Minho and Jonghyun were playing charades while waiting for Luna to return. So far, Jonghyun got everything Minho did but Minho couldn’t manage to guess a single thing from Jonghyun. Minho complained it wasn’t fair because whatever he was acting out, he had no idea what it was—it wasn’t from his twenty-two years of life.

  “Minho, it’s not that hard if you paid attention in your history class,” Jonghyun rolled his eyes, sitting down on the bed stretching.

  “There’s no history class on creatures, thanks,” Minho scoffed, shoving him away.

Jonghyun looked at the floor for a few seconds and realized it, slapping himself on the forehead, “Damn it.”

  “I call an automatic win,” Minho crossed his arms, “Because one, I knew none of those, and two, I’m Royal. So bow down to me peasant.”

Jonghyun snapped his head up and shoved Minho to his back, “What the hell did the King show you last night and when the hell were you so accepting of royalty?! Where’s Minho?!” he checked all over Minho, even slapped his face a few times, “Where’s my baby?!”

  “Get off!” Minho laughed and pushed him back, “Stop being a jerk!”

He sat up and Jonghyun chuckled, rubbing the back of his shoulder, “It’s been one night and suddenly you’re all ‘I think I'm okay with taking that title.’ What the hell happened? You can’t leave me out of these things,” the whined out the last word and held on to his arm, shaking it, “So tell me.”

Minho laughed before shoving him off again, shaking his head as his smile dimmed down, “Hey, I'm not that confident, still; don't exaggerate. I still really don't want to take it, but I really don't have a choice. . . You’re not gonna believe me, Hyung.”

  “You’ll hurt my feelings,” Jonghyun crossed his arms, “What? Waiting for a full moon or something?” he mimicked in a nasally voice.

Minho shook his head again, “I don’t sound like that.”

Jonghyun looked at him expectantly and scrunched his mouth, shrugging his shoulders obnoxiously.

  “Fine,” Minho rolled his eyes, “I found out I’m . . . a direct descent from the Queen.”

Jonghyun uncrossed his arms with a confused expression, “. . . You didn’t think about that already?”

  “Wait—what do you mean?”

  “Minho,” Jonghyun scoffed, “I’d get Daesung being inside you for the sake of saving creatures, but you’ve got to think about how he could even do that. Sure, being King has its advantages, but I doubt a Daegrent could enter a body without having some connection. I mean, I thought you were a grand child from him, rather than the Queen, but hey, congratulations. You have a family.”

Minho’s eye twitched at the last sentence, “Don’t piss me off.”

Jonghyun stood up and went as far away as he could, “I didn’t mean it like you were an orphan or something, you know that. Don’t get all bi-polar on me, now.”

Minho breathed out and held on to his burnt wrist, “Okay.” He looked down, sad that the only part that was a dream was seeing is mark upon the burn mark. He wished he could see it again in reality. It was another thing on his to-do list. He knew someone it would return to him, he just had to find out how. It was only a burn mark, it wasn’t like it could really hide anything, he liked to think.

Jonghyun slowly sat down next to him, breathing out heavily and staring at the door, “She’s taking a while, isn’t she?”

Minho nodded, staring too.

They both very well knew she was a busy person, but she’d always be at most an hour late. Judging by the time of day, they’d been waiting for more than that.

  “Maybe a fight broke out,” Minho nodded, “Not always clean here.”

  “Right, right . . .” Jonghyun slightly nodded.

The longer they stared at the door, the more Minho started getting paranoid. Anything could happen to Luna. Whether SangJung would find out or just out of a fight, Luna could be in trouble.

Daesung shifted in Minho to take away the negativity and replace it with anything else. Minho let it happen; he was being taught to keep the pessimism away and move on to something else.

  “Thanks,” Minho mumbled, rubbing an eye.

Jonghyun looked over to him, but said nothing, catching on quickly that it wasn’t towards him.

The two of them waited on, staring at the door, wondering if she’d even be coming today. Maybe there was an emergency she had to take care of.

Minho let himself wander back into his dreams. His parents’ faces printed all over. They were beautiful and so unreal and yet he was related to them. Related to more than that.

And still, the mark on his wrist. He just wished he would’ve had the option to just wear something over it all of his life. It made him feel almost degraded at this point. Even how his father agreed for him to be burned made him hurt a little because he only partly understood. And it still held the question why Seunghyun wasn’t to mention them at all. He didn’t think he’d ever be told or understand why.

The door started becoming unlocked and slowly a blonde head sneaked through, quietly shutting the door as quietly as possible.

  “Oh thank god, Luna,” Jonghyun breathed and stood, “We were getting worried—”

Jonghyun sniffed the air, openly, stiffening.

Minho could smell as much as Jonghyun how off Luna was. It was still Luna but there was a distinct smell of . . .

Jonghyun strode up to Luna and grabbed her hand, spinning her around and smelling the foulness right among her shoulder, so carefully exposing it.

Minho stood up and stopped himself from growling after he saw it.

  “Burned,” Jonghyun violently growled, “Ash. You smell like ash and flesh.”

Minho tried to look at Luna’s face but she covered it. He noticed she even wore a long sleeve on a rather warm day. She was hiding.

  “She’s not a shifter, is she?”

  “No, this is purely Luna. Those things smell like fish,” Jonghyun stared at the long burn along her shoulder, “You didn’t even get all the ash out, Luna . . .” she covered her face with her hair and Jonghyun tried to get a look, “Luna . . .”

She inched away from him, so he let go of her shirt, but held on to her hand, trying to grab her other shoulder, “Luna, let me . . .”

Minho walked up and brushed the blonde strands from her face, exposing the violent abuse among her skin.

Jonghyun grabbed Minho’s wrists roughly and turned Luna to face him, seeing exactly what Minho stared at.

  “It’s okay . . .” a human could barely even hear her.

Jonghyun and Minho looked at each other, slowly and carefully, rolling up the sleeves of Luna’s shirt, colors and marks matching her face. They didn’t even want to look anywhere else.

Daesung was losing his own cool, but kept Minho from going off. It was getting hot and Minho felt the sweat drip from his head, but he so faintly brushed his fingers among the bruises littered around, trying to come up with who would even be the culprit.

Jonghyun on the other hand, backed himself away, snarling. He sat himself in the far corner and closed his eyes, breathing harshly as he did his best to keep calm, “That—That . . .” he swore venom.

  “Did they do it anywhere else?” Minho asked in a hushed tone, pulling her hair behind her ears, “Did they . . .”

  “Just the upper half. . .” she barely raised her voice, “Nothing . . . else. . .”

Minho carefully held Luna’s face, “When did this happen?”

She tried to look away, “Look—I’ll be okay . . .”

  “When?”

She looked down, “Wonder why I was so late?”

  “All that time?” Minho breathed in disbelief, “All that time and. . . Oh, Luna. . .”

She scrunched up and moved her face away, pulling her hand to her eyes.

Minho looked at Jonghyun, the Taerant’s skin losing to fur and his voice losing to animal.

  “Jonghyun, don’t,” Minho ordered, moving from Luna, “Jonghyun, don’t you dare.”

Jonghyun opened his flashing eyes and stared to the floor, “They touched her. They touched my Luna. Luna’s hurt. Luna’s injured. Luna. . . Luna, I’m so sorry I failed Onew. . .”

Minho pressed his hands to the sides of Jonghyun’s head and let the heat wave emit to him, keeping him from changing in front of Luna and setting of a rampage. The fur retracted and it took a while before his eyes were brown again, slowly closing.

Minho let go, watching as Jonghyun calmed down and stood.

Minho brought Luna to the bed, both of them kneeling in front of her, “What happened?” Jonghyun hesitantly held Luna’s hand, his thumb her it, comfortingly.

Luna sighed, carefully rubbing her eyes and shook her head, “Kapsoo knows I’m doing something. He caught me with the camera—without the video—, and a couple days ago, I . . . went through your bags from camping. Taemin’s bag had a hoodie, so I gave that to him and . . .”

  “A necklace with a ring on it,” Minho finished for her.

She looked up but didn’t question him, “It had both of your names on the inside, so I gave that to him, too. I thought . . . it would help us all out. Kapsoo . . . caught it all.”

  “That was treading on thin ice,” Minho shook his head lightly, “That’s okay, but not when you—”

  “I knew I would’ve been caught,” Luna looked passed him, her dry lips, “But I had to do it. I know it got us somewhere. Problem is, we need . . . to work faster . . .” turned watery and she stopped speaking, covering her eyes with her hand again, “They’ll catch on quick. . .”

Jonghyun hastily got on the bed and nudged Luna’s head with his own. Minho would’ve laughed if it weren’t so serious at the moment.

Luna didn’t respond and Jonghyun repeated, a small, puppy whine emitting from his throat.

  “Jonghyun, come on . . .” she leaned away, her hair in her face again as she let out a breathy cry.

Jonghyun got behind her and pulled her in to cradle her, “I won’t let it happen ever again. Swearing on Onew’s life and Kibum’s grave. I won’t fail you guys again,” he buried his face in her hair; puppy cries going along with her, “They won’t touch you ever again, Luna.”

Jonghyun covered Luna half way with a blanket. She was exhausted after going straight to them after being struck senselessly.

  “I’m going to kill them before we blow this all up,” Jonghyun looked down at her before looking at Minho, “I’m going to kill Kapsoo with my own claws.”

Minho sighed, looking down at Luna, “It’s not worth it, as much as it seems like it does. As cruel as it sounds, letting him burn would be better. He’ll be enlightened you chose to end his life before the rest of them. Besides, we have no time to make extra stops.”

Jonghyun swiped a hand across his eyes and looked up, growling, “If he doesn’t die . . .”

  “You and I will take care of it,” Minho reassured him, “He’s on the brink of death anyway. If he tries to rebuild this, people would just send him to a psychiatric ward.”

Jonghyun looked at him, “All of us are just stories, aren’t we? Werewolves, dragons, monsters. . . Back in the day they believed all of that. Now it’s just . . . fairytales?”

Minho nodded, “Nightmares and dreams.”

The Taerant sighed, “Easier to blend in, I guess.”

  “Have you ever thought what it would be like out there after so long?” Minho nudged his shoulder before going to the window and watching out for the bird, “Like, what changed?”

  “You tell me,” he shrugged, “I knew differences when Onew and Luna came into the picture.”

  “So you know there’s a lot less trees and land to roam in?”

Jonghyun sighed, “I hate the world of today. I hated today back when I came here, too. I just wonder if our house is still standing after everything. . .”

Minho looked away from the window and smiled, “If you could tell me where, I’d go look.”

Jonghyun waved his hand, “Nah. . . I’ll find it once it’s all over.”

  “It shouldn’t be long from now,” Minho nodded, “A few days if everything goes as planned.”

Minho flinched away when the bird flew to the window and squawked madly at Minho. It inched closer and closer and repeated itself over and over and Jonghyun barked.

  “Shut up, you’ll wake up Luna!” he scolded it.

The bird set its eye on Luna and snapped its beak shut, facing Minho with one eye was a smaller squawk to get him over.

  “Minho . . .”

  “Trust me, it’s all good. . .”

Taemin blinked after the bird gave him what Minho offered, sitting down on the bed, “He’s real. He’s actually real. God, it’s like a bad movie plot turned worse,” he held his face in his hands, “I didn’t listen to him before but what’s so different now?”

Taemin looked up from his hands and stood in front of the bird, “You sent Luna to me, didn’t you Minho? You sent her to . . . and there’s no way she’s . . . ugh, okay.”

The bird scampered as Taemin took a huge breath and clutched on to the ring, “I. . . I don’t know the right choice, Minho. I feel like I’m all for you, but at the same time . . .” he sighed again, “Look, if anything . . . I’m sorry I’ve just . . . turned into a girl and cowered into a corner for months, now. What’s it been, almost half a year? What about our parents, our friends . . .”

Taemin turned and paced for a few moments, mumbling things to himself out of contradiction.

  “Okay, okay,” Taemin turned back, “I’m not confident yet, but, Hell, sometimes we have to go through things we don’t want to, right?” he smiled a little pained before sighing, “I do need you . . . Minho, I actually really do need you. We can work this out, right? I mean, you’re not gonna . . . eat me, right? If that’s it, I think my mind can deal up to a point. So . . . what is it that we’re doing? Send that to him, please?”

Jonghyun shook Minho violently, “Come back to me!” he whined out.

  “How many times have I told you to get off since I met you?” Minho asked, pushing him away, the smile large on his face.

  “Lost count. Feels like a thousand years worth,” Jonghyun shagged his hair, “Why the smiles, ugly?”

Minho scoffed, wiping his hands around his mouth but he just couldn’t get the smile to come off, “Taemin’s . . . okay with it. He’s . . . oh god, I’m gonna see him before I die.”

Sure, Taemin was okay with it, not fully, but still consented. He was giving Minho another chance, and finally after months of despair, one of his two goals were made.

  “I’ve been redeemed, Hyung,” Minho looked at the ground, an almost hysterical laugh upon him, “I’ve finally done it. I’ve finally . . .” Minho looked up at Jonghyun and gave him the biggest hug ever, “I feel fifteen again.”

Jonghyun hugged Minho back and chuckled, patting the younger’s back in congratulations, “You’re not even three months old, Minho.”

  “I love you being a smartass,” Minho retracted and held him at arms length, “Biggest I’d ever love.”

Jonghyun pulled out a sarcastic laugh, “Don’t miss me too much when I’m gone.”

The two froze in the midst of their smiles when the door started being operated on—being seen that the door was completely unlocked.

The two reacted quickly, covering Luna with the blanket and sitting awkwardly in front of her to cover the length of her body.

  “If they find out, pin them,” Jonghyun whispered.

Minho nodded, watching as the door opened and a soldier entered, slowly shutting the door behind him.

  “Don’t attack me,” he said, taking off his cap, “I swear, I did nothing wrong.”

Just by the hair, the two didn’t need for Onew to turn around and show his face to prove it was him. They got up hastily and it scared him.

  “I said don’t attack me—!”

The two fell on top of him and the all went crashing on the floor, smiles of the sorts as if the day couldn’t get any better.

They laughed a bit and welcomed Onew back quickly, taking turns hugging the guy out of how much they missed him. Jonghyun started whining and then crying until he was left to soak Onew’s shoulder when he sat up.

  “I thought you were dead, you rotten human,” Jonghyun sobbed holding on to Onew like a toddler would to his mother, “Don’t ever do that to us again—I want my Jonghyun Jr. born!”

  “Minho Jr.” Minho whispered in Onew’s ear.

  “Nu uh, I got here first!” Jonghyun slapped Minho away, burying his face back on Onew's shoulder, “Jonghyun Jr. is in line first!”

Minho winked at Onew, “Minho is a King. You want to name your son after a king right?”

Jonghyun scoffed in the midst of a sob, "Way to pull that out. . ."

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up, is Luna pregnant or something?!” Onew’s eyes popped out of his skull, “I’m sure as hell I didn’t do that!”

The two creatures suddenly put their hands up and protested hastily about his conclusion and quickly reassured him no one touched Luna.

  “Oh . . .” Jonghyun looked at Minho hesitantly, “Luna . . .”

  “I see her, no need,” Onew chuckled and got up, cracking his back in the process, “Damn, you guys tackle hard. And you cry eons worth of rivers, wow.”

  “Hyung . . .” Minho warned, “Just be glad you can’t combust.”

Onew looked at Minho funny, at the ready to ask Minho his question, but his eagerness to see Luna was stronger. He uncovered her half way with a smile on his face, watching her sleep so soundlessly.

Minho and Jonghyun looked at each other nervously.

  “I missed you . . .” Onew whispered, uncovering her face full of hair, pulling the strands behind her ear. Onew froze in his spot and his eyes wandered around her skin.

They both could even hear Onew’s jaw go taut before he said, “Explain. Now.”

  “Luna . . . was caught giving things to Taemin that they didn’t want him to have,” Jonghyun slowly got up, “All today they . . . she just came here an hour ago like this.”

Onew looked down her littered skin and even politely peered through the rest of her clothed top, seeing the evidence of her abuse all over—especially the burn and ash.

  “Onew, look, I’m so sorry!” Jonghyun treaded over and fell to his knees, “I know I promised you I’d keep her out of harm’s way and I totally failed on this one! I’m so sorry that I didn’t protect her from this, I should’ve just attempted to bust out the door the moment he and I got suspicious of her being so late! I really didn’t mean to, I swear—!”

Onew’s hand was on Jonghyun’s shoulder, looking down at him with unreadable eyes for the longest time Minho even felt uncomfortable.

But the taunting look hadn’t lasted as he grabbed Jonghyun up into a comforting hug, patting his back, “I can’t be angry at you, Hyung. You can only do so much with where you are, I didn’t expect you to be able to do much. It’s okay, Jonghyun, it’s not your fault. More so, it was mine, okay?” he pat Jonghyun one more time before letting go, sitting next to Luna and running a light hand down his face, “I failed her this time. It was my entire fault.”

The hand down her face caused the light sleeper to open her eyes, taking a long time to look at Onew before wincing as she held her hand up to his face, “This isn’t a dream-inception, right? I swear I just saw you. And now here you are again . . .”

Onew took her hand and pressed it closer to his face shaking his head, “I’m back, Luna. I’m back, I’m so—”

Luna cried out as she heaved herself up and on to Onew, holding him so tightly his face started changing color.

  “Luna . . .”

  “You have no idea!” she cried, “No idea how hard it is without you! No idea how hard it is to cope with not knowing where you were!”

Onew rocked them back and forth gently, his hand holding on to her head as he whispered things in her ear that both creatures could hear, but chose to ignore for their sake.

Luna cried and cried and begged him to never leave, “I thought it was losing Sungmin all over again without me even knowing it.”

Onew hushed her over and over, repeating sweet things to her to calm her down, petting her hair gently.

  “Weeks. Weeks, Onew. Almost a month,” she said, muffled by his shoulder, “I’ve never been so attached to someone to feel so off when they’re gone for so long. Onew, don’t go away again, please.”

  “I'm not going anywhere, hush,” Onew repeated again, “No one’s going to hurt you, again. No one will hurt you while I’m here . . .”

  “It hurt so bad,” she cried onto his shoulder, “So bad.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Onew kissed her neck over and over, his eyes red as he tried to keep himself from crying, “They won’t touch you ever again, I promise. I promise.”

Luna slowly moved back from him, holding his face in her hands and shook her head, “Where were you, Onew? Where were you?”

His eyes fell, lifting his wrist up as he turned his face away, “Uncover the sleeve.”

  Luna furrowed her brows, ing his sleeve to see the paper band around his wrist, hastily grabbing it to read it all. opened wide after reading a line of the print of utter shock.

  “They sent you to another mental institute?” Luna shouted, holding on to Onew’s face again, “Why would they send you there, again?!”

Onew looked at Minho, his jaw clenched before his spoke gravely, “They wanted me to find someone and make sure they would never be found again.”

Luna stared hard.

Jonghyun looked around tensely.

And Minho’s stomach dropped.

----Note~----

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUN.

OH THE ANGST. 

Oh, my poor Luna. I'm sorry I did this to you, but you really had this comin' for sneaking like that!

/And this is why BTS 27, she complained for being sore!

And Onew had retuuuuurned! How long has it been? Announced five chapters ago, but really, he disappeared just when Jonghyun did! A looong time ago!

And where's he been? A mental hospital? REALLY. HOW COINCIDENTAL.

But in good news, TAEMIN IS ON BOARD!

MINHO IS FEELING ALL THE HAPPY RIGHT NOW!

NOW WE CAN MOVE ON TO ACTUALLY GETTING SOMEWHERE!

THE END IS NEAR!

FOUR CHAPTERS!

I'm trying to update on Wednesday again, but no promises. I've been spending my time on the remaining BTS, which I've chopped down to about fourteen chapters left and already wrote five of them. HOPE I DON'T STOP!

I'm so excited yet so incredibly sad guys, Idk how many times I have to express it. What am I gonna do with my life besides stress with school and a story? Make a new one of course. 8D

But anyway, I plan on uploading some BTS tonight too. Most likely two of them.

So see you soon, and I love every one of you! <3

~FlaMinhoe

/Btw, excuse any spelling mistakes. This story and BTS has gotten so long that Word can't detect problems with it anymore. And I kinda with proofreading. <3