sorry i took so long to put this up

i was applying for new jobs

it's been less than a month and i already ing hate this one 

it's giving me health problems already

i'd go to the doctor, but they won't let me take time off

           “Please Xing… He won’t move. He won’t wake up.” His eyes were glassy with unshed tears.

           “Carbuncle wouldn’t let me wake up either.”  Baekhyun said.

           “Sit him up, I need to see something.” Jongdae pushed Kris up in a sitting position. Yixing grabbed the sides of Kris’ head and pressed their foreheads together.

           “That’s not a carbuncle.” Yixing said when he finally figured out what part of Kris’ head the dream grotto was in. He appeared in the grotto next to Kris.

           “What?” Kris asked.

           “Carbuncle aren't humanoid.” Yixing said.

           “I’m not particularly versed in South American mythology.” Kris mumbled not taking his eyes off of the bejeweled creature.

           “I can get you out of here if you want.” Yixing said.

           “I should be stuck in a place like this… Carbuncle or whatever can remind me of what I did til I die or something.” He said morosely.

           “Joonmyun and Jongdae are worried about you.” Yixing tried to convince him to come back.

           “Who’s Joonmyun?” Kris asked.

           “Suho.” The unicorn replied.

           “That’s why we failed– You didn’t know his true name.” The spirit said with wide eyes.

           “Shut the up, you.” Kris snarled. The carbuncle laughed.

           “Jongdae is falling apart. He’s freaking out big time.”

           “What do we have to do?” Kris automatically perked up when he heard his lover’s name.

           “This is your dream. You can control it. Think up a weapon.” A spear materialized in Yixing’s hand. “Thanks”

           “You haven’t noticed yet.” The brass spirit continued chuckling, “But it no longer matters to me if his life is being siphoned off.”

           Yixing lowered his weapon and looked closely at Kris. He could vaguely see a red string coming from Kris’ chest.

           “Why doesn’t it matter to you?” Kris asked nervously.

           “You’re here to kill me with Yifan’s weapon.” He said to Yixing, completely ignoring Kris, “So it doesn’t matter anymore.”

           Yixing stabbed the brass spirit in the chest. There was a bright light and Yixing was thrown backwards across the living room before he, Kris and Joonmyun clutched their heads and started to scream.

           Baekhyun and Chanyeol went to Yixing to help. Yixing pushed up to his elbows, staring at Kris with wide eyes before running up the stairs and throwing the bedroom door open.

           “A word please, Zitao.” Yixing said from the doorway.

           “Anything you need to say can be said in front of Joonmyun.” Tao said. “I’m not letting go of him.”         

           “Are you going to tell him?” Yixing looked at Joonmyun, “How you managed to supply him with a life force?”

           “Tao?”

           Tao looked down at Joonmyun with a small frown. “I– I was angry– I was livid– I didn’t know he was possessed…” He defended weakly.

           “What did you do, Tao?” Joonmyun frowned as he forced himself to sit up.

           “I brought your body back with Kris’ life force. The stronger you get, the weaker he gets.”

           “Can you stop it?” Joonmyun asked.

           “You will die.” Yixing said.

           “And if you don’t stop it, Kris will die.” Joonmyun replied quietly. Tao nodded. “Jongdae will be devastated.” Tao frowned, “Had you even thought for a minute how Jongdae would feel? Were you ever going to tell me what you did?”

           “I don’t know…”

           “Is Kris still downstairs?” Yixing nodded. “Take me down there. We have to figure a way out for him.”

           Tao sighed and picked Joonmyun up.

           The six people downstairs looked up when Tao carried Joonmyun down the stairs with Yixing behind them.

           “Joonmyun!!! You’re alive!” Chanyeol ran up to him. He had been crying so hard his voice sounded gravelly.

           “Yeah…” Joonmyun frowned. “I need to talk to Kris.” Tao placed him on the fainting couch next to Kris and the two men weakly looked at each other. “Hi…” Joonmyun said after a moment.

           “Hi… go ahead, punch me, kick me, kill me back. It’s only fair.”

           “Funny you should say that.” Joonmyun frowned.

           “What?” Jongdae looked worried.

           “Well… the reason I’m able to speak and not currently a vegetable is the same reason you’re probably too weak to move a whole lot…”

           “Is it killing Yifan?” Jongdae asked.

           “If it is, I’m ok with it– I deserve it.” He looked down at his shaking hands.

           “It’s not ok. You had no control over what was going on.” Joonmyun said.

           “It was feeding off of your insecurities.” Yixing said. “We took care of it.” He said to Joonmyun.

           “But what are we going to do? How are we going to save Kris?” Joonmyun looked at everyone.

           Chanyeol looked at Joonmyun, “I have no idea… I couldn’t even see Luhan until he turned into a skeleton.”

           The group looked at Baekhyun, “Do you see anything?” Joonmyun asked.

           Baekhyun closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and shook his head. “Nothing.”

           There was a knock on the door. Tao looked at Chanyeol and gestured toward the door. The raven haired man got up with a sigh and answered. There was a man with multicoloured hair and sunglasses, standing with a frown and wearing a backpack. He was followed by another man with short auburn hair and tan skin.

           “Can I help you?” Chanyeol asked.

           “We heard Zitao’s cry… I know we're late, is there anything we can do to help?” He asked.

           “More heads to figure out our problem might be useful,” Chanyeol shrugged and stepped aside, letting them in.

           “Sehun?” Luhan asked with a frown, “Where the hell have you been? And who's that?”

“You’re one to talk. I’ve been busy.” Sehun replied with a frown, “This is Kai.”

“Sehun… you’ve barely changed.” Kris said quietly.

“More than you’ll ever know.” Sehun replied with an expressionless face.

           “What took you so long?” Minseok frowned."And what happened to your hair"

           “I could say the same thing for your hair. Are we taking styling tips from Donghae? Besides, we were on the other side of the world." He said, taking off his sunglasses. His eyes were nearly the same colour as his hair.

"We can only travel so fast.” The auburn haired man pouted.

“You still can't incorporiate?” Minseok asked. “He knows you're not normal, right?” He asked pointing at Kai.

Sehun sneered, “Ren knows you're not normal, right? Where is your wife anyway?”

“Why did Zitao shout?” Kai asked, trying to distract them from their argument.

           “We cannot figure out how to cut the connection between Yifan and Joonmyun without killing either of them.” Minseok said with a straight face.

           “Wait… which one was dead to begin with?” Sehun looked confused.

           “Joonmyun.” Tao said with a frown.

           “But he’s just a human. Why would you wail like that?”

           “He’s not just a human. He’s my mate.” Tao defended.

           “But… He’s not marked.” Kai sniffed him.

           Tao pulled Joonmyun’s collar aside. He scowled. “Where did it go?”

           “He ‘died’... sort of. Anyway, he must have lost the mark.” Luhan stated.

           Tao looked at Luhan with a blank face as he let that nugget of information roll around for a moment. He picked Joonmyun up and ran upstairs.