“Has anyone seen my wallet?”

“You left in the car last night.”

“I swear, if someone took my jacket-”

“Only you would wear something like that, Tao.”

“Why are all the eggs gone again?”

You groaned at the sudden intrusion of your peaceful sleep, burying your face in the woods-scented pillow. A chuckle rumbled beside you. A pair of lips gently brushed against your temple. Knowing that was your signal to get up, you pushed your face deeper into the sanctuary of sleep.

“(y/n)… you can’t stay here all day.”

“Watch me,” you mumbled.

Arms s around your waist, pulling you into a space-heater of a chest. “If we stay here much longer, someone will come looking for us,” Sehun whispered in your ear. “Probably Jongdae or Tao. Or maybe even Baek-”

You whimpered as you flipped over, cutting off the wolf before he could finish the troublemaker’s name. But that didn’t mean you were ready to wake up. It was nice, lying there with him, your cheek pressed up against his collarbone. You felt protected, loved, safe. Granted, that’s how you always felt with Sehun, but in this space and in this moment, you felt it at its maximum. From the way his arms tightened around you and how he leaned down to kiss the still-healing mark he’d indented in your shoulder only a week ago, he was feeling it, too.

“You make it hard to get up,” he sighed. From his tone, he was trying to feign annoyance. Too bad you already knew how much he loved this.

“Then let’s just stay here,” you suggested. This was technically his fault, anyway. He was the one who insisted on staying out late last night. First it was dinner, then a movie, then a long drive through the backwoods. You don’t actually remember coming home as you’d fallen asleep sometime passed one in the morning, still in the passenger’s seat of Sehun’s car.

“Okay,” Sehun mumbled. “Five more minutes.” You felt him settle again beside you, a satisfied rumble vibrating in his throat. You were just about to drift off again when-

Bang! “Alright, time to get up!”

You half-groaned, half-growled at Baekhyun and his ability to be so loud first thing in the morning. Jumping into a sitting position, you grabbed your pillow and threw it as hard as you could across the room. But you missed. The pillow smacked against the wall widely to his right.

“Well, I guess we can count a baseball career out for you,” he cackled.

Narrowing your eyes, you concentrated on the glass of water next to you on the nightstand.

“Hey!” Baekhyun spat out the water that had landed in his mouth when you sent it flying towards his face, soaking his hair and shoulders.

“Maybe next time you’ll think before you try to rouse a sleeping witch.”

Baekhyun muttered under his breath as he stormed out of the room, mostly likely to change into a dry shirt.

Sehun scooted closer to you as he sat up as well, nuzzling your shoulder with his nose. “I don’t think we should risk another messenger.”

“Probably not,” you sighed as you glanced at the now empty glass. “I’m all out of ammo.”

“Oh, I’m sure you could come up with something else.”

Rolling your eyes, you slipped out of bed and over to the dresser. After pulling out a clean shirt and pair of pants, you started to turn back to Sehun. However, before you even made it a quarter of the way, the wolf was already dressed, grabbing your wrist and lifting you up so you were now on his back. Giggles exploded from you as he raced out of the room and down the stairs, creating his own wind with the speed. You held on tight with your arms around his neck, careful not to choke him.

You were still laughing and holding onto him when he reached the kitchen. As per usual, the room was filled practically to the brim with people. Even though you’d been living full time at the farmhouse for over a month (on top of the previous month with Soomi) you still weren’t entirely used to the large amount of people. Thankfully, the second house was nearing completion and the occupancy would be cut in half. The downside, however, is that your getaway would no longer be available to you and Sehun.

“That’s still so weird,” Jongdae stage-whispered to Minseok.

The older wolf leaned back in his chair at the table to get a better look as you hopped down from Sehun’s back. “I think it’s cute.”

You thought that Sehun might send a snarky comment that way given his dislike of the “c” word, but to your surprise, he ignored them, going over to the counter and piling two plates high with food before herding you over to the table.

In front of you was more than enough food to keep you full for the next few hours. As you slowly eat the delicious breakfast that was so kindly prepared by Evie and Ming, you eyed Sehun from the side. He had something up his sleeve, you could feel it. He’d done this before; making sure you had your fill and then taking you out of the house for hours, not coming back until near dinner time.

You knew he did it for you, the alone time. In here, you could hardly turn around without stepping on somebody. So he’d take you where you could breathe again, where you could think without having to start over because someone fell or dropped something or started yelling. You were so used to the quiet and isolation. In the past, you would wish for this opposite. Apparently, the grass really is always greener.

Sehun was finished with his breakfast before you were halfway through your plate. Another indicator that he was up to something since usually he would only be just starting on his meal at this point. It was some primal instinct to make sure his mate was eating enough. At least he wasn’t a food hog.

When his plate was completely clear, Sehun stood up and dumped his dirty dishes in the sink. In a flash he was bounding back up the stairs. Harper, whose baby bump was just starting to show, raised an eyebrow at you questioningly from across the table. All you could do was shrug as you had about as much of a clue as she did.

When he came back, he had your favorite jacket in his hands along with your small backpack. With still no word to you, he filled two thermostats with fresh coffee before coming back over to the table.

“Are you done?” he asked, looking down at your mostly empty plate.

You nodded. “Yeah. Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“Maybe I don’t like surprises?”

“You’ll like this one.”

“Says who?”

“Me.”

“I don’t think you’re the authority on that.”

“I’m always the authority.”

“Really? Because I don’t th-”

“Oh, would you two please just go!” Jongdae whined.

You snickered, but did as he asked, getting up from the table and dropping your plate off while giving Evie an apologetic look.

She waved the look away. “Don’t worry about it. Go have fun. I know I’d like to have a nice romantic time in the woods.”

“I heard that.” Kris entered the kitchen with Mei in his arms.

“Just dropping hints,” Evie shrugged.

Kris went over and kissed her chastely. “I’d say that’s more than a hint.”

Taking you away from the scene, Sehun grabbed your hand and pulled you towards the back door. “Come on.”

Outside the wind chilled and bit at your nose. Sehun helped you with your jacket - which helped a bit - and backpack and then motioned for you to climb on his back.

“Still not going to tell me where we’re going?”

“Nope.”

“Of course.”

Sehun took off into the trees before you could respond. Everything blurred by you. There was no telling where he was headed or what he had in mind, so you simply rolled with it. Trying to figure it out was pointless anyway.

He finally came to a stop, breaking through the trees where a large lake sat calmly. With a pat to your thigh, he signaled for you to get down. Small gravel-like pebbles, smoothed by years of being washed by the tide crunched under your feet.

“I didn’t know this was here.” Your eyes wandering over the scenery. Even with the heavy gray skies above and the rippling waters, it was breathtaking.

“Not a lot of people do.” Slipping his fingers through yours, he tugged you a little closer to shore. He sat down and tried to get you to do the same.

“It’s cold,” you complained.

But all he did was smirk at your childish whine. “I’ll keep you warm.”

Well… how could you resist that?

Sitting down in front of him, a shiver ran up your spine as soon as your backside met the rocks. Just as he promised, he wrapped his arms around you and pulled you in close.

“It’s so quiet,” you whispered after a few minutes or so.

“That’s why I brought you here,” Sehun said. “I knew you need it more often than I do. I’ll bring you here whenever you want. The others come occasionally, but not so much anymore.”

Oh, wonderful. You could already feel your insides turning into mush and your eyes filling up with salty water. Twisting your body so you could look back at him, you didn’t even try to fight the smile spreading across your face.

“I love you.”

It was a like firework show exploding on his face. Or the sun finally breaking through the clouds after constant darkness.

You hadn’t been able to make yourself say those three little words to him yet. Though Sehun had no issues saying it, you’d found yourself stopping each time you tried. Was it the timing? The atmosphere? Your fear of commitment?

You couldn’t really say that you had a fear of commitment. Being with Sehun was easy, right. You weren’t scared of being tied to him for the rest of your life. Saying it was too soon almost felt like a cop-out because you knew how you felt about him.

Maybe you wouldn’t ever really know why you hadn’t said it back before. But you finally did and it felt so right.

Ecstatic at that sentence, Sehun pounced on you. Nearly all his weight was on you as you landed hard on the rocks. A soft “ow” escaped before you could stop it, sending Sehun into a panic. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

You smiled up at him before pushing up and kissing him. “I’m fine.”

He sighed with relief. “Good.” He cupped your cheek in him palm and said the words that were obvious in his eyes. “I love you.”

Fate had decided to play around and stick the wolf and the witch together. Mortal enemies by heritage, lovers by bond. It was a story for the ages, one that would echo through time along with the other great loves of history.  

“Well, then,” you laughed, “I guess we’re stuck with each other.”

Sehun nodded once before diving in for another kiss.