The scent of coffee followed Sehun out onto the street, but he wished that the warmth had followed him too. The night cold penetrated through his jacket, and the wind seemed to constantly stir around him. He hadn’t taken his bike, so he just scurried down the sidewalk to his apartment. Vivi would be waiting for him, and though she produced almost zero body heat (he still hadn’t figured out how that was possible), he just wanted to cuddle up with his abruptly acquired doggie.

Hopping through his window, Sehun was immediately pelted by a transparent fluffball and a myriad of chilly . He laughed at the tickly feeling and rolled with her, wrestling and booping her on the nose.

“Hi, Vivi. Did you miss me?” He rubbed his hands under her jaw and down to her neck. The collie gave an affirmative bark and tail wag, and Sehun gave her an extra coo.

“I’m going to shower and then we can relax on my bed, okay?’

Giving her another pat, he shut the window, got his clothes, and stepped into the shower. When he started toweling his hair, he heard Vivi’s distorted bark. Wondering if she was barking at the rats in the walls again, he put on his pants when he heard the clack of his windowpane and the flurry of pawsteps that Vivi usually made when excited. Then there were vibrations, voices, murmuring through the thin walls. Vivi’s pawsteps stopped.

Sehun grabbed the heaviest thing he could—his giant bottle of lotion—flung open the bathroom door, and dashed into the living room. He wound his arm back to chuck the thing at whoever dared to attack his cute and transparent doggie, but his arm stuttered as he saw the two figures in his living room, and the object dropped like an anvil between them, green liquid splattering everywhere across his floor.

Cucumber melon filled the room, but he couldn’t get himself to care that he looked like an absolute idiot charging into the room with a bottle of lotion because he knew at least one of the people who had just broken into his home. Even in the monochrome dimness of Sehun’s apartment, his favorite professor’s honey glow illuminated the walls.

“P-Professor Lu?”

“Hi, Sehun. I know that this is extremely rude, and I just broke and entered into your apartment—you should keep your windows locked! Don’t be lazy and use the proper door!— Ah, and I’m really sorry about that bottle of lotion, and—oh gosh, you don’t have a shirt on, uh—but I need you to come with us.”

Sehun couldn’t even ask who ‘us’ was. Too much information was hitting his brain, and he didn’t have any idea how to process it all. His favorite professor found his apartment, went in through his unconventional entrance, was now blushing and averting his eyes but also glancing at him because Sehun didn’t have a shirt on; Vivi had jumped the person behind Professor Lu—a person who had wings sprouting out of his back; and Sehun just exploded the biggest bottle of lotion he ing owned.

The only thing that brought him back to his senses was the fact that the window was still opened, and the wind was chilling his bare skin. Shivering, he pulled the towel around him, then figured that he would need to unblock the pathway somehow and threw it over the puddle of lotion. He ducked back to grab his shirt and slip it on before peeking out into the living room again.

“Sehun, we have to hurry. I’ll explain on the way, but for now, pack some warm clothes and whatever you can’t leave without.”

“O-Okay.”

Sehun did as he was told, stuffing t-shirts and pants and underwear into his backpack. He debated about bringing his laptop, and in the end brought it—his phone, his chargers, and his personal documents. Slipping a heavier coat on, Sehun walked back out to the living room, grabbed his shoes, and was ready(?) to go. He crossed Lake Lotion to his window where Professor Lu, the winged man, and Vivi stood, and Sehun didn’t even know how to formulate his question.

“We must hurry,” the winged man said, giving Sehun an apologetic but friendly smile. He had maroon colored hair and wore cream-colored robes. “Vivia, come out first.”

His transparent doggie barked, lolled her tongue out at Sehun, and jumped through the wall. Then the winged person phased through the window area. That guy was a tall man, about his own height, definitely not able to go in and out a window without hunching—and Sehun prided himself in his guesstimation skills. That was not of this earth.

“Sehun.”

He turned his head, and all questions about the strangeness of the last eleven minutes of his life shocked out of his body as his favorite professor wrapped his arms around Sehun’s neck and hid his face in that small crook. Sehun had to bend a bit, and he saw Professor Lu had tip-toed a little too, but he didn’t hesitate in hugging the professor back.

The incomprehensibility cleared a little, not solved but no longer as daunting and confusing. He grounded Sehun and his thoughts, and if Sehun interpreted the way that Professor Lu tightened his grip on his shaking hands, maybe Sehun did the same for him. When they let go, he gave him a smile which Sehun found himself grinning back to in return, and they left out the window.

Vivi and the winged person (who seemed to literally glow) were waiting for them on the ground level. Sehun didn’t see any vehicle ready in the alleyway, but he thought that maybe they were taking public transportation when the winged person suddenly spread his wings—yeah, definitely not fake—and flapped them once, making Sehun’s eyes squint and water at the winter wind.

“Vivia, can you follow us on your own? I need to carry the humans.”

She barked, and Sehun felt his eyes spring back open as her outline faded, he blinked, and she was gone. He rushed to the spot.

“Don’t worry. She’s still here,” the man said, pointing up to the air and smiling. “She’s hovering at your left shoulder actually.”

Sehun whipped around but saw nothing. He thought he felt little cold over his cheek though, just like how it felt when Vivi gave him doggie kisses.

“How… How do you know that?”

“I am Tao, Luhan’s guardian angel. In this world, there are creatures of heaven, hell, and Earth. Humans can’t sense our world or us when we use certain abilities. We will explain soon. For now, please bear with me.”

He moved closer and flipped Sehun’s backpack to the front, his fingers gentle, and when Sehun looked over, he saw that Professor Lu had already flipped his own backpack around. Then an arm hooked around his and the professor’s waist, and Sehun let out a shriek as Tao jumped and they were suddenly in the air.

The alley, the street, buildings all shrunk as they ascended into the overcast clouds. He clutched onto the white robes and neck of the angel because he was flying without a seatbelt and also because the moisture clung to his face and chilled him.

Though there was wind, the buffeting wasn’t as bad as he thought. Peeking open an eye, Sehun couldn’t see much through the clouds, but they passed into a break in the mist, and the sleepy city colored down below them. He couldn’t help the small sounds of awe or reaching a hand to the night city or to the cotton clouds. He needed a picture. Getting his phone with as little wriggling as possible, he took a picture of a section of skyscrapers they passed, then of a small but well-lit neighborhood, then of the darker one that they landed in.

There were streetlamps to somewhat shine the way, and the road sloped up here, splitting occasionally, but the guardian angel kept straight. Something bumped into his leg, and he quickly stooped down to give Vivi a hug, even carrying her until they got to the top. What he saw almost made him drop his cute and transparent doggie.

The ground had been ripped up by its foundations. Slabs of cement laid scattered and melted over the wall. In certain places, the cement seemed to have molded into spikes or scorched black, and the bare dirt underneath had been exposed and cracked. The smell of smoke stung his eyes and nose, permeating the area, and the house that stood before them looked completely undamaged by the destruction.

“Kai fought here? I can smell his blood.”

Sehun turned to Tao in alarm, but the winged man shook his head to his own question.

“Let’s go inside first. Luhan, where is the house?”

Tao picked them up again, lifting them over the carnage until they stood at the doorstep that Professor Lu pointed out. The professor picked out his phone flashlight, then a metal contraption, and started to pick at the lock. Sehun gaped at the fact that his favorite professor knew how to pick locks (and had a device specifically for it) but cut it short at the tap to his shoulder.

“Sehun, do you have any questions?” Tao asked.

Was that even a question? But the guardian angel seemed really kind and soft-spoken. He had a nice smile, genuine, so Sehun took a breath to think about his first one.

“So whose house is this?” he said as casually as possible.

“Kim Minseok’s, Luhan’s friend.”

“Oh, I had a friend dinner with him. He let me call him hyung… Why are we breaking into his house?”

“This house is blessed. In this particular case, angelics like myself can’t see its true form. I see a small forest. Because of that, I want to use it as protection for the two of you. Kai had the same idea, but he hadn’t retrieved you by the time we came...”

“Kai? Is he a friend of yours?”

Tao blinked before a shy smile curved on the angel’s lips.

“Yes, I like to think so. You know him too. He introduced himself as Jongin.”

Sehun’s eyes ballooned out. The friend of the friend of his favorite professor—a maybe-friend to whom he had told his life’s philosophy—he was involved with… whatever this was?

Before he could try to ask how and what or why, Professor Lu made a little ‘yes!’ and opened the door. Tao hurried them in, but Sehun stopped at the doorway. Two people were passed out in the foyer, and he gasped and covered his mouth when he saw the red pooling underneath one of them.

“Kai? Kai!”

Tao rushed forward, checking over the two. Sehun followed quick and saw that one of the people lying on the ground was the dude he remembered as Jongin. He wasn’t the one bleeding, though Sehun wondered if the two were important to each other since they were holding hands. Either way, he had to help.

“We can use this house, right? Is there a first-aid kit or anything we can use?”

“Minseok keeps bandages. I’ll get them.” Professor Lu darted into the kitchen.

“He is magic poisoned…”

“What?”

Tao touched the shorter man’s face, just under where a nasty burn had charred his cheek black. Sehun waited for the angel to elaborate, but he had stilled. No, something in the air stirred around them, and Tao’s eyes seemed to lock on something invisible. He suddenly gasped and broke out of his trance, looking from the unknown man to the ceiling to the door.

“What?” Sehun asked when he couldn’t take the suspense anymore.

“His name is D.O, demon of Mashchit. He fought his teammate, someone of the same legion, to protect the house because it belonged to Minseok. He was magic poisoned by the fire demon and weakened, but before any killing blow, the house acted on its own and saved him and Kai.”

Sehun didn’t understand any of those sentences, but one thing stood out.

“The house acted on its own?”

“Yes. If an object is blessed or warded, then it can protect in various ways depending on what power was bestowed upon the object.”

Professor Lu ran back in with an entire box of medical things, but Tao only took the bandages.

“Demons and angels don’t need disinfectant or anything else. They usually heal almost instantaneously, but that will likely slow for D.O because of the fire poison. Lift his shirt.”

Sehun helped Tao apply bandages over the gaping hole in D.O-shi’s abdomen and over his burns while Professor Lu ran into the rooms to prepare some beds for the two.

“Guest room’s ready. Thank god for Minseok being a neat freak.”

“Good. D.O is first.”

Considering that Tao was strong enough to carry two full-grown humans with backpacks (while flying), Sehun didn’t think that the angel needed help carrying D.O-shi and risk agitating his wounds, so he carried in Jongin after them, laying him carefully next to the other on the queen-sized bed. Though they undoubtedly would be more comfortable, Sehun knew something was missing. He reconnected their hands.

“Is there anything we can do for them?”

“No. Kai’s injuries are internal, but he will likely heal faster than D.O.”

Tao left the small lamp on in the plain room and gestured out the door, and they followed, gathering in the living room. Vivi had been waiting on the couch and gave them each a small nudge before settling next to Sehun, which he never felt more grateful for as he dropped and buried his face into her fur.

He didn’t have a clue what was going on. He just left his apartment in the middle of the night with his favorite professor(!) and his guardian angel(?!), and they broke into a mutual friend’s house(?) to find and take care of more mutual friends(??).

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