It had taken Kyungsoo all Friday and Saturday, and half of Sunday to get up the nerve to knock on Joonmyun's door. He knocked once, and then pressed the bell and waited, nervously double-checking that yes, that was indeed the Joonmyun's car in the driveway, as if he didn't know what it looked like already.

Joonmyun was prompt. The door swung open and wide-eyed he stared at his guest, unprepared for the visit.

Kyungsoo smiled feebly. “Hi.”

Joonmyun softened almost immediately. “Kyungsoo... Hi. Do you want to come in?”

“Yes, please.”

His house was a little smaller than the cats' home with one floor instead of two, and the layout of the ground floor was nearly the same except in reverse. Joonmyun lead him inside and motioned for him to sit on the couch. Kyungsoo stood by the couch, and his host, following Kyungsoo's lead, did the same.

Kyungsoo wrung his fingers and stared down at the carpet. This was definitely the last thing he wanted to be doing right now, confronting the man he'd apparently said some awful things to the night he got drunk. They hadn't seen each other since then. Joonmyun came by only once on Friday, but Kyungsoo had happened to be in his bedroom at that time. He sent Jongdae down to say he wasn't feeling well, and only emerged once he figured the man was gone.

Sadly though, this tactic wouldn't last him for very long. He was bound to run into Joonmyun sooner rather than later, and Sunday afternoon after the fifth mention by Baekhyun that he should probably go and see him, Kyungsoo caved. Unwillingly.

“I came to apologize.”

Joonmyun made no remark. Instead, his eyebrows came up, but his mouth remained still and he sat down on the couch, once again inviting Kyungsoo to sit as well. Finally, Kyungsoo took the bait.

Joonmyun sighed. “I didn't know you needed to apologize for anything,” he started to say.

“I was drunk. I said some mean things. I'm sorry.” Kyungsoo rushed the phrases. 

“Hmph,” Joonmyun sniffed lightly, humorously. “As far as I remember, you only implied I was getting ugly, but-”

“I didn't mean that.” 

“So, you don't think I'm ugly...” Joonmyun teased.

“I... I mean...” Kyungsoo stammered.

“It's okay. I get what you mean.” Joonmyun clapped his hands soudly on his thighs, implying they needn't continue talking about this. For that, Kyungsoo had to be grateful, but if this conversation was over then he had no other reason to be over here.

“Well, that's all I came to say, so I guess I should be going.” He made to stand up.

“Kyungsoo, wait.” 

Kyungsoo plopped back down, his knees collapsing back into the sofa, eyes not meeting Joonmyun's. He waited for a follow-up statement, something to make him uncomfortable, whatever words he'd always known Joonmyun's probably had but never said. Their history together went back too long, but also not long enough. It was much too formal, considering how they met. Too professional, but that's how Kyungsoo liked it. Give him any other options and Kyungsoo wouldn't know what to do.

He waited, as instructed, but Joonmyun didn't speak. Silence sat heavily over the room as both of them pondered, but as the seconds ticked by Kyungsoo became aware of a creature slinking its way into the living room. A cat, an actual normal-sized cat pattered up to Kyungsoo, as if recognizing a fellow and mewled at his feet. Kyungsoo's ears immediately softened to see the creature. He sat forward to pet it, and the cat, a gray tabby jumped up into his lap. Joonmyun looked shocked, but mostly at the intrusion. 

Kyungsoo chuckled and side-eyed him bemusedly. 

“What?” he asked, and Kyungsoo chuckled again before hardening his tone matter-of-factly. 

“You... I guess I was right about you. You really are a cat person.” His smile was fake, and Joonmyun knew it.

The older man cleared his throat, attempted to clear the awkwardness, and only succeeded in making it worse. “Guess you already knew a lot about me... I like cats.”

“Just these cats, or hybrid-cats?” Kyungsoo dared to ask.

“Both,” Joonmyun clarified after a moment.

Kyungsoo pet the cat, which had found his tail and he took a few minutes to play with it, enjoying the simplicity that comes from interacting with a being with a million less problems than himself. The problem with hybrids, he always assumed, is that they want to act like cats and sit around and enjoy the good life, but they're cursed with a human brain and so they can think and worry about life and that .

Joonmyun watched him play. The distraction was welcoming for both, although nothing was being accomplished. 

Finally, without looking up, Kyungsoo asked him, “If you like them so much then how come you've never adopted? So many hybrids and they all need a home, and half the time they end up in places, or even on the street. You've got a perfectly good house any would love to live in...” Joonmyun didn't interrupt him, so he went on. “You already work with hybrids so you know what they're like and what to expect. And you know most don't need that much daily attention, so if you didn't have that much time to spend with them, they'd still be fine just living in a house...”

Kyungsoo could definitely go on. He had a whole long rant pent up inside him, and now he had the perfect audience. He took a breath, ready to continue, except this time he was stopped. 

“But that's the problem,” Joonmyun said lightly. Kyungsoo looked at him. “I don't want to own one. I... don't want to be the kind of person who owns another person...”

Another person. Not a cat, not a hybrid. A person... A person like Kyungsoo? he wanted to ask. He couldn't make his voice work though. All sound was trapped in the back of his throat. ”What's wrong with owning someone?” he finally managed to squeak out.

Joonmyun sighed, and Kyungsoo knew he shouldn't have asked. He already knew, probably, what his answer was. And he was right.

“I'd rather... someone lived with me because they want to, not because they have to...” He spoke softly. Kyungsoo's heart almost went out to him.

“Does that go for anyone?”

“Anyone,” Joonmyun confirmed, even softer.

The cat jumped off his lap. Kyungsoo was left holding his own fluffy tail and that wasn't nearly enough distraction as he needed. “I see...” He didn't want to meet Joonmyun's glance. He could barely even look at him at all. “I should go now. Anyways, thanks for accepting my apology. See... see you around.” 

He left as quickly as he could and marched back home. The others had come home already, Sehun was sitting on the couch and Tao was apparently upstairs having a cat bath, and Kyungsoo couldn't be bothered to spare the two a separate thought. That would make him start thinking again, and he didn't want to think. Curse the human part of his brain that was working on overdrive. 

“So… where are we going?”

They’d been in the car for all of five minutes, Sehun not speaking more than a few words here and there. Tao had waited as patiently as he could, and when Sehun gulped and looked over at him, Tao had the distinct feeling that he’d nearly been forgotten, even though he sat in the passenger seat. That or Sehun just had a severe need to concentrate while driving that caused him to put Tao in second priority.

“Oh… uh. Movie,” Sehun said, eyes darting frantically sideways and back to the road. “If that’s okay with you?” he added.

Tao relaxed a little and smiled. A movie sounded a whole lot like a date, or at least a whole lot like the kinds of dates he read about in some of the novels Jongdae kept in a box under his bed.

“Movie is fine. I’ve been to one once,” said Tao.

“Only once?” Sehun looked shock.

“Yes… a long time ago. My master and my parents took me once when I really little. Don’t even remember the movie now but… I think it was fun.”

“You think?” Sehun said slowly. He seemed only capable of repeating words. 

“Yes?”

“How come you only went that once then?”

Tao stared at his hands in lap, folded gracefully with his tail between them. “I don’t think my parents liked it. Going out, I mean. People… gawked? At them. At me.”

Sehun said nothing then, and the silence grew. Tao didn’t know how to follow that up without two-way effort, and it wasn’t like he really knew how to elaborate on it. His parents hadn’t much liked going out into the world more than they had to, and it got worse the older they got. They were homebodies, kind of like Luhan and Minseok, now that Tao thought about it. Tao had just always assumed that’s what hybrids did: stayed at home and by themselves. He never imagined he’d be out one evening on a date — because this definitely seemed like a date — and with a human at that. When Sehun actually talked to him, at least.

He folded his ear against the glass of the window and peered out at the darkening skyline, still amazed at every little thing he never got to see. 

“Do you think cats will ever be able to drive? One day?” was the only thing he asked for the remainder of the trip.

“Maybe,” Sehun responded quietly.

Still staring out the window, Tao hummed to himself and let his tail flicker easily to the left of his body. Once he felt it come down near Sehun’s thigh and he felt the other tense slightly, and he moved it closer to himself after that.

The theater wasn’t very crowded for a Sunday night. 

“Is it always like this or…?” Tao asked, while they stood in line at the concession stand. They’d purchased tickets for an action movie, but neither he nor Sehun had eaten food yet, and Sehun was steadily grumbling to himself about the price of a hot dog. 

He stopped now though. “Hm? Oh, yeah… usually.”

Tao smirked, determined to be a tease since Sehun wasn’t much in the mood for talking. “So, we’re here because a lot of people aren’t, and you don’t want to be seen with a hybrid?” 

Sehun looked panicked. “What? No, that’s not what I —” He quit at the sound of Tao laughing, and then continued to pout. 

“Just messing with you,” Tao confirmed airily. “It’s not a date, we’re just here to see a movie. Still, you could say a few words every now and then.” He tried to be as nonchalant as he could. Hopefully this would actually confirm what this evening was.

“What —? Oh…” Sehun said.

Tao turned around in line on the pretense of reading different billboards, and exhaled slowly.

It wasn’t until a minute later when Sehun purchased the food for both of them, that Tao thanked him and Sehun looked guilty. It should have been Tao who felt guilty though. He hadn’t offered to pay, either for the tickets or for the food, and the simple enough reason was that he hadn’t any money, and Sehun evidently knew that. 

As they started to wind their way through the slight crowd, Tao held his breath and Sehun finally said, “What makes you think this isn’t a date?”

There was just a faint hint of hopefulness in his voice, but that was enough to cause Tao to beam. He shined the light of his smile onto Sehun, and that was the only reply Sehun was going to get.

It was enough to make almost the rest of their evening pass peaceably. 

The first hitch happened as they sat down in the still-lit theater and a little girl there with her parents turned around and visibly stared Tao down, astonishment etched across her face.

“Mommy, mommy. It’s a cat. It’s a giant cat!” she whispered in a loud voice.

The mother turned around quickly to verify, and Tao looked away hurriedly. “It’s a hybrid-cat, sweetie. Remember me talking about those once? Just ignore it.”

The little girl gasped in awe. “But what’s it doing outside?”

“Hybrids go out from time to time with their owners. Just let them be, okay?”

Tao didn’t look up from the cardboard box containing his food until he felt a hand squeeze gently across his forearm. Sehun didn’t look at him directly, but the hand was enough. The little girl continued to peer at them between the seats, however, this time Tao dared to raise his head and stare about the room curiously. He wished though that he had a hat. 

“Are you done?” Sehun asked him when their meals were finished. He fetched the boxes and slid them under their seats. “Movie should start soon.”

Tao nodded. He was still giving the girl and her parents a wide berth.

“Relax,” Sehun added a second later. He touched Tao’s arm again, which did nothing to relax him.

“Easy for you to say. You might be a little more talkative, you know.”

Sehun smiled uncertainly, and then looked embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I’m… not very good at these things.”

“What, dates? I’ve noticed.”

“Yeah… I’m sorry.”

Tao chuckled. “You said that already.”

“I know.. I’m—”

“Shh, you don’t have to say it again.” The lights began to dim, and Tao started to whisper. “Although seriously, this isn’t that much different from being at home. All these social creatures, and all they ever do is sleep!” 

“So you admit you’re a social creature?” Sehun whispered back.

“Well, yeah. When I don’t feel like a nap.” Tao winked at him in the near darkness, certain he could still see it. It enticed the first real smile out of Sehun all night. 

Halfway into the previews they were relaxed enough to make fun of the movies. At the start of the movie they nudged each other and cringed when a man’s text tone kept going off. By the middle of the movie a man sneezed violently behind them causing Tao to jump. He whispered something snarky about it being “cat hair” and instead of getting upset, Sehun and Tao smiled obnoxiously at each other like it had been a grand plot to annoy their fellow movie-goers. 

Tao liked the movie well enough, but by the last quarter he was starting to get sleepy. He had spent nearly all day playing with kittens after all, and had had little time to rest. Sehun nudged him in the ribs with his elbow when his head swayed once. 

“Hey. Don’t you dare fall asleep on me,” he whispered harshly. 

“What will you do if I do?” Tao whispered back, just as unpleasantly. 

“I’ll leave you here when the credits roll.”

Tao sniffed haughtily, and the man behind them kicked lightly on the back of their seats to get them to shut up.

He made it through to the end of the movie, but just barely. He rubbed his eyes thoroughly when the lights came on, having already adjusted well enough (and better than most) to the darkened room. 

“Something the matter?” Sehun asked.

“No. Just… it got bright.”

“Yes, that’s what happens at the end of a movie.” Sehun dared to chuckle, and pulled one of Tao’s hands away from his eyes. “Oh woah.”

“What is it?” Tao blinked at him.

“Nothing… Well, your eyes. They’re very…”

Tao blinked again, and swore he saw Sehun blush. “Cat-like?”

“I wasn’t going to say that,” Sehun said quickly. “I just meant, they were very… glassy, or something.”

“Glassy? So, you mean like a cat.”

“I didn’t,” Sehun whined. He started to push Tao out of the aisle and down the stairs to exit. “Okay, fine. A little bit.”

Tao laughed, but then he realized that Sehun’s hand was still resting gently along his wrist. He pulled it away sharply out of confusion and Sehun actually hissed. 

“Oooww!”

“What? What did I do?” Tao cried immediately.

“Your nails! When did you last cut them?” He held up his hand where Tao had accidentally grazed the skin in his hurry. An inch-long red mark appeared across the inside of his palm, not deep enough that it drew blood but sharp enough to sting.

Tao cringed. “I’m sorry! I… forgot to cut them this morning. It’s just that my nails grow out faster and kind of sharper than humans if I don’t trim them every day.” He pouted and tried to grab onto Sehun’s hand to see the damage up close. 

Sehun just pulled it back and scowled. “I know, I know. It just hurts. It’ll be fine in a second, I’m sure.”

“I’m sorry,” Tao repeated sadly.

Sehun patted him on the shoulder with his good hand as they exited with the small crowd. Once out of the theater though, he took the lead and Tao had no choice but to follow just behind him. He turned his fingers around and glared at them, as if they were responsible for spoiling his night.

They climbed into their respective sides of the car in silence and sat there for a moment. Sehun delayed turning on the engine. 

“Do you want to go somewhere else?” Sehun finally asked.

“I don’t know. Did you have somewhere in mind?”

“Not really.” Sehun grinned coldly. 

“Oh.”

Sehun the engine anyways. “To be honest, I’m not all that creative, so that’s why I came up with a movie at the last minute. I don’t know what else to do, and we kind of already ate so… I guess we could probably find something else to do.”

As he spoke though, he turned his palm over in his lap and Tao could see the reddish mark becoming even more defined on his hand. He felt super guilty about it.

“Maybe you should just go home and clean it? It looks kind of awful,” Tao said glumly.

“Yeah,” Sehun agreed noncommittally. 

They began the drive back just like the drive there: in near silence, and this time Tao dozed even though it couldn’t have been longer than a fifteen minute drive. He batted his eyes when he felt the car slow down as they reached their neighborhood, and then sat up abruptly when Sehun missed the turn to the shelter home. Instead, he turned down a street that Tao recognized as Sehun’s street.

“Where are we going?” He asked, even though he didn’t need to.

“Uhm…” Sehun winced. “I thought maybe we could just hang out at home since… we didn’t do much. If that’s alright with you,” he added quickly.

“S-sure.” They pulled up in front of the house. “Will your dad be okay with this?”

“Yeah, he’d be cool with it. And anyways, it’s ten o’clock, and he’s old so he’ll probably be asleep already.”

Tao refrained from mentioning that usually by this time he’s falling asleep too, or at least fighting with Jongdae over who gets the better mattress. Private property and bed assignments became a fluid, always in flux thing around nighttime, and half the time they ended up piling onto the same one. 

He stifled a yawn, determined not to be sleepy.

Sehun unlocked the door, and together they tip-toed through the mostly dark house. About halfway through they were met with the swift shuffling of puppies’ paws. Sehun immediately dropped to his knees to meet them.

“Hey, puppies,” he cooed softly. “What are you doing in the house still? Did dad forget to put you outside?” 

As always, one of them ran up to Tao and he also crouched down to play with it. “This one always loves me,” he said. “I don’t even know his name.”

“What? That one? That’s Candy. He likes cats, apparently.” Sehun smirked and stood up.

A door opened at the end of the hallway, and unfortunately it was Yixing, still not asleep. Tao stood up quickly too, and bristled uncomfortably as the older man padded down the hall in his bathrobe. 

“Sehun? Tao? Ahh, good evening. I was just coming to let the dogs outside. Shall I lead them out?” Sehun nodded to his father and Yixing passed them with a smile and not a single word about what Tao was doing there. They waited for a moment as the dogs ran after him, and then Sehun lead the way to another door down the hall. 

“My room,” he sighed and clicked on a light.  “Make yourself at home.”

“Thanks. I will,” said Tao, as he continued to stand in the middle of the room and stare around him.

Sehun snorted. “I mean, you can sit down or something.”

“Where?” There was literally no place to sit except for Sehun’s half-made bed. He eyes lingered on it, and Sehun followed his gaze.

“There,” he said, indicating the bed, “is fine. Sorry for the mess.”

Tao sat and scooted backwards until his back was flush with the wall. He bounced a bit too just for fun. “Aww, this is a good mattress.”

“Oh yeah? Why, does yours or something?”

“Well it’s not bad…”

“How many cats do you share with anyways?”

“Just three,” Tao replied. 

Sehun grunted to himself, and then began clearing away a chair Tao hadn’t even noticed before. A pile of clothes and books and notebooks were dumped onto the floor and Sehun pulled it out a few more inches, turned it around, and sat backwards on it. He folded his elbows over the back of the chair and rested his chin. As his hand hit the wood, however, he scowled and stood up again. 

“I forgot… Give me a sec. I’m going to clean this.” He left the room and Tao was sad again. With nothing else to do but wait, he pulled up a pillow, noting that it smelled vaguely like Sehun, and propped up his legs. It was probably a bad idea to sit here when he was so tired. He was almost afraid he'd pass out by the time Sehun came back, but he opened his eyes quickly when the door opened. Sehun reentered and sat once more backwards on the chair.

“All better?” Tao asked. 

Sehun held up his hand which sported a band-aid, and he smiled. “Yep.”

“Good.”

He noticed Sehun observing him, and Tao shifted a little at the attention. 

“You look like you’re about to fall asleep again,” Sehun noted.

For that suggestion alone, Tao yawned. “Honestly, I usually go to sleep around this time.”

Sehun grinned. Tao could see his semi-hidden smirk.

“What?” he demanded.

“Nothing,” said Sehun. 

“Yeah, right.” Tao’s eyes felt heavy and he closed them, only to force them open a second later. 

“Do you miss your own room? Did you have your own room before?”

“I did, but no I don’t miss it really.” He pulled up another pillow, standing it up next to him so that his head had something to lean on.

“Isn’t it weird though to go from being by yourself to sharing?”

“No. I like it actually.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. I like being with other cats. Or just, other people. I was kind of lonely before, and it’s always more fun with others anyways.”

Sehun rested his chin again on the back of the chair, eyes fluttering too as he continued to watch Tao getting comfortable on his bed. “I see… even when you sleep though?” he asked softly.

“Yes, why? Are you jealous?” Tao smiled lazily. 

“No.” It wasn’t terribly convincing, although Sehun did seem like he was amused. He changed the subject, almost. “What’ll happen if you don’t go home tonight?”

Tao shrugged. He didn’t really want to talk anymore. He just wanted to sleep and since Sehun wasn’t stopping him from getting more and more settled, he let himself relax. He started with a slight tip as his body weight slumped over. Sehun continued to smile to himself. 

“What are you smiling at?” Tao asked, even though his tongue felt heavy.

“Nothing.”

“You say that a lot…”

“Sorry.” And still he smiled as he stood up, crossing the room in just a couple steps. “Sleep, then.” He helped adjust the pillow so that it lay flat and Tao immediately hummed in satisfaction. He stretched out his legs even though he was lying backwards on the bed, and he heard Sehun chuckle before he walked away. The light went out and Sehun left the room. He couldn’t keep track of time after that but sometime later the door opened again and someone — Sehun — sat down on the bed. The mattress shifted at his weight, and a hand grazed across his head and landed on his ear. 

“Do you purr in your sleep too?” he heard him say softly. “I bet you do…” He rubbed his ear then, and Tao in his nearly sleep-induced state obliged him. 

4,183 words

So how's that for still-unsatisfactory Sudo progress and a whirlwind romance in bloom for Taohun? Also introducing: Candy. Sadly as a poodle - sorry it didn't magically morph into a Maltese, but can we just enjoy the thought of Tao playing with puppies a little more? Because seriously, we can't do that enough as a fandom. :P

So, how about that Taohun now? 

I decided to be nice and not leave this on a killer cliff-hanger. The next chapters will probably not be so chill. Get ready for drama!

<3 Rosie