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The streets of Tokyo were slippery after the unexpected rainfall that morning. Taki usually loves the rain, but not when he steps in so many puddles his shoes and socks soak through and his feet feel like ice blocks. Not to mention the fact that he had only bought the sneakers he was wearing recently and they had cost him a pretty penny too.
His day was supposed to be so amazing. He was awake and out of bed before 7am and feeling like a real adult. The day ahead had him feeling both nervous and excited. He was going to be meeting up with one of his closest friends ever that he hadn’t seen in literal years. What if Ni-ki had outgrown him? They had known each other their whole lives. Except this reunion would be different because this was the first time Taki was seeing Ni-ki since he had been turned into a vampire.
What if Ni-ki’s new vampire friends had turned him against werewolves? The whole eternal rivalry among their species was so cliche in Taki’s eyes but what if Ni-ki had drank the vampire cool-aide? The two had been friends since they were toddlers. Ni-ki had been human before he was turned but hadn’t thought twice about being best friends with a werewolf. Taki wasn’t exactly sure of the circumstances about Ni-ki’s turning but it had taken his friend a little bit more away from him. He had already moved to Seoul for university so there was a slight crack in their friendship. Then the whole vampire thing happened and Taki would hear from his friend maybe once every two weeks? But Taki had been understanding. Being apart of a pack had shown Taki the importance of being with your own kind. It still didn’t help his heart break over his crumbling life long friendship.
So yes, he had been awake bright and early that morning with his mind running a million miles an hour of how the reunion would go. He had been walking around the city when the rain hit at around 9am. He had retreated to a small coffee shop to wait out the rain but it was a relentless hour of the heavy storm. Which had created deep puddles that Taki had been unable to avoid when walking.
He was supposed to meet Ni-ki at a book store at 3pm. They were supposed to walk around a little bit and then have a nice dinner. Taki doesn’t know why but it occurs to him just now that Ni-ki may not eat anymore. He knows some vampires did just for the sake of feeling human but that they didn’t need it to survive. Maybe Taki should suggest that they go somewhere that offers blood beverages as well as food.
Looking down at his phone he deflates to realise that it’s only 11:15am. He was too nervous to head back to the den and spend the next few hours stuck in the four walls of his apartment. Especially because Kei would try to get him to talk through his nerves and process his feelings and all that other crap that Kei was a fan of.
Taki needed a distraction. That’s when he realises he is about a five minute walk away from the shop his new friend works at. Lune & Co was a witch supply store but Taki didn’t think they would turn away a wolf in desperate need of distraction and non-Kei related company.
Opening the large door he is welcomed by the chimes of the bells attached to the overhead. He had only been to the shop one other time but he felt a sense of comfort there. The shop is empty except for a couple of young witches inspecting the new crystal display in the right corner.
“Just a second!” He hears Nicholas call from behind the divider from the back of the store. He appears in another ten seconds and seems surprised to see Taki at the counter. “Oh hey. I didn’t know you were coming here today.”
Nicholas had appeared in all of his pack’s lives around two weeks ago now. His budding relationship with Euijoo had meant that they saw quite a lot of the red haired witch. Seeing as Euijoo was spending a lot more time away from the pack with his new role as clan alpha he would often combine his time with his pack with his new relationship. Nicholas was very understanding but Taki thought how annoying it must be to be sidelined in the beginning of dating. Not that Taki would know that. He was perpetually alone.
“I wasn’t planning to but just killing some time before I catch up with a friend.”
“Ni-ki, right?” Nicholas was such a good listener, especially seeing that Taki had only mentioned seeing Ni-ki once over a week ago. Taki liked Nicholas. He was good for Euijoo but he also seemed genuinely interested in befriending those in Euijoo’s pack.
“Yeah that’s him. I don’t know what to do though for the next four hours.” Taki sighs as he taps his fingers against the glass counter top.
“Well you can hang out here if you want. I have to watch the shop floor but it’s been a pretty slow day. Harua’s out the back if you want to say hi.”
The thing about Nicholas is that he came with his own type of pack and the two had slowly been intertwining over the last couple of weeks. Harua was sassy and brilliant and he and Taki had taken to each other instantly.
He wanders behind the divider to see Harua hunched over a bench filled with bottled and loose ingredients and a bunsen burner running blue with a vial perched precariously above it. Harua doesn’t look up as he measures another vial with sharp accuracy.
“Taki. Are you still nervous about your big date?” Slips past the other’s lips as he turns them into a smirk.
So that was the other thing. Harua had been convinced that Taki was actually in love with Ni-ki and that was why he was so nervous about seeing him again. The first time he had suggested it he had laughed in the witch’s face and told him he was crazy. But then that week Taki couldn’t stop thinking about what Harua had said. It haunted him day and night. He laid in bed for hours staring at the ceiling thinking about his old friend and their years of companionship. Was it possible he had actually been in love with him this whole time and not realised it. And what would Ni-ki think if he ever found out about that? So the nerves had been building on that single thought and he was stuck in the loop of the thousand different ways their reunion could go.
“Harua. Aren’t you supposed to be at your job? You know, the one not here.” Taki snaps back.
“I don’t teach on Wednesdays.” He replies, adding another ingredient.
“Okay. That still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here. At your old place of employment. On the day off of your real job.”
Harua looks up from his concoction. “I needed some things I didn’t have at home for a new potion I’m planning on teaching. Jaehyun always says I’m welcome here when I’m in desperate need.”
“Well great but why have you been here every other work free day since you started your new job?” Taki smirks.
“Fucking Nicholas and his big mouth.” Harua rolls his eyes then aims his next sentence to the other side of the divider. “WITCH SNITCHES GET STITCHES YOU KNOW!”
Taki can’t help but laugh. Harua is moving around the table and grabbing things at random. Taki doesn’t know much about being a witch but even with his limited knowledge he can tell his friend is damn good at it.
“Son of a…” Harua starts with his brows furrowed. He is still moving things around the table but it seems he can’t find what he is after. He takes off toward the front of the shop before he turns to Taki, “Can you make sure that vial doesn’t boil over? I’ll be just a second. Oh and Taki, don’t touch anything. Unless like, you know, the boiling over happens.”
Taki nods and heads closer to the table. Magic really was amazing. It was such a shame he had been born with the werewolf gene instead. Unable to help himself he plucks up a small dried flower that is resting on the edge of the table. He stares at it and wonders how the colours have stayed so vibrant after it had been dried out for so long. He places it back carefully but as he goes to move his hand away he knocks the small vial that Harua had been stirring earlier and the bright green liquid flows freely onto the surrounding area and mixes with multiple other loose ingredients.
“Shit.” Taki whispers to himself. He stands there and watches the chaos he has unleashed as ingredients start to smoke and sizzle. A pile of smaller flowers let out dangerous sparks and Taki wonders wether Jaehyun would kill him quickly or make him suffer from burning down his magic shop.
Doing the only thing he can think of, he grabs a rag that he sees lying on one of the cabinets to the left of him. He starts to tap out the sparks that eventually die down and then wipes the old fabric of the rest of the table making sure to get all signs of the liquid. Man if Jaehyun wasn’t going to end him after this then Harua sure would.
Assessing his rushed cleaning job he looks at the now mostly clean table when all of a sudden he feels dizzy as if the ground is shifting under his feet. He vaguely sees Harua walking back in and the loud yell of “TAKI!” before the world starts to go black and he can’t hold is body up any longer.
***
The sound of his name echoes around his skull. He knows someone is calling for him but he can’t quite tell who. Then he opens his eyes slowly to see Nicholas and Harua hunched over staring at him.
“Taki?” Nicholas says with his brows deeply furrowed.
“Huh?” Is all Taki manages to grunt out in reply.
Looking between his friends he realises he is flat on the floor. Then he remembers his unfortunate accident.
“You are actually so fucking stupid!” Harua yells. “This is totally not on me.”
Taki feels bad instantly but also ouch he was mostly clumsy, not stupid. He starts to stand and has the oddest sensation when he feels himself upright. He is for sure standing but everything still looks as if he’s sitting on the ground. He stretches his arm out to reach for something, anything when he realises he isn’t staring at his arm, but a golden, furry dog paw.
“WHAT THE FUCK!” He yelps. Looking between his friends he waits for one of them to say gotcha or something to the same degree. What he sees is pure confusion and in Harua’s case a slight undertone of anger.
“This is why I said don’t touch anything!” Harua scolds while he wanders around the room looking for something. When he grabs the gold framed mirror he swiftly picks it up and walks it over to shove in front of Taki.
What stares back it him makes his brain almost explode. Because what was there was a cute, long haired golden retriever. Nope this is not happening Taki thinks and squeezes his eyes shut. When he opens them back up he gasps upon realising that yes, he was the dog looking back at him in the mirror. He moves to and fro just to test the possibility and yep it was totally him. Fuck.
“I don’t understand.” He whines out. “What the hell kind of potion were you making Harua?”
Harua blinks with mild disdain. “Me? Nothing that would have done this. God, I don’t even know how you did this Taki!”
Nicholas stares at him in silence.
“Stop staring.” Taki mumbles out.
“Sorry,” Nicholas begins, “I just don’t come around talking dogs very often.”
Internally Taki screams. Externally he tries to remain calm. Okay, so he did something strange with those ingredients. Easy fix, Harua was a potions master. This was totally no big deal.
“Rua, you can fix this right?” Taki asks with a dash of nerves in his tone.
Harua looks at him like… well like he was a talking dog but still, his look was unimpressed. “Can I fix this? Are you serious? How the fuck do you expect me to fix this when I have no idea what you mixed together in the first place?!”
Harua’s face was turning a dark shade of red rapidly before his eyes. Well, he thought it was red. Apparently dogs are pretty much colour blind. The more you know.
“I feel like this is the worst acid trip I’ve ever been on and I am completely sober.” Nicholas says with amazement. He hasn’t stopped staring at Taki since he regained consciousness.
It hits Taki in that moment; he has to see Ni-ki in person in merely a few hours!
“I’m so completely fucked.” Taki goes to cover his face with his hand and a large paw hits his nose instead.
“You so completely are.” Says Harua without pause. “Do you know how long it’s going to take for me to find a reversal for this? Fuck, I’m going to have to take time off of work after being there for like two minutes.”
“Time off of work? Wait, you think you won’t be able to fix this today?” Taki’s voice is pitched up in fright. He moves from paw to paw as he tries to shake off his anxiety. It doesn’t work.
“Did you not hear the part where I said I have no idea how you even did this?” Harua spits out and places his hands on his hips. Taki feels as if he’s being scolded by his mother.
“But I have to see Ni-ki this afternoon. I can’t meet up with him looking like this.” Taki wants to cry. He hears a small yelp escape him and suddenly he wants to throw himself through the glass window.
Nicholas seems to be enjoying Taki’s spiral as Taki catches him suppressing a laugh after his little outburst.
“Really Nicholas? I thought you were better than that.” Taki says sullenly.
“Sorry, it’s like I know it’s you but I’m still looking at a dog that is having a full on conversation with me. It’s fucking wild.” Nicholas crosses his arms and stares on in wonderment.
“Harua, please. I beg of you. Fix me as fast as you can. I’ll owe you anything you ever want and I’ll never complain about it I swear.”
The witch looks at him contemplatively. “I get it. You don’t want your boyfriend thinking you’ve turned into a complete furry in his absence.”
“ARGHHH. This is not the time for your delusional snark Harua. I need help!” Taki makes puppy dog eyes at his friend and realises the term is now literal.
“I’ll see what I can do. I might know someone who has a counter spell to things like this. Don’t ask how I know them but they live in a kind of sketchy part south of the city. I’ll have to leave now to get there by lunch. They don’t use phones.” Harua mumbles most of his remark.
Taki looks around trying to bring himself out of this awful nightmare he must be having. Sadly it doesn’t work and he is stuck with four feet on the ground. This was so not how today was supposed to go.
“You two wait here and I’ll let you know if I find anything.” Harua starts to collect his things and he turns to look at Taki. “Did you hear that Taki? Stay.”
Nicholas can’t contain his laughter any longer. Taki feels like growling but that would just perpetuate his situation too much. He settles on a dry “Haha. Very funny.”
The two wait for an hour before they hear from Harua. Nicholas had been out on the shop floor helping customers while Taki had stayed in the backroom and curled up on the couch. He had the strange urge to circle on the spot before he finally sat down but he shook that off. He could have probably gone out the front. As long as he didn’t speak no one would know that he wasn’t an actual dog. But somehow he felt like the witch patrons would just know, so he hides out on the old leather couch.
Nicholas appears holding his phone up to his ear before mouthing “Harua”. Taki wanted to state that he could hear him perfectly fine on the other end of the line and would have been able to even if he wasn’t a domesticated pet because of his werewolf hyper senses.
“Good news and bad news,” Harua starts when Nicholas tells him he’s on speaker phone. “My contact says there is a way to reverse this,” Taki would fist pump in the air if he currently had a fist. “But some of the ingredients I need to make the remedy are extremely rare and all over the city. I don’t think we’d be able to start making the potion til at least tomorrow and even then it takes twelve hours to cook.”
Of fucking course it did. Nothing ever went Taki’s way.
“It would be good if you guys could focus on the couple of things I need in the shop’s radius of the city. I can get most of the other things this far south but I have to tell you it won’t be easy. The witches this way don’t really like outsiders. Especially not outsiders who want to buy rare and unusual potion ingredients.”
Nicholas and Harua go about coordinating their acquisition of each ingredient but Taki has all but spaced out. The knot in his stomach growing tighter as he realises he won’t be able to meet up with Ni-ki as planned. He feels himself start to cry but reigns it in when a subtle whimper escapes him, Nicholas does not need more ammunition.
Taki looks to the corner where he had fainted. Laying on the ground like he’d just stepped out of them were his clothes and shoes. They hadn’t gotten around to picking them up as it was the least of anyone’s concern right now. Taki goes up to his dark wash jeans and yanks his phone out of the right front pocket with his mouth. He drops the phone carefully in front of him then realises there’s no way to actually use his phone right now. He can’t even unlock it with face ID.
The phone call ends and Nicholas walks to stand beside him.
“You right there buddy?”
Taki rolls his eyes then paws at the phone. “I need to cancel on Ni-ki but I can’t do anything with these stupid things.”
“You’re actually going to cancel on him?” Taki can’t believe that sentence just left Nicholas’s mouth.
“No, you know what? Text him for me and say lets meet at the park instead so he can throw a fucking frisbee around for me!” The whimper he lets out is intended this time.
“You could just explain to him what happened? He might want to come see you here if it’s been so long since you guys have seen each other.” Nicholas sounded too reasonable in this incredibly not reasonable situation.
“Oh he can never know about this.” Taki stares straight into his friend’s eyes. “Ever.”
Taki didn’t need one of his best friend’s to know what an idiot he was and the situation he had put himself in. That actually reminds Taki;
“I need you to not tell the pack, especially Euijoo. They’ll never let me live it down. Just tell them I’ve been hanging out with Ni-ki all afternoon and that I’m crashing on his hotel couch or something.”
“So you want me to lie to both of them?” Nicholas says deadpan.
Taki nods quickly. “Absolutely.”
“What do you want me to tell Ni-ki?” He asks as he picks Taki’s phone up off the floor. He stares at the screen when it won’t open so Taki tells him the passcode.
“I don’t know. Tell him I’ve got explosive diarrhoea or something. Literally anything else would be less embarrassing than the actual situation.” Taki feels like punching a wall but again, no fist.
Nicholas brings up Ni-ki’s contact and starts drafting a message when he turns to Taki. “Harua was right, wasn’t he? You like this guy.”
Taki thanks god that he can’t blush right now. “Why do you say that?”
“Because you don’t want to tell him anything. Just like you don’t want to tell the pack. You think if they know you made a mistake they will look down on you.”
Nicholas was scarily too accurate.
“You think they will stop caring about you ‘cause you did something… dumb. Is dumb too mean? I don’t want to sound like a dick or anything.”
“No. You don’t. It was dumb. It was fucking insane how stupid I was.” Taki lays flat on the ground in exhaustion. “I’ve known Ni-ki forever and he knows I’m not the smartest person alive but it’s just been so long since I’ve seen him, I don’t want him to think that I’m some stupid kid still.”
“And that’s because… you like him?” Nicholas throws a coy smile onto the end of his question.
“God, you’re like a dog with a bone.” Fuck. “Fuck.”
Bless Nicholas. He really tries not to laugh but even Taki can’t blame him for his reaction this time.
“Okay, okay. I’ll tell him your clan alpha needs you for a very top secret assignment. That’s gotta earn respect and keep the notion of confidentiality right?”
Taki lets go of the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. “Thank you, Nicholas.”
His friend writes messages to both Ni-ki and the pack group chat (occasionally asking if Taki would say something a certain way) then he pulls out his own phone to look up the two ingredients they had been tasked with finding; yellow frog’s tongue and moonlight kissed jasmine. Whatever the hell that was. Nicholas also realises he will need someone to watch over the shop while the two go on their adventure. He calls up the new girl that Jaehyun had hired after Harua’s departure (if it could be called that) and begs her to come in for the rest of the afternoon.
Twenty minutes later the shop door jingles and in walks their saving grace, Yuna.
“Thank you so, so much for this Yuna. I swear I will be in your debt forever.” Nicholas says while holding his hands together.
“It’s all good.” Yuna beams at him. She has the most radiant smile Taki has ever seen, aside from his own of course. “I was just sitting at home bored anyway. Oh my god!” She finally seems to notice Taki at the side of Nicholas. “Who’s this handsome fella?! Is he yours?”
She squats down to reach Taki’s height and before he knows it he is being scratched behind the ears. He totally gets why dogs enjoy it. But also it was super strange having a stranger manhandle him like that. He keeps his mouth shut and tries not to give away the fact that he was actually a human under all the fluff.
“Ah no,” Nicholas says, also looking mildly disturbed by Yuna’s interaction with Taki. “I’m pet sitting a friend.”
“You mean for a friend?” She says straightening up.
“Sure.” Nicholas shrugs. Taki purposefully stands on his friend’s foot and the quiet ow he gets is an adequate reward.
They leave the shop in the capable hands of Yuna and begin the journey to a store that Nicholas had found online that sold the frog tongue. Taki swears everyone who looks at him suddenly knows his secret and that they’re all silently judging him. He holds his head high and tries to drown out the general public.
***
The trip to the first location was an extremely taxing test on Taki’s pride. People looked and stared and he heard “oh how cute!” more times than he cared to admit. He loved dogs as much as the next guy but being one was a completely unimaginable until it actually happened.
They had had to walk all of the way to the first shop as public transport didn’t allow non service animals on board. That was just another humiliation to add to the growing list.
“Why are you walking so weirdly?” Nicholas asked from above him.
Taki had been swerving on and off the sidewalk into the shade the buildings provided and onto grassy areas when he had the chance. “The ground is fucking boiling my feet.” He replies in a sour tone.
“We could always get you little booties?” Nicholas smirks at him but when he sees the clearly unimpressed look on his friend’s furry face he drops it. “Come on. We’ll go up this way. There’s more shade here.”
That was sweet of Nicholas to offer. For how funny he found Taki’s current situation he was still a sweet guy looking out for his friend.
“Won’t it take us longer this way?” Taki relaxes when they step under the shade. He didn’t realise how sensitive dog paws were.
“Just a few minutes here and there. But better we get you there without burnt feet.”
The pair had gotten a few odd looks. Well actually mostly Nicholas got the odd looks. Apparently having human level conversations with a dog wasn’t so normal. It actually surprised Taki they didn’t get more looks. He was a fucking talking dog for god’s sake!
By the time they reached Illusion Emporium Taki was exhausted and couldn’t stop panting. They entered the shop to a similar chime of bells as Lune & Co. He’s not sure if it’s because of his current size but this store is easily twice as big as the store his friends work at. There’s even a spiral staircase leading to a second floor of the shop.
As they make their way to the counter they can’t help but notice a small tent with a sign that reads “Ningnings Tarot & Palm Readings”. Taki had always wanted to get a tarot reading but maybe today wasn’t the best time for it so he pops the detail away in his brain for when he is back to two arms and two legs.
At the counter is a young woman with faded pink hair. She appears to be in the middle of mixing some potion ingredients together and is laser focused on the task. Taki has a flashback of him knocking over the green vial and his panting gets even harder. Okay great. So now he had PTSD looking at potions. Not that he will probably ever be allowed to step foot in Lune & Co after his incident so he shouldn’t worry about too many flare ups.
The girl, Giselle is printed on her name tag, looks up when she is happy with her concoction.
“Welcome to Illusion Emporium. How can we make your day more magical?”
Nicholas flashes a charming smile. “We’re looking for yellow frog tongue and we heard you guys are one of the few places that sell it.”
Giselle raises her eyebrows comically. “Wow. Okay. We don’t get many requests for that but let me go see if we have any in stock out back.” She starts to walk off but doubles back. “Hey Ning! Can you watch the floor for a sec?”
Another young woman appears from the tent they had walked past. She raises her hand in a thumbs up and Giselle ventures off to find their ingredient. Ningning slowly approaches the two and she locks straight onto Taki. He waits for her to coo about what a good boy he is.
“You’re in a bit of a pickle now aren’t you.” She says it as a fact.
“How did you…” Taki begins to ask and the woman gives him a small smile.
“I’m a psychic. It’s on the sign over there.” She points back to her tent. “So what did you do to get yourself in this mess?”
Taki starts to say “It’s a long story” when Nicholas says at the same time “He touched a bunch of shit he shouldn’t have”. Okay, maybe it wasn’t a long story.
“Ahh.” Ningning crosses her arms and smirks but it doesn’t seem to be out of cruelty. “I’m sorry to do this but I just have this weird feeling coming off of you. I never usually interfere with people who don’t ask for my services but is there somebody you are reconnecting with?”
Taki and Nicholas freeze and eye the psychic. “Yeah.” Taki mumbles.
She goes red in the face but continues. “There’s someone on the other side who is looking out for you. She’s an older woman. I can see her in a pink robe with her hair in curlers and she has a gold cross on a necklace.”
The fur on Taki’s legs stands on end. “That’s my grandma. She died a few years ago.”
Ningning gives him a warm smile. “She wants you to know how much she loves you. And she doesn’t think you should give up on your friend. She keeps telling me that you need to be brave and take a chance. And she keeps showing me the letter R for some reason. I’m sorry to just spring that on you but she was rather insistent.”
“Yeah that sounds like grandma alright.” He manages to get out. The tears are stuck in his eyes and he tries not to whimper.
Giselle returns back with a small box after a few beats of silence. She places it on the counter top then excuses herself to tell Ningning something about the storage room.
“That was kind of freaky.” Nicholas says in a puff of air. “But I thought his name was Ni-ki? What’s with the R? Do you have a secret second crush that you’re hiding from us?”
Taki knows Nicholas is joking but his mind is still reeling from the psychic’s message. “Ah, Ni-ki is a nickname. His real name is Riki. And so is mine actually.”
“Woah. The acid trip just keeps getting crazier.” The witch scratches his head in awe.
When Giselle comes back to serve them Taki is unable to focus on anything else that is said. His mind is swimming with thoughts of his grandma. She had always had a special connection with Taki. She also knew him and Ni-ki as friends. Oh god, was he so obvious even his grandma knew before him that he interested in the other? He vaguely hears the two witches talk about pricing for the frog tongue and just about has to help Nicholas off the floor when he hears how much it was going to cost.
“When I can use an ATM again I will totally pay you back.” Taki says with the most gracious thank you he has ever given anyone. He tries for a deep bow but it’s kind of hard in this body. Nicholas has a quick chuckle before telling him to get up.
They walk to the final location which is apparently from a private seller out of their own home. A big problem starts to present itself though. As they’re walking Taki tries not to think about it but he can’t help it. He needs to pee. Like really bad.
“Nicholas, wait.” He says slowing to a stop at a small park they are walking past.
“Are you okay?” Nicholas seems genuinely concerned.
Taki has never been more embarrassed in his whole life, and he’s done some pretty stupid things. “I have to go.”
“Go?” Nicholas look bewildered. “Go where?”
Taki wanted to scream. “You know… go.” Taki goes to raise his eyebrows to get his point across and then he remembers he doesn’t currently have eyebrows.
Nicholas keeps staring at him and Taki realises he really is going to have to say it.
“Ugh, fine. I need to piss!” He whisper screams and hopes the children running past them didn’t accidentally hear what he just said.
“Oh. Ohhhhhh.” The look of understanding finally reaches the witch’s eyes. “You can like, go then.”
Taki looks at him like he had personally just stabbed him. “Just go? There are like fifty people out here.”
Nicholas looks around. “There’s a pretty big statue over that way. You could go behind that?”
Bless Nicholas for trying but Taki still wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole. In a gruff voice he relents. “Fine. I’ll just pee behind a commemorative statue for… who’s that now? Ah, the first werewolf to be elected mayor. I’ll just go unload on one of my kind’s greatest accomplishments.”
The two sullenly make their way to behind the bronze statue where Nicholas was right, there are far less people who could spot them.
Nicholas sways where he stands and keeps his gaze on Taki.
“So are you just going to watch me pee or…?”
Nicholas turns bright red and turns to the other direction. “I kind of forgot for a moment you know?”
Taki did not know. He couldn’t stop thinking about his current predicament. Once he is finished he clears his throat and says, “You can turn around now.”
Nicholas turns and flashes him a friendly smile. “You know I’ve seen dogs go to the toilet before, right?”
“But shouldn’t it feel weird when, oh I don’t know… it’s your human friend in a dog body?” Taki is losing his patience. Quickly.
“I mean maybe,” Nicholas starts as they resume their walk to the second seller. “But dude, you’re a werewolf. Aren’t you kind of used to all of this.”
Taki stiffens. He was not ready to have this talk. He hadn’t spoken to his alpha or any of his pack mates about it, there was no way he was going to get all deep and meaningful with someone he had known for barely two weeks.
He replies with a short, “That’s only for a couple of hours once a month. And at night I might add. It’s not like we transform with an audience.”
Nicholas looks like he wants to say something but he holds himself back. Good. Taki had enough on his plate right now.
When they were about half way to their second location the worst thing possible happens. Taki isn’t just being dramatic. This was literally worse than being turned into a dog. Because walking care free towards them on one side of the footpath was, of all people, Yuma.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
And because Yuma is Yuma he notices Nicholas and can’t help but greet him when they intersect.
The two share a friendly hug and Taki tries to will himself invisible. It doesn’t work because after the polite pleasantries have been exchanged Yuma gasps.
“I didn’t know you were getting a dog Nicholas!” Yuma lightly punches Nicholas in the arm.
Nicholas really had zero poker face and just gave his new friend a pained smile.
Yuma bent down to Taki’s eye level and was about to give him a pat on the head when he froze. He looked the dog up and down and give the air a faint sniff.
“Taki?” His pack mate asked quizzically.
Ah fuck.
“How did you know?” Nicholas gasps out.
Yuma stands back up and smirks. “Werewolf remember. We don’t usually forget scents. Definitely not of those in our pack.” He looks to Taki accusingly. “So. Is anyone gonna fill me in or do we just stand around and talk about the weather?”
Taki speaks for the first time since his friend’s arrival. “There was a… potion making accident, I guess?”
Yuma gasps. “Holy fuck I didn’t know you would be able to talk like that!” The older looks horrified. “Wait, why were you near potions? No, let me guess. You touched something you shouldn’t have and now we have a golden taki-triever?”
Taki rolls his eyes. “No one likes a smart ass Yuma.”
“Then why are you the biggest one I know?” His friend quips back. “Are you guys busy? I kind of wanted to get a coffee if you want to join me.”
“We have time. Not like Harua is going to be able to collect his share of ingredients before us.” Nicholas says shrugging. “Better make it an animal friendly place.”
Yuma snorts. “If you’re lucky, we might get you a puppuccino.” He says looking in Taki’s eyes.
“And if you’re lucky, I won’t bite you on the ankles.” Taki flares his teeth at his friend which just earns him another laugh and a bop on his nose. God, Taki was going to absolutely pummel Yuma when he was back in human form.
***
When they find a pet friendly cafe, Nicholas finds them a table at the back of the place while Yuma orders their drinks. It had been utterly humiliating but Taki had requested a water as he was parched from all the walking around. When Yuma bought back a bowl filled with water he at least had enough sense to look slightly apologetic.
“You better not put that on the floor. I have one bit of dignity left.” Taki huffed.
Seeming to understand, Yuma places the bowl on the table. Taki and Nicholas had sat on the cushioned side of the table/ booth they were in. Yuma sat across from them in a plain metal chair. The water was amazing but Taki felt the embarrassment creep up on him again when he realised that drops of the water were going all over the place due to his slurping. Neither of his friends said a word for once.
Yuma and Nicholas’s orders arrived and they were having a light conversation about something so completely unrelated to Taki’s situation, it was the most normal he had felt all day. But just because the universe seems to find amusement in his misery, he happens to look up at the figure entering the cafe and he feels his heart leap to his throat when he realises that it’s Ni-ki.
His Ni-ki. Well not his Ni-ki but… oh well. He realises he must look like a complete buffoon with his awe-struck reaction.
Yuma turns to him with a smirk. “What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?” He and Nicholas giggle like a couple of five year olds while Taki tries to remember how to form words. “I know it’s not on par with the whole dog thing but I couldn’t help myself.” Yuma is yapping while Taki is having a mental breakdown.
“Seriously, are you okay?” Nicholas at least seems a bit concerned.
“Ni… Ni, Ni-ki.” Taki mutters and gestures with his nose to the tall man with bleach blonde hair in line.
Yuma’s head snaps around so fast Taki worries he’ll get whiplash. Nicholas looks a bit more discreetly but his eyes bulge in his head. “THAT’S Ni-ki? And you’re only just now realising you like him?”
Taki paws at his arm hoping his claws will at least cause Nicholas a little discomfort.
Okay. So Ni-ki was hot now. He had always been good looking but suddenly he was almost unrecognisable. He had grown at least a foot and a half since Taki had last seen him. He was sporting a leather jacket that just made him look like the most badass person in the building. His hair was bleached and styled back out of his face. And just to top it all off he had an undercut. Which in Taki’s opinion was the hottest hairstyle any guy could have.
So yeah. Niki was hot. At that moment he lifted his gaze from his phone as if he could sense the three pairs of eyes boring into him.
In a very cool and not at all obvious way, the three at the table look away and the two humans pretend to be involved in some very serious conversation. Taki just stared at Ni-ki. Dogs stared so he wouldn’t think anything weird was going on… right?
Taki continues to spiral as he sees Ni-ki approach the counter and order. And then he spirals even more when he sees Ni-ki approach their table instead of the corner where people usually waited for to-go orders.
Fuck. Not now. Anything but this.
“Um, sorry to interrupt you but I just had to ask. You’re Yuma right? You’re in Taki’s pack?”
Taki begs for any sort of natural disaster to happen right now. Take them all out in seconds so that he never had to deal with whatever was happening right now.
Yuma beams at the tall stranger. “Yeah I am! You’re Ni-ki right? Taki has just gone on and on about you.”
Taki lets a growl slip out and tries to look very dog like and not human at all. He wonders if vampires can sense this sort of thing like werewolves can. Fuck he hopes they can’t.
“It’s great to finally meet you. Taki talks about you guys all the time. And he sent me a group picture Christmas card last year. That’s how I recognised you. I’m like, not a stalker or anything.” Ni-ki ends with an attempt at a smirk but it still shines through awkward as ever. Maybe becoming a vampire hadn’t changed him completely.
Nicholas seems to be watching with rapt attention. Like he’s watching a reality tv show in real time.
“I’m sorry,” Ni-ki starts, “I don’t think I remember your face from the card.”
Nicholas smiles. “Oh no, you wouldn’t do. I’m a new addition to the whole friend group. Nicholas.”
Ni-ki bows his head lightly as if remembering his manners and turns back to Yuma.
“I’m really disappointed Taki had to cancel today. You live in the same building as him right?” Yuma nods at that. “Can you tell him I’m bummed I didn’t get to see him and that I still want to catch up with him while I’m here. I sent him a message saying that but I’m not sure if he got it or not. I imagine he must be pretty busy if he’s doing something on the DL.”
Taki did not get his message. Probably because they had put his phone on silent and Nicholas had stored it in his back jeans pocket. Now Taki felt bad for not replying to his friend.
“I’ll let him know. They were up all night working so he’s probably just asleep,” Yuma looks at Taki wickedly, “He’s just been dog tired recently.”
Taki resists the urge to leap across the table and aim for Yuma’s jugular and to squeeze it like a chew toy. He really had a lot of ass kicking to do once he was turned back.
“He’s always been a hard worker.” Ni-ki says innocently, not catching on to the pun at all.
Ni-ki’s name is then called and his order is ready.
“It was great to finally meet you.” He bows at Yuma and Nicholas. Before he turns to go pick up his beverage he looks back and says, “Cute dog too.”
Taki wants to die.
***
After sitting in his humiliation for half an hour he suggests they should make their way to the private seller. Yuma has been caught up on the situation and has decided to join their quest (much to Taki’s displeasure). They end up out the front of a tall high-rise building of appartments and Nicholas double checks the address he received from Harua. Taki wasn’t sure why his friend seemed so hesitant and then Yuma points out the sign in the window. It was a pentagram with an illustration of a snake eating its own tale (ouroboros Nicholas had said) through the middle of it.
Taki vaguely knew he’d seen that symbol before, he just couldn’t remember where.
“Is this a bad thing?” Taki asks his friends innocently.
The two exchange a look.
“Maybe not. I just don’t really mess with this kind of magic.” Nicholas says slightly nervously.
Then Taki remembers where he’s seen the symbol. He had been maybe 9 or 10 at the time and his mother had taken him into the city so that Taki could visit some magic shops. He had always wished he had been born a witch and he was obsessed with the idea of it for much of his childhood. Finally giving into his endless begging to go to a real life magic shop, his mother took him on a day of touring some of the city’s most famous shops. Towards the end of the day he was insistent that they needed to stop in at the one with the all black exterior and dark purple drapes. No one could see into the shop and that was what sparked Taki’s interest.
As Taki begged and tugged on his mother’s sleeve that he needed to check it out for himself, an older witch wandered over to them after hearing Taki’s pleas.
“You don’t want to go in there little boy.”
Taki looked at the woman like she was crazy. “But it’s a magic shop. And it looks so cool!”
The woman just shook her head. “That’s not the type of magic you ever want to be apart of.” She pointed to the window of the store to where the symbol was displayed.
His mother had visibly paled and she began thanking the woman continuously whilst dragging Taki away by his arm. When they arrived home his mother had explained to him that the symbol represented a small sect of the magic community who participated in dark magic and necromancy. He had asked what necromancy was and was horrified for weeks after he found out. That’s when his obsession with magic started dwindling down.
Dark magic wasn’t extremely common but it was still practised. The symbol had been created by dark witches to signal to one another what they were practising.
Taki hadn’t seen one of those symbols again until right now. He stare at the snake inhaling itself. He had nightmares about that creature, honestly did still to this day. He turns to look at Nicholas and Yuma again.
“Does that mean this is a whole apartment complex of dark witches?”
Nicholas shrugs but doesn’t take his eyes off the symbol. “Not necessarily. Could just be one person who lives here. And by law they are allowed to hang their symbol, even on shared property.”
“Are we seriously about to do this?” Yuma says with a gulp.
“You don’t have to do anything. You just tagged along like this was a fun little hang out. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m in fucking trouble.” Taki feels bad for the tone he uses towards his pack mate but honestly he was so exhausted and he just wanted to get the ingredients, go back to the shop and have a nap while Harua worked on curing him.
“Well, sorry for caring about our safety,” Yuma mutters bluntly. “I just didn’t know we’d be going to a place like this.”
“Me either.” Nicholas’s tone is less than impressed.
Taki makes the first move and walks through the automated doors, giving his friends no choice but to follow. Once in the elevator Nicholas presses floor 25. Taki’s first thought when they get out at their chosen floor is that the elevator in this building compared to the den was ten times faster. Maybe now that Euijoo was in charge he could look into getting it fixed. So not the time Taki.
They reach door number 25E and Nicholas inhales deeply before knocking twice. There is silence for a while, you could probably hear a pin drop in that hallway. Nicholas raises his hand to knock again when the door is yanked open before his fist connects. It startles all three of them more than it should have.
“Yes?” The striking woman who opens the door seems displeased at their presence.
“Uhh, are you selling the moonlight kissed jasmine?” Nicholas sounds like he’s trying to reign his nerves and Taki sadly knows he’s failing miserably at it.
“Perhaps,” She looks the two men over before fixing her attention on Taki. Her smirk is devilish. “Ah, Harua’s friends. Please, come in.”
When she stands back to let them into the apartment the three all look at each other like it will inspire one of them to be the first to step past the threshold.
“I don’t bite.” The woman says in a tone that does not convince Taki at all that she doesn’t bite. But seeing as he was the reason they were here in the first place he bravely takes the lead. He sees Nicholas follow next and Yuma bringing up the rear.
Taki is slightly disappointed when he sees the inside of the dark witch’s home. He was expecting creepy altars, voodoo dolls, cobwebs, a big black cauldron in the middle of the room. Anything except for the perfectly modern style that seemed to encase the whole home.
“Don’t worry. I do the animal sacrificing in the basement.” The dark witch let out a deep and subtle laugh only Taki wasn’t exactly sure whether she was joking or not.
“I’m Nicholas. This is Yuma and Taki.” Nicholas is trying to make small talk with the woman. The very dangerous woman who looks as if she would cut out their vital organs in a heartbeat and not so much as flinch.
“Kazuha.” She wonders further into the apartment paying no mind to the strangers she just let in.
Reaching underneath the wooden coffee table placed in her open plan kitchen/ dinning/ living area she pulls out a glass jar. Taki assumes this must be what they were here for. It looked like regular jasmine except these stems seemed to have a tiny glow to them.
“Just the two stems, yes?” Kazuha asks as she places the jar on the dinning table before extracting two of the stems and placing them in a small wrap of material.
Nicholas nods and extends his hand but before he can grip the material it is being snatched back. “Oh right. Payment first.” He fishes in his pockets for his wallet when she places her hand up to wave her pointer finger back and forth.
“I’m not interested in money.” She stares Nicholas straight in the eyes.
“Sure. But um, we didn’t bring anything to swap for it so…”
“Money is useless to me. Favours, however, can be worth a substantial amount. Especially from a light witch. It would be priceless.”
The room stills and Taki looks to see Nicholas in a true freeze frame. It would be hilarious in any other situation.
“What kind of favour?” Nicholas asks tentatively.
She smiles coldly. “I’m not in need of a favour right now. But one day I wish to call upon you for one.”
Taki’s brain was screaming get out! run now! DANGER DANGER. Sadly he wasn’t the one making the deal. He shakes his head and is in the beginning of telling Nicholas to forget about it, they can find another way when Nicholas pushes out a “Deal”.
The dark witch pulls a small blade that had been sheathed at her side and carelessly stabs her finger, drawing blood. She offers it to Nicholas and he does the same. They connect their wounds to each other and just like that their deal is bound in blood. Taki knew blood promises were less common in modern times but Nicholas had agreed to it so quickly. The shame of how all this began creeps up on Taki and he bows his head.
Nicholas had just basically sold his soul to help someone he had only known a couple of weeks. Taki feels the guilt start to consume him and he doesn’t fight it.
***
Yuma decides to walk back with them to Lune & Co (Taki thinks it’s honestly just so his friend can keep teasing him). They arrive back before Harua, just when Yuna is just getting ready to close the shop up. She is carrying in the large sign outside the shop and Nicholas wanders over to give her some help.
“Euijoo is going to be so pissed at me.” Taki whispers.
Yuma stares at him questionably. “For being turned into a dog?”
“No,” Taki snaps, “Because I forced his new boyfriend into making a blood promise with a dark witch.”
“I don’t think your forced him to do it.” Yuma hums, “But maybe tell him before Nicholas does. Hiding it will just make things worse.”
“Like you’ve never kept a secret.” Taki scoffs.
“I never said I didn’t. You see I’m exceptional at giving out advice but quite shit at taking it.” That makes Taki laugh and he almost forgets how disappointed Euijoo will be with him. Almost.
Taki mopes his way back into the shop and Yuna locks the door behind them. Then she turns and scratches his ear and mutters a, “What’s wrong buddy.”
“I’m a fucking dog!” Taki yells, completely forgetting that he was in fact a dog and that Yuna had no idea about it til that moment.
She looks skeptically at all three of them the throws her hands up. “You know what? I don’t need to know. I don’t want to know. I’m heading home.”
Yuna grabs her bag from behind the counter and Nicholas lets her out before locking the door behind her. Taki hears his friend quietly say a quick, “I’m sorry. Thanks for covering though.”
Taki feels bad at how many random people he accidentally traumatised that day. He heads to the couch and flops on it with a deep sigh.
“Do you think Jaehyun will be mad that I’m leaving fur on his nice couch?” Maybe Taki should buy him a nice bottle of wine or something else that conveys “Sorry I made a huge mess of your store and turned myself into a dog on accident”.
“No. Because Jaehyun is never finding out about this day.” Nicholas stares him straight in the eye. “I’ll do a deep clean. He won’t be in again til Friday anyway.”
They wait around for another hour before the jingling of keys in the front door catches them by surprise. Harua struts in with a large tote bag (probably filled with ingredients for the reversal potion) and places it on the work bench before flopping down next to Taki on the couch. He looks exhausted which makes Taki’s guilt flare up.
“You still have a key?” Is the first thing Nicholas says to him.
“Of course,” Harua replies tiredly.
“Does Jaehyun know?” Yuma pipes up.
“What he doesn’t know what hurt him.” Harua sits up a bit straighter and assesses Taki’s limp form. “What’s got you so down? Did they not play ball with you?”
Taki, finally at his limit, stands up on the couch and the words that he tries to get out turn into barks. He clenches his whole body and tries again. “Enough with the fucking jokes! The three of you are killing me. I know I messed up and I’m sorry but for fuck’s sake it makes me feel like I’m the only fucked up one who’s made mistakes.”
Proud to get the words out he jumps off the couch and storms off to the front of the shop for some privacy, which doesn’t work well because it’s not a very big shop. He can still hear the other three whispering amongst themselves. It seems like they’re trying to figure out who the best person for the job is. It seems Nicholas is it as he emerges from the wall divider and makes his way sheepishly over to Taki.
“Hey.” Nicholas says gently. Taki just looks at him and huffs. “You know we were just messing around with you right? It kind of seems like it would be the way anyone else would be treated if they were in this situation instead.”
Taki knows that’s true but he still can’t help taking it personally.
“I hate being a werewolf you know.” He’s not sure why he says it. He doesn’t like to talk about it with anyone, let alone someone he hasn’t known for very long.
“Oh, I didn’t. Sorry. No one told me.” Nicholas scratches his arm nervously.
Taki takes a deep breath in. “That’s ‘cause I haven’t told anyone. I don’t like talking about it.”
His friend stares at him as if he is waiting for Taki to continue. He’s come this far he might as well get it off his chest. Even though Yuma was in the other room with werewolf hearing and he knew nothing he said to Nicholas would stay just between the two of them.
“Being in wolf form… I hate it. It just makes me feel like my body isn’t my own. Like I can’t tell it what to do. So I only ever turn on full moons when I don’t have a choice. Other wolves like to go out for runs and do things as their wolf but it makes me feel sick just thinking about having to do that.” His voice cracks at the end.
Trying to be strong, he continues, “I’ve just made up excuses for my whole life any time someone asks if I want do anything wolf related with them. And today, I just felt like I do in wolf form. I didn’t have any control over myself. I hate not feeling in control.”
The two are silent for a while before Nicholas speaks up. “I get it. I had no control when I was a reaper and that was only for a day. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for you.” There’s a short pause before he tacks on, “So you’ve never told anyone about this?”
“Well I guess technically I have. I used to tell Ni-ki how much I hated it when we were kids. But then I heard other wolves talk about wolf pride and I kind of just stopped talking about it. I felt ashamed for not being as enthused as the rest of my kind.”
“You told Ni-ki huh?” Nicholas says with a smirk. Okay so they were back to teasing Taki again now. At least it wasn’t a stupid dog pun.
“Yeah but he was my best friend. That doesn’t mean anything.”
“IT TOTALLY DOES!” They hear yelled behind the divider and then Harua shows himself looking a tiny bit embarrassed.
Yuma follows him out and walks over to his pack mate. “How come you never told us? We wouldn’t have judged you or anything.”
Looking up, Taki notices the beginning of tears in Yuma’s eyes. “Fuck I made you cry. This is why I didn’t say anything.”
Yuma wipes away a tear and embraces Taki in a tight hug which Taki is unable to reciprocate so he just places his head on Yuma’s shoulder, hoping he gets the sentiment.
“This is not your fault Taki.” Yuma whispers. “I speak for the whole pack when I say we support you no matter what. And if you don’t want anyone else to know, the three of us will keep our lips sealed.”
Nicholas and Harua affirm his statement. Yuma unwraps his arms and looks to Harua.
“How about we start making that potion?”
“Yeah, okay. We will.” Harua has his sass back and gets right to cooking the potion.
It was to take twelve hours though so Harua said he would head home for the night and return in the morning to make any finishing touches it needed. Nicholas stays behind at the shop with Taki to keep him company through the night. Yuma is adamant about staying too but Taki insists he go home to take away any of the suspicion the rest of the pack may have.
Nicholas had taken the left side of the couch and Taki the right. It seems the day has caught up with Nicholas as he falls asleep moments after he closes his eyes. Listening to the witch’s steady inhales and exhales, Taki tries to also get some sleep. He is unsuccessful and his mind wonders. Feeling like he could face palm (if he had a palm that was) he remembers that he never got Nicholas to check his phone after they ran into Ni-ki. His oldest friend probably thought that Taki was blowing him off. Watching how peaceful Nicholas was currently he wasn’t going to wake him up to send a message this late at night. A deep sigh works it’s way out of him and Taki tries to come up with ways to make it up to Ni-ki. What if Ni-ki was actually genuinely upset by the radio silence? Maybe Taki couldn’t keep today a secret for very long. Not if he wanted to hold onto one of the best friendships he’s ever had.
***
Taki doesn’t know when he drifted off to sleep but he is woken the next morning by the jingle of keys in door lock. He involuntarily lets out a small “woof” and hopes nobody heard it.
“You really need to work on your ferocious guard skills.” Well damn. Harua walks into the back room with three styrofoam cups with what Taki hopes is coffee. He hopes he will actually be human enough to drink it soon.
Nicholas stirs on the couch and wordlessly takes his coffee from Harua’s outstretched hand. They had the kind of friendship where they knew each other on such a deep level that they know what the other needs without them having to ask. Taki used to have that with Ni-ki.
Standing above the simmering pot, Harua stirs the potion with practised ease. For a potion he has never made before you wouldn’t be able to tell by the look on the witch’s face. Wisdom and talent beyond his years.
“Is it ready?” Taki asks nervously looking between Harua and the coffee. He hadn’t had one in nearly 24 hours which made Taki think that maybe he was addicted to caffeine. Oh well, better than being addicted to crack his mind supplies.
“Almost.” Harua adds a few more sprinkles of things and stirs them in diligently.
Taki watches his friends sip from their cups and he lets out a whine. Were dogs really this whiney or was this just a Taki specialty?
Harua turns the heat at the burner off and pours a generous amount of the potion into a bowl. He says an incantation over the mixture (which Taki can’t for the life of him understand) and they all watch as the liquid turns from a murky brown into a cotton candy pink.
“It’s done!” Harua says gleefully and what he does next shocks Taki to his core. He places the bowl on the floor and gestures for Taki to drink it.
“Wait a minute,” Taki says conspiratorially, “I didn’t drink the stuff that did this to me.”
Harua sighs, “Well no but not all potions work the same. The cause and the cure can be made two different ways.”
Being a super fan of witches since a young age, Taki is startled to learn this particular piece of information. “I have to drink all of it?”
“Maybe not,” Nicholas speaks for the first time that morning. “But do you really want to risk it? I mean you could end up with a human body with a dog tail and floppy ears.”
Fuck. “I know you’re right but…” Taki looks at the bowl and his friends like someone would suddenly come up with an easier, less gross fix. “There’s like, frogs in there.”
“Yuma told me you once dropped a piece of pizza on the sidewalk and still picked it up and ate it.” Harua says with a raised brow.
“But that was… pizza.” Taki gave his best cute eyes.
“Well sorry, but I’m not a chef. You either drink this or stay a dog for the rest of your life, which might I mention, would not be nearly as long as your human life expectancy.” Harua was rude but also very correct. He looks to Nicholas who just shrugs and points at the bowl like “well, you wanted a cure”.
Hesitantly Taki approaches the bowl trying not to inhale at what surely couldn’t be a very appetising creation. The smell still manages to work its way through his nose and he’s never smelt anything so bad in his life. Even Maki’s stinky sneakers after a work out would be better than this.
He pulls himself together and dips his head down to lap up the potion. It makes him gag but he drinks the whole lot.
“So…” Nicholas asks hopefully.
“I don’t feel anything.” Taki wants to sob. “With the first one I felt weird but with this one I don-, woah. Someone stop the room from spinning please.” He promptly faints after his request.
When he awakens again he is still on the floor and he can feel the bite of the cold in the concrete. He raises his arm and Yes! a hand, attached to a very normal arm. He notices his lower half is covered with the throw that lived on top of the couch.
“It worked!” He springs up from the floor, careful to keep the blanket around his privates.
“I’m a genius.” Harua says to himself and basks in the self love.
Nicholas get up to stand near him and as if remembering that Taki was naked he gives him a pat on the arm instead of the hug he looked like he was going in for. “Your clothes are over on that cabinet. I’ll go get them for you.” His friend runs in there direction and springs back with them draped over his arm.
“Clothes are good but you know what I need first,” Taki approaches the work bench and grabs the last remaining cup. “This baby right here.”
So he was definitely addicted to coffee. In that moment though he couldn’t seem to care any less about it.
***
After profusely thanking Haru for changing him back about a hundred thousand times, Taki gets his phone back from Nicholas. The first thing he does is send a message to Ni-ki and pray that his friend’s not mad at him for ghosting him the last 24 hours.
Me:
Hey!! I’m so sorry, I got caught up with
pack stuff. I would still really love to catch
up if you have time :)
He stares at his phone as if Ni-ki is going to reply instantly. Reminding himself that Ni-ki has a life and isn’t attached to his phone, Taki turns to thank Harua one final time.
“Seriously thank you so much. And also I’m so sorry it happened in the first place.”
Harua crosses his arms and says way too seriously, “I don’t think you should come back here. Your a great guy and all but you are also way too clumsy for your own good. Everything worked out fine this time but what if it hadn’t?”
Taki feels the energy drain from his face. Of course, Harua was right, he was a bull in a China shop and who knows how much worse it could have been. “I totally get it.”
“Don’t worry. You’re still my favourite in the pack.” Harua ends with a wink.
“You mean I beat Maki?” smirks Taki.
“Ugh, don’t even mention his name to me right now.”
Taki scoffs, “Why, because he wants a commitment?”
Rolling his eyes and sulking Harua amps up for what Taki can tell will be a long rant. “He’s jus-“
Taki feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. He reaches for it quickly and suddenly Harua’s voice fades into background noise that he can’t quite pay attention to.
Ni-ki:
Of course I still want to meet up!
Do you want to grab a drink and some
dinner tonight?
Only if you’re not busy though.
Taki feels himself levitate with relief. And also maybe excitement. Harua was still droning on about something that Maki had said that was so unbelievable but the words fell on deaf ears. All Taki could think about was the fact that he hadn’t showered in like forever and that he definitely needed a better outfit for his dat- no, meet up, tonight.
Me:
That sounds great! I know a great place
where we can get both. Does 7pm work?
He sends Ni-ki the text along with a location for the place he’s talking about. Yuma had always raved about it and with Taki not being much of a social butterfly he doesn’t really have anywhere else to suggest.
Ni-ki:
Great. I’ll see you tonight.
Taki is about to reply with a see you then! but his phone pings one more time and Taki feels his heart squeeze.
Ni-ki:
I can’t wait to see you.
I’ve missed you.
Of course Ni-ki probably meant in the way that you miss old friends when you drift apart but Taki’s delusional brain cell tells him maybe it’s more. He’s staring off into space not knowing how to reply to the text and he can feel Harua’s eyes staring a whole in his head.
“You didn’t hear a word I said, didn’t you?”
“Umm, no but I know Yuma loves to try and play cupid so why don’t you call him? I gotta go now. BYE NICHOLAS!”
The other witch emerges from the back room with a clipboard in his hands. “Leaving so soon? I was really looking forward to going on another magical quest with you again.” The sarcasm is thick in his voice.
“Well I’ve officially been banned from coming to this shop so we’ll have to find another way to make your life more interesting.” Taki smirks and rubs his hands together.
“Bye Taki.” Nicholas mumbles while he walks away with his attention on the clipboard.
“Seriously, call Yuma. He’s got a knack for the whole love stuff.”
Harua rolls his eyes again and Taki wonders if he ever gets migraines from how often he does it. “Fine. But also, you seriously are not ever stepping foot inside this shop again.”
Taki chuckles and waves good bye. Harua waves back but he definitely doesn’t show any signs of humour on his face.
***
Taki makes it back to the den by mid morning and prays that none of his pack will be hanging around to ask how his night was. He certainly wasn’t telling any of them about yesterday (providing that is if Yuma hasn’t already let something slip) and all he wanted was to get to his apartment and shower the last remains of dog smell from himself. The wolf at the front desk nods in acknowledgement of Taki’s presence but doesn’t try to initiate any more than that. Thank god he’s not a talker, Taki thinks to himself.
He gets in the elevator and presses 6, hoping that it won’t stop on any other floors on the way up. Just because life isn’t easy at all, the lift stops on the first floor and the doors make a ding as they open to reveal none other than Kei. Shit.
“Well hello there stranger. Did you have fun with Ni-ki?” It is said with a knowing undertone as Kei presses 5.
Why does everyone think he’s into Ni-ki? Because you are, his brain unhelpfully provides.
“Yeah it was great. We’re actually going out again tonight.”
“Two nights in a row?” Kei’s brows hide under his bangs with how high he raises them.
Damn, Taki hadn’t considered that it would be kind of suss for them to meet up again so soon. At least Kei didn’t seem like he knew anything about what really happened the day before.
“Umm yep,” Taki keeps his eyes on the door. He knows as soon as Kei makes eye contact the truth would somehow make its way out. It was Kei’s greatest skill. “You know, we haven’t caught up in years so, like, a lot to catch up on.”
Noticing Kei’s slightly questioning gaze he quickly makes to change the subject. “So are you going up to see Euijoo? I thought he finally got everything moved up to the penthouse a couple of days ago?”
“Yeah, he just wanted some help patching up the holes in his walls. I said he should leave them ‘cause the next tenant might want to hang things up too but he said it was proper etiquette when moving out. Like he doesn’t own the whole building or anything.”
That sure sounded like Euijoo. Taki nods and sends up a thanks to the universe when they stop at the fifth floor. “Come to breakfast tomorrow if you can. Fuma’s making his famous pancakes.”
“That sounds good, hyung. I’ll be there.”
Kei goes to leave the elevator but stops himself just outside of it before putting his hand out to prevent the doors from closing.
“You know you can tell me anything right? I’m always here.” It’s like Kei has a sixth sense when it comes to figuring out other people’s issues.
But Taki really didn’t want to talk about anything right now so he nods politely and says unexpectedly quietly, “Thanks hyung.”
Kei moves his hand and the doors close on his concerned face. When he arrives on his floor Taki almost cries. He didn’t realise how badly he wanted to be home. He unlocks his door and collapses on his two seater couch. It’s definitely too small for Taki’s body and his bedroom is literally only a few steps away but he can’t help it. Exhaustion has over taken his body and he needs a nap Now. He would shower and eat after his power nap. He would be awful company for Ni-ki if he didn’t get at least a few hours of recharge sleep.
Before he dozes off though he has one more text to send.
Me:
So you really didn’t say anything
to the pack, huh?
His phone pings only a moment later.
Yuma:
Of course not.
I promised I wouldn’t. Aren’t you proud of me?
But seriously, I would never betray
your trust like that.
Taki smiles at his screen and sends back an xo.
***
After a much longer nap than he planned to, Taki took a shower where he rubbed his skin raw with soap to get rid of the previous day. He was pretty sure he didn’t smell like an actual dog anymore but he hoped that his intense scrubbing would convince his brain of that. In an hour he was supposed to meet up with Ni-ki but he was still stuck in front of his closet trying to figure out what to wear. He didn’t want to dress too casually but he also didn’t want to overdress and basically reveal that he hoped this would turn into an actual date.
Checking his phone every five minutes had become his obsession since the moment he woke up from his nap. He wanted to make sure Ni-ki wasn’t asking to change any plans only for Taki to completely ghost him like yesterday.
Taki had pulled out every piece of clothing he possibly owned (and the bits and pieces from the rest of his pack that had somehow made their home in Taki’s closet) and frowned at just about everything. He had worn his favourite outfit yesterday for their planned meeting but well now that smelt like dog, potions and bad decisions. Maybe he was overthinking it but all of his clothes just seemed wrong. And that’s when the thought struck him; he needed help. The most stylish member of the pack was Maki which didn’t fill Taki with much joy at the thought of having to tell the younger where he was going and who he was seeing. And also why he was asking this now instead of yesterday when he also “saw Ni-ki”.
Sighing, he pulls out his phone again (still nothing from Ni-ki- yay) flicks to Maki’s contact before hitting the call button. The younger picks up within the first two rings.
“Hello, hello!” Maki sing songs in English.
Taki rolls his eyes but asks his friend for help anyway to which he receives a squealed “Of course I’ll help you. I’ll be right down.”
Maki only lived two floors above Taki so he didn’t have to wait long for him to come barging through Taki’s door like he also lived there. Which to be fair most of them didn’t bother knocking on each other’s doors anymore. Everyone’s places were considered their home.
The younger walks in with a stack of shirts draped over his arm and announces, “Do not fret, the fashion police is on the scene.”
Seriously, how did Taki put up with him? He puts his cringe aside because he really does need help right now.
“Love what you’ve done with the place,” Maki says looking around at the piles of clothes that Taki had unknowingly made. “It’s giving hoarders chic.”
Taki actually laughs at that. Okay, so Maki wasn’t all bad.
“I literally have no clothes to wear! Please help me look presentable.” Taki puts his hands together and begs.
“That’s why I brought you some other options aside from your own. Look through these,” the younger thrusts the stack of dress shirts into Taki’s arms as he begins to scour through the abandoned clothes on the floors. After a few minutes Maki turns to stare at Taki and smirk, “So… you want to look presentable hey? I wonder what the reason for that could be.”
“Sarcasm is the lowest form of humour you know.” Nice save Taki.
“Oh come on,” Maki stands and walks his way over to the shelves in the corner of Taki’s room where he has a cork board littered with all different pictures of people and moments that were important to him. “He’s in at least, what, 60% of these photos. You literally only have one photo of your dad on there.”
“He doesn’t like being photographed.” Taki says defensively but he knows Maki’s not wrong. Ni-ki was just photogenic okay!
Maki rolls his eyes and goes back to sorting through the heap. “Here they are!” he says pulling out a pair of light-wash jeans like he had been mining for gold. “These make your ass look great.”
“Does Harua know you’ve been checking out my ass?” Taki quips.
Maki’s face drops and he folds the jeans neatly as if Taki isn’t going to be dressing in them in just a moment. “Harua doesn’t really care what I do apparently.”
Taki feels the tension rolling off of Maki so he tries his best to steer the conversation away from the topic.
“This flannel one is cute.” He holds up one of the shirts to Maki. It’s a pretty standard red checkered flannel shirt that Taki can already tell is going to be slightly too big for him. But that was cool these days, wasn’t it? He really did need Maki’s help.
“Oh yeah. It’s a little more casual but it’s still something that makes it look like you put thought behind it. You know, if someone was to wonder that.” Maki is baiting him and Taki is not falling for it.
“Maybe a plain white tshirt underneath?”
“Gee, I don’t think you really needed me after all.” Maki huffs a breath and stands.
“No,” Taki squeezes the shirt sleeves tightly. “I did need you here. You’re keeping my mind from thinking about other things. And you gave me this amazing shirt.”
Maki looks slightly sad but he covers it with a smile. It almost works. “Why are you freaking out so much? You just saw the guy yesterday.”
Taki freezes in the middle of scavenging through the piles for a clean white tshirt. “I just haven’t seen him forever. It feels weird, like I have to present myself a certain way. Especially now that he’s a vampire and he has hot, sexy vampire friends. Seriously, you should see pictures of his nest. They all look like runway models.”
“Isn’t that just a vampire thing in general?”
Taki ponders. “Maybe. I don’t know. I just don’t want him to forget about me with his new, immortal life.”
A sigh escapes Maki and he sits on the part of Taki’s bed that isn’t also overflowing with the contents of his wardrobe. “Taki, he could never forget you. You two grew up together. Just because it’s been a few years it doesn’t mean that your bond is broken.”
A single tear slides down Taki’s cheek. “I don’t know. He was the one that slowed down the life updates first. What if he’s just pitying me because he doesn’t want to tell me he has more than enough friends now.”
Maki stands up and walks back over to the cork board where he pulls down one of the many pictures that occupied it. He puts the photo within Taki’s reach and points at the two younger versions of himself and Ni-ki. It was a photo of the two of them on their first day of their last year of high school. The boys had begged them not to take the photos but they were both too giddy with mum pride to listen to their sons.
Taki really looks at the photo. It was one of his favourites. It was taken towards the end of their impromptu photo shoot and the boys were getting less cooperative. The photo shows Taki looking straight into the camera while he has one arm behind Ni-ki and is giving him bunny ears. That had become increasingly harder as the boys got older because Ni-ki couldn’t stop growing. Ni-ki has his arm resting on Taki’s back and is staring at Taki.
The thing Taki never realised before was that Ni-ki’s gaze on him was quite intense. It contained happiness which was evident in his goofy smile but his eyes were firmly planted on Taki. If Taki didn’t know any better he might think that Ni-ki had a crush on the boy at his right side. The millions of times Taki’s seen that photo he should have been able to pick that up, right?
“He’s so love drunk he doesn’t even realise he’s ogling you!”
“Maki, answer me honestly. Do you think I’m an idiot?”
“In most circumstances I would say no. But with this, yeah you’re an idiot.” Maki is too honest sometimes and this was one of those times.
“What do I do? What do I say? He’s going to think I’m a loser if he doesn’t actually like me and I just bring it up.” The pitch of his voice gets steadily higher as he indulges the spiral.
“First you should ask him if he’s seeing anybody. If he isn’t, maybe try working in some date charm. Like opening the door for him. Telling him he looks good. I don’t know, flirt!” Maki looks pleased with his advice but Taki’s not too sure about it. He basically does all those things anyway without thinking about it so he tells Maki that.
“Ohhhhhh, a gentlemen.” Maki says with a silly accent.
“Sorry for being classy you animal.” Maki just cackles at his response.
“You should tell him regardless of those things. He won’t drop you as a friend for feeling the way you do. And if he does well he becomes our number one enemy and we find you someone really hot to get into a relationship with you so you can blow up his insta with your hot new thing. Isn’t he going back to Seoul anyway? It’s super easy to block someone when they live in a different country.”
His friend has a point. Ni-ki had said he would only be in Tokyo for two weeks so if worse comes to worse Taki can just hide out in his apartment to avoid any chance of seeing the vampire.
“I think I’m gonna be sick.”
“If you do can you please not do it while wearing my clothes. I do actually like that shirt you know.”
Taki makes an escape into his small bathroom and changes quickly into the outfit they had put together. He gives himself a quick look over in the small mirror and has to say he doesn’t look half bad. He thinks his Converse will be a great way to pull the outfit off. But only his new pair of Chuck’s. Not the pair he’s had since high school which were falling apart at the seams but Taki just can’t throw out. What if the shoes have feelings?
He walks back into his room where Maki whistles from the bed he had decided to stretch himself out on.
“One more thing.” Maki rushes over to him and rolls Taki’s sleeves to just above his elbow. “You have super nice arms, why not show Riki number three what he’s missing.”
“Wouldn’t you technically be Riki number three? You are the youngest.”
“Nope,” Maki shakes his head and explains, “It goes in the order of the Riki’s I meet. First is me, obvy. You’re second and Ni-ki is third even though I’ve technically never met him”
Taki sadly understands Maki’s logic.
Wildly flying around Taki’s room, Maki seems to be scrounging for accessories if evident by the multiple necklaces he’s holding. Maki pulls a plain silver chain with a simple R charm attached to it.
The sight of it takes Taki back to when he was nine and Ni-ki had given him a matching necklace to his own, saying that two Riki’s were better than one. Maki had worn that necklace for years and years until he eventually went to university, removed it for one practical segment of his after school pottery class and never picked it up again. Taki felt guilt plague him.
He grabs the necklace slowly from Maki and lays down the law; he’s only wearing the one accessory. Maki had pouted but admitted defeat.
Taki finally looks at his phone again and realises he only has fifteen minutes til he’s supposed to be meeting up with his friend.
In a hurried way he basically has to shove Maki out the front door of his apartment while he tries to put his shoes on standing up. This should be an olympic sport he thinks.
Maki waits like an excited puppy (Taki couldn’t come up with a better comparison and it was nice that someone else was coping dog puns) he waited outside of Taki’s apartment. They walk to the elevator where Maki presses the down button.
“Are you going down too?” Taki asks quizzically.
“No but your gonna be late so you take this one first. I might even take the stairs back up. Never skip leg day my friend.”
Maki waits until the doors open and Taki steps inside the lift. Being himself, Maki yells as the doors close, “Have fun. Enjoy your date.”
He was so close to attempting to put his hand between the doors to open them back up so he could go throttle Maki but he takes the high road. He doesn’t want to mess up his outfit seeing as it took hours to put it together.
Arriving only a few minutes after seven (thanks to the teenagers who decided the train was a great place to air out their beef and start a fist fight which caused the train to stop at the next station and make all the passengers stay on while the police cuffed them and took them away) Taki is relieved to walk into Engene’s and see Ni-ki in one of the booths to the back of the room. At least he showed up, that’s gotta mean he was excited to see Taki, right? As if sensing he was being stared at (which he probably was because vampires have some crazy abilities) Ni-ki looks to the entrance and smiles wide when he sees Taki.
Breathe, don’t say anything stupid and for the love of god don’t trip over anything, was the mantra that Taki had begun to chant in his head. He makes his way to the booth (carefully) and smiles when Ni-ki rises from his seat to hug him. How had Ni-ki grown so much in only a couple of years? He towered over Taki now when they used to stand at roughly the same height. Fuck that’s hot, Taki’s brain provides to him and Taki tries to ignore it.
When they both sit Taki notices there is already a drink on his side of the table.
“It’s still your favourite right?” Ni-ki asks slightly nervously. “Pineapple, vodka and kahlua?”
Taki can’t help but smile. “You remembered?”
“Of course. I had to try and scrub the smell of your puke out of the back seat of my car at Jongho’s party at the start of senior year. You’ve traumatised me.” His friend doesn’t look traumatised, only amused.
“We said we would never speak of that night again.” Taki whines and covers his face to hide his blush. That was not his finest evening by a long shot.
“I’m surprised you can still drink it honestly.”
“The deliciousness overrides the incident.” Taki says proudly as he takes his first sip. His teen drinking years come flashing back to him in a wave of nostalgia. And if he’s being perfectly honest he still loves the taste of it because it reminds him of all the times he and Ni-ki had been able to get their hands on alcohol and create unusual combinations.
The first time they had gotten properly drunk they had to walk through Ni-ki’s house past his parents and pretend that they were completely normal. It almost worked until Ni-ki tripped on the second stair and face planted the carpet at the bottom of the stair case. Taki had found it utterly amusing and laughed so hard he puked next to Ni-ki laying on the ground. It was game over after that. Taki has had a bit of an issue with drunk puking okay?
The two study their menus in comfortable silence but Taki is hardly taking in anything he reads. He can’t help but discreetly look up at Ni-ki and marvel at how much his friend had changed. Yes, it was in the obvious sense that he had literally been changed into a vampire but Taki could also see a new side of him as a person (or a vampire/person, whatever). He seemed much more confident in himself. Taki could tell by the way he held himself up now. As kids he would always get in trouble for slouching, he told Taki he hated when people looked at him. Now it seemed he didn’t mind who looked but also invited some of the gazes.
Ni-ki’s eyes flick up and meet with Taki’s and he smirks at the wolf. Why is he so fucking hot now? I’m not going to be held responsible when I fly over this table to jump him. Taki’s brain is on another planet. The kind where he thinks about jumping his oldest friend and he really needs to cut it out. Like now.
“Is it the blonde?” Ni-ki asks.
Taki shakes his head and really doesn’t process what the other says until he points to his hair. Oh yeah, the totally normal new hairstyle that was totally not making life harder for Taki. Not at all.
“It suits you.” He settles on saying.
“Thanks. Jungwon hyung convinced me to do it. Said I needed to start doing things that I wanted to do. My parents only mildly freaked out when I sent them a pic.”
Taki laughs. Ni-ki’s parents were always strict with him but it seems since the move to Seoul and becoming a vampire had given him a new lease on life. He also had countless new piercings. His mum had freaked out when he got one very simple ear piercing when they started high school, Taki could only imagine what her response would have been to the boy he was sitting in front of. After studying his jewellery Taki is surprised to see that Ni-ki is wearing his match R necklace as well. The thought makes Taki blush internally.
“Such a rebel now that you’ve got fangs.” Taki teases and also wonders was that technically flirting?
Ni-ki smiles one of his genuine, all teeth smiles. “Yeah I guess. I think moving away was really good for me honestly.”
Ouch. Taki knew what he meant but it still hurt to be one of the things he moved away from. As if sensing the awkwardness Ni-ki adds on, “But I hate that you’re not around to see anymore. If I could stow you away in my luggage and take you back with me I totally would.”
Taki’s heart beat increases and he just knows Ni-ki can hear it with his heightened senses.
“It’d be great if you could come visit some time?” Ni-ki says while ignoring the erratic sounds of Taki’s heart.
He’s just about to say he would love to visit when the waitress arrives to take their order. Taki thanks her in his head for the distraction, he’s sure his heart has returned to a normal-ish rate now. When she leaves, Taki tries to drum up a new conversation. Because Maki’s been blabbing in his ear the first thing he asks is, “So, are you seeing anyone?”
The urge to bang his head against the wall next to him seems very appealing. What a really normal thing to ask without any build up. Kill me.
Ni-ki doesn’t seem put off though and shrugs, “Not at the moment. I had this embarrassing crush thing with Heeseung hyung last year but nothing happened. Well, I looked like an idiot but that was about as exciting as it got.”
Heeseung. Taki tried to place the name and face together in his mind. He had seen photos of him before and could understand Ni-ki’s attraction. But it also made jealousy bubble in his gut and jealousy was not a good look on Taki as Yuma had once pointed out.
“What about you?” Ni-ki asks and Taki realises he had never said anything after his friend’s confession.
“Oh, you know me. Not really the “getting people to like me type”.”
“I find that hard to believe.” Had Ni-ki actually just said that. Yes because he’s being a good friend. Aha, the anxiety portion of his brain was finally stepping in. Great.
“So… are you enjoying living in Seoul?” Taki tries desperately to change the subject and Ni-ki thankfully takes the bait.
They order more drinks, eat the burgers they had ordered and talk for hours about pretty much everything. Taki feels less stressed the longer they talk. It feels like it used to back when they were younger. No pressure, just them hanging out. They decide to leave just after 10 and Taki even holds the door open for Ni-ki for which he receives a beaming smile.
“You know what we should do?” Ni-ki asks with mischief in his eyes.
“Get convince store ice cream?” Taki answers.
The two smirk at each other. This was a tradition they had started when their parents had given them later curfews as they had become teenagers. They would buy ice cream and find an empty park where they could pretend they were kids again and play on the playground equipment.
So that’s what they do. After a quick trip to the nearest 7/11 and googling the closest playground within walking distance, they end up at a swing set eating ice cream. The whole thing felt so rom-com coded that Taki was starting to wonder if the lines between hangout and date had at some point burred.
“Uh oh, I know that face. Taki, are you thinking?” Ni-ki says kicking dirt in Taki direction.
“You caught me.” Taki says awkwardly.
“What’s on your mind.” Ni-ki gets up to throw the wrapper from his ice cream away and takes Taki’s too which he had finished a few minutes beforehand. Why is he so nice and thoughtful? How could someone not be into that?
“Just… thinking how great it is to see you again. I have some great friends now but I don’t know, it’s just different with us, you know?”
Ni-ki smiles sadly. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I love my nest but I have to say I haven’t had this much fun in a long time.”
“Right!” Taki says a little too enthusiastically. “I’ve missed you.” He blurts out before he can stop himself. He hadn’t had that much to drink so he couldn’t even blame alcohol for his loose lips.
“I missed you too.” Ni-ki looks at him in a way he has never seen before and it shreds Taki’s heart to pieces.
There is a moment of silence before Ni-ki quietly says, “I’m sorry I moved to Seoul.”
Now Taki feels bad because was Ni-ki feeling guilty about starting his life away from home? They had both been so excited when he was accepted into university in South Korea that they hadn’t realised that it meant Ni-ki would be leaving everything behind. But Taki didn’t want him to feel like shit about it now, especially seeing as Ni-ki had built such a solid life for himself there.
“You don’t need to be sorry,” Taki says comfortingly. “We both have great lives now. So what if we only get to hang out every once in a while now? We can start FaceTiming more. And text each other so much we’ll be tired of each other.”
Ni-ki still looks sad. And guilty. Taki cannot have that so he stands up and goes to stand behind Ni-ki’s swing.
“Come on,” he says pulling the swing back and forcing Ni-ki to move his ginormous legs until they almost leave the ground (which is actually so much harder now that he has legs the length of trees). “I wanna see if I can still get you as high up in the air as I used to.”
Ni-ki laughs and relinquishes his control of the swing. Taki tries valiantly to get Ni-ki soaring high like when they were kids but it’s not as easy with his new longer limbs.
“I think you have to call that a fail, T.” Ni-ki says breathless from giggling. The sound is music to Taki’s ears.
Ni-ki hops off the chair and stands facing Taki. The height difference startles him again now that he is face to face (well almost) with Ni-ki. The two stand staring at each other for what feels like hours. Taki almost has himself built up to doing something stupid like maybe kissing the taller but Ni-ki talking chases that boldness away.
“I hope I didn’t take you away from anything important with your pack. After yesterday I figured maybe you were too important to be away for that long.”
The guilt is a shard of glass in Taki’s heart. “Actually…” was he actually about to tell his friend? “I wasn’t held up with pack stuff.”
Confusion takes over Ni-ki’s face so Taki continues before his friend thinks he really was just making up an excuse not to see him.
“I had an… accident I guess you could say, and I didn’t want you to know how stupid I actually am.”
“You’re not stupid at all Riki.” That really drives the glass further into his heart. They hardly ever called each other by their shared name.
“You say that now. But… okay. You know that dog you saw when you ran into Yuma and Nicholas yesterday?”
Ni-ki nods still looking lost.
“Well. That was… kind of… me.” Taki waits for anything. A laugh, pitying or comical. A judgemental stare. His friend’s face stays neutral though.
“Umm, okay. But like, how?” So Taki relays his story from the most bizarre day in his life and watches Ni-ki’s face to gauge a reaction. There is a beat of silence when he stops talking.
Ni-ki’s face grows into a giant grin. “You were the cutest dog I’ve ever seen, but, you’re a lot cuter now.”
Taki really hadn’t expected him to say that. At all. Was he being serious?
“You’re not stupid Taki,” The vampire repeats again. “Sometimes things just happen. I’m sorry if I made you feel like you couldn’t tell me. I know I’ve been distant since I turned but I don’t want you to think that I’m never not there for you.” He slowly takes Taki’s hand in his own and Taki’s heart starts hammering in his chest.
Speechless and shocked Taki does the first thing his body tells him and he leans up to wrap his arms around Ni-ki’s neck and pulls him closer in an embrace. Ni-ki melts into the hug and Taki feels a weight lifted off of his shoulders.
“I’ve been distant too,” Taki whispers. “But I don’t want to lose you again. I’m going to make sure we talk every day somehow from now on. You’ll be the first to know next time I get turned into a schnauzer or something.” The two laugh and pull away from each other.
Ni-ki walks Taki back to the den in relative silence. They hug again out the front of the building as they part with their goodbyes and Niki adds, “Seriously, you’re going to be so sick of hearing from me from now on.”
“I don’t think that’s possible.” Taki quips back. Ni-ki blushes (yep actually blushes at something Taki said) and leaves with a small wave.
When Taki walks into his apartment he can’t help but do a little dorky dance that his friends would never let him live down if they saw him doing it. But he was too elated to care. He had Ni-ki back and they were going to stay that way. Ni-ki had mentioned he needed to be back in Tokyo in a couple of months anyway so they had promised to see each other then, no matter if they were dogs or under any other strange circumstances.
The night had also left Taki with the strange feeling that he wasn’t the only one with romantic feelings between them both but he pushes that far from his mind. He would carefully scope out over the next two months of them reconnecting if anything was actually there or not. For now he just wanted to enjoy their reunion.
At Kei and Fuma’s place for breakfast the next morning everyone seems to take in Taki’s good mood and give him non stop flack about it.
Yuma eventually rises to Taki’s defence. “Hey guys, chill okay. Taki’s last 48 hours have been… ruff.”
Taki was going to kill Yuma but only after he enjoyed the last of his pancakes.