Four days later, it rained again. The misty weather of late summer came in Yunho's favour as he took a taxi to his favourite Chinese place and ordered various sorts of dumplings and a big bowl of sweet and sour noodles. Cradling the heavenly package in his lap, he rode back to the shop and hurried through the door doused in a foggy haze.

"I'm here with food," Yunho called as he put his umbrella down. A meow answered him from inside, then San came sneaking over on his grey paws. He rubbed up against Yunho's leg, begging him for pets, and Yunho wasn't one to refuse. While he tickled under San's chin and relished in the cat's purrs, his eyes searched the shop for Mingi.

The naga hovered in the corner, pushing himself up on his tail to stand taller than usual. Two of his hands balanced his weight on the wall, the other two were busy watering the flowers hanging from their pots. Their deep green leaves rustled with contentment at the pleasant shower.

Yunho treaded into the store, careful not to step where Mingi's thick tail spread across the floor. The naga threw a smile over his shoulder clad in a brown sweater today that matched the season. He wore dainty golden bracelets on all four of his wrists, and they complimented his skin and the bright ventral side of his tail.

Yunho made a mental reminder that Mingi wore jewellery. It might come in handy.

"I brought your dumplings," Yunho grinned as he placed the bag on the desk. Now, Mingi lowered his watering can. His stretched body sunk into itself, tail curving as he descended towards the ground to hover at Yunho's height. While Yunho dug through his pockets, Mingi left his can on the counter to inspect the bag of food that already filled the parlour with a mouth-watering scent.

"Noodles, as well? I owe you."

"It's on me, enjoy it."

A warm smile lingered on Mingi's lips as he distributed the food across the table. When his finger caught some sauce, he licked it off with plush lips and a pink tongue.

"Here, I also have this. It's a broken locket my grandma gave to me as a child. The mechanism got stuck with the years of use and I have been unable to open it ever since. You can have it if you want to tinker with it."

Yunho thoroughly enjoyed watching Mingi work. The serenity of his face when he took apart some ancient sundries took all the stress of his day from his shoulders. Only whatever tiny brass he fiddled with counted at that moment. His nimble fingers cradling the filigree tools always sent a tug of something through Yunho's guts, making life a bit more exciting.

Chewing on his dumpling with full cheeks, Mingi opened his hand for Yunho to dangle the necklace inside. A careful nail nudged at the jammed hinge.

Once he had gulped his bite down, Mingi nodded his chin at the necklace.

"This isn't from here."

Sheepish, Yunho ducked his head. He was afraid to be outed all too soon.

"I know. I thought you might want to keep it for the store. So long as it works, of course."

Mingi's gaze on Yunho's face was unreadable. Yunho prayed his ears didn't blush to give him away as he kept his expression a mask of indifference.

"Thank you, Yunho. I will repair it later."

A weight dropped off Yunho's shoulders. Playing off his tension, Yunho took a dumpling himself. He left most to Mingi, aware of the man's hunger and the skinny lines of his body underneath his wide sweaters. The naga relished his every bite, not one to gobble food like his earthbound kin was.

For a while, they shared the food in mutual bliss. Yunho kept sneaking glances at Mingi and utter satisfaction at seeing him cherish the food he had brought filled his chest. Mingi used his upper right hand to eat, as the lower ones were tucked closer to his body and used for his more elaborate tasks.

Yunho wondered if there were baby pictures of him around. When he imagined a small Mingi with four arms crawling across the floor and dragging his tail behind him on the chase for a ball, warmth filled his heart. On the other hand, since Mingi was captive hatched, few people could have been around to watch him grow up and take pictures of him.

"So... Are you a venomous snake?"

An amused glint took over Mingi's eyes. When he placed one elbow on the edge of the table to lean upon it coyly, Yunho gulped down his bite, afraid he would choke on it if Mingi looked at him like that.

"Do you think I am?"

Yunho wondered if this was a flirtatious question to ask. Could snakes poison each other? Or did it have an effect of a different kind on them?

Unsure, since he wasn't versed in the types of snakes, Yunho trailed his eyes down Mingi's tail. He couldn't tell if any outer hint gave away his inclination to carry poison. At least, Yunho hadn't seen fangs on him. And he had spent a regrettable amount of time staring at Mingi's mouth already.

Who could blame him? It was a beautiful mouth, especially when closing around food.

"I, um, I'm not sure. What type of snake are you?" Yunho prayed it was something obvious enough as an anaconda or a boa so he could show off his knowledge of biology.

"I'm a ring-necked snake. Not that you could recognise me as such, since my neck is my upper body."

Yunho nodded along wisely, pretending that answer cleared his questions.

Picking up on the lingering confusion in Yunho's eyes, Mingi's smile broadened.

"I have no venom glands," he added.

Yunho breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't assume Mingi wished to bite him, but he was glad to know the naga was peaceful in body and soul.

"However, my saliva has a numbing effect on my prey. In regular snakes of my kind, it's too little to hurt a human..." He trailed off and Yunho finished the thought.

"But a person your size produces enough to paralyse an approximately human-sized mammal?"

Mingi's grin was angelic. He pondered the dumpling between his chopsticks, limp as it could get, even without his venom.

"Snakes with venom glands have control of when to use it, but I can't help but put it on anything my lips touch. It's not deadly, though. Just enough to make someone feel woozy and weak in the knees. Enough for me to use it as a distraction for a kill if I so pleased."

Though the story of venom in Mingi's mouth at all times was terrifying, Yunho nodded in fascination.

"What else is different with you than a regular snake? Or similar?"

Mingi mulled over it, eating subconsciously as Yunho pushed the rest of the dumplings over to him.

"I also burrow and I like to build nests to preserve warmth. In winter, I am lethargic, though I don't hibernate. I also shed." He trailed his hand over his tail as if to check if that would come up anytime soon. His skin smoothed over the scales.

Yunho's curiosity didn't go unnoticed. As soon as the naga tilted his head at him, he knew he had been caught.

"Do you want to touch?"

Back in the day, Yunho would have refused. He had no interest in the slippery smooth feel of a snake, as he found it repelling at most.

Now, however, half of the person attached to said snake was a beautiful man with elegant hands, and Yunho confessed his intrigue.

"If you don't mind?"

"I'm not averse to touch. Humans are warm," was Mingi's reply. He brought his tail closer, coiling it around Yunho's chair so he could reach out for a feel.

As expected, the scales under his fingers had no ridges and blended into each other like glass. They rippled with each tug of Mingi's powerful muscles, and the lively body of the snake pulsed in tandem with the naga's heartbeat.

Fascinated, Yunho ran his fingers over him, mapping out once more just how much of him there was.

Mingi didn't react to the touch other than an approving hum. Before Yunho could attempt to wrap his arms around Mingi's tail and see if they could reach, he pulled back. The foreign but pleasant feeling of the naga's scales lingered in his tingling fingers.

"Is it typical to have four arms as a naga?" Yunho wanted to divert the attention from the matter of the nest. Whenever he thought about it, an irrational hatred for the people who had erected this building ignorant of the home they buried beneath made his blood boil. He didn't doubt that the many years spent imprisoned for no good reason had worn on Mingi's sanity and patience.

"Some have two, some have four, some have six. It's genetic." Mingi laid his chopsticks down when the last dumpling throned alone in the middle of the box. He pushed it over to Yunho, beckoning at it.

Yunho picked up his chopsticks and divided the dumpling in the middle. He stuck one half into his mouth and grinned at Mingi when he nudged the other half over to him.

Since two could play that game, Mingi divided the dumpling another time. He ate a quarter, offering the other one to Yunho.

"Oh, come on," Yunho huffed, fond of their game. At his feet, San purred in sleep as he dreamed about Wooyoung.

With his tongue tucked between his teeth, Yunho divided the dumpling once more. It fell apart at this point and remained in sad pieces, but he managed. Proudly, he presented Mingi with the rest.

Mingi grabbed it with his chopsticks without another struggle for parting the halves. With a satisfied sigh at their little game, Yunho sat back.

However, Mingi's chopsticks didn't go to his mouth. They came to Yunho and a gentle hand seized his jaw to have him open up. In his surprise, Yunho complied, and this little fraction of a dumpling tasted better than all the others.

Mingi removed his chopsticks. His eyes lingered on Yunho's chewing lips with satisfaction.

"Thank you for the meal," the naga hummed before he removed himself.

Somehow, tension lingered between them in the air. Yunho had to avert his gaze when he gulped. His efforts to charm Mingi didn't go unnoticed, but he was bashful now that he got the same attention back. After all, Mingi was unlike the cute people that Yunho usually flirted with and who tucked right into their niche against his chest.

Mingi retreated behind his counter and tugged the drawer open to access his tools. After Yunho had cleaned up the food boxes, he lingered for a while, still having time to spare he would rather spend there than alone in his dark home. Every drop of rain reminded him of Mingi and he often laid awake at night pondering what the man was doing as the water ran down the glass of his windows.

It didn't take Mingi long to coax the squeaking hinge of the locket open. He levered his screwdriver lightly, breaking through the heart-shaped stubbornness of Yunho's pendant.

"Oh?" He asked as two small pictures met him, both yellowed with age as the sole colour in the black and white frames. Yunho hadn't seen those pictures in years, and bashfulness filled him when Mingi gazed upon them.

"Ah. My grandparents. I couldn't take them out of there even when they told me to use the necklace for my heart's precious. A fond memory."

Mingi adjusted the crooked screw holding the hinge shut and tapped it with grease. His polishing rag brought a new shine to the locket worn by countless touches. Awed by his ease and joy with his work, Yunho watched his four hands move.

As soon as he was done, he reached for Yunho's hand. It opened on instinct and Mingi sunk the necklace inside it like the dangling tail of a snake. Once he was done, he closed Yunho's fist around it.

"Take it with you. It's too precious of a memory to you to get rid of yet."

Softened by those words, Yunho accepted.

"Fine. Though I wish to bring something here, so you may tell a story about me with the same fondness as you do with these other sundries."

Mingi gave him a mysterious smile.

"I believe what you will leave here might be the most memorable of stories I ever tell. Have a good trip home, Yunho. See you soon."

Though puzzled by his ominous words, Yunho thanked him. When he left the shop, the scent of chamomile tea seemed to cling to his fingertips where he had touched Mingi.