“Morning, princess.” Chanyeol greets Tai as he walks up beside her on the request board, “Looking for a new job?”

 

“Yeah. I want to find one that I can follow Dyo oppa on.” Tai answers, scanning the board for something suitable for our Fairy Tail earth mage.

 

“Well what a coincidence, so was I.” Chanyeol says, pulling a flyer off of the board, “And I think I found a perfect one.”

 

Tai leans closer to Chanyeol in order to read what the job needs. “Earthquakes on an island volcano?”

 

“Looks like they could use an earth mage to control the seismic movement of the plates around there. Plus, it’s super hot, so anything that has to do with fire, count me in.” Chanyeol smiles.

 

“Actually, I think that job would be more fitting for me to pair up with Suho hyung.” D.O’s voice suddenly pops up beside the two.

 

“Dyo!” Tai smiles cheerfully, throwing her arms to hug D.O from the side to greet him.

 

“Aw! But Kyung! I want to go! It’s in Jeju!” Chanyeol pouts.

 

“Who’s Suho, by the way?” Tai interrupts, “I haven’t met him yet.”

 

“Suho hyung?” Chanyeol blinks, “Oh yeah, you haven’t. We haven’t seen him since he went on that S-Class quest a while ago either.”

 

“Suho hyung is an S-Class wizard.” D.O explains, “S-Class wizards are on an extremely higher level of magic use than we are. Only S-Class wizards are allowed to take on S-Class quests, which are by far, way more dangerous than the simple requests we get on this board.” D.O knocks on the general request board. “The S-Class request board is on the second floor.”

 

“Oh, I see.” Tai nods, “Who else is an S-Class wizard?”

 

“Well, so far from who you’ve met, Taeyeon noona and Seohyun noona are both S-Class wizards.” D.O answers.

 

“Wow! Really?! Seohyun?” Tai exclaims, “Darn! I should have fought her that other day.”

 

“Well you took her down anyway, so I’d say you’re well on your way of becoming an S-Class too.” Chanyeol smiles brightly.

 

Tai smiles back, wrapping her arms around Chanyeol’s waist, “Thanks Chan.” She says. Chanyeol happily takes the girl into his arms and hugs back.

 

D.O furrows his eyebrows in thought before saying, “I don’t think there are any more S-Class wizards that you know, Tai. But you’ll meet them all sooner or later.”

 

“If Suho took up an S-Class quest, could you follow him on it?” Tai asks excitedly, pulling away from Chanyeol who pulls her back. The Chi blocker slaps his arms away before walking around to jump on his back instead. Chanyeol bends down at the impact, but jumps back up to piggyback the girl properly.

 

“Unfortunately, we can’t. Although I’d love to go on an S-Class quest.” D.O sighs, glancing up longingly at the request board on the second floor. “But they can come with us on our missions, so working with them makes it feel like we’re on an S-Class mission too.” He chuckles.

 

“Well then let’s invite Suho to do this mission with us!” Tai points her eyes to the flyer in Chanyeol’s hands.

 

“All of us?” D.O blinks, moving his head back a bit in surprise.

 

“Course!” Tai smiles brightly, “I still have yet to go on an official mission you, Dyo.”

 

D.O goes over the details on the flyer again and glances back and forth between it and the two bright smiling faces beside him. “Okay…” he sighs.

 

“Hooray!” the Chi blocker and flame dragon slayer shout together. Chanyeol ends up running around the guild on flaming feet to accelerate his speed with a giggling Tai still on his back. D.O shakes his head with a sigh as he looks down at the flyer again.

 

Confident that the guild won’t burn down just yet, D.O heads over to the bar, “Hyoyeon noona. Did Suho come back yet?”

 

“As a matter of fact, he returned last night.” Hyoyeon answers, putting a margarita on the table for whoever had ordered it, “He’s probably resting, so he won’t show up to the guild today. I can give him a ring and tell him to show up at your house for dinner tonight?” she suggests.

 

“Cool. That’d be great.” D.O smiles, thanking the bartender before walking away to sit at a table with Kai and Lay.

 

 

>/<

 

 

The S-Class mage can smell the spaghetti cooking even from the front door when he’s let in and greeted by a bright eyed girl in a pink tank top and small white pajama shorts, “Hi there. You must be Suho.” She holds her hand out for him to shake, “I’m Tai.”

 

“Pleased to meet you, Tai.” The man smiles kindly, taking her hand.

 

Just when she leads Suho towards the living area beside the kitchen, D.O calls for help, “Tai! Could you help me get a new bottle of black pepper out? It’s in the top cabinet next to the fridge.”

 

“Coming!” she bounces over happily, passing Chanyeol on the way who lands roughly on the sofa beside Suho, throwing an arm around the S-Class wizard.

 

“Hey hyung. How was your mission?” he asks.

 

“It was fun.” Suho smiles back, “How was Fairy Tail while I was gone? You guys seem to have made a nice new friend.”

 

“Oh she’s more than nice.” Chanyeol nods, “Everyone loves her. Like, loves her. But she won’t budge.” He pouts, guiding Suho’s gaze into the kitchen where Tai has just somersaulted onto the dining table on her hands and pushes up to land on top of the counter. She quickly opens the cabinet, grabs the bottle of pepper and shuts the door before flipping over back towards the floor headfirst, sticking her landing with light steps and biting the plastic off of the cap of the bottle before jumping over to hand it to D.O with a smile that resembles a child eager to help her mother.

 

“Like how does Kyung not blink an eye with that around all the time?!” Chanyeol whispers furiously, gasping a little and clutching at Suho’s shirt when Tai bends over to retrieve something from the bottom of the fridge. “Hyung, Kyungsoo is living the dream.” he sighs.

 

Suho rolls his eyes with a smile before pulling him into a headlock to ruffle his knuckles into Chanyeol’s hair, making the dragon slayer laugh hysterically in pain and joy.

 

When dinner is ready and everyone is set around the table, D.O greets Suho with the usual questions about his most recent job, and Suho elaborates about long chase scenes and staking out numerous hideouts of a motorcycle gang he had to find. They had a huge network of them around the country, and it took months to weed them all out, but he did it, proving his worth as an S-Class wizard. “It would have been useful to have Sunny on this mission. She could have been a huge ally as a spy in their gang.”

 

“It’s alright, you did it on your own, hyung. Everyone thinks really highly of you just for taking it on in the first place. They’re a dangerous gang.” D.O says.

 

“That sounds super fun too!” Tai adds, “What kind of magic do you use again? You must be an amazing wizard if you’re in S-Class.” Her eyes twinkle as she leans forward just a bit. Chanyeol’s eyes flit over to glimpse at the small dip of cleavage that appears just slightly.

 

“I’m a water mage.” Suho answers, “I’m actually not wonderful. But my magic involves a really versatile element, so it’s easier for me to find different ways to manipulate it. I suppose that’s what got me this far.” He shrugs modestly.

 

“You have a really pretty smile.” Tai says bluntly with her own innocent smile.

 

That’s when Suho laughs and covers his mouth with his hand as he looks down shyly, “Thank you. You have quite a beautiful smile yourself.” He returns the compliment.

 

“Nothing like yours.” She rallies, “It’s like you could power all the street lamps on the block with teeth that bright. What kind of toothpaste do you use?”

 

Chanyeol and D.O laugh along with Suho this time at her innocent outbursts, making it clear that Tai has captured yet another heart in her large jar. Tai learns that Suho had only been in S-Class for about two years, but he had joined Fairy Tail at least five more years before that. He practically grew up in the guild, but D.O brings up how he still acts so well-mannered and gentlemanly compared to so many others in such a reckless guild. He’s one of the few sources of calm and rationality people go to in their times of need.

 

Finally, the topic of their next mission comes up, and the boys propose their idea to bring the water mage along to Jeju Island. He agrees readily, eager to get to work alongside the infamous Chi blocker whom he’s already heard stories about. “I look forward to the mission.” Suho holds his hand out once more to Tai before leaving.

 

Tai clasps Suho’s hand in hers, “Pleasure’s all mine.” She reassures him, pulling him forward to wrap her arms around his shoulders tightly. The water mage, caught off guard and starting to blush, can only chuckle and hug the girl back around the waist gently before she lets go and waves him goodbye.

 

Chanyeol insists on staying over for a while longer but D.O refuses his advances because they have to leave the next afternoon and he’s sure the sloppy dragon slayer hasn’t yet started packing. With a pout, Chanyeol drags himself towards the door but turns back to hug Tai tightly in his strong arms before opening the door, “See you tomorrow, princess.”

 

“See you tomorrow.” She tiptoes up to bump her nose against the dragon slayer’s affectionately, melting his heart while simultaneously setting it on fire. He leaves with an even brighter smile, leaving the Chi blocker and the earth mage alone in the house again.

 

 

 

That evening, Tai jumps into D.O’s bed per usual (sometimes D.O wonders if she even uses the bed in her own room anymore) and requests for an amazing story about Suho and his talents. “Despite what he says, he’s a great wizard and a good friend of mine for years.” He starts, “And put that together with being extremely smart, he could take over the world if he tried.”

 

Tai giggles and snuggles up to D.O underneath his lavender comforter, “Go on.”

 

“He’s got water and magic down to a science, and he uses that to his advantage. I have no idea how many things he can do with just a cup of water but I wouldn’t be surprised if he managed to carve out three statues and a Greek chariot with chrome spinners with it.” D.O shakes his head with a sigh, “He’s just amazing.”

 

“You really admire him, don’t you?” Tai smiles up the reminiscent smile on D.O’s lips.

 

“More than anyone else I know in Fairy Tail.” He smiles again, “Don’t tell Master though.” He adds, making Tai laugh again. The earth mage has grown fond of the sound chiming sweetly in his ears before he goes to sleep every night. He wonders how much he’ll miss it once Tai is able to move out… But as of now, she’s showing signs of knocking out, so he tucks her into the comforter beside him and turns the light off before joining her.

 

 

>/<

 

 

“Chanyeol, are you okay?” Tai asks, putting her hand on his back as he leans over the side of the deck.

 

“Dragon slayers aren’t good with vehicles.” D.O explains, “It’s probably their greatest weakness.”

 

“Does Lay get that too?” Tai asks, remembering the other dragon slayer in the guild.

 

“Luckily he doesn’t, because he’s a sky dragon slayer and he works with healing. He heals pretty quickly in any situation, so I suppose he shouldn’t have those problems in the first place.” Suho answers this time, returning to the group after his bathroom break.

 

“How… much longer?” Chanyeol breathes out slowly.

 

“I’d say about another half an hour?” Suho guesses, taking in the scent of sea salt in the air, “Our coordinates are slightly off by a couple degrees latitude at the moment, but we should be back on course soon.”

 

“Wow, you can tell where we are just by breathing in the air?” Tai’s eyes gleam up at Suho.

 

“It’s a skill that took me a long time to master.” Suho answers, “I grew up with sailors before I joined Fairy Tail, so I’ve been around the ocean a lot.

 

“That’s so cool! So can you tell where the nearest island is and all that kind of stuff?”

 

“No, I can’t.” Suho shakes his head, “The magic I’m using is a sea compass that senses the directions and tides of waves, and it points me north and puts numbers in my head that I have to know how to decipher. But it doesn’t work very well when Luhan’s around, because he kind of messes around with the magnetization of the winds and earth. And that messes up the signs I get from the water too.” He furrows his eyebrows.

 

“Oh yeah, Luhan.” Tai looks up thoughtfully, “I wonder what would happen if I went on a mission with him?”

 

“No!” Chanyeol bursts out, throwing his head up from the railing he was leaning against, “Do not go on a mission with Luhan hyung, he will try all sorts of things on you.” He addresses Tai before falling over again. The Chi blocker and earth mage catch him and lead him over to a chair on the upper deck and set him down, where he slouches and turns his green face to the side in anguish.

 

Tai kneels in front of him, putting both her fingers at Chanyeol’s temples, running them in small circles before moving her hands elsewhere to massage him in certain spots to get him to relax. As she works through his tensed muscles, D.O remembers, “That’s right. You learned Chi blocking in the first place from healing.”

 

“Although there’s not much I can do for motion sickness…” Tai furrows her eyebrows and presses her lips to the side, “Especially Chanyeol’s. His reaction to vehicles is different from people’s regular bodily reaction to rid themselves of certain toxins. I could try acupuncture, but I’m not sure it would help.”

 

“No thank you.” Chanyeol chokes out, “I hate vehicles, but I dislike the idea of becoming a porcupine more.” Tai sighs and sits beside him, lying Chanyeol’s head against her shoulder. He helplessly falls with his loss of motivation to move his limbs on his own. Tai just takes his hand and starts massaging it and pressing into certain parts of it to see if it’ll bring any reactions out of the dragon slayer, to no avail.

 

Luckily, the foursome makes it to the island without a mess to clean up, and they drop their stuff off at an inn alongside the beach before heading to meet the officials of the island. “Thank you, Fairy Tail mages, for coming to assist us with this supernatural phenomenon that we can’t control ourselves.” The main man starts.

 

“As you may have read on our flyer’s description, there’s some sort of unnatural activity going on around one of the volcanos near our main island. Since we must do everything in our power to protect our citizens, we need to make sure that there’s no threat that’s going to put anyone in danger. We don’t know anything that’s going on around there, but we’ve had several spectators search the area and two out of ten of them have disappeared. So we ask that you take on this job with caution.”

 

“When did these two disappearances happen? And when do you get usually get signals of power emitting from around the volcano?” Suho asks.

 

“It seems that the most suspicious activity happens around nightfall, when tides are stronger. There’s a strong pull on the water somehow, and we’re not sure how it’s going to affect the area around the volcano.” Another official answers.

 

“And how long has it been since this volcano has been last active?” D.O questions.

 

“It has been many, many years since it last erupted. But when it did, it brought great devastation upon our island not only with the explosion of nearby visitors, but also the citizens of nearby islands because the ash that had spread through the air was just so strong.”

 

“That’s weird,” Tai chimes in from her spot over by the open window, “It looks like just a regular composite volcano. It shouldn’t do as much damage as what you describe from that far away.”

 

“Big explosions come in small packages, princess.” Chanyeol comments, “Just look at D.O hyung.” And on cue, the dragon slayer receives a blow on the arm from his partner that’s strong enough to leave a bruise.

 

“I say we check it out in the daytime first, just to scope out the area before we come again during its time of high energy.” Suho commands, and it’s settled. No one can ignore the leadership of an S-Class wizard.

 

 

 

 

“Tai, try not to stray too far from the group.” D.O warns lightly as said girl continues tumbling effortlessly in the sand and jumping around on rocks on the mountainside. The group has been only been on the island for ten minutes and they can already feel a strong pull of energy coming from somewhere.

 

“Do you guys think it’d be practical to split up and search?” Chanyeol asks, “We’d cover more ground.”

 

“Good idea, Chanyeol.” Suho agrees, “Why don’t you go with Tai east while Kyungsoo and I go west. We’ll probably meet up on the other side of the island within the next couple of hours.”

 

And the next couple hours were gruesome and tiring. With the sun bearing down on the Fairy Tail members mercilessly, everyone was more than grateful to make it back to the main island beach house where they would be staying for the duration of their trip. Without time to shower or rest, Tai convinces the boys to change into swim trunks and she drags them outside. None of them complain after she takes off her island sarong to soak in the sun in her ruby red bikini.

 

“Volleyball!” Tai calls out, holding the white ball up in the air, “Chanyeol’s on my team!”

 

“Oh hell yeah!” Chanyeol yells, running to Tai’s side of the net in the sand, “Princess and I are going to wipe the beach with your asses.” He cackles, blowing a streak of fire out of his mouth into the air.

 

“Ooh, now is the worst time to have not stuck with your roommate, Tai.” D.O raises his smug smile up on one side as he stretches out his knuckles in front of him.

 

Suho chuckles as well, stretching out his limbs to let the sun shine on his flawless white skin, “Well I daresay a team’s a team. And we are a very good team.” He holds his fist out for D.O to bump, and they perform a short up-down-hit handshake.

 

The game begins with a serve from Tai, which Suho counters with a pass and Chanyeol the same until D.O attempts to spike the ball down onto his opponent’s side. But Tai is fast, and she slides down into the sand to hit the ball with her foot and let Chanyeol hit it back over to the other side. There are several more saves that Tai makes, running to the edge and kicking the ball back towards the court without going over the line, climbing up to jump off of Chanyeol’s shoulders to spike it down, and kicking the ball over after jumping into a handstand.

 

Chanyeol plays well with attacking. He takes whatever passes Tai gives him and strikes down on the ball so hard that sometimes it looks as if it’s on fire as it hits the sand. Their teamwork shows as Chanyeol provides a mounting surface on his back, his shoulders, or his hands to throw Tai up into the air to catch a particularly high throw.

 

But D.O and Suho retaliate with beautiful teamwork as well. D.O provides a slab of rock out of the earth underneath from underneath the sand in the blink of an eye when Suho needs a mounting service. Many rods of earth pop out of the ground to hit the volleyball back to their opponents’ side before disappearing back into the ground. Suho does well in using streaks of water from the sea to counter Chanyeol’s flaming hits. Sometimes he even envelops the ball in a sphere of water so that when Tai or Chanyeol hits it back, they break the water lock and spray themselves, as well as create a weaker hit within the water.

 

After the endless game, the two teams reach a stalemate and decide to play around in the water instead. Suho takes Tai surfing, controlling the waves himself as he skids along the water beside the girl without a board. Tai takes hold of his hands as they slide out of the wave smoothly, and jumps onto him to sink them into the water together, laughing. Suho resurfaces with the girl wrapped around him and a red face as he towards the surfboard. They just joke around as Tai sits on the board and Suho leans his arms on the edge of the board while wading the rest of his body in the water.

 

The other two partners are water skiing around them, Chanyeol driving the jet as D.O rides behind unstably on skis, holding on for dear life to the rope that connects him to Chanyeol’s jet. He’s yelling quite loudly with panic as Chanyeol starts slowing down from the dizziness of the vehicle he’s driving, and Tai laughs raucously at the uncommon sight of the earth mage so bewildered. After another few seconds, he finally falls into the water, to Chanyeol’s ignorance. Tai’s laughter slows as she sees the water moving faster towards D.O. And it starts swirling… in a whirlpool. D.O doesn’t look like he’s very comfortable either.

 

“Suho, are you doing that?” Tai asks with concern.

 

“I’m not.” Suho shakes his head, casting a magical disk over D.O’s with a of his hand, but it seems to have no effect on the ocean swallowing up their friend.

 

“Chanyeol! Chanyeol!” Tai calls out frantically, “We have to do something!” Tai jumps onto the board, getting ready to dive, but Suho catches her ankles before she can dismount.

 

“Don’t.” he commands, “Whatever’s doing that right now is something I can’t control, and we don’t know what it’s capable of. We can’t afford to lose more people.”

 

“Stop talking about him like he’s already lost! We can still save him!” Tai screams, “Suho please!”

 

“Suho hyung!” Chanyeol calls out as he drives towards the two on the board, “I can’t get near it; the water just keeps me going around without getting any closer. What do we do? D.O’s not good with water.”

 

“I can’t—“

 

Suho’s answer is interrupted when Tai jumps into the water despite Suho’s earlier warning in an attempt to save the earth mage. “DYO! DYO OPPA! HANG ON!”

 

“Hyung!” Chanyeol yells.

 

Suho is already on it, shooting underneath and through the water as if he was a stream of water himself until he catches up to Tai and takes hold of her, spluttering and yelling out D.O’s name. By the time her cries die down, the whirlpool has long disappeared, D.O along with it.