Chapter 36: Everything I ever wished for

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Baekhyun leaned forward to pick leaves on the ground and braid them together into a crown. His thin fingers were radiating light and magic as he put little twigs between flowers, and made them stick beautifully. Once he was done, he smiled proudly and brought the crown to his head, arranging it for a few seconds before he turned to the two fairies sitting on the branch of a cherry tree nearby.

"How do I look?"

"You're cute," Heechul answered with a shrug before he bit down on the cherry he was holding with two hands.

Baekhyun's smile stretched on his lips with contentment and he glanced at Jongdae expectantly.

Jongdae had known Baekhyun for a few months but he still couldn't believe or comprehend how he had managed to befriend the Lord of nymphs, holiest spirit in the forest, most respected and beloved creature in the realm; and why said deity would want to hang out with him and ask him to participate in a lovely afternoon of walking around, eating fruits, and talking about all kinds of things. Jongdae had no idea what he was doing but he was enjoying himself.

If anyone had told him a year earlier that he would be living in Melalhil, spending his free afternoons either gardening with an elf willingly or blabbering with the Lord of nymphs himself—Jongdae would have probably accused them of eating far too much mint.

And yet, here he was.

"It's lovely, truly."

"Thank you," Baekhyun beamed. "Let's go to the Lilypad Basin now, it's not so far away... I'd like to bathe."

And without waiting for the two fairies' approval, Baekhyun turned around and walked away, in all of his glorious . Heechul picked another cherry next to him, tore it in half and gave Jongdae a part of it with a smile before he took off, flying in little loops.

"Oh, thanks."

"You're welcome," Heechul cheered as he started flying upside down and, in doing so, drowned his hair in cherry juice.

Jongdae couldn't help but laugh at the sight, immediately wondering if Jinki picked that habit from Heechul or if Heechul picked it from Jinki.

"So, has anyone seen Kyungsoo lately?" Heechul asked, looking as casual and absentminded as he could.

Baekhyun glanced at him with a smirk but didn't answer, and snorted when Jongdae did.

"Nah... not for a couple of weeks. I believe he's still around at Chanyeol's. You know, he escaped there to avoid- … Oh."

Heechul turned around and cackled as he saw Jongdae's horrified expression.

"I didn't say anything," Jongdae screeched. "Don't tell him I said that! In fact, I said nothing at all! Forget about it! I don't want trouble with Kyungsoo."

Heechul kept laughing as he flew closer to his friend and wiggled his eyebrows at him.

"Who's Chanyeol?"

"No one!" Jongdae grumbled. "I don't know a Chanyeol."

"Chanyeol is a faun," Baekhyun said softly, hopping on a trunk lying on the ground as he kept going his merry way.

Jongdae whined loudly and almost dropped the piece of cherry he was still holding. Then he knocked it down his mouth, hoping to choke on it so he could avoid saying more things that would cause him trouble. But Heechul lost interest in him, instead turning around to the nymph rather quickly, eyes so wide they seemed ready to fall off their sockets.

"A faun?" he repeated in a strangled voice. "Now, you're lying! Kyungsoo hates fauns. He's scared of them."

Baekhyun tilted his head to the right to throw him a glance.

"I never lie..."

"Kyungsoo can't be with a faun!"

"Well, he might not like fauns in general but he likes that one."

Heechul blinked quickly, taking a few seconds to digest the new information he had finally managed to collect, and spurted forward to catch up with his two friends still walking toward the Lilypads Basin.

"I can't believe this," Heechul yelled.

"I suppose you did make him go to extreme lengths to avoid you," Baekhyun shrugged.

Jongdae saw Heechul frown but Baekhyun wasn't looking. There was a small silence and Jongdae wondered if the nymph realized he had pained his friend with his words.

"He was really displeased with Chanyeol, at first. I remember that." Jongdae offered softly, with a little smile to Heechul, probably to reassure the fairy that he did know Kyungsoo well. "Chanyeol was Jongin's friend, and also mine... We met him last autumn. Kyungsoo was always very wary of him, but they’ve grown closer. I think Kyungsoo likes to take care of him, you know... Since Jongin spends so much time with his lover now, I think Kyungsoo was a little lonely and Chanyeol doesn't have many friends... They grew fond of each other. It's not like Kyungsoo flew to some place he hated. As I said, I saw him a few weeks ago with Chanyeol and they looked very happy together, taking care of each other."

Heechul looked at him for a moment, and finally smiled brightly, nodding to himself.

"This sounds more like Kyungsoo, always taking care of people. Good! That's very good! I'm glad!"

With another little cackle, Heechul suddenly flew very high, then dived down to make large loops all around the trees surrounding them. Baekhyun halted and looked at Jongdae with a smile.

"My caring little friend, you are so very precious."

Jongdae blinked and pouted as he flew past him.

"You were a little hurtful."

"Oh, was I?"

"Heechul seems to care a lot about Kyungsoo."

Baekhyun only hummed and resumed his walk.

The nymph picked a couple of apricots as they passed by a tree, split one and offered it to Jongdae. They could still hear Heechul's laughter in the distance.

"He met a frog now, I think it's going to be only you and me until we reach Lilypads Basin."

Jongdae grinned and took a large bite of the apricot extended to him, getting juice all over his face.

"Now would be a good time to talk, if you happen to have a delicate question for me," Baekhyun added in his softest voice.

Jongdae gasped, his apricot went down the wrong way and he ended up choking, his face rapidly growing red. Baekhyun widened his eyes and halted in surprise to pick him up in his palm.

"Jongdae? Are you alright?"

Jongdae raised one hand over his head as he tapped his chest with one last cough.

"Yeah," he breathed out. "I'm fine."

"I'm sorry, I didn't see that one coming," Baekhyun smiled.

Jongdae squinted but made no comment, instead snorting softly as he took off again.

"But you saw me asking you that question, right?"

"Yes, I did."

Jongdae squirmed in the air, blushing furiously again, of embarrassment this time.

"Could you maybe just answer it, then? So I don't have to ask out loud," he squeaked. "Please."

Baekhyun looked at him for a moment, and the fairy wondered if it was a rude thing to ask. Maybe the nymph also just enjoyed seeing him embarrass himself.

"I see you asking me so many questions, all the time," Baekhyun hummed with a smile. "But I think today is about growing up, is that right?"

Jongdae clapped his hands on his cheeks and grumbled softly. His heart was beating so hard in his chest he could hear it resonate in his temples. He wondered if Lord Baekhyun could hear it too. How mortifying.

"Come here," Baekhyun called him as he extended his palm to him once more.

Jongdae sighed but landed in his hand and looked up to him, his face still warm and red. Somehow, the idea to ask Baekhyun, despite him being the Lord of nymphs himself, was a lot less frightening than that of asking any fairy in Hazelbarrow. Probably because he knew Baekhyun would be expecting his question anyway.

"What do you already know about the growing-up spell?" Baekhyun asked with a knowing smile.

"All I know is that it can't be undone. If I-... if a fairy does it, they can never go back to their former size," Jongdae admitted. "And my- their wings will disappear."

He sat on Baekhyun's palm and lowered his head, far too flustered to look at his holy friend.

"The spell is both a curse and a blessing, in my opinion," Baekhyun said.

His voice was gentle and calm. Jongdae had expected a little bit of teasing, but all he could see in Baekhyun's eyes, all he could hear in his tone, was care and fondness.

"Is it?"

"How wonderful a gift it is, to allow small beings the chance of growing up so they may hug their tall loved ones," Baekhyun sighed. "I have dreamed of hugging Heechul far more times than I can tell when I was lost deep in sadness. The happiness such a spell brings is only matched by the high price it takes."

Jongdae sighed. He had thought about it a lot. He had thought about growing tall to hold Minseok's hand. At first, it had seemed like the worst idea he ever had. He had hated himself for considering it and had even planned to leave Melalhil on the spot, shameful that he was of the wish his heart had made. But Minseok had given him nettles that fated afternoon; Jongdae still remembered his soft smile as he had asked him if he wanted to have tea with him in the garden. Jongdae had been unable to leave.

The thought had kept coming back and Minseok had kept being too kind for Jongdae to leave him. Until Jongdae had been forced to start considering such a thing as growing tall for him. But no matter how much he had tried, he couldn't really picture what it would be like not to have wings. He had been able to fly his entire life. Seventy years weren't a lot for a fairy, but still, it was a lot for him. He had found himself unable to tell if not having wings would be too difficult on him because he couldn't properly imagine not having them. What a struggle it was.

"I can't imagine what it would be like... I can't-... I can't take a proper decision because of that..."

Baekhyun nodded silently.

"Fairies produce their own magic. When you perform spells, you use the magic your body made and stored. If you were not to use magic at all, it wouldn't keep piling up. You have a peak of magic you are able to make and hold within your body, do you understand that?"

"Yes, I do. I know that."

"After using a lot of magic, you find yourself tired and will need to rest to gather strength again."

Jongdae nodded and finally looked up to the nymph but Baekhyun was looking straight ahead. His eyes seemed distant, lost in some faraway thoughts.

"If you were to use the growing-up spell, it would completely drain you of all of your magic and take your wings with it because the amount of power it requires is far more than what you can normally create. But even if you rested for a whole decade, even if you slept to restore your magic - as Heechul did, you could never generate and store such an amount of magic again. You'll always only be able to create half of what you can make now. Doing magic will tire you quicker. That's why you will never be able to return to being small; it would be impossible for you to produce enough magic to reverse the spell."

Jongdae gasped. His heart was thundering again, this time with fright. Somehow, the way Baekhyun phrased it seemed to make him realize just how much it would take of him.

"It terrifies a lot of fairies," Baekhyun continued with a smile, "which I find rather silly because most of you never even use more than half the magic you have within your body before you restore it. Considering how you use your magic, it wouldn't make a difference in your everyday life, per se. The problem truly is about losing your wings. That would be something difficult to accommodate with, seeing how it defines your whole being. Fairies don't really walk so much, do they? Being small and being able to fly are the things that characterize you; losing them means losing a big part of your identity."

Jongdae sighed and pouted.

"Oh, I see."

"Did I say something hurtful again?"

"No," Jongdae said with a little laugh. "I didn't know all of that, it sounded a little scary at first, but in the end, we're back to my main struggle."

Baekhyun looked at him and scrunched his nose with a smile.

"Oh really? I'm not being very helpful then."

"You are. But it's a difficult decision."

"I’m not allowed to tell you what to do but I can tell you that once you'll have made your decision, you won't regret it."

Jongdae widened his eyes and then curled up on himself with a grin.

"That's very comforting to know then, thanks!"

"You're welcome."

Jongdae squirmed in Baekhyun's hand and then got up to walk along his arm up to his shoulder, where he sat again.

"Can I stay here?"

"Of course. We're almost at the basin now."

Jongdae stretched his arms above his head and sighed.

"I think..." he said but interrupted himself and took a little pause to order his thoughts properly.

"Yes?"

"I will talk to Minseok about it," Jongdae said solemnly and his face grew red yet again. "But for now, I feel too embarrassed to do so. It must mean that I'm not ready. If I ever grow tall for him, it will be because I love him more than anything, right?"

Baekhyun grinned and tilted his head to look at the flustered fairy.

"I suppose so."

"Yes, and so, if I love him more than anything, I should feel comfortable to ask him his opinion about all of this. Until I do, I will know that I'm not ready to grow."

"That's a very wise decision," Baekhyun agreed.

Jongdae nodded to himself.

They kept walking in comfortable silence and Jongdae suddenly focused on Baekhyun's soft steps, how large they were, how quickly they made them travel. He tried to imagine what it would be like to walk with such long legs.

They heard a voice cry out in the distance and they both chuckled.

"He's done with his frog," Baekhyun whispered.

Heechul dived past them like a shooting star, flying at an alarming speed before he turned around and went back to them in loops that caused him to slow down.

"I'm sorry I left you, my friends, but you see I met that very nice little lady frog and-..."

Heechul gargled and stopped his sentence in the middle with a gasp that caused Jongdae to widen his eyes. Before he could ask what was happening, he saw Heechul frowning deeply and coming closer to Baekhyun's face.

"Baekhyun? Baekhyunnie? What's going on?"

Jongdae jolted away from the nymph to take a better look at him, his eyes jumping from Baekhyun to Heechul in worry.

The Lord of nymph was still as a rock, wide eyes clouded and more distant than Jongdae ever saw them. He saw tears filling them up quickly, overflowing on the nymph's cheeks and the fairy froze in horror. Baekhyun let out little gasps as if he couldn't quite find his breath. There was a ringing in Jongdae's ears; a fear that made him unable to understand Heechul's calls and questions.

Baekhyun suddenly closed his eyes and put his head in his hands, sobbing his heart out. The sight broke Jongdae's heart in half.

"Baekhyun? Baekhyun, please talk to me," Heechul kept calling loudly as he flew around the nymph in distress.

The nymph panted, trying to find his voice back in all the memories and visions suddenly assaulting him. He could feel his whole body trembling like a leaf on a windy day.

"Heechul..." he gasped.

The fairy squeaked and flew even closer, nodding to him.

"Yes? Yes! What's happening?"

Baekhyun's lips trembled and he blinked a couple more times as he held his head in one hand.

"They're coming back," he whispered. "The visions are coming back."

Heechul frowned and opened his mouth without knowing what to say. Baekhyun straightened up and turned his head to the West. The sun was blinding as it was slowly setting but it didn’t bother him; as a child of Light, the sun could never hurt his eyes.

Baekhyun breathed out another sob, fisted his hands, and ran. He heard Heechul call his name but didn't look back. Behind him, Heechul gripped Jongdae’s wrist.

"Don't," he murmured.

Jongdae hadn't even realized he had made an instinctive move to follow the nymph. He hadn't properly realized everything that had happened. He knew that Baekhyun was crying and he wondered if he was in pain; he wasn't sure, he couldn't read his face, he couldn't understand. But Heechul didn't let him move and Jongdae turned back to him with a glare.

Even if he had wanted to, even if he had flown faster than ever, he couldn't have caught up to Baekhyun anyway. The Lord of nymphs was sprinting so fast that everything around him faded into a blur. He knew the forest well enough not to rush into a tree and he used all the light inside of him to dash forward. His mind was going too fast for him, his thoughts didn't make any sense anymore. He had a headache from the spurt of images and voices that overflew his mind; visions that had never come true, visions he had had a long time ago and that had disappeared from the stream of events that consisted his foresee ability, only to be left as memories of what could have been.

His heart clenched. Another sob left his lips and his feet slowed down little by little until he came to a stop.

He was standing barely a few meters away from the edge of the forest. If he were to look just a little to his right, he would see the border he hadn't dared to cross in decades. Instead, his wide eyes stopped on the silhouette standing in front of him.

There was a man, with a large, deep green cloak. It looked heavy on his shoulders; it shone when the sun hit the velvety fabric. Baekhyun breathed out loudly with sobs as if he was wounded. Tears kept spilling from his eyes and he had to wipe them away with trembling hands. He saw the man lower his hood and Baekhyun's heart thundered. The nymph looked at the wizard's face, at his soft smile and the dimple on his cheek. Light arose from his whole body and gave Baekhyun a halo so bright that the wizard had to squint his eyes.

"Yixing..." Baekhyun said softly.

"Good afternoon, Baekhyun."

Baekhyun sniffed and leaped forward to bring him in a tight hug. He broke down in cries when he felt his friend's arms close around his waist.

Yixing brushed one hand on Baekhyun's back softly and pressed a gentle kiss on the top of his head. It caused the nymph to shiver and whimper even more in his arms, and he smiled.

"I missed you too," Yixing said.

Baekhyun chuckled but it sounded nervous and muffled. He tried to straighten up enough to look at the wizard without breaking their hug too much. The bright halo around him was still blinding Yixing.

"And I'm happy to see you too," Yixing added as he cupped the nymph's face in his hands.

Baekhyun opened his mouth but words couldn't seem to get out. Yixing didn’t need him to talk to understand him anyway.

"You're not dreaming," Yixing smiled again. "I promise."

The nymph looked at him, detailing his face: his short, black hair, his soft eyes. He wondered how Yixing could look so different and still the same as when Baekhyun last saw him, hundreds of years ago. He balled his fists in Yixing's clothes and his jaw tightened. There were so many things he needed to say but words didn’t seem to be able to pass his lips.

His thoughts were still going haywire in his mind, troubling his focus.

"We need to talk, Baekhyun," Yixing said with a tilt of his head.

Baekhyun nodded and tried to hold back another sob that went up to his throat.

For a moment, a couple of seconds only, Baekhyun felt as if he was only four or five decades old. Yixing took his hand, and his heart soared; old memories came back in another rush of a time far before all of his troubles, all of the pain, when the wizard spent days and nights teaching him about the stars and the world outside of their forest.

"Let's go home."

Baekhyun felt his whole body relax and he followed his old friend, eyes never leaving the face he had longed to see again for too many centuries. He felt Yixing's thumb the back of his hand.

"Have you taken care of our home while I was away? It's alright if you didn't."

It was unsettling to hear Yixing's voice again, to see him, to touch him, to have all of his senses overwhelmed with everything that the wizard was, only to have him talk softly and ask casual questions as if he had just left for a couple of weeks. Somehow, it made Baekhyun both furious and deeply moved.

They kept walking and Baekhyun heard the distant sound of a river. He could recognize all the sounds surrounding them by heart. Then, he seemed to register the question Yixing had just asked. But before he could answer, he saw the wizard smile.

"It seems you did," Yixing nodded.

Baekhyun turned his gaze away as they took the sloping path to the cottage, lost in the middle of Nowhere. One of the windows was opened and the nymph gasped.

"Oh..."

Yixing extended his hand and before Baekhyun could stop him, he opened the door.

The house was quiet, the only movements their eyes could catch were the curtains gently swaying to the soft breeze coming from the opened window. A few pieces of furniture had moved around the room but what truly caused Yixing to widen his eyes in utter incredulity were the hundreds of flowers blooming everywhere and filling the house with a sweet fragrance. Leaves were crawling over the beams and ceiling, petals splattered everywhere on the ground and the walls, and Yixing couldn't find a single spot that hadn't been overtaken by nature. Yet, the most disconcerting thing was that he could see two dirty cups of tea by the sink and a blanket thrown over the loveseat. His house hadn't been abandoned and left to the forest.

"Baekhyun," Yixing asked with his usual quiet and serene tone, "why is our home covered in flowers?"

Baekhyun let go of his hand to cover his sudden outburst of laughter and leaned against the doorframe. Yixing blinked and turned to him, eyes open wide in wonder and happiness as he saw the nymph nervously lose it to his amusement and radiate light again.

"I'm sorry," Baekhyun breathed out between two fits of laughter.

Yixing shook his hand between them in a dismissive manner and walked in carefully, looking around to all the different kinds of flowers, waiting for his nymph to explain himself once he'd be able to breathe properly again. Baekhyun trotted behind him, taking notice of the dahlias and magnolia covering the beams next to the bed.

"I uh-...," Baekhyun chuckled, "I may have... told a friend that he could use this house... to meet his lover. I didn't really expect this though."

Yixing blinked a couple of times, looked around them again, and snorted.

"A wood nymph, I suppose?"

Baekhyun was still laughing as he nodded, hands crossed on his waist to try to recover his breath. Meanwhile, Yixing squinted to inspect the flowers more thoroughly.

"A dahlia nymph, perhaps?" he hummed. "Or a magnolia?"

"A magnolia. His name is Jongin," Baekhyun agreed.

Yixing grinned and raised a hand to touch a lily sprouting next to the night table. He took a look at the messy bed and scrunched his nose.

"I think we'll need new bedsheets."

He snapped his fingers and the dirty sheets folded themselves before they rose and levitated towards the small bathroom. It only caused Baekhyun to laugh harder.

"By all the old Gods, I missed your laugh," Yixing suddenly sighed as he turned to the nymph.

Baekhyun froze and looked up. His halo fainted a little and he sighed.

"I waited for you," he whispered. "But I couldn't stay here."

Baekhyun looked around the house as he made his way through the kitchen, passing by Yixing to reach the rug in front of the fireplace. He sat on the ground and his fingers went to a buttercup flower next to his foot.

"After a while, it was too painful. I went back to my tree… my real home... It was just a couple of months ago that I told Jongin he could come here."

Yixing walked to the nymph and sat next to him.

"It's delicate now, though. Will your nymph be alright if we take back our house?"

Baekhyun looked away to the coffee table where he saw one of Yixing's herbarium opened to the last page.

"It's your house, after all," Baekhyun shrugged. "I let Jongin in because he needed shelter against the cold, last winter. And I lost hope you would come back..."

Yixing raised his hand to brush his fingers against Baekhyun's cheek but the nymph didn't look back at him.

"It was my mistake," Baekhyun continued. "I'll explain it to Jongin."

Yixing hummed softly but didn't say anything. Instead, he got up and walked to the kitchen. The nymph finally turned his head to look at him and his heart clenched. The simple sight of Yixing putting water in his kettle was enough to bring him to tears again; the familiarity of the scene hurting as much as it comforted him.

Baekhyun watched his wizard go around the kitchen, singing very softly as he picked a very old jar of tea up one of his shelves. Yixing opened it, smelled it, and smiled brightly. The house hadn't run out of magic despite how long he had stayed away and his very precious orchids tea was still miraculously intact. It was Baekhyun's favorite.

If he closed his eyes, Yixing was sure he could hear Baekhyun's whiny voice again. He could remember the nymph asking him to summon two cups of tea instead of taking so long to brew them normally; that way, he would come back to kiss him sooner.

It had happened so many years ago, Yixing couldn't even remember how young they had been. Baekhyun's voice had changed since then. He had noticed it the moment the nymph had said his name. But when he turned around to look at him, Baekhyun still had the same pouty face as all those centuries ago.

"The tea is almost ready," Yixing said.

Baekhyun nodded but stayed silent.

When Yixing came back to him, sitting on the ground and bringing the two cups and the teapot on the edge of the coffee table, the nymph looked at him with piercing eyes. His halo of light was wavering around him with the waves of his emotions. He was overwhelmed.

"Yixing..."

His voice tightened and broke to a whisper. Once again, he found himself unable to form words, unable to say all the questions that pushed at his lips.

The memory of Yixing leaving came back to him suddenly, always so vivid and intense. It had made him choke and cry so many times already. They had been there, in their house in Nowhere, and Yixing had promised him that he would come back soon. He wouldn't be away for more than a couple of months, at worse. He had promised him. Then he had left the forest and Baekhyun had been standing in front of the fireplace in their shared home as all the visions of their future together that he ever had, had faded into mere memories.

Yixing took Baekhyun’s hand and it brought the nymph back to the present with a gasp.

"All I've ever wanted was to protect you," Yixing said.

"And all I've ever wanted was for you to come back."

Baekhyun hadn't meant for his voice to be so bitter but he didn't apologize for it.

"I left because of that prophecy I told you about, do you remember it?"

"Yes, I do. I suppose it took longer to stop it than expected..."

The nymph tried to smile but all he managed was a sour smirk. Yixing pressed a finger against Baekhyun's nose and his face looked contrite.

"It did. But then, it was all my fault. I got caught up."

"Caught up in what, exactly?"

"Politics, mostly."

Baekhyun closed his eyes and took his hand back from Yixing's hold. He wanted to cry again. He hadn't cried in so long but the surge of contradictory emotions that kept assaulting him for the past hour was too much. Some part of him wanted to scream, another wanted to put all of those discussions away - far, far away from them - and crawl into Yixing's arms.

"I went from one kingdom to another for decades that turned into centuries... Every time I heard the whisper of a conflict or a war coming, I was so terrified at the idea that it could reach you that I ran to stop it before you could be in any danger."

Baekhyun snorted.

"We had a war... less than 200 years ago. You still didn't return."

"I know. I learned about it on my way back."

Baekhyun gritted his teeth for a moment then sighed with chagrin.

"I've lived several lives while I was away," Yixing said, "I took apprentices and raised them as my children. I settled in for a few decades, sometimes. I kept following predictions and rivalries until I reached a place where no one had ever heard of the forest of Honeyhills. Only then did I realize what I had done..."

Baekhyun kept looking at him silently, unable to decide if Yixing's words were soothing or hurting him.

"Baekhyun, I'm sorry."

"That's ridiculous," the nymph breathed out. "You can't tell me you've been away for so long without realizing. Or did you not miss me at all?"

"I missed you. Of course, I missed you. But not seeing you was the price I was willing to pay to keep you safe. Or so I thought... I knew it had been long but I didn't keep count of the years passing by until it occurred to me that I hadn't seen you in far longer than the time we ever spent together."

That sentence, more than all the others, caused Baekhyun to whimper. It had been a recurring thought in his mind for the last decade.

"I did everything I could to find you," Baekhyun said accusingly. "I did all the spells I knew of, Heechul drained himself-... I-... I thought of leaving the forest to find you. I almost did. If I had... all the nymphs in the forest would have died because I wouldn't have been there to save them."

He bravely straightened up and glared at his former lover, looking through his eyes as if he wanted to read his soul. Yixing let him.

"Yixing..."

"Yes?"

"I wish I could resent you."

The smile Yixing gave him was small and pained.

"I'm sorry."

Baekhyun moved and finally crawled on the wizard's lap to hug him and hide against him. He breathed in his scent and pressed his face in Yixing's neck for a long moment before he cupped his face in his hands and brought their foreheads together.

"Your colors have changed," Baekhyun whispered.

"I thought so."

"What have you seen, Yixing?"

Yixing detailed the nymph's face for a while. He hadn't had Baekhyun so close for far too long and he wanted to see all the little things that might have changed. Everything that he had missed so much. His eyes were sadder and he knew it was because of him. The nymph wore his hair a little longer. His skin was still as bright and soft as it always had been.

"I would do it all again," Yixing murmured. "I would, Baekhyun. I would watch all those things once more and I would let the horror of the world change the colors of my soul to keep you safe. I would do it all again."

"I don't want that," Baekhyun answered painfully.

Yixing blindly searched for Baekhyun's hands curled around his neck as he kept looking at his face. He laced their fingers and bumped their noses together very softly.

"What do you want, Baekhyun?"

"I want to learn about you," the nymph whispered, so very quietly that Yixing barely heard him. "I want to fall in love with you again. I want to love the person you've become. And I want you to stay and learn all about me again."

Yixing closed his eyes and Baekhyun cradled him in his arms, bringing him against his chest to hold him close. He felt Yixing's tears flow on one of his collarbones.

"We shall do that," Yixing said.

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My lovelies,

I hope this chapter found you well & that you loved it!! Ooh, I waited so long to introduce our wizard! Let me know if you had figured out who it was ♥
I really hope coming back to our forest could bring you a moment of peace & calm, & some happiness.
Please, take care of yourself until next time.

Little note to thank Shen, who helped me a lot through the edit of the first part of the chapter.

&
A very special loving hug to my black readers. Remember that you are loved. & you matter, always.
& I will fight for you & with you. With all of my little strength. Always.

find me on twitter // curiouscat