Chapter Text
“Jimin please!” You beg. “My friends can’t know I’ve got a hybrid, please shift I am actually begging you now.”
The hybrid crosses his arms at you, eyes narrowed in annoyance and question. With how his lips were pouted he looked somewhere on the scale between cute and intimidating. He couldn’t understand why this was a problem, the way his tail moved in frustration didn’t leave your eyes but you explained this to him a million times.
Your friends would tell your parents and that’s where the issue would arise. Jimin could sense your desperation as much as it irked him. He sighs before leaving the room as the knock on the door echoed into your apartment. He fights the instinct to cling to you and scent you before someone foreign to his senses invaded his space, it nearly made him keel.
“Hey Jessica!” You try to smile as brightly as possible as you greet your friend.
“Y/n you look stressed,” she comments without a hello. “What’s wrong?”
You both make your way over to the sofas in the living space as you ramble about something irrelevant to try and cover up the state you’ve put yourself in. You loved Jimin to pieces but your parents were awful powerful people, if they found out you had him… you fight down a shudder at the thought.
Think of the devil and he appears? Is that right? Jimin sauntered in in cat form much to your relief, his grey fur matched his human hair, it slowly became your favourite colour. The guy… cat looked so prestigious in the way he moved, you had to hold back a laugh, knowing Jimin was doing it on purpose.
“You got a cat?” Jessica coos, finding him adorable. “Come here kitty.” She pats the side of the sofa to get his attention and the almost human look of judgement on his face makes you panic. Jimin was the friendliest hybrid in the neighbourhood, he went up to everyone for pets and treats in cat form, was he doing this because he was annoyed at you?
He jumps up on the sofa you’re occupying, before crawling onto your lap and climbing your chest with his front paws to rest his head in the juncture of your neck and shoulders. You wrap your arms around him instinctively to stop him falling while he drifts off for a nap, smirking internally at the way he can hear your heart panic at his behaviour.
“He’s a bit of a clingy cat,” you say. You can feel a claw pierce the fabric of your jumper before resting threateningly on your sensitive skin on the other side of your neck. You stroke the back of his ears and head as an apology, you weren’t the only one who was sensitive. He lets out a deep sigh as he continues his nap, barely listening to your conversation until a certain topic comes up that makes him hiss.
You both stop talking, Jessica raising her eyebrow at the pair of you. You struggle to find an excuse.
“Did your cat just hiss in his sleep?” She asks.
“He does that sometimes, I-I think he has… nightmares,” you internally pat yourself on the back.
“Anyway as I was saying, you need to meet this guy, I know you’d hit it off, honestly Y/n I think he was made for you.”
Jimin tries his best to hold back another hiss. This human was frustrating him to no end, he was made for Y/n not some random guy she hadn’t met. She was his mate, she just didn’t know it yet.
The claw on your clavicle is back, and although it’s only very lightly grazing your skin the weight of it can be felt with your rising anxiety.
“I really don’t want to date Jess,” you say sheepishly. “Honestly I’m sure he’s great but why don’t you date him?”
“Not my type,” she swats the suggestion away in the air. “Y/n you really need to think about settling down, you’re not getting any younger.”
The look of concern she has on her face must contrast the look of being verbally slapped on yours. There’s a huff of annoyance on your neck and you second it.
“I really don’t think it’s anyone else’s concern but my own,” you say sternly, and Jimin fights a smile. He didn’t have to see your face to know you had that hardened expression on when you’d had enough. The one he may have gotten a couple of times when he was being a brat and knocked over your favourite vase or left the fridge open on purpose. In his defence he only did it when was annoyed at you, and wanted your attention in whatever form it came in. You caught onto that scheme quickly and proceeded to ignore him until he begged for attention and forgiveness with the promise of never doing it again. It never lasted that long.
“Don’t get defensive Y/n, it doesn’t look good on you,” Jessica replies. “Its coming from a place of love, your paren-”
“I don’t talk to my parents Jess, I don’t want them involved with my life,” youve said it to her a hundred times and it always falls on deaf ears.
“Don’t be like that Y/n,” she sighs exasperatedly. “They’re still your parents, and they’re politicians, think about how it must loo-”
“I don’t care about how it looks Jess, the day my parents made laws that hurt other human beings was the day I could no longer stand to see them,” you’re firm in your delivery, foot down for her to hear in your words.
“Hybrids are a subjective matter Y/n, I don’t want to argue with you about politics it’s not for us to discuss,” she’s equally as stubborn as you are and you find yourself racking your brain for a reason why you kept relations with your so called friend.
“Jess, I think you should leave,” you sigh, having had enough.
“Seriously Y/n the way you’re acting it’s as if you’re harbouring a hybrid yourself,” her eyes move to Jimin still pretending to sleep on you and he can hear the gears of panic turning inside your body. You maintained your unimpressed stare with Jessica, almost as if you were daring her to accuse you outright but praying she wouldn’t.
“Jessica, I want you to leave. Now.” You almost growled, starting to shake from the animosity that filled the air between you both.
“I knew it,” she whispered, and any hope you had of your parents not finding Jimin left you.
“You don’t know anything,” you say back, struggling to breathe as panic floods your system, turning your brain over to convince her she was wrong. You should’ve just bowed your head and agreed to go on that stupid date, anything to prevent your worst fears coming to life.
“He’s a hybrid Y/n,” she sneers, “you’re a hybrid whore, wait til your parents find out.”
You physically have to hold Jimin back from attacking your oldest friend, his reflexes turning his body to pounce as she insulted you. He didn’t realise she was goading him, a look of victory now etched on her face as she moved her stare to him.
“Jess please,” all anger is gone from your voice as you whimper. You stand while holding Jimin in cat form as he looks between you both in concern. You take him to the bedroom, putting him down on the floor and closing the door on him before he had a chance to shift or walk out, hoping he’d stay put while you tried to sort out this mess. The tears start to stream when it shuts, and you turn back to your friend waiting for you with arms crossed. There wasn’t an ounce of sympathy on her face when she saw the state you’re in.
“You can’t tell them,” you whisper, knowing there was no point in lying anymore. You had to try and appeal to her sense of humanity… if she had any after being brainwashed by your parents. “They’ll kill him Jess, please.”
You would beg on your knees, you would bow to her feet if she wanted you to. Whatever it took to not tell your parents.
“They already know Y/n,” her words cut you, you clutch your stomach as if she’s stabbed you in the gut. You shake your head in denial, you were so careful there was no way they’d know. “I was just sent to confirm it.”
Dread fills every inch of your body until it renders you motionless, there’s a look of pity from Jessica’s face but not one of real concern. It was the judgemental gaze you were used to from the people in your past life you tried to get away from, now you knew they would return and take your Jimin away.
You don’t realise she’s left until you’re pulled into a familiar embrace, arms tightly woven around you to hold you safe, but against his intent the dam bursts. Jimin has to stop you from falling onto the floor with defeat as you wail against his chest, apologising incoherently to him. He’s never seen you this distraught, the sight causing him to panic and stress over what made you this broken.
You never told him about your parents, your old life. You couldn’t, you didn’t want to worry him, you feared he would hate you. He wasn’t an idiot, based on the conversation today alone he could see why you didn’t want your friend to know. He just wishes you would’ve told him.
“It’s going to be okay,” he tries to reassure you but you violently shake your head not believing his words for a second, not when you know better. “Hey, hey look at me, Y/n we’re going to be okay.”
His hands cradle your tear struck face, you clutch onto his top as if he’d slip away from you the second you let go. How do you tell him? How do you explain things were never going to be okay again?
“Ji-imin, m-my p-parents,” you heave back the tears as you speak, trying to get your words out without breaking down again with the thoughts that flooded your mind. Images of your beloved hybrid being forced away from you, and you would fight but you would be powerless against them. Images of him lying dead. “T-they…”
“We’re going to be okay,” he repeats his promise, trying to convince you nothing could touch you both, but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t scared. You were scaring him, he could feel his heart race as if there was impending doom hiding somewhere in the room and only you could see it.
No you were not going to be okay, but you would make sure he would be. No matter what, he would be okay.
“Jimin…” you breathe as if it were the last time you’d ever say his name. You stare into both of his eyes as a wave of calm starts to wash away the despair, it does nothing to settle the fear. He frowns at how suddenly you stop hyperventilating, searching your eyes for an answer to what the hell was going on.
“Do you remember my friend?” You ask him. “Jong-in?”
There were only a select number of people who knew about your situation, people who were in similar situations of hybrid harbouring. These were people you could trust, ones that had a fail safe system should any outsiders come to know about the hybrids they were protecting. Jong-in had a dog hybrid called Sehun, you knew Jimin would take some time to warm up to him, but you also knew this was for the best.
“I need you to go stay with him for a while,” even as you said it you could hear both your hearts shatter like glass. It was Jimin’s turn to shake his head, disregarding any notion of leaving you. He clutches your arms almost painfully, nails digging in to cement himself to where he belongs.
“I’m not going anywhere, this is my home,” he breathes, the look of hurt on his face coupled with his words do nothing to break your resolve even though it strikes you. You would protect Jimin until your last breath, even though you knew what it would mean for you.
Your parents were not above torturing their only child when she broke their rules, this wouldn’t be like before, you didn’t just play nice with the feral hybrids in the park. No, this time you broke their laws, the laws they fought to instate the moment they took power. Gone were the days where hybrids and humans coexisted, they were all hunted down and terminated. The words of your parents haunted your mind as if echoing through time “they should never have existed.”
“Jimin it won’t be forever,” you try to placate him knowing you were lying through your teeth. “Just a little while until I can sort this out and make it safe again, please.”
He keeps shaking his head, his own tears starting to form as he hears the worst possible words you could tell him. He doesn’t care if it’s only for a short amount of time, he won’t leave you, he can’t leave you. You’re his human, you belong with him, whatever happens you’d face it together, this wasn’t an option.
“Please don’t make this any harder Jiminie, I can’t lose you,” you cup his face in your palms but he looks away from you, focusing on some corner of the room as he cries silently. He’s so angry, why did you let her in? Why did she have to come and ruin everything? Why when he was finally feeling safe and happy did the cruel world threaten to take everything he loved away? Why wasn’t he human… he would give anything right now to be human.
“No,” he answers stubbornly.
“Jimin,” you grit your teeth, starting to get frustrated. “Do you understand what will happen if they find you? You are not staying here, do you understand?”
“I don’t care,” he breathes through tears. “Please…”
He falls to his knees, bowing his head in front of you, begging you through his whimpers. You cover your mouth as you try and hold back tears silently, but nothing about this was okay, there was nothing you could do to fix this in a way you both wanted.
You sink down to your knees, putting your hand under his chin to raise his eyes to yours. His tail wraps around his middle feebly, as if trying to brace himself.
You hated this world, you hated it so much for endangering the man you loved most. How dare they make him feel less than a human being when humans were the scum of the earth. You don’t know how you’re maintaining eye contact with him when you know with every fibre of your body this was your parent’s fault. The guilt ate away at you, through your adult life since they got into power, every time another hybrid got caught and killed and you would cry into the night. How dare they now threaten the most beautiful hybrid you’ve ever come to know.
You tried before to save as many hybrids from the laws before, losing each and every time, rendering you powerless, until Jimin. The only one you managed to save, you weren’t going to lose him to the laws now. Your parents weren’t going to win this one.
You kiss his forehead gently, he looks at you so defeated, the fight dying in his eyes leaving him feeling hollow.
“We don’t have a choice Jiminie,” you whisper. “I’m so sorry…”