Title: Acsoland
Fandom: Exo
Word Count: 3100++
A/N: My readers are so shy. C'mon guys, give me some feedback so that I'll know if you guys liked it or not. (T^T) Anyways, please enjoy this chapter!

 

 

 

Acsoland

 

Luhan hears a knock on the door, he turns around and sees Sehun standing at the door, holding a plate of nachos.

 

“Hey.” Sehun smiles. “Can I come in?”

 

“Come join me.”

 

Sehun sits down beside him, placing the plate between them.

 

“Why are you sitting outside here?”

 

“To look at the stars.” smiles Luhan. “And to get my mind off some things. May I eat this?”

 

“Sure.” replies Sehun, pushing the plate closer to Luhan. “You didn’t eat much at dinner, so I figured you’d be hungry.”

 

Luhan is munching on the nachos deliciously when he notices Sehun staring at his arm.

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

“Does it still hurt?” Sehun asks in a worried tone.

 

“Don’t worry about it.” Luhan laughs, hitting his right harm to prove that it doesn’t hurt. “Yixing healed me completely.”

 

“But it hurt when he is healing you.”

 

Luhan’s looks at Sehun’s worried expression, he quickly replies with a cheerful tone. “It did hurt a lot, but I’m okay now!”

 

“But why does it hurt? Magic shouldn’t hurt, should it?”

 

“Everything hurts,” Luhan smiles, gazing into Sehun’s eyes. “even magic.”

 

Sehun looks down, his face filled with guilt. “I’m sorry.”

 

“It wasn’t your fault. Even if it was your fault, it doesn’t matter because I’m alright now.”

 

Sehun looks at Luhan and smiles, “Thanks.”

 

They stare at the sky in silence for a while when Sehun suddenly yawns. Luhan smiles gently at Sehun’s embarrassed expression.

 

“Well, you better go to bed. It’s getting late.”

 

“Umm…” Sehun stands up, looking at the plate of nachos, not knowing what to do with it.

 

“Leave it here, I’ll eat it.” Luhan takes a piece and chomps it down.

 

“Goodnight, Luhan.” Sehun smiles, before exiting the room.

 

“Night.” Luhan waves to Sehun.

 

Luhan continues to stare at the stars after Sehun left.

 

 

 

 

 

He saw Kai today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Why did you let go of me?!” Luhan growls while he attempts to stop the creature with huge falling branches and enormous flying rocks as they’re running. He looks back and sees the creature getting closer and closer. He looks to his side and sees Sehun panting hard as he runs, ‘He is not going to get any faster.’ Luhan thinks. He stops in front of a large tres and attempts to pull it out. It’s harder than he thought it would be, but he succeeds to pull it out and he quickly hurls the tree towards the mothman as hard as he could.

 

 The mothman reaches out to him at that moment, grabbing his arm tightly, Luhan tears away, biting his lips in pain when the claws of the mothman scrapes at his arm, tearing his flesh open. He bites on his lower lip harder, swallowing the urge to scream in pain. The creature stops screeching all of a sudden, he turns and sees the lost boys running towards them.

 

“What is that thing?”

 

“It’s a mothman.” Luhan murmurs, his knees collapsing to the ground. The pain. It’s consuming him.

 

He blinks rapidly, he can hear the others rushing towards him. He looks up to the sky but something else catches his attention instead. He sees a boy, dressed in dark clothing, standing on top of a tree, faintly hidden by thick branches and leaves. Kai. He too is frozen like the mothman, looking down at them with icy cold eyes. Luhan shuts his eyes, the pain is too great for him to endure.

 

‘Kai?’ Luhan calls out silently in his mind. ‘What are you doing here?’

 

“Luhan?” He can hear Sehun’s voice, calling out his name.

 

He grips Sehun’s hand, he can feel nothing but extreme pain at this moment. The pain is getting stronger and greater, he knows that Yixing is healing his arm right now. After what seems like hours to Luhan, the pain slowly eases. His breathing finally steadied and he opens his eyes once again, Kai is still standing there.

 

Sehun suddenly embraces him into a hug, “Sorry, Luhan. I’m so sorry.”

 

He smiles and hugs him tighter. ‘This kid. What is there for him to be sorry for?’

 

“I’ll burn him to the ground.” He sees Chanyeol moving closer to the mothman.

 

“No.” he says quietly. He doesn’t like to harm creatures. “Let it be. Let’s go home.”

 

He glances at the tree one last time before going back to the lair. He wonders if the other lost boys saw Kai too. He smiles faintly, it’s been such a long time since he’s last seen his friend.

 

 

 

 

 

‘Why is Kai there?’ Luhan stares at the beautiful stars quietly. The stars are always peaceful and calming. He then sighs and goes back into his room. He crawls into his bed and falls asleep almost immediately.

 

 

*** 

 

 

“Jongin?” Kyungsoo looks up from his book, surprised that Kai suddenly appeared in his room.

 

“Miss me?” Kai smirks.

 

“Where have you been? You missed dinner.” Kyungsoo jumps out of his bed and runs towards Kai. “Are you hungry?”

 

“Cook for me, Kyungsoo.”

 

Kyungsoo smiles at Kai gently. “What do you want to eat?”

 

“My favourite dish.”

 

Kyungsoo says nothing but grabs Kai’s forearm, dragging him downstairs into the kitchen. Kai watches silently as Kyungsoo begins cutting some chicken legs and preparing some hot oil and flour. He sits down and waits patiently, and soon, the smell of fried chicken begins to fill the kitchen.

 

“Ta-da.” Kyungsoo smiles, placing a plate of fried chickens in front of Kai.

 

Kyungsoo watches as Kai takes a bite of a chicken wing. “So? How’s the taste?”

 

“Delicious as always.” Kai grins. Kyungsoo smiles in satisfaction and takes a seat beside Kai.

 

“Where were you today? Kris and I were worried sick.”

 

Kai takes another bite of the chicken wing before answering. “Luhan was hurt today.”

 

“Jongin, why didn’t you tell me that you were going to spy on them again?” Kyungsoo groans worriedly.

 

“They got attacked by a mothman.” Kai continues, his hands starting to tremble. “His arm was hurt.”

 

“What happened, Jongin?” He feels Kyungsoo’s hand landing on his shoulder, comforting him.

 

“I was watching them from on top of a tree. I accidentally slipped, I guess some small twigs fell to the ground, causing some noises. The mothman suddenly leaped towards them, but I couldn’t help them.” Kai looks away from Kyungsoo. “I couldn’t help them, Kyungsoo.”

 

“It wasn’t your fault.” Kyungsoo tries to get Kai to look at him. “Hey, you weren’t supposed to be there, how could you have helped?”

 

“His arm.” Kai continues. “There was so much blood.”

 

“He’s going to be okay, Jongin. Lay will heal him.”

 

“I tried to check up on him to see if he’s okay, but I couldn’t get in to the lair.”

 

“He’s going to be okay.” Kyungsoo says softly as he rubs Kai’s back to comfort him. “It wasn’t your fault.”

 

“What am I going to do?” Kai sighs. “As much as I hate him, I don’t like to see him getting hurt.”

 

Kyungsoo is speechless for a while. “Bring me with you next time. I miss them.”

 

Kai can only nod. He hates Luhan for banishing the three of them to this island, but he hates himself more because he still care for this friend who had hurt them so much.

 

“Finish your supper and let’s go to bed, Jongin.”

 

“You must be tired waiting for me.” Kai smiles, gazing into Kyungsoo’s beautiful eyes. “Go to bed first. I’ll see you in the morning.”

 

“Okay.” Kyungsoo nods and yawns. “Goodnight.”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“Wake up, Sehun.”

 

“I’m not done sleeping.” Sehun mumbles dreamily, putting his pillow on top of his face.

 

“Sehun, wake up!” He feels Tao shaking him vigorously.

 

“I’m up, okay?” Sehun says, still only half-awake “I’m up.”

 

He suddenly hears small giggles around the room. ‘What the—’

 

He sprang up from his bed, surprised to find that all of the lost boys are surrounding his brother’s bed.

 

“Tsk tsk… I didn’t know that you’re such a sleepyhead.” Luhan smirks, shaking his head and sighing exaggeratingly.

 

“Why are all of you in our bedroom?” Sehun asks, suspicious.

 

“Here.” Luhan throws a beautifully shaped sword on Sehun’s bed. “You’re going to learn how to use it today.”

 

***

 

 

 

The sword is heavier than Sehun thought it would be. All of them are standing in the middle of the forest, Chanyeol and Baekhyun have started sword fighting the minute they reached there, but they look like two five-year-old kids who are playing around with plastic swords.

 

“This is easy!” Tao says smugly while he swings his sword around gracefully, flipping his body into the air and landing on the ground with ease.

 

“Then we won’t have to worry about you then.” Suho smiles. “No, Chen. You’re doing it wrong. You’re supposed to lift it, not drag it on the ground.”

 

“Why aren’t the two of you practicing?” Sehun turns around to face Lay and Luhan, who are sitting on a huge rock eating popsicles.

 

“Because Yixing is the best of the best among us in sword fighting,” Luhan replies, on his strawberry flavoured popsicle, grinning at Sehun. “and I’m in charge here.”

 

Sehun rolls his eyes and sticks his sword onto the earth. “How am I supposed to swing this around when I can barely lift it for more than ten seconds?”

 

“Why can’t I use my power to protect myself instead?” Sehun whines.

 

“Because some of the monsters here cannot be killed by our powers.” Lay answers. “Can you kill a sea-serpent with water? Can you kill a hippogriff with wind? Can you kill a Jinn with fire?”

 

“I didn’t know that there’s so many monsters lurking around when I was invited to come here.” Sehun eyes Luhan accusingly.

 

‘What did you expect?’ Lay laughs. “This is Acsoland, not Neverland.”

 

“I never knew that they’re real.” Tao gasps. “I thought they’re only monsters created by people to scare kids.”

 

“The human mind cannot create creatures that are as amazing as these beasts.” Suho joins in. “They must have seen the creatures on Earth before to be able to tell stories about them.”

 

“The beasts from Acsoland sometimes cross over to Earth.” Luhan says sofly, creeping up on Sehun silently when Sehun is concentrating on Suho and pounces on him suddenly. Both Tao and Sehun gasp surprised by Luhan. “You’re lucky that you’re even alive because they can be pretty nasty.”

 

“How do they even cross to Earth?” Sehun asks curiously. ”Won’t they die before they even get to Earth? I mean we almost died even with Luhan’s help.”

 

“They don’t need oxygen to survive.” Baekhyun pipes in. Chanyeol and Xiumin are now poking each other playfully with their swords.

 

“Keep practicing guys. We’ve only been here for less than an hour.” Suho frowns sternly before turning back to Luhan and Lay. “Can one of you teach Sehun? I think Chen needs my help. A lot.”

 

They turn to Chen and see him stabbing a tree with his sword then dropping it and yelps in pain when the sword hit his foot. Suho sighs and walks over to Chen.

 

Lay and Luhan stares at each other for a second, both of them suddenly shout “Rocks, papers, scissors!” at the same time. Luhan held out a rock and Lay held out scissors. He grins in victory as Lay groans, jumping down from the rock to the ground.

 

“Okay. First, hold your sword like this.” Lay holds his sword up for Sehun to see clearly, demonstrating his position to him. "Grip it tight and firm. You wouldn't want it to fly away from your hand when you're fighting for your life.”

 

Sehun does as he is told and lifts his sword up with his right hand but no matter how he tries, he just can’t seem to find a comfortable spot for him to hold the sword.

 

“Like this, Sehun.” Lay says, holding the sword in front of Sehun again.

 

Sehun is still struggling with the position the sword when a hand suddenly meets the back of his right hand and wraps his fingers tightly onto the grip of the sword. Sehun turns his head to the left and sees a left arm holding the blade firmly to support its weight. Their position looks like Luhan is back-hugging Sehun in some ways.

 

“Hold it like this.” Luhan says softly, his face only a centimetre away from Sehun’s cheek. Sehun looks at Luhan from the corner of his eyes and nods, gripping the sword nervously. Luhan turns his head slightly to look at Sehun and says nothing for a while.

 

“Learn properly from Yixing. I don’t want you see you dead.” he whispers into Sehun’s ear before letting go, he then walks away to watch the others. Sehun takes a peek at Luhan, his face suddenly turns pink. ‘What was that all about?’ Sehun thinks to himself, as he takes another peek at Luhan.

 

“Focus, Sehun.” Lay smacks Sehun lightly with the grip of his sword.

 

“Sorry.” Sehun repositions himself and starts learning from Lay.

 

 

 

 

 

★⋱⋰★⋱⋰★⋱⋰★⋱⋰★

 

 

 

 

 

“They’ve been here for more than a month now, how are they coping?” Kris asks, playing with the fire on his fingertips. Kai watches as the fire dances with light steps, jumping from Kris’s thumb to his index finger, then to his middle finger and so on.

 

“They’re always playing around like usual.” Kai replies. “Their powers and sword fighting skills have improved.”

 

“Good.”

 

“So what’s the plan?”

 

“We’ll have to wait a bit longer to see how things actually work between them.” Kris has stopped playing with fire and is now looking at Kai. “Keep following them.”

 

Kai sighs bitterly, turning his face away from Kris, clearly annoyed by Kris’s order.

 

Kris stands up and sighs, putting his hand on Kai’s shoulder. “I know this is hard, Kai, but I need you. I cannot do this alone. Neither Kyungsoo nor I can teleport like you can. So, please?”

 

***

 

The chattering immediately died when Luhan walks into the dining room. Chanyeol and Xiumin are trying to hide their giggles while Suho shoots them death glares. Luhan smirks.

 

“Are you guys discussing about my birthday?” Luhan smirks again when he sees the lost boys looking at each other, dumbfounded. “Where’s Sehun? Why isn’t he discussing with all of you?”

 

Lay coughs awkwardly while Baekhyun hides his face behind Chanyeol’s back to laugh.

 

“Guys, keep discussing. Don’t mind me.” Luhan waves his fingers to show that they can resume their discussion. “I’m only here to get some water.”

 

Lay coughs again, elbowing Suho on the side.

 

 “Umm, Luhan?”Suho finally speaks, ruffling his hair awkwardly. “Would you like to, um, sit down with us?”

 

“Are you not going to give me a surprise?” Luhan frowns, confused.

 

“I can’t watch this anymore, the awkwardness is choking me.” Tao says. “We’re discussing about Sehun’s birthday, not yours, Luhan.”

 

“What?!” Luhan chokes on his water, Lay rushing to his side to pat him on the back.

 

“We’ve organized your birthday party already, Luhan.” Xiumin says hurriedly. “Please don’t be mad.”

 

“When is his birthday?” Luhan asks, drinking his water to ease the irritation on his throat that was caused by his previous coughing.

 

“April 12^th.”

 

“WHAT?!” Luhan splutters, choking on his water again. Lay pats him on the back, but this time Suho pulls him to his seat and force Luhan to sit down.

 

“Stop drinking water unless you want to be choked to death.” Suho says sternly, taking away his cup of water from him.

 

“What were you guys thinking?” Luhan scolds. “His birthday is only a day away from now! Why are you only telling me this now?”

 

“Shh.” Chanyeol puts a finger on his mouth. “Don’t be so loud, Luhan. You might wake Sehun.”

 

“Okay, where were we just now?” Suho sits down, focusing on Chen and Tao.

 

“Oh!” Tao claps his hand. “Bubble tea! He likes bubble tea!”

 

“What flavour?” Suho asks, jotting everything down onto his notebook.

 

“Luhan likes bubble tea too.” Lay grins.

 

“He likes choco bubble tea.” Tao answers.

 

“This is not working, guys.” Luhan sighs after reading the notes that Suho has jotted down. “Seriously? You’re really going to put a cake on the side of his face in the morning so he can wake up tasting the cake?”

 

Tao blushes, “That was what I wanted for my birthday.”

 

“What about this one here? Locking Sehun in his room that is going to rain ice-cream, and turning off all the lights. Wha—How do ou guys even get these kind of ideas?” Luhan frowns, shaking his head in defeat. He looks at Chanyeol, who is trying to cover his grin with his hands. “It was you who suggested this idea, didn’t you?”

 

“It would be so much fun!” Chanyeol says cheerfully, almost jumping. “He would be so shocked when we lock him in the room with no lights, but then he’d be so happy when ice-creams start to fall from the ceiling! C’mon Luhan, agree to this!”

 

Luhan frowns at Chanyeol who is pouting at him, shaking his head. “You got problems, Chanyeol.”

 

“Dang it.” Chanyeol sighs but he jumps up again. “But do it for my birthday, okay?”

 

“Just…” Luhan finally sighs in frustration. “Just use my birthday plans for Sehun’s birthday.”

 

“What?” Suho eyes widen, everyone gasp exaggeratingly.

 

“What what?” Luhan scratches the back of his head, not knowing why he is suddenly so shy at everyone’s attention. “Just do it, okay? I can live without a birthday party. Besides, you guys always have great plans when it comes to my birthday parties, so this time, instead of doing it for me, do it for Sehun, okay?

 

“But—”

 

“Just do it.” Luhan stands up, exiting the dining room. “And if you guys have already prepared any presents for me, give them to Sehun too, okay?”

 

“O……” Suho replies, stunned by Luhan’s behaviour. “kay.”

 

Luhan shuts the door behind him, he can hear the chattering starting again. He walks down the corridors and opens Sehun’s bedroom door. ‘That’s funny. I thought they said that Sehun is taking a nap. Is he sleeping in his brother’s room again?’ Luhan walks to Tao’s room but Sehun isn’t there either. He finally walks to Chen’s room, standing outside the door whispering Sehun’s name softly. No answer.

 

He pushes the door until it opens slightly and peeks through the gap of the door. He sees half of Sehun’s body sprawled over half of the bed. He walks into the room with light and quiet footsteps, afraid to that he might wake Sehun up. He sits on the edge of the bed, watching Sehun silently.

 

Sehun looks like a three-month-old baby when he is sleeping. His expression looks so peaceful and pure. His breathing is steady, and he moves his toes every now and then. Luhan smiles at the sight of Sehun sleeping.

 

“Sehun, ” Luhan whispers as he brushes Sehun’s bangs away from his eyes. “I’m going to find you a birthday present. You’ll like it right? Happy birthday, Oh Sehun.”