Zitao drives Kris home that evening. They share few words on the journey, but the younger knows how much Kris wants to endlessly thank him due to the nervous look on his face.

“Honestly, Zitao, you are an angel for this.” Kris compliments, following obediently up the stairs after him when they arrive. “Letting me stay… That’s really kind of you. For no rent, too; you were sent straight from Heaven.”

Zitao hides a smile at the man’s cheesy words, but quickly regains his composure and usual persona, shrugging nonchalantly.

“It’s fine,” he insists, “It makes no difference to me. Having someone around might make it a little less… lonely.”

Kris hums softly as Zitao rummages through his bag for his keys. He can hear them jingling together, but he can’t place them.

“I know how that feels.” He confesses, lowering his head slightly.

Zitao smirks, “is that what the alpaca is for?”

“Shut up; Ace is great company.” Kris blurts without thought, blushing furiously when he realises the words that have just tumbled through his lips. Zitao lets slip a boisterous laugh, his cat-like eyes full of innocence as he watches Kris’ own fill with embarrassment.

“And I’m the younger one here.”

“You’re mean.” Kris pouts, pushing his way in behind the younger, holding the door open with his elbow.

“But I’m giving you a place to live, so am I really, plush boy?”

Kris narrows his eyes, but marvels in the cleanliness and tidiness of the apartment. To Kris, Zitao’s place is like a five star hotel in comparison to his old apartment, where he could only just hazard a guess as to the original colour of the carpet no matter how much he cleaned it and just about plug everything in to a working socket in the kitchen, his oven being the thing that rarely used one of his four extension sockets.

“Your apartment is lovely.”

“Hey, you live here too now. Call it home.”

~*~

Junmyeon and Kyungsoo make their way back home at the same time, wishing Kris all the best with his new accommodation and insisting that they (Junmyeon) were only a phone call away if he needed anything (as long as Kyungsoo wasn’t what he needed).

Junmyeon was still sniffling all the way home and Kyungsoo felt uncomfortable guilt settling into his stomach, reaching over for Junmyeon’s hand firmly on his Ford KA’s gearstick.

“Junmyeon, I didn’t mean to worry you. Please forgive me; I won’t ever leave the house without you again. I won’t answer the door to anyone, I promise.”

Junmyeon sighs, pulling into his driveway. For a moment, they don’t move.

“It’s okay. I’m not mad. I know you didn’t mean to do anything.” He smiles reassuringly and softly at the younger boy, taking his hand and giving it a light squeeze. “There was nothing you could do. Let’s just be glad you’re safe now, okay? And tonight, we’ll stick a movie on and eat ice cream. How does that sound?”

“Fattening.” He giggles, but nods. “That sounds great.”

The pair curled up together on the sofa and watched The Lion King (one of Junmyeon’s favourites), before heading to bed, Kyungsoo latching onto the older’s arm. He trembles slightly and Junmyeon wonders if it’s from fear or the cold, but he figures sharing a bed for the night is the logical answer to both, so, gone midnight, they wrap themselves under Junmyeon’s duvet and close their eyes, dreaming of worlds with powers and aliens and Auspices.

Kyungsoo continued to tremble all night, but he felt safe.

~*~

Minseok never takes his eyes off Jongin that evening for a second. He catches the boy’s every last move as he performs, making drinks without watching, which causes in a lot less spillages than he’d have thought. He hums along to the music pounding, sneaking glances at him sitting at the bar as he serves customers. He looks tired, bags under his eyes and a thought in his head.

“I can take a half shift and we can go home now, if you want.” He proposes constantly, but Jongin just smiles and dismisses him, insisting he’s ‘fine’.

Minseok eventually gives up.

“Okay, Jongin, don’t lie to me. What’s wrong?”

Jongin stares at the shorter for a few seconds before he sighs and rests his head against his folded arms on the bar surface.

“I’m worried…” Jongin confesses, blushing, “about Kyungsoo.”

“Kyungsoo’s at home with Junmyeon. He’s safe now. Both of you are.” Minseok smiles fondly, reaching over and ruffling the younger’s hair. Jongin returns his smile, but sighs.

“You should’ve seen him, though, Minseok. He looked so… scared; so vulnerable. He was so fragile. He had these huge wide eyes and he looked at me like the only thing I could do was hurt him. He doesn’t remember a thing. Imagine not remembering anything – where you work, your family, me. Imagine that.”

Minseok nods sadly, but still reaches over to continuously the younger’s hair comfortingly, the corner of his lips twitching up.

“He’ll be okay.” He reassures, “Even if he doesn’t remember anything, Junmyeon will take good care of him. He’s always welcome with us too if he wants. He’s one of us. We’re a family now, right?”

“You mean it? He’s welcome with us?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t he be?” Minseok laughs.

Jongin blinks, swallowing. “Because it’s always just been me and you. It’s always been Minseok and Jongin.”

“Just because other people are around doesn’t mean you won’t always be my Jonginnie.”

~*~

The sleeping arrangements that night in the Huang apartment were debated until Kris fell asleep. Zitao had argued that he didn’t mind sharing, but Kris had insisted that he didn’t want to impose or be a pain (that and he didn’t want to accidently push Zitao out of bed or kick him in the night – how embarrassing would that be?).

In the end, Kris fell asleep in the middle of their argument anyway, sleeping comfortably on Zitao’s bed straight through the night.

Zitao woke up first, rolling over to check that the taller boy was still there. The older looked so peaceful, eyelashes tangled together and hair falling onto his forehead, sticking up in random places. Zitao thought that like this, Kris looked less like a runway model and more like a human being and he subconsciously smiles. He contemplates going to make breakfast, but he decides staying in bed is a better idea.

“Why didn’t you just push me off the bed?” Kris mumbles as he wakes up groaning not a minute later. “I told you; I don’t want to be in the way too much. I was perfectly fine sleeping on the floor.”

Zitao rolls his eyes. “Do you know what sleeping on the floor does to your back? Bad, bad things.” He smiles, “besides, you didn’t disturb me. It was a peaceful night. You don’t even snore… that loudly.”

“Hey!” Kris shouts, his morning voice scratchy and he reaches over to shove Zitao and then he remembers this isn’t his bed and Zitao is being so kind to him, so his arms just fall and tickle the edge of Zitao’s stomach. “That’s not nice. I don’t snore.”

“Yes, you do.” Zitao laughs, his cat-like eyes curling up. “Really loudly.” Kris whines pathetically and Zitao rests his head back down against the pillow, his chin perhaps a little too close to Kris’ shoulder, but Kris doesn’t complain. “It’s okay, though. Knowing you’re asleep makes it easier for me to sleep.” Kris hums and turns to face the younger, who’s staring intently at the ceiling and Kris’ nose just touches Zitao’s cheek before the boy asks, “What do you fancy for breakfast?”

~*~

“So I think I figured something else out-”

Chanyeol lets himself in through the unlocked front door of the office apartment he was previously banned from, talking as he goes, hoping that it’s Yixing or Jongdae that’s awake and about rather than Baekhyun, but of course, when he pushes open the door, it’s the last that’s sitting cross legged on the floor seemingly waiting for him.

“Good morning, Chanyeol.”

“Good morning, Baekhyun.” Chanyeol replies cautiously, closing the door quietly and softly behind him and slowly making his way to the kitchen, walking as far away from Baekhyun as possible.

“Yixing and Jongdae aren’t home. It’s just you and me.” Chanyeol shifts uncomfortably. Baekhyun’s smile looks warm, but Chanyeol reminds himself that his Grandma always told him not be fooled by a friendly face, so he presses himself against the wall to keep the safest of distances.

“Great.” He swallows.

“Are you scared of me?” Baekhyun suddenly blurts, tilting his head to the side cutely and Chanyeol thinks he kind of reminds him of an abandoned puppy all alone here sitting in his living room. “Just because I don’t like you, doesn’t mean I’m going to hurt you or do anything bad to you. It just means I don’t really appreciate your company. Which brings me to ask, why are you here?”

“I was thinking about our powers last night, and how some of them coincide and I wanted to talk to everyone about it, so I figured I’d come here and talk to Yixing and get everyone to come over.”

Baekhyun snorts, “my apartment isn’t a hotel lobby, you know. It might be an office apartment, but it doesn’t mean you can hold meetings in here.”

“Then I’ll just ask Junmyeon; no problem at all.”

Baekhyun tilts his head to the side again, biting on his bottom lip and diverting his vision from catching Chanyeol’s figure standing so far away.

“But you can still tell me what you were thinking about, if you want.”

Chanyeol’s wide eyes grow even bigger and he quickly nods, still not taking any steps closer to the boy, who is yet to move from his place dead in the centre of the room. He takes a deep breath and starts.

“Well, I was really thinking about how Minseok and I can’t touch each other; like, I grabbed his wrist once and it burnt him and I was wondering if perhaps it was the same for the others.” He mumbles shyly, suddenly gaining more confidence when Baekhyun furrows his eyebrows to signal he’s not quite following. “Say… Junmyeon, for instance, he controls water, right? If he was to grab my wrist, it’d probably hurt me, because when you put water on a flame, it extinguishes it.”

“So like… Jongdae and Junmyeon. Water conducts electricity.”

“Exactly!” Chanyeol smiles excitedly, teeth on full show. “I was wondering if it was a solid theory, but I don’t really want to test it out. Not if people are going to get hurt.”

Baekhyun laughs and stares down at his feet before he sighs.

“Hey, do you want a coffee? I make better coffee than Jongdae.”

Chanyeol blinks, “sure,” and then smiles, “I’d like that.”

“This doesn’t mean I don’t still hate you; I’m just a good host.”

Baekhyun clicks the kettle on and the taller smirks as he shuffles on his feet, “Sure.”

~*~

Luhan flops down onto the sofa, breathing out heavily. His coffee burns slightly at his fingers, but he makes no effort to stop. He sips cautiously and stares blankly at the plain wall opposite him. He’s thinking too hard. Sehun always told him not to – ‘you’ll hurt yourself, silly!’ – but he always found himself doing so. He thinks about his powers; what he’s done. He thinks about Sehun and his powers. He thinks about the other ten boys. He thinks about what’s going to happen next.

There’s not much Luhan doesn’t consider and he’s completely immersed in thoughts of kind Chinese people and weird smelling Korean office apartments when a crotch appears in his line of view.

His eyes travel up to meet Sehun’s.

“What are you thinking about?”

Luhan sighs, leaning back into the cushions. Sehun sits beside him, arms wrapping around Luhan’s waist, carefully lifting the smaller boy to sit on his lap. Sehun smiles, content with the head resting against his chest. However, the glum expression on his features stayed constant.

Sehun frowns. “Hannie, what’s wrong?”

“Am I a bad person?” He blurts suddenly, refusing to meet Sehun’s eyes. “What I did to the others. I’m a bad person, aren’t I? I don’t mean to upset anyone. I just…”

“You’re far from that.” Sehun insists, interrupting before he can go any further. He tips Luhan’s chin up to press a kiss to his forehead, smiling against his skin. “You’re a lovely person. You’re Luhan. You’re perfect the way you are. It’s okay to lose your temper every so often – it’s a nice reminder that your baby face has wrinkles.” Luhan huffs and Sehun peppers his cheeks with tiny kisses, making him squirm. “They said some things back, too, don’t forget. Everyone was on edge. We had two people missing. It’s normal for people to be snappy when they’re worried.”

“Just… Don’t you ever go missing on me, okay?”

Sehun laughs and reaches for the blanket on the back of the sofa, wrapping it around Luhan’s frame and lacing his hands around Luhan’s waist as the smaller manoeuvres to sit facing him, a small smile on his lips.

“I won’t.”

“Promise me.”

Sehun seals Luhan’s lips with his, “Promise.”

~*~

It’s not until later that afternoon that Yixing and Jongdae return home. Chanyeol’s still there, sitting in almost silence, Baekhyun opposite him with his book in between them, open on the page of the Light God, Baekhyun’s symbol.

Chanyeol had confessed to being intrigued by Baekhyun’s powers, and asked him to show him what he’d been able to do thus far and it’d taken them an hour and a half to turn the light shimmering from his fingers back off, but they achieved it, and Baekhyun started to read through his page to see if there was anything else he could uncover.

The air was silent but comfortable until Jongdae burst in through the door, only expecting the smaller boy to jump and perhaps blow a cheap bulb, but instead, as the handle clicked back into place, the Phoenix light up like a bonfire, his arms and his hands, spreading even to his shoulders, burning a hot fire.

Of course, Baekhyun screamed in shock, and finally blew the bulb Jongdae was hoping for.

“Oh my god, get the fire extinguisher!” Yixing is quick to move, but Chanyeol holds his hand out rapidly for him to stop, almost catching Baekhyun’s shirt and just fraying the end of his sleeve.

“No! Let me see if I can stop it myself.”

Baekhyun hesitates as Yixing stops midwalk and watches him. “Get it. Just in case.” Yixing nods and stands prepared.

Chanyeol’s brows furrow and his long, unruly hair tickle at his jawline. He clenches his fists, thinking, as he had seen in all the movies, of his powers turning off, but nothing happened. That same tingling feeling of the flames against his skin continued before Baekhyun finally gave in, taking the red cylinder; aim and fire.

As the smoke blows away, Chanyeol sighs, looking down at his only slightly burnt sleeves and warm skin.

“I couldn’t do it.” He breathes, “I failed. I’m a failure.”

“Hey-”

“I couldn’t even control my own powers… I lit up like a Christmas Tree for no reason and I couldn’t even put the flames back out. I’m a hazard.”

Baekhyun growls, ready to whack the taller with the fire extinguisher itself before he really sees the forlorn expression on his features and he joins in with a sigh.

Chanyeol stares, unblinking, down at his hands, “I could hurt someone like this. I could’ve hurt Baekhyun, or even Yixing or Jongdae. I could’ve burnt down the whole building. All because I can’t control myself and-”

“Park Chanyeol!” Baekhyun slams the cylinder down onto the floor, causing the other three to flinch. “Shut up.”

“Baek-”

“Shut up.” He repeats. “It took both of us an hour and a half earlier just to stop my hand from shining. We’re new to this. We’re new to having all this power in our bodies. Do you honestly expect to be a pro by the first few days? Do you really think you’ll just get these powers and suddenly be so clued up on how to use them?” Baekhyun steps closer and from so close, he can see the size of Chanyeol’s wide eyes and how fast he blinks to keep them from drying. “Because if you do, then you’re more stupid than I thought. You’re not a failure just because you didn’t pick something up the first time. You just need practice. So stop talking nonsense.”

Yixing and Jongdae share a look in the doorway before slowly walking backwards, closing the door behind them to give the two time alone (‘they need to bond, get to know each other; otherwise, Baekhyun will never change his mind about selling Chanyeol’s organs on eBay’, Yixing insists when the lock clicks shut).

“Baek-” Chanyeol cuts himself off, “Thank you, Baekhyun. That was really… That was really nice of you.”

“Yeah, well,” Baekhyun huffs, biting his bottom lip and trying his hardest to scowl and be menacing to the taller. “I just didn’t want to listen to your stupid pity speech.”

“Are you sure that’s it?” Chanyeol teases gently, the smallest of genuine smiles coming on his lips. “Are you sure you hate me as much as you say?”

“I’m positive.” Baekhyun nods. “Yup, one hundred percent positive.”

Chanyeol’s lips are pushed apart in a grin, all his perfectly white teeth on full show and Baekhyun pauses for a moment as Chanyeol advances towards him. “Yup. I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life.”

Chanyeol crouches down, lifts him up and spins him around anyway.

(and Baekhyun may even have laughed)

~*~

The twelve of them finally decide to meet up again as a group a few days later. They start in the local park before deciding that Junmyeon’s house is probably a much safer place to discuss alien powers, so they make their way out to the countryside to Junmyeon’s, Sehun, Luhan, Minseok and Jongin stopping on the way to pick up food.

“Everyone likes pizza, right?” Jongin asks, pulling a box from the freezers. Minseok trails behind him, peering over his shoulder at the one Jongin had handpicked.

“Yeah, but we don’t know what people like as toppings.”

Jongin pouts, “can’t we just get normal pizzas and people can suffer?”

“We could.” Luhan agrees, pushing an empty trolley and almost ramming Sehun’s legs out from under him by accident. Sehun glares as the older smiles sheepishly.

“You’d think between the two oldest, one of you would come up with a fantastic, great idea.” Jongin frowns, staring pointedly at the two, who share a look before Minseok raises an eyebrow.

“You’d think between the two youngest, one of you would respect their elders.” He pauses, “Oh wait; Sehun. My bad. I guess one of you does then.”

“Shut your mouth, baozi.”

“B-Baozi?” Luhan questions, tilting his head to the side. He watches Minseok’s cheeks puff up and mirrors the older’s smile. “I see it.”

Eventually, they decide on plain pizzas.

(Junmyeon phones to see what’s taking them so long and he tells them to buy whatever is in their hands and Jongin’s holding car air fresheners, but he figures not everyone will like vanilla, so he buys the pizzas instead.)

~*~

Sat in a circle in Junmyeon’s living room, they scoff down the pizzas with light chatter and when they’re finished, the conversation strays.

“How is everyone doing?” Yixing asks quietly. “Has anyone had any problems with their powers?” Chanyeol keeps quiet, but Jongin raises his hand.

“I am. I was showering the other day and teleported myself into the living room. I think I scarred Minseok.”

Minseok shudders visibly as Sehun reaches over to rub his shoulder in comfort.

“A-Anyone else?” Yixing asks hesitantly. “Kris?”

“Huh? No, I haven’t. I haven’t flown anywhere so I haven’t had a problem. Breakfast lasted quite long this morning, though. Zitao?”

“I don’t know when I’m using my powers.” He confesses, “I don’t feel anything. I could’ve been using them all over the place and I’d never know.”

Jongdae sighs, “it seems that we all need to get a grip on our powers.”

“I was at work and I shook hands with a friend of mine and he snatched his hand away covered in scratches. I think my healing has backwards effects. I have to avoid any contact.” Yixing mumbles, rubbing his fingers together and smiling sadly at Baekhyun and Jongdae, who nod softly and link their fingers together, using their spare hands to pretend to hold his. “We need to do something about this. We need to practice or something. But how?”

Junmyeon looks around his precious house and sighs.

“You can practice here-” Eleven sets of eyes meet his, “but! In the garden. And watch my flowers.”

Yixing snorts, “gramps-”

“And don’t call me that.”

“Aye aye, cap’n!”

Junmyeon glares at Jongin too.

The twelve share a warm smile, and Jongin catches Kyungsoo’s wide eyes full of happiness and his heart flutters. Maybe Minseok was right. Maybe Kyungsoo was going to be okay.

Chanyeol is the first to bounce to his feet, pushing his fist into the air in excitement before he groaned. “I should’ve let the pizza go down first.”

“Stupid!” Baekhyun throws his empty plastic cup at him and blushes as the room burst into fits of laughter.

Chanyeol simply grins sheepishly.