Title: Tower
Pairing: HyuKen
Related Chapter: 41, 48, 50, 60, 69, 78, 87, 96, 103, 114,
Word Count: 817

Hyuk scowled slightly as he looked up at the watch tower standing before him, half finished.

“Don’t frown,” Yong Guk sighed, patting Hyuk’s shoulder, “you don’t look cute when you do.”

“It’s an eye sore,” Hyuk replied, “it’s just…..it’s so ugly.”

“We need it,” Himchan pointed out, joining the pair as they watched the construction, “having you and the others shifters like Lay and Luhan around is great, but if you guys find a serious problem you can’t instantly alert us.”

“He’s right,” Yong Guk nodded, “what if there’s a fire? We can see it from the tower long before any of you can run to the house or station and tell us.”

“And it’s dangerous,” Himchan added, “I don’t want to risk any of you getting hurt by fire and smoke because you got too close or couldn’t outrun the flames.”

“Fine,” Hyuk pouted, “but it’s still ugly. Can’t you paint it or something?”

“Seriously?” Yong Guk gave Hyuk a look, “do you see how tall that thing is? Do you know how much time that would take? And money!”

“Fine,” Hyuk sighed, “then let it stay ugly.”

“Oh,” Himchan suddenly pointed to a break in the tree line, “we’ve got a visitor.”

“Again?” Hyuk scowled when he noticed a familiar wolf watching from where Himchan had pointed, “Doesn’t he have anything better to do?”

“Apparently,” Yong Guk laughed, “no.”

“Go talk to him, Hyukkie,” Himchan encouraged, “he came all this way for you.”

“He didn’t come that far,” Hyuk muttered, walking away to join Daehyun and the boys, “we’re right on the edge of his pack’s territory.”

“He’s back?” Daehyun asked when he overheard the werewolf’s muttering.

“Yeah,” Hyuk nodded.

“He’s dedicated,” Daehyun laughed, “I’ll give him that.”

“I’m with Hyuk on this,” Youngjae spoke up, “he’s getting annoying.” The youngest two boys, Jongup and Zelo, kept silent, just observing the older boys talking about how Ken was either cute or annoying.

“Hyuk should talk to him,” Jongup finally said, “then, if he still wants him to go, he might leave.”

“I hate when you’re right,” Hyuk grumbled before stalking off in Ken’s direction.

He walked right past the other werewolf, trusting him to follow. And, like Hyuk predicted, Ken did exactly that. Ken didn’t stop following until Hyuk felt that they were far enough away from the construction site. He told Ken to change and the other did exactly that.

“I didn’t realize your humans knew what you were,” was the first thing Ken said.

“They’ve known since I was ten,” Hyuk shrugged, “worked out for the betterment of everyone involved.”

“What are you building?” Ken asked, “It looks really big.”

“Watch tower,” Hyuk scoffed, “you should have heard us talking about it. Are your ears just there for show?”

“I heard,” Ken looked down slightly, “but I didn’t understand what a watch tower was.”

Hyuk bit his tongue, fighting to keep any harsh words from slipping out. Normally, he wouldn’t bother keeping such comments back. But around Ken…..he felt compelled to hold back. If he didn’t, Ken got this kicked puppy look and Hyuk hated seeing it. He originally decided that this was because Ken reminded him a lot of Jongup, so he treated the werewolf the same way he treated Jongup. But as time went by, Ken reminded him less and less of Jongup so he couldn’t explain it as that.

“Yong Guk and Himchan are going to use the watch tower to watch over the forest,” Hyuk explained with a sigh, “it’s so tall that they’ll be able to see things like fires and junk like that right away. It’s going to have a phone line so they can call the right people, like firefighters, as soon as they spot trouble.”

“That sounds cool,” Ken smiled, trying to pretend like he understood what Hyuk was talking about.

Hyuk sighed, trying hard to keep any sarcastic comments from slipping out. Calmly, he tried to explain once more what the tower was and why it was important until Ken finally understood.

“Sorry,” Ken smiled shyly, “I’ve grown up in these woods. I don’t know what all of these things are. I’ve never used a phone or seen a firefighter. Until I met you, I just stayed at home.”

“Seriously?” Hyuk blinked, clearly surprised, “you’ve never left the forest?”

“No,” Ken shook his head, “never.”

“Then I’ll take you sometime,” Hyuk replied thoughtfully, “the next time Yong Guk goes into town, I’ll take you with us.”

“Really?” Ken smiled brightly, overjoyed at the idea of seeing the world outside of his packs territory.

“Sure,” Hyuk shrugged, “Youngjae was complaining about the refrigerator running on empty last night, so there’s probably going to be a supply run in a couple of days.”

“Thank you!” Ken laughed, pulling Hyuk into a hug. The other werewolf rolled his eyes before trying to free himself from Ken’s hold.

A/N: aww, that’s so sweet of Hyuk to make that offer to Ken, right? three cheers for the HyuKen werewolf AU!