#ficclings

“Felix got caught by a tentacle shit and then she bit through it,” Minho explained bluntly, ignoring Felix’s angry expression.

“She’s infected?” Hyunjin backed up immediately and gripped onto the front of his shirt.

“No!” Felix snapped and quickly apologised at the surprised looks he was getting, “she saved my life Hyung, none of us had our weapons,” he was stuttering over his words, “Minho Hyung was holding onto me and I don’t know where her weapon was but it wasn’t on her person,” he added with a protective stance, arms tenderly resting both under her head and across her stomach.

“How do you know she isn’t infected, Lix?” Changbin asked calmly though his eyes showed his true anxiety about the situation.

“She isn’t,” he pressed the back of his hand to her forehead.

No fever.

“We have seen how quickly people turn,” Felix pointed out and visibly shrunk in on himself at the memory, “it’s quick, super fucking quick,”

~#~

Nothing was more relaxing than sitting in front of his PC and playing some games; after the day he had just had, Felix truly felt as if he deserved this break from life.

He ignored all of his competitive games and made the decision to play a calming nonsense game.

Games where you had a goal but ended up always collecting every single pet that you could.

This was Felix’s bread and butter, and he was thoroughly enjoying making a big animal area when he was disturbed by the front door slamming.

He decided to leave her be, not wanting to sour her clearly irritated mood anymore and turned back to his game.

“Felix?” her voice rang out and he moved one of his headphones to the side, “you home?” she added, and a quiet, timid knock sounded on his door.

“I’m on a game right now,” he replied and paused it when he heard the door open, “you good?” he was now standing, headphones on his desk as he noticed how distressed she was.

“People are fucking horrible,” she clenched her fists and plopped down onto the side of his bed, “I had at least six people approach me in the store and they just started shouting at me and the other customers,” she rubbed at her forehead, ears flat on her head, “for no reason and then on the way home, the same thing happened,” she let out a frustrated grown and fell backwards, full starfish on his bed with a sad pout on her lips.

“Sounds like me and you had a similar day,” he chuckled and flopped down beside her, “I had people screaming down the phone at me though so probably a little easier to deal with than face to face,” he waved his hands around, “we had strange people walking outside the store as well,”

She frowned and turned her head to fully look at him causing him to fluster ever so slightly.

“What d’you mean?”

“Well, I’m at the back of the shop doing the helpline and stuff so I never really see the front of the shop until I’m entering and leaving,” he waffled, “Mark Hyung was at the front of the shop today and he kept making comments about the ‘weirdos out front’, like…he kept saying that they looked like they were either high on something or utterly pissed out of their minds,”

She giggled at his verbiage and briefly smiled at the mention of Mark, another hybrid that she had met when surprising Felix at work with some boba.

Stupidly kind, ridiculously handsome, tall and he was a Harlequinn Rabbit Hybrid, so he was extra sweet.

“Hey, get him out of your head,” Felix grinned and tapped her forehead.

“Sorry, he’s very distracting,” she reached out to move some of Felix’s hair out of his face, “continue,”

“Anyway, Hyung just kept on talking about them for the entire day and by the end of it we actually had to leave out the back exit,”

She sat up on her elbows in slight alarm.

“People started trying to get into shops and they were trying to smash windows and door and,” he let out a loud, exhausted whine, rubbing over his face, “it was a shit show; some people just joined in because it’s a riot and ‘whoo free things’ but it was scary,” he admitted, “Mark Hyung drove me home,”

“Thank goodness,” a canine-like whine left her lips, and the smile instantly came back to Felix’s face.

“Did you walk home? Those people didn’t hurt you or anything did they?” Felix rearranged himself so he was now sitting cross-legged on his bed.

“I had Bora and Minji with me, so I felt a little safe,” she would be forever grateful to those two Tigress’s for looking out for her ever since she started to work at the café.

“Moving on to a nicer topic,” Felix laughed a bit and decided that cheering both of them up would be best, “come help me decorate my animal sanctuary,”

The next day wasn’t any better.

Felix was about to rip his work headset off, he was sick and tired of being yelled at for simply being the man on the other side of the phone; sure he worked for the company but it wasn’t his fault that the company was currently messing a lot of things up.

“Hey man, you doing, okay?”

Felix looked up and gave a tired smile at Mark, his headset now dangling from his forefinger as the person on the line continued to scream.

“Got you this,” Mark laid out a couple of crunchie bars, “forever grateful for that international store,” he grinned, and Felix paused for a moment to simply just look at the man; deciding that he couldn’t even be jealous that his friend would sometimes daydream about this man.

It was then that the both of them noticed that the headset had become quiet, just a faint gurgling noise coming from somewhere in the background.

“Miss?” Felix asked and shared a worried look with Mark, who had switched the phone to speaker, “Miss, is everything okay?”

“NO MUM, LEAVE ME ALONE!”

“Sana, get out, get out!”

“OPPA!

“Get out!”

Mark was now leaning over Felix’s chair in a protective manner, hand hovering over the ‘end call’ button as he debated if they should be listening or if they should be calling the police.

The entire room was filled with terrified screaming between a man and a woman; the younger female hadn’t spoken since she was told to get out and Felix hoped she was okay.

The screaming had stopped now, followed by a loud sickening thud, sounds of liquid and then shlick, shlick, shlick.

“What the hell is that noise?” Mark looked down at Felix upon his question and that was when he quickly ended the call; silence falling between them.

“Sir! Please calm down or get out of the store!”

Both men got to their feet and peered out the door.

A man with a dishevelled look, dried blood all down his front and a long string of saliva dangling from his mouth, was currently tearing through the store and aiming straight for the other assistant.

“I’m warning you!” the assistant stammered as he tried to reach for the side room door, but the dishevelled man had launched himself across the desk and his teeth had ripped into the assistant’s neck.

Felix had to hold his mouth to prevent a cry leaving him, his knees shaking as they watched the body of the assistant suddenly start to twitch and convulse.

He then pulled his entire body up using only the strength from his legs, his torso seeming to be heavier now as he stood in an arched form, his open neck wound decorated by baggy ripped skin.

Mark had seen enough and quietly closed the door to not draw attention.

“What do we do, what the fuck do we do?!” Felix whispered as the rabbit hybrid quickly made his way to the other end of the room towards a white door, unlocking it and pulling Felix inside with him.

“Up the ladder, now,” he pushed the younger man towards the red ladder and locked the door once again before following, “the shop above us has a balcony,”

The view from the second floor wasn’t much better as the two men stood and watched the streets slowly fill with people running for their lives with others chasing them, blood all over them and hands outstretched, ready to capture.

Ready to eat.

“This is deafening,” Mark grunted and rubbed at his ears, frustrated that his hearing was much better than Felix’s and therefore he couldn’t tune out the events unfolding before them.

“Can we get to your car?” Felix whispered from his position of kneeling behind the railings of the balcony, a small attempt to stay out of sight.

“We can, but the street is crammed with people, I’d have to try and get around them,” Mark responded as he looked down at the alleyway they were standing above.

“You aren’t going on your own, Hyung,” Felix placed his hands on his hips with stubbornness that was entertaining for Mark to see.

“Okay, okay, we will get around them,”

~#~

“I don’t even remember his name,” Felix mumbled, referring to the shop assistant and shared a guilty gaze with Hyunjin, who just offered a comforting smile.

“I think she’s alright, she did bite through dead-flesh so I’m not surprised she’s feeling unwell,” Changbin gently tipped her head back so he could look down her mouth, trying to see if anything had become infected.

“How can you make such a statement?” Minho exclaimed in disbelief, “she was stupid and careless and could’ve gotten Felix killed if she had turned,”

“But she didn’t turn did she,” Felix argued and moved to stand in front of him, “I would have died without her doing anything, I was about to die, she saved me,” he now had his small hands on Minho’s shoulders, trying to calm him down as the older man looked ready to pounce and strangle the hybrid.

“If she turns,” Minho spat through gritted teeth, “I hold the right to kill her,” his voice lost confidence near the end of his sentence and Felix felt his heart fall into his stomach at the threat.

“Hyung,”

“This isn’t up for discussion,”

When she opened her eyes, her vision was blurry, her tail felt like lead and her head was aching.

She let out a small whimper as she managed to get up and noticed that she was still in the gym, all of the boys, apart from Minho, were sleeping around her table on gym mats.

The fact that Felix was still beside her made her smile through her pain.

She instinctively reached out, gently brushing his hair from his face, slowly sliding down from the table and onto the same mat.

“Chris…” she smiled sadly as he whispered his friend's name, clearly missing him the most.

Ignoring how dizzy she felt, she leaned downwards and gently nuzzled the side of his head in an attempt to comfort him, her soft ears falling across his face.

It was then that she felt something pressed against the back of her head and she froze.

“Jesus fucking Christ, I thought you were eating him,” Minho’s shaky voice broke through the quiet, and the pressure on her head was removed.

She looked up to the side and saw him standing there, still gripping his baseball bat tightly, a look of panic and horror all over his face as he tried to calm himself down.

“I’m not a zombie,” she whispered and sat up on her knees, hand coming to the back of her head protectively, “you were going to kill me without even looking at my face? Don’t you think he would have screamed if I had bit into him?!” she got to her feet, tail now stood to attention and her canines were on show, a rare move from her.

“You cannot blame me for thinking such a thing,” Minho hissed and put his bat up against the door, “your utter stupidity might get us killed,” he went to turn away from her but her hand came into contact with his face instead; the sound waking the other men up.

“I am so sick of your fucking attitude!” she snapped and pushed him so that he was now up against the door, her hands buried in the front of his shirt, “I have tried to be nice, I have tried to make it up to you by staying out of your way but you are just so fucking spiteful,” she could feel her eyes watering. Still, at this point, she didn’t care.

“I regret finding you, I regret it!” she pulled the man away from the door and pushed him backwards, making him stumble into Hyunjin who quickly stabilised him, “I’ve had enough of this, I hate this, I hate this fucking journey you put me on,” her mind felt on fire with rage, she wanted to stop but it was like her words were simply fighting her mouth to get out; she didn’t even mean what she was saying.

“Find your own fucking friends!” she screamed and then she was out the door before anybody could stop her.

“What the hell did you do?!” Felix looked to Minho, who was still in a stunned state.

“I didn’t…” Minho stopped and shook his head, “It’s not my fault,” his stubbornness making Felix’s eyebrow twitch.

“She pins you against the door, ready to rip your throat out and you aren’t at fault?” Felix snorted in disbelief, “yeah right,” he grabbed his bag and the baton that she had left.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Changbin asked and grabbed his friend tightly.

“After her, she’s on her own in a fucking apocalypse and she’s clearly not in the right mind,” he tried to escape but Changbin still held onto him with ease, “please, she’s not like this,” he attempted to move once more but again, Changbin didn’t budge.

“Great,” she sighed, grunting as she then set about lifting all of the garbage cans up; pulling a face as she then carefully put the fallen trash back into the respective bins. “Gross,” she mumbled, looking at the state of her hands when she had gotten back to her apartment, a good scrubbing soon commenced.

The second time the bins had been knocked over, she had, once again, been trying to enjoy her bathtime and as a seal-hybrid, it was very important that she could have some water time. Pushing herself out of the nice, warm water, she grabbed her towel, wrapping it around herself as she stormed over to her little balcony where she was currently trying to grow little tomatoes and leaned over the railing, squinting into the darkness as she tried to see what had knocked the bins over again. The cold air brushed against her wet skin and she quickly shut the door, grumbling to herself about how she wasn’t going to fix the bins the next day; another resident could do it.

She ended up picking them up the next morning, regardless of how annoyed she was feeling.

The third time, once again, at bathtime, she heard the bins being knocked over, but this time she was ready having put off her bath just so she could stand by her balcony to try and catch the person doing this. She narrowed her eyes as she saw a tall man stumbling over his own feet, his body falling to the side and onto the bins, causing them to crash onto the floor.

“Do you have any idea what the time is?!” she called out angrily and watched the startled man look up at her, confused. “I-I’m sorry,” he stuttered, eyes wide and she could see that he was somewhat terrified, but what of, she didn’t know, “I didn’t…mean to,” he shook his head as if to try and clear his thoughts.

“You better pick those bins up, I am fed up with doing it!” she pointed out, arms now crossed over the railing, her eyes trained on him with annoyance.

He stared at her for a while before he hurried to pick up the garbage cans.

“Thank you,” she offered him a brief smile before quickly going back inside and rushing to her bathtub, ready for her favourite time of the day.

“You found your phantom bin kicker then?” the voice of her best friend, Minji made her squint, too loud for her ears, she made sure to turn the volume down on her phone as she set it on the counter, speaker phone activated so she could sort out her kitchen.

“Yeah, it was this guy,” she replied with a distracted tone, hands currently trying to sort out her cupboards, “clumsy idiot looked so scared,” she laughed a bit, nose feeling quite assaulted by the spices she wasn’t using and she quickly put them in the food recycling. “I’m not surprised,” Minji giggled, “getting yelled at by a seal,” she snorted and even though Minji couldn’t see, she still pulled an unimpressed face at the phone. “Shut up,” she responded, “he didn’t even offer an explanation for the past times either, like, why are you knocking bins over every night?!” she whined, tossing out an old lettuce and setting about cleaning the fridge drawer.

“Maybe he’s a drunk?” Minji suggested, her voice then becoming a little quiet as she moved away from the phone, clearly distracted by something, before she came back, “or he could be a fox hybrid?” she suggested. This made her pause, “I didn’t think fox hybrids were a thing anymore?” she frowned, thinking back to when she was in school, getting taught about the horrific trading and hunting of them.

“Well, I’m just suggesting things and fox hybrids do love to go for the garbage…well did enjoy the garbage,” Minji corrected herself, “could be a badger or raccoon hybrid,” Minji added and this made her laugh.

“Are we just going to list all the bin-loving hybrids?” she grinned, cleaning another shelf of her fridge.

Minji started laughing.

Y/N sighed happily as she stretched her legs out in her tub, thankful that she had saved up for such a luxury of a big tub; her shoulders under the warmth, scent of lavender surrounding her again. “Danmi, play Howl’s Moving Castle soundtrack,” she smiled when her little robot music player, started beeping and booping before finally playing the soundtrack. She was then immediately startled out of her relaxed state by none other than the sound of bins falling again. “You have to be kidding me!” she hissed and jumped out of the bath, sending water all over the floor but she was too annoyed to care; her hand tightly holding her towel around her body as she once again found herself standing on her tiny balcony, glaring at the man who was still on the floor at this point. “Excuse me!” she called out, her eyes watching him as he struggled to get to his feet, “are you alright?” she asked when she noticed his small limp, her anger fading instantly and replaced with worry.

The man, surprised by the worry in her voice, looked back down at the ground.

“Stay right there, I need to put some clothes on, I’ll be right down!” she shouted and dashed to her wardrobe, throwing on a giant shirt and baggy pyjama pants; her feet finding her slip ons and she hurried down the steps.

When she managed to get around the back of her apartment building, she was happy to see that he was still there, albeit, now on the floor with his legs stretched out like a little boy.

“Are you alright?” she asked gently, approaching him slowly in case he was skittish.

“I twisted my ankle,” he replied quietly, his shaggy hair falling into his eyes, “that’s all,”

She felt a strange tug at her heart at the way he sounded so defeated.

“Probably didn’t help, hitting the bins,” she was now kneeling in front of him, the wet ends of her hair dripping onto the frost bitten concrete, “why do you keep doing that?” she asked unable to stop herself and she watched his eyes widen slightly, a blush appearing on his face as he tried to explain himself.

“My…hybrid has only just…” he paused as he tried to think of the right word, “awakened,” he didn’t look confident in the choice of word, but Y/N nodded at him, so he assumed it was the correct one to use.

“Ah,” she nodded in understanding, “you’re having a body fight with your hybrid, right?” she watched him nod and she felt like laughing at how worried and miserable this man looked but stopped herself.

“You know every hybrid goes through this, right?” she asked and shivered a bit when the wind picked up, catching his eye slightly, “I struggled when my hybrid woke up,” she chose to go with his phrasing, to give him more comfort and he smiled a bit.

“What are you…if you don’t mind me asking?” he asked, hands rubbing at his sore ankle.

“I’m a Seal,” she smiled, “I struggled a lot when my hybrid woke up, they were obsessed with water and wanting to eat fish,” she made a face, “which is difficult to do when you are in fact, a vegetarian,” she grinned when the man laughed.

“I couldn’t go more than three hours without being in water,” she shook her head, “but I trained myself to only have the normal amount of baths, like I did before my hybrid made themselves known,” she rubbed at her arms to warm herself up, “it took forever to train myself to have normal bathtimes again and I managed to completely get rid of the urge to eat fish,” she chuckled.

The man nodded with a smile.

“Well, I’m a Stag,” he explained, his warm eyes searching her face, feeling a little more confident, “and for some reason, he doesn’t understand that I use two legs,” he sighed, “the random kicks and sprinting, really come out of nowhere, but it seems to always be around here or the next building that it happens to most but I need to come down here to get to my own home,” his whine made her giggle, finding him quite adorable with the pout on his lips.

“Can you stand?” she suddenly asked, and he look to her, as she got to her feet, with a tilt of his head.

“Um, yeah,” he winced as he used the wall of the building to help himself up, “why?”

“I’m freezing my bits off out here,” she stated with a laugh and his face brightened with a laugh, blush on his cheeks at her words, “I have a heat pad that you can use for your foot and I’m sure you’d like some cup-a-soup,” she held out her hand to him, “I’m Y/N, by the way,”

His large hand gently held hers as his eyes searched her face, “Joshua,”

“You invited a stranger to your apartment?!” Minji wanted to grab Y/N by the shoulders and shake her at how dangerous that was, “are you crazy?!”

“Relax,” Y/N replied, laughing at how wide her friends’ eyes got, “he was struggling,” she sighed before thanking the waiter when he put both of their hot drinks on the table in front of them.

“Y/N, he could have hurt you,” Minji explained, lips flinching at the hot chocolate.

“I promise you,” Y/N started, “I wouldn’t have suggested for him to come back to my apartment, if I thought he was a threat,” she calmly explained, “he was hurt and we had a cup-a-soup,” she took a sip of her drink, enjoying the slight burn.

“Okay,” Minji ignored the worry in her chest, “I’m just trusting that you are being safe,” she brushed her long hair out of her face with a small huff.

“I am,” she smiled at her friend.

There was a small comfortable silence as they both enjoyed their drinks, the chatter of the other people in the café, background noise for them.

“So, was he cute?” Minji enquired with an arched eyebrow, lips pulled into a sly expression.

“Oh my god,”

It soon became a little routine for Y/N to find Joshua outside the apartment building around her normal bathtime; she would wave at him and use a string to lower a hot drink to him, which he would thank her for and in the morning, she would find the cup on her doorstep with a small post it note, sometimes with ‘Thank You’ written there or a crude smiley face.

She didn’t quite understand why she felt so drawn to Joshua, but he was just so gentle, despite his affinity for crashing into bins whenever his hybrid got out of control. He was caring and checked in on her, made sure to be ready in case she wanted to suddenly use his bathroom for water; even making sure to by some lavender scented candles as he became aware of how much she and the rest of the seal-hybrids, loved that particular scent.

“I found somebody who is helping me train my hybrid,” Joshua grinned, his handsome face appearing into her view when she turned around, her heart leaping in her chest at how close he was.

“H-huh?” she had only been awake for about three hours; her brain had yet to kick in.

“I found a hybrid trainer,” he explained again, his lips pulling into another smile at how dazed she looked, “I’m working on how to stop suddenly losing control of my own legs,” he patted his strong thighs and Y/N refused to follow the action.

“That’s so great, Shua,” she smiled as the two of them crossed the road, Joshua coming to the side where cars were idling, making her smile how old school it was for a man to do such a thing; not that she was annoyed, she was more flustered than anything.

“It really is, and the trainer is nice too,” he said in a relieved manner, “maybe a little too hyper,” he commented, making her laugh out loud at his strange facial expression.

“I’m just glad they’re helping you,” she replied honestly and squeaked when Joshua playfully nudged her, “hey!”

“Just trying to wake you up,” he said in a sing-song type of voice, “where are we going?” he asked as if only now realising that there was a destination to the walk they were taking.

“I thought maybe the park would be a nice idea,” she smiled up at him as he pulled his light brown coat tighter to his body, his hair pushed back from his face; she had to try and look away before she lost herself.

“It’s going to be snowing soon,” Joshua chuckled at her, his hands sorting his black scarf slightly, “are you sure the park is a good idea?” he looked her over to make sure she was dressed warmly.

She was, a large black coat with a hood, black gloves and a neon green scarf covered her.

“I am a seal,” she pointed out, “I only dress this way to stop people from staring because I usually just walk around in shirts,” she pointed out and Joshua nodded when he thought back to the night, she came running down to meet him.

“So…you have blubber?” he asked curiously and couldn’t help but laugh at how red her face got, and she quickly slapped his arm.

“Shut up!” she squealed, “I just have thicker skin,” she mumbled, “stop laughing!”

The park was empty, frost clinging to the blades of grass and the bench that she beelined for; her hands searching through her backpack for a second before pulling out two blankets, one to sit on and the other to have on her lap.

“Thought you didn’t feel the cold?” Joshua asked smugly and she pouted at him, his body sitting beside hers.

“Shoosh,” she playfully smiled at him, hands then pulling out a flask, two cups and some homemade egg-cress sandwiches

“Here you go,” she said gently as she carefully poured the minestrone soup into one of the cups, handing it to him, “it’s really hot, so be careful,”

Joshua nodded and blew over the soup before taking a sip, a small moan leaving him as he felt the warmth return to his toes.

“This is good,” he grinned.

Y/N decided to stay quiet as she was still focused on the moan he’d let out, the tips of her ears burning as she took a small bite out of her sandwich.

She made sure to put the blanket across his lap as well, her eyes meeting his briefly as she did so and her heart jumped into her throat.

“Thanks,” he whispered, his own face feeling quite hot.

“S-sure,” she mumbled and returned to her sandwich, staring down at it harshly,

“You wanna hear something kind of funny?” Joshua asked, sipping more of the warm soup as he watched a few ducks waddle towards the partially frozen pond.

Y/N replied by looking up at him.

“Minji told me to be careful,” he shook his head a bit and Y/N tilted hers in confusion.

“Huh?” she exclaimed, sitting up straight.

“You know the ‘you hurt her, and I’ll kill you’ chats that people in movies have?” he asked, and she nodded, “Minji sort of did that to me; about you,”

Y/N swore her face was on fire as she silently cursed Minji out in her mind.

“I’m so sorry, I don’t know what is wrong with her,” she sighed, eyes nervously meeting his.

Joshua just laughed at the panic.

“No, it was cute,” he snickered, “she loves you so much,” he smiled, hands cupping the soup more as he felt his fingers becoming a little numb, “I was just surprised because she keeps talking to me like we’re dating,”

Y/N wanted to look away from him, but his chocolate brown eyes just held her gaze.

“She’s seeing things,” she replied quickly, watching as Joshua’s eyebrows raised in interest.

“Oh?” he licked his lips, “I was thinking she’s onto something,” he looked back at the ducks, leg crossing over his other one and sipping at the soup once more, his free arm coming to rest on the back of the bench, right behind her.

“What do you mean?” Y/N swallowed thickly, sandwich forgotten in her hands.

Joshua met her eyes for a while; his chest rising and falling as he sighed heavily.

“Nothing,”

Minji was entertained, more than she would ever admit, when Y/N had burst into her office with a look of panic and disbelief.

“Why would you say that to him?!” Y/N waved her hands about and pathetically whine when she fell onto the spare chair, she practically star fished on the chair.

“Ah, had your morning stroll with Joshua today, then?” Minji smirked, fingers hovering over her keyboard still from the interruption, “how was the gentleman?” she added teasingly as that was the word Y/N had been using to describe Joshua for several weeks now, not even realising how soft her voice got when talking about him.

“Minji!” Y/N rubbed at her face, “how am I supposed to face him now that he suspects something!” she used her legs to lazily pull herself close to the aquarium sitting on the large cabinet.

“Oh please,” Minji rolled her eyes at the silly display her friend was giving, “even if he does, surely you see the way he looks at you?” she smiled before frowning when she was met with a confused Y/N.

“Oh, you really don’t know, do you?” Minji chuckled softly.

“What are you talking about?” Y/N asked feeling somewhat annoyed.

“Y/n,” Minji grinned, “you do realise that Joshua is completely in love with you, don’t you?”

All she could think about, was Joshua as she soaked in her bath, her feet splashing at the water absent mindedly.

Joshua was simply out of her league, too handsome, too kind, too gentle, too caring, too perfect.

She sighed and slipped down under the water, her eyes still open and now watching the water ripple above her head; though she wasn’t nearly as perfect as him, by God, she really wanted him.

He made her feel so good just by being next to her, his entire aura was comfort.

Coming up for air, she pushed her long hair out of her face; knees pulled to her chest as she tried to imagine a world in which Joshua liked her back.

Ever since Minji had told her that he felt something for her, whenever she and Joshua hung out, she was practically surveying his behaviour, looking for obvious signs of romantic feelings.

One particular moment stood out in her mind. It had been pouring with rain and all she had wanted to do was get the package that he had been left on her doorstep, she was in a towel and as she bent down to get the package, the wind picked up and trapped her towel in the door as it slammed shut, causing her to quickly fall to the floor to try and cover herself more. She didn’t dare make a noise, terrified somebody would see her like this, she had been there for a little over ten minutes before she heard the familiar noise of the trashcans rattling around on the floor. “Shua!” she called out, silence followed for a second, “Joshua?!” she pulled her towel tighter to her body. “Y/N?” Joshua’s confused voice answered, “wait, you’re not at your window? Where the hell are you?” She wanted to laugh at the tone of his voice, but pure panic had already set in. “By my front door, please, please can you come up here for a moment?”

She could hear him climb the stairs quickly, clearly sensing the worry in her voice and her eyes met his as he dashed over to her. “My towel got caught in the door, I was just picking this stupid parcel up and oh my god,” she slammed the back of her head against the front door in annoyance, “I can’t move,” she whispered, red in the face as Joshua tried to keep his eyes on her face. “Hey!” he interrupted her panic and removed his long coat, helping her to put it on and then surrounded her with his body so that she could button it up safely without anybody being able to see her body.

She felt her breath hitch when he practically formed a protective barrier with his own body, her eyes watching as his strong body was outlined nicely by his work shirt. “You all good?” he asked, his vision staying on her front door, a light hue on his cheeks, trying to stop herself from thinking about her naked body inside of his coat.

“Y-yeah,” she replied shyly.

“Oh,” she looked at him confused when she stood up, his eyes taking in the image of her in his coat, “you look adorable,” he chuckled and her large seal eyes fell to the floor, her cheeks still red from embarrassment, the entire situation replaying in her mind. “You shoosh,” she pointed at him and sighed heavily, “I have to go to the apartment manager now,” she whined, “he’s such an annoying man,” she pouted making Joshua laugh, “would you…come with me?” she asked, knowing that she would feel much safer with him there, considering she was naked under the coat and everything

That was how Joshua ended up staying another four hours at her apartment, the two of them just chatting and swapping stories, learning about each other’s hybrid mannerisms and laughing at how silly they could be.

As he went to leave, he paused, eyes meeting hers for a moment before pulling her into a comforting hug.

They had cuddled before, but this felt so different from the other times, more intimate.

It was all she could think about for next couple of days, her coworkers whispering at her strange behaviour at work.

“Y/N!”

She turned on her heel when she heard his voice; he was running towards her with his gorgeous brown hair waving around making her want to run her fingers through it.

“Hey, Shua,” she smiled up at him, most of her face shyly hiding behind her neon green scarf.

“Here, got you a grilled cheese,” he handed her a hot packet, her heart aching a little.

“Thank you, how much was it?” she buried her hand in her pocket, ready to give him the money but he shook his head with wide eyes.

“Let me buy you something,” Joshua teased, elbowing her playfully, “plus I was already getting myself this hot onigiri,” he showed her with a little excitement, “I’ve never even heard of a hot onigiri before,”

 She simply didn’t hear whatever else he was talking about, her eyes too busy for her ears to be working.

Joshua paused in his ramblings once he realised that she hadn’t been talking for quite a while, a soft smile appearing on his face when he saw how she was clearly in a daydream. He tucked her hair behind her ear and sighed quietly. “You’re so beautiful,” he chuckled, his thumb stroking against her cheek, his hands then moving back to his lap. Y/N took a moment before his words finally caught up with her and the food she had been holding, slipped from her hand in shock. “What, wait?!” she blinked owlishly at him, her cute little seal noises slipping past her lips in her heightened emotional state. Joshua laughed at her noises, his cheeks dusted a little pink. “You’re beautiful,” he mumbled, slightly more unconfident now that she wasn’t daydreaming, “Listen…I’m not expecting anything,” he licked at his lips, both of them now at a full stop in their walk, “I just had to say something,” his tail wiggled slightly in worry that he had read her wrong as she just stared at him. “I feel like I’m short-circuiting,” she announced suddenly, her hands grabbing at Joshua’s jacket shyly, “I think you’re handsome,” she whispered, her lips still twitching as her seal ‘uffs’ were leaving her quietly.

He smiled down at her, his hands gently holding around her lower back, “yeah?” he grinned, eyes boring into hers, “you think I’m handsome?” She snorted at his fishing for compliments and swatted at his chest as her hair hid her blushing face. “You think this handsome man could kiss you?” he flirted, the Stag side to him proud as punch at the development of their relationship, “please,” he added and she nodded at him desperately.

“Kiss me, Shua,” she grinned, a giggle following before she gasped loudly as Joshua leaned down quickly and captured her lips in a passionate kiss, one of his large hands moving to cup the back of her neck.

She could hear her own little ‘uffs’ leaving her in between their kissing and she blushed at her noises. “I’m sorry, I can’t…my noises,” she stuttered, hand covering her mouth.

Joshua rolled his eyes, not bothered by it at all, in fact rather endeared to it and he pulled her hand away, his Stag smirking beneath his skin. “I couldn’t care less about your noises,” he chuckled, his nose flirtatiously nudging hers, “Y/N, I just want to kiss you,” he admitted rather breathlessly, watching her eyes widen and her cheeks become a darker shade of red.

“O-oh, you ca-“ she squeaked when his lips returned to hers in a hurry, his passion nearly making her knees give way but he held her lower back, his other hand on her upper back, cradling her to his body.

She was in heaven right now.

“I adore you,” Joshua panted when he eventually pulled away from her, his eyes shining as he took in her dishevelled appearance, her lips swollen and her breath ragged and stuttering as it left her.

“As long as you don’t knock my bins over anymore, you have me,” she teased, giggling when he let out a whine, his lips curling into a smirk as he then recaptured her mouth.

“Don’t let go of me!” Felix’s deep voice cracked as he gripped tightly onto Minho’s hand, who was currently trying to keep his feet on the ground as a thick, long tentacle had shot out from a growth on the ceiling.

Her eyes wide, she rushed back to them, vision focused on the sharp teeth surrounding the base of the tentacle.

Looking around for something to break the tentacle with, she noticed that both Minho’s bat and Felix’s frying pan were scattered on the floor.

“I got you; I’m not letting go!” Minho shouted, tears now threatening to fall as he could feel both his grip slipping and his body rising.

“Hyung,” Felix whimpered, “I don’t want to die,” his eyes met hers and he felt like crying even more when she took a few steps back; in turn making Minho yell in annoyance.

“Help me!” he screamed before he suddenly found himself falling to the ground as his grip finally gave way, “Yongbok!” he watched as Felix was yanked upwards.

Felix felt like everything had suddenly gone into slow motion as he watched Minho get smaller as he was pulled higher.

And then, suddenly.

He was falling back down to the ground as the sickening sound of flesh ripping danced across the walls, the screams from the growth soon following.

Minho just about had enough time to steady himself enough to catch Felix, although it wasn’t graceful, he had his friend in his arms and for once, Minho allowed himself to just hold his friend and cry.

Felix held him tightly, sharing the tears as he searched for the hybrid.

The sound of throwing up allowed his blurry sight to finally spot her, a thick chunk of blackish green was spat out onto the ground; followed by more vomiting.

The sudden realising hit Felix like a truck.

“What did you do?!” he pushed himself away from Minho and ran over to her, hands quickly holding her face as he checked it over, “please tell me you didn’t use your mouth to cut that thing?”

She gave him an exhausted watery smile, her lips still stained with clotted blood.

“You were going to die,” she then looked a little to the left, where Minho was now standing with a look of thunder on his handsome face, hand white as he gripped both recovered weapons.

“You are a fucking idiot,” he snapped, and Felix turned to him with a frown.

“Hyung, stop,” he didn’t want an argument to start up in the tunnel when they were still surrounded by creatures.

Minho rolled his eyes in annoyance before roughly grabbing near the back of her neck and forcing her mouth to open so he could pour bottled water in it.

“Spit,” he said firmly, eyes practically burning like the sun as he tried to control his anger and panic.

She obeyed and cuddled into herself when she spotted all the gunk that came with the water and spit.

“Congratulations, Spots,” Minho replied sarcastically, “you have no idea whether or not if you have infected yourself,”

They had finally found a small, abandoned house just outside the exit to the tunnel and quickly made the decision to lay low for the night, although they were still able to hear the creatures screaming and moaning in the tunnel.

She felt awkward as she stayed in the corner with her legs to her chest, eyes occasionally flitting to Minho and Felix as a wave of shame washed over her.

Had she put them in danger? What else could she have done, there wasn’t anything else to cut that thing down!

“You need to apologise,” Felix huffed and nudged Minho with his elbow, “you know there wasn’t anything else she could do,” he added and rubbed at his stomach where the ache of being held by the creature was still lingering.

“Are you okay?” Minho asked with a deadpan expression, ignoring Felix’s words.

“Hyung,” Felix sighed and sat on top of the bag he had brought with a loud and exhausted thump, “look at her,” he was now scanning over his friend as her head hung low, her dalmatian ears swaying a bit as she shivered.

“She could be infected,” Minho slammed his hand against the wall, “I’m just being realistic, Yongbok,” he could see her out the corner of his eye lifting her head in shock at the noise, “it’s not like I want her to be infected, but she could be and that is something that you should be worried about!” he stared directly into her eyes as he spoke to Felix and she felt her heart still when she saw how concerned he was.

For her.

“She saved my life,” Felix replied and then moved to sit by her side, his hand quickly moving to pet the top of her head, noting that her tail was gently tapping against the hardwood floor.

Minho stood still for a moment as he watched the two of them huddle together before he silently moved over to them and laid down by their feet, his back to them.

Felix smiled slightly, knowing that his friend was worried for the hybrid but had no idea how to show that without being harsh and angry.

Though they were a lot quieter than usual, she couldn’t help but inwardly gush at how different the countryside was compared to where they lived.

“This place must have been so pretty with the fruit markets,” she sighed, and her ears pulled back on her head sadly, “loads of hybrids live in the countryside so it would have been so cool if I had been able to meet others,”

Felix’s thin fingers gently ran through her hair and tickled her ears.

“This is where Hyunjin Hyung used to film his dancing,” he chuckled as they had now come to a complete stop.

“He dances?”

“Like a superstar,” Felix grinned when he saw her ears wiggle in interest, “Minho Hyung taught him most of…well everything that he knows,”

At the mention of the other man, she diverted her eyes back to the empty market area, still a little afraid to even meet his gaze which was now boring in to the back of her head.

“C’mon, we need to keep moving,” Minho muttered and nodded his head forward, clearly knowing where they were going.

Felix wiggled his fingers at her waiting for her own hand, inviting her.

“Gimme those little hands,” he teased and started to silently giggle when she arched her eyebrow at him.

“Says you!”

*

Minho led them to the nearest gym, crouching behind a bench with the other two quickly following.

“Changbin’s gym,” he pointed out and Felix hummed in recognition, “they are really trying to get in there,” he frowned as zombies continued to claw at the glass, some already having broken through and slamming against a door in the back.

Bending forwards a bit, she smelt the air to try and see if she could detect what they were after.

An overwhelming feeling of nausea suddenly hit her, and she quickly cupped her hands around her mouth to try and stop herself from throwing up, the back of her skull feeling heavy.

“Drink,”

She flinched as cold plastic was gently pushed to her cheek, and she turned to see Minho next to her holding a bottle of water; eyes still trained on the small horde before them.

“Thanks,” she took a small swig of water and shook her head to try and get rid of the fog building up, “here,” she held the bottle back for him to take but he shook his head.

“I’m not sharing with you,” he explained coldly, and Felix shared a sympathetic look with her as she quietly put the bottle in her own bag.

“Hyung,” Felix hissed and elbowed him again, “stop,”

“There’s somebody alive in there,” she gasped and almost stood up in surprise before she caught herself, “they are scared but they are alive,” she closed her eyes to focus more, fully aware of both men staring at her.

One, no…two scared people?

I smell so many hybrid zombies, so many rodent hybrids.

Her eyes opened and peered over the bench with worry.

“Most of the zombies are rodent hybrids,” she explained as her vision zeroed in on a rat hybrid with torn ear and a rotting tail, green gunk leaking from a gaping wound on his upper thigh, “so they shouldn’t be overly strong to deal with but there are possibly two people stuck in there,” she turned to Felix and frowned a bit when she saw a flicker of hope appear on his face.

“It could be Changbin Hyung,” he whispered as he gripped his frying pan, practically bouncing on the flats of his feet.

Minho paused for a moment and then finally made eye contact with her, his harsh brown eyes causing her to both cower and blush under the intensity.

“If Yongbok and I get the hordes attention, you need to go and get to the back,” he seemed to have already made up his mind as he stood up and shook his bat around, “get going,” he ordered and then nodded to Felix who shared a worried glance with the hybrid.

“Be safe,” she whispered and quickly grabbed his face so she could kiss his forehead, her hands then grabbed Minho’s wrist, “you too,” she was staring at the floor, worried she would see disgust from her touch.

Minho stared down at her before sighing loudly and patting the top of her head quickly.

“Wait till they follow us and then go to the office room,” he recounted, “please wait for us to get back here before you leave,” he rolled his eyes as he saw Felix beaming at his words.

“Okay,”

She whimpered when all contact with both left her; watching in panic when they started yelling, snatching the attention away from the door in the gym.

They ran towards the boys, and she held back a scream of terror as one of the rodents reached for Felix, but the man quickly swung his frying pan down onto the hybrids head.

Minho grabbed Felix’s arm and practically launched the younger man in front of him as they began to run away.

“GO!” he yelled over his shoulder.

She sprinted towards the gym, jumping over the counter and flinching at the loud noise of the computer falling to the floor.

“Open up!” she knocked on the door with worry as she scanned around her once again, “please, I’m here to help you, please!” she begged, still nothing, but she could faintly pick up on whispers in the room.

She then yelled out the only other thing she could think of to let them know she was harmless.

“Ch-Changbin!”

Her stomach twisted in knots as she was surrounded by silence.

The door then slowly opened revealing a rather muscular man with sharp but kind eyes peering through the small opening.

“How do you know my name?” he asked, and she got a little distracted by a taller figure standing behind him, watching her with interest.

“My friend has been looking for you,” she explained, “Felix,” she quickly added knowing that his name along carried a lot of weight going by how Minho had reacted to the younger man.

“Felix?” the man from behind Changbin moved closer and she couldn’t help but notice how handsome all of Felix’s friends were; it was incredibly intimidating, “as in Yongbok?”

“As in Yongbok,” she felt odd calling him that but to see how their faces light up with smiles, made her feel as if she was helping; giving them hope, “he and Minho distracted the crowd around this door…so they’re…not here but they told me to wait for them to get back so we can all be in one group,” she knew she was stumbling over her words and she couldn’t stop her tail from wagging as her hybrid side was finding a lot of comfort in Changbin’s sheer presence.

“You should get in here then,” Changbin pushed the door and stepped aside to let her in; reminding her of staying in a room with Minho, “how do you know them?” he asked, shutting the door once she was safely inside.

“I live with Felix, and I was saved by Minho,” she smiled as she mentioned them and in turn, it made Changbin beam at her.

“So, you’re the hybrid he keeps texting me about,” the taller man chuckled, “you’re a dalmatian right?” he asked, sitting on the office chair.

She blushed and nodded.

“Hyunjin, you’re making her nervous,” Changbin laughed as he continued to watch her face get progressively redder, “but you are just as cute as Felix said,” he then paused with a thoughtful gaze, “is it offensive to ask if I can pet your ears?”

She couldn’t help the giggle that left her.

“It’s not offensive and yeah, just don’t tug at them,” she mumbled and chewed onto her bottom lip when Changbin gently pet at her ears; her tail still going crazy much to Hyunjin’s delight.

“If we find Seungmin, he is going to love you,” Hyunjin chuckled, his eyes widening as she suddenly turned and faced the corner, hands on her stomach.

“Are you okay?” Changbin attempted to get close to her again, but she quickly held up a hand.

“I just feel a little unwell,”

Her stomach was now twisting in a way that is did before being sick and the pressure on the back of her skull was back, making it difficult for her vision to focus.

“Hyung, do you have water?” Hyunjin’s voice was muffled as the two men searched through the bags that gym goers had left there, clearly in a panic.

“I have a few protein shakes,” Changbin ignored the ‘of course you do’ from Hyunjin and approached the hybrid currently breathing heavily.

“Here,”

His voice was so soft and she made the effort to look at him in thanks but waved her hand once more.

“I…I have water in my bag,”

Changbin nodded and made the decision to get the water for her.

“Such a gentleman,” Hyunjin threw Changbin a genuine smile when their eyes met.

Gulping down the rest of the water in the bottle, she then managed to refocus her vision and the pressure in both her throat and head, relaxed a bit.

“Sorry,”

“If you’re not feeling well, then you aren’t feeling well,” Hyunjin shrugged and then his lanky limbs got out of the chair, “don’t apologise,”

She finally turned around and nodded at him with a shy smile, slightly stunned at how close both were to her.

“Thanks,”

Changbin opened his mouth to reply but all three of them were then shocked by the rapid knocking on the door.

“Open up!”

Changbin nearly pulled the door off its hinges as he came face to face with both Minho, who looked exhausted and Felix, whose eyes were already watering as he gazed at his friends.

She quickly moved out of the way as Changbin pulled the two other men into what looked like, a bone-crushing hug.

Hyunjin couldn’t help but let out a yelp when Changbin turned and pulled him into the group hug.

“Of course we’d find you in the gym,” Minho muttered, hiding a smile as the hybrid watched his hands practically claw at the back of Changbin’s shirt as if he was just trying to hug him tighter.

Through all the happiness that was happening before her, she couldn’t help but focus more on the bubbling that was going on in her stomach.

He hummed as he blew over the top of his coffee, the cold air brushing over his skin as a rather comforting contrast.

Work had gotten too stressful for him and so he had convinced himself to call in sick so he could relax for the day.

He would’ve loved to have a big old fireplace where he could just sit and relax at home but he was certain it would go against the safety code of the building.

Yunho licked his dry lips as he looked around for a spot to sit but ended up pouting when every table was taken, meaning he would have to take one of the outside tables in the freezing cold and he was certain he had heard of a possible snowfall today.

Making himself comfortable, he buried his face into his scar a little more and cuddled his coffee with his bare hands as he was an idiot that morning and forgot to bring his gloves.

His roommate, Wooyoung (a Peacock Hybrid) had even stuck a sticky note on the fridge about not forgetting them, but Yunho had walked straight passed the fridge in order to make the breakfast menu at the coffee shop.

Freshly made croissants were a weakness and Yunho just couldn’t resist.

“E-excuse me?”

Yunho looked up to find a woman shyly peering at him from within her own scarf cover, and tilted his head to the side as he desperately tried to calm his Hybrid half down.

“May I…may I sit here, there aren’t any spaces inside,” she was almost whispering as she spoke and her gloved fingers were clenching and unclenching in a clear attempt to calm her anxieties down; something that made Yunho’s heart ache for her ever-so-slightly.

“Go for it,” he invited with a friendly smile and his tail wagged when she smiled back at him.

Yunho watched her for a few moments, taking note of the unusual ears atop her head and the slight miscolouring of her eyes; he couldn't detect what Hybrid she was and even his Retriever side was confused.

“I’m a bat,” her voice made him jump and she giggled, hand coming up to her mouth as she did.

“I didn’t mean to stare,” Yunho could feel his ears turning red as he replied, “It’s been a while since I’ve seen a Bat Hybrid out and about,” he remarked bashfully as the woman bowed her head with a matching colour of her cheeks.

“It messes with our sense of direction,” she explained with a laugh, “the sun I mean, we’re all a little partially sighted so being nocturnal is just sensible,” she continued as she picked up her own beverage, a fruity herbal tea, and took a sip.

“Is it that hard with sun out?” Yunho pondered with a cute quirk of his eyebrows and a wiggle of his tail as he seemed to forget that agitation the season brought with it.

“I don’t even understand it myself but it is difficult to navigate with the sun, it hurts our eyes even when looking at the ground,” she playfully puffed her cheeks up in mock annoyance and Yunho felt his entire body suddenly flush with warmth and fluttering.

“Wow, the most I have to deal with is winter agitation and getting distracted by people playing football,” he muttered and grinned when the bat hybrid burst into a fit of laughter.

“I have heard of dog hybrids doing that!” she covered her mouth again and Yunho desperately wanted to take her hands away to see what she looked like when she laughed; even though he knew it would still look both adorable and beautiful at the same time.

“Have you ever chased after a ball?” she was now fully facing him now, fingers scratching at her cup of herbal tea and nibbling at her already sore bottom lip.

“I did when I was a lot younger,” he admitted with a cheeky grin, “my friend Hongjoong had to literally tackle me to the floor to stop me and even though he’s tiny, he managed to do it,” he smiled at the memory and took a mental note to call Hongjoong later that day to catch up on things.

“I can’t imagine anybody taking you down,” it seemed she said this without meaning to and covered her mouth once more but this time in embarrassment, “I-I mean, you’re so tall and things,” she nervously giggled and scratched at her fluffy ears.

“Well, Hongjoong can do anything,” he pointed out and felt a sting of pride for his older friend, “even take down a giant,” he added and they both fell into playful banter, the weather no longer an issue and the sun seemingly not able to blind the Bat from the stunning man across from her.

The next time Yunho bumped into her, was when he was fully decked out in pyjamas and a big puffy coat; having run out of instant noodles for his dinner, he had decided to just pop down to the shop near his apartment building.

The winter night was bitterly cold but the sweet Bat hybrid was also doing a bit of late night shopping, which she quickly explained was actually her morning shopping if you took into account that she was normally a fully nocturnal person.

They spoke for so long that the shop owner, who had the heaviest bags under his eyes Yunho had ever seen, finally asked them to leave.

Only when they had said goodbye to each other did Yunho realise that he had forgotten both his noodles and to ask her what her name was.

“Yunho!” Wooyoung’s voice sang from the living room, making the retriever grunt from his bed, nice and toasty from the cold.

“Yunho, my little puppy!” his door was pushed open with reckless abandon and he was suddenly attacked by the younger male, straddling him with a wild grin on his attractive face.

“I had a late night, please,” Yunho mumbled trying to hide his smile as Wooyoung proceeded to nuzzle into him lovingly, behaviour that he did everywhere that made people believe they were a couple.

“And why was that, lover boy?” Wooyoung let out a loud laugh and sat back up so he could look down at his friend, “I’m aware you were speaking with your precious little batgirl, but you don’t have to turn nocturnal yourself,” he poked Yunho’s cheeks before smooching them with an over exaggerated MWAH leaving his lips.

“Okay, okay, get the hell off me,” Yunho laughed as the peacock let out another laugh and finally released him.

“Oh, and just saying,” Wooyoung stopped at the bedroom door, “your little batgirl goes to your Internet Café,” he looked over his shoulder at his now blushing friend.

“How do you know?”

“Yunho, she is a nocturnal hybrid and that’s rare to see in the daytime; she stands out quite a bit when she decides to be a daywalker,” Wooyoung then threw him a flirty playful smile, “you owe me a kiss,”

With a big eyeroll, Yunho threw his pillow at him.

In hindsight, having a crush on a purely nocturnal person probably wasn’t a good idea when your own biology was catered to being awake during the daytime.

But he was determined to get to know her, desperately wanted to see if there was any sort of hope for something to blossom between them.

Yawning behind his large hand, he flopped down on one of the chairs in the café and tapped into the system so he could try to calm his nerves by playing a game.

He was halfway through a dungeon mission when his eyes caught movement by the window he was sat at and quickly typed to his teammates that he’ll be right back.

His tail started to wag violently at the sight of her making her way to a computer in the far corner, not even noticing a very happy retriever but this was understandable as he also noticed the small guide stick, she was holding to help her avoid bumping into things.

He spotted her pulling a controller out of her bag and plugged it into the back of her computer and his lips spread out into a wide grin.

She played games!

It was something else that they had in common and he had to hold himself back from immediately running over to her to ask a hundred questions.

He un-paused his game and continued to lead the march through the virtual dungeons as a powerful wizard; maybe this will help him calm down a bit more before he would even think of going over to her.

It ended up working a little too well as he got immersed in the world he had been playing for years; a frustrated groan leaving him when he died for fifth time in one of the hardest dungeons in the game and he pulled at his fluffy ear out of habit to try and stop himself from yelling at the screen.

“Do you need any help?” he just about jumped out of his skin and grabbed the front of his chest, coughing at the quick intake of breath he just took which in turn made the adorable bat panic and hold onto his hand as if he was dying.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you!” she squeaked and patted his back as his coughing slowed down.

“You’re a ninja,” he commented as he finally stopped coughing, “I’m okay,” he added with a blush when he noticed she was still holding his hand.

“Sorry,” she smiled a bit and sat down next to him, controller in her other hand, “um…I heard you earlier getting annoyed,” she giggled slightly.

“Oh uh,” his ears must be on fire right now, “yeah, we’re having a bit of trouble with this dungeon,” he explained with a pout making his ears droop and the sight made the bat smile warmly.

“Well, I know the Elf class can heal the team a bit but I think you need a full-on healer,” she pointed out and then bashfully pressed buttons on her unplugged controller, “I wouldn’t mind helping you,” she whispered making his heart skip a beat as he took in how she seemed to shrink in her shyness.

“I’d love that,” he smiled before quickly adding, “what’s your name?”

And finally, he got his answer.

Wooyoung smiled as he watched Yunho on his computer, headset on and fingers tapping quickly on the keyboard as he barked orders at his teammates but then had a very soft voice when asking for a bit of healing.

It was quite funny to hear and Wooyoung was tempted to record him just so that he could then show Yunho the double standards he had.

“Are you okay? I have protect ready to go,” Yunho’s voice was soft again and Wooyoung snickered into his bubble tea, pizza in the other hand threatening to let melted cheese fall onto his jeans.

“I said right!” Yunho’s ‘Captain’ voice came out, a heavy sigh falling from his lips as it did so, “don’t go off on your own, we have sixteen levels left!”

Wooyoung rolled his eyes but looked over his shoulder to watch his friend have a battle with himself as he both tried to order and flirt at the same time.

“Do you have a shield ready for us?”

Quiet.

“If you need help, I’m right next to you,”

Wooyoung’s high pitched laughter finally came out and he fell back on the sofa, the actions and sound making Yunho nearly drop his mouse.

“Oh my god, you are so down bad,” Wooyoung cried covering his face to try and silence his laughter, but it didn’t work, especially when Yunho gave him a death glare as he tried to cover up the microphone.

“Yunho, is everything okay?” Y/Ns voice was laced with worry, and he smiled shyly even though nobody could see him apart from the peacock (he was convinced Wooyoung was also part Hyena) on the sofa, “should we pause?” she added, and her character even turned towards his.

“No, no, I’m okay,” he chuckled, “just a film my roommate is watching,”

A little laugh came from his teammates, but it was Y/Ns that made him want to melt into his chair.

Wooyoung was convinced he was going to get himself slapped around the head the moment Yunho got off the game; he quickly sent a text to his friend Changbin, grabbed his keys, boxed his pizza up and took it with him out of the apartment.

“My heal is on cooldown so be careful!” Y/N’s voice came through his headset, “I have aura-heal but that means you’ll have to be stuck to my side,” she muttered clearly displeased with the fact her team couldn’t move freely.

“It’s alright, Y/N, I have potions!” came a response from the archer, Mingi, “I can heal myself,”

“Me too!” the tank, Seonghwa added making his character wiggle around in a playful manner.

“I have potions too and if anybody goes down, I have revivals,” Yunho slumped back on his seat as they all waited for the long loading screens to finish.

“You have revivals?” Y/N gasped with excitement, "I haven’t learnt that spell yet, you legend!” she giggled and he returned his hands to the keyboard as the loading screen finally finished, a fluttery feeling in his chest as eh found he liked the fact that Y/N could rely on him; even if it was just in a game.

“Don’t compliment him too much, his ego will get even bigger,”

“Shut up, Mingi,”

It wasn’t long after having regular game nights, that Yunho finally worked up the courage to invite her to his apartment; mostly to hang out but to also meet Wooyoung.

The thought terrified Yunho, not because he didn’t want them to meet, but because he knew Wooyoung was going to tease him relentlessly.

He supposed it was a blessing that she was quite literally a creature of the night and therefore she would be there quite late, meaning Wooyoung would most likely be in his room trying to sleep.

“You’re going to wear the floor out,”

Yunho flinched at the sound of the peacock’s voice.

“What?”

Wooyoung snorted before looking to his strange alcoholic beverage, plastic umbrellas decorating the rim.

“You’re walking up and down in the same spot, I’m surprised you haven’t worn the floor out and said hello to our downstairs neighbours,” Wooyoung took a sip of the bright green liquid and almost purred at the taste.

“I don’t know how to calm down,” Yunho muttered and as if on cue, he began pacing up and down the hall again.

“Yuyu,” Wooyoung grabbed his friend’s bicep and forced him to stop, “if this woman is as nice as you go on about, then stop worrying, she’ll just be happy to spend time with you,” he explained with a much more serious expression than Yunho was used to, but he appreciated that Wooyoung was genuinely trying to help him.

“Have this,” he offered his toxic looking drink and Yunho pulled a worried face that made the peacock laugh, “relax, it’s Lime-Melon Soda,” he grinned, “it only has a small amount of alcohol because I must get up early tomorrow,”

Yunho chuckled before taking a cautious sniff, decided it was fine and then had a small mouthful.

“Not bad,” he giggled before shyly pulling the other man into a hug, “thanks Woo,” he felt his tail wagging and had to stop himself from rolling his eyes.

Damn thing always giving away how much he liked somebody.

“Just be calm around her, she’s a bat, right?”

Yunho nodded.

“So, she’s very aware of things around her,” Wooyoung then placed his hand on his own chest, “we gentle creatures are like that,”

This single comment sent Yunho into a fit of laughter with tears streaming down his face because out of all the words to describe his friend, gentle, would not be one of them.

“It wasn’t that funny!” Wooyoung shrieked before puffing his hair out of his face and walking into his room.

Once his laughter had finally stopped, he found himself staring right through the peephole to see if she was there yet almost jumping out of his skin when he realised that she was on the other side pacing just as he had been; clearly nervous herself.

“She’s here,” Yunho whispered before remembering that Wooyoung wasn’t beside him anymore.

He tried to focus on making sure that his tail wouldn’t wag when he heard her soft knocks on the door; taking a deep breath, he pulled the door open slowly to not startle her senses.

Her face practically lit up with both happiness and anxiety when they locked eyes.

“Come in, come in!” he ushered her inside and adjusted the heat in the apartment to making it slightly warmer.

If he was going to spend money on warming the place up, it was when Y/N was there.

“Wow is that your gaming area?” she gasped, and he couldn’t help but laugh when she practically hopped on her way to the set-up he had.

“Yeah, I have a set-up in my room as well,” he felt a little flustered admitting that he had a lot of gaming equipment but thankfully, she was also a very big gaming enthusiast.

“You’re so lucky, I can’t find the new Playstation anywhere,” she giggled and stroked the top of the machine, making Yunho flush as he thought about receiving a pet on the head from her.

“Well, he hunted it down,”

Both quickly turned to see Wooyoung peering out of his doorway at them with a knowing smirk on his lips.

“I’m Wooyoung, his roommate!” he explained and approached her with a slow pace.

“I’m Y/N, I’ve only heard you in the background when in games,” she admitted with a shy laugh.

“Because he’s a loudmouth,” Yunho commented and as if to prove his point, Wooyoun let out a shriek of denial.

“I’m the reasonable amount of volume, thank you very much, now I shall bid you good day,” he turned his nose up at them and strutted back to his room.

Y/N smiled up at Yunho once they were alone and he just about felt his heart plummet through his body as he realised why he had actually invited her.

“Um, would you like something to drink?” he stuttered and she nodded, fingers clutching her arm nervously.

“If you have anything blueberry flavoured,” she nibbled her lip as she walked towards the kitchen with him.

“I have a ramune,” he pulled it out of the fridge and handed it to her.

“Thank you!” she gasped and excitedly pressed the glass ball down to activate the drink, the bubbles jumping around her nose as she took a big gulp.

Yunho fixed himself an energy drink and they made themselves comfortable of the sofa, conversations about gaming and manga filling the air.

Both getting very expressive with their passion; Yunho was pretty sure that he’d never heard Y/N be this loud before.

“He was one of my first ever obsessions,” Y/N seemed surprised by her admission and buried her red face into the crook of her arm, “sorry, that was too much information,”

“Y/N, you seem to be forgetting that I have a poster of 2B from Nier on my wall,” he pointed out and nodded his head in the direction when she looked up.

“I guess we both enjoy pixel people,” Y/N snorted and took another gulp of her drink.

“Yeah, but having somebody real is good too,” Yunho chuckled and shuffled around on the sofa, so he was completely facing her.

“Yeah,” she agreed quietly and Yunho watching as several emotions washed over her face; her ears twitching in thought, “can I ask you something?”

“Of course,”

Y/N took a deep breath and locked eyes with him, making his breath catch in his throat.

“I don’t…” she paused, “I don’t know how to do this,” she laughed anxiously, “but I uh…” her eyes dropped from his and she almost seemed to curl into herself.

“Take your time,” Yunho encouraged as he heard his blood pump in his ears loudly.

“I really like you, Yunho,” she whispered with a shaky voice, “I don’t want to lose you as a friend though,” she added quickly, using her hair to try and cover her bashful expression.

Yunho all but started to choke on his own spit, causing Y/N to burst into panic and quickly rushed to get him a glass of cold water.

“Are you okay?!” she squeaked and handed him the glass, patting his back as he tried to get his breath back.

“M’fine,” he coughed and cleared his throat several times, hands shaking as he took a few sips of water, “I’m so, so fine,” he continued and gently pulled her down to his level, “I really like you too,” he finished with another clearing of his throat before pulling her towards him and gently kissing her.

Yunho’s large hands pulled her next to him on the sofa, where he then laid them on her waist and the back of her neck.

Y/N shivered as she tried to keep up with him, not experienced in these matters, but she practically beamed with pride when Yunho let out a small moan when her small fangs bit down on his bottom lip.

Her hands fixed either side of his neck, thumbs stroking the side of his face, an action that truly made Yunho feel treasured and it made his tail thump against the sofa; causing them both to start laughing into the kiss.

“Sorry, has a mind of it’s own,” Yunho grinned brightly when he noticed how out of breath she was.

“It’s cute,” she replied and brushed her fingers down it and took note of how Yunho sounded as if he was going to start choking again.

“Are we…” Yunho started as their lips met once again, “are we together now?” he groaned as Y/N’s arms threw themselves around his neck.

“I wouldn’t kiss anybody I wasn’t wanting a relationship with, silly pup,” she playfully bit his jaw, and it took everything in the dog hybrid to hold his hips from jerking upwards at the action.

“Good! Hopefully he’ll stop being a whining moron now!”

Y/N started to laugh again as Yunho let out a growl of annoyance and rested his head on the back of the sofa; the atmosphere changing in an instant.

“We don’t have much water left and I’m not drinking from the tap,” Felix tried to keep his voice down, as not to worry the hybrid currently sleeping for the first time in a couple of days. 

“I would suggest the water back at my workplace but I’m not even sure that’s safe to drink,” Minho paused, “I don’t know how long water can sit there and be safe,” he added with a pout forming. 

“I’d use the internet but that’s down,” Felix rubbed at his forehead and sat down on the kitchen floor, feeling defeated. 

A small smile returning when Pepie padded over to him and rested at his side to give Felix some comfort; which it did. 

“Do we go for a supply run?” Minho suggested, joining Felix on the floor, head smacking against the lower cabinets, “We just went out for one; we’re exhausted,” he hesitated for a second before putting an arm around Felix’s shoulders, “we have enough for a couple of days,” 

Felix sighed and ran his fingers through Pepie’s soft fur, “yeah, I guess,” he chewed his bottom lip and closed his eyes, “I’m so fucking tired,” 

The expletive made Minho snort with laughter; quickly covering is mouth when he heard the hybrid on the sofa stir a bit. 

“Me too,” the older man closed his eyes too and let Felix rest his head on his shoulder. 

------------------------------------------- 

“Snap!”  

The sound of a hand slamming down on a table echoed around the small apartment as the three friends bonded over a game of snap, the hybrid taking the most recent win and accepting her prize of a couple of squares of the Dairy Milk chocolate bar they had found on their recent supply run. 

“You have animal reflexes!” Minho whined and pouted despite himself making her giggle at the sight. 

“Such a sore loser, Hyung,” Felix playfully shoved the older man to the side, letting out an oddly high-pitched cry as Minho pounced on him with a cocky eyebrow raised. 

“Pinned ya again,” clearly mocking Nala from The Lion King, Felix rolled his eyes with a small smile on his handsome face, “wait, that makes you Simba,” Minho paused, “you’re not nearly cool enough to be Simba,” he added teasingly and the hybrid watching nearly choked on the chocolate she was currently enjoying. 

“I’m totally cool enough to be Simba,” Felix argued back crossing his arms across his chest. 

“You realise this means that you two have to get married now, right?” the woman across the table to them was smirking suggestively at them and it caused an immediate flush to brush over the two men as they quickly sat up. 

“Does this make you Zazu?” Minho asked with a chuckle, very entertained by the appropriate gasp of surprise on her face. 

“I happen to love that funky little bird,” she replied with a bright smile, canines on show; catching Felix’s eyes; a light dusting of pink returning to his cheeks, “I miss watching movies,” she added with a loud sigh, shoulders falling with a pout on her lips. 

The electricity had almost completely wiped a couple of days ago, causing them all to panic quite a bit as they had practically been giving themselves what little of their old lives they had, back. 

The only thing still running were the lights in the building as they were the only things hooked up to the emergency backup in case of a power outage or natural disaster. 

“And my games,” she added looking woefully at her giant collection of games that decorated the many shelves both under and beside the television. 

“I think I miss just the action of browsing through websites,” Felix chuckled as he gladly accepted a chunk of chocolate that the hybrid had kindly decided to share more of. 

“Getting updates on things,” Minho paused for a bit as if debating with himself if he should even finish his sentence, “like friends,” he flickered his eyes to Felix who was now fiddling with a loose strand on his jumper, “is something I miss; even the dumb updates that Han and Changbin used to post up,”  

This made Felix laugh, making the hybrid smile warmly again. 

“The anime updates and gym updates,” Felix shook his head, and this made her sit up a little straighter with interest. 

“Who...who liked anime?” she asked shyly. 

“Hannie,” Minho replied fondly with a tone that he had greeted Felix with when they were reunited, “he loves the stuff,”  

“Me too!” the hybrid blushed darkly at how quickly the words left her, simply excited by the prospect of somebody finally understanding her love for the animation world. 

“We all do, to an extent, but Han goes to conventions with Chan Hyung in full cosplay,” Felix grinned as he saw how her mouth hung open and her eyes glittered as if he was talking about an anime deity. 

“Much more fun than the gym, anyways,” Minho muttered with a shake of his head, clearly thinking about Changbin, “the number of times I saw Changbin doing suggestive stretches, is too many times,”  

All three of them fell into a quiet rumble of chuckles, a small moment of calmness, the background of the apartment filled with the loud snores of Pepie and the scurrying of Harvey kicking his bedding around the small area they had set up, once again. 

-- 

“Look after your brother,” she whispered as she cupped Pepie’s face and gently stroked his cheeks, her fingers then gently running over Harvey’s back. 

“I will,” Pepie chuffed and then whimpered, “please be safe; don’t forget about us,”  

Her heart ached as it just reminded her that he and Harvey had essentially said goodbye to their mum and dad the morning of the outbreak, only to then be left alone as the owners clearly met a horrible fate. 

“We’ll come back, I promise,” she pet his head, “I’ve put your water and food in that corner and this is where you go to the toilet,” she pointed out the places as she prepared herself to shut them both in her bedroom, an extra layer of protection. 

“I’ll be a good boy!” Pepie let out an ‘Uff!’ and nosed at Harvey; making the rabbit flinch in surprise and he stomped his foot on the ground. 

“You two are always good boys,” she added before gently waving at them, switching a battery powered lamp on for them and then shutting the door with a loud sigh. 

Exhaustion and worry for the travelling they were going to do for the next couple of days, hung heavy on her shoulders and her stomach twisted up in knots at the thought of not being able to keep her promise to Pepie and Harvey. 

“You ready?” she looked up at Minho, who was leaning against the wall, strong arms crossing over his chest. 

“Uh,” she cleared her throat, “yeah, just anxious...as usual,” she rubbed the back of her neck before tutting as she felt her hairband rub against her skin, reminding her that she wanted to keep her hair far away from both her face and prying rotting hands. 

“There,” she waved her head from side to side to make sure it was tight enough, flushing a bit when she spotted Minho carefully watching her every move, “what?” 

“Your ears,” Minho smiled a bit, more to himself than her, “cute,” he added quietly and turned on his heel to help Felix move the furniture away from the front door. 

“Oh,” she squeaked, tugging on her ear out of shyness; shaking her head soon after and rushing to help them as well. 

-- 

She had quickly concluded that owning a baton that had been modified by Minho to have barbed wire on it, was a brilliant investment. 

Despite the baton still being covered in small fleshy pus, strands of hair and jellied substances that she’d rather not think about, she was able to take zombies down a little faster than usual and it made her feel just slightly more confident in her ability to defend not only herself, but Felix and Minho as well. 

Said men were currently searching the abandoned cars along the side of the road; peeking in through the window in case one of the undead happened to be in there. 

Her eyes caught dried blood that seemed to have been seeping from the boot of the car; she had an awful feeling that somebody had had to trap a zombie in there as she could hear quiet mumblings and light, weak scratches. 

“Felix,” she whispered, gently tugging at his long fingers, “be careful,” she then pointed at the car he and Minho were currently crouched next to, “zombie in the boot,” she added when he gave her a confused look. 

She watched Minho step lightly towards the back of the car and then knocked on the boot once, before promptly jumping backwards when a gargled growl came from inside. 

“You sure it’s a zombie, not just a trapped animal?” Minho asked slightly worried that they were mistaken. 

“It’s a zombie,” she tapped the side of her nose, “they smell dead, like everyone else,” she then bent forwards to check under the car that she was about to approach, just in case a zombie was under there. 

“Oh,” at the startled tone of Minho’s voice, she and Felix spun around in their places, “it’s a zombie,” he then cringed a bit when he pointed out the large intestine that was dangling out the side of the closed boot; it had been severed in half and Minho was now looking at the bottom half of the body of whoever was in the boot. 

“Lovely,” he muttered. 

-- 

It was as if her body shrivelled several times smaller when her eyes investigated the dark train tunnel before them.  

The sense of foreboding washing over all three of them as they shuffled closer subconsciously. 

“Are you sure this is the direction your friends might be?” she asked flicking the torchlight around to try and see if anything was lurking in the darkness. 

“It’s the direction that Changbin-hyung and Hyunjin-hyung are,” Felix replied and gently ran his thumb over her soft ears to try and settle her anxiety, “you can stay here with Pepie and Harvey if you’re really that nervous, I don’t want to pressure you into coming with us,” he was faintly aware of Minho watching him as he pressed his forehead to the hybrid. 

“No, no” she pouted a little, “I want to come with you; I’d lose my mind with worry that something had happened to either one of you,” she mumbled shyly and felt a soft flush reach her face when Felix smiled before placing a kiss on her forehead. 

“I’d be fine,” Minho shrugged his shoulders as he twirled his bat around with a relaxed grace that both she and Felix were jealous of, “dunno about him though,” he eyed Felix with a teasing grin as the wind picked up outside of the train station, the breeze dancing across them. 

Rolling his eyes with a puff of laughter, Felix motioned for them to follow him into the darkness. 

“Careful of the maintenance doorways,” Minho whispered and then jiggled his torchlight towards one said doorway, “don’t want to have to save you guys again,”  

“Awfully smug today,” Felix remarked with a playful sigh. 

“I have reason to be,” Minho turned to face his younger friend, carefully walking backwards just so he could shine the light at Felix’s eyes; making him yelp and shield his eyes. 

A shiver went up her back at the sound of him yelping as it echoed all around them and she stopped walking to focus her hearing. 

“I hate this,” she whispered as she searched herself; finally figuring out how to use her bra strap to hold the torch forwards; keeping her hands free. 

“Stay close and you will be okay,” Minho replied with a very deadpan tone, his eyes squinting as he turned to investigate the darkness behind them, clearly checking their six. 

“Quiet!” Felix hissed and held his hand up in the air to emphasize his words, his feline-like eyes wide as he scanned the area in front of him; reaching behind to carefully change the direction of the torchlight. 

“Oh,” she held her breath to stop herself from blushing as his fingers grazed across her skin. 

“What is it?” Minho whispered and crouched down with Felix as the younger man slowly moved forward. 

“You can’t hear that noise?” Felix frowned as he looked back at his friends, who were now sharing a confused expression, “even you?” he watched her shake her head. 

“There’s something in that room,” Felix turned his entire body towards the room in question and it was only the that she picked up on the shuffling, scratching noise that he was going on about. 

“It sounds like a zombie,” Minho stood up straight and spun his bat around with his long fingers, stretching a bit, “stay here,” he was already on his way up the small stairs, hand yanking the door open, and she cringed at the sound of a bat crushing down into something soft, crunchy and most disgustingly of all, wet. 

“You might want to see this,” Minho’s out of breath voice echoed slightly. 

“Are you okay?” she dashed up the stairs before Felic could even stand and she was immediately on guard, teeth baring in what was supposed to be a threatening growl, but Minho found it quite adorable. 

“I’m fine but I really don’t like the look of whatever the fuck that is,”  

She could sense his nerves as he used his bat to point at a large mass of something in on of the corners. 

“I might be sick,” Felix warned them as his face scrunched up at the sight of expanding flesh bubbles, that then popped audibly, moans and scratching sounds coming from somewhere inside of the mass. 

“That’s the noise,” he added, and the hybrid had to quickly steady him as he suddenly jumped backwards with a strange noise leaving him. 

“There’s a fucking face in there,”  

Pulling the torch from her bra strap, she focused the light on where he was pointing and quickly felt the air go cold around her as a dead face, but moving, was pushing against the thin sheet of skin; teeth snapping shut every now and then. 

“Oh my god,” she felt her tail fall and hit the back of her leg, “there’s more than one face,” she watched Minho move forwards. 

“Why are bubbles around?” he asked quietly, and this made Felix tilt his head in equal curiosity. 

“They smell,” the hybrid brought her shirt up to her nose, “they smell so rancid,” she tightened her hands to try and block the scent. 

“It’s a meat...sack,” Minho frowned at his choice of words and slightly poked the place where four faces were now crowding, possibly trying to get to him, “there’s liquid in there,” 

“Hyung, don’t get too close!” Felix warned with his hands immediately grabbing his friend and pulling him back as he caught the action of a hand pushing against the skin as well, “they are trying to get to us,” Felix concluded and shared a worried glance with them. 

“We should go,” she urged before jumping at the sound of ripping; the room suddenly having a floor covered with water close to that of sewage, teeth riding the water as the heads they had seen came rolling out. 

More skeleton than zombie. 

It was then that she couldn’t care less about being quiet in the tunnels. 

Though Minho would be quite stoic with her, put on a harsher front, with Felix, he seemed to hold that back a lot and often made sure to smile at the other man and choose lighter jokes rather than the dry humor he often used with her.

Felix liked physical contact and even though it was quite evident that Minho wasn’t the biggest fan of such a thing, he made sure to put an arm around Felix’s waist, hand on his shoulder or even play with his hair.

She wanted to coo at them but held that back very quickly once she locked eyes with Minho, who somehow sensed that she wanted to do such a thing.

When she was a small child, back with her adopted parents, she also had a friend who was very gentle with her; often being a tall wall of don’t you dare bully her.

She frowned to herself as she thought about him, lips slimming as she bit them.

She genuinely hoped that he was okay as they had been friends right up until the middle of high school; before he had to move schools due to his family moving away from the city.

He was also a hybrid and one of the few hybrids that she had ever come across, friendship-wise at least.

A ridiculously tall Bullmastiff hybrid that had already started to develop broad shoulders and a shy but confident demeanor which only made him more protective of her.

Grabbing a hold of her soft left ear, she began to stroke it sadly as she remembered how they used to hold hands and compare their tails whenever they were in a ‘random mood’; he often taught her about hybrid customs as she wasn’t familiar.

He came from a whole pack of hybrids, whereas she was brought up by humans; very kind humans.

She was often flustered that he seemed so excited about the fact she was a Dalmatian and had to hide her face in her hands whenever he fawned over her.

“Your spots are so pretty, you shouldn’t be ashamed of them,” he smiled brightly at her as he knelt before her, trying to get a look at her face which was all red and itchy from crying.

Children were cruel; especially to those who were different.

“But they cover my skin,” she whispered as she touched her face where a large black patch sat around her eye; she then waved her legs around, pulling the leg of her trousers up, “I look like I’ve been beaten,” she stuttered and quickly hid in her arms as she broke down in tears again.

The Mastiff paused as he eyes her leg, breath catching as he noticed that she had tried to use something to hide her spots, his ears and tail falling sadly.

“Please look at me,” he urged with a gentle nudge of her elbow, “Hey, c’mon I know you like looking at me,” he grinned as she laughed at his joke and soon her eyes met his once again.

“Your spots are a part of you and you, are great,” he buried his hand in his school blazer pocket to find his pack of tissues, handing one to her, “if they can’t accept that then that is their problem; you don’t need everybody to like you and I know it hurts when somebody doesn’t,” he offered another gentle smile, “but you can’t please everybody and your time is much better spent on those who you know like and love you,” he arched his eyebrow when his tail wagged ever so slightly, but ignored it.

“I guess,” she whispered with a sad smile, “I’m just fed up with being picked on,” she added as the Mastiff got to his feet, groaning at the strain on his legs from the awkward position he had been in.

“I’ll come with you if you’re ready to report them,” he rubbed the back of his neck, “Nobody should have to put up with that shit,” he smiled as she giggled again at his swearing, a habit that she had started to pick up on.

“I don’t want to get people in trouble,” she waved her hand a bit and jumped when he gently caught it and held her hand.

“They did something wrong; they shouldn’t get away with it,” he squeezed her hand watching her carefully as she fell into silent thoughts, “only when you’re ready,”

It didn’t take her long to nod at him; making their way to their homeroom.

“Thanks, Yunho,”

Felix stretched as he finished making some food for them (instant noodles with boiled bottled water), pausing as he noticed the Dalmatian hybrid deep in thought; a sad expression on her face.

Sharing a quick look with Minho, who was currently trying to improve the few weapons they had by gluing or taping cutlery to them, he gently put his hand on her shoulder; making her jump.

“You okay?” he tilted his head with a soft expression, and she felt her face heat up under his gaze.

“Yeah, just thinking about things,” she answered quietly, fingers picking at her tail now.

Loud scratching sounds and moaning echoed from above, clearly, Miss Lorn and her boyfriend had turned.

It was a shame, Miss Lorn had been routing for her and Felix to finally get together.

“I should make a trip back to the building soon,” Minho yawned before slurping up some noodles, making her cringe a bit, “the vending machines have so many things in them, and we have fruit vending machines too, so it isn’t all crap,” he waved his chopsticks around in the air as he spoke and the action made Felix grin.

“Hyung,” Felix started with a sigh, “if you are going back to that building, then we are all going back to that building,” he pointed out with a firm tone and then looked to the Hybrid, “No splitting up this time either, I can’t handle that again,” he admitted and flushed a deep red when his free hand was grabbed by her.

“I don’t think any of us can,” Minho explained, and the admission seemed to catch Felix by surprise as his eyes widened, teeth soon showing in an affection smile which only made Minho regret speaking as he suddenly became a bit shy under the gaze of his younger friend.

“Shut up,” he muttered making the other two laugh.

“Let’s save the trip for a few more days, we have enough food and enough bottled water to last until then,” she flinched at the spiciness of her noodles and immediately felt her nose start to run as she tried to calm her body down, “honestly, I think the only things we are low on are toilet paper and,” she cleared her throat feeling a bit awkward, “ladies things,” she sniffed loudly as she began to pant quietly at the spiciness still coursing through her mouth.

“Ladies things,” Minho nodded his head as if he was keeping that information, “right,” he added making Felix shake his head.

“Hyung, you don’t have sisters, do you even know what she means by that?” Felix asked with genuine curiosity before yelping when Minho flicked the side of his head.

“I have a mother and a brain,” Minho looked at her with a determined look on his face, “I’ll make sure to look in the women’s restroom, I know that they have those machines in there,” he noticed that she became more relaxed at the information despite currently looking incredibly uncomfortable with the noodles.

“Why do you have spicy noodles when you clearly can’t handle them?” he laughed when she let out a puppy whine in between her panting and she quickly rushed to the water bottles, downing half of it.

“She doesn’t like the fact that she can’t have spicy food; she knows that it’s tasty and that makes her eat it,” Felix explained with an eye roll.

“Shut up,” she pouted and nudged the back of his head with hers, “not my fault that you and Minho have iron tongues,” she grinned at the laughter that came from them, and she could almost mistake this for a normal day.

One without creatures from horror media running around the place with their flesh falling off.

“But seriously,” Minho started, and she immediately felt the light-hearted atmosphere die, “we need to go back to the building, get the supplies, women’s bathroom,” he pointed at her, “we also need to figure out how to find the others,” he looked to Felix who nodded with a melancholy expression.

“I am pretty sure that we can find Changbin and Hyunjin close by,” swirling his noodles in thought, Minho puffed out his cheeks in frustration as he tried to remember when he had last met up with them, “the only issue is getting to their part of town,”

“Why is that?” she asked taking her seat once more and braving the spice.

“Usually, we need to take a train to get to them,” Felix answered with a very worried tone, “the easiest way to get there would be to go through the train tunnel because it just leads right there without having to jump over fences and ducking and diving into hiding spots,” he added, taking a small sip of his water.

“It’s super dark in the tunnels though and the electricity isn’t exactly reliable at the moment,” Minho groaned slumping in his chair.

“We have the lights on our phones though?” Felix noted, “The internet is down but our phones can still function without the internet,” he explained but then paused as he checked his phone, just to see how little battery he had left.

“Do you guys have any flashlights?” Minho asked watching as the hybrid got to her feet and searched the cupboard under the kitchen sink.

“We do,” she answered with a slight cheer and tested the switch just to make sure, her face falling a bit as the light was quite dimmed due to the old batteries and she continued her search for the jar of charged batteries she and Felix had kept.

“Here,” she smiled as she showed them how bright it now was with new batteries before switching it off, “I can also help,” she pointed to her eyes, “My eyes are a lot more dog-like than human and they can see well in the dark; so any area that isn’t lit by a light, I can see for all of us,” she beamed at the smiles that were now looking at her.

“You hybrids are honestly, a gift,” Minho slurped up some victory noodles, eyeing Felix as his younger friends' gaze stayed on the hybrid girl.

“I wouldn’t say that,” she replied with a quiet voice, clearly quite flustered at the comment, “I’d just thank biology,”

“You’re amazing,” Felix insisted quickly and gently nudged her leg with his foot, “take the compliment,”

She simply nodded bashfully as they settled down to finally finish their food.

----------------

“Don’t,” she whispered as she noticed Minho’s hands coming close to opening the front door; her finger pressed to her lips and her ear firmed against the door as she listened for danger.

“I think somebody has broken out of their apartment,” she kept her voice low, “I can hear so many footsteps out in the corridor, but I can’t fully tell what floor the noise is on,” she chewed her bottom lip and Felix placed a comforting hand on her shoulder when she knelt back down to listen more.

“If you think it’s unsafe, we stay,” Felix reassured her and he looked to Minho who just nodded in agreement, clearly staying quiet to try and listen as well.

“Wait,” she waved her hand at them both to silence them.

Her eyes closed as she tried to focus on the small, whining noise from a few apartments down, the voice was very familiar to her and they were crying out for help.

“Somebody is asking for help,” she let out a response whine to let the other know they had been heard.

“I can’t hear anybody?” Minho frowned as he tried to arch his head in a different direction to try and hear better.

“Me either,” Felix agreed.

“No, no,” she shook her head, “it’s another dog,”

“Another hybrid lives on this floor?” Felix said with a surprised, wide-eyed expression.

“It’s Pepie,” she stated with another whine, “he’s on his own,” she looked to the two men currently staring down at her.

“Wait, Pepie as in Pepie the Yorkshire Terrier, Pepie?” Felix finally connected the dots and then smiled in disbelief, “you can communicate with full dogs?” he asked with a small laugh and she nodded.

“You never told me that!”

“It never came up!”

“Guys,” Minho hissed and pushed his hand down as a signal to keep their voices down, “are we saving this dog?” he asked with a look on his face that told everyone he had already decided that they were.

“I’m doing this by myself, they’re only a couple of doors down,” she stated and got to her feet, looking at Felix when he grabbed her wrist.

“Together or you stay here,” he stated firmly and although she wanted to argue, she knew there wasn’t much point; especially when she looked at Minho and found that he shared the same expression as Felix.

“Okay, but please,” she sighed, “let me go out first so I can try and pinpoint where these arseholes are,”

Slowly opening the front door, she peered her head out, baton now in her hand a squeaky toy for a distraction in the other.

Nothing moved in the corridor, but she knew that they could easily hide in the shadows.

The lights had been flickering on and off for several days now and the sound had been getting on her nerves but during the small window when the lights were on, she could see silhouettes wandering around outside the double doors that led to their corridor.

“Right side, clear,” she whispered and noted the hums that answered her back.

Looking to the left had never been so anxiety inducing as she could already smell a significant amount of blood and something coming from that direction.

She could see a few small piles of remains littering the corridor, chunks of grey-ish flesh drying out as they had been left by the zombies, clearly even zombies had a desired taste.

“Left isn’t” she noted upon finally being able to see two zombies staring at the wall together, heads snapping backward and forwards as if they were glitching, the clunk of their teeth making her shrink into herself.

“How many?” came Minho’s voice.

“Two,” she replied, “if we sneak, we could take them down quietly,” she suggested and all three of them came out of the apartment crouching; Felix made sure to close the front door but left it unlocked so they could hurry back if anything went wrong.

“Out of the way,” Minho pushed them behind him protectively as he practically crawled towards the two zombies, barbed wire bat twirling in his strong hands.

Both Felix and her held their breath as they watched Minho bravely trudge forward, a mess of blood smearing against his shoes and up his trousers.

The smell of the gunk he was sneaking through made him stop; having to swallow down his vomit as he pushed himself forward and as soon as he got to the zombies, he lunged at them.

The bat made a satisfying clunk as they smashed into the heads of the creatures, black blood and melted skin sticking to the walls as their bodies fell.

“Go, go,” Felix patted her back before hurrying forward to where Minho was staring at the bodies, “you good?” he touched Minho’s arm and the other man looked to him with a tired smile.

“Yeah,”

Peering behind them, they noticed that she had been pressing her ear to each door she went passed, clearly not sure where Pepie lived, exactly.

“Pep?” she whispered and let out the quietest whine she could muster, hoping she wouldn’t draw the attention of the zombies on the other side.

“Hybrid Lady?”

She gasped as she heard the whimpering coming from apartment 8J and placed her hand on the handle, testing it to see if it was unlocked, and to her disbelief, it was.

“Pepie, it’s Hybrid Lady and two friends,” she made sure to make that known as she knew he’d most likely panic and start barking and that was the last thing that they needed right now.

When she got the door open, she nearly let out a shriek when a small brown and grey bundle charged at her and landed in her arms, shaking and licking her face in gratitude.

“You came to get me, thank you!” he whimpered, and she shared a sad but comforting whine with him, “my mum and dad didn’t come home, I’ve been stuck in there with my brother, Harvey,”

This piqued her interest, and she tilted her head to the side.

“Harvey?” she looked to Felix and Minho who were watching the two of them with utter confusion on their faces.

“He’s a bunny,” Pepie let out a mumph as he spoke, “in a cage,”

“There’s a rabbit in there,” she informed them, and Felix immediately went in with Minho quickly following.

“Do you guys have food in there?” she asked and this time, Pepie was the one to til his head to the side.

“In the cupboard above the toaster,” he informed her, and she slowly made her way in, struggling a bit with the weight of the dog.

Pepie was a bigger Yorkshire Terrier, being just slightly smaller than a fully grown Cocker Spaniel.

“Guys, they have food in that cupboard!” she pointed to the one Pepie had told her about and Minho ordered Felix to go, clearly quite enamored with the bunny in the cage that he was holding.

It didn’t take that long to finally, get back inside their apartment and they piled their usual barricade up against the front door.

Pepie was currently nosing at the cage, making sure his brother was okay and his soft chuffs made her look over with a warm feeling in her heart at the sight.

There was still much more life out there, that wasn’t just humans and hybrids, but that were just as important.

“So,” Felix grunted as he offloaded the dog and rabbit food onto the kitchen counter, his hands on his hips, “you can talk to dogs?” he chuckled feeling quite exhausted.

“Well...those who speak the language!” she pointed out with a slight annoyance in her tone as she remembered the time she had gone to France and couldn’t understand a very lost Poodle, who was asking for help.

“Is it all animals?” Minho asked as he knelt by the rabbit cage and wiggled his finger at the lionhead, who hopped over, and both nibbled and licked at him.

“Just dogs,” she replied with melancholy as she also looked at the rabbit, wondering what he was saying.

“Hyung is in love,” Felix whispered with a giggle, and she shared that thought, also giggling, catching Minho’s murderous gaze.