“Doc, the chopper’s ready.”

Jongin nodded, he adjusted his glasses before he fixed his helmet on, the respirator hissed briefly compressing him in the cleaner, plastic tinged air of the suit. Kyungsoo was already climbing into the humming craft when he went outside , it’s underside glowing dull blue where it hovered off the ground. Two workers followed with Jongin’s encased equipment in their hands. The second one mistepped on the short ladder and the case hit the edge of the entryway of the craft.

“Careful with that.” Jongin rushed up and took it from him, “Jeez.” He muttered and brushed his hand against the impact spot but it was still smooth.  He rest it atop the rest in the luggage hold then strapped himself into the seat opposite Kyungsoo at the front.

The stomach of the craft moaned as it glowed brighter, lifting them into the air. The pilot was taking them over the pearly skyscraping towers of the plant, towards the boarders of the forest, one of monstrous trees and glowing earth

“Is it an infection?” Jongin asked Kyungsoo, his supervisor was staring out of the open entryway at the roads on the ground which were busy with massive trucks carrying swollen globules back to the plant. Kyungsoo didn’t like his roads crowded like they were now, packed roads meant slow yielding, probably on the reaper’s end.

“I don’t think it’s that bad, some reapers just found a couple rotting globules on the west side of the hill. Don’t want anything like last time happening again, I wanna be cautious.”

It’s probably nothing, Jongin thinks. According to the area, trees just start dyeing sometimes, especially if they’ve been over harvested and the Lamprius on that hill are old, older than the plant, probably the entire Lamp Energy industry. When they get there he isn’t surprised by what he finds. Diggers have cleared off the reflective crystal-like soil of the forest so that the trees roots are exposed, webbed and arched out of the ground, they radiate pale green.

Normally the Lamprius trees grow small lumps on their roots, as they enlarge they turn into glowing globules the size of small cars that the reapers extract after the diggers move the roots out of the ground. But these globules were stunted, a dingy brown impurity, like rust, edging it’s way across the plump surface, staining the soft green and making the skin of the roots scaly. Jongin poked it with his gloved hand then peeled a piece of the browning skin away. It was tough, inflexible in his hand, something like what bark on any other tree would be like if not a bit more moist.

He opened one of his cases and placed the piece in a plastic bag to do some tests on later. He also took out a long thick needle hoping to extract some sap.

“What’s that sound?” one of the workers that Kyungsoo had brought with him asked, Kyungsoo quirked an eyebrow at him, “Don’t you hear it?”

“It may be a parasite.” Jongin spoke now, he rest the full vial back in the case, Kyungsoo waved the worker off to concentrate on what he was saying to him.

“What kind of parasite?” he sounded annoyed already.

“I think you should give these acres a rest for a few years, Kyungsoo.” Jongin is wondering how many times he has said this. Enough for Kyungsoo to roll his eyes. “I’m serious, this isn’t some tree hugging , if you over harvest them they become more susceptible and then you get problems like this.” He pointed at the globules; all the trees that they could see around them had the same tainted glow, making the entire area just slightly dimmer from the rest of the forest.

Kyungsoo sighed shortly and it momentarily fogged the front of his helmet, he looked at Jongin like he was the problem but Jongin was used to that. He got tired of trying to appeal to the people he worked for as humans a long time ago; the best way to get the message across was to speak production/time/money.

“You’re not gonna get much out of them anyway.” He continued as he began to pack up, he could see Kyungsoo with his hands on hips, turning around to look about, eye pensive as the reflection of the forest gleamed over his helmet. “The plus side is that when they recover they’d produce three times as much as the others.”

“I’ll pass it by-”

The worker titled his head at Kyungsoo.“What was that?” Kyungsoo asks and he smirks smugly.

“That’s what I said.”

Jongin sees it first, crouched, wet and dirty, fur smudged with rusted blood and shivering, it looked so frail but also really impossible. For a moment he just stares like it should blink back out of existence if he would just give it the chance, but it doesn’t and quickly he puts his case down and picks the little kytten up.

“What the .” Kyungsoo’s voice growls low over his shoulder, Jongin glances and finds his eyes wide and mouth gaped slightly. “Is it alive?”

“Yeah.” Yeah! Jongin’s eyes widened too with realization and he stoops down, clenching the kytten to his chest, and opens his case again. He takes out a container, it’s compressed and made out of foil, that has a small oxygen tank at the top. He places the kytten in it and the three of them find themselves circled around it like a group of middle schoolers .

“It’s breathing.” Kyungsoo observes and Jongin nods.

“One lucky bastard, but what’s a baby like him doing out here?” the worker poked at the container like he was the kytten, it wouldn’t stop meowing and now that it was out of the forest’s poisonous atmosphere it was even louder. Jongin watched it’s slanted eyes pulled over sharp bony cheeks, irises still blue in youth though it was darkening at the edges. It must be older than it looks.

Kyungsoo stepped away; he brushed off the sides of his suit, “Just some stray, it’ll die. Nothing can survive out here besides these trees.” He walked on towards the craft.

Jongin let the worker take his case, after warnering him not to manhandle this one, he didn’t want to ruin the sap he had collected. He kept the kytten close to him on his lap as he sat in craft on the way back to the plant.

 

 

found a catgirl/boy -  Jongin types into the search, he thinks about it then retypes- found a baby catgirl/boy

The kytten is meowing up a pretty big storm for something that looks that close death. Jongin has it in a container he got off someone in the med-ward, it’s bigger than the temporary foil one, a clear plastic box. He placed one of his shirts in there but the kitty doesn’t seem to care very much, his front paws clawing at the walls of the container as he weakly attempts to claim it. The blood on it’s body isn’t from a wound so Jongin doesn’t see the need to leave the plant and rush it to a vet like Kyungsoo’s assistant kept instructing him to do the entire ride back. It’s actually flea excrement, the kytten is covered with them.

How to raise a baby kytten is the forst result, followed by I found a catboy/girl, now what to do?

He abuses himself with tons of pictures and instructions, tests and ‘what to do if’s for the next hour. When he thinks he is done reading he isn’t sure what he should do first. The fleas are an important situation but he really thinks feeding should be priority, at least for now. Jongin get’s some minced beef off of one of the cafeteria workers then back at his house he blends it with plain yoghurt and egg yolks.

The kytten clings to him when he takes it out of the container, it’s thin arms wrap aound Jongin’s wrist and tiny claws dig into his skin. It doesn’t hurt though, just sort of itchy, and he watches it climb his arm, meowing repeatedly, for a few moments. Getting it to stay still long enough to so that he could put the of the bottle iin it’s mouth is a trial, he is trying to be gentle but the kytten acts like it has somewhere to be- really bad. He rests it on his desk and watches it crawl as fast as it’s thin legs and arms could carry it straight for the edge, Jongin catches it though.

“We need to learn the difference between two inches and three feet.” Jongin holds the kytten up, seeing glossy eyes, wide and dark in the dimming light of his office, and it’s underside where there fleas visibly running about in its fur. “You’re a cat you know.”

The kytten suddenly stops meowing, stops moving too, bringing its legs closer into its body and wrapping its tail between its legs. Jongin gently moves the tail aside with his finger, ignoring the fleas, which is hard.

“Boy.”

 

 

 

“I’m here to evict you, excessive complaints of weird noises and strange furry visitors.” Is Kyungsoo’s reason for being at his door. Jongin lets him in anyway. Kyungsoo’s holding documents he needs to sign for the higher-ups to know what ‘official recommendation’ on what to do about the dying trees is.

Kyungsoo’s voice wakes the kytten up though and he starts up the meowing again. Jongin still has it in the container because not all the fleas are dead yet, the first swarm seemed to have laid eggs in the t-shirt he had given the kytten.

“Can’t believe it’s still alive.” Kyungsoo is standing in front of the container with his arms folded.

“He’s really persistent, don’t think he wanted to die.” Jongin takes the files out of the envelope and flips through them, then sources a pen from somewhere on his desk.

“Are you going to keep it?”

Jongin shrugged.

“Have you ever had a kytten?” Kyungsoo looks up at him, “I mean, I haven’t either but, usually they’re bit more-” he screws his mouth to side, shoulders raising and Jongin shakes his head slowly as he innocently waits.

“He’s a stray.” Kyungsoo finally says.

“What are you trying to say?” Jongin acts ignorant and Kyungsoo’s face falls.

“He’s a fleabag, Jongin.” Kyungsoo deadpans and Jongin puffs his chest like he is offended. “ You could get much better at a good store in Astu-890.”

Jongin waves him off as he turns in his chair back to the files, “I don’t want a better a fleabag, this one’s fine.”

“You and your little projects.” Kyungsoo sighs behind him, “Maybe I should give you more work to do.”

“Actually, I wouldn’t mind inspecting those trees up on the northwest side.” Jongin smirks to himself because he can hear Kyungsoo squirming.

“That’s okay. I think your little hobby needs you more than we do.” Kyungsoo pauses, Jongin isn’t paying attention so he sort of jumps when the other man raises his voice.

Jongin spun around, “What?”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t look right.” Kyungsoo points at the kytten who is no longer meowing, or moving very much.

 

 

 

Sehun holds the kytten down with gloved hands under the lamp on his desk while Jongin hovers over his shoulder. He watches Sehun rub a damp, warm cloth over the kytten’s underside and privates and it’s really tense until something happens and Jongin scowls.

Sehun chuckles as he reaches for a wet wipe in his desk draw, “They can’t really do it for themselves at this age, usually their mother would them for the stimulation. You know?”

“I- have to do that every time?”

“Until he could do it for himself.” The kytten is meowing again, Sehun rested him down on the desk as he cleaned the mess up and the kytten tries to climb up his arm. “Also, he’s old enough to eat solids, the milk isn’t enough, that’s why he cries all the time.”

So he was ing hungry, Jongin glares at the kytten, who Sehun is trying to clean with more wipes now.

“What? Did you expect him to tell you?” Sehun grins up at him, chuckling again.

“How do you know all this stuff? You have a kytten?”

Sehun shook his head, “I grew up on a horse farm in Astu-59212. We had a lot of cats and dogs, they’re not very different.”

“Hmmm.”

“What is it?”

“He has a runny nose.” Sehun tells him, he has the kytten up again, studying his face. Sehun holds the kytten to his chest as he gets up and heads for the grey and white examination table at the centre of his office. Jongin follows him, he watches Sehun poke at the little cat’s face with some sort of syringe looking thing with a tiny magnifying glass and a light at the end. When Sehun glances at him he double takes and snorts, “Calm down man, it’s just a runny nose.”

Jongin steps back but doesn’t look any less serious, “Should I take him to a vet? Do kyttens go to vets? Or is there some cat hybrid specialist or something?”

Sehun heads for the cabinet he keeps some of his medicine in, he takes out small box and a needle, “That’s okay, he just needs some antibiotics probably, I can take care of him.”

Jongin sticks around, following Sehun to the kitchenette just behind the main offices of the med-ward. There Sehun boils some water in the electric kettle they use for instant coffee and ramen, he pours some over raw chicken liver and bread then squishes it into a paste with a fork. He places that in a tea cup coaster.

“Yummm.” Sehun waved it under Jongin’s face, smiling when he jumps away from him rubbing his nose.

“That smells terrible.”

“He’ll love it though.”

The kytten definitely did, Jongin never saw it as lively, as purely invested, as it was when it caught scent of the paste when it was rested before him. Dropping itself right in the center of the coaster, and the food, the kytten literally dug his face in and only stopped briefly to sneeze when some got too far up his nose.  When he was done, stomach stiff and protruding, Jongin thought the kytten looked a little ridiculous covered in the smelly paste and looking inexplicably satisfied.

He chuckled, “You’re actually a pig.” Jongin breathed softly into the kytten’s sleepy eyes. Tight eyelids slipping lazily closed and up again as the tiny tongue tries to lap some of the mess up around his mouth.

 

 

 

When Jongin comes back to the med-ward three days later he is surprised to see that the kytten has grown, a lot. Sehun doesn’t notice any difference but he says it’s expected.

“They grow really fast at this age, a couple ounces a day. Taozi eats a lot too.”

Jongin’s eyebrows knit together, “Taozi?”

Sehun grins like he’s amused by his own wit, “Yeah, I like that one. Dr. Fan told me it means peach.”

Jongin scrunches his nose slightly. “Isn’t ‘Taozi’ a little too sweet, even for a kitty? I mean, look at those piercing eyes, and that bone structure, that’s not ‘peachy’.”

“Did you have something else in mind?” Sehun asked after observing Jongin scrutinizing the kytten for a while.

“I don’t know, maybe something like Kwan, or Vicious, or Bitey.” Sehun looks at him like he should be worried.

“How about Lucky, because that’s what he is for getting out of that forest unharmed.” Yixing suggests, he is playing with the kytten on one of the beds. The kytten is on his chest being noisy, as usual, and pointedly ignoring the wiggling finger Yixing is trying to coax his attention to.

Yixing begs Jongin not to take the kytten home because then he’d have nothing to distract himself with.

“Yeah, it’s boring down here when no one gets hurt.” Sehun supplies.

“I don’t think you two are allowed to say that.” Jongin chuckles as he takes the kytten back.

 

 

 

-yixing-shi wats the name of the store again???

-so forgetful ☜(ˆ▽ˆ)  it’s ARISU.

- told you I don’t know this city every street looks the same 凸(¬‿¬)

-i know, sorry i couldn’t come. don’t forget the dye for Lulu ok!!!

Jongin rolled his eyes as he put his phone away, deciding to never put Taozi through something like cherry red hair dye. Yixing was definitely in a place Jongin will never be (so he says). He’s only in Astu-890 to get Taozi a bed because sleeping in Jongin’s has become a little- well- he glows. Not as brightly as the Lamprius trees, just his skin and fur in the middle of the night when all the lights are off and the kytten is cuddled under Jongin’s chin, it’s little warm body vibrating. Jongin doesn’t mind the purring and little whimpers, it’s the dim white glow against his eyelids that is keeping him up at night.

“Irasshaimase!” the store clerk was wearing a tiny pink nurse costume with cut-outs revealing ideal plushy curves and smooth skin. Automotive pink-fluff kitty ears quirked in her hair along with a swishing tail that revealed itself when she bowed.

“Uh.” Jongin stuttered uncertainly at her aygeo grin, he glanced at the door momentarily before he spoke again. Pushing his glasses back up his nose, just get it over with. “I need a bed, preferably one with a canopy. And oh, um, cherry red hair dye.”

The store clerks violet eyes widened and, somehow, sparkled when she leaned closer and said, “Meeeooowww!” giggling when Jongin stepped back and looked at her with justified apprehension, “This way.” She skipped off and Jongin tried to look as inconspicuous as possible as he followed her through the shop.

It was a colorful place, Jongin walked through floating holographic fishes and dancing mice. All the workers were dressed like individually colored kyttens, all of them too strangely enthusiastic and preoccupied with Jongin which may have something to do with him being the only customer at the moment. But there was no way Jongin was coming to Astu-890 anytime after noon. It was true that the city never slept but over the years of him never getting used to such a huge place he found that the earlier it was the less likely he’d bump into anything incomprehensibly weird in Astu-890.

It took a while, the store clerk seemed to only want to show him the cutest beds, but he finally found one. A miniature four poster bed, made of rich polished mahogany with silky white drapes. He thinks Taozi will love it.

Back at the plant Jongin heads for Kyungsoo’s office, top floor of the production department, and there he finds Kyungsoo at his work piled desk, Taozi in his lap. The kytten’s legs swinging over Kyungsoo’s thighs as he tapped away on his computer. Taozi is chewing on the panda shaped teething ring Sehun bought him as he gazes at the holograms over Kyungsoo’s head that are flashing by as the man worked.

“-pirate.” Jongin hears Kyungsoo say just as he walked in. Taozi’s eyes light up when he sees him but Kyungsoo grasps his chin and makes Taozi look up at him as he says again slowly, “-pirate.”

Jonging rests the stuff on the floor just in time to catch Taozi when he wiggled out of Kyungsoo’s arms and throws himself at Jongin, “What are you doing?” he quirks an eyebrow at the other man and Kyungsoo looks at him like it was obvious.

“Teaching him how to speak. You’re really behind know, he doesn’t do anything but meow and whine.”

Jongin chuckles, it’s quite sarcastic, “I think this is the last time you’ll be babysitting, and left alone with him unsupervised.”

Kyungsoo pouted, his eyes still on the moving bar graphs and charts as he distractedly muttered, “But we were having so much fun, was gonna teach him cluster next.”

Taozi hung onto Jongin as he watched the bed he was unwrapping on the floor. He was a little hesitant at first but when Jongin laid him down on it he tried to stay put, “It’s yours, you have your own bed now Taozi.” Jongin told him, smiling encouragingly at the uncertain eyes that were studying him, waiting to be picked back up. “You’ll sleep in here from now on.” Jongin looks off to the side because he is starting to become uncertain himself.

“Like a big boy.” Kyungsoo adds and Jongin nods at Taozi.

“Yes, like a big boy.”

 

 

Giggling as he runs down the hallway wrapped in a towel, Taozi paused in front of the bedroom door and looks back to see Jongin following before he screams excitedly and runs inside. Jongin finds him rolling under the covers on his bed, the towel on the floor, and he groans at the prospect of changing his now damp sheets as he approaches. He growls jumping over Taozi on the bed, blowing and nibbling Taozi’s stomach and chest as tiny feet kick at him and breathy giggling and whines push him on. Taozi’s tail curls around his neck as the kytten playfully bites Jongin’s ears.

Once Taozi was dried, thanks to Jongin’s bed sheets and the t-shirt he was wearing, he dressed him and carried him over to the bed that he had placed just a few feet away from his. At first Taozi is too excited and wants to play so Jongin lifts him up and holds him, rocking and pressing kisses to his neck and face, absentmindedly Taozi’s ear until he has quieted down. Taozi sleepily humming some tune that Jongin didn’t know but was sure he picked up from Kyungsoo.

This time Taozi stays on the bed, cuddling into the plush cushion with his tail neatly tucked between his legs as soon as Jongin rests him there. He waits a few minutes, watching Taozi’s breathing even into long rhythmic and his face relaxing of that sharp toothed growl that is permanently at the corner of the kytten’s expressive lips.

Jongin tiptoes out of his room to wash up himself then peeks in on Taozi one more time before he goes into bed. He could see the pale gleam on the canopy drapes already and when he looks into the narrow opening he makes with his finger the light draws a line across his cheek. It radiates out of Taozi’s skin, much like the Lamprius globules, pulsing from the core of the kytten’s heart beat as steady as the purring that is rumbling out of Taozi’s chest. Watching, Jongin feels his insides twitch as he stares longer than he planned to, eventually sighing at his indecisiveness, at his weakening self.

Resolutely he goes to his bed where he, for a long time, finds himself incapable of sorting a comfortable position, then he just stares at the ceiling. Eventually he turns to his side, facing Taozi’s bed and wondering why he didn’t get a bigger one. Taozi must have been really tired to have fallen asleep so quickly, Jongin expected more of a fight to get him to stay in the bed; he is a little surprised that it’s this easy. That Taozi is so content sleeping by himself.

He is about drift, feeling the tugging tickling of a distant dream, when there is movement. Rustling of his sheets, soft inquiring whimpers bitten by drowsiness, then warmth in his arms that he keenly pulls closer against his chest, curls around until it’s encapsulated by his body and he can probably, he will, live with the glowing. Tomorrow he’ll buy a sleep mask.  

 

 

 

 Taozi goes into the fridge for some water. He holds the jug with both hands places it on the counter, fetches his plastic cup that Jongin bought him and rests it up there too. Then he climbs on top of the counter, sitting on his knees as he carefully pours. He tries to be neat but he doesn’t sense Lulu, at least not when it counts. Lulu is older than him and much better at stalking, when he pounces onto the counter Taozi jumps and flees on impulse, knocking the glass jug down.

Jongin heard the commotion from upstairs and his hand halts, the paint brush just off the wall as he sighs and takes a moment, staring out the window on his left. His jaw tightening when he see his empty back yard. When Jongin steps into the kitchen there is water and glass everywhere, and no kyttens. He is hissing curses under his breath as he maneuvers through the mess towards the broom cupboard for the mop.

“Tao!” he calls though he knows neither will come forth as long as he’s angry. When he sees a red taint to some of the water he calls again, much tighter in voice, “Tao, come out!”

After a moment Taozi peeks out from one of the overhead cupboards. Jongin sees him and goes over, holding up his arms for Taozi to fall into them. Taozi wraps his tail around Jongin’s waist, his ears are down, disappearing into tuffs of pale hair, as he immediately starts his teary whines that Jongin cannot understand but could probably guess what were about.

Jongin rests him on the counter, then tries not to fly out of his skin when Lulu suddenly jumps onto the counter out of thin air. He kneels and shuffles up towards them, all widened eyes and affronted mouth, “Taozi did!” He says at Jongin with a finger pointed towards the younger one. Taozi jumps up immediately but Jongin pulls him back down.

Yixing’s pet was older but when he was around there was often more trouble than usual, though Jongin would usually pick Lulu over Dr. Wu’s kitten given the option. In just one play-date Chen had somehow accomplished instilling enough weird traits in Taozi that it took Jongin months to train out. Jongin still doesn’t feel safe enough to not watch his back whenever he takes bathes with his kytten.

“Didn’t I say to stay in the back yard?”

Taozi looks up at him and begins his protests in his kitty-feigned-Korean that Jongin always finds adorable no matter how angry he may be at the time. Yixing says that Taozi should know at least some simple words by now but Jongin’s kytten persists on speaking in Taozi-mumbo-jumbo and really Jongin isn’t complaining. It could be another affect of the Lamprius tree radiation. Who knows?

Lifting Taozi up by his Jongin gets to check his feet for any injuries and shuts the kytten up at the same time, Taozi gasping when he is suddenly lifted into the air, holding onto Jongin’s head as he hisses and whines words that sound a lot like Jongin’s name but isn’t quite. Lulu comes closer and helps Jongin search for the cut, he finds it first, on one of Taozi’s toes, and begins . Taozi giggles and turns over, sitting on Jongin’s shoulder to watch Lulu. With a mischievous smirk he kicks Lulu away, the older kytten’s eyes widened and he playfully bites Taozi’s leg.

“Aw, friends again?” Jongin pulls Taozi away before he could lunge at Lulu and start playing again on his kitchen counter, holding him against his chest and the kytten wraps himself around Jongin again. “Ready to go back to destroying my house?”

Lulu smiles at him widely, his ears twitching to the side, and Jongin knows better than to think it means he’s too stupid to understand what Jongin just said.

“Mmh.” Taozi is looking at him and tapping his nose. Jongin just stares though so Taozi eventually covers his nose with both hands and cringes. Jongin nuzzles his hands as he looks toward Lulu.

“Smelly.” Lulu tells him, he does the same action, covering his nose.

“I was painting Taozi, I told you I’m painting your playroom so you have to stay outside.”

Jongin gets the first aid kit and sits on a couch in the living room with Taozi’s head under his chin, the kytten pressing himself deeper into his chest, hissing as he scowled at Jongin’s fingers taking care of the cut on his toe that is all of a sudden causing Taozi unbearable pain. Lulu leans on his elbows on the armrest as he watches Taozi struggle then eventually give in to tears.

He pouts as he brushes Taozi’s fringe to get the younger kytten’s attention, “? Taozi ?”

Taozi is biting his fingers as he nods frowning imploringly with full, wet eyes. Jongin had yet to get Taozi to be still enough to actually apply anything to the wound, he isn’t sure what exactly they are trying to tell him when Lulu stares at him pointedly with those big shiny eyes. Lulu notices this and bows over Taozi’s toe and the wound clean though it was quickly bloodied again, the red staining the spaces between Taozi’s toes.

His kitten is now looking up at him expectantly and Jongin barely hides the disgusted cringe on his face. He is going to tell Taozi to sit still so he could clean it the normal way but then those sharp, dark eyes narrowed briefly, lips moving uneasily over sounds that are not yet practiced and he looks so serious, almost challenging.

“J-Jog-gin .”

Jongin hears himself moaned as his chest clenches and he blinks down at Taozi. He presses a soft peck on those little pinched lips before he pulled Taozis leg up towards his mouth, ignoring the roguish slant of Lulu’s mouth.