Kyra felt like she was floating in the clouds.

He’d surprised her with a picnic at a closed off, scenic spot beside the river and she’d been overwhelmed at the effort he’d obviously put in, making so many little snacks for their picnic. She’d known he was a good cook – he and Lay, along with Angel were mostly responsible for cooking around the house – but he’d obviously gone out of his way to find out her favorites and her heart was melting.

Oh wait, that was the cheese. Hurriedly, she wiped it off.

He smiled fondly, a small, heart-shaped affair that made him seem so much younger. She was suddenly reminded of the picture Raina had sent her a lifetime ago, her first glimpse of who she was destined to be with.

Her visions had always been more symbolic but she had seen his eyes very clearly. She’d started having her visions about him quite some time back, even before she had any idea about her disease or anything else. It was always the red eyes that held her captive. When she’d met him that time at the carnival, warned him about the darkness he would go into, all she’d seen were those eyes.

So, his picture had been a pleasant surprise.

A pleasantly misleading surprise. He could be dark and broody but a small smile would lighten his features so beautifully. He was beautiful, even – no, especially with the red eyes and the darkness that seemed to seep out of him sometimes. The darkness appealed to her as much as the light.

‘Kyra?’

She started, realizing she’d been staring at him instead of eating. She shook her head in response to his questioning gaze and picked at the snacks he’d considerately prepared.

‘These are delicious,’ she told him, noting how his smile widened at the compliment.

‘Thank you.’ His low voice was another one of her favorites. Melodic and deep, it poured, like molten chocolate, a pleasure to listen to in any form. Just like chocolate, even the slightest change of inflection gave it an entirely different flavor, from sinister and threatening to warm and welcoming and everything in between.

Unconsciously, she went back to staring at him again, the delicious snack in her hand completely forgotten. She watched the dappled green and gold filtering through the leaves to douse him in an ethereal halo. He looked like an otherworldly creature, come to grace the earth with his presence…

Great, now she was spouting poetry.

Her lips curved into a dreamy smile despite the snarky thought, happiness bubbling in her chest. She was feeling lighter than she had in months, finally reconciling her mind with what her heart had been telling her all along.

D.O turned to look at her again, probably alerted by her constant gaze but she didn’t bother to look away. He gave a small smile, looking inquisitive but she ignored it in favor of perusal.

He’d pushed his hair back and the top button on his shirt was opened; the sleeves had been folded so his forearms were exposed and there was a watch glinting ily around his wrist. He’d always been attractive, even with the black tees and baseball caps he favored but like this, the button-down shirt fitting over his form flatteringly, she was having a hard time keeping her eyes away.

Maybe it was something in her gaze… or he simply wasn’t used to being stared at but she felt a fond smile form as pink began climbing up his neck, his ears turning red. It was surprising and endearing.  Clearing his throat loudly, he looked away and started fiddling.

She broke off with a soft chuckle, attracting his attention. He looked so cutely bewildered that she started laughing, making him smile quizzically as well. She shook her head. ‘Nothing. You just look… really nice.’

He full out blushed at the compliment and ducked his head, scratching his neck. ‘T-thanks. I guess.’

‘You’re welcome.’

A comfortable silence fell between them as she busied herself with the food again, determined to at least taste everything he’d prepared, complimenting him as she went. He looked happy, a small smile constantly on his lips and it shouldn’t but it felt like a big achievement. Perhaps because his smiles were so rare.

Eventually, they were done with the food and she laid back, feeling warm and contended. With his presence beside her, the slight discomfort from the bite was forgotten and she suppressed a delighted shiver when he laid beside her, their shoulders almost touching, to stare at the sky. It was mostly clear with occasional clouds drifting into view.

He started humming under his breath, the same song she’d remembered. Tentatively, she joined in. While her voice was nothing like his, she could carry a tune if need be and it felt nice. He evidently liked it because a smile tugged at his lips before he his side so he was facing her.

Self-conscious, she closed her eyes. Silence fell between them again, wrapping comfortably around them. He was still looking at her, she could feel it in the way her skin tingled wherever it landed and when she opened her eyes again, his gaze had darkened significantly, a hint of red peeking through.

Wondering – perhaps a bit evilly – how far she could push him, she stretched languidly, deliberately showing off more skin than was probably wise and highlighting her curves when she arched. Side-eyeing him, she suppressed a smirk as his hands curled into fists.

She turned to her side, feigning innocence as they lay face to face. He saw right through it, a mix of reprimand and excitement swirling into his eyes, a silent warning not to push him. That just made her want to push him more.

She scooted a tiny bit closer, putting her hand on his chest to balance herself properly. His hand wrapped around it, holding it in place as they both stilled, a warning growl escaping him and her breath stuttered. What would he do next?

In the back of her mind, she knew it wasn’t the smartest thing to do, pushing him like this again. Not after he’d just managed to reconcile himself with his previous actions and stopped avoiding her. Not when he was bent on giving them a fair shot, on her terms rather than his own when he could’ve just as easily ignored it. But something in her just wanted to see how far she could push him before he cracked and had her pinned, at his mercy.

The more rational part of her started ringing alarm bells because this wasn’t normal. She ignored it, feeling the tingle of arousal racing down her spine and alighting her body. There was suddenly too much heat in between them, only intensifying when she caught his eyes.

The red tint in his eyes was more pronounced now and his gaze felt hotter, singing her from head to toe. The bite in her neck throbbed in time to her racing heart and she scooted even closer, wanting to feel his body pressing into hers. That would definitely soothe the heat that was burning her inside out, would feel cool like aloe pressed to a burn.

‘Kyra…’ The low murmur made her shiver. ‘stop.’

She closed in, ignoring the warning squeeze to her hand. ‘D.O…’ she breathed, feeling his breath on her lips, ‘kiss me please.’

His eyes turned crimson.

……………………………..

‘Kyra… stop.’

He squeezed her hand warningly, hoping to deter her. It didn’t work as she came close, so much so that their lips almost brushed.

Then, as if she hadn’t been torturing him all this time, she murmured, voice breathy and pleading. ‘D.O… kiss me please.’

He could be excused for the inappropriate reaction in a family park although it was a perfectly reasonable, given his situation. She had been tempting him all through the date and now this. 

D.O wasn’t sure if this was heaven or hell. His eyes were red, he knew, and the beast was clamoring inside him, wanting to be let out.

She didn’t help. The hand resting over his chest tangled into his shirt and she moved, probably to get even closer.

He’d never moved faster, hurriedly pushing himself back and sitting up because he wasn’t sure he’d retain his senses if she came any closer. ‘Kyra…’ He had no idea what to say.

She sat up slowly, looking at him with a lost and hurt expression on her face. ‘Don’t you want to kiss me?’

He cursed quietly under his breath as her words went to all the wrong places, igniting his possessive side. The beast banged wildly around inside him, trying to overpower his senses and just give in. His mate wanted him to kiss her, who was he to deny her what she wanted?

Shaking his head to clear itself of the mist that was rapidly taking over his senses, he took a good look at her. Then he cursed again because he had completely forgotten to take this into account when he’d planned this picnic.

Of course, his presence was arousing the heat. That was the entire point of giving the mark, to make the mate more vulnerable and have them come to you, begging to be claimed.

Sweat was dotting along her forehead, a flush rising all over her, making her cheeks look rosy and her lips extremely kissable. He was sure that if he touched her right now, her skin would be burning up.  

The beast inside him was going wild. D.O could feel it trying to take over his senses, pushing against his iron will to just give in and let it take over.

He hadn’t spent the entire past month torturing himself just to fail now, however. He closed his eyes, deliberately trying to slow down his racing heart. The deep breath he took brought her delicious scent with it, loaded with excitement but he disregarded it, focusing on breathing deeply until he was sure he wasn’t going to snap.

Feeling more in control, he opened his eyes again. She wasn’t looking at him but her shoulders were slumped dejectedly and a frown was marring her pretty face, hair tangled all around her, making her look messed up in the best way possible.

He sighed because she was obviously taking his reluctance the wrong way, taking it as a rejection. That was the last thing he wanted. Not after finally getting the chance with her again.

And their date had been going so well. He couldn’t let this go without an explanation, could he?

‘I think we should get going…’ she muttered, blinking rapidly. With rising horror, he realized that her eyes were glistening, a telltale sheen glossing them over. ‘Get to the carnival.’ 

She stood up and started walking away. No, this wasn’t how it was supposed to end.

He wasn’t staying away from her because he wanted to, damn it. He wasn’t kissing her because it was their first date and the heat was obviously clouding her judgement and he wanted to show her that he could be a gentleman, respect the boundaries he’d previously broken and yet, she felt …

it all. He did not want Kyra, his mate, to ever feel unwanted. Never.

Throwing caution aside, he caught up to her and pulled her into a back-hug, wrapping his arms around her and making them come to a halt. She stiffened at first but slowly relaxed as he held her; her skin felt burning hot underneath his fingers, effectively reminding him of the reason he’d stopped.

‘I’m not rejecting you,’ he muttered. ‘But if I kiss you now, I wouldn’t simply be kissing you but completing my claim.’

‘Oh.’

‘But if,’ he offered, ‘at the end of this date you still want me to kiss you, I will.’

The words hung between them, heavy with meaning.

‘And if I don’t?’ Her voice was small.

‘Then I will respect that.’ He shrugged. ‘I will, however, ask you out again.’

He felt rather than heard the soft chuckle at his response before she moved. He loosened his hold, arms dropping to his sides when she stepped out and turned to face him. The flush on her cheeks had settled and she was smiling, eyes clear and bright.

‘I’ll look forward to it, then,’ she told him cheekily, heading back to their spot to start packing the stuff. He observed her for a moment before following, packing the basket and wrapping up the sheet they’d spread out.

It was when they were sliding back into the car that Kyra spoke up again. ‘I don’t know about kissing just yet,’ she said to the dashboard rather than him. ‘But I would like to hold hands.’   

He smiled in agreement. So would he.

…………………………………….

A/N

Hope you enjoyed this chapter :) I loved writing it, had a lot of fun torturing D.O :D :D :D Incidentally, Kyra's thoughts about D.O's voice was me channelling my inner fangirl XD Bet you could tell that already but its true, Kyungsoo's voice is like chocolate, beautiful, warm and delicious, always a pleasure, a decadence :3 

You know what else is a decadence? The Eve's live perfornamce. Like, kill me please TuT I'd die happy after that XD I love THAT move, you know - y'all know what I'm talking about, a'ight? - cause its so y... slow grinding and well, i'd never turn away a y performance by EXO.. Only, it made me think how Yixing would do it, make it even more unnecessarily y with his hip s but I digress. My point is, I'm loving this era so far, even with Baek's mullet and Kai's dreads. But you know who's slaying it the most? Jongdae, with all that gorgeous blond. My heart just stops every time... and then, Minseok shows up with that darned black hair and minimalist look and yeah, its okay, Its not like I need to live or breath anyway right? But honestly, I'm very happy about our Sehunnie, the baby chick, finally getting lines and singing. He sounds amazing, I'm very proud of him,

I already blogged about this but I love this album, the comeback and all the songs are amazing.Even if EXO keeps talking about the repackaged album hehe. They're more excited about that one, so I'm prepared for it as well. Also, Yixing keeps dropping these cute videos about his second son, like I am SO ready for it XD

Yeah, I just fangirled a lot but I can't help it. I don't have a  lot of kpopper friends irl, except my sister and she hears me enough as it is XD so, come fangirl with me, I'm always up for it. 

Alright then, I'll be leaving. But before I go...

 YES I DON'T NEED TO BREATH, JUST LOOK AT MINSEOK X_X AND KAI

Alright, my job here is done. No wait, here's a bonus: 

 cuz how can we forget this when he invented this iconic move? X_X 

Okay then, laters gators