“Hey!  Look who’s off from work!”

A now very familiar brunette walks through the door of the empty cafe as Xiumin scrubs a table, a huge smile spreading across his face.  Chen glances at the door briefly before turning back to his notebook.  He already feels nervous at her presence.

“Did you miss me already?” the girl smirks teasingly.

“Sure did, Steph,” Xiumin swings his towel over his shoulder.  “Can I get you something?  It’s hot today, maybe something iced?”

“I’m fine, thanks,” she waves off.  “I don’t want you getting in trouble with your boss.”

“I insist!” the round faced elder presses.  “I’ll just whip something up quick, stay put!”

Before the girl can protest, he whisks off behind the counter to the kitchen.  She just shrugs in defeat and sits next to Chen at the counter.  When she sits next to him, the boy jumps in his seat and scoots as far away from her as possible.  In doing so, he slips right off his stool and falls onto the floor.

The girl turns and leans over him.  “Are you alright?  Did I startle you?” she asks, her expression full of concern.

Chen blushes and mentally curses how stupid he is.  “I’m fine, I just slipped,” he dismisses her help quickly.  He sits himself back on the stool and frantically flips through his notebook pages.

“Jongdae, did you fall off the seat?” Minseok calls from the kitchen.

“I’m fine, hyung, don’t worry,” Chen calls to his brother.

“It’s not like you to be clumsy.”  The elder boy returns from the kitchen with an iced latte.  “Is there something on your mind?”

“No, I’m fine, hyung-”

“And you’re usually much louder and whinier-”

“Hyuuung!” Jongdae cries on cue, a blush forming on his face.

Xiumin laughs in response and pinches his brother’s cheeks.  “There it is!”

The girl looks on at the brothers with a smile as Chen swats his brother’s hands away.  Minseok says he’ll fix his brother something too and goes back to the kitchen.  She leans over to the younger brother.  “You two must have a great relationship,” she whispers to him.

The blush on Chen’s face intensifies.  “He’s just always been there for me.  Hyung is really kind, but he puts himself down sometimes.”  The boys watches as his brother works in the kitchen, intently completing his work.  “I’m there to help him in that way, I guess.  He doesn’t think he’s talented, but that’s just him being humble.  He could’ve been one of our leaders, but he didn’t think he could handle the responsibility.  So he just takes care of us on the down low.”  He faces the girl with a goofy smile.  “And he makes great coffee, how can you go wrong with that?”

The girl chuckles.  “I can tell.”  She’s already finished a third of her drink.  She notices that Chen had flipped to a page full of random doodles, most of them depictions of lightning bolts coming out of clouds or striking the ground.  “You must love lightning since you draw it so much,” she smirks.

The boy’s eyes widen and he flips the book shut.  “It’s nothing, I just...I guess I just…” he stammers.  “I just like to imagine what it would be like to control it.  Hyung used to be scared of lightning when we were younger and I just wanted to learn to control it so I could comfort him.”  He pauses, his next words come out in hushed awe.  “And as I get older, I just imagine the power you would feel if you touch it.  It’s something dangerous to control, but once you master it, imagine how...amazing it would feel.”

The girl tries to keep herself composed.  She desperately wants to scream the truth to him, but she knows it isn’t the right time yet.  Instead, she settles for a pat on the shoulder, which makes Chen flinch out of his thoughts.  “Maybe someday, you’ll figure it out.”  She steps off the stool.  “I should get going, I have to go run a few errands before I head home.  It was great seeing you again.  Also,” she pulls out a bill and places it on the counter next to him.  She lowers her voice, ”Make sure your brother takes that.  I don’t want him to get in trouble.”  She flashes him a half smile and walks towards the door.  “Bye Xiumin!”

“Bye Stephanie!  Come back soon!” the elder calls from the kitchen.

Chen blinks and stares at the door for a moment.  Then he smiles to himself and flips to the back page of his book, finally deciding to finish drawing the rest of the face he has left for months.

~*~*~*~

Suho finds himself back at the supermarket because he had to go shopping for dinner again, and the kids wanted more snacks.  Kris wanted to stay home on his day off, and Suho said he would be okay doing the shopping himself so the other leader can rest.

He stares down at the handwritten list that was given to him.  He eyes the sesame oil and starts walking towards the appropriate aisle, reading his list to see if there is anything else he needs while he’s in that aisle.

With his nose buried in the list, he bumps into someone as he turns the corner.  “Oh!  Sorry, excuse me,” he says quickly.

“I think you should look where you’re going, Suho,” he hears a teasing tone.

The leader looks up, adjusting the round wire-frame glasses on his nose, and meets an already-familiar smirk.  “Oh, Stephanie!  What are you doing here?”

“Ajumma needed some things,” she responds, holding up her full basket.  “I’m actually done and I was gonna head out, but if you want I could help you?”

Suho glances at the list that he isn’t even halfway done with.  “Sure, why not,” he agrees with a smile.

The girl nods and follows the leader up the aisles, reading his list off for him and grabbing items as they go along.

“Hey Stephanie?” Suho asks as they walk through the snack aisle.  “Weren’t you ever curious about where the rest of your family is?”

The girl busies herself with picking out snacks she knows the boys like.  “Well...if they were really my family and they cared about me, they would have tried to look for me, right?” she says darkly before turning around.  “If they never cared enough to even make a missing person’s report for me, are they really family?”

Suho freezes at the girl’s emotionless stare.  He doesn’t know how to react to such a dark aura, and it sends an uneasy feeling down his spine.  But he pushes it aside, knowing that the girl has been through much more than him and his overprotected, privileged brothers.

Seeing the change in the leader’s mood, the girl softens.  “But on the other hand, maybe I was just an orphan anyway.”  She gazes straight at him.  “Or maybe my family was missing and I was trying to look for them.”  She turns around and picks up a few boxes of Pocky.  “Can’t forget to get these, can we?”

Suho relaxes at her lightened mood.  “Of course not,” he smiles, continuing to the next aisle full of sauces.  “Alright, we need the container of red pepper paste.  Let’s get the biggest containers because I know the maids use a lot of it-”  The man cuts off when he sees that the value size containers are on the top shelf.  He blinks at them silently.  Nope, I’m not gonna try and make a fool of myself, he thinks.  “I’m gonna go find someone to help us, I’ll be right back,” he tells the girl, walking down the aisle.

She bites her lips to hold back her laughter, turning to face the shelf and placing her basket down.  She gazes at two red containers at the front, and they levitate calmly down towards her.  The girl grabs onto them and stomps with one foot.

At the noise, Suho turns around and sees the girl holding two red pepper paste containers in her arms.  Raising his eyebrows in surprise and returning back to her position, he asks, “How did you get them down?  You’re shorter than me!”

The girl simply shrugs and places the items into Suho’s basket.  “Climbing and jumping.”

The perplexed leader examines the store shelves to figure out how exactly she could have done that, but gives up and just shakes his head.  “You probably just have a lot more practice.  Usually Kris also comes shopping with me, so he gets all the hard to reach things.”

The two gather the rest of the items and stand in line for checkout.  “Why don’t you come by for dinner tonight, Stephanie?” Suho offers.  “Kyungsoo’s making his special kimchi spaghetti.  I’m sure he would love it if you came over.”

The girl half-smiles.  “Of course.  I’ll just drop these off with ajumma and be right over.”  She pays for her groceries and grabs the bags.  “I’ll see you soon then.”  With a small nod of a bow, she leaves the store.

~*~*~*~

An hour later, the boys hear the doorbell ringing.

“I’ll get it!” Chanyeol jumps out of his seat and runs to the door before any of the others have the chance to react.

“What the hell, hyung!” Kai exclaims, unable to tear his eyes from the big screen.  Chanyeol had left in the middle of their first-person shooter video game, and two boys were playing online against another team.  The boy groans.  “Sehun, take the controller!”

The quiet boy quickly dives to the spot next to Kai and grabs the controller, resuming where Chanyeol had left.

The giant rushes to the door.  After Suho came home and told them Stephanie was coming for dinner, some of them got excited, Chanyeol especially.  As soon as he reaches the giant front door of the house, he swings it open with the biggest smile on his face and bear hugs the life out of her.  “Stephanie!”

“Hi, Chanyeol,” she says, struggling under his grip.  It’s not the first time she’s been back to the boys’ house; it’s been a few weeks since Kyungsoo first brought her home and they’ve started getting used to her growing presence in their lives.