The light that filters in through his white curtains is what wakes Hongbin up that morning. He has to admit that the sunlight isn’t as bad as the alarm clock that is set to ring in about 10 minutes time. He sits up in the bed and, after making sure that his alarm wasn’t going to ring, begins to stretch. After hearing the satisfying pop that his shoulders give he shucks off his comforter from his legs so he can begin his morning. After showering and brushing his teeth he heads off to his potions room to make the potion that he has been making every morning for the past three years. Most witches and warlocks have their potions rooms out in the open, their stations being the central part of the house. But since Hongbin is living in the non magical world he had to keep his own potions room hidden away. He hid it behind his favorite photo, one of him and Taekwoon standing by the ocean. It makes Hongbin’s day a lot better when he sees the dorky smiles they had on their faces after rough housing in the water for hours. He walks through the photo to get to work on the potion.

Hongbin wakes up at 5 in the morning everyday so the potion is done by 7. He makes the potion automatically at this point, throwing in all of the ingredients, plus a little bit of peppermint for flavor. Once he is satisfied with the color the potion has become he pulls out one of his prized possessions, a beautiful crystal goblet. He carefully pours the shimmery pink potion into the goblet, marveling a bit at just how pretty the flecks of light that comes from the potion mixes with the reflectiveness of the crystal that holds it. He picks up the potion gently, moving around his work station slowly so he doesn’t even spill a drop of the potion he had spent hours laboring over. He uses the same pace to walk out of his potions room and through the house, walking through the same route he does every morning. He walks through his bedroom, out the door, and all the way down to the end of the long hallway where he is met with a wall. He walks up to another photo, this one is of Taekwoon smiling in the middle of what looked to be a sea of cats from one of their many trips to the cat café that was in the city. The trip to get to the café was about 45 minutes but it was worth it to see how Taekwoon’s face would light up when he saw all the cats. Hongbin shakes himself out of his thoughts before walking through the picture. This picture takes him to a normal looking room. The curtains are light blue to cover the large windows that make the place look so bright during the summer time. There were two bookshelves, one for books and the other for little trinkets that had been collected over the years. In the place of a bed there was a large tank of water. In the tank was Taekwoon, sleeping peacefully. His long dark hair swirled gently around his face, only disturbed by the bubbles that escaped his mouth as he softly breathed. The scales of his dark blue tail shimmers in the morning light that is filtering through the curtains by his tank. Hongbin looks at his boyfriend fondly, remembering the day he first met Taekwoon.

He had first met Taekwoon by accident really. Hongbin was on his way home from his last potions run. Back then his potions business was just starting up and he couldn’t afford to have someone deliver his potions for him. As he walked from the house of the nice elderly couple that needed some dreamless sleep potion he was walking by the beach that they lived near. His target was the portal station that he would jump through to get to the private portal he set up in his potions room. He had just zipped up his coat so he could protect himself from the biting winter winds when he saw something on the beach. Being the curious person that he was Hongbin walked over to investigate, putting his hand to his wand incase it was dangerous. The last thing he expected to see was a merman tangled up in a net with a large wound on his tail. The merman was struggling out of the net with all his might, but with the minimal amounts of water his gills were getting  he was growing weaker and weaker. Hongbin acted quickly, firstly creating a bubble of water around the merman so he could breathe properly. “Here let me help you out of that.” Hongbin said as soon as the merman was coherent enough after the lack of water he had suffered. The merman flinched back a bit before letting Hongbin close enough to help him get out of the net. He looked the merman in the eyes before looking back at his injured tail. “Umm I have a healing kit back in my potions room. I can help with the gash.” The merman didn’t look so trusting but after looking at his own tail ant the amount of blood that was starting to stain his water bubble he agreed to be taken care of. After that day Taekwoon would visit Hongbin every now and then, getting potions to turn human from his grandmother who was a sea witch. At first it was because of the curiosity he felt when he saw how things were done on land, but after a while he began to show up more and more because he liked seeing Hongbin. Eventually they began dating and Taekwoon moved to the land when Hongbin had surprised him with the potion he had learned to make so Taekwoon didn’t have to bother his grandmother anymore.

Hongbin’s smile grew larger at the memory, dimples on full display. He put the potion on the little table that Taekwoon kept next to his tank. The table covered with some items that Taekwoon held close to his heart, like a photo of him and Hongbin in an apple orchard and a little handheld mirror that he used to call his grandmother. Hongbin kneeled down so his face lined up to where Taekwoon’s was. Hongbin taps lightly on the glass. Taekwoon’s eyes blink open slowly before he shuts them quick and rolls over so he is no longer facing Hongbin. Hongbin chuckles. “Come on Taekwoon. It’s time to get up or else we’ll be late.” Hongbin taps on the glass more just to aggravate the sleepy merman. Taekwoon lets out a groan before lifting himself to the top of the tank. Hongbin gives him the crystal goblet and Taekwoon drinks the potion slowly, enjoying the flavor of the peppermint Hongbin put in. Soon Taekwoon’s blue tail becomes two long legs. Hongbin takes the cup when Taekwoon is finished, putting it back down onto the table before he stands to help get Taekwoon out of the tank. Once Taekwoon is out he is rewarded with a quick peck to the corner of his lips. “Good morning.” Taekwoon says wrapping his arms around Hongbin’s neck. “Morning sleepyhead. How was your night?” Taekwoon shrugs his shoulders, giving Hongbin another peck before untangling himself from Hongbin and going to take his own morning shower. Hongbin starts up the coffee machine, seeing as that is all Taekwoon will allow him to touch in the kitchen after he almost burned down the entire place the last time he tried to cook something other than ramen. It turns out that Hongbin is a master at potions but completely clueless in the kitchen.

Taekwoon comes out of the shower right when Hongbin finishes making Taekwoon his morning coffee. He has a towel on his head and he only has on one of Hongbin’s larger hoodies with a pair of boxers. Taekwoon grabs the coffee and takes his usual seat in front of the couch as he turns on the news. Hongbin sits behind him on the couch and begins to towel dry Taekwoon’s hair before summoning the hair dryer and finishing the drying process. This was Hongbin’s favorite part of the day. Being able to sift his fingers through the soft dark locks on his boyfriend’s head as he made sure all of the moisture was out of it. Taekwoon would always lean into the touch, almost purring at the feeling of Hongbin’s hands running along his scalp. Hongbin decided to tie up only half of Taekwoon’s hair today, since it was his favorite way to style it. Once Taekwoon’s hair was finished Hongbin stayed behind to watch the news as Taekwoon got up to make breakfast for them. After breakfast both Hongbin and Taekwoon get ready for work, Taekwoon humming quietly as he buttons up his crisp white shirt. They make their way to the front door and when they get there they share one more quick kiss before heading out.

The walk to work was a relatively short one. It was only a five minute walk, but being able to see the city begin to wake up was a nice sight to see before the usual rush of tired business people and even more tired college students walked through the doors of the small café they owned together. As it turned out Taekwoon was really good at making coffee and Hongbin’s pretty looks alone raked in a fair amount of customers. They decided to open the café on a whim, money was tight since the conversion factor of magic realm money to won was not the best. So they found a little place on the corner of a busy intersection in Seoul and have been working there ever since. Hongbin unlocked the doors to the café and Taekwoon got to work setting up his station while Hongbin got to work on setting up the tables. Their newest employee, an almost overly enthusiastic man named Jaehwan, arrived not long after and began taking orders.

The day went by quickly since the café usually brought in enough customers for there to be very few times that it would be empty. It might have had something to do with Hongbin enchanting their space so it was always the perfect temperature and Taekwoon’s coffee making skills being top tier. Plus Jaehwan’s cute, puppy like mannerisms brought in a good amount of clientele. Hongbin and Taekwoon closed the coffee shop for the night, saying their goodbyes to Jaehwan before beginning the walk home. On the way home Hongbin took a detour through the park that sat in between their house and the café. They walked hand in hand, taking in the sunset that had just begun as it created fire like effects across the sky. Once Hongbin and Taekwoon got home they seperated. As much as Taekwoon and Hongbin loved spending time with each other they both needed time to be by themselves. So Taekwoon went to a section of their apartment that they called the “Sun Room”. They called it that because Hongbin had enchanted it so it would always look like a field of flowers on a bright spring day, no matter what the weather was outside. Taekwoon loved this room the most since it was a room he could go to be truly alone with his thoughts. He usually ended up napping in the tall grass and daisies, but sometimes Hongbin would walk in on Taekwoon reading or writing music. Hongbin usually went to his potions room, he did have a potions business to run after all. Hongbin loved making potions, especially if those potions could be of some help to the people who ordered them. So he would slave away over his cauldron to make sure that everything was just right. Then he would package the potions and have his delivery boy, whose name was Sanghyuk, send them to the places that they needed to be. Since Sanghyuk was a time traveler Hongbin never needed to worry about the potions getting there late.

After spending some time alone Taekwoon went to go fix them dinner while Hongbin set the table. They had a small debate on which was better, movies or books. They always had small debates like that, mostly to cut through the silence they knew would happen if no one spoke. After having dinner Hongbin washed the dishes while Taekwoon the tv. Hongbin joined him soon after. Taekwoon curled up next to Hongbin, laying his head on Hongbin’s lap as Hongbin played with his hair. Soon enough the motion had Taekwoon falling asleep. Instead of waking Taekwoon up when the potion was close to wearing off, Hongbin carried him bridal style to his tank. Just when Hongbin put him in the water the potion wore off, turning Taekwoon’s legs back into the dark blue tail it was before. Hongbin smiled fondly once again, taking a few minutes to watch Taekwoon get comfortable in his tank. “Goodnight Taekwoon.” Hongbin whispered, laying a soft kiss on the glass in front of Taekwoon’s face. Hongbin turned off the light as he left the room. He walked to his own room, settling down in his bed before setting his alarm. He soon fell asleep, excited to be able to wake up and spend time with Taekwoon the next morning.

Hongbin fell asleep with a smile on his face.