[fic] Shimmering Blue (chapter 3)
Title: Shimmering Blue
Pairing: Jaemin (main)
Genre: AU, supernatural/fantasy/non-human, angst, romance
Warning: underage-went-wrong, WTFs, minor torture/violence, possible annoying!min
Rating: PG-NC-17/R
Summary:
Until some springs ago he still enjoyed being enveloped by the current or leaping from one rock to another without asking things, until a special kind of creature came to distract his joyous lifetime
A/N: read the warning xD
Chapter 3
…but of course, how could he fall asleep that easily?
He had a lot of things to think, from his newly gained body to the sudden luck of opening his eyes to see the boy he held so dear standing in front of him, a dream he never even dared to dream about. Or maybe luck wasn’t exactly a suitable term since the red fox obviously led his way there. Just like the Pixies often said, foxes knew everything.
What’s their intention?
He shook his head, trying to forget the horrible image he had seen and lessened the piled up confusion by trying to think step by step, concentrating at what was on the way first.
Changmin. It was his name.
And he was wearing Jaejoong's clothes that smelled like Jaejoong.
He shook his head again.
He tried to register this believe into his head that he was a human boy named Changmin (whatever his family background was. He really had no clue how to fake one) and not a nameless little creature.
“Changmin. Cha.Cha.Changmin.” The ‘Ch’ part of his name felt funny to the roof of his mouth and he found himself smile towards it. He tugged his blanket aside to scan his human body --there was this mixed feeling, the creep of remembering the same ten fingertips that were once white and lifeless, and the thrill of joy that they were now red, warm and pulsating on his lap. And worked under his will. He kicked out his small legs, blinked, bit his tongue and maneuvered some other things with his body before switching his attention to a transparent cup of chocolate milk placed on the headboard. He jerked in surprise when his stomach grumbled at the sight.
He never needed eating or drinking before.
Knowing that he had turned into a whole different, new being, he decided to just follow his bodily needs. He reached out a hand to grip the cup handle, and without any caution at the hot steam, gulped the content in one go. Not only he hadn’t used in activity that was swallowing, the liquid also burned his mouth, causing him to spit and drop the cup in reflex only to get his lap drenched by the hot milk. Feeling worse heat burning his skin, he screamed and swatted the cup away. It flew and hit the floor with a loud prang as he hissed and rubbed his reddened skin in panic.
“Changmin…?” Jaejoong barged in and gasped seeing the shattered glass on the floor together with a pitiful, teary-eyed boy on the bed's edge. .”My God, are you oka- wait! Don’t move!” He left to call the babysitter.
Soon he returned with a broom in his hand and scowled, “Damn Dahae Nuna sleeps like a dead cow.”
Changmin could only shrink guiltily as the taller boy incompetently used the broom to wipe the mess away. “Sorry…” He whispered.
“Don’t worry about that… come here, come here…” Aware of some chunk of glasses that might still on the floor, Jaejoong reached out both hands to Changmin, palms up, signaling him to hold onto them and hopped from the bed’s edge. The boy hesitantly did, though slow and wobbling a bit and ended up crashing his forehead against Jaejoong’s nose.
“Ouch!” The taller boy grimaced, massaging his stinging nose as the other started apologizing again, twiddling both thumbs in front of his stomach nervously while doing so.
Jaejoong only replied with a sheepish giggle.
With them standing face to face like that, Changmin realized how small his self had turned to be. Up until some moments ago he always thought the boy before him as lithe and pretty like a morning lily, someone endearing and squeezable that the mere thought of burying him inside a hug filled the top of his lungs with restrained squeals. But now, Jaejoong seemed… big. Not that he hated it, (heck he could see those beautiful orbs clearer) but the sudden urge to hide self under Jaejoong’s arms for safety was rather unexpected.
“Why are you gawking like that?” A finger poked his temple brought him back his alertness. “You’re one creepy kid. Let’s change your wet clothes."
Jaejoong nonchalantly took the small hand into his and led the boy out of the room, heading to the other room right beside it which was his own. The tiny contact sent Changmin shivers but at the same time also brought him comfort.
“Here.” Jaejoong handed a blue sweatpants he got from the closet, as soon as they reached his room.
Not even knowing how to wear clothes, the clueless boy only splayed the dry new pants in front of him, trying to figure out how to make the foreign thing wrapped around his body.
This one looks like the one in my legs… With that believe he pulled his wet pants down and stomped on it clumsily to let it off, wasting time for that act only, and wasted even more time to insert a leg into the long new pants.
After a while of struggling he tripped on the fabric and fell to the floor.
“Omo! What’s wrong with you? You can’t even wear pants?” The taller boy quirked his eyebrows and glanced at the pathetic figure before continued digging the closet for a T-shirt top. Meanwhile Changmin was sitting on the floor, still trying to shove his badly coordinated leg into the pants and wiggled to make the damn fabric crawled up.
Soon Jaejoong swirled around showing a white T’s with Tinker Bell picture, “Is this okay?”
Changmin’s eyes sparked with happiness seeing the Pixy-like character. He nodded enthusiastically before noticing how Jaejoong was glaring at him impatiently, waiting for the chaotic pants-wearing to be finished. He immediately shoved his leg and wiggled again.
“Not like that, geez… stand up.” The seemingly older guy pulled the problematic pants off and prompted Changmin to get on his feet. “How old are you? Bet you’re a spoiled Mama’s boy.”
He squatted before Changmin, “Hold on to my shoulders” and rolled one of the pants’ legs to make it easier for the other boy to shove his short leg. The shorter boy could only bit his lower lip as Jaejoong helped him to put on the pants, and even the T-shirt, mumbling “Can’t believe I’m doing this, I don’t even have a baby brother…”
“Sorry…” Changmin muttered.
Jaejoong puffed his cheek before he suddenly remembered something, “You didn’t spill the chocolate over my boxer, did you!?” He pulled down the pants to check. The UK flag boxer was okay. “Oh thank God. It was one of my favorites.”
The respond was only an ‘O’ form on the mouth and another nod.
“Hey, say something, you make me feel like a mother of a mute kid.” Jaejoong looked up and got on his feet. “I’m Jaejoong, by the way.”
“T-thank you… I’m Changmin…”
“Didn’t we already know that?”
“We did? Oh… right, we did.”
The older boy chuckled, “I can’t decide whether you’re funny or creepy. But having a tattoo on your right sole is certainly creepy….”
“Tattoo…?” Changmin flipped his right foot to see his own sole, and was a bit surprised to see a black picture of three connected spirals imprinted on his sole. He wasn’t sure whether it had been there from the start or not.
“Anyway, tomorrow I’ll call my parents. Let’s see what they can do to find your family.” Yawning, Jaejoong proceeded to the single-sized bed and dived onto it. “Here, sleep here tonight.” He shifted aside and patted a spot next to him.
Changmin reluctantly followed the instruction; his tiny human heart sang a carol as he slid underneath the blanket. The comforter reek of its owner scent, warm and fluffy, probably the nicest thing ever landed on his skin other than Jaejoong himself.
He couldn’t believe that he was actually lying in Jaejoong’s bed, wearing Jaejoong’s clothes, (and even had Jaejoong put them on beforehand) side by side with Jaejoong with zero distance between their shoulders.
It’s Jaejoong for God sake.
Fate couldn’t possibly be too kind.
He scanned every corner of the room; a huge closet, two racks full of books, a white curtain, study desk, some toys, plushy and black boxes -none of those things had Changmin knew the name and function.
“Back to my question, how old are you?” Jaejoong asked, eyes observing the boy’s frame.
As the Little One, Changmin had only counted the latest sixty one springs so he wasn’t sure about the exact number. Furthermore answering it that way might cause trouble. So he asked back, “Uhm… how about you?”
“Me? I’m eleven almost twelve.”
“Oh, the same with me…” Changmin forced a smile, thinking that he had answered smartly and felt proud of it.
“You’re eleven too? You’re kinda small…” Jaejoong frowned a bit before he decided to drop the topic, “Oh well let’s watch TV…” He rose into sitting position before grabbing something with buttons.
He pressed a button and suddenly one of the black boxes, the biggest one, lighted up in various colors and produced sounds, displaying motioned pictures of man flying in the sky with red cape and blue tights written ‘S’ on the chest.
“W-what is that!?” Changmin jumped in shock seeing the bizarre item and clang onto Jaejoong’s pillow.
“Huh? You don’t know Superman?”
“What is he doing there!?”
Jaejoong blinked and jawdropped. “He flies….. wait. Don’t say you don’t……. k-know……. TV??”
“TV?”
“OH MY GOD.” He shrieked. “And I thought all Korea’s citizens are civilized already… boy, boy… I can’t imagine how poor your family is…” He pulled Changmin into a wholehearted hug and rubbed his chin against Changmin’s head while the latter could only blush and surrender. “That is TV, you change the channel with this…”
A remote control’s button was pressed and the picture switched to different scenery, this time an idol group music video.
“Oh!” Changmin gaped in astonishment. “B-but how come those human are inside that thing?”
Jaejoong burst out laughing, “Those... mmph… human aren’t there, it’s just recording…” then he changed the channel several times only to see Changmin’s pathetic reaction with a wide, amused grin. “Baby, you’re so cute… like a puppy…” He concluded finally, covering his laugh with the back of his palm.
Changmin was too absorbed in the wonder to hear the statement. Human has many magical things, he thought.
The TV then showed a weather forecast. Jaejoong grumbled about how awful the presenter’s fashion was before he changed the channel again.
To their misfortune, this time the screen switched into a bed scene of man and woman sucking face and groping each other in a passionate make out session.
Both of the boys stunned.
“There you go… adult show. That’s why we should’ve slept at this late hour.” Contradicted to his own words, Jaejoong didn’t tear his gaze away, instead he nibbled his lower lip as crimson began to creep up his cheek, tilting his head left and right as he observed the scene intently.
Changmin on the contrary, couldn’t bear to see the scene for an obvious reason -the feeling of doing it with Jaejoong vaguely flashed through his memory. He chose to look at his fingers and only squinted once in a while.
“Animals also lick each other’s mouth like that…” it was his only comment, a random one.
“Of course, all living beings have a fondness for that activity I guess.”
“I guess…” Changmin decided to agree. He took another glance --this time the woman began to descend down the man’s lower abdomen and disappeared from the screen. The man’s moan turned deeper and frantic, eyes shut, and somehow gave both boys an understanding as they had once engaged in such action, without knowing how wrong it was to be done by people at their age (at least appearance wise).
They transformed into tomatoes.
“Hey… what do you think she’s doing down there?” Jaejoong threw the question with obvious answer.
“I… I don’t know…”
“Do you think she really did it or the guy was only acting?”
“I don’t know…”
“Ugh…” He finally turned the TV off and the bedside lamp on. “Let’s stop. This will make us stupid.” Then he left the bed to turn off the light before sliding back under the comforter.
Even with lack of lighting, Changmin could see how sadness gradually hazed the beautiful orbs. He wasn’t familiar with human moral and life-style, but he definitely wasn’t blunt. He knew what his beloved was thinking and nothing he wanted more than knelt down and wailed for forgiveness, for he knew that it was his misdoing that screwed everything.
As if it was that easy.
“Jaejoong…?”
“Hm?”
“Are you okay?”
“uhm... I guess?"
Changmin didn't know what to say and so they fell into silence.
After a while Jaejoong flipped around to face Changmin and realized that the boy’s big eyes were staring at him.
“Shh, stop looking at me and sleep. We’ll look for your family tomorrow.” He pressed a palm gently against Changmin’s face. Like hypnosis, it drifted the tired one into slumber.
*
*
The next day Changmin woke up due to the gradual awareness of losing Jaejoong’s warmth as well as a high-pitched yell that stabbed his ears.
“Nunaaaa!! I can’t find my shoooooocks!!
"It's in the second drawer!!"
“I don’t know it’s not heeeeere!!”
What he found as a morning greeting was Jaejoong with wet and messy hair, a piece of bread between his lips, tucking his shirt into his belt with one hand while the other hand jabbed the drawer's content haphazardly. Not realizing that Changmin was watching him, he whined and squeezed his face, "I've told you it's not heeere!!!" his jaw clenched and lips pursed.
Soon the big-sized babysitter came and combed the boy's hair in a hurry. Tapping the boy's head twice, she reached to one of the drawers and instantly found a clump of shocks there. "See? What is this?" She said.
"It's in the third drawer. You said it's in the second." Jaejoong pouted.
The woman rolled her eyes and dropped it off, "Hurry up your milk is in the table."
"I've told you yesterday I don't want milk." the boy fretted.
"Yeah, don't drink milk and you'll be a hobbit forever."
"I won't!!"
"You won't gain height without milk, therefore becomes a hobbit."
Giving up, Jaejoong groaned and stomped his way out of the room to get the despised milk while Changmin giggled soundlessly watching the scene.
Some moments later Jaejoong returned to the room to get his bag. Upon seeing the stranger had waked up, he said "Baby, I have to go to school with Dahae Nuna, you stay here, okay? There’s a food in the fridge, do anything you want. I'll be home before two." and left without waiting for an answer.
Changmin could hear a conversation continued outside the room:
"Why did you call him like that? You sounded like a husband."
"He's so cute like a baby dog."
Changmin frowned and studied his arms and leg. I should have looked like a human, he thought. But then Jaejoong said he was cute so he decided that looking like a dog wasn’t a bad thing.
After some minutes, finally came to his awareness that he was alone. Noticing how threatening the situation was for him, he slid off the bed warily, trying to investigate the foreign lair while hoping that he still could find Jaejoong somewhere in the house.
At first he hadn’t had courage to explore outside Jaejoong’s room. He tiptoed to one of the racks and touched the rows of books carefully before pulled out the most colorful one. The book filled with letters, human codes that he couldn't decipher, but it entertained him enough to see many pictures there.
He stopped when a monster character appeared in one of the pages. He winced in disgust and quickly returned the book to its original place.
Then he scooted to the TV. It was off and nothing he could do to make it beaming like the night before. Some stacks of VCD boxes were sprawled messily under the TV desk, and Changmin fed his curiosity by checking the cover pictures one by one. Animals, nature sceneries, robots (he named them as ‘grey human’), kids, woman, woman, man, man, man and man. And man. Naked. The boy frowned and looked inside the box, but since the content looked so fragile (and nothing like the cover) he decided not to touch it.
He was about to proceed to the exit door when his reflection on the mirror startled him.
Things about reflection wasn’t really new for him, he knew how those Pixies complained over their reflection on the water (about who got fat faster), however he never saw the extreme clear version that human invented.
He leaned forward till his nose was an inch from the mirror and began touching the features of his face, checking his teeth, tongue, and eyes. He touched his neck-length black hair and tried smiling, grimacing and frowning, acting like a lower grade ape. In the end he concluded that he was quite cute and looked nothing like a dog.
After some times in Jaejoong’s room, he gathered courage to check around the house. With slow steps, he shuffled outside and peeked through the very first window he could find. The next house was quite far, separated by a path and field of red peppers. Few man and woman were there, some of them worked on the field and some just walked lightly, but he wasn’t sure whether he could trust them.
One or two of them could be foxes.
So he just roamed around the house, checking the living room (where he sighed regretfully), the bathroom (sniffing the colorful bottles and grinned when he found Jaejoong’s scent there), the refrigerator (quickly closed it again due to the cold air) and finally stumbled in the kitchen.
There were few framed pictures of animals on the wall, and one of them was a fox. In less than one minute he decided that kitchen was the place he hated the most. Just when he was about to escape, noises came from behind the ceiling, causing him to jump in surprise.
Duk duk duk. Duk duk duk.
It sounded like footsteps, like a creature was running on top of the wooden ceiling. Hearing the noise right after seeing the fox picture fed his mind with quite a bad omen, and he immediately dashed from the kitchen to Jaejoong’s room.
Then he realized one thing.
He was in the place he didn’t know. He was alone, Jaejoong wasn’t there, and foxes, or even more horrible creatures, might find him there and eat him.
Just like what had happened to this body’s mother.
He hurriedly closed the door, hiding inside Jaejoong’s room once again. He sat on the messy bed and thought about how unsafe he was actually.
As if he wasn’t scared enough, the sounds wouldn’t stop,
Duk duk duk. Duk duk duk.
It followed him to Jaejoong’s room.
“Who’s there…?” He asked the ceiling, voice trembled. He felt his body hair erected and didn’t like it one bit. “Jaejoong…?” He knew Jaejoong wasn’t there but he couldn’t help but calling the name.
Duk duk duk. Duk duk duk,
The boy started to cry in fear. Having the fear of a fox fell from the ceiling, he hastily pulled a blanket and brought it with him to the space underneath the bed. He wrapped himself with the blanket and formed a curl, shielding his ears and eyes from any kind of threats.
“Jaejoong… Jaejoong… Jaejoong…” The name was chanted like a mantra as if it had a power to cast evil away.
After a while he cried himself to sleep.
*
*
“Min!! Changmiiiinn!!!”
At first the voice was faint, but as Changmin got his consciousness back he noticed that a pair of round, clear eyes were looking at him in both relief and curiosity.
“There you are… what are you doing there?” Jaejoong was kneeling on the floor and stooped over to study the curling form under his bed. “Your eyes are swollen. Were you crying?”
To Changmin’s state of mind the elementary school boy seemed like an angel who would save him from apocalypse, so he crawled out of his hidden place and slammed himself into his hug.
Jaejoong only laughed and rubbed the cowering boy’s back, “What happened?”
“Something followed me…”
“Followed you…?”
“It walked up there…” Changmin pointed at the ceiling.
Jaejoong thought for a while before he got the idea, “Oh, it’s only a rat… sometimes there’s a rat up there but it will leave by itself. You think it was ghost?”
Changmin nodded, actually he didn’t quite understand about ghosts but he guessed they were better than foxes.
Getting such reaction, sparks suddenly filled Jaejoong’s tone, “You believe things like ghost? Well… don’t tell anyone, okay. People will call me childish and not cool, but I like stories about spirits and fairies… or those folktales about some animals that can disguise themselves into human.”
“L-like the fox?” Changmin clang onto Jaejoong’s uniform tighter.
“Yeah, like fox! Or raccoon…”
“Fox is really evil…”
“Yeah, they said fox is evil. You know that story about fox’s wedding?”
“Fox’s wedding?”
“You know, some elderly living here often hide their grandchildren whenever it’s raining with sunshine, because they believe that the foxes celebrate a wedding that time, and you’re forbidden to witness it. If you violate that rule the foxes will eat you.” Jaejoong blabbered, not realizing that he didn’t do any help by the story.
Changmin clutched Jaejoong’s sides and looked at him with gleaming eyes, “Y-yes! Fox is evil, they eat human! Beware of them!”
Jaejoong let out another laugh and patted the smaller boy’s head, “You really believe it, don’t you… I’m not sure I believe it but I think that folktale is interesting. Anyway, I have a story, but I want to take a bath first. I’m smelly.” He took some new clothes from the closet and headed to the bathroom not so far from his room.
Right before he opened the bathroom door he realized that the other boy was tailing him right behind his back, still with pale face. He offered, “What? You want to shower with me?”
Changmin shook his head without realizing what a big chance he had missed.
“…you really act like a puppy…” Jaejoong chuckled before he got into the bathroom.
Still feeling insecure, Changmin decided to wait, sitting shamelessly on the floor and leaned against the wall adjacent to the bathroom door. Soon the rustling sound of shower was heard, together with Jaejoong singing with his sweet but off key voice, “Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fuuuurrr….” And Changmin held onto the voice as if his life depended on it.
Jaejoong’s voice is so sweet…
At the same time a delectable fragrance coming from the kitchen, causing his mouth to water. Again he was amazed at such involuntary reaction of a human body, however he was too busy waiting for Jaejoong to even feel curious at the source of nice smell.
Not too long after that Jaejoong finished from the shower (a bit faster than usual) and grinned seeing the needy boy’s sparkling eyes.
“I bet you haven’t eaten since morning. Nuna is making lunch for us, let’s go.” He walked ahead of Changmin to the kitchen. The latter immediately followed.
They settled properly at a small table where the babysitter had placed two sets of rice, vegetable soups and chicken chops. After a quick, halfhearted prayer (which received a glare from Dahae Nuna) Jaejoong stale bluntly shoveled the meal while Changmin looked at the colorful content of the soup bowl in awe.
“Changmin-ah, I’m not that good at cooking but trust me my food is edible.” Dahae pouted.
“Y-yes!”
The boy glanced at Jaejoong, studying his way to do the activity that was eating. It looked easy, but when he tried it the rice just wouldn’t crawl to his spoon.
“You can’t even eat by yourself!?” Jaejoong gawked but then quickly closed his mouth, “Oh well you can’t even wear clothes… here.” He shoveled from his share and directed it to Changmin’s mouth.
Changmin opened his mouth and easily received a spoonful.
Ah, it’s easier this way...
It needed a long time to chew the food and swallowed though, so the other boy waited for him as he fed himself. Soon the feeding process turned into a fun activity as Jaejoong came up with various style on how to feed Changmin:
“Open your mouth, say aaa…”
“Aaa…” After some spoons Changmin could eat faster.
“Oh, so quick! Good boooy. Now prepare for the new plane! Aaaaa bussshhhh….” He mimicked the sound of engine and stirred the spoon left and right as if it was a plane, before it landed into Changmin’s mouth. The experimental object only giggled happily seeing enthusiastic Jaejoong and his deadly cute puckered lips, though a bit clueless of what the boy was talking about.
“Come on come on come, this time it’s Kamikaze ship, dassshhh….” He fed another spoonful. “Hehehe this is so much fun… you know what, I really wish to have a little brother… or a dog. But my parents gave me neither of them.”
“Jaejoong-ah, are you having fun mocking that poor kid…” Dahae Nuna suddenly appeared before him, shaking her head while crossing her arms.
“I’m not mocking him! Anyway do you think I can be a good moth- I mean father? A motorcycle accident! Aaaaa… crasssh…”
“I’m watching you Jaejoong-ah. You give all the carrots to him and keep the chicken for yourself.”
Jaejoong’s breath caught.
Then he switched from stiff expression to an affectionate one, “Baby, you don’t like carrots?”
“I like it!” Changmin answered immediately. And bit back a smile. So Jaejoong doesn’t like carrots…
“See? He likes carrots.” Jaejoong concluded and quickly finished his share of pure, no-vegetable-tainted slices of chicken. “Oh Nuna, we shouldn’t have told Umma and Appa, I want to keep him forever…”
Changmin found himself grinning. He so wanted Jaejoong to keep him forever. He thought it was funny when Jaejoong sneakily moved the broccoli into his plate.
*
*
Since it was only the second day, Changmin hadn’t thought anything about being useful and less parasite-like; watching how Jaejoong controlled color pencils to finish his drawing homework was awesome enough for him (and the drawing wasn’t even good). On the other hand, it amazed Jaejoong how Changmin so easily entertained; he treated paper and blue pencil as if they were some kind of cool technology.
The babysitter left that night. She said she had an important thing to do so she should go somewhere. Jaejoong said she often left like that and he didn’t care, while Changmin couldn’t imagine how scary and lonely it was to stay in that house alone.
“Usually I went to my neighbor’s house, he’s tall and seven years older than me. But well… yeah… anyway he’s not home at the moment.”
Changmin knew that Jaejoong was talking about Yunho.
Probably feeling lonely, when the sleep time came Jaejoong didn’t mind to share his bed again, and so Changmin flopped into his side comfortably like a happy dog.
What faltered his smile was when Jaejoong asked about his family.
“I forget…” he lied.
“Ah… so amnesia is not only in film, huh?” Jaejoong decided to end his curiosity. “Well… I’ve called Umma and Appa, they didn’t sound too… you know… they’re busy people, I’m not sure if they have time to help us look for your family right away. But Appa said he’ll do it.”
“Oh…” The fox said this boy didn’t have a family, right? “Thank you… sorry for the trouble…” Suddenly he felt kind of guilty.
“Well, this might be selfish, but honestly I hope- aish!“
Both of them yelped as the bright room turned pitch black.
“Gosh, what’s wrong with this town’s electricity? This happens too often!” Jaejoong grunted and slid off of the bed, fumbling in the dark to find a way. He didn’t realize that the boy next to him was bewildering; Changmin’s previous sense didn’t allow him to experience a blank, dark sight, only human limited sense did. He moved to follow Jaejoong’s body heat as he felt it leaving.
“Jaejoong… where are you going…?”
“Wait there, I’ll look for flashlight and candle.”
He heard Jaejoong’s footsteps walked away from him. Having the insecurity returned, he gathered the fabrics around him and buried himself, restraining from bawling Jaejoong’s name in order not to piss the boy off.
Moments later he gradually saw everything in yellow brightness; he thought the light finally went back, but the next thing he saw, the one that Jaejoong brought to save them from darkness, rend his nerve like nothing had ever done before. It was the mix feeling loathe and extreme fear, so much that he could no longer stop himself from losing control.
“W-w-what is that… Jaejoong… keep it away!!” He screamed from the back of his throat.
“Huh?” The taller boy couldn’t immediately get the boy’s weird reaction. “Eh? What’s wrong with you?” He walked closer, bringing a plate of candle in his hand.
Changmin hid himself under the comforter, “Keep it away!! Please!! Keep it away!”
“Keep what away…? Hey, Changmin…”
“Please… please…” His voice trembled.
Jaejoong moved the candle closer to Changmin to see him clearer, but the boy only wailed louder.
“Changmin… you’re afraid of fire…?”
“Keep it away…. I hate it… I hate it…”
Confused, Jaejoong put the candle on the headboard and pulled Changmin by the shoulders, prompting him to arise from his curl, however the latter only planted his face deeper, trembled harder and refused to lift his chin.
“Your house was burned…?”
“Please… I hate it…”
“Changmin, I can’t find my flashlight, if we should be in the dark I’ll be scared as well…” Jaejoong tried to reason while rubbing the boy’s back.
Changmin didn’t answer, but he still refused to show his face.
“Okay, okay, I put this thing really really far away. There’s no way it can touch you.” Jaejoong took the candle, placed it rather far from the bed and placed a thick book in front of it to hide the thing from view. “There, you can’t see the fire.”
The boy only peeked in a quick glance before hid self again for the sway of fire was still invisible, reflected on the wall.
“Omo, there is clearly something wrong with you…” Sighing, Jaejoong tugged the blanket to hold the sides of Changmin’s face and forced him to look up. “It’s just a candle, Min, it’s alright! No need to be this scared…!”
For a while it was like a battle, Changmin struggled to keep himself curled while Jaejoong pushed and pulled his shoulders and arms to uncurl him, until the latter finally won in strength and managed to force Changmin to lie on his back, using his slightly taller body to pin him against the bed.
“I know a good distraction.” With that, he pressed his mouth against Changmin’s.
The smaller boy was still shutting his eyes too tight to realize what the other was doing to him. As he felt wet, smooth, tender surface suckling his stone-stiff lips, he hesitantly opened his eyes and was more than shocked to see rows of eyelashes so close to his face.
Jaejoong stopped and pulled away till their noses were an inch apart. His eyes weren’t filled with pleasure nor joy, only something that said “What”
In less than a second Changmin remembered the hazard that was threatening him at the moment, but before his eyes managed to be stirred back to the small source of fire, Jaejoong already landed a palm over his eyes, “Don’t look.” He launched another attempt.
“Ummf… J-Jaejoong…” Changmin mumbled. His stiff tongue met Jaejoong’s dancing one in a sloppy kiss.
Jaejoong paused, only to say “Just look at me, okay? Concentrate on this.” and leaned forward without giving Changmin a chance to answer. Due to some reasons Changmin was overcautious at first, but then he gradually relaxed under the spell-like kiss, as the taste pampered him slowly and fascinatingly.
In the end only God knew how long they did that.
[to be continued]
A/N:……………… and to know what the hell was wrong with those boys is up to your imagination hahahaa xD
Pairing: Jaemin (main)
Genre: AU, supernatural/fantasy/non-human, angst, romance
Warning: underage-went-wrong, WTFs, minor torture/violence, possible annoying!min
Rating: PG-NC-17/R
Summary:
Until some springs ago he still enjoyed being enveloped by the current or leaping from one rock to another without asking things, until a special kind of creature came to distract his joyous lifetime
A/N: read the warning xD
Chapter 3
…but of course, how could he fall asleep that easily?
He had a lot of things to think, from his newly gained body to the sudden luck of opening his eyes to see the boy he held so dear standing in front of him, a dream he never even dared to dream about. Or maybe luck wasn’t exactly a suitable term since the red fox obviously led his way there. Just like the Pixies often said, foxes knew everything.
What’s their intention?
He shook his head, trying to forget the horrible image he had seen and lessened the piled up confusion by trying to think step by step, concentrating at what was on the way first.
Changmin. It was his name.
And he was wearing Jaejoong's clothes that smelled like Jaejoong.
He shook his head again.
He tried to register this believe into his head that he was a human boy named Changmin (whatever his family background was. He really had no clue how to fake one) and not a nameless little creature.
“Changmin. Cha.Cha.Changmin.” The ‘Ch’ part of his name felt funny to the roof of his mouth and he found himself smile towards it. He tugged his blanket aside to scan his human body --there was this mixed feeling, the creep of remembering the same ten fingertips that were once white and lifeless, and the thrill of joy that they were now red, warm and pulsating on his lap. And worked under his will. He kicked out his small legs, blinked, bit his tongue and maneuvered some other things with his body before switching his attention to a transparent cup of chocolate milk placed on the headboard. He jerked in surprise when his stomach grumbled at the sight.
He never needed eating or drinking before.
Knowing that he had turned into a whole different, new being, he decided to just follow his bodily needs. He reached out a hand to grip the cup handle, and without any caution at the hot steam, gulped the content in one go. Not only he hadn’t used in activity that was swallowing, the liquid also burned his mouth, causing him to spit and drop the cup in reflex only to get his lap drenched by the hot milk. Feeling worse heat burning his skin, he screamed and swatted the cup away. It flew and hit the floor with a loud prang as he hissed and rubbed his reddened skin in panic.
“Changmin…?” Jaejoong barged in and gasped seeing the shattered glass on the floor together with a pitiful, teary-eyed boy on the bed's edge. .”My God, are you oka- wait! Don’t move!” He left to call the babysitter.
Soon he returned with a broom in his hand and scowled, “Damn Dahae Nuna sleeps like a dead cow.”
Changmin could only shrink guiltily as the taller boy incompetently used the broom to wipe the mess away. “Sorry…” He whispered.
“Don’t worry about that… come here, come here…” Aware of some chunk of glasses that might still on the floor, Jaejoong reached out both hands to Changmin, palms up, signaling him to hold onto them and hopped from the bed’s edge. The boy hesitantly did, though slow and wobbling a bit and ended up crashing his forehead against Jaejoong’s nose.
“Ouch!” The taller boy grimaced, massaging his stinging nose as the other started apologizing again, twiddling both thumbs in front of his stomach nervously while doing so.
Jaejoong only replied with a sheepish giggle.
With them standing face to face like that, Changmin realized how small his self had turned to be. Up until some moments ago he always thought the boy before him as lithe and pretty like a morning lily, someone endearing and squeezable that the mere thought of burying him inside a hug filled the top of his lungs with restrained squeals. But now, Jaejoong seemed… big. Not that he hated it, (heck he could see those beautiful orbs clearer) but the sudden urge to hide self under Jaejoong’s arms for safety was rather unexpected.
“Why are you gawking like that?” A finger poked his temple brought him back his alertness. “You’re one creepy kid. Let’s change your wet clothes."
Jaejoong nonchalantly took the small hand into his and led the boy out of the room, heading to the other room right beside it which was his own. The tiny contact sent Changmin shivers but at the same time also brought him comfort.
“Here.” Jaejoong handed a blue sweatpants he got from the closet, as soon as they reached his room.
Not even knowing how to wear clothes, the clueless boy only splayed the dry new pants in front of him, trying to figure out how to make the foreign thing wrapped around his body.
This one looks like the one in my legs… With that believe he pulled his wet pants down and stomped on it clumsily to let it off, wasting time for that act only, and wasted even more time to insert a leg into the long new pants.
After a while of struggling he tripped on the fabric and fell to the floor.
“Omo! What’s wrong with you? You can’t even wear pants?” The taller boy quirked his eyebrows and glanced at the pathetic figure before continued digging the closet for a T-shirt top. Meanwhile Changmin was sitting on the floor, still trying to shove his badly coordinated leg into the pants and wiggled to make the damn fabric crawled up.
Soon Jaejoong swirled around showing a white T’s with Tinker Bell picture, “Is this okay?”
Changmin’s eyes sparked with happiness seeing the Pixy-like character. He nodded enthusiastically before noticing how Jaejoong was glaring at him impatiently, waiting for the chaotic pants-wearing to be finished. He immediately shoved his leg and wiggled again.
“Not like that, geez… stand up.” The seemingly older guy pulled the problematic pants off and prompted Changmin to get on his feet. “How old are you? Bet you’re a spoiled Mama’s boy.”
He squatted before Changmin, “Hold on to my shoulders” and rolled one of the pants’ legs to make it easier for the other boy to shove his short leg. The shorter boy could only bit his lower lip as Jaejoong helped him to put on the pants, and even the T-shirt, mumbling “Can’t believe I’m doing this, I don’t even have a baby brother…”
“Sorry…” Changmin muttered.
Jaejoong puffed his cheek before he suddenly remembered something, “You didn’t spill the chocolate over my boxer, did you!?” He pulled down the pants to check. The UK flag boxer was okay. “Oh thank God. It was one of my favorites.”
The respond was only an ‘O’ form on the mouth and another nod.
“Hey, say something, you make me feel like a mother of a mute kid.” Jaejoong looked up and got on his feet. “I’m Jaejoong, by the way.”
“T-thank you… I’m Changmin…”
“Didn’t we already know that?”
“We did? Oh… right, we did.”
The older boy chuckled, “I can’t decide whether you’re funny or creepy. But having a tattoo on your right sole is certainly creepy….”
“Tattoo…?” Changmin flipped his right foot to see his own sole, and was a bit surprised to see a black picture of three connected spirals imprinted on his sole. He wasn’t sure whether it had been there from the start or not.
“Anyway, tomorrow I’ll call my parents. Let’s see what they can do to find your family.” Yawning, Jaejoong proceeded to the single-sized bed and dived onto it. “Here, sleep here tonight.” He shifted aside and patted a spot next to him.
Changmin reluctantly followed the instruction; his tiny human heart sang a carol as he slid underneath the blanket. The comforter reek of its owner scent, warm and fluffy, probably the nicest thing ever landed on his skin other than Jaejoong himself.
He couldn’t believe that he was actually lying in Jaejoong’s bed, wearing Jaejoong’s clothes, (and even had Jaejoong put them on beforehand) side by side with Jaejoong with zero distance between their shoulders.
It’s Jaejoong for God sake.
Fate couldn’t possibly be too kind.
He scanned every corner of the room; a huge closet, two racks full of books, a white curtain, study desk, some toys, plushy and black boxes -none of those things had Changmin knew the name and function.
“Back to my question, how old are you?” Jaejoong asked, eyes observing the boy’s frame.
As the Little One, Changmin had only counted the latest sixty one springs so he wasn’t sure about the exact number. Furthermore answering it that way might cause trouble. So he asked back, “Uhm… how about you?”
“Me? I’m eleven almost twelve.”
“Oh, the same with me…” Changmin forced a smile, thinking that he had answered smartly and felt proud of it.
“You’re eleven too? You’re kinda small…” Jaejoong frowned a bit before he decided to drop the topic, “Oh well let’s watch TV…” He rose into sitting position before grabbing something with buttons.
He pressed a button and suddenly one of the black boxes, the biggest one, lighted up in various colors and produced sounds, displaying motioned pictures of man flying in the sky with red cape and blue tights written ‘S’ on the chest.
“W-what is that!?” Changmin jumped in shock seeing the bizarre item and clang onto Jaejoong’s pillow.
“Huh? You don’t know Superman?”
“What is he doing there!?”
Jaejoong blinked and jawdropped. “He flies….. wait. Don’t say you don’t……. k-know……. TV??”
“TV?”
“OH MY GOD.” He shrieked. “And I thought all Korea’s citizens are civilized already… boy, boy… I can’t imagine how poor your family is…” He pulled Changmin into a wholehearted hug and rubbed his chin against Changmin’s head while the latter could only blush and surrender. “That is TV, you change the channel with this…”
A remote control’s button was pressed and the picture switched to different scenery, this time an idol group music video.
“Oh!” Changmin gaped in astonishment. “B-but how come those human are inside that thing?”
Jaejoong burst out laughing, “Those... mmph… human aren’t there, it’s just recording…” then he changed the channel several times only to see Changmin’s pathetic reaction with a wide, amused grin. “Baby, you’re so cute… like a puppy…” He concluded finally, covering his laugh with the back of his palm.
Changmin was too absorbed in the wonder to hear the statement. Human has many magical things, he thought.
The TV then showed a weather forecast. Jaejoong grumbled about how awful the presenter’s fashion was before he changed the channel again.
To their misfortune, this time the screen switched into a bed scene of man and woman sucking face and groping each other in a passionate make out session.
Both of the boys stunned.
“There you go… adult show. That’s why we should’ve slept at this late hour.” Contradicted to his own words, Jaejoong didn’t tear his gaze away, instead he nibbled his lower lip as crimson began to creep up his cheek, tilting his head left and right as he observed the scene intently.
Changmin on the contrary, couldn’t bear to see the scene for an obvious reason -the feeling of doing it with Jaejoong vaguely flashed through his memory. He chose to look at his fingers and only squinted once in a while.
“Animals also lick each other’s mouth like that…” it was his only comment, a random one.
“Of course, all living beings have a fondness for that activity I guess.”
“I guess…” Changmin decided to agree. He took another glance --this time the woman began to descend down the man’s lower abdomen and disappeared from the screen. The man’s moan turned deeper and frantic, eyes shut, and somehow gave both boys an understanding as they had once engaged in such action, without knowing how wrong it was to be done by people at their age (at least appearance wise).
They transformed into tomatoes.
“Hey… what do you think she’s doing down there?” Jaejoong threw the question with obvious answer.
“I… I don’t know…”
“Do you think she really did it or the guy was only acting?”
“I don’t know…”
“Ugh…” He finally turned the TV off and the bedside lamp on. “Let’s stop. This will make us stupid.” Then he left the bed to turn off the light before sliding back under the comforter.
Even with lack of lighting, Changmin could see how sadness gradually hazed the beautiful orbs. He wasn’t familiar with human moral and life-style, but he definitely wasn’t blunt. He knew what his beloved was thinking and nothing he wanted more than knelt down and wailed for forgiveness, for he knew that it was his misdoing that screwed everything.
As if it was that easy.
“Jaejoong…?”
“Hm?”
“Are you okay?”
“uhm... I guess?"
Changmin didn't know what to say and so they fell into silence.
After a while Jaejoong flipped around to face Changmin and realized that the boy’s big eyes were staring at him.
“Shh, stop looking at me and sleep. We’ll look for your family tomorrow.” He pressed a palm gently against Changmin’s face. Like hypnosis, it drifted the tired one into slumber.
*
*
The next day Changmin woke up due to the gradual awareness of losing Jaejoong’s warmth as well as a high-pitched yell that stabbed his ears.
“Nunaaaa!! I can’t find my shoooooocks!!
"It's in the second drawer!!"
“I don’t know it’s not heeeeere!!”
What he found as a morning greeting was Jaejoong with wet and messy hair, a piece of bread between his lips, tucking his shirt into his belt with one hand while the other hand jabbed the drawer's content haphazardly. Not realizing that Changmin was watching him, he whined and squeezed his face, "I've told you it's not heeere!!!" his jaw clenched and lips pursed.
Soon the big-sized babysitter came and combed the boy's hair in a hurry. Tapping the boy's head twice, she reached to one of the drawers and instantly found a clump of shocks there. "See? What is this?" She said.
"It's in the third drawer. You said it's in the second." Jaejoong pouted.
The woman rolled her eyes and dropped it off, "Hurry up your milk is in the table."
"I've told you yesterday I don't want milk." the boy fretted.
"Yeah, don't drink milk and you'll be a hobbit forever."
"I won't!!"
"You won't gain height without milk, therefore becomes a hobbit."
Giving up, Jaejoong groaned and stomped his way out of the room to get the despised milk while Changmin giggled soundlessly watching the scene.
Some moments later Jaejoong returned to the room to get his bag. Upon seeing the stranger had waked up, he said "Baby, I have to go to school with Dahae Nuna, you stay here, okay? There’s a food in the fridge, do anything you want. I'll be home before two." and left without waiting for an answer.
Changmin could hear a conversation continued outside the room:
"Why did you call him like that? You sounded like a husband."
"He's so cute like a baby dog."
Changmin frowned and studied his arms and leg. I should have looked like a human, he thought. But then Jaejoong said he was cute so he decided that looking like a dog wasn’t a bad thing.
After some minutes, finally came to his awareness that he was alone. Noticing how threatening the situation was for him, he slid off the bed warily, trying to investigate the foreign lair while hoping that he still could find Jaejoong somewhere in the house.
At first he hadn’t had courage to explore outside Jaejoong’s room. He tiptoed to one of the racks and touched the rows of books carefully before pulled out the most colorful one. The book filled with letters, human codes that he couldn't decipher, but it entertained him enough to see many pictures there.
He stopped when a monster character appeared in one of the pages. He winced in disgust and quickly returned the book to its original place.
Then he scooted to the TV. It was off and nothing he could do to make it beaming like the night before. Some stacks of VCD boxes were sprawled messily under the TV desk, and Changmin fed his curiosity by checking the cover pictures one by one. Animals, nature sceneries, robots (he named them as ‘grey human’), kids, woman, woman, man, man, man and man. And man. Naked. The boy frowned and looked inside the box, but since the content looked so fragile (and nothing like the cover) he decided not to touch it.
He was about to proceed to the exit door when his reflection on the mirror startled him.
Things about reflection wasn’t really new for him, he knew how those Pixies complained over their reflection on the water (about who got fat faster), however he never saw the extreme clear version that human invented.
He leaned forward till his nose was an inch from the mirror and began touching the features of his face, checking his teeth, tongue, and eyes. He touched his neck-length black hair and tried smiling, grimacing and frowning, acting like a lower grade ape. In the end he concluded that he was quite cute and looked nothing like a dog.
After some times in Jaejoong’s room, he gathered courage to check around the house. With slow steps, he shuffled outside and peeked through the very first window he could find. The next house was quite far, separated by a path and field of red peppers. Few man and woman were there, some of them worked on the field and some just walked lightly, but he wasn’t sure whether he could trust them.
One or two of them could be foxes.
So he just roamed around the house, checking the living room (where he sighed regretfully), the bathroom (sniffing the colorful bottles and grinned when he found Jaejoong’s scent there), the refrigerator (quickly closed it again due to the cold air) and finally stumbled in the kitchen.
There were few framed pictures of animals on the wall, and one of them was a fox. In less than one minute he decided that kitchen was the place he hated the most. Just when he was about to escape, noises came from behind the ceiling, causing him to jump in surprise.
Duk duk duk. Duk duk duk.
It sounded like footsteps, like a creature was running on top of the wooden ceiling. Hearing the noise right after seeing the fox picture fed his mind with quite a bad omen, and he immediately dashed from the kitchen to Jaejoong’s room.
Then he realized one thing.
He was in the place he didn’t know. He was alone, Jaejoong wasn’t there, and foxes, or even more horrible creatures, might find him there and eat him.
Just like what had happened to this body’s mother.
He hurriedly closed the door, hiding inside Jaejoong’s room once again. He sat on the messy bed and thought about how unsafe he was actually.
As if he wasn’t scared enough, the sounds wouldn’t stop,
Duk duk duk. Duk duk duk.
It followed him to Jaejoong’s room.
“Who’s there…?” He asked the ceiling, voice trembled. He felt his body hair erected and didn’t like it one bit. “Jaejoong…?” He knew Jaejoong wasn’t there but he couldn’t help but calling the name.
Duk duk duk. Duk duk duk,
The boy started to cry in fear. Having the fear of a fox fell from the ceiling, he hastily pulled a blanket and brought it with him to the space underneath the bed. He wrapped himself with the blanket and formed a curl, shielding his ears and eyes from any kind of threats.
“Jaejoong… Jaejoong… Jaejoong…” The name was chanted like a mantra as if it had a power to cast evil away.
After a while he cried himself to sleep.
*
*
“Min!! Changmiiiinn!!!”
At first the voice was faint, but as Changmin got his consciousness back he noticed that a pair of round, clear eyes were looking at him in both relief and curiosity.
“There you are… what are you doing there?” Jaejoong was kneeling on the floor and stooped over to study the curling form under his bed. “Your eyes are swollen. Were you crying?”
To Changmin’s state of mind the elementary school boy seemed like an angel who would save him from apocalypse, so he crawled out of his hidden place and slammed himself into his hug.
Jaejoong only laughed and rubbed the cowering boy’s back, “What happened?”
“Something followed me…”
“Followed you…?”
“It walked up there…” Changmin pointed at the ceiling.
Jaejoong thought for a while before he got the idea, “Oh, it’s only a rat… sometimes there’s a rat up there but it will leave by itself. You think it was ghost?”
Changmin nodded, actually he didn’t quite understand about ghosts but he guessed they were better than foxes.
Getting such reaction, sparks suddenly filled Jaejoong’s tone, “You believe things like ghost? Well… don’t tell anyone, okay. People will call me childish and not cool, but I like stories about spirits and fairies… or those folktales about some animals that can disguise themselves into human.”
“L-like the fox?” Changmin clang onto Jaejoong’s uniform tighter.
“Yeah, like fox! Or raccoon…”
“Fox is really evil…”
“Yeah, they said fox is evil. You know that story about fox’s wedding?”
“Fox’s wedding?”
“You know, some elderly living here often hide their grandchildren whenever it’s raining with sunshine, because they believe that the foxes celebrate a wedding that time, and you’re forbidden to witness it. If you violate that rule the foxes will eat you.” Jaejoong blabbered, not realizing that he didn’t do any help by the story.
Changmin clutched Jaejoong’s sides and looked at him with gleaming eyes, “Y-yes! Fox is evil, they eat human! Beware of them!”
Jaejoong let out another laugh and patted the smaller boy’s head, “You really believe it, don’t you… I’m not sure I believe it but I think that folktale is interesting. Anyway, I have a story, but I want to take a bath first. I’m smelly.” He took some new clothes from the closet and headed to the bathroom not so far from his room.
Right before he opened the bathroom door he realized that the other boy was tailing him right behind his back, still with pale face. He offered, “What? You want to shower with me?”
Changmin shook his head without realizing what a big chance he had missed.
“…you really act like a puppy…” Jaejoong chuckled before he got into the bathroom.
Still feeling insecure, Changmin decided to wait, sitting shamelessly on the floor and leaned against the wall adjacent to the bathroom door. Soon the rustling sound of shower was heard, together with Jaejoong singing with his sweet but off key voice, “Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fuuuurrr….” And Changmin held onto the voice as if his life depended on it.
Jaejoong’s voice is so sweet…
At the same time a delectable fragrance coming from the kitchen, causing his mouth to water. Again he was amazed at such involuntary reaction of a human body, however he was too busy waiting for Jaejoong to even feel curious at the source of nice smell.
Not too long after that Jaejoong finished from the shower (a bit faster than usual) and grinned seeing the needy boy’s sparkling eyes.
“I bet you haven’t eaten since morning. Nuna is making lunch for us, let’s go.” He walked ahead of Changmin to the kitchen. The latter immediately followed.
They settled properly at a small table where the babysitter had placed two sets of rice, vegetable soups and chicken chops. After a quick, halfhearted prayer (which received a glare from Dahae Nuna) Jaejoong stale bluntly shoveled the meal while Changmin looked at the colorful content of the soup bowl in awe.
“Changmin-ah, I’m not that good at cooking but trust me my food is edible.” Dahae pouted.
“Y-yes!”
The boy glanced at Jaejoong, studying his way to do the activity that was eating. It looked easy, but when he tried it the rice just wouldn’t crawl to his spoon.
“You can’t even eat by yourself!?” Jaejoong gawked but then quickly closed his mouth, “Oh well you can’t even wear clothes… here.” He shoveled from his share and directed it to Changmin’s mouth.
Changmin opened his mouth and easily received a spoonful.
Ah, it’s easier this way...
It needed a long time to chew the food and swallowed though, so the other boy waited for him as he fed himself. Soon the feeding process turned into a fun activity as Jaejoong came up with various style on how to feed Changmin:
“Open your mouth, say aaa…”
“Aaa…” After some spoons Changmin could eat faster.
“Oh, so quick! Good boooy. Now prepare for the new plane! Aaaaa bussshhhh….” He mimicked the sound of engine and stirred the spoon left and right as if it was a plane, before it landed into Changmin’s mouth. The experimental object only giggled happily seeing enthusiastic Jaejoong and his deadly cute puckered lips, though a bit clueless of what the boy was talking about.
“Come on come on come, this time it’s Kamikaze ship, dassshhh….” He fed another spoonful. “Hehehe this is so much fun… you know what, I really wish to have a little brother… or a dog. But my parents gave me neither of them.”
“Jaejoong-ah, are you having fun mocking that poor kid…” Dahae Nuna suddenly appeared before him, shaking her head while crossing her arms.
“I’m not mocking him! Anyway do you think I can be a good moth- I mean father? A motorcycle accident! Aaaaa… crasssh…”
“I’m watching you Jaejoong-ah. You give all the carrots to him and keep the chicken for yourself.”
Jaejoong’s breath caught.
Then he switched from stiff expression to an affectionate one, “Baby, you don’t like carrots?”
“I like it!” Changmin answered immediately. And bit back a smile. So Jaejoong doesn’t like carrots…
“See? He likes carrots.” Jaejoong concluded and quickly finished his share of pure, no-vegetable-tainted slices of chicken. “Oh Nuna, we shouldn’t have told Umma and Appa, I want to keep him forever…”
Changmin found himself grinning. He so wanted Jaejoong to keep him forever. He thought it was funny when Jaejoong sneakily moved the broccoli into his plate.
*
*
Since it was only the second day, Changmin hadn’t thought anything about being useful and less parasite-like; watching how Jaejoong controlled color pencils to finish his drawing homework was awesome enough for him (and the drawing wasn’t even good). On the other hand, it amazed Jaejoong how Changmin so easily entertained; he treated paper and blue pencil as if they were some kind of cool technology.
The babysitter left that night. She said she had an important thing to do so she should go somewhere. Jaejoong said she often left like that and he didn’t care, while Changmin couldn’t imagine how scary and lonely it was to stay in that house alone.
“Usually I went to my neighbor’s house, he’s tall and seven years older than me. But well… yeah… anyway he’s not home at the moment.”
Changmin knew that Jaejoong was talking about Yunho.
Probably feeling lonely, when the sleep time came Jaejoong didn’t mind to share his bed again, and so Changmin flopped into his side comfortably like a happy dog.
What faltered his smile was when Jaejoong asked about his family.
“I forget…” he lied.
“Ah… so amnesia is not only in film, huh?” Jaejoong decided to end his curiosity. “Well… I’ve called Umma and Appa, they didn’t sound too… you know… they’re busy people, I’m not sure if they have time to help us look for your family right away. But Appa said he’ll do it.”
“Oh…” The fox said this boy didn’t have a family, right? “Thank you… sorry for the trouble…” Suddenly he felt kind of guilty.
“Well, this might be selfish, but honestly I hope- aish!“
Both of them yelped as the bright room turned pitch black.
“Gosh, what’s wrong with this town’s electricity? This happens too often!” Jaejoong grunted and slid off of the bed, fumbling in the dark to find a way. He didn’t realize that the boy next to him was bewildering; Changmin’s previous sense didn’t allow him to experience a blank, dark sight, only human limited sense did. He moved to follow Jaejoong’s body heat as he felt it leaving.
“Jaejoong… where are you going…?”
“Wait there, I’ll look for flashlight and candle.”
He heard Jaejoong’s footsteps walked away from him. Having the insecurity returned, he gathered the fabrics around him and buried himself, restraining from bawling Jaejoong’s name in order not to piss the boy off.
Moments later he gradually saw everything in yellow brightness; he thought the light finally went back, but the next thing he saw, the one that Jaejoong brought to save them from darkness, rend his nerve like nothing had ever done before. It was the mix feeling loathe and extreme fear, so much that he could no longer stop himself from losing control.
“W-w-what is that… Jaejoong… keep it away!!” He screamed from the back of his throat.
“Huh?” The taller boy couldn’t immediately get the boy’s weird reaction. “Eh? What’s wrong with you?” He walked closer, bringing a plate of candle in his hand.
Changmin hid himself under the comforter, “Keep it away!! Please!! Keep it away!”
“Keep what away…? Hey, Changmin…”
“Please… please…” His voice trembled.
Jaejoong moved the candle closer to Changmin to see him clearer, but the boy only wailed louder.
“Changmin… you’re afraid of fire…?”
“Keep it away…. I hate it… I hate it…”
Confused, Jaejoong put the candle on the headboard and pulled Changmin by the shoulders, prompting him to arise from his curl, however the latter only planted his face deeper, trembled harder and refused to lift his chin.
“Your house was burned…?”
“Please… I hate it…”
“Changmin, I can’t find my flashlight, if we should be in the dark I’ll be scared as well…” Jaejoong tried to reason while rubbing the boy’s back.
Changmin didn’t answer, but he still refused to show his face.
“Okay, okay, I put this thing really really far away. There’s no way it can touch you.” Jaejoong took the candle, placed it rather far from the bed and placed a thick book in front of it to hide the thing from view. “There, you can’t see the fire.”
The boy only peeked in a quick glance before hid self again for the sway of fire was still invisible, reflected on the wall.
“Omo, there is clearly something wrong with you…” Sighing, Jaejoong tugged the blanket to hold the sides of Changmin’s face and forced him to look up. “It’s just a candle, Min, it’s alright! No need to be this scared…!”
For a while it was like a battle, Changmin struggled to keep himself curled while Jaejoong pushed and pulled his shoulders and arms to uncurl him, until the latter finally won in strength and managed to force Changmin to lie on his back, using his slightly taller body to pin him against the bed.
“I know a good distraction.” With that, he pressed his mouth against Changmin’s.
The smaller boy was still shutting his eyes too tight to realize what the other was doing to him. As he felt wet, smooth, tender surface suckling his stone-stiff lips, he hesitantly opened his eyes and was more than shocked to see rows of eyelashes so close to his face.
Jaejoong stopped and pulled away till their noses were an inch apart. His eyes weren’t filled with pleasure nor joy, only something that said “What”
In less than a second Changmin remembered the hazard that was threatening him at the moment, but before his eyes managed to be stirred back to the small source of fire, Jaejoong already landed a palm over his eyes, “Don’t look.” He launched another attempt.
“Ummf… J-Jaejoong…” Changmin mumbled. His stiff tongue met Jaejoong’s dancing one in a sloppy kiss.
Jaejoong paused, only to say “Just look at me, okay? Concentrate on this.” and leaned forward without giving Changmin a chance to answer. Due to some reasons Changmin was overcautious at first, but then he gradually relaxed under the spell-like kiss, as the taste pampered him slowly and fascinatingly.
In the end only God knew how long they did that.
[to be continued]
A/N:……………… and to know what the hell was wrong with those boys is up to your imagination hahahaa xD