Part 4: A Hidden People

“Are you from the reserve?”

“I’m not an Anyegi,” Leo states, baffled because his ears are clearly a cat’s.

“No, I mean the Anyethi reserve,” the leader replies. “Because we already apologized for what happened.”

Leo pales considerably – a feat considering how pale he is these days – and it takes him a few seconds to finally get the words out. “The what reserve?”

The Anyegi leader frowns. “You’re not from there? Where are you from then?”

Leo’s eyes flicker over to Hakyeon in an attempt to get some help but he freezes when he realizes that Hakyeon is way too calm about this.

“Did you know about this?” he demands.

Hakyeon looks away guiltily. “I’ve been looking for it actually.”

The Anyethi isn’t sure why he feels betrayed by that but Hakyeon sees it on his face and reaches out to take Leo’s hand. “I was just curious. I wasn’t even sure if it was real. Nobody was able to tell me anything no matter where we went.”

The leader of the reserve clears his throat. “That’s because the Anyethi reserve is a secret. We only know about it because they used to live on Anyegi reserves until about ten years ago.”

Leo is shaking and Hakyeon tries not to feel hurt when he pulls his hand away. “I need to think,” Leo mumbles, and then he teleports away.

“Is he okay?” Sanghyuk asks softly.

Hakyeon purses his lips and nods. “I think so.”

The leader clears his throat again. “Sorry about that. I seem to have caused some trouble.”

“It’s fine,” Hakyeon replies with a smile before motioning to Sanghyuk. “We’re actually here because were trying to find his parents.”

The Anyegi leader frowns. “Um, the receptionists should have had no trouble helping you with that,” he says. “Anyway, what’s your name and age?”

“Sanghyuk, 18.”

“Ah…”

His expression is exactly the same as the one the receptionists had had and it makes Hakyeon worry and Sanghyuk nervous.

“What?”

“Well, I won’t keep it from you,” the leader states. “Your parents were the leaders of one of the biggest ingredient smuggling rings in the country.”

Hakyeon’s eyebrows shoot upward but Sanghyuk manages to maintain an even expression. “So they did sell me?” he asks.

The leader nods sadly. “You were smuggled out of the country before we even realized what had happened.”

“Oh.”

Sanghyuk isn’t sure what to feel. Should he be upset? His parents sold him, after all. However, he’d always considered that a possibility so it wasn’t exactly a surprise. Maybe he should be angry, but he can’t bring himself to be because he doesn’t even remember them.

“You don’t have a pack… and you probably won’t be able to join one either, but we’ll still take you in. If you want, that is.”

Hakyeon wants to ask why Sanghyuk can’t join a pack but he doesn’t get the chance, cut off the young Anyegi’s smile.

“That’s okay,” Sanghyuk says.

“Alright then. You’re free to visit anytime you want.”

“Thank you for your help.”

“We all thought you were dead,” the leader smiles. “I’m really glad you’re not.”

“Oh, well, thanks, I guess.”

Sanghyuk is a little tempted to ask some questions but one glance at Hakyeon shows that the ex-sorcerer is dying to leave.

“We should go after Leo,” Sanghyuk states.

It takes several more minutes to get out of the office because the leader is once again apologizing for upsetting Leo and has started to explain where the Anyethi reserve is, but finally they can begin their walk.

It takes them a long time to get to their hotel. So far they’d only been getting one room to save on money, but upon their arrival back at the hotel Hakyeon asks for another one so he can talk to Leo alone.

Leo is face down on the bed when Sanghyuk grabs his bags and he doesn’t look up when they enter. Once the Anyegi is gone Hakyeon sits on the edge of the bed and lets his fingers entwine themselves in Leo’s hair.

The Anyethi slowly turns his head so he can look at Hakyeon. “I thought I was the last one,” he whispers.

“I know,” Hakyeon says softly. “But that’s why I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want to get your hopes up about there possibly being other Anyethi.”

Leo kind of wants to ask what difference it would make if there were other Anyethi. Why would it matter? At the same time the weird sense of loneliness that he’d squashed deep down more than a decade ago has reappeared.

“You’ve only ever known your parents, right?” Hakyeon asks. “You’ve never met any other Anyethi.”

“No, it was just us. I grew up running away from sorcerers.”

He’d told Hakyeon all about it before but he’d never mentioned the way his parents had always denied the possibility of there being other Anyethi. In fact, they had been adamant about it when he did ask.

“I’m sorry I left you there,” Leo mumbles before Hakyeon can comment.

“It’s okay, I’m sorry too.”

“You should have told me.”

He’d known Hakyeon was hiding something but he’d never guessed it was this.

“I’m sorry,” Hakyeon says again.

“And you shouldn’t have used Sanghyuk.”

“I know…”

He did feel bad about that but at the same time he was still glad Sanghyuk knew the truth now, ever if it hadn’t been particularly good news.

“How did it go anyway? Did you find them?”

Hakyeon briefly recounts what had happened and just like them, Leo was unsurprised. “I thought it was going to be something like that,” he admits. “Is he okay?”

“I think so, we talked about it on the way back.”

They’re silent for a little while and Hakyeon take the opportunity to strip off his clothes and crawl into bed. “Are you going to visit the reserve?”

The Anyethi’s eyes flash up to meet Hakyeon’s and he shrugs. “Should I?”

“Do you want to?”

“I don’t know…”

“Why don’t you sleep on it?”

Leo frowns. “It’s only the afternoon.”

Hakyeon rolls his eyes. “Like that’s ever stopped you before. You were complaining about giving up naps only two weeks ago.”

Leo jabs Hakyeon in the ribs but decides that yes, he will have that nap thank you very much.

“You seem tense,” Sanghyuk notes with a grin.

Leo kicks him.

Now that Sanghyuk had dealt with his own drama and troubles he had no problem teasing Leo again. Leo can’t believe he’d thought he’d missed the teasing in the last month.

After avoiding the topic all morning and then avoiding it some more with a nap, Leo had begrudgingly admitted he wanted to at least check out the Anyethi reserve.

The first thing they notice is that ‘Anyethi reserve’ might not be the right term because there were a number of different creatures here as well as a few humans, and they definitely outnumbered the Anyethi. They’re greeted by a centaur, received by an Anyegi in the office, and then shown through to an Anyethi.

The woman they’re shown to is probably the leader. Upon their entrance she looks up from her work and at first her eyes land on Hakyeon, then they slide over to Sanghyuk’s ears before finally coming to rest on Leo.

“Hi,” she says. “New admissions?”

“Excuse me?” Hakyeon asks.

“Are you moving in?” she rephrases.

“No,” Leo says like it had been a stupid question.

Hakyeon rolls his eyes. “We’re just visiting. We didn’t know there were other Anyethi.”

“Oh,” the leader grins. “You’re not the first to think that, actually. Anyway, you came on a good day. Tonight we’re having a bit of a party to celebrate the ten year anniversary of this reserve.”

“Um, not to be rude, but I think I saw more Anyegi here than Anyethi,” Sanghyuk says.

The leader laughs. “Nothing we can do about that. We’re open to any top level creature that wants to stay as well as any humans.”

“Can I ask why you accept humans?” Hakyeon wonders.

“Why should humans have to hide their magic? We hear stories from the cities all the time about humans being sent to jail because of their intuitive magic. When they live here they’re allowed to use it.”

“What about deliberate magic?”

“That’s different. Deliberate magic isn’t necessary to living.”

Hakyeon’s interest is piqued and he wants to continue this conversation but at the same time he knows it isn’t the time just yet.

“Do you want to go to the party?” he asks Leo.

Leo shrugs noncommittally and Hakyeon rolls his eyes again. “We’ll be there tonight.”

The leader smiles. “Great. It’s normally Anyethi only but you two can come if you want.”

“Thanks.”

The leader stands up and offers her hand. “I’m Lana, by the way.”

Hakyeon takes it. “Hakyeon. That’s Sanghyuk and Leo.”

They nod their greeting and Hakyeon returns the conversation to magic.

After chatting with Lana – for way too long in Sanghyuk’s opinion – they’re given a tour. The reserve is smaller than any of the Anyegi reserves they’d been to and also more set up for individuals or families instead of pack-living.

The Anyethi that shows them around introduces himself as Lucien and he does his best to introduce Leo to any Anyethi they pass.

“I kind of thought you’d try to convince us to move here,” Hakyeon admits when the tour ends.

Lucien shrugs. “Most Anyethi end up here anyway, whether I say something or not.”

Leo tries not to scoff at that but Sanghyuk does so freely. “So they just ‘gravitate’ here?” the Anyegi asks while rolling his eyes.

“No,” Lucien replies, ignoring the sass. “It’s the desire to not be lonely anymore.”

He turns to Leo with a raised eyebrow. “You thought you were the last one, right? You were lonely, weren’t you?”

Leo looks away and Hakyeon frowns. How lonely had Leo been for the last nine years? Was he not enough for Leo?

“Anyway,” Lucien shrugs when he doesn’t get an answer. “This is where Anyethi come to when they find out it exists. You will be at the party tonight, right?”

Hakyeon confirms that they would indeed be at the part and Lucien grins. “Great, I’ll see you there. Most of the older Anyethi don’t bother going and the teens sneak off to have their own party so it’ll mostly be people our age.”

Lucien had been right about who would attend the party. It was mostly Anyethi in their mid-twenties to late thirties and their children.

Hakyeon is torn between amusement and heartbreak as he watches Leo play with a bunch of kittens. He’s struck with that feeling, for the second time in only a few hours, that Leo could get the things he needs on the reserve better than he can from Hakyeon.

Leo runs around with the kittens, gently knocking them over and letting them ‘attack’ him. Once they’re exhausted Leo briefly leaves and returns in his human form, slightly ruffled but presentable enough.

Hakyeon had been watching from the other side of the room with Sanghyuk and when he sees the small smile on Leo’s lips he can’t help his plummeting mood and pulls Sanghyuk outside for some air.

“You’re really good with them,” one of the parents notes, drawing Leo into a group that contained people he’d mostly met. “Got experience with kittens?”

Leo shakes his head nonchalantly, trying to spot Hakyeon in the room. “A puppy.”

In his opinion dealing with Sanghyuk was much harder than dealing with the eight kittens, it’s exhausting just thinking about the ways Sanghyuk tormented him.

He doesn’t hear what they say after that, distracted by Hakyeon re-entering the room with Sanghyuk and wondering where they’d been. The Anyegi automatically heads over to the food and Hakyeon beelines for Leo, taking up a place in the circle. Leo doesn’t even get the chance to move over to Hakyeon or greet him when the attention has returned to him.

“So when are you going to have kids?” Leda asks.

The rest of the group scoffs and pats Leo on the back. “You can ignore her,” Lucien laughs and rolls his eyes. “She thinks if we all have babies we’ll be able to repopulate.” He grins at Leo, nudging him with his shoulder. “That being said, you don’t have plans to start a family? Plenty of women around here that are looking for a mate.”

Leo pretends he can’t feel his face heating and shakes his head.

It’s Leda’s turn to scoff. “You guys think I’m bad. At least I don’t make it sound like a breeding program.”

They discuss this for a long time and continue to discuss it even after Leo has tried to move back to the kittens, bobbing down on the floor so he can rub their stomachs. Hakyeon tries to draw Sanghyuk away from the food, telling him to leave some for others, but he finally gives up and comes to stand behind Leo.

“Are you sure you don’t want to have a family?” Lucien frowns.

Leo doesn’t remember ever stating that he doesn’t want a family, in fact he was fairly certain he’d dodged every question until now. One thing he’d noticed during the discussion was that a lot of the group were aware that they couldn’t repopulate the species with the numbers that they had, but they were still all mated and with kids. Even Lucien was expecting a baby soon despite what he’d said earlier. There was a weird push to have children with another Anyethi that wasn’t being addressed and now it was being applied to him.

When he does finally open his mouth to answer Lucien’s question he isn’t sure if he’s telling the truth or not. “I… don’t,” he states slowly, surprising everybody in the group, like it was some kind of offence.

There is a moment of silence and then Lana is pointing out every eligible woman in the room. Leo is so distracted by suddenly being set up that he doesn’t notice Hakyeon once again slip out of the room.

Hakyeon’s escape is cut off by Lana, who was sitting on a wooden bench. She smiles when she sees him and nods towards the door.

“Too much for you?” she asks as she pats the spot beside herself.

The ex-sorcerer shrugs and joins her on the bench.

“Must be hard,” Lana says. “He was only yours until now, wasn’t he? Now you have to share.”

“He’s not an ingredient,” Hakyeon grumbles. “He’s free to make his own choices.”

Lana sighs. “Most people would go with ‘object’,” she states. “So he was an ingredient?”

Hakyeon tuts and doesn’t answer so Lana rolls her eyes. “Leo doesn’t seem like he’s interested in living here so I don’t think you have to worry about that.”

“I don’t care about that,” Hakyeon replies. “I would move here for him. I’m just wondering if there are things he wants that I can’t give him.”

Lana rolls her eyes again. “Why don’t you ask? You kind of come across as the kind of person who doesn’t ask obvious questions and forces themself to suffer for no reason.”

Hakyeon purses his lips and Lana laughs. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

“Shut up.”

The Anyethi leader laughs and changes the topic and Hakyeon is grateful for the distraction.

“Did you have fun?” Hakyeon asks when they begin to walk back to their hotel after the party.

Sanghyuk, who had long since gotten bored at the party – what with there only being boring adults and kids around – was wandering ahead of them. He once again had his own room and he couldn’t wait to just spread out over the entire bed.

Leo isn’t sure ‘fun’ is the word he wants to use. “It was nice,” he admits grudgingly. “I didn’t think I’d be accepted so quickly.”

By the time they get back to their hotel Leo has told Hakyeon about everything that had been discussed, including when Anyethi had started leaving the other country. He does avoid all the talk about kittens – even though it had dominated the conversation for a lot of the night – and Hakyeon pretends he isn’t curious for as long as he can and Leo pretends he hadn’t noticed Hakyeon’s disappearance.

Leo pulls on his pyjamas quickly but Hakyeon just stands there. Sensing something weird is going on Leo frowns at him in question.

“You…don’t want to have a family?” Hakyeon asks hesitantly, looking down.

He wants to groan in frustration because he instantly knows Hakyeon had spent the whole night thinking about this. Instead a small smile tugs at the corner of Leo’s mouth. For a moment he bites his lip to hide it and in almost the same moment he’s reaching out and cupping Hakyeon’s face in his hands, forcing the older man to meet his eyes.

“I have you already,” Leo tells him before closing the distance between them in a soft kiss. “And besides, we have a puppy.”

Ravi has a deep voice but he can scream quite high, as they find out after teleporting into Chunja’s kitchen. He clings to Hongbin who had been right on the verge of casting a protection spell before seeing who it was.

Jaehwan on the other hand had dropped underneath the table in panic but when he realises what had happened he stands up again.

“Would you ing not, Leo?” he demands.

Sanghyuk grins at Jaehwan’s distress and unhooks his arm from Hakyeon’s. “That was great.”

“No it wasn’t,” Hakyeon scolds turning to Leo “I can’t believe you let him talk you into that!”

He’d already shot down this plan when they were still at the hotel and he really can’t believe that Leo had gone through with it.

Leo hides a smile and takes the bag from Hakyeon’s hand, intending to take their stuff upstairs before his stomach can rumble at the smell of pancakes. Hakyeon is about to continue his scolding when Chunja enters the kitchen.

“You know,” she says, “most people come in the front door.”

The Anyethi shrugs and starts his way up the stairs with Sanghyuk. Hongbin, who had been weirdly quiet since their arrival, finally draws their attention.

“You made me ing burn it.”

“Language,” Chunja reproaches, smacking Hongbin on the back of the head. “You’re spending too much time with Jaehwan.”

“Hey!”

Ravi, who had been chortling at the sight of his boyfriend getting in trouble for swearing, instantly shuts up when his mum throws him a look. “You too,” she says.

Hakyeon feels a weird sort of comradery with Chunja in that moment and he sighs. “I’ll help you make more breakfast, Hongbinnie.”

They spend breakfast recounting the last month, enjoying the surprise everybody seems to have when they mention the Anyethi reserve and the horror on their faces when Sanghyuk explains what his parents had done.

Finally when they’ve finished eating and cleaning up Chunja asks the big question. “What are you all going to do now?”

And their only response is to shrug.

And it’s done. Finally. Good God.

Questions? Ask them.

Thing I’m happiest about is that this continuation allowed me to fix my plot hole…finally. It was hanging over my head since I realised it was there but I’m glad nobody really noticed it or at least didn’t ask about it. Let me put it this way, if nobody could walk around the hallways of the house when Hakyeon was in bed, then how did those apprentices kidnap Leo? Hmm? At least it’s fixed now…

As for drabbles, I’m thinking no. I have several ideas I could write about but at the same time I just want to end it so I can finally work on other stuff. If you want to know what they’re doing, ask and I’ll tell.

Anyway, thanks for reading the continuation and thank you to the people the who subscribed while I was uploading this.