«­-(¯`·´¯)-««

The garden is quiet when Chanyeol enters it that morning, the wooden gates swinging shut behind him with a lazy wave of his hand. It'd be more disturbing if there had been noises other than the calling of the birds and the buzzing of the insects and the babbling of the brook that fed into his carefully maintained pond. After all, no one was allowed in or out without his permission.

"Minseok hyung," he calls out, looking around for the groundskeeper. Unlike the rest of Chanyeol's attendants who are in charge of taking care of his estate, Minseok works and resides solely in the garden, "it's Chanyeol. I'm bored."

He hears a scoff, but when Chanyeol turns his head to look over, there's a smile on Minseok's face as he makes his way over. "I'm sure you probably have some business back in the main house to settle," he says. There's a hint of disapproval in his voice, a warning that Chanyeol should probably perform his duties properly for once. However, despite their ages, Chanyeol is the master and Minseok is the servant, and all the side-eyeing in the world couldn't change that. Or it shouldn't anyway, because the narrowing of Minseok's sharp eyes makes the guilt in his gut burn a little more than he likes.

"But business is boring. I wanna hang out here instead," Chanyeol whines. Minseok has, unfortunately, long since developed quite a bit of immunity towards his antics though, far better at resisting than most of the people forced to deal with Chanyeol on a daily basis. The look on his face is utterly unimpressed as he stands there, the sole obstacle to the lazy day of Chanyeol's dreams.

Honestly, there's no reason for him to still kick up a fuss about it the way he does every time this happens anyway. The situation's not even really that unusual seeing as Chanyeol spends half of his time lounging in the garden, sunbathing and swimming and sleeping and wasting time in general. Sometimes casting little spells he'd get in trouble for anywhere else because what if something caught on fire, Chanyeol?! or stop levitating the dishware, Chanyeol! No, it doesn't matter that you can fix it!

"C'mon, hyung, please," he continues when Minseok makes no sign of uncrossing his arms and undoing his frown, "just for an hour or two? I need to take care of the fish anyway, I'm sure they miss me."

At the mention of the garden's other inhabitants, Minseok visibly wavers. Chanyeol holds back a sharp-toothed grin and waits.

"Well... I suppose it's about time you spent some time with them," Minseok admits, "Kyungsoo in particular has been getting rather grumpy."

Chanyeol laughs, as loud and obnoxious as he wants. "Kyungsoo's always in a mood with me, but if it's you saying so, then I guess I'll have to do something about it."

Really he'd been thinking of taking out Sehun or Jongin today, but he could easily just do that another day. Tomorrow even. It's been a long time since he's spent time with Kyungsoo anyway, though, he's pretty sure that has more to do with the fish swimming away every time Chanyeol reaches out to stroke his shiny black scales.

"So where is the little guy?" he asks, trailing behind Minseok as they both walk over to the large pond taking up half the space in the garden. He's answered not by his groundskeeper, but by a splash from the water, aimed precisely so that the legs of his pants are speckled with water. "Ah. There he is. That's not nice, Kyungsoo-yah."

A carp smaller than many of the others stares up at him from under the water with large, unblinking eyes. completely unrepentant. It has a certain charm to it, making it hard for Chanyeol to feel even a prickle of irritation.

Chanyeol bends down, hunching over so he's as close to the water as possible. "Hey, ready for some exercise?" Without waiting for an answer, he reaches out so that his hand is hovering over Kyungsoo in the water. After a little bit of finger wiggling and a whole lot of concentration, he and Minseok watch as the fish starts growing in size, his body warping. His fins stretch into long, wide sleeves with delicate fingers peeking out past the hemline, his tail splitting into two clothed legs. His face completely changes shape and color, and by the end of the whole mess, there's a short young man dressed in a glimmering black hanbok standing in the shallow pond water.

"Don't call me little," Kyungsoo grumbles as he makes his way out. By the time he's on dry land, there's not a drop of water on him. "What are you doing here anyway? Don't you have work to do?"

"You and Minseok hyung are way too similar," Chanyeol laughs, standing back up and wrapping an arm around Kyungsoo's narrow shoulders. "By the way, I missed you too."

Kyungsoo elbows him away, turning to look at Minseok with accusing eyes. "You said you wouldn't say anything, hyung."

Minseok holds up both hands in surrender, but he's smiling too. "But you got what you wanted, right?"

There's no need for Chanyeol to wait for an answer, not when he can see Kyungsoo's newly formed ears going red underneath his dark hair. He reaches out for Kyungsoo again, draping himself all over that tiny body, and unsurprisingly, pleasantly, this time Kyungsoo doesn't shove him off.