"So, how was your day?" you asked the boys.

"Fine." they said in unison. They glanced a quick look at each other.

"Oh really?"

"Yep." they said together again.

Okay what did you guys do?

"So," you began, "what did you do today then?"

"Luhan learned how to vaccuum." Kai said quickly.

"And Kai learned how to do dishes and laundry." Luhan added.

"Wow that's awesome guys. I'm guessing that's why Kai smells like fabric softener."

"Yeah...." Kai trailed off. 

"Okay, well I have my credit card on me so we are gonna go to the mall for a little bit."

   The boys looked at you funny.

"What?" you say

"What's that?" Luhan asked

Oh boy.

"A mall is a place where....uhm.... it's like this big building. Yeah. And It has a ton of shops and stores in it."

"Like a market?" Kai asked

"Well no. I mean there is a food court there but it's mainly for buying clothes. Which is what we are gonna do." then you add, "Then we are gonna go back to the dollar store to buy some more things and then we are gonna go to the clearing so you guys can spar-"

"YES!" Kai literally fistpumped the air.

"After that Luhan is gonna teach me hypnosis. Sound good?"

"Wow, full schedule today." Luhan says.

"Mhmmm, so let's get to it, yeah?"

   Kai unlinked his arm from yours and held your hand instead. He offered numerous times to carry your backpack. You decline saying that the mall was close by and it was unnecessary. You and Luhan made small conversation. The sun was high in the sky today and it kept your mood up. You were happy to be out of school and with your guardians. It feels normal when the boys touch you now. It's almost expected. Whenever both of them are in contact with you it's almost impossible to feel unhappy. You look down at your pendant. It was giving off a shiny glare from the sun. You took it out from under your shirt when you were putting your textbooks away in your locker. You smile. 

"Can you guys tell me about your home?" you asked, interrupting Luhan mid-sentence. He was talking about sparring techniques or whatever.

   Luhan was the one to explain. He was looking down at his shoes (if they're even shoes, they kinda look like loafers. Both of the boys had them when they showed up yesterday) and you saw the glare of his necklace that was holding his charm. You saw the clasp was facing the front. You stopped abruptly and let go of Kai's hand. Both of them looked at you, confused. You reach up towards Luhan's neck and his eyes go wide. You smile softly and fix his necklace. Soon as your finger brushed against his collarbone it looked like he automatically relaxed. You nod your head to tell him to continue and grab Kai's hand and relink your arm with Luhan's.

   You found out that they basically grew up in a fortress. Luhan put emphasis on the fact that it wasn't a huge castle that you may have heard about. It was a decent sized fortress that had enough bedrooms and bathrooms for them. Besides that it had a kitchen, lounge areas, and the other bedrooms that were for housekeeping. Kai then explained that the staff is actually the people who raised the twelve of them, plus their teacher who showed them how to fight and use their abilities to their advantage. They don't know anything about who their parents are. You saw both of their faces go forlorn when it was mentioned.

"Hey, it's okay I understand, I lost my parents when I was younger. That's why you only know Christina."

"....Goddess, I am so sorry. That must have been hard." Luhan said sadly.

"Do you mind if I ask how they died?" Kai questioned.

"No it's okay. Car crash, drunk driver hit and run. Nobody was ever charged for it."

"That's awful." Luhan says while shaking his head.

   Kai gripped your hand tighter. By the time the conversation ended the three of you were in the parking lot of the mall. For once it felt good talking about your mother and father. For so long even describing them was too painful to speak about.  Memories would flood your mind and you would feel yourself drowning in it, succumbing to the warm welcome of depression. But now you felt untouchable, like on a safety boat waving goodbye to it. You realize that Kai and Luhan are your safety boat.

   You realize that these boys can be the ones to save you.

   After only being in the mall for twenty minutes there was insane chaos. 

   Soon as you walked in Kai ran off in amazement of mannequinns. Luhan froze in his spot out of fear, you think, and that caused people behind you three to run into him. Sighing, you grab his wrist and yank him out of the way to go hunt down his younger brother. You brisk walked with second hand embarrassment as Luhan would ask you tons of questions. You spot Kai in Journeys staring at mannequinns with skater clothes and shoes. You shove Luhan into the store and thought, why not? They need sneakers anyways.

   You made the brothers sit down next to each other in the seats that were used to try on shoes and warned them, more like warned Kai, not to move. You search around the aisles of the store until you come back with a small rug that has footprints on them where you can measure your size. They did not understand at first why you were grabbing their feet and forcing them onto certain spots on the little mat. Adults in the store were giving you weird looks.

"Okay boys, both of you are size twelve. Go find shoes with that size that you like so you can try them on."

   For some reason Kai was, like, praising you and literally skipped off. Luhan just sat there and stared at you.

"What's wrong Lu?"

"What if they cost a lot?"

"Don't worry about it. You need it. You deserve it." you shoved him and gave a smile. He hesitantly got up and walked away.

   Not even two minutes later Kai came back to you.  Your jaw dropped when you saw what he was holding.

"No."

"Awh why not?"

"I am not getting you biker boots. What the hell. Where did you even find those?"

"Pleeeeeeeeease?" Kai showed you his big round eyes and...

No. Don't fall for it.

"No Kai."

   He then took a step closer and gave you his biggest smile.

"Please my Goddess?" He got even closer.

No don't do it.

   And on cue he winked at you.

Goddamnit that wink. I swear.

   You look away. He then got on his knees and scooted closer to you. You try staring at the people outside of the store as they pass by. He got so close you can feel his breath on your face. He touches your chin and turns your face to his.

"Please?" he says in almost a whisper.

I'm a goner.

   You sigh in defeat.

"Fine." you roll your eyes.

   Kai lets out a huge bellowing "yes!" and gets up and hugs you. Tight. Real tight.

"Get off now you jerk, hurry up and go pay before I change my mind." you hand him your credit card.

   He carresses the side of your face before leaving. You gasp and feel the blood rush to your cheeks.

These boys drive me absolutely crazy.

"Just how crazy?" says a voice only you can hear.

   You look up and see Luhan walking towards you with a shoebox in his hand. Your face gets more red and you smile.

"Crazy enough." you say out loud.

   He gives you the box and waits for your approval.

   To your surprise you see that he picked out black and white converse high tops. You seriously thought he was the old-man-leather shoe type. You smile.

"Love it, It will look really good on you." you say.

"Really?"

"Mhm. Go hunt Kai down and get the card to pay."

"But I don't know how to pay."

"Of course you do, if you didn't how would Kai-"

Wait.

Oh .

   You jump up and run to the front counter. You see a very confused cashier and an even more confused Kai. He was trying to give the whole card to the cashier. 

"Kai what are you doing!"

"I don't know!"

   You rush on over and snatch the card out of his hand. You quickly slide it through the machine and apologize multiple times. You put Luhan's converse on the counter. Afterwards you walk out of the store after paying over $140 on two pairs of shoes.

"I don't even know what to get you as clothes Kai. Nothing really matches with that except more leather and, like, biker clothing."

"Then lets get more leather." he raises an eyebrow to you.

   A very uncomfortable mental picture pops into your head of Kai and Luhan only wearing leather and you look away.

"Fine, whatever."

   You walk around the mall for two hours. Each of you have at least two bags on one arm and you finally gave up your backpack to them. You drag them into Kohl's and tell them to wait in the dressing room. You go around searching the aisles for jeans and sweatpants to wear. You figure that the boys want to have comfortable clothes too. You pick up some shirts along the way.

"Okay, Luhan go into that dressing room, Kai go into the one on the right of his. Ill each give both of you clothes to try on. Same deal as before. Each time you put an outfit on come out and show me. Got it?"

   Both boys nodded their heads and walked into their assigned areas. You began to throw clothes over the top of the door. Luhan came out first. He was wearing dark skinny jeans and a long sleeve midnight blue button up. 

"How do I look?" he was smiling.

   You motion for him to come out and turn around. He does so and then faces front.

"Great, I love it." you wink.

   You saw him blush before he walked back into the dressing room and shut the door.

"Uh, goddess?" you hear Kai ask

"Yeah?"

"Can you help me?"

"Huh?"

"I'm stuck."

   You hear Luhan snicker. You sigh.

"Alright, open the door."

"Once you come in shut the door real quick okay?"

"Why what did you do?"

"Can you just come here already!"

   You take a step towards the door and hear him unlock it. You push it open. And stop.

"Shut the door!"

"Oh, right."

   It still took you a second to. Because this boy standing in front of you was........wow.

Sweet baby abs- I mean Jesus.

   And oh did he have them alright. Perfectly molded eight pack abs that were currently flexed because.....well...you begin to laugh.

   His abs were flexed because his arms were above his head caught in a sweater. He looked hilarious. And attractive. Very attractive.

"Are you just gonna stand there and stare at me or what" he said in a grumpy tone. You start laughing more.

"Can I take a picture?"

"No!"

   You can't hold it back anymore. You're dying of laughter while his arms are still stuck above his head in a sweater. He's starting to look pissed.

   You walk on over to him and try getting on the tip of your toes to pull down the sweatshirt because Kai is so much taller than you. After a few tugs and multiple 'ow's from Kai you give up.

"I think it's too small, I'll go out and get a bigger size once I get this off of you." you say.

   You only hear mumbled muttering from Kai since the sweater was now blocking his face. You tell him to bend over so you can pull it off of him. The whole time you hear Luhan giggling in the booth next to you.

"Sha-uf Loof-un" Kai mumbles through the sweater.

  That only makes it worse since you hear Luhan full-out laughing now and asking if he can see what happened.

"If you come over here can you take it off him while I go get a bigger size?" you call out to him

"Yeah" he said inbetween laughs

   While going through the aisles you hear Luhan practically howling and incomprehensible shouting from Kai across the store. You shake your head as you finally pick out the right size and start running towards their direction.

   The three of you walk out of the mall right after five o'clock.

Never. Again.

   And as if the heavens- or is it parthenon?- were personally trying to punish you Kai spoke up.

"Just wait til you have to shop for the rest of us. And booooyyy Tao has pretty expensive taste."

   You groan. Luhan smirks.

   There is so much left for you to do today and you only had one thing crossed off your list. While walking to the dollar store you feel your pocket vibrate.

Hows everything going? What time do you think you and the boys will be home?

-Christina

   You set the numerous bags down on the sidewalk so you can text with two hands.

I have no idea, not too late. Maybe 8-ish? I have something to give you when I get back btw.

   After picking up the shopping bags, the three of you start walking again. The whole time you and Luhan were making fun of Kai. It got to the point where he was too fed up to even defend himself, he just stayed by your side and took the mocking.

"So what do we need at the store? We were just there." Luhan asked a couple minutes later.

"Well you need toothbrushes, toothpaste, deoderant, hairbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, and I'm thinking of getting all twelve of you a separate outfit to wear while sparring. So maybe just a pair of shorts and a tank top or a t-shirt?" you reply

"I'm glad that you are letting us do what we like to do."

"Why wouldn't I? I'm not in charge of you."

"Well you could be, you are the Keeper."

"Even if I was I wouldn't treat you as slaves, that's wrong."

   Luhan looks at you. You're sure you saw the hope in his eyes. But hope for what?

   While you were picking out deoderant for them, Kai reminded you to buy lots of 'boxers' this time. You appreciate the reminder, except for the fact that he practically shouted it across the store. Which, yet again, you received quite a few concerned looks from older adults.

Gosh why are there so many old people up in here. Like what the heck, did the baby boom make you all attracted to dollar stores or what.

   In a record of twenty minutes you were walking out of the store, finished. Kai and Luhan offered again to take the bags, and you happily let them. You could feel the shopping bags from the mall cutting into your skin at this point. 

"So.......sparring?" the younger boy asks.

"Mhmmm. Let's go. Cross the street as soon as that van passes."

"So that's what they're called?" Luhan asked suddenly.

Wow. I'm stupid. I didn't teach them about cars.

"Yep."

"Cool. Do you know how to use one?"

"You mean drive one? No, they scare me. I get anxiety attacks if I try."

   It started developing a few years ago. You never knew why. When you were younger you didn't mind them at all. Back then you use to actually love being in one. Now you can never go near one. Soon as you get within a couple feet of a vehicle you would start to feel the anxiety creep up your spine. Maybe it's because of the fact that you don't trust the people around you, especially if they are strangers in a huge metal two ton death trap.

"Makes sense, they look kinda scary." Kai adds.

   You cross the street, making sure Luhan and Kai are in front of you as you do so. That way you can see them at all times. Once you hit the concrete sidewalk you realize that it took no time at all to trust your guardians.  Even if they did have freaky powers. You smiled at the thought of that. Your pendant suddenly felt warm against your shirt and your stomach.

  Almost as if it knew.

   Upon entering the forest, Luhan began explaining how sparring works. Since there is only two of them it was easy to understand the concept. On a 1 vs 1 match each person goes to one side of the forest, deep in the greenery, and they must be opposite of each other. Someone will then give a signal. Once it starts each boy must move with stealth through the forest until they find each other and 'attack'. They can use their abilities on each other but they cant seriously harm anyone. Sometimes they'll even put up targets in the forest for fun, these they can actually attack. Kai then interrupted saying it's a lot more fun when there are more people. Luhan then explained that hand-to-hand combat is encouraged, but not required. No weapons allowed at all since their ability is a weapon itself.

"However, I've been thinking. When the rest of our brothers- your guardians- arrive, we should teach you how to spar." Luhan said.

"Whoa really?"

That sounds cool. But terrifying. All the guardians seem like they have very powerful abilities.

"Yeah, I think we should teach you how to use your abilities and I'm even open to you being trained with a weapon, for extra caution of course."

"But you said you don't use weapons, how are you going to train me if you don't know how to use one either?"

"I'll talk to Tao."

"Tao?"

"He learned martial arts as a hobby back on EXO." Kai added.

"Wow, seriously? Like what? Karate? Taekwondo? Jiu jitsu? Aikido?"

"I'm pretty sure he can do Aikido and Jiu jitsu, but no. He is technically a Wushu master. Plus he's really good at hand-to-hand, like Xiumin and Lay."

   You didn't know what that is. You made a mental note to research it tonight.

"Well thank you, I'd like that."

"You're welcome." Luhan said with a smile.

   He then explained how a guardian- or a Keeper in this case- can win. Basically you can either discombobulate them to the point where the opponent can't get up after ten seconds or you perform an 'attack' that deals a fatal injury without them being able to 'protect themself from it'. All of this information sounded really cool to you. You felt giddy that you get to hopefully watch all twelve of them battle. You must have made an expression and Luhan saw it.

"Cool, right? However today I'm not teaching you. Me and Kai will spar and then the only thing I'm going to teach you is hypnosis, okay? Baby steps, Goddess." he said.

   You nodded your head. Looking up at the trees, you felt the slim ray of warm sunlight peeking through. You can never express enough how much you love spring. Then a question popped into your head.

"Wait Lulu, if you can read minds isn't that basically cheating?"

"That's a good question. With Kai I can barely use it since he teleports. I can't track that fast, even with his thoughts. Me and Kai never did a one on one before, so I'm a little excited." answered Luhan.

   The boys started teasing each other and it lasted until you reached the clearing. They kept bragging about who was going to 'kill' who.

"So are you guys not allowed to fight in an open space, like this clearing? Do you only spar in heavy wooded areas?" you ask.

"Yeah we can, it's just a little different if we do", Kai says before adding, "in an open space like this we would use what we call the 'war' technique. When this happens we are separated into two teams and we make a boundary line. Each team has six and they start off on either side of the line. When the signal is given we can cross the boundary and 'attack'. We don't go into the woods for this since it's clearly used for open spaces. This is one of my favorite things to do because it makes things a lot easier for me."

"Yeah, Kai is usually the one who 'kills' the most people in 'war'. It's kinda cool. Unless you're his target of course." Luhan says.

"And each time we do 'war' we always change who's on each others team. Half the time they separate me and Tao." Kai adds.

"Why?"

"Because Kai is a teleporter and Tao is a time controller." Luhan says.

Woah.

"Dude, Tao controls time?! That's so cool! And kinda scary."

"Well he has his limits too. He can't pause or completely stop time. No being can. But he can slow it down or speed it up. So Kai and Tao being on the same team kinda ." 

"So do you have to be separated from anyone?" you ask. All of this was making you so curious. At this point the three of you are sitting down on the soft grass on the edge of the clearing.

"Well if Kai and Tao end up on the same team then I have to be on the opposing one, no exceptions. That would just be unfair. Especially since I use telekinesis." 

"So there isn't anyone you have to be separated from directly?"

"Nope. I have the opposite though. If Kai and Tao are on the same team than I have to be on the same one as Lay."

"I keep hearing you guys mention Lay, what does he do?"

"Lay is the 5th oldest. He's a healer."

"That's even cooler!"

"But he can also do the opposite. So whatever injury you have he can make it the worst case scenario."

"What do you mean?"

   You saw Luhan look up to the sky and you could clearly tell he was deep in thought. Then you notice he has an 'ah-ha!' moment, so he faces you again with the sunlight catching his beautiful brown hair.

"Okay, so let's say Xiumin decides to attack you."

"What can he do?"

"He controls frost or ice. Sometimes we have to separate him from Suho."

"Suho? Who's that? And why?"

"Suho is 4th oldest. He controls water. So together they can be a huge problem."

"Whoa. What happens if all of the people that are suppose to be separated end up on the same team?"

"Usually the other team will try to separate them on the battle field. Like push them away from each other. Anyways. Let's say Xiumin sends like a frost attack to your arm. In the real world, Lay can come and make that temporary frozen arm turn to frostbite. Like you will need it amputated. Lay can either heal you or make the worst case scenario of anyones attack. We always want to be teamed with Lay."

"That is so awesome!"

"Right? I'll make sure to tell him that you think he's cool when he arrives."

"Or you can just tell them that you think I'm the greatest." Kai said winking.

   You roll your eyes.

"Ignore him." the older one implies.

"Been there, done that. Doing that as we speak."

   That made Luhan laugh.

"Wait, Lu, will I have to be separated from anyone?" you ask.

   That made Kai snap his head up and look at his brother. They both stared at each other for a couple seconds.

"D.O." they said suddenly in unison.

"D.O? The one who is suppose to help me when he comes? Why?"

"Well Goddess, you control balance of the Earth. For starters, who knows what you can do at your full power? Plus, D.O's ability is controlling earth and that comes along with his strength. It's like he has multiple abilities like Luhan. I don't think we should have two people on the same team that have an advantage of multiple abilities that are similar." Kai explains.

"Okay. That makes sense. So if me and D.O get paired we would kick some serious ?"

   Kai giggles.

"Yes Goddess."

"Cool. This is all so cool."

"Should we start then?" Luhan suggests.

"Go ahead."

   Kai and Luhan headed to opposite sides of the forest. They told you to shout "Go!" as the signal when they are situated.

"Ready whenever you are Goddess."

Alrighty.

   About a minute later Kai teleported right in front of you. You jump back, still not being use to it.

"Sorry my Goddess. I'm ready." he gave you a quick hug and then teleported again.

   You take in a deep breath. You don't know how loud you have to shout for them to hear you. So you decide to go with shouting as loud as you can.

"GO!!!!" you practically scream.

   For awhile you didn't hear anything. You didn't see any trees or bushes moving either.

Did they hear me?

"Yes we heard you. We need to have stealth remember?" Luhan projected to you.

Oh, got it.

   You decide to sit back down on the grass since you technically didn't have anything to do at the moment. You gathered up all the shopping bags and put them around you. You took out each piece of clothing and divided it into piles. One for Luhan, one for Kai. Then you put Luhan's clothes in half of the bags on your left, and put all of Kai's clothes in the bags on your right. You were amazed that you still haven't heard anything. You looked around. Nothing was moving except for the feather light breeze that was caressing your face. You wrapped your hand around your pendant. You smiled as you automatically recieved the feeling of being cared for.

It's such a beautiful day out.

   You decide to lay on your back facing the sky. You put one hand behind your head and put the other on your pendant that was on laying on your shirt.

"Yet the day is not as beautiful as you my goddess." says a soft whisper in your mind.

   You begin to blush and grip your pendant tighter. You just felt so.....happy. Smiling, you see a hummingbird flying around the tree line next to you. It had feathers that were a light green and faded to a deep blue as it got to the center of the bird's stomach. For some reason you gripped onto your EXO pendant tighter. Then something weird happened.

   You felt a pulse.

   Not your own.

   The only way you could describe it was as you felt the pulse you saw it in your mind. You stood up. Catching your balance from having a total head rush, you close your eyes.

   And you saw it.

   You saw that pulse.

   It was almost mapped out to you in your brain. The pulse looked and felt like it was on your left. You tried to focus on it. The feeling becomes greater. With your eyes closed you see almost a 3D blueprint of a certain area in the woods. For some reason you knew it was around a quarter of a mile away. You could see trees and a decent sized boulder. Then you saw something moving past the boulder, walking slower to the direction you're in. You couldn't tell how big it was, you just knew it's pulse. One unique to it's own.

   Your mind goes blank.

   What do you do?

   Was this one of your abilities trying to develop? You think so. Only one way to find out.

Luhan?

   Almost immediately he responded. You saw the pulse had stopped moving. 

"What's wrong?"

Tell me exactly where you are. Right now.

"I'm still in the woods, off to your left. I just saw Kai teleport in and out. He didn't see me. What's going on? Are you okay? Is something wrong?"

   You could tell the urgency his voice held. He thought something was happening to you. 

Do you know how far you are from me?

"Quarter of a mile. What's going on? Do I need to come to you? You're scaring me."

No I'm fine, sorry was just curious.

   And with that you set off into that direction.

Luhan's POV

   In the distance I hear a bird fluttering around the treeline. Probably by the clearing.

I wonder if Goddess can see it.

   All of us have heightened senses. I can hear a person's heartbeat plain as day, I can hear squirrels crawling up a tree chasing each other, some fifty feet away from me. We were born with it, which means we have to be extra careful when sparring. The slightest sound can have your cover blown. Something caught my attention on my right. It had dark skin and even darker hair. I smile.

Gotcha.

   I began walking over to the large dogwood tree that had Kai standing behind it. When I got within ten feet of him he teleported again.

, did he see me?

   However, several seconds pass and I notice that he hasn't came back. All of a sudden I hear a beautiful melodious voice, well rather I hear a thought.

"Luhan?"

   Something's not right. I stop walking.

What's wrong?

   It took a few seconds for her to respond and I was getting more fearful with each heartbeat I heard from my own body.

"Tell me exactly where you are. Right now."

   I start to panic. Is my Goddess okay? Is she ill?

I'm still in the woods, off to your left. I just saw Kai teleport in and out. He didn't see me. What's going on? Are you okay? Is something wrong?

   This can't be good. I try locating her through my senses. I find her heartbeat, it's slightly faster than normal.

Do you know how far you are from me?

   Why is she asking that? Do I need to go find her?

Quarter of a mile. What's going on? Do I need to come to you? You're scaring me.

" No I'm fine, sorry was just curious."

    I feel her heartbeat slowly getting back to normal. It puzzled me. So she's not in danger, why is she asking me these questions? I began to think that maybe she was still freaked out about how quiet everything is still. Yeah, that makes sense. She probably isn't hearing anything and it was making her nervous.

   I begin to feel very masculine and heroic. I'm sparring in a thick dense forest and I have a very beautiful woman waiting for me. It feels great.

Fear not my goddess, I am here. No need to be scared

   I actually hear her laughter in her thoughts. It could easily bring me to my knees. It could bring Kai down to his knees as well. I know it. Someone like her is suppose to be treasured, and I know that me and my brother plan on doing that for all eternity.

"You sound like you're suppose to be a knight in shining armor. Silly Lulu."

   My cheeks turn red. They do all the time now because of her.

"You know how else you sound?"

Nope, how?

"Scared."

   I'm confused.

   What?

A/N: YUP. I DID IT. Left you with a cliffhanger. I know I know, please don't hate me!

This chapter was exactly 5250 words. That is the longest thing I have ever written in my life. 

So tell me, what are your thoughts?

What do you think about their sparring techniques? Do you think she will successfully learn how to use hypnosis? Why or why not?

What do you think of the 'separations' and 'pairs' in the 'war' technique?

What would you do if the scene in the mall happened to you? What do you think is gonna happen when they all go home? Is she gonna find out what happened during the day while she was at school?

P.S. I won't be posting a chapter next. Instead I am going to have multiple polls for you to answer and some things to tell you so you don't get confused with the story. Let me know if you have questions!