Chapter Text
Running through the streets of Busan, Yoongi dodges through pedestrians and makes his way through back alleys to try and find a place to escape the cold, he hasn’t been paying attention to the date but he’s noticed the use of scarves and hats beginning to increase along with the freezing temperatures.
Even during winter Yoongi isn’t too troubled in life for someone that has no place to call home, you can get away with a lot when your quick and small enough, finding old sheds and sneaking into hostels isn’t the hardest, so being a cat hybrid has its advantages, but it also comes with its disadvantages, there are some cruel people out there, hunters just to name one example. Feeling a twinge of pain In his back he quickens his pace to a slight sprint.
Every time a pain is felt down his back, he can’t help but remember the reason he’s like this in the first place, Yoongi would do anything to get rid of those hunters.
hybrid hunters search for hybrids or wait for a tip off, kidnap them and sell them off for all sorts of reasons, experimentation, as a ‘servant’ which is the term used when the hybrid is essentially a slave. Hybrids are rare there only being 62 known hybrids in the entirety of korea. Of course there are more undocumented, at least that’s what Yoongi would like to believe. He’s never met another hybrid before.
Min Yoongi is a known hybrid, caught by hunters and sold off to his previous family, lucky taken off the system by his previous owners, using a large amount of money, they wanted no trace of them owning a hybrid, its the only grace they unknowingly gave Yoongi before he left the house. They still have him as a number in the system though.
Feeling another twinge of pain down his spine he continues on.
Looking around and dodging any unpleasant scents the sun starts peaking through the skyline of the city colouring the sky in light blues and yellows, it’s starting to get colder as the night goes on, even if it’s easy to find shelter there’s no guarantee it will be warm enough.
‘ah I'm sick of this’ thinking of the unchanging situation, running from town to town.
After a bit of shivering Yoongi finally finds a makes a turn onto a small cul-de-sac, they tend to be more secluded then most other streets, he makes his way towards one of the larger houses on the street and straight into the back garden, the gates wide enough for a small animal to get through.
he makes his way towards a large shed that after a quick survey through the window seems equip with the supply’s he needs to get a good night’s rest, he paws at the door to find it open the smell of fresh grass is overwhelming, telling Yoongi they just cut the lawn 'its not like its winter or anything' rolling his eyes he decides he’s been cold long enough and grabs a massive amount of blanket in his teeth, there’s only so much his fur coat can save him from winter 'at least I won't freeze, I might be able to stay here for the rest of winter' he bundles under the blankets, warm, when his sensitive nose catches a whiff of a peach scent that suddenly hits him, spreading warmth through his bones even deeper than the blankets.
'Home' he thinks and he quickly untangled his legs from the blankets and gets up wondering where this scent is coming from, cold be damned. His little legs move automatically towards the smell, back toward the biggest house on the street, a little mad that his nose only caught the scent after he got comfortable 'figures' even his nose won’t work with him.
Yoongi doesn’t even think about the consequences when he basically break and enters the home through a cat flap and up the stairs towards the smell of family and home.
Yoongi finds himself in front of a room with the colourful painted sprawl of ‘JIMIN!!’ blues and greens hastily pasted onto the door, strokes of warm reds and yellows painted like confetti around the name.
He makes his way in the room before his instincts of danger finally catch up with him, he tenses as his four paws are already completely in the threshold of which is clearly a kids room, if the door painting and the toys basically thrown everywhere don’t give it away. Teddies, a train set and the kids bed is still half a cot adjusted to become a toddlers bed the side railings taken out.
Yoongi is broken out of his thoughts when he hears a broken intake of air along with mumbles he can’t make out because of the sheer amount of blankets on the bed, even his cat ears can’t pick It up, but his nose can smell the distress in the peach scent and that’s when he realises ‘the smell is from the kid ‘ and his confusion doubles than it already was 'why is he crying, why does he smell like home? Should I do something?' he stops to process his thoughts after awhile then realised it’d be weird if a cat just started to comfort you out of nowhere especially one that broke into your house.
He feels another pain down the length of his spine that reaches the very tip of his tail. Ignores it to focus on the situation.
Then realised that just because this Jimin kid smells like home doesn’t mean his parents would to, he didn’t pick up any other scents in the house that stood out, in fact, sniffing the air, he doesn’t really particularly think anything about the kids parents smells their neither good or bad and that sets Yoongi on edge.
Yoongi knows the harshness of humans, even one’s that aren’t hunters have been cruel to him even if they didn’t know he was hybrid and he decides he doesn’t want to risk anything, decides to quietly stay by the kids side till his sniffles quiet, he doesn’t know why but he feels like even if he doesn’t see the kid again he wants to make sure the owner of that smell is safe for now.
After Jimin’s sniffles quiet Yoongi makes his way over to the child, he’s sleeping with tear tracks and puffy lips and face a look of distress permanent on his sleeping face, Yoongi places a paw on his face once again forgetting the danger, the paw seems to calm Jimin a little in his sleep and his look of distress just turns into a small pout, Yoongi almost rolls his eyes thinking how stubborn the kid is even in sleep 'wonder what the kid was crying about' he thinks before he turns to make his exit. Out into the shed at the end of the kids house.
Yoongi can still smell Jimin’s scent from the shed so he keeps an eye or well a nose out for the kid.
The next day Yoongi groggily wakes up with the sun leaking though the mould in the shed window and rises from his bed after a good stretch, he can still smell the kids scent from the shed and it’s starting to worry him that the smell is still distressed 'ill check on him tonight' he thinks before making his way out for food. Stealing from the local convince store as a cat can be pretty easy if you take what you need during a after school rush hour, no one is paying attention to a cat in the store.
Yoongis seen in the news that some animals if they show up enough and do something cute, they become a neighbourhood legend, get signs up outside stores giving them names and people adore them for their strange behaviour even giving them free food, but yoongi’s trying to avoid that he wants no attention from anyone. Lest the hunters catch wind, wouldn’t be the first time they take in a normal animal, their unnecessary cruel when that happens.
'But just because I don't want attention doesn't mean I'm not lonely' he thinks as he watches the groups of students causing an unknown distraction for him, laughing and joking with their friends.
Later that night Yoongi visits jimin, creeping in through the cat flap after deeming the scents far enough in the house, gets closer to jimin and his peach scent and finds he’s in hysterics over his lost cat Yoongi hears jimin tell his parents “but omma he hasn’t come back In 5 days what if something bad happened to whistles!” Yoongi cringes at that awful awful name for a cat but continues to listen to Jimin’s parents try to calm him down and explain that sometimes things like this happen it’s no one’s fault and no we won’t go to the police someone didn’t steal him. And oh Yoongi hopes that wasn’t how the kids cat met its end.
Jimin’s parents are clearly also frustrated about the situation but less about ‘the cat’ as they keep calling it and more about half worrying for their kid half being annoyed about the whole situation. Yoongi narrows his eyes decides there and then not to trust Jimin’s parents.
When the family goes off to bed Yoongi makes his way out from under the stairs, a good hiding spot if he does say so himself and travels to Jimin's room finding that the child is awake based on his breathing but he’s not facing the open door.
Yoongi takes the risk for Jimin, his body screaming that this boy is family and you protect family, he pads his way over to the bed and curls up under it, it’s warmer than the shed and being surrounded by jimins scent is comforting, Yoongi waits for the child to cry or fall asleep, the latter happens a couple minutes later after a few sniffles and then Yoongi makes his way back out to the shed 'what am I doing' is a thought he has before his head hits the soft blankets.
Yoongi continues to visit Jimin at night everyday, the cat ‘whistles’ never makes an appearance again and jimins scent of peaches has returned to a neutral scent pretty quickly, 'kids short memory' he thinks.
Yoongi a this point could just leave Jimin, was planning on leaving Jimin, but he’s attached to the kid, Yoongi has never felt so close to someone even if the person doesn’t know he exists, Yoongi wants to protect him.
He’s so small and cute plump lips almond shaped eyes he’s the cutest kid he’s ever seen, Yoongi kind of wants to squish his cheeks and that he’s supposed to be family elates Yoongi to his core, given Yoongi something to look forward to everyday, he still hasn’t made his appearance to the boy though and he doesn’t think he ever will. For now Yoongi is satisfied with the way things are going.
Everyday Yoongi tells himself’ ill just watch him one more day make sure he’s actually safe’ but still makes his way to Jimins side every night, till one night Yoongi is settling down below Jimin’s bed getting a little bit closer every night, snuggling close getting used to the warmth in the room and he’s so content tonight he doesn’t pick up the excitement mixed into the peach scent, a hint of cream mixed in and he’s grabbed between two small hands and brought up towards the bed.
Yoongi gives out a loud yelp and tries to break free realising quickly enough through his panic who it is that’s grabbed him and being smart enough to not scratch at poor Jimin, he’s jimins protector after all, but he’s still scared so he still struggles, not being used to being held in anything but a threatening manner.
Jimin brings him to his chest and looks down at him says “I caught you kitty! “ then realises his mistake and the cat is clearly struggling he slowly let’s the cat go plopping him down on the bed giving a sheepish look and Yoongi takes steps back cautiously looking toward the door and jimin.
Jimin starts by telling him “I noticed you coming in here sometimes I would hear pitter patter of feet and thought I was imagining it, even told my parents there was a ghost!” Jimin’s hands flail in the air in exasperation then his eyes and arms lower towards him again in a soft way “but I looked one night after gathering all my courage and saw you Mr kitty, im sorry I grabbed you without permission just now, I was just so happy you got a little closer today” Jimin says with a small sheepish smile.
Yoongi on the other hand is still on the alert wondering how old Jimin is that he’s able to speak so well Yoongi assumed Jimin was 4 but he might be older or maybe Yoongi lost track of time and he’s been with jimin alot longer than he thought? Looking at the boy he does look abit older than the first time he was seeing him, the cot bed is a normal kids bed the toys have changed a little. 'god I clearly have not been paying enough attention' Yoongi is looking at the kid wondering how old he is. Time doesn’t pass for hybrids in animal form so he could be mistaken on what year he’s even in having lived awhile. He hasn’t paid enough attention to the dates, he looks outside and sees leaves on the trees, it isn’t even winter anymore? Yoongi wants to face palm.
Seeing that the cat has stopped retreating jimin continues “thank you for always staying to keep me company kitty, when I lost whistle you were there to make sure I wasn’t alone and I thank you for that”. Jimin gives a small bow remembering his manners not really thinking about giving his thanks to a cat.
'maybe 6 years old?'
Yoongi is not paying attention to Jimin, till it hit him what Jimin was doing, Yoongi is taken aback by Jimin's weird behaviour. yoongi is confused till Jimin's words hit him too, 'he knew about me being here and never did anything' internally pouting that his hiding game is clearly lackluster if he can’t hide from a 6? 5? Year old kid.
he realised then if Jimin wanted to hurt him he would have done it by now so in response to his weird declaration to a cat Yoongi decides to take his first step towards a human in many years, 'Jimin doesn't know your a hybrid, he thinks your a cat' rationalised with himself as he takes a step towards Jimin 'he's family its okay' he thinks as he shyly strokes his head along jimin’s leg covered in a blanket then when he got a coo in response moving up to Jimin's arm, Jimin giggles and slowly and carefully watching for Yoongis approval this time, strokes between Yoongis black tipped grey ears. “ah so cute kitty”
This is Yoongis first step
After years of being on the streets getting no love or care is unusual for Yoongi but he always craved it, he finally feels content under jimins tiny fingers, jimin giggling softly under his ever growing pile of blankets. It’s soft and warm, the smell of peaches felt on the places jimins fingertips touch, like little bursts of happiness spreading through Yoongis scalp. Until a thought passes his mind.
'but wait how many years past? What about my heats?'