COUNTDOWN: 7 DAYS TO FULL MOON

“Sehun! Give that back!”

                “Chanyeol quit putting all the good stuff on the top shelves!”

                “Tao don’t you run off with that!”

                The kitchen was a mess. All of the wolves – minus Kris who was still away ‘visiting’ other packs – were going insane. What Suho claimed was ‘putting away the groceries’ was actually every wolf’s personal ambition to grab the good stuff for themselves and stash it somewhere.

As Kita had seen the day before, Sehun kept his stash on his dresser.

                As Chanyeol was now displaying, he kept his stash on the top shelf, which most of the others couldn’t reach.

                Luhan had ducked out of the room and up the stairs a few moments earlier with his arms full and a gleeful grin on his face, so Kita could only assume that he kept his stash hidden somewhere in his room.

                So with everyone trying to grab and run, the kitchen was turned into a warzone, with only Suho, D.O., and Lay diligently putting away groceries. Then Kita noticed their pockets were bulging, and smiled that even they weren’t fully immune to the temptation.

                “Pssst.” Kita looked over to see Chen leaning over the breakfast bar holding a block of chocolate for her. “Grab something good before it’s all gone!”

                Kita scrambled to catch the chocolate, and then Chen winked at her and dived back in to the mess.

                “Why is this such a big deal?” Kita asked Kai who had snuck into the room with a sly smirk on his face, “They bought enough for two weeks didn’t they?” Somehow going on patrol the day before had brought the two closer. Kai, although he still kept his distance after her last reaction to him touching her, was more comfortable around her. Especially since Sehun showed no reservations about talking to her. Tao was another story, but the boy was still afraid of magic so his avoidance was more understandable.    

                Kai chuckled, “there’s enough for all of us yeah, but everyone has favourite things and we all want them all. That piece of chocolate Chen just gave you? That’s not for you to eat, that’s for you to use to bargain with Sehun.”

                Kita looked away from the still arguing wolves, to stare at Kai with raised brows “you’re not serious.”

                “Yeah! Trust me, anything sweet is worth its weight in gold with Sehun.”

                “Right… noted…”

                Kai chuckled, and the two of them turned back to watch the now dwindling mayhem. All that was left was D.O. helping Suho with vegetables, Luhan already scouring the fridge for something to drink, Baekhyun hiding something behind the kettle, and Sehun whining to Suho.

                “Where did all the chocolate go! There’s only one left! Why didn’t you buy more than this?”

                Kita looked down at the bar in her hand and slowly moved it behind her back out of view.

                “well I guess you’re just going to have to savour that one then.” Suho answered him smartly, giving him a sly smile before continuing to wash vegetables before putting them in the fridge.

                “But Hyunnng.”

                “Oh give it up Sehun.”

                “How come you don’t just go and buy a stash of chocolate Sehun?” Kita asked.

                Sehun rolled his eyes at her, “everyone always steals it, keeping a stash like that costs a fortune.”

                “Well you get paid by the Fey right? Shouldn’t be a problem.” Kita sniggered at Sehun’s dilemma, but the wolves all looked at her strangely.          

                “The Fey doesn’t pay us…”

                “Never has…”

                “Where’d you get that idea…?”

                Kita looked between them all, “of course they do… why else would you live here guarding the Fey border if they weren’t paying you?”

                The remaining wolves all exchanged suspicious glances, Luhan and D.O. slipping quietly out of the room. Suho met her gaze for a brief second, and then looked away. Kai was staring determinately at the top cupboard as if trying to see what Chanyeol had hidden up there.

                Then Kris walked into the room and broke the lingering silence. “Kita.” He nodded stiffly at her in greeting and then nodded his head to Suho in typical ‘come with me’ bro talk.

                Grateful to escape the situation in the kitchen, Suho followed Kris outside, hearing Chen and Xiumin burst into the kitchen and break the tension there.

                “You’re back earlier than I expected. You were only gone for two days” Suho leaned against the outside wall at the other side of the house. The rest of the pack had joined in at the kitchen, and were out of earshot.

                Kris nodded, “Onew had more information than I was expecting, I didn’t even have to go to Jiyong.”

                “Oh really? Well that’s good.”

                Kris grunted, still very committed toward his non-verbal responses.

                “Well?” Suho prodded, “what did they tell you?”

                “Well I’ve got no idea how he knows any of this, but apparently the Fey don’t have much magic anymore. Apparently, it’s running out.” Kris had obviously expected this to be a great revelation, but Suho was past that already.

                “Yeah Xiumin told me. Just after you left he and Luhan spoke with Kita and she said something about Fey not having wings anymore, that’s got to be related to a lack of magic right?”

                Kris shot his a dirty glance, obviously unhappy that his first piece of juicy information was worthless.

                Suho grinned cheekily, “what else you got?”

                “Do you know about the soul bonding?” Kris asked, becoming smug again when it was obvious Suho had no clue what he was talking about. “It’s ok, I didn’t really get it at first. Taemin had to explain it a bunch of times once Onew gave up on it. Soul binding is something that every Fey does, it’s like they’re born with a piece of themselves missing and eventually they have to find it, and put themselves back together.”

                “Oh, like soul mates?”

                Kris rolled his eyes, “no, it’s not that simple.” Well it wasn’t much more complex, but Kris had gone quite a distance for this info and he was milking it for all it was worth. “They usually bind to an element, nature, fire, air, earth, or even things like music or song. You just kind of feel a pull to whatever it is, then you bind to it, and only then are you a full-fledged Fey.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, life pretty much for un-bound Fey, they can’t get jobs, they can’t vote, they can’t be a part of any dumb committees, they just have to sit there and ‘pursue their passion’.

“Well that could be kind of nice, not having to worry about anything else until you’ve found that one thing that makes you happy.”

“Suho, you can’t even get married as an un-bound Fey!”

“What? Why not?”

Kris cleared his throat and stood taller, obviously about to impersonate someone, “a Fey cannot promise their heart and soul to someone if their soul is incomplete.”

Suho pondered, “I guess that makes sense…”

“Makes sense? Suho, it makes no sense whatsoever!”

“Not to us, but maybe to them it does! This isn’t our world Kris, we can’t possibly understand what it feels like to be born like that, maybe Kita is inside right now acting cheerful to cover up the fact that she’s hollow inside!”

Both of them paused, a thought striking them at the exact same moment as only could happen when two people understand one another this well. “Maybe that’s why she’s out here?”

Suho nodded, going with it. “Sure she probably stole something, but that’s probably just an excuse for them to get rid of her, this soul-bonding thing seems like a pretty big deal to them and if she’s refusing to do it then…”

“Then they’d want her out of the way.”

They were both silent a moment as this new possible revelation sunk in, maybe this was why she was cast to them.

“Do you think she’s lonely?” Suho asked, “missing a part of your soul seems like it’d do a bit of damage to your mentality after a while.”

Kris nodded absent-mindedly, “Onew mentioned something else.”

Suho caught his tone and looked at him sharply, “I’m listening.”

“A Fey is difficult to injure, they heal faster than we do. The one thing to do when confronted with a Fey is to damage whatever they’re bound to.”

“You mean…?”

“Bound to fire? Take ‘em for a long swim.”

“That’s awful…”

“But it gets the job done, without killing them.”

“Somehow I feel like you might as well just finish them off after doing that much damage.” Suho muttered, trying to push away the dark tone Kris was bringing to their conversation.    

“You know as well as I do we have to have defences against this Fey. What if she is dangerous? If she’s bound, and we know what to, it’ll make stopping her a hell of a lot easier.”

“Only if she’s bound.” Suho said stubbornly, still holding a glimmer of hope that this new information would never have to be necessary. Still, the look in Kris’ eye told him that he was prepared to do what it took to protect this pack.

Of course, Suho was as well.

“So how do we find out what she’s bound to?” Suho asked, resigning to the Kris’ logic. Kita had only been here for 3 days, they had to be prepared for the worst.

“I don’t know, Kris admitted, “but we’d better do it soon.”