The garden light above the door is on, and it casts a powerful artificial light onto the grass, making it look deeper than it really is because of the stark darkness of the shadows between each blade. On the other side of the garden there's a scattering of people, only a few. Jongin recognises one of them as Kyungsoo's father. A largish man, very intimidating at first glance, but also very soft spoken. He's met him several times, but never said all that much to him. Just small talk.

The rest of them are people around their age, ranging from one spindly, lanky young man, to a petite but aggressive-looking girl with close cropped auburn hair, all of them wearing easily removable clothes. They all turn their heads to the sound of the door opening, synchronised,

“You took your time,” Kyungsoo's dad chastises, and Kyungsoo hangs his head. He points to the swing seat, under the overhanging window of Kyungsoo’s room two floors up, and Jongin sits in it,

“Why did you bring him, Kyungsoo? It's not safe for humans,” another tall boy says. He has a piercing in his nose, and eyebrow, and he looks like the sort of person most parents would tell you are ‘bad company’ . Kyungsoo doesn't reply, just steps slowly and deliberately closer.

“At least I found my mate,” he answers back, “you don't have anything,” the rest of the group-there's seven in total, including Kyungsoo's dad- roll their eyes. A common occurrence then, Jongin surmises.

“I have a better wolf than you,” he taunts, and even from all the way over here, Jongin can see Kyungsoo's face darken. His hate filled eyes, coupled with the blackened bruise, he looks positively fearsome. But the other boy doesn't back down, instead he actually moves closer, bearing down on him aggressively. Jongin guesses that he's the one who hurt him.

He immediately dislikes him, without even knowing his name yet.

Kyungsoo's dad sticks a hand between them, and pushes them apart,

“Save it for training,” he commands, and with a imposing voice like that, Jongin can believe that he's an alpha. Kyungsoo nods and stands down gracefully, the other boy however looks like he could happily rip Kyungsoo's throat out.

Kyungsoo's dad waves his hand, and the six of them seamlessly fall into line. Then he inclines his head in Jongin's direction, and Kyungsoo nods,

“Jongin, you might want to look away for a sec,” his words are wobbly, and Jongin realises it’s because he’s scared, maybe of what Jongin’s going to think of him. Jongin shakes his head. He wants to see this, needs to see this, badly. Kyungsoo shrugs, and with a grimace undoes the tie on his dressing gown and lets it drop to the floor, staring at it pointedly.

Jongin doesn't know where to look; he doesn't want to make his boyfriend uncomfortable, but he also has no particular desire to see anybody else's body. He settles for staring purposefully at Kyungsoo's slightly flushed face. At some signal that Jongin must have missed, they all hunch forward and start to morph, shift, he doesn't know what they call it. He decides to watch just Kyungsoo, as he wouldn't be able to watch all of them.

Kyungsoo jerks once, then turns inside out.

Jongin doesn't throw up, but it's close. That image is going to stay with him for a long time. It's one thing to see someone's skin peeling off in a film, because it's animated and you know it's not real. But he just watched Kyungsoo's skin fall away and his bones rearrange themselves, then sprout fur in the span of about twenty seconds. He consoles himself: at least he wasn't writhing in pain. All he can do is chant it’s Kyungsoo, it’s Kyungsoo in his mind until it’s over.

He feels his muscles have frozen. He couldn't move if even he wanted to. He's not scared as such, just very unsettled. And a little queasy.

A large brown-grey wolf stands twitching in his place, tongue hanging out. So this is Blaidd. He's a tiny bit smaller than the other wolves, who seem a bit lighter in colour than him, less brown more grey. He matches his dad, he notes.

The taller boy's wolf is bigger than Kyungsoo/Blaidd. He growls, and Jongin feels the vibration of the bass sound in his stomach. Blaidd barks at him, then looks at his father with wide puppy eyes. There must be some kind of wolf language that Jongin can't pick up on, because in that same moment, Blaidd is bounding over to him.

He should logically be terrified, but he isn't. He's excited, even though he wants to throw up.

Blaidd knocks him onto his back, then wetly at his face, and Jongin can't push him off because he's too heavy. All he can do is complain and moan until he moves,

“Blaidd, urrgh, get oooff,” when Blaidd finally retreats he has wide watery eyes again. This seems to be his thing, getting his way by trying to be cute. Kyungsoo had assured him that Blaidd's pain threshold is pretty high, so if Blaidd got hurt Kyungsoo wouldn't feel a thing. Jongin punches him, then rubs the coat sleeve thoroughly over his sopping face to get dry.

“Gross,” he admonishes again, and Kyungsoo-it feels more like Kyungsoo than Blaidd for some reason, Kyungsoo had explained that they were really the same person just different. Whatever that's supposed to mean-nuzzles beside his ear softly. Jongin leans into the gentle touch, all logic screaming that he shouldn't go near a giant wolf, but it feels natural again. Like Jongin should always have been here like this.

He reaches one hand up to touch his fur, which is soft, but slightly coarse at the same time, like its standing on end. Jongin estimates it’s probably because of the cold. He drags his fingers through it, in tender circles, and Kyungsoo and Blaidd lean down further, wanting more.

Kyungsoo's dad barks, a deep rumbling sound that makes him quiver, and Blaidd jolts, looking between him and his dad indecisively.

“Go, idiot. I still need to see you fighting. You better beat everyone here, especially that tall guy,” he touches Blaidd's ear, and whispering as quietly as he can so he has the least chance of being heard by the others, “he's a douche,”

He smacks Blaidd's side, then watches him go back to where the others have been waiting impatiently for him to finish. He stands proud and unrepentant while they get ready, knowing that not all of them appreciate him being there for Kyungsoo.

The first part of whatever they're doing is pretty boring for Jongin, not understanding any of what they may or may not be saying, and Blaidd seems to share this view, as he keeps glancing at him instead of concentrating. Jongin hopes he's not going to make him mess up when the practical work starts. He doesn’t want to distract him to the point of injury, the whole point of him being here is to help.

Jongin had been zoning out a little bit, the coat was keeping him warmer than he had expected despite his breath misting in front of his face, and was ready to fall asleep, but then they all split off into pairs and they have Jongin's full attention again. Fortunately, Kyungsoo/Blaidd isn't partnered up with the tall guy, but one of the others. He doesn't know who.

Kyungsoo's partner backs off a bit, then does a graceful running jump at him. Instead of trying to get away or evade it, he faces them with his body weight spread low, then pounces just before they hit him. This happens every time they go for him, and Kyungsoo pulls it off with varying degrees of success but he never completely messes up.

Kyungsoo is not elegant, or particularly fast like the small girl who can dodge nearly everything the guys throw at her, but he's strong. He can endure most of the other's attacks. This answers his question about werewolf strength: Kyungsoo is just naturally extra strong, even for his kind.

And they're also fairly loud. How do none of the neighbouring houses not complain? Even though they all live a couple of minutes away, surely they can hear this? Jongin checks his phone, the time is eleven forty. He needs to go soon, but doesn't know how to let Kyungsoo know this.

He's sitting awkwardly on the edge of the seat, trying to decide how best to get his attention without indirectly injuring him. Then suddenly a very real looking fight breaks out between Kyungsoo and the tall guy, with biting and snarling and Jongin is very sure he heard a ripping noise just then- he's on his feet without even realising it, returning home now completely forgotten.

The alpha breaks them apart easily, not being lenient on his son in the slightest. The pair bow their heads, tails between their legs. And then they're reversing again, splitting in half and reassembling themselves. Jongin jogs over to Kyungsoo as they all start to disperse, grabbing his dressing gown en route, and laying it over his inert form. He's out of breath, flushed and panting, and grateful for the extra warmth.

“Ah, that guy annoys me,” he breathes out.

“I've got to get home, before my mum comes to get me and I never get to see you again,” he murmurs, and Kyungsoo closes his eyes, and groans a little as he sits up, painted purple across his stomach by bruises already,

“Ok. Just let me get dressed and I'll walk you,”

“Maybe you should just go to sleep, you're exhausted,” Kyungsoo shakes his head,

“Nope. Nu-uh, you smell like me and human. At the same time. Any wolf in their right mind would go for you, and if that happened,” a flicker of pain flashes behind his eyes, “it'd be bad ok, I'm coming with you,”

“If you insist,” Jongin grumbles, genuinely worried for Kyungsoo's sanity. Haven't there been tests that say if you don't get enough sleep you literally go insane?

“I do insist,” he chuckles, tying the gown together and slowly rising to his feet, “come on,” he takes his hand and leads him inside so he can find some clothes.

--

(｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡ everyone reading this is awesome

cept jade shes a (jks ily)

struggling a little with the chpt im writing rn lol im not good at...this kind of thing haha

comment? please? (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤