A cool waft of air hit the side of my face, the sting waking me up from my sleep. I opened my eyes and realised that his side of the tent is unoccupied and that the cloth which tied the entrance to our temporary abode was unknotted. But it’s still dark outside, so what could he be doing?

Curiosity coursed through my body and provided the impetus for me to go and investigate. I crawled outside the tent, being discreetly quiet as he had warned me, and went off to find him. I managed to walk about 20 meters away when I glanced back, making a mental note on the camp’s whereabouts, hoping that I wouldn’t get lost.

Being out and about is liberating. It might not be so much of an adrenaline rush as it did the first time I was out, but it is still such a wonderful feeling. The memory of dad brushing my head suddenly flashed in my head, giving me that prickly feeling at the back of my eyes.

Losing dad had always been a fear of mine and when he left without coming back for days just made me expect the inevitable to come sooner than I had expected it to. I sort of knew that father will never come back to me, but having heard it from someone else just made it more…Real. The wound is fresh, but my father wouldn’t want me to be sad, He would want me to get my act together and survive.

“Chanyeol…” I whispered but no one answered.

“Chany-“

“What are you doing here?” Someone tapped my shoulders, making me jump several feet forward.

“I couldn’t sleep.” He smiled

“You need to sleep.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the camp.

I blushed. It has been about three months since we’ve met and seen each other and it just makes everything more awkward. Maybe it was the carnal need for touch that made us so brave the last time we were together, but now, even his smile makes my stomach flutter and face go crimson. 

As I gaze upon his wide shoulders, my mind started to wander and I began to think clearly for a change. Why is he doing this for me? What has he left to come and leave with me? Am I imposing and making life more difficult for him?

With that lingering in my head, I continued to walk the short distance to our tent.

“Are you cold?” He asked once we were inside, lying down on our backs, the air feeling uncomfortable and…weird.

I nodded and almost immediately my eyes widen as he scooted closer to my side of the tent, encasing me in his arms and hugging me tightly.

“Yeol…” Was the only string of letters that managed to escape my quivering lips.

“Don’t think too much about this, about…everything, okay. We’ll be fine,” He said as if reading my prior thoughts.

I wasn’t going to argue and so just nodded, feeling the arms around my waist grip tighter when I did.

“Go to sleep,” he whispered.

***

In the morning we travelled through lands of grass, tall enough to make even chanyeol stand on his toes. Blue had to keep his head down the entire time we were in the area, we were exposed and no trees surrounded us at all.

“Shht.” Chanyeol stopped abruptly- my face implanting on the horse’s behind as I didn’t halt fast enough.

“What is i-“

“Shht.”

“THEY’RE HERE- GET ON NOW!” Chanyeol put the hood of his robe on and turned his face around to scream at me.

Before he can even turn his face around, an iron cladded man in a suit of armour jumped out of nowhere and swung his bat at Chanyeol’s head.

I closed my eyes and knelt, hiding behind the horse as the friction of metal against metal rang through my ears, making my teeth chatter.

Chanyeol screamed and I stood up, “NO!” I bellowed as I stare agape at the scene before me.

Chanyeol was behind the knight, his front on the iron man’s back while holding a knife to the gargantuan’s throat, an upper hand in most situations. However, the tip of a sword could be seen peering out of Chanyeol’s back; the giant had committed suicide and had stabbed himself as to kill chanyeol.

“Pul-pull it out,” Chanyeol croaked, his eyes wide in shock.

I stumbled towards them, my hands shaking, and placed my fingers on the hilt of the sword, replacing the iron man’s. I think he’s dead; his head was bobbing from side to side as the only thing that kept him afoot was chanyeol.

“PULL IT!” Chanyeol grunted, and I obliged almost immediately.

A deep scream rang through my ears as I felt the blade of the sword slide out from the flesh it had penetrated.

I ran to Chanyeol’s side, catching his head before it made impact with the hardened, cold, ground. His eyes fluttered open and his gaze was set to nothing.

“Chan-chanyeol… oh m-my- w-what do I do?” I sobbed

“It’s okay I’ll be fine, just leave me here and run,” He whispered.

“I won’t leave yo-“

“Take blue and leave now!”

“No!”

Instead of answering, Chanyeol let out a deep breath-It stopped. He stopped breathing. His chest stopped moving.

My heart felt like it had missed several beats as pearls of liquid started to flow down my dampened cheeks. Shaking him, I let out a string of incomprehensible sentences. Still, nothing happened; He just stared into the sky, his eyes still open.

He was gone.

My hands draped over his torso as I turned into a crying mess. The horse was neighing furiously and started to step back from me and the lifeless chanyeol.

I cried and cried until I felt a pool of heat on his chest where my head was laying. However, the heat started to spread and within seconds, his body broke apart, turning into ash as if he was burnt.

I crawled backwards, shielding my eyes from the burst flames that had erupted from the pile of ashes which used to be chanyeol.

Slowly, a figure started to appear from the dust, I blanched when a breathing chanyeol had come back to life. His eyes were open as the flames burnt around him.

“Don’t touch me,” He warned as the fire disappeared.

I didn’t listen and went up to hug him. He flinched when I made impact but then softens and placed one hand at the small of my back while his other hand pulled my face away from his bare chest.

“Don’t cry. I told you I’d be fine, didn’t I?”

“I thought you died,” I sobbed even louder.

He chuckled and placed his lips on mine, kissing me softly. Immediately, I grabbed his hair and pulled him closer to me, deepening the kiss. He groaned and my hands roamed around his body, quickly finding out that he was completely .

“I love you,” I whispered and he stopped, pulling back and searched my eyes as if he couldn’t quite believe it. Grinning, he didn’t waste another minute as he kissed me with even more passion, lifting my legs and wrapping it around his waist.

“I love you too.”

***