featherbrain ☆ l.jn ☆ ayakashi series | ✔

jeno [one]

The following week passed without incident, just your normal schedule. The only real change that had happened was that you and Taeyong visited Lenticular Café every day, helping with the clean-up efforts. Some things had to be done by contractors—such as fixing the pipes and flooring Sicheng had burst to restrain Jeno and create the wall of water—but you two helped with whatever you could. Jeno had come by as well to help with the heavy pieces of junk removal, and Sicheng and Yuta dropped by a couple times each as well when they were able to.

This time when you and Taeyong pushed open the brand-new door to Lenticular Café, a smiling Johnny greeted you, beckoning you over to where he was sitting on the floor, papers and binders spread out around him. Not a single table had been spared that night.

You plopped yourself down beside him, Taeyong on your other side. Some of the pages were color palettes, others were stock pictures of tables, chairs, and upholstery.

"I need some interior design help, little lady," Johnny gestured to the pages.

"You're not just going to get the same stuff you had before?" You asked, picking up a couple of the color palette pages, eyes hungrily scanning them.

"We've been needing a change around here, and what better time than now?" He said, looking at you fondly. "Not to mention that I don't think I've seen you look this excited for anything in the time I've known you. That's reason enough for me."

He was right about that. You couldn't fight the eager grin taking over your face, or your eyes lighting up as they greedily took in all the options laid out before you.

☆

It was finally the weekend again, about two weeks after the Wraith attack. You were planning on spending your entire Saturday at Lenticular Café, starting at five in the morning; some of the new furniture was set to arrive that afternoon, and Johnny wanted to finish up the last of the painting work before then. He had also promised breakfast and lunch to whoever came by to help out. That offer would definitely attract most of your little group.

Bagels and various spreads were the promised breakfast, and when you and Taeyong arrived, others were already there, munching on their own food. You let Johnny and Yuta give you hugs before you grabbed your own bagel, settling into the friendly conversation floating around everyone.

Renjun told you all the unfortunate series of events that was his and Johnny's morning—they lived together in the space above the café—which included Johnny literally falling out of bed, Renjun slipping in the shower, and the both of them forgetting payment for the bagels, making Renjun run all the way back home for his wallet. Which was a mile away from the bagel shop. He'd just finished relaying that to everybody when the door opened again, and your entire group turned to look at the newcomer.

"Who would've thought that featherbrain would be up this early?" Taeyong called out at Jeno.

Except Jeno wasn't alone. Entering right behind him was Jaemin. Normally, you'd be ecstatic to see your best friend, especially since you hadn't seen him off-campus in the past two weeks. But this meant that there could be no Ayakashi talk today, no casual existence or mention of all the Ayakashi in the room, and nobody could use their powers to help out.

The usual plan was for Jeno to use his powers to do any heavy lifting, Sicheng helped to wash the floors, Yuta would heal up any injuries sustained—usually from improper use of tools or just general stupidity.

The blinds were always shut, allowing everyone to relax into something between their human form and their true form: Jeno's wings were usually out, Renjun and Sicheng's eyes were their true colors, Taeyong's ears came out. If Johnny happened to bring out some beer later in the day, some of his tattoos would appear, and Yuta's ears and tails would be visible as well. One time, vodka had been brought out, and they'd somehow convinced Sicheng to take a couple shots, making a patch of iridescent ocean blue scales surface on his cheek.