Kris, Lay and Tao followed the real estate agent showing them around an old fashioned warehouse, the middle aged woman was explaining how stable the framework was and showing them some of the renovations the previous owners had made to increase the amount of space on the ground floor. Kris was asking a lot of questions about privacy, stability, prices, insurance and other questions as they walked to the second floor of the building. Lay listening intently to all the answers, nodding along and adding a few small inquiries of his own as they went. Tao trailed behind the group a little, running his fingers over the dirty white walls, the paint seemed more grey now and as the teen traces his fingers over a faded pattern of black swirls that ran around the front room of the warehouse. The conversation faded away as the other walked upstairs to check it out. Once he was alone Tao slowly walked to the middle of the room. He walked in a small circle before standing in what he could only estimate was the centre, rolling his shoulders back a few times he clicked the tension out of them as much as he could, closing his eyes he rolled his head from one side to the other and took a deep breath to relax himself. He took a small step forwards and shifted his weight from his right foot to his left before putting both feet together again. Taking a few more calming breaths the teen ran three steps before pushing himself off the ground and flipping himself to the side. His landing was a little shaky after not training for so long but he managed to keep himself upright, eyes still closed a small smile tugged the corners of his mouth up a little as he retraced his steps and flipped through the air again. Eyes snapping open the teen ran forwards again, only taking a few steps before he dived to the ground and rolled over, springing back to his feet he jumped forwards and kicked the back wall with all his power, bouncing off it he almost lost his footing again before quickly recovering by turning the one-footed landing into a high kick. A small bubble of laughter escaped his throat as he realised much he needed to exorcise his wushu skills to be happy. Centring himself again Tao practised a few more punches and kicks, picturing obstacles and other fighters in his mind as he fought his way around the room, dodging ‘attacks’ every now and then.

Just as the teen was starting to feel comfortable with the new training room his attention was suddenly caught by a scream emanating from upstairs. Ignoring the fact that his body felt a little stiff from such a vigorous workout after so long of nothing, Tao ran up the stairs and followed what sounded like Kris’s voice. Bursting into one of the upstairs rooms Tao’s eyes widened as Lay crouched over Kris. The older boy was grasping his head so tightly the whites of knuckles were visible, there was a stream of blood running from his nose as his entire body began to convulse and his screams stopped as he gasped for air. The real estate woman was digging in her bag for her phone and assuming she would call an ambulance Tao quickly knelt beside Kris. Worried Kris would hurt himself more Tao lifted his head to rest in his lap, he started wiping the beads of sweet forming on the older boy’s forehead away before looking up to Lay.

“This isn’t right.” Lay’s voice was quiet and it was obvious he was talking to himself more than to Tao or Kris but leaning over the older boy Lay cupped Kris’s face and closed his eyes, concentrating on healing. Kris’s body shuddered under his touch before turning completely limp. Pulling Kris into his arms more Tao looked the older boy over, once he was sure Kris was still breathing he turned to Lay.

Before he got the chance to ask anything his questions were cut off as Lay stood up and walked to the real estate worker. Taking the phone from her hands he hung up the ambulance call and smiled politely to her, speaking calmly he put a hand on her back and started walking her out of the room.

“I’m sorry ma’am, our friend is anaemic and prone to sudden violent attacks, he’ll be fine once he’s rested a little. We’ll be with you shortly.” Closing the door on the woman Lay made his way back to Kris and frowned at him, studying the boy’s symptoms a little more. As Lay looked the boy over Tao ripped a little of the material off the bottom his shirt and used it to wipe away the blood on the older boy’s face as he ran his fingers through the short, damp strands of Kris’s hair in an attempt to comfort him somehow.

After a few minutes Kris’s face was clean again, Tao continued to play with the older boy’s hair, more for his own comfort by this point, as he watched the other boy’s face intently for any sign that he would wake up soon.

Slowly Kris’s eyes fluttered open to see Tao’s worried expression. Rather than feeling concerned about what had happened to him or concentrating on the pain that was still radiating round his body he just felt relieved that Tao was looking at him again. Not through him or away but at him. Smiling a little he reached up to caress the younger boy’s cheek, running his finger tips over the soft skin he relaxed into Tao easily. The teen felt his face flush at Kris’s actions and, regretting it almost immediately, he turned to look up as Suho so Kris’s hand could no longer reach his pink tinted cheeks. The teen was yet to speak but as Lay turned to look at the pair, the way Tao protectively held Kris while looking away from him, the fact that Kris was still smiling proudly at Tao for starting to break out of his depression, their expressions told Lay easily that they cared for each other more than they would admit to him and that made the news he was about to deliver more difficult to word without scaring either of them.

“There’s good news and bad news.” Lay paused and rubbed the back of his neck nervously before speaking again, “the good news is, this means Kris has been accepted as our leader, the bad news is stuff like this might happen more often.” Lay could tell by Tao’s confused expression that he hadn’t really explained anything properly. “Ok so, you know how we all wanted to know how Suho always knows who we have to save? Well this,” Lay gestured to Kris before continuing, “is how. Suho told me that the leaders of EXO Planet send him the information, if anything goes wrong on a mission, as the leader, it’s his responsibility. The pain is like a little punishment for not saving the person.” Finally pulling his attention away from Tao Kris sat up and looked at Lay.

“Wait. That means that something’s gone wrong, right?” Lay nodded a little and tried, again, to word everything in a way that wouldn’t be a shock.

“I think this means a mission went... wrong.” He didn’t want to have to say it, he didn’t want to admit that he knew that Kris experiencing that amount of pain meant that someone had died because they hadn’t saved them. None of the people they were told to save had died in years, not since the group had been together. They all knew the truth though. Trying to shift the focus of the conversation to something slightly lighter Lay turned to face Kris, “lately have you been hearing anything strange or having impulses to go somewhere or see someone? Any names you’ve never heard before popping into your mind?” Thinking over the past few days Kris frowned in concentration, he’d been fully focused on Tao the entire time and hadn’t really let any other thoughts cross his mind but thinking back he remembered a building, he’d never seen it before but he knew the address, it was an office building and-

“Myung Dae, we were meant to save a man called Myung Dae” Smiling a little Lay closed his eyes at the words, he was right about Kris being accepted as their leader or the boy wouldn’t know that. Only the leader was sent the snippets of information they needed to save their planet.