This person had stalked him around the supermarket, magically popped into his car, and now was asking for him to once again spin the car so fast that it could possibly topple over and crush them both.

Oh s no.

“Did you see the way you avoided all those cars as you turned in? And then you managed to park perfectly in between those two cars and—”

Moving his carton of eggs to his left hand, Minseok reached over to the passenger side door with his right, flicked it open, brought up his leg, and stomped it right into the person’s stomach, literally kicking the person out.

“Ow! Hey! That was—”

Minseok shut the door and sped back down the road. With as few trips as possible, he brought his groceries in, locked his door, and groaned into his hands, raking them through his hair.

“Why does the weirdest things keep happening to me?”

“Mreow-ow-ow.”

He looked up and saw the little kitty with one paw at his mouth. And though he started it, Minseok had the sneaking feeling that his stray had actually just been laughing at him just now.

Sighing, he started organizing the groceries. He decided to make some stir-fry noodles for the week and prepped the ingredients. Minseok just strained the noodles when a bag crinkle caught his attention. Peering out the kitchen, he spotted the kitty nosing through the bags he left on the ground and dashed over, scooping them all up.

“Careful. Plastic bags are a choking hazard.”

The cat blinked at him, then snorted, and Minseok watched how he very clearly rolled his eyes at him. Minseok drew back, blinking after the kitty padding into the living room. Just before turning the corner, the cat looked back at him, and one end of his mouth curled up.

Did his stray just smirk at him?

Minseok rubbed his eyes, took a deep breath, and went back to his noodles. He just needed to eat. Yeah, that was why he was seeing things—he was hungry. Finishing the last garnishes, Minseok scooped a bowl for himself and let the rest cool before storing it in the fridge. He also rinsed out the cat food bowls and cleaned the toys and bed before leaving them near the blanket bundle. Turned out that the cat toy he didn’t use as impromptu ammunition was a teaser wand with a fish charm and feathers. He shook it, the plastic jangling, and the kitty poked his head out from under the couch (how did he even fit underneath?). The cat watched the toy bounce before narrowing his amber eyes at him.

“Food’s ready. Come here and eat up.”

With a hiss, the cat ducked back under the bed. Minseok sighed and left the toy and food, hoping that the kitty just preferred eating alone. Minseok didn’t like it, personally, but he didn’t have much choice. He munched on a few bites, trying to hear something other than the sounds of his own chewing. But when the silence started to whine in his ears, he shot up from his chair and took his food.

Slipping out into his garden, Minseok felt the growing knot in his stomach unfurl a little, and he could swallow a few more bites with the buffet of the breeze and distant car rumbles. He couldn’t finish, but the evening sun started to set, so he left the food beside him and watched the gold and pink stream across the sky.

“Mew.”

Looking down at his feet, Minseok saw the cat camouflaged in the shadows, the only indication of its presence from its glowing eyes, like the sunset.

“Do you want to see it too?”

The cat didn’t respond but when Minseok brought him up to sit in his lap, there were no claws. The evening flooded through the kitty’s wide amber eyes, and the golden stripes seemed to flash in sync with the light.

“How beautiful.”

The cat turned his head to him, his eyes widening a little more, and Minseok chanced a soft rub behind the ears. The cat didn’t protest, just turned back to the horizon. When the twilight darkened into night, Minseok yawned and shifted to leave the kitty on the bed. He gathered his leftover food, checking it for bugs, wrapped it, and put it back in his fridge. Poking his head into the living room, he saw the food and water bowl empty and smiled to himself. With another yawn, Minseok moved to brush his teeth and change. He could normally work well past midnight, but now his eyes were falling close on him, and the ache in his back started to throb.

Moving back to his garden, Minseok let his eyes adjust and saw the kitty still watching the horizon. He didn’t turn to look at Minseok when he sat down, and he didn’t scratch at him when Minseok shifted the kitty onto his stomach as he laid down.

“You can leave if you want. The garden, the house. You can leave, and I won’t stop you.” He chuckled, but even he could tell that the ends of it twisted bitterly. “I don’t have that right.”

The kitty didn’t reply, only watched him. Minseok lifted a hand and drew long pats across his black fur, rubbing the kitty’s cheek every now and then until the drowsiness closed his eyes.

~~~~~

Chen stared at the sleeping human. Something about him was strange, even more so than the usual strangeness of humans. First was the demonic aura that flared and died around his person. The power when flared barely equated to the lowest ranking of demons, but still, it felt stable, so the power couldn’t have been from a brush with another demon.

Second, although he had initially found the human’s misery funny, he basically said that ‘weird’ things kept happening to him. The work of demons and angels happened out of human sight. They couldn’t sense auras, and most missions happened either at night or away from the heavily populated areas. The human’s definition of ‘weird’ could have been something ordinary, but the scent of his fear had been real, so Chen couldn’t count out careless demons killing ghouls or something in front of the human. He had to make note of it in case they had to erase his memory later.

Third… every time the human would pet him, Chen felt his strength return. Specifically, the traces of ice blocking his healing that the ard left in him would melt, and it was just before the human fell asleep that Chen felt the magic absorb into the human, the aura flaring out again. That definitely shouldn’t have been possible. Magic clung to humans, but the wisps didn’t passively meld into auras unless the element was the same as the demon’s or angel’s—although there was one other possibility, and if that was the case, he would have a fun time listening to some screams as he eradicated the mark from this human, Kim Minseok.

Chen had figured out his name after checking out his bedroom—old photo frames of people who looked like him laid scattered in his bottom drawer dresser, and names had been inscribed there. There was one of just Kim Minseok looking back at the camera, a lake reflecting the cloudy mountains behind him, smiling. That picture was actually the only one of him. The rest were always of the same three others. Chen couldn’t smell any others who lived in the house though, just a few fading scents of visitors.

Not that he cared. He just needed to find out where he was, why auras reacted weirdly around this human (he didn’t even have a guardian angel so that possibility was out), and how to escape and contact his team.

Now that he was outside, he could scale down the mortar and ivy that grew from this human’s habit of keeping plants. Even if he was in his weakest form, his body still beat a regular housecat’s in physical capabilities. But also, if just by this human’s touch, the ice magic melted away from him, then maybe Chen should stay until he was ice-free. A few more days, and the last of it should have been gone.

He looked back at the human, Kim Minseok. He seemed like a boring one—he just bought stuff, cooked, and knocked out, but he was also perceptive. Or maybe nosy. He bought cat supplies, acted as Chen’s elevator without him having to meow to get his attention, let him watch the sunset when yes, Chen wanted to see it. The fires of purgatory glowing against the permanent night sky didn’t have the multicolors that earth had. All it had was red and the screams of souls, which was fine but got boring after a century.

In that regard, he saw why Kim Minseok would keep the many plants and put a bed out here. Falling asleep to the sunset was appealing, and that thought led Chen to the words the human had said before falling asleep.

Beautiful. The human had called Chen beautiful.

And Chen could assume so since he was looking at him when he said it.

Of course, he would be gorgeous! Even in his weakest form, his good looks would do him justice, and at least this human had the eye to appreciate it. But the compliment just soured for Chen when he smelled sadness tint Kim Minseok’s scent. Humans felt sad way too often. Although if he had to be as weak as a human, he would have been in despair too.

This human seemed to have other reasons for his sadness though. Using his brilliant deduction skills, Chen figured that Kim Minseok was sad because he knew that Chen would have to leave and he was powerless to stop it. His presence alone made everything ten times better, and the human would feel like something was missing once he was gone.

Chen was a demon, but he knew how to give gratitude too, and because this Kim Minseok treated his kitty self so well, he would grant him his company for a little while longer.

~~~~~

Minseok reached for his phone when it dinged again. He and Luhan had kept a lively conversation starting this morning, and he laughed at the professor’s sticker response: one of the cartoon mascots of the app’s soul floating out of her body. He sent a sticker of a character comforting another and teased for the professor to find a T.A if he was so swamped. He set his phone down because he usually had an hour between texts, but the next ding came just as he did.

Minseok waited a bit, but no reply came. Luhan probably did that on purpose, and he pouted that he had been duped. Turning back to his work, Minseok wondered if his stray would even like a pet park or being held that long. Last night was probably an exception since the sunset had been present to distract him.

Thinking about it, Minseok realized how smart his little kitty really was. Smart and sassy. The little reactions he would seem to make to Minseok’s words or clumsiness—lip curls of smirks whenever Minseok accidentally hurt himself, glares when he tried to get close, huffs when they spoke—always happened in perfect timing to the moment. If the small cat could react to what he said than the cat would likely understand if Minseok explained the concept of a pet park, right?

He sighed. He knew that he would do this. Worry squeezed his heart, and then guilt would follow. Didn’t he say that he wouldn’t stop the cat from leaving? He even told it directly to the kitty, and if he was as smart as Minseok thought then he needed to emotionally prepare himself.

Sighing again, Minseok gave himself a few more tasks, filing and phone calls, before calling it a day. On his way to clock out, he peeked into the Lounge and found Yixing with his back to him. Minseok opened his mouth to greet him and maybe confide in him about his attachment to the stray, but his friend’s sharp intake of breath made him hold his own.

“Why are you only telling me this now? I could’ve alerted everyone sooner. Because this is not just the work of a regular mark. Disappeared under a veil? Wait, he shoved you out where? …That’s near m… my friend’s house—”

He suddenly straightened and turned around, his eyes widening. Minseok jumped a bit and tried to come up with a good explanation as to why he was eavesdropping, but Yixing didn’t let him. His friend marched right up to him and gripped his shoulder. He narrowed his eyes at where he gripped Minseok and cursed, turning back to his phone.

“Abort the secondary hunt. Do not engage with the proxy. Yes, he’s a proxy.” Yixing grit his teeth. “ing hells, Kai, just do as I say.”

He hung up, slid his hand to Minseok’s wrist, and started pulling him down the hall, and Minseok let him for most of the way because he was still in shock at hearing his gentle friend curse at someone. He finally snapped out of his daze after Yixing clocked them both out and pulled him in the direction of Minseok’s car.

“Wait, Yixing—”

“Take me to your house.”

“Okay, but—”

“Is your cat still there?”

Minseok swallowed the lump of fear growing in his throat.

“Yixing, why do you want to go to my house so badly?”

“Because there are too many pieces missing, and I need to protect you.”

“Protect me from what? My cat?”

He meant it as a joke, but when Yixing didn’t reply, dread dropped into his stomach. When they got to his car, Yixing let go of him and sighed.

“I can’t tell you everything until I know what’s happening too. I’ll explain what I can.”

Minseok rubbed at his arms, unsure. He trusted his friend, and to see him this distressed made Minseok want to comply, anything for him to return to his smiling self. But what if his little cat got caught in the crossfire? He couldn’t be the cause, direct or indirect, that hurt someone. Not again.

“Yixing, what will you do once you get there?”

His friend locked gazes with him, and for the first time since Minseok met him, Yixing’s eyes hardened.

“Whatever it takes to protect you.”

Biting his lip, Minseok unlocked the doors. The silence permeated the air of the car, and when the storm of thoughts gathered in his mind, Minseok couldn’t take it anymore.

“You said you would explain.”

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