Luhan was feeling rather proud with himself. In fact, if he ignored the niggling thought that he had two human beings trussed up against their will in one of the most dangerous areas of the forest, he was feeling quite excited. That is, if he didn’t look at the angry, blistering burn scorched into the once-smooth, porcelain cheek of the knight, too.

But he couldn’t feel proud of himself for long. Not when the knight shifted slightly in his hazy sleep, not when his bodyguard’s breath hitched and a tear slid down the dark side of his face, and definitely not when the knight’s head slumped back to rest on his bodyguard’s shoulder, fully exposing the cringe-worthy wound that took up nearly half the knight’s face. A dried trail of blood s its way all down the knight’s neck, disappearing into the collar of the armour. Even the rich shining orange of his cape was stained with the faded red.

Luhan swallowed thickly and turned away. He hadn’t given the knight that scarring blemish, but he had, in a way, been responsible for it. The one who’d actually caused it was now curled up in a corner, hugging his knees and rocking back and forth nervously. Kris had never been one to use his powers extensively; at the most, he’d light the fireplace with them, and even then, he’d wince when the wood started crackling. To actually cause long-lasting bodily harm to someone would traumatize him for life. As Luhan watched Kris with sad eyes, Kris’s wings slowly unfolded and shrouded him in a protective umbrella of solitude and darkness.

Luhan sighed and turned back to face the two humans. He couldn’t blame him. He himself, felt like just abandoning everything, felt like going back to three days ago, when everything was rainbows and sparkles and his teasing of the knight was at its highest fun peak.

But then, noooo, the Knight just had to go find him and Kris in those bushes, just had to capture them. If only he’d done as he was supposed to and stopped at one of the previous bushes, they wouldn’t be in the predicament they were in.

“Good job, Luhan.” He felt a slim hand rest on his bare shoulder gently. “We’ll have to get Lay to heal that burn, though.”

Luhan twisted his head to look up at the ever-familiar voice. The smooth curve of Xiumin’s jaw was all he could see, not far above him, since Xiumin was a tad vertically challenged. His voice was level, and Luhan couldn’t tell if he was feeling actually proud, or if he was just holding back his repulsion. Luhan knew how Xiumin felt about harming other living beings. He realised, with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, that Xiumin probably considered this the lowest of the low, the unspeakable sin which would deeply stain a reputation so bad no amount of good deeds would whitewash it out.

“I’ll get him.” Luhan croaked. He just wanted to leave, leave the stinking hole where his eyes automatically snapped in default to the red-purple-black mass disfiguring the Knight’s youthful face. Every time his eyes glazed over it briefly, it felt as though all the air was being out of his lungs and a punch was being harshly delivered to his gut simultaneously.

He couldn’t imagine what it must be like for Kris.

Xiumin nodded and passed him, almost quickly, Luhan thought, as though he was more than eager to get away from the one who had caused harm to someone else.

He noticed he kept his distance around Kris, never stepping into an imaginary boundary of two metres around the Dragon Prince.

He couldn’t take it anymore. With little more than a sigh of regret, he turned and started to limp in the direction of the healer, Lay.

The flowers left behind were dead and shrivelled seconds after he left.

***

“Luhan, my baby!” Luhan heard the voice he had grown to hate and love at the same time as he parted some herbs which acted as a curtain for the doorway. Lay poked his grinning face from another portion of his little cosy home and wiggled his eyebrows at the nymph.

“So, what’s this visit for? Finally realised that I’m the only one for you? Got some needs only I can fill? Anything, my dear.”

Luhan glared sourly at the part-unicorn and dropped himself onto an old, polished tree stump which served doubly as a chair. Nearly all the furniture was based around the theme of wood, plants, and life, just like most other homes. The only difference was that this home had dangerous and beautiful potions and liquids lining all the lopsided shelves in the walls. Dust motes danced gracefully in the air all around but only revealed themselves in the overspill of sunlight pouring from the windows. Luhan coughed, and that broke the silence.

“I need you to come to the Dragon Underturn. We’ve got a couple of injured-“ Luhan paused. If he said ‘humans’, Lay would never come along. He and Kris would have the Knight’s blemish on their hands for the rest of their long lives.

“-A couple of injured dudes over there and they can’t be moved.” Luhan finished lamely.

Lay frowned and opened his mouth to ask  what sort of people they were, but Luhan quickly cut in, lifting his smooth, slender leg up in front of Lay’s face.

“My feet got cut too. I need them healed.”

Lay paused for a few seconds, taking the time to survey Luhan’s legs and feet “Hmm.” He gently took Luhan’s leg into his hands and inspected the cuts closely. “You should have come earlier.” Lay murmured as he tilted Luhan’s foot this way and that. “I’ll have to use my horn for this; some of your cuts are quite deep.”

Lay smirked up at the deer nymph. “It’s my only other baby, other than you. You should feel honoured.”

Luhan didn’t bother with an answer, simply scoffed and tossed his head to the side as a tiny bump started to form on the middle of Lay’s forehead. He hated it when Lay made his horn grow, even though he kept it to only a protruding stump maybe a thumb’s length long.

Still, it grossed him out.

Beads of sweat started to dot Lay’s forehead as his horn grew longer and longer. Luhan knew how much effort it took to grow horns. In fact, it was so strenuous that his kind only shed their horns once every ten years. Fully growing them out took a year.

Lay touched a blunt tip to the middle part of Luhan’s foot and closed his eyes as the healing started.

************

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