“Can I see her now?” Yuri questioned. She was in her partial wolf form, her cheek and wolf ears pressed up against the closed door and her bushy tail lying completely still on the carpeted floor. Her whole body would twitch at any muted sound coming through the door then become completely still the next second. She was excited, her mind already coming up with the various exciting places she wanted to show Taeyeon.

Jessica peered up from the thick, ragged book she had been analysing, giving the pen in her hand a lazy twirl. Her eyes darted to the analogue clock hanging over the entrance to her flat to the locked door, before lazily falling back to her book. “No.”

Yuri doesn’t seem to hear her or chose to ignore her words, as she began to pace a short distance, momentarily pausing to glance at the door then restarting her pacing. “Where should I take her first? Do you think it’ll be alright if I take her to the mall? Or should we start somewhere with fewer people? I don’t remember if she said she hated people.. oh, no wait.. that’s you.” She gives Jessica a teasing smirk, to which Jessica merely rolled her eyes and gave a subtle shake of her head. She wasn’t about to argue with the werewolf and give her the satisfaction of showing to her that she got into her nerves. She had an image to uphold. And another thing, it was true. People just out her energy. But no, she was just going to relax, go over her book and add her little inputs to better her performance.

“Do you think she’ll like coffee? Or would she prefer tea? I mean, her senses wouldn’t be as heightened as before so she wouldn’t be bothered by the new taste, but tea is so… eh. Yeah, I think I’ll take her to a café first. Or maybe she’d want to test out her mobility? The park? It’s pretty late though…” she mused, taking a long thoughtful glance out the window.

“I wonder how tall she’s going to be? She was pretty huge…” she stopped her pacing, looking up to the ceiling, then to the carpeted floor. “Whoa… pretty good parlour trick fitting an enormous dragon into a tiny space.”

“Can you please shut up? I’m trying to concentrate here.” Jessica snapped, shooting Yuri a dark glare. To hell with keeping up her image. “And stop referring to my magik as parlour tricks. And of course you wouldn’t know, but brewing potions to keep up with the tranation is tricky business.”

Yuri gives her a thumb up. “And you’re doing it brilliantly.. quick question though. If, hypothetically, your magik potion” she wriggles her fingers in the air and the way she does it grates at Jessica’s nerves, more so when she feels the hint of mock through their shared link. She only holds her irritation when she also feels the nervous tension mixed with excited anticipation overtaking the mocking. “doesn’t work,”

She scoffs and interrupts Yuri’s question, lazily pointing at the door with her pen. “She’s in there, isn’t she?”

“Well.. yeah, but.”

“Means it’s working.”

“But, what if, hypothetically, an ingredient you were supposed to use was not exactly the ingredient that you thought it was…” Jessica narrowed her eyes warningly at Yuri, her back straightening up as she thought back to the process of creating the potion to get the dragon downsized to her new human form. She then looked at Yuri’s face, and for the first time, carefully reached out to sift through Yuri’s thoughts.

When she finds nothing of importance she holds Yuri’s gaze. “Is there something you want me to know? Or should I poke through your thoughts some more?”

Yuri stares unflinchingly back at her, her eyes turning a bit glazed. A thought passes through Jessica’s mind and it certainly was not her own.

‘That actually sounds kinda hot.’

Jessica quickly shuts Yuri out of her mind as best as she can. She couldn’t shut her out all the way, the raw emotions Yuri felt would easily slip through her barrier and vice versa, but her thoughts were another thing. She could deprive Yuri of the things going on in her mind, keep her personal thoughts personal. It had taken her days to figure out how to do that after finding out about their new link to each other. She had thrown a rainbow of curses and threats at Yuri and then apologised after looking at it in Yuri’s perspective that the werewolf was actually amused at the unending thoughts crashing at her from Jessica’s side. Of course, that only infuriated her all the more. What really pushed her to find a solution was after what seemed like endless days of hearing Yuri’s random thoughts clouding her own.

“Ooh.. the embarrassment is strong. Did I think something that produced this much reaction out of you?” Jessica glared at the cocky smirk on the werewolf’s face. She lifted a trembling finger, pointing it at Yuri before curling her hand into a fist. It was not worth blowing her top off.

Yuri chuckled. “Easy there. No, I didn’t give you an ingredient that wasn’t what you were asking for, if that’s what you were thinking. I just thought that… you know, even though we’re more… gifted compared to mortals, we’re still pretty much human. And humans make mistakes.”

“If I made a mistake this whole building would have collapsed long ago. The potion is working exactly as it is supposed to. Now, do you have any more questions?” she asks exasperatedly.

“Actually yeah..” Yuri coughs, averting her eyes to something on the floor. “Could- could it kill Taeyeon?”

Jessica couldn’t tell what it was. The question was innocent enough, and knowing Yuri, she was just looking out for her new found friend. But the question had poked something in Jessica and it did not feel nice. She should have held her tongue, but it was not going to let her.

“Jesus Christ! Yes, Yuri. Is that what you want to hear? Yes, if I screwed up I could definitely kill your friend. Hell, if I screwed up I could have killed you a dozen times. Brewing a potion is not like baking. It’s a lot harder and you need to be precise. Sometimes, it has dire effects and I have screwed up once. Just once. And I promise myself I would be a lot more careful. Okay? I. Am. Not. Careless.” She fell back into silence after delivering her angry reply. Her cheeks were flushed and her body trembled at her barely contained temper. Her mind was a whirlwind of unpleasant thoughts that nothing of what she was reading was making any sense to her. She gave a loud frustrated growl before pushing off the chair.

She could see Yuri, from her peripherals, moving from her spot as soon as she made a grab for her jacket. She held out a hand to Yuri, stopping her in her tracks.

“I’m going out and clear my mind. You keep an eye on Taeyeon. She’ll come out when she’s ready. Clothes are in the closet.” Her voice was harsh and clipped throughout her giving instructions. She kept her eyes forward, she didn’t want to even look at her.

“But I should-“

“You stay. Just..” Jessica sighed, turning the doorknob and hesitated once the door was open all the way. Her head tilted a little to the side, the feeling of confusion and concern tugging at her from the link. She gritted her teeth and shook her head as she stepped out of the flat, letting the door slam behind her.

Jessica took out her hand and held it aloft. Her fingers spread apart, letting the city lights past through the gaps. It was very pretty, she mused, the city lights in a dark backdrop. If she blocked out the brighter lights from the streets and lower parts of the city it almost looked like colourful stars hanging in the night sky. Like magik.

Of course, nothing could beat the real ones when they were looking at it from the mountain Taeyeon called home. It was peaceful then, aside from Yuri’s panic-inducing introduction to the dragon. In was very nice.

But then, she couldn’t take the silence of the small town more than a week and demanded they pack and return back to the city. And of course, Yuri couldn’t just simply say her goodbyes. She extended an invitation to Taeyeon to live in the city, see the modern world. She had enticed Taeyeon with stories of tall buildings, motorised vehicles going faster than any animal she could think off, and the wonders of electronics. And once Taeyeon was hooked came the begging. She had flung herself around Jessica’s waist, refusing to let go until she conceded. Her skirt almost fell off from how tightly Yuri had her arms around her, what was more embarrassing was that she did it where the public could see. As goofy as Yuri portrayed herself to be she was pretty good at manipulating things to her advantage, even if it was in the most childish of ways.

Jessica let her hand fall back to her side and shut her eyes. She sifted through the thoughts recently going on in her head. Her thoughts were mostly still the same, but she didn’t feel like they were her own anymore, and not because they were of Yuri’s thoughts coming through the shared mental link.

She squeezed her eyes, pushing away anything that would lead back to the werewolf. She was having a lot of those recently, too much to her liking. What they had was supposed to be only temporary. Just 3 months was all she asked for. 3 months in exchange for a small service. The werewolf assigned to her was only supposed to grab whatever she needed that was out of her bounds to get. It was not her first time assisting a clan and receiving assistance as her payment. She had always made a point to show her follower the line. The line of where they stood as Contractor and Follower. There was always a line.

But Yuri went way past that line. She wasn’t like some Halfling that scrambled at her command. She wasn’t anything like the foolish satyr, always looking for a girl to swoon. Nothing like the harpy who always had something sarcastic to say to her and twisted her words. Yuri had started off unsure, always hesitating, yet she got the job done. The longer they were together the more her personality was shown to Jessica, more so her immaturity. They had their fair share of witty banters and petty fights, but she always came back in the morning with a refreshing smile. Jessica knew she was different from the rest of the other followers, especially after she had formed a funny frienemy relationship with Hyoyeon after her elf friend had literally used her as bait. She was friendly, funny, and sometimes so God damned attentive and it had moved something in Jessica.

She was having feelings for the stupid werewolf, and it was only growing stronger the longer they were together. Jessica was not an oblivious fool, she knew exactly what it was and she disliked and feared it.

She was not supposed to harbour a romantic liking to the werewolf. But ever since the mental link was created, bearing everything Yuri thought and felt to her, the more she found herself drawn to the girl.

Even then she could feel the guilt reaching for her.

A figure slides into the empty space next to her. Jessica doesn’t even give the newcomer a glace, keeping her eyes squeezed shut, hands in her jacket pocket, and resisting from shivering at the cold air nipping at her exposed legs. Storming out of the flat in her Sunday dress at the dead of the night was not her brightest ideas, but she wasn’t exactly thinking straight and just wanted to be away from Yuri for a while.

She feels something warm covering her from her lap down. Again, her heart gave a throb and she sighed in defeat.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

“Haven’t you had enough of my thoughts for the day?” She lifts one eyelid, peering at the serene looking Yuri staring out at the night lights. She noted Yuri wasn’t wearing a jacket. She didn’t need to look down to know what it was her fingers were now grazing against.

“You’ll be cold.” She started pulling the cloth over her legs. Yuri’s hands fall over hers, stopping her from pulling the jacket any further.

“You looked colder in that dress.”

“This was not my brightest ideas.” Jessica confessed. Yuri nodded her head but kept her thoughts to herself. “So, I take it my potion worked.”

“Taeyeon thinks it’s a great body, except the height.” Yuri chuckled and turned to look over her shoulder. “I told her maybe she wasn’t the tallest dragon out there and she tried to bite me.”

Jessica giggled, following Yuri’s line of sight to the short, brunette, dressed in simple shirt and shorts, staring at the looming trees around her. “Think it’s the first time she’s seen trees bigger than her in a long time?”

“Definitely.” Yuri concedes. “She’s been staring at things larger than her. I don’t think she likes it that she’s turned into a munchkin.”

“It’s out of my hands. The potion gives the drinker an image that closely fits their appearance. She should be grateful she didn’t turn into a lizard.”

Yuri snorts at the thought. “Oh, she would hate you if she did turn into that.” Jessica giggled along, finding an image of a dragon turned lizard glaring at her the funniest thing she has ever imagined.

Their laughter soon died down, the only sounds breaking their silence was the distant noise of the city, the rustle of leaves, and Taeyeon’s careful footsteps. Jessica stared down at her hands, fiddling with the hem of Yuri’s jacket. She looked to her side and sighed.

“Hey, I’m sorry for what I said back there.”

Yuri shook her head softly, a small one-sided smile on her lips. “No. It’s alright… To be honest, I don’t know exactly what I said that made you that angry, but never the less, I am sorry.”

They fall in another round of silence. Yuri was still staring off at the scenery presented by the city lights. Jessica was fiddling with the jacket, not really sure how to disperse the silence between them. She humourlessly thought of all the times she wanted silence from Yuri, only now wishing it was the other way around but was too embarrassed to actually say it out loud.

As if reading her thoughts, though Jessica was positive she was still blocking Yuri from her thoughts, Yuri broke the silence. “So, that one time.. did you…?” she asked hesitantly. “You don’t really need to answer that if you’re uncomfortable..”

Jessica shrugged. “I killed a frog…” When she checked on Yuri the girl had her brows scrunched and a small frown on her face, and Jessica knew she didn’t believe her as a second later she said, “get out.”

Again, Jessica gave a lazy shrug. “It was my friend’s frog. We were testing out the potion for speech translation. We made the mistake of using two petals of ivy instead of one. You could say the poor frog croaked.” She chuckled weakly at the joke.

“A frog?! I thought ..” Yuri laughed, a relieved laugh. “I thought it was a lot more serious.”

“It was serious. At the time. We were kids, and that frog was my friend’s pet. We even made a small funeral ceremony for it.”

“I’m finding it hard to imagine that.” Yuri says, grinning impishly at her.

Jessica gave her a quick pinch just above her elbow, smirking when the werewolf flinched and made a small whimpering noise. “Again, we were kids. I was, like 10.”

“Okay.” Yuri snickered, quickly raising her hands up in defence when she saw Jessica shift to give her another punishment. She relaxed when Jessica turned her head, vacantly staring at the empty space before them.

“Hey, thanks.” Yuri gave Jessica a soft nudge on the side. “For doing this for Taeyeon.”

“No problem. It’s what I do.”

“Yeah, but still... I knew you weren’t 100% on board with this idea.”

“No .” Jessica snaps her head towards Yuri’s direction, a glare on. She smirks inwardly when she sees Yuri flinch. Good to know she still gets that reaction from her, she thought. “A dragon. Of all the magical creatures you can befriend and offer to trane to a human, it had to be a dragon.”

“Aw, come on.” Yuri smiles as her shoulder relaxes. “You have to admit, you like Taeyeon.”

“I do… hey, do you think Taeyeon wouldn’t mind being stripped off her best form of defence?”

Yuri cocked her head. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” she glanced back to the small humanized dragon and gave her a small smile and a hesitant wave when their eyes met. Taeyeon’s expression slightly lifted up to what Jessica assumed would be a smile of acknowledgement. It was hard to tell as her face remained mostly unreadable. They would need to teach her proper human interaction, lest someone think she was completely antisocial. “traning her to human is basically the same idea of you in human form.”

When the thoughtful look remained on Yuri’s face for a little too long Jessica rolled her eyes and elaborated. “Powerless. Human. You know, like me without my potions and magik… like you right now. Except she can’t transform at will… also, she needs to drink the potion for every fortnight, else she’ll blow up like a hot air balloon.”

“Oh.” Yuri pressed her lips, a worried look creasing her forehead. “So… I’ll hold her down the next time and you force the potion down ?”

“Deal.” They quickly shook hands, giggling nervously as they peered cautiously back at the clueless Taeyeon.

Jessica breathed a little easier, the shared feeling of content surrounding her like a warm blanket. She looked at Yuri’s smiling face as she calls for Taeyeon and can’t help the one that was lifting up her face.

Maybe she can learn to be a little less afraid of the new feelings.

She could take it one step at a time.

Just like magik.

A/N: Hah! First time I wrote and finished something within a span of two days. I'll try to churn out a few more of these while I'm under house arrest. I kinda twisted my ankle after getting a tad too excited so... that pushed back a lot of my plans that required walking... Stay tuned!