FIC- A drastic change-Eunhae AU
Title: A drastic change Pairing: Eunhyuk/Donghae (Eunhae) maybe more in future chapters.
Rating: PG-13 in this chapter
Summary: There is a mystery surrounding a monster that's turning people into werewolves and murdering them after their first shift, Eunhyuk is asked to investigate the issue with the help of the only victim that could be saved and brought into a pack. Too bad that Eunhyuk hates packs and Donghae has very bad instincts. AU of course
Warnings: Some violence, werewolves, bad words.
Beta: My shoopa gurl wookism
A/N: Yes I should end my other story, no I'm not doing it because this one ate my brain, I'm actually working already on the next chapter. I hope you all enjoy it, since I really loved writing it. I think that the Super Junior fandom needs more epic AUs, not that this is one, but maybe it will inspire people to try :3
Enjoy!
~*~*~
He loved cities because he could point to at least five people at that exact moment that attracted more attention than him. It was full of life every time, at every hour, he could walk around and not worry about attracting attention (at least, bad attention, he though smirking a little when two girls stared at him while walking in front of them).
He could be alone without problem because the city was crowded and everyone (this being almost literal) attracted more danger than him.
Because he knew that being a werewolf had its advantages.
That is, of course, if the other werewolves didn't find out about his existence; because if they did, he would most surely curse his bloodline until his first ancestor.
A wolf without a pack was seen more as prey and less as kin in their circle.
If it was instinctive he never felt it, and he lived off his instinct, he always wondered why, amongst everything, he never felt the need to be in a pack.
He wasn't an alpha. He would rather relinquish power to others to make his life easier than to be responsible of the welfare of an entire pack, he wasn't a leader, and he liked it that way, in that sense, being in a pack wouldn't be pressuring at all, he could even mate and live a peaceful life.
The prospect of a pack made his head hurt, he wasn't sure why, but the idea of living with a bunch of people wasn't appealing to him at all. Even more, it was terrifying.
He ran away from home after his first shift, when he could manage to control his wolf shape. He ran, ignoring his parents, his sister, even the alpha of the pack couldn't call him back. He ran and ran, until he couldn't smell more than a few street dogs and cats, then he stopped. He managed to survive by eating trash before learning how to hunt, but that only lasted for a few weeks. He was so young, and keeping his wolf form made him weak. He almost died right there on the streets, like a common dog.
That was when he met Hangeng, and was saved.
Hangeng picked him up from the streets, healed him, fed him, made him human again.
They lived together for a few days. Hangeng told him that he was beta of a pack that resided not far from the city itself. They were more like a family than a pack. They picked up stray pups like him, let them live in the house, made them help with some work, have a decent life, and if they decided to, leave or stay. He was of course, very much welcome to join.
He said no immediately and Hangeng smiled because he knew the answer would be that.
Hangeng always knew about that stuff.
That was why they kept in contact, after almost ten years of knowing each other, Hangeng still called him, still met him, he was the only contact to that world he decided to leave.
It was almost eleven when he finally reached the coffee shop where he had to meet with his friend. To him, being always available for Hangeng was crucial, he had a debt to pay (even if the older never asked for anything in return for his kindness), and he was going to pay it.
When he arrived, Hangeng (as always) was already sitting and staring at his cup of coffee in silence. He was just faking, of course; he sensed the other a while ago, it was just a facade to appear more human. Finally he raised his head and gave him a sweet smile.
“Hyukjae... I'm glad you're fine. Please, take a seat. I already ordered for you, I hope you don't mind.”
He frowned.
“You know I mind, you better let me pay this time.”
Hangeng smiled amused.
“Oh, I'm sure you're making me pay by the time we finish our talk.”
Hyukjae frowned more (if that was even possible), he has seen that look before, it was scary when it showed on his old friend's handsome face.
It was the 'I'm going to pay you for having a pretty much crappy week' face that most of his clients greeted him with.
“...You're hiring me.”
“Not me, well, not exactly. Let’s talk first, how's life?”
On the second day of living with Hangeng (at least in a conscious state), he understood that living at his pace, as opposed to letting anyone under him do whatever the hell they wanted, he had authority. He wasn't imposing physically, if anything. Hyukjae would call him pretty. He was tall, well trained but not overly muscular. He was graceful in his movements, and most of all, was a very composed and calm person.
His control was perfect for a beta, and when he ordered something there was no question allowed. And most of all, Hangeng was a master at controlling people, and that made him a dangerous opponent as an enemy but a wonderful friend as an ally.
Hyukjae liked to do everything at Hangeng's pace to avoid trouble.
“Life's fine, just finished a job; good money, horrible memories, the usual.”
“Should I dare ask?” Hyukjae just chuckled.
“I'm sure you've seen worse, I mean, you were the one that helped me get in this, right?”
“Yeah, but I wanted you to do small works like dealing with small pests like faeries and goblins. I never wanted you to take my place.”
“I like it, really, well, except some things of course. You wouldn't believe how vampires deal with jealousy.”
Hangeng stared at him and frowned.
“You were called by vampires?”
“Just one. It was sad; she was a very sad creature. She even forgot werewolves are a delicacy to vampires. But, oh don't worry, I was careful.”
Hyukjae liked to think of himself as the most useful creature in the city. He helped everyone that needed his help and could afford him. At the beginning, he took every work he could, and as he went by, he could get more selective (and expensive). And at that point, he had a very accommodated lifestyle, he didn't have a lot of luxury but he had a nice life.
“Have you heard about strange things happening?”
“What kind of strange things?”
“Werewolf explosion strange.”
“What?”
Hangeng looked at him with a serious expression.
“I need you to come with me, to my home.”
“No.”
“This is important, Hyukjae, you need to come with me. Jungsoo wants to meet you.”
“Jungsoo as in Jungsoo the alpha of your pack?”
“Yes, he thinks you'll be useful. There's something bad happening, and, hell, at first I thought about making you come with me because I'm worried that you'll end up killed or worse...”
He growled in annoyance, no one questioned his capacities.
“I can defend myself.”
The older growled back at him, as if daring him to say more. He was brave, not stupid. He kept quiet, but stared firmly at the man in front of him.
“You can't defend yourself from this. We don't even know what ‘this’ is,” Hangeng said quickly, “It's dangerous, and you're vulnerable alone. Also, as I was saying, we think you can help us to know why there are many turnings that end in murders lately.”
“What?” Hyukjae didn't even notice that his cup of coffee arrived long ago.
“It's been going on for about a week. No one was really sure what was going on. There have been corpses appearing everywhere. Boys, not older than you, turned and then killed shortly after their first shift. We got reports from other packs. They smell them, suddenly, they smell death, finally their corpses appear with a deep bite on their necks, it's not a pretty sight.”
Hyukjae kept quiet. This was bad. He had never heard of a werewolf that turned humans only to kill them a few weeks later. He had to be really strong. It could even be more than one, and if they were in his city...
“We saved one of those boys...”
“You did?”
“Yeah... well, it was more like he saved himself by running to us. He was so scared, no one told him what was going on with him. Apparently whoever does this doesn't tell them about the change. He was really freaking out when we explained to him he was now a werewolf,” Hangeng smiled, “He reminded me of you when you were little, and starving.”
“Oh shut up,” Hyukjae couldn't help but smile back.
“So, are you coming?”
His smile disappeared quickly. He didn't want to go. He loathed the idea. Hyukjae really didn't like packs, but he knew the risks of living alone were multiplied with this news.
“I'll pack my stuff.”
Hangeng gave him one of his blinding smiles, and stood up.
“I'll pick you up tomorrow, then.”
Hyukjae just nodded.
“Oh and another thing,” He added before drinking he coffee in one gulp and standing up quickly, “You certainly are paying for this.”
~*~*~*~
The ride to Hangeng's place was short. The pack lived in a huge house, with little cabins around it and a huge backyard that lead to a deep forest. The older smirked when he saw that Hyukjae couldn't hold the huge excited smile that bloomed on his face.
Instinct was instinct, and as a wolf, the chance to finally run around and sleep in the grass was a wonderful gift to get back. Even to Hyukjae, who was (evidently) scared shitless.
“Calm down, everyone is nice in here, and there are no females, so you wont have to behave too much.” Hyukjae's jaw dropped.
“Why aren't there females here?”
“This is more of a temporary pack, remember? Male pups are the ones that run away the most, and the ones that decide to stay,” Hangeng chuckled “Girls can't stand the noise and mess that the lot living here make. I'm sure you'll fit just fine.”
They both walked in silence, mainly because Hyukjae was too upset to talk. He didn't like this, he wasn't used to this, and he didn't like the idea of living with others.
“You're too tense. You'll have fun, believe me. I've known most of these guys as long if not longer as you. They are nice people.”
“I don't doubt that, believe me, I'm just...”
“Nervous? No one is going to push you away, I promise.”
Hyukjae just kept walking in silence, but some of the tension on his shoulders disappeared.
The first thing that welcomed him was a cup flying towards his face at amazing speed. He barely could duck before some damage was done. The cup crashed and shattered into tiny pieces of porcelain.
“Uh... welcome to your new home?”
“Thank you?”
He heard quick steps coming towards his direction accompanied by an angry scent.
“The one that broke that cup, will pay for it, with a new tea set. If you broke the new guy you're fixing him too.”
“That makes no sense...” came an annoyed voice from the room Hyukjae deducted was the kitchen.
“Shut up! I'm the alpha in here, I say whatever the hell I want.”
Finally a blond head appeared before him, his smell filled the room, and a little whimper tried to escape Hyukjae's lips.
He hasn't met an alpha in a while.
This one didn't even looked like a typical alpha, nor dominant, masculine or even aggressive. He was very much like Hangeng; pretty, slim, not as elegant as their beta but the powerful peace and calmness he emitted was overwhelming. This pack was ruled by much more than strength, and he could respect that immediately.
“You must be the literal lone wolf Hangeng adopted long ago,” said Jungsoo, (he remembered the name), smiling brightly and shaking his hand with unexpected strength, “I'm Jungsoo.”
“...Hyukjae, it's uh... a pleasure...”
Jungsoo smiled sweetly.
“Don't worry, I know you're not comfortable. I can only imagine what is it like to be in a pack after so many years living alone. Why don't you go to your room? We'll talk later.”
He only nodded.
Funny, that sounded more like advice but it was definitely an order. That alpha was already demanding obedience.
Hyukjae already wanted to run away.
Hangeng took him to his room by orders of Jungsoo, showing him around in the process.
“The second floor is where the rooms are, the first floor has the living room, TV room, game room, bar...”
“Bar?”
“Some people like to drink without socializing, ok? The kitchen is also on the first floor, and if you value your life, you wont go in there without permission. The gymnasium is in one of the cabins next to the house; the other three cabins are parts of a small infirmary. There are no doctors here, but we can do some basic stitching and disinfecting. There’s a storage room and the room where we keep some tools, mostly the big and dangerous ones.”
Hyukjae nodded in silence. It was a nice house, big, with enough space to be able to maintain privacy. The air smelled good, everything was so pacific and nice, the forest left a lingering smell that tickled nicely in his nose.
They walked until Hangeng came in front of a wooden door.
“Ok, here we are,” he opened the door and Hyukjae saw a room, with a bed, a night table, a closet, even a desk. His new room had white walls, his bed had white covers, the lamp over the desk was also white. He cringed.
“So, you guys like white...”
Hangeng laughed.
“Blame our alpha. Don't worry I have some blue covers that I could lend you, and I'm sure you will make this more colorful when you settle down. Are you sure you only need what's in those two bags?”
Hyukjae only left with a medium and small bag, mostly full of clothes, a few books, and some stuff he had for sentimental value.
“I didn't have much to start with. You taught me that I shouldn't have a lot of stuff with the job.”
“Right...”
After Hangeng left him alone (not without some teasing about his “clothes” being half hats and half real clothes), Hyukjae laid on his bed just staring at the ceiling.
After almost breaking his brain with doubts and thinking, he fell asleep without changing positions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the third day of living in there, he remembered that the nice guy that always smiled sweetly at him and worried about everything was named Ryeowook. He always saw him running around, because he was busy with something the other guys broke, spilled, burned, made explode, or simply destroyed.
On the fourth day, he could recognize Heechul as the guy with flaming red hair that liked to talk a lot about embarrassing stuff that happened to the others.
By the half of the second week he could name everyone in the house, and even if he still wasn't allowed in the house itself most of the time (Ryeowook gave him an encouraging smile and told him that soon he would be allowed, but not before his first shift.), he managed to talk and befriend all the members in the pack.
That didn't mean that he wasn't terrified about the shift.
He remembered, being barely able to move from the pain. He got bit by some sort of monster, and left there. He knew he wouldn't die, but the pain was almost blinding. He just ran, even if he felt like dying, he ran with all he had. Even if he was leaving a trace of blood, he ran until he couldn't run more, and fainted.
Next thing he knew, he was in some sort of hospital bed receiving worried looks from a blond guy.
“What's your name?” asked the blond guy sweetly. For some reason he answered quickly.
“Donghae...”
“Ok, Donghae, welcome to your new life.”
He remembers a lot of screaming, panic, breaking stuff, maybe a little crying and insulting. Most of all he remembers the cold fear, the painful reality coming to him; you aren't a human anymore, Lee Donghae, you are now like that thing that wanted to kill you, you are a monster, and you have to learn to live with it.
It took him three days to finally accept that he had a new life now. Three days to come to terms with his new reality, three days to finally be able to walk out and accept himself.
He asked if he could go back home to retrieve his things but the answer was negative. He couldn't go out before his first shift; it wasn't safe. Apparently, the one that attacked him could come back to get him. Instead, Hangeng, a handsome dark haired Chinese man, offered to pick up his things, and since Donghae didn't have much to start with, he accepted. When he said that he lost the key to his apartment the night he was attacked, Hangeng just winked at him and left without saying anything.
That night, Donghae reunited with his few belongings.
The next morning, when Ryeowook went to give him his breakfast and to have their usual morning chat, he was more nervous and stressed than usually. Donghae wasn't still used to his new abilities but could at least somehow detect how some people felt by the way they smelled; Ryeowook, who usually had a sweet smell, now had a troubled smell, as if he was forcing his sweetness, but couldn't do it too well for Donghae not to notice.
“Are you okay?” he asked carefully. The younger turned to look at him for an instant before sighing deeply.
“We are having a new addition to the pack today, and, well, it's an unusual addition.”
“More unusual than me?”
Ryeowook smiled at that.
“Well, it's some sort of a tie.”
“Was he also...” he trailed off pointing to the deep scar he had on his shoulder. The other shook his head.
“No, he's... somehow a celebrity in this house, even though Hangeng-hyung is the only one that knows him.”
“And you don't want him to come here?”
Ryeowook shook his head quickly with wide eyes.
“Oh, no, no! We've been insisting for a long time for him to live here with us. He doesn't have a pack, and that can't be safe, and now with this issue... well, even less safe.”
“Then why are you upset?”
“I'm not upset; I'm anxious, we all are. Well, except Hangeng-hyung and Jungsoo-hyung, but they don't count. It's always stressing to have new people here.”
Donghae kept quiet, somehow he knew, at least some part of him did, what Ryeowook meant with all of that. It was an instinctive thing. Every new wolf, was a potential threat to the safety of the pack, and apparently, not even the knowledge of the new addition calmed their feelings of uneasiness.
“When is he coming?”
“Hangeng-hyung already went to get him.”
~*~*~*~
He saw two people walking towards the house after midday. One was clearly Hangeng, the other one, Donghae didn't know. He was a little too far to make up details but could distinguish light brown hair, dark clothes, two bags, and mistrust in his body language.
So that was the new guy.
Ryeowook came back that afternoon. He brought lunch and Hangeng with him, apparently to talk about the new guy, and why he came to the house.
“Should I care?” said Donghae focusing more on the food than on the beta.
Bad idea.
He heard a growl, and something inside him (and maybe outside him, he wasn't too sure about his body anymore) whimpered and decided that it was better to leave the food for a few moments, and focus on Hangeng who looked at Ryeowook, who nodded, and got out from Donghae's room quickly.
“I know that you're not used to this,” said the older after sighing, “but you have to understand something quickly; if I talk to you, you listen to me, if Jungsoo speaks to you, you listen to him. We aren't tyrants but this pack has survived because everyone is aware of authority in here. I actually don't care too much, but it's important that the others notice that you have adapted to our rules.”
Donghae nodded quietly.
“I'm sorry.”
He received a sweet smile in exchange.
“It's okay. You are young, and still have a lot of work to do if you want to live peacefully. But be careful; everyone in here respects the order of the pack, and if anyone looks like danger to it, well...”
Donghae couldn't help but gulp at the smile Hangeng had on his face at that moment.
“Oh right, Hyukjae, well, he should be comatose right now so...”
“What?!”
“Oh it's nothing, he always sleeps when he's stressed. It's his way of dealing when he can't break stuff.”
“So, he's stressed?”
Hangeng laughed.
“You bet he is, he hates packs. He ran away from his when he was just a puppy,” he looked at Donghae with something close to pity, “I bet he hates you right now.”
“He doesn't know me, why would he hate me?”
~*~*~*~
Lee Hyukjae really hated him.
It was their fist meeting and he was already looking at him coldly, after Donghae attempted to come closer. Hyukjae's first reaction was to emit a small growl that left him frozen where he was standing.
“I can smell your fear,” was the first thing Hyukjae said with a voice that for a mysterious reason made Donghae shiver. It was strange, it really was. The other was apparently his age, not very tall, skinny, with brown eyes and hair, and had a face that resembled less than that of a wolf but more of a monkey. Not really intimidating, but there was something about him that unsettled Donghae deeply. Hyukjae staring at him for a long minute didn't help his nerves either.
“He'll be shifting for the first time next week, right?” he asked Hangeng after (finally) taking his eyes away of Donghae. The beta wolf only nodded, while smiling.
“You're such a jerk, hyung.”
“I never told you he shifted already, did I?”
The younger frowned and then turned to look at Donghae.
“I'm sure you know why am I here.”
He nodded.
“You are going to catch the guy that did this to me...?”
Hyukjae nodded and just kept looking at him. There was something that Donghae couldn't understand about the other, something that made him uncomfortable, that made him want to do something but he still wasn't sure what.
“As you should know,” said Hyukjae this time looking at a grinning Hangeng, “I can't do anything until his shift. And you.”
He then looked at Donghae, “I need to talk to you later, so you'll be seeing me soon.” And with that Hyukjae left the room and Donghae could breathe again.
“I think he likes you,” said Hangeng winking at him and then walking away with a satisfied smile.
Donghae was too busy not understanding what was going on to worry about Hangeng's smile.
NEXT