Baekhyun had always loved the outdoors. The feel of the wind through his hair, the sun against his skin, the scent of freshly bloomed flowers… The outdoors was Baekhyun’s haven. A deep forest at midday, with the light dipping through the trees; the poppy field Yixing and him share in their dreams and a pouting Jongdae trapped in their car by the side of the road. To Baekhyun, the fresh air was freedom and the noisy birds were a perfect song.

“Can you stop staring at that tree and listen to me?”

“Shut the hell up, Parkyeol.” Baekhyun glares, tsking.

Chanyeol scoffs, “Parkyeol? Fine, then. Byunbaek, get to it.” Jongdae wraps a tight hand around Baekhyun’s upper arm, tugging him away. “Actually, Jongdae. Byunbaek’s with me.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“You’re with Kyungsoo. I paired everyone up based on your powers. Byunbaek’s with me; light comes from fire.”

Junmyeon raises a curious hand, “does that mean I’m with Minseok?”

“You catch on fast.” Chanyeol teases, pointing to each person as he talks, “Byun and me, Minseok and Junmyeon, Jongdae and Kyungsoo, Sehun and Kris, Jongin and Luhan, Yixing and Zitao.”

“So what are we doing?” Jongin asks impatiently, tapping his foot against the grass. “Because you dragged us all the way out here when Junmyeon said we could use his garden, and I’m not impressed.”

“I set out a scavenger hunt.” He announces, “there’s a little message in a bottle for each person to find, so there’s two things per pair. You have to use your powers to find them, so hopefully this will be at least a little practice for everyone. I’ll try not to set the forest on fire.” He turns to Jongin, who looks at him incredulously, “you aren’t allowed to use your powers. You need to practice not teleporting in and out of thin air. Luhan, if he disappears, phone me and we’ll work something out.” Luhan nods rapidly, still glued to Sehun’s arm.

“Do we do the same if something goes wrong for everyone else too?” Yixing questions quietly, “what if I hurt someone?”

“Fix it.” Chanyeol shrugs, “anyway, you have until midnight, so four hours. Good luck!”

Baekhyun groans. Chanyeol is way too chipper as he drags the smaller to his inevitable doom.

~*~

“We’re lost.”

“We are not lost.”

“Kyungsoo, we’re lost.”

“Jongdae, we are not lost.”

“Look-” Kyungsoo glares. “Never mind, we’re not lost.” The older quickly rectifies, cowering. “But in the event that we were lost, what would you do?”

“We’re not lost!”

“I didn’t say we were!” Jongdae shrieks back and he’s sure one of the other pairs will have heard him and he can practically feel Yixing’s laughing at his misfortune from across the forest. Kyungsoo lets out the most frustrated of sighs and Jongdae thinks he feels the ground shake ever so slightly and he reaches out tentatively to place a reassuring hand on Kyungsoo’s shoulder. “We’re not lost, Kyungsoo.”

“We’re lost, aren’t we?”

“A little bit.”

Kyungsoo groans, his knees giving in beneath him. He lowers his head and closes his eyes, taking deep breaths and listening to the soft breeze rustling through the trees. “But don’t worry. If it starts to get dark, or we’re out here too long and we get scared, I’ll try and send a rescue signal. See if I can get some lightning going, okay?” Kyungsoo smiles appreciatively.

“And I’ll try not to rip open the Earth.”

“That’s probably a good place to start.”

~*~

“So… it must be really cool being able to fly.” Sehun mumbles, kicking at the ground. Around him, the dust ripples with his footsteps. “Have you touched a cloud yet?”

“Sehun, I can barely stay in the air, remember?”

“Oh… yeah.”

Kris sighs, rubbing his temples. It’s going to be a long four hours.

“So you’re the youngest, huh?” Sehun nods with a shrug, “Luhan looks younger than you, though.”

He laughs softly, “he hates it.” He twists his fingers together and smiles at the way the dust swirls against the pathway. “He’s got some manliness complex, where he has to be super strong and always be the protector and the mature one. So often people ask me if he’s my younger brother, but Luhan’s almost four years older than me.”

“Four years?” Sehun hums in agreement, “you’re so young.”

“We get some laughs out of it sometimes, but he really is overprotective of himself. The baby face gets to him sometimes. He just wants to be manly.” Sehun allows the taller to chuckle to himself before he raises an eyebrow. “What’s so funny?”

“I’m sorry, I just can’t see Luhan doing anything particularly ‘manly’.”

“Depends what you define as manly.” Sehun replies defensively, huffing. He crosses his arms and glares down at the ground to avoid letting Kris get eyes on his famous grumpy face.

“I don’t know, uh… Sports?”

“Luhan was soccer captain when he was in high school. He still plays now. His thighs are rock solid. Anything else?”

“Down a pint in one go?”

“He won’t let me drink and once, a girl bought me a drink in a bar, and he was so jealous and refused to let me drink it, so he gulped the whole thing down in one, so you can check that off the list.”  Sehun muses as he wonders if Luhan remembers the hangover he had the next morning. Sehun had to whisper for the entire day.

“Shave?”

“Like you do that.” He rolls his eyes as the older blushes slightly. “Point is, Luhan is Luhan and whilst he doesn’t like that most of the time, I love it so he it up. But just don’t , because if he doesn’t hurt you, I will.”

“Note taken.”

~*~

“Don’t look at me, I can’t freeze it. It’d break if we tried to smash the ice to get it out.” Minseok shrugs, eyeing the pouting man beside him. “Don’t look at me like that; it’s not my fault we found your bottle first.”

“What do you think I’m meant to do?” Junmyeon asks, and Minseok blinks, staring straight at the little glass bottle hanging neatly from a tree branch high above the centre of a little lake.

“Walk on water?”

“I’m not Jesus, Minseok.”

“You asked me for ideas.” Minseok smiles at the frustrated sigh that tumbles past Junmyeon’s lips. “Maybe you could like, I don’t know, use the water to reach up and pull it down.” Junmyeon’s brows furrow.

“It’s worth a try, right?”

“If only you’d had the same attitude towards the walking on water suggestion.” Minseok mutters, though he knows from the glare that Junmyeon hears him loud and clear. The younger lets out a deep breath and tilts up his hand, praying that the still water begins to shake and his prayers are answered as tiny perfect ripples start at the edge of the lake. They dance in a zig-zag pattern toward the centre and little droplets start to splash under the bottle. Junmyeon’s hands curl into fists as the water picks up speed, reaching up in a small twister to wrap around the soft glass of the bottle, tugging it down from the thin string it’s hung by.

“You’re doing great, Junmyeon.” A hand on his shoulder. Junmyeon’s concentration takes a nose dive and the little bottle slips between his fingers, his twister, and splashes into the water, beginning to sink. Junmyeon panics, arms flailing, fingers dancing, anything to get the little bottle to resurface and he closes his eyes. The next thing he knows, the water is dripping off his clothes by the bucket full, but that little glass bottle is tightly wrapped in his hands.

Minseok frowns, pushing drenched hair from his forehead. “You know what, I take that back.”

~*~

“So…”

“Sorry.”

“What?”

Luhan sighs, “for being so unapproachable. I know I’ve been a horrible person recently for no reason and it’s made you uncomfortable and unwilling to be around me. I can practically feel how awkward you are right now, Jongin. And for that, I’m sorry.”

Jongin nods softly, “It’s okay.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I mean, c’mon, not everyone can make a perfect first impression, right?” Luhan agrees with a hum, “You were just protecting yourself and Sehun, I get it. It is a little awkward, though. I don’t know what to talk about.”

Luhan pauses for a moment, thinking. What could he possibly talk about? He knows nothing about Jongin; he barely knows how to talk to anyone besides Sehun. But they’re a similar age, so it can’t be that difficult, right?

“Am I right in saying that you dance?”

“Yeah,” Jongin breathes, “you remembered that? Yeah, I dance in that club where we met. It sounds shady, but it’s really not. I’m not a stripper or anything.” Luhan eyes him and then laughs, “what?”

“You probably could be if you wanted to.” Jongin tries to stop himself from blushing, but he really can’t help it. “Sorry, but it’s true. Just don’t tell Sehun I said that.”

And for the first time since he laid eyes on Luhan, he feels comfortable.

“I won’t.”

“Now, where do you suppose these bottles are?” Luhan hums, staring up at the trees looming over them. “I’m going to assume yours is just hidden in plain sight like, along the path or something, to ensure that you don’t teleport off track?” Jongin sighs and follows suit, basking in the way the trees intersect above their heads and their branches tangle together, letting through only tiny bits of the night sky and the moon’s light. He spots Luhan watching him, but doesn’t say anything. “Do you think we’ll find anything in four hours?”

“It’s more like three hours now.”

“Have we really been walking aimlessly in complete silence for an hour?”

“Seems like it.”

“Wow…”

“So what was it you were saying about me being a stripper?”

He laughs at the red tips of Luhan’s ears.

~*~

It’s unsettling. The silence. Zitao is used to their being noise around him; the scuffle of shoes against the gravel, the music in the store, even the small hum of the refrigerator. Silence is odd and he doesn’t like it one bit.

Yixing, however, is too busy playing with plants to notice.

The older had grazed his fingers against a beautiful pink flower about half an hour ago, and watched with surprise as it flooded with life, the petals turning a shade bright, and its stem standing taller. Ever since, he’d touched every flower he’d come across, awed by the effect his powers had on nature.

“Zitao, this is so cool. Baekhyun will never be able to kill our house plants ever again. We can buy real ones instead of plastic!” Zitao doesn’t reply. “Zitao?”

“Shush.” He prompts. Yixing simply blinks back at him before he’s swiftly knocked off his feet. At first, Zitao assumes Sehun is just close by and hasn’t quite got control of his powers, but then he spots it. Red. A bright, red light. It’s strange, especially in the middle of a forest, and without hesitation, Zitao grabs Yixing’s hand and runs.

“Woah, Zitao! Where are we going?”

“Run.”

~*~

Baekhyun is making a point of ignoring everything Chanyeol says when he notices Zitao and Yixing running behind them, Zitao yelling for them to run. He’s not entire sure if it’s a joke, but from the frightened look on his best friend’s face, he decides it’s probably not worth the risk and tugging Chanyeol’s arm to bring him back to attention, he sets his legs in motion.

Chanyeol runs a lot faster than he does, he knows that from the taller’s long legs, but he stays beside him for the run. Neither dare look to see what’s following them, but he knows if Zitao is scared, then he should most definitely be too.

It takes a different effect on the tallest, who is mostly curious. He spins his head round every so often to see, but doesn’t notice anything behind them, and exclaiming this to the group, they come to a stop.

Zitao, out of breath, speaks first.

“There was a light. A red light. Like a floating ball of light. I don’t know what it was or how it got there or what it was doing, but it wasn’t right. It felt like it was looking at me.”

“Looking at you? But it’s light.” Chanyeol frowns.

“I know, but it was unnerving, and when we ran, it chased us. It actually followed us.”

“You don’t think one of the others are messing around, do you?”

Chanyeol shakes his head, “no one other than Baekhyun would have the ability to and he’s been by my side the entire time.” Baekhyun nods in agreement. There’s no one else of their twelve that could create such a thing, and he’s not convinced himself he could do it either. Not red light, anyway.

“I don’t think it’s safe out here, Chanyeol. We should get the others and go home.” Yixing insists, moving to his best friend’s side. His protective side has kicked in and he doesn’t like it when he has to behave like this because it means they’re in danger. He daren’t think about Jongdae right now, out there somewhere he doesn’t know.

“I agree.” Zitao adds and Chanyeol nods.

“How do you suggest we find everyone?” He pauses, “Baekhyun.”

“What?”

“Could you try and send up some sort of beam of light? I’d try a fire signal but I’ll just set the whole forest alight.” Baekhyun nods, and taking a deep breath, he closes his eyes, concentrating his full attention on the light from the palm of his hands. It’s not much at first, barely enough to rival a torch, but as Chanyeol places a hand on his shoulder and mumbles, “C’mon, Baekhyun, you can do it.” He’s filled with a desire to prove himself, to show Chanyeol that yes, he can do it, and his hand lights up like a lighthouse, and he grins.

“Great, that should work. We’ll keep walking though and hopefully we’ll meet up with the others along the way.”

~*~

Jongdae is the first to notice the odd light.

“Kyungsoo, do you think that’s Baekhyun?”

“If not it’d have to be a pretty big torch.” The younger shrugs, “why?”

“I get the feeling it’s important. We should go meet up with them.” Kyungsoo doesn’t have the energy to argue, and honestly, he doesn’t mind what they do. It’s not that he’s lost interest in his powers, or that he’s frustrated he can’t control them, he just… he just wishes he didn’t have them. He wishes he knew his past, about who he is, what he’s meant to do and why he’s the target so far. The phone calls, the kidnapping, he wants to know why. Why him? Why not Junnmyeon or Jongdae or Chanyeol? He’s losing it. He’s losing the will to live. “Hey, you coming?”

“Jongdae, do you ever wonder why it was us that got these powers?”

Jongdae hums, “sometimes, but I just think, well, it’s fate, right? We must have these powers for a reason, we just haven’t discovered that part of it yet. I’m sure it’ll all come to-”

“Light.”

“Yeah, light…” Jongdae replies uncertainly. Did he have to finish his sentence for him? What was the point? He knew what he was going to say.

“No, Jongdae, light. Red light. Right in front of us, staring into my soul.”

Jongdae turns around, too slowly for Kyungsoo’s liking, to look at whatever the younger is mumbling about but it fades away before he sets his eyes on it, a whisper of his name lingering in the air.

“Kyungsoo, what are you talking about? There’s nothing there. Let’s just keep going, okay?”

He groans, why me?

~*~

Yixing is practically cutting off the circulation to Baekhyun’s fingers as they search for the others. Baekhyun’s other hand is still facing upwards, to send out the light signal and Chanyeol is walking just behind them, alongside Zitao, as they follow the path.

It’s getting increasingly dark when they finally bump into someone, and to Baekhyun and his fingers’ relief, it’s Jongdae and Kyungsoo, who not long after, are followed by Luhan and Jongin from behind them. Now complete with one best friend in each hand, Yixing smiles.

“I knew it wasn’t safe going out this time of night.” Kyungsoo mutters mostly to himself, and if anyone else hears, they don’t comment. “So are we looking for the others?” He asks louder.

Chanyeol hums, “now we have multiple powers, it could be easier to find everyone. Kyungsoo, could you create a small earthquake? That’s bound to get Junmyeon’s attention. And Jongin, you and Luhan could teleport around looking for anyone you can find. Jongdae could try and create some kind of lightning signal to go with Baekhyun’s light. The more powers we invest into this, the more likely it is for the others to see it. We’re only missing Junmyeon, Minseok, Sehun and Kris, so it shouldn’t take too long to find them.”

“The forest is pretty thick, what if they don’t see the signals?”

“You guys did, didn’t you?”

Jongdae shuts up pretty quickly.