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when the possibility of adopting a hybrid came up, it wasn’t a real plan. they were fine as they were, the six of them - it was beyond enough to have each other for company, for companionship, for intimacy. they had everything hybrids were meant to supplement in excess; there was no need to add more to an already-overflowing cup.
but after meeting a few friends’ hybrids, petting their pretty ears and seeing their pretty smiles, they decided it couldn’t hurt to look. just look. there was next to no real chance that they’d find a hybrid they all liked enough to take home. it would satiate their curiosity, if nothing else. they would look through what the hybrid center had to offer, find it all wanting, and be satisfied with never thinking about it again.
it was an easy plan. a fun one, too, really. a little six-way date-night.
-
it started with jungkook’s quiet “hyung.”
he stood at the door of a hybrid’s room - they were more like cells, they’d discovered, often with a few hybrids in each one. they were cozy enough, it was easy to think, considering that most hybrids stayed at centers for a few months max before they were adopted. most of them had pictures taped to the walls, well-worn blankets, toys in various stages of chewed-upness to add some touch of hybrid-humanity and personalization to their temporary living spaces.
the room jungkook found himself in front of had none of that - no warmth, no personality, no real signs of life.
but there was life in that cage.
jungkook said “hyung,” and taehyung came over.
taehyung peered inside. “hey, jiminie.”
jimin came over and stared for a long moment. “joonie-hyung?”
namjoon furrowed his brows when he came over and beckoned hoseok.
yoongi saw hoseok stagger back a step and came to steady him.
he squinted at the clipboard hung by the door. “it’s just a jindo.”
“that’s—a very friendly breed for all of this, isn’t it?” namjoon asked, gesturing. “he’s trussed up like a feral wolf and not a pet dog.”
the jindo could hear them; his tan pointed ears stood at attention even as he tried to look unaffected. his arms tightened around his knees where he sat on the floor, back to the wall and facing the door. he didn’t look at them straight on, but they could see the cautious glances out of the corners of his eyes every other few seconds.
even if he wanted to talk to them, go a step beyond just looking, he wouldn’t have been able to through the gag in his mouth, the muzzle covering it. he wouldn’t have been able to do more than look at them, either, considering the thick chains keeping him out of reach.
the image didn’t quite add up.
though skinny and unbathed, there was no doubt the dog had a charming quality. what they could see of his face was pretty. he seemed shy, too. wary, not standoffish like his documents might suggest.
yoongi hummed, slipping on his glasses before taking the clipboard from the wall. “jin, male, twenty-seven. domestic dog hybrid, jindo breed. history of aggression.”
“twenty-seven?” was jungkook’s first question; “aggression?” was hoseok’s.
“twenty-seven,” yoongi repeated. “says he’s committed acts of violence against owners in the past.”
“enough to warrant all of this?” namjoon asked, glancing at the hybrid’s general state, raising his brows. the hybrid curled in on himself more.
yoongi shrugged. “guess so.”
“that’s not right,” taehyung frowned, leaning in til his forehead nearly touched the bars to see him better. “look at him.”
“tyung-ah, baby,” jimin said softly, rubbing his back. “tigers are pretty, too, but they have teeth.”
taehyung nodded after a moment, shoulders sagging. but - he knew what he saw. he saw that bone-deep sadness in the tiny second that their eyes met, the resignation when the hybrid squeezed his eyes shut, nothing in his too-thin body that indicated a single bit of meanness.
he thought he’d have to fight to convince them, to put together a powerpoint on his phone of why we should take this specific hybrid home, but it was hoseok who took a shelter worker aside and asked what she could tell them about the jindo.
she couldn’t tell him much that wasn’t on his clipboard. he had a history of aggression, like they’d read, though only one known incidence. he wasn’t an inside pet, not a lap dog like most people wanted. he needed chains and rules and structures and discipline. he was scheduled to be euthanized later that week.
the paperwork only required one person’s signature, but it ended up with six.
-
they took him home that day, safely bound in the trunk of the suv. hoseok couldn’t help but glance at him in the rearview mirror as he drove; jin’s head turned ever-so-slightly and ever-so-quickly to try to keep up with the sights outside the windows. it was cute, really. endearing. hoseok found himself thinking tigers have teeth more than once, every time he caught sight of the curious angle of the hybrid’s ears.
jin hadn’t put up a fight when they moved him from his cage to the interview room where his commands were demonstrated, nor to the brief exit medical exam, even as his tail went between his legs, entire body shaking. he hadn’t protested when they led him outside on a short, heavy chain.
he seemed docile, but the shelter insisted that they not be deceived by appearances. pretty dog or not, he was vicious.
tigers have teeth, hoseok reminded himself, catching the way jin’s eyes went wide with awe as they stopped at a red light next to a line of street food carts, colorful signs and muffled shouts perhaps the most excitement he’d seen in a long while.
-
jin spent most of his time looking up at the sky or hidden away in the hybrid shelter outside. he was naked on recommendation of the shelter, as it was what he was accustomed to and gave him a feeling of vulnerability. he often had the blanket they gave him draped around his shoulders or wrapped around him entirely, only his sharp, uneasy eyes, fluffy hair, and alert ears sticking out.
when they brought him meals, he sat at their command, staying stock-still until they told him he could eat.
he trembled when yoongi came close as he ate with his hands, carefully staring at his bowl and not up at his master. he didn’t growl or bite or jerk away when yoongi touched his hair, though, no matter how frightened it made him, no matter how much it made him shake. he always shook when they came near anyways.
jin found his eyes fluttering shut when yoongi gave his ear a single scritch.
“if you behave yourself,” yoongi told him quietly, “maybe we’ll get you a longer chain.”
jin bowed to him in gratitude then, forehead to the dirt.
-
it went like that for a few weeks.
jin was silent, to the point where they weren’t sure he could talk. he understood them just fine, and that was the important part. he was grateful for all he was given, he never asked for more. he cloud-watched and star-gazed and dozed in the sun and slept at night and was, by all accounts, a good dog.
yoongi clipped him to a longer chain, and he spent hours each day mapping the few extra feet he could reach, tail wagging until he felt someone watching him. he’d sit when that happened, like being seen meant being still.
taehyung found himself watching jin often, though he did his best to keep it sneaky, not wanting jin to freeze until he looked away. he peeked at him through his study window more often than not; he’d tucked himself away a nice attic room, and jin didn’t seem to stare up at the roof too often.
jin was nice to look at. pretty, sure, taehyung thought, but he was so - there was just something about him, just as there had been ‘something about him’ that made taehyung determined to make jin theirs in the first place. from his watchtower, he’d seen jin make friends with a bee but only after hiding from it for hours. he’d seen him abandon his blanket on sunny days, stretching out on his back with his bare tummy pleasantly warmed, all in the corner behind the shelter where he could least be seen.
he’d seen jin cry, taehyung thought, late at night when taehyung had just happened to glance out the kitchen window. but that was silly. it had to be. he was just a dog, wasn’t he? he wasn’t been hurt or punished, what was there to cry about?
the sight stuck with him for days afterwards, of the hybrid shaking, wrapped around himself, tears streaming down his cheeks, only visible in the moonlight. taehyung felt a bit like a child at the revelation, but of course it was true - it didn’t matter that jin was a hybrid. he had emotions, he had thoughts even when they weren’t there. his life didn’t pause when he wasn’t being addressed. he always felt, always thought, always lived.
-
taehyung couldn’t stand it.
he pulled on whatever shoes in the mud room looked the most waterproof before running out, holding a hand over his head like it would do anything to shield him from the rain. he thought it was worth the sacrifice when he got to the opening of the shelter and found jin shaking fiercely in his damp blanket, rain blowing onto him with every gust of wind, no matter how much he tried to tuck himself away.
lightning lit up the sky for a moment, and taehyung hated the fear in jin’s pretty eyes.
“hey—” he said, voice a little shaky but intentionally soft. “hey, jin, come with me, let’s get you inside.”
it looked like jin’s limbs moved of their own volition, spurred on by the order and not his own will. taehyung took it, either way, unclipping the chain from his collar and hoping jin was smart enough to not run. he didn’t try to pull away as taehyung held the back of his collar tightly, only followed him into the house.
taehyung frowned and looked around. “i guess—here is good. it’s warmer, at the very least.”
jin had been staring at him, apparently. he flushed when taehyung caught his eye, ducking his head. his hair dripped.
the poor thing shivered harshly, blanket sopping and useless in his hand. taehyung grabbed it from him and tossed it in the corner to be washed later. jin let out a tiny whine at the loss, but quieted as soon as he caught taehyung’s eye.
taehyung clicked his tongue and found himself glad they used the room largely as storage. he grabbed one of the towels that was too ragged to use but not useless enough to throw away, using it to pat jin dry, going from his broad shoulders to his feet and back up, ending on his curling hair and chilly ears. he carefully, carefully, pressed jin’s ears to dry them, careful to not irritate the sensitive skin or make it seem too awfully loud for him.
jin squeezed his eyes shut the whole time. he was shivering still, maybe even more than before - from the chill, certainly, but taehyung had a hunch it had more to do with him.
“i’ll give it back,” he promised belatedly. “the blanket.”
he grabbed another towel and draped it around jin’s shoulders. it was smaller than the blanket, certainly not as warm, but it would do for now. he could turn the heat up a bit, too. maybe drag a space heater in.
thunder cracked above them and jin jumped. taehyung came very, very close to tucking him close, telling him it would be okay, that the storm would pass, no matter how tiger-sharp his teeth may be.
his tiger-sharp teeth seemed like much, much less of a threat when taehyung came to check on him an hour later. the storm had died down and the forecast predicted nothing but showers for the next few days. it probably wasn’t healthy for an outdoor dog to be cooped up inside for long, and taehyung thought it was best to chain jin back up. but.
taehyung couldn’t help himself. he knelt beside jin, the hybrid sound asleep, curled up on the floor around a coat namjoon had misplaced a few days prior. his ears were relaxed and twitched only with dream-things; his thick tail wasn’t tucked fearfully between his legs but stretched out, curling cutely near the end.
with only a whisper of hesitation, taehyung ran his fingers through jin’s hair, and was rewarded with a content, sleepy sigh.
-
taehyung brought him inside often after that; it was more than he knew he should, given their general approach to the hybrid and the shelter’s guidance, but jin was always so docile and unobtrusive that taehyung couldn’t imagine it doing anyone any harm. jin was still obedient even with his newfound indoor privileges. he was so well-behaved that they hadn’t had to punish him once, and they’d been on the lookout for reason. the shelter had told them that catching each infraction and reacting without mercy was the only way to keep wild dogs tame.
he worked from home much more than the others, and when he was home alone, he often brought jin in to keep him company. by now, taehyung could point out jin’s favorite throw pillow, his favorite sunny spot, his favorite paintings. he found himself incredibly proud that one of jin’s favorite places in the house was beside taehyung’s desk.
he pet jin’s hair absentmindedly as he worked, the hybrid kneeling beside his desk chair with his hands in his lap, eyes shut and ears relaxed against his head to give taehyung more space. he was precious like that, taehyung thought. he’d never wanted a dog, not really, but this one - taehyung couldn’t be upset at all the years of dog-ownership he missed out on, because it would have come at the risk of not owning this one.
taehyung smiled down at him just a moment more before going back to his work, a hand still threaded through jin’s hair. he felt jin move abruptly after a moment - the thunk of jin’s forehead hitting the desk and his accompanying yelp was the most noise taehyung had ever heard from him.
his first thought was ‘i should beat him for that.’ his second was ‘i really, really shouldn’t.’
“did you fall asleep?” he asked, low voice loud in the quiet room, though he was almost sure he could hear jin’s rabbit-fast heartbeat.
jin was shaking, he saw, limbs quivering even as he tried to hold them as still as possible. his ears were pressed flat against his head, his tail wrapped anxiously around his ass.
“it felt that good?” taehyung asked.
jin nodded once more after a beat.
taehyung tilted his head as he watched him for a moment before returning his hand to jin’s hair once more, very deliberately not reacting to jin’s frightened flinch. “careful to not hit your head again.”
he went back to work but was admittedly distracted by jin’s minute movements, the way he swayed under his touch for a moment before jerking into awareness, freezing and getting himself under control, only to start swaying again only a few minutes later.
taehyung huffed a laugh the third time jin dipped forward a tiny bit too much. he guided jin’s head with gentle insistence until it rested on his thigh. jin froze for a long while, even when taehyung started to pet his hair again. but eventually - taehyung heard the hesitant thumps of his tail against the wood floor.
taehyung had many successes in his life, and he’d be lying if he said this tiny gesture of trust wasn’t high among them.
-
it seemed that the temptation to have their hybrid by their sides didn’t only belong to taehyung. soon enough, it was rare to see jin on his chain. now, when taehyung wanted to seek him out, he had to check to see if he was out with namjoon in the garden, or if hoseok had asked him to help with dinner just to have the excuse of slipping him bites to see his tail wag. jimin had become fond of bathing him, of all things, making him soft and shiny and well-groomed. jungkook ran with him sometimes, just around the perimeter of their property. jin came remarkably close to winning whenever jungkook teased him with a sprint.
and sometimes he’d be curled up at yoongi’s feet, not entirely relaxed but safe.
he still feared yoongi more than anyone else, they could tell. it made sense. jin wasn’t trusted enough to see yoongi when he was soft and loving and lovable. jin saw him at ease, sometimes, with whiskey in hand and music playing and one of his partners leaning on his side, but even then, he had a certain set to his face that spoke of power, strength, seriousness.
it seemed, to all of them, that jin was still just a hybrid to yoongi. that was fine, they could only define their own relationships with the hybrid - taehyung and namjoon considered him a companion, jimin and jungkook considered him a beloved pet, a hoseok was even close to considering him a friend.
yoongi’s affections for his loved ones ran deep, his devotion to them ingrained in his bones. if jin wasn’t included in that count, it didn't really matter. yoongi wouldn’t hurt him if he didn’t have to, wouldn’t get rid of him considering how everyone adored him, would protect him to keep them all happy.
-
they had gathered in the sitting room on a frosty night, cuddling around the fire even though the house was well-heated. there was something cozy about it, something that filled jin with more belonging than he’d ever felt in his life.
he hadn’t slept in the shelter outside for months, and the howling wind outside made him all the more grateful. he’d been given access to the mud room at first, and the hard floor had been more comfortable than the dirt by far. then someone had left a plush dog bed for him, and that plus his beloved blanket seemed like pure luxury. but then his bed had been moved to the sitting room, then to taehyung’s office, then to his own bedroom where he’d been told he could sleep on the bed and use the suite bathroom and he was allowed to sneak down to the kitchen to have midnight snacks if he wanted.
but then, best of all, his dog bed was moved to the main bedroom and they only let him use it for a day before jungkook had pulled him up to cuddle at night. he was passed around to everyone but yoongi, given sweet kisses and nuzzles, and he had never had so much love in his life. he soaked it up, it overwhelmed him in the best way. he felt - loved. valued. wanted.
and now he saw it crashing down, crumbling before his very eyes.
“did you really attack your last master?” jungkook asked.
jin’s face went blank, his shy smile disappearing. he felt his heart sink into the realization that this was it, he was done, they would send him away. he’d touched happiness, and it didn’t belong to him. “yes.”
“you—what? really?”
“i was a bad dog,” jin said, almost a recitation. “i hurt her.”
“why?” namjoon asked.
jin was quiet for a moment. “i didn’t want to die.”
they were all quiet for a moment, leaving him to burn in the silence until hoseok slowly asked, “why would you have died?”
jin squeezed his eyes shut. he hadn’t wanted to die then, he clung desperately to life, scrambling for it with claws out and teeth bared. but it might have been better to give in, he thought, if only to avoid the feeling of goodness ripped out from under him once again, worse than ever before.
“i was being punished,” he said hollowly. “i didn’t want the leash around my throat.”
“you didn’t want to be collared?” namjoon asked.
jin shook his head, ears pressed tight to his hair. “i didn’t want to be choked. sh-she wanted to choke me.”
“what did you do?” jungkook asked. “what were you being punished for?”
“i broke a plate.”
“and?”
jin shook his head once. “just that.”
jin’s tears didn’t take him by surprise, but the helpless cries he let out did. he was used to holding himself together, thought he might have mastered it - but it started with just a few shakes of his shoulders, and within moments, wracking sobs shook him violently. he curled in on himself, hiding his face between his knees.
“don’t get rid of me,” he sobbed, begging, his desperation evident even with his face hidden away. “please, i’ll be good, i’ll go back outside a-and stop talking and n-never—i’ll never be bad again, ever, please—”
he jolted at the first touch to his shoulder, head jerking up, a panicked look in his eyes. jimin looked cautious, but not - scared, even though jin had just told him he was a bad dog, a violent mutt, a creature not worthy of their love.
“oh, jinnie,” jimin said quietly before hugging him from the side, tucking jin’s head into the crook of his shoulder. jin was frozen from the shock of it at first, then from the warmth, jimin’s clean scent encompassing him as much as his arms. “we’re not getting rid of you, puppy. not ever.”
jin let out a high pitched keen, a desperate whine, clinging onto jimin all at once, sobs coming up renewed as he hid his face in jimin’s soft sweater. jimin didn’t push him away or shove him off or tell him to pull himself together. instead, he rubbed jin’s back before reaching up, threading his fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck.
“t-too nice,” jin whined. he didn’t mean to say it, didn’t want them to take comfort away, but jimin only clicked his tongue and pressed a kiss to his hair.
“you deserve more kindness than we’ve given you, jinnie.”
a new body hugged him from his other side and jin was only just able to smell hoseok’s clean scent through his stuffed nose.
“you deserve more kindness than anyone has given you, i think,” hoseok muttered, kissing jin’s temple. “the world’s been too cruel, hasn’t it?”
“i was a bad dog,” jin felt the need to emphasize. he didn’t mean to try to convince them of it, he didn’t want them to beat him and chain him and send him to die, but he wouldn’t be able to handle them realizing the truth later, after being given comfort and kindness and a renewed sense of being wanted. it would hurt him now, it would destroy him later.
“she was a bad person,” jimin soothed. “she hurt you, jinnie.”
“our puppy just wanted to come home to us.”
yoongi’s voice was low, gravelly, and unexpected. jin startled a little, eyes going wide. he was drawn to him, had to look at him.
yoongi’s eyes were hard to read - dark and shielded, staring at him intensely. jin shirked back.
“if you hadn’t fought her off,” he continued, slow and deliberate, “you wouldn’t be here with us. you needed to come home, so you fought.”
jin furrowed his brows as his pupils shook but he couldn’t look away. “i-i—”
“jin,” yoongi said, leaning forward, elbows on his knees. “you could have killed her and i wouldn’t give a shit. you’re ours. you did whatever you needed to do to be ours. doesn’t matter if you knew it or not.”
jin whimpered.
“come,” yoongi said.
jin crawled to him, ears pressed to his head, tail hanging low between his legs. he stopped in front of yoongi, kneeling as properly as he could while he shook, unable to look away.
yoongi leaned in more, holding his gaze. “you’re ours, jin. and we take care of what’s ours. what’s the collar around your neck say, huh?”
“m-min.”
“that’s right. anyone who looks at you will know you’re ours. they’ll know you’re mine.” he tilted his chin up when jin didn’t speak. “aren’t you?”
jin nodded shakily.
“speak.”
“y-yes.”
“yes what?”
“yes, master. i-i’m yours.”
yoongi nodded once before cupping his cheek, rubbing his cheekbone with his thumb to soothe his flinch. “none of that master shit. call me by my name.”
jin’s eyes went wide once more. “sir?”
“what’s that?”
jin’s mouth opened and closed a few times, not able to fully latch on to a single letter for a moment. “y-yoongi.”
yoongi nodded again, satisfied. “good boy.”
-
jimin needed to take him to work.
their ‘work’ had previously been an ambiguous concept because they never really told him what they did and jin didn’t think it would be appropriate to ask even if he did care to know. he was content to wait for them by the door (sitting on a pillow now, because they didn’t want him to hurt his knees kneeling on the wood) and do what he could to cuddle away whatever stress they brought home (which he seemed to be able to do much better than he thought he’d be able to, because they always gave him scratches and pets and kisses and smiles so bright it made his eyes water).
but jimin needed to take him to work with him, and jin would do anything in the world for any of his masters. he sat in the front seat of jimin’s nice car and everything.
jimin had said 'yoongi-hyung has a question for you, baby, okay?’ and put a new, beautiful collar around his neck and dressed him nicely even though everything he’d worn up to that point was worn-in sweatshirts and track pants with holes cut for his tail - all a luxury after having spent most of his life chilly and nude.
jimin made him look pretty, gave him kisses when he was done, said ‘i’m so proud of you, so proud you’re ours, our sweet little jinnie’ and it made jin’s tail thump loud enough against the counter that jimin had laughed and kissed him all over again.
yoongi met them at the door of a relatively nice-looking office building, leaning on the wall with a frown on his face and a cigarette between his fingers.
“hyung,” jimin chided, but still greeted him with a kiss.
yoongi smiled thinly and put it out before giving jimin a brief kiss. his focus was entirely on jin after that, though. he pulled jin close by the hand before gripping the nape of his neck the way jin had told him he loved, that made him feel wanted and safe and secure. those feelings were multiplied billionfold when yoongi gently tugged his collar.
“jinnie,” yoongi said, voice low.
jin furrowed his brows, uneasiness prodding at him. “yoongi?”
“what does your collar say?”
jin's brows furrowed deeper. “min.”
yoongi nodded once. he took jin’s hand in his own, squeezing it comfortably. “come on, baby. i need you to tell me something.”
whatever jin expected, it wasn’t to see his former master tied to a chair in an empty office room.
he stared at her with wide eyes; he didn’t even realize he was trembling until jimin rubbed his back to calm him.
“do you know her, honey?” yoongi asked, voice gentle, hand still holding jin’s. jin nodded once. “is she the one who hurt you?”
jin felt it now. felt what they did. felt what was on the line.
he could say no and they wouldn’t believe him but they wouldn’t punish him, either. maybe they wouldn’t hurt her if he said no, but he thought that was likely not the case. he could say yes but and they would listen to him, would talk to him, would tell him exactly what they wanted to do to her. or he could say yes and she would feel a leash around her own throat the same way he’d felt it around his.
he stared at her, met her terrified eyes. her mouth wasn’t covered, but she wasn’t trying to speak to him, unsure if it would make her fate worse than it already was.
she’d hurt him for years. she’d beaten him down. she’d sent him off to die because she couldn’t kill him herself.
“yes,” he whispered.
yoongi squeezed his hand and stepped in front of him to block her view - or jin’s view of her, maybe, he wasn’t sure. yoongi kissed him softly, thumbing the back of his hand. “thank you, sweetheart. i’ll see you two at home, okay? take care of him, jimin-ah.”
“of course, hyung,” jimin said. his hand hadn’t left jin’s back, and jin didn’t want it to.
“love you both,” yoongi told them. a dismissal. he was already turning back to jin’s former mistress.
“love you, yoongi,” jin said quietly. he didn’t look back.
he let jimin lead them out of the building, jimin’s small fingers laced with jin’s crooked own. they met up with taehyung a while later and walked through a market. jimin wouldn’t rest until jin picked something out, and he ended up with a puppy plush held to his chest that he never wanted to let go. they had lunch with namjoon and jin sat at the table with them instead of kneeling under it. namjoon told him his puppy was nice, and let him take his scarf, wrapping it around jin's neck for him so he could nose into namjoon's scent more.
he was quiet for the rest of the day, and no one tried to coax him out of it. he could feel their worried glances every so often, and he was careful to not flinch from their reassuring touches. they didn’t know how to handle him like this, he realized - but when he jerked to look at them all at once, fearful that they might think he’d hurt them, that he was being unpredictable and wrong, he was met with concerned eyes and loving smiles and head pats. they didn’t know how to handle him, but he was still theirs. he was still their good dog.
it was only yoongi coming home that broke through the fog. he ran as soon as he heard yoongi come through the door, his deep voice calling out “i’m home,” the same as it did each evening. yoongi just barely caught him when jin launched himself into his arms, holding him close, nosing his neck with the simultaneous need to comfort and calm and claim, and to be comforted and calmed and claimed in turn.
“thank you,” he whispered, just for him.
yoongi shook his head and held him closer. “anything in the world for you, jin. you’re ours.”