Lu Han comes home to a disgruntled cat in a yellow high school uniform slumped on his sofa.

“Sehun?” Lu Han gasps, wincing as his heavily bandaged ears stand on end. They quickly droop and Lu Han rubs a bit behind them. He’s long since stopped being surprised by Sehun’s random appearances in his flat. “Are you sure you don’t want to keep the spare key or something?”

Sehun shakes his head and places the key in Lu Han’s hand. “What happened to your ears?” He asks immediately. He abruptly rights himself off the sofa and walks over to Lu Han, nuzzling his hair. Up close he sees a small silver stud on the tip of Lu Han’s left ear in addition to the dark pink seeped into the bandages and he freezes. “Did a hunter go after you?”

Hunters tied back into the seamy origins of enlightened cats. In the beginning it was just cats for fodder. Rarely seen outside of the expensive brothels and nonexistent to the eyes of the law. Then one thing led to another and the humans learned that there could indeed be too much of a good thing.

Which brought them to the present, free cats. On paper at least.

Unfortunately change comes slowly, and not all accept change.

Some cats, like their early predecessors chose ion, be it that they wanted to or did whatever paid the bills. However a large portion wanted steer clear of the sleazy once typical profession for cats.

Leaving nowhere near enough cats available for . Thus, the hunters who catnapped unsuspecting targets and fitted them with an ear piercing indicative of which establishment would receive them.

“Oh no, not a hunter. I was just kind of stupid today that’s all.” Lu Han’s voice comes out shaky. His ears still feel hot and raw from earlier.

Between the piercing headache that makes his vision fuzzy and his sore ears Lu Han is ready to collapse. However Sehun, being a kind and compassionate young man, already moves to sit them both down on the sofa. Gingerly avoiding Lu Han’s ears and eventually he has his lover seated sideways on his lap.

“I had the piercing appointment booked in advance since Xing was getting an ear done too.” Lu Han sighs then rubs his temples. “But then earlier today I saw some pink ear dye and just decided to go for it since my ears look weird with my hair.”

True, Sehun thinks. Lu Han had been wandering around with his naturally black ears sticking out of the messy cotton candy cloud of his newly pink hair. The whole ensemble, black ears, pink hair, then black eyebrows had looked a bit odd.

Lu Han presses his face against Sehun’s chest. “I didn’t know it would hurt so bad.”

Sehun frowns. Massaging the base of Lu Han’s neck with one hand, where the hairline and neck meet. “Do you want me to take off the bandages? You should probably let them breathe.”

“Maybe later, they hurt too much right now.” The mere thought of Sehun’s fingers bumping against his ears attempting to unwind the bandages causes Lu Han to grimace.

“I’ll be careful I swear! And besides, I’m good with my hands!” To prove his point, Sehun whips out a shiny zippo.

His hand is a blurred mess accompanied by clinking noises as he contorts his hand in a variety of ways to light the zippo. “See?”

“Is this what you were doing instead of going to school?”

Sehun flips the lighter shut with a flourish, face sullen. "I'm wearing my uniform. How do you know I didn't go to school?"

"Don't you have English hagwon around this time?" Lu Han tugs Sehun’s collar into place and tsks when Sehun doesn't reply.

"Can we please not talk about this now?" Sehun grumbles, reaching for Lu Han’s ears. "Mom had another talk with me last night, now hold still."

Lu Han does the exact opposite of that. Flinching when Sehun's fingers brush past the tips of his ears. Otherwise, the process goes without a hitch. The open air feels cold and prickly on Lu Han's still tender ears.

“You really bleached the hell out of them didn’t you?” Sehun gasps as the bandages fall. “Isn’t this really bad for the fur?” He thinks back to all of the sunny afternoons sitting with Lu Han in the park or cafe. Watching the bright sun illuminating all of the veins in the thin flesh and the outlines of the cartilage. Lu Han’s naturally black ears had been velvety soft on the inside and out. Sehun laments not being able to touch them more back then.

“They look nice though.”

They look slightly ed up, the soft flesh on the inside is a deeper angrier shade than the usual light pink. Still… Sehun finds himself wanting to do something similar.

“Sehun-ah promise me you’ll graduate from high school at least.”

Sehun resolutely sticks to rubbing his thumb in circles over the prominent bone at the base of Lu Han’s neck, keeping his lips pressed tight together.

“It’s only another two years, you don’t have that long to go.” Lu Han presses a kiss to Sehun’s jaw, “you’re welcome over whenever. I’ll be here for you, just promise me you’ll graduate.”

Sehun’s hand stops moving. Lu Han didn’t understand, how could he? He trusts Lu Han, but it still aches not being able to be with Lu Han as much as he wants. Maybe it’s youth, maybe it’s jealousy.

“How’s work?” Sehun asks carefully, after many revisions to the unsavoury question he originally in mind.

“It’s okay, kinda boring. Do you want to come over again?” Lu Han asks with a giggle.

“Wait could I? For real?”

Lu Han shrugs. “Probably. Boss is never there and all the guys and girls down at the bar said you were really helpful. They keep asking if I’ll bring you back.” Suddenly Lu Han presses hard on Sehun’s cheeks and barely manages to keep from laughing at the resulting fish lips. “Only if you don’t skip school though! I’m not taking you down there if you skip class again.”

“Deal,” Sehun says immediately.

Several hours later Lu Han pats his pocket to find his spare keys missing again.