---

The next morning, Luhan wakes up in his room and automatically smiles as he remembers his day yesterday. Companions. For the first time in his journey, he's going to have companions to travel with.

Slowly, he glances around his room for any possible changes to it before easing himself off of the chair next to his bed and unplugging his body-charger.

It's 6 o'clock sharp right now, which means that almost everyone is asleep. He can hear rhythmic snoring coming from his companions next door and the other tenants nearby, as well as hear the sounds of the harp that the bard downstairs is tuning. But as he quietly exits his room and heads down the tavern's stairwell, he sees a peculiar man sitting at the table next to the bard.

Now, Luhan has met many types of people and magical beings on the way here, but this person might just take the cake for peculiarity. The man's in a full suit of armor and is trying to chug down a ginormous tankard of beer while his heart-rate and breathing shows that he's...actually in a deep sleep!

Every time that the tankard clunks against the sides of his helmet, the man sighs and retries over and over again like it's some kind of comedy sketch. Luhan just stares in amazement at this spectacle for a good moment before the bard, who seems to be used to this kind of thing, glances at him and smiles with slightly raised eyebrows.

"Hey there, stranger," the bard greets with a twangy voice, still tuning the harp.

Luhan ends up smiling back for a second at the genuine amusement on their face before he decides to walk over and sit down at the table nearby. "Um, hi there. Does...does that happen often?" he asks, looking over at the peculiar man again.

"Oh hahaha, don't mind Chanyeol over here, 'kay?" The bard's voice then lowers to a whisper and they cover the side of their mouth with a hand. "He's kinda not awake right now."

Luhan then glances at the Chanyeol man again, as the latter finally sets down his tankard of beer and stares off into space, before looking back at the bard. "Does he always, um sleep-walk like this?"

"Yeah, pretty much," the bard replies, still smiling. "It's the same thing everyday. He comes out from his room, walks over to get a beer, comes over to me and tries to drink from his tankard 'fore he--"

Suddenly, Chanyeol's head falls onto the table and Luhan flinches at the metal sound that reverberates from the impact.

"--yup," the bard simply says before going back to their tuning once more.

Instantly, Luhan scans Chanyeol up and down to read his vitals and inwardly sighs when he sees that the man's still sleeping. The bard just lets out a hum every so often as they tune, and Luhan just watches in a bit of a trance--feeling a sudden urge to sing along to the humming. The bard then glances at him again before smirking a bit and asking if he'd like to be the first listener of the day.

Luhan simply nods and then watches as the bard clears their throat, sits up properly in their seat, and brings their hands up to their now in-tune harp.

The bard's fingers then gently begin to glide and pull against the harp's strings, and Luhan's insides start to get jittery with excitement at the pleasant melody. In his peripheral vision, he can see the tavern-owner look at them and give a quick, fond smile before looking away to clean a beer tankard with a cloth. And as the bard opens their mouth and begins to sing about an old tale of time, they look over at the owner with a fondness of their own.

Another weird blip registers in Luhan's stomach at that, but he stays to watch some more.

Then, when the bard's voice cuts off to a whisper and the harp-playing slows down, Luhan begins to clap with appreciation and the bard smiles as they end the song. (Next to them, Chanyeol just lets out a groan and twitches in his sleep.)

"Thank you, thank you," the bard says with a grin. "And hey! If you liked that one--I bet you'll love this."

As the bard starts to play a quicker melody on the harp, Luhan watches in a trance once again before he sees someone coming towards him out of the corner of his eye and turns his head. It's his new companions, Kyungsoo and Jongin!

"'Ay mornin', you two!" the bard says to them, stopping their playing for a moment.

Everyone greets each other before Kyungsoo sits down at the seat right next to Luhan and Jongin ceremoniously sits on his husband's lap.

Another weird blip then pings in Luhan's stomach. (He makes a mental reminder to look up this feeling later, preferably at a time when he won't accidentally freak out his new companions again.) Jongin then wiggles a bit in Kyungsoo's lap with a smile, and Kyungsoo wraps his arms around his waist possessively with a matching smile of his own.

"Ugh, my poor eyes!" the bard jokes, shielding their eyes with their hand. "Can you two please spare me this blessed Sunday morning--I beg of you."

Luhan simply lets out a chuckle at that and Jongin shyly smiles while Kyungsoo removes one arm from around his waist to swat at the bard's arm. The bard just laughs at the hit and Luhan continues to watch with interest as the other three interact.

From what Kyungsoo and Jongin had told him last night, the two haven't spent that long in this tavern--only about three days at most. But, the way that they're laughing and chatting so comfortably with the bard (whose name turns out to be Jongdae) makes Luhan feel kind of...left out. Then, Luhan suddenly wonders if he'll ever get to that type of comfort level with these two, or if somehow he'll just end up scaring them off in the end.

He can't help but frown at the thought.

---

Fortunately, the other three soon find a way to include Luhan into their conversation though, and Luhan's mood lifts once again. At some point, Jongdae gets up to talk to the tavern-owner for a moment while Jongin gets up to order some vegetable soup for Kyungsoo and himself. And Luhan feels that same blip register in his stomach again when Jongin comes back with their food and the two begin to eat.

Jongin's currently feeding Kyungsoo some of their shared soup with a spoon (while still sitting on his lap) and coos at his gentle expression every so often, while Jongdae's come back to continue barding. More tenants have woken up and are mulling about the place now, chatting and eating as well, and Chanyeol continues to sleep beside them.

Luhan almost wishes that he needed to eat food as