It pounded on the windows and asked for entrance, but Jaejoong could only shake his head and tell the rain they weren’t welcome in his home. Flood his sheets? Not going to happen. So the lighting tried to scare him and the thunder tried to punish him, cutting off electricity in rolling blackouts and shaking his room until he was sure the walls would fall in, but Jaejoong knew he was safe wrapped in the binding protection of his comforter.

Pounding and pounding and shaking and shaking until it was Jaejoong’s head pounding and pounding and his body shaking and shaking and his screams thundering and thundering and his tears wetting his pillows. It hurt so much.

“Shh, Jae, it’s okay.” But Junsu’s comforting words couldn’t take the pain away.

As if the revelation of Jaejoong’s condition had altered the state of Jaejoong’s being, his back had started morphing into a peculiar alien shape. His shoulder blades poked out and the rest of his back caved in. The transitioning pain was excruciating.

Changmin scratched at the door whenever he sensed Jaejoong’s discomfort—he had been scratching for the last four hours straight. When Jaejoong recovered, he was going to declaw that pesky Felis for ruining his walls. The two humans (because Jaejoong clearly wasn’t human) were fooling around in Jaejoong’s kitchen. Used to cooking dinner together, they had taken it upon themselves to make a meal worthy of the five friends. Inevitably, Yunho had been seated at the kitchen table and Yoochun was flitting around the kitchen like a girlfriend baking for her beloved for the first time.

The plan had been to dump Jae off in his bed and research his condition, but the rolling blackouts and loss of signal hampered with that idea. Plus, Jaejoong could not last five minutes by himself before the shooting pain caused him to scream bloody murder and only a soothing touch to his back could ease it. Their little team had barely gotten “Dovius” into a search engine before service to the government database was cut off. So far all they knew was that Dovius were rare others that almost never came out in public because of their high mortality rate.

Left without any research possibilities, Yunho fanned himself in the heat and Yoochun made simple sandwiches from lantern light. Changmin continued to pout on the outside of Jaejoong’s door and Jaejoong continued to sweat his skin off. Junsu observed it all.

In the heat of the night, everyone suffered. Junsu’s skin was starting to shrivel up from the dry insides of the apartment, Changmin was panicking like a claustrophobic dog, and the two humans were hungry for a real meal. The whole ordeal was very stifling, and their moving scene from earlier in the afternoon was the last thing on their minds. How could they protect Jaejoong when they didn’t even know what they were facing?

How soon until Jaejoong completely changed? Would he be severely injured—could he die? Should he run away? Where could he run to?

“Would you like me to get you anything, Jaejoong?” Junsu whispered into the darkness of the room.

The reaction was instantaneous. Jaejoong stopped thrashing and slowly rolled around to face Junsu. In the low lighting of flashing lightning Junsu could barely make out the haggard look on Jaejoong’s face. It seemed he had aged ten years in the last few hours.

With a raspy voice escaping his cracked lips, Jaejoong uttered barely legible words. “Hee-Hee-Heechul.”

Junsu wheeled the desk chair over to Jaejoong’s side and swiped his sweaty bangs out of his face. “Aw, sorry baby Jae, but this storm is too strong for anyone to get through. Heechul is a delicate flower, he definitely wouldn’t make it.” He continued to Jaejoong’s face to ease any spike of agony that might surface.

Sluggishly, the Dovius shook his head and raised his finger, smacking it on Junsu’s thigh in a pitiful attempt to get his attention. “You go.”

It really was suicidal to go out in the current storm, even for a Delphinus, but if the princess demanded it, he would have to comply. Junsu brushed away some more invisible hairs and then stood up and headed to the door, leaving the dark room and suffering boy behind.

As soon as the door was opened, Changmin rushed in and cuddled up to Jaejoong. Despite the pain he was enduring, Jaejoong wrapped his arms around the Felis and let his body relax him. No one questioned as the Delphinus walked out into the pouring rain and disappeared. Not until nearly an hour later did anyone even notice.

Yoochun and Yunho were snuggled up on the couch, half asleep at this point, when Changmin crawled out Jaejoong’s room in search of something to eat. He would honestly even eat something Junsu made at this point. But as he searched through the darkness he couldn’t even find the Delphinus in question.

“Where is Junsu?” Changmin asked the two sleepy humans. Yoochun lifted his head from Yunho’s lap and tried to sit up, though he only rubbed Yunho the wrong way, and shook his head. The distance between the two was suddenly too great, and Yoochun once again curled into Yunho’s still sleeping body.

Jaejoong screams brought Changmin back to his rooms, and by the time Jaejoong stopped , Junsu had returned with Heechul. Both were sopping wet, and Heechul’s rose petals torn and stuck to his green skin while his head sported a fashionably bald head. On the other hand, Junsu was rejuvenated and his complexion was quite healthy.

Despite his awful appearance, Heechul was cracking jokes. “There was a house call for a doctor?” With a shake of his arms the raindrops seeped into his cells. His flipped his head around and new petals bloomed from the back of his bald scalp, now a vibrant shade of orange. Heechul’s plant qualities were a bit of a surprise to Yoochun. While he had met with Heechul just the night before, he still wasn’t used to seeing a plant among all the others he’d dealt with before.

“Hey,” Yoochun whispered to the Rosa. Heechul smirked and waved his the fingers of his left hand in a fluttery manner, the right hand held an attaché most likely filled with his inks.

“Hey , I heard Jaejoong’s a Dovius, can I have him?”

Junsu let out a whiny echo and Yoochun quickly sat up, digging his elbow into Yunho’s thigh that he woke his pillow up.

“Absolutely not,” Changmin growled from outside Jaejoong’s door. “And what are you doing here? Coming to mark what is mine again?” The Felis grew hostile, his tail whipping back and forth and his canines extending.

Heechul scowled and cocked his head, “Actually, yes, brat, that’s why the Delphinus dragged me through the rain and ruined my petals. Oh, he begged and begged saying that Jaejoong was desperate and needed my expertise badly and I oh-so-graciously agreed to be of service to that lowly human. To my surprise, he’s not even a human. How can I say no when I’ll probably never meet another Dovius alive again?”

It took every bit of Changmin’s self restraint not to grab the Rosa and throw him out into the storm again. Instead he stood his full one hundred and eighty-six centimeter height and started the other down. “Don’t hurt him,” and he opened the door to Jaejoong’s room very slowly.

The Rosa only returned gesture with a smirk and slammed the door closed behind. He couldn’t even see the not-so-human human albeit when lightning shot across the sky and light traveled faster than sound again. One flash illuminated the entire room, revealing the Dovius to-be and the Rosa on opposite sides of the room.

Jaejoong whimpered when he saw Heechul’s face—the other bore a wicked grin and his thorns were steadily growing in anticipation of marking the skin of a doomed one. The plant-like other edged closer. Jaejoong shivered. Not from the pain. Heechul dropped his suitcase and climbed onto the bed, carefully straddling Jaejoong who was lying on his stomach. “Don’t worry, this won’t hurt more than it already is.” Jaejoong thrashed under the Rosa—oh that was a bad choice—the thorns jutting from Heechul’s skin prodded Jaejoong in the most uncomfortable ways.

“Stop –wait, what are you doing?” The human sniffled and stopped shaking, a sharp finger tracing down his back. “Heechul, I asked you what you’re doing.” But his voice was not strong and wavered from the very sensations the man caused.

“I’m doing what you called me over to do. Is that so bad?” Heechul raked his hand down the pale expanse ad savored the feel of what he wanted. He wanted Jaejoong so bad, the feel of his flesh turning him into a carnivorous beast. “You know, we plant-like don’t actually eat, but I’d make an exception for you.” The Rosa leaned over Jaejoong’s hunched back, breathing in the aroma of delightful deliciousness and breathing out a lust for something he shouldn’t even want.

Heechul’s teeth are just as sharp as his thorns.

Deafening shrieks brought the Felis bursting into the room with a frantic Delphinus and two startled humans in tow. The Rosa had already retreated and the Dovius was already unconscious.

The Felis enunciated each word with terrifying precision. “What did you do to him?”

“Nothing little kitty, but you can stay and watch if you want.” Heechul kneeled down, opened his attaché, and pulled out a long red candle, the top only briefly burned into. Rubbing his fingers together, he created a spark and lit the wick, the shadows dancing around the room now of a different sort. “Just in case I try to do something unbecoming of a beauty such as myself.”

Changmin’s face contorted as Heechul uncapped some ink and swirled his finger around in it, dribbling little stains onto the cold floor below him. “Don’t hurt him,” the Felis hissed. He plopped himself in the chair Junsu had previously been occupying, curling into his body in concern, and kept an observant eye on the Rosa.

An unconscious Jaejoong is much easier to work with than a howling upset Jaejoong, but a predatory Felis makes it much more uncomfortable. Beneath Jaejoong’s stimulating scent lied a disgusting odor that repulsed Heechul enough that he wanted to finish as quickly as possible and leave the thing alone. The Felis in the room brought out the stench that Heechul had so easily dismissed before.

“He has your smell. The smell of a nauseating animal. Your kind always smell like unrefined brutes, almost as bad as a dog.” Changmin only hissed and ordered the tattooist to work. Heechul drew his nail out of the ink and pressed it to the Dovius’s deforming tissue.

Tattooing is an art that Heechul prided himself in. The sleek flow of ink on soft and supple skin made Heechul’s petals quiver, and despite the now overwhelming Felis markings wafting at him, Heechul almost lost himself in the ecstasy of the task. The Pleasures of the Mighty are the Tears of the Poor almost painted on in an archaic handwriting no longer used in the ethereal musical shape. A Song Will Outlive All Songs in the Memory etched painstakingly and precisely to mirror the other words.

Needling the tattoo was fairly clean and light, but beneath the Rosa still straddling the not-human-anymore, the not-human-anymore had awoken and bit into sheets to muffle his screams. By the end of the process, Jaejoong had fainted again and Heechul had deposited several thorn nails onto the floor, a few shimmering with blood as the not-human would whip around at the worst of times.

Heechul was at the door and muttering profanities into the humid air not two hours later. “He’s done, fought like a , but he’s done. The wings are covered with two new tats.” The Rosa collapsed onto the couch next to the two groggy humans and stretched out his limbs.

“We need you to do something else.” Junsu croaked.

“Oh? And what could that possibly be?” Heechul asked, his petals starting to wilt with his fatigue. “I feel that it is time for me to rest. One like me isn’t pretty just because we’re born like this. It takes a lot of work to maintain this beauty.”

Junsu coughed, almost too ashamed to ask, but he had to. For the sake of Jaejoong. “We couldn’t get much research done concerning Dovius and their coming of age. Could you tell us anything you possibly know regarding them?”

Heechul hummed. “I know a few things, but why should I tell you? Jaejoong is as good as dead anyway. You’re lucky I’m not rushing out of here to sell your secrets.”

“What do you mean by that?” Yunho asked sharply, suddenly more aware of how dangerous their situation was.

“Well, of course Jaejoong is a sitting Aves when he fully grows out his wings. He’ll be eaten instantly, that is, if the government doesn’t take him in first.”

“Heechul!” Changmin growled in frustration. “Enough with your games before I slit your throat. What do you know?”

The Rosa narrowed his eyes at the Felis, his thorns spiking out and tearing at the couch. “I’m really the last person you want to be threatening right now.” Changmin didn’t relent and taunting became less fun. “I hear things in the north side, dark things. Government workers are always coming by for a drink. Remember when the mayor's daughter came of age? There was a whole parade of drunken men spilling secrets they weren’t trustworthy enough to keep. When the time comes, get Jaejoong and get the hell out because they will you up.”

For a lack of better words, Heechul really summed up their battle plan for the next week.

“What are they doing with them, the Dovius I mean?” Yoochun whimpered, burying his face into Yunho’s shoulder, almost too afraid to hear the answer.

“Let’s just say that it’s not an accident those Aves are turning up dead.” The four shot Heechul a look that told him he was less helpful than they wanted. “Fine, whatever, don’t heed my words. I’m leaving.” Heechul stood up, pulling bits of upholstery with him, and left without another word.

“.” Of all the people in the room, it was least likely that Junsu had sworn, yet it was the sweet one that did it. “What are we doing? We still don’t know what to do with Jae!” But Junsu gave no one the opportunity to comfort him, instead heading into Jaejoong’s dark room and lying on the floor next to him.

Conflicted, confused, Changmin squatted outside Jaejoong’s bedroom door and waited until everything stopped getting worse.

Hours later the power came back on, though the four had collapsed from exhaustion and not realized this. The Aves rolled out of bed and looked around with the new morning light at his friends and a pang of guilt hit him. “But what can I do?” Then he connected to the government server and delved into everything that he would become.

I've kind of forgot how to form sentences with words. You see, my excuse for not updating for almost a year is really pathetic. I first finished my other ongoing fic. Then I told myself that I was going to finish this one then post all the chapters, but that never happened. So just a future warning, while I will never abandon this fic and give it up to internet dormancy, I will frequently just not write for the sake of not writing. This is my back-burner fic that I'll write when I just have nothing else to do. Nothing.

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

Min is using his mind control to make you subscribe and comment. I think it is working!

Comments are motivation~♥