The Cat Prince
❇ Title: The Cat Prince + for everyone
❇ Pairing: chen/lay
❇ Rating: PG
❇ Length: 6,396 words
❇ Warnings: catboy turned human, character death, mention of drug use, some swearing
❇ Author note: this fic could've ended happily but i'm a terrible person MUhahaHAHahahAHHA (im sorry).
❇ Summary: Yixing lives in the mountains and tells his friend/editor, Luhan, that he needs a cat. So Luhan finds him a cat…but this isn’t any ordinary cat, as Yixing learns.
Yixing lives alone as a writer in the mountains. He thought maybe, just maybe, he would have an easier time writing away from the bustling city. And all the Yixing can conclude right now is that life alone in the mountains is lonely.
Once, after two months, Yixing had posted a status on his usual social networking site about being lonely, only to get a snarky reply from his best friend/editor that read, “do ur balls ache?”
Since then, Luhan skypes to make sure he’ll meet his deadline and to give Yixing some almost tangible interaction with another human being. Sometimes, if he’s not busy, Luhan will make the trek up the mountain to visit Yixing. Yixing’s thankful for Luhan, but still he doesn’t feel it to be enough.
“Luhan you know what I want?” Yixing says after five minutes of silence, his voice is distorted slightly through the speakers of Luhan’s shitty Compaq.
“Mmm?” Luhan doesn’t look up to the camera, rather his eyes are skimming what Yixing had emailed him earlier that day.
“I think I want, no, I need a cat.”
“I always thought you a dog person, to be honest.”
“Really?” Yixing’s laugh is choppy, sounding more like an alien’s swearing than Yixing’s kooky chortle that he calls laughter.
“Yeah, really.” Luhan let’s out a breath that’s a mix of a yawn and a sigh of relief. He minimizes the word document, now looking at the pixelated face of Yixing. “Damn.”
“What?”
“I need a new computer or something because you just look like you belong in that one game Minseok is too busy playing to pay attention to me.” Luhan pouts and instead of looking like the 23-year-old man he is, he looks like a disappointed toddler. Yixing rolls his eyes, which of course Luhan can’t see, thankfully.
“Oh…he’s still hooked on minecraft?”
“Yeah,” Luhan squints and there’s a certain bite in his voice that make Yixing laugh because Luhan is silly. Sure, Minseok is kind of obsessed with minecraft, but he’s not to the point of no return…or when Yixing left the city he wasn’t at least.
“Anyways…”
“Oh yeah. Cat? Are you for sure about this.”
“Yes, a cat. I think it would really help my loneliness, which in turn would help me stay motivated. So maybe you could…” Yixing trails off, smiling down at the keyboard. Thoughts about having a cat making his brain short circuit.
“Mm…” Luhan looks down at his fancy new iPhone (that he bought with Minseok’s credit card) and scrolls through his calendar. No events, free as always. He sighs before he looks up at the screen, Yixing is about to say something but he already knows what Yixing is going to say next, so he beats him to it. “I’ll look around at the shelters in town?”
“Please do.”
✎
Yixing writes and writes like usual, and eventually he forgets that he asked Luhan to get him a cat. So when Luhan shows up with a cat that’s a little over a year old, he’s pleasantly surprised. The feeling was like finding a piece of your favourite candy you hid from yourself so you could save it for later, only to find it weeks later after forgetting about hiding it.
✎
Three soft knocks on his front door interrupts Yixing’s concentration on the scene he’s writing. He frowns at his computer screen, saving the document before checking what’s up.
Yixing pads out of his office and looks down from the loft at Luhan who is standing there looking up at him, cat carrier in hand.
“Oh!” Yixing exclaims, clambering down the stairs that lead up to the loft space. Luhan just stands there holding something (a cat carrier). When Yixing makes it down the stairs, Luhan sets the carrier down on the floor and a small squeak emits from the carrier. Yixing bends down to look into the carrier and smiles at the fluffy tuxedo cat in the carrier who is looking back at Yixing with a curious sort of interest.
“What’s this?” Yixing asks. Luhan sighs, rubbing the space between his eyebrows.
“Your cat.” Luhan says curtly. There are dark circles under his eyes and he looks like he hasn’t eaten in a couple of days. Yixing looks up from the carrier with a big dimpled smile on his face. His eyes are like a kid in a very big candy shop.
“Oh.” Yixing goes back to cooing at the cat inside the carrier.
“His name’s Chen.” Chen meows at the mention of his name.
✎
Luhan leaves the next morning, having crashed on the couch after getting Yixing situated with the duties of being a cat owner and making sure he and Chen were a good match. And a good match they were.
The second Luhan had opened the carrier, Chen jumped out of it into Yixing’s arms purring louder than he had ever purred in his life. He nuzzled his face against Yixing’s neck, tickling him with his whiskers. Yixing chuckled at the cat now resting peacefully in his arms after the initial rush from meeting each other for the first time.
There’s a litterbox in the laundry room, something Chen instantly goes to after becoming acquainted with his new owner. The ride up the mountain to Yixing’s cabin is a long one and Chen is very particular about where he goes to the bathroom.
Luhan puts the food and water dishes are in Yixing’s kitchen; Luhan had given Yixing enough cat food and litter to last him at least three months. Luhan didn’t like making the trip up the mountain more than once a season.
In addition to the countless toys Luhan had with him, there were a few cat beds and towers so Chen could climb and explore without causing too much trouble (theoretically, of course).
Chen preferred sleeping in the same bed as Yixing thought because winter was cold season and Yixing was very warm. Chen liked this very much.
Yixing found himself taking Chen with him everywhere; he even let Chen curl up on his lap when he was writing because he found the cat’s presence to be one of comfort and encouragement. Yixing liked this very much.
✎︎
Because the cabin was so drafty, most of the winter and the first two months of spring, Chen spent cuddled up next to Yixing or on his lap while Yixing went about his daily activities. This usually included him sitting down in his office chair typing away at the computer for hours on end.
When the weather started to get warmer, Chen started to explore, no loner needing Yixing to provide him body heat. Yixing learned that Chen was an adventurous cat, and also a troublesome one.
✎
Chen had a habit of getting stuck in small spaces having let his curiosity get the best of him. Yixing had come to the rescue, answering the loud cries coming from Chen trapped wherever he was.
“Chen I know you can’t understand me, but…” Yixing starts when he rescues Chen from the space between the counters and the Fridge. He’d been doing this kind of a thing for a month and Yixing had had enough of it by the end of the first week.
Chen meows softly and looks into Yixing’s eyes before blinking slowly. Yixing feels the coo bubbling up in his throat but he fights it, intent on lecturing his cat like a parent would to a child who had broken a priceless family heirloom.
“Don’t distract me when I’m trying to lecture you.” Yixing chides with a flick to Chen’s ear. Chen does the slowe blinking thing again, nuzzling his head into Yixing’s elbow afterward. “You really need to stop doing this Chen, what if one day I can’t rescue you?” Chen looks up and Yixing swears he sees the cat frown, but he brushes it off, blaming it on the all-nighter he pulled to meet the deadline.
Chen stops getting stuck in random places after that.
✎
There were a few tears in the drapes after a certain time where Yixing had tried to give Chen a flea bath even though Chen did not really want a flea bath because Chen did not like baths.
He voiced his opposition to baths by hissing at and scratching Yixing’s arms, legs, and yes, window drapes. The happy yellow drapes Yixing’s mother had sent him when he had first moved out of the big city now torn and ruined thanks to Chen’s outburst.
Chen escapes out of Yixing’s hands at some point during the bath. And because Yixing is forgetful about everything, the door to the bathroom is wide open. Chen escapes and runs around soaked to the bone, hissing and spitting about how his beautiful fur is wet and everything is cold. So cold.
At some point between tearing the curtains and knocking over every tissue box in the cabin, Chen has climbed on top of the fridge. Chen only does this when he is upset with the world (but mostly Yixing because he is too busy doing something else to give his undivided attention to him or has just given Chen a bath and therefore is a terrible human).
“Hey buddy…” Yixing says softly. There’s a fluffy towel hanging off his shoulder. He reaches up to pet Chen, and is greeted with a swipe of Chen’s sheathed claws. Yixing frowns, blood starting to trickle out of the tiny cuts Chen left behind.
“That wasn’t very nice of you Chenchen.” Yixing berates after sticking a couple of hello kitty band-aids, which were a curtsey of Luhan, on the cuts, “I was just trying to help you get rid of your fleas, it seemed like they were bothering you. I’m sorry Chen, about the bath. I was just trying to help… Do you forgive me?” Yixing can’t believe himself. He’s apologizing to a cat like it can understand him. Well, in his defense, Chen acted like he understood Yixing.
Chen lets out a soft mew before hopping into Yixing’s outstretched arms. Yixing wraps Chen in the fluffy towel, which makes Chen purr because the fluffy towel is warm and soft. Yixing smiles down at Chen, scratching him behind the ears just the way he likes it.
✎
The summer storms start to roll in near the middle of June. The air gets gross and humid and Yixing swears, after being outside to tend to his tiny garden he started to grow, it’s like swimming through an eternal pool with no water.
Thunderstorms are one of Yixing’s favourites and living up in the mountain had all the benefits (in his opinion) because no only did the storms start to develop where he was, but the thunder echoed from miles away and the lightning was always spectacular to see.
Chen, however, did not fancy these storms one bit. Whenever Chen felt the weather begin to change and the storms roll in, he would take to hiding under Yixing’s bed until it was all over. He wouldn’t even come out from his hiding places even if Yixing promised everything would be okay.
The loud noises are scary and the flashes of lightning hurt his eyes. He thinks Yixing’s weird for liking such a terrible natural phenomenon. Too bad he can’t tell Yixing this.
✎︎
After one particularly sweltering day, a huge storm rolls in. Yixing’s already asleep at this point, peacefully enjoying his dreams as Chen starts to panic. Chen’s trapped under the covers, having cuddled up next Yixing at bedtime not really suspecting this sudden change in events.
A clap of thunders shakes the house before the rain pours down on the tin roof. Chen digs his claws into Yixing’s arm, causing him to wake up.
“Wha…what is it?” He yawns, looking at Chen who’s now standing on his chest, claws slowly digging into his body. The lightning flashes and Yixing catches the look on Chen’s face. The thunder that follows crackles and booms.
Yixing reaches out and pets Chen before scooping up in his arms. The thunder booms again as the wind gusts, making the trees shake and dance. Their shadows from the trees are cast into the room whenever the lightning flashes.
Chen, who has now rooted himself into the space where Yixing is holding him, shivers in fear. Yixing was a soft warm human who made Chen feel safe and comfortable, but right now Yixing wasn’t enough.
Yixing presses a kiss to the top of Chen’s head and whispers in the cat’s little ears to “not worry” because “he’s here and “the storms can’t hurt him.” Eventually Chen lets the feeling of Yixing petting him and pressing small kisses to his head take over. Chen would give anything to kiss Yixing, but alas he is a cat.
✎︎
When Yixing wakes up in the morning, he’s greeted with a surprise. Everything is normal, except for one thing. Like, he distinctly remembers falling asleep with Chen cradled against his chest, not a naked human being.
Carefully, Yixing slips out from the pile of blankets and out of the bedroom. He grabs the phone in the kitchen and punches in Luhan’s number as fast as lightning.
“Hey, what’s up?” Luhan mumbles.
“Okay so I fell asleep last night with Chen cradled in my arms like always, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“I woke up with a naked human next to me, not my cute lovely fluffy Chenchen.”
“Interesting. Well. I’m going back to sleep. Bye~”
“But Luhan-” the line cuts off with legato monotone beeps, echoing the pounding of Yixing’s blood in his eardrums as the panic starts to sink in.
He has some options, but they all involve going back to his room and confront the situation at hand. Finally, Yixing feels ready enough to go and check on the person that somehow ended up in his bed during the night.
✎
“Good morning…?” Yixing says cautiously to the guest who is now stretching out his naked, very naked body, tail curling and ears flattening to his head. Wait. Tail?
“Hi! I love you!” The stranger answers back, throwing himself at Yixing. Yixing stumbles backward as the stranger falls to the floor, lower half of his body still wrapped in blankets resting on the bed.
“Chen?” Yixing’s only conclusion right now is that his cat somehow became a cat human hybrid thing overnight.
“Uh, Jongdae actually.” Chen-Jongdae replies. He sits up on the bed to get a better look at Yixing. Ears flickering on the top of his head and tail twitching excitedly. Jongdae is smiling very wide doing that weird slow blink he always does.
“What.”
“Straaaaange I know, isn’t it?” Jongdae’s tail flicks back and forth as his eyes run over Yixing’s body. A feline smirk graces his lips when Yixing starts to blush.
“Okay well. Um I’m Yixing. I don’t know if I really need to be introducing myself again? You were my cat, I mean you are my cat right? Do you want clothes or something? Um.”
“Nah I like nudity, it’s very…natural.” Jongdae lays back down on the bed, snuggling into the covers again. The bell on the collar around his neck jingles as he moves around.
“Oh. Well. My house my rules.” Yixing grabs a pair of boxers and a white tank top and throws them at Jongdae before exiting the room to wash off his face or something.
When Yixing comes back to the room, Jongdae is still naked, much to Yixing’s disdain. Jongdae lets out a serious of whines and pouty faces when Yixing tells him to get dressed. Eventually Jongdae puts the clothes on because Yixing threatens to deny him breakfast and Jongdae loves food too much to let clothes get in the way.
✎
After breakfast, Yixing asks Jongdae a series of questions. Like how, even though he was a year and a half old in human years, he became a 21-year-old man. Jongdae explains that cats age faster. Like really fast. It’s weird but Yixing accepts it (after looking it up on the internet a day later).
He asks Jongdae if he could understand him this whole time. Jongdae simply smiles at Yixing and Yixing feels the urge to jump off a roof because there are some things he said to Jongdae when he was a cat that he really wish he hadn’t. Little secrets that he couldn’t tell, not even tell Luhan about.
He asks Jongdae about how he became a cat and Jongdae tells Yixing most of what he can remember which isn’t all that much. Just the fact that he was human once a very long time ago before an evil witch cursed him to be a cat for a very long time.
Yixing mutters something about Luhan hiring this Jongdae fellow to prank him for fun before Yixing tries to pull the “seemingly fake” cat ears off Jongdae’s head.
The ears, unfortunately for Jongdae, do not give way to Yixing’s tugs and pulls. However some of his fur does.
So Yixing stands there holding some tufts of fur (technically hair considering Jongdae’s a human now) in his hands as Jongdae complains about how waiting all these years to break the horrible curse isn’t worth it.
“Jongdae wait.” Yixing says when Jongdae climbs on top of the counter beside the fridge. He knows where this is going, and it won’t end pretty.
“What.” Jongdae’s ears flicker in annoyance, and his tail puffs out a little, just like it would if he were a cat. Well he is still partially a cat.
“I don’t think that’s going to be physically possible for you now.”
“Are you calling me fat?” Jongdae puts a hand on his hip, standing up straighter on the counter, ears just barely grazing the ceiling.
“No I’m simply stating the fact that your now human body will not be able to sit atop the fridge comfortably because you are simply too big. You are human sized, not cat sized.”
“Oh.” Jongdae realizes that yes, Yixing is right. He climbs down and off the counter, standing beside Yixing now. “Um…”
Jongdae was a cat yesterday. A. Cat. Yixing’s still having trouble accepting this idea and Jongdae standing close to him, rubbing is head on his shoulder isn’t helping him. It’s so catlike yet Jongdae is a human. Almost human.
“Um.” Yixing says before leaving Jongdae alone in the kitchen, locking the door to his office behind him. Yeah, it’s going to take a while to get used to this.
✎
“So you’re telling me this man is Chen, but his name is actually Jongdae, and he was never a cat until this witch cursed him years and years ago to be a cat for nine fucking centuries or something until one day he suddenly stopped being a cat? You’ve got to be kidding me, Xing.”
“Yeah. Pretty much. I think.” Yixing hears Luhan laugh on the other end of the line which makes Yixing frown. “I’m being totally serious.” Yixing says when the chuckles on Luhan’s end of the line die down.
“And you were totally serious about the existence of unicorns that one time we were stoned in the horse stable during undergrad…”
“Haha alright...but really.”
“…”
“Luhan?”
“Hold on.” The line cuts and Yixing’s left standing there with a beeping phone in his hand for a second time that day.
✎︎
At around dinnertime a week later there are three soft knocks on the door. Jongdae looks up from his grooming, ears twitching to the new sound. He’s perched on the arm of the couch that Yixing, no matter how many times he had lectured Jongdae about how it’s ruining his one and only couch, still sits on it everyday.
Jongdae looks at Yixing with big curious eyes. They never have visitors…unless…
“Stay there, I’ll get it.” Yixing starts to go off to the door before turning around, “Actually, sit like a human please.” Jongdae raises an eyebrow before shaking his head. Yixing scoffs but the three knocks repeat themselves again, prompting him to leave Jongdae to his own devices.
When Yixing answers the door and Luhan steps in past Yixing, pulling a very disinterested Minseok behind him, eyes glued to his phone.
Yixing a raises an eyebrow at this because usually Minseok flat-out refuses to leave the apartment because of his minecraft world and how it could fall apart if he doesn’t play it constantly.
Luhan catches Yixing’s look and mouths something about a “fucking mobile app” before racing off to the living where Jongdae has fallen from his perch on the arm and onto the cushions of the couch.
“Hi~” Jongdae greets with a tiny purr. Luhan turns around to face Yixing and nods.
“Alright. Definitely a cat turned man. Yep.” Minseok looks up from his phone now, putting the electronic device in his back pocket.
“This is just like that one story my grandma told me as a little kid!” He says with a heavy amount of mirth in his eyes. Yixing’s about to ask why and how but Luhan’s already explaining.
“He overheard me on the phone last week, and then said we had to go visit his grandmother because she told him a story like this while he was growing up. So we did that and his grandmother, bless her heart, is kinda off her rocker and we didn’t really learn much. So yeah, here we are.” Luhan shrugs, taking a seat on the couch Jongdae was previously perched on.
Jongdae had rolled off the couch at some point of Luhan’s recap, choosing to wrap himself around Yixing. Yixing eventually had accepted the reality of Jongdae a few days after the “change” had happened. Jongdae is nice to have around, even more nice than he was as a cat. Yixing finds himself wishing that Jongdae could be an actual human now because the cat part of him could take over at times and Yixing didn’t find himself liking that as much as he like human Jongdae.
“What was it about?” Jongdae’s purring contentedly as Yixing runs a hand through Jongdae’s hair.
Minseok smiles a small almost apologetic smile because the story, now having told it to Luhan at least ten times seems silly and made up.
“Oh I don’t really remember all the details but uh basically it was about this prince that really liked cats so much that he wanted to be a cat so one day he ran off and found a witch that could grant his wish and-” his pocket buzzes, which nearly detracts him from his synopsis. Thankfully Luhan not so subtly jabs his boyfriend in the ribs with his elbow to continue with what he was saying. “And so the witch does and the prince becomes a cat and then the witch is like ‘Muahahaha you’re going to be cat for like 900 years unless you can find a human who makes you want to be human again!’ and yeah.”
Yixing looks at Luhan who looks back at him. There’s a silent exchange between the both before Yixing lets out a tiny snicker.
“What.” Yixing and Luhan exchanged another glance at each other before breaking out into a fit of giggles.
“Oh it’s just…”
“That um.” Yixing tries to finish what Luhan had started to say but doubles over in laughter. Jongdae and Minseok look at the two before Jongdae taps Minseok on his shoulder.
“Yeah?”
“Why am I not a complete human then?” Jongdae asks, hands now on Minseok’s shoulders. He looks like he’s about to cry. “I want to be human so bad.” Yixing stops laughing, catching Jongdae’s sad face in the corner of his eye and he feels his heart break seeing Jongdae like this.
“Um.” Luhan says after Yixing glares at him for laughing and pries Jongdae’s hands off Minseok, and pushes him in the direction of Yixing. Yixing takes Jongdae into his arms, holding him close.
“Well…” Minseok has a finger pressed to his lips in thought. Suddenly a light bulb goes off in his head. “I think there was a final part of the story!” Jongdae smiles and is about to ask what it is when the light bulb goes out again. “But I can’t remember what it was that happens? I’m sorry Jongdae.” Jongdae pouts falling back and resting himself against Yixing.
Yixing feels his heart break again seeing the solemn look on Jongdae’s face. He runs a hand through Jongdae’s hair in an attempt to comfort him.
✎︎
“Maybe if you try living more like a human you’ll become a real human!” The four of them had been brainstorming for a while now in Yixing’s living room. Jongdae was sitting on Yixings lap on the couch. Luhan and Minseok were in the two arm chairs near the fireplace.
“Yeah. Maybe that will work.” Yixing agrees as Jongdae rests his head on his shoulder, nodding off.
“Worth a shot I guess…”
Minseok and Luhan say their goodbyes, holding hands and smiling as they walk out of the house. Yixing smiles because for once in his life, Minseok isn’t focused on other things that revolve around the world of gaming, rather, he’s more focused on the real world and Luhan.
✎
When Jongdae had first changed from a cat to an almost human, Yixing made Jongdae sleep in the guest bedroom, in his own bed, away from Yixing.
Jongdae hadn’t liked the idea very much but had still abided by it when Yixing had introduced the concept of no cuddles before bed for a week if he didn’t follow his rules.
So after dinner, after Jongdae says goodnight and starts to head off for his room, Yixing stops him, grabbing his shirt collar and tugging Jongdae towards him.
“Uh?” Jongdae squeaks, eyebrows bunching together.
“Okay I know they said for you to try to be more ‘human like’ and I know what you’re thinking but I want to try something like…I don’t know uh…”
“Oh?”
“Yes. Like. Um.” Yixing blushes, “Sleep…with me…and other human stuff.” Jongdae raises an eyebrow. If Yixing is saying what he thinks he’s saying, he’s all for it. But he’s got to make sure because sometimes Yixing says things he doesn’t mean.
“I may have been a cat for several hundred years, but Zhang Yixing I know exactly what sleeping with you implies…” Yixing blushes even more, because no that’s not what he meant at all.
“No I mean like, uhm, like, we share the bed, yeah? Like a couple? I don’t know I feel like it’s the right thing to do? Please stop looking at me like that Jongdae.”
“Oh! I would love that yes let us go sleep together!” Jongdae wiggles his eyebrows and Yixing feels his entire body burst out into a blush.
“Yes. Sleep. Sleeping Jongdae. Just sleeping.”
“Of course~” Jongdae headbutts Yixing’s shoulder before taking Yixing by the shoulder and heading to Yixing’s bedroom a big smile on his face, tail twitching excitedly.
✎
There’s a thunderstorm somewhere around two in the morning and Yixing finds himself stabbed with the sharp nails that belong to Jongdae’s hands.
“What’s up?” Yixing mumbles rubbing sleep from his eyes. A bright flash illuminates the room and a crack-rumble of thunder follows it. Jongdae flinches as another bright flash illuminates the room.
Yixing turns around, now facing Jongdae who instantly latches himself to Yixing’s body, shivering and shuddering at the big scary noises the sky is making. Yixing just runs his hands through Jongdae’s hair, trying his best to calm him.
Somewhere around three in the morning the storm finally dies down and Jongdae’s body is relaxed, his eyes closed and soft snores coming out of his mouth. Yixing presses a kiss to Jongdae’s forehead before nodding off to sleep himself.
✎
For two weeks, Yixing tries to make Jongdae more human like. And Jongdae tries very hard too because he wants to be a full human again, just like Yixing, Luhan, and Minseok.
Well maybe not exactly like Minseok because apparently Minseok is a sad excuse for a human and also a boyfriend. Or that’s what Yixing says whenever Jongdae asks about him. Jongdae doesn’t think so.
After two weeks of learning to be human, doing human things (mostly chores Yixing forgets to do because he’s too busy writing) Jongdae is still very much not human.
“Why am I still like this?” Jongdae points at his ears. There’s a small pout in his lips and Yixing shrugs.
“I don’t know.”
“Hmph.” Jongdae walks away, laundry basket of with month old laundry piled high in it. He comes back after starting the load and drops the phone into Yixing’s lap before walking away to dust or something.
✎
Yixing forgets about the phone ringing in his lap seconds after Jongdae leaves the room to dust. When he picks up Luhan’s voice greeting him, the man is somewhat miffed.
Annoyance aside there’s a certain quality in Luhan’s voice that Yixing can only define as his ‘just got laid’ voice. He rolls his eyes because Luhan will probably try to rub this in his face. Yixing, for once, beats him to it.
“He’s still this human cat thing and we’re both sad about it. Any suggestions?”
“Oh um.” Luhan’s caught off-guard because usually Yixing’s not this cut-to-the-chase. “Hold on, let me ask Minseokkie…oh my gosh you’ll never guess what happened by the way.”
“I don’t wanna here it.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“Okay…” Luhan sets the phone down on a table from what Yixing can hear before padding away to call for Minseok.
“Hey Xing, what’s up?” Minseok’s voice greets all chipper and happy and Yixing is now confident that the two have definitely, as Jongdae likes to say, slept together.
“It still hasn’t worked, the idea of being human together.”
“What did you try?”
“Well first we slept in the same bed, then I tried to teach him to cook, and then I had him help me do the laundry, and then we took naps because I thinks naps are very important as a human, and we listened to music and I taught him how to operate the dishwasher and then I also showed him out computers and printers work and I also let him try and vacuum…I think he’s dusting right now.” Yixing cringes as he hears a vase clatter to the floor and an “oopsie!!!” from Jongdae wherever he is.
“So you’re basically using him as a maid.”
“Uh…?”
“Yeah, you definitely are.”
“Really? I thought that doing these human chores were like…humanish?”
“No. How about…um…I don’t know make him feel loved? I don’t know how to explain it.”
“Loved…?” Yixing understanding of love was very limited.
“Like, the only reason why he’s part human now is because you made him want to be one or that’s what we think, yeah? You can still give him chores and stuff but you gotta think about how you would want to be treated too.”
“Mm…” Yixing nods even though Minseok can’t see it.
“Like picture this, what if suddenly you became human and you were told to do all these chores because your human was too lazy or forgetful to do them on his own. You understand?”
“Yeah I think so…” Minseok is almost ready to say goodbye when Yixing’s voice travels through the receiver “Ah. Wait…”
“Omg what, I paused my minecraft game for this.”
“Nevermind. Nevermind. Thank you Minseok.”
The call ends with its boring same old same old beeps and no goodbyes from Minseok or Luhan.
✎
Jongdae’s thrilled with the new way of being human, it was much more fun and included lots of more cuddles with Yixing. Sometimes instead of cooking for Yixing (which was always a mess: lots of almost kitchen fires, loud screaming from the both of them, the constant worry about Jongdae’s precious tail catching on fire, etc…) Yixing cooked for him.
Yixing started to help with Jongdae’s chores. Jongdae liked this very much because in Jongdae’s opinion, sitting in front of your computer all day writing a bunch of stuff Luhan never likes was ridiculous. And he could sense that it was putting a lot of stress on Yixing.
Yixing stops spending less and less time away from the computer and starts to get to know Jongdae. He prints out a list of ice breakers one day and sits next to Jongdae, who’s recently stopped sitting on the arm of the couch, and picks out a few questions.
“If you woke up as an animal tomorrow, what animal would it be and why?”
“Um.”
“Too soon?”
“I guess?”
“Sorry…” Yixing looks down at the list of ice breakers, trying to find a better one. “Okay, what about: When I dance I look like…?”
“A loser with two left feet and no rhythm.”
“I’m sure you don’t!”
“Really? I was known to be quite a terrible dancer back in the day.”
“Uh huh, sure.” Yixing comments unconvinced. He scans the rest of the list only to find that none of the questions are really interesting.
“Can we ever leave the mountain and go visit Luhan and Minseok?” Jongdae asks after a few minutes of silence. He’s also somehow tangled their hands together without Yixing noticing.
“No..I don’t think we will. I mean certainly it’s possible but…”
“Why not?”
“Because I like it up here…”
“Really?” Jongdae squeezes Yixing’s hand, sporting a rather disappointed look.
“Yeah.”
“I think you’re sad up here. You need to go out and live a little.”
“No, I’m fine here. I’ve got my computer and my little garden, and…” he hesitates, cheeks blushing, “I’ve got you.” Jongdae’s ears flicker and he shakes his head.
“Well, I wanna go to the city.” Jongdae’s
Jongdae refuses goodnight cuddles and sharing the bed with Yixing that night. And when Yixing wakes up the next morning he’s greeted by, Jongdae. Not in the way he’d really expect it.
“Oh you gotta be kidding me.” Yixing sits up in his bed, taking Jongdae in his arms.
“Mew?”
✎
“Oh, Yixing?” Luhan’s surprised to see Yixing’s face on skype because Yixing doesn’t skype unless it’s serious stuff.
“We’ve got a problem.” There’s a meow in the background.
“Damn.” Yixing nods his head.
✎
“You know what Jongdae’s curse reminds me of?” Luhan says over the phone a week later. They had tried several methods to turn Jongdae back to a human-cat hybrid again, but nothing worked.
“What?” Yixing asks, petting a sleeping Jongdae resting in his lap.
“That story about the prince that got turned into a frog.”
“Are you telling me that I have to kiss my cat?” Jongdae head shoots up and meows encouragingly.
“I don’t know man like…aren’t you desperate or something?” Yixing looks at Jongdae who looks at him with the most pitiful cat eyes ever.
“Yeah…” Jongdae presses a paw to Yixing’s face.
“You know in the older versions the princess actually threw the frog against the wall and that made him a human!” Jongdae lets out a low growl at this and Yixing just smiles
“You know what, I think the latter is the better option. Whatever.”
✎︎
All he has to do is kiss Jongdae. All he’s gotta do is kiss a cat. Perfectly normal stuff. Perfectly normal.
“Okay. I’m gonna kiss you.” Jongdae just blinks his eyes slowly. Here goes nothing I guess, Yixing thinks as he presses his lips to Jongdae’s mouth area (do cats even have lips?). He pulls away and waits. And waits. And then a hour passes by and he’s still waiting for something to happen.
“Why does nothing ever work?” Yixing sighs as Jongdae curls up in the space between his head and shoulders on the bed.
✎
When Yixing wakes up again he does not have a cat. Rather he has a very human Jongdae clutching to his shirt, face scrunched up and letting out little noises. It’s very cute, even as a human Jongdae still has some catlike qualities to him.
His ears are no longer protruding from the top of his head like they were before, they’re on the side of his head, detached lobes with a simple ear lobe piercing in each. Human ears, just like Yixing’s.
Yixing looks at Jongdae’s back and gave a sigh of relief when he saw the man wasn’t sporting a tail. Yixing thanks the gods because cutting holes in every single item of clothing Jongdae wore was getting rather annoying.
Yixing shakes Jongdae, waking the man up. He lets out a yawn, a big one, while stretching out his body. His bones crack and pop like he’s been asleep for years. Finally his eyes flutter open.
“Good morning.” Yixing greets pressing a kiss to Jongdae’s nose.
“Hi?” Jongdae’s voice is scratchy but music to Yixing’s ears. He reaches up and runs a hand through Yixing’s wavy brown hair.
Yixing smiles, dimple carving its way into his cheek. Jongdae decides he very much likes that dimple on Yixing’s cheek. So as Yixing leaned down to press his lips to Jongdae’s, a finger poking at his dimple stops him.
“Jongdae what are you doing.” Yixing mutters and Jongdae can feel the air from Yixing’s mouth against his lips and lets his finger fall from attacking Yixing’s dimple.
“Uh. It’s cute?” A blush spreads on his face.
“Mmmm…” Yixing muses when Jongdae’s face turns to the side. Yixing just cups Jongdae’s chin in his hand, thumb rubbing softly against Jongdae’s cheek. “Hey.” he says softly.
“Hey…”
Yixing leans in and kisses Jongdae, lips melting against Jongdae’s. Jongdae wraps his arms around Yixing’s and pulls the man on top of him. Yixing pulls away and looks down at Jongdae, eyebrow raised.
“Oh?” Jongdae just chuckles as he runs a hand through Yixing’s hair and leans up to capture Yixing’s lips in his this time.
✎
And it’s a pity they don’t see it coming-they couldn’t avoid it even if they did see it coming.
They’re too busy stripping Yixing’s clothes off (Jongdae didn’t have clothes on to begin with) to notice the fireball hurling straight toward Yixing’s little cabin.
The witch cackles as the cabin and its inhabitants become engulfed in fire. “Happy endings are rather...subjective, don’t you think?” She lets out another evil laugh before she’s out of sight and out of mind.
The end.
❇ Pairing: chen/lay
❇ Rating: PG
❇ Length: 6,396 words
❇ Warnings: catboy turned human, character death, mention of drug use, some swearing
❇ Author note: this fic could've ended happily but i'm a terrible person MUhahaHAHahahAHHA (im sorry).
❇ Summary: Yixing lives in the mountains and tells his friend/editor, Luhan, that he needs a cat. So Luhan finds him a cat…but this isn’t any ordinary cat, as Yixing learns.
Yixing lives alone as a writer in the mountains. He thought maybe, just maybe, he would have an easier time writing away from the bustling city. And all the Yixing can conclude right now is that life alone in the mountains is lonely.
Once, after two months, Yixing had posted a status on his usual social networking site about being lonely, only to get a snarky reply from his best friend/editor that read, “do ur balls ache?”
Since then, Luhan skypes to make sure he’ll meet his deadline and to give Yixing some almost tangible interaction with another human being. Sometimes, if he’s not busy, Luhan will make the trek up the mountain to visit Yixing. Yixing’s thankful for Luhan, but still he doesn’t feel it to be enough.
“Luhan you know what I want?” Yixing says after five minutes of silence, his voice is distorted slightly through the speakers of Luhan’s shitty Compaq.
“Mmm?” Luhan doesn’t look up to the camera, rather his eyes are skimming what Yixing had emailed him earlier that day.
“I think I want, no, I need a cat.”
“I always thought you a dog person, to be honest.”
“Really?” Yixing’s laugh is choppy, sounding more like an alien’s swearing than Yixing’s kooky chortle that he calls laughter.
“Yeah, really.” Luhan let’s out a breath that’s a mix of a yawn and a sigh of relief. He minimizes the word document, now looking at the pixelated face of Yixing. “Damn.”
“What?”
“I need a new computer or something because you just look like you belong in that one game Minseok is too busy playing to pay attention to me.” Luhan pouts and instead of looking like the 23-year-old man he is, he looks like a disappointed toddler. Yixing rolls his eyes, which of course Luhan can’t see, thankfully.
“Oh…he’s still hooked on minecraft?”
“Yeah,” Luhan squints and there’s a certain bite in his voice that make Yixing laugh because Luhan is silly. Sure, Minseok is kind of obsessed with minecraft, but he’s not to the point of no return…or when Yixing left the city he wasn’t at least.
“Anyways…”
“Oh yeah. Cat? Are you for sure about this.”
“Yes, a cat. I think it would really help my loneliness, which in turn would help me stay motivated. So maybe you could…” Yixing trails off, smiling down at the keyboard. Thoughts about having a cat making his brain short circuit.
“Mm…” Luhan looks down at his fancy new iPhone (that he bought with Minseok’s credit card) and scrolls through his calendar. No events, free as always. He sighs before he looks up at the screen, Yixing is about to say something but he already knows what Yixing is going to say next, so he beats him to it. “I’ll look around at the shelters in town?”
“Please do.”
✎
Yixing writes and writes like usual, and eventually he forgets that he asked Luhan to get him a cat. So when Luhan shows up with a cat that’s a little over a year old, he’s pleasantly surprised. The feeling was like finding a piece of your favourite candy you hid from yourself so you could save it for later, only to find it weeks later after forgetting about hiding it.
✎
Three soft knocks on his front door interrupts Yixing’s concentration on the scene he’s writing. He frowns at his computer screen, saving the document before checking what’s up.
Yixing pads out of his office and looks down from the loft at Luhan who is standing there looking up at him, cat carrier in hand.
“Oh!” Yixing exclaims, clambering down the stairs that lead up to the loft space. Luhan just stands there holding something (a cat carrier). When Yixing makes it down the stairs, Luhan sets the carrier down on the floor and a small squeak emits from the carrier. Yixing bends down to look into the carrier and smiles at the fluffy tuxedo cat in the carrier who is looking back at Yixing with a curious sort of interest.
“What’s this?” Yixing asks. Luhan sighs, rubbing the space between his eyebrows.
“Your cat.” Luhan says curtly. There are dark circles under his eyes and he looks like he hasn’t eaten in a couple of days. Yixing looks up from the carrier with a big dimpled smile on his face. His eyes are like a kid in a very big candy shop.
“Oh.” Yixing goes back to cooing at the cat inside the carrier.
“His name’s Chen.” Chen meows at the mention of his name.
✎
Luhan leaves the next morning, having crashed on the couch after getting Yixing situated with the duties of being a cat owner and making sure he and Chen were a good match. And a good match they were.
The second Luhan had opened the carrier, Chen jumped out of it into Yixing’s arms purring louder than he had ever purred in his life. He nuzzled his face against Yixing’s neck, tickling him with his whiskers. Yixing chuckled at the cat now resting peacefully in his arms after the initial rush from meeting each other for the first time.
There’s a litterbox in the laundry room, something Chen instantly goes to after becoming acquainted with his new owner. The ride up the mountain to Yixing’s cabin is a long one and Chen is very particular about where he goes to the bathroom.
Luhan puts the food and water dishes are in Yixing’s kitchen; Luhan had given Yixing enough cat food and litter to last him at least three months. Luhan didn’t like making the trip up the mountain more than once a season.
In addition to the countless toys Luhan had with him, there were a few cat beds and towers so Chen could climb and explore without causing too much trouble (theoretically, of course).
Chen preferred sleeping in the same bed as Yixing thought because winter was cold season and Yixing was very warm. Chen liked this very much.
Yixing found himself taking Chen with him everywhere; he even let Chen curl up on his lap when he was writing because he found the cat’s presence to be one of comfort and encouragement. Yixing liked this very much.
✎︎
Because the cabin was so drafty, most of the winter and the first two months of spring, Chen spent cuddled up next to Yixing or on his lap while Yixing went about his daily activities. This usually included him sitting down in his office chair typing away at the computer for hours on end.
When the weather started to get warmer, Chen started to explore, no loner needing Yixing to provide him body heat. Yixing learned that Chen was an adventurous cat, and also a troublesome one.
✎
Chen had a habit of getting stuck in small spaces having let his curiosity get the best of him. Yixing had come to the rescue, answering the loud cries coming from Chen trapped wherever he was.
“Chen I know you can’t understand me, but…” Yixing starts when he rescues Chen from the space between the counters and the Fridge. He’d been doing this kind of a thing for a month and Yixing had had enough of it by the end of the first week.
Chen meows softly and looks into Yixing’s eyes before blinking slowly. Yixing feels the coo bubbling up in his throat but he fights it, intent on lecturing his cat like a parent would to a child who had broken a priceless family heirloom.
“Don’t distract me when I’m trying to lecture you.” Yixing chides with a flick to Chen’s ear. Chen does the slowe blinking thing again, nuzzling his head into Yixing’s elbow afterward. “You really need to stop doing this Chen, what if one day I can’t rescue you?” Chen looks up and Yixing swears he sees the cat frown, but he brushes it off, blaming it on the all-nighter he pulled to meet the deadline.
Chen stops getting stuck in random places after that.
✎
There were a few tears in the drapes after a certain time where Yixing had tried to give Chen a flea bath even though Chen did not really want a flea bath because Chen did not like baths.
He voiced his opposition to baths by hissing at and scratching Yixing’s arms, legs, and yes, window drapes. The happy yellow drapes Yixing’s mother had sent him when he had first moved out of the big city now torn and ruined thanks to Chen’s outburst.
Chen escapes out of Yixing’s hands at some point during the bath. And because Yixing is forgetful about everything, the door to the bathroom is wide open. Chen escapes and runs around soaked to the bone, hissing and spitting about how his beautiful fur is wet and everything is cold. So cold.
At some point between tearing the curtains and knocking over every tissue box in the cabin, Chen has climbed on top of the fridge. Chen only does this when he is upset with the world (but mostly Yixing because he is too busy doing something else to give his undivided attention to him or has just given Chen a bath and therefore is a terrible human).
“Hey buddy…” Yixing says softly. There’s a fluffy towel hanging off his shoulder. He reaches up to pet Chen, and is greeted with a swipe of Chen’s sheathed claws. Yixing frowns, blood starting to trickle out of the tiny cuts Chen left behind.
“That wasn’t very nice of you Chenchen.” Yixing berates after sticking a couple of hello kitty band-aids, which were a curtsey of Luhan, on the cuts, “I was just trying to help you get rid of your fleas, it seemed like they were bothering you. I’m sorry Chen, about the bath. I was just trying to help… Do you forgive me?” Yixing can’t believe himself. He’s apologizing to a cat like it can understand him. Well, in his defense, Chen acted like he understood Yixing.
Chen lets out a soft mew before hopping into Yixing’s outstretched arms. Yixing wraps Chen in the fluffy towel, which makes Chen purr because the fluffy towel is warm and soft. Yixing smiles down at Chen, scratching him behind the ears just the way he likes it.
✎
The summer storms start to roll in near the middle of June. The air gets gross and humid and Yixing swears, after being outside to tend to his tiny garden he started to grow, it’s like swimming through an eternal pool with no water.
Thunderstorms are one of Yixing’s favourites and living up in the mountain had all the benefits (in his opinion) because no only did the storms start to develop where he was, but the thunder echoed from miles away and the lightning was always spectacular to see.
Chen, however, did not fancy these storms one bit. Whenever Chen felt the weather begin to change and the storms roll in, he would take to hiding under Yixing’s bed until it was all over. He wouldn’t even come out from his hiding places even if Yixing promised everything would be okay.
The loud noises are scary and the flashes of lightning hurt his eyes. He thinks Yixing’s weird for liking such a terrible natural phenomenon. Too bad he can’t tell Yixing this.
✎︎
After one particularly sweltering day, a huge storm rolls in. Yixing’s already asleep at this point, peacefully enjoying his dreams as Chen starts to panic. Chen’s trapped under the covers, having cuddled up next Yixing at bedtime not really suspecting this sudden change in events.
A clap of thunders shakes the house before the rain pours down on the tin roof. Chen digs his claws into Yixing’s arm, causing him to wake up.
“Wha…what is it?” He yawns, looking at Chen who’s now standing on his chest, claws slowly digging into his body. The lightning flashes and Yixing catches the look on Chen’s face. The thunder that follows crackles and booms.
Yixing reaches out and pets Chen before scooping up in his arms. The thunder booms again as the wind gusts, making the trees shake and dance. Their shadows from the trees are cast into the room whenever the lightning flashes.
Chen, who has now rooted himself into the space where Yixing is holding him, shivers in fear. Yixing was a soft warm human who made Chen feel safe and comfortable, but right now Yixing wasn’t enough.
Yixing presses a kiss to the top of Chen’s head and whispers in the cat’s little ears to “not worry” because “he’s here and “the storms can’t hurt him.” Eventually Chen lets the feeling of Yixing petting him and pressing small kisses to his head take over. Chen would give anything to kiss Yixing, but alas he is a cat.
✎︎
When Yixing wakes up in the morning, he’s greeted with a surprise. Everything is normal, except for one thing. Like, he distinctly remembers falling asleep with Chen cradled against his chest, not a naked human being.
Carefully, Yixing slips out from the pile of blankets and out of the bedroom. He grabs the phone in the kitchen and punches in Luhan’s number as fast as lightning.
“Hey, what’s up?” Luhan mumbles.
“Okay so I fell asleep last night with Chen cradled in my arms like always, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“I woke up with a naked human next to me, not my cute lovely fluffy Chenchen.”
“Interesting. Well. I’m going back to sleep. Bye~”
“But Luhan-” the line cuts off with legato monotone beeps, echoing the pounding of Yixing’s blood in his eardrums as the panic starts to sink in.
He has some options, but they all involve going back to his room and confront the situation at hand. Finally, Yixing feels ready enough to go and check on the person that somehow ended up in his bed during the night.
✎
“Good morning…?” Yixing says cautiously to the guest who is now stretching out his naked, very naked body, tail curling and ears flattening to his head. Wait. Tail?
“Hi! I love you!” The stranger answers back, throwing himself at Yixing. Yixing stumbles backward as the stranger falls to the floor, lower half of his body still wrapped in blankets resting on the bed.
“Chen?” Yixing’s only conclusion right now is that his cat somehow became a cat human hybrid thing overnight.
“Uh, Jongdae actually.” Chen-Jongdae replies. He sits up on the bed to get a better look at Yixing. Ears flickering on the top of his head and tail twitching excitedly. Jongdae is smiling very wide doing that weird slow blink he always does.
“What.”
“Straaaaange I know, isn’t it?” Jongdae’s tail flicks back and forth as his eyes run over Yixing’s body. A feline smirk graces his lips when Yixing starts to blush.
“Okay well. Um I’m Yixing. I don’t know if I really need to be introducing myself again? You were my cat, I mean you are my cat right? Do you want clothes or something? Um.”
“Nah I like nudity, it’s very…natural.” Jongdae lays back down on the bed, snuggling into the covers again. The bell on the collar around his neck jingles as he moves around.
“Oh. Well. My house my rules.” Yixing grabs a pair of boxers and a white tank top and throws them at Jongdae before exiting the room to wash off his face or something.
When Yixing comes back to the room, Jongdae is still naked, much to Yixing’s disdain. Jongdae lets out a serious of whines and pouty faces when Yixing tells him to get dressed. Eventually Jongdae puts the clothes on because Yixing threatens to deny him breakfast and Jongdae loves food too much to let clothes get in the way.
✎
After breakfast, Yixing asks Jongdae a series of questions. Like how, even though he was a year and a half old in human years, he became a 21-year-old man. Jongdae explains that cats age faster. Like really fast. It’s weird but Yixing accepts it (after looking it up on the internet a day later).
He asks Jongdae if he could understand him this whole time. Jongdae simply smiles at Yixing and Yixing feels the urge to jump off a roof because there are some things he said to Jongdae when he was a cat that he really wish he hadn’t. Little secrets that he couldn’t tell, not even tell Luhan about.
He asks Jongdae about how he became a cat and Jongdae tells Yixing most of what he can remember which isn’t all that much. Just the fact that he was human once a very long time ago before an evil witch cursed him to be a cat for a very long time.
Yixing mutters something about Luhan hiring this Jongdae fellow to prank him for fun before Yixing tries to pull the “seemingly fake” cat ears off Jongdae’s head.
The ears, unfortunately for Jongdae, do not give way to Yixing’s tugs and pulls. However some of his fur does.
So Yixing stands there holding some tufts of fur (technically hair considering Jongdae’s a human now) in his hands as Jongdae complains about how waiting all these years to break the horrible curse isn’t worth it.
“Jongdae wait.” Yixing says when Jongdae climbs on top of the counter beside the fridge. He knows where this is going, and it won’t end pretty.
“What.” Jongdae’s ears flicker in annoyance, and his tail puffs out a little, just like it would if he were a cat. Well he is still partially a cat.
“I don’t think that’s going to be physically possible for you now.”
“Are you calling me fat?” Jongdae puts a hand on his hip, standing up straighter on the counter, ears just barely grazing the ceiling.
“No I’m simply stating the fact that your now human body will not be able to sit atop the fridge comfortably because you are simply too big. You are human sized, not cat sized.”
“Oh.” Jongdae realizes that yes, Yixing is right. He climbs down and off the counter, standing beside Yixing now. “Um…”
Jongdae was a cat yesterday. A. Cat. Yixing’s still having trouble accepting this idea and Jongdae standing close to him, rubbing is head on his shoulder isn’t helping him. It’s so catlike yet Jongdae is a human. Almost human.
“Um.” Yixing says before leaving Jongdae alone in the kitchen, locking the door to his office behind him. Yeah, it’s going to take a while to get used to this.
✎
“So you’re telling me this man is Chen, but his name is actually Jongdae, and he was never a cat until this witch cursed him years and years ago to be a cat for nine fucking centuries or something until one day he suddenly stopped being a cat? You’ve got to be kidding me, Xing.”
“Yeah. Pretty much. I think.” Yixing hears Luhan laugh on the other end of the line which makes Yixing frown. “I’m being totally serious.” Yixing says when the chuckles on Luhan’s end of the line die down.
“And you were totally serious about the existence of unicorns that one time we were stoned in the horse stable during undergrad…”
“Haha alright...but really.”
“…”
“Luhan?”
“Hold on.” The line cuts and Yixing’s left standing there with a beeping phone in his hand for a second time that day.
✎︎
At around dinnertime a week later there are three soft knocks on the door. Jongdae looks up from his grooming, ears twitching to the new sound. He’s perched on the arm of the couch that Yixing, no matter how many times he had lectured Jongdae about how it’s ruining his one and only couch, still sits on it everyday.
Jongdae looks at Yixing with big curious eyes. They never have visitors…unless…
“Stay there, I’ll get it.” Yixing starts to go off to the door before turning around, “Actually, sit like a human please.” Jongdae raises an eyebrow before shaking his head. Yixing scoffs but the three knocks repeat themselves again, prompting him to leave Jongdae to his own devices.
When Yixing answers the door and Luhan steps in past Yixing, pulling a very disinterested Minseok behind him, eyes glued to his phone.
Yixing a raises an eyebrow at this because usually Minseok flat-out refuses to leave the apartment because of his minecraft world and how it could fall apart if he doesn’t play it constantly.
Luhan catches Yixing’s look and mouths something about a “fucking mobile app” before racing off to the living where Jongdae has fallen from his perch on the arm and onto the cushions of the couch.
“Hi~” Jongdae greets with a tiny purr. Luhan turns around to face Yixing and nods.
“Alright. Definitely a cat turned man. Yep.” Minseok looks up from his phone now, putting the electronic device in his back pocket.
“This is just like that one story my grandma told me as a little kid!” He says with a heavy amount of mirth in his eyes. Yixing’s about to ask why and how but Luhan’s already explaining.
“He overheard me on the phone last week, and then said we had to go visit his grandmother because she told him a story like this while he was growing up. So we did that and his grandmother, bless her heart, is kinda off her rocker and we didn’t really learn much. So yeah, here we are.” Luhan shrugs, taking a seat on the couch Jongdae was previously perched on.
Jongdae had rolled off the couch at some point of Luhan’s recap, choosing to wrap himself around Yixing. Yixing eventually had accepted the reality of Jongdae a few days after the “change” had happened. Jongdae is nice to have around, even more nice than he was as a cat. Yixing finds himself wishing that Jongdae could be an actual human now because the cat part of him could take over at times and Yixing didn’t find himself liking that as much as he like human Jongdae.
“What was it about?” Jongdae’s purring contentedly as Yixing runs a hand through Jongdae’s hair.
Minseok smiles a small almost apologetic smile because the story, now having told it to Luhan at least ten times seems silly and made up.
“Oh I don’t really remember all the details but uh basically it was about this prince that really liked cats so much that he wanted to be a cat so one day he ran off and found a witch that could grant his wish and-” his pocket buzzes, which nearly detracts him from his synopsis. Thankfully Luhan not so subtly jabs his boyfriend in the ribs with his elbow to continue with what he was saying. “And so the witch does and the prince becomes a cat and then the witch is like ‘Muahahaha you’re going to be cat for like 900 years unless you can find a human who makes you want to be human again!’ and yeah.”
Yixing looks at Luhan who looks back at him. There’s a silent exchange between the both before Yixing lets out a tiny snicker.
“What.” Yixing and Luhan exchanged another glance at each other before breaking out into a fit of giggles.
“Oh it’s just…”
“That um.” Yixing tries to finish what Luhan had started to say but doubles over in laughter. Jongdae and Minseok look at the two before Jongdae taps Minseok on his shoulder.
“Yeah?”
“Why am I not a complete human then?” Jongdae asks, hands now on Minseok’s shoulders. He looks like he’s about to cry. “I want to be human so bad.” Yixing stops laughing, catching Jongdae’s sad face in the corner of his eye and he feels his heart break seeing Jongdae like this.
“Um.” Luhan says after Yixing glares at him for laughing and pries Jongdae’s hands off Minseok, and pushes him in the direction of Yixing. Yixing takes Jongdae into his arms, holding him close.
“Well…” Minseok has a finger pressed to his lips in thought. Suddenly a light bulb goes off in his head. “I think there was a final part of the story!” Jongdae smiles and is about to ask what it is when the light bulb goes out again. “But I can’t remember what it was that happens? I’m sorry Jongdae.” Jongdae pouts falling back and resting himself against Yixing.
Yixing feels his heart break again seeing the solemn look on Jongdae’s face. He runs a hand through Jongdae’s hair in an attempt to comfort him.
✎︎
“Maybe if you try living more like a human you’ll become a real human!” The four of them had been brainstorming for a while now in Yixing’s living room. Jongdae was sitting on Yixings lap on the couch. Luhan and Minseok were in the two arm chairs near the fireplace.
“Yeah. Maybe that will work.” Yixing agrees as Jongdae rests his head on his shoulder, nodding off.
“Worth a shot I guess…”
Minseok and Luhan say their goodbyes, holding hands and smiling as they walk out of the house. Yixing smiles because for once in his life, Minseok isn’t focused on other things that revolve around the world of gaming, rather, he’s more focused on the real world and Luhan.
✎
When Jongdae had first changed from a cat to an almost human, Yixing made Jongdae sleep in the guest bedroom, in his own bed, away from Yixing.
Jongdae hadn’t liked the idea very much but had still abided by it when Yixing had introduced the concept of no cuddles before bed for a week if he didn’t follow his rules.
So after dinner, after Jongdae says goodnight and starts to head off for his room, Yixing stops him, grabbing his shirt collar and tugging Jongdae towards him.
“Uh?” Jongdae squeaks, eyebrows bunching together.
“Okay I know they said for you to try to be more ‘human like’ and I know what you’re thinking but I want to try something like…I don’t know uh…”
“Oh?”
“Yes. Like. Um.” Yixing blushes, “Sleep…with me…and other human stuff.” Jongdae raises an eyebrow. If Yixing is saying what he thinks he’s saying, he’s all for it. But he’s got to make sure because sometimes Yixing says things he doesn’t mean.
“I may have been a cat for several hundred years, but Zhang Yixing I know exactly what sleeping with you implies…” Yixing blushes even more, because no that’s not what he meant at all.
“No I mean like, uhm, like, we share the bed, yeah? Like a couple? I don’t know I feel like it’s the right thing to do? Please stop looking at me like that Jongdae.”
“Oh! I would love that yes let us go sleep together!” Jongdae wiggles his eyebrows and Yixing feels his entire body burst out into a blush.
“Yes. Sleep. Sleeping Jongdae. Just sleeping.”
“Of course~” Jongdae headbutts Yixing’s shoulder before taking Yixing by the shoulder and heading to Yixing’s bedroom a big smile on his face, tail twitching excitedly.
✎
There’s a thunderstorm somewhere around two in the morning and Yixing finds himself stabbed with the sharp nails that belong to Jongdae’s hands.
“What’s up?” Yixing mumbles rubbing sleep from his eyes. A bright flash illuminates the room and a crack-rumble of thunder follows it. Jongdae flinches as another bright flash illuminates the room.
Yixing turns around, now facing Jongdae who instantly latches himself to Yixing’s body, shivering and shuddering at the big scary noises the sky is making. Yixing just runs his hands through Jongdae’s hair, trying his best to calm him.
Somewhere around three in the morning the storm finally dies down and Jongdae’s body is relaxed, his eyes closed and soft snores coming out of his mouth. Yixing presses a kiss to Jongdae’s forehead before nodding off to sleep himself.
✎
For two weeks, Yixing tries to make Jongdae more human like. And Jongdae tries very hard too because he wants to be a full human again, just like Yixing, Luhan, and Minseok.
Well maybe not exactly like Minseok because apparently Minseok is a sad excuse for a human and also a boyfriend. Or that’s what Yixing says whenever Jongdae asks about him. Jongdae doesn’t think so.
After two weeks of learning to be human, doing human things (mostly chores Yixing forgets to do because he’s too busy writing) Jongdae is still very much not human.
“Why am I still like this?” Jongdae points at his ears. There’s a small pout in his lips and Yixing shrugs.
“I don’t know.”
“Hmph.” Jongdae walks away, laundry basket of with month old laundry piled high in it. He comes back after starting the load and drops the phone into Yixing’s lap before walking away to dust or something.
✎
Yixing forgets about the phone ringing in his lap seconds after Jongdae leaves the room to dust. When he picks up Luhan’s voice greeting him, the man is somewhat miffed.
Annoyance aside there’s a certain quality in Luhan’s voice that Yixing can only define as his ‘just got laid’ voice. He rolls his eyes because Luhan will probably try to rub this in his face. Yixing, for once, beats him to it.
“He’s still this human cat thing and we’re both sad about it. Any suggestions?”
“Oh um.” Luhan’s caught off-guard because usually Yixing’s not this cut-to-the-chase. “Hold on, let me ask Minseokkie…oh my gosh you’ll never guess what happened by the way.”
“I don’t wanna here it.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“Okay…” Luhan sets the phone down on a table from what Yixing can hear before padding away to call for Minseok.
“Hey Xing, what’s up?” Minseok’s voice greets all chipper and happy and Yixing is now confident that the two have definitely, as Jongdae likes to say, slept together.
“It still hasn’t worked, the idea of being human together.”
“What did you try?”
“Well first we slept in the same bed, then I tried to teach him to cook, and then I had him help me do the laundry, and then we took naps because I thinks naps are very important as a human, and we listened to music and I taught him how to operate the dishwasher and then I also showed him out computers and printers work and I also let him try and vacuum…I think he’s dusting right now.” Yixing cringes as he hears a vase clatter to the floor and an “oopsie!!!” from Jongdae wherever he is.
“So you’re basically using him as a maid.”
“Uh…?”
“Yeah, you definitely are.”
“Really? I thought that doing these human chores were like…humanish?”
“No. How about…um…I don’t know make him feel loved? I don’t know how to explain it.”
“Loved…?” Yixing understanding of love was very limited.
“Like, the only reason why he’s part human now is because you made him want to be one or that’s what we think, yeah? You can still give him chores and stuff but you gotta think about how you would want to be treated too.”
“Mm…” Yixing nods even though Minseok can’t see it.
“Like picture this, what if suddenly you became human and you were told to do all these chores because your human was too lazy or forgetful to do them on his own. You understand?”
“Yeah I think so…” Minseok is almost ready to say goodbye when Yixing’s voice travels through the receiver “Ah. Wait…”
“Omg what, I paused my minecraft game for this.”
“Nevermind. Nevermind. Thank you Minseok.”
The call ends with its boring same old same old beeps and no goodbyes from Minseok or Luhan.
✎
Jongdae’s thrilled with the new way of being human, it was much more fun and included lots of more cuddles with Yixing. Sometimes instead of cooking for Yixing (which was always a mess: lots of almost kitchen fires, loud screaming from the both of them, the constant worry about Jongdae’s precious tail catching on fire, etc…) Yixing cooked for him.
Yixing started to help with Jongdae’s chores. Jongdae liked this very much because in Jongdae’s opinion, sitting in front of your computer all day writing a bunch of stuff Luhan never likes was ridiculous. And he could sense that it was putting a lot of stress on Yixing.
Yixing stops spending less and less time away from the computer and starts to get to know Jongdae. He prints out a list of ice breakers one day and sits next to Jongdae, who’s recently stopped sitting on the arm of the couch, and picks out a few questions.
“If you woke up as an animal tomorrow, what animal would it be and why?”
“Um.”
“Too soon?”
“I guess?”
“Sorry…” Yixing looks down at the list of ice breakers, trying to find a better one. “Okay, what about: When I dance I look like…?”
“A loser with two left feet and no rhythm.”
“I’m sure you don’t!”
“Really? I was known to be quite a terrible dancer back in the day.”
“Uh huh, sure.” Yixing comments unconvinced. He scans the rest of the list only to find that none of the questions are really interesting.
“Can we ever leave the mountain and go visit Luhan and Minseok?” Jongdae asks after a few minutes of silence. He’s also somehow tangled their hands together without Yixing noticing.
“No..I don’t think we will. I mean certainly it’s possible but…”
“Why not?”
“Because I like it up here…”
“Really?” Jongdae squeezes Yixing’s hand, sporting a rather disappointed look.
“Yeah.”
“I think you’re sad up here. You need to go out and live a little.”
“No, I’m fine here. I’ve got my computer and my little garden, and…” he hesitates, cheeks blushing, “I’ve got you.” Jongdae’s ears flicker and he shakes his head.
“Well, I wanna go to the city.” Jongdae’s
Jongdae refuses goodnight cuddles and sharing the bed with Yixing that night. And when Yixing wakes up the next morning he’s greeted by, Jongdae. Not in the way he’d really expect it.
“Oh you gotta be kidding me.” Yixing sits up in his bed, taking Jongdae in his arms.
“Mew?”
✎
“Oh, Yixing?” Luhan’s surprised to see Yixing’s face on skype because Yixing doesn’t skype unless it’s serious stuff.
“We’ve got a problem.” There’s a meow in the background.
“Damn.” Yixing nods his head.
✎
“You know what Jongdae’s curse reminds me of?” Luhan says over the phone a week later. They had tried several methods to turn Jongdae back to a human-cat hybrid again, but nothing worked.
“What?” Yixing asks, petting a sleeping Jongdae resting in his lap.
“That story about the prince that got turned into a frog.”
“Are you telling me that I have to kiss my cat?” Jongdae head shoots up and meows encouragingly.
“I don’t know man like…aren’t you desperate or something?” Yixing looks at Jongdae who looks at him with the most pitiful cat eyes ever.
“Yeah…” Jongdae presses a paw to Yixing’s face.
“You know in the older versions the princess actually threw the frog against the wall and that made him a human!” Jongdae lets out a low growl at this and Yixing just smiles
“You know what, I think the latter is the better option. Whatever.”
✎︎
All he has to do is kiss Jongdae. All he’s gotta do is kiss a cat. Perfectly normal stuff. Perfectly normal.
“Okay. I’m gonna kiss you.” Jongdae just blinks his eyes slowly. Here goes nothing I guess, Yixing thinks as he presses his lips to Jongdae’s mouth area (do cats even have lips?). He pulls away and waits. And waits. And then a hour passes by and he’s still waiting for something to happen.
“Why does nothing ever work?” Yixing sighs as Jongdae curls up in the space between his head and shoulders on the bed.
✎
When Yixing wakes up again he does not have a cat. Rather he has a very human Jongdae clutching to his shirt, face scrunched up and letting out little noises. It’s very cute, even as a human Jongdae still has some catlike qualities to him.
His ears are no longer protruding from the top of his head like they were before, they’re on the side of his head, detached lobes with a simple ear lobe piercing in each. Human ears, just like Yixing’s.
Yixing looks at Jongdae’s back and gave a sigh of relief when he saw the man wasn’t sporting a tail. Yixing thanks the gods because cutting holes in every single item of clothing Jongdae wore was getting rather annoying.
Yixing shakes Jongdae, waking the man up. He lets out a yawn, a big one, while stretching out his body. His bones crack and pop like he’s been asleep for years. Finally his eyes flutter open.
“Good morning.” Yixing greets pressing a kiss to Jongdae’s nose.
“Hi?” Jongdae’s voice is scratchy but music to Yixing’s ears. He reaches up and runs a hand through Yixing’s wavy brown hair.
Yixing smiles, dimple carving its way into his cheek. Jongdae decides he very much likes that dimple on Yixing’s cheek. So as Yixing leaned down to press his lips to Jongdae’s, a finger poking at his dimple stops him.
“Jongdae what are you doing.” Yixing mutters and Jongdae can feel the air from Yixing’s mouth against his lips and lets his finger fall from attacking Yixing’s dimple.
“Uh. It’s cute?” A blush spreads on his face.
“Mmmm…” Yixing muses when Jongdae’s face turns to the side. Yixing just cups Jongdae’s chin in his hand, thumb rubbing softly against Jongdae’s cheek. “Hey.” he says softly.
“Hey…”
Yixing leans in and kisses Jongdae, lips melting against Jongdae’s. Jongdae wraps his arms around Yixing’s and pulls the man on top of him. Yixing pulls away and looks down at Jongdae, eyebrow raised.
“Oh?” Jongdae just chuckles as he runs a hand through Yixing’s hair and leans up to capture Yixing’s lips in his this time.
✎
And it’s a pity they don’t see it coming-they couldn’t avoid it even if they did see it coming.
They’re too busy stripping Yixing’s clothes off (Jongdae didn’t have clothes on to begin with) to notice the fireball hurling straight toward Yixing’s little cabin.
The witch cackles as the cabin and its inhabitants become engulfed in fire. “Happy endings are rather...subjective, don’t you think?” She lets out another evil laugh before she’s out of sight and out of mind.
The end.