Summers for Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Jongdae—and recently Kyungsoo, whose education-oriented parents finally agreed that their son should be allowed to run around and be a kid for as long as he can—are spent outside of the city, in a semi-rural area bordered by The Woods. It isn't a large stretch of wilderness; it has no official name other than The Woods, but the trees and plants grow thick, tinging the light within a murky green. Few locals venture far into it, but berries, flowers, and herbs can be gathered quite close to the edges, which are all anyone would go among the trees for, so no one actually has the want or need to go further. Anyone who has either never goes again or is simply never heard from again, and the stories range from foreign to fantastic.

They grow up being told to not go into The Woods, and they dance around it with their friends, never really daring to explore when there were more interesting places like new arcades and malls and movies to see and video games to play.

Being young and not really understanding the undercurrent of the messages warning them to stay away, however, the boys sit in a circle around a small fire pit Chanyeol's uncle built in the backyard one summer's evening, roasting marshmallows and sandwiching them between crackers with small blocks of chocolate. Stories from school and plans for the next semester peter away to childhood gossip and finally games.

Baekhyun is dared to stuff ten marshmallows into his mouth and recite their school song; Kyungsoo whacks him on the back once the boy turns blue until he throws up. The high of near-death spurs on a drive for greater risk, and Baekhyun turns to Chanyeol, wiping tears from his eyes.

"I dare Chanyeollie to go into The Woods and pick a moonglory." The flowers grow wild everywhere, curling up phone poles and weaving into fencing. They attract a lot of butterflies and bees.

"That's fae territory!"

Baekhyun manages to look haughty, even with wet sugar mush on his chin. "You scared?"

"No... I'm just saying it's not nice to trespass on someone else's property is all." Chanyeol picks himself up and dusts off the seat of his jeans with a scoff. "As if I'd be scared of a tiny faerie, anyway."

"They're not all tiny, Chanyeol." Jongdae smiles serenely; he's only confident because he's not the one with the dare. "You might run into goblins or a den of foxes. Maybe some wisps will lead you right into cave of trolls."

"You're just trying to scare me." He's already scared. "It's not working." It's definitely working. He glances at Kyungsoo, who's stayed silent and has an assembly line of s'mores built along his thighs. No help there. "Fine, I'm going."

"Don't worry, Chanyeol," Baekhyun assures him, "we'll call the fire department if you get lost."

"Back by morning!" Jongdae adds. "If you're back before then without the flower, we'll know you chickened out."

Chanyeol being Chanyeol, he's easily baited and marches down the lawn and across the overgrown path worn by tires of farm trucks. He looks back once, and Baekhyun and Jongdae wave. Kyungsoo's still focused on his s'mores. He wants to go back, but he can't come up with any good reason to switch dares that won't get him teased for the entire summer.

Facing the trees again, they seem to loom, even larger and thicker than usual, like a wall. The sun's not competely set; he has an hour or so until it's totally dark, so he's got plenty of time. Walk in, pick a flower, walk out. Easy.

Taking a steadying breath, he pushes aside a low-hanging branch and steps inside. Immediately, he feels the air in his lungs. It's heavy, even on his shoulders, like it's trying to force him back. That's silly, though, and he follows a tiny frog until it disappears into an equally tiny puddle that probably serves as its home. It's actually rather pretty among the trees, and for as heavy as the air is, there's a certain quality to it that is just fresh. He can't smell the cow or horse farms that surround his uncle's home.

Walking in The Woods isn't the easiest task, with roots and plants and fallen tree parts partly carpeted with a thick, spongy layer of leaves catching his sneakers and nearly sending him tumbling many times. He scrapes his hand against a tree trunk when he catches himself, and he hisses at the sting, but he's only raw and not bleeding, so he rubs it on his shirt and keeps walking.

Tilting his head back, he marvels at the obscuring canopy of leaves. He can barely see the sky, the trees are so thick, but what he does see makes his heart beat faster, because the sky was still painted in pastel hues when he first entered. They're fiery, now, yellows heating to vibrant red. He doesn't think he's been walking for that long, yet.

"Just find the flower and go home. Find the flower. Go home. Flower flower flower..." Chanyeol starts calling out softly, not expecting the flower to reply with a cheery here I am!, and he's thankfully not surprised. His voice is the only real sound, though, and he stops to try and hear something else once the realisation settles in his gut. No insects, although a bug of some sort bumbles just along his periphery. No more frogs, no birds, no little critters looking in the leaves and underbrush for food.

Nothing.

Just him.

He tries to yell, but it gets stuck in his dry throat. After swallowing a few times, he roars as loud as he can, but it's like he's done nothing at all. Nothing spooks; there's no sort of echo. His voice just sits in the space he's in, not even making it past the branches overhead.

Bizarre.

"Just find the flower. We're here for a flower, a pretty moonflower. No big deal. I'll be in and out in no time."

His cautious footsteps—more an anxious shuffle—are muffled. No roots trip him up anymore, which he's glad for, because his hand still stings, but he has the crazy idea that they're moving out of the way of his feet. Maybe he's in a forest of Grandmother Willows' relatives, and a friendly raccoon will pop up to pickpocket him but lead him to where he wants to go.

He's actually not sure where he wants to go, and it's getting darker. The ambient light is more brown than green. There's no way he can find anything when he can barely see his hand waving in front of his face.

He flinches when he accidentally slaps his cheek and drops his arm to his side, keeping them both angled outwards to feel around him. There's a phantom feeling of spider webs along his arms and tiny legs tickling his fingertips; after the sixth time of dancing around and flinging off whatever may have hitched a ride on his body, he stumbles into a tree wrapped in vines. There's a pale glow beyond it, and he follows it to its source.

Jackpot.

The grove is alight with what looks like hundreds of soft white blossoms. Their blue-green vines coil around tree trunks and each other and other flowers, deceptively strong and clinging. Even overhead, they dot the branches and make shadow screens of the leaves, turning them shades of mantis to fern green. Chanyeol pumps his fist victoriously and picks one fully-opened bloom. It continues to glow in his hand; he holds it to his nose. It's very fragrant, a sweetness just on the right side of not being cloying.

He turns back to return to his friends, but everything looks the same. He can't tell where he came from and where he needs to go, regardless of which way he turns. He's positive he could just walk straight after making an about-face, but he's turned so many times, now, that he doesn't even know where he'd faced. There's no vine missing a blossom; there's no reference point at all, but the flowers glow brightly, so he has plenty of light to see.

He's gotta make his way out eventually, regardless of which way he walks. It's not that big of a forest.

On a map, at least, but Chanyeol's never been good with maps.

The flower wraps its little vine around his finger like a seahorse anchoring itself to a rock with its tail. Chanyeol rubs the back of his neck and sings under his breath, choosing to follow the moe path. He's already lost; he can't get more lost.

Petals touch his hand like butterfly kisses; it doesn't sting, now.

He nearly shouts when he notices the trees thinning and makes a dash for the open air, but he trips to a halt and catches himself on his hands. The flower recoils, leaning towards the backs of his hands.

It's just a clearing; trees surround it like sentries. Every flower in the field is in bloom, glowing as bright as the stars, which Chanyeol's shocked to see are already out. The sky is dusky blue like spilled ink. Hours must have gone by.

Around his finger, the moonflower shifts and opens its petals wider, welcoming the unfiltered moon.

Chanyeol turns in a circle, trying to get his bearings. His heart tries to jump out of his throat when something shifts in the tall grass nearby. Something large.

Not too large, though. A boy, maybe a little younger than Chanyeol, sits up and leans on his arms, staring at the sky. He has dark features and skin that's seen a lot of sun, a contrast to the alabaster white of the moon and stars.

"Hey... excuse me?" Chanyeol waves shyly, and he is not a shy person. This boy seems completely engrossed in his activity; he doesn't want to disturb him. He just wants to go home and give Baekhyun his stupid flower. "Hello? My name's Chanyeol; I kinda got lost on my way here. Do you know the way out? I'd really rather not turn Tarzan or anything and live in the trees, you know?" He rubs his neck, laughing, but the boy doesn't even glance his way. "Hey. Dude, you okay?" He approaches carefully, making a broad arc, so he doesn't scare the boy. Maybe he's deaf and just doesn't hear Chanyeol.

Even standing right beside him, though, there's still no move of any sort of acknowledgement. He leans forward and waves his hand in front of the boy's face. Clouds pass over the moon, and the boy blinks, finally looking at Chanyeol.

He's stunned to silence, which is not usual for Chanyeol, but the night sky seems to have jumped into the boy's eyes. They're dark but alive with sparkles of light, just like pinpricks of stars through the blanket of night.

"Um... C-could-could you help me?"

The boy doesn't say anything, but he leans back like he's getting ready to stand, and Chanyeol looks down, just about fainting. A horse's body is in the grass beneath the boy. Has he been sitting on a dead horse this whole time?? Chanyeol panics, but no. The horse's forelegs pop up, hooves pushing into the ground and lifting its front, followed by its hind legs picking up its rump and shaking off the pins-and-needles feeling of lying down for too long. Its tail swipes left and right, flicking off pieces of grass.

And the boy's right up there, atop the horse, smooth torso blending into a short coat and strong muscle.

Jongdae had joked about finding big faeries, but Chanyeol's luck found him one of the biggest he can imagine: a male centaur. He's not tiny himself, but this centaur stallion towers over him. Chanyeol's face is right about at the centaur's chest, and he takes a few cautious steps back.

The intimidating look is a bit broken when the boy stretches his arms over his head with a wide yawn, finishing the move with a light scratch over his belly. "Why are you humans so bad with directions?" he asks. He squints, leaning forward a little bit. "You are human, right? An elf wouldn't get lost." He asks because Chanyeol's ears have a more significant point than the typical human ear; plus, a moonflower is curled around his finger, and they don't attach to just anyone.

Chanyeol claps his hands over his ears. "I know they look funny, okay, but you don't have to tease me!"

"Being called an elf is no insult." His tail flicks at something Chanyeol's can't see, and Chanyeol finds it to just be something so horse-like. It's kind of cute. "Follow me," he sighs. "I'll take you to the edge of the forest." He tilts his head back, looking up at the stars, then heads in some direction with such self-assuredness that Chanyeol can only follow silently.

Not silent for long, though. "Hey, what's your name? I'm Chanyeol. You were so into stargazing before, I dunno if you heard me."

"I heard just fine, but that doesn't mean I was listening." The centaur steps over a fallen tree with ease; Chanyeol scrambles over it with much less grace. "My name is Kai."

"Kai? That's kinda pretty." He runs as much as he can in the dark, trying to keep up with the centaur. "Do you live here, Kai?"

"Of course. I was born here."

"So there are more of you?"

"Yes. My herd lives just beyond that clearing."

Chanyeol eyes the centaur's rear end and remembers his childhood fascination with parades, easing to walk more to Kai's right. "Cool." An entire herd, however many that is, of centaurs. And he says elves exist, too. The Woods are like a whole new world.

"Why are you here, Chanyeol?" He doesn't use honourifics, although he speaks perfect Korean. Chanyeol doesn't let it bother him too much; he may just be younger than Kai. "Humans rarely enter the forest."

"Yeah... My friends dared me to pick a moonflower. They grow all over, but it had to be from in here... And there's the loophole he should have realised sooner. He totally could've picked a flower from the ditch, sat around for an hour, and then gone back like a soldier returning from war. A hero, survivor of The Woods. He facepalms tiredly.

"Oh!" Kai yelps. Chanyeol looks up and around, but he doesn't see anything other than the centaur limping a few steps ahead and trying to look at his hind foot. It'd be comical, because he's such a big creature that had walked with deliberate, easy grace thus far, if he wasn't in such obvious pain, so Chanyeol touches his flank to keep him awkwardly dancing over Chanyeol's feet.

"Lemme see," he says. Chanyeol's had more than his fair share of splinters and shards in his feet from running around everywhere barefoot. "And please don't kick me."

"No promises," Kai mumbles, but he holds still, skin rippling beneath Chanyeol's fingers.

Chanyeol carefully lifts the hoof, sort of straddling the leg and facing away from Kai, like he's seen cowhands do in cowboy movies. He isn't familiar with horse foot anatomy, but within the dry-looking, tough exterior is a vee of soft flesh. Nestled just between the two is a little rock. "Found it! You just stepped on a rock. Hold still, and I'll pull it out, okay?" When he looks back, he again wants to laugh, because the centaur has his face in his hands and is refusing to look. "One, two, three, ow." The leg in his hand flinches, but he has his prize and holds it up triumphantly. "There! All better." He tosses the pebble aside. "And you're not even bleeding, you big baby."

Kai takes a couple experimental steps and smiles at Chanyeol. "Thank you." He does a brief sort of dance, lifting his knees and prancing in place.

"What do you do when that happens? It's not easy reaching your back feet." Humans can just sit and contort a little bit; Chanyeol's managed to deal with rocks embedding in his sneakers for years on his own. Having to deal with fore- and rear-legs just seems so tedious.

Kai shrugs, a sudden human gesture that momentarily stuns Chanyeol. "I'll usually just go home and ask someone for help."

"Doesn't that hurt?"

"Yes, but what else can I do?" Very true; Chanyeol nods.

They continue walking side-by-side, moving slower but steadily until Chanyeol can see the light of illuminated windows. Chanyeol lets out a whoop of laughter. "We made it! Thank you!" He looks over his shoulder at Kai and sees something coiling over his shoulder. He slaps at it, immediately thinking of a giant, hairy spider leg, but it doesn't move. He pulls at it, but it hurts.

"It's already planted its roots in your arm," Kai says softly. He leans down over Chanyeol and follows the vine with his finger. From Chanyeol's hand, it snakes up and around his arm, looping over his shoulder. "I could pull it out, but it's kind of dangerous."

"In my dictionary, there is only dangerous and not dangerous, but I'm mildly freaking out. Do you mean it literally has roots in my arm?" He feels under his arm pit, shocked to find the lump of vine reaching towards his chest.

"The moonflower plants itself where it can face the moon most easily. If something picks it or eats it or whatever, it finds its way into their heart, so it can lead them back to where it was planted."

Chanyeol's not mildly freaking out anymore. His evening just went from fun to okay to less okay to weird to more okay to absolutely not okay.

Maybe he's actually dreaming, and this is a nightmare brought on by overdosing on s'mores and laughing; he's just experiencing the side-effects of not enough oxygen and too much sugar.

The hand on his shoulder is warm and feels too real to be a nightmare or even a dream. "It won't hurt you, if you return it."

"I-I gotta get home. My friends are waiting for me." Now that he knows it's happening, he's hyperaware of the light pressure around his arm and beside his chest. How can he explain it to his friends? The centaur I met said the plant just wants to go home. No big deal, guys. I'll just zombie out a little bit.

"Tomorrow, then. Before the sun sets, come back." Kai looks at the lit windows outside of the forest and twitches his tail nervously. "I'll wait for you, to bring you back home, then."

It's a plan, at least. Chanyeol can function if there's a plan. He can cross the worn road, meet up with his friends again, say he's exhausted, and just go to bed. If he stays in his room all day, no one else has to know he's become a human planter.

"Thank you, Kai." He scratches at his chest--it itches where the moonflower is reaching for his heart--and tries to smile up at the centaur. Even in the darkness, his eyes seem to carry the light of the stars. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yes. And thank you again, for helping me. Tomorrow we'll be even."

Chanyeol leaves The Woods much slower than when he'd entered, hours ago. The heavy air stays with him in his chest, and he presses a hand to his front to help him catch his breath.

A stray cat slinks through the grass, eyes flashing as it watches Chanyeol for a moment before determining him to be harmless and uninteresting. The grass brushes its belly as it stalks field mice and chirping crickets. An owl hoots somewhere apart from the trees behind him, and a breeze brings sounds of distant traffic. After being in The Woods so long, it's almost noisy.

The bonfire is more intense than when they'd roasted marshmallows. Chanyeol's uncle is taking advantage of the fire to get rid of papers and garbage, probably. He doesn't stop to look, and his friends aren't around, but a pajama-clad Jongdae roars when Chanyeol opens the back patio door and kicks off his shoes.

"Dude! We were so worried! Baekhyun's been freaking out, wondering if he should actually call the cops!"

"It's nice to be appreciated." Chanyeol's smile doesn't reach his eyes, and Jongdae notices. Kyungsoo materialises from behind him, already showered and in pajamas, as well. He immediately looks at the arm Chanyeol's trying to hide behind his back.

"Did you hurt yourself?"

Yes, but no. "Kind of... But it's not really anythingsodon'tworryaboutit!" Kyungsoo grabs his wrist before he can escape and flinches when soft petals caress his palm. Jongdae's eyes nearly rival Kyungsoo's with how wide they are.

"What happened to you?!"

"Shhh! Chanyeol hisses. He motions for them to head upstairs and herds them to his bedroom. Baekhyun is pacing over the nest of pillows and sleeping bags they had set up before their s'mores dinner, holding his phone and mumbling to himself. He shouts when he sees Chanyeol and nearly tackles him, winding up for a kick to the back of the knees, instead.

"Where have you been, you nerd? I've been worried!" He sees the vine over Chanyeol's arm and flower lying across his hand; the heat in his cheeks cools with concern. "What is that?"

"It's your flower. I found it." Chanyeol sits more comfortably. Kyungsoo and Jongdae sit on his side, neither wanting to be next to the clinging plant.

"You actually went into The Woods?!" Baekhyun breathes, sitting slowly. "Dude, I thought you'd just pick one out of the ditch and fart around for an hour before coming back!" Baekhyun's faith in Chanyeol really warms his heart, sometimes.

"Can you remove it?" Kyungsoo asks.

"Where is it, even?" Jongdae leans back and forward, trying to see where the end is. Chanyeol pulls up his T-shirt and sees the gripping forks of the moonflower vine embedded in the middle of his chest. His friends look as pale as he feels.

"It just wants to go back home, so I'll take it tomorrow. Then it'll be gone."

Kyungsoo frowns sceptically. "How do you know?"

"A friend told me?" He shakes his head. "It doesn't matter. It's just what I gotta do. For now, it'll just chill where it is." He can't bring himself to say don't worry.

Baekhyun looks miserable. "I'm so sorry, Chanyeollie. I didn't mean for this to happen."

"I know, Baek. It's fine. I'll take care of it, and that'll be the end of it." He rubs at his eyes and yawns, more exhausted now that he's sitting at home. "I'm just really tired."

"I'll let your aunt and uncle know you're back," Jongdae says. "They were worried, too." Baekhyun and Chanyeol change into pajamas, although Chanyeol just puts on some sweatpants, since the vine is holding his shirt in place. Jongdae turns off the light when he returns, joining Kyungsoo among the sleeping bags.

Baekhyun invites himself onto Chanyeol's bed, hugging his back. "I am sorry. It's my fault," he murmurs. He marvels a little at the soft glow of the moonflower. "It's rather pretty, regardless."

"It is. You should've seen where I picked it from. There must have been hundreds of them growing all over the place and glowing." And then the field where they faced the sky, mimicking the stars like a reflection that filled the young centaur's eyes.

"You promise you'll be okay after tomorrow?"

"Yeah. It'll be okay." He pats Baekhyun's arm. "Go to sleep. I'm sorry I worried you guys." His friend shifts and kicks him a little, apologising softly, and finally settles down. Kyungsoo is already breathing deeply, and Jongdae isn't too far behind.

Chanyeol stares at the flower on his hand and rubs at his chest, trying to ease the itch but unable to reach his heart as its cocooned.

No one closed the curtains, and the moon sits high in the sky, angling its beam of light over Chanyeol's bed. The flower stands a little taller, glows a little brighter, and Chanyeol's chest feels pleasantly warm.

He closes his eyes with a tired sigh and sleeps.

---

a/n: Written for Puppies in Love. (prompt 169: Fantasy!AU. Chanyeol gets lost in the woods one night. He walks around until he gets to a clearing where he finds a very handsome man... with a horse's body. The man...horse... oh! centaur! pays no attention to him, because he's looking at the stars. Chanyeol introduces himself and from that moment on, he visits the woods almost every night.)
Because the name "Kai" has so many meanings in so many languages, I used Jongin's stage name rather than birthname. It fit a fantastical creature more.

The moonflower is a real plant that loves heat and is a relative to morning glories. I used the name and image but the behaviour is very different. They should not grow on you.