When the Ophidia gave out instructions, they were all too hung over to even sit up straight. Jaejoong collapsed on Yunho’s lap and laid his head down on Yoochun’s to rest his aching back. Yoochun had a Bandage over his ankle and rested it on a bar under the desk. Yunho relaxed his head on Yoochun’s shoulder, and Yoochun leaned over Jaejoong’s back. The Hesper eyed them when he first walked in, then feigned ignorance the rest of the day. They stayed wrapped up together until Junsu and Changmin emerged from the empty hallways.

The Felis purred and rubbed his nose on Jaejoong’s aching back, settling all his weight on Yoochun’s head and Yunho’s thighs. “I have lettuce wraps and rice balls,” he whispered, letting his whiskers tickle the raw skin on Jaejoong’s neck. The closer human, Yoochun, groaned and shoved the Felis’s body onto the desk, shifting the head in his lap into the other’s grasp. Once his padded paws latched onto Jaejoong, he pulled his sleeping human out the classroom like a dead log, lunch left in their Delphinus friend’s hands.

The reaction to Jaejoong was actually worse than the day before. More heads turned, more noses twitched, and more lips were . Many shifted closer and one other had the audacity to reach out for Jaejoong’s feathery black hair. Changmin hissed so hard he had spit dribbling down his chin. The Felis pulled his human further out and behind a tree, mumbling something about needing to mark him again.

As worrying as extra attention was, Yoochun and Yunho were too tired to care that much and they each grabbed a lettuce wrap from the Tupperware Junsu offered. They still had a fairly good view of their two far off friends. Changmin had pulled Jaejoong’s shirt up to his chest and was lapping at his navel angrily. The two humans couldn’t understand how the couldn’t be arousing or annoying. “They’re like little tickles,” Jaejoong had explained once. “His tongue is too dry to really feel and I’m so used to it.” They weren’t really convinced.

But it seemed like Jaejoong didn’t mind today either, and instead hummed gently when Changmin on his fingers, getting a light sticky layer on him. Abruptly Changmin sat up and crawled into Jaejoong’s lap to have their faces leveled. He rubbed the scent pouches in his cheek against Jaejoong’s face and neck, leaving no area untouched. ‘What’s mine is mine, and I’ll be damned if anyone thinks they can have you.’

“Now for the problem area,” the Felis growled, shifting behind the human for better access to the open expanse. Then he saw it. “What the is this? Where did this tattoo come from?” He ignored the two human’s stifled laughter and waited for his to answer.

“Heechul did it last night.” The memory brought a giggle to Jaejoong’s lips as well, and the sound had Changmin giving him one angry defeated on the lips before he sulked against the tree. “It was really a spur of the moment decision.” If there was ever a cuter sight than a pouting Felis, Jaejoong wasn’t sure his heart would survive. As it was, his heart flew into a flurry of affection and he wanted to cuddle the other into oblivion right there.

“It’s not that big anyway.” Not that big, but he planned on going back in a week for the next one. Rosa gave very good tattoos. Their needle pricks didn’t tear up the skin too much and almost never left an infection. The tattoo ink mixed with crushed rose petals from their hair left the ink harmless to the skin, and extremely shiny. More importantly, they didn’t need covering the first day. As long as no one saw the tattoos on his back, Jaejoong could get as many as he wanted.

Changmin’s eyes grew into his wide Felis stare. “'Not that big,’ are you kidding me? The wings take up your entire shoulder region! They are really obvious!”

Jaejoong only laughed one more time before growing alert. “I didn’t get wings tattooed on, only those four words. Min, what are you talking about?” The Felis huffed and drew closer, paw reaching out for the .

“These wings…” and his claw traced the body of the shape. Up his claw drew, and Jaejoong shuddered lightly, across the claw drew, and Jaejoong lurched forward slightly, down the claw drew, and Jaejoong writhed at the tickle. Then the Felis repeated the actions on the other wing and received strong reactions with a pleasing whine. “These wings.” To prove he wasn’t lying, he demanded the human return to the trio. Changmin clung to his lower torso and directed Jaejoong like a blind kitten.

Yoochun had already devoured two lettuce wraps and a whole rice ball, stuffing his face full of a second one at that very moment. “Chunnie! Stop it, wait for them!” Yunho scolded, but his words were ignored. He tried to be the authority figure among the five, one of the oldest, a good head on his shoulders, leader oriented, but the other four had seen just as much as him and knew just as much. Dealing with Yoochun was the worst. He always had that ‘live ‘til I die’ attitude.

Changmin threw Jaejoong onto the floor and sat frankly on his cheeks. He shoved the shirt up, ignoring Jaejoong’s complaints of a broken face and burned elbows. “This wasn’t here last night, right?”

The two humans eyed the faint design in a loss for words. “No, it wasn’t,” Yunho finally spoke out.

Jaejoong rested his head on his propped up hands, huffing at the attention the three were giving him. “At least Junsu has the sense to leave me my personal space, Su?” A head to the side revealed a very troubled Delphinus. “Su, what’s wrong?” The Delphinus was quick to pull his expression together, relaxing the fold in his skin.

“Nothing, just my tummy rumbling. I’m going to eat now.” The rest of Junsu’s actions were brushed off as Jaejoong tried to sit up with the Felis still perched on him. They rolled over each other a few times, Changmin enthusiastically leaping onto Jaejoong’s shoulders when their wrestling concluded.

“Eat,” the Felis purred, receiving a precious rub on the ear from his human.

“Why don’t you ever treat me like that?” Yoochun asked, poking Yunho in the ribs and spraying him with rice.

Yunho brushed the rice off the front of his shirt, eyeing the other questioningly. “Why don’t I sit on your shoulders and beg for you to do everything for me? Well, I don’t really consider you my caregiver.”

Yoochun scoffed. “That is not what I meant –”

“He is not my caregiver! I’m like a therapeutic pet! I calm the nerves and ease the troubles away. And I am a great friend, right Jaejoongie?” Changmin flicked Jaejoong’s ear with his tail, eager for a response.

“Yup,” he mumbled through a wrap. With Changmin, it was easier to just give in to his demands and go with the flow.

After downing a mouthful of water, Yoochun slyly tugged on Changmin’s tale in mocking play. “They have plants like that, y’know. Imagine Heechul gushing out petals every time he wanted attention with the lame excuse of trying to make things prettier.” He faked a gag at the thought, but everyone laughed none the less. The mentioning of Heechul seemed to spark a memory in Yunho’s mind, a dark, confusing memory that he wasn’t even sure really happened. He was too far gone the night before to even count the number of fingers on his hands and they eyes on his face.

“I think Heechul said something about the recent attack on Aves. I’m not really sure, a little too drunk, I guess.”

“You were probably so drunk that you can’t remember what color his petals were.” Yoochun mumbled, and to that Yunho hissed out a ‘white’.

 “He mentioned Aves lying dead on the street with their bodies stripped of all flesh and not a single feather left even floating around.”

The Felis looked up from the lettuce wrap he was rolling around and stared intently at the humans. “Of course the feathers are gone, they make great feather coats. And Aves meat is the most delicious kind!” He crooned into Jaejoong’s feathery hair again, inhaling the very fibers of his head. “Sometimes I think that Jaejoong is some sort of Aves because he smells so good. The Dovius, just imagine if he was a Dovius!” And Junsu squeaked, his normally pale face a sickening red.

“The wings, oh my god sun, the wings!” What’s odd about Junsu’s exclamation isn’t really what he said, but the fact that he spoke up at all. It was sort of an odd occasion for Junsu to find anything of concern since the Delphinus others were pretty well off compared to some others. He’d always hold back and let someone else take charge, or take what he wanted in the case of Jaejoong and Changmin. He settled because he found no need in trying harder when the outcomes weren’t really any better. Be with Jaejoong and want him but not have him, or be near Jaejoong and not want him as much and not need to have him.

“What about the wings?” Jaejoong asked in a gentle husky voice. He fed Junsu whenever he reached out to them, the few instances rare and precious. His friends made their points made because they had the drive to speak out, the strive to live. Junsu had a permanent seat in the back of their harsh ride at life. But also, it seemed like Junsu had actually recalled something more threatening than a Heechul that might sit on his shoulders and prick his head.

“Changmin, how can you not remember, this was one of the first things our teacher told us about when we started!”

“That’s probably why he doesn’t,” Yoochun snickered, deviously stealing the last rice ball, the one that everyone had kindly not eaten for Jaejoong, who hadn’t eaten because of a cat thief perched on him.

“The wings! I was worried, but I couldn’t remember the species that it happened to so I couldn’t be sure.” With all the fear the world held in his eyes, Junsu rubbed his rough dehydrated hands over each other. No matter how he tried to calm down, his voice still grew until he was practically shouting hysterically. “The Dovius! Because they are so endangered, they started to go into hiding and adapted a way to do so. They look human until their prime, and then wings start to darken on their back like ink and finally expand into full wings!”

It all happened so fast. Instantly, Changmin lunged at Junsu at nearly bit off his hand to shut him up. The seed was already planted, and five others twitched their ears and committed important information to memory. Jaejoong was most likely a rare and tasty Dovius!

Yoochun shoved the rice ball in the Delphinus’s mouth and hastily jammed it close. “That is so silly Junsu! Jaejoong got that tattoo last night! Don’t say silly things! Gosh, you’ll get us all killed on day!” It didn’t matter; the others still wanted Jaejoong even if he wasn’t the tastiest of all Aves. Only a crumb of rice lingered on the lid of Tupperware, the last wrap unrolled. Lunch over, the five made a quick retreat out of the courtyard for the protection of their instructors.

“That would explain the back pain,” Yunho whispered when no one else could overhear. “What are we going to do—what is happening will be obvious if anyone sees Jaejoong even flinch!”

“Forget the twitches! This is the last week before our simulations begin! There are going to be countless situations where Jaejoong might end up shirtless. If he is in a different team than us he’ll be eaten right there!” The Felis fretted around, twitching frantically just at the thought of his human really being devoured.

“Simulations are next week?” Even as Yoochun demanded an answer, Yunho started smacking himself on the head, Junsu chewed into his dry lips, and Changmin whipped his eyes across each of them, Jaejoong calmly traced the cement between the bricks with is forefinger.

It made sense now, why Changmin had such a deep obsession with Jaejoong. Why he had difficulty eating meats and why others would not leave him alone. Why his blood drove them all crazy. Why even Heechul had trouble keeping control. It’d be a relief to the Rosa at least; he wasn’t attracted to a human at all. Now he could stop hating Jaejoong and help him.

“You guys were probably sleeping, but—”

 “Well, it’s simple then. I just need to hide to wings with more tattoos. It’s not that big of a deal. I trust that you won’t get me killed and will try to protect me.”

“Jaejoong…” Junsu tried to plead.

“Isn’t this what we have been learning about for the last year? How to save children? What makes me any different? That I am a Dovius? That I am a full grown adult? That I have the skills to protect myself too? If anything, I am as safe as ever.” However, by the end of Jaejoong’s speech, he felt so empty and out of hope despite how much confidence he had before. Not from an eruption of agony but a mental breakdown, the new Dovius crumpled to his knees, slamming the weak joints onto the hard ground and not wincing when it hurt.

There was no weeping moment of ‘Why me? What makes me special?’ because Jaejoong wasn’t special, not in the least. This had happened before—Dovius coming of age, mating, dying, and leaving their clueless children behind. With so few left in the city for these reasons, and so few areas not part of the city, Jaejoong couldn’t even speculate how his odds were. He wanted to be an optimist, he wanted to believe he had no worries, that he’d grow wings and just fly away one day. Fly away to nowhere.

Jaejoong would be hunted for the rest of his life no matter where he fled.

“No use being a girl about it,” he sobbed through tears. “I ha-have to at least try and live, right?”

With painful smiles or reassurance in return, his four friends nodded and pulled him to his feet with a steadying embrace. If anyone had to choose between being a human and a Dovius, human was the way to go. But nobody gets choice in these matters. The blood you’re born with is the blood you take with to death. That’s what the humans from hundreds of years ago learned when they first tired to tame the others that landed on their planet. ‘Use their blood to see if we can cure cancer!’ scientists demanded. ‘Use their blood to make a weapon!’ the military demanded. ‘Use their intelligence to invade their home planets!’ the government demanded.

“Don’t let anyone catch you, Jaejoong,” Junsu whispered into the group’s tight hug. Somebody pet someone’s head, and hands gripped the one beside them. Tears fell into one small pool, evaporating on contact with the cement. Sore knees wobbled, but shielding shoulders held trembling bodies up. Shattered smiles passed around, and a small stiff laugh dissolved into the air.

Somewhere on the north side, hunters hunted for pleasure.

I wanted to update on Christmas, but no, I had company coming over and my room had to be clean. Then blah blah blah, updated my other fics, blah blah blah, finals and extra credit, blah blah blah reading fics, and no inspiration...

My sincerest apologies for this late update. I think it is a little boring since nothing has happened yet. But tell me what you think anyway otherwise it won't get any better.

A Key of the words used

Cheonsa- singular, form of money
cheon- plural, form of money
Felis- cat-like others
Delphinus- dolphin-like others
Ophidia- snake-like others
Hesper- hamster-like others
Canis- dog-like others
Ursus- bear-like others
Rosa- rose-like others (of the plant-like others)
Dovius- dove-like others
Aves- generic name for bird-like others

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