Chapter Text
Lee Sa-young looked up from the paperwork in his hands as something caught his eye.
“Guild Leader?” Seo Min-gi also came to a stop behind him, looking up from the tablet in his hands from which he had been presenting information Sa-young had requested the previous day. It was something the Guild Leader had pressured him to prepare for that day, but now he was distracted and completely ignoring the data.
In truth he didn’t use the kitchen enough to notice that something was amiss. How many times had he walked by and not noticed? This time, however, he made his way around the kitchen island to a little dark corner, looking into the shadows under the cabinets, a little space tucked away.
“Ah.” He turned to look over his shoulder at the owl who finally noticed what had caught his eye, the man laughing as he flicked up the tinted portion of his glasses to get a better look. “I see someone’s earned the affection of a crow.”
He leaned over the counter, looking at the little pile of objects on the counter, hidden away. Sa-young reached out and grabbed one of the random items, smoothing his thumb over a beautiful, speckled rock. The rock was returned back to where he’d found it, choosing a tiny action figure next and giving an amused chuckle at the dirty little piece of plastic. Crow gifts. Those who befriended the little black birds sometimes found little gifts as they showed their affection, he’d never heard of it from an Awakener.
Some Awakeners took after their respective birds more than others, Cha Eui-jae had embraced his bird side more than Sa-young had ever seen from anyone else. How had he never noticed Eui-jae leaving these here? He thought back, remembering the way that he would sometimes have something in his hand, worrying it as he spoke or whenever he was deep in thought. Sa-young had never realized he had been leaving them here.
There were two careful piles near the back, nearly hidden against the tile back splash. He realized immediately what the little objects were, his hand trembling slightly as he reached for them. They were separated by color, and he grabbed one of each.
For a moment he held them in his gloved fist, taking a deep, steadying breath before he finally opened his fingers and looked down into his palm. He picked one up, holding it to the light.
“Oh.” Min-gi’s realization was instant, his murmur quiet as he looked over the Guild Leader’s shoulder at what Sa-young was holding up. He knew the owl would understand the significance, he had been with him many of the times he’d gone to Incheon to stare at the hole where the West Sea Rift had disappeared, Min-gi an unseen but welcome presence in his shadow. The memory of the scent of sea water made him feel uneasy for a moment as he looked at the light filtering through the blue sea glass he was holding up. He returned it to his hand, plucking up the one from the second pile of glass, holding it as well and giving a short, quick laugh. The second piece was a pale purple.
There were a few pieces of each in the piles, so he pocketed the two he’d removed and hoped the crow wouldn’t notice that one of each color had gone missing. It would be difficult to explain where they had gotten off to if he did, but Sa-young had already made up his mind, wings rustling in anticipation of flight.
“Does Hong Ye-seong still have access to the Internet?” He turned to watch Min-gi tap through his tablet to confirm.
“Yes, he was posting this morning.”
Sa-young nodded, handing the paperwork he’d been engrossed in moments ago back to Min-gi. “Get some shelves installed in here and tell Hong Ye-seong I’m on my way; I need something made.” He tucked his hand back into his pocket for a moment, running his fingers over the sea glass shards.
“Don’t move anything, I’ll do it myself when I’m back. Tell Hong Ye-seong I’ll owe him for this one, that should be enough.” The man was always eager for a project whenever Sa-young left the payment open, and he had a feeling this one in particular would catch his interest. They were both invested in the crow, if for different reasons. Still, Hong Ye-seong was often willing to put aside whatever he was working on to help Cha Eui-jae, even if by proxy through Sa-young.
Min-gi nodded, tapping the message into his tablet as Sa-young opened the glass door to the balcony and spread his wings. It would take him some time to fly to Jang-In village in Bukhansan but with his mind set and determination pushing him forward, he dropped off the balcony, spreading his dark brown wings and took flight.
—
Eui-jae landed on Sa-young’s suite balcony, tapping in the code and sliding the door open. That Sa-young hadn’t reached out or sent him on some wild quest in the last few days made him uneasy. He knew if something had happened he would have gotten a message from Seo Min-gi, Bae Wonwoo or the Pado message board, but he couldn’t help flying over anyway.
His hand slipped into his pocket, pulling out a beaded bracelet. Sa-young wasn’t here; he couldn’t hear his heart beat. It was disappointing, and he started mindlessly twirling the bracelet around his finger as he meandered around, finding himself in the kitchen where he headed for his usual spot in the corner to deposit the bracelet since he was there anyway. It was a shock to find it empty, the bracelet stilling around his finger as he blinked at the space devoid of the other trinkets he’d left over time. He patted the spot he’d put everything else he’d left for Sa-young as if it were some trick his eyes were playing on him but they were truly gone.
He’d been leaving things here often, at this point, and he had assumed that Sa-young had just never noticed. At first it hadn’t necessarily been on purpose. After Awakening he’d always picked up things that caught his eye. In stressful situations it had brought him peace, one of the first things he had left had been a stone he had picked up years ago in the West Sea Rift and it had been with him until one day he’d pulled it from his pocket and placed it on Sa-young’s counter. It had been something he’d worried smooth over the years and eventually he hadn’t felt the need to hold onto it anymore. Since then he would pick something up, keep it for a little while, and then leave it next to the stone when something else drew his attention. It was unnerving that they were now missing.
Crouching down, he checked the floor, his eyes sweeping around the area in search. He twisted around, looking for any hint of them when his gaze finally settled on a new feature in the suite he hadn’t noticed before He automatically made a beeline for it, barely aware of the flap of large wings and the click of the lock of the balcony door. He didn’t even stop when the door slid open and footsteps heralded the vulture’s return behind him. Instead, he found himself standing in front of several shelves on the wall. What he had brought so far didn’t even fill one, but there were several at his eye height waiting for more of his gifts. His cheeks suddenly felt hot, but now that he knew his gifts were still here there was another question bubbling to the surface that ruffled his feathers a bit.
As if reading his mind, Sa-young came to stand behind him, carefully dropping his chin onto the top of Eui-jae’s head. “I moved them all myself.” He found himself relaxing upon hearing that, and leaned back into the other man as arms wrapped around him.
Reaching out, he carefully placed the beaded bracelet on the shelf, going back through the items and adjusting where they sat, turning them this way and that until he was satisfied. He tapped the stone from the Rift but left it where it was. He then went through the sea glass, tapping each as the arms around him gently squeezed and Sa-young dropped his forehead onto his shoulder.
He paused once he’d tapped every piece of sea glass, eyes narrowing before he twisted around in Sa-young’s arms. Reaching up, he slipped his fingers under the straps of his mask, undoing it with practiced precision and setting it on one of the nearby empty shelves. “You’re missing two pieces of sea glass.”
“Hm. I must have misplaced them.” Eui-jae pointedly looked from the corner of the kitchen where the items had been to the shelf they now rested on but Sa-young just shrugged. It wasn’t like they’d had to travel far.
A kiss to the corner of his lips distracted him for a moment, but he turned his thoughts back to the missing pieces. Sa-young didn’t seem worried, though, and there was something about his reaction that didn’t spur Eui-jae into asking about them more.
“Thank you.” The kisses that had trailing over his skin stopped and he looked down into violet eyes from where Sa-young had been kissing his neck, the man having tilted his head to the side to look up at him.
“Why?” There was incredulity in his tone, like it was the most obvious thing in the world that he would find the little trinkets Eui-jae had left him precious.
He laughed at the obvious confusion on the man’s face as he straightened back up to look down at Eui-jae.
“Not everyone appreciates a crow’s gifts. To some people they’re trash.” They were just useless little things, but they meant a lot to him. He had always carried something out of the dungeons and rifts he’d flown into in his early days, as well. Everything had memories and some crumb of sentimental value attached to it, and at some point Sa-young had earned his trust, and more, and he had started leaving them behind at his residence.
“People are idiots.” The grumpy response had Eui-jae laughing, and Sa-young released his hold on the crow long enough to turn him around, a chin resting on the top of his head once more as Sa-young reached past him to gently tap the bracelet with a gloved finger.
“Each of these is important to me, because they’re from you.” Before someone touching the little objects he left around bothered him, but he didn’t mind it as Sa-young touched them. The realization of it made him blush again, and he leaned back once again into the comfort of Sa-young’s embrace.
After years he had finally found someone he could trust with the truth of who he was, who didn’t judge his strange bird habits and that was a gift in itself.