Kris was the first to wake. He gave a wide yawn and stretched one half of his body as to not disturb the still sleeping Luhan against his other side. With practiced carefulness, he slid his arm from under Luhan’s head and replaced it with his pillow before sitting up. He rubbed the stiffness out of the back of his neck and watched Luhan’s sleeping form for a few minutes as the fog of slumber dissipated from his mind. Slowly, he slipped out from under the covers and stood up, pressing his hands against his lower back and leaning back until he felt the sear of a good stretch.

Kris used to pride himself in the fact he could be up and ready at any hour of the morning for work without feeling the heaviness of sleep above his head. Now, he allowed himself to take his time waking up, if he even woke up at all in a day.

Making sure to tuck the blankets in around Luhan’s thinning curves beforehand; he buried a hand in his hair and left the room without a true purpose. He ran his other hand along the hallway wall as he went and only as he reached the kitchen did his mind catch up with his eyes and he backtracked to the bathroom to make sure he’d seen correctly. Sure enough, Luhan’s towel hung a little lopsided over the bathroom mirror.

Kris felt a sad smile tug at the corners of his lips as he pulled the towel down and hung it up on one of the hooks on the back of the door. With all that was happening, the last thing they needed was for the mirror to rust from the moisture.

He took a quick up and down glance at himself in the reflective surface but didn’t linger. He instead pulled out one of the sink drawers and picked out a purple hair elastic to tie his hair up as he made his way back to the kitchen. Both his and Luhan’s hair was noticeably longer, but both had to admit they kind of liked the look and couldn’t bring themselves to cut it just yet. Kris wasn’t sure if their new found laziness came from a lack of anything truly entertaining to do, or from the lack of energy to do much more than sleep most of the day. Even just standing for more than twenty minutes brought on a weak feeling in the legs and a lightheadedness that would only vanish after lying down.

Humming the tune to a namelessly popular song before the war, and with his hair up off the back of his neck, Kris rummaged through the many drawers in the kitchen. Most of the drawers held the usual things one would find in an everyday kitchen, but a few of them were messy jumbles of trinkets, dead batteries, elastic bands, lonely game pieces, and little objects that served no purpose. Amongst the clutter, Kris found what he’d been looking for and headed back to the bedroom with the deck of cards in hand.

Just in the few hours he’d been asleep, the temperature had gone from unbearably muggy, to slightly cool, so he opted for a black t-shirt before sitting down on the balcony. Autumn was on its way, the weather was as unpredictable as ever. He moved the empty mugs that still rested there and opened the box of cards, shuffling them and spreading them out in a line for a game of solitaire. He made sure to be as quiet as possible, but kept looking up to make sure Luhan’s body still moved with the lazy breaths of sleep.

He was bored in less than twenty minutes and left his game unfinished in favor of staring at the sky dark with clouds. He had half a mind to crawl back into bed, but he knew sleep wouldn’t come to him again for a while yet. He sighed and his eyes were late in catching movement from the end of the street. Patrols walked this street often, so Kris didn’t pay them any mind, until a flash of burnt orange against a slender neck caught his eye and his heart practically stopped beating in his chest. He was immediately thankful that Luhan was still blissfully unaware in his slumber. He hated to see Luhan cry.

They’d first heard the news from Baekhyun, back within the first month before the power had been cut and their phones had died. Baekhyun was known for being the calmer amongst them when anything major disturbed them, but war and separation was nothing he’d had to handle before. Frantic texts and tear stained phone calls awoke the panic of the reality they had found themselves in.

“I’m so scared,” was the first of few phone calls before the batteries ran dry “He was over the border when it started, and I still can’t get his phone, how am I supposed to know-?” Baekhyun had it the hardest; he was alone and in the dark. Kris hated himself for even the thought, but he was truly glad he and Luhan were together to wait everything out.

It was near the end of the third month, three weeks after all communication had been lost. Luhan was just getting into the habit of watching over the town from the balcony in his increasing amounts of free time. He was doing so, with young interest he would later lose, as watching, sleeping, and a selective handful of board games became the only means to pass hours, while Kris was busy changing the bed spread from the heavy winter comforter and fleece, to a much lighter set of thinner blankets and crisp sheets. Summer was always quick to come and go, but the weighty bedding became beyond stifling if it wasn’t removed.

“Are you going to sit there all day or are you going to help me?” Kris complained playfully, but Luhan remained oddly silent, so Kris shrugged off his attempt at miniscule conversation with the obviously in thought blonde. “Luhan?” He called out to his counterpart when he noticed Luhan’s eyes go wide and his mouth move with silent words. He remained unanswered as Luhan pulled himself up from his position on the floor with white knuckled fingers around the top rail.

Kris caught the faint whisper of a name over Luhan’s lips and his heart leapt into his throat. Before the realization even hit him, Kris’ body was on the move and he’d wrapped an arm around Luhan’s middle and a hand over the smaller man’s mouth.

Luhan’s throat strained with an unspoken cry and he thrashed in Kris’ hold as the stronger of the two pulled him off the balcony and into the middle of the room. They struggled briefly, a weak uncoordinated tussle that ended with both of them on the floor, Luhan in Kris’ lap, arms wrapped tightly around the other’s neck.

Kris froze momentarily from the sudden emotional change. Luhan buried his face in the crook of the taller man’s neck and Kris felt warm tears against his skin. He quickly broke from his daze and tried to hush the shake of his lover’s shoulders, rubbing soothing circles down his back and cradling the smaller body securely.

“It can’t be him,” Luhan rasped and his fingers dug into the front of Kris' shirt “It can’t”

But it had been.

After that, they began seeing him two, sometimes three times a month, give or take. He always looked solemn, broken. It didn't show in his posture, but his eyes gave it away to those who were used to the spark that usually resided within them. To see him was always a relief as much as it was a torture from not being able to do anything about it. They didn’t know the details, were only able to assume, but at least they knew he was alive.

If only as a peek of vibrant auburn between the heavy black and green of uniform.

“Chanyeol”

Kris was abruptly pulled from his thoughts and he looked over frantically at a very much awake Luhan still wrapped neatly in bed. Kris didn’t see any immediate sadness in sleepy doe eyes, but the small knot of worry still tied itself in his stomach. Luhan had gotten increasingly better since the first sighting, but Kris knew he was still delicate when it came down to pieces of their life before the war. He thought about lying to Luhan about seeing Chanyeol, but he knew Luhan would see right through him so he didn’t try to hide it.

“Yes” He replied simply and saw Luhan’s lips twitch with an undecided smile before he rolled over and pulled the sheets up until he disappeared beneath them. Kris held back a sigh and got up. He kicked the bed, and when no annoyed muttering sounded from Luhan, he crawled on to kneel over the hidden form.

With a little smile he pulled the sheets down enough to run a hand through Luhan’s hair. It was messy from not being brushed and sleeping on it after a shower, and the blonde’s natural black spread out like a shadow from the roots. Kris knew his own hair looked much the same, having not being dyed for quite some time, and Chanyeol’s was probably black beneath too.

“His hair is getting long like ours” Kris said softly and Luhan rolled over onto his back to look up at him “It’s way past his shoulders now”

“I know,” Luhan replied just as softly “It looks better on him than us though, we can’t pull off the length as much as we’d like too” he gave a light laugh and Kris smiled back.

“I found the cards” Kris stated to change the subject “want to play?” he got off the bed only to return again after collecting the cards from the balcony. Luhan sat up stiffly and Kris sat across from him shuffling the cards.

“What are we playing?” He asked so he would know how to deal out the shuffled cards.

“Go Fish” Luhan answered and smiled when Kris shot him a taken aback look.

“What, no” The taller of the two complained curtly, stopping mid shuffle “Why Go Fish?”

“There’s only so many card games” Luhan reasoned “Might as well play the kid ones first”

Kris rolled his eyes, more so for the fact that Luhan had a point rather than anything.

“Don’t worry, we’ll make it fun” Luhan sing songed as Kris dealt and the other raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Luhan only smiled.

Days passed.

A/N: I am SO sorry that it's taken me this long to get this chapter out! It gave me major trouble and even now I'm not as happy with it as I'd like to be T^T It's been a problem chapter that's for sure and I can't believe it took me so long ;A; I apologize for the overly long wait and thank you for your patience! >^<

Anyways, even though I'm not happy with it, I still hope it's acceptable *Crosses fingers* Hopefully it's not too-too obvious I struggled with it.../creys

Edit: Missed a /(?) while editing; fixed it~