Sungmin was the one that found Ryeowook hours later; the younger pixie had managed to keep himself together long enough to fly back to Jongwoon’s house, but had collapsed in the flower garden, sobbing amongst the bushes and bare branches, before he could actually get inside. Sungmin had quietly collected his dongsaeng’s things from his room in the dollhouse, then helped Ryeowook up, supporting him as they slowly flew back to their home. Being around Jongwoon’s things, he reasoned, would only make things worse.

---

“Ryeowook…” Jungsoo landed gently just inside the doorway to the younger man’s room. Ryeowook hadn’t left his room since he’d gotten back from the hospital four days ago and Sungmin had brought him home; he’d just stayed cooped up in the space, crying whenever he wasn’t sleeping or trying to force down food that his brothers would bring to him. Nothing that anyone said or did could cheer him up, so the trio had eventually given up and let him grieve in piece, but they would wince every time they heard him cry out at night. At the moment, Ryeowook was lying face down on his bed, trying to muffle his tears with his pillow. He glanced over at his hyung slowly, his eyes lifeless.

“What?” he mumbled out, reaching up with one hand to wipe away his tears. He’d stopped trying to hide the fact that he cried because he knew that his brothers knew anyway.

“There’s someone here who wants to see you.”

A thousand possibilities ran through Ryeowook’s mind: Heechul or the Elders or one of the Elders’ assistants, maybe. No one that he wanted to see and no one that he wanted to talk to.

“Tell them to leave, please. I don’t want to see anyone.” His voice was soft, but filled with all of the pain that he couldn’t quite hide and he turned his head in the other direction, staring at the wall instead. He heard Jungsoo sigh and murmur something to someone just outside the door, but then his room fell silent once more.

A minute or two passed and he was about to fall into a fitful sleep when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Please go,” he whispered. “I really can’t…” He trailed off, not knowing exactly what to say next. He couldn’t what? How could he explain that Jongwoon had absolutely completed him and that, with the human gone, it felt like a part of him had disappeared too? He had never intended to get so attached to the human; Jongwoon was only going to be his friend and nothing else, but, somewhere along the way, he’d become so much more than that and now he was gone from his life forever.

“Ryeowook.”

The pixie’s eyes snapped open and he shot up, whirling around. He knew that voice. That voice filled his dreams every second he was asleep. That voice was one he was never supposed to hear again.

“Jongwoon hyung!”

The figure standing before him was just a little bit taller than he was, with unruly black hair and dark, beautiful eyes. He had a pair of gray-tinted wings clumsily folded against his back and that stupid, giant, adorable grin plastered across his face.

“Hi, Ryeowook.”

Tears welled up in the younger pixie’s eyes once again, but this time they were happy tears; he launched himself at Jongwoon, burying his face in his chest and marveling at the feeling of those arms around him.

“But how—”

“You should know, silly. You’re the one who gave me that berry, after all.” Jongwoon held Ryeowook close, his hair softly; he’d dreamed about being able to do this for months and it felt to nice to actually hold the man he loved so much.

“The…berry?”

“Jungsoo hyung explained it to me. The Elders knew there was no way to stop the human me from dying; my body was too weak to be saved at the point that you went to them. They could tell, however, that you, well…you loved me, and so they gave you that berry infused with quite a bit of their magic. If I loved you back, then the magic would fully take effect and I would be…sort of reborn, I guess, as a pixie.”

“I thought you were gone,” Ryeowook whispered into his chest, breathing in that scent that was so Jongwoon. His shoulders were shaking with his silent tears. “Never leave me again.”

“Ryeowook…I never will, I promise.” Jongwoon pulled back slightly, cupping the younger man’s face in his hands as he bent down, hesitantly kissing the tears off of his cheeks; Ryeowook, surprised, almost pulled back, but stopped himself before he did, instead letting his eyes close as a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “You’re stuck with me,” the older man murmured, smiling against Ryeowook’s skin, “for the rest of your life.”

Ryeowook giggled slightly, opening his big, brown eyes and peering up at his hyung. Without warning, he threw his arms around Jongwoon’s neck, pressing their lips together sloppily, not caring that the kiss was messy as long as he was with the one man he adored. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

---

“Hyung! Hyung, no! Don’t put—Aww…”

Jongwoon was still hopeless at cooking, that hadn’t changed over the past few months. Ryeowook stared at the slowly-disappearing salt the older pixie had just poured into the melted chocolate and sighed. They were in the (fully-functioning!) kitchen of the little dollhouse in Jongwoon’s old house, trying to make special treats for their friend Hyukjae’s birthday undisturbed. At first, Jungsoo had been hesitant to let them go back to the house, since they weren’t sure if someone else would be moving in, but Jongwoon had just laughed. “That house has been in my family for generations,” he’d said. “There’s no way my parents would sell it, but they’re not the least bit interested in living in it either.” It hadn’t taken long before the little group of five had officially moved into the house; Jungsoo, forever the worrywart, resisted it at first, but even he couldn’t resist the prospect of sleeping in real beds every night. Ryeowook and Sungmin had quickly discovered that there was more to the kitchen in the dollhouse than they’d first thought and spent quite a bit of time there, trying out new recipes. Ryeowook liked to try to teach Jongwoon to cook but, if today was any indication of his efforts, he hadn’t done so well.

“Hyung, you don’t put salt into brownies. You put sugar.”

“But they’re both white and they’re so close to each other on the counter and—” Jongwoon sputtered for a minute before groaning and grabbing the small pot. “We’re going to have to start over, aren’t we?”

Ryeowook nodded, hurrying over to get some more chocolate from their stash in the cabinets. “We can’t have a bunch of salt in our brownies and pretend they’re okay, you know. Dump it out and we’ll start over.”

“I’m awful at cooking, Wook.  I really don’t know why you still try to get me to cook with you.”

Ryeowook paused, a grin lighting up his face. “It’s because I love you, you goof. Cooking with you is fun, anyway, and it’s certainly always a new challenge!” He giggled, the sound wrapping around Jongwoon and filling the room with a sense of pure joy.

Henry flew into the room then, immediately spotting the bowl of chocolate and what appeared to be sugar and grinned, dipping his finger in the concoction and it before either one of the bakers could stop him. As soon as the mixture hit his tongue, he started gagging, dashing to the sink and trying desperately to wash the taste out of his mouth. Ryeowook sighed.

“Oh, Henry…Jongwoon hyung put salt in that; we were about to throw it out.”

“You could have told me that before I ate it!”

“You didn’t give me a chance!”

Henry just glared at his hyungs. “You two are trying to do me in!”

Ryeowook rolled his eyes. “Stop being so over-dramatic, Henry. You brought this upon yourself. I’ve told you that you shouldn’t taste anything that’s not completely finished when Jongwoon hyung’s in the kitchen.”

“Hey!” Jongwoon pouted, but a quick kiss from Ryeowook immediately brought a smile back to his face.

“You know it’s true, hyung.”

The baby of the group, mumbling something about how they needed to stop being ‘lovey-dovey’ and make edible food, stormed out of the kitchen, intent upon finding Sungmin and complaining about how no one was feeding him.

Ryeowook giggled and Jongwoon wrapped his arms around his waist from behind; the older man rested his chin on the other man’s shoulder.

“Why don’t you do the mixing? I’ll supervise,” he suggested, smiling softly. Ryeowook just rolled his eyes.

“Fine, but you’re making it up to me later,” he warned, and Jongwoon grinned.

“Anything for you, my little pixie.”

---

Late that night, the pair lay out on Jongwoon’s human-sized bed in the middle of a moonbeam that peeked through the window, curled up together underneath a small piece of fabric they used as a blanket. Jongwoon had slipped his hand up under Ryeowook’s thin t-shirt and was drawing silly shapes on his stomach with the tip of his finger. The younger was smiling softly at the feeling, staring out of the window and up at the sky.

“Do you ever miss being a human?” Ryeowook asked softly after a few minutes of silence. It was a question that had been floating around the back of his mind ever since the day that Jongwoon had appeared before him in his new pixie form. As much as he loved having the older man around, he couldn’t help but wonder if he was happy this way.

Jongwoon shrugged lightly, resting his palm against Ryeowook’s stomach as he spread out his fingers. “Not really.” He thought for a moment before he continued. “Sometimes I wish I could tell a few people that I’m still here, that I’m living a better life and that they shouldn’t be sad, but then I remember that most of the people in my life didn’t care about me and that I’m happier here than I ever was when I was human. I’m honestly just glad that I got a second chance at life and that I get to spend it with you.” He smiled gently, leaving a soft kiss at the base of Ryeowook’s neck before pressing his face into the younger’s hair, breathing in his scent.

Ryeowook was still for a moment before rolling over so that he could see his hyung’s face. “I never thought anything like this would ever happen when I went to the Elders, and I know it’s selfish, but I’m glad it did,” he mumbled, his cheeks light pink. “To be able to live with you like this...it’s better than anything I could have hoped for.”

Jongwoon reached up, pushing Ryeowook onto his back before he slid on top of him, his hands next to the younger pixie’s ears propping him up. “I’m glad it did too,” he murmured, leaning down and pressing their lips together.

They moved slowly, letting all of the emotions that they couldn’t put into words, the fear and helplessness and wonder and love, fill them up. Ryeowook ran his fingers up Jongwoon’s slowly, dancing over the paper-thin wings folded tightly against his skin and smiling. In return, the older man broke the kiss, pulling up Ryeowook’s shirt just enough to press tiny, soft kisses against his stomach, laughing softly at the way the younger squirmed underneath him. He let the shirt fall back into place, moving up to nibble gently at Ryeowook’s collarbone, his heart fluttering at the way that the shorter man breathlessly whimpered out his name.

“If I was a human, I wouldn’t get to hold you in my arms, to feel your fingers on my wings, to taste you lips against mine. Ryeowook, I wouldn’t trade those feelings for anything in the world,” he murmured, flopping back down next to his dongsaeng and pulling him into his arms.

Ryeowook curled up next to Jongwoon, slipping his leg in between his hyung’s and running his long fingers over his torso, pressing a few soft kisses against that warm skin, still marveling at the fact that magic had done this, the magic that much of his race had lost helped him regain what he’d lost, helped him be so close to the one he loved. He sighed softly and Jongwoon peered down at him curiously.

“What is it, Wook?”

“I love you.”

Jongwoon chuckled. “I know that, stupid. I love you too.”

“Sometimes this all feels like a dream. The Elders even said it was experimental magic and that they weren’t positive it would work, so sometimes it feels like I’m just living in a dream and that I’ll wake up one day and you’ll be gone again.” Ryeowook’s voice was quiet, strained, and Jongwoon felt his heart clench. He carefully began to run his fingers through the younger pixie’s hair, humming softly to calm him down.

“Shhh, don’t think like that. I promised you the day that I came back that I would never leave you and I would never break that promise, okay? This is real and I will hold you every second until you believe it.”

Ryeowook smiled slightly. “You really don’t miss your old life? You like living with us?”

Jongwoon nodded immediately. “I love living with you and your brothers. I don’t miss my old life at all. Being with you is a dream come true, my silly bear. Besides,” he started, pressing a kiss against Ryeowook’s forehead before snuggling down under the blanket, noting how his dongsaeng was close to nodding off. “Being a pixie is really just another grand adventure.”

Look at that!! It didn't take me three months to update!! :D

I know this is shorter than my last chaptered fic, but this felt like the appropriate place to end it, you know? So this will be the last chapter of Another Adventure <33 (though I will not deny the possibility of future one shots in this verse...)

Thanks for sticking with me, you guys, especially considering how long this story took me to write. The journey to getting it done wasn't nearly as smooth as the journey to complete 49 Days was, but I'm rather proud of the end result, nonetheless. 

So thanks, for being awesome and for reading this story and going on the journey with me. You guys rock. <333

love,

afallingstar