There was something... off about Felix.
Even around Minho, whom he'd become well acquainted with over the past couple of weeks, he was eerily quiet. He hardly ever spoke, and when he did, he would stumble over his words, stuttering out a string of words and phrases with few (if any) complete sentences. Whenever you or Minho spoke to him, he'd often stare at you blankly, before asking you to repeat yourselves, as if he didn't understand you. You were inclined to believe that this was because of his life as a stray, like maybe he'd never been taught to speak properly, but this wasn't the only thing about him that put you off.
In addition to his odd speech habits, the cat hybrid's voice was exceptionally deep. So deep that, when he'd first spoken to you, you hadn't even realized that it was him. But when you'd looked around to find the source of the unfamiliar voice and only Felix was there, you'd realized that it was him who had spoken to you. He mispronounced a lot of his words, and sometimes he would say things you didn't understand in the middle of his "sentences". When the four of you were together, chatting about whatever the topic was that day, it was common for him to drop out of the conversation altogether.
No matter how many angles you looked at it from, you just couldn't wrap you head around his strange behavior, or more importantly, how to fix it. You didn't know how to teach the Korean language to someone who struggled to speak; you thought about showing him some videos for teaching younger children online, but you didn't know how to bring it up. After all, even though the two hybrids had gotten more comfortable with your new living situations, things were still awkward between the four of you. And besides that, Chan was still extremely protective over Felix, so you worried that trying to butt into their personal matters would piss him off.
On the subject of Chan, the wolf hybrid's reaction to Minho was the complete opposite of Felix's. He hated it whenever Minho came over, growling and mumbling under his breath. He'd watch Minho's every move as if he were some kind of threat, and if he tried to approach Felix first, Chan would start growling even louder than before. He did the same to you if you made any sudden movements, so you learned not to bother the two hybrids if they didn't come to you first. Minho, however, was braver than you were, and often ignored the wolf hybrid's threats - in fact, he seemed to find entertainment in annoying the wolf, so most of the time, Chan's growls only encouraged him to continue his actions.
It was just the beginning of December, and even though you turned the heater on in your apartment, the freezing cold temperatures from outside still managed to seep through into your home. You'd bought the two hybrids lots of warm clothing and blankets, but some days even that wasn't enough to stop you from feeling cold.
It was this that lead to your first real breakthrough with the two hybrids.
You were working on wrapping up the final chapters of your comic, staying up late into the night just to get things done. You kept drawing and redrawing the panels, desperate to have an absolutely perfect finale for one of your proudest works. While you drilled through your work like this, dragging your tablet over to your bed so that you could bundle up in blankets and pillows, the hybrids entertained themselves in some way or another out in your living room. However, after a while, they exhausted one another (cats did sleep frequently, after all), and Minho came to join you in your bed. At first, he tried to steal a glance at your work, but when you chastised him for it, he smiled tiredly at you before climbing underneath your pile of pillows and blankets and resting his head on your lap, cuddling up to you as he sought warmth.
It took some time before you were finally satisfied with your project, working tirelessly throughout the days, but Minho's midday cuddles always made your frustration a bit more bearable. It was on the evening of the fourth and final day of your workathon, after Minho had left for the evening, when Felix poked his head through the door and watched you curiously. Truth be told, you were so focused on your work that you didn't even notice him until he was crawling underneath your blankets and settling into the spot previously occupied by Minho. Surprised, because the only one who ever cuddled with you was Minho and you'd thought that he had already gone home, you were shocked when you looked down to find not Minho but Felix's head on your stomach, arms wrapped around your thigh as his eyes roamed the tablet in front of you. You were so shocked that you forgot to pull it away from him, but then again if he didn't speak well, he probably didn't read well either, and that aside you doubted he knew the characters or story anyway.
You didn't know what to say or do, as you hadn't expected him to come and cuddle you out of nowhere - all you could do was stare at him in shock, before the situation finally registered in your brain, and you said, "Why...?"
"It's warm," He mumbled sleepily. "Chan is... not... bed..." he frowned as he tried to formulate a proper sentence.
"Chan's not in your bed for you to cuddle?"
He squinted his eyes thoughtfully, trying to process your sentence. "Y-Yeah..." He seemed uncertain of himself as he said this, before adding, "It's warm here."
You nodded, before turning your attention back to your tablet. Despite your initial shock, you quickly became used to his presence there, falling into a comfortable silence as your focus realigned with your work. You were so used to Minho doing the same thing that you eventually forgot he was even there, working for several more hours while Felix watched you draw. Some time later, you finished the final chapter, only to look down and find Felix fast asleep in your lap. You glanced out the window to find that the outside world was now pitch black, and the time on your clock showed 11:06pm.
"I don't think Chan will be happy when he finds you here," you said quietly to the sleeping hybrid, unaware of the fact that the wolf hybrid had already entered and left the room hours ago.
You set your tablet on your bedside table and watched Felix as he slept, quickly becoming lost in your thoughts. He and Chan both were complete mysteries to you. You didn't know anything about them, and it left you with so many questions, most of them being about Felix. What made him "defective"? Why couldn't he speak well? How did a stray have a name when Chan, who had in fact had owners before you, didn't? Had he known any other hybrids on the streets or had he been forced to face the world on his own? Why were he and Chan so attached to each other? Why did Chan not only feel threatened by humans, but by hybrids too? And why did they both seem so...
Sad.
You had only ever really known one hybrid in your life, and that hybrid was Minho. But before ever moving into your apartment and meeting the cat hybrid, you'd known several neighbors and coworkers with hybrids whom you'd met once or twice. The one thing that they all seemed to have in common - every stray, pet, and service hybrid you'd ever met - was that they all seemed to be incredibly sad. Maybe that was why you had avoided them for so long; the first hybrid you'd ever seen truly smile had been Minho, but even he sometimes held a mournful and forlorn look in his eyes, as if he were longing for something you couldn't identify. Was it because of the abuse they received from humans? The way that they were looked down on and treated like animals?
It was that night, as you watched Felix sleeping soundly in your lap, that you made up your mind. You would do anything to prove to yourself that a hybrid can be happy with their life, and you would do so through the two hybrids that you were now responsible for. Somehow, someway, you would see their smiles. You would find a way to make them happy and comfortable living here with you. So far, you'd only avoided them, afraid to cross their boundaries, but going forward you decided that you were going to push them out of their comfort zones and show them what kind of a place the world could be. If you tried hard enough, then maybe, just maybe, you would be able to see what a hybrid looked like when they were happy. And it was this promise that lulled you to sleep.
You didn't know it then, but later you would realize that this was a beautiful sight, and it would only cause further determination to spur within you.
