does not care. About the consequences. About being logical. About how Taemin is most likely a cat. Not a proper human being but a cat.
He looks up at Taemin and sees him smile. It’s such a warm smile, one he has never seen before. It makes his toes tingle and his hands grab the boy’s waist.
“You promise?” he says while their breaths mingle.
“Yes.”
Author: ajin
Pairing: Onew/Taemin, mentions of Onew/Minho
Rating: PG-15
Genre: AU, Romance, Supernatural (I guess?)
Word Count: 3,837
Summary: Jinki is drunk. He falls on pavements. Unintentionally adopts a cat.
Author's Note of Doom: Uhm...this is completely different from the last thing I've posted. I haven't planned on writing anything anymore. This idea has been on my mind for some time though and while I originally wanted it to be rather long, I changed the concept and made it a one-shot. To be honest, it's plain weird *coughs*
A belated birthday present for anapp because she is such a sweet cookie *O*
He can’t believe he’s this smashed. People are just blurred images in the background and the doors before him seem to be swimming, moving. Forwards or backwards or maybe he’s moving forwards? He knows it’s him only when his ribs painfully collide with the round knob. He hears someone shouting for him to get back inside. Not that he’s much interested though. The music is loud and getting louder, making his ears hurt. And there seems to be some buzzing involved too which becomes eerily similar to electric charges and explosions. He’s not too fond of the buzzing in his stomach either. It’s a threat to the expensive, awfully green carpet in the corridor.
He stumbles out. Takes a few steps forward, looses the equilibrium, wobbles a bit to the right. It’s dark with a few distant stars on the black sky. The lamps are long not working. When he thinks about it, he never saw them work. By the time he’s observing the night scenery, he’s already hugging the pavement. He’s usually quite clumsy. It’s like his trademark or a special skill. Some people excel at sports, painting, sewing, telling stories. He excels at falling flat on his face. Quite an exotic talent but one nevertheless. It’s only naturally he becomes impossibly clumsy when he’s drunk.
Trying to stand afterwards is like wanting to fly. An unreachable dream. He crawls to the lamp and lifts himself up somehow. Next thing he knows, there’s a cat on the other side of the street. Sitting straight across from him, looking at him almost with a real, ironic smile. Consequently, he shrieks and falls down on his ass.
It gets only better because he can swear he’s heard the cat laugh. Laugh out pretty damn loud. No matter how hard he thinks about it, he’s sure he took absolutely no drugs. He drunk those three drinks and about two beers. Smoked a cigarette or two. Accidently gulped down a vodka shot mistaking it for water. And he must have been talking to himself, thinking aloud because the cat calmly tells him the vodka shot was probably the last straw for tonight. His eyes widen so much they threaten to spring out. He scrambles for purchase and runs for his life.
He wakes up in his bed to the biggest headache he’s ever had. It feels as if there was a metal pot on his head and someone was banging on it regularly. Like one and two and pause and one. He’s blissfully unaware of what has happened after Jonghyung greeted him, giving him a drink to “relax”. Considering the state he is in, he thinks it might actually be better that his mind is so blank.
He vaguely registers some movement to his left when he makes his way to the kitchen to get the aspirin out. When he double checks, he sees a cat. It’s pretty big but slim. The fur is rich and has the colour of redish autumn leaves lying in the warm sun. It looks soft to touch. The cat stretches languidly, looking up. He notices it has unnaturally blue eyes. It throws him off just this bit because he’s sure that cats don’t usually have such blue eyes.
He calls Jonghyun to find out how exactly he got himself a cat. The only thing he learns is that he left the party drunk. He concludes it must have followed him on his way back. When he thinks about it his small flat is big enough for him and a cat. So he keeps it.
“Since when are you a cat person?”, he hears Kibum ask.
They’re at his place, making dinner and having their usual Saturday night in. It might be considered a girly thing but he’s doing it with Kibum after all and so it’s completely all right.
“Have I ever said I don’t like cats?”
The cat is going round and round. It’s wary. Treats Kibum like an intruder, half-hissing when he tries to touch.
“Jinki, how can you live with that…Thing?”, he asks with disgust. “It may be cute but is so wild. I bet it bites.”
“Well, it seems to like me well enough?”
He has to admit it’s rather weird. The cat is so different when it’s only him around. It greets him when he comes home meowing like he wants to say “Hi”. Follows Jinki everywhere and sits down when he sits down. When he’s watching TV, it jumps on the couch and nestles itself in his lap. It seems to almost hum in content when any kind of petting starts.
It was on the second day that it happened. He was reading the Monday newspaper or more like watching the clouds move lazily across the sky. There was a sudden thump and something landed on his lap. When he looked down it was the cat. It didn’t take even seconds and it was sitting comfortably, nuzzling its head somewhere near his knee. Jinki really wanted to touch it. It’s been on his mind all the time for the fur looked so fluffy, so soft. And when he did, he found out he was right. The fur felt almost like silky hair to touch.
“Wait, don’t tell me this thing has no name.” and Kibum seems genuinely surprised.
“…”
“You had this thing for almost a week now!”
When Kibum finishes his sentence, Jinki nearly has a heart attack. The cat is looking straight into his eyes and clearly says that it’s name is Taemin.
“Taemin?”, he barely hears Kibum say because his heart is pumping the blood so fast.
“Huh?”
“Have you just said this thing’s name is Taemin?”
Somehow Jinki finds himself nodding and mouthing a yes. When he looks at the cat again, it’s lazily licking its paws.
Another week goes by. Jinki’s forced himself into thinking that he was just tired, that he hasn’t heard his cat speak. He might remember the voice too clearly but the cat hasn’t said anything since then. That logically should mean it wasn’t the cat. The thing is Jinki can swear he’s never known that a name like Taemin existed.
“What are you thinking about?”
When he hears the same voice again coming from behind, he jumps. Turns around so rapidly his shoulder bumps into the door frame. He automatically clutches at his arm. Of course it’s the cat.
“Are you still surprised?”
This time he notices how its mouth moves and the none-existent brows shoot up. The cat sighs.
“For someone so smart, I thought you would have caught on the fact that I speak already. I’m not a cat so don’t think about me as such.”
Jinki knows his mouth is hanging open but cannot stop. Because he’s sure the cat, no Taemin, can read his mind.
“What are you then?”, he manages to stutter out.
“I’m Taemin.”
“Wasn’t that your name?”
“It is but it’s who I am at the same time. Has no one ever told you that names are powerful? They shape the personality of their bearer,” Taemin says while sounding overly wise.
“Why do you look like a cat then?”
“Because I want to look like one.” and that seems to be all Jinki gets today because Taemin turns away and proceeds to act like a typical cat. Not uttering even a word no matter what Jinki asks.
He feels tired for the work is getting so hard. His boss is being an ass more often than not. Even making him do night shifts sometimes. He can barely remember what free weekends look like. Hence, when he gets one, he wisely decides to get smashed. Jinki accepts Jonghyun’s invitation and goes out. He drinks too much again but meets some nice and handsome guy. He’s name’s Minho and he seems pretty much to be his type. Maybe a bit too silent but attractive enough. The rest is unimportant because he wants into his pants.
They stumble through his door. The party was in full blast but they left early. Things were getting obviously out-of-hand. He thinks Minho uses a bit too much tongue but knows exactly where to touch. They actually manage to make their way to his bed without breaking anything or tumbling down. He’s pretty impressed with himself. He notices that Minho is working on his pants. That’s when he hears it, a soft “huh?”. The cat is standing in the doorway, looking not entirely pleased. Minho has his hand down his pants though so he lets it slide. Ignores everything and everyone else for the rest of the night.
He wakes up to a shout. The guy next to him is up. His hair is completely disheveled and he’s only wearing jeans. Then, he notices a huge red scratch on his side. It goes from the shoulder blade to the hip bone and looks rather fresh.
“God, your cat is too wild. I’m out.” and before he can say anything, he hears the door being slammed.
Taemin is sitting innocently on the floor, next to the bed. Eyes wide open like he’s trying to be cute.
All Jinki can say at the moment is “What the fuck”.
Nevertheless, Taemin takes to sulking and ignoring him and Jinki has to admit it royally sucks. He has no idea when or how but he got used to having the cat keep him company day and night. He had friends of course and occasional one-night stands. Still, he sometimes felt lonely, having his flat just to himself. It’s changed the moment the cat invaded his life. Almost as if he was living with another person, albeit a not too talkative and rather presumptuous one.
It’s a good few days later. Jinki almost gives up on trying to pacify the cat. He’s tired again and additionally feels pretty down. Even friendly meowing would be enough to lift his mood up. He kicks the door open, throws his bag into the corner and makes his way to the kitchen. He doesn’t get too far. Sitting on a chair eating his expensive-as-hell cherries, is a boy. He’s definitely a bit younger than Jinki and has a quizzical smile on his face.
“Welcome home, Jinki.”
“What? I mean…I..wait..Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my house?” he shouts. A lot louder than he thought because he sees the boy wince.
“It’s me, you dumbass. Taemin.”
He can see the boy roll his eyes in this overly familiar way. His hair is auburn in colour, shoulder length and looks silky and soft. His eyes are impossibly blue. He seems to be a bit shorter than Jinki and is so slim. All bones and muscles and thin, pale skin. Jinki gulps. He honestly finds Taemin beautiful beyond words.
“Is that why you said you’re not a cat?”
“I guess?”
“You guess?”
“It’s not important what or who I exactly am.” and he laughs to himself.
Jinki is still immobile. Even though he technically has known Taemin for what seems like forever, he feels scared. For his skin seems to be too transparent and his beauty out of this world.
“Are you going to change from a boy to a cat again?” he timidly asks.
“I can do that but I don’t plan on changing my form. This one is nice.”
Jinki quickly discovers that Taemin in the human form is an annoying, little minx. He reminds him of the tiny fairies he read about in elementary school. The ones that looked impossibly pretty but were more cunning than a fox. He leeches off Jinki any time he can, has constant fun on his account. There’s one thing that Jinki particularly dislikes.
Even though Taemin is no longer a cat, he sees invading Jinki’s lap as completely natural. So when Jinki switches on the TV, he knows what’s going to come next. Taemin shifts and makes himself comfortable, half-nuzzles his head into Jinki’s neck. Consequently, Jinki starts to automatically feel warm. Not in the way he felt warm when Taemin was a cat. It makes him shift and stutter and dig his fingers into the couch. Taemin acts like it’s nothing and talks straight into Jinki’s ear. Leaves puffs of breath near his jaw. All Jinki can do to save himself is chant in his mind that Taemin is really a cat.
Kibum’s reaction is a reverberating squeak. Completely undignified but so very his.
“Who is this creature?”
“It’s Taemin. He’s a friend,” Jinki calmly explains.
“But wasn’t your cat named Taemin?! Were he is? Oh my god!” Kibum’s hands theatrically go up and he plops down onto the couch.
“Uhm…you see…well…”
“The cat disappeared a few days ago. It was actually my cat,” Taemin butts in.
“Oh really now?”
“Yes really.” and Taemin quite audibly hisses.
Kibum is up in a matter of seconds and looks absolutely scandalized.
“Has he just freaking hissed at me?”
“Kibum, calm down.”
“I can’t believe you, Jinki. You lose that thing and get yourself a jailbait boy toy who’s identical to your cat.”
Surprisingly, it seems that once Taemin is sure that Kibum poses no threat, he changes fast. Jinki can swear that he knows exactly what to do to make Kibum coo over him like he’s the cutest boy in the whole universe. Pushes all the right buttons. Jinki has knows him since they were three and built sand castles in his garden. Even back then Kibum would complain about him all the time. Affectionately but still. He’s almost jealous of how easily Taemin wraps him around his little finger. Or maybe he’s jealous of something entirely else.
When Kibum leaves, Taemin flashes him a triumphant smile.
“I’m good, right?”
Jinki just stares. He’s thoroughly confused. For Taemin suddenly looks so old, almost ancient in the way he acts. His expression's shouting that he’s above.
“How old are you?”, he asks without thinking. Shuddering inwardly because he’s scared.
“Old enough.”
The answer tells him nothing and he can’t help but wonder why Taemin used the word “enough”.
It’s been at least a month since Jinki went out. He spends most of his time at work or with Taemin at home. Taemin still confuses the shit out of him but he’s determined to ignore it all. Because when he doesn’t think so much, it’s fun. Way too much fun. However, he’s not the only determined one.
Jonghyun calls him and bullies him into spending the night out. Telling him that no matter how love sick he is, he needs a life. Jinki would like to disagree that attending parties equals having a life. Not that Jonghyun is interested in his opinion and just shouts at him to fucking not be late. Then, slams the phone down. Jinki actually hears that and nearly falls down.
He doesn’t even have to say a word for Taemin looks like he knows everything that was said although he was not standing behind.
“Just go. It’s fine.”
Jinki is sure that it’s anything but fine. He can tell because Taemin’s frowning and looking quite pissed off. No, scratch that. Very pissed off.
“No really. It’s. Fine.” and it’s uttered with clenched teeth but he knows it would be futile to argue.
“Do you want to go with me?”
The only answer he gets is a sarcastic laugh.
Jinki vows he’s never going to listen to Jonghyun again. He’s more wasted that on that very first time. People don’t exist to him. There’s just noise and foggy substance around. He can’t even move without breaking something or landing face down. It’s a hopeless situation and Jonghyun forcefully drags him into his car. It takes them more than twenty minutes to cross the distance from the front door to the garage. Somewhere on the way, already in the car, Jinki says thank you and pukes on Jonghyung’s leather back seats. If Jinki was conscious enough, he would be throwing himself out of the car to save his life. The state he’s in is the only reason he gets home alive.
When Taemin opens the door, he’s not too amused. His nose scrunches in disgust. He says nothing though and takes Jinki from Jonghyun’s arms. It’s seconds after the door is shut. They find themselves a mess of limbs on the cold floor. It makes Jinki involuntary shudder and press himself into Taemin this much more. The way Taemin is digging his fingers into his sides tells him he might be crushing the boy. He tries to move. All that does is make his elbow hit Taemin straight in the gut.
“Jinki, move to the fucking right!”
He groans because it’s all too foggy again but obediently rolls to the right.
Next thing he remembers he’s in the bathroom and feeling incredibly better. Taemin is sitting cross-legged next to the sink, looking at him with slightly worried eyes. His hair is just this bit longer and makes him look even more inhuman. So very pretty. With the big, blue eyes. And that milky skin almost blending with the white tiles.
He unconsciously moves forward and their knees collide. Not that he takes notice and just extends his hand so that he can touch the auburn hair. Taemin’s eyes automatically shut. That spurs him on and he leaves a fleeting touch from his ear and along his jaw. He swears he can hear the other boy purr just like when he was a cat.
He’s so close now that their lips almost touch. And he really, really wants to close the remaining distance but before he can do it, he’s completely out.
He wakes up to Taemin’s face. He looks worried but somehow irritated. Pokes Jinki repeatedly in the side.
“Wake up, you idiot. It’s already half past 1.”
Jinki sits up too quickly and bumps into Taemin’s forehead.
“Slow down. It’s Sunday so you can relax.”
“How did I get home last night?” and Jinki is genuinely curious because once again he remembers close to nothing.
All he gets in response is a sigh.
“You were so shit-faced, you puked in Jonghyun’s car.”
When he hears that, he wants to crawl back under the covers and die. His friend loves the car more than his girlfriend and parents combined.
“He said it’s the first time though so he won’t skin you alive.”
And even though Taemin is acting like everything is peachy, Jinki can sense it’s not.
“What did you do prior to appearing before me as a cat?” Jinki asks one evening.
They’re sitting in the living room, just lazing around. Or more like he is while Taemin stuffs his face. It came as a big surprise, Taemin’s enormous appetite. When he was a cat, he wasn’t too interested in what he ate or in eating in general. Now all he seems to do while Jinki is at work is cook. Not that he’s complaining because he gets to eat it all too.
He hears the boy choke.
“Huh?”
“I asked you what you did-”
“I’ve heard you the first time.”
Jinki looks up at the words and catches Taemin staring. His eyes are narrow like a cat’s and seem to be calculating and analyzing and are hostile.
“Why is that any of your concern?”
“Well, we’ve lived together for so long…”
“No matter who I am or where I was, I clearly did not like it and found you on purpose.”
“On purpose?”
“I don’t think that human beings are interesting, to be honest. You create so much unnecessary drama and can be unimaginably stupid.”
“Then why me?”
“Because somehow you seemed different in a way that I can’t really explain. Just drop it. I like you well enough.”
Jinki thinks that his heart shouldn’t be constricting so rapidly and his insides fluttering like mad. The feeling is a bit too familiar for his liking. He’d rather it didn’t concern a cat.
Ever since he tries to distance himself. When Taemin sits next to him, he shifts uncomfortably and tries to escape, pressing himself into the side of the couch. When he leans down to whisper, Jinki flies. He can’t help it though. He will never admit to himself that he’s in love with the mysterious, beautiful boy-cat he picked up from the streets.
It seems that Kibum and Taemin are on good terms because Kibum storms into his flat unannounced one day.
“I’m taking my son shopping. You can stay at home and continue acting like a total ass,” he huffs.
“Son?”
“Yes, Jinki. My son. Now excuse us while we go have some fun.” and Jinki can’t protest any further because he gets the door slammed in his face. Both Taemin and Kibum are out.
He’s bored out of his mind by the time they are back. He flipped through all the possible channels and watched a ton of stupid programs. Started reading some book he bought ages ago and left to gather dust on the coffee table next to the couch. He even did all the dishes and cleaned the floors with a sponge. He’s in the bathroom polishing the tiles when he hears the door bang.
“We’re back! Where are you, you idiot?”
Jinki peeks out from the bathroom in his pink apron, looking completely like a tired housewife.
Next thing he registers is Kibum’s characteristically forced laughter.
“You should be left alone more often if it makes you clean so thoroughly. Nice apron too.”
“Oh, shut up.”
“Whatever. I need to go now. You two play nice.”
The moment he looks at Taemin, he’s gone. He has no idea what Kibum did but it makes him look incredibly hot. His hair are completely straight, the fringe falling a bit into his eyes. There’s some eyeliner and it makes them look so much more cat-like. His jeans are tight and fit him so well that Jinki cannot make himself look up. When he finally does, Taemin smirks.
It all makes him tense, his hair stand up. Especially when Taemin starts inching towards him, looking like a predator trying to corner his prey. Before he knows it, he’s trapped against the bathroom door.
“Why are you so tense?”
“It’s nothing. I’m not.”
“Really?” he can hear the teasing tone in Taemin’s voice. “Because it seems to me, I make you hard.”
Jinki splutters loudly and tries frantically to get away. To absolutely no avail.
“I might have appeared out of nowhere but I don’t plan on leaving any time soon.”
Somehow it seems to be all Jinki needs. As if suddenly he understands everything and does not care. About the consequences. About being logical. About how Taemin is most likely a cat. Not a proper human being but a cat.
He looks up at Taemin and sees him smile. It’s such a warm smile, one he has never seen before. It makes his toes tingle and his hands grab the boy’s waist.
“You promise?” he says while their breaths mingle.
“Yes.”