Yawning, you peeled your eyes open a tiny bit and winced when a beam of sunlight pierced your pupil. You were warm and toasty, snuggled up next to a human space heater.

Next to you, Jimin yawned widely, releasing your waist to roll onto his other side.

You think back to last night, not entirely surprised to wake up in the same bed as him. It had happened before when one of you was just too lazy or tired to return to your own room, and you're sure this won't be the last time.

After the awkward encounter you had turned on a movie to distract yourself while Jimin, refusing to leave your lap, fell back to sleep. You must have drifted off too, considering the fact that you weren't under the blankets but curled up at the foot of your bed with Jimin, perpendicular to your usually sleeping position. At some point the blankets had migrated (you moved a lot in your sleep, and Jimin tended to cling which made your habit even worse) to bunch up around the two of you, keeping you warm.

You relaxed back into the bed, refusing to acknowledge last night. Nothing had happened. You two were fine. He was your best friend and nothing more. Forever.

But it was hot.

You were beginning to sweat from the intense heat radiating off of Jimin's skin and surrounding you. He was always warm, but this heat was three times more intense than normal. His tail was twitching against your side, tickling your bare skin where your sleep shirt had ridden up a little.

It was way too hot.

You tried to move the blankets away from you, but then the cold air congregated around you and you began to shiver. Quickly returning to the blankets, you glanced over at the real problem.

You weren't sure if Jimin's new body heat was a side effect of his animalism, but he was going to cause you heat stroke. So you turned yourself to where your feet were facing Jimin's exposed back, and pushed hard. Jimin's slumbering body, heavy with limp muscles, rolled and made a loud thump when it hit the carpeted floor of your room.

You ignored his grunt of pain and wrapped yourself like a happy little burrito in the now reasonably-warm blankets.

Jimin's head popped up over the edge of the bed. "Yah!"

Your ignored him again.

Until you felt his weight dip the mattress beside you for a moment before he collapsed directly on top of you.

"Too hot," you whined to him, squirming. He stared down into your face, eyes wide with irritation. When most people got angry their eyes narrowed down to tiny slits and their teeth gritted, but not Jimin. His entire body got bigger, eyes widening and chest puffing out as his shoulders went back. His mouth usually opened with his jaw set and his sharp brows raised, resulting in an expression that seemed to dare you to piss him off to find out what happens. His voice always seemed to drop several octaves and the Busan satoori he had inherited from his parents thickened until his Seoul Standard accent disappeared. Luckily, he was only annoyed at that moment.

When Jimin was truly angry, he was terrifying.

He shoved his wrist in your face. "Look what you did to me."

You reluctantly observed his skin, seeing a little bit of a rug burn on top of a newly-formed bruise. Psh, what a wimp.

You rolled your eyes up at him. "Poor baby. Do you need me to call an ambulance? I heard rug burns are deadly." Your sarcasm wasn't lost on him. His lower lip began to turn out, trembling a tiny bit in front of you.

Oh no.

You considered yourself mostly immune to the majority of your friend's charms but that tiny pout combined with his sad eyes was your weakness and the boy knew it.

Your heart melted when he even began to use a baby voice, whimpering, "But it hurts!"

Stay strong, Y/N. Those big yellow eyes are playing you.

"Why are you so hot anyways?" you growled, shoving him off of you. He simply rolled to lay beside you, closing his eyes again.

"I'm always this hot, Y/N. That's why all the girls want me."

"Mhm. Do you have a fever?" You actually were a little concerned, placing a hand on his forehead to check. On a regular basis his current temperature would have alarmed you, but you had a feeling that he wasn't sick.

"No, but I'm hungry. Cook me breakfast," he demanded.

You raised an eyebrow in exasperation but got up from your burrito of blankets and started down the stairs. You felt bad, that's the only reason you didn't smack him and go back to sleep. He'd been through a lot over the last few days and you want to help all that you can.

Breakfast would be your first act to help.

Your mother still worked on the weekends for her catering business, so she was already gone from the house. You looked in the refrigerator to see what food you had and decided to make omelets with some peppers and mushrooms, and pancakes because you had all of the ingredients. You felt like spoiling your unfortunate friend today.

You started to cook the omelets while you mixed the pancake batter; your phone alerted you to a new message.

🕺🏻🕺🏻

😋

You sighed, digging through your fridge for more eggs and ingredients. If the other six boys were coming over, you needed about ten times the amount of food it would take to feed you and Jimin. Jin and the maknaes could put away a lot of food.

Speaking of Jimin...

"Muffin." Jimin shuffled into the kitchen, wrapped up in blankets and looking sleepily disheveled. His hair was sticking up in random directions and his eyes drooped. He wandered over and plopped his forehead head onto your shoulder from behind.

His tail was droopy, dragging limply in the floor behind him. His ears twitched, brushing your cheek.

"Get off of me, you lump." You pushed at his head, but he only shifted so his chin was on your shoulder, looking at the food in the stove in front of you.

"It smells good." His tenor-pitched voice vibrated across your eardrums at close range. You hummed in gratitude and pulled the milk out of the fridge to make the pancakes. You placed it on the counter and went to flip the omelets, satisfied with their color on both sides. You added the peppers, cheese, and mushrooms then returned to the pancake batter.

Jimin was standing very still by the kitchen counter, staring hard at the milk carton. His expression was one of desperate longing. You couldn't help the giggle that slipped out of your lips.

His head whipped around.

"What are you laughing at?"

You strode over to him, scratching gently at his cat ears. He leaned his head into your hand, closing his eyes in bliss.

"Kitty cat," you cooed. "Do you want some milk?"

Blushing hard, Jimin backed away from you and sat at the table. He muttered unintelligible words, glancing at you out of the corner of his eyes.

You laughed and went back to cooking, but froze when you heard him whine, "Y/N..."

"Hm?"

"Yes."

"Yes what?" you said absently, flipping the pancakes.

"I want milk..."

Looking back at him, you found him giving the milk another wanting look, as if it was the last glass of water left on the Earth and Jimin was dying of dehydration.

You grinned and got a large glass from the cabinet, filling it to the brim with milk.

The instant it was in front of him, Jimin grabbed the glass and drank half of it. He set the glass down to take a breath, grinning at you with bright eyes and a milk mustache.

So cute.

You got distracted when you heard your front door open, followed by the sound of six boys trying to talk over each other.

"Jiminie!" Feet pounded against the wood floor as Taehyung and Hoseok ran into the kitchen, eager to see the third mutation that was Jimin.

You weren't sure what they thought they were going to see. Maybe something scary or rough, fangs and claws or a wicked tail.

What they found was Jimin curled up in your kitchen chair with his tail wrapped around his legs, a glass of milk cupped between his hands. The window in the kitchen was allowing sunlight to enter and he was basking in it, looking small and cute in his sweater and nest of blankets with his soft black ears.

The two excited boys skidded to a stop. There was a moment where they stared incredulously at Jimin and the startled Jimin stared back.

Then Hoseok chuckled and the both of them burst into raucous laughter.

"You...you're a kit...a kitten..."

"You're so cute, Chim Chim!"

Jimin glared at them, doing his best to make up for his red cheeks with his death look. He turned his back to them and held his precious milk close to him, sipping away.

The other boys walked in, greeting you quietly. Jungkook seemed to be in better spirits than the previous day, only occasionally touching his ears in a fit of self-consciousness. His little tail was securely hidden in his pants.

Yoongi was barely affected by the events. His striped tail waved lazily as he said a short greeting to you and went immediately to the living room, where you knew he would fall asleep on the couch until it was time for them to leave.

Jin and Namjoon approached you, smiling.

"Y/N," Namjoon said. He glanced at Jimin. "How's he doing?"

You shook your head, stirring the pancake batter. "He's taking this surprisingly well."

Jin nodded. "Yoongi doesn't care, but Jungkook... it was rough for a little bit but he's better. The ears were definitely a shock to all of us, though. When Kookie walked in, we were so surprised."

You nodded, barely noticing when Jimin joined your circle. He leaned heavily against you and you rubbed a soothing hand along his back.

Don't touch his ears again, Y/N. No matter how much you want to.

You were blushing at the memory of Jimin's face from last night, staring at you with heavy breaths and parted, glistening lips. Jimin's slanted yellow eyes looked at you questioningly.

You shook your head, relieved when Hoseok asked, "So what is he exactly?"

"A kitty!" Taehyung smiled that boxy smile. "Duh!"

Jimin's eyes almost rolled out of his skull.

You grinned at the two. "We don't know what kind of cat he is yet, not for sure."

They didn't listen to you, continuing to pass back and forth scathing comments about Jimin's sleek tail and fluffy ears. The ever-kind Jimin let most of the comments go without replying, until Tae went a bit too far. He snuck up behind Jimin and suddenly pulled Jimin's ears hard, laughing.

Jimin wasn't amused.

Almost like instinct, his head whipped around, yellow eyes glowing brightly as a low, vicious growl sounded from his throat. Startled and alarmed, Taehyung backpedaled quickly and stepped on Jimin's tail in the process.

A roar was the only way you could describe the terrifying sound that tore out of Jimin's throat and echoed around the kitchen. Everyone froze at the sight of the boy bearing his teeth in a threatening way, chest heaving as he glared at Tae with furious, slanted eyes.

Jimin's eyes were locked on Tae with such intensity that you were legitimately afraid for him. You slowly moved between the two boys, facing Jimin with calming hands in front of you.

"Chim," you whispered. He didn't move, simply keeping his gaze locked on his prey over your shoulder. You gently placed your hands on his shoulders, sliding them up the strong muscles until you were cupping his face.

"Look at me, Park Jimin." You put a demanding tone in your voice. His eyes shifted to you.

You smiled at him gently and moved to embrace him. At first he didn't respond, staying tense and prepared for action. He gradually relaxed as you stubbornly clung to him, arms coming around your waist. His head sunk down to rest on your shoulder and he inhaled deeply.

He calmed down after several moments, looking at the silent boys over your shoulder. They were eyeing him warily, concerned and scared at the same time.

Jimin sighed. "I'm sorry."

For once, Kim Taehyung was completely and totally serious. He shook his head.

"No, it was my fault. I'm sorry, Jiminie. It must be hard and I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry for teasing you."

Oh.

You started laughing, startling all of the boys.

"Y/N," Jin said, motherly disapproval in his voice. "How is this funny?"

"It's just..." You trailed off into laughter again. Jimin looked at you incredulously.

"Just what?"

Your laughter finally subsided and you straightened in Jimin's embrace, grinning at him.

"I think we can now safely say that you're not a kitten."

❤PB