Baekhyun knows he’s lucky. He realizes he’s lucky the moment he’s allowed to sleep on Chanyeol’s bed and curl up against his shoulder, the other drowsily touching his ears and fingers buried in his fur. He’s lucky because Chanyeol is the same age as he is, he smells nice although he’s a teenager -and teenagers usually stink- and has called him puppy the first night he got him.

The thing is, Baekhyun’s personality is quite reserved originally, he doesn’t like talking about himself and his problems that much, he’s just… shy. He’s a shy teenager. Or he would be, if wasn’t for the fact that Baekhyun is also part corgi. And corgis are dogs, especially friendly and playful dogs. They’re wary with strangers, true, but they get attached to their owners and people surrounding them quite quickly.

The contrasts is sometimes too harsh even for him, being this weird cocktail of independence and affection at the same time makes him wonder if he’s got a split personality or something similar. He’s thirteen, it gets him frustrated all the time how much corgi Baekhyun likes cuddling, and babies, and playing fetch. Whereas human Baekhyun just wants to be alone and pretend like he absolutely hates Chanyeol.

No, it’s not pretending. He genuinely doesn’t like him.

Chanyeol said he wanted a big dog. A dog. Not a hybrid. And sure, he apologized after, but human Baekhyun holds grudges like the scariest of ghosts and the fact that his new owner didn’t want him at first puts him off a bit. A lot bit.

Still, he knows he’s lucky. He was made like any other hybrid in some facility at the border of the country. That’s the first thing they learn in school, when studying how human families work. They learn how Hybrids don’t have parents because they’re created in vitro, and because their future owners are supposed to become their real family some day. Which had made Baekhyun extremely sad, at first. He was too young and with too little experience to really grasp the concept of familial love, but he knew that something was missing.

Still he can’t complain, the facilities where hybrids are raised can either be really bad or really good, he heard it from the first family that adopted him when he was eleven. Before that, he thought that every Hybrid Institution would be nice and happy just like the one where he grew up, but apparently he was wrong.

Also, he soon found out that some owners abuse of their Hybrids, even from a young age. And although he’s not sure what abuse means, the face his owners make when they watch the news and something like that comes up, tells him that it’s nothing good.

Chanyeol wanted a dog, Baekhyun can tell, when he wakes up to the other hugging him tighter in his sleep, his nose pressed against one of the corgi’s ears. Human Baekhyun mentally groans, because he might look like a puppy but he’s all grown up now, cuddles are for kids only. However his corgi self is also extremely happy at Chanyeol’s display of affection, even if it’s an unconscious one, he feels like his heart could explode because suddenly he likes Chanyeol, he likes him a lot.

Living with a family is fun, especially with Chanyeol’s family.
Some things are still weird, though. The bathroom thing, for example.

“Chanyeol are you done in there?”

There’s only one bathroom in the house, and when Chanyeol decides he’s going to take forever to style his damn horrible hair, there’s no whining and scratching the door that can distract him. So here he is, wearing nothing but Chanyeol’s t-shirt, because he does have a bed, but he sleeps with Chanyeol in corgi form -and his clothes don’t shift with him of course.

“Almost done!” Chanyeol’s nasal I’m-a-teenager-my-voice-is-changing voice comes from behind the door, and Baekhyun groans, his back against it. Peeing is important, peeing is something that everyone does and although he could technically just do it as a corgi in the back garden, there’s some things he just prefers doing as a human, and that’s one of them.

“Yeol c’mon please I need the toilet. I’m gonna pee on your bed, can’t you hurry?”

He doesn’t. He comes out after five minutes, Baekhyun is seriously bursting.
Things get even weirder when he opens the faucet to wash his hands after doing the deed and the water comes out of the shower instead. He screams in surprise, then shifts on instinct.

Baekhyun?

Awkward.

Chanyeol knocks on the door a couple of times, the water is still coming out of the showerhead and Baekhyun is tangled in his t-shirt. As a corgi.

He hears the door open after that, and then Chanyeol’s laughter.

It keeps going, for several minutes, and Chanyeol doesn’t even seem eager to close the faucet. Baekhyun is soaked, he’s going to catch a cold and die. He hears something clicking, then a buzzing sound and he realizes that Chanyeol is taking pictures.

Baekhyun wants to get that cold and die.

He’s even stopped trying to untangle himself from the t-shirt, he’s just waiting for Chanyeol to finally remember that he’s not a dog.

“Yeol what the hell?”

He feels someone scooping him up, then closing the faucet, he recognizes Yoora’s voice. “He’s not a dog, he’s an hybrid. And if he catches a cold it’s gonna be serious.”

“It was funny though. Look at the picture!”

“No it wasn’t, he’s drenched. Can’t you grow up a bit Park Chanyeol?”

To be completely honest, Baekhyun likes Yoora more than he likes Chanyeol.

“My brother is an idiot.” She says, while she peels the t-shirt off Baekhyun’s corgi form. She suppresses a smile, then picks up a towel from the radiator and stars drying him off. Yoora looks exactly like Chanyeol, with cuter ears and a warmer smile. She’s also older than Chanyeol, which means that it’s only been a few days and he’s already seen her bully him around.

He likes Yoora, but Chanyeol’s his real owner after all, so part of him was a bit upset when that happened. Now that she’s is drying him with a warm toasty towel, though, his wagging tail and nipping fingers mode activates.

Also, he bares his teeth at Chanyeol when the other comes in, still laughing, with clean folded clothes that Baekhyun can change into. Chanyeol snorts, and Baekhyun goes back to play with the hem of Yoora’s skirt, ignoring him.

He sees the picture a couple of hours later, as a human, and he has to admit that he does look cute. He’s a white soaked ball on the tiled floor of the bathroom, all you can see is a tuft of fur from one side.

School is also kind of weird, a good weird and a bad weird.

Chanyeol doesn’t walk him there everyday like his old family used to do and, surprisingly enough, neither do Kyungsoo and Jongdae with their hybrids. Baekhyun almost gets offended when the middle schooler leaves without him on the first day, only to realize that it would’ve been more embarrassing if he was there instead, because Jongin and Sehun are waiting for him at the end of the road.

Baekhyun likes Jongin and Sehun a lot, especially Jongin because he’s quiet and he’s a dog hybrid as well, and Baekhyun is not that comfortable with cats yet. Also, Sehun gets a lot of attention from Chanyeol, and Baekhyun is as territorial as he can be.

They’re not in the same class since Baekhyun is older than both of them, and that , quite frankly. But they do join him for lunch in the cafeteria almost every day and they make him try Kyungsoo’s food, which is way better than cafeteria food.

And who wouldn’t like free food.

Schools is just school. Wide classrooms with tall ceilings, a gym, corridors, stairs where students either flock whenever the bell rings and they’re allowed ten minutes of break, or sneak out to try their first cigarettes -and Baekhyun has bumped in a few third years doing that, so he doesn’t even find it that surprising anymore.

His classmates are ok. School is weird, indeed. All these hybrids forced in the same building and learning the same things humans do. Except for the additional classes about Anatomy and Species Balance that Baekhyun has never heard Chanyeol mention and, well, humans don’t have heat, or problems with their dog hybrid part possibly finding a bird hybrid interesting, as a lunch option. They wouldn’t need these classes anyway.

School is also boring. They’re not allowed to shift in most classes, which is something that can make some hybrids frustrated. They’ve had Jiho, the same street-cat that was with Baekhyun at the hybrid shop, shifting all of a sudden during History class because, apparently, he hadn’t shifted for a while and his body had lost control.

Baekhyun doesn’t really have this kind of problem. Chanyeol’s family allows him to shift whenever he feels like it, and although Chanyeol did want dog-Baekhyun more than he wanted human-Baekhyun at the beginning, the hybrid tries to balance the two things out.

“Oi Byun.” He lifts his head, trying to point out if he knows the person that’s talking to him. He doesn’t.

“Do I know you?”

“I heard from my owner yesterday that your guy has gone on and on for months about how he was going to get this huge dog.”

He mimics the shape and size with his hands. He’s got a cute smile and sharp features, the skin on his neck and on his palms is a subdue green cluster of scales. “How come he got you in the end?”

“How come you know so much about my owner and I know nothing of yours?” He asks. “I guess mine isn’t that interested in him. Or you.” He shoots back, nonchalantly.

“It’s because your owner is a fat loser, that’s why.”

Baekhyun bolts upright, his chair makes a terrible noise and the classroom is silent. Baekhyun hates trouble, but trouble seems to find a way to him somehow.

“What did you just say?”

There’s another guy behind this one, a dobermann hybrid from what Baekhyun can tell, and he’s literally just staring without saying anything. It’s kind of scary, but Baekhyun stands there, chin up, despite this guy being -just a tad- taller than him, and dobermann hybrid guy being kind of intimidating.

“You heard me. He’s fat, and he’s a loser. I met him.”

“You should know better than to mess up with someone older than you, Sanghyuk.” Yookwon’s voice is almost soothing, and he puts a hand on Baekhyun’s shoulder. It’s more to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid than to comfort him, Baekhyun can tell.

“Still a midget though.” He snorts, and a couple more people from Baekhyun’s class snicker.

“What have I done to you exactly?” He tries to stay calm. Even though it’s just normal for him to be so upset if someone insults his owner and him, he knows he shouldn't let it get to him.

“Nothing. It’s just fun.”

The guy shrugs, and leaves after the dobermann hybrid murmurs something to him -to just cut the crap probably. Baekhyun doesn’t know what to say to that and neither is given the chance to answer because the duo leaves soon after, and he can flop on his chair again. He hides his face between his arms, folded on the desk. He’s ready for a nap, a long nap.

He’s good at pretending that it doesn’t sting, what the guy said. But it does, and he bites his lip hard when nobody else can see.

Sunwoo nudges at his foot gently, Baekhyun pretends he’s still sleeping. He can hear the other classmates whispering, but he ignores them. He hates school.

“He shouldn’t have said those things about your owner, he’s an .” He says. He waits awkwardly for a reaction for a couple of seconds, then gives up when Baekhyun keeps still.

“Cheer up Byun.” He tries, before going back to his desk.

School is frustrating most of the times, and thirteen year old students like to quarrel more than everything in the world. More than they like to experiment new things like first kisses and not safe for work magazines found god only knows where. Baekhyun knows, because he’s also a teenager. A smart one.

Sanghyuk and Wonsik bother him often. It’s mostly Sanghyuk, really, Wonsik is either calmer or not interesting in bothering Baekhyun, but still follows the other everyday. Sanghyuk never targets Baekhyun directly, it’s always Chanyeol, and the hybrid gets used to it after a while. He just doesn’t give them attention, and can’t be happier when he can finally go home.

He walks back with Sehun and Jongin everyday, Sehun and him doing most of the talk, as Jongin is busy trying not to stumble in a trash bin while reading and walking at the same time.

Jongin is odd, listen to bands no one has ever heard of and reads a lot. Kyungsoo adores him, to the point where Baekhyun wonders how Sehun feels about the two of them being obviously close.

“You should tell Chanyeol about those two though.” Jongin cuts in their conversation about a new edition of the D&D manual being released soon -because of course Baekhyun has become part of the nerd club now. (And his character is stronger than Jongdae’s.)

“It doesn’t really matter.” He says, as he closes the zip of Chanyeol’s hoodie he’s been wearing over the uniform shirt for a while. It’s not allowed, and the hoodie is huge on Baekhyun, but it’s warm and smells like Chanyeol, which calms Baekhyun down.
Plus falling asleep with his nose in it during class feels nice, safe.

“But maybe Chanyeol could help you find more material to answer back I guess. Wonsik is always the one teasing you about him anyway.”

“He’s probably gonna be upset. Chanyeol, I mean.”

“He’s not gonna be upset, Hyun, he’ll probably just be angry. And then go to school and punch the out of them.” Jongin says, and Sehun snorts.

“He’s not that kind of guy. I’d expect that from Soo rather than from Chanyeol.” He says, and throws a glance towards Baekhyun. “Chanyeol is the nicest, but he’s just not the kind of guy that picks up a fight.”

Sehun is right, Chanyeol is a bit grumpy and likes to curse at his sister half of the times. Some other times he spends teasing Baekhyun, but he’d never be genuinely mean towards anyone.

“I still think you should tell him. He’s your owner. I mean..” Jongin starts, rubs his nose and closes his book before putting it back in his backpack. “I don’t know, if I have a problem the first person I want to tell me it’s going to be fine it’s Kyungsoo even if it’s not the truth.”

Sehun doesn’t say anything, Baekhyun just gapes at him.

“Wow, you must really like Soo a lot.”

“He’s my own.. he’s my friend Baekhyun, isn’t this how it’s supposed to be?”

That’s what Baekhyun wonders as well. Chanyeol’s affection towards him as a corgi is nice, but he likes it even more when they just lie down on his bed, the lights off, and Chanyeol’s asks him questions. They tell each other how their day went, and things like that. There’s stars stickers on the ceiling and Chanyeol plays with his ears -especially the one that flops down, Chanyeol seems to like that one more.

Cuddles are nice, but that sort of friendship is what has gotten Baekhyun so attached to him in the first place.

“So, will you come down those stairs or do I have to come pick you up?”

Aside from school troubles, Baekhyun has a problem with the stairs that lead to Chanyeol’s room. He can climb up just fine, he can do that, he’s big enough. Coming down though, that’s a bit more challenging because Baekhyun is a puppy in hybrid form and will stay a puppy until he’s like twenty. And his legs are short. And it’s embarrassing. Going down the stairs as a human is not a problem, it’s not. When doing it as a puppy, though, the stairs just seem..steep

Chanyeol -and his not that short legs- is already sitting indian style as he taps the last step at the bottom of the stairs a couple of times.

“Come on?”

Baekhyun yips, then pretty much glares at Chanyeol and lies down on the carpet, displeased with the whole situation. Why does he need to learn how to come down the stairs in corgi form anyway? He can just go back to the room, shift, get some clothes and comfortably reach the kitchen.

“Does it mean I win the bet? Are you giving up?”

Chanyeol is wearing this new baseball cap his dad has just gotten him, a whole Adidas set with sweats and hoodie. He’s even got a few pimples on his forehead, which he keeps covering with his bangs hoping people don’t notice it. Baekhyun has already seen the endless collection of acne preventing products in the bathroom cabinet that Chanyeol is trying hard to keep secret from his mom.

“I’m not buying you that new Spiderman comic that you wanted if you don’t come down.” He says, smirking. “And we both know how much you wanted it.” Yes, they both know, and also they both know Chanyeol is going to buy it anyway. It’s just that Baekhyun is a sore loser.

“You said you could, and that I would have to pay for it. But I won’t if you give up.” he says. “Oh well, you can stay there, I’ll go buy myself ice cream instead.”

He stands up, then puts his cap backwards. He thinks he looks good. Even his clothes, he tells his dad to buy them a couple of sizes bigger. Baekhyun literally drowns in them when he gets them as hand-me-downs.

“Well? Are you really not coming?” He asks again, as he picks up his bag from where he usually tosses it coming back from school. There’s the noise of something metallic hitting something else. Baekhyun knows where Chanyeol is really going, his whine turns into a weak bark as he stands on all four and sends the teenager another deadly glare.

“Look mom wants you to learn how to do it as a corgi. I know it’s scary, but what if something happens and you can’t shift?”

He gnarls in response, then looks down the stairs once more. It looks high, and he’s terrified of losing balance and rolling down without control. Baekhyun loves his corgi form, but at the same time he likes living the longest life he can, if possible, in both forms. What if his neck snaps and he ends up dead instead?

It’s ..scary. He whines some more, and searches for Chanyeol’s eyes hoping he’ll just give up and pick him up instead. Which is what he’s done every single time until today.

It works. Chanyeol’s resolution to leave seems to falter a bit. “Come on ‘Hyun? I won’t let you fall I promise. I’m here, see?” He lets the bag drop from his shoulder to the floor and kicks it to the side, as he comes up a couple of steps.

Baekhyun cries out, and walks from one side to the stairs to the other, trying somehow to find something to hold on to, anything, just in case. There’s nothing, except Chanyeol kneeling there in front of him with that annoying smile of his.

Oh, whatever.

He tries, his front paws reach the very edge of the first step and he tries to slide down until they touch the lower one. Good, halfway there, good. “Careful..” Chanyeol says, but his hands don’t reach up to help him. Baekhyun shoves a satisfied look to the other, and it’s all fun and games until he realizes his hind legs are still up there and his body is probably not going to fit in the space between the two steps.

He whines, then tries to shift his weight on his front paws. Bad, bad idea. He loses his grip and ends up sliding down on his belly, just for a couple of seconds. When he manages to stop, his still hoisted up, he’s not sure what’s preventing him from falling all the way down. He hates Chanyeol and Chanyeol’s mom for making him do this.

“You’re doing well Hyun, c’mon. Try again.” The teenager helps him regain balance, changing his position slightly and Baekhyun can sit up, bark, definitely upset.

“Try again? Once more and I’ll pick you up.” Chanyeol always keeps his promises, and this time he seems ready to catch him.

He repeats the same process, reaches the edge and forces himself to ignore the height. It’s terrifying, and he’s tempted to close his eyes. In the end he doesn't, but he doesn’t slip either. He keeps control of his hind paws and finally they land next to his forelegs, successfully completely his very first step in going down the stairs as a puppy -very sloppily he’d say.  

He looks up. Chanyeol is beaming. “You did it!”

His hands stay there a bit longer, as Baekhyun tries again and again until he’s at the bottom of the stairs and he’s not that scared anymore. “You get your Spiderman. And ice cream. You were awesome!” Chanyeol keeps going.

And cuddles, Baekhyun automatically thinks, as he nonchalantly heads for the main door, seemingly completely disinterested in Chanyeol’s smile and the fact that the other has yelled at least three times that “Mom, Baekhyun can go down the stairs on his own now, mom!”

He does get his comic book, in the end, but Chanyeol decides to wait for ice cream since, technically, Baekhyun should shift to eat his.

The neighborhood is a relatively peaceful one. Almost every one of the people living nearby has a hybrid, from dogs to cats. Baekhyun hasn’t met them all, but for some reason the old ladies in the park seem to worship him both in human and corgi form.

Sometimes they walk with Kyungsoo and Jongin, some others Sehun joins them in human form just to talk about japanese anime with Chanyeol -and they always end up fighting about what character is their favorite. Chanyeol always lets Sehun win, because he’s younger. Or so he says.

Today it’s one of the times that Baekhyun prefers, because it’s just the two of them. And Baekhyun likes socializing, he really does, but he enjoys being with Chanyeol the most without hybrid cats stealing his human’s attention.

“I brought clothes, do you want to shift first?”

Baekhyun nods, one ear flaps along with the movement. He changes in public restrooms quite often. Chanyeol always has clothes prepared for him, and it’s not difficult to hand them to Baekhyun from the gap under the door of the toilet stall so that the hybrid doesn’t have to walk out is his birthday suit.

The public restroom in the train station is disgusting. Baekhyun has the instinct to gag every time he walks in there. It’s the same routine today, and he forces himself to hold his breath as he hastily puts one of Chanyeol’s old t-shirts, a huge zip up hoodie and a pair of oddly looking green sweatpants. The shoes are a pair of Chanyeol’s old converse, but they fit just fine.

He finds Chanyeol standing against the wall, holding two popsicles and Baekhyun’s comic book. “I should tell mom to buy you clothes.” He says, as he eyes Baekhyun from head to toe, before handing him his things.

“It’s ok, yours are enough.” He shrugs, as he flicks through the comic book, his left hand still holding an unwrapped popsicle that will probably melt soon.

“Nah, you can’t wear those if you want to hang out with your friends. I mean you look ok to us, but it’s your friends from school. If you’re as lucky as me you’ll have crazy ones for sure.”

Chanyeol has changed a lot since the day Baekhyun met him. Now he constantly tries to look older, more mature. He used to throw tantrums at the beginning, now he just gets angry and doesn’t talk. Baekhyun, on the other hand, thinks he’s probably changing as well.

“I don’t know, clothes cost money.” He murmurs, as he the side of the popsicle.

“Mine do as well. I can live without a t-shirt or two.” Chanyeol cards one hand through his hair distractedly as he puts his baseball hat on Baekhyun’s head.

“Just in case the other guys don’t like hybrids there. I’m sure I can knock a couple out, but mom will kill me if we get into trouble.”

Baekhyun’s ears prevent the hat from fitting perfectly, but it’s good enough. He’s careful to hide his tail under the zip up hoodie as they walk to the back of the train station.

There’s a couple of walls literally covered in graffiti there. Baekhyun is not sure if that’s actually legal, but it does look sick. Chanyeol and him are definitely newbies compared to the High School students they meet there sometimes, but playing with spray paint is fun and Baekhyun has been working on his tag for a while now.

“He’s seriously good, how long have you been doing this exactly?” Baekhyun turns around to see Minhyuk, one of the older guys, talk to Chanyeol first, then look at him or, better, at the small piece he’s been working on for the last half an hour.

“Hm, two or three weeks? He’s good at drawing though.” Chanyeol says, and Baekhyun shakes his head, flustered.

“What? No I’m actually not that good, this is nothing compared to what you guys usually do.” He’s proud of the small corgi with headphones he’s just finished painting, however the huge wildstyle that covers the wall next to the one he’s painting on was made by Minhyuk himself, so he definitely doesn’t deserve the compliment.

“Nah, you’re good Byunbaek.” Taeil yells, from the corner of the wall on the other side of the road where he’s been bombing with two of three colors. He’s gone for speed today, he’ll probably join Minhyuk for a big blockbuster on the wall they want to claim as theirs, a bit further down the road.

Baekhyun laughs nervously as he hides his nose in the collar of Chanyeol’s zip up and starts spraying, in order to give a bit more depth to the headphones design he’s painted.

“My hybrid is so cool.” He hears Chanyeol whisper as he comes a bit closer, so that the others can’t hear them talk.

“Stop that, you’re embarrassing.”

“Na, I won’t, can’t wait to brag about this.” He says, and puts his mask on once more. Chanyeol is definitely not that good at this, and although he was the one who wanted to try it at first, they keep coming here because Baekhyun likes it.

“Next time I’ll pay for the cans.” Baekhyun adds, his voice muffled behind the fabric of the hoodie.

Chanyeol hums, but he doesn’t sound that convinced.

Chanyeol lies again that night when his mom asks why he smells like spray paint. He says they were hanging out with Jongdae in his garage, and that place stinks. Baekhyun snickers, as he sneaks into the bathroom to shift.

He lets Yoora pet him for most of the evening while they watch tv on the rocking chair. They’re watching The Goonies again, the boys have just found the treasure map, and now Mikey is telling the story of pirate One-eyed Willy.  Baekhyun climbs down her legs, as she dozes off doing her manicure and waits in front of the bigger sofa until Chanyeol realizes what’s going on.

Baekhyun is tired, no, exhausted, and he has school tomorrow, so Yoora is definitely not he one he wants to make him relax. Plus they had a good day today, those are good enough reasons to nibble the hem of Chanyeol’s pijama pants. The human yawns, then stretches his arms out and finally reaches out to help Baekhyun climb up. He waits until the hybrid has found a comfortable spot on his lap before he can start his back.

“You’re definitely not that bad as a hybrid you know?”

Baekhyun groans and Chanyeol laughs in response. There he is, pretending he’s all grown up when Baekhyun is the older one here. If he was human he’d probably complain, but he’s a corgi now, and Chanyeol is doing a good job in pampering him -knowing all the good spots that make Baekhyun melt in a corgi shaped puddle.
He decides he can let it slide, just this once.