♤

Jaemin was 17 when he found Jeno at 5:40 in the afternoon under the bridge he goes to when he wants to think. He was nothing more than skin and bone, like he had faced the world on his own. 

His eyes, however, told a different story. The blue and the brown in his orbs contained galaxies within them. They told tales of resilience and love. There were waves that ebbed and flowed as frequent as the seasons pass. It was as if they were challenging Jaemin to even try and fathom the weight of his gaze.

"Hi hyung." Said a frail voice.

Jaemin looked at the boy, not even half his size. He smiled at the way the hybrid's tail was torn between a mix of uncertainty and joy.

"It's kind of cold out for you to be staying here, don't you think?"

The hybrid gave a toothy grin that exposed his little canines. He took Jaemin's hand and started dragging him further under the bridge to where a cardboard box had been laid out along with a couple ripped pieces of cloth.

"It's warm here." The hybrid commented as he pointed to the cardboard.

There it was again. The light that never seemed to dim even in the most hopeless situations. 

There was no warmth in the hybrid's bed. None whatsoever. The only semblance of warmth Jaemin saw were in those eyes.

"What's your name?" Jaemin questioned, disregarding the hybrid's offer.

"I am Jeno." The hybrid answered with a curious tilt to his head.

"Do you stay with anyone, Jeno? Family? Friends?"

Jeno's ears subtly pressed flat against his bed of hair. "Ah. Family is.."

Jaemin was transfixed with the boy's eyes. The galaxies had stars and he could see them collide and create heavenly bodies, but he also saw black holes. The same eyes that had created solar systems began to destroy them just as quickly as they were birthed.

Jaemin was now staring at black holes, voids of emptiness that neither created nor destroyed. They were born into the world to just be as they are.

"Family is not here. Jeno here by himself."

Jaemin knew right then and there that he didn't want Jeno's eyes to contain black holes or endless voids. He vowed to be the warmth the world failed to give. He vowed to be the one that made sure those eyes never lost their light, to be the one that kept that flame ablaze.

"Jaemin is also here by himself."

"It's okay. Now we are two." Jeno held out two of his little fingers out for Jaemin to see.

Jaemin gave the hybri- no. Jaemin gave Jeno his biggest smile as he opened his arms. "We can be family."

" Just you and Jeno?"

"Yeah. Just Jaemin and Jeno."

There they were. All the stars that keep the void in the sky warm. The ones that light up the darkest of planets. The heavenly bodies Jaemin swore he would keep afloat. They were all on display for him and only him.

Jeno smiled as he ran into the larger male's embrace, his arms struggling to link around Jaemin's neck.

"Okay, mister Jaemin hyung and Jeno sounds nice."

"It's Jaemin. Just Jaemin."

♤

Jaemin turned 18 right around the time Jeno grew double his size. He now stood half as tall as Jaemin. There were still galaxies in his eyes and Jaemin still kept his promise. 

This was also the time where Jaemin rushed Jeno to the Hybrid center in the middle of the night because the boy just stopped breathing after he had convulsed.

The waiting room was pure torture. The metal seats were so cold that they stung, the smell of antiseptics made Jaemin feel dirty, and the clock ticking unnaturally loud made the time he spent apart from Jeno not knowing whether he was okay or not, even more apparent.

Jaemin knelt and cried into Jeno's chest the moment he walked out of the E.R. with Doctor Choi.

Anaphylactic shock is what it was. Turns out Jeno's body had a deathly reaction to chocolate and nuts. Both of which the boy had specifically requested for to be on his birthday cake.

"Can Jeno not eat his cake anymore?" Came the hoarse concern of the hybrid.

Jaemin sniffled and tried wiping the remaining tears on Jeno's shirt. "No no. You can. Just.. not the one we bought okay? Doctor Choi explained it to you right?"

Jeno nodded before reporting back whatever Doctor Choi had already explained to him just as he ran to check on the boy. "No chocolate and no nuts. Not even peanut butter." 

Jeno frowned and pouted at Jaemin. "But I like peanut butter."

"I guess we'll just have to find something else you'll like just as much, okay, bud?"

"Okay fine." The little boy huffed, allowing himself to be carried by Jaemin as they walked home.

Jaemin was complacent. He thought adopting a hybrid was as easy as providing food and shelter. He failed to realize Jeno needed so much more than that. 

There was a soft tug on Jaemin's ear lobe that broke him out of his internal struggle. 

"My cake." Jeno whispered with his hoarse voice.

Who was Jaemin to deny Jeno of what he wanted? They headed to a coffee shop that was open 24/7 and also conveniently sold a few cakes.

"Okay, birthday boy. No more chocolate and nuts this time okay?"

Jeno pouted with a huff, one of his canines jutting out. His eyes were scanning the display rather thoroughly.

The last thing Jaemin hears before the little hybrid is yelling at him for taking too long to get home is a hushed "But I like chocolate and nuts."

♤

Jeno's height skyrocketed from being half Jaemin's height to staring right at his throat when he stood upright.

They say things change when your kids grow up. They say an air of awkwardness develops right around the age of adolescence. These cases may have been true to most parents and their children, but Jaemin wasn't Jeno's parent and Jeno sure didn't feel like Jaemin's child.

Jeno didn't shy away from Jaemin when his body started to rapidly exhibit signs of growth. Jeno told Jaemin about how he now had hair in his armpits and how he would feel his voice changing. There seemed to be no filter for the hybrid's honesty when it came to things he told Jaemin.

"Nana, I have hair down there too." Jeno confessed to Jaemin one day, snickering at how flustered Jaemin became. 

"Yah! Don't throw that around so casually."

Jeno raised an eyebrow and snickered some more. "Relax nana. It's only us two here."

"Yah! Jeno watch your mouth. And that's Jaemin hyung to you. You used to be so polite and nice. I didn't realize I was sharing the same roof with a heathen." Came Jaemin's bitter response. 

Jaemin wasn't really mad. It was just that Jeno grew up rather quick. He was more sad and sentimental than angry. Before they both knew it the hybrid would be off doing who knows what and he'd already have forgotten this Na Jaemin character. Yeah. That sounds about right.

But that wasn't Jeno. If he'd be off doing who knows what and forgetting Jaemin, then that just wouldn't be Jeno.

Jaemin felt a bed of hair and pair of soft ears nuzzling his neck. There was a very bulky body trying to fit itself into Jaemin's personal soace.He could hear soft whimpers from the boy. His eyes turned toward the hybrid's own brown and blue ones as he tilted Jeno's face to face him.

There were tears in his eyes, regret and sadness written on his face. This little ball of anxiety and fluff was Jeno. Confident and dominant one second then whiny and emotional the next. Jaemin often thinks how Jeno is just a baby gifted with a man's body. His physique was that of a healthy young adult's- a premature greek god's even. But despite all that all Jeno really was was a puppy that follows Jaemin around and always aims to please him.

"Nono.. why are you crying?"

"B-because you're angry and I-I did bad and I don't want you to be mad at me." Jeno's a whimpering mess at the end of his explanation. 

"Shhh. You're not a bad boy. I'm sorry for overreacting." 

"But you said you didn't want to live with me."

The young hybrid tends to blow things out of proportion when his nerves start getting to him. This was a perfect example of how much Jeno's past still affects him to this day.

Jeno still thinks the family that adopted him was angry with whatever he did even though he knew he did absolutely nothing. The thought of doing bad and getting left as a result has been cemented into his head, and that's not an easy cross to carry.

Jaemin pinches Jeno's cheek, grinning at the onslaught of whines he got from the male.

"I never said I didn't want to live with you, dumbo."

Things happen in a flash. Jaemin is on his back, lying on the couch. Jeno is on top of him, frowning as he rubs his cheeks. 

"Hmmm mean."

Jaemin just stares at Jeno, looking at how much he's grown in the few years he's been with him. 

There's one place the older male never stops checking up on- Jeno's eyes. It makes him wonder if he had the same galaxies within his own hazel orbs. Makes him wonder if anyone has ever thought about what worlds are hidden behind the windows of his soul.

"You have stars in your eyes, nono." Jaemin breathes out in a barely audible whisper.

"You're still Jeno's nana?" 

Jaemin rolls his eyes at how Jeno just disregards whatever he said. He starts carding his fingers through the soft raven locks of the hybrid's hair. His hair was like silk. It must have been a hybrid thing. It had to be a hybrid thing. Jaemin's never felt anything as silky as Jeno's hair before. And no. He wasn't biased at all.

Maybe stars within their eyes was a conversation to be had at a different time, Jaemin thinks.

"Whatever you say, you punk."

So this was them. Jeno and Jaemin. Jeno's nana and Jaemin's nono. Or at least that's what they wanted it to be.

♤

Jeno towered over Jaemin around the time Jaemin turned 20. His body bulked up and filled in any blanks there were over a year ago. His voice was still soft but it had a tone of dominance to it. His eyes still held the world and everything around it within them.

The year 2016 was when Jeno stopped becoming Jaemin's nono and Jaemin stopped becoming Jeno's nana.