Chanyeol had hoped that his overheating symptom would go away after a day of rest. But, ever since a few days ago when he and his friends had done some 'pseudo-training' in the royal courtyard, he's been noticing how much his body temperature is rising.

 

At first, Baekhyun wouldn't even bat an eye when they'd hold hands or sleep in their shared bed together, but what finally made Chanyeol realize that it's gotten bad is when he wakes up to find Baekhyun not clinging to his back like usual.

 

In fact, when he springs out of bed, he finds Baekhyun snoring on their room's sole carpet, and moves closer with furrowed eyebrows before he immediately stops when he sees Baekhyun squirm in his sleep and whine that it's too hot. And the thing is, Baekhyun's the only one out of his group of friends that could ever truly withstand Chanyeol's natural body heat, due to his power of light giving him a strong immunity. So, if even Baekhyun is feeling the heat, then Chanyeol definitely has to do something about this.

 

With a deep frown, Chanyeol groggily leaves their shared room and knocks on Suho's room door before he hears a tired Come in, and opens the door to step inside. Suho's just currently chilling on his bed, though when he sees that it's Chanyeol he tells him to wait before he grabs for a large cup of water beside his bed and chugs it all down real quick.

 

"Damn, how'd I not notice how bad it's gotten for you guys?" Chanyeol asks, more to himself as he stands there and watches.

 

"I dunno, but judging by the literal heatwaves you're giving off right now, you're getting hotter every day," Suho responds with a frown. Chanyeol then opens his mouth to make a joke but he cuts him off. "Thankfully, I'm not feeling it too much when you're over there but Chanyeol--" His expression turns concerned. "--this can't go on any longer. You know that, right?"

 

Chanyeol in his lips until they form a thin line. "I know. But, you heard that doc when they stopped by the other day..."

 

A few days ago, Tao's parents had called in a doctor that specializes in fire to try and help treat Chanyeol's overheating symptom, only for the person to basically tell him that they've never seen a case like this in an adult in all of their years of practice. And that usually only kids first becoming in tune with their fire powers get this overheating symptom, and thing is, Chanyeol had actually dealt with this symptom as a kid himself. But for some reason, this time around it doesn't just feel like some weird second puberty thing, it feels like it's something way more serious.

 

---

 

After their other friends wake up, Suho gathers everyone into the living room to come up with a plan to help Chanyeol. Xiumin then comes up with the idea of bringing him to the coldest city all the way up north but Chanyeol quickly shakes his head and shivers at the thought. (Fortunately for the others, he's sitting all the way at the other end of the room so that no one feels his heat radiating too much. For Chanyeol though, he feels like a stranger on a deserted island and whines to the others about this feeling while they continue planning--some things more outrageous and outlandish than serious.)

 

But then, Lay brings up the Tree of Life and everyone pauses as they take this possibility in. "Who better than the one that created our magic in the first place, right?" Lay then says.

 

", true," Chen responds, and basically everyone else agrees too.

 

And so, after a bit more talking, Suho announces that it's decided (even after the rest of them had decided unanimously) and Lay just chuckles while Chanyeol rolls his eyes at Suho.

 

---

 

The trip to the Tree of Life from the royal city thankfully doesn't take longer than a few hours as they go from taking Luhan's private train to walking into the heavily guarded sanctuary that leads to her highest majesty. And with Luhan there, donned in his royal prince attire, it's as easy as the guards seeing him and then immediately bowing as they open the large doors to let the eleven of them inside.

 

(It would've been the twelve of them but Kris had gotten a call earlier in the morning from his mom requesting his help back in their home province. So, while the eleven of them took a private train to the Tree of Life, Kris took another one in the opposite direction. Of course, they feel his lack of presence and specifically the lack of corny jokes and such, but Chanyeol can't wait to have a new story to tell Kris once they all return back home and Kris returns in an expected week or so.)

 

Anyway, the path inside starts off full of cobblestones before it soon naturally fades to dirt the further in that they walk. And all around them lies a forest of the healthiest looking trees, with little fairy sprites flying this way and that, a small river flowing at the left, and when they look up, they notice just how bright the sun is here since there seems to be no roof to speak of.

 

Right beside Chanyeol (though unfortunately with a bit of distance between them), Baekhyun's just silently admiring the scenery before he seems to notice him staring and turns to grin up at him. Chanyeol softly smiles back before he turns his head to look ahead and frowns as he gets a sudden weird sensation in his stomach. It's that lowkey uncomfortable feeling one gets sometimes, like a fight or flight sensation.

 

And apparently, he's not alone in having this feeling since the others up ahead stop and everyone turns to look at each other with confused or now worried expressions.

 

"Do you guys feel that?" Kyungsoo's the first to ask, thick eyebrows furrowed while he nervously in the side of his bottom lip.

 

"Yeah, it's like--I can't even explain it," Luhan replies. "But something doesn't feel right."

 

Chanyeol then looks past him to look further down the path where it soon seems to go down and down into seemingly nothingness.

 

"Do you think it's her majesty? Like what if she's..." Sehun nervously asks before trailing off. The word 'in trouble' seems to be on the tip of his tongue but he dares not speak that aloud.

 

"No-no, it can't be that," Suho replies, waving his hand dismissively.

 

"Yeah, wouldn't the guards have told us if anything was wrong?" Xiumin adds.

 

"...So then what's this feeling?" Chen quietly asks to no in particular. He's currently huddling into himself, and Chanyeol has to fight the urge to go over and hug him. Thankfully, Lay notices and turns to rub Chen's back to comfort him.

 

No one says anything for a moment before Kai announces that he'll check out the rest of the path with his mental map real quick. They all let out Alright's and Okay's and then watch as Kai squeezes his eyes shut to focus on moving about the place with his porter ability. Usually, when he's done this in their presence, Chanyeol would be the first to silently make fun of the hilarious expressions that he makes while focusing, but this time he simply in his lips as he imagines practically everything under the sun.

 

Not even a few seconds later, Kai's eyes open while he gasps, effectively making most of them flinch or curse at the suddenness.

 

"Wha--what'd ya see, baby?" Kyungsoo asks him.

 

"Well, it's not really what but who," Kai replies before he turns to look at the rest of them. "It was her greatness. I'd made it down the path and saw her greatness being tended to by a few tree nurses, and for some reason like, even though she obviously doesn't have a face, I-I felt like she could see me just then."

 

"But was she okay? Did she seem weak or...?" Luhan asks.

 

"Nurses? Why are there nurses there?" Baekhyun adds.

 

"So should we continue down then?" Sehun asks at the same time, turning to look down the path.

 

Kai lets out a determined Yeah, I think we should.

 

"Alright," Suho responds, and even with that strange feeling in their stomachs, the eleven of them begin cautiously walking down the rest of the sloping path.

 

---

 

A minute or two later, that strange feeling seems to get stronger as they all finally start seeing the Tree of Life after having to climb up a steep- hill to reach her branches. And just like Kai had told them, there are a few nurses around her that are tending to some gashes in her highest majesty's shining brown bark before they stop for a second as they hear them approaching.

 

The nurses' eyes then widen at the sight of Luhan before they quickly bow and ask how they may help his highness. But Luhan seems more interested in the Tree of Life as he gapes up at the height and beauty of her highest majesty from her glow to her vibrant swaying leaves, and so Xiumin steps up as he politely asks the nurses what happened to her.

 

One of the nurses furrows their eyebrows at him as they say, "The red force."

 

Chanyeol frowns at their tone and response before the other nurse beside them speaks up in a nervous tone. "Oh, my sincerest deepest apologies! Eh-heh, Frances here is um fairly new to our land so he didn't know about your highness' and friends' evacuation...And so, yes, uh though the red force got driven out a few years ago, their attack on her highest majesty has still unfortunately left an impact to this day. Again, so very sorry for Frances' discourteous response."

 

"And...how long have you three been on duty to help her highest majesty?" Suho asks, eyes narrowed.

 

Simultaneously, the three nurses say 'one year', 'two years', and 'a month' and the Frances one darts their eyes left to their compatriots before they look back at the eleven of them and then quickly look away again.

 

"Alright, well I'll be sure to let your boss know of the royal palace's appreciation for your help in nursing her most esteemed majesty back to health," Luhan says in his royal tone. "Though, now I'd like to ask a favor of you three, if that's alright?"

 

"Oh! Of course, your highness," one of the nurses say, and the other two echo her statement.

 

With a fake, bright grin, Luhan continues, "We'd like to converse with her most esteemed majesty in private, if you three don't mind."

 

"Oh yes, sure sure, let us not be in the way!" the third nurse immediately responds, before they and the other two quickly start packing up their things and head out on their way. They bow as soon as they pass them by, and Chanyeol narrows his eyes at the shady nurse before they've scurried down and then up the hill and have completely left the vicinity.

 

"...Okay, is it just me or was that Frances guy really in' sus?" Lay's the first to ask.

 

And that breaks some of the tension as a few of them laugh and agree.

 

"Yeah, I'll definitely get that sorted out afterwards, don't worry," Luhan says before he runs a hand through his coiffed hair and seems to relax a bit.

 

"A.k.a. you're gonna get that dude fired, right?" Chanyeol asks.

 

Luhan just winks at him and Chanyeol laughs. Meanwhile, Lay, Kyungsoo, Kai, and Xiumin have already walked closer to her highest majesty and move to sit down before her. Baekhyun and Chen dramatically call out Hey, wait for us! as they rush over to do the same, and then the rest of them quickly follow suit as they sit down and close their eyes.

 

Long gone is that strange feeling in their stomachs as they sit there and meditate, and instead a lovely, bright feeling of pure unadulterated joy flows through their bodies and minds as the Tree of Life makes contact with them all just as the legends said that she would.

 

"Hello, my dears."

 

Chanyeol smiles and can somehow feel the others smile as they greet her in return.

 

"My, your journey has been very long and weary, I see...But despite that, you've made it back home to see me...So, what brings the eleven of you here, hm?"

 

"Our friend Chanyeol here," Luhan's the first to say in this shared mindspace. "Something's wrong with his powers and we were wondering if you might know how to help him, your most esteemed majesty."

 

"'Wrong', hm?"

 

Chanyeol then laughs at the ticklish feeling he gets as the Tree of Life seems to mentally examine his spirit. Baekhyun and the others quickly ask him if he's alright and he simply laughs out a Yeah, I'm good. Then, when she's done examining him, the Tree of Life lets out a curious hum and tells them all of her findings.

 

"Hmm, it seems to be that you're simply acquiring your second power, my dear."

 

And at that, gasps and loud exclamations of What?! sound out amongst Chanyeol and his friends.

 

"S-second power? Me?" Chanyeol sputters in disbelief.

 

It's a very, very rare occurrence for someone with one power to get a second one later in life. In fact, Chanyeol's pretty sure that there's only like ten recorded entries in the history books of people who even got a second power.

 

"Yes, my dear. You were born with the spark of a phoenix in you."

 

"Wait, so y-you're telling me I'm the descendant of a phoenix? Really?!"

 

The tree lets out a bright, ethereal laugh. "Yes dear, you are."

 

"Holy , Chanyeol--that's so in'--" Sehun whispers before immediately getting scolded by Kyungsoo for the language in front of her highest majesty. "--I mean, wow chum that is so totally rad!"

 

A few laugh at that, including the Tree of Life, before Baekhyun asks the question that Chanyeol was gonna ask her next.

 

"So, um your most gracious majesty, is there any way to speed up the process of this without Chanyeol turning supernova or something? 'Cause even right now I can feel his heat beside me and, normally I'd love that but lately it's gotten to be too much."

 

"Wow Baekhyun, only you," Kyungsoo drily replies, and Tao giggles.

 

"What?"

 

"'Normally I'd love that'~" Kyungsoo imitates in a funny voice, and Kai and Sehun burst out into laughter. "Like I promise you, nobody asked."

 

And though Chanyeol can't see him since it's only the others' voices that he hears, he just knows that Baekhyun did the biggest eyeroll known to mankind just then. But before he can retort with a funny joke, the Tree of Life speaks up again as she informs them all that there is actually a way that Chanyeol can get his second power at a quicker rate.

 

"Have you all heard of The Forest of Fire and Lava?" she asks.

 

They all inform her no, though Chanyeol has the vaguest memory of hearing a legend about the place as a kid.

 

"Well, residing in that land is one of my children who is the first being to ever harness and spread my fire magic. He goes by many different titles now but to me he'll always be my little one full of flaming charisma," she says in a loving tone. "He's one of the first birds that I'd stumbled upon all of those eons ago who didn't seem adverse to being near me as I practiced and honed my fire, and eventually after a bit of practice himself, he'd learned to hone it as well and inevitably embody it."

 

"Holy--guys--we definitely gotta go there!" Chanyeol exclaims. It's actually been a dream of his to meet a phoenix one day!

 

"Yes, I highly recommend that you do so. He will be the best help for you during this time..." Suddenly, she lets out a sigh. "I feel a tad regretful that there's not much else that I can do to aid you besides giving this guidance...In my current state, if I tried to alter your body-clock to lessen your natural overheating symptom, I'd accidentally reset your knowledge of fire too."

 

Chanyeol instantly winces at the thought of losing his fire, but instead of be that possibility, he instead thanks her for all that she's done and the others end up thanking her graciousness as well.

 

With a happy tone again, she lets out a Oh, you're most welcome, dears and then bids them farewell and good luck before ending the connection and thus separating them from the shared mindspace. Slowly, Chanyeol's eyes open and he turns to look around at his friends, their expressions going from serene to contemplative and serious. Well, until Luhan curses since he forgot to ask her graciousness about that shady nurse that they all saw earlier.

 

Xiumin places a hand on Luhan's shoulder and says, "Hey, we all forgot to ask her, Lu--don't feel bad. And I mean even though that nurse from earlier was definitely off, if they were trying to harm her esteemed majesty, I doubt it's been working."

 

"Ahh, I guess. Eh why does it matter--I'm putting in a complaint about them once we leave here anyways," Luhan replies, and Xiumin just smiles.

 

Then the two of them move to get up first and dust the dirt and grass off of their clothes, before the rest of them follow suit as they all continue talking and move to leave.

 

Everyone then ends up taking one last look back at the ever-gracious Tree of Life, and Chanyeol can't help but feel some relief at the thought of this all being over soon.

 

---

 

"You said it's how far from here?" Baekhyun asks Kyungsoo, incredulously.

 

They'd all made it back home and are currently in the living room where Kyungsoo's just looked up how far the forest of fire and lava is from the royal city. Apparently, by train it'll take a full day to get there.

 

Thankfully, Lay (the continuous voice of reason today) then reminds the two of them that Luhan has his own private train and so the time of arrival would most likely be cut in half compared to if they used a public train like the search engine on his mirror-phone is suggesting.

 

Baekhyun groans out a Ugh, still though and lays his body across Kyungsoo who grunts and immediately shoves him off. Meanwhile, across from them Tao excitedly pats Sehun's thigh at the thought of them all travelling together and Sehun just smiles at him. Next to them, Suho and Xiumin are conversing over how much it'll cost to get everyone (sans Chanyeol) some heatproof suits and bags and specifically ones with advanced water-retention features for the two of them. And Lay's texting someone on his mirror-phone, his legs resting across Chen's lap, while the latter is talking to Kai and Luhan about some random Earth TV show that he really wishes he could watch still.

 

Chanyeol's again at the far end of the room, but the others always manage to include him in their conversations at certain points and he ends up making stupid jokes to see his friends laugh and just pass the time as they make a plan to set out tomorrow.

 

---

 

Very early the next morning, after Chanyeol puts on some casual, warm weather clothes and the others don on their white heatproof suits and bags (at a heavily discounted price due to Luhan's royal presence), they all head towards Luhan's privately-owned train. (If they'd decided to take an airship, it'd probably take them half the time of the train, but with Luhan's extreme fear of heights and lack of a personal airship, they all wouldn't be able to snatch tickets for one until about a whole month later.)

 

So, they all step into the train's large single cabin, and converse and laugh as the train zooms on by different terrains and provinces. Every few hours, the train conductor stops the train for everyone to take a break and walk around outside and such, and some of them voice their desires of them all travelling the world for fun someday. Luhan smiles and says that they definitely should, though of course they all know that he'll forever have Princely duties keeping him tied to the royal city until he's King.

 

Either way, none of them voice that as they continue chatting, and Chanyeol wistfully looks out at the beautiful maritime scenery as the train currently flies low over the Southern Sea.

 

---

 

At some point, Chanyeol falls asleep until he's nudged awake much later by Baekhyun who whispers to him that they've finally arrived at their destination. Chanyeol shivers a bit at the proximity and revels over how nice it feels to have Baekhyun actually by his side like this again. Though when he looks at him, he sees Baekhyun's face and body mostly covered by his suit's white protective metal material. Luckily, he can see his boyfriend's crinkled eyes through the clear reflective visor though and with a smile growing, Chanyeol leans in to hug him for a nice, long moment.

 

Baekhyun immediately hugs him back and squeezes as he nuzzles his face (albeit a bit awkwardly with the suit) into the crook of Chanyeol's neck.

 

"I've missed this," he then murmurs.

 

"Me too," Chanyeol whispers before he closes his eyes for a moment. Who knows how long it'll be before he can hug him like this again.

 

Eventually, they pull away and both look like they want to kiss each other but obviously that just won't work with their current situation. So instead, Baekhyun reaches for his hand to hold and they interlock fingers/gloves before Baekhyun leads Chanyeol over to the others who've apparently already exited the train a while ago.

 

"Damn, took you two long enough," Sehun chides with a teasing smile as they step out of the train.

 

Chanyeol just lifts his middle finger at him before Sehun mock-gasps and places a hand over his chest. The two of them then inevitably tease each other for a moment before Suho tells them to stop and gets no response as they continue even louder. Then, it's Xiumin who sternly tells them to quit it and immediately they stop and turn to look at him.

 

Suho's lips part at this while Xiumin's eyes crinkle as he takes on the pseudo-leadership role for once, meanwhile Luhan's just waving at the train conductor who calls out that she'll be over at the next city, waiting for his call to return home.

 

Luhan lets out a Sure thing! and all of them then thank her for the smooth train ride to which she grins and bows at. Then, just like that she heads back inside the train and a few seconds later, they all watch as the train reverses its body and then zooms away towards the north, up a hill and through some tall cloudy mountains, and then away from sight.

 

"Alright, you guys--let's go!" Xiumin says with a determined grin as he points west towards an opening in the forest.

 

Luhan just looks at him all lovey-dovey and wraps an arm around his shoulders as they lead the way, with the other seven following after. Chanyeol and Baekhyun end up holding the rear, and Chanyeol leans down to quietly ask his sweetheart how Xiumin's so happy when this place should be like his worst nightmare come true.

 

"Hah, I think it's that water in his suit--I swear they put like fairy crack or somethin' in it," Baekhyun whispers, and Chanyeol lets out a soundless guffaw as they walk.

 

---

 

Many head-ducks from the tall- fire-trees and admiration over those protective suits actually doing their job later, they all finally come across a cave surrounded by what can only best be described as a moat of ever-flowing lava. Chanyeol's fairly sure that he could just walk in the lava barefoot but definitely can't say the same for his friends, even if they're wearing those heatproof boots.

 

Thankfully, Kyungsoo's one step ahead as he tells them all to stand back (which they all immediately do) and then lifts a foot and stomps down hard on the ground to lift a piece of it up. He then bends down and cautiously tests the ground's heat with his gloves before his shoulders relax a bit and he moves to grab and subsequently drop the long strip of land across the moat as some sorta bridge. Obviously, that flimsy strip of land won't be sturdy enough to hold anyone so he turns to Xiumin who quickly understands and stretches his arms out to create a large rectangular slab of ice. Once the ice slab is as big as the strip of land, he places it on top of the strip and everyone watches as the combination of the two causes steam to quickly rise.

 

"Run!" Xiumin then announces before he and Kyungsoo set off to jump and slide across the ice-bridge. Thankfully, they both make it to the other side safely and end up high-fiving each other.

 

", wait, wha--" Sehun says as he gets dragged towards the bridge by a laughing Tao.

 

They both then jump just like Xiumin and Kyungsoo did and Sehun uses his wind power to push down onto the bridge to give them a bit more time in the air. Once they land, the four of them then beckon for the others to join before Kyungsoo and Xiumin end up face-palming when Kai simply ports himself to the other side.

 

Kai just laughs. "What, did you two forget I could port?"

 

"No, but yes?" Kyungsoo sheepishly replies. "Ugh, maybe the heat's already getting to me."

 

"Hehehe honestly there were so many ways we could've gone about doing this, hon. Like Tao could've frozen time and Luhan could've lifted the lava away so we all could just walk here. Or Sehunnie could've pushed us all with his wind as we jumped or--"

 

"Or even this," Lay says as he calmly walks over the moat onto their side in his heatproof boots. All of them gape at that as the boots stay intact and he replies with, "What? Sometimes the best solution is the most simplest one. Dummies."

 

He then turns to Kyungsoo and Xiumin while the rest of them cross the moat to their side too. "It was pretty funny seeing how serious you two were just now though. I'll just blame it on the long train ride haha."

 

Kyungsoo in his lips, obviously at a loss for words, while Xiumin just shakes his head at himself. Luhan then moves to comfort him as he places an arm around his shoulders again, and this time Lay's the one that takes on the pseudo-leader role as he smiles and leads everyone into the large cave.

 

---

 

As they walk, Chanyeol feels a rush of nervous anticipation surge through him before Baekhyun seems to notice and gently squeezes his hand. He then glances down at his boyfriend and Baekhyun looks up, and with the way that his eyes soften through that visor, Chanyeol can already tell what he's trying to say.

 

Don't forget I'm here, okay? We all are, is what Baekhyun seems to be saying.

 

Chanyeol gives a small smile back and takes in a deep breath before he looks ahead again as the others stop at a divergence in the cave path. One path goes left and the other goes right. And at this, the others immediately turn to look at Chanyeol, and Suho asks him which way they should go.

 

Chanyeol furrows his eyebrows and replies, "Umm, how the heck would I know?"

 

"What, you're not getting some kinda like pull to one direction?" Sehun then asks.

 

Chanyeol shakes his head in amusement. "No, dude."

 

"Huh. Should we split up then?" Xiumin asks.

 

"No-no, let's just put it to a vote or something--" Suho starts.

 

"Or we could just try both, and if one's a dead end then we know the other one must be right, right?" Sehun replies.

 

"Or I could just use my mental map," Kai says at the same time.

 

"...But what if the dead end was actually the right end?" Baekhyun chimes in, seeming to not have heard Kai who understandably looks a bit frustrated now.

 

And just like that, Chanyeol and his friends start arguing for a bit, that is until Lay rolls his eyes and starts walking towards the right path. Everyone of course notices and tells him to wait up as they follow after him and continue talking as they all walk together.

 

And funnily enough, Lay's frustrated guess seems to have been the right one as they all begin feeling even hotter. (Chanyeol thought that it was just him, but he quickly notices with