Having Nara as his mate was amazing. Not just because she was a genius… no, scratch that. it was amazing because she was a genius. And while it was such a defining feature of Nara’s personality that it could hardly be ignored, it still managed to blindside him every time.

Like now.

He’d spent the entire night worrying over her safety, even though he’d been able to sense her presence and ensure she was fine. And he’d been worried about how to communicate the danger she was in, and how he would like to offer to move in with her or better yet, drag her to his room and protect her, caveman style. Quite apart from having to translate everything into Nara-speak, it was far too soon to be moving in with each other. He was a Legend, it wouldn’t make any difference for him, but for regular… humans, it might be a problem.

But of course, Nara was a genius and geniuses never operate on the same level as regular humans. Gosh, he didn’t think he’d ever get over just how amazing his Nara was.

He let out a fond sigh, feeling butterflies flutter in his tummy. She was so…

‘Chanyeol?’ Her hesitant question brought him out his reverie, her voice catching him off-guard and literally setting him on fire. He patted his hair quickly, hoping nobody had seen the sudden flames.

He looked at the girl in front of him, staring at him with those big, big eyes. He shook his head before he got lost again and answered her question. ‘I think that’s a wonderful idea.’

You see, his Nara, being the geniusly-genius genius she was, had already been two steps ahead of him. Before he could figure out a way of bringing up the idea of moving in together, she’d asked him to move in with her.

Of course, her reasoning hadn’t been Evil’s threat to her as his mate or the likelihood of the second abby targeting her – though she was probably aware of all of that already and might have factored it into her suggestion – but simply because she wanted to take their relationship to the next level and explore the effect of cohabitation in development of romantic and ual relationship.

To be honest, he was trying not to dwell too much on her reasoning because he was already low on t-shirts due to his tendency to self-combust when she blindsided him, personally or due to her unfiltered thoughts.

She gave him a big, unrestrained smile at his response, and well, his thoughts didn’t matter because she’d blindside him anyway. He absentmindedly patted at his shoulder to get rid of the fire, smiling down at her and wondering how on earth he managed to get so lucky.

‘Can we kiss?’ she asked him, leaning forward and looking very excited at the prospect. Nara never had trouble voicing exactly what she wanted but that didn’t make it any less hot. He bit his lip, noticing how her eyes zeroed in on them with laser-like focus, and nodded. ‘Not here though.’

She looked so crestfallen that he hurried to explain. ‘We’re inside the coffee shop. It’d be strange if I suddenly burst into flames, which is bound to happen if we kiss.’

It didn’t really embarrass him that he was so easily by her. As far as he was concerned, that was a compliment to her and she deserved to know what she did to him. At the same time, though, he didn’t fancy having Ken’s glares on his back for kissing Nara.

Nara nodded, still looking crestfallen. Apparently, she’d been thinking about kissing him since last night, when he’d kissed her goodnight.

He glanced around to make sure no one, read Ken, was around before grabbing Nara’s hand to drag her forward and dropping a peck on . She lit up instantly, leaning forward when he backed off, and looking sorely disappointed that the kiss was already over. She pouted, making him smile.

‘Let’s go back to your place,’ he offered, smiling at her enthusiastic ‘yes!’. He wasn’t sure if she realized that he could hear, see, feel everything she thought of in detail; she probably did and either didn’t care or wanted to see him suffer, probably the former. He was suffering either way, and that didn’t seem likely to change any time soon.

Right now, she was preoccupied with his voice – she often was but she was thinking about last night and how he’d whispered ‘good night’ in her ear and how she wanted him to whisper her name just like that and then kiss her on the mouth and if he rushed her out of there, he could be excused.

He didn’t wait for her to pack up, stuffing her books in the large bag she carried around with her and hoisting it over his shoulder, putting her laptop under his arm and grabbing her hand so they could run. Her building was quite close to the Black Pearl and they arrived there in record time. He impatiently stabbed the elevator button, foot tapping while they waited for the car to come down.

The feeling of Nara’s fingers tightening around his made him glance down at her. She was staring at their joined hands curiously, testing the feeling, if he was reading her correctly, the sensation of their skin connecting.

Nara paid a lot of attention to the textures of different materials, things he wouldn’t think twice about, and the sensations they elicited, often cataloging them in her brain. Right now, she was cataloging the feeling his fingers, the rough texture of his calloused palm rubbing against her smooth one.

Whatever excitement had been burning through him cooled considerably, replaced with fondness and a desire to satisfy her curiosity to the best of his ability. He disconnected their hands, making her look up at him with protest written all over her face. He smiled, putting his palm up in front of her.

She stared at it bemusedly. Chuckling because for all her genius, Nara was so cutely clueless, he grabbed her hand and brought it up. She stared up at him questioningly. He nodded at his hand, then at hers and wiggled his fingers. She blinked a couple of times before understanding dawned on her face.

A moment later, her palm rested against his, fingertips barely coming halfway up his larger ones. He straightened his hand fully, stretching it so every part of her hand was touching his, and let her experience that sensation.

Never one to hold back when her curiosity was aroused, Nara moved her hand, fingers sliding down his palm, gently tickling him. Down, then up and back down again, slowing each time as she took in every tiny detail to store, down to the last t, in her picture-perfect memory.

When she brought up her fingers again, they pushed curiously against the skin folds between his fingers, opening them up, sliding in her fingers so their hands were intertwined. He couldn’t resist enclosing her hand when that happened, stopping her exploration.

She didn’t complain, content to feel the heat of his hand fuse into hers. She stared at their intertwined hands in wonder and he stared at her, wonder and awe filling him. Would he ever get used to having her as his mate? Ever get used to the amazing creature that was Nara?

The ding of the elevator arriving broke him out of his trance and he gently tugged on their joint hands to usher her in. To his utter delight, her other hand came up to stop their hands from separating, a protesting whine escaping her. She liked holding his hand too much to let go.

He smiled like an idiot all the way up to her floor.

………………………………………………

Nara was ready to get down to business soon as they stepped inside her apartment, practically dragging him with their still intertwined hands and pushing him down into the nearest sofa before plopping into his lap.

His breath left in a whoosh on impact, but she wasn’t deterred, wiggling and adjusting, all while maintaining her grip on his hand, until she was straddling him. The position put them face to face and she stared at him, unblinking.

Nara may not have had any compunctions but Chanyeol could feel a flush climbing up his neck. He knew Nara liked him, though she probably didn’t realize it just yet – perhaps because she had no context to compare with. To her, it was still largely scientific curiosity about the impact his voice had on her and the mediating effect of courting in a romantic relationship.

But to Chanyeol, who had an insider’s view on her thoughts, it felt a lot like she liked him. And though Ken and Tae had warned him to not get his hopes up, her behavior lent itself easily to that.

What else was he supposed to think when she acted like she was doing just then? Although thinking was relative, because she’d decided to lean forward, and he was too entranced by her concentrated expression to do much else.  

As usual, Nara invested in creating a clear image of the act in her mind before carrying out, which meant that Chanyeol was burning up long before their lips even met, smoky tendrils rising around him. The soft hissing sound told him he was probably damaging the sofa but at this point, there was little he could do.

And whatever sense he had left was lost the moment her soft lips pressed against his own. A bolt of heat – quite apart from the fire he created – shot through his stomach and his fingers clenched uselessly beside him.

He wanted to crush her into himself, roll them over and press down until not even an inch remained between them. He held back because he wanted to let her explore and move at her own pace.

But when her fingers tangled with his hair, tightening as she boldly deepened the kiss, he wasn’t sure how long he could let that be. His hands came up of their accord, settling around her waist, the fabric of her shirt instantly beginning to smoke.

We should stop, he thought dazedly, as the need to breath broke them apart.

No!

Instantly, she moved back in, intent written plainly on her face.

‘Nara…’ he rasped, fingers tightening to stay her. She shuddered at the sound, whimpering, and his beast howled, banging inside him to be let out.

He didn’t know how but he found the determination to reign himself in and straightened. The slight movement jostled her in his lap, making him gasp at the unexpected sensation.

‘S**t,’ he swore, ‘Nara…’

She didn’t let him complete, moving in for the kill as his guards lowered. Her nose nuzzled against his neck before her lips planted at the base of his throat.

‘Say that again,’ she commanded, lips moving against the scruff and he caved, leaning back so she could do whatever she wanted.

‘Nara.’ Her name felt like a prayer on his lips.

Her fingers, having found their way back into his locks, tightened and his own twitched in response.

‘Touch me,’ came the second command and he obeyed.

…………………………………..

He found that his fire didn’t hurt Nara.

Because when she turned his imagination into reality and pressed herself thoroughly against him, not an inch left between them, he combusted, flames everything around him.

At that time, both of them were too engrossed in each other to pay any heed to it, his hands wandering all over her, fabric turning to ashes beneath his fingertips and by the time they separated again, neither was in a decent state, clothes practically burnt off.

Nara, he also found, didn’t know the meaning of shame. She leant back, at ease with showing so much skin; quite unlike him as he scrambled for cover, draping the remains of her sofa’s sheet over himself and averting his eyes from Nara’s form.

It would’ve been extremely awkward for anyone else. Nara saved them both from it.

‘Why didn’t your fire burn me?’ she asked, the burnt patches on her jeans, in the shape of his fingers.

He blinked, mind still sluggish from their makeout. ‘Hmm?’

‘My clothes burned, like the sofa covers, but my skin is fine,’ she explained. ‘Can you control what your fire burns?’

Chanyeol nodded, finally able to process words. He extended his hand, a single flame resting in his palm. She looked at it curiously, then up at him. He gestured, thinking touch it.

Nara did so without hesitation, curiously prodding at the flame. It at her fingers, following her hand as she moved it about, his beast bursting with joy at entertaining its mate.

‘Usually, I have to specifically think about it – about what I don’t want to burn – but a lot of it is because of my emotions. If I’m too excited or angry or feeling any other emotion very intensely, I’m unable to control my power, since I’m unable to control the beast.’

Nara nodded, seemingly focusing very hard on his words. He realized it was because he’d forgotten to say everything in Nara-speak. But she had little trouble following him because he’d shown her everything, making it very easy for her. 

‘But no matter how out of control, the beast does not – cannot – hurt its mate. It’s our only chance at embedding the roots, so it’s sort of like an inbuilt safeguard.’

She nodded thoughtfully. ‘How hot are you able to make it?’

Chanyeol blinked, for once glad he’d actually tested it, when Baekhyun had decided to become a proper researcher and answer real-life questions.

‘We weren’t able to confirm it but from what me and my brothers tested, around as hot as the core of the sun. Maybe hotter. We had to stop because it was too hot.’

She seemed distressed by the news. ‘You seem worried…’ he commented.

She nodded, not answering him. He smiled. Nara getting lost in her thoughts was the cutest thing because she completely forgot whatever social skills she’d learned. He clarified his question.

‘Why are you worried?’

Nara looked at him. ‘I’m not sure if we’ll be able to have .’

Out of everything she could’ve said, that was the last thing he’d expected, and he choked on his spit at the blunt statement.

‘Do you need water?’ she asked as he coughed.

He nodded his head; anything to cool himself down. In the time it took for her to bring him a glass, he tried to figure out where her worry was stemming from. Who’d said anything about ? He was ready to wait for as long as it took.

He drained the glass in one huge gulp, then took a deep, bracing breath. ‘Why…,’ he began, then stopped. ‘Do you want to have ?’

She nodded seriously. ‘It’s the next step when people move in together, isn’t it?’

Chanyeol wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Call him cheesy but he’d wanted their first time to be because she wanted it, not because of research. She sensed his reluctance.

‘Don’t you want to?’ she asked, sounding and looking unsure. Probably wondering if she’d made some social faux pas

He shook his head, taking hold of her arm and pulling her into his side. She came easily, molding herself into his side, the skin on skin contact almost too much. He ignored it in favor of looking down at her. She stared back up innocently.

‘I do want it but… it’s just a suggestion but wouldn’t your research be more authentic if we gave it time?’

She narrowed her eyes, trying to understand. ‘Time for what?’

‘Well, for some emotional development.’

She nodded slowly. ‘You think that emotions mediate the final act?’

He shrugged. ‘Don’t you? If only living together was enough, shouldn’t you and Tae have already done it?’

Nara blinked, then shook her head definitively. ‘Tae is straight,’ she said seriously.

He smiled. ‘And you?’

She looked him up and down. ‘Xenophile.’

He laughed out loud; that was so like Nara to properly term it. ‘I’m flattered.’

Nara smiled, looking pleased with herself and he couldn’t resist, chucking her under the chin and capturing her lips. She liked the texture of his hair too, he found, when her hands slid firmly into them, grasping tightly at the strands.

‘We’ll do it when it feels right, okay?’ he murmured, lips brushing against hers as he spoke, her entire body responding to his voice. ‘Until then, I can learn how to control myself, so I don’t burn everything.’

She nodded, seemingly satisfied, then tugged on his hair to pull him into another kiss and he stopped thinking.

…………………………………….

A/N

Just some light-hearted NaraYeol fluff... I think its a good excuse to get away from all the dark stuff going on. Anyway, for those who didn't understand; 

Xenophilia: Xenophily or xenophilia means an affection for unknown/foreign objects or people. It is the opposite of xenophobia or xenophoby (Wikipedia). 

Hope you enjoyed this. Until later :3