Chapter Text
I rip it open
Something had definitely changed between Wooyoung and Hongjoong in the three weeks they had stayed in the forest. San just couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
Especially Hongjoong seemed… different.
Less snappy, a little more guiding than bossy these days. San felt judged slightly less often. The elder seemed more open to being touched.
The last bit was what Yunho had complained to him about extensively, thoroughly and repeatedly.
“Ten years — a whole decade, Sannie — I’ve been by that man’s side, trying my absolute utmost to be everything he could ever want in a friend! An entire decade of playful flirting and compliments and doing absolutely everything for him. And all it takes is a single consecutive week of some cat-boy-person-witch-thing fluttering his lashes at him to suddenly be fine with skinship. This world is cruel beyond compare, I’m telling you Sannie!”
Despite Yunho’s surely exaggerated outrage about the change, at the end of the day, Hongjoong was still Hongjoong. The man that would sit down with San for hours, not particularly patiently teaching him, yet always finding the right words for his explanations and ultimately for his praise. The past dozen days, that energy had mostly gotten directed at Wooyoung and Mingi, but was still unmistakably there. Hongjoong still judged them all when they said something stupid and reacted hilariously scandalized when a dirty joke ended up aimed at him.
So what if Hongjoong no longer shoved Wooyoung off when the witch got too close. So what if Hongjoong had started scooting a tad closer to them during meals. And so what if Hongjoong had reeled the harshness at Seonghwa’s every move in — just a little.
Ultimately, whatever had changed about the elder had retained all his redeeming qualities. San couldn’t say he minded being allowed to watch Hongjoong flush from up just a little closer. These days, the elder would sometimes even say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.
Like when they had gone to bed last night and Hongjoong had slumped down next to San, Wooyoung already curled up on the warlock’s stomach, with the most overdramatic sigh known to man. “Please, for the love of God, let me sleep this time? If I have to wake up to Wooyoung screaming like a banshee even a single time more, I’m going to flip my shit!”
Honestly, San was surprised Wooyoung had actually complied, after the excited little trill he had given last night, like he had wanted to say ‘we’ll see about that’. San had woken up when the shifter had silently hopped off his stomach a few minutes ago, knocking the wind out of him with a harsh step into his gut. San had groaned in pain and Wooyoung had mockingly chirped on his way out. But he had actually let the wizard sleep.
Now, San laid next to the elder, watching his chest rise and fall gently with every breath. He looked softer like this. Lying back with his face completely relaxed, his chin slightly rounder, cheeks and eyes gently softened by sleep. His skin had ever so slightly tanned over the past weeks spent outside rather than holed up in Yonghwan’s tower, even if the sun barely held any strength this late in the year.
It hadn’t risen yet, the sky barely tinted a dark orange outside the window. But it was well on its way and San felt excited about it, sure that the morning light would make Hongjoong glow soon enough, like he did most mornings. At this point, San was sure it was just the way light fell into the room rather than intentional magic. Although that really didn’t matter, because a glowing Hongjoong, not quite put together with his usual sharpness just yet, was truly a sight for sore eyes.
And so help San, were his eyes sore from staring at glasses of water and kerosene for days on end.
It felt like the universe was compensating him for the less than stellar task when a few minutes later the first rays of sunlight hit supple skin and all San could do was stare, on his back, slightly out of breath, taken aback by the visual of a sleeping Kim Hongjoong looking like some kind of moon-deity, his still rather pale skin shining not unlike Yeosang’s had in the snow. Hongjoong usually looked so powerful, carrying himself like some giant predator. But asleep like this, he looked delicate. Stunning.
San spent an embarrassingly long part of his morning marveling at the older wizard, while himself also soaking in the soft sun from under his warm blanket cocoon, the lavender scent of the room lulling him in with a kind of quiet certainty about all of this being just so right.
Hongjoong had always been a deep sleeper, but that particular morning he seemed a lot more exhausted than he had initially tried to let on. It made sense, every moment he wasn’t exerting himself on the rift spell, he spent nagging Mingi into literacy. San decided to let the other sleep a little longer, even if he himself was getting restless, neck slightly stiff from how long he had been peering over his own shoulder, as he finally wrangled himself from the sheets.
The cottage was quiet, suspiciously so. A peek into Seonghwa’s bedroom revealed Mingi and Yunho still in bed. The demon was still slightly apprehensive toward them, but had quickly begun demanding the same amount of physical attention he had craved as a dog, resulting in him whining for Yunho to stay behind and cuddle him most mornings.
Jongho was also still sleeping, having made a strange sort of home for himself at the foot of Seonghwa’s bed. San had a hard time believing any person could actually prefer the floor to a bed. But Jongho stayed a bear more often than not anyway, snoring happily through most of his days and only shifting back during mealtimes. Although San had a sneaking suspicion even that instance of shifting was more closely related to his bear form’s impacted ability to fit through doorways.
With how quiet the cottage was, San half-expected Yeosang to be waiting for him in the living room with some terrifying news or announcement. Like he had put a spell over the cottage to keep everything still — the calm before the storm in his hard to read eyes would finally break free. No such thing happened.
The living room was empty as well, no sight of either witch anywhere as soft sunlight filtered in through the many windows. Maybe Seonghwa is getting water, San thought to himself as he took a seat.
He looked over the books on the coffee table, having been neatly stacked perfectly in the center of it overnight, like Seonghwa would spontaneously combust if even one piece of his interior decorations stayed out of place for a whole day. All of the titles seemed rather advanced, or not related to magic at all. Cleansing Spells and Exorcisms, Suppressing Energy Flow in Combat, Toxic Substances and Their Possible Healing Properties. None of it sounded interesting enough to bother with.
As San sunk further into the cushions, having settled on just being bored until the witches would come back inside, something darted past just outside the window.
A large gray blob had pummeled and criss-crossed through the garden before booking it for the porch. A small black shadow had followed, bouncing and pouncing after whatever it was chasing. When San stepped up to the window, his curiosity piqued, he found Wooyoung on the porch, scowling at the little bench just underneath the window. The kitten squeaked and meowed lamentingly at whatever remained completely silent in its hiding place.
When Wooyoung noticed San in the window, he hopped onto the bench, scratching his paws against the glass twice with another little yowl. Did Wooyoung need help?
San stepped up to the door, but as he opened it, the gray blob was already in Seonghwa’s flower beds, a speedy mess of limbs and long fur rushing past frozen greenery and toward the treeline. It looked nothing like any of the animals San was used to, fur an unusual color, body too big for the way it scalloped. Wooyoung was following, the lean cat a few sizes too small for what he was chasing and seemingly unable to keep up. The warlock had barely stepped outside by the time Wooyoung returned with an accusatory meow.
“Good morning to you, too?” San tried.
Wooyoung meowed again, but his scowl began to soften. He stepped up to the warlock and immediately bumped his head into his shins. And where San was still slightly confused by Wooyoung chasing off shapeless blobs of fluffy fur first thing in the morning, he found himself unable to deny the needy kitten.
“Screw the ward. You’re the real protector of this land, huh?” He teased, kneeling down to gently scratch behind Wooyoung’s ears and being rewarded with loud purring and a lapful of warm cat. In recent times he had found it to no longer quite compare to a lapful of Wooyoung as a person, but San appreciated it nonetheless.
Where he sat with Wooyoung on the porch, toes getting frigid sooner than he wanted to admit to himself, he had a clear view of the moon, not quite having disappeared even as the sky started fading back to its usual color. It was almost filled all the way now, at maximum two more nights away from a full moon, and seemed to stare him down with the same certainty of the morning sun — all of this was coming to an end.
Between the cozy cottage, Seonghwa’s cooking, and the near constant love and attention of so many amazing mages, the thought of needing to leave genuinely saddened him.
Wooyoung chirped in disapproval at San’s stilling hands, hopping off him and trailing toward the chicken coop. The poultry was back in its usual spot rather than the shed, now that the need to keep Mingi secure no longer out-weighed the birds’ need for regular exposure to sunlight.
San didn’t initially follow, unwilling to step off the deck without any shoes on. But Wooyoung could be very convincing, ears back in a demanding scowl, like the concept of needing to wait for San personally insulted every last bit of his very being. And who was San to deny Wooyoung anything?
When San returned with a basket of eggs and an all too proud cat hot on his heel, Seonghwa was already brewing something in his cauldrons. The dazzling smile the witch greeted him with, warmed the inside of his chest so well, that San almost forgot about his freezing cold feet.
“Good morning, San-ah!” Seonghwa sing-songed, dancing over to take the basket from him and dipping in to press a feather-light kiss to the top of his head.
That was another thing that had changed. After their conversation in the woods, Seonghwa had begun treating San more similarly to Wooyoung, more of his warm touches gracing San day by day and an occasional peck flying by. Nothing to complain about there, even if San still wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it.
The resulting smell of fried eggs that San’s barefooted morning walk in the freezing cold had caused, seemed to slowly draw the remaining mages in the cottage out of their beds as well. This morning in particular, Wooyoung seemed awfully content with staying a cat, but once again, San found absolutely nothing to complain about getting to eat breakfast with a fluffy and purring heat pack in his lap.
San was warm, San was cozy, San was happy.
“So. It’s almost the full moon,” Hongjoong started. San felt a small shiver run up his spine as Wooyoung curled up tighter in his lap.
“You’re right. It’s kind of unfair that you can’t just stay forever.” Seonghwa sighed. Never in his life had San agreed with something more. His enthusiastic nod in response earned him a chuckle from Yunho and one of Seonghwa’s warm hands smoothing over his neck.
“We need to check back in with Eden-hyung one more time before we search for the rift,” Hongjoong continued after briefly shaking his head at San. “We still don’t have a demon after all.”
Mingi perked up, “I’m a demon.”
Hongjoong shook his head again, sighing. “You are, but we don’t really know what the spell might do to you. Plus, it can hardly be a good idea to bring a fugitive demon to a gathering of furious ones.”
A glance around the room brought San mixed reactions. Seonghwa shifted uncomfortably, Wooyoung had stopped purring. Yunho was mustering the demon, whom his arm was still tightly slung around, with an unreadable expression. Jongho seemed disinterested at best, staring out the window like the woods might disappear if he didn’t keep an eye on them.
“We should see what hyung says,” Yunho suggested after a bout of uncomfortable silence.
With a little nod, Seonghwa reached into San’s lap to scratch behind Wooyoung’s ears, the cat shifter seeming dead-set on pretending he wasn’t even there. “If you leave right now, maybe you’ll still make it back today. You’ll need to come back to pick up Mingi-yah and the fae anyway.”
Wooyoung’s ears flattened where his head was buried in San’s pants and Seonghwa chuckled. “I know, Woo. But the way I know Eden-nim, he won’t be happy unless you go with them.”
“Now I deeply regret still not knowing the levitation thing,” San accidentally said out loud before he could stop himself. His musings seemed to finally tear Yunho out of his thoughts regarding Mingi’s involvement in the spell, laughing at him and pinching his cheek.
The wizard’s affection almost made up for his elder’s sharp tone. “Remind me why San doesn’t know that yet?”
Seonghwa pouted, still absentmindedly patting Wooyoung. “We decided that him being able to defend himself was more important.”
San nodded along solemnly. Quite frankly, he himself couldn’t even remember why exactly he had been practicing what he had the past few weeks, only that Seonghwa’s assured suggestions and conspiratorial smile had left him unwilling to argue.
“And how has that been going, huh?” Hongjoong needled again.
Seonghwa practically beamed back. “I’m confident he is able to do that now!”
San looked up from where he had been watching the witch’s long fingers card through Wooyoung’s fur, scratching behind his ears in a way that made it even more unsettling that Wooyoung had yet to start purring again. “I am?”
Yunho’s renewed bout of laughter couldn’t quite drown out the silent clash of the two oldest mages staring each other down. Hongjoong’s brow was raised high enough to disappear into his bangs, judgement extremely apparent in his cinched expression.
The witch just pouted again. “Of course. You’ve been doing the basics of transformative magic. You said you can set fires, and now you can also turn water into kerosene!”
Hongjoong took a deep breath, almost worrying San for a second. But his words remained relatively calm as he gritted through his teeth, “Do you have any idea how exhausting it is to summon large quantities of water?”
Seonghwa nodded dutifully. “That’s why he also practiced how to gather the dampness from the air around him, instead of needing to summon water. Usually that combination doesn’t do much for a witch besides making them an explosive hazard.” Before San had fully caught up, the witch had skipped around the coffee table and toward the running fireplace, pushing one of his sweater sleeves up. “But for someone like San who can additionally also set fires—”
San had more or less expected the witch to stick his hand in the fireplace, but the sight still made him flinch. Hongjoong rolled his eyes, completely unimpressed by Seonghwa’s hand now burning all around, flames dancing just above his skin. Admittedly, he hadn’t thought that far ahead when Seonghwa had told him to combine the first two spells two days ago. Seeing the spell in action, knowing Seonghwa had confidently proclaimed him capable of it, made his insides flutter with hot pride all too akin to the flames still flickering across the witch’s palm.
But still, Hongjoong’s neck was strained as he tried his best to smile, almost sickly sweet and very clearly pissed off. “And remind me how exactly setting himself on fire is supposed to help him fight demons. You know, the things that live in hellfire?”
Seonghwa’s face fell a little, shaking his hand to put the fire back out. “It’s by no means perfect. But combative witchcraft tends to be really complicated and Eden-nim has told me that combative wizardry is very straining on the body and therefore usually takes a long time to practice properly. This way, he will at least be able to intimidate, maybe keep something off his neck for long enough to get someone to intervene.”
Oh, right. Advanced spells, ones that San would probably never be able to cast because he was running so far behind all his friends. It stung. Wooyoung’s head finally poked up, shifting in his lap to press his head into San’s hand almost comfortingly.
“This is ridiculous. If he knew the levitation spell, he would have been able to just get away from any dangerous situation in the first place,” Hongjoong shot back. “Plus, all this idiotic running around the forest would greatly be reduced. It would have even helped with the stupid search!”
Wooyoung scowled, leading Seonghwa to wander back over to him to scratch his ears once more with a sigh. “There would be too many of you for that anyway. Carrying so much weight with a spell also takes time, it can get really draining.”
Hongjoong rolled his eyes again but didn’t argue further, throwing his hands up and slumping back into the cushions with a grumble. Jongho huffed in amusement, even when he was still stubbornly staring out of the window.
Before long, San’s hands had snaked around Seonghwa’s waist where he was perched on the armrest next to him, still petting Wooyoung. The shifter still seemed a little off, but at least he had started purring again — if extremely quietly. Seonghwa’s other hand found San’s hair. It was comfortable, even when his gut kept coiling tighter by the minute at the prospect of having missed out on yet another opportunity to make himself useful, all because he had listened to the well-meaning witch blindly without a thought of his own.
“Hey, that’s not entirely true,” Seonghwa said into his hair. Had San accidentally said that out loud again? “Two mages with open eyes are always better than one. You’ll be plenty useful.”
Yunho poked his cheek again with a snicker, “Our baby warlock.”
“Hyung, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I never managed to see that crystal’s aura. I don’t think my eyes are open,” San corrected meekly. He had started burying his head in Seonghwa’s side, clutching Wooyoung’s fur like a lifeline by now.
This was humiliating. Why was he suddenly the center of attention when no one had even confirmed he would even be allowed to tag along this time. It would make just as much sense for them to leave him home, like they had done the last few times there had been a demon to fight.
“Don’t be stupid, San-ah, we’re not leaving you behind!” Hongjoong cut in.
Seonghwa’s hands had stilled in his hair. “No, I’m pretty sure your eyes are open. Can you really sense nothing at all from the crystal?”
“I mean, I can sense there’s some kind of energy to it. But I can’t see anything,” San pouted.
When Seonghwa started laughing, his entire chest shook, slightly startling San against his side. The jingling sound of it wrapped around him like a cozy blanket where his feet had yet to completely warm back up, almost relieving the pressure from the coil in his gut through sheer joy at the sound. Something in the back of his mind whispered that he hadn't heard Seonghwa laugh like this in a while, but he pushed it back to focus on the witch’s words instead.
“San-ah, opening your eyes doesn’t necessarily mean literally.”
The warlock felt his brows furrow slightly against the divinely soft material of Seonghwa’s sweater as Wooyoung’s tail flicked against his hand. “Well, hyung, you never actually told me how to do it right.”
The sharp intake of air San heard was so unmistakably Hongjoong, readying himself for a lecture, but ultimately being interrupted by Seonghwa, still slightly breathless, tone way too gentle for someone that was currently laughing at San’s expense.
“Oh, San-ah, that’s because there’s no ‘right’ way to do it. Everyone does it differently. Emmeoni used to meditate until she could separate her consciousness from her body, seeing everything in spirit. Wooyoungie sees best with his cat eyes. I personally can’t really see anything at all, but my tactile awareness of energy flow still lets me perceive things. That’s why I’m not as good at the magical kind of divination as Woo or Emmeoni.”
Seonghwa was still laughing and San felt like crying. When he looked down, Wooyoung was nailing him with an unreadable expression — not a particularly hard to accomplish feat for a cat, San supposed — perhaps trying to see right through him.
“So when you asked him to tell you what the crystal’s aura looked like, you didn’t know the answer yourself?” Hongjoong bit out, looking seconds away from losing it.
Seonghwa pouted, more to himself than them. “Yes and no. It would look different to everyone anyway. But there is some sort of baseline, I would have been able to tell if he was making things up. There’s no faster way to open your eyes to all energy flow than by feeling out something with as miniscule of an aura as a crystal.”
While the witch was trying to save himself and consequently indirectly praising San in the process, it still didn’t feel quite right. Surely, Yeosang would have begged to differ if he had been there, at least after how disappointed he had been in San’s grip on his abilities last time. Although maybe a fae wouldn’t be begging for anything…
“But I still couldn’t see Mingi’s energy. Maybe I just didn’t do it the witch way. If my eyes had been open, I should have been able to feel him right on top of us, right?”
Wooyoung tilted his head, tail flicking against San’s arm again. Seonghwa mirrored the movement, “But you were able to sense when he was there, weren’t you? How would you have noticed him otherwise?”
San was getting just slightly upset at how little Seonghwa seemed to be listening to him. “You’re telling me I can sense hyung’s crows in the aviary from two levels down as little blobs of energy, but a literal demon only shows up as a tingling sensation when he’s in the same room as me?” His pleading sounded more exasperated than he had meant for it to, voice squeaking in a way that made Yunho chuckle dryly next to him.
Seonghwa’s nod was cut short by Hongjoong, voice equally squeaky as San’s. “You can what now?!”
Alright, so maybe San wasn’t quite as useless of a mage as he had thought himself to be. Maybe his friends hadn’t been going easy on him because he was still getting used to all of this but because he had genuinely been meeting expectations. And maybe Yeosang wasn’t as all-knowing as he had pitched himself to be when declaring himself San’s patron.
Read it
“You’re telling me you caught a demon. Outside of the actual moonphase we have found they tend to appear under. While practicing your spell from inside Park Seonghwa’s demon-deterring ward?”
Yonghwan stared at them over the edge of his teacup incredulously.
Hongjoong’s brows twitched while he stared back with his lips drawn into a thin line. “More or less.”
“Uh-huh.” The wizard master averted his eyes, electing to stare out of the window. His face was pulled taut like he was moments away from a lecture. San shifted his weight, getting pinched by Wooyoung like even the bratty witch was a little afraid of what the elder might do if San’s inability to stand still were to trigger him.
After a long bout of silence, Yonghwan finally sighed. “Well, I suppose you do know your spell very well. I trust you’ll be able to get through the rest without me as well.”
“You’re not coming?” Hongjoong snapped.
Yonghwan’s smirk was way too smug for someone who had just admitted they were planning to send their apprentices out to avert a demon invasion on their own. “I already told you: View it as a sort of interim check.”
The room fell silent. Hongjoong looked like he had a hard time containing himself, millions of thoughts visibly flashing past behind his eyes. Yunho had an arm draped over San, hand reaching over to land on Wooyoung’s shoulder as well. But his muscles seemed tense and his usually grounding presence really didn’t do much but remind San that he was indeed supposed to stand still and control his body from shaking like a leaf in the face of his teacher’s scrutiny. Wooyoung’s pupils had been slitted since the moment he had shifted back that day and San wasn’t sure if the witch’s tension still stemmed from needing to leave Seonghwa behind once again or disdain for the situation currently going on in the tower.
Yonghwan’s averse act cracked a little as he chuckled, “I shall pack you the book that describes the spell more en détail. I’m certain you will succeed. I will also give you some money, please take some groceries back to Park Seonghwa as gratitude for housing you.”
Wooyoung was barely able to contain his scoff, going blissfully ignored by the older wizard. “I will leave my other darling disciples and the little witch in your hands, Hongjoong-ah. I trust you will know how to proceed!”
“God, that man pisses me off sometimes,” Hongjoong grumbled, kicking at the gravel at the edge of the road as they made their way out of town.
“I honestly expected him to be angrier,” Yunho replied with a shrug. His tension had somewhat bled away after Hongjoong had furiously bought them all street food from one of the stalls while Wooyoung had meticulously been inspecting each market stall for the perfect groceries to take back home. ‘Stress eating’ the eldest had called it. Admittedly, it had calmed San down a decent amount as well.
Wooyoung swung himself onto his broom the moment they passed the first tree. He was still suspiciously quiet, swinging his legs where they hung off the side of the broomstick while looking at the sky. San had a hard time watching the usually chatty shifter act so off.
On the way back to town, San had been busy practicing the last part of Seonghwa’s spell — actually setting the kerosene in his palms on fire. He had stumbled a few times from not watching where he was going, too focused on his task, but he hadn’t burned himself once. In fact, his makeshift practice had been so successful, that he didn’t feel a need to continue now, still riding the high of finding out his ability to discern different energy flows from afar could actually be considered close to exceptional.
But not needing to focus on any kind of magic meant that he now had all his attention to spare for Wooyoung’s strange behavior. “You’ve been off since this morning, Wooyoung-ah. Does it have something to do with the weird animal you chased off?”
Wooyoung slowly turned to him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Come on, you didn’t even want to shift back for breakfast despite making me collect eggs for you.” San whined back.
“Oh, sue me! I’ve been a person for more than my fair share of time the past few weeks!” The witch threw his hands up, almost losing his balance and taking a moment to keep himself on the broom properly. From the corner of his eye, San could see the two wizards eyeing him with suspicion as well.
“I still feel like there’s more to this,” San pouted.
“Weren’t you the one who told me to talk about feelings more, Wooyoung-ah?” Hongjoong commented over his shoulder. His tone was conversational, the wizard not even turning around to say it, but still clearly laced with a non-refusable demand.
Wooyoung sighed deeply, cheeks puffing up petulantly like he was preparing for an insult. In the end, he just threw his hands up again, groaning, “Fine, whatever. Maybe I’m scared shitless, alright? Maybe I don’t know any useful spells for combat, either. Happy now?”
The witch seemed genuinely upset about it.
He huffed.
San stumbled.
The occurrence wasn’t unlike how it had felt to stumble over Mingi, running straight into a tall obstacle, this one at hip height. Except this time, the obstacle was warm and very soft as San’s body was folded over it with a grunt. Yunho barely caught him.
Jongho huffed.
“What are you doing here, you were supposed to stay with hyung!” Wooyoung screeched. Jongho just huffed again.
As San gathered himself, saved from planting his face in the hard frozen forest floor by Yunho’s hand and Jongho’s sheer size stopping most of his fall, a small storm caught his eye. Yeosang stood barely a stride away between the trees, with his arms crossed and an only almost there pout adorning his face.
“You—”
Before San had actually gotten anything out, Yeosang interrupted him, “I am still not allowed into this ward.”
San stared. Yunho chuckled. Hongjoong looked tired.
Wooyoung was in Yeosang’s face all too quickly, making San’s heart drop into his pants at the thought of Yeosang possibly getting mad at the witch. “That makes total sense, hyung put cold iron in the ward. The hyung that you—” Wooyoung shot Jongho another pointed glare, “—were supposed to watch for me!”
“I checked on your residual party less than two hours ago. They’re fine,” Yeosang answered in Jongho’s stead.
“You checked on someone? Are you sure you’re Yeosang?” Yunho joked, reaching for the fae’s forehead as Yeosang stepped back with another pout and no threats of violence toward either of them. The sight had San exhaling a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. Right. Yeosang wasn’t a threat, at least not to them.
Wooyoung also seemed to slowly relax, backing down with another huff and a glare in Jongho’s direction. “Fine, whatever. At least one of you is somewhat sensible.”
Then, after they had already fallen back into stride, the witch suddenly shot back around. “I’m still mad at you, Jongho-yah!”
Jongho huffed, Yeosang chuckled. “It’s not like he could have done much. He told me about the time you appointed him as ‘starwatch’ for some silly trip a few years back. He also told me that the star completely lost it, shifted and hid behind the dresser until your old woman kicked Jongho out.”
Wooyoung seemed to have no real comeback past a glare, some slight guilt flashing over his features before he turned away again.
“How long have you known each other?” San asked when curiosity got the best of him, wrapping his arm back around Yunho.
Wooyoung grumbled something to himself before whipping his head back to them. “Well, someone sent this traitorous beast to us to learn to be a decent human being just over a decade ago. Clearly we failed!”
Jongho huffed. San was pleased enough with the answer.
But it seemed that Yunho wasn’t. He was staring at Yeosang expectantly in the same way he always stared at San when the warlock had missed a question. Although Yeosang seemed to be stubbornly looking ahead, probably much more consciously trying to avoid the question than San would have ever dared to.
He managed to keep the act up for a good few paces before carefully peering back over his shoulder to find the entire rest of the group staring at him. He looked almost cute as his eyes went comically wide, lips twitching into a stiff smile before he slowly turned back around. Like a little owl, San thought.
“Yeosang-ah,” Yunho sing-songed, an almost warning edge to his voice that San wasn’t used to in the slightest.
The fae cleared his throat, “I kind of found a bear cub in the woods one day.”
“A cub, really?” Yunho lilted back.
Yeosang just nodded, still stubbornly turned away. “Maybe close to two decades now.”
Jongho huffed in confirmation.
“You and your bear friend are stupidly annoying to get answers out of,” Hongjoong commented after a while, nose for the most part already buried in the tiny book on the rift spell.
Yeosang scoffed. “Don’t fret, you guys are pretty annoying, too.”
Something about the way Wooyoung and Yunho met each other’s eyes over San’s head sent a shiver up his spine. The witch had even interrupted his very important task of — by now pretty half-heartedly — glaring at Jongho. Whatever their silent communication conveyed had a glint of mischief and a smug grin wash back over his features.
“Aw, do you really think we’re pretty?” Wooyoung sing-songed, Yunho whistling in approval right away.
Yeosang’s glare over his shoulder wasn’t nearly as intimidating as San would have expected, looking more caught off-guard than anything. Yeosang’s glowering also did nothing to take away from the impression of a small owl he had given San earlier. “I see, so you’re just like Yunho and only hear what you want to hear, don’t you?”
“Considering you seem to like Yunho, I’ll take that as a compliment!”
As Yunho continued to snicker, Yeosang met San’s eyes, stiff expression somewhere between exasperation and a silent plea for sympathy. Maybe San was biased, because he had only recently discovered himself to be more capable than he had initially assumed, but something about his patron turning to him in search of something to get the lethal tag-team of Yunho and Wooyoung off his back made pride well somewhere deep in the back of his chest.
It didn’t help that Yeosang reciprocated the reassuring eye-smile San tried to give him with a faint quirk of his lips, the closest thing to a beaming smile San had seen the fae give so far.
“Anyway, you’re all being way too slow! Pick up the pace a bit, won’t you? Unlike you, Jongho-yah, I’m not leaving Seonghwa-hyung alone any longer than necessary!”