Only human

"Take a look in the mirror

And what do you see?"

The man sitting on the throne watched indifferently with his fist propped on his cheek as the boy who had been lying on the ground before was placed on his knees and forced to lower his head. A woman's scream was painfully hitting my temples - the boy's sister, trying to escape from the guards' hands, was twitching and almost shrieking because she couldn't help her brother, then she fell to the ground and howled, realising for a few seconds that everything was over for them. Truth be told, the story was really only supposed to be over for the guy. The girl's only fault was her kinship with the intruder. It was only because of that that she was to be next. The ruler knew this. He knew perfectly well that the girl had nothing to do with it. But still he watched in silence, looking down from above at the way the blade was slowly brought over her brother's head and then lowered with a whistle onto the boy's tanned neck. The girl screamed loudly, tearfully. To her, her brother's death was far worse than her own impending demise. The ruler would probably never forget her trembling, broken voice and the look of her childishly wide-open eyes, now filled with tears and ready to burn the whole world to the ground, starting with the man who had ordered her brother's head blown off his shoulders for breaking the rules of the palace. — ...Kka! Sam Kka! - It took a couple of seconds to come back to reality. It took a few seconds to come back to reality. Raven was shaken violently by his shoulders, not stopping calling until he was able to pull him out of the unpleasant, bone-crunching and frightening dream. — Stop shouting... - Sam Kka mumbled, all six copper eyes squinting against the rays of the dawn sun beating through the curtains and trying to twist himself out of the strong hands of the demon who wouldn't stop pulling on his shoulders, - and don't call me like that. — You're awake at last! - You started breathing so loudly and frequently in your sleep that you woke me up. And the feathers again... Another nightmare? With a heavy sigh, the man finally cracked open one pair of eyes and immediately stared at the traditionally half-naked tiger staring at him, embarrassed. Sang Ho was almost seriously frightened. Even though three hundred and sixty years ago, he would have gladly used his own claws to rip out the eyes of a lower-ranked demon if not for the timely arrival of Jin Wu. How uneasy was he, the raven, that his partner had violated his personal space for the first time in seventy years of the arrangement, bursting into the room before the agreed upon nine in the morning and waking him up? — Shit, can you answer something?! Are you sure you're awake? Look, they're still flying! — Without waiting for a reply or any other intelligible reaction, Sang Ho nudged the raven's shoulder with his palm and nodded his head to the side. Sam Kka slowly shifted his gaze in the indicated direction and felt a chill go down his spine. From beneath the wide sleeves of his dark hanbok, black and white feathers were falling out before his eyes, crumbling onto the bed and floor and flying into the air. Unlike usual, this time he didn't feel any better after waking up - both from the pathological moult that hadn't stopped and from the heavy sleep his brain couldn't recover quickly. The demon was visibly slowing down. Slowly returning his head to a steady position, the man looked at his partner, who was barely restraining his raging emotions, with two pairs of alternately blinking eyes, and gathered his uncontrollable mixed thoughts into a single sentence: — What was I doing? — Breathing. I remembered our agreement, and I tolerated it, but when I heard the feathers started to fall, I couldn't help myself. Sang Ho looked excited, depressed and embarrassed at the same time. For these seventy years, he had indeed faithfully honoured the terms of their life together and did not barge into another's room as if it were his own, at least as long as the raven was asleep. So Sam Kka had a rough idea of how frightened his partner was that he had broken the ban and woke him up. The tiger was staring dumbly at the bed from one knee to the other, not knowing how to show his anxiety even more clearly. But he didn't need to - Sam Kka was more concerned about the feathers that kept falling, though in smaller quantities. But a half-naked guy in uncomfortable proximity was just annoying. — Listen, - in any other situation the raven would have kicked Sang Ho out of the door long ago, but now it was impossible to look at the tiger without pain, which made it hard to be habitually cold-blooded, - I appreciated your gesture, but now everything is normal, so you can already... Well, go to bed. To your room. — But the feathers… — There's a lot less of them,— Sam Kka twitched the sleeve of his right arm to prove his point, which immediately sprinkled feathers from the bottom layer like a pillow from the last century. Yes, the body was clearly not on his side. Seeing the fierce moulting of his partner, the guy shook his head and sat down on the other's bed, crossing his legs in a meditation pose, even more steadily, hinting unequivocally that he was not going anywhere. — Sang Ho…— Raven sighed, holding back the urge to roll his eyes. — Yes? Water? Or open a window? — Get out. — No way. When, twenty minutes later, the tiger finally gave in to the "entreaties" of the man who had almost covered him in swear words, Sam Kka, having made sure that the door closed with a click behind his sluggishly crawling partner, exhaled heavily and pulled the collar of his clothes open with a sharp gusty movement. His whole body was soaked and burning, and a drop of sweat that had been held back all this time was slowly rolling down his temple. His hands were shaking, whether from anger at the restless tiger or from a restless sleep, and his hands were shaking badly and missed repeatedly as he tried to open the nightstand and pull out a small pocket mirror. A couple of minutes later, his fingers grasped the thin handle. In the reflection, Sam Kka was staring at a man in his thirties, with bruises under three pairs of copper-coloured eyes and terribly pale skin. And yet he wasn't even alive. However, despite the unhealthy appearance, to say the least, it was still him. There was no hint of the demonic patterns on his face, only on the wrist and index finger of his left hand, and his eyes did not glow with the desire to slash and kill every first person he met. After sitting for a while and looking silently into his reflection, the man nodded to himself with a note of satisfaction and, exhaling to even out his breathing, put away the "sedative mirror" and turned sideways. Nine o'clock was still a few hours away, and he needed to sleep. Sleep was not coming, however. His body and mind had calmed a little, but no amount of effort could make him relax enough to fall asleep. The girl's scream still echoed in his ears. Sam Kka didn't hear the click of the door opening. Perhaps because he was concentrating on relaxing, or perhaps the infiltrator had deliberately turned the knob almost silently. The demon only realised his roommate's presence in the room when a large head with soft, almost silky fur slid smoothly under his arm. Sighing quietly, the raven started to draw air into his lungs to chase the annoying tiger away, but then another maiden's cry was interrupted by a much more pleasant deep youthful voice: — I had a nightmare,— Sang Ho used his ability to communicate without words almost exclusively in animal form. It was also because the voice of a stranger sounded muffled in his thoughts, so that it was easier to hide his emotions, - Let me sleep here, and you pretend that there is a crumpled plaid next to me. — ...Okay. Only the plaid partner didn't look like a plaid even with all the desire. Even though they had been dead for centuries, their bodies could still function like the living - they could eat, freeze, or feel hot. They had heartbeats just like living people. Each one had a different one. Sam Kka's hearing wasn't even three times as good as Sang Ho's, but even without that, the raven could tell that the guy's heart was beating much faster than his own. Even sleeping, the tiger's whole body was as if warmer. The soft, smooth blue fur slid pleasantly between the demon's fingers, and the man waited until his partner's breathing evened out and gently stroked his head, being careful not to touch the sensitive ears. Touching the tiger with his hands was much more pleasant than with his bird-shaped paws. Lazily thinking that this activity was quite meditative, Sam Kka closed his eyes relaxed, not noticing how with each passing minute he was sinking into the soft velvet of dreamless oblivion under the soft purr of his partner. And about ten minutes after the crow had finally fallen asleep, the tiger, who had strained all his wits for the sake of a completely uncontactable mate, quietly exhaled with relief and smiled feline-like, so warmly that his long whiskers tickled his fluffy cheeks. I mean, totally bald crows must be ugly, and they're cold too, right?