Kris and Suho did in fact think of something.

The winter cabin.

"She's basically like one of us," Suho chuckles as I tackle Chen to the ground as he shocks me for the third time within the last hour. It took about two hours to get here because it's outside the city and tucked into the woods. With all the luggae it took a few hours but we finally settled in by later afternoon.

"Shock me again and I will stick your hand in a glass of water and short circuit you," I threaten. There's a strong grip around my arm bringing me to my feet and someone bringing Chen up to his.

"That can kill him," Kyungsoo says to me.

"He almost killed me," I argue pointing at Chen. "I couldn't feel my arm when he shocked me."

"You need to be more careful with that," Xiumin scolds hitting Chen upside the head.

"I was!" he protests. He looks at the ground then nods. "Ah, carpet." I roll my eyes and follow Kyungsoo into the kitchen where Lay, Luhan and Sehun are.

"Get your grubby fingers away from the meat!" Lay snaps hitting two hands with the spatula that were grabbing for some meet frying on the stove.

"Hyung!" Sehun exclaims, rubbing his hand and pouting.

"Respect your elder," Luhan warns pointing at Lay.

"Then act like one," Lay says hotly. He's swearing under his breath when the spatula is flying out his hand and hovering above him. "LUHAN!" Lay punches Luhan in the stomach and catches the spatula when it falls through the air.

Yeah, never a dull moment with these guys.

 

"Who gave you this?" I ask Kai when we're watching a movie in bed on his laptop. I run my finger over the smooth, cool silver of the pendant on his necklace. They all have these long necklaces they wear with the symbol on the vials they had.

"Sooman hyung," he answers, finally turning his attention to it. "We lived with him for a while after the explosion. It was harder, especially for us younger ones. We were even with him for Christmas and he made these for us as compensationf for everything that had happened."

"That's nice," I say letting the pendant fall back to his chest. He nods as I curl up closer to him. "Do you guys still go see your families."

"Yeah," he answers. "I mean, Lay, Tao, Luhan and Kris have a harder time with it, but they fly out to see them every few months." I peck him on the cheek and he chuckles. "What was that for?"

"You sounded kind of sad." He pouts.

"I'm very sad." I laugh but nonetheless peck him on the lips too. "Hm, I could still use some cheering up."

"If you want me to kiss you, just say it. Or do it." He picks the second option.

 

"There's no wood out here," I say through chattering teeth. Baekhyun, Sehun, Tao and I were sent to find wood to throw into the fire place.

"It might be further out," Sehun states as we venture away from the cabin. There's whooshing noise above us and I look up to see a flaming red and orange phoenix flying over head. "Him and Kris hyung are doing survillence of the place." I guess he saw my confused look. "To make sure none of Sooman's men are around." I nod.

It's another fifteen minutes of crunching through the snow when we finally find some cut up wood. We're laughing as Tao trips over a piece of wood when Baekhyun shushes us.

"What?" I ask as he straightens up and looks around.

"I thought I heard something," he whispers. "Sehun-ah, Tao, get back to the cabin and take her with you." The three of us give him a worried look. "Go!" The three of us are walking through the snow when there's something buzzing right past us. We look behind us to see Baekhyun running towards us...three men in black following him.

"RUN!" he shouts. There's more buzzing and that's when I realize what's whirling by. Bullets. Running in the snow is a hard feat then I thought.

"Go to the cabin we'll meet you there," Tao tells me as I see a blinding light out the corner of my eye. I nod and follow directions.

I'm running and then spot a figure in black coming towards me. Everything is happening so fast that it's making my head spin. There's yelling, fire, and then a exploding pain all over my leg that I don't even recognize it until I'm wheezing as I get into the house. I step forward and fall to the ground under my own weight. That's when I look down at my leg.

I'd been shot.

 

The wooden spoon trick is seriously the oldest remedy in the book, but it seems to work when I keep screaming as Kyungsoo tries to take the bullet out my leg.

"Kyung, make it stop!" Kai whines covering his ears.

"I'm trying!" Kyungsoo exclaims. I scream again when the tweezers take hold of the bullet and I squeeze the life out of Xiumin's hand. "Suho, can you take Kai outside?" Suho ushers a frazzled looking Kai out the bathroom."Luhan hyung!" It's a few moments before Luhan is coming into the bathroom followed by Kris and Lay.

"Can you take the bullet out?" Kyungsoo asks him setting the tweezers down on the counter. "I think I keep bumping the wound with the tweezers which is making it hurt more."

"Because having a bullet in her leg isn't painful enough," Chanyeol retorts from the edge of the bathtub. Kyungsoo shuts him up with a glare. "Just saying."

"Just close your eyes," Luhan says softly. "Xiumin hold her hand tight because this will probably still hurt." I screw my eyes shut, clasp onto Xiumin's hand and dig my teeth into the wooden spoon. Another scream in ripping through my throat as I feel an unbearable pain in my thigh. "Okay, I got it." My body sags and I lean against Xiumin's chest. When I finally open my eyes I see the bullet floating over to the trashcan. "Lay can heal it-" I shake my head.

"What?" Lay asks looking at me, confused.

"You're still recovering from the stab wound a few nights ago," I tell him as Chanyeol removes the spoon from my mouth. "I can manage a few days like this." He raises an eyebrow. "I'll be fine. Just focus on yourself okay?" He gives me a dimpled smile but nods. He pats Kai on the shoulder as he finally comes back into the bathroom which can fit a surprising amount of people in it.

"She's a keeper," he tells Kai, who blushes. "Come on, there's too many people in this bathroom."

 

"I just wanted the remote," I tell Kai as he rushes to get me the remote. I've been told to rest and not do any strenuous work, Kyungsoo's orders. For being the fourth youngest in the group, he seems to have a lot of authority amongest the group. But Kai said he's kind of like the mom they don't have. Kai settles back down beside me on the couch. His mouth has been set in a pout all afternoon. "Babe, what's wrong?" He shakes his head. "It's not your fault."

"But I couldn't help either," he answers with a slight edge in his voice. "You were hurt and I couldn't do anything to help you." He plays with the zipper on his sweatshirt. "I hate feeling helpless. Even more I hate seeing someone I care about hurt and there's not a damn thing I can do to take any of their pain away."

"You're a sweetheart you know that," I chuckle. He rolls his eyes.

"I'm being serious-"

"So am I. Kai, you feeling like that shows how caring of a person you are. And even if you can't always help me in a situation doesn't mean I don't appreciate when you're there." I slide my arm under his and thread our fingers together. I gently the back of his thumb. "So, even if you can't help me sometimes, just make sure you're there okay?" I look up at him to see him looking down at our hands. He finally looks up at me and gives me a faint smile before kissing me. When we pull apart he rests his forehead against mine. Kai pulls away and takes off his necklace from around his neck. I raise an eyebrow as he gently lays it around my neck. I run my hand over the cool silver triangle.

"I want you to have it," he tells me. I open my mouth to protest but he just shakes his head. "Take it." I smile at him and quickly kiss him.

 

"If we get exposed it is your damn fault!" a voice threatens loudly, waking Kai and I up from the couch the next morning. We open ours eyes to see Baekhyun and Chanyeol coming through the front doors.

"What happened?" Kai asks sleepily, rubbing his eyes.

"Chanyeol thought he heard someone when we were doing survillence," Baekhyun explains hotly. "And instead of waiting for me to make some light for us to see, seeing as it's still dark this time of morning, he decided to frickin flame on like the Human Torch in the middle of the damn woods."

"What if one of them had wasted us by then?" Chanyeol challenges crossing his arms over his chest.

"THEY COULDN'T SEE US!" Baekhyun thunders flailing his arms through the air. "It was dark outside, you idiot! Aish, I can't deal with you right now. It's too early." He stomps up the stairs with a muttering Chanyeol on his heals. I look at Kai who shrugs and closes his eyes to go back to sleep.

 

Being cooped up in the house too long, I volunteered to walk to a nearby store to get some groceries. I have on one of Kai's snapbacks and Kris' sunglasses as a disguise. I grab some eggs, bread, milk, meat and some desserts from the store. The whole time I'm there I have this strong feeling that I'm being watched. I'm walking back up the snow path when I hear a voice from my right.

This isn't good.

There's another one from my left and I start to panic. Not wanting to lead whoever is stalking me right tot he cabin, I take an alternate route that Kris and Suho showed me. The voices disappear and I begin to relax. The relief is short lived when I hear them again.

This really isn't good. The voices get a little louder.

"Someone's around here," a voice says. "Look at the signal." I notice I'm a couple feet away from the back door. Something buzzes past me and before anything else can come at me, I take a couple long strides towards the door and lock it.

"What's up?" Xiumin asks as I look out the kitchen window.

"I think they found us," I tell him, closing the curtain.

 

"This place is literally in the middle of nowhere," Kris says as him and Suho pace back and forth in the livingroom during yet another house meeting. I place with Kai's fingers as I sit in his lap on the couch. "How could they find us?"

"They followed us?" Chen suggests with a shrug. "It's not too far a stretch Sooman hyung had people trailing us already."

"But we took four cars and all drove different routes," Suho points out. "It'd be difficult to track all of us."

"He's got a point there," Chanyeol pipes up. I run one of my fingers over Kai's necklace. I look along the bottom to see a clasp at the very bottom of it. I undo the clasp and the necklace pops open like a locket. I've seen enough movies to realize that the little black object inside is a tracking device.

"You're being tracked," I announce with a sigh, taking the necklace from around my neck and setting it on the coffee table. They all look at me with wide eyes. "Kai told me that Sooman gave you guys these necklaces the first Christmas you guys all stayed together. There's a clasp at the bottom of the necklace that opens like a locket. There's a tracking device inside. That's how they've been finding you guys." The room is silent and I have to refrain from looking up to see what expressions on their faces.

"So, he's been tracking us all these years?" Sehun asks quietly. When I look up at him his face is wearing an expression between crosses of shock, anger and hurt.

"Yeah," I answer with a nod. "At the beach, he was asking me if I knew where you guys were. I guess that when you moved, you guys moved out of range of the signal for the device. He must've just found a way to get the signal or he finally searched far enough. The guys that were outside earlier were also talking about some kind of signal."

"The new house is a few hours away from the lab," Suho states, sitting down on the arm of the couch. "The house we used to live in with him was only feet away from the lab and we hardly left." I nod. We're startled out of our silence when something is being smashed on the table causing us all to jump. We look to see Luhan's necklace open on the table, smashed by the sneaker he's holding in his hand.

"I'm tired of living in fear of this guy," he says aloud, dropping his shoe to the ground. "I've been tired since that damn experiment that almost left me in a coma. Sure, he made us what we are, but he also did all those cruel experiements to test our powers that almost left us dead."

"No, he didn't-" Tao protests.

"Yes he did!" Luhan shouts, shocking us all since he never rose his voice. "You were so exhausted from testing that you almost froze time forever. Lay healed so many things that his own health started to fail. Chanyeol and Kris morphed so many times that their human forms were losing strength, Kyungsoo was almost crushed by a boulder during strenth testing, Baekhyun almost blinded himself, Suho nearly drowned, Kai almost got stuck at the bottom of the ocean, Sehun almost died in a tornado he created, Chen almost fried himself and Xiumin almost froze to death." The room is quiet. "I'm tired of always looking over my shoulder waiting to be taken back to that stupid lab and doing experiments until my brain nearly frickin explodes. If we can cut oursleves off from Sooman permanently, I say we do it." Kai had told me about some of the experiments they took part in with Sooman. They were all dangerous and frightening and Luhan's coma had been the last straw. There's a snapping noise and I look to my side to see that Kyungsoo has snapped his necklace in half. I look around the room. One by one around the room they take their necklaces off. Chen fries his in his hand, Xiumin freezes his and then smashes it against the table, Chanyeol and Kris melt theirs to a puddle of metal in their hands and the rest of the boys simply smash theirs with their shoe. I drop Kai's to the ground and he stomps on it with his foot. It's silent around the room, a sniffle here and there. Luhan is the first one to leave, the others eventually following suit.

"So, what now?" I ask Kai as I snuggle up into his chest that night. He shrugs.

"We just wait and see I guess," he answers. I look up at him.

"Are you okay?" He shrugs. "What is it?"

"It just , you know? That he never really looked at us as people just...test subjects. When he gave us these necklaces, we thought it was because he truly cared. It was hard being away from our families. Sehun cried himself to sleep almost every night and Lay couldn't even talk about any subject involving relatives otherwise he'd completely breakdown. Chanyeol was even devastaed because he couldn't talk to his sister as much and they used to talk everyday. To learn that he just gave us these to keep tabs on us and make sure his little lab rats didn't escape the lab...it's like..." He sniffles and I wipe a tear from his cheek. "It ." I wrap my arms tighter around his waist and rest my head in the crook of his neck. I place a gentle kiss on his collarbone as he buries his head into my hair, softly crying.

 

The atmosphere around the cabin is gloomy for the next couple days. There aren't as many smiles, laughs or jokes. Some of them don't even come out their rooms for days until Kyungsoo comes knocking on their doors telling them to eat before they starve.

"Kai," Kyungsoo pleads, knocking lightly on the door. He's been there for ten minutes. He gives one more half-hearted knock against the door before defeatedly slumping against it. "Please open up."

"Babe open up," I say, approaching the door and knocking on it. Silence. I start consistently knocking on the door until Kai swings the door open, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"What the hell do you guys want?" he whines. "I was taking a nap."

"You've been napping through every meal," Kyungsoo says firmly crossing his arms over his chest. Kai shrugs. "You need to eat and quite frankly I'm damn tired of all you moping around the dorm. You're grown men, so if you don't want to take care of yourselves, who am I to stop you? There's food in the kitchen, eat or don't eat. I don't care." With that, Kyungsoo is turning on his heel and leaving the hall. I look at Kai as he sighs.

"He's got a point," I state, leaning against the doorframe. "It's been nearly a week. Sooman hasn't been around, you should be happy."

"It's kind of hard to be when he just invited us to this," he says, walking into this room. I follow as he pulls up an email asking for them to come some grand event he's holding on Saturday. With that comes another family meeting.

"Let's go," Chen pipees up. "I could use a day away from here...and a drink."

"Especially a drink," Baekhyun agrees.

"What if it's a trap, though?" Suho challenges, sitting by Lay on the edge of the couch. "We'd be walking right into it."

"But what if it's not?" Lay asks looking up at him. Suho rolls his eyes.

"It's nice you're an optimist, Xing," he points out. "But sometimes I don't think there's a bright side." There's a knock on the door and they all stiffen. I get up and go answer the door. There's a women in a jeans, with boot on and a long, black, wool coat at the door. She has red cheeks abused from the wind, skin almost as white as the snow that surrounds her and long, black hair.

"Hello," I greet politely.

"Hello," she greets with a smile. "I'm here on behalf of Lee Sooman." I nod. "He wants the boys to come to the party he is having." She hands me an envelope with calligraphy font on it. "Have a nice day."

"You too." I shut the door as she turns on her heel and leaves. I'm turning around as a puff of black smoke appears and Kai is right in front of me. He grunts when I punch him in the chest as my heart rate tries to slow down. "I told you to stop doing that, but he definately know you guys are staying here." I take out the invitation as Kai and I both read it. "Hm, it's formal wear."

"Looks like we're moving again," Sehun pouts as Kai and I come back into the livingroom. I ruffle his hair as I take a seat beside him as Kai and Suho look over the invitation. "But we should move into a city. I'm tired of mountain air." Others around the room nod in agreement and start chattering about where to move next.

"Alright, alright," Kris says over all the talking, earning silence. "We'll go to the party as celebration to ourselves for hiding out from him this long. The second he tries to pull anything on any of us, we're out, got it?" They nod. "Luhan, are you okay with this?" The room looks to Luhan who had been sitting quietly under Sehun's arm the whole time the conversation has been going on.

"On one condition," he says firmly, looking completely serious. Kris nods. "We go shopping because I have nothing to wear." The room erupts into laughter and Luhan has a small hint of a smile on his face.

 

"You're already as tall as half of us," Chen complains as I try on a pair of heels. "Why do you need to make us feel even shorter by wearing heels?"

"Because my boyfriend is 180 centimeters," I answer with a laugh as I stand up in the black, strappy heels. "Do they look okay?" Chen waves it off, earning an eyeroll from Kyungsoo.

"They look great," he answers. "You just can't stand by me Saturday night though." I laugh but he smiles warmly at me.

"Luhan, you need clothes not shoes," Xiumin says as I buy my shoes. Luhan, Chen, Kyungsoo, Xiumin and Lay are buying shoes while the rest of them are in the tux shop.

"You can never have enough shoes," Luhan says, trying on a pair of nice, black dress shoes. Xiumin rolls his eyes, obviously not getting through to the younger.

"I hate having long legs," Kai grumbles to Baekhyun as I'm walking into the shop to see some dress pants he's trying on stop at his ankles.

"Boo hoo," Baekhyun says sarcastically. "Some of us wish we had long legs. Now scoot, I can't tie a tie without a mirror."

"You can't tie a tie with a mirror," Kai laughs. I smile because it's the first time I've seen him laugh in a while. He waves me over as Baekhyun struggles with his tie. "Can you help hyung before he accidently ties a noose around himself?" I shake my head and tie Baekhyun's tie in a matter of minutes.

I'm on tue duty Saturday night when all the guys are finished getting dressed. They all look very handsome in their suits and ties, which Chen is ironically playing in the backround as him and Lay sing along to it.

"Get dressed," Suho tells me after I tie his bowtie. "You've helped enough and we don't want to be late."

"I just have to put my shoes and dress on," I reassure him. I curled my hair and pinned some of it on the side and even put makeup on. Kai took me to my apartment to pick up my dress. I finally have a reason to wear the dress I designed. I slip into it while the guys are in the livingroom waiting and think it looks a lot better on than I expected it to be. I put on my heels and the dress doesn't touch the ground but is just long enough to flow down onto my feet.

"Okay, I'm ready," I announce, walking into the livingroom as I put some earrings in. I jump a little when they all turn around at the same time. Some jaws are dropped, some smile and a couple of them even whistle. "Stop, you're embarrassing me."

"You look beautiful," Kai tells me sliding my coat onto my arms. They all have on white and black somehow. Kai has on all black except for the white dress vest and styled his hair up. I turn to face him and he quickly pecks me on the lips.

"You don't look too bad yourself," I tell him. He slides a corsage onto my wrist and kisses me one more time before we're being ordered to head out.

The party is at Sooman's place, which doesn't surprise anybody but also unnerves them a little bit too. Sooman lives in a huge mansion, but it kind of reminds me of the one on the Addam's family. I keep that thought to myself to prevent any kind of panic amongst they guys. The room is huge, with black and white decorated tables, crystal chandeliers and a band playing. A few of the guys go straight to the bar, saying a drink or two is needed for them to make it through the night. The rest of us, sit at a table taking in the sights.

"Well, we can't deny it's nice," Chanyeol says as Kai wraps an arm around my shoulders. I nod in agreement. Dinner is served at seven sharp and they're serving hanjeongsik. They boys all nearly salivate as the food is being placed on the tables. Even though I've become used to eating with twelve boys, well six tonight since we're split into two groups, it still never seizes to amaze me how they all nearly dive for the food once it's all served. There isn't much conversation during the meal, but it's delicious. Around eight-thirty the band is starting up again as people finish dessert and people are getting up to dance.

"Just give me ten minutes," I tell Kai whose eyes are lit as other people dance and he's hardly sitting still in his seat. "You can go if you want to. Lay, Luhan and Sehunnie are out there already." He looks at me, then at the dancefloor again. "Babe, go." He pecks me on the cheek before leaving his seat and joining the others on the dance floor. I go to the bathroom where I see the woman that delivered the invitation to the house days ago. She has on a form-fitting, A-line, cream dress with an intricate silver bead design. Her hair is curled and pinned up.

"I love your dress," I compliment, fixing my hair in the mirror. She smiles at me as she fixes her mascara.

"Thank you," she says, putting her makeup away and zipping up the little pouch she has. "I love yours too. Who designed it? That's no something you find in a store."

"I designed it," I answer shyly. She raises an eyebrow at me. "Don't believe me?"

"I don't know," she chuckles. "You hardly look twenty and that's serious beadwork on that gown." I pull the little book that I take with my everywhere and flip to the page of the design of the dress. Her jaw drops when she sees it. We're in the bathroom another ten minutes as she looks through my sketches.

"I'm going to give you my card," she says, pulling a card out her pouch. "Our line could use some ideas like yours. Call my office on Monday, okay?" I nod, looking wide-eyed at the card. "My boss will love your designs." Her phone rings and she answers it was she walks out the bathroom.

"Where have you been?" Kai asks as I return to the table. I show him the card and he nods. "Looks like that dress just got you a job."

"I guess," I answer, looking at the card. "It might just me a small local line." I look at the address and just realize it's in Italy...and the company name undernearth makes me hyperventilate. "Oh my gosh..."

"Breathe, jagiya," Kai says, gently patting me on the back.

"She works for Valentino..." I wheeze. "The Valentino." Kai raises an eyebrow at me. "He runs one of the biggest couture houses in the world!" I'm muttering excitedly to myself when Sehun and Xiumin come to the table.

"Have you guys seen Luhan?" Sehun asks worriedly. We shake our heads. "Hyung, I'm worried."

"He'll be fine Sehun," Xiumin says, patting him on the back. It's another ten minutes before the rest of them come back saying they haven't seen Luhan either.

"Let's split up," Suho instructs. "Chanyeol and Kris, in the sky. Uh, Lay, Sehun, Xiumin, and Chen come with me. We'll ask around and see if anyone has seen him. The rest of you guys spread out and search the mansion. He's probably around here somewhere." Kai and I take to a dark corridor, hand in hand on the floor above. I stick close to him, gripping his hand tightly. He stops at the end, wrapping his arms around me and pecking me on the head before he teleports us to the next floor. Kai's phone rings startling us both.

"Kai, I found him," Baekhyun announces over the phone. "He's in the lab."

The lab is where all the experiments took place. It's down in the basement and is locked up by a heavy, iron door. When we get down there, Baekhyun is hiding around a corner. It's when we see Luhan isn't alone in the lab that we see why he stopped.

"How long were you tracking us?" Luhan asks in a slightly shaky voice.

"Luhan-" Sooman says in false sweetness.

"Answer my question," he snaps.

"Shouldn't we go in there hyung?" Kai asks Baekhyun. He shrugs.

"They're just talking. If it escalates from there, then we interfere, got it?" he whispers.

"Luhan, you have no idea what you're capable of."

"I think I have a pretty good idea, what I'm capable of, but I have you to thatnk for that don't I?" The anger in Luhan's voice makes me shudder and Kai wraps his arms around my waist.

"I only wanted to make you better-"

"By nearly killing me?" Luhan laughs. " I thought you were smarter then that." There's a silence and the tension in the air is suffocating. Sooman chuckles and the pure menace in it makes my skin crawl. Luhan needs to get the hell out of there.

"Oh, Luhan. I'm much smarter then that. You just haven't been around to see it." There's a ear-splitting crash and that's when we notice there's two tables flying through the air and hitting each other before falling in the middle of the room.

"What the hell just happened?" Kai whispers fiercely to Baekhyun. Our jaws drop when Sooman is moving both the tables and cornering Luhan up against a wall. He has powers now too? All of a sudden we're plunged into darkness and Kai is releasing my hands. There's lots of noise and I hear more footsteps as more people are coming down the stairs behind me. Before I can even piece together everything that's going on, there's black smoke enveloping me and everything around me and suddenly we're outside. I have a split second to duck before a bolt of electricity is flying towards me and someone is tackling me to the ground.

"Kyungsoo, what is going on?" I ask him as he helps me to my feet.

"Well," he stalls. "Sooman has powers now...and...that's as far as I've gotten, but I know that Sooman has back up and we won't be able to hold them all off."

"Does back up have powers too?" I ask and he shrugs. Well, it looks like I've landed myself in the middle of a battle from a frickin comic book. If the Avengers could do it then so can we...I hope. Sadly, I'm the only mortal out here without any powers or special abilities of any kind except whatever self defenses skills I have. Hm, it's better then nothing I guess. "Soo, I need you to rip my dress." His eyes widen to a size I didn't think was anatomically possible.

"But you worked on that dress for months," he points out. I sigh because that's a very valid point, but when it seems unimportant when I see Kai and Tao tagteaming against three guys. He's the best thing that's happened to me and even though it's only been a few months, I'm pretty sure I'm starting to fall for him. Kai means a lot to me and I can't stand the thought of possibly losing him.

"If I have to choose between a destroyed dress or a destroyed boyfriend, I'll choose the dress." Kyungsoo gives me an uncertain look until he nods, taking the bottom of the dress. The sound of the faric tearing and seeing the beaded pattern unravel is difficult, but it all fades when I hear Kai scream from across the field. I don't know how I get over there so fast in heels, but I'm roundhouse kicking a guy in the face and then kicking the guy who has Kai in a headlock in the back and slugging him across the face and releasing Kai.

"What are you doing here?!" he wheezes, trying to catch his breath.

"Helping," I answer simply.

"What-no," he splutters with a shake of his head. "It's too dangerous and I don't want you to get hurt-"

"Why do you think I'm here?" I cup his face in both my hands. "I don't want you to get hurt either so if I can help in any way I will, okay?" He quickly kisses me before we have to duck away from a sporadic flame slicing through the air and hitting a guy behind us.

"As much as I love the mid-battle love scene," Kris yells to us. "We're kind of busy at the moment."

"You stay here and help hold them off," Kai tells me. "I have to go find Luhan. Be careful."

"You too." I swear, as soon as Kai leaves four guys seem to materialize out of thin air. No doubt, I can hold them off okay, but I do appreciate the assistance from Sehun and Xiumin. Even though the random gust of wind, flying icicles and bouts of fire from Kris nearby do catch me off guard from time to time along with the other forces of nature slicing through the air. I don't even know how long we're fighting, but I feel myself starting to tire out after the tenth guy.

"Where the hell is Luhan?" Sehun huffs out. Xiumin and I shrug as we wonder the same thing. Our question is answered when he appears in the middle of the field with Sooman and looks like he's taken a beating. Sooman doesn't look too good either with long,angry scratches running across his cheek. Luhan is still fighting with all he has when Kai comes to the rescue. I feel  my pulse race when a guy grabs Kai from behind and tackles him to the ground. He struggles as the guy him down and that's when everyhting seems to spin out of control...literally. Suddenly, it looks like we're on the inside of a tornado and then there's water everywhere. The field is lit up orange and red as fire circles around it and the sky circles in menacing clouds as bolts of lightening strike everything below. I can't believe Sooman is controlling all of this at once. Suho is counter-reacting the waves of water swirling dangerously around us and Sehun tries to control the air while the others fight off anyone that tries to distract them. Kai is still fighting off the ground as Luhan is still fighting with Sooman. I feel everything stop when I see a blade swipes across Kai's collarbone, dangerously close to his thoat. I'm somehow kicking out my heels and jumping onto the guys back. I scream when something sharp sinks into my leg and will away the tears gathering at the corners of my eyes before I'm thrown to the ground. Kai is able to get free and help Luhan with Sooman. In a moment of strength, Sooman grabs both Kai and Luhan by the neck and lifts them into the air. I scream as a bolt of lightening strikes the ground beside me. It strikes again and again and again, getting closer and closer to me with every strike. He tightens his grip on Kai and Luhan and their feet starting kicking as breathing gets more difficult. All of a sudden, Sooman gasps as he drops Kai and Luhan to the ground. The lightening stops, the tornando disappears, the fire dies off leaving gentle whisps of smoke and the waves manage to fall in nothing but a light sprinkle. Sooman falls forward to expose Lay, holding a bloodstained knife in a shaky hand.

"Lay!" Suho yells, sprinting to us and backing Lay away from Sooman quickly.

"Be careful," he tells Lay whose eyes are still focused on Sooman, uncurling his fingers from the knife and letting it fall to the ground. "We should leave before he heals and wakes up."

"He's not going to heal," Baekhyun points out, breathing hard. "I saw Chanyeol scratch him earlier across the face and those haven't healed." The others slowly gather around, out of breath and banged up. "I think Lay killed him." Kris kneels down beside Sooman to check his pulse and confirms it with a nod. The group sighs in relief and I look down at my leg to see I've been stabbed...right where my bullet wound was.

"Always the left leg," I mutter to myself as Lay comes to check on me. He chuckles before placing a hand on my leg. I never thought that the healing process would hurt, but it does...pretty bad actually. But in a matter of seconds,it's all over and my leg is good as new. As soon as I'm on my feet, Kai is scooping me up in his arms and twirling me through the air. He kisses me as soon as my feel touch the ground. We break apart and he squeezes me so hard breathing is becoming difficult.

"Babe," I laugh into his shoulder. "I'm fine."

"I know," he says, pulling away to look at me. I wipe a single tear that leaves his eyes. "I'm just happy... and relieved because I'm exhausted."

"You're not alone there," Tao says, clapping Kai on the back. "Let's go home."

 

Two months later.

 

"How's Italy?" Kyungsoo asks me over Skype. After what I believe to be the biggest battle of our lives, I got a call from the woman that gave me her card, Jenny Park, at Sooman's party. She flew me out to Italy, where her office is, and got me an internship here at the haute couture house of Valentino Garavani. The internship is only until May, which is when I come back to get ready to start my first year of design school. I have a week left here and while it's been life changing, I miss the guys back home, especially one in particular.

"Italy is amazing," I answer with a smile. "You'd love the food here, Soo. And I'm positive Tao would love the fashion."

"Did you go to Rome?" Luhan asks eagerly, suddenly appearing beside Kyungsoo.

"Did you ride a Vespa?" Baekhyun asks.

"Is the pizza there good?" Chen inquires.

"Did you get me a gift?" Sehun questions with a cute expression.

"Have you been eating well?" Lay questions in the backround.

"Guys," I laugh, putting a halt to the endless stream of questions. "I'll tell you guys all about it when I come back next week and you'll see if I got you guys gifts or not." An array of smiles grace the screen. "Is Kai there?"

"He's actually out right now," Kyungsoo answers with a glum expression.

"Oh," I answer, failing to hide my disappointment. Kai and I have hardly talked the last few days. The guys are busy moving into a new house in the city and I've been busy with the new spring line they're working on here. This is the first time I've talked to the guys in a while and I was kind of hoping I'd be able to see him. I miss laughing with him, holding him, talking with him, just being around him in general. Yes, he's my boyfriend but he's also my best friend and being away from a best friend is hard for anybody to cope with. Especially when you're a continent away.

A knock on my door tears me from my thoughts.

Who could possibly be here? I get up to answer the door, temporarily giving the guys a view of my messy apartment.

My jaw drops when a smile graces the handsome face of my boyfriend standing in the doorway, shyly holding a bouquet of roses.

"Jagiya," he says shyly, pink flashing across his cheeks. I can't help the tears that stream down my cheeks as I grab him by the collar and pull him into a kiss. The last time I kissed him was when he was here a month ago to visit me. I've gone a whole month without being able to hug, kiss or touch him. We break apart laughing when we here cat whistles and cheers from the laptop. "I missed you."

"I missed you too," I tell him, accompanied by a chorus of "Aw's" in the backround. We both look at the laptop and the guys start laughing.

"We'll leave you two to alone," Kyungsoo says with a smile.

"Behave!" Suho and Kris say in unison appearing on the screen on both sides of Kyungsoo. He laughs before waving and leaving the call.

"You couldn't wait a week?" I ask him as he sets the flowers down on the small table near the door.

"Nope," he answers with a smile. "And why should I when I have my own way of transportation, that's free not to mention." I laugh as I wrap my arms around his neck and quickly kiss him. "Ah, plus I got you something."

"In addition to roses?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. I feel my pulse race when he pulls a black, velvet box out his pocket. I open it to see a necklace with his symbol studded with diamonds.

"I figured I should get you a new one since the last one had a tracking device," he chuckles as he fastens it around my neck. I run my hand over the pendant and conclude that I like this one more than the last one. Not just because of the diamonds, even though that is a very nice touch, but because he doens't have to look at this one and remember all the troubles he went through with Sooman; but rather that he overcame them and that I was there the whole time.

"Thank you," I tell him with a kiss. "I love it." I have to fight down the very strong urge to tell him that I love him too. After making it through me finding out he has powers and dealing with the whole comic book-worthy face off a couple months ago, I'm convinced we can make it through just about anything. But as Kai leans down to kiss me again, I think that we don't have to rush things because even without Tao's help, we have all the time in the world to tell each other how we feel and right now we can focus on just one thing...

Being together.