Chapter Text
Wooyoung’s sleep was already fucked up to begin with, but now he was looking at the ceiling in the livingroom, laying on the sofa, hoping some of the abstract patterns on the roof could give him some sort of answer on what to do with everything going on.
He is overwhelmed.
Between thinking of ways to protect familiars, whether to move or not with Hongjoong’s coven and now going on a date with Yeosang, who has a boyfriend that’s okay with them dating, he’s been just… stuck.
When did running away from his captors felt easier than trying to take care of himself and others?
A door opens and Wooyoung knows it’s Doña Amparo' s office. He never gets in, that’s one of the few rules she established since the first day. Wooyoung always wondered what was inside that door, it always sounded like a farm or some sort of open field, but he never asked.
“Has the ceiling given you any answer yet?” She asks coming out with…
“Where did you get those mangos from?”
She laughs and points at the door with her mouth “It’s harvest time.”
Wooyoung frowns, keeping an eye on her as she leaves the mangoes on the counter.
“Wanna help me with picking up some stuff or do you wanna see if the ceiling will answer you?”
Wooyoung laughs and gets out of the sofa, and walks to the entry door, but Doña Amparo smiles at him from his office door.
“Wanna come in?”
Wooyoung is not sure what he expected, but it wasn’t this.
“The office” is anything but an office, in front of him there’s greenery as far as the eye can see, crops of a ton of vegetables and fruits that Wooyoung had only seen after moving in with Doña Amparo. He hears water running somewhere down his left, when he turns he sees they are in a mountain and at the foot of it, there’s a little river.
A few kilometers away, there’s a giant farm house.
Wooyoung looks at Doña Amparo with a shocked expression, making her laugh.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” She says, smiling at the scenery.
“How is this even possible?”
Doña Amparo smiles and starts walking towards the mango trees, Wooyoung following close and admiring the harvest as he goes.
“Take that canasta… basket over there and help me here, I have an event to prepare.”
Doña amparo starts taking the mangoes on the lower branches, those that look orange and red and delicious.
One of Wooyoung's ambitions when he was younger was to find a way to create a portal to connect big distances that didn’t need a big energy source, since those were too expensive and mainly owned by the government. He and Bong managed to create some rustic prototypes back in the day, but he hasn’t given them any thought in a long while.
“My husband was a cucacuy.” Doña Amparo says after taking some mangoes down and into the basket “He had a gift with pocket dimensions, he usually trapped demons, drunks, cheaters and people that beat their partner or family, that was his ‘job’ in a way, we actually met when we were both going for an asshole that killed his wife while drunk, it was fun getting to decide who would take care of him, since it was his land and I was just passing by.”
Wooyoung is not sure his brain is processing properly whatever the hell Doña Amparo is talking about, but is glad he never got on her bad side.
“Anyway, when I got pregnant with my boy, we both knew he was gonna die, cucacuy’s can only be boys and there can only be one at the time.” She pauses, looking around with pride and nostalgia. “So he found a way to create this place for us, so I could have something we both built forever.”
Doña Amparo looks around the tree and sees mangoes higher up, so she starts climbing to get there.
“I-I can do that if you want” Wooyoung moves to look at Doña Amparo from the floor, thinking of spells to stop her from hurting herself if she falls.
“Nah, I’m good, thank you. Catch!” She lightly throws a mango, Wooyoung catches it by miracle.
Wooyoung wants to ask more, but for the first few mangos he gets a little caught up in trying to catch everything and keep an eye so his landlord doesn’t fall from a tree into a place he doesn’t think anyone could access without her help.
“How did he do this?” He asks once he’s more confident Doña Amparo won’t fall and die.
“Ni puta idea, but he did say early in our relationship that he would move sky and land for me, and you could say he did it.” She sits on a branch, looking at the horizon. “At first I didn’t believe he was good, but we kept finding each other and eventually I gave him a chance.” She looks down at Wooyoung “The best risk I ever took in my life.”
Wooyoung bites his lip and pinches his arms.
He has been avoiding risk as much as possible in the last few years. If anything went south it would mean the end of his freedom…
But he trusted Doña Amparo and somehow ended well, and in a pocket dimension full of fruits and vegetables, but that’s something he’ll think about later. That trust probably saved his life, without her magical food he would’ve died a long time ago.
“How do you know if the risk is worth it?” He asks as she comes down from the tree.
“You don’t.” She smiles, taking the basket. Wooyoung immediately tries to take it from her “Bring another one and we’ll share the load.”
Wooyoung does and makes sure to take the heaviest one.
“I like to believe your gut is always right, especially for people that have gone through a lot. And they feel like good kids”
Of course she knows, she gave them his information.
“What if we mess up? What if we fight?” Wooyoung looks down at the mangos.
“Oh, you will.” Her tone is confident and warm. “It's not a matter of if you fight or not, it is how you respect each other during those disagreements.”
“I don't know if I can do that”
Doña Amparo smiles “Trust me, Woo, you can”
- ♡•
To Wooyoung's surprise, he accepts going on a date with Yeosang.
Wooyoung hasn't quite told him that it is a date, but he will… he just has to prepare himself for admitting that out loud.
His managers were surprised he didn't ask for extra shifts for the upcoming week, but seemed rather pleased.
He just needed one afternoon for his outing… date with Yeosang, but he'll need more time to move in with the coven.
He also has to tell them he wants to move in.
That can wait.
He'll tell them after the milkshake.
Now he needs to decide what to wear.
Should he wear something different? Would never that give away the fact that he's thinking about it as a date? Does he want to give it away?
He showered after his shift at the convenience store, partially to calm his nerves, partially to take off the smell of fish he had after organizing their last order of salmon, meat, tuna and other fish.
He knows he'll go with long sleeves, because he doesn't own any short sleeve tops and he doesn't want to show his arms.
Jeans sound good.
Yeah, he can start with jeans.
Wooyoung looks at his jeans and realizes he never really cared about them before, they're… normal. Yeosang dresses with a simple style, but he lives with Hongjoong and Seonghwa and is San's boyfriend, all of them somehow pull the most amazing, and sometimes extravagant, outfits Wooyoung has never seen and look incredible.
And then there's Wooyoung with his second hand jeans and long sleeve shirts.
He's most of the time in his uniform, it didn't matter before!
Wooyoung grunts as he falls into his bed.
Let's say is not a date, he thinks I can wear whatever.
It takes him another 40 minutes to decide, but that mindset helps him.
He looks at himself in the mirror. A black and white long-sleeve shirt and baggy jeans. It’s not sexy, but it looks good enough for him.
Wooyoung walks to Yeosang’s home, potentially his future home too.
Wooyoung stops for a second.
Home.
He… he hasn’t even moved in, he hasn’t even told them he plans to accept their proposal and yet… he’s already thinking about it as his home.
Wooyoung keeps walking, coming up with any song to stop the existential crisis from starting again.
Right now he only has energy to one crisis at the time and today’s is called the Might-be-a-date-with-Yeosang.
Tomorrow he’ll see.
It might be his What-is-this-feeling-about-an-apartment crisis or Escaping-or-fighting-The-Institute crisis.
But that’s a problem for tomorrow’s Wooyoung.
Today’s Wooyoung is knocking Yeosang’s door.
He can tell a werewolf is about to open before he even gets to the door, probably Yunho if he remembers correctly.
“Hi” Yunho smiles, remanding Wooyoung of a Golden Retriever “Come in. Yeosang is getting ready, want something to drink?”
“Are you allowed in the kitchen?” Wooyoung follows him.
“I am, but just for basic stuff. Seonghwa-hyung is the real chef here, if he can't Jongho will do it and if neither of them can, then I will. Mingi is our last resort before take out. We have water, juice and some sodas”
“Water is fine.”
Wooyoung looks around, very knowingly stopping his magic to hear everything. He just gets a reduced humming of the harmony of magic in the apartment.
He’s almost sure there must be something with water or water magic under the sofa, probably for Seonghwa. He tilts his head and focuses in there, trying to get an idea of what spell or magic item is in there.
“Oh, before I forget” Yunho says, getting out of the kitchen as soon as Wooyoung takes the water glass. It takes him a few seconds to come back with a pair of big headphones “We thought it might be useful for you. I know what it’s like to have sensible ears.”
Wooyoung tenses for a second, before remembering they know.
“I usually have it under control.” Wooyoung says, checking the headphones “You really don’t have to give me anything, I already own you a lot.”
Yunho frowns “You don’t own us anything.”
“You’re keeping my secret and I wi… might move in, so I might be paying rent at the very least.”
Yunho smiles, probably knowing what’s behind those words but choosing to keep it to himself. At least while Wooyoung is in front of him.
“Think they might work?” The wolf asks “Mingi uses them sometimes when he’s in crowded places, Jongho and I use them a lot close to full moon and in concerts or noisy places”
He never had noise canceling headphones, much less after his magic changed.
Wooyoung frowns and puts them on.
The change is immediate, like turning off most of the sounds, specially those not produced by magic. He can barely hear the street or the rest of the coven in the apartment walking, but the twinkle from the chandelier on the dining table it’s clearer, so is the sea melody coming from under the coach.
He hears Yunho’s and everyone’s magic clearer, without non-magical sounds distracting.
Seonghwa’s melody is the sweetest and cutest of them all, he knows it even if the merman is in another room, to his left, probably in a body of water. It mixes perfectly with Hongjoong’s stronger and more techno music, Jongho is a ballad with soft high notes that complement San twinkles and melody. Yunho is a great bridge between all of their music, something that takes the highs and the lows and joins them in an harmonic way. Yeosang is not the loudest, but is a clear deep base making sure the music doesn’t get too high and gives it a bit of a dance-ish / rhythmic essence.
Yunho looks at him with a questioning look, mouthing “You ok?” as he gestures the same question.
Wooyoung nods, wanting to enjoy just for a little moment more the melody of magic, love and family that he had never heard before.
“This is amazing” Wooyoung says, finally taking off the headphones.
“For a second I thought they didn’t work” Yunho laughs “It looked like you were listening to something.”
“I was” Wooyoung admits “It’s… It blocks non-magical sounds, so I can… ehhh. I can hear magic, so with this I hear mainly magic.”
When was the last time he openly discussed his magic with anyone? Why is he even doing it?
“So it is true that you can hear it? Hwa-hyung mention it but I thought he misunderstood”
Oh, right, he kind of told Seonghwa when he proposed moving in with them.
That sounds like too much commitment when he phrases it like that.
“Yeah, I… My magic is different than most because of… yeah, and one of the things I can do is… hear magic. I try to not get overwhelmed by it, but it also takes magic to… eh… ‘muffle’ my own hearing. But it's never fully gone and I-I can tell San is coming in that direction, probably flying.”
As on cue, San comes to the kitchen, flying a meter above them. His wings are big and broad, with a design that reminds Wooyoung of snowflakes.
San looks down at them and smiles, descending between them and the fridge.
“So good to see you here.” San opens the fridge, his wings descend a little, like he's just letting them rest there, touching the ground. Wooyoung can see small snowflakes coming from them.
“Are you even allowed in here?” Wooyoung jokes, smiling.
San gets out a yogurt and goes for a spoon “Only for anything that doesn’t require preparation” San leans closer to them and murmurs “Sometimes I even venture to use the microwave.”
Yunho is just looking at him with shock and excitement in his eyes. “That’s so cool!! Does everything have a sound?”
Wooyoung shrugs “Almost everything.”
San frowns confused.
“Wooyoung can hear magic!!”
After another quick explanation by Yunho, and before San gets the chance to ask, Yeosang comes out of his room.
His style is simple, as always, wearing a dark green shirt and baggy jeans with flowers around the knees. He looks really handsome, but that’s nothing new.
Mingi comes behind him and smiles and waves at Wooyoung.
“Ready?” Yeosang smiles, eyes full of emotion.
Wooyoung nods.
San hugs Yeosang and kisses his head goodbye. Mingi and Yunho say their goodbyes, reminding them to be careful and call them if anything happens.
As soon as they’re out of the building, Wooyoung feels his heart beat faster and wonders if it was a good idea to accept this. The last thing he wants is to have to deal with an awkward silence the whole ride to the city.
His fear quickly fades as soon they fall into an easy chat, talking about nothing and everything. Somehow the conversation turns from the weather to seagulls to architecture and interior design, Wooyoung asking what accommodations they had to do for the different species they have in their family and Yeosang insinuating they would do accommodations for him as well if he needs to.
Wooyoung decides to ignore that part and focus more on asking details about the magic behind making the ceiling higher without risking the building structure and the water thing under the coach.
“It’s Seonghwa-hyung’s place when we sit there to watch movies, talk or anything.” Yeosang explained “It's under one of the single chairs where Hongjoong-hyung usually sits, he moves it a bit and they cuddle there.”
“Seonghwa-sshi talks inside the house?” Wooyoung asks.
“Sometimes, it depends on how strong his magic feels that day. During the full moon he doesn't even make a sound, but aside from that he talks more than he does outside. Mingi, Hongjoong-hyung and I are working on some sort of spell to make us immune to his voice, his wish, by the way, but we haven't found anything that works the way he wants”
Wooyoung frowns “What does he want?”
Yeosang looks past Wooyoung “This is our stop” they stand up and leave the bus “He wants it to be something that completely neutralizes his voice unless we want it to have effect, like he's talking to another mer”
“Wouldn't it be easier to make something for him instead of the six of you? Or him controlling it?”
Yeosang makes a face and creates a bubble around them as they walk through the street “We don't want to make something that could potentially neutralize the best defense of a species that already has difficulties on land”
Touche.
That made a lot of sense.
Mer-people are incredibly powerful on the water, but on land they usually can't move properly or it takes them a lot of time to learn. Wooyoung is honestly surprised he has only seen Seonghwa once in a wheelchair. That probably means he has been on land for a good time and learned to walk.
Now that he thinks about it, the doors on the apartment are bigger than usual, enough to fit a wheelchair.
Either way, merfolk tend to have limitations on land, they're not made for it and depending on the type of merfolk it can be even bigger limitations. What a lot have in common is the power of their voice.
Wooyoung had heard his fair share of horror stories of merfolk that were kidnapped and immediately gagged to stop them from talking. Some people use spells to take away their voices or even destroy their throat to keep them from using his magic.
That last method was less common, though. When someone kidnapped a merfolk it was usually to sell them and a mer without a voice was not a valuable slave.
“And Hyung has always been too scared to practice since he managed to enchant his last instructor.” Yeosang continues “He gave up on learning control to talk normally and we already know sign language, so one of us usually goes to translate whatever he needs or he writes on a whiteboard.”
Wooyoung looks ahead, thinking.
“Do you… you don't have to answer this if it's too personal, but… Do you think he would like to talk? Would you like him to talk?”
Yeosang's smile is small and nostalgic.
“I heard him sing once” He confesses “He thought he was home alone but I was there, the plan I had got cancelled for whatever reason and I came back without him noticing.” His smile gets wider “His voice is mesmerizing. I have no idea what words he was speaking, I think he was talking in mere language or something like that, but I could feel his magic surrounding me. I saw the story of the song, about a lone whale that looked for love in the seven seas. I was drawn to him, I walked where he was and as soon as he saw me, he stopped”
Wooyoung didn’t need to ask more to know Yeosang regretted being spotted.
“Did the whale find love?” Wooyoung asks instead.
Yeosang snorts and looks at him fondly “I’m not sure, I never heard the end.”