Monday came and with it another fight trying to get rid of the shinigamis. Tao was too stubborn to leave Luhan alone and Luhan insisted on having alone time with Yixing.
In the end Kris thankfully pulled Tao away and Luhan was able to follow his usual routine.
He walked into the coffee-house, finding that Yixing wasn’t there yet. Confused he checked his phone to no avail, Yixing hadn’t cancelled the meeting. Luhan sighed before ordering hot chocolate and a coffee and then walked to a table waiting for his best friend.
Yixing hurried in a few moments later, looking rather exhausted. His hair was a mess and he had dark circles that showed off the lack of sleep. Still to Luhan he looked radiating.
“Hi Lulu”, Yixing breathed and took the coffee to wake himself up.
“You look worse than bad”, Luhan commented, pointing up and down.
“I feel the worst. For some reason time flew by and suddenly it was Monday morning although the last time I checked it had been Saturday and I don’t even know”
He yawned loudly, covering his mouth with his hand. Quickly he downed the coffee and went to get another. Luhan watched him in excitement.
When he returned, Yixing decided to focus on Luhan now.
“Sorry I was so weird when we saw each other in the mall. I was already preoccupied with my story. My plan is to finish it for the deadline. Are you angry?”
“Nope”, Luhan replied and lied. He looked away from Yixing in the hope he wouldn’t be able to tell he was lying.
“If you say so” Yixing sounded sceptical but let it be. “Now tell me, why where you at the mall? And don’t even think I didn’t see you with that tall dude again, Lulu”
“Are you jealous?”, Luhan smiled at his best and tried his best to avoid the question.
“A bit. That’s why I wanna know”
Luhans felt his heart skip a beat and his cheeks tinted pink. Yixing was jealous because he went out with someone else. That shouldn't make him as happy as it did. Quickly he pushed that thought aside, it was only Kris someone that wanted him dead. That thought frustrated him.
“Don’t be” His voice sounded more stable than expected. “He is a cousin of mine. We grew up together back in China. He came to study now too so I showed him around”
Another lie. Luhan felt guilty for giving his best friend all those fake explanations. Fearing it would show he avoided Yixings eyes and watched a kid playing with a stuffed toy. He wondered if that was a shinigami too.
What if all stuffed toys were shinigamis waiting for you to die?
Luhan must had made a really unintelligent face as Yixing started laughing.
“Are you okay?”, he then asked and Luhan finally managed to remove his eyes from the toy.
“Yeah I am. I just… “
“We could visit my cousin later. She has a young daughter, believe me afterwards you don’t even want children anymore”, Yixing suggested obviously getting the wrong idea about Luhans expression. He was not worried about never having children, okay somehow he was, but it was the mere thought of Kris (and Tao possibly) that got on Luhans nerves.
Luhan nodded in reply.
“Sure. Thank you didi”
“Wow you haven’t called me didi in a while, your Chinese cousin must really get your younger self back.”
Yixing giggled and softly hit Luhan on the arm.

The shinigamis had meanwhile retreated onto a rooftop close by to silently watch their host, unknowingly to him of course. Kris enjoyed the view and realized how beautiful the sun rising was. Heights attracted him for a reason he didn't know but just seeing how deep below the ground was, gave him chills. For a moment he wanted to jump down, to feel the air rinsing between his wings, but then he chose not to. Tao sat down besides him looking at the people that walked below him. They looked so tiny to him and yet he knew how much they mattered to them.
“Are you ever going to tell me why you wanted to kill Luhan?”, Kris interrupted the silence.
“I was jealous”, Tao was quick to reply.
“You are lying”
Now the raven haired angel sighed.
“Chen?”, Kris offered, lifting his hat with the fake ears and ruffled his own hair.
“I can’t tell. Just… I swear I’ll not do it again until it’s time”
A raven landed near them and Kris wondered rather it could see them or not.
“You know, I trust you. And I’ll trust you on this one. But if I find out you are hurting Luhan, you are in serious trouble”
Kris voice was more than threatening and Tao shivered.
“Yes duizhang”, he mumbled.
Suddenly Kris tensed up. He pressed his hands on his temples and hissed a bit.
“I’m just gonna check on something. Watch for Luhan, please”
It wasn’t really a pledge, more an order but Tao obeyed as he knew what happened and kept his eyes focussed on the coffeeshop.

During the last lecture Tao finally approached Luhan, after watching him the entire day, causing the blonde one to react annoyed.
“I’ve told you to leave me alone during university”, he hissed quietly, trying to avoid that someone heard him whispering to himself. Yixing of course wasn't in the lecture, he was too busy reading about death like he always was. Somehow Luhan wished he was with him, but he knew he couldn't change his best friend.
Tao didn’t seemed to be bothered and placed his feet on the table.
“I will be leaving you alone”, Tao stated and made a sassy hand movement to dismiss anything Luhan might be saying. “I am only here to inform you that you are going to meet me after university in the park nearby, okay?”
Luhan rolled his eyes but got his phone out to cancel plans with Yixing. He knew it was better to obey what Tao said or he might show up somewhere and scare Yixing. (“Eh Yixing, this is Tao. Tao was the Panda toy you gave me. Yeah he is sort of human now and tried to kill me. Be nice to each other”)

“What do you want?”, Luhan asked intending to sound way more annoyed than he actually was. He walked up to Tao, who sat on a bench feeding birds with a bread roll.
“I want to talk to you. About death… About Kris”, Tao said and moved his hands as if he was creating a bow between his hands. The sound of Kris name sent a wave of excitement through Luhans body. He wanted to know more of the shinigami, that helped him.
“Alright then. I’m listening”
Luhan sat down besides Tao, who was in human form of course.
“You asked about death on the weekend and I decide to tell you what I know. When you die, one of my colleagues will come and take your soul. Through your scythes we are able to extract your soul from your body”
Luhan rubbed his chin, while processing the information.
“So your stick is your scythe?”, he then asked.
“Correct”
The blonde was about to asked what Kris’ scythe was, when Tao continued speaking.
“But also our scythes rip your pure soul, that means your memories and feelings and stuff like that, from your energy. Then we bring your pure soul to a gate that leads to a middle world. There it is decided where you’ll end up. What we need is your energy, so what’s left after extracting your pure soul. That energy often called noir is what we are consuming to become a real shinigami. Kris needs your noir to survive”
Tao paused a moment to give Luhan time to adjust to all the new information.
It was confusing in his head, his soul was divided into two parts? A pure part and a noir? He never had heard of it and he imagined death more like going into the light and being embraced by angels. His glances came across Taos who had really cheeky eyes, pierced ears and nothing that he would think an angel had. He sighed a bit as he was disappointed death and angels were so different from his imagination.
Then it hit him.
“Kris needs my noir to survive? Do you mean he’ll die otherwise?” Panic make his voice shrieking and heat travelled into his head. Not giving his soul to Kris would mean his death. This terrified Luhan.
“Kris can't die- he would disappear. He is already dead, Luhan”, Tao replied nonchalantly. “Shinigamis are dead people. We all have died. So I take you don’t know how shinigamis are made?”
Luhan shook his head, scared of what will come now, but also fearing of not knowing and not understanding Kris, and Tao respectively. He held his breath and swallowed hard.
“Shinigamis are people that killed themselves”
Luhan gasped and shook his head again, too shocked and confused to know how to react appropriately.
“All of us had killed themselves, we died through suicide. Him, me… Everyone”
“That can’t be true! You all seem so positive and happy”
Luhan thought of Kai, who seemed like nothing could ever be wrong. That was a lie. A lie!
“That’s because we don’t remember our former lives… But this is our punishment for killing ourselves, taking souls for until we had paid for our sins”
Tao sounded extremely sad and Luhan had the urge of hugging him.
“I don’t believe that. There must be another reason”, he said as he gave in and hugged Tao tightly.
“I’m just warning you Luhan… Don’t do anything stupid. Kris needs your noir”, Tao begged, his voice tainted with worry and sadness. “I don't want him to disappear”
Luhan let go off Tao.
“He means a lot to you, right?”, he concluded and whipped away a tear that rolled down Taos face.
“He does, yes”, Tao admitted sighing. “And that is why I am not letting you get away from him”
Luhan smiled softly.
“I won't give my soul to anybody else”, our hero replied. And he was not lying. Not him.

As Luhan and Tao returned home, they were greeted by Kris in alpaca from, who was waking up when they entered the room. He rubbed his eyes and walked over to Luhan, so the blonde student would pick him up. Luhan did of course and caressed the toys fluffy ears.
“How was university?”, Kris asked after he had enough and transformed into his shinigami from, what caused Luhan to be pinned down by.
“Good”, Luhan breathed out and almost choked because Kris was sitting right on his rips. “I think I'll ace history” Finally he managed to remove Kris from him and stood up, fixing his outfit. His heart beat fast but he told himself that this was because of the lack of air.
Tao grinned at them and went to pick up the book he had been reading.
“Yah, what did you do today, Tao?”, Kris wanted to know and examined Taos face closely. The raven haired shinigami had made Luhan swear not to tell Kris that he knew how badly he needed Luhans noir.
“Nothing”, Tao stated, ignoring Kris' stares. Then Kris turned to Luhan.
“What did you guys do?”
“Are you jealous?”, Luhan shot back like he had done with Yixing earlier that day. The answer was a different one though. Kris narrowed his eyebrows and was obviously judging Luhan.
“Why should I be?”, he snorted and shook his head. Tao gave Luhan a thumps up behind Kris' back.
“Okay, calm down Kris”, Luhan said and shrugged. He walked over to the desk and got out the notes he had made during lectures to look over them again. Kris approached him and leaned on the chair to look over Luhans shoulder. It was so close Luhan felt his breath on his shoulder. He shivered and rolled back, over Kris foot.
“Can't you watch out?”, the blonde shinigami hisses as he was rubbing his foot. Luhan gave him an expression that basically said: “Could care less”. Then he returned to his work.
This went on for several times until Luhan threw Kris out. Tao was meanwhile trying really hard not to laugh loudly and pressed his hand on his mouth. When Luhan turned to him, he finally laughed really hard.
“You do really like him, don't you?”, Tao asked, still laughing and holding his tummy.
“Not one bit”, Luhan said and rolled his eyes.

A/N: Hi, updating two stories in one day, wow me proud.

I noticed that a part of the previous chapter was missing (the fight with Tao OTL) so I added it, please check back with it.
So yeah, now you know how Shinigamis become Shinigamis. I hope this was not too shocking.

Also, I am wondering whether I should use the poster that is this chapters main image or the one I currently have? What do you think?

Leave me comments.

xoxo Lucy