“They’re really not here yet?”

Jongin paced back and forth along one side of the large round table Yixing, Kris, and Luhan currently sat around sipping steaming coffee from fancy mugs.

“They’ll be here soon,” Lay reassured and grabbed one of his lover’s hands to stop his incessant movement “Sit down and drink your coffee before it gets cold” he pushed out the chair next to him and motioned for Jongin to take a seat. Kai sighed and was about to comply when an idea struck him and he frantically clawed his cellphone out of his front pocket.

“I’m going to call Baekhyun,” He stated and dialed the number on memory “I swear he better-“  before he could put the phone to his ear Baekhyun’s ringtone echoed in the café.

Jongin’s head snapped up to the front doors and his jaw dropped as Chanyeol and Baekhyun walked in and over to them looking slightly disheveled and breathing heavily.

“We’re not late are we?” Baekhyun smiled apologetically before giving his and Chanyeol’s coffee preferences to a nearby waitress.

“Ye-“

“Only a little bit, we haven’t been here long ourselves” Yixing said cutting Kai off abruptly. Jongin furrowed his eyebrows defeated as Yixing closed his phone and ushered him into his seat.

“Oh good” Baekhyun smiled relieved and took his seat next to Jongin “We got a bit…” he looked up at Chanyeol who had a wide knowing grin on his face “Distracted.”

Luhan smiled in giddy disbelief and nudged Chanyeol as he sat down between himself and Baekhyun. Chanyeol’s deep voice and Luhan’s much lighter one mingled in hushed whispers between them along with the occasional rumbling laugh and stifled giggle.

Kris could only imagine what kind of crazy ideas they were putting in each other’s heads. He didn’t have to guess at the nature of the conversation though, if the interested twitch of Luhan’s thigh under his hand was any indication.

He was about to attempt another tease on his bubbly boyfriend when he felt fingers playing with his hair. There was just one problem:

They weren’t Luhan’s.

Kris put on his best face and turned to his right where Yixing was staring at him with an idiotic grin on his lips as he twirled a few locks of Kris’ dirty blonde hair around his index finger.

“Should I even ask?” Kris questioned, unamused by Lay’s childish affections.

 “No~ I’m bored Wufan, pay attention to me~” Yixing cooed in the way that made Kris roll his eyes every time he heard it.

“I am paying attention to you.” Kris deadpanned and blew the steam off the top of his coffee before taking a drink and setting the mug back down “And now I’m done.” With that, Kris’ attention shifted to Baekhyun and Jongin who were taking selcas and exchanging photos with their phones having a whale of a time.

“Nevermind,” Kris turned back to Yixing “Say something manly or I might just die”

Yixing seemed to think about it for a while but eventually replied with a restrained smile.

“.” He managed to keep a straight face and Kris’ expression soured.

“That’s not what I meant” Kris huffed annoyed but Yixing only laughed and lightly slapped his cheek.

“Who’re you texting?” Luhan suddenly piped up as he took note of Baekhyun typing away on his cellphone.

“Tao,” Baekhyun answered with a bright smile “He’s out on his first date with Sehun today~” he sing-songed excitedly as he sent another text Tao’s way.

“And I have Sehun” Kai smiled devilishly and held up his phone to show he was texting Sehun.

“Do they like each other?” Luhan inquired, now interested in the new development.

“As far as we could tell” Jongin replied.

“We figure if it doesn’t work, hey, it doesn’t work,” Baekhyun said and paused as the waitress from earlier set his and Chanyeol’s coffee in front of them. He thanked her and poured extra cream into his mug before continuing “But if it does work,” he grinned “we can tell people it was because of us that they’re together”

“Well I want in on this too!” Luhan chirped and fished his phone out of his pocket “I’ll text Sehun”

“Not that you guys aren’t quite the match makers, but don’t you think they’d like to be on their date in peace?” Kris asked sensibly but he couldn’t deny that his interest had been piqued as he leaned into Luhan to watch the texts come and go. Yixing and Chanyeol did the same respectively.

“Where are they?” Chanyeol inquired as he went back and forth between Baekhyun and Luhan’s phone, sipping his coffee as he did so.

“The amusement park as far as I know,” Baekhyun answered “Tao’s been wanting to go on the rides and try his luck at the games, and you know how much they both love junk food, it’s the perfect place~”

A different waitress politely interrupted the group’s chatter to see if they wanted anything to eat with their coffee. After a little bit of discussion, they managed to agree that muffins would be best and ordered a mixed basket of the heavy pastries.

“They’re going on rides now, Tao’s turning off his phone” Baekhyun informed the rest of the table before putting his phone away and taking an audible drink from his mug.

“Yeah, Sehun’s turning his off too” Jongin said as he and Luhan stashed their phones in their pockets soon after.

“This is exciting!” Yixing hummed with a large smile that only widened when the basket of muffins was brought out and placed in the middle of the table. Kai thanked the waitress and quickly snatched the only chocolate chip muffin atop the mound.

Kris nodded his agreement and pulled a fruit filled muffin from the edge of the basket for Luhan and a cinnamon one for himself. Chanyeol and Baekhyun each took blueberry and Yixing grabbed the other fruit filled one like Luhan’s.

Conversational chatter and laughter rose up between the six once again over their lunch time snacks. Chairs were moved and places were swapped depending on who wanted to talk one on one with who if it wasn’t a group conversation. As it was, Baekhyun and Yixing now sat next to one another and seemed completely engrossed in their topic of discussion. They had squished themselves together as close as they could and gave a flirty nudge here and there but were completely comfortable as they were. Luhan and Jongin had found each other again and were now sharing the same coffee mug and splitting their third muffin over giggly chatter not unlike that of flustered schoolgirls. Kris and Chanyeol were in the middle of what they all jokingly called “Story Time with Chanyeol”. Most of which were about, or included, all the interesting or weird people Chanyeol worked with over the border.

Kris absentmindedly sipped at the remainder of his coffee as he listened to the hyperactive redhead excitedly go on about his apparently very busy work day before the weekend. Kris decided Chanyeol hadn’t stopped smiling that big infectious grin of his since he sat down. Kris didn’t mind though, he liked Chanyeol; the other had a way of making people around him happy.

Kris had met Baekhyun and Chanyeol much the same way he’d met Yixing. He was beginning to think if you knew any one of the people currently seated around the table you would know them all within three days. Maybe even less.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun had been unexpected but, like Yixing and Jongin, had wriggled into the equation that accounted for six best friends that filled everyday with smiles and laughter. There was no odd one out, even with six, everyone got along with each other and seemed to only grow closer with each tic of the clock. There was no such thing as awkwardness anymore between friends like this.

Kris couldn’t think of any other way to put it. They were inseparable, all of them.

Sehun and Tao were a little different. The group had only known them for about 4 months. They were a bit younger and hadn’t quite gotten past their need for independence. They were shy and uneasy and preferred to talk to Baekhyun, Jongin, and Luhan than the other three.

Despite all that, Kris figured, especially if Sehun and Tao got together, it would only be another month or so before they were just as weird and crazy as the rest of them were.

Then they would be eight.

And probably closer than ever.

Kris decided that meeting Luhan, and everyone that that entailed, was the best thing that could’ve ever happened to him. He genuinely cared for these people around him with all his heart, as cheesy as he admitted that sounded.

“So have any of you been reading the paper lately?” Baekhyun spoke up when the less important but more laugh inducing topics had washed out from conversation. He stuck a straw in his ice tea and took a few sips to wash down his last bite of muffin. He’d poured his coffee into Kris’ mug ages ago when one of the seat changes had put him next to the tall blonde and had ordered the more refreshing drink. They had all swapped again by this time, something similar but not quite their initial seating plan.

“No, why?” Kris inquired as he played with Luhan’s fingers between his own. They were the only ones who had found themselves back in their original seats.

“Apparently, we might be headed for a new war” Baekhyun announced and held his glass up to his left so a waiting Chanyeol could have a drink.

“A war? Really?” Jongin said with a bit of disbelief as he threw his right leg over Yixing’s left one so the other would stop nudging his knee under the table. Yixing seemed pleased and placed a hand on his lover’s thigh.

“Yeah, everything to the East of us is bickering with everything to the West of us” Baekhyun turned to his right to give Luhan a few sips of ice tea after Chanyeol “If it ends up happening we’ll be right in the middle of it”

“You think there’s a chance it’ll happen?” Luhan inquired and flinched when Kris accidently bent one of his fingers the wrong way.

“Sorry,” Kris apologized softly and rubbed the injured spot with his thumb.

“I’m not sure,” Baekhyun admitted “Right now it’s at a standstill, threats and stuff mostly” he playfully slapped Chanyeol’s hand away when the redhead prodded him in the ribs wanting lovey-dovey attention.

“Think they’ll call for an evacuation if things heat up?” Kris asked as he tried to ignore Chanyeol and Jongin on his right. Chanyeol had gotten up from his chair and circled around to catch Jongin in a bear hug of a headlock because he had apparently pulled a cute face for Yixing but Chanyeol had been the one affected.

“Who knows, it’ll probably die down before anything happens, these things usually do” Baekhyun rolled his eyes and got up to pull his happy virus of a boyfriend off Jongin before he cuddled the boy to death.

“Even if it does happen, I hope they don’t think we’re going to just sit here and take it” Jongin huffed as he was freed from Chanyeol’s vice “If they think me and Yixing will just lay down like dogs they have another thing coming” Jongin said confidently as he high fived his boyfriend.

Jongin and Yixing had always been fighters.

Luhan looked down at the remnants of coffee grounds in his mug then out over the city. Not a day went by he didn’t think of the two. He wondered if they were okay, if they had made it out like they said they would.

He didn’t like to consider the alternative.

A/N: Tadah~ Now we're back to real time~ The next chapter will be pretty Luhan centric, not in his point of view, just some...Him time~ For this chapter, enjoy some friendship~ >w> Hope you like it~!

~Multilyn♥