once upon a potion shoppe
►recipient: shouldshy
►title: once upon a potion shoppe
►pairings: DO & Kai
►rating: pg-13
►word count: 6k
►summary: Kyungsoo has long abandoned the youthful heart flutters of magic, not since he was in school has he felt something move him that way. He works at a potions shop with his cat and lives a quiet life, until, by chance things suddenly change, bringing magic back into his life.
►author's notes: I swear I'm a writer.
There’s something magical about being in school. Not just the daily classes for young witches and wizards to learn to perfect their skills, but something in the air that speaks of youth. The smell of classrooms first thing in the morning after a single night of vacancy, the folly of youth, the whimsical chaos of drama in friendship, in romance, in scholastic pursuits. The memories of moments stolen, of mentions in passing, of endless mad schedules in their daily lives so full that the snapshots in time follow no strict timelines. The magic of those youthful days was not learning how to illuminate a room with a wand for the very first time or in learning how to cure a deathly stench from a gym bag. It was nothing to do with enchanted chocolates that hopped from your fingers before you could take a bite. It was the heart flutters of a friend calling your name, of waiting to get back your grade, of excitement and fear of the long listed possibilities of a future you weren’t yet living. Magic, a feeling that lived in your every heartbeat, in youth, grows less impressive with time. And soon Hogwarts was left behind. It became a cluster of fading memories of easier days. Following Hogwarts, university ended with more regrets than all the years of school preceding it. Until now, when magic is a daily practice but it holds no thrills or relation to the heart.
Do Kyungsoo took over running an old potion shop after he graduated from university. The shop had started as a dusty interim job to carry him until he found something more permanent, it sucked him in day by day. Kyungsoo soon found a year with the shop was solid reason to stay a little longer. The shop had been previously owned by a girl who was forced to get out of town quickly due to some quarrel she was in with a muggle boy. She hadn’t really checked Kyungsoo’s merits or qualifications before handing over the keys with the promise to be back in a few weeks. She didn’t come back in a few weeks, however. She stayed away, sending post cards with her promised return from all over the muggle lands.
“Just left Rome, this town is dusty and it does smell a bit like turtle dung potion but it had lovely ruins and such good food! Ciao! See you in a week! I hope the shop is well!” She would write. And Kyungsoo started a collection of her postcards on the old bulletin board behind the counter to show off her travels whenever customers came in looking for her. The shop was indeed doing well. Financially, there was a noticeable spike in revenue since Kyungsoo started working but that was not to say that the place was at all a booming business, nor did it need more than one person there at any given time to tend to the few who came in to seek specialty potions. He had also made it his mission to clean up the shop since he started working there. Slowly but surely, with many a dust induced head cold, he had begun to make notable progress in sprucing up the old shoppe. Where before there were customers who looked for the young woman for consultations, now Kyungsoo had regulars that sought him out for his expertise. He had made the place his own home away from home; but he wasn’t the only one. Forever sleeping lazily in front of the shop was a sleek black and white cat, long soft fur slick with sheen, and a mask of black covering his eyes and ears, leaving a white crooked mouth. The lazy cat moved without much purpose most of the time, and followed Kyungsoo in and out of the store in the morning as if he were the sole employee of the shoppe.
Every morning Kyungsoo made his way down the street on foot two or three blocks down cobblestones from his single story duplex to the Polly’s Juice Potions shop. There was subtext below the shoppe’s sign reading, no, they did not sell polyjuice potion and that those seeking such a thing should look elsewhere. Upon approaching Kyungsoo, the lazy cat would be sleeping on the wooden bench outside of the store window. The cat would open one eye lazily, yawn and stretch. Then slowly, with all of the time in the world with no plan or mind of schedule, he would get to his feet and hop down, waiting for Kyungsoo to unlock the front door. He would let himself in, with as much ownership and command as the shop keeper himself, only so that he could perch on the windowsill inside and go back to sleep. The cat showed up a few days after the girl left and proceeded to form this strange ritual, never altering it. Kyungsoo called the cat, Kai, which he read could mean ocean. The feline was indeed mellow like seas far from land, un-chafed by shorelines.
Today was no exception. He opened the shop and Kai rolled his slick black feline body against Kyungsoo’s legs affectionately before meandering towards the store window and plopping down on his usual spot beside a dusty old vase of plastic and silk flowers.
“Good morning, Kai.” Kyungsoo called, as he turned the sign on the window to show that the shop was inviting and ready to be approached.
The cat, after a quick show of interest, resumed its sulky nature and rested by the window for most of the day. Meanwhile, Kyungsoo continued cleaning glass bottles, punctuated with few customers in between and their daily ritual was solidified once more.
Kai had no memories of anything before he saw Do Kyungsoo walk out of the quaint bottle museum. Rain spotted the dirty stones at his feet. When he opened his eyes, Kai’s mind was struck with the weight of whatever accident he had been in and his limbs slow to pick up speed once consciousness pulled him from his wrecked sleep. Pelted under the heavy droplets of rain, Kai wandered to an awning and perched low to the ground as others huddled together under the covering to seek refuge.
It was really unfair that he was so close to the ground. The fat droplets of rain collided with the ground and spat back up into his eyes and fur but there was no higher ground to be had, but for the bench across the street. Kai watched carefully as people raced by to get out of the rain. He wondered how quickly he could dart straight across to the bench without risking being stepped on by a wizard or witch, blind to the ground beneath with their wet cloaks hanging to their soaked ankles.
“Summer showers are dreadful, aren’t they?” The man huddled beneath the awning says to the woman.
Kai looked up at the giants at his side, towering too tall with their heavy cloaks on, marking them as wizards with some stature seeing as they had rather nice robes for a common place day of shopping. He found it all so irritating, but had no concrete reason why. Without a moment’s hesitation, he darted through the heaven’s tears to the other side of the road, hopping easily up on the seat to circle into comfort. The air was spruced with wetness, tasting thick with the muggy moisture. Kai watched with a lewd gaze, eyeing up the passers by with long sweeps up and down their bodies. Not a person stood out, nobody felt right, nobody was familiar. Not until the shopkeeper stepped out of the potion shop and cursed quietly beneath his breath.
“Shit, I forgot it was going to rain today…”
Dark hair cut short in the back and layered long in the front, shiny and neatly styled. Eyes wide and round, the whites of his eyes overtaking the steady dark gaze that looked upwards to the bleary skies, lashes falling at half mast as he slowly exhaled his disappointment and accepted the weather. Kai watched it register across his features, full lips pouting only a moment before relaxing. He held out a slender wrist, reaching out beyond the awning before extending a hand to catch water against his palm. He couldn’t quite place where he’d seen this face before, but the man was no stranger. He knew this human.
“Summer rain.” The shopkeeper jumps at the sound of someone’s voice and turns towards the man approaching from the other side of the bench.
“Kris.”
“Is my order ready? I happened to be in town and thought I would stop in to say hello.” He offers with a confident smile.
“I don’t know if it’s ready actually. Come on in, please.”
And just like that, the shopkeeper disappeared inside with the tall man.
Kai knew immediately that he felt disappointment when the short shopkeeper was out of sight and that was the beginning of their relationship. He lived on that bench from that day forward, and he never looked back on his days of memory vacant, aimless wandering again.
“What did you get in Herbology?”
Kyungsoo stumbled along the cobblestone grounds of the courtyard with his friend Baekhyun at his side. Their year of troublemaking was coming to an end as their finals were done and their classes were wrapping up for the year. They were finishing off their fifth year and there was still the feeling of peace that followed a semester ending.
“I didn’t check yet. My quill ran out of ink midway through the last question-“
“Oh. Right…”
“If professor hadn’t enchanted the room to prevent magic, then I could have finished out the question.” Baekhyun grumbles softly, shifting the weight of his armful of books with some difficulty. “Either way, I’m ready to stop hauling around books for a whole summer. I plan on spending as much time on the lake as possible this year.”
Kyungsoo smiles and nods his head, unable to share in that sentiment. He wasn’t the parties and social engagements type. He likes his quiet, and he likes his space, but that made it hard to meet up with friends on breaks. His friends would want him to go to the lake to water ski, drink, and have late parties with bonfires. And every so often, that was fun. But he didn’t want to spend the whole summer doing that. He had stacks of books to read and articles to submit to the local paper advising changes to the local government’s employment of gnomes. (He wasn’t particularly fond of the buggers and he thought perhaps a change might be in everyone’s best interest.)
“I’m going to the library.” Kyungsoo says.
“I’m going back to the dorms, I’m meeting some Ravenclaws for a quidditch scrimmage match this afternoon, do you want to come watch?”
“I might. Come remind me before you head out.”
And with that Kyungsoo waved off his friend and watched him trot down the moving staircases back towards the Gryffendor dorms. Baekhyun wasn’t popular, not like the captain of the quidditch team, Park Chanyeol or the cool playboy, Kris Wu who always had girls fighting for their attention. Baekhyun was popular in the way that everyone liked him. He was loud and at times a little selfish, but he was bright and he made the mood wherever he went. Kyungsoo always felt like he was cooler being around Baekhyun and he thought that perhaps everyone must feel that way.
Kyungsoo makes his way to the library, stroking the spine of his textbook with sadness he knew few would share. There was something comforting about knowing the worn corners of your own textbook after a year of hard use. He wished that he could pull back out these textbooks someday and remember the worn corners with just as much fondness.
Kyungsoo presses his shoulder into the large heavy doors to the library and lets his mind wander. How many hundreds of students over hundreds of years had passes through this doorway? How many students came here after the end of their sophomore year and walked this path? He sets down his books at his usual spot at the end of the table and takes a deep breath, reveling in the comfort of this space. The dust in the air, the staleness of the space that was brought by the complete submersion in antique books… this was his favorite place on campus. Though it may not be a secluded or hidden place like secret passages or abandoned rooms, Kyungsoo loved it more than anywhere else in the castle. He required no secrecy to claim the library as his sanctuary. He only required that he be respected in his safe place. Luckily, on the last day of exams, there were very few people around in his library. Only a couple making out in the care of magical creatures aisle and a few girls huddled together over in muggle myth and anthology writing ridiculous fan fiction from muggle history texts.
And then on the windowsill was a classmate with a paperback novel in his hand. Kyungsoo knew the student, Kim Jongin, but he had never spoken to him. He was fairly popular with the females in their class. He stayed silent most of the time; he spent most class periods sleeping with his head down on a desk. He had the kind of handsome looks that were proportioned so well that even men in his class would tease him for being too handsome. His expression was never unkind but rather perpetually disinterested in a way that most girls called “smooth”, “mysterious”, “brooding” and “cool”.
The light fell in through the stained glass and brushed the strays of his hair with a halo of red and blue light. It was strange to see Jongin both awake and interested in something, and for a few moments, Kyungsoo found himself staring. The boy, at the very end of his book, kept his eyes fixated on the last page, biting down on the soft flesh of his lower lip and tore it away with the kind of effortless sex appeal Kyungsoo would never possess. Jongin turned the last page and stared at the back cover, rereading the description and standing frozen in the moment as if still trying to process that the novel had come to an end.
Kyungsoo looked abruptly away suddenly embarrassed that he was focused on the man’s good looks. But he had questions that needed answers. Did Jongin feel lost when a good book ended? Did Jongin understand that there was something pointedly missing from the world after you’ve finished a novel that you’ve formed an attachment to? He looks over again at the man framed by the window. Long dark hair fell from his center part, cutting just beneath his eyes, sitting atop angled cheeks. His eyes were still transfixed on the back of his paperback, as if time had stopped for him with the novel. But time had not stopped. Pulled, possibly by the intensity of Kyungsoo’s stare, Jongin lifted his gaze to meet Kyungsoo’s. He felt a sudden jolt of panic, as if something in his stomach was moving without his permission. Jongin lowers the novel to his side and walks toward Kyungsoo; his hips swing as he moves, an arrogant, languid saunter as though he prowled through the room sizing up his prey. He stops in front of Kyungsoo and drops the novel on the table beside Kyungsoo.
“I wouldn’t recommend this novel. The ending makes no sense.” He said, smirking down at Kyungsoo before walking on by.
And just like that, he disappeared from the room, leaving Kyungsoo hypnotized with a bent out copy of “A stargazer’s guide to simple astronomy” on the table. And though he wanted to speak to him when school started back up, the only thing he could think of to say to the boy was “This book isn’t fiction, this isn’t a novel at all.”
“I have finally found my favorite place! I will be home in a few short weeks, dearest Kyungsoo, and with me I bring a new pet and a new lover. We plan on arriving early in the morning but I shant say when-I’ll leave that bit a surprise! Laters from Norway!” Read the newest post card added to the collection on the wall behind the register. Kyungsoo shook his head and sighs heavily, tacking it up. Another promise to be home soon, but that was not so unusual. The postcards unlabelled with a promise of a prompt return stacked by the ones that did not make such false promises towered in comparison.
The doorbell pulled Kyungsoo’s thoughts back and he leaned around a stack of boxes to look at the front door where his old friend Kris was walked towards him with an easy smile.
“Kris, long time!”
The towering man smiled softly, and held out his hand to shake.
“Indeed, mate.”
Kris had been a playboy at Hogwarts. Not the kind that broke hearts for sport, but the kind that fell for too many girls at once and broke many hearts as he got his heart broken over and over. Kris fell in love with love with falling in love, and he was perpetually attached to one girl, while he talked to several others. Eventually, Kris outgrew his childish love games. He moved onto being the successful man that he was now: A potion master in the field of love. He did not create potions to make people fall in love without basis. Instead, he spent a great amount of time creating potions that helped others build their affections. For example, he created potions that would make one a better cook if the person that individual was in love with someone that had a great appreciation for the culinary arts.
“I wanted to drop off my new list.”
The man slid the parchment over with a grin and stuffed his hands into his pockets.
“I’ll be sure to re-up the usuals for you. I see we’re adding wolf’s wax too? Do we really need that? Nothing good can come from something made from ear wax, Wu.” Kyungsoo teased lightly, eyes narrowed.
“I give my customers what they want, I give them all that they need!”
Kris laughed and stopped abruptly, he jumped at the feel of something snatching at his ankle.
“H-hey… is this… is this cat new?”
Kyungsoo stared at him, bewildered for just a moment before hoisting himself over the counter to stare at the man’s feet. Kai was hooking his paws into the man’s ankles and had a maliciously serious look in his eyes.
“No, that’s Kai. He’s the shop’s mascot for all intents and purposes… he… he just kind of… well usually he doesn’t really move from his perch when customers come around. Maybe he likes you.”
The cat hopped onto the counter as if aware that the man was talking about him, and Kyungsoo ran his hand down the cat’s silk spine with an awkward laugh. He pulled his attention from the unusually active feline’s attempts to mar the tall customer’s skin with his claws.
“I’ve never seen him before.” Kris stared at the feline skeptically for a moment before he smiled at the purring cat wading back and forth on the counter under Kyungsoo’s gentle stroking hand.
“Kai has been here for almost as long as I’ve been here. He’s pretty docile and he doesn’t usually do anything but sleep.”
Kris reached for the cat’s spine to join in on the petting. He smiled at the purring creature with a warm gaze. Without hesitation the cat hissed at the tall man as he raised his back into a defensive high arch and bared his clean, white teeth. As Kris started to retreat, Kai launched a paw forward as if to pounce. Before Kyungsoo could play catch, his tail collided with bottles. The potions sizzle as bottles shatter and Kyungsoo was quick to remove the angered cat from the counter top.
“Ssshit-“ Kris whispered as he hopped back.
“S-sorry!” Kyungsoo frantically called, reaching thoughtlessly for the spilled potion to clean up the remnants of the shattered bottles.
“No!” Kris caught Kyungsoo’s wrist after he’s touched the substance spilled on the glass and the two freeze.
“What… what potion is this? Do you happen to know?”
“Well…this bottle is marked as a potion to share dreams, but this one is marked as one to cause you to temporarily lose all ability to taste… so you’ll either be sharing dreams with evil Kai here… or you’ll lose the ability to taste food for a while…”
Kyungsoo looks at the cat perched in his arm and pulls his wrist back to wipe the potion matting the cat’s black fur at his back paws.
“Oh… or both, I suppose.” Kyungsoo said off handedly, distracted by trying to see if troublesome pet had incurred any further damage from the small mishap.
“Or both, yes.” Kris smiled at the shopkeeper and then at the still glaring cat. “Well, my friend. I’m afraid my fiancé is waiting for me, I should be on my way.”
“I’m really sorry about all this…” Kyungsoo says again.
“Take the little troublemaker home and watch him. You have my card if he starts exhibiting any weird symptoms from exposure to either of the potions. I live with a magical creatures expert, I’m sure we can use our combined ability to solve any problems this little guy encounters.” Kris promised as he walked toward the exit without so much as a harsh look.
“Thanks again, Kris.”
The look on the giant man’s face read that there bore no hard feelings between the two and Kyungsoo was immensely satisfied by the resolution. But the feline in his arms was not satisfied at all, taking the moment the tall man left as a sure sign to move away from the shopkeeper to return to the window for lookout.
“Oh, sure, now you decide to be docile and sit pretty?”
Kai meanders through the store slowly and turns to eye Kyungsoo for a long moment before taking his spot on his front window throne.
Kyungsoo finished brushing his teeth and checked his mouth in the mirror, an ordinary practice both wizards and muggles practiced, hygiene. The simplest and most fundamental part of anyone’s life. The 1, 2, 3 stepping blocks that built a person’s essential smell, their aura, and their looks… When Kyungsoo returned to his bedroom, the lamp turned down to the lowest setting, his comforter peeled back to leave enough space for him to sit on the mattress and slip inside the well padded cocoon for an evening of much needed sleep, he found that he had a new friend waiting for him. Perched on the end of the bed, curled up in a fluffy ball of black and white was his new pet, Kai. Well, an old pet, really. But Kai was new to his home, not that he seemed to feel out of place even a little.
“Made yourself at home, I see.” Kyungsoo says quietly, reaching down to cradle the small feline face in a soft, affectionate stroke.
Kai purred into the touch, leaned in and wallowed in the soft brush of skin. After a moment of goodnight wishing, a one sided exchange with more than enough reason for him halt and realize his craziness but he kept on speaking to the cat, even after he’d crawled under the sheets to get comfortable for the evening. Sandwiched between his cool slick comforter and sheet, Kyungsoo’s babbling started to slow with drowsiness.
“Are you falling asleep?”
Kyungsoo nodded his head and closed his eyes, letting the weight of the day sink his head farther down into unconsciousness. But the sweetness of slumber did not last. He shot upright in his bed and reaches helplessly for the light switch until the room was illuminated. Where the feisty cat had been sitting now a person, face shrouded in the darkness but for those eyes that penetrated him.
“K-k-kai?”
“Yes?” The man replied softly, crawling towards Kyungsoo slowly on the small full sized bed, a definite shift in the weight on the mattress making him feel that he was definitely not dreaming.
“Why are you a human?” Kyungsoo asks suddenly.
Kai stops moving, hunched on all four, naked as the day is long over Kyungsoo’s conservative pajama body. He looks down at his nakedness and then at his opposable thumbs with a grin and continues moving over Kyungsoo.
“I’m human…? I’m human…” Kai’s mind feels suddenly very foggy around the edges and he grasps onto something.
An illusion? No. A memory… something far off now, something he needs to place, but along with that is the heart beat of a man that pumps blood through new veins.
“Kai… I know you…” Kyungsoo says offhandedly as the man lowers himself closer atop the shopkeeper.
“I know you too, Kyungsoo.” Kai whispers.
Kyungsoo felt the whisper of breath over his lips and his body goes rigid. He hadn’t been spoken to like that in so long. He hadn’t felt that in so long… He instinctively closes his eyes at the sensation of his name being whispered and tries to analyze it himself. But there was nothing he could do in that moment, that his brain would allow, but to wallow in the feel of Kai’s body hovering over his, through the comforter’s barrier of chaste protecting, burning Kyungsoo’s skin in a way that was far to person.
“Are you… are you a human?” He asks softly.
“Last time I checked… I was a cat…” Kai responds softly.
“Well, at least we’re in agreement on that, but then why does your face look so very…familiar…?”
But at this point, Kai had stopped listening to what he says. He only registered what Kyungsoo’s full mouth was doing with a keen interest in how supple the flesh looked when he spoke. He wasn’t sure what sorcery had been done or what was happening, but in the interest of his own self-appeasing appetite, he slowly lowered himself atop the man he had grown to long for, miss, and need on a daily basis. He came in close to take in the familiar scent of the man he rolled up against. The man he watched meticulously clean bottle after bottle in the dusty old shop.
Kyungsoo’s heart started to shutter unnaturally against his chest as he realizes just how close was is to pressing his mouth to a man’s he’s never seen before. But, he had seen this man before. Possibly. The layers of unique smell built together came up very fresh pine and earthy, like the smell of a man who wears no cologne, but instead shares his natural scent with the world. His body temperature, a sweltering collision brining sweat to dew Kyungsoo’s cotton clad thighs and chest and the overwhelming smells pulled the man into this dreamy rendezvous.
“I know you.” Kyungsoo says softly.
“I’m your cat, Kai.” The man replied and without any further hesitation, he turns his head enough to catch Kyungsoo’s full lips in a pulling kiss.
Kai’s eyes opened to bright morning light and he looks over at the man sleeping next to him with a smile.
Kyungsoo…
His favorite human lay with a twisted expression still sound asleep. He reaches for the man’s face, to palm the soft skin swelling over his jaw, but extended in the space between them was a soft, tiny, black paw.
Startled by the return back to his original body, Kai jolts to his feet with a disgruntled mew loud enough to bring Kyungsoo restlessly to life. He sits up, pushing aside the soft downy layers of his comforter and wipes away sweat from his brow.
“Jongin…” He breathes.
Kai heard the words as though he was listening to the sound of it from through a wind tunnel and suddenly he remembered Kyungsoo as clearly as he remembered his own name. The smell of the Hogwarts library, similar to the dust of the potion shop, yes. He remembered the way the light fell on the boy, his too wide eyes filled with wonder and endless traveling thought. The potions shoppe was comfortable, yes, because it was so much so like that library with it’s stacks upon stacks of possibility just waiting to be cleared off of dust and put into use.
“The potion… we shared a dream, but in our dream… or maybe we didn’t share a dream… I could have sworn you looked just like my old classmate…” Kyungsoo mumbles to himself and climbs from his soft throne. The sleep mussed hair, the way his lips were still stitched together with sleepiness and the way his lashes refused to fully part were all so delightfully Kyungsoo and Kai, awoken from his memory fogged spell, followed after the man to keep a newly found protective eye on the shopkeeper.
Kyungsoo took his place at his desk and there he began scrolling through the stack of books on his desk with some enthusiasm and Kai, recently awoken as Kim Jongin, decided that he would do any and everything in his power to pull his attention back to him. When Kyungsoo tried to read a page, Kai plopped himself on the page, and when Kyungsoo tried to take notes, Kai would chew on his fingers.
“Kai, stop it, I’m doing research right now.” Kyungsoo would hiss, but it warranted more purring rather than any kind of effort to obey the commands.
For the first time since the day he started his work at the shoppe, he did not go in to work, sitting in his pajamas, surrounded by books well into the afternoon. And when Kai finally settled in to Kyungsoo’s lap, stopping his long day of generally doing basically nothing by messing with the shopkeeper’s important work, the front door resounded with heavy knocking and Kyungsoo disappeared.
He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to explain to the man that he was walking down the street when 2 people he was walking near got into an argument, and he had been in the tragic line of fire when a woman turned her then boyfriend, now ex surely, into a feline. Without words or opposable thumbs, he couldn’t help but feel that the task was indeed impossible, and complete lost cause. Looking around the room, Kai felt that he could definitely get used to living here though. The two were indeed simpatico. They worked well together. Two quiet types, one of the more kind nature, the other… well… quiet because he could but purr and yawol, but even before he was feline, he never used the words he had in his arsenal to speak up. Were he offered the chance again though, what might he say to the man? “Long time no see”? “You look good”? Or maybe “I knew that book wasn’t a novel, but I’m bad at making jokes”?
“You actually came back.” Kyungsoo was still standing in complete stunned silence at the shop owner’s presence in his door way.
Everything from her thin frail fingers to her long black hair was exactly as when she’d left, as if the days between their face to face meeting that added up over a year in it’s span of time were nothing but hours in her timeline.
“I said I would be back, didn’t I? Did you not get my post card? If you had been going to the shop, you would have been getting my post cards, but apparently, even on a day when the shop should be open, you’re at home in your pajamas.”
He wasn’t going to argue that he promises to be home in a week had been stacking up on a biweekly basis for 10 months or so. He simply nodded his head.
“I’m actually under the weather today, if you go by the story, you should see that I’ve been active with the store every day now.” He offers.
The shop owner, Kyrstal, reached her hand out without permission and clasps it across his forehead to feel for a temperature. Unsure how she felt about the heat resonating from his body, she lowers her hand to prop her fists securely on her hips and nods her head.
“I suppose I could have asked around about your attendance.” She mumbles thoughtfully but she makes no move to leave with the unsettling feeling that there was something more being omitted. “There is definitely something off about you today, Soo.”
Kyungsoo was intrigued that the flighty woman with her endless energy and charm could in any way make such a judgment call having barely spend any time with him but he allowed the statement with a small nod of the head.
“Yes, I’m just… I’m not feeling good and I’m trying to find out about humans being turned into other animals and the results I’m getting are pretty dismal.” His confession sounded weak, strange and delusional even to his own ears, but his dream had been so real, and there was something about the way that Kai had looked at him this morning that made him feel that it was worth a moment or two to look into the crazy possibility that Kai and Jongin could be… one in the same.
“Why would you be looking into something like that? Are you trying to turn someone into a creature? That seems a bit unethical don’t you think?”
Kyungsoo laughs, cheeks flushing as he covers his mouth with embarrassment.
What the hell kind of crazy potion had he touched to have some nonsensical thoughts? He shakes his head and lowers his eyes to the ground.
“Yeah… I don’t…. I wasn’t going to turn someone into an animal; I was actually looking for a reversal. But that’s crazy still, right?”
She shakes out tumbling long black hair, loose curls twisting and springing in the space between them, as she looks truly sympathetic.
“You’re clearly sick, buddy. Rest well. I feel bad to have ever doubted you were sick. Thinking animals are human is definitely a sign that you need to stay home from the shop. It’s good you weren’t spouting that kind of nonsense at the shoppe or people would think you’d been into the happy potions a little too much.”
“Sorry.”
She gives a half shrug and starts to leave, stopping abruptly, and spinning back towards him. He’s assaulted with the fresh smell of daisies on her perfume and is temporarily taken back to his vivid dream and the smell of Kim Jongin on top of him right before they kissed…
“But if you were looking for information on something like that, I’d talk to potion master, Wu. Kris Wu is one of the best we got in town.”
Kyungsoo’s reaction is delayed, an ever so slight nod of the head before she disappears down the street just as quickly as she appeared. Kris. He hadn’t even thought about that. He could ring Kris and see if he could help, brilliance. But Kai didn’t seem too fond of Kris the last time they met, what would stop him from trying to pounce of his friend once again. And worse still was the possibility that this was all in his mind, that Kai and Jongin had nothing in common, that he had simply lost his mind and the man was as alien as a muggle passport.
He returned to the room to find that that Kai was not sleeping in the windowsill of his living room and the image of Jongin in the library comes back to him clear as day. He picks up the rotary phone and holds the receiver in his hand. The worst that could happen would be that Kris laughs at him for thinking that his stray cat is actually a long lost classmate that kisses him in dreams.
“Kim Jongin?” He calls softly.
The cat lifts his head slowly and Kyungsoo’s eyes widen.
“Kim Jongin?” He repeated slowly.
The cat gets to his feet, hopping down from where he’s perched to saunter over to where Kyungsoo is. He wasn’t really the party type, he wasn’t a risk taker and he was more of the quiet type all around, but in this moment he was ready to humiliate himself, he didn’t care about anything else, the only thing on his mind was his dear friend Kai who could possibly also be his old classmate Kim Jongin, who possibly stirred his erratic but ever logical heart back to life in a dream. He tightens his hold on the rotary phone and gathers the cat into his arms. He might have foreseen losing his cool once but not in this moment. He strokes the cat’s spine in the same familiar way he had grown accustomed to and finds a smile pulling at his cheeks. The voice on the other end seems almost slightly nervous and he realizes that the man may be expecting the worse after the accident. But fate is not so unkind to Kyungsoo, and with absolute assurance that he’s on the right path.
He smiles in spite of the situation and smiles to himself as he locks gazes with his trust feline companion. This is magic. Something he’d long since forgotten had been stirred in Kyungsoo’s chest, and this was worth making a fool of himself. Taken back to his youth, to the heart fluttering moments of uncertainty and nervousness. He was taken back to Kim Jongin standing in the library, framed by the stained glass window, and in that moment, in that perfect moment, there was magic.
“Hello, Kris, I need you to make me a potion.” He says. “A potion to reverse a spell.”
►title: once upon a potion shoppe
►pairings: DO & Kai
►rating: pg-13
►word count: 6k
►summary: Kyungsoo has long abandoned the youthful heart flutters of magic, not since he was in school has he felt something move him that way. He works at a potions shop with his cat and lives a quiet life, until, by chance things suddenly change, bringing magic back into his life.
►author's notes: I swear I'm a writer.
There’s something magical about being in school. Not just the daily classes for young witches and wizards to learn to perfect their skills, but something in the air that speaks of youth. The smell of classrooms first thing in the morning after a single night of vacancy, the folly of youth, the whimsical chaos of drama in friendship, in romance, in scholastic pursuits. The memories of moments stolen, of mentions in passing, of endless mad schedules in their daily lives so full that the snapshots in time follow no strict timelines. The magic of those youthful days was not learning how to illuminate a room with a wand for the very first time or in learning how to cure a deathly stench from a gym bag. It was nothing to do with enchanted chocolates that hopped from your fingers before you could take a bite. It was the heart flutters of a friend calling your name, of waiting to get back your grade, of excitement and fear of the long listed possibilities of a future you weren’t yet living. Magic, a feeling that lived in your every heartbeat, in youth, grows less impressive with time. And soon Hogwarts was left behind. It became a cluster of fading memories of easier days. Following Hogwarts, university ended with more regrets than all the years of school preceding it. Until now, when magic is a daily practice but it holds no thrills or relation to the heart.
Do Kyungsoo took over running an old potion shop after he graduated from university. The shop had started as a dusty interim job to carry him until he found something more permanent, it sucked him in day by day. Kyungsoo soon found a year with the shop was solid reason to stay a little longer. The shop had been previously owned by a girl who was forced to get out of town quickly due to some quarrel she was in with a muggle boy. She hadn’t really checked Kyungsoo’s merits or qualifications before handing over the keys with the promise to be back in a few weeks. She didn’t come back in a few weeks, however. She stayed away, sending post cards with her promised return from all over the muggle lands.
“Just left Rome, this town is dusty and it does smell a bit like turtle dung potion but it had lovely ruins and such good food! Ciao! See you in a week! I hope the shop is well!” She would write. And Kyungsoo started a collection of her postcards on the old bulletin board behind the counter to show off her travels whenever customers came in looking for her. The shop was indeed doing well. Financially, there was a noticeable spike in revenue since Kyungsoo started working but that was not to say that the place was at all a booming business, nor did it need more than one person there at any given time to tend to the few who came in to seek specialty potions. He had also made it his mission to clean up the shop since he started working there. Slowly but surely, with many a dust induced head cold, he had begun to make notable progress in sprucing up the old shoppe. Where before there were customers who looked for the young woman for consultations, now Kyungsoo had regulars that sought him out for his expertise. He had made the place his own home away from home; but he wasn’t the only one. Forever sleeping lazily in front of the shop was a sleek black and white cat, long soft fur slick with sheen, and a mask of black covering his eyes and ears, leaving a white crooked mouth. The lazy cat moved without much purpose most of the time, and followed Kyungsoo in and out of the store in the morning as if he were the sole employee of the shoppe.
Every morning Kyungsoo made his way down the street on foot two or three blocks down cobblestones from his single story duplex to the Polly’s Juice Potions shop. There was subtext below the shoppe’s sign reading, no, they did not sell polyjuice potion and that those seeking such a thing should look elsewhere. Upon approaching Kyungsoo, the lazy cat would be sleeping on the wooden bench outside of the store window. The cat would open one eye lazily, yawn and stretch. Then slowly, with all of the time in the world with no plan or mind of schedule, he would get to his feet and hop down, waiting for Kyungsoo to unlock the front door. He would let himself in, with as much ownership and command as the shop keeper himself, only so that he could perch on the windowsill inside and go back to sleep. The cat showed up a few days after the girl left and proceeded to form this strange ritual, never altering it. Kyungsoo called the cat, Kai, which he read could mean ocean. The feline was indeed mellow like seas far from land, un-chafed by shorelines.
Today was no exception. He opened the shop and Kai rolled his slick black feline body against Kyungsoo’s legs affectionately before meandering towards the store window and plopping down on his usual spot beside a dusty old vase of plastic and silk flowers.
“Good morning, Kai.” Kyungsoo called, as he turned the sign on the window to show that the shop was inviting and ready to be approached.
The cat, after a quick show of interest, resumed its sulky nature and rested by the window for most of the day. Meanwhile, Kyungsoo continued cleaning glass bottles, punctuated with few customers in between and their daily ritual was solidified once more.
Kai had no memories of anything before he saw Do Kyungsoo walk out of the quaint bottle museum. Rain spotted the dirty stones at his feet. When he opened his eyes, Kai’s mind was struck with the weight of whatever accident he had been in and his limbs slow to pick up speed once consciousness pulled him from his wrecked sleep. Pelted under the heavy droplets of rain, Kai wandered to an awning and perched low to the ground as others huddled together under the covering to seek refuge.
It was really unfair that he was so close to the ground. The fat droplets of rain collided with the ground and spat back up into his eyes and fur but there was no higher ground to be had, but for the bench across the street. Kai watched carefully as people raced by to get out of the rain. He wondered how quickly he could dart straight across to the bench without risking being stepped on by a wizard or witch, blind to the ground beneath with their wet cloaks hanging to their soaked ankles.
“Summer showers are dreadful, aren’t they?” The man huddled beneath the awning says to the woman.
Kai looked up at the giants at his side, towering too tall with their heavy cloaks on, marking them as wizards with some stature seeing as they had rather nice robes for a common place day of shopping. He found it all so irritating, but had no concrete reason why. Without a moment’s hesitation, he darted through the heaven’s tears to the other side of the road, hopping easily up on the seat to circle into comfort. The air was spruced with wetness, tasting thick with the muggy moisture. Kai watched with a lewd gaze, eyeing up the passers by with long sweeps up and down their bodies. Not a person stood out, nobody felt right, nobody was familiar. Not until the shopkeeper stepped out of the potion shop and cursed quietly beneath his breath.
“Shit, I forgot it was going to rain today…”
Dark hair cut short in the back and layered long in the front, shiny and neatly styled. Eyes wide and round, the whites of his eyes overtaking the steady dark gaze that looked upwards to the bleary skies, lashes falling at half mast as he slowly exhaled his disappointment and accepted the weather. Kai watched it register across his features, full lips pouting only a moment before relaxing. He held out a slender wrist, reaching out beyond the awning before extending a hand to catch water against his palm. He couldn’t quite place where he’d seen this face before, but the man was no stranger. He knew this human.
“Summer rain.” The shopkeeper jumps at the sound of someone’s voice and turns towards the man approaching from the other side of the bench.
“Kris.”
“Is my order ready? I happened to be in town and thought I would stop in to say hello.” He offers with a confident smile.
“I don’t know if it’s ready actually. Come on in, please.”
And just like that, the shopkeeper disappeared inside with the tall man.
Kai knew immediately that he felt disappointment when the short shopkeeper was out of sight and that was the beginning of their relationship. He lived on that bench from that day forward, and he never looked back on his days of memory vacant, aimless wandering again.
“What did you get in Herbology?”
Kyungsoo stumbled along the cobblestone grounds of the courtyard with his friend Baekhyun at his side. Their year of troublemaking was coming to an end as their finals were done and their classes were wrapping up for the year. They were finishing off their fifth year and there was still the feeling of peace that followed a semester ending.
“I didn’t check yet. My quill ran out of ink midway through the last question-“
“Oh. Right…”
“If professor hadn’t enchanted the room to prevent magic, then I could have finished out the question.” Baekhyun grumbles softly, shifting the weight of his armful of books with some difficulty. “Either way, I’m ready to stop hauling around books for a whole summer. I plan on spending as much time on the lake as possible this year.”
Kyungsoo smiles and nods his head, unable to share in that sentiment. He wasn’t the parties and social engagements type. He likes his quiet, and he likes his space, but that made it hard to meet up with friends on breaks. His friends would want him to go to the lake to water ski, drink, and have late parties with bonfires. And every so often, that was fun. But he didn’t want to spend the whole summer doing that. He had stacks of books to read and articles to submit to the local paper advising changes to the local government’s employment of gnomes. (He wasn’t particularly fond of the buggers and he thought perhaps a change might be in everyone’s best interest.)
“I’m going to the library.” Kyungsoo says.
“I’m going back to the dorms, I’m meeting some Ravenclaws for a quidditch scrimmage match this afternoon, do you want to come watch?”
“I might. Come remind me before you head out.”
And with that Kyungsoo waved off his friend and watched him trot down the moving staircases back towards the Gryffendor dorms. Baekhyun wasn’t popular, not like the captain of the quidditch team, Park Chanyeol or the cool playboy, Kris Wu who always had girls fighting for their attention. Baekhyun was popular in the way that everyone liked him. He was loud and at times a little selfish, but he was bright and he made the mood wherever he went. Kyungsoo always felt like he was cooler being around Baekhyun and he thought that perhaps everyone must feel that way.
Kyungsoo makes his way to the library, stroking the spine of his textbook with sadness he knew few would share. There was something comforting about knowing the worn corners of your own textbook after a year of hard use. He wished that he could pull back out these textbooks someday and remember the worn corners with just as much fondness.
Kyungsoo presses his shoulder into the large heavy doors to the library and lets his mind wander. How many hundreds of students over hundreds of years had passes through this doorway? How many students came here after the end of their sophomore year and walked this path? He sets down his books at his usual spot at the end of the table and takes a deep breath, reveling in the comfort of this space. The dust in the air, the staleness of the space that was brought by the complete submersion in antique books… this was his favorite place on campus. Though it may not be a secluded or hidden place like secret passages or abandoned rooms, Kyungsoo loved it more than anywhere else in the castle. He required no secrecy to claim the library as his sanctuary. He only required that he be respected in his safe place. Luckily, on the last day of exams, there were very few people around in his library. Only a couple making out in the care of magical creatures aisle and a few girls huddled together over in muggle myth and anthology writing ridiculous fan fiction from muggle history texts.
And then on the windowsill was a classmate with a paperback novel in his hand. Kyungsoo knew the student, Kim Jongin, but he had never spoken to him. He was fairly popular with the females in their class. He stayed silent most of the time; he spent most class periods sleeping with his head down on a desk. He had the kind of handsome looks that were proportioned so well that even men in his class would tease him for being too handsome. His expression was never unkind but rather perpetually disinterested in a way that most girls called “smooth”, “mysterious”, “brooding” and “cool”.
The light fell in through the stained glass and brushed the strays of his hair with a halo of red and blue light. It was strange to see Jongin both awake and interested in something, and for a few moments, Kyungsoo found himself staring. The boy, at the very end of his book, kept his eyes fixated on the last page, biting down on the soft flesh of his lower lip and tore it away with the kind of effortless sex appeal Kyungsoo would never possess. Jongin turned the last page and stared at the back cover, rereading the description and standing frozen in the moment as if still trying to process that the novel had come to an end.
Kyungsoo looked abruptly away suddenly embarrassed that he was focused on the man’s good looks. But he had questions that needed answers. Did Jongin feel lost when a good book ended? Did Jongin understand that there was something pointedly missing from the world after you’ve finished a novel that you’ve formed an attachment to? He looks over again at the man framed by the window. Long dark hair fell from his center part, cutting just beneath his eyes, sitting atop angled cheeks. His eyes were still transfixed on the back of his paperback, as if time had stopped for him with the novel. But time had not stopped. Pulled, possibly by the intensity of Kyungsoo’s stare, Jongin lifted his gaze to meet Kyungsoo’s. He felt a sudden jolt of panic, as if something in his stomach was moving without his permission. Jongin lowers the novel to his side and walks toward Kyungsoo; his hips swing as he moves, an arrogant, languid saunter as though he prowled through the room sizing up his prey. He stops in front of Kyungsoo and drops the novel on the table beside Kyungsoo.
“I wouldn’t recommend this novel. The ending makes no sense.” He said, smirking down at Kyungsoo before walking on by.
And just like that, he disappeared from the room, leaving Kyungsoo hypnotized with a bent out copy of “A stargazer’s guide to simple astronomy” on the table. And though he wanted to speak to him when school started back up, the only thing he could think of to say to the boy was “This book isn’t fiction, this isn’t a novel at all.”
“I have finally found my favorite place! I will be home in a few short weeks, dearest Kyungsoo, and with me I bring a new pet and a new lover. We plan on arriving early in the morning but I shant say when-I’ll leave that bit a surprise! Laters from Norway!” Read the newest post card added to the collection on the wall behind the register. Kyungsoo shook his head and sighs heavily, tacking it up. Another promise to be home soon, but that was not so unusual. The postcards unlabelled with a promise of a prompt return stacked by the ones that did not make such false promises towered in comparison.
The doorbell pulled Kyungsoo’s thoughts back and he leaned around a stack of boxes to look at the front door where his old friend Kris was walked towards him with an easy smile.
“Kris, long time!”
The towering man smiled softly, and held out his hand to shake.
“Indeed, mate.”
Kris had been a playboy at Hogwarts. Not the kind that broke hearts for sport, but the kind that fell for too many girls at once and broke many hearts as he got his heart broken over and over. Kris fell in love with love with falling in love, and he was perpetually attached to one girl, while he talked to several others. Eventually, Kris outgrew his childish love games. He moved onto being the successful man that he was now: A potion master in the field of love. He did not create potions to make people fall in love without basis. Instead, he spent a great amount of time creating potions that helped others build their affections. For example, he created potions that would make one a better cook if the person that individual was in love with someone that had a great appreciation for the culinary arts.
“I wanted to drop off my new list.”
The man slid the parchment over with a grin and stuffed his hands into his pockets.
“I’ll be sure to re-up the usuals for you. I see we’re adding wolf’s wax too? Do we really need that? Nothing good can come from something made from ear wax, Wu.” Kyungsoo teased lightly, eyes narrowed.
“I give my customers what they want, I give them all that they need!”
Kris laughed and stopped abruptly, he jumped at the feel of something snatching at his ankle.
“H-hey… is this… is this cat new?”
Kyungsoo stared at him, bewildered for just a moment before hoisting himself over the counter to stare at the man’s feet. Kai was hooking his paws into the man’s ankles and had a maliciously serious look in his eyes.
“No, that’s Kai. He’s the shop’s mascot for all intents and purposes… he… he just kind of… well usually he doesn’t really move from his perch when customers come around. Maybe he likes you.”
The cat hopped onto the counter as if aware that the man was talking about him, and Kyungsoo ran his hand down the cat’s silk spine with an awkward laugh. He pulled his attention from the unusually active feline’s attempts to mar the tall customer’s skin with his claws.
“I’ve never seen him before.” Kris stared at the feline skeptically for a moment before he smiled at the purring cat wading back and forth on the counter under Kyungsoo’s gentle stroking hand.
“Kai has been here for almost as long as I’ve been here. He’s pretty docile and he doesn’t usually do anything but sleep.”
Kris reached for the cat’s spine to join in on the petting. He smiled at the purring creature with a warm gaze. Without hesitation the cat hissed at the tall man as he raised his back into a defensive high arch and bared his clean, white teeth. As Kris started to retreat, Kai launched a paw forward as if to pounce. Before Kyungsoo could play catch, his tail collided with bottles. The potions sizzle as bottles shatter and Kyungsoo was quick to remove the angered cat from the counter top.
“Ssshit-“ Kris whispered as he hopped back.
“S-sorry!” Kyungsoo frantically called, reaching thoughtlessly for the spilled potion to clean up the remnants of the shattered bottles.
“No!” Kris caught Kyungsoo’s wrist after he’s touched the substance spilled on the glass and the two freeze.
“What… what potion is this? Do you happen to know?”
“Well…this bottle is marked as a potion to share dreams, but this one is marked as one to cause you to temporarily lose all ability to taste… so you’ll either be sharing dreams with evil Kai here… or you’ll lose the ability to taste food for a while…”
Kyungsoo looks at the cat perched in his arm and pulls his wrist back to wipe the potion matting the cat’s black fur at his back paws.
“Oh… or both, I suppose.” Kyungsoo said off handedly, distracted by trying to see if troublesome pet had incurred any further damage from the small mishap.
“Or both, yes.” Kris smiled at the shopkeeper and then at the still glaring cat. “Well, my friend. I’m afraid my fiancé is waiting for me, I should be on my way.”
“I’m really sorry about all this…” Kyungsoo says again.
“Take the little troublemaker home and watch him. You have my card if he starts exhibiting any weird symptoms from exposure to either of the potions. I live with a magical creatures expert, I’m sure we can use our combined ability to solve any problems this little guy encounters.” Kris promised as he walked toward the exit without so much as a harsh look.
“Thanks again, Kris.”
The look on the giant man’s face read that there bore no hard feelings between the two and Kyungsoo was immensely satisfied by the resolution. But the feline in his arms was not satisfied at all, taking the moment the tall man left as a sure sign to move away from the shopkeeper to return to the window for lookout.
“Oh, sure, now you decide to be docile and sit pretty?”
Kai meanders through the store slowly and turns to eye Kyungsoo for a long moment before taking his spot on his front window throne.
Kyungsoo finished brushing his teeth and checked his mouth in the mirror, an ordinary practice both wizards and muggles practiced, hygiene. The simplest and most fundamental part of anyone’s life. The 1, 2, 3 stepping blocks that built a person’s essential smell, their aura, and their looks… When Kyungsoo returned to his bedroom, the lamp turned down to the lowest setting, his comforter peeled back to leave enough space for him to sit on the mattress and slip inside the well padded cocoon for an evening of much needed sleep, he found that he had a new friend waiting for him. Perched on the end of the bed, curled up in a fluffy ball of black and white was his new pet, Kai. Well, an old pet, really. But Kai was new to his home, not that he seemed to feel out of place even a little.
“Made yourself at home, I see.” Kyungsoo says quietly, reaching down to cradle the small feline face in a soft, affectionate stroke.
Kai purred into the touch, leaned in and wallowed in the soft brush of skin. After a moment of goodnight wishing, a one sided exchange with more than enough reason for him halt and realize his craziness but he kept on speaking to the cat, even after he’d crawled under the sheets to get comfortable for the evening. Sandwiched between his cool slick comforter and sheet, Kyungsoo’s babbling started to slow with drowsiness.
“Are you falling asleep?”
Kyungsoo nodded his head and closed his eyes, letting the weight of the day sink his head farther down into unconsciousness. But the sweetness of slumber did not last. He shot upright in his bed and reaches helplessly for the light switch until the room was illuminated. Where the feisty cat had been sitting now a person, face shrouded in the darkness but for those eyes that penetrated him.
“K-k-kai?”
“Yes?” The man replied softly, crawling towards Kyungsoo slowly on the small full sized bed, a definite shift in the weight on the mattress making him feel that he was definitely not dreaming.
“Why are you a human?” Kyungsoo asks suddenly.
Kai stops moving, hunched on all four, naked as the day is long over Kyungsoo’s conservative pajama body. He looks down at his nakedness and then at his opposable thumbs with a grin and continues moving over Kyungsoo.
“I’m human…? I’m human…” Kai’s mind feels suddenly very foggy around the edges and he grasps onto something.
An illusion? No. A memory… something far off now, something he needs to place, but along with that is the heart beat of a man that pumps blood through new veins.
“Kai… I know you…” Kyungsoo says offhandedly as the man lowers himself closer atop the shopkeeper.
“I know you too, Kyungsoo.” Kai whispers.
Kyungsoo felt the whisper of breath over his lips and his body goes rigid. He hadn’t been spoken to like that in so long. He hadn’t felt that in so long… He instinctively closes his eyes at the sensation of his name being whispered and tries to analyze it himself. But there was nothing he could do in that moment, that his brain would allow, but to wallow in the feel of Kai’s body hovering over his, through the comforter’s barrier of chaste protecting, burning Kyungsoo’s skin in a way that was far to person.
“Are you… are you a human?” He asks softly.
“Last time I checked… I was a cat…” Kai responds softly.
“Well, at least we’re in agreement on that, but then why does your face look so very…familiar…?”
But at this point, Kai had stopped listening to what he says. He only registered what Kyungsoo’s full mouth was doing with a keen interest in how supple the flesh looked when he spoke. He wasn’t sure what sorcery had been done or what was happening, but in the interest of his own self-appeasing appetite, he slowly lowered himself atop the man he had grown to long for, miss, and need on a daily basis. He came in close to take in the familiar scent of the man he rolled up against. The man he watched meticulously clean bottle after bottle in the dusty old shop.
Kyungsoo’s heart started to shutter unnaturally against his chest as he realizes just how close was is to pressing his mouth to a man’s he’s never seen before. But, he had seen this man before. Possibly. The layers of unique smell built together came up very fresh pine and earthy, like the smell of a man who wears no cologne, but instead shares his natural scent with the world. His body temperature, a sweltering collision brining sweat to dew Kyungsoo’s cotton clad thighs and chest and the overwhelming smells pulled the man into this dreamy rendezvous.
“I know you.” Kyungsoo says softly.
“I’m your cat, Kai.” The man replied and without any further hesitation, he turns his head enough to catch Kyungsoo’s full lips in a pulling kiss.
Kai’s eyes opened to bright morning light and he looks over at the man sleeping next to him with a smile.
Kyungsoo…
His favorite human lay with a twisted expression still sound asleep. He reaches for the man’s face, to palm the soft skin swelling over his jaw, but extended in the space between them was a soft, tiny, black paw.
Startled by the return back to his original body, Kai jolts to his feet with a disgruntled mew loud enough to bring Kyungsoo restlessly to life. He sits up, pushing aside the soft downy layers of his comforter and wipes away sweat from his brow.
“Jongin…” He breathes.
Kai heard the words as though he was listening to the sound of it from through a wind tunnel and suddenly he remembered Kyungsoo as clearly as he remembered his own name. The smell of the Hogwarts library, similar to the dust of the potion shop, yes. He remembered the way the light fell on the boy, his too wide eyes filled with wonder and endless traveling thought. The potions shoppe was comfortable, yes, because it was so much so like that library with it’s stacks upon stacks of possibility just waiting to be cleared off of dust and put into use.
“The potion… we shared a dream, but in our dream… or maybe we didn’t share a dream… I could have sworn you looked just like my old classmate…” Kyungsoo mumbles to himself and climbs from his soft throne. The sleep mussed hair, the way his lips were still stitched together with sleepiness and the way his lashes refused to fully part were all so delightfully Kyungsoo and Kai, awoken from his memory fogged spell, followed after the man to keep a newly found protective eye on the shopkeeper.
Kyungsoo took his place at his desk and there he began scrolling through the stack of books on his desk with some enthusiasm and Kai, recently awoken as Kim Jongin, decided that he would do any and everything in his power to pull his attention back to him. When Kyungsoo tried to read a page, Kai plopped himself on the page, and when Kyungsoo tried to take notes, Kai would chew on his fingers.
“Kai, stop it, I’m doing research right now.” Kyungsoo would hiss, but it warranted more purring rather than any kind of effort to obey the commands.
For the first time since the day he started his work at the shoppe, he did not go in to work, sitting in his pajamas, surrounded by books well into the afternoon. And when Kai finally settled in to Kyungsoo’s lap, stopping his long day of generally doing basically nothing by messing with the shopkeeper’s important work, the front door resounded with heavy knocking and Kyungsoo disappeared.
He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to explain to the man that he was walking down the street when 2 people he was walking near got into an argument, and he had been in the tragic line of fire when a woman turned her then boyfriend, now ex surely, into a feline. Without words or opposable thumbs, he couldn’t help but feel that the task was indeed impossible, and complete lost cause. Looking around the room, Kai felt that he could definitely get used to living here though. The two were indeed simpatico. They worked well together. Two quiet types, one of the more kind nature, the other… well… quiet because he could but purr and yawol, but even before he was feline, he never used the words he had in his arsenal to speak up. Were he offered the chance again though, what might he say to the man? “Long time no see”? “You look good”? Or maybe “I knew that book wasn’t a novel, but I’m bad at making jokes”?
“You actually came back.” Kyungsoo was still standing in complete stunned silence at the shop owner’s presence in his door way.
Everything from her thin frail fingers to her long black hair was exactly as when she’d left, as if the days between their face to face meeting that added up over a year in it’s span of time were nothing but hours in her timeline.
“I said I would be back, didn’t I? Did you not get my post card? If you had been going to the shop, you would have been getting my post cards, but apparently, even on a day when the shop should be open, you’re at home in your pajamas.”
He wasn’t going to argue that he promises to be home in a week had been stacking up on a biweekly basis for 10 months or so. He simply nodded his head.
“I’m actually under the weather today, if you go by the story, you should see that I’ve been active with the store every day now.” He offers.
The shop owner, Kyrstal, reached her hand out without permission and clasps it across his forehead to feel for a temperature. Unsure how she felt about the heat resonating from his body, she lowers her hand to prop her fists securely on her hips and nods her head.
“I suppose I could have asked around about your attendance.” She mumbles thoughtfully but she makes no move to leave with the unsettling feeling that there was something more being omitted. “There is definitely something off about you today, Soo.”
Kyungsoo was intrigued that the flighty woman with her endless energy and charm could in any way make such a judgment call having barely spend any time with him but he allowed the statement with a small nod of the head.
“Yes, I’m just… I’m not feeling good and I’m trying to find out about humans being turned into other animals and the results I’m getting are pretty dismal.” His confession sounded weak, strange and delusional even to his own ears, but his dream had been so real, and there was something about the way that Kai had looked at him this morning that made him feel that it was worth a moment or two to look into the crazy possibility that Kai and Jongin could be… one in the same.
“Why would you be looking into something like that? Are you trying to turn someone into a creature? That seems a bit unethical don’t you think?”
Kyungsoo laughs, cheeks flushing as he covers his mouth with embarrassment.
What the hell kind of crazy potion had he touched to have some nonsensical thoughts? He shakes his head and lowers his eyes to the ground.
“Yeah… I don’t…. I wasn’t going to turn someone into an animal; I was actually looking for a reversal. But that’s crazy still, right?”
She shakes out tumbling long black hair, loose curls twisting and springing in the space between them, as she looks truly sympathetic.
“You’re clearly sick, buddy. Rest well. I feel bad to have ever doubted you were sick. Thinking animals are human is definitely a sign that you need to stay home from the shop. It’s good you weren’t spouting that kind of nonsense at the shoppe or people would think you’d been into the happy potions a little too much.”
“Sorry.”
She gives a half shrug and starts to leave, stopping abruptly, and spinning back towards him. He’s assaulted with the fresh smell of daisies on her perfume and is temporarily taken back to his vivid dream and the smell of Kim Jongin on top of him right before they kissed…
“But if you were looking for information on something like that, I’d talk to potion master, Wu. Kris Wu is one of the best we got in town.”
Kyungsoo’s reaction is delayed, an ever so slight nod of the head before she disappears down the street just as quickly as she appeared. Kris. He hadn’t even thought about that. He could ring Kris and see if he could help, brilliance. But Kai didn’t seem too fond of Kris the last time they met, what would stop him from trying to pounce of his friend once again. And worse still was the possibility that this was all in his mind, that Kai and Jongin had nothing in common, that he had simply lost his mind and the man was as alien as a muggle passport.
He returned to the room to find that that Kai was not sleeping in the windowsill of his living room and the image of Jongin in the library comes back to him clear as day. He picks up the rotary phone and holds the receiver in his hand. The worst that could happen would be that Kris laughs at him for thinking that his stray cat is actually a long lost classmate that kisses him in dreams.
“Kim Jongin?” He calls softly.
The cat lifts his head slowly and Kyungsoo’s eyes widen.
“Kim Jongin?” He repeated slowly.
The cat gets to his feet, hopping down from where he’s perched to saunter over to where Kyungsoo is. He wasn’t really the party type, he wasn’t a risk taker and he was more of the quiet type all around, but in this moment he was ready to humiliate himself, he didn’t care about anything else, the only thing on his mind was his dear friend Kai who could possibly also be his old classmate Kim Jongin, who possibly stirred his erratic but ever logical heart back to life in a dream. He tightens his hold on the rotary phone and gathers the cat into his arms. He might have foreseen losing his cool once but not in this moment. He strokes the cat’s spine in the same familiar way he had grown accustomed to and finds a smile pulling at his cheeks. The voice on the other end seems almost slightly nervous and he realizes that the man may be expecting the worse after the accident. But fate is not so unkind to Kyungsoo, and with absolute assurance that he’s on the right path.
He smiles in spite of the situation and smiles to himself as he locks gazes with his trust feline companion. This is magic. Something he’d long since forgotten had been stirred in Kyungsoo’s chest, and this was worth making a fool of himself. Taken back to his youth, to the heart fluttering moments of uncertainty and nervousness. He was taken back to Kim Jongin standing in the library, framed by the stained glass window, and in that moment, in that perfect moment, there was magic.
“Hello, Kris, I need you to make me a potion.” He says. “A potion to reverse a spell.”