Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The suite they eventually settled into only had one bathroom. They all shared it, of course, just like they shared the solitary bathroom in their former apartment, which had been overrun by boxes and trash over the course of their stay. They had minimal need for it: the toilet went entirely unused due to their bodies simply absorbing what they ate and drank, and the need to shower was few and far between with the reduced biological functions of a demon. In many ways, they were like, well… something dead, their internal temperature cool, their sweat minimal, nothing in the way of cell turnover since their bodies were so unchanging, so stagnant. Their hair did grow, but it took an unusually long time. On one hand, that made them very hygienic creatures; on the other, it also made them markedly inhuman, and they had occasionally needed to make excuses for why they ran so cold (“poor circulation,” Jinu had told a TV host. “Its how we found each other, actually; we commiserated over our health issues.”)

Abby became an outlier in the group as someone who showered as much as possible. Sometimes once a day; sometimes twice a day; and if he had the opportunity, he might even squeeze in a third. It pumped up their water bill, but that would have been twice the size if all the Saja Boys had been showering daily anyway. He always had the heat as high as it could go without searing him, steam billowing out from under the crack of the door. A long, sweltering shower that forced some warmth into his bones and left his skin pink for hours. 

His overuse of the shower went unchallenged since no one else used the shower more than once or twice a week, usually after a performance or rehearsal. And then Jinu disrupted his monopoly by starting to shower daily as well.

The first time Abby walked up to the bathroom and found the door locked, he simply backed away and waited until Jinu was done.

The second time, he blinked owlishly at the door, listening to Jinu humming over the spray of hot water. And he could tell it was hot, because steam crept out from under the door just like it did when Abby showered. He hadn't suspected Jinu of mimicking his habits by this point, but it had registered as odd that he'd caught Jinu showering two days in a row.

The third time, he stepped into the bathroom for an evening soak and froze when he found it already occupied. Which in and of itself wasn't unusual, since all five of them shared a bathroom and would occasionally crowd around the mirror to brush their hair and apply makeup before a performance, but Jinu was naked, and walking in on that was a first. 

He'd clearly forgotten to lock the door this time, and Abby should have just leapt right back into the hallway the moment he registered what he was looking at. But his gaze strayed involuntarily down instead and alighted on-

“Holy shit.”

Jinu turned to him, colour steadily gathering in his cheeks. “Are you...?”

“Uh,” said Abby articulately. “No.”

But if the question was ‘looking at my dick’, the answer was a resounding yes, because it was difficult not to look at something so big. Abby’s own cock was proportional to his size, so he wasn’t exactly small himself. But Jinu was something else, monsterously big, so girthy Abby wouldn’t have been able to fit a hand around him and so long it almost looked like a third leg. He had to wonder how Jinu didn’t go around looking perpetually aroused. Did he use illusion magic to hide it? He must have, because Abby didn’t know how else he wouldn’t have noticed how well-endowed Jinu was after several centuries of companionship. 

“Are you done?” said Jinu, looking and sounding even more flustered now. “Or should I stand here a few more minutes while you take it all in?”

Abby blinked, his own cheeks beginning to burn. “Uhm, you’re big.”

“Yes, I’m aware,” said Jinu.

Abby had already thoroughly humiliated himself and should have stopped while he still had some dignity intact, but words continued to spill out of their own accord. “And you’re not even hard,” he said. “That’s just absurd. No one should be that big.”

“No one asked you to look at it,” said Jinu snappishly. He wasn’t making any attempt to hide himself, apparently resigned to his fate - or enjoying Abby’s interest, it was hard to tell. Jinu had always kept his feelings close to his chest. 

“It’s hard not to,” said Abby self-consciously. Could he really be blamed for staring at a cock that looked like it could be used as a landing platform? It was unreasonably big. “How do you even fuck anyone with that?”

Jinu froze, his back stiff, and finally turned away. The tips of his ears were a deep, betraying red.

Oh, thought Abby, dawning realisation hitting him like a brick.

“You-” Abby stumbled over his response. “You haven’t, have you? You haven't had sex?”

“Fuck off, Abby," said Jinu. 

“I thought girls liked big dicks,” said Abby.

“They also like having their womb intact,” said Jinu dryly, turning on the shower and waiting for the water to grow hot. “All of them gave up at the first few inches.”

No surprise there. Jinu’s cock had a lot of inches.

“What about guys?” asked Abby, and he immediately cursed himself for it. This situation was awkward enough without him bringing up sex between two men. 

Jinu’s gaze slid over to him. “What about guys?” he asked right back, a strange edge to his voice now.

“Well, uh… guys are bigger than women, so maybe it could fit in a larger guy?” With every word he spoke, Abby grew more flustered, a fine sweat developing on his brow. His brain-to-mouth filter was malfunctioning horribly today. 

“Uh huh,” said Jinu slowly. “Like you?”

Abby’s throat went dry. He laughed weakly, like he could pass this entire conversation off like a joke; like he hadn't been stealing glances at Jinu's cock since walking in on the man naked. The rest of Jinu wasn’t anything to bat an eye at either, planes of smooth, unblemished muscle, which made Abby's mouth go dry. He had always liked a well-maintained body.

Abby diverted his gaze. “Er, no, I never said that.” 

“Sure,” said Jinu, suspicion in his eyes as he finally stepped under the spray of the shower. Water sheeted over his shoulders and ran down his chest like something out of a damn shampoo commercial, and Abby had to force himself not to watch. “You’ve just been in here five minutes or so staring at and talking about my dick. There’s definitely nothing to read into that.”

Abby had effectively been caught red-handed. “Well, y-you don’t exactly look repelled by the suggestion,” he said accusingly.

“I’m not,” said Jinu, which destroyed any advantage Abby had been scrambling for. He said it so easily, like they weren’t talking about Jinu fucking Abby.

“I- huh?”

“I’m not,” said Jinu again, peeking his face out from under the spray to look Abby head-on. “If you think you can take me, then I’ll have sex with you.”

Abby’s heart thundered in his ears. It’d been so long since he’d last had sex with a man - or anyone, for that matter - that he knew he couldn’t take Jinu. Not right now, at least; not without copious amounts of lubrication and practice, and he was horrified with himself for seriously considering putting himself through a self-stretching regime just so Jinu could fuck him. He wasn’t that desperate for it, surely?

“Absolutely,” he heard himself say. “I can absolutely take you. Just give me two weeks.”

Well then. 

Jinu blinked at him, water dripping off his eyelashes. “Two weeks?”

“Two weeks,” Abby confirmed, still reeling with horror at himself for making such an embarrassing proposition. 

Jinu was so reserved he wasn’t sure he’d agree, but amazingly, he said, “Alright,” and retreated back under the spray, his hands threading through his hair now. “I’ll hold you to that.” 

“Yeah,” said Abby dumbly. “Okay.”

And just like that, he left, because clearly they didn’t need to discuss that any further. Never mind that Abby had no idea how to go about preparing himself beyond buying some industrial-grade lubrication, using his fingers, and hoping for the best, and that didn’t seem like it would be sufficient to take such a monstrous cock. The last thing he wanted was for them to fall into bed and find out Abby was still too tight to accommodate Jinu. 

He moved away from the bathroom to pace and think, just in case Jinu could hear his footsteps. While wearing the floorboards down with his frantic pacing, he racked his mind for an action plan.

He knew they had a bank account and that he'd need a card to purchase anything with it. He also knew, vaguely, that there were stores for just about everything these days, and surely the humans hadn't skimped on designing sex-related products? What those products could be, he had no idea, but there was always - 

Siri, his mind helpfully supplied. He could ask Siri. Surely she would know what innovations the humans had come up with to make sex easier.

So, he needed the card and Siri, both of which were with Jinu's phone, and there was one person he was sure would know where they were - Baby. 

He found the man lounging on their giant, modular couch and tapping away on an iPad. The game on the screen - Genshin Impact, according to the title - looked clunky to play with only his fingers, his character trudging awkwardly through pastel green grass like a toddler learning to walk. He never liked being disturbed while playing (or struggling through, in this instance) his games, and anyone with a functioning self-preservation instinct typically wouldn't take the risk, but needs must, so Abby hesitantly tapped Baby’s shoulder.

Baby’s head immediately snapped around to face him, his eyes narrowed in a glare. “What?”

“I need Jinu’s iPhone and card,” said Abby quickly.

“So?” Baby returned to his game. “You don't need me for that.”

“I don’t know where they are.”

“Jinu has them,” said Baby. “And before you ask, you aren’t taking my phone.”

“I wasn't going to ask for it,” said Abby impatiently. Baby never let anyone else touch his phone despite being the only person other than Jinu who had one. Jinu didn’t trust any of them with internet access, and the only reason Baby got around this rule was presumably because he’d threatened to gut Jinu if he tried to interfere with his screen time. “I can’t get it from him," he continued, a slight whine to his voice. "He’s in the shower, and he wouldn't let me take them outside anyway.” 

A sigh punched out of Baby. “Outside? What do you need to do that for?” 

“I want to buy something,” said Abby, to which Baby’s expression turned curious. That wasn’t good. Baby had a knack for dragging confessions out of people, and Abby had an awful lot to confess after that conversation with Jinu.

He glanced up at Abby with a cocked eyebrow. “Buy what?”

“Something,” said Abby dismissively. “So, where are they?”

A few taps on the iPad and the game closed. Abby’s heart sank. If Baby was determined enough to know to close his game, Abby had little hope of squirming out of an explanation.

His gaze jumped to the nearest exit to gauge whether or not he could escape before Baby caught him.

“Don’t even try it,” said Baby. 

Abby grimaced. “Try what?” he said, a poor attempt at a lie. “Just tell me where the phone and card are. Come on, please?”

Baby slowly got up, and Abby felt small beneath his gaze despite being taller and broader. In truth, Baby’s current body barely contained the ancient beast it harboured under unassuming, peach-soft skin. Abby didn’t know what Baby’s actual form was, what he looked like when he shed his deceptively soft shell, and he hoped he never did. 

“Don’t make demands of me,” said Baby, and Abby flinched. “Tell me what you’re going to buy and I’ll help you.”

It wasn’t a question, this time. 

Abby’s shoulders sank in defeat. “Some… intimate stuff,” he mumbled, his voice barely above a whisper.

Baby cupped a hand around his ear and leaned in. “What was that?”

“Intimate stuff,” said Abby again, a little louder now, looking down at the carpet like he wanted to melt into it instead of bearing the agony of this conversation. 

“Intimate stuff,” Baby repeated slowly, his eyes widening a fraction before a slow smile spread across his lips. That wasn’t a reassuring expression. “What sort of intimate stuff?”

This was going even worse than he’d feared it would. In fact, he couldn’t imagine how this conversation could be going worse. 

“Baby,” he said pleadingly. “You can’t actually want to know that?”

“Oh no, I do,” said Baby. “So tell me and I’ll get you sorted.” 

Abby’s attention flicked back to the door, calculating how quickly he’d have to run to escape this humiliation. This notion evaporated when Baby snapped his fingers directly in front of his face and boxed him in against the back of the couch. 

“None of that. Tell me.”

“Fine,” he finally conceded. There was clearly no getting out of this. “First: don’t judge me.” An impossible ask, but he said it anyway, hoping against all odds that Baby wouldn’t laugh at him. “But I walked in on Jinu in the bathroom and his dick is... it's really, really big, and, well - I said I could take it if I had two weeks to get prepped. So now I need to make that actually feasible by buying some lubrication and, I don’t know. Other stuff.”

He expected Baby to break into rancorous laughter. Instead, the man stared at him and dragged the tip of his tongue along his teeth, so slowly that it was impossible not to notice. Abby realised then that he may have miscalculated what this conversation could lead to. 

Was Baby’s gaze brighter? His eyes slowly ran down the length of Abby, as though seeing him for the first time. “How big would you estimate?”

Abby tried his best not to gape like a fish at this question. It struck him as shameless, despite him being the kind of man who would stare at another man’s cock in the bathroom. 

“Er, like nine inches soft?” God, he sounded like such a degenerate. “And really girthy. Like, I couldn’t fit a whole hand around it.”

“Vivid description,” said Baby, which just embarrassed Abby even further. 

“Yeah, well, it was hard not to notice, okay?”

“I can imagine,” said Baby, clearly amused. He sidestepped Abby and headed for the exit. “Let's go, then.” 

Abby jolted after him. “Wait, where? Go where?”

“To get you what you need, obviously,” said Baby with an exaggerated eye roll. “You’re the one who sought out my help.”

“I don’t actually need this much help.”

“Too bad. You’re getting it.” 

There was no room for further argument.

Resigned, Abby followed Baby out of the room, and he was chagrined to find Jinu’s iPhone and card were just lying on the shoe rack beside the front door, readily available. If he’d known, he could have avoided that entire conversation and everything that was now to follow.

Baby popped Jinu’s phone out of the flip case and pushed his own into it, making sure the card was stuffed into the wallet side of the case for safekeeping. With that done, he opened up something called ‘Safari’ and tapped away until he’d reached a local map. Abby couldn’t see the screen well enough to tell what exactly he was searching for on that map, nor make out more than the words ‘shop’ in the top left corner. 

“Grab our coats,” said Baby, gesturing airily to their overloaded coat stand. They tended to forget to take them before venturing into public unless they were hanging.

Abby sighed and grabbed them, retrieving one long black coat for himself and a green one for Baby, who pulled the faux fur hood low over his head. This would ensure they weren’t jumped or recorded by fans.

Once they were both wrapped in their coats, Baby shouldered open the door and prodded at his phone screen, pressing on different pins that displayed information Abby didn’t have enough time, nor a clear line of sight to read. Abby followed at his heels.

“Lucky us,” said Baby as they neared the elevator. “Looks like there’s a shop nearby.”

“What kind of shop?” asked Abby, somewhat dreading the answer.

“The kind that’ll help you take a big dick,” said Baby.

Abby’s cheeks flared. Baby was never one to censor himself, unfortunately. “You don’t need to say it like that.”

“You’re going to act like a blushing maiden now, after staring at a man’s cock?” 

“Well…” Unfortunately, Baby wasn't wrong. Abby had forfeited any right to complain about modesty. “Fine. Whatever," he said brusquely. "How far away is it?”

A quick glance at the screen. “Mmmm, fifteen-minute walk, just about.”

They could have made it a five-minute journey if they took the rooftops, but there were too many people around at this time of day to risk it. So out into the streets they went, unnoticeable among the hundreds of thousands of fellow Korean’s wearing the same coats as they were to brace against the winter chill. They walked side-by-side, shoulders bumping into each other as they navigated the busy footpaths. The streets were a blur of black and navy coats, cheap boots, rain speckled umbrellas, and slushy sidewalks. Horns blared in the distance and crosswalks beeped. Someone was shouting into their phone and a child wailed. It was always congested at this time of the evening, when people were coming off work and making the long trek home. 

Walkways like this could turn a fifteen-minute trip into a thirty-minute one, or perhaps even longer, and they were unfortunate enough to get lost among the sea of blue-collar workers long enough for the sun to descend beyond the mountains and blanket Seoul in a complete, twinkling dark. While the lights were pretty at this time of night, a kaleidoscope of colour that refracted off the high-rise windows and rain slick pavement, it was hard not to be irritated by such a simple journey dragging on for so long. 

Baby grew annoyed enough to take a detour through an empty alleyway, which shaved a few seconds off their journey. They ended up walking through trash and between overflowing bins, but it was better than being squeezed among the body odour central of people who had been working all day.

Their boots sloshed through a greasy puddle as they made their way through the mouth of the alleyway and toward a building marked by a bright pink sign hanging above the door, displaying an abstract figure that vaguely resembled a woman, with three glowing X’s hovering off to one side. It looked trashy enough that it was a wonder they got any customers. But oh, there were patrons alright, a few furtive, hunched over men slipping in and out of the building as they drew near.

Abby looked uncertainly at Baby. “What’s this supposed to be, exactly?”

“Sex shop,” said Baby, which honestly didn’t elucidate much.

Did they… sell sex? Was it some sort of brothel? He hoped Baby hadn’t brought him to one. He’d had more than his fill of sex work as a human, and he didn’t fancy being on the other end - paying someone to fuck him for a change.

“I’m not sure…” he began, only to trail off as they actually entered the establishment. This was most definitely not a brothel. 

It was a surprisingly large store despite its modest exterior, with sprawling rows of items sectioned off by signs. ‘Adult DVDs’, ‘BDSM toys’, ‘Dildos and Vibrators’, and Abby’s head was spinning, because he didn’t know what most of those words meant. 

As they ventured further in, he saw phalluses encased in glossy plastic, with slogans slapped onto decorative cardboard. ‘Ribbed for her pleasure!’, ‘scented strawberry’, ‘flexible enough for any hole’, all of them vying for customer attention. Beyond them hung racks of chains and leather, some studded or emblazoned with text, like slut or baby. There were masks with zippers, whips coiled like snakes, leashes and collars, and harnesses that looked more artistic than wearable. A mannequin nearby wore a corset made entirely of straps, which Abby was embarrassed to find he kind of liked.

Baby knelt down in front of a nearby box, which Abby realised with some shock contained nothing but pet tags with people's names on them. He gulped a little.

“Huh,” said Baby, sounding disappointed as he dug through the contents of the box. “I can’t find your name in here.”

“Of course you can’t,” Abby choked out. “It’s not exactly a traditional Korean name.”

“What about the name you had as a human?”

“Don’t remember it,” said Abby, which wasn’t just an excuse to avoid being bought a tag; he really had lost track of his real name. Or maybe Gwi-Ma had taken it from him. He couldn’t recall. His memory wasn’t as reliable as it had been when he’d first become a demon, before Gwi-Ma had started meticulously picking it apart. 

Baby sighed and pushed to his feet. “Shame. You’d look good in a collar.”

“What?”

Abby anxiously touched his fingers to his throat, already imagining the heady weight of a collar. No, he- he definitely didn’t like that idea. Definitely not. And he’d been about to say as much when a pretty young woman with a name badge attached to her chest approached them. 'Je-In', the tag read. Probably not her real name, if Abby had to guess. 

“Hello there,” said Je-In, bounding over with all the excitement of a golden retriever. “I saw you looking at the tags and thought you might need some help.” She winked at Abby, which made his hand drop from his neck in embarrassment. “If you can’t find the name you’re looking for in the pre-prepared ones, we can have them custom-made. They only take around, mmm, fifteen minutes or so to make.”

Before Abby could protest, Baby responded. “Sure. I want one with ‘Abby’ on it.”

“Abby?” said Je-In, glancing at Abby. “That’s an unusual name.”

“It’s a nickname,” said Baby as he climbed to his feet. 

“Uh, actually-” Abby tried to cut in, only for Baby to speak over him again.

“How much is it?”

“10,000 won,” said Je-In. “But you’ll need to choose a design first. Just a moment.” She retreated behind a neat, laminated counter and returned a moment later with a clipboard displaying twenty or so tag designs, everything from dog bones to love hearts. 

Though Abby felt as though he was going to disintegrate from embarrassment, he still found himself staring at the offerings. They were all strangely pretty, even in picture form, coming in different colours and sizes and with different kinds of fonts. Baby raised a delicate, painted finger and began to drag it down the list, humming to himself as he looked between Abby and the pictures.

He eventually pointed to a rose gold heart. “That one,” he said. “With a pretty font, something looping. In fact- why don’t you go and make a bunch with different fonts and shapes? Six or so. We’ll take them all home.”

Abby spluttered. Je-In beamed. “Of course,” she said cheerfully. “Do you mind paying first? It’s protocol.”

“Not a problem,” said Baby as he flipped open his phone and withdrew the Saja Boys’ card. They had few enough needs that they had hundreds of millions in untouched won, more than enough to cover a splurge here. 

Once the fee had been taken, Baby turned to Abby and gestured to the collars. “Well,” he said. “Let's choose one.”

“But…” Abby did like the look at them, but they weren’t what he’d come here for. He’d come here for Jinu, for his cock, for the promise of being stretched and filled completely, not to dress himself up in collars and corsets and whatever else.

His gaze drifted back to the collars anyway. They were awfully pretty.

Baby smiled. “You don’t think Jinu might appreciate it if you made yourself look nice?” he said, practically cooing. He curled his fingers around Abby's chin and tilted it down so they were eye-to-eye. “He needs to be aroused too if he’s going to fuck you, and I doubt your charm is going to get you there.”

Abby pursed his lips at Baby. “You’re not being very convincing.”

“Plus,” said Baby, his fingers sliding down the underside of Abby’s jaw to settle around his throat, over the vulnerable cartilage there. The barest pressure on his windpipe made Abby shiver. “You really would look very pretty.”

“You’re making fun of me,” he groused.

Baby laughed. “If I were making fun of you, I would be a lot more caustic.”

He dragged Abby down until his gaze was level with the rows of collars, keeping him in place with a firm grip. Some were pure leather, some inlaid with fur, some pink, some black, some with bows and frills, and others with studs and spikes. There was a dizzying number of options.

“Go on," said Baby. "Either you pick one, or I’ll pick one for you.”

He didn’t doubt for a second that if he left it to Baby the man would choose something obscene. Black leather stamped with 'slut', or maybe bright pink vinyl with 'whore' in rhinestones. Probably something with frills, too. And while Abby liked all of them, found them all beautiful, he didn’t want something overly vulgar.

With trembling fingers, he traced the smooth, curved edges of the collars until his fingers settled on something pink and black. The collar was made of two strips of leather, one pink to serve as the main body of the collar, while a thinner strip of black wrapped around its circumference and bore a pretty black bow. Rose gold studs kept it all together. The inside had been inlaid with a fine, almost imperceptible fur, and it was plush soft when Abby touched it. He sucked in a breath through his teeth as he pulled it off the rack. He couldn’t not have it now.

“Huh,” said Baby, the lilt in his voice suggesting approval. “It almost matches your hair.”

Abby shyly held it close. “Right, uh, whatever, this one is fine,” he mumbled. “But we need to get the other things as well.”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Baby, waving a hand dismissively as he headed deeper into the shop. Abby scrambled to follow. “We’ll grab some dildos and lube and-”

“What?”

Baby glanced over his shoulder. “Have you not watched any porn?”

Abby blinked at him. “Porn?” He’d never heard of it. And even if he had, Baby commandeered the iPad so often that it wasn’t like he had time to watch anything on it. 

“Never mind,” said Baby, sounding exasperated. “Just hold onto that and follow me.”

Abby did, since there wasn’t much he could do to stop Baby once his mind was set on something. They stepped into a new row lined from end to end with phalluses of every imaginable kind. They stood upright in neat, meticulous rows, some encased in transparent plastic, on display, while others were in a box with a picture on the front. Some were pink, others blue, and still others swirled with bright, garish colours that made them look like they’d been tie-dyed. Some were long and slender, while others were thick and blunt; a few were curved, ridged, studded, or forked in ways that made Abby stare in confusion. A few didn’t resemble anything that could belong to a human, with anatomical quirks that made Abby think of animals or aliens. 

Baby picked through these with the casual ease of a man examining a shelf for cereal. He took a few off their shelves, turned them over in his hands, and placed them back, making a small, disapproving sound before moving on to the next batch of offerings. Abby was helpless to do anything but follow him. He wasn’t sure he wanted any of these inside him; they all looked rather intimidating. 

“This one looks fun,” said Baby, bringing down a plastic-encased phallus that looked roughly like something you’d see attached to a deep-sea creature. That was to say: entirely alien, long and thick, with bright blue ridges and a knot at the base. Abby stared at it in disbelief.

“You- you’re joking, right? That doesn’t even look like a penis!”

“Sure it does,” said Baby as he shoved it under an arm. He immediately began perusing the next shelf. “Besides, it’s big, and you’re gonna need big if you’re taking a dick that’s nine inches flaccid.”

“I mean, sure,” said Abby. “But there’s plenty of normal-looking, uh, dicks around here.”

“Don’t you have any sense of adventure?” asked Baby while clicking his tongue. He selected another phallas off a shelf, extending it to Abby for examination. 

This one wasn’t any more human-looking than the last, with bumps all along the base and underside and scale-like ridges on the top. The textures did, admittedly, look like they’d feel good, even if they were weird. This one was a swirl of pink, red and blue, pretty for what it was.

Baby, seeing his expression, shoved that under his arm too. 

“Alright,” he said, ushering Abby along to the end of the row. “Let's get plugs now.”

Abby hadn’t the slightest idea of what a ‘plug’ was supposed to be until he was stopped in front of some smaller, but no less intimidating-looking toys with bulbous bodies and flared bases. Some ended in gaudy little decorations, glittering faux jewels in shades of pink and purple and yellow and blue, shaped into hearts, or stars, or hexagons. Others were sleek and uniform, made entirely of silicone, glass, or metal. These at least looked more manageable than the dildos Baby had selected for him. 

Abby had thought Baby might just get one, or two, but instead he grabbed so many that they had to go to the front and find a bag to put them all in. One with a heart jewel; one with a star; one made of silicone, and another of glass; and a set of three that grew progressively in size. It seemed excessive, but Baby waved him off when he tried to say he could only put in one of those at a time. 

“We’ve gotta see which one stays in best when we’re out performing,” said Baby, which made Abby balk. 

“You can’t be serious,” he said, spluttering.

“It’s about consistency,” said Baby. “How do you expect to take Jinu’s dick if you let yourself tighten up all over again?”

“I-I guess,” said Abby weakly. Still, doing choreography with a plug in sounded uncomfortable, and it’d be even worse if it just… slipped out and fell out of his pant leg or something. Romance would never let him live something like that down. “I’m not sure a rehearsal is the best time to test that, though.”

“Which is why we’ll test it before our next rehearsal,” said Baby. Abby didn’t know what that entailed, but he wasn’t looking forward to it. 

Lubrication was next, and Baby spent ten minutes sniffing every container until he located scents he found palatable. Abby stood awkwardly to the side, trying not to look too closely at any one label, while Baby muttered critiques under his breath.

"Too chemical… smells like plastic…"

Finally, after ten minutes of olfactory deliberation, Baby found a few scents he deemed tolerable and shoved them into their steadily growing collection of items. Without missing a beat, he pivoted and moved over to a wall dedicated to clothes, lingerie and corsets and costumes and the like. 

Abby made a faint choking sound when Baby asked, “What size are you?”

“Uh, I don’t…”

Sighing, Baby spun him around the tugged at the back of his shirt and pants, pulling free the tags there. 

“Big boy,” he announced flatly. “You might have to squeeze into some of these.”

Once he’d secured a size, he began pulling all sorts of things off of the wall: black, sheer lingerie; pink stockings with cat-pads on the ends; a leather corset with frills; cat ears with tail plug, and a few other things that he grabbed so fast that Abby didn’t get a good look at them. By the end, Abby wasn’t sure if he was being dressed for the bedroom or for another one of their performances.

Their bag positively bulged now. There wasn’t nearly enough room for all of Baby’s selections, so he ended up draping a few over an arm as they made their way over to the front counter. There, Je-In waited, having already completed the tags and laid them out for their perusal. Abby had to admit that they looked pretty. Small, pink hearts and diamonds and circles and cat paws with his name written in the middle of them in looping font. 

“Oh,” said Je-In when she saw their mass of purchases. “Er, I’ll get those processed! Just a moment.”

Abby wondered if it was possible to die of shame as she carefully scanned each item, a line of people gradually developing behind them. He’d been so distracted by the contents of the store that he hadn’t even noticed other patrons arriving. He pulled his hood low over his face, hiding his red cheeks and redder ears. 

The moment their payment had been processed, he whisked the bags into his arms and hurtled out of the store. Baby was slow to follow, ambling behind, his hands in his pockets as he exited onto the dimly lit sidewalk. 

“Looks clearer now,” said Baby as he glanced down each end of the street. Most people were probably home by now, tucked away with their dinners and heaters. “Let's go." He began walking - not back toward their suite, but in the complete opposite direction. 

“Wrong way,” said Abby as he pointed in the approximate direction of their suite. 

Baby pinched the bridge of his nose. “We’re finding a motel for a few hours, idiot. Were you actually intending to practice with these in the suite?”

“Er, no,” said Abby, even if he had been intending to do that, because it hadn’t occurred to him until now that the walls were too thin for it. “But I wasn’t going to start right now.”

“What better time to start?” Baby continued walking, and Abby eventually dragged himself after him. “The sooner you do, the sooner Jinu can fold you in half.”

Fold him in half? What sort of language was that?

“We really need to reduce your internet time,” muttered Abby. 

Baby threw him a middle finger over his shoulder and continued walking. 

Chapter Text

Abby lay on his back, on the plush hotel bed, and wished he’d been eviscerated by the Huntrix during their last encounter so he’d have been spared this ordeal. 

Baby had somehow managed to persuade him into long, white stockings with pink toe beans stitched onto the soles, pairing them with the matching set of fluffy cat ears and a pastel pink hoodie and panties he’d picked up from a nearby store while Abby was sweltering with embarrassment in the bathroom. 

The ensemble made him feel exceptionally stupid; it was the sort of deranged cosplay a fan would ask for. Even he couldn’t make this look good.

But Baby could not have been more pleased. Why anyone would find this titillating was beyond him.

“Maybe I should start calling you kitten,” he said with a toothy smile.

Abby groaned. “Don’t. Don’t do that.” This was mortifying enough without such a painfully accurate pet name.

“Fine, if you’re going to whinge about it.” 

Baby casually knelt and began to sort through their purchases, taking out everything he intended to use for the night: the ridged and bumped dildo; lubrication; the fluffy cat tail with plug, and the collar. 

Abby found himself getting hard at the prospect of sex. It’d been so long since he'd last been touched intimately that he was needier for it than anticipated, enough to overlook his ridiculous outfit. His cock began tenting his panties, and he folded his fabric-encased legs in and tugged down his hoodie in a reflexive effort to hide it. While he was a bit of a show-off, happy to flaunt his abdomen and chest, everything below the belt was a different matter. He had a surprising sense of modesty for someone whose whole shtick was sex appeal (hence Romance trying to pants him in public, multiple times. ‘The fans would love it,’ he claimed, but Abby knew he was just looking for ways to amuse himself). 

When Baby approached with the collar, Abby practically trembled with arousal. Of all the things to get him going, it had to be this - a pink-and-black collar with a dainty bow at the front and a shiny tag dangling beneath it, his name emblazoned on it in delicate lettering, like he was some pampered pet. 

“Head up,” said Baby, and Abby did as he was told, raising his head so Baby could wrap the collar snugly around it. 

The smooth interior of the collar settled over his throat as Baby folded it into place, deftly doing up the buckle at the side and readjusting the fit until the name tag hung over Abby’s throat. He smoothed it down, made sure it was perfect, before retreating to admire his handiwork: Abby sitting on the bed in stockings, cat ears, and a collar, which he was stroking continually under Baby’s heavy gaze. 

“Aren’t you a pretty kitty,” he murmured, reaching over to run his fingers through Abby’s curls, his painted nails catching on the wire holding the cat ears in place. 

Abby swallowed hard. That name wasn’t as repellent as he’d anticipated, and he kind of liked the way Baby was looking at him now, like something worthy of admiration. Not the salivating kind of admiration he was used to, but something strangely gentle.

“I ought to be,” he mumbled, picking nervously at his hoodie. “You did spend an hour choosing these clothes for me.”

“And the effort was worth it.” Baby flicked the tag, making the hook it was attached to clatter. “You’ll look even better once you have something inside you.”

A prickling warmth crawled up Abby’s neck and into his face. He shifted to slowly undo the pinch of his legs, since Baby would need access to what was between them in a moment anyway. 

Baby withdrew just long enough to retrieve a container of lubrication and the fluffy white tail before returning, sliding a knee onto the bed beside Abby. He opened the lube, the lid clattering noisily in the quiet of the room, before placing a warm, steady palm on Abby’s knee and gently urging his legs further apart. Abby followed the unspoken instruction, muscles tight with self-consciousness as his legs fell open, unveiling creamy inner thighs and a bulge barely contained by his panties. 

“Pull those panties aside,” said Baby breathily. Clearly Abby wasn’t the only eager one here. 

He tugged aside the fabric to unveil the pink furl of his entrance, trying not to let his embarrassment burn him to ash as he exposed himself. Baby regarded him with open hunger.

“Good,” said Baby, the word unusually low, rumbling, something too animal for a human to make. 

He took a noisy breath in through his nose, presumably to recover some composure, and dragged the end of the tail into view - a sleek, metal plug that gleamed under the light as Baby coated it generously in the lubrication. A synthetic, but pleasantly fruity smell rose from the container. 

Baby pressed the curved end of the plug against Abby’s hole and applied a gentle, but insistent pressure. It was a lot to take in after not having been penetrated in centuries, but Baby was taking his time, rocking it in and out gently, getting him adjusted to the gentle stretch of it. Compared to the cock he was planning to take in two weeks time, this was a paltry thing. 

Abby curled his fingers into the soft blanket below them and willed himself to go slack as Baby carefully eased the plug into him. It was small, more than achievable. He just needed to be sufficiently relaxed. He took slow, even breaths as Baby coaxed him open with gentle thrusts of the plug, feeling every movement, every incremental shift as his body learned to accept the intrusion. 

Baby edged the plug deeper and deeper until Abby’s rim was loose enough to stretch around the widest part of it. With a pop, it finally slid into place, the base of the plug nestling firmly between his cheeks and the cool weight of its body seated deep inside of him. The synthetic fibres of the tail brushed pleasantly against his inner thighs. 

He stared down at himself, chest heaving. He looked silly with the stockings, the ears, the pastel hoodie, and the collar with his name dangling on a tag. And now he had a tail erupting from between his legs, completing the picture of a pretty, pampered pet. But still, as ridiculous as it was, he kind of liked it.

The softness of the tail was a pleasant counterpoint to the hardness of the plug. He shifted carefully, insides squeezing around the intrusion as he rubbed his thighs together to feel the synthetic fibres stroke his skin. Baby watched with wide, rapt eyes, his pupils dilated and skin flushed. 

“Damn,” said Baby, before slowly sliding off the bed to do- something, Abby wasn’t keeping track. He was too busy marvelling at how good his body felt.

With each fine movement, he found the plug brushing up against a place that made his pelvis fill with heat and his skin prickle, like sparks scattering across water. He rocked his hips slowly and carefully to stimulate that sensitive part inside him, though it was difficult with how small the plug was. Perhaps if he pushed on it a little…

He was so taken with this discovery that he only noticed Baby had grabbed his phone and begun to take photos when he heard the telltale snap of the fake camera shudder. It happened so regularly at fanmeets that he knew exactly what it was. With a jolt, Abby raised his head to Baby, who took another photo as he looked directly into the camera.

“What’re you doing?” he hissed, suddenly very, very aware of how effective this situation would be as blackmail.

Baby shrugged, easy as could be. “Sending Jinu some photos,” he said, and raised a hand to forestall interruption. “He deserves a little build-up until the main event, right?”

“But…” If they were going to do that, he would have preferred a different getup. Something more respectable (assuming they had any outfits that fit that criteria). He turned and drew his knees in, looking increasingly flustered. “I look stupid.”

“You look cute.” 

Another photo. Abby had inadvertently displayed the slope of his ass and the tail protruding from it. 

“That’s your thing,” he muttered, folding an arm over his face to hide the embarrassed little flush there. “Pretty sure he likes leather and shit more.”

“We’ll get to that eventually.”

Abby groaned softly, and Baby took one last photo. Then came the tell-tale ding of the messages being sent, and that was it - Jinu was seeing him in this getup whether he liked it or not. He was dreading Jinu's response, the potential for laughter and bewilderment, because surely Jinu would find this arrangement comical.

The phone began to ring. Baby was using the Soda Pop song as his ringtone, and he answered with a delighted little laugh.

“What the hell have you done with Abby, Baby?” immediately erupted from the phone, loud and clear; Baby must have put it on speaker. 

“Nothing he didn’t want,” said Baby, practically purring. “Isn’t he pretty?”

“I mean, yes, but that's beside the point,” said Jinu, sounding increasingly exasperated. 

Jinu thought he looked pretty? Abby's face grew hotter at the admission. 

“No, it’s exactly the point.” As he spoke, Baby crossed the room to their modest dining area. It filled one corner of the room, bearing two chairs and a round table with a water ring staining its surface. “He’s getting ready for you, just like he said he would,” continued Baby as he heaved one of the chairs over to the foot of the bed. “You should be grateful. Look at all the effort he went to to make himself look nice for you, Jinu.”

“You did that,” said Jinu dryly. “I know you did this. Abby wouldn’t wear those clothes voluntarily.”

“He could take it off if he wanted to,” said Baby. He set the phone down on the chair cushion, the fabric dimpling under its weight, and angled it until the camera framed Abby in perfect view - the stockings, ears, tail, collar, all of it. “But you don’t want to, do you, kitten?”

Abby pushed his hoodie down between his legs, fingers twisting around the soft material. In all honesty, despite his initial (and existing) humiliation, he did like the outfit, found it soft and comfortable and a little flattering in the way it displayed his legs and ass. 

“If Jinu doesn’t like it, I can take it off,” he murmured. 

Apparently this was audible, because he heard a sharp inhale from the phone. Abby glanced at the screen, and Jinu was so close to the camera now that Abby could make out the veins on his neck even from a distance. 

“N-no, no,” he said quickly, stuttering his words in his haste to get them out. “I like it. It- it’s pretty. I like it. You don’t have to take it off, Abby. I don't want you to take it off. You look good.” 

So he did like it after all. Abby was a little stunned, but then, this was uncharted territory. Despite how long they’d known each other, they’d never had the opportunity to explore each other's companionship this way before, not under Gwi-Ma’s watchful gaze. But apparently Gwi-Ma was willing to overlook this as long as they continued sending him souls. 

Baby leaned down to murmur in his ear. “Told you he would like it.” 

For someone more demon than man, Baby had an unusually good read on people. Jinu was scarcely blinking as he stared through the camera. 

“Spread your legs,” said Baby as he slid away.

Abby did as he was told, pulling his knees apart again to unveil the soft, pale insides of his thighs and the plug nestled between his legs. If Jinu leaned any closer, Abby was going to be able to see up his nose, and he couldn’t help tittering at the thought. 

The pads on the stockings compressed as he curled his toes, his hips rocking involuntarily as the metal nudged up against that sensitive bundle of nerves inside him. It wasn’t a sensation he was unfamiliar with; he’d slept with enough people to have it touched on the odd occasion, but he hadn’t known it was something that responded to consistent stimulation until now. His skin developed a healthy flush as he rolled himself in slow, languid circles. 

“Fuck,” breathed Jinu, and the view suddenly shifted, tilting down until Abby was looking at Jinu’s lap. The camera trembled as he pulled down his zipper and unbuttoned himself one-handed, reaching past his waistband to draw out his cock, already hard and pink-tipped, heavy in his grasp. “Look at what you’re doing to me.” 

Being hard made it grow by a few inches, and Abby was in awe of the sheer, monstrous size of it. In two weeks time, that giant, throbbing cock was going to be wedged so deep inside him that he saw stars, and the thought made his own cock swell against his belly. Jinu’s hand began to stroke, working up and down that rigid flesh with a firm grip.

“Two weeks,” Jinu murmured. “Gonna need you ready for it. I can barely stand waiting as it is. You look so fucking pretty, Abby.” He let out a breathless moan that sent electric arousal zigzagging up Abby's spine. “Especially that collar.”

He was learning a lot about Jinu’s sexual proclivities today. 

The bed creaked as Baby climbed back onto it, the mattress dipping under his weight. Abby’s eyes stayed locked on the phone screen, on Jinu and the slow, measured movement of his hand until a light tap against his knee broke his focus. He glanced down to see one of the silicone phalluses they’d brought earlier resting against the side of his knee. That was going to be a much tighter fit, far more ambitious than the plug. But he was more than ready to try, his body warm and loose as Baby reached down to grab a handful of tail and pull.

The plug came out much easier than it had gone in, pulling free with a slick, wet sound with just a little pressure on his rim. Baby tossed it back into the bag in favour of the new toy, which he bumped against Abby’s hole a few times - gauging - before deciding to set it aside. 

“You need a little more prep,” said Baby, climbing behind Abby despite the lack of space. "Move forward."

Even before he’d begun to move, Baby was shoving and pulling until there was enough room for him to slot himself against Abby’s back. The mattress dipped and bounced under the sudden movement, the blankets rumpling beneath their bodies. His legs folded around Abby’s thighs, keeping them apart, while one of his hands ventured far enough between Abby’s legs to prod at his hole with two fingers. 

“Deep breath,” was all the warning Baby gave before plunging them inside. 

Abby’s back instinctively snapped into an arch, fingers tearing into the blanket as Baby began to thrust his fingers, stretching him open. A rattling gasp climbed up his throat.

"Fu-fuck, Baby," he said, voice tremoring with each rock of Baby's fingers.

He was shifting around inside Abby, trying different depths and angles, and Abby didn't have the faintest idea of what he was doing until he felt the tips of Baby's fingers brush up against the sensitive bundle of nerves inside him. Another gasp tore out of him, this one thick with pleasure. The pressure and burn began coalescing into something other than pain, his body quivering and sweaty as Baby stimulated that spot with unerring precision. 

Jinu must have found it just as arousing as Abby did, because a groan tore through the speakers and the feed juttered as the phone fell to the floor. He saw the off-white ceiling of a suite bedroom and a window looking out at the same star-speckled sky his and Baby's hotel did, then Jinu seemed to recover enough to retrieve his phone and point it back at himself. His face, this time, which was flushed and lightly dishevelled. 

“You look so beautiful, Abby,” Jinu murmured, his voice fast and feverish. “So sweet in all that pink. God, I wish I was there. It’s going to be so fucking hard to keep my hands off of you when you return.”

Jinu’s soft, reverent praise was almost as pleasurable as the fingers pistoning inside him. He began to move with Baby’s hand, rocking back onto his fingers to chase the pressure on his sweet spot. 

“Damn,” Baby breathed into his ear, his voice taking on a teasing lilt. “You’re really desperate for it, aren’t you.” 

“Good look on him,” said Jinu, his voice quivering. “You’re even more perfect than I imagined, Abby.”

Abby whimpered and let his head fall back to Baby’s shoulder, his cock so hard now that it felt like a slab of overheated metal. With each rock of his hips, it bobbed against his belly, and even that little amount of contact was enough to bring pre-come to the tip. He tensed his abdomen, knowing he shouldn’t finish yet, not this early, but Baby’s relentless, unhurried thrusts and Jinu’s murmured praise kept pressing him closer and closer to the edge. His thighs shook and his jaw fell open, the prelude to his climax, and

Baby withdrew his fingers all at once, leaving him on the edge and achingly empty. He looked back at him, confused and annoyed, his breath coming in harsh pants.

“Huh-?” His voice was wrecked, breaking on that single syllable. 

Baby didn’t answer immediately. He leaned back against the headboard, watching Abby with slow, deliberate appraisal. His tongue swiped his bottom lip. “You should come on a cock, not my fingers,” he eventually said, and Abby’s eyes strayed to the phallus, which he had completely forgotten about. “On your knees. It’ll be easier if you ride it.”

With how hard his legs were shaking, it took some effort to gather his knees and slide onto them. He pitched forward a little, disoriented, and had to throw his arms out to catch his weight before he completely toppled over. His cock bumped against the inside of a thigh and he whimpered at how sensitive it was, hard and throbbing, aching for release. 

“Thataboy,” Baby murmured as he grabbed the phallus and coated it in a generous handful of lubrication, his strokes making wet sounds as he got the phallus slick for Abby. Once it was wet enough for an easy glide, he angled it under Abby, his other hand curling around one of Abby’s hips to maneuver him into position.

The first touch of the silicone made him shiver. It was warm and smooth, its texture not quite right for a cock, but that was alright; it didn’t look like anything human, anyway. He eased down slowly, giving himself time to adjust to the increasing stretch as he descended on the girthier parts of the cock. Baby’s hand remained on his hip, keeping him steady.

All the while, Jinu watched, his eyes gold now and patterns crawling across his skin, an evident loss of control. Abby wasn’t much better, his own patterns reflecting the light with each fine movement of his body. He was getting lower now, nearing the base of the phallus, thighs quivering with the effort of not letting himself simply collapse onto it. 

The stretch was intense, the kind that edged on too much, but the warmth pooling low in his belly made it impossible to stop. A few more inches, and the last of the toy disappeared into him, the base pressing flush against his rim and plugging him almost overwhelmingly full. He looked down at himself, between his legs, seeing how his rim stretched pink and pretty and shiny around the silicone.

Jinu made a strangled sound through the speaker. “You’re doing so well, Abby,” he said, every word sounding like an effort. “Start moving, I want to see you move.”

“Go on, kitten,” murmured Baby behind him, his breath hot on Abby’s nape. 

Baby’s grip kept the toy anchored so he could ride it. With hands planted firmly on the mattress for stability, he began to move himself up and down, up and down, his legs straining with the effort of lifting his body. Though his thighs rapidly began to grow sore and tired, the angle of the toy brushed persistently over his sweet spot and he couldn’t have stopped himself even if he wanted to. He drove himself down onto the cock in ragged, trembling thrusts, panting hard and choppy as he chased the finish he’d been denied earlier.

Both Jinu and Baby were enraptured, watching with wide, ravenous eyes; Baby in particular looked like he was struggling to resist the urge to replace the toy with his cock. And Abby barely noticed, so taken with the task of riding the toy that his surroundings had faded away. He was so close, trembling and teary-eyed, panting open-mouthed, unaware of the saliva staining his bottom lip and chin and leaving both shining under the overhead light. 

The pressure in his pelvis became unbearable, a molten knot that demanded release. A few more plunges onto the toy, striking his prostate with each descent, and he let out a ragged cry as his spine arched and every muscle seemed to seize all at once. A full-body tremor took hold, his thighs quivering and calves knotting, his fingers and toes curling helplessly into the bedding. Sticky ropes of seed pulsed from his cock, each one wrung from him by the involuntary clench of his body around the toy buried inside him. 

He couldn’t see, couldn’t hear; could only float in the euphoria until he became aware of himself again, opening his wet, sticky eyes to find he’d fallen in a sprawl onto the mattress. He was laid half over Baby’s thighs, the man’s hand still curled around his hip, holding him close. The phallus lay discarded on the bed. 

“You did good,” said Baby breathlessly. 

Abby's gaze fell to the phone screen, where Jinu was trembling and flushed. Evidently he hadn’t been the only one to come. 

He ran a hand up his sweaty face and pushed his hair back over his scalp, pulling it away from his damp forehead. He’d never felt so exhausted before, like someone had reached in and excavated everything but his bones. 

Baby leaned down and pressed a messy kiss to his lips. He leaned into it, enjoying the plushness of Baby’s mouth. 

“You really should invite me next time,” said Jinu, his voice low over the speaker. 

“Nah,” Baby murmured against Abby’s lips. “You’ve gotta wait two weeks. That was the deal, right?”

Jinu made an annoyed, rumbling sort of sound.  

While Abby had an opinion, he didn’t verbalise it, too exhausted to do anything more than curl up on Baby’s lap. He closed his eyes and pressed his face into the warm fabric of Baby’s sweater. Demons couldn’t sleep, but they could - sort of doze, and that would be enough to rejuvenate him for the trip back.

“When are you two returning?” asked Jinu, sounding impatient.

Baby’s fingers swept through Abby's hair, his painted nails grazing his scalp. A gentle, calming petting, and Abby found his mind detaching even further. 

“In a few hours,” said Baby, which Abby was grateful for. He didn’t want to try walking with his legs feeling as unreliable as they did. “If the others ask, we’re filling up on souls.”

“Fine,” said Jinu. “See you when you get back.”

The feed died, and Baby leaned down to murmur in his ear. “We’ll check how well those plugs stay in before we leave.”

Abby shivered. 

He struggled to meet Jinu’s eye the next time they saw each other. The man had seen him ride a dildo, after all, all in the name of taking his cock. That was bound to make things a little awkward, and that he was regularly wearing a plug now didn’t help either. He wasn’t sure if Baby had told Jinu or not, but the way the man stared at him, enraptured and lingering, made him suspect Baby had.

But life moved on. They did rehearsals, attended fanmeets, practised fan engagement (something Mystery especially needed, since he hadn’t quite gotten used to how enthusiastic some fans could be when approaching him), and lounged around the suite. Every so often, Baby would take him aside and they would go somewhere quiet and discreet to play with a new toy. They were steadily working their way through every plug Baby had acquired for him. Abby had long since lost track of just how many there were.

It was becoming a routine - a new normal. It’d only been a few days, so he hadn’t quite settled into it, but he was getting there. His body was adapting, too. The plugs that had once felt impossibly snug were now easier to wear for hours at a time, a small but undeniable sign of progress toward being able to take Jinu’s cock. It was almost embarrassing how often he used the prospect of being fucked by Jinu to get off while being fingered open by Baby or riding his dildo (they hadn’t yet progressed up a size) or simply wearing a plug and rocking in place to stimulate that sensitive bundle of nerves inside him. 

He felt like a degenerate. Come to think of it, he was a degenerate, because why else would he be so enthralled with the idea? Sure, he’d looked at Jinu in the past and considered intimacy, perhaps even sex, because he was undeniably handsome, but he’d never acted on that before. One glance at his cock and all his reservations about fucking his long-time companion had just fallen to the wayside. It was the first time in a long time he’d sincerely - desperately - wanted to sleep with someone.  

And that wasn't even the worst of it. Obscene thoughts were almost a given for a demon. The other thoughts he'd been courting, far softer and far more taboo, were not.

He thought of Jinu kissing him while buried inside him, of their fingers lacing together in the heat of it, of even being held after, hugged close like he was something precious. He thought about Jinu gently brushing his sweaty hair from his face to see his eyes, of Jinu pressing their foreheads together while rocking gently into Abby. He thought about Jinu gazing down at him with open warmth and desire and reverently murmuring his name.

It was a good thing Gwi-Ma wasn’t privy to these thoughts, or he might have immediately taken away Abby’s ability to fantasise. It was one thing for a demon to fuck, but quite another to make love. 

But that softness was something he’d been denied as a human, and even more so as a demon, and he couldn’t help the way these fantasies would creep into his head. Sex had so often been transactional for him when he’d been human, lacking any real passion or affection. And sure, it’d been pleasurable sometimes, and some people had even been gentle with him, but he had still been a means to an end, with little to no regard given to his own desires. Despite having been in poverty, being paid had been the worst part: that tinkle of coins falling into his palm had a way of scraping out whatever warmth he might have felt from an intimate foray and leave him cold in places he hadn’t even known could freeze.

But things would be different with Jinu. This wasn't transactional; this was mutual desire. 

Baby crept into these fantasies too, who only exacerbated them with how gently he would handle Abby after stretching him. Letting him curl up on his lap, patting his hair, kissing his ear, calling him kitten and good boy. Sweet, soft little things that made him want more - while being too embarrassed to ask for it. They hadn’t held hands or kissed while he was riding a toy, but maybe if he initiated it…

He shook away the idea.

He wouldn't ruin what they had by letting those thoughts venture into the realm of reality. For now, those moments would have to stay confined to the quiet safety of his imagination, where nothing could be destroyed by his childish whims and no one could tell him no.

The shower became his go-to when he needed to relieve some of his feelings. With the plug inside him, it never took him long to get off. He’d stand under the spray, head against the tiles, one hand around his cock while the other manipulated the plug until he found a nice angle. A few minutes later, he would come. It wasn’t as intense as it was when Baby guided him to orgasm, his hands warm and firm, but it was enough to do the job. 

He’d intended today's shower to be another perfunctory masturbation session. But then the door crept open, and he turned to see Jinu’s distorted form through the fogged shower glass. The room was filled with enough steam that it took him a moment to realise Jinu had a towel tucked under his arm. He watched as Jinu tossed it into the sink and began to divest his clothes, rendered mute by his shock.

Once naked, Jinu stepped up to the shower door and rapped on it with his knuckles like it wasn’t transparent. That was goofy enough that it snapped Abby out of his shock, tearing a laugh from him. 

“Uh, I’m home?” he said.

Jinu pulled open the shower door and peeked his head in, his gaze sweeping the width of the shower. It was more than large enough to fit two people. 

 “Looks like you have room for one more,” said Jinu.

Abby blinked at him. “But it hasn’t been two weeks yet.”

Jinu's face flared red. “I’m not going to have sex with you,” he said quickly. “I just want a shower.”

“With me?” said Abby slowly. 

Jinu rolled his eyes. “If I didn’t want it with you, I would have waited until you were done.” He leaned in a little further, enough that a few drops scattered over his forehead and cheeks, sliding down the narrow curve of his jaw. He was so picturesque that it was hard not to stare. “So, can I come in?”

Abby shrugged and side-stepped to offer some room, making sure he still caught at least some of the spray from the showerhead. Jinu slipped in and closed the door behind himself, which snapped shut via the magnetic locking mechanism. 

“So,” said Abby uncertainly, a little tongue-tied now that he had a naked Jinu standing right in front of him. “Is there… any particular reason you wanted to share a shower?”

“No, I just wanted to,” said Jinu. 

That wasn’t a satisfying answer, and Abby frowned at him to indicate as much. “Why?” he pressed.

Jinu tilted his head, a cascade of hot water sliding down the curve of his neck and making Abby's mouth go dry. He was horribly, unfairly handsome.

“We’ve known each other for centuries, Abby," said Jinu. "I would have thought you had figured out I enjoy your company by now.” 

“First time we’ve done anything like this, though,” said Abby, turning to examine one of the complimentary bottles of shampoo to hide a growing blush. The water drummed against his back. 

“It’s not like there were showers in the underworld,” said Jinu. “And Gwi-Ma wasn’t exactly keen on this sort of thing either. But if you had indicated interest earlier…”

They’d barely been speaking for a minute and already the conversation was doing his head in. He turned a bottle of peach-scented shampoo over in his hands. “Why couldn’t you indicate interest?”

“I did, actually,” said Jinu, which was news to Abby. “Why do you think I wrote you that song ages ago?”

“You wrote me a lot of songs,” Abby pointed out.

“Only one of them said ‘I want to be close to you’,” said Jinu. “Because I did.”

Water crept into Abby’s eyes as he stared at Jinu in shock. Come to think of it, he had agreed to have sex with Abby unusually fast. Abby had known Jinu long enough to know he wasn’t the sort of person who would typically agree to a fling.

“Oh. Shit.”

That memory took a while to resurface, hazy from the passage of time. They’d been in one of the many decrepit buildings littering the Underworld, a poor facsimile of life on the surface. Nothing inside but a table, cushions, and a hard floor that held the cold uncomfortably well. They’d spent days at a time there, sitting, talking, playing music, anything and everything to get their minds off their circumstances. And it often didn’t work, since Gwi-Ma never left his subjects alone for long, but it had helped with keeping their minds intact as Gwi-Ma painstakingly eroded everything in them that had once defined them as human. 

Jinu had made up songs for him, and one of them had been vaguely intimate. He didn’t remember the lyrics; he just remembered finding the song odd compared to the others, and he hadn’t thought anything of it beyond that. In retrospect, Jinu’s earnestness should have tipped him off. But they'd known each other for a long time by that point without exchanging anything more than casual contact, so that had predisposed him to thinking there was nothing to read into it.

They couldn’t have done much to act on those feelings, granted; not under the watchful gaze of Gwi-Ma, but things might have been different - better - if he’d registered what Jinu was trying to do. They might have been able to indulge in the occasional brush of lips or discreet hand job. 

“In my defence,” said Abby miserably, his thoughts a relentless reel of lost opportunities. “You never said you were interested in me.”

“I made a whole song about it!” said Jinu, indignant. 

“But you made a lot of songs! How was I supposed to know this one meant something?”

Jinu opened his mouth, then closed it, sighing and reaching for the bottle of shampoo clutched in Abby’s hands. He flicked the lid and gestured for Abby to face the wall again. Though confused, Abby still turned, his hands twitching nervously at his sides.

“Alright," Jinu conceded. "I didn’t think it through well enough, but I really thought it was obvious.” The shampoo bottle made an unpleasant sound as Jinu squeezed a dollop of it into a palm. He set the bottle aside and reached up to apply the liquid to Abby’s hair, stroking the silky strands until they began to foam. The scent of strawberry carried through the steam. “What matters is that we both got there eventually despite being emotionally inept.”

Abby let out a soft snort. The gentle glide of Jinu’s fingers through his hair made his shoulders slacken and his lashes dip. He wouldn't have thought having his hair washed by another person could be so pleasurable, yet he had to consciously stop himself from melting to the floor.

A gasp suddenly erupted from Jinu. His fingers froze. Though dazed, Abby could tell Jinu had finally noticed the plug and the pink, heart-shaped gem on its base. It lasted only a moment before Jinu carried on, threading suds slowly through Abby’s hair.

Abby broke the quiet with a tease. “You’re more emotionally inept than me,” and he was pleased when Jinu responded by tugging his hair. That, too, was pleasurable.

“I’m not the one who had ‘I want to be closer to you’ sung to his face and didn’t realise it was about him,” said Jinu back

“You should have started it with a dedication,” he said as he glanced at Jinu in his peripheral.  

“If I made it that obvious, Gwi-Ma might have taken away my bipa,” said Jinu, but there was amusement playing at the corners of his mouth. He pulled Abby a little closer, directing him under the spray of water so he could rinse the shampoo out of his hair. 

With water streaming over his face and lips, Abby couldn’t speak until Jinu let him pull back and wipe at the spray with broad sweeps of his palms. Like windscreen wipers, but less effective.

“You could sing it again,” said Abby, the suggestion coming unbidden. Only now did he realise how appealing the idea was - Jinu singing a song for him, about him, a dedication he could tuck away in the back of his head, safe and warm.

Jinu caught him by the shoulder and turned him so they were face-to-face. “You really want to hear it?” 

The suggestion felt far more trepiditious now that they were looking at each other. Abby had never asked something like this of someone before. “Y-yeah,” he choked out.

Jinu smiled sheepishly. “Problem is, it’s been so long I don’t really remember it. Maybe a line or two, but that's it.” 

This was oddly disheartening. Abby’s shoulders, embarrassingly enough, began to slump. 

“But,” Jinu quickly added. “I could make up something from what little I do remember. Something a little more blatant this time.”

“You don’t have to go through all that effort,” said Abby, rubbing his nape self-consciously. 

“Now you don’t want to hear it?” asked Jinu with just a touch of exasperation. But he was still smiling. “Even if I find a nice, picturesque place to sing it to you?”

Oh, that was a nice thought. Somewhere quiet, private, where they could enjoy an evening of Jinu’s singing without either fans or the other Saja interrupting them.

“You would do that for me? That's really- I mean…” Abby fumbled, suddenly tongue-tied, his pulse kicking up in ways he didn’t want to examine too closely.

“We’ll leave after the shower,” said Jinu, and his tone left no room for argument. Which Abby appreciated, since he would have continued to stutter and stumble like a fool if given the opportunity. 

“If you insist.”

“I do,” said Jinu.

So that was that.

Jinu turned and indicated his own hair, which Abby obligingly applied shampoo to. It was a little longer than his own, and he wondered if he should let his hair grow out again. It’d been centuries since it’d been long. While he had some unpleasant memories associated with his long hair - some people had taken to grabbing it, using it like reins, which would have been pleasant under different circumstances but just made him feel like an animal when being paid to endure it - he had liked how it looked, how silky it’d been, how he could wile away long hours by sliding a brush through it. 

Once Jinu’s hair was rinsed, they took turns washing each other's backs. He leaned his forehead against the glass, eyes closed, and enjoyed the roll of Jinu's palms on his skin. It was lovely, dizzyingly pleasant. It worked out all the tension that had accumulated during their preparations for the idol awards. 

They weren’t far off now, he thought; just a few more weeks before they claimed victory over the Huntrix, then they would have everything they wanted. A broken Honmoon, open access to the overworld, a feast of souls, and freedom - of a sort. They might never be free from Gwi-Ma's influence, but they could at least have some breathing room. 

His heart thumped strangely when it came his turn to scrub Jinu’s back. He did so slowly, diligently, letting his fingers linger in the dip of his spine and on the broad slope of his shoulders. Just like the rest of him, his back was pretty and unblemished. Though there were some calluses on his hands to suggest a difficult past. Abby knew of it, of course; most people did, since Gwi-Ma wasn’t shy about humiliating him with it. But he knew more than most, since Jinu had spoken to him about some of the more private details on occasion.

Abby hadn’t divulged his own past. But then, he suspected Jinu had figured it out a long time ago. He was very observant.

Once they were both sufficiently clean, they stepped out of the shower to pat themselves dry and dress in some freshly laundered clothes. Since they had that on room service, they made ample use of it. It was always nice to get their dirty clothes back warm and smelling like lemons. Abby went with a simple shirt, a pink hoodie, and some jeans today, while Jinu wore a black hoodie and pants. 

It was dark enough when they ventured out that they could travel via rooftops. They slipped out a window instead of the door, making their way down the side of their high-rise so they could travel across the flat rooftops of much smaller, lower shops and squat office blocks. The night air was cool against their faces, carrying the faint scent of rain and frying oil from the street stalls below. Neon signs painted the edges of the darkness in a rainbow of colours, flickering at the corners of their eyes as they leapt from roof to roof. 

“So,” said Abby as they jumped the distance between a bakery and some sort of gym. “Where are we going, exactly?”

“The Aquarium,” said Jinu. 

While the word wasn't unfamiliar to Abby, the concept of visiting an aquarium was. "The what?"

"Aquarium,” Jinu repeated. "It's where they keep sealife.”

"I know that,” said Abby, huffing. "I know what aquariums are used for; I've just never heard of it being a place you could visit.”

Jinu cocked an eyebrow at him and said, "You really need to get out more.” Which was probably true, since Abby did spend most of his time indoors when not performing or doing PR, but he still pursed his lips at Jinu.

"I get out plenty," he insisted.

"Uh huh." Oh, the depths of insincerity Jinu managed to pack into that sound. "Just picture a giant aquarium," he went on. "And I mean giant, with hundreds of fish and sea creatures, like stingrays and sharks. You'll enjoy it, I promise."

It did sound appealing. He'd never been to the sea, so he'd never seen fish anywhere except marketplaces and maybe the occasional pet. "And people visit this at night?" said Abby skeptically. 

“It’ll be closed,” said Jinu. “So it’ll just be us and the fish.”

“You want to sing for me in front of fish?”

“Yes,” said Jinu, chuckling. “Besides, I’ve been wanting to see it.”

Not exactly what Abby had expected, but hey, he did like sharks and stingrays. He wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to watch them for a little while, and over the sound of Jinu’s singing, no less. 

Since their destination was in the city rather than the outskirts, it didn’t take them too long to reach it. Maybe thirty minutes to an hour of leaping from rooftop to rooftop, climbing up windows and drainpipes slick with condensation, crawling over tiled and stoned roofs, and dropping to the ground when alleys or walls demanded it. A much shorter journey than it would have been if they’d attempted to get there via footpaths. 

They arrived at a back entrance, the door firmly shut and secured. But that was nothing magic couldn’t overcome.

“Can’t believe you did all that jumping and leaping with the-” Jinu didn’t finish this observation, but he didn’t need to. It was obvious what he was referencing.

Abby laughed. “I’ve gotten used to it.” He nudged Jinu toward the door. “Come on. Open it.”

It didn’t take too much effort for Jinu to get past the security system, just a flick of his fingers and a low murmur under his breath, his magic gnawing at the card reader until its light bled from red to green with a soft, defeated chime. The lock clicked, and the heavy steel door swung open with the slightest of pressure. 

It opened up to not aquariums full of fish, but a dull, grey hallway that provided passages into what looked like a staff room, storage, and a security room. Fluorescent panels hummed overhead, casting a flat, colourless light over scuffed walls and worn linoleum. The stone smelt of bleach, unpleasant enough to make Abby’s nose wrinkle. 

While they couldn’t see what was in storage or the staff rooms, the security room was framed in glass panels that gave a clear view of the interior. Inside, there were overflowing filing cabinets, a desk, a few plush chairs, and a multitude of screens displaying every empty inch of the aquarium. 

If the security guard noticed them, they gave no indication of it; just continued sitting in their seat, back to them even as they padded closer. The guard had their phone curled in a fist and AirPods in, so that was probably why. The gentle tinkle of Soda Pop was just barely audible in the quiet. 

Well then.

Abby and Jinu exchanged a look - who’ll claim this soul?

Jinu nodded to the door, so Abby eagerly swept into the room via teleportation magic and unhinged his jaw to consume the unsuspecting human. The security guard appeared wholly unaware as their life slipped from them and their body melted into a soft, glimmering soul. Abby ate it with relish, feasting on the power the soul offered and sighing with contentment as those threads of energy settled warm and filling in his very marrow. 

A meal, an aquarium, and Jinu’s singing. What a pleasant night this was turning out to be. 

While he luxurated in the fullness following the consumption of a soul, Jinu worked on the security system, disabling all camera feed until the morning so people would assume the security guard had just left for the night and never come back. Just another missing person, swallowed into the growing list.

With security dealt with, they were free to explore the aquarium. They tried doors until they found one that opened out into the main building and eagerly slipped through, flicking on lights as they went. Within seconds, the entire place was lit up in a blue-ish tint, the walls carrying the light that played off the water, refracting patterns that danced and twisted like phantom waves.

The air was cooler here, heavy with the scent of saltwater and faint chemical tang of filtration systems. The soft hum of pumps and the muted slosh of water filled the silence, a low, constant rhythm that made the aquarium feel like it had its own heartbeat. Surrounded by that tinted blue, with the glowing patterns and drifting fish of every size and kind, this place felt almost otherworldly, like transitioning from the brackish hell of the underworld to the bright-lit heavens. Not that Abby had ever seen that, but he imagined everything there was just as pretty as this. 

They ventured further in, watching the fish as they drifted languidly through the water. Sharks, and stingrays, just like he’d hoped to see, but there were also floating jellyfish, sea turtles languishing in shallow pools, schools of rainbowfish and rasboras drifting in strange cyclone-like patterns, and eels slithering through the water. Abby drank it all in eagerly, his gaze rapt as they took in everything the aquarium had to offer in a companionable silence. 

The sharks were of particular interest. Abby lingered in front of their habitat and stared out at blacktip reef sharks, who - true to their name - had a black tip staining their fins. They looked sleek and beautiful, with leathery grey skin and a lithe body that allowed them to cut through the water with ease. One of them came so close that he spied a sliver of its white, pointy teeth, which reminded him a little of Baby when he let the illusions drop. 

“We should show Baby this,” Abby murmured, and Jinu hummed a note that Abby couldn’t discern as agreement or refusal. 

“Not right now, I hope?” said Jinu. “I’m not preparing a song with two people in mind.”

Abby shook his head and cast a smile over his shoulder at Jinu. “Just us, this time.” 

“Good.” Jinu threaded their fingers and guided Abby away from the shark tanks, over to a peaceful alcove with a padded bench.

Abby’s pulse skipped as they sat together, side by side. With a flourish of a gesture, Jinu summoned his bipa, holding it against his chest as he began to gently strum. The gentle, mindless notes he produced drifted through the air. 

“Keep in mind you haven’t given me much time to come up with lyrics,” he said, and Abby snorted and knocked their knees together.

“Have I ever complained about you playing for me in the past?” Even his clunkier songs had been enjoyable to listen to. 

Jinu readjusted his grip on the bipa. “I suppose not, but I didn’t have an audience of a few million fish then.”

“There can’t be that many fish,” said Abby, his voice low and teasing. 

“Sure feels like it,” said Jinu. 

He was stalling, clearly, and Abby nudged him again to try to compel him to get started. “You’re not usually this shy.”

“I’m not being shy,” said Jinu, which was belied by the pink that had risen into his cheeks. He strummed a few more notes. “I just need it to be good.”

“It’s always good,” said Abby. 

Jinu didn’t seem able to wrestle down a smile, shaking his head as he glanced over at Abby. “Fine. But I’m considering that you rescinding your right to any complaints about how rough it is.”

“Enough stalling, Jinu.” Abby made an impatient gesture. “I’ll enjoy it, I promise.”

“You’d better,” said Jinu, with little force behind the words. Abby had never seen him this nervous about performing before, and he wasn’t sure what to make of it. 

Slowly, the strumming began to pick up in pace, growing into a familiar tune - something Jinu had played many a time before, but he was tweaking the notes as he played to make it into something fresh. Gradually, over several minutes, Jinu seemed to find a series of notes he liked together and settled into a rhythm suitable for singing to. 

He took a breath and began.

“It’s dark in these corners, I’ve been here so long, I almost forget there’s light above us- and I know you do too,” he sang gently. “It gets hard to live with, doesn’t it? Feels easier to believe the sun doesn't exist for us anymore.”

The words were so earnest, so sincere, that Abby found himself unable to look Jinu in the eyes, his gaze on his knees as he absorbed each word that echoed through the aquarium. 

“But with you, this dark isn’t so suffocating. Have you seen how you glow, darling? In those weary hours, you’re the spark I’m clinging to.”

He wouldn’t have thought his presence had meant that much to Jinu. His head was spinning with it all - how had he never noticed? There wasn't anything even remotely sexual about this; it was earnest affection, and Abby didn't know what to do with that despite having yearned for it. It was much harder to parse when not steeped in sex.

“The night could end right here, and I’d still be reaching for the space between us. I want to get close to you.” Jinu tilted into his personal space. “Close to you.”

Abby’s heart hammered. He felt too warm, too seen, like every wall he had ever built was quietly crumbling under the weight of Jinu’s lyrics. He wanted to speak, make a joke, a deflection, but his tongue was like a slug in his mouth. This moment was everything he’d been daydreaming about, and he was inexplicably panicking about it. 

Jinu remained against him as he strummed the final notes of the song. He was warm and solid against Abby’s side, his shoulder pressed to Abby’s and his palm warm against Abby’s thigh. Proximity between them had never affected him this way before. He was like a startled animal, fur raised, eyes wide, and when Jinu moved to touch him with a hand, he jolted out of the seat. 

“Abby-?”

“That was-” He spread his hands, trying to look impressed rather than shaken. “That was so good. Really good. You came up with all of that on the fly?”

“Yes,” said Jinu, but he sounded disappointed. He slowly climbed to his feet and slung the bipa over his shoulder. “Do you want to wander a little longer?”

“Sure,” said Abby, diverting his gaze, cursing himself, because what the hell was his problem? He gestured Jinu awkwardly away from the shark aquarium. “Let's have a look at the turtles again.”

Jinu nodded, and off they went.

Chapter Text

“I fucked up,” he said to Baby the next time they were out.

The boba shop they'd slipped into was small and brightly lit, its walls painted in pastel pinks and cream white that made the place feel warmer than the evening chill outside. The air smelt faintly of brown sugar syrup and condensed milk, and the steady hum of a blending machine was just audible over some low-volume, peppy music coming from corner speakers. A nice little place for a less-than-nice chat. 

Baby glanced up from the boba tea he’d been struggling with, trying to fix a tapioca blockage in his plastic straw. “How?” 

“A few nights ago, I- with Jinu-” Ugh, he couldn’t even get the words out. He scrubbed his palms over his face and looked at Baby meaningfully, hoping the man would be able to fill in the gaps without elaboration.

“...You fucked?” he asked, deadpan. 

Abby looked affronted. If they had fucked, he wouldn't be talking about it in a boba shop, of all places.

“No! Why is it always-? No.” He leaned forward, curling over their table, a small square of marble that was framed by four black wire chairs. Not the most comfortable of places to sit, but considering they’d had maybe three chairs total in the whole of the underworld, it was an improvement over their usual circumstances. “We went to the aquarium,” he said quietly.

“And?” Baby pressed, sounding impatient.

“He sang me a song.”

Baby clearly didn’t understand, his gaze expectant, waiting on more details. Abby sighed.

“It sounded like a love song,” he muttered into his palms. “I panicked.”

“Ahh.” Baby nodded and sucked on his straw, which still hadn’t unblocked yet. “So your insecurities got in the way.”

Abby’s head snapped up, shoulders climbing into a defensive line. “I don’t have those.”

“Uh huh,” said Baby, not sounding at all convinced. “Sooo self-confident, that’s why I have to always bully you into things you want to do.”

“No you don’t,” Abby protested, though even as the words left his mouth, he was aware Baby had - regrettably - made a good point. In retrospect, even his proposition of Jinu had only been made because Jinu had plunged the conversation onward when he attempted to withdraw. 

“You do. You know you do.” Blockage cleared, Baby began drinking his Taro tea again, sucking up the whipped cream curling in lazy swirls underneath its domed lid. “So what exactly was he offering that made you flee like a dog with its tail between its legs?” he asked.

Geeze, Baby never pulled any punches.

Abby's forehead fell to his arms, hiding his face from view. “I don’t know. Nice things, I guess.”

Baby snorted. “That is almost unbearably pathetic.”

“Hey…” Abby’s weak protest definitely wasn’t improving Baby’s opinion of him. 

The bottom of his cup reached, Baby set the empty plastic aside and propped his head up on a chin, staring across the table at Abby. “Do you think Gwi-Ma will take it away if you let it happen?”

Why he had fled had been a tangled mess of reasons: the dizzying heat of Jinu’s affection, the difficulty of navigating it, but yes, that had been among them as well. The possibility that if he reached for the one good thing he'd had in years, Gwi-Ma might decide to rip it away just to prove he could. And hearing Baby put it into words with such casual precision was almost worse than thinking it himself. That made it feel an even greater threat, more real than it had been when it’d danced just outside his awareness. 

He swallowed and looked down at the table. It was strangely hazy now, the patterns on the marble blurring together. 

Baby did something odd, then; he leaned forward and folded a hand over Abby's forearm, pulling him closer. The table was small enough that Baby didn’t have to bend far to be able to bump foreheads with Abby. “He won’t if we succeed. He’ll let us have this. If it wasn't on the table, we wouldn't even be having this conversation, Abby.”

Abby slowly raised his eyes. The ‘us’ didn’t sound like it only encapsulated him and Jinu, and there was some unexpected relief in that. He was always waiting for people to discard him the same way they had in the past. 

“But what if we don’t?” His voice was barely audible under the background chatter of the café. "What if we lose against the Huntrix?"

Baby shrugged. “Then we’ll probably be dead, and it won’t be a problem anymore.”

Abby laughed, the sound coming out thin and strangled. “Dead by who? The Huntrix, or Gwi-Ma?”

“Yes,” said Baby.

“Very reassuring,” said Abby dryly.

Baby curled a hand around his cheek and gave it an encouraging pat. “The Idol Awards are in a month,” said Baby. “And we’re going to win it. For certain. So take a deep breath and stop being such a baby.”

Ironic, coming from someone who was called Baby.

He leaned back into his chair and folded his arms. “You make it sound so much easier than it is.”

“Because it is easy,” said Baby with a shrug, taking his empty boba cup and tossing it into a nearby bin. It didn’t quite make it through the slot, splattering what little taro milk remained across the tiled floor, but Baby made no attempt to fix the mess. “Just do what you want until - or if - you can’t anymore.”

“I have enough regrets as it is,” said Abby miserably.

One of Baby’s thin eyebrows curved up. “You’ll regret it?” You’ll regret me and Jinu went unsaid, but Abby heard it clearly enough.

Abby swallowed and let his gaze slide to the floor. “I’ll regret losing it.”

“Better than never having it at all,” said Baby. 

He extended a hand to Abby, and Abby didn’t hesitate to grab it, even as he asked, “Why the hand?”

“To get you off your ass,” said Baby as he hauled Abby out of his seat. “You’re spiralling. I don’t do spiralling. Come on.”

Abby stumbled as Baby tugged him toward the exit to the boba shop, where a bell above the door was continually jingling.

“Where are we going?”

“Somewhere I can help you relax,” said Baby, casting a meaningful look back at Abby.

Abby sucked in a breath, his unease rapidly replaced by an embarrassingly intense longing for Baby and everything Baby was prepared to offer him. It would be nice to disengage for a while, have something other than his own disordered, torrential thoughts to focus on. He’d been playing the aquarium visit over and over in his head so much it was a wonder he hadn’t burst a vein.

They pulled their hoods low as they reentered the congested streets of Seoul. As per usual, the place was thrumming with activity, people coming and going in herds, shoulder-to-shoulder on the footpaths. Some on their phones, some carrying kids, and above it all, the delicate jingle of Soda Pop playing on a screen and their own faces magnified ten stories high.

It never got any less jarring to see himself displayed in such splendour, no matter how many times he saw it. These were heights of popularity he’d never imagined as a small, modest performer in a namsadang. He wondered if Jinu felt that sometimes, too; shock at their popularity despite being unable to earn a single coin with his bipa as a human. 

Baby guided them past the screens and down a quiet alleyway thick with discarded trash. They climbed over a fallen bin, wrinkling their noses at the smell, and carried on through the opposite side of the alleyway, which opened out onto a slightly less busy street in the Yeongdeungpo District. Red-light territory, where they could find somewhere quiet and discreet to indulge without getting a second glance. It was also known as Korea’s murder capital, but that wasn’t a concern for them - more a concern for anyone who attempted it. Bullets and knives weren’t enough to kill them. It had to be specialised weaponry, like the Huntrix wielded. 

It was still early evening, so the curtains were only just starting to part on love hotels, sex shops, brothels and the like, their broad panelled windows glowing like beacons in the growing dim. Harsh whites, pinks, and reds were prominent; softer colours, like blue and green, less so. It was simultaneously inviting and hostile, a warning and invitation all at once. There were women showing up in the glass-encased boxes, like animals on display, and that made Abby uncomfortable. But they didn’t linger in the area displaying the human setpieces. They moved on toward a towering hotel with flickering signs announcing it to the public. 

It wasn’t busy yet. When they slipped inside, the front desk didn’t even have an attendant, so they simply stole their way up the stairs to select a room for themselves. The path up was narrow, with a patchy sort of plaster and cobwebs in the corners. A step down from their past accommodations, but his eagerness was greater than his disgust.

It was only as Baby fiddled with a card reader that Abby realised they didn’t have any toys other than the plug, which meant they were deviating from their usual routine. The thought was exciting, his breath catching as he considered the wealth of possibilities that could lead to. 

The light on the card reader flicked green and Baby invited him in with a sweep of his arm. They’d selected a room at the very top of the hotel, in the furthest corner of the building, and it’d been a good choice: it looked like it hadn’t been utilised in weeks, if not years. Dusty, cobwebbed, but usable, smelling of neglect and old cleaning chemicals. A set of plush red curtains were drawn, so Abby pulled them apart and cracked the window to let in some fresh air. 

He had intended to make himself comfortable on the small king-single bed offered by the room, but then Baby was upon him - pushing him against the window, his hands fitting around Abby’s hips - before he could move. Even though he was deceptively thin, almost invisible behind Abby’s bulk, he pressed him against the window with an ease a human couldn’t have managed and kept him in place with a startlingly powerful grip. The wood of the frame creaked under the combined weight of their bodies. Abby had to grab either side of it to prevent himself from falling into the glass.

“You're definitely stretched enough to take me after wearing that plug all day,” Baby murmured against his ear, his hot breath curling around the shell. “Might not be as big as Jinu, but I'm plenty big to make you forget all about your little fuckups.”

Abby’s fingers twitched around the window frame. A heat bloomed low in his belly, spreading upward until his pulse thundered in his temples. He’d certainly thought about it, Baby’s cock, taking it, but Baby hadn’t offered, so he hadn’t held out hope that Baby would deign to fuck him at some point instead of filling him with toys. When he craned his head back to look down between their bodies, he saw why he'd spent so long preparing Abby first: the man was just as big as he claimed, the bulge of his cock pressing hot and heavy between Abby’s thighs. It tented the front of his trousers obscenely. 

Evidently he was a grower, since he otherwise hid it well, and - unlike Jinu - he wasn’t the sort of person who would be self-conscious enough to use illusory magic to hide how well-endowed he was. Abby bumped back against it, grinding gently, and Baby groaned and squeezed Abby’s hips so hard the bone creaked in protest. 

“Eager for it, huh?” Baby purred. His hands abandoned the bruising grip at Abby’s waist in favour of slipping forward, brushing over the hard planes of his stomach before finding the line of his trousers. 

“Don’t tease me,” he breathed. He was far too needy to endure teasing today.

“We really need to work on your endurance,” said Baby, then shifted his hand.

The faint pressure of Baby’s fingers on his crotch sent a shiver tearing down Abby’s spine. He dropped his head forward and let it rest on the cool glass while Baby slowly, painstakingly undid his button and lowered his zipper, his lips brushing Abby’s nape throughout. His mouth stirred the fine hairs there, made them stand at attention. As his trousers were pushed down around his thighs, he stared out into Seoul, his breath misting the glass. 

Beyond the window, a dark had begun to blanket the city, a slow tide of shadow swallowing the rooftops and streets. Streetlamps blinked to life one by one and cut through the gloom, while neon signs flared brighter, their colours shimmering against the glass of the windows of the red-light district. The deeper the darkness settled, the more the city seemed to glitter, every light sharpening into a beacon in the encroaching black.

Those lights blurred a little when Baby’s fingers found the base of the plug he was wearing today, with the end bejewelled with the face of a cat. He slid his tapered tongue up the side of Abby’s neck before speaking in his ear again.

“Nice and ready for me.” 

Extracting the plug didn’t take too much effort, a gentle pull and his body willingly released the intrusion. He let out a gasp like a man who had just surfaced from a pool of water and shuddered at the abrupt, uncomfortable emptiness. He’d gotten so accustomed to the plugs that it almost felt odd to be without them by this point. He clenched around nothing, his thighs instinctively shifting apart so Baby could refill him.

Baby pressed a slow, lingering kiss to the nape of his neck, letting his mouth trail languidly and his nose drag through the soft hairs there. His hands skimmed down Abby’s sides, thumbs pressing lightly into the sensitive hollows at his hips, as if savouring the moment before giving Abby the fucking he desperately wanted (and deserved, frankly; he’d been obediently wearing the plugs for almost a week now). 

He heard Baby’s zipper come down, heard each click of the teeth, and then a solid warmth pressed against the cleft of his ass and he marvelled at how big it felt. Maybe not as big as Jinu’s cock, but still girthy enough to give him the full feeling he’d begun to crave with each use of the phalluses. His fingers and toes curled as Baby ground it against him.

“Tell me you want it,” Baby murmured.

“You know I do,” said Abby, breathless and shamefully desperate. The tips of his ears had gone red. 

“Tell me anyway.”

Abby sighed, his face flaring brighter. The one thing he wasn’t used to was verbalising his wants, and Baby seemed determined to extract them from him now. Maybe he shouldn’t have confided in him his fuckup with Jinu.

“I-I want it,” he said with difficulty. “Your, uh. Your cock. I want it.”

“Yeah?” Baby grazed his nape with his lips. “Want me to do what with it?”

“F… fuck me. I want you to fuck me. Please.” 

“There, see?” Baby reached down between their bodies to readjust his cock, pressing the blunt head against Abby’s hole. “You can say what you want. And so prettily too.” 

Slowly, slowly, he pressed forward, breaching Abby in fractions of inches. He was a little larger than the phalluses had been, enough to make Abby gasp raggedly at the immense stretch. It burned, it hurt, but it was also good, and only getting better the more cock Baby fed into him. When he was finally deep enough to roll over Abby’s prostate, stimulating those delicate nerves, he keened with want for more, a roiling heat gathering in his belly with each rock of Baby’s hips.

Baby finally bottoming out, wedged deep inside him, made them both shudder. It was a tight fit; a tight embrace, both feeling it in equal measure. Baby panted against his nape as he began to slide out a few inches before punching back in, guiding their bodies into a slow rhythm. 

This was better than the toys had been, so much better. Baby’s cock was softer and warmer, alive in a way cold silicone could never imitate. It filled him completely, stretching him in ways that felt more deliberate, purposeful, every movement coaxing more pleasure. The head of his cock struck his prostate with a precision they'd never achieved with the toys. 

But it wasn’t just the pleasure. It was the intimacy that undid him. The weight of Baby’s chest pressed close, the humid warmth of his breath on the back of Abby's neck, the steady grip on his hips anchoring him in place while Baby slowly stripped his nerves down with each slide of his cock. He’d thought the sex with the toys was good, but this - this was something else. 

“Fuck- ah-!” Abby struggled to find his voice, his nails - claws now, extending in response to the overstimulation - dug into the wood hard enough to leave crevices. Not an issue, since they hadn’t actually booked in. No one would connect the property damage to them. 

“Too fast?” Baby murmured, his thrusts slowing.

“No,” he wrangled out. “God- more, I need more of you. Y-you can go faster.”

To say that encouraged Baby would have been an understatement. It made him drop all pretences of self-control, his grip tightening, hips snapping, cock barreling into Abby’s prostate now and making his insides swelter. Their movements rattled the window, his panting breaths misting the glass so much that it was almost opaque. Abby rocked back into each thrust, eager to take more, feel more, his toes curling in his boots as he hurtled toward an explosive finish.

Baby groaned against his ear and it sent a fresh wave of arousal through him, his cock twitching and insides clenching. He clung to the frame, knuckles white, as his world narrowed to the raw pounding rhythm and the pleasure unfurling in his belly. 

There was no time to wrestle back control or make it last - he came undone, shouting and shuddering in Baby's grip and knees buckling under his weight. If not for Baby holding him up, he would have collapsed in a tangle of come and sweaty limbs. But Baby, despite his slight frame, was a powerful demon who bore his weight with ease, pressing him against the glass throughout his orgasm. His seed crept in messy strings down from the windowsill, staining the wall.

His body turned pliant after, slumped against the window frame while Baby chased his own finish with uneven thrusts, losing all rhythm now that he no longer had to concern himself with bringing Abby over the edge. He pounded into Abby with abandon, his teeth fitting themselves over Abby's nape to keep him still throughout. The bite left deep divots in his skin, bursting blood vessels and leaving the skin bruised and faintly bloody, and Abby didn’t have the wherewithal to complain. The intensity of his finish had left him weak and dazed. His vision still hadn’t quite righted itself, fuzzy around the edges as he stared out at the shimmering expanse of Seoul. 

When Baby came, it was with a groan and a pinch of his teeth that made Abby whimper. His claws dug deep and left hot, stinging crescents in Abby’s hips. Those wounds throbbed faintly, and when Baby finally eased his hold, Abby could feel the warmth of blood where the skin had broken.

Spent, Baby slumped forward against his back, the weight of him heavy but grounding. His grip softened, claws retracting as his hands slid around Abby’s waist in something almost like an embrace, holding him close in the aftermath of their coupling.

“How was that?” Baby asked, wry even in his breathlessness. “You relaxed now?”

“Mhmm,” was Abby’s response, more than indicative of a job well done. 

He didn’t protest as Baby guided them to the bed, where he deposited Abby and pulled up his trousers, tucking his cock away before lying down beside him. The bed was a moat of dust, but Abby was much too exhausted to complain. He just turned over and rested his head on Baby’s chest to avoid the worst of it. The man's heart thundered against his ear. 

“You know,” said Baby, breaking the quiet. “I’m too old to put up with miscommunication bullshit. The next time you see Jinu, you’re gonna work this out.”

Abby sighed against Baby’s clavicle. “Fine,” he mumbled into Baby’s skin. As much as he’d prefer to tiptoe around the issue, he knew Baby wouldn’t deviate from a course once he’d decided on it. If he wanted Abby to talk to Jinu, he would end up talking to Jinu. “I don’t know what to say, though,” he whined.

He could almost hear Baby’s eyeroll. “How about, ‘sorry I’m stupid, how about another date’?”

“I’m not stupid,” he mumbled. Not intellectually, anyway; emotionally, though? Baby's assessment was accurate. “I suppose I could do that. Do you want to come?”

Baby snorted. “Why the hell would I want to go on your date with Jinu?”

“I thought we could all do something together,” said Abby sheepishly. 

Baby sighed, shifting under Abby. “I suppose we could, after you’ve had some alone time. Otherwise he’s going to get jealous.”

“Jinu doesn’t get jealous,” said Abby, before pausing. “...Does he?”

One of Baby’s hands found his face and pinched a cheek. “Aww, so cute, so ignorant. He wants time alone with you, just like I do.” His fingers shifted to Abby’s hair and lightly curled around the magenta strands, tugging until they were looking each other in the eyes. “Even I have my moments. But I’m going to be able to control them better than a demon Jinu’s age-”

“I’m about the same age,” pointed out Abby.

“Case in point,” said Baby wryly. “Neither of you are paragons of self-control. Didn’t you blurt out that you wanted Jinu’s cock after seeing it once?”

Abby’s cheeks flushed. “And you fucked me in a dirty hotel room we broke into.”

“Touche,” said Baby. His gaze drifted over the dust drifting languidly through the air, infecting their lungs with every breath. “Hope you feel up to walking soon, because if I breathe in any more dust I’m going to asphyxiate on it.”

Abby laughed and immediately choked on a mouthful of said dust. “I can walk. You didn’t fuck me that hard.” 

Or maybe Baby did, because he pushed himself to his feet and proceeded to wobble to the side. He caught himself on the wall with a muttered curse, shooting Baby a look that was equal parts annoyed and winded. Baby, for his part, shrugged languidly and got up to offer him a shoulder, curling a powerful arm around his waist. 

“Your exact words, if I recall, were ‘I need more’ and ‘faster’.”

“Just-” Abby slowly lumbered toward the door with Baby’s help. “Bring lube next time. I’m going to be wincing when I sit down for the rest of the day.”

“Good,” said Baby. “Then you’ll remember exactly how I made you feel.”

Abby opened his mouth, and then closed it, heat eating its way up his neck and into his cheeks. That was definitely one of the hottest things that had ever been said to him. He couldn’t bring himself to continue his complaints after that.

Baby looked distinctly satisfied as they stepped out into the hallway.

It was with Baby staring at him from the kitchen, arms crossed, that Abby awkwardly approached Jinu and asked him to go on a walk. ‘Where’, he’d said, and Abby hadn’t actually given that any forethought, so he glanced at Baby, who sounded out the word ‘beach’.

So, one bus ride later - since the beach was too far away to reach on foot - they were walking barefoot through dunes of sand. It was a ragged section of beach, overgrown and neglected, but that just meant there was less risk of them stepping on glass or cans or something equally as unpleasant. The air was fresh with an undercurrent of brine from the water. The sea gently undulated, the moon and stars reflecting prettily off its surface.

As they walked along the sand, Abby picked up the occasional shell to examine. He’d never actually been to the beach before, come to think of it. He’d pretended to, told fans he did long runs on the beach instead of on a treadmill in their apartment, but he’d never actually visited one, and nor had he found the opportunity to enjoy a beachside walk when he’d been an impoverished entertainer getting by on selling his body. 

He liked how the shells looked and felt, some smooth, some jagged; some grey, some brown; some iridescent inside, and some hiding little critters that skittered out as he bent to examine their home. He liked the water too, of course; thought it pretty, but he’d never known the sand would be such a wealth of interesting little baubles. 

“Smells nice out here,” said Jinu idly, examining one of the shells Abby had dropped back onto the sand.

“Better than the suite, at least,” said Abby. “Mystery needs to learn to do the dishes already.”

They took turns doing them - or they were meant to take turns, but Mystery found the task so off-putting that he treated the sink like it was full of piranhas, slithering into his room and locking the door the moment someone tried to make him put his hands anywhere near it. He wouldn’t emerge until someone else did it, which usually ended up being Abby, since his resolve was, admittedly, not as strong as everyone else's. 

“How is he going to do that if you keep on doing it for him?” asked Jinu.

Abby pursed his lips. While Jinu had a point, he was still annoyed. He could tolerate stray food packets and overflowing bins, but he could not tolerate food rotting out in the open, which it did if they tried to wait for Mystery to return to the kitchen. 

“He could just stop eating,” he muttered. “It’s not like we need to.”

“That would be an even harder sell than the dishes,” said Jinu.

True. He’d probably stand at the table and bark at them if they tried to deny him food, little weirdo that he was. Their little weirdo, but a weirdo nonetheless. 

“Fine, I won't do it next time,” said Abby as he picked up something different - a strange, white, crusty-looking thing, hard on one side and a little soft on the other. He applied pressure to the thing in his hands until it came apart with a snap. He'd never seen anything like it before. “Hey, Jinu-" He presented the shattered thing for Jinu's examination. "You know what the hell this is?” 

Jinu squinted at his hands. “Cuttlefish bone.”

The answer came so fast that Abby looked bemused. “Seen a lot of those?”

“My family used to fish for food,” said Jinu, shrugging. “Sometimes cuttlefish. Anything we could get our hands on, really.” 

“I was never close enough to the sea for it,” said Abby as he tossed the bone aside and wiped his hands on his jeans. The cuttlefish left a faint, white residue on the denim, so he’d need to toss these into the laundry hamper the moment they returned. “Just got really good at scavenging food from the land.”

“Bet we both would have looked horribly skinny if we’d met back then,” said Jinu. 

Abby had been on the skinnier side back then. But the leader of his troupe had forced him to exercise regularly to keep his shape, lest his body no longer hold value to the nobles with heavy pockets. 

“Well, skinnier,” said Abby. “People wouldn’t want to sleep-” He closed his mouth, choking back the rest of his response. His heart thudded in his throat as he watched Jinu out of the corner of his eye for any indication of disgust.

Even that half-spoken admission seemed to be enough for Jinu to piece together what he’d been about to say. He frowned, his hand seeking Abby’s, and Abby reluctantly allowed those long, damp fingers to curl around his own. It was a startlingly comforting gesture, the pressure in his throat subsiding as they walked along the beach hand-in-hand. 

“Come on,” said Jinu gently. “There are tide pools further up. We can find some crabs.”

Abby nodded and allowed Jinu to guide him closer to the water.

He was uncharacteristically quiet as they walked. They were on the beach, hands clasped, a situation he never would have imagined himself in before now. The tide murmured at their feet and the wind tugged at his hair, and every small shift of Jinu’s grip sent an unfamiliar warmth crawling up his arm. This sort of thing wasn’t meant for people like them (like him ). But here they were, living like they might have if they’d still been human. There was a bittersweetness to it all, the kind that ached and warmed him in the same breath.

It seemed like a good moment to bring up what had happened the other day, at the aquarium. Things were quiet, relaxed, and he was holding Jinu’s hand despite having refused to earlier in the week. He licked his lips and fought to find the right combination of words that would clarify what had stymied his attempts to return Jinu’s affection. He’d already come up with a few possible approaches before proposing this trip, but now that he was going over them in his head, they felt inadequate. 

“The other day,” he began, the words coming uncertainly. 

Jinu glanced over at him, silent, but attentive.

He took a deep breath. It was just Jinu. He’d known the man so long that speaking to him about anything at all should be a trifle.

…And still, the words struggled their way up his throat. “At the, uh, aquarium. I didn’t mean to freak out on you. There was just- I don’t know. A lot going on in my head, like there always is, and I let it get to me.”

Jinu laughed, which Abby didn’t know whether or not to find reassuring.

“I’ve known you for four hundred years, Abby," said Jinu. "I know why you freaked out, and I got over it pretty quickly. I figured you’d sort yourself out and come to me eventually, or be bullied into it by Baby.”

Was he really easy to read? He didn’t find Jinu nearly as easy to figure out, even knowing all the intimate details of his past. “Have I really become that predictable?” he asked morosely.

“Yes,” said Jinu, before leaning in and sliding a warm hand around Abby’s nape, drawing him into a kiss. A soft, chaste sort of thing that left Abby’s lips tingling. “Though I will admit, I didn’t expect the two week proposition,” he added in a murmur.

Abby smiled against his mouth. “Good to hear I got one over you.” He reinitiated the kiss, guiding it into something a little deeper, a little hotter, eager to feel the softness of Jinu’s lips.

Jinu’s other hand moved to cup his cheek, while Abby’s braced on Jinu’s chest for stability, his breath coming short as Jinu pressed kiss after hot, hungry kiss against his mouth. I want you, conveyed with every meeting of their lips. The rhythmic hush of the waves was their only witness. In the dark and quiet of the beach, they could indulge as long and as deeply as they wanted to. 

They broke apart with the same heat that had driven them together, panting and shivering, their eyelashes low and skin flushed. Abby didn’t want to stop touching Jinu, so he buried his face into Jinu’s shoulder and held him close, the gentle embrace of someone starved for kind touch. The hand on his nape kept him there. Neither of them seemed able to bear the thought of letting go, and what a comforting realisation that was.

“You think everything’s gonna be okay?” he murmured against Jinu’s hoodie. “Once the Honmoon has fallen, I mean. You think Gwi-Ma will let us have a little more freedom?” It was a dangerous topic; after all, Gwi-Ma could be listening. He so often did.

Jinu’s entire being seemed to pause. “Well,” he said after a time. “I don’t think he’d become more restrictive, at least.”

Abby chuckled weakly. With how uncertain their current freedom - and privacy - was, he didn’t dare ask what Jinu would do if they weren’t restricted.

“Better than nothing, I suppose,” he said, tilting his head up to glance out at the water, that gently undulating sea reflecting the moon and stars. It was odd to think that they were the same moon and stars that had existed when he’d been a human despite everything else having so drastically changed. Nothing ever changed in the underworld. 

“We’ll have all the souls we could want,” said Jinu. “Free rein, at least moreso than the other demons. It’ll be - okay.” 

Okay. He could live with ‘okay’. As long as he had Jinu, Baby, and the others, life wasn’t so bad, and they could continue this whole idol thing for a while. There was some satisfaction in being a performer again.

“Come on,” he murmured, reluctantly taking a step back. “You were gonna show me the tide pools. Have you been here before, or did you see that on the… google map thing Baby’s always using?” 

Jinu hesitated for an unusually long time. “I came here with a… a friend,” he said, hand still intertwined with Abby’s as they resumed their steady trek across the sand. 

“A friend?” repeated Abby, an eyebrow raised. “Not that weird tiger that’s always following you in the Underworld? Or the crow?”

“What- no.” Jinu rolled his eyes. “And he’s not weird; he’s majestic. Sort of.”

“I’d say you have low standards for majestic, but, well- you're with me, so…”

“That won't stop me from drowning you in one of the tide pools if you continue to insult my cat,” said Jinu, his voice carrying a teasing lilt. 

Abby smiled wide and toothy. “Unfortunately for your goofy cat, I don’t need to breathe.” 

“That could come in handy, actually,” said Jinu.

It took Abby a moment to register his meaning, then his cheeks began to burn. “Got a while longer before that option is available,” he murmured shyly. But it would be available, provided getting Jinu’s dick in his mouth was mathematically possible. If he had to guess: no, impossible. But that wouldn’t stop him from trying.

Jinu groaned softly. “I’ve been celibate for centuries, Abby. You’re killing me.”

“Just means we get to work up to a marathon,” said Abby slyly. 

Jinu sucked a breath in through his teeth, swore, and carried on toward the tide pools.

They passed a ridge of seaweed washed ashore, the brine thick in the air. A few crabs scuttled around their feet as they climbed across a rocky outcropping framing the ocean, stepping carefully between sea life and barnacles and jagged calcifications as they worked their way over to the tide pools. 

Abby rolled his jeans up just over his knee and carefully sat down on the edge of one of the pools, joined a moment later by Jinu, who only rolled his jeans up to his calves before dipping a foot in the water. The waves gently lapped at their ankles as they sat there together, side by side, enjoying the chill of the water and the warmth of each other's company.

“We should come here again,” said Jinu into the quiet.

“We should,” Abby agreed.

He closed his eyes and listened to the waves crawl up the shore. There was so much peace here, and he wanted to believe they would be able to visit this beach again, as much as they wanted.

Chapter Text

In all honesty, when Abby had proposed taking Baby to the aquarium, he hadn’t actually expected the man to be impressed by it. With as old and worldly as he was (Abby suspected he’d been some kind of royalty before becoming a demon), it seemed unlikely that a few tanks of sea life would make much of an impact. And yet, the moment they stepped into the building - or broke in under the cover of darkness, rather, because they didn’t want to be surrounded by milling humans while trying to enjoy themselves - and flicked on the lights, his gaze brightened with intrigue.

He approached the nearest expanse of glass to track the lazy drift of jellyfish and the ripple of silver schools flashing like coins in sunlight. His finger slightly touched the glass, as though he wanted to reach through to feel the cool silk of their movement, each graceful sweep they made through the water. The glass reflected his face, and Abby could see his wide, curious eyes as they slid from one end of the aquarium to the other, drinking in everything on display. 

“I didn’t know you liked fish,” said Abby, which seemed to snap him out of whatever reverie he’d been in.  

“Why not? They’re graceful.” Baby stepped away from the glass without waiting to see whether Jinu and Abby would follow. Both of them did, of course. “I wouldn’t have joined the idol group if I didn’t have an appreciation for that sort of thing,” he added.

“Really?” said Jinu, bemused, his longer legs making quick work of the space between him and Baby. “You were the hardest sell.”

Baby cast a frown over his shoulder. “Because ‘KPop idol group’ isn’t something I immediately associate with grace. I didn’t even know what those words meant when you approached me with them.” 

No surprise there; Abby hadn’t known either, having not kept up with advancements in culture and technology over the centuries. He hadn’t even realised VCR and cassette tapes had become obsolete until this year, after stepping into a pop culture store and seeing nothing but wall-to-wall CDs. That was just what happened when you didn’t engage with humans as anything but a food source. 

“But you made a good case,” continued Baby, settling now in front of a tank containing sharks. “Things were getting monotonous, anyway. I needed new scenery, and this idol thing has given plenty of that.” 

The gentle light from above dappled the water with ribbons of white, stirred by sharks gliding lazily through their enclosure and casting the occasional curious glance at their visitors. One of them came close enough that its large, beady eye was level with them, flicking across their faces before it slithered away. 

Baby was so close to the glass now that he almost had his nose pressed up against it. He - ironically - finally looked like his namesake, with an almost innocent fascination on his face. They were beautiful creatures, sleek and majestic, with intimidatingly large teeth and powerful jaws. Abby would have paid to see them during feeding time (which meant they would have to visit this place during the day at some point and endure the company of humans). 

“Once the Honmoon is down, we could continue it,” murmured Abby, breaking the silence that had fallen. “The idol thing, I mean. I guess it wouldn’t be super necessary by that point, but as long as we continue producing music, the hunters would never be able to recover their footing.” 

“Or,” Baby drawled. “We could just kill them. A more permanent solution.” He looked a little like a shark himself as he turned to face Jinu and Abby, his smile displaying his fangs. “Unless you’re really keen on continuing.”

“I’d like to continue too, actually,” said Jinu, rubbing his nape now. 

“It’ll make sure the honmoon can’t be recovered," said Abby, trying to sound convincing. They couldn't continue this idol thing without Baby. Or rather, he didn't want it to continue without Baby. "We can’t risk them recovering their footing and trapping us again.” 

Jinu nodded along. "He makes a good point. Defeating the current hunters doesn't mean new ones won't show up."

Baby’s gaze flicked between them. “Alright,” was all he said, a short but startling concession. 

He hadn’t tried to argue or anything. Maybe he enjoyed their idol group too - or just the people in it. Either way, Abby was pleased. If they persuaded Romance and Mystery to continue the idol shtik, that would be all of them (frankly, if they managed to convince Baby, he didn’t expect Romance and Mystery to be too difficult. Mystery was ravenous enough to stick around so he could feed on fans and Romance was a follower). 

Baby turned away from the glass. “I'm surprised you're enjoying this idol thing, Abby,” he said.

“Well…” A very dubious-sounding 'well', because there was plenty he didn't enjoy about Idol life. “I like some aspects of it, at least.” 

The exhaustion, the constant rehearsals, the slobbering fans (though sometimes it was flattering), the idiot persona he always had to wear, and the lack of privacy could get grating. But he enjoyed most everything else about it. Dancing to the rhythm, making up choreography for the group, the singing, the hot showers and food, and being able to wile away the hours on the overworld instead of the dull, stagnant environment of the underworld. 

Life hadn’t been this interesting for him in centuries. For so long he’d spent his days waiting for Gwi-Ma to find a use for him so he could leave, even for just a little while. Now that he'd grown used to the freedoms of the overworld, he didn't want to give them up, not for anything.

Baby licked his teeth before offering an admission. “So do I. It’s not the worst thing I could be spending my time doing.” A gentle sort of glare at Jinu. “Even if the whole ‘baby’ role is demeaning.”

Jinu shrugged helplessly. “You have the visual appearance for it.”

“Not when I’m in full demon form,” Baby muttered, his mouth pulling into a thin line. Though no one had seen him go full demon, Abby suspected it would be the sort of experience that lingered in the back of your head and crept up on you during quiet moments. 

“Fortunately,” said Jinu. “I assume that would immediately lose us all of our fans.”

“All the more reason to do it,” said Baby as he moved deeper into the aquarium, casting his eyes over stingrays and lion fishes, blue tangs and butterfly fish, which Abby only knew the name of because the aquarium helpfully provided plaques with information. “At… a later date, of course,” he went on. “When the group is no longer viable or necessary.”

Right, because obviously they couldn’t keep up the idol group thing going forever. Idols tended to age out of the industry fast, so they had about a decade - maybe a little longer - before they’d need to disband and figure out a new direction for their lives. But there was no need to worry about that yet. They were still at the start, still building momentum. Worrying about what came after would only steal from the present, and right now, the present was the cool dim glow of the tanks and the shimmer of scales and Baby’s reflection moving steadily ahead of them.

“They’ll just attribute it to special effects,” said Abby, shoving his hands into his pockets as they walked. They’d gotten away with a lot with that excuse.

“It’d still be entertaining,” said Baby. “And infect their dreams.”

Jinu gave a nervous little laugh, while Abby wrinkled his nose. Oh, boy, he was not looking forward to being exposed to whatever horror show Baby intended for their inevitable disbanding. 

Once they’d walked past every available aquarium three times over, Baby dragged them into the gift shop so he could buy himself a shark charm. There were, inevitably, about eight of them, which Baby poured over for maybe thirty minutes before deciding to steal one of each, which made the duration of his contemplation a complete waste of time. On the positive side of things, that gave Abby enough time to find himself a bright blue sharktail beanie, which he immediately put on.

“Totally suits you,” said Jinu between chuckles, while pocketing a tiny clownfish eraser and pencil set. Probably to use while writing lyrics. 

Abby elbowed him. “Shut up. It’s cute.”

“Very cute,” Baby agreed, reaching up to pat his cheek, fond instead of condescending. “If you don’t want anything else-”

“You’re the one who made us stay here for ages,” Jinu muttered under his breath.

Baby continued as though he hadn't heard Jinu. “We should head out and see if we can find a quiet bar. I could do with a drink.”

Somehow, despite the freedom they now had, it hadn’t occurred to Abby that he could indulge in alcohol until Baby had proposed it. And not just the bitter, greasy soju offered in the underworld, made of what little grains existed down there, but palatable alcohol, the kind that you didn’t have to choke down with fingers pinched around your nostrils. It was difficult for demons to get drunk, or they’d be getting drunk constantly to escape their circumstances, but since they had money and free rein, there was no reason they couldn’t drink enough to get inebriated now. 

Jinu looked uncertain, but Abby wanted to spend a few hours at a bar, enjoying each other's company, pretending they were normal people for just a little while. 

“Well, I’m all for it,” said Abby, before looking pointedly at Jinu. “Not so sure about Jinu. Worried we’re gonna drink you under the table?”

Jinu scoffed. “I’m pretty sure neither of you can hold your alcohol. That’s why I’m hesitating. If this ended up on social media…”

“Then we’ll just have to avoid looking like ourselves,” said Baby, the colour fading from his hair and eyes within a blink. He did look like a completely different person, albeit with the same pretty, cherubic features. 

Abby did the same, letting his magenta hair fade to black and messing up the strands to make his features less distinguishable. The change wasn’t as dramatic as Baby’s, but it was enough that someone passing by wouldn’t immediately place him as a Saja Boy.

Jinu sighed. There wasn’t much he could do about his own features, since he’d done little to alter his appearance before becoming the face of the group. He tried to make his hair a little messier, fall further down his forehead, and grabbed a nearby cap off a shelf to pull low over his face. It wasn’t a perfect disguise, but it was night, dark, so it would do the job. 

“Alright,” he said, clearly reluctant. “This’ll have to do. Let's go.” 

They passed the empty guard station on their way out, the second guard having been knocked out instead of eaten to avoid the suspicion of two employees of the same place disappearing in quick succession. This time around, Baby had used magic to make a feedback loop on the cameras, which dropped as they stepped through the door and out into the frigid night air. Abby tucked his coat tighter around himself, shivering as the frigid night air wormed its way under his layers and brought his skin up in goosebumps. He could usually tolerate the cold well, but this had to be below freezing, with the frost crunching under his boots and breaths misting the air.

“Come on,” said Abby, tucking his fingers under his armpits to preserve some warmth. “There has to be an open bar somewhere near here. With heating.” 

Baby was already tapping away on his phone. “There is,” he said, raising his screen into Abby’s view, his new shark charm jingling. “About a fifteen-minute walk. Says it’s quiet around this time, too.”

“And it’s heated?”

Baby rolled his eyes. “Even if it isn’t, it’ll be warmer than out here.”

“Fine,” said Abby, trying not to sound like he was whining (even if he was). It was starting to spit rain, so anywhere would be better than out here at this point. The only thing worse than being cold was being wet on top of that. 

With Baby taking the lead, they ambled their way through increasingly slick streets and footpaths, weaving past people who shuffled beneath dripping umbrellas and between cars that sped past with no regard for pedestrians. Neon glowed dimly through the drizzle, colours bleeding together on the slick pavement, until at last the blurred outline of the bar came into view ahead. Abby was deeply relieved, since his shoes were so sodden that they were beginning to squelch. None of them had anticipated rain, so none of them were wearing appropriate shoes. 

Baby, meanwhile, seemed impervious to the weather, his stride unhurried, almost languid, as if the rain was just another indulgence to soak in. Abby was a little envious. But at least there was still Jinu, who swore with each step in his increasingly wet socks. 

Coming closer, they could just about make out the exterior of the bar under the meagre glow of streetlamps and LED signs. ‘The Laughing Llama’, the sign declared in bold, blocky script. The brickwork had been painted black and the stylised outline of a llama, grinning foolishly within a neat white circle, was emblazoned on the wall next to the door. A faint warm light spilled from the cracks around the entrance, along with the muffled hum of conversation and the clink of glassware. It promised reprieve from the cold, and that was good enough for Abby. 

He and Jinu practically barged inside, while Baby came up behind them in an easy stride and seated himself at the bar, letting his hood drop to his shoulders as he took a laminated drinks menu from a nearby pile. Abby and Jinu were quick to slide into place on either side of him.

The interior, like the exterior, was modest, with black-painted walls, red stools, and a long row of booths lining the back and side. A small circular stage sat empty, though at eleven pm that was hardly surprising. The strangest detail was a plastic, cartoon llama propped up near the bar, balancing a tray of wine bottles (shoddily glued down, from the looks of it ) and clashing terribly with the otherwise sombre aesthetic. But Abby liked it anyway. And he especially liked that they had a wood-heater going in one corner, spreading a sweat-inducing heat throughout the bar. They were desperately in need of it after walking through rain for roughly twenty minutes.

There were a couple of other patrons, mostly old and greying, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of the bar. This probably wasn’t a location frequented by young people, and that was just fine, preferable even, since that meant there was less chance anyone would recognise them. Men over forty weren’t exactly their target audience. Which didn’t mean they didn’t have male fans in that age range, but they knew from statistics that they were their biggest minority and not a group they were likely to be able to persuade into their maw. 

The bartender, a burly man with a bushy moustache and kind, drooping eyes, greeted them with a friendly smile. “Been a while since I’ve seen fresh faces in here! What’ll you boys have?”

Abby struggled to find familiar names on the drinks menu, and so did Jinu, by the looks of his furrowed brow, but Baby answered within a few seconds.

“We’ll start with three 12-shot platters, thank you.”

“Oh.” The man’s bushy eyebrows jumped. “Three of them? That’s quite a lot of alcohol and quite expensive. Are you sure?”

“We’re splurging,” said Baby with a shrug, then a flagrant lie: “It's my birthday.” 

Jinu offered a smile that probably wasn’t as reassuring as he’d intended it to be. “We won’t give your establishment any problems.”

The man appeared dubious of this promise, but he still said, “Well, since it's his birthday,” and wandered off to fulfil their order.

Abby scrolled down the list of beverages until he found the 12-shot platter Baby was referencing. There was everything from vodka to plum wine on there, everything delicately described with notes of dry berry and traces of nuts and a bold flavour and texture, whatever that meant. There was bound to be something worth drinking among 12 selections, though he didn’t have high standards after spending centuries drinking the foul soju produced in the underworld. And even that had been something of a luxury, the sort of splurge you would get a few times a decade rather than year-round. There just wasn’t enough plantlife in the underworld to sustain consistent production. 

The three platters came after ten minutes or so, carefully placed on the bar in front of them. Each liquor gleamed under the dim overhead lights, a spectrum from clear to amber to near-black. Abby leaned forward to sniff them like a curious cat, first the thin yellow liquid closest to him, then something pinkish-red. They were sort of grain liquor and wine, both sweet-smelling. 

Baby picked up the first glass without hesitation, swirling it as though he were some seasoned connoisseur instead of a demon that would drink battery acid if it had enough kick. He consumed it in one go, smacked his lips, and immediately moved on to the next one. 

“Jesus, Baby, at least give it some time for the taste to register,” said Abby as he selected a translucent liquid from his platter. 

“Nah,” said Baby, and proceeded to down the next one like candy water. 

Abby swallowed his first shot, and unlike Baby, gave it time to marinate in his mouth before he went for another one. Jinu drank even slower than either of them, sniffing the glasses for long periods before swallowing the contents, probably trying to figure out what the flavour was supposed to be before he committed to drinking it. 

They were good. Some too strong for Abby's tastes, too close to the bitterness of the underworld soju, but they were still clearly of a greater quality. When he drank the darkest of the offerings, it left a heat in the back of his throat that made him cough.

“Not bad,” he said between coughs into a fist. 

Baby snorted. “Try not to asphyxiate,” he said, prompting Jinu to snicker.

When Baby drank it, he did so without experiencing the same negative effects. The bastard. 

"Sweet, with just enough burn," he said, like he was reviewing fine wine instead of something that had nearly knocked Abby out of his stool.

Jinu gave him a wry look. “Your taste buds are shot from all the underworld soju. You could drink bleach and say it had character.”

“It would have character,” said Baby, now on his sixth shot. “Just probably not the kind I’d enjoy.”

Even a demon would get chemical burns from bleach, though it wouldn’t necessarily kill them. Just be very, very unpleasant. 

“Maybe mouthwash instead,” said Abby. “A few bottles of those and you might get a buzz.”

“And vomit everywhere,” said Jinu, sounding none too pleased at this prospect.

Abby wrinkled his nose. “Ew. Don't bring up vomit while I'm trying to enjoy a drink.” 

“I’m not going to vomit,” said Baby, turning a glare on them. “And I’m not going to drink bleach or mouthwash.” He wrinkled his nose and reached for his next shot. “How do you even know it’s alcoholic? Are you reading the labels on the complimentary toiletries while having one of your absurdly long showers?”

“Maybe,” murmured Abby, though it was after a shower, while drip-drying on the toilet seat that he’d read the labels of things. “Maybe you’d take absurdly long showers too if you tried one.”

Baby’s mouth pulled into a displeased little frown. “I can barely stand a ten-minute shower, let alone one three hours long.”

Another Mystery, then. He didn’t much like showers either.

Abby reached for his platter and downed a shot that was deep red. Not wine, but something darker, tasting of berry with a strong liquor. The warmth of all those shots finally began to sink into his bloodstream, spreading outward in a way that softened the edges of the rain-soaked night.

“Oh.” He closed his eyes and luxurated in the warmth of the fire and alcohol. “Already starting to get a little fuzzy. Must be strong stuff.”

Come to think of it, modern humans had probably perfected brewing and distilling to wring every last drop of potency from their ingredients. The alcohol he’d had in the past, both as a demon and a human, hadn’t been nearly this strong. 

“Mmm.” Baby licked his lips. “They’ve refined the process, that’s for sure.”

It wasn’t long before all three of them realised just how potent they were, far more than anything else they’d ever drunk. But with lowered inhibitions came more purchases, a greater willingness to risk over-indulgence, and it was somewhere around their third lot of drinks that Abby started to lose cognisance.

The rest of the night was experienced in vague snippets: getting herded out as they became too rowdy for the other patrons, a taxi that went in circles while they figured out where to go next, some scrolling through Craigslist, until finally they ended up in a seedy part of the city and…

The rest, Abby didn’t recall.

He woke to dry eyes and daylight streaming in from a nearby window, making his retinas throb. A coarse blanket rasped against his back as he looked around, finding his body scattered loosely across a double bed, one of his legs knotted with Baby’s and an arm draped around Jinu, drawing their shoulders together in a clumsy embrace. The room they were in was cream, unremarkable, with the sort of wear that suggested it was a budget option. 

His head pounded with every sluggish beat of his heart, a dull hammering that seemed to reverberate through his skull. His stomach twisted uncomfortably, sour with bile. It’d been a long time since he’d been hungover and he’d forgotten just how miserable it could be. He groaned softly, which was enough to rouse Baby, who didn’t look to be dealing with his aching head any better than Abby was. 

Baby immediately cupped a hand over his bloodshot eyes to block out the sun. “What time is it?” he croaked, his voice rough and papery.

Abby lacked a phone, so he dug through Jinu’s pocket until he found his. The man murmured, disturbed by the movement, but didn’t open his eyes. 

The phone was a modest affair, black and plain, with no charms or stickers to brighten it. Purely practical. The screen lit his sore eyes with three merciless block numbers: 7:13. So they hadn’t slept (or whatever the demon equivalent was) long after their escapades. 

“Seven in the morning,” he murmured before flopping back onto the bed, his vision spinning even behind his eyelids. 

“We were only out a couple of hours?” Baby grumbled. “Figures.” 

“Restless creatures of whatever,” said Abby. Wasn’t much they could do about their inability to slumber the same way humans did. 

Another groan punched the air, and Jinu slowly detangled himself from Abby’s embrace and hoisted himself up on his elbows. “What time-?” 

“Seven,” Abby interrupted him.

“Fuck,” said Jinu succinctly before sinking back onto the mattress. 

Abby cracked an eye up at the ceiling, grimacing at the throb behind his temples. He wasn't sure their night of leisure had been worth this aftermath, especially since he couldn't remember most of it. “What did we even do last night?”

Baby sighed and stretched, a bone in his back popping. “Drank a lot. After that, I have no idea.”

There were a few minutes in which they all sweltered in their poor life choices, their eyes bloodshot and heads pounding, their throats full of acid. Then Jinu abruptly lurched upright, the motion violent enough to make the mattress creak and jolt Abby into opening his eyes, his heartbeat skipping in shock. When Jinu abruptly began pulling up his shirt, to say Abby was confused was an understatement.

“I’m not sure this is the time,” he began, only for Jinu to hush him by raising a hand.

“I’m checking something.” 

He hitched his shirt up high enough to unveil the jut of a hip, some fine hairs trailing up his navel, and… something Abby knew definitely hadn’t been there before, emblazoned just above his thigh. 

A lion's head. Not just any lion's head, either - their lion's head, with five names written on each side of the pentagon it sat within. Jinu, Abby, Baby, Mystery and Romance. Bright pink ink cradled by black. The precision of it would have been impressive if not for the creeping horror settling in Abby’s gut, because beneath the fabric of his own shirt, he could feel a faint, steady throb, betraying the pinnacle of last night's poor decision-making.

He vaguely remembered now: stumbling upon a list of Craigslist ads for tattoo artists; phoning number after number until they found someone willing to work this late at night for an absurd sum of money; giddily slipping into a dark, seedy basement, where a young man with a face mask on and a cap pulled low gestured for them to sit in a plain kitchen chair. And still, they’d all gotten a tattoo, one after the other. It was nothing short of a miracle they hadn’t ended up with a complete disaster on their skin. 

“Shit,” breathed Abby. “We’re going to need to cover these up before every show.”

Jinu looked like his headache had just increased tenfold, while Baby frowned down at the tattoo with visible displeasure. 

“That’s it,” said Baby, addressing both of them with a scowl. “I’m never letting you two invite me out anywhere ever again.”

“That’s fair,” said Jinu, letting his head drop back to the blanket. 

The tattoos, though not forgotten, spent most of their time hidden behind illusory magic so neither their fans nor Romance (Mystery wasn’t much of a concern) would recoil at their poor taste. A fair assessment of having their own symbol emblazoned on their hip, like a poorly thought-out monument to a lover, but Abby did develop some measure of fondness for it the more he gazed at it in the mirror. It was a nice little reminder of the night the three of them had spent together. A night of poor decision-making wrapped in alcohol fumes and bravado, but a pleasant night nonetheless. 

The questionable life choices only continued after the miserable conclusion to their night of indulgence. Which was to say, he started teasing Jinu. How could he help himself? They were coming up to the end of the two weeks, and Baby was renewing his efforts to prepare Abby with toys and cock and fingers, stretching him open under the watchful gaze of his phone camera. And as soon as they were done, Abby would send photos and videos along with a string of messages.

What do you think of this one? ;)

All of this is for you.

Baby fucked me good tonight; can’t wait until you can do it together.

Which toy should I try next?

Jinu always responded immediately, eagerly, but it was apparent as the days passed that his sexual frustration was reaching a peak. His gaze was always straying to Abby during the quiet stretches between fanmeets and performances, his eyes bright and hungry. There was promise in that look, and Abby knew the conclusion of it would be well worth the wait they’d had to endure.

He’d thought, for a time, that he could simply tease and tease without consequence.

But he was wrong; their next rehearsal proved it.

Abby had prepared the choreography, as he usually did. Jinu had shown him so many KPop dance videos and training materials in the years leading up to their group’s formation that designing routines had become second nature, and it never took him long to sketch out steps that matched the rhythm of Jinu’s lyrics. He was especially proud of this one. It used their demon forms to full effect, with levitation and teleportation and otherworldly lighting, the kind of spectacle they could never risk while masquerading as humans. It wasn’t just a dance this time; it was the eye before the storm, the first sweep of a hurricane before the world was once again engulfed in demons. 

Abby was looking forward to it. Not so much the misery and soul-sucking that would come with demons being unleashed on mankind, but being able to extend this taste of freedom from the underworld (and from Gwi-Ma). Maybe they’d be shoved back in there eventually, but at least it wouldn’t be right away. 

He tugged on his leather pants, slid into knee-high boots, adjusted his fishnet crop top, and perched the gat just so. The sochangui was last to be put on, sweeping the floor as he shrugged it into place. A little showy, perhaps, but he wanted to bring everything to the table for this last performance. The humans at least deserved a spectacle before they drowned in Gwi-Ma’s hunger. 

A full-length mirror in one of the changing rooms let him take in every detail of his outfit. The leather trousers and boots that caught the light with each subtle shift, drawing the eye to his long legs and the swell of his thighs. The crop top that emphasised his abs - though he’d gotten compliments on his chest, too - and the way his pert ass rounded out the silhouette. Everything fit together perfectly, every line and curve exactly as it should be.

He artfully loosened his overcoat before stepping out, leaving enough of it open to unveil the curve of a pec and the blush of a nipple. The reveal was deliberate, a performance in miniature, and he made sure Jinu witnessed it before he tightened the coat back up. Just a little tease before the rehearsal began. He relished the way Jinu’s expression darkened ravenously, like a wolf scenting a rabbit hole. With Jinu’s eyes following him, he made his way out onto the stage.

The stage was much smaller than the one they would actually be performing at, but that was alright; he’d designed the choreography in a way that meant they could adapt to any size differences without too much difficulty. Always necessary when they weren’t always familiar with the spaces they were to perform in. The stage lights warmed their shoulders and the screen behind them displayed their symbol, the lion's head within a pentagon. Everything had been meticulously prepared by what few humans were on their payroll. They had as little interaction with them as possible to avoid them catching on to anything being out of place about their employers. 

Everyone was lined up and ready, and Abby took his position next to Jinu and waited for the background music to begin. Since they’d sent the human crew away, it came on automatically, and, god - Jinu had really knocked it out of the park this time, every note in perfect harmony with the choreography Abby had prepared.

He threw himself into each step, swinging his legs in crisp arcs and vaulting into the air with clean precision, posing as the rhythm of the song demanded. Heat pressed down from the overheads, and between that and the physical exertion, a fine sweat began to gather on his nape. Just a little, his demonic biology stifling the worst of it. They would go through the song again and again, until everything was perfectly memorised, so he was likely to be pleasantly sweltering by the end of the rehearsal. 

It was partway through their second practice run that something odd happened: a vibration erupted from inside him and one of his feet slipped, sending him so far off-balance that he had to use Mystery’s shoulder for stability. The sensation stopped almost as fast as it’d come on, and he was terrified for a moment that the plug he’d slid in that morning had loosened. But no; it was still firmly in place, wedged inside so tight that he struggled to make it out when he ghosted his fingers beneath his coat to check its fit. So what the hell had that been? 

Mystery cast him a quizzical look. Probably. You couldn’t see the man's eyes, so you had to make some assumptions based on the fine movements of his nose and lips. 

“Just had a- ah-” There it was again, the faintest of movement inside him that subsided before he could properly register what was happening. Was the plug moving? Since when could it do that? Had he accidentally switched it on or something, unaware of that feature this entire time? That didn’t explain why it was only occurring periodically though, so maybe it was a pressure thing. 

“Uhh,” said Mystery, clearly at a loss. “Are you… alright?”

“I-I’m fine,” he said, and he was glad that the exertion had already flushed his skin so he wouldn’t be caught visibly blushing. This was the closest he’d come to being caught in his degeneracy by an outside party. “Just, um, twisted my ankle a little, I think.”

“Oh.” Mystery’s lips pursed into a pale line. His eyes darted to Abby’s feet like he was trying to figure out how bad the injury was. “You want to sit down?”

“We’re almost done,” Jinu interjected, smiling at them in a way that made Abby pause. There was something strange about the way the ends of his mouth curled. “We’ll finish this round, then he can sit down in a changing room.” 

Jinu stepped back into formation, gesturing with an elegant flick of his hand for the others to fall into line. His attention cut to Abby, gold glinting under the lights. “Seems like you’re off your game today, Abby,” he added, winking at the man, and that settled it - he definitely had something to do with what was happening to Abby.

“I’m fine,” Abby groused, though he was going to take Jinu up on that anyway, if for no other reason than to grill the man. If Jinu had actually found a way to tamper with the plug…

Within seconds of them resuming, the movement - vibrations, his mind distantly informed him - started up again, sending pleasant little jolts through his abdomen and leaving his movements uncharacteristically clumsy. With teeth gritted, Abby forced himself through to the end of the song, every muscle taut with determination to outlast whatever game Jinu was playing. 

-Or maybe it was both Jinu and Baby subjecting him to this, because he couldn’t help notice the side-eye Baby was giving him. Casual, easy, knowing. They were colluding against him, watching for how long he could keep his composure under the heat of the lights and the rhythm of the choreography while the plug vibrated manically inside him. His cock began to harden, and thank god for illusory magic, because it would have been immediately apparent in pants this tight. The strain against his zipper was uncomfortable, to say the least, a reminder that he was balancing on a knife’s edge between performance and humiliation. He was struggling not to wince through each motion of his body. 

The remainder of the routine seemed to take an unusually long time. Seconds felt like minutes, minutes like hours, his body becoming so sweltering under his clothes that he began to grow noticeably sweaty, his skin as shiny as his pants under the overhead lights. He fought to keep his expression impassive, unaffected, as if he wasn’t one wrong move away from collapsing in a trembling, overstimulated heap. 

Every low pulse in his belly threatened to make his feet slip, until finally, blessedly, they concluded the song and he no longer had to worry about keeping himself steady while swinging his limbs and jumping in the air. He tottered over to the side of the stage and leaned against the cool lacquered wood, fighting to recover some of his bearings before calling over his shoulder at Jinu.

“Need to have a word with you,” he said, keeping his voice as level as possible. 

Jinu regarded him with feigned innocence. “Right now? I was going to grab a soda.”

“You can have one after,” Abby bit out. The plug was still vibrating inside him, nudging his sweet spot in a way that made his toes curl. “W-we need to talk. Now .” 

Fuck, he was stuttering. He couldn’t endure much more of this without his composure crumbling completely. He was barely fighting back the obscenities threatening to spill past his lips.

Jinu looked irritatingly amused. “Alright, if you insist.” He nodded to the back exit, which led to a hallway of doors with shiny, silver plaques identifying rooms as ‘storage’, ‘changing room’, ‘staff room’, and ‘meeting room’. “We’ll take one at the very end, for privacy’s sake. It looks like you need some discretion for whatever you want to tell me.”

Oohh, this insufferable man. 

Abby made a concerted effort not to limp as they crossed the stage and slipped through the door. Progress was slow, courtesy of the persistent vibrating and nudging of the plug making his legs feel like they had the consistency of jello. It was a small mercy that the other Saja opted to remain on the stage, talking idly in a quiet corner while he and Jinu tottered off to have their ‘private chat’. 

Jinu, irritatingly enough, ambled slowly and leisurely behind him, flicking his gat back so it hung around his neck. Abby briefly considered pulling the strings to make him stumble before thinking better of it. He didn’t want to risk failing and putting himself in an even more precarious situation.

Any sounds from the stage became inaudible as they advanced on their destination. It was far enough that they were unlikely to be overheard, so Abby would be free to confront Jinu on all the finer details of what the hell was going on. 

He shouldered open the door to a changing room and immediately located the nearest surface to lean on, panting and shivering now that he had enough privacy to do so, his legs tremoring under him. The faint buzz of the plug was audible in the quiet of this part of the building. Jinu entered after him with much more grace, kicking the door shut behind them with a heel and locking it. 

It was clean in here, everything from the walls to the furniture a simple cream white. Not unappealing, but bland. 

“Alright,” Abby muttered under his breath, keeping his voice low but edged with warning. He turned to face Jinu. “What the hell did you do to me out there?”

Jinu tilted his head this way and that before answering, as though assessing Abby’s condition. Which was currently in dire straits. The longer those vibrations continued, the harder it got not to crumple into a little ball at Jinu’s feet.

“Did you think you would be the only one who gets to tease?” Jinu leaned comfortably - far too comfortably - against a wardrobe and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small, pink block of plastic with rounded edges. The top of it displayed a single button, currently depressed, and a dial, which was hovering somewhere between the numbers two and three. “The humans have gotten really inventive, made these things called vibrators. And - get this - they vibrate.”

Abby scoffed and rolled his eyes. “I figured that much out myself. Did Baby introduce you to them?”

“He might have,” said Jinu, which sounded like a definite ‘yes’ to Abby.

The traitor. He was definitely not letting Baby come inside him next time they fucked (probably. Maybe. It was hard to maintain your resolve with a dick inside you, and Baby knew exactly what to do with his to disassemble Abby's capacity for coherent thought). 

“Of course he did.” 

Abby took a deep, centring breath and pushed away from the table, tottering his way over to Jinu with his hand extended to snatch the device. He didn’t get more than a few steps before Jinu abruptly twisted the dial, sending his legs buckling under him. “Fuck-!” On his knees, hands flat on the ground, he trembled and groaned, pleasant little sparks zigzagging up and down his spine as the vibrator stimulated his sensitive insides. He was so aroused now he couldn’t maintain his illusion any longer, the bulge of his arousal clearly visible. 

Jinu’s smile widened, displaying his fangs. “You’ve spent all week teasing me. These are the consequences, Abby.”

Abby groaned softly. He couldn’t even climb to his feet now. “If you keep this up, I’ll end up coming in my pants,” he whined. “And there aren’t any showers here.”

“Maybe you should have thought of that before testing my patience.” 

Jinu stepped closer, dropping to his haunches before Abby and gently cupping the man's face with a cool, long-fingered hand. The pads of it were roughened by years of playing the bipa. Despite himself, despite his position, Abby leaned into that gentle touch, his eyelashes fluttering. 

“We haven’t even started properly, and you’re already whinging,” said Jinu in a murmur. “Undo the front of your trousers.”

“But Jinu,” he groaned, rubbing his thighs together unconsciously in pursuit of friction for his aching cock. He hated the heat Jinu’s command sent pooling into his belly, adding to the tension that was already there.  “I- I- ah-”

“Abby.” Jinu twisted the dial to something more manageable and leaned in, his hot breath fanning over Abby’s face. “Do what I say, or I’ll put the dial back up.”

“O-okay,” Abby breathed, speaking mostly to give himself a few additional seconds to recover some composure. “Okay. Okay.”

He fumbled with the front of his leather pants, his hands trembling as he carefully popped the button and pulled down the zipper. His cock immediately took up the available space, tenting his underwear so obscenely that the throbbing, pink head was visible through the straining fabric. 

Jinu dragged his fingers over that pulsing head, and even that slight contact was almost too much in combination with the relentless vibration against his prostate. His cock twitched, staining the white fabric with pre-come, the sodden fabric making the outline of his cock even more visible. 

“Look at how excited you are,” Jinu purred. “Already trembling for it.”

Jinu slid the controller back into his pocket with casual ease, like he currently wasn’t tormenting Abby, and fished around for something else. A moment later, he unveiled what he’d been looking for - a small, metal cage, sleek and curved. It took Abby’s overwrought mind a moment to identify it as being in the shape of a cock. 

A cage. A cock cage, with nasty-looking metal rings and a small padlock at the top to ensure he wouldn’t be able to remove it himself. 

“Jinu,” he said shakily, looking distraught as Jinu reached down to pull his underwear out of the way. His cock immediately sprang free, eager despite the confinement it was about to face. “That won’t fit. I-I’m too hard.”

“Don’t worry,” said Jinu as he aligned it with Abby’s cock, showing that it would fit - just with a bit of a squeeze. Abby whimpered in trepidation of that. “Baby helped size it. It’s perfect. Adjustable, too.” 

The thought was kind of arousing, which wasn’t helping matters. He was so close to coming that he was in danger of spilling over while Jinu was putting the cage on. He curled his fingers into his thighs, grounding himself with the pinch of his nails. 

“I don’t think I can do it,” he said shakily. “I- I don’t think I can-”

“You can.” Jinu moved to cradle Abby’s cock in a hand, and Abby bit down on a whimper. His fingers were a cool contrast to his rigid cock. “But if you beg very prettily,” Jinu murmured, his thumb brushing the sensitive ridge just beneath the head, “I’ll stroke you off right here so it’ll go on flaccid.”

Any lingering sense of pride Abby had fell to the wayside at that offer. With his cock so hard and Jinu so close, touching him in a way he’d been daydreaming of for the past two weeks, he couldn’t help but concede to his arousal. He shuddered as he rocked up into that touch, his body having made a decision long before his mind could catch up.

“Please,” Abby whispered, the word slithering between his teeth. Humiliation burned his cheeks red, but the want was worse. Between Jinu’s touch and the vibrator, he was helpless. “Please, Jinu, I need it.”

Jinu groaned low at that. “See?” he said before beginning to stroke. “You can be sweet when you want to be.” 

Jinu’s strokes were slow, maddeningly so, each pass deliberate and each squeeze perfectly measured. His thumb circled over Abby's sensitive frenulum, pressing with a precision that made Abby’s thighs quiver and his breath catch on heady gasps. 

He was already on the knife's edge, so within seconds he was panting and trembling as his cock twitched with impending orgasm in Jinu’s fist. His cock turned wet and shiny courtesy of the steady beads of pre-come that smeared across his skin with every stroke. All the while, the vibrator continued to buzz inside him, stimulating his sweet spot in time with Jinu’s strokes, lighting sparks deep in his gut, and it was all too much, too good, disorientating in its intensity. Coming within less than a minute of being touched would be embarrassing, but Abby was so close he wasn’t sure he could hold on. 

“Go on, Abby,” Jinu murmured against his ear. “You can let go.”

His touch suddenly turned fast, his thumb jamming so hard into Abby's frenulum that resisting the urge to come was impossible. He unravelled immediately, gasping and moaning, thighs quivering and his fingers digging so hard into his palms that they drew blood. He didn’t even notice that he’d begun to drool, saliva dripping from his open lips as he released thick, sticky strings of come into Jinu’s fist. His eyes had - humiliatingly enough - turned wet, and he found himself having to blink away overwrought tears as his orgasm shuddered through him.

Jinu continued to stroke him until he was empty, leaning forward in the ragged aftermaths to press his lips to Abby’s flushed cheek. A soft, sweet little kiss after tearing apart Abby’s composure. And they weren’t even done yet. 

The grip on his cock readjusted, sliding under it and around the base to keep the softening flesh upright as he guided the end of the cage over it. Abby was still so sensitive that he couldn’t help gasping and whimpering as the too-cold metal made contact with his aching cock. 

“Jinu,” he groaned feebly. The obscenity of all of this wasn’t lost on him, his legs spread, skin flushed and sweat-speckled, cock shiny with his own come as Jinu caged it. It was shameful; it was arousing. “It’s too much.”

“You’ll take it anyway,” Jinu murmured sweetly. 

His sac was threaded through a thick ring at the end before the cage settled at the base of his cock, which was surrounded by thin, wiry black hairs. The lock clicked shut, and Jinu made a satisfied sound and slid the tiny key into a back pocket. 

It was done. His cock was now useless unless Jinu deigned to release him. And god, if that thought didn’t make his cock thicken within its confines. He shifted uncomfortably on his knees, looking down at himself and the cool, shiny metal embracing the softened flesh between his legs. The buzzing of the vibrator felt like a punctuation mark to his degradation. 

“You look perfect like this.” Jinu flicked the cage, which made Abby wince. “All bound up and useless.” His hand slid to Abby’s jaw, pulling the man’s head up until they were eye to eye. Though Abby was thickly built, he felt small beneath that hungry leer. “But we aren’t done yet. You have a lot of teasing to make up for.” 

“Still?” Abby groaned. “You’ve already put a cage on me. Isn’t that enough?”

“Not even close.” 

Jinu curled a hand around Abby’s arm and hauled him upright, his body jerking as the vibrator shifted inside him, buzzing against a spot still raw with oversensitivity. The metal cage pressed mercilessly against his swollen cock at the same time, the unforgiving clutch of it making his whole body flinch. The combined sensations made his head swim.

If not for the arm Jinu curled around his waist, his legs might have buckled and sent him crashing to the floor. As it was, his legs were so weak that they dragged as Jinu guided him toward a table, sliding and tripping despite Abby’s best efforts to lift them. He found himself draped over a clear section of the changing room, face down, with Jinu’s hand curled around his nape to keep him in place. 

His own face stared back at him, reflected in a mirror that took up one half of the back-most wall. He looked just as dishevelled and wrecked as he’d assumed. Skin flushed and sweaty, eyes shiny with unshed tears, hair sticking to his forehead, and lips smeared with saliva - the picture of submission. 

Jinu leaned down to murmur against the shell of his ear. “You’re about to look even prettier for me.”

Abby shivered. A threat and promise all in one.

When Jinu’s fingers tugged at the waistband of his leather pants, drawing them down to bunch around his thighs, he had anticipated that Jinu would play with the end of the toy until Abby’s nerves betrayed him again. And instead he lifted a hand and brought it down hard on one of Abby’s cheeks, jolting him forward, his hips grinding into the edge of the table. He was at enough of an angle to see the slope of his own ass in the mirror, the ashen skin immediately darkening a shade, a faint reddish blush. 

Jinu kneaded the smarting flesh briefly, soothing away the burn before lifting his hand and reviving it with another stroke of his palm. The crack of it was loud in the room, like a thunderclap in Abby’s ears - and it felt like one too, an electric burn that radiated up his body, arousing and painful in equal measure. 

He was being punished like a child. Like a human child, no less. 

“You won’t be teasing me again, will you?” Jinu asked, bringing his hand down once more, this time on his opposite cheek. 

Abby curled his hands around the edges of the table for some stability. His legs trembled madly under him. His insides clenched around the plug, drawing it impossibly deeper. “N-no,” he stuttered out. “No, I won’t, I promise, hyung-nim, I promise.” 

Jinu froze, just briefly, at the use of hyung-nim. A deferential sort of honorific. If he hadn’t been able to see Jinu’s face, the silence might have made him think he’d made a mistake. But Jinu’s expression was openly approving. 

“Oh,” he breathed. “I like that. Try to remember to use it more often, Abby.”

“I will,” Abby promised. 

“And no more flaunting yourself unless I ask for it.”

“Th-that too.”

“Good,” said Jinu, but he didn’t stop despite Abby’s concessions. Perhaps he thought Abby would be getting away with too much if he let him go right then and there.  

The blows kept coming, Jinu maintaining a steady, punishing pace that didn’t allow for any relief. The steady slap, slap, slap of Jinu’s palm filled the room, punctuated by Abby’s gasps and cries, his body rocking forward with each impact. The colour of his cheeks in the mirror was becoming something consistent and dark. He might have found that arousing - he did, actually, his cock twitching in its cage - but it was a little hard to fully appreciate how sensual this all was with a burning ass. He’d never been spanked before, and he wouldn’t have imagined something used to chastise children could hurt so much. Or maybe he just had an unusually low pain threshold. 

The ache was quick to aggregate into something barely tolerable. He twitched against the grip on his neck, his legs lifting reflexively in an aborted effort to protect himself from the next stroke. When he tried to reach back to shield himself, Jinu’s grip shifted from his nape to his wrists, holding them against the small of his back as he continued dealing out Abby’s punishment. 

“Jinu,” he whined, too overwrought not to sound desperate. “Jinu, please, come on, I’m sorry, I get it-!”

“If you were sorry,” said Jinu, applying a blow that caught the edge of the plug. Abby yelped as the vibrating silicone jarred inside him. “You would take your punishment without complaint.” 

Abby pressed his face against the smooth surface of the table and sniffled, thoroughly regretting testing Jinu’s patience. The man had a lot of it courtesy of four hundred years of accumulating influence, enough to earn Gwi-Ma’s audience, but clearly he had less of it when tested in a sexual capacity. 

“Asking the impossible,” he murmured, voice muffled. 

Jinu chuckled and pressed a kiss to the crown of his head, among his sweaty curls. “I probably am; you’re far more reactive than I expected, but I will at least notice if you try.”

His trajectory moved to the vulnerable sit spots just above the crease of his thighs and began to smack obedience into those too. They were so soft and sensitive that they renewed Abby’s cries, his body bowing forward in a futile effort to squirm away. The grip on his wrists, shockingly powerful, made sure he had to remain in place and endure every blow. 

As requested, he didn’t complain anymore. But there wasn’t much he could do about his increasingly wet cries and high-pitched whining, nor the whimpers and moans that were torn between pain and pleasure as Jinu’s hand came down and the plug vibrated against his sweet spot. 

His pants and underwear were tugged lower, hugging his knees as Jinu’s hand explored the unmarred flesh of his thighs, dipping into the warm dampness there. He whimpered and squeezed them together, trapping Jinu’s hand just briefly before the prick of his claws compelled Abby to jerk them apart.

“Behave,” he murmured.

Abby swallowed wetly. “Sorry, hyung-nim.” 

Jinu’s claws lingered, dragging lightly down the trembling inner seam of Abby’s thigh before retreating. Then the spanking resumed, this time on Abby's thighs, each strike delivered with enough force to make Abby gasp but never quite enough to tip into being too much. The thighs were considerably more vulnerable than the ass, so he likely wanted to avoid causing Abby to be unable to perform. 

The strokes to his thighs hurt more, a lot more, enough to make Abby’s cries turn warbling. Jinu peppered spanks from his ass to a little above his knees and knocked his legs apart so he could hit the inner thighs, making sure no flesh was spared the onslaught. And then, just as abruptly as he’d started, Jinu finished, his hands gentling and beginning to knead Abby’s battered flesh. It was only after a good minute or two of this that Abby registered that the spanking was over.

Jinu leaned down to run his nose through Abby’s hair, breath hot against his scalp. “You took that well,” he murmured, and Abby - stupidly - flushed with pride. 

He took it well. He took it well. And now Jinu was kneading his sore flesh with distinct approval, his touch almost reverent, and that made all the discomfort worthwhile. 

Jinu parted from him just briefly to retrieve a nice, plush chair, big enough to hold both of them. Abby didn’t need to be told to join Jinu there, nor climb into the man’s lap; he did so of his own accord, sliding into Jinu’s lap so he could be held and stroked. He was still terribly sore, the scrape of Jinu’s clothes over his aching skin eliciting a wince, but being able to curl up in Jinu’s lap made the pain a small cost for the comfort it brought him. 

Jinu curled his arms around his waist and pinched their bodies close. 

“We won’t return just yet,” he said. “They can wait another thirty minutes or so.”

Abby nodded and buried his face into the crook of Jinu’s shoulder. He was aching, burning, caged, teary-eyed and shattered, but that was alright, because he took that well, and now Jinu was cradling him close and soothing all the pain of his penance. 

They were rapidly encroaching on the end of the two weeks, and Abby’s heart hammered as he counted down the hours. Seventy-two hours… forty-eight hours… twenty-four hours. The closer they got to the deadline, the more his gaze drifted to Jinu, and the more he noticed Jinu’s strange absences. Had he always vanished like this? Or was it a new development, something Abby had simply been too preoccupied to notice? He knew Jinu went out on occasion to speak to that half-demon Huntrix, to pull her strings, but the frequency of the visits seemed unusual. 

When he asked, Jinu simply said, “It’s all part of the plan,” and pressed a kiss just above his eyebrow. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t burn to keep you happy.” 

The remark confused Abby, but he was happy to be the subject of such passion, nonetheless. 

In Jinu’s absence, he still had Baby, who spent a lot of time tucked against his side these days, playing on his phone while Abby read, or drew, or ran through choreography in his mind, fingers twitching and dancing with each imagined sweep and jump of their bodies. After Your Idol, provided everything went to plan, they had a few more releases in mind. Fun, peppy songs that were more in line with Soda Pop than their upcoming performance. 

When they weren’t relaxing on the couch or out enjoying the numerous luxuries the overworld provided, he and Baby would find a love motel for their daily preparations. It had become a ritual by this point: he would sit patiently while Baby rummaged through his chosen outfits for the day, and then obediently dress in whatever combination of fabrics and frills was presented to him. More often than not, the selections leaned toward the embarrassing, with stockings and crop tops and short-shorts and animal ears with an accompanying tail. All pastel colours, almost offensively bright. 

But there was a certain sweetness to indulging Baby’s whims, a quiet pleasure in seeing the delight flicker across the demon’s face when Abby stepped out in whatever offence to fashion he’d brought for Abby that day. 

Then the more physical aspects of the training would begin.

Baby had expanded their collection of toys considerably since their first visit to the sex shop, and there were so many now that he had something new to show Abby almost every day. A new plug, a new phallus, a new vibrator, a new collar, a new cage - all sorts of things, and Abby was chagrined to find that he liked everything Baby introduced him to. He had a knack of making even the most unusual of toys pleasurable. 

Of course, he fucked Abby too. A warm, wet union that would leave Abby trembling and breathless. Sometimes he did it after bringing Abby to orgasm over and over with the toys, until Abby was a boneless wreck, simply because he enjoyed how pliant and loose Abby would be when he slid into him. Abby enjoyed those nights the most.

When Jinu wasn’t occupied with managing their idol group or his clandestine disappearances, they all spent time together. Sometimes with Mystery and sometimes with Romance; sometimes with both, but with just the three of them more often than not. 

With Gwi-Ma’s leash loosened, the overworld stretched before them like an endless banquet, and they wasted no time indulging in everything they’d been denied in the underworld: first the food, the high-class restaurants with endless plates of steaming meats and delicate sweets that left their tongues tingling. The attractions, everything from the glittering expanse of the Aquarium to nearby carnivals and bars where they got a little too tipsy again, waking to eyes gummed shut from over-indulgence. 

And then there were the more modest experiences. Parks where they crunched through snow-touched grass and threw peas to the lingering wildlife. Cafes with steaming mugs of winter-spiced coffee and flaking pastries. Bath Houses where they could languish for hours in the heat, like lizards basking on a particularly warm stone (though Baby preferred the sauna section). Shopping malls where they wandered from store to store under fluorescent lights, buying knick-knacks they had absolutely no use for and sampling treats in the food court. Cinemas where they watched anything that happened to be showing, leaning against each other, cosy in the dark.

They were like… people. Just people living their lives, and what a strange thought that was after spending so long denied personhood by Gwi-Ma. They weren’t supposed to be people. They weren’t supposed to live; they were supposed to exist, miserable and stagnant and lost in their regrets. That was what Gwi-Ma had made them to be. 

Yet, despite the fact Gwi-Ma had to be aware of what they were doing, he’d made no effort to stifle their indulgence. He hadn’t even acknowledged the bond forming between them.

And that scared Abby.

His greatest fear was that Gwi-Ma was allowing it simply because he knew he could take it all away, and perhaps intended to make the shattering of their relationship another link in the chain that tied them to Gwi-Ma.

Baby would often reassure him, “It’ll be fine; Gwi-Ma won’t break us up when we’re so valuable,” but even he started to look uneasy about the uncertainty of their future. 

Still, their trips out didn’t slow. Whether their days were numbered or endless, they would enjoy the time they had together.

Chapter Text

The sun crested on the day they were to fulfil their arrangement, but acting on it had to wait until after they’d completed the drudgeries of Idol life. They had a full schedule of rehearsals, meetings with the backstage crew, responding to fan letters, costume preparation. The tedium of it all left Abby with long, dragging hours to think about what was to come, an expanse of time that seemed to stretch endlessly as he fretted, made preparations for the Idol Awards, and then fretted some more. 

Jinu had already arranged for Mystery and Romance to be otherwise occupied for the night, sent off around five in the evening to visit the winner of a fan contest in some far-off province, with no possibility of returning earlier than noon the following day. That would give them the suite to themselves. 

But until then, he was trying his best not to let his thoughts drift as the Idol Awards stage manager droned on and on about special effects and merchandise stands and lighting. Jinu was listening attentively, which was impressive considering how little fluctuation the stage manager's voice had. It was a horrifically boring conversation.

He stifled a yawn in a fist and let his eyes wander, taking in the backstage of the stadium they were to perform at in a few days. It was a grand location, with vaulted ceilings and hundreds of glimmering stagelights, the sort of place people dreamed of performing at, but it was hard not to find it all tedious when he just wanted to go home and slip into one of the pretty outfits Baby had bought him.

What they would get up to in their suite played behind his eyelids any time he closed his eyes. There’d been a lot of promises made since the proposal, some from him and some from Jinu and Baby, but he was more excited about the things he didn’t yet know about. Baby had formed a team with Jinu in anticipation of the night's events, murmuring things to each other when they thought Abby wasn’t listening, the volume of their voice too low for him to discern anything other than perhaps a few words or a phrase. He hadn’t been able to piece together their plans, and that was alright - that just gave him something to mull over during the dragging hours of show preparations. 

He might have drifted into a doze if not for Jinu periodically sliding a hand into his back pocket to thumb the control of the vibrator plug. A sudden buzz would ripple through him, sharp enough to drag him back from the edge of drowsiness. Each time, he startled - hips twitching, breath catching - before settling back into his seat, only to be jolted again if he got visibly distracted.

The event manager was so absorbed in whatever he was talking about that he didn’t seem to notice the way Abby shifted uncomfortably in his chair or flushed. Even when Abby leaned his face into a palm, wiping away the sweat on his brow, the man continued droning on about light fixtures and attendance numbers. 

Baby had, naturally, wandered off with the excuse of needing to use the toilet ages ago and hadn’t yet returned. And probably wouldn’t return until the arrangements were complete, the lucky bastard. Abby was in charge of choreography, an essential person, so there was no chance he could replicate the toilet excuse. 

Mystery and Romance, meanwhile, had already left to catch their flight to the competition winner, who they would probably eat by the end of the evening. Hopefully they’d exercise some discretion, since it would be suspicious if a fan went missing immediately after meeting with them. 

He drummed his fingers on a thigh as he waited for the man to finish talking about... whatever he was talking about; Abby was barely registering his words. He stifled a yawn against his palm and jolted when the vibrator buzzed in him again.

“Ah-!”

The man paused, his fuzzy eyebrows drawing together as he turned to Abby and gave him a once-over. “Are you alright?”

Abby willed himself not to noticeably blush or squirm. The vibration had stopped, but the vestiges of pleasure still coiled low in his belly. If this man figured out what was going on, Abby would have to eat him just to preserve his (thoroughly decimated) dignity.

“Y-yeah,” Abby stammered, before folding an arm around his stomach and feigning a grimace. “Just feeling a little under the weather after having some, uh, street food earlier today. It’s always a gamble.” Sensing an opportunity to conclude this conversation, he quickly added, “Are we almost done here? I might need the bathroom soon.”

“Oh,” said the man, brow furrowing. “Well, yes, I suppose so.” His gaze jumped to Jinu. “Do you have questions about anything we’ve gone over?”

“Oh no,” said Jinu with a tight sort of smile. He clearly wanted this meandering conversation over just as much as Abby did. “You were very thorough. We know everything we need to know.” 

“And we can always call if we have any questions,” Abby added, despite the fact he had no intention - and he suspected Jinu didn't either - to ever provide this man an opening to ramble at them again.

The man fished his business card out of his pocket and extended it to Jinu. “Alright, then. I’ll let you guys get back to it.”

‘It’ being nothing, since they’d gone through their routine when Romance and Mystery were still present and familiarised themselves with the stage. They were ready for their final performance, their routine perfect, their special effects and vocals well-prepared, and Gwi-Ma waiting in the wings to consume every attendee. 

Once the dust had settled, they could feast, enjoy each other's company, and stretch their demonic influence in ways they hadn’t been able to while the honmoon persisted. Gwi-Ma remained an existential threat, but he didn’t let the fear get a foothold - they were only a few days away from victory, and he would make sure to enjoy it and the hours leading up to it. 

The most important indulgence being, of course, finally making good on all the promises they’d made in the past two weeks. Even if the vibrator hadn’t been nudging that sensitive spot inside him, his toes still would have been curling in his boots in anticipation as he stood. 

They bid the man goodbye and went to retrieve Baby, who was still in the bathroom, the sound of his game - Genshin Impact again, it sounded like - filtering out from one of the stalls. They were tiny stalls, squeezed together against one wall, a clear effort to fit as many toilets as possible. 

Jinu sighed, one of those long-suffering exhales reserved for Baby, and walked up to Baby’s stall.

“You done in there?” he called, rapping on it with his knuckles.

“Just a minute,” said Baby, his voice barely audible over the volume of his music. “I need to beat this boss to get level-up materials. Five minutes.”

“Oh for-” Jinu rolled his eyes, but elected not to argue. Trying to disrupt Baby’s playtime would just spiral into a whole event. 

Abby perched himself on the edge of a sink, careful not to apply additional pressure to the end of his plug. At least it looked clean in here, everything perfectly shiny, like someone had applied a lacquer to every surface. 

“So, right home after this?” he asked, gaze sweeping between Baby’s stall and Jinu. “And then we can…?”

“Yes,” said Baby, speaking before Jinu could open his own mouth.

“After I’ve made a few calls,” said Jinu. “And explained some details to Baby, since someone-” A glare cast at the stall. “Didn’t attend the meeting.”

Baby made the audible equivalent of a shrug. “You’ll be more concise about it anyway.” 

“He has a point,” said Abby, which made Jinu turn his glare on Abby instead.

“That’s not-” Another sigh. “Never mind,” said Jinu, and he sidled up to Abby, leaning against him. “Just don’t make us linger in here too long, Baby. It smells like - well, you know what it smells like.”

Baby snorted. “Shit and cleaning chemicals.”

“Yeah,” said Jinu wryly. “So hurry it up, finish farming those materials or whatever.”

“I’m just about done,” Baby promised, a few seconds before the lock clicked and Baby came striding out of the stall with his phone still clutched in both hands. He tapped the screen a few more times, lips pursed in concentration, before exiting his game and slipping his phone into his jeans pocket. 

He stretched his arms above his head, pink sweater riding up his belly and unveiling a sliver of pale skin, and nodded toward the door. “Is the car waiting?”

“Longer than it should have been,” said Jinu, to which Baby waved a hand dismissively.

“Let's just go already," said Abby. "I- hmmph-” 

Both sets of eyes flew to Abby, who was bent over slightly, flushed, a fine sweat on his skin. The vibrator wasn't on anymore, but it was nudging against his sweet spot with every fine movement. A moment later, Jinu’s hand was on his arm, steadying him, while Baby followed suit with unexpected haste, attaching himself to his opposite side. They didn’t linger any longer, shepherding Abby through the stadium’s towering corridors and past staff too busy with their own work to give them a second glance.

Their car was waiting at the curb, a sleek, van-sized vehicle hired for its six seats and the promise of discretion. The doors shut behind them with a muffled thud, and Jinu and Baby slid in on either side of him, cocooning him in privacy at last. The tinted windows ensured no one could look in, and the barrier between them and the driver's side prevented their chauffeur from seeing into the back. Baby immediately lay over Abby’s lap, head propped up on his thighs, while Jinu squeezed in against his side and idled his fingers over Abby's knuckles. Their suite was only a ten-minute drive away, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t get comfortable.

Baby, predictably, whipped out his phone as they drew away from the curb and navigated back into his game, presumably to apply some of those ‘level up materials’ he’d gathered. Jinu rolled his eyes at this, but didn’t comment.

“I can’t wait to be inside you," Jinu said, pressing a scattering of kisses to Abby's cheek and jaw. Such soft, warm lips. "I’ve been thinking about it all day.” 

“Just all day?” Abby murmured back, teasing despite the heat rising in his face. “You’ve been thinking about it for two weeks straight.”

That drew a laugh from Jinu, soft and easy. “Okay,” he said. “You’ve got me there.” His fingers danced up Abby’s forearm, making the fine hairs there stand on end. “But I’ve been really getting into the specifics these past hours, about how me and Baby are going to ruin you…”

Abby squirmed at the promise in those words, jostling Baby on his lap. This prompted Baby to reach back and squeeze his thigh. 

“Wiggling like a kid on their birthday,” Baby admonished, but his expression was downright feral rather than chiding, displaying the points of his teeth. “He’s right, you know; our discussions about what to do with you have picked up recently.” 

Abby wet his lips, an eager little flick of his tongue. “You’re making this ride unbearable. If I get any harder-” He broke off and glanced at the front of the vehicle, where he was sure the driver could hear them. They’d have to leave him a nice, fat tip to encourage confidentiality. 

“Serves you right,” said Jinu, light and teasing. “I’ve practically needed to increase a pants size since you figured out how to work Baby’s phone.” 

He had been taking ample advantage of its texting feature. At least when Baby let him use it, which was more often than not these days.

“I’m surprised your current pant size is enough to contain you,” said Abby. 

“Yes, yes, we’re all in awe of his giant cock,” said Baby wryly. He reached up and curled his fingers around Abby’s chin, tugging his gaze down. “While you’re getting acquainted with that, I’ll be seeing just how far that jaw can stretch.”

Abby swallowed, a hot flush crawling up his neck and into his face and cheeks. Baby was always so upfront about his intentions; he never quite got used to it. 

“Pretty damn far,” he murmured, voice low with arousal.

Baby cocked a thin eyebrow. "Been practising?"

"Maybe..."

They arrived at their destination before their conversation could grow any more obscene. Jinu slid out of the car first, handing the driver a few extra bills for discretion, while Abby and Baby were still untangling themselves from the back seat. The leather wheezed in protest as Abby struggled his way over to the door, his body still hot and clumsy from the vibrator and their lurid exchange. 

The air out here smelt of petrol, rubber, and stale air. A few people milled about, but not many - most Korean’s couldn’t afford to live in a place as luxurious as this. Abby ducked his head anyway, worried they might notice something was amiss with him. Just looking at his reflection in a car window, he could see he was awfully sweaty and red, with some of his pink hair sticking to his forehead. 

They followed a strip of buzzing, fluorescent lights that lit up the path to the lobby, which had two doors connected by a short hallway to minimise the inside's exposure to the garage. Inside, the lobby was a little busier, since there were various amenities attached to it, but they managed to slip by the other residents without being accosted by any of their friendlier neighbours. From there, it was just a matter of stepping into the elevator and pressing the button to their floor.  

A camera blinked at them from a corner of the elevator, a quiet reminder that everywhere in this place was heavily monitored. That was one of the selling points, in fact, and why demons masquerading as idols could call it home. They weren’t in danger from overeager fans like some of the other people here, but the Huntrix were something they'd had to fortify themselves against. 

Without Mystery and Romance, the suite was quieter than usual when they entered it. Romance would usually watch television around this time, something called ‘Super Rich in Korea’, which Abby hadn’t been able to muster up any interest in despite having been invited to watch it with Romance several times. Mystery was quieter, but he did seem to like growling at the window cleaner who would pass by once a week. 

“Right,” said Jinu as he brushed Baby toward the couch. “I’ll try to keep this as short as possible, and you-” He glanced back at Abby. “Might as well take a shower in the meantime, get warmed up.”

Abby didn’t need a shower to warm up; he’d soon have Jinu and Baby to do that for him, work him over until he was sweltering. But he wasn’t going to say no to a quick, hot shower to wash away the day's grime. 

“You two take one after me,” said Abby, before looking pointedly at Baby. “You especially. You were sitting in that public toilet for, what, thirty minutes? An hour?”

While Jinu didn’t appear bothered by this request, Baby let out a very put-upon sigh.

“Drying off after is such a hassle,” he muttered.

“It takes like, two minutes,” said Abby, scoffing. Never mind that it usually took him far, far longer, since he liked to sit beneath the heat lamps and drip-dry. 

“Fine," said Baby. "Whatever. Five minutes.”

“And use soap,” Abby added, which would probably bump his shower up to ten minutes, but he wasn’t letting Baby evade soap after he spent a not insignificant part of the day in a public bathroom.

Baby rolled his eyes. “I was going to. If you’re done fussing…”

“Yeah, yeah, I'm done,” said Abby as he threw up a hand, turning toward the bathroom. "Enjoy your little chat."

For the moment, they parted, Baby and Jinu settling in the lounge while Abby retreated to the bathroom. The click of the door behind him muted their voices, leaving him in a sudden quiet. He immediately retrieved fresh, fluffy towels from their supplies cupboard and laid them across the sink.

When he turned toward the shower, though, he stalled. The doorway seemed to pin him in place. He was stuck with the thought that this, right here, was where this whole arrangement had started. This very bathroom, this shower. This doorway.

Would they have grown nearly as close as they had if Abby hadn’t walked in on Jinu? Would they have become this entangled? Probably not, and it was a dizzying realisation. What was that saying - that a single wingbeat from a butterfly on one side of the world could set off a tornado on the other? Something like that. It seemed appropriate.

The corner of his mouth tugged upward as he finally stepped inside and set the water running hot. Steam began to bloom around him, carrying the scent of strawberry shampoo as he worked it into his hair. The soap he used was a mild chamomile, a recent purchase by Jinu to match the tea he’d been buying recently in some half-hearted attempt to be health-conscious. A little funny for a demon, since they didn’t get ill (as far as he knew, anyway). 

The plug he’d been wearing all day, silver with a pink heart on the end, was carefully, delicately removed, and he slid two fingers into himself just to check that he was well and truly ready for the challenge ahead. His walls didn't resist too much to some gentle scissoring. Taking Jinu seemed… feasible, though he was going to need a lot of lubrication.

By the time he emerged from the bathroom, Baby and Jinu's discussion seemed to be winding down. Their gazes turned to track him as he crossed the room in just a towel, the fluffy material wrapped low on his hips. Jinu had even gone slack-jawed, his eyes threaded with gold, betraying the crack in his composure. Abby slid a hand through his hair and pushed it back over his scalp, which probably didn't help their mounting hunger.

“Take your time,” he said, grinning with perhaps a little too much fang. "I'll be getting ready."

With that, he stepped through the door to Jinu's bedroom. The other bedrooms in the suite were nice enough, with broad, king single beds and sprawling windows, but this room was something else, boasting a four-poster bed, a thick rug to soften the hard floorboards, and electric blinds that shut out the city at the press of a button. It even had its own little library, four or so bookcases framing a desk, though there didn't appear to be much in them. Jinu wasn't a big reader, and what books he did own looked to be the practical sort, tome-like books on idol culture and modern history. 

The various outfits Abby had prepared that morning sat next to the bed in a paper bag, looking entirely out of place. Unassuming, yet prominent. He had everything from collars to lingerie in there, things he’d picked out over the past few days while standing in front of the bathroom mirror with the door locked.

After kneeling by the bed and rifling through the paper bag a while, he pulled out a tangle of stockings in every shade: candy pink, ink black, delicate white. His attention lingered on the last. It was sheer and seemed almost luminous under the overhead light, with floral coils embroidered at the tops. Intricate and beautiful, a perfect starting point.

The next thing he liberated from the paper bag were panties, with lightly frilled edges and fabric that went see-through when stretched. It just barely contained his half-hard cock when he pulled it on, the pink of the head visible through the fabric. Over that, he placed a pretty garter belt, clipping it securely into place to make sure the stockings wouldn’t slide down when he moved.

Those alone would have been enough, but he had more, just a few more things to make the outfit feel truly complete. He wanted to look like something delectable, something ready to be unwrapped and indulged in.

The bra was next, white like the others, with little rose-patterns woven into the fabric and stretching prettily across Abby’s chest. Though he wasn’t a woman, it fit incredibly well, snug against his skin as he clipped it at the back. The swell of his pecs filled out the fabric perfectly.

The last touch was a collar, a new one this time, pure white leather with frills extending from either side to give it a delicate look. Like a wedding veil for the throat. The tag was rose gold, his name written on it in looping script. 

Abby stared at himself in the full-body mirror in Jinu’s walk-in closet and his face grew hot. His fingers trembled as he adjusted his outfit's fit, making sure it was all perfect, not a wrinkle in sight. He ran a thumb along the collar just to feel the softness of the oiled leather. All of this had been purchased by Baby, which was surprising, because his taste wasn’t usually this good.

The shudder of a door opening snapped his attention back to the bedroom. When he emerged, Baby and Jinu were already in there, hair damp and towels draped around their waists - it was apparent they’d showered together, perhaps while exchanging idle barbs and maybe a few soft touches. 

Their heads snapped around as he appeared, eyes wide as they drank him in. The silken stockings, the finely patterned bra, the collar with its rose gold tag, and though Baby had picked these things out for him, he appeared just as awed by the sight of Abby as Jinu. Baby licked his lips, slow and ravenous.

“Well-” Abby began, and he didn’t get to finish before Baby was upon him, smashing their lips together and pushing him back onto the bed. They fell with a thump that shook the entire frame, Baby between his legs, already hard, his mouth hot and wet and ravenous. 

Even with his own enthusiasm, it was hard to match Baby’s fervour. Baby kissed so deeply, with tongue and teeth, tasting Abby’s hard palate and molars and biting lightly at his bottom lip. While Abby kissed back just as hungrily, he still had the instinctual need to breathe - something that clearly didn’t hinder Baby, who was still pressing hungry kisses to his mouth even when Abby tipped his head up to drag in a needy breath. 

It wasn’t long before Jinu joined them, slotting himself behind Abby and pressing wet, open-mouthed kisses to Abby’s jaw and neck. The collar had to be maneuvered to make room for his mouth, his nose pushing it aside before he left a series of searing kisses beneath the leather. His nails grazed their way down the slope of Abby’s shoulders before descending to Abby’s chest, where they ventured under the fine fabric of his bra to begin to squeeze at the ample flesh it cupped.

“You fill this out well,” Jinu murmured. He gave Abby’s chest another squeeze, twisting his nipples, and Abby whimpered and squirmed in his arms.

“Those are sensitive, huh?” said Baby, breaking the kiss in favour of dipping his head down, nosing one of Jinu’s hands out of the way. For what purpose, Abby didn’t know until the blunt, human teeth made way for serrated fangs and sank right into him, digging into his areola hard enough to make him yelp. 

And he… liked it. The pain was a pleasant counterpoint to the pleasure, which wasn’t an entirely unexpected discovery considering how hard he’d gotten while being spanked earlier that week. 

Arousal threaded through his abdomen like tiny thunderbolts, making his cock swell and thicken, making his skin flush and tense. He curled his hands around Baby’s biceps for leverage, breathing hard as Baby’s tongue flicked over the freshly ravaged flesh. 

Behind him, Jinu dipped his head and sank his teeth into Abby’s neck. Most of his were still blunt - he wasn’t old nor corrupted enough for more than a single pair of fangs - but the bite was still hard, still deep enough for Abby to feel it in his very marrow. Abby leaned into it in invitation of more so he could go into the uncertainty of their future with their ownership written on his skin. Jinu seemed more than happy to oblige. He bit Abby’s neck; he bit Abby’s shoulder, he tore his teeth into Abby's nape and laved his tongue over it after to soothe its sting, then applied one more bite to the dip of Abby's spine. 

Baby didn’t need to be told to join in, already pushing Abby’s bra up his sternum to make room for a flurry of his own deep, bruising bites. They worked him over like a chew toy, sometimes biting, sometimes sucking, leaving a constellation of swelling marks across his chest and neck. Baby even dropped between his legs to leave bruises on his inner thighs, which would chafe later, but - fuck, Abby didn’t care, because the heat of Baby's mouth and the sting of his teeth was so perfect somewhere so intimate and vulnerable. 

Against the small of his back, he felt a sudden pressure. And he was pleased to realise it was Jinu’s cock, completely rigid and pulsing against his skin, ready to take him apart. He pressed back against it, which prompted Jinu to shudder and groan. Baby’s face was still buried between his legs, tasting the insides of his thighs, but he emerged to smile wryly at Jinu upon hearing that sound. 

“Careful, Abby," said Baby, his voice carrying a teasing lilt. "We don’t want him coming before he gets inside you.”

Jinu leaned his cheek against Abby’s shoulder and scoffed. “What- I’m not-”

“I’m sure his stamina is... probably better than that,” said Abby, turning to press his lips to Jinu’s. Jinu kissed him back, albeit with a little growl.

“We’ll see how smarmy you’re feeling after I fuck you for three hours straight,” he murmured hotly in Abby’s ear, and Abby shivered. “Deep, and hard, until you can’t think straight.”

He could barely think straight as it was. 

His response was, in true demon fashion, to grind back against Jinu again, making sure Jinu’s cock slid between the cleft of his ass. Another groan was pulled from Jinu’s throat, thin and reedy this time.

“Fuck,” Jinu breathed, his hands closing around Abby’s hips to direct that grinding, slowing it to something a little more manageable.

Abby let him, folding his legs behind Jinu’s thighs and bracing his hands on Jinu’s knees to make the motion easier. The head of his cock caught on the lace of Abby’s panties, and Abby let out a soft, needy little sound, like nothing he’d ever heard himself make before. Like a... mewl, or something. Embarrassing. But Jinu seemed to like it, since his cock twitched with interest. 

“Move back,” said Baby as he climbed up Abby’s body, fitting his hands around Abby’s bicep and Jinu’s shoulder to press them back toward the bed. 

They obligingly slid backwards, giving Baby enough room to climb onto the bed with them, his weight dipping the blanket. Jinu used them so scarcely that they still smelt faintly of the citrusy washing liquid. Baby threaded his long, painted fingers into Abby’s hair, stroking gently before fisting them around Abby’s curls. The sharp sting just added to the cacophony of sensation assailing Abby, leaving him that more aroused, that more on the edge. He groaned softly. 

“Think that pretty mouth will fit around me?” Baby murmured, his free hand dropping to stroke luridly at his half-hard cock. The towel had long since fallen away.

Abby swallowed hard. It’d be a difficult, but not impossible fit. But even if it had been logistically impossible, he still would have wanted to try.

“Y-yeah,” he stammered, licking his lips. “I’ve, uh, been working on the gag reflex. Figuring out how to suppress it.” Through some very pointed google searches, and it turned out the internet had a lot to say on the topic. More than he’d anticipated. He’d had such a wealth of information presented to him that he’d inevitably found something that worked. 

“Fuck, that’s hot,” Baby murmured, his grip tightening. He leaned forward to brush their mouths together one last time, slow and easy, before pushing Abby’s face toward his lap. “Go on, then; show me what you’ve taught yourself.”

So, he did. He carefully removed one of his hands from Jinu’s knee to instead wrap it around the throbbing base of Baby’s cock, giving it a few quick, sloppy strokes to make it hard before dragging the flat of his tongue over the bulbous head. It was hot, veiny and girthy, a good size, heavy in his grip. He liked how it felt, how it tasted. Salty, musky, with a touch of whatever soap Baby had washed with as a courtesy. It would definitely be a challenge to get into his mouth, much less his throat, but he was nothing if not determined.

Jinu bent over him, chest brushing his back as he watched Abby stimulate Baby’s cock with lips and tongue. Against his rear, Jinu’s cock throbbed, growing harder and hotter as he observed Abby apply kitten licks to the side of Baby’s cock. The wet sounds of his work and Baby’s low, pleased little moans seemed to shatter what little self-control Jinu had left, his hands trembling as he fumbled to push Abby’s panties down.

“Lubrication,” Baby reminded him, his voice breathy.

Jinu let out a frustrated huff. Nonetheless, he reached past Abby for the bedside table, snatching a container of strawberry-scented lube from it and hastily twisting off the lid. His hips ground against Abby all the while, the head of his cock catching on the rim of Abby’s hole. 

With his panties halfway down his thighs, his hole exposed, his tongue stretched across Baby’s cock, and Jinu readying himself behind him, Abby felt positively, perfectly obscene. It was a shame this room didn’t have a mirror so he could see what he looked like, bent over and ready to take a cock in both ends. 

It was as he was guiding the head of Baby’s cock past his lips that Jinu finished slathering his cock in lubrication and applied a dollop to Abby’s hole instead, fingers spreading open that delicate furl to make sure some of it got inside him. Abby shivered at the sensation and the inevitable taking it promised. Despite two weeks of building anticipation, Jinu didn’t rush; didn’t prepare Abby in half-measures, making sure he was dripping before lining himself up. 

And then finally, finally, the culmination of two weeks of waiting and wanting-

He pressed inside slowly, in fractions of inches. A careful, glacially slow penetration that made Abby’s fingers and toes curl and his breath catch around the girth of Baby. Even just the head was a lot, stretching him wider than any of Baby’s toys had ever managed. And of, fuck, was it good, his belly clenching and aching with every inch Jinu unleashed on him. The stretch and fullness were perfect. He never would have imagined taking something this large into himself could have felt so good, so satisfying, but a few inches in and he felt as though he were already on the precipice of coming undone. 

While Jinu slid inexorably onward, Baby began to move his hips in shallow thrusts, working his cock deeper into Abby’s mouth, sliding it toward the back of his tongue. With that depth came the threat of his gag reflex, but Abby had learned a trick off the internet - clench your thumb in a palm. Something he’d had moderate success with while sticking his own fingers down his throat to see how feasible taking a cock down there was. A good 4/5 success rate, and as Baby’s cock ventured close to the soft tissue at the back of his throat, he was relieved to find he didn’t gag or choke. Just swallowed reflexively and drooled, saliva striping down his chin in thick, messy rivulets. 

Jinu made slower, but no less significant progress on burying his cock into Abby, his hands firm on Abby’s hips while he made space for himself with careful rolls of his hips. The pinch of his nails betrayed impatience, leaving shallow cuts on Abby’s skin, but nonetheless, he didn’t go any faster than what Abby’s body was prepared for. He’d clearly attempted this a few times with past partners and perhaps knew Abby’s limits better than even Abby did. Abby fought down the reflex to tell him to go faster, harder, I’m not made of glass, but even aroused out of his mind, he recognised what a terrible idea that was. 

“God,” Jinu breathed. “Can’t believe you’re actually taking me. I never thought I’d ever be inside someone.”

Baby laughed softly. “You doubted us?” He dragged Abby forward, drawing him toward the root of his cock. Abby instinctively stroked the underside of it with his tongue, grinding against a vein there and relishing in the little shudder it elicited.

“Maybe a little,” murmured Jinu, looking down at Abby through his lashes. “But fuck, look - he’s just sucking me in. That’s never happened before.”

It was then that Jinu bottomed out, and Abby felt it all, every inch of cock pulsing inside him. Jinu’s groan hit the air like a gunshot, loud and overwrought. He stilled reflexively, grip tightening on Abby’s hips and holding him in place as they both adjusted to the enormity of this achievement. He was rooted so deep that Abby could see his belly distended in his peripheral. Evidence of how deep Jinu had reached, how permanently he had stamped himself on Abby’s insides. 

He began to rock his hips, sliding in and out of Abby shallowly, retreating an inch at a time before easing back in. He was slow, tentative, but gradually picking up speed as he realised the stretch wasn’t hurting Abby anymore; in fact, he filled Abby so perfectly that there was a persistent pressure on that sensitive bundle of nerves inside him, a relentless stimulation that left Abby trembling like an aspen with each fine movement of Jinu’s cock. 

He was filled in both ends now, Jinu’s cock buried in his belly, Baby’s in his throat, and he was so hot with arousal that he could barely stay still, hips twitching, throat working, chasing every thrust like he’d die if they stopped. A hungry, needy creature, sucking them in and trying to keep them there, his cock rigid and swinging between his legs. He was red in places he didn’t even know could blush, his chest and his thighs, a full-body reaction to being taken by the two most important people in his life. Now more than ever, he felt as though they all belonged to each other. That nothing, not even Gwi-Ma, could tear them apart. 

He coughed a little as Baby buried his nose in the thatch of hair at the base of his cock, the only sign of his gag reflex that had squeezed through his determination not to choke. He swallowed until the urge to continue coughing subsided and hollowed his cheeks, compressing his mouth around Baby’s girth as best he could. His jaw hurt; his throat ached, he was drooling like a faucet, but they were welcome sensations, evidence that he was doing a good job despite the mouth being an even smaller, tighter channel than his ass. He was making Baby feel so good that he could see the man’s eyelashes fluttering. 

It became increasingly difficult to hold onto his cognisance through the assault to his senses. Physical, auditory, olfactory, his mind seized by the onslaught. Nothing existed in this moment but the two cocks pistoning inside of him, stimulating his sweet spot and fucking his throat. The air was thick with it: their groans and gasps, the lewd slap of bodies meeting over and over. Everything smelled of sweat and musk, sharp and heady, cut faintly by a trace of strawberry and the sterile, synthetic notes of soap.

Jinu bent over him and scraped his lips across the slope of one of his quivering shoulders. A touch of teeth, a little tongue, his movements rendered clumsy by the focus required to continue rocking into Abby with any rhythm. He bit down, gentler this time, another mark to announce Abby as theirs to anyone who happened to see under his clothes. And maybe not a lot of people would, but it was an arousing thought all the same.

“Wish you could see yourself stretching around me,” Jinu breathed, his lips brushing the hot shell of Abby’s ear. “Gonna have to do this on your back at some point, let you see how your rim clings to my cock.” These were filthier words than Abby thought Jinu capable of, sending fresh thundershocks of arousal zig-zagging through his abdomen. “Maybe even- make a video with proper equipment or-” His voice was lost to a sigh as Abby squeezed reflexively around him, clouding whatever thoughts he’d been attempting to voice.

Through an increasingly hazy vision, Abby saw Baby’s chin drop to his sternum, a line of sweat sliding down his jaw. He was close, Abby could tell; he was familiar enough with the man’s cock by this point that he recognised the way it twitched when he was on the precipice, and he instinctively began sucking even harder in preparation to swallow Baby's release. The tip of his tongue worked around the sensitive ridge under the head and that was it- Baby shuddered, tore both hands into Abby’s hair to smash him against his pelvis, and spilled so deep down his gullet that Abby barely needed to move his throat to swallow it. The seed settled hot and heavy in Abby’s belly, a pleasant weight.

“So good,” Baby murmured, his voice slurring slightly. Seeing him this undone made Abby’s heart race. “So fucking good, such a good boy. You did so well, princess.”

Abby moaned, which vibrated around Baby’s softening cock and dragged forth another shudder. Baby's fingers loosened fractionally in Abby’s hair, but he continued rolling his hips, rocking into the wet warmth of Abby’s mouth.

“Just keep sucking,” he said, stroking the crown of Abby’s head like something precious. “I’ll harden up and give you another soon.”

The thrusts continued, slow and languid. Jinu and Baby were out of rhythm now, one pulling out while the other was filling him, perpetual motion. Pure bliss, he thought dazedly, and knew he wasn’t going to last; his self-control was a thread pulled taut, ready to snap with the next touch or the next thrust. His stocking-encased legs quivered and his hands shook, every part of him a mess. 

Jinu slid his tongue up the shell of his ear and applied a bite, and that small shock of pain was his undoing. The last tug needed to unravel the remains of his composure. He gasped around Baby’s cock, going still, his thighs trembling uncontrollably and fingers and toes curling. The come that spilled from him was a deluge, a mess of pearly white across Jinu’s clean bedsheets. He drooled; he cried; he clenched reflexively around Jinu, and it was this that brought Jinu over the edge with him.

Through the intensity of his own finish, Abby was barely cognizant of the spreading warmth inside him, further distending his belly. It was only after his peak had subsided that he became aware of it - a wet warmth sliding down the insides of his thighs and staining his stockings, thick and sticky. And Jinu was still moving in him, pushing his seed deeper with his softening cock. 

Three hours, he’d said. Abby suspected he would make good on that threat. 

Baby was already hard again, his coming earlier having not made a single dent in his vigour. It was as if he hadn’t come at all, his cock rigid as he plunged it into Abby’s throat. He held Abby’s head in both hands now, pulling it back onto every hard thrust. It wasn’t long after coming that Jinu started to recover as well, his cock stiffening inside Abby and slowly growing to its prior size. 

Demons were insatiable creatures, and Abby was about to find out just how insatiable they could be. 

And he didn’t mind that at all. If they fucked him for three hours, so be it; he was prepared to be fucked into exhaustion if that was what they wanted. And by the ferocity with which they were plunging into him, he suspected that was exactly what they had in mind. 

The next time Jinu came, it was with his teeth secured over Abby’s nape, a tether to keep him from flying apart as he shook violently and added to the hot mess of come sliding down the insides of Abby’s thighs. Baby joined him a short time later, hands cupped around Abby's scalp, holding him down on his cock as he spilled deep into Abby's throat. Abby swallowed and rocked back onto Jinu’s cock, accepting it all, letting them use his body while he trembled with encroaching fatigue. 

“Just a little more,” Jinu murmured into the dampness of his nape. “You can manage that, right?” 

Around the pistoning girth of Baby’s cock, Abby made an affirmative sound.

And so they continued. He wasn’t sure how many times he came; he lost count somewhere around the fourth one, too pleasantly dazed and disoriented to keep track. What did it matter when he felt so good? His vision was fuzzing around the edges, his eyes heavy-lidded as Baby and Jinu continued to rock into him. They were slick with sweat now, flushed from head to toe, all of them feeling the effects of their exertion but none willing to stop just yet. 

But something had to give eventually, and that was Abby. His limbs abruptly grew heavier, his breaths shorter, his body sliding past pleasure into something else entirely, something he couldn’t fight off. A warning flickered faintly in the back of his mind before darkness pressed in, drawing him under.

It was an indeterminable amount of time later that he roused to find the blanket sticking to his back and Jinu and Baby’s blurry faces hovering over him, their eyes wide with alarm. He was terribly confused.

“Hhhhhu,” he offered to reassure them, which, admittedly, wasn’t a very good attempt.

Jinu burst into nervous laughter. “Does that mean you’re alright?”

Abby blinked repeatedly to clear his vision, glancing down at himself. He was still pink and sweat-dappled. They’d been fucking and then… oh. He must have gone into a fugue or passed out or something, because he didn’t remember being laid down on the bed at all. 

“Yeah,” he said weakly, grinning at them. “Did we make it to three hours?”

“Uh-” Jinu glanced at his bedside alarm. “Over, actually.”

Baby leaned in to press a kiss to his cheek before straightening. “You did real fucking good, princess. Took all of that like a champ. I’m gonna get you a glass of water.”

Abby murmured his thanks and let his eyes slide briefly shut. His entire body throbbed pleasantly. His thighs and chin were wet, slick with saliva and come. 

“You sure you’re okay?” asked Jinu as he settled onto the bed at Abby’s side, tucking himself against Abby’s hip. “You looked really out of it for a while there.”

“I did come like-” He paused. “I don’t know, rough guess: eight times. A guy only has so much stamina.”

“Right,” said Jinu, chuckling. “Sorry. We might have overdone it.”

“Hell no,” said Abby, his voice cracking a little. “I’d do that all over again. That was hot as fuck.”

Jinu blinked at him. “I’m… not sure a repeat session would be good for your health.”

Abby rolled his eyes a little. “We’re demons. My health is as good as it’s ever gonna be.” With a weak, trembling hand, he grabbed Jinu’s fingers and brought them to his cheek, rubbing against them like an affectionate cat. Jinu didn't seem to mind that Abby got them a little wet. They were both filthy, anyway. “Stop freaking out. I’m fine. Just tired.”

“Okay.” Jinu took a deep breath. “Okay. I know. Just- making sure.”

He knew Jinu had a lot of regrets about hurting - abandoning - the ones he loved, so Abby understood where he was coming from. He continued to rub against his hand, slow and soothing. 

“If I wasn’t okay, I’d tell you. When have I ever passed on an opportunity to complain?”

Jinu snorted softly. “Good point.”

As they made themselves comfortable on Jinu’s generous pile of pillows, Baby returned with not one glass of water, but two, handing one to each of them. When Abby took a sip, the contents was faintly sweet. Baby must have put one of those watermelon sweeteners he liked in it. 

Baby lay himself down on Abby’s opposite side, one leg curled around his and an arm around his elbow, tangling their limbs. It made drinking difficult, but he managed. For such an aloof man, Baby was oddly affectionate when he liked you.

“So,” said Abby with a sloppy sort of smile. “No more rounds tonight?” 

Jinu guffawed. “You’re kidding, right? You just fucking passed out.”

“It’s the only night we’ll have to ourselves for a while,” said Abby, swallowing the sweetened water in two hungry gulps and setting the empty glass aside. “Gotta make the most of it, right?”

“Nope, not happening,” said Baby, giving his cheek a pinch. “We’ll wash up and go watch movies on the couch.”

That idea didn’t sound bad at all, but Abby still sighed as though this was some great ordeal. “Fine, but I get to choose the first one.”

“You barely know anything about movies,” said Jinu.

Abby shrugged. “They have synopses and covers, don’t they? I’ll figure it out.”

And that was how they ended up watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy until dawn, and Abby grew moderately obsessed with the concept of elves.

“Maybe we could dress up as elves for one of our performances,” he murmured partway into the second movie, to which Baby elbowed him in the side to hush him. 

Romance and Mystery returned the following morning to Baby, Abby and Jinu crashed out on the couch in the nude, having not remembered to dress before their arrival. And despite their discretion, neither Mystery nor Romance appeared surprised to find them entwined with each other, much less in a state of undress.

“Fanmeet went well,” said Romance, tossing Jinu a little booklet of drawings of them. “They even made us that as a gift.” He cast his eyes over them just once before shrugging and heading for the kitchen. “And put some pants on. I didn’t need to know you had a log between your legs, Jinu.”

Jinu’s entire face burned red and he seized the blanket that had become tangled around their legs, hauling it over his lap. “Shut up,” he said weakly. “We lost track of time.”

“I can see that,” said Mystery softly, shaking his head a little before tottering off toward his bedroom. 

Baby, for his part, appeared entirely unaffected, rising and stretching as though Mystery and Romance weren’t present at all. For all his affected disdain, Abby caught Romance sneaking a look out of the corner of his eye. 

Jinu sighed and peeled the fanbook from his bare chest, setting it on the coffee table. From a cursory glance, Abby thought the art looked pretty impressive, all traditional, all finely drawn. He’d always enjoyed art, though he hadn’t had many opportunities to dabble in it. There was little in the way of art supplies down in the underworld. 

They shuffled off to their respective bedrooms to dress, with Jinu stealing the blanket and Abby holding a cushion over his crotch, his cheeks pink. Baby, meanwhile - perhaps predictably - wandered across the entire suite buck naked, with not a care for who saw him. Abby really had to admire how little of a shit he gave. It was aspirational really, especially while he was doing the walk of shame back to his room with a cushion shielding his junk. 

The rest of the day was spent mostly languidly, with idle preparations for their Your Idol performance. Jinu had already briefed them on the plan: pretend to get in a fight, humiliate the half-demon hunter on stage, and compel the humans to join them for an impromptu performance under the guise of offering comfort in the wake of Huntrix’s disbanding. And if he had looked a little distant, a little disturbed while conveying this information, no one acknowledged it. Part of being a demon was learning to accept whatever discomforts came with their existence and carrying on regardless. 

Everything was in place for their - or Gwi-Ma’s, rather - victory. There was nothing left to do now but enjoy the quiet before the storm. 

There was an uncharacteristic stillness to Jinu’s face as his plan was enacted, a forced calm. A wall he had erected to keep out the curious glances of his companions. But Abby noticed, and by the glances Baby was giving Jinu, Baby did too. They eyed him in their peripheral as the half-demon’s markings were bared to the world and the duplicates Jinu had arranged of her friends, and Jinu was so still he might as well have been a statue. Whatever he’d been doing with that girl, it’d clearly been more than a mere manipulation. 

“Jinu,” he said, prepared to break a cardinal rule, because you didn’t speak about the shame and guilt associated with victimising humans; you didn’t acknowledge it. Not until Gwi-Ma forced you to. “That girl-”

“Is out of the way, now,” Jinu finished, speaking over him. 

Abby looked meaningfully to the screen in their changing room (as in, his, Baby’s and Jinu’s; Mystery and Romance had insisted on their own so they didn’t have to put up with ‘PDA’), the one displaying the hunter hunched over in the middle of the platform, hands curled around her biceps and markings aglow. It was a scene every former human in the underworld could empathise with, if they still had the capacity for it. They had all huddled up like that, small and ashamed, at some point or another.

“But, uh…” Abby wanted to reassure him, it's not your fault; we do what we have to. But now more than ever, Gwi-Ma was watching, and Gwi-Ma wouldn't approve of them comforting each other over the necessary cruelties committed against humans. “Yeah,” he finished pathetically, dropping his gaze away from the screen and the girl stumbling her way off stage. “We’ll get everything we hoped for, soon,” he added quietly. “Maybe we could go for drinks to celebrate?”

Jinu’s throat bobbed. Next to him, Baby was silent, observing. If he had something to say, he clearly knew better than to voice it while they were being observed by their master. 

“Alright,” said Jinu. There was no enthusiasm in his voice.

Abby opened his mouth to spew out something incriminating, saw Baby’s stare, and then closed it.  

“I’ve-” Jinu ran a hand down his face. “I’ve gotta go dismiss the demons playing the girls. We'll televise the announcement of Your Idol when I get back.”

When Jinu slid away, vacating the room, Abby barely resisted the urge to follow. He felt Baby’s hand on his shoulder, holding him back. A gentle shake of Baby’s head compelled Abby to sit back down on their couch.

“Give him a minute,” said Baby. “He clearly got attached.”

Abby swallowed and folded over his knees, his pulse jittering in his throat. He’d known Jinu was spending more time than necessary with the girl, but he hadn’t realised there was any real affinity developing between them. This was going to be another regret in the long list Jinu already had, another name on Jinu’s ledger. Another link in his chain to Gwi-Ma. 

“Everything’s going to be okay, right?” asked Abby weakly. He hated how often he needed reassurance, but the question crawled out regardless. 

Baby nudged their thighs together. “Sure. We’ll do our show, bring Gwi-Ma to the surface, and then we can continue this idol thing. Make ourselves comfortable for the long haul.” He idled his fingers over Abby’s knee, picking at a stray thread on his pants. “We’ll have earned Gwi-Ma’s favour, and he can be generous to those who serve him well.”

“Right.” Abby forced his fingers not to twist anxiously. “Well, you would know, being old as fuck and all.”

Baby snorted. “By human standards, we’re all decrepit.” 

“But you’re the most decrepit.”

“I guess you aren’t wrong, but I still hate it,” said Baby with a dry look.

Abby tittered and glanced at the door. Jinu still hadn’t returned despite several minutes having passed. The extended absence made him antsy. Surely he’d finished his little confrontation with the half-demon hunter by now? Or has something gone wrong, perhaps? He bit at his bottom lip, twisting in his seat.

“Do you think she’d attack him?” he asked.

Baby shrugged. “Might have. But Jinu can handle himself.”

“I know, I just…”

“Have a little faith in our fearless leader,” said Baby, his voice wry. He slid into Abby’s lap, throwing his legs over his thighs as though to keep him in place. “He’s already outmaneuvered her twice. In a one-on-one confrontation, I’m sure he can do it again.”

Abby sighed and slumped back on the couch, his arms crossed. “But he seemed a little fond of her. Maybe he’d hold back.”

It was a dangerous thing for demons to get attached to humans, to their food source; Gwi-Ma's food source, but it did happen on occasion, and those demons never lived long, which made Abby's stomach twist with anxiety.

“He feels bad for tricking her after she developed a rapport with him,” said Baby. “Nothing new for us. He’ll recover, like we always do.”

That was true enough: in the hunt for souls, they'd had to set aside their morals again, and again, until the remaining sliver had to be dug for like unearthing a casket. It might take him a little while to recover from the guilt, but they always adapted. They had to. Demons that didn’t wound up fodder for the beasts of the underworld. 

“Okay,” he said, sighing into a palm. “But if he’s not back in ten minutes…”

“He’d probably return while we’re looking,” Baby pointed out. “This is a big fucking stadium.”

Unfortunately, Baby made a good point. They might just end up making Jinu think they’d wandered off without him.

He was fretting and concocting plans of action if Jinu didn’t return in a timely manner when the door to the changing room swung open. Abby immediately jolted around to face it, an arm slung over the back of the couch.

Jinu looked… wet, was Abby’s first thought. A few droplets on his hairline, hair dark where it’d been touched by water, eyelashes shiny with moisture. Had the girl thrown water at him? Maybe holy water? It wouldn’t be the first time someone had attempted to dispatch a demon with Christian tactics. 

Then he noticed the slight pink rimming his eyes. There was only one thing that could be.

“Are you-?” he began, but Jinu cut him off.

“We need to make the announcement now,” said Jinu tersely. “Before the people leave the general area.”

“Everything’s ready, right?” said Baby, extracting himself from Abby and getting to his feet. Abby scrambled to follow. 

“It’s been ready for the past forty minutes or so.” Jinu gestured in the approximate direction of the greenscreen and camera crew, all of whom wouldn’t survive the show. “They gave the signal that they were ready for the post-show before the Huntrix even went on.”

“Good.” Baby followed Jinu to the door, while Abby followed him. “We’ll have to change fast after. Won’t take them long to start filing back in.”

Jinu glanced over his shoulder at the rack containing their Your Idol ensembles. Notably, the leather pants and various straps and chains hanging between two coat hangers. His knee-high boots sat just under his pick of clothes. 

“I really wish you hadn’t gone with so much leather and straps, Abby,” said Jinu.

“I’ll manage,” said Abby, shrugging. 

Time limitations hadn’t been a consideration when choosing his outfit. The leather pants, strap boots, chains and fishnet crop top - they just looked good on him, emphasised his best assets. 

He stared at Jinu as they exited, at his reddened eyes and damp hair, which he only realised then was probably the result of Jinu splashing cold water in his face. The urge to ask him about it was profound. But he forced himself not to, not yet. There would be time to commiserate later. 

They stepped out into the hallway. Quiet right now, vacant, but this place wouldn’t know true vacancy until Gwi-Ma had opened his maw. An entire stadium of people disappearing would perhaps be difficult to explain in the aftermath, but Gwi-Ma’s magic was greater than theirs - he would be able to ensure they could continue performing after. Everything was going to be different after tonight.

His gaze swept over Jinu and Baby.

Just hopefully not too different.

Chapter Text

The announcement proceeded without issue. The moment they concluded, the camera crew began preparations to move into the body of the stadium, and barely had time to power down their equipment before they were consumed by the Saja Boys. Some much-needed fuel for their next, potentially last performance.

After tonight, the feeding frenzy would begin. Humanity would once again, for the first time in over a millennia, become a feeding trough for demonkind. They had to be discreet, of course; pick off humans here and there rather than in great numbers like the demons of the past, so the humans didn’t end up aware enough to work together on recovering the honmoon. But humans were so numerous these days that it wouldn’t be too hard to thin the herd without being noticed. 

With the crew gone and the stadium filling with spectators, they headed out to take their positions on the stage. There was an odd, uncharacteristic hush from their audience, their minds suffused in Gwi-Ma’s influence, their gazes dull. Though Abby knew they’d start screaming and clamouring once the sirens call started. 

Among the crowd, he could just about make out Mira's fiery hair. Zoey was likely around there somewhere too, but the third one… Jinu hadn’t mentioned what happened to her. Maybe dead; maybe off somewhere, sweltering in her misery. The important thing was that she was indisposed. With no other hunters operating in Korea, there was no one left to stand in their way. 

The music began. The crowds screamed so loud for them that it shuddered the foundations of the stadium. The growing dark gave way to a sea of blinking lights, red beacons from lion-head sticks scattered across the crowd by the hundreds, the thousands, too many to count. Abby could barely make out the faces of their spectators as he sang and danced, their mindless adoration a blur of skin washed red.

The appearance of Gwi-Ma, though planned, almost made Abby jump, his pulse skipping as Gwi-Ma’s flames flared behind them. Contrary to what one might expect, he didn’t give off heat; he gave off cold, a chill that slithered under Abby’s sochangui overcoat even from a distance, provoking goosebumps.

That was the final signal they needed to know the honmoon was well and truly destroyed. And now, with no hunters to replace it, it was likely to remain that way.

As they closed in on the final chorus, Abby's eyes slid across to Baby and Jinu, to Mystery and Romance, seized by the need to look at them one last time before the curtain call. They were about to win, get everything they wanted, and his heart was fluttering in him like a trapped bird, like it knew something he didn't. He held his breath in nervous anticipation of Gwi-Ma ending this chapter in a surge of hungry, gnashing teeth-

And then he heard her, the girl. The half-demon Jinu was supposed to have dealt with.

They all froze. Jinu, in his peripheral, didn’t even blink.

“I thought you dealt with her,” Baby hissed to Jinu.

Every rigid muscle in Jinu locked tighter upon being addressed, but he didn’t turn away from Rumi. She was belting out a song, evocative in all the worst ways, the dazed looks on their captive audience beginning to recede.

“So did I,” Jinu murmured back.

Their conversation might have delved into the whys and hows of her recovery if Gwi-Ma hadn’t spoken over them with a bellowing, “Stop that song!” voice so loud that it left Abby’s ears ringing and his head fuzzy. Though some of that could be attributed to Gwi-Ma’s influence, the compulsion for obedience he’d embedded in them over the centuries. 

He spared Jinu one last look, hand squeezing Jinu’s shoulder before he rose to help eliminate the threat. The honmoon was destroyed, some of the crowd remained under their sway - they could still salvage this if they just dispatched the Huntrix. They might not have been as combat proficient as the Huntrix due to never having gone through any sort of formal training, but they had access to mobs that could even the playing field. 

He went after the redhead, Mira, the only one not yet being engaged. Zoey was busy with Baby and Mystery; Rumi was slicing her way through Gwi-Ma’s faceless mobs, so that left him and Romance to deal with the remaining threat. But Jinu hadn’t moved. Even after being commanded by Gwi-Ma, he continued standing on the stage, observing, his hands slack by his sides, open and vulnerable to attack. Abby wanted to scream at him, what are you doing, but he was too busy repelling swings of Mira’s gok-do to get anything out. 

That blade, though no longer singing with the power of the honmoon, was no less dangerous for that. The slightest glance made his flesh sizzle, singeing the edges of his remaining soul. There were few things that could kill a demon, but that weapon was probably the most efficient route of sundering them out of existence. His heart hammered as he dodged and swept out of the way of its swings, unable to afford a single misstep, a moment of hesitation.

But one came, inevitably, when Gwi-Ma sent a shockwave of energy straight at the half-demon girl, and his saving grace was that Mira was just as shaken by it as he was. It very nearly sent them reeling into each other, his hands closing around the rod of the gok-do to steady himself. Perhaps not the smartest move, because it enabled Mira to give him a shove, sending him reeling backward hard enough to stumble and fall, almost sprawling into the crowd, head hanging over the edge of the walkway. 

And in this new position, he could see just what the half-demon girl was up against: the soul-energy bearing down on her and her sword, tearing a scream from her as it licked at her fingers, threatening a consumption so complete there would be nothing left of her by the end. The same energy Abby had seen consume hundreds of wayward demons over the years. Enemy or not, the sight of it stirred a nauseating fear, the kind that made your chest feel tight and full of pins. Had he been a lesser demon, he might have closed his eyes against the inevitable. 

A blur of movement. Jinu's form shifted from the stage to Rumi so fast it took Abby’s mind a moment to catch up with what he was seeing. He was now up there, arms outstretched, taking the blow in Rumi’s place.

Denial came first: this couldn’t really be happening, right? Jinu couldn’t be sacrificing himself for the human? Why, on the eve of their victory?

Reasoning: because it wasn’t really their victory. It had never really been theirs.

Acceptance: because his affection for her was greater than his fear of Gwi-Ma. 

His body moved of its own accord, and suddenly all three of them - Jinu, Rumi and himself - were flying out of Gwi-Ma’s trajectory and directly into the crowd, rolling over each other as they sprawled. His arms were hugged around Jinu’s middle, trembling as he assessed the damage to Jinu's back with shaky passes of his palms. Singed flesh; damage extensive enough that Jinu couldn’t even stand after they’d fallen. But he was alive. Still alive. Still conscious, his eyes wide and face pinched with pain.

Rumi hitched herself onto her elbows, one hand still curled around her sword, as though expecting Abby to lunge at her. But Abby didn’t move. He cradled Jinu close, his shoulders quivering and eyes wet. 

“Abby- nngh-” The words that came out of Jinu were a rasp. Damage to his throat, too. It was nothing short of a miracle that he was still alive. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t- it’s okay,” he stammered out. “I don’t care, I don’t give a fuck," and he didn't, not really, because you didn't spend centuries as a demon without coming to understand guilt and shame and the unbearable thought of having more of either. His only concern was that Jinu lived. "Just don't try to move, you're hurt, you'll make it worse.”

“I’m sorry, she’s… she’s so good, she doesn't deserve this, I couldn’t…”

“I get it. It’s okay.”

Rumi’s eyes flicked between them. “What…?”

“Don’t have time to discuss it,” Abby said shakily, casting his eyes over to Gwi-Ma, who was thrashing and howling furiously. “He’ll- he’ll try to finish Jinu off, we need to-” 

How were they supposed to take on Gwi-Ma? Three hunters, two demons (potentially more, if Romance and Mystery could be swayed to turn on him) - those might have seemed like good odds, but you would traditionally need an army to take on a king. 

The hunter's weapon flagged a little. “We’ll continue fighting.”

“He almost killed you,” said Abby desperately. “He’ll kill Jinu. He’ll kill all of us.”

“Calm down,” Jinu croaked, reaching up to cradle Abby’s face. “Look.” He turned Abby’s head.

The Huntrix and other Saja had ceased fighting. Romance and Mystery likely at the behest of Baby, who was gesturing animatedly toward where they had fallen. Mira and Zoey were already on their way to them, their weapons braced toward the howling and writhing Gwi-Ma. Three hunters, four demons were slightly better odds. But Abby was afraid that if he left Jinu for even a moment, the man would disintegrate on him.

“You were given freedoms,” Gwi-Ma bellowed. “The ability to enjoy the human world, to sing, to dance, to live, to fraternise with each other, and you turn on me? Now, so close to my victory?”

The snarling anger in Gwi-Ma’s voice made the back of Abby’s neck crawl. It was a tone of voice that so often preceded him lashing out at his subjects, no matter how little involved they might be in the source of his anger. And now that they were, in fact, the source of his anger, that anger would be an arrow instead of a spray. 

“I’ll deal with the hunters myself,” he went on, his voice growing in volume, waves of cold sliding through the stands. “After I take back my generosity.”

Abby braced himself for an attack, getting to his feet with Jinu’s pliant body cradled to his chest. Another burst of energy surged across the stage toward them - and then out of their trajectory, intercepting Baby, Mystery and Romance as they hurtled down the walkway. 

He was sure he screamed. He didn’t hear himself, though. A great buzzing had erupted in his ears, a white roar that smothered the sounds of their arena. He might have crumpled to his knees if Rumi hadn’t grabbed a bicep to stabilise him, her hand small and warm. 

A hiccup jostled his throat. Hot tears rolled down his cheeks, cutting tracks through the sweat clinging there. Jinu was saying something, mouth opening and closing, but the static in his ears drowned everything out.

He couldn't hear Jinu. He couldn't see. He couldn't see them through his tears, couldn't see what had happened to them. He couldn't see if there was anything left. He was afraid that there might only be vapours, but he had to look, he had to know.

So he blinked repeatedly to try to clear his vision, and shapes slowly swam into focus through the haze of smoke and tears. Moving shapes; alive shapes. 

They weren't dead. He could see them all standing, hunched together, doing their best to shield themselves from Gwi-Ma. The relief hit Abby as hard as the fear had, splitting through the numbness like lightning.

All five of them were repelling Gwi-Ma as best they could, arms and weapons raised against his all-consuming fire.

He took a stumbling step forward despite knowing there was little he could do to help with Jinu in his arms.

“Put me down,” Jinu rasped, but he didn’t want to; he was afraid of what would happen if he left Jinu for even a moment. 

“I’ll be okay,” Jinu went on. “Please, Abby, just put me down, it’ll be okay, just put me down.”

Rumi’s small hand squeezed his arm. “They need our help.”

It was with a horrible, strangled sort of sob that Abby gingerly placed Jinu on the ground, watching as the spectators crowded protectively around him. So there was that, at least. Jinu wouldn't be alone. Should these be his last moments, he would have company. 

Abby climbed back onto the walkway and immediately began to hurtle right for the other Saja and Huntrix. Someone screamed - Mystery, he realised, one arm scoured from his body by Gwi-Ma’s power, the fingers on his left arm transitioning from skin, to bone, to dust as he helped Zoey hold up her blades. And then, just like that, there was nothing there, nothing stopping the energy from slithering past their bodies to attack Zoey head-on. 

But Rumi surged forward at his side, her sword drawn, and Abby almost swooned as a fragment of his remaining soul drifted loose to join the sea of energies swelling from the crowd. He swept the Huntrix and Saja Boys into his arms and plunged them out of the way, while Rumi threw her sword in an arc that sent a shockwave slicing through the body of Gwi-Ma. 

They fell, this time caught by the crowd who carefully arranged them back on their feet. Mystery was writhing, holding his missing arm, but he was alive- fuck, they were all alive, and when he cast his eyes across to Jinu, he could see him still moving, being held upright by the audience. 

They did have an army, he realised. They’d had one the entire time. 

A strange vitality began to thrum through him. He breathed easier and stood taller, looking down to find blue wisps coiling around his arms and fingers, slithering into him. Beside him, the others were noticing the same thing: a whirlpool of energy, not extracted from the spectators, but given willingly. An energy so pure that it would typically burn a demon, but here they were, suffused in it, cradled by it. 

Mystery gazed at his destroyed arm in awe, finding it replaced with a pulsing blue limb constructed of the very same energy. It moved and flexed like real flesh.

“Well,” said Abby, revitalised, turning to face Gwi-Ma with a snarl. “Why did we cover up the colours stuck inside our head?”

Baby let out a burst of laughter, edging into hysterical. This was a lot to take in, after all. Within a matter of seconds, they'd all switched sides, and the soul energy itself was acknowledging it. “Can’t believe we’re going to fucking sing our way through this.”

“Lyrics are simple, at least,” said Romance wryly. 

“Umm.” Zoey eyed them warily. Her weapons were raised, but not toward them. “So, I guess you're helping us now?”

“Yeah,” came a rasping voice, and Abby jolted as Jinu stumbled into view. Encased in that same blue energy, it seemed he’d recovered just enough to join them, flexing his claws and rolling his shoulders as he bumped himself against Abby’s side. “Get up and let the jagged edges meet the light instead, or whatever.”

“You okay?” murmured Abby, sweeping his eyes over Jinu's trembling form.

“Okay enough for this,” said Jinu, offering him a wobbly smile. He was still tired, still injured, but it was apparent nothing was going to stop him from helping them put Gwi-Ma down for good. 

“Idiot,” muttered Baby, though he looked relieved to see Jinu. “You could have at least given us a little warning before deciding to almost get yourself obliterated. Thrown out a 'hey, my sentimental bullshit is about to get the best of me'.”

Jinu wasn't able to help a snort at Baby's wording, crude as ever. “I know, and I am sorry. I honestly wasn't thinking.”

“Clearly,” Baby drawled. 

Mira interrupted their conversation with a swing of her gok-do, prompting all five of them to scatter away from it. “If you're done with your little reunion, we really need to start, you know, actually doing something.” And in a mutter, "amateurs." 

Abby didn’t need to be told twice. He surged forward with Baby on one side, Jinu on the other. Mystery and Romance broke ahead, while Mira and Zoey plunged further up still. The most unlikely of allies, but common enemies did often make the strangest of bedfellows. 

When their feet suddenly lifted off the walkway, Abby let out a startled yelp, limbs flailing in midair. Jinu’s hand shot out to grab his, steadying him with a sharp tug that drew him closer. Together, they lifted higher, all eight of them rising above the ruin and flame until they were directly over Gwi-Ma’s gaping maw. Maintaining the lyrics while floating twenty feet off the ground was… nerve-wracking, to say the least, but the Huntrix and the others seemed at ease, so he forced his fearful reflex down and continued belting out the song. 

He reached out, claiming one of Baby's hands. Romance held onto Baby on the opposite side, and Mystery to Romance. Beside them, extending from Jinu, the Huntrix held on with the same fervour. 

He was afraid. He couldn’t deny that. But there was a strange, foreign comfort to being embraced by this kind of energy as well. It wasn’t made from obsession; it wasn’t made from desire, the two most common sources for souls extracted by demons. It was admiration. It was compassion. It was, in some respects, love. Between them, between the Huntrix, and between their fans, all of them coming together for the final blow needed to sever Gwi-Ma from this world.

The light that emerged from them was so bright it forced Abby’s eyes shut. And when he peeled them back open, he was floating in a clear, morning sky. Baby and Jinu still on either side of him, palms warm and fingers entangled. The sun bore down on his back, spreading heat through skin that had been, just moments before, chilled by Gwi-Ma’s presence. And then he realised the demon in question was gone. Completely, utterly gone, not a whimper of his influence remaining in the stadium.

It was only as they eased to the ground that Abby noticed the markings aglow on his skin. Pearlescent now instead of the red-purple associated with Gwi-Ma, shimmering faintly as they caught the sunlight. Were they even still demons? Humans? Something in between? 

His legs trembled so hard under him that Baby had to wrap an arm around his shoulders to keep him upright. He sniffled, feeling stupid for being so emotional, but oh so relieved.

“I have to say,” said Romance, breaking the quiet. “I did not expect that plot twist.”

Baby snorted softly. “This isn’t one of your shows, Romance.”

“You know what I mean. Did we just ally ourselves with the hunters?”

“Guess we did,” said Mystery, slowly curling his new hand into a shaky fist. A long, pearlescent limb, gleaming like the inside of a shell. 

Zoey cast them a sideward glance, full of intrigue. “Did you say allies? Us?” Then, quieter, directed at Rumi. “So that means we can, you know…”

“We’re going to have a long talk about ground rules before then,” said Mira, a touch scathing, wary, but she made no move to attack them. Just hovered protectively around Rumi and Zoey. 

“Fair enough,” said Jinu, sounding exceptionally tired. His eyes fluttered shut and he leaned his face into Abby’s shoulder. “Could it be after I’ve had some R&R? I’m dying on my feet here. Almost literally.”

Mira pursed her lips at Jinu, her gaze glancing over his ragged form. No doubt because of his earlier attempt to sacrifice himself for Rumi, she let out a long, begrudging sigh and muttered, “Fine.”

“Great,” said Abby, moving one of his arms around to Jinu’s back, holding him in place so none of them would go keeling over. “Because I could use some rest too.”

“Bathhouse?” suggested Zoey, eyebrows jumping in what was probably intended to be an inviting expression, but it just kind of looked dopey. 

Abby snorted. “This lot hates baths. But there’s always the sauna…”

“After we’ve sat down,” Jinu insisted. ”For at least five hours."

The ‘sitting down’ ended up taking almost a full day, since they discovered shortly after piling onto the suite couch that they could now sleep. That pile slowly transitioned into more of a puddle, their limbs becoming intertwined and bodies shifting into awkward orientations as they slid into the first real slumber they’d had in centuries. And when they awoke the following day, after being out for roughly sixteen hours, they were so dazed and confused that it took them a good fifteen minutes to extricate themselves from each other.

“Did we just fucking sleep?” asked Baby, blinking one eye, and then the other.

“I- I think we did,” said Mystery. 

Abby rubbed sleep-gunk out of his eyes, too groggy to properly appreciate the enormity of this revelation. They’d slept for the first time in centuries, and his mind was ensnared instead with how odd his dreams had been. 

“I thought I was an elf for a moment there,” he murmured, because his mind had thrust him into a rough approximation of Lord of the Rings for those sixteen hours of unconsciousness. “I forgot how weird dreams could be.”

“Me too,” said Jinu with a groan, folding a forearm over his face. “I dreamt we started a circus and Derpy was the main attraction.”

“Well, if this idol thing doesn’t work out, at least we have a fallback,” said Abby wryly. 

Jinu laughed. “Oh, no. Even in my dream, he couldn’t perform for shit.”

It was dark out now, the sun having receded amid their slumber, so it would be a few hours yet before they could visit the bathhouse. Abby slowly stumbled to his feet, stretching to dislodge a kink in his spine. 

“So,” he began, arms still stretched high above his head. “No more Gwi-Ma, right?”

“Not unless he finds a way to crawl back up,” said Jinu, but he didn’t sound concerned. His voice was easy and soft, having recovered some of its prior energy after their extended nap. “But if we beat him once, we can do it again.”

“But what do we do now?” asked Abby. “This wasn't really part of the plan.” There was a thread of existential dread, because he wasn't sure how to live without Gwi-Ma - he'd been bound to the demon king for so long that he’d forgotten what it was like to exist without his shackles. 

“Continue singing?” offered Mystery, sounding just as uncertain as him.

“You wanted to continue the idol group,” Baby reminded him, his voice much firmer. “So unless your plans have changed, that's what we're going to do.”

Abby exhaled heavily, his panic receding as he recalled that conversation. They had plans. They had a future, and it wasn't one Gwi-Ma needed to be part of. 

It was a lot, this newfound freedom, but they would all learn to navigate it in time.

"No, they haven't changed," said Abby. "That is what I want to do."

“And we could go to the aquarium,” added Baby. “Since you and Jinu seem mildly obsessed with it.”

A laugh strangled out of Abby. “Well, Romance and Mystery haven’t seen it yet.”

“Bathhouse first,” Romance reminded them, yawning into a fist. “We’re meant to meet the girls there.”

“And drinks,” said Jinu. “If we can sleep, think it’ll affect us normally now?”

Abby had entirely forgotten he’d suggested drinking as a victory lap. This wasn’t the victory he’d anticipated celebrating, and that was okay - it was even better. 

“Well,” said Abby. “Only one way to find out.”

So that was their itinerary: the sauna, aquarium, and drinks, likely in that order, since the Huntrix would probably be displeased if they showed up to their odd little get-together inebriated. Gaining the hunters’ trust was going to be difficult enough as it was, even with their joint victory over Gwi-Ma still fresh in memory. One act of cooperation wasn’t going to be enough to banish weeks of shared hostility. And that didn't even account for all the humans they'd slaughtered on Gwi-Ma’s altar. It was going to take a lot of time and effort for them to have anything other than a fragile truce… but the fact that was even possible was more than Abby had ever anticipated. 

After they’d scrubbed off some of the sleep-sweat, changed clothes, and spent a few hours meandering around the suite, they all headed out to meet the Huntrix at the bathhouse. For the first time since the Saja had ascended to Earth, they met not as enemies, but as allies. They stood awkwardly before each other just outside the doors of the bathhouse, both dithering, uncertain, all too aware of the lines that had previously been drawn between them. 

Jinu was first to speak.

“Thank you,” he said to Rumi, smiling. “For everything.” 

For a time, Rumi only looked at him. Searching, maybe weighing the sincerity behind the words after every ill Jinu had inflicted on her. But then her expression softened, and she smiled back.

Their performance at the stadium was hailed as one of a kind, with ‘spectacular audience engagement’, and ‘special effects beyond comprehension’. A far more rational explanation, by their measure, than demons, magic and hunters being real. It brought all of them soaring to greater heights of popularity, strengthening the new honmoon and further ensuring Gwi-Ma wouldn’t be able to break loose upon the population of Seoul again. The threat of him was a lingering presence, but for now, things were peaceful.

They moved into a different suite. This one was larger, with two floors, five sprawling bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a living room and kitchen that took up almost the entire upper floor. But they could have managed with three bedrooms, since Baby, Abby, and Jinu now shared one.

The room was a gentle sort of mess, a congregation of their personalities. Abby’s sketches and granite drawings had been pinned to the walls, curling slightly at the corners; glass jars of lollipops were scattered across desks and shelves; notepads were open and half-filled with lyrics and choreography ideas, and the bookcases had begun to swell with volumes of everything from thick history texts to paperbacks on how to draw ferns. 

A few fan gifts had found a place among the clutter: a giant plush lion’s head sitting in the upper-middle of their bed, printed books of fanart stacked on the dresser, tiny clay figures moulded in their likenesses lined neatly on a shelf Jinu had (with some difficulty) put up.

Their outfits claimed different corners of a sprawling walk-in closet, so spacious that it could have functioned as an additional room. There was enough room, in fact, that they ended up shoving bean bags in there to sleep on when they needed time to themselves.  

Since the suite was closer to the Huntrix - something the girls had specifically requested, still wary about letting demons with a bloody track record loose on Seoul - they visited with some regularity, with Zoey coming by so often to flirt with Mystery that the man had taken to waiting by the door for her at certain times of the day. Rumi would often stop by to talk to them, seeming to find some comfort in sharing her patterns with so many others. Mira visited least, but she seemed to be warming up to them, and even - with some reluctance - invited them over for the occasional game night. There was nothing like charades to help bring people together. 

Their idol careers continued. Since Jinu had thoroughly burnt himself out on managing the group, they employed Bobby to help bring structure to their schedules. He still primarily managed the Huntrix, and they wouldn’t take him away from them, but he had enough free time to do some work for the Saja Boys on the side. Including the arrangement of a series of collabs with the Huntrix, with Bobby envisioning a shared fanbase- the Hunter Pride. Which sounded ridiculous, but Bobby was so enthusiastic about the concept that no one (except Baby, whose mouth Jinu covered before he could attempt to speak) had the heart to criticise it. Only time would tell if that concept would bear fruit. 

Between performances and fan events and rehearsals, Baby, Abby and Jinu found time to indulge in each other's company. And bodies, whenever they were in the mood. They’d quickly discovered their new markings were sensitive, and Baby had taken to latching himself onto Abby's whenever possible, sucking them between his teeth and applying his tongue to the parts that made Abby quiver hardest. Jinu liked one that coiled over his nape in particular, nosing into it any time he fucked Abby from behind, pulling him down onto his cock.

And when they were all done, messy and shivering in the afterglow of their coupling, they would gather in the middle of the bed and hold each other close. There was no fear as they lay entwined, no lingering uncertainty that what they shared would be taken from them. No Gwi-Ma to still their tongues or chill their spines.

And perhaps that was why, a month into their newfound freedom, Abby found himself whispering, “I love you,” the words coming out like a plea, a treaty, I need this, I will always need this, I need you, both of you.

Though initially surprised, Jinu smiled and pressed a kiss to the back of his head. Baby’s lips grazed his jaw. Soft, sweet little gestures.

“Love you too,” Baby murmured, his answer coming warm and easy. 

“Didn’t think I’d ever get to say this to someone again,” Jinu whispered, his breath hot against Abby’s ear, before giving him the words he craved so much. “I love you.”

Abby closed his eyes, trapping tears under his eyelashes. The final whisper of Gwi-Ma’s chain fell away, the one that had spent so long stifling the desires of his heart. To love, to be loved, the sorts of things demons weren’t supposed to be capable of. They were supposed to be beings of pure malice, hollow shells of Gwi-Ma’s will.

But he loved. He was loved. 

He was loved.

He kissed them back, one after the other, finding his new purpose in the softness of their lips.