Eunhyuk tended to a small fire while Leeteuk murmured to himself and wrote words, lines and symbols all over a piece of crumpled paper. They had already eaten, and sun had long gone, night having come upon them hours ago, Leeteuk deciding to set up camp in a large meadow. It had been like this the whole night, he'd been writing on that damn piece of paper since they got here, not even paying attention to him for once, which was rare, good for a change, yet somewhat unsettling, had Leeteuk stopped liking him anymore? Was he just the kid with the bleach blonde hair and anger management issues again?

Thinking over it would not do him any good, so giving up on the fire, and the chance of talking to Leeteuk at all tonight, he walked away from the warmth of the flame and off into the middle of the plain of grass, not really caring about getting lost or getting told off by Leeteuk, the glow of the fire would lead him back and Leeteuk probably wouldn't notice his absence. He flopped down on the grass and stared up at the sky. It was a deep navy blue speckled with thousands of dots of shining white. It was beautiful, he thought, like an escape from all the massacre and bloodshed, it was something that made living a little bit more worthy. There weren't many things like that, there probably weren't any more than the night sky, sunset, sunrise, and the motivation and determination that kept him moving on, maybe his powers as well, they were pretty cool.

But this made him wonder, what would happen when they had fulfilled their mission? When all they could do had been done and they were no longer needed, what would happen to them? Would they be exiled? Worshipped? Killed? Forgotten? Would they fade into nothing? Lose their powers and just live life like regular humans? Would they drown in humanity? Become a part of the stagnant population and just exist? Without their powers, they were just the same as one of the soldiers, they were human. But, were they not performing at their best? What if they had some type of power they haven't uncovered? New abilities that they hadn't discovered, hidden deep within their hearts? Eunhyuk wondered sometimes if this was true... Like maybe Ryeowook's almost scary skill to be prepared even when he didn't know what was happening, or Donghae's unbelievably strong will, or Han Geng's flexibility, which is way beyond human standards, or even Leeteuk's leadership skills, he's able to think about what's best for an entire group in a matter of seconds, it's incredible. He hadn't seen anything of high significance in himself, which made him a little insecure.

Maybe beyond all the hate, beyond the war, greed, pain, sorrow, beyond all of that, there was hope, there was someone else in the world, apart from the elements, wanting, trying to make a difference, just like they were. Maybe there was a place beyond the stars where everyone was at peace, and there were no fights or killing. Maybe somewhere, anywhere there was a spark of belief, belief that the ways of human civilization could change from the ghastly ways it was now. Maybe there was a chance to make a revolution, rip humanity from the loop of destiny and stop them from running in circles again and again.

Maybe there was hope.

Just maybe.

He was so lost in his thoughts, he didn't realise another person had joined him until that someone had lay next to him and spoken up.

"Stop thinking so much."

Eunhyuk's head whipped to the head to the side quickly, Leeteuk was looking up at the sky with a peaceful smile, dimpled cheeks high and defined on his face. So he had noticed he'd left, Eunhyuk noted to himself as Leeteuk turned his attention towards him.

"You'll have another attack by doing that." he mumbled, hair falling over his eyes.

"..." Eunhyuk blinked at him with a confused face, but shrugged it off and went back to looking at the stars. "... Why are you here...?"

"What do you mean 'why am I here'?" Leeteuk asked incredulously. "I'm looking after you; well, watching out for you..."

"But you weren't paying attention to me as usual..." Eunhyuk stated quietly. "Not to sound needy, but you usually always know when I need something. or something's up... It made me a little confused when you weren't even talking to me..."

"Sorry, I was measuring something..." Leeteuk's eyes widened in realisation. "I didn't mean for you to get the vibe that I was ignoring you..."

"What?"

"I was just going to tell you." Leeteuk laughed softly. "I was trying to track all the superior life-forms, so humans, throughout the country and trying to separate the supernatural ones from the normal ones, so I could tag the places we can skip and just head to the places with abnormal power levels."

"... Okay... So, did you?" Eunhyuk frowned. "Or did or that work go to waste?"

"There is a bit more supernatural life energy in the Geumcheon, Guro, Gangseo, Songpa and Gangdong districts than all the others, I say we just check those areas... I also calculated the districts in the Northern half, and I've written down the districts that the others should go to, and I'll tell them tomorrow, they'll probably be asleep by now...."

"Ah..." Eunhyuk nodded slowly. "I see, that makes sense... More sense... Than before..."

"So yeah, that's what I've been doing..." Leeteuk shrugged nonchalantly. "What have you been thinking about? Nothing too drastic I hope..."

"I don't think so..." Eunhyuk hummed. "... I haven't been thinking too much..."

Leeteuk stared at him incredulously, an eyebrow raised and lips in a small frown. Eunhyuk gritted his teeth, focusing on the sky to try and ignore the Life Element's gaze, he hated those eyes, they could draw more emotion out of him than on a really bad day fighting with Donghae in a few seconds. Leeteuk always knew when he was lying, when he was scared or anxious or hiding something, anything from him. He swore the older knew him like the back of his own hand, even better than he knew himself maybe. This fact scared him, as Leeteuk knew exactly what made him break down, and what could make him drown in sorrow. Yet it was somehow reassuring, because he knew how to make him happy again, he knew how to fix his problems and what could make him forget about his past. Eunhyuk's eye twitched with the concerned gaze upon him, and turned away.

"Okay!" Eunhyuk gave up. "So maybe I was thinking about something..."

"What is it this time?" Leeteuk sighed knowingly. "Hyukjae, you really need to just stop trying to hide things... You never hide anything and therefore are no good at it..."

"Please don't call me that..." Eunhyuk mumbled, looking back at the older. "And I was just thinking... About... Well... I dunno, a lot-"

"And that's how you get a panic attack." Leeteuk repeated with an exasperated voice. "Seriously Hyuk, what is 'a lot'?"

"... I dunno..." Eunhyuk shrugged, looking away again. "The future? Our fate? Our abilities?"

"What about the future? What about our fate?" Leeteuk queried. "What about our abilities?"

"Well... I guess what will happen to us when we've..." Eunhyuk trailed off. "Y'know, done our job..."

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" Eunhyuk looked at the older quizzically.

"Nothing." Leeteuk repeated.

"How?"

"Well... If you're wondering if we'll fade away or something, we can't." Leeteuk shrugged. "It's not possible even with our powers. So we're safe... Also, our fate is still the same, we're still stuck in the cycle of destiny..."

"... Will we die...?" Eunhyuk asked quietly.

"No." Leeteuk shook his head. "We can't die, not this time... What about our abilities you were talking about?"

"I dunno, you and the rest of the group seem so much better than me..." Eunhyuk frowned, closing his eyes. "Even Donghae."

"You? Feeling inferior to Donghae? Well that's a first..." Leeteuk chuckled, although stopped when Eunhyuk gave him a harsh glare. "Okay... Um, if it makes you any better, you have special abilities like the rest of us..."

"Like what?" Eunhyuk raised an eyebrow, his expression screaming 'sarcasm'.

"Well, each Elemental... Well, it's neither a soul nor spirit but... Like an... Essence... Yeah, so an Elemental Essence contains the "Main Input', or the actual power, 'Enhanced Capabilities', specific skills, 'Secondary Initiator', a side power, such as... Um... Aura Reading for the Energy Element.... And an 'Mimicry', or an animal essence which represents our Element, such as a... Wolf, for Death or a cheetah for Electricity... There's more than meets the eye than just our powers Hyukjae... We're so so powerful; we could corrupt this world... We could kill the whole North Korean Rebellion... But we don't, because we want to save humanity, not destroy it, we want to get rid of that damn power that ruin the world in the first place..."

"How do you know all this?" Eunhyuk asked, not minding that Leeteuk had called him by his really name. "And can you tell me my Enhanced Capability things?"

"I am the Life Element, Hyukjae; I am allowed to look into my own life essence, am I not?" Leeteuk deadpanned, looking back at the stars. "And no, I can't tell you, you have to discover them by yourself."

"Ugh, of course..." Eunhyuk rolled his eyes. "I was just asking."

"And ask away." Leeteuk grinned, though his smile faded after a while. "Is something up?"

Here we go.

"... No..." Eunhyuk frowned. "Why would you ask?"

"Because that's what you always say when something is wrong."

"... Dammit..."

"Just give in, what's up... Apart from this whole element jazz." Leeteuk sighed, sitting up. "Do you want a drink? Because I think I'll get myself one..."

"Eh... Whatever." Eunhyuk shrugged, standing up as the Life Element led the way back to the camp. The walk was quite nice, quiet and tranquil with a sense of peace about it, long grass brushing up against his jean-covered legs. The camp remained the same from when they had left it, it confused Eunhyuk how they could just leave with nothing happening.

"How can we just leave it abandoned like this?"

"Because we're really bad at looking after stuff."

"Teuk..." Eunhyuk face palmed as he watched Leeteuk make some tea using some leaves he'd grown. "Just, no..."

Leeteuk observed the younger's behaviour as he boiled the small pot of water over the flame. He sat next to him, hunched up near the fire, knees tucked under his chin and eyes half-closed showing confusion, and deep thought.

"So..." Leeteuk smiled happily, glancing over to him. "What's up?"

"... It's... Complicated..."

"Is it about Donghae?"

"GAH! HOW DID YOU KNOW?!"

"Because that's what you always say when something is about Donghae."

"... I really need to stop being so predictable..."

"Probably." Leeteuk agreed, pouring the tea into two 'leaf-cups' he'd grown. "Now, what's up with Donghae? You haven't been fighting as of late, so I suppose that's given you time to rethink your opinions of him?"

"I guess..." Eunhyuk mumbled, taking the cup Leeteuk gave him. "It's just..."

"Complicated?"

"How did you know?" Eunhyuk rolled his eyes, voice laced with sarcasm. "Okay, it's just... Ryeowook... He's been... Well, helping me... With... Being... Nice, or at least tolerate without yelling... To Donghae..."

"And...?" Leeteuk asked curiously. "That's good."

"You could say..." Eunhyuk frowned, sipping his tea. "But, it's mucked me up..."

"... Mucked... You...Up...?" Leeteuk repeated slowly. "How and why?"

"Why, I don't know." Eunhyuk admitted with a shake of his head. "How? I don't even know either! It'd just... I don't know what to think about him... Because when I do... I... He... He confused me. Every time I'm with him, I have an urge to fight with him but... I don't want to see him sad... I want to hurt him, but I can't bring myself to... I know I hate him, and I know I want to wipe that smile off his face, but... Every time I see him smile... My heart tells me not to, and it has a funny pattern... It's almost like I've got two different sides of me, telling me what is right or wrong, or wrong or right... I can't even tell..."

Leeteuk's brow furrowed in deep thought, and he considered the situation from Eunhyuk's point of view. No, not Eunhyuk, Hyukjae, the boy with bleach blonde hair and social interaction difficulties. The boy who took two weeks to utter his first word to him, the boy who found the simplest of conversing hard and the easiest of emotions mind-puzzling. He didn't have anger management, he just got angry because he couldn't understand these new emotions that were bottling up inside him, he had a hard time expressing himself, and all the feelings buzzing about his brain were doing him no good. Leeteuk frowned, but then wondered if Hyukjae was feeling what he suspected he was...

"Is it... Possible..." Leeteuk's voice was quiet yet steady. "That you... I don't know... Could be... Maybe just... A itty-bitty... Bit... In... Love... With Donghae...?"

Eunhyuk gave him a harsh glare, and from that he could tell that this topic had come up in conversations with Ryeowook perhaps. Leeteuk watched his face morph into something he could only recognise as realisation, or surprise, or all three. His body tensed, his eyes started glowing bright, neon yellow, and an electrical aura started giving a startling glow to him. The Life Element vaguely realised that this was Eunhyuk's way of dealing with shock, by burning it all out in a burst of power.

"... Hyukjae...?" Leeteuk asked cautiously. "Are you okay...?"

"... Jungsoo hyung..." Eunhyuk gazed up at him. He looked lost, broken, he had that insecure 'Hyukjae' look to him, it was unsettling, almost to the point to where it was scary. "What if I am falling in love with him...?"

Leeteuk's eyes widened with surprise. Well, this was an interesting turn of events, Hyukjae, the Lee Hyukjae, the socially awkward person, accepting the fact that he could be feeling an emotion such as love? And more importantly, accepting the fact that he could maybe want to interact with Donghae, the Lee Donghae he detested (or claimed to), in one of the most intimate of relationships there could be?

Leeteuk thought out his possible answers to give the younger Elemental Guardian, to try help him uncover, discover, realise, what this feeling was and how he should react and do about it.

"Well... Maybe you aren't." Leeteuk answered in the best way he could think of. "You don't know do you?"

Eunhyuk blinked at him, staring at him as if the world depended on it. Lost and confused, Leeteuk could only imagine what he was feeling.

"... What...?" he asked quietly.

"... Well, Hyukjae..." Leeteuk sighed, petting his unruly blonde locks. "... Sometimes it's... Hard accepting feelings for another person, believe me, I know how you feel... And you just think and think and think... Because you just want to figure it out... But sometimes... You can't... And you just need to stop thinking... Distract yourself by training or something... Because one day... Just maybe one day... The answer will hit you in the head like a boulder... And you'll finally know what to do... But for the moment... Take some time to sort out your thoughts while you have some time away from him... And just wait... Because sometimes... You do have to stop and watch the world go by... Because you need to think..."

Leeteuk smiled sadly, glancing all over the place awkwardly before standing up, discarding of his emptied tea 'cup' by chucking it into the flames and turning towards the direction of the assigned sleeping area.

"Um... I guess I'll be going to bed then... Goodnight..."

Eunhyuk grasped his wrist, startling him and making his head whip around quickly.

"Wait!" he stammered out. "You... You said you know... How I felt... How???"

Leeteuk looked at him with vague eyes, memories and thoughts rushing through his head, exiting as soon as they came. He looked down, finding his shoes a lot more interesting than anything else at the current moment.

"... Goodnight, Hyukjae..."

Eunhyuk let his grip go slack on the others wrist, letting him walk away. Was it possible Leeteuk liked someone? What if it was him, what if it was Donghae? What if it-

Leeteuk was right, he really did overthink too much.

---

A/N:

... I honestly have nothing to say...

Um... Apart from that this is a meaningful, deep, heartfelt, spilling-your-guts type of chapter...

So kinda cheesy...

:D

ILY