Mornings were always a quiet affair: it had been like that when Sehun would often go to Jongdae’s for breakfast, and even now when there was a crowded space with six people. Quiet! The only thing filling the air were some whispers here and there, that were the result of hushed conversations and the wind raging outside, along with the rain splattering against the windows.

The rain was far less than it had been for the last few days: the amount of water had reduced, but no one would dare to run outside and be slapped by the said water when the wind was still blowing in such harsh conditions. Jongdae had tried one, a small trip to Luhan’s hut to ask him for some cream for Sehun’s back, which was now scabbing all over, and the male had returned drenched to the bone, cold as ice and actually pretty red faced thanks to the impact of the storm hitting him full force.

That small outing of Jongdae had brought out the protective side of Chanyeol, who immediately picked a towel to dry him up, cooing at him, which gained some strange looks from everyone else, even if Jongdae melted at the attention.

Now, at this precise moment, everything was a little too quiet and Jongdae was just observing, sitting on the table, and waiting for Yixing and Chanyeol to bring the cutlery to the table in order to eat.

He watched his best friend closely and he could tell, thanks to long years of friendship with the male, that Sehun was acting rather weird. Well, not just him but him and Baekhyun. The fact alone was leaving him itching to find an appropriate moment to just ask what had happened and when it had happened.

It was pretty weird and rather strange for Sehun to be acting like a bashful person, with rosy cheeks and a grand smile playing on his lips. Baekhyun was not as explicit as Sehun but there was an aura about him, something that screamed comfortable, and content that it hadn’t been there before and that Jongdae couldn’t help but to notice and to relate it to Sehun.

His hut was small, he knew about that, it was designed to be lived in by a person, two at max, but there seemed to be a lot of situations where both his best friend and Baekhyun brushed against each other, presenting each other with small smiles when it happened.

The thing was, Jongdae wasn’t even sure that they were aware of what they were doing; he was actually pretty sure that they weren’t, and that it was something that they were both doing unconsciously.

“What are you looking at so intently?”

Jongdae almost jumped out of his skin when Jongin’s voice made itself be heard right next to him: he certainly wasn’t expecting him to be that close. Jongin had his eyebrows raised at him when he noticed the reaction of the beta.

“Holy…You scared the heck out of me--” mumbled the smaller male with a hand on top of his chest, huffing a little.

“Were you expecting someone else? There are only so many people that could have talked to you, especially considering that we have been here ‘semi closed’ inside this hut, for as long as this storm has been raging.” Jongin said, using air quotes on ‘semi close’ since he knew fairly well that Chanyeol and Baekhyun would often wander outside to provide supplies to Minseok and Kyungsoo, in order to keep them safe in this weather.

“I know but… well, never mind! I was just observing Sehun and your brother; they look… strange.”

“Chanyeol?” asked Jongin frowning, immediately assuming that Jongdae was talking about his supposed mate.

“Baekhyun-” clarified Jongdae. “Look at them both: they are constantly brushing against each other and touching in some small way.”

Jongin squinted his eyes at them, trying to notice the kind of interactions that Jongdae just mentioned and, well, he didn’t need much time to actually see Baekhyun reaching for something in front of Sehun, placing his hand delicately on the small of the other’s back, which made Sehun look back and smile at the older male, eyes crinkling happily.

“I see what you mean.” Replied the bronzed male a little surprised at was he was seeing. “I didn’t know they were so close; when did that happened?”

“Exactly my point!” exclaimed Jongdae, looking over at the duo again, propping this chin on his hand, looking intrigued and yet slightly bored at the same time, if not for the little pout he had on his lips. “When did that happen and how did it happen? They look really comfortable with each other.”

“Well, it’s redundant to think about it that way, because they were already more comfortable with each other than probably many of us, previous friendships and brotherhood aside…”

“Yes, very true, but they are comfortable with each other on a level that was certainly not the same as the one that I was used to seeing all through the weeks that we’ve known each other; especially not the level that they were yesterday, when we went to sleep.” Interjected Jongdae, looking at Jongin who lazily hummed in agreement with the words the older male was saying.

“I am truly eager to accost Sehun and just ask him a ton of questions!” interjected Jongdae with glee, barely holding himself from clapping his hands.

Jongin looked over at the beta next to him, an amused smile playing on his lips, finding it extremely funny that Jongdae was so enthusiastic over this matter.

“I don’t know if I find it funny that you are so excited at the prospect of Sehun having a love interest, even if said love interest is my brother, or if I should question Sehun about his sparse love life.”

“Sparse? Call it lack of love life.” Huffed Jongdae.

“Oh?” Jongin called in surprise, liking this small chit chat with Jongdae: it was a light conversation, filled with no expectations or strategy over something; it was pure gossip which was something that he wasn’t used to and he enjoyed it.

“Yeah…Sehun is good looking, he is a good looking beta who has social skills, intelligence, quite strong and with athletic skills that I admit I won’t possess; naturally that means he has some suitors, an alpha here and there, some betas and a lot of omegas but Sehun was never interested in any of them. I don’t know why, he could’ve been mated a long time ago but he had always said that not even a single one of them attracted him, that every single one of his suitors were nothing more than family and friends to him. Sehun, although he doesn’t look like the type, has a very romantic opinion on mating, and he says that there is someone around, somewhere, that would spark something in him but no one so far.”

“Could it be my brother who ignites that spark?” asked Jongin quite contemplatively.

“Could Baekhyun be what?”

Both males turned to Yixing, who had just appeared behind them, with a serious face, not a hint of amusement in his expression.

Jongin didn’t like it, although he didn’t say a thing about it, he couldn’t really understand why Yixing tried so hard to command Baekhyun’s life; he could understand that Yixing was over the moon about finding his brother again, when he thought the boy had been dead, he could understand the need of the male to protect his brother, especially since he had previously been an omega, but he also thought that the man was imposing on Baekhyun’s life, interfering with his decisions, contradicting the male and just generally being overbearing and overprotective to a grown man who was much more than capable of taking care of himself than anybody that Jongin knew.

“Are Baekhyun and Sehun courting each other?” asked the male tightly, looking over at the referred males.

“No.” replied Jongin with boredom leaking from his voice; he didn’t dislike Yixing, the man meant no harm, but he was just trying to prove himself too much, and being obnoxious to those who Baekhyun considered family: he and Chanyeol. “We were saying that they are close.”

“Close?” asked Yixing regarding the aforementioned males with squinted eyes, probably disliking the idea of his baby brother, who was still a grown man if you asked Jongin, bonding with someone. “They don’t know each other that well, do they? They just met.”

Jongin fought the urge to role his eyes at the proffered words but he opted to look over at Yixing, and see what the man would do next. He could sense, and he really didn’t have to rely on his, at the time missing, sixth sense, also known as visions.

Jongdae however, bless his heart, dared to ask more about the subject, subtly egging Yixing to speak his mind, and let them know exactly what he was thinking and how he was going to act. Someone could think that Jongdae was being innocent about it, but the gleam in his eye told Jongin otherwise.

“It’s is a bad thing? I mean they look content.”

Yixing looked over at the male and, atypically of him, he smiled serenely, refusing to answer; for a brief moment, Jongin thought that he saw something in the older man’s eyes that he didn’t know how to classify although he didn’t like it.

“I’m going to talk with Baekhyun for a little bit." Replied Yixing instead, moving away from them to try and talk to his younger brother.

Jongin huffed loudly and turned to Jongdae when he did the same. Opting not to focus a lot on what just transpired, he decided to question Jongdae on Chanyeol, since Yixing was doing it for him regarding Baekhyun.

“What about you and Chanyeol?”

“What about it?” asked Jongdae surprisingly cool with the question and not blushing at all like Jongin expected him to.

“How are you? How is your relationship progressing? I mean, you heard about him considering you his mate weeks ago, and you certainly had some time to digest that information and proceed to lean towards something, or am I wrong?”

Jongdae sighed, scratching his head slightly.

“I mean… I was caught off guard, sure! It was the first time that I had ever heard something about mating when it came to berserkers. It was a shock because I had never had someone interested in me and because Chanyeol and I didn’t exactly have the best first meeting. However, I have seen a change in him, or rather, I’ve seen him let his guard down and focus himself on something, rather than the repressed emotions that he accumulated over the years.” Explained the male with a great amount of seriousness. “I am not trying to say that I know every single inch of him and his mind but, I think that has been his problem: he focused himself on the bad aspects of the unfortunate events occurring to him, and forgot about everything else. Now, he seems lighter, like he is letting go of all of that bitterness and embracing the positive aspects of life and I like that. And I’ll be honest enough to say that... I like the way he makes me feel: he’s affectionate; he is warm and even though he is a little overbearing at times…”

“Are you going to mate with him?” asked Jongin partially disgusted at the cheesiness of the words and partially happy for his brother.

“I’ve considered it and I thought about it several times. I think that, for now, I am going to let him know me more and that I’ll take the time to know him. I like Chanyeol, I do, but I don’t want to rush things and end up hurting him later on, because I didn’t learn how to coexist with him.”

“That’s very wise of you.” Replied Jongin. “I am speaking with absolutely zero experience on the matter; since I am usually the nut job who everybody’s after to kill, but it does seem a very mature way of seeing things and you are thinking about yourself and my brother as well, so I thank you for that.”

“Not everyone will say that about you Jongin. Unfortunately, that’s what society is taught to believe but there will be people who are not afraid, who will commit themselves into knowing more about you, and they are going to see past that label and they are going to see Jongin instead of an Oracle. Just don’t lose faith in love.” Said the beta male softly. “Look at me, I am the biggest loser you know, but I have a man to look over me, someone who glances at me for once.”

Jongin smiled at Jongdae’s positivity. It was refreshing to see that Jongdae was willing to try and give a chance to his older brother, not letting biology or even the other’s temper and past affect his decisions.

He saw how Jongdae stood up to stand next to Chanyeol, who kissed the beta’s temple, and how they interacted. Jongdae spoke of how Sehun looked like he was content when he was with Baekhyun, but he glowed next to Chanyeol, eyes crinkling and shinning bright at the sight of the taller male.

He was envious, truly envious, he thought to himself as he picked a carrot stick in front of him, that Sehun had cut previously, munching on it quite gloomily.

Maybe one day.

Baekhyun was content; he truly was. He was happily munching on some cut vegetables and fruits that Sehun was cutting and offering to him. He was perfectly relaxed, something that he hadn’t been in a really long while, and he was feeling pretty good: rested and calm, a nice indicator of a good day, despite the fact that it was still a storm outside, milder and a little less severe than it had been, but a storm nonetheless.

After his moment with Sehun yesterday, where they both went to sleep, nestled against each other, drawing in the warmth of each other and appreciating the softness provided by the semi soft planes of muscle and bone, Baekhyun felt an indescribable sense of peace that couldn’t wrap his head about but wasn’t really bothering himself to understand: it was a good feeling so why overthink it and ruin it?

That moment of peace was jeopardized when he felt Yixing’s presence behind him. He didn’t wish his brother any bad but from the face that he sported at the moment didn’t exactly indicate very good news.

“May I speak with you?” asked Yixing to his brother, his face completely serious.

“What about?” enquired Baekhyun assessing his brother.

“I overheard Jongin and Jongdae talking about you and Sehun...”

“About me and Sehun?” asked Baekhyun surprised at the question, failing to see the reason behind the question or why he and Sehun would ever be questioned about anything,

“I’m not following…”

“They were discussing the nature of your relationship.”

“Again I fail to see why would you, or them for the matter, would need to question it.”

“What type of relationship do you maintain” asked the older male.

“Why are you asking me this Yixing?”

“Why can’t you answer me?”

“I am not answering you because none of you need to know anything about that particular matter. The nature of Sehun and mine’s relationship is something that only concerns us, I can assure you, however, that we are both friends.”

“You spend a lot of time talking, a lot of time together. Is there a purpose to that?”

Baekhyun was getting extremely annoyed at the catapult of questions being thrown his way. He understood what Yixing was thinking he was doing: protecting and taking care of his younger brother, but in all honesty, that wasn’t the best way to do it, nor was it appreciated, in any shape or form, by Baekhyun: Yixing held no claims over him, body, mind or soul, and he was rather being a snoop than doing what he thought he was doing.

“I don’t really understand why you consider him your friend. You've known him for a short while, and already you are calling him a friend? That’s rushed.”

“Excuse me?” asked Baekhyun, his eyebrows almost rising up to his hairline, while staring at Yixing.

“Look Baekhyun, I am not trying to be patronizing but you don’t really know Sehun. What do you know about him? He pulled you into the complicated mess that his pack is, and you allowed yourself to be pulled into it and he is taking advantage of your kindness to make you solve this.”

“I am not doing anything that I don’t want to, I am not forced to do anything unwillingly. If Sehun is using me or not is a concern of mine and not yours; I really fail to understand why you are trying to meddle in my life.”

“I am not trying to meddle in your life but, I am your older brother and I know what’s best for you!”

“Yixing,” began Baekhyun tiredly, sick of having the same conversation with the older man time and time again. “I am fully aware that you are my older brother, and I appreciate the concern, I know you mean well, but, as I explained before, you cannot dictate my life.”

“I am not trying…”

“You are.” Cut Baekhyun before Yixing could finish his sentence. “I’ve told you this before, but I’ll say it again: you are my brother, that is never going to change, but I don’t know you, Yixing, not anymore. I knew you when we were small children, and even then I saw everything with rose colored lenses. I am not saying this to hurt you, it’s not my intention, however, you keep on pushing boundaries that you, yourself, drew for me and I don’t appreciate that. I am my own person; I have been my own person for a long while and you weren’t a part of that. Stop trying to be my ambassador and act as my voice: I don’t need that. If you want so desperately to rekindle our relationship, or whatever it is you are trying to achieve with this ridiculous action course, then try to get to know me first. That is the first step.” exclaimed Baekhyun, voice raising a little at the end without being very notorious.

“It shouldn’t be like that!” exploded Yixing, although the tone of their voices maintained itself pretty discrete. “What I fail to wrap my head around, is how you chose to engage in conversation with other people and how you chose to trust them first instead of me!”

“If you are talking about Sehun, I’ll have to underline that I am enjoying knowing him and appreciate the kind of way he perceives me, it makes me feel normal; if this is about Chanyeol and Jongin, then I am not even going to bother nor comment, you know as well as I do, because I explained this to you already, that they are my brothers: sure we weren’t born out of the same womb, but we shared more than I ever shared with you.”

“How can you say that? I am your brother!”

“Were you my brother when you chose to run away all those years ago without a care about your brother? Was I your brother then? Was I your brother when I spent days in a row in the forest, hungry and cold, waiting for you to find me and help me? Did you remember that I was your brother then?” spat Baekhyun; he knew his words might seem a little harsh, cruel even but this had always plagued him since he was a small child.

Baekhyun remembered vividly the moment that he had to escape from his house, barely three years old and running as much as his small legs allowed him, in order to escape the bad men, as his mother called them, followed by the same woman and his brother.

He remembered hiding inside of a small opening at the base of a tree, like his mother told him, and watching her be killed right in front of his eyes, small hands clapping on his mouth, preventing him from making a sound; wide eyed as she sighed her last breath, eyes focusing on his small, hidden figure.

He remembered waiting next to his mother's dead body for his brother to find him, holding the cold arm of his mother to him, while tears fell from his eyes, scared and alone, desperately needing the only family member left to save him.

He remembered waiting for days and nights in a row, scaring the necrophagic animals that wandered too close to his mother's body, attracted by the decomposure while fighting hunger and fear.

He remembered dragging his mother’s body to the same place where he had previously hid himself, fitting her form inside the opening, since she had been petite and small like he was, and covering the place with sticks and leaves before leaving the place and trying to find anyone who could help him.

He didn’t remember finding Yixing. Yixing never came looking for him.

Yixing sounded livid hearing his brother’s words and paling slightly.

“I… I went to look for you!” he stuttered. “But I was a kid as well, Baekhyun! I had to find help first.”

“When you did it was already too late.” Replied Baekhyun hollowly. “You had found another place to call home and I had to find one for myself.”

Yixing didn’t know what to say to that.

“I am trying Baekhyun! And I did try to at the time! Give me something to hold on to.” Begged the man to his younger brother, desperation painting his voice.

“Then stop treating me like an infant, like the toddler you left behind and start treating me like the adult I am.” Replied the other male.

“I’m really trying, Baekhyun. I really am, however I am struggling. Do you think it’s easy to see that your brother, who you thought was dead, is bonding with other people rather than yourself? I was born out of the same womb as you were, and yet, I cannot seem to be able to connect with you, you prefer your ‘other’ brothers.”

“It’s not a matter of preference, I don’t prefer them, they've just known me for twenty something years. Me! That’s the difference. Try to understand me instead of acting like you do out of desperation. It’s hard enough without all of this stress, please don’t make it worse.” Baekhyun sighed deeply, rubbing his forehead harshly, trying to dissolve the headache that was already brewing. “Just please.”

Yixing tried to wrap his head about what to say and what to do, struggling to find the appropriate way to go about it but, before he could even utter a single word, Baekhyun opted to walk away, moving to help Chanyeol who was trying to cut some small fruits but ended up squashing them with his fingers.

“You know that is not the way to go about this.”

Yixing turned, completely startled at the voice, turning around to see Sehun behind him, a bowl of chopped vegetables on his hands. The younger man had a gentle expression on his face and a small smile on his lips.

“And what do you know?” asked Yixing, none too pleasantly. He was not like this, but the situation with his brother was leaving him pretty drained and with a propensity to snap at anyone who talked to him.

“Not much.” Admitted Sehun simply and unassumingly. “However, the little bit I do know tells me that you are not handling this subject through the best angle.”

“Are you going to elaborate?”

“Well, I can’t exactly say that I have ever been in your situation, so I don’t have a full proof plan that is guaranteed to work but, what I can tell you is that he is very right. The Baekhyun you know is long gone and he isn’t returning. I don’t really know how he was then but I can only imagine that he was a happy, bright person, as every child should be. He’s not that anymore, and you still hold onto that image of him despite how old he is. Baekhyun had gone through some tough situations throughout his life, sometimes he told me himself and other situations were told by Chanyeol and Jongin. He is lost. Completely and absolutely lost. Baekhyun was deprived from a normal childhood, he should’ve been playing with other pups, rolling on the grass and causing mischief but, instead, he had to watch his family being taken away from him, because of power struggles between people who hate differences. He survived that, found someone who could give him the things he needed: love, protection and a home. But you cannot expect someone to forget everything they've seen, especially not someone that young. He was like a frightened, wounded wolf; everything was a motive for a run away, to feel scared of people and to not trust anyone but he had people to protect, people whom he didn’t want the same thing to happen to, so, despite all the pain he felt he still went through. What pains me the most is knowing that, at some points he felt happiness, either by a smile thrown in his direction, or seeing how people looked at him in reverence and still felt the necessity to hide his feelings because he didn’t feel worthy of that. And then tragedy again, why? Again differences between people. However, he smothered his pain once again, the pain he surely felt when he lost everyone again, to take care of two other people, children at that while he, himself was so young: too young for this kind of responsibility. Sometimes I feel like he is still so frail despite all his strength, his courage. He allowed himself to take several uncertain steps, steps that hurt others, just to keep them safe. He took the brunt of harsh comments and some teenage hate to allow other people to experience what he never really had. The consequences? Walls built so high that you stop seeing the sky for a while. He doesn’t trust, he lashes out at the smallest hint of threat…He is so wounded still.” Explained Sehun with a lingering sadness in his eyes as they followed the smaller form of Baekhyun around the house, while Yixing mirrored his image with pained eyes. “However, instead of moving carefully with him, baby steps per say, you are corralling him, hoping that he will bond with you because you want him to love you in the same way you still love him. Baekhyun doesn’t doubt your feelings, that is something that he doesn’t doubt, but it’s too much for someone who isn’t used to it and too strong for someone who learned to protect and serve others all of his life. He is not used to it. Small steps can cause a larger impact than bigger ones, those often make you retreat an equal amount of steps. So, please, I know you might not listen to me, I am nothing to you and I doubt that you want any of my advice but… just, please, despite being hard, ignore your own feelings and do things at his pace. Think about him first.”

And just like Baekhyun had done, Sehun offered him a small smile before moving to proceed with what he was doing, not allowing Yixing to talk.

Yixing didn’t know what to say to those words; they kept replaying themselves in his head, exactly in Sehun’s sincere and warm tone. A lot of things were running through his mind and he couldn’t focus on a specific one, since all of them kept running circles in his head. He guessed he couldn’t really focus on anything. Sehun, while being an affable person, had said some things that had been a straight up blow to his gut.

He looked over at his brother, at his baby brother.

“What have you gone through?” he whispered.

Jongin observed as Yixing moved, albeit slowly and drowsily, as if he was in a dream like state. He wasn’t really sure what Sehun had said to him but he surely had made some impact on Yixing and the man seemed to lose the stiff posture from before and adopted a reflexive one. Sehun had gained a multitude of points just because he managed to restrain some of Yixing's aggressiveness, not that the man was like that on a daily basis, that is, only when it came to Baekhyun.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, his head began to pound, a sense of nausea invading his senses and he literally lurched forward at the unexpected feeling.

“Jongin?” called Jongdae coming near the male to assure that he was okay. “Are you okay?”

That seemed to gain everyone's attention as everyone looked his way. Chanyeol and Baekhyun immediately dropped what they were doing in order to reach their brother.

His vision was blurring and he felt bile rising up his throat and there was a hot, burning pain spreading through his body. He whimpered lowly and threw his hands to his head.

He screamed when it became too much for him to handle and then everything turned black as he lost consciousness.

A/N: Hello everyone, how have you all been doing? I hope that everything is fine with all of you. I am sorry for not posting last week but I injured myself on the shoulder and writting was kind of painful...well, moving my arm at all was kind of painful BUT fear not: I am a-okay again. It's probably the first time that I am going to admit this but I have tendinitis on my right hand and on my left shoulder and sometimes it gets a little painful, however I am going through treatments in order to get better.  
Anyways, lets get on to the chapter: Yixing is being a little bit of a douchebag, don't you think? Although I have to say that is a little difficult to be in his position. Chanyeol and Jongdae... well there is no doubt about them, they both are closer and closer as well as Sehun and Baekhyun. Sehun is probably the first person out Baekhyun's family that touches him on a regular basis. What about Jongin? His mind is a strange place aaaaand it seems as if he saw something, doesn't it?
Do tell me all of your thoughts on a comment or message me, I'll always reply and I promise you I am a very sociable person! If you like this sotry so far upvote it and subcribe it. Check out my other stories if you like this one, maybe you like some of my other ones.
Lastly, for everyone out of you, especially those who are facing exams, which I know that are approaching if not happening at the moment (been there, done that!), I wish you the upmost best: work dilligently but, please, pace yourselves and take time to rest, to eat and to have distract yourself a little. Good grades are important but don't forget that YOU are unvaluable! I'm rooting for you: FIGHTING!
To my awesome Beta: -lubehan, many thanks for supporting me and keeping my writing from being a utter mess! I LOVE YOU!
Be safe, be healthy, love others and love yourself, allow others to love you as well and be always the HAPPIEST!
Lots of love and have an incredible week!
<3