I'm going to reveal a secret of mine: this story has absolutely no plan or structure. Every single time I start writing a new chapter I just go with the flow of my brain fluids. So everything is impromptu. Felt like that should be put out there.

Also, I just got a new keyboard skin, and I'm still figuring out how to type with it; it's very annoying. If there are any spelling/grammar mistakes, please forgive me and just ignore them. Thank you~

And LASTLY! I will most likely be starting a collection of one-shots, because I really want to write other stories but I can't figure out exactly what I want to write about, and how...so prepare for that! 

If you voted, thank you <3

According to Yonghwa, the final day of Jongin's episode was usually the mildest, and he didn't need as much tranquilizer as the past days. Unfortunately for Kyungsoo, this time was an exception.

"Jongin, don't eat the pillow," Yonghwa droned, barely glancing up from some paperwork on his desk.

The wolf hybrid growled. "I wasn't eating the pillow."

"Well, good."

Kyungsoo sat stiffly on the opposite couch, hands folded on his knees and a bottle of pepper spray--courtesy of Amber--poking his thigh uncomfortably from inside his jean pocket. "Yonghwa?" he asked for the fifth time. "Are you sure there isn't anything you need me to do?"

The ox hybrid looked at Kyungsoo with a soft smile. "I'm sure, Kyungsoo. How about you get something to eat, though? You didn't have lunch, right?"

"I did. A bagel with cream cheese."

"Well, that isn't much. Go grab something to eat."

Kyungsoo stood up a little too quickly, causing Jongin to swing his head to look at him with a frightened look in his red eyes.

"Where are you going?" the wolf hybrid demanded, reaching out.

"Just going to get a snack from the vending machine. Do you want anything?"

"Do they have chicken?"

"It's a vending machine, Jongin," Yonghwa said.

"I'll get you some chips," Kyungsoo said, then hurried out.

The health office was strangely dark for six thirty in the evening, especially since the lights were motion-activated and Tao and Kris had just come out to do...something. Kyungsoo crept along close to the walls, every nerve tingling.

Footsteps from somewhere on the other side of the building echoed loudly, as if they were right behind Kyungsoo, and the cat hybrid swallowed thickly, prepared to turn tail and run. A single light , and Kyungsoo flinched.

"Oh, Soo!"

"Holy !" Kyungsoo whirled around, his pepper spray whipped out and ready to use.

Lay stood before him, hands raised and eyes wide. "Sorry," he said, smiling sheepishly. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Kyungsoo let go of the breath he had been holding onto.

"I didn't know you were here," he said, tucking his pepper spray back into his pocket. 

"Well, I just came in through the side door, and I thought you were a worker. I was going to ask why all the lights are off."

"I was wondering the same thing," Kyungsoo admitted. "Why are you back early from break?"

"Luhan and I are switching out with Kris and Tao."

"Oh. Why?"

"Two of us have to be here at all times. Policy."

Looks like the Dragons really are a legit group, Kyungsoo thought.

A roar erupted from down the hall, and both Kyungsoo and Lay flinched.

"Was that--"

"I think so."

Lay sighed and smiled with uncanny nonchalance. "I'll see what I can do, then," he said, brushing past Kyungsoo like a ghost.

Luhan had somehow appeared in Yonghwa's office in the ten or so minutes Kyungsoo took to get food, and he nearly decapitated Kyungsoo--again--with his barely-covered antlers.

"Hi, Soo!" he said, smiling brightly.

Kyungsoo looked from Luhan to Lay to the wolf hybrid locked in a chokehold on the couch and back to Luhan.

"Oh, he was getting unruly," Lay said, disconcerting smile still on his face.

Kyungsoo opened his mouth to say something but found he had nothing to say.

Jongin screeched, a noise that made all the hairs on Kyungsoo's ears and tail stand up, and struggled against the strong arms around him.

Luhan laid a hand on Kyungsoo's shoulder. "It's okay," he said. "Lay's not as rough as Kris is, so if he can take Kris, he's good."

"...right." Somehow that didn't reassure him, especially since Jongin looked ready to tear someone's head off.

"Although," Luhan continued. "Kai's not supposed to be this rowdy on the last day."

Suddenly, Jongin threw himself backward, finally breaking out of Lay's grip and throwing both of them off of the couch, Lay's head barely missing the coffee table. The cougar hybrid didn't even flinch; he hooked his arm back around Jongin's throat and pulled him back into his chest, pushing up to sitting position with one arm. 

Amber hummed approvingly from the corner. 

"Let go of me, you piece of !" Jongin growled.

Luhan shrugged. "It'll be over soon," he said.

Jongin twisted, then slammed his head back into Lay's face. A gush of blood and a yelp marked the impact, and Amber and Luhan finally moved in to pry Jongin away from the injured Dragon. Yonghwa grabbed a syringe from his desk and jabbed it into the wolf hybrid's arm. 

Kyungsoo watched in horror, the bag of pretzels in his hand dropping to the ground. "Oh my G-d," he said.

Jongin slumped over, still muttering angry curses, and his restraints released him. While Yonghwa and Luhan tended to Lay's incessant nosebleed, Amber turned to Kyungsoo.

"That's how we deal with him," she said, almost apologetically. She picked the pretzels up and held them out for Kyungsoo to take.

Jongin whimpered.

Kyungsoo turned and ran out the door.

A little while later, Lay found Kyungsoo in the bathroom, curled up in a ball and shaking.

"Kyungsoo? What's wrong?" the cougar hybrid asked, kneeling beside the smaller boy on the floor.

"K-Kai was--he got--he hurt--" Kyungsoo stammered, hands fluttering.

Lay felt his nose tenderly, then smiled.

"I'm nowhere near as rough as Kris is, you know that, right?" He rubbed Kyungsoo's back in soothing circles.

Kyungsoo looked up at the older boy. "Yeah," he said softly. "It's just...it's really weird to see him like that."

"I'm sure it is." Lay sighed. "It's scary, right?"

A silent nod.

"Yeah. I think at that point, the best you can do is just tell yourself that it's for the safety of the...the majority, and himself. That it could be a lot worse."

"Mm-hm."

Lay stood up and extended a hand towards Kyungsoo. "Come on," he urged. "You still need to eat."

The day Jongin's episode finally ended, it snowed.

He was trudging up the staircase, rubbing a strangely sore spot on his arm, when he noticed the little flakes spiral down toward the ground. A gentle wind pushed the snow onto the windowsill, light dustings of white on the grey stone.

At the same time, Kyungsoo was watching from his own room while on the phone with Baekhyun.

"Well, no, I don't think that's...no, stop. I said, do not drink the--oh, J-sus." The cat hybrid put his face in his hands as he listened to his friend sputter on the other end of the line. "I told you so."

A knock on the door interrupted Baekhyun's string of expletives.

"I have to go. Go to the emergency room if it starts to burn." Kyungsoo dropped his phone and plodded to the door, stretching and yawning. He didn't bother to look through the peephole; he knew who it was.

Jongin threw his arms around Kyungsoo the instant the door opened, nearly throwing Kyungsoo to the ground.

"I feel like someone stuffed cotton in my head hole," he muttered.

Kyungsoo laughed and hugged the wolf hybrid back. "Tranqs?"

"Yeah, just the leftover tranqs."

"Poor thing."

Kyungsoo pulled away. "Okay, if you want some food, it's over--"

Abruptly, Jongin threw his arms back around the smaller boy and pitched backward onto Kyungsoo's bed. "Oh, come on, I just finished my episode and I don't get a kiss?" Jongin said, pouting.

Kyungsoo smirked. "Nope!"

"Rude. Then I'm going to take one for myself." Jongin pulled Kyungsoo's face down towards his, but the cat hybrid turned his head at the last second so that Jongin's lips ended on his jawline.

"Let's see if you can get one," Kyungsoo taunted, pushing up and away.

Jongin pretended to growl, then rolled over, trapping Kyungsoo underneath him. He leaned down. "I bet I can."

Their lips met gently at first, slowly growing more and more hungry, as if to make up for all the lost time. Kyungsoo found his hands winding through Jongin's hair, pulling him closer. There was no sound, save for the searching of breaths and moving of clothes.

For just a moment, Jongin broke the kiss, letting Kyungsoo's fingers slip out of his tousled blonde hair. "Whatever I did during my episode," he said slowly. "I'm really sorry."

Kyungsoo smiled, then patted Jongin's cheek. "It's okay," he said. "It could've been worse. Now come here, you goofball."

Jongin raised an eyebrow. "What'd you call me?"

"Goofball." Kyungsoo stuck out his tongue.

"Oh, you're going to pay for that."