Not only was Luhan’s car fancy, but his apartment was also fancy. Just walking into the lobby blinded Minseok because the tiles and walls glittered from the rows of lights and chandelier above. The receptionist and security guard glared at him throughout the entire time he was being ID-ed, and Minseok didn’t have to look down into his arms to know that kitty-Chen was shooting glares back. As far as Minseok knew though, pets were allowed, so he bid the receptionist a good day and hurried to the elevators, pushing in Luhan’s floor.

The professor lived pretty high up, and he was alone on the elevator, so Minseok took the chance to soothe Chen with a few back rubs.

“Put away your hackles, Chen. They were just doing their job.”

He lashed his tail as he glared up at Minseok next.

“Hey, you were the one who said to hang out with Luhan more so that Tao wouldn’t be as lonely. Luhan said yes despite being busy with pioneering the internship program and finals, and me going to his apartment was the compromise.”

The cat-demon rolled his eyes and turned his head away.

“Well, if you didn’t want to be a cute little kitty, then you could’ve brought me here through a hell port and dropped me off so that Tao could guard me.”

Whipping his head back to Minseok, Chen twisted in his hold and started scratching at his shirt. The elevator dinged, so Minseok stepped out with a physical hissy fit in his arms.

“Woah! Hey, watch the claws! I was just joking about Tao guarding me! He probably has enough on his plate with Luhan and the demon doggie.”

Chen halted and sank down, his tail limp, all fight gone. A bit of panic spiked through Minseok.

“Chen, what’s wrong?”

The demon-kitty kept burying himself deeper into Minseok’s arms, so he gently manhandled the cat until Chen could only look up at him.

“Hey, what did I say to upset you?”

Chen turned his head away, and if he could shrink from his already small size, Minseok felt that the demon would’ve done so. Minseok thought back through what he said, and epiphany lit in his mind. He hesitated because his thought didn’t seem like something that the demon would worry about but…

“Were you upset that I said that Tao would be burdened but didn’t say anything about you?”

His amber eyes widened, and he practically curled in on himself. Minseok couldn’t hold back his coo at how squishily jealous Chen could be in this form.

“I’m sorry, okay? You’re my guard, and I’m very lucky to have your protection. Don’t be jealous.”

Chen narrowed his eyes at him even as his tail curled to hold his forearm, and Minseok almost exploded from the cuteness overload when the kitty-demon rolled around to give his wrist a soft nip.

“And yes, I’m your prey.”

He relaxed in his arms after that, and Minseok held back a squeal. Some noise came out of him anyway, but he didn’t really recognize it until another noise, a throat clear, cut it short.

“Am I interrupting something?” Luhan said.

Minseok coughed and cleared his own throat as the professor eyed him with some friendly-fire judgement.

“Uh, I was just reassuring my cat.”

“Yeah, I heard,” he chuckled as he led the way down the corridor. “He seems really smart. He always responds immediately to what you say.”

“Uh, must be our great connection.”

Luhan hummed and opened his apartment door. Tao stood in the foyer and smiled and waved at them. Minseok sent him a greeting smile back when Luhan wasn’t looking.

“Make yourself at home. I’ll make coffee.”

As the professor yawned and trudged to the kitchen, Minseok kicked off his shoes, following Tao into the living room. The guardian angel had his wings tucked away and was wearing the shirt Minseok bought him, and once they sat, he gave Tao a grin.

“The shirt fit okay?” he whispered.

Tao lit up before giving a small laugh, covering his face.

“Yes, thank you.”

As they waited, Minseok made a discreet glance around.

“Where’s the doggie?”

“Ah, Vivia. Chen and I decided to leave her with Sehun.”

Okay, he missed something from that statement. A lot of somethings.

“How did you and Chen… Wait, who’s Sehun?”

“The person Luhan likes. Oh, he described him to you as the transfer student. He was one of your teammate’s marks, and Chen and I ran into each other while visiting him. Vivia wanted an owner, and Sehun was leaning towards the dark, so Chen told her to stay with him.”

“Leaning towards the dark?”

“He was suicidal.”

“He… was thinking of ending his life.”

Minseok stilled. The content of that information dropped all playfulness in the air, but another fact registered in his head. He looked down at Chen. The cat-demon just raised an eyebrow.

“Oh. That… .” There wasn’t really another way he knew how to describe that.

“He is doing better though. Last time I saw him, Vivia is helping him see happiness in his life. She followed him to Luhan’s class one time, and he ended up opening up to him. I could tell that he was happy.”

Tao laughed, and Minseok put away his questions about his internal cat translation for a moment as he noticed the way the guardian angel sprawled comfortably against the plush seat, how he played with the edges of his shirt.

“You too?”

The angel paused and looked at him.

“What?”

“Is it a little easier to see happiness in your life?”

Tao stared at him, frozen. Minseok felt that the angel might’ve answered if there wasn’t a small clink on the coffee table.

“Are you asking me, your cat, or the air?”

He turned and saw Luhan sip at his own mug, the crispness of coffee filling the air. Minseok glanced at Tao, who pulled his limbs back in a stiff sitting position. He pouted a little at that.

“Asking a friend. He’s invisible, but very much there and has a right to his own happiness.”

Luhan looked a little surprised, and so did Tao. A second later though, a glow radiated out of the angel.

“Hm, Tao’s happy. Ugh, now I gotta switch sides.”

Minseok nearly choked on his coffee as Chen meowed and started moving from Minseok’s right thigh to the left of his hip. He wasn’t supposed to understand animals, right? And he knew from experience that cat-Chen couldn’t speak like usual so then how—

“I’m not going to ask because it seems private, but I wish your friend luck. I have to grade some papers, but you can watch T.V or whatever if you want. Ah, darn it, I forgot that I have laundry.”

“Ooh, I’ll do your laundry.”

All three entities paused and looked at him.

“Did you just offer—with enthusiasm—to do my laundry?”

“Folding it? Yeah. Cleaning and doing chores are therapeutic.”

Luhan let out a laugh, almost spilling his coffee as he set it down.

“Of all the strange things I’ve ever encountered, that is high up on the list. And trust me, I’ve encountered a lot of strange things. Are you sure?”

“Yeah, bring it on, Lu.”

Shrugging, the professor stood to show him the laundry room, and Minseok took the dry load to fold on the couch. Luhan sat on the ground as he graded papers, Chen watched Minseok from the armrest, and Tao leaned back into his chair. Luhan, Minseok found out, had colorful pajamas, mostly muted and dark colors for his more professional pieces, and only plain white bedsheets.

Primly tucking in corners and straightening seams, Minseok lost track of time and other thoughts as he folded the fabrics, set the washer, got the next dryer load, and folded those. The only time he paused was to drink a swig of coffee and when Chen walked over all the piles of clothes to nestle next to him. The lifting squeeze in his chest made him pause and reach for his coffee again.

At one point, Minseok started ironing and steaming Luhan’s professional wear, which reminded him of having to get something for Chen for when they go to the WCA party. He sighed.

“Hey, Minseok, you don’t have to go that far for my laundry. I mean, I still can’t believe that you actually did two loads already.”

“I really don’t mind doing your clothes. I just remembered something.”

“Is it a bad something?”

“Not exactly.” He sighed again at the three pairs of eyes staring at him. “I have a business party to attend to in the winter, and I and my plus one need clothes for it.”

“I can recommend you some places. If you use my name, you could probably get a discount too.”

“Just how rich are you?”

Minseok meant it as a playful jab, but then the professor shifted his gaze to the side.

“Uhm, uncomfortably rich, if you can believe that.”

“Like?”

Luhan sighed and pushed away his laptop.

“Well, my family is probably rich enough to buy all the towers in the world seven times over.”

Minseok put the iron down, careful of the heat, turned it off, before coming around the iron table to wheeze on his hands and knees.

“Seven times— That’s a lot of money.”

“Yeah. I don’t use their money though. Everything I spend, I had earned myself.”

Minseok nodded and sat next to Luhan on the ground.

“Well, considering you’re a professor at a prestigious university, it’s no wonder that you know all the fancy tailors. I heard that tailormade suits are a lot more flattering on your person.”

Mniseok reached over for his coffee, taking a sip. Luhan didn’t reply, so he glanced over. Luhan looked at him like he couldn’t believe what he just heard.

“How’d… you know that I get my suits tailormade?”

“I was taking care of them,” Minseok chuckled. “There aren’t any tags, and they’re fit to your shape.”

“How can you tell?”

“I have a pretty good eye. Oh, it might be from having to buy my brother clothes. He wasn’t always there when I got them at stores.”

A little swipe to the top of his head made him turn around, and as soon as he did, Chen pressed his cheek to Minseok’s, purring. The action heated him up, shooting puffs of heat straight from his face to his brain, and something squeezed delightfully in his chest. He was very aware of how he basically turned into a statue as the cat-demon laid his head on his left shoulder, curled around his neck, tail laid over his right.

“You didn’t say what I thought you were going to say.”

Minseok blinked a few times before Luhan’s face and tone took note in his mind. The professor had breathed relief under his words.

“Why? What else is there to say?”

“Stuff like, ‘Why don’t you use your family’s money?’ or ‘What’d they do to get so rich?’ or even ‘Are in a whole different country because you’re running away from them?’”

“Okay, first of all, my voice isn’t that ridiculous. Second, you said ‘uncomfortably.’ I can guess that it’s a not a nice topic for you. I’m not going to press it if you don’t want to.”

For a moment, Luhan didn’t say anything. And it was in that moment that Minseok saw the way his eyes hardened, cut of all emotion. They seemed to calculate the slightest shifts in his body, judging the hues in his tone and words. Then he chuckled, and his gaze softened, flooded with friendship, and if Minseok wasn't wrong, relief.

“Anyone ever tell you that you always ask the weird questions?”

“Hmm, I’ve had a few friends say that I asked interesting questions. And another told me that I ask stupid ones, but that was because he’s a grumpy kitty.”

He snickered as Chen rolled his eyes. Luhan just laughed.

“Alright, fair enough. Thanks. I’m serious about the discount though if you need it.”

“A discount is always appreciated.”

“Then how about three weeks from now? Mid-terms and grading them will be over by then. We can go together.”

Leaning in to look at each other’s calendars, they agreed on a date and time, Luhan promising to let him know early if he needs to change it, and Minseok assuring that he would let his coworker know. A growl in Minseok’s ear made him pull back and look straight into narrowed amber slits.

“It sounds like your living neck warmer is cranky,” the professor chuckled.

Chen whipped his little kitty head to glare at Luhan next. He hissed and shifted his head to Minseok’s other shoulder so that he could almost lash his tail at Luhan.

“Dae, what’s up with you?”

“Is he hungry?”

“You’re too close to him. And I don’t want to be smelling the blessed one. He smells like lemons on holy light, blegh.”

“Does holy light even have a smell?”

Three pairs of eyes widened at him before his own did. He grabbed Chen off his shoulder, shot up, and scrambled towards the bathroom.

“Uh, I need to talk with my cat. You know, hourly reassurrings since he used to live on the streets and part of the daily maintenance of a living neck warmer.”

Luhan barely got a wave in before Minseok shut the bathroom door, flicked on the fan, and set Chen down next to the sink. He gripped his head then his face and let out the quietest scream that he could.

“You understood what I said?”

“Urgh. Yes! I’ve been able to understand you since—OH MY GO—”

Chen slapped a hand over his mouth, and the force pushed Minseok backwards into the wall. He flinched, but the pain he thought he would feel didn’t light in his brain. Maybe it was more shock than actual pain, but Chen snatched his hand back, backing away.

“I—I didn’t mean to—”

“No, it’s fine. It didn’t hurt. I was just kinda surprised—” Minseok looked down and pirouetted his face into the wall. “Uh, I’m just going to talk to you like this.”

A pause held the air, but a hand creeping up under the back of Minseok’s shirt snapped him out of the hope that Chen didn’t see that he saw a very demon. Warmth settled over his clothed back and clutched around his bare waist, and what little vision Minseok had outside of the wall was filled with the curve of Chen’s cheeks and smile.

“You smell flustered. Is it because you like what you see?”

“We—we should get back to the matter at hand.”

“Mm, would you like it by hand?”

Minseok’s mind blanked so hard that he stopped breathing. The only thing he could comprehend was the glow of amber in Chen’s eyes, and then a glowy presence from the right.

“Please restrict that kind of activity to your own bedrooms and bathrooms.”

Chen rolled his eyes but leaned back, so Minseok remembered to breathe and looked to his right. Tao stood with his arms crossed, completely unaffected by the demon.

Wait, didn’t he just say—

“We weren’t doing anything!”

“Hmph, not anymore.”

“Minseok, did you understand Chen in his animal form?”

“Uhm, yeah. It was kinda inconsistent since that time with the first angel, but today I’ve been able to understand Chen if he says something while a cat.”

“Have you been able to understand any other animal? Or other cats?”

“No, and no, but there are only birds and squirrels in the city, and I haven’t been around any other cats.”

“Perhaps you should visit a shelter and see. Ooh, or the zoo. There is a wide variety of animals there. Because you are a proxy, maybe your animal form is manifesting sooner than it would for a heaven or hell born.”

Minseok felt the hem of his shirt lift and spun around, plastering his back to the wall. But that just gave him a full view of a Chen, and he pirouetted again. He shut his eyes and cursed when Chen’s body flashed lavishly under his eyelids.

“I was just going to look at your proxy sign. I just remembered that we haven’t checked on it in a while, and it’s probably better if we do.”

Minseok paused. Chen sounded… weirdly pragmatic but also gentle. To make sure that he wasn’t hallucinating, he glanced at the demon and found no trace of sneer or mockery or tease. Just an encouraging look and small smile. That just made Minseok heat up even more for some reason, so he pulled his shirt over his head enough to expose his back. A tongue clicked behind him.

“Why the hells is it so advanced?”

“I’m assuming it’s because Minseok has drawn on demonic powers lately without actually training them. He did not expand his capacity but borrowed power from hell that is normally beyond his current level, and that has told the mark that that amount is all the power he’ll need.”

“Does basic soul connection apply to proxies?”

“I can only assume so.”

“Okay, then the fight with the first angel. But what does Hayong have to gain from his transformation?”

“I’m not sure. Perhaps ask your coordinator. But for Minseok, I think it’s best if he hurries to gain the body of a demon, if what your coordinator said is true. He seems to know a lot about proxies.”

“Yeah, it’s annoying but also useful.”

“What does it look like?” Minseok asked.

A hand slipped into his pocket, but finding it empty, grabbed his shoulders instead. The warmth left his back completely, and Minseok had to fight a pout.

“Look in the mirror.”

Craning his neck around, he saw the snowflake symbol but not the same one as before. The six points were now eight, and almost all of the spikes were shaded with depth and adorned with circles. The fractals had lessened somewhat but etched longer, and of the two outside circles, one was fully filled, the other half inked. Offhandedly, he noticed that Chen had hid behind a cabinet, out of the mirror’s frame. Consciously, he decided to ignore the gush of appreciation that Chen moved for him for the matter at hand.

“When the two circles are fully filled, does that mean I’ll be a full demon then?”

“Probably. Yixing said that there was another condition that needed to be fulfilled on time or else something might happen.”

“What kind of something?”

“I don’t know. He wouldn’t say.”

“Wouldn’t? Not couldn’t?”

Chen shrugged.

“Yixing is weird and doesn’t hide that he has secrets. He said that he wouldn’t tell us because he didn’t want to give uncertain or false information. He didn’t tell us the condition either.”

“Perhaps you can ask him this time since Minseok’s sign as advanced so much.”

“Yeah. Where’d you say to go? The zoo? Okay, finish ironing the clothes so we can go.”

“Wha— Right now? Go right now?”

“Yes. You heard both our evaluations. Let’s go.”

Chen moved for the door, and luckily for Minseok’s sanity, Tao blocked the door and covered Minseok’s eyes with his wings.

“You ne