There was wolfsbane dusted across the witch’s blade. Kai is used to things way worse than couple of gashes running across his side, but the knife went deep enough to get the toxin deeply into his skin and it truly hurts. Kai already knows that this time healing won’t take minutes, it’ll take hours.

“Steady,” you whisper to him as you help him to sit down on the couch, propping him up. “Stop sulking. We’ll just go on that trip next week.”

“I wanted to go this weekend,” Kai huffs, trying to make himself more comfortable on the couch. “Sehun only could this weekend.”

“He can just visit us here, we don’t have to go camping,” you reply, shrugging. Then, after a beat, “I wanted to go this weekend, too, but look at you. You’d be miserable. We’d all be miserable. No one wants that.”

Kai thinks about Sehun and huffs again. He never thought he’d miss the kid that much when he was away in college. Suho and Chanyeol, yes, but Sehun? He was probably the most annoying person ever, always butting into Kai’s business—

You sit down next to him, stopping his train of thought by curling your hand around the back of his neck. Kai wishes the touch wasn’t that good – he’s in the middle of sulking, after all, and it’s difficult to sulk when you’re being patient, close and understanding, and smelling sharply of your magic. “The best thing about camping,” you say, “was going to be me. Let’s face it. And guess what? You still have that.”

Kai determinedly tries not to smile. “What if it was the bonfire? Or cuddling up in the tent?”

You rub your fingers up and through the back of Kai’s hair, making him shiver. “We can still have those things.”

“Uh-huh,” he scoffs.

“What?” you ask, stifling a laugh.

“We’re inside, Dal,” Kai notes, looking at you. “And you don’t know how to put up a tent—“

“I do!” you shout, outraged, pulling your hand away from him. Kai immediately missed the touch and was about to protest about it when you stand up suddenly.

“Okay, I’ll meet your challenge!” you shout, stripping off your hoodie and throwing it at Kai’s face. He grunts a little. When he takes it off his head, he outwardly groans.

“Then I’m going to be even more miserable,” he says.

You cross the loft to the kitchen as if you didn’t hear him and get your hands under the seats of two island chairs, dragging them back to the couch. “Shush,” you say, and wow, you have your determined face on. Kai has always found it way more attractive than he should (your determined face usually meant you’re gonna blow something up in the next few following seconds). He gets lost, for a moment, in his own memories, and when he looks up at you again, he squints.

“What are you doing?”

“Shush,” you repeat. Kai sighs again and settles back to watch.

You’re busy for some time, carrying the pillows, covers and the duvet from the bed and spreading them out on the floor. You bring a stash of first aid supplies from the bathroom and you open up Kai’s closet, digging around for blankets. Kai blames his slow perception on the fact that he’s still bleeding a little (the poor couch is gonna have to get washed again, sigh) and his brain is messed up from the wolfsbane, but still, it takes him a surprisingly long time to comprehend that you’re building a blanket fort.

“That’s a blanket fort,” he says to the blanket. There’s a lump in the middle that has to be you, and the lump moves, and then you stick your head out to smile at him.

“And they say you’re not smart.”

Kai doesn’t have the mental capacity at the moment to realize you’re making fun of him and he tilts his head a little in pure confusion. You shake your head with a soft smile, muttering ‘nevermind’ under your breath and you walk towards him. “Come on in here. You need help?”

Kai looks up at you.

“Of course not, what am I even saying!” you sing-song, holding up the roof of the fort. Kai stands up from the couch, eases himself down onto the duvet and inches across to where the pillows are heaped into a pile. By the time he lies down, he’s gritting his teeth in pain, the cuts across his side stinging. “You okay?”

Kai looks up at you, realizing that you’re very close to him; he looks at the messy fall of your hair, the streak of dirt along your jawbone, the slope of your shoulders and the pink of your mouth. "Yeah," he says, and means it, has to look away for a second so that the dumb stuff he wants to say doesn't come pouring out of his mouth and make things awkward for both of you.

You lean down, fingers brushing the skin under Kai’s shirt suddenly. “Let’s take it off.” You peel it away from Kai's side, all your movements careful and considered. "Think you can sit up a little?”

It takes some maneuvering, but you get off the shirt and Kai's pants both.

“One of us shouldn't be clothed while the other one is mostly ,” Kai notes.

"Don't think I don't see your plan," you say, muffled, as you pull your t-shirt over your head. You emerge grinning. "It's a good plan, I like it."

Kai laughs.

You bend to the task of cleaning up Kai's cuts, wiping them clean with antiseptic, murmuring a spell as your hands move gently over each gash. Kai hums appreciatively, feeling your magic as a soft warmth, dulling the pain he feels, and chasing out other spells, letting him heal. He's happy, if groggy, by the time you’re done – a good, everywhere glow.

"You look positively blissed-out.” You say, lying down beside him and propping your head up on one hand.

Kai lifts a hand in response, cups your jaw and drags his thumb across your bottom lip. It's exhilarating to watch the reaction he gets – the flutter of your eyelashes as you close your eyes and open them again; the small hitch in your breathing.

You tilt your head to press a kiss to the palm of Kai's hand.

"Come here," Kai murmurs, and you raise both eyebrows, smiling, looking as though you might protest. "I'm injured," Kai presses, and you look away thoughtfully, then back again, mischief on your face.

"Just this once," you say and inch closer, lean in to brush your lips against Kai’s, a barely-there kiss.

"Tease," Kai says.

"Certified," you say with a smirk, but you’re leaning back in again, a real kiss this time – closed lips, warm, and Kai feels himself go boneless beneath your touch. You press a kiss to the corner of his mouth, and Kai pushes up to nose against your cheek, presses a kiss beside your eye. Kai rolls onto his good side and pulls you closer, kisses you soft and wet, right into your mouth.

It's good, so good – the shudder that runs down your spine shivers up through Kai's hands, lighting him up. You kiss and kiss, exploring each other's mouths, letting your hands glance against each other's bodies, the only noise in the room is the quiet cadence of your breathing, the slick sound of your lips. There's no urgency between you, no hint of desperation, just the slow, sweet pleasure of being together, of having the luxury of time and touch.

Your kisses slow after a while, steadying until your foreheads are touching and you’re breathing the same air. Kai's eyes are still closed, the better to feel the touch of your hands against him, the pressure of your knee against his thigh. "So this is camping?" Kai asks eventually.

You laugh and Kai can feel the rumble of it through his fingertips. "It's definitely camping." You pull away a little and Kai opens his eyes to watch you. "I can prove it." You wriggle away and lift the edge of the fort, letting in a rush of cooler air. "I'll be right back."

Kai can hear you move about the loft, the sound of you rummaging in his backpack, tossing things onto the floor, and then you’re back at the edge of the fort, pushing your pillow and a sleeping bag inside, inching in on your knees behind it, arms full. Kai narrows his eyes. "What is that?"

"A camping espresso maker," you say, clearly thrilled with yourself. "I mean, of course, right?" You set your armful of belongings on top of the duvet, pick through the pile. "Flashlights. Very important. Matches." You toss them to one side. "Candles," you say, grinning, brandishing one in each hand.

"You packed candles?"

"What if the flashlights had died?"

"What if the wind blew out the candles?"

You look thoughtful. "Point." You look down at your pile of things. "I have beef jerky and granola bars," you say, "and four glowsticks."

Kai finds himself smiling. "Glowsticks."

"Our own personal rave," you say, nodding. "Or, you know, mood lighting." You push everything to one corner of the fort and wrestle with the sleeping bag, ping one side and the very end, turning it into a blanket. "Most important thing, though," you say, crawling back over to Kai and shaking the sleeping bag out over them both. You grab your pillow and set it on top of the one you’d been using before, lie down and rub your cheek against the cotton pillowcase. "Is this. Mmm."

Kai shakes his head. "You are ridiculous."

"Maybe. But I'm cozy and ridiculous," you say and flip yourself over, showing Kai your back. "Curl up," you say. "You can lie on your good side and…”

Kai closes the distance between you, presses his chest against your back, slips his arm around you, hand shifting to rest above your heart. He noses at the back of your neck. Again, the words he wants to say press up against his closed lips, and he swallows them down.

You lean back against him a fraction more and sigh contentedly. Kai can already feel your heartbeat beginning to slow, his breathing evening out.

"Dal?”

"Yup?”

Kai swallows. "Thanks."

"No problem," you say around a yawn. "Sleep. Let those cuts heal."

Kai closes his eyes and lets himself sink into warmth of your shared body heat, soothed by the steady ba-dump of your heart beneath his palm.

A few hours later you hear knocking on the door and then keys jiggling when Sehun enters the loft, carrying a travel bag and a backpack and smelling of happiness. He makes a double-take when he sees the fort, asks if there’s any s’mores, and climbs inside to snuggle with you two.

“Way better than regular camping,” he mutters contentedly, propping his head on Kai’s shoulder and curling his arm around your shoulders so you can rest your head on his chest.

You’re woken up another hour later by Tao, who barges into the loft asking if it’s true there was a witch in town and why nobody told him. 

Some fluff for my favorite ginger-peach shortbread cobblers.

Tbh I tried to write a more practical chapter regarding Father and Dal and stuff but fluff emerged from that? My plans never work, honestly.

AND DON'T THINK I FORGOT ABOUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING

THANK YOU because Run A Little Faster got featured like two weeks after I originally posted it??? Which is??????? And just wow, I got so many kind comments and congratulations and stuff and when I first saw MY FIC on the home page I thought I'm gonna get a freaking heart attack, oh my God. You have no idea ;__; So yes. Thank you so much for your support. RWW and RALF (Run A Little Faster, if you may, lol) wouldn't happen without you. You're the sweetest.

Oh and I'm back btw XD No one kidnapped me! I'm alive! And it was awesome :D

And one last thing:

I can't remember who sent me this but it was def one of my lovely readers. It's. UGH. FEELS. Seriously.