#krisho fic

However this particular wolf seems to have taken a liking to him which should perhaps terrify Junmyeon in some fashion, but he’s always been a stubborn hybrid and it’s probably that trait which gets him into trouble more times than most. Bunnies should be docile. It’s in their nature; it’s how centuries of breeding has led them to behave, to develop characteristics that Junmyeon loathes.

The trembling when he’s afraid is one of them. Junmyeon shakes from head to foot and glares at the pack who have stumbled in off the street reeking of pheromones and seeking the warmth of the tiny café. They leer at him, all three of them, making obscene gestures and Junmyeon stands behind the counter, trapped and forced to endure their loud comments about his soft, floppy ears and whether he has a matching white tail under his pants. Dickheads.

They close in around the counter, dressed in their stupid knockoff leather jackets that look like they came from a thrift store and black gloves with the fake semi-solid spikes on them. Junmyeon narrows his eyes and hates everything about them. But he forces himself to speak politely.

“What can I get you?”

The tallest of the three has an eyebrow ring and Junmyeon wants ever so badly to yank it out. The wolf sneers and ignores the big menu behind Junmyeon, instead raking his eyes over the bunny hybrid like he’s sizing up a meal. His sharp grey ears are perked forward with interest. “Whadda ya offering?”

Junmyeon grits his teeth, locking every muscle he has to keep the trembling at bay. Fuck his instincts around predator animals. “What’s on the menu behind me,” he shoots back firmly. “So pick something or leave.”

The second reaches out a lazy hand, swiping at Junmyeon’s apron just as the door chime tinkles behind him. “Don’t be such a prude. We’re only having fun.”

And Junmyeon knows that. He knows how good he smells to these idiots, how much he radiates a  soft pheromone cloud that makes everyone think of warmth and food and companionship. It’s why so many bunnies were in hospitality these days. But it also draws the worst out in assholes who can’t control their baser instincts. Junmyeon isn’t a plaything. He’s here to work and if only he could stop shaking like a leaf… He shoots the pack a dirty look.

“I don’t care. Order or get the hell out. I don’t have time for games.”

The third cackles, slapping his companions on the backs. He’s bigger than the rest. “Look at him being so brave! Oh jesus it’s cute. He’s about to pass out.”

Junmyeon’s hands have clenched into fists and he tries to keep his voice steady. The coffeeshop is otherwise empty at this hour of the morning and because Junmyeon often works alone there’s not even anyone he can call on if these three decide to make a fuss.

“You heard him,” a voice says from behind the pack. “Yang, Jo, Hahn, back the fuck down.”

The three men turn sharply as a fourth appears, dressed just the same and okay… that must have been who walked in a second ago. Junmyeon had been too preoccupied to notice. The wolf is big like the rest, far taller than Junmyeon and as he stalks around the group they hunch at just his words. Junmyeon realises with a sinking feeling that he knows what it means.

“Alpha,” Junmyeon mutters respectfully, averting his eyes. Every wolf pack has one and this one looks angry. His sleek black ears are pinned back on the top of his head, eyes narrowed. But just as Junmyeon expects to really have the worst day of his life the man turns on his companions.

“You bunch of fucking useless betas.” The alpha’s voice drops into a growl and anger rolls off him in hot, billowing waves. “Didn’t your sires teach you any respect?”

Each brute ducks as if the words are actual physical blows and in a world of strict pack hierarchy they might as well be. Three on one and they all behave like they just got kicked in the metaphorical balls which is nothing short of astonishing to watch. They’ve fucked up big time and if their alpha knows them by name there will certainly be formal repercussions. Junmyeon keeps his head down so that no one can see how shocked and pleased he is at that thought.

“Out. Now.”

There’s the sound of multiple boots clunking heavily towards the door and Junmyeon takes his first full breath of the last fifteen minutes as they leave, feeling his whole chest expand wearily. But then a hand closes around his chin and Junmyeon’s breathing stops.

His face is raised and Junmyeon is forced to look up into a pair of striking hazel eyes. His heart does a weird twisty thing as they narrow.

“Are you okay?”

Junmyeon can see the decorations on the black glove in his peripheral vision. The hand angles his face from side to side with surprising gentleness as its owner continues, “Did they hurt you?”

Junmyeon’s own floppy ears are still flat with fear and the man’s other hand comes up, trying to lift the white ears into a happier perk. Junmyeon is too afraid to speak, not sure what’s quite going on. Did this wolf save him only to mess with Junmyeon himself? The man’s mouth drops into a disappointed twist.

“They really did a number on you huh?”

That’s what brings Junmyeon back to himself. “I-I’m fine.” With a wrench he pulls himself away, leaning back so the counter is more firmly between them. Immediately the wolf holds up both hands and a trace of pheromones fill the air. The small room smells of dark, heady forest. Junmyeon blinks. Is he… trying to calm him? Junmyeon lifts one ear very slowly.

The man smiles. “That’s better. You’re going to be okay. Go sit down for a while.”

Bunnies are prone to fainting. Another thing Junmyeon hates with a passion. But he realises that his legs are probably on the verse of atrophying from all the panic so he sinks onto the stool he has nearby for quiet times without customers. Just for a moment, he tells himself. The wolf looks pleased and stalks over to take a table by the entranceway. He sits down and rests his crossed arms on the wood, leaning his chin on them to keep Junmyeon in view. At first Junmyeon thinks he’s just giving him space but as he slowly gets his pulse under control and watches the other man in silence, he sees those black ears flick back and forth occasionally as he listens to the noise on the street.

Guarding, Junmyeon realises with a start. He’s guarding the door.

Junmyeon doesn’t quite know what to do with that information. No one has ever… Well he knows of predator species who are hired to be bodyguards to famous prey hybrids, but that’s work. They take pheromone blockers and everything to make sure their instincts are properly controlled. They’re professionals. Junmyeon knows with the scent he keeps picking up that this guy most certainly isn’t on any blockers. The whole shop smells like territorial alpha. Junmyeon is going to need to air the whole fucking place after he leaves.

Which speaking of… Junmyeon knows this will apparently only happen once the wolf thinks he’s okay. So folding his hands in his lap Junmyeon follows the breathing exercises he knows are good for calming his stupid instincts. It’s a little hard when he’s being watched but he manages it after a long battle with whether or not to close his eyes. (He just can’t.) Time ticks by and it seems like this guy has nothing better to do than ensure Junmyeon is feeling okay which is all kinds of ridiculous. But Junmyeon rolls with it because this day couldn’t get any more weirder.

Finally after what feels like way too long to be appropriate, Junmyeon is no longer trembling and he feels steady enough to speak without tripping over his words.

“Who are you?”

One sharp ear flicks away from the street towards him. “Kris.”

Junmyeon nods slowly, wiping his hands on his apron. “Kris. I’m Junmyeon. Thank you for…” saving me. Junmyeon has never used that phrase in his life. He hates the weakness it implies. “…helping. I really appreciate it.”

Kris lifts his head from the little perch he’s made for himself and now that he’s not terrified Junmyeon wants to kick himself for the random thought that runs across his brain that okay, he’s actually kind of handsome under all that eyeliner and leather. (So sue him, Junmyeon knows he shouldn’t be looking but he’s not blind.)

And this wolf has actually gone out of his way to help him. Junmyeon is more practiced than most at telling his societal instincts to take a back seat and he does so now, giving the guy a curious once over out of the corner of his eye. He’s tall and broad and for some reason able to pull off the popped collar on his jacket that should have been just as pathetic as the boys from earlier. But Kris makes it work. Which mildly unnerves Junmyeon because he shouldn’t be looking at a wolf and noticing this. If bunnies occupied positions of entertainment and hospitality then wolves dealt in bloodshed and violence. There was a place in society for all hybrids and never should the any of the lines cross. Junmyeon knows this like his life depends on it because more often than not it does. Wolves picked up the work no one else wanted with a fierceness and pack mentality that made them experts at it.

Which means Kris is dangerous. And in a position of power that unequivocally means he had to kill to get there. But for all that  Junmyeon is incredibly, helplessly struck by Kris’ eyes. So hard and sharp when he walked in, they were twin pinpoints of anger directed at the rudeness of his pack. Now though… they’re golden. Which is something Junmyeon has never seen before.

Kris sees him staring because he smirks, pushing up to stand. Junmyeon immediately hops off his stool and fusses with the rows of paper cups on the countertop just for something to do. He can stand. He’s not defenceless. The wolf needs to know this.

But Kris doesn’t approach the counter again like Junmyeon expects him to. Instead he saunters over to the front door and opens it. Pausing there he seems to hesitate and Junmyeon can’t figure out why. Wolves never hesitate. Finally Kris seems to come to a decision in his head because he looks back at Junmyeon.

“You look prettier with your ears up like that.”

Junmyeon immediately looks away, feeling a wash of heat from head to foot. He can feel his ears twitch, self-conscious at the complement because he has relaxed enough to have both of them up without realising it and Kris laughs. It’s a dark sound and should be cold, but Junmyeon shivers at it.

“See you around, brave bunny.”

Kris leaves, closing the door quietly behind himself. Junmyeon waits until his silhouette passes by the windows and then sinks down and thunks his head on the counter.

* * *

Junmyeon is knee-deep in before-class coffee orders, totalling them up as fast as he can and then getting to work on making each cup, flicking back and forth between the two with a speed that slowly becomes almost hypnotic. Cash order, start coffee, swap back and cash another, flip back and top first order off, start second, back to the register, tally up the third, hand out the first cup, go back and start the third, topping off the second. It’s calming in its repetition and Junmyeon loves it.

So when he bounces back to the register and asks for the next customer’s order he’s already hovering a hand over the touch screen when the answer makes him freeze.

“Black coffee, no sugar.”

Junmyeon flicks his eyes up, still as a statue before he makes the conscious decision to force his muscles to move again. Because he knows that voice. Not trusting himself to speak, Junmyeon silently tallies up the order with fingers that are actually steady, surprised beyond belief that he didn’t smell Kris before he got this close. But when he tries to subtly scent the air there’s not a single trace of the woodsy pheromones that Junmyeon may have spent far too long trying to forget. And most certainly not think about when he was in bed because his traitorous brain doesn’t see wolf, it sees handsome. So Kris had taken blockers today. Was he… working?

Kris smiles when Junmyeon doesn’t speak. “Hi bunny,” he coaxes, tone mild.

Junmyeon almost drops the coffee he has already in his hand for the customer ahead of Kris, managing to stutter out an apology as he fumbles it over. Shooting a look at Kris, Junmyeon clears his throat. Those damn eyes.

“Five fifty.”

Kris calmly hands over the exact cash, tucking his gloved hands into his pockets as he sidles over to make room for the person behind him and Junmyeon curses how hyper fucking aware he is of the wolf’s presence in the room when it’s full of squirming, harried customers. He tries to recover his soothing rhythm from before but he can feel Kris watching and that throws him. Junmyeon curses everything. Focus.

Kris doesn’t help matters by being perfectly docile, standing there quietly like every other customer. It makes Junmyeon itch from head to toe in nervous curiosity. To everyone else Kris just looks like any other wolf but Junmyeon can see as he flicks out little glances while he starts the drink that there’s a bulge at Kris’ waist, breaking the line of his leather jacket. He’s armed. Whatever he’s doing, it’s official today. Pack business perhaps? Junmyeon finds he actually wants to know, but there’s too many people around for him to smoothly ask so hey, why are you packing heat?

Junmyeon takes the next order, returns to the dark coffee that’s finally finished dripping from the filter and caps it off. He starts the next order, returns to the register and quietly holds the plastic-lined paper cup out to Kris. Junmyeon intends for that to be the end of it; to turn away and move on but that goes to shit when Kris’ fingers brush his.

Kris says nothing, poker-faced and cold - but his ears perk forward happily. It almost makes Junmyeon laugh because it’s so unexpected a contrast and he’s so startled that his own ears pop up, just the tips flopping over.

Now Kris smiles. Reaching out he brushes a finger under Junmyeon’s slack-jawed chin, turning away with a wink and a thanks, bunny.

Junmyeon messes up his orders for the first time that day, mind going a million miles an hour. One of his regulars comments that Junmyeon smells particularly soft and it startles him so much that he doesn’t know quite what to do with himself.

* * *

It happens again. And again.

Junmyeon finally can’t take it any more after a week of what becomes this routine. Kris comes in, orders a plain black coffee with no milk or sugar, looks like he’s just checking that Junmyeon is happy and well, sometimes renders Junmyeon speechless with his gentler side and then leaves again silently. It’s driving Junmyeon up the wall.

“This is the most boring coffee order ever!” he shoves it at Kris on about the tenth day of doing this. “Don’t you have tastebuds? We have a million varieties here.”

“Oh,” Kris looks down at the cup in his hands. He’s mistimed his arrival in the morning rush and it’s quieter today. “Uh…” He pulls both his lips into his mouth and stares down at the universe’s dullest coffee. Junmyeon cocks an ear and waits. His question seems to have caught the wolf off guard. Finally.

Kris huffs out an embarrassed laugh and Junmyeon’s second ear goes up because he’s never heard Kris laugh before. Or seen him anything other than suave and in control. It’s… nice. Kris rubs the back of his head, shuffling on the spot before he places the coffee back down on the counter. He’s not taken blockers today and his scent is incredibly warm. Junmyeon has been trying so hard not to react to it since Kris walked in.

“What?” Junmyeon looks between it and it’s owner. “You don’t want it now?”

“No, I-” Kris makes a funny little sound and his own black ears are drooped slightly, twitchy with… Junmyeon squints. Is he nervous? “I uh. I don’t drink coffee. Normally. So I don’t know what to get.”

Junmyeon can’t help it. He guffaws. Kris shoots him a sharp look and Junmyeon coughs, trying to settle down but jesus fuck this is funny. “You… you don’t-then why the hell have you been buying them every day?”

The gold tinge is back in Kris’ eyes as he flicks them back to Junmyeon. Then they skitter away. “To see you.” Kris finally squeezes out, looking like he’s dragging the words from somewhere deep inside that were never meant to see the light of day. He drops his gaze back to the coffee cup. He pokes the styrofoam lid with a finger. “To check on you.”

Oh this is… this is too cute. Junmyeon feels awash with heat because the whole shop smells of Kris’ sincerity, drifting off him in waves that he can’t control. He’s genuine. Junmyeon breathes it in and tries to dial down just how badly his brain itches to respond to that because he rather stupidly wants to throw caution to the wind and pick up what Kris is offering but he… he shouldn’t.

Wolves don’t take care of bunnies. Both of them know this as firmly as breathing. Hybrid relationships outside of their own kind are… they’re complicated. So Junmyeon smiles politely at Kris’ nervous face and he can see his ears which have been perked forward attentively droop the longer Junmyeon doesn’t respond. The wolf goes from alpha to kicked puppy in a gradual move that makes Junmyeon realise that Kris has really, really put his cards on the table here. Junmyeon wonders if anyone else has ever seen him this vulnerable. The weapon at his hip suggests not.

And that’s what cuts deepest. Kris looks like he’s thinking that this might have been one big mistake and Junmyeon can see him retreating, shoring back up inside that cold shell, the one that leads and kills and washes blood off his hands at the end of a long day and Junmyeon is probably a little too soft to deal with that world right away but if there’s one thing Junmyeon has never been it’s conventional. And if this had even the slightest chance in hell of working… Junmyeon reaches out and taps his finger on top of the one Kris still has on the cup.

“Did… did you want to try another flavour?” Junmyeon tries to convey everything he’s thinking with his scent and his words even if he can’t say them out loud just yet. He’s trembling. “I don’t know if you’ll like it and there’s a big chance that it might not work out, but…” He raises one hopeful ear, cocking his head to the side. “It might be worth a try?”

Kris looks down at him and a puff of happy pheromones envelop Junmyeon like the warmest blanket. He nods, all dark leather and spikes and things Junmyeon doesn’t understand yet. But if he gets the chance to… Junmyeon would perhaps like to learn.

Kris takes Junmyeon’s hand in his, hesitant and so sweet. “Yeah,” he says softly. His eyes are the richest gold Junmyeon has ever seen. “I’d like to try.”

Junmyeon smiles and Kris looks a little awed because he shakes his head, reaching out to stroke a finger down one white ear.

“My brave bunny.”