Kyungsoo tried to tug his right hand out of Kai’s strong grip, but the taller male refused to let go of his lover’s slim fingers. Instead, he maneuvered their hands so that their fingers were now interlocked and Kai only grinned when Kyungsoo looked at him pointedly. “What?”

“You’re so clingy,” the traveler commented with a laugh as he continued trying to extricate his hand from Kai’s grasp, but it was to no avail.

“You’re the one who clings to me at night,” the taller male pointed out as he leisurely swung their arms together in between them.

“Touché. But how else am I going to unlock the door?”

Kai held out his own right hand while beaming brightly down at his lover. “I’ll do it.”

Kyungsoo only raised an eyebrow as he fished out his keys from his coat pocket with his left hand and dropped them into Kai’s open palm. “It’s the golden one that has a twelve engraved near the top.” The taller male nodded as he held up the ring of keys and deftly thumbed through them until he found the correct one. With a deep breath, Kai inserted the golden key into the lock and turned it counterclockwise. A loud click sounded, prompting Kyungsoo to reach out and push down the golden door handle with his free hand. “Well, here we are. My humble home,” the traveler announced as he led Kai through the doorway into the front hall.

The taller male could only gape as he looked around the quaint home; it seemed to scream Kyungsoo at every corner. A mahogany wood table was carefully lined with a silver and blue tablecloth, and matching chairs and seat cushions were arranged around the long rectangular table. Large detailed paintings of clear streams, bright meadows, and colorful groves were nestled in golden frames and hung securely on every wall. Small potted bonsai trees sat atop windowsills and in corners of various rooms. The floor was carpeted in fuzzy charcoal gray material and a circular black clock hung over a medium-sized television screen in the living room. An indigo-colored couch and matching armchair were also in the living room by a glass display case that held various trinkets and pictures.

When Kai stepped closer to inspect the pictures, he found that they were all of a younger Kyungsoo with people that Kai assumed to be his lover’s family members. And if he didn’t already think that the smaller male was the most adorable man to have ever walked the Earth, after seeing these photos, Kai knew without a doubt that Kyungsoo deserved to hold this title for all of eternity. As a child, Kyungsoo had chubbier cheeks and his large ears were more prominent, especially with the short haircut he sported in most of the pictures. His nose was round and slightly more turned up than it was now, and his eyebrows were straight and slightly thinner. For the majority of the photos, his expression was quite serious and stoic with his large, owlish eyes staring straight into the camera lens.

But there were also a few photos of a smiling young Kyungsoo that set Kai’s heart aflame. For they showcased such a wide, genuine grin that emphasized his lover’s beautifully plump, heart-shaped lips that the taller male now ravaged every single night since officially becoming human. After tracing a particularly bright smile in one of the photos, in which young Kyungsoo seemed to be beaming at something beyond the camera, Kai turned to his lover and immediately dropped a kiss on those full, soft lips that he couldn’t get enough of. Before he could pull back, Kyungsoo wrapped a hand around Kai’s neck to keep him in place as he deepened the kiss.

Once they finally broke apart, Kai let out a content sigh before tucking Kyungsoo’s small body even closer to his side. “You were a cute kid.”

“Am I not cute anymore?”

“No, of course you are.” Seeing the traveler raise his eyebrow again, as if he didn’t believe his lover, Kai swiftly dropped another peck on Kyungsoo’s mouth before continuing, “I swear it. You’re the most adorable person I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.” As if there were a magnet between their lips, Kai swooped down for another kiss. “By gods, you are,” he sighed into Kyungsoo’s mouth before allowing his small, sweet lover to take command of the kiss as he always did.

“All right, enough for now,” Kyungsoo said as he reluctantly parted from Kai’s luscious lips. But he knew that if he hadn’t stopped the kiss right then, they would have continued without a pause until who knows when and they had just barely entered his house. “Are you done looking around here?”

Kai nodded as he cast one last glance at the centerpiece photo that seemed to be of his lover’s family. There were four people: two adults who he presumed were Kyungsoo’s parents, a teenage boy, and a young boy who looked exactly like young Kyungsoo. “You have an older brother?” he asked as he followed the traveler out of the living room and down a long hallway with the luggage they had accumulated since leaving the forest.

“Yeah, Seungsoo is three years older than me,” Kyungsoo answered as he led Kai to the end of the hallway, where there were two closed doors on each side. The traveler carefully pushed the right door, which was the one to his cozy master bedroom. “He lives near my parents in the city with his wife and kids. I visit them whenever I come back from a trip, since my mother always worries about me when I’m gone,” he added with a soft chuckle.

“That’s what mothers do,” Kai agreed as he fondly thought of his late mother, who had done her best to keep him safe from the Olympian gods’ antics or to provide him with a comfortable home in their cave at the base of Mount Olympus. Even if she had gone insane in the end, she was still his mother and her insanity had never clouded her love for her son. The moments they had shared together near the end had been the ones in which her mind had been the clearest. After shaking these melancholy, nostalgic thoughts from his head, Kai then asked, “So what should we unpack first?”

“Just leave our bags on the bed,” Kyungsoo directed as he shrugged off his massive backpack from his shoulders and placed it on the carpeted floor next to the large king-sized bed that stood in the middle of the far end of the bedroom.

With several large steps, Kai crossed the floor with their luggage in hand and gently set down the hefty bags on the thick, beige-colored duvet that neatly covered the massive bed. It was a little strange to the taller male that his lover owned such an enormous bed when his stature was so small. But he decided not to question it since the bed would now house two bodies instead of one and Kai was quite long-limbed anyway, so the size was perfect. He then leaned back and fell on the free space of the bed that wasn’t taken up by their luggage, exhaling loudly with satisfaction as his body grew accustomed to the soft mattress.

“Are you comfortable?”

Kai hummed his affirmation as he slightly wiggled around to grab a large pillow that had been sitting at the head of the bed and buried his nose in its fluffiness. As he inhaled deeply, the wonderful woodsy scent of Kyungsoo wafted into his nose and he felt like he could stay here forever, seemingly wrapped up completely in Kyungsoo’s essence.

“Oh no, you’re not sleeping yet.” The traveler placed his hand on Kai’s right shoulder and gently shook him. “I haven’t shown you the best part yet.”

“Can’t we sleep here together first?” Kai whined childishly as he s one of his hands around Kyungsoo’s wrist, wanting to pull his lover onto the bed with him. “I’m exhausted from the flight and your bed is so soft. Just like you.”

A red blush appeared on the apples of Kyungsoo’s cheeks and the traveler coughed slightly as he resisted the temptation. “I promise we can rest after this. C’mon, up!”

So Kai reluctantly let go of Kyungsoo’s pillow and pushed himself with his now free hand into a sitting position before allowing his lover to pull him up from the bed. They exited the bedroom and crossed the hallway to the other closed door. It looked ordinary enough, so Kai wasn’t sure why the traveler was in such a hurry to bring him here. But when Kyungsoo opened the door, the taller male’s breath was instantly stolen as his eyes drank in the sight before him.

“Welcome to my treasure room.”

Kai seemed to be too star-struck to move on his own, so with an amused smile on his youthful face, Kyungsoo hooked their arms together and slowly led the amazed taller male around the gigantic room that was filled to the brim with all sorts of trinkets and gems. It was like a museum; everything was neatly encased in glass and there were silver plaques at the bottom right corner of each display case. The name and place of origin of each treasure were labeled on the corresponding plaque, and Kyungsoo fondly reminisced his previous adventures as they continued making their way around the room while Kai eagerly observed everything.

A pale blue glowing ball caught Kai’s eye and he excitedly dragged his lover over to the glass case where it was nestled in a white cloth. “Whoa, how did you get this?” he asked incredulously as he read the plaque, which listed the object as a star ball holding kitsune fire from Japan.

“I was actually looking for a golden tail from a kitsune. Only fox spirits that have lived for at least one thousand years and gain nine tails are able to ascend to the status of a celestial fox, which turns their fur golden. But no matter how long I searched, I couldn’t find a kitsune, much less a celestial one, so I ended up changing focus and hunted for one of these star balls instead,” Kyungsoo recounted to an astounded Kai. 

“Wow… You’ve been to so many places,” he breathed out as his fingers then trailed over the glass case of a large jaguar fang embedded with several amethysts that had been found in Guatemala. He couldn’t even fathom seeing such places since, although he was more than three thousand years old, his entire world had only been Greece. As a supernatural creature on the more primitive and animalistic side, Kai hadn’t been able to acquire knowledge like his more advanced peers and humans did. What he had learned over the millennia were things he had picked up whenever he dared to venture into small villages and towns that he watched evolve into bustling suburbs and metropolises as the centuries passed.

“I’ve been very lucky,” Kyungsoo answered softly. “You know, I’ve actually been planning a trip to China this summer.”

“What for?”

“I’m trying to nab a dragon scale for my collection. I want one specifically from Zhūlóng, the Red Dragon King of the South,” Kyungsoo explained with the same serenity that he’d had when showing Kai what the magical blue garnet was all of those months ago in Greece. “Dragons are highly revered creatures in China and the Dragon Kings are some of the most iconic legends that exist. I have an acquaintance from Southern China who I met when I was exploring pyramids in Egypt and he has some leads for me that I should follow up on.”

“You’re not going to leave me here alone, are you?” Kai’s previously gleeful expression immediately turned downcast as the thought of being separated from his lover for even one day turned his blood cold.

“Of course not, silly,” the traveler responded as he tip-toed to quickly peck the taller male’s left cheek. “You’re coming with me, unless you don’t want to?”

“No, I do!” Kai quickly answered, the sparkling brightness immediately returning to his eyes. This would be his first real adventure with Kyungsoo as they treasure hunted together in an unknown land. He didn’t really count the quest in Greece, mostly because of how he hadn’t really helped Kyungsoo find the magical blue garnet in the end; the traveler had ended up doing everything by himself, which Kai still expressed regret over. But this time was going to be different and he’d make sure of it. Although spring had just barely begun and there were still several months until their trip, the bubble of anticipation was already ballooning within Kai’s chest until it felt as if it were about to pop.

Life was certainly very different now that he was a human, but Kai wouldn’t have it any other way.

Kyungsoo grinned as the taller male slightly bent down to rest his forehead against his lover’s. “You’re really excited, aren’t you?”

“Of course, little one. Why wouldn’t I be? This is another chance to make some beautiful, new memories with you.”

“I’m really glad I met you,” Kyungsoo whispered before reaching up and capturing Kai’s thick lips in another passionate kiss. The traveler’s arms wrapped around the taller male’s sturdy, toned body that made his insides feel like jelly whenever his hands felt the defined curves of those well-built muscles. Every kiss with Kai still felt as magical as the first one they had shared together in the grove of the blue garnet and Kyungsoo wished he didn’t have to come up for air, because he didn’t ever want to detach himself from Kai’s delicious mouth and warm touch.

As they stood there in the middle of the treasure room, kissing like there was no tomorrow, the wisps of fire from the star ball seemed to glow even brighter just as the fire of Kai and Kyungsoo’s love for each other burned stronger than ever.

♈♈♈