Minho was grateful he wasn’t an idiot and had well-honed reflexes, or he and his precious passengers would’ve crashed straight into the back of Baekhyun’s battered pickup truck when the man suddenly slammed on the brakes and (hopefully) put it in park before hopping out of the cab.

  “Sorry about that you guys! We’re here! Lemme pull off to the side, then you can go ahead and pull straight in. There’s not much of a driveway and no one’s mowed the grass lately, so hopefully your trailer won’t get stuck in the weeds.”

  Rather than answer, Minho just nodded to show he understood, then went to check on Kibum and Jinki, who when given the choice between riding in the cooler like before, or in the cab of Baekhyun’s vehicle with him made their feelings quite clear. He’d been standing near enough to the truck that Jinki was able to flap himself off Minho’s shoulder and kind of control glide/fall onto the hood only to leave a dropping as he hopped around, while Kibum lightly leapt down out of the man’s arms and immediately hiked a leg against the nearest tire. He wasn’t sure foxes normally did such things, but Kibum was no ordinary fox.

  “So they still haven’t forgiven me for scaring them once” Baekhyun had said at the time. “I was driving down one of the backroads, and nearly hit these two when I didn’t see them right away. My only explanation is that the sun was almost exactly in my eyes and it was fall, so they were blending into the fallen leaves pretty well. I nearly choked on my heart when I realized and slammed on the brakes while Sass Queen ran. I was so grateful I didn’t hit them, but Kibum doesn’t forgive easily so you’d better be ready to grovel and bribe if you ever break his trust. Even then it won’t be the same.”

  Minho hadn’t known what to say, so just scooped up Kibum who had waited patiently for his new slave to quit being distracted and attend to him, as well as Jinki who chirped happily only to nearly fall out of the human’s hand. Hyukjae had kindly lined their temporary carrier with the blanket and checked the straps after Minho got the pair settled and put the lid on loosely with the stick jammed in between the cooler and lid as before.

  “It’s not the worst setup I’ve seen, but you want me to have Hae go ahead and order that seat you were talking about? He gets a discount for being such a loyal customer to his supplier so it wouldn’t be quite so expensive.”

  Minho had only replied that he wanted to think about it in response to Hyukjae’s question. He didn’t know if he felt Kibum and Jinki would be safe on his bike, no matter what kind of seating arrangement there was. He also didn’t know if he wanted to buy a car so decided to give himself some time, and see if he could figure out how his companions felt. For now, he merely unstrapped the cooler to check on the pair, two heads popping up as soon as the lid was taken off.

  “You two okay? Sorry about the brake check. Baekhyun stopped short with no warning when he realized we were at the cottage. He’s moving the truck, but I thought it might be better if we checked out the place first, then I’ll bring the bike up later. There’s no rush I don’t think, unless there’s no place for you guys to sleep or no bedding or anything. It’s supposed to be clean and fully furnished and stocked, but you never know so I brought my own, just in case. Nothing fancy, other than I hate low thread count sheets and scratchy blankets.”

  Jinki hopped eagerly onto Minho’s outstretched hand to be lifted to his shoulder, then Kibum graciously allowed himself to be picked up and carried as the three made their way up the footpath (and barely that) that Baekhyun had jokingly referred to as a driveway.

 

***

  Such a well-trained human already, and at least he agrees with me about cheap sheets Kibum “said” to Jinki, who had finally figured out the best way to grasp onto Minho’s shirt so he didn’t fall off his perch.

  You and your highbrow tastes. It’s not like we haven’t denned in holes or piles of leaves and dead brush before, not to mention all those abandoned buildings, trying to avoid the junkies Jinki responded, though with a hint of amusement.

  Not my fault my incubus half prefers civilized to barbaric. Until he’d met and become friends with the group that taught him about the incubus half of his heritage, Kibum had always wondered why he couldn’t always be satisfied with the simple and natural. It was one of the things that always irritated his mother and finally led him to be chased off like an intruder by everyone else, along with his refusal to kill humans for their livers, or take a vixen as mate and have kits. The gathering of gumihos he’d been born into swapped every generation to keep the line strong. His mother had mated with what she’d thought was a human, though she’d been wrong. Kibum’s generation was to mate with foxes despite any preferences they may have had. He’d also asked about his father once, curious to know if he was still alive or not. He’d gotten a severe beating for that and after it was found out he had no interest in females of any species on top of all of his other faults was thrown out soon after.

  I’m actually even more impressed Baek neither exaggerated the truck story for thrills nor tried to make himself look better.

  That surprised me as well, though we kind of come off looking stupid for not hearing him earlier than we did.

  That truck is a menace to everyone and everything Leeteuk’s comforting presence joined the pair, who had gotten down when Minho reached the small front porch. Kibum was sniffing for any sign of rodents or snakes, while Jinki hopped along behind to make sure nothing magical had slipped past the demons in the area.

  Why isn’t he driving his car again? the little fox questioned, satisfied the front of the cottage showed no signs of pests.

  Camouflage apparently, or part of his current role or something. We’ll all be safer when Chanyeol arrives and can keep Baek busy. Wookie and Jungsoo and I are almost to you guys now, just friendly neighbors with a casserole and a stew. How’s it been going so far?

  Hae packed us enough food for a month. Actually, I think by the time Jinki gets done with his he’ll be the size of a chicken and you or Wookie will have to stuff and roast him.

  Beloved… Jinki mentally whined, only to get a gentle nuzzle from his mate.

  I’m sorry Baby. I hope you realize I was only joking.

  “Hey you two! Why are you standing around on the porch? You should come check out the back with me!” Minho broke up the mental conversation, and Kibum gently scooped up Jinki and trotted down the one step and over to the human, plainly demanding with his eyes they be carried again.

  “Now I see why you’re called your highness” Minho scooped up the pair, settling Kibum against one shoulder and Jinki on the other before carrying them to the backyard, where the fox narrowly missed his jaw hitting the ground. Besides a couple of small outbuildings he guessed were for outdoor equipment storage, an old bicycle propped up under a small awning, and a decent size woodpile, the rest of the cleared area was all beautiful growing things. Part of it was a neatly laid out vegetable patch with most things already ripe or nearly ripe and the rest was a jungle of flowering plants and even a few fruit trees, and despite Kibum’s hesitation with most things the fox was instantly enchanted and nudged Minho’s face, asking to be let down so he could explore.

  “Do you like it? I know the flowers are a tangled mess, but I’m not much of a gardener. Le, I mean Jungsoo and Ryeowook dug out the veggie patch and planted a selection of things when they found out I was selling the cottage, as kind of a welcome present for the new owner. On the other side from where we came are berry bushes, but the path to them needs to be cut, badly.”

  “You forgot we left him an indoor herb garden in the kitchen windows to brighten up the place until he has a chance to redecorate.”

  Minho nearly dropped Jinki, who had slipped off his shoulder so was now back in the human’s hand, at the sudden appearance of two more (very good-looking and he was guessing older than he was) strangers, one of whom was quite short, resembled a pixie, and seemed to be having trouble walking in the uncut guessing clutching onto the arm of the slightly taller, somehow regal one. Both had insulated travel bags in their other hands.

  “I didn’t expect to see you two today! Couldn’t wait to meet the new neighborhood cutie?” Baekhyun asked in lieu of a proper greeting. “Choi Minho, these two are Park Jungsoo and Kim Ryeowook. I don’t know if Hae or Hyuk thought to mention it, but if you can’t or don’t want to cook they do weekly meal services for quite a reasonable fee. Jungsoo is also Hae’s brother’s fiancé.”

  “The princess couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed today, otherwise I would’ve brought Heechul with me” Jungsoo said, flashing a beautiful dimpled smile. Minho was grateful it had already been made abundantly clear the older man was unavailable, or he might have been tempted to hit on him despite no prior experience.

  “It’s not like Woonie and Kyu were much better. They managed to drag themselves as far as the couch but that was it.” Ryeowook seemed to realize what he’d actually said and blushed a furious red.

  “Sorry Minho. You probably don’t want to hear about our domestic affairs right after meeting us, so I’ll only tell you that Kim Jongwoon and Cho Kyuhyun are my lovers. They’re also on the shy side so I’m not sure when you’ll meet them. Anyway, we brought you food. I made a stew, and Jungsoo brought you a casserole.”

  “Which reminds me. Donghae sent the poor guy a lasagna. I’m not even sure it could be used as fertilizer” Baekhyun added.

  “It’s nice to meet you both, thank you for the food, I can cook a little but I’m pretty limited so I might be ordering some meals depending on how much outside their own food Kibum and Jinki here eat, and why would I throw out something someone was kind enough to make me?”

  “So someone is taking care of those two” Jungsoo looked relieved. “And it’s not that Hae’s heart isn’t in the right place, but Elders that man cannot cook no matter how hard he tries. I thought Chullie was bad, but he’s never set the kitchen on fire.”

  “Well, they did grow up in boarding schools, then kind of drifted from place to place after college until their exes indirectly caused them to meet everybody at the club and you and Chullie hit it off so they decided to move, and nearly hit Eu, er Hyukjae on their way to meet the movers.” Baekhyun seemed to have made a point with the others, but Minho was just extremely confused. He thought about asking what they were talking about, then decided he may not really want to know.

  “Well, shall we go in so Minho can properly see the inside of his new home?” Ryeowook may have just trying to change the subject and the man in question wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about strangers just inviting themselves inside his house, but decided not to make a fuss unless they wouldn’t leave or other people started showing up.

  “Uh, yeah. Sorry, had a senior moment and forgot what we were doing here.” Baekhyun shook his head and headed back for the front, Jungsoo and Ryeowook following more slowly.

  “Well, are you two staying out here or did you want to go inside too?” Minho asked Kibum and Jinki. The little bird trilled and flapped his wings at “inside”, while the fox seemed to be considering something before finally turning and heading in the same direction as the others, who would've seemed to be arguing about something while Baekhyun fumbled with the lock if any of them had been speaking, judging by the scowls only to look startled when they saw the trio.

  “Finally! For a moment I thought I’d grabbed the wrong key, but the lock apparently needs to be either tightened or greased again. It sticks. Well Mister Choi, care to take the first step inside?”