Chapter Text
Deafening silence.
It was the first thing he noticed. The second was gray, bleak walls and empty, as if abandoned, buildings. They made the silence feel even more heavy, depressing.
Wrong. Unnatural. As if…
“Captain, do you copy?”
Hongjoong activated his microphone with a light touch.
“I am. Shadow, report.”
Ah, yes, they're on a mission. It's so silent and empty just because they're in school. Schools have become one of the darkest and unpleasant places. They were a grim symbol of the new world – wrong and fearful.
No, it can't be. He went to school just fine, didn't he?
“Nothing new, a bit boring actually. I already finished everything.” whispered a voice from the tiny earpiece. He knew this one. He heard it before, of course he did that's… Who was it?
Hongjoong more felt than heard a soft chuckle. It was him. He found something funny.
“Like the last time, or?..” he heard himself asking.
“Hyung!” the voice from the earpiece sounded affronted, “I did everything right, you know that MC thained me!”
“I wouldn't trust him anyway,” joined a new voice, deep and honey. Familiar. He never heard it before.
“Hey, I am-”
“Shut it, you can bicker when we get back,”Hongjoong intervened, “Shadow, get out of there. Mars?”
“In position,” the third voice answered in an almost inaudible whisper.
While he was listening to the voices the area around him changed. Now he was sneaking down the echoing narrow hall, empty and ominous. He heard light hum and distant voices. There must be people somewhere near.
Of course. He was inside the school. There are always people inside the schools. He can't let them hear him.
Hongjoong open one of the doors that looked just like the others and soundlessly slide inside, his moves fast and calculated. Two people inside. Both were taken out in a couple of seconds. He calmly stepped over their lifeless bodies. No, not lifeless. It's not like he killed them. He didn't kill them, right?
He touched the microphone again.
“I'm in,” he felt his lips curling into a smile, “Mars, start the concert.”
“Roger that.”
He turned off the communicator. He needed to act quickly. He almost did it, he needed only…
“...Joong? Hongjoong!”
Hongjoon jerked up abruptly. His forehead collapsed with something and he fell back, groaning. Judging by the similar groan from his front, that something was San.
“Ugh.”
He rubbed his forehead and tried again, this time slowly. It was indeed San, sitting on the bed with his ears flattened and lips pursed.
“You were tossing around in your sleep. Kicked me off the bed,” he pouted.
Hongjoong winced and reached his hand to pet the other's disheveled hair. Sleeping in one single bed was uncomfortable as it is even with their moderate size. He felt a bit ashamed for making it even worse, but San was patient and understanding.
To be honest, it wasn't that surprising. By now they both were quite used to being uncomfortable. They traveled from town to town, from one little room barely fitting even for one person to another, for a year now. And it was an improvement, after the time they spend on the streets. They probably could afford a better place now, but it would be stupid. They were saving most of their money for a ‘happy future’, as San called it. Sometimes Hongjoong felt like it won't come, but he refused to give up. After all, he was just eighteen. He had time. Time is basically all he had. Time and San.
“I saw this weird dream again,” he signed, gently scratching the base of the black velvet ears, “where I'm some secret agent or something.”
San's face immediately lightened up with a bright smile. He shifted closer, almost sitting on his lap and pressing him into the bed with all his weight.
“In my dream I was a panther!” he exclaimed, “I was all big, and black, and all ‘gr-r-r’, you know? And then…”
Hongjoong felt a vibration building in San's chest and couldn't hold back a smile. In his human form his purring was louder, like from a very big cat. Maybe panthers sounded like that. He rarely heard that sound. They both were able to relax only in moments like that – early mornings and late evenings. The rare time when they could just be themselves.
Officially there wasn't anything bad with being yourself. According to the laws of Land of Witches, all intelligent races were equal in their rights. Sadly, in reality someone was always a bit more equal.
Sometimes Hongjoong wished he was born a witch, even if the weakest of all of them.
He instantly dismissed the thought. There wasn't anything wrong with being a pixie. He was happy with his own, special form of magic. He liked his wings too. Translucent and shining, they were the favorite part of his look. Sadly, he didn't get to use or even show them too often. Hongjoong couldn't really remember when was the last time he was flying. But it was okay. They were working on it. They need to wait just a little more until they'll be free.
At least he wasn't alone. He hid his wings the same way San hid his ears and tail. Except for the times when he decided to spend his day in his cat form, sitting on Hongjoong's shoulders or wandering alone, gods know where.
When they met for the first time, Hongjoong thought he was just a cat. He was sixteen and only started his truly adult and independent life. To put it simply: he ran away from the orphanage. He wasn't all that great in surviving by himself and could not afford to have a pet. But this pet was hurt, scared and lonely, and the pixie couldn't just walk away. It helped that at fifteen in his cat form San looked like a half year old kitten. Who would leave a hungry and hurt kitten on the streets? Not Hongjoong, that's for sure.
Only after a week of living together in a shabby dorm room did he find out exactly whom he brought home. He was quite shocked to come back home and, instead of his cute lovely Nero, find a naked teenager with cat tail and ears sleeping in his bed. It took a great willpower to not just throw him into the street immediately.
As it turned out, San in his human form was just as (or maybe even a bit more) cute. However, it was out of the question to keep a teenager as a pet (ward?). The pixie could barely manage to provide for himself, he could not afford such a responsibility. Fortunately, this was not necessary.
San turned out to be a very mature and independent person. He promised to pay him back, and that he did. After a couple of weeks they had already worked together on the schemes proposed by the shifter. Almost all of them were risky, dubious and not entirely legal, but worked well enough.
One more month later, the pixie found out that his new friend hid his face and walked around in his cat form not just because of prejudice towards his kind. He should have guessed from the start, really. The state he found San in. The ease with which he found dubious part-time jobs for teenagers. The excited look in his eyes when they were once again running from ру problems through narrow winding streets. He should really have guessed that San had a very interesting life before they met. Though he surely couldn't guess that shifter was a wanted criminal under the nickname ‘Chemist’ with a solid bounty on his head. It sounded really bad, but reality was actually quite boring.
In his childhood in the orphanage the pixie was very open, being able to proudly show off his cool wings and his magic. Unlike him, San was hiding his true self all his life, thanks to his smart and selfless mother and fake documents. Half witch half shapeshifter, he was really struggling. Hongjoong could only imagine how bad baby-San felt, walking around with his ears tightly bandaged and tai painfully twisted all the time.
However, as awful as it sounded, hiding wasn't the worst option. For the witch world was full of possibilities, and San could have a better life. He could if he wasn't, well, San. At the moment when he discovered his talent in chemistry and alchemy he started experimenting. He was changing the classical potions and drugs to make them more effective for other species. At the first glance there wasn't anything bad with that. Little shifter just wanted to help. To help people like Hongjoong. Like himself. And he was successful – at first.
The problem was that he didn't have permission for this type of experiments, let alone a license. The fact that San was very resourceful and used for the experimentations blood (mostly his own) didn't help either. San was expelled from school and arrested almost instantly. He managed to escape only because no one knew about his cat side.
They could only guess if his mother managed to escape too. Maybe they'll meet one day. Hongjoon wanted to thank her for his best (only) friend.
“...right on his head, and then jumped up for like two meters! It was so cool!”
Hongjoong blinked and made a vague noise of agreement. It seems like he zoned out and missed the story completely. San didn't look bothered. Perhaps he got used to it from the year they spent together. Shifter smiled and leaned on his hand a little more, before pulling away and standing up from the bed to stretch.
Hongjoong winced and quickly closed his eyes. He just kept forgetting about this.
“Why can't you put on some pants before doing it?” he whined, feeling his cheeks warming up.
“Clothing is a social construct,” San answered confidently.
The pixie opened his eyes to glare at him. Luckily, the shifter already put on boxers.
“Why are you getting dressed then?”
San stopped, lowering his hands with pants in them.
“I can just…”
“Choi San!”
The alchemist giggled satisfied with his reaction before putting his pants on. Hongjoong sighed. The only one who he could blame for it was himself. He chose this life. The good thing is that San calmed down and won't bring it…
“You never complain when I sleep naked.”
The pixie glared in the innocent yellow eyes.
“When you sleep you have fur. If you'd try to sleep with me naked as human I would throw you into the streets.”
“Well, I don't see the difference! You humans are so sensitive,” San rolled his eyes and picked his shirt, “I'm pretty sure that's racism.”
Hongjoong got up from the bed feeling his wings, crumpled from the night, straighten out.
“Since when I'm a human?”
San's lips stretched into a wide grin.
“Since you started oppressing me.”
“I'll kick you out of the house.”
The alchemist didn't bother to react. They both knew it was an empty treat. Hongjoong stopped being a loner a long time ago. Now there was only Hongjoong and San, and only something really serious could change it. Complete disregard for the basic rules of decency wasn't serious, but the pixie still couldn't get used to it for some reason.
Hongjoong flinched a little, when a careful hand touched his wings, straightening the folds. He spread them carefully, feeling the edges scratching the walls. It was an uncomfortable feeling.
“I love your wings,” San said quietly, slowly stroking them, “they're beautiful.”
Hongjoong chose to ignore the compliment. He didn't know how to react. He made a couple of careful flaps instead, grinning contentedly as one of the upper wings smacked the alchemist in the face.
This little warm-up in the mornings and before the sleep was all he could afford for a long, long time. They tried to pass for ordinary humans, and shining translucent wings wasn't helping with that at all. For most of the day they were carefully folded and then tightly pressed to his body with clothes and a simple spell. It was unpleasant, but not fatal. His wings were thin, almost ephemeral, but surprisingly strong at the same time. Practice showed that it was almost impossible to damage them physically.
It still hurt them in some way, that was obvious. Their appearance, color in particular, left much to be desired. Hongjoong vaguely remembered that they were much brighter and definitely much more colorful before he stopped using them. He couldn't remember the color. Now they were all white, like he was some kind of moth. San said he liked them, but he didn't even have a chance to see them properly. Hongjoong simply didn't have the opportunity to fly in his presence. He wasn't entirely sure he was still capable of doing it.
He didn't want to think about it. There wasn't a point. Hongjoong folded his wings as tight as he could and hugged his shoulders.
“Will you, please?”
San made a short sad noise, but obeyed. At first Hongjoong had to go through a lot of persuading to get San to fold them tighter and press them down properly, but now they both got used to the painful brittle sound that comes every time he pressed particularly tightly. As soon as the pixie felt the familiar, slightly nagging pain in his shoulder blades, he snapped his fingers, securing his wings in place. It felt much worse when he was using bandages.
Maybe one day he'll have to get rid of them for good.
“What are our plans for today?” he asked, trying to chase grim thoughts away.
San scrunched his face and turned on the kettle. The tiny room that they rented this time did not provide for the separation of the living area and the kitchen. Though this time they did have their own bathroom with a toilet and a decent working shower.
“Today is a full moon, remember?” The shifter pulled out packages of instant noodles from the cabinet and placed them on the table. “You'll go into the forest and try to find everything you can, and I will be here, mixing what we have. The usual.”
Hongjoong sat down at their tiny table and rested his chin on folded hands as he waited for the kettle to boil.
They both knew how to cook something basic, but their level of success was not very good. The kitchen was used mainly by San, for the production of medicines and potions, which Hongjoong later sold in a not very legal way to some very shady people. In their defense – they were shady people too.
Despite all the knowledge and talent San had in his area (or maybe precisely because of it), the food he prepared was very Not-Safe-For-Eating. They tried, of course, but it had a very strange taste and sometimes left the wildest side effects. One day, after what was supposed to be soup, Hongjoong's eyes started glowing red, even though San swore he followed the recipe exactly. Hongjoong had to wear dark glasses for a week. Like his wings were not hard enough to hide.
“Photos?”
San handed him their old smartphone and turned out the screen with one soft touch. It was actually one of the biggest problems they had. Everything in this damned country was designed for the witches magic. Without San's help, Hongjoong couldn't turn on the TV, couldn't use his phone, and sometimes couldn't open some particularly modern store doors. It wasn't a problem when he had a certain big black cat on his shoulder, but the rest of the time he was completely helpless. Officially, this system was supposed to ensure the safety of the population. In reality, it only provided headaches and problems for those who did not fit into said system.
Theoretically, any of this tech could be customized. Practically, everyone who agreed to take the job did not give any guarantees and broke the price to an indecent scale. San wanted to help, but no matter how brilliant he was in chemistry, tech was really not his strongest side.
The pixie flipped through the photos, trying to memorize look of the many mosses, plants, and fungi. They weren't sure exactly what was growing in this area, so the list was pretty big.
The kettle chimed loudly. San poured over the noodles and put the kettle back on. Hongjoong expected him to prepare the reagents, but instead he stepped towards him, frowning uncertainly.
The pixie smiled reassuringly and took San's hand in his, squeezing it slightly. They both disliked the days when they had to separate. There was no way for them to communicate, and this caused them both a decent amount of anxiety and fears. But there were only two of them, and San was the only one able to make potions. It wouldn't be smart to spend money on buying ingredients. Not when they could easily collect them on their own.
To be more precise, San could easily have done it. Hongjoong grew up in the city and did not have the necessary knowledge. Now he was a little better oriented and almost always brought what he needed, but he wasn't able to determine the quality of the ingredients just yet. He didn't have the advantage of a sensitive cat nose on his side. He was still doing his best though.
At times, he was almost embarrassed for how useless he was. It seemed that it was not he, who picked San from the streets, but San who picked him.
No, no, he can't think like that. San hated it when he thought that.
Hongjoong pulled his noodles closer and stared at them as if that could make them cook faster.
In his case, it actually could.
It was one of the few upsides of being a pixie. The first was, of course, the wings. The second was that Hongjoong's magic was far stronger than that of any witch, and it didn't need guidance such as complex hand passes or tools, difficult spells, and abstruse formulas.
He was the magic.
Doing magic for a pixie was as easy as breathing. As easy as flying. The witches often said that this form was crude and primitive, but he was fine with it.
His main ability and undoubted pride was the manipulation of matter and space. It was thanks to this talent that the two of them could move between cities without unnecessary problems and without any documents. Was it legal? Absolutely no. Did it bother them? Not particularly.
San lightly pinched his cheek, and Hongjoong blinked, breaking eye contact with the suspiciously gurgling box. The shifter looked at him accusingly.
“Don't waste your energy like that.”
Hongjoong shrugged and opened the package, finally getting down to breakfast. For him it was really nothing, but it saved a couple of minutes of a very boring wait. Patience has never been his forte.
San sighed and stepped aside, rummaging through the kitchen cabinets. The pixie was fine with that. He focused entirely on food and photographs, distracting from unnecessary experiences.
It wasn't their first time after all. What worse could happen?
Everything will be alright.
◔◔◔
Everything was not alright. Despite the pleasant and unusually calm beginning of the day, the following part of it did not bring anything but irritation, inconveniences and anxiety. During a year of chaotic travel around the country, they visited many forests and meadows of varying degrees of wildness, but in none of them Hongjoong noticed such deep and rude involvement of local residents.
This damn forest was full of various traps. From outrageously bad and noticeable from a kilometer away for any creature with at least one eye and a tiny bit of magic, to abstruse and almost imperceptible; from deadly to paralyzing. The pixie accidentally got caught into several of them, which negatively affected his mood and the state of the part of the forest in which it happened.
Usually such walks were peaceful and quiet. Whether he was alone or together with San, they moved inaudibly and carefully, trying not to damage the forest and not harm its inhabitants, and also not to catch the eye of possible casual observers. Right now, Hongjoong was walking through the forest like a natural disaster, casually tossing everything San could theoretically use into a bag and destroying everything else. There was no need to worry about the local inhabitants. Hongjoong had every reason to believe that no one else lived in this section of the forest.
He couldn't imagine what exactly made the locals set up so many traps in this unremarkable place and it didn't really bother him either. Even if they were hunting for something dangerous, there was nothing more dangerous than Hongjoong right now.
It began to get dark, and the forest got thicker. The traps were getting more and more difficult. Occasionally he stopped to free an unfortunate bird or squirrel, but he never came across anything larger. This could indicate that the theory of a dangerous creature is correct, and that the locals set their traps regularly and scared away the few animals that originally lived here. He took another step forward and froze abruptly.
From somewhere to the right, he heard plaintive whining. It clearly did not belong to a squirrel.
Without a second of hesitation, Hongjoong moved towards the sound, cautiously surveying the area. Judging by the sound, this time the beast was large, and he did not want to be trapped next, or, even worse, together, with something really dangerous. That didn't mean he would leave that something to slowly die in a magical trap though.
After a couple of meters, he found the source of the sound and felt the tension leaving his body. Entangled from all sides and tightly pressed to the ground, there was a dog. A large and gray, quite ordinary-looking sadly whining dog. There was blood on the fetters holding her. Hongjoong destroyed the trap with a snap of his fingers and moved closer, crouching in front of the unfortunate animal. He expected movement, an attempt to escape, perhaps aggression, but the beast did not move, only continued to whimper.
The pixie narrowed his eyes and cautiously reached out a hand, touching the dog's snout. Up close, the beast was larger than he thought. He didn't know much about animal breeds, but perhaps it was some sort of husky or shepherd. He lifted the beast's closed eyelids. The poor thing was unconscious.
Hongjoong looked around. The night was coming. He did not know what the dog was doing so deep in the forest and how many other traps there were around. He did not want to leave the dog in the forest to certain death. Of course, they can't afford to have a dog, but maybe it would be possible to give it to a kennel? Or maybe San will want to get himself a familiar. He chuckled nervously. Cat-witch with a dog-familiar.
The dog made another plaintive sound, and Hongjoong abruptly got to his feet, drawing a careful circle around it. He didn't need it to teleport himself, but in order to safely move someone else, he preferred to use academic, ‘correct‘ magic. Safety is paramount.
Runes for returning home were the easiest. He always left a sheet with the return circle drawn on it in their current rented apartment and hid another one in the safest place outside the house, just in case.
The pixie completed the circle and crouched in the center, gently stroking the dog between the ears.
“Good doggie. Hold on little more,” he whispered and closed his eyes, focusing on the magic within him.
The moon was shining in the sky, feeding him with its power. Hongjoong felt her soft light on his skin and… Damn. He didn't collect any of the under the moon ingredients from the list. San will kill him.
◔◔◔
Alchemy has always been San's favorite. This subtle science attracted him with its elegance and surprising, sometimes inexplicable dependence on such strange things as the mood of an alchemist, the shape of a cauldron, or, for example, the phases of the moon. Many especially rare potions could only be brewed on a full moon. Some of them were his, San, personal inventions. Like what he was doing right now. If all conditions are met and luck is on his side, then by morning he will have several modest batches of a universal and fast-acting magic restoration potion.
Ordinary potions could help a creature that had exhausted its supplies last long enough not to collapse from exhaustion on the spot, but that was all. The one that he made was able to restore some of the strength on the spot, completely removing the all painful symptoms of magical exhaustion. San carefully concealed the recipe and did not allow any of his customers to even begin to dig in its direction.
The reason for this was not greed and his personal unwillingness to share, not at all. It was the main ingredient of this potion – Hongjoong's wing scales and blood. San didn't even want to think about what would happen if this information fell into the wrong hands. He absolutely did not want to become the reason for the pixie hunt. Their lives were already tough enough.
At least he didn't need to worry that someone else would find it on their own. This potion was incredibly difficult to make. In the moon before previous one he made a successful bunch, but the last one was a failure. This time though, he surely will...
Sharp noise from behind startled him, and the flask fell out of his hands with a clang. San released his claws and turned around, fully prepared to destroy whoever dared to interfere with him, but froze in the middle of the movement.
"Hongjoong?"
It really was him. Disheveled and dirty, terribly smelling of fire and smoke. The half-empty herb bag lay casually on the side, but San paid no attention to it. All his attention was riveted on what was at Hongjoong's feet.
“You brought a wolf into our house?!” he screeched, barely able to keep himself from screaming on top of his lungs.
The pixie turned a slightly bewildered look at him, blinked, and lowered his eyes to the injured unconscious wolf, which he for some reason teleported right on their floor.
“That's a wolf?” he asked, looking at San in confusion.
The alchemist threw his hands in the air, colorfully cursing the naive townspeople, their complete inability to tell the difference between a wolf and a dog, south from north, and a dandelion from a plantain. Hongjoong had the decency to look ashamed.
The shyly looking and very conscious wolf too.
San pressed his ears to his head and hissed. The wolf closed its eyes and whined softly in response. San groaned and covered his face with his hands.
“What?” Hongjoong looked completely lost.
His hand lay on the back of the wolf's neck, and it did not bother either of them at all. A dog. He thought he had met a dog in the middle of the forest. In the middle of the forest, on a full moon.
The alchemist stepped closer, picked up the bag of herbs from the floor, gave the couple a final judging look, and returned to the stove.
“You brought a werewolf into the house – you're dealing with it.”
It was unlikely that San will be able to brew something complicated in such a company. Waste of a full moon.
San cast another glance at the unhappy looking wolf, whose head was now resting on Hongjoong's lap and snorted.
He rarely had occasion to prepare healing ointments for werewolves. A bit of practice won't hurt.