---

After everyone properly introduces themselves to Yifan, they all exit the inn (with Baekhyun and Yixing waving at the tavern-owner) and walk towards Windhelm's exit door. A few of the others then chat with Yifan, sharing some basic details about themselves and their main quest and asking where he's from and such.

Once they've made it to Windhelm's stables and have gotten their horses and wagon back, Chanyeol then turns to Yifan and says, "'Kay, before we do anything else--I wanna see you do a dragon-shout, man!"

"Um...sure," Yifan responds before looking down at everyone else. "You all cool with that?"

The majority of them nod while Chanyeol lets out a yeah, and Yifan gives a gummy grin, looking more like a cute baby than a perpetually angry man. And Luhan notices a few of his companions looking at Yifan in awe now, and smiles because he feels the exact same way right now.

"Hey, d'ya know you're like really in' handsome?" Baekhyun suddenly blurts out to Yifan, and Yixing sagely nods beside him.

Yifan just rubs the back of his own neck and smiles shyly. "Uh, thanks?"

"But holy , back at Candlehearth, I actually thought you were like someone from the in' Brotherhood!"

And Yifan's eyes widen dramatically at that. "Y-you thought I was a in' assassin? What in the moon gave ya that idea?!"

"Well, ya did sit in like half-light with a hood on indoors. What non-assassin usually does that, eh?"

", I-I was just tryna look cool..." He runs a hand through his long hair. "But like, I assure you all, I'm no in' assassin!"

Baekhyun just laughs at his seriousness and they all get situated to travel on towards Dawnstar. At the front of the wagon, Chanyeol cues their horses before he turns his head to look back at Yifan as the latter rides his horse right behind the wagon. "So, can ya show the shout now?" he asks before turning to look back at the road again.

Yifan simply lets out an Oh yeah and looks at everyone else before he closes his eyes and inhales a huge gust of air, his chest pumping up before he...coughs.

"--" Another cough. "--sorry, that--that wasn't it--hold on." He then clears his throat and a few of them watch him with amusement. ", I haven't actually used a shout in a while to be honest, so like bear with me for a sec."

"Take your time," Yixing replies, his lips curled up a bit.

And so, Yifan inhales a huge gust of air again and then (without coughing), spouts out three ancient-sounding words in a booming, almost other-worldly voice and in an instant--time itself seems to have slowed down!

The snow's falling much slower now and everyone else slowly turns to look at each other with various expressions of fear, shock, awe, and amazement.

Only Yifan's moving fast right now (or maybe at a normal speed) and he watches them all react with a smirk. And so, they all continue riding on in what seems like slow-motion for some more seconds before time instantly resumes to its normal speed. Jongin quickly puts his hand to his mouth at that, looking incredibly queasy, and Kyungsoo immediately rubs his back to try and soothe him a bit.

"So...what'd you guys think? Pretty cool, huh?" Yifan replies, grinning like a baby again.

"That..." Minseok starts, looking fairly queasy too. "...Was amazing, scary, and freakin' disorienting all at the same time."

"Please never do that again," Kyungsoo adds, expression serious.

Yifan instantly apologizes while Chanyeol turns his head to glance at him with a bright grin on his face. "Hey, when we meet enemies, fight with me, 'kay?" he says.

"Uhh, sure?" Yifan responds.

And so, Chanyeol continues to grin as he turns to look at Kyungsoo. "'Kay, your turn."

Kyungsoo then looks from him to Yifan to Luhan--basically everyone before he replies, "Wha--? I-I don't have any stardust on me though, remember?"

"Yeah, but Zitao here can obviously make it, so chop-chop, dude."

Yifan just watches them with confusion and Yixing half-smiles and explains that Kyungsoo can apparently make stars. Yifan sputters dramatically at that and his horse almost drops him out of fright.

Immediately, he rubs his horse's neck and mumbles out an apology to him before he looks at them all again. And then for like the millionth time on their journey, a loud and shocked You can do what?! sounds out from someone in their group.

"I can't just--I-I can't just create one now though, okay? Especially not in this weather. The snow would just interfere too much," Kyungsoo finally says.

"Ugh, why don't you want to do it?" Chanyeol responds. "I feel like even if we were in the best place ever with the 'right temperature'--you'd still never freakin' show us."

Kyungsoo just frowns and looks down, still rubbing Jongin's back.

"Hey," Zitao says, glaring at Chanyeol. "If he doesn't wanna do it--he doesn't wanna do it, okay? Leave him be."

Chanyeol gapes and Kyungsoo looks back up at that. "It's--it's not that I don't want to--it's just..." He then looks up at the sky, his expression getting sad. "I dunno."

"...Bad memories?" Sehun's the first to gently ask.

Kyungsoo just sighs and Jongin ends up speaking up for him, looking less queasy but more sad now. "It's...it's 'cause of people back in our village," he says before glancing at his husband. He then sighs. "Basically um, whenever he'd make a star...well...some people around us got really sick."

Kyungsoo in his lips and continues to just look up at the snowy sky.

"Sick from the stardust?" Luhan asks first.

"Mhm. Turns out, even though every living being is ya know, made of stardust components--some people get really sick when they come into contact with pure stardust."

Luhan lets out a soft Ah in response. So, that's why the two of them are really on this quest.

Everyone remains silent as they look at the two of them before Kyungsoo finally lowers his gaze to look at them all again. And Luhan wants to comfort him somehow, by saying It's not your fault that they got sick and such, but Kyungsoo ends up speaking before he can.

"So, we're on this quest to right the wrongs of what I did," Kyungsoo firmly states, and Jongin leans in to hug him.

", man..." Chanyeol finally replies. "That--that blows, man."

"Yeah. I know," Kyungsoo simply responds, adjusting his glasses.

And so, the mood of their group stays somber for a long moment as they ride on before Minseok says, "Ya know it's not your fault they got sick though, right?"

"I--"

"Hold on--I'm not done. Moonbeams, it's not even their fault either. Technically, it's like no one's fault, not even the stardust's! And like, the fact you're goin' on this long old journey to try and cure the people you just wanted to make happy for a moment--like--that--that instantly tells me so much about both of your characters...You two are like heroes."

Kyungsoo's face scrunches up a bit at that, but he tries to relax his expression.

"Seriously like--aw , please don't cry."

But, Kyungsoo ends up silently crying anyway and Jongin squeezes him tighter while gently rubbing his hair up and down. Kyungsoo just mumbles out a , most likely from not wanting to cry right now, and just buries his face into Jongin's chest to not have his face be seen right now.

---

Not too long after, once Kyungsoo's stopped crying, Baekhyun swiftly changes the subject and so the majority of them continue chatting about this and that.

The climate's getting chillier and chillier as they travel on and the snow's already stopped falling but, despite more sightings of ice creatures and such, nothing worth noting really happens for a while. (Especially since Yifan just dragon-shouts and blows said creatures away before they can attack.) That is, until at one point, just as everyone's chatting like usual (with Kyungsoo resting his head on Jongin's shoulder), Luhan suddenly hears a cry off in the distance.

"Help!" the person screams. "Help! Anybody help!"

Luhan instantly looks across the snowy foreground, furrowing his eyebrows as he tries to pinpoint where the cry is coming from. Then, as the wagon gets a bit closer, he realizes that it's coming from a cave up ahead.

"Lu?" Minseok questions and Luhan turns to him.

"Um, someone needs our help," he replies, feeling his cheeks get warm at the prolonged eye-contact. "And um, it sounds like maybe they got trapped in a cave up ahead."

The others' conversations stop at that and they all look from him to out at the distance.

"Uh, I don't see any cave," Baekhyun says, eyebrows furrowed.

"Oh, it's still far away right now--about three minutes away," Luhan responds.

"Stars, your hearin'. Quick question, how do ya even focus on anythin' if ya can hear everythin' so well?"

"Um, well, it's like with any being, really. Some things I just naturally filter out unless their natural rhythm changes. Like breathing and heartbeats and--oh! Also, when it's night time and you all might release your tensions, I filter out the sounds out of respect and an acknowledgement of privacy."

Baekhyun's eyes shift to look at Yixing for a millisecond. "Oh, uh aha, good to know."

"So...uh back to the cave person," Chanyeol interrupts, letting out an awkward cough. "Are we stopping for them then?"

"Of course," Luhan replies without a thought.

Unbeknownst to him, Minseok smiles beside him while parallel to them Sehun and Zitao glance at each other with frowns on their faces.

---

The closer that they get to the cave, the more that Sehun and Zitao seem to watch him more. Luhan furrows his eyebrows a bit as he wonders what's on their minds before he blinks in surprise when Zitao suddenly asks him if androids feel pain.

Jongin stops playing with his husband's hands to look at Zitao with narrowed eyes. "That's random."

"I know, it just--" Zitao starts nervously rubbing his own neck. "--eheh, it just came to mind."

Everyone then turns to look at Luhan and he informs them all that androids do and can indeed feel pain. Of course, it depends on their creator and their preferences but in Luhan's case, he definitely feels pain. Emotional, physical...he can feel it all. He tells them all as much and then Baekhyun suddenly asks him if he can get sick at all.

"Uhh...in a technical sense--no. In a figurative sense--yes. There's no infection that can affect me physically."

"Oh, that's good," Baekhyun replies.

"Yes, though uh if I got an injury to my brain, then that'd be like I'm sick. It'd mess with my core personality depending on the injury's severity."

"Oh...But--but you can't like die though, right?"

"Yes and no."

Baekhyun's eyebrows lift at that.

"If my heart ever gets compromised then I'd power off. Or, well fall into the abyss as I like to call it. So, in a way, it is like death but it'd be more like me being in...well, a coma."

The others look on with sympathy as Luhan lowers his gaze and Minseok instantly places an arm around his shoulders. Luhan feels his artificial stomach let out that now-familiar ping at that and he looks up, trying to give a smile to show that he's fine.

"Well, luckily you got us, dude. Nobody's dying while I'm here," Chanyeol replies, giving a reassuring smile.

And Luhan turns to him and smiles while Sehun and Zitao look...surprisingly sad for some reason. Before he can ask them what's wrong though, he hears that person in the cave yelling again and realizes that they're close enough that the others can finally hear the person too.

Chanyeol then cues their horses to stop while Baekhyun, Yixing, and Yifan do the same with their horses. Then, Chanyeol turns to look at Yifan and asks if he wants to come with him to investigate.

Yifan shrugs and lets out a deep Uh, Sure and then Chanyeol turns to Jongin. "Hey Jongin, you wanna come too? Maybe you could like pacify any creatures for us?"

Jongin looks from him to a frowning Kyungsoo and back. "I...think I should stay here, to be honest," he ends up saying.

Chanyeol just lets out a 'Kay before he hops off the front of the wagon, and Yifan gets off of his horse. Then, after Yifan gently pats his horse's neck, the two walk towards each other; Yifan with his hood flipped back over his head and pointy ears, and Chanyeol with that fiery spark appearing in his eyes again.

"Honestly, this shouldn't take long at all," Chanyeol then says, looking at the others.

And so, everyone watches as the two walk off towards the snow-covered cave.