Luhan looked around the room and just sigh internally. The atmosphere was thick with tension, heavy with accusation as the Guardians surrounded a seated Yixing as if he was a caught prisoner in an enemy camp, waiting for the torture he would be subjected to.

Wufan paced back and forth in front of Yixing, his furrowed eyebrows and stern expression even scarier than usual. Joonmyun was no better; his gaze might not be as mad but there was a hint of disappointment in them that made even Luhan cringed.

“Now.”

The sudden voice shattered the previous silence and Yixing looked up to the leader, his hands folded neatly on his lap.

Wufan had stopped pacing, eyes staring straight at the other man. “Mind telling us where did you come from?”

Yixing shrugged easily, not intimidated in the least by the sharp, accusing gaze thrown at him and Luhan had to admire his best friend’s bravery.

“I didn’t know that my whereabouts is that important.”

Joonmyun had his hands on his hips. “Will you just answer the question, Yixing?”

“I don’t see the importance in the question, since I’m assuming that you know very well the answer.”

“We know that you’ve been spending the nights in Iola’s room.”

Yixing rolled his eyes. “Well then, if you know then why do you have to ask, Wufan?”

Wufan seemed ready to retort but Joonmyun’s hand on his arm halted him. Instead, it was the other leader who posed the next question.

“And what have you been doing there?”

“I don’t think what Iola and I do is any of your business, Joonmyun.”

Luhan had to bit his lips to stifle his laughter in at the sight of the prominent vein in Wufan’s forehead that seemed ready to pop any second now, what with Yixing’s flippant answer.

“Of course it is!”

“And why is that?”

“Because it’s Iola, Yixing!” Joonmyun huffed, folding his arms across his chest, staring down at the still seated Yixing. “Anything to do with Iola is our business!”

Wufan nodded tersely. “As the Chosen Soul, Iola is under our protection and we’ve sworn to serve her until our last breath. Hence, anything that have to do with her is a matter of importance to us.”

Yixing scoffed. “Well, not in this, you’re not. Besides, in this matter she is not the Chosen Soul; for me, she’s just Iola.”

Jonnmyun’s eyes narrowed. “And why is that a difference?”

“Because I am courting her.”

There was a few seconds of shocked silence that came after and Luhan counted mentally for the word to sink through his brothers’ minds.

3.

2.

1.

“You WHAT?”

“Since when?”

Luhan was torn between wanting to shake his head in amusement or just rolled his eyes at his brothers’ obliviousness. Though right now, with Yixing being in the center of the other’s accusing glares, he’d settled on the latter more. Because really, the others should’ve known this day would come.

Heck, Luhan already knew since the beginning!

...... Alright, maybe not from the very first beginning, but at least he had his suspicion long before now.

Well, perhaps not exactly suspicion; just a hunch that something was going on between Iola and Yixing more than the others see.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“I’ve wondered…how is it that you always seems to know what she is thinking, Yixing?”

Yixing blinked. “…Huh?”

Luhan rolled his eyes at the obvious confusion in his friend’s eyes, before raising his eyebrows in asking. It has always been a wonder to him how Yixing could understand what Iola wants or feels even with the obvious language barrier between them.

Yixing only scratched his head in bafflement. “I don’t know. I guess…I guess I just know?” He shrugged easily. “Besides, her eyes are pretty expressive.”

Minseok seemed somewhat appeased by that but Luhan only frowned. He didn’t doubt that Yixing was sincere in his somewhat vague explanation but he had an inkling of doubt trailing in his mind and surreptitiously glanced over at Iola, who was busy listening to Jongdae’s chatters as Tao cleaned her bloodied feet gently.

When she turned to him she had a wide smile on and even as Luhan smiled back, he knew that her gaze was on the person besides him and it made him think some more.

Iola had always been closest to Yixing since the first day.

Luhan wondered if it was because Yixing was the first one she met when she was stumbling around at the Forest of Dreams when they found her, so she depended on him more than the others. From what Luhan can see Yixing didn’t object to her somewhat dependence also, probably because Yixing had always have a gentle heart, wanting to comfort and heal any distraught person he meet as is his nature of Guardian of Healing.

He shrugged internally, not wanting to delve on the matter further but somehow he found himself watching over them more and more the next few days.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Yixing was distracted, Luhan can tell.

Even as his eyebrows scrunched in concentration as he healed Tao, Luhan knew his best friend enough to know that part of his mind, a large part, was wandering away somewhere far. Which was surprising since Luhan knew that even though Yixing’s mind can be off in the cloud from time to time, he took his duty as the Guardian seriously and would normally be attentive at the task in hand.

He didn’t have much time to ponder further into the thought, when Jongin suddenly appeared beside them and announced that they’ve found Iola.

Luhan never saw Yixing run that fast.

When Iola flung herself into his arms, Yixing holding her steady as they locked into an embrace, an inkling of an idea began to form in Luhan’s head.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Luhan grinned victoriously as he looked at the peluda galloping in front of him, Iola and Yixing on it. It was fortunate that she couldn’t ride a peluda; it makes his action of pushing her to ride with Yixing seemed logical.

“What’s with the grin on your face?”

Luhan turned and grinned even more at Minseok, who had ridden his peluda closer to his. “Just something.”

Minseok raised an eyebrow, but shrugged and rode away. “Somehow I don’t think I want to know.”

Luhan snorted. If his friend doesn’t want to know, then he’s not going to tell him. But really, it baffled him that his other brothers didn’t see what he could see clearly. They seemed to take for granted how Iola and Yixing grew even closer by each day, how even when among people they seemed to gravitate towards each other.

Then again, they were more focused on the task to bring Iola back to Sagiv as soon as possible, as Wufan behind him barked an order to ride faster. Luhan rolled his eyes but complied, lightly flicking the reins of his peluda’s and the animal galloped faster.

He saw Tao riding closer to Yixing’s peluda, moving away after a short time with a small, pleased grin on. The younger man had been smiling more and more these days and Luhan had no doubt that it was because of Iola.

Come to think of it, he’d noticed that all of them seemed to be brighter and happier since Iola’s arrival. Which was rather surprising, considering she hasn’t been that long with them; yet it felt that she had always belongs here, with them. There was none of the usual awkwardness when people meet other people for the first time; instead there was already friendly banter and teasing jokes in such short time.

When Iola grinned as she spoke over her shoulder at Yixing, Luhan couldn’t help mirroring the grin back and thought that yes, she belongs with them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“We are Guardians, Luhan. Our duty is clear, something that we should abide to at all cost. Our responsibility to protect the Tree and the land comes above anything else. And this…this feeling Iola made me feel….it’s just not right and it’s confusing.”

Luhan took a slow breath, trying to arrange his thoughts to words.

There it was finally in the open, Yixing’s confession. No matter how much Luhan already suspected it from the beginning, to hear his suspicion voiced into words and spoken into the air still brought a jolt of surprise to him.

He glanced over at his best friend, his brother from another mother. The dimpled man seemed troubled, hands clenching and unclenching repeatedly by his sides, a frown marring his forehead.

“Yixing,” Luhan started carefully. “There is no rule saying that a Guardian can’t have deeper feelings for another person.”

The other man just scoffed and went on to ramble of how they should have their priorities straight, that they should wait until their time as Guardians are up before they could ever have any relationship. The long rant stopped when Yixing finally blurted out what‘s been troubling him the most, that Iola is truly the Chosen Soul and that would mean that she would go back to her own world and leave them someday.

There was such a lost look in Yixing’s eyes that Luhan felt a phantom ache in his own ribs, his hand automatically reached out to grab his friend’s shoulder to offer a comforting squeeze.

For the first time in a long time, Luhan felt completely helpless. Yixing was his best friend; they had been through everything together and it killed him to see the other man looked so depressed and knowing there was nothing he could do to help. But he truly didn’t know what to say, what to do. These feelings that Yixing having, it was as foreign to him as the world Iola came from, never experiencing it for himself.

As he continued to sit besides his best friend in silent comfort, Luhan wondered whether those feelings were worth it, if they make a man be so stressed out and destitute.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“S-so....so you’re courting Iola?”

Yixing tilted his head, his face passive but Luhan knew the man enough to catch the slight tensing of his jaw as he answered Chanyeol. “Yes, I am.”

“Since when?” Kyungsoo screeched, his eyes even wider than usual.

“A few months, now.”

“What??” Jongdae yelled, arms waving wildly. “And you never told us?”

“Should I? I was on the opinion that it’s a matter between Iola and I, and besides…” Yixing frowned, an accusing tilt to his tone. “I was under the impression that you guys doesn’t like the fact that I’m courting her.”

Baekhyun scoffed. “Well of course we don’t like it; you shouldn’t court her in the first place!”

Yixing’s eyebrows raised high as he slowly stood up from his chair, eyes narrowed as he turned to the other man. “And why shouldn’t I?”

It was Joonmyun who answered. “Because she’s the Chosen Soul Yixing, you know that!”

“I do, not only because you’ve