Chapter 6

I soon fell in a nice, calm routine where every day I would wake up with Lay caressing my head while smiling softly; the very first days Joonmyeon always arrived at 10 just to take us to the cafeteria, where he left us all alone to have our breakfast. The cafeteria wasn’t always that full, and I understood pretty quickly that almost all of the 100,000 beds were empty; if we were lucky there were around five thousand people occupying Home at that moment.

After breakfast we usually took a small walk outside, to enjoy the warm sun on our skin and the wind blowing on our hair. Lay always told me what I could do to help, he described me how the ground felt on his hands and how much he liked to walk without shoes on the wet grass. He tried to guide me where the animals were – chickens, pigs, goats, ducks, even a couple of horses and cows. By the time we reached the other end of the town, I was surprised to see that the entire piece of land was used for plantations. “On the east side they create flour and noodles. There’s an underground tunnel with fresh water right under it, we use the strength of the water for the mill.”

As Lay talked to me, I kept learning more and more; not only about him, but also about the world and about the nature. He started telling me every secret he had learned from nature itself, and I was glad to know that he trusted me a lot.

"Your heart is pure!" He said with a smile while we took our morning walk. "Well, that's what humans would say. To me you are a muhrew' wo, a knight of the desert. In my language it means you are a person who has experienced grief..." He patted my chest, where my heart was, and he slightly pinched my skin. "But as a knight of the desert, you appreciate every single gift that is given to you, even the most useless ones."

I didn't answer him, but I took his hand instead. That afternoon I worked even harder at the fields, as my heart felt heavier and my pride was broken. Lay trusted me too much, I was no knight but I was reassured by the fact I could learn to be one. He was the brother I never had, the family I had lost forever. Unfortunately, happy things can't always be forever. Lay was always happy whenever I went back to our small house, but that evening our place was cold, dark and silent, apart from small sobs from the bedroom.

When I entered the room, I found Lay under the blankets. It was the first time I saw him like that, and it worried me a lot, and of course I ran to him as soon as I saw him. I immediately hugged his frail figure and he stopped sobbing loudly. “Ah, Sehun, if only…!” He cried, still under the blanket. I released him from my hug and I took away the blanket from his face; his eyes and cheeks were red, he was breathing heavily and he coughed a couple of times before I could help him to sit properly on the bed.

“What happened? Don’t cry anymore, please… I’m here for you... ” Lay sniffed and rested his head on my shoulder, blinking away his last tears. My heart hurt seeing him like that, and I couldn’t do anything but tighten my hold on him and caressed his back to comfort him. “I can create lots of drugs and medicines for sick people… but with our current technology, I cannot do anything else.”

Lay sighed heavily and bit his lips to stop himself from crying again. "There was this woman... she was pregnant. Her baby was born only to die immediately. The child was too small, too weak... he died after thirty minutes." I closed my eyes and I kissed his forehead. Lay wrapped his arms around me and we stayed on the bed for a long time, with me whispering sweet words, before he finally moved away with another sigh.

"Sehun, you're too good for me. But I trust you a lot and I think if we're going to live together for a long time, you should see me in my original form." I was surprised, but I smiled softly and I took his hands to reassure him. "That's fine, because I also trust you." He laughed shyly and he nodded slightly. "I'm glad." He muttered before he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His skin started glowing softly, and soon it covered his entire body and I couldn't recognize Lay anymore. His body shape started getting smaller and smaller, so much that the light disappeared under his empty pile of clothes.

I took the shirt away and a small animal was right under it. I couldn't say that it looked like a mice with wings, because the face was different and it had a small horn in the middle of its big eyes. A long tail wrapped around my hand and I curiously touched the back of the creature. It was fluffy and soft and it was then that the creature squeaked. I chuckled as I finally started seeing the animal as my friend Lay. I was fascinated by the real form of a Rah'Ki, but I remembered that Lay couldn't see my reaction.

I smiled as I caressed his soft back. "It's too cute. You are way too cute." Lay squeaked again and he started purring as I kept caressing him; he closed his eyes and I lied down next to him, enjoying his cute reaction. Lay followed my arm to reach my cheeks, he tapped it a few times and then he rested his small face on it. His small paws were rosy, but his whole body was black and the small horn had small purple scales around it, his fur was soft and it was thicker on his back. I wondered how things worked for Lay and Rah'Ki, and I started asking questions aloud for him to listen. Even if Lay answered with small squeaks that I couldn't understand, I enjoyed listening to him. "How do you live in your original planet?", "how can you transform yourself?", "what can you do as a Rah'Ki?" I keep asking things like that until I finally felt hungry.

"I'll go to Chanyeol to take something to eat for us, I'll come back here with our food." I said as I stood up. Lay, still in his original form, nodded and waved with his paw. I had to keep myself from saying anything and I quickly went to the cafeteria. Too cute. I was smiling happily when I arrived inside the kitchen and I found Chanyeol chatting loudly with Jongdae, who I had met only a couple of weeks after I had arrived. "Sehun, hi! Why are you here in the kitchen? Do you suddenly want to try cooking?"

I snorted and I shook my head. "No way. I'm here to ask for some food to take back in my room." While Jongdae nodded and started to take plates and pots, Chanyeol frowned at me with evident worry in his eyes. "What? Lay isn't feeling good so I'm taking care of him." I said with a shrug. With a chorus of "oooh" and "aaah"s, they quickly gave me two steaming plates of what seemed soup and steamed vegetables to take away. "Be careful, you might get burned!" Jongdae warned me; Chanyeol stopped me before I could take everything away and I glanced at him confused. "Before you go, though, I need to tell you something!" He exclaimed with a huge smile. "Next week I'll be taking part of an expedition, we will enter an abandoned town to see if there someone there. Come with me!"

I stood there with wide eyes, and I immediately started nodding, as a smile rose on my lips. Chanyeol even smiled widely and patted my shoulders. "I'll tell you the details along this week. Now go and take care of Lay!" I walked away with a stupid smile and I felt like jumping. I was going to see something new, a place that still had to be explored, and the adrenaline was running in my veins. When I returned to my room, Lay had changed back to his human form and he was wearing other clothes. "I'm back with food!" I greeted him. Lay laughed and looked in my way. "Put everything on the table and grab forks and glasses, I'll come in a minute."

That evening I didn’t tell him that I was going away with the research team. I didn’t want to worry him, at least not in that moment. I knew that it was going to be dangerous, but I wanted to go and tell Lay everything I was going to see. It was only the following evening that I told him what I was going to do as we were eating in the cafeteria, and Lay didn’t take it very well. He stopped munching his food and he sighed heavily, looking both worried and dejected. “Of course I can’t stop you.” He said immediately. “However, I want to tell you to be extremely careful. If you can, stay with Chanyeol and don’t shoot at anyone.”

“Why would I need a gun? It’s just an expedition!” I answered back. He shook his head and he smiled sadly. “It’s never just an expedition. If they think someone is a threat, they’ll order you to shoot. I think you’ve heard Joonmyeon when you first came here...” I hummed and I suddenly didn’t feel that excited to go anymore: I didn’t want to kill anyone. “Sehun, it’s you who is going to hold a gun. You can choose to shoot or not, but knowing you, I think you won’t hurt anyone.” He told me with a smile.

I took his hand and with a deep breath, I tried to calm down. If our community was ready to attack, I could expect the ‘enemy’ to do the same; still, I wanted to explore, I wanted to see how life was out there, I wanted to meet new people. The following week arrived sooner than expected, but my excitement was still stronger than my fear. Lay bid me goodbye with a tight hug and a small whisper. “Please, come back here with clean hands.” I nodded and hopped in a cart pulled by horses.

He stood there waving at me until he couldn’t sense me anymore, and I did the same to him. “Now I’m a bit scared…” I confessed to Chanyeol while we got nearer to the new town. He ruffled my hair and he gave me a loaded gun. “Don’t be. I’ll be with you and I really don’t think we’ll meet someone ready to kill us.” I gulped and for the rest of our journey I stared down at the cold gun in my hands. I wasn’t going to use it.

As soon as we arrived, we started exploring in pairs. Chanyeol and I walked through the town together, and I was reminded of my first day when I was scared of being alone forever. While he walked in front of me, with the gun in his hands, I followed him making sure there was no one behind us. Everything was going smoothly, until we reached a small bungalow with a garden in front of it. We were so surprised to see three people standing right there, that we didn’t do anything. We just stared.

They were two men holding another one, who looked exhausted and sick. They were struggling to help him, one of them was crying hard while the other was just… looking. He didn’t seem worried, yet he didn’t seem disinterested; he just wasn’t showing emotion. The sick man saw us, and he visibly tensed, making the other two look up and see Chanyeol and me. I lowered my gun and my friend did the same.

Those three men relaxed immediately and we walked towards them, still being as careful as possible. "We want to help." Chanyeol said as he got near them. The exhausted man closed his eyes and he sighed, abandoning himself on his crying friend. We helped them to make him sit and Chanyeol lighted up two signal fires, one red and one green. "I'm Sehun." I said greeting the strangers. "We'll bring you to our base and we'll help your friend." I tried to reassure them. "I-I'm Zitao..." The crying man muttered, as he tried to stop sobbing. "W-we were just walking around... b-but something a-attacked us and Yifan protected us...!"

I put my hand on his shoulder and squeezed it, to calm him down. "It's okay, I'm sure we'll be able to help him." I told him with a small smile. Zitao nodded and he looked at his friends. I glanced at the person he was holding, Yifan, and I realized he was bleeding from his arm; something had clearly bit him, and it could have been venomous. "He'll be fine." I repeated with a whisper. I looked at the emotionless man, who was now staring at me. I felt slightly intimidated by him, yet I stared back until he was the one who looked away. "Han, help me... we need to..."

I helped them to get Yifan inside the cart and Han sat next to me, while Zitao never left the man's side. For the whole time, my heart was beating faster than normal and my hands were itching to grab Han. It was the first time in my life that I felt like that.

A/N:
Finally Yifan, Tao and Han (Luhan) are here! *O*
I'm really sorry that you had to wait for so long, but here's the chapter. Ready for Hunhan? And of course for others pairing... ^w^

Please leave a small comment, so I know what you guys love or dislike about this fic. Thanks a lot for reading <3

And of course, thanks to my wonderful beta *O*