Dinner was just as loud and boisterous as it had been the last time Taemin was in the small house. He found it so easy to lose himself and be happy, something he wasn't able to do at "home". But he wasn't enjoying it as much as he would have liked. 

There was still worry eating at him. His eyes kept flicking to the window praying it wouldn't get dark too quickly. The rest of the room's occupants were completely carefree, eating happily and as much as it irked Taemin, he couldn't find it in his heart to be upset with them in any way. 

As usual Key and Jonghyun were being loud and Onew was being nearly as loud laughing at them and joining in a some points. Minho was laughing as well but he seemed more interested in casually talking to Taemin. The atmosphere was comfortable and homely, and god how Taemin wished he could bring Dee Dee here. If only for a day. He was so happy to be away from Alec and out of the castle enjoying himself, but he felt guilty that Dee Dee was stuck in the castle alone with only Alec and Simon for company. 

As dinner wound down so did the noise until all of them were just idly chattering away. They told him about their days at the market and spilled their little stories about each other, like how Jonghyun had once tried to get close to an abandoned puppy, only to have it chase after him for hours afterwards, or how Onew was constantly tripping over something... Taemin felt at home here... 

Before long Key stood, hands flat on the table "Right, clear up. Then we'll leave." Groans were shared around the room as chairs were pushed back. "You too Tom" Key ordered making Taemin jump. 

"Okay..." he said as he rose. He had been so close to adding the word "Umma" to the end of that but managed to stop himself.

He began lifting bowls and cutlery off the table only to have it all taken off him by Minho who winked at him in the process, not letting the guest clear up. He watched after the older male with a blush as he joined Jonghyun and Onew in cleaning the last bits and pieces.

As the others bustled about Taemin stood there watching aimlessly. He was contemplating whether or not to ask what he should be doing but  they  finished before he could say anything. The cleaning wasn't completely done, bowls were yet to be washed and dried but everything was neat.

The room's occupants all made their way to the center of the room and looked to Minho much to Taemin's confusion. 

Minho looked towards the window before looking back to the group. "We'll head to the crypt and then plan what to do from there. By the time we leave the sky should be dark enough to cover us" The group nodded leaving Taemin feeling incredibly out of place.

"Onew grab the cloaks and bring one of the extra ones for Tom" Taemin wasn't sure why but his heart was beating fast.

Onew crossed the room to the large but worn bed and pulled a box out form underneath it. Inside was a lot of what looked like bedding. Onew removed all of blankets from the box until he reached the bottom of it... or what Taemin thought was the bottom of it. After rummaging around for a moment the "bottom" popped up revealing more material. It took a moment for Taemin to realize the dark material was the cloaks Minho had told Onew to get. 

"Why go to so much trouble to hide cloaks?" he asked aloud. He immediately blushed... he hadn't meant to actually say that...

"In case they can be traced back to Flame" Onew said not looking up from the cloaks he was now fumbling with. Taemin bit his lip still feeling awkward... he got the feeling that they did this a lot. He had been so engrossed in watching Onew he'd ignored the others...

Key was bustling around dousing lights, throwing the room into darkness, Minho was at the window watching the world outside in more of a look out way than merely taking an interest in what he saw, while Jonghyun was fitting a set of keys to his belt.

"Ready to go" Onew called, cloaks now hanging off his arm. 

"Why do we need cloaks?" Taemin asked. 

"So no one will see who we are" Minho said from directly behind Taemin making him jump. Taemin pouted at the scare, his mind still reeling. They were really taking this thing seriously but at least he would get to tell Flame what he needed to hear. 

Minho moved to Onew and grabbed two cloaks and moved back to Taemin. Onew left them, gave two of the cloaks to Key and Jonghyun and the three began getting themselves ready. 

Taemin felt something fall onto his shoulders, his head whipping to Minho only to find the older boy fixing the cloak onto him. "Any one even found to be associated with Flame is severely punished..." Minho's voice was quiet but gentle. "It's not only Flame who has to take precautions..." As he spoke, Minho's hands continued to fix the cloak onto him but Taemin's eyes were on his face. "Just follow us and keep quiet, okay?" Taemin nodded making Minho smile. "You'll get to Flame soon enough" Minho ruffled Taemin's hair and the two just smiled at each other for a moment before Minho moved away to fix his own cloak.

Jonghyun, Key and Onew appeared beside him whilst Minho took another look out of the window. "Stay close to us okay Tom" Key's hand was on his shoulder and Taemin nodded. He really wanted the group to call him by his real name.

"I will"

"Good. Onew, stay behind him so he doesn't get lost"

"Yes Ma'am !" Onew stood to mock attention only to receive a large whack to the head. 

As Onew groaned in pain Minho called to them. "It's dark enough and the street's clear, lets go" As he spoke Minho raised his hood, as did the the three around Taemin, so following suit, Taemin did the same. 

They filed out of the small house and immediately went down a road between the houses. It wasn't completely dark, the western sky was stained purple and pink with the setting sun, but the shadows were deep. 

Taemin had no clue where they were going... his heart was beating fast though. Sneaking around like this was both exhilarating and scary at the same time. The prospect of being caught wasn't a nice one, lord only knew what would happen to him if his uncle knew what he was doing, but for whatever reason the four seemed to know what they were doing and Taemin trusted them. 

They walked in relative silence for about ten minutes, Minho leading the way followed by Jonghyun, next came Key who kept sending reassuring smiles to Taemin who was in between him and Onew who brought up the rear. 

It quickly got darker as the walked. Taemin noticed they were staying away from any main roads and they passed very few people. They stopped a few time to check for anyone who would see them all the while not saying a word. 

The buildings began to thin as the got closer to the city's edge and more trees were visible, soon there was nothing around them but trees and all that was in front of them was a churchyard. 

Tall iron fences surrounded the church and it's land and it became apparent exactly where they were headed. But as high as the fences were, they were old. You could tell they were once a pristine black, sharp and threatening but now the were bent out of shape, rust covered them and in many places they were broken. They passed the gate which was wrapped in chains and kept walking until they came to a part of the fence completely bent out of shape. 

Minho slipped through first and one by one they followed after. 

"What is this place?" Taemin asked quietly. 

"A graveyard" Onew answered simply from behind him. Actually looking through the darkness Taemin could make out various headstone, tombs and statues and all of it made Taemin shiver. What were they doing in a graveyard... in the middle of the night?! It was creepy...

Taemin could feel his heart racing but he kept completely quiet and kept his eyes on the back of Key's cloak covered head in an attempt to ignore the fact there were dead bodies in the ground all around him. This, however, led to Taemin nearly crashing into Key as they came to a stop. He comically flailed his arms around to keep his balance making Onew burst out into laughter. 

Taemin glared at the floor, knowing the others were also chuckling at him. He felt a hand slip into his and he looked up to see Key smiling at him. "Come on you" Taemin pouted but allowed himself to be led over to a large looking tomb. Standing next to it, light was completely scarce. Taemin couldn't see a thing. He could hear Minho and Jonghyun shuffling about and soon a small flame illuminated the tomb door. 

The door, like the rest of the graveyard was old and faded. The name "KIM" stood out in the center of the door with fancy scrolls surrounding it. All in all the design was beautiful. The tinkling of metal on metal brought Taemin away from his inspection of the door. The light was limited but Taemin guessed that Jonghyun was fiddling with the keys that he had previously attached to his belt. 

Jonghyun reached up a hand and placed it on a stone flower. Slowly he twisted it and pushed it to the side, the sound of stone scraping on stone making Taemin shiver, to reveal an oddly shaped hole. Jonghyun reached up and inserted a key into it and twisted the key until there was a 'thud' from somewhere in the tomb. 

Minho and Jonghyun then worked together to pry the door open. Taemin felt Key tug on his hand gently before he was pulled towards the tomb. Taemin didn't really want to enter a resting place of the dead... heck, what were they even doing here? Unless they were turn around and tell him that Flame had already died in some kind of terrible accident....

He gripped Key's hand tightly and bit his lip as he followed Key inside. Onew, Jonghyun and then Minho followed last so he could close the door behind them. As soon as the door was shut they were enveloped in darkness. Instead of just holding Key's hand, Taemin was now clinging to his arm. 

"Clam down Tom" Key said through the darkness. 

"What are we doing here?" Taemin whined ignoring whoever chuckled. 

"You'll see"

There was a crackling to his right as a torch was lit, flushing the room in a warm light. Everyone seemed to visibly relax now that they were inside, composures slumped, hoods came down... 

The tomb was fairly simple and bare with only a single grave in it, raised and standing in the middle of the small room. Jonghyun was crouched down next to it fiddling with the side of the raised grave. The keys were clinking again and soon there was a "click" from the grave. Onew and Minho pushed the stone slab covering it to the side of the gave just enough to see inside. 

Taemin had no interest in what was inside the grave, he was rather contemplating going home. "Come on" Key said softly tugging Taemin along. 

Taemin looked at the grave and shook his head. "I don't want to..." he said quietly trying to hold Key back. 

Minho moved over to them and placed a hand on Taemin's back in a comforting way. "There's nothing to be scared of..."

"I'm not scared" Taemin glared at Minho in attempt to hide just how scared he actually was. Minho just smiled at him. Key broke away from Taemin's hold, Taemin now feeling empty decided to hold onto the front of Minho's shirt. 

Key walked over to the grave, Taemin watched in near horror as Key pulled himself up onto the grave and disappeared inside it. Onew then did the same. 

Minho moved them both towards the grave. "Come on, our turn"

"But..." Taemin struggled a little but forced himself to remember why he was here... though he still had no idea why they were here. Hesitantly Taemin peered over the side of the grave not to see a rotting corpse but rather a set of stairs....

Onew and Key were a little ways down waiting for them. "What is this place?" Taemin all but whispered. 

"Flame's base" Minho said quietly.

At this Taemin's mind began to reel. Flame's base? But then why did they know where it was? Why did they have keys to it?

Smiling as he watched Taemin's thoughts fly over the boy's face, Minho ruffled Taemin's hair again. "Ask your questions downstairs"

Even though knowing now that, there wasn't a corpse in the grave Taemin still didn't feel comfortable going into the darkness and was happy that Minho was still letting him cling to his shirt like a little kid. 

Together they approached the grave, Minho helped Taemin up onto the edge and the disguised boy jumped down the small distance of a couple of feet to the stairs, quickly followed by Minho. Jonghyun passed the torch to Minho before jumping down himself. 

"Hold this for a sec" Minho passed Taemin the torch, the light comforting the boy a little. Minho and Jonghyun reached up and slid the stone slab back into place, Jonghyun fiddling with keys again and locking the grave shut. No the only way was down.

Jonghyun took the torch of Taemin and walked off, or down if you prefer, in front of Onew and Key, Taemin went back to holding onto Minho not that the older boy seemed to mind. 

They journeyed downwards, the three in front now idly talking amongst themselves. They seemed perfectly fine in the darkness, completely comfortable, a fact which bamboozled Taemin. 

After a couple of minutes they came to another door which Jonghyun unlocked. One by one the went through, Key now holding the torch. Once through, Taemin found they were in a room... A very large room... in fact it was more like a small hall, this made apparent by Key running around and lighting torches that were dotted around the room.

Weapons lined the walls and boxes were dotted here and there as well as tables filled with books and papers... It really did look like a base...

There was just one thing bothering Taemin...

"Where's Flame?"

"I think you'll find you're still clinging to him" Taemin whipped his head round just come face to face with Choi Minho....

~*~

Another chapter done... I felt like this one was rather slow.... Let me know

Comment please, I feel like no one is reading this T-T