Beautiful Stranger - 5/? (EXO Dragon AU multi-shot)
Title: Beautiful Stranger (5/?)
Author: himawarixxsandz
Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s): XiuRis, HunHan, BaekYeol, SuDo
Summary: Beasts bleed too
A/N: I wanted this to be longer T.T but I couldn't lump it with what comes after so there you go.
Prologue // Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4 // Part 5 // Part 6
Luhan is sitting on the bed when Minseok comes out of the shower, one towel around his waist and another plopped over his wet hair. The main warehouse has only one large bathroom and beds up in the half-level, but the smaller warehouse across the gravel pathway has extra beds as well as an entire locker room of showers. It’s usually where they let the rogues sleep until someone comes to bring them to a shelter downtown.
Yixing had re-arrived with Joonmyeon and Baekhyun in tow, while Luhan, Sehun, and Jongdae had come in another car following suit. Kyungsoo had sent Joonmyeon down with more food and another spare change of clothes for Minseok because Yixing had forgotten to bring the tamer clothes the first time around.
“You know,” Luhan says, as Minseok starts pulling on boxers and then his jeans, “you’re being incredibly stupid.”
“No one forced Sehun to come,” Minseok says and meets Luhan’s eyes significantly. “He’s not a baby.”
“No one forced Jongin to come,” Luhan says coolly, “he’s not a baby.”
Minseok pulls a long-sleeved t-shirt over his head and rolls up the sleeves to his elbows. “Fine-touché. We both don’t want them here, but I didn’t even know Jongin was coming, okay? You could’ve stopped Sehunie.”
“His deal was that if I came, then he got to come with me-anyway, you try stopping either of them,” Luhan says wearily, rubbing a hand over his eyes, “notice how all the dragons always have to be here when their precious tamer hyung is in danger.”
Minseok meets the other man’s gaze, and grins-snorting.
“I’m being serious.”
“I never said you weren’t,” the tamer says, putting his hands up and raising his eyebrows.
“Why do I always have to play bad cop?” Luhan mumbles. “Just because I’m the human.”
Laughter bursts out of Minseok-he tries to hide it with his towel under the guise of drying his hair, but Luhan catches it and manages to aim a swift kick to the tamer’s shin. “Ow-yah.” Minseok pulls the towel away and finds that Luhan is smiling faintly now. “Don’t be dramatic,” the tamer says, kicking Luhan back. “Besides-I’m sure Sehunie loves to play bad cop with you.”
Luhan bolts to his feet, mouth open.
Minseok grins again, tongue visibly between his teeth.
“Fuck off,” Luhan says, sitting back down with his ears flaming as the tamer laughs all over again. “And-wow-you really don’t think you’re in danger, do you? You think I’m kidding and they’re all just being clingy dongsaengs, don’t you?”
The tamer slowly gathers the two towels in his hands, intending to bring them back to the main warehouse so they can be hung outside to dry. “I get that he’s dangerous,” Minseok says quietly, “but that’s no reason to give up on him so soon.” He stands up and starts flicking off the lights in the bathroom and the bedroom, walking out to the front. Luhan follows him.
The lights on the warehouses have flickered on in the time that Minseok took to shower. Darkness encompasses the entire area, and the autumn wind starts to pick up-blowing through the tamer’s damp hair and bringing goosebumps up on the nape of his neck. There aren’t any stars tonight because of the clouds, which Minseok knows also means that if this weather keeps up, no one will be able to fly after sunset for a while.
“Yeah,” Luhan says as they walk down the steps of the small warehouse and start making their way across the gravel path to the main building, “tigers are dangerous but that’s no reason not to adopt them as a house cat.”
Minseok shoots Luhan a look, frowning at him, as they climb up the stairs of the main warehouse.
Luhan shrugs.
The atmosphere back in the main warehouse is somber-like that of family members pulling an all-nighter at a hospital for a relative. Minseok wishes that that comparison would hold true for everyone’s emotions, but he knows that the others are all just anxious to see if, in a restored state, Wufan would end up stomping the place to the ground or not. Joonmyeon and Baekhyun are talking in whispers on the loveseat, while Sehun and Jongin are seated together on the couch, each dragon leaning on opposite ends with their legs tangled in the middle. Luhan steps by Sehun for a swift kiss on the lips before going on with Minseok towards the infirmary ladder.
Upstairs on the half-level, Jongdae leans against the railing while Yixing hovers over the only occupied bed-now surrounded by the special supplies Joonmyeon had to help Yixing haul down to the center. Luhan walks around the IV stands and raises his eyebrows appraisingly at Wufan’s unconscious form-now at least fully clothed and cleaned, thanks to Yixing, Jongdae, and Joonmyeon’s combined efforts in washing down over one-hundred-eighty centimeters of dragon.
“He’s hot,” Luhan says, glancing back up to Minseok.
“Is that all you can say?” Jongdae mutters.
“He was all pretty as a dragon,” Luhan says, “so I guess it makes sense that he’s really hot as a human-he was also really big as a dragon-”
“Okay,” Yixing says, staring at Luhan. “Okay.”
It’s not like Luhan is wrong, Minseok thinks-even deathly pale, and deathly thin, unconscious with shallow breaths, hooked up to an IV on either side, Wufan is terribly attractive. With the dragon’s height carrying over from his large size in beast form-his endless legs-strong eyebrows heading over features that simultaneously come off as both sharp and soft. Wufan is attractive, but at the moment, Minseok is just finding it hard to be attracted to him because it’s difficult to think a person is hot when they’ve made several great attempts to gravely injure you in the past forty-eight hours.
“How fucked up is he?” Minseok asks briskly.
“His ankle’s sprained,” Yixing says, “so I moved up the cuffs and wrapped that up.” He points to the tight, black band around Wufan’s ankle, right above the dragon’s socks. The metal cuffs are now just below the dragon’s knees-highly uncomfortable for when he wakes up, but there’s no other place for them. “Some of the deeper wounds had infections, but nothing serious yet so I just shaved off what I could since he heals incredibly fast anyway.” Yixing glances at Minseok and the medic waves his hand indicatively over the bulky wrapping apparent beneath Wufan’s shirt.
“Are all the wounds from when we fought him?” Luhan says quietly.
“Some of them,” Yixing says slowly, “but some of them are old wounds that already crusted over-stopped bleeding, so there’s pus. I think something happened before we found him, and he just never got those treated-never healed properly. And then there’re a lot of the smaller wounds that he probably picked up from however he traveled here and from all the forest-destroying he did.”
“So,” Jongdae says with a conclusive air, “it’s really not that bad-it’s just that he hasn’t eaten since fuck knows when.”
“The IVs take care of that though, right?” Luhan glances at Yixing.
“I don’t have all the equipment to put straight up food into him,” Yixing says, shaking his head, “I just had some packets of vitamins and stuff so I let those drip-he’ll need it anyway. But actual food-I guess-when he wakes up.”
Minseok folds his arms. “And when do you think that’ll be?” he says to Yixing.
The medic shrugs. “He’s strong-he might even wake up tomorrow-or tonight.”
“I just want to know how he got out of the cage,” Jongdae says, meeting Minseok’s eyes and then Luhan’s.
Yixing exchanges glances with the tamer. “I actually wouldn’t be surprised,” Yixing says slowly, still holding Minseok’s gaze, “if he managed to find a loose bar and wiggled it enough for him to slip through-he’s taller than Chanyeol even, but he really hasn’t eaten for a while. He’s thin enough to fit.”
Minseok’s narrow when he sees a glint in Yixing’s eyes that tell the tamer that the medic clearly knows something after treating Wufan. Yixing looks away for a moment, silence in the air, before he walks over to the bedside and gestures towards Wufan’s body again. “He’s got these cuts that go up and down in a line,” Yixing says, looking out to all of them, “and they’re really fresh-newly injured-and the edges of the bars are sharp. I’m pretty sure that’s how he got out, and that’s where the newest cuts came from.”
“I just think it’s weird,” Jongdae says, “that after he goes through all that trouble to get out of the cage, he decides to walk over and pass out in the warehouse.”
“How is that weird?” Luhan says, looking over to Jongdae. “If he barely made it to the warehouse, you think he has the energy to even get to the forest? Plus-the cuffs-he can’t shift.”
Minseok sighs tiredly-he hasn’t slept in an actual bed for at least forty-eight hours (because the infirmary beds feel like cardboard with sheets slapped over them, really) and he hasn’t been home since the day before yesterday. This isn’t the first time, however, that he’s had to pull days upon days at the center without getting to go back to his dorm. Tamers are able to get special passes that exempt them from class-whether high school or university, although most tamers are put in charge of a center during their last year of high school at the earliest-when duty calls.
Luhan meets his eyes and Minseok knows from the way Luhan tilts his head that the other man understands. Luhan is in the same year as Minseok and is usually the one who takes care of going down to the admissions office, letting them know that Minseok has to pull one of his passes and won’t be in class for a few days. “Tomorrow’s the weekend,” Luhan says reasonably, “see how he’s doing Sunday night before you decide to just use another pass-it’s exam prep week.”
“I know,” Minseok mumbles, rubbing at his eyes. “I know.”
“If push comes to shove,” Jongdae suggests, “we could always-”
“Jesus Christ, no,” Minseok says, tired eyes suddenly opening wide as he realizes what Jongdae is about to say. “Oh-no-no.”
Jongdae looks hurt. “Hyung-we’re not all Jongin-”
“Maybe when he’s less of an idiot,” Minseok says, “but not now-especially not when he wakes up and starts acting like a captured gorilla that’s about to be stuffed.” He quickly looks away from Jongdae before the dragon decides to further the argument. “Anyway-it’s late-you guys should go home-take Baekhyun home before Chanyeol gets on my case.”
Luhan and Yixing immediately head for the ladder while Jongdae has to be yanked along, mouth open as Minseok slowly brings up the rear. “Hyung,” Jongdae says again, eyes incredulous as Yixing continues to tug him along. “Minseok-hyung.”
“See,” Luhan grins, whispering under his breath, eyeing Minseok, “their precious tamer hyung.”
“Shut up,” Minseok says.
Jongin and Sehun have fallen asleep on the couch with Jongin nearly slumped over one end and Sehun taking up nearly the entire length of the sofa. Luhan promptly straddles Sehun’s waist and bounces lightly, waking the dragon up. Sehun blinks sleepily, hands instantly moving to Luhan’s hips. “Wha-is it done-where’s Minseok-hyung-”
Joonmyeon and Baekhyun have stopped talking and warily stare at Minseok from across the warehouse. Only Jongin is still fast asleep, and Minseok doesn’t make any move to wake him up. “I’m staying the night again,” he says to the room at large, “so go back without me-”
“Hyung,” Sehun begins instantly before Luhan socks him in the stomach. The dragon falls silent.
“You can come back tomorrow if you want,” Minseok says and offers a tiny smile (the first of the night, it feels like), hands in his pockets, glancing from face to face (he can’t help but notice that Yixing and Luhan look the calmest-the only humans in the room, reasonably listening to Minseok’s orders-while the dragons, with the exception of Jongin obviously, all look like they have half a mind to jump on Minseok and drag him back with them).
The dragons in the room don’t move even at that-continuing to stare at Minseok until Yixing claps his hands loudly and Luhan climbs off of Sehun’s lap. “C’mon,” Luhan says, patting Sehun’s hip and then pointing at Jongin. Minseok helps Sehun hoist Jongin onto the maknae’s back since the tamer doesn’t want Jongin to be woken up if possible-it’s been a hard day and Minseok is afraid that Jongin might insist on staying again.
Baekhyun tugs Joonmyeon along and Minseok tries to ignore how Joonmyeon keeps sending worried glances at the tamer. Yixing and Luhan once again after to steer Jongdae out of the warehouse, and Sehun seems to only be keeping silent because of Luhan’s significant glances. Minseok watches them leave in silence, biting the inside of his cheek because he knows that they’re just worried-knows that they don’t understand why he’s risking so much and trying so hard for one single wayward dragon.
Truthfully, he’s not so sure either.
But he doesn’t want to give up on Wufan.
He can’t.
Saturday morning arrives with Minseok nearly rolling off the couch that he decided to sleep on (because even a couch is more comfortable than the infirmary beds, as he’d discovered from last time-and there’s also the added factor of sleeping next to a volatile, semi-comatose dragon). There’s banging on the front door and Minseok barely scrambles to his feet before Yixing and Chanyeol come busting through with Kyungsoo right behind them.
(Minseok thanks his lucky stars that none of the dragons came)
The morning is spent with Yixing checking up on Wufan, Minseok showering and changing into the clothes Kyungsoo’s brought after driving by Luhan and Minseok’s shared dorm. Kyungsoo cooks breakfast from whatever is left in the warehouse refrigerator (Luhan is in charge of restocking), and while they eat, Chanyeol says-through a mouthful of rice and soup-that Baekhyun and Jongdae are dropping by later on.
By the time the dishes are washed (Kyungsoo roping Chanyeol into helping), and Yixing is finished looking Wufan over, it’s mid-morning and Baekhyun and Jongdae arrive with Sehun unexpectedly in tow. Chanyeol is already suited up, sitting on the couch while he waits for Baekhyun, Jongdae, and Sehun to do the same. Kyungsoo volunteers to stay behind with Yixing, so Minseok slings his arm around Sehun’s neck. “It’s been a while,” the tamer says, looking up at the maknae.
Sehun wraps his own arm around Minseok’s waist. “Promise I won’t drop you this time, hyung,” he says and Minseok smiles.
Flying with Sehun is relaxing-different from the thrill and familiarity of flying with Jongin. Since Sehun is the most recently tamed, and since Sehun had been met with Luhan so early on directly after being tamed, Minseok hasn’t really flown very much with Sehun. Luhan also has specialized needs as a rider who’s terrified of heights, so Sehun’s style of flying has been focused around accommodating Luhan.
There’s never much talking when flying with Sehun. Minseok also usually stays sitting because Sehun still has a few rough swerves here and there, and even though the tamer isn’t afraid of falling, he’d rather not have to be stuck in the middle of the forest until Sehun manages to relocate him.
“So, last week,” Minseok says lightly, “Luhan didn’t come back to the dorms and snuck in through the window the next morning without a shirt. And he wouldn’t tell me where he was so I-”
The tamer has to suddenly flatten his body against Sehun as the dragon abruptly seems to lose control of the air, dipping down unsteadily and choking out a strangled roar before struggling back to a comfortable altitude. Minseok bursts into laughter as he straightens back up in the saddle and practically feels the embarrassed heat radiating from Sehun’s scales.
“It’s okay,” Minseok pats Sehun behind the ears as the dragon gurgles out another defensive roar, “you’re legal-so Luhan won’t get deported.”
Sehun continues to choke and gurgle in ways that Minseok never knew a dragon could.
Evening arrives soon after Minseok and Sehun land, and far before Baekhyun and Chanyeol, and Jongdae, land. The three had apparently gone so far as Taeyeon’s center to and stopped for snacks and a chat. Kyungsoo and Yixing are sitting on the couch when Minseok and Sehun return, having already prepared and eaten dinner without the other five. Sehun, Baekhyun, and Jongdae are all shining with sweat, hair damp against their faces from flying for the entire day.
Minseok sends the three dragons off to the smaller warehouse to shower up and lotion down their skin-dragons, as young adults, are still forming scales and have to constantly use specialized oils and lotions while they’re in human form as preventive measures for scale atrophy. Regenerating scales is different and more difficult for a dragon’s body than for a human body to regenerate skin cells. Every dragon’s scale color combination and particular hue is also unique to them-like a human’s fingerprint-and a tamer’s pride is an inevitable factor in the desire to keep all of his or her dragons’ coats shining and glittering.
Personally, Minseok shamelessly admits that he’s no exception-he knows that Kyungsoo and Chanyeol don’t care too much about the appearance of their dragons, but Luhan and Yixing, even though the medic doesn’t ride too often, know that a well-kept dragon usually performs better. Luhan especially, coming from a traditional Chinese rider family, is who Minseok counts on to constantly keep the dragons in check for routine application of all the lotions and oils.
Sehun in particular usually has to put up with a rather frightening Luhan when the youngest dragon skips over the weekly routines.
Yixing pulls Minseok to the side while Kyungsoo and Chanyeol are playing cards at the dinner table, waiting for the dragons to finish maintenance. “He’s not doing too badly,” Yixing says, “even though we thought he’d wake up today.”
“Do you have another guess for when he’ll wake up?” Minseok asks, biting his lip.
The medic breathes in and out slowly, eyes focused as the tamer practically watches the thoughts whirl through the younger man’s mind. “Maybe-I mean-it could be any time. Hopefully tomorrow-hopefully sometime this week at the latest.”
Minseok rubs a hand over his face as he thinks, thinking through possibilities and scenarios. “Guess I’ll be camping out here for a few more days then,” he sighs.
“Do you want me to stay-”
The tamer shakes his head. “I’ll call you if he’s feeling worse off when he wakes up-but, otherwise, if he’s just waking up and feels okay, I don’t want you coming.”
Yixing frowns.
The older man breaks into a grin. “Oh, c’mon-not you too.” He pats the other man’s shoulder briskly. “I’ll be fine-as long as my professors take pity on me because of those passes, and someone keeps driving up food and clothes for me.” After Minseok takes his hand away, Yixing is still adamantly frowning.
“He’s dangerous,” Yixing says firmly with an air of finality. His tone is suddenly so uncharacteristically focused and worried that Minseok feels a stab of worry through his own body. “He’s beautiful, hyung, but he’s dangerous and we’re all just starting to feel like you don’t-”
Minseok holds his arm up-still lumpy because of the bandages thick beneath the sleeve of his sweatshirt. “He’s dangerous,” the tamer says with a humorless smile. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Once the dragons return and the takeout’s arrived, they eat dinner in almost absolute silence-they all went without lunch as they’d ridden through the day, and hunger usually is a feeling that doesn’t seem to touch someone while they’re in the air. Plates are washed and then Minseok, after spending at least twenty minutes convincing the dragons that he won’t be dead by dawn, has them all piling into the cars and driving away before the clock hits ten at night.
He changes into sweats and a t-shirt, piling a clean sweatshirt over it because the heating in the warehouse clearly isn’t top notch (they’re lucky they were allowed to even have a heater in the warehouse considering how young of a crew they still are). The tamer brushes his teeth, washes his face, and settles into the depths of a fleece blanket on the large sofa near the warehouse kitchen with a book he’s supposed to finish by next week (he’s currently read up to page five).
The clock ticks by minute by minute but every move of the second hand feels like it’s the hour hand instead as Minseok stares emptily into everything this book doesn’t seem to want to offer him (namely, excitement-or even vague interest). He supposes though that if it muddles through this for at least another two hours before he sleeps, it’ll be better for him than if he tried to read back at his shared dorm with Luhan trying to sing his own Mandarin version of Jingle Bells backwards.
His eyelids seem to grow heavier and heavier as the number of pages beneath Minseok’s left hand increases. He presses a button on his cell phone, watching the numbers flash sometime past eleven-a time that honestly isn’t even close to late for a university student, even more so for one that’s also a tamer, but Minseok knows that he’s not going to have much to do the next day-he’ll just be waiting here-
Minseok puts his book face down on the table, opened up to the page he just finished. He glances up towards the source of the sound-the loud crash and clang of metal just now (of what Minseok dearly hopes wasn’t an IV stand being knocked down in anger). The tamer stands up and heads for the ladder that leads up to the half-level. Despite everything he knows he’s told the dragons and riders, he has to admit (to himself, right now, rather pathetically) that he also hopes he won’t be dead by dawn.
It’s hard to breathe but you can’t make a single sound. You don’t dare move-you don’t dare take a breath if that means they find you because you might as well suffocate yourself than have them kill you in ways that will have you screaming for final darkness. The wood chafes at your bare skin, the pebbles make painful imprints against the back of your legs and arms but you have to stay hidden and you have to stay still.
You burrow further back and squat lower, hoping that the thicket of tall grass in front of you will help conceal you. You’re out of breath and your body (lungs) screams at you to pant and take in more oxygen (your head spins) but you know you absolutely can’t. You don’t want to be found-you can’t be found-you-
A hand grabs your shoulder (a scream catches in your throat).
Author: himawarixxsandz
Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s): XiuRis, HunHan, BaekYeol, SuDo
Summary: Beasts bleed too
A/N: I wanted this to be longer T.T but I couldn't lump it with what comes after so there you go.
Prologue // Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4 // Part 5 // Part 6
Luhan is sitting on the bed when Minseok comes out of the shower, one towel around his waist and another plopped over his wet hair. The main warehouse has only one large bathroom and beds up in the half-level, but the smaller warehouse across the gravel pathway has extra beds as well as an entire locker room of showers. It’s usually where they let the rogues sleep until someone comes to bring them to a shelter downtown.
Yixing had re-arrived with Joonmyeon and Baekhyun in tow, while Luhan, Sehun, and Jongdae had come in another car following suit. Kyungsoo had sent Joonmyeon down with more food and another spare change of clothes for Minseok because Yixing had forgotten to bring the tamer clothes the first time around.
“You know,” Luhan says, as Minseok starts pulling on boxers and then his jeans, “you’re being incredibly stupid.”
“No one forced Sehun to come,” Minseok says and meets Luhan’s eyes significantly. “He’s not a baby.”
“No one forced Jongin to come,” Luhan says coolly, “he’s not a baby.”
Minseok pulls a long-sleeved t-shirt over his head and rolls up the sleeves to his elbows. “Fine-touché. We both don’t want them here, but I didn’t even know Jongin was coming, okay? You could’ve stopped Sehunie.”
“His deal was that if I came, then he got to come with me-anyway, you try stopping either of them,” Luhan says wearily, rubbing a hand over his eyes, “notice how all the dragons always have to be here when their precious tamer hyung is in danger.”
Minseok meets the other man’s gaze, and grins-snorting.
“I’m being serious.”
“I never said you weren’t,” the tamer says, putting his hands up and raising his eyebrows.
“Why do I always have to play bad cop?” Luhan mumbles. “Just because I’m the human.”
Laughter bursts out of Minseok-he tries to hide it with his towel under the guise of drying his hair, but Luhan catches it and manages to aim a swift kick to the tamer’s shin. “Ow-yah.” Minseok pulls the towel away and finds that Luhan is smiling faintly now. “Don’t be dramatic,” the tamer says, kicking Luhan back. “Besides-I’m sure Sehunie loves to play bad cop with you.”
Luhan bolts to his feet, mouth open.
Minseok grins again, tongue visibly between his teeth.
“Fuck off,” Luhan says, sitting back down with his ears flaming as the tamer laughs all over again. “And-wow-you really don’t think you’re in danger, do you? You think I’m kidding and they’re all just being clingy dongsaengs, don’t you?”
The tamer slowly gathers the two towels in his hands, intending to bring them back to the main warehouse so they can be hung outside to dry. “I get that he’s dangerous,” Minseok says quietly, “but that’s no reason to give up on him so soon.” He stands up and starts flicking off the lights in the bathroom and the bedroom, walking out to the front. Luhan follows him.
The lights on the warehouses have flickered on in the time that Minseok took to shower. Darkness encompasses the entire area, and the autumn wind starts to pick up-blowing through the tamer’s damp hair and bringing goosebumps up on the nape of his neck. There aren’t any stars tonight because of the clouds, which Minseok knows also means that if this weather keeps up, no one will be able to fly after sunset for a while.
“Yeah,” Luhan says as they walk down the steps of the small warehouse and start making their way across the gravel path to the main building, “tigers are dangerous but that’s no reason not to adopt them as a house cat.”
Minseok shoots Luhan a look, frowning at him, as they climb up the stairs of the main warehouse.
Luhan shrugs.
The atmosphere back in the main warehouse is somber-like that of family members pulling an all-nighter at a hospital for a relative. Minseok wishes that that comparison would hold true for everyone’s emotions, but he knows that the others are all just anxious to see if, in a restored state, Wufan would end up stomping the place to the ground or not. Joonmyeon and Baekhyun are talking in whispers on the loveseat, while Sehun and Jongin are seated together on the couch, each dragon leaning on opposite ends with their legs tangled in the middle. Luhan steps by Sehun for a swift kiss on the lips before going on with Minseok towards the infirmary ladder.
Upstairs on the half-level, Jongdae leans against the railing while Yixing hovers over the only occupied bed-now surrounded by the special supplies Joonmyeon had to help Yixing haul down to the center. Luhan walks around the IV stands and raises his eyebrows appraisingly at Wufan’s unconscious form-now at least fully clothed and cleaned, thanks to Yixing, Jongdae, and Joonmyeon’s combined efforts in washing down over one-hundred-eighty centimeters of dragon.
“He’s hot,” Luhan says, glancing back up to Minseok.
“Is that all you can say?” Jongdae mutters.
“He was all pretty as a dragon,” Luhan says, “so I guess it makes sense that he’s really hot as a human-he was also really big as a dragon-”
“Okay,” Yixing says, staring at Luhan. “Okay.”
It’s not like Luhan is wrong, Minseok thinks-even deathly pale, and deathly thin, unconscious with shallow breaths, hooked up to an IV on either side, Wufan is terribly attractive. With the dragon’s height carrying over from his large size in beast form-his endless legs-strong eyebrows heading over features that simultaneously come off as both sharp and soft. Wufan is attractive, but at the moment, Minseok is just finding it hard to be attracted to him because it’s difficult to think a person is hot when they’ve made several great attempts to gravely injure you in the past forty-eight hours.
“How fucked up is he?” Minseok asks briskly.
“His ankle’s sprained,” Yixing says, “so I moved up the cuffs and wrapped that up.” He points to the tight, black band around Wufan’s ankle, right above the dragon’s socks. The metal cuffs are now just below the dragon’s knees-highly uncomfortable for when he wakes up, but there’s no other place for them. “Some of the deeper wounds had infections, but nothing serious yet so I just shaved off what I could since he heals incredibly fast anyway.” Yixing glances at Minseok and the medic waves his hand indicatively over the bulky wrapping apparent beneath Wufan’s shirt.
“Are all the wounds from when we fought him?” Luhan says quietly.
“Some of them,” Yixing says slowly, “but some of them are old wounds that already crusted over-stopped bleeding, so there’s pus. I think something happened before we found him, and he just never got those treated-never healed properly. And then there’re a lot of the smaller wounds that he probably picked up from however he traveled here and from all the forest-destroying he did.”
“So,” Jongdae says with a conclusive air, “it’s really not that bad-it’s just that he hasn’t eaten since fuck knows when.”
“The IVs take care of that though, right?” Luhan glances at Yixing.
“I don’t have all the equipment to put straight up food into him,” Yixing says, shaking his head, “I just had some packets of vitamins and stuff so I let those drip-he’ll need it anyway. But actual food-I guess-when he wakes up.”
Minseok folds his arms. “And when do you think that’ll be?” he says to Yixing.
The medic shrugs. “He’s strong-he might even wake up tomorrow-or tonight.”
“I just want to know how he got out of the cage,” Jongdae says, meeting Minseok’s eyes and then Luhan’s.
Yixing exchanges glances with the tamer. “I actually wouldn’t be surprised,” Yixing says slowly, still holding Minseok’s gaze, “if he managed to find a loose bar and wiggled it enough for him to slip through-he’s taller than Chanyeol even, but he really hasn’t eaten for a while. He’s thin enough to fit.”
Minseok’s narrow when he sees a glint in Yixing’s eyes that tell the tamer that the medic clearly knows something after treating Wufan. Yixing looks away for a moment, silence in the air, before he walks over to the bedside and gestures towards Wufan’s body again. “He’s got these cuts that go up and down in a line,” Yixing says, looking out to all of them, “and they’re really fresh-newly injured-and the edges of the bars are sharp. I’m pretty sure that’s how he got out, and that’s where the newest cuts came from.”
“I just think it’s weird,” Jongdae says, “that after he goes through all that trouble to get out of the cage, he decides to walk over and pass out in the warehouse.”
“How is that weird?” Luhan says, looking over to Jongdae. “If he barely made it to the warehouse, you think he has the energy to even get to the forest? Plus-the cuffs-he can’t shift.”
Minseok sighs tiredly-he hasn’t slept in an actual bed for at least forty-eight hours (because the infirmary beds feel like cardboard with sheets slapped over them, really) and he hasn’t been home since the day before yesterday. This isn’t the first time, however, that he’s had to pull days upon days at the center without getting to go back to his dorm. Tamers are able to get special passes that exempt them from class-whether high school or university, although most tamers are put in charge of a center during their last year of high school at the earliest-when duty calls.
Luhan meets his eyes and Minseok knows from the way Luhan tilts his head that the other man understands. Luhan is in the same year as Minseok and is usually the one who takes care of going down to the admissions office, letting them know that Minseok has to pull one of his passes and won’t be in class for a few days. “Tomorrow’s the weekend,” Luhan says reasonably, “see how he’s doing Sunday night before you decide to just use another pass-it’s exam prep week.”
“I know,” Minseok mumbles, rubbing at his eyes. “I know.”
“If push comes to shove,” Jongdae suggests, “we could always-”
“Jesus Christ, no,” Minseok says, tired eyes suddenly opening wide as he realizes what Jongdae is about to say. “Oh-no-no.”
Jongdae looks hurt. “Hyung-we’re not all Jongin-”
“Maybe when he’s less of an idiot,” Minseok says, “but not now-especially not when he wakes up and starts acting like a captured gorilla that’s about to be stuffed.” He quickly looks away from Jongdae before the dragon decides to further the argument. “Anyway-it’s late-you guys should go home-take Baekhyun home before Chanyeol gets on my case.”
Luhan and Yixing immediately head for the ladder while Jongdae has to be yanked along, mouth open as Minseok slowly brings up the rear. “Hyung,” Jongdae says again, eyes incredulous as Yixing continues to tug him along. “Minseok-hyung.”
“See,” Luhan grins, whispering under his breath, eyeing Minseok, “their precious tamer hyung.”
“Shut up,” Minseok says.
Jongin and Sehun have fallen asleep on the couch with Jongin nearly slumped over one end and Sehun taking up nearly the entire length of the sofa. Luhan promptly straddles Sehun’s waist and bounces lightly, waking the dragon up. Sehun blinks sleepily, hands instantly moving to Luhan’s hips. “Wha-is it done-where’s Minseok-hyung-”
Joonmyeon and Baekhyun have stopped talking and warily stare at Minseok from across the warehouse. Only Jongin is still fast asleep, and Minseok doesn’t make any move to wake him up. “I’m staying the night again,” he says to the room at large, “so go back without me-”
“Hyung,” Sehun begins instantly before Luhan socks him in the stomach. The dragon falls silent.
“You can come back tomorrow if you want,” Minseok says and offers a tiny smile (the first of the night, it feels like), hands in his pockets, glancing from face to face (he can’t help but notice that Yixing and Luhan look the calmest-the only humans in the room, reasonably listening to Minseok’s orders-while the dragons, with the exception of Jongin obviously, all look like they have half a mind to jump on Minseok and drag him back with them).
The dragons in the room don’t move even at that-continuing to stare at Minseok until Yixing claps his hands loudly and Luhan climbs off of Sehun’s lap. “C’mon,” Luhan says, patting Sehun’s hip and then pointing at Jongin. Minseok helps Sehun hoist Jongin onto the maknae’s back since the tamer doesn’t want Jongin to be woken up if possible-it’s been a hard day and Minseok is afraid that Jongin might insist on staying again.
Baekhyun tugs Joonmyeon along and Minseok tries to ignore how Joonmyeon keeps sending worried glances at the tamer. Yixing and Luhan once again after to steer Jongdae out of the warehouse, and Sehun seems to only be keeping silent because of Luhan’s significant glances. Minseok watches them leave in silence, biting the inside of his cheek because he knows that they’re just worried-knows that they don’t understand why he’s risking so much and trying so hard for one single wayward dragon.
Truthfully, he’s not so sure either.
But he doesn’t want to give up on Wufan.
He can’t.
Saturday morning arrives with Minseok nearly rolling off the couch that he decided to sleep on (because even a couch is more comfortable than the infirmary beds, as he’d discovered from last time-and there’s also the added factor of sleeping next to a volatile, semi-comatose dragon). There’s banging on the front door and Minseok barely scrambles to his feet before Yixing and Chanyeol come busting through with Kyungsoo right behind them.
(Minseok thanks his lucky stars that none of the dragons came)
The morning is spent with Yixing checking up on Wufan, Minseok showering and changing into the clothes Kyungsoo’s brought after driving by Luhan and Minseok’s shared dorm. Kyungsoo cooks breakfast from whatever is left in the warehouse refrigerator (Luhan is in charge of restocking), and while they eat, Chanyeol says-through a mouthful of rice and soup-that Baekhyun and Jongdae are dropping by later on.
By the time the dishes are washed (Kyungsoo roping Chanyeol into helping), and Yixing is finished looking Wufan over, it’s mid-morning and Baekhyun and Jongdae arrive with Sehun unexpectedly in tow. Chanyeol is already suited up, sitting on the couch while he waits for Baekhyun, Jongdae, and Sehun to do the same. Kyungsoo volunteers to stay behind with Yixing, so Minseok slings his arm around Sehun’s neck. “It’s been a while,” the tamer says, looking up at the maknae.
Sehun wraps his own arm around Minseok’s waist. “Promise I won’t drop you this time, hyung,” he says and Minseok smiles.
Flying with Sehun is relaxing-different from the thrill and familiarity of flying with Jongin. Since Sehun is the most recently tamed, and since Sehun had been met with Luhan so early on directly after being tamed, Minseok hasn’t really flown very much with Sehun. Luhan also has specialized needs as a rider who’s terrified of heights, so Sehun’s style of flying has been focused around accommodating Luhan.
There’s never much talking when flying with Sehun. Minseok also usually stays sitting because Sehun still has a few rough swerves here and there, and even though the tamer isn’t afraid of falling, he’d rather not have to be stuck in the middle of the forest until Sehun manages to relocate him.
“So, last week,” Minseok says lightly, “Luhan didn’t come back to the dorms and snuck in through the window the next morning without a shirt. And he wouldn’t tell me where he was so I-”
The tamer has to suddenly flatten his body against Sehun as the dragon abruptly seems to lose control of the air, dipping down unsteadily and choking out a strangled roar before struggling back to a comfortable altitude. Minseok bursts into laughter as he straightens back up in the saddle and practically feels the embarrassed heat radiating from Sehun’s scales.
“It’s okay,” Minseok pats Sehun behind the ears as the dragon gurgles out another defensive roar, “you’re legal-so Luhan won’t get deported.”
Sehun continues to choke and gurgle in ways that Minseok never knew a dragon could.
Evening arrives soon after Minseok and Sehun land, and far before Baekhyun and Chanyeol, and Jongdae, land. The three had apparently gone so far as Taeyeon’s center to and stopped for snacks and a chat. Kyungsoo and Yixing are sitting on the couch when Minseok and Sehun return, having already prepared and eaten dinner without the other five. Sehun, Baekhyun, and Jongdae are all shining with sweat, hair damp against their faces from flying for the entire day.
Minseok sends the three dragons off to the smaller warehouse to shower up and lotion down their skin-dragons, as young adults, are still forming scales and have to constantly use specialized oils and lotions while they’re in human form as preventive measures for scale atrophy. Regenerating scales is different and more difficult for a dragon’s body than for a human body to regenerate skin cells. Every dragon’s scale color combination and particular hue is also unique to them-like a human’s fingerprint-and a tamer’s pride is an inevitable factor in the desire to keep all of his or her dragons’ coats shining and glittering.
Personally, Minseok shamelessly admits that he’s no exception-he knows that Kyungsoo and Chanyeol don’t care too much about the appearance of their dragons, but Luhan and Yixing, even though the medic doesn’t ride too often, know that a well-kept dragon usually performs better. Luhan especially, coming from a traditional Chinese rider family, is who Minseok counts on to constantly keep the dragons in check for routine application of all the lotions and oils.
Sehun in particular usually has to put up with a rather frightening Luhan when the youngest dragon skips over the weekly routines.
Yixing pulls Minseok to the side while Kyungsoo and Chanyeol are playing cards at the dinner table, waiting for the dragons to finish maintenance. “He’s not doing too badly,” Yixing says, “even though we thought he’d wake up today.”
“Do you have another guess for when he’ll wake up?” Minseok asks, biting his lip.
The medic breathes in and out slowly, eyes focused as the tamer practically watches the thoughts whirl through the younger man’s mind. “Maybe-I mean-it could be any time. Hopefully tomorrow-hopefully sometime this week at the latest.”
Minseok rubs a hand over his face as he thinks, thinking through possibilities and scenarios. “Guess I’ll be camping out here for a few more days then,” he sighs.
“Do you want me to stay-”
The tamer shakes his head. “I’ll call you if he’s feeling worse off when he wakes up-but, otherwise, if he’s just waking up and feels okay, I don’t want you coming.”
Yixing frowns.
The older man breaks into a grin. “Oh, c’mon-not you too.” He pats the other man’s shoulder briskly. “I’ll be fine-as long as my professors take pity on me because of those passes, and someone keeps driving up food and clothes for me.” After Minseok takes his hand away, Yixing is still adamantly frowning.
“He’s dangerous,” Yixing says firmly with an air of finality. His tone is suddenly so uncharacteristically focused and worried that Minseok feels a stab of worry through his own body. “He’s beautiful, hyung, but he’s dangerous and we’re all just starting to feel like you don’t-”
Minseok holds his arm up-still lumpy because of the bandages thick beneath the sleeve of his sweatshirt. “He’s dangerous,” the tamer says with a humorless smile. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Once the dragons return and the takeout’s arrived, they eat dinner in almost absolute silence-they all went without lunch as they’d ridden through the day, and hunger usually is a feeling that doesn’t seem to touch someone while they’re in the air. Plates are washed and then Minseok, after spending at least twenty minutes convincing the dragons that he won’t be dead by dawn, has them all piling into the cars and driving away before the clock hits ten at night.
He changes into sweats and a t-shirt, piling a clean sweatshirt over it because the heating in the warehouse clearly isn’t top notch (they’re lucky they were allowed to even have a heater in the warehouse considering how young of a crew they still are). The tamer brushes his teeth, washes his face, and settles into the depths of a fleece blanket on the large sofa near the warehouse kitchen with a book he’s supposed to finish by next week (he’s currently read up to page five).
The clock ticks by minute by minute but every move of the second hand feels like it’s the hour hand instead as Minseok stares emptily into everything this book doesn’t seem to want to offer him (namely, excitement-or even vague interest). He supposes though that if it muddles through this for at least another two hours before he sleeps, it’ll be better for him than if he tried to read back at his shared dorm with Luhan trying to sing his own Mandarin version of Jingle Bells backwards.
His eyelids seem to grow heavier and heavier as the number of pages beneath Minseok’s left hand increases. He presses a button on his cell phone, watching the numbers flash sometime past eleven-a time that honestly isn’t even close to late for a university student, even more so for one that’s also a tamer, but Minseok knows that he’s not going to have much to do the next day-he’ll just be waiting here-
Minseok puts his book face down on the table, opened up to the page he just finished. He glances up towards the source of the sound-the loud crash and clang of metal just now (of what Minseok dearly hopes wasn’t an IV stand being knocked down in anger). The tamer stands up and heads for the ladder that leads up to the half-level. Despite everything he knows he’s told the dragons and riders, he has to admit (to himself, right now, rather pathetically) that he also hopes he won’t be dead by dawn.
It’s hard to breathe but you can’t make a single sound. You don’t dare move-you don’t dare take a breath if that means they find you because you might as well suffocate yourself than have them kill you in ways that will have you screaming for final darkness. The wood chafes at your bare skin, the pebbles make painful imprints against the back of your legs and arms but you have to stay hidden and you have to stay still.
You burrow further back and squat lower, hoping that the thicket of tall grass in front of you will help conceal you. You’re out of breath and your body (lungs) screams at you to pant and take in more oxygen (your head spins) but you know you absolutely can’t. You don’t want to be found-you can’t be found-you-
A hand grabs your shoulder (a scream catches in your throat).