Baekhyun’s time at the hospital was, to his upmost delight, very short; they had kept him one more day, mostly to be assured he was good enough to leave, prescribing a lot of medication, to which Baekhyun had frowned upon, and a lot of rest.

The police had come to talk to him and he answered all of their questions, identifying, from a multitude of photographs, Doctor Lee’s face, and quietly explaining them about the presents he had received, bypassing briefly to his conversations on therapy session day, and of course, the day that the man had shown in the dorms and abducted him. Telling them about the days he had survived on the basement of that house had been a nightmare for him; he had been embarrassed beyond belief of the way that Doctor Lee had treated him, to what he had made him dress. Luckily for him, Chanyeol had been there to hold his hands and keep him from bawling his eyes out in front of the police.

The detective behind the case had kindly told him, after seeing the struggle of the younger man, that his testimony along with the pictures found and the diaries, which Jongin and Sehun had smartly let on the house the day there went to his rescue, were proof enough for arrest the man for life, which had assured Baekhyun.

His psychiatric evaluation had been another matter; as usual, he relied on his best friend to be there for him, which Chanyeol had, looking at him from a window pane on a room joined to where he sat with two psychiatrists. He had been a ball of nerves, to the point where he confessed to Sehun that he was scared to be deemed as mentally unstable. The bratty maknae had laughed in his face, telling him not to worry about, stating firmly that he was being silly and was completely normal.

For two hours Baekhyun answered questions and looked at, as the doctors explained later, potential triggering photos. They had to interrupt the evaluation twice because Baekhyun started retching when they show him a picture of a mutilated body, a victim of Doctor’s Lee, and another one of himself sleeping in the study at EXO’s dorm, that Baekhyun didn’t know about and was found in the doctor’s laptop.

In the end, much to his relief, the psychiatrist told him that there was nothing wrong with him, except for developed anxiety and phobia of enclosed spaces.

Baekhyun was a very happy man hearing those news. They had given him a sense of security that, he thought, was good to motivating him to keep going.

The day he arrived to the dorms, Minseok, Kyungsoo and Chanyeol went to pick him up, he had been welcomed so effusively and brightly; everyone had squeezed him, hugged him and pampered him, bringing him blankets and books and food. It felt good, especially when he saw Sehun at the door, looking at him with such adoration, eyes soft and gentle when everyone was bustling around him.

Actually, Baekhyun was kind of impressed with Sehun; since their talk at the hospital, Sehun had been completely devoted to Baekhyun; he had taken the older man to numerous dates, he had showered him with all kinds of presents, from clothes and accessories, to plushies, new videogames and candy, he made sure Baekhyun never forgot to take his medicine; he was there to pick Baekhyun from his physiotherapy and to kiss away the tears when the pain on his hand was too much for him to handle, he would never forget to bring all sorts of things for Baekhyun to entertain himself whenever a dance practice appeared on their schedule, he would prepare hot chocolate and brought fluffy blankets to Baekhyun when the other chose to spend an afternoon in front of the TV.

Baekhyun was absolutely beaming with all of the love Sehun dotted upon him. He was especially touched when Sehun cancel an event he had on his schedules to be with him at Doctor Lee’s court trial, where Baekhyun had to testify, protecting him subtly of all of the cameras from the press and comforting him when he almost had a panic attack.

His relationship with the maknae had improved leaps and bounds; there was a natural trust between the two of them and, especially, respect. Both of them had learned, over the course of their recent love life, to respect each other’s boundaries; Baekhyun had learned to be more assertive when it came to the younger one, realizing that he couldn’t always indulge him and Sehun had learned much about apologizing and reining his emotions, especially when it came to being angry.

Therefore, their relationship was going as smooth as it could be and they were both very happy over that fact.

Currently, Sehun was on the couch watching a movie with Tao, Chanyeol and Jongin. It was a horror movie and it was quite hilarious to watch Chanyeol hide his face between Jongin’s shoulder blades everything a strange sound came from the TV. The younger one was rolling his eyes at the taller man, hissing at him to be quiet and enjoy the movie. When it became clear that that wasn’t going to be a reality, Jongin sighed heavily and brought Chanyeol’s face to rest on the crook of his neck, using one of his hands to pet Chanyeol’s hair while the other rubbed hand comforting patterns over his arm.

“Those two are disgustingly sweet.” commented Tao, besides him.

“You’re not serious are you? You and Yixing are way worse. The good thing for us is that Yixing is oblivious to your attempts on seduction, or else we’d be screwed.”

“Yixing is not oblivious, let me tell you that when we are alone…”

“I don’t want to know Tao. Please, whatever you two do when you are alone is not a topic that was included on the best friend manual. I don’t need to know nor do I want to!” interjected Sehun, panicking at the prospect of being the victim to the power of Tao’s non filtered rant.

Tao smirked at him before attacking him.

“You and Baekhyun are the same though; so cute and fluffy with each other, Baekhyun blushes so prettily when you act all prince like.”

“Let’s not go there.”

“But he’s so cute and adorable and squishy, how can I not harass you over your boyfriend?”

“You simply don’t or I’ll revoke all your best friend special, and minimal, privileges and give them to Jongin.”

“You wound me, dear sir.” mocked Tao, bringing a hand to his chest in false indignation.”

“Where is Kyungsoo? Or Jongdae for that matter?” asked Sehun in hopes of distracting Tao.

“Kitchen.” replied the other with his attention back to the TV screen. “Kyungsoo promised to bake a cake for Jongdae and you know Jongdae, he’s probably in there driving Kyungsoo nuts.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of the front door closing and Junmyeon burst in, followed by Minseok.

“Come back here, we were talking.” shouted Minseok at Junmyeon’s back

“I have nothing to say to you!”

“Yes, you do! Stop!”

“No!”

Junmyeon climbed up the stairs and locked himself in the study room, while Kyungsoo and Jongdae rushed out of the kitchen.

“What’s going on?” asked Kyungsoo, his face the picture of confused.

“Again?” asked Jongin, from his perch of Chanyeol’s lap, watching Minseok sigh before rubbing a hand on his face. “You are always arguing these days. Honestly!”

“What do you want me to say? I can’t say a thing to him, without him being angry at me, seriously!”

Minseok sat at the couch’s end, hiding his face between his hands, while Tao rubbed his back and cooed at him.

“You have to take it easy, love is a very fickle thing and look at how long it took to Sehun to realize his feelings, Junmyeon is not a , and he won’t take that long!”

Sehun’s response to Tao’s camouflaged taunt was to pick a pillow from the couch and slam it hard on the side of Tao’s face, making the Chinese man yelp.

“We’re home.” sing songed a voice from the entrance.

Simultaneously, all heads turned to the door, to see Baekhyun and Yixing. Baekhyun had physiotherapy and Yixing had gone to the hospital to do a checkup, taking Baekhyun with him. Immediately, Baekhyun sat next to Sehun snuggling up to his side, while Sehun’s arms moved to embrace his tiny hyung.

“How was it? Does it hurt?”

“It was fine; we did some exercises to enhance my fine motor skills. My hand is a little sore and it’s kind of stiff. Other than that, I’m fine.”

“Good!” nodded Sehun, kissing Baekhyun’s temple, before pecking him sweetly. “Do you want me to rub some ointment on it later?”

“Are you still talking about his hand?” asked Jongdae evilly making the couple blush horribly.

“Shut up Jongdae!”

“What? I was just asking!”

“Don’t.” threatened Kyungsoo, looking at Jongdae’s disapprovingly.

“I won’t!” yelped Jongdae, earning him a dissimulated ‘whipped’ from Baekhyun, who looked absolutely innocent when Jongdae turned to look at him.

“Ge, how was your check up?” asked Tao, rising up from the couch and leaping onto Yixing as soon as the man let his backpack rest on a chair.

“Everything is fine!” he said to everyone with a smile. “Minseok hyung! I didn’t know you were here yet!”

“He fought with Junmyeon again!” commented Jongin absentmindedly, completely focused on the movie he was watching.

“Again?” asked Baekhyun lifting his head from its spot on Sehun’s shoulder. “You are arguing all the time now!”

“My guess is !” pointed out Jongdae earning a slap on the back of his head, courtesy of Kyungsoo.

“He doesn’t listen!” moaned an aggravated Minseok.

“Then make him listen! Either fight for it with everything you got, or don’t at all.” replied Baekhyun.

“I am fighting.”

“Fight like you mean it! Instead of being here at us about your luck, go there and just … do something!” yelled Baekhyun, with Chanyeol on the back chanting ‘Baekhyun for president’, since he thought that real life drama was better than horror movies.

“Fine then, I will!” shouted Minseok leaving the room. They all heard him climbing the stairs, pounding on a door and closing it with a slam seconds later. Then the screams and yells began.

“You should work as a life coach Baekhyun, that was inspiring!” commented Kyungsoo drily.

“Shut up Soo. Let me watch the movie.” replied Baekhyun, snuggling again with Sehun, who peppered his face with tiny kisses, making him squeal.

“Shhhhh.”

“Sorry Jongin!”

The screaming match longed for quite long, much to Jongin’s displeasure, since he was really enjoying his movie, despite Chanyeol’s attempts to distract him. Sehun and Baekhyun weren’t much better, since the two kept muttering sweet nothings to each other, kissing rather loudly. At one point Jongin could swore Sehun was doing it on purpose, since the maknae looked at him evilly, or at least, he thought it was evilly.

They were the only ones in the living room, since Tao and Yixing had gone for a walk because Tao thought that a ‘dusk walk’ as he dubbed it, was very romantic and Yixing had just complied. Kyungsoo and Jongdae had disappeared to the kitchen again.

The credits appeared on the screen and, a few seconds later, to Jongin’s chagrin, the shouts stopped completely.

“Now they chose to stop? Inconsiderate people ruining movies for those who what to see them!”

“My baby Jongin is so grumpy today!” cooed Chanyeol at Jongin cutely, making the other look at him with a frown. Sehun and Baekhyun watched amusedly as Chanyeol kissed Jongin and whispered something to him that made the younger melt into the taller’s embrace, with a shy smile on his face.

“Do you think that they murdered each other?” asked Baekhyun, pointing to the staircase, biting his lip.

“Don’t know, probably. They are so quiet!” answered Sehun using his hand to release Baekhyun’s lip from his teeth, earning him a smile.

“I’m gonna check on them.”

“Baekhyun…”

“Don’t start with that. I’m serious here. What if things went out of hand?”

“Okay, you have a point there!”

Sehun unwrapped his arms from around Baekhyun’s waist and shoulders to let the tinier stand up from the couch.

“I’ll be back in a second.” he promised running out of the room, only to come back seconds after to kiss Sehun. “Love you.”

Sehun watched Baekhyun run out of the room again dazedly while Chanyeol and Jongin watched him, snickering.

“Shush you.” he told them, not bothering the hide the happy lilt from his voice “You’re the same!”

A shriek was heard and everyone gazed at one another before bolting out and running to Baekhyun at the door of the study room, meeting Jongdae and Kyungsoo on the way.

“Baekhyun what’s the matter?” asked Sehun worriedly, pulling the smaller against him.

“My eyes!” whined Baekhyun “I can never unsee that!”

“What?”

They all peeked inside to see two very flustered men, Junmyeon was buttoning his shirt and Minseok was putting his sweater on.

“They were making out on the couch, like real, clothes off the body type of making out. We read on that couch, we sit on it! WHY?” whined Baekhyun, covering his ears. “And there were moans and oh my God…”

“Poor Baekhyunnie.” cooed Sehun rocking his boyfriend from side to side.

“I told you it was all !”

“JONGDAE!”

Dinner had been a fun event, especially because Baekhyun kept throwing glares at Minseok and Junmyeon, while the other laughed at them the entire time, much to Tao’s and Yixing’s confusion. When Yixing asked what was going on, they all had dissolved into giggles making kissing noises.

He and Tao finally understood when Junmyeon asked Minseok to hand him a plate and Minseok had given it to him, kissing his temple and muttering a very audible ‘here it is babe’. He only seemed to realize what he had done when Junmyeon hid his face on his neck, making everyone starting to laugh again to the point where Chanyeol was crying and Kyungsoo was clutching his stomach.

Night time had come and both Sehun and Baekhyun were preparing themselves to sleep. Baekhyun was still about Minseok and Junmyeon while Sehun laughed his head off before joining him on the bed. Baekhyun immediately stopped ranting and inched closer to the source of heat, grinning in delight. He peeked at Sehun from under his lashed.

“Hi!” he whispered.

“Hi.” replied Sehun with a smile. “You’re being really cute today.”

“Aren’t I always?”

“True but today you’re especially cute.”

“I’m just happy.”

“Hmm, why is that?”

“Everything is finally right. I learned to accept my past and let things go, my health is improving and my hand is halfway there, I’m not trapped inside a house in the woods by a deranged man, everyone is partnered up with someone, in a loving relationship may I add, and I got you.” said Baekhyun, positively beaming at Sehun. “And I love you.”

“I love you even more.” replied Sehun leaning to Baekhyun, until his forehead touched the other’s. “I love your optimism and your brightness, your capability to smile even when things go wrong, your perseverance, your determination, your gentle and caring side. I love you when your temper gets the best of you, when you’re angry, screaming and kicking at everyone, when you’re stubborn. I love your eyes, your tiny, pocket size body, your hair and your hands. And God I absolutely love your smile. I love all of you.”

Baekhyun hid his face on Sehun’s chest, completely embarrassed and shy with all the compliments.

“Don’t say that!” he whined at Sehun.

“Baekhyun, I promised to love you, so let me do it!” teased Sehun.

“You’re dumb!” snorted Baekhyun. “But I love you!”

Sehun hummed softly before running his fingers on Baekhyun’s neck, making the other go lax under his touch. When he looked down, Baekhyun seemed to have fall asleep, eyes closed, eyelashes fanned on his cheekbones, and mouth slightly parted.

“You still get flushed when I compliment you, it’s so funny. It’s like sometimes you don’t even recognize your worth, your strength. You managed to surpass so many cruel and gruesome situations and yet, here you are, smiling, bright as a beacon, happy! God, I love you so much.”

“When everything is falling down, you can only hold on to your loved ones and raise up.” Sehun was frightened to see the other staring sleepily at him. “I did that because I had you all with me. You’re my strength.” Baekhyun yawned twice before adding “I really love you too but can I go to sleep now?”

Sehun chuckled at the other and rearranged his body so that he could hold his lover into his arms properly. He felt, more than heard, Baekhyun’s contented sigh. He kissed him on the forehead and closed his eyes ready to fall asleep, completely serene, completely at peace. After all, he thought, he had everything a man could wish for right in his arms.






A/N: Sooo, it's over! Last chapter done; almost 50 hundred words later, and 125 pages on word, it finally reached it end! It's kinda bittersweet! Once again, I have to thank every single one of you; the ones that subscribed, the ones who commented, the ones who votes, even those who silently read the story (And how in the world as this story reached past the 2000 views, I mean WHAT?) you are the best and make me really happy for supporting me and my works. It's really rewarding! My sincere thank you to everyone and I really hope you enjoyed this chapter and, well, the story really.

Love you all <3
~Wonderland Minion