“That was just an excuse to cuddle, right?”

“Maybe.” Sehun smirks, but Luhan simply cuddles in further.

“Good, because I was going to ask anyway.” Luhan mumbles, wrapping the blanket on the single camper van bed tighter around their bodies, the kettle hissing from the kitchen area.

“I am kind of cold, though.” The younger admits, getting two wet kisses on each cheek in reply, heat crawling up his neck.

“Warmer?” Sehun only nods, not trusting his voice. “Good.” Luhan smiles and closes his eyes, basking in the atmosphere of the entire trip. So it was cold, and it was a little on the small side in their camper van, but they were having fun, right? It was nice being out here together on an adventure; at least, that’s what Luhan thought. “What do you think’s going to happen to us, Sehunnie?”

“What do you mean? Nothing is going to happen to us.”

“What about the stalker?” Luhan asks timidly and Sehun sighs, tightening his hug. Luhan happily snuggles in closer, climbing onto the younger’s lap and listening to his heartbeat through his shirt. It was like a calming lullaby to the older boy and Sehun always found himself smiling when he cuddled into his chest.

“You don’t have to worry about a thing. I won’t let anyone hurt you; you know that.” Sehun whispers, his voice quiet and shaky from the cold.

“But I’m worried about you.” Luhan mumbles, clinging to the fabric of Sehun’s shirt. Sehun laughs, pressing a kiss to Luhan’s temple and watching in amusement as the boy squirms.

“We’ll be fine.” He reassures. “If push comes to shove, hit the guy on the head with the frying pan, okay?”  Luhan nods.

“Sehunnie?”

“Yeah?”

“Can we make a campfire tonight?”

~*~

“I wasn’t sure where you thought we were going to get sticks from to make a campfire but you really surprised me when you pulled half a tree out of your handbag.” Sehun mumbles, watching the older boy excitedly lay sticks on the ground.

“It’s not a handbag, Sehun; it’s just an ordinary bag.”

“It looks like it came straight off the women’s shelves in Primark.” Sehun mutters, unfolding a deck chair.

“You’re skating on thin ice, babe.” Luhan chirps back, a deep chuckle filling the air from the younger.

The fire was eventually lit and the two set up and perched themselves on deck chairs surrounding it, shivering in the warmth of the flames.

“Hey, Hannie?” Sehun brings the boy staring at the fire back to reality and smiles widely. “This is where we’re heading, and this is where we are now, okay? So we’ll be there real soon.” He shows the older boy the map he’d been following for past few hours. It had been inside one of the letters they’d received, so he tucked it into his jeans pocket before they left. It had a clear set route on it for them to follow and Sehun guessed that it’d be best to follow it.  

“Where did you get this?”

“It came in one of the letters. I brought them all with me.” Luhan smiles, rushing back into the camper van and out again, fingers tightly clasped around the backpack holding all the letters they had received.

“Let’s burn them.”

“You scare me sometimes, Luhan.” Sehun comments quietly, and if Luhan hears, he doesn’t argue. He pulls them out one by one, eyes scanning over the letter in case there are any missed important details before he throws it onto a pile for burning.

“I’ve never realised it, but there’s a running pattern in these letters.” Luhan points out, picking up a handful. “Look. Every single one is hand written. Every single one is written on brown, tea stain colour paper and black ink like a foundation pen. No biros.”

“What does that signify? Perhaps they just like to do things the old fashioned way?”

“No, let me continue.” Luhan mutters, flicking the boy on the forehead and smiling when he mumbles a hot ‘ow’ and rubs the fragile skin. “They all mention ‘a twelve’.”

“Twelve?”

“See this one; ‘The twelve will reunite. Six plus six becomes twelve.’ And this one,” he picks up another, “this one says ‘The twelve protectors’. All this time we were just thinking that they were stalking us, but perhaps we’re not the only ones.”

“So you think that there are more people being stalked? Like a mass murder? Are we Jack the Ripper victims?”

“I don’t think it’s a mass murder, Sehun,” he mumbles, digging through for another letter, “the twelve… Here; ‘The twelve must return, for the tree is dying.’ If we’re two of the twelve, I don’t think they’d kill us if they want us to return to this tree.”

“Give it some water?” Sehun replies confused. “The tree is dying? Give it some water!”

Luhan smacks him on the back of the head, “Maybe it’s a metaphorical tree, Sehun; you have to read into things.”

“I’d rather just sleep.”

“Let’s burn the useless ones.”

~*~

“Well that was oddly satisfying.” Sehun mutters, throwing the last of the unwanted letters on the fire, brushing himself down and lying back into the chair.

“You can say that again.”

“Well that-”

“It’s a figure of speech, Sehunnie.” Luhan sighs, the younger giggling. “We should probably get some sleep soon.”

“You seriously think I can sleep after hearing your theories?” Sehun mumbles, helping to put out the fire and fold up the deck chairs.

“Don’t be such a baby; I’ll be right there beside you.”

“Always?”

“Yes, always, Mr Potter, now get in the camper van.” Luhan smirks, patting the boy on the as he steps into the van.

~*~

“Good morning, sunshine!” Luhan beams the next morning, the smell of freshly cooked steamed buns filling Sehun’s nose. He twitches and blinks, before his eyes fix on the slim boy humming in the kitchen area. He dips his head out of bed and stares down the corridor of the van.

“Luhan…” He whines, collapsing, almost falling out of bed. “What time is it?”

“Like half eight.” Luhan shrugs, belting out a high note as he sings. Sehun loves Luhan’s singing; gentle and melodic, but half eight is perhaps not the best time to be ‘rocking out’ to Super Junior-M’s latest comeback song – he’s even more annoyed because he can’t understand a word Luhan is saying.

“I hate you so much.” Sehun groans, burying his face in his pillow, which unsurprisingly smells just like the boy in the kitchen.

“I love you too! Now get your out here and eat with me.” He hears the clicking of plates on the make shift table and figures, why not, pulling himself out of bed. He lazily throws on a shirt and slacks; wandering around the van in just his boxers perhaps isn’t the best idea when it’s as cold as it is.

“It smells good.” Luhan smiles in thanks, digging in. “Did you sleep okay?”

“Stop making small talk and eat; you’re skinny enough as it is.” He teases and Sehun shrugs, but obliges, taking a bite.

“It’s really good.”

“Thanks. I made it myself.” Luhan winks, slipping his orange juice. “Are we travelling again today?”

Sehun reaches over to the driver’s seat and grasps the map, flattening it on the table.

“Were those two crosses there before?” Luhan mumbles, reaching down to touch one. Sehun scrunches his eyebrows. As the tip of Luhan’s finger brushes the paper, the ink turns a shining gold, as if paint is running underneath it and ten more crosses appear on the paper.

“What the…”

“Sehun, the crosses are moving.” Luhan whispers. “Some of them keep turning into arrows… Sehun, pass me that notepad.” The boy’s shaking fingers reach out for the pad and hand it to the older, and in a moment in pure genius, Luhan slips it under the paper.

The lines signalling roads and fields spread onto the new paper, the crosses flying across the page and to a large circle labelled ‘Seoul’. The crosses begin to move further away slowly before stopping just outside the circle.

Luhan diverts his attention to the other crosses. One cross is moving around a lot, as if running away from something. Another two don’t move, but stick close together. Another three are grouped together closely, and when Luhan peers at his watch and notices it’s quarter to nine, the crosses separate, two staying put and the other one going its separate way. One cross isn’t too far from another two and Luhan feels a sense of familiarity in the two original crosses.

“Sehun, last night, where did you say we were?” He peers over at the trembling boy and smiles comfortingly. Sehun might put up a tough front, but he’s just as fragile as the next guy and this wasn’t something to be taken lightly.

“There. Where the two crosses are.” He blurts out, leaning forward and stabbing his finger to the paper.

When he touches the paper, however, those crosses flicker and become symbols.

“What did I do?”

“I don’t know, but I think those two crosses… or whatever they are now… are us.” Luhan mumbles, thoughtfully. “But that must mean that the others also correspond to…”

It hits both of them at the same time and they almost bump heads lurching forwards to count the symbols.

“There’s twelve.” Sehun whispers. “Twelve symbols. Twelve Protectors.”

“Well, we’re definitely part of the twelve.” Luhan hums, running his fingers along the lines of the paper. “I think we should find these other symbols.”

“What?”

“We should go after the other symbols.” Luhan shrugs. “Maybe they have an idea as to what is happening.”

“Why do I feel like we just jumped into a Librarian movie?” Sehun groans, resting his head on the table. Luhan sighs, running fingers through the younger’s hair.

“I don’t know, Sehunnie; but we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”

~*~

“This map is whack.” Sehun grumbles unappreciatively to himself, crunching it between his fingers, staring around the vast landscape. There was nothing here, he was certain of it. But the map…

He unfolded it and of course, the unknown symbol for this area disappeared, along with the symbol Luhan was investigating on the other side of the road. Sehun trudged back to the van.

“No luck?” Luhan asks as he slouches against the hood. Sehun shakes his head.

“The symbols disappeared. Now there’s just our two.”

Luhan smirks, “who do you think is which symbol?” Sehun raises an eyebrow. “I think the swirly one is yours.”

“So the one with the lame circles is yours?”

“It isn’t lame.” Luhan huffs, “It’s mysterious.” Sehun snorts, wrapping an arm around Luhan’s shoulders and pulling him in closer. Luhan complies, hands snaking around the younger’s waist.

“Should we go home?” Sehun asks in the silence, “If the symbols keep moving, we’re never going to find anyone.”

“We can’t give up so easily, Sehunnie.” Luhan frowns, leaning his head against his chest. “We can’t just up and go just because we didn’t get one symbol. We should just head for a symbol that doesn’t move much.”

Sehun nods, “but for now,” Luhan continues, “we should stay put, because I’m tired and hungry and it’s already late in the afternoon. By the time we get to any of these other symbols, it’ll be dark and what are the chances of finding anything in the dark?”

~*~

“Sehun, come and see this!” Luhan calls from outside the van, tightening his coat closer around his body. Sehun slips his arms through his own coat and steps outside. Luhan is a few meters away, hood up and staring up at the sky. He stands beside him.

“See what?”

“Look.” Luhan says simply, and Sehun follows his eyes to see the Sun and Moon coming together. “An eclipse.”

“Funny time for an eclipse.” Sehun mumbles, “I haven’t heard any news about it.”

Luhan shrugs, blinking up at the sky, the light wind tickling his eyelashes. The whole thing fascinates him; the idea of the two giants of the sky crossing over one another… He wishes he could have watched it every time it comes around, but he’s never realised the beauty of it until now. His stomach lurches and his heart rate doubles but Sehun doesn’t seem effected in the slightest.

Sehun’s body relaxes as the eclipse passes, Luhan’s eyes still not leaving the sky. He places a hand on the boy’s shoulder and sighs.

“Hannie, it’s gone now.” He insists, “C’mon.”

Luhan doesn’t move and Sehun flinches when a noise behind him rings through his ears. He spins on his heel; hand still on Luhan’s shoulder.

 He steps back and trips. Their camper van is floating. An entire camper van is floating. In mid-air.

“Luhan, holy crap! Luhan-” Sehun panics, stumbling over Luhan’s feet. Luhan doesn’t move; doesn’t even flinch. “Luhan!” He shrieks, tugging on the boy’s arm.

Luhan is like a marble statue until Sehun’s hands touch his cheeks. The smaller is thrown backwards by a strong gust of wind, his body rolling across the floor. Sehun’s eyes widen and he takes a step back.

Did I do that? He thought, staring down at his hands.

Luhan groans and the camper van comes down with a crash.

And Luhan did that? He panics.

“Sehun?” Luhan is lying on his side, rolling over onto his back. “Sehun? Are you okay?”

“I-I-I’m fine.” He stutters, “Are you okay?” He calls back. Luhan laughs.

“Of course I’m okay. Just a couple scratches.” He coughs, sand in his lungs. “What happened?”

“Y-You-You- I don’t know.” Sehun mumbles, clutching at the fabric of his pockets. “You were watching the eclipse and then you froze up and the camper van was flying and then I touched your cheeks and your went flying back and-”

Luhan rushes to his feet in Sehun’s rambling and presses his lips to his to cut him off, “and I’ll stop rambling.”

“Good boy.” Luhan smiles, wrapping his arms around the taller’s torso. “The camper van was flying?”

“It was floating in mid-air and then I touched you and it crashed back down. I think… I think I’m the reason you flew backwards. It felt like a gust of wind, you know? And the camper van came back down when you snapped out of that trance… I think those symbols are more than what we thought.”

Luhan ponders on the idea, taking Sehun’s still shaking hands in his own. 

“We’re going to get to the bottom of it, okay? Don’t panic.” He soothes, caressing his cheek. “I’m not going to let anything separate us and I will protect you, okay? If push comes to shove, I can always hit you on the head with a frying pan, right?”

Sehun giggles, but nods, pulling the older back in to his arms, head resting on top of his.

“What the heck is happening to me?” A voice shrieks in the silence and Sehun watches as two figures appear not five feet away before the noisy one disappears again in a puff of smoke, leaving the other behind.

The tall figure is mysterious and dark; equipped with midnight black hair and enough piercings to sink the Titanic and as his head lifts up, Sehun can feel his heart drop and the boy in the arms tremble.

This man is far from welcoming, far from friendly. There’s a coldness in his eyes that you can’t miss and his lips are so thin and pressed so tightly together they’re turning white and Sehun can’t help but stand protectively in front of his partner, glaring just as hard back at the fierce eyes.

“Why aren’t you frozen?” The man speaks, his voice higher than Sehun was expecting, but he still bites his words out as Sehun matches his stare.

“I don’t know.”

“That’s helpful.” The man rolls his eyes and shoves his hand into his pocket, observing the world around him. Luhan notices the heavy accent and smiles.

“You’re Chinese.” Luhan states in Korean, peering around Sehun’s slim frame. “My name’s Luhan and this is Sehun. We’re not a threat, I swear. We’re just lost and confused adventurers.” Luhan speaks in fluent Chinese, watching the boy’s thin lips curl into a smile.

Sehun frowns. Why did he have to be Chinese? He can’t understand a word.

“You’re Chinese? Is he?” Luhan shakes his head. “He’s a little scrawny.” The man smirks.

“He is not!” Luhan whines, “Leave Sehun alone!”

“Okay, okay, I was only joking. He obviously means a lot to you.” The man pauses for a minute, staring up at the sky. “I’m Tao. Zitao, but my family and friends call me Tao.”

“Do you mind me asking how old you are, Zitao?” Zitao shrugs and smiles.

“It isn’t going to change anything, but I’m almost twenty.”

“You’re older than Sehun. Sehun’s nineteen. I’m twenty-three.” Luhan can see the increasing frown on Sehun’s lips (and the hardened expression and unwillingness to let him step forward and greet the new boy properly) and he starts to think about switching back to Korean soon.

“Is he your brother?” Luhan giggles, clutching onto the youngest boy’s hand and Sehun’s expression softens for a minute as he looks down at him.

“No,” He smiles, “Boyfriend.”

Zitao almost chokes on his own spit. “But you look so alike? I thought you were brothers… He’s so young.”

“Hey, he’s only a year younger than you.” Luhan frowns, blinking at the boy.

“What are you two talking about?” Sehun asks and Luhan giggles again. “What?”

“He thought we were brothers.”

“It’s not the first time.” Sehun comments monotonously. Zitao raises an eyebrow.

“And you’re the older one?” He asks Luhan, who nods excitedly. He looks confused for a second.

“I don’t know how either.” Sehun mumbles, letting the older escape around him and shake Zitao’s hand.

“It’s nice to meet you, Zitao.” Zitao, huh? Very… Chinese. Sehun thought, still staring at the boy’s dark eyes. “Don’t mind Sehun. He’s just not good around people.” Sehun frowns. Must Luhan tell everyone his insecurities?

“Hey, I’m not allowed near people, so we have something in common.” Zitao smiles, almost friendly, but Sehun is still unsure, so he grasps Luhan’s hand and pulls him back to his side. “I’m not here to hurt anyone.”

“Then why are you here? Are you our stalker?”

“Stalker? You’re being stalked?”

“Sehun!” Luhan bursts. Sehun flinches at the volume. “The map!” Sehun fishes into his pocket for the paper and hands it to Luhan, who opens it in Sehun’s hands. “Now we have three symbols.”

“The creepy circles, the one that reminds me of The Lion King and now… A sand timer.”

“What are you two?”

“We’re not sure exactly.” Luhan sighs dramatically, staring back down at the paper. “You must be the sand timer.”

“I must be the sand timer?” Zitao repeats, confusion laced in his voice.

“Yes; that’s what he said.” Sehun snaps, folding it back into his pocket. “Luhan?” He the older’s hair and Luhan smiles up at him.

“I think we should find the other nine. Hey, if we’re lucky, they might come to us like Zitao did.”

~*~

Sehun was beginning to lose his patience. If it wasn’t bad enough that he was driving alone in silence, he could hear Zitao and Luhan chatting away in Chinese in the back of the van, perched around the make shift table with the map and paper. He figured Luhan was filling him in on what they’d discovered, but it was still unnerving not being able to understand a word.

“You see? These two are Sehun and I, and you’re the timer.” Luhan grins, placing a finger down on the paper and watching with delight as the gold shone. “This is where we are and this- Wait.” He rushes from his seat and startles Sehun as he jumps into the passenger seat.

“Luhan! You almost killed us all!” Sehun shrieks, but as usual, Luhan ignores him.

“Sehun, the symbols have moved. Considerably.”

“Huh?” Sehun pulls up at the side of the road and takes the map from him, laying it against the steering wheel. “These two were together, not moving, but now they’re with the one that looks like a bird over here.”  

“You mean the triangle one and the snowflake?” Luhan nods.

“The symbols move?” Zitao asks, peering through the gap between the seats.

Luhan nods again, “we think each represents one of the twelve protectors our letters spoke about.” He explained. “We don’t really know much else.”

“Much else? That’s plenty already if you ask me.” Zitao mutters, “My head hurts just thinking about it.”

“Get some rest. There’s a bed in the back you can use; the one on the right. The left one is ours.”

“Thank you.” Zitao pauses, “Really. Thank you. I just appeared out of nowhere and you guys are being really nice to me and people are usually petrified of me, so it’s nice just to talk to normal human beings for once.” Luhan smiles fondly at the younger boy and pats his hair before he smiles back and takes his leave, stretching as he goes.

“I’m proud of you, Sehunnie.” Luhan smiles, placing his hand over Sehun’s as he grips back on the gear stick, starting the van back up again.

“I haven’t done anything.” Sehun mutters.

Luhan bites his lip, “you’re not freaking out, or attacking him, or being unsociable. I’m proud of you.” Sehun blushes ever so slightly and the engine roars as they take off again.

“Let’s go find the last nine, ey?”

Luhan nods.