For romantikyu

[zenfu]

Title: Coffee and Whiskers
Pairing: KyuJong/YoungSaeng/JungMin
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: brief character death
Notes: Thank you very much to my lovely beta, who came up with the title for this, since I am horrible with titles.
Summary: When KyuJong stumbled on the Sleepy Kitty Coffee House, he was expecting some coffee and sweets. He never expected to find the love of a lifetime… or several.



The Sleepy Kitty Coffee House was not the most popular of its type in Seoul, but it had a small and very loyal group of regular customers that seemed to be just enough to keep it going. The building looked old from the outside, the gate to the street and the bricks themselves seemingly held up by the layers of ivy that climbed the walls. Here and there gaps showed in the ivy, mostly windows but in a few places the bare brick showed through where, for some unknown reason, the ivy refused to grow. The sign attached to the building was small, and difficult to see from the street. Most of the customers, if asked, would say that they literally stumbled upon the place while looking for something else and many, indeed, would not even be aware that a sign was attached to the building at all.

The shop had only two staff members other than the owner, and though they were asked to work six days a week no one complained, since the job came with a place to live above the shop in addition to the monthly salary. The shop was closed on Sundays, though no reason was given to anyone who asked, only a slight shrug of the shoulders with a confused look from HyungJoon who lived on the third floor, and a small, mysterious smile from JungMin who lived with the owner on the fourth. The second floor was used as storage. The owner himself was never seen before the sun set, and gave no reason for this when asked. Most people went away assuming he must simply have another job in order to keep the place running, since surely the few regulars could not be enough to pay for everything. The rent on the building alone must be enormous, they thought.

During the daylight hours, the namesake of the small shop could be seen patrolling his territory or sleeping in sunbeams on the window sills. The small black cat was not questioned by anyone, allowed to go where he wished as long as he didn’t go into the kitchen or on top of the counter where they made the coffee. When he did wander into those areas, one of the staff would gently pick him up and walk him over to a sunny place to sleep and set him down. HyungJoon would always do this as quickly as possible, holding the animal away from him as though wary of its sharp claws. JungMin, however, was known to cradle the cat close, murmuring to it and stroking its fur and rubbing behind its ears while it narrowed its eyes and hopped to the window sill as soon as they were close enough, lying down in a feline huff, curling its tail around its paws with a little flick of the tip. JungMin would usually laugh and walk away shaking his head.

Like most of the people who found the Sleepy Kitty, KyuJong found it by accident. He had been told by a co-worker of a bakery that had some kind of western pastry that she liked, and KyuJong, wanting to impress her, had thought that he would go get her one and bring it to her at work. He walked through the archway at the street and down the short path, pausing before the wide window in the front of the shop. A small black cat sat in the window, looking out at the gloomy day and watching what little foot traffic there was on this small back road. An occasional car came by, small and compact, something owned by a local, usually, but there were none of those that day. KyuJong looked around briefly, noting the sign on the side of the building, and then felt a shiver go down his spine. He turned back to the window to find the cat studying him with its head cocked a little to one side. He couldn’t help but stare, since the cat seemed to be looking into him, as though it could see something else, something beyond what anyone else could see. For a brief moment, he could have sworn the cat’s eyes were a brown so deep they were almost black, but then he blinked, and found green eyes blinking at him from the other side of the window before the cat jumped down from the window sill and moved away. KyuJong shook his head and continued to the door.

Once inside, he paused and breathed in the scents of coffee, cream and the cinnamon rolls a young man was carefully placing inside the display case to be sold. The interior seemed spacious, a bit of a surprise since the building seemed so small on the outside. The display case was full of fresh pastries, some of them western like the cinnamon rolls and a dish of croissants nearby, but he could also see small Korean cakes made from rice flour, their fluffy texture obviously different from the western cake nearby decorated with a creamy white frosting and little orange carrots on each piece. He spent a moment looking over the selections in the case before looking up to the board above where the names of the available choices were written in chalk with little drawings of cats scattered here and there. One of the cats even seemed to be sleeping on top of the price for a house coffee, the tail crossing out the old price next to the new one that seemed to have been hastily scribbled in a different hand.

The young man who had been putting out the cinnamon rolls set his tray down on a shelf behind the counter and looked up at KyuJong with a wide smile that seemed to make him both cute and slightly dorky-looking at the same time, but KyuJong couldn’t help returning it. He glanced helplessly at first the board and then the case, at a loss.

“I’m sorry, I’m not sure what I should order, I normally just brew my own coffee at home,” he said after a moment.

“I see,” the young man behind the counter replied. His name tag said ‘HyungJoon’. “Well, do you want to try something stronger than your home brew, or would you like something with a flavor to it, like something chocolate?”

KyuJong blinked, looking back at the pastries in the case. “I don’t know, maybe something to go with one of those?” He gestured vaguely at the case, not sure which one he thought he wanted, not that he had really even considered being hungry until he was asked.

HyungJoon looked over at the case and smiled. “I’m going to just guess that you are asking for my recommendation, and go from there. Have a seat anywhere and I’ll bring it out in just a moment.”

KyuJong nodded and moved further into the room. He walked toward the front corner of the building, his eye on a booth in the corner with one of the benches in front of the wide front window, the one he had seen the cat sleeping in. He didn’t see the cat right away, so he had a seat on the shadowed bench and leaned back. The view out the window was slightly blurry, the glass full of imperfections -- swirls and pits, little bubbles in the glass that made it hard to see through in places and filtered the already dim light coming in from the outside. The world outside looked distant through the window, a different place separate from the one inside, leaving the coffee house to feel like a small bubble of serenity in the world he lived in. He smiled a little, taking a deep breath and forgetting, for the moment, that he was supposed to be taking a break and not his lunch, that he should be leaving to return to work not sitting there waiting for coffee and some unknown pastry to be delivered to him, or that he had meant to bring something back for a coworker he had been considering asking on a date.

HyungJoon arrived at the table with a small tray containing a cup of steaming, fragrant coffee and one of the cinnamon rolls that had been placed in the case, still slightly warm from the oven. Another man was behind him with a second plate in his hand and a small frown on his face. HyungJoon set the cup and plate in front of KyuJong and then intercepted the one the second man tried to put down, which had a slice of a warm orangey-brown cake with creamy icing and a small orange carrot made of icing on top.

“JungMin, he didn’t ask for carrot cake.”

“Of course he didn’t, you never offered it.”

“How do you know that? You were upstairs when he came in.”

“I know because you never offer it. So I am offering it instead.”

KyuJong watched as the two argued good-naturedly with small smiles and the plate went back and forth as JungMin tried to set it down and HyungJoon tried to push it away. He watched the slice of cake teeter first one way and then the other but never quite fall down as the plate moved and after a moment he simply reached out his hand and smiled a little. “I’ll try it, its fine.”

“But the coffee will go better with the cinnamon roll,” HyungJoon said with a small pout.

“What did you give him, Joon-ah?” JungMin leaned over a little and sniffed the air as he looked down at the steaming cup with a light froth on top sprinkled with cinnamon. “A cinnamon latte will go fine with carrot cake; just let him eat in peace.”

KyuJong couldn’t help but smile at the pout HyungJoon turned on JungMin as the two walked away. While KyuJong found it adorable and wondered how anyone could ignore it, that was exactly what JungMin did, apparently having become immune to the effects of said pout. He shook his head a little as he finally let his eyes slide away from the two men, though he couldn’t help but notice that his eyes lingered longer on the red-headed JungMin and the mischievous smirk on his face as he walked into the kitchen.

He turned his attention back to the treats he had received, and slowly sampled each one, allowing the flavors to meld together on his tongue and melt away slowly as he sat and looked out the window, watching nothing go by on the quiet little street. After a while, the black cat came and lay down on the window sill again, but didn’t look at him, instead tucking its head onto its forelegs and falling into sleep. He ignored the animal, instead finishing what he could of the food and coffee and then paying and leaving. When he was walking back down the little path to the road, he glanced at the window to find the cat watching him and again he could have sworn that the animal’s eyes had been brown.

He went back to work in a rush once he looked at his watch, taking the loud admonishments from his supervisor silently, simply grateful that he hadn’t been fired or suspended for taking his lunch and more when he was only supposed to be on break. He had worked the rest of the day in silence, but had to shake himself several times, his attention wandering, his thoughts captured by brown eyes that should have been green.

Over the next several weeks, he found himself returning, though in the evening, once his job was over for the day and he didn’t have to worry about being late. At first, the sun was still up when he arrived, and the cat was usually sleeping in the window, or prowling around near the staircase at the back of the shop that led to the upper floor of the building. It rarely spent time near KyuJong, but rather stared at him from a distance. The few times he had gone to sit near where it had been lounging it had woken, sensing his presence or perhaps smelling him, and immediately moving farther away. He had found the behavior curious, and the two men who worked the shop seemed to agree, though HyungJoon was much more interested in it than JungMin had been.

His reason for returning had at first been the cat and the coffee, but as time went on and the days got shorter, his reasons had changed. He spent his time at the counter chatting with JungMin, eventually admitting to himself that he was attracted in a way he had not been to another person before, man or woman. But once that admission had been made, a second had to be made as well. While he was attracted to JungMin, his red hair and mischievous grin and loud attitude, he was falling in love with the owner.

It had started slowly, as the days got shorter and the time he spent in the shop became longer, chatting with JungMin, a careful flirtation on his part, since he was still getting used to the idea that he was attracted to a man at all, much less as strongly as he was. He started to notice how, as the sun dipped toward the horizon, the black cat, which didn’t seem to have a name as far as he could tell, would start to make its way toward the stairs in the back of the room. Sometimes, it went up by itself and HyungJoon or JungMin would follow a short time later. Other times, JungMin would scoop the animal up, laughing as it would give an indignant meow and squirm until he was holding it securely against his chest and rubbing at its ears while he walked up the stairs. The cat never scratched him, for all its baleful glare and irritated noises, and he came down a few minutes later and returned to his duties and that was the last that was seen of the animal for the day.

Without fail, once the sun disappeared and the sky had gone from red and orange to deep blue and black, the owner would arrive, dark hair hanging long around his face and usually pulled into a low tail in back. YoungSaeng was slightly shy around KyuJong and the other customers, though never rude, and KyuJong had spent many hours simply observing the interactions between him and his two employees. It took a little while, a few weeks or perhaps a month, before the two said more than a few words to one another, but before long KyuJong would look up after sunset to see the man settling across from him in the booth, and occasionally he thought he saw a little flash of green in the brown eyes as they sat and spoke long into the night, until the shop closed and beyond.

The days and months passed and the attraction and affection grew, KyuJong feeling that the slow pace somehow fit the man he was coming to know, and gradually accepting the fact he had some kind of feelings for. He was tired constantly at work, only sleeping well on the weekends, when he didn’t have to get up practically at the crack of dawn or before to be ready and at his desk on time. The few friends he had complained that he never went out with them anymore, spending all his evenings occupied with other things, since he hadn’t told any of them about the shop, or YoungSaeng or JungMin. He had never thought to tell them, something in him holding on to the secret with something akin to jealousy, as though telling anyone would bring it all crashing down around his ears and break the dream he almost felt like he was living. Gradually, most of his friends fell away and stopped calling and trying to get together as the months went on, Christmas passing in a dusting of snow he barely noted except for the occasional late bus, the days moving on further until Valentine’s Day had passed and White Day was quickly approaching. The one person who had not written him off during all that time was the only person who had figured out that there was a reason for his odd behavior and called him on it.

“You’re falling in love,” HyunJoong said one day at lunch while the two were sitting in the company cafeteria picking at the remains of their meal. KyuJong looked up in surprise, eyes wide and confused. HyunJoong had trained him when he first joined the company, and the two had somehow hit it off and become friends. Though they never spent time together outside of work, he had often had the odd feeling that HyunJoong saw things that other people didn’t and it seemed as though HyunJoong had just proven him right.

“How did you…”

“How did I figure it out?” HyunJoong shrugged and the slightly blank, half-distant look that many people associated with him drifted back onto his face. “It seemed obvious. Why? Am I wrong?”

“No,” KyuJong said quietly. “I just didn’t think it would be, I mean, we’re not… we’re not that close, are we?”

“Maybe not, but we eat together every day, no one else eats with us, and even though I am guessing you have other friends, since I’ve seen their numbers in your phone, you never talk about any of them.” HyunJoong smiled with a slow, lazy stretching of his lips. “All you talk about is your mystery person, and your eyes get all bright and distant when you talk about them.”

KyuJong had been so stunned by the observances from someone he had thought was so permanently in a fog of his own that he would never notice KyuJong’s infatuation that he had simply nodded and been glad when HyunJoong didn’t continue the conversation and instead remarked that lunch was almost over. He had spent the rest of the day working on auto-pilot and had left vaguely surprised that no one had come and complained about the quality of his work.

The day continued to get stranger for KyuJong. When he left work he walked on auto-pilot, making the turns that would take him to the Sleepy Kitty as he always did even though his mind was still trying to puzzle out HyunJoong’s oddly observant state earlier that day. The days were getting longer again, and the sun was still up when he arrived at the shop, the barest beginnings of sunset just beginning to paint the new white paint on the sign by the door with its red hues. He stepped inside and saw HyungJoon taking a tray toward a couple of women sitting in the back, near the stairs, while JungMin stood behind the counter preparing something in a to-go cup for a man in a suit who stood waiting nearby. KyuJong walked in a fog to what had become his normal table and dropped into it, turning his head to stare at the single leaf of ivy that had dared to poke beyond the edges of the window. He didn’t turn his head to speak a moment later when JungMin sat down on the bench on the other side of the booth.

“There’s a leaf,” he said, pointing vaguely out the window. JungMin turned to look at it, frowned slightly and then looked back at KyuJong.

“So there is,” he said slowly, thoughtfully. KyuJong turned his head, blinking away a bit of the fog as he looked at JungMin and something fell into place in his mind, a question he had had once or twice when he had first began coming, but had not thought of for months.

“Where is YoungSaeng? Why is it I never see him before dark? And where does the cat go at night?”

JungMin didn’t answer at first, tilting his head and looking at KyuJong with a piercing gaze that made him want to squirm and twist and look away. He was about to move when JungMin glanced at the stairs and the black cat sitting at the base. The cat made no noticeable motion or movement, but JungMin nodded and stood, holding out his hand to KyuJong.

“Come with me,” he said quietly, something about his voice making it a request that KyuJong could not and would not ignore.

KyuJong placed his hand in JungMin’s as he stood and followed along as he was tugged gently along through the shop and then up the stairs in the back as they followed the cat up. They passed through the second floor, the air thick with the smells of stored spices and coffee beans, then passed a door on the landing of the third and finally came to the fourth where the cat sat calmly and waited while JungMin opened the door before it walked calmly inside and sat down in the center of the small living room.

KyuJong followed JungMin into the room, feeling the man come to stand behind him, so close KyuJong could feel the heat from his body, but not quite close enough to touch. He glanced around the room, the furnishings an eclectic mix of styles that made little sense. A chair sat in the corner that looked like some kind of Western antique, the sort of thing one saw in movies about France during the time of the French Revolution. Next to it was a table that looked as though it had been pieced together with scrap lumber and hope, painted white by a child who had missed several spots. The couch was newer, a smooth leather that was a deep, rich chocolate brown, and KyuJong briefly felt a flash of pity for whoever had carried it up all those stairs. He could see a small kitchen off to one side, counter tops in need of replacement but clean, and a glimpse of a large bed through a partially open window, the quilt on top several different colors and fabrics creating a warm, homey atmosphere. He started to turn, to ask JungMin why he had been brought up here, but stopped when he felt JungMin’s hand lightly touch his shoulder then reach past him and direct his attention toward the black cat crouching on the worn area rug that might once have been navy blue but was much lighter than that now.

The cat was writhing, making small noises as its spine twisted and its limbs stretched out, straining for something. After a moment, KyuJong realized that the fur was falling out, littering the rug before seeming to simply disappear into thin air. He watched in something like a fascinated horror as the cat grew, thin limbs elongating, legs snapping into place as they bent a different way, tail shrinking and disappearing until finally a man lay on the rug, head on the floor and breathing hard. JungMin stepped around him and picked up a threadbare robe from an ottoman against the wall and laid it over the man’s bare back, rubbing gently and helping him stand. KyuJong simply stood, the sheer amount of oddness his day had held suddenly compounded by a factor of tens as he watched JungMin help the man to fit his arms into the sleeves of the robe and tie it closed before brushing long hair from his face and pressing a light, gentle kiss to his lips. KyuJong blinked, then blinked again and shook his head before he finally understood the implications of what he was seeing, and had just seen.

YoungSaeng was the cat.

The cat, the sleepy kitty of the shop’s name was YoungSaeng.

He shook his head, feeling his knees wobble beneath him. A moment later, JungMin was next to him, guiding him carefully to the couch and helping him sit, guiding him to put his head down and just breath. It took a moment for his head to begin to clear, and when it did, he looked up, finding JungMin sitting close to him on the couch and YoungSaeng still standing where he had been a short time before, long dark hair falling around his pale face and brown eyes looking at him anxiously. KyuJong took a deep breath and slowly stood, feeling a sudden chill travel down his spine and spread through him from the inside out. He took a step back, away from the couch and the men that had in recent months become almost his entire world, even if he had never completely admitted it outside of the depths of his own heart and the short conversation with HyunJoong earlier that day.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered after a moment, watching as YoungSaeng’s expression turned from questioning and uncertain to cool distance. “I can’t, I just need time to think, I’m sorry.”

He didn’t look back as he took the steps down two at a time before racing through the shop and out into the cool air of a spring evening and he didn’t think his heartbeat slowed until he was at home, lying on his bed and staring at the ceiling with open eyes and a blank mind.

The next day he was a veritable zombie at work, having not slept at all the night before. His coworkers whispered behind his back about his lack of response to anything anyone said to him and the fact he was still wearing his clothes from the day before, though it looked as though he had slept in them. His supervisor had a talk with him about making sure he left his personal problems at home, and that he was expected to represent the company and be dressed appropriately in the future, but he had a feeling that KyuJong wasn’t really listening or even aware. The man was more right than not. KyuJong knew he was at work, he knew he looked terrible, but he was doing his best to keep his mind on his job and do it to the best of his ability. Unfortunately, he kept being distracted by two things - arresting deep brown eyes that occasionally flashed green at odd times, and the fact that he kept finding stray black cat hairs on his sleeves or his lapels.

When the time finally came to head toward home, he managed to stay focused long enough to avoid the turn to the small back alleyway that led to the Sleepy Kitty and instead stay on the main road, though he decided at the last moment, just before he was about to step onto the bus that would take him home. He walked slowly, his attention only half on the world around him, just enough to keep him from walking out into traffic. His heart and mind were at war, it seemed, his heart aching to go back to the Sleepy Kitty and do nothing more than apologize to YoungSaeng and JungMin both, kiss them and beg them to let him love them. His mind, however, seemed unable to get past what he had seen that simply should not be possible. It was completely illogical and impossible, his mind argued, that he had seen a cat become a man, that the sun should control whether one was animal or human.

He was deep in thought about the present conundrum he found himself in when he heard a familiar voice raised in alarm and a flash of familiar red hair caught his eye. He looked up in surprise, eyes scanning the area, following the flash of red. He broke into a run before he realized it, following JungMin on his headlong rush through the foot traffic on the side of the road. JungMin was shouting something, it took him a moment to realize what, but a break in the people in front of him showed a large dog chasing after a small black cat, JungMin shouting as he ran after it, a mixture of curses at the dog and shouts of YoungSaeng’s name.

KyuJong increased his pace as he looked ahead and felt his heart momentarily stop in his chest. The cat had turned and run into the road but had paused half-way across, writhing and mewling in pain. KyuJong yelled, launching himself off the sidewalk as a car tried to stop with a squeal of brakes and small puffs of smoke as the tires screeched on the pavement. Time seemed to slow as he watched in horror, the cat unable to move, unaware of the danger it was in and JungMin leaping forward, too late, but desperate to stop what he was helpless against, KyuJong following behind, his heart breaking in his chest as it seemed that his mind and heart had suddenly come to agreement that these two men being hurt or worse could be the end of them.

KyuJong found himself on his knees on the pavement, sure that his ears had stopped working, since all he heard around him was silence. After a moment, he heard a small sound of footsteps on the road and he looked up. The world around him was still and silent, even the smoke from the car’s tires hanging in mid-air, swirling in place, waiting to be released to continue its journey into the atmosphere, but momentarily caught and held as if by some unseen bubble. He looked to the side and felt tears form and fall at the sight of JungMin kneeling on the pavement, his fringe hiding his eyes and a small, black-furred body in his arms. The sound of footsteps came again and KyuJong looked for their source, any surprise he might have felt overwhelmed by the guilt and grief coursing through him. He had seen animals hit by cars before, and he knew enough to know that from the limp way that YoungSaeng’s head hung, he hadn’t suffered long if at all.

HyunJoong reached a hand down to KyuJong and pulled him up, KyuJong not resisting at all as he was pulled to where JungMin was rising to his feet. HyunJoong placed a hand on JungMin’s shoulder and the two looked at each other, a silent communication passing through them before JungMin stepped forward and transferred YoungSaeng to KyuJong’s arms and then led them both back the way they had come. KyuJong followed behind with HyunJoong’s hand on his back to guide him and JungMin ahead of him like some sort of procession for the deceased. He didn’t notice when the sound returned to the world and everything unfroze and continued on as though nothing of importance had happened.

HyungJoon was the only person in the small shop when they arrived and he closed and locked the door behind them, following as they all climbed the stairs to the top floor. JungMin opened the door and they all filed in, KyuJong sinking to his knees in the middle of the faded rug where he had last seen YoungSaeng as a human just the day before. He looked down at the small body in his arms, marveling at how small and fragile it was, despairing at the fact he would never see that face again, never see those eyes almost disappear as he smiled and never again hear the laugh he had come to adore teasing out when they spent time together. HyunJoong stepped up behind him, placing a hand on the back of his neck and gently squeezing.

“KyuJong, you need to put him down and step back.”

KyuJong shook his head, but at a stronger squeeze to his neck he complied, gently placing the small animal on the floor and rising, stepping back as HyunJoong pulled him backward and wrapped arms around his waist from behind, looking over his shoulder and whispering to him.

“Watch, KyuJong. Just watch.”

He could do little else as the sunset spread its reddish light into the room. The black fur fell away, drifting to the rug and disappearing as it had the day before. The limbs elongated, joints making small snapping sounds as they moved back to bending the way a man’s joints should bend. The tail shrunk and disappeared as the magic worked and left a pale-skinned man lying in an awkward heap on the rug, his chest still and his eyes closed. KyuJong started to move, but HyunJoong’s arm tightened around him, holding him in place.

From the side, HyungJoon stepped forward with an elaborately gilt and filigreed box in his hands, each side of the box a different color of stained glass, an object of a sort of terrible beauty. He paused near YoungSaeng and as the light changed from a vibrant red to the beginnings of twilight another light began to shine around the man. The light grew, the pale hues of sunrise flowing from one to another and the chest arched, a thin black vapor seeping from his skin and rising into the air. It hung for a moment, gathering together until no more rose from the body and then HyungJoon opened the top of the box and it drifted within. A dark light pulsed like a heartbeat, once twice and three times before HyungJoon closed the box and a small flash of bright light sent panels of color around the room before fading.

KyuJong let out a small sob but a moment later his breath stopped as the man lying naked on the rug took one deep breath, then another, and then opened his eyes. JungMin stepped forward with the threadbare rug, helping him to his feet and hugging him close as KyuJong watched. His heart was pounding in his chest, the sound thunder in his ears and he stepped forward jerkily, not noticing that HyunJoong’s arms had fallen away, the only thing that mattered at that moment the two men embracing before him. He reached out a shaking hand, touching first the red of JungMin’s hair, letting trembling fingers drift over a pale face and smirking lips before reaching out and touching long dark hair, warm skin and lips that twitched and seemed uncertain. His eyes rose, met the pair of brown eyes that had lived in his dreams for months, seeing them vibrant and alive and he took a deep breath.

“I must be dreaming,” he said.

YoungSaeng smiled at that, softly and rather shyly. KyuJong leaned in and brought both hand up to frame YoungSaeng’s face, pressing their lips together in a gentle kiss that held all of his doubts, all of his fears, all of his hopes and dreams, and all of his love. The response was immediate and just as passionate, arms wrapping around his waist and pulling him close, trembling from emotion as their lips moved against each other, communicating in a way that could never be replaced by words.

They broke the kiss after a moment, and KyuJong had barely caught a breath before his arm was grabbed and he was turned, meeting another set of brown eyes, ones framed by bright red hair and he smiled as he was pulled close again, this kiss just as intense but full of relief and a playful mischievousness that delighted and intrigued him as much as it ever had.

A catcall and applause from the other two men in the room interrupted the second kiss, pulling KyuJong’s attention back to reality. He still felt as though he was in a dream of some kind, exhaustion pulling at his mind and body as the adrenalin that had fueled him faded and left him shaking. He was assured that explanations would come in the morning, and was led to bed and stripped by two pairs of gently wandering hands before being guided between smooth sheets and as he felt himself drifting to sleep, he felt first one man then another snuggling close to him.

They woke once, in the middle of the night, KyuJong with a sudden burning need to know that it was not a dream, that YoungSaeng was alive and his and that he was JungMin’s. Their loving was intense and beautiful, gentle hands, insistent teeth, lips and tongues and a rhythm as old as time. They slept afterward with limbs tangled and smiles on their faces.

KyuJong woke slowly as the morning sun filled the room and snuggled further into the warm shoulder his face was pressed against. The low laugh that followed the action from above him had him opening his eyes and he couldn’t resist the smile that spread over his lips at seeing JungMin’s smirk hanging above him.

“You two need to get up and shower or you get to go down to breakfast smelling like sex. HyungJoon is doing his best to keep HyunJoong out of the kitchen, but I can’t guarantee how long that will last.”

KyuJong wasn’t sure why HyunJoong cooking seemed to be a bad idea, but it was enough to bring a groan from YoungSaeng next to him and he was soon tugged out of bed and into the bathroom. The shower perhaps took longer than it should have, but they could be excused, he was sure, and JungMin did no more than smirk when they emerged, passing some clean clothes to KyuJong that he said should fit. The sweat pants were a tad too long, and the shirt a little too tight across his shoulders, but he wasn’t going to argue since a small part of his brain had finally realized that YoungSaeng was human, bathed in morning light as he dried and dressed, stretching when he noticed that he had the attention of both JungMin and KyuJong.

When they finally made it down to breakfast the other two had just laid out a small spread of a mixture of western and Korean dishes with creamy lattes for all of them, an odd mix that should have been strange and wrong but somehow, much like the mishmash of furniture in YoungSaeng and JungMin’s home, just worked. They put off any discussion until they had eaten and HyunJoong and KyuJong were picking at the remains of their rolled eggs and HyungJoon was brewing a new round of lattes.

“So, either I am crazy, or I had some very odd dreams the last few days,” KyuJong began, his eyes on the mutilated piece of egg roll on his plate that he was continuing to pick apart nervously with his chopsticks. YoungSaeng reached out and took the utensils from him and set them down while JungMin sighed.

“Neither is correct, I’m afraid,” said JungMin with more tact than KyuJong would have expected. “The fact is it all happened. Until last night, YoungSaeng wasn’t entirely human and hadn’t been for several hundred years.”

KyuJong looked to YoungSaeng and took a deep breath, waiting silently for the story to come spilling out.

“I’m not sure exactly how long ago it was when it happened,” he said quietly. “At the time, I was nothing more than a peasant who was uneducated and expected to do no more than what I was told. I wandered into the wrong part of the forest while looking for herbs for my mother’s cooking. I was never sure what, exactly, I had done, and by the time I was able to ask, the spirit who cursed me didn’t remember what I had done. I had spent several years searching for her, wandering the world as a cat in the daylight and a human at night searching and she barely remembered me.

“She felt sorry for me, though. She gave me the land this building is built on and a small area around it as a safe haven of sorts, a place I could live where certain enchantments would keep me safe from those who might figure out that I seemed to be less than normal and I was able to fashion a life of sorts for myself. She changed the curse so that, once I had passed from this world as a cat nine times, I could finally have my human life back and live and die as a man. Until then, any who tried to harm me as a human found me to be rather unaffected.”

“Unaffected?” KyuJong asked quietly, doing his best to take in the strange tale he was being told.

“Once, when this area was just beginning to become the city it could eventually be, when I was still far from the majority of people, a small force came through the area, burning crops, killing the men and stealing the women. I don’t know who they were, and I honestly don’t care. It was night when they came upon my lands, and one of them stabbed me through the chest with his spear. I still have not forgotten the look on his face when I removed the spear from my heart and the wound healed before I stabbed him with his own weapon.”

KyuJong swallowed slowly, his hand reaching out and taking YoungSaeng’s. In spite of the emotionless tone the man had while had been telling that small piece of his life, his face had been tense and his eyes had been haunted.

“The first time I died as a cat, HyungJoon arrived with the box you saw last night. JungMin came a while later, why I’m not sure, but he stayed. HyunJoong has appeared off and on as he pleases, but he’s been a rather firm constant since the more modern age arrived with the additional dangers of cars. Even as a cat, I was hard to kill until the invention of the automobile.”

“But now,” JungMin said softly, his arms reaching around KyuJong’s waist and his hand reaching out and taking YoungSaeng’s where it was still twined with KyuJong’s. “The curse is broken. His final life as a cat ended last night. He is now free to live as he chooses and go where he chooses.”

YoungSaeng nodded, a wide smile spreading across his face. “That’s true. Remind me to thank that woman and her stupid dog, even if she will never know why.”

HyunJoong leaned over, throwing his arm across HyungJoon’s shoulders and causing the younger man to look at him in surprise. HyunJoong smiled at him and sighed wistfully.

“Ah, HyungJoon-ah, we’re the only single men in the room and I feel so lonely. Maybe we should just get it over with, hmm?”

HyungJoon’s eyes widened and he spluttered out several unintelligible words before jumping from his chair and heading for the door. JungMin laughed and called after him, asking where he thought he was going.

“On a date,” he yelled back as he opened the door, “with a girl!”

The three men around KyuJong dissolved into helpless laughter as the door closed behind HyungJoon, and finally KyuJong joined in when HyunJoong gasped out “Four hundred years, and he still hasn’t figured out I only say it because of the way he reacts!”

“I’m betting he’ll still react that way in another four hundred,” JungMin replied.

“Oh, you are on,” HyunJoong replied.

KyuJong blinked at the casual mention of periods of time much longer than he could ever expect or want to live and decided that, with everything else he had managed to accept, there were just going to be some things he didn’t need to know.

Time passed, KyuJong quit his job and came to live and work at the Sleepy Kitty. The three had their moments of discontent, as any relationship did, but he didn’t regret his decision. The shop really had been doing much better than KyuJong could have known, especially as he had been completely unaware of the side business they got from local businesses who bought pastries and coffee by the dozen for meetings or company events. A few of the patrons noticed the lack of a cat around the place now that the curse was broken, and they had at given them a sad story of a dog chasing the animal into traffic.

The result of the story had been one of the patrons bringing in a new kitty, a sleek black cat with a diva-like attitude and a need to be the center of attention that preened in the front window as though it were her personal stage. They found that a real cat was more trouble to clean up after, as her fur didn’t magically disappear as YoungSaeng’s had, but she had wormed her way into their hearts. The only one who ever complained was HyungJoon, who was often teased by JungMin because the only girl who slept in his bed was a cat. KyuJong noticed, though, the way that JungMin would usually go hug YoungSaeng just after, one hand almost petting the man’s black hair. If he also noticed that YoungSaeng’s eyed drifted shut and a small smile spread over his lips before he moodily told JungMin to stop petting him, he wisely kept his silence.