"I've been thinking."

Minseok hummed, quickly cleaning the plates with a wet dishcloth. Cleaning, too, was apparently not worth the magical effort.

"Did you do that on purpose, the entire ' out your demon mark' thing?" Luhan asked, even more straight-forward due to his drowsy state. He was getting there, after sharing a rather lengthy, albeit quiet breakfast with Minseok, and this had been half-heartedly echoing around his head all morning.

"You're still thinking about that?" Minseok asked, a teasing lilt dancing along the syllables as he handed Luhan a plate to dry. Luhan refused to amuse him, instead turning the conversation back to him.

"Well, I feel like you might have fooled me all along. So, did you?"

It had been almost ten days since the incident, and Luhan hadn't constantly thought about it, quite the opposite. It had started to fade from his mind when, for some reason, he'd dreamt of Minseok doing it again, crowding him in, biting and kissing along his neck, making him feel woozy, aroused, and strange.

There was none of that heavy atmosphere right now, when Minseok's wet fingers touched Luhan's way more than necessary while handing over the next plate.

"I would like to say that it was but I would have been smarter about that."

His tone remained light, and the past few days had proven just that, so Luhan's reply came without hesitation.

"I bet you would."

The past days had all been like this - filled with nothing but benign teasing.

That one evening at the restaurant seemed to have kicked something loose and Luhan should probably have been the bigger person and put a stop to it, but he didn't. He simply didn't. Instead, he played along, always ready to top Minseok's advances, to be just a little bolder, to toe the line just a little further; because that's what they were doing: toeing an invisible line without ever truly crossing it.
It was a little absurd, how Minseok's feet would slide up Luhan's calf during dinner, or how Luhan got way too close to fix a strand of Minseok's freshly washed hair without anything ever happening. They were both enjoying the game, the pleasant little friction, simply riling each other up a little but never intending to seek something more than a small thrill. Never before had Luhan met a person willing to play like that, and he loved it. Sure, at some point one of them would cave, probably, but making Minseok crack seemed near impossible, which made everything oddly comfortable. Comfortable, yet thrilled was actually an accurate description of what Luhan was feeling when two slim, purposeful fingers ran down his spine, nails softly scraping the fabric of his shirt.

"All ready for work?" Minseok hummed, his presence warm beside Luhan.

"Getting there," Luhan replied quietly, grabbing the last item on the table to return to his messenger bag - the tub of moon fruit cream. He opened it nonchalantly, absolutely ready to try and make the process of applying cream look more sensual than it had any right to be, when a warm hand covered his and he was turned sideways by a gentle, but firm grip on his side.

He made a questioning sound, but the playfulness had vanished from Minseok's eyes as he assessed his throat. Instinctively, Luhan closed his eyes when he felt a warm hand cupping his skin, thumbing over the markings.

Minseok didn't say a word but he didn't have to - Luhan had noticed it, too, how his markings had marginally faded but were still very much there, while Minseok himself had healed completely already.

"Wanna try kissing them again?" Luhan asked lowly, blinking the daze away, but not moving away from the other's touch. It was nothing but an attempt to cheer him up, that much was obvious. MInseok didn't pay him any heed as he stared at the markings, evidently lost in thought. They weren't painful in any way, but with Minseok's thumb slowly applying pressure, a prickling sensation kept rising in intensity. When Luhan twitched involuntarily, the pressure left in an instant. He could feel the other swipe his thumb over them almost apologetically.

"Are you free after work?" Minseok asked evenly, not betraying anything.

Luhan shrugged.

"Sure."

Minseok stepped away and towards the kitchenette, going through a cupboard.

"Good. I'll come get you. We'll see someone today, to look at your throat."

Luhan simply hummed, not asking further questions as he efficiently applied the cream. As far as he could tell, asking another witch for help was a big no-go among them, not to mention that it probably ate away at his pride. If he expected Luhan to be angry over him dragging this out, well, he'd be off by a long shot. Luhan wasn't in any pain and felt safe being near Minseok. Saying this entirely out of the blue would be odd though; Luhan deemed it more effective to place a palm on his shoulder while he was rummaging through the kitchen, suddenly very intent on working. He didn't turn around, not when Luhan let his hand slide a little lower, cupping his shoulder blades, soothingly sliding up again with just enough pressure to feel the warmth bleeding through the fabric.

"I'm off to work," he said quietly. No flirtatious tone, no implications, just reassurance.

In a weird way, this was harder to stomach, and Luhan left without another word, embarrassment hot on his skin.

"I don't think your boss likes me a whole lot," Minseok stated lightly, a few hours later. They had just left the store, walking down the streets under a grey and gloomy sky. Luhan could smell the upcoming rain and tugged his scarf a little higher, just to be sure.

"Yixing? He's kindness personified."

Predictably, Minseok made a sceptical sound. Considering the extremely pointed look Yixing had shot him, that was understandable.

Luhan picked his next words wisely.

"It's just... hard to fool him. He probably sees right through you."

"Is that so?" Minseok asked lowly, thoughtfully even. "How did you end up at the store in the first place? You mentioned growing up at the library, didn't you?"

And the orphanage, but he graciously left that part out. Luhan hadn't gone too deep into it, anyway.

Store windows flew by, scents and voices weighing down on him like a comfortable, fuzzy blanket, and Luhan felt the odd urge to link hands with Minseok. It was probably the nostalgia that came with thinking of the tea store.

"I think I was, what, thirteen? Fourteen? I'd been pretty new to the library, just settling in and still looking for jobs," he began, holding on to the strap of his bag as he kept his eyes on the ground to avoid tripping.

"It was actually a pretty miserable day and I'd been on my way home after helping out at a restaurant when it started to rain. The rain was really strong so I sought shelter in front of a store, and that's when Yixing came out. He was kinda frazzled and hasty because some family had fallen sick and requested for him, and instead of closing his store for the time being, he just turned to me and asked me whether I could keep an eye on it."

Even now, the memory was crystal clear in his head. The way the rain had beaten down on everything, creating a loud, constant white noise threatening to drown Yixing's voice.

"I must have looked like your typical street rat and yet he gave me the keys to his store and kindly asked me to wait for him to return," Luhan said, looking at Minseok with a shadow of the disbelief he'd felt back then. "Just like that. Sounds crazy, doesn't it?"

"And you accepted," Minseok only stated, the faintest hint of a smile dancing in his eyes.

Luhan shrugged.

"I was honestly too taken aback to even decline and before I knew it, Yixing had run off," Luhan chuckled, finally deciding to link hands with Minseok, after all. The other didn't hesitate, intertwining their hands in an easy, natural manner, which was oddly flustering.

"I was standing inside this expensive-looking store, completely at a loss as to what even happened. Of course that's somewhat of a temptation, and I did think about just taking whatever and leaving. I'm not a liar and I was in a really bad position back then."

"But you have painfully high morals," Minseok supplied, almost teasing and without a doubt. Luhan acted offended.

"You make it sound really bad. Unlike-" he began, caught himself just in time and changed directions, "-you, I don't think aspiring to be a good person is a waste of time."

Minseok squeezed his fingers for a split second, acknowledging the fact that Luhan had almost mentioned witches. Carelessness wasn't something Luhan would usually see himself guilty of, but only ever talking to Minseok within private vicinities like his home made it easy to slip up.

"So you just watched over the store like he told you to?" Minseok asked calmly. "Like a good kid?"

"I just did what felt right," Luhan defended himself. "As if you would have had the heart to betray someone like Yixing."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Minseok mused lightly. "I wasn't nearly as good of a kid as you were - as you still are, really."

"Can you not call me a kid?" Luhan asked, trying to tug his hand free in a purposeful display of childishness, but Minseok simply held on to him.

"But even if I'd tried, your boss would have caught me, anyway, I'm pretty sure about that - he does have an eye for people, it seems," Minseok added, and they rounded a corner to cross a small market that was still buzzing with life even shortly before sundawn. Luhan felt the noise, the buzzing, saw the movements of countless bodies squeezing past each other, and smelled the air growing salty and prickly.

He really hated crowds and this one was even worse than the ones gathering on the wide, open square.

"What- what makes you think that?" he asked airily, discreetly slipping his hand out of Minseok's, who let him go with a brief, confused look.

"Are you alright?" he asked, but Luhan just nodded, swallowing hard.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Crowds just give me a headache after a while. You weren't planning on shopping here, were you?"

Minseok nodded in understanding.

"I see. Let's just walk around it, easy as that. We don’t have to cross it."

With that, he slipped to the sidelines and into a narrow alleyway. Luhan gladly followed him and with the noise slowly dying down, he allowed the cool, shadowy alley to calm his nerves.

"Sorry. I'm a huge wuss," Luhan sighed in defeat.

"Plenty of people don't like crowded places," Minseok dismissed him. "If anything, your instincts are more natural than theirs."

Luhan chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"Oh no, I'm also terrified of heights, caves, open fire, drowning - whichever fear you can think of, I'll probably have it."

"You're apparently not scared of being cursed," Minseok quipped with a meaningful side glance.

Luhan's eyes widened until he saw Minseok's eyes roam the alleyway that was plastered in spells, scraps of paper and paint clinging to the stone walls like mould slowly taking over.

"Oh," he then muttered. "I mean, I guess not? I've never touched anything marked by a witch and never offended one, as far as I know, so I don't think they'd have a reason to come for me."

It was a neutral enough sentence and the truth.

"I've been even less worried since I moved in with you," he added. Vague enough, and also true.

"Oh? What a strange coincidence," Minseok mused, reaching out himself, to link their fingers again, when he suddenly froze.

Luhan came to a halt one step later, shooting him a worried look.

"Minseok?"

The other only blinked, subtly looking around like he was trying to figure something out. Mild confusion paled into something else, and his hand landed on Luhan's forearm instead, applying barely there pressure.

"We're making a detour," he said evenly, but it only added to the spark of fear Luhan felt. Instinctively, he looked around, but they were alone. Nothing but dirt and shadows nesting in every corner.

Minseok walked ahead with calm, measured steps, squeezing past two walls to enter another, equally shabby alley and came to a halt, one hand lifted to keep the other from walking ahead. Luhan stayed pressed to a wall, looking at dirty stones, spells, and symbols. The air felt strangely grainy and the colorful sky above them seemed eternally far away.

Minseok's fingers ran over a shabby-looking piece of paper displaying an eye. It was colored green, but upon his touch, the ink seemed to light up, and more green lights began to glow in the distance, towards the end of the alley.

He recognized the symbol from the restaurant - the colored out eye and ears.

"It's a demon," Minseok explained as soon as the symbols had lit up.

"Where?" Luhan asked warily. In response, Minseok only nodded towards one of the walls.

"See the runes? They're black. That means a demon is feeding off the magic resting in them. Witches don't ever use black for spells for this purpose alone."

Upon closer inspection, he was right - many of the symbols were black, with some still in a state in between.

"Well, except for one witch," Minseok muttered, more to himself than anything, as he walked up to a black rune in his reach, "and I doubt he walked around plastering public alleys in spells."

The rest of his sentence came out a little more forceful as he touched a black rune. He seemed to press against it, and the muted prickling sensation in the air intensified, giving Luhan unpleasant goosebumps before the tension snapped, bleeding out. Into what, he wasn't quite sure, but it felt odd and wrong. The seal turned a deep blue again and the air seemed to flicker.

Minseok was looking around, feeling for something in his pocket.

Luhan was starting to feel sick and steadied himself with a hand on the cold, scratchy brick wall. His senses felt weird and tilted, but he didn't know whether it came from the feeling of nausea or caused it.

He forced his eyes to stay open though, watching the way Minseok moved his palm in something akin to a half circle, followed by a sudden, curt movement.

All of a sudden, the alleyway wasn't so empty anymore.

A dark mass was hanging in the air, larger than any animal Luhan had seen in his entire life, with a shape that seemed closer to a monstrous bug than a sentient being. It kept moving without actually hovering, simply hanging in the air like a blob of oil lying on a water surface, ever moving but never relying on gravity.

It was, quite frankly, terrifying.

Minseok took a step towards it, and the black mass kept moving, folding in on itself, turning parts inside out, and the longer Luhan looked at it, the more disgusted he was.

He saw the dagger glint in Minseok's hand, but when the thing started moving all of a sudden with shocking speed, he let go of it in favour of slapping his hand on a rune. It caught fire immediately, keeping the demon from slipping past him and towards Luhan. Instead, the thing bounced off into the only other direction - away from them.

He heard Minseok curse, and then he saw another rune light up in the distance and above them, another dot of red. In a flowing movement, Mnseok grabbed the dagger from the ground and threw it right into the demon.

Luhan felt the following shriek in his bones, felt the air change and his stomach churn-

And then the dagger fell to the ground with a resounding clank and everything was over. Gone without a trace, having vanished as quickly as it had started.

Luhan drew in a careful breath, deep and measured so as not to vomit.

When he opened his eyes again, Minseok was by his side again, eyes on the dagger he was turning around in his hands. It was the pretty dagger the blacksmith witch had made him. The runes along the metal were of a deep black now, just like two of the big stones decorating the handle.

Minseok huffed.

"Almost broke. Chanyeol's gonna hear about this," he muttered, before sheathing the weapon.

"Is it in there now?" Luhan asked, still careful with every delivered word. Minseok shook his head, smoothing over a slightly spotty rune which turned a deep blue again.

"It's gone. This is just dirt. Blood, if you will."

Luhan didn't, but at least his stomach had calmed down enough to process this information.

Minseok looked at the spot where the rune had burnt to leave a blank in the ocean of paper and sighed.

"Let's go home for today," he concluded, tugging a necklace over his head and putting around Luhan's without preamble. A heavy stone was dangling from it, with two triangles carved into it. They looked like the ear symbols, but they were neither blank nor filled, with a curvy line crossing them.
“What about my markings?” Luhan asked, slipping the pendant into his robes.

"Another time. I don’t want to encounter anything else right now,” Minseok replied curtly, already walking down the alley the way they’d entered. “Come. We won't be alone much longer."

"Why, because the authorities heard us, after all?"

"Because the nuisance who attached the runes will know they're gone," Minseok explained, entering a bigger street with brisk steps. "And I don't feel like seeing his face right now."

He was talking freely even among people. Luhan silently assumed it to be safe to talk, thanks to the necklace. Any other day, he would have been more careful, but he could feel the shock echoing through his bones still.

"They weren't yours?"

Minseok shot him a mildly unimpressed glance.

"You think I got time to run around and plaster every street in spells? No, they're done by someone who does nothing but that. I avoid using them, but I didn't want to risk anything today."

Because you were with me.

He didn't say it, but Luhan knew, anyway, and tried to decide on whether he should feel guilty or not.

"I thought witches only work for themselves?" he asked, because the brain was flighty and good at distracting itself in moments like these. "What does he gain from protecting everyone?"

"Whatever he wants," Minseok snorted. "Let's just say that if that sleazy rat shows up on your doorstep with a favour, you're obligated to grant it."

"And he did he ask one from you before?"

"Rarely. I'm not the type you go to for favours," Minseok hummed, and when Luhan tumbled over a loose cobblestone, he grabbed his arm to steady him. After a short, thoughtful look, his hand slipped into Luhan's, squeezing briefly.

"Are you alright?" he asked a while later, eyes trained on the road ahead.

Luhan shrugged.

"Sure. Are they always this big?"

"This one was larger than average."

"Are you saying this to comfort me?" Luhan whined, following him into another narrow street and into the now familiar, abandoned house leading to Minseok's home.

"My style of comfort would have been a bit too indecent for a public street," Minseok stated lightly, and Luhan smiled to himself, making an effort to keep it out of his voice.

"I'll take that as a sign of you not caring for me," he began as they entered Minseok's home but the rest of his joke got stuck in his throat.

There was a round, complex-looking symbol sticking to Minseok's door on eye level. It was symmetrical and a dark violet. Something about it was ominous, even considering Luhan's recent exposure to magic.

"Is that fromthe person who made the runes you used up?" Luhan asked, trying not to sound as concerned as he felt.

With a deep sigh, Minseok wiped the symbol off the door, rubbing his palm on his clothing.

"Not at all," he dismissed curtly, and he'd never seen Minseok this annoyed about anything.

Only a few steps into the apartment revealed that the symbol was now sitting on Minseok's desk.

Minseok groaned.

"I got it, get lost," he grumbled, wiping that one off, as well.

"What is it?" Luhan asked cluelessly, and then helpfully added, "It's back to the door now."

Minseok all but glared at the door.

"I said I got it."

The symbol seemed to dissolve under his glare, and Minseok sighed once more, exasperation turning into a thoughtful expression, and then he seemed to make a decision, all within mere seconds.

"You know what? We'll do it this way. He'll be there and I gotta go, anyway, if I want his help. You're coming with me tomorrow."

Luhan blinked, feeling utterly lost.

"Where to?"

Minseok was staring at the door as if he could still see the symbol, and then back at Luhan.

"The Walpurgis."