Part 1

Baekhyun grabbed his coat and the slingshot he made out of a twig he found in the forest. It was after lunch already and many of the children of the kingdom would gather at the orchard to play in the afternoons, so that’s where he was heading now.

He sneaked out of his room, careful not to make any noises. He didn’t want to wake up Kai, who napped in the room beside his, or the little teleporter would follow him around like a lost puppy.

Kai’s parents died when the boy was only two years old, and Baekhyun’s parents took him in and were raising him as their godson. Baekhyun really liked the boy and their age difference wasn’t that much actually. Baekhyun was six and Kai was four now, but the younger still wasn’t able to play right with the other kids and everyone gave Baekhyun a disapprobatory look on the times he brought Kai along.

Baekhyun reached the kitchen and stepped towards the back door. He was almost there…

-Baekhyun, where are you going? – He heard his mother calling and turned around, taking a hand to his racing heart.

-Argh, you scared me! – He grumbled. – I’m going to the orchard to… oh…

He noticed Kai peeking at them from the corridor, his little black eyes blinking at him, as asking for permission to approach. Baekhyun sighed.

His mother didn’t pay his frustration any attention and got back to sweeping the floor. -Take Kai with you. – She told him and Baekhyun whined.

-Aw, mom, but he doesn’t know how to play!

-Teach him then.

-I try, but he keeps teleporting!

At that moment Kai sneezed, disappearing and then reappearing some feet behind, rubbing his nose with his little hand.

-See? - Baekhyun told his mother.

Kai didn’t know how to control his power yet and every sudden reaction of his body made him involuntarily teleport.

-Not everyone can contain their powers on a small age, Baekkie. You might not remember it now, but you would keep everyone awake at night when you were younger because of how much you were glowing. You were like an oil lamp that could never be put out. 

Kai giggled at his godmother calling Baekhyun an oil lamp and the older pouted, but finally agreed. –Ok. – He told the other. – You can come.

-Yey! – Kai teleported near him, throwing himself on the older boy.

Baekhyun had to hold onto the door so he wouldn’t fall and he sent an annoyed look to his mother, who only smiled and waved at them.

-Be back before nightfall. – She said. – Have fun.

-Get off of me! – Baekhyun pulled Kai away and stomped out of the kitchen to the sunny day outside.

-Where are we going, hyung? – Kai asked hopping after him.

-To the orchard, to play… - He answered impatiently. – Well, I’m going to play, you are going to sit under the trees and wait for me, ok?

-Ok. – Kai smiled and then picked up a twig on the floor and swayed it around. – I wanna eat marshmallows, hyung, can we toast some?

-I don’t have either marshmallows or fire to toast. – Baekhyun said flatly. - If you find some under the trees we can roast them.

-Yey! – Kai threw his hands to the air and Baekhyun shook his head. Did Kai actually think he would find marshmallows under the trees?

He smirked once they approached the place, already spotting the other kids. He had an idea on how to keep Kai from disturbing them for some minutes.

-Hey, Kai, come here. – He called the younger with a wave of his hand. – See this big tree right here?

He pointed to a tree right beside the spot where the kids were playing duel with some wood sticks and Kai nodded.

-This is a magic marshmallow tree. – Baekhyun told him, making wide movements with his hands to emphasize what he was saying. – They say if you sit here and talk to it for a long time, it will reward you with marshmallow.

-Oh, hyung, really?! – Kai was rapt.

-Of course. – Baekhyun assured him. – It happens all the time. But you have to talk to it a lot, ok?

Kai approached and touched the trunk of the tree, looking up to its generous leafage.

-The marshmallows will grow from the branches? – He gawked.

-Hm… Yeah, sure. – Baekhyun shrugged. – Just stay here ok? Hyung is gonna be right over there.

-Sure, hyung! – Kai waved his twig to Baekhyun, who smiled and ran to play with the other kids.

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Suho and Kyungsoo took Chanyeol and little Taemin out on a stroll around the waterfalls that morning, and now they were coming back to the castle by the path that led there through the orchard.

Kyungsoo had his arm laced around Suho’s and both of them walked slow and serenely, Taemin following quietly beside the kings as Chanyeol ran in zigzags in front of them.

The red-head would go from one tree to another, pretending those were a lot of things other than trees in his childish imagination.

Suho started humming a song that was stuck in his head and at some point Kyungsoo frowned.

-Chanyeol? – He called, and his son turned to look at him. – Keep your posture straight, sweetheart.

-D.O., yobbo, he is playing and there’s no one here to see.

-That’s no excuse, when I was his age I always kept a straight posture.

-I believe that. – Suho smiled as he passed his arm around Kyungsoo’s shoulder, poking his nose playfully with his other hand. – But times are changing, we don’t need to be so strict about kids behavior anymore.

Kyungsoo wasn’t pleased with the statement, but Chanyeol’s puppy eyes softened his heart. – It’s ok then, sweetie.

Chanyeol smiled and got back to pretending a bush nearby was a dragon in disguise. Taemin, however, did as Kyungsoo told, straightening his posture and looking ahead with his head held high.

Kyungsoo poked Suho and waved his head on the boy’s direction, smiling. Suho also smiled when he saw the smaller boy so worried with his posture. Taemin seemed to love conduct rules and he used to imitate Kyungsoo’s gestures whenever he could.

The boy had a worried look in his face now though, and he didn’t keep such a straight posture for too long, wiping his head around and checking everything up and down many times.

Kyungsoo bit his lips. Whenever Taemin started acting strange they got nervous because they knew something was about to happen. And since the boy wouldn’t always speak to them, there was no telling if it would be good or bad.

When they first brought him home, they weren’t sure about what Taemin’s power was until weird things started happening. At first all they knew was that the boy had many nightmares that kept awaking him, and he muttered a lot whenever he got to sleep for a while.

Around a week after his third birthday, however, Taemin got down from his room to the eating room holding on his pillow tightly. When Kyungsoo asked what he was doing with the object the boy merely placed the pillow on the floor beside the table.

Suho frowned and tried to pick it up, but Taemin made a throaty noise that resembled a snarl and the king dropped the pillow back to the ground. Taemin’s face became expressionless again and he gave his piece of bread a hungry bite.

The kings shrugged it away and kept eating. A servant came in with warm milk and placed it on the table, filling three cups for them. But then she lost her balance for some reason and dropped one of the full cups to the floor.

Kyungsoo froze instantly.

-I’m so sorry, my king. – The servant said and the man took his fingers to his lips, shocked.