kino’s eyes flutter open and he winces in pain. the lights are glaring at him, and his skull is pounding in his head. he feels like he’s going to throw up. his arms are sore and he feels like he won’t be able to move for the rest of the century. as he twitches his fingers a little to stretch, he hears a squeal, “kino!”

his head jerks to the side at the sudden noise, when he gets pulled into a tight hug. he’s confused when this happens, because he doesn’t know who this person could possibly be, when he smells a familiar scent. it’s the smell of wysteria and campfire smoke, and kino feels himself tense up. it… it can’t be him, can it?

“you’re awake! i was so worried you’d be…” the mystery person releases their hold on him and kino thinks he’s going to pass out all over again.

it’s sicheng. sicheng rubs the back of his neck and gives him a meek smile, “well… i was worried you’d be dead. but that was me being really pessimistic.”

kino doesn’t know what to say. what… what was sicheng doing here? was he waiting for kino to wake up? 

as kino stares at sicheng, he starts to notice small dots everywhere on his skin. they run up his neck, down his cheeks, across his hands… it must be from the nymphs’ bites. kino looks down in shame, fidgeting with the blankets with his fingers. maybe if he was a little bit fast enough running to tell marcus… maybe, just maybe, he could’ve prevented this. 

sicheng takes a seat next to kino’s bedside and gets a hold of kino’s hands, resting his cheek against it. kino feels the bumps run across the back of his hand.

“thank you for saving my life, kino,” sicheng breaks the silence once again, sitting up straight and looking him in the eyes. there is a pause before he resumes, “headmaster cavaleri told me how you just dived into the lake and saved me and jungwoo. i knew you were selfless but… wow.”

“i… i’m not selfless,” kino manages to reply. he feels his cheeks flaring up. he didn’t know what to expect when he woke up, but this certainly wasn’t it.

“if you weren’t selfless, you wouldn’t have drank that invincibility potion. don’t you know how dangerous it is to take it? an entire body of steel… in return for what?” sicheng asks rhetorically, breaking his eye contact and staring off into the distance, “your mother was here… she said that there was a possibility that you could die because she couldn’t come soon enough. she wept for days.”

kino knew why sicheng said this. there was one major drawback in taking the invincibility potion: if one didn’t have the anti-brew within 24 hours, there was a huge possibility that they would die. the invincibility potion works by changing the body’s properties into steel, making it difficult for anything to penetrate. unlike other potions, this one didn’t wear off by itself. it needed assistance from the anti-brew to erase the steel properties and restore the human ones. if one didn’t drink it within the 24 hour period, their body would still return to normal, but it was up to fate to decide whether or not the body would be able to survive the serious lack of oxygen.

“is she here now?” kino’s voice is only a little above a whisper.

sicheng shakes his head, “she had to return back to work… it’s been days since the incident, kino. almost a week and a half, at this point.”

“is jungwoo alright? what happened with the weird nymphs? is everything alright?” everything was once again coming back to kino. he didn’t know the results of what his actions were. did he save everyone he needed to? did the nymphs leave hogwarts? did they come back? are they surrounded?

“jungwoo is alright, he’s just… a bit traumatized at the moment,” sicheng explains, “and those nymph-like creatures…”

sicheng pauses. it was like he was in conflict about telling kino the truth, or the extent of the truth. kino sits up in his bed, “sicheng, i want to know the truth.”

“i…” sicheng sighs, before he comes in closer to kino. he speaks to kino in a hushed whisper, “my mom flew in the other day after she heard the news. apparently the nymphs are called xiaofei moguai and they were created by an evil chinese wizard who resides in the mountainsides of china. the exact location is unknown, but my mom told me that she and my grandfather have been fighting alongside a force to get rid of him and his creatures. 

my mom said that… she said that i inherited the gift of controlling time, that i got it from my grandfather, despite my mother marrying a muggle. she said that—”

sicheng doesn’t get to continue his sentence because kino interrupts him in wonder, “that’s why the world stopped in those couple of moments! you stopped time… you and your grandfather are the ones stopping time! it’s… it’s you!”

kino and sicheng look at each other, kino’s expression seems rather enlightened while sicheng’s seems rather confused.

“you… you saw me?”

“yes!” kino exclaims, “the entire slytherin common room froze. everyone stopped in their places and i could see the lake. the creatures stopped moving, and everything was still… well, until you jumped in and began rescuing everyone. i knew it was odd, and i figured that you stopped time, but i… i didn’t know that it was actually true.”

“wait,” sicheng leans back, somewhat astonished, “what? you… you saw me?”

kino sits up straight and nods his head. if he was a bumbling mess around sicheng before, he wasn’t like that anymore. this situation… this missing piece to his puzzle… really made some aspects about himself make sense. before, he would wonder why the world stopped around him, or why sometimes strange creatures would always come to him for assistance. maybe… maybe he has a link to whatever sicheng has? a time control link, or possibly… an anti-time control link. he didn’t know.

“i saw you. i saw everything. there are times when the world stops, and i didn’t know why. but it… it must’ve been you! or your grandfather. or something of that sort.”

sicheng leans in closer, “are you… are you saying that if i stopped time right now, you wouldn’t get stuck, frozen in time like everything else?”

“that’s what i’m assuming?” kino replies, a bit unsure now that sicheng is questioning him.

sicheng stares at him for a second, before he takes his wand out of his pocket and swishes it while chanting some foreign sounding phrases. after he finishes, sicheng looks back at kino, and kino blinks at him expectantly. was something supposed to happen?

sicheng gasps, “holy , you really are unaffected by the spell!”

“what… what spell?” kino questions, a bit confused. what did sicheng just do?

“i… i just did my spell to stop time, yet you’re still here… talking to me? how… how is this possible? why didn’t my mother tell me about this…?” sicheng begins rambling to himself about how crazy this scenario was. kino watches him in interest.

kino was right. sicheng is so cute.

“so are you saying… you can move around? wait— you know what, just come with me,” sicheng pulls kino off of the bed and drags him into the hallway. kino’s legs still ached from the invincibility potion, but he tried to keep up with sicheng to the best of his ability. he needed to see what was so important about this situation, because to him, sicheng hasn’t really… done anything.

and he believes that… until the both of them stumbles into the dining hall and everyone was frozen in their places. there were students in mid-bites, students with their mouths open, and someone was even in mid-slip! kino and sicheng looked at each other in wonder.

“you… you really aren’t affected by time control,” sicheng breathes in amazement, a small smile inching up his cheeks.

kino gives him a shy smile, “i… i guess not?”

as the two walk back to the infirmary together, sicheng explains to kino that the creatures were after sicheng the entire time. that the creatures were designed to do nothing but out one’s magical powers, and that they multiply with power. right now, there are none on campus because his mother and his uncles have come for ‘pest control’, but they couldn’t be too sure at where their breeding grounds are. it must be close, because how else would there have been so many at hogwarts?

they continue talking about it until they get to the infirmary’s entrance, where sicheng turns around and stops kino from entering. kino gives him a confused look before sicheng takes a deep breath.

“kino, i…” sicheng starts, looking down at his feet. he pauses for a couple of seconds before he looks back up and gives kino one of his dazzling smiles, “i like you. i like you a lot. ever since our third year, i’ve always tried to talk to you more and get to know you, but you’d always avoid me and i… i guess i just thought that you didn’t like me. but now… i don’t want to hide it anymore. i know you might not be gay, or anything of that sort, but i just wanted to—”

kino has never done anything bold in his life. well, besides taking the invincibility potion and jumping into the lake to save sicheng and his friend jungwoo, he’s been rather on the safe side. he didn’t like to do things on impulse, and preferred thinking things through before executing anything.

but in this moment, his heart was pounding against his chest, his hands found their way to sicheng’s face without him even realizing it, and kino pulls sicheng into a kiss. he takes sicheng’s lips in between his before he sinks his teeth into sicheng’s bottom one, on it gently. sicheng tastes sweet, like watermelon on a summer’s day, or a refreshing cup of sparkling cider. he couldn’t help himself. he’s been waiting years for this moment, and… he would’ve never imagined them actually kissing like this, but this was probably the most ideal situation that could’ve happened.

as kino pulls away from the kiss, sicheng stares back at him looking slightly breathless with his cheeks flushing a soft pink. sicheng blinks a couple of times, before he smiles shyly and rubs the back of his neck with his hand, “i… uhm, i guess that’s a nice way of telling me to stop rambling.”

“i…” kino gives a small laugh, “i wasn’t trying to shut you up. i just… couldn’t help myself.”

sicheng comes closer, resting his hands on kino’s shoulders, “i wished you couldn’t have helped yourself all of those other times i tried to talk to you… maybe this would’ve happened a lot sooner.”

kino looks away, a bit embarrassed, “i just didn’t want to make a fool out of myself.”

they stand in the entrance for a couple of moments. the air in between them buzzed with happiness and relief. as sicheng leans forward for another kiss, the two could hear a commotion outside. they look at each other with wide eyes, before they run towards the window and look outside. a new gaggle of fanged creatures are flying towards the school, however, this time they’re bigger and they’re a fiery red color.

“well, . what a way to ruin the mood,” sicheng sighs, pulling his wand out of his pocket once again. he turns over to kino, “stay here and rest up. i’m going to find my mother and take care of this—”

“no way,” kino rejects, holding onto sicheng’s wrist in objection, “i just got you to myself. i’m not letting you go out there to fight those things alone.”

sicheng and kino stare at each other a bit, unable to determine what they should do, when the sounds of screeching become louder and louder. sicheng sighs before he grabs onto kino’s wrist and pulls him along as he runs out of the infirmary and down the hall.

as they run together, sicheng looks over at kino, “kino, i know we’re just now getting together and we barely know each other and everything but… would you accompany me on every dangerous task? like, if we were going to face the final boss and i pass out, would you carry me and protect me and finish the task yourself?”

kino halts in his steps, pulling sicheng back with him, “sicheng, if it’s with you or for you, i’ll do anything.”

“anything?” sicheng questions, a bit unbelieving in kino.

“anything. i did jump into the lake for you, didn’t i?”

sicheng blushes at the thought, before the both of them resume sprinting towards the headmaster’s office. with an unclear future ahead of them, they were certain about one thing. no matter what terrible things the future has in store for them, they’ll still be able to have each other. to kino, sicheng was the blessing he never knew he asked for, and to sicheng, kino was his sunshine after the rain.