for hakkbanlu
Title: Pet Shop Boy
Pairing: LeeU/Yejun
Rating: PG
Warnings: AU, kitty!person (lol is that even a warning idk)
For: hakkbanlu
Happy Jiggyversary!
“Umma, umma, look!”
Seven-year-old Yejun pressed his face up against the glass of the pet shop, his nose squishing and his breath fogging up the glass as he looked inside.
“Isn’t he cute?” Yejun asked his mom, pointing to the little boy that was curled up on a fluffy pillow, snoozing. “Can I get him?”
“No no, Yejunnie, we don’t have room for a kitty at home,” his mother chastised, taking his hand and gently leading him away from the pet shop.
Yejun looked back at the kitty-boy, who was still snoozing peacefully in the afternoon sunshine, and little Yejun pouted but let himself be carried away.
--
“Umma, look, he’s still here!” Yejun said, running up to the pet shop window.
The kitty-boy was on the same pillow, though awake now; he was sitting cross-legged and had a book in his lap, looking a bit bored with it. But as soon as Yejun ran up to the window and pressed his hands against it the kitty-boy looked up and oh, that smile was so pretty, Yejun thought.
The kitty-boy set his book aside and leaned forward, putting his hands against Yejun’s in return.
“Can we please get him?” Yejun asked his mother again, giggling at the kitty-boy when he pressed his own nose to the glass.
“I already told you, Yejun, we don’t have room in our apartment. Maybe when we get a bigger place.”
Yejun was pulled away once again, and once again Yejun was crushed as he watched the kitty-boy’s face fall with every step he took in the opposite direction.
--
A year later, Yejun and his mother moved into an actual house, one with a yard and a porch. Yejun and his mother passed by the pet shop again, and Yejun saw the kitty-boy curled up on the pillow, idly playing with a feather-toy.
“Look, umma! He’s still here,” eight-year-old Yejun said, pressed up against the glass again.
“There must be something wrong with him,” his mother said this time. “No one’s bought him yet.”
Yejun frowned softly with the kitty-boy noticed him, and once again their hands met on opposite sides of the glass.
“But he’s perfect…”
“Come on, Yejunnie, we’re going to be late.”
His mother took his hand and once again took Yejun away from the pet shop, and Yejun watched the kitty-boy’s pretty face get smaller and smaller as they walked further and further away.
--
Yejun, at the age of sixteen, got a job and moved out of his mother’s house. He got his own apartment and was studying hard - he wanted to get into a performing arts school, maybe become a singer or a dancer. He had forgotten about that pretty kitty-boy; every time he passed the pet shop, since that last time his mother dragged him away, the kitty-boy hadn’t been there.
He must have gotten bought, Yejun thought after the third visit turned out to be fruitless.
But Yejun was lonely in his apartment and he wanted a pet, so he found himself going to the local animal shelter. Perhaps he could save one and give it a good home.
As it turned out, animal shelters were sad places. Every dog he looked at looked too sad to make anyone else happy, all the cats were wild and untamed and seemed flippant about anybody that tried to give them love. Yejun was in the process of walking up and down the big cages, reading the names of all the dogs and what breed they were, what kind of personality they had, not really looking inside the cage for fear of being heart broken by the end of his visit.
One name card caught his attention, though, and he stopped to read the pretty pink handwriting.
Name: Seunghyun
Nickname: LeeU
Age: 18
Breed: Kitty-Boy
Personality: Shy, needs a loving caring home to warm up to
Yejun blinked. There were no other kitty-boys in the entire shelter and the only one he knew of…
He looked past the name card and felt his heart drop to his stomach.
Lying on a fluffy pink and white bed was the same kitty boy from eight years ago, the same one that Yejun had wanted to take home from the pet shop. He was curled up on his side, eyes closed in what looked like fitful slumber, fists clenched and tucked under his chest as his feline ears twitched with his dreams. Yejun fell down to his knees, fingers tangling into the chain links of the gate and he smiled a heartbroken smile, only one thing going through his head.
“I’ve found you.”
--
Of course it took a lot of convincing to get the shelter workers to let Yejun take Seunghyun home with him. He filled out the paperwork and insisted that he was responsible, that he had a good place, and that he was sure he wanted to take Seunghyun home and give him a good life. They said that people came and went and most people wanted Seunghyun for some sort of freak-show attraction, and Yejun got pretty insulted at that and demanded how people could be so cruel.
The ladies smiled and handed over the correct paperwork, and Yejun, still offended that anyone would think of putting Seunghyun through that sort of thing, stomped off towards the cages.
He knelt down by Seunghyun’s cage again, and gently called out.
“Seunghyun…”
The kitty-boy’s ear twitched, and he opened an eye to look at Yejun groggily. It took a few moments, but when Seunghyun finally recognized Yejun he smiled brightly and moved to the gate, fingers tangling in the chain links on top of Yejun’s, happy tears brimming in his beautiful feline eyes.
“You came for me,” Seunghyun whispered, in the most beautiful voice that had ever graced Yejun’s ears.
“Yeah,” Yejun said, the smile contagious with the warmth radiating off of the older male. “Let’s go home.”
--
The dynamics of a kitty-boy weren’t all that complicated. He was a normal teenager, he just had a tail and cute fuzzy ears on top of his head. He had regular emotions, understood general human concepts like eating and sleeping and how to use the bathroom; it was like when Yejun adopted Seunghyun he got a friend, instead of a pet.
“So how did you end up in the pet shop?” Yejun asked one day, while Seunghyun fixed him dinner.
Seunghyun shrugged, “My previous owners didn’t want me anymore. They said…” he tapped his chin with a finger, his other hand occupied with flipping over an egg. “They said something about decreased value.” He shrugged.
Yejun’s heart sank. Seunghyun might not know it, but what it sounded like was extortion. Seunghyun’s previous owners wanted to put him into the black market but something must have knocked his price down a bit. What that something was, Yejun didn’t know. He didn’t know much about the black market in the first place.
“Well I think you’re priceless,” Yejun said, sniffing a bit in his adorable way.
Seunghyun laughed, “I think you are, too.”
--
Yejun had had the suspicion, when he first adopted Seunghyun, that he would get irrevocably attached. It wasn’t just that Seunghyun was considered a pet, to most people; it was because Yejun didn’t have many friends and Seunghyun was basically all the teen had to hold onto. When he moved out his mother had broken ties with him, said if he thought he could get independent so early then he didn’t need to rely on her anymore, and at first that had been fine but Yejun didn’t know how… lonely it was going to be.
Bringing Seunghyun home - having him around to help cook and clean, it wasn’t like having a pet at all. It was like having a roommate. A roommate with ears and a tail and some questionable habits of unraveling the toilet paper every once in a while but a roommate nonetheless.
Seunghyun didn’t go to school but he didn’t need to, for some reason he was well-versed in many things. He said it was because he read a lot of books in his spare time, and Yejun had just wrinkled his nose a bit, wondering why Seunghyun hadn’t been allowed to go to school. Kitty-boy he may be, Seunghyun was still a human.
So Yejun started to bring home some extra schoolwork, and Seunghyun would sit down with him at the kitchen table as they ran through the work together. Seunghyun had a general understanding of math and science - he knew how to cook, very well, so that probably helped - and his literacy skills were also up to par, as well.
Straightening from being bent over a history text book, Yejun took a second and looked at Seunghyun’s features - his rounded cheeks, his pretty eyes that had a natural feline curve to them, his soft lips. Seunghyun glanced up from the book and tilted his head to the side, curious as to why Yejun was looking at him - Yejun felt his heart skip a beat and he cleared his throat, shaking his head and returning to reading the book.
He knew from the first day he saw Seunghyun - he was perfect.
--
When school events happened, such as festivals or award ceremonies, Yejun’s mother was absent. In her place, Seunghyun had taken up residency, not at all ashamed of the way people would look at his ears or tail whenever he got excited and they perked, as he clapped his hands and cheered for Yejun.
And no one really questioned it, either, when Yejun graduated and came flying off the stage, running into Seunghyun’s arms as they both cried tears of joy; Yejun had made it through the toughest years of his life, without his mother, and he was sad that she had removed herself from him but at the same time, having Seunghyun there was too perfect. He was his mother, his father, his brother, his best friend and everything but a pet that he adopted from the animal shelter.
--
Three years after Seunghyun became a part of Yejun’s life, Yejun’s summer became a myriad of applying for various colleges and trying to decide which one, if he got accepted to any, he would like to attend.
“What are you going to major in?” Seunghyun asked, as he brought two glasses of cold juice from the fridge to where Yejun was sitting in the living room, all sorts of applications strewn about in front of him on the floor as he poured over them, pen in hand.
“Singing?” Yejun contemplated out loud. “Or dancing.” He hummed as he read through a list of minors on a paper, “Maybe something with history…”
“Sounds like a lot of choices,” Seunghyun said, sitting down next to Yejun and handing the younger teen his glass. Yejun took it with a distracted ‘thank you’, before setting it down and putting his pen in his mouth instead. Seunghyun laughed, and picked up one of the applications. “Yejun… Is college this stressful?”
Yejun wiggled his nose, “I mean they tell you all the time you’re allowed to change your major whenever you want - you have control of what’s happening. But I want to be sure what I want to do because I don’t want to get halfway to one goal and then realize that’s not what I want to do. I’ll have to go back and start all over from the beginning.”
Seunghyun tilted his head, and then leaned to nudge his shoulder with Yejun’s, “Hey… Don’t stress out about it. So what if when you get there you change your mind. Isn’t that what college is about?” Seunghyun smiled when Yejun arched a brow at him, “You have a cat-boy for a roommate. I don’t think college is going to throw you any hard-to-handle curveballs.”
Yejun laughed and nodded, nudging Seunghyun’s shoulder in return with his own, “Yeah, you’re right.”
--
Yejun ended up applying for and getting accepted in to a school focused on the arts. It was in another city, so he and Seunghyun packed up and moved into a small apartment a few blocks away from the school. Their new home only had one room, so they had to downsize, and amidst all the moving, Yejun stood in the doorway of the bedroom, staring at the bed with a thoughtful look on his face.
“Yejunnie? I brought in the last box,” Seunghyun came up behind Yejun and peered over his shoulder into the room. “Is there a problem?”
“There’s only one bed, now,” Yejun said, folding his arms over his chest.
“I have a bed,” Seunghyun pointed to the pillow-like thing on the floor, bright pink with white flowers. It was originally for large dogs but Seunghyun saw it and loved it and said it was really comfy.
“Seunghyun, you’re a human, you should sleep in a bed,” Yejun said, turning around and thinning his lips into a straight line.
Seunghyun blinked, “But… there’s only one bed.”
“It’s big enough,” Yejun said, as if that was what he’d been thinking about the whole time. “We could make it work.”
“I can sleep at the foot-”
“No.” Yejun shook his head and faced Seunghyun, resting his hands on the older boy’s shoulders. He smiled lightly, “We’ll both sleep in the bed. Laying the proper way.”
Seunghyun chewed his lip and his ears flattened a bit, obviously unsure as he glanced at the bed.
“If that’s what you want…”
--
That night, they both climbed into bed and fell asleep quicker than they ever had before in their entire time living together, arms and legs entangled with Yejun’s head tucked under Seunghyun’s chin.
--
The next morning, Yejun woke up with a rather embarrassing problem. Well you see it wouldn’t have been embarrassing if he had been in bed alone, but as it were, Seunghyun’s legs were still tangled with his and he had an arm draped over the younger’s stomach, his cheek on Yejun’s chest as some drool marked the younger boy’s shirt.
Alright, treat it delicately. No big deal right? You’re both boys. He’s older than you, even. So he’s gone through this before, right? Right. Well he is a kitty-boy… Kitty-boys deal with this right? Right?
“Seunghyun,” Yejun spoke, his voice hoarse and thick from sleep. He cleared his throat and gently shook Seunghyun’s shoulder, “Seunghyun, I have to pee.” Just try to get away.
Seunghyun made a noncommittal noise and just buried himself closer to Yejun, either being really oblivious or really sly.
“Please hyung,” Yejun tried a little louder this time.
The mess of black hair tilted a bit and Seunghyun turned, blearily looking up at Yejun. Sleep was clinging to his eyes and drooping them a little, making his aegyo fat puff out a bit more than usual, and his lips were a bit swollen from… God why were they swollen? Yejun offered a slightly awkward smile, trying to shimmy his way to the edge of the bed from underneath Seunghyun, who finally released his death grip (ok in actuality it wasn’t a death grip and Yejun could have easily removed the older boy from him but it was just hard ok? Pun intended).
Yejun rolled out of bed onto the floor and stood up, stiffly walking into the bathroom and shutting the door behind him - making sure to lock it - and Seunghyun furrowed his brows a bit before smiling knowingly and lying back on the bed, grabbing Yejun’s pillow and curling into it, inhaling the sweet, soft scent of the younger’s shampoo.
--
“Morning,” Yejun greeted Seunghyun, who was sitting at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of cereal and reading the paper.
“Morning,” Seunghyun said, chipper as ever as he blasted Yejun with a 100-watt smile and then turned back to the paper, a pair of scissors lying nearby for what Yejun assumed was to clip out coupons. “Have a good shower?”
Yejun faltered a bit in grabbing a bowl out of the cupboard, blushing lightly as he shrugged, “Yeah, as good as a shower with room-temperature water can be?” Flashes of his hands on his body, his head tipping back, the water steaming up the bathroom - “Do you need to shower?”
Seunghyun shook his head, “No, I cleaned up before I got breakfast.”
Yejun laughed and sat down across from his friend, “Hyung, kitty-baths don’t count. Use an actual shower.”
“I do,” Seunghyun said, a mixture of a huff and a pout crossing his features as he bristled, “But I can’t shower during the day because it makes me sleepy.”
“You’re afraid of the water,” Yejun accused, pointing his spoon at the older boy, before grabbing the box of cereal and pouring some into his bowl.
“Not true,” Seunghyun argued calmly, pushing the milk over to Yejun.
“Mhm,” Yejun shook his head and chuckled.
He wasn’t going to mention the fact that Seunghyun barely had any cereal in his bowl, the dish filled nearly to the brim with milk, either.
--
Two months into the college life for Yejun, Seunghyun got a gig at a local cosplay café as a waiter. People didn’t question his ears or tail, just marveled at the animatronics and asked how much it cost to get such life-like appendages. But Seunghyun would just smile politely and do his job and avoid all the questions, and he was really popular, so his management didn’t really question it either.
He worked during the day when Yejun was at school and was home at night to help Yejun study, the two of them falling into another familiar routine. Yejun would fall asleep at the kitchen table with his books strewn about and Seunghyun would quietly clean up and then gently guide Yejun back to bed, and they’d fall asleep together comfortably only to wake up comfortably, too.
It was one such comfortable morning that Yejun woke up, feeling like he just didn’t want to get out of bed. It was a Saturday so it wasn’t terribly rebellious, but Seunghyun had work, and the one catch about Yejun wanting to stay in bed was that he wanted the older boy to stay in bed, too.
But as it was Saturday morning, Seunghyun had to work, and like clockwork he woke up a few moments after Yejun, smiling and offering a soft greeting.
“Call in sick today,” Yejun said in lieu of response, and Seunghyun blinked.
“What?”
“Don’t go to work today.” Yejun didn’t know what possessed him to do this - act all whiny and bratty. “I want to spend time with you.”
“Yejunnie, we spend every night together,” Seunghyun said, his brows furrowing.
“Yeah but-” Yejun shrugged and wrapped his arms around Seunghyun’s waist. “I want a lazy Saturday morning with you.”
Seunghyun arched a brow as he was pulled closer to the younger boy’s chest, then smiled and wrapped his arms around Yejun’s body as well.
“I guess I could spend a lazy morning with you,” Seunghyun conceded, and pillowed his head on Yejun’s chest, as they both resumed dozing in and out of consciousness for the next four hours.
--
When he woke up officially, six hours later at two o’clock in the afternoon, Yejun sat up and looked over Seunghyun’s dozing form. His long eyelashes were resting against his high cheekbones, a soft smile curving on his lips in his slumber. His hair was tousled and his cheek was pressed into Yejun’s pillow - Seunghyun was currently hogging it - one arm curled under his chest and the other arm looped through Yejun’s.
Seunghyun was so pretty, still as pretty and perfect as the first day Yejun ever laid eyes on him. And being together for almost three years now, having this solid friendship based on the premise that no one else wanted this beautiful creature, Yejun, in his adult mind, was starting to change a bit. And it wasn’t an outward change, it was something subtle and simple, something that he barely started to notice until it smacked him in the face this morning and made Seunghyun stay home from work.
The older boy shifted and stirred a bit in his sleep, eyes blinking open slowly as a soft smile unfurled on his lips.
“Hey…” Seunghyun said softly, and it always amazed Yejun that his voice never got clogged or gross from sleep.
“Hey,” Yejun returned, reaching up and tucking a stray lock behind Seunghyun’s ear.
Seunghyun purred softly and nuzzled into the touch, eyes fluttering, and Yejun finally broke through his resolve and leaned forward, tilting Seunghyun’s chin up gently to press their lips together in a chaste, sweet kiss. Butterflies exploded in Yejun’s stomach and he felt Seunghyun’s lips, pliant and soft beneath his own and the younger broke the kiss slowly, resting their foreheads together and looking into Seunghyun’s glittering eyes with a smile.
There was a brief pause between them, after the kiss, and it wasn’t uncomfortable and it definitely wasn’t incriminating. Seunghyun leaned forward and brushed his lips over Yejun’s again, the action sending sparks through the younger boy’s brain.
“I’ve been waiting ten years for you…” Seunghyun breathed, his fingers flitting over Yejun’s jaw.
Yejun smiled softly, the blush on his cheeks fading.
“I know.” He gently bumped his nose against Seunghyun’s. “You have me.”
Pairing: LeeU/Yejun
Rating: PG
Warnings: AU, kitty!person (lol is that even a warning idk)
For: hakkbanlu
Happy Jiggyversary!
“Umma, umma, look!”
Seven-year-old Yejun pressed his face up against the glass of the pet shop, his nose squishing and his breath fogging up the glass as he looked inside.
“Isn’t he cute?” Yejun asked his mom, pointing to the little boy that was curled up on a fluffy pillow, snoozing. “Can I get him?”
“No no, Yejunnie, we don’t have room for a kitty at home,” his mother chastised, taking his hand and gently leading him away from the pet shop.
Yejun looked back at the kitty-boy, who was still snoozing peacefully in the afternoon sunshine, and little Yejun pouted but let himself be carried away.
--
“Umma, look, he’s still here!” Yejun said, running up to the pet shop window.
The kitty-boy was on the same pillow, though awake now; he was sitting cross-legged and had a book in his lap, looking a bit bored with it. But as soon as Yejun ran up to the window and pressed his hands against it the kitty-boy looked up and oh, that smile was so pretty, Yejun thought.
The kitty-boy set his book aside and leaned forward, putting his hands against Yejun’s in return.
“Can we please get him?” Yejun asked his mother again, giggling at the kitty-boy when he pressed his own nose to the glass.
“I already told you, Yejun, we don’t have room in our apartment. Maybe when we get a bigger place.”
Yejun was pulled away once again, and once again Yejun was crushed as he watched the kitty-boy’s face fall with every step he took in the opposite direction.
--
A year later, Yejun and his mother moved into an actual house, one with a yard and a porch. Yejun and his mother passed by the pet shop again, and Yejun saw the kitty-boy curled up on the pillow, idly playing with a feather-toy.
“Look, umma! He’s still here,” eight-year-old Yejun said, pressed up against the glass again.
“There must be something wrong with him,” his mother said this time. “No one’s bought him yet.”
Yejun frowned softly with the kitty-boy noticed him, and once again their hands met on opposite sides of the glass.
“But he’s perfect…”
“Come on, Yejunnie, we’re going to be late.”
His mother took his hand and once again took Yejun away from the pet shop, and Yejun watched the kitty-boy’s pretty face get smaller and smaller as they walked further and further away.
--
Yejun, at the age of sixteen, got a job and moved out of his mother’s house. He got his own apartment and was studying hard - he wanted to get into a performing arts school, maybe become a singer or a dancer. He had forgotten about that pretty kitty-boy; every time he passed the pet shop, since that last time his mother dragged him away, the kitty-boy hadn’t been there.
He must have gotten bought, Yejun thought after the third visit turned out to be fruitless.
But Yejun was lonely in his apartment and he wanted a pet, so he found himself going to the local animal shelter. Perhaps he could save one and give it a good home.
As it turned out, animal shelters were sad places. Every dog he looked at looked too sad to make anyone else happy, all the cats were wild and untamed and seemed flippant about anybody that tried to give them love. Yejun was in the process of walking up and down the big cages, reading the names of all the dogs and what breed they were, what kind of personality they had, not really looking inside the cage for fear of being heart broken by the end of his visit.
One name card caught his attention, though, and he stopped to read the pretty pink handwriting.
Name: Seunghyun
Nickname: LeeU
Age: 18
Breed: Kitty-Boy
Personality: Shy, needs a loving caring home to warm up to
Yejun blinked. There were no other kitty-boys in the entire shelter and the only one he knew of…
He looked past the name card and felt his heart drop to his stomach.
Lying on a fluffy pink and white bed was the same kitty boy from eight years ago, the same one that Yejun had wanted to take home from the pet shop. He was curled up on his side, eyes closed in what looked like fitful slumber, fists clenched and tucked under his chest as his feline ears twitched with his dreams. Yejun fell down to his knees, fingers tangling into the chain links of the gate and he smiled a heartbroken smile, only one thing going through his head.
“I’ve found you.”
--
Of course it took a lot of convincing to get the shelter workers to let Yejun take Seunghyun home with him. He filled out the paperwork and insisted that he was responsible, that he had a good place, and that he was sure he wanted to take Seunghyun home and give him a good life. They said that people came and went and most people wanted Seunghyun for some sort of freak-show attraction, and Yejun got pretty insulted at that and demanded how people could be so cruel.
The ladies smiled and handed over the correct paperwork, and Yejun, still offended that anyone would think of putting Seunghyun through that sort of thing, stomped off towards the cages.
He knelt down by Seunghyun’s cage again, and gently called out.
“Seunghyun…”
The kitty-boy’s ear twitched, and he opened an eye to look at Yejun groggily. It took a few moments, but when Seunghyun finally recognized Yejun he smiled brightly and moved to the gate, fingers tangling in the chain links on top of Yejun’s, happy tears brimming in his beautiful feline eyes.
“You came for me,” Seunghyun whispered, in the most beautiful voice that had ever graced Yejun’s ears.
“Yeah,” Yejun said, the smile contagious with the warmth radiating off of the older male. “Let’s go home.”
--
The dynamics of a kitty-boy weren’t all that complicated. He was a normal teenager, he just had a tail and cute fuzzy ears on top of his head. He had regular emotions, understood general human concepts like eating and sleeping and how to use the bathroom; it was like when Yejun adopted Seunghyun he got a friend, instead of a pet.
“So how did you end up in the pet shop?” Yejun asked one day, while Seunghyun fixed him dinner.
Seunghyun shrugged, “My previous owners didn’t want me anymore. They said…” he tapped his chin with a finger, his other hand occupied with flipping over an egg. “They said something about decreased value.” He shrugged.
Yejun’s heart sank. Seunghyun might not know it, but what it sounded like was extortion. Seunghyun’s previous owners wanted to put him into the black market but something must have knocked his price down a bit. What that something was, Yejun didn’t know. He didn’t know much about the black market in the first place.
“Well I think you’re priceless,” Yejun said, sniffing a bit in his adorable way.
Seunghyun laughed, “I think you are, too.”
--
Yejun had had the suspicion, when he first adopted Seunghyun, that he would get irrevocably attached. It wasn’t just that Seunghyun was considered a pet, to most people; it was because Yejun didn’t have many friends and Seunghyun was basically all the teen had to hold onto. When he moved out his mother had broken ties with him, said if he thought he could get independent so early then he didn’t need to rely on her anymore, and at first that had been fine but Yejun didn’t know how… lonely it was going to be.
Bringing Seunghyun home - having him around to help cook and clean, it wasn’t like having a pet at all. It was like having a roommate. A roommate with ears and a tail and some questionable habits of unraveling the toilet paper every once in a while but a roommate nonetheless.
Seunghyun didn’t go to school but he didn’t need to, for some reason he was well-versed in many things. He said it was because he read a lot of books in his spare time, and Yejun had just wrinkled his nose a bit, wondering why Seunghyun hadn’t been allowed to go to school. Kitty-boy he may be, Seunghyun was still a human.
So Yejun started to bring home some extra schoolwork, and Seunghyun would sit down with him at the kitchen table as they ran through the work together. Seunghyun had a general understanding of math and science - he knew how to cook, very well, so that probably helped - and his literacy skills were also up to par, as well.
Straightening from being bent over a history text book, Yejun took a second and looked at Seunghyun’s features - his rounded cheeks, his pretty eyes that had a natural feline curve to them, his soft lips. Seunghyun glanced up from the book and tilted his head to the side, curious as to why Yejun was looking at him - Yejun felt his heart skip a beat and he cleared his throat, shaking his head and returning to reading the book.
He knew from the first day he saw Seunghyun - he was perfect.
--
When school events happened, such as festivals or award ceremonies, Yejun’s mother was absent. In her place, Seunghyun had taken up residency, not at all ashamed of the way people would look at his ears or tail whenever he got excited and they perked, as he clapped his hands and cheered for Yejun.
And no one really questioned it, either, when Yejun graduated and came flying off the stage, running into Seunghyun’s arms as they both cried tears of joy; Yejun had made it through the toughest years of his life, without his mother, and he was sad that she had removed herself from him but at the same time, having Seunghyun there was too perfect. He was his mother, his father, his brother, his best friend and everything but a pet that he adopted from the animal shelter.
--
Three years after Seunghyun became a part of Yejun’s life, Yejun’s summer became a myriad of applying for various colleges and trying to decide which one, if he got accepted to any, he would like to attend.
“What are you going to major in?” Seunghyun asked, as he brought two glasses of cold juice from the fridge to where Yejun was sitting in the living room, all sorts of applications strewn about in front of him on the floor as he poured over them, pen in hand.
“Singing?” Yejun contemplated out loud. “Or dancing.” He hummed as he read through a list of minors on a paper, “Maybe something with history…”
“Sounds like a lot of choices,” Seunghyun said, sitting down next to Yejun and handing the younger teen his glass. Yejun took it with a distracted ‘thank you’, before setting it down and putting his pen in his mouth instead. Seunghyun laughed, and picked up one of the applications. “Yejun… Is college this stressful?”
Yejun wiggled his nose, “I mean they tell you all the time you’re allowed to change your major whenever you want - you have control of what’s happening. But I want to be sure what I want to do because I don’t want to get halfway to one goal and then realize that’s not what I want to do. I’ll have to go back and start all over from the beginning.”
Seunghyun tilted his head, and then leaned to nudge his shoulder with Yejun’s, “Hey… Don’t stress out about it. So what if when you get there you change your mind. Isn’t that what college is about?” Seunghyun smiled when Yejun arched a brow at him, “You have a cat-boy for a roommate. I don’t think college is going to throw you any hard-to-handle curveballs.”
Yejun laughed and nodded, nudging Seunghyun’s shoulder in return with his own, “Yeah, you’re right.”
--
Yejun ended up applying for and getting accepted in to a school focused on the arts. It was in another city, so he and Seunghyun packed up and moved into a small apartment a few blocks away from the school. Their new home only had one room, so they had to downsize, and amidst all the moving, Yejun stood in the doorway of the bedroom, staring at the bed with a thoughtful look on his face.
“Yejunnie? I brought in the last box,” Seunghyun came up behind Yejun and peered over his shoulder into the room. “Is there a problem?”
“There’s only one bed, now,” Yejun said, folding his arms over his chest.
“I have a bed,” Seunghyun pointed to the pillow-like thing on the floor, bright pink with white flowers. It was originally for large dogs but Seunghyun saw it and loved it and said it was really comfy.
“Seunghyun, you’re a human, you should sleep in a bed,” Yejun said, turning around and thinning his lips into a straight line.
Seunghyun blinked, “But… there’s only one bed.”
“It’s big enough,” Yejun said, as if that was what he’d been thinking about the whole time. “We could make it work.”
“I can sleep at the foot-”
“No.” Yejun shook his head and faced Seunghyun, resting his hands on the older boy’s shoulders. He smiled lightly, “We’ll both sleep in the bed. Laying the proper way.”
Seunghyun chewed his lip and his ears flattened a bit, obviously unsure as he glanced at the bed.
“If that’s what you want…”
--
That night, they both climbed into bed and fell asleep quicker than they ever had before in their entire time living together, arms and legs entangled with Yejun’s head tucked under Seunghyun’s chin.
--
The next morning, Yejun woke up with a rather embarrassing problem. Well you see it wouldn’t have been embarrassing if he had been in bed alone, but as it were, Seunghyun’s legs were still tangled with his and he had an arm draped over the younger’s stomach, his cheek on Yejun’s chest as some drool marked the younger boy’s shirt.
Alright, treat it delicately. No big deal right? You’re both boys. He’s older than you, even. So he’s gone through this before, right? Right. Well he is a kitty-boy… Kitty-boys deal with this right? Right?
“Seunghyun,” Yejun spoke, his voice hoarse and thick from sleep. He cleared his throat and gently shook Seunghyun’s shoulder, “Seunghyun, I have to pee.” Just try to get away.
Seunghyun made a noncommittal noise and just buried himself closer to Yejun, either being really oblivious or really sly.
“Please hyung,” Yejun tried a little louder this time.
The mess of black hair tilted a bit and Seunghyun turned, blearily looking up at Yejun. Sleep was clinging to his eyes and drooping them a little, making his aegyo fat puff out a bit more than usual, and his lips were a bit swollen from… God why were they swollen? Yejun offered a slightly awkward smile, trying to shimmy his way to the edge of the bed from underneath Seunghyun, who finally released his death grip (ok in actuality it wasn’t a death grip and Yejun could have easily removed the older boy from him but it was just hard ok? Pun intended).
Yejun rolled out of bed onto the floor and stood up, stiffly walking into the bathroom and shutting the door behind him - making sure to lock it - and Seunghyun furrowed his brows a bit before smiling knowingly and lying back on the bed, grabbing Yejun’s pillow and curling into it, inhaling the sweet, soft scent of the younger’s shampoo.
--
“Morning,” Yejun greeted Seunghyun, who was sitting at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of cereal and reading the paper.
“Morning,” Seunghyun said, chipper as ever as he blasted Yejun with a 100-watt smile and then turned back to the paper, a pair of scissors lying nearby for what Yejun assumed was to clip out coupons. “Have a good shower?”
Yejun faltered a bit in grabbing a bowl out of the cupboard, blushing lightly as he shrugged, “Yeah, as good as a shower with room-temperature water can be?” Flashes of his hands on his body, his head tipping back, the water steaming up the bathroom - “Do you need to shower?”
Seunghyun shook his head, “No, I cleaned up before I got breakfast.”
Yejun laughed and sat down across from his friend, “Hyung, kitty-baths don’t count. Use an actual shower.”
“I do,” Seunghyun said, a mixture of a huff and a pout crossing his features as he bristled, “But I can’t shower during the day because it makes me sleepy.”
“You’re afraid of the water,” Yejun accused, pointing his spoon at the older boy, before grabbing the box of cereal and pouring some into his bowl.
“Not true,” Seunghyun argued calmly, pushing the milk over to Yejun.
“Mhm,” Yejun shook his head and chuckled.
He wasn’t going to mention the fact that Seunghyun barely had any cereal in his bowl, the dish filled nearly to the brim with milk, either.
--
Two months into the college life for Yejun, Seunghyun got a gig at a local cosplay café as a waiter. People didn’t question his ears or tail, just marveled at the animatronics and asked how much it cost to get such life-like appendages. But Seunghyun would just smile politely and do his job and avoid all the questions, and he was really popular, so his management didn’t really question it either.
He worked during the day when Yejun was at school and was home at night to help Yejun study, the two of them falling into another familiar routine. Yejun would fall asleep at the kitchen table with his books strewn about and Seunghyun would quietly clean up and then gently guide Yejun back to bed, and they’d fall asleep together comfortably only to wake up comfortably, too.
It was one such comfortable morning that Yejun woke up, feeling like he just didn’t want to get out of bed. It was a Saturday so it wasn’t terribly rebellious, but Seunghyun had work, and the one catch about Yejun wanting to stay in bed was that he wanted the older boy to stay in bed, too.
But as it was Saturday morning, Seunghyun had to work, and like clockwork he woke up a few moments after Yejun, smiling and offering a soft greeting.
“Call in sick today,” Yejun said in lieu of response, and Seunghyun blinked.
“What?”
“Don’t go to work today.” Yejun didn’t know what possessed him to do this - act all whiny and bratty. “I want to spend time with you.”
“Yejunnie, we spend every night together,” Seunghyun said, his brows furrowing.
“Yeah but-” Yejun shrugged and wrapped his arms around Seunghyun’s waist. “I want a lazy Saturday morning with you.”
Seunghyun arched a brow as he was pulled closer to the younger boy’s chest, then smiled and wrapped his arms around Yejun’s body as well.
“I guess I could spend a lazy morning with you,” Seunghyun conceded, and pillowed his head on Yejun’s chest, as they both resumed dozing in and out of consciousness for the next four hours.
--
When he woke up officially, six hours later at two o’clock in the afternoon, Yejun sat up and looked over Seunghyun’s dozing form. His long eyelashes were resting against his high cheekbones, a soft smile curving on his lips in his slumber. His hair was tousled and his cheek was pressed into Yejun’s pillow - Seunghyun was currently hogging it - one arm curled under his chest and the other arm looped through Yejun’s.
Seunghyun was so pretty, still as pretty and perfect as the first day Yejun ever laid eyes on him. And being together for almost three years now, having this solid friendship based on the premise that no one else wanted this beautiful creature, Yejun, in his adult mind, was starting to change a bit. And it wasn’t an outward change, it was something subtle and simple, something that he barely started to notice until it smacked him in the face this morning and made Seunghyun stay home from work.
The older boy shifted and stirred a bit in his sleep, eyes blinking open slowly as a soft smile unfurled on his lips.
“Hey…” Seunghyun said softly, and it always amazed Yejun that his voice never got clogged or gross from sleep.
“Hey,” Yejun returned, reaching up and tucking a stray lock behind Seunghyun’s ear.
Seunghyun purred softly and nuzzled into the touch, eyes fluttering, and Yejun finally broke through his resolve and leaned forward, tilting Seunghyun’s chin up gently to press their lips together in a chaste, sweet kiss. Butterflies exploded in Yejun’s stomach and he felt Seunghyun’s lips, pliant and soft beneath his own and the younger broke the kiss slowly, resting their foreheads together and looking into Seunghyun’s glittering eyes with a smile.
There was a brief pause between them, after the kiss, and it wasn’t uncomfortable and it definitely wasn’t incriminating. Seunghyun leaned forward and brushed his lips over Yejun’s again, the action sending sparks through the younger boy’s brain.
“I’ve been waiting ten years for you…” Seunghyun breathed, his fingers flitting over Yejun’s jaw.
Yejun smiled softly, the blush on his cheeks fading.
“I know.” He gently bumped his nose against Seunghyun’s. “You have me.”