So...I'm going to leave you all wondering about that last chapter because to be entirely honest, I'm figuring out how to proceed from that point...basically, for the first time ever, I'm planning (somewhere in the background, my English teachers are cheering). Anyways, for now, you will get a nice little story about how I like to think Luhan and Xiumin met. Enjoy!

PS: I am up at midnight, postponing homework and a party for you all. Internet people are better than real people :)

Xiumin stood in front of his parents' bedroom mirror, studying himself framed by intricate wrought-iron tree branches--perhaps for the last time.

The rest of the house was nothing worth looking at. It was a tiny first floor with a bathroom, a kitchenette, and a folding table and a narrow staircase leading to the second floor of two bedrooms. 

"You'll like it there, I promise," his mother--Becca--said, standing beside her adopted son, running a hand through his close-cropped hair. Her voice was husky and thick, having cried for the last few hours.

Xiumin looked up at his human mother. "I won't," he insisted. He gripped the edge of his mother's dress, willing himself not to burst into tears.

"You will." Becca looked up as his other mother, Lauren, walked in, dragging Xiumin's suitcase in with her. Her mascara was fresh, still shining darkly on her pale cheeks. 

"Alright, Minnie," Lauren said, biting her lip. "The car's already out front for you."

Xiumin refused to move, head bowed and hands wrapped around one of the pleats of Becca's dress.

"Come on, now, Minnie," Becca urged, slipping his small fingers off of her dress. "It's for the best."

Xiumin finally let the first tears fall, followed quickly by a long, primal wail.

It took nearly an hour for Becca and Lauren to get Xiumin out to the private taxi parked at the edge of the scruffy yard in front of the living complex. The driver leaned against the passanger side door, eyes solemn as he watched the young wolf hybrid trudge across the lawn that would no longer be his.

"Hey, buddy," the driver said, reaching out a hand. "I'm Kwon Ji-yong. You can call me GD, since it's easier."

Xiumin mumbled a greeting.

"You're Xiumin, right?"

He nodded.

"I like that name." GD moved to take the boy's suitcase, but Xiumin yelped and batted his hand away. 

"I want to keep it," he stammered, clutching the handle of his suitcase tightly enough for his knuckles to go white.

GD held his hands up. "I'm just putting it in the trunk, bud, okay? Or you and the other kid won't have room to sit." He pointed back over his shoulder at a slight figure sprawled across the backseat.

Xiumin relaxed his grip. "I want my teddy bear."

GD helped Xiumin open up the suitcase, noting that he had very little stuff before pulling out the tattered brown stuffed bear and handing it to his charge.

The next challenge was waking up the boy in the backseat.

"Hey, Luhan." GD gently shook the boy--who had stubby antlers poking out from the sides of his head--by the shoulder. "Wake up. We've got Xiumin here."

Luhan grunted.

"Luhan. Luhan. Hey. Luhan."

"MMMMM." 

The deer boy shot up into a sitting position, nearly taking GD's nose off. "Are we here?" he half-shouted, sleepiness gone in a split second.

Xiumin blinked, confused. This Luhan was louder than anyone Xiumin had ever met, and he couldn't tell if Luhan looked more like a girl or a boy.

"Oh, is this the other kid?" Luhan clambered over to the open door. "Hi! I'm Luhan!"

Xiumin stood still.

GD chuckled. "Xiumin's a little shy," he said.

Luhan scooted back to his original spot and patted the seat next to him. "Come in! I won't hurt you!"

Xiumin turned back to look at his mothers, standing at the gate and holding each other. He waved once, then ducked inside the taxi.

Unfortunately for Xiumin, both GD and Luhan liked to talk.

"I'm studying to be a musician," GD said. "Either of you interested in music?"

Luhan bounced in his seat. "Yeah! I am!"

GD laughed. "Alright, little man. You go. Xiumin, what about you?"

Xiumin stiffened. "I--I don't know."

Luhan leaned close to him. "You look like you could be a doctor," he said, then nodded very seriously, sure of himself. "You'll be a good doctor."

Xiumin shook his head violently. "I'm n-not good with germs--"

"You can get over it, right? Isn't a germ thing easy to get over?"

Xiumin pushed the excitable deer hybrid away with his elbow. "It's not."

Luhan, unfazed, came back. "Do you want some chocolate? I have chocolate in my bag."

Xiumin hugged his teddy bear tighter. "...is it white chocolate?"

"I have all different kinds! Look!" Luhan threw open the opening of his drawstring bag and pulled out a handful of candy. "There's a Lindt chocolate, and there's some Jolly Ranchers, and--oh! I love this one," he said, dropping all but a small chunk of cookies and cream crunch. "I like Oreos a lot."

Xiumin looked down into the bag. There was a small Snickers bar sitting at the top of the pile that he wanted, but his germaphobic instinct told him not to eat it. A war raged inside his head for a few seconds before his hand decided to take action.

The gooey chocolate stick was gone in seconds, the wrapper stuffed haphazardly into Xiumin's pocket. 

"You can have all the Snickers," Luhan said, digging through his bag and tossing the candies one by one into Xiumin's lap. "I don't like them."

"Thanks?" Xiumin unwrapped another Snickers, feeling--with a strange quivering in his stomach--the warmth left by Luhan's fingers.

GD reached a hand back. "You got any Twizzlers?"

Two years later (9th grade)

"Dammit, Lu! Give me back my hand sanitizer!"

Luhan stuck his tongue out and stretched even further up on his tiptoes, small bottle of rose-scented liquid dangling high above Xiumin's head. "You gotta take it back yourself!" When the arctic wolf hybrid punched the taller boy in the stomach, Luhan reacted by grunting and stumbling to the other side of his dorm room.

Xiumin bit his lip, fighting--really fighting--the urge to cry. "Please, Luhan, please give me back my hand sanitizer...I left my other ones back in my room."

Luhan must have sensed that his joke had gone too far, because he lowered himself back down to the ground, smile fading fast. "Well, okay. Here." He held out the bottle, and Xiumin snatched it away quickly.

Too quickly. The cap snapped off, and the bottle and its contents fell to the floor, spilling watery pink hand sanitizer all over the wooden floor.

Xiumin and Luhan both stared at the mess for a long few seconds before Xiumin started sobbing.

"Th-that one w-was the best sm-smelling one and it h-had the b-best...L-LOOK at it!" He kneeled down beside the decapitated hand sanitizer and stuck a finger into the puddle. "Look w-what you d-did!"

Luhan crouched down beside him. "I'm-I'm sorry, Minnie, I didn't know--look, I'll get you another one, okay? I'll get you one that smells just as good."

Xiumin snarled. "You always say that!" he shouted, jabbing a finger into Luhan's chest. "You say that every ing time you break something! And you've never, ever made up for it!" He in a deep breath, ready to yell again, when he got cut off by Luhan leaning forward and...

Even the deer hybrid himself didn't realize he was moving. So when they found their lips pressed together, they were equally confused.

Xiumin pulled away first, sputtering and red-faced. "What was that for?" he demanded, voice having lost its edge.

Luhan, for once flustered, put his hands up. "I didn't mean to do that now," he said. "I mean, I didn't want to do that--I didn't mean to do that? I didn't--I don't know. Just--sorry--I'm really sorry."

Xiumin fumed, then relaxed into a smile. "No, it's fine."

"What?"

"Just get me new hand sanitizer."

Luhan swallowed and grinned awkwardly. "I--okay."

Xiumin gave him a strange look, then stuck his finger into the hand sanitizer goop. "Luhan," he said quietly. "Do you like me?"

Luhan stared at him, then leaned in closer. "What?"

" you."

"What? I didn't hear you!"

"Just get me some floral hand sanitizer."