Chapter Four

Groundwork

“Junho had a traumatic experience with lightning when he was younger…so he freaks out like that sometimes.” Junsu explained. All seven of them met up in the two brothers’ room to sort things out for mission they would begin tomorrow morning. Junsu ran gentle fingers through his brother’s hair while his younger brother slept passed out on his lap in the sitting area, exhausted.

The palace rooms were spacious so there was a living area separated from the sleeping area. Chansung watched Junho’s sleeping face feeling rather heavy hearted. He’d wanted to impress the human not scare him half to death… the smeared makeup under Junho’s eyes reminded him of how badly he had failed in that respect.

“That’s fine Chansung will do well with anyone. You’ll be fine Junsu.” Taecyeon’s hand fell into Chansung’s hair as he talked, mussing it. The youngest nodded because he was supposed to, not because he wanted to. Junsu sent him a polite smile regardless.

They had finally come to a consensus of who was to partner with whom—Jaebum wanted Taecyeon because he seemed the strongest of their group and Jaebum was all about strength, Nichkhun on the other hand seemed to have a particular fondness for Wooyoung so they mutually decided to partner together and that left Chansung to be with Junsu...even though he would much prefer the younger brother. Not to say Junsu was bad or anything, but something about Junho had simply caught Chansung’s eye.

“Thank you for understanding. Lightning is one of the few things Junho is afraid of, he’s pretty bullheaded otherwise.” Junsu continued to explain and Nichkhun laughed.

“Isn’t that the truth.” He grinned.

“I’ll do my best regardless.” Chansung said, but he was secretly hoping he could get Junho to change his mind somehow. Taecyeon gave Chansung’s head a pat as he cleared his throat to draw everyone’s attention.

“So I’d like to go over the overall goal of this mission before we head to bed for the night… Do any of you know about human and letaire bonding?”

“Letaire?” Jaebum raised an eyebrow.

“The proper name for our kind.” Taecyeon answered. “It was the humans who branded us as ‘elementals’ because of our powers…but they misunderstood.”

“Oh. Well in any case, we have no idea what you’re talking about. Most people didn’t even know you guys existed until a few months ago when you came pouring in and creating chaos: stealing land, burning down villages, murdering innocent people.” Jaebum’s fist clenched on the last part and Taecyeon didn’t miss hard edge to his eyes.

“I apologize, but really the ones who you’re speaking of are our enemies as well. They are rogue letaire—known simply as “Rogues”—the letaire who refused to unite under the Empire years ago. Due to certain circumstances, these rogues took to invading the human world and we’ve been sent to stop them by the Empire…honoring a contract that was made with your ruler many decades ago,” He explained.

“So this won’t be the first time?” Jaebum raised an eyebrow, “that human and letaire have bonded, I mean?”

Taecyeon nodded. “Correct so we know some of what to expect. A bond between human and letaire will allow us to strengthen our powers… We’ll need lots of energy to go up against the many enemies we’ll be facing in the north. ”

“So you’re going feed off of us? Like leeches?” Jaebum’s mouth was locked in a straight line and Taecyeon felt his eyebrow twitch. This uptight guy.

“It’s beneficial to both parties actually,” Taecyeon said, but there was an edge in his voice that said he was losing his patience. He quickly straightened it out. “I mean, you’ll heal faster among other things. No one’s leeching off anyone.”

            “I’ll believe it when I see it,” Jaebum scoffed. Taecyeon’s teeth clenched together. The temperature in the room seemed to rise several degrees. He fought to bring it down. Off to his side Nichkhun and Wooyoung exchanged uneasy glances.

            “Oh you’ll see alright.”

            There were several long, tense moments after that. Taecyeon and Jaebum stared each other down. It was almost certain that a fight was about to break out.

“Man am I tired!” Nichkhun suddenly cut in. “Wooyoung is tired too, so if you guys want to keep debating the details do it in your own room?” He made a show of coming up behind the shorter man and putting his hands on his shoulders.

“Hey-!” Wooyoung growled turning a little red, partly because Nichkhun was being so pushy and partly because he was tired and didn’t want anyone to notice. He looked to Chansung for help.

Chansung just shrugged. “Yeah, it sounds like a good idea, hyung,” he confided. Wooyoung wanted to hit him. He just sighed instead. He knew his eyes betrayed him even if their color was starting to fade back to normal. There was no use denying it.

“Just go,” Chansung told him looking annoyed after a few moments when he still hadn’t left. The younger letaire made a ‘shooing’ motion with his hand and Wooyoung felt his eyebrow twitch.

“You know what I’m not really that-” he started with a glower, but there was a soft squeeze to his shoulders.

“Seriously, you look like you could use a break,” Nichkhun whispered into his ear and Wooyoung’s mouth clamped shut. Something weird flip-flopped in his chest and felt himself nod.

“O-Okay then…” The words left his mouth without permission.

“Well, I think that settles it then, gentlemen,” Nichkhun patted his shoulders before quickly backing away with a pleased smile in place. “We’ll leave it to our two responsible leaders to decide the rest of the details. See you all at seven sharp!” He took Wooyoung’s hand and before anyone knew what was happening, they were on their way.

♦ || ∞ || ♦ || ∞ || ♦

“Sorry about that, Jaebum can be pretty opinionated sometimes, but he really is a nice guy. I figured that was the best way to stop a fight from breaking out.” The blond started as they entered their room. He seemed to forget that he was still holding Wooyoung’s hand so Wooyoung was the first to pull away, his cheeks feeling like they could fry eggs.

He cleared his throat and looked anywhere but at Nichkhun.

“U-Uh yeah, don’t worry about it. They didn’t exactly roll out the welcome carpet for us when we first came to the palace. Taec can have his moments too.” He laughed nervously.

 Nichkhun didn’t seem to notice, he flopped himself down onto one of the beds and made a pleased sound. Hard to believe they would probably be sleeping on the ground after this. He better enjoy it while he could. “Let’s get to sleep,” he said, watching Wooyoung stay rooted in the spot close to the door and carefully examine the rest of the room. “After all, we’re going to be traveling for quite some time after tonight and we might not find such a nice beds for a while.” He motioned to the bed next to his.

After a moment of hesitation, Wooyoung finally moved from the entrance and lay down on the bed next to Nichkhun’s. He let himself relax on the soft, feather bed and closed his eyes, turning so his back was to the other man. “You’re right, these beds are great,” he said after a moment.

The day had been draining, but they were finally, finally makng progress and that was great. Especially since his time was getting shorter…who knew if he would even make it through this mission. So, he was going to enjoy as much of these small comforts as he could in the time he had left.

♦ || ∞ || ♦ || ∞ || ♦

The next morning Junho woke up to Junsu shaking him gently. He slid into a seated position with a groan, clutching his head.

“What time is it?” His voice was raspy and it hurt to swallow.

“It’s almost time to meet up with the others,” his brother answered. Junho could hear the concern in his voice. “Are you feeling up to it?”

“Yes,” Junho answered without hesitation. “I made a fool out of myself yesterday, didn’t I.” It wasn’t a question because he knew full well the answer. “But dammit, why did it have to be lightning?”

“It’s okay, I volunteered in your place so don’t worry about it.” Junsu rubbed a soothing circle on his back and for a moment Junho let himself relax into the feeling. “You won’t have to worry, let your brother handle it.”

Junho bristled. He knocked his brother’s hand away, getting to his feet.

“No, no.” This wasn’t happening. This was his chance to finally prove that he wasn’t the baby of the group.

“Junho wait-” He ignored the sound of Junsu scrambling up after him and went straight toward the opposite bedroom, throwing the door open so hard that it smacked against the wall and knocked some plaster loose. It was empty. Junho rounded on his brother.

“Where is he?” He demanded.

Junsu shrunk back from him. “The elemental? With the others in the main room. But what are you planning to do?”

“I’m not backing down from this just because of a little lightning!” Even as the words left his mouth Junho could feel his knees get a little wobbly like they always did when he knew a storm was coming.

“What? Junho look at you, you couldn’t even say that without shaking,” Junsu protested, grabbing his arm.   

Junho shook his head and ripped his arm away. “I’m doing this and you’re not going to stop me! I need to get over this stupid phobia.”

Junsu looked stunned, and Junho knew vaguely that he was being ridiculous and throwing a tantrum but his ears were buzzing and he didn’t care. They stared at each other in silence before Junsu sighed and gave in.

“If it’s what you want…but if you end up not being able to handle it, then... ”

“I’ll hand him over,” Junho finished for him, his posture relaxing. There was a knock at the door, interrupting them. With everything settled, Junho went to answer the door.

“Junho wait-” Junsu started but it was too late, Junho had already opened the door. It was Chansung and Junho flinched when their eyes met. He had talked a big game of getting over his phobia, but now he froze, fingers digging a death grip into the brass doorknob. He wanted to say something, anything that would get his vocal cords untangled, but he could only stand there looking like an idiot. Chansung was the one to drop his gaze to the side. He walked around Junho and into the room like he wasn’t even there, heading straight to Junsu.

“It’s time to head out,” Chansung said. “The others are waiting in the main room. They sent me to see what was taking so long.”

“Right!” Junsu exclaimed, sounding overly animated as he gathered up a few bags and them at Chansung nearly pushing him back out the door. “Would you mind carrying these out for us? Tell them we’ll be right there.”

“Ok…I guess,” Chansung said, sounded somewhat confused but did as asked. Once he was gone, Junsu sighed and gave Junho a meaningful look.

“Still determined?”

Junho swallowed. It felt like tiny bits of glass were lodged in his throat.  “I…” He didn’t know what to think, or if he could do this, but he never backed down once he gave his word.  “I’m determined.”

“You’re so stubborn.” Junsu shook his head. “But well, this is a step in the right direction…and I have a plan.”

“Thanks, hyung,” Junho finally let the door go and went to hug his brother. Junsu sighed, looking to the sky as he held his brother and rested his chin atop his head.

“You need to wash your face. I tried to tell you before you opened the door, but your makeup is still all smeared from last night,” Junsu said. “Once you’re done, we’ll join them.”