Luckily, Tao was allowed a day to get used to the idea of being a savior before they actually got down to the “saving” business.

How nice of them.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you looked at it), Kris declared that he had matters of the utmost importance to attend to so he couldn’t give Tao a tour.

Baekhyun had gasped at this. “Kris!” he stood up with a flourish. “What could you possibly have to take care of that takes precedence over being Tao’s tour guide? I thought I outlined your job description very clearly!”

Kris bowed once more, and Tao couldn’t tell if he was actually rolling his eyes under that shock of blonde hair. “I have to go find Kai.”

A look of “Ohhh...” passed over the king and queen’s faces. “How long do you think that will take?” Chanyeol said.

“I should be able to locate him in a timely manner. If I bring some spaghetti or something, he’ll probably be back by the time we start questing.”

“Questing?” Tao spoke up, finally.

“A quest for the buffalo.” Kris really did roll his eyes this time. “Haven’t you been paying attention at all?”

“Good!” Chanyeol either didn’t hear Tao or was ignoring their conversation. “I’ll have the cook make some spaghetti right away, then.”

“I still have my heart set on you giving our lovely savior a tour...” Baekhyun started sadly. Chanyeol whipped his head toward his queen and gasped.

“Baekhyunnie, don’t cry!” he all but shrieked. Then he grasped Kris’s shoulders and shook him. “Go forth, loyal guard Kris! Godspeed! May you find Kai quickly and bring him back here!”

Kris turned around and left before the king could push him out of the doors himself.
 

: :

The first productive thing Tao managed to do since arriving at O’lara was finding the kitchens. Not because that was where all the food was located--though that was helpful too--but because he met the cook, D.O., who seemed much more willing to explain what was going on to him.

“Wait,” Tao interjected before he started, “Your name is D.O.?”

“Um,” the kind-faced cook scratched the back of his neck and looked confused, “Yes?”

“Oh. Uh. Why?”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s just kind of an unusual name.”

D.O laughed. “Well, it’s not my real name. Chan--I mean, King Chanyeol started calling me D.O one day when we were maybe seven, and the name just kind of stuck. I don’t know how. It might have something to do with how he screamed it every time we saw each other, which was a lot. We grew up together.”

“The King seems very...um...eccentric.”

The cook seemed to understand his confusion entirely. “Oh, but he does a perfectly decent job ruling the kingdom, somehow. Baekhyun really balances him out, kind of grounds him a little.”

“...That’s him ‘grounded’?”

“Yep,” D.O smiled. “Theirs is a heartwarming story, as far as stories go. I’ll have to tell you about them later, but we’ll have all the time in the world once we get going.”

“Huh?”

“No one told you? Kris and I will be accompanying you on your journey. Also Kai; that’s why Kris has gone to go find him. He kind of disappears a lot. And Kris is your guard, by the way. I’ll be there to cook for you and tell you any history you need to know, and Kai...well, Kai’s just in case we ever need muscle or a fighting machine. But you seem like you could hold your own in fight pretty well without any of us.”

Tao took a moment to process all of this, eyes nearly as wide as D.O.’s. “I’m sorry, but...what journey? Or quest or whatever? I still have no idea what’s going on.”

D.O. laughed, setting down the cooking utensils he had in hand to sit in front of Tao. “Alright, so you know buffaloes are sacred in O’Lara, right?” The look in the cook’s eyes dared him to disagree.

“Uh...yes. Buffaloes. Can’t live without those...wonderful mammals.”

“Exactly! See, you’re catching on really quickly! Anyway, a few years ago, they started disappearing. Going extinct, if you will. We absolutely can’t let that happen, so we’ve been trying everything we can to keep their numbers up. The only thing is that we have no idea what’s causing them to disappear. It’s gotten so bad that it’s not enough to just find the root of the evil and vanquish it anymore; we need you and your powers to go back in time and prevent it from ever happening! Our next job is to--”

“Okay, sorry! Wait! I swear, I don’t have any powers. I mean I tried, like, Chinese acupuncture once and they promised miraculous results, but I’m pretty sure I can’t do anything like this time-travel thing...”

D.O. put a comforting hand on his shoulder. Or if would have been comforting, if the cook hadn’t also widened his eyes in an attempt to look sympathetic. As it was, his face just looked really worried (but then he smiled and it was okay). “Don’t worry about that. We’ve all had to have our powers awakened, and Kris will help you with it. He might have a cold face, but he really is a sweet guy deep, deep down.”

“Deep, deep down?”

“Well, not too deep. Maybe just deep. Might even be in the shallow end. Ah, just depends on the time of day, I guess. But anyway! Like I was saying, our next job is to go on a journey to find out what is taking away all of our buffaloes so we take the proper steps to fix it. We’ll work on your time traveling skills in the meantime. You good with all of that?”

Tao shrunk into his seat. “I guess I have to be...”

: :

Kris showed up a few hours later at dinner time, looking slightly worse for wear and dragging a shirtless man behind him.

Well, okay, so the man wasn’t actually shirtless. He might as well have been though, because the bedazzled vest he was wearing didn’t really doing much covering.

“Oh, where’d you find him this time?” Baekhyun asked Kris as he walked into the dining hall.

“Flower shop.”

“Huh. That’s a new one.”

The not-quite-yet-but-almost-shirtless man, presumably Kai, clasped a hand on the queen’s shoulder while the other held an obnoxiously large bouquet of pink and red roses. “I had to try something new, you know?” Then, finally noticing Tao’s presence, his face lit up and he took a large step towards him. “Well hey, new guy! Damn, you’ve got some fine biceps!” Kai lightly punched his arm and gave him a sultry wink.

Tao felt very much disturbed. I’m judging you, he thought in the back of his mind. Judging you right now.

“Kai?” a soft voice called from behind him. “Why do you have so many flowers?” Tao turned to see D.O. wiping his hands down and taking his apron off.

Kai literally jumped, almost missing his landing when he came back down. “Soo! Um, hi! Uh,” His face suddenly flushed bright red and he seemed to shrink in size. “I--um...uh, I-I got these for you!” He the flamboyant bouquet at the cook’s face so quickly that even D.O.’s eyes couldn’t register what exactly had been shoved before him.

D.O. blinked a few times and backed up. “For me?” his face stretched into a smile, and Kai’s whole being started to glow as if he’d swallowed the sun previously and it was now seeping out of his pores. D.O. took the flowers from him and beamed. “Thanks! I knew I could count on you to remember when the hall’s flowers needed to be refreshed!”

Kai immediately deflated.

“You’re right on time, too. Wow!” the cook continued. “How’d you notice before I did?”

“Um...beginner’s luck...?” Kai whimpered, looking like he was about to cry.

Tao felt a pang of sympathy and vowed to reevaluate his initial revulsion towards the man. D.O. had already started putting the roses in the vases on the tables.

Meanwhile, King Chanyeol was twitching and clapping his hands together in what seemed to be an attempt at silent laughter.

: :

The queen adopted Tao next, after seeing him walking around aimlessly and doing little more than mistaking empty suits of armor for attackers. Upon seeing him, Tao hurriedly bowed--taking care to glance out the side of the eyes to make sure that the armor really wasn’t about to jump him.

Queen Baekhyun laughed. “You don’t need to bow for me, dear,” he said as he motioned for Tao to stand up. “As our savior, we owe you our thanks too.” Tao obliged, and up close he was blown away once more by the queen’s bright smile and remarkably fabulous...guyliner. He wasn’t sure what exactly he was supposed to say in front of royalty, so he opted for nothing.

Baekhyun kept smiling.

After a moment of awkward silence (though Tao might have been the only one who felt it), Baekhyun grabbed his hand and started to lead him toward the stairs. “We haven’t shown you to your room, yet!” he exclaimed. “It’s wonderful; I decorated it myself.”

Tao nodded. “Thank you,” he said.

“Oh, it’s no problem at all.”  Baekhyun waved his hand. “That room’s been set aside for you ever since forever, anyway. Also, Kris is going to be your roommate! … He’s the most attractive guard we could find,” he added when Tao didn’t say anything.

“Uh...thank you,” he said finally.

Baekhyun grinned. “Oh, I knew you’d like him! He’s single by the way.”

“I...uh...that wasn’t really what I was thinking...”

“Psh, that’s what they all say. See D.O. and Kai? I have made it my personal goal for the year to get those two together by the time it’s over. Although, it’s really just a matter of getting D.O. to open his eyes--wait. I mean...getting D.O. to open his metaphorical eyes? You know what I’m saying?”

Tao continued to nod mutely.

“You agree with me!” The queen reached up and gave him a hug. “Oh, we’ll get along splendidly, won’t we? You’re such a dear!”

“Sweetie!” a deep voice yelled from down the hallway. “You wanna let the boy rest for the day now? He’s been through a lot!”

Tao gaped as the king came strolling towards them. Did something...reasonable just come out of his mouth?

“Also, I need you so we can take our evening stroll through the dandelion fields!”

His queen looked up at him with hearts in his eyes and quickly led Tao to a door ten feet from them. “Here it is!” he said, happiness somehow doubled by the presence of the only person whose smile was bigger than his. “If you need anything, just call Kris and he’ll come! Eventually! He still needs to give you that tour, anyway. Or if you’re really desperate, yell for Kai and he might teleport to you! No guarantees, though! Bye, and enjoy your stay!”

Tao watched the royal couple frolic off and gave a sigh as he pushed the door open. Upon seeing his room, he gasped in awe and stared. Just...stared. Apparently when Baekhyun said he’d decorated it, he meant that he’d littered panda plushies all over the furniture.

Tao smiled for the first time that day. He could get used to this.

a/n: Hi guys, Five here! Thank you all so much for your love for the story so far. <3 We'll try to update at least once a week.