His parents always told him horrifying stories when he was just a child; he used to have nightmares about them. Although he was obviously older now, Baekhyun remembered them as though his mother had just told him the night before.

It was a story set a couple of centuries ago, in South Korea. A woman was pregnant with her first child, her husband’s baby, and it was nearing its birth day. The mother was in severe pain and she could tell something wasn’t right. Soon enough, she started giving birth to the baby. The woman wasn’t able to move from her bed, so only her husband could help her deliver. 

She finally gave birth, but that’s when the real problem surfaced. The baby that was now wrapped in a small blanket, was… wrong. Its big eyes were tainted blood red, and its back wasn’t normal either – there were giant slits at each side under its shoulders, as if something was meant to appear. The man screamed loudly, stepping away from the baby in his wife’s arms, screaming ‘Demon!’ as he did. The woman stared down at the child, tears rolled down her face as the small baby yawned, completely innocently, but its eyes were burning through her skin.

Years after they had abandoned the small demonic baby boy, he had grown up on the streets alone. Soon, the now young man was wandering around with his blood coloured eyes alerting everyone who walked past. The boy never once said a single word and it was assumed that he didn’t even know how to speak. Everyone was terrified of him, no one knew what he was.

At some points, at night, the boy would get restless and strip off his t-shirt, unveiling the hidden black wings beneath and he would take off into the dark lit sky. Some people said he resembled a phoenix, but all in all – he was a terrifying creature.

There was the first incident which happened to a young girl about the same age as he looked. She happened to slightly bump into him accidently, but the Phoenix had not learned of right or wrong, so he struck her with claw-like nails, his red eyes blazing beneath his incredibly long hair, and killed her. Three large scratch marks appeared on her neck, allowing her to die from tremendous blood loss.

After the first killing, he began to get thirsty for blood. The Phoenix flew around South Korea, aiming for young girls to fall into his trap – and then he would mercilessly slit their throat.

Soon he was able to bathe in the blood of around fifty young girls and that’s when the villagers decided to take action against him. They trapped the Phoenix, binding his wrists and ankles harshly, shooting down his wings with large spears, restricting him of all movement. After successfully capturing it, they felt death was not a suitable punishment, so they dug a grave – a very large one – and buried the bird deep underground, alive. Leaving him bonded and helpless, soon everyone forgot about him.

And so he lays there beneath this very city – alive.

Baekhyun always wondered if it was true, if the Phoenix really did exist and if he was really buried alive. It scared him, even at the age of eighteen, but he was more interested in the bird than anything. Which was why he was currently in the city centre, searching for the place where the Phoenix was buried. It was late at night, and Baekhyun was glad he researched the spot before he came – he had an idea of where such a being could be buried.

He arrived at the spot, and he was dead glad to see that there was no buildings built on top of it – only a small park filled the area.

Taking the rather large spade he had brought with him, he blindly chose a spot beside the roundabout and began the work he was expecting to be doing for a very long time.

Hours later, he climbed out of the rather large hole he had dug up and drank a bottle of water. This was honestly really tiring. Wiping his mouth, he jumped down again and continued his previous work. Another ten minutes passed and he was due to give up. But when he drove his spade into the ruined soil, he hit something hard and his heart sped up.

“No way…” he whispered before he fell onto his knees, this time using his hands to scrape away the soil, and soon he saw a human arm unfold.

Baekhyun hoped this was who he was looking for – if not… Gross.

It took him another minute to unravel the other’s arm, and he tried to calm himself down when he noticed something black beside them.

“Wings…” he murmured as he dragged the soil away from what would be the Phoenix’s face. And when his face came into view, Baekhyun gasped. All the skin was there, albeit it was incredibly dirty, but it was impossible. The skin should’ve degraded after a century had past, let alone two.

Twenty minutes later, Baekhyun had somehow managed to drag the creature out of the hole and he was finally able to look at it fully now he was under the glistening moonlight. Dirty and rumpled, the other still looked amazing but his wings were the most enticing thing about it, completely black but somehow sparkling.

Baekhyun had thankfully brought his own car, due to it being so late at night, but the problem with getting the Phoenix in it, was he had to move its demonic wings a little to be able to fit them in as well. As he reached out to touch them, he sighed in relief when the thing didn’t wake up as his fingers traced over some of the feathers embedded in the wings. They felt incredibly soft unexpectantly, so it helped when he manoeuvred them so the Phoenix was safely, maybe not comfortably, in the backseat of the car.

Baekhyun’s heart was thudding in anticipation, and when he finally arrived at his own house, although it was a struggle dragging the creature up the stairs, he was finally able to push the bird on his own bed, wincing when he saw all the dirt on the floor.

His mother was going to kill him.

Grabbing a cloth from his own bathroom, he wet it before dabbing it onto the bird’s face, wiping away the dirt, cleaning it all. Its hair was so incredibly long it was almost funny. Well, after a couple of centuries it would be enormously long… The human decided to take a pair of scissors and chop the greasy locks off – not too short – but short enough so it wouldn’t get in his way.

He couldn’t do much but at least its face and neck were clean, allowing the human boy to admire the uttermost beautiful face he had ever been given the chance to lay eyes on. Letting his hand reach out to the pale face, he wondered if it was going to feel any different. When his fingers came into contact with the Phoenix, something extraordinary happened.

A shock of electricity ran through the bird’s body and Baekhyun watched as its eyes shot open and it let out a terrifyingly loud scream, lifting its back off the bed as if it was in intense pain. Baekhyun covered his ears to protect himself against the screeching, but his eyes couldn’t believe what was going on. The Phoenix finally stopped and now he lay exhausted on the bed.

The human boy stood up again and took cautious steps towards the creature on his bed. His foot accidently caught one of his pair of skinny jeans that were thrown on the floor, making him to fall face first on the ground, causing the bird to get alerted and turn his head immediately to stare at him.

Baekhyun bit his lip before standing up and nervously putting up his hand.

“…Hi.” He said, trying to smile, but honestly that was difficult when a freaking pair of blood red eyes were glaring at him. The Phoenix opened its mouth as if to speak – but no words came out, and that startled it. “Can you speak?” Baekhyun asked cautiously, and when he took a step forward, the other instantly flinched backwards as far as he could on the bed. “I won’t hurt you, I just want to help.” The human explained before moving even closer.

The bird’s eyes were still wide as he carefully tracked all of the other’s movements. When Baekhyun reached the edge of the bed, he gave him the best smile he could – because he was still scared. The Phoenix relaxed a little, before he looked around the room. It had slipped Baekhyun’s mind that the creature had been asleep for a couple of centuries, so this must look very odd to him.

Time to explain.

“Um, you’ve been asleep for two hundred years…” and he waited until the information sunk in before continuing. The bird’s eyes fell to the bed he was sitting on, so the human spoke again. “I found you buried underground. And I took you here – to help you.” He made sure to sound convincingly nice and friendly – not hostile. He put out his hand as a friendly gesture, and he waited. The bird man was still shaking, but a minute later he locked eyes with the other and took his hand, letting Baekhyun pull him up softly.

When he was standing up, Baekhyun took a step back to give the other space, and allowed him to stretch his wings which still had two holes in them, probably from the spears from the story and obviously they hadn’t had time to heal yet. Now all he had to do was wait until the other found his voice.

“What’s your name?” the human asked, leaning against his own desk to become more comfortable.

The Phoenix took a deep breath and stretched out his black wings (Baekhyun was glad he had a big bedroom) before staring at the other again, trying to reply.

“N-No… N… N-Name…” his voice was incredibly raspy, but the answer made Baekhyun frown. Although Phoenix was a really cool name, to be able to survive in this generation, you needed a proper one.

“No name... Would you like one?” he wondered, already ransacking his brain for different Korean ones. The bird only nodded slightly, not doing anything else. “How about… Chanyeol?” he suggested and the other’s mouth opened instantly again.

“Ch-Chany-…eol.” He managed to repeat it, and Baekhyun had to say it suited him.

“My name is Baekhyun.” He put out his hand automatically for manners, and Chanyeol stared at him blindly. But a few seconds later he took a hold of Baekhyun’s hand, making the human smile, “Nice to meet you.”

Both stared at each other intently before Baekhyun took a note of the clothes the Phoenix was currently wearing. Gross, dirty old fashioned ones.

Chanyeol definitely needed a shower and new clothes.

But his enormous wings were a problem. They weren’t fitting in his bathroom at all.

“Can you… put your wings away?” he asked cautiously, scared in case he was insulting the other.

Chanyeol only slowly nodded and closed his eyes, wincing rather loudly when the wings started to retract into his back, it looked quite painful. It was still a rather beautiful sight, and when they completely disappeared, Chanyeol opened his eyes again and let out a deep breath.

“Great!” Baekhyun exclaimed before moving over to his own bathroom and he started to run the shower with hot water at first, and then moving over to his cupboard to pull out a towel and some clothes. Glancing back at the Phoenix, he decided he’d definitely look good in some jeans and shirts… Too bad the other was way too tall for his size… so he’d just have to do with sweats and a fairly large t-shirt until the morning when he could take him out shopping. That is, if Chanyeol wants to go out shopping.

Turning to the other, he smiled.

“You can have a shower in there, here are the things you need.” Pushing the things into Chanyeol’s arms, he nudged him over to the shower, smiling.

When the Phoenix was in the bathroom with the door shut tight behind him, he stared at the miraculous water running down in what seemed to be a small bath. Chanyeol tilted his head as he placed the towel and clothes down, walking over to the water and examining it closer.

Of course he had washed himself before, but this was a little different.

Shrugging his shoulders, he started to take off all of his dirty clothes that he was glad to get rid of, and soon he was standing in his full glory beside the shower.

Baekhyun was currently sitting on the edge of this bed, trying to think of an excuse to make to his parents as to why there is a random guy in their house. But before he could come to at least a reasonable reason, he heard a loud scream appear from the bathroom – he was so glad his parents were heavy sleepers – so he ran quickly in. When he got there, noticed Chanyeol was completely and he was standing in the shower, but his skin was red. Then Baekhyun remembered: He had forgot to turn the cold water on.

“!” he shouted, running over and turning the cold water on immediately. But Chanyeol looked absolutely terrified now as he was scurried in the corner of the bath, no longer wanting to go near that horrible burning water. “Chanyeol? Are you okay?” Baekhyun asked, a bit weirded out that the horrible creature from the stories was scared of a shower. But then again, he was supposed to be fictional. The other nodded his head slowly, and stood up right again. “Um, would you like to continue?” Baekhyun asked, now trying to avert his eyes from the other’s nicely uncovered goods, and was trying to make good eye contact.

“O…kay.” The Phoenix replied back, still finding it difficult to speak. The human nodded and walked out of the bathroom, shutting the door and then sitting back down on the edge of the bed.

Sighing, he thought back to the story about the strange man in his bathroom. Chanyeol was supposed to be a killer – that fact kept slipping Baekhyun’s mind. But, he certainly didn’t seem like he’d hurt a fly – especially with the way he acted in the bathroom. Well, he just hoped that part of the story was a lie…

Five minutes later, he saw the bathroom door open and out walked Chanyeol in the clothes Baekhyun had gave him, and it looked absolutely adorable – the tall boy looked so clueless. The human stood up and walked over to him, smiling.

“Feel better?” he asked, getting the chance to admire Chanyeol when he’s all clean now, and damn, he was gorgeous.

“Y…es.” The bird replied, not exactly smiling but Baekhyun was willing to take it slow.

“Are you hungry?” he wondered, thinking if it was okay to go and make the other something, even if it was dead at night.

The other nodded again, and Baekhyun instantly pulled lightly on his wrist to take him out of his room, quietly moving down the stairs until they both reached the kitchen. Letting his wrist go, he skipped over to his fridge, wondering what the other would like to eat.

“Um, what would you like?” he asked, and the bird man just shrugged. Well, he has been asleep for two centuries, guess he probably doesn’t know what food there is. “Um, since you haven’t eaten in a while… I’ll make you a lot of things, okay?” he suggested, and the taller nodded his head.

They were engulfed in silence for about another hour until Baekhyun was finished with the food – and it was a lot of food – so the Phoenix and the human sat down at the table, and waited. Baekhyun stared at Chanyeol as he slowly picked up the fork, examining it carefully before he looked over at the human, looking rather clueless. Baekhyun could only giggle at the way he looked.

Moving over, he took the fork from the other and stuck it in a piece of food, before placing it in his own mouth, showing him an example.

Giving it to the phoenix, he smiled as the other copied his actions exactly, before placing the food into his mouth and chewing it properly and swallowing it.

So now it was already an hour afterwards, and Baekhyun was very entertained by the way the other was stuffing his face with the amazing amount of food that was on the table, of course it was hardly there anymore. Chanyeol looked pretty satisfied though, his facial expressions were enough to tell Baekhyun that anyway.

When he was finally finished, Chanyeol actually let out a small smile before he put the fork down.

“Enjoy it all?” Baekhyun asked, and Chanyeol looked over at him slowly, before nodding.

Baekhyun sighed before he stood up and started to clear up everything, moving to the dishes to clean up absolutely everything to make sure that his parents didn’t know he was having a midnight feast. Once he was finished, he turned around to face Chanyeol before realising that the phoenix was gone.

“Oh no.” He whispered, before he moved quickly into the living room, trying to find where the other went. Where could he have gone? What if he bothered his parents? Oh no, he’d be dead.

And they’d probably call the police too.

Can’t let that happen.

Running into the next room, he searched around quickly before fearing the worst and running to the front door. But it was still locked and closed, which meant he was still inside the house at least. Okay, he had to keep calm, and just find Chanyeol and everything is going to be alright. Moving up the stairs, the good ending would be that he was up there and waiting patiently.

When he got to his room, he let out a deep sigh of relief.

The phoenix was sitting on his bed, looking around. Baekhyun walked over and smiled at him.

“Why did you leave?” he asked, but Chanyeol just shrugged. “Okay…”

To be honest, maybe Baekhyun should’ve thought this entire thing through. He had no idea what he was going to do with Chanyeol. What if he was just resting for a while before he started eating people again? Shaking his head, he couldn’t think about that just now.

Chanyeol looked rather dizzy when he looked up, and his face scrunched up in pain suddenly. The other could see his mouth opening as he was about to scream, so he quickly shoved his hand against Chanyeol’s mouth, before making a ‘Shh’ sound. Shaking his head, he sighed as he took his hand away.

“We… need to think of something to do with you.” He said, sighing before he tried to think of a proper solution. Looking at the clock, he noticed that it was approximately one hour until his parents woke up to go to work, and when they did, he would be able to think carefully about what he was going to do with Chanyeol. But for now, he had to try and make sure his parents didn’t hear the other at all.

Looking around, he spotted the bathroom and decided that’d just have to do.

“Come on Chanyeol.” He said, trying to pick the other up and take him in. Chanyeol let the other hold him, but he still felt a surge of pain ride through him. Once they were in the bathroom, Baekhyun sat him on the edge of the bath before looking at him carefully and noticing that the other was sweating hard. “Chanyeol?” he whispered, moving his hand up to the other’s forehead.

The other was definitely burning up.

He could tell the phoenix was shaking, trembling even, and something was drastically wrong.

Chanyeol gripped onto the edge of the bath tightly as his he felt something crawling over his skin, and something was inevitably trying to break out of him, yet he had no idea what.

Baekhyun looked around, wondering what he could do to help him, especially if he had no idea what was wrong with him, and it wasn’t like Chanyeol would be able to tell him anyway, especially since he couldn’t speak properly or even remember anything.

“Chanyeol, what’s wrong?” he wondered, even if he wasn’t going to get anything out of it, it wouldn’t hurt to try. The phoenix was continuing to breathe heavily, as he looked around worriedly. “Chanyeol…” Baekhyun tried again, but it didn’t seem like the other even knew he was there. The phoenix looked dead confused.

Chanyeol could feel something move inside of him, and he started to wonder how he got here.

Looking over at the human, he felt something inside of him burn.

His eyes roamed over Baekhyun’s body, catching sight of his skin that looked rather perfect.

Baekhyun caught it. Taking a deep breath, he stood up straight before he looked back at his room.

“Chanyeol, just stay put in here for a while, okay?” he said, looking back and noticing that the phoenix was still staring at his neck. “Stay.”

Baekhyun moved into the room and sighed, shutting the door behind him. Well, at least he lasted a few hours before Chanyeol went crazy. And hopefully the phoenix can last a few hours more, so that his parents are out of the way. Maybe he should’ve thought about what Chanyeol would be like when he awoke – most likely disorientated, confused, and blank. Which was exactly what happened.

But what would happen when he remembered what he had done in his past? Or when he remembered what people had done to him?

Baekhyun shook his head before he moved to his bed, and dived in, knowing that his parents always came to check on him before they left for work, and he had to be sleeping or else they’d get suspicious.

Or angry that he’d been up all night.

Half an hour passed, and Baekhyun had heard his parents check on him and already leave for work, meaning that the house should be completely clear. Throwing the covers off of himself, he moved to the bathroom quickly and opened the door, really glad that Chanyeol had done what he was told and stayed in, meaning there was no unnecessary problems arising.

Chanyeol was still currently sitting on the edge of the bed, but there was something different about him.

His eyes were still blood red, but there was a sickening smirk on his pink lips, plus his black wings were now coming out of his back, bending a little to compensate in the small space around him. Baekhyun looked at them as the holes that were once pierced into them were now closing up, to make the wings look even more wonderful than they were before.

He was completely entranced in them and he didn’t notice that the Phoenix had actually moved now, and was much closer than a couple of seconds ago until he felt the other’s hand under his chin. Baekhyun gasped at the touch of the other’s surprisingly warm hand.

“Chanyeol?” he whispered, but something seemed a little off.

“Baekhyun…” That was certainly a different kind of speech from earlier. A lot clearer.

“…” Baekhyun didn’t really know what to say.

“You saved me.” The Phoenix said. “Now what were you planning on doing with me?” he asked, and the human had to admit that Chanyeol seemed a lot like the character in the story he heard, instead of the adorable clueless boy that was absolutely terrified of the hot water coming out of the shower. “Cause I have a feeling, I know what I’m going to do to you.”

And Baekhyun had to admit, he was terrified, especially when he saw the Phoenix take up his hand and aim for his throat.

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed the first part!