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All Yunho wanted was some damn candy. 

And it’s not as if he was feeling particularly picky on the kind at the moment either, figuring he’d even settle for some of those stale little round gummies that stuck to his sharp teeth like tar. So long as it tasted sweet on his tongue, he’d be happy. And if a child happened to go missing over it in the process? Well, that wasn’t his problem. 

As a wendigo, his hunger for flesh was inherent, but unfortunately for him it didn’t just stop there. Oh no, anything he craved he had to have, to the point of obsession, and seeing as how it was Halloween night, he couldn’t help that his sweet tooth was in full control of his decision making for the evening. Thankfully he’d fed rather recently, so his body was nice and filled out at present, no bones threatening to crack through emaciated, paper thin skin as he casually roamed the darkest streets of the rural cul-de-sac near the extensive woods he'd lurked in for centuries. 

Territory wise it was a pretty cushy set up, all things considered, the forest old and winding, with snow capped mountains and caves where he could easily hide if he so needed. Not that wendigos feared anything, of course, for even among supernatural beings, Yunho was at the top of the food chain, as it were. Even the bravest of immortals wouldn’t step foot on a wendigo’s hunting ground if they knew it was his, for the simple fact of fearing turning into a flesh eating monster themselves. One prick from his black talons would turn anyone into a skeletal deer-like entity just like him, forever cursed with a hunger that could never be slackened. And that was only if he wasn’t feeling peckish that day himself, for the word immortal meant next to nothing to a wendigo’s unruly appetite and desire to eat his prey whole.

Even so, Yunho would never intentionally turn anyone against their will, immortal or not. But seeing as how no one would dare to come near him out of sheer terror anyway, he’d never really had to worry about accidentally turning someone in a tussle. As for wanting to be turned, who would ever want to become what he was? Yunho himself had only become a wendigo due to having to eat his family members when they’d been snowed in on a perilous journey through the very mountains he still called home many, many moons ago. It didn’t seem fair to him that he’d been cursed simply because of his need to survive, especially considering they’d all been dead at the time of his cannibalism anyway, but that was neither here nor there. Curses like his didn’t exactly care about semantics.

A nearby alley cat hissed as he stalked past on his search for sweets, but he just hissed right back, a smirk lifting the corner of his chapped lips as he watched the small animal scurry away. Sadly there weren’t many children still out collecting candy at this time of night, and perhaps he’d devoured enough of them on nights exactly like this one that the humans were growing more cautious of the darker streets he tended to haunt. But dimly lit roads were a must for him when he came into town, otherwise his giant, antlered shadow would give away his true form. To those that knew what to look for, anyway.

A group of adolescents passed him on his right, their ages looking to be the same as Yunho’s when he’d first been turned. He didn’t spare them more than a passing glance, however. Young adults on Halloween tended to be up to no good this late at night, and seeing as how there were five of them, they didn’t make for easy enough prey to interest him. 

So imagine his surprise when he seemingly caught one of their interests, the tallest of the boys breaking away from his laughing friends to not so stealthily follow behind him. 

He ignored the human at first, figuring he’d eventually get scared enough to go back to his little pack, but apparently that wasn’t in the cards for tonight. Yunho felt his teeth sharpen in his mouth in annoyance. Wendigos naturally produced fear in anything that came within ten feet of them, a sort of foreboding chill that would skate down the spine and warn off even the most foolhardy of men, but this one apparently wasn’t taking the hint. His usual prey were children, true, his brain supplying that the smaller the being was, the less bad he’d feel about it, but he wasn’t above eating idiots of any size if the opportunity happened to present itself.

And though Yunho knew he wasn’t supposed to let on to the humans that immortals such as him existed, he was still this close to roaring at the overly curious boy, if only to get him to back off, when the very human jogged up to him to speak first.

“Hi,” the human started, pushing his overly large glasses up his perfectly straight nose with the most innocent looking smile Yunho had ever seen. Oh no. Terrifying nightmare creature or not, he had always had a type, and now his lonely brain was supplying a number of ways he could be eating the smaller human, candy suddenly the last thing on his mind.

“What is it,” he said eventually, trying to shrink his naturally larger frame into himself as he regarded the boy at his side warily. Yunho hadn’t heard his own voice in years, not having anyone to speak to nor needing human speech in his usual form, for that matter, but he was surprised by how smooth it sounded. 

“I’m Mingi.”

“...that’s nice.” And it was, the name as sweet as chocolate on his tongue as he mouthed it to himself.

His curt words made the human frown, however, pouty lips on full display for Yunho. His vision was perfect in the dark like the true predator he was, after all. “You’re supposed to give me your name in return,” the human, Mingi, encouraged.

“Whatever for?” he asked, staring at the boy from the corner of his eye as they continued to walk, growing hungrier by the second. If he didn’t get some candy tonight, and soon, then he would commit murder.

“For-- for common courtesy’s sake?” Mingi suggested. But when Yunho only snorted at that, the human tried again. “Well then what else can I offer you for the information?”

The answer flew out of Yunho’s mouth before he could stop himself. “Candy.”

Though not unkindly, Mingi laughed at his simple request before reaching into the duffle bag slung over his shoulder. Looking unabashedly into the thing as the human rifled around in it in the dark, Yunho couldn’t help but raise his brows at what else was in the bag. Stakes, ranging from silver to wood, were strewn haphazardly in the sack, with tubs of salt and other various items used for gods knew what nestled alongside them. 

But he quickly forgot about the random objects when Mingi was gasping in triumph and offering him up a king sized candy bar with a smile. Eyes honing in on the treat, he snatched it from the human’s warm fingers before shoving it wholly into his mouth, wrapper and all. 

“You, uh-- must have been pretty hungry, huh?” Mingi said with a hesitant laugh, drawing Yunho’s gaze once more. 

“Starved, in fact.”

He must have done something wrong in the exchange, however, for the human was suddenly looking at him with an entirely new gleam in his eyes. The familiar stench of fear finally reached Yunho’s keen senses, and yet, there was an entirely other foreign scent that Yunho had yet to categorize in all his undead years that completely overpowered it. Something even sweeter than the candy still lingering on his tongue. Interesting.

When the human did no more than stare at him for a time, the both of them having stopped walking by this point, he said calmly, “I’m called Yunho.” Among other things.  

It was strange to introduce himself like this. No one had asked him for his name in years, most preferring to simply call him a monster. Which was just as well to him. And it’s not like they were wrong.

“Well, Yunho, it’s nice to meet you. I unfortunately don’t have any more candy on me, but if you wanted to come back to my place, I bet there’s still a whole bucket left over from the trick or treaters that you can have.”

Free candy and he got to ogle the cute redhead at his side longer? Even for him, the decision was a no brainer. “...alright.”

And that was how Yunho found himself following a human back to his dwelling, silently stalking behind the lanky, pretty boy that had no idea what kind of danger he was casually inviting inside.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

Mingi couldn’t believe his luck. Not only had he found himself a bonafide shifter -he was certain this wasn’t just a junkie this time!- he’d found him. And he even knew his name now. Yunho. 

He’d only ever seen him once before, on a Halloween night not unlike this one back when he was still young enough to go door to door in a costume. It had been the last year he’d been able to do so sadly, his body growing faster than his childish mind could keep up with, but he’d finally been allowed to go as something scary because of it. And to Mingi, scaredy cat that he was, skulls were about the scariest thing he could think of. But he couldn’t just go as any old skeleton, oh no, he had to be unique.  

Though his mother didn’t have the funds to buy him an entirely new costume at the time, he’d simply decided to repurpose some old deer antlers he’d found in the clearing behind his house one summer, gluing the hefty things onto a sturdy headband that he could mostly hide with his fluffy hair. The picture he’d painted in the end was interesting enough, flannel thrown over a glowing skeleton long sleeve shirt and ripped jeans, with a bleak skull mask covering the entirety of his face and antlers that stuck out on either side of his head.

When people had asked him what on earth he was, he’d made up some story that he was a hunter who’d been cursed from killing one too many deer. As if that made any sense. His friends were used to his random stories by that time, however, and hadn't questioned him any further, merely happy that he was pleased with his own originality. He’d been so busy sorting through his candy haul that night with his friends, however, that he’d been late getting back home, rushing blindly in the dark and praying his mother wouldn’t scold him too harshly for his carelessness. 

At the time, the decision to take the shortcut through the woods separating his and Wooyoung’s house had been a knee jerk reaction. Although he’d always had a rather eerie feeling about the forest that shared space with his backyard, especially at night, he didn’t have much of a choice. 

But his skull mask hadn’t been the easiest to see through, and as a result, he'd found himself ramming into something solid as he raced to get home. Or make that, someone. Gasping as he fell to the ground, his first instinct had been to apologize, before his mouth was suddenly so dry he wasn’t sure he could speak at all.

The boy he’d run into was tall, at least two feet taller than he was, but just as lanky. And people that said Mingi was all skin and bones had clearly never seen this teen before. Even in the dark, the stranger was pale, gaunt, with large eyes that only looked bigger in his sunken face. 

“I-- I’m sorry--” he stammered. “I can’t see very well in--”

“What are you supposed to be?” the too tall boy asked him, voice cavernous and rich as honey. 

Having to explain his off the wall concept to someone years older than him suddenly seemed silly, so all he could really think to say was, “Cursed.”

But instead of mocking him, the older boy knelt down to get a closer look at him and his hodgepodge costume, head tilting curiously. “That makes two of us, then. And tell me, are you as hungry as I am too?”

“I, uh--” Mingi started, realizing he was clutching onto his bag of candy for dear life. “Oh! Not really! I mean, I had plenty of candy at my friend’s house already, and you look like you’d appreciate what’s left more than me, so, here!” Offering up the bag of sweets, the stranger seemed hesitant to take it, nails sharp and blackened with what had to be dirt. At least, he really hoped it was dirt. Did this teen live out here in the woods by himself, or something? “It’s good, I swear. And I like to save my favorites for last, so you’d be getting all the best stuff.”

He was rambling by this point, he knew, but what else was he supposed to do when the other boy was still just looking at him with that frighteningly unreadable expression of his? Had he even blinked in this entire encounter? Finally reaching out to gingerly take the bag from his hand, the full moon chose that exact moment to shine through the trees, casting the strange teen’s shadow over him like a huge, dark blanket.

And for whatever reason, that seemed to spook the older boy, causing him to jerk away from Mingi with the bag still in his grasp, not even looking back at him as he quickly disappeared into the darkness surrounding them, so sudden and silent that Mingi would have thought he’d hallucinated the whole thing if not for his missing candy bag. Willing his legs to stop shaking from the unnerving encounter, he’d immediately rushed home to tell his mother what had happened, though she’d just waved the story away as yet another tall tale that he so loved to spin in the hopes that it would mean he wouldn’t get into as much trouble.

But for Mingi, that night had been the start of a lifelong search into the preternatural. His friends all told him he was nuts, but there were enough forums online that he had met a few like minded individuals over the years, had even found a nice couple to live with through them after his mother had passed away and left him well and truly alone. But although they had met through their common interests, his two eccentric roommates still claimed they were skeptics. 

Well, wait until they got a load of who he was bringing home with him tonight.

Yunho wasn’t as skinny as he’d been the first time they’d met, but he also hadn’t aged a day. And it was crazy, Mingi himself was just over six feet tall now, but this man still easily towered over him. Hell, he had to be at least seven feet himself, and would no doubt have to duck to go through doorways. Over the years, Mingi had done his best to try and figure out exactly what Yunho was with the looming image of him forever burned into his mind, but without knowing much other than that he surely lived in the woods and was hungry and rather feral, he hadn’t really had all that much to go on. 

Perhaps Hongjoong or Seonghwa would be able to provide more insight into the question once they met Yunho in the flesh, but Mingi was still betting on a shifter of some sort. A wolf perhaps, or maybe even a bear? Some large predator type for sure, because even now his brain was fuzzy with endorphins from the natural spike of fear his body was supplying from being so close to the man stalking silently behind him. But if what he’d read from other supernatural enthusiasts online was true, then he wasn’t in any immediate danger. Even during a full moon, shifters weren’t known to be inherently dangerous or violent.

Practically skipping to his shared apartment, Mingi cursed when he realized he’d forgotten his keys again, knocking loud enough to hopefully be heard over Hongjoong’s blaring music as he looked back sheepishly at Yunho. 

Who was still just staring down at him with that ever unblinking, unreadable expression of his. 

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

It was strange. Even though Yunho could smell blatant fear coming from the smaller male, he still managed to smile sincerely up at him with bright, kind eyes. This human was clearly too innocent for his own good. And when Mingi’s pounding on the door didn’t produce the effect he was apparently looking for, Yunho stepped forward himself, looking down at the doorknob briefly before turning it with ease, metal in the doorframe creaking as he easily swung it open.

“Holy-- aha! Well! That’s one way to open a locked door!” Mingi said quickly, thanking him with a pat on his arm as he ducked around him to shout out his presence to whoever else resided with him. The intimate touch was fleeting at best, but it was still the most physical contact Yunho had received in decades, his abnormally slow heart fluttering wildly in his chest like some sort of scurrying rabbit scared from its burrow.

The orange haired man who came rushing from a room to their left stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he spotted Yunho lurking behind Mingi, nostrils flaring and eyes all but popping from their sockets at the sight of him. Ah, so Mingi lived with other immortals like him, no wonder he wasn’t as afraid of him as he should be. Yunho had never actually met a werewolf in person like this, but the familiar scent of wet dog was a dead giveaway, as was another, richer scent that wafted around the place. Vampire? Well that was unorthodox. 

A werewolf and a vampire living together was about as likely as a wendigo coming to visit them for some candy.

“Hongjoong, this is my friend Yunho. You know, the one I told you about meeting when I was younger?”

Mingi was looking back at him with a smile as he said it, Yunho’s blank expression revealing nothing as he thought on the human’s words. They’d met before? Or was that just a lie he was spouting to get this wolf to allow him to remain in his den?

“This is--? I see. It’s, uh, nice to meet you, Yunho, but will you excuse us for just a moment?” the other immortal asked quickly. But without even looking at him for actual confirmation, the shifter quickly snatched Mingi by the arm, all but dragging him from the room as Mingi whined at the rough handling. 

His spine straightened at the sudden departure of the human, a light fixture above him he hadn’t realized was there knocking precariously as he hit it with the top of his head, but he ignored it as he quietly followed behind the two. For whatever reason, his instincts were screaming at him that Mingi was now his, and as such, he was not happy that the other man had taken him from him. 

Yunho stopped before he ever reached the room, however, his keen senses being able to pick up the harsh whispering even over the still blaring music. 

“I’m telling you, Joong, he’s a shifter! He hasn’t aged a day!”

Huh, so they had met before? But then why couldn’t he remember it? He admittedly didn’t recall leaving any humans alive over the years to tell the tale.

“Okay, I believe you, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s dangerous, Mingi! You can’t just go around inviting potential man-eating creatures into our place. He has to go.”

“What?! You’ve never had issues with it before! And besides, Yunho isn’t a man eater.” Yes he was, but it was cute that Mingi was already defending him. Cute, and terribly, terribly naïve. God, he really did have a type. “He straight up just wants candy, so maybe he’s not a wolf like I was initially thinking. A bear, perhaps? He’s tall enough for it.”

“That… man, is not a wolf. And probably not a bear either. I’m telling you, he’s dangerous, so if you won’t ask him to leave, then I will.”

“I can’t believe this, I thought you were interested in this kind of stuff too! What about all those full moon camping sessions we’ve had, huh?” Ah, so that was why Hongjoong’s scent had seemed familiar. He’d been shifting in his territory. Yunho had known there were other immortals living here, he just hadn’t realized he’d ever get close enough to actually meet them like this.

“I am, but this-- this thing is way out of our league, Mingi. You just have to trust me on this.” And with that, the werewolf came out of the room, a loud, “Jesus!” leaving his lips when he saw Yunho lurking in the hallway with unimpressed black eyes. Wendigos didn’t leave scents that could be tracked, a fact that Hongjoong had seemingly forgotten. Shifters were such cocky creatures.

But for all his previous bravado speaking to Mingi, the tiny werewolf was quite obviously terrified to come anywhere near him. Smart dog. Mingi came out of the room seconds after, eyes glistening with unshed tears. What was the human all but crying over? Him? The thought only further solidified the fact that he now saw Mingi as his own personal pet. 

“Your home is nice,” Yunho drawled, moving forward in the dark hallway to tower over the werewolf. “I quite like it. In fact, I’ve been looking for a place like this myself.”

Hongjoong stiffened at the implication of his words as Yunho not so subtly flexed his hand, black nails lengthening. Mingi hadn’t noticed, of course, faulty human eyes still adjusting to the darkness around him. But that was fine, he wasn’t the one Yunho was trying to threaten anyway. 

“Thank you,” the werewolf eventually muttered, sweat forming along his exposed forehead. Even so, the shifter moved to stand protectively in front of Mingi as he said, “Mingi said something about you wanting candy? Let me grab it for you.”

It was a poor excuse for a temporary peace offering, but Yunho nodded nonetheless, watching in amusement as Hongjoong warily stepped past him in a blur. 

“Sorry about him, he’s always been weird with strangers,” Mingi explained as he walked up to his side and stayed there. The natural heat the human’s body let off was nice. The only real heat Yunho was used to feeling was from the blood of his dismembered victims as he devoured them piece by piece. 

“I’m used to it. Now, tell me about this first meeting of ours. I don’t usually have such a faulty memory.”

“Ah, right! Honestly I'd be more surprised if you did remember, but we met in the woods behind my house around seven or so years ago now. I was a lot younger, obviously, and I had a mask on so you wouldn’t remember my face anyway, but I gave you a bag of candy?”

The memory flashed before his eyes quickly enough, Yunho tilting his head at the irony. The ‘cursed’ boy. And the very one that had gotten him addicted to candy in the first place. Even now, Yunho remembered his shadow casting the form of a wendigo over the child. Oh, Mingi was cursed, alright, he just didn’t realize how badly. Yet.

“I remember. You had antlers.”

Mingi’s face practically lit up. “Yes, exactly! Oh man, you have no idea how excited I am to finally meet you again!”

“Really?” he asked, his heart that had no real need to beat picking up speed all over again. Even if I told you I was a hair's breadth away from eating you that night? 

“Yeah! And you look so much better now than you did back then. No offense, of course, you just appeared so… starved.”

“Hungry was the word I used, I believe,” he murmured, dark eyes taking in the happy flush on Mingi’s cheeks in open interest. He’d never thought much on it before, living alone all these years as he had, but would his tainted wendigo blood crave Mingi’s body as it did flesh, or even candy? He already felt that familiar hunger building inside of him as he looked down at the pretty human, but was it for the meat on his bones, or something else entirely?

Before he could explore the curious idea further, however, Hongjoong was calling out from the living room. “The bucket’s in here if you still wanted that candy!”

Mingi smiled sweetly up at him when he didn’t move at first, reaching out to touch him once more. Yunho froze when he realized the human was going to hold his hand and lead him, willing his nails to retract quickly lest he accidentally turn him then and there. And yet, now that the idea of turning Mingi was in his head, he couldn’t seem to get it out. So much for his supposed morals in that regard.

Hongjoong noticeably paled when he saw that they were touching, but he didn’t speak on it, seeming to think that if he didn’t draw attention to it, then nothing would go wrong. 

“Thanks, Joongie!" Mingi said sweetly as he took the bowl from his grasp and handed it over to Yunho who held it diligently. "We’ll eat these in my room, okay? You can go back to whatever you were doing before I got home. Or actually, could you check the front door? I think it’s broken, and I know Seonghwa won’t like that.”

Opening his mouth to protest, Hongjoong quickly shut it when Yunho stared at him warningly from behind Mingi, acting as the human’s wendigo shadow all over again. “Oh, Seonghwa’s definitely not going to like this,” the werewolf muttered to himself, even as he stomped off to do exactly what Mingi had asked. Smart and obedient.

Mingi shut the door when they entered what was very obviously the human’s room, Yunho ducking his head so as not to hit the frame as he curiously looked around. The tiny dwelling was fairly neat, with random posters professing a belief in aliens and the like tacked up on the walls. The handmade dreamcatcher hanging above the bed was just about the only thing familiar to him, everything else too new or human for him to truly comprehend anymore.

He watched as Mingi scooped up the few articles of clothing lying around and shoved them into his closet before turning back to him with a little grin. “Feel free to sit anywhere! Sorry it’s kind of messy, I wasn’t really expecting company tonight.”

Nodding, Yunho sat on the soft bed with the bowl of candy in his lap, bouncing on the aching springs a few times. He hadn’t been on an actual bed in ages. Mingi surprisingly enough sat down right next to him a few moments later, their thighs touching as he grabbed a piece of candy for himself. Yunho watched as Mingi very obviously tore the outer layer of the candy away and placed the plastic beside him to only eat the remnants inside. Ah, so that was what he’d done wrong earlier.

Deciding to humor him, Yunho mimicked Mingi as he also ate, and was rewarded with quite possibly the brightest smile he’d ever seen. What a dangerously pretty creature. Fear was back in his scent, however, when Mingi opened his mouth to speak, tongue swiping at his lower lip in nervousness and drawing Yunho’s rapt attention. “So, I think it’s best if I just come out and say this now… but I know you’re not human.”

“Is that so?” Yunho asked as he grabbed for another piece of candy without so much as bothering to look down, quite content with watching Mingi’s mouth move as he spoke with that expressive voice of his instead.

“Yes, but that’s totally okay! In fact, it’s better than okay!”

He didn’t stop chewing the chocolate currently in his mouth to ask, “It is?”

“Absolutely! Meeting you all those years ago was probably the coolest thing to ever happen in my sad, boring little life, and here we are face to face once again!” 

Yunho wasn’t entirely sure what ‘coolest’ meant, but by Mingi’s excited reaction, it could only be a good thing. Imagine that, his prey finding him interesting. 'Coolest', even. But then, Yunho found Mingi interesting, too. Perhaps too much so. Yunho shoved more candy into his mouth to distract himself from his sharpening teeth that already ached to clamp down onto the human’s warm flesh, willing his pangs of hunger to lessen.

Looking over, Mingi once again laughed at him, but Yunho decided he didn’t mind the ridicule when it came from those lips. “You’ve got chocolate on your face,” Mingi said as he tapped at his own cheek. And when Yunho’s naturally longer tongue swept out of its own accord to collect the sweet remnants, Mingi gasped. “Woah-- your tongue is-- that’s so cool! Are you like a sun bear shifter or something? They have super long tongues, right?”

Staring blankly down at the innocently curious human, Yunho found himself lying before he could even really register what he was saying. “Yes. I’m a sun bear shifter.”

But he couldn't be upset about the falsehood when Mingi exclaimed, “Hah! I knew it!” his pretty eyes lighting up with glee. “No wonder you’re so tall! That’s so cool, I’ve never actually met a shifter before.”

Raising his brows a fraction, he couldn’t help but think back to Hongjoong. The werewolf in question was currently sitting just outside the door and listening in on them, not that Mingi would know. “We’re more common than you’d think,” Yunho eventually said slyly, a smile finally tilting the corners of his mouth. 

“Hey, you smiled! And oh my god, your teeth are so pointy! Do you ever bite your tongue by accident?”

“Only when I eat too fast.”

“Can I see?” Mingi asked, scooting that much closer, the bed beneath them once again shifting. 

“You want to watch me eat too fast?”

“No, silly, I want to check out your teeth. Can I?”

Having Mingi anywhere close to his mouth didn’t seem like a terribly good idea, but curiously enough, he wasn’t having any hunger pangs for flesh at the moment. It was entirely unheard of for him to not be feeling sick with hunger, yet for some reason, being around Mingi was seemingly enough to appease his monstrous appetite. That, or this candy was really doing wonders. 

Eventually, he nodded, murmuring, “Just don’t touch them, they’re sharp.”

“I won’t,” Mingi promised, getting on his knees on the bed to lift himself up higher as Yunho obediently opened his mouth. Aside from the front few, every tooth in his mouth was sharp. It was just easier to tear flesh from bone that way. And upon request, he let his tongue loll out, Mingi giggling at the chocolate that still lingered there. 

“Wow, with a tongue like that, I bet you get all the lady shifters, huh?”

“What do you mean?” he asked with his tongue still out, slurring the words, but Mingi seemed to understand him well enough.

“You know, like--” Mingi didn’t finish his sentence, just wiggled his brows suggestively. Ah.

Rolling his tongue back into his mouth, he slowly shook his head. “You’re the only person I’ve spoken to in decades.”

“What? But that’s terrible! You must be so lonely…” Mingi murmured, eyes exploring his face before eventually landing once again on his mouth. 

And there was that curiously sweet scent again. No longer did Mingi smell like fear, and in fact, he hadn’t since he’d shifted closer, strangely enough. He wasn’t aware it was possible for a human to not feel fear in his presence, but then he supposed with enough exposure, anything was plausible. Leaning in to find the source of the new addicting scent, Mingi stared at him with wide eyes as he moved to the crook of his neck, tongue sliding out to swipe along the human’s quickening pulse that matched Yunho’s own. 

Mingi’s breath hitched as he continued to taste his sweet skin, words breathy as he moaned out, “You know, if you wanted--”

But before he could even so much as finish his sentence, Mingi was falling backwards onto the bed, now passed out cold. Well, yes, that was certainly more of the reaction Yunho was used to when dealing with humans, but maybe not in the context of what they’d just been doing. 

Immediately after, the door swung open, a newcomer gliding into the room smelling of iron. Ah, the vampire. He knew they were able to put humans to sleep to more easily feed, he’d just never seen it done before now. Nor had he ever seen a vampire, for that matter, but they lived up to the aristocratic beauty that was so often boasted about them. He rather selfishly thought Mingi was prettier though, with his innocent, lively eyes, sinful lips, and smile that rivaled the sun. 

“You need to leave,” the vampire hissed, Hongjoong agreeing with a huff at his side, arms crossed.

“Did you hurt him?” Yunho asked instead, situating Mingi more comfortably on the bed.

“What? Of course not, why would you even ask that?” 

“Because he’s mine,” Yunho said simply, standing up once he was satisfied with rearranging the human on his many stuffed animals. Again, cute.

“You can’t be serious. You’ve known him, what, an hour?” Hongjoong growled out. “And anyway, he’s under mine and Seonghwa’s protection. We met him first, which means by our laws--”

“I met him seven years ago, as I’m sure you heard yourself earlier, even if you’d like to pretend you didn’t. So by all accounts, that means he’s my prey, does it not?” Walking closer, he tilted his head slowly as he looked down at the two terrified immortals. “And you wouldn’t want to get in between a wendigo and his prey, now would you?”

But the vampire didn’t appear to be as afraid of him as the werewolf was, perhaps because his kind were also used to surviving off of the death of living creatures. “I’m not just going to let you eat him without a fight.” 

“Eat him? I’m not going to eat him.” Or at least, he didn’t think he was going to. No, Mingi would be much more suited as a companion. Devouring him once was only a temporary pleasure, and would be a complete and utter waste of the human’s light. “I’m going to turn him.”

Both of their eyes bulged, Hongjoong yelling, “You can’t just turn him into a wendigo! He’s human! The shift would just as quickly kill him as curse him.”

Oh, that was certainly knowledge he hadn’t been privy to before now. Perhaps he wouldn’t kill these two right away like he’d initially thought he would, after all. “Fine then, I can always do it the old fashioned way.”

But the werewolf barked out a laugh at that. “You clearly don’t know Mingi at all if you think he would willingly eat raw flesh. And that is a stipulation to your curse, you know. He has to do it of his own accord.” 

Baring his sharp teeth, Yunho growled out, “Fine, then I’ll simply keep him as a human pet until he dies. Unless one of you wants to turn him into an immortal for me so he isn't quite so fragile?” When neither of them immediately offered, however, he pressed, “Surely you’ve thought about it before, if he’s under your so-called protection.”

“Not all of us are as excited to break our laws as you seem to be,” Seonghwa hissed, eyes glancing over to the bed when Mingi began to shift restlessly. “Look, we obviously can’t make you leave if you’ve decided that this is where you want to reside for the time being, but it would be in Mingi’s best interest if you forgot that he ever existed.”

“No.”

“No?”

“I believe I’ve already made myself clear, he’s mine. And if one of you won’t turn him, then I’ll just find someone else who will.” 

The two other immortals clearly didn’t like that idea, but before they could argue any further, Mingi was waking up with a groan, grasping at his head. “Ah shit, did I pass out again? If I had insurance, I’d seriously think about going to the doctor about these random blackouts,” he muttered, eyes widening when he saw the three men all but squaring off against each other in his room. “Uh, is everything alright? If this is about the door--”

“Not at all,” Seonghwa assured, giving Yunho a wide berth as he stepped around him to sit beside Mingi gracefully, his hand coming up to rest on his forehead. As if he hadn’t been the one to cause the human to pass out to begin with. “We were just talking to Yunho here about letting him stay with us for the time being.”

“We were?!” Hongjoong all but shrieked, looking up at Yunho then quickly away when he made unblinking eye contact. “I mean, yeah, we were. The more the merrier, and all that,” the werewolf muttered, cursing under his breath before leaving the room. 

And with one last pat to Mingi’s face, the vampire stood up soon after to follow behind his obvious lover, stopping only to stare up at Yunho briefly before leaving them alone again with a gentle click of the door closing shut.

Sitting back down on the bed to check Mingi over himself, the human smiled dreamily up at him, leaning into his touch before finally seeming to take in his haggard appearance for the first time. “If you’re going to be staying here, we should probably get you some nicer clothes… and a shower. How long has it been since you’ve bathed? Not that you smell or anything!” Mingi was quick to backtrack.

“I washed in the stream a few days ago. What’s a shower?”

Those expressive, warm eyes widened up at him before Mingi was saying, “Oh boy, do I have a treat for you.”

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

It had been roughly one week since Yunho had moved in with them, but already Mingi couldn’t imagine a time when Yunho wasn’t attached to him. He didn’t even realize he was there half the time if he was being completely honest, the only dead giveaway being his roommates' skittish eyes as they looked up, and then just as quickly away. The three still weren’t on the best of terms, but they seemed to have a tentative truce going on for the time being.

Currently, Mingi was cutting up raw beef to grill for dinner. Yunho was all but glued to his back as usual, his head resting on top of his own as he watched him, those long arms wrapped snugly around his waist. They hadn’t really done anything overly intimate since Yunho had licked his neck that first night, but Mingi got the feeling it was more because Yunho was afraid he might accidentally hurt him than anything else. 

The shifter had all but been treating him like glass ever since he'd passed out, even going so far as to cover his hands with the ends of his giant sweaters that they'd found and bought for him on his second day living with them. Mingi had initially thought his nails were just dirty, but apparently they were permanently stained black, the color bleeding up his fingers inhumanly.

Mingi made a face and smacked at Yunho’s hand as said dark digits reached out to try and sneakily grab a chunk of raw meat from the cutting board. But if there was one thing he’d learned in the short week of living with Yunho, it was that it was rather impossible to say no to him. Or to get him to stop once he'd set his mind on something, big bear that he was.

Groaning when the shifter ignored him to instead take an even bigger chunk of raw meat in retaliation, he looked up to see Yunho’s long tongue snake around the food before pulling it happily into his mouth, cheeks puffing out cutely as he chewed. Or at least, it would be cute, if he didn’t know what he was eating. “That’s disgusting,” Mingi said as he went back to cutting up their uncooked dinner.

“Have you tried it?” Yunho asked with a shrug, pitch black eyes blinking slowly as he looked down at him. He was finally getting the hang of the motor skill, even if it didn't seem like he really needed to do it.

“No, I have not tried raw beef, you weirdo.”

“Well then how would you know you don’t like it if you’ve never tried it?” Yunho argued, grabbing another chunk and holding it in front of Mingi’s lips expectantly. The bear shifter still wasn’t very expressive yet, but he’d like to think that he was already getting better at reading him, and for whatever reason, as Yunho held the beef up to his lips, he looked… hopeful. 

“Uhhh, no thanks. And besides, I had my appendix removed a few years back. I couldn’t digest raw meat even if I wanted to, but uh, you enjoy it.”

Yunho all but pouted down at him before reluctantly throwing the piece into his mouth. 

After a well cooked dinner -Mingi might even go so far as to say he’d intentionally burnt it- they found themselves lying on his bed like they usually did at the end of the night, Yunho preferring to sleep with him than on the couch, claiming his desire to be close to him was a shifter thing. That, and because he’d been alone for so long. But that was fine, it just meant they got to talk more. Yunho wasn’t very talkative as a general rule, but behind closed doors and beneath the covers, the man seemed to open up, if only marginally. And Mingi wasn't above saying he enjoyed the special treatment. Or the cuddles, for that matter.

And the feelings he was already harboring in his chest for the shifter were no big surprise to him either. He hadn’t been able to get Yunho out of his head since he’d first met him all those years ago anyway, and on top of that, he was the first ‘immortal’ Mingi had ever met. Yunho didn't like to talk much about what he was, but he had taught him that was the correct term, at the very least.

“Man, you’re so lucky,” he sighed wistfully as the bear shifter hugged him close from behind, larger body spooning his easily as they took up the entirety of the small bed. “You get to shift and have this whole other side of you, not to mention you live forever. I must be so boring by comparison.” 

“I don’t think you’re boring,” Yunho argued, one of his hands reaching up to play with his bright red hair. The shifter seemed infatuated with his colorful locks, but had declined when Mingi had offered to color his hair for him in turn. Apparently he just really liked looking at the color red. “You showed me how to work a computer only earlier today, and that’s about the most fascinating thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah, but that’s not me, that’s just normal human stuff.”

“I’ve been living alone in the woods for decades with nothing to show for it. Of the two of us, I think you’re far more interesting.”

“You’re just saying that because you want to get into my pants,” Mingi groused teasingly. 

“I don’t think your pants would fit me, though you do seem tall for a human.”

“That’s not-- nevermind,” Mingi said with a laugh. But Yunho had learned that whenever he laughed like that, it meant he was missing something, and apparently Yunho hated not knowing things.

“Tell me,” the shifter urged, grip tightening almost too much along his ribs and making him wince.

“Okay, okay. It’s just a saying, like, when you want to sleep with someone, you know, intimately. You want to get into their pants.” 

But instead of Yunho denying that he did, in fact, want to do just that, the shifter mused, “Then shouldn’t it be that I want to get you out of your pants? Not into them?”

“I mean, both work.” And I’d definitely let you do either.

The bear shifter hummed, grip thankfully loosening so he could once again breathe. But then his breath was halting for an entirely different reason. Yunho’s hands were big, and he wasn’t shy about where he put them on the best of days, dark fingers now sliding along his side to play with the hem of his sweatpants. “You said something similar when we first met up again. Do you want me to, as you say, get into your pants?”

“I--” Mingi stopped, worrying at his lower lip. Of course he wanted that, had Yunho seen himself? Even with his questionable eating habits, the man was gorgeous. “I wouldn’t mind. You know, if you wanted to.”

“It’s been… a very long time for me,” the shifter admitted as he buried his face into his neck, inhaling and sighing pleasantly at whatever he could scent there. “I’m afraid I would hurt you. If I accidentally bite or scratch you, you would get very sick.”

“Sick?” Well that wasn’t something he’d ever read about shifters on the online forums. Though he imagined not many people actually interacted with shifters like he was now doing either. Insider knowledge was really the best, but with Yunho, he found he was loath to share his newfound discoveries with others. “Well, there are always ways around that.”

“There are?”

“Sure,” Mingi said, grateful he was under the covers and facing away from Yunho so he couldn’t see his blush. “For instance, I could be on top.”

“On top,” Yunho repeated, voice devoid of any emotion. But then that was pretty standard for him.

“Yeah, you know, like,” his voice hitched when Yunho’s hand moved to skim along his very noticeable erection over the fabric of his sweats. “I could ride you,” he finished with a shameful rut of his hips.

“Yes,” Yunho said simply in response, but the speed with which he did so was telling.

“Yes?” Mingi asked back shyly anyway, his turn to parrot the man.

Gripping his hips, Yunho moved them so Mingi was sitting on top of him, his long legs splayed wide to accommodate Yunho’s bigger body as he looked down at the shifter whose eyes were all but glowing up at him in the dark. “Yes.”

“Oh, okay, um, hi,” Mingi said sheepishly as he stared down at the big shifter beneath him. 

“Hi,” Yunho said back with a slight smile. “Is this a new human thing? Do you have to greet each other before having sex?”

“Shut up,” he muttered, grabbing Yunho’s wrists and growing entirely too satisfied when the shifter simply let him move him around as he pleased. It was a heady feeling, being in control of someone so much stronger than him. Placing Yunho’s arms above his head, he asked quietly, “Can I kiss you? Is that okay?”

The shifter seemed to think on it, before eventually shaking his head no with regret. “I don’t trust myself enough to keep my desires under control. Not to mention, I haven't kissed anyone since I’ve had these teeth.” 

“What about just a peck on the lips then? Mouth closed?” he urged, leaning down until he was hovering mere inches from the other man, their breath intermingling as he pouted down at him in what he hoped was a cute way. 

After a few moments of staring, the shifter eventually nodded, watching him like a hawk as Mingi closed the gap between them to press his lips tentatively against Yunho’s own. At first, the bear didn’t react to the feather-light touch, but when he pulled back uncertainly, Yunho let out a stuttered exhale, before pulling him back down to once again connect their lips. 

And for as chaste as they were being, Yunho was a good kisser, his hips pressing up to grind repeatedly against him when Mingi sucked his lower lip into his mouth and teased the soft flesh between his own blunt teeth. The groan he received at the action was music to Mingi’s ears. The poor shifter was clearly touch starved, but then that made two of them.

“What if--” Mingi started, just high enough on the sounds Yunho was making beneath him to ask, “what if you stick your tongue out?”

“My tongue?” Yunho asked, but he followed his suggestion easily enough, the first few inches protruding from his mouth.

Not bothering to explain further, Mingi sucked on the tip, the shifter retracting it to gasp, only to stick his long tongue back out further and into Mingi’s mouth of his own accord. He choked on the length at first, but they found a rhythm that worked well enough before too long, Yunho now tightly gripping his own forearms behind his head, brows furrowed as he seemingly fought himself to keep his hands, and his claws that had popped out, away from him. 

Pulling back to wipe the excess saliva from Yunho’s face and neck, Mingi stared dazedly down at the quickly growing impatient shifter to huskily say, “Okay, I may have another suggestion.” Removing his clothes and tugging Yunho’s own sweatpants down, he turned around so he was sitting on Yunho in reverse, hovering over him on all fours and all but salivating himself at the sight of the shifter’s impressively monstrous cock when he murmured, “But I think you’ll like this one too.”

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

It was getting easier to tell when Mingi wanted sex. Even without his tantalizing scent giving him away, the human's eyes almost seemed to glow with intensity whenever they’d lock gazes. And right now was one such instance, the redhead turning his nose up at the food on his plate to instead head to his room and all but bring Yunho with him with his heated stare alone. 

When he made to follow Mingi, however, Seonghwa stopped him with a grip on his arm. He looked down at the hold until the vampire hastily retracted his hand, but the other immortal still asked, “Has Mingi been acting differently to you at all?”

“Different how?” Yunho asked, annoyed that they were even having this conversation when he could be making Mingi scream into one of his many pillows.

“Different as in he hasn’t eaten in three days and yet he still seemingly has enough energy to go ten plus rounds with you a day. Which we can hear by the way,” Hongjoong supplied from where he sat grumpily on the couch. “I know it’s been a while since you’ve been human and all, but believe me when I say that isn’t exactly normal behavior.”

Yunho could only shrug. If Mingi wasn’t hungry then he wasn’t hungry. 

“And what about you?” Seonghwa asked him.

“Me?”

“You’re a wendigo, and it’s been, what, two weeks since you’ve eaten anyone? At least? And yet you don’t look emaciated. In fact, you look healthier than you did that first night we met you.”

“Flesh isn’t the only thing that sustains me, I can feed off of anything I particularly crave,” he explained. And right about now he was craving Mingi, the need to feel the human’s sweaty skin against his a dull ache in the pit of his stomach that gnawed at him like a dog with a bone. 

He could admit he hadn’t previously been aware that his appetite could be sated with sex, but it wasn’t as if he was upset by the newfound information. On the contrary, the only real issue he had about it all was having to continuously find ways to hold himself back so that he wouldn’t accidentally kill Mingi with their coupling. Though the human was enthusiastic, and oh so willing, he was still a fragile thing.

“Just-- try and get him to eat after this next little marathon sesh, yeah? You aren’t the only one that needs to eat to survive,” Hongjoong said with a sigh as he got up and disappeared into his room, turning his music up as loud as the other humans living around them would allow. 

Walking to Mingi’s room in turn, he thought about what the other immortals had said. It was true that Mingi hadn’t been eating, but Yunho had seen him naked on numerous occasions by this point, and if anything, the man was only getting softer in his hands, flesh supple and giving and so very alive. 

“What took you so long?” the human groused from where he was already sitting naked on the bed, skin flush and healthy as usual.

“Sorry,” he said honestly, stripping his own clothes off as he moved closer to the bed, Mingi pulling him down with surprising strength until he was flat on his back and looking up at the gorgeous human. 

“I guess I can forgive you, but just this once,” Mingi teased, grabbing for the new bottle of lube he'd recently purchased since they'd already gone through the last two.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

A week of not needing, let alone wanting, to eat anything substantial had resulted in Mingi’s longtime roommates sitting him down for an intervention in the living room, Yunho beneath him as he sat wiggling in his lap. For whatever reason, Mingi would get unbearable hunger pangs whenever he wasn’t touching the bear shifter recently. Only-- not for food.

“Guys, I don’t know what you’re so worried about, I feel fine,” Mingi lied as his two friends stared at him. But Hongjoong and Seonghwa looked, for lack of a better term, scared shitless. 

“You’re sure? No sudden urges to suck the meat off of any of our neighbor's bones?” Hongjoong asked skeptically as he not so subtly eyed Mingi’s nails. They’d been growing faster recently, sure, but he’d been good about keeping them trimmed and filed down. Even if Yunho had professed on more than one occasion that he liked them better long.

“What the fuck? Ew, no? Why would I suddenly want to eat people? Is that some sort of bear shifter thing?” Mingi joked halfheartedly as he turned to look back at Yunho, but the immortal’s almost blank expression was telling enough. “Oh my god, it is, isn’t it? That’s gross, babe. But what’s with the sudden interrogation? Wait-- is that why I haven’t been hungry recently? Am I… turning into a bear shifter somehow? Is that what all your recent private conversations have been about?” 

Mingi wasn’t an idiot. He’d been noticing the three other men disappearing to have little heated discussions about him for days now. Not to mention, his hearing had been insanely good lately… oh. Okay, so maybe he was an idiot.

“We can’t be sure yet, but with the full moon tomorrow… yeah, it’s likely. Only…” Seonghwa stopped, seemingly at a loss for words as he stared at Yunho over his head.

“Only what?” he asked warily. “What are you all not telling me?”

“Mingi, I’m... not exactly a bear shifter,” Yunho said eventually.

“You’re not?” Mingi asked, turning to stare up at the man in confusion. “But-- there’s no way that you’re human either.” Not with a tongue like that.

“Correct, I’m not human.”

“Then what are you?”

“The same thing you’ll be soon enough. A wendigo.”

“A--” Mingi’s eyes widened. Though he didn’t know all that much about that type of immortal, what he did know was absolutely terrifying. No wonder his friends were looking so worried right about now. But why had they known what was happening to him before even Mingi himself had? “So was that why you were always so afraid to bite or scratch me during sex? You didn’t want to turn me into what you are?”

“No, I wanted to turn you,” the bear-- no, the wendigo admitted with some hesitance. “But although it wouldn’t kill an immortal, it could have killed you. And I wasn’t going to take that chance.”

“Well then how did you turn into one? You told me you were human at one time, too. Don’t tell me you…”

“Yeah, I ate my family. But in my defense, they were dead at the time and I was snowed in with no other food source,” the man said with a wry smile and a shrug. 

Searching Yunho’s gentle black eyes, he couldn’t help but say, "I still don’t really understand. Aren’t wendigos supposed to be like, I dunno, super terrifying?” 

Both Hongjoong and Seonghwa alike looked at him in disbelief before Hongjoong was all but shouting, “He is super terrifying, Mingi! The man is so big he literally has to duck to go through doorways, he hardly blinks, he makes no noise when he walks, and if you hadn’t noticed, his shadow is a fucking antlered demon! One scratch from the likes of him would turn even the most feared immortal into a flesh eating monster.”

“Well, I’ve certainly never seen him eat flesh,” Mingi argued with a frown. “And aside from his weird habit of eating meat before I get the chance to cook it, the worst I’ve seen him do is chow down on still wrapped pieces of candy.” 

“I’ve recently discovered through you that I can stave off my neverending appetite with sex,” Yunho calmly explained, Hongjoong mock retching at their side. “In the interim I admit I still get the stray pang of hunger for human flesh, but I’m not starving like I had been for the past century. What about you, have you been having thoughts like that at all, by chance?” 

Mingi refused to acknowledge the hopefulness in Yunho’s voice as he replied, “Fuck no. I haven’t wanted to eat anything recently, let alone humans… although I guess I’ve never had human, either. Oh god, is that why I haven’t wanted to eat anything recently? Because I’m suddenly craving something I haven’t had yet?”

“I don’t think so,” Seonghwa interjected before he could really work himself into a panic over potentially being a cannibal. “My best guess is you turned because of, uh, prolonged contact with Yunho here via his bodily fluids. And if that’s the case, then that’s what you’ll crave. Vampires are the same in that regard, they’re turned with blood, and therefore crave blood. Since you’re turning into a wendigo, you may still crave flesh, in a sense, but it won’t be in the same way that Yunho does.” 

“So what are you saying, that I’m becoming some sort of sex addicted immortal?”

“Yeah.” “Yep.” “Pretty much.”

“We still have to see if you’ll shift during the full moon tomorrow, but that’s our best guess as of right now. But I’ll be honest, this sort of situation? It’s never really happened before,” Hongjoong admitted hesitantly. 

“Hang on, that’s a whole other matter. How the hell do you two know so much about all of this? Last I checked you were scared to get anywhere near Yunho, let alone talk to him privately.”

“Well, you remember all those full moon camping trips we’ve been on?” the orange haired man asked as he fidgeted with one of the many golden rings on his hand.

“Yeah?”

“And you know how you started having those random black out spells when you moved in with us?” Seonghwa added at his side as he worried at his bottom lip with those suspiciously sharp canines of his.

“...yeah? Wait. No. There’s no fucking way.”

But Yunho was the one who finally confirmed his suspicions out loud for him, voice rather smug. As if he was grateful the conversation wasn’t being directed at him for a change. “You’ve been unknowingly living with a werewolf and a vampire for the past few years.”

Mingi stared at the couple in wide eyed shock, but he knew them well enough by this point to see how uncomfortable they were. Suddenly a lot of late night conversations he’d overheard made much more sense. And no wonder they were both always so effortlessly hot. “I can’t believe you guys! So you’ve just, what, been making fun of me all this time while I’ve been blissfully unaware?”

“Not exactly…”

“And next I suppose you’re going to tell me that Wooyoung and all his siblings are supernatural beings of some kind too?” Mingi scoffed, his expression contorting into disbelief when nobody said anything to deny the claim. “You’re fucking kidding me! And I was the only one who didn’t know? What am I to you all, some kind of token human pet? That’s so fucked up! At least Yunho admitted that he wasn’t human, even if he did lie about what he was at first!"

Hongjoong scoffed at that last bit. “Please. Like he could have ever passed for a human to begin with. But yes, Wooyoung and the others are also shifters. Foxes, to be exact. Honestly there’s quite a few immortals that live around here, Mingi, but obviously we’re not really allowed to tell humans of our existence.”

“Yunho did!”

“Yunho is… rather above our jurisdiction. All immortals have to abide by certain rules, but even the ones who dish out punishment like Seonghwa and I are afraid of wendigos. There was a reason you found us on those forums, Mingi. It's our job to make sure no one gets too close to the truth, as well as keeping other immortals from going online and giving away too many secrets. Yet thanks to Yunho here, you just inadvertently jumped up to the top of the food chain anyway.”

“You’re welcome,” Yunho said unhelpfully. 

Shaking his head, Mingi couldn’t even look his friends in the eye as he muttered, “This is… a lot to process. I think I need to get some air.”

“I’ll go with you,” Yunho suggested.

“I’d say no, but I know better than to think you’d listen to that request by now,” Mingi said with a sigh, moving to put his shoes on. Just the act alone caused a wave of mild nausea to hit him now that he wasn’t touching Yunho in some way. How the hell had the other man lived like this for so long?

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry we couldn’t tell you,” Seonghwa murmured sadly from where he now stood hovering near the couch, clearly wanting to follow but also seeing he wasn’t welcome for the time being.

“I’m sorry too, but you’re one of us now, and we’ll try and get you up to speed as quickly as possible, okay, kiddo?” Hongjoong assured with a small smile.

“One of you? Yeah right. I’ve seen how you treat Yunho. I’ll be lucky if you aren’t terrified of me come tomorrow night,” he said bitterly before looking over at Yunho and nodding his head for him to follow as he walked out the door. 

Yunho was quiet as he stalked closely behind him, but then that wasn’t all that unusual, Mingi’s feet naturally leading him to the woods behind his old house. To the spot where he’d first laid eyes on the immortal all those years ago. 

“Were you going to eat me that night?” Mingi asked eventually as he leaned against a tree, his eyes staring the tall wendigo down.

At the very least, the man had the decency to look apologetic as he said, “Yes.” 

Looking up to watch the sunset with a sigh, he asked, “So why didn’t you?”

“I’m not sure, honestly. Ultimately, I think it was because you reminded me of the monster I was, or maybe of the human I used to be. You can believe what you’d like about me, but I never wanted to be cursed like this. Sadly, enough time alone can make anyone forget that they were also human once upon a time.”

“And yet you still wanted to turn me into a wendigo at first, right? You’re not as good at hiding your emotions as you’d like to think. I can tell you’re happy by this outcome.”

Yunho’s black eyes were sad when he admitted quietly, “I’ve been so lonely, Mingi… I wasn’t lying when I said you were the first person I’d talked to in decades. The way Hongjoong and Seonghwa act around me may seem harsh to you, but they’ve honestly been better than any other immortals I’ve encountered over my long life. Yes wendigos are the strongest of all immortals, but we’re also the most avoided and feared as a result. You offering me that candy as a child was the first kindness I’d ever received since becoming… what I am.” 

Closing his eyes, Mingi fought with the twisting pain in his stomach, his changing body growing more desperate with every second he still wasn’t touching Yunho. “I’m sorry about what happened to you and your family. I can’t imagine how horrible that must have been for you, only to wind up being cursed because of it.”

“Thank you… I’m sorry you’re also going to be classified as a monster among monsters now. And that you’re currently experiencing discomfort because of me.”

Mingi opened his eyes back up as another wave of pain washed over him, staring down at the ground before eventually listening to his body and pushing off of the tree with a sigh to wrap his arms around Yunho’s torso. The relief was instantaneous, for him and Yunho both. Staring up into the beautiful man’s vulnerable gaze, he couldn’t help but smile ruefully as he said, “Eh, I think I got off kinda easy by comparison. After all, what’s so bad about craving great sex with my immortal hottie of a boyfriend?”

Yunho stared down at him in mild shock, eyes softening as the wendigo gently grasped his face in his large, clawed hands. 

“And it’s not as if I have any family I’m leaving behind, and apparently all of my friends are already immortal, those traitors.” His initial anger at his friends was already ebbing, however. It would make sense that they hadn’t been able to tell him anything if there were actual consequences to doing so. He just felt rather silly now for all those previous, and probably ridiculous, supernatural conversations they’d all shared together over the years.

“Not to mention,” Mingi continued, “now we can finally have that wild sex we’ve both been wanting. I don’t know about you, but I’m dying to sink my teeth into you,” he teased as Yunho’s body tensed beneath his hold, no doubt also all too happy to get to that point. “But I do have one little request first.”

“Name it,” the wendigo said quickly with determination.

“...I want to see what we look like. I know enough about wendigos to know this human form isn’t the only one we have, and I think it might help me with the shock of what’s coming tomorrow.”

Yunho hesitated at first, but eventually he nodded, pushing Mingi away from him gently to give himself room to shift. He watched as the tall immortal removed his clothes, smiling slightly down at him with clear worry in his eyes before closing them with a pained sigh as his flesh ripped apart. 

The change looked excruciating, smaller body giving way to a much larger beast inside. Mingi wasn’t even quite sure what kind of creature he was staring at once Yunho had finished, looking more like some kind of primitive moose mixed with what he had always thought a werewolf might look like. In this form, Yunho had haunched legs, but the top half of his body still had arms and a chest more akin to a human’s in anatomy, though his now overly large hands and claws alone were easily the length of Mingi’s entire torso. 

His face, if anyone could really call it that, was the skull of a large deer, with fangs so long Yunho couldn’t fully close his mouth as his ever lengthy tongue lolled out from between those powerful jaws. He didn’t exactly have eyes, per say, just glowing pinpricks inside the hollowed out sockets of his skull. No wonder he’d never felt the need to blink. Thick fur sprouted around his neck like a mane, trailing down his back to a little deer tail that flicked worriedly beneath his gaze. He had two sets of antlers, one similar to a deer’s, while the other looked more like sharp, jagged tree branches, the different sets intertwining and reaching out to stretch further than Mingi’s own arm span. 

But the most impressive thing about Yunho now was the sheer size of him, Mingi having to look up and up even with Yunho hunched over as he was. It made sense why he was so tall in his human form.

“Wow, you’re… bigger than I thought you’d be,” was what Mingi eventually settled with, hesitantly stepping forward to place his hands back on Yunho when the wendigo didn’t move, as if worried he would suddenly scare him away now. But it was strange, because although Mingi was a scaredy cat, seeing Yunho in his true form didn’t scare him in the slightest. In fact, the only thing that was really terrifying him at the moment was how much he was trying to figure out the logistics of how they would fuck while Yunho was in this form. 

“Do you think I’ll be this big when I shift too? Will my human form get even taller?” he wondered aloud, not surprised when Yunho didn’t respond to him. He probably couldn’t with the vocal cords and mouth that he currently possessed. Petting along the taut flesh that revealed protruding bone, he was surprised to find it soft, not unlike a deer’s hide in its smoothness. 

“...is it bad that I kinda wanna fuck you right now?” he asked as he bit his lip. 

The body beneath his hands shuddered as the giant monster that was Yunho slowly shook his head from side to side. But what was he saying no to? That it wasn’t bad, or that they couldn’t have sex? 

And he must have asked that much out loud, for the wendigo chuffed, as if laughing, before eventually bones and fur shifted beneath his hands as Yunho painfully reverted back into his human form. Yunho’s voice was raspy as he said, “As intriguing as that sounds, until you shift for the first time, you’re still not fully immortal. And I wouldn’t want to risk killing you now just because you’re overly curious and insatiable.”

“Don’t lie, you’re horny too,” he said with a pout. 

“Which is exactly why I dealt with the pain to shift back as quickly as I did.”

“Does it hurt terribly?” he murmured, noting how Yunho’s body was still shivering lightly beneath his fingertips.

“You get used to it quickly enough. I feel fine now.”

And as if to prove his point, Yunho dragged him down to the grass beneath them, those large hands removing his clothes with renewed enthusiasm until they were both equally naked. “We didn’t bring lube,” Mingi thought to pant out between the deep laps of Yunho’s long tongue.

“Well then it’s a good thing my saliva is so thick and copious, huh?”

“...I don’t think those words are as sexy as you think they are, babe. But that’s alright, apparently we have all eternity to work on your atrocious flirting skills.”

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Yunho watched as Mingi stared down at his reflection in the lake, turning his naked body this way and that in what could only be disappointment. It had been a month since he’d first shifted under the light of the last full moon, but even Seonghwa and Hongjoong who had come to keep an eye on him had been surprised by Mingi’s shifted form. If it could even really be considered that. 

The former human still retained much of his old features, though his hair was now stained permanently red, with eyes as bright as a blood moon to match. His body was slightly taller now too, but not much broader, with dainty red nails and fingertips instead of the black talons Yunho himself possessed. And though he did have a little deer tail, Mingi otherwise had no fur to speak of, the only thing giving away that he wasn’t just some run of the mill immortal being his two sets of antlers, ivory and pristine in contrast to Yunho’s black and splitting horns.

But even with his more gentle, faun-like features, Mingi was still as fast as any predator, and nearly as strong as Yunho himself was, with senses heightened so much that he often had to cover up his crinkling nose around new smells. 

Coming up behind his mate, Yunho rested his still human head on Mingi’s shoulder, careful to avoid those sharp antlers. 

“It’s not fair that you get to look all scary and I’m stuck looking like a forest nymph that wants to get fucked,” Mingi sighed, small claws scratching lightly against his forearms as Yunho wrapped himself more securely around the other immortal. 

“I think it suits you,” he murmured, kissing along all the exposed skin available to him.

“Well you would, you’re fucking me,” Mingi groused. “But I suppose I’m glad the others aren’t afraid of me like this. Wooyoung even mentioned the other day that I let off a sweet, inviting smell, unlike your fear-inducing lack of one.”

Yunho snorted, rather wishing the other six immortals were afraid of Mingi. At least maybe then they’d have a little bit more alone time. But on full moons like tonight, his friends all liked to visit their literal neck of the woods. Well, at least Yunho knew how to make the other immortals give them some much needed privacy easily enough. 

Letting his long tongue slide along Mingi’s neck and up to his jaw, he felt the young immortal full body shudder in his grasp, a light, happy sigh escaping his lips as he turned to kiss him more fully. Human niceties that he still possessed, Mingi wasn’t very comfortable fucking with the knowledge that his friends with inhuman hearing were prowling all around them, but he knew just how to change his tune in that regard.

“Hey, darling?” he murmured against the other’s lips.

“Hmm?” Mingi hummed blissfully, his shorter, but still impressive tongue sliding along the top row of Yunho’s sharp teeth just enough to draw blood, the both of them moaning at the coppery taste as Yunho greedily sucked on the wet muscle. 

“Remember when you first saw my wendigo form?” he asked once he was no longer distracted.

“Yeah.”

“Did you still want to see what it would be like to mate with me like that?” At the smaller immortal’s sharp inhale, he smirked against his lips, pulling away to look down at him. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

He could see the lust clouding that beautiful blood red gaze already, but Mingi still looked around the edges of the lake warily. “Did you mean tonight?”

“Well, if you don’t want to--” 

But Mingi was nodding his head quickly enough, making Yunho chuckle. He’d certainly asked Yunho for it enough times since he’d first shifted, but he’d needed to make sure that it was actually possible for Mingi’s body to take, lest he accidentally hurt him in the process. For all that Mingi was now an immortal, he was still a bit of a baby. But that was alright, as long as he was his baby.

Human hands giving way to giant ones as he shifted with Mingi still in his grasp, he exhaled on a relieved sigh when his body eventually relaxed into his true form. Even now that the others knew Yunho through Mingi, they wouldn’t dare come anywhere near him like this. Which was something he was counting on. 

“I really shouldn’t find you so hot in this form,” Mingi muttered, more to himself than anything as Yunho pushed him down onto the ground, hovering over his pretty little wendigo mate that wasn’t even half his size. 

If Yunho could talk, he’d be murmuring sweet nothings right about now, whispering praises into the perfect skin that only he had the pleasure of marking up whenever and wherever he wanted. And it was really no wonder he’d fallen for Mingi as fast as he had, for who else would look up at him, nightmare that he was, with nothing but equal parts love and lust? The trust Mingi always had that he wouldn’t hurt him, let alone eat him, was something Yunho wouldn’t ever take for granted. 

“I know I’m still pretty open from our sessions earlier, but do you think you could do that thing with your tongue that I like so much in this form anyway?” the smaller wendigo pouted imploringly up at him. And who was Yunho to deny such a delicious request?

Giant hands pushing Mingi’s legs until he was practically bending the other in half, Yunho licked along his open mouth hungrily before moving to lap at the other immortal’s entrance, letting his saliva drip onto his mate in thick globs. His tongue in this form was as thick as his human cock, but over twice as long, and while he knew immortal bodies could handle a lot -especially ones that had turned through sex like Mingi had, apparently- he was still careful as he slowly pushed the wet muscle in and out of the man already writhing and moaning beneath him. Mingi always looked good enough to eat, but in moments like these, he tasted even better.

He didn’t let up on his thorough tongue fucking until Mingi was coming apart beneath him, sitting back on his haunches to watch as the impatient immortal used his own cum to prepare himself even more. Tongue lolling as he momentarily enjoyed the sight of Mingi getting entirely too distracted fucking his own fingers, he let out a warning growl before picking him up with one hand. Grabbing at his shoulders and digging his dainty claws into him, Mingi wiggled impatiently as Yunho let saliva dribble into his free hand to spread along his generous length. 

His cock was tapered to a point in this form, which meant the first few inches were relatively easy to force into his gasping lover, but with each thrust, he pushed just a little more inside, testing Mingi’s willingness to try and take all of him. But he should have known his little mate was a wanton thing, already shifting lower on his body to do just that. Chuffing down at him, he moved both hands to his hips and thighs respectively to further help him along, not even having to so much as move his own hips as he easily lifted Mingi up and down on his shaft, fucking the small wendigo who’d all but turned into a ragdoll by this point. 

Mingi looked up at him dazedly, mouth hanging open as a continuous stream of pleasure filled cries left his perfect lips. Hunching over slightly, Yunho took advantage of those parted lips to slowly but surely throat fuck the man with his tongue, knowing how much he loved being filled as much as he physically could. And it wasn’t as if either of them really needed to breathe, being undead as they were. 

His little mate came a minimum of four more times before he was finally cumming himself. White fluid dripped to the ground beneath them as he thrust himself through his orgasm until he was fully sated, his tongue having moved from Mingi’s mouth to instead simply wrap possessively around his throat, constricting lovingly every now and again as Mingi raked his claws over his chest deep enough that he drew blood. The amount of his release was perhaps a tad too much in this form, but Mingi took it all in stride as cum filled him up so full that it began to trickle out of his mouth, the greedy creature that his mate was licking at the corners of his lips to try and swallow it all back down and keep as much of it in his body as he could. 

Eventually pulling out so Mingi didn’t have to continuously swallow to keep his release inside of him, he placed his mate’s quivering, used body on a patch of dry grass a few feet away from their coupling. He watched as his own cum created an entirely new puddle beneath them, Mingi’s body too fucked open to truly keep any of it inside without something plugging him up. The other immortal didn’t seem capable of coherent speech at the moment, but Yunho got the picture well enough when Mingi made cute little grabbing motions up at him with a reedy whine. 

Resting the nose of his skull against his lover’s forehead briefly, he shifted forms with some difficulty above him, the wendigo side of him disliking not being out on a full moon like tonight. But Yunho would fight every one of his baser instincts if it meant being closer to Mingi. Rubbing his mate’s slightly distended stomach with his now mostly human hands, he nuzzled along Mingi’s neck that was still slick with sweat and Yunho’s own saliva, making soothing noises in the back of his throat as the small wendigo slowly regained the use of his motor skills. 

“That was,” Mingi started, clearing his throat a few times to try and get rid of the raw, fucked out quality it still possessed, “a lot.”

Yunho hummed his agreement, kissing Mingi deeply and not even minding the taste of his own release on his tongue. It wasn’t like he hadn’t tasted it before by this point anyway. 

His insatiable mate smiled at him with content hooded eyes when Yunho eventually pulled back to stare down at him in wonder, one large hand cupping his lover’s face. He’d been stroking his thumb absently over the other immortal’s abused lips when Mingi was asking slyly, “So when do you think we can do it again?”

Laughing outright at the brazen words, Yunho collected his exhausted lover into his arms before walking them into the lake to clean off. “Give me those sultry eyes for too long and it may just be later tonight.”

Mingi had his arms wrapped around his neck loosely as he leaned up to languidly kiss him, a breathy, “Promise?” on the tip of his long tongue. Oh, he’d do anything for this man.

And for the first time in his immortal life, Yunho said a silent prayer of thanks to the curse that had allowed them to be together like this, knowing that he would happily eat his family all over again. Just so long as it meant getting to spend the rest of his life with the pretty, perfect immortal wrapped up in his arms.