Snow fell, and the clouds surrounded the castle.  If Taemin hadn’t felt secluded by the forest he certainly did now.  He didn’t mind being isolated in the castle with Minho but he didn’t like feeling alone.  He spent every moment Minho was out of the east wing glued to his side.  He followed Minho around like a duckling, babbling stories or singing songs to fill the silence that seemed to hover around Minho. And Minho listened and watched Taemin, and more and more offered his own stories and every once and a while a verse to one of Taemin's many songs.

Minho usually tended to things around the castle but as Taemin spent more time with him he seemed to forsake more of his duties and replace them with lounging next to the fire in the library with Taemin. 

Taemin enjoyed this too because when Minho was still and not pacing the halls it gave him a chance to get closer. He enjoyed laying across Minho’s lap, enjoyed that Minho played with hands or fussed the folds of his clothes. But Minho’s favorite was toying with Taemin’s hair. He would trace his fingers through it and had even begun to try and mimic the braids Taemin often twisted into it.

Having just finished another volume and not feeling the energy to search for the next Taemin let the book slide to the floor.  He and Minho were half laying, half sitting on the couch in front of the fire.  Taemin’s head was resting on Minho’s chest and his arm lazily draped over the man’s side.  He felt Minho weaving his hair as carefully as possible. 

“You know, my sister used to play with my hair this way too,” Taemin mumbled into the fabric of Minho’s shirt.  The weaving stopped, but Minho’s hands lingered in his hair. “It reminds me of her.”

“Do you miss her? You hardly ever speak of your family.” Minho continued his weaving.

Taemin shrugged.  “I guess I miss my sister.  She was usually around the most and made to tend to me since I was the youngest.”

“What of your mother?”

Taemin pressed closer hiding a bit more if his face in Minho’s clothes.  “She died. While I was being born, she died. I think they all saw me as the reason for her passing, they never said it, but I was treated differently. My sister said I look like her and I think that made my father even more angry with me.  I wasn’t strong and tall like my brother, and even though people said my face rivaled my sister’s in beauty, but since I was a boy my father couldn’t betroth me to any woman.”  

“Is that what he did to your sister? He planned her marriage?”

“Yes, she was lovely, far more than me, I think.  He didn’t even bother to meet the family before he accepted her dowry. In the last few days I was with her, she never seemed scared though.” Taemin paused thinking about her. “I often wonder if she would have been happier here with you had my father been truthful, or if she had found happiness with her husband.” Taemin paused, “does it make you bitter for me to talk of her?”

“Why would I feel bitter?” Minho looked down at him.

“She was the one supposed to be in your arms now, not me.”

Minho let his hand move to the center of Taemin’s back. “I do not feel bitter. Even if the curse will be something I live the rest of my life suffering, I am grateful to have someone here to share my time.  When I made the request of your father for a woman, I was thinking only of breaking the curse. But the more time I spent with you, I realized it was not the curse that I hated most but the seclusion.  More than anything I wanted a companion.”

Taemin moved his head so his chin rested on Minho’s chest and he could look up and the man.  “It’s hard to believe that you turn in to anything but yourself.”

“I assure you, it’s true.”

“Do you loose your mind, is that why you hide yourself from me at night?”

“No, I am still myself. But I don’t want you to see, what I become.” Minho traced his fingers lightly over Taemin's cheek.  “I have been seen several times by others, my own family included, and they all look at me the same. They see me as a beast and not myself. They cast me away.  I don’t think I would be able to handle you looking at me that way.”

Taemin clasped Minho’s hand against his face. “But I know you, and you know I am not like those before me.”

“Taemin, I can’t.”

“Why won’t you trust me? I who have been thrown away, just as you? I have never feared you, and despite your appearance I know you.” Taemin tried to convey the feeling of trust he had for Minho in his eyes and his words, hoping it would reach the man, make him believe that jus as much as he wanted Taemin here, Taemin wanted to actually be here too.  “It will be dusk soon,” Taemin whispered, “stay with me, let me prove to you, I am honest with my words.”

Minho stared back into Taemin’s eyes searching for any reason to doubted. Eyes wide and scared, like an animal backed into a corner, he had no choice. “Alright.”

Taemin laid his head back down on Minho’s chest and heard his heart beating wildly behind his ribs.  Taemin waited in silence until Minho stirred beneath him.  The man sat up fully and pushed Taemin off him.  He looked nervous in the dim light of the fire and Taemin did all he could to keep his face calm.  He laced his fingers in with Minho’s.

“I will be right here when it is done.”

The look of distrust was almost enough to break Taemin’s heart, but he knew it was only because of the fear Minho was feeling.  Minho moved away from Taemin to a clearing behind the couch, and Taemin followed but lingered at the edge of the fire light.  He could hear Minho’s breath coming hard in his lungs and the man staggered and hunched over.  Taemin felt his chest tighten as Minho began to gasp quietly obviously in pain.  The man shed his jacket and shirt and staggered further into the darkness of the book shelves. 

He heard Minho fall to the floor, heard the ripping of fabric and the sickening pop of bone against bone.  Again and again the sounds of snapping and bending echoed in Taemin’s head and Minho’s mild groans turned into coughs and deep growls of pain as the transformation took place.  Books fell and Taemin heard something scraping against the stone floor.  As he listened to Minho’s suffering, time seemed to be infinite, until all it suddenly stopped. Taemin heard a noise that barely held the tone of Minho’s voice, a moan, or growl of something other worldly.  Then silence. A still and deafening silence. 

Taemin stared into the darkness that Minho had disappeared through, and waited. Deep panting, and sound of movement made Taemin reach for the back of the couch, to steady himself in the anticipation of seeing the man he spent all his days with. 

Slowly, Minho emerged.  The first thing to breach the light of the fire were long black claws, slowly clicking one by one on the stone floor as he crawled toward the boy.  His arms were long and covered in the same shiny black hair that Taemin recognized.  His shoulders were hunched and strong.  His back curved like that of an ape, and his legs reminded Taemin of a dog’s.  His head was bowed and hidden from Taemin, but he could see a soft main of fur akin to that of a lion, as it converged at a point on his rippled spine.  He sat on his dog like legs only a few feet from Taemin, and lifted his face to the boy.  His jaw hung heavy with boar like teeth, his nose and face feline in nature and his little black ears that Taemin originally thought were horns pressed flat to his main against actual curling horns.  His eyes met Taemin's and the boy felt the breath leave his chest. 

Yellow and intense as they held Taemin’s gaze with an expression pure vulnerability. Taemin took several small steps forward and let his fingers leave the couch and travel through the air towards Minho.  The beast bowed his head even further so his nose was level with Taemin's face.  He felt Minho hot breath on his arm and rush past him with every heavy exhale.  His nose was cold and wet like an animal’s but as soon as Taemin's palm touched him he lifted his face ever so slightly into the boy’s touch.  Taemin pushed his hand further along Minho’s nose and felt the short, velvet, fine hair along his broad snout, almost as wide as Taemin's palm. 

An awe stricken smiled pulled at Taemin's lips as he came right up to Minho. He trailed another hand up along one of the large fangs that shot out from his bottom jaw, felt the smooth bone like texture and strength of it.  Carefully, Taemin leaned forward and pressed his forehead to the bridge of Minho’s snout, and closed his eyes.  He felt Minho delicately wrap a clawed hand around him and press him just a little closer.  “You are magnificent.”

Minho didn’t fit on the couch now so Taemin pulled it farther away from the fire and threw all the blankets on the carpet.  Minho laid down and Taemin found a spot against his ribs that he fit perfectly.  Minho’s breath was heavy like rolling ocean waves and deep with in him Taemin still heard his heart beating wildly.

~*~*~

Taemin slept better than he ever remembered and when he woke the fire was out and the sun filled the library, but he was alone.  Taemin pulled himself out of the mess of blankets and made his way through the freezing halls and into the dinning room.  He heard noise from the kitchen. 

He sleepily made his way through the door and saw Minho already frying over an open flame.  He hadn’t heard Taemin yet, and the boy quietly s his arms in between Minho’s and nuzzled his sleepy face into the man’s back.  He felt Minho stiffen and freeze as he hugged the man. 

“Did you feed the animals already?” Taemin asked, voice still groggy and hoarse. 

“I did,” Minho’s answer was short and he tentatively touched the back of Taemin’s hand pressed against his middle.  

“Did you sleep okay on the floor? What ever you’re making smells good. Let’s eat in here because the dinning room is cold,” he slid away from Minho, his words starting up like a motor and flowing with out pauses.  He propped himself on the counter so Minho could keep cooking.  But the man only turned to face him, with a strange expression, something like worry mixed with anxiety.

“Minho are you okay? It’s going to burn.”

His gaze left Taemin’s to stare sheepishly at the floor, “you act as if, nothing happened,” he muttered.

“About last night? How should I act? I told you I know who you are no matter how you look. You are just as much Minho and you were last night. I don’t plan on treating you differently now. Do you want to be treated differently?”

A smile broke the worried look on Minho’s face and a laugh deflated the anxious feeling that hovered around him. He took a shy step towards Taemin, reached out and held the back of his head. Just like Taemin had last night, pressed their noses together, eyes closed.  “No, I do not. And I should have expected nothing less from you by now.”

Taemin smiled too and let Minho hold him for only a moment before he playfully shoved the man away.  “Breakfast is going to burn.”

“I won’t let it burn.”

They ate in the kitchen as Taemin requested.  Taemin’s rambling was at full speed between bites as he told Minho all about the book he finished.

“Oh!” he pointed his fork at Minho. “That reminds me. Now that I have seen you, tonight when you turn, can I ask you a favor?”

Minho shook his head with a small laugh, extremely amused how easily Taemin talked about his darkest secret. “Yes, what is it?”  

“I know where the next volume of that series is but it is too high for me to reach with the chair. Can you get it down for me?”

“Anything for you,” Minho smiled at him and Taemin felt a warmth in his chest that made him feel like even the coldest parts of the castle couldn’t bother him ever again.