---

Thankfully, Yixing's fainting spell only lasts for a few seconds, so he's already coherent (albeit looking weaker) just as the Porter from before and someone else suddenly appear out of thin air.

A lot of them scream at the suddenness again, causing the shorter of the two men to flinch and stop holding the other's hand. Then, as the shorter man runs a hand through his hair and adjusts his glasses, Sehun's eyebrows raise.

Those blue scale-like freckles...that hairstyle that hasn't changed for seemingly ages...and those tired yet somehow mirthful dark-brown eyes...

Junnie?

"Junma?!" Zitao exclaims, covering his mouth with his hand.

And Zitao's cousin, Junmyeon, whips his head to them at that and his wide eyes quickly turn to crescent moons as he grins. "Taozi--Sehunnie?!" He then rushes over to them and squats down to ruffle Zitao's hair affectionately. Zitao grins at the affection and Sehun smiles too. "How've ya two been, huh? Damn, I haven't seen ya two in what feels like in' ages! Haha, it's amazin' how much you two have grown in just half a year."

And Sehun playfully rolls his eyes at that. "You said that the last time we saw you, Junnie. Ya know we're not little kids anymore, right?"

Junmyeon just lets out a gentle laugh. "Hehe, could've fooled me."

Baekhyun then lets out an Oh my sun and Junmyeon glances over at the others before his eyes land on a shocked Baekhyun and Yixing. "Oh! Baekhyun, Yixing!" He grins some more. "Aha, I thought I heard your voice, Baekhyun. Been long since I've last seen the two of ya too--how've ya--" His eyes then lower to Yixing's leg wound. "--Moonbeams! Yixing, what happened?!"

Baekhyun and Yixing then briefly explain what happened and Junmyeon lets out Ah's and such as he moves over to them and properly sits down with his legs crossed. Baekhyun then asks him if he can help them and Junmyeon adjusts his glasses a bit and says, Of course.

He then continues making light conversation with them as he removes the cloth from Yixing's wound and quickly summons some water to clean the blood that's dripping down Yixing's leg. Then, with his hands hovered over the wound, Junmyeon closes his eyes to channel his inner magic and lets it spring forth.

And if he was a full-on water-nymph, it'd probably only take a second to do this but alas he's half-human, so the process ends up taking a bit longer. But, once he feels that usual tingle in his hands, he opens back his eyes and smiles as he sees the wound now closing up and no longer bleeding.

A few of the others Ooh and Ah at that and Junmyeon smiles a bit before he grabs for one of his scales from his shoulder and then smashes it into the palm of his hand to crush it into powder. He has to do that a few more times with a few more scales and once it's enough, he twiddles his fingers and then watches as the powder magically turns into paste. Curiously, he then glances up at the others surrounding them and laughs again at some of their awestruck expressions.

Then, he looks back at the wound and rubs the paste onto it and they all watch as it seeps into Yixing's skin before leaving a faint blue glow. And with that, his job's done.

And just as he stands back up, he hears someone murmur a Holy and lightly chuckles once again. Then, he finds himself getting hugged tightly and thanked profusely by Baekhyun and then Yixing after the latter carefully gets up onto his feet. He just grins at the affection and tells them that it was his pleasure as they pull away from the hug.

"Seriously, Jun--you're a in' lifesaver! A hero even~" Baekhyun says while wiping at his eyes.

Junmyeon continues grinning at that and ends up chatting with them and then Zitao, Sehun and the others for a bit more before he feels his stomach rumble. Instantly, he thinks back to his inn and Jongdae, and finds himself missing the latter's presence already. So, he informs them all that it looks like it's time for him to head back to eat now and Zitao whines, Aw no, stay Junma. Please? We've got plenty of food we can share.

Junmyeon then looks around at him and the others as Baekhyun and Sehun join in on the whining before he frowns and thinks back to Jongdae again. Usually Jongdae would be playing a jaunty tune for his patrons right about now, and Junmyeon's always looked forward to eating his breakfast and hearing Jongdae's beautiful voice and harp-playing. But then, he can't just leave his cousin and cousin's partner when it's been so long since they've last seen each other either...

All of a sudden, Taemin announces that he'll be right back and smirks at him before porting away. Then, several seconds later, he ports back with a wide-eyed Jongdae (who's dressed in his typical bard clothes), much to everyone's surprise. Jongdae frantically looks around before he spots Junmyeon and lets go of Taemin's hand to rush over to him.

"Myeonnie, you okay?!" Jongdae exclaims, eyes wide.

Jongdae then cups his face and carefully tilts his head this way and that as he searches for any injury and Junmyeon feels his heart beat faster as he lets him. Then, Jongdae keeps his hands on his cheeks even as he whips his head to glare at a now widely grinning Taemin.

" you," Jongdae says, shivering a bit. "I should beat yer ."

Taemin just laughs. "Hey, that 's on you! I never said he was injured--I just said he wanted to see you! Not my fault you wanted me to port ya to him and didn't wanna put on a freakin' coat even though I said you'd need it~"

Jongdae just rolls his eyes before he looks back at Junmyeon, his expression softening. "Hey...You are feelin' okay though, right?"

Junmyeon gives a small smile and lets out an Mhm before he asks him if he wants his coat for the time being. Jongdae just shakes his head no with a fond grin before he leans in to peck his lips. Then, when he pulls away, he stops cradling Junmyeon's face and Junmyeon finds that he's already missing his touch.

And as Junmyeon looks back at the others, he awkwardly smiles when he sees the surprised expressions on his friends' and acquaintances' faces. (The azure stars on Zitao's cheeks twinkle as he grins at him though.)

"Uhh...what the was that?" Chanyeol asks, eyes comically wide.

"Yeah, since when have you two...?" Taemin adds.

"What? Talked about our feelings for each other?" Jongdae responds with a smirk.

"Uh, yeah?"

Jongdae laughs and places his arm around Junmyeon's shoulders. "Eh, not too long ago actually." He turns to him. "Just 'bout two months now, right?"

Junmyeon nods with a grin. "Yeah, just about."

"Two months?!" Chanyeol and Taemin chorus at the same time.

"Yeah haha, 'member when I got sick that one week and couldn't even get up to eat?"

"Yeah...?" Chanyeol replies.

"Well, Myeonnie here took care of me the whole time and like, I dunno if it was 'cause of the medicine he gave me or the ale I secretly drank with it--" He then laughs at Junmyeon's scandalized expression. "--but um, yeah. I ended up finally gettin' the courage to confess my love to him and then he did too and well--" He turns to him and goofily grins. "--here we are."

Chanyeol just gapes and looks at Taemin and vice-versa before the two of them both declare that they need to sit down to process this. Jongdae just laughs again before he turns to the others and fully greets them all. They greet him back and while he makes small talk with a few of them, Zitao and Sehun come over to excitedly chat with Junmyeon.

And so, after having to pull up a dramatically despondent Chanyeol and Taemin duo, they all continue chatting as they head away from the half-frozen lake to find a good spot to eat some food. (And five horses that Junmyeon didn't even notice were nearby give him a fright as they trot over to join them all for a meal as well.)

-------

At some point, after the others have eaten and are just chatting with each other, Luhan starts feeling fatigued again.

Minseok, Kyungsoo, and Jongin are the first to notice, and Kyungsoo gently asks him if he wants to be carried back to the wagon to rest. A few of the others then look over at them and Luhan simply nods his head and looks over at Chanyeol.

During this recovery period, Chanyeol's always been the one to carry him anywhere, but right now, Chanyeol's busy laughing with Junmyeon, Jongdae, and Taemin over some old memory. So, Luhan automatically looks at Minseok and shyly asks him if he can carry him back.

Minseok looks at him for a moment before saying Sure and Luhan finds his own face getting so warm as he lets out an Okay in response. Then, Minseok gets up and more of the others look over at them, and Luhan feels like he's going to overheat from the added attention.

"Hey, Minseok, you good?" Chanyeol asks, and now everyone's looking at the two of them.

"Yeah, uh, Lu said he's feeling tired again so I um--I was gonna take him back to the wagon," Minseok replies.

"Oh." Chanyeol glances at Jongin and Kyungsoo before grinning. "Alright."

For some reason, Minseok's cheeks go red at that and Luhan can't help but stare because of how cute he looks even as he plugs in his body-charger. Then, Minseok clears his throat and bends down a bit towards him, and Luhan's heart skips a beat as his face gets closer and he lifts his arms up to be carried.

It turns out to be fairly awkward at first and Minseok almost drops him two times (and Luhan can tell that his companions are incredibly amused by the two of them). But, at the same time, as Luhan wraps his arms around Minseok's neck, and Minseok's strong arms securely hold him up, he feels like he's never felt more safe and comfortable in his entire life.

-------

As Minseok slowly carries Luhan towards the wagon and the chatter of their friends fades away, Minseok finds himself thinking about a lot of things. And just about every thought has to do with the android that's already fast asleep in his arms right now.

They're all already close to reaching the eternal flower now, and though things have been kinda dire at some moments, thankfully they're all still here and together. (Even more, thankfully Luhan's still here with him.)

Soon, he finally reaches the wagon and carefully sets Luhan down to sit at the edge of it. Luhan's head instantly tilts to the side while his lips part, and Minseok can't help but stare at him for a moment before he moves to sit at the opposite edge of the wagon. (Since they're situated in the literal snowy woods, he figures that someone should be there to make sure that Luhan's safe as he rests.)

And as he sits there and looks up at the sky once more, he soon lets out a sigh as he gets lost in his own thoughts again.

-------

After Minseok doesn't return to them a few minutes later, Chanyeol volunteers to check up on him and Luhan and gets up to do so. Then, when he returns, he informs them all with a grin that the two are alright and that Minseok's keeping watch again.

And so, a bit more time passes by before it soon becomes midday, and he and the others end up saying their goodbyes to Junmyeon, Jongdae, and Taemin. But, once the other two are holding onto Taemin's hands and Taemin starts counting down from three, Zitao suddenly lowers his head to cry and Junmyeon quickly lets go of Taemin's hand to go to him. Taemin curses at the suddenness and Jongdae lets go of his hand too as they all watch the other two.

"Aw Taozi--hey, don't cry--please? We'll see each other again, alright?" he says, looking up at Zitao.

Zitao just sniffles. "I know, it's just...seeing ya again, Junma--I-I just--" His face scrunches up even more