Caged Lions Always Strike

Chapter 1

Ice Flowers

“See you tomorrow, Tao!” Luhan waved goodbye and entered his room in the building.

It had been a stressful first month, especially since Luhan was used to being coddled by teachers, but he had made it through the first month of being an Academy student.

He had already made a few friends, Tao and Kris, who were in their second year and were not against helping Luhan.

Since Luhan had particularly good grades and his family were already well-known, he had been lucky to receive a big and fully furnished modern apartment for his stay in the Academy.

It was nowhere near the scale of his house, but Luhan was happy with what he had been given. He wasn’t going to complain when he had a large apartment to himself whilst Tao and Kris shared a small apartment with minimal furniture.

Luhan walked down the hallway to his bedroom to drop off his homework for the medic class before heading to the kitchen across the bedroom in the hallway.

He made a quick dinner of spaghetti bolognese, just enough to fill himself up, and then hurried back to his bedroom to start his homework.

Luhan had always maintained a few habits to keep him in the top of his classes. He always listened to everything his teachers said, always made plenty of notes, and he did his homework the day it was set.

Many called him various names such as teacher’s pet or even goody-two-shoes but Luhan knew that this would allow him to fulfil his dream of becoming a medic for the peacekeeping forces.

He sat down at his desk.

His powers hadn’t quite agreed with his aspirations so he pretended to have never found them. He knew it was disappointing to his parents who still thought that Luhan had yet to discover his powers. He knew it was a great embarrassment to have a son in the Academy of Magical Arts who still hadn’t discovered his powers.

But how could he tell his parents of his powers when he had been given the useless power of telekinesis.

Luhan had heard the stories that his teachers had always told him. And in every story, the person with telekinesis ended up as builder or some other common job.

Luhan had wanted to become a medic and he was so, so ashamed of having such a weak power.

How could he face his mother and father, both having pyrokinesis, with this useless power?

He wouldn’t.

He hid it for years.

And now Luhan is 3 years away from completing his degree as a Medic for the peacekeeping forces.

He started on his homework – something basic for the first few months – labelling the different energy streams in humans and their sources.

x x x x x x

Everything was a blur of shapes and colours.

Before Luhan could understand what he was seeing, the blurs changed.

This repeated over and over again until Luhan started to see faces amongst the blurs.

Most were faces that he didn’t recognise but a few he did recognise as people from the academy.

The blurs, dreams, regularly changed with different scenarios.

Luhan saw flames surrounding a tall man with high cheekbones within a forest for a few seconds but then it suddenly changed to show a mountainous area full of flowers with a man with a thin face in the centre, holding some vines in his hands.

The dream ended with a view of a field covered in snow that seemed to go on forever.

In the centre sat a man with a boy’s face with full cheeks holding something in his hands.

Luhan began to feel the grass under his bare feet and started to walk towards the man who was not too far from him.

As he got closer, Luhan realised the object in his hand was a white chrysanthemum surrounded by frost.

As he realised this, Luhan took another step forward towards the man but this proved too close.

The dream suddenly began to blur and then fade away as Luhan awoke in cold sweat.

He lifted up his body and looked around his room with heavy breaths and wide eyes.

Outside his window, the sky was still dark and the street lights still bright.

“Kim Minseok…” he whispered his name into the darkness of his room.

Luhan shook his head and slammed his head back into his pillow with eyes shut tightly.

x x x x x x

Luhan was in the library adding to his class notes with Kris and Tao by his side at the desks provided.

“Last week I wanted to eat out and we stayed in like you wanted so this week we do what I want to do!” Tao’s whiny voice could be heard throughout the entire library as he jokingly argued with Kris.

“But how can we go to China this afternoon and be back before morning class tomorrow?” Kris countered and pressed a kiss to Tao’s temple.

Tao rolled his eyes and pushed a chaste kiss onto Kris’ lips, “You know how…” his eyebrows lifted and his voice turned to a whisper in Kris’ ear.

Luhan groaned and pushed his hand down his face whilst keeping his eyes on his notebook, “Can you guys keep the gross stuff in your room please? Some of us are trying to work here…”

Tao stuck out his tongue, “You’re just jealous!” he exclaimed and prodded Luhan’s shoulder.

Luhan rolled his eyes, “Remind me why we’re friends, again?”

Kris chuckled, “’Cause we’re totes amazeballs.” He teased.

Luhan pouted, “You guys ! I’m trying to work here!”

Tao shrugged, “We weren’t bothering you, and you just chose to comment on our relationship.”

It made sense, really. But that doesn’t mean Luhan was ready to accept it.

“Shut up.” He turned back to his notebook and pile of books.

It was then that the library suddenly turned a lot rowdier than it had been and Luhan noticed that a lot of the girls had moved to the entrance.

Tao suddenly groaned, pulled away from Kris’ lap back onto his own chair, and rolled his eyes. “Now we can’t get any peace with all the fangirls…”

Luhan frowned, “It’s not like the library is peaceful for the purposes you were using it for, anyway. Who are the fangirls for?”

Kris and Tao both stared at him like he’d grown horns, “You don’t know?” Kris exclaimed.

“Hey! Today is my 2^nd month anniversary of being in this academy! Unlike you two uous twins, I have a life outside of this academy and don’t have enough time to hear gossip and stalk the most popular guys in school!” Luhan whined loudly whilst still writing in his book.

There were no snarky responses from Tao and Kris so Luhan looked up.

He felt his heart stop and his blood reach his cheeks to illuminate his face into a jolly red.

Tao and Kris looked thoroughly traumatised as Luhan found the subject of his exclamation before his face.

And it was a very familiar face with round cheeks and thick, raised eyebrows accented with a toothy grin.

“I’m honoured that such a beautiful man would want to stalk me but I really don’t think I’m that popular” he teased with a gentle chuckle as he sat down in the chair in front of Luhan’s desk.

Now, Luhan hasn’t always been the best at talking. His parents could testify to that after literally giving Luhan lines during every business meeting held in the house.

But he had at least wanted to be nice in the first sentence he would ever say to someone he could feel would be important to him.

But Luhan’s mouth never really co-operates with his brain and sarcasm always seems to flow best.

“Boy, I wonder who the fangirls are for then…” he rolled his eyes and he subtly gestured to the crowd of women around the few desks in the corner near the windows.

The man looked shocked for a second then laughed, “You have a point!”

Luhan noted how his cheeks seemed to cover his eyes as he laughed and his gummy smile that looked so innocent.

“I’m Kim Minseok, nice to meet you,…” he trailed off and pointed at Luhan.

Luhan was speechless for a second as it dawned on him why this Kim Minseok seemed familiar.

He was one of the faces in his dream, and the man in the field with the frosted flower.

Luhan frowned, “Luhan.” He finished.

Luhan briefly heard the women around him whisper among themselves as he heard his name in their lips.

Minseok smiled again and got out his notebook from his bag and slid it onto the table, “Well, I better start on my homework!”

Luhan gave him a disapproving look, rolled his eyes, but did not protest. It’s not like he owned the library desks anyway.

Beside him, he could see Tao and Kris from the corner of his eye still looking shocked, so Luhan gave them a glance and shrugged.

x x x x x x

Luhan entered the lecture hall for his class on tactical placement of troops. It had been part of his Medic course since he needed to learn how to be useful whilst in battle and still be able to heal.

Since he was one of the first to enter the class, Luhan had managed to grab a seat in the front few desks. He sat down and got his notebook and stationery out onto the table and began to wait for his class to begin.

The lecture hall began to fill up as more people came into his class and Luhan noticed someone walking behind him to sit in the seat beside him.

He turned to greet them but Luhan froze when his eyes landed upon Kim Minseok.

Minseok sat down on his left and slid his notebook and stationery onto the table, “Hey there, Luhan”

Gummy smile with a small wave.

Luhan have a curt nod back since the professor had just sat down.

The lecture went on for the usual 90 minutes and Luhan was thoroughly bored and sleepy at the end of it.

He turned to his left side to complain to Minseok about how bored he was until he noticed Minseok’s wide eyes and small smile as he excitedly took notes.

“How are you not half asleep?” Luhan exclaimed with a disbelieving look.

Minseok slowly turned to Luhan and shrugged, “I like classes on tactics.”

Luhan frowned and turned towards his notebook again to finish taking notes, “I prefer classes on medical stuff.” He mumbled.

Minseok turned to look at him, “You don’t look like that sort of guy, honestly. I thought you were more of a leadership type of guy!” he commented with a small cheeky smile.

Luhan rolled his eyes, he seemed to be doing that a lot with Minseok recently, “Everyone always says that but I don’t think you’d want me for a leader…” he trailed off towards the end.

Minseok sent Luhan a concerned gaze, sensing a sensitive topic, he hurried to change subject. “So what classes do you have? Maybe we share more classes without even knowing.” He sent Luhan a kind smile.

Luhan looked towards Minseok again and seemed to be in his usual smiley mood, “Medical, Basic Magical Knowledge, Medical History, and Magical History.”

Minseok grinned, “Hey! I have Magical History too! But I’m in Advanced Magical Knowledge rather than basic… I have to train my ability, after all.”

Luhan seemed to flinch again and suddenly stood up from his seat, hurriedly packed his stationery and notebook into his backpack and made to leave the desk.

Minseok, sensing his distress, grabbed Luhan’s wrist before he could go. “Did I say something wrong?” he seemed serious to Luhan.

Luhan looked into Minseok’s eyes for something, he didn’t quite know what, he shook his head and pulled his wrist away. “No. I just have to be somewhere right now.” He said quietly.

Minseok seemed saddened but nodded anyways, “If you say so. See you soon!” he offered Luhan a small gummy smile and watched as Luhan sped out of the lecture hall.

x x x x x x

Luhan was sitting in the library again, this time on the plush chairs towards the back of the room, with Tao and Kris beside him.

Rather than reading or taking notes, he felt like Tao and Kris were interrogating him.

“Why did Kim Minseok sit in front of you last week at the library? He seemed to know you! He doesn’t normally sit in front of random people!” Tao whined.

Luhan groaned into his hands that were covering his face, “I don’t know! I don’t know him, I don’t know why he sat in front of me, and why do you care anyways?”

Tao sent him a glare and tilted his head to the side, Luhan knew from 2 months of friendship that this meant that he was annoyed. He was about to open his mouth to say something when-

“It’s too late for this anyways… Can I just go to my room and sleep?” Luhan was the one whining now.

Kris seemed to give into Luhan and was about to nod when Tao suddenly grabbed Luhan’s face and came really close to his face, “What did you talk about in the lecture hall?” he demanded with determined eyes.

Luhan looked shocked and pushed Tao’s face away, “How do know that?”

Tao rolled his eyes and crawled back into Kris’ lap, “Who doesn’t know? His fangirls basically told everyone in the academy with their loud mouths and now they’re calling you a threat to Minseok’s status… Whatever than means.” He seemed annoyed.

Luhan groaned again and resorted to giving his face and temple a serious massage, “How does a student even have fangirls?”

Kris commented, “He does have a pretty cute face and I share some classes with him and I can say that he is smart. He’s been here for a long time, apparently. Hence the fanclub.”

Tao rested his head on Kris’ chest, looking up at him, “Not as cute as me though?” he pouted.

Kris chuckled, “Never.” He winked and they kissed.

Luhan, who had just removed his hands from his face, groaned and stood up. “I’m gonna go ahead and leave you two to your facial reconstruction.”

He could see Tao shrug from under Kris’ arms that had wrapped around him and he hurriedly left the library and walked towards his apartment building.

x x x x x x

His vision was blurry again and Luhan tried to get his eyes to focus but it was impossible.

He saw flames and jets of water dance about his vision and then a strong gust of wind made Luhan shiver.

He saw another blur of faces. He saw the same face as last time amongst the flames, but it was quickly replaced by a more mature face of a man in a white shirt lying in rocky gorge.

The man was very pale and his skin seemed illuminated by the reflections of the sun on the water’s surface.

A gust of wind shook the image and it dissolved into ripples.

Once the image settled, Luhan saw a familiar wide field.

He turned to look at the middle of the field where he knew he would find that person again.

But that person wasn’t there.

Luhan began to worry. If Minseok wasn’t there, could something have happened to him?

But then he remembered that this was a dream, and not reality.

As he calmed down, he realised that there was a small gathering of trees towards his right. Without knowing why, he started walking towards the trees. As he broke the threshold, he realised that the trees were hiding a large lake.

Luhan walked towards the lake and stopped at the edge. Sitting in the middle of the lake, the frozen lake, was Minseok.

Now that Luhan had met him, he noticed that this Minseok seemed to have an expressionless face with no sign of the usual joyful eyes and gummy smiles. For some reason, Luhan felt saddened at this realisation.

Luhan wanted to get closer to Minseok on the lake. He hesitantly took a step on the ice and brought his other foot onto the ice when he confirmed it wouldn’t break.

Luhan thought he would slip but it seemed like dream iced lakes were different from the usual slippery iced lakes of reality.

He began to walk towards Minseok and was only a few steps away from the man as the man’s head began to lift from looking at the ground in front of him to directly into Luhan’s eyes.

Luhan felt a chill go down his spine and his right hand suddenly felt a few degrees cooler.

He held up his hand and noticed the frozen chrysanthemum in his hand.

He almost dropped it in shock and he turned to Minseok only to see the landscape, and Minseok, dissolve into colourful blurs once more.

And once again, Luhan awoke in cold sweat but his right hand felt significantly cooler.

He found it a lot harder to fall asleep once more.

x x x x x x

Luhan was the first in the lecture hall for Magical History so he sat down in the back this time. He began to place his equipment on his desk and felt someone hang around his left side.

He turned to find a very familiar gummy smile, “Morning!” Minseok always seemed so content.

Luhan frowned and ignored Minseok as he finished organising his desk.

If Minseok noticed his foul mood, he wasn’t making it obvious. “Do you mind if I sit here?” Minseok pointed to the seat on Luhan’s left.

Luhan sighed, “Yes.”

Minseok smiled and sat down. Luhan frowned once more and turned angrily to Minseok, “I meant that yes, I do mind.” He crossed his arms.

Minseok seemed panicked and looked down at his lap, “Was it something I said the other day? I’m sor-“

“No! I just… I just don’t want to talk to you.” Luhan shouted in frustration and felt himself go red as a few students had come into the hall since Luhan had arrived.

Luhan groaned and gathered his stuff into his bag and left the lecture hall, leaving a confused Minseok behind.

Once Luhan was in his room and leaning against the closed door he ran a hand down his face, “Now I’m going to miss a class… I’ll have to ask someone for notes.”

Luhan pretended to chastise himself for missing a class but he knew he was angry at himself for something else.

He didn’t know why he was avoiding Minseok but his right hand seemed to be pulsing whenever he was with Minseok.

Luhan noticed a small mark in the middle of his palm. It seemed easy to miss to normal people since it was so small and the same colour as a regular beauty but Luhan knew.

It was a small flower.

He groaned and slid down the door to the floor with his hands in his head.

x x x x x x

Luhan, Tao and Kris were heading towards the ability training grounds.

All three of them had chosen to not enrol in any ability training for personal reasons so they weren’t going there to train.

But all three of them were bored and had decided to do some extra note-taking in preparation for the mock exams coming up so they had decided to study up on abilities.

The ability training grounds were situated in a field far away from the academy buildings. There was the main arena which was circular in shape and glass domed and a few smaller buildings around the outside that were designated for each specific ability with surrounding fields.

Tao and Kris headed towards the training hut with a sign bearing the ice insignia. Luhan hesitated but followed them both into the hut.

They were greeted by an ice rink in the centre of the room with a few targets in various shapes around the edges and the middle of the rink and chairs and a bar outside the rink.

Kris pulled Tao towards the seats closest to the rink and Luhan followed as they both sat down.

Luhan took the seat on Tao’s right and looked around the ice rink for someone to study.

He considered choosing this girl that seemed to be much younger than him and was experimenting with creating focused and concentrated ice storms but wasn’t having much success after the first few seconds.

His eyes strayed to a man that was working on creating small and sharp pieces of ice and launching them at different targets. Luhan couldn’t see his face but he silently admired his great control of his ability and his focus in being able to hit bullseye in several targets.

“He’s amazing, isn’t he? He’s one of the strongest ice ability students in our academy because he’s been here for so long.” Kris commented after he noticed Luhan’s stare.

Luhan nodded, still dazedly looking at the back of the student with a red hoodie, “Who is he?”

Kris suddenly laughed and Tao started laughing with him.

Luhan broke his daze and poked Kris, “Hey!” he whined, “I’m new to this academy!”

Kris started laughing even harder and Tap began to wipe at the tears in his own eyes, “You really should know this, though!”

Luhan groaned and slapped Kris’ shoulder, “Just tell me!” he whined.

Luhan suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to the hand.

His eyes widened at the familiar red hoodie and looked up, only to have his eyes widen even more as he noticed the familiar face.

He heard Kris’s and Tao’s laughter subside and Minseok turned to them, “You two too much.” He sent them a charming wink.

Tao gasped and poked Minseok in his ribs, “No flirting with my boyfriend!” he chastised mockingly.

Minseok chuckled and turned back to Luhan who was still speechless but was slowly turning red with embarrassment.

Minseok took his hand off Luhan’s shoulder, “I can show you something cooler, if you’d let me?” Minseok asked with a shy smile.

Luhan turned a normal shade once more, nodded, and added “Cooler as in awesome, right? Because I don’t want to freeze to death here!” he teased.

Minseok laughed melodically, “You’re going to love it!”

Luhan nodded but failed to notice Kris and Tao’s knowing looks as they left the hut.

Minseok rolled up the sleeves of his hoodie and cupped his hands together and Luhan saw a bit of light leave his hands through the gaps of his fingers.

They were both smiling generously with Luhan getting closer and closer to Minseok’s hands in his curiosity, completely forgetting his distaste for abilities.

The light suddenly stopped and Minseok began to open his hands.

Luhan didn’t know whether to feel scared or joyful so instead he gasped as Minseok revealed a chrysanthemum made of ice in the middle of his palms.

Minseok looked into Luhan’s eyes, “Do you like it?” he seemed like a child as he awaited Luhan’s approval.

Luhan was looking between the flower in Minseok’s hands and his eyes.

A part of Luhan wanted to scream since it looked exactly like the frozen flowers in his night terrors but a part of him also wanted to tell Minseok that it was beautiful because it really was beautiful and shone in the artificial lights of the hut.

Minseok’s smile began to slip.

Luhan hurried to make him smile again, “It’s really nice, Minseok! I never thought ice art was particularly beautiful but this flower really stands out.” Luhan gave him a gentle smile.

Minseok smiled again, “I’m glad you like it. It’s a chrysanthemum, it’s my favourite flower.” He explained as he sat down in the seat on Luhan’s left.

Luhan nodded, “I know, it’s my family’s symbol.”

They both talked for a while before Minseok had to head to his class but they both hurriedly said that they’d see each other in their next class together.

That night, the nightmares came back full force and hit Luhan even harder.

The blurs seemed violent and moved far too quickly for Luhan and he had a fitful sleep with no rest.

*****************

Heya guys! Thanks for reading this first chapter and I really hope that you enjoyed it J It’s my first time writing a long story rather than a one-shot so I’m kinda scared but I hope it’s good enough.

To clarify, this is a sort-of MAMA au set in an academy in a normal earth but with the additional of magical abilities and sorta futuristic, I guess?

Hopefully, it should become clearer as the story goes on and the group gets tangled with the government. J

Once again, I’d like to say thanks for reading this first chapter and I hope you keep reading. I really have no idea for long it’ll go on for but I’m expecting around 20-ish long chapter? I’m not sure at this point. J

If you would like anything cleared up, please comment below and I’ll reply as soon as I can. J I apologise if some terms are hard to understand since I speak British English since I live in England so if you want any clarifications on certain terms…. ;)

Lastly, this story may get pretty gory and violent towards the end so I might change the settings to M but only later on. J Aaaaaand I’m not expecting to write any (I’m terrible at writing it) but I may try to get someone to write it for me if people reallyyyyy want it. ;)

I’m expecting to be able to post an update around once a week, depending on workload in sixth form (after September).

And for those impatient ones, the pairings will be:

Xiuhan, Taoris, Sechen, Kaisoo, Sulay, and Baekyeol.

Thanks for reading,

hetacat xoxo

P.S. As a sort of activity for the readers, I may post some questions after each chapter just to keep you guys guessing until the next chapter. The question for this chapter is….

What is the meaning behind the title? ;)