Kai had already finished his kimchi and fried rice, was on his third glass of water and was contemplating getting up to pay the bill when the door to the small, out of the way shop on the fringes of Seoul opened. Part of him hadn’t really expected much. After all, there had been disappointment before, and there probably would be again. He always told himself what he needed most was patience, but it was a hard thing to come by most days.

Still, every once in a while the world managed to surprise him, and this looked to be one of those days.

“Kai,” his companion said quietly, the man still nursing a warm, steaming bowl of beef stew. “Look.”

Kai let his fingers press against the condensation on the water glass as he whistled out, “Well, I’ll be damned. He showed.”

There, looking like he’d come against what seemed his better judgment, and blocking the door for any other customers, was Chanyeol. The sight of him honestly took Kai’s breath away. He looked young and healthy and downright gorgeous, compared to what he’d been like the last time Kai had seen him, deteriorating before his eyes.

It had always been a truth he’d see Chanyeol again, but it was no small relief it was happening now. It felt to Kai like he hadn’t seen him in forever. Or more like a generation. He supposed it had been.

“He looks nervous,” Xiumin said from across Kai.

“He does,” Kai agreed. Then he frowned, watching the door swing open again behind him. “And he’s not alone.”

“Impossible,” Xiumin murmured.

Two more recognizable faces were in Kai’s periphery a second later, and they had him more choked up than Chanyeol’s appearance.

“We’re living proof of the impossible,” Kai told him. “And you know as well as I do, there’s no one more stubborn in existence than the lot of us guardians.” Kai had to shake his head with an amused smile. “Kris and Tao. They found their way to each other without needing my help. Go figure.”

Xiumin gave him a side look. “But do you think they remember?”

Kai raised an arm, indicating that he was the man who had sent the email to Chanyeol that had drawn him to the restaurant.

“Doubtful,” Kai said, straightening up. “But when you love someone as much as they do, you don’t need to remember someone to fall in love with them again.”

With squared shoulders Chanyeol made his way over to the table and asked in a low, hesitant voice, “You’re Jongin?”

A bit miffed, Kai questioned, “You don’t remember me? I’m crushed. And you can call me Kai, if you want. You used to. In fact, it was the only name you knew me by.”

Before Chanyeol could respond, Kris cut forward, angling himself defensively in front of Chanyeol and demanding, “We want to know how you know our friend. How did you get his email? Why are you harassing him?”

Seated next to him, Xiumin stirred his spoon through his soup and gestured for the three boys to join them. He said, “Kai wasn’t harassing you or your friends, Kris” Xiumin assured, and Kai wondered if it was better to cling to the past or start calling him Minseok. “He’s just excited. He found Chanyeol fairly easily. That hasn’t always happened before.”

Kris thundered, face pinched, “How do you know my name?”

Kai shrugged, “I can call you Yifan if you prefer. That’s your name here, isn’t it? But I know you go by Kris, too.”

Kai had very much known that Kris was living in the area. He’d checked in on him months ago, pleased to find him living a happy, peaceful life, albeit with apparently no memories of before. Kai hadn’t moved on his location or directly sought him out because he’d seemed so content with his life, and because there were other guardians still missing. Like Tao and Chanyeol, but apparently they’d done most of Kai’s work for him.

Maybe guardians were naturally pulled to each other? These three weren’t the only ones to group up.

“Listen to yourself,” Tao said, eyes narrowing. “I don’t know who you think you are but--”

Kai cut him off, “If you’ll all sit down and calm yourselves, I can explain everything. And trust me, this is an explanation you want to hear. I can help you. I can give you back what’s been lost. And I’d like to do it before it gets too late. I don’t know about all of you, but I have a mother here, weird, I know, and she’ll worry if I don’t come home at a decent time.”

Xiumin gave him a less than pleased look and Kai decided that attempting to think of him as Minseok felt weird. Xiumin felt like coming home.

Kai cleared his throat and said to Chanyeol, trying to give him a reassuring grin, “I’m thankful your parents had sense enough to name him something recognizable. I knew finding everyone would be a challenge, but I didn’t know there’d be extra obstacles like this. Name changes. Who’d have thought?”

Chanyeol sat heavily in the chair across from Kai, flanked by Kris and a now quiet Tao. He put his hands gingerly on the table and said slowly, “In the email you … knew things about me. Things that I haven’t ever told anyone. You shouldn’t have known the things that you said in it, that’s what convinced me to come here today.”

Xiumin pressed, “The both of us know a lot more about you than you know about yourself. And about you, Kris. Even you, Tao. We know what you’re hiding, even from your families. We know what makes you different.”

Tao stiffed immediately and Kris looked considerably dangerous.

Kai gave a short look around the shop. The five or them were the only customers and the elderly couple that both owned and operated the store were in the back, hidden from view. It would take so little to give the tiniest of proof related to what Xiumin was speaking of. And it would do a lot more to further their cause than mere words.

“Don’t,” Xiumin warned, sensing his thoughts easily. “It’s too dangerous and you know it. We don’t need to draw any unnecessary eyes to us, and the government is already too suspicious, thanks to your childhood flare.”

He knew it was a bad idea, but a smile was already stretching across Kai’s face and he was blinking out of view.

For the most part, he and Xiumin did their very best to lay low. They kept to themselves, tried to act as ordinary as possible, and blended in as normal college students. The alternative was a future so scary that Kai was terrified death might be a mercy from it. They couldn’t be caught or exposed, because if they were …

Still, every once in a while Kai had to flex his ability and indulge himself. He felt like he’d go crazy if he didn’t.

When he came back, less than a few seconds later, someone had overturned the glass of water on the table and a chair was knocked back. There were wide eyes all around as Xiumin reached out to freeze the water before it could spill everywhere.

An eyebrow arched, Kai asked, “Now you understand at least a little, right? You’re not the only one.”

Shakily, Chanyeol said, “When I was five I set my house on fire. It was an accident and we all got out, but we lost everything. I set the fire. Without any matches or a lighter or any sort of propellant. It just happened because I was upset and I never told anyone because I was scared of … well, me.” He paused, frowned, then said, “But I already know I’m not the only one who can do these kinds of things. There are others.”

Kai had to had to hand it to him, he was careful not to give anyone else’s secrets away. But Kai already knew them.

Still, it was Xiumin who said, “We know your friends have different abilities. We know what they are, too.”

Kris opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by the jingle on the door to the restaurant sounding.

Kai stood immediately, warmly grinning at Lay who was running a late, but always a welcomed addition.

“Sorry,” Lay said, bowing respectfully to them as he pulled his bag over his head and set it carefully down on the table. “I got held up at the hospital.”

Almost boastfully Kai said, “Lay is on the pre med fast track program. He’ll be a doctor before I even graduate from college.” And just thinking about how hard it had been to find Lay, all the way in China, was enough to inspire a headache. Getting him to come to Korea, using his study of medicine as front was easy enough, but the initial locating was still somewhat traumatizing. It had taken years, in fact.

A series of emotions played out openly on Lay’s face as he caught sight of the others. “I’m Yixing,” Lay said, sitting. “But Chanyeol, Tao, Kris, you all knew me as Lay. You can call me whichever you prefer.”

“Lay has something to show you,” Kai said. “He’s been helping me compile some important things, for when we found you and the others.”

As Lay began rooting around in his bag, and Xiumin stacked their dishes up, it was Tao who surprised Kai, telling him in the quietest of voices, “I’ve seen your face before.”

Kai’s face ached he smiled so wide. “I missed you, Tao. We didn’t start out as friends, in fact I think we’ve tried to kill each other several times, but by the end I was proud to stand with you. You were my brother before the end.”

“You’re talking nonsense,” Kris said angrily.

“Here it is,” Lay said, pulling a heavy, thick book out from his bag. He set it carefully on the table and laid a hand on it. “I want you all to look at this and do your best to take it seriously.”

Kai paused to look at the book. For years he and Lay and Xiumin had been working on filling its pages. The original book, the one that they’d desperately studied looking for clues to win an impossible war, had been lost with the destruction of Exo. But this replica would do for the time being. And it would be even better when someone like Baekhyun could contribute to it.

“Show them,” Kai commanded. “And let’s hope for the best.”

Lay pushed the book towards Chanyeol and said, “Take your time looking at the pages.”

Chanyeol had only just cracked the book open when Kai said, “It maybe impossible for you to believe me right now, but this isn’t our first trip through the circle of life.”

“Funny,” Xiumin snorted blandly next to him.

Kai rolled his eyes. “What I mean is, we used to be alive before. We used to exist before. It wasn’t an easy life, and we fought a lot, both with ourselves and things much worse, but my point is, we’ve been reincarnated.”

Kris’ face scrunched up. “Bull.”

Lay volunteered, “Were not sure why only initially Kai remembered our past upon us being reborn this time. But some of us remember the moment we’re exposed to his presence, and others don’t. For some, it takes time. I knew him the moment I saw him. It took Xiumin close to a week to start to remember.”

“I don’t remember,” Chanyeol said, turning the pages of the book reverently. “But is it weird I sort of feel like I should?”

“Tao?” Kris asked, pulling their attention to the younger man. “What’s wrong?”

Tao pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. “Headache.”

“That’s how it starts,” Xiumin said knowingly. “You’ll be remembering before the end of the day.”

With a dry laugh, Kai told Kris, “I’d actually prefer if you didn’t remember right away that the last time we were alive, I kind of stole your husband out from right under you.”

Kris’ eyes widened.

“Stop being so overdramatic,” Lay said, almost as if they were children. “Kris, it was a marriage that was one of convenience and arranged since your childhood. There was no love there and it wasn’t a slight. Not really. Not once all the confusion was cleared up.”

“If it’ll make you feel better,” Xiumin said dismissively, “you were a king. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

Chanyeol looked up from the book and asked, “Are there more of us? More than just us six?”

“Reborn?” Kai said. “There should be twelve. There were twelve guardians then ,and there should be twelve of us now.”

“And have you found others?” Kris wanted to know. “Or are we the first?”

Lay nodded. “We found others before you and spoke with them. Two others.”

“I found my best friend first,” Kai confided. “And there wasn’t a single spark of recognition for over a month. I thought he wouldn’t ever remember me.”

“Then we found Commander Suho,” Xiumin said.

“Commander?” Chanyeol arched an eyebrow.

“Just Suho now,” Lay said, voice walking a delicate edge. “He came looking for us, actually. He’d had an encounter with Kai by accident, started to remember us, and he was the one to seek us out.”

For Kai, who’d spent so long being the sole carrier of the memories of their past life, it had been the first great reward to watch Suho wrap Lay up in strong, determined arms and tug him off his feat with a cry of joy. They’d kissed and kissed and kissed endlessly, in the middle of a bustling marketplace, not caring one bit who might see, and Kai had goofily protected their moment by glaring at anyone who thought to interrupt it. Lay and Suho hadn’t had long, not when it was taken into account how the war had damaged their ability to have a proper courtship, but it seemed their feelings had been real from the start. And they were still real now.

Xiumin’s fingers tapped restlessly against the puddle of ice that was steadily melting. “We got lucky with Suho in a lot of ways. Maybe with D.O., too. They’d been going under the names Joonmyun and Kyungsoo. Our saving grace seemed to be that Suho was looking for us just as much as we were looking for him, and D.O. liked Kai enough as a friend now to stick around long enough for his memories to start to come back.”

“Hey,” Kai interrupted, “This is an important page. Look.” He pulled the book pages back for Chanyeol until he was at the final page. Oddly enough, it had been the first part Kai had added.

Chanyeol visibly paled. “This is … not possible.”

Kai ran his fingers over the twelve portraits on the back page. “I didn’t draw these my self, but I do know this wicked good artist who I took a calculus class with a few years ago. I described you all to him, exactly how I remembered you looking, and he drew this. It’s pretty flawless. And okay, maybe it’s a little egotistical to put our pictures in a book about how bad we screwed up, but I wanted to make it as comprehensive as possible.”

Chanyeol’s fingers brushed across the portraits until they stopped suddenly, his face paling. “Baekhyun.” He looked up at Kai. “He’s important to me. I can’t remember him or why, but I know he is.”

Xiumin pointed a sharp finger at him. “When we find him, he’s in Busan by the way, he’s going to kill you over that. You two were practically attached at the hip. Married. Or you were going to get married.”

“You were in love,” Lay clarified. “And you died to save his life.”

Chanyeol fell quiet and Kai said “We were planning on approaching him next month. Honestly, I wanted to get you first.

Kris turned the book towards himself for a better look. “This is ludicrous.”

Chanyeol ignored Kris. “Why me first?”

“I don’t mean that I’ve been prioritizing people based on how much I liked them the last time we were alive,” Kai laughed. “But I certainly liked you at lot the first time we were alive. You were funny, and my friend, and you helped someone that I really love when you didn’t have, and your instincts probably should have been telling you to shoot on sight. But no, I just meant that Xiumin, Lay and I are trying to find the guardians who ended up alone. The ones that need us most. Some of us gravitated towards each other, as evidenced by you three. And some didn’t. I thought you were alone, Chanyeol, and you were the first to die. I thought you deserved to get your memories back sooner, rather than later.”

“Kai.” Xiumin nudged his friend. “Tell the rest of it. Tell them what they deserve to know.”

Lay stood and said, “I’ll go get some more food. We’re going to need it.”

“Tell us everything,” Tao urged. “We’ll believe you.”

It took several hours, all in all. Kai ended up draining all of his wallet and most of Xiumin’s buying new rounds of food for their guests, answering all the questions they had and waiting patiently as it sunk in.

“You’re taking this better than Xiumin,” Kai said when the trio had fallen silent. He grinned salaciously at his friend. “He tried to get a restraining order against me.”

Xiumin crossed his arms. “Really? You’re going to bring that up?”

“Even after seeing you … what you can do?” Chanyeol asked in disbelief.

“I was a little shocked,” Xiumin said with a shrug. “But it started coming back to me the more we talked. I don’t think I should be blamed for having a natural reaction to what seemed like the ranting of a crazy man who’d been stalking me for weeks.”

“This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” Kris said. “But the evidence …”

“But how did we end up here?” Tao asked, leaning forward. “You said we died? On another planet? How did we end up here on Earth?”

Bitterness crept up Kai’s spine. Bitterness and anger at what had happened. “Someone,” Kai managed, “was looking out for us. He … pulled a lot of strings behind the scenes to try and ensure our future. He preserved the last bit of Mama that we had and it was enough to protect our souls after death. We were reborn because of his sacrifice, on a planet that was safer for us, and gave us a real shot at having a long life.”

“Maybe more than just us guardians,” Lay said.

Xiumin added, “It’s possible all the people of Exo have been reborn. We initially thought that just the guardians were reborn here on Earth, but we’ve come across others like us, with abilities, who after having contact with Kai, seemed to remember at last partial things from their past lives. It seems plausible that everyone who was on Exo at the time the planet died, was reborn. We don’t have any hope of finding the ones that were normal, they’ll be impossible to distinguish, but the ones with abilities, it’s possible to find them. For obvious reasons.”

Tao counted out, “So there were twelve of us. And you’ve found … seven?”

Kai corrected, “Eight. Well, Baekhyun and Chen make ten, and they’re both in Busan. They’re not together, and they don’t even know each other, but geographically speaking, they’re in the same area.

Confidently, Xiumin said, “We’ll find everyone. We’ll be together again. It’s fortunate that almost all of us ended up being reborn in the same area. It’s probably more on purpose than accident.”

“I made a promise,” Kai said. A promise that he couldn’t afford to break. “I’m going to find everyone, especially him.”

“Him?” Chanyeol asked, confused.

Lay gave him a small, discrete look, one that Kai caught, but the message seemed to be clear. And there were some things Kai wasn’t ready to share with all of them. There were some things he had to keep to himself, if only for a little while longer.

Three weeks later Kai was introducing Baekhyun to Chanyeol for the first time since they’d died. And after mere minutes, the fastest recovery time of memories to date, Baekhyun was massaging his temples, complaining of a headache, and then hugging Kai tightly with intimacy that could only mean he was whole and complete again.

And if Suho’s reunion with Lay had been romantic, Chanyeol’s with Baekhyun was just hilarious.

“It’s not my fault!” Chanyeol wailed as Baekhyun struck him heavily over the back of the head.

“We were in love,” Baekhyun shouted back. “We were going to get married and have kids!. How could you just forget me?”

Chanyeol covered his head protectively. “Kai said I died to protect you. Doesn’t that mean something?”

Kai, now feeling like an interloper, took a step back as Baekhyun took a deep breath. Then he reached up, cupping the sides of Chanyeol’s face, and kissed him softly. “It means everything to me, okay? Losing you is the worst thing that I have ever experienced in my life, and I remember dying. So don’t think for a second that you don’t mean everything in the world to me.”

Quietly, Chanyeol said, bumping his forehead against Baekhyun’s, “I wish I could remember you.”

“You will,” Baekhyun assured. “And I think a part of you does, even if you don’t realize it.”

Chanyeol’s head cocked “What makes you say that?”

Baekhyun sighed. “Because your hand is on my .”

Kai laughed loudly and stepped back to give them even more privacy. Chanyeol would remember, and he and Baekhyun would be okay. In fact they were going to be better than okay. Kai couldn’t be happier for them.

For Chen a few weeks later, there was no clandestine reunion of lovers. But he listened carefully and quietly as Kai spoke to him, and flipped through the book with keen eyes. Then, when Kai was quiet, Chen wanted to know, “Why did you wait so long to come for me? Why was I last?”

Kai put a heavy hand on his shoulder. “I knew where you were before this for a while. And I made a promise to find everyone, but I also had to use my better judgment with you. You were reborn extra special, Chen. You’re getting a full ride to study whatever you want in college. You’ve got the vocal talent to land yourself a recording contract anywhere you want. And you have a lot of friends and family who gladly occupy all your time. And the simple truth is you have more going for you than most of the others. I wanted to give you time to grow up normal and have a regular life before I blew into it and destroyed everything you knew to be real.” Kai sighed, “I was trying to do you a favor. But I was always going to come for you.”

A little haphazardly, Chen chuckled and shrugged his shoulders, saying, “I guess I understand. Now, when do I get to see the others?”

“Do you remember them already?”

“No,” Chen said honestly. “But they’re supposed to be important to me, so it doesn’t matter if I do or not.”

Kai thumbed behind him. “I’ve actually got a couple of them with me. I’ll introduce you.”

While he waited for Chen to join him, Kai made his way to where he’d left his friends, less than a block away, at a quaint, outside café. Tao was easy to spot, perched on the edge of a chair as he dug into ice cream that looked far too big for on person to eat. But Lay and Suho were a few tables away, talking with their backs to him, and while it was wrong, it was too easy to pick up on their conversation when he was close enough.

He could hear Lay telling Suho, “I’ve never told Kai this, but I had your face in my dreams since I was a child. I didn’t know who you were, but I never forgot you. Not even for a second.”

Suho grinned. “We didn’t have a lot of time together before, but this is a whole new planet. We’re new people, even if our souls are the same. I was hoping we could try again. Can we get dinner some time?”

Kai was almost too caught up in the reunions around them to notice Chen coming up to stand at his shoulder.

“They look a lot in love,” Chen observed.

Kai nodded. “They are, and they really deserve each other.”

“Introduce me,” Chen prompted, and nudged Kai playfully. “I want to meet the people I willingly and proudly died fighting with.”

After that, with the ten of them together, or at the very least aware of each other, memories slowly tricking back, Kai felt at least like he’d done something to honor his promise. It wasn’t complete, and there was more work to do, but for the moment, he was the slightest bit proud of himself.

At least until Lay reminded him as the new year lapsed, “We’re not complete, you know. Ten is not twelve.”

“I’m looking,” Kai snapped, then apologized for his tone and sighed, running a hand through his hair. “There’s no account of them in South Korea. I have to hope that they’re together. They should at least have each other.”

Lay pondered, “Why would they end up somewhere different than us? From the other people from Exo?”

“I don’t know.” Kai shook his head. “But it isn’t impossible they’re not in the country. You weren’t. Kris wasn’t born here, and neither was Tao. Maybe they were here at first, but then had to go. I’ve heard some things, from some of the others from Exo. Some of the others with abilities. There’s talk of the government rumblings and coming danger. Maybe they were worried about being exposed and left. Sehun is a powerful elemental and … and …”

“You have to say his name sometime, you know,” Lay said gently.

“I know.” Kai just couldn’t. Not yet.

Having the ten of them together was something special. They were stronger than ever and the closest of friends. As Kai hunted endlessly for the last two to complete them, he found himself getting caught up in college, sharing an apartment with several of the guardians and simply living his life. Part of him was missing, and his heart ached every day, but the days flew past and the seasons changed.

And eventually, Kai began to feel disheartened.

“Hey, Kai. You got a letter.”

Almost a full two years after the ten of them had been reunited, back from classes and feeling too tired for the day to do anything that required real effort, Kai collapsed along the second-hand couch that he and D.O. had dragged up three flights of stairs, and hollered back at Chen, “From who? My parents?” No one wrote letters anymore, and Kai couldn’t imagine who’d have the time or patience to send him one.

“Don’t know. You know someone in America?” Chen tossed the letter to him. But it wasn’t a letter. It was a postcard. “And hurry up. Lay and Suho want to go for dinner in about an hour. They seem to be under the impression that we like having to watch them be all cutesy.”

Kai looked over the glossy picture on the front, a snapshot of a majestic looking forest. “I don’t know anyone in America.”

“Well?” Chen asked, taking a seat next to him. “Who’s sending you something from America? What is it?”

The postcard advertised some place called Oregon, which ended up being a Western state in America. And on the backside of the postcard, where a message could be written, there were simple coordinates and a freehand sketch of something that stole Kai’s breath away like he’d been punched in the gut.

“Someone sent you a picture of a place in America and drew a flower on the back?” Chen asked.

“It’s not just any flower,” Kai said, voice wavering almost dramatically. “It’s a Midnight bloom. And I know who sent this.”

It was hard to explain the feelings running through Kai, crashing into each other, making his stomach flip over and his mind whirl. It was hard to imagine that this was the moment he’d been looking forward to since before he had even died.

“Kai?” Chen asked.

“I think,” Kai said, ambling up to his feet, “that Lay and Suho are about to get a rain check.”

And Kai needed his passport.

“You didn’t need to come with me,” Kai told D.O. several times, on the plane, as they arrived in America, and during the time it took to head up to Oregon.

Each time D.O. replied, “You’re my best friend and you’re a magnet for trouble. There’s no way I’m letting you do this alone.” Plus, if there was even a chance that they were on their way to find the last two guardians, Kai had a feeling that D.O. wanted to be included.

Kai was grateful.

They traveled for a bit more, leaving little time for rest, and anticipation built in Kai’s chest. The best kind of anticipation, but also with the greatest capacity for disappointment.

“This is the place,” Kai announced after some time. He looked at the expansive forest in front of him, a perfect replica of what had been on the postcard. “This is where we’re supposed to be.”

“Why?” D.O. asked flatly. “If we wanted to see a bunch of trees we could have stayed in Korea. What makes this place so special?”

“Because,” a voice drawled behind them, “this is where Mama’s new life tree is growing.”

Kai felt his eyes burn a little with unshed tears. “Sehun. You’re here.”

Sehun, looking healthy and happy, rocked a little back on the balls of his feet and grinned. “And now so are you, Kai. I take it you got the post card.”

“You sent it?” D.O. asked, surprised. “Wait, you remember us?”

“Don’t sound so disappointed,” Sehun ground out, but the smile on his face remained. “And of course I remember you. I never forgot you.”

“Oh,” Kai said, forcing his face not to betray his feelings. “I don’t mean for you to think I don’t want to see you. I’ve missed you.”

D.O. mumbled, “Sorry. Kai was hoping that it was someone else.”

“Luhan?” Sehun asked, voice airy and light. “Oh, I might have sent the post card, but that’s because he can’t really leave all that often, even just to go into town, and when he does it makes him super irritable. He’s the one who told me to send it, but I did the footwork.”

Kai froze. “Luhan is here? Right now?”

Sehun thumbed over his shoulder, towards a far patch of trees. “He’s always over there, watching over the--hey!”

Sehun almost lost his footing as Kai dashed by.

Kai heard D.O. demand behind him, “If you and Luhan were here the whole time, and remembered everything, why the hell didn’t you contact us until now!” But none of that mattered. The only important thing was getting to Luhan’s side, and seeing with his own eyes that he was fine.

The forest was densely packed and Kai was worried he was losing his way. He was terrified of getting turned around and delaying his reunion with Luhan any further. But he pressed on, chest huffing, never so determined in his life.

There was a slight clearing of trees up ahead, and Kai veered towards it., trying to block out the sudden image of the last time he’d seen Luhan alive. It was a moment he’d tried to erase from his mind for as long as he’d been aware of it. Luhan, dying in his arms, occupied all of his nightmares.

He slipped on some moss, nearly tumbled to the ground, then skidded to a complete stop, eyes searching the area in front of him.

Luhan.

He could see Luhan, sitting on the grass in shorts and a tee that boasted about Californian beaches. His hair was sandy brown, with a hint of blond, and he looked utterly healthy and flushed pleasantly with color. He was clearly getting lots of sun, and was looking much less frail than the last time they had been together. Behind him was a young tree, still using supports to keep it upright as it grew. It drew Kai’s attention for more than a second, reeking of familiarity, but then Kai was running again, zeroed in on Luhan who had finally seen him.

“Luhan.”

Kai skidded to a stop some feet in front of him, chest heaving and eyes watering.

“Kai,” Luhan returned, smiling warmly as he climbed to his feet. His bare feet wiggled on the grass and he looked completely at ease. “I missed you.”

Slowly and deliberately, Kai asked, “You remember me?”

Luhan’s eyes crinkled as he smiled. “How could I forget the person I love more than anyone else in this world or any other.”

Kai couldn’t make his feet move and he felt dumb simply standing there, but he also felt betrayed. “Why didn’t you find me? You remembered. You obviously knew where I was. Why didn’t you find me? You made me think that you wouldn’t be able to look for me, and I would have to find you. But all this time, you’ve been perfectly fine here, while I needed you.”

Patiently, Luhan replied, “Don’t you remember what I told you? When I suggested that this was the future we’d have, scattered and in need of being reunited? I told you that you had to prioritize the other guardians, and there could be no exceptions to that. I told you that because I knew where we were going afterwards, they would need you and I wouldn’t. Your task was to find them. My task was to stay here. I had to be here with the life tree, protecting it just in case.”

Kai looked around Luhan. “Life tree?”

“I had the life seed, Kai. I had it hidden in me, the last bit of Mama before the rest of her died. That life seed is what allowed us to be reborn, and in return all that Mama asked was that I protect it with my life, plant its when it was safe, and nurture it for a while.” Luhan’s expression softened. “I couldn’t contact you, Kai. No matter how much I wanted to. I had to be here, the only place on Earth where the life tree can grow, and I had to watch over it. I guarded the life tree and Sehun guarded me. But you would be amiss to believe that if I had the choice, I wouldn’t rather be with you. So many times I have wanted to just be with you, maybe at our spot on Exo, or anywhere on this planet, and forget everything. I wanted to just lay with you and forget the world.”

Almost angrily, Kai asked, “I couldn’t be the one to protect you?”

“No.” Luhan shook his head. “Sehun bonded with the life seed on Exo. The choice was made then.”

“I looked everywhere for you,” Kai shot back. “I was convinced that the only reason you hadn’t come to me was because you didn’t have your memories. What other reason would there be? So I looked and I looked and I felt like such a failure. My heart hurt and I felt like the others should blame me. And now, to find out that you were here the whole time--”

“Kai,” Luhan said, tone pleading. “If I could have come to you sooner I would have. But I couldn’t risk the life tree. Mama gave her life to protect us, Kai. She gave her life so that we could have just enough power to be reborn in a safer place. I’m doing this in return because I am so utterly grateful that you are alive and well and that I get to spend even one more minute with you. Do you get that? Do you understand? She died so that you could live. How can I not be in her debt? How can I not do this one thing for her?”

There was nothing deceitful or purposely hurtful about Luhan’s words, and Kai understood completely, but he was still in pain. He still blamed Luhan for their delayed reunion, even if that wasn’t fair.

Firmly, Luhan said, “The life tree can’t protect itself yet, and I can’t protect myself while I watch over it. All my energy goes to it. There are no shadows here, Kai, but there are plenty of people who suspect what we can do, and if they ever found out about the life tree, or where it was, we would all be in deep trouble. Please, understand that this isn’t something I chose, but it is an honor and I wouldn’t change it for a second.”

“For how long?” Kai asked, voice even. “How long have you been taking care of the life tree?”

Fondly, Luhan looked to the small life tree. “A long time now--my whole life. Every morning I get up and come here, and every night I go home and worry about what might happen while I’m gone. But never doubt that every second of every day I’m also thinking about you. I’m thinking about the first time we met, the first time you told me you loved me, the flowers you’d bring me, how we’d sneak out at night, how bravely you fought next to me in the end, the promise you made me, and the future we might have.”

Kai’s feet, filled seemingly with cement, finally let him edge closer. “Why did you tell Sehun to send the postcard? Why now?”

The sound of laughter cut through the air and nearby Kai was able to make out a couple of forms, mostly belonging to children, cutting through the woods. There were more people, too, upon second glance. Some were older children and teenagers, and a few adults. They might have seemed normal to anyone else, but Kai’s eyes narrowed as he watched one of the teenagers float across the grass, while another sprouted flowers and plants with every step he took.

Even further out in the distance Kai saw a young woman launch herself up off the ground and immediately there was bird fluttering away in her place.

“What is this place?” Kai asked a bit numbly.

“A safe haven,” Luhan said. “A place for Exo’s children to come and feel at ease. The truth is, we’re all Terran now. We’re all of Earth. But some of us need to remember the past more than others, and this is the place to do it. Mama’s life tree instinctively draws Exo’s children, and those men in suits who would seek to exploit and hurt us, can’t do that here.”

“So you’re protecting more than just the life tree,” Kai mused. “You’re also protecting the people of Exo. I … I get it. You couldn’t risk Mama, and you couldn’t risk the others.”

“Not while I was fulfilling my duty to Mama. You would never hurt anyone here, but there are those who would use you. Until I was absolutely sure, I couldn’t contact you. Until my duty was finished, I couldn’t bring you here.”

Not until .. .did that mean ….

“Luhan … your duty.”

Luhan moved wicked fast, throwing himself forward. He hooked his arms around Kai’s shoulders and kissed his mouth with a grin. “There are others here now, Kai, others from Exo. Adults who I remember and can be trusted. They’ll watch over the life tree. I’ve fulfilled my duty to Mama.”

Kai’s arms went instinctively around Luhan, holding him tightly, burying his face in Luhan’s neck. “We can be together now?”

“We can be together forever,” Luhan replied.

Kai tangled his hands up into Luhan’s short, curly hair. “I should have trusted you to be doing what you needed to. I should have trusted that you wouldn’t want us separated more than I would.”

“You kept your promise, Kai, and that’s all that matters. You did what you were supposed to.” Luhan caught his face in his hands and kissed him again. “You brought the guardians together. You united them, and then you started looking for me. You did what was expected of you, and proved that your soul was worthy of rebirth. Thank you, for making Mama’s sacrifice worth while in the end. Thank you for being the man I love.”

Kai rested his chin on Luhan’s shoulder and thought that maybe he was being given too much credit. “How do you know I got everyone together? You’ve only seen D.O..”

“Because you’re Kai,” Luhan said, as if it were the simplest answer in the world.

Drawing back slowly, Kai pushed Luhan to arm’s length and took a long, real look at him. He deduced, “You’re not as thin as I remember, and definitely healthier looking. Also you’re tanner, like you’re actually getting the sun you need. You look so much better.”

“And do I meet with your approval?” Luhan asked in a jovial tone.

Kai blew out a long breath. “You’re still the most handsome man I’ve ever seen in my life. And yes, I am still as in love with you now, as I was the day I first told you I was. I love you, Luhan. And I’m ready for us to finally get to be together, and grow old together. I think we’ve paid our dues. Don’t you?”

“Hey, guys!” Sehun called from behind them, sounding at a distance.

Luhan looked to be ignoring Sehun’s approach, returning, “I love you, too, Kai, and yes, we’ve more than paid our dues.”

“Are you two having a moment?” D.O. teased from next to Sehun when they were a bit closer. “Luhan, good to see you. Kai, stop looking like you’re about to swoon.”

“A heartfelt one,” Kai threw at him. “And you just ruined it. I hope you’re proud of yourself.”

“Immensely,” D.O. chuckled. Then he threw out, “I was thinking, Luhan, that Sehun explained to me that you guys are ready to pass the torch of Mama’s life tree off to someone else, so how about we go home? I know a lot of people who’ve missed you two.”

“I missed you, too,” Luhan told him, his smile almost blinding. “I missed all of you more than you can imagine.”

“You had me,” Sehun protested, a grin on his face. “But I can’t wait to see the others. It feels like forever since I’ve seen them.”

There was such contentment in Kai that he barely dared to ask Luhan, “You said your duty here was done. Does that really mean …. can you come back with me? To Korea? Or we don’t have to stay there. We can go anywhere in the world you want to. But--”

“Kai.”

“Yes?”

Luhan’s hand came up to rest between his shoulder blades in a comforting fashion. Kai watched as Luhan gave a final, long look to the growing life tree, and then he said in a voice that carried all the authority in the world, “I’m ready to go home with you now. I just need you to show me the way.” He leaned over to catch Kai’s mouth in a searing kiss. “Can you take me home? To our home?”

Kai slid their fingers together until they were holding hands. “I’ve been waiting for you to ask me that since the first moment I saw you. Come on, Luhan. Let’s go home.”

I honestly want to say that this story, from the first day, has been a labor of love. And it wasn’t easy to get this thing completed. I spent a lot of my nights working and reworking the plot, and almost all of my breaks taken at work were spent manipulating how I wanted the flow of the story to go, the character moments, and making sure that everything fit together soundly, like a complicated but satisfying puzzle. Sometimes, though, I just wanted to pull my hair out with this story, and even after I had written it, I worried about the reception it would have. This isn’t a story that’s light hearted or easy to skip chapters in.

But everyone, and I meant every single person who read and commented on this story, made it feel like it was completely justified that I wrote and rewrote this monster. It has always been my philosophy that I write for fun. I write for myself, because I have ideas and stories in my mind that I want to get out to enjoy over and over. I don’t write for accolades or any sort of recognition. If one person reads and likes my writing, it’s more than enough. But the response from readers chapter after chapter has really meant a lot to me. To start to recognize the same usernames constantly reading and dropping comments, is so satisfying and so fulfilling and I don’t think I can say enough how much it means to me. To get to chat with my readers about this story, and know what they thought of it, should be the greatest reward of any author. It is for me.

So again, thank you all. But more importantly, because this is the end, I want to know final thoughts! This is a monster of a story to get through, and to have made it all the way to the end is astonishing. To both the people who leave comments regularly, and those who have yet to, this is the time to leave one last word! What was your favorite part? Were all your questions answered? Do you feel satisfied with the ending? Tell me everything. Or simply let me know that you enjoyed this wild ride.

I can only say that the reception I’ve had for this story has far exceeded anything I could have ever hoped to have. And I continue to strive to be a better writer and share what comes out of my imagination, be it rubbish or otherwise. An author is nothing with an audience, so really, my most sincere and humble appreciation.