"Do you mind if we asked you some questions?"

She shook her head, sitting straight up.

"First, would you like to tell us what happened to you?"

She darted her eyes around the room warily, before she shook her head again. It was an incredibly touchy subject, so they wouldn't have expected her to open up that quickly. Plus, having so many or them surrounding her could get overwhelming. 

"Aww, too bad you used up your question." Kris poked fun at Chanyeol, only to be nudged by a certain deer-looking boy. Sehun laughed at Kris' pathetic attempt at lifting the others spirits, since he only made it more awkward.

Suho cleared his throat, wanting to change the heavy, tense atmosphere. "What's your favourite colour?" 

"Purple."

"Favourite game?"

"I-I don't like games vewy much..."

She was pretty shy, answering questions in short replies.

At least, until someone mentioned her favourite subject.

"What is you favourite food?" 

"Chicken!" She exclaimed, eyes lighting up at the mention of it, clapping her hands excitedly. 

The rest cooed fondly at the way she got so excited at the mention of food. Kai was especially delighted, since he loved chicken very much as well.

"I never got chicken to myself! Thank you so much!" The rest watched in envy as she climbed down from Kai's lap and ran over to hug Kyungsoo in gratitude. Kai pouted in disbelief. "You left me for that owl?" 

The rest ignored him.

"How did you know I cooked it, hmm?" He picked her up gently and placed her on his lap.

"I saw you cooking just now." She replied, shifting on his lap to get comfortable. Whoever gives her food has to be a good person. He looked down on her head, taking note that it was tangled and dirty, as they continued asking away.

The brothers made a note to be careful around her, since she seemed to be extremely observant.

"Hmmm... what animal or cartoon do you like?"

"Turtles. I don't know what's caw-toon." 

"Like... Pokemon? My little pony? Hello kitty?" 

She shook her tiny head and gave a little shrug. 

"D-daddy never let me watch TV. He s-said it was only f-for good girls, not me." She stuttered, looking down into her lap as she swung her legs back and forth. 

It seemed like her lisp and her stuttering got worst as she got scared, Kai noticed.

"H-he only cawed about his dwink. But when he drink, he got angwy. And he hit me. Mommy tried to stop him but Mommy was scared too. After he dwink. Daddy always angwy." She paused, to look back at Kai.

"Daddy won't find me, w-wight?" She said in a small voice, barely a whisper. Kyungsoo barely caught it. 

"He won't. We'll protect you." Kyungsoo affirmed, wrapping his arms around her tiny frame.  

The rest chorused in agreement, and one by one they jointed in, making their way to the little girl to join the hug, enveloping her in the warmest hug she had every felt.

That was when she decided that she could trust them.

                                             ~♡~

The brothers had agreed on solo dates with each of them for Yeri to get to know the 12 better. The first person was Xiumin, since it was more orderly to go by age.

So, after lunch (and the mini intro session), the brothers scattered to do their own thing, leaving Yeri in the capable hands of their eldest brother.

He led the girl to the bathroom, letting her undress as he filled the tub with water. 

She shyly covered her scrawny body, filled with cuts and bruises. There were patches of blue and purple all over her back and some on her sides, which made him feel sick. 

How could they do such a thing to a litte girl?

"LAY! WE NEED SOME HELP!" He shouted, covering the girl's ears so that she didn't feel too scared. She giggled cutely in response.

In a flash, Lay appeared right beside Xiumin, wand in hand. "Did you have to apparate? You couldn't even walk here?" Xiumin shook his head, chuckling at the younger.

"What do you want- Oh.. oh my..." He gasped as he laid his eyes on the tiny, shivering girl. 

"Brackium Emendo!" From the tip of his wand, a flash of green light emerged and it healed any broken bones she may have had.

"Tergio!" The next spell he used was to clean up the dried blood on her wounds, and lastly "Episkey!" to heal the bruises and cuts he had suffered.

Her body felt hot and cold, and for a second she panicked, but afterwards, she no longer felt so much pain. The bruises that dotted her body had magically disappeared, leaving her skin smooth and milky like it should be. 

"Thank you..." She was left in awe, and Lay took a bow. "Pleased to serve you, m'lady." With that, He apparated away.

"Can I learn how to do that one day?" She asked, her gaze lingering at the spot where Lay was.

"That'll be in a very long time, Myemim. Let's get you cleaned up first, hmm?" He reached under her arms and lifted her gently into the tub, scooping some water to wash her hair. 

"Accio!" He summoned a bottle of shampoo over, and poured a generous amount onto his hand before gently massaging the girl's scalp with it. She hummed in delight, the soothing massage comforting her, unlike her father's harsh tugs and slaps at her head. 

He rinsed the soap off and smoothened her hair with some conditioner, then finished off, scrubbing her body clean with some oeach smelling body soap. He entertained her by changing the colour of the water (Colorvia!) as he grabbed a towel to dry her body with. 

He wiped her down, sitting her on his knee so he could dry her hair with a towel, without some cool magic tricks. He felt that it would be more sincere of he did it like this.

"So erm... what about your mom? If you're comfortable telling, that is." He tried to spark a conversation, since he didn't want to sit in silence as he dried her long locks of wet hair.

"She read me books and taught me things. B-but sometimes she'll have to be with Daddy, then she'll come back hurt too. She gave me the best hugs in the world. But then, one day she told me to run far, far away if she didn't come back when the sun came out, because that means she left me for good and I'll never see her. And I listen to Mommy?" She said (much to his surprise, since he wasn't actually expecting a response.)

"Ah, no wonder you're so smart." He ruffled her hair affectionately as he finished, wrapping her hair in a little turban to dry. 

"How about your clothes? Would you like to go shopping later?" He suggested, pressing the top of her turban with his finger to hold the towel in place.

She gave a hum of approval. "I'll just shrink some of my clothes for you to wear first, then." He summoned a baby blue sweater along with a new pair of boxer shorts, and shrunk them to fit her, so that the sweater was like a dress. He shrunk a pair of shoes he couldn't fit as well. 

Fetching himself a dry set of clothes, he changed, and after removing the towel, brought her out on her first clothing shopping date.

status: edited

a/N

im really on a roll right now

Hope you liked the inclusion of magic (it'll happen way more now :))

don't forget to comment  <3 thank youuu

bye~