Chapter Text
Let it be known that Kim Seungmin is not the type to complain.
For example, he didn't complain when Hyunjin turned around before they even reached the stairs, excusing himself to the kitchen, because he was worried Minho would consider cooking food with eggplant, and he'd “rather die again” than eat that.
Personally, Seungmin thinks that if he had to choose between going out and risking running into Hunters, and eating food he doesn't like, he'd pick the food.
But he's going to choke Minho to death, and be it the last thing he does, and be it that the vampire will smirk at him the whole time because his choking is futile, or whatever.
But Seungmin's gonna do it, and he thinks it's reasonable, because Minho's “capable of fitting sirens inside”-bathtub can hold, and this is on a good day and a lot of squishing, maybe one of them. The other bathtubs, both from the downstairs bathroom and the spare bedroom's bathroom, would be lucky if they fit their whole tail.
Changbin pats his shoulder placatingly, “We'll find a way, Minnie.”
“I'll sleep out of the water. It's not like that's impossible.”
“But it's uncomfortable,” Changbin scratches his neck, eyebrows furrowed in deliberation, “Maybe you two can switch.”
Seungmin huffs, then turns to leave the master bedroom. Jeongin is gonna ask him to switch, too, but he won't, not if he can help it, and be a good hyung to the only one younger than him. He's been saved often enough by him. Changbin follows and stops him on the overlook.
“Let's take stock of the other beds, too.” Seungmin is glad that he doesn't press further and allows Changbin to pull him to the two other bedrooms, Felix's and Hyunjin's.
“Huh,” Changbin stops right in the doorframe of Hyunjin’s room, causing Seungmin to stumble right into him. “Could've sworn this was Jinnie's room?”
Seungmin pushes past Changbin to get a glance into the room, and surely, it changed. It's still a bedroom, but it's empty. Or, not empty, just plain. There's one big bed with plain white sheets, a desk, and a shelf filled with books.
Seungmin doesn't bother looking for all the stuff he knows Hyunjin owns, because he has a feeling that he knows where it is. And it's not this room.
Changbin is quick to follow after him. He doesn't force Seungmin to speak his thoughts aloud, which is much appreciated. Seungmin peeks into Felix’s old room, which used to be filled to the brim with things he owned. Simply owned, like having them stacked on his curving and bending mix of shelves was the most precious thing to him.
It's an open room now, almost a studio of sorts. There are low couches, maroon in color to match the rest of the mansion's furniture, but the light that floods the room through the big windows allows Seungmin to spot the smaller things, too. Some of which include stuff the vampires own, but also the unchanged oriel, likely kept that way because Felix loves it so much, or the sketch on the easel, or the book about contemporary dance nested on a pillow.
Just like he expected.
Changbin is still marveling at the bright room when Seungmin spins around, dragging him along. Changbin yelps, but complies.
“What—”
“The vampires are a throuple now and probably repurposed parts of the library for the stuff that didn’t fit the master bedroom.”
“Ah,” Changbin says, looking around the library that Seungmin dragged him into. It's just opposite Felix's old room anyway, so it takes them barely a few seconds to find some of his possessions. Books that used to be stored in his room now line three shelves, roof to floor, while his trinkets are stored neatly in between every shelf one can see.
“Cute,” Changbin mumbles, holding a small, glass trinket, which is shaped like a small paw, into the light and shifting it between his fingers so the light catches it in different ways, “Yeah, this is definitely Lix's collection, only he can even find this stuff.”
Seungmin watches Changbin carefully place the trinket where he got it, huffs, and turns to leave.
“Are you pouting, Meong-Meong?”
“How long do you think they've been keeping this from us?” Seungmin pauses, once more on the overlook. He doesn't turn around to face the werewolf, but Changbin decides he doesn't want to answer Seungmin's back, so he tugs at Seungmin's shoulder until he turns around.
“Are you pouting, Seungmin-ah?”
Seungmin shrugs. He's… Well, he can't quite ignore these new circumstances.
“Back at the pond, I thought I was seeing things, or that I was watching another strange vampire habit taking place.” Changbin gingerly begins, his tone light. He's clearly trying to nudge Seungmin into talking.
It makes sense. For Changbin to feel that way, that makes sense, Seungmin thinks. He grew up in a conservative pack, and from what Seungmin knows, part of being conservative on land is talking bad about other species until your throat goes dry. Or, at least that was how things were like before the Hunt. It led to Changbin either assuming stuff based on the rumors and words engraved into his mind, or for him not to question at all because, quote, “Other species just have other habits and I've learned to accept that.”.
But no, Seungmin doesn't think that kissing is a thing –a habit– vampires have in panic situations.
“Yes— No. Ugh. Yes, I also thought my eyes were tricking me, no, that's not a vampire habit.” Seungmin sighs. “That's something that Minho-hyung did then and there. Just something they do now, I assume. I just wish—”
What would he have wanted? That they'd have told them? Yeah. Must be it.
Seungmin shrugs, “They had the perfect opportunity to tell us everything at the last dinner, but they told us half of it. It's–,” He pauses, searching for the right words. The human tongue sometimes has such weird ways of expressing stuff, but it's harder to use his clicks in this form, “–disheartening? I guess. Feels like we're not being trusted fully.”
Seungmin pauses. Irrational thinking like that isn't like him at all, and speaking his thoughts out loud without thinking about them makes him sound silly. Dear oceans, listening to himself, he feels he might even sound stupid.
“Nah,” Changbin shakes his head, the trace of a smile on his face. “That's unlikely. You know Minho-hyung, he's just like Channie-hyung. He was probably worried that we'd have some sort of prejudice about vampires and their…tendencies, if they just came clean like that.”
Seungmin shrugs, then nods. Changbin is right, which is a first, but what makes it worse is the image of their friends actually believing that they'd change their opinions of them because of something like this. Sure, they all stumble over some old beliefs sometimes, but they make an effort to be as open with one another as they can be. Because that's what friends do.
In lieu of an answer, Seungmin walks toward the stairs, still thinking to himself.
“Do we ask?” He says, coming to a halt on the lowest step. Changbin stares at him, then his gaze shifts around the mansion, like the dark wood is going to bring him a sensible answer.
The wood does not answer, apparently, and Changbin just shrugs, “I'm sure we have nothing to worry about.”
“I'm not worrying.” Seungmin huffs, but he agrees. There's nothing to worry about with a few dynamic changes. They're still the same, and Seungmin has no idea why he felt so odd about whatever was happening in front of him. “It's not our business anyway.”
With that, he takes the final step and crosses the foyer to head to the kitchen, where Minho and Felix are bent over a basket of potatoes while Hyunjin is examining their spice shelf. Seungmin can't even name half of them, even if Minho claims he doesn't have that many.
Felix perks up when he sees Seungmin and Changbin stepping into the kitchenette and beckons them closer.
“So, how's it looking?” Changbin asks, curiously looking at the lined-up products on the kitchen aisle's counter. He sniffs, and Seungmin is once more reminded of how sensitive werewolf noses are when Changbin frowns at one old-looking package of dried apricots, nudging it closer to the edge of the island. “This one's not good anymore.”
Minho raises an eyebrow and glances at the package, snatching it from where it's close to falling off and ripping it open in the same motion. He sniffs it once, and his face contorts similarly to Changbin's a moment ago. He drops it back onto the counter, then rolls up his sleeves.
“Apart from those, I guess, we're fine. At least for food health. Longevity of food is another thing. Most stuff should last us a week or two — that is, if we don't eat everything at once,” He gestures to the kitchen isle, “Because this is all we got.”
Seungmin lets his gaze slide across the various goods that the vampires collected on the counter again.
“Is this with or without you just feeding on one another?” The question isn't meant to come off as rude or like he's insinuating anything, but he winces when he hears the harshness of his tone –seriously, what's with him today?– so he quickly adds a “Not that any of us would mind if you did.” Seungmin shrugs.
Hyunjin and Felix blink, puzzled, while Minho rolls his eyes half-heartedly.
“Obviously, we're not going to waste your guys’ food,” Minho explains casually, almost too casually for Seungmin's liking, while he puts the basket of potatoes back into the corner he got it from, “And with Chan-hyung and the others getting more food, we should be fine.”
“It wouldn't be wasted.” Seungmin shrugs, but Minho waves him off.
“It'd be unnecessary for us to eat it, though.”
Felix nods at that, hopping onto the free side of the kitchen island and pulling his legs up.
“We're gonna be fine.”
Changbin seems unconvinced, if the way he's currently scanning the window behind Felix is anything to go by, but at least the fact that they won't starve is comforting.
Seungmin chooses to help Hyunjin with putting the food back where they got it from, ignoring Minho's glare — he broke a plate once, and now the vampire loves to pretend that Seungmin purposefully set his most expensive ingredients on fire.
By the time they're done, which could have been much earlier but Hyunjin clearly has no sense for how to arrange a kitchen and Seungmin is a perfectionist –who also refuses to be scolded by Minho later–, Changbin seems to have relaxed a lot. Which, truthfully, can probably be mostly credited to how he's leaning heavily against Felix's side while he's playing with Changbin's hair, carding his hands through dark streaks and braiding them, only to let them fall into his fringe again. Minho's right next to them, hunched over a notebook, scribbling stuff down and occasionally biting down on his pen.
It's utterly domestic, and Seungmin can't hold back a small smile— he doesn't realize he's staring until Hyunjin tugs at his sleeve.
“Minnie?”
“Huh?” Seungmin blinks away his trance and locks eyes with Hyunjin, who points behind him.
“I said we should probably escape now if we don't want to be roped into a thousand tasks by—”
“It's not a thousand.” Minho straightens from where he had been hunched over his notebook, holding a piece of paper into the air. “We're gonna prepare.”
“Prepare?” Felix tilts his head and tries to get a look at what Minho wrote while Hyunjin pouts.
“All this stress is really not good for me.”
“Hunters are even worse for you, how about that?”
That effectively shuts Hyunjin up. Seungmin huffs, then reaches for the piece of paper Minho is holding. Minho pulls his hand back, shaking his head.
“Most of this is for later, when the others are back,” He glances down at it, “Like building a den. I'm assuming you don't want to do that alone?”
Minho meets Changbin's eyes, genuine care underneath his superficial disinterested tone, and Changbin nods, pushing himself off of Felix a bit now that there's discussion happening again.
“Yeah, that's definitely something I couldn't do alone.” He rests his hips against the edge of the counter and props himself up on his elbows. The face he's pulling would make one think that building a den alone hurts him physically — considering the wolves’ bond, Seungmin thinks, that's probably what'd actually end up happening.
Minho glances at the paper, then folds it in half. “Let's hope that the others bring back enough proper food,” He pauses, then, with a much sharper tone, “I really should've given them a list of things to bring back.”
Hyunjin shrugs, “As long as there's—”
“—No eggplant, we know.” Felix finishes the sentence for him with a giggle and a placating pat on Hyunjin's bicep. Hyunjin, in turn, pokes Felix's thigh.
Seungmin chooses to ignore this age-old feud that Hyunjin has going on with eggplant, mostly because it's hardly in season yet, and it's not like the vampires are even planning to join them in eating palpable food, and turns to look at Minho.
“Hyung, do you think we should try to get in contact with Ateez and warn them?”
“They're in town right now?” Minho raises an eyebrow, and Changbin pipes up more. “Yeah, they are. Wooyoungie visited the shop on the day they returned from wherever they were this time round.”
“Sunyeong, they were in Sunyeong.”
“Terribly forgettable town if you ask me.”
Seungmin rolls his eyes, deciding not to comment on how Sunyeong is much bigger than Gamseok and one of the few towns in the area that could be considered a metropolis. Instead, he meets Minho's contemplative gaze.
The pirate crew by the name of Ateez is an even bigger mix of creatures, more so than Seungmin and his friends. They moved to Gamseok and decided to settle here after meeting them, a group as big as they were of just as many beings. Seungmin was very wary of them at first, especially after finding out that one of them was a merman. Not to mention the general whispers about pirates, especially among sea beings.
But upon meeting Hongjoong, their captain and a Kingfisher shifter, most of his doubts settled easily, and he found himself calling them friends more often than not. Changbin and the cat-shifter Wooyoung had basically been inseparable by then, much to Hongjoong's dismay whenever they had to do their job.
“There's a chance they might've spotted the Hunters themselves, though. I don't want to leave them to find out the hard way, but for now, we shouldn't risk our safety,” Minho suggests carefully, “Once we're all collected back here again, we can think about when and how to try to warn them — if they don’t know already.”
Seungmin nods. It’s true, there’s not much they can do right now since they don’t even know where the Hunters are, how many there are, and whether they’re planning on killing them or worse — the tale of mers being held captive in small containers solely for the grim amusement of humans, that all parents tell their children before their fins are even fully grown, surfaces in his mind and he purposefully shoves it back down, fighting off a shiver. Yeah, he does not want to be in that situation, ever.
“Do you think we could turn the lounge into one big place to sleep in? If we push the couches together and maybe add the mattresses from upstairs?” Changbin mumbles, absently, as if the thought only just occurred to him and now has to force its way out.
Seungmin and Minho both frown, “You’d want that?” They stare at each other in mild disgust after synchronizing, but then they turn to Changbin, who pouts, and Felix, who’s flanking Changbin’s side with a beaming smile. Hyunjin doesn’t look opposed either.
“That’s a great idea! That way, we can do a headcount every morning way more easily!” Felix offers, smiling innocently at Minho.
“First off, there’s no way for Hunters to break into my mansion if I don’t want them to,” Minho crosses his arms, “And secondly, I’m not gonna nestify my couches, hell, my whole living room, just so some werewolves can cuddle more.”
Hyunjin pouts. Minho looks away, right at Felix.
Felix is also pouting.
*
Seungmin really should have expected to be pushing couches, considering how effective his fledglings’ pouts are for Minho. Still, he can’t believe it. He groans. Not because he’s annoyed, but because Minho’s couches are sturdy and heavy as heck, and he’s been pushing at this thing for two minutes now.
It hits the edge of the other couch with a Thud and Seungmin collapses against the backrest. “Geez, did you have to get such heavy furniture?”
Minho huffs as he pushes the couch that he was bringing to the big bed forming where there was once a coffee table until it meets the edges of the other couches, “Did you have to have such weak arms?”
Seungmin grumbles, but doesn’t reply. Changbin pats his shoulder, then hands him a mountain of blankets and pillows to hold while he hops over the backrest. Seungmin is never going to hold anything for him ever again, he decides, when half of the fabric tower begins crumbling down onto his head, covering him in sheets like a ghost costume that children wear.
Changbin laughs loudly when he turns back around.
(Seungmin assumes he just turned around; he can’t actually see anything right now.)
“Changbin!” He squawks from where he’s halfway to being buried.
“You’re missing a ‘-hyung’ there,” Changbin snickers, but he does end up unwrapping Seungmin from his textile prison.
Seungmin runs a hand through his now tousled hair before following Changbin and climbing onto this newly constructed bed, from where the backrests make an opening, albeit he’s unsure of what he’s even supposed to do here. Felix is sitting on the other side of Changbin, already moving pillows around in a way that screams that he knows what he’s doing.
Which makes sense, because while vampires don’t need nests for comfort as werewolves do, Hyunjin once told Seungmin that it still brings a lot of comfort to sleep surrounded by soft blankets from every side. And while Seungmin believes that, he’s also never had blankets or pillows like these. Usually, the big clams mers sleep in are soft enough from the inside that they don’t need to add any extra softness, and if they aren’t, then they usually use much different materials.
And besides, now that he thinks about it…”Are we going to move hyung’s bathtub to the living room too, or do you plan on excluding Innie?”
“Oh, right,” Changbin pauses, “I suppose we will need to make some adjustments to fit a bathtub between the couches.” He pats the cream-colored cushions as if they’re going to move on their own and conjure a bathtub into their middle.
“A bathtub between couches?” Minho drops the remaining pillows that he and Hyunjin wanted to bring onto the couch-slash-bed.
“A bathtub between couches?” Hyunjin echoes and tilts his head, “How’s that gonna work?”
“It’s not. I’m not gonna have you rascals rearrange my whole house.”
Changbin pouts, “Then how’re Innie and Seungminnie gonna sleep here?”
“Could you not have remembered that before we rearranged the couches?” Minho grumbles, then slips onto said couches, “We’re finishing this bed, and we’ll see who sleeps here tonight.”
*
Seungmin has not had many moments where he felt like a wolf. Quite frankly, he never had a reason to, nor did he ever want to feel like a werewolf. He’s rather happy as a being from the depths of the ocean.
Right now, though, he feels he’s at a very wolf point in his life.
He also feels incredibly bad at that, but in his own defence, he’s moved more pillows back and forth today than he’s ever seen pillows generally in his life. And he’s over two centuries old.
By the third time that Changbin slaps his hands away from where he’s trying to wrap a blanket the way Felix showed him earlier, he drops the fabric with a huff, “Alright, I’m just gonna assume that that just ‘felt wrong’ too?” Changbin opens his mouth to answer, but Seungmin cuts him off, shaking his head, “No, don’t even tell me. Please just wait until Channie-hyung and Jisungie are back and build this with them like you originally planned, because my instincts are not made for this.”
Speak of the devil and he appears; the heavy door knocker sounds against the mansion’s doors. Minho, who left the lounge the first time Changbin told him he was placing a pillow wrong, which, in retrospect, Seungmin should have done too, goes to get it, and he’s greeted by someone carrying enough paper bags that it takes a moment to recognize that someone as Chan. Minho side steps before Chan can collide with him. Hyunjin flanks the older’s side with a cheerful “Hyung!”, and he’s mindful enough to take the two top bags from him.
Felix helps Jeongin inside and takes a bag from him, peering into it with the curiosity of a fish in new waters, while the younger laments about Chan apparently making them buy way too much. Seungmin follows them into the kitchenette.
“I feel like Chan-hyung doesn’t know what not overdoing it is. He thinks we’ll starve.” Seungmin says it very purposefully loud enough for the subject of his sentence to hear it. Chan chuckles and rolls his eyes.
“I don’t want to ever hear you complain about being hungry then, Seungmo.”
“That’s Changbin-hyung’s job.” Seungmin comments absently while eyeing the sheer mountain of food filling the counter — dear seven oceans, Jisung’s bags aren’t even here yet.
“What’s my job?” Changbin asks upon entering the kitchen, albeit from the other side, which Seungmin is kinda glad for. The number of bags on the floor, combined with how the counter is slowly gaining height in the form of food bags, is making him a bit claustrophobic.
“Being hungry.” Seungmin deadpans, but Changbin just grins and slaps his stomach –a very muscled stomach, by the way, not that Seungmin pays attention to it. He just notices the other’s body, sometimes, when he stretches and his shirt rides up or something– as if to confirm Seungmin’s words.
“Well, you’ve got plenty of food to be hungry for now, hyung!” Jisung drops his bags, the final few, onto the counter, and flops right onto the ground. “That was enough groceries until the next moon phase, seriously!”
Minho and Hyunjin, who seemingly each took a bag from Jisung, chuckle as they step over their dramatic friend to place their bags on the floor beside the kitchen aisle.
“You’re lucky my kitchen is big enough to fit all of this,” Minho nudges Chan, “I think. Anything that doesn’t will be put in your room.”
“So the lounge?” Changbin asks with a grin.
“No.” Minho hisses, realization dawning upon his face. He pinches the bridge of his nose, “I should have never let you build your nest there.”
“What?” Chan spins around, nearly hitting Seungmin, who’s storing away a net of lemons beside him, with the cans he’s holding. He looks ready to rush into the lounge to see what he just heard for himself, but Minho’s glare sends him back to sorting food to where it belongs.
Changbin is happy to supply an explanation, though, only busy picking up full paper bags and placing them on the kitchen island whenever another bag is empty. Seungmin suspiciously eyes the remainder of the bags — surely these two dozen bags of food can’t be just for them? They’re a hungry bunch, but dear oceans.
“I wasn’t actually serious when suggesting it, but as I was thinking about how small the spare bedroom’s bed is, I thought that if we pushed all the couches from the lowered area together and added some blankets, then we’d have a nest that’d basically fit all of us,” He’s talking as if he had the greatest, smartest idea of the century. Seungmin rather thinks it’s one of his nightmares and that Changbin is extremely rude for suggesting it, “But then hyung agreed, so then we did just that.”
“Oh. Huh.” Chan blinks, then, slowly, turns to look at Minho, a grin spreading on his lips.
Minho doesn’t react obviously, but the tips of his ears begin to match the shade of tomatoes he’s holding currently. He quickly pushes them into Felix’s hands. Felix, who’s grinning, very much content with sharing a bed with all of his friends.
Or, five out of seven friends. Two others, more. Two others, he’s probably shared more than a bed with before. Seungmin shudders at the thought.
Well. No time like now.
“On the topic of the spare bedroom,” He says, carefully, because he doesn't want to sound like he's judging and also because he is, in fact, judging that the vampires didn't tell them, even though he doesn't know why that affects him as much as it does when it shouldn't at all, “Are you always sleeping together now that you're kissing and that's why you decided you don't need individual rooms anymore?”
A tense silence falls upon the kitchen for a long moment, and Seungmin suddenly feels like he's approached this wrong, when Chan gently nudges his side. By the look in his eyes, he was a bit harsh, but the wolf must've had a similar question.
“I was going to ask about this, too, eventually. But the feeding,” He glances at Seungmin, pausing to pick his words much more carefully than the latter, “Did the changes in your diet change your relationship, too?”
To everyone's surprise, it's not Minho who answers, but Felix.
“Hyunjinnie and I kinda forced Minho-hyung to come clean about his feelings. He and I talked it out the night before, because we both felt like there was so much tension and no answer. Or, no easy answer, I guess,” He shrugs, “It was obvious to us after we compared some reactions that something between us had shifted, and so we— Yeah. Our relationship changed.”
Hyunjin nods, “From platonic to romantic, if that wasn't obvious.” He grins and pulls Felix closer, nuzzling against his cheek before pressing a kiss to the corner of his lips. Seungmin watches, and Jeongin, beside him, makes a fake gagging sound at the open display of affection. Hyunjin's gaze flits to him.
“Aww, is my dearest Innie jealous?”
“Do not come close to me.”
“Ayen,” Hyunjin draws the ‘e’ out and pouts, “You can get your very own hyung kiss, no need to be so petty!”
Jeongin flees. Hyunjin follows after their youngest with open arms, wailing.
Felix watches them fondly, even though Hyunjin pretty much left him mid-kiss, before he meets Seungmin's gaze.
“So, yeah, we changed the rooms up a bit.”
Seungmin nods, mostly because he doesn't know what to say, then turns back to putting ingredients where they belong. In his periphery, he can spot Chan and Minho exchanging some meaningful glances. Minho ends whatever silent conversation the two had by pulling Felix closer to him by the waist and kissing him softly, before pointedly handing Chan a handful of radish.
(It's barely even radish season yet. Seriously, where did Chan find some of these?)
Seungmin takes the last bag from Changbin and puts the fruits in it away, into the third bowl that found its way onto the kitchen island due to the suddenly high demand for bowls. Minho's kitchen has a lot of shelves, but not that many.
“Eggplant.” Hyunjin's voice sounds from the other side of the kitchen, and Seungmin follows his gaze to Jisung, who is, in fact, holding an eggplant. Hyunjin whines and buries his face in Jeongin's neck. Jeongin, captive by courtesy of Hyunjin’s arms around him, squirms.
“Please don't bite me, I'm no tastier than an eggplant.”
“Impossible,” Hyunjin grumbles, “Anything tastes better.”
Minho rolls his eyes, takes the vegetable from Jisung, and places it in the cabinet where they store some of the lasting vegetables.
“I didn't think it possible to go overboard when it comes to preparing for survival, but considering just how many fresh goods you got, I think you managed to go overboard,” Minho crosses his arms as he eyes his kitchen, every corner now holding either a market item or a canned food. “No wonder you took so long.”
Jisung huffs, “Please, hyung would've bought more had Jeongin and I not been there to stop him!”
“I just wanted to be sure.” Chan flushes, scratching his neck. Minho's gaze softens a fraction, and he pats his forearm, the part of Chan he can reach the easiest. Felix uses that moment to collect the now-empty paper bags in one big box and put said box in the last empty corner.
“Alright then, how about we show you guys what we did to the living room? While we discuss what we're going to do while we're stuck here, obviously.”
No one argues against that, maybe just because it's Felix, and no one generally argues against Felix.
Jeongin and Seungmin watch with very meager enthusiasm as everyone gathers around the couches. Jisung looks like he's about to bounce out of his skin, and Chan is staring at Minho with such open fondness that it makes the vampire hiss at him.
In the end, they decided to rearrange the couches again. This time, they're leaving the wolves to it. It's a decision made, apparently, for the sake of staying close together while the danger of Hunters looms above their heads like a net.
In the meantime, Minho decides it's time for dinner. He tells Jeongin and Seungmin to prepare the table while the vampires cook.
That's how Seungmin and Jeongin end up alone in the dining room, the motions of setting the table already practiced. Seungmin can tell that Jeongin is itching to ask him something, but he's not going to force him to spit it out.
If there's one thing Seungmin learned about his only skein member in the decades they’ve spent together, it’s that Jeongin has to work out exactly how he wants a possibly-complicated conversation to go before he begins it, lest he wants to lose his scales.
Seungmin has gotten very attentive to the signs of whether or not Jeongin is ready to be bothered about his brooding, and he recognizes the way he’s prodding at his inner cheek with his tongue while staring at the bread basket like it just insulted his ancestry as a big no.
So Seungmin elects to place plates on the long table. Jeongin will speak when he’s ready.
And apparently, Jeongin found the words no moment later than when Seungmin finished setting the table — the younger tugs at the sleeve of his white shirt. Seungmin left the top two buttons open this morning, mostly because he was expecting to be busy with their home’s furniture today. He was still moving furniture, he just didn’t reckon that it’d be Minho’s couches.
“What’s the matter, Innie?”
“Do you think we’ll be okay?”
“I mean,” Seungmin shrugs one shoulder, “It’s not like the vampires are going to let this change anything. And if anything does change, Chan-hyung’s gonna be after them immediately—”
“I was thinking about our sleeping situation, but gee, thanks for putting that nightmare material into my head.” Jeongin huffs, eyeing Seungmin grumpily.
Seungmin rolls his eyes and bumps shoulders with Jeongin, “Idiot, that’s not how I meant it. But I also don’t think that we’re gonna have to worry about sleeping. If it all fails, we’ll just have to cuddle in the bathtub.”
“Ew.” Jeongin makes a show of pushing Seungmin off of him and scurrying around the table to escape him, Seungmin following him with grabby hands. Jeongin dodges and arms himself with a knife.
“Fish isn’t on the menu today, Jeongin-ah, put that knife away.” Minho’s voice sounds from behind the two of them. Felix giggles, placing the carafes he’s carrying on the table while Minho raises an eyebrow at the two youngest.
Jeongin drops the knife onto the table and then himself onto a chair. Seungmin sits beside him while the werewolves enter the room with a way more relaxed energy.
Well, Chan and Changbin seem calmer. Jisung brims with energy and wraps around Hyunjin, who yelps. “Jisung?” He asks. Jisung tightens his arms around him, but his grin doesn’t falter.
“I know this is not the moment to be excited, but I also can’t help being happy about spending time with my favorite beings!”
Changbin huffs and pulls Jisung into the chair beside him.
“I don’t think I’d consider being forced to huddle up close ‘spending time with each other’, but whatever.”
Changbin gets a cheeky tongue in response and promptly flicks Jisung’s forehead.
“So, about those sleeping arrangements,” Seungmin begins, ignoring the wolves’ banter, “Who’s sleeping where?”
“We re-rearranged the couches. Now they’re big enough to fit us all,” Chan gestures to his left, where Changbin and Jisung are, very maturely, play-fighting, “And whoever might want to join. Minho-yah already made it clear that he’s not going to join us.”
Seungmin shifts to look at Minho, who sits at the other end of the table. When Minho nods like it’s nothing, Seungmin looks at Jeongin. Jeongin raises an eyebrow in response. Were this any other situation, Seungmin might have suggested that Jeongin should spend the nights with the wolves, just so there’s always enough people around to protect him, but Seungmin also knows that Jeongin hates being coddled like that by him, no matter how justified.
And besides that, if Minho says Hunters won’t get in, he’ll believe him. If anyone should know this mansion, it’s Minho, no? So, for now, it’s better if Jeongin gets to sleep in the bathtub, in the safety of water. Jeongin seems to think the same when he stares at Minho until the other tilts his head, urging him to speak.
“I’ll take the bathtub tonight, and Seungminnie will take it tomorrow night.”
“What? No.” That’s not quite what Seungmin had in mind. He’ll forgo the comfort of water for Jeongin’s sake for as long as he can. Jeongin frowns.
“What? Yes, of course you will! Literally why should I occupy the bath every night when we could just switch? That'd be dumb.”
Seungmin shakes his head, ready to argue, but Felix’s hand on his shoulder stops him from doing so. The blond looks mildly concerned. Although not with who’s sleeping in the bathtub, it seems, when he opens his mouth. “You two are aware that even our biggest tub is still going to be super uncomfortable, right?” He pauses, tilts his head to think, then continues, “Can we put…pillows into the tub?”
“No, we can’t.” Minho answers at the same time as Jeongin agrees with a bright, “That’s a great idea!”
His stew is much more interesting than their staring battle, so Seungmin takes a bite of his food. He can sense the exact moment Minho’s resolve crumbles when Jeongin juts his bottom lip forward. Smart boy.
“Fine,” Minho says at the end of their staring, pinching the bridge of his nose, “Since this house isn’t mine to decide over anymore anyway, isn’t that right?”
Seungmin snickers around his stew, which promptly earns him the task of doing the dishes. He acquiesces, and Felix, bless his heart, offers to help. Seungmin shakes his head, pointing his chopsticks at the blond. “You should eat, too.”
Felix shrugs, indifferent. “We don’t have to feed every day, y’know?”
“Yes, I know, but still. You should always be at full strength, just in case.”
In case they’re ambushed. In case the Hunters do manage to break in. In case something, anything happens to one of them, and they have to fight. In case the unforeseeable happens. Felix studies Seungmin for a long moment, then concurs.
*
By the time night rolls around, the dishes are done, and everyone has found a place to sleep in. The wolves took the couches, as planned, the vampires are sleeping in Minho's-now-their room with Jeongin in the master bath, and Seungmin got the spare bedroom.
To Jeongin's dismay, he didn't get a pillow for his neck, but a lovingly thrown together pile of towels. The softest ones Hyunjin could find, at least. He was quite thankful for that. He was less thankful for the way the vampire bent down to press a loud kiss to his temple, especially because, according to Jeongin, it was foul play, since he couldn't really move away with how he was sitting in the water.
Seungmin has to admit that the tub did not look comfortable to sleep in, but at least the water will keep Jeongin's skin hydrated. His tail looked faded where it's usually shining in all sorts of colors of the sunrise, with the scales at his hips starting from a soft, light yellow that almost matches his skin tone to the midsection, orange and fierce until it flows into his fins, where Jeongin's tail brightens again, transitioning into a soft gold. In the right light, Seungmin finds, the edges of his fins even appear brighter than the light they reflect.
All this radiance looked wrong in the tub, dim even. His odyssey fluke had hung over the edge of the tub unceremoniously, and his dorsal fin had looked squished underneath him in all the wrong ways.
Seungmin had chosen to ignore all that. It's better for Jeongin’s fins to hurt a bit if he's at least mostly covered in water in turn.
Jeongin hadn't looked like he fully agreed, but he had given a few comforting trills that he could only make in this form, so Seungmin had squeezed the younger's hands before leaving, promising to check on him first thing next morning.
He…doesn't quite know how he ended up sharing a bed with Felix.
In all honesty, when he left the master bedroom for the spare bedroom —his bedroom for the time being— he had, at most, expected Felix to take the stairs and join the wolves in their cuddle pile. But the blond had held onto Seungmin's hand, and really, he can't say anything against Minho when Felix's pouting is also quite effective on him.
So now he's sitting on the edge of his bed, shirtless and wearing just the soft pants Hyunjin had handed him, too long for him despite already being closest to Hyunjin in height, and staring at Felix. Felix, who curled up under the covers already.
The cover. It's one blanket, for both of them to share, Seungmin realizes. It's a big blanket, sure. But still just one. Just as he's about to curl in on himself without a blanket, Felix's eyes snap open, and they're halfway to glowing in the dark.
His bright red eyes take in Seungmin's form, shamelessly staring at his bare torso for too long, before his gaze softens and Felix pulls the duvet back, making grabby hands at Seungmin. And who is Seungmin to deny Felix?
Seungmin lets himself be pulled close, and it's much nicer than sleeping without a blanket. Underwater, the water and the warmth of his clam is all he needs, but it's sure pleasant like this.
He ignores how close Felix is, how even his not-sensitive nose can smell his citrus scent, how he slowly but surely melts against Seungmin's side. He knows that this isn't quite usual behavior for friends, on land and underwater alike. He's known that for a while now, even before Seonghwa and San visited them back at the pond and were oh so surprised to find that no, Seungmin and Jeongin are not in a romantic relationship, and no, they're not in one polyamorous pack with all their other friends, much unlike Ateez.
But it's moments like these where Seungmin notices that his heart begins to speed up at the intimacy, and he recalls Seonghwa describing them as so loving-looking that the only thing making them not a pack is the label.
With a shake of his head, he leaves that thought for whenever else. They're just friends. Both him and Felix, as well as the others. Friends, platonic, and nothing is going to change that.
And friends sometimes cuddle up really close and fall asleep in a mess of limbs. And friends sometimes drown in another's scents to calm down.
At least it's what Seungmin and Felix do that night.
*
When Seungmin wakes up the next morning, his throat hurts from how dry it is, and his skin itches in ways Seungmin didn't know skin could itch. He coughs, rubs his throat because that fucking hurt, and sits up with a quiet, pained moan.
Something around his waist tightens, and he shifts, only to find Felix's arms around his middle, face planted firmly against Seungmin's hip bones. Seungmin stares at him for a long, long, probably creepy, moment before last night comes back to him.
Right. Jeongin. He promised him he'd check on him, did he not?
It takes everything in Seungmin to get out of bed and not collapse into the nearest bathtub, but he has a promise to keep. And this was just the first night anyway. He'll adjust to sleeping like this soon enough and everything will be fine.
He ignores Felix's whine when he frees himself from his arms, then he heads for the door.
“Seung…?” It's more of a deep grumble and less of a word, and Seungmin yelps from where he's half out in the hallway. He turns around and watches a sleep-tousled, not quite awake yet Felix sit up in bed.
“Shh, Lix, go back to sleep.”
Felix stares.
“Not without,” he yawns, “you back here.”
Seungmin snorts as Felix already pulls the blanket back up, clearly forgetting his own words as he curls his lean body around a pillow. “I'll be right back.”
And he means it. How hard can being a little bit dry be, after all? He'll check on Jeongin and then return to catch up on his missing hour of sleep.