“,” Kyungsoo muttered under his breath. “.”

Babysitting his nephews wasn’t supposed to be this difficult-Jongin and Sehun were perfect angels whenever their parents were around, and when Kyungsoo had first met them, they practically had halos hovering around their heads.

But boy oh boy, he couldn’t have been more wrong.

Sehun was running in wild, erratic circles as he drove his imaginary car into the sofa, the tv, the table-literally any solid object in the room.  He made loud vroom, vroom, crash sounds that grated on Kyungsoo’s ears, making his headache even worse. It didn’t help that Jongin was screaming at the top of his lungs too, crying that his parents didn’t love him because they left him with “stupid Kyungsoo-hyung” who forgot to bring the goddamn Oreos. 

“ALRIGHT,” he screeched over the noise. Surprised, Sehun and Jongin immediately fell silent. Kyungsoo rarely ever got angry at them, despite how much they drove him insane. But the spell was broken when Jongin said tactlessly, “Hyung, you sound like a girl.”

The two of them cackled at him and Kyungsoo felt like smashing his head into the wall.

“Shut up, Kim Jongin,” he said, suddenly exhausted. Jongin’s face scrunched up and he began to wail again, while Sehun hid tiny fits of giggles behind his hand.

“Honestly, the two of you-no wonder all the other babysitters quit. I should just tell your parents I can’t do this anymore-“

Sehun instantly turned serious and grabbed Kyungsoo’s sleeve. “Hyung, please…We didn’t like any of the other babysitters, they were all so mean.” 

“Yeah, hyung, none of them bought us Oreos or watched Spiderman with us, we don’t want you to go,” Jongin begged him, his eyes going wide as saucers and suddenly forgetting all about Kyungsoo’s harsh reprimand from earlier. The twins tugged on his fingers, mouths downturned in adorable pouts that Kyungsoo couldn’t resist. 

“Idiots,” he huffed. “Come on, we’re going to get some of your ty Oreos.”

“…What does 'ty' mean, hyung?” Sehun asked innocently.

“…Nothing. Don’t say that word. In fact, forget it ever came out of my mouth.”

“But it did come out of your mouth-“

“No, it absolutely did not. Now let’s go, or you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for Oreos.”

That finally shut them up.

***

It was a while before Kyungsoo had finally wrestled the twins into the car and headed for the grocery store. He knew this probably wasn’t the smartest idea and that the twins would probably end up stocking their cart with ice cream and cookies that he couldn’t afford, but he didn’t think he could have endured another minute of Jongin’s constant complaints. The grocery store itself was an easy place to lose the twins, but hopefully he could grab the Oreos and get out before everything went to hell. He rubbed his forehead furiously as he pulled Jongin and Sehun out of the car, ordering them to stay close and watch the cart. Surprisingly, they agreed, and the trip went easier than expected. Kyungsoo was confused, but delighted, and he bought them ice creams afterward. 

What he hadn’t realized was that Sehun and Jongin were much more intelligent than they let on, and they had finally noticed how Kyungsoo had been rubbing his temples and wincing all day. Although they were both mischievous and liked to fool around, they did really love Kyungsoo and wanted to make sure he would be okay. Jongin offered him a of his ice cream and Kyungsoo accepted, ruffling his hair affectionately. The chocolate numbed his headache a little, and he relaxed on the bench. 

It was weird, how this migraine had suddenly showed up after work. Kyungsoo wanted to blame it on his job, but it wasn’t that hard. Maybe it was the twins, but even they weren’t being as difficult as usual. He stared out at the copse of trees bordering the park, their branches swaying in the wind. The weather was absolutely perfect today, the sun reaching out with gentle rays of light that settled on the grass and the wind sending a light breeze through the leaves. Sighing, Kyungsoo relished the silence until a piercing cry interrupted his thoughts.

“My OREOS!” Jongin yelled.

Sehun had opened the box after finishing his ice cream, already munching on a few without his brother. Jongin, furious, tried to snatch the box away, and they started a fierce tug-of-war game for it instead.

“No, it’s mine-“

“Let go, Jongin, it’s mine-“

“Hyung bought it for me-“

“No, he bought it for both of us-“

“I was the one who asked him in the first place-“

The box flew out of their hands and straight into the trees.

“Now look what you’ve done,” Kyungsoo sighed.

Jongin began to cry, and Sehun set his jaw stubbornly. 

“Hyungggg…” Jongin wailed. “I want my Oreos, I didn’t get to have any!”

Kyungsoo closed his eyes, regretting all his life choices. 

“Hyung, you have to go back and get it for us, please!”

He looked at Jongin incredulously. “We have more Oreos in the car, why do you need those?”

“Because…Because…” he blubbered. “They’re my Oreos, and I want them!”

Kyungsoo glared at him, then sighed. “I can’t believe I’m doing this, but okay. Jongin, Sehun, you’ll need to come with me, though. Make sure you two stay close-the Oreos can’t have gotten far…"

There was no fence bordering the park from the forest, so that part was easy. But the twins kept losing their footing, and although they stopped each other from falling, it took much longer to find the Oreos than they thought. Eventually, though, Kyungsoo held up a blue and white box in victory, and they started to head back as the sun shot lines of red and orange into the sky above them.

Suddenly Sehun halted. “Hyung…what’s that?” he said, a tinge of fear coloring his voice as he pointed at a dark stain on the ground.

Kyungsoo stopped walking. “What?”

“That.” 

Kyungsoo knelt closer, examining the stain. It looked fresh, and very dark red, like blood. Pieces of brown-blond hair were visible around the stain, like pet hair. He tried not to shiver, even as he backed away.

“I don’t know, Sehun, but it doesn’t look good. Maybe I’ll come back and check it out, see if an animal’s been hurt or something. But we have to get home, okay? Your parents are probably looking for you.”

***

Kyungsoo dropped the twins off back at home with a reassuring hug and a smile, and promised to come back as soon as possible. They were quiet and solemn, and Sehun even clenched Kyungsoo’s fingers before he left, extracting a promise from him to be careful. He agreed, and headed back for the park, thinking that if this was simply a hurt animal, he could take care of the problem himself. After all, he was a vet. This was just another job. 

He grabbed a few tools from his car before he headed back to track the animal-a bandage, a cleaning antiseptic, a scalpel, tweezers and gloves. Kneeling beside the now brownish stain, he followed the trail of blood to a little clearing where a lump of fur was lying on its side in the middle.

Kyungsoo caught his breath. It was a wolf, and it was beautiful, with a gleaming yellow coat of fur, elegant features, and a sleek, toned body. Even though it was clearly wounded, it was still a sight to behold. Almost against his own will, Kyungsoo’s feet carried him closer, and he got a better look at the deep scratches in its side. He in his breath, and the wolf awoke, ears pricked and golden eyes fixated on Kyungsoo. Its hackles rose, and Kyungsoo took a hasty step back.

“Shh,” he said in his most soothing voice. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Somehow, the wolf seemed to understand, and it closed its mouth, resting its head on its arms. Slowly, Kyungsoo opened his bottle of water, gently pouring it over the wolf’s wounds. The wolf hissed, but didn’t move, even when Kyungsoo started to clean the scratches with antiseptic. Despite his fear, Kyungsoo still felt anger rise in his chest on behalf of the animal as he noticed how deep the cuts were.

“Who could have done this to you?” he murmured under his breath. Shaking his head, he cleaned the wound as best as he could, and then realized that it was already dark outside, and trying to stitch the wound now would be a terrible idea. He would have to bring the wolf with him back to the clinic first.

Sighing, he finally noticed that his headache had gotten much worse since he’d found the wolf. Sparks of pain formed behind his eyes as he packed up his supplies and attempted to coax the wolf to its feet. 

“Come on, baby, let’s get you out of here. I have to stitch you up at my clinic, okay? Come on, you can do this. One foot at a time, you’re strong enough…” Kyungsoo kept talking, and the wolf seemed to understand. Painstakingly, it got up, following Kyungsoo back to his van. The vet marvelled at its strength, and the corded muscles in its arms. Even when injured, its natural grace was still very, very apparent. It shouldn’t have been able to survive this long, much less walk itself all this way after being injured.

Where did this wolf come from? And who would want to hurt him?

Kyungsoo was forced to half-carry, half-drag the wolf into the clinic in the dark. Laying the animal on the table, he quickly removed the bandages and stitched the wound together, praying that he wasn’t too late to save it. The wolf barely reacted to the pain of the needle, worrying Kyungsoo even more. Either way, he’d done what he could. There didn’t seem to be any broken bones or any other severe injuries, so Kyungsoo cleaned up and promptly collapsed into a chair.

I hope he'll be okay, Kyungsoo thought, just before his exhaustion got the better of him and he fell asleep.