#magic mountain yokai au

[goldenroseeon]

You get no context for this.

...maybe you do?

[silverorchideon]

I made a Magic Mountain Yokai AU. Have a little doodle of Grian, Gem, and Joel.

Gem's a Jorogumo, Grian's a Ningyo, and Joel's a Tanuki.

[fairyhaos]

yeoubi. // chwe hansol

여우비 (yeo-u-bi) : noun. literally “fox rain” — when sunlight filters through rainfall, creating a golden shower.

PAIRING : vernon x f!reader

INFO : east asian historical fantasy(ish. i kinda made up my own mythology), fox demon!vernon, silver!vernon, immortal!witch!yn, fluff, magic, strangers to lovers

WORD COUNT : 22.3k+

WARNINGS : blood mention, injuries, slight discrimination against yokai, cursing

NOTES : for the @camandemstudios winter with you collab! i had so so so much fun writing yeoubi and it's genuinely one of the best things ive done this year. writing a fantasy au soft vernon fic was never something that i thought i needed to write, but now i have, and i love him and i love this and i hope everyone loves yeoubi just as much as i do too <3

SYNOPSIS : living as a magic, immortal healer in a rural, human mountain village means most of your existence has been rather peaceful. that is, until one cold winter when an injured yokai stumbles into your life; and though everyone else is terrified of him, you take him in, nurse him back to health, and show the others that some demons aren’t that scary after all. (...and maybe, just maybe, you end up falling for the pretty fox yokai too.)

For the first time in years, the river freezes over.

During winter, it’s often a lot harder for you to notice things like this, as the cold dulls your senses and numbs your fingers, so you’re only informed of this fact when the village children come to your cottage in the morning, their high-pitched voices blending with the mismatched beats of their fists knocking against your door.

“Miss Witch! Miss Witch! There’s something wrong with the river!”

“The river is all solid, Miss Witch!”

“Miss Witch, we can’t play in the river! Can you fix it for us, Miss Witch?”

Blanket wrapped around your shoulders, you open the door with a groggy smile, squinting down at the children on your doorstep.

“Hello, little kids. What are you doing here?”

“Miss Witch!” one of the children chirps. “Good morning!”

Despite being half-asleep, you can’t help but laugh a little at their chipperness. The children are, undeniably, your favourite people in this entire village.

“Good morning,” you say, bemused. “How may I help you?”

Their voices rise in volume again, all of them clamouring to be heard over each other. It can’t be any later than five in the morning, and your fingertips prickle with the cold grey of the mist as you blink down at them, surprised at their energy.

A girl tugs at the end of your blanket, wide-eyed. “Miss Witch, the river is all hard. We don’t know what’s going on.”

“Ah,” you say gently. “I see.” Crouching down so you’re at eye level with the kids, you ask, “If the river is hard, solid, and cold, what do you think that means?”

The children blink at you. 

“What else is hard, solid, and cold?”

One of them brightens. “Ice!”

“Exactly,” you say, smiling. “The river has turned into ice. It’s nothing to worry about, but it does mean it’s very, very cold right now, so why aren’t any of you wearing any hats or scarves, hm?” 

You ruffle the hair of the nearest child, and she shakes her head, giggling. “We were helping the grown-ups, of course! Something happened at the river, an’ they told us to go away.”

“So we came to you,” another boy pipes up. “They said something’s wrong!”

You tilt your head. Whilst it’s certainly been several decades since the river last froze over, it’s no reason for the villagers to worry that much about it. It’s also not something that your magic can fix, or something that needs to be fixed, so—

“Y/N!”

You look up at the call, and see a man in the distance, jogging down the pathway towards your cottage. It’s still far too dark to see clearly, but you smile at the familiar voice.

“Soonyoung,” you call back. “Good morning! Are you here to tell me about the frozen river, too? Don’t worry, it’s completely normal and not dangerous at all.”

His reply, if he has any at all, goes unheard as one of the children suddenly cries out, as if he’s had an epiphany.

You look down at him, amused. “What’s wrong?”

“I just remembered, something else happened at the river,” he says brightly. His remark makes some of the other children perk up too, as if they also remembered this other thing that had happened.

The kids are all at the age where something like a leaf falling onto their heads would be remarkably significant, so as you wait for Soonyoung to come closer and deliver the actual news, you decide to humour them, smiling and tilting your head interestedly. “Oh, really? What was it?”

 “There’s a man in the frozen river, Miss Witch!”

“A—” The smile turns to stone on your face. “A what?”

“Not a man,” Soonyoung says. He’s finally reached your doorstep now, and you notice that his usual easy smile is nowhere to be seen. He frowns down at the children, displeased. “What are you all doing here? We told you to go home, not to Y/N.”

“They thought I could help,” you say placatingly. “It’s okay. And if there’s a man stuck in the river, you might need my help after all.”

“Not a man,” Soonyoung repeats, his face darkening. “It’s not a man.”

You raise an eyebrow at the graveness in his tone. “Well, then you certainly do need my help, it seems. What is it?”

Soonyoung sighs. His exhale clouds the air, and your fingers prickle even more at his next words, like invisible icicles piercing through your skin.

“It’s a demon.”

───────────── ‘✽, 

You are not exactly a human.

Certainly, you look and dress like one—and you have to eat and sleep like one too, otherwise terrible things happen to your energy levels—but that doesn’t mean you are human. There are some things which make you slightly different.

One of those things being that you live forever.

“What do you mean you don’t know if it’s hostile?” Soonyoung demands, struggling to match your strides as you hurry towards the river. “Of course it’s hostile. It’s a fucking demon!”

“When you’ve lived as long as I have, you come to realise that some yokai aren’t hostile,” you respond, frosted-over leaves crunching under your feet. Soonyoung squawks back something unintelligible, too out of breath to make an argument. 

After encouraging the children to return back to their homes and sleep—since it really is five in the morning, and none of them should be awake—you and Soonyoung began making your way to where the rest of the villagers were. 

The river flows down from the mountain that the village is located near. The further up you go, the more dangerous the terrain becomes, and you pause on a jagged rock to frown down at Soonyoung, who’s gasping as he tries to keep up.

“Did you really find the yokai over here? Why were any of you up here in the first place?”

“We didn’t,” Soonyoung said hoarsely. “I’ve been trying to tell you for ages. The demon was found near the edge of the woods.”

“Oh.” You blink. The two of you had marched past the woods a decent while ago. “Okay.” And then you float down from the rock, lightly hopping over frozen patches of land, past Soonyoung again. “Come on, let’s turn back, then.”

Soonyoung sighs, turns around, and begins his clumsy, human descent. “You could at least use your magic to help me down too, you know.”

And that’s the other different thing about you. Magic. It’s such a flimsy, weak word for what you can do, but it’s also the best way to describe it. There are certain things about you, certain things you’re capable of in the way that no human can ever truly be.

Without even looking back, you wave a hand, and a glowing stream of wind nudges Soonyoung’s feet towards the easiest path down. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. And hurry up before those villagers aggravate the yokai even more.”

Demons, or more traditionally, yokai, aren’t something you’ve encountered in countless decades. As technology and weapons developed, and the human population expanded, many yokai simply faded out of existence, unable to sustain themselves in the less wild, less natural environment that humans created. Others were smart enough to recognise they now had less of an advantage over humans, and tended to stay away from densely populated areas, preferring to target any lone travellers who ventured too far into their territory.

Yokai values and morals are vastly different to humans, and they are so incomprehensible to mortals that yokai gained a reputation for being vindictive, vicious, vile, and all other negative ‘v’ words. That doesn’t necessarily make them so, however, and over your lifetime, you’ve encountered some who don't quite fit the stereotype that humans are all too eager to place on them.

It takes you and Soonyoung long enough to get to the river that the sky has lightened ever so slightly, but the lacey edges of morning mist are still blurring the edges of your sight, and you can only barely see what the villagers are looking at, especially with them all crowding around and pushing against each other to get closer to the river.

You crane your neck, standing on tiptoe, before huffing. Scratch that, you can’t see anything.

“Move out of my way, please,” you say sharply, adding a little volume magic to your voice so that it carries over the whole crowd. 

Most of them instantly look back at that and clock your presence, eyes widening. Some of them begin rushing towards you, looking almost like their children as they begin talking over each other all at once.

“Y/N, there’s a demon—”

“Absolutely vile creature, is there any way—”

“—river’s all frozen, how did it even get here—”

“Okay, okay, okay!” you interrupt, adding even more volume to your voice to be heard. “Minah, yes, I know there’s a demon. Soonyoung told me. And no, Joongseok, we don’t know if it’s truly vile yet. And Woongri, yokai often work with magic, so it could’ve gotten here in a variety of ways. But if you want me to do something, you have to let me through. Yes?”

You’re tired, and cold, and dealing with stressed adults is not the best way to start the day, so you're more blunt than is perhaps necessary, but it gets your point across. The villagers look sufficiently contrite and finally shuffle to the side, making way for you to get through. Seungcheol, the village leader, nudges his way through the crowd until he’s by your side, face solemn.

“Good morning,” he says. “Sorry about the chaos.”

“Good morning,” you say back, voice now normal volume once again. “It’s okay. Everyone’s scared. You don’t call me at ungodly hours unless it’s serious, so I don’t mind.”

Seungcheol nods, looking both grave and apologetic. “We only ever want you to use your magic for good.”

It’s a terribly human thing to say, and you  smile dryly. “Of course. What can I help you with this time?”

“Well… You can help with that.” Seungcheol points to a mound of warped ice a little ways down the river. “How can we get rid of it?”

You squint in the direction Seungcheol’s pointing at, peering through the tendrils of mist, and then gasp. Half-buried into the ice of the river, you can make out a blurry, pale-coloured figure clothed in pale silk. Dark liquid pools in all directions surrounding the motionless body, and anyone can tell the yokai is very badly hurt. 

“It’s already bleeding half to death, so it shouldn’t be too hard to finish— wait, Y/N!”

Ignoring Seungcheol’s shouts, you step onto the frozen surface of the river and rush towards the yokai, and your blood runs cold as you take in the sight before you.

The yokai is a fox demon, you notice, with white ears and soft silver hair and a gorgeous white tail, which is partially being crushed by a river’s worth of ice. He’s waist-deep in the frozen water, and a thick layer of more ice has begun to form around the yokai’s torso from where he’s slumped against the surface of the river at an almost unnatural angle, causing his poor tail to be twisted and buried both in the river and the new ice.

“Oh, darling,” you whisper, kneeling down beside him, tracing a finger across the yokai’s cheek. Your finger comes away stained dark with blood, and you swallow thickly, heart constricting.

The crushing ice isn’t the end of the damage: there’s blood pouring from seemingly unknown sources, matted into the fox demon’s hair and streaking down his neck. He must have been in some sort of fight before getting stuck in the river. 

Gently, you thumb over the yokai’s cheek, taking in the pale skin and delicate eyelashes. This fox demon is devastatingly pretty, and seeing him so badly injured makes your heart hurt even more.

Something rustles near the riverbank, and you look back to see some of the children hiding amongst the leaves, peering curiously at you as you kneel next to the yokai. Further up the river, Seungcheol is approaching you, wanting to know your thoughts on the demon, and his eyes widen as he also notices the children in the bushes.

“What are you doing here?” he says in their direction, the disapproval clear in his tone. “It’s dangerous! You shouldn’t be looking at this. Where are your parents? Didn’t Soonyoung tell you to go home?”

“But we wanna see Miss Witch,” one boy says, eyes wide. “Please, can’t we stay?”

You frown and open your mouth, preparing to reprimand them, but then the yokai makes a soft, pained sound beside you, and you instantly return your attention to him, bending down even closer to his face.

Seungcheol cries out, this time in your direction as you lean towards the yokai. “Y/N, what are you doing? Stay back!”

You ignore him, reaching out a hand to brush matted hair out of the yokai’s eyes. “Hello? Hello, can you hear me?”

The yokai scrunches his eyes up, whimpering in pain. The moment he’d returned to consciousness, he’d started shivering intensely, struck by the cold of the river. 

“Hello?” you repeat, gentle. You move your hand away from the yokai’s face, directing it towards the ice surrounding his back instead. Silently reciting an incantation, the ice begins to glow orange under your palm, slowly beginning to melt away. “Can you tell me your name?”

The yokai shivers, mumbles something unintelligible. Then he looks up at you, golden irises shuddering in fear, every movement of his face telling you it hurts, it hurts, it hurts. 

One of the children lets out a shriek, and you whip your head up in alarm. They don’t look hurt, but the yokai notices the sound too, raising his head to look at them with wide, unsettling eyes, and the children shriek again, all of them frozen in fear. You can kind of understand why: the fox demon is covered in blood, and anyone unacquainted with the supernatural would find his slitted golden eyes petrifying. 

But before you can say anything, do anything to reassure them, the ice around his back makes a cracking sound as it melts under your hand, and the yokai’s mouth drops open in pain. He coughs, splattering blood over the ice, more of the black liquid dripping from the corners of his lips as he starts writhing and scratching against the river, hauling himself up onto his elbows, eyes fixed on the children in the distance, and all hell breaks loose.

The children are screaming, ear-piercingly loud, and Seungcheol is screaming too, and the yokai starts writhing even harder, yipping and gasping like a distressed fox, his hands sticky with his own blood as he tries to push against the ice. 

“No, it’s okay— don’t do that—Cheol, let me think!” 

It’s obvious Seungcheol wants you to kill the demon, especially with the way he’s screeching at you right now, but the yokai looks so pitiful, ears shaking, eyes wide, still bleeding from gashes all over his body.

“Think about what?” Seungcheol yells, children cowering behind his legs, and he shields their eyes from the river. “Y/N, please, you have to get rid of it!”

You look at him, and then down at the helpless yokai beside you, and really, it takes you less than a second to decide what to do.

“I’m so sorry,” you say, getting to your feet. Seungcheol tenses, sensing something wrong in your tone as you look down at the yokai again, leaning down with your hand outstretched. “I’m so, so sorry.”

Your fingers come into contact with the yokai’s forehead, and there’s a golden glow before his eyes flutter shut and he freezes up, before collapsing against the ice.

Hidden safely behind the village leader, the children stop screaming. Seungcheol also doesn’t make a sound, still staring wide-eyed at you, and now the yokai is no longer moving, the early morning air is frozen still once more. You look back at Seungcheol, and he blinks, his face unreadable.

“Please tell me you killed that thing.”

You smile weakly, dried-up demon blood on your fingertips. At your feet, the yokai’s shoulders move up and down ever so slightly with every shallow breath he takes, unconscious.

───────────── ‘✽, 

“Bad idea,” Seungcheol admonishes loudly from outside your window, and even though there’s a whole wall and a thick pane of glass separating him from you, his disapproval is crystal clear. “This is a bad idea. Y/N, let me in. We have to talk about this.”

You don’t look up from the boiling pot on the stove, simply lifting a hand and giving Seungcheol the finger.

“How dare— Y/N, you cannot let that thing live. It’s a danger to us. Especially the children! Y/N, think of the children, please, it could hurt the children.”

Seungcheol raps against the glass insistently, but you ignore him, humming to yourself as you ladle some of the boiling concoction into a wooden bowl. Gently, you blow on the steam, inspecting the lilac colour of the liquid before nodding, pleased, and heading over to the yokai asleep on your couch. 

It’s been some hours since that moment on the frozen river, where you’d decided to save the yokai trapped in the ice rather than kill him. None of the humans agreed with your decision, however, so you’d had to make the tiring trek down the mountain yourself, a heavy, unconscious yokai in tow. That’s partly the reason you’re so tired right now, arms aching as you set the bowl down on the coffee table, where you’ve laid out bandages and various dried bags of poultices and face towels to help clean up the yokai. 

Said yokai is still unconscious and bleeding all over the fabric of your sofa, the golden threads of magic you’d used to briefly staunch his wounds already beginning to fray open once more. You sigh, settling down beside him, and begin inspecting the more serious injuries on his forehead and down his arms.

“What happened to you, hm?” you say softly, ignoring Seungcheol still rapping against your window. “Why are you so hurt?”

Living as the only magic user-slash-competent doctor in a rural village means that you have plenty of experience in patching up the particularly nasty injuries that the villagers sustain, and your hands are careful and practised as you dip a towel into the warm, disinfectant potion you’d made, swiping it over the yokai’s skin. He’s injured practically everywhere: deep gashes are scored along his arms, his hands, and there’s one slashed across his chest. Not to mention his definitely-broken tail, the still-bleeding head wound and, judging by the way blood had been pouring from his mouth out on the lake, some internal injuries you can’t see. 

You wince, taking a towel into your hands. “Sorry,” you say, heart twinging in sympathy for the yokai. “I’m so sorry this happened to you. But don’t worry, I’m here to help.”

Ideally, you’d run a bath first and scrub the yokai clean of all the grime and blood before getting to tending his wounds. But he’s a fox demon—ridiculously tall and with a fluffy tail and delicate ears, so he won’t fit in your tiny tub and it’ll end up being more troublesome than anything else.

So, you’ve resorted to magic, dipping a cloth in the potion you've made to melt and dissolve all the dirt into thin air.

The wounds are all worryingly deep, most notably the still-bleeding one on his forehead, and if he were human, you’d be concerned that he’ll suffer a serious concussion afterwards, along with an inability to use his hands for a long while. But as it is, the ancient demon-magic that he’s made of will mean that he’ll heal pretty quickly, and there should be no grave threat to his life.

Hopefully. As long as he doesn’t develop an infection from the open wounds. 

You finish cleaning up the blood and then wipe down his face with a cool cloth, frowning slightly at how his skin still feels unusually hot. Infections will make his healing process much longer and much more arduous. The poor yokai looks like he’s already been through more than enough, so you really hope the fever dies down soon.

Seungcheol is still yelling at you from your window when you finish your preliminary clean-up, and you sigh heavily, beginning to develop a headache from how annoying he's being. So you walk over to the window, wrench it open, and jab a bloodstained finger in his direction.

“Seungcheol. Kindly, please, fuck off.”

Seungcheol blinks, both startled by your abrupt confrontation and a little affronted, but before he can say anything, you carry on. 

“Currently, this yokai is injured, and it’s my job to take care of injured people, regardless of who they are, so you can take any thoughts of me killing him and shove them up your ass. It’s not happening, and it’s never happening, and you’re also disturbing my patient with the racket you’re creating, so please go away.”

If it were anyone else talking to him like this, Seungcheol would have blown up with anger a solid thirty seconds ago—as it is, he simply stares at you, still looking affronted, before he sighs, and all of the energy drains out of him. He knows how headstrong you are, and when you get like this, he knows there’s no way he can sway you. He’ll have to wait until you’re no longer brimming with obstinacy to get his thoughts across.

His gaze drops from yours to your bloody finger, and then he sighs again, folding his hands behind his back.

“Give the demon my wishes for his speedy recovery,” he says at last. “But we still have to talk about this later, Y/N. Okay?”

You huff, and lower your hands. “Fine. Later.” With a resolute swish of magic, you shut the window once again and turn your back on Seungcheol to return to your patient.

As village leader, you can understand why Seungcheol may have concerns regarding a yokai entering a human village, but that doesn’t mean you like how he has no qualms with telling you to just kill it in an instant. Discrimination against magical creatures is half the reason they’re so hostile to humans, anyway, and you’d know firsthand how painful it is to be targeted and attacked purely for being who you are.

It’s not like you ever asked to be magic. And yet, people end up hating you for it.

You look down at the unconscious yokai, with his silver-white fur and gentle eyelashes and those heart-wrenching injuries. Then, wordlessly, you pick up one of the poultices and get to work.

───────────── ‘✽, 

Hansol wakes up to the strong, warm smell of chrysanthemum.

It’s an unusual scent to wake up to, and his ears prick up, alarmed—only for him to cry out a few seconds later, upon realising the action sends a sharp bolt of pain throughout his entire body.

“Oh!” 

A voice sounds from somewhere above his head, and he startles even more, trying to open his eyes and locate the sound, before realising he can’t see.

He cries out again, panicking at the pitch black that surrounds him, flailing around before realising that that action also causes him debilitating pain, and he begins panicking even more. How did he end up here? What happened? All he remembers is being chased through the forest and then tripping and crashing into a river, and then hard ice and the cold water and the throbbing in his head and then— and then—

Something damp and heavy gets lifted from his eyes and he gasps, freezing up as bright white light almost blinds him.

“Sorry, sorry,” the voice from before says, sounding terribly apologetic. “I’m sorry. I should’ve warned you before doing that.” 

Hansol scrunches his eyes, and then squints, vision all blurry from having been unconscious and now being blinded by bright light. He can’t see who’s speaking, but whoever they are, they carry on, the words steadily flowing out faster and faster as the person rambles. He can barely keep up with the onslaught of noise, twitching confusedly and trying to see what’s going on. The world feels like it’s spinning. He’s pretty sure the world isn’t meant to spin this fast.

“That was probably really scary when you woke up, huh? I’m so sorry. The towel slipped from your forehead and covered your eyes, and I’m sorry I didn’t notice. I didn’t expect you to wake up now, but I guess that’s a good thing, ‘cause you’ve been out for a whole day, and any longer and we’re veering into coma territory, which would mean that you were really, really hurt. Which is, like, definitely not good, you know? But you did wake up, thank goodness, so that means there’s a chance you’ll get better very soon. Plus, your fever isn’t that bad anymore, so it seems you really are on the road to recovery, which is all very—oh, wait. Sorry. It’s still too bright, isn’t it?”

Another wave of chrysanthemum hits Hansol’s senses and a hand comes up to his face, creating a shadow over his eyes so he’s no longer squinting furiously up at the disembodied voice.

“Sorry,” the voice says, apologising yet again. “Is that better?”

Hansol blinks, slowly opening his eyes fully to look up, and then, the whole world abruptly stops spinning as he finds himself looking at the most beautiful being in the entire history of the universe. He doesn’t say a word, mouth falling open in shock.

You smile down at him, made anxious by his silence. “Hello,” you say, hand still shielding his eyes from the brunt of the winter light. “My name is Y/N. What’s yours?”

Hansol squeaks, a small, high-pitched sound that instantly floods him with mortification when it accidentally slips past his lips, and he screws his eyes shut and curls into himself, knocking your hand away hurriedly in his rush to hide his face. He tries to bury himself into the couch, shaking. 

“I’m not going to hurt you,” you say, gently, worried you've scared him. “I promise. I want to help.” Perched on the edge of the couch, you lean over and slowly lower the yokai’s hands from his face, coaxing him to look at you again. “Can you please tell me your name?”

You smile, again, and Hansol feels a little faint as he looks up at you. His vision is still slightly blurry from his eyes being shut for so long, and the way you’re backlit by the light makes you look like you’re glowing, a gentle halo of silver light surrounding your form. That, coupled with the way you have the prettiest smile he’s ever seen, is making him feel all dizzy. And a bit warm. The air feels like it’s suffocating him, actually, but all of that is made irrelevant by how pretty he thinks your smile is.

There’s a possibility he’s still in the process of getting rid of his fever, because he blinks slowly, focused, and when he opens his mouth to speak, the next words spill unbidden from his lips.

“My name is Hansol,” he says, “and I think you’re the prettiest person alive.”

Your eyes widen at his words, a flush rapidly creeping up your cheeks. Hansol looks at you, worried that you’ll suddenly hate him for what he’s just said, but you just laugh, flattered, and bring your hand up to his forehead. The touch is cool against his skin, like a soothing balm.

“Thank you, Hansol,” you say. “Your fever seems to still be pretty high, if you’re saying stuff like this, huh? I’m currently brewing some chrysanthemum tea, and I think it’ll be a good idea for you to have some too.”

Hansol blinks slowly again. “Chrysanthemum tea,” he muses. He looks up at you. “That must be why you smell so warm and pretty.”

You laugh again, flustered, subconsciously brushing his hair back from his forehead and cupping his cheek, your fingers feather-light. “Perhaps. So would you like some tea?”

“Yes, please,” Hansol says. “I’ll have anything… you… give m…” His eyelids and ears slowly droop, and before he can even finish his sentence, he drifts back off to unconsciousness once again, head leaning into your hand.

Open-mouthed, pink-cheeked, you look down at the one-more unconscious yokai in your hands. 

“Wow,” you breathe out. And then you smile. “You’re adorable.”

───────────── ‘✽, 

Over the next few days, the yokai—Hansol—constantly drifts in and out of consciousness, his fever fluctuating in intensity the entire time.

It’s difficult to pull coherent sentences out of him, and anything he says is a mixture of your name, his name, and also how pretty he thinks you are.

You chalk it up to his fever.

His demon-magic must have taken a serious blow from the extent of his injuries, as it takes him a lot longer than you’d like for him to finally shake off the infection. A whole excruciating week goes by, and you almost cry with relief when, as you get up to check his temperature in the middle of the night, you find that his fever has finally broken, and he’s able to breathe easily once more.

When the weak sun finally peeks out from over the horizon, you enter your spare room to check on Hansol. Sometime after his first bout of consciousness, you’d gathered enough energy to move him from your couch to the spare bedroom in your cottage. It had taken a lot of work, and a lot of magic—weakened by the stress of taking care of a dying fox demon and trying to fend off any curious and judgy villagers, it takes a lot of energy for you to do anything strenuous lately—but you managed. And it certainly seemed to help, as he slept a lot better in an actual bed.

Humming absentmindedly to yourself, you make your way over to the guest room, fingers dancing and causing golden threads of magic to tidy up the state of your house as you go along. 

To your surprise, the yokai is wide awake when you enter the room, and he startles when you noisily open the door and step inside. The moment you make eye contact with Hansol, you freeze, the song dying off your lips at the same time as your magic drops a partially-fluffed up cushion in the living room.

“Um.” You blink, hanging off the door handle, staring at the yokai picking his bandages in bed in the middle of your guest room. “Good morning?”

Hansol doesn’t respond, continuing to stare at you, wide-eyed.

You cough, feeling terribly awkward, attempting to adjust your stance and take your hand off the doorknob in the most natural way possible. “Hello. I’m, uh, Y/N. How are you feeling?”

There’s another beat. Then Hansol finally opens his mouth, only to completely ignore your question to say, “You’re the one who smells like chrysanthemums.”

“I— Sorry, what?” You blink, taken aback by the abrupt and unrelated question, before nodding. “Oh, yeah. I guess you remember the chrysanthemum tea I made you?” You smile slightly. “I can’t believe you remember that. That was when you were the most unwell.”

“Oh.” Hansol’s ears twitch, and he continues to look at you with his golden eyes, somewhere between bewildered and amazed. (Amazed by what, you aren’t entirely sure.) “I do remember, though. I remember you.”

You blink rapidly, trying to push down the blush that threatens to rise up your face. Having a handsome yokai stare at you with such focus, saying that he remembers you even when he was deep in the throes of a fever is such a heart-fluttering thing to experience early in the morning. You aren’t nearly awake enough for this conversation. If you aren’t careful, you could accidentally fall in love right then and there.

“That’s nice,” you croak, and then shake yourself. You have a job to do. Hansol’s a patient under your care, and you need to check his condition. “Um. Sorry. But, uh, I do have to check if you can remember anything else,” you say, slipping into healer mode as you step further into the room, walking towards the bed. “Do you remember your name?”

Hansol nods, intently following your movements as you draw closer. “My name is Hansol,” he says.

You smile, relieved by the coherency of his answer. The fact that the yokai remembers his own name is a very good sign. “Yes, you are. Do you remember how you got here?”

“Yes,” Hansol says obediently. “I was in a river. Trapped in the ice. And you… saved me.”

That makes you smile a little wider. “I took care of your wounds, yes! It’s really good you’re finally awake and able to answer questions, ‘cause it’s a sure sign there’s no lasting internal damage. I do have to check your bandages, though, so… may I?”

You make a gesture towards Hansol’s bandaged arms, and the yokai obliges, raising his arms to let you see. 

You take Hansol’s hand in your own, preparing to lift his arm up higher—but the moment your palms brush, you gasp, fingers tightening around the yokai’s at the sudden sensation. Hansol, too, lets out a small noise of surprise, looking up at you.

The yokai’s hands are firm, strong, and perfectly healthy, but they also thrum with magic. You can feel every spark and fizzle of the magic as it dances under his skin, spinning and zipping back and forth like a cloud of hyperactive fireflies. Like the magic can talk, and when it noticed the magic that lives inside you, it seems to yip with recognition, spinning itself around in excitement in the yokai’s hands.

“It’s so strong,” you say, amazed. “I didn’t realise magic could be this powerful.”

Hansol’s also staring up at you, similarly in awe. “You’re magic too?” he asks, looking like he’s never fathomed such a thing is possible. “You’re like me?”

You laugh slightly, made a little giddy by the feeling of how alive the magic is under Hansol’s skin. “Not exactly,” you say, releasing Hansol’s hand to finally reach for the bandages, feeling around to see whether his skin is still tender underneath. “I don’t have the ears or the tail, do I?”

Hansol’s ears flick. You’re decidedly focused solely on the yokai’s bandages, but you can feel Hansol looking at you intently as you work. 

“But you’re very pretty,” Hansol says. “Are you sure?”

Fuck. Hansol has to stop saying things like that, because they’re very bad for your poor heart. Very bad.

“I’m sure,” you say with a smile, straightening up once again. “I think all your wounds are healing nicely. Now your magic’s come back to its full strength, it’ll help you heal the rest of the way in no time.”

You can’t help but reach for Hansol’s hand again, once more feeling pleasantly surprised by the light zap of magic when your hands touch. Now you can feel the thrum of it under Hansol’s skin, it’s easy to realise how unwell the yokai was before, when his hands had been deathly cold with no fizz of magic in them at all. You’re just endlessly relieved that you can feel that fizz once again.

Hansol looks down at your intertwined hands, and then up at you, a smile lifting up the corners of his lips. “Thank you,” he says, so very sincere that it melts your heart. “Thank you for looking after me.”

You can’t help but smile back, squeezing Hansol’s hand once. “Of course. It’s my pleasure. Really.”

Hansol smiles even wider, ears twitching pleasedly, and you once again have to try and valiantly fight away your blush. Fuck. This yokai really needs to stop making you blush so easily, and fast, else you’re going to start having problems.

───────────── ‘✽, 

It turns out, the blushing thing ends up being the least of your problems, because later that day, Hansol tries to leave.

Sometime after bringing Hansol a breakfast of soup and chrysanthemum tea (since he really seemed to like the tea), you’re drying away the breakfast dishes when a blast of cold air slices through the cottage, and you look over to see Hansol holding open the front door, looking like he’s about to step out.

“H—wait! Hansol, what are you doing?”

The yokai looks over at you, still holding the front door, confused. The bottom half of his tail is still bandaged, making it difficult for him to move it around, but it still sways from side to side unsurely as he blinks at you.

“I’m leaving,” Hansol says, like it’s obvious. “You took care of me. And I’m now better. So I’m going to go.”

You gape, jaw almost dropping to the floor at the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard.

“Like hell you are,” you say, marching over to the front door and firmly shutting it with your still-soapy hands, and then ushering Hansol back to the guest room and into bed. “You are very far from being better, Hansol. Your tail is still all bandaged up! I’m not letting you leave until you’re back to full health, so don’t you dare think for a second that you get to go before then.”

Hansol makes a noise of confusion as you fussily tuck him back into bed, fluffing up the pillows behind his head and arranging the covers around him. “What? Why would you let me stay?”

“Why wouldn’t I let you stay?” you counter, patting down the duvet and absentmindedly brushing away the strands of hair that fall in his eyes. “I want to take care of you. I want you to get better. I can’t exactly do that if you go off into the woods all by yourself and get up to heaven knows what, can I?”

Perched on the edge of the bed, you smile and pat his head. 

“I’m not letting you out of my sight for a long while yet, mister,” you say, the faux-scolding adding a light playfulness to your tone. “You’re going to stay with me and get better until I say so.”

Hansol looks up at you, tilts his head, and scrunches his nose just slightly as he smiles, shy. “So you’ll let me stay as long as I like?”

“Obviously,” you say, smiling back. “However long it takes you to heal, and then some, if you want. Of course, unless you have somewhere else to go.”

The yokai hesitates, ears flicking unsurely. “Not really,” he admits, lowering his gaze. “I’ve never actually had anywhere real to stay.” He looks back up at you again, golden eyes glinting hopefully. “So if it’s okay…”

“Oh, of course you can stay here,” you rush to reassure him. And then you pause, deflating a little. “Although…This is a human village, so they don’t really like… your kind. It might make life a bit difficult, but since you’re with me, they shouldn’t bother you too much. Though I understand if that makes you hesitant to stay.”

Hansol shakes his head, smiling slightly. “That’s okay. I like it here, so I don’t mind staying with just you.” 

“I’m glad,” you say sincerely. “Seriously, you can stay here for however long you want.”

Hansol ducks his head shyly. “Thank you. Genuinely, thank you.”

You awkwardly pat his hand where it lays on the covers, a little embarrassed in the face of his obvious gratitude, and instruct him to rest up before exiting the room. You’re glad that the brief misunderstanding had been cleared up, because you don’t want Hansol to feel anything less than welcomed. Being a yokai, he won’t have received similar acts of kindness in the wild, and as a magical being yourself, you know how that can feel. No one deserves to feel unwanted, least of all an injured yokai who’d obviously been hurt intentionally before you found him.

Unfortunately, though, the trials of Hansol’s first weeks of consciousness do not end there. Some days later, at some point during the afternoon, Seungcheol comes knocking on your door.

You hadn’t intended on inviting Seungcheol in. But afternoons are always a miserable time during winter, when the sky darkens far too early for anyone’s liking, and it’s difficult to find one’s way through the cold, barely-lit paths. That’s why you often get people coming to your door during the late afternoon, lost or confused or panicked because they’ve lost their way, and your cottage, shimmering with gold magic and warm lights is the only beacon they recognise.

So that’s the only reason why, when Seungcheol turns up, you accidentally open the door for him. Not that you have anything against the village leader, but—Hansol’s only been awake for a week at this point, and you don’t have the mental capacity to deal with a talk about getting rid of him.

Unfortunately, when Seungcheol already has one foot in a door, he will not go. Literally.

“Get your foot out of my door,” you say exasperatedly, struggling to push the door shut as Seungcheol pushes back. His foot is still wedged in the doorway.

“Let me in,” Seungcheol says. 

“No. You’re gonna tell me to hurt the yokai again.”

“I’m going to tell you to get him out of here.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes,” Seungcheol says, finally giving up on the little game and pushing his way through the door like it’s no difficulty at all, making you let out an indignant hey!. “We need to talk about this, Y/N. You cannot harbour a demon in our village without discussing this with anyone. He needs to go.”

“He’s hurt,” you say. “He can’t go anywhere! And he won’t hurt anyone, I promise.”

“You can’t know that.” Seungcheol furrows his brow, his tone grave. “He’s a demon, Y/N. You don’t know what he’s capable of. You can’t keep him here.”

“Yes I can,” you insist, “because he’s a fucking real-life being with feelings, not this scary, evil harbinger of doom that you’re making him out to be, and I know this, because he’s been here with me, in my own home, and he’s quite possibly the nicest person I’ve ever met.”

Over the last several days, Hansol has been healing rapidly, so much so that most of his bandages have been removed and he practically glows with magic every time you see him. It’s incredibly relieving to see, and it’s also allowed you to get to know him better: sometimes unintentionally, as a natural side effect of living with him now, but also, sometimes quite on purpose. Because he’s pretty, and he’s interesting, and you want to know who he is.

Turns out, one of the key things about Hansol is he’s the most adorable being you’ve ever met.

He’s adorable, in an awkward sort of way, from the way he hovers hesitantly in doorways to the way his tail always fluffs up with contentment when he feels the tendrils of your magic brush across the room.

Unlike yokai, who simply have ancient magic embedded in them from birth, you are born of magic and made entirely of magic, so the stuff practically spills out of you wherever you go. The magic can’t only be felt from under your skin, but extends out and away from your being. You’re not used to having guests in the cottage, so you weren’t aware of the extent of how much you let your magic run free when in the safety of your home, until you noticed how Hansol reacted. He always blinks in surprise, lifting his hand palm-up, fingers curling inwards, as if your magic is some elusive silk strand that constantly evades his grasp. It’s as if he can truly feel it, and he always seems to like it.

“Can you actually feel my magic?” you ask one day, and he looks up from his hand, surprised. His tail is all fluffy and big, lazily waving from side to side and creating static against the decorative pillows on your couch. You’re sitting on an armchair next to him, smiling at him amusedly from over the book of hexes you’re reading. He doesn’t even seem to notice what his tail is doing, too occupied with the invisible tendrils between his fingers.

“Yeah,” Hansol says after a moment, closing his hand and resting them both back in his lap, a little awkward. “It feels warm. Nice.”

“Really?” 

You can’t help but smile at that, oddly flattered. To you, your magic is just… yours. It doesn’t feel like anything in particular, nothing more than a familiar tingle in your hands and a weight against your skin. Though you like describing it as gold, in reality, your magic doesn’t have any colour or any real tangibility to it apart from a fleeting pressure. The idea of it being “gold” is just how you feel about it. It never occurred to you that others could feel it, let alone feel differently about it—living amongst humans, your magic has always subconsciously curled tighter around your arms when you interact with the villagers, not wanting to weird them out with your abnormality or make them feel intimidated by you.

Hansol nods, tail swishing once more. The static has caused all his white fur to stand on end, making him look even more fluffy and adorable. “Yeah,” he says again. “It’s so much calmer than the way my magic feels. It’s really cool.”

He’s looking at you earnestly, as if expecting you to totally agree that your magic is “calmer” than his. And even though you’ve only felt his magic twice before, you nod along in agreement anyway, and Hansol nods back, satisfied with your assent. Then he lowers his gaze back to his lap, opens his hand again, and goes back to playing with your magic.

An endeared laugh bubbles up into your throat, and you smile at the top of Hansol’s head before turning back to your book. Goodness, Hansol is so ridiculously cute.

That interaction only happened some days ago, and whenever Hansol smiles at you or stiltedly asks if he can help you around the house, the surge of affection comes back even harder. So you cannot stand Seungcheol standing here, right now, frowning at you like you’re being unreasonable in your decision to treat Hansol like a normal being.

Seungcheol continues to frown, and you simply stare defiantly back, arms crossed. You don’t let him walk further into the cottage, and a stare-off commences there in the front hallway, neither of you willing to back down.

That is, until there’s a loud crash from further inside the house, and both of you flinch in alarm.

“What was that?” Seungcheol asks, and you look back to where the sound had come from. Connected to the living room, behind a door disguised as an unassuming bookshelf is your own personal library, filled with all the tomes and books on magic and alchemy you’ve collected over the centuries. That’s where the sound’s originated from, which is definitely a cause for concern, but you don’t say so, lest Seungcheol uses this to fuel his argument against Hansol.

“Probably nothing,” you say, though you still glance over in the direction of the library. “You know my cottage. Everything’s old and falling apart.”

Seungcheol looks at you suspiciously. “That’s a lie. You always keep everything in perfect condition.” He begins to move past you. “I bet it’s that demon, isn’t it?”

“No, I—” You try to stop Seungcheol from investigating, but it’s a futile effort. “Cheol, come on, you shouldn’t go see him, he’s still unwell and you could end up distressing him—”

Hurriedly, you trot after Seungcheol through the bookshelf door and into the library, only to end up slamming face-first into his back when he stops abruptly, stunned at the sight before him.

You’re quite proud of your library. It’s an open secret that the bookshelf in your living room leads to it, which is cool all by itself, but your library is also made of magic. What appears as a normal, small study behind the bookshelf turns into a large and sprawling library with high ceilings and mahogany shelves and rows upon rows of books when you step inside. 

You’d allowed Hansol access to the library when he’d asked what was behind the bookshelf, and as far as you know, he’s been peacefully situated there the entire day. But, as you peer over Seungcheol’s shoulder to see why he’s suddenly stopped, you realise you can’t see the yokai at all.

In the middle of the floor, there’s a large… fort of books. A book fort. With four walls built of books piled on top of each other, complete with battlements made of upright books and towers with open books as turrets, it’s actually quite amazing to see. The only drawback is how some of the walls are falling down, books tumbling from where they’re piled up. 

Also the large spread of ice coming from under the fort, that’s very slowly continuing to pool further and further outwards.

Seungcheol blinks. “Uh… Y/N… you wouldn’t happen to be doing this, would you?”

You shake your head. “Weather magic is my weak point.”

Suddenly, two white ears and a head pop up from behind one of the crumbling walls, and Hansol’s eyes widen when he realises you’re here with a guest.

“Oh!” He ducks his head down, and then straightens once more so he can fully see over the walls of the fort. “Hello. I was just building a castle. One of the walls fell down, ‘cause I sneezed, but I can fix it.”

The tip of his nose is slightly dusted with glittering frost, but he doesn’t even seem to notice that or the ice that’s creeping across the wooden floor. His eyes are shining as he looks at you, infinitely more relaxed than when you’d first seen him, and he inclines his head respectfully in Seungcheol’s direction, looking as humble and polite as possible even when half his face is covered by his book fort. 

“Hello to you too. It’s nice to meet you.”

You’re not sure what Seungcheol is most flabbergasted by: Hansol’s gentle manners, or the book fort he’s quite amiably making in your very respectable-looking, very grandiose library, or the circle of ice that’s very clearly coming from the yokai. Hansol is very close to giving the village leader a heart attack any time soon, it seems.

“I— This is— You’re using Y/N’s books to do this?” Seungcheol eventually manages to ask, looking both confused and horrified. “She let you?”

Hansol’s ears droop just slightly, but there’s no obvious change to his expression. “Well… no. But none of the books are damaged, and I’m going to put them back once I’m done with them.”

“It’s fine,” you interject. “I could probably fix a few ripped pages. You can do what you like.”

You couldn’t, probably, fix a few ripped pages, because each book is nearly as old as you. But you’re not going to say that, because you don’t want the confusion on Seungcheol’s face to turn into grim disapproval, and you also don’t want Hansol to feel guilty for what he’s doing.

“Although,” you say, looking down pointedly at the floor, “do you think you could stop the ice?”

Hansol peers over the wall, eyes widening when he realises what you’re talking about. “Oh, sorry. It just happened when I sneezed, I think. Everything is still going haywire… I think I’m still sick.”

The movement of the ice slows to a halt, until only a spattering of frost manages to creep over to where you and Seungcheol are standing. It covers the whole expanse of the floor, now, and there’s not a single patch of the warm brown that’s not frosted over, but it’s okay. That is definitely something you can fix.

Ignoring Seungcheol, who’s still standing there like he can’t believe he’s looking at a walking, talking yokai, you move forward and make your slippery way over to the fort. Hansol moves away a column of books, allowing him to step out of the fort and meet you.

“Is this one of the humans?” Hansol asks in a low voice before you even say anything. The sweetness in his face has disappeared, replaced with an icy look of anxiety. “He’s one of the mortals who don’t like me, isn’t he?”

You try not to wince. “Yes. He’s Seungcheol, the village leader here. He… wants me to get you out of here.”

Hansol regards you for a moment. “You make it sound a lot nicer than what he actually means,” he says. “He wants me killed, doesn’t he? At the very least, badly injured and banished from here.”

“Well… no,” you try to say, but yes, that’s actually exactly what Seungcheol wants. “He doesn’t want you badly injured. He’s just… scared. Of your kind.”

“Hm.” Hansol nods, expressionless. “Same thing, really. He wants me out.”

“Okay, Y/N, stop whispering with the… him,” Seungcheol says, and you look up to see the village leader making his slow way across the ice towards you. “We need to talk. Discuss what you’re going to do, because you are going to do it, for the safety of our village.”

You frown, frustrated. “Hansol’s not a threat to our safety,” you argue. Seungcheol continues to slide gingerly across the ice, and he sighs and shakes his head as you carry on. “He doesn’t have anything against humans. And if he did, he’d have been dead long before we found him at the river, because—Hansol. Tell him why you ended up there.”

Hansol hesitates, looking at you unsurely. The other day, you finally managed to ask him why he’d been so injured and how he’d gotten trapped in the river. It was nothing unexpected, but it still had broken your heart, and hopefully, hopefully, it’s enough for Seungcheol to feel a little bit of empathy towards the yokai. Seungcheol’s a good man, a kind man, and all he needs to do is realise Hansol’s not evil, and he’ll warm up to him faster than anyone could think possible.

“Some other yokai attacked me in the forest,” Hansol says slowly. “Really old yokai. Older than me. And… I got hurt.”

Seungcheol raises an eyebrow, looking at you like he doesn’t get the point of this. You simply glare at him, silently telling him to continue listening.

“It wasn’t bad. Just a broken tail and some scratches,” Hansol says, and Seungcheol blinks, surprised at Hansol’s nonchalance. “But then some demon hunters found me, and tried to get me to… attack them? I dunno. They were picking a fight, and when I didn’t give it to them, they also hurt me.”

Almost imperceptibly, Seungcheol’s face softens a fraction, and you feel a flicker of hope. You know he’s weak in the face of innocently victimised stories like this.

“And so I was trying to run away from them, but everything is kind of in pain at that point. So I end up tripping down the mountain and into your river. My magic goes haywire when I’m sick,” he adds, “so that’s how I end up accidentally freezing ice all over me, too. It kind of responds to my feelings I guess? So when I’m scared, it starts acting up even more, which is why the ice was so thick, too. Like it was trying to protect me, ‘cause it knew I was scared of someone hurting me.”

It’s the most that Hansol’s said in one go, uninterrupted, before. Seungcheol’s face softens even further, and he straightens slowly. He’s been standing still, a few metres away the entire time Hansol’s been talking, like he’s been frozen by his tale.

“And yeah,” Hansol finishes awkwardly, ears twitching. He’s sensed the change in atmosphere, Seungcheol’s empathy tangible in the air. “Then I ended up here.”

“After several, painful weeks of healing,” you add, and Hansol nods jerkily.

“Yeah.”

“Oh,” Seungcheol says gently. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realise you were so scared. But…” And then he sighs, straightening up further, the softness melting away from his face. “That doesn’t mean you’re not a harm to the others, now you’re all better. Who knows how you might feel when you’re hungry, or angry. You said your magic acts up according to your feelings, and I can’t have it acting up and hurting people here.”

Hansol’s face scrunches up in confusion. “When I’m hungry?”

It’s a bit absurd that’s the thing he’s focusing on, so you feel indignation over Seungcheol’s whole speech on his behalf, crying out at the injustice.

“What do you mean?” you argue. “You’re saying that like he’s some mindless beast.”

“He may as well be, for all I know,” Seungcheol sighs. “He’s not human, Y/N. We don’t know how he’ll act. And I need to think about the villagers. They’re… they’re like family to me, you know that.”

“I’m not human either,” you point out angrily. “And yet I’m also a part of this village. What are you saying, Cheol? Do you not consider me family?”

Seungcheol’s eyes widen, and he shakes his head instantly. “No, you are. But still, you’re more human than he is. And… there are days where I’m a bit wary of you too, Y/N.” At your outraged look, he rushes to continue, “Because you’re so powerful! But you’ve been with us for so many years, during the time of my father and his father, and his father before that, so I know you’re good. You’ve saved their lives. Saved everyone’s lives. Hansol, on the other hand…”

You scoff, beyond furious. “That’s absurd. There’s no such thing as being ‘good’, just as there’s no such thing as being ‘evil’. We don’t live in a fucking fairytale, Seungcheol.”

“I know. Maybe if you’d made different choices, I’d think of you as less good, too, but…” Seungcheol trails off, shrugging helplessly.

You stare at him, eyes so impossibly wide that it’s actually hurting your eye sockets, astounded by what he’s just said. Seungcheol? Thinking of you as evil? Just because of your power? 

Beside you, Hansol stiffens just slightly, and during the course of the conversation, he’s somehow ended up so close to you that you can feel his magic simmering frantically under his skin. You don’t know why he’s so worked up, and distantly, you wonder whether it’s on your behalf.

Seungcheol, noticing how irate you’re getting, takes a step forward to try and placate you. But he misjudges his balance on the ice surrounding the fort, leg twisting and his eyes widen and he yelps as he falls forward, on course to crashing face-first onto the hard, frozen ground. Your eyes widen, and you reach out to him, before then—

There’s a blur of white fur and Hansol catches him before he falls over and breaks all the bones in his knees, gripping him loosely around the torso, getting to Seungcheol before you can even blink. He gingerly helps him back into an upright position, and you wave a hand to whisk away the rest of the ice with streams of gold before another accident like that happens again. Hansol’s still holding Seungcheol when you’re finished, but by the shoulders now, looking the village leader right in the eye, golden irises soft and determined at the same time.

“I get you have a responsibility,” Hansol says. “I used to have one too, in the wild. To keep myself alive. But my rule, and this should be yours too, is to not hurt anything that doesn’t hurt you first. I haven’t hurt you. You shouldn’t hurt me. And Y/N—” He looks over at you, eyes flashing, before looking back at Seungcheol. “Y/N has never hurt you. So don’t act like you’re preparing for the day she one day will.”

Seungcheol’s face doesn’t change, but you’ve known him long enough to detect the minute shifts in the air around him as he digests Hansol’s words and, grudgingly, accepts it.

“I apologise,” he finally says, reluctant but sincere in the way only Seungcheol can be. “That was cruel of me. To you and Y/N.”

He looks at you, and Hansol’s hands fall away, allowing him to walk towards you.

“Sorry. But you have to understand where I’m coming from,” Seungcheol says, almost pleading, and you realise that, whilst his stance on Hansol’s existence has wavered, his overall reluctance over him being here hasn’t changed. “At least don’t let others see him, if he’s going to stay. They’ll be terrified.”

“That doesn’t sound like Hansol’s problem,” you retort. “I know these villagers, Cheol, and they’ll warm up to him, they really will.”

You look over at Hansol as you say your next words.

“Hansol is sweet and kind and really rather funny, and it breaks my heart to hide him from others because he might be seen as scary. That’s just people’s prejudice talking.” You smile. Hansol’s eyes are wide, lips parted slightly, and a fluttering warmth unfurls up inside you as you continue to smile at him. “Because I’ve seen Hansol, and he’s the sweetest person I’ve ever met.”

Hansol’s entire face goes pink, and he looks away.

“Maybe so,” Seungcheol says heavily, and you look back at him. The warmth in your chest fades at his tone, dropping to the depths of your stomach. “But I can’t risk them being near him. Don’t let him out.”

You sigh, disappointed. “No. He can leave the house if he wants to, Seungcheol. He’s not some kind of housepet you can impose rules on just like that and expect me to follow through with them.”

“Y/N—”

“Get out of my home,” you say, evenly. “Go. You can take your rules and go piss off out of my sight.”

───────────── ‘✽, 

You stew in your anger towards Seungcheol for several days. 

He comes to your door every so often, either with a letter or a plea to talk through this, but you refuse to let him in and instead tell him to, not so kindly, fuck off. 

Hansol looks at you with a mixture of affection and disappointment each time you do so. You don’t really understand why he looks at you like that—neither the affection nor disappointment—but he doesn’t say anything and goes back to what he was doing soon after, either playing with your magic, or his own, or reading your books.

Having him around the house is quite like having a very adorable, very shy, fox. You might’ve gotten furious at Seungcheol for treating Hansol like a pet, but you don’t mean it like having a pet fox: it’s just like having an inquisitive, cute being around the house who quite likes following you around as you go about your day.

It’s cute. He’s cute, with his swishing tail and his sudden bursts of frost when he’s fiddling with his fingers, and the way he stays perfectly still whenever you gain the courage to slowly inch closer to him on the sofa until you’re laying on his shoulder, at the perfect angle to peer down at the book in his hands so you can read it with him. They’re all your books, of course, so you know what they’re all about, but it’s quite nice leaning against Hansol, feeling his warmth through the silk of his clothing, and the pleasant hum of his magic under your ear.

He never initiates physical contact, but he seems to like having you near. He’s never protested when you’ve held his hand or laid on his shoulder or (very, very gently) touched his ears, so.

He’s quite like a fox, in that way. But he’s like a fox in other ways, too: namely, how it appears that he’s a bit nocturnal.

Sometimes, you’ll awaken at three, four, five o’clock in the morning to someone clattering around in your house. It always turns out to be Hansol, trying to occupy himself without waking you up, but always failing to do so.

“Hansol?” you murmur blearily, shuffling into the kitchen where the flurry of clatters had emitted from earlier. It’s dark, and all the curtains are drawn; nevertheless, his dim silhouette looks distinctly guilty as he whirls around to face you, pots and pans in his hands. “What’re you doing?”

“Sorry,” he says apologetically. “I read some potion in your book, and I wanted to try it out.”

“At three in the morning?”

“Five,” Hansol corrects. You fix him with a look, and he winces, demon magic-enhanced night vision meaning he can see you perfectly clearly. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

You shake your head, rubbing the sleep out of your eyes. It’s cold in the kitchen, and being exposed to the chilly night temperature is gradually waking you up. “It’s okay. I guess you don’t sleep a lot, huh? You’re wide awake, even though it’s so early in the morning.”

Hansol shrugs. “Dunno. But I always just feel like I have so much energy. Like it doesn’t have anywhere to go, and I can’t sleep for too long before it tells me to do something.”

“I see.” You purse your lips thoughtfully, pondering why Hansol’s feeling like this and what could cause it. And then, a realisation strikes you and your eyes widen. “Oh. Oh, I get it. I understand why you’re feeling that way.”

The yokai tilts his head. “Really?”

“Yeah, and it’s totally okay,” you reassure, nodding your head. “Totally understandable, too. But don’t worry, it’s easily fixed.”

You wave a hand and turn all the light fixtures on so you can see Hansol properly. The yokai literally does look like he’s vibrating with extra energy, holding your cooking utensils in his hands, ears perked upright and tail fluffed up to the max. Yeah, he’s definitely understimulated and frustrated with it right now, even if he doesn’t realise that’s what it is.

You smile. This is a good way to help him and piss off Seungcheol at the same time.

“Come on, Hansol. Let’s go outside.”

───────────── ‘✽, 

Not even an hour later, you’re making a trek up the mountains in your warmest clothes, lagging behind Hansol even with your magic-aided agility helping you up the hardest of the steps. The yokai is bounding on ahead, nimble and quick-footed even in the darkness of the early winter morning, and you can hear the light crunch of snow under his footsteps as he moves.

This is what Hansol needed. Some time outside, where he can finally breathe.

Some minutes later, as you’re sitting on a log on the path to catch your breath, Hansol comes back down the mountain to meet you, settling down by your side.

“It’s so quiet,” he whispers. The air around you is lit with a faint glow, courtesy of a visibility spell you conjured so you wouldn’t fall flat on your face as you walked. It makes Hansol’s face look golden as he smiles at you, eyes shining. “Everything is so quiet out here. I can hear the animals.”

You smile back, finding joy in how relaxed he looks. “Doesn’t that make it noisy?”

Hansol shakes his head, and then looks away from you, ears cocked to the side, listening. “No. This is like a familiar buzz of noise, so familiar that it becomes silent.” He looks back at you again, smiling. “Down in the village, it’s so noisy because of all the people, but up here, it’s all gone.”

“It feels good, doesn’t it?” you say with a smile, and Hansol nods so quickly that you laugh, endeared. “I’m glad. You can go off for a bit, if you want, and I’ll wait for you here.”

Hansol beams. “Okay.”

And like that, he’s off, nothing more than a faint swish of a silver tail before he disappears once more.

He doesn’t come back to you for some time, which gives you a chance to sit there and breathe in the cool air. It’s so cold that it feels like inhaling clouds of peppermint, but it’s… relaxing. 

You haven’t had a chance to properly rest this winter. Winter’s a tricky time for you: the cold numbs your senses and makes your magic more sluggish. This year feels much colder than usual, and now the prolonged adrenaline that came with bringing Hansol back from the brink of death is fading, you’re beginning to anticipate feeling more worn out more often, the warm fizz in the tips of your fingers not as present as it ought to be.

Strangely, though. It hasn’t happened yet. Maybe being around Hansol and his frost-related magic has built up your resistance to the cold.

Or, he’s just so lovely and comforting that you don’t feel the effects of the winter.

That’s always a possibility. You look down at your hands, still glowing slightly with the visibility light you’ve put on yourself. It hasn’t faltered even once, a brilliant gold, and when you think of the colour of Hansol’s eyes, the light seems to glow even more.

You breathe in, and then exhale, kicking your feet out in front of you, looking down the dim mountain. You’ve been up here, thinking, for so long that the weak sunrise is beginning to peek its head above the horizon. Hansol still hasn’t come back. Though, you find you’re not too worried about that: somehow, you know that he will come back to you, though you can’t find ears nor tail of him while he’s gone.

It’s incredible how much you’ve come to trust and believe in Hansol, though he’s only been with you for several weeks. He’s been so reserved, anxious and afraid at times, especially during the early days, when he’d been bandaged up and newly healing in an unfamiliar environment, but now it’s clear how earnest and gentle he is. Something in your chest tightens and then relaxes with happiness whenever you see him smile. He’s just so—genuine, and you really like that about him.

You like him. A lot. He’s certainly an unexpected new part of your life, but now he’s here, and you can’t imagine living without the silver-furred fox yokai by your side.

There’s a rustle in the evergreen bushes to your left, and, as if he’s here answering your summons, a familiar silver head of hair pops out, golden eyes shining when he sees you. 

He blinks at you, ears flicking curiously, twigs in his hair like he’s been rolling around on the forest floor. His tail is out of sight, but you can imagine how it’s waving from side to side in contentment, the morning dew slowly turning into frozen crystals in his fur. You smile.

“Hey,” you greet, the moment you see Hansol’s face. “Are you gonna come over?”

Instantly, he stands up, hops over the bush and makes his way to you. His footfalls are light, looking like he’s dancing over the rocks before he settles next to you once more, looking like he never left your side.

“Hey,” he says. “There are so many rabbits in these mountains, you know? Like I’ve never seen so many rabbits gathered in one place before, because normally they get killed by hunters or there’s just not enough food in that area to sustain so many. It’s actually insane how many rabbits you have up here.” When you just smile, his eyes widen, ears pricking upright. “Oh, is it you? Do you do something to help them stay alive? With your magic and all that?”

Hansol then launches into a flurry of questions for you, so eager and animated that it surprises you a little, before melting your heart.

At the sight of sunrise, you’d taken down your visibility spell, but Hansol is still glowing, looking so alive with his cold-dusted cheeks, shining eyes, wind-fluffed hair and the frost dusting the tip of his nose, which must have accidentally happened when he’d gotten too excited and lost control of his magic.

Hansol’s positively lit up, now he’s surrounded by all this nature. He must’ve been so cooped up and nervous before, when he was just in your house, barely anything to do. Now he’s healed, and outside, and you can tell that being out of the house is where he’s meant to be.

“It’s not me,” you admit after Hansol’s finished conjuring up crazy theories. “Well, kind of. I messed around with the mountains about eighty years ago and did something by accident so we get a lot more winter flowers than normal. The rabbits love eating them, so we get a lot of them too.”

“Oh,” Hansol says, amazed. “That makes so much sense. I saw so many flowers. I thought that was a little bit weird, but I just chalked it up to Mother Nature having fun, or something.”

You laugh. “Yeah. I guess Mother Nature was having fun,” you say, gesturing to yourself, and Hansol grins too. His eyes crinkle as he does so, the corners of his lips spread wide so his pearly whites are fully visible, the tips of his yokai fangs slightly on display. Even his big, bright smile is as cute as he is. You’ve never seen him smile this widely before. It’s… pretty.

Even though he’s all warmed up to you now, even though it’s clear he trusts you, it’s obvious he’ll always be most at peace out here in the big, wide world.

His gaze slides away from yours, looking at something behind you, and he gasps.

“What is it?” You turn to look back, trying to find what had caught his eye, but Hansol doesn’t respond. He jumps up, diving into the bushes without a word.

A moment later he emerges, and in his hands is…

“A daffodil?” you say, amazed. “What’s this doing here? Spring is very, very far off.”

“I guess it’s because of you,” Hansol says, handing you the flower. 

You accept it gratefully, tracing the edges of its buttery yellow petals, such a warm, golden colour in your hands, in stark contrast to the cold white of the snow around you. It’s so pretty, so pristine, and it’s amazing it managed to survive in the freezing winter temperatures. Must be due to your magic, like Hansol said.

“It looks like you,” Hansol says suddenly, and you look at him in surprise. 

“Really? How?”

“You look like spring, to me,” he says. The frosted tip of his nose looks pink, as do his cheeks. A decidedly warmer, blushier pink than they’d looked before. “All warm and gold and pretty. Like the daffodil. And I…” He pauses, and then seems to change his mind, shutting his mouth and blinking at you like he wasn’t about to say anything else.

You smile, so endeared that you’re practically glowing with it. “Thank you,” you say, touched, and look back down at the daffodil in your hands before raising your eyes to the definitely-blushing yokai once more. “That’s so sweet.”

Hansol shrugs, a little bashful, before standing up abruptly.

“I’m gonna go find the rabbits again,” he says, and before you can even reply, he’s disappeared.

You laugh, breathing in the crisp air and then releasing it in a sigh, feeling warm all over despite the cold. You shake your head, fond. Hansol is just so…

That’s it, you decide. You’re not going to let Seungcheol dictate where Hansol can and can’t be. You’ll let Hansol do whatever he wants, and encourage him to do whatever he wants. 

Whatever makes him smile.

───────────── ‘✽, 

From that day on, you make it a point to take Hansol to the mountains as often as you can.

He loves it—he’ll never say it in so many words, extremely shy when it comes to voicing his preferences for reasons you cannot discern, but it’s so obvious that those few hours he gets to spend with you, in the fresh air, away from all the people, are his favourite hours in the day.

It’s another one of those mornings when you’re up in the mountains with him. You can’t come here every day: you’d collapse from exhaustion if you had to wake up at four in the morning every day, but today, it’s a particularly clear-skied day, and you wanted to watch the sunrise with Hansol.

He’s sitting shoulder to shoulder with you, looking silently down at the village below. It’s still not sunrise yet, but the sky’s beginning to lighten gradually, and you can see some of the windows beginning to light up with orange lights, everyone slowly waking. Hansol hasn’t said a word for a while, so you haven’t either, content to just look down at everything in silence.

The entire experience is rather humbling. From the mountain, the village looks so small, like it’s merely a miniscule dot in existence, something that could be missed in a single blink. Like each mortal is worth next to nothing. Like each could be destroyed in a second.

That’s what a lesser immortal would think, anyway. For you, however, rather than how fragile life is, being this high up makes you marvel at the intricacy of it. Every person, every soul, despite being so small, is filled to the brim with so many unique experiences that no one else can ever live through as that person did. They live, and they die, but almost magnificently so. Like a one-of-a-kind snowflake that melts as soon as it lies in your hands.

You look at Hansol next to you. His eyelashes flutter thoughtfully as he looks down at the village, delicate against his pale skin. 

Every life should be cherished, you think. Because if even the fleetings lives of humans are that complex, then what of the immortal creatures, who live forever? No one should tell them to hide themselves away.

“I can hear you cursing Seungcheol in your head,” Hansol says abruptly, pulling you out of your thoughts. He’s staring at you, now, no longer focused on the village, and he tilts his head bemusedly when you meet his gaze. “You’re still mad at him, aren’t you?”

You blink, and then smile. You were kind of cursing out Cheol in your head, you admit, and it’s kind of funny that Hansol picked up on it.

“I am,” you sigh, looking down. “Well, now I’m more annoyed, really. I know I should be glad that he’s not going to extremes, like some other people in the world, but…”

Hansol nods slowly. “I get where he’s coming from, though,” he admits, and you look up. “What? Seungcheol cares for his village. These people… they all mean a lot to him, and he doesn’t know me, so I guess it’s natural for him to be cautious.”

You roll your eyes. “That’s no excuse. These people all mean a lot to me, too. I watched them all grow up! And Cheol should know I wouldn’t suggest anything that puts them in danger.” You frown. “It’s frustrating. It feels like he doesn’t trust my judgement, even though he’s literally known me his entire life.”

The yokai hums, and reaches over to pat your hand placatingly where it rests in your lap.

“Also, it pisses me off that he’s saying all this without ever making an effort to get to know you, and see if his judgement is right,” you say, looking at Hansol, catching his hand in your own when he begins to move away. “You’re just—you’re just so lovely, and how dare Seungcheol try to hide you away, like you’re something taboo, or something to be ashamed of?”

Hansol’s eyes widen, and he blinks rapidly, before averting his gaze to your intertwined hands. “Oh,” he says, after a moment, clearly embarrassed by your sincere compliments. “That’s… nice.”

You laugh, fond, squeezing his hand comfortingly. “I’m always nice,” you tease. “I’m the nicest person in the entire world, actually.”

To your surprise, Hansol doesn’t smile back at your joke, and simply ducks his head shyly. “You are.” 

And then he keeps lowering himself down until he’s laying in your lap, the tips of his flickering slightly at the contact as he adjusts himself until he's practically lying down in the log, head in your lap. You stiffen in surprise, and Hansol slowly shifts so he can blink up at you with innocent, gold eyes. 

“Can I lie here?” he asks, even though he's clearly very much lying there already, and you smile, relaxing. 

“Yeah, I guess,” you say, and Hansol smiles, closing his eyes as your hand goes to his hair and begins to gently run through the strands with the tips of your fingers. 

You stay like that for some time, running your fingers through Hansol’s hair and over the soft fur of his ears. Abruptly, he playfully flicks his ears as you trace a finger through the fur at the base of them, making you yelp in surprise, and he smiles, pleased at having made you jump. You lightly tug at a few strands of hair, teasing, and he smiles wider, eyes still shut, the slight points of his canines visible.

Too distracted with Hansol’s face, you end up completely missing the full sunrise, and eventually it becomes late enough in the morning that the village fully awakens, bustling with noise as people go about their day. But curiously, you can’t hear a single thing. It’s like your world has narrowed down to you, your hands, and the yokai laid comfortably in your lap.

He really is very pretty. You notice the small spattering of snowflake-like freckles on his cheeks, and smile. He’s so pretty that it isn’t even fair.

You trace a thumb over his cheekbones, opening your mouth to comment on them before Hansol’s eyes snap open, and his ears suddenly tilt towards something down the mountain, listening. Your hand freezes, and you let him turn his head, alert.

“What’s wrong?”

Then, you hear it: the crunching of twigs underfoot, and the telltale huffing and puffing of a human making their way up the mountain. Your hand falls, and you get ready to stand up before—

“Y/N?”

Soonyoung, clad in winter furs and holding a woven basket in his hands, blinks at you in confusion, and then he glances to the yokai in your lap, and shakes his head, his expression becoming even more mystified than before.

“What are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here?” you ask back, equally confused as Soonyoung. “You literally hate climbing the mountains. What are you doing?”

Soonyoung looks at you oddly, lifting up the empty basket. “I’m here to collect wildflowers for you,” he says. “I asked you the other day if you could make some of that non-dangerous magic fire you did last year. You said you needed wildflowers harvested at sunrise to make that potion, so I’m here to get those.”

“Oh. Did you really ask me that?”

“Yes,” Soonyoung says. “You said you’d make them for me. And also complained for like five minutes because I tried to pay you, and you wanted to refuse ‘cause you said I was paying you too much. As if there’s such a thing as being paid too much money.” He rolls his eyes for emphasis, and you laugh.

The conversation comes back to you now, and you shrug sheepishly. “Yeah. Sorry. I forgot about that.”

Soonyoung makes a disgruntled sound, feigning annoyance before his eyes crinkle as he smiles. “Don’t worry about it, boo. Just as long as you remember to make the potion, it’s all fine. The children’ll love it for the bonfire tonight.”

Your eyes widen. “You want me to make it for tonight? There’s a bonfire tonight?”

“Yes,” Soonyoung says. “I specifically told you when I asked, as well. Goodness, you’re forgetting everything today, huh?” Then he gestures casually to Hansol, who’s still lying in your lap, looking unsurely at the villager. “Don’t tell me, you also forgot you have the injured demon in your lap, too?”

He points to Hansol so naturally, so calmly that you look down in surprise, as if you really had forgotten the yokai was there. Soonyoung laughs, shaking his head as he bends down near a bush, poking through the dirt to see if there are any flowers. He turns his back on you and Hansol, craning down towards the ground to see better as he continues to talk.

“Cheol told me all about the demon and how he disapproves of you keeping him alive,” Soonyoung says. He manages to find a few wildflowers, and lets out an aha! of pride, putting them away in his basket. “Not gonna lie, I agreed with him a bit. But then I come up here and find him in your lap as you pet him like a cat, and now I’m thinking, maybe not so much.”

Soonyoung turns back to face you once again, and somehow, during those thirty seconds, he’s managed to get dirt all over his nose.

“Plus, you seem to like him,” he carries on. “So he can’t be bad, can you? Because you’d kick his ass if he was.”

You quirk a grin at that, proud. Then you nod down at Hansol. “He has a name, though, you know. And he can hear you.”

Soonyoung’s eyes widen in realisation, and he stands up quickly, brushing down his clothes. “Oh, sorry, you’re right. Sorry. Hi, I’m Soonyoung, one of the villagers who live here. It’s nice to meet you.”

He extends a gloved hand towards Hansol, and Hansol looks at the hand for a long moment. Then he slowly sits upright again, and grasps Soonyoung’s hand in a firm handshake, the corners of his mouth relaxing slightly.

“Hansol,” he says. “It’s nice to meet you.”

And then he must do something, because Soonyoung lets out a small yip in surprise, withdrawing his hand quickly as Hansol observes him amusedly, eyes glinting. 

“Did you…” Soonyoung starts, wide-eyed. “Did you just. Give me an electric shock? On purpose?”

Hansol cracks the slightest smile, evidently pleased with Soonyoung’s reaction. He’s in a playful mood today, you muse, smiling as Soonyoung stutters, clearly not sure what to do when a yokai plays a prank on him like this. It makes you smile too, amused.

“You have to show me how to do that,” Soonyoung eventually says, going from surprised to confused to full of amazement. “Can you show me? Is that something which can be taught?”

That makes Hansol smile properly, lips curving upwards. “You’re funny.”

“I’m being serious!” Soonyoung says, but something about Hansol’s smile must make him smile too, because eventually he laughs, shaking his head. “Goodness, you magic people need to stop messing with me. One day, I’ll accidentally set myself on fire, and it’ll be your fault.”

“You’d do that anyway,” you tease, and Soonyoung rolls his eyes. “Anyway, I have to get going, I think. Jeonghan’s coming over for a poultice for his back pain, and I need to get to my cottage before he does.”

“Okay,” Soonyoung says. “This is a hell of a way up the mountain, by the way. I might go down with you as well, and see if I’ve missed any flowers.”

“Cool.” This is definitely not that far up the mountain, and even though Soonyoung hates climbing, it shouldn’t have taken him more than twenty minutes to reach where you are. It’s clear he wants to walk with you for a moment to tell you something, so you look at Hansol, and offer him the chance to stay up in the mountains by himself for a bit.

He agrees, so you and Soonyoung begin your slow descent.

“What do you want?” you ask, when you’re out of Hansol’s hearing range.

Soonyoung just smiles, shaking his head. “Nothing bad,” he says. “I meant it when I said Hansol seems like a cool guy. I just…” He pauses, thinks over his words, and then leans in closer. “Bring him to the bonfire tonight.”

You reel back. “What? Are you crazy?”

“Hey, if you’re worried about him getting hurt, you shouldn’t be,” Soonyoung says placatingly. “Hansol’s a demon. He can hold his own. Plus, the people aren’t as against yokai as you might think. Cheol’s just overly cautious, and the elderly might have traditional views about it, but it won’t be hard to make them like him. He’s cute.”

You raise an eyebrow.

“He is!” Soonyoung argues. “I saw him in your lap, Y/N. He’s adorable. And very… docile? Like, he’s so quiet. But also very silly. The kids would love him, you know. So would everyone else.”

“Even Seungcheol?”

Soonyoung thinks about it for a second. The cold air has made his cheeks all ruddy red, and he looks like a very earnest, very red-cheeked schoolboy as he nods firmly. “Yes. Even Seungcheol.”

You hum, still incredibly sceptical. “Well. I’ll think about it. We’ll have to see.”

───────────── ‘✽, 

Unfortunately, even though you were slightly swayed by Soonyoung’s words and his instant kindness and all-round chillness in Hansol’s presence, you ultimately end up not bringing Hansol to the bonfire night. It’s not your decision, though: it’s Hansol’s.

“Are you worried about the humans?” you ask, when Hansol tells you that, respectfully, he doesn’t want to go. “You don’t have to worry about that. I could blast them all to pieces for insulting you, if that makes you feel better.”

Hansol smiles a little, before shaking his head. “No. It’s actually just… I’m not really a big fan of all the noise and stuff. And how hot bonfires are.”

“Oh.” You soften, concerned. “Have you been… hurt by fire before?”

“Huh? Oh, no,” Hansol says. He shrugs. “I just don’t like being too warm. Makes me uncomfortable.”

You raise an eyebrow, amused. Because even as he says this, he’s cuddling up into your side, head on your shoulder, his tail curled comfortably around him. “Really?” you say. “You don’t like being too warm?”

Hansol’s ears flick. “Yeah. My magic originates from winter, as you might have noticed, so…”

“Oh, I hadn’t realised,” you say teasingly, tapping the tip of his nose lightly. “I thought the white fur and random bursts of frost on your skin meant you were a summery fox.”

Hansol scrunches his nose, and you laugh. “Yeah, yeah. Anyway, it does mean I don’t like being all warm, so fires are a no-go for me. Especially bonfires, where there are many people. That’s way too much warmth for me, for sure.”

“I see,” you say, reaching a hand up to tuck some of his silver hair out of his face as he nestles closer into your side. “That’s cool. But I am going to have to go, even if you aren’t. Will you be okay if I leave you here by yourself in the evening?”

“Yeah. Can you make me dinner before you go, though? Last time I tried, I almost destroyed your kitchen.”

“What? When was that?”

“Oops. Did I not tell you?”

Anyway, the bonfire night ends up being a bit of a disappointment. Several of the villagers have cottoned on to the fact you’re housing the yokai, and express their concerns to you over the matter several times over the course of the night. You love these people, you really do, but hearing so many of them advise you to send him back off into the woods for your own safety really wears you down after a while.

“I think Y/N understands what you’re saying now, imo,” a gentle voice butts in, right when you’re in the middle of having a particularly exhausting conversation. This tricky older woman’s insisting you let the yokai go… only, she’s using much more unkind words.

You were very, very close to losing your cool with her—respect the elders be damned because hell, you’re way older than she is—before she’s interrupted mid-sentence by a villager appearing over his shoulder, and you smile in relief as you recognise him.

At the call of “auntie”, she looks up and comes face-to-face with your saviour, Joshua, and all it takes is another gentle smile and some sweet words before he successfully convinces her to leave your side and rejoin her friends on the other side of the bonfire.

“Don’t worry about it,” Joshua says when you thank him for his help. “You know how they are. Once they latch on to you, it’s impossible to get them to leave without using some sort of witchcraft to pry them away.”

You laugh at that. “And yet, it seemed to be you who helped get them off me. Maybe you’re the real witchcraft user out of the two of us.”

Joshua laughs, light and melodious, magical fire reflecting in his eyes. He doesn’t say anything to your joke, however, and nods into the distance behind you, down the darkened paths that lead to your cottage. “You need to bring him out, though,” he says. “Whilst he’s still unknown, they’ll continue conjuring theories that become wilder by the day. They need to see the yokai so their suspicions can be wiped away once and for all.”

“Wh—Hansol?” You blink. “It’s dangerous, Shua. They might hurt him.”

“They’re hurting him now,” Joshua says. “They’re hurting you and hurting him by making stuff up. Just introduce him to them, okay? He can’t become part of our village if he never meets our villagers.”

At your stunned look, Joshua smiles. 

“What? I know you, Y/N. You’re attached. You want him to stay. And honestly…” His smile turns a little more secretive, a little more knowing. “I think he wants to, too. The yokai will stay for you, but to truly bring him in, you have to bring him out to us.”

Joshua smiles again, the colours of his irises swirling together, before he pats you on the shoulder and gets up, leaving you there speechless.

He isn’t… wrong. But hearing it like that sounds insane.

You shake your head. Hansol will have to meet everyone sooner or later, you suppose. You very much do not want to go ahead with Seungcheol’s idea to let him be hidden, like a secret, so of course, you need to bring him out into the open.

You shake your head again, mystified. Joshua’s correct, but how does he know so much?

Honestly, you really do think he’s more of a witchcraft user out of the two of you. His incredible timing, his knowledge of all your thoughts, the fact he’d called Hansol a yokai rather than demon…

Also. How old even is he, anyway? 

Too confused and befuddled by all the thoughts in your head, you end up playing with the children and run through the fire all night instead. It’s a lot safer than having to deal with all the grown-up stuff of thinking about things.

───────────── ‘✽, 

Both Soonyoung’s and Joshua’s words linger in the back of your mind for days after that, and you contemplate how to get Hansol out of the house. Hansol had never really shown signs of wanting to be part of the village, which had made you reconsider this whole thing, wanting to brush away the villager’s words, before you actually asked the yokai, and—

Hansol shrugs. “Yeah. I’d like to get to know everyone. I want to be part of the village.”

“You do?”

“Yeah,” he says again, smiling at you. “This village is your village, and I want to be with you.”

Oh. You smile back, touched. Hansol smiles wider, brightening at the eye contact, all sweet and lovely and really quite cute, before ducking his head and disappearing back through the shelves of your library once again.

So Hansol turns out to be not as against the idea as you thought, which makes you feel a lot better about thinking of how to get the villagers to trust him and how to get Seungcheol off your back for taking care of Hansol in the first place.

However, it ends up not being you who makes the first steps into getting him known. Oh, no.

Instead, Hansol does that all by himself.

It happens during the first snowfall of the year. You’d woken up to the beautiful sight of the white crystals floating down and covering the entire village with a soft, muffled coat, and the equally beautiful sight of Hansol, who had already woken up, practically pressing his nose against the window to look at the snow in awe.

He’d clearly wanted to go out and be in the snow—as a winter yokai, that made sense—but you’d had some errands to run that day, so you’d told him he could stay only in the front yard of the cottage and go no further.

Hansol had smiled at you, an amused quirk of his lips that acted as all the reassurance you needed.

So he’s sitting in the snow in front of your cottage, legs out in front of him, the silk of his clothes getting damper the longer he sits on the cold ground, but he hardly notices, more focused with tracing a finger through the soft white that is steadily building up.

Snowfall is Hansol’s most favourite wintry thing. It’s a perfect, wondrous phenomenon: the intersection of the perfect time and the perfect weather and the perfect temperature that makes the sky release soft handfuls of the white stuff down on Earth. Even nature falls silent when the snow falls. In Hansol’s opinion, that’s proof enough that it’s something to be appreciated beyond belief.

His robes, his old robes, used to have silver snowflakes embroidered into them, intricate and sprawling patterns that he could run his fingers over and almost feel the cold gust of wind that accompanied the snow. They’re not on the robes he’s wearing now—he’s wearing ones you’ve given him, after his old ones were ruined by his own blood—but he traces his fingers gently over the sleeves, letting frost spread out from his fingers like the feathery patterns that used to adorn the cloth he wore.

He quickly grows bored of that, though, and turns to the real snow in front of him, ears flicking absentmindedly to get rid of the small pile-up gathering on his head. He absentmindedly gathers the stuff in his hands, patting it into shapes and then leaving them out on the lawn. 

This carries on for some time, and eventually there is an army of misshapen snow clumps in your front yard, all frosted over with a touch of his magic, and he grins, satisfied. And then his ears twitch again, and he feels… eyes. Watching him.

Hansol turns around, and some houses away, peeking from over a well-trimmed, leafless hedge, he sees three children clad in fluffy winter clothes staring at him, curious.

He doesn’t have much experience with human children. Or any children, for that matter. But he’s pretty sure that, when a yokai makes eye contact with them, they’re not meant to light up with glee and come running over with absolutely no regard for the icy paths or the danger that said yokai could present.

Surprised, Hansol jumps up to his feet, reaching out hands to steady the little kids as they skid over the snow and come to a stop right in front of him, eyes shining, expectant. He doesn’t know what they’re expecting, and being so close to these mini humans is a very awkward experience for him. He’s not sure what to do.

So he lifts a hand, and waves. “Hello?”

The three children beam, and one of them, the girl, practically vibrates with happiness when he speaks.

“Hello!” she chirps, and waves back. “I’m Yeowon! What’s your name?”

Hansol blinks, taken aback by her enthusiasm. “I’m Hansol.”

“Hansol!” Yeowon keeps speaking in exclamation marks, and it’s honestly kind of amusing. “It’s nice to meet you! This is Junghoon, and this is Minjun!” she says, gesturing to the boys on either side of him, who also give Hansol equally enthusiastic waves.

“Hello,” he says unsurely. How old are these kids? He doesn’t know much about human years, but they look… very young. Where are their parents?

He doesn’t get to voice his concerns before Yeowon starts speaking again, going a mile a minute and he can hardly get a word in edgeways.

“We were watching you from Minjun’s house,” she says, and picks up one of the snow balls that Hansol was making, lifting it up so he can look at his own handiwork. “These are so pretty! We wanted to come over and play with you, ‘cause we’ve never seen you before, but you live with Miss Witch, right?”

Hansol opens his mouth, but it’s apparent that wasn’t an actual question when Yeowon barrels on.

“So you must be a good guy! So we wanted to come say hello and play.”

She blinks big, innocent eyes up at him, as do the two boys, evidently begging him to play with them, or something. He doesn’t know what play entails, but… there’s no harm in entertaining these fun-sized humans, right?

So Hansol nods, says they can play with him, and sits down in the snow again. And then, before he knows it, they’re all shrieking and climbing over him and asking him to make figurines out of ice and snow and patting his hair in amazement and asking if his ears are actually real.

Children are very overwhelming, Hansol quickly learns. But he also kind of likes them: likes the way their eyes light up when he makes them the little ice characters they want, likes their fascinated smiles and the way they very gently touch his ears and accidentally get damp suede of their gloves in his mouth in their excitement. They’re bubbly, full of life, and so friendly with him that it honestly makes him so delighted that it surprises him.

“Make me one too! Make me one too!”

“Your ears look super fluffy! Can I touch your tail?”

“Why are your eyes yellow?”

“Can you make me something out of magic too, Mister Fox?”

“Mister Fox! Mister Fox!”

Hansol doesn’t know how it happens, but he blinks and suddenly he’s surrounded by what seems to be every child in the village, clamouring around him and asking if he could play, Please, Mister Fox, won’t you?

Your front lawn is quickly becoming a gathering place for the little humans who had swarmed towards him so quickly that Hansol’s starting to think they were waiting in the background for his very opportunity, and he makes more ice figures and listens interestedly to their babbling as they conjure stories for the figurines on the spot. They’re all so very noisy, but Hansol smiles, brimming with a similar sort of energy as his magic fizzes and pops with glitters of snow and makes the children laugh.

There’s no other way to describe it. He’s feeling happiness, pure and simple.

Unbeknownst to Hansol, there’s one human who’d been watching the entire scene right from the beginning. Coming down the path, on his way to visit the village’s magic-user, Soonyoung had noticed Hansol sitting by himself and had prepared to go over, extend a hand and a friendly word before Yeowon, Junghoon and Minjun had run over.

As a result, Soonyoung retreated a little ways round the bend to watch from a distance, which is where he is now, smiling at the innocent joy of both the children and Hansol.

From the opposite end of the path, he spots you walking back to your cottage, and clocks the exact moment you realise what’s happening in your front yard. Your eyes widen, and you stop in your tracks, before your eyes slowly lift further and you notice Soonyoung standing there too, smiling.

See? he seems to say with your eyes, meeting your gaze. They love him. 

One of the children shrieks with laughter as she grabs Hansol’s tail and he playfully gasps in shock, scooping her up and lifting her into the air until she’s giggling and burbling for him to put her down. At his feet, one child is patting snow into the hem of his robes, and another is playing with a fox-eared figurine that Hansol had made him.

It looks so natural, and you watch them for a moment before looking at Soonyoung again. Soonyoung smiles even wider. You have nothing to worry about.

You laugh, a little bit in disbelief, warmth spreading across your face as you smile back, looking fondly at the sight in your front yard. Finally, you really do believe that that’s the truth.

───────────── ‘✽, 

“Let’s go out,” you say, and Hansol looks up from his book, tilting his head inquisitively.

“Hm,” he says in reply. “Are you sure?”

It’s been a few days since the first snowfall, but the wintry precipitation has not let up, and it continues to softly drift down from the sky even as you speak. The blanket of snow covering the earth has also blanketed your senses, and your magic is nothing more than a gentle hum beneath your skin. A month ago, this would have stressed you greatly, but with Hansol and his winter-attuned magic singing happily around the entire room, you feel nothing but peace. 

Nodding in reassurance, you smile at Hansol. “Very sure. Let’s go out today.”

Hansol blinks, once, and then smiles back, closing the book and getting up from the couch. “Okay. Where are we going?”

You smile wider. “To make you some friends.”

That was the plan, anyway. Ever since the first snow, when Hansol had been accosted by the children and ended up playing with them for a good part of the day, you’ve had several villagers come to your door, either complaining about the yokai or wanting to know more about him. So, you figure, today you should get him out to the village square so he can finally meet everyone. Regardless of their opinion of him. 

Because you have trust in Hansol. Now, you have confidence he can turn their opinion around. 

Hansol, despite having all the appearances and mannerisms of an introvert, doesn't seem to mind leaving the house for so many days in a row, and eagerly agrees as you urge him to get dressed and head out to the village square. There's the daily market taking place, and most people will be there, so it'll be a good opportunity to introduce him. 

But, like you said, that was the plan. 

Unfortunately, you're whisked away by some of the villagers who need help with their sick relative, leaving Hansol stranded in the village square. 

“You don't have to stay,” you insist to him, as you're rushed off to deal with the medical emergency. “Seriously, Hansol, you can go home. Especially if anyone starts throwing insults, then just go, okay? I'll be with you as soon as I finish.”

Hansol watches you go, head tilted, slightly amused. It's kind of cute that you think he needs protecting. You know, since he's an ancient demon, and all. But before he can say as such, there's a small voice near his knee, and he looks down to see a small child, piping up in favour of him. 

“Don't worry about Mister Fox!” the small boy chirps brightly. “We will look after him!”

And as if out of nowhere (seriously, where do these kids come from?) several children come up to him and cling to his robes, waving at you as you leave the market square. Hansol waves too, mystified by the miniature support latching onto him, but also a bit touched by their loyalty. They're really sweet. 

“So what do you wanna do, Mister Fox?” the first little boy says, and Hansol recognises him as one of the first children to come up to him a few days ago. Minjun. “Are you hungry?”

Without even waiting for Hansol's answer, Minjun and the rest of the children start ushering him to the food stalls, fiercely advocating for their choice of what Mister Fox should eat first. 

“Wait,” Hansol says, interrupting the particularly fierce fight over having hotteok or bungeoppang first. “Kids. Do you have any money?”

There's a short silence, and all the children look down, which is how he learns that they don't, and so they don't end up buying anything at all. Except, Yeowon, who joined the discussion partway through, manages to wheedle some of the stall-owners to give her free food with her big puppy eyes and innocent pout.

It’s like a magic trick, Hansol has to give her that. And when she happily tells the vendors that she’s sharing the food with Hansol, the villagers do nothing other than blink in surprise and then smile, polite and awkward, well. That’s also an incredible magic trick too. 

They sit on the outskirts of the village market, pillowed by the mounds of snow all around them as they eat their steaming hot snacks. They’re delicious, and sticky, and very sweet, so it’s not too long before Hansol has several super-hyper, sticky-fingered children on his hands, who are all practically launching themselves into the snow with the bounding amounts of energy they have.

It becomes very noisy very fast, and Hansol starts panicking slightly, before he loudly suggests they ought to go and make some snowmen, and all the children whip their heads around to look at him, wide-eyed, and then—

“That’s such a good idea!”

“Yes! Let’s do that!”

“I’m gonna make the best snowman!”

“No, me!”

“No! Me!”

And then they go tumbling off into the snow, and Hansol slumps back down, relieved. He can still see them, and he can still sense them, too, so there’s no worry in any of them getting lost. At least he can now have some peace and quiet.

Twisting his lips thoughtfully, he gathers handfuls of the white snow, turning it over. He turns it over again, and then begins patting and shaping it in his hands until he has something that resembles a little snow duck.

It’s terribly misshapen, and the beak is a bit too long to be a duck, but it’s cute, and Hansol’s pleased. He swirls his fingers in the air, and uses some magic to add finishing touches, trying to rectify the wonkiness. It doesn’t work, but he still thinks it’s cute. You’d probably find it cute, too. Right?

Probably. Hansol hums to himself contemplatively. You like everything he does. It’s very sweet, he thinks, that you’re always so receptive to him, and it’s even sweeter that you genuinely enjoy his company. You brighten like a blooming chrysanthemum, spring-like in your warmth whenever he says something to you, and it makes him feel all warm too. Ever since the first time he woke up on your couch, out of his mind with a fever, and he’d noticed your floral chrysanthemum tea scent and accidentally called you the prettiest person ever, you’ve always been so gentle and kind and oh, Hansol likes you so much.

You’re just—lovely. You’re the loveliest being he’s ever met in his entire life, and that’s saying something, because Hansol’s been alive for a really fucking long time.

“Hello.”

He’s startled out of his thoughts by a light, melodic voice coming from over his shoulder, and Hansol looks up in surprise to see a villager bent over him, warm brown eyes glinting and the corners of his lips curving upwards in a seemingly permanent smile.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you jump. I just saw you, and thought I’d say hi,” the villager says, smiling properly, extending a hand. “I’m Joshua. You’re the yokai, right?”

Hansol manoeuvres his body around awkwardly and shakes Joshua’s gloved hand. “I’m Hansol, and yeah, I am the yokai. How could you tell?” His ears flick pointedly as he talks, and Joshua’s eyes immediately go to them before he smiles wider.

“Yeah, I guess it was a silly question,” Joshua says, and his fur boots crunch in the snow as he climbs over a mound and crouches down next to Hansol. “But I don’t wanna seem impolite, you know?”

Hansol shrugs, but he understands. “Yeah. I get it.”

Joshua smiles.

They say nothing for a moment, and Hansol lifts his head up briefly to check on the children. He can still see all of them, actually, dotted about the edges of the market as they build their snowmen. He watches them thoughtfully, and then down at the snow at his feet.

It only takes a moment for a snowman of his own to begin to form, aided by his magic as the snowballs roll themselves to become bigger and more round.

“That’s really cool,” Joshua comments, and Hansol had almost forgotten he was there. He’s so quiet, feather-silent, but when he catches Hansol’s eye and smiles, there’s a twinkle to his presence that makes him wonder how he could have ever forgotten him. “I’ve never seen anyone other than Y/N be able to do that.”

“Hm?” Hansol looks at the snowman that’s slowly being built. “Oh, well, it’s nothing, really.”

Even as he says so, his tail fluffs up in pride at Joshua’s words, and he begins adding more and more intricate frost details to the snowman. The feathery patterns wind through the body of his creation, like embroidery, and Joshua whistles, amazed.

“It’s very cool. Your magic is very cool.”

Hansol shrugs, bashful. “Thank you. But really, it’s nothing.” As the snowman continues to construct itself, he leans over to Joshua as if confiding a secret. “In the wild, there are yokai who can create literal monsters out of ice. In about five seconds flat. But I mostly just deal with frost and snow, so it’s a lot more difficult for me.”

Joshua tilts his head, genuine interest written all over his face. “Oh. I didn’t know there were differences in yokai magic.”

“Of course there are,” Hansol says, like it’s obvious. “Like there are differences in humans’ skills, there are differences for yokai, too. We are not unlike you, you know.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Joshua says thoughtfully. And then he looks Hansol in the eye again, smiling. Joshua is honestly so friendly, and even though they only met two minutes ago, he feels like he’s known him for years. “So you won’t object to being friends with a human, right?”

Hansol blinks, surprised, and Joshua’s smile just widens. It’s obvious what he’s asking, and Hansol feels… touched, that he’d even suggest such a thing.

“Yeah,” Hansol says, and his magic finishes off the snowman with an intricate flourish of frost. “I’d love to be your friend.”

“Joshua!”

The calling of the human’s name makes both Joshua and Hansol turn around, and they see one of the elder villagers coming over to them, the skirts of her robes swishing as she walks. She’s terribly intimidating, greying hair pulled back into a bun with a pointy hair stick, marching over with incredible grace even through the ankle-deep snow that has gathered. She squints at the yokai and how close Joshua is sitting to him. 

“Mrs Choi,” Joshua greets, apparently oblivious to the sharpness of the woman’s gaze. “Hello. It’s very cold today, isn’t it?”

She eyeballs Hansol for a moment before nodding at Joshua. “Very. Frightful weather, but at least the children are enjoying the snow.” Mrs Choi lifts her gaze and squints into the distance, where the children are playing. “I hope someone is supervising them.”

“Oh, well, Hansol is, so don’t worry about it,” Joshua says with a smile. 

Mrs Choi snaps her gaze back to them. “Is he really?” Hansol nods, doing his best to look as earnest and trustworthy as possible, and she hums. “I see.”

“He has them doing a snowman competition, actually,” Joshua says. “He’s very good at making them himself, too. Look. Don’t you think his creation looks amazing?”

He points to the snowman in front of them, glistening with frost and embroidered with thin ice, clearly a work of his magic. Hansol swallows, expecting Mrs Choi to fly into a tizzy over the presence of such witchcraft, but she just scrutinises the snowman, and then—

She smiles.

“It’s very pretty,” she says, and in the blink of an eye, her expression has turned warm. She’s smiling so nicely at Hansol, and then she leans down and brushes a hand over the top of his head, gently dusting away the snow that had landed in his hair. “Just like you, my dear.”

Hansol blinks up at her, open-mouthed. “I— thank you, ma’am.”

She chuckles, straightens, adjusts the skirt of her robes. “No need to thank me. I’m simply telling the truth.” Mrs Choi nods in the direction of the children, before turning away. “Thank you for taking care of the children, also. Keep up the good work.”

Hansol watches her go, feeling a little dazed. She had looked so sharp and stern at first, but something about him sitting there harmlessly and making a harmless snowman with harmless snow gathered in his hair must have done something to convince her that he’s, well, harmless. Which is good. Very good. Hopefully she’ll let everyone else know, too.

“Yeah, she looks scary, but Mrs Choi is anything but,” Joshua says with a laugh, when Hansol directs his wide-eyed gaze to him.

“She’s terrifying.”

“Her son takes after her,” Joshua chuckles. “Choi Seungcheol. He looks scary, but he’s a right softie on the inside, trust me.”

Hansol’s eyes widen further. “She’s Seungcheol’s mother? The village leader?”

“The one and only,” Joshua affirms. He laughs. “Don’t worry about him. His own mother found you cute. I’m sure he’ll be won over by you in no time. Especially if you keep making snowmen that rival Y/N’s in their intricacy. Seriously, I think yours are the best I’ve ever seen.”

“Shua, I hope I didn't just hear you dissing my amazing snowman building skills.”

Hansol looks up at your voice, and sees you slowly treading over to them, a drawstring bag dangling over your shoulder as you pick your way through the snow. The tip of your nose is red from the cold, cheeks a pretty pink with an amused smile on your face, and the moment he sees you, it’s like you’ve stolen his breath away.

Whilst Hansol’s too busy being starstruck, Joshua laughs, leaning back on his hands.

“So what if I was?” he teases, and nods to Hansol’s snowman. “Doesn’t it look amazing?”

You look away, directing your gaze to the snowman. Humming thoughtfully, you eye Hansol’s creation, and he begins to grow a little nervous under your critical silence, fiddling with his fingers and digging them into the snow, wisps of cold air seeping from his skin.

And then you smile, a lopsided smirk that makes Hansol feel a little dizzy.

“I can certainly do better.”

Before he can say anything, you set down your bag, and with a flick of your wrist the snow begins to swirl and gather itself before you. Under your command, golden streaks of magic begin to press the snow together, creating larger shapes that you obviously plan to sculpt into a showstopping piece.

You look almost relaxed in your movements, the entire process taking nothing more than a slight twitch of your fingers as magic sparks zip around the sculpture that’s gradually beginning to form. Hansol can only watch in awe, amazed at the fluidity and effortlessness of your power. By his side, he thinks he hears Joshua chuckle softly.

After a few short moments, the three of you are staring at a large, smoothly finished sculpture of a winter fox, and you smile and cross your arms, satisfied.

“What do you think?” you say, smug, confident in your belief that you’ve proved yourself.

Hansol’s jaw is on the floor. Delicate pointy ears, a fluffy-looking tail all made out of snow, and wow, are those whiskers? Did you really make whiskers?

“Wow,” is all he can say, staring at this lifelike fox that’s made entirely out of snow. “Wow.”

Just then, there are high-pitched exclamations from somewhere in the distance, and the children that Hansol’s been supervising come bounding over, shouting in amazement at the fox that you’ve made. 

“Hi, kids,” you say when they’re close enough, laughing when Yeowon barrels into your legs to give you a hug. “Quick question, which snow sculpture do you think is better? The fox, or the Frosty the Snowman?”

They all look very thoughtfully at the two snow pieces in front of them, before unanimously pointing to your creation, and you grin triumphantly at Joshua and Hansol. Hansol just smiles back, totally expecting such an outcome. You’d beat him any day when it comes to stuff like this, and he’s totally fine with that.

“That’s not even a snowman,” Joshua protests, but it’s clear he’s arguing just for the fun of it. “Y/N, that’s not a fair competition.”

You shrug flippantly. “I’d win anyway.” And then you wink, pleased, and Hansol feels like burying himself in the snow just to try and get rid of his red cheeks.

“Mister Fox, we wanna play with you now,” Minjun says, and he looks up to see the children standing around him, red-cheeked and damp-haired but still eager to play more. “Can we play a game with you?”

“It’s getting late,” Hansol tries to say, but apparently, that had been a rhetorical question, because they’re hauling him up to his feet so they can play with him. “The market’s already closing. Shouldn’t you all go back to your parents now? Joshua? Y/N?” He looks back pleadingly as he gets dragged away, and you and Joshua just laugh, waving him goodbye.

“Have a nice time!” Joshua calls, standing up from the snow and brushing down his clothes. He stands closer to you, smiling as you both watch him begin to play. “He’s good with them, isn’t he?”

You smile too. “He really is.”

“The best,” another voice adds, and you look over your shoulder to see some of the villagers also watching Hansol. They’re all the parents, and yet they seem perfectly content to let their children play around with the yokai, any trace of hostility gone from their faces. 

That makes you smile wider. “I’m glad you think so, Mrs Lee,” you say, and the woman smiles back. “Don’t worry. He’ll keep your children safe.”

Mrs Lee bows her head in acknowledgement, eyes turning soft as you all watch Hansol let the children punt tiny clumps of snow at him. “We know.”

They stay with you for a little longer, chatting about Hansol’s gentle nature and how wonderfully he gets along with the children, before eventually they disperse and begin packing up the market for the day. Next to you, Joshua is also smiling, looking fond, which is really weird because he barely knows Hansol but there’s definitely a clear look of admiration and affection in his face. Before you can comment on it, though, he pats you on the shoulder, and begins to step away.

 “I better go,” he says. “Cheol’s coming your way. I think he wants a talk.”

He bids you goodbye then trudges back through the snow, and you look over your shoulder to see that Seungcheol really is coming your way. Instead of greeting him, however, you look back out at Hansol, and wait until the village leader is by your side.

“Hello, Y/N.”

“Hello, Seungcheol.”

You don’t offer him anything else, and so the two of you stand there in silence, continuing to watch Hansol play with the children. It is an adorable sight, though, and makes the corners of your lips twitch upwards the longer the silence goes on. He’s totally lenient with them, letting them pull his tail and ambush him with damp gloves and shrieking laughter. His head whips back and forth constantly between the two sides of kids that have inexplicably formed, somehow finding himself in the crossfire as snowballs get flung around him.

It’s cute, and it makes you laugh, heart warming with fondness. You can feel Seungcheol watching you out of the corner of your eye, and when it’s clear he’s not going to say anything until you do, you sigh and turn your back on Hansol at last, raising an eyebrow.

“Well?” you prompt. “What’s up? You didn’t come find me just to say hello.”

Seungcheol pauses, and looks down. “No. I didn’t.” A beat. “My mother actually told me you were here.”

“Okay. And?”

“She talked to Hansol,” he says, and both your eyebrows raise this time, in surprise. “She said to me that she liked him, and she wanted me to open my eyes and finally realise how much of a good person he is.”

Seungcheol clasps his hands behind his back, rocking on his heels. He looks over your shoulder, at where Hansol is undoubtedly doing something silly to entertain the children, and his eyes go gentle. They don’t soften, and they certainly don’t melt, but his gaze becomes a little more mellow, like a layer of hardness has finally given way.

“And he is a good person,” Seungcheol says, looking at you again. “I’ve been watching him all day. All week, in fact, and even if my mother hadn’t said anything, I would’ve sought you out to tell you this, because I think I owe you an apology.”

You breathe a laugh. “You certainly do,” you say, but there’s no real bite. Seungcheol’s actions were understandable. You’ve already forgiven him.

Seungcheol seems to know that too, because his lips quirk up into a half-smile. Nevertheless, his words are genuine when he says, “I’m sorry. I was too rash, and too harsh. Any worries I had over yokai did not excuse the way I talked about Hansol. Do you think you can also tell him how sorry I am?”

You draw in a long breath, cross your arms and lean back, staring down your nose at Seungcheol. His smile wavers, a little, but then you relax, breaking out into a grin.

“You can tell him yourself. He’d love to talk to you,” you say, and Seungcheol smiles too. “I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have reacted like that. You’re just looking out for the village, like you always do. But…” You shrug. “I was looking out for my kind, also. I was frustrated that you were treating Hansol like that just because he was a yokai.”

Seungcheol breathes out, wisps of white spilling from his lips. “I get that. It makes sense that you felt that way.” His eyes lighten with mischief suddenly, his smile taking on a teasing edge. “Especially considering the fact you’re in love with him, too.”

The world grinds to a halt. You stumble, taken aback by Seungcheol’s words. “I’m sorry, what?”

Nothing else gets to be said about the matter, though, because a small child goes zooming past you right at that moment, brushing against your side. And then, half a millisecond later, a fat clump of snow hits you square in the back.

The child continues running off, bubbling laughter fading into the market square. Slowly, very slowly, you spin on your heel and come face-to-face with the culprit.

Hansol’s still frozen in his throw position, one hand incriminatingly covered with snow. The moment he sees your face, his face breaks into a wide grin, that beautiful, big grin that shows the slight point of his yokai fangs. His eyes are glowing, alight with amusement and another, warmer emotion you can’t quite name.

He tilts his head to the side, eyeing the snow gently tumbling down your back. “Whoops?”

“Whoops?” you echo, breathing a laugh. You look at Seungcheol, as if saying Can you believe this guy? before turning back to Hansol, a handful of snow magically making its way into your hands. “Oh, you’re going to be saying a lot more than ‘Whoops’ in a minute.”

Hansol laughs, holding his hands up placatingly. “Now hold on a minute—”

Abruptly, his head jerks back, and he gets knocked off his center of balance by the force of the snowball you’d just lobbed at him.

You burst into laughter as Hansol, sitting on the ground and with snow in his hair and up his nose, wipes his eyes with a grin. “Now you’re just asking for it, I think.”

Still laughing, you snap your fingers, and several more balls of snow float up around you. “Oh, it’s on.”

Cut to several minutes later, and somehow, the snowball fight between the two of you has devolved into a village-wide thing, children slipping and sliding in the snow alongside their parents as Seungcheol yells at his team to close ranks and you yell at yours to focus their sights on Hansol. The icy air stings your cheeks, and at some point it begins to snow again, hard, blurring your sight, but the whole thing still continues, the square filled with the laughter of the villagers.

And throughout it all, Hansol manages to find your gaze no matter where he is, gold eyes seeking your gold magic, and the beautiful sound of his laughter leaves you breathless every time.

───────────── ‘✽, 

All things considered, perhaps it’s totally expected that you end up falling for Hansol.

You don’t get to truly mull over Seungcheol’s last words until much later, when you and Hansol have both changed out of your sopping wet clothes and are sitting curled up together on the sofa, both of you blinking sleepily at the fire you’ve lit in the fireplace.

The snowball fight ended incredibly amiably, with everyone agreeing that Seungcheol’s team had obliterated everyone else’s, despite the lack of magic users in his group. You’d helped some of the villagers dust themselves off, and used magic to dry off the people who had gotten the most wet. Soonyoung, inexplicably, looked like he’d been dunked five times in a swimming pool, rather than emerging victorious from a snowball fight.

Finishing with Soonyoung, you’d looked back, and of course—Hansol was playing with the children, again, as if he had endless reserves of energy to spare. But in between letting the kids climb his legs and play with  his swishing tail, he was chatting with the rest of the villagers, helping them tidy away their things.

It made you smile. 

And then Hansol had looked back at you, as if sensing your gaze, and his entire face had lit up, brighter than the brightest summer’s day, and he’d quickly said goodbye to the villagers before coming bounding over to you, face so open and comfortable and warm and—

Yeah. You like him a lot. And you’re sure that he likes you a lot too.

Hansol yawns, big and wide and content, his tail flicking lazily as he rests on your shoulder. Outside, the snowfall has increased to a snowstorm, complete with howling winds and dark, looming clouds, but inside, your cottage is warm, and you have a sleepy yokai pressed against your side, and life is, admittedly, kind of perfect.

There’s just one thing, though.

You need to tell him.

Lost in thought, you shift around absentmindedly, and Hansol looks up questioningly at the movement. The warmth of your magic prickles softly in the air around you, and when he takes your hand, you can feel his own magic murmuring softly in tandem with your own. 

He continues to look at you, and then smiles, eyes glowing. Goodness, he really is so pretty.

“I like you,” you whisper, the words falling from your lips as if he’s enchanted you, bewitched you into saying how you truly feel for all to see. “I like you, Hansol.”

Hansol blinks, slow, cat-like. He lifts his head up, pulls away slightly from your shoulder so he can sit up and look at you properly. His eyes are shining, slitted pupils widening and rounding in adoration.

“That’s good,” he says. “Because I think you’re the prettiest person alive.”

It’s almost a direct copy of the first words he’d said to you, almost a lifetime ago, when he had been out of his mind with a fever, red-cheeked and hazy-eyed and fixated on the way you smelled like chrysanthemums. The memory makes you laugh, heart squeezing with fondness, and you reach forward to cup Hansol’s cheeks, smiling wider when his eyes flutter shut briefly and he leans trustingly into your touch.

“That’s funny,” you say. “Because I think you’re the prettiest person alive.”

Hansol’s eyes crinkle as he smiles, showing those yokai fangs that you adore so much. His ears twitch with happiness, light speckles of frost covering his cheeks as he blushes. He’s so pretty, and you love him so much.

Slowly, you inch closer until the tip of his nose brushes against yours. So close that you can count the snowflake-shaped freckles on his cheeks.

“You forgot to say it back, though,” you murmur. “Hansol, you didn’t say you like me back.”

Hansol breathes a soft laugh. “I thought it was obvious.” His smile widens, so enamoured that it warms your heart. “Y/N, I like you too. In fact, I think I’m in love with you.”

You beam. “You know what? I think I’m in love with you too.”

And then you lean forward, and Hansol leans in too, and your lips meet in the softest, sweetest kiss. He tastes like magic, like love, like soft snow that numbs your senses but leaves your heart alive and alight and oh, this is everything you never knew you needed and more.

Hansol’s silver-white hair is falling into his eyes when you pull away, his golden irises shining brightly through them like dazzling, gorgeous sunlight peeking through the translucent colours of snowfall. The sight makes you instantly lean in to kiss him again, dizzy with adoration because goodness, this happiness is for you. He looks like this because he loves you.

And you love him too.

fics tags: @jeonginssa @weird-bookworm @minhui896 @slytherinshua @haowrld @belladaises @moonlitskiiies @mirxzii @zozojella @kawennote09 @a-wandering-stay @abibliolife @doublasting @wonranghaeee @icyminghao @sweet-like-caramel @your-yxnnie @odxrilove @kyeomyun @crackedpumpkin @jeonride @kellesvt @eightlightstar @onlyyjeonghan @aaniag @starshuas @raevyng @isabellah29 @hrts4hanniehae @mcu-incorrect @dokyeomkyeom @suraandsugar @haodore @tulsa24 @melodicrabbit

[lesbiansanemi]

Would love to hear about the komainu au 👀

Ooohhhhh my god, okay, so Komainu AU is one of my most beloved babies. It's a fic I entirely plan to prewrite before posting any of it (so unforchies I doubt anyone will be seeing it for... a long while haha). It's an AU I'm so fond of and I can't wait to eventually share it

It originally started out as a Princess Mononoke AU, but it spiraled far, far beyond that. However, you can definitely still see the bones of it originally being a Princess Mononoke AU, especially through the "first act" (there are "five acts" that could honestly all be individual fics + a tamashino spinoff, I still can't decide if I want to post it as a series of five fics, or just as one utterly massive fic, I'll cross that bridge when it's done haha)

Anyways, the plot is that Kyojuro comes from a family of "monster hunters." This largely means anything that is not human, whether it's dangerous or evil or whatever or not. Granted, they live in an extremely urban area, so when supernatural beings show up, they generally have ill intentions, but their family, and where they live, harbors a deep hatred and distrust for inhuman creatures. Eventually, during a fight, Kyojuro practically dies, and is "cursed" by the gods to stay alive. No one understands this curse, all anyone knows is that he suddenly isn't human anymore (just doesn't feel like it, + has a fox tail, weird animal-like eyes, etc). Eventually, he's forced to leave his family behind, disguise what he is, and search for a cure. The journey is long and hard, he's hated almost everyone he goes, sometimes even has to fight for his life due to what he is now, and the "curse" keeps progressing. Two years after he's initially "cursed" he's up to two fox tails, weird teeth, it just keeps progressing. That being said, the further and further into the wild he gets, the less people... care about what he is. Hatred turns to mere distrust to curiosity to genuine kindness.

And in his search, he eventually ends up so far into the wilds that human civilization is far and few between. One of the last towns he ends up in tells him of a village deep in the mountains that no one dares to go to, or else they die. They only know it still exists because a few times a year a group of women will come trade with them. Kyojuro gets the sense that he has to go there, and so he does

Upon arriving, he's taken in by the Kamado family, and learns of the monster in the mountains that kills any men who dare to leave the village borders. Kyojuro isn't quite human, so he's probably fine, they reason. He made it to the village after all. Women and girls are always spared, so they're the only ones who can leave/hunt/etc. Kyojuro is obviously alarmed by this, but the village is largely used to it. This has been going on for generations, after all. The Kamados suggest he go speak with a woman in the village named Tamayo. She knows a lot about yokai and oni and magic. If anyone will know anything about a curse, it will be her. So Kyojuro goes

Tamayo immediately clocks that he's turning in a kitsune, and that it progresses as Kyojuro uses his magic (he does not control when he uses it, and it generally flares during bouts of extreme emotion). She decides not to tell him that though. What she does tell him is there is a corrupted komainu spirit in the forest that kills men in the village if they try to leave. If Kyojuro manages to befriend him and stop the killings, she'll fix his curse. It's the best hope Kyojuro has had in years, so he eagerly agrees. But as soon as he leaves, Shinobu calls Tamayo out for lying and demands to know why she promised to cure him when she obviously has no intentions nor ability to do so, and she's very cryptic about the whole thing. But Shinobu eventually gathers that Tamayo is just curious and having fun, as she knows Tamayo well at this point. She does feel a bit bad that Kyojuro has been given false hope though, and she is definitely not confident that he'll get through to the komainu spirit

I'm gonna keep rambling beneath the cut cuz I love this AU, but that's the basic setup for everything in the AU haha

So, Kyojuro starts his little endeavor of getting Akaza to stop his murder spree. Their first meeting, Akaza is initially violent with him, before he realizes that 1. Kyojuro can hold his own and has been combat train which is interesting and 2. he's not human except he is human and something really fucking weird is going on. Kyojuro is very quick to reveal what Tamayo told him and Akaza is just as quick to warn him not to trust "that thing." But despite that, Akaza is intrigued by Kyojuro, so he'll go along with this for now. He's not just going to stop killing the men in the village though.

He and Kyojuro go back and forth for a while. Akaza is very quick to try and force out more inhuman characteristics from Kyo, and during one particularly heated argument between them, things turn violent, and Akaza is actually pretty damn close to genuinely hurting Kyo (something isn't right, Kyo realizes, it's like he's not thinking, this isn't Akaza anymore, it's... it's some thing that looks like him). Kyojuro's magic flares, which progresses his own transformation (up to three tails, now he has fox ears). But the light magic does something to Akaza. It seems to genuinely hurt him, burn him, more accurately, and Akaza is quick to flee afterwards. He's hurting and confused because... because his mind feels clearer than it has in a very, very long time, and he doesn't know what to do with that. And for the first time in centuries, he ventures towards an old, decrepit shrine, just outside the village

Kyojuro is distraught by the transformation continuing, and goes to Tamayo. She refuses to be much help though, and tells him he's done barely anything to befriend the komainu, and he's certainly not stopped being violent. She's not doing anything for him, and Kyo begins to seriously consider Akaza's words about not trusting her, but still... this is the best, and truly, the only lead he's ever gotten on breaking this curse, so he has no choice but to continue to trust her

Things continue on. Kyojuro tries to get through to Akaza, nothing works. Akaza continues to antagonize Kyo and loves point out how he's less and less human, he likes doing things like tugging on his ears, snapping close to them to get them to twitch, forcing more vulpine noises out of him by irritating him. Really, it seems they're at a stalemate

Until Akaza's corruption continues to progress, and eventually, he kills someone inside the village. Everyone panics, and Tamayo warns that Akaza doesn't have long before there's nothing left to reason with and he's nothing but a dark, vengeful spirit.

Kyojuro goes to find him, and discovers that Akaza is... a mess. He's frenzied and panicked and it's obvious he knows what's happening to himself but doesn't know what to do about it, so, Kyojuro asks. How does a komainu even become something like this?

And Akaza tells him. He tells him about centuries ago, when he was still young and hopeful and devoted to guarding his shrine. He was strange for a komainu. They were supposed to come in pairs, but it was only ever him tethered to this shrine and this village. He didn't mind though. Especially not when he met Koyuki. She came and prayed at the shrine whenever she could, and if she couldn't make it that day, her father always came in her stead. She was sick. Akaza was never very good when it came to magic, but he grew fond of her, and did his best to heal her. It wasn't perfect, but she did better and she was so grateful for his help. They became very close. So close, that Akaza began to abandon guarding his shrine and his village for her

The village always had a strained relationship with the komainu guarding their shrine. Why was he the only one? Where was the other half of his duo? And then he uses his power for one girl, and no one else? He starts to abandon the shrine, and the rest of them, all for this girl?

And some particularly bitter men decided to do something unforgivable.

Akaza started killing them after that, and the corruption began to sink its claws into him. He always knew that eventually he would lose his mind. Komainu aren't meant to hurt, they're meant to protect. He's not protecting anyone anymore, and he's turned on the village he was meant to guard. Of course he was always going to lose himself.

He claims he doesn't care.

Kyojuro knows he's lying. And he can feel his own magic reaching out for Akaza. He realizes that he can do it. He can burn out the corruption with his own light magic, but... that means he won't be human at all anymore. The curse will have won

The village decides to finally do something about the monster, now that their tentative peace with it is up. If even inside the village isn't safe, they need to kill it before more people die.

Kyojuro realizes what they're planning, and hurries to find Akaza before they do. Because he knows if they fight, then Akaza will fully lose himself, and who knows how many people he will kill.

Ultimately, just as Akaza begins fighting with the villagers, Kyojuro uses his magic to burn the corruption out of him in front of everyone. Akaza begs him not to do it, he's giving up his chance of being human again, and he doesn't care what happens to himself, and this village needs to atone for what they did to Koyuki. But... Kyojuro does it anyway. He burns the corruption out of Akaza, and fully turns himself into a kitsune

After watching what Kyojuro did, and watching Hakuji return to a less... physically intimidating version of himself as the corruption burns away, Tamayo, Shinobu, and the Kamados are able to talk the village down, and Kyojuro is able to get Akaza away from them

He learns that Akaza's name used to be Hakuji. The village renamed him after he began killing them. He doesn't regret killing the people who killed Koyuki and Keizo, but he does regret what he did to everyone else. He wants to learn to be a guardian spirit again. And. Well. Kyojuro can't go home. He's a kitsune. He might as well stay here with Hakuji and help him learn again

Tamayo eventually reveals to both of them that she had no intention of making Kyojuro human again, and confesses that she doesn't even think such a thing was possible. Kyojuro also couldn't leave the village and the shrine even if he wanted to. He's tethered himself to Hakuji and to the village by doing what he did. He's become the other half of the duo meant to guard the shrine.

And now that he's fully one himself, Kyojuro does realize that Tamayo is also a kitsune. An old one, a powerful one, and a mischievous one. She bears no ill will towards them, but does find spirits as young and messy as them entertaining. So she'll stick around for a while to help them how she can (she was going to stay anyways, for Shinobu)

And that's act one!! Haha.... hahaha.... it's so long. Act two is about Senjuro setting out to find Kyojuro years later, and eventually settling into the village himself. Simultaneously, it's about Kyojuro adjusting to being a spirit akin to a small deity and helping Hakuij adjust to a better life, as well as trying to smooth things over between him and the village considering... everything. This part ends when Senjuro eventually dies after a long life.

The third part is about Kyojuro grappling with immortality after the death of his brother. This part is much more about Hakuji helping Kyojuro adjust and trying to help him learn that this is how it's always going to go for them. They're always going to watch the humans around them die. It's also during this part that Kyojuro and Hakuji end up taking in a human child during a particularly rough winter and her parents die and there's no one else to take care of her. But Kyojuro struggles greatly with that as he's already mourning her eventual death and doesn't understand why Hakuji isn't doing that. It feels callous. This part stretches across several centuries, leaving Kyojuro and Hakuji to watch the generations come and go, watching the people they care about die over and over, including their own kids that they take in

The fourth part is easing into modern times, and Hakuji and Kyojuro have been pretty much forgotten. No one really believes in them anymore or really even knows of their existence. They've begun to weaken, are losing their powers, and Hakuji knows it's only a matter of time until they finally fade away. He and Kyojuro kind of don't acknowledge it, and live as they did for centuries out in what little remains of the forest. Tamayo visits them often (she's visited them many times throughout the centuries, but never as often as she does now, she knows they're dying, and wants to spend what time she can with her old friends. She's not like them, she's not sustained by a shrine and belief, she'll outlive them, but Tamayo is used to that). And... eventually, they fade away. Despite everything, Kyojuro is afraid of dying, but Hakuji does his best to reassure him that it will be fine

The final part is about Kyojuro and Hakuji having been reincarnated as humans and having found each other again. They don't remember their previous life, but are drawn to each other, and drawn to a little town out in the countryside. A few of the oldest people in town remark that they look like the spirits they saw as children. Funny little coincidence, isn't it?

So yeah. It's a lot. I have so many thoughts about the komainu AU. I could talk in so much detail about it for so long... as I'm sure is obvious haha I just love komainu AU sooooo bad

[zeyhkro]

Within the Yokai's Realm

Within the Yokai's Realm - Chapter 1 (will be a LONG.. long... story... currently being cross posted on AO3) various kizuki members x fem reader (polyam?? idk) list: kokushibo, douma, akaza, aizetsu, sekido, karaku, urogi, nakime, gyutaro, kaigaku, hairo, enmu, kyogai rui, zohakuten, and daki are mentioned but are not love interests(for obvious reasons) summary: The Yokai.

Once thought to rule over Japan with an iron fist, to scurry about every home and every forest within the land. Though many assortments existed, a key defining fact was that when they prowled, humans lived in fear. Gifts were sent out to earn favor or deter attacks, but one day, spirits began to appear less and less. Now, the tales of Yokai are merely told to children as lessons or to spark fear and fun, and those who truly believe in them are simply a bit ridiculous... at least, that's your own opinion on the matter.

However, when an attacking group of bandits demand your life in promise to spare your village, what will happen when things play out rather unexpected? It all started with that damned shrine maiden.

warnings: none for this chapter, but later chapters may hold canon typical violence or slightly suggestive situations/dialogue. no smut will be included wordcount(for this chapter): 4,316 A/N: OC's are mentioned and play as background characters/old friends of the reader, but are not main characters and wont be showing up much. this fic is set within an AU where demons are instead various yokai from traditional japanese mythology

Long ago, the lands of Japan were teeming with magic and mischief. Foxes played cruel tricks on travelers, Oni slaughtered dozens. The ghosts of mothers haunted the living, begging for the safety of their children. Gargantuan whale skeletons swam through the bays, bringing misfortune and plagues and mystery along with them before diving off to sea. The wolves formed ladders, and the cats took rule of their masters. A friend would turn around without a face, and ghostly canines would nip at your heel to do their owners bidding. The weasels would nick at your skin in a flurry of wind, and the mountains were under the rule of fierce, winged protectors. The statues stood guard for shrines and homes alike, stony glares sending thieves and trespassers alike to flee. Serpentine forms would coil and thrash through the waters, rearing antlered heads and whiskered muzzles as they unleashed storms upon humankind, and all of humanity cowered and begged. Offerings would be set out, spirits bribed and pleaded to for protection. 

Often, this would be in the form of food or expensive items, gifts to earn good favor. At times, if especially desperate or facing an incredibly powerful yokai, one might even send out a daughter in a white kimono to be spirited away and never seen again. Such things would grant a family or village one of few graces. Should such a spirit be inherently hostile, this may end in it being appeased and leaving you be, wandering elsewhere to wreak havoc. If it is a more benevolent or mild mannered creature, you may have earned yourself a protector or guardian, at least until it felt its debt was repaid. 

At least, that is what your elders always told you. Nowadays, no one believed such tales, unless you were a child or awful gullible. High strung stories to teach lessons to children, shying them away from woods full of wild animals and dangerous falls, instilling respect, hygiene, and politeness. You were not gullible, not in any sense of the word. Hard working and diligent, you followed the advice of the stories, but not out of fear. You simply did what was right, and while you didn't believe in the supernatural aspects of it, the tales held proper advice... aside from a few, which you weren't entirely sure of the origin.

Perhaps, the elderly simply like to scare children. You certainly used to shiver at night, thinking about the ghouls and ghosts that may suddenly spring out should you so much as speak to them. That was neither here nor there, you haven't been spooked by ghost stories in many years now, and there are always much more pressing matters to attend to than glancing over your shoulder at every bump of wail in the night. 

Making your way out of your home, you gave a brief goodbye to your family, a sweet wave to your younger siblings and parents before stepping out into the village, taking a deep breath to steel yourself for the day. Sunlight streamed through the air in haphazardly tossed golden banners, filtered through the trees which swayed lazily through the air, tussled by the soft morning breeze. The quiet chirp of distant birdsong meshed with the sound of nearby chatter, a myriad of voices flowing together like a babbling, indescribable brook. The houses nearby were small and quaint, cozy and endearing. Your village wasn't the largest or most prosperous, but you all got along with life just fine. The people here were usually happy, although there was a pinprick of agitation that simmered through the population, even on such a nice day. 

A glance towards one of the houses on the far end of the village, partially smoldered and still smoking slightly, was a clear indicator as to why.

There were many things to be done and many people you had to speak to, already a slight weariness working its way through your bones at the mere idea of it all. Bracing complete, you took a single step forwards, already intent on grabbing the nearby bucket. As soon as you took your first step, a voice called out your name as a bumbling woman practically charged up to you, voice booming and incessant with some broad smile stuck to her face. 

The woman raised her hand, amethyst eyes locking onto yours as a dark purple rattail followed her like a streamer. "Y/n! Hey, Y/n!!" She greeted loudly, and you couldn't help but jump slightly, eyes widening as you peered towards the approaching figure. Coming to a screeching halt in front of you, she doubled over, panting for breath for a moment before her head popped right back up, forcing herself to rise to her full height once again as she crossed her arms. "Nice morning, isn't it?!" She shouted. 

This girl-- Kiyohime Tatsuryu, you couldn't help but remember her name after she had all but screamed it into your memory upon your first meeting a few years ago-- is not someone who lives in your village. Rather, she lives in a nearby settlement, inhabited only by her own family. Her family was insistent they were descendants of dragons, boasting their staggering height and muscular builds as their so called proof, and as such Kiyohime was the only mostly sane person you knew who so firmly believed in the Yokai… not that you didn't doubt her at times. Given her extravagant nature, you weren't so sure she always had her head on straight, but she was pleasant enough company whenever she came into the village for supplies. 

"Yes, a pleasant enough start to the day." You hummed, giving an exhale as you placed your hands on your hips, momentarily glancing away from her as you surveyed the village once more. The longer you looked, the more obvious the strain and scuffles were, eyes narrowing as you took notice of a few stray red stains. You peered back towards the towering girl who still stared down at you before she barked out another sentence. "Say, what's going on, anyway? Everyone seems all tied up and... well, fixing things? Why's it smell like a bon fire!" She inquired, tilting her head as you winced. 

Right. She didn't live here, so she was most likely unaware of the whole situation. Another sigh left you as you raised one hand, eyebrows furrowing as you tentatively bit your tongue. Unsure what to do or even what to say, you looked away again, hesitantly eyeing the nearby bloodstain before deciding to simply smooth back your hair, pushing away whatever fell into your face. “Well, lately we’ve been coming under attack by some rogue bandits. A few have ah, guns, right? Those Western weapons. They've been stealing our belongings,” You slowly spoke, wincing again as your hand slid to instead rest on your neck. “... and should we fight back, they've proven they don't mind killing.” Kiyohime’s eyes widened, her boisterous posture now slouched, as if deflated from the shock. “Huh?!” Was her only response, jaw dropping open before blinking multiple times as you avoided her gaze. “Yeah…” You mumbled with a slight hiss. “We don't know why they've come here, but honestly, we aren't in a situation where we can care. We just need to try and--” 

You were loudly cut off by a sharp voice, a growling hiss of an interjection. “Those damned bandits are here because you haven't made any offerings to the Kami!” You immediately wheeled around, caught off guard by the sudden appearance. A fiery young woman glared up at you, blazing red hair and eyes befitting her red and white attire, her hair swooped back into a low ponytail. Perhaps the only shrine maiden within miles of this village, it was a strange thing to see her here at all. A hermit and a recluse, miss Tamashi Reibai, or at least you were vaguely sure that was her name, hardly strayed from her shrine of Inari. She was younger than you, Hell, she was younger than Kiyohime. Despite this, the girl never had a lick of respect for you or anyone else she’d met. A finger was roughly jabbed at your sternum, accusatory in nature. “You lot haven't even tried to appease any spirits, of course you fools are under attack! You’re the village chief’s daughter, for crying out loud! You go talk some sense into that daft old man before you all end up dead!” She snarled, tone cruel and sharp as you took a quick step back. 

You quickly frowned, the beginning of a scowl on your face as you lifted your hands in a sort of mock surrender. “As much as I… appreciate the input, I have things I need to actually take care of. We don't have the resources to spare to try and offer it up to spirits!” You had to forcibly bite back the scathing addition of ‘who aren’t even real’, digging your fingers into your palms hard enough to turn your knuckles white as you clenched your jaw. You didn't believe in spirits, but you knew someone like Tamashi very much did, and it was rude to insult someone's belief… even though you wanted to bite her head off when she went on these maddened tangents. You were familiar with the behavior of shrine maidens, after all your mother once was a priestess before she became engaged to your father. However, it seems you didn't have to do much of anything this day, as the woman behind you suddenly stepped forwards, placing a rough hand on your shoulder. “Hey, what’s the big idea? This village is, like, under the protection of the Tatsuryu family! What's a better spirit than a dragon?! I’m sure if I pray to them, my ancestors will gladly protect this village too!” She laughed out, as if seeking to dissolve the tension, however Tamashi immediately turned to her like she was about to blow a fuse. 

“You’re no closer to a dragon is than any lizard you pick up off the side of the road, you moron!” She snapped, and you quickly moved to pinch the bridge of your nose as Kiyohime immediately yelped out. “What?!” With the purple haired girl fixated on the shrine maiden, you slipped out of her grasp before sidestepping the two, immediately going to tune out the now shouting argument right outside your door as you went to grab the previously discarded bucket. You took care to dust it off for a moment before peaking over your shoulder at the bickering girls before a gruff sigh left you, shaking your head disapprovingly before walking off. Unlike the two visitors, you actually did have things to be done further than a supply run. You settled the bucket against your hip before carrying it off towards the well, however you knew you were being tailed from the shuffle of dirt behind you. Glancing behind every so often, you caught a glimpse of a smaller figure diving behind cover every time. A real novice of a spy, but you simply rolled your eyes before turning back around, only to jolt as someone suddenly appeared in front of you. You gasped, taking a few steps back before you glared at who was in front of you. A young man, not even 16 yet, still a bit shorter than you and his jawline still soft with some baby face. 

“Shit..! Ryoku, don’t scare me like that!” You lightly scolded, frowning at him as he only stared up at you, a slight scowl on his face before he fell into step with you, and after a moment of silence and waiting for him to speak, you shook your head before continuing on. “You know, she’s right.” He started, voice raspy with a biting edge to it. You remained quiet for a moment before peering towards him, flicking over his shortly cropped blueish gray hair and his narrowed amber eyes, a scar slicing up his cheek. Ryoku Kohikigane was a quiet boy ever since his father’s disappearance some few years ago, paired with his mother’s death. The boy had always blamed the Yokai for it, insisting it was a monster who killed his mother and took his father away. Most of the village doubts this story, instead more inclined to believe the idea that it was simply bandits or wild animals who had done such a deed, but Ryoku always insisted there was foul play, insisted he had even seen it happen.

“Who’s right?” You hummed thoughtfully, not wanting to startle or further piss the kid off. “The shrine maiden. It's a Yokai who’s bringing those men here, I’m sure of it.” He spat, marching alongside you as you finally ceased your walking, moving to fill your bucket with water as you spoke. “Hmm. Well we don’t have the resources to try and appease them and I’m sure you already know that,” You started, a slight twinge of discomfort on your face as you eyed him, but he quickly spoke again. “That's why we aren't going to appease the damned thing, we’re going to kill it!” He exclaimed, posture firm and rigid before he took a step forwards. You stared at him incredulously before shaking your head again, pressing the heel of your palm against your eyes. “No, no we are not.” You sighed out. “We can hardly fight against the bandits, how are we going to kill a spirit?” 

You inquired flatly, tilting your head as you peered towards him again, only to jolt yet again as he suddenly grabbed you by your shoulders. “I’m going to kill it, that’s how! You send me and the men out, and I’ll track it, and I’ll get it!” You frowned as the water sloshed slightly from his jostling before you waved his hands off. “Not happening.” His eyes widened as if dismayed. “What do you mean not happening?! I need to!” He declared, and you took a step back before your gaze softened, blinking as you carefully considered his words. “It’s not going to bring him back, Ryoku.” You spoke gently, eyebrows knit together with the slightest frown on your lips, and he seemed baffled to hear you say that. 

His lip trembled slightly before he glared at you. “That's..! Not…!” He started before he shouted aimlessly, turning on his heel and marching right off before a young woman immediately darted towards him, placing a hand on one shoulder. Spiked blonde hair was all you could see for a moment as she babbled on to the boy in a hushed tone, but when he tilted his head to look at her, you could see a slight softening of his expression. The woman turned to look at you before waving, a wide smile on her face and dark eyes wide with a certain fondness for you… or, rather everyone. Hikaru Naginasa, a pleasant young woman around your age. You grew up together, and while you were never exactly close with your constant duties, she certainly saw a friend in you, and you felt the same towards her. Especially since she also shared your opinion that the only thing going bump in the night were stray animals or petty pickpockets. Ever since her own elder brother had left the village and Ryoku had lost his parents, she had kindly stepped up to take him in, and as such the two were basically siblings now. 

She offered you a big thumbs up and an apologetic glance. You smiled back at her, nodding your head in silent understanding as she ushered the boy off. You were glad the kid at least had someone taking care of him. Now that you were finally left alone, you huffed as you hoisted the full bucket up, making your way back to your family’s house. It was a small village, but it was typically peaceful, and you did care for its inhabitants greatly. Even the few returning visitors you got were treated as if they were one of the villagers, respected and liked… depending on their personalities. Thinking about it, you really hoped Tamashi and Kiyohime had finished their argument. But as you grew closer, you could still hear the sound of shouting… and you could see a crowd forming. Shit. 

You groaned before you picked up the pace, moving as quickly as you could without spilling the water you had worked so hard to collect. “Coming through!” You shouted as you wormed your way through the crowd, clutching your bucket of water close to your chest before your eyes landed on Ryoku in the crowd… smiling a fierce grin ear to ear. Your heart dropped. That’s not a good sign. Quickly you forced your way through the last of the crowd before suddenly you caught sight of what was happening. Kiyohime had the shrine maiden in her clutches, holding the red haired girl above her head and hoisted into the air. She, and I say this with utmost certainty, screamed out a roar, and Tamashi thrashed and shouted in her grasp before the shrine maiden grabbed onto one of the arms holding her up. 

Diving her head down, she snapped her teeth into the purple haired woman's arm, who immediately yelped in pain and dropped her to the ground. Tamashi, ever the sly, grabbed onto Kiyohime's rattail as she fell, harshly tugging at the girls hair. She cried out before falling backwards, landing right on top of Tamashi before rolling over. “That’s it!” She shouted before grabbing the shrine maiden by the ponytail, whipping her around just as had been done to her. “Oh sweet Heavens…” You groaned, squeezing your eyes shut before screaming out. “You two stop that!” The two briefly paused, panting from exertion with bruises already blooming on their arms and some blood trickling from where Kiyohime had gotten bitten, before the two glared at each other again. Both went to swing at the exact same time. 

“I said, stop!!” You shouted again before swinging back your bucket, and there was a resounding splash as all the noise stopped. The fighters finally relented, blinking owlishly at each other before glancing down at their now soaked clothing, hair plastered to their faces and dripping down their backs. Their heads craned towards you silently. Tamashi glared but for once backed down, huffing like a disgruntled bull with a shake of her head. Meanwhile Kiyohime opened her mouth and closed it, aiming to say something before rethinking it, for once at a loss for words and left floundering about like a fish. You narrowed your eyes dangerously at the two for a moment, sending an apologetic look towards your family gathered on the porch step of your home, but suddenly you froze up at the sound of a horse's whinny. 

With everyone's attention focused on the brawl and the sound of shouting, it seems the unmistakable clip, clop of hooves had gone amiss as a pitch black stallion stood tall and foreboding, the rider a burly man with a sour smirk across his face. A lame attempt at armor was secured across his shoulders and chest, and a blade was sheathed at his waist. He leered at the crowd, gaze trailing over the two soaked and bruised women before snorting a laugh. “Y’two sure had fun. Enough fun for you an’ your whole sniveling lot not t’ notice me.” He gave a breathy wheeze before his grin turned to a snarl, lips still upturned in a sneer. “But to buisness… the boss has got a proposition for you all.” He tugged on the reigns of the horse, the animal neighing with a shake of its head as it reared for a moment before settling down again, ears flicking about. 

It was as if the entire world had stopped aside from the man atop the horse. Not a single villager dared to move, let alone say something in response. Even the birdsong seemed to have quieted, a deathly silence crawling through the village and murmuring between the creaking trees. He seemed to take some sort of enjoyment from this fact before he spoke again. “If y’give us the village chief’s eldest daughter as a sacrifice, well, we’ll all just done leave you be. Send her out in a white kimono of the dead, and--” The snide voice of the man was cut off by a much more frail tone, though it still held command to it, a gentle voice which somehow still demanded a certain respect. “No.” A simple enough response. An older man stepped forwards, his hair black and cut to about his shoulders. His vision had been failing him in his older age, but he was still the village chief. “I will not cast out my daughter.” He stated firmly, a chagrin smile across his face. “If that is your price, pick another. But I will not accept a bargain for the life of any of my children… and that extends towards every member of this village.” 

The man atop the horse snorted again. “Your precious daughter over there went and threw water over our men last we came through! They almost went and caught sickness, and d’you think they’d go an’ survive if they did!?” He snarled, and you glanced down at the bucket in your hands. You paused for a moment, narrowing your eyes as you glanced towards the villagers around you, heart beating out of your chest. “We want that bitch dead! Serve her up on a silver platter and we’ll let you all live and scrounge about the dirt like y’already do. Keep her, and we’ll come knocking by force, and let the rest of you all join her in Hell.” The man growled before cackling again, the threat and promise clear in his voice. They wanted you specifically dead. They would be willing to spare the village if you go along willingly… you speak before your mind can fully catch up. 

“I’ll do it.” You call out firmly, eyes narrowed as you tighten your grip on the rim of the bucket. Immediately there is a rolling tide of voices, suddenly snapped out of their stupor and calling out in denial. “Like Hell, you will!” A sudden boisterous voice sounded behind you before a hand gripped your shoulder, spinning you around before both palms pressed against your arms. Water still dripped from her, soaking into your clothing as Kiyohime stared down at you, jaw slack from shock and eyes wide as she realized the severity of the situation. “Y/n, no way!! You can’t just, just, hand yourself over! No way!” She shook her head, even shaking you around for a second before another young woman burst forwards, dark eyes brimming with tears as the blonde threw her arms around you, and you grunted as you were knocked around. “Y/n, you can’t die! We’ll all protect you! And, and we’ll all be okay!!” Hikaru babbled, clutching tightly around your midsection as Kiyohime shouted again. “What she said!! My family will come, and we’ll all protect you and the village! We’re warriors! You’ll have the dragon’s blessing!” 

“I have to.” You murmured, though you silently dropped the bucket to the side, tentatively lifting your hands to pull Kiyohime into an embrace as well, despite how your head only quite reached her shoulders. You felt more water sink into your skin and clothes, and you couldn't tell if the shiver that wracked your body was from fear or cold. Peering around, you took note of the way Tamashi recoiled, eyes wide and surprisingly… withdrawn. Thoughtful. Ryoku hesitantly stepped forwards, expression hollow yet fearful. Though he was a much more prickly young man, he did have a certain level of care for those in the village, and he respected you for your kindness. He didn’t dare reach out but it seemed he wanted to. “Y/n, you do not have to do this.” You turned your head to peer towards your father, and you shook your head, pulling away from the arms of Hikaru and Kiyohime. 

“Father. I must do this, and I will do this.” You stated firmly, and while you regretted and feared every word that tumbled from your lips you knew you wouldn't choose anything else. Not for the entire world would you choose for your friends, your family, to be killed in your stead. You knew they wouldn't approve, that they felt the same way. But they were not the ones the bandits wished dead. You steeled yourself, taking in a deep breath. “It's my choice to make.” Your father stepped closer to you, foggy eyes peering towards you with concern as that usual soft smile held a bitter sadness to it. “Are you sure? I cannot stop you if this is what you choose. But know that you can stay.” 

“I know.” You gently replied, suddenly having to repress tears as you stepped forwards, wrapping your arms around the older man as he carefully hugged you back. Your younger siblings quickly scurried closer, throwing their arms around you as they wailed and begged you to stay, your mother soon enough joining your father in a silent embrace. You tried your best to ignore the scoff from the man atop the horse. “Y’got two weeks before we come and get you. If we don’t find you in our camp by then,” You glanced towards him, and he seemed to take great pleasure as he lifted his hand, dragging his thumb across his throat with a krrrrk noise from his tongue. He gave a rowdy laugh before suddenly whipping the reigns of the horse, whom quickly whinnied before carrying the man away, galloping past the crowded villagers and down the path. 

You held just a bit tighter to your father as you gave a sigh. Might as well get this over with sooner rather than later. 

[voxofthevoid]

Hello! So I started following you because of your wonderful jjk stories but am curious;

In all your WIPs, do they all juggle canon? Or are there a few fantasy types like werewolf!yuuji and vampire!gojo or No-Curses!AU or Medieval-Kingdoms!AU?

Mer!AU? Yokai!AU? Magic-Schoolbus!AU? Superhero!AU? (tryna think of all the different AUs I can) daemon!AU? warlock!AU? Steven-Universe-fusion!AU? Soul-Eater!AU?

Admittingly so much potential but I know there are authors who like to use Canon more than bringing totally new elements.

Thank you, anon 💗

I am indeed a canon juggler. Canon Frankenstein even.

Primarily that is. I do dip into full-on AUs, but my main preference is for canon divergence, plus other types of canon-based AUs like role reversal or time travel. Sometimes, I introduce new elements into canon—like somebody being a vampire in a setting that's otherwise adherent to canon or omegaverse set within canonverse. This tends to be the case for me across fandoms; the only exception I can think of is Yuri on Ice, and that's because I wasn't very confident about handling the canon setting (sports aspects that were a little more grounded in reality than your typical sports anime).

But, like I said, I do dabble in non-canon AUs. They just tend to be a tiny proportion of my total. This ask made me curious enough to go and count. At present, I have 88 plot bunniesdemons, of which 15 are fully written and 2 are WIPs. Those 17 are all canon-based. Of the rest, we have the following non-canon AUs (consider them to have every content warning you can think of):

Modern AU where Gojou is Megumi's adoptive father and Yuuji is Megumi's highschool best friend, and he comes to regret introducing Yuuji and Gojou (aka DILF Gojou AU, where he's a decade older than canon and Yuuji's his canon age).

Modern AU where Gojou used to be Yuuji's babysitter, took some liberties and kickstarted a less-than-healthy sexual awakening, and the two meeting again when Yuuji's a teen, this time with Gojou as his bodyguard.

Fantasy AU where Gojou and Sukuna are both gods and Yuuji's a dragon-human hybrid who semi-accidentally tumbles into both their beds, separately. Pure monsterfucking pornfest.

Modern AU where Gojou's a rich teen brat, Yuuji's his bodyguard, and Gojou's attempts at "seducing" Yuuji devolve predictably into some D/s fuckery.

Fantasy AU where Gojou's the devil and Nanami's the angel on Yuuji's shoulders, in a world where that's the norm. Fucking said devils and angels isn't so common, but Yuuji's adventurous that way. Macro/micro mostly.

Modern reincarnation AU where Sukuna's reborn as Yuuji's younger brother, and it takes everything Yuuji has not to smother him in his bed; it escalates into something very different. Then Gojou's thrown into the mix as Yuuji's high school upperclassman.

Fate-based AU with a Holy Grail War–Culling Games fusion where Yuuji summons Gojou, it turns out to be a weird causality loop, and Yuuji spends the bulk of his life trying to figure it out, summoning a Gojou who doesn't remember him over and over and over.

Youkai AU drawing on Natsume Yuujinchou for the vibes—something slow, quiet, and warm. Yuuji moves into a rundown mountain house in a sleepy village and makes friends he probably shouldn't.

That's it! A total of 8 out of 88. That's a far lower number than I expected, honestly. Some of the canon AUs are heavily divergent but still solidly set in canon as we know it. I guess I really love JJK's sandbox.

The shared ideas @nearalways and I develop together have a lot more non-canon AUs in them, but most of those won't be written by either of us.

[macawritesupdates]

Aww tiger Yuuji was so cute love that little guy. I'm wishing him the best on his courtship adventures. Haha, maybe he should try bringing boar or deer next time. He's stubborn enough to wear down the mountain. The prize is well worth the effort after all. Sukuna has it sooo good in this au though he's got a magic potential boyfriend constantly bringing him food. Maybe that's the real reason he refused the final battle he didn't want Yuuji to stop bringing him a free lunch. If he was clever he could start hinting what kind of game he wanted to eat where Yuuji could hear. Just loudly talk to Uraume about how much he wants to eat quail meat or something and then wait for the pretty tiger to bring him some. It was a super cute read I love when Yuuji gets to just be a happy guy doing his own thing. He deserves to frolic in the woods playing tiger games and daydreaming about the handsome man he's got a crush on. Thanks for writing!

Sukuna would be the type to see this and 100% exploit it for personal gain of free dinner of the tastes he wants and it would take Yuuji so long to figure out what is going on XD

This was a nice fluffy prompt written to offset the previous prompt's soul-crushing angst 83 happy tiger yokai rolling about!

[foolishsweet]

I'm so sad bc there was this one fic that I'm not sure if it was on pixiv or Ao3 or some other site but it was an AU set on WxS's New years play, during the 10 year travel, where Tsukasanosuke was carrying the rest of the troupe in their animal forms inside a basket up a mountain, but it suddenly starts to rain and to deal with the cold he asks if one of them could use magic to make things warmer or easier for him but them being yokai and not understanding that he is human tell him he is being a baby, that the basket is warm and comfy and they don't wanna get out, so he is forced to find cover in a cave. There he tries to make a fire but isn't successful and the others mock him in a way that is supposed to be funny in the way that they always dismiss him, so he goes to sleep wet and cold. And the next day the rest are surprised bc he hasn't woken them up or made breakfast yet so Nene goes to wake him up but he has a fever and they don't know what to do because What do you do with a sick human? Are they all this weak? It was just rain???? So they RUN to the nearest village to get him a medic, and get told that while he will be ok he was almost at a point of no return, which makes the rest question what could have happened if they had been too late, as well as the fact that him being human means their time with him is short compared to their lifetimes, too short and too easy to cit short too. And the fic ends with it saying how Tsukasanosuke got better and acted the same as always but the rest of the troupe became a bit more protective of him.

It wasn't the best fic but I liked it and I miss it, I can't find it anymore :(

[cherry1232]

Magic Mountain Arc 1 chapter plots and Masterlist!

Hello everyone please read this post!! This has the plots of the first arc of the magic mountain au! It’s important that you read each chapter synopsis that is posted!! The first arc focuses more on characters and character development rather than the powers (which will be introduced slowly). The second arc will most likely focus on powers and abilities as from chapters 1 through 11 they’re using traditional weapons!! I’m also creating everyone’s character sheets. I’m still designing Mikey’s design and then it will be Donnie that I’ll be designing. I’ve already decided on their personality types as well!!

*The chapter titles will be updated with links as I go!!*

Chapter 1: April O’Neil is trying to escape the foot clan and decides to go into the mountain. However she is injured and scared, leaving her vulnerable to mutant attacks, she sees four mysterious creatures save her from the Foot right before she goes unconscious.

Chapter 2: April formally meets the Hamato family, all four brothers, are suspicious of her and why she ran to the mountains in the first place.

Chapter 3: April gets to know Mikey, the youngest and a pink bellied side neck turtle. Mikey reveals as to why his older brothers are suspicious. Revealing that instead of being accidentally mutated like she originally thought, they were mutated on purpose by a mysterious man known as John Bishop.

Chapter 4: April decides to get to know Leo, discovering he’s a major nerd and loves the most recent space show Voltron and One Piece, two shows she is obsessed with. Which may work in her favor.

Chapter 5: April finally decides to talk to Raph who’s more twitchy and skittish than his brothers. She finally discovers that he and his father and brothers were nearly killed in the human world.

Chapter 6: Donnie is discovered to be the medic when Splinter falls ill with the flu while his brothers are doing nothing at all to help. April arrives to help, and she wants to give all three a piece of her mind. Donnie stressed out with little to no hours of sleep, passes out with a high fever as well. His brothers realize these past few days they have been doing nothing.

Chapter 7: Strange Dino robots have been showing up out of nowhere and destroying the habitation in the forest. A young deer yokai (my oc) happened to have been in the crossfire, attacked by the foot and left to die. The turtles find her, and try to reunite her with her mother while Donnie nurses her back to health.

Chapter 8: Millie, the deer yokai reveals that these Dino robots are actually created by a man named Baxter Stockman and have been destroying the forest. And the turtles work to reunite Millie with her mom and sisters.

Chapter 9: It’s Mikey’s 13th birthday and the brothers are having trouble figuring out what to get Mikey for his birthday. Then they discover that Mikey had been wanting a cookbook for the longest time. Meanwhile Hun, a member of the foot clan, targets Mikey.

Chapter 10: Hun has officially began his process of trying to destroy the turtles by going to Mikey. The 13 year old and the Karate teacher go out for pizza in a plot of kidnapping Mikey in hopes of luring his older brothers out. And it works.

Chapter 11: Mikey comes down with a flu, but things go from bad to worse when his condition worsens. At first he’s throwing up but now he’s delirious with fever and having multiple seizures, leaving Donnie desperate and confused. The family soon discovers that Mikey had been poisoned by Hun (who Mikey thought to have been his friend) when he had been out last night. The family also discovers that they have only forty eight hours left to find the antidote and save Mikey. But then they get ambushed. Forcing them to make a choice.

Chapter 12: Mikey has officially been saved from the poison but is still suffering from the after effects of the poison leaving him weak with a high fever and prone to attacks since the Foot know where they live now. Forcing them to move to a different part of the mountain. However, it’s discovered that the foot clan members are all over in the mountain.

Chapter 13: The turtles have officially found a new home. But their weapons are destroyed leaving them wondering what to do now. And how to solve the issue of getting new weapons. Then they suddenly find four new weapons that they have no understanding of.

Chapter 14: Donnie gets kidnapped by Stockman, the Shredder and the foot clan. They want to know where the Hamato family lives and where the rest of the mutagen is, but Donnie refuses to tell them where. The Shredder orders Stockman to torture Donnie to find out where the Hamato family and the mutagen are.

Chapter 15: Stockman has tortured Donnie which has left him in an awful state. Donnie is severely injured and malnourished by the time his brothers rescue him. Donnie who is normally the medic is down for the count leaving Leo, Mikey, Splinter, April and Raph fighting to save Donnie.

Chapter 16: Mikey discovers what his weapon can do and he and Donnie decide to test out his weapon. However Leo and Raph get into a fight, words are said and with hurt feelings Leo runs off.

Chapter 17: The turtles officially meet John Bishop, a man who tried to kill Leo due to his stereotypes of aliens and mutants after Leo runs off. Bishop trying to think of a plan to get rid of the turtles, decides to contact a former ally.

Chapter 18: Mikey is suspicious of Bishop while his brothers are more trusting. Hurt that his brothers decided to trust a stranger rather than their own brother. He runs off, discovering an awful secret.

Chapter 19: Mikey discovers who Bishop is allied with, but before he can warn his brothers. He disappears. Meanwhile Splinter is trying to reach Leo, Raph and Donnie an important lesson in trust when April calls revealing who Bishop is.

Chapter 20: It’s revealed who Bishop is in this arc 1 finale! Leo, Raph and Donnie discover that the agent has taken Mikey in hopes of experimentation. Leaving three pissed off bjg brothers that happen to be mutants. Finding Mikey. They discover Bishop’s plot. One of the Hamatos’ own ends up fighting for his life in this finale.

[the-illiterate-pirate]

Because I'm so so so in love with my LS fic idea but can't find the motivation to actually WRITE IT, here's some headcanons and imagines for tha boys in the AU. I'm still trying to think of good plot for this so it'll probably still be a long while :((

I....got too into this I think. But I had fun. This is cut for length

Okay so a while ago I had this idea; basically Reader is found hurt and La Squadra nurses them back to health, but after they wake up again they're still forced blind because of wounds. La Squadra doesn't want Reader knowing they're yokai untill they're sure that they won't freak out. And until then LS is forced to act as humans and hide their true forms. This doesn't go as smoothly as they hope.

I feel like I'm leaving out a lot of things 😭

Here's.... This, it talks about what kind of yokai and spirits they all are

Formaggio- Kitsune (fox spirit)

You get manga-colors Maggi

He was the second to last one to join Risotto

Formaggio's true form is that of an average orange fox, and he can use telepathy to speak to others. But he thinks his human form is more comfortable. In that form, he still has his tails and ears but can speak normally. In the beginning of his relationship with Reader, he used his magic to hide those features, same as the rest of his group.

Fox boy Formaggio fox boy Formaggio

How many tails a Kitsune has shows how wise or powerful the spirit is, Formaggio has three tails

Of course, being a fox spirit (and being Formaggio) he's incredibly teasing towards Reader

It's unknown, even to La Squadra, how old Formaggio actually is. He feigns hurt whenever you ask

You can see the tips of his ears growing gold, though. So he must be an older spirit.

Once, after encountering some hunters in the forest, seeing their dogs made Formaggio so freaked out, he reverted back to his real form and ran away back to camp. Illuso and Melone still won't let him live it down.

He's a baby for head scratches, and always melts under your hands. If you're ever trying to sweet talk him into something, that's the best way to go.

"Lets" you pamper him and his tails, but be careful getting too close to their bases, it gets him feeling frisky

Still thinks he's hot shit

He's always getting into spats with Illuso

"You know, Kitsune are said to be great and faithful guardians, and even greater lovers~" He shoots you a hot look

"Is that why the farmer down the mountain is always hitting you with his broom?"

Illuso cackles from across the bonfire

Speaking of farmers, his ears and tails are all nicked up from all of the traps he's set off in the past :(

He wears a hakama, one that divides in the legs. They're a dirty, almost beige color, with darker orange robes underneath. He keeps the sleeves longer than normal so he can hide his arms in them all sneaky like

He still has his animalistic tendencies, and on more than one occasion you've had him "gift" you a dead rabbit or bird he hunted himself

He always asks for head pats as a thanks

He's not allowed near the kitchen during dinner because he might just end up feeding you raw meat

Amazing cuddler btw, just look out for the tails. They WILL try to tickle you. But they do give you nice cushioning

Illuso- Ungaikyō (haunted mirror)

Joined before Formaggio

Upon reaching a hundred years of age, an Ungaikyo develops a soul and becomes a yokai, they grow a consciousness and are able to leave their mirror freely

In his mirror, Illuso can only be seen as a form of smoke with blood red eyes from an angle. If you were to stand in front of his mirror, you'd only see yourself with a more demonic form.

Out of his mirror, Illuso looks like just Illuso, but with a pair of horns at his temples

He wears gaudy gold jewelry he found in abandoned houses throughout his years. He spends literal minutes taking it off before bed. His favorite jewelry are these bejeweled chains he can decorate his horns with.

It should be obvious that he was very upset when he had to hide his horns away from you, and couldn't decorate them for some time

His has normal human skin, but his horns are slightly purple

He wears a black haori with royal purple sleeves over a white kimono (it still has that stupid quilt design like his normal outfit does)

Unlike the rest of the Squad, he's the only yokai without an earthly body. Everyone else was born on earth, whereas Illuso basically "spawned" one day, and his "body" is technically just an illusion

He feels like he's there, but he could just poof at any moment

Illuso is one of the cleanest yokai in the group, second only to Pros. He doesn't berate anyone on not being clean like he does, but his tent is noticably the best organized and cleaned

He doesn't need to eat. If he gets tired, he only needs to go back into his mirror.

If he doesn't get to his tent in time he just kind of... Dissipates into smoke. You'll get to see him later

He can sleep, but it doesn't give him much of a benefit. He does like spooning with you, though, but he's very cold.

Same with food, it doesn't fill him up, except rice is an exception

Alcohol does effect him, on the other hand. And he's a light weight.

He tries to get you to sit in his lap so he can feed you, even after your eyes healed and you could feed yourself

Has a strange connection to the crows and ravens on the mountain, sometimes they'll bring him shiny things, and he gets overjoyed.

Sometimes gifts you these shiny things.

He has a personal favorite crow he even introduced to you.

His name is Banshee, and he can even caw out human words

Illuso also taught him to say curses, of course

Pesci- Garappa

Was the last to join the Squadra with Prosciutto

Garappa are a regional corruption of the Kappa, but we don't care much for the regional part right now

They share similarities to the Kappa, but Garappa are much slimmer and have longer limbs than their counterpart. They're also shyer and more elusive than the other

In Pesci's case he's more sturdy and muscular than a normal Garappa

Squishy belly

I believe in chubby Pesci supremacy

You know that big tuft of hair Pesci has? When it gets wet, it kind of falls into a fan around his head and looks pretty similar to the pictures of Garappa and Kappa. You can also see the water dish on top of his head, normally hidden in his hair

To keep hydrated away from his river, he drinks a lot of water from his canteen.

Most of the team (save from Risotto and Prosciutto) tease him about only being half yokai. They even trick him into bowing so he looses the water in his dish. He goes rigged, and can't move, and has even gotten close to dying before. It normally falls to you to help fix him again because the others can't be bothered to do it

He was actually smitten with you before you even ever spoke to him. He first fell in love with your innocent appearance, and fell even deeper in love once he really got to know you.

Once you got your sight back, he always wore a hannya mask so you couldn't see his face, even in his human form, because he was scared you would find him disgusting and ugly. You were quick to shut that down

Pesci, being part of a creature with a history of assaulting women, was terrified you'd hate him after finding out he was a Garappa.

He was so relieved when you didn't freak out!!

He still doesn't like showing you his true form, though

In his human form, he looses the webbing between his fingers and toes, along with his shell. But he still has his water dish on his head and carries a fishy smell

He also wears forest green robes along with a darker grey hakama. Over it he wears his sleeveless long coat in the colder months.

Pesci will let you wear it, if you ask. And he thinks it's very cute on you.

His main job is the hunting and fishing. He does most of the cooking for you too, because he's the only omnivore in the group.

He looves cucumbers, and even has a small patch growing near the river.

He only ever eats fish and vegetables

Also loves sumo wrestling, and is pretty good at it along with hand to hand fighting.

Despite always bring picked on, it was him who got the first shot with Reader. He's still a bit proud of that fact

You sleep with him in bed the most out of the group. He kept you in his tent while you healed and you never really left

Should also mention he fares well with medicine and healing, and is very gentle with you while he patches up any wounds you have.

Doesn't tease you a lot, and is really the target of YOUR teasing. It doesn't matter how many kisses you've shared, he'll always go red in the face.

Shockingly, he's quick to choose violence if he ever thinks your in danger. Afterwards he'll apologize if he scared or hurt you.

I love Pesc Pesc

Prosciutto- Jorōgumo (🕷️)

Hehehe whore spider

While he and Pesci aren't related in this AU, Pros did take him under his "leg" as a sort of half brother role. They found each other a few years before officially joining Risotto and his group.

Possibly the eldest of the group, at 526 year old

He also has the most forms, with four different shapes he can take

this

He can change from a normal sized golden orb-weaver spider, a bigger orb-weaver, a more grotesque mash of spider and human (which he dislikes changing into), a human form with four arms (and four tiddies, can't forget that) and eight eyes

He's probably the worst with magic, and he has a hard time concealing his extra eyes and arms. It was a problem before, but now he doesn't care. And you seem to like them anyway

He likes to carry you around in one pair of arms and do tricks with the others.

His dominant pair of eyes are normal in color, but the others share better similarities to Grateful Dead's eyes 👀, with full on green sclera and yellow irises

He wears a simple yukata with the same color and design as his suit in the series, and of course his usual pendant.

When he has both pairs of arms out he just goes topless and ties the extra robes around his torso

Tries to help with dinner, he's also a carnivore but he has more sense than Melone or Formaggio

You can find him relaxing near the fire with his kiseru pipe, he tries to stay away from you while doing so

He's closest to Risotto. Very close... He acts like a second father to the group and is a high voice of reason

On the topic of food, he and Risotto share meals. And by meals I mean human bodies. They wouldn't hurt a pure soul and only eat the offerings from the village down the mountain. Risotto sucks the body free of blood and Prosciutto eats the meat.

In his earlier years he would actually use his body to get prey, like a true Jorōgumo. But after being forced from his clan he grew out of those habits.

He's pretty and he knows it, even in his worst forms. He uses it against you

Out of his spider form his webbing shoots from under his nails. He uses his webbing frequently. It's pretty strong, and he's even made hammocks for everyone to use around the forest.

There's a cave off from the camp that he use to use like a nest but after you came along he started using it less and less. Now it's basically a breeding ground for his spider friends

Yes he communicates with the spiders on the mountain, no matter the species. Unlike Illuso he doesn't play favorites and speaks to them all equally. He's asked them to not hurt you

Every once in a while you can find a stray arachnid on your shoulder or robes. You're never truly sure if it's him or a friend

Yes he can and will use his webbing during sexy times don't ask

Melone- Uwabami- great serpent

Joined after Sorbet and Gelato

I really wanted to make Melone a Tsuchinoko, or a hammer child, because the idea of him being a little stumpy snake thing that rolled and jumped around everywhere was hilarious. But I decided that'd make for a very wonky looking naga

Melone's true form is that of a large snake scaling near sixteen feet or five meters, but he enjoys slithering around in a form that has a human torso and a snakes tail

His canines are sharper than normal, and his tongue is longer than a normal human's, that should've been your first clue he wasn't human after he shoved it down your throat the first time. Somehow you didn't realize

He's very interested in your human feet and legs. Even before your eyes healed he was always offering massages and check ups to give them his undivided attention.

Melone likes to just squeeze you with his whole body in hugs. He thinks you're just sooo cute and sooo small

If you're ever sharing a tent with him he really wraps around you entirely at night since he's cold blooded

And you're the perfect heat sorce~

He really can't do anything on his own if it's too cold

Always asks Ghiaccio to heat up the river so he "doesn't get hypothermia

Yokai can't get hypothermia

I can't remember how often snakes shed but let's just say cause he's a big boy he does it like ever month or two. He normally asks Risotto or Ghia to help

Strangely, he has a better bond with Ghiaccio than anyone else, despite Ghiaccio being so cold (literally and figuratively)

For someone who eats almost twice their own weight at each meal, he's very slim and has a smaller figure. That's a fast metabolism for you ig

During the colder seasons he hides away in a cave away from the base and hibernates for a long while :( after meeting you he decided he wanted to create a concoction that'll help with that

He's a bit of an alchemist. Like Pesci, he's a good healer. But while Pesci is more physical and herbal, Melone uses actual medicines and potions he's made himself

He's also better book smart, since he's one of the only yokai who can read.

Similar to Prosciutto, he was kicked out of his kind's clan because of his views. This was because Melone wanted to experience true love rather than fuck anything that moved and hope for offspring.

That does not mean he doesn't want to fuck YOU

But he wants it to be consensual and after some time together

Was completely on board with having a human wife, and was the second one to fall in love with you at first sight. Before you even knew about the arrangement he was always so touchy with you.

All in all compared to the rest Melone and Formaggio are tied for being the most lovey. Melone would positively die if you crawled into his lap and asked him to read you anything

Oops almost forgot–

He wears his usual eye mask but it's visible that the eye underneath is shut, and probably damaged. He hasn't told you anything about it yet :(

His clothing of choice is a one-sleeved kimono with the same coloring and patterns his outfit has. The right arm has been torn off, probably by himself, and partially shows off his chest a little. Sometimes he'll wear a sleeveless haori with it as well

He drops the kimono and only wears the haori in his "naga" form

"But I'd better prefer wearing nothing at all with you around." He licks his lips

It's been a while since these yokai have seen a live human woman, and they're horny. Can you blame them too much

He's also the only one who wears gloves. It's probably to conceal his cold hands and the scales growing on the back of his palms

Ghiaccio- Wani (sea monster)

Ghiaccio can control water, to an extent. He isn't as powerful as his elders who can control entire oceans or rivers, but he's made rivers run dry and has made it rain before, to try and impress you. He can freeze over the water or set it to boiling points as well and just about everything in between

He can also control the weather.

To an extent

He was the first to find and join Risotto

He's the youngest in the group. Maybe not by years, as Pesci is only 23, but mentally he's about 19

Rather than looking like a serpent monster, he looks more dragon, because I said so. And he has antlers rather than horns. They shed once every three years, and come back slightly bigger

He has the second largest pair of horns out of the group, second to Sorbet and Gelato who's are pretty similar in size. Ghiaccio's are still relatively small though

They get in the way a bit

In his truest form, he's a HUGE teal dragon with snow white antlers, and takes up soooo much space like THIS

Nowadays you spend every full moon keeping him company and offering him sake, despite him not being able to drink it in his dragon form.

Unlike the group, he relies on markings and magic runes to keep his human form. He looks really tatted up. You just thought he liked tattoos at first

He has those really cool marks under his eyes and around his nose and chin and forehead and yeah I like that a little

He needs help adding them to his body, and normally asks Melone since he's so flexible

Reptiles need to help other reptiles 🤝

They last for about a month, but fade around the new moon, where Ghiaccio leaves camp for three days before coming back, to replenish his energy

Unlike Melone, Wani don't need to hibernate. And he enjoys the snow and cold

He likes making "slush balls" in the winter, which are snowballs doused with berry juice. They're pretty good!

He's decently warm, but has terrible circulation in his hands.

He tries to keep his claws trimmed. For your sake

Ghiaccio is the only one who wears actual pants, they're black. Over it, he wears pale blue robes that are almost white

The only yokai that wears actual shoes, everyone else either go barefooted or has sandals

They're red dyed cloth boots

He had the "fuzzy eye" sickness that keeps him from seeing properly, and it makes him irritated

When he's bored he'll ask Melone to read to him, since he has a nice reading voice.

Being in the sun for too long gives him a headache, him and Risotto spend a lot of their days inside or hiding in the trees shadows. They're both much more active at night

He's also a big baby for head scritches

Just having your fingers in his curls is a blessed feeling

There's an theory going around the camp that he's actually a runaway prince, son of the Wani king deep in the sea, but Ghiaccio shuts them up quick about it. He's never denied the idea...

He likes Pesci's fish, and it's the only food he'll wait for to cook

He really wants to take you to the ocean some day

Risotto- Shiki (corpse demon)

I absolutely stole this idea from the anime

Watch Shiki, it's my favorite thriller

I couldn't find any good vampiric yokai but I'm unoriginal and wanted Risotto to be connected with blood

The leader of La Squadra

He burns in the sunlight, and even using magic to seem more human the sun gives him headaches and hurts his eyes

He stole some glasses off of a corpse a few years ago and have them to Ghiaccio, which seemed to cure his fuzzy eye sickness

Like I've stated before, he only eats when the village offers sacrifices. They're never pure or innocent, and are almost always people with tainted souls like thieves or murderers

Shiki normally feed once ever night, and can feed from the same host for multiple nights. But because Risotto doesn't have anywhere to store his feeding bags (and because he doesn't want to worry about accidentally creating a new Shiki) he just sucks them dry all at once, and that normally keeps him fed for a few weeks

Even if a Shiki doesn't normally kill you with one feeding, he wouldn't dream of asking you for your blood because of how sick it could make you. No matter how sweet you smell, he fights those urges

Being so big and strong, Risotto is afraid of hurting you by simply... Being in your presence. So he tends to come off as aloof from a distance

It'll take a lot of tempting from Reader to get to know him better

Despite fears, he's actually a very soft man. One of his darkest desires is to just hold you close for a long while but he doesn't want anyone to think of him as a softie

Is literally a walking corpse, don't expect him to be warm

He doesn't talk much, even before death he was as silent as a graveyard

His love language is gifting. He'll offer you pretty flowers he's found patrolling the mountain, or sake or soaps he finds searching abandoned buildings, anything he thinks you'll like.

In his eyes, you and the rest of his pack always come before himself. He's very selfless, and it sometimes gets him into trouble

Risotto was quick to accept the idea of a wife, for his pack members, but didn't entertained the thought that you would like him as well. He was the last one to truly accept his feelings for you, but he's happy be did

He's closest to Prosciutto. Very close....

Aside from super strength and senses, he's skilled with a katana

He was buried in his samurai outfit, a grey hakama (divided at the legs) and a cole black haori. He didn't wear robes under them, and has two straps crossing over his bare chest. This is what he wears after death too, and takes extra care to keep them clean after so long

In his life before he died, Risotto was a trained samurai, and was a close guard to a very important clan leader. He won't say who

I'd say he's a little over a hundred years old

Has a tattoo sleeve on his left arm that he keeps covered

Doesn't see the point in eating human food if he just needs to drink blood, but he joins the group at the fire every night

Risotto cares very deeply for his family, as he calls them secretly

Sorbet and Gelato- Oni

Boyfriends who sneak out of hell together stay together

They're the ones who found Reader, and were the ones to ask Risotto to keep you as their wife

The pair joined Risotto and Ghiaccio after seeing what a handful the little Wani was and decided they wanted to help

Sorbet comes off as uncaring, but he really loves his wife just as much as his husband

Gelato is perfectly happy with his relationship with Sorbet. But he really wanted someone new to dote on, that's where you come in

Hhhhhh poly Sorlato

They're very open about their love, and don't care who's watching

Their fangs do get in the way of their smooching, but they work around it

It's messy

They're normal oni colors, Sorbet is a shade of dark blue that's almost black and Gelato is red. Of course, they hide this with magic and give themselves human skin once Reader can finally see

Gelato's horns are sharper with a serrated curve to the longer ones, with two smaller ones between them. Sorbet's have a more noticeable curl to them (like a ram's) but are more blunt from use. They both have two pairs of horns

Gelato wears an army green kimono with a tan haori over it

Sorbet wears a light blue yukata with a darker hakama. Sometimes you'll see him wearing Gelato's haori.

It's actually his, but Gelato wears it more than him and gets pouty when Sorbet won't let him wear it

They have a matching set of earrings on opposite ears

Scratch Prosciutto being the eldest, Gelato and Sorbet are tied at nearing 600

They were much more sadistic before meeting Risotto, but have since then chilled down

They're actually omnivores, like Pesci, but they'd much rather eat raw meat than vegetables

They live pretty similar to regular oni, with their shared tent decorated wall to floor with animal pelts, so you didn't get to see it until after discovering they were oni

They swear up and down it's comfier then a futon

Gelato's favorite seat is Sorbet's lap. But he's willing to share with you if it makes you happy

Other times he'll sit you down in HIS lap while still on Sorbet's

Like a triple layer cake

Shockingly, Gelato, Melone, and Risotto are the only ones who can read. Sorbet didn't get the chance in his past life to learn, and asks Gelato to read to him before bed most nights

Gelato's voice is pretty scratchy and hard to listen to, but to Sorbet it's practically music

They fashioned "wedding rings" for each other from bones, they're just simple ringlets but to the two oni they mean the sun and moon

They don't have any special powers like the rest but they know their ways around clubs

Gelato is the fastest out of the two, and Sorbet is the best tracker and hunter. They both have an incredible sense of smell

Basically don't get on their bad side and you'll be safe. Until they're ready to tease you

If I think of anything else I'll probably add on to this, for now I think all this word vomit is good. If you has any questions or anything let me know! I'll be glad to answer

[dreamypainter]

Flowers for Requiem (Lavender)

Author's note: yokai au! Caters turn although i fear i may not be able to do him justice sensei can't fully grasp his character 

Characters: Kitsune! Cater Diamond, Reader

Warnings: Yandere au and the unhealthy behavior associated. Nothing extremely graphic tho.

—---

For content : Series Masterlist 

Cater Diamond - Lavender - Peace

For as long as he had gained consciousness, Carter remembers the feeling of having something to prove. A desperate silly little fox trying to prove itself to deaf ears. It's a drunken experience hearing his name in the winds for the first time as he stands with nine tails. Too young they whisper, how could he have achieved this form at such a tender age. (How did he cheat, who helped him, he could never do it by himself after all.) It's a toxic energy, overbearing attention (but they are looking at him for the first time and he cannot get enough of the painful pricks in his skin.) 

By the time you manage to find him, the words have been engraved to his bone, and as he walks down the mountain in a strange anxious haze he cannot think but one thought. (What if I'm not enough.) The sentiment burns him, it makes him want to cry and tear his hard-won tails out because if he wasn't enough for his one and only master then why should he even continue to try? (Please please please he'll be everything you ever need, you can destroy him just don't throw him away.) He meets your eyes and the thoughts clam to a smooth surface. (He feels a little silly now, in the face of you, because how could he have thought someone like you would be so cruel.)

His rope is silky in his hands as he stares adoringly at you, sandwiched between the eager figures of Ace and Deuce, and he can sense Trey staring at you with open surprise. (And love, so much love that it seems to be steaming off of him.) but he can't blame them. (How silly he was to think he had to prove himself, because no one else mattered but you, and you already had a space for him by your side.) 

You are assurance and deprivation wrapped into one for him. A being whose existence alone soothes his burns and rearranges his organs so that he doesn't have to do it himself. Someone who needs not his tails nor his magical energy to bring them pride, a sort of validation that no one else would be able to replicate. (The rope around his neck is the ultimate medal, and he thinks nothing else could top the feeling of you tying his collar to its rightful place.) But medicine is derived from poison and when you fall to fate's cruel planning he can feel the venom seep to his skin. (it hurts)

You're still beautiful as you fall to the ground, eyes now unseeing (because the world does not deserve to see you) and limbs limp. That's all he remembers of the incident to be honest. There was nothing else important after that. Every yokai mourns in their way and Cater has long since learned the art of keeping to his own behind his smile. (he can't think too hard, to confront the fact that you are good and honestly gone, so he smiles until his teeth are bared and his face is marred into a snarl.) (his sisters try to visit once. once.) For Cater, when you die time stops. Why should it persist after you have gone. 

He wastes away, unable to differentiate day from day despite the rising and setting sun. And the clock resumes (finally)when the mirror opens and on the other side is… you.(It was really you, wasn't it master?) You have a rosy hue to your cheeks and starry eyes as you stare directly at him, eyes following the slow sway of his tails. (are you proud of him?) You're just as lovely as the day he lost you, but this time he won't let anything take you away. The flowers bloom once more as he steps through the gate. 

He's still yours after all, and that's all the criteria he needs to meet. 

It's an impossible feat, what Ace had accomplished, making a gate to a whole other universe to which he certainly had not visited before. (The boy seems confused at the awe, however, responding simply “Of course, I've been here before, but my master's side is where everybody belongs.” cater cannot find it in himself to deny the sentiment.) For the first few minutes, everyone is a mess, some desperately trying to regain their composure to not embarrass you with their behaviors and others fully sobbing at your image. Cater himself allows his mind to take at the moment. (because you're here now, there's no rush.) He will get to talk to you eventually, so he's patient as the others demand your attention. (Some want to take care of you as they always have and the others run rampant to provide what you need. He can already see Leona stalk to the entrance and guard the door.) You glance over at him, and he smiles droopy, relaxed for the first time since (since you were gone.)

“Ah, welcome home Master, or should I say I'm back?”

[loyaltykask]

Making a Rottmnt Au and would like to get some thoughts out before writing the fanfic.

So we all know that turtles in that universe are 50% turtles and like 50% Lou Jitsu combined by Baron Draxum to make super soldiers, hence the two dads. However, I would like to think that Daddy Draxum put some of his own DNA in order for the turtles to better utilize mystic weapons. I’m thinking Yokai genes work were offspring are not hybrids of from two different yokai but rather the kids take the form of one or the other of the parents OR even take after their parent’s ancestors. Genes are carried passively through generations so it’s kinda of a slot machine function for what you get. And Drax has a rich background of Yoaki in him.

Raphael “Red Reign” Hamato = 50% alligator snapping turtle, 25% Lou Jitsu, 25% Honengyo

Honengyo are up to 2 to 3 meters tall, more excuse to make Raph taller.

Honengyo live in Isolation, another reseaon Raph gets... weird when he is alone is cause he reverts back to his more natural instincts

They also gets mirror eyes which I think is just cool in a fight scene

Shaper teeth shaped teeth sharper teeth

Long wesaled bodies... ignore that.

This yokai is also the bases of Godzilla so that Raph large Red Form being insanely huge would just be in not only copying his movie star dad but his movie star yokai ancestor as well.

Raphzilla... I can’t not use that name

Leonardo “Baby Blue” Hamato = 50% red eared slider, 25% Lou Jistu, 25% Kappa

More webbed feet due to slider genes and kappa genes

I Headcannon him as the medic of the group as kappa are known to make medicines and setting bones

Mischievous, enjoys wrestling... brotherly things

Likes shogi??? He’s more of a Sorry or Candyland kind of guy

Proud, stubborn, fiercely honorable which are all usual traits in any reincarnation of Leo maybe hidden deep but totally there

Kappas apparently can never break a promise due to their honor idk if magic binding or not and I think I can work some good angst with this

Eats cucumbers and human innards.... skip that

Senior Huseo calls Leo pepino which means cucumber, adorable.

THEY HAVE THREE WHAT NOW

Swear loyalty and friendship when bested... *sniff snifff* I smell a Usagi cameo~

Donatello “Purple Rain” Hamato = 50% spiked soft shell, 25% Lou Jitsu, 25% Garappa

Garappa are a more longer limb and longer faced Kappa... and even more reason for them to be the Disaster Twins

They are known to be more elusive and shyer than their kappa counterparts, which can be true.

Just as mischievous through

Enjoys surprising people on mountains paths which is find hilarious

Also good at wresting... interesting Donnie has a PhD in kicking your ass

Also dedicate to keeping their word... he tries people

Can farm, fish, and make poultices which Donnie has shown to be far more adaptable to the outdoors life than any of his brothers.

Ga-rappa- and Donnie being the only one of his brothers to rap so fine! Coincidence! I think not!

Michelangelo “Orange Mandarin” Hamato = 50% box turtle, 25% Lou Jitsu, 25% Shibaten

This one was the hardest ya’ll

So like Shibaten are mini Tengu which is awesome because kawa tengu are known for fire magic and their pranks on people

Tengu fire is called Tengubi and has a mind of its own really, Shibaten aren’t said to use it but I think there is something there with Mikeys mystic weapon

They look more like red kappas strangely enough and stay near riverbanks

Which works for me as I want to keep these yokai somewhat aquatic based cause... turtles

Mickey has his fire “razzma dazz” which we all know and love and seems the more proficient with his mystic weapon honestly

They are known for looking small and weak but can and will flip you like a pancake

They transform into Enko which is intestinal a River Monkey and just another version of Kappa but I think River Monkey sounds cooler

I was think maybe a Gangi Kozo which is a yokai that is an between a kappa/enko and a takiwaro but just couldn’t find any info about takiwaro beyond being mountain spirits so i dropped it

So yeah writing this out actually helped a lot. If anyone got any yokai ideas to add I would love to hear them.

The middle names are what Splinter originally named them until he found out that he is a father and these are his children and he can’t keep calling them this

[strooples]

Yokai & familiars AU

I had this idea at work while doodling on some scrap paper. There was a story I enjoyed awhile back on yokai mythology. One thing led to another and I thought… what if I made an AU based on the Bladebreakers!! I don’t know if a yokai AU idea was already done, so I’ll just dump my brainstorming (tell me if it has bc then I feel a bit bad for doing another!!).

SO… the concept that the OG 4’s bit beasts represented elements got introduced in G-Rev. So what I’ll do is use their bit beasts’ elemental powers as their own in the story. Besides the main 4, Daichi had earth and Tala had ice. So, I’ll include Daichi and Tala. As IMO fire, water, ice, earth, wind, and lightning are 6 solid elements for a consistent magic system without getting too complicated!! But yeah, I’m not gonna elaborate into those 2 bc I’ll need a bit more thinking into the worldbuilding + reasons for why Daichi or Tala occasionally drop by.

So what familiars will the OG 4 be?

Takao/Tyson will be a wind dog yokai, representing his energetic nature and slight impulsiveness.

Kai is the fire fox, representing a trickster mind and a cunning but cold disposition. Unsurprisingly, I am the most exciting to potentially draw a fox familiar and esp Kai as the fox familiar lolol.

Max will be the water rabbit yokai, as one who is happy, gentle, but clever in his own way.

Rei will be a lightning snake yokai, with perceptiveness but a hint of coyness — friendlier as you get to know it (like how snakes seem initially scary and can be lethal, but many can be friendly + be befriended). The Rei thing takes a bit of explaining, but I took into an account of how he was introduced initially to be super super mean in the 1st season and rounded out to be one of the kindest and level-headed characters in the anime!

I should note here that they’ll be represented by animals who are different to their bit beasts (like Takao isn’t gonna be a dragon yokai) because I wanted some more commonplace animals for the Bladebreakers!! Buuut perhaps Tala will be the ice wolf, and Daichi the earth dragon, because I think a few interesting things could be done having a wolf and a dragon in the story.

So I have little in-depth thoughts of the magic system as of now. But I do have an idea of how powers get distributed. Like yokai under the same elemental category can do different stuff with their same-element powers (like let’s say someone has wind blades while others can create wind barriers; some may have one or both but they’ll certainly be variety and limits). And you can be the same type of yokai but be dispositioned to different element, like how ice foxes or wind snakes (+ etc.) can exist. And ofc some common sense stuff factors in, like how fire is weak to water.

So gods factor in, which is why our main yokai aren’t simply yokai alone! They’re familiars of certain shrine gods, and I have a vague idea of how to go about it. There will be 3 shrines, namely:

A shrine under water that’s been deteriorating away due to its limited access. Despite being away from the rest of the land where rabbits tend to dwell, Max as the water rabbit yokai always had affinity for the sea. So he stays loyal to the sea goddess, whose followers are dwindling and whose shrine as a result is growing to be less lively. Sometimes he does come back to land though (kinda as a nod to the story where he essentially lives between 2 countries). There, he befriends the familiars of the land shrine and shows up to have silly antics with them every now and then.

An exclusive mountaintop shrine somewhere between land and the skies that a select few outsiders (like high-end scribes, shrine maidens, and monks devoted to the practice) can access. Rei, the lightning snake, has been the only yokai his master (the god of the mountains and sky) has taken on in thousands of years.

The last shrine is the land shrine — located near a quieter forest area and small village that’s a step from the bigger commerce town. It’s one where the common folk of both village and city-based come to pray, and where the land god resides. He has famously taken on both the wind dog and the fire fox as his familiars — igniting somewhat of a brotherly competition dynamic between Takao and Kai. They often compete and get into a lot of mayhem trying to determine who is stronger or more faster ahah.

There will be a few other gods, from major to minor domains! And I guess many yokai who aren’t tied to particular owners. Also, theoretically speaking, there could be a human who commands a yokai too (it’s mainly a contract of agreement that bounds the yokai to someone — god or human). I haven’t thought up the other people, nor how much are either pulled from the original story versus one I entirely make up.

I don’t think this will turn out to be a full-fledged fanfic though, due to both my busy life issues (work can be tolling T~T) and general laziness. But I love having the idea of an AU up for brainstorming!!

[raibebe]

Neo CreaTures

Hello and welcome to my first ever collab call to celebrate me hitting a huge follower milestone! This is dedicated to everyone who loves the supernatural – like me – and enjoys writing a little more interesting creatures than just vampires and werewolves – which of course are still lovely. Under the cut you’ll find a list of awesome creatures to turn our favorite boys into – or even the reader if that’s the route you want to go. Our main theme is it to have some fun and post a variety of different spooky or not so spooky fics throughout October to spread our love for the supernatural. To claim a spot, simply dm me @raibebe your member and creature of choice and I’ll add you to this post as long as the spot is still up for claim.

Reblogs are appreciated even if you chose to not enter the collab to reach a wider audience!

rules

As always: First come, first serve

The fic has to be about the chosen member, meaning he is supposed to be the main character, you’re of course allowed to add in as many of the others as you want

You can bend the lore/appearance of your creature of choice how you may seem fit. Just don’t start telling me dwarfs turn into wolves every full moon.

Deadline is October 31st 2021

Minimum word count is 2k. This should be doable, it’s a lot of time until October. If you choose to write it in multiple parts, just send me the part you want to have linked on the masterlist.

No timestamps/drabbles, bullet points, social media AUs or reactions. Fics. That’s it.

Open to all genres, it doesn’t have to be horror or gory but I would love to read some darker pieces that are perfect for the season

If you want to include smut in your work, you have to be of age. No exceptions.

Even though all NCT members are of age, please refrain from writing smut for Jisung, Chenle and Sungchang, since otherwise Jisung will call the police on us.

Tag your work accordingly if you have potentially triggering stuff in it. When in doubt – you should probably tag it. But you can always ask which brings me to the next point:

Joining the discord is not mandatory but I’d encourage you to because it’s a great way to get to know your fellow writers and maybe ask for advice or just to chat about our boys.

That’s also where I’ll post announcements and stuff

Please tell me if you’re changing URLs or want to step out of the collab or can’t meet the deadline, which is both fine and can be negotiated

Please reblog this post after getting accepted so we can reach a wider audience.

For further questions just dm me!

Members

Taeil - @fan-but-no-art  | Angel

Johnny - 

Taeyong – @ncteaxhoe | Fairy

Yuta – @sly-merlin | Naga

Kun - @moonctzeny  | Succubus

Doyoung - @just-come-baek | Mermaid

Ten - @jaesqueso | Werecat

Jaehyun - @127-mile | Ghoul

Winwin - 

Jungwoo - @heejinnien | Elf

Lucas - @justonedaywithmysunshine  | Genie

Mark -  @alreadyblondenow  | Zombie

Xiaojun - @key201303 | Guardian Angel

Hendery - @soliverse | Witch

Renjun - @moondustaeil | Kitsune

Jeno - @sparklysung  | Incubus

Haechan – 

Jaemin - @raibebe | Demon

Yangyang - @yangyanghater | Yokai

Shotaro - @chittapornswife | Nale Ba/Nishi Dak

Sungchan - @sichengscult | Warlock

Chenle - @flowerboykun​ | Merman

Jisung - @armysantiny | Shapeshifter

List of creatures to choose from. 

Some creatures are fairly similar but I wanted to give you as many choices as I could come up with without having to choose absolutely crazy creatures. As said before you’re free to bend the lore of the creatures, this is just a guide – mostly off of Wikipedia – to some of the lesser known creatures. Warning: Some creatures are darker and more gore-y than others. The descriptions are as ungraphic as possible.

Vampire: A living corpse that feeds on the blood of the living to survive

Werewolf: A human with the ability to shapeshift into the form of a wolf

Werecat: A human with the ability to shapeshift into the form of a feline

Angel: A pure, benevolent intermediary between humans and god, protectors and guiders for humans, servants of god

Guardian angel: Godsend protector and guider for humans

Fallen angel: Angel that has become tainted by sin and fell from heaven

Devil: Ruler of the underworld, personification of evil and temptation

Demon: Supernatural creature usually associated with evil and sin

Incubus: Male demon that gains his energy from engaging in sexual activity

Succubus: Female demon that gains her energy from engaging in sexual activity

Yokai: Spirits and monsters in Japanese folklore, ranging from mischievous and malevolent creatures believed to cause misfortune and harm to some that are considered to bring good fortune

Ghost: Soul or spirit of a dead person that can appear to the living

Poltergeist: Type of ghost responsible for physical disturbance, often bound to the places the soul died in

Warlock: Male practitioner of witchcraft

Witch: Female practitioner of witchcraft

Necromancer: Practitioner of magic involving communication with the dead

Genie/Jinn: Neither innately evil or good spirit

Shapeshifter: A human possessing the ability to physically transform their body

Ghoul: Demon-like creature associated with graveyards and consuming human flesh

Zombie: Undead revenant

Siren: Creature half bird and half woman who lures sailors by the sweetness of her song

Mermaid/Merman: Aquatic creature with an upper body in human form and the tail of a fish

Nymph: Minor nature deity, generally regarded as personifications of nature, tied to a specific place or landform

Dryad: Tree nymph

Fairy: Magical creature with human appearance, magical powers and a penchant for trickery

Elf: Beings with magical powers and supernatural beauty, ambivalent to humans, capable of either helping or hindering them

Gnome: Diminutive spirit that typically lives underground

Dwarf: Entity hat dwells in mountains and in the earth, associated with wisdom, smithing, mining and crafting

Satyr: Bawdy male nature spirit with horse/goat like legs, ears and horns

Centaur: Creature with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse

Naga: Creature with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a snake

Harpy: Half human, half bird personification of storm winds

Dragon: Large, serpentine creature that breathes fire

Kitsune: In Yōkai folklore, all foxes have the ability to shapeshift into human form they have the ability to trick others but are also portrayed as faithful guardians, friends, lovers, and wives

Phoenix: Long-lived bird that cyclically regenerates or is otherwise born again, often through burning his body and being reborn from the ashes

Basilisk: Legendary reptile reputed to be a serpent king, who can cause death with a single glance

Unicorn: Beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead, often portrayed as horse-like

[obutsuwrites]

a single feather (tengu!hawks x f!reader)

tumblr request:  Hi! I just read your new story on ao3 and it was amazing!!! Your writing style is really fantastic and I saw your requests were open. Could I request Yandere Hawks x fem Reader? Bonus points if it’s also NSFW but it doesn’t have to be, I just really enjoyed your take on yandere Katsuki and was curious to see how you’d approach a yandere hawks. Thanks so much for your time!

summary: “G-g-get out!” Her words sounded strangled and afraid. The princess sat up and frantically scooted away from the strange man. ‘She’s so cute, scared like this.’

She wondered how long the man had been watching her. Was he the source of the crimson feather? Was this not a man, but an oni? A pit formed in her chest, heavy with dread and fright.

“Don’t be like that, little bird. I’m a kami, shouldn’t you be falling at my feet?” Keigo asked, his tone casual. His lack of concern or formality was alarming. No one had spoken to the princess in such a way. Under normal circumstances, she would have welcomed his nonchalant nature, but now -- in her darkened room -- it was a threat. xxx basically a really self-indulgent, kinda researched feudal!au with tengu!hawks bc he rlly do got me feelin sum typa way 😳

word count:  6,209

warnings: yandere elements, dubcon, stalking, loss of virginity, choking, possessive behavior 

my ao3 for more shitposts

my ko-fi~!

my ask box is still open 4 requests~!

glossary:

Tokin - a traditional or fictional small black box worn on the foreheads of Yamabushi – practitioners of Shugendō – or Tengu, dangerous yet protective spirits of the mountains and forests from the Japanese mythology

Yuigesa - pompom stash worn by Yamabushi

Yamabushi - Japanese mountain ascetic hermits

Shoji - door, window or room divider used in traditional Japanese architecture, consisting of translucent (or transparent) sheets on a lattice frame

Kami - are the spirits, phenomena or "holy powers" that are venerated in the religion of Shinto

Fundoshi - traditional Japanese undergarment for adult males, made from a length of cotton

lil special author's note: from what i've been able to read, kami/tengu are really similar?? but here obviously they're two different things v.v so hawks bein a lil misleading lmao

◆:*:◇:*:◆:*:◇:*:◆

It was midnight and the princess had retired to her chambers. Her plush mattress and soft covers were simply too inviting. She had collapsed into bed and dove into a deep slumber. Quiet snores echoed through the obnoxiously large bedroom. It hadn’t been her choice to have such a spacious room… but it was never her choice. The princess of the kingdom was merely a figurehead. A token of the nobility. Seen in public, but never heard. Her voice was reserved for servants and other royalty behind closed doors.

‘As a lady should,’ her mother would say. ‘Your breath isn’t worth the common folk.’

The princess argued, ‘But mom, the servants… they are common folk. It’s no different!’

Her mother’s face scrunched into a sour expression, as if she ate a lemon. Under other circumstances, her expression would have been humorous, but the empress was a severe woman. A serious woman of royal blood and polite nature.

‘A woman of noble birth only attracts scoundrels and yokai.’

That had ended their discussion. Yokai -- as the princess knew -- were spirits and demons that inhabited the untamed land beyond their kingdom. They preferred the eternal darkness of dense forest. A perfect habitat for such apparitions. She had never seen one, of course, but the princess learned of their many forms from maids. Fantastical tales of wild beast men with protruding horns and unkempt hair; fox-like spirits that brought good fortune, but possessed a mischievous side, and cat yokai that roamed the mountains, often transforming into humans. However, there was one yokai that caught the princess’ attention.

The tengu; a dangerous spirit of the forest. A yokai that possessed the talons and wings of a bird, but the celestial beauty of man. Tengu wandered mountains and forests as the land’s protector. Their wings were said to expand as wide as the sun. They donned the traditional dress of a yamabushi, adorned with a tokin and yuigesa. Tengu were accompanied by strong gusts of wind generated by a magical feather fan. Sometimes, as the princess learned, tengu instead carried a pewter staff. Their approach could be told by the jingle of their pewter staff and currents of wind that almost magically appeared. Some servants even told of handsome tengu. Tengu that charmed and bewitched with their allure. Mischievous and curious.

In truth, the princess yearned to escape the frigid confines of the castle, and explore the forest. She wanted -- wished -- to stumble upon a tengu. She wanted to feel their fabled soft feathers under her fingertips, to taste the crisp air they produced. The princess had no qualms with finding a hideous tengu with a beak, as the maids told her, tengu with beaks were more common. They were also more monstrous. Portrayed as wild birds of prey that lured young women into their nests for unspeakable acts. Eventually, the young women would return… but they were different. Blind. Insane. Soiled.

These stories did not deter her. The princess knew better. She knew such stories were only regurgitated as a means to frighten her. Tales meant for cheap scares of common folk. She was no common folk; she was nobility.

The woman began to drool into her dreamless sleep, too blissfully unaware of the winged beast hovering outside her window. A curious, crimson feathered tengu that was drawn by the scent of royal blood. He inhaled deeply; the princess’ scent mixed with the humid summer air in harmony. Known as Keigo, the yokai’s expansive wings flapped violently, and left shivers of feathers that fell gently like petals. Keigo wondered what she looked like; was she clothed in a thin nightgown or nothing at all? Keigo preferred the latter and nodded his head in solitary agreement. It wouldn’t hurt to take a peek, would it? ‘Her snores could wake the dead… ’ He chuckled at the thought; a woman of her nobility never spoke out of turn -- seen but not heard -- and yet this woman could produce a symphony of noise in her sleep.

“What other noises do you make, little bird?”

Slowly, Keigo unlatched the princess’ window and crept into her quarters. The room wasn’t remarkable, but her scent was etched into every corner. A patchwork of divinity itself. He wanted to bury himself within the fragrance, bury himself within… her. Curious golden eyes searched the darkened room for the princess’ sleeping form, finally resting upon a human-shaped mound. She looked so innocent. So unaware of the tengu’s presence. He could snatch her right now and be within the forest by daybreak, but he restrained himself. He wasn’t like the beastly oni. ‘No,’ Keigo decided, ‘I’ll simply watch over her.’ Keigo watched as the princess shifted in her sleep and caught a glimpse of her chest. Ample and supple. Absolutely begging to be touched and conquered. He ran a cold hand down the woman’s exposed flesh and thought, ‘I should at least take a trophy. ’ A means to memorialize her existence.

The tengu detached himself from the woman and began his search. He wanted a garment, something personal -- something private to her. Keigo remembered that mortals kept such clothing hidden away in drawers. Like treasure. As quietly as he could manage, Keigo rummaged through exquisite textiles and cloth, until he palmed satin material. Curious, Keigo grabbed the garment and examined it. A pair of panties. He brought the undergarment to his nose and inhaled. Fresh linen, welcoming and clean. The tengu would have preferred a pair with the maiden’s carnal scent, but even possessing something that was so close to her body was a gift. It was meant for him, Keigo decided. Stuffing the panties into his robe, Keigo allowed himself a final look at the woman before quietly flying off.

◆:*:◇:*:◆:*:◇:*:◆

She awoke, drowsy and exhausted, as if sleep had evaded her. The princess stretched and exhaled a soft yawn. Morning light streamed through the woman’s only open window. Wait. Open window? The princess had no memory of opening her window before bed. In fact, she had been too exhausted the night before to even take off her slippers. She had collapsed into bed in a weary state and fell promptly to sleep.

‘This is odd. So very odd,’ the woman thought and closed the window. She had been awfully weary, perhaps she opened it and had forgotten? It was possible, but the princess still felt perturbed and began a rudimentary inspection around her chambers. Nothing seemed out of place, until she happened upon a single crimson feather that appeared within her dresser. It was long, far too long to be a bird. The feather was unlike anything the woman had seen in her garden.

Tucking the feather away, the princess slowly started to get dressed. She savored this time in the morning. It was her simple slice of heaven. Her escape from prying eyes… and her mother. This was the princess’ only ritual that wasn’t tainted by maids and royal duties. It was a situation she had insisted upon and insisted upon until her mother eventually relented. She was an adult -- the sole heir -- and had no need for maids to dress her anymore. It had been convenient and almost fun as a child, but now as a young maiden, the task seemed almost inappropriate for hired help. The woman reasoned that their time could be spent elsewhere. This was her mother’s weak spot; the empress detested a lack of work ethic. She reasoned it was an absence of pride in one’s work. The maiden believed this to be the very reason for the garden.

The garden was quaint. A private sanctuary away from inquisitive eyes and lurking mothers. A place to call her own. This was a space not yet invaded by her controlling mother or by intrusive maids. Serenity in every meaning of the word. Plants flourished there; the modest terrace was alive with flowers and greenery. She was permitted this piece of serenity if she toiled in the earth. Hands smeared with dirt and sweat trickling down her brow. Such hard work earned her seeds and decorations for the princess’ little terrace. Fairy lights, statues, and decorative pebbles. The princess cherished every addition.

◆:*:◇:*:◆:*:◇:*:◆

She sat in the lively terrace, hands tired and dirty. The peculiar feather plagued her mind throughout the day, until finally, the woman decided she would rid herself of such compulsive thought. Toiling in the earth allowed her mind to wander beyond it. Idle hands were the devil’s work, as her mother would say.

The afternoon sun was high in the sky and beat down upon her back. The silk fabric of her summer kimono stuck to the maiden’s back like tree sap. Impossibly thick. The princess felt exhausted and unbearably hot, but busy work kept her thoughts at ease, and away from the stark reality of a midnight visitor. She had wrestled with the thought. How could an animal -- a beast -- flutter into her room, only to escape and leave behind a single feather? What bird could manipulate a latch? Originally, the woman settled on the possibility of a trained eagle being her intruder… but the idea was preposterous. Insane. Unlikely. The empress had no mortal enemies. Not a living soul was capable of such a feat, no commoner had reason. Her mother’s public demeanor was a farce. Kind. Generous. Loving. Traits she lacked in private, behind pristine castle doors.

Unbeknownst to her, on a nearby towering tree, sat a red-tailed hawk. Golden, predatory eyes were trained on the princess; unmoving and calculating.

◆:*:◇:*:◆:*:◇:*:◆

Throughout the day, the princess couldn’t escape the feeling of being watched. Like a lab rat. The thought was preposterous. The castle walls were far too great for peering eyes. No pervert could spy on her, and yet, she felt like this. This tightness in her chest that had appeared once she began to toil within the garden. It was so suffocating -- so frightening -- the princess decided to abandon any cultivation for the day. Instead, the princess focused on her studies. Academic topics specially suited for a “maiden of her stature,” as her mother would say. Subjects included etiquette, housewifely duties, mathematics, language, and archery. Archery, of course, was the maiden’s suggestion. A term the empress begrudgingly obliged. If a woman couldn’t protect herself, what sort of woman was she?

The bow fit neatly in her callused hands. Rough palms were earned from hard work and determination. Hands “unbecoming of a noble,” the empress would chide. As if it mattered. The princess was of age, but still had no suitors. No man of nobility had even considered her as a wife. She was never seen in public enough for such courtship. The castle was her home and her prison.

An arrow flew through the air, hitting its target. Archery was simply another means of keeping idle hands busy. Nothing more, nothing less. The woman felt safer within the confines of the castle. She didn’t feel the carnivorous eyes that burned into her body like hot coals. Perhaps this was all caused by the feather. It’s discovery caused her mind to wander with possibilities until her thoughts landed on something irrational: a tengu.

The thought had crept into the back of her skull and taken up residency like a canker sore. Unrelenting and impossible to ignore. It only grew in size as the day continued, until the idea was all she could muster. A large part of the princess was excited by such a discovery, but a smaller, weaker aspect dreaded the possibility. Her room wasn’t a forest and the maiden didn’t require protection, which left only a simple reality; the tengu was attracted to her. The empress’ previous words now echoed, ‘A woman of noble birth only attracts scoundrels and yokai.’ Was this true? If it was, no maid gossiped about it. It was unlikely shrill midwives could keep such a juicy secret to themselves, the princess reasoned. She prayed it was true a crimson feathered tengu had visited her. She didn’t mind if the tengu wasn’t handsome and instead had the face of a bird. She merely wanted the feather to have significance. It should, at least.

However, the maiden did wonder if the prying eyes were that of a tengu. They could shape-shift -- she only knew from castle gossip -- but they preferred a more mortal form. Imposing wings and a yamabushi’s robe, sometimes, tengu would wear a red mask with a long nose. This was less common now. Instead, such a mask existed for festivals and revelry. An accessory taken by man. Maybe the tengu had taken the shape of a bird. They were, after all, protective yokai of the forest. A bird’s eye view of the land seemed the most logical… but if it was a tengu, why did she feel so uneasy? Why did her skin prickle and become so sensitive?

She was familiar with stories of tengu that were renegades. Yokai -- like oni -- that preferred mortal desires. The mortal sin of flesh. It was a topic that was taboo to the princess. Courtship wasn’t a necessary knowledge. It was more useful of her time to learn household responsibilities. How to hold a babe. How to preserve fruits. What linens were best for summer months. Nothing truly of value beyond mathematics and archery. The prospect of a tengu that wanted her for carnal reasons left a horrid taste in her mouth and her knees weak. It was both thrilling and frightening.

◆:*:◇:*:◆:*:◇:*:◆

Days melted into one another, but the princess couldn’t purge the feeling of being watched. Her garden was no longer a sanctuary. It was crypt; suffocating and miserable. Because of this, she opted to stay inside and attend to her studies. Busy work that kept prying eyes at bay. The castle walls now provided protection from the rotten anxiety decaying her gut. Caring for plants used to be a welcome chore; an activity that broke up the monotony of royal life. Instead, the fresh air and bright sun only brought a sense of dread the princess couldn’t escape. It sat in her gut like a stone. Heavy with burden.

She experimented with venturing out during different times of day. Neither the cool morning nor the starless evening cure her. Everyday was the same, except for her lack of gardening. Servants took note and tried to coax the princess into the terrace, but she held fast in her fear. It was becoming all consuming. A black hole even the empress noticed.

◆:*:◇:*:◆:*:◇:*:◆

“You insisted on this ridiculous hobby, and yet, you won’t be appreciative?” Cold, hard eyes observed the woman, waiting for a response. Her mother’s eyes never quite held any warmth of familiar love. It was an aspect the princess was accustomed to.

The princess, playing with the hem of her kimono responded, “I… Of course I appreciate it, Your Majesty.”

“Well then, why don’t you tend to it, little bug?”

She winced at the epithet. It was an embarrassing and old name that was born of the maiden’s interest in plants. Nothing more than an insult veiled as a loving moniker. The name brought forth memories of childhood. Memories of learning cruelty.

“It’s been too hot lately, Your Majesty. My kimono sticks to my back and it’s very unbecoming.” Picking her words carefully would be the key here. She knew the vicious nature her mother carried. A stick to beat others down into submission; into the dirt.

Satisfied, or perhaps finally disinterested, the empress curtly nodded and continued her stroll around the castle grounds. The lack of her mother’s love didn’t bother her anymore. She was the empress. Nobility that commanded -- demanded -- respect.

◆:*:◇:*:◆:*:◇:*:◆

The day had transformed into night. Humid summer air that melted into a brisk evening. Typically, twilight was the perfect time for tending to her garden, but the princess hadn’t set foot within her sanctuary. She sat directly in front of the shoji that led to the terrace, timid hands fumbling with the hem of her kimono. It was a nervous habit that followed from childhood.

‘Should I try again? ’ Thick saliva began to pool within the maiden’s mouth. A bundle of anxiety coiled within the pit of her stomach; like a hot brand. Truth be told, she wanted to run and hide further within the castle. The princess’ bed was her sanctuary now.

‘...but it’s only a feeling. Mother wouldn’t want me to be such a child. ’ Swallowing the saliva, the woman stood up and meekly slid open the door.

Sticky, heavy air stuck to her lungs. Her chest rapidly rose and fell; the princess desperate to not suffocate. It was a starless night. An inky blackness that threatened to swallow the princess whole. The evening was darker than usual, which allowed dread to further creep into her body. Instinctual goosebumps decorated her arms as she slinked towards a bed of flowers. The floral scent was almost nauseating. Too overpowering and fragrant.

Shaky knees knelt into the earth and trembling hands began to pull at weeds. Her lack of care supported an invasion within her garden. It was no longer a garden of love. Now, the terrace sat abandoned and overrun. Stubborn weeds were plucked and tossed aside. The princess’ hands ached and were caked in dirt. Not becoming a of woman. Of a princess. But the woman lacked care. She didn’t want to live in fear of her only outlet. Her only safe haven from her mother and from the castle servants.

Tears gathered at the corner of the maiden’s eyes as she worked. Her disdain and anxiety had become tangible. She brought a dirt crusted finger to her eye and wiped away the salty liquid. Crying was a sign of weakness. It was a saying the empress had drilled into the princess since birth. Crying wasn’t allowed for nobility. The woman needed to be strong and feminine; not a blubbering child. Gradually, the feeling of being watched dissipated and was instead replaced by a feeling of inadequacy and misery.

Atop a neighboring tree within the terrace sat a red-tailed hawk. Beautiful and majestic. The bird watched the woman below. It cocked it’s head in interest. Despite his watchful gaze, the tengu known as Keigo hadn’t seen the princess cry before. The action seemed almost foreign to her, as if she had never cried before. Her chest didn’t heave and no sound emitted from her. Instead, the maiden sat on her knees and silently toiled. This lack of passion angered Keigo in a way. He wanted to see the woman in all her entirety. He wanted to witness her anger. Her sadness. Her wailing. A part of him would envision her beneath him, begging him with tears in her eyes. It was a sick pleasure, really. Keigo wanted to be disgusted by this desire, but it was a thought that dug its heels in, refusing to leave. He was left with the only option; to embrace it.

Keigo continued to watch the quiet sobbing until he grew bored. Until an idea surfaced. He should try to comfort her, shouldn’t he?

‘I want to touch her. I want to feel her warmth. I want to feel her writhe underneath me,’ the tengu thought as he gently fluttered to the ground. Keigo didn’t want to approach her as a man. He knew mortals weren’t stupid; she would question why a strange man with golden eyes suddenly appeared within her castle. ‘I want you to love me. ’

Softly, the tengu made his way towards the princess. Keigo’s footfalls were ignored by the maiden until he rubbed a wing against her. Startled, she released a quiet yelp and looked at the creature. The bird was small for a hawk and looked to be the runt. An unfortunate bird that had been given the same lot in life as herself. The princess regained her composure and reached out, touching the little bird.

“You scared me! Are you lonely, little birdie?” She asked, trying to stifle a giggle. Being frightened by such a small thing was comedic in a way. Deep inside, the bird and it’s tiny, insignificant body reminded the woman of herself. Perhaps this creature had been the prying eyes? ‘It was so silly of me to worry,’ the princess thought as she petted the bird.

The hawk released a low growl, as if the sound came from the very back of their throat. It reminded the princess of a cat’s purr. A sound only produced from trust and contentment. Soft lips curled into an insignificant smile. Her lips felt tense and unfamiliar with the action; smiling wasn’t common within the castle. The empress saw it as fictitious and unnecessary.

‘You can express pleasantries through your words. A noble woman doesn’t need to stoop down to a commoner.’

She reasoned the bird couldn’t be more than a young babe; the runt of a litter. ‘Are its wings hurt? Is the mother looking for..? ’ Before the princess could finish her thought, the bird gently pecked at her palm. Almost like a warning. The feeling of being watched had subsided; the princess was confident that her intruder was a lonely baby hawk. She hadn’t seen such a bird before. Hawks weren’t common in her kingdom and the woman was unsure the creature could fly. If the bird couldn’t fly, surely she should nurse it to health and then release it. The woman had never raised a dog before, much less a hawk, but it’s kindness proved too powerful.

◆:*:◇:*:◆:*:◇:*:◆

The princess managed to smuggle the hawk into her room. The operation had required bribing maids, but ‘business deals are important and are to be honored,’ as her mother would say. It wasn’t bribing; she was merely asking for a service and in turn, the maids were paid. ‘A simple transaction,’ she told herself.

Currently, the hawk was cuddled against the woman. She had made several attempts to leave, but the creature would loudly squawk like a threat. The princess knew her mother would at best be displeased -- and at worst -- demand the bird be confiscated. No animal was worthy of a princess. No creature was bred with the same noble blood. The empress deemed animals unworthy of her daughter’s company. ‘To rule, you must have conviction and a barn animal would only dirty you.’ Remembering her words only caused the woman to flinch. Even the ghost of her words carried severity and coldness.

Keigo was growing annoyed. Yes, it was blissful to be smothered by this woman, but he desired more. His heart grew black with a carnal want that only oni experienced. He wanted to defile her in the worst way. He wanted to feel the princess squirm underneath him, begging him in ecstasy. Naturally, the mind of a tengu is always several steps ahead of a mortal. A plan began to form; once she retired to bed, Keigo would reveal himself, explain he was a kami and had selected her for his divine touch. The tengu knew that even among nobility, the visit of a kami was prized. It was an offer the princess couldn’t -- wouldn’t refuse. Keigo ruffled his feathers in anticipation.

◆:*:◇:*:◆:*:◇:*:◆

The night was still and silent, except for a slight breeze that blew through an open window. The princess had retired to sleep, but decided to keep her window open for the little bird. Keigo sat atop the windowsill and watched her sleeping form. He noted how small she was; an impossibly tiny body dwarfed by a mattress decorated in ornate blankets and pillows. This form allowed for the tengu to watch the princess undress. Her body was delicate and without blemish. A part of Keigo felt excited by this; a perfect body he could ruin. He would claim her and defile her.

With a quick pop, and a patch of black smoke, the bird was no more. In place sat a young man with ash blonde hair and golden eyes. His features were sharp and almost avian like, but his expression was laid-back and carefree. He wore the traditional garb of a yamabushi, complete with a tokin. He was a handsome man, but carried the dark intentions of a predator. Yellow orbs that burned with want.

Keigo slowly drifted towards the princess, leaving red feathers in his wake. He watched with interest as she tossed in bed. So blissful. So blissfully unaware of him. Unable to resist any further, the tengu placed a gentle kiss on her cheek. She was soft -- malleable -- and smelled of perfume. Like a garden.

The princess awoke suddenly from the action and came face-to-face with the tengu. By the moonlight, she couldn’t make out his features, but knew the shape was that of a man. Shock ignited in her eyes and the princess instinctively opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She felt suffocated by the intruder. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she noticed how bizarre the man’s silhouette was. He stood of average height, but it looked as if the man had hidden an object behind his back. An object that resembled the wings of a bird.

Finally, a whimper escaped the woman. A small and pathetic sound that aroused the tengu. Before the princess could helpless babble, Keigo spoke, “Sorry if I scared you! Wasn’t my intention, but I’m Keigo.” A lop-sided grin found its way onto his thin lips. The smile did little to quell the fear in the woman’s gut.

“G-g-get out!” Her words sounded strangled and afraid. The princess sat up and frantically scooted away from the strange man. ‘She’s so cute, scared like this.’

She wondered how long the man had been watching her. Was he the source of the crimson feather? Was this not a man, but an oni? A pit formed in her chest, heavy with dread and fright.

“Don’t be like that, little bird. I’m a kami, shouldn’t you be falling at my feet?” Keigo asked, his tone casual.  His lack of concern or formality was alarming. No one had spoken to the princess in such a way. Under normal circumstances, she would have welcomed his nonchalant nature, but now -- in her darkened room -- it was a threat.

The princess’ heart hammered in her chest like a drum. Too loud and too thunderous to ignore.

“A k-kami..? I -- you visited me several nights ago, didn’t you?” She desperately wanted to believe the man. Any other possibility was horrific. She squinted in the dark and noticed the sharp features he possessed; blonde hair illustrated in the moonlight and yellow eyes that seemed to glow.

The tengu laughed. It was soft and gentle, the pure opposite of the roaring cackle she was accustomed to.

“I wanted you to have somethin’ to remember me by, little birdie. It’s flattering how close you keep it.” It excited Keigo that the young maiden had kept the feather. Especially because she kept the feather so close, buried underneath her kimono, right atop her breast. He hoped her breasts were as soft as her cheek.

Plump cheeks flushed with pink. She hated being teased. It was one of the few social interactions her mother was capable of, but it always left a sour taste in the woman’s mouth.

“How… how do I know you’re a kami? You could simply be a convincing oni, a pretender.”

His smile faltered. “You don’t trust me? That’s okay, little birdie. I’ll take my leave,” Keigo replied. Leaving wasn’t a part of his plan, it was merely a distraction from the bewitching magic he cast. A glamour that would enlighten the princess to desires held deep within her heart.

The princess didn’t want him to leave; it was improper to turn away a guest. Compelled, a delicate hand grabbed Keigo’s robe. It was tightly woven material, similar to the great textiles within the castle.

“Stay,” she begged, “please stay. I didn’t mean…”

Keigo placed a large hand atop the crown of her head and stroked. The maiden leaned into the touch, it was unlike any sensation she had experienced within the castle. It wasn’t the uncaring, technical touch of a wet nurse, but the tender touch of a lover. Warmth began to bloom in the pit of her stomach. A feeling that was foreign, but welcomed. She wanted nothing more than to melt into the tengu’s touch.

The woman patted the empty spot next to her. She hoped the winged man would slide into bed and perhaps hold her. Simply hold her and their body heat mixed together in the summer air. A small, childish part of the princess desired to touch the man’s wings. If they were as soft as the feather, they must feel like heaven. ‘He’s divinity in every sense of the word.’

Silently, Keigo slid into bed beside the princess, his wings ruffling against her soft skin. He shivered from the sensation. Tingly and electric. Keigo draped an arm around her and pulled the princess closer. He needed to hear her heartbeat and feel the blood coursing under her skin. The maiden’s floral scent was overpowering now; the smell fresh and heavenly. The woman buried herself into the tengu’s robe. His body was warm, almost hot. A summer heat draped in a man. He smelled of the earth and pine. It was a scent that the woman found comforting.

“Eager little bird,” Keigo joked, his hand now drifting down her form. He was desperate to memorize the soft landscape of her body. She was a treat to be savored. “Gonna touch you and make you feel good, okay little birdie?”Keigo grabbed the princess through her nightgown, her breast fitting perfectly within his palm, as if she was made for him. Only one thought came to Keigo’s mind: ‘This is mine. She is mine.’ It was uncommon for the tengu to feel so territorial -- so protective, but she was giving herself to him, afterall.

He palmed the woman through her nightgown, eliciting a quiet moan. Keigo had to strain to hear it; she tried to stifle the sound. It was unnatural and embarrassing. She had never been touched like this before, much less by a kami.

“Don’t be so shy.” Keigo continued to caress and massage her breast, his other hand wandering down his lover’s nightgown. His hand stopped at the hem of her gown, sliding up the material until it was bunched around her waist. The princess shivered from the cool air, and from a foreign feeling of shame. A part of her wanted to push the winged man away and lock herself in a neighboring bathroom until guards arrived, but another insatiable piece wanted the kami to take her maidenhood right now. Her body burned with an undeniable passion that only Keigo could extinguish.

Mewls of want penetrated the night air as the tengu circled a finger around her sensitive lips, the warmth of his touch separated only by satin panties. The cloth -- saturated with her juices -- would be Keigo’s prize. Another memento of the woman, of his lover. Her squirming underneath him only cemented that fact.

Greedy, trembling hands reached for Keigo; needy for his body to be pressed against hers. She slid a hand underneath his robe, and traveled down his body, stopping at his waist. Pleasing a man was never a topic of discussion in the princess’ studies. The maiden’s hands glided under Keigo’s fundoshi. His member stood proud and leaking pre-cum, unsure and nervous, she began to rub his leaking head. A groan rumbled from deep within Keigo’s chest, like a thunderstorm.

“Don’t stop, little bird,” Keigo murmured, the tengu too enamored from the woman’s touch. He had dreamed of this for several nights, but finally, her soft hands were working his manhood. She stroked down his length, clumsy and inexperienced. The tengu was growling now; noises guttural and rough. Like a wild beast set free.

Encouraged by her touch, he tore her undergarment, allowing for proper access to her nether region. Roughly, Keigo parted the woman’s lips apart and a calloused thumb began to rub her now swollen clit. Under normal circumstances, the princess would have recoiled from such brazen action; she was taught a man should never tear a royal’s garment. It was an act perpetrated by oni and men of lesser nobility, but this man wasn’t of lesser nobility. He was a kami. A god.

Golden, hungry eyes looked down at her; like a wolf appraising meat. Predatory and insatiable. An idea formed within his mind and the tengu detached himself from the princess. She released a whine, her features twisted in a pout. A little brat denied subsistence.

“Touch me,” she requested. Her tone was demanding. It was more of a command than a request. Her hands felt empty and useless, the maiden convinced her only purpose now was to please the kami.

Keigo positioned himself at her entrance and commanded, “Lay down, let me pleasure you.” His words were like velvet, his voice like nirvana. Sickeningly sweet and light. With hesitation, the woman laid down, her cunt in full view of the tengu. She felt another pang of embarrassment. Even wet nurses hadn’t seen her exposed like this. Her instincts screamed to cover up and to run away, but the allure of Keigo proved too much.

A single finger was harshly jammed into her slick core as Keigo’s mouth engulfed her mound. His hot tongue swirled around in her cunt, learning every sensitive spot. His wide finger sent a shock of pain up the maiden’s body, but the sensation was soon replaced by warmth that spread between her thighs. He pumped into her, scissoring and stretching her. Preparing her for him. His teeth grazed against her delicate clit, evoking a wanton moan. Her legs trembled as Keigo shoved another finger into her wetness. She felt full -- whole -- with the tengu’s fingers inside. A thumb prodded her clit again, gently rubbing the nub. The red-hot coil within her center made the maiden feel as if she would burst, the sensation of an orgasm building. Sounds of squelching and a river of moans flowed from her.

The tengu brought his face up to her, fingers wet with her arousal.

“Little birdie all ready for my cock, huh?” Keigo stood up and quickly disrobed. His lean frame vibrating from excitement. In the moonlight, the princess could make out the sculpted body Keigo possessed. The body befitting of a kami. He crawled over her body and positioned his cock up against her lips. Slowly, savoring the moment, Keigo pushed into the woman. His cock stretched her, far more than his fingers. Sensitive, wet walls clasped around him. Her body was desperate to swallow his member whole. The tengu crammed his soaked fingers into his lover’s mouth, muffling her moans. “Don’t want you too loud, little birdie.”

She wondered if this was a normal part of lovemaking, but obliged the tengu and sucked on his fingers. Lewd sounds erupted from Keigo, along with a string of swears. The princess hadn’t heard such depravity before, but Keigo’s thick cock was too distracting. He sped up, provoked by the sucking of his fingers. His balls slapped against her ass at a feverish pace. Keigo’s strokes were no longer slow and delicate, but harsh and starving. A man -- a beast -- possessed. The force of his strokes almost hurt and his fingers were jammed to almost the back of her throat.

“Pl-please stop,” the maiden slurred, spit trailing down her chin. Keigo had to strain to hear her, but decided to partially accommodate. He removed the saliva coated fingers, leaving her to gup down chestfuls of air. Instead, strong hands clasped around her delicate neck. A neck that had only known the pleasures of cotton or satin. His touch around her neck was the opposite of the tenderness she had known before; his touch now felt possessive and dark. An aura of blackness that threatened to consume her. Keigo’s grip tightened, along with his feverish pace. The princess’ hips now began to ache underneath him.

The coil in her stomach reached its peak; a feeling of relief washed over her. The maiden felt grounded, more aware, less hazy. She finally noticed the dangerous shine in the tengu’s yellow eyes, which sent a deathly chill down her body, leaving goosebumps. She no longer wanted this. She no longer wanted him. The woman began to squirm underneath the tengu, defaulting to her original fear. Realizing the turn of her nature, Keigo released a final pump into her soaking cunt. A deep growl sounded from his chest, this time the sound no longer velvet and soft. The sound of a predator. As he climaxed, Keigo’s grip around her worsened. The maiden feeling out of breath. Asphyxiated. She beat against his chest, her vision becoming a blurry mess of black spots and dots.

Keigo’s large hands fell from her neck and the princess swallowed greedy gulps of air. ‘She looks so beautiful like this,’ the tengu thought, ‘sweaty and broken beneath me.’ His seed began to leak out of her, staining her plush thighs. The sensation made her feel dirty, wrong, used.

“L-l-leave.”

Yellow eyes bore into her features, memorizing every inch. A carefree grin plastered on the tengu’s handsome face.

“...but you’re mine now, little birdie.”

[petri808]

Sanjou no Ai

click to read from beginning

Bakudeku Au fic, final chapter

For the first few months of their new arrangement, the mated pair settled into a routine of sorts. Almost every night, the okami would return to the Shrine after nightfall and spend it with Izuku, but always left before the sun peaked over the horizon the following morning. It was okay for the time being since now Katsuki could take his time in re-educating the kitsune on the ways of a yokai. And there was so much that Izuku had no clue about. Until now, he only had the scant information left by the previous shrine keeper and the instinctual sides he couldn’t avoid. But even those had not gone without question because he didn’t always understand why he felt the way he felt or did the things he did. For instance, he thought he was ‘born’ to live a life in the shrine, but that wasn’t true at all. The god created them for purposes, such as the okami to protect the wolves and forest, the kitsune too had a similar role. Then at some point when the current shrine was built upon the mountain, the kitsune yokai pledged to help the humans. Generations later left the likes of Izuku in a role he didn’t even know why it existed but performed faithfully… until now.

The information left him semi-torn about his life. Should he continue to honor that treaty and stay at the shrine, or give into his instincts and become a free protector of the forest? It shouldn’t be such a difficult choice, but what brought on the anxiety fell more into could he do it? Could he learn to fend for himself? It was an internal battle that’s been raging from before he and Katsuki mated, but now took center stage. Of course, the okami assured his mate that he wouldn’t be alone. As the alpha it was his responsibility to provide for and protect his omega, especially if the kitsune became pregnant. And besides, Izuku needed to give himself more credit for his strength. Katsuki pointed out how the man had risked his life to save an injured wolf, did that not show how strong or brave he could be when needed? Izuku had no argument against such a statement.

Still, that didn’t calm his mind, if anything, new thoughts would come for Izuku to mill over. Okay fine, maybe he would be okay for himself, but what about with the pups Katsuki mentioned. He’d have to worry about protecting their lives. A family was just another topic he was trying to wrap his brain around. Like first off, they were both canines but not the same species. Again, it was the okami who reminded the kitsune of magic, that they don’t operate under the same laws of nature. Which didn’t really explain much at all, so he simply put it aside instead of continuing the conversation. Next, if they were to desire a family, Izuku definitely would need to leave the shrine. Katsuki wasn’t pressing him over the topic, but maybe it was those omegan features kicking in that made the kitsune think about it. Like some hormonal drive to reproduce because he certainly never felt such instincts before!

One night after another mellow round of love making, they lay there cuddled in Izuku’s bed.

“Kacchan,” the kitsune whispered with hesitation in his tone. “Why haven’t I become pregnant considering how often we do this?”

“Where the hell did this question come from?”

“I know it’s random… but, oh, I don’t know, it’s just something I been wondering about for a few weeks now.”

Katsuki’s turned Izuku around to face him. “If you really must know. I’ve been using magic to sterilize my seed because I know you’re not ready.”

That answer made the kitsune a little irritated. Shouldn’t such a decision be made by both of them, together?! Regardless of if he was ready or not. “That’s not fair.” Izuku pouted.

“Oh, and you saying you are? You know full well you cannot be working here and get pregnant. Look, you should be happy that I’m not pressuring you to leave this place immediately and take your place in my nest where you belong.”

“I don’t know what to do,” Izuku whimpered in toil.

Katsuki was digging down deep not to lose his patience right now, but after months of waiting could anyone blame him? He took a deep breath to control himself from growling. “I know you’re scared of being away from here, but I don’t know how many more ways I can say it, you don’t have to be. I’ll take care of you and our family when we have one. You just need to decide between the shrine and me.”

“Decide right now?”

“No. Now you sleep,” Katsuki bundled the kitsune against his body preferring to end the night for now and deal with it later. “But you will need to do it soon.”

But Izuku was no fool and could sense the irritation in his mate. He could tell Katsuki was just holding back from lashing out. “You’re not mad at me… are you?”

“I’m trying not to be. So, go to sleep.”

Izuku’s voice lowered, quivering in tone. “I know you just picked me because I’m the only yokai around, and I’m okay with that. I’m just sorry I’m so weak.”

That was the last straw. Izuku’s self-defeating aura and sadness was oozing out and pissing him off! Even though the alpha within him felt pained, it wasn’t enough to change Katsuki’s mind. He sat up with teeth partially bared and speaking through a gritted tone. “That’s bullshit! I could’ve left the area and found someone else if I’d wanted to! I told you, I picked you because I liked what I saw. Yeah, you ain’t physically strong like me, but you have your own strength, a kind of strength I’d never possess, and if you can’t recognize that, then… Argh! You need to figure shit out! The okami leapt to his feet. “I’m going home! When you’re ready to make a damn decision. You know where to find me!”

“Kacchan!” Izuku cried out as his mate transformed and bounded out of the dwelling, but it was too late. He’d screwed up big time all because he was such a weak fool! How did Katsuki ever see a strength in him? Where was it? Just look at him, he was small, skinny, and always nervous of making a mistake. His mate was right. He couldn’t see whatever it was that Katsuki saw in him.

Izuku curled up into a ball and pulled the blanket over his body as he wept openly. The omegan part of him was in so much pain… it called out for its mate, cried at the loss… oh, it hurt so much! Kami, it felt like someone had ripped his heart right out of his chest and stomped it into the ground. He’d never felt so much pain before and even though physically there was nothing wrong, his entire body was suffering. It ached, every bone, every fiber of his being a wave of numbness and throbbing all mixed together. This must be the bond, Izuku realized. Until now their bond had given nothing but pleasure and now it burned like the hottest fire from the sun.

“Kacchan…” he whimpered into the silent night air. The darkness consumed him inside and out. What to do… what to do… he needed Katsuki to breathe, to live or a broken bond would surely kill him.

He didn’t know at what point he’d fallen asleep, maybe from pure exhaustion, but the next thing Izuku knew he could see light filtering though the blanket. Morning had arrived and with it an absolutely shocking pain, twice the level of anguish as the night before. His mind was reeling, so fogged over from all the turmoil that he could barely move, barely function. “Kacchan!” He screamed out! Ready or not, it couldn’t go on like this. For all his fears and anxieties, the only thing he knew for certain, bond or not, was he needed Katsuki. He loved Katsuki. And so right then and there Izuku knew what he needed to do. It physically hurt to get up, but Izuku did his best to dress himself and stumble into the shrine. All these months he’d hidden any sign of changes. Now it was time to come clean. He couldn’t stay.

The priests were already up and about doing their daily chores like usual. So, while remaining cordial despite his slow, pained movements, Izuku searched for the elder to speak with. Elder priest Toshinori was a kind and caring man, over 80 years old by Izuku’s estimation and had been at this shrine for close to 60 years. Izuku cared a lot about the elder, like a surrogate grandfather figure who was always ready with wise words and guidance for any seeking it out. But he could tell this man’s younger years were hard and laborious. Though thin and aged now, his sinewy tanned skin and worn hands were a testament to a hard upbringing. Izuku often wondered if this is why Toshinori was wiser than many of the others that had passed through these grounds over the centuries. Many priests came from relatively stable but lower-ranking homes who wouldn’t see such a poor upbringing. This man lived and came with experiences to guide his beliefs in a wiser way.

He found the elder in the sanctum reading.

“Mr. Toshinori.”

“Ah, Izuku,” the man looked up from his book. “I was wondering when you might come to me.”

Izuku sat down in front of the man bowing low. “Mr. Toshinori, I don’t know how to say this properly, but I must leave the shrine.”

“I know, and I understand.”

“Wait, how did you know?!” Izuku sat up straight in confusion. “I-I was sure I’d hidden the okami well.”

Toshinori smiled. “For a time, you did, but I sensed changes in you, positive changes. You hid them well, but a sparkle in your eye as you looked at the forest, at times just a pause in your routine as you were deep in thought, smiling to yourself. I knew something was happening to you and I must say it was nice to see you so happy.”

Tears were gathering in Izuku’s eyes at how understanding the priest was being. The internal struggle slowly lessened inside. “I am,” the smile broke free. “He makes me feel so alive, but I’m torn to leave the shrine and everyone here.”

“Young Izuku, it is natural to leave the nest when it is time. This shrine is all you know, and the world can be a very scary place, but it is also part of life to go out into and find your true meaning.”

“Is that what happened to you?”

“In a way,” the man chuckled. “Your kind has served and protected this shrine well for a long time but at the expense of losing your very nature.”

“But I want to continue protecting this shrine! I love this place! I love this forest!”

The man leaned forward with a serious expression. “Izuku, would it be too impossible to achieve from outside of the shrine?”

Izuku quieted in thought for a moment before responding. “No, I suppose not.”

“Then the answer is you can still protect what you love and be with whom you love at the same time.”

“I… I never thought of it that way…” ‘Like how Katsuki had protected the offerings…’ “I can do that!” Izuku bowed again to the priest. “Thank you, Mr. Toshinori! I promise, I’ll still help at the shrine, but I will live in the forest from now on.”

Toshinori placed a hand on Izuku’s bowed head. “I trust you will, young Izuku. And do bring your family around someday, I’d like to meet them before I die.”

Izuku looked up with a blush. “O-Okay, I will!”

The air rushing past his face felt exhilarating in his kitsune form. It had been a while since he’d used the full fox body, but ever since he’d consciously made the decision to go to Katsuki, all the pain relaxed, and he wanted to find his mate as quickly as possible. Izuku couldn’t explain what this newly realized sense of freedom felt like, all he knew is he felt lighter. It might take some time to get used to it after being on such a regimented schedule all his life, but it was simply amazing.

He rushed straight for Katsuki’s den hoping his mate would be there, sending out his scent ahead as a calling card. Oh, how he wanted to just snuggle into the Okami’s thick beautiful fur! ‘Please be there!’ Izuku crooned and whined as the pull of their bond grew stronger and stronger. Katsuki must be close! His body could sense it, feel it as he arrived at the entrance to the cave. “Kacchan!” Izuku called out. Movement up ahead was picked up quickly by the kitsunes sensitivity’s hearing.

Finally, the large form of a wolf stood at the apex of the cavern and tunnel, and the happy tears Izuku had been holding back broke free. It was his mate. Soothing energy flowed out from the okami and wrapped the kitsune in a welcoming embrace.

Izuku whined and pressed forward into the okami’s welcoming embrace. “Kacchan, I’m home!”