What am I?

That was the first question that popped into his head the first time he gained consciousness.

Letting his eyes focus to the bright light, he squints and tries to move his limbs. Unfortunately, he was pinned down by wires, equipment and cuffs.

Racking his head, he searched for any piece of memory. Who was he? Why was he here?

Nothing.

He just knows what he could see now. He’s , young, small, frail and pale.

Trying to find his voice, he let out a few groans. At the same time, the only door to the white room he was in opened.

“Seems like you finally gained consciousness.”

A man, in his early twenties, entered wearing a white doctor’s robe. He didn’t even know how he understood the man, or even remember if he was educated. So he did the only thing he could do under the circumstances. Observe.

The man looked like a pixie. Again, he does not know why he knows. The man had pink hair in a pixie cut, sparkling round eyes, sharp features and up-curled lips that made him look mischievous.

A name tag was clipped at the front pocket of the man’s robe, and as he strained to make out the words, the man injected him with a dose of sedative.

“Now time for your daily tests, Jongin. Just sleep through it, and you’ll do fine.”

His vision was getting blurry, and he dozed off with the man’s soothing voice lulling him to his sedated sleep.

A week has gone by since Jongin first showed up in Kyungsoo’s home.

Things have started to fall into routine, but sometimes Kyungsoo gets overwhelmed by surprise when he remembers that he had adopted a cat-boy into his life.

Like now, for instance.

Kyungsoo arrives back at his front door, exhausted after a day of hard work and boring classes, fumbling with the lock, expecting nothing but peace and quiet from his empty house.

But once he opened the door, he was surprised by Jongin in his cat form, sitting at the entrance meowing at him, reminding Kyungsoo of his annoying presence.

He chuckled, and settled down on the living room couch after putting away his things. Jongin padded over to him and crawled into his lap, waiting tentatively for its reward for behaving.

Sometimes, Kyungsoo also forgets that Jongin is half human as he cradles Jongin in his embrace, nudging their noses together like a pet and its owner would.

After belly rubs, chin scratches and affectionate cuddling while watching television, Kyungsoo decides to take a shower.

Then he looks at Jongin. Shouldn’t he be showering him too? Cats need relatively less showers than dogs, but being half human, he should be cleaned.

“Come on Jongin, let’s take a bath.”

While Kyungsoo was filling up the tub and readying the shampoos to wash little Jongin, he was startled by a gasp and the sound of rolling on the floor.

Seems like Jongin shifted again. He still hasn’t gotten used to his shifting, and Jongin does not seem to have complete control over his shifting of form yet. Considering that Kyungsoo thought making Jongin take a bath would be less awkward if he was in cat form, the plan went down the drain.

“Jongin you okay?” Kyungsoo asked as Jongin tumbled out of sight and shifted outside of the bathroom.

“Yes,” Jongin replied, after a bit of fumbling and he padded back into the space.

Kyungsoo helped Jongin out of his clothes, which he bought for him within the past week and surprisingly they mysteriously morph into him when he shifts. When Kyungsoo reaches out to remove the black collar, Jongin stops him.

“I like this.” Jongin says, keeping his words to a minimum due to his lack of vocabulary.

Easing Jongin into the tub filled with water, Kyungsoo expected at least a small amount of bristling, as cats would respond when their fur touches water. But to the contrary, Jongin melts into the warm water, closing his eyes as he lets out a contented sigh.

Oh yeah, he forgot that Yixing told him that Jongin’s breed has an obsession with water.

Progressing on with the slow bath, Kyungsoo shampoos Jongin’s hair while hearing him purr from the comfort.

“Ree…lekshing…” Jongin tried, not really remembering the exact word.

“Relaxing,” Kyungsoo corrected, happy that Jongin is learning.

“Relax…Relaxing…” Jongin repeated, smiling after seeing the approval on Kyungsoo’s face.

Maybe, Kyungsoo thinks, one day Jongin could t