You wake up to the sound of conversations and the smell of food. It’s something that you’re very used to; you’re lucky enough to wake up to those on almost a daily basis.

You’re also lucky enough to wake up with Kai spooning you and Chen hugging your stomach (for whatever reasons). You sit up, untangle yourself from both Kai and Chen without waking them up, and head to the kitchen, where the sounds of conversations are coming from.

Seon, Daehyun, Krystal, and one of the hunters, whose name you don’t know and who has his back turned at you, are sitting around the little table in the corner, talking like old friends.

Daehyun is the first one to spot you and he waves at you lively.

“Hey, hey, come here quick,” he says, motioning for you to come sit down. You approach them, a bit surprised. Everyone looks up at you.

“What’s going on?” you ask, and then the hunter guy turns towards you, and you open your mouth at him. “, Myungsoo?!” you gasp.

It’s Myungsoo’s turn to open his eyes widely. He rubs his hands on his knees nervously, leaning to the front a little, very confused.

“You know my name?” he asks.

“Ah, and here I was about to introduce you two,” Daehyun whispers to himself.

“I met you in the…oh, wait,” you say, your brain catching up. “Whoa. Okay. You were there yesterday? You helped us defeat those werewolves?” you ask. “How come I didn’t see you?”

“You might’ve been busy getting eaten alive by some crazy shadow monsters from hell,” Seon points out perfectly calmly. You glance at her, raise your brows, and make a face that says ‘good point.’.

“Oh my God,” Krystal says, staring at you. “You met Myungsoo in the other universe?”

Sometimes you forget she can read minds.

“Yeah,” you say. You look at the boy. “You looked damn good in leather, by the way.”

“Oh,” Krystal nods, “I can see that.”

Everyone except for Myungsoo laughs. The guy just looks mildly confused.

“Right,” he says. “Well, it’s the first time meeting you for me, so,” he stretches his arm out towards you. You shake it with a smile. “Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” you say. “I’m Dal, but you probably already know that.”

“Morning,” someone says, entering the kitchen. It’s Yixing, and he’s still sleepy when he approaches you. He throws his arms around your shoulders and snuggles close into your neck.

“Ew, don’t drool on me,” you giggle, fingers curling around his wrists. He decides to yawn into your nose and you let out an even longer ‘ew’. “Dude.”

“Myungsoo is resistant to magic,” Daehyun says suddenly, getting both yours and Yixing’s attention. You practically stare Daehyun down.

“What?” you bark out. Krystal snorts at that. You glare at Myungsoo. “How? No way.”

“You can check for yourself,” Myungsoo tells you, shrugging with a confident smile. You stare at him for whole five seconds, then snap your fingers right at him, your magic sizzling in the air.

Nothing happens.

You look down at your fingers. The pain from using some magic comes a few seconds later, making your head hurt. You close your eyes and wait for it to pass, Yixing hugging you all the while.

“How come?” you ask. “Wait, what magic? My magic? All magic?”

“All,” Krystal says proudly, like she’s mother hen, “including mine.”

Yixing goes still behind you. You tip your head to the front like an anxious chicken. “No. Way.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” Yixing says to Myungsoo accusingly.

“Never came up,” Myungsoo explains. You turn your head at Lay, frowning.

“What?” you ask. “You know each other? You’ve talked before?”

Yixing has his ‘busted’ expression on then.

“Oh,” Krystal speaks up, probably having just read something inside Yixing’s mind. Then, as if she’s just seen something deeply fascinating and enjoyable, she drawls out, “Oohhh.”

“What’s going on here?” you ask, looking back and forth between Yixing and Myungsoo. Luhan chooses that moment to come in and stand on your right, then throw an arm over your shoulders. Then you’re trapped between him and Yixing.

“What’s going on,” Luhan starts, “is that Yixing–“

“Luhan,” Yixing threatens, “I swear–“

“–has been going to secret dates with Seon,” Luhan finishes, sending Seon a flirtatious glance.

Daehyun bangs his fist on the table, someone hoots from the living room, and as on cue, four people suddenly burst into the kitchen.

“What?” Chen screams. “No freaking way, I’d have seen that coming!”

“Oh my God, Luhan,” Yixing hisses, disappearing from your side. Luhan does to, and you literally spin on your feet because them both move so fast and so violently. Yixing almost catches Luhan, but misses, Luhan headbutts the wall, still manages to avoid Yixing’s claws from getting him, and then they start running around the whole apartment.

“Watch out for the antiques!” Junsu screams from somewhere right before you hear a loud crash that makes everyone tense and gasp in unison.

You look around the room. Your eyes stop on Seon, who's very unamused. 

“Luhan lied,” she explains. “We're not dating.”

“Yet, you mean,” Krystal says, squinting at Seon. The girl's cheeks go very pink very quickly, and you gasp.

“You want to,” you state, pointing a finger at her. “You do have the hots for him, oh my God.”

“Did you just say: hots?” Min asks, entering the kitchen, still sleepy. She's holding pieces of something that might've been a vase once in its life. “Luhan broke this.” 

*

“So,” you speak up, watching as Sori – the freshly made mage that you’ve saved from the hands of an evil werewolf pack, a desperate witch, and a tricky kitsune – runs towards her father, who’s just arrived in town. Her mother is following shortly after, all better after all the weird things she’s had to endure lately. “Suho tells me you were quite desperate to get me back.”

Siwon doesn’t reply for a longer moment, but you can feel his annoyance. He crosses his arms over his chest. “I wouldn’t say desperate.”

“You cursed Jaejoong for not picking up after dramatically running out of Kai’s loft, and you nearly had a panic attack,” you deadpan, glancing at him. The two of you are propped against the side of your Jeep. You look forward to see Sori jump into her father’s arms; you can feel warm, mage magic puffing out of the man in soft waves. You don’t meet many mages in your life, so meeting him and Sori is an interesting experience.

“Nearly,” Siwon replies, then cleans his throat. “Go greet the man.”

“I appreciate you worrying,” you say, pushing yourself off the car and looking back at him. “Makes me feel safer.”

“Safer my ,” Siwon scoffs. You walk towards the family. You greet Sori’s dad, from whom the little girl got her powers, and you make him promise to teach her all about magic and not leave her side until she has it under control.

“Thank you,” Hyojin says to you, taking your hands into her own. Then she pulls you into a hug. “Thank you so much.”

They leave smiling, and you walk back to your car with a grin plastered onto your face. Siwon nearly scowls at it; he’s getting almost as good as Kai.

“Don’t smile so wide,” he tells you. “You could’ve died.”

“Not really,” you say. Siwon circles the car to jump into the passenger’s seat and you take the wheel. “The kitsune is still on the run, though, and I feel like she might be back,” you say as you’re buckling up. You send Siwon a pointed look when you see him without his seatbelt on.

“Oh come on,” he says, rolling his eyes. You raise your eyebrows.

“I could just fasten your seatbelts myself,” you remind him, “but that’d be embarrassing.”

“For you or for me?” Siwon questions in aggravation.

“Who’s the fifty year old child?” you ask with a scoff.

“One more word and I’m gonna find those bath pictures of yours that your father took when you were three,” Siwon threatens, and you let out the most dramatic gasp at that.

*

“Any luck contacting Father?” Kai asks you, plopping down on the couch next to you. Choco wakes up at that and lifts his head from your lap to look at Kai. The boy reaches over to pat the dog on the head.

“No,” you answer. Choco happily snuggles closer to you. “Not a word.”

Kai is silent, but you can almost hear him thinking. It’s like a constant buzz.

Father took that young witch with him without a single word. He showed up to help you, got you home, and then disappeared with her.

From the very brief conversation you had with that girl, you figured out that she didn’t exactly know what she was doing. It was visible. You think that it was the kitsune controlling her somehow, maybe manipulating her into doing bad things, and you didn’t like the fact that Father took her without talking to you first.

You never really questioned him. Ever since he showed up, he helped you get rid of the bad guys. He took them somewhere, promising you that he won’t kill them, and you never really asked what he’s doing with them. Now you regret not knowing.

“Don’t worry,” Kai tells you. “He’ll come around.”

“When?” you ask, looking at him. “When I’m gone to the Police Academy?”

“He’s not gonna hurt her,” he reminds you. “He’s on our side.”

You squint at him. “Were we one hundred percent sure of that?”

Kai’s eyes go weirdly sharp at that.

“What do you mean?” he asks. You pursue your lips, frowning.

“Well, I mean,” you start, looking away from his scrutinizing gaze, “he’s just so…mysterious. What if he’s not good like we thought? What if he’s actually doing something evil behind our backs, pretending to be the good guy all this time?”

“You’re overthinking,” Kai says, also looking away. By the way he’s staring at the carpet, you gather that he’s having second thoughts now, too.

“Now we’re both overthinking,” you say.

“Choco,” Kai says, “what’s your take on that?”

The dog perks up a little upon hearing his name and he once again lifts his head off your lap. You smile at him.

“Hyojin texted,” you say. “They’re home safe.”

“Good,” Kai replies.

“That werewolf pack might come back,” you add.

“We’ll be prepared if they decide to do that ,” Kai says. “But I don’t think they will. I think they’ve had enough fighting.”

“I hope so,” you mutter. “And then there’s the kitsune–“

“Dal, stop worrying,” Kai interrupts. “Relax for a moment.”

You look at him, amused. “Okay, first of all, there’s no such thing as ‘relaxing’ when it comes to our lives,” you say, even adding the air quotes to it. Kai rolls his eyes. You pat him on his stomach a few times as you continue, “Second of all, since when are you such an optimist? And since when can you chill? You never had any chill.”

“Then I got Netflix,” Kai jokes. You pretend to puke.

“Oh, please,” you mutter. “Choco, come on, why don’t you say something?”

Choco just looks up, waggling his tail and hitting one of the pillows with it repeatedly with dull, rhythmic thuds. You look at Kai, stretching your arms out to the sides.

“See?” you say.

“Last time I checked, I was the one half-related to dogs, and not you,” Kai says. “If we’re talking communicating with dogs.”

You tilt your head to the side and look at your dog curiously. “I wonder if there’s a spell for that.”

Kai pulls you closer then, until you're curled up in his arms, and kisses the top of your head. You're silent for a while. It's quiet in the loft, except for the clock ticking in the bathroom.

“Kai?” you whisper at some point. He hums questioningly. “What did that kitsune show you? When we...split.”

His breath hitches a little in his throat. He exhales shakily, probably remembering it all over again. 

“My family,” he replies. “Whole. You?”

“My dad,” you whisper. It's been years and your voice always seems to go all shaky when you use that word. “And...a sister.”

“A sister?” he pulls you in tighter. “What sister?”

“I don't know,” you mutter. “My mom was never pregnant again. The kitsune made it up, I guess. Or maybe it was...maybe my sister would have been born if dad didn't die.”

Kai lets out a shaky breath. He puts his chin on your shoulder, leaning in close.

“I'm sorry,” he says. You place a hand on his cheek, kiss him on his nose. 

“Me too, about Taeyeon,” you answer. After a beat of silence, you decide to change the topic. “Hey. Did you know? Our Myungsoo is immune to magic.”

“Daehyun told me,” Kai says. “How did that even happen?”

“Myungsoo said it's genetic. His dad and his grandma were both immune to magic, too, and Myungsoo's children are most likely to.”

“I didn't know anyone was,” Kai admits.

“It's pretty rare,” you explain. "Not in this town though, I guess.”

“Not in this town,” Kai repeats, a smile appearing on his face.       

I wanted to do another pack-oriented chapter before I switch back to the more one-person-one-couple oriented ones, so here it is. 

It has been brought to my attention that 8tracks have changed their policy and that the Dal playlist I made there doesn't work for everyone, so I went ahead and made the same playlist but on spotify. Here's the link.

Also, who has instagram? 

Thanks for reading you lovely caramel frappes you

OH MY GOSH that's literally the best thing, you're my caramel frappe because you're sweet and good to me and you also make me want to live again after a rough day!! LOVE YA also y'all should watch Daredevil (Netflix's TV show, not the movie) because this. . is. tight. and I'm just re-discovering my love for it tbh.