Wu Fan snarled, making his way towards us and crashing right through the front wall of the house, toppling it like a pile of building blocks. 

"," I whispered, knowing that if he decided to attack, there was no way we were making it out of this alive. I glanced at Chanyeol, his arm still locked in my grasp as he stared up at Wu Fan with a strange expression. I looked into his eyes and recognized not only fear, but apology in them. What did he have to apologize to Kris for? The thought infuriated me.

"Let's get out of here," I said, yanking the lanky boy's arm to pull him away from the wreckage but the beast had other plans. With a beat of his wings, Wu Fan rose into the air, coming down barely a centimeter from our noses. The shock and the shaking of the ground as he landed knocked us all over, and instantly the pointed-teeth filled snout of the dragon was in my face. 

I tried not to show any fear, or at least not to pass out from it, as I was face to face with a gaping maw that could most probably rip me in half, and I knew that Wu Fan wouldn't hesitate to do so in a second.

Then, just as my life was flashing before my eyes, he turned away from me, and pinned his gaze on Chanyeol, who had just pulled himself into a sitting position.

He extended his neck, shoving his face into Chanyeol's body, and knocking the boy flat on his back. Chanyeol huffed; his breath knocked out of him, and stared up at the beast. As Wu Fan stared him down, Chanyeol lifted a shaking hand, placing it gently on the dragon's snout. "Kris," Chanyeol whispered, and Wu Fan snarled, opening his mouth and revealing his teeth.

I was about to scream at Chanyeol to get away, but another shout interrupted me. "Wu Fan!"

We all turned then to see the intruder as he ran up to us. It was a boy, slightly taller than me with blond hair and a pretty face. Wu Fan glared at him, letting out a violent screech before pulling back, extending his wings and taking to the air again, the wind pushing hitting us like a tornado, and before I knew it, the dragon was gone.

Everyone was silent for a few moments, too shocked to speak, as the smoke from the fiery building darkened the air. Suho and D.O. exchanged glances, Kai and Sehun were trembling behind us, and Chanyeol was sitting again, hugging his knees and staring into the fire.

"Byun Baekhyun," The boy spoke, walking over to me. "I told you not to get so worked up over this, didn't I?" My head snapped up, staring into the warm brown eyes, as I realized who I was speaking to.

"You're Luhan?"

Luhan hummed affirmatively, reaching out a hand to help me up. When I was standing, he walked over to Chanyeol, kneeling by the shaken boy. 

"Is he gone?" Chanyeol whimpered, turning to stare at Luhan with tear filled eyes.

I frowned in confusion, hurt, and guilt. Confusion because I couldn't understand his reaction, hurt because I had gone through so much for the boy and he was acting as if I had just killed his lover, and guilt because of the pain in his expression, pain most likely caused by my actions. But I had done it all for the sake of his safety, hadn't I? I was in the right. Right?

"You have a lot to understand, Baekhyun," Luhan spoke, helping Chanyeol up. "So come, I will explain it to you."

The seven of us were in Chanyeol's house, the tallest of the group hiding away in his bedroom while the rest of us conversed in the living room.

"Tea?" D.O. placed a tray with cups filled with the warm liquid in front of us. 

"Thank you," Luhan took one and blew on the steaming surface.

"So," I began, trying to find the right words. "What exactly is going on?" I asked, when none came to me.

Luhan chuckled quietly. "Now you want to listen to me," He said with a wry smirk. I scrunched my nose in annoyance and he shook his head. "Alright, alright." He took a sip from his tea and placed it down on the table before him, clearing his throat. "A few months ago, sometime before the summer, I met Chanyeol at the hospital. The doctors thought he had some form of leukemia, because of the increase in white blood cells in his body."

I nodded, hoping that he wouldn't start using a bunch of medical terms that I didn't understand.

"White blood cells are involved in defending the body against infectious diseases and foreign materials," Luhan continued, "But Chanyeol's body had a lot, more than normal, and the buildup was causing a lot of problems in his body, to use simple terms."

"But why was there a buildup?" Suho asked, crossing his legs and leaning forward from his place next to me on the couch. 

"There was something else inside Chanyeol, something his body was recognizing as foreign, a threat to his safety. So his body went into overdrive trying to get rid of it, and so..." Luhan waved his hand, motioning to our battered and ashen states. 

"What was it?" D.O. said with a frown, exchanging confused looks with me. 

Luhan smirked. "Well, here's where the story gets interesting. As you all know, Wu Fan, or Kris, is a dragon. On his world, he is a god, but here, he shouldn't exist. He came here to look for his... Counterpart, I should say, or his other half."

"His soulmate?" Sehun asked, his eyes wide with interest. 

"You could say so," Luhan chuckled. "Wu Fan's soulmate is a creature called a Phoenix."

"Those are the birds that catch on fire and come back to life, right?" Kai interjected.

"Umm," Luhan made a face, trying to find a way to better explain it to Kai. "Well, in a sense. They are the symbol of rebirth, really, and the Phoenix has been living in your world for generations, being constantly reborn until it finds its soulmate, Wu Fan. It seems that now it has reborn itself into Chanyeol's body, and when Wu Fan arrived on this plane to find the Phoenix, it began acting up and its presence caused Chanyeol's body to-"

"Flip out?" Kai suggested.

"Er, yes." Luhan nodded. 

"Wait but what do you mean 'this plane' there's another world? Why is the Phoenix on this one and not with the Wu Fan?" D.O. looked extremely puzzled, voicing the questions that I'm sure everyone else in the room had.

Luhan squirmed. "I really don't know how much I can explain to you guys, I feel like I already said too much. Just know that there is so much that you guys don't understand, so you cannot go rushing into things again okay?" Luhan pinned me with a scolding look and I felt my face heat up in embarassment.

"Wu Fan left, though," Suho began before the room could descend into an awkward silence.

"His presence on this plane was supposed to be secret, he had to come here, find the Phoenix, and leave. The only people in this world that knew that he was here were me and Chanyeol and no one else was supposed to find out. That's why I couldn't really tell you much on the phone, but now that the secret's out..." He looked down, gnawing at a bottom lip for a few moments before proceeding. "But now that his secret is out, he must return to his world."

"And Chanyeol?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"Well, like I said earlier, I met Chanyeol at a hospital a while before summer. As soon as I found out what was going on with him, I knew who he was, so I brought him to Wu Fan. The Phoenix, in Wu Fan's world, is also a god, but Chanyeol's body was too human to handle the change, and therefore it was killing itself trying to fend off its power. So Wu Fan fed Chanyeol his blood-"

"That's supposed to separate the victim's soul from the body so Wu Fan can eat it right?" Kai said again, Luhan flinching at his crude choice of words.

"In any normal human being, yes, but in Chanyeol, the blood helped his body take on the godlike power of the Phoenix, essentially turning him into a god," The blond corrected.

I thought back to the change in Chanyeol's appearance, his ethereal beauty taking over his usual human attractiveness. "So Wu Fan, er, Kris, fed Chanyeol his blood to turn him into a god, so that they could go back to their world and get married and be together forever," Suho summarized.

"Yes," Luhan nodded.

"But he had to keep Kris' identity a secret, and when we found out, Kris left to go back to his world," D.O. added.

"Correct."

"How do you know all this?" Sehun asked.

"Well, I'm from that world too, I came here with Kris to assist in his search," Luhan explained, reclining on the couch.

"Are you a god too?" I asked curiously.

"Let's stick to the subject," Luhan said with a secretive smirk.

"Now that Kris is gone, what's going to happen to Chanyeol?" Kai asked, and the room fell silent, the smirk fading from Luhan's face.

"His body hasn't completed the transformation into a god, his body will continue to deteriorate, and he will eventually die," He explained gravely.

My heart felt like it was going to fall out of my chest. Chanyeol was going to die and it was all my fault. "Can't we fix it:? Now that Kris is gone the Phoenix will stop acting up and-"

"It has already begun, there is no stopping it."

"So he's doomed," Suho deadpanned.

"Yes, I am sorry." 

I wanted to burst into tears right there. I was such an idiot. 

"You couldn't have known, Baekhyun, you were just trying to help," Luhan seemed to notice my distress and tried to comfort me.

"I could have listened to you," I argued, berating myself mentally.

"We weren't much help either," Suho said, rubbing my back. I could see the pain on his face, the guilt evident in his features. We all felt responsible for what was about to happen to our friend.

"What if we find Wu Fan?" Kai suddenly asked, standing up. 

"What?" Luhan turned, his eyes growing wide as he took in the words of the younger boy.

"If we go after Wu Fan and find some way to bring him back... Is it possible?" He stared at Luhan.

My eyes widened. It was a crazy plan, but if this experience had taught me anything, it was that I wasn't one to back down from crazy plans. I looked at Luhan whose eyebrows were furrowed. He gnawed at his lip as he thought about Kai's question, and I silently begged for there to be at least some chance to make this right.

"It's dangerous," Luhan finally said, causing my hopes to soar. "If he already crossed into the other world, we'll have to go in there and find him. And if anyone finds out you guys are... 'Foreigners', shall I say, there will be blood."

"But we can do it?" I said, taking a deep breath to calm the erratic beating of my heart. I didn't care about the danger, for Chanyeol, I would do it.

"Yes."

"Then let's go!" I didn't want to waste any time, especially with the limits imposed on us. All we had to do was go to a magical world and find a dragon and bring him back before Chanyeol died. I hoped that it wasn't as farfetched of a plan as it sounded.

Luhan looked at me worriedly, then glanced at the others. 

"I'm definitely in," Kai said with a grin.

"I suppose I have to be too," D.O. sighed, running his hands over his face.

"I want to help Chanyeol!" Sehun piped up.

"And someone needs to babysit you guys, of course," Suho joked.

"You'll help us?" I looked at Luhan pleadingly. He had done so much for Kris already, there was no way he would leave at a time like this.

"Did I have a choice?" Luhan's smirk was back.

I grinned, leaping forward and hugging the blond. "Thank you, thank you."

"It will be difficult," Luhan promised.

"We have to do it, for Chanyeol," I said.

"Alright, let's go then." Luhan stood, knowing our time constraints.

"I'm going too." A deep voice sounded from behind me, making me jump.

I turned, coming face to face with a determined Chanyeol.

Luhan stepped forward worriedly. "Have you drunk the blood today yet?"

The tall brunette shook his head, and I noticed that he was already much paler than this morning.

"Your body has already noticed the absence," Luhan glanced at the clock. It was already getting dark. "You'll start to get sick again, and it will be much worse since now your body will be fighting off both the Phoenix and Wu Fan's presence in your blood."

Chanyeol shrugged. "I don't care; I want to go with you guys. I'm not letting you do it alone and I need him back."

The lovesick expression on my best friend's face made my heart lurch. This entire time, I'd thought of Kris as a bad guy who was hurting him, manipulating Chanyeol into loving him. I didn't realize how attached my friend was to the man who was trying to save his life and bring him home.

Luhan stared at the taller boy, eyeing him carefully. Finally, he let out a sigh. "What are we waiting for, then? Let's go."

Ahem... Well then. This is an interesting direction that the story has gone in, but don't worry, I'll keep it under control. Hopefully it won't turn out longer than I intended haha.

Can anyone guess what fairytale this is based off of?