Mingi wakes up the next day without help from San this time around, or an alarm. That doesn't mean he doesn't spend at least two minutes curled beneath the covers, trying to fend off the outside cold for a little while longer. With winter slowly approaching, he spends his mornings on the brink of shivering most of the time.

And that coupled with his usual penchant for feeling frustrated and combative does not make for a good combination.

I need a hot shower, Mingi thinks with a groan. Not really trusting his motor skills at this time of day, he makes it out the bedroom door extra carefully, not wanting to risk a bruise on his forehead first thing in the morning (as he's experienced that more than once, unfortunately).

Mingi, groggy beyond comprehension, latches on to the bathroom's doorknob and twists it, only for it to not budge. He tries again, and it's then his ears pick up on the recognizable sound of water being spilled in the shower. Someone's in there.

His aunt's work doesn't make her all that enthusiastic to use the bathroom in the mornings, and she also knows he usually showers around this time. With that information currently at the forefront of Mingi's mind, a chill that isn't from the cold rolls down his spine.

Don't tell me --

He pounds on the door. "Who's in there?"

The running water stops, and Mingi presses his ear to the door frame, sincerely hoping it isn't who he thinks it is. He's well aware he's acting super childish right now, but he can't stand it when his routine's unexpectedly tampered with.

There's a moment of utter silence, but soon enough a voice echoes out the door. "It is I, Yunho."

Fucking shit. Mingi wants to punch something.

"Are you in need of anything, or do you want to bother me again?" Yunho continues, his tone having a certain smugness to it.

Mingi knows there's no point in getting mad, especially when it'll only give the elf the reaction he wants. So he inhales, exhales. "When are you stepping out?"

"Whenever I want."

Don't get mad, don't get mad, Mingi repeats to himself like a mantra. He exhales deeply. "If you didn't know, I also have school today, which I have be at in an hour. So if you would please get out really soon, that'd be really appreciated."

There's a pause, and then, "No."

"No?" Mingi nearly exclaims behind the door.

"If you didn't know," Yunho starts, repeating Mingi's words right back at him, "I am an avid fan of taking long baths, as they are quite therapeutic, don't you think? And cutting them short for someone like you would be very regrettable, for me."

Asshole. Mingi bites back the many, many cuss words threatening to topple out his lips. "You better get out soon, or I'll -- "

"You'll what?" Yunho interrupts, his deep voice suddenly sounding a whole lot more serious. It catches Mingi off-guard, his mind drawing a blank.

"It's called taking a shower," Mingi says after a beat, wanting to get the last say no matter what.

"What?"

"You're not bathing. You're taking a fucking shower."

With that, Mingi stomps off, not bothering to hear Yunho's response to that. Since the elf's decided on hogging the bathroom all to himself for now, Mingi figures the best thing to do at this point is to make himself some fucking breakfast.

He's in an indescribably shitty mood, so he yanks the cupboards open for some cereal.

Finding one that looks appetizing enough, he angrily washes down a bowl and a spoon, cursing the elf in the bathroom to hell and back for doing him like this. It's then he remembers his words -- or orders -- from last night as clear as day.

Because if you choose to remain bad-tempered, I will act the same to you.

Mingi scoffs out loud as he dries off the bowl and dumps some cereal into it.

"Woah, what's up with you today?" someone comments behind him, and Mingi scoffs again before turning to face his aunt. She's yawning, rubbing the sleep off her eyes.

"Someone's in the bathroom right now hogging all the space, so here I am, making myself some cereal even though I hate eating before showering," Mingi replies, opening the fridge for some milk. "And, this might even make me late for school."

"...Oh," his aunt says. She looks as though she's now realized something. "Must be why he did that."

"Did what?" Mingi questions, brows furrowed.

Gia's lips press into a firm line, an expression that seems quite apologetic plastered on her face. "Yunho asked me last night about what time you usually woke up for school."

Mingi freezes up. "What?"

"But I didn't know something like this was gonna happen," his aunt rushes to explain herself, pushing a red strand of hair back into her lazy bun. "I just thought he was interested in knowing more about you, as you're both around the same age."

Mingi doesn't even know what to say, choosing to pour the milk into the bowl before he loses his sanity.

"Maybe he just felt like showering at this time?" His aunt shrugs.

"He's clearly retaliating," Mingi snaps, then realizes he probably should've just kept his mouth shut because the woman is now staring right at him, her features stern.

"Retaliating?" His aunt repeats, before crossing her arms. "Mingi, honey, what did you do?"

"I didn't do anything," Mingi answers a bit too quickly, shoving a spoonful of cereal into his mouth for good measure.

He heads for the dining table before his aunt can stop him, but he feels her heavy eyes on him all the same.

"You so did something last night," Gia says, her tone leaving no room for excuses. It's times like these that Mingi remembers she's his aunt, a much older relative of his even though she looks and acts like an older sister to him a lot of the time. "Tell me what you did."

And while Mingi isn't one to feel guilty often, he does feel cornered, because yeah, he did act like a dick. But before he can scramble to get himself out of this early morning predicament, the door bell rings.

San.

"I'll get it!" Mingi yells, rising so quick he almost topples his chair over. As a result a bit of his cereal spills over the bowl causing a mess. And when he decides to rush to the door to open it, his big toe slams into one of the table legs, a sharp pain shooting up his foot at the contact.

Ow ow ow ow. Mingi kinda wants to sit on the floor and bawl from the pain, but he knows his aunt is still watching, and he knows San is still outside the door, waiting to be let in.

San's smiling face is the first thing that greets Mingi when he unlocks the door, but his expression falters when he sees the chaotic state of his taller friend. And the fact that he looks this close to crying.

"Mingi, are you okay?" San asks, but Mingi quickly shushes him.

"Don't ask anything, just enter," Mingi replies. He steps aside to let San in, only for a fresh set of tears to sting the back of his eyeballs.

"Shit, your toe's bleeding," San announces right then, brown eyes as wide as saucers.

"Your toe's bleeding?" Gia questions from the kitchen.

"No, my toe isn't bleeding," Mingi counters, even though his big toe feels pretty warm and sticky right now.

"Whose toes are bleeding?" A new voice enters the conversation, familiar in the sense that it drives Mingi up the wall whenever he hears it.

He turns just as his aunt gasps, and he doesn't really know how to react at what he sees.

Yunho's in the middle of it all, donned in this fluffy robe that Mingi's definitely sure he's worn before (what is it with this guy wearing his things), but that isn't that catches his attention the most.

It's his fucking hair.

Yunho's hair is as long as ever, strikingly blond and bright and flowing everywhere as if it's floating. It's like a freaking lion's mane. No, make it three lions's manes.

Noticing that everyone's eyes are on him at that moment, an abashed blush coats Yunho's cheeks as he nervously chuckles. "Um, I have always wondered why I've never once had to bathe in relatively hot, steamy water. Now I think I know why."

"Oh my god," Gia utters, stepping closer to him. Even with her tall height, the elf prince still towers over her. "How the hell do we fix this?"

"I think cooling down his hair would work," San suggests. "Yunho, you confirmed you're moon-touched, right? I think some cold water could help, or cold air."

"Dumping that amount of hair in cold water would take forever to dry, so I guess I'm gonna have to use my trusty hair-dryer that's never failed me all these years," Mingi's aunt responds, cracking her knuckles.

But before she can go get her hair dryer, Yunho's suddenly shortening the space between him and Mingi.

Mingi freaks out at the reduced distance between them, and it's then he notices the elf is looking at his feet, specifically his injured toe.

Yunho's eyebrows are knotted, and like he's in a trance, he kneels before Mingi and stretches out his hand.

Mingi's heart races as the veins in Yunho's hand start to sparkle, a vivid green like his eyes. The effect is instant: a pleasant warmth engulfs his toe as the bloody wound on it promptly closes up. What the --

"Woah," San comments, sounding as awed as he looks. Even Mingi's aunt is astonished where she stands, speechless.

And Mingi, Mingi is uncomfortable, specifically with how Yunho went out of his way to heal him. Even though Yunho isn't actually touching him, Mingi feels nothing less than exposed right then, especially with how the elf's watching him now.

Oh my god. Mingi takes a step back, and clears his throat. "I uh, I gotta go bathe. I mean -- I gotta go take a shower."

"What about your cereal -- " Gia's asking, but Mingi's already heading into the corridor, leaving three highly perplexed people behind.

• • •

For the remainder of the week, Mingi avoids Yunho like the fucking plague.

He wakes even earlier than usual so he can shower without getting interrupted (even though he doesn't think the elf prince has ever attempted showering in the morning after the catastrophe that occurred on Tuesday). He eats as quickly as he can, or eats in his room to avoid having to see Yunho any more than he has to. And whenever he sees Yunho around at night he swiftly heads back into his bedroom, hoping the tall elf doesn't try to talk to him.

Of course, Mingi's evasive actions are noticed by Gia, but the institution she works in takes most of her attention, leaving her absent a majority of the time.

Mingi's known of her unorthodox job since she legally became his guardian, known of the way she and other select humans offered shelter and refuge to otherworldy creatures that had some trouble in their homelands. Either that, or they worked at improving the living conditions of those creatures.

It's made Mingi wonder more than once about the real reason Yunho's here in the first place.

"Ugh, don't think about him," Mingi mutters into his arm.

"Don't think about what?" San questions from where he's positioned on the floor, snug in his sleeping bag. It's Friday night, and they both decided San could sleep over since he kinda needed to get out of his house at the moment.

Mingi blinks. "Nothing."

"Suurree," San says, sitting up with his back pressed against the wall. He's wearing those round glasses he uses whenever he's gonna be reading for a while.

"I mean it, San," Mingi says, rolling around to face his friend. "It's nothing."

San's eyes are inquisitive, and Mingi knows it's only a matter of time before he figures out what's bothering him. Or rather, who's bothering him.

"...Is it Yunho?" San says after a couple seconds.

"No." But Mingi knows he isn't fooling anyone.

San shuts the fantasy book he'd been reading, an enemies to lovers fiction about Mons or something. "He isn't the first otherwordly your aunt's brought over, you know."

"I know, San," Mingi says, biting his lip. Yes, he's no stranger to the creatures his aunt had brought over the years, but none of them have ever gotten under his skin like Yunho does.

"Does the fact that he looks almost human bother you?" San asks, and Mingi doesn't like how his heart stutters at those words.

Mingi doesn't immediately reply, and San realizes he's right.

"It was easy to distance yourself from the others because you already knew they weren't like us," San continues. "But since Yunho's an elf -- and quite human-like -- it's a lot easier now to empathize with him. And you're uncomfortable with that."

Mingi meets San's gaze, relieved when he doesn't spot any judgement from the teen's expression. Just understanding. "I am uncomfortable."

"I realized you kind of go out of your way to avoid him now. He looked a bit affected by that, you know?"

Mingi exhales deeply, glancing at the ceiling and the many glowing stars plastered on the surface. It's his most favourite part of the room. "It's not my problem, since I don't plan on being friends with him."

"He seems nice, though," San comments, adjusting his specs.

Mingi thinks back to Tuesday when Yunho hadn't hesitated to heal his toe after he'd stupidly injured it, even when Mingi treated him like shit the night before. There's a sinking feeling in Mingi's stomach right then, one he's been more than familiar with since childhood when he realized the body he'd been born in wasn't right.

And Mingi hates it.

• • •

a/n: thoughts?