well, this got out of hand. I originally wanted this to be like a short 2k thing of cuteness but then I added some backstory and some more dialogue and slightly changed up my original plot. When I said halfway a day or two ago it was at like 1k. Now it's almost 5k. Totally out of hand. But hopefully people will like it. And the way I wrote this actually leaves room for more stories and possible back stories and future ones with other pairings as well. We'll have to see how I feel about writing anything more in here. Till the next story.

The fact that Jeonghan frequented Wish Upon a Star, wasn’t a secret. Like at all. All of his friends knew, his younger sister knew, hell even his parents knew and they didn’t even live in the same city anymore. But word trickled down the grapevine, also known as Seungkwan and everyone and their mother knew that he was crushing on Joshua Hong, wizard extraordinaire and owner of Wish Upon a Star.

It wasn’t courtship. No matter what his friends said he wasn’t courting the wizard. Just because he would leave some things for Joshua on the steps of his side door meant nothing ok. No mom and dad it didn’t mean that he was bringing a mate home. No friends of his it didn’t mean he was settling down. And no wolf inside him it didn’t mean he was courting. Just no.

He helped ok. Jeonghan was just helping the busy guy since he didn’t have time to replenish his ingredients himself. And some of them were dangerous to get too, well better the werewolf than the human with magical powers. Jeonghan had super strength after all.

But if his friends knew what he was doing now he’d never be able to see them without them heckling him about it. Because he was currently walking through the city with a bloody carcass in his mouth. It was the carcass of a jackalope. Jeonghan heard while he was in Wish Upon a Star, for something important ok, his mom wanted something from there.  If he was honest it was because his mom liked the mixture that Joshua sold for straight, smooth, shiny hair, and she was out and Jeonghan being the good son was going to buy it and send it to her. The fact that Joshua always manned his own store after lunch hours was just an extra bonus.

He overheard Joshua talk to Jihoon, a fellow wizard, who came in for something.

“Sorry Jihoon,” that sweet smile that took his breath away made its presence, “I’m out of jackalope antlers. I haven’t had the time to go hunt for it again. My normal suppliers aren’t bringing any in either.”

Jihoon pursed his lips, “That bites. I needed it for a new experimental potion.” He shrugged, “I guess I’ll get those Jabberwock feathers then only.”

And that led Jeonghan here dropping off said bloody carcass on Joshua’s door step. The sound of the antlers on the pavement must’ve been loud because Joshua came out opening the door. Now Jeonghan was fast and he could’ve run away before he got here but curse him, he wanted those head pats.

“Oh,” Joshua said, “you’re back.” He crouched down and gave Jeonghan long pats on the head, ruffling his ears on occasion. If his mouth wasn’t full of blood he’d start drooling and lolling his tongue out. He settled for wagging his long tail.

“You know you shouldn’t be helping me like this, “Joshua said quietly with that cute smile. “I know you’re a werewolf but it’s dangerous for you too.” Joshua tsked as he saw blood matting Jeonghan’s black red fur. “Look at you, you’re all bloody. Wait here. Let me clean you up a bit.” He paused, “Do you want to come in? I can give you a bath, that way it’ll be easier.”

Jeonghan shook his large head. No, taking Joshua’s invitation into his home would be stupid. Like helping him and leaving things wasn’t stupid already. Joshua would likely offer to let him sleep here over night which would then lead him to accepting, he was a weak man after all especially to that face, and things would degenerate from there. No best not.

Joshua pouted. “Ok. But wait right here. At least let me clean you up a bit.”

He should’ve left when Joshua went inside to get a bucket and a brush, but he wanted to bask in the attention just a bit longer. Even if it was given to his werewolf form and not his human one. Ah, he was a weak man. Weak to Joshua Hong.

He came back with a bucket of what smelled like lavender water and a giant brush. Jeonghan stood up on all fours. Waving his tail, he stayed still as Joshua worked the soap upped brush into his fur.

“Look at all this blood on your beautiful fur,” Joshua tsked. “At least it’s not yours.”

It wasn’t. The jackalope wasn’t a hard kill but the other animals out at night were a slight annoyance. Especially the supernatural ones who thought they could take on a werewolf.

Closing his eyes, he let his senses drown in the feel of Joshua’s hands running through his fur, cleaning it gently, the light scent of lavender helped too. If he could just stay there forever as a wolf with Joshua he would, but good things always came to an end.

A sneeze cut through the moment, violently startling Jeonghan out of his trance. He forgot that Joshua was standing in the cold night air cleaning him. Turning away from Joshua’s brushing, he pushed at the wizard with his snout.

“He—Hey. I’m not done yet,” Joshua said, surprised by the sudden pushing.

Jeonghan kept pushing, as Joshua let out another tiny sneeze.

“Ok, ok. I get it. You want me in the house.” Joshua laughed at how cute the werewolf was being.

Jeonghan turned to go, stopping when he heard Joshua call out to him. “Ah! Wait.”

He walked over to Jeonghan and bent down to eye level. Standing on his fours like this he was at just a bit higher than Joshua’s waist. “Here a reward.” Joshua kissed him right between his eyes, giving him one last pet on his head. “Next time I’ll have a steak for you.”

Jeonghan barked out an assenting sound before looping around Joshua’s legs one time and shooting off into the night. The kisses were an extra bonus. He didn’t expect them all right. And if no one but him knew, well, all the better.

He slept deeply. Ignoring the chirping of the birds, the throwing of daily paper onto his porch, his neighbors shouting good morning to each other as they went about their morning routine of getting into the city for work or getting their little monsters to school. Jeonghan even ignored the buzzing of his cellphone. It was probably notifications from their group chat, but his friends could bite his wolf right now.

But no. His friends couldn’t apparently leave him alone, or someone couldn’t. There was an incessant knocking sound that came from his front door. Jeonghan would have gladly ignored it like he did his phone but his poor ears heard the dulcet tones of Seungkwan’s siren voice scream through the door. He freaking knew how good Jeonghan’s hearing was, but him, nooo he couldn’t leave Jeonghan to dream more about Joshua and the petting, and a whole different type of petting that involved no clothes and Joshua whimpering in his ears how he wanted Jeonghan to show him what a werewolf could do in bed.

Growling as he got up, he stomped down the stairs wrenching his door open. “What?” he barked.

“Well good morning to you Mr. Grumpy wolf pants,” Seungkwan said airily.

“A good morning would involve my bed and my good dreams. Not you on my doorstep,” Jeonghan snarled.

“Too bad. I dropped by because I heard a little birdy sighting a black wolf with some rather distinct reddish hair walking through the streets last night,” Seungkwan said, pressing a finger to his lips contemplating. “In fact the birdy said it followed said large wolf to its home. And,” gasping out loud for effect, “it saw the wolf walk into the backyard of this very house.” He looked at Jeonghan with a raised brow, “Now who could that wolf be? Hmm.”

Jeonghan cursed under his breath. Freaking Seokmin and his need to fly at night. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he waved his hand. Walking to his kitchen he started making his morning coffee. “Wolves are common in this part of the town.” He quirked his eyebrow at Seungkwan, “You know since there’s a pack living in this very town.” Shrugging Jeonghan continued to do what he did best, lie through his super sharp teeth. “Lots of wolves go through these parts you know. Since my house meets the edges of the forest.”

Seungkwan side eyed him. “Sure hyung whatever you say.” Crossing his arms lightly, he said, “Well I guess since you’re all grumpy you won’t want to come with me on my errand run.”

“And why on Earth would I want to do that with you?” The last time he let Seungkwan drag him on his errand run, Jeonghan sat in a chair watching him flirt badly with a half vampire by the name of Vernon, who was close friends with Joshua. But the flirting made him his stomach roil.

He poured his coffee into his favorite mug. A cat faced painted thing that reminded him of Joshua a bit.

“Oh. You know I’m dropping by Wish Upon a Star. My voice has been bothering me lately. I’m going to have a consultation with Joshua.” Seungkwan smiled slyly, “He’s the only one around who takes special consultations.”

Jeonghan drank his coffee as calmly as he could. There’s no way he’d let Seungkwan get the pleasure of seeing him all excited. Even if he was a metaphorical large wild dog didn’t mean he had to wag his tail every time he heard Joshua’s name.

“Wish Upon a Star? Well I have some things to do there too.” He shrugged nonchalantly. “I guess we can go together.”

Seungkwan smiled. “Sure hyung. We can go together.”

Apparently Seungkwan’s car was in the shop, which was one of the main reasons he came over to bother Jeonghan about going on his errand run with him. The siren was lucky that he mentioned Wish Upon a Star first rather than later. Otherwise Jeonghan would’ve slammed the door in his face.

He drove into Main Street, parking in the lot closest to Joshua’s store, ignoring Seungkwan’s squawk of how far they would have to walk for his other errands.

“I never said I’d go with you to those stores,” Jeonghan said. “I can park my in Jun’s café while you go around doing the other stuff.” He raised his brow in a threatening manner.

Sputtering Seungkwan said, “I, I, I can tell Joshua that—“

“You can tell me what?” Joshua said, popping up out of nowhere.

How the wizard managed to always do that to Jeonghan he didn’t know. It weirded him out. He senses were amazing, thanks to being a werewolf and all. But Joshua always sneaked up on him and Jeonghan didn’t hear a single footstep or a breathing noise.

“Joshua, out for lunch?” Jeonghan asked. He smiled at the cute faux glasses perched on Joshua’s nose. He remembered asking about them once, and Joshua had told him he found them to be sort of fun. Not to mention that it gave him something to do with his hands when he was bored.

 Jeonghan ignored Seungkwan’s side glare. The siren knew that Jeonghan had Joshua’s schedule known by heart. He only asked for flirting sakes, which sadly enough didn’t seem to affect Joshua any, sad for Jeonghan. But Seungkwan and the others told him that it was probably his playboy reputation that the older women liked to gossip about. Those old biddies always frequented Joshua’s store much to Jeonghan’s annoyance. Most likely telling him of all the things his group of friends did and the people he was seen around.  He could imagine them saying, “Oh Joshua my dear. You should stay away from that Yoon boy. Always such a flirt. Even when he was young.”

He was. A flirt back in high school and his early years in college. He jumped from one person to the next, flitting about, never settling down or finding the one true mate that all werewolves wanted to find. Jeonghan spent his younger years searching only to come up empty. Until Joshua moved into town.

It was the talk of the town, a wizard into their already bustling supernatural filled town. But not just any wizard. A Hong as rumors went. Well they weren’t so much rumors as one of the real estate agent’s secretaries blabbed about how he had bought a building on Main Street that was sitting abandoned. Town history went the Hong’s settled down during the start of Starry Hollow, establishing themselves as the premier magic users of the area. They upped and moved though a few generations back, leaving the town that established their name, taking their coven with them. And now it was like a prodigal son coming back to his roots. Except he’d been born and raised in a city a few hours away.

Joshua coming to this town, made Jeonghan’s senses go wild. It made him crazy. When he first stumbled into the wizard’s shop the smells from various potions and ingredients assaulted his senses, but the smell of chocolate and jasmine overpowered everything else. Now everywhere he went, he sniffed for that combination of chocolate and jasmine, hoping Joshua would be nearby.

The books never went into too much detail on finding the one true mate. And stories passed down weren’t concrete enough. All of them in the end said that a wolf would just know. But Jeonghan was still unsure. He waffled on whether or not Joshua was the “one”. All he knew was that he wanted the wizard bad and he couldn’t stop sensing him when they were in close proximity.

Laughing Joshua brought Jeonghan out from his wool gathering. “I’m surprised you can’t smell it on me,” he said tilting his head in a way that drew Jeonghan’s eyes to his very bitable neck. “I went to eat at Mingyu’s restaurant. Pasta with lots of garlic.” Joshua tapped his lip, “He said something about keeping away beings who could smell really well. And it was for my safety.”

Jeonghan smiled back, putting that little tidbit away. He’d make sure to get back at Mingyu for that. But no, Jeonghan couldn’t actually smell the garlic. All he smelled was the jasmine and chocolate. That scent that swirled around Joshua and filled his nose every time he got near.

Seungkwan smirked, “Hmm I wonder why. Lots of supernatural beings have a good nose. Mingyu hyung’s nose must be off. Weird for a werewolf.”

Joshua shrugged. “You’re here for your consult right? Let’s go.”

They followed Joshua to the store, making small talk on the way.

Walking in Joshua gave a greeting to his part time worker, “How was the store Chan?”

“Good, hyung. Just the regulars,” Chan said with a smile.

Holding up a bag, Joshua placed it on the counter. “Here. I got something for you while I was out.” He ruffled Chan’s head. “I’ll be doing a consult with Seungkwan in the back. Come get me if someone needs more help than you can give.” Turning to Jeonghan, “Chan can help you if you need anything. If he can’t—,”

“Jeonghan hyung can wait,” Seungkwan said cutting in. “He’s my ride and he has to wait for me anyhow.”

“Oh, I see. That’s nice of you,” Joshua said smiling at him.

“Yea,” Jeonghan said. If he sounded smitten that was his business and his business alone.

Seungkwan started dragging Joshua to the back. “Time to fix my voice hyung. It feels off.”

Jeonghan let Seungkwan’s blabbering filter out as the two of them went behind the curtains. He turned to Chan, “So my dear child, anyone come in to hit on your other dad?”

Sighing Chan replied, “First, I’m not your kid. And second if anyone came in to hit on Joshua hyung that’s also none of your business. But since I’m a nice kid that my mom raised me to be, I’ll tell you since you like Joshua hyung so much. The old grannies and moms with single daughters as usual have been throwing their daughters and granddaughters at him.” He shrugged, “Joshua hyung hasn’t bothered to take any of their offers. I think he’s waiting on someone but don’t quote me on that.”

That got Jeonghan’s hopes up. Just a bit ok. “Thanks kid,” he ruffled Chan’s hair.

“Ugh. What’s with you people and touching my hair?”

Jeonghan laughed. “You’re a kid. We ruffle your hair out of love and because we think you’re cute,” he pointed to the corner of the store that housed the books, “I’ll be over there. Alert me if any of those old biddies come in.” He smiled, making sure to show his sharp canines, “I’m tired of them bad mouthing me to Joshua.”

“If you’re sure hyung. Have fun reading I guess. If you can even stand to read for that long.” He scoffed, “If you can even read.”

“Hey,” Jeonghan snapped. “Low blow Chan.”

Chan gave him a sly smile. “Just giving you a taste of your own medicine once in a while. Can’t do anything to me. Unless you want your Joshua informant to go MIA?”

Jeonghan tsked and shook his head. “You learned well. All right. I’ll take the minor dissing. For now.”

He browsed the books on werewolves, making little noises of surprise when the books actually got the information right. Joshua stocked the legit stuff it seemed. But all those sections on one true mate were vague and flowery as hell. Damn werewolves and their inability to say things beyond love, and happiness and that the wolf would know. He needed more than that.

Hearing Seungkwan let out a tiny screech, he honed his ears into their conversation.

“Hmmm. That does sound weird. Even for sirens.” Tapping hit his ears, Joshua must’ve been tapping a pen. “I know a draught I can prepare, but the ingredients that go in it are rather pricy so it’s going to cost you.”

“How pricy?” Jeonghan heard rustling, Seungkwan moved most likely to grab Joshua. His voice was his pride and joy, his life, so money would probably be of no issue as long as it worked. “The draught works right? I don’t want to sink money into something that won’t work.” The panic in Seungkwan’s voice was evident.

“It works. I’ve done some work for sirens before. I even managed to heal a siren whose throat had been mauled.” There was a pause. “It’s pricy. Like this many zeroes pricy.” The scratching of pen across paper made its way to Jeonghan’s ears.

Seungkwan gasped. “Are you sure it works?”

“If it doesn’t work completely for you I’ll slash the price by 75%. But this is one of the draughts I used on the siren who lost her voice. Your case is mild but nothing else I have now will work.”

“Ok. As long as it works. My voice is life. Literally.” True, Seungkwan was a voice instructor and he had a side job of singing. “I need it to get back to how it normally is. How long is it going to take to make?”

Joshua hummed. “About a month. Maybe a few weeks. I need to hunt down a basilisk for this. My normal suppliers have been low on some of my stuff recently and it’s starting to annoy me. So I have to hunt for this one myself. That way I might be able to cut down on the cost of the draught for you if I cut out the middle man. Well the middle hunter in this case.”

“Deal.”

Joshua laughed. “All right. Let me get the right paperwork and I’ll tweak some of the terms of the contract in this case. I’ll be right back.”

A basilisk huh. That was a dangerous piece of work. One that did actually happen to live in the upper reaches of the mountains near the town. But the nest that lay there was left undisturbed as most of the supernatural beings dwelling in the town had no use for it. And the bounty hunters weren’t brave or good enough to go after it themselves, not the ones who lived in this town anyway.

He nodded to himself. He could do it. Take down a basilisk and bring it back to Joshua. He’d have to do a bit of research but he should be able to do it by tonight even. He wasn’t nicknamed the Red Typhoon for nothing.

Jeonghan would have to watch out for Seokmin later tonight too. He didn’t need little birdies blabbing again. The group chat was full of texts and noise about courting and congratulations on him finding someone worthy to call a mate. Which was funny because Joshua didn’t even know and he wasn’t courting. He wasn’t.

The subsequent trek up the mountains was invigorating, even for a lazy sort of wolf like himself. The trek down was even better, because downward slopes were always easier. But somehow halfway down he felt a bit off. Jeonghan shrugged it off as being woken up too early from another late night escapade. He was lucky that this particular basilisk had been relatively young and stupid, making it an easy kill.

The closer he got to Joshua’s store the heavier his paws felt. He felt light headed, dizzy even. Which was incredibly odd. Did he get hit when he was battling the snake? Jeonghan didn’t feel anything. Now though, he took huge breaths feeling winded when he shouldn’t be. He blinked. Were those dark spots? He dragged the bag closer. His body felt so heavy. Why? Heaving the bag onto the doorstep it landed with a large thunk. As per normal it alerted Joshua, who came running down the stairs. But why was his hearing weird. It felt muffled.

The door swung open.

“Oh my god,” Joshua said. But Jeonghan’s ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton and his vision kept going out. “You’re hurt. No.” Joshua shook his head, covering his mouth in horror. “What did you fight this time?”

Jeonghan swayed, his eyes filling with Joshua’s concerned face, before he fell with a thump.

“No, oh no.”

His eyes drooped. Whining he tried to reassure Joshua he was fine. He was just tired. Let him rest for a bit.

Everything went black.

Jeonghan woke up startled. He hissed as he felt pain lancing up his left side. Gingerly he touched the bandage, which was clean of blood yet he still felt tender. Wound aside, where was he? Looking around all he saw was a warm medium blue color painting the walls and some very neutral sort decorations. He took in a huge sniff. Jeonghan jumped out of his skin. The whole place smelled of chocolate and jasmine.

. Now he remembered. He went to go basilisk hunting for Joshua and made it back only to feel funky and sick. He must’ve collapsed against Joshua’s doorstep. No doubt if he went by scent that he was in Joshua’s home. A guest room most likely.

. He was human. When did he turn back into his human form? God damn it. How did Joshua take this? When? How? What the was he going to do?

“You’re awake. Thank goodness.” Joshua said, cutting through the silence, startling Jeonghan. “How are you?”

“A— “He cleared his throat. It felt hoarse from disuse. God how long was he sleeping? “A bit of pain. How long did I sleep?”

“Today is day three.” Holding up the potion and a towel, he asked, “Pain on the wound right?”

Jeonghan nodded.

“Ok. Let me put some more on. A few more applications and you’ll be fine. A bit tender but up and running again.”

Joshua came close and sat down on the chair to the side of the bed. Slowly undoing the bandages, he said, “I was so worried when I saw the basilisk in the bag and a cut on your body. It was a of luck you changed back into your human form.” He dripped a small stream of the potion on the rag and gently pressed it onto the wound. “Werewolves are hard to treat unless they’re awake or someone can tell me what went wrong. My experience is limited to humanoid creatures so far.”

Jeonghan almost shied away in the face of abrupt pain. “Sorry,” Joshua said with a sheepish smile. “It stings. I would’ve said so earlier but you slept the entire time I cleaned it out and kept applying this healing potion.” Looking up at Jeonghan while he gently wiped at the semi closed cut, “I told your friends about where you were once you turned back. They know you’re here in case you wanted to know why no one was going crazy asking about where you were.”

“No. It’s fine. No one comes to visit that often. I didn’t have plans to see them either,” Jeonghan rasped.  “How are you not freaking out? I was a wolf and then a hu— “

Cutting Jeonghan off, “I was freaking out a bit when I saw you collapse and I had to heal you before anything else happened. The wolf to human transformation didn’t even register. I was too worried to even care.”

Jeonghan stared at Joshua’s lowered head and the slight blush on the back of his neck and the flush making its way to his ears. He wasn’t imagining this right. Please let luck smile upon him.

“But,” Joshua said, wrapping a set of new bandages around his wound, “we’re going to have to talk about your dangerous habits of hunting things down for me Mr. Wolf. It’s dangerous for me but I take precautions. You, you on other hand.” He shook his head, “Definitely no more hunting for you. Not without me anyway.”

Joshua put down the roll of bandages, placing his hand on Jeonghan’s side he murmured a slight pain easing spell on the wound.

“Not without you…?” Jeonghan asked trailing off. This was all too confusing right now.

“I know classic werewolf courting behavior when I see it, Jeonghan.” Joshua stared fiercely into his eyes. “I noticed ok. I’m not blind. I just didn’t know which werewolf it was. Now I do. There’s no way I’m letting you go hunting for me alone anymore. Not after this,” he said waving his hands at the state Jeonghan was in.

“Wait. Wait does this mean you accept my courting you?” God he sounded so dumb right now, but sue him. He just woke up from being in a sleep induced healing coma. Basilisk venom is nothing to sneeze at. And it sounded like he’d have Joshua right where he wanted him, in his arms.

“I think by accepting your gifts that yes I did indeed accept. You’d think as a werewolf you’d know that,” Joshua said with an eyebrow raised incredulously. “Now that I can put a face to the giant wolf puppy who lovingly laid down such hard to get gifts it’s even better. But I much prefer sweets and dates. In human form. Words are great too. Since they don’t involve anyone getting hurt and blood.”

Scrambling closer to Joshua, letting out a large wince, he nearly shouted, “I can do dates. And less bloody courting gifts. Absolutely.”

Joshua gently pushed him back into the bed. “That’s great. But now you need to heal. Any future dating and courting will have to wait right Mr. Wolf?” The smile on Joshua’s face was sweet, so very sweet, yet why was it laced with such a frightening feeling. Like death and pain if he didn’t comply.

He nodded meekly.

“Good. I’ll be back with some food. You must be hungry. We can sort things out later.” Joshua stood up. Bending down he gave Jeonghan a light kiss on the forehead. “And just in case you didn’t know. I like you too.” He started walking toward the door, “Stay in the bed.” Joshua gave him a warm smile, “We can talk about everything later.”

The door clicked shut. Jeonghan laid back in the pillows, a wild grin on his face. He’d jump for joy if he didn’t want to collapse in pain and have Joshua come in and scream at him in worry and anger. Yes. Courtship successful and acknowledged. Well half successful. But Joshua agreed to dating. They were well on the path of mates. “Yes,” he said punching a fist into the air, letting out a slight groan at the pain, that wild grin still plastered on his face.