---

At some point during the ride to Windhelm Hold, Kyungsoo turns to ask Luhan something that's been on his mind since earlier.

"Hey, Luhan?" he starts and Luhan lets out a curious hum. "You um, you know that code that you gave that courier earlier...is it--is it related to your birth coordinates?"

Luhan's eyebrows raise. "Uh yes, how did you know that?"

"Aha, I didn't until now heh. It's just that the first three components of it--they--they reminded me of the coordinates we'd give baby stars after we made them."

Immediately, Kyungsoo pales and Minseok, Baekhyun, Yixing, Sehun and Zitao gawk at that.

"Baby stars? Since when--you--what?" Baekhyun replies, his hold on his horse's reins a bit looser as he stares.

"Wha--?" Minseok adds, dumbfounded.

Kyungsoo just lets out a shy chuckle. "Eheh I forgot I never told ya, Minseok--sorry about that."

Minseok just lets out another confused What?

"Basically, um, I-I used to make stars before I...changed professions, you could say."

"You used to what?!"

Jongin chuckles and leans in closer to Kyungsoo. "Yeah ahaha back at our birth-planet he used to work at a star-making factory!"

"Jonginnie," Kyungsoo murmurs before closing his eyes and sighing.

"Back on your what?!" the others all say, more or less.

And at that, Chanyeol cues the horses to stop and Baekhyun and Yixing stop theirs too so that everyone can pause and process this new information. "Okay, you gotta start from the beginning, man," Chanyeol adds. "Explain yourself."

And Kyungsoo frowns at that and asks, "Did we really have to stop the wagon though?"

"Yes! How're ya gonna tell us you two are basically ing--ing aliens and expect us to not be surprised and then have the audacity to have come at me earlier for having die--" Chanyeol's eyes widen a little bit. "--uhh--di-dyed my hair red at one point, huh?!"

Yixing gives him a curious side-eye but doesn't interrogate him and instead looks back at Kyungsoo and asks, "So, what's your birth-planet called?"

"It's--it's not of this solar system so I can't...I can't really translate its name...But, uh in literal terms though, its name means 'outer planet' because it's at the outer edge of our galaxy," Kyungsoo replies.

"...Is the weather different there?" Yixing then asks while the others still look shocked.

Kyungsoo shakes his head. "Uh, it's like here--like same amount of oxygen, lots of trees...Only thing is, there were a lot of meteor showers, and things kinda looked more purple-blue."

Luhan lets out a Wow before he remembers something. "Oh! What about that cartoon you two said you watched as kids? How could you've watched it if you lived there?"

Jongin responds this time. "Oh, well it's 'cause our birth-planet can pick up transmissions from every known galaxy--I don't really know how they got it to that point but, that's also probably a reason why our planet's the one that makes the stars."

"So...how'd you two get here? And like how do we know this isn't some really ing elaborate trick you two are tryna pull on us right now?" Chanyeol asks.

"Well, we don't do stupid tricks so that's one," Kyungsoo replies with a frown. "And two, we beamed ourselves here."

"But...why?"

"Because we thought why not? We wanted to explore the galaxy and ended up settling here--why's that so hard to believe?"

The two of them then immediately start arguing; with Chanyeol saying that he just can't believe him and asking him to make a star as proof, and Kyungsoo telling him that he doesn't just carry ing stardust on his person. Zitao then opens his mouth to say something but gets interrupted by Minseok.

"Woah, you guys, you guys--I have the best question!" Minseok exclaims and everyone turns to look at him. "Alright, so how does time work there, huh?"

Jongin grins and answers before Kyungsoo can. "Oh my sun, it's marvelous! So, get this--one year here is a millennium there. So, I'd be twenty-six thousand years old back there."

Everyone gets silent as they take in this new information before Chanyeol exclaims, ", so like wait--doesn't that mean you two are the oldest then?!"

Kyungsoo grumbles an Oh, now you believe us? and Jongin laughs.

"No hahaha--Minseok would still be! Like we're not immortal or anything, man."

"Oh my--holy ."

"...Can we continue chatting about all this while moving, please?" Kyungsoo asks, crossing his arms over his chest. "Our main quest didn't suddenly just vanish, ya know."

"Ugh, fine...but ya still gotta make a star for us," Chanyeol replies before turning to cue Frost and Huchu.

Baekhyun and Yixing then cue their horses as well, and so they all continue chatting about Kyungsoo's and Jongin's birth-planet for some time.

---

After he and Jongin answer the biggest amount of questions ever asked in rapid succession, Kyungsoo remembers his original reason for bringing up his star-making skill in the first place.

"Luhan," he starts and Luhan lets out a curious hum again. "Uh, this is pretty random again but I've been wondering...So, androids can be created from any material, correct?"

"Yes?"

"So...what were you made from then?"

"Oh, I was made from stardust," Luhan replies with a smile.

Everyone looks at him with awe and Kyungsoo's lips part. And he's just about to respond when Zitao interrupts him.

"Oh my moon, you're made from stardust?!" Zitao exclaims with an excited grin. He then turns to look at Kyungsoo. "Okay, this is fate!"

Kyungsoo glances at his equally confused husband before looking back at Zitao. "Hm?" he responds.

"Oh my--you guys. I'm half star-nymph~!" Zitao chirps, the tiny azure stars on his cheeks glowing a bit.

And for the millionth time in a row, everyone besides two people in their group gets surprised and they all start asking multiple questions.

"'Kay, so we got a-a in' half-human star-nymph, a retired star-maker, and an android made from in' stardust," Baekhyun says with incredulity before inhaling. "Any other backstories you guys wanna let out in the open 'fore I faint?"

"Please don't faint," Luhan responds, eyes wider.

", this--this is too much to take in one sittin' though," Baekhyun continues and Yixing immediately moves his horse closer so that he can rub Baekhyun's back.

"Deep breaths, baby," Yixing murmurs and Baekhyun thankfully starts taking some slower ones.

"Maybe we should all just take a quick break," Kyungsoo then says as he watches them.

"Hey, Sehun," Minseok calls out and Sehun and the others look at him. "How about those free readings then, eh? Is it okay to get them now?"

Sehun blinks in surprise but nods his head and says, Sure.

-------

Soon, they all stop near a forest and get out of the wagon/off their horses to take their break. So, while their horses eat some food that Kyungsoo and Chanyeol feed them (since they apparently don't really want their fortunes told), the others sit on the ground and crowd around Sehun and his crystal ball (with Zitao sitting right next to him as well).

"Who first?" Sehun asks. Jongin quickly raises his hand before anyone can even blink and Sehun laughs at his eagerness. "Okay, lemme see."

He then closes his eyes and cups the sides of his crystal ball to focus on the image of the future that's popping up in his mind. One, two, three, four, no--five dogs appear in his mind all of a sudden. They're all small dogs of various fur shades and all of the same breed. Then, he sees Jongin and Kyungsoo playing with said dogs and...is that a farm they're on?

The vision fades away after that and he opens his eyes and tells a bright-eyed Jongin what he just saw. Jongin's eyes crinkle as he grins and Kyungsoo softly smiles at his grin while currently rubbing Huchu's neck.

"Thank you," Jongin then says to Sehun.

Sehun nods with a smile before he looks at the others and asks who'd like to go next. Baekhyun instantly raises his hand and whoops when Sehun says Okay.

The vision that he gets for Baekhyun's future is fairly short and straight-forward. Baekhyun and Yixing are at some type of inn that's apparently theirs, and Baekhyun's wiping the sweat away from his forehead and grinning after they've apparently bought and installed some upgrades for said inn.

Sehun then tells Baekhyun as much and Baekhyun cheers and excitedly shakes his husband's arm with a grin. Yixing laughs at his husband's excitement and Sehun smiles at them and then asks Yixing if he'd like his fortune told.

Yixing just waves his hand dismissively though and so Sehun turns to the last two left and asks who wants to go next. Minseok and Luhan then turn to each other at that and Minseok suggests that Luhan goes, since the more he thinks about it, the more he apparently doesn't really want to know his own fortune. And after Luhan asks him if he's sure and Minseok nods his head with a smile, Luhan finally agrees to get his fortune told next.

Then, Sehun closes his eyes to focus on this next vision and smiles. The vision's of Luhan staring at Minseok while it's snowing, and aw, they're holding hands...

And he's just about to open his eyes and tell Luhan a condensed version of that vision (as to not embarrass him) when another vision suddenly bursts through. He jolts at the suddenness and the white snow quickly turns to a dark sky with a dead creature and Luhan...he's...

With a soft gasp, Sehun quickly opens his eyes and the vision fades away from his mind.

The others immediately ask him what happened, and Sehun looks from the crystal ball to Luhan and then Minseok and back to Luhan. He definitely can't tell them the second vision that he just saw so he decides to give a condensed version of the first.

"Uh, you two end up spending some time together during the Winter and yep," he says. "The snow felt so real though--like I-I felt like I was gonna freeze to death aha."

He then pretends to not notice Jongin furrowing his eyebrows at him, and quickly puts his crystal ball back in his pack before getting up and 'casually' stretching. Then, he remembers the enchanted ring that he'd talked about earlier and digs through his pack before bringing it out.

"Oh yeah, so uh who'd lik