Taeyeon crooned at the small Kwon nestled comfortably at the crook of her arm. Her muscles were protesting at the strain of holding that position for a good while but the little one seemed to savour the bottled milk she was ling while enjoying the attention from one of her aunties. She had grown a little bigger, a little heavier, and her association to the things around her has expanded- as proven by her big, doe-like eyes wandering everywhere in fascination. Still, she was a baby and love and attention was an important part of her growing up.

That was what Kwon Yuri reasoned out as she dropped her little girl to her most trusted buddy’s doorstep with a wide grin on her face and glinting eyes. She had also lugged a plastic bag of various sweets, pulling one packet after another and dangling it before Taeyeon’s face, knowing very well her weaknesses, before leaving to start off her ultimate plan of wooing the mother of her child.

“It’s good for practice..” Taeyeon muttered wearily, repeating the words Yuri told her when she passed the empty master bedroom a knowing look. “Your umma is really something huh? You can’t believe she just left you like that too, right?”

Yoona made a little gurgling sound, her lips detaching from the bottle’s as she began blabbering baby talk at the mention of her mother. Her hands came together in a clap, wide eyes roaming the vicinity for any one of her mothers.

“Aw… you sweet little thing.” Taeyeon crooned, nudging the rubber to the side of the baby’s lips. Yoona immediately latched, forgetting her search for the time being. Taeyeon felt a little proud in knowing that neat little trick. At least the baby will never go hungry in her watch. “You don’t even know she’s abandoned you here for the night.” Taeyeon sighed, using the collar of Yoona’s jumper to wipe away the milk dribbling down her cheeks.

A toothy grin pulls at Taeyeon’s lips as she watched the small being’s entire attention thrown into her meal. She lowered down to the couch, relaxing the tension of her arms somewhat to relieve the strain but kept a firm hold on the girl. She shivered when Jessica’s nonchalant threats repeated in her mind.

Taeyeon would never admit it to anyone, but there were things that she was afraid of. In human form that is. It was different in her dragon form, there was hardly anything big enough or strong enough to hurt her. Only a face-off with another dragon could have her rethink her actions. With her human flesh, it was a different story.

For example, she was slightly jumpy in and around motorized vehicles. She was sure watching PSA’s with Yuri on the youtube was part of the cause. It mostly had a lot to do with Sooyoung’s less than stellar driving. She was an absolute terror on the road. Taeyeon was adamant at standing by her declaration regardless of Sooyoung's over the top displeasure, she’s been on other cars before and none of the other drivers made her want to throw her body to the ground. She could never forget how her shoulder ached at the point where the seatbelt dug into her skin to prevent her pinging off the interior like a pinball. She had vowed never to step into the metal death trap with Sooyoung behind the wheels ever again, much to the fairy's chagrin.

But what really shot shivers down her spine was a certain witch with her occasionally unlabelled (often times questionable) potions, hexes, and jinx ready to throw at the next person that pissed her off. She peered down curiously at Yoona, gently poking the rosy cheek and catching her wandering eyes.

“I hope you’re more like your umma when you grow up. Your mommy is a little bit scary, you know. But don’t tell them I told you that, or else your umma will never let me live it down.” She poked Yoona’s tummy, starting off a round of delightful giggles. Bottle now forgotten, Yoona mumbled in her baby babble, and Taeyeon laughed at the thought that the little one was trying to sympathise with her.

“If you promise you won’t tell anyone, I’ll tell you why I’m a little afraid of your mother…” She pauses for dramatic effect. It’s not as satisfying as when she does it with the others, the baby doesn’t care much for hanging onto every word and instead started playing with her fingers. Taeyeon grins and gently flicks her finger against the small nose and startles Yoona. She doesn’t cry but stares up at Taeyeon with her big, curious eyes. Taeyeon takes that as her cue to continue.

“Your mommy wasn’t as approachable before as she is now. And she was really unmerciful.” Placing the forgotten bottle beside her she extended her pinky finger, letting Yoona grab the tiny phalange with her whole hand. Taeyeon shakes her finger to get the baby to laugh again.

“You know your mommy used to send me into the forest with your umma to gather items for her. Well, sometimes your mommy sends us with your aunty Hyo and I’m convinced they planned everything. Your aunty Hyo would lead us to the place, and then, when the situation turns against us.. she disappears. Crazy woman was always using us as baits.” Taeyeon thought of the numerous times her skin was put in the line. It doesn’t happen often, but she had noticed that those times occur after they’ve pushed the witch’s patience a little too far. Everyone knew those tasks were their punishments, but no one would actually voice it out, afraid that it might trigger another punishment. It never stopped Yuri from pushing Jessica’s buttons. Those two were a special pair and Taeyeon wasn’t about to question the legitimacy of their bond. That would be highly offensive to Yuri more than Jessica, and Taeyeon did not want to test the werewolf’s patience for her or figure out how sharp her claws really were.

“There was that time she turned your umma to a little dog. And she forgot about her for three days.” She remembered that event really well. Jessica had marched right up to the counter one night, not even sparing her or Yuri a glance. Her eyes were fixated on her cellphone as her thumbs flew over the surface, looking almost like she was casting a complex hex on the item. Her face was pinched and a little red, and when she did put down her phone Taeyeon had noted the redness of her eyes and how her jaws were set so tightly her jowls were visibly quivering.

She passed her a smile and when her lower eyelid twitched Taeyeon knew to keep to her silence. So it came as a shock when Yuri did what she did. Taeyeon couldn’t figure out why Yuri thought it would be funny to dump four sachets of sugar in her drink when Jessica was distracted by a phone call. They both fully knew Jessica liked her coffee without the added sugar after the last prank Yuri pulled on her- or so she claims- and to do that when she wasn’t even in a good mood. When the witch came back, looking a little more frustrated than before, Taeyeon pretended to be busy with her stacking while subtly passing the grinning Yuri worried/panicked looks.

The drink didn’t stay in Jessica’s mouth for long. She spat whatever she had in and calmly set the cup back on the saucer. If glares could kill Taeyeon was sure she’d be murdered ten times over. Her fear for the witch’s retribution, because it was always quid pro quo when it came to Jessica, had her unconsciously turning to Yuri’s way and answered Jessica’s unvoiced question.

Jessica returned the favour, pouring something in Yuri’s drink when she went to the bathroom and then glared at Taeyeon the whole time, daring her to warn the clueless Yuri. Next thing she knew she came home to a small, poofy Pomeranian barking furiously at her. She only found out it was Yuri when the dog started spelling names and nouns out of scrabble pieces she managed to get her paws into. Taeyeon swore the little Pom had actually accidentally swallowed one of the pieces as she was trying to fix them in a line. Yuri never admitted to it, probably never will.

“I’m sure your umma would never forget that. Three days of being completely dependent on other people… by other people, I meant me- deflated a bit of her ego. In a way, something good did come out of that.”

“Oh, there was this one time when your aunty Sooyoung accidentally spilled ketchup your mommy’s shirt right before an important meeting. Your aunty Soo apologised, but it came out a bit rushed and insincere from her panicking, and your mommy didn’t like that in the least.” It really was an accident, and it was only partially Sooyoung’s fault. She was in the middle of devouring her well-earned full breakfast when one of the customers bumped her seat a little too hard. She dropped the ketchup bottle and in her haste to catch it she ended up squeezing the bottle and the accumulated paste at the top exploded, not only on Jessica but on Yuri and Hyoyeon too.

“For days, your aunty Soo kept having small bouts of bad luck, like getting locked out all types of doors, coming up short on change, getting into traffic jams, losing her pens… it almost drove her insane. I swear your mommy had something to do with it.” Sooyoung had suddenly popped into the bar one evening, her eyes bloodshot. The instant she found Jessica relaxing on one of the couches she had rushed over, instantly going on her knees to beg for forgiveness. She was a little over-dramatic about it but the satisfied smirk on Jessica’s face never left Taeyeon’s mind. The next day, when Sooyoung came in all smiles hinted at her that Jessica did in fact have a hand at her string of bad luck. “Eventually she.. apologised and aunty Sooyoung’s bad luck streak stopped.”

There were more incidents that Taeyeon could remember at the top of her head. There was a time Jessica silenced a rude customer who was aggressively bearing down on Taeyeon near the end of her shift. The mortal had suddenly choked on air, coughing violently that his entire face started to turn purple. They were so close to calling the ambulance when the man straightened up, nodded his head and walked away, his embarrassment overcoming his anger. Jessica was hiding her face behind her cellphone, but when their eyes met the witch was grinning.

Another time was when a semi-regular came in after a week of absence. The last time she came in she had spilled coffee all over a table and didn’t bother cleaning up or even tell anyone and continued to chat with her friend. Yuri, who had been a little out of it the whole day, unknowingly stepped on the spill, slipped and hit the back of her head against one of the tables. She had to be taken to the hospital to have her checked for a concussion when she started vomiting. Fortunately (kind of), it turned out that the vomiting had been because Yuri had mindlessly eaten a bad sandwich she had left in her locker for days. She made a full recovery after a night stay at the hospital.

The woman had smile sheepishly when Taeyeon worriedly eyed her arm wrapped in a cast. When Taeyeon asked, she said she had slipped on a puddle of water in her bathroom and landed on her arm the wrong way. Taeyeon had felt the chill running up her spine.

There was also that one time when Yuri had snitched that a female co-worker of hers got into a minor car accident a day after she openly flirted with Yuri with Jessica sitting not too far. Jessica had come in for her first check-up after the whole potion mishap. It had been a one way thing with Yuri sweating nervously, worriedly throwing glances at the stone-faced witch. Jessica had been so sensitive that things she used to scoff at could trigger her jealousy.

It didn’t even stop there.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on who you ask, Yuri took most of the brunt of her jealous rage. Most of it manifested in slaps and outraged yelling or kicking Yuri out to the couch. The few times magik was used Yuri survived with just minor consequences. Taeyeon guesses it was because Jessica didn’t want her child to grow up with one less parent. It could also be because Jessica has a soft spot for the werewolf that kept the woman from completely turning into a frog. Or worse…

Tranation seems to be her favourite. Taeyeon was living proof of that. A once terrifyingly large and majestic creature of the mountains and sky, turned into a puny, weak human. Keeping her in that little body wasn’t a once off thing either. She had to religiously take a carefully crafted potion to prevent her sudden… growth spurt.. A full sized dragon in the compacted area of the city doesn’t sound like an appealing idea. Too troublesome to hide. Making a handful forget is one thing, a hundred pairs of eyes are disastrous plus they had no control over the internet.

Then there was that one time Yuri managed to convince Jessica to turn Taeyeon into a lizard. They had victoriously turned her into a bearded dragon for almost half a day, until she decided to bite Yuri’s finger and chase after her, as best as her stubby legs could at least. Taeyeon hated the feeling of helplessness.

“Your mother is seriously something... Ah... I phrased that wrong.. your mother’s are seriously something.” Taeyeon chuckled at the little tykes sudden fit of giggles and arm movement. She liked to imagine it was Yoona agreeing with her even though she figured babies didn’t have the same level of understanding as adults would. It was nice to have an ally she didn’t need to constantly be on the alert for.

There were a lot of reasons for Taeyeon to fear the witch. But Jessica and her had an unspoken understanding and trusts for each other. So those same reasons also assured Taeyeon that no matter what happens, the witch had her back.