pairing: ChenLay
length: 1743 words

“Oi, Dae, did you take out the trash yet?” Yixing sleepily calls out as he ambles into the kitchen to fix up a bowl of cereal for breakfast.

However, to his surprise, there isn’t an answer.

The older male frowns slightly, but finishes pouring milk into his bowl before trying again. “Dae, the garbage collection is at noon. Did you forget? It’s your turn to take out the trash,” he reiterates, his voice a bit louder and a bit more annoyed this time.

But the older male is only met with complete silence once more and Yixing’s eyebrows furrow even deeper as he carries his bowl of Frosted Flakes with him into the living room.

“Hello? Jongdae? Are you up yet?” Yixing heads into the hallway, briefly peeking into their shared office before moving on when he sees that it’s empty, and then stops in front of his best friend’s bedroom.

The Chinese male sharply knocks on the door three times, but there’s still no response.

“It’s already nine-thirty. How are you still in bed?” Yixing asks in exasperation as he pushes down the door handle.

And just as he’s about to enter Jongdae’s bedroom, the Chinese male hears a panicked, “Don’t come in!” from the other side.

“Okay, seriously, what’s going on, Dae? If this is you trying to get out of trash duty, you’re doing an awful job of it,” Yixing notes with a snort. “Now hurry up and get dressed. I’ve got a meeting at ten and I’d like to enjoy my breakfast before my bosses rip apart my presentation today,” he grimly adds.

“No, no, no, it’s—”

But it’s too late. The door fully swings open and reveals Jongdae, curled in the corner with the left window curtain wrapped around him. But it isn’t his strange behavior that suddenly causes the older male’s brain to malfunction.

Yixing could not care less about how the curtains are practically falling from the wall, messy and wrinkled, when Jongdae has pointed black ears poking through his tousled locks of hair.

He could not care less about the ripped clothes scattered across the floor when Jongdae has bright green eyes and white whiskers sticking out of his otherwise smooth and deathly pale cheeks.

He could not care less about the overall disarray that the bedroom is in when Jongdae has black paws instead of hands and a long black tail wrapped around him, fluffed out in fear.

And before Yixing knows it, the world suddenly turns black and everything clatters to the floor.

--

When Yixing finally comes to, he’s sprawled on his back across the floor of Jongdae’s bedroom. There’s a quiet noise of something lapping at liquid and the older male groans loudly as he shifts towards the sound and narrows his eyes, trying to focus on what’s happening.

And then he finds himself face-to-face with Jongdae the cat hungrily up his spilled cereal and, without thinking, Yixing lets out a yell which startles Jongdae, causing the cat-human to shrink away with his furry ears flattened against his black hair.

“That—that’s my cereal!” the older male cries, since that seems to be the most logical thing to say after suddenly finding out his roommate has turned into a cat hybrid…thing.

“I know, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Jongdae frets, trying to hide away under the window curtains again. “I just couldn’t resist. I haven’t eaten yet and the milk smelled so good and—”

“Oh my god, wait, what—what happened to you, Dae?!” Yixing finally asks as the fog in his brain slowly disappears. “You’re… You’re…”

“I—I don’t know!” Jongdae pulls the curtain even tighter around him. “I just woke up this morning and found myself looking like…like this! Like a freak! A monster! And I don’t know how to change myself back! I don’t even know how I got like this in the first place!”

“Maybe this is some kinda…weird, messed up dream we’re both in?” the older male suggests while pinching his arm hard. He hisses from the immediate sting, but unfortunately, nothing about his environment changes. Jongdae the cat is still there, cowering in absolute fear. “Or…maybe not…”

“Help me, Xing! Please! I don’t wanna be like this forever,” Jongdae wails as he shoots out from under the curtain and desperately latches onto Yixing’s leg, causing the Chinese male to exhale sharply from the sudden weight. “My life is over! I’ll never be able to leave the house ever again! And I’ll never have a family or friends or a job or anything anymore! I’m toast. I’m done for. This is it.”

Yixing feels like his own life has just ended as well, even though he’s still fully human—from what he knows. If Jongdae doesn’t have even the slightest inkling of why or how he…transformed—for lack of a better word—into this…thing—again, Yixing’s brain is currently incapable of assigning a proper term—then who knows if the older male is next? It might only be a matter of time before he also wakes up and suddenly finds a pair of furry ears attached to the top of his head.

The thought of it makes Yixing want to throw up.

But he can’t lose his mind now. Not when his best friend is pitifully holding onto him, as if for dear life, and blinking up at him with those shockingly bright green eyes. It’s uncanny and freakish, to tell the truth, and the Chinese male instinctively wants to flinch away because of how unnatural all of this is.

But he can’t. Jongdae is still shaking like a leaf, his complexion as white as a sheet, and his poor best friend looks just about ready to throw up as well.

As the “normal” one between the two of them, Yixing can’t afford to break down just yet. At least not until tonight when he’s back in his own room, in the comfort of his own bed.

But even then, he probably isn’t safe. Not from whatever freaky invisible magic that seems to be swirling around their home.

With a heavy sigh, the older male gently scoops Jongdae’s tiny frame—he somehow feels even smaller than usual—into his arms before heaving the two of them up from the floor and heading into the living room. After placing the cat-human onto the couch and flopping down next to him, Yixing monotonously says, “We’re both taking this week off from work.”

“Of course we are! I can’t go into the office looking like this.” Jongdae gestures to his ears and tail before immediately paling, which Yixing didn’t think was possible until this very moment, considering how pallid his best friend already looked. “Oh no.”

“Dae, please spare me from any other surprises,” the older male begs, rubbing his temples in exhaustion as he thinks about how he’s going to have to cancel his presentation in the next five minutes without getting fired on the spot for incompetency.

“There’s a showcase tomorrow that I have to facilitate,” his best friend reveals as he restlessly begins rocking back and forth in his seat. “This has been in the works for months now! If I cancel it, I’ll be costing the company thousands of dollars!”

“Just get someone else to cover for you. You can’t be that important,” Yixing callously says, having already reached his emotional bandwidth limit for the day as he tries to formulate an email to his own bosses, who most likely won’t forgive him for being unprofessional and inept—even though none of this is his fault. Not that they’ll ever know that, which royally stinks.

“But I can’t! I’m the only one who has all of the details! I’m the one who planned everything! I can’t just not show up, not when my name is plastered all over the program!” And then there are sounds of ripping as Jongdae starts anxiously clawing at the couch cushion while he continues to rock in place.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Yixing yelps as he immediately tosses his phone to the side, grabs Jongdae’s arms, and hugs the cat-human to his chest to keep his best friend from tearing up the place even more.“You are not going to that showcase tomorrow and you are not going to continue destroying our furniture,” the older male firmly states. “I’ll… I’ll make up an excuse for you and then we’re going to treat ourselves to pizza before we try to figure out what the heck is going on.” He grimaces as he adds, “I still haven’t eaten breakfast, so I’m starving and my brain will be useless until we get some food.”

Jongdae’s stomach also rumbles in agreement.

With that, Yixing gingerly releases his best friend, who has thankfully calmed down from his frenzy. “Just… Just stay here and call the pizza place while I clean things up.”

“Um, Xing…I… I don’t think I can use my phone anymore,” Jongdae softly points out, his head bowed in mortification as he holds out a paw.

Yixing wants to bash his head through the wall and knock himself out at this point.

But he reins in his frustration—because it really isn’t Jongdae’s fault, Yixing keeps telling himself—and just sighs in response. “Okay, I’ll help dial the phone number and put it on speakerphone. You do the talking.”

“Okay. Thanks, Xing.”

“It’s… It’s fine,” the older male answers in resignation as he retrieves his phone from the ground, internally thanking the heavens that it didn’t break earlier—because that certainly would’ve been the cherry on top.

And once he hears Jongdae greet the pizza place employee on the other side, Yixing finally allows himself to leave his best friend alone and hobble into the younger male’s bedroom. There’s black fur, claw marks, and spilled milk and Frosted Flakes everywhere.

And Yixing wants to cry.

But he can’t. After all, he isn’t the one whose life suddenly turned upside-down today. He isn’t the one who can’t go outside or do even the simplest tasks anymore, simply because he no longer has hands. He isn’t the one who suddenly sprouted extra appendages that don’t belong on a human at all.

Even so, this doesn’t stop the tears from welling up and falling down Yixing’s cheeks as he begins tidying up Jongdae’s bedroom.

Because if they don’t figure out what’s going on soon, they’re both completely and utterly screwed for the rest of their lives.

♈♈♈