Hybrid Discovery [SKZ fanfiction]| Lee Felix and Bang Chan

Staying over

'Have you seen a black cat?'
Felix is perplexed with the question. Or more, he's perplexed by the audacity the man in front of him has to ask about the cat he clearly abandoned for over ten days.
'You mean Miss Muffles?' Felix asks, not even sure if the neighbor knows the name of his own cat.
The man sniffs and nods. 'Hm, yeah. She's been gone for a few days it seems.'
A few days? Felix can't believe his words.
'She's at my place. It seemed like you weren't home for a few days as well,' Felix spits the last words back at him.
The neighbor doesn't notice or chooses to ignore it. 'Ah, you took care of it?'
It. Felix eyebrow twitches hearing how he refers to the hybrid. Would their neighbors act differently towards her if they knew she was a hybrid? Probably not. They probably would even be worse if they knew, Felix thinks.
'Yeah, she seems to like my other pets. I hope you don't mind that I kept here these days?' He really tries his best to sound unbothered with the neighbor who looks at his phone.
'Nah, for all I care it can wander wherever it wants. My gran asked to look after it, but you know cats. They choose their own paths.'
Oh yeah, "choose" like you chose to lock her up and leave her to die, Felix thinks. He doesn't say anything. He isn't her owner. He can only smile at his neighbor and say; 'Sure thing. If you'll ever search for her, she'll be at my place. I love having her around.' He means every word of it. She's the sweetest to him and his family. Felix doesn't want her to have to go back to people who call themselves "owners" without even properly taking care of their pets.
'You're quite the animal lover, huh?' his neighbor remarks. He looks at Felix with a mix of curiosity and disgust.
He doesn't understand why people care about those stupid animals. They cost money, need to be taken care of and if you're unlucky they puke on your carpet all the time. His ex-girlfriend loved the hairball and at first he tolerated it. Seeing her happy being warmed up by that stupid animal was worth it, but as time came and went the animal cost more than it brought her happiness in his opinion. He wanted to get rid of it, but the animal shelters were full and no one around him was willing to take in a normal cat with hybrids being the rage all around. Sora isn't cruel enough to simply kill the animal. He's human. Killing is a step too far, but he hoped more than once the cat would run away or something.
When he broke up with his ex, she basically begged him to keep the pest. He agreed, only because of his emotions making him feel guilty. After that he couldn't get rid of it when his granny fell in love with it.
'Something wrong with that?' Felix answers his neighbor who seems far off in his own thoughts.
'Oh, no. To each their own. I should thank you for taking care of it. Could I compensate you or something?'
This takes Felix by surprise. The man is willing to pay him to take care of his own cat? He better take care of her himself! But looking at the man, Felix doesn't trust him.
'Here, this is all I can miss at the moment. I'll have to go for another week, so this would actually help me out a lot.'
The neighbor hands him a few money bills and without waiting for an answer he turns around and walks away. Leaving Felix wondering if he should scold the man or just accept it.
He walks back into his living room, staring at the money.
'Who was that?' Seungmin asks him, seeing him stare and frown.
'Hmm? Oh the neighbor,' he mumbles.
Mimu's ears shoot up and the attention of the hybrids shift from her to him. They wait for him to elaborate what happened and Felix sighs before awkwardly smiling. 'It seems you're staying over the rest of the week.

Mimu can't believe it. She doesn't have to worry about her owners for the rest of the week? She can take a break at Felix's? Play to her heart's content with the others? Cuddling up and falling asleep against Changbin or Minho? This is the best week of her life!
She's still shy at times and there's enough to get scared off. Like how Han has some sort of secret agenda to get himself in life and death scenarios. The hamster hybrid either has no depth perception or no fear in his tiny body. He loves to sprint around and take gigantic jumps of furniture with the others catching him almost every time.
'You're no cat!' Minho scolds him every time when Mimu becomes his landing target after running off the kitchen table, forgetting to stop at the end.
Felix punishes him by placing him in the big, blue, plastic ball which makes it more obvious where the hamster is running off to. Not that that keeps him from trying to do dangerous stuff, but at least they can hear where he is.
Mimu also gets scared of the device they call an "electric razor". The boys use it to shave their chins and it makes such a rumbling noise it scares the living hell out of her every time. Same for the vacuum cleaner. And the blender. Pretty much every device that makes a lot of noise.
She also panicked and vanished under the couch for a good two hours when Minho was sharpening the knives in the kitchen. It reminded her of times in the lab, back when she was younger. The sharp sounds resemble the tools the doctors used to examine her and the others. No nice memories.
It was until Chan came to her in his cat form and sat beside her she could relax. They didn't talk about it afterwards when he got back in his human form and Mimu felt somewhat guilty for keeping up with her behavior.

'Aargh, Goddamit! Fuck, for fuck sake!'
Mimu, Jeongin and Seungmin immediately sit up hearing the profusely curses out of the kitchen. It's Hyunjin who runs over to where the sounds come from and Changbin lifts his dog head towards the sliding doors. Also curious about the commotion.
They hear bickering and the yelling gets louder. It's Chan who first sprints out of the kitchen, holding his hand with a pained face.
'Get over here, Chan. I have to see if we need to take you to a doctor,' Hyunjin scolds the black cat hybrid who walks away from him. Minho follows them with a spatula in one hand and the plastic, blue ball with Han in it in his other hand.
'Chan, we need to cool it down,' he says to Chan. 'Let Hyunjin look.'
Chan doesn't seem to be willing. 'No! I don't need to go to a doctor. I'll take care of it myself!' he yells back at them before stumbling off to the bathroom. Leaving the others in the living room wondering what happened.
'You stubborn fool! Get over here!' Hyunjin scolds whilst running after Chan.
They hear the bathroom door slam tight and Hyunjin banging on the door, yelling at Chan to let him in and stop being stupid.
'What happened?' Jeoning asks with confusion.
Minho sighs and tosses the plastic ball over to Seungmin who catches it without trouble. 'Han almost launched himself into the soup. Chan caught him, but burned his hand against the pan.'
Seungmin holds up the ball with the hamster hybrid who seems to be sulking and begging him to let him out.
Seungmin smirks and shakes the ball. 'You're an idiot,' he grins at the hamster. 'Oh don't look angry. Minho tossed you to me, so I can have fun punishing you for your reckless behavior.' He stands up and walks with the ball towards the second bedroom. Mimu glances at him and goes back to the others. She softly mewls.
'Don't worry. He'll probably let him run around until he's so tired he won't even have the energy to revert back to being a human,' Minho explains to her. 'He will miss dinner, but that's what he gets for hurting friends.'
Hyunjin comes back to the living room and angrily huffs when he sits down on the couch. His tongue darts in and out of his mouth uncontrollably.
'I get he has some troubled past with hospitals or something, but he's outright ridiculous for not wanting to receive help.'
Jeongin places a hand on his shoulder to calm him down. 'Is he still in the bathroom?' he asks.
Hyunjin nods. 'Won't be a surprise if he hole himself up in Lix's room till tomorrow,' he sighs.
Mimu hears all this and worries about the other black cat hybrid. It seems like this happens every so often and although she knows every hybrid has its own backstory and troubled past, something feels familiar to the reaction of Chan. He gave off the same fear when she escaped from Minho's knife sharpening the other day.

Later, around three in the morning, she finds herself sitting in the hallway. Staring at the bedroom door of Felix. The human is at work and won't be back until five, thus Bang Chan has claimed the space. She can't sleep and with her pacing back and forth through the small apartment she decided to camp out in front of the bedroom door. The others are in deep sleep in the other bedroom and in the living room. Especially Han who - as predicted- skipped out on dinner to collapse in his enclosure. Seungmin made him run an obstacle course until he finished it under the desired time of Seungmin.
The door opens with a soft click and Chan tries to get out without anyone noticing him. He almost screams but manages to keep himself quiet when he sees two glinting eyes looking at him from the dark.
'Goddammit. You scared the living hell out of me,' he whispers, grabbing at his heart.
Mimu stays silent and looks up to him. He walks past her over to the bathroom and she stays at the same spot. When he comes back he sighs out loud and keeps the door open for her. 'I get it, come in,' he mumbles.
She shyly goes into the room. She mostly stays out of their bedrooms. It's their only private spot and she feels it's intrusive to casually enter. Especially the human's bedroom. But Chan let her in, so it would be okay, right?
She hops on the edge of the bed and sits up, waiting for Chan to sit down as well. He sits down and touches his hand which itches from the burn he got earlier. He notices she's looking at it.
'It's not as bad as it seems,' he tries to convince her. Or himself. He doesn't know at this point.
Mimu stays silent and just looks away to the wall. Not wanting to pressure him into talking, but also not wanting to leave him alone. There's a comfortable silence. Chan lies down on the bed and folds his good hand behind his head. He stares at the ceiling while his thoughts are all over the place. After a while Mimu hears him sighing again before he starts talking.
'I- I have bad memories when it comes to doctors and hospitals,' he starts. 'I think no one has good experiences with those, but for me especially there are... pretty bad memories.'
Mimu turns her ears to him, but doesn't look at him. She simply listens.
'Th-They held me in a lab, not too long ago.' Chan isn't sure what he's saying. He's not even sure if she's listening to him. Maybe he doesn't want to know. It's just him talking to himself. Yeah, that's about right.
'Been there since I was ten. Shit, it's been thirteen years... My parents agreed to send me over with sweet lies about helping research for a better future. I wonder if they ever searched for me after that. At- At the lab, th-they weren't that good to us. Lots of experiments. Lots of deaths. I hate seeing sick people.' He swallows dryly and blinks quickly to stop his eyes from tearing up. Dammit. He's not gonna cry in front of somebody else.
Mimu hears his voice tremble, but stays at the end of the bed.
'I hate the smell of alcohol. It reminds me of the sterilized rooms. Or the sounds of metal objects clashing together. I can only think of scalpels and needles. I hate it. I really hate it.'
Chan shivers remembering the claustrophobic rooms. He could never forget the faces of his researchers. Always wearing masks over their noses and mouths, wearing white uniforms and giving him those dead looks. Although the head doctor had been nice from time to time, others weren't. He remembers a specific intern who was almost obsessed with his progres. Always asking to amp up the dose or making him tip over the edge. He hated him the most out of all those people. Kim... Sam- sam something. He could never forget that man's face, but his name is vague in his head. Luckily for Chan the head doctor always made the intern stop in time. Maybe it's for the best that he doesn't remember his name clearly.
Chan opens one eye when he feels Mimu placing her paw on his cheek. She stares at him before curling herself up in the crevice between his arm and side.
'I-I'm alright now. I escaped that place half a year ago. There was a fire. I managed to escape. Felix and Han found me. It took some time, but I'm happy I'm here with them. They are my family now.'
He softly strokes Mimu's fur with his wounded hand. The skin on the back of his hand is red and still hurts, but it is manageable. Mimu purrs and even lays her head on his chest. Listening to the sound of his heartbeat. It's comfortable for her and calms her down. Listening to Chan's story made her realize how familiar their lives have been. There's that aching pressure again. She wishes she could share her story with them. Only because they've been nothing but good to her upon this point. She trusts them. In this short time together, she feels like they've been with her almost all of her life. They are open minded, caring and very loyal to each other. Above all, they're a family who respects each other and work together. She likes them.

When Felix arrives home he's surprised when he walks into his bedroom. Chan is sleeping in his bed with Mimu curled up against his chest. The other day they were sleeping both in their cat forms and now Chan even lets her sleep against his human form. They look so darn cute together. Felix can't resist it and softly crawls into his bed, careful to not wake them up. It's a bit small for the three of them, especially with two full grown men in the cramped space, but he manages to fit in. Whatever their reasoning might be for claiming his bed, he lets them. It doesn't seem like they're asleep for that long. He wraps one arm around Chan's waist and with the other he pulls his blanket over them. Falling asleep after a long night of work.