A/N: for reference, Jiyong is about the size of a Barbie doll; he’s around a foot tall.

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Seunghyun had just put on the kettle for tea when he heard a sharp rapping at his kitchen window. With a giddy smile he popped the lock, and the panes separated with a squeak. A moment later, Jiyong stuck his pink-and-blue head inside and waved at him.

“I know you said to knock at your bedroom window, but I saw you in here, so…” he trailed, peering curiously at the pot on the stove. He slipped inside the kitchen and flew over the sink. Seunghyun watched him pass, noting he was wearing something shiny around his neck; something gold that dangled and jingled against his bare chest. It wasn’t until the fairy reached out to touch the kettle that the human snapped back to his senses.

“Don’t touch that!” he blurted.

As was his habit, he unthinkingly rushed forward and closed his hands around Jiyong, jerking him bodily away from the stove. The fairy ‘eep’ed as Seunghyun’s fingers wrapped themselves around his wings and chest and pulled him a ‘safe’ distance away.

“Hey!” Jiyong whined, kicking his legs. “You’re pulling my skirt up!”

Seunghyun looked down and gasped. Sure enough, his pinkie had slid the fairy’s little skirt up even higher than it already was. He spied a tiny cheek, and felt blood rush to his face. Holding his hands, and thus Jiyong, as far away from his body as possible, he slowly made his way to the kitchen table and sat the fairy down onto it.

“Sorry,” he muttered, looking away as Jiyong readjusted himself. “I just didn’t want you to hurt yourself. That’s very hot; it would have burnt you.”

“What is it?” Jiyong asked, hopping back up into the air again. Apparently he was much less embarrassed about his near- than Seunghyun had been.

“It’s a kettle,” he explained. “I’m boiling water for tea. Would you like some?”

“Is it nettle tea?” Jiyong inquired, wrinkling his nose in distaste.

Seunghyun laughed. “No, it isn’t nettle tea,” he reassured him. “It’s just regular old black tea.”  Jiyong blinked at him, clearly not understanding what ‘regular old black tea’ was. “You’ll like it, I promise.”

Ten minutes later he poured a dropper-full of sweetened, creamy tea into a decorative ceramic thimble he kept in his sewing kit. It made the perfect mug for Jiyong. The little man blew across the top of the steaming liquid, and Seunghyun sat at the table with his own cup of tea, chin propped in his upturned palm as he watched the fairy with rapt attention. Jiyong raised a pink eyebrow at him in silent question.

“Oh, sorry,” he said, taking a sip of his tea. “I just want to know how you like it.”

Jiyong sniffed at the off-white liquid in his makeshift mug. “It smells… strange,” he admitted. Then he stuck his little tongue into the thimble like a butterfly tasting nectar, and his eyes went wide.

“Oh, it’s sweet!”

Seunghyun chuckled as he drank his own tea. “Do you like it?”

“Yes, very much!” Jiyong beamed, tilting the thimble up and back. When he pulled it away a minute later, he had a milky mustache painting his upper lip. Seunghyun tore off the corner of a napkin and handed it to him, pointing at the space just under his own nose. Jiyong blushed and snatched the paper from him, dabbing at his messy face daintily. “Thank you,” he murmured.

“Would you like another cup?”

Jiyong sat his thimble on the table and pushed it toward Seunghyun, smiling. “Yes, please.”

They chatted over their second cups of tea, talking mostly about the things Jiyong had found in Seunghyun’s collection of papers. He was particularly interested in the murder mystery that had been stuffed into one of the shelves next to the typewriter. Seunghyun had to explain the concept of murder to him, as there was apparently no such thing in the fairy community. Jiyong almost broke down into tears when Seunghyun told him murder was killing out of anger, or hatred, or a simple desire to watch another being suffer.

“B-but why would someone do that?” he asked, chin quivering. “This… murder… it only exists in your stories, right?”

Seunghyun shook his head slowly. “Unfortunately, no.”

“But it’s so horrible! And people read about it for entertainment?”

“It’s a pretty popular genre, yes.”

The fairy sniffled, clearly upset. “That’s awful. I can’t imagine taking pleasure from the suffering of another living thing.”

“The pleasure from reading murder mysteries usually comes from the murderer being caught by a clever detective, and then being punished for his or her crimes. Most people don’t read those kinds of novels for the murder itself, Jiyong.” But his reassurances fell on deaf ears as the fairy patted at his eyes with his bit of napkin and shook his head.

“Humans are such strange creatures,” he sighed, finishing off his tea.

Seunghyun burst out laughing. Jiyong stood, hands on his hips, and glared at him.

“Well, you are!” he insisted, stomping his little foot. “You’re big, and noisy, and you like strange things, and… and you smell!”

“This, coming from a fairy?” Seunghyun snickered. “You’re tiny, and sneaky, and you’re wearing a lady’s bracelet around your neck. I bet you stole that from some poor woman while she slept, just like you stole my poem,” he accused, grinning to show that he was only teasing.

Jiyong huffed, hands coming up to the shiny bit of gold on his torso. He the thing gently, then pouted up at Seunghyun. “I’ll have you know my great-grandmother borrowed this from the people who built this house.”

“Oh, we’re calling it borrowing now, are we?” the bigger man chuckled. “My great-grandparents built this house. So your great-grandmother took this from my great-grandmother. I suppose that technically makes it mine,” he sighed, resting his chin on the edge of the table and looking pointedly at the gold trinket Jiyong was fondling lovingly. The fairy looked down into Seunghyun’s eyes, and puckered his lips.

“No way. This has been in my family longer than yours now; it’s mine, fair and square. Plus, like I said yesterday: finders, keepers!”

“Well, I guess you’re right,” Seunghyun said, sighing melodramatically and reaching out slowly with his hand. “Besides, I think this looks better on you than it would on me.” He lifted the bottom of the thin, gold links with the edge of his finger, then let them fall back onto Jiyong’s chest with a clink. When he looked up to smile at him, the little fairy’s face was as red as a cherry tomato.

Now he was sure Jiyong had a crush on him. But just to make things awkward, as was his wont, he decided to ask.

“Jiyong, do you… are you blushing?”

The fairy put a hand to his red face and sighed. “Maybe. And what if I am?” he asked, grabbing his empty thimble/mug and flying with it over to the sink. He dropped it into the left side, where several other dirty dishes had already been piled, and then turned back to Seunghyun, wringing his hands. “I… I think you’re handsome. It’s natural to blush when someone you find handsome touches you.” He flicked his multi-colored hair out of his blue eyes and looked defiantly at Seunghyun.

“I’m flattered, Jiyong, really,” Seunghyun admitted, leaning back in his chair, “but I don’t think it would work out between us.”

Jiyong frowned, then lowered his head. “I don’t understand what you mean by that.”

Seunghyun stood to his full height, nearly six feet, and towered over Jiyong. “I mean, besides the fact that you’re a fairy, and I’m a human,” he reached out and lifted Jiyong’s chin, “you’re also a foot tall.”

“Well, that’s a silly reason,” Jiyong pouted.

He shot across the room, into the open doorway between the kitchen and the hallway, and hovered, wings flapping so fast they were just a rainbow-colored blur. Gently, he unhooked the golden chain from around his neck, and held it in his hand.

“Watch,” he grinned.

There was a bright flash of light. Seunghyun threw his hands over his eyes and yelled in shock. A second later, someone was grabbing his wrists, wrenching them away from his face, and he shrieked again. But then he stopped struggling, and looked at what, or who, was manhandling him.

Jiyong. Still several inches shorter than him, but man-sized. He shook his pink and blue hair out of his face and batted pink eyelashes up at the stunned writer. His blue eyes sparkled with barely-contained glee.

“I bet you didn’t know I could do that, did you?”

Seunghyun could only stare as the fairy (who still had wings and, somehow, his tiny grass skirt) twirled around in his kitchen, laughing.