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starlightkun · 11 months

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❧ word count: 28.4k

❧ warnings: cursing, the b-plot pretty heavily references a drowning incident (but it’s not explicitly described), uhm that’s about it for this one!

❧ genre: fluff, slow burn, one (1) idiot and one (1) tease to lovers, modern magical creatures au, college au, fairy jungwoo, human reader, ft. various other magical ilichils and human johnny, spring break au

❧ author’s note: ahhh here it is! i love this one so much, it was so much fun to write, and i hope y’all have a lot of fun reading it!!

❧ spotify playlist

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ explore the strawberry sunday universe more here!

Just as you were about to turn around and smack Dongyhuck for real this time, Jungwoo grabbed the back of his collar and pulled the shirt over his head. You willed yourself to look literally anywhere else, but your eyes embarrassingly kept watching as he tossed the shirt to the side, laughing at something that Johnny had just said. This was entirely unfair, was he actually, literally, sparkling in the sunlight? Or was that just you?

There’s so much you’ll never know about Jungwoo, you thought to yourself as you snuck a glance his way. You could ask him a million questions every day for the rest of your life and still, you’d never know everything. But you want to try. You want to know what his favorite song is every day, what he had for lunch, what he looks like when he wakes up after sleeping in on Sunday mornings, and what his lips taste like. Strawberries… probably, was what you had decided upon after an embarrassing amount of daydreaming and speculating that you’d sooner be waterboarded than admit to.

And it wasn’t the fact that he was a fairy that fascinated you either, you had been around magical beings all your life. Your own best friend was a dryad, so you didn’t even blink the first time you saw Jungwoo sneeze and his hair flashed pink for a moment. There was something about Jungwoo that made you want to know even more about him, take notes, put him on a slide under a microscope in the lab you two had together, and bottle him up if you could.

Jungwoo readjusted the frames that had slipped down his nose as he worked on his assignment— a lab report, he was a Chemistry major like you. Did fairies even need glasses? They couldn’t magic away bad vision or something? You did manage to ask him that, the first time you’d seen him bring them out at a study session. Turns out they were blue light filtering ones, not prescription; looking at screens for too long strained his eyes.

You’d finished your own lab report thirty minutes ago and had been meandering through some assignments for next week in an admittedly pathetic attempt to prolong your time around him. The rest of your group that you were with all left for a vending machine break about ten minutes ago, and the study room had been just you and Jungwoo since.

Jungwoo hadn’t let up working on his report in that time, and you didn’t want to distract him by trying to take this opportunity to talk to him or anything. So instead, you just randomly clicked things on your computer, looked at Jungwoo, read a couple pages of your textbook, looked at Jungwoo, scrolled on your phone, looked at Jungwoo, drank some of your water, looked at Jungwoo, rinse, and repeat.

Today he was wearing a light pink crewneck sweater that was way oversized even on him, the neck of it slouching down far enough to one side to show his collarbones— you snapped your eyes back down to your keyboard and took a sip of your water. God, you needed Jesus or Pan or whatever other deities your friends had; you’d take anything at this point. After a few more moments, you risked another look at him. His brown hair that always looked so soft looked extra bouncy today, and you wondered if he’d showered and dried it right before coming to the campus library. You had a sudden want to know what shampoo and conditioner he used, and were so glad that you had one iota of common social grace to quite literally bite down on your knuckle to stop yourself from asking him that. You were going insane sitting in here alone with him, you needed to go.

“Uh,” you cleared your throat as you stood up. The force with which you had stood up pushed your rolling chair back with such a velocity that it crashed into the wall behind you, and you cringed at how loud the sound was in the dead silent study room.

Jungwoo looked up at you with round, curious eyes, slowly taking one of his lilac wired earbuds out from his ears. Your skin was practically on fire, and you could hear your blood roaring in your ears as you grabbed your metal bottle, “I’m going to refill my water.”

You didn’t wait to see if he had any sort of reply, fleeing the room.

Donghyuck found you curled up on yourself in a study cubicle ten minutes later. He presumably was able to follow the smell of your self-pity and agony. As a dryad, he was in tune with nature, and, as he so stubbornly reminded you, humans were included in that whole nature thing.

Your friend leaned against the side of the short cubicle wall, resting his cheek on his forearm as he looked down at you with an eyebrow raised, “Were we disturbing you? Had to come get your own little study nook?”

“No, I finished all my work a while ago,” you mumbled.

“I know.”

He tore open his bag of chips, popping one into his mouth then holding it out to you. The two of you shared the snack in a silence devoid of conversation, but full of mutual understanding and the sounds of crunching chips. When all the chips were gone, Donghyuck tilted his head back to dump the remaining crumbs in his mouth before tossing the bag in the recycling bin.

“Alright, come on, Yuta says he’s got a big announcement for all of us.”

“Oh, joy, a Yuta summons,” you stood up with a sigh. “Always a good sign when the siren calls.”

Donghyuck started leading the way back through the narrow library aisles, “It was actually Jungwoo who sent me out looking for you, said he was worried that you might be sick.”

“Shut up, that’s not funny.”

“You’re right, it’s not. That’s like, the lamest joke ever. No set up, no punchline. Not even in the format of a joke. That’s how you know I’m being serious.”

“Oh God, I was being such a little freak.”

“Y/N, you’re down astronomically bad for a fairy, and are friends with a dryad, siren, and basilisk, to name a few. And you’re worried about being a freak?”

“By comparison I pretty much am.”

“Mm, can’t argue with you there.”

Back in the study room, you and Donghyuck took your two empty seats right next to each other. The room was abuzz with chatter now, feeling much livelier than it had before.

“There you are, we were about to send out another rescue mission,” Johnny greeted the two of you brightly. He was the only other one of your friends who was a human like you.

Mark’s forked snake tongue flicked out to test the air, “Everything okay, Y/N?”

“Oh, yeah, got distracted looking at some books,” you fibbed, well aware that at least a third of the creatures with you could hear any jump in your heartrate, one could practically smell (taste?) fear, and another quite literally always knew if you were telling the truth or not. Taeyong never exposed you when you lied, nor held any against you—not that you lied to him often. Forgiveness kind of came with being a unicorn and all, you figured. Believing in a pure heart or whatever.

“I found her wandering with her nose stuffed in a book. Had to drag her back kicking and screaming,” Donghyuck followed your lead with a casual eye roll.

Yuta clapped his hands from where he was standing at the head of the table, immediately drawing everybody’s attention to him and quieting down the room. “Anyway!”

The siren pushed back his white-blonde hair from his face, making piercing eye contact with each of you in turn as he paused for dramatic effect. The iridescent scales visible under the skin of his cheekbones at certain angles shimmered from blue to purple to pink in the fluorescent lights and his silvery eyes flashed as the large pupils met yours before moving onto the next person.

“Tell us or I put a blabbermouth hex on you, Yuta,” Doyoung drawled, readjusting his many crystal and worn leather bracelets around his wrists.

“For the love of Hecate, not again, Doyoung!” Taeil, another witch, scolded him. He was in a big hoodie that had your school’s name proudly emblazoned across the front, so just the edges of his ritual tattoos peeked out on his neck and hands. “Sirens and blabbermouth hexes are practically death machines!”

“Yuta and blabbermouth hexes is hell on Earth,” Jaehyun deadpanned.

Johnny rubbed at the back of his neck anxiously, “Yeah, I almost died last time, Doyoung. I was only just able to go to the pool again like two weeks ago.”

“Which is perfect,” Yuta cut into the rabble, ceasing their squabbling once again. “Because we’re all going to Cape Solaria for spring break.”

“You seriously want me to go around you and water again?” Johnny asked in disbelief.

“Oh my god, you nearly drown your friend one time and you never hear the end of it!”

“One time?”

“Okay, one and a half times! And really, it was Doyoung’s fault, he put the blabbermouth hex on me, I couldn’t stop! Why aren’t you getting pissed at him?”

You and Donghyuck exchanged looks as the volume in the room rose once again.

Spring break was still a month away, and you admittedly didn’t have any plans yet. Cape Solaria was a gorgeous beach a few hours away, and despite the proximity to your college town, surprisingly wasn’t a very popular spring break destination. It was a sleepy little seaside village that hadn’t done anything to attract tourists, and if anything, actively warded them off, especially college students. There wasn’t much to do in the area except the beach itself, which didn’t have any public access points, only residents could use it. All in all, didn’t sound half bad for a siren, of course. Or nine other college students with nothing better to do.

“Come on!” Yuta’s sonorous voice broke through the din of the bickering. “My parents’ friends have a beach house there, they’re out of town until the summer and said we can use it! There’s a firepit on the beach, and a cute little downtown, and I pinky promise to every single god, goddess, and incorporeal abstract deity that we all have that I won’t drown anybody!”

Everybody was looking around the table at each other, clearly suspicious of Yuta’s too good to be true plan, and waiting for somebody else to cast the first stone.

“Sure, Yuta, I’ll come,” Taeyong smiled up at him. “Thank you for inviting us.”

“I’m bringing a spear gun, don’t think I won’t use it,” Johnny warned him.

Eventually, everyone had given their yeses, to varying degrees of enthusiasm, until there was just one left.

“Of course I’m coming,” Jungwoo grinned, his eyes meeting yours for just a flash before looking up at the siren. “It sounds like fun!”

Jungwoo caught up to you as you left the library that evening. Donghyuck had stayed behind to check out some materials for a class, and the rest of your friends were walking out in a large, amorphous blob.

“Hey,” he greeted you from over your shoulder.

“Hey,” you echoed, looking behind and up at him briefly. It was times like this that you were reminded just how big the fairy was, underneath the oversized sweaters, fluffy hair, and pouts. He was one of the tallest of your friends, magical or otherwise.

His glasses had been pushed up on top of his head now, the frames keeping some of his bangs from falling across his face. With his book bag slung onto one shoulder, he looked almost like your average human college student, except if you happened to look a little closer—which you always were—you could catch the faint flecks of gold in his otherwise warm brown irises. As you passed under the lampposts along the pedestrian walkway, the golden flecks would catch the light and gleam unlike anything that could exist in humans. Not quite starlight, more like craft store glitter, the kind that you’d accidentally spill and continue to find in every square inch of your house for years to come. Which was a comparison that as soon as it had clicked in your brain, only endeared him even more to you.

“So what do you think? About going to Cape Solaria?” Jungwoo asked, those big, glittery eyes focused down on you.

You thanked… something godly that he apparently wasn’t going to ask about your disappearance from the study room earlier.

“Oh, uhm, I’m actually pretty excited. I know Johnny’s nervous after the whole Yuta-Doyoung-blabbermouth hex-drowning thing that happened last semester, but I think it’ll be fun. I haven’t been to the Cape since I was little, it’ll be nice to see how much has changed, if at all.”

“You went when you were little?”

“My parents used to take us on day trips as kids in the summer. Still don’t know how they put up with us in the car for that long.”

“How far away is it?”

“Uhm…” You frowned as you tried to think of as accurate an answer as you could for Jungwoo. “I don’t remember exactly. Three hours? Four, maybe? Hold on.”

You had reached into your pocket to bring out your phone, fully intending on looking it up on your maps app right then and there, when a hand covered yours, a light giggle that sounded like the tinkling of bells rang out right next to your ear, and you damn near dropped your phone.

“That’s okay, Y/N, I was just curious,” Jungwoo reassured you, letting your hand fall from his as you went to stuff your phone back into your pocket. “I’ll just find out when we drive there.”

“Right, of course,” you muttered, casting your eyes down to your feet. “So, uhm, have you ever been? To the Cape?”

As soon as you said it, you wanted to smack yourself in the face. He literally just asked you how far away it was. If he had been there before, he would know that.

“No, this’ll be my first time.” Jungwoo bit the tip of his thumb, and you could feel how your eyes were glued to the action.

“Jungwoo!” Taeil called for him from the front of the group, Doyoung beside the older witch. The three of them were roommates, and were presumably all going home together.

“Coming!” The fairy replied. He focused a cheery smile down on you, “Well, see you, Y/N!”

“Bye, Woos…”

As the three roommates left, you desperately blinked yourself out of your Jungwoo-induced trance, trying to remember where you had parked your own car. Taeyong saved you from yourself, looping his arm through yours, “Come on, Y/N, I saw your car over by Jaehyun’s.”

“Oh. Didn’t even realize you guys had parked by me. Thanks, Yong,” you tried to reply as casually as possible, which was utterly pointless when dealing with Taeyong and his vampire roommate. Said vampire was walking on Taeyong’s other side, entirely silent.

When you first started hanging out with Taeyong and by extension Jaehyun, you weren’t able to get a good read on the latter, mostly due to the fact that he said next to nothing and emoted even less. But when he did finally say something, it was usually so entirely out of pocket that you either ended up in stitches laughing or were sent into an existential spiral. Judging solely from the thousand-yard stare on his face, you’d think he wasn’t listening to any of your conversation most of the time, except you knew that his supernatural senses made it impossible for him to do anything except hear everything: conversations, the wind rustling through the leaves, air conditioning, the blood pumping in your veins. You were surprised to find out that he wasn’t several centuries old, only in his mid-twenties; he’d been turned just a couple years ago. (This had prompted a hushed conversation with Taeyong: “So… he’s just like that?” “Like what?” “…Never mind.”).

You knew that Taeyong was Jaehyun’s primary food source, though you didn’t ask for many details aside from one that your morbid curiosity wouldn’t let go of: It doesn’t hurt Taeyong and feels generally pleasant. Since Taeyong’s a unicorn, Jaehyun doesn’t have to feed as often as he would if he were feeding from humans, and that is when you had put your headphones in during that little impromptu Q&A session during a study group. Renjun, the Magical Creatures Studies major who had tagged along with Donghyuck that day, could go ahead and listen about Jaehyun’s favorite places to bite Taeyong or whatever, you had much rather wanted to do literally anything else.

“I’m worried,” Taeyong confessed, gnawing on his bottom lip.

“About?” You asked, concerned.

“Johnny going to the beach.”

“Oh, Taeyong, I don’t think he even knows where to get a spear gun, Yuta will be fine.”

“No, I know Yuta will be okay. But I do think Johnny’s worry comes from a real place of distress.”

You saw the deep sorrow reflected in his features, your own heart hurting too as you recalled what happened to your human friend. “Well, yeah, he did almost drown himself in the guys’ bathtub at our non-denominational Friendsmasgiving as collateral damage in one of Yuta and Doyoung’s spats. Don’t tell any of the others this, Yong, but Johnny couldn’t wash his own face for a month after. I went over and did his skincare routine for him. I don’t even want to know how he showered or washed his hands.”

“Johnny must trust you a lot, Y/N.”

“I actually didn’t know him very well before that,” you admitted. “I think he just asked me because I’m the only other human out of all of us. I was the safest, you know, in his mind.”

Before that Friendsmasgiving at Taeil, Doyoung, and Jungwoo’s place, you had only seen Johnny at a couple group movie nights here and there, so you were honestly surprised to have gotten a text from him asking you to come over. You were mentally prepared for it to be a weird premise for a hookup and had all your usual rejections ready to go in the back of your mind. But no, he actually did just need you to help him wash his face. His hands trembled every time he tried to turn on the tap, and he absolutely couldn’t submerge his nose or mouth— he needed to breathe.

Unlike you, Johnny didn’t have any firsthand exposure to magical beings like your friends until he went to college. He grew up in a small town that was entirely human, and while he had a very open mind about it all, nearly drowning himself under a siren’s spell would understandably take a while to process.

“Oh…” Taeyong breathed out, and you could see his lilac eyes beginning to water, the tears themselves having an iridescence to them. “Oh, Johnny…”

“Shit, sorry,” you shook your head to clear your mind.

Unicorns were highly empathetic, and ruminating on an emotional memory for too long around them would project that state onto them. It wasn’t quite mind reading from what you understood, Taeyong couldn’t access your memories directly right now or anything, but he could get the gist of the feelings and emotions that your memories contained. So he and Jaehyun were honestly a match made in magical weirdo heaven.

“No, it’s okay,” he reassured you as the three of you slowed to a stop at your car. “I’m going to talk to Taeil and Doyoung, see if they can do anything for Johnny.”

“Doyoung should be moving fucking mountains to help, this is partially his fault.”

“I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out.” Taeyong squeezed your arm before letting it go. “Have a good weekend, Y/N.”

“You too, guys,” you gave them a wave as they headed off in the direction of Jaehyun’s car.

SATURDAY

Spring break had snuck up on you. Between studying for midterms, working part-time at the campus bookstore, and maybe possibly sort of avoiding Jungwoo as best you could outside of your shared chemistry lab, you didn’t have the brain capacity to really be cognizant of the passage of time, only your constant state of stress and panic. So you had packed your bags just last night, and were now running around your apartment to get together the last of your things that morning. Johnny had texted a few minutes ago that he was on his way to pick you and Donghyuck up, meaning that you had maybe five minutes left before he arrived.

You ducked under the vine hanging at the entry to the bedroom hallway, and skirted around the monstera that marked the beginning of the jungle that was your living room. Donghyuck generally kept the plants to a lush but tasteful amount, and you liked the greenery, but with both your focuses on midterms week, they had gotten a little unruly without the dryad’s usual careful tending to them.

“Hey, Hyuck?” You called out to him from the kitchen.

“Yeah?” Came his reply from where he was reclined on the couch.

“You seen my sunglasses? I thought they were on my dresser but—”

“You loaned them to Mark last week when he accidentally petrified Johnny. He said he’s bringing them to give back to you.”

“Oh, right,” you stopped your frantic searching, joining your roommate in the living room. “Thanks.”

“Speaking of—” Donghyuck stood up from the couch with a big stretch, a couple small vines reaching out from the very tips of his fingers before receding back in when he dropped his arms. He focused his dark green eyes on you pointedly, “Johnny said they’re here. You ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be at this point,” you sighed.

“Cool. So where’s your phone?”

Realizing that you hadn’t seen Johnny’s text yourself, you patted your pockets fervently. All empty.

“Shit!”

“I’ll call it.”

After retrieving your phone from inside the freezer—you didn’t even want to know how you’d left it in there—you and Donghyuck grabbed all your bags and rushed down to meet your road trip crew. All ten of you weren’t going to fit into one car, so you were splitting up between three in order to have a reasonable number of vehicles in town for the week: Johnny’s, Taeil’s, and Yuta’s.

Johnny was leaning against the trunk of his old SUV, and pushed off it to give you each a hug, “Hey! Ready to road trip?”

“Sure, Johnny,” you chuckled as he popped the hatch on the trunk. “Thanks for driving us.”

“Of course, of course. Always glad to be team dad for three magical creatures and a human,” he ruffled yours and Donghyuck’s heads as you each loaded up your bags on top of the ones that were already in there.

“Three?” You asked.

Johnny was struggling trying to pull his hand back from the leafy tendrils that had wrapped around his fingers when he went to muss up Donghyuck’s hair. When he’d finally gotten the limb back, he answered, “Oh yeah, Mark and I picked up a stray, so someone will have to sit with someone. Mark’s already got shotgun, sorry.”

The human opened up the back door, and Donghyuck and you peered in, just in time for Jungwoo’s head to pop up from the very backseat, cell phone in hand.

“Finally! Thought this was lost to the ether down there!” He said triumphantly, then his gaze fell on you and your roommate. “Oh hey, Y/N, Donghyuck!”

“I was planning on napping, actually,” Donghyuck took advantage of your stupefied silence to declare. “So I’ll take the middle row.”

“D—”

“You always complain about my moss when I nap on you, Y/N. You’ll be free of me this time! It’s perfect!”

And so you ended up in the backseat with Jungwoo, staring out the window as Johnny pulled away from your apartment building.

“Y/N? Could you please hand me my pillow from the back?” Donghyuck requested sweetly.

You narrowed your eyes at him before twisting around in your seat, rummaging around in the trunk until you were able to secure the pillow. Turning back around, you offered him a sarcastic smile as you practically smacked him in the face with it, “Here, Hyuck.”

“Oof!” He fell back, settling long-ways across the entire middle seat. “Thanks, Y/N!”

“Shut up and take your damn nap.”

You heard a jingling giggle from beside you, and looked over to see Jungwoo covering his mouth, but you noticed the telltale crinkles at the corners of his eyes.

“I know I’ve said this before but,” he paused to let out another giggle, “you two are funny.”

“Glad we can provide in-flight entertainment for you, Woos,” you slumped back in your seat, shimmying your shoulders around for a moment to settle in for the long car ride ahead of you.

Johnny’s car didn’t have Bluetooth, so he had a CD of his playing over the speakers. Only one speaker in the backseat worked at all, and it crackled and popped at random intervals. Because of that, the sound controls were set so that the music played only in the front seats. You didn’t mind, you kept your focus on your own music playing through your headphones, eyes trained on the passing scenery. Until your wireless earbuds died.

“No, no, no,” you held the buttons down in a fruitless attempt to resuscitate them. “Damn it!”

“Are you okay?” Jungwoo asked you quietly.

Johnny and Mark were singing along to a nostalgic pop song in the front seat, and you were tempted to ask them to turn it up, until you caught sight of Donghyuck. He was covered in a literal blanket of moss, clover, and small white flower buds from his feet to his arms. His eyes were closed and his shoulders rose and fell with each breath he took. So he really was taking a nap.

Not wanting to disturb your friend for your own entertainment, you snapped your earbuds back into their carrying case. Which was also dead, because in your great planning for this trip, you had forgotten to charge that too.

“No, my headphones just died, and we have like, three more hours left,” you groaned, dropping your head back onto the headrest.

“Oh, here!” Jungwoo held out one of his wired earbuds to you. “You can just share mine.”

“Woos, that’s okay, I’ll just…” You desperately wracked your brain for a reasonable way to finish that sentence.

“Do you really not trust my taste in music that much you’d rather stare out the window in silence for three hours?” He had a playful pout on his lips.

In the back of your mind, you knew he was joking around, but also he was quite literally batting his eyelashes at you—were long eyelashes a fairy thing or a Jungwoo thing? Something else you wanted to ask him—and suddenly you were saying yes, the headphone was in your hand, and Jungwoo was happily scrolling through his music library. He’d found something satisfactory, and you put the earbud in to listen along.

“Y/N, you can’t be all the way over there, the headphones are gonna fall out!” Jungwoo scolded you with an exasperated sigh.

You looked at the empty seat between the two of you in bewilderment, where the headphone cords were pulled near taut. You were way too focused on trying to figure out if he actually meant for you to move to the middle seat to realize that Jungwoo had undone his own seatbelt instead—until his arm was sliding around your shoulders, long legs crowding yours in the small space of Johnny’s backseat, and the entire length of his side pressed up against you.

“There we go,” he said brightly. “Now the headphones won’t get tugged out of our ears if we want to look out the window.”

Your gulp was comically loud as your eyes were trained on your blank phone screen in your lap, “Right.”

“Oh, you’ve got a much better view over here,” Jungwoo leaned in front of you to peer out the window.

He seemed to radiate the warmth of a soft spring day, and while you still didn’t know exactly what kind of shampoo he used, you swore you could smell the faint, sweet scent of strawberries as he hovered just millimeters in front of your face. There was a single small diamond earring in his lobe, and it sparkled as it caught the light filtering in through the window he was looking out. He turned his head to look from the passing scenery over to you, holding your (surely alarmed, wide-eyed, maybe even terrified) gaze for a moment. The corner of his lips curled, and then he reclined back into his new seat beside you.

You hoped that Mark was too focused on their music up front to be regularly checking the scents in the car, or if he was, that he was going to keep his forked tongue to himself. You knew that you were oozing panic from every pore right now, you didn’t need a basilisk blabbing that to the whole car. Taking a deep inhale through your nose, you desperately tried to calm your heartrate back down. Fairies didn’t have super hearing that you were aware of, but with how close you two you were, you wouldn’t be surprised if Jungwoo would be able to hear your heart hammering anyway.

“So how did you end up riding with Johnny?” You asked him quietly, hoping that some light conversation would distract you from how hyperaware you were of every square centimeter of you that was in contact with him. “I thought Taeil would’ve been taking you.”

“Yuta was taking Jaehyun and Taeyong and didn’t have enough room for all the extra beach stuff in his truck. Johnny would’ve had enough room, except he was bringing you and Donghyuck, and we would’ve all been much more squished in Taeil’s car. So I got voted off the island and Taeil’s bringing Doyoung and the extra beach stuff.”

You chuckled, the tension in your body easing as you could perfectly imagine how that conversation went down between your friends, “How tragic.”

“I don’t mind, I like you.” Jungwoo’s breath washed over the shell of your ear, making the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and your shoulders jump a little. Which he could definitely feel.

“Oh!” The squeak in your voice was audible. “Yeah, we— we all like you too, Woos.”

“So do you like it?”

“Huh?”

“The music.”

You admittedly hadn’t even been paying attention to any of the songs playing in the headphones you were sharing, all too focused on your proximity rather than the alleged reason for it. Taking a few seconds, you listened to the song that was playing at that moment. It was a softer indie-sounding track, and you found yourself nodding maybe a little too enthusiastically, “Oh, yeah, yeah, it’s good.”

“Good,” he offered you a gentle smile. “You can pick the next album. I want to know what kind of stuff you listen to.”

Only two tracks into your chosen album, Johnny announced that he’d be pulling off at the next exit for gas, so any snack purchases and bathroom breaks would need to happen now as well. You gave him a weak thumbs-up in the rearview mirror, the only part of his face visible in said mirror being an inquisitively raised eyebrow. As Johnny slowed the van to a stop at the gas pump, Jungwoo slid away from you as casually as he had slid over, leaning over the seat to try to wake Donghyuck up.

“Donghyuck,” he cooed at him. “Donghyuck, wake up. Y/N and I need to get out.”

“That’s not going to work,” you sighed, hunching over the seat as well. “You have to resort to violence with Hyuck.”

“He’s covered in plants,” Jungwoo pointed out. “I’m not a dryad but harming nature still isn’t really my thing.”

“I didn’t say set him on fire or anything.”

“Then what—”

Mark had already hopped out of the car at that point, and opened the door to the backseat then. You and he made eye contact, nodded once in unison, then he grabbed one of Donghyuck’s ankles and yanked on it. The basilisk jerked his hand back before vines could wrap around it. But it worked, the dryad shot up, head whipping around as he looked around for the culprit, and his hands coming up to rub at his eyes sleepily.

“Who—”

“Gas station, Hyuck,” you told him as all the plants on him closed up and disappeared. “Can you move so we can get out please?”

He let out a heaving sigh, scooting across the seat to do so, “Fine, I suppose. Only because I need to pee.”

“Thank you for letting me know that you’ve been hydrating.”

With Donghyuck out, Johnny helped you finagle the fold-down middle row so that you and Jungwoo could climb out of the back, then gave you his card to buy him a soda from inside. You found Mark in front of the refrigerated section, and he dug a hand into the pocket of his shorts before pulling out your missing sunglasses and handing them to you.

“Here. Thanks for letting me borrow them.” His voice slightly drug out the sibilance of his ‘s’ as he spoke, slitted pupils just visible through the tint of his own pair of sunglasses he was donning now. He stuffed his hands back in his pockets as he looked over the drink options.

“Yeah, of course, Mark,” you perched your sunglasses atop your head, then quietly scanned the fridges for Johnny’s soda request.

Mark had come over to your apartment last week to study with Donghyuck for some class they had together, and Johnny tagged along so that you and he could have a little self-care night before the hecticness of finals week. Doing face masks together just felt natural after you had washed his face for an entire month. Johnny had been keeping you up to date on how his roommate was handling the onset of his powers lately. Basilisks, unlike other mythological creatures who were born as such, came into their powers comparatively much later in life, within a year after their first molting. Mark just had his last summer (the details of which Johnny had thankfully spared you but did let you know was awful to have to clean up around the apartment), and had been slowly but surely developing his various basilisk abilities since. One of which, petrification, hadn’t come on at all yet.

Until Johnny had stepped out of your bathroom that night with a green clay face mask on to grab his phone from the living room, turned the corner, and had startled Mark so bad that with just a split second of eye contact, he’d been petrified. Thankfully, not properly turned to stone, just paralyzed more so. He’d remained entirely fleshy and regained full use of his limbs within ten minutes, but Mark had kept your sunglasses on for the rest of the night just in case.

Mark suddenly spoke up again, pointing at a specific row off to your bottom left, the complete opposite direction from where you’d currently been scrutinizing, “Johnny asked for dragonfruit Fanta, right?”

You followed his gaze to a magenta bottle, “Oh! Yes, thanks!”

“No problem.”

“How’d you know?” You questioned as Mark grabbed his own drink, then turned around to peruse the snacks.

“He always tries to cut out caffeine on school breaks since he goes so hard on the coffee during the semester,” the basilisk sighed. “Which means he’ll be right back on it by Monday morning at the latest. If not, tomorrow. Do you see those firecracker things Yuta likes? I made the mistake of telling the others we were making a snack stop and got a whole shopping list.”

“Oh, the ones enchanted to literally pop and sizzle in your mouth?” You wrinkled your nose, remembering when he had let you try one at a movie night. Never again. “Uh… there!”

“Thanks.”

“I’m guessing Taeyong wants his usual too,” you grabbed a holographic box of gummy candies.

After grabbing a few more things, you and Mark paid then headed back out to the SUV. Donghyuck had already beaten the two of you back out there and Johnny was done refilling the gas, meaning that you all were just waiting on Jungwoo to return. Mark and Donghyuck waited in the car with the AC blasting, splitting their snacks between them while you leaned against the side with Johnny, enjoying standing up while you could. There were still at least two more hours left in your drive, not accounting for any traffic.

The human beside you cracked open his soda, holding it out towards you, and you clinked your drink with his before taking swigs in unison.

“So.” Johnny said.

“So.” You repeated.

“What’s uh… what’s up?” He took another drink of his dragonfruit Fanta.

You couldn’t help but laugh, “I don’t know, not much. What’s up with you, Johnny? Finals go good?”

“That’s not what I meant, Y/N,” he gave you a pointed look.

“Then what did you mean?” You asked, bringing your drink up to your lips.

“I meant the romance novel that’s been playing out in my backseat.”

To your credit, you didn’t do a spit take. You did choke on the sip you’d just taken to the point where Johnny felt the need to give you a couple good slaps on the back. When you’d recovered and were upright again, you shook your head.

“Johnny, that’s not— My headphones died, Jungwoo was sharing his and—”

“That’s like, the stupidest excuse I’ve heard in a while. I am actually offended that you think I’m that dumb, Y/N,” Johnny cut you off with a shake of his head. “But fine, you don’t want to tell your best human pal Johnny about your secret relationship, that’s cool. Little tip though, maybe tone down the PDA, then.”

Your tongue felt too big in your mouth as you tripped and fumbled over it trying to correct Johnny’s understanding of the situation. The grin on his face belied that he wasn’t actually that hurt and was instead delighted to know this “secret” information, as he smoothly got you in a loose headlock, affectionately mussing up your hair again.

“Johnny!” You squealed, ducking out from under his arm, not looking where you were going as you scrambled to get away.

And proceeded to stumble right into someone else. Mortification filled your veins as you went to apologize to whatever other patron of the gas station that you’d just bumped into, the words once again getting stuck in your throat as you looked up into familiar brown eyes. Jungwoo held your gaze with a tilted head, not even acknowledging Johnny as the fairy’s mouth turned down into just the slightest frown.

“I’m so sor—”

“Your hair’s all messed up, Y/N,” he informed you matter-of-factly, one hand reaching up to adjust whatever strands were out of place.

You imagined this was what Johnny had felt like last week when Mark accidentally petrified him in your living room. All your muscles were frozen in place, eyes unblinking as Jungwoo dutifully fixed your hair.

He gave the top of your head one last gentle pat, “There.”

“I’m sorry.” You finally managed to finish your thought from earlier. “For uhm, for bumping into you.”

Jungwoo let out a soft chuckle, and you realized that the two of you were still practically chest to chest.

“That’s okay, Y/N. Better you almost knock me over than someone else and we’ve got a pissed off dragon or something on our hands.”

“Hey,” Johnny called out, and you whipped around to look at him. He was still leaning against the car, spinning the keys around his finger as he gave you a knowing smirk. “Are we ready to go?”

“Yep!” The fairy answered cheerily, holding up the strawberry Fanta he’d bought inside.

Finally, after two more hours, many rousing car games led by the now-awake Donghyuck, and several full-car sing-alongs, you’d arrived at the coast. The vast highway gave way to meandering residential roads filled with small, colorful houses clustered together, each with a different quirky mailbox in front of it. Johnny rolled down the front windows, and you could smell the salty ocean air immediately.

A few more twisty roads later, and he slowed to a stop at the dead end of a line of houses in front of a periwinkle colored one, with a familiar small silver hatchback sedan parked out front by the mermaid-shaped mailbox.

“Huh, I thought we’d be the last ones to get here,” Johnny commented, putting his car into park as all of you starting unbuckling and getting ready to get out. Taeil and Doyoung climbed out of their own car to greet you all as well. “The others left before us, and we had to pick Y/N and Donghyuck up.”

There was definitely one vehicle missing, the driver of course being the one who had the key to let you into the house.

“Hey, guys!” You hopped out of the SUV, eager to be out of the cramped backseat again. Your legs weren’t quite ready for your leap, though, but Doyoung thankfully caught you in a half-hug, half-save.

“Hey, Y/N, careful,” he chuckled. “It’s gonna be a shitty spring break if you twist your ankle on the first day.”

“What, you and Taeil couldn’t magic me better?” You teased, righting yourself to give the other witch a hug hello.

“Not this time,” Taeil sighed, patting your back. “We’re a bit tired.”

“Oh? Why?” You pulled back from him to look between the two of them with concern.

“Because they made me this,” Johnny suddenly appeared between Taeil and Doyoung, slinging one arm around Taeil and using the other to hold up something around his own neck. It was a single pearl hanging from a leather cord, and he tucked it back under his shirt after he was sure you got a look at it. “An anti-Yuta charm.”

“Ahh, gotcha,” you smiled at the three of them. “They should really hand those out at orientation at school.”

Johnny let out a hearty laugh at that, giving Taeil and Doyoung each a head ruffle before heading off to see what the others were doing with the luggage in the back of his SUV.

After you were sure he was out of earshot, you turned back to the two witches, “That must be a pretty powerful charm to have made the both of you so tired.”

“Well, it’s a bit hard to tell a unicorn no to their face,” Doyoung rolled his eyes. “Especially Taeyong, he’s got those big round pouty eyes, you know? He asked us to make it for Johnny, said the guy was nervous about coming, even if he wasn’t showing it.”

Taeil added, “And Taeyong was right, it is your fault that even happened to Johnny. You put the hex on Yuta in the first place.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Doyoung waved his friend off, paused, then added, “Thank you for helping, Taeil.”

“Speaking of Yuta,” you said loudly, spotting a familiar vehicle in the distance, at the bottom of the hill.

The whole group burst into noisy jeers and complaints at the old blue truck as it got nearer and nearer, until Yuta had pulled all the way around and parked in the space Taeil left empty for him in the driveway. The heckles finally quieted down when the siren climbed out of his truck to glare at you all.

“Alright!” He held his hands up in a quiet-down gesture. “Sorry to keep you guys waiting. But we’re here now.”

“What took you guys so long?” Johnny asked, starting to help the three newcomers unload the bed of the truck.

“You get lost or something?” Donghyuck teased.

Yuta immediately whirled around on the vampire, “Jaehyun, I swear to God, snitches get stitches.”

A silence fell over everybody, so quiet you swore you could’ve heard a pin drop if not for the quiet background noise of the ocean. Jaehyun was standing on the opposite side of the truck bed, holding an umbrella with one hand to cast a shadow over his face, maintaining Yuta’s eye contact with entirely neutral features.

One.

Two.

“Yuta got pulled over.”

Raucous laughter erupted around you, you yourself cackling so hard your sides hurt.

“That’s it! I’m not inviting you in!” Yuta waggled a finger at Jaehyun, then threw his hands up as he kept ranting. “Hang upside down off the roof and sleep outside for all I fucking care!”

You were doubled over now, lightheaded as you grabbed your knees and tears sprung to your eyes. Taeyong covered his mouth as he giggled, Johnny was leaning against the side of the truck for support, Donghyuck had sprouted bright yellow marigolds along his arms, Mark was rolling around clutching his stomach on the asphalt—which you imagined would’ve been too hot for anybody who wasn’t cold-blooded, Doyoung and Taeil held onto each other to stay upright, and when you looked at Jungwoo, you saw that his hair was flashing back and forth between brown and light pink like a twinkling star. Your cackles lightened up to soft chuckles as you couldn’t help but be transfixed by the image of the fairy’s head thrown back in joy, eyes crinkled into delighted crescents, and laughs that sounded like music reaching your ears.

“What— What did you even do, dude?” Johnny managed to ask.

“I was going like two over the speed limit, okay?” Yuta huffed, crossing his arms.

“Oh yeah, I’m sure it was only ‘like two,’” Donghyuck snorted, standing over Mark as he waited for the basilisk to finish recovering from his laughing fit. The dryad offered out a hand to help yank him back onto two feet again.

“So did you get a ticket?” Taeil called out as he grabbed his luggage from his car.

“Nope!” Yuta announced proudly.

“Oh please tell me you siren charmed your way out of a ticket,” Doyoung said hopefully, hoisting a bag onto his shoulder.

“I would never!” The siren cried out in offense, then pointed to Taeyong. “Taeyong cried a little. Cop felt so bad he let us go with a warning!”

“Is this what those legendary unicorn tears are for? Skirting traffic laws?” You laughed, following everyone up towards the entry.

“I can’t believe you’ll cry to get Yuta out of a ticket but you won’t give me one little vial of your tears!” Doyoung shook Taeyong’s shoulder as he complained.

Taeyong elbowed the witch in the side, “Yeah and this is why! You don’t know how to ask for things nicely!”

Doyoung truly had a special talent, being the only person you’d ever met who was able to rile up the normally patient unicorn so quickly. As their usual bickering escalated into jabs and slaps and kicks, you went to try to duck away from the fray, being directly between and behind them, right in the line of fire.

“Hey, you two! Watch my face!” You warned, holding up an arm defensively in front of you.

“Do I need to come back there and separate you three?” Johnny warned from where he and Yuta were standing at the front door. The rest of you were in a line of some sort leading down the wooden walkway onto the drive.

“Three?!” You repeated indignantly. “What did I do?”

“No, Johnny,” Taeyong mumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Whatever,” Doyoung huffed, letting up on the little fight too. “Bet your tears would make weak ass potions anyway.”

“Oh my God, you’re actual children,” you whispered to yourself. With their backs to you and each other, you were free to mimic like you were strangling them, “I’m gonna wring your goddamn necks one of these days.”

There was a giggle from beside you, and you hadn’t even realized that you’d ended up squished next to Jungwoo until right then. When you looked over, he was already looking at you with a smile on his face, and the split second of eye contact warmed you even more than the sunshine.

“What’s the hold-up, Yuta?” Donghyuck yelled from the very back.

“Door’s— just— a— bit— stuck—” Every word from Yuta was punctuated by the siren ramming his shoulder against said door. “God— fuckin— Oh!” He suddenly stumbled forward as the door finally gave way. “There we fuckin’ go!”

Everyone rushed in, stopping just inside of the living room. Well, almost everyone.

“Yuta.” Jaehyun was still standing on the welcome mat outside.

“Did you think I was kidding, you little tick?”

“Yuta,” Taeyong sighed.

“Fine,” Yuta huffed, dragging out the word. “Jaehyun, please come in.”

As Jaehyun lowered his umbrella and stepped in, you looked around where you would be staying for the next week. It was cozy, the beachy aesthetics perfectly encapsulated in the kitschy décor that was plastered all around the living room and attached kitchenette that you’d landed in. But it was kind of… small.

“Hey, Yuta?” Taeil turned to the siren.

Yuta shut the door behind Jaehyun, “Yeah?”

“There’s enough space for all of us to sleep, right?”

“What? Of course… I think.”

“Feels like we’re kids again,” Donghyuck sighed wistfully. “Twin beds, no privacy, I get to listen to your snoring all night.”

“At least we got beds,” you pointed out, heaving your suitcase up onto your own narrow mattress.

You two had been given what looked like a kids’ room, two twin beds on white wicker bed frames with matching nightstands, and a mural of fantastical sea life painted on the walls with friendly, animated faces. Some of the others weren’t so lucky. Taeil and Doyoung got a similar setup to you and Donghyuck, bunkbeds, with Jungwoo on an air mattress on the floor; Taeyong and Yuta were sharing the king bed in the master bedroom; Jaehyun and Johnny had bravely taken the couches (Jaehyun rightly pointed out that he didn’t sleep much anyway), with Mark’s air mattress on the living room floor.

“And nobody on the floor that we have to worry about stepping on in the middle of the night.”

“You know what we should do?”

Donghyuck looked at you with a conspiratorial grin, “Sleepover protocol?”

You nodded firmly, “Sleepover protocol.”

And a succinct ten minutes later, your beds and nightstands had been pushed together, the sheets pulled taut over the posts and lamps, vines and branches supporting the construction where needed: a blanket fort, the form of which had been perfected over years of sleepovers growing up. As you laid inside shoulder-to-shoulder with Donghyuck, you looked up at the ceiling of the fort, watching as he sprouted flowers and leaves along it.

Once he’d finished, he held up his hand expectantly, and you immediately gave him a satisfyingly snappy high-five.

A couple soft knocks came at the open bedroom door, followed by a voice, “Hey, Y/N— Woah!” Jungwoo’s sentence stopped short as he took in the scene before him. “You two got that up quick.”

Donghyuck looked over at you, a mischievous smirk already on his lips, before he innocently replied to the fairy, “Oh, and you should see the inside! Here, Jungwoo, I was just about to go see if Mark needed any help with his air mattress anyway!”

You darted your hand out to pinch him as he sat up on his knees. He hissed in pain as you managed to get some skin, swatted your fingers away, then crawled out of the fort. A second later the entire room mysteriously got darker, then Jungwoo’s head popped in at the entrance to the fort, playful glint in his eye, “Is there a password?”

You shook your head as best you could lying down, “Hyuck and I didn’t get to make one before he just ditched me.”

“What kind of blanket fort is this with no password?” Jungwoo clicked his tongue disapprovingly as he scooched into the empty space your friend had created, his right side now pressed against your left.

“Well then help me think of one, in case anyone else comes barging in,” you nudged his arm that was beside yours.

“I didn’t come barging in, I knocked.”

“Mhm.”

“You know what else this fort needs? In addition to a password.”

“What?”

“Some lights.”

“Okay well Donghyuck apparently turned the lights off on his way out, don’t fault the fort for that.”

“I was thinking something more like…” Jungwoo raised his left hand, and you watched as his fingertips danced across the flowers on the ceiling of the fort. In their wake, small dots of glowing golden light were nestled between the petals and leaves of the plants. You couldn’t help the small gasp that left your mouth at the utterly enchanting sight above you, it looked like a sea of tiny, twinkling stars had been captured and put in a field of flowers just for you.

You’d never really seen Jungwoo do much magic in the time that you’d known him. Sure, he owned the odd magic item here and there, pretty much all your friends did thanks to Taeil and Doyoung, or by way of their own magical community. And of course, the changing hair color, but that seemed more accidental or incidental rather than intentional. But you were hard pressed to think of a time that Jungwoo had really put his fairy powers on display in any distinguished capacity in front of you.

“Woos, this is… It’s unbelievable. Just beautiful…” You sighed out, reaching a hand up towards one of the flowers directly above you—a pink carnation—before you dropped it back down to rest on your stomach, thinking that touching the mysterious magical light might be a bad idea. Turning your head to the side, you looked over at Jungwoo, only to nearly jump out of your skin when you saw him already looking at you. Your noses were nearly touching, and you jerked your head back a tiny bit to regain your bearings.

You snapped your gaze back up to the ceiling quickly, “Uhm, so, what were you coming to our room for? It sounded like you needed something.”

“Johnny and them wanted help unpacking all the cars, so I was sent to get you and Donghyuck. But if he went out there looking for Mark, Johnny definitely found him, so…” Jungwoo shrugged. “I think we can stay here for a little while longer.”

It wasn’t until late afternoon that everything was finally together enough for you all to head down to the beach. Most of the group had taken off by the time you’d emerged from your room in your swimsuit and coverup. Jaehyun was still in the living room, standing at the little breakfast bar that separated the couches from the kitchenette. He was rubbing presumably sunscreen onto his skin, the tube set onto the counter beside him. As you walked by him towards the fridge, you were able to spot the little cartoon vampire fangs on the black bottle—special formula to keep him from burning to a crisp.

The fridge was empty save for some mysterious jars filled with a glittering purple liquid which you chalked up to Doyoung and Taeil, and therefore opted to leave alone.

“Did the others bring a cooler down with all the drinks?” You turned around to ask the vampire.

He nodded as he went to get his ears and neck next. Most of him would be covered by his t-shirt and swim trunks, at least.

“Don’t forget the tops of your feet.”

“Thank you.” He bent down to slather up from the knees down as well.

“Are we the last ones?”

Jaehyun nodded again.

“Alright, ready to go? Need anything else? Hat? Sunglasses? Umbrella?”

He grabbed a pair of dark, mirrored sunglasses that were also on the counter, his sunscreen, then gave you a nod. You nodded back, slid on your sunglasses, and shouldered your bag of beach items before moving to open the back door for your friend. Jaehyun hissed as soon as he stepped out, and you squinted your eyes as you did too. You could see your friends all along the beach already. A couple large umbrellas were set up with several beach chairs, folding chairs, and towels under them; a volleyball net was being put up; a firepit was in fact a little further down the beach; there were some little dots in the water that could be heads bobbing along with the waves; and a couple figures were chasing each other in the surf. From this distance, you were pretty sure those last two were Donghyuck and Mark.

“You know, Jaehyun, you don’t do much to dispel those vampire stereotypes,” you patted him on the back as you started down the boardwalk-lined walkway. “Hissing when you see the sun, being the weirdest fucking dude in the room.”

“I’m not trying to dispel any stereotypes,” he deadpanned. “The Sun hurts my eyes.”

“Why did you come to Cape Solaria then?”

It was then that one of the people who had been sitting down under an umbrella turned around, and you were able to identify them as Taeyong, who gave the two of you a big wave paired with an even bigger smile. You waved back. Jaehyun lifted his hand for a moment before dropping it back down by his side.

“All of you were coming. And I think… I think it would’ve made Taeyong sad, if we weren’t all together.”

You looked over at the vampire thoughtfully, and saw that same blank expression as always. But this time you decided that you could see some kind of fondness there, for Taeyong, for you, for all of your friends. You always joked about Jaehyun being emotionless, but you knew that he was human just a few years ago, had all the same mushy stuff churning inside him then as you did now. He didn’t talk a lot, so when you got to hear these rare moments from him, you were reminded of that fact. And you had to think that no, he wasn’t emotionless, he just felt it and expressed it differently than you were expecting him to.

“I think you’re right, Jaehyun,” you grabbed his forearm to steady yourself to take off your flip-flops now that you’d reached the sand. You let out a sigh at the warm sand between your toes. Giving his cold limb an appreciative squeeze, you then let it go, “Thank you, for coming with us. I’m glad you’re here, and I know Taeyong and the rest of the guys are, too.”

The vampire was quiet as the two of you finished your short walk to join the others who were under the two colorful umbrellas. Taeyong had saved a fully-shaded chair for Jaehyun. You plopped your bag down on a towel that you recognized as Donghyuck’s.

Taeil was on a reclining beach chair, floppy hat brim pulled slightly down over his face as if he were taking a nap. In just a pair of swim trunks, the ritual tattoos on his torso, arms, and neck were on full display in all their inky blackness. Thick, bold, intricate strokes that reminded you of tree branches winding across his skin. What you did know about them was mostly gathered from context clues, what the two witches had freely brought up in conversation. Taeil relied a lot more on grounding and building his internal power through long, studied rituals, which you figured was why he had more tattoos than Doyoung, who favored quick incantations—i.e., hexes, charms, and curses. The latter was magic that could be drawn from external magical sources like certain crystals or metals, hence Doyoung’s usual menagerie of jewelry.

The cooler was at the witch’s feet, and you flipped it open to root around through the ice before securing your drink of choice. Turning around to face the ocean, you took in a deep breath of the salty air. It really was spring break. Mark and Donghyuck were splashing each other in the shallows, about shin-deep in the water. A little further out, you could now see that Doyoung was treading water, watching another figure that was moving around with a speed and agility that made you stop and look with awe.

Yuta was fully in his element here, quite literally swimming circles around Doyoung. Holding up a hand to block out some of the Sun and get a better look, you swore Yuta’s legs were gone, and replaced by a… yep, that was definitely a tail, long, thin, and powerful. It was the same silvery iridescent that you had seen peeks of with his other scales, catching blue, purple, and pink in the Sun when it popped up out of the water. Two large fins were at the end of it, and a dorsal fin went from his still-human back down through where it turned into the tail.

You slowly walked towards the water to get a better look, mindful of Mark and Donghyuck’s splash war that had now turned into water wrestling. As Yuta slowed to instead do some rather ominous circles around Doyoung, you noted more fins had grown along his forearms as well. It looked like some gill slits were on his neck, too.

“Yuta, if you drown me, I swear to Hecate, I will become a ghost and haunt your fishy ass,” Doyoung went to splash the siren, who simply dove underwater, then popped up behind the witch.

“And I promised to everybody possible, including Hecate, that I wasn’t going to drown you,” Yuta pointed out, beginning to circle him again, an absolutely devilish grin on his lips. “That doesn’t mean I can’t play with you a little.”

“Ugh, you make everything sound so weird, can’t you just say that we’re swimming?”

“Nope!” Yuta dove down again with a flick of his tail.

“Shit! Where’d he go?!”

You laughed, taking a sip of your drink before there were suddenly two wet hands over your sunglasses and you let out a screech, “Jesus Christ!”

“Close!” A familiar voice said cheerfully. “Guess again.”

“Hyuck!” You jutted an elbow behind you, satisfied when you made contact with wet skin, and heard a grunt.

“Correct!” He wasn’t as cheery this time, hands still over your eyes. “You know, that would’ve hurt if it weren’t for my six-pack that I’ve been honing at the gym all year.”

You snorted, “Your what that you’ve been honing at the where?”

“Fair,” your friend sighed. “Anyway, are you ready?”

You were immediately on edge for whatever he was about to do to you. Splashing you, throwing you in the water, pushing your head underwater, any number of things immediately came to mind.

“For what?”

His hands suddenly clamped down over your head as he forcibly turned you around, and you grabbed onto his arm for support as you yelped and protested this, the sand underneath you uneven, especially with you currently being blinded. Donghyuck’s voice was closer to your ear as he whispered, “Well, to see Jungwoo shirtless, of course.”

“Oh God, Hyuck! Shut the fuck up!” You blindly threw a hand back in an attempt to smack some part of his face, but just found empty air this time. “We’re not in middle school anymore! I can handle seeing a dude at the beach!”

“Ok-ay…” He replied in a sing-song voice, clearly not believing you, at the same time that he finally took his hands off your face.

You had to blink your eyes a few times to readjust to the brightness of the sunny afternoon. Donghyuck had pointed you straight at the volleyball net that was now fully constructed, where Johnny was on one side. The human was holding a volleyball against his hip with one hand as he conversed with Jungwoo on the other side of the net, who was in a pair of yellow swim trunks and a white tank top.

“Hey, Y/N!” Johnny waved at you.

If this were a teen movie, there would be a record scratch right here. Your stomach plummeted as you frantically tried to calculate how long exactly you had been staring in their direction. You gave a meek wave as Jungwoo spun around to look in your direction too.

“Y/N!” Jungwoo called out, this time waving you over. Oh great, no getting out of this one.

You weakly shuffled over towards them, keeping your gaze on literally anything except Jungwoo’s bare torso. “What’s up?”

“Do you—”

Jungwoo was cut off by a shriek from the water.

“Yuta! Shark!” Doyoung yelled as he paddled back towards the shore.

“Yeah, this is Bear,” Yuta seemed entirely unfazed by the small dorsal fin meandering along around him.

The witch stopped to look at him in disbelief, “Bear the shark?”

“Blacktip shark, if you want to be specific,” the siren shrugged. “And he’s just a baby. He’s barely three feet.”

“Oh, fuck this,” Doyoung shook his head, resuming his journey back to the beach. “You and Bear have fun out here by yourselves.”

Returning your focus to the two men in front of you, you looked up at Jungwoo questioningly, “Uhm, so…?”

“Did you want to play?” Jungwoo asked.

“Oh, no, Woos, that’s okay,” you shook your head quickly.

“Really? You were looking over here pretty intently,” he pointed out, and the little half-smirk that played across his lips almost looked knowing. He leaned down towards you, momentarily blotting out the sun, “Seems like you wanted something. If not volleyball then…?”

Oh, you needed to get the hell out of here. Between Jungwoo’s everything, Johnny’s ‘oh really?’ head tilt, and the heat, you very much felt like you could pass out any second.

“Nah, you know, I don’t think three people would really work for teams anyway,” you rushed to say, scratching anxiously at the back of your neck.

“Hey Taeil!” Johnny bellowed out over yours and Jungwoo’s heads, cutting off whatever the fairy was about to say in response.

The witch flipped up the brim his hat to squint at the three of you, “Eh?”

Johnny held up the volleyball, “Wanna play? We need a magic fourth to make it even!”

“What? Big strong Johnny can’t beat one fairy and a human all on his own?” Taeil sighed as he started meandering over. “You need little ol’ me to come help?”

Jungwoo’s eyes sparkled mischievously as he straightened back up to address Taeil, “So we’re allowing magic then?”

“Only on the ball, not the players,” the witch laid out the ground rules.

“How about on the ball, and on you and me? No magic on Johnny and Y/N,” Jungwoo countered.

Taeil took a moment to contemplate this, then nodded, “Fine.”

You caught Johnny’s gaze, his wide eyes mirroring your own. Accepting that you weren’t getting out of this, you set your drink down by Jungwoo’s shirt.

“So how will we know who wins?” You questioned.

Taeil and Johnny exchanged a glance before the human answered confidently, “Oh, we’ll know.”

You narrowed your eyes at them. “Okay… but just in case, first to ten?”

“First to ten.” Johnny confirmed, sticking his hand through a small tear in the net. You shook it firmly.

As you all backed away from the net to take your places, he tossed the volleyball over the net to you.

“Here. You can serve first.”

“How kind,” you scoffed as you caught it, then turned to your teammate. “Do you want to serve, or should I?”

“You go for it, Y/N,” Jungwoo said, eyes focused over your shoulder. “I’ll be doing a little defense.”

“A little… oh.” You turned and saw Taeil and Johnny conversing much like you and Jungwoo were, the smaller looking over at the ball in your hand. “What do you think he’s gonna do?”

“Nothing you have to worry about,” the fairy patted the top of your head. “You and Johnny are off-limits, remember?”

“I know…” you mumbled, looking down at the volleyball in your hands intently. “Just wondering.”

Backing all the way up to the designated edge of the makeshift court, you waited until everyone looked like they were in place, then tossed the ball up to serve. It started a clear arc heading over the net towards Johnny, who was getting ready to set it back up, until it suddenly changed direction, veering off towards Taeil. The witch got his hands up at the last second, bumping it back towards his teammate.

Johnny hit back over the net, to which Jungwoo set it high for you.

“Y/N!”

“Got it!” You jumped up, spiking the ball down over the net as hard as you could.

Taeil went to save it, but his foot seemed to catch on something as he fell to the ground, landing just short of it. You had to hold back your laughter at the comical trip and tumble that he’d taken, sand flying up around him.

“Hell yeah, Y/N!” Jungwoo came up to you with two hands up, and you immediately slammed your palms against his in a satisfying double high-five. He laced his fingers through yours before you could pull back, a bright grin on his face as he gave your hands a squeeze then let them go.

“Taeil, are you okay?” You checked in on your friend as he brushed the sand off his knees and you all reset your positions.

“Oh, I’m great, Y/N. I’m having fun, promise,” he assured you, then focused a hard stare on Jungwoo. He pointed at the fairy accusatorily, “You, on the other hand, are not about to be!”

“Try me!” Jungwoo yelled back, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Johnny gave you another bewildered look. You shrugged; magic teasing and taunts were commonplace at playdates growing up with Donghyuck, it wasn’t unheard of for the two of you to alter the rules of common kids games to accommodate his powers. This was just the first time you’d seen it at this magnitude of power. Well, sort of. It was the first time you’d seen adults do it like this.

Johnny served this time, and while the ball was initially going straight for the space in between you and Jungwoo, you backed away to let Jungwoo lunge forward for it. A few more passes between the two teams happened without much incident, until Johnny went to pass it to Taeil, but way overshot it.

“Shit! Sorry— oh.” Johnny’s apology turned into wide-eyed surprise as the ball suddenly disappeared into thin air.

Then reappeared directly above Jungwoo’s head. It plummeted straight down, bouncing off his head, hitting the net, and coming to a final rest on the ground. You didn’t bother with the volleyball, rushing over to check on the fairy as he fell to his knees, holding his head.

“Ooh! Are you alright, Woos?” You asked, wincing sympathetically.

“No,” he bemoaned, eyes screwed shut. “I think I need... I need someone to... to kiss me better.”

You could feel yourself glitching out in real time, your hand that had been reaching out towards his head freezing in mid-air, your eyes blinking in rapid succession as you tried to grasp what he’d just said.

After two beats of neither of you moving, perfect statues, like the weirdest Baroque painting you could find at a museum, Jungwoo squinted one of his eyes open to look at you. You held his eye contact, stupefied.

“Hey! If you’re not concussed, can we get a move on with the game?” Johnny called out, startling you into pulling your hand back like you’d been burned. “We’re 1 to 1 and I’d really like to get back to beating you guys!”

“We’ll finish our melodrama another time,” Jungwoo whispered to you before jumping to his feet. He patted you on the back, “Now come on, I need my superstar partner back!”

You shook your head as you jogged back over to your side of the court, desperately trying to clear your mind. Volleyball. Volleyball. Not kissing Jungwoo. Just volleyball. Definitely not Jungwoo grabbing you by the waist and—

“Y/N!”

You looked up at the sound of Jungwoo’s voice, just in time to see the ball sailing over the net towards you. A little slower than it should’ve been, you realized. But that gave you the extra split second you needed to react, bumping it over to the fairy. He sent it back to you, and you leapt up to spike it back down. A satisfying wave of sand parted around the volleyball as it struck the ground like a small meteor, Johnny missing his save as it flew past him with way more force and speed than you had imparted on it.

“Two-one,” you pointed out as Taeil set up for his serve.

Now with your head sufficiently back in the game, you and Jungwoo kept racking up points as the match continued. Four-two, seven-three, eight-three, nine-four.

Jungwoo and Taeil were at maximum magical shenanigans now, and the entire group had gathered around the court to watch. It was a chaotic cacophony of tripping, speeding volleyballs, and ignoring the laws of physics and plate tectonics, all interspersed with very mundane passes by you and Johnny.

You hit the volleyball over. It wasn’t a perfect set-up, nor a perfect hit by you either. The ball was sailing directly in front of Taeil, he could just take two steps forward and get it, no magic necessary. Except as he went to do so, a circle of red-capped mushrooms appeared around him, and he dropped his foot in a childish stomp. The volleyball hit the ground, rolling to a stop at the gathered crowd’s feet.

“A fairy ring?! Seriously, Jungwoo?!” Taeil huffed, throwing his hands up.

But you were buzzing with way too much excitement to pay him any mind. That was ten points.

“Yes!” You pumped a fist in the air, bouncing up and down as you turned around, seeking out your teammate.

Jungwoo was beaming, once again holding up two hands for you, and you high-fived him, expectantly leaving your palms resting against his for a split-second after. He laced his fingers with yours, squeezing your hands even tighter this time. You swore his grin was brighter than the Sun.

He let your hands go only to nonchalantly throw an arm around your shoulders, half-dragging and half-leading you up to the net to address your opponents.

“I’m sorry, Johnny, what was that about you beating us?” Jungwoo teased.

The human chuckled, looking over at the pair of you with a grin, “My bad. Good job, guys. You two are good together.”

“Jungwoo.” Taeil cut in sternly, tapping his foot impatiently. He was still encircled by mushrooms. “The fairy ring.”

“Right. Sorry!” Jungwoo said brightly, and the fungi disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.

“No you’re not.” The witch shook his head.

“All’s fair in love and sport.”

You squinted up at him, “That’s not the—”

The four of you were suddenly swarmed by the others, either jeering at Taeil and Johnny for losing, congratulating you and Jungwoo on your win, or also jeering at you and Jungwoo for winning. It was a mass of teasing, pushing, pulling, yelling, and shaking. One particular tug from Yuta and Donghyuck knocked you loose from under Jungwoo’s arm, but you were too busy laughing to really care.

As the Sun began to set, you all congregated around the firepit and the four benches there. Yuta, Johnny, and Taeyong were looking very much like three dads at a barbeque as they prepared the fire itself— Johnny insisted on doing it the human way for “authenticity” instead of one of the witches magicking a flame. Taeil and Doyoung were grabbing the s’mores ingredients from the house while Jungwoo, Jaehyun, and Mark chatted as they watched the three preparing the wood. You and Donghyuck were sat together on another bench, giggling as you played with a little sandpiper that had been following the dryad around since his arrival. The bird hopped from your hands to Donghyuck’s, then back.

“Thank Pan it’s not seagulls this time.” You gingerly stroked its head as it perched on your friend’s shoulder. Usually you wouldn’t dare to touch or approach wild animals on your own, but they all liked Donghyuck, and he made sure they were never in distress from your interactions.

You remembered coming to the Cape with Donghyuck and your parents as a kid, and instead of a cute sandpiper, he had instead befriended some obnoxious seagulls.

“Hey, those guys were great,” Donghyuck scoffed. “It’s not my fault you didn’t get their jokes.”

“And it’s not my fault that I don’t have a telepathic connection with animals.” You scoffed. “Is this one a comedian too?”

“No, she’s a quiet one. Just chillin’ out with us.”

Johnny let out a loud whoop, and you looked up to spot a little flame starting in the very heart of the pit. The three of them all exchanged enthusiastic high-fives and pats on the back.

Doyoung and Taeil returned soon after with all the s’mores ingredients, as well as some more drinks. The cooler had already been emptied earlier in the evening. You took whatever drink Doyoung pushed into your hand, and the marshmallow on a stick Taeil put in your other hand.

Jungwoo ended up sitting next to you at some point, knee bumping against yours every so often, you didn’t remember when that happened, but everyone was talking and laughing as the fire roared. Your face was warmed by the flames as you rotated your marshmallow, watching it turn golden. You’d lost track of what number this was.

“Can’t believe we get a whole week here,” you sighed contentedly, watching over all your friends having fun.

Jungwoo was quiet, and you were about to look at him, except your marshmallow caught fire, and you pulled it back quickly to blow it out. He laughed from beside you, and you glanced over to catch a glimpse of his smile, glowing by the light of the fire. You found that he was already watching you.

You diverted your eyes to grab your plate and assemble the s’more. “Do you want this one, Woos?”

“I’ll take the next one, Y/N. Thanks.”

Lifting the treat up, you took a bite, the melted chocolate and marshmallow immediately oozing out the sides. After finishing it, you were about to grab whatever was left of your drink when Jungwoo touched your arm.

“Y/N, hold on.”

“Hm?” You turned back to looked up at him.

Then Jungwoo’s hand was gently gripping your chin, his thumb swiping at the corner of your mouth and just barely grazing over the edge of your bottom lip. His hand was gone as quick as it had appeared, leaving a hot buzz under your skin in the wake of his touch. You couldn’t pull your eyes from him as he then brought his thumb up to his lips, cleaning off the digit. Your entire body was thrumming now. Hot, hotter than the fire was making you. His eyes glittered, and it definitely didn’t remind you of craft store glitter this time.

“You had chocolate on your face,” he explained, his voice almost sounding like he was teasing you. But this wasn’t like his usual jokes, there was an unfamiliar tension. He didn’t giggle after.

Your tongue instinctively darted out to lick that same spot, and you could taste the faint remnants of the chocolate bar used for the s’more. You swore his eyes followed the movement.

“Th-thanks, Woos,” you stuttered. Grabbing another marshmallow from your plate, you were in a daze as you said, “Here, I’ll make yours now.”

When the fire was eventually put out, chairs and umbrellas packed up, and the less tipsy of you had helped the more drunk of you into bed, you could finally retire to your blanket fort with Donghyuck. But no matter how late it was, how physically tired you felt, you couldn’t sleep. You knew your roommate wasn’t asleep yet either, he’d just put his phone down a couple minutes ago.

You stared up at the ceiling of your fort, at the dimming dots that Jungwoo had put up that afternoon, and let out a deep sigh. “I feel like I’m going crazy, Hyuck.”

The mattress creaked under him as he shifted onto his side. “Why?”

“Jungwoo…”

He snorted. “Hate to be the one to break this to you: You’ve been crazy for him since the fall.”

“I know,” you whined half-heartedly, not even having it in you to smack him around a little like usual. “But usually he just exists near me and I melt into a puddle. Today, I swear it felt like I was going to die.”

“Oh, at the volleyball game?”

“You saw that?”

“Y/N, it was hard not to. If he were a werewolf, I would’ve thought he was scenting you.”

“Uh…” You completely lost your train of thought, eyes focusing and unfocusing on the lights above you.

Donghyuck snapped his fingers in front of your face, “Earth to Y/N.”

“Stop it,” you shoved his hand away.

“Oh there we go, you’re back.”

“Anyway, it wasn’t just what you saw at the volleyball game.”

And so you recounted every weird little thing that happened just that day with Jungwoo to your friend. The car ride, the fort, the volleyball game before Donghyuck started watching, the goddamn s’mores. If you were talking to anybody other than your best friend, you would’ve been mortified to relay all this to him, to admit both how badly all this had affected you and that you’d remembered every single detail of every single incident.

“Y/N.” The dryad said calmly after you had finished.

“Yes?” You held your breath, ready to be told that you were in fact crazy, and getting worked up over nothing, and desperately needed to get your head screwed back on properly.

“You want to kiss him so bad you’re making yourself look stupid. Of course he was flirting with you.”

And somehow being validated was even worse.

You covered your face with your hands, shaking your head back and forth, “Nonononono.”

“What’s the issue here? You’ve been into him without making any moves for a few months now, and he’s like… very obviously showing interest.”

“I needed you to tell me I was wrong, Hyuck! Not fuel my stupid daydreams! God, I’m going to be absolutely delusional now.”

“Or, I'm right—as I usually am—and you can finally do something about it.”

You let out a prolonged noise that was something between a whine and a groan, crossing your arms over your chest.

Donghyuck mimicked the sound you’d made. “I’m confused, do you actually want to date him or not? I can’t tell sometimes.”

“I do, I do,” you said. “I just… I don’t know. What if he’s just being nice? My headphones had died, you know, he just didn’t want me to be bored on that long car ride. And the fort, I mean you and I are sleeping in here together and I’m not accusing you of wanting to date me. Then the volleyball game, we’re friends and we had just won, you know, he was probably just excited and he’s a sweet guy, he's kind of touchy in general with everyone, right?”

Your words were met with silence, and you braced yourself for whatever opinion Donghyuck had on your rant. But as the silence dragged on, you looked over at him. His eyes were shut, shoulders rising and falling with each breath as he was comfortably tucked under his blanket.

You couldn’t even be mad at him, giving him a fond smile, “Yeah... Goodnight, Hyuck.”

SUNDAY

You were one of the first ones up that morning, and ate breakfast with the earlier risers: Taeil, Doyoung, Jaehyun, and Johnny. More were beginning to stir throughout the house as the first of you finished breakfast and cleared out of the kitchen to make room for the next wave. The two witches caught up to you in the narrow hallway that held all the bedrooms and one bathroom.

“Hey, Y/N,” Taeil said. “We’re going out, wanna come?”

“Sure, where are you going?” You questioned, pressing to one wall to allow a zombified Donghyuck to walk by.

“There’s a coven nearby that runs an apothecary downtown we want to check out.”

“Taeil also wants to get an invite to their dawn sacraments next Sunday,” Doyoung snorted.

“And you don’t?” Taeil scoffed back.

Doyoung’s silence was answer enough.

“Yeah, I’d love to come!” You nodded enthusiastically. “But are you sure you want me to? Or that I’m like, allowed to?”

“Of course!” The older reassured you.

Doyoung added, “Just don’t touch something if you don’t know what it is.”

“To be safe.”

It was a short ride into downtown Cape Solaria, which was comprised of just a couple small cross streets. Colorfully painted storefronts with wooden signs for a candy shop, flower shop, bakery, several different restaurants, bar and pool hall, among other things. And tucked at the end of all of them, a simple sign that just said Apothecary. Street parking was easy to find, and you wondered if it was always like that or just because you were there so early in the morning.

You kept close to your friends in the store. The aisles were narrow, as it seemed like the owners had packed as many shelving units in here as possible. They were filled with jars of herbs, vials of liquids, and bowls of crystals. Some things were familiar to you, some were not. You kept your hands to yourself nevertheless.

Taeil and Doyoung would occasionally pick something up and show it to the other, and they would either nod or shake their head as to whether it would be purchased. You knew the two of them had been friends for some time, but you realized then that you didn’t actually know for how long.

“Can I ask you guys something?” You spoke up from where you were beside Taeil, who was perusing some jars of various powders. Doyoung was examining some of the larger crystal formations.

“Can I ask you something first?” Taeil countered.

“Oh, sure. It’s only fair.”

“Is your question about somebody?”

“Uh, yeah?”

They looked over their shoulders at each other, matching smirks growing on their faces before turning back to their individual sides of the aisle.

“Of course, Y/N,” Taeil answered for them.

Opting not to address that little moment, you went ahead with your real question. “So how did you two meet?”

Doyoung immediately hissed, “Taeil, I swear I will—”

“What, Doie? Hex me?” Taeil laughed. “You really need to try to talk things out with people before jumping right to hexing. This is how you nearly get your friend drowned in your bathtub.”

“Yeah, whatever,” he grumbled back.

“I’ll take that as a concession that I’m right.” The older hummed happily. “Anyway, Y/N, to answer your question, we belong to the same coven back home. So Doyoung and I have known each other since we were kids, kind of like you and Donghyuck.”

“If you can call two families a coven. In our town the only witches are my family and Taeil’s. Covens are usually at least five families.”

“And now you and I have got a two-person coven, Doie. It’s not how many, it’s what you are to each other.”

“Gross.”

Taeil rolled his eyes, turning his focus to you, “He knows that, he likes to pretend like he’s still nine years old and believes in cooties or something.”

“Why didn’t you want Taeil to tell me that, Doyoung?” You questioned the younger witch.

“It’s what usually comes next,” Doyoung sighed, picking up a couple black crystals.

“How we came to university.” Taeil offered.

“Oh yeah, if you had a coven back home, why’d you come to college?” You tilted your head. Covens were family for witches, both spiritually and literally. To leave their coven and come to college wasn’t entirely unheard of, but also wasn’t a typical trajectory for young witches.

“I didn’t care about higher education one way or another, but Doyoung really wanted to do it. He didn’t want to go by himself, though. Begged me to come with him.”

Doyoung snapped around, “Fuck the hex, I’m just going to find some duct tape and—”

Taeil kept speaking to you, voice fond as he recalled the memory, “I mean, we grew up in the coven together, that was all we knew, it was scary to leave. I was terrified of leaving our families and coming here. But brave little Doie still wanted to go, so I told him of course I would go with him. We were a coven, after all.”

“I hate when you do that,” Doyoung huffed, moving onto some herbs.

“Do what?” Taeil asked humorously.

“Be nice so I can’t be mean to you. Why can’t you just spike my tea to give me bunny ears so I can put wartweed in your acne cream?”

You couldn’t help but laugh at the image of Doyoung with bunny ears and poor Taeil with warts on his face.

“Because we’re not in middle school anymore,” Taeil grabbed a few small jars. “But if you want to start a prank war, I’m sure Jungwoo would want to get in on it too.”

You all were now going down the next aisle, which was primarily live plants.

“After seeing you get your ass kicked at volleyball yesterday, I would love it if he did,” Doyoung chuckled.

You felt something brush against your arm, and looked down to see a lover’s embrace vine from the top shelf beginning to wind itself around your forearm.

“Ack! No, no,” you said sternly, gently brushing at it. It got the idea, retreating back up to the top shelf. Thankfully it was a young one that hadn’t bloomed yet, so you were actually in your right mind to shoo it off.

Meanwhile, Taeil and Doyoung were still bickering like an old married couple.

“I did not ‘get my ass kicked.’”

“Ten to four, Taeil.”

“Hey—”

“And you kept eating sand too.”

“Not my fault he thought tripping me was just as funny the fifth time as it was the first time.”

“He was right.”

“And my partner—”

“Oh yeah, blame the human,” Doyoung clicked his tongue and shook his head in disapproval.

“Don’t put words in my mouth! All I’m saying is that Johnny played like he thought the ball was going to explode if he hit it too hard. Y/N actually knew how to play off of Jungwoo’s magic.”

Both witches turned back to look at you.

You raised your eyebrows curiously, “Hm? Yeah, I mean, I grew up with plenty of magical hijinks with Donghyuck.”

“And…?” Doyoung prompted you further.

“And… Jungwoo and I are lab partners, so we already work together a bunch, I guess?” You filled in, voice pitched up as if it were all a question, not exactly sure what they were expecting from you.

They were still looking at you.

“Come on, guys, give Johnny a break, I think he’s done pretty well at keeping up with all of us, all things considered. And the poor guy had to deal with Mark molting last year.”

“Speaking of—” Taeil peered around, “Have you guys seen rattlesnake skin?”

MONDAY

A crack of thunder woke you up that morning. You groaned, pulling your blanket over your eyes and rolling over. Instead of hitting Donghyuck like you’d expected, you instead just found more empty space. Squinting one eye open, you saw that the fort was entirely vacant of your dryad roommate.

With a frown, you shimmied out of the fort, wrapping one of your blankets around yourself to go look for him. He wasn’t in your room at all.

More thunder boomed outside and lightning flashed, illuminating the house as you shuffled through the hall. Johnny and Mark were peacefully asleep in the living room. And that’s where you found Donghyuck, sitting silently at the kitchen table with Jaehyun, watching the rain pelt against the windows.

Their backs were to you, and as you got closer you could see that the dryad had a steaming mug in front of him.

“Hey,” you whispered, gently setting your hand on his shoulder.

“Oh, hey, Y/N,” Donghyuck’s hand fidgeted with the handle. “I couldn’t sleep, and didn’t want to wake you up by tossing and turning.”

You squeezed his shoulder, “Thanks.”

The dryad always got sort of antsy with big storms like this. Just like Taeyong’s mood was influenced by the emotions of the people around him, Donghyuck was sensitive to the weather. A storm as tumultuous as this was definitely affecting him.

“So what do you got there?” You referenced his drink.

“Hot chocolate. We didn’t have any milk to mix with the packet though, so I had to use water,” he wrinkled his nose. “I’m going to ask Doyoung to make me some tea when he wakes up.”

“Ooh, that sounds good.”

“Sucks about the beach, though. No way we’ll be able to go anywhere in this.”

“Oh, I’m sure this will blow over by morning,” you rubbed his back soothingly.

The storm raged on all day, leaving the ten of you stuck inside. By lunchtime, you had exhausted all of the board games that you could find in the house, and you were becoming painfully aware of just how tiny the space was with all of you in here for hours on end.

“Bad news, gang,” Johnny announced from the kitchen, where he had gone to start on dinner preparations. If it weren’t for your phones and rumbling stomachs, you wouldn’t even know that it was time for dinner. The storm outside had kept the sky pitch black and devoid of sunlight all day, and the clocks on the stove and TV were each an hour off in different directions, the stove an hour behind and the TV an hour ahead.

Most of you were sprawled out in various places between the breakfast nook, living room, and kitchen table.

“What, Johnny?” Taeyong called back.

“We’re out of beer.”

A chorus of groans erupted around you.

“That’s it!” Yuta stood up from the couch, taking off down the hall. He came back out with a pair of rain boots and thick coat on. “I am not going to be stuck in here for another second sober. I’ll be back.”

“You’re going to get wet,” Johnny frowned.

Yuta stared at him blankly from where his hand was on the door, silvery eyes flashing with the lightning.

Then your human friend finally seemed to realize, “Oh. Right. Get some pizza too, will you?”

And the siren was gone, slamming the door behind him.

You were playing a game of Uno with Mark, Jaehyun, and Donghyuck that was quickly approaching mutinous with regards to stacking +2 cards on top of +4s, when the front door was thrown open again.

Wind and rain blew in with the siren, howling as it whipped by. You got misted by some of it, shivering as the freezing cold spray hit you. Taeil rushed to shut the door behind him as others helped with the three or four twelve-packs he had squeezed under one arm and five boxes of pizza he had balanced on the other hand. Yuta peeled off his heavy raincoat, shaking out his soaking wet white hair after.

“Behold!” He gestured to the spread on the table grandly, charismatic grin on his face. “Dinner. You’re welcome.”

“Thanks, Yuta!” You slammed your Uno cards down and leapt up, grateful to have something else to do.

Everyone else followed your lead, a mad dash for food and drink.

Somewhere between grabbing food and clearing off the coffee table of all the board games, it was decided that a movie night was in order. Which obviously called for popcorn too.

The living room had two sofas, a central coffee table, and Mark’s air mattress. The larger of the two couches was directly facing the TV, and had the air mattress at the foot of it. The other couch was smaller, closer to the size of a loveseat, and oriented perpendicular to the first.

You had already claimed a spot in the middle of the smaller couch, sandwiched in between Johnny and Jungwoo, and happily munching away on your pizza. You were under a cozy blanket, had good food, and were definitely not thinking about Jungwoo’s arm resting on the back of the couch behind you.

At least you weren’t as squished as the others, even with using Mark’s air mattress. Jaehyun, Doyoung, Taeil and Yuta were on the larger couch, while Taeyong and Donghyuck were on the air mattress, fighting back the others’ legs and feet.

Mark walked out of the kitchen with three large bowls of popcorn then, tongue flicking with distaste as he took in the layout before him. “Well, someone’s got to make room.”

“Oh here, Mark,” Johnny offered. He then made deliberate eye contact with you, “I’m sure Jungwoo and Y/N don’t mind squishing in. Right, guys?”

“No, no, c’mon, Y/N. I’m not Jaehyun, I don’t bite,” Jungwoo agreed brightly, and you could feel him shift beside you as he pushed himself further back into the corner of the couch. Holding your plate of pizza with one hand and blanket with the other, you hovered over the cushion as you planned on just scooting over until you were as close to him as you were in the car.

Then hands were on your waist, pulling you towards the fairy, and his voice was by your ear, for only you to hear, “Usually.”

“Well she does.” Donghyuck grumbled loudly. “Still have scars from summer camp.”

“And I’ll do it again, you little shit.” Your threat was hollow, automatic, as you were processing where exactly you had landed in the seat shuffle.

“And I’ll bite all of you if you don’t shut up for the movie,” Jaehyun stated.

The dark room was filled with amicable chatter as the DVD previews began rolling, none of you taking Jaehyun seriously.

You were practically half on Jungwoo’s lap, one leg over his, and part of your back to his chest. That same arm was on the back of the couch again. You didn’t even know what movie they had picked—some mystery thriller maybe?—there was no way you were going to be paying attention now. You just hoped it was going to be holding everyone else’s focus sufficiently.

In an attempt to maintain some semblance of your composure, you released the rest of your blanket from the tight grip you had on it and instead gently laid it over yours and Jungwoo’s laps. To be considerate.

Despite Jaehyun’s earlier warning, there was a fairly steady stream of conversation throughout the movie as everyone would have reactions to a scene, or guesses as to the who the killer was. Speaking of the others, your seating sacrifice at least wasn’t in vain, the basilisk was enthusiastically watching along with everyone else, smacking Johnny’s leg or chest—or one time, face—whenever anything at all happened.

You, however, had no clue what was going on in the movie. All of your concentration was on trying to appear as normal as possible as you were certainly not feeling very normal about your situation. Mark was on the opposite end of the couch, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees as he was enraptured by the movie. Johnny was next to him, reclined back with a beer in hand, caught between laughing at Mark’s reactions and getting as into it as he was. Every so often, part of his shoulder or knee would bump against you, but you barely even registered this. Because then there were you and Jungwoo.

Jungwoo hadn’t moved since the scoot to make room for Mark. You wanted to look over at him, to see if you could gauge anything about how he felt about this whole situation from his face. But then you’d be facing the other guys, and you didn’t want to know if any of them had realized where exactly you were. So you turned your eyes downward instead. You curled your hands into fists under the blanket, nails digging into your palms as you tried to refocus yourself.

If what Donghyuck was saying before was true... then it wasn’t fair to Jungwoo for him to be the only one putting himself out there like this. You could at least try.

Before you could lose your nerve, you reached one of your hands over to where you knew his other hand was resting on his leg under the blanket. You were a little off-target, you found his wrist first, but he seemed to get the idea anyway, turning his arm over to let you lace your fingers with his. Your skin was burning as you gave his hand a tentative squeeze, and you had a bashful but relieved smile when his thumb rubbed over yours in response.

TUESDAY

The storm was gone the next morning, which was obviously cause for celebration. While the storm coming was reason for staying in and drinking, the storm being gone was just as much of a reason for getting even more trashed. But this time on the beach with the bonfire going.

The Sun had set long ago, and you were sat on a bench with Taeil as the two of you watched the others dance to whatever music played from Yuta’s speakers. Johnny was picking the music from his phone, not trusting Yuta to put on music that wouldn’t lure him to his death. He didn’t budge even after it was pointed out that he was wearing his charm from the witches. You yourself didn’t care, you liked Johnny’s party music better than Yuta’s anyway.

You were catching your breath, having previously just been up dancing with everybody else.

“Y/N, can you pass me a seltzer?” Taeil gestured to the cooler by your end of the bench.

“What flavor?” You reached over.

“Surprise me.”

“Well,” you looked into the empty cooler. “Surprise: we’re out.”

He laughed, shaking his head.

You glared up at the others. “Hey! Who took the last drink and didn’t say anything?”

“Boo! Party foul!” Somebody yelled out.

Taeil stood up and grabbed the cooler, “Y/N, come help me grab some more? And also grab Doyoung, he’s being asocial right now.”

You hadn’t even noticed that your other friend had slipped away from the group at some point. “Oh, sure, sure.”

Looking back into the group, you waited to see if you could make eye contact with one specific person. Finally, you caught Jungwoo’s eye, and he raised his eyebrows inquisitively. You mouthed ‘be right back, Woos’ and gestured towards Taeil and the direction of the beach house. He nodded in acknowledgement, giving you a smile that made your stomach do flips.

You turned back to Taeil expectantly, “Okay.”

He seemed about ready to question that little exchange, opening his mouth but didn’t, closing it again and leading the way to the board walkway up to the house.

Neither you nor Jungwoo had talked about nor acknowledged movie night since last night, but you could feel that something was different. It had only been a day, but you were rarely apart. He was always seeking you out for things, at breakfast, on the beach, for the brief trip a few of you had taken into town to get supplies for the bonfire tonight. And you found yourself anxious if you couldn’t see him, looking for him yourself until he was back in your eyesight, immediate relief coming over you. It just felt natural to let Jungwoo know where you were going... for some reason.

Taeil stopped in the kitchen, tossing more ice in the cooler. He didn’t grab the seltzers in the door, however. Instead, he reached for the jars of glittery, lilac liquid that you had spotted on your first day. He put most of them in the cooler, then handed one to you and kept two to himself.

“Come on, this is how we lure Doie out,” he motioned towards the bedrooms with his head.

Leaving the cooler in the kitchen, you followed him to their bedroom. Doyoung was sat cross-legged on the bottom bunk bed, an old book across his lap. He already had his pajamas on, looking fresh out of the shower too.

“No, Taeil,” he said as soon as you two crossed the threshold, not even looking up from his reading.

“Oh, come on, Doyoung, we brought you something,” Taeil plopped down on the air mattress in front of him. He held out a jar to him, and Doyoung’s eyes flicked up to look at it.

He didn’t take it. “We’re breaking out the witch’s brew already?”

You moved to sit down beside Taeil, looking down at your own jar in your hands. You’d heard of witch’s brew before, it was essentially magic Everclear with none of the burn. But you’d never had the guts to try any before, knowing your tolerance to human alcohol plenty well.

Taeil set Doyoung’s down beside his foot before cracking his open and taking a sip, “Why not? We’re celebrating.”

Doyoung made a disgruntled noise, but said nothing more. You curiously opened your jar as well, sniffing cautiously. It didn’t smell like it had any alcohol in it. Taking a small sip, a pleasant, flowery sweetness immediately coated your tongue. It wasn’t too overwhelming, light and refreshing. And, as you swallowed, no burn. If this was as intoxicating as you’d heard, you could see how dangerous this could be to partygoers. You felt like you could easily chug the whole thing right now.

“So, any particular reason you brought a grimoire on spring break?” Taeil asked Doyoung, though you were sure he very much already knew the answer. “We’re supposed to be taking a break from studying.”

“We’re witches, Taeil.”

“So?”

“We’re going to be students of magic our whole life, not just for four years.”

“You sound like BaBa.”

“BaBa was right about a lot of things.”

“Who—” You got cut off by a hiccup. “Who’s BaBa?”

You’d been taking sips as you listened to their conversation, and hadn’t been watching your intake of the delightful drink. Now your skin was warm, your head was buzzing, and you could feel a funny kind of airiness in your chest. Holy shit, you were tipsy in just a couple minutes.

You set your jar down on the floor in front of you while you still had the motor skills to do so.

“BaBa was one of our crazy old aunties in our coven,” Taeil answered your question, then pinched the tip of your nose between two fingers. “And you are tipsy.”

“Aw, baby’s first brew?” Doyoung snickered.

“Mm, how could you tell?” You answered sarcastically, swaying in place.

“Don’t worry, we’d rather have you try some with us at home.” Taeil brushed some of your hair back from your face as he let you rest your head on his shoulder.

“Gee, thanks, Dad,” you mumbled into his shirt. You were cycling through your drunk phases quickly, already sleepy.

“She’s easier to handle than Jungwoo was at least,” Doyoung sighed. “Can’t believe we’re even letting him around witch’s brew again.”

Your interest was piqued, head snapping up, “J— woah... hold on.”

The sudden movement made the room spin, and you needed a moment to regain your bearings, your stomach, and your train of thought. Taeil giggled, patting your head and shushing you, encouraging you to rest your head on his shoulder again.

“Oh, she’s been Jungwoo’d,” he sighed wistfully.

“What?” You asked.

“Jungwoo tends to… dazzle people? That a good word, Doie?”

“Yeah, sure. How do you think we let a fairy move in with us?” Doyoung shook his head, flipping to the next page.

Panic and angst overtook you, and you buried your face in your friend’s shoulder, “God, I told Donghyuck it was stupid, Jungwoo’s just being Jungwoo. He’s just like this, you know?”

The room was quiet for a moment before Taeil spoke again, “Y/N, do you remember how Yuta almost drowned Johnny at Friendsmasgiving when Doyoung put that blabbermouth hex on him?”

You slowly sat up straight again to look at him with something between a pout and a thoughtful frown, “Uh, yeah. Hard to forget. You two had to make that warding charm for him.”

“Have you ever thought about why Yuta’s siren call worked on Johnny that day and not you? You’re both humans.”

“Oh, uhm, well no. I was too worried about Johnny and all the craziness at the time. And… I don’t know, it’s never been something I’ve really thought too hard about, I guess? This kind of stuff always happens to Johnny, like Mark petrifying him. My personal theory is that Johnny’s mom gave birth to him underneath a ladder while breaking a mirror and knocking over a salt shaker, so he’s just destined to have bad luck for the rest of his life.” They were both silent, and you threw your hands up indignantly, “Okay, come on, Donghyuck thought that was hilarious.”

“Well we’ve been working on a theory,” Taeil said. “One that doesn’t involve ladders, mirrors, or salt shakers.”

“We? Keep me out of your conspiracies, Taeil,” Doyoung retorted.

“Then leave.”

Doyoung stayed seated, turning to the next page in his grimoire.

“Anyway, our theory. Have you heard that you’re not supposed to give fae your name because it gives them power over you?”

You could remember hearing something like that before, legends and warnings from older relatives before you went off to college. “Sure, but that’s a bit impractical nowadays, isn’t it? It’d be really hard for Jungwoo to be at school and not know anybody’s names. And I mean, he knows all of ours.”

“Right. Just like Yuta isn’t out here luring all of us to our deaths, and Jaehyun isn’t draining all of us dry, Jungwoo doesn’t take any of our names for himself. There’s a baseline of trust in society. But the magic is still there, even if he doesn’t actively engage in it.”

“You lost me, Taeil,” you wrinkled your nose. Maybe you should’ve taken more Magical Creatures Studies classes.

Doyoung let out a loud sigh and put his thumb in his grimoire to close it. He looked you in the eyes to make sure you were listening as he explained, “The magic and power around names that fairies have control over…”

“Uh-huh.” You nodded slowly.

“That still exists, even though they’re not actually using it. Just like we still have blood even though Jaehyun’s not drinking it. Make more sense?”

You squinted in concentration. “I think so.”

“Because of that name magic, fairies get very touchy about how people use their names.” Taeil continued with his explanation.

“No nicknames,” Doyoung clarified. “If you give them a name, they see it as you giving yourself more power over them.”

“Wait really? But I call Jungwoo—” Panic hit you like a train and mortification then flooded your veins. “Oh my God! Oh no no! Why did you guys let me call him that? I can’t believe I’ve been like so rude this whole time! Oh my G—”

“Y/N! Hey!” Taeil cut you off, grabbing your shoulders to stop your wildly flailing limbs. “We didn’t stop you because Jungwoo wasn’t stopping you.”

“Seriously, we asked him about it the first time we heard you call him that. He said, quote, ‘She’s cute, don’t you think?’” Doyoung informed you, humor in his tone.

“God, if you’re real, strike me down now.” You clasped your hands together and pleaded to the clamshell-shaped ceiling fan above you.

The three of you were silent for a beat, as if waiting to see if you really would be stricken down. When you were still there after a moment, you accepted your miserable fate of continuing to exist, and, therefore, continuing this conversation, “So what does this all have to do with Johnny drowning at Friendsmasgiving?”

“We think it was Jungwoo’s magic protecting you from Yuta’s siren call,” Taeil declared.

Doyoung opened his grimoire again. “But we can’t prove it.”

“How would me giving him a nickname do that? Even with the name magic stuff,” you pulled your knees to your chest.

“That’s where the conspiracy falls apart,” Doyoung tsked. “We can’t prove one way or another how or if it was Jungwoo—”

Taeil narrowed his eyes at the other witch, “But it’s the best we’ve got.”

You picked your jar of witch’s brew back up, swirled the glimmering concoction around, and took a swig. “Right. Well. Thanks, guys. I guess.”

WEDNESDAY

“Hey,” Jungwoo’s voice startled you out of the solemn and lonesome reverie you’d been in.

After sleeping like shit last night, kept up ruminating on your conversation with Taeil and Doyoung, replaying memory upon memory of you calling the fairy by that nickname, and now feeling like a horrible person about it, you ended up being awake before the Sun in addition to everybody else. So, you’d made yourself breakfast to take down to the beach, eat by yourself, and watch the sunrise. You’d even made sure to sit in the chair that wasn’t visible to the house behind the umbrellas, not wanting anybody to join you out here. But you’d been found, and you didn’t have it in you to turn Jungwoo away now that he was with you.

“Oh, hey,” you gave him a half-hearted smile, gesturing to the chair beside you for him to sit.

He had a steaming mug in hand, his hair still tousled from sleep, and he was in pajama pants and a t-shirt.

The sunrise coming over the ocean was beautiful, burning oranges and yellows that reflected along the water. You popped a piece of fruit in your mouth. He took a sip from his mug.

“You didn’t come back last night. After going up to the beach house to get more drinks with Taeil,” Jungwoo said quietly.

You winced, “Oh, sorry, Jungwoo, I—”

“Who?” He cut you off abruptly.

“Huh?” You blinked, entirely thrown off from your lie about not feeling well or whatever.

“What’d you say?”

“Jungwoo—”

“Who?”

“J—”

“Who?”

“What are you, an owl?” You huffed, annoyed.

Jungwoo’s brows were knitted together, clearly as frustrated as you were, “Why are you calling me that?”

“What? Your name?”

“Yeah, which you haven’t called me since like August. It’s weird.”

“Everybody else calls you that.”

“You don’t.”

Your words were losing steam as you struggled to process what he seemed to be implying. “Am- Am I not everybody else?”

“No, you’re not,” he was calming down too, look at you more studiously than upset. “And you’re not passive-aggressive either, so I don’t think you’re mad at me.”

“No, of course not, W—!” You stopped yourself before the nickname could come out habitually, quite literally biting down on your tongue in your mouth.

“There! You were about to say it! Why didn’t you? Did someone curse you or something?” He leaned forward, eyes scanning your features as if he could see any remnants of a curse or hex on your face. For all you knew, maybe he could.

“No, I think,” you frowned thoughtfully. Your voice was getting smaller and smaller as you admitted, “I just... don’t want to be rude.”

“You don’t...” Jungwoo’s head tilted in confusion, before his mouth and shoulders dropped at the same time, realization dawning on his face. He sighed, “Taeil and Doyoung?”

You nodded meekly.

He set his cup down on the small table propped up out there, then gently lifted your chin up until you were looking him in the eye, “While I think it’s very cute and endearing that you were talking to my roommates about me, they clearly failed to mention the part where I like you calling me that. They say that?”

“Something like that...” You mumbled.

“Y/N, I like the nickname you gave me. Case closed, okay?” He said firmly.

“Okay.”

“Okay…?”

“Okay, Woos.” You relented, the name slipping off your tongue as naturally as ever.

“Oh, there we go! Everything is right with the universe again,” he exclaimed, finally rewarding you with his bright grin and laugh that sounded like bells. You couldn’t help but smile too.

You held your plate out towards him for him to take a piece of honeydew. He offered you his mug, and you took a sip, immediately recognizing it as some of Doyoung’s tea.

“It’s beautiful out here,” you sighed. The Sun was higher above the horizon, oranges beginning to give way to yellows and blues.

“Yeah,” Jungwoo agreed. “Sure is.”

“You’re welcome.”

You barely contained your scream at the voice that came out of the darkness and the vine wrapping around your wrist and yanking you into the room. Expecting your roommate to still be sleeping when you came back from watching the sunrise with Jungwoo on the beach, you had quietly opened the door, left the lights off, and kept the blinds closed. But it seemed he was awake.

“Hyuck! What the fuck would I be thanking you for? Giving me a fucking heart attack?” You scolded him, shaking off the plant.

You flicked the lights on to reveal him sitting cross-legged at the entrance of the fort, the plants shifted slightly to adjust the opening and height to accommodate for such.

“Gotta keep you on your toes, Y/N,” he inspected his nails. “But that’s not the only reason you should thank me.”

“Oh really? What else have you done in your never-ending quest for charity and benevolence?” You rolled your eyes, leaning against the closed door.

“You mock me and yet I made sure nobody bothered you and Jungwoo during your little beach tryst this morning.”

“What did you—”

“Mark saw Jungwoo going down there and his oblivious ass wanted to get everyone down there to take pictures with the sunrise. I told him that with my dryad knowledge, I could tell that the sunrise tomorrow would be even better and to wait.”

“You can’t predict that kind of stuff,” you arched an eyebrow.

“He doesn’t know that.”

“And nobody else called you out on that?”

Donghyuck grinned mischievously, “Doyoung and Taeil backed me up, actually.”

You groaned, dropping your head back against the door with a distinct thunk. “Just how many of you are in our business at all times now?”

“Our? So you and Jungwoo have joint business now?” He picked up on your word choice when you hadn’t.

“Hyu—” You stopped your string of curses short. The mention of you and Jungwoo sharing something made Taeil’s theory from last night come back to your mind.

Your friend looked concerned, “Hey, you okay? You always follow through on beating me up, verbally or physically.”

“You’re so fucking annoying,” you scoffed, moving to plop down next to him on the beds. “But… what do you know about fairies’ magic?”

“Bits and pieces. They’re similar to dryads and witches in that they’re connected to nature. But I think you have a specific question, Y/N.”

“Name magic?”

“Yeah, fairies can gain a lot of power over others by way of taking their name, their identities. But they don’t really do that anymore. With the way that society is now, they can get in a lot of trouble, especially when creatures like other fairies or unicorns can easily find out which fairy has taken someone’s name. Jungwoo’s not controlling you just because he knows your name, I promise you really are just this pathetic.”

“Hey!” You smacked the back of his head.

“Ow! I deserved that.”

“I swear you’re a masochist,” you shook your head. “Anyway, do you know if that kind of thing like, goes both ways?”

“What? Like how?”

“Taeil and Doyoung have this idea, about why Yuta’s siren call didn’t work on me at Friendsmasgiving like it worked on Johnny. They think that because I call Jungwoo by a nickname, I was somehow using the name magic or whatever and Jungwoo’s magic was protecting me. And I mean, it is weird that Yuta’s siren call didn’t work on me. I’m human, I didn’t have any kind of charm on, I was even sitting closer to him than Johnny was!”

Donghyuck seemed to think about this for a moment, tapping his chin. “That is strange…”

“Right!”

“Have you asked Jungwoo?”

“And how would I do that? ‘Hey am I accidentally using your magical powers by way of an ancient practice of your kind every time I call you by this silly little nickname that you’ve explicitly told me to keep calling you?’”

“One, you’re being intentionally negative and hyperbolic, you’re not that much of a weirdo in conversation.”

You stuck your tongue out at him.

“Two, he specifically asked you to keep calling him by the nickname that his witch roommates think is the conduit for him to be unintentionally—or now maybe intentionally—sharing magic with you?”

“I guess… I don’t know, we had a whole conversation about it this morning. The witches said fairies hate nicknames because of the name magic stuff. It’s basically like you giving yourself power over them in their culture. So I tried to call him by his name but—”

“I’ve made a grave miscalculation.”

Your eyes widened. “What?”

Donghyuck took both of your hands in his, looking you in the eye very seriously as if he were about to tell you someone died. “He wants to kiss you so bad he’s making the both of you look stupid.”

You shoved him off the bed.

THURSDAY

“Seriously? Nobody wants to play?” You whined, volleyball in hand.

“Nobody wants to play you two,” Donghyuck clarified, pointing between you and Jungwoo, who was standing next to you on the court. “You’re menaces with a volleyball. You should be on some watchlist.”

“Hey, we let you all set your own rules every time.”

“Yeah, it’s not our fault you guys suck,” Jungwoo agreed.

Being unable to convince any pair of your friends to verse you and Jungwoo in volleyball again, you decided to pop into the house for a quick break from the Sun instead. Jungwoo tagged along, and you found yourself getting more nervous as you realized it’d be just the two of you in the house together.

“Hey,” Jungwoo grabbed your elbow as you were about to make a beeline for the kitchen, intent on grabbing a popsicle from the freezer.

You stopped, giving him a questioning look, “Yeah, Woos?”

“Let’s go somewhere.”

“Somewhere?” You hated how your voice cracked over the word.

“You wanted to go to the ice cream place downtown, right? On Tuesday? But we didn’t have time.”

“Oh, yeah, I did,” you smiled bashfully, chest feeling funny about the fact that he had remembered some little thing that you had said, a moment that was so inconsequential. “Uh, right now?”

He shrugged, “Why not?”

“Okay, sure. Do you want to tell the others?”

“Do you?”

You bit the inside of your cheek, and shook your head.

He grinned. “Me neither.”

After quickly changing from your used beach clothes, you followed him out front. You expected to hear the beep of Taeil’s car unlocking, but Jungwoo instead veered in a different direction. You followed him towards the blue truck curiously.

“Yuta’s truck?” You asked, now spotting the keys in his hand.

“He’s who said yes to letting us use his car,” Jungwoo affirmed, then opened the driver’s door. “You’ve got to get in on this side, sorry.”

As you went to do so, you saw why. The seat was a bench seat, and on the far side, propped against the passenger door, was a giant rock.

“Do I want to know?” You sighed, climbing up into the cab of the truck.

“Doyoung wants to bring it back, but Taeil doesn’t want it in his car,” Jungwoo explained, sliding in after you.

“It couldn’t go in the back?” You eyed the empty truck bed behind you incredulously.

“Too valuable.”

“What is it? Other than a rock? Or is it a magic rock or something?”

The fairy started the truck, putting an arm over the back of the seat and turning around to back it out of the driveway. “Apparently there’s a relic encased in it. He wants to excavate it at home.”

“When did he find it?” You eyed it cautiously, scooting a bit further away from it, leg pressed against Jungwoo’s.

“Tuesday morning. The storm washed it ashore. I think you were in the shower.” Jungwoo wrapped his arm that had been behind you around your shoulders and pulled you even closer, “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna let that thing come loose and hit you or anything.”

“Oh, thanks, Woos,” you mumbled, looking down at your hands in your lap.

It was a short ride into downtown, and Jungwoo was able to park right in front of the cotton candy pink ice cream and sweets shop you had spotted the other day. It was right next to a yellow flower shop and purple café, and way at the end of the block, you could see the sign for the apothecary you’d gone to with the witches.

A family of sirens was eating their ice cream at a table in front of the shop, the dad rolling his eyes fondly as he took a napkin to his son’s face that was covered in chocolate. But as the mom followed you and Jungwoo in to grab more napkins, you realized she didn’t have the same telltale flashy eyes or flickers of scales under the lights like her partner and son. She looked… human.

After you and Jungwoo got your waffle cones, you took them outside to walk around the shops. You stopped to look over some of the bouquets that were outside the flower shop, most of the blooms familiar to you thanks to Donghyuck. By the time you were at the end of the street by the apothecary, you still had most of your ice cream left. The path continued off away from downtown, unpaved, along the cliffs overlooking the sea. Having seen most of the town, the two of you meandered that way, still chatting between mouthfuls of ice cream.

“Woos, I have a question,” you announced. This seemed as good a time as ever to get in a few of your never-ending stream of things you wanted to know about Jungwoo.

“I have an answer,” he responded, then after a beat, added, “Maybe.”

“Why did you decide to study Chemistry?”

“After being around magic all the time, human science just sort of fascinated me,” he shrugged. “So, kind of the same reason a lot of the humans who pick Magical Creature Studies have, I guess.”

“So you grew up around other fairies for the most part, then?”

“Oh, yeah. It was nothing like how you and Donghyuck grew up. My hollow is really closed off to outsiders, even other fairies.”

“Then how’d you end up coming to school?”

“It’s not like I was under house arrest or anything,” Jungwoo laughed, taking in your wide eyes. “It’s just that I was pretty much the only one who was curious about anything outside of the hollow. I went into town all the time when I was older, so I knew about the college. Nobody in my hollow did any school past the mandatory primary education, of course, so I had to get a bit of help from the Admissions Office to apply. That’s where I met Taeyong, actually.”

“Oh yeah, he did work in Admissions.”

“And he introduced me to Taeil and Doyoung, who needed a third roommate to make rent.”

You nodded, taking another bite of your ice cream. “Okay, you’re a fairy and you’re studying Chemistry, so I think you’re a good person to propose this question to: What do you think is the difference between magic and science?”

Jungwoo thought about this for a moment, humming as he licked around his ice cream. Finally, he answered, voice resolute, “Humility. Science is an earnest effort to understand the world around you, what it is, how it works. And that requires approaching it from the position of inferiority, of acknowledging that you know less than the world.”

“But what about magic? Do we know everything about it and how it works and what it is? Couldn’t it be studied just like other fields of science?” You asked curiously.

“I’m saying this because I don’t want you to lose your cute little head, Y/N,” Jungwoo stopped walking and turned to you, cupping your cheek with his free hand. “Don’t say that to another fairy.”

“O-Oh.”

“There’s a reason I’m the first one in the Chemistry department, you know.”

“Wait, you are?” You furrowed your eyebrows thoughtfully, trying to recall some of your other classmates and professors. And, yeah, you couldn’t think of any other fairies off the top of your head. Plenty of other magical beings, dragons, vampires, dryads, werewolves, but no fairies. Just Jungwoo.

“Yeah,” he patted your cheek before dropping his hand and walking again.

“I didn’t— uh, didn’t— uhm, know that,” you stammered, only keeping up with him because he had looped his arm with yours and was now guiding you down the path. If he hadn’t, you definitely would still be frozen in place, gulping and stuttering. Dazzled, as Taeil had so aptly put it.

FRIDAY

There were only two more full days left of your vacation in Cape Solaria, including today, and you didn’t want to think about it. Maybe if you wished hard enough, this could last forever.

Sat on a beach chair that you’d set up in the surf to stay cool, you sighed to yourself contentedly.

A relieved groan and splash sounded from your right, and you squinted an eye open against the bright sunlight to look at who had sat in the empty chair beside you. It was Yuta, with legs and swim trunks this time as he crossed the limbs at the ankle to recline leisurely.

“Jungwoo won’t mind, will he?” He asked, referencing who had been sitting there up until a minute ago, when the fairy announced he had to grab something from the beach house.

“He’s not using it right now.” You shifted up in your chair to face the siren, “I’m actually glad you’re here, Yuta.”

“Really?” He grinned. “And why’s that?”

“I wanted to get your opinion on something.”

“Yes, Jungwoo likes you.”

You blinked at him, unable to think of how to reply.

“I know, I know, I’m not a mind reader, but—”

“That’s not what I was going to ask,” you cut him off, deciding to breeze right by that avenue of conversation. You had a limited amount of time before Jungwoo came back, and there was something else you really needed to ask Yuta specifically.

“Oh. Well, go for it.”

“Do you know why your siren call didn’t work on me at Friendmasgiving? And only worked on Johnny? We’re both human, I didn’t have any charms on. It should’ve, you know, done the same thing to me, right?”

That clearly wasn’t what Yuta was expecting you to ask. The cocky smirk fell from his face as he scrutinized you, “What? You wanted to drown yourself?”

“No, I was just curious—”

“I almost killed one friend, and you’re saying it should’ve been two?”

You fervently tried to reassure him, alarmed at how fast this conversation had taken a nosedive, “No, Yuta, I don’t—”

“None of you get how— how fucking awful it was, to watch myself nearly kill one of my friends and not be able to control what I was doing at all. So no, Y/N, I don’t know why it wasn’t working on you, but I’m fucking glad it didn’t. I don’t need you terrified of me too.” The siren’s eyes were watery and red, and the sea around the chairs was churning angrily, growing in strength as his words got sharper and sharper.

“Yuta.” Taeyong was suddenly a couple steps behind your chairs, and steadily waded through the turbulent surf.

As soon as the unicorn was in close proximity to the two of you, a calmness washed over you. Yuta’s jaw unclenched, and he bit down on his bottom lip instead.

Taeyong gently put a hand on Yuta's shoulder, and you saw the unicorn’s face contort almost painfully. He looked down at you, “Y/N, will you go get Doie and Johnny? They all need to talk, don’t you think?”

“Oh, uhm, yeah,” you nodded quickly, jumping to your feet.

Turning back to the beach, you saw that most of the others were there, pretending not to be paying attention to the three of you. You didn’t want to know how much they had heard. Johnny was the easiest to find, he was tossing a football with Jaehyun and Mark by the firepit.

You pointed at him as you walked by, “Stay.”

“I’m not a werewolf, but yes ma’am,” he saluted you.

Trudging up the boardwalk, you knew exactly where Doyoung would be hiding out, the same place he had been hiding out during anything that involved Yuta and Johnny and the water. His bedroom.

Jungwoo was in the kitchen, his face lighting up when he saw you, then turning serious when he registered the look on your face, “Hey, I was just grabbing a snack. Is everything okay?”

“Long story short, I’m grabbing Doyoung for Taeyong. Not optional,” you squared your shoulders as you crossed the living room to the hallway.

“Oh.” The fairy followed you curiously.

You knocked on the closed door, “Doyoung! It’s me!”

“Come in.”

You threw open the door, eyes immediately finding your target sitting cross-legged on the bottom bunk in lounge clothes, a grimoire in his lap. Narrowing your eyes, you stalked over to him, “You’re coming to the beach.”

“I’m at the beach,” he gestured around vaguely.

“Kim Doyoung, you’re going to get out of this house and come down to the beach with me. Now.”

“Taeil tried that on me two days ago.”

You pinched the bridge of your nose before switching tactics. Sitting down next to him, you leaned your elbows on your knees and took a deep breath.

“Doyoung, we’re your friends. And we invited you on this trip—Yuta invited you—because we like spending time with you.”

The finger that had been running under the words he was reading paused.

“So, can you tell me if there’s some reason you’ve been holing yourself up in here?”

Doyoung sighed, closing the grimoire, “I thought it best to reduce the likelihood of a repeat of last semester. Taeil’s right. I don’t think before I do things and end up getting my friends hurt.”

“What he was saying at the apothecary?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t remember him suggesting you become a hermit about it,” you snorted, bumping your friend’s shoulder. “And reading a bunch of books and never interacting with people is not going to help your social skills. Skills like, you know, conflict resolution.”

The witch looked down at the closed book with a small smile, “You might be right there.”

“So can you please come to the beach?”

“On one condition.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t tell Taeil I said he was right. Either of you.”

“Done,” you promised.

And just a few minutes later you were marching down the walkway victoriously, Doyoung in tow. Jungwoo walked a bit further behind you two, an unspoken agreement to make sure the witch couldn’t double back to the house. Down on the sand, Johnny was still tossing the ball around, and you pointed at him again.

“Johnny, come on!” You called out.

“Seriously, not a dog!” He yelled back, jogging over nonetheless.

Taeyong and Yuta were still out at the chairs, and you kept your sights on them. Doyoung eyed you suspiciously, “What are you doing, Y/N?”

“We’re going swimming,” you deadpanned, leading the two of them towards the water.

“This was a trap,” he scoffed, starting to turn on his heel.

“Doyoung,” Jungwoo was still behind you all, crossing his arms with a frown.

Doyoung grumbled something under his breath, but turned back around to you. Taking that as his acceptance, you looked at Johnny. The human looked warily between Doyoung and Yuta, hand coming up to grasp at the pearl hanging from his neck, seeming to check that it was still there. He didn’t make any move to leave.

You stepped into the tide, the first of the waves lapping at your feet. The water was much calmer than when you had left. Doyoung and Johnny followed you, and the three of you finally stopped at Taeyong and Yuta. The siren was still sat in the same chair, staring out at the horizon, one hand listlessly making figure-eights above the water, and the ocean below his fingertips swirling with the movements. An octopus had (lovingly?) wrapped itself around his ankle, and you were sure that if the water was deep enough, Bear would’ve been here. He didn’t look back at you all as you approached.

“Here,” you broke the tense silence, looking to Taeyong. “Johnny and Doyoung.”

“Thank you, Y/N,” Taeyong nodded to you.

“I’ll just—”

“Stay.”

It was Johnny who stopped your attempt to excuse yourself. He had a hand on your arm, and an all-too-familiar look in his eye. It reminded you of when he asked you, with trembling hands and a heaving chest, to stay and help him wash his face.

You nodded. “Yeah, Johnny, I’ll stay.”

Yuta finally spoke, “Look, I don’t know how many times I have to apologize. I’m sorry I almost drowned Johnny twice. Do I have to grovel at his feet for the rest of our lives? Will that make everybody happy?”

He slammed his fist into the arm of the pop-up chair. The octopus swam off.

“No, Yuta,” Taeyong shook his head. “That’s not what this is.”

“All of you are holding onto a lot of… stuff from that night.” You made sure to choose your words carefully. “And we think it’d be good if you actually talked to each other about it.”

“I’m sorry.” To your surprise, it was Doyoung who spoke up first. He was holding himself, hands wrapped around his upper arms as he spoke. “To both of you, Johnny and Yuta. I was impulsive, and vindictive, and an ass, and I hurt you with that stupid blabbermouth hex. I don’t want my magic to… leave lasting scars on people, especially not my friends. Yuta, you didn’t deserve the brunt of the backlash from that, I’m sorry I didn’t stand up for you when I should have. And Johnny, you obviously didn’t deserve to almost drown yourself twice. I was a bad witch and a bad friend and I’m sorry, I really am.”

You looked between Johnny and Yuta’s faces hopefully to gauge their reactions. Johnny’s held the same surprise as yours at Doyoung apologizing first, then morphed into a soft smile. He threw an arm around the witch’s neck, nearly toppling him over and he was pulled into the taller man’s side.

“I don’t know much about the bad witch part, but I forgive you, Doyoung. Taeil says you’ve been doing a lot of uhm, reading about magic this whole time to get better at it. I know you didn’t mean it.”

Doyoung screwed his eyes shut, patting Johnny’s back.

“Yuta, tell them what you told me,” you encouraged the siren.

He sighed, finally turning around in his chair to look at the two of them. Around his eyes was pink, and he focused a harsh glare on Doyoung.

“Have you ever had someone do that to you, Doyoung?”

“Taeil and I used to hex each other as kids all the time.”

“No, I don’t just mean put a blabbermouth hex on you,” he scoffed. “I mean make you do something you don’t want to do, use your own powers to almost kill your friend and you just have to watch yourself do it. Twice. And then he’s terrified of swimming, of pools, of the water, of you. Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t have teased you about whatever the fuck it was that day. But Johnny needed a fucking warding charm to even be able to come on vacation with me. You don’t want to hurt people with your magic… you hurt him with mine and I couldn’t do anything to stop it.”

Doyoung gnawed on his bottom lip, “No, Yuta. I haven’t had anybody do that to me. I’m so sorry.”

“Yuta,” Taeyong quietly called for the siren’s attention. “Look at where we all are.”

Yuta’s eyes flicked from Taeyong to you to Doyoung to Johnny, then down to the ocean water that everyone was standing in, about shin deep.

Johnny let go of Doyoung to reach up to his own neck, taking off the leather cord hanging there in one fluid movement. He wound his arm up over his head and threw it out into the waves as far as he could. It plopped under the surface, never to be seen again.

“I don’t need a warding charm against my friend,” Johnny declared simply.

A tear slipped down Taeyong’s cheek from behind his sunglasses, the iridescent liquid catching the light of the sun. You couldn’t blame him, you were feeling a bit overwhelmed yourself, even with your ordinary human empathetic abilities.

“Now, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m getting hot standing here,” Johnny continued, dramatically putting one hand on his hip and fanning himself with the other. “I think a swim sounds like a good idea, hm?”

Yuta looked up at him, and they seemed to immediately make some kind of telepathic connection as soon as they locked eyes. The siren got to his feet as Doyoung started looking around, holding up a hand to cast a shadow over his eyes.

“Y/N made me come all the way out here with my swim suit on, I guess I could—”

Doyoung was cut off by Johnny grabbing him around the chest and Yuta grabbing his legs, his words turning into a yelp as he was lifted up. His yells of protest went unheeded as the other two carried him further out to sea.

“One!” Johnny counted as they started swinging Doyoung between them.

“Two!” Yuta continued.

“Three!” They cheered together, tossing him gently into the thigh-deep water.

The witch popped back up, shaking his wet hair, “That’s it!”

Thankfully, instead of a hex coming out of his mouth, he instead jumped on Johnny’s back, trying to dunk the taller man underwater. Johnny walked out until he was deep enough to dunk the both of them, Yuta following. Now in deep enough water, Yuta transformed his legs into his tail, using his large fins at the end to splash the other two.

Too busy laughing at those three, you didn’t notice that anybody had joined you and Taeyong until a hand was on your back. You looked over at the owner, smiling up at Jungwoo.

“Oh, hey Woos,” you bumped his hip with yours before turning your gaze back to the others still playing in the water. “Nice of you to join us.”

“Didn’t seem like you needed me,” he bumped you back. “Good job.”

“I was just following orders, this was all Taeyong’s idea,” you shook your head, looking over to the unicorn.

Taeyong had a fond smile on his features, “I think it was a team effort, all of us.”

SATURDAY

“So you’re not dating?”

“God, Hyuck, how many times do I have to tell you this? No,” you groaned, pulling your blanket up over your head. It was your last full day in Cape Solaria and the bastard wasn’t even letting you sleep in.

“You two are like all over each other,” Donghyuck pointed out, smugly scrolling away on his phone. “Even Mark asked me yesterday if he missed some memo about you and Jungwoo dating.”

You yanked the covers back down, “And what did you tell him?”

“That I didn’t know.”

“You little—”

“Hey, I didn’t!” He went to defend himself. “And now I do. Now I know that you’re being a wimp.”

“I’m going to kill you.”

“If I had a nickel for every time you said that in our lives, I’d have no student debt, Y/N.”

You rolled over away from him, fully intending on attempting to snooze for a little longer, when your phone buzzed. With a groan, you grabbed it to see who had dared to text you this early in the morning.

[woos: you awake yet?]

Turning to face Donghyuck again so that he couldn’t see your screen, you were about to text the fairy back, but another text came through.

[woos: if you are, i’m going down to watch the rest of the sunrise with a cup of tea in a few minutes]

You quickly typed out your text and sent it.

[you: make that two cups]

Just a couple minutes later, you left your bedroom with the sounds of Donghyuck making teasing kissy noises after you. Jungwoo was in the kitchen, illuminated only by the light over the stove. Johnny, Mark, and Jaehyun were all still asleep, and you quietly stepped around them to wait by the back door. The fairy joined you just a moment later, two mismatched mugs in his hands. His hair was ruffled, a few pieces in the back sticking up, but nevertheless, a sleepy and fond smile came across his lips as he looked down at you. You smiled back up at him.

Neither of you said anything until you had stealthily slipped out the door and closed it behind you as silently as possible. On the back porch, you could give him a “Good morning, Woos.”

“Morning, Y/N,” he handed you your cup.

You eagerly wrapped your hands around it, feeling the warmth seep into your fingers. “Thank you.”

He hummed his acknowledgement, looping a casual arm around your shoulders to start walking down towards the beach. The Sun was just starting to peek up over the water in the distance, giving you enough light to find a towel under the umbrellas to sit down on.

“So why are you up so early?” You asked, taking a sip of your tea.

“Honestly?”

“No, Woos, I want you to lie to me,” you replied sarcastically, earning a laugh from him.

“Had to pee and couldn’t go back to sleep,” he answered. “Ended up just getting stuck thinking and then definitely couldn’t go back to sleep. What about you? I didn’t actually expect you to be up when I texted, I hope I didn’t wake you.”

“No, I was already awake. Donghyuck woke up early and decided to make that my problem this time.”

Jungwoo chuckled, taking another drink from his mug.

You looked out into the ocean, watching a familiar fin meander around. Taking a deep breath, you steeled your nerves, and stated, “Hey, Woos, I have another question.”

“I have another answer.” Pause. “Maybe.”

“Why do you think Yuta’s siren call didn’t work on me at Friendsmasgiving?”

He looked at you curiously, “I’m guessing you asked Yuta this yesterday and—”

“It turned into that whole thing with Taeyong and Johnny and Doyoung, yeah. It didn’t seem like a good idea to bring it up again after that.”

“Why do you think it didn’t work on you?”

“I don’t know,” you confessed, pointer finger tracing the rim of your mug. “I’m human, I was sitting closer to him than Johnny was, I didn’t have any warding charms on me or anything like that. It should have done the same thing to me that it did to Johnny, but it didn’t.”

“Y/N…” Jungwoo said quietly, laying a hand on your arm. “Do you feel guilty that it only affected Johnny and not you? That he went through that, and you didn’t? Like you should have suffered with him?”

You couldn’t look up at Jungwoo, so you just kept your eyes on his thumb that was rubbing soothing circles into your forearm. “I- I don’t… yes. He was so scared of the water after that that he couldn’t turn on the tap by himself, Woos. I had to go over and help him wash his face every day for like a month. And I just got to… sit there? And I know it probably sounds weird, like I want to have gone through something so traumatic but—and I know Johnny wouldn’t have wanted me to have either—but I can’t shake this feeling that I avoided something I shouldn’t have. Like, cosmic balance or something. Does that make sense?”

Despite the disjointed nature of your rant, Jungwoo was able to respond without missing a beat. “Y/N, Y/N, hey. You’re afraid that it messed with some cosmic balance, right?”

You nodded.

“If you had gone through what Johnny did, and were as scared of the water as he was, do you think that you would’ve been able to help him for that month when he needed it?”

Taking your gaze off his hand, you looked up into his eyes, where the golden flecks glimmered in the waking morning rays. And you slowly shook your head.

He nodded encouragingly. “Right. That sounds pretty balanced to me.”

“Okay, yeah,” you mirrored his nods, a shaky sense of relief growing in you.

“And I don’t think you wondering about why something that logically should have happened didn’t happen is weird, either.”

“So… what do you think happened?” You wanted to see if he would bring it up first, or if he had any clue about the name magic at all, about the nickname thing, about Taeil and Doyoung’s theory, about any of it.

Jungwoo’s eyes traced over your face, and for a moment you were taken away, entirely breathless as the dawn light hit him just right and he was glowing, looking so gorgeous there with his behead, pajamas, pouty lips, and big brown eyes. Time restarted when he finally answered your question, “I don’t know. But whatever it was, I’m glad that it happened. I’m glad that you didn’t have to get hurt, and I’m glad that Johnny could have you there to support him after.”

You opened your mouth, tempted to retell the witches’ theory to him, but he was looking down at you so fondly, so beautifully, that in that moment, it didn’t even matter. So instead, you scooted even closer to him to rest your head against his shoulder, a giddy smile overtaking your face when he wrapped an arm around you to hold you to him even tighter.

“I want to show you something tonight, by the way,” he murmured, voice right by your ear.

“Something?” You echoed inquisitively.

“Something,” he confirmed.

[woos: ready?]

Your heart leapt at the singular word lighting up your screen.

[you: ready]

Slipping out of your bedroom and into the hallway, you saw that Jungwoo was waiting for you there. He’d already told you that whatever he wanted to show you wasn’t far, and that there was no need to change from your pajamas that you’d gone to bed in.

With a tilt of his head, he motioned for you to follow him through the living room, this time exiting through the side door at the end of the kitchenette. It lead to a narrow section of the wrap-around porch that had a porch swing and small table. But Jungwoo didn’t sit on the swing like you expected. Instead, he swung a leg up onto the railing that went around the house, gracefully standing up all the way. From there, he could easily step over the gap onto the top of the awning over the porch. He stopped there, turning around and looking back at you expectantly.

You looked up at him with wide eyes, “Uh…”

“Come on,” he said encouragingly.

Watching all of your limbs as closely as possible, you pulled yourself up onto the railing, not liking how narrow it was as you wobbled a little bit. The fairy’s hand shot out and caught yours before you could teeter too much, and you mumbled a thanks to Jungwoo. Aligning yourself first, you took the slight step up onto the awning, wincing at the creak it let out now that the both of you were on it.

Jungwoo kept holding your hand as you were standing on the awning over the porch together, and you took shallow breaths as you looked up at him, chest-to-chest to make sure you both fit.

“Now what?” You asked quietly, well aware that you were staring at him.

“Almost there, promise,” he smiled down at you, and gave your hand a squeeze before letting it go.

He turned around, where the proper roof of the house was, about chest-high for him. After easily pulling himself up, he gave you a helping hand where needed, until you were finally able to scramble up there with him. Looking around uncertainly, you remained kneeling as you got your bearings on the slightly sloped surface. Jungwoo lay down, tucking an arm under his head, then patted the space beside him as an invitation for you.

You shyly did so, suddenly unsure of just how close to get to him, and therefore left a little bit of space between the two of you.

To distract you from that thought, you focused your gaze dead ahead, and immediately your breath was stolen from your lungs. Above you was the entire cosmos, laid out seemingly all for you. More stars than you could count, twinkling in and out of view, sprinkled in the sky like pixie dust. The moon was nearly full, and you could see every crater, shadow, and mountain in crisp, clear detail. Yeah, you’d been out at nighttime before, but you’d never just looked at the stars like this before.

“Oh, Woos…” you sighed, quite literally starstruck. “This is… wow. Thank you.”

“I’m glad you like it, Y/N,” Jungwoo replied softly.

“How did even figure out that you could get up here?”

“This morning, when I was having trouble sleeping. I was kind of wandering around out here and got curious. I used to climb a lot in my hollow. Something about just being up high above everything else…” He inhaled deeply, then let it back out. “It’s really peaceful, right?”

“Yeah,” you agreed. “It’s lovely up here.”

And you finally looked over at him. He was bathed in moonlight, starlight, all the cosmic glow of the universe and yet you weren’t even thinking about any of that in the moment, too enchanted by the craft store glitter that blinked back at you. The cream yellow crewneck sweater he had worn to bed that night was a pale yellow in the nighttime, the bottom of it riding up to show just the thinnest strip of skin. When you realized how close his nose was to yours, you didn’t jerk your head back, but your brain was turning to white noise, so you turned your eyes back to the stars to see if that would get the ringing in your ears to stop.

Jungwoo didn’t seem to mind, letting the peaceful silence drape over the two of you. You kept watching the stars and thinking about the boy next to you, and your heart kept growing and growing with a fondness so strong it felt like your chest was going to burst if you didn’t do something about it.

“…Woos?” You practically whispered, startled at the sound of your own voice in the quiet. In the background, the waves crashed into the shore and receded in an endless rhythm.

“Yeah?” He lolled his head over to look at you attentively. You turned your head back to look at him again.

“What you were saying the other day, about the difference between science and magic…”

“Which part?”

“About how science is an earnest effort to understand the world. You know, how it works, what it is.”

“Mm-hm, what about it?”

“I’ve been thinking about it… and maybe it’s because it’s late and you’ve got me on a rooftop looking at a bunch of stars but…” You took a deep breath, glancing between him and the sky. “I think that’s how love is too. An effort to understand someone else, and coming to them with your heart open, humble. I don’t think love has to be this big, monumental, out-of-control, unknowable thing. I think it’s just got to be an earnest effort to know someone else. You know?”

He was quiet, mouth parted as he just kept staring at you.

“Woos, you’re not saying anything,” you muttered self-consciously. “Did that not make sense? God, I was rambling again, wasn’t I? Just ig—”

“Kiss me.” Jungwoo cut you off, an absolutely wonderstuck gaze focused on you.

“What?”

“Kiss me,” he repeated confidently.

“W-Why don’t you kiss me?” You stuttered out an attempt at a retort, brain simultaneously moving at a million miles an hour and feeling like it had gotten stuck in sticky bubble gum.

“Well if you insist,” he smirked.

Then his hand was cupping your cheek, lifting your chin slightly, and his lips were slotting together with yours. Your own hand grasped at the front of his yellow sweater, needing to ground yourself to something as your head spun and the sweet, soft kiss threatened to sweep you away.

When Jungwoo finally pulled back, you caught a glimpse of his hair fading back from pink to brown. His gaze didn’t leave your face as he mused aloud, “Strawberry.”

“Huh?” You questioned breathily, chest heaving, not sure if you heard him right over the sound of your heart thudding so loudly.

He swooped in to kiss you again, as long and dizzying as the first time. This time when he broke apart from you, he declared with a grin, “You taste like a strawberry sundae.”

“And you… are going to make me pass out.” You pointed at him accusatorily as you tried to catch your breath. “Don’t fairies need to breathe?”

“Sorry. Can’t help myself.” Jungwoo pecked your cheek this time. But it was a false sense of security, as he gave you only a moment to catch your breath before capturing your lips in a sugary sweet kiss once again.

All too soon for your liking, it was decided that the two of you needed to get down and go back inside. Both of you were yawning like crazy, it was getting late, and while you could definitely sleep during the car ride back, accidentally falling asleep on the roof didn’t sound very safe. So Jungwoo got down first, and kindly helped you down by the hand.

After quietly sneaking back in through the kitchen door hand in hand with him, you nearly let out a scream when you saw somebody standing at the fridge, illuminated by the appliance light.

Jaehyun looked at the two of you blankly, a popsicle in his hand. You stared at each other for a good three seconds before giving him a slow nod. He nodded back, then tore open the popsicle wrapper with his teeth. Shuffling by the vampire as he bit into the popsicle, your heartrate didn’t return to normal until you were in the darkened hallway to your bedrooms.

You felt your heart sinking as you prepared yourself to say goodbye to Jungwoo for the night.

“Goodnight, Woos,” you said quietly, squeezing his fingers that were laced with yours.

Enough moonlight was coming in from the living room that you could see half of his face as he looked down at you, one of his thumbs brushing over your cheekbone. He had a small, tender smile on his face, one that reached his eyes.

“Goodnight, Y/N,” he squeezed your hand back.

But you weren’t satisfied. Grabbing him by the shoulder, you pulled him closer to press your lips to his, pretty sure your entire body from your head to your toes popped like a balloon filled with confetti.

“Goodnight,” you repeated, slowly unwinding your fingers from his, almost in disbelief at yourself.

Jungwoo giggled, the sound like windchimes, “Goodnight again, Y/N.”

The two of you turned around to go to your respective bedrooms on opposite sides of the hallway. You had just gotten your hand on the door handle when you heard Jungwoo make a noise of surprise. Turning around curiously, you watched him look between your room and his in disbelief, then close the door again—without going in. And then he stood outside his door, staring at it in confusion.

Concerned, you walked over, lightly touching his arm to get his attention. He looked up to inform you, “Donghyuck is sleeping in my bed.”

You laughed, grabbing his hand to tug him towards your room, “Come on, you can take his spot then.”

“So worth losing my memory foam pillow,” he sighed dreamily, then pecked your temple with a loud smooching sound.

Under the roof of the blanket fort, you watched in delight as Jungwoo replenished the specks of light in the flowers, keeping them at a peaceful dimness. Laid on your side, blanket pulled up to your chin, and legs bumping his under the covers, you couldn’t fight the smitten grin from your face.

“Sleep well, Woos.”

“Sweet dreams, Y/N.”

SUNDAY

A yawn slipped past your lips that turned into a soft groan as you stretched in the morning hours. Rolling over and pulling your blankets back up over your shoulders, you had all intents of going back to sleep. Until you briefly blinked your eyes open, and caught a glimpse of Jungwoo beside you.

He was mostly on his side, cheek squished against the pillow. Even in his sleep, his mouth was drawn into a pout, and his eyelashes were visible against his cheeks. His soft brown hair was mussed up in all directions, and you reached a hand out to delicately readjust a strand that looked like it was uncomfortably poking into his eye.

His hand suddenly shot out of the covers and grabbed your wrist. “Gotcha!”

“Oh my god!” You jumped in surprise. “Holy fuck! Goddamn…”

Jungwoo opened his eyes, mischievous grin on his face. “Morning, Y/N.”

“Well good fucking morning to you too, Woos,” you scoffed, plopping onto your back to catch your breath. “And how long have you been up waiting to scare me to death?”

“I woke up about when you did,” he informed you simply. “Heard you stretching and rolling over. I was honestly trying to snooze until just now.”

You made a noise of acknowledgement, lifting a hand up to delicately trace over one of the petals above your head.

“Y/N,” Jungwoo called for you.

“Hm?” You turned your head to look at him attentively.

As soon as you did, he lunged forward to kiss you. Your hand fell from the carnation to his cheek.

Jungwoo didn’t leave much space between your mouths as he broke the kiss to say, “We need a password.”

“Oh, right,” you nodded, eyes glued to his. “We never did make a password for the blanket fort.”

He connected his lips with yours again. “And I don’t want to let anybody else in this morning.”

“Woos…” you whined, trying to cover your face with your hands, starting to feel shy again in the light of day.

“Y/N…” he imitated your tone as he grasped your wrists, pulling them away from your face until he had them pinned to either side of your head. The fairy was hovering above you on the mattress, a knee wedged between your legs for stability, and you held his gaze for a heavy, breathless moment. Then he went right back to peppering your cheeks and nose with kisses now that his targets were unobstructed, and you giggled as his hair occasionally tickled your ears.

“Woos...” You couldn’t help that the nickname bubbled up out of you again, too much happiness in you to keep it all contained.

Jungwoo stopped for a moment, beaming down at you, “You are a genius, Y/N.”

“What?”

“That—” He rolled off of you, but only to take you with him, pulling you into his arms pretty much on top of him. “Will be our password. Because only you can call me that.”

Thankfully, you all didn’t have to leave too terribly early. By the time Taeil and Doyoung came back from the local coven’s dawn sacraments the rest of you had barely started on breakfast. Well, most of you. You, Jungwoo, and Jaehyun had eaten breakfast first. Jungwoo and you didn’t really want the full brunt of everyone seeing the two of you leave your bedroom together, so you decided to get up and have breakfast earlier. And Jaehyun happened to be awake when you got out there, so he ate with you two—or, sat at the table while you two ate.

Once the witches were back, it was a hustle and bustle to pack. You and Donghyuck had to disassemble the blanket fort after packing your bags.

“Ew, why can’t you and Jungwoo deal with your little love nest—” Donghyuck was cut off by a pillow to the face.

“I’m sorry, who decided to sleep in someone else’s bed without permission last night like a little freak?” You retorted, taking the sheets off of your mattress now that the furniture was back in its original place.

“And who still hasn’t thanked me for my little freak nature, nor even told me what happened last night?”

You couldn’t even pretend to be mad, zooming over to shut your bedroom door then turning back to your best friend, absolutely buzzing with excitement. In a hushed voice—well aware of all the various creatures with superhearing in the house—you relayed the details of last night to Donghyuck as quickly as you could, needing to repeat them for your benefit, too, to convince yourself that it all really did happen.

“Oh fuck yeah, Y/N!” Donghyuck held up a hand for you to high-five, then low-five, then fist-bump. “Now, what do we say?”

“What?” You looked at him incredulously.

“Let me hear a ‘Thank you for being a little freak and taking Jungwoo’s bed last night, Donghyuck.’”

You scoffed, but threw your arms around his neck nevertheless, “Thanks, Hyuck. For being a good friend all week, and for being a little freak.”

You felt his arms and some vines entwine around you in return. “Anytime, Y/N.”

Jungwoo found you again in the living room as everyone else was milling about. At some point, your bags had been grabbed and packed up in the cars by the other guys, and you stayed out of their way, figuring they knew what was best. The fairy bumped your shoulder with his, and you bumped him back.

Taeil suddenly called for him from where he and Doyoung were by the front door.

“Oh hey, Jungwoo, we were able to repack the cars and there’s room for you in ours now,” Taeil said. “This way Johnny has to make fewer stops, and you can come right home with us.”

You and Jungwoo exchanged a glance before he went to reply to his roommate. “Oh, you did? Uhm…”

Then you heard Doyoung snicker, and Taeil broke out into chuckles too. “You should see the looks on your faces. I’m kidding, we have more crap than we came with, actually. Jungwoo’s still in Johnny’s car, don’t worry.”

“You’re not funny,” you crossed your arms over your chest.

“I think I’m the funniest person I know, actually.”

“It was a bit funny,” Doyoung concurred, the four of you walking out together.

You didn’t even want to know what Donghyuck had told them last night when he suddenly appeared in Jungwoo’s bed.

“Okay, everybody ready?” Johnny asked the group loudly. “Nobody’s forgetting anything?”

“Hold on!” You exclaimed.

Quickly running to the very end of the boardwalk before it dropped off to the sand, you gave the ocean a wistful wave goodbye. “Bye Bear!”

You then jogged back over to the rest of the group, and gave Johnny a thumbs up. “Ready!”

And with that, you gave all your friends that you wouldn’t be riding with hugs goodbye. First Taeil and Doyoung, who drove off with little beeps of the car horn behind them. Then Yuta, Jaehyun, and Taeyong, who were going to be leaving last. You felt bad for Taeyong, who was squished in the middle even more now with Doyoung’s rock riding shotgun. Yuta stood on the back of his truck to wave the four of you off as you drove away down the hill. You and Jungwoo were in the backseat again, waving back at them all through the rear window for as far as you could see them.

After they disappeared from your view, you settled into your spot in the middle seat, Jungwoo’s arm around your shoulders as he unfurled his wired headphones.

A hushed conversation up front floated back to you while Jungwoo struggled with a knot in the headphone wires.

“Seriously, they’re not dating, dude?” Mark whispered fervently to Johnny. Donghyuck had already laid down for his nap.

“Not that I’ve been told,” Johnny’s eyes flicked up to meet yours in the rearview mirror. He winked at you. You smiled back.

You leaned over Jungwoo to peer out the window at the passing houses turning into downtown, then the open road. Finally victorious, he held an earbud out to you, and you took it gratefully.

“Any requests?” He prompted you, opening his music library.

You already knew exactly what you wanted to listen to.

“Play me your favorite song today, Woos.”

⤷ blog masterlist ⤷ anthology masterlist

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chocoenvy · 1 year

Note

Hi there! I love your mommy Signora post, but ofc I love all the mommy fics hehe💕

But what happens in the day to day life with mommy Signora once reader got over the shock a lil bit?

I headcannon that maybe Signora can bring them around the palace and feed them Snezhnayan food? Maybe find out they have a fav and would have some as back up in case.

And maybe little creator would be angry at anyone who talks bad about her fire moth mama?

Keep note that you don't have to do this if you're too busy okay? Stay hydrated and rest well💕

hi im sad rn so i have to project apologies for making you hurt in advance <3

Child of Fire, Raised in Ice

warnings: fluff with an angst ending, sagau, a child (that is ten but turns 11-12 throughout this) is considered god, mild blood, death

6,115 words

There was no separating you and your mama. Ever since the day she had found you in the snow, held you with such tenderness. Despite being considered a "big kid", you still imprinted onto her like you were a young child. Growing by her side, soon enough in your pre-teen years.

Still, you stuck by her side. No matter how old you got.

This was a side of Teyvat you had never dreamed of seeing. Each of the harbingers, in all their horror and glory, and a new ideal against the gods. Signora, who you thought was so bad and evil, was now your hero.

Was this brainwashing? Were you too young and naïve to understand fully what was happening? Maybe, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was that you were safe. Signora was safe.

All the harbingers found it odd, Signora's behavior. How she didn't ask for anything from you in return, and yet your young mind already had an understand of give and take - of goods and services - was eager to please her.

"I can help!" "Do you need me to help?" A smaller hand holding onto her coat, you were basically her shadow. But you were desperate to be helpful.

Signora was scared to let you go alone, despite your exalted status, there were those that would hurt you to spite her, and those with a hatred for gods that extended beyond reason. Despite her insistence she had no earthly attachments to you - that this was merely business - she would never be able to forgive herself if something happened to you.

But she wouldn't be by your side forever. So slowly but surely, she helped you grow. To no longer rely so heavily on her.

Running errands to Childe first, who always had a soft spot for kids. He became your friend quickly, your brother. A familiar and friendly face to go to when you didn't have Signora. Next was Arlecchino, brash and sadistic, but had a calm façade. You grew close with her at a slower rate, but eventually caught yourself growing fonder of her. Asking to visit the orphanage, making care packages for the kids, playing with those your own age.

Signora watched you grow physically and mentally with a fond smile. One that no one had seen in centuries.

You became quite famous in the Zapolyarny palace quite quickly. Going from being always a step behind Signora, to always a step ahead of her. Sometimes even running ahead to greet someone you knew - such as flinging yourself into Capitano who merely gently patted your head. Or excitedly shouting something to Pierro, always eager to see his nod of approval when you've done something worthy. You'd always seen Signora give reports to him, so you attempted to keep your conversations the same as that. You failed miserably, but it was funny to see you talk so formally and informally at the same time and tacking "sir" onto the end of all of your sentences. Until one day he finally caved and told you to just call him Pierro.

Despite your image of Signora changing drastically from what you used to think of her, Dottore never really changed in your mind. His smile freaked you out, almost like if you got too close he'd snatch you up and tear you apart. Like the magic tricks you'd see of people being torn apart, but you didn't think he'd be able to - or want - to fix you.

You thought your wariness was warranted. Which caught the attention of The Damsel.

Oddly, you were never afraid of Pierro. He reminded you of the nice old men that were from your old home, and despite everything, when you got close to him, he smelled like one of your male family members. He reminded you of home.

However The Damsel was the opposite. She smelled of nothing but the ice cold tundra, she appeared sickly, weak, but her voice was powerful.

Her first words to you were, "You think the Doctor is so frightening? What has he done to you so far?"

You couldn't see her eyes, but her voice sounded as though she was awaiting a grand story, an utterly horrid story, like she wanted to tear you apart and see the deepest and darkest parts of you.

"He-he's scary looking," You pouted, distressed.

A dainty giggle danced in the air, and the sound made you relaxed against your better judgement.

"Am I scary looking?" She leaned down a bit, the height difference not being that much, but it felt like she was towering over you.

You blinked, throat tightening and mouth flapping open and closed. You felt Signora's hand touch your upper arm before the words tumbled out of your mouth, "A wendigo." You realized what you just said and fumbled to fix your mistake, "A pretty wendigo! Wait-! Uh-!"

Even Signora snickered at the comment. The Damsel giggled, "Perhaps you're not far off from the mark. Call me Columbina. A child of Signora's is a child I shall protect."

Suddenly, Dottore didn't seem as scary anymore.

You were slowly but surely becoming more and more independent as the months passed, almost seeming like you were a mini-harbinger with how often you hung around them. Everyone was still aware of your "godhood" but that was overshadowed with over half a year of you being at the palace. Over half a year after Signora had saved you.

"Fair Lady, your grace." One of Signora's personal servants entered Signora's study, where the two of you were sorting through important paperwork and writing reports to officials, townsfolk, and the Tsartisa herself.

Signora nodded for her to speak.

"The Tsaritsa has requested their grace's presence."

Those words sent a shiver up your spine, you glanced nervously at Signora but her face was completely neutral.

"Thank you, we'll be on our way immediately." Signora stood from her chair and the servant scurried off.

"Signora-"

"You'll be okay." Her smile was so uncharacteristically warm. A smile that melted away the snow, a smile that saved you when you were dying in the cold.

You opened your mouth to say something doubtful, to argue or protest, but you didn't, "...okay..."

She grabbed your hand in hers, and it was warm, and she led you to the Tsaritsa. To the heart of the palace, a place you had never been.

Signora had told you a handful of times that the Tsarist was aware of your presence in the palace and condoned it. That when you had passed out in her arms after she had saved you, the Tsaritsa herself had made sure you had healed at your bedside.

You didn't ask why, throat closed up and mouth dry. You never questioned why. Signora was safe, she'd tell you all you needed to know, and what you didn't need to know... was fine by you.

"Here," Signora slipped her hand out of yours, pushing you forwards towards a staggeringly tall door, "I will be right here-"

"Why can't you come with me?" You looked up at her with wide fearful eyes, barely managing a shaky breath in and out.

Signora's eyes softened, a sight you and one other lost to the snow has seen, her hand on your shoulder tightened and she lowered herself to your level, "The Tsaritsa has not requested me, remember we are living in her palace, in her land. She would never put you in danger, and neither would I." She cupped your face and lifted your wandering eyes to hers, "You believe me, right?"

You swallowed the lump in your throat and nodded.

She patted your cheek, "Good." A rare moment of fondness, she pressed her lips to your forehead softly, "Now go, don't keep her Majesty waiting too long."

You nodded, Signora's gentle and warm touch leaving your form. The cold surrounded you as you pressed your palm to the handle of the door. The cold spread throughout your veins, freezing your lungs and heart.

You used all your might to push the heavy door open, squeezing past it. It shut with a thud behind you.

You kept your eyes on the ground, barely wandering to fully take in the room.

You could feel her Majesty's presence, but you'd never formally met her before. How were you supposed to greet her? Were you supposed to greet her? What titles should you use? She was far scarier than any of the harbingers, you couldn't tell if your limbs were shaking from the cold or pure fear.

"Raise your head, child." A deep, baritone voice came from the throne, jostling you out of your frozen state.

You followed her command immediately, raising your head to meet her eyes- were covered. Her eyes were covered.

Her height was staggering as well, she must've towered over everyone in the palace including the harbingers. Her throne was completely made out of ice too, everything in the room as well. If you weren't careful, you'd slip and fall.

On her stoic face, the ghost of a smile played at her lips.

She stood from her throne, a grand and intricate dress falling gracefully behind her as she made her for you.

You could feel each step in your chest, the dread building up. You bit your tongue to stop tears from welling in your eyes.

She gracefully swooped into a kneel and grabbed your hand with surprising gentleness. Her hand, despite bearing a glove, was ice cold and pulsated with power.

It made you dizzy, the pure cryo energy in one human body and the power of three gnosis in her possession.

"It's an honor to formally meet you, your grace." Her deep voice reverberated in your head.

You stumbled on your words, "Y-y-y-you too your majesty." You squeaked.

She chuckled, "No need to be so formal, you've lived in my palace for quite some time now, haven't you. I know you well."

"You've been... watching..?" The question slowly died on your throat as you realized the absurdity of it. You were in her palace, her home territory. Of course she'd be watching you.

"I have. Everything that goes on in my home I am aware of. Not only in the palace, but in the whole of Snezhnaya." She answered with a smile, one that seemed oddly sinister, "There are many things I wish to tell you, many questions I believe you have. Those will all be answered in due time, you are still far too young for all of these dealings." Her hand slipped away from yours and you felt the blood flow resume - you hadn't even noticed it had slowed.

"First," An intricate box materialized itself in her hand, the same way the Traveler's weapon would appear and disappear on command, "I want you to know, your grace, that these are yours." She opened the box and you gasped, nearly tripping on the ice in your shock, "I have gathered two of the other archons' gnosis as well as my own, and soon to be all seven, all to give to you. I understand that this must be overwhelming which is why I don't expect you to accept or take them." Her smile grew and you swore you saw fangs peak out, "I merely want you to know that these are here for you, all you must do is call for them and they shall be yours."

"Why-?" You choked out, shock grasping at your throat, "You've worked so hard-"

"That is something that you must find out on your own." She closed the box, her smile ever present, "Snezhnaya has no room for tears and childhood, you've had to grow up faster than you could've ever imagined. I will give you some more time, but when you feel that spark of childhood extinguish, come to me."

"H-h-" The world spun, "H-How will I know?"

"You just will." The box disappeared from her hands, and in the same place Signora had left a warm and gentle kiss on your forehead, The Tsaritsa had done the same, chasing away whatever warmth lay on or underneath your skin. "Goodbye, child, it was wonderful meeting you."

You nodded, "You as well."

You scurried out the door, and just as she had promised; Signora was there.

Signora noticed the difference your meeting with the Tsaritsa had made immediately. You were shaken, your eyes had the beginnings of the frozen tundra in them.

Signora knew she wouldn't be able to preserve the warmth of your innocence and childhood forever, and it seems the threads of the Tsaritsa's grand plan were making themselves seen.

However, you still melted into her touch, smiling so widely when you saw her. Even with your ever-growing independence, you made sure to always stick next to her. You were never out of her sight, and that childish smile still remained when you saw her, or Childe, or Capitano, Pulcinella, Pierro, even Arlecchino, Columbina and Dottore got to see your childish smile. You were happy, and that was all Signora could ask for.

"Signora! Signora!" Your childish voice resounded through the halls.

"Yes, yes I'm right here dear, what is it?"

"Look!" You held out your hands to her, they were cupped together and on top of them rested a pyro moth.

Signora's eyes widened in shock, "Where did this come from?" There was no way you'd know these belonged to her, she had only ever used her cryo powers around you. Except-

"I don't know! It just kinda showed up, I think it likes me!" You smiled ear-to-ear, "It kinda reminds me of you, it's the same warmth I felt when you found me, you know?"

Signora hummed, her gloved hand coming up to lightly touch the wing of the moth, "I see." She smiled warmly, "Well, since it likes you so much, make sure to take good care of it."

You nodded enthusiastically.

Signora seemed to have been unaware of how close she had gotten to you. She knew her moth only had one objective: to watch over you.

Perhaps it was a good thing.

"What do you mean?!" You screeched, the moth that had shown up just a few days before fluttering distressed at your shoulder, "You're going away?" You whined, clutching onto her dress, "Why are you just telling me-?"

"(Y/n)." You froze at the use of your name, "You are still aware of the fact that I am a harbinger, this was going to happen eventually, I have a duty to the Tsaritsa and Snezhnaya. I must go, you know this. Everything has been set up, all that's left is for me to grab the gnosis and come right back. You understand."

It wasn't a question, and it wasn't a statement you would argue. You nodded miserably, stray tears falling down your cheeks.

Signora sighed, "Please don't cry." Her hands cupped your face and wiped away the fallen tears, "The other Fatui have taken care of most of the work, it will be quick and I'll come right back. You can be a big kid for a month can't you?" She smiled encouragingly

You sniffled and nodded, "I- I think so."

"Good, thank you, (Y/n). And if you don't think you can be a big kid there's always Childe and Columbina and the other harbingers." Signora smiled, "You can visit the orphanage with Arlecchino, do whatever you want. So long as you stay safe and keep Little Ayin with you. Understand?"

"Yes Signora!" You saluted like one of the Fatui underlings, Little Ayin fluttering encouragingly around you.

"Good!" She patted your head, "Now come on, you can follow me to the boat but you can't come with me."

You grinned, holding her hand and leading the way to the front doors of the palace, "Don't worry! One day I'll become a harbinger and be able to come with you to all of your missions!"

"Really? Will you be the 12th harbinger?" Signora asked ammused.

"Nope! I'll be first!"

"And what of Pierro?"

"He'll be retired. He already has back problems."

Signora snorted, "Don't be saying things like that so boldly, you might make an enemy of Pierro." She ruffled your hair playfully.

It didn't take long enough to reach the boat. You squeezed her hand, almost silently begging her to not go.

"I'll see you soon, (Y/n)." Signora smiled.

You flung yourself into her arms, "See you soon!" You pulled back with a grin, barely managing to hold back the tears.

Signora softly smiled, grasping your hands in hers. You felt her place a solid and cold object in your hands. She closed your hands together and patted them, "I'll be back in a month. Make sure not to cause the others too much grief."

You grinned, "No promises!"

She nodded and pulled away, you stopped yourself from chasing her warmth. She boarded the ship and you watched as they prepared for travel. You stood there the entire time as they prepared to leave, and then followed the boat as far as you could until they were too far at sea. Not for a second did you stop waving at Signora until the boat was out of view. Your hand fell to your side slowly but definitively.

"(Y/n)."

You swallowed down the tears and turned to grin at Arlecchino, "Yes. We should go home."

Arlecchino nodded, walking beside you.

You kept your hand next to Little Ayin, the other grasping whatever item Signora had entrusted to you.

"You look miserable." Arlecchino commented, "Come with me to the orphanage, it's been a while since your last visit."

You glanced up at her, and nodded, smiling softly, "Sure. Just- once we get there do you think I could have a moment to myself?"

Arlecchino gave you an undecipherable look, "Of course, (Y/n)."

Once at the orphanage, all the kids who you had grown close to over the past year swarmed you.

But just as she had promised, you were allowed a moment to yourself alone.

You took the item from your pocket and inspected it.

It was a locket. You stared at it, dumbfounded, your confusion doubling at the clearly Mondstadt design of the locket.

You opened the locket and a folded piece of paper fell out. However the picture in the locket was... Signora? And a man?

"Who..." You diverted your attention to the small piece of paper, unfolding it to read the message, "Dear (Y/n), I'm sorry for never having the strength to explain to you in person. Ask Pierro about the locket. I shall tell you more once I am back. -Signora"

You stared dumbfounded at the piece of paper and locket you now had in your hands. Was this even Signora? Maybe it was a family member of hers? But why would she give this to you-?

"(Y/n)?" There was a knock on the door, "The children are getting impatient."

"Oops! Coming!" You turned around and rushed through the door, past Arlecchino.

Immediately a genuine smile tugged at your lips as you spend the day at the orphanage, with those you could almost call your family.

You couldn't sleep in the orphanage. You and the kids had played for hours on end, a distraction from Signora's absence. However you refused to sleep there. No matter how inconvenient or spoiled and bratty you sounded.

Thankfully, after some pushing, Arlecchino relented and took you back to the palace even though it was well after midnight.

Being in an orphanage and staying there after Signora had left... you couldn't do it. Not after you had been ripped away from your other family.

"You know, I'm starting to really hate agreeing to babysitting duty." Arlecchino huffed, grimacing.

You snickered, "Did Signora ask you to babysit me?"

She sighed, "Not explicitly, but she did enough passive aggressive hints for me to get the message."

You giggled at the mental image, "Well you won't have to worry about me tomorrow, I have plans in mind to bother another Fatui member." You grinned sadistically, a grin you've seen on Arlecchino before.

"May the Tsaritsa help their soul then."

You hunted down Pierro as quickly as you could the next day, following him around like a lost duck.

"Is there something you need?" He asked gruffly.

"Yes, but it'd take up a lot of your time."

He sighed, "Is it important?"

"Yes." You stared up at him with wide, child-like, yet gravely serious eyes.

His visible eye searched yours for a moment, as if noticing something that wasn't there before. Maybe there was.

Pierro nodded, "Alright then, come with me."

He turned and briskly walked towards his office, you scurried after him, gently holding onto his coat so you could keep up with him.

The locket and note were held in your pocket, and Little Ayin was snuggled against your neck comfortably. Signora was still, in a way, with you. She'd come back in a month, and you'd be here waiting for her. You'd be able to ask all the questions you want about the locket and the couple in it.

He opened the door to his office and held the door open to allow you inside, "Go ahead and have a seat." He shut the door and sat opposite of you. With a rough sigh, he said, "So, what is it that you need to tell me?"

You pulled the note and locket out of your pocket, laying it on the table in front of you.

"Signora gave this to me before she had left." You looked up at him, searching his expression.

For a moment, confusion and shock made his eyebrows furrow, before they became neutral. Almost as though he had expected this.

"I see." She gently grabbed the note and read it, nodding to himself.

Opening the locket, he turned it so it faced you, the couple staring at you. The woman's smile one you had seen before.

"This was 500 years ago. The woman is Signora, and the man beside her was her husband, Rostam."

"Husband?" You sputtered, Little Ayin resting on your shoulder solemnly, "She has... why did she never tell me?"

"Because he is no longer with us." Pierro said, his eyes meeting your steadily, like he was telling a story that had already been finished. "He was once a Knight of Favonius, and after the calamity of Khaenri’ah the Knights were tasked with purging the monsters that had emerged. Here, Rostam had died. Signora had been at the Akademiya in Sumeru studying while he had died, and when she returned to find him dead she went insane. Swearing to burn away the world and cleanse it."

You remained silent, staring at the picture of such a happy couple. Unsure of what you should be feeling.

"I believe," He said carefully, but retaining all the power in his voice, "That she hesitated on telling you because of how much it hurt her. I never expected her to tell you at all." His hand gently came up to pat the top of your head, and you didn't realize all the tears that were falling onto your lap. "Rostam was Signora's family. The only one she had. I believe she sees you the same way now."

You screwed your eyes shut and curled in on yourself, sobbing into your hands.

"I-I want her back!" You wailed, "I don't- don't want her leaving." You hiccupped, "I miss my old family, she's-she's all I have."

"She'll return." Pierro said so assuredly that you couldn't help but believe him, "You must have faith in her. She's captured two gnosis successfully. She will return with one more. Trust me when I say this is just as painful for her as it is you."

You nodded, sniffling. Reminding yourself over and over that she would return.

The first night on the ship, Signora had cried. She cried like she had just lost someone, cried like her first night in the Akademiya. Like she was alone for the first time in a long time.

It was the longest and hardest month she'd had in centuries. It was foolish - stupid of her to get so close to you. She feared that history had a habit of repeating itself, and she was petrified for the latter half of her history repeating.

But you were in the Zapolyarny Palace, under the protection of the Tsaritsa and the harbingers. T here was no way you would be hurt while under Her Majesty's care.

But her subordinates could see her stress, how she was snappier and any semblance of leniency she had shown in their homeland had evaporated. She chalked it up to this being an important mission, the most important one since last year when she and Childe obtained the Geo Gnosis. Of course, any leniency allowed by her could put the whole mission in jeopardy.

She'd get this mission finished with soon. At this point all that was left was to take the damn thing and go home.

"Filthy rats... all of you!"

She was desperate, insane, a witch.

All the heartbreak she went through after she lost Rostam, the pain and fear you felt when you awoke in this world to never see your family again, you would not feel it again. She had to go back to Snezhnaya, she had to go back to you-!

In the end, she did make it back to Snezhnaya. In a casket.

"Pierro! Pierro! She's here! She's here!" You squealed, bounding out of the palace.

"(Y/n)..." You were too excited to notice his odd tone, "Slow down."

From the day he had told you of Signora's past, you kept the locket around your neck. Even if you never knew Rostam, if he made Signora happy then he had your approval.

"Come on, Little Ayin! Why are you so slow?" You gently but hurriedly scooped the strangely forlorn fire moth into your hands. "I thought you'd be more excited for Signora's return." You giggled, running through the snow even before the sun had begun to rise, Pierro following slowly behind.

You waited at the dock, "How long will it take for them to be here?" You questioned Pierro, staring up at him with wide and excited eyes.

Pierro watched the child-like nature flutter with hope in your eyes. He sighed, "The report said they'd be here by sunrise."

"How long until sunrise?" You bounced on your tippy-toes, stretching your neck to see as far out into the ocean as you could.

"Far too long, child, it's 3 in the morning." He patted your shoulder hardily, "And you've been up since midnight."

"I just can't wait!" You grinned.

Oh how Pierro was dreading the morning sun.

Quite a few Fatui were gathered around the docks, and of course, you were the first to spot the boat carrying Signora.

"There! That's her! That's her!" You screeched, pointing at the boat.

But no one cheered.

You didn't think to question it, Pierro having to hold you back from sprinting up the plank laid down from the boat to the dock.

You saw ginger hair and a red scarf at the top of the plank.

"Childe? What's he-?"

You felt your heart drop to your feet and then somehow tumbling even further away from your grasp. Your stomach churned and twisted. You wanted to throw up and cry out your insides.

Childe didn't smile at you when his eyes met you, as he led a group of people carrying a human-sized box off of the ship.

You broke away from Pierro's grasp, hitting his hand away from you when he reached for you.

"(Y/n)-!" He barked after you sternly.

"Childe!" You crashed into his front, holding onto the front of his shirt even though he towered above you, "Where is she?"

His eyes somehow managed to look even more dead, hope chased away long ago.

Fear grappled your heart, stopping it's beating entirely. You shook him, your voice raising dangerously, "Where is she Tartaglia!"

He shakily inhaled, pity in his dark blue orbs, an ocean swallowing you in the beginnings of grief. He closed his eyes and turned his head to look at the box that was being carried by six Fatui.

"There."

"..."

There was silence, quieter than the deathly snow at night, waiting for its next victim. Your limbs and organs stopped working, halting their movements to stare at the box.

"Stop lying." You whispered.

"I'm not-"

"She's not!" You choked, shaking Tartaglia desperately, "You're lying!"

"(Y/n)." A firm hand gripped your shoulder, Pierro softly yet firmly said, "Please-"

"Did you know?!" You whipped around to face him, eyes wide and pupils pinpricks, breathing erratic - angry - and tears falling furious from your eyes.

"... yes. We got a report-"

"Why didn't you tell me!" You screeched, pushing him away from you and backing away, your hands clenched as fists at your side.

Pierro lowered his hand with a frown, "Because we knew you wouldn't believe us and that you'd react like this."

"She's not- she can't be- she's still in Inazuma you just left her behind. You- you-" You choked on your words and sobs, crying into your sleeves.

You clutched Little Ayin to your chest, its warmth the only comfort.

Without even realizing it, you were running, your name being shouted from behind you before stopping. But you kept running. And running.

And running.

You were once again lost in the tundra, snow billowing past. Except now you were accustomed to it, and attuned to the world in a way you nor anyone else could begin to imagine.

However one thing remained the same. You had lost your home. Your family. Once again, it had happened.

You fell into the snow, curling into a pathetic, sobbing ball. Crying into your arms and knees and hands until you couldn't feel your body. Everything was numb, even your heart and mind.

There was no point, no reason, no rhyme or love or life.

You wailed into the snow, into the tundra and wild of Snezhnaya. You screamed and cried like a wounded animal, begging and screaming for someone to bring Signora back. To bring your family back.

Your prayers were only slightly listened to. A warmth floated by your ear and you jerked away. You were laying on your stomach, face numb in the snow, until Little Ayin encouraged you to roll onto your back as it laid on your chest. Right where your heart was beating erratically.

It brought warmth throughout your chest and your raised your hands to gently hold it. Your wails and sobs turning into pitiful sniffles and whimpers. It was as though a limb had been torn off you and you were desperately trying to convince yourself you could reattach it. That you'd still have it good as new.

That Signora would come back. She'd come back she promised she promised, they all promised, she'll come back one day.

You gulped in breathes of cold air, stabilizing yourself in the warmth you pretended was Signora's hand. When suddenly the temperature dropped even more. Your tears turned into icicles after they fell, your entire body numb.

You didn't even move your eyes when you saw a pair of hands come up to wipe at your face. When they moved away, you saw tear and blood stains.

"Dear, you've certainly made quite a mess of yourself." It was the deep baritone of Her Majesty, yet despite that you couldn't bring yourself to care. Your heart didn't jump in recognition and neither did your eyes widen. You lay there motionless.

"Come, it is far too harsh out here for a wounded heart." She easily picked your limp body up, Ayin still laying against your chest, its pulsating warmth weaker than ever.

The Tsaritsa noticed a pattern within her kingdom. The cycle of love repeating endlessly, so everlasting even the Raiden Shogun would be envious.

How cruel this cycle was to her subjects and even the ruler of them all. To allow attachments to grow and fester and wrap thorns and roots in one's heart only to have them brutally torn out. Leaving you with nothing but scars.

Right now you were a bleeding wound, not even the most adept and knowledgeable would be able to know how to help you.

Not even the Tsaritsa, who had seen and experienced this pattern countless times, did not know the solution.

But she knew different outcomes. She merely awaited to see which one you would set down.

The day of Signora's official funeral you were much quieter. The harbingers gathered around her cold casket. You had grieved alone with her corpse some days earlier, pretending her hand was grasping your own and she was hugging you closely to her chest. That you were missing your old family as she comforted you, back when you were younger and more of a crybaby.

That she'd allow you to be weak again, to be a crybaby again and weep for what you missed.

She had never responded to your questions about her and Rostam.

Her cold casket didn't burn bright red like Little Ayin. It was white in the white snow and ice. Columbina sang with a smile, the other harbingers bickering. Your hand rested against her coffin.

The creeps of the Tsaritsa's power made themselves known, frost creeping their way through the building. You comforted the cold metal of the coffin the same way her hand comforted you. Perhaps you could pretend that somewhere, somehow, she could feel it.

Little Ayin fluttered away from you, landing on the fallen pawn on the chessboard.

"We are gathered here today to remember our dear comrade..."

The words from Pulcinella's mouth made you sick. Your teeth grit in anger.

The traveler had defeated The Fair Lady in a duel before the throne. Childe's words were engraved into your very mind, anger burning through your veins. It was customary for her to be executed after their fight by the shogun.

The harbinger's heartless and stupid words made it worse, your gaze flickering between them like a caged animal ready to strike. You tapped your finger against the coffin, willing yourself to believe it was empty.

"It's time to end tonight's foolish theatrics." Pierro stepped out of the shadows, the frost spreading across the floor away from you, "Right now you have no captive audience."

You unclenched your fist and stood straighter as the harbingers gathered around her. Blood dribbled from your palm where you had cut them with your nails.

Little Ayin rested on her coffin, and it burned away. Your last source of her warmth gone. You had to bite your tongue to keep from crying or yelling.

Pierro's every word hung in the air like the ending of an act to a play. And at the end of the act, the entire building was encased in ice. Never to be disturbed again, Signora would rest in absolute peace.

"As was Her Majesty's benevolence."

But it wasn't until after you had returned to the palace, with a demand to meet with Her Majesty, when you realized she was no where near the vacinity.

The Tsaritsa hadn't frozen Signora's burial site. You had.

"Your Majesty." You faced her, head lifted to meet her eyes.

"Yes, your grace?" She responded with a wicked grin.

"I am no longer a child." Your eyes resembled her eleventh harbinger, Hell having greeted you firsthand, "My birth mother and family cruelly torn away from me, and my mother from this world now dead. My childhood is dead and I wish to accept the gnosis."

Your eyes, wide with youth, were steadfast and set in determination and - the Tsaritsa amusedly noticed - rage.

She grinned, fangs peaking from behind her lips, "Then... I am sorry...to also have you shoulder the grievances of the world. Since you could endure my bitter cold, you must have the desire to burn? Then, burn away the old world for me. That is all I ask of you. Surely you can fulfill it."

The box materialized in her hands and you reached to take it.

"I will burn away the old world." You said through gritted teeth, your knuckles turning white from your grip on the gnosis, "I will cleanse this world, and I will kill the traveler."

The Tsaritsa nodded, her smile never faltering, "Then welcome to the Fatui, your grace. I know you shall become a wonderful ruler for the new world, and a vengeful soldier for your lost mother."

The patterns that love followed truly were amusing.

#sagau #genshin self aware #genshin cult au #sagau fatui au #fatui au #signora #child!reader #signora is mother #platonic!signora #arlecchino crumbs #Pierro grandad fr #btw this was my actual reaction to Signora's death/hj #anyways how r yall? i am. normal.#anyways i don't even remember what i wrote and i am not abt to proofread it #bc i thought it was so good while i was writing it and now i am Afraid.#i have no more words i used them all writing this #hope u like it be gay do crime

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