Lu Han frowns, ear plastered to his staticky phone, Baekhyun’s voice saying things that do and also don’t make sense.

“We’re missing something. You and I, and everyone,” says Baekhyun.

Lu Han actually snorts. “You don’t think,” he says.

“I’m sending someone to investigate.”

“What, here?”

“No,” says Baekhyun, and Lu Han’s heart is momentarily relieved. The last thing he wants is for someone to show up and turn this thing he’s got with Xiumin into something more complicated.

“We have some very vague notes in the files. Rumors, and stuff. The kind our center typically receives on a daily basis, most of them calls from civilians with ‘reports’ and sightings of hybrid activity. To be honest a lot of them are prank calls, and some are just people with vivid imaginations, ready to believe anything about their neighbors if it makes them seem like their observations are important. But of course we don’t delete anything, just in case they happen to hold even a kernel of truth.”

“Uh huh,” says Lu Han. “And?”

“Well, round about a decade ago we have something that came in from one of the nearest villages to the park. You know, the usual ‘I think my son’s best friend is werewolf’ kind of thing. Only she couldn’t verify it. Didn’t get a good look at the supposed werewolf.”

“So… you think Xiumin might be a werewolf in disguise?” Lu Han smiles.

There’s a long pause on the other end of the phone, then Baekhyun scoffs. “You’re hilarious, Lu Han. No , I don’t think he’s a werewolf, but when people see things, or think they see things, werewolves are what most commonly come to mind, not wildcats. No one sends us a fluke ‘I saw a werecat!’ report, because they’re that rare.”

“So what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that I’m sending someone to investigate. Find the woman, maybe track down her son again, see if we can verify whether it’s just a rumor based on some old lady’s fear or if there’s something truthful about it.” There’s another pause, and this time Lu Han knows Baekhyun is about to ask him something hard. “You know…” he starts in finally.

“What.” Lu Han cringes, waiting for the shoe to drop. He can practically feel Baekhyun smiling over the phone, like he does when he gets one of those brilliant ideas.

“Well, I was just thinking… might be quicker if you, you know…”

Lu Han sighs. “Baekhyun, just tell me if you want me to ask Xiumin outright, ‘Hey I heard you may have lived among humans before. Is this true?’”

Baekhyun just chuckles. “Read my mind, my man. I’ll let you know if we dig up anything on our end, and you can do the same. This time tomorrow suit you?”

He sighs again. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Talk to you later.”

“Thanks, Lu Han. Sometime soon we’ll talk about your lack of deference to your most beloved superior, yeah?”

“Looking forward to it. Bye.”

Of course he doesn’t ask Xiumin. Lu Han isn’t that stupid, and there’s no way he’s going to frighten the creature into clamming up and saying even less than he’s already let on. The following week then is more of the same. Xiumin comes around, morning or evening, the wildcat decides, and he’s still not terribly interesting in transforming. Friday marks the first time in over a week that Lu Han has even seen the man version. Friday morning, that is. After a long no-show the night before in which Lu Han stayed awake just hoping, and long after he’d given up hope and plopped into bed, Xiumin knocks.

Actually knocks.

Lu Han is out of bed and pulling on his overcoat in a heartbeat.

“Xiumin?” He whispers, eyes wide as takes in the sight.

Xiumin stands there on two bare feet, one of Lu Han’s stolen jackets thrown around his shoulders. His sandy colored hair is caked with dirt and debris and just the barest trickle of blood. Small scrapes and gashes mar a good portion of one side of his body. Xiumin doesn’t seem panicked, but that doesn’t mean Lu Han isn’t.

“What happened?” Lu Han rushes the man into the cabin, frantic and worried and fighting hard to keep his cool. “Did something attack you?”

Xiumin shakes his head. “No. I’m fine. I think. I fell.”

“You fell?” Lu Han gapes.

“Off a tree.”

“You fell, off a tree.”

Xiumin smiles. Lu Han can’t fathom that a cat like him could actually fall out of a tree. “How did you fall out of a tree?” he asks slowly, sitting Xiumin down on his bed while he grabs another blanket to wrap him with. Xiumin’s skin is clammy to touch, cold and damp like the outside weather.

“I was dreaming. I was a cat. And then I wasn’t.”

Lu Han stares at him. “Riiiight. And?”

“And when I woke up, I had… changed in my sleep. And then I fell.” Even Xiumin looks shocked by this revelation.

“Stay put, I’m going to get something to clean you up.” Lu Han has a first aid kit he’s barely touched, small bandages and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. “Does this happen often?” he asks while he works.

“No. First time.”

Lu Han hums, because what else is he supposed to do. He approaches the wildcat, an apology on his tongue when he asks to pull back the jacket and the blanket. He treats the first small cuts and all the while Xiumin’s eyes don’t stray from his face. Lu Han swallows thickly, refusing to look back. He focuses on each scrape individually, starting with the ones on Xiumin’s shoulder and arm, a few on his upper back. It’s the right of his body which took most of the fall damage, but Lu Han hasn’t ever been quite so intimate with Xiumin before, which is why he stops when he gets to the man’s waist.

“Uhm, here, would you like to… do the rest?”

He can see the beginnings of an open cut on the side of his hip, too near the groin for Lu Han to touch.

“Do you always dream when you’re in that form? What were you dreaming of anyway?” he asks. A distraction from the way Xiumin has artlessly thrown off the covering blanket to attend to his wounds.

“Hmm? Oh, you.”

Lu Han chokes. Believe it or not, but this is the first time someone’s fallen out of a tree because of him. Is there even a response to this? He sets about finding the man some clothes since he assumes Xiumin won’t be transforming back so soon.

“Do you mind if I stay with you the rest of the night?” Xiumin’s voice is soft but clear. Lu Han glances at him. He looks small but oh so solid, sitting half- on Lu Han’s bed. And he’s wearing a crooked smile, as if he were smirking.

The wildcat is a tease. Lu Han deduced that weeks ago, and he adapted. But in this form, it’s an entirely different thing.

For the first time, he wishes Baekhyun would call him right now. Anything as long as the call contained some insight into the workings of this creature’s brain. Because what are the odds, Xiumin really is that ‘werewolf’ in the crazed woman’s report? The friend of her son. Does that mean Xiumin has a history with humans? Interacting with them, befriending them. By chance, did he also sleep in this person’s bed?

Jealousy is an ugly emotion. And on Lu Han’s face, it’s even uglier, a little grotesque, he’s been told, even somewhat comical.

So he schools his expression right now and says calmly, “Sure.” With a natural smile like the request doesn’t bother him in the least.

Gone are the days when Lu Han could coo at the wildcat and call him “my beauty” from afar. It’s a grown man sleeping in his bed tonight. A little bruised and achy, wearing an old set of pajamas and wrapped in a furry blanket. And it’s not the first time.

Lu Han goes warily to sleep tonight contemplating the hazards of this becoming a recurring thing.

It’s dusk when Lu Han wakes up again —h e’s still on the wildcat’s semi-nocturnal schedule —a little surprised that he managed to sleep well, even at all. But his bed is empty and he’s cold, and the door to his cabin is wide open. Lu Han rubs his eyes, assuming like usual that Xiumin has snuck out again.

Bummer, he thinks softly. Another missed opportunity to ask all those important questions. Not that he needs to report back to Baekhyun so soon.

But then there’s a shadow in the doorway. Xiumin stepping back into the frame. He’s still in his human form, smiling down at Lu Han who pauses mid-yawn because, “Wow, you’re beautiful.”

Xiumin tilts his head and Lu Han’s two hands practically knock himself out in their haste to cover his mouth. Still in the same pajamas with the extra blanket wrapped high around his neck, it’s absolutely true what Lu Han said. He’s just not used to uttering those words to… him. Him, and not the cat.

“Am I?” says Xiumin sweetly.

Lu Han turns away, clenching his eyes in pain. Pain, this is called pain. Also pure unbounded mortification.

“I’m sorry,” is all he says.

Xiumin has no response to that, or if he does it comes in the form of the word, “Shoes.”

“Shoes? What?” Lu Han is rudely awake now but still uncomprehending.

“I want to borrow some shoes.” Xiumin speaks slowly, methodically, as if explaining to a child.

Lu Han can only nod. “I have some. Why?”

“Because,” says the wildcat, almost impatiently. “Want to show you something. Together. Let’s go.”

It’s worse this way. Navigation on two feet. He doesn’t miss wearing shoes. They’re horrible monstrosities but these feet of his are so delicate, soft, missing the calluses of his paws. And he’s so very cold in this body. Lu Han’s borrowed clothes are nice, but even they chafe against his skin, under the arms and along his neck, in other sensitive areas. And that doesn’t begin to cover just how weak are his muscles. He should never have gone so long without changing. Not only has the pain of the transformation gotten worse, but nothing feels right. Every twitch, every movement. Sometimes he shocks himself merely from the effort of breathing. Then there’s the issue of that fall he took earlier in the day and the residual scrapes and cuts, most of which are starting to itch.

He smiles to cover it up. It’s a trick he learned long ago. Humans smile when they don’t have anything to say. And it means a variety of things.

For instance Lu Han. Lu Han makes him smile. He’s nice to be around, pleasant to listen to, pretty to look at. He does everything the wildcat tells him to do.

But the wildcat has gotten bored. That cabin is so small, and the path to the ravine is short.

He’s heard him sometimes, when Lu Han wasn’t aware, talking on that phone thing to the person called Baekhyun. They want to know more about him, Xiumin. It’s no secret, though Lu Han perhaps still thinks it is. He doesn’t realize that Xiumin is swift, and silent, and gifted with sensitive ears which pick up his conversations right through the cabin walls. By the sounds of it, Lu Han is so close to discovering all there is to know about Xiumin. About the other boy he used to be.

And when he does, he’ll leave. Nothing else to be gained. Xiumin’s story is nothing exciting. Just another slightly longer journal entry in the researcher’s books. In a few years another person will come around, check that he’s still alive, document the rise and fall of the sun for a few more weeks and then be gone again.

Why now then shouldn’t the wildcat make the most out of his time?

He takes Lu Han’s hand in his, smiling again when the man startles, a soft little gasp escaping his lips. The wildcat doesn’t look at him, but tugs him along, down the familiar old path to the ravine. In this form, it’s so much more awkward. Both of them are stumbling, the wildcat because he can’t make his legs work properly, Lu Han because he’s being pulled along.

“Where are we going?” asks Lu Han.

“This way.” The wildcat points, smiles again. He sees Lu Han rolling his eyes.

He knows exactly where he’s going. It’s one of my favorite vistas in the entire park. A hilltop with a magnificent view of the surrounding landscape.

They drag each other up the other side of the ravine. The wildcat’s beginning to sweat. He hates sweating more than anything. His breath is coming out rough and his muscles are dying. Lu Han is doing better. He looks more bewildered than anything else. That and every time the wildcat looks at him, his cheeks muscles twitch, face in shadow hiding what would otherwise be a blush.

“How much farther?” he asks, when they’ve walked another few minutes.

“I don’t know.”

Lu Han huffs. “You’re a man of few words tonight.”

“Aren’t I?” he teases back.

Lu Han’s palm is sweaty in his. If it were anyone else he’d let it go. But this is Lu Han, and tonight, tonight he wants to play .

They reach the crest of the hilltop right at full moon. The clouds are scarce, there’s a mean wind. The wildcat tugs his jacket even tighter around his neck, burying his hands in the front jacket pockets. He forgets for a second that Lu Han’s fingers are still entwined in his, but doesn’t let that bother him. Lu Han for his part seems to be pretending that hand doesn’t exist.

“Wow,” he says though, as the forest comes into view. They’re above the treeline here, higher than the surrounding hills, though not by much. This isn’t an old forest. The terrain is rocky; nine out of ten trees aren’t worth the climb. But it’s the wildcat’s home, protected national park or not, and he’s proud of it.

“Pretty, yes?”

“Wow, yes. Yeah, it is,” Lu Han agrees quickly.

“Pretty like you.”

The hand inside the wildcat’s jacket pocket suddenly trembles, and then it’s pulling away. He lets it go.

“What?” says Lu Han. His eyes are actually sparkling in the moonlight. The wildcat can’t look away.

“I said, this view is pretty.” He smiles.

Lu Han chokes. “That’s not what you said at all.”

“Isn’t it?”

“Ahh, no.”

For one terrible moment, the wildcat thinks he’s offended him. His smile drops and he steps away, remembering that old emotion he thought was dead and buried. Humans are so easily made uncomfortable. Just like the one who’d been his friend all those years ago.

Only Lu Han isn’t moving away. And he hasn’t looked away. He’s scratching his cheek like he doesn’t know what to say, mouth slightly ajar. He blinks once, twice, eyes sweeping the wildcat’s face. For the first time in years, it’s the wildcat’s turn to blush.

“Are you flirting with me?” Lu Han finally asks, head tilted sideways and the beginnings of a grin.

“Maybe?”

“It’s kind of a simple question.”

“Then, yes.”

He wasn’t kidding when he said he’d been dreaming about Lu Han. He’s done that for several nights in a row. What he didn’t mention were the actual dreams themselves, and how Lu Han featured for a subject. In most of them, it was because he was going away…

There’s a reason the wildcat lives the way he does. He’s got a staid personality by nature, a little lazy, not terribly adventurous, methodical. Routine suits him fine, but so does variance. There’s not much that throws him off course enough to be shaken by it. It’s a trait he’s perfected since he was a kitten. Since his parents went away. He knows Lu Han and his employers think them dead, but there’s oh so much that they don’t know. Little secrets the wildcat carries around with him, things nobody needs to know. His parent wildcats just couldn’t adjust to the encroaching human presence. He doesn’t have the same issues.

As a teenager he’d gotten the first spark of curiosity, what would it be like to be human? He changed his body, stood upright, stole some clothes off a drying rack one night and the next morning walked into a village, ready to learn, to experience.

Kind of like tonight.

He corners Lu Han before the man can do a thing. Hands on his elbows, pulling him down. Lu Han gapes at him, his mouth open in shock. “What?”

“You said I was flirting. That’s not, bad, right?”

Lu Han’s slow to shake his head, but he doesn’t deny him outright. Rather, he his lips and the wildcat follows the movement eagerly.

“Then, can I kiss you?”

The silence between them is sudden, somehow thunderous. Lu Han is frozen stiff but not straining, though his heart is pounding. The wildcat is actually calm. It’s just the two of them, alone on a hilltop under the moonlight with not a soul around, and the wildcat thinks that may be the humans’ definition of romantic. Is it? Is that the mood he’s going for here tonight? Maybe, perhaps, but only if Lu Han say yes.

The wildcat rephrases it. “I want to kiss you.”

And finally, that stuns the human out of his stupor. Lu Han inhales, the sound sharp and his face a little crazed. Then he nods “Yes, yeah, yeah, that’s… I want that too.”

So the wildcat does. He pulls Lu Han towards him, dragging him down until their lips are close, and then they’re touching, and oh yes, he remembers now how this works. Lu Han kisses hesitantly, like he’s scared he’ll break. The wildcat would laugh thinking of all those times the human appeared to be afraid of him. Him, a cat. He knows it’s not unfounded. He’s a predator who kills small creatures every day and eats them.

But Lu Han is no small creature. He’s tall and warm, with a sturdy embrace, but he’s so stiff right now and the wildcat just wants to make him fall.

Still locked together, he winds his small hands around the human’s back, drawing him closer, pulling them together until their bodies touch. He in a breath, pulls away for one short second to stare at Lu Han’s enamored face.

“Lu Han?”

“Hmm.” The human grunts more than replies.

“Can I do that again?”

“Uhhhh. Yeah, yeah you can.”

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