"Sunggyu is gone?" Sungjong finally spoke up.

"Yes." Woohyun didn't hesitate. "He's always told me when he was leaving before, but he's been gone for two days now and-- I wouldn't be so worried if it were anyone else--" his voice was so rough that Sungjong cut his off mercifully.

"We know," he said, aiming for comforting, "he talks about you a lot."

"But who are you guys? How do you know him?"

"We're like Sunggyu." Sungjong didn't know how much or even what to explain to him. In his hand Myungsoo's fingers had tightened so he squeezed back in answer.

"You're all angels?" Woohyun's eyes widened in something like wonder and it startled a laugh out of Sungyeol.

"I forgot about that part. Hey if Sunggyu told you that then I'm going to make fun of him forever."

"Well, he didn't say that but, well, what else could you be?""

"I'm not anything." Sungyeol told him, "I just own this shop. The rest of them are reapers."

"Not the kind with the black hoods and scythes." Sungjong in. "We just souls to the afterlife." He could feel Myungsoo wavering towards Woohyun when Woohyun blinked in confusion. He didn't move forward any though.

"Then he was the one who reaped my brother."

"Yes."

"He took my brother from me?" Woohyun's voice was past shaky, it wobbled and sounded wet and Myungsoo finally stepped forward.

"No, he did what he was supposed to. He did his job."

"My brother wouldn't just leave me. He couldn't just die."

"He couldn't help it." Myungsoo said desperately.

"Enough." Dongwoo commanded in a tone that no one could ignore. It was the first thing that he'd said since he returned and it sounded deafening. Sometimes Sungjong forgot that happy, silly Dongwoo could be this way, making everyone stop where they were and wait for him to speak again. "He should be able to see you for himself if we're going to talk about this."

Sungjong’s mouth worked for a moment. "Sunggyu is the only one he recognizes."

Dongwoo rubbed a hand over his face. "There's always a way." It sounded bleak and cryptic.

"What does that mean?" Myungsoo asked suspiciously.

"It means I can teach Sungyeol a spell to make us all visible to Woohyun."

Sungjong felt Myungsoo moving forward and tried to keep a tight hold on his hand when he caught the murderous look on his face. He barely kept himself from saying Myungsoo's name. Dongwoo only looked at Myungsoo with sad, apologetic eyes but he didn't look very guilty.

"Why couldn't you tell me earlier that this was possible?"

"Because it's unnatural. The living keep living and reaped souls have to move on. All souls move on. That's what's healthy."

Myungsoo grit his teeth but didn't answer.

"How is it supposed to work?" Sungyeol asked, curiosity piqued. Obviously Dongwoo had some serious knowledge tucked away in his head. No surprise-- he'd been dead longer than all of them combined.

"It's a spell that should alter him just a little, just enough to see our plane of existence. He should be able to see through whatever makes people forget us. He's already got a head start with Sunggyu so it might be easy."

"But it won't do anything too crazy, right? It won't mess him up?"

"No. “Dongwoo shook his head and looked at Myungsoo as if to assure him. "If it works he should be able to see anything Sungyeol can see. If it doesn’t work then it just doesn't work and we try something else."

"Well that's good and all," Woohyun spoke up, "but why do I need it? You all look fine to me now and I can't imagine forgetting any of you any time soon."

"Well, let's do an experiment." Sungyeol smiled at him and urged him to turn around once, forcing Woohyun to take his eyes off all of them for just a moment. When Woohyun was facing them once again he just blinked.

"Sungyeol, who are these guys?"

Surprisingly Myungsoo laughed. Sungjong couldn't help a smile either and Sungyeol joined in the laughter. Dongwoo's own smile was a dull imitation of what it usually was, but it was a nice change from what it had been the past few days.

"Wait, these are the guys that are gonna help us find Sunggyu." Woohyun remembered. "Right?" He added uncertainly.

"That's good. It should be easy if he can recall us a little bit." Dongwoo's confidence comforted Sungjong, like always. "So let's do that before we do anything else." He shrugged off the blanket Myungsoo had draped over him when he had returned and slipped into his cold silence.

"To my lab!" Sungyeol said excitedly. He really reminded Sungjong of his grandmother sometimes. "Hey, you don't know if there are any psychics in your family do you?" he asked Woohyun as they pushed into the kitchen. Sungjong heard Woohyun’s "Uhh, I don't think so." As they disappeared inside but he was already turning to Myungsoo.

"I already told him we don't have any psychics in our family." Myungsoo mumbled weakly. Sungjong just nodded. Their fingers were still locked and his chest swelled with the desire to lean in and hug Myungsoo-- push his face into the curve of Myungsoo's neck where it was surely safe and warm. He didn't have to ask f Myungsoo was okay because Myungsoo face was completely miserable.

"I wanted to see him and I wanted him to see me but I didn't want it to be all tangled up in this mess. Dongwoo is right, the living and the dead both just need to move on."

"We can't change it." Sungjong reminded him softly, "Reapers rarely get to change anything, so just try to enjoy seeing him while you can."

Myungsoo nodded at him, his eyes keeping Sungjong's gaze intently. "I don't want anything to happen to Hoya or Sunggyu, of course, but... you don't think that anything will happen to Woohyun do you? You don't think he'll get punished or anything?"

"We won't know anything until we talk to Dongwoo and he finally tells us what happened to him, but honestly? Sunggyu is much older than Woohyun. He's a reaper. He's held responsible for this because he should know the rules."

"We didn't know about those rules."

Sungjong sighed, frustrated that he didn't entirely understand himself. Frustrated that he felt helpless. "I don't know. Just try not to worry right now. Get ready to see your brother again." He waited until Myungsoo was smiling at him lightly before forcing himself to let go of Myungsoo's hand. There was always that danger that he might get too comfortable and cross a line. He watched Myungsoo nod bravely and put on his mask of indifference that he'd actually perfected for particularly difficult reaps and then together they pushed open the kitchen door,

"There. That's it?" Sungyeol was saying as he stirred at something with a big wooden spoon. It didn't look like they'd made much as he bent over the pot to look deep inside. It didn't smell bad, just slightly sweet and thick like it hung in the air and might get caught in your throat. "That wasn't that hard at all. Weird mixture, but not hard."

"Yes, now he just has to drink it." Dongwoo nodded, so Sungyeol helped bring a ladle full of the stuff to Woohyun's mouth. Woohyun didn't make much of a face as he drank, so it couldn't have been that bad tasting. Sungjong knew how vile Sungyeol's potions could get. He was just glad it wasn't him that had to drink anything.

"Now just," Dongwoo reached into the pot and swiped his fingers along the bottom, catching the dregs of the potion, "this." He wiped the thick remains across the veins of Woohyun's wrists like paint. "Now let's sit him down."

As soon as Dongwoo said it, Woohyun sighed, "Feels good. Hey, did you drug me?" His head began to loll as they forced him into a chair at the kitchen table.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Myungsoo asked, edging on panic.

When he spoke, Woohyun's eyes snapped to him and even as they began to droop they sparked with recognition. "Dongsaeng?" He said in a small voice.

Sungyeol caught him, catching and cushioning Woohyun's forehead with a hand before it hit the table. "Well ."

"No, he's gonna be okay. That means it worked." Dongwoo assured them.

"He passed out!" Myungsoo's voice cracked with worry.

Dongwoo nodded, "He's going to be seeing an entirely new spectrum now; it's going to be a little tiring and he'll have to have time to get used to it. He'll sleep for a while and then when he wakes up we can all go over this the right way-- with some damn logic."

Sungjong was pretty sure Dongwoo had never wanted to do anything logically in the entire time he'd known him.

Sungyeol followed Dongwoo out of the kitchen but Sungjong and Myungsoo stayed behind. Together they moved Woohyun from the uncomfortable and unforgiving position at the kitchen table and over to the window seat where he had enough room to curl up. When he was settled, Myungsoo and Sungjong sank to the floor next to him. Sungjong wished they'd thought to at least give Woohyun the potion in the living room so at least Myungsoo could watch over him comfortably, but it seemed Myungsoo was going to make himself comfortable either way because he began pushing at Sungjong legs until they were flat on the ground and he could rest his head against Sungjong's thighs.

"Why do you have such bony knees?" Myungsoo complained quietly.

"I'm so sorry there's not enough pillowing on me for you." Sungjong plucked at one of Myungsoo's hairs playfully before sinking his fingers in and playing with Myungsoo's hair the way Myungsoo usually did to him. Myungsoo took to it like an affectionate, lazy cat.

"No, it's perfect." He murmured.

Sungjong smiled contently-- a small moment of peace since Dongwoo had disappeared. With everything going on, Sungjong hadn't even noticed the sky darkening outside. It was easy to fall asleep with the comforting weight of Myungsoo's head in his lap. Dongwoo and Sungyeol would wake them when they were needed or it something happened, and if they did wake up they could begin to fix this mess. Sungjong clung to that optimism as he fell asleep, fingers still lazily running through the warm hair close to Myungsoo's scalp.

He honestly though that they'd wake up before Woohyun, but he was wrong. Instead he woke up to Woohyun's surprised shouting.

"You died and shacked up with a ?" Sungjong blinked at the sleep in his eyes. Woohyun was in front of them now, eyes wide and accusing, finger pointed at his brother who was squinting up from Sungjong's lap. "That is so ing like you!"

who was i kidding when i thought this was going to be a oneshot.