[Fic] Angel in the Garden
Title: Angel in the Garden
Pairing: Zhou Mi/Kyuhyun
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU
Prompt: Zhou Mi is an angel or spirit or something that fell from the sky or somehow stumbled upon Kyuhyun. Hasn't a clue about anything in the human world so Kyuhyun has to look after him.
***
It wasn’t every day that he found an angel in his garden. Kyuhyun stood on his porch and stared at what appeared to be a naked man - and Kyuhyun couldn’t see all of him - wrapped in feathers and sleeping in his tulips. Closer, cautious, inspection led him to believe that it was not feathers, but wings. Wings a strange shade of ivory, almost like a dove. Kyuhyun’s first thought was that perhaps there was one of those conventions around where people dressed up in costumes, and that one of them got drunk and wandered into his yard. But a look to his gate told him it was locked, and the walls were hard to scale. And given the man’s nakedness and the fact that his feet were pristine, it meant that he hadn’t been trudging around like that.
But men wearing wings didn’t just fall from the sky.
Kyuhyun blinked, as that random thought smacked him in the face and then was dismissed.
It was just a costume, just a strange one. All Kyuhyun had to do was wake the man up, whatever he looked like, and shoo him out the door. Kyuhyun might give him some flip flops and maybe a towel to wrap around him so he wouldn’t be arrested. For all Kyuhyun knew he could be high on drugs, or some kind of murderer.
But before Kyuhyun had decided to go get a broom to poke the man with, he woke. A tiny sound like a kitten rolled from him, followed by a groan almost unnaturally deep. Kyuhyun took a step back, watching warily, and expecting the wings to fall off or bend awkwardly. He wondered how much glue it had taken to get all those feathers on-
And holy shit, they moved. His first thought wasn’t that they moved like a bird’s wing, but like some kind of gryphon, some strange mystical thing with wings flexing and curling as the man - very definitely a man he was clear to see - sat up. Clear eyes, not drug addled at all, straight nose above full lips and a strong chin. The wings stood, the man stood he corrected, and it was like a man who’d stepped out of one of the manga on a shelf in his back room. And even as he stepped back he was doubting himself. He was dreaming, then. That was it. He’d fallen asleep on the couch again, and too many hours on his laptop.
“Where am I?” were the first words the man spoke.
Kyuhyun didn’t know if he meant country, city, street. So he went with all three, just barely holding himself back from adding in the planet. He tossed his name in there for good measure.
“Kyuhyun,” the man repeated, and brushed a bit of grass from one of the wings in a way that made Kyuhyun’s fingers twitch and then bury themselves in his pockets. Touching some strange man’s wings, even in dreams, was a little bit much. “My name is Zhou Mi.”
“How did you get in here?” Kyuhyun asked. “Why…are you here?”
Why are you naked? But he couldn’t ask that.
“I woke up here. With you! I am here to be with you.” And Zhou Mi tilted his head up, looking toward the sky. “I was up there. But now I’m with you.”
And naked. Kyuhyun was going to get over that soon. He’d given up on the hope that it was a dream. But he wasn’t positive that Zhou Mi was entirely with it.
“Do you have clothes?” Kyuhyun ventured.
The wings swept around Zhou Mi so quickly that Kyuhyun took a step back from the blast of air.
“I forgot. You can see me.”
Kyuhyun took another step back for good measure. “Ah… Yes. I can. The wings. Nice costume.”
“Costume? A disguise? It is not a disguise. I am… Kyuhyun. I am not human. These are my wings.”
“You can fly.”
“Not here. Not now. Let me show you.”
He had a naked man approaching him with wings unfolding or unfurling or whatever it was, and he was trying not to just fall flat on his ass trying to look for a weapon in case this guy tried to strangle him or something.
But Zhou Mi just turned and presented him with his back. Kyuhyun could’ve pretended he didn’t take a look at the guy’s ass but it would’ve been a lie. But Zhou Mi was flapping his hands above his shoulders to try and get Kyuhyun’s attention where he wanted it.
“See? My wings.”
Kyuhyun knew amazing things could be done with latex or foam, amazing stuff that turned imagination into something incredibly realistic. That was what he thought he was seeing, the merging of skin to feathers. The line of delicate feather fuzz between one wing ridge near Zhou Mi’s shoulder blade, to the other. It was like feathers were growing out of his skin. And Kyuhyun tensed as Zhou Mi flexed them, moving them almost back far enough to hit Kyuhyun on either side, before sweeping them forward. Glossy ivory. If Zhou Mi had succeeded in one thing, it was to make him curious. He wanted to know how it worked. Why it worked. And since Zhou Mi seemed to eager to show them off, he figured as long as he played along he’d be safe.
“Can I touch?” Kyuhyun asked.
Zhou Mi almost shook as he nodded. “Yes. Of course.”
So Kyuhyun stepped forward as he watched Zhou Mi stretch the wings out a bit. There were no mechanical sounds. It could be pulleys, maybe, hidden down Zhou Mi’s arms. He touched Zhou Mi’s side, for reference, and got a hitching gasp. The skin was warm there, just as it should be. Then he touched Zhou Mi higher, mid-back. Same temperature. The wing ridges, where the skin disappeared under feathers, he touched with his fingertips. He expected it to be cool, fake, the feel of imitation flesh. But it was warm, moving beneath his fingers. Or maybe that was because he was trembling. He caught one of the delicate feathers, tugging, and Zhou Mi gasped again.
It had pulled the skin like pulling a hair would. And then he had nothing holding him back, running his fingers over the feathers, and pulling on the wings to see them flex. He darted around to Zhou Mi’s side, to see them from the front, feeling the resistance against his hand as Zhou Mi watched and tried to do what Kyuhyun wanted.
“That’s not possible,” Kyuhyun said after a minute of just shaking his head.
The wing closest to him curved around him, pulling him into Zhou Mi’s chest.
“It’s real,” Zhou Mi said softly. “I’m here for you.”
“Why?”
“Because we need each other. Kyuhyun.”
His name was nearly crooned, and he was being hugged by a naked man. A naked…angel, since that was the only thing he could think of that Zhou Mi might be.
His weekend had just gone from boring to surreal.
***
Clothes had been first priority. Even if it had been interesting to say the least to get Zhou Mi to figure out how to first step into shorts and then pull them up his legs. Zhou Mi had been as fascinated by the concept as Kyuhyun had been of his wings, pulling them up and down a few times.
“This is what humans wear!” Zhou Mi had said, striking a pose with his hands on his hips.
He’d tried not to laugh. There was nothing he could do about a shirt, given Zhou Mi’s wings, but at least the most distracting parts were covered. No, correction, the wings were technically the most distracting parts, but other than that.
He spent a good amount of time showing Zhou Mi around his house wondering what he should do. He could call a friend, or the police. He then wondered if Zhou Mi was just visiting, or perhaps he meant to stay a little while. Maybe it was like a migration or something, and Zhou Mi was just stopping by to get a little strength before flying off somewhere as angels did.
He shook his head because nothing was sounding logical.
“Should I call someone to tell them about you?” he mused out loud, thinking maybe his parents would have a good idea. Maybe a pastor. Maybe the pope.
“No one can know about me but you,” Zhou Mi said, looking up from where he’d been running his fingers over the cloth of Kyuhyun’s favorite chair. “I know that.”
“Okay.”
And that was the day all the curtains were closed.
They’d leaped the bathroom hurdle with relative ease, when Zhou Mi had come back from his wandering as Kyuhyun was brewing tea to try and calm himself. He’d stood there with his legs pressed up together.
“It feels weird. It hurts? Kind of. But I need to- I don’t know!”
Zhou Mi was making broad motions at his bladder, and Kyuhyun got the point pretty fast. So they’d gone over the bathroom in detail. Things that could be done standing up and - for that other pressure he hadn’t felt yet - things that could be done sitting down. Also the wonders of toilet paper, and how the toilet flushed. Soap, hot water. It was a lot to take in just for a pee break, but he said Zhou Mi could ask questions if he needed. But Zhou Mi had repeated everything Kyuhyun had told him, almost to the word.
He’d left Zhou Mi to do his business, and then oversaw the washing of his hands just for so. No sense learning something wrong. But that’d been one thing.
Then his cell phone had rang and started vibrating, the really raucous tone he used for his sister, and Zhou Mi had gone on instant defense - crouching and dragging Kyuhyun in as his wings spread out. A glass fell, broke, and books toppled, as Kyuhyun just stared at the wreckage Zhou Mi had caused.
“It’s just the phone,” he said, tugging against Zhou Mi’s gripping hand. “You know what a phone is?”
Zhou Mi looked up at him. “The… Humans talk to each other on them?”
“Yes. It’s okay. There’s no danger. It’s just loud.”
“Oh.”
“Stay quiet and I’ll, ahh… Show you.”
Zhou Mi had been his silent shadow as Kyuhyun retrieved his phone and returned his sister’s call. Then he’d cleaned up the mess while warning Zhou Mi and his totally bare feet back.
And then Zhou Mi had tried to stick his fingers in the toaster.
***
After realizing Zhou Mi couldn’t exactly sleep on a bed with his wings, he’d unearthed a thick floor padding and blankets, and let Zhou Mi get comfortable on the floor. That was after asking if Zhou Mi was tired, if he even needed to sleep. The small smile Zhou Mi had given him seemed to indicate yes. So he had a man sleeping in his living room in nothing but a pair of shorts.
But Kyuhyun solved the clothing problem for shirts after thinking about it all night. He bought velcro and glue, and cut apart tank tops that were too big for him. He figured as long as the straps went between Zhou Mi’s wings in the back, and then came up over his shoulders, he’d be able to covered at least. At least it was still warm, so that’d work. He figured he’d find something to do if Zhou Mi was still there when it started getting cold. The fact that he was making plans for the future was almost as surreal as the fact that Zhou Mi was there at all.
There were hiccups to leaving Zhou Mi alone. His first thought, after running to the store that first time for 20 minutes and telling Zhou Mi not to move - only to find Zhou Mi still in the exact position when he got back - was to give Zhou Mi something simple to do. His instructions were more explicit when he left to get those supplies, saying Zhou Mi shouldn’t leave the house but he was free to move around.
Kyuhyun bought crayons and markers meant for little kids, stickers, and bright paper. They’d work up to things, he figured. He wasn’t sure if Zhou Mi could read, but his guess was on no. He threw in a couple of reading tutorial books, and then literally sprinted home.
When he left for work the next day, he had very explicit instructions. This was the food for Zhou Mi to eat. Only color on the paper. Not on the table, or the walls, or the floor. Only on the paper. He even shook the paper for emphasis. He suggested that Zhou Mi should try drawing trees or things around the house.
When he got home, he realized that Zhou Mi had taken him seriously. Zhou Mi had only colored on the one sheet of paper that Kyuhyun had indicated, and nothing else. Every bit of the paper was covered, both sides, and covered so well that Kyuhyun wasn’t entirely certain what color the paper had been to begin with.
“You can draw on all the paper in this package,” Kyuhyun clarified. “Just not on anything but the paper, okay? We’re trying to save the trees and all, but paper’s not in short supply.”
“Okay,” Zhou Mi agreed.
“Here, I got you these books. They’re to help kids start reading and writing, but maybe you can start learning by tracing. You speak well so I don’t think you’ll have a problem learning to read and write.”
He’d have to look into adult literacy books as well.
But the next day, he left the TV on to an education channel hoping it’d help to give Zhou Mi something more to do. He left food out, saying that Zhou Mi could eat when he was hungry. When that worked, he started feeling a little more secure.
The next day it turned out Zhou Mi had accidentally turned the channel to one that sold stuff all day. So he spent the night giving Zhou Mi a television tutorial. Zhou Mi got the hang of the remote with ease, treating it like he was Kyuhyun’s chauffeur into the world of television.
And then they’d figured out how to maneuver a six foot tall man and his fairly large wings into a shower stall. But Zhou Mi’s oohs and ahhs of delight in the warm water had been worth all his gritted teeth and averted eyes. He’d sent Zhou Mi outside to shake the water off his wings, and mopped up after him. But he had Zhou Mi with wet hair, a beaming smile, and smelling of his soap beside him just after, as he showed Kyuhyun the things he’d learned to write, and the things he’d learned to draw. And over the space of a week, his writing had improved.
He wanted to know how to write Kyuhyun’s name, how to write his own. Kyuhyun often came home to charts of writing and copied sentences.
Then Kyuhyun started coming home with books, and Zhou Mi was reading and reading and reading. Learning to use the dictionary, and learning new concepts. He’d read out loud to Kyuhyun at night, with his head on Kyuhyun’s knee. Every so often, he’d stumble over something or ask Kyuhyun a question, but then he kept on going. He was like a sponge who wanted to know everything.
Sometimes Kyuhyun almost forgot about the wings. Not that he could ignore them, but unless they were in his way, they were just part of Zhou Mi. Part of him that he wrapped himself up in and slept in. Or hid behind when he was embarrassed.
Kyuhyun wasn’t sure what they were going to do in the long run. It was costing him a little extra in food, though that was mostly it. Maybe a little for clothes and supplies, but he could afford it. He didn’t know when Zhou Mi would walk out the back door into the garden, and say he’d see what he’d come to see, and then go.
***
“I’m home!” Kyuhyun called, stepping up and wandering further into the house. Usually Zhou Mi was there waiting for him, but not that day. He was about three heartbeats away from panic when he heard a thunk in the kitchen.
“I’m in here!” Zhou Mi said a moment later, and Kyuhyun wondered if he’d gotten stuck in the pantry or something.
But no. Zhou Mi was wearing one of Kyuhyun’s aprons, untied. In front of him was a large pile of vegetables on a cutting board.
“What are you doing?” he asked, a little wary to see Zhou Mi with a big knife in his hand. Obviously he knew the answer, but he didn’t know the reason why.
“Cooking dinner! Or…Cutting things so you can cook dinner? I want to help! I just sit around and watch TV or pull weeds all day.”
Because those were safe activities, and not ones that could get him in trouble. Still, he had to appreciate the thought. And it made him kick himself a bit, because he was limiting Zhou Mi. Of course he’d want to help. And if Kyuhyun saw he could do something, maybe he should let Zhou Mi do it.
“That’s nice of you to do. I guess we should start talking about what to eat. That way you can start stuff before I get home.”
“Oh. Kyuhyun, really?”
He didn’t have to sound so excited about it. “Sure. Hey, you can wash my clothes too if you want,” he joked.
“Really??”
“I’ll show you how, if you want. You’re not here to do my work for me.”
“I want to know how. Plus you wash my clothes now? So I want to know! I’ve been watching cooking shows and taking notes in the notebook you got me. Oh! And I found the manual for the microwave and the rice cooker and they’re really interesting. So many options!”
Zhou Mi was bubbling, and Kyuhyun couldn’t even warn him as he grabbed the knife wrong.
Zhou Mi yipped, and Kyuhyun darted forward. Sure enough, there was a line of blood welling where Zhou Mi had nicked himself.
“Ow,” Zhou Mi said, like he’d gotten his feelings hurt by the knife.
Kyuhyun got it under the water so he could look at it better, but sure enough, it was just a tiny cut.
“Just a little scratch,” he said cheerfully. “I’ll get a bandaid.”
Not that he knew if Zhou Mi knew how those worked. Still, he got Zhou Mi sat down and treated the cut with a little antibiotic cream, and a Hello Kitty sticker from a box he’d been given as a gag gift. And then, on impulse he lifted Zhou Mi’s hand and pressed a kiss to the bandaid.
“There.”
“Why did you do that?” Zhou Mi asked, holding his injured finger up between them.
“Oh. My mom used to do that. She said it made it hurt less. But I think she only did it because she wanted me to think so.”
Zhou Mi’s mouth tilted into a frown for a moment, before he lifted his finger and kissed the bandaid himself with no small amount of hope shining on his face.
Kyuhyun nearly dissolved of adorable, at least until Zhou Mi looked up at him quickly and then down.
“What’s wrong?”
“You’re right. It didn’t make it hurt less, but… Thank you for trying.”
He rubbed Zhou Mi’s arm a moment.
“Let’s get some food delivered, and watch TV, and that’ll take your mind off it,” Kyuhyun promised. “We’ll cook tomorrow. Together.”
“Okay,” Zhou Mi agreed immediately.
So he spent the majority of the night with Zhou Mi against him, nearly purring into Kyuhyun’s neck as they stared at the TV screen. He didn’t know about Zhou Mi, but it had certainly thoroughly distracted him.
***
“I have a supervisor,” Zhou Mi said one day, shocking the hell out of Kyuhyun. “I talk to him sometimes. He says I’m doing well.”
Considering Zhou Mi had been unwilling to tell Kyuhyun what he was, where he came from, or more about why, that was news to him. But the fact was, Kyuhyun agreed with whoever this supervisor was. When he’d asked how Zhou Mi talked to him, he got the usual smile and nothing in return. It chafed, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. It wasn’t like he could threaten to throw Zhou Mi out if he didn’t give him the answers he wanted. If Zhou Mi were in the newspapers, he’d be called the birdman or the fallen angel. Kyuhyun didn’t want that for so many reasons. When he thought of Zhou Mi having to go, it was a bit traumatizing. He’d gotten used to having someone to talk to while he cooked, something he thought he was getting better at as Zhou Mi critiqued his food as it was made. That and seeing Zhou Mi’s smile when he got up and rolled out for a brisk cup of tea.
The day came when Zhou Mi knew more about his electronics than he did. They were working up to the computer in stages, because he could only imagine coming home to his computer full of malware and Zhou Mi horrified by the naked cavorting bodies on the screen. Actually, when he thought about that, he’d made sure to put a password lock on a certain folder. Just in case. But Zhou Mi knew how to access the news, and he informed Kyuhyun on it as they prepared dinner.
Sometimes he went to bed a little early, just to have some time alone. Cradling his laptop, and wondering what he was going to do. If he ever had to move, he didn’t know what he’d do with Zhou Mi. If he had friends over. He supposed he could lock Zhou Mi in his room. But Zhou Mi wasn’t a puppy. He couldn’t just be shoved in the back all the time. Sometimes that kept him up more than the need to be alone and recharge did.
“Sometimes I just need a little time to myself,” Kyuhyun told Zhou Mi. “It’s not that I don’t want to be around you, I just need to…breathe and be with myself for a while. Okay?”
Zhou Mi had looked at him with compassionate eyes. He got it, in some way. It made since, since Zhou Mi was smart enough to start learning how to write English letters, and had figured out how to work all the door knobs.
But there were things Zhou Mi didn’t know how to ask for. Like the day Kyuhyun had come out of the bathroom, to find Zhou Mi leaning up against the bedroom doorjamb and rubbing his back against it. His face was all screwed up in concentration and fulfillment, and Kyuhyun had just stared for a moment.
“What are you doing?” he dared ask when he’d found his voice.
“It itches,” Zhou Mi said. The sound of those words were a bit sad, and Zhou Mi demonstrated that he could not reach certain parts of his back because of his wings and also his arms not being long enough.
“So you scratch yourself on my door.”
“Sometimes if I rub on the blankets the right way it helps?”
Kyuhyun sighed. Even the thought of offering what he was about to offer felt wrong, but not offering felt wrong as well. There was no winning.
“Sit down, and I’ll scratch it for you.”
Perhaps he could get a back scratcher so Zhou Mi wouldn’t need to contort himself and make horrible too-close-to-sex faces. That was not something he was going to work out of his mind so easily. He was pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to get turned on by someone who was essentially an angel. But then he looked at Zhou Mi, and he was basically perfect. He wasn’t sure he was supposed to have a libido if he didn’t get turned on by someone like that. All he had to do was stare at Zhou Mi’s fingers, or Zhou Mi’s biceps, or his chest, or his mouth, and his body took over from there.
He tried to shove all that down as he undid the velcro and bared Zhou Mi’s back. There were red marks on his skin where it had rubbed against the wood, and Kyuhyun soothed it with his fingers. He let his nails carefully scratch through the fuzzy feathers between Zhou Mi’s shoulder blades, and tried not to chuckle at the purring sound Zhou Mi made. Zhou Mi leaned, left and right, arching his shoulders to let Kyuhyun know where he wanted attention.
He didn’t know how he went from that, to rubbing his fingers through Zhou Mi’s hair, rubbing his scalp and feeling the weight of Zhou Mi’s head in his hands. Zhou Mi’s hair, getting longer, against his skin.
He didn’t know when he’d gotten onto his knees, when he’s slid his arms around Zhou Mi’s neck and leaned into his back. But he was, breathing against Zhou Mi’s hair.
“Zhou Mi.”
It wasn’t arousal. He wanted, yes, but it wasn’t that. If he could have seen them then, one man sitting with wings sprawled to either side, and the other behind him holding on. One of Zhou Mi’s hands grasped his, and Kyuhyun didn’t understand the shivers it sent through him.
“Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun, please.”
He let Zhou Mi draw him around, stepping carefully over one of Zhou Mi’s wings, and getting drawn in by Zhou Mi’s arms. The expression on Zhou Mi’s face was so close to a smile, his face fighting for the expression.
“Can I stay with you?” Zhou Mi asked him, his fingers grasping at Kyuhyun’s shoulders.
“Yes? I haven’t told you you had to leave. Of course you can-“
Zhou Mi’s smile broke through fully.
“I’ll scratch your back whenever you need it,” Kyuhyun joked, before he made incomprehensible sounds at the happiness Zhou Mi was radiating. He wasn’t sure what he’s said, what had happened to make Zhou Mi react that way. But Zhou Mi was squeezing him closer, and with a sigh, lying back.
“Kyuhyun,” he said, grasping Kyuhyun’s hand and placing it on his wing. Where the feathers were dense and long and pale against his fingers. Kneeling beside Zhou Mi, he explored the ridge of them, extending past Zhou Mi’s shoulders. The feathers that twitched under his stroking, as Zhou Mi sighed. And Kyuhyun did not resist when Zhou Mi grasped his elbow, pulling him down. In only a moment he went from upright to resting against Zhou Mi’s chest. And the light dimmed, as Zhou Mi’s wings enfolded him.
At first he laughed, and then he wondered at the feeling. Safe. Peaceful. It wasn’t unlike how he felt when Zhou Mi wanted to be close, when he carefully tucked in his wings so he could cook beside Kyuhyun, or when he smiled and helped Kyuhyun pick out a shirt to wear.
“You can stay,” Kyuhyun said finally. “You can stay.”
He felt like he repeated it again, and again, warm with Zhou Mi stroking the back of his neck.
When he woke, it was light, and he woke to a sneeze. A loud, hitching one that had him spitting all over Zhou Mi’s chest. He pulled a fuzzy bit of feather away from his face, wiping his mouth as Zhou Mi stirred.
And then he stared in horror. Every flat surface in his home was covered in white. Feathers everywhere, like a hundred pillows had exploded and glued themselves around. Even his TV was covered.
“What the hell…”
“Hmm?”
Zhou Mi blinked up at him.
“There are feathers everywhere.” But not where he’d come to expect them. “Your wings!”
They were gone. And that really made Kyuhyun freeze. Then the feathers everywhere were from Zhou Mi?
He felt like he was creaking, when Zhou Mi tugged him back down, cuddling Kyuhyun’s head on his shoulder.
“You said I could stay,” Zhou Mi said. “I didn’t need them any more. I am just like you now.”
And Zhou Mi’s hand covered his, as he struggled to breathe.
***
It took three vacuum bags to make a real dent in the feathers. Though before that, Zhou Mi got the new sensation of getting to pull a shirt on over his head, and it gave Kyuhyun at least ten seconds to wrap his head around - for the 30th time - the fact that Zhou Mi didn’t have wings. There were marks almost the length of one of his fingers on each shoulder blade. They were not raised, as though they were a scar, but almost like someone had lovingly touched his skin where the wings had been. No more tiny little feathers, just bare skin. Lots of bare skin.
Hence the shirt, so Kyuhyun could clean without his breath hitching every time he took in the contours of Zhou Mi’s shoulders. It was different without the wings. It felt dangerous. Because there wasn’t anything there to remind him that he needed to back off. Zhou Mi wasn’t playing with crayons any more. He looked at Kyuhyun sometimes with the knowledge of a man’s eyes, something he’d tried forgetting during sleepless nights.
Maybe the TV corrupted him, but the world sure would have. Zhou Mi knew of the bad things in the world, and the good. Kyuhyun’s house had been a cocoon almost, only instead of a caterpillar gaining its wings, Zhou Mi had lost his.
He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to regret that or not.
He had pictures, of course. Zhou Mi sitting on a chair all posed and serene with his wings out. He’d seemed amused that Kyuhyun had wanted to take a picture of him, once he’d been sure what a picture was. He flipped through his phone as Zhou Mi wrestled another bag into the vacuum, and his heart nearly stopped.
All the pictures. Zhou Mi cooking, his face surprised as Kyuhyun had shouted CHEESE at him. Zhou Mi in front of the TV curled around his knees like a tiny child. Zhou Mi in the garden with his wings spread as far as they could go.
They were all there, but the wings weren’t. Kyuhyun knew exactly what they’d looked like, looked at them dozens of times.
“Zhou Mi. The wings are gone.”
Zhou Mi stared up at him in concern. “I know?”
“I mean in the pictures.”
“Oh,” Zhou Mi said, standing and coming to lean over Kyuhyun’s shoulder. He’d seen the pictures many times too. “Oh, they are. Oh. Oh you can show people these now!”
“Is that why there were so many feathers? All the wings from the pictures exploded too?”
Zhou Mi laughed, his head bumping into Kyuhyun’s. “I don’t think so. But we’ve got most of them.”
He thought they’d be picking up stray feathers for a few weeks at least.
But without proof in pictures, he didn’t know if he could guarantee himself that he’d just been dreaming.
“Oh, Kyuhyun look!”
In one of the pictures, Zhou Mi had been standing beside him, and they’d been taking a picture together with the sliding glass door behind them.
Zhou Mi’s wings were gone, but their reflection wasn’t.
“I’m glad,” Zhou Mi said, touching the screen. “That way we’ll always know.”
It was as though Zhou Mi read his mind. But he spent the whole day trying to sort through his feelings, as Zhou Mi got used to knowing he wouldn’t knock things over if he moved. They’d lost something, and they’d gained something. They’d just have to figure out which.
But it made him antsy as he slept, a long night alone in his bed knowing that Zhou Mi was sleeping in the living room. He’d put Zhou Mi there because of his wings. It meant things were changing, and he dreamed of it.
***
Kyuhyun woke with a gasp as his bed shook, and to a soft laugh.
“Good morning,” Zhou Mi said, half on the bed with Kyuhyun.
His fingers skimmed Zhou Mi’s bare shoulder, warm, soft. Not too soft. Strength, shielded by pliant skin.
“Are you awake?” Zhou Mi teased.
Of course he was.
Of course he was, when Zhou Mi’s mouth met his. But it felt no less like a dream, the wet press of lips and Zhou Mi’s shudder. He nearly protested when Zhou Mi pulled away, wanting the soft touch back even as embarrassment spun through him.
“What was that for?” he asked, staring at Zhou Mi’s nose instead of meeting his eyes.
“It looked nice on TV. I hoped I’d like it,” Zhou Mi said, grin so big it looked almost painful.
Kyuhyun made a dying whale sound in his head. “Did you?”
Kyuhyun almost missed the murmured agreement because Zhou Mi was squeezing his earlobe with focused interest. If Zhou Mi ever found out he was sensitive there, he was doomed. He was already doomed.
“Maybe you need to…try again.”
Just for scientific purposes.
And then he wheezed as most of Zhou Mi’s weight pressed on him. Okay, so they had to find a better way to go about that. But for a second kiss, they did great.
***
“How does it look?”
Kyuhyun nearly swallowed his tongue, when Zhou Mi turned around. The black and white shirt skimmed Zhou Mi’s torso, tucked beneath the trim slacks.
“I don’t think you want to know,” Kyuhyun blurted. When he’d agreed to go buy Zhou Mi “real clothes” he’d clearly not been in his right mind. He should’ve started with baggy sweatshirts and oversized pants.
“Kyuhyun! I do. Please?”
There was only one word, really, that totally encompassed all the feelings his brain was being assaulted with. “Hot.”
Zhou Mi’s eyes went wide as Kyuhyun’s face flamed, and Zhou Mi was darting forward. “Really?”
And it sounded like he’d just agreed for them to get a puppy.
“Yeah, really.”
“I’m so glad.”
And Kyuhyun almost melted on the spot, because Zhou Mi hugged him and was breathing into his collar. “You are?”
“Yes. That means you want to have sex with me.”
“What?” Kyuhyun squawked.
“Doesn’t it?!”
“No! I mean. Yes, but that’s not what it always means. Oh fuck.”
“The TV says we’ll know when is right,” Zhou Mi said, and squeezed him.
His life was just a gigantic circus ball of ridiculous. He had a guy he’d have licked on any given day, anywhere, under any circumstances, cuddling him and telling him they’d know when it was a good time to get naked.
And the fact that there even was that possibility was totally scrambling his brain.
“So you think I’m hot?” Kyuhyun asked, going for euphemism since asking Zhou Mi outright if he wanted to have sex would have totally killed any semblance of sanity.
“The sun is hotter than you a little,” Zhou Mi mused, very serious and teasing at the same time. “But I still want you more.”
“Oh. Good,” Kyuhyun mumbled into Zhou Mi’s shoulder as his face flamed. “What shows have you been watching.”
“Ones that help me be human!”
And Zhou Mi let him go, beaming at him before racing out the door to go retrieve his new shoes to try on. They were going out for the first time together, just a small outing without too much fanfare. But Zhou Mi had been swooning in excitement all day. A date, just for them.
Kyuhyun sat on the bed, knees giving out on him. He liked human Zhou Mi. He liked the possibilities he held, and the promises he made. But at the same time, he hoped Zhou Mi wouldn’t totally lose who he had been before. He learned, was growing, and he needed to. Needed to if he was going to be able to survive in the world. It was possible that Zhou Mi would learn so much, grow so much, that he wouldn’t need Kyuhyun any more.
And that was, perhaps, the problem with falling in love with someone who was once an angel.
Though to Kyuhyun he would always be one. And he almost smacked himself in the face for thinking it.
***
He watched Zhou Mi’s bare feet pad in and out of view as he sleepily did up the buttons on his shirt and began to tie his tie. He was never sure what Zhou Mi meant to do by pacing while Kyuhyun got ready for work, if he meant to cheer Kyuhyun on or if he was distressed because Kyuhyun would be leaving soon. Zhou Mi kept himself busy - he’d taken a shine to microblogging and posting pictures of his face. He actually had quite a following, considering that his face was a nice one. But it was nice to get the little notifications during the day. And Zhou Mi tended to add little secret messages that let Kyuhyun know he was talking to him.
Usually something terribly subtle like “♥K” and “What do you want for dinner? K?”
It was widely believed that the mysterious K was Zhou Mi’s roommate. Which of course was not entirely untrue. Still, Kyuhyun had entered the realm of the underground to get documents for Zhou Mi, since he couldn’t exactly just say he’d appeared in Kyuhyun’s garden with no recollection of his past self. One day that was going to allow Zhou Mi to go to school if he wanted, get a job. One step at a time, really.
Suddenly Zhou Mi stopped behind him, a change from his usual pattern and Kyuhyun had to step himself from whirling around, expecting some kind of attack. Instead Zhou Mi pushed up against him, making him steady himself on his dresser.
“My supervisor came to ask me a question last night,” Zhou Mi said.
His angel supervisor. It sent a chill down Kyuhyun’s spine, because he remembered Zhou Mi climbing out of bed. But he’d only assumed he’d gone to use the bathroom or get a drink, and Kyuhyun had fallen asleep again.
“Did he? What was it?”
“He asked me if you would look out for me, until it was time for me to go home again.”
The swallow was unnaturally hard before Kyuhyun let himself breathe again. “Oh?”
“I told him that I needed to look out for you, but that I knew you would look out for me, too.”
“Okay. Yes. I mean. I will. But when… Ah. When will it be time for you to…go?”
“He said when you do,” Zhou Mi said, his reflection smiling.
“So, not for a long time then,” Kyuhyun joked, the sound awkward in the silence.
Zhou Mi nodded, biting his lip and pressing his fingertips to the back of Kyuhyun’s hand. “I was never your guardian angel. But I can be…yours.”
***
Pairing: Zhou Mi/Kyuhyun
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU
Prompt: Zhou Mi is an angel or spirit or something that fell from the sky or somehow stumbled upon Kyuhyun. Hasn't a clue about anything in the human world so Kyuhyun has to look after him.
***
It wasn’t every day that he found an angel in his garden. Kyuhyun stood on his porch and stared at what appeared to be a naked man - and Kyuhyun couldn’t see all of him - wrapped in feathers and sleeping in his tulips. Closer, cautious, inspection led him to believe that it was not feathers, but wings. Wings a strange shade of ivory, almost like a dove. Kyuhyun’s first thought was that perhaps there was one of those conventions around where people dressed up in costumes, and that one of them got drunk and wandered into his yard. But a look to his gate told him it was locked, and the walls were hard to scale. And given the man’s nakedness and the fact that his feet were pristine, it meant that he hadn’t been trudging around like that.
But men wearing wings didn’t just fall from the sky.
Kyuhyun blinked, as that random thought smacked him in the face and then was dismissed.
It was just a costume, just a strange one. All Kyuhyun had to do was wake the man up, whatever he looked like, and shoo him out the door. Kyuhyun might give him some flip flops and maybe a towel to wrap around him so he wouldn’t be arrested. For all Kyuhyun knew he could be high on drugs, or some kind of murderer.
But before Kyuhyun had decided to go get a broom to poke the man with, he woke. A tiny sound like a kitten rolled from him, followed by a groan almost unnaturally deep. Kyuhyun took a step back, watching warily, and expecting the wings to fall off or bend awkwardly. He wondered how much glue it had taken to get all those feathers on-
And holy shit, they moved. His first thought wasn’t that they moved like a bird’s wing, but like some kind of gryphon, some strange mystical thing with wings flexing and curling as the man - very definitely a man he was clear to see - sat up. Clear eyes, not drug addled at all, straight nose above full lips and a strong chin. The wings stood, the man stood he corrected, and it was like a man who’d stepped out of one of the manga on a shelf in his back room. And even as he stepped back he was doubting himself. He was dreaming, then. That was it. He’d fallen asleep on the couch again, and too many hours on his laptop.
“Where am I?” were the first words the man spoke.
Kyuhyun didn’t know if he meant country, city, street. So he went with all three, just barely holding himself back from adding in the planet. He tossed his name in there for good measure.
“Kyuhyun,” the man repeated, and brushed a bit of grass from one of the wings in a way that made Kyuhyun’s fingers twitch and then bury themselves in his pockets. Touching some strange man’s wings, even in dreams, was a little bit much. “My name is Zhou Mi.”
“How did you get in here?” Kyuhyun asked. “Why…are you here?”
Why are you naked? But he couldn’t ask that.
“I woke up here. With you! I am here to be with you.” And Zhou Mi tilted his head up, looking toward the sky. “I was up there. But now I’m with you.”
And naked. Kyuhyun was going to get over that soon. He’d given up on the hope that it was a dream. But he wasn’t positive that Zhou Mi was entirely with it.
“Do you have clothes?” Kyuhyun ventured.
The wings swept around Zhou Mi so quickly that Kyuhyun took a step back from the blast of air.
“I forgot. You can see me.”
Kyuhyun took another step back for good measure. “Ah… Yes. I can. The wings. Nice costume.”
“Costume? A disguise? It is not a disguise. I am… Kyuhyun. I am not human. These are my wings.”
“You can fly.”
“Not here. Not now. Let me show you.”
He had a naked man approaching him with wings unfolding or unfurling or whatever it was, and he was trying not to just fall flat on his ass trying to look for a weapon in case this guy tried to strangle him or something.
But Zhou Mi just turned and presented him with his back. Kyuhyun could’ve pretended he didn’t take a look at the guy’s ass but it would’ve been a lie. But Zhou Mi was flapping his hands above his shoulders to try and get Kyuhyun’s attention where he wanted it.
“See? My wings.”
Kyuhyun knew amazing things could be done with latex or foam, amazing stuff that turned imagination into something incredibly realistic. That was what he thought he was seeing, the merging of skin to feathers. The line of delicate feather fuzz between one wing ridge near Zhou Mi’s shoulder blade, to the other. It was like feathers were growing out of his skin. And Kyuhyun tensed as Zhou Mi flexed them, moving them almost back far enough to hit Kyuhyun on either side, before sweeping them forward. Glossy ivory. If Zhou Mi had succeeded in one thing, it was to make him curious. He wanted to know how it worked. Why it worked. And since Zhou Mi seemed to eager to show them off, he figured as long as he played along he’d be safe.
“Can I touch?” Kyuhyun asked.
Zhou Mi almost shook as he nodded. “Yes. Of course.”
So Kyuhyun stepped forward as he watched Zhou Mi stretch the wings out a bit. There were no mechanical sounds. It could be pulleys, maybe, hidden down Zhou Mi’s arms. He touched Zhou Mi’s side, for reference, and got a hitching gasp. The skin was warm there, just as it should be. Then he touched Zhou Mi higher, mid-back. Same temperature. The wing ridges, where the skin disappeared under feathers, he touched with his fingertips. He expected it to be cool, fake, the feel of imitation flesh. But it was warm, moving beneath his fingers. Or maybe that was because he was trembling. He caught one of the delicate feathers, tugging, and Zhou Mi gasped again.
It had pulled the skin like pulling a hair would. And then he had nothing holding him back, running his fingers over the feathers, and pulling on the wings to see them flex. He darted around to Zhou Mi’s side, to see them from the front, feeling the resistance against his hand as Zhou Mi watched and tried to do what Kyuhyun wanted.
“That’s not possible,” Kyuhyun said after a minute of just shaking his head.
The wing closest to him curved around him, pulling him into Zhou Mi’s chest.
“It’s real,” Zhou Mi said softly. “I’m here for you.”
“Why?”
“Because we need each other. Kyuhyun.”
His name was nearly crooned, and he was being hugged by a naked man. A naked…angel, since that was the only thing he could think of that Zhou Mi might be.
His weekend had just gone from boring to surreal.
***
Clothes had been first priority. Even if it had been interesting to say the least to get Zhou Mi to figure out how to first step into shorts and then pull them up his legs. Zhou Mi had been as fascinated by the concept as Kyuhyun had been of his wings, pulling them up and down a few times.
“This is what humans wear!” Zhou Mi had said, striking a pose with his hands on his hips.
He’d tried not to laugh. There was nothing he could do about a shirt, given Zhou Mi’s wings, but at least the most distracting parts were covered. No, correction, the wings were technically the most distracting parts, but other than that.
He spent a good amount of time showing Zhou Mi around his house wondering what he should do. He could call a friend, or the police. He then wondered if Zhou Mi was just visiting, or perhaps he meant to stay a little while. Maybe it was like a migration or something, and Zhou Mi was just stopping by to get a little strength before flying off somewhere as angels did.
He shook his head because nothing was sounding logical.
“Should I call someone to tell them about you?” he mused out loud, thinking maybe his parents would have a good idea. Maybe a pastor. Maybe the pope.
“No one can know about me but you,” Zhou Mi said, looking up from where he’d been running his fingers over the cloth of Kyuhyun’s favorite chair. “I know that.”
“Okay.”
And that was the day all the curtains were closed.
They’d leaped the bathroom hurdle with relative ease, when Zhou Mi had come back from his wandering as Kyuhyun was brewing tea to try and calm himself. He’d stood there with his legs pressed up together.
“It feels weird. It hurts? Kind of. But I need to- I don’t know!”
Zhou Mi was making broad motions at his bladder, and Kyuhyun got the point pretty fast. So they’d gone over the bathroom in detail. Things that could be done standing up and - for that other pressure he hadn’t felt yet - things that could be done sitting down. Also the wonders of toilet paper, and how the toilet flushed. Soap, hot water. It was a lot to take in just for a pee break, but he said Zhou Mi could ask questions if he needed. But Zhou Mi had repeated everything Kyuhyun had told him, almost to the word.
He’d left Zhou Mi to do his business, and then oversaw the washing of his hands just for so. No sense learning something wrong. But that’d been one thing.
Then his cell phone had rang and started vibrating, the really raucous tone he used for his sister, and Zhou Mi had gone on instant defense - crouching and dragging Kyuhyun in as his wings spread out. A glass fell, broke, and books toppled, as Kyuhyun just stared at the wreckage Zhou Mi had caused.
“It’s just the phone,” he said, tugging against Zhou Mi’s gripping hand. “You know what a phone is?”
Zhou Mi looked up at him. “The… Humans talk to each other on them?”
“Yes. It’s okay. There’s no danger. It’s just loud.”
“Oh.”
“Stay quiet and I’ll, ahh… Show you.”
Zhou Mi had been his silent shadow as Kyuhyun retrieved his phone and returned his sister’s call. Then he’d cleaned up the mess while warning Zhou Mi and his totally bare feet back.
And then Zhou Mi had tried to stick his fingers in the toaster.
***
After realizing Zhou Mi couldn’t exactly sleep on a bed with his wings, he’d unearthed a thick floor padding and blankets, and let Zhou Mi get comfortable on the floor. That was after asking if Zhou Mi was tired, if he even needed to sleep. The small smile Zhou Mi had given him seemed to indicate yes. So he had a man sleeping in his living room in nothing but a pair of shorts.
But Kyuhyun solved the clothing problem for shirts after thinking about it all night. He bought velcro and glue, and cut apart tank tops that were too big for him. He figured as long as the straps went between Zhou Mi’s wings in the back, and then came up over his shoulders, he’d be able to covered at least. At least it was still warm, so that’d work. He figured he’d find something to do if Zhou Mi was still there when it started getting cold. The fact that he was making plans for the future was almost as surreal as the fact that Zhou Mi was there at all.
There were hiccups to leaving Zhou Mi alone. His first thought, after running to the store that first time for 20 minutes and telling Zhou Mi not to move - only to find Zhou Mi still in the exact position when he got back - was to give Zhou Mi something simple to do. His instructions were more explicit when he left to get those supplies, saying Zhou Mi shouldn’t leave the house but he was free to move around.
Kyuhyun bought crayons and markers meant for little kids, stickers, and bright paper. They’d work up to things, he figured. He wasn’t sure if Zhou Mi could read, but his guess was on no. He threw in a couple of reading tutorial books, and then literally sprinted home.
When he left for work the next day, he had very explicit instructions. This was the food for Zhou Mi to eat. Only color on the paper. Not on the table, or the walls, or the floor. Only on the paper. He even shook the paper for emphasis. He suggested that Zhou Mi should try drawing trees or things around the house.
When he got home, he realized that Zhou Mi had taken him seriously. Zhou Mi had only colored on the one sheet of paper that Kyuhyun had indicated, and nothing else. Every bit of the paper was covered, both sides, and covered so well that Kyuhyun wasn’t entirely certain what color the paper had been to begin with.
“You can draw on all the paper in this package,” Kyuhyun clarified. “Just not on anything but the paper, okay? We’re trying to save the trees and all, but paper’s not in short supply.”
“Okay,” Zhou Mi agreed.
“Here, I got you these books. They’re to help kids start reading and writing, but maybe you can start learning by tracing. You speak well so I don’t think you’ll have a problem learning to read and write.”
He’d have to look into adult literacy books as well.
But the next day, he left the TV on to an education channel hoping it’d help to give Zhou Mi something more to do. He left food out, saying that Zhou Mi could eat when he was hungry. When that worked, he started feeling a little more secure.
The next day it turned out Zhou Mi had accidentally turned the channel to one that sold stuff all day. So he spent the night giving Zhou Mi a television tutorial. Zhou Mi got the hang of the remote with ease, treating it like he was Kyuhyun’s chauffeur into the world of television.
And then they’d figured out how to maneuver a six foot tall man and his fairly large wings into a shower stall. But Zhou Mi’s oohs and ahhs of delight in the warm water had been worth all his gritted teeth and averted eyes. He’d sent Zhou Mi outside to shake the water off his wings, and mopped up after him. But he had Zhou Mi with wet hair, a beaming smile, and smelling of his soap beside him just after, as he showed Kyuhyun the things he’d learned to write, and the things he’d learned to draw. And over the space of a week, his writing had improved.
He wanted to know how to write Kyuhyun’s name, how to write his own. Kyuhyun often came home to charts of writing and copied sentences.
Then Kyuhyun started coming home with books, and Zhou Mi was reading and reading and reading. Learning to use the dictionary, and learning new concepts. He’d read out loud to Kyuhyun at night, with his head on Kyuhyun’s knee. Every so often, he’d stumble over something or ask Kyuhyun a question, but then he kept on going. He was like a sponge who wanted to know everything.
Sometimes Kyuhyun almost forgot about the wings. Not that he could ignore them, but unless they were in his way, they were just part of Zhou Mi. Part of him that he wrapped himself up in and slept in. Or hid behind when he was embarrassed.
Kyuhyun wasn’t sure what they were going to do in the long run. It was costing him a little extra in food, though that was mostly it. Maybe a little for clothes and supplies, but he could afford it. He didn’t know when Zhou Mi would walk out the back door into the garden, and say he’d see what he’d come to see, and then go.
***
“I’m home!” Kyuhyun called, stepping up and wandering further into the house. Usually Zhou Mi was there waiting for him, but not that day. He was about three heartbeats away from panic when he heard a thunk in the kitchen.
“I’m in here!” Zhou Mi said a moment later, and Kyuhyun wondered if he’d gotten stuck in the pantry or something.
But no. Zhou Mi was wearing one of Kyuhyun’s aprons, untied. In front of him was a large pile of vegetables on a cutting board.
“What are you doing?” he asked, a little wary to see Zhou Mi with a big knife in his hand. Obviously he knew the answer, but he didn’t know the reason why.
“Cooking dinner! Or…Cutting things so you can cook dinner? I want to help! I just sit around and watch TV or pull weeds all day.”
Because those were safe activities, and not ones that could get him in trouble. Still, he had to appreciate the thought. And it made him kick himself a bit, because he was limiting Zhou Mi. Of course he’d want to help. And if Kyuhyun saw he could do something, maybe he should let Zhou Mi do it.
“That’s nice of you to do. I guess we should start talking about what to eat. That way you can start stuff before I get home.”
“Oh. Kyuhyun, really?”
He didn’t have to sound so excited about it. “Sure. Hey, you can wash my clothes too if you want,” he joked.
“Really??”
“I’ll show you how, if you want. You’re not here to do my work for me.”
“I want to know how. Plus you wash my clothes now? So I want to know! I’ve been watching cooking shows and taking notes in the notebook you got me. Oh! And I found the manual for the microwave and the rice cooker and they’re really interesting. So many options!”
Zhou Mi was bubbling, and Kyuhyun couldn’t even warn him as he grabbed the knife wrong.
Zhou Mi yipped, and Kyuhyun darted forward. Sure enough, there was a line of blood welling where Zhou Mi had nicked himself.
“Ow,” Zhou Mi said, like he’d gotten his feelings hurt by the knife.
Kyuhyun got it under the water so he could look at it better, but sure enough, it was just a tiny cut.
“Just a little scratch,” he said cheerfully. “I’ll get a bandaid.”
Not that he knew if Zhou Mi knew how those worked. Still, he got Zhou Mi sat down and treated the cut with a little antibiotic cream, and a Hello Kitty sticker from a box he’d been given as a gag gift. And then, on impulse he lifted Zhou Mi’s hand and pressed a kiss to the bandaid.
“There.”
“Why did you do that?” Zhou Mi asked, holding his injured finger up between them.
“Oh. My mom used to do that. She said it made it hurt less. But I think she only did it because she wanted me to think so.”
Zhou Mi’s mouth tilted into a frown for a moment, before he lifted his finger and kissed the bandaid himself with no small amount of hope shining on his face.
Kyuhyun nearly dissolved of adorable, at least until Zhou Mi looked up at him quickly and then down.
“What’s wrong?”
“You’re right. It didn’t make it hurt less, but… Thank you for trying.”
He rubbed Zhou Mi’s arm a moment.
“Let’s get some food delivered, and watch TV, and that’ll take your mind off it,” Kyuhyun promised. “We’ll cook tomorrow. Together.”
“Okay,” Zhou Mi agreed immediately.
So he spent the majority of the night with Zhou Mi against him, nearly purring into Kyuhyun’s neck as they stared at the TV screen. He didn’t know about Zhou Mi, but it had certainly thoroughly distracted him.
***
“I have a supervisor,” Zhou Mi said one day, shocking the hell out of Kyuhyun. “I talk to him sometimes. He says I’m doing well.”
Considering Zhou Mi had been unwilling to tell Kyuhyun what he was, where he came from, or more about why, that was news to him. But the fact was, Kyuhyun agreed with whoever this supervisor was. When he’d asked how Zhou Mi talked to him, he got the usual smile and nothing in return. It chafed, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. It wasn’t like he could threaten to throw Zhou Mi out if he didn’t give him the answers he wanted. If Zhou Mi were in the newspapers, he’d be called the birdman or the fallen angel. Kyuhyun didn’t want that for so many reasons. When he thought of Zhou Mi having to go, it was a bit traumatizing. He’d gotten used to having someone to talk to while he cooked, something he thought he was getting better at as Zhou Mi critiqued his food as it was made. That and seeing Zhou Mi’s smile when he got up and rolled out for a brisk cup of tea.
The day came when Zhou Mi knew more about his electronics than he did. They were working up to the computer in stages, because he could only imagine coming home to his computer full of malware and Zhou Mi horrified by the naked cavorting bodies on the screen. Actually, when he thought about that, he’d made sure to put a password lock on a certain folder. Just in case. But Zhou Mi knew how to access the news, and he informed Kyuhyun on it as they prepared dinner.
Sometimes he went to bed a little early, just to have some time alone. Cradling his laptop, and wondering what he was going to do. If he ever had to move, he didn’t know what he’d do with Zhou Mi. If he had friends over. He supposed he could lock Zhou Mi in his room. But Zhou Mi wasn’t a puppy. He couldn’t just be shoved in the back all the time. Sometimes that kept him up more than the need to be alone and recharge did.
“Sometimes I just need a little time to myself,” Kyuhyun told Zhou Mi. “It’s not that I don’t want to be around you, I just need to…breathe and be with myself for a while. Okay?”
Zhou Mi had looked at him with compassionate eyes. He got it, in some way. It made since, since Zhou Mi was smart enough to start learning how to write English letters, and had figured out how to work all the door knobs.
But there were things Zhou Mi didn’t know how to ask for. Like the day Kyuhyun had come out of the bathroom, to find Zhou Mi leaning up against the bedroom doorjamb and rubbing his back against it. His face was all screwed up in concentration and fulfillment, and Kyuhyun had just stared for a moment.
“What are you doing?” he dared ask when he’d found his voice.
“It itches,” Zhou Mi said. The sound of those words were a bit sad, and Zhou Mi demonstrated that he could not reach certain parts of his back because of his wings and also his arms not being long enough.
“So you scratch yourself on my door.”
“Sometimes if I rub on the blankets the right way it helps?”
Kyuhyun sighed. Even the thought of offering what he was about to offer felt wrong, but not offering felt wrong as well. There was no winning.
“Sit down, and I’ll scratch it for you.”
Perhaps he could get a back scratcher so Zhou Mi wouldn’t need to contort himself and make horrible too-close-to-sex faces. That was not something he was going to work out of his mind so easily. He was pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to get turned on by someone who was essentially an angel. But then he looked at Zhou Mi, and he was basically perfect. He wasn’t sure he was supposed to have a libido if he didn’t get turned on by someone like that. All he had to do was stare at Zhou Mi’s fingers, or Zhou Mi’s biceps, or his chest, or his mouth, and his body took over from there.
He tried to shove all that down as he undid the velcro and bared Zhou Mi’s back. There were red marks on his skin where it had rubbed against the wood, and Kyuhyun soothed it with his fingers. He let his nails carefully scratch through the fuzzy feathers between Zhou Mi’s shoulder blades, and tried not to chuckle at the purring sound Zhou Mi made. Zhou Mi leaned, left and right, arching his shoulders to let Kyuhyun know where he wanted attention.
He didn’t know how he went from that, to rubbing his fingers through Zhou Mi’s hair, rubbing his scalp and feeling the weight of Zhou Mi’s head in his hands. Zhou Mi’s hair, getting longer, against his skin.
He didn’t know when he’d gotten onto his knees, when he’s slid his arms around Zhou Mi’s neck and leaned into his back. But he was, breathing against Zhou Mi’s hair.
“Zhou Mi.”
It wasn’t arousal. He wanted, yes, but it wasn’t that. If he could have seen them then, one man sitting with wings sprawled to either side, and the other behind him holding on. One of Zhou Mi’s hands grasped his, and Kyuhyun didn’t understand the shivers it sent through him.
“Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun, please.”
He let Zhou Mi draw him around, stepping carefully over one of Zhou Mi’s wings, and getting drawn in by Zhou Mi’s arms. The expression on Zhou Mi’s face was so close to a smile, his face fighting for the expression.
“Can I stay with you?” Zhou Mi asked him, his fingers grasping at Kyuhyun’s shoulders.
“Yes? I haven’t told you you had to leave. Of course you can-“
Zhou Mi’s smile broke through fully.
“I’ll scratch your back whenever you need it,” Kyuhyun joked, before he made incomprehensible sounds at the happiness Zhou Mi was radiating. He wasn’t sure what he’s said, what had happened to make Zhou Mi react that way. But Zhou Mi was squeezing him closer, and with a sigh, lying back.
“Kyuhyun,” he said, grasping Kyuhyun’s hand and placing it on his wing. Where the feathers were dense and long and pale against his fingers. Kneeling beside Zhou Mi, he explored the ridge of them, extending past Zhou Mi’s shoulders. The feathers that twitched under his stroking, as Zhou Mi sighed. And Kyuhyun did not resist when Zhou Mi grasped his elbow, pulling him down. In only a moment he went from upright to resting against Zhou Mi’s chest. And the light dimmed, as Zhou Mi’s wings enfolded him.
At first he laughed, and then he wondered at the feeling. Safe. Peaceful. It wasn’t unlike how he felt when Zhou Mi wanted to be close, when he carefully tucked in his wings so he could cook beside Kyuhyun, or when he smiled and helped Kyuhyun pick out a shirt to wear.
“You can stay,” Kyuhyun said finally. “You can stay.”
He felt like he repeated it again, and again, warm with Zhou Mi stroking the back of his neck.
When he woke, it was light, and he woke to a sneeze. A loud, hitching one that had him spitting all over Zhou Mi’s chest. He pulled a fuzzy bit of feather away from his face, wiping his mouth as Zhou Mi stirred.
And then he stared in horror. Every flat surface in his home was covered in white. Feathers everywhere, like a hundred pillows had exploded and glued themselves around. Even his TV was covered.
“What the hell…”
“Hmm?”
Zhou Mi blinked up at him.
“There are feathers everywhere.” But not where he’d come to expect them. “Your wings!”
They were gone. And that really made Kyuhyun freeze. Then the feathers everywhere were from Zhou Mi?
He felt like he was creaking, when Zhou Mi tugged him back down, cuddling Kyuhyun’s head on his shoulder.
“You said I could stay,” Zhou Mi said. “I didn’t need them any more. I am just like you now.”
And Zhou Mi’s hand covered his, as he struggled to breathe.
***
It took three vacuum bags to make a real dent in the feathers. Though before that, Zhou Mi got the new sensation of getting to pull a shirt on over his head, and it gave Kyuhyun at least ten seconds to wrap his head around - for the 30th time - the fact that Zhou Mi didn’t have wings. There were marks almost the length of one of his fingers on each shoulder blade. They were not raised, as though they were a scar, but almost like someone had lovingly touched his skin where the wings had been. No more tiny little feathers, just bare skin. Lots of bare skin.
Hence the shirt, so Kyuhyun could clean without his breath hitching every time he took in the contours of Zhou Mi’s shoulders. It was different without the wings. It felt dangerous. Because there wasn’t anything there to remind him that he needed to back off. Zhou Mi wasn’t playing with crayons any more. He looked at Kyuhyun sometimes with the knowledge of a man’s eyes, something he’d tried forgetting during sleepless nights.
Maybe the TV corrupted him, but the world sure would have. Zhou Mi knew of the bad things in the world, and the good. Kyuhyun’s house had been a cocoon almost, only instead of a caterpillar gaining its wings, Zhou Mi had lost his.
He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to regret that or not.
He had pictures, of course. Zhou Mi sitting on a chair all posed and serene with his wings out. He’d seemed amused that Kyuhyun had wanted to take a picture of him, once he’d been sure what a picture was. He flipped through his phone as Zhou Mi wrestled another bag into the vacuum, and his heart nearly stopped.
All the pictures. Zhou Mi cooking, his face surprised as Kyuhyun had shouted CHEESE at him. Zhou Mi in front of the TV curled around his knees like a tiny child. Zhou Mi in the garden with his wings spread as far as they could go.
They were all there, but the wings weren’t. Kyuhyun knew exactly what they’d looked like, looked at them dozens of times.
“Zhou Mi. The wings are gone.”
Zhou Mi stared up at him in concern. “I know?”
“I mean in the pictures.”
“Oh,” Zhou Mi said, standing and coming to lean over Kyuhyun’s shoulder. He’d seen the pictures many times too. “Oh, they are. Oh. Oh you can show people these now!”
“Is that why there were so many feathers? All the wings from the pictures exploded too?”
Zhou Mi laughed, his head bumping into Kyuhyun’s. “I don’t think so. But we’ve got most of them.”
He thought they’d be picking up stray feathers for a few weeks at least.
But without proof in pictures, he didn’t know if he could guarantee himself that he’d just been dreaming.
“Oh, Kyuhyun look!”
In one of the pictures, Zhou Mi had been standing beside him, and they’d been taking a picture together with the sliding glass door behind them.
Zhou Mi’s wings were gone, but their reflection wasn’t.
“I’m glad,” Zhou Mi said, touching the screen. “That way we’ll always know.”
It was as though Zhou Mi read his mind. But he spent the whole day trying to sort through his feelings, as Zhou Mi got used to knowing he wouldn’t knock things over if he moved. They’d lost something, and they’d gained something. They’d just have to figure out which.
But it made him antsy as he slept, a long night alone in his bed knowing that Zhou Mi was sleeping in the living room. He’d put Zhou Mi there because of his wings. It meant things were changing, and he dreamed of it.
***
Kyuhyun woke with a gasp as his bed shook, and to a soft laugh.
“Good morning,” Zhou Mi said, half on the bed with Kyuhyun.
His fingers skimmed Zhou Mi’s bare shoulder, warm, soft. Not too soft. Strength, shielded by pliant skin.
“Are you awake?” Zhou Mi teased.
Of course he was.
Of course he was, when Zhou Mi’s mouth met his. But it felt no less like a dream, the wet press of lips and Zhou Mi’s shudder. He nearly protested when Zhou Mi pulled away, wanting the soft touch back even as embarrassment spun through him.
“What was that for?” he asked, staring at Zhou Mi’s nose instead of meeting his eyes.
“It looked nice on TV. I hoped I’d like it,” Zhou Mi said, grin so big it looked almost painful.
Kyuhyun made a dying whale sound in his head. “Did you?”
Kyuhyun almost missed the murmured agreement because Zhou Mi was squeezing his earlobe with focused interest. If Zhou Mi ever found out he was sensitive there, he was doomed. He was already doomed.
“Maybe you need to…try again.”
Just for scientific purposes.
And then he wheezed as most of Zhou Mi’s weight pressed on him. Okay, so they had to find a better way to go about that. But for a second kiss, they did great.
***
“How does it look?”
Kyuhyun nearly swallowed his tongue, when Zhou Mi turned around. The black and white shirt skimmed Zhou Mi’s torso, tucked beneath the trim slacks.
“I don’t think you want to know,” Kyuhyun blurted. When he’d agreed to go buy Zhou Mi “real clothes” he’d clearly not been in his right mind. He should’ve started with baggy sweatshirts and oversized pants.
“Kyuhyun! I do. Please?”
There was only one word, really, that totally encompassed all the feelings his brain was being assaulted with. “Hot.”
Zhou Mi’s eyes went wide as Kyuhyun’s face flamed, and Zhou Mi was darting forward. “Really?”
And it sounded like he’d just agreed for them to get a puppy.
“Yeah, really.”
“I’m so glad.”
And Kyuhyun almost melted on the spot, because Zhou Mi hugged him and was breathing into his collar. “You are?”
“Yes. That means you want to have sex with me.”
“What?” Kyuhyun squawked.
“Doesn’t it?!”
“No! I mean. Yes, but that’s not what it always means. Oh fuck.”
“The TV says we’ll know when is right,” Zhou Mi said, and squeezed him.
His life was just a gigantic circus ball of ridiculous. He had a guy he’d have licked on any given day, anywhere, under any circumstances, cuddling him and telling him they’d know when it was a good time to get naked.
And the fact that there even was that possibility was totally scrambling his brain.
“So you think I’m hot?” Kyuhyun asked, going for euphemism since asking Zhou Mi outright if he wanted to have sex would have totally killed any semblance of sanity.
“The sun is hotter than you a little,” Zhou Mi mused, very serious and teasing at the same time. “But I still want you more.”
“Oh. Good,” Kyuhyun mumbled into Zhou Mi’s shoulder as his face flamed. “What shows have you been watching.”
“Ones that help me be human!”
And Zhou Mi let him go, beaming at him before racing out the door to go retrieve his new shoes to try on. They were going out for the first time together, just a small outing without too much fanfare. But Zhou Mi had been swooning in excitement all day. A date, just for them.
Kyuhyun sat on the bed, knees giving out on him. He liked human Zhou Mi. He liked the possibilities he held, and the promises he made. But at the same time, he hoped Zhou Mi wouldn’t totally lose who he had been before. He learned, was growing, and he needed to. Needed to if he was going to be able to survive in the world. It was possible that Zhou Mi would learn so much, grow so much, that he wouldn’t need Kyuhyun any more.
And that was, perhaps, the problem with falling in love with someone who was once an angel.
Though to Kyuhyun he would always be one. And he almost smacked himself in the face for thinking it.
***
He watched Zhou Mi’s bare feet pad in and out of view as he sleepily did up the buttons on his shirt and began to tie his tie. He was never sure what Zhou Mi meant to do by pacing while Kyuhyun got ready for work, if he meant to cheer Kyuhyun on or if he was distressed because Kyuhyun would be leaving soon. Zhou Mi kept himself busy - he’d taken a shine to microblogging and posting pictures of his face. He actually had quite a following, considering that his face was a nice one. But it was nice to get the little notifications during the day. And Zhou Mi tended to add little secret messages that let Kyuhyun know he was talking to him.
Usually something terribly subtle like “♥K” and “What do you want for dinner? K?”
It was widely believed that the mysterious K was Zhou Mi’s roommate. Which of course was not entirely untrue. Still, Kyuhyun had entered the realm of the underground to get documents for Zhou Mi, since he couldn’t exactly just say he’d appeared in Kyuhyun’s garden with no recollection of his past self. One day that was going to allow Zhou Mi to go to school if he wanted, get a job. One step at a time, really.
Suddenly Zhou Mi stopped behind him, a change from his usual pattern and Kyuhyun had to step himself from whirling around, expecting some kind of attack. Instead Zhou Mi pushed up against him, making him steady himself on his dresser.
“My supervisor came to ask me a question last night,” Zhou Mi said.
His angel supervisor. It sent a chill down Kyuhyun’s spine, because he remembered Zhou Mi climbing out of bed. But he’d only assumed he’d gone to use the bathroom or get a drink, and Kyuhyun had fallen asleep again.
“Did he? What was it?”
“He asked me if you would look out for me, until it was time for me to go home again.”
The swallow was unnaturally hard before Kyuhyun let himself breathe again. “Oh?”
“I told him that I needed to look out for you, but that I knew you would look out for me, too.”
“Okay. Yes. I mean. I will. But when… Ah. When will it be time for you to…go?”
“He said when you do,” Zhou Mi said, his reflection smiling.
“So, not for a long time then,” Kyuhyun joked, the sound awkward in the silence.
Zhou Mi nodded, biting his lip and pressing his fingertips to the back of Kyuhyun’s hand. “I was never your guardian angel. But I can be…yours.”
***