Chapter Text
“Two sides to every story. Here’s a little morning glory, breakfast off a mirror. Dying slow seems a little boring. Burning like a flag, walking straight into the breeze, ‘cause there’s two types of people: you are weak or you are me, yeah. What’s another lifetime like mine? We all die a little sometimes; it’s alright. Did you come to say your goodbyes to this life? We all hurt a little sometimes; we’re alright. So mothers, hold your children. Don’t you ever let them go. There is weakness in your grip, and they are holding all the hopes. Don’t you ever let me go. (Don’t you ever let me go.) Don’t you ever let me go. (Don’t you ever let me go.)
“Who left the door open? Who left me outside? I’m on my knees, and I’m hoping that someone holds me tonight. Hold me tonight.”
—“Outside" by Hollywood Undead (Jeongin's Paradox Theme)
oO_Oo_oO_Oo
Jeongin shivers, the chill of December penetrating his thick fur coat as he scurries through the back alleys of the city and tries to avoid humans. His human form would make getting around a lot easier, but he has no clothes, no money, nothing. So he remains as a fox and searches for an abandoned area possibly warm enough to settle for the night.
His stomach clenches with hunger, but every street vendor is closed by now. Maybe he’ll find a dumpster with something edible in it.
It’s been three months since he presented with a Paradox.
Three months since his parents threw him out of the house.
Three months since he’s had a bed, a shower other than rain, since he’s eaten more than scraps he finds in garbage or on the side of the street.
There’s a crash behind him, a human yelling about a “mangey anidox” and glass shattering inches beside him, and he breaks into a run. His lungs burn from the exertion and the freezing air, but he doesn’t stop until he finds the edge of downtown, out of the streetlights. Even with his nose still developing, he can smell other animals, so he slows to a walk and creeps along the shadows. He can’t smell or see any humans, but he hears a whirring noise, like a fan.
Jeongin has never been to this part of the city before. It’s so dark and quiet, with overgrown patches of grass along the sidewalks and rusted fences. The roads are unlined. But he crouches low and follows the noise.
A laundry dryer. The air vent is blowing warm air and the occasional bit of fuzz out of the side of a brick building, and Jeongin can’t help a tiny yip of happiness. Desperate for warmth, he curls up under the vent, tucking his nose under his tail and flattening his ears down. Fennec foxes are not supposed to be in this kind of weather, he doesn’t think.
Sleep is restless, but it’s the best he’s had in weeks.
Jeongin used to be a beloved son and brother, a decently popular classmate, and a good student. He was in choir. After he graduated, he was going to go to college on a scholarship for his singing. That is, until he presented.
Some people are born with a gene called a Paradox. This gene seems to appear at random, undetectable until presentation, usually between the ages of eleven and sixteen. Those with the Paradox are called Doxies. Doxies are, as far as humans are concerned, mutants. After presentation, they are a hybrid of human and animal, any animal, depending on the Doxy. Mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds; with the exception of strictly underwater-dwelling species, anything is possible. All Doxies can shift between fully human and fully animal, as well as an in-between phase called a trans-shift, where the body remains mostly human but may retain some animal characteristics, such as ears, a tail, scales, and markings.
The slavery of Doxies was outlawed almost a hundred years ago, but they are rarely seen as equals. They’re often barred from establishments and jobs, or simply killed for having a Paradox. Quite often, they are kicked out of their homes by their parents and left to starve on the streets. Jeongin is honestly just lucky to be alive and not kidnapped, forced into underground slavery rings.
So when Jeongin wakes up and sees two figures in the darkness looming over him, he yowls at them. He’s cornered, trapped. His heart feels like it’s beating out of his chest, but he can’t run. His legs are still aching from running all night, and there’s no way out—
“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” one of the figures says, the thinner one, crouching down. “We’re not going to hurt you.”
Jeongin gekkers warningly, ears laid back.
Then the stranger kneels and lowers his chest to the ground. “Look.” Jeongin’s eyes are still adjusting; despite being nocturnal, his eyes don’t immediately pick up everything when he wakes up. But he can see the outline of the stranger, sees the two triangles that slowly grow from his head as well, flicking, and the stranger makes a quiet gekker. Jeongin’s ears perk forward slightly. It’s not the same noise he makes, and he’s not in tune enough with his new instincts to figure out what that means exactly, but it sounds fox-like. Maybe another type of fox? The stranger tilts his head slightly, and his eyes have a reflective sheen now as he says, “We have Paradoxes, too.”
The other stranger, much shorter but bulkier, lowers himself to one knee. Jeongin can see a darker pattern on his skin, a smattering of spots clustered on his jaw and cheekbones. Leopard? Cheetah? “This is our pack’s home,” he says, voice deeper than his companion’s, and he jerks his chin towards the brick building Jeongin is huddled against. “We’re all Doxies. We can keep you safe.” His eyes flick to the air vent. “It’s warm inside. You can stay a fox or shift, and you can stay by the door so you can get out if you’re worried.”
The maybe-fox Doxy nods and says, “Please, don’t stay out here and freeze. It’s dangerous.”
Jeongin hasn’t met any other Doxies before, but most hide and try to integrate, so maybe he has and didn't know. Over the last few months, he’s learned not to trust, but…but these two aren’t human. They have a pack. And besides being hungry and cold and scared, Jeongin has been lonely, missing the comfort of home, of his parents, of his brothers.
So Jeongin stands on shaky legs and chirps quietly.
The other fox smiles. “Would you feel better if I shift, too? I’m a bit bigger than you, but you know, foxes gotta stick together, right?”
Jeongin chirps again, curious.
And in a moment, there’s another fox beside him. As he said, he is bigger than Jeongin, but then again, Fennec foxes are tiny. He’s a mottled gray color, his pelt appearing thicker than Jeongin’s. Slipping out of his clothes and leaving them in a pile behind him, he stretches out his front paws and wiggles his haunches, tilting a bit to one side and gekkering playfully.
The other Doxy huffs and picks up the fox’s clothes. “Damn tiny Doxies that can just shift with their clothes on.” Then he stands again and says, “By the way, my name is Changbin. The fox is Yeonjun; feel free to bite him.”
The fox, Yeonjun apparently, yaps at Changbin and nips at his ankles, making the other curse and jump away.
Jeongin gekkers happily at the sight, even though he’s still a bit shy, and Yeonjun yips back at him before he trots forward with Changbin, glancing back at Jeongin. Well, come on.
Jeongin follows slowly and shivers at the breeze when they round the corner. The air vent was very nice.
Only a few paces from the edge of the alley is a door, heavy looking, but it opens easily when Changbin turns the knob and pushes. There’s a rush of warm air, and Jeongin hurries along after Yeonjun into the building.
It’s very spacious. There are strings of fairy lights along the wall and criss-crossed over exposed beams in the ceiling, only about ten feet off the ground, and there are rails going up into the ceiling as well, like ladders almost. There seems to be fabric hanging in the rafters, maybe hammocks. To the left, there are couches, bean bags, and oversized pillows haphazardly placed around the area, a huge TV hanging on the wall next to a window. The window has a ledge on it, and more of the ladder-like rails beside it. On the right is a kitchen, a large counter and island, and an even bigger dining room table. At the very back of the room are two staircases, one going up and one going down, as well as an open door offset to the right, dark inside.
Changbin closes the main door behind them and he says, “It’s unlocked, not nearly as heavy as it looks.” Then he moves toward the kitchen. His hair is black, cut short, with dark eyes and a slightly menacing disposition, body coiled with muscle, despite appearing much shorter than Yeonjun had outside. His voice is soft though. “Are you hungry?”
Jeongin scuttles along after him, uncaring of anything else but the prospect of food.
“Foxy, can I feed them the same stuff as you?” Changbin asks, and Yeonjun chirps, following after them and then jumping onto the counter, sliding a bit at the slick surface. “Fruit would be good, right? They look really malnourished.”
Jeongin finds himself presented with a plate covered in grapes and a slice of bread, and the plate barely touches the ground before he starts scarfing it down.
“Hey, careful, don’t make yourself sick,” Changbin warns gently, setting down a bowl of water as well. “Drink, too. But you can slow down; we’re not going to take it away.”
That doesn’t really matter to Jeongin, as he’s too hungry to care. It’s the first real food he’s had in months, not scavenged out of the trash like half-eaten fast food or something molded. He licks the bread crumbs off the plate when he finishes just a minute or two later, then licks around the plate for anything missed, and finally he drinks the water, lapping it up as quickly as he can.
When both the plate and bowl are dry and empty, he looks up at Changbin and gekkers, hoping for more.
With a sigh, Changbin sits down on the floor in front of him, and Jeongin shrinks back, ears laying flat to his head. Yeonjun jumps down from the counter and yips, laying down with his chin resting on Changbin’s thigh. He’s okay. He’s safe, see?
“You really need to wait a bit before you have anything else,” Changbin explains gently. “It’s important that you go a little at a time, okay? You’ll get sick otherwise.”
Jeongin keeps his ears down, but now it’s not aggression or fear, just unhappiness. His stomach is already clenching around the food he ate, trying to process it, but he hasn’t had food in so long. He barely even tasted it. Staring up at Changbin, he barks quietly.
Changbin smiles at him sadly. “Listen, I’ve been there, okay? Most of the pack has. I know it sucks, knowing there’s food and not eating everything you can hold, but it’s a lot worse to start vomiting immediately after, I promise.”
Jeongin gekkers, but he understands. He doesn’t like it. But he can’t complain when they’ve fed him and given him shelter. That’s more than he ever expected.
Then there’s footsteps coming down the stairs and a sleepy voice. “Binnie-hyung?”
With a small yelp, Jeongin darts to the closest hiding spot, which is around the edge of the island, and crouches, peering around the corner as someone walks down the stairs. He’s trans-shifted, with a very long, striped tail waving behind him and two tiny ears atop his brunette hair, and he’s not wearing anything but boxers and a comically oversized Beatles t-shirt with holes torn in it sporadically.
“Sungie, go a bit slow. Yeonjun and I found a Doxy outside, and they’re really skittish,” Changbin says.
Yeonjun makes a wide circle around the counter island, giving Jeongin plenty of space, before he flops over a couple feet away with a chirp.
The newcomer stops when Changbin speaks, glancing around until he locks eyes with Jeongin, still mostly hidden behind the counter. Then he smiles and crouches down, still half the gigantic room away as he says, “Hi, my name is Jisung. It’s nice to meet you.”
Jeongin gekkers back quietly.
At the noise, Jisung chuckles a bit. “Well, I don’t want to overwhelm you, so I’ll go back to bed. Just thought the others got home, heard the door open and all.”
“Shit, I need to text hyung,” Changbin mutters, and Jeongin hears movement on the other side of the counter. “They’ll be closing up soon.”
Suddenly, Yeonjun trans-shifts, laying on the floor in all his naked glory with only his tail covering his ass. Between the better lighting and his clear mind, Jeongin can see that he has straw-blonde hair and pouting lips, overall much more lithe than Changbin. “I’ll stay with Fennec—” He glances at Jeongin quickly and adds, “Sorry, that’s what I’m calling you until we get your name—I’ll stay with them tonight in here. The others could go straight to the pit through the back door so Fennec won’t be overwhelmed.”
Jisung hums. “Pretty sure Soobin could come up to the window if he wants to sleep in the canopy that badly, and Chan-hyung won’t care to sleep with the cats.” Jeongin doesn’t know exactly what transpires next, but Jisung laughs and says, “I know, hyung, three out of four, I know.”
“How the Hell is Hyunjin a cat anyways,” Yeonjun mutters, resting his chin on his folded arms. “We should just group you two as raccoons.”
“I’m not a raccoon, for the last time!” Jisung scowls, and Jeongin is less scared by the outburst and more amused, since Jisung doesn’t look particularly scary and Yeonjun and Changbin are both laughing. Though that does raise the question of what, exactly, Jisung’s Paradox is, because Jeongin doesn’t know what kind of animal has a striped tail that long.
Once he stops laughing, Changbin says, “Chan-hyung says that they’ll stay in the pit tonight. Introductions can wait until tomorrow.”
Yawning, Jisung stands and starts toward the stairs. “Sounds good. Night, guys.”
The other two wish him goodnight, and Jeongin chirps and yawns as well.
“You want a bit more water before bed?” Yeonjun asks Jeongin before he shifts back to a fox.
Jeongin yips an affirmative.
Changbin refills the bowl of water for him and, once it’s empty, sets both the bowl and plate in the sink. “We’ll get you a shower and everything tomorrow. I’m sure you’re tired.”
And while Jeongin wants to make a noise of agreement, he ends up yawning again, which he thinks answers just as clearly.
“Alright, sleepy foxes to bed,” Changbin murmurs, and Yeonjun nips at his ankle again. “Damn it, Jun!”
Yeonjun gekkers and trots away to the living area, jumping onto a beanbag to curl up, and Changbin rolls his eyes.
Jeongin follows a bit more slowly and wonders where he should go. The couches don’t seem very cozy, but the beanbags look like they might swallow him, considering that Yeonjun sank a considerable depth into his claimed bed. There’s a pillow between the couch and Yeonjun’s beanbag though, and Jeongin moves closer, sniffing. The lingering scent is distinctly feline, though with an undertone of saltiness, like the ocean, and there’s tan and black fur pressed into the fabric.
“Wherever you’re most comfortable is fine,” Changbin says and yawns himself. “If you need anything, I’ll be in the den over there.” He gestures to the open door Jeongin saw earlier. “Goodnight.”
Yeonjun and Jeongin yip in unison, and Changbin chuckles before he walks to the other room.
Jeongin hops onto the pillow, purring at the softness of it, and circles a few times before settling. It’s so warm, and his stomach feels only slightly unsettled from the food earlier, trying to digest. Yeonjun’s breathing is steady above him. But just before he falls asleep, he hears several voices below him, probably the floor under them. The pit? Is that what Jisung meant earlier, like a basement? Either way, the voices are muffled through the floor, more background noise than anything.
It’s been so long since Jeongin felt even vaguely safe somewhere, let alone comfortable. Maybe it'll be okay, being a Doxy. Maybe…maybe he can belong here.
Jeongin buries his nose deeper into his tail, letting the quiet hum lull him to sleep.
Oo_oO_Oo_oO
When Jeongin wakes, there are once again two figures looming over him. The difference now is that the figures appear to be primates and are hanging from the ceiling by their tails, the sunlight from the window shining on their fur.
Jeongin yelps, and when his bed jolts, he realizes that he somehow ended up in the beanbag with Yeonjun, curled up on his flank because Jeongin is tiny, okay? He scrambles to burrow underneath Yeonjun’s legs, digging at the fabric of the beanbag, while Yeonjun gekkers angrily, presumably at either the Doxies or at Jeongin for disturbing him. It must be the former though, because then Jeongin’s job of burrowing becomes much easier, Yeonjun propping himself up to create a nook for Jeongin to hide in and quietly chirping in reassurance.
There are more noises from above him, one a high-pitched chirp and the other more of a purring chuff, and Jeongin curiously looks around Yeonjun’s body.
The first Doxy, the larger one making the chuff-sound, is mostly white with a black face and black markings around their legs. A lemur, maybe, Jeongin thinks. They wave at him, spinning back and forth from their tail.
The second is smaller and rather loud, their fur a solid auburn brown, and Jeongin has no idea what kind of animal they are. Currently, they’re whistling and climbing along the beams, as if trying to see Jeongin more clearly.
With a small huff that Jeongin feels more than hears, Yeonjun trans-shifts, and Jeongin buries his face into the beanbag because that is way more of Yeonjun than he wants to see.
“You assholes, you’re scaring them!”
There’s some more noises and then Jeongin hears scuttling before the sounds fade out all together.
“Pains in my ass,” Yeonjun grumbles before his voice softens. “Hey, you’re okay. Beomgyu and Kai are too curious for their own good; they didn’t mean to scare you.” Jeongin chirps, but keeps his head down. Then he feels a hand gently stroking between his ears, and…oh, that feels nice. Very nice, in fact. No one has ever petted him before. “Sorry, didn’t mean to put my junk all up in your face, but neither of them have really figured out how fox sounds work. Give me just a second, yeah?” The petting stops, and Jeongin realizes that he’s purring. The beanbag shifts as Yeonjun stands, and there’s the sound of fabric moving. “Okay, less naked.”
When Jeongin raises his head, Yeonjun is stretching a bit and scratching behind one fox ear, the other hand holding a towel around his waist and the end of his tail peeking out at the bottom. So Jeongin lets himself stretch as well, reaching forward with his front paws before he jumps down from the beanbag. The height makes him stumble a bit.
“How do you feel about a banana for a quick breakfast and then a shower?” Yeonjun asks. “Everyone else should be up within a couple hours, I think, and Sundays are usually when we try to have lunch together in the afternoon.”
Yipping, Jeongin scrambles after Yeonjun to the kitchen for his promised banana and a bowl of water. While he eats, Yeonjun continues, “You’ll have to shift in order to shower, but if you just want to do that and then be a fox again, that’s okay. If you want to stay human or trans-shifted, I’ll grab some clothes for you to wear.”
Jeongin ponders that as he finishes his breakfast. He hasn’t been human in…at least a few weeks, since he broke into that abandoned house when it was snowing, but even then it was just long enough to wrangle the door open. It’d be nice to actually talk to these people, ask questions. He hasn’t spoken since…since he begged his parents to let him stay. Three months. He wonders if he can still speak normally.
Mind decided, Jeongin chirps at Yeonjun.
For a moment, Yeonjun frowns. Then he says, “Okay, how about a left paw for stay a fox and a right paw for human and need clothes?”
Jeongin raises his right paw and bats at Yeonjun’s foot with a quiet gekker.
“Alright, human it is, and—wait, I have no idea what size clothes you wear,” Yeonjun says, frowning again. “I guess…you’re malnourished, so you’re probably really skinny. I’m five-eleven, and Binnie is like…five-five? Five-six, something around there? So a left paw if you’re closer in height to me and a right paw if you’re closer in height to Changbin.”
That one, Jeongin has to think. He’s probably right in the middle, but Changbin is also pretty buff, so his clothes should be bigger, right? And Jeongin likes things a bit over-sized. So he puts out his right paw again.
Yeonjun nods and takes the dishes to the sink before he moves to the back of the room. “Alright, bathroom is over here.” The staircases are directly on top of one another, but at the bottom of the first, there’s a door, hidden by the wall so Jeongin didn’t see it last night. Yeonjun steps inside and flicks on the light. The bathroom is modestly sized, with two sinks and a vanity in between, littered with products, and a shower and tub next to the toilet, the shower curtain decorated with cartoon wolves.
Beside the shower is another door, and Yeonjun knocks and opens it, peeking inside. “Bin, I need your clothes for Fennec.”
The reply isn’t words but a low growl. Jeongin shrinks back slightly.
“Wait, actually—” Yeonjun disappears through the door, followed by the sound of wooden drawers sliding and clunking together. “—you and Chan-hyung wear about the same size, right?” Another growl, but now that Jeongin moves a bit closer, he realizes it’s less a growl and more…a grumble, almost. Changbin has spots like a leopard or something; maybe he’s a big cat species and can’t make the same noises a housecat does. “Thanks, Lovey.”
Yeonjun returns and closes the door, setting a pair of sweatpants and a black sweatshirt on the vanity. “Okay, clothes acquired. And a toothbrush, let’s see—” After a quick rummage through the cabinets and drawers, he pulls out a new toothbrush, still in its plastic casing. “There we go. Use whatever in here; Bin and Chan-hyung won’t care. If you need anything, just call for me, yeah?”
Jeongin chirps as Yeonjun closes the door.
Shifting isn’t usually painful. The painful part is that Jeongin hasn’t been a human in so long and his whole body feels weird, aching where the joints are rearranged to walk on two legs and have opposable thumbs. Avoiding looking in the mirror, he uses the toilet and then wobbles over to the shower.
The warm water is heavenly, even though it stings his palms and feet from how raw they’ve become, even around the calluses formed. It takes longer than he thinks possible for the water going down the drain to turn clear rather than tinged brown, and he has to shampoo two times for the same reason. So much oil has built up on his scalp, to the point that it almost hurts scrubbing it all off, but being clean is wonderful. He feels a bit guilty about using a tiny bit of conditioner, especially after using so much shampoo, but he reasons that one use won’t make much of a difference in the bottle, and plus, he would love to get more pets from Yeonjun when he’s in his fox form.
Afterwards, he towels himself dry and brushes his teeth for several minutes.
Looking in the mirror is…not great. When he presented, his hair turned blonde, but he’s not used to it, only having seen it once. There are minor scrapes and bruises on his arms and legs, a few new scars he doesn’t remember getting. And his stomach is sunk in a bit, the last set of his ribs showing. It could be worse, he thinks, but it’s still the worst he’s ever looked, despite feeling the best he has since he presented.
And Jeongin cries. He stays silent, stifling himself because Changbin is in the room next to him and because he doesn’t want to cry, but he can’t help it, seeing himself this way. He’s only eighteen, technically an adult, but he doesn’t feel like one, and now he has no family, no home, not a single belonging. His whole life turned on its head in one day because he woke up one day as a fox, because he has a stupid gene that he didn’t ever want.
So he cries.
A few minutes later, he pulls on the clothes Yeonjun provided. The sweatpants are a bit short but too big in the waist, though the drawstring thankfully solves that issue, and the sweatshirt is blissfully oversized and fuzzy from use, smelling strongly of canine and tobacco. It’s not a bad scent, not like a wet dog, but just…canine, slightly different from Yeonjun’s underlying canine scent.
Making sure that his eyes aren’t too red or puffy in the mirror first, Jeongin takes a breath and opens the door. Yeonjun is in the beanbag he slept in last night, now fully clothed, with a spotted cat in his lap, a little larger than a housecat, and on the couch are two men, one with white blonde hair scrolling on his phone while the brunette beside him leans against his shoulder. At the door opening, all four of them look up, but the cat is the first one to cross the room, bounding over and flipping on the floor in front of Jeongin. The sounds from the cat are…odd, kind of growly, but very slightly higher-pitched, like a death metal scream. But it seems to be a happy sound, and the cat balances on their back paws to reach out for Jeongin. But the spots are….
“Chang…Changbin-ssi?” Jeongin asks, endeared but also very confused, and while his voice is scratchy, the words come out steadier than he expected.
The cat falls backwards and stares at him, and the three men in the living room burst into laughter.
“Did I hear my name?” comes from the bathroom, and there’s Changbin, wearing something similar to Jeongin, with dark hair sticking up all over his head and eyes still glazed with sleep. The spots along his jaw and cheekbones are still very prominent, not quite the same as the ones on the cat.
“O-oh,” Jeongin says.
Changbin blinks at him and then gives him a lopsided grin. “Morning. What do we call you, Fennec?”
“Ah…my name is Jeongin,” Jeongin says, nervously wringing his hands. “Thank you…for bringing me in last night.”
“You’re very welcome, and it’s nice to meet you, Jeongin,” says Yeonjun, coming to stand beside him and still laughing. “Lovey, he thought Felix was you.”
Changbin looks from Yeonjun to Jeongin to the cat, apparently Felix, laughing as well. “Yeah, the spots are—well, damn, Lix, you gonna let him breathe?”
More death metal noises as Felix rubs against Jeongin’s legs rather aggressively, but aggressively affectionate.
The two other men come closer, though they stay a little further back. The blonde says, “For the record, Changbin-hyung is the shortest member of the packs, but he’s the second largest animal.”
“Yah, I’m not that short!” Changbin grumbles as he picks up Felix to cradle him and rub under his chin. “I’m a jaguar,” he continues to Jeongin and then gestures to Felix, “and Lixie is an ocelot.”
Jeongin smiles and quietly says, “Nice to meet you, Felix-ssi.”
“What year were you born?” Yeonjun asks.
“Oh, 2001.”
“Then just say hyung, it’s fine,” Yeonjun says. “Except for those two.” He glances over at the two other men. “Beomgyu’s your age, and Hyuka and Taehyun are a year younger.”
The brunette steps forward and waves. “Hi, I’m Beomgyu. Sorry for scaring you earlier. Jisung-hyung said Changbin-hyung and Yeonjun-hyung found a Doxy, and we thought we could see you before you woke up.”
Which is weird, but not terrible, Jeongin supposes. “It’s alright. It just…startled me.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Jeongin-hyung,” the blonde says. Then he pauses. “Oh, can I call you hyung?”
“That’s okay,” Jeongin says, though slightly taken off guard. Everyone is so casual.
“Awesome! I’m Huening Kai, but everyone just calls me Kai or Hyuka.”
Jeongin nods. “Nice to meet you.” After a moment, he glances between them and asks, “Which one of you is the…the brown monkey animal?”
“Me!” Beomgyu grins and he trans-shifts, tiny ears poking out of his hair and a long tail curling behind him. “I’m a kinkajou.”
“A kinkajou,” Jeongin repeats. He has no idea what that is.
“I’m a sifaka,” Kai adds, his own tail appearing, and he suddenly looks as if he’s wearing thick eyeliner. If Jeongin didn’t see the markings materialize, he would have thought it was just makeup. “It’s a type of lemur.”
“And I’m a tree fox,” Yeonjun says.
Nodding, Jeongin looks over the group, and there’s at least three other names he’s heard but not met. “How many of you are there?”
Changbin pauses. “Including you, thirteen.”
“Everyone else who worked last night is still asleep, except Lix-hyung,” Kai says.
“And Minho-hyung and Jisung-hyung are…busy,” Beomgyu adds.
Kai grimaces. “Yeah, which is why we’re down here.”
Yeonjun rolls his eyes while Changbin furrows his brow and asks, “Wait, where’s Minnie then? Did he join them?”
There’s a squeak from above them, and Jeongin looks up and meets eyes with a small monkey with silver fur. They’re not dangling by their tail, as Kai and Beomgyu did earlier, just crouching on the beam.
“And that’s Seungmin,” Changbin says.
“Hello,” Jeongin greets quietly. “I’m Jeongin. Are you…a squirrel monkey? Is that right?”
“Yep!” Beomgyu says.
Changbin starts to say something, but then Felix is scrambling out of his arms, death metal purring kicking up as he darts to the closest upward rail and climbs into the rafters. Jeongin thinks if a mini-jaguar came after him as quickly as Felix is for Seungmin, he’d be terrified, but Seungmin sits unperturbed, watching until Felix is a few feet away before he leaps to a different beam with a series of chirps. Felix makes the tiniest roar Jeongin has ever heard and follows.
A moment later, Kai and Beomgyu both shift and jump to the rafters as well, leaving piles of clothes where they stood, and then Yeonjun shifts as he runs to one of the rail ladders.
Jeongin looks at Changbin, who is just chuckling and watching the four chase Seungmin around the rafters, which go much higher up than Jeongin initially realized, easily double the height of the rest of the room. “Are you not going to join in?”
In response, Changbin points to a low rafter over the kitchen, bent into a sharp angle with a small light fixture hanging from it. “See that beam?”
“Yes?”
“I’m not allowed in the rafters anymore.”
Jeongin glances between Changbin and the bent beam before he laughs. He doesn’t see the way Changbin’s grin softens. “You did that?”
“It worked in our favor!” Changbin defends between his own laughs. After a moment, he explains, “These rafters and the ones in the canopy are smaller, so there’s more of them. The den and pit have thicker ones with extra wrapping for me and Taehyun, since we’re so much larger.” At Jeongin’s curious look, he adds, “Hyunnie’s a Bengal tiger.”
Jeongin nods.
Suddenly, there’s a loud chitter, and Changbin pitches forward, stumbling as a dark blur uses his back as a springboard into the rafters. Jeongin recognizes the ringtail from last night, and that’s confirmed when Changbin yells, “Well, fuck you, too, Sung!”
Jeongin tries to stifle his laughter behind his hand, but it’s mostly unsuccessful.
“You’ll have to get in line for that,” says a voice behind them, coming down the stairs. Jeongin jumps and turns to see a remarkably beautiful man, dark hair and eyes, and oddly feline features, lips pulled into a smirk. Maybe this is Taehyun? Or the not-cat and not-raccoon Hyunjin?
“Thought you just had your turn,” Changbin replies.
The man huffs and clicks his tongue. “I started early, so I have first dibs on every willing dick for the next two to three business days.” Jeongin chokes, feeling himself flush terribly at the comment, and the man raises an eyebrow at him. “You’re the new little fox, hm? You’re cute. I’m Minho. Nice to meet you.”
“I…you, too, Jeongin. I-I mean, my name is Jeongin.” He feels his ears and tail pop out suddenly, and he didn’t know that could happen without him trying to. “Ah, why—?!”
“You’re flustered,” Minho says, his expression a bit gentler now. “Strong emotions can cause a trans-shift.” Then he gestures to Changbin and teases, “Don’t worry, Changbinnie did the same thing.”
Averting his eyes, Changbin crosses his arms over his chest. “And Chan-hyung, and Jisung, and Soobin, and Beomgyu.”
Minho hums and continues, “Anyways, I’m not that scary, promise. I bite without fangs.”
“He’s also crass and can be scary when he wants to be,” Changbin says, glancing at the other. “He’s a tsundere.”
And while Minho rolls his eyes, he doesn’t deny that fact.
Still feeling hot in the face, Jeongin decides to let his ears and tail do as they wish.
“Chan-hyung isn’t up yet?” Minho asks, watching the odd game of chase in the rafters.
Shaking his head, Changbin says, “Mh, he slept in the pit last night, so if I had to guess, Jinnie isn’t up and has become his scarf.”
A sigh from behind them. “Correct.” Jeongin really needs to just face the stairs and stop startling. What good are ears that he can’t use properly? “Not sure how Bin’s yelling didn’t wake him.” The man, Chan apparently, is built similarly to Changbin, on the shorter side but with a lot of muscle tone. His ears and tail—wolf?—are ashy gray while his hair is platinum blonde, a curly mess atop his head, and he’s rubbing at his eyes with one hand, the other securely holding a…furry creature draped over his shoulders. “You must be the Fennec fox,” he says, smiling and offering one hand out. “I’m Chan, technically the leader of the pack, but that’s mostly formality. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Not formality,” Changbin mutters.
Jeongin takes his hand shyly. “I’m Jeongin. Nice to meet you.”
Minho gestures to the Doxy on Chan’s shoulders. “And the sleeping scarf is Hyunjin.”
Hyunjin is…Jeongin has no idea what. He looks like a black and white spotted raccoon that was run through a too small tube.
“Civet,” Changbin explains, noticing the expression of confusion. “Specifically a Malayan civet, because he thinks he’s high class and wants everyone to know what kind of civet he is.”
“So is he a cat?” Jeongin asks because he has heard conflicting ideas on that.
Absently stroking his thumb along Hyunjin’s head, Chan replies, “Civets are most closely related to the mongoose, but they’re often called civet cats, so that’s where we get that.”
“Not related to a raccoon?” Jeongin asks.
Minho snorts. “No, but Jisung and Beomgyu are. Sungie just gets ass-hurt about it because everyone calls him a raccoon.”
“He’s a coatimundi,” Changbin supplies.
Jeongin nods, and he knows that he’s going to need to research a lot once he has time and a computer. He glances at Chan and asks, “And you’re a wolf?”
“Mhm, Indian gray wolf,” he says. “The kind of wolves in Jungle Book, not nearly as big as you expect.”
Chan and Changbin look expectantly at Minho, who rolls his eyes and says, “Green pit viper. Yes, I’m venomous, and no, I don’t have two dicks.”
Jeongin blinks and feels his face heat up again. “O-oh, is that…common?”
“I’m trans, but if I were AMAB, I would in fact have two dicks when trans-shifted,” Minho answers simply. "As it is, I have two clits, which is quite nice."
Chan sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Why are you like this?”
“You wouldn’t know what to do with me if I were normal,” Minho replies.
“I don’t know what to do with you regardless!”
Changbin just laughs and rubs Chan’s shoulders, alternating between him and Hyunjin.
And then, out of nowhere, a very tiny fuzz ball lands on Minho’s shoulder, huge eyes watching Jeongin curiously. Shortly after, a man comes up the stairway, orange and black striped ears atop scarlet red hair and a matching tail curling behind him, and he also has very large eyes, just not quite bulging out of his head.
“I’m Taehyun,” the man says. “And this is Soobin-hyung.”
“Jeongin, nice to meet you,” Jeongin says.
Soobin tilts his head at him, then tilts it the other direction, and then tilts it back again, this time almost upside down.
“He does that,” Minho says.
Nodding, Jeongin asks, “Am I allowed to say he’s cute?” With a tiny squeak, Soobin disappears into the rafters, and Jeongin frowns, looking after him. “Oh…I’m sorry.”
Taehyun laughs and shakes his head. “He’s just shy. Really, really shy.”
“And adorable,” Chan agrees. “He’s a bush baby.”
“And the tallest person in the packs,” Changbin says bitterly.
Jeongin can’t keep up with all the figures in the rafters now, but he can hear lots of chirps, squeaks, and occasionally a gekker from Yeonjun or a bizarre meow from Felix. He really doesn’t understand the noises that Felix makes. But they all seem happy, especially once Soobin starts darting around at lightning speeds. On the floor beside him, Changbin, Chan, Minho, and Taehyun converse quietly about some type of work, and even though he’s just listening and watching, Jeongin can’t help but smile at these people and the home they’ve created.
“I think it’s about time for lunch,” Minho says.
Changbin hums. “Innie can’t eat too much yet, so I suggest a scavenger special.”
“Sounds good,” Chan agrees as they move towards the kitchen.
Jeongin doesn’t know what a scavenger special is; it certainly doesn’t sound appetizing, but he knows anything coming from this kitchen is better than what he could scavenge out of dumpsters regardless. More than that, he can’t hide the smile on his face at the nickname Changbin gives him. He likes it. He likes it a lot.
hiraeth (n.)
a deep longing for something, especially one’s home (Welsh)