The guild was eerily silent when Hui Qi, Baekhyun and Chanyeol returned that afternoon.  Hui Qi entered first, quickly scanning the common room before silently heading off towards the kitchen.  Baekhyun skipped in after her, completely satisfied with the way their expedition turned out.  He reached the middle of the room before noticing that the last member of their entourage hadn’t made it through the door yet.

“Oi Chanyeol!  Hurry up!  I want to change out of these filthy clothes and start wearing the latest trends!” exclaimed Baekhyun happily.  He watched as Chanyeol clumsily stumbled into the room, his vision almost blocked by the stack of boxes in his arms that threatened to fall because his arms were also weighed down by multiple shopping bags.  Chanyeol ended up being the one to carry the bags because Baekhyun would never carry them, as he was a spoiled brat, and Baekhyun insisted Chanyeol listen to him because he bought Chanyeol’s so-called “expensive” clothes.

Chanyeol moved right to where Baekhyun was waiting and plopped the boxes and shopping bags right at his feet.  Too tired to retort anything back, Chanyeol decided to leave Baekhyun with his “fabulous and trend setting” clothes.  When he shut his eyes and fell onto the couch, Chanyeol was not expecting his to contact such hard cushions.  

“Man, Hui Qi’s got a crappy couch,” he muttered to himself, not noticing the grunt that escaped the “couch” when it got sat upon.

“Excuse you, but I am not a ing couch,” a deep voice muffled back in response.  At first, Chanyeol didn’t react, his brain not processing the sentence fast enough.  When Chanyeol’s tired mind finally registered the voice, he shot up and tumbled to the floor in fear, screaming, “TALKING COUCH?”

Removing himself from the confines of the couch (it now had an indent of his body), Kris sarcastically retorted, “No, I’m a genie here to grant your wishes.”  He rolled his eyes and turned his back towards Chanyeol, trying to remember why he was sleeping on the couch when something stopped him from moving away.  

Looking behind him, Kris saw that Chanyeol had grabbed onto his foot and was now staring at him with wide, sparkling eyes.  Wait, what the fu- … DON’T TELL ME HE ACTUALLY -

“Oh my gosh!  You grant wishes?” blurt out Chanyeol.  He ranted on, “I could use a lifetime’s supply of food, but wait, no, I can’t just be making wishes - I only have three of them right? - so I need to be making smart decisions here; I’ve got to figure out a way to maximize this opportunity…”  Now ignoring Kris while still clutching his ankle tightly, Chanyeol kept discussing his three wishes with himself until he felt a flick on his forehead.

Kris was now crouching right in front of him with an amused face.  While he was annoyed that Chanyeol was hindering his movement, fooling Chanyeol into thinking that Kris was a genie was crazy hilarious.  

“Slow down there, Chanyeol.  I admit, I can only grant three wishes.  However, you don’t have to obsess about this now.  I’ll give you some time to figure out what you want, agreed?  Then whenever you feel like it, you can confide your wishes to me and I’ll grant them.  How’s that for a sweet deal?” offered Kris, a smirk tugging at his lips at how much fun he was having pranking the naïve vagabond.

Baekhyun, having not decided what to wear yet, had been eavesdropping on their entire conversation.  Perking up when Kris confirmed his identity, Baekhyun switched motives and moved to stand beside Kris.  “Alright then, genie!  You should have no qualms granting my wishes then!  Everyone gets three wishes, correct?”  When he heard Baekhyun’s eager voice intrude in on their conversation, Kris instantly regretted playing along with Chanyeol.  He could take deceiving Chanyeol, but having Baekhyun constantly bugging him as well would be a pain in the .

While Kris was being pestered by both Chanyeol and Baekhyun, Joonmyeon and Yixing arrived, groceries in hand.  Walking in, Joonmyeon glanced over at the slight commotion and noticed the exasperated look on Kris’ face.  Figuring the two kids were stressing Kris out, Joonmyeon quickly dropped the groceries off in the kitchen before coming out to chastise them.  Somehow, Joonmyeon refocused Baekhyun on his new clothes while convincing Chanyeol to amuse himself with… whatever.

When he was finally let go, Kris flopped back onto the couch, even more tired than when he was rudely woken up from his nap.  Kris stared at Joonmyeon as he kept both Chanyeol and Baekhyun occupied, his eyes softening into a loving gaze.  Damn… I feel like Joonmyeon would make such a good mother…

A familiar voice suddenly spoke into his ear, startling him.  “Hm… so you really think that?”  Kris turned back to see Hui Qi right behind him with a slight smirk on her face.  He scooted to the end of the couch, trying to move as far away from Hui Qi as possible because he didn’t want to get caught in her newest wicked scheme.

Now sitting an arm’s length away from where Hui Qi stood behind the couch, Kris composed himself and replied, “Think what?”

“That Joonmyeon would be the perfect mother.”  

Kris’ eyes widened.  He hadn’t realized that he articulated his thoughts just then until Hui Qi brought it up.  He turned his head away from Hui Qi, trying to conceal his blush once more.  He realized it was no use when he heard the snap of pictures being taken, and he lowered his head in embarrassment.   this .  I bet Hui Qi has loads of blackmail on me by now.  Why did I decide to join again…

“Yep.  I do have lots of blackmail, Kris.  It’s totally your fault though,” declared Hui Qi, now done with her newest collection of photos.  Kris’ fingers intertwined behind the nape of his neck, now troubled when he realized that Hui Qi had once again responded to his supposed thoughts.  Am I speaking my thoughts aloud?  Or is Hui Qi’s Elucian power that of mind reading?

“Who knows, Kris.  Who knows.”  With this, Kris decided there and then that Hui Qi probably had the rare Elucian power of reading minds.  He then heaved a huge sigh when he realized that meant that Hui Qi pretty much had full control of his actions.  

While Hui Qi tapped away on her phone, she remembered her reason for coming over to Kris (teasing him is just a hobby).  “Kris, did you fix anything today?  I heard you dragged Sehun and Tao with you to get materials.  Since you were decked on the couch when we came back, I’m assuming you finished?” she inquired, waiting for a confirmation from the man himself.

Realizing that he didn’t completely finish the job, he responded nervously, “Yea, the stairs are fixed.”  He didn’t exactly lie; he did fix the stairs.  However, that was the only thing Kris decided to fix.  He completely forgot about Yixing’s door and hadn’t realized it until now.

Bored, Hui Qi responded, “That’s good.  Time for a test run.”  Kris looked up, not ready for Hui Qi’s verdict on his poor craftsmanship.  He opened his mouth to stop her, but was cut off by a shout.

“Hey Tao, Food’s ready.  If you don’t come down in 5, say bye to your dinner!”  Kris winced at her volume, hoping the stairs would be able to hold Tao as he scrambled down them.  Since Kris had joined Mirage, it seemed that nothing ever went his way.  This day was just like any other.

From where they were, Tao could be heard falling from the bed and hitting the floor with a loud thud.  Soon, thunderous stomps neared the stairs.  Coming down was Tao, although he quickly disappeared from plain sight.

Kris looked on and mumbled, “Not again.”  He suddenly felt a familiar lurch in his stomach, however, not as strong as the previous time.

“Why does my stomach feel so queasy…” complained a muffled Chanyeol.  He held his hand over his mouth, trying to keep his reflexes at bay.  Joonmyeon looked at Chanyeol in worry, obviously not understanding situation as he felt completely fine (Joonmyeon was used to this kind of exposure to power).

Leaning back onto the couch, Hui Qi questioned, “How long this time, Tao?”

“Only 45 minutes…  Is that an improvement from last time?” asked Tao.  He only received a shrug from Hui Qi, prompting him to wonder what the answer to his question was.

“Well, anyways.  Kris,” Hui Qi turned towards Kris with a satisfied grin, “looks like you have to accept Baekhyun now.  Oh, and make sure your things are packed by 10 am tomorrow.  We’re gonna head out to the our new guild!”  She ended her announcement by raising her voice level, prompting Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Tao to cheer at the prospect of moving away from the lonely shack of theirs.

Flabbergasted, Kris questioned, “W-wait.  How do you have a place even before you knew of the results of my labor?”  As far as he was concerned, the earliest they’d be moving was maybe a day after his attempted failure.

“Well, Baekhyun convinced me that change was necessary for our guild Mirage to thrive.  Therefore, we went scouting today and came back just in time to see your failure of a fix,” answered Hui Qi, content with the progress she and Baekhyun had made.  “And man is it good to see your struggles exemplified!” exclaimed Hui Qi, cackling at Kris’ defeated expression.

After the laughter died down, Tao tried to remember the reason why he came down in the first place.  

“So Hui Qi, where’s food?”

A/N:  I feel like we're just bullying Krease XD  whoops...  Guess Mirage is gonna move out to the big city now!  Hope you enjoyed this chapter and we'll seeya next week!

You know, sometimes I get genuinely worried about how Chanyeol's mind works in this fic, but meh.