#minjoon;r

[yoxzakura-inactive]

snake sitting { mintae }

@taexmin-ia

“There’s not many rules in this household. Very few, but I need you to understand and follow all of them, otherwise there will be consequences. Listen to me carefully! I do not in any way condone or encourage the touching of that hound over there, the pulling of any of his parts or running after him, the running around heedlessly, the touching or breaking stuff, screaming or making any unnecessarily clamorous noises at any point of your three day stay. Have I made myself clear?”

Seated in the living room armchair, watching, with unblinking, curiously widened eyes, Minjoon pace the room in a calm, but visibly authoritative disposition was a half-serpent half-dragon toddler who was left by her mother in a hurry to be at the care of the demon - the mother’s old friend - for three days, while the lamia mother rushed to spend two nights in her native Shanghai. Li Hua had promised Chun Hua would behave. She’s a good child, but she bites. So, don’t let her do that. Oh and don’t let her near hot things. She’ll want to imitate them. Li Hua’s rules were short and simple, but Minjoon’s far more Gordian than he had suggested them to be.

Hoxmarch, the dog Chun Hua had been warned about, lay on the floor, curiously watching the strange critter. She smelled so odd, but he couldn’t tell what it was which tickled his senses. When the front door opened, and both the demon and the hound sensed the cheshire, Minjoon’s demeanour changed a little. Hoxmarch dared to say it became even more on alert.

“And by no means agitate the other man. I don’t want you ending up frightened and traumatised,” the demon warned, as if he himself wasn’t terrifying enough for the little girl who could see a bit beyond the meatsuit he was wearing. Before Taemin could follow the new scent and enter the living room Minjoon made haste to the hall. “Taemin-ah. Welcome home. We’re baby sitting today,” he cut to the chase as soon as he exchanged a brief peck with his favourite cheshire. “But never fear. She’s harmless.”

[yoxzakura-inactive]

@taexmin-ia

Sleep was a luxury that Minjoon often could not have.

No, it was not because he had continuous issues with insomnia. He was not plagued with such human conditions. It was simply because his...well, let’s say mind worked in a different way. Human vessel or not, sometimes he would go without sleep for nights at end, without a moment when he would feel he was seriously deprived and in need of a bed and deep relaxation. It all, however, came with a price. When he would spend such days, when he would feel energized and full of life, there would come a point when suddenly his body would become so jaded that he would have a difficult time just keeping his head up.

Tonight was one of those nights. He wanted to spend more waking hours with Taemin. He really did. He stayed awake and motivated to engage in talking and fooling around with the cheshire like a champ until at some point he became so tired that his limbs felt heavy. No matter how hard he tried, he could not really keep his eyes open anymore so at some point he excused himself and he left Taemin with Hox. The two could do what they wanted. He had, by now, given Tae the permission to see Min’s apartment as his own. Tae was, you see, allowed to act as he wished which was quite a privilege in Hox’s eyes as not even the hellhound to do what he pleased. Not always at least.

Once Minjoon fell asleep, he did not usually wake, at least not until the morning. This time was a little bit different, though. Although he was sound asleep by the time the cheshire decided to join him on the bed, Minjoon picked up on the...subtle signs that someone else was climbing onto the mattress next to him. He felt the bed sink and he sighed a little, ears perking to the quiet, barely audible sounds of the cheshire - for who else would it be - getting under the covers and making himself comfortable under the comforter.

Not much of a...cuddler or a person who stuck close to people in general, Minjoon rarely, if ever, reacted to such things. He had shared the same bed with others times and times again, though he habitually stuck to his, claimed side of the mattress. The only exception, by now, was his wife and it only happened when he was still green and their marriage recent. The new exception, as it turned out, was the boy named Taemin. As soon as the demon had subconsciously calculated that Taemin had made himself comfy, he turned around and opened his eyes, though softly.

He saw him, surrounded by the natural, deep darkness of the room and smiled a little as he stretched his legs. “You’re done playing?” he mumbled with a sleepy, lazy voice and scooted closer, his arm already going around the younger man. When he hooked it around Taemin’s slender waist, Minjoon pressed them close in a way that a child snuggles up to a...teddy bear, let’s say (though, surely, he valued the cheshire more than a toy; much more) nuzzling his face into Taemin’s neck. The cheshire, as usually, smelled wonderful.

Minjoon brushed his lips over the side of Taemin’s neck, breathing in then the other’s scent, filling his lungs to the brim. “It’s nice when you...’sleep’ over.” Oh, Minjoon knew, by now, that the other didn’t really sleep, not in the true meaning of the word, but it was the only he would really use.

tbh uwU

[yoxzakura-inactive]

Taemin had the memory of a fruit fly, he swore it. If it weren’t for his phone’s calendar telling him about the holiday, he never would have thrown something together…well, technically two things, since he had to do something for Hoxmarch as well. For his fellow hound, he got him a few chewy toys to destroy, and a bone–did he like to chew on bones? He never really thought about it. Worst case scenario he could use it to bludgeon someone and take something of theirs to chew on, right?

That was a dark thought, Taemin..not good.

Anyway, he had enough time to get a few things together, though it seemed as though the demon was busy at work still…probably a busy busy day, since no one thought to celebrate the holiday before or after the actual day. He’d heard the grumpings of some of the employees who were stuck working that day.

So instead, he figured he could call, now that he had everything set up. Nothing big, but enough to tease–or, well, celebrate? The odd human holiday, just for the sake of doing so.

[ incoming video call ]

“You look stressed,” good hello, Taemin, perfect, “When do you get to escape?”

Minjoon did not know when, but somewhere along the over a year long path he had been treading with Taemin, the first reaction he had when seeing the cheshire’s name (appropriately followed by a heart symbol which was actually Hoxmarch’s doing in his Becoming Tech Savvy but also finding a way how to simultaneously tease his master episodes) flashing on the screen of his smart-phone was a smile. Now, Minjoon could always push the whole ‘the heart symbol was Hox’s doing’ thing but he could have always removed it.

So, why didn’t he?

The smile could be the beginning of answering that question.

As soon as he heard his phone ringing, Minjoon abandoned the small hill of paperwork and took the device, curling a pleased lip at who was trying to reach him. A video call at that, and so he gladly accepted it, not before calculating the best possible angle. One could never go without his own ego pampering himself. As if that was necessary. But that was Pride, in the flesh.

“What’s cooking good looking.” An even better hello. Perfect. The smile never wavered, however; maybe it only got wider when he could actually see and speak to the cheshire, after a whole day of not being together. How odd was it for him to feel this way? Taemin had him wrapped around his little finger. “Seeing as your location is quite tempting, I am considering to escape early,” the demon replied, reclining back. “Why? You’ve got something special for me?” asked the critter who had yet to realise what day was today.

[yoxzakura-inactive]

@yn-ravn

“Well, I’m sure glad that you did because life was a bit monotonous without that presumptuous attitude of yours,” shamelessly did Minjoon wink at the woman. “I have and I haven’t. I’ve been mostly around the restaurant, though. You should come. It’s on me, I’ll give you all you can eat.”

[yoxzakura-inactive]

@eloitus

Well, well, well.

Minjoon had seen this scene so many times.  A pathetic man, convinced in getting rejected, resorts for the most desperate and dangerous methods of them all - putting a little something in a lady’s (or, well, boy’s - let’s not discriminate) drink. The blonde had seen that and the outcomes so many times that these days, in this day and age actually, he paid little to no attention to it. He let it happen, moving on with his life as he had not seen anything. Letting what was meant to be happen. It was just humans, after all. He never felt sorry for them. 

Tonight, the circumstances were a little different. It was the waiter who put something into someone’s drink when he thought no one was looking. Intrigued, Minjoon watched him put the white powder into the drink - the same cocktail that Minjoon himself was having - and then put it on a tray to take it whoever ordered. Having been annoyed by the waiter’s manner-less behavior from before, the blonde got up, taking his drink with him as he followed the supposed maniac through the crowd.

A woman’s face lit up somewhat when she saw her drink coming and Minjoon put two and two together. So, it was hers. He scoffed, amused, and hurried towards the table, arriving there just when the waiter put the drink down. “I didn’t expect to see you here!” the blonde greeted the unknown girl a bit too enthusiastically. He earned himself a look of discomfort from the waiter who bowed and left soon after, leaving Minjoon with the girl and the drinks.

Uninvited, the plonked down on the seat in front of her, made himself comfy and looked at her straight into her eyes. “He roofied your drink. I swear I never saw a waiter do that. I guess his shift is ending soon?” he suggested, leaning back against the seat. “So, you may not want to drink that.”

[yoxzakura-inactive]

dead men tell no tales

@inwolvesteeth

Among all the sounds in the world, there was one that Minjoon’s ears could catch and his mind could recognize in an instant. It was a sound that penetrated his ears and created a melody of its own, echoing the blonde male’s mind each time he heard it, ears twitching to the tune and his insides getting all giddy at the thought of what was happening. It was a sound so dull and empty that it may as well escape an untrained human’s ear, but something that the demon had heard and caused so many times that he could identify it with no difficulty whatsoever.

It was the sound of bones crushing.

On this rare evening that he chose to walk back home from his work - a walk quite long, and jading for the unfit - that he heard the sound. He had just lit a cigarette and was walking down a rather narrow, backside darkened alley when he stopped, hearing a rustle. He was well hidden by the dark, of both the night and the fact the streetlights were mysteriously off, the only light coming from him the orange flame of the cigarette, and so whoever was nearby causing the commotion might not have noticed him at all.

But, Minjoon was there, inhaling a long drag with a smile that approved the unmistakable sound of a sound cracking. Was that the skull? The ribs? Or something more fun? Driven to find out by an insatiable need to watch the violence roll, Minjoon followed the subtle sound until he found both the culprit and the victim, the blonde man leaning back against the wall. “Damn. He must have done something seriously wrong if he’s deserved so many hits,” he noticed after a short while of watching, shuffling a little.

“Unless you’re trying to get him to talk. For that, you might want another technique.”

[yoxzakura-inactive]

cupid in the house

@jiwon-ia

At least there was one alleviating fact about the mess in the restaurant. And that was: it was early and hence not that many customers. Just one elderly couple by the table for two in the back but the rest of the people walking around the place was Minjoon’s staff who was suddenly shocked and worried about a mess that a person that had entered the restaurant started to make so soon after their arrival. The waitress had just taken the order before Hell slowly, but surely, started to break loose and they did not know what to do.

After all, their safety procedures had no clause about a cupid. Nothing mentioned those creatures, but it was only Minjoon who could smell it out. The rest of his staff, human or otherwise, remained clueless to the origin of the creature when they rushed to Minjoon, hoping the owner could somehow appease the situation. Minjoon did not even know what the situation was and he doubted that it could be that serious when he could not hear any racket from the back rooms where he was alone, wallowing in self pity.

He really did not need this today, of all days. Or this fucking month when he felt like the ultimate failure. He did not want to be a back stabber and he worked his ass off just so that when the time came he would not be labelled one and yet one way or another...he failed at least one of his siblings. He pushed the thought aside and ignored his squeezing throat as he walked out in the open, sniffing out a strangely familiar scent. Oh dear Hell, no. Not them.

[yoxzakura-inactive]

@dmnpcy

Nothing could guarantee that Belial would help him locate the dagger. Once he thought bout it carefully, it was not as if he owned Minjoon a favor (or vice versa, for that matter). He had not even seen this demon for over two centuries and despite the fact they spent quite some time in each other’s presence in Hell, Minjoon was almost certain that asking Belial for a favor would be tedious work.

For, why would he help him anyway?

A more important question the blonde demon asked himself while he was on his way towards where he heard Belial lived was why he was doing any of this to begin with? Changsun did not do anything to deserve his help. If anything, a few months ago, Minjoon would have gladly chosen Anda’s side. He would have gladly grabbed himself a pack of popcorn, sat down and watched Changsun burn; burn or whatever punishment Ana had in mind for Wrath.

Yet, there he was now: nearing Belial’s house, in good hope that the ancient demon was there and that he would be willing to point Minjoon in the right direction. There was not much time. If what Changsun said was true- and frankly speaking he had no idea why his older sibling even told him that Anda had given him only three more weeks - then time was running out too fast. Those three weeks were nothing. Nothing compared to the centuries that passed in what seemed a blink of an eye.

Minjoon took a deep breath before he knocked on the door. He knocked three times and then took a small step away from the door, holding his breath while he waited. You better be there. Come on.