Eunbi sighed with relief as she finally managed to tie the emerald ribbons on the back of the dress she had chosen today. She really needed to work on her flexibility if she was going to be able to get on any of these outfits in less than an hour. She paused by her mirror and stared at the soft fabric, if she hadn’t known any better she would have thought she was royalty of sorts, but clearly this was not a palace and she definitely was not hanging out with a prince. She shook her head and went for the door, pulling it open and immediately dropping to the ground.

She glanced upwards and caught the satisfied smirk on Sehun’s face.

“What a greeting”

“You’re always throwing things at me! You think this is fun for me?” She snapped, picking herself up in annoyance.

His smirk deepened, “True, but that’s just to get the basics down” He explained as he began to walk and she followed behind dutifully, “You need to be physically fit before working on anything more complicated. If things go wrong and you have no way to defend yourself, your body may be your only weapon”

“I don’t know why you keep acting as if everyone will somehow want to kill me. As if I’m the only human they’d ever see?” She questioned.

“Today we’re going to start learning more advanced skills” He said instead, avoiding her question.

“Advanced?”

“You’ll see later”

“That’s another thing I don’t understand, why are you transferring powers into me?” She asked, “I’m just your… servant or shade or whatever you want, but why bother wasting your power?”

Because it’s not my powers you’re using and you can’t know that yet.

“Things here tend to get stolen or hurt by people who desire it. I’m doing this so my new toy isn’t broken before I’ve gotten full use out of it, of course”

Eunbi bit back the angry remark and glanced down instead, following along as they entered his study. Here was where he spent most of his time with her lately and by association when she wasn’t training or doing other human like necessities it was where she spent all of her time too. Light glimmered from the lamps scattered along the large room and she stood idly by as he sat at his desk and began to look through stacks and stacks of old books and papers. She glanced towards the tall windows, drawn shut as they always were and looked away. The first time she had tried to draw them open he had swiftly stopped her with a single word and once again she was forced to listen.

She went to the back wall, filled edge to edge with books and picked out a tall one, simply titled ‘Pathways’. With a heavy grunt she pulled it back with her to the couch on the opposite wall of his desk and sank into it, book in her lap. She kicked her feet up on the cushions and brought in her knees so that it formed a platform for her to lay the large book on.

She pulled it open, forcing a sneeze away as a thin film of dust blew up in her face. Clearly, this thing wasn’t used nearly enough. The first page showed what almost looked like a country. She didn’t know where it was or if that was even where they were now, but she stared at the mass of land interestingly. With a finger she traced the surface lightly. There was a large ocean with a tentacle filled caricature peeking up from it. The artwork and detailing of the images were astounding, they stole her breath away. The large body of water met the land and she found herself examining the separate islands stemming from them, one had the single caricature of a flower on it. On and on the pages went, some showed parts more in depth, other showed completely different places. All seemed to be hand drawn, nothing printed, by someone with a lot more talent than she could possess.

She arrived at the last page, not the last page of the book, but the last page overall and puzzled, wondered why whoever had started this, had not finished drawing in the rest of the blank pages.

“Did Suho not bother to teach you about the intricacies of at least sitting like a lady?” Sehun asked.

Eunbi glanced up startled and wondered just how long he had been watching her.

“This book is so large, I needed to get comfortable to hold it properly” She explained.

Sehun raised a brow and leaned forward to get a better look at what she was reading. His previously impassive face darkened as he reached out with a hand and by some unseen power sent it flying from her arms into the wall.

“Why did you grab that?!” He barked, his voice loud and echoing around then.

“I—I--- you said to amuse myself in here while you worked! I’ve been grabbing books every time we’ve been in here, you’ve never had a problem before!”

“These are not your things to grab, none of these things belong to you, clearly you should ask!”

“I didn’t think I needed to! You keep me locked in here with nothing to do, you have to tell me if there are things you don’t want me to grab!”

“Well, you should know!” He yelled angrily, the room around them trembling with him.

Eunbi grit her teeth as her eyes welled up with tears. Not tears of sadness or hurt feelings, but tears of anger, frustration, and rage.

“You take me with you wherever you go and you give me nothing to do! I’m going crazy! I take the abuse when we’re training because whatever, but you can’t expect me to do nothing! Even a dog is given toys to amuse itself with!” She screamed, standing up and hating the tears that rolled down her face.

“You should be lucky you’re even here, I wanted to throw you back to that miserable existence you called a life and you chose otherwise!”

“Because I didn’t know living with you would be so miserable! At least put me to clean, give me something to be entertained” She screamed, as her heels heading to the door.

“Stop right there!” He yelled behind her.

“Screw you!” She screamed.

She threw the door open, unsurprised when something slammed it shut in her face and even less surprised when he spun her around to face him. His face was twisted in anger, silver strands falling before his dark eyes which burned with frustration.

“You are here as a payment for me, you are not here to be entertained or have a good time. Know your place” He hissed.

“You’re such an ” She spat, shaking with fury. Shaking because she hated him, her life, and that stupid book. It was all because of that stupid book that this was happening. She had been fine, he hadn’t treated her like this before until she grabbed that stupid thing.

The smell of ashes made them both pause as both turned with horror to stare at the burning book on the floor.

“No!” His scream was guttural as he released her and ran to the book, a gust of wind shot from his outstretched hand and as the fire dissipated all that remained was a battered book with burned edges. He stood before it, slowly turning to her. He closed the distance between them, fury in his eyes as he raised his hand in the air and paused. She her breath in, scared as he stared at her with pitch black eyes. He lowered his hand slowly and shoved her aside instead, sending her sprawling on the ground.

“You stupid little –” He began, apparently opting for a more verbal punishment and she avoided his gaze.

Her view of him was blocked by Suho who stepped in between them, materializing out of nothing yet again.

“I would advise that you run back to your room and stay there, no questions” He ordered calmly.

Eunbi didn’t bother to say a word as she collected herself and took off running. She didn’t stop until she was safe in her room, door closed tightly behind her. She trembled as everything caught up to her and this time the tears she shed were pitiful ones all aimed at herself. She discarded the stupid dress, letting it sink into a pile that she kicked across the room. She sighed before pulling on a robe and sinking back down into her bed. She closed her eyes and gingerly touched the side of her face. When he had shoved her aside, he had sent her straight into the armchair nearby and her cheek had taken the brunt of the force. She did not have to look in the mirror to know it would be red and did not have to touch it to feel it burning.

She thought about the burning book and bit her lip. She found herself afraid, not of him surprisingly enough, but of herself. She had always considered herself sure of who she was. Then again, she was never setting books on fire with her thoughts and emotions. It worried her, to have powers that she did not know how to control. It worried her that she might hurt someone instead. For once, she understood the meaning of the stupid training and instead of wanting to give up, this event only served to make her more determined in learning how to control herself.

She had been so caught up in her own thoughts for a while that the knock on her door startled her. She tightened the robe around herself and went to the door. She stopped before opening it and cocked her head to the side. Her eyes closed briefly, she knew it was Sehun, she just knew. She also knew she would be right, but she didn’t know how she knew. Was it a smell? A feeling? No explanation came to her, just the knowledge that he was there.

She opened the door without ceremony and stood before him, arms crossed across her chest. He stared at her, neither saying a word.

He stared her down, “I… I’m coming in” He announced, the announcement itself seemed to be more of a question than anything and she found it a bit amusing at his half attempt at bossing her around and asking for her permission to come in.

She wondered what would happen if she slammed the door in his face, but instead she stepped aside. He walked in and looked around. Finally, he turned back to her, his eyes searching hers and eventually landing on her cheek. A flicker of a frown crossed his eyes before he met her accusing eyes once again.

“I suppose that’s my fault?” He asked.

“Obviously”

His jaw twitched lightly before he suppressed whatever biting remark he had in store and instead he took a silent breath before continuing, “It’s been brought to my attention that I may have overreacted”

“Suho?”

“Yes, he really tore into me after you left”

“You were going to really hurt me” She said, picking her words carefully, “Is this the treatment I should expect? For all the things that you are, I did not really think I would be getting hit while here. If it is the way things work, tell me know so I’ll know to be more careful about pissing you off”

He grew serious and had the grace to look shamed as he looked away, “That book was made for me by someone special so I overreacted when I saw it was gone. I shouldn’t have hit you for that”

Eunbi grimaced, “Someone made that for you? As in, by hand? As in, one of a kind?”

Sehun slid a look at her, “Exactly”

At the look of guilt that crossed her face he smiled lightly and took a breath, “Well, revenge is sweet so, here you go” He promised, walking up to her and turning his face to her.

“What?”

“Hit me”

“I don’t want to hit you” She said firmly.

 “It’s the way we do things here, I don’t want there to be a hanging debt over my head” He explained stubbornly.

“You’d rather I injure you than owe me something?” She asked incredulously.

“Exactly. Besides someone like you can’t really harm me” He said confidently.

She stared at him and struggled to understand the increasingly prideful man before her, “As you wish” She said with a shrug.

She considered taking the high road, being nice about it, taking the apology as it came, but as she drew her fist back and struck him, it occurred to her that this was much better indeed.