"Hello?" A voice called outside my tree house. I sat up and fixed the sheets around myself, wondering who it was.

"Yeah?" I called. I slid into my boots, opening up the door. Chanyeol greeted me with a large smile, and I smiled back.

"Suho thought you might like these." Chanyeol said. He held out a plastic bag, and I opened it to find a pair of pajama shorts and t-shirt, along with some new jeans and several more shirts.

"Thank you." I took the clothes, and Chanyeol stepped inside slightly.

"There’s a bathing suit in there too. Tao said you liked to swim, so I got it for you." Chanyeol said shyly. His cheeks heated with a blush, and I felt touched at how thoughtful he was.

"Thank you!" I said, looking inside. A pretty purple bikini looked back at me, and I smiled at it. I hadn’t owned a bikini in years.

"I was going to take you swimming this morning, if you want." Chanyeol offered. I smiled, looking up at him cautiously.

"Will this swimming trip include giant water snakes or creepy werewolves named Eunhyuk?" I asked. Chanyeol gave me a confused look, shaking his head.

"Not that I’m aware of. And Baekhyun told me about your little hike last night. Please, be careful. We’re by no means the most dangerous things in the forest. If you ever want to go somewhere, take one of us with you." Chanyeol said. I knew he was trying to help, but I couldn’t stop myself from getting annoyed. I’d survived with Luke just fine without these werewolves, and I didn’t need them to babysit me wherever I went.

"Thanks, Chanyeol, but I think I’ll just swim by myself." I said, closing the door and leaving him outside with a stunned expression. I changed into the bikini, throwing on a t-shirt and jeans over it. I strapped my knife to my belt and laced up my boots, ready to go. I grabbed my pack with extra water and food, and climbed down the tree.

"Skye, you can’t be serious!" Chanyeol called, trotting over. He started walking with me, and I turned away.

"Chanyeol, I can take care of myself. I just want to be alone, go away." I said. Chanyeol kept walking, but Baekhyun stopped him.

"Oh, if the princess wants to be alone that bad, just let her get eaten. She’s no concern of yours." Baekhyun called. Chanyeol sighed, watching me walk away in the trees. I felt a thrill of triumph, hiking in deeper. The scent of the pines hung around me comfortably, and I enjoyed walking through the trees.

I reached a small pond that had crystal clear water, and I looked around it carefully first. No giant water snakes? Check. No Eunhyuk? Check. No other werewolves at all? Check. I sighed in satisfaction, taking off my jeans and t-shirt and easing into the water.

I splashed around by myself, enjoying the crystal clear feeling of it sliding over my skin. I whittled away hours, just floating on my back and letting my hair fan out behind me. When the sun hung low over the trees, I got out to dry myself and tan on a large rock.

I was almost asleep when a rustle behind me made my head pop up. I grabbed my knife, holding it ready to throw. I sat there, waiting, and the rustle came again. If I looked closely now, I could see two eyes shining in the undergrowth, watching me. I didn’t hesitate, cocking my arm back and letting the knife fly true towards the eyes.

"Ow!" a yelp sounded, and I sat up. I had obviously hit my target accurately, but who was it? The figure staggered forward, and I immediately jumped up.

"Oh my god, Chanyeol!" I cried. The knife had cut his side, and he had his hand pressed to it gently. I leapt forward, and he jerked back away from me. Chanyeol fell back on the ground, trying to scrabble backwards to get away from me.

"Sorry, sorry!" Chanyeol cried, his eyes darting around in fear. I covered my mouth with my hand, not meaning to scare him.

"Chanyeol, I’m so sorry! I didn’t know what you were!" I cried. I tried to step forward, and Chanyeol curled up with a whine while shielding his face with his arm.

"Sorry! Don’t hurt, please!" Chanyeol cried. I felt something inside me break, and I crumpled down on my knees. Chanyeol had been nothing but kind to me, and now I had hurt him and scared him. It felt terrible, and I wanted to curl up in a ball.

"Chanyeol, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not mad at you, it was an accident. It’s okay." I tried. Crap, I was really bad at this whole soothing people thing. Well, what do you expect?! Cut me some slack.

"Yeollie, can you let me take a look?" I asked, using the name Baekhyun sometimes called him. Chanyeol slowly uncurled, looking at me still afraid, and let me come forward.

"I’m so sorry. Are you angry at me?" I asked, looking at his side. Chanyeol shook his head quickly, watching me carefully as I looked at his side. He was just suffering from a scratch, and I think he was more scared than hurt.

"You’re going to be just fine. Let’s get you to Yixing, yeah?" I helped him stand, retrieving my knife quickly.

"Thank you." Chanyeol said carefully, still not meeting my eyes. I had never really taken note of this, but some of the werewolves were as scared of me as I was of them. I mean, take Xiumin or Lu Han. And now, Chanyeol. Because of me. Great, I feel fantastic now.

"Come on." I said gently. We walked together, and Chanyeol gradually warmed up to me again. He still didn’t try to touch me, and usually avoided my eyes.

"Thanks again for the swim suit. I love it." I smiled. Chanyeol smiled slightly too, which made me feel more relieved.

"Next time, you don’t have to take me to the woods. But please, take someone you do like. I know you don’t really like me, but I still want you to be safe." Chanyeol said shyly, looking at the ground.

"Chanyeol, I do like you. I’m just used to doing whatever I wanted and being able to take care of myself. But, I’ll listen to you. Your woods are obviously much more dangerous than mine." I said. Chanyeol brightened slightly, and I smiled a little too.

"Where did you get the bikini?" I asked. Chanyeol shrugged.

"I ran to town and nicked it." Chanyeol said. "I did it while you were asleep, during the night."

"How far away is town?" I asked, making plans.

"Oh, about 150 miles that way." Chanyeol said vaguely. He ran 150 miles ‘that way’ in the middle of the night to get me clothes? Maybe this guy wasn’t that bad.

"Thank you. Let’s get you to Yixing." I said, touched. I showed Chanyeol to Yixing, and then sat by the fire and helped Kyungsoo and Suho make dinner. After several hours, I went to my house (room?) and changed my clothes. I was walking out from behind the tree supporting the house when someone grabbed me by my collar and slammed me back.

My training kicked in, and I twisted the hand holding me into a lock. The person didn’t budge, reversing my hold and slamming my shoulders back into the tree. I gasped in pain when my head connected, and looked up at Baekhyun.

"What are you doing?!" I cried. His eyes were glowing and he snarled, looking quite terrifying. Had he finally stopped pretending to be tame and gone crazy, like the other Occults I had seen?

"Don’t ever touch him again!" Baekhyun growled, slamming me another time into the tree to prove his point. I cried out in pain, and his hands gripped my shoulders hard enough to leave bruises.

"Stop! You’re hurting me!" I cried, hoping one of the boys would come help. Baekhyun ignored me, grabbing me tighter.

"Do you understand? If you ever hurt him again," Baekhyun dropped his voice to a gruff whisper. "I’ll kill you myself."

"It was an accident, I didn’t mean to-" I stuttered, closing my eyes. I felt Baekhyun jerk back, his claws ripping my shirt as someone pulled him off me.

"Baekhyun, what the hell are you doing?" The normally soft-spoken Chen held Baekhyun by the back of his neck, glaring down at him. It was almost funny because of how short Chen was, but Baekhyun was buckling under the other’s blazing gaze.

"Can’t you see you’re hurting her?!" Chen yelled, shaking Baekhyun. Baekhyun glared back up at Chen, yanking away and dusting off his shirt.

"Go, before I call Suho." Chen commanded. Baekhyun dropped his gaze, muttering under his breath and stomping away.

"Thank you." I said, sliding down to sit on the floor. I rubbed the back of my head and winced at the bruise forming. My shoulders ached from Baekhyun’s hands, and I made a point to stay as far away from him as possible. Can we say overprotective?

"Are you alright?" Chen asked gently, helping me up. I took his hand carefully, afraid he would hurt me too. Which was ridiculous, but made sense at the time.

"I’m fine." I said. Chen walked with me to the campfire, carefully making sure I didn’t trip or fall by pointing out holes and rocks on the ground.

"Thank you." I said. Chen nodded, grabbing Yixing for me and having Yixing heal my shoulder and head.

"I’ll go find him and say something." Suho muttered, standing up and going to find Baekhyun. The rest of us were clustered around the fire, Tao watching me with concerned eyes. Kris was next to him, giving me a calculating look while wrapping his arm around Tao. I was mildly surprised, but Yixing took my mind off it with the healing.

It felt amazing, my aches and pains melting away. Afterwards, I felt very warm and sleepy. I vaguely remember Kris flying me up to bed and laying me down, but nothing after that. I think I slept well though, not thinking of Baekhyun at all.

Omo, I’ve updated two stories in one day! *feels proud* Everyone, please comment and tell me what you think! Be sure to include if you want any ships, right now there will be slight Taoris, but nothing else unless you comment!

Saranghamnida, thank you everyone!

<3

-Sujin

Quotation marks work!