Got this chapter done faster than expected. Technically a double update for this week, but the previous chapter is not an actual chapter but character designs drawn up by me. Please check them out if you haven't already! Enjoy!

Looking back at it later, Jongin realized that he made the mistake of thinking of sleep while mid-walk. Such a stupid mistake. He very quickly shot down any sort of deliberation in his head as to why it was that bed, as that was a thought he wasn’t willing to try and dissect.

He did end up in his dorm room, but instead of stepping through a shadow door in the middle of the room like he meant to, he fell out of his shadow door. To make matters worse, it wasn’t his bed he landed on – he would have rather landed on the floor even – but no, he had to fall out of the portal he had opened up at the ceiling and land on his roommate’s bed.

The absolute kicker though was the fact that Sehun was in the bed and was the cushion for Jongin’s unexpected landing.

The djinn was all long gangly limbs and sharp edges which dug into the soft parts of Jongin’s body and knocked painfully up against the harder parts as the vampire ungracefully crashed onto his bed. It took them both a few minutes of soft painful groans and muttered curses in an array of languages before they went about figuring out whose limbs were whose and untangling themselves. Jongin’s head had luckily met with Sehun’s chest which had saved them both from the unpleasant experience of clashing heads.

The vampire pushed himself up onto his hands seeing as he was the one on top and while his right hand gripped onto the cotton fabric of Sehun’s comforter, his left hand met more resistance as his fingers curled around the djinn’s palm to try and find purchase to lift himself. Jongin got onto his hands and knees which brought his face right in close to Sehun’s, crimson eyes meeting with soft brown. Sehun’s lips were slightly parted as they just laid there staring at each other for several long moments and Jongin could clearly see the little silver ball of metal Sehun had resting near the tip of his tongue.

They were so close Jongin could feel Sehun’s hot breath ghosting across his face. He could feel the heat of his body and he could hear the pumping of the blood beneath his skin. It was almost like his blood was what was keeping Jongin there, as if transfixed. The vampire had only ever had the blood of humans. He wondered how the blood of a magic being would taste, how it would make him feel. It certainly smelled wonderful, rich with a note of sweetness.

At some point his eyes had moved from Sehun’s face to the sharp dip of his throat where it met his shoulder and collarbone, but he was startled from his trance by an amused sounding voice.

“You’re lucky I decided to wear clothes to bed.”

Jongin was up out of that bed as fast as his enhanced speed allowed. The curtains billowing against the closed window was the only evidence to his movement besides his body suddenly being on the other side of the room, going through his wardrobe for something to sleep in.

The vampire was entirely mortified, but of course he wouldn’t dare show it. Luckily his kind didn’t flush easily so he could very easily get away with nonchalantly picking through his folded clothes. There was nothing said for several minutes as Jongin picked out his clothing. He could feel the eyes on him though and couldn’t quite bring himself to face Sehun, so he opted to escape the room and change in the bathrooms.

He shouldn’t have been so confident in his shadow walking so soon. Was it possible to recover from literally falling on top of your roommate? He had a feeling Sehun wouldn’t drop it for quite a while, if ever.

When he returned Sehun was still up but was now under his covers, the comforter pulled up over his stomach. His arms were folded beneath his head and he was staring at the ceiling, seemingly lost in thought. Jongin silently closed the door behind him and tossed his clothing in the basket he had for laundry before retiring for bed himself.

Sehun still had his bedside lamp on and made no move to turn it off. There was absolute silence in the room with the two of them just lying in their respective beds, a soft golden glow from the lamp lighting the room.

Jongin would have believed the djinn had actually fallen asleep from how quiet and still he was being, but the sound of his breathing gave him away. That and the sudden comment he made out of the blue.

“You know, you should come with a warning label: may appear from the sky and squish you.”

The vampire had no idea how to respond to such a comment and frankly, he didn’t think it deserved a response.

Of course, Sehun had to expand on his stupid late night thoughts.

“My warning label would be: will grant a wish for bubble tea.”

Jongin couldn’t stop himself from replying to that particular remark. “That isn’t really a warning label.”

“Yeah, you’re right, it’s more like a promotion.”

Jongin decided to steer the topic onto a more constructive subject. If Sehun was going to continue thinking aloud then at least it could become a conversation instead of a solo exploration of the inner workings of Sehun’s mind. “Don’t you find it unfair that you can’t use your magic for your own benefit?”

There was a long moment where Jongin wasn’t sure if Sehun would actually reply but then he said, “I guess it does kind of , but we haven’t been able to do that for hundreds of years so I guess I’m kind of used to it.”

Jongin pushed himself up onto his one elbow so he could look at Sehun who was still laid out on his bed on the other side of the room. “You mean, djinns used to be able to use their magic freely?”

“Yeah, but some bastard thought we were too powerful and cursed us so now we have to serve others for our entire existence.” Sehun’s voice wasn’t bitter or annoyed, which surprised Jongin. It was as if the djinn had accepted this fate a long time ago and knew that he couldn’t do anything to help it.

“If you can’t use your magic for yourself then what do you learn here?” Jongin had been wondering that for a while. Most of the species he knew of did regular training here where they practiced mastering whatever abilities they had. If Sehun couldn’t use his magic without the wishes of someone else then what could he practice?

“Other things. I can turn into smoke, but I don’t really need to practice that. I get more electives than most people which is cool.” Jongin could just make out the motion of Sehun shrugging from the weird angle he was at. “I’m basically here because my parents wanted to keep me out of trouble.”

“Is that working?”

“Of course not.”

Jongin’s lips perked up slightly at the corners into a ghost of a smile.

“Vampires have mind control, don’t they?” Sehun asked, directing the conversation towards Jongin. He sat up in bed and leaned back against his headboard, the sheets pooling in his lap. Apparently sleep wasn’t happening quite yet.

“It isn’t really mind control, but more like persuasion,” the vampire explained, “we call it compulsion.”

“Does it work on any species?”

“It’s meant for our prey but pure blooded vampires can use it on made vampires, so it might work on other magical beings too. I’ve never tried it.”

Sehun’s face lit up with excitement. “Try it on me!”

Jongin stared at the djinn a long minute but the excitement never faded. He shrugged. Why not. “You have to come here.”

Quickly abandoning his bed, Sehun crossed the room and plopped himself down on the edge of Jongin’s bed, facing the vampire.

“What do you want me to make you do?”

The djinn leaned in close to Jongin, holding his gaze with his clear brown eyes. “Something I wouldn’t normally do.”

The vampire thought for a moment and couldn’t really come up with anything. He didn’t know Sehun well enough yet to be able to name something the djinn would be opposed to doing. So he just went with something simple that he figured his roommate would most likely not want to do.

Jongin focused on Sehun’s gaze, reaching out with his mind to try and nudge Sehun’s mind with his power. When he thought he might have had a connection, he voiced his command. “Kiss me.”

Sehun’s intent expression turned into one of amusement and he let out a laugh. “You wouldn’t have to compel me to do that.”

Jongin was caught a little bit off guard – by Sehun’s apparent resistance to his compulsion, but also the admission that he would willingly kiss the vampire.

Apparently such a reaction brought Sehun even more amusement and he suddenly became playful. He leaned in closer to Jongin’s face, his eyes alight with mischief. “I could kiss you now if you want.”

Jongin scoffed and scooted back on his bed, putting some distance between them. “No thanks.”

“What’s the problem?” Sehun asked innocently, a wide grin stretched across his face. “You’re hot, I’m hot. Why not?”

Jongin stared right at Sehun and raised his arm to point very sternly at Sehun’s bed. “It was just a joke. Please remove yourself from my bed.”

The djinn did the exact opposite and planted his palms on Jongin’s mattress, bringing his face right up to the vampire’s. Their noses nearly touched. “Give me a goodnight kiss first.”

Jongin couldn’t stop the growl that slipped from his throat as he gripped his comforter and flopped onto his back, yanking the fabric up over his head. Sehun got the hint and got up, chuckling, but of course he didn’t go without leaving a final comment.

“I wouldn’t mind if you growled at me more often either.”

Chanyeol was literally jolted out of his sleep when something wet and incredibly cold pelted him right in the face. He shot up out of bed, shrieking as his hands desperately patted at his face to try and wipe the freezing wetness off of his skin. It took Chanyeol several moments to figure out just what had hit him and where it had come from.

He had a hunch that it had been a chunk of snow and that the place of origin was somewhere outside of his bedroom window. His still half asleep mind thought it was weird that his window was open but a look outside easily explained the whole situation.

Standing out on the lawn next to the dorms was a small cluster of students. All of them were familiar faces and Chanyeol could easily deduce who was responsible for the rude awakening. Luhan was grinning from ear to ear so he must have been the one who had gotten the window open and Minseok was right next to him, tossing a snowball up into the air, catching it in his palm. The phoenix had to admire his aim at the very least as they were quite a few meters away from the side of the building. His cheeks were flushed from the cold and his red hair was wetly sticking to his forehead. Regular snow didn’t bother him but snow magic almost stung at his skin.

“Why?” was all Chanyeol shouted, whining just a little as he stuck his head out of the open window. The sun was shining overhead and there was even the sound of birds chirping. It was a nice Friday morning. Was it still morning? Chanyeol couldn’t tell with how high the sun already was in the sky.

“You and Kris have to join us for a game of soccer,” Minseok explained, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder where Baekhyun and Joonmyun were already kicking a ball back and forth with a tired looking Kyungsoo standing nearby.

Chanyeol got what Minseok was saying but it still didn’t connect to the snowball. “Okay, but why did I have to be woken up like that?”

“Because I felt like it,” Minseok chimed back with a smirk, “plus, I wanted to be as far away from Kris as possible. I’ve heard stories of how much of a nightmare he is when he gets woken up.” The ice sprite saluted. “You have that job. Meet us next to the basketball court in ten!”

Chanyeol glanced back inside his room at the dragon slumbering in his bed. There weren’t many do’s and don’t’s to be discussed between the two of them upon becoming roommates. One of the only points they covered – the one Kris had absolutely stressed – was to never wake the dragon up from his sleep.

The phoenix ducked back into his room and slid his window shut, pausing as his mind conjured up the worse possible scenario on how this wake up could play out. A shiver passed down his spine at the thought of Kris’ powerful reptilian stare. Chanyeol hadn’t experienced it, but he bet that the dragon could be very intimidating if he wanted to be.

He approached his roommate’s bed slowly, cautiously, as if the slightest sound or movement would disturb him. Kris was laid out on his stomach, kind of diagonal on the bed with his head on one corner and his feet hanging a little over the opposite side of the mattress. The bright orange comforter was bunched at his waist, leaving the span of his back and arms curled up under his pillow bare. Patches of gold, iridescent scales crawled up his skin, shimmering with every rise and fall of his chest. He was facing away from Chanyeol, his cheek squished up against his grey pillow cover, completely at peace.

Hesitantly, the phoenix reached out and poked Kris’ shoulder, just barely nudging him. The dragon made a gruff sound in the back of his throat, causing Chanyeol to flinch away in fright, ready to just book it. Minseok had freaked him out big time.

Chanyeol just stood there for good three minutes, staring at Kris’ sleeping form. “Okay, I tried,” he concluded, nodding curtly to himself before scurrying away to his side of the room to get dressed. He could finally wear a t-shirt and a pair of shorts without looking weird. Phoenix bodies were basically fire so temperatures didn’t bother Chanyeol, but he was conscious of wearing weather appropriate clothing from his time living among humans. It was warmer out though, so now he could wear less layers. Pulling a baseball cap over his red hair so he didn’t have to brush or style it, he headed out.

As Chanyeol was entering the front lobby area of the North dorms, he came across Yixing who was herding Sehun and Kai to the doors. The warlock looked like he had been up for hours already, while the other two were a little grumpier looking. Yixing was dressed in a navy tracksuit, Sehun had forgone a shirt, flashing his body jewellery, and Kai made his black long sleeve and joggers look like they were from an Italian fashion magazine, which as far as Chanyeol knew they could have been.

“Are you guys playing soccer too?” Chanyeol asked, jogging over to them.

Yixing turned towards the phoenix, his face breaking out into a smile when he realized who it was. “Hey Yeol. Where’s Kris?”

Chanyeol shook his head. “As far as Minseok knows, I tried waking him up, okay?”

The warlock chuckled and Chanyeol threw an arm over his shoulders, taking his laugh as agreement. Sehun greeted Chanyeol with a slap on the back as he passed in front of the two of them to get to the doors. Kai stayed back, looking reserved and rather disinterested in pretty much everything around him.

Once they were outside, Sehun began walking backward so he could face the warlock and phoenix and chat with them while they crossed the campus to where Minseok was expecting them.

“Is soccer a normal occurrence for you guys?” Chanyeol asked, wanting to know more about what he was about to get into.

“Minseok and Lu are really into it. There aren’t usually this many players though,” Yixing explained.

“This is my first time too,” Sehun said, smoothly maintaining an even pace even while walking backwards. It was as if his feet weren’t even really touching the ground.

“Do you guys play like humans?”

A grin came to Yixing’s face. “Powers are allowed and we place restrictions over certain abilities as we play. Like Lu is only allowed to use his telekinesis powers three times a half.”

That sounded fun, though Chanyeol had no idea how his powers could come in handy. He could completely melt the ball or accidentally burn a fellow player if he wasn’t careful.

He voiced such a concern and Yixing easily assured him. “We’ve already thought of all that. I charmed the ball so it should be able to withstand standard magic attacks and I have the more serious injuries covered. This game is all about letting loose and having some fun.”

“Kai knows all about having fun, don’t you?” Sehun prompted, looking over Chanyeol’s shoulder at the vampire who was bringing up the rear.

Chanyeol glanced behind him just in time to catch Kai’s deadly glare and his lips pulling back from his teeth in a scowl. His fangs gleamed in the midday sun. Apparently Sehun had hit a nerve.

The djinn just laughed, not phased in the slightest by Kai’s threatening demeanour.

There was a shout from behind Sehun and Chanyeol looked over to see Luhan waving at them. It looked to Chanyeol like a makeshift soccer field had been set up on the lawn area next to the basketball court. Boundary lines made of frost had already been drawn onto the grass by Minseok no doubt and it looked like Kyungsoo was at one end of the playing field, raising thin posts of earth out of the very ground to use as the goal.

“Where’s Kris?” was the first thing Minseok voiced upon seeing the group of them.

“I tried and nearly lost my head,” Chanyeol quickly supplied, trying to seem like he really did have a near death experience trying to wake up his roommate.

Minseok didn’t seem to realize the phoenix’s lie as he let out a huff. “We have an odd number of people then.”

“I’ll referee,” Yixing offered diplomatically.

Minseok clapped. “Great. Lu and I are team captains. Lu, you can pick first.”

They went through the list, picking out one player at a time until the teams were divided up evenly. Chanyeol was Minseok’s first pick which felt kind of nice. He hoped to not let his team down. By the end of it, Minseok had Chanyeol, Kai and Baekhyun on his team and Luhan had Joonmyun, Kyungsoo and Sehun on his. Both Kai and Kyungsoo were assigned as goalkeepers for their respective teams.

Yixing stayed just outside of the frosty boundary lines, watching as each team huddled up on their side of the field.

“Okay, Kai and Yeol both don’t have restrictions on their powers yet, so do whatever you can to help. We have to rack up as many points in the first half before we discuss power caps. I can only use my ice powers three times per half. I’m not allowed icing the ball directly though. I’ll be sticking to slicking up the field, so watch your feet. Baekhyun almost blinded someone with his powers one game so he’s banned completely from using magic.”

Chanyeol looked at the elf with wide eyes.

“It was an accident!” Baekhyun defended, letting out a huff. “I have combat training, so I’m pretty agile.”

“Sehun is new too so he’ll be using his abilities to the fullest,” Minseok continued, turning his attention to Kai. “Do you know anything about djinn powers?”

Kai glanced over at the other team who was also huddled on the other side of the field. They were spread out as far as possible so that heightened hearing wouldn’t be used for snooping. “Djinns can only use their magic when granting wishes for another person, and as far as I know there are rules when it comes to that. Sehun isn’t likely to go to that length. The only other thing I know is that he can turn into smoke, but I haven’t personally seen the extent of that ability.”

“Good enough. I take it that it’s similar to how Luhan’s ghost form works. Flight, being able to pass through solid objects, that kind of thing. He’ll probably be limited to three times per half like Lu is.”

“Luhan can use both his ghost form and telekinesis?” Chanyeol asked, finding that a little too much for one person. Luhan must have been a very formable opponent.

Minseok shook his head. “He can only pick one or the other per half. So if he uses telekinesis this half, he can’t use his ghost form until next half.”

Chanyeol made a sound of understanding in the back of his throat.

“What about Joonmyun and Kyungsoo?” Kai asked.

“They have similar restrictions to mine. They can’t touch the ball with their magic, so they’ll most likely manipulate their surroundings. No more than three times per half.”

Baekhyun hunched down closer, bringing his arms up to tug both Chanyeol and Kai down into a tighter knit circle. “What’s our game plan then?”

Minseok looked at the vampire first. “You’re in goal, so use your shadow abilities as much as you need to for blocking.” His icy blue eyes slid to Baekhyun. “You’re playing forward with me, and Yeol,” his eyes met with Chanyeol’s gold, “stay in defence. Your fire could help with keeping the other team back. Think walls of fire.”

Chanyeol’s mouth popped open. Walls of fire. That sounded extremely dangerous. Before he could stutter out a refusal, Minseok patted his arm. “You have two water based users nearby. Joon and I won’t let anything get too crazy. Just remember, Yixing will definitely call you if you cover all access to the net, so give the other team some wiggle room.”

They dispersed after that and took up their positions, Minseok and Baekhyun near the halfway line, Kai standing between the two dirt pillars acting as net and Chanyeol somewhere in between.

Yixing met the two team captains at the center circle. The ball was dropped and the game commenced.

Chanyeol watched from his side of the field. It looked like Joonmyun was playing defence, sticking back near Kyungsoo who was in net. Luhan and Sehun were offense, facing off against Minseok and Baekhyun. The ball was in the ice sprite’s possession first and stayed in their opponents’ half of the field for the first little while. This gave Chanyeol a great opportunity to witness how everyone played. In the beginning it seemed like for the most part magic wasn’t being utilized, which made sense since majority of players had restrictions and it was still early in the first half.

Sehun though, being new, didn’t have a single care. Chanyeol watched with wide eyes as the djinn phased between forms, melting into translucent pink mist-like figure and solidifying into a clear person a moment later. Even his sweatpants shifted between the two states of matter. He clearly had experience using his smoke form and it showed in the way he was able to maneuver the ball around people, literally passing through their bodies, while keeping his feet solid against the ball. No one could touch Sehun and pretty soon he was bringing the ball straight towards Chanyeol.

The phoenix was really at a loss on what he could do to stop the djinn. His hands shook at his sides as he hesitated to use his powers. Nothing good ever came out of using his fire. There were too many people around who could be hurt, even if they had superior healing abilities. He couldn’t do it. Instead, he resorted to just using his body, facing Sehun head on. The djinn had a wide gleeful grin on his face as he approached, the ball gliding across the grass in front of him.

“No fire?” It almost sounded like a taunt.

Chanyeol stood his ground. He saw Sehun lean to the left and he compensated with his own step in that direction. It took the phoenix a moment to realize the djinn was faking it, but before Chanyeol could adjust, Sehun managed to slip around him on the right, phasing between forms effortlessly. Chanyeol cursed and went after him but it was too late.

The djinn had made it to the boundary around their net and was facing off against Kai. The vampire had his crimson eyes completely focused on Sehun, as if reading his very soul. The djinn didn’t waste a single moment and shifted his weight, throwing his foot out to strike the ball. The shot looked like it would sail perfectly through the top left corner of the net and it was headed that way but suddenly met a solid body that materialized out of thin air and promptly landed on his side to the left of the net, with the ball held against his chest. Minseok let out a loud whoop behind Chanyeol as Kai got up, stepped up to the goal boundary line and threw the ball up over his head towards Baekhyun. The elf quickly took off with it towards the other half of the field.

Chanyeol caught sight of the vampire’s triumphant smirk, directed right at Sehun before the djinn let out a laugh and quickly headed back to his teammates to assist. The phoenix held a thumb up towards Kai in a congratulatory gesture before turning his attention back to the soccer match.

For the first half of the game, it played out similarly as Sehun was pretty unstoppable with no restrictions. Minseok did manage to slip him up by icing the grass in front of him while he was still a solid person, but the ball was easily snatched up by Luhan who continued bringing it towards Chanyeol’s net. The only person who could defend against Sehun was Kai, who managed to catch quite a few shots. It was almost like the vampire could anticipate where the djinn would aim. The opposing team managed to sink five goals – two by Sehun and the other three by Luhan – by the end of the first half.

Their opponents were skilled, but Minseok and Baekhyun weren’t bad by any means. The ice sprite moved just as quickly with the soccer ball between his feet as he did when sparring against Jongdae. He made sure to use his three chances with his magic to his advantage as well, slipping Sehun up once and lifting a literal wall of ice from the ground to stop Luhan’s and Joonmyun’s advances. It was impressive.

Baekhyun wasn’t lacking either even without his light abilities. The elf had said he had combat training but Chanyeol wasn’t expecting the flips and twisting maneuvers that Baekhyun was utilizing on the field. Once during the game, he flipped himself up over the wall of water Joonmyun was erecting in his path, easily evading it and going for the net.

Chanyeol wasn’t sure what to expect with Kyungsoo. The phoenix thought that the woodland faerie was a little short for a position in net, but quickly Chanyeol’s opinion changed. Kyungsoo wasn’t wearing shoes the entire game, his feet were flush against the grass. When the ball was aimed at the high corner of the net, Kyungsoo used the earth to lift him that extra distance. Once he was even propelled from one net post to the other by a platform of dirt and grass that shot from the ground like a loaded piston. It didn’t take much for Chanyeol to fully understand why Luhan had put the faerie in that position.

Chanyeol’s team was behind by one point when Yixing called the end of the first half. The phoenix hadn’t once used his abilities and Minseok wasn’t too happy about it.

“Why aren’t you using your powers?” Minseok pressed as soon as their team gathered to go over strategy for the second half.

Chanyeol held up his hands in surrender, taking a step back subconsciously. The ice sprite seemed frustrated and even though he was much shorter, Chanyeol wouldn’t put it past him to pounce. Minseok was clearly very passionate about soccer. “I’m not very good at controlling it!”

“You don’t need to control it, just aim it. All of us can take a burn or two.”

Baekhyun clapped the phoenix on the back. “Yixing said to restrict your abilities like Joon and Minseok do, so three times a half. We’re gonna need you out there.”

Chanyeol was still doubtful. “Wouldn’t I get in trouble for scorching the grass?”

“Soo can replace the grass,” was Minseok’s immediate reply. The sprite probably had a response for any kind of excuse Chanyeol could conjure up.

The elf pushed Chanyeol forward a little. “Let us prove to you that nothing will happen. Light up the grass right there,” Baekhyun urged, pointing to a clear spot.

The phoenix stared at him and then at Minseok. He even turned to Kai to see if he could find some support from him but the vampire was stone faced, looking at Chanyeol expectantly. With a heavy exhale, the red-head turned to the open space of grass and focused on a spot. He could aim easily when stationary, that wasn’t his concern. Grass was flammable and fire was a very unpredictable element. Joonmyun and Minseok were nearby though. Surely water and ice produced by faeries could match phoenix fire, right?

Letting out a frustrated breath, Chanyeol held out his right hand, palm facing outwards. It wasn’t hard. Fire had a mind of its own, easily coming forth with little prompting from the phoenix. He could feel the familiar heat at his fingertips and with a simple swipe with his hand, a hot blaze of fire lit up on the field before him. The flames rose high, feeding off of the warm midday air to form into a cackling red wall about three feet long.

There was a loud whistle from Chanyeol’s right and with a quick glance he could see that even the other team was watching.

“There’s that famed fire!” Sehun cheered, grinning from ear to ear.

Chanyeol let out a bit of a laugh. Seeing as no one around him had a single bit of worry, his own nerves felt unnecessary. He looked at Minseok, expecting him to step forward to hit it with ice or snow or something, but the sprite didn’t move. His eyes found Joonmyun next but even he was just staring at the dancing flames.

“Would someone please put it out?” Chanyeol exclaimed, his voice coming out a little shrill. The wall of fire was very steadily getting bigger as the minutes ticked by and the people who could help were just standing there as if in a trance.

“Is it true that it doesn’t hurt you?” Baekhyun suddenly asked, directing the question towards Chanyeol.

The phoenix let out an exasperated sigh. Of course the elf was asking questions. Honestly, the phoenix couldn’t really complain considering he asked a lot of questions himself. “I was born in it. I only feel the heat, but it isn’t uncomfortable.”

“Prove it,” Baekhyun challenged, his golden eyes alight with curiosity.

The ‘no’ that left Chanyeol’s lips was immediate, and the phoenix even went so far as to step away from the flames. “I might be fireproof but my clothes aren’t.”

Baekhyun found the notion hilarious, letting out a few loud, full-bellied laughs. Chanyeol thought the elf might even fall to the ground and roll in his laughter.

Joonmyun took pity on the phoenix who stared at him pleadingly. The nymph stepped forward, throwing his arms out at his sides and bringing them together as if he was about to embrace someone. When his palms met, he opened them outward and a strong stream of water spewed from them, dousing the flames. Steam rose from the fire as they sizzled and hissed, quickly succumbing to the water. All that remained was a wet, blackened spot of earth.

Before Chanyeol could even turn to Kyungsoo to ask about fixing the damaged grass, the scorched ground began to bloom with little sprouts of new grass that very quickly spread across the burned soil. The dirt itself even changed, swirling around in random patterns as it lightened in colour before Chanyeol’s very eyes. Mouth agape, the phoenix looked over his shoulder at Kyungsoo. The faerie hadn’t even moved. He was several feet away, standing with his hands at his sides, eyes trained on the spot Chanyeol had set ablaze.

“How-” Chanyeol started but cut off when Baekhyun’s hand slapped his back, rocking the phoenix forward from the force of it.

“Awesome Yeol! Let’s see that on the field, ‘kay?” The elf grinned with all of his pearly teeth and jogged towards the center line of the soccer field.

“Walls of fire, walls of fire,” Minseok chanted, giving Chanyeol a double thumbs up before joining Baekhyun. Kai returned to the net and without another word about it, the second half of the game started.

This half Chanyeol got to see what Luhan’s telekinesis was all about. Unlike those of them that had elemental magic, Luhan was allowed to actually touch the ball with his powers. His telekinesis allowed him to move objects without having to come in contact with them, which meant that there were three times during the game that the ball seemed to suddenly have a mind of its own. One moment Minseok would be guiding the soccer ball towards their opponents’ net and then the ball would abruptly veer to the left for Joonmyun to kick far away from the goal.

Sehun was getting far less chances to score this half too with his newly restricted powers. It was much easier to intercept the djinn when he was a solid person. Not wanting to be scolded by Minseok, Chanyeol actually used his powers during the game. Sehun was quickly approaching their net, the soccer ball gliding across the grass as he went. Chanyeol knew that the moment he rushed forward to meet the djinn, he would collide with nothing but air if Sehun chose to use his smoke form. So instead, Chanyeol stood his ground a number of feet away and threw out his hands to light up the grass with fire.

The flames roared up in a long blazing wall that caused Sehun to actually stumble back startled and fall on his . The ball was left to roll towards the flames without someone to steer it and Chanyeol took his chance to retrieve it, easily passing through his own barrier of heat and sending the ball towards Baekhyun with a single kick.

“Chanyeol, you’re on fire.”

The phoenix looked towards the djinn, who was still sprawled out on the ground. “Thanks,” he replied with a grin.

Sehun shook his head and pointed at Chanyeol’s leg. “No, you’re actually on fire.”

It took the red-head another half a second to register the smell of burning fabric – a smell he was very familiar with unfortunately – and he let out a gruff “” before dropping to the ground and rolling. Chanyeol was pretty sure he could hear Sehun laughing nearby.

A shriek left the phoenix when he was suddenly hit with a blast of freezing wetness and he stopped his frantic attempts at putting out the flames to find the culprit. The sensation was definitely familiar to him and sure enough Minseok was there, putting out Chanyeol’s wall of fire with jets of snow that painted the damaged earth in white. The phoenix’s clothes were completely wet, sticking to his body with melting snow. Only one leg of his shorts had been on fire, but Minseok had hit all of him with his ice magic.

Chanyeol looked at him accusingly and the sprite grinned without an ounce of shame. “I had to make sure I got all of it. Great block by the way.”

The phoenix sputtered as Minseok suddenly turned tail to go assist with the game that was still happening on the other side of the field. Chanyeol’s annoyance was simmering quite literally as he increased his body heat to a temperature that would evaporate the water absorbed by the fabric of his clothes. Steam rose off of him in waves and a minute later he was picking himself up off of the grass bone dry.

That was the only opportunity Chanyeol got to use his magic, but it was enough. Their team was ahead by one point when Yixing called an end to the game.

Minseok let out a triumphant whoop and Baekhyun literally ran at Chanyeol, catching him in a one armed grab and swinging him around. “Let’s go have a celebratory meal!”

Chanyeol looked around at what everyone else was doing. It seemed like only Baekhyun was interested in food. Joonmyun, Luhan, and Yixing were talking about swimming which was not an option Chanyeol was going to even entertain. Kyungsoo and Minseok were at one end of their soccer field, removing any damage to the lawn. Chanyeol could help them out. Sehun had yelled out some sort of goodbye and was jogging to catch up to Kai who was already headed in the direction of the dorms. Maybe he should go back with them and spend his day off practicing his music?

Had some fun with this one. Where should Chanyeol go now? Food with Baekhyun? Should he help Minseok and Soo? Or should he go back to his dorms where his sleep-loving roommate is? 

Please vote in the poll below! 

Until next time~