Two
Wolf's Bane
The morning dawned an iron gray, prompting the boys to remain at the dorm for the day. Jongin, Sehun and Baekhyun were ensconced on the couch in the living room nursing cups of hot cocoa, all of them enjoying their pseudo-winder day in. It was pouring outside and inside was considerably cooled--no one wanted to get up and fiddle with the thermostat, all taking the opportunity to indulge in the remains of their winter rations.
Chanyeol was folded in the armchair, Wu Fan sitting at his feet, leaning on the shanks of his legs. Min Shuo and Lu Han made themselves comfortable on either arm of the couch while Suho, Kyungsoo, Zitao and Yixing made magic work with the love seat. They had all gathered around the television set, enjoying a Chinese movie called IP Man, the subtitles being in Korean so that both audiences could enjoy it without a problem.
What they were really doing, was killing time. It had been two months since Mother had been born and it was time for her to bear fruit. Everyone was excited, hearing the stories from their seniors in the company. They were all just packs of wolves in SM Entertainment, really, and they’d all made their declarations in different ways, all of them individually at some point. The members of EXO, however, had decided to do it together as a group. Admittedly, it was a ballsy move on their part given the nature of the situation, but it turned out for the better. Now it was time to see if Mother was pleased.
Wu Fan was ecstatic that morning--he was second to rise after Chanyeol. He’d met the slightly shorter man in the kitchen leaning against the counter opposite the stove, staring blankly at the teapot. The tall Chinese had blocked Chanyeol’s view smoothly, bracing his hands on either side of the inclined body and dropped his head, tilting it to placing a chaste kiss on the other’s lips.
“Good morning,” Wu Fan greeted in English, placing his forehead against the other’s. By then, Chanyeol’s hands had fisted themselves within the front of Wu Fan’s black shirt and his gaze found purchase with the taller man’s.
“Good morning,” Chanyeol echoed softly, his voice a rumble atop the silence of the dorm. He smiled softly at the other, his manic smile only fit for the others whereas his sincere, smaller one was reserved for the love of his life. Wu Fan grabbed hold of one of Chanyeol’s arms, and his head snapped up, brows furrowing.
“You’re freezing out here,” he murmured, reverting to Korean. Chanyeol pointed around Wu Fan at the teapot.
“Problem solved.”
“Smartass,” the taller of the two rolled his eyes.
Soon enough, the others had filed in, chattering excitedly about the birth of Mother and asking about breakfast and something hot to drink and amongst the clamor, the whine of it being too cold. Kyungsoo had bee-lined toward the kitchen, stepping around the tall couple with a smile and a ‘good morning’ with too many syllables.
Ten minutes later found ten of them seated around the living room, Jongin busy pestering Kyungsoo while the other worked on breakfast.
Wu Fan shifted in his spot at Chanyeol’s feet, the other crossing his ankles around the other’s neck. The dark haired twenty-one year old sipped at his hot chocolate quietly, letting the others talk, laughing every once in a while. During their movie, Wu Fan had dared to crane his neck back to see Chanyeol not paying attention to the movie, but looking to his left at the torrential rains outside. Frowning a bit, leaned over and placed a soft kiss to the other’s leg. It brought Chanyeol back to the real world for a moment and he smiled down at the Chinese, reaching down to ruffle Wu Fan’s hair. The taller man scrunched his nose, feigning disgust, drawing a soft, throaty chuckle out of his lover.
“You’re quiet today,” Wu Fan murmured into his lover’s hair as they both lay curled together that afternoon. Everyone else had fallen into some precarious position in the living room shortly after watching the sequel, the mood of the weather too relaxing to deny the siren call of sleep.
Chanyeol hummed, burying his nose into the other’s chest. “Must be the weather,” he mumbled at length, knowing his boyfriend expected an answer from him. If the situation wasn’t as grave as it were, he would have lapsed into contented slumber along with the rest of the others.
A finger tapped the underside of his jaw, prompting him to look up. He turned half lidded eyes toward Wu Fan and was met with a raised eyebrow.
“You’re one of the main ones lobbying for games to play during this weather,” Wu Fan stated, propping himself onto his right elbow.
“Then I’ll be the only one lobbying for cuddle-sleep time with my boyfriend,” Chanyeol said, brows furrowing a bit, and burying his nose into his lover’s chest. “Now come on, sleep.” With a chaste kiss to the wide-eyed rapper’s forehead, Wu Fan relented.
When the other’s breathing finally evened out and he fell into deep slumber, Chanyeol untangled himself from the hard sleeper. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed, wasting no time in removing his shirt. Despite the low temperature inside and the added effect of the inclement weather, there was this heat coursing through his veins that told him he had been cooped for too long.
But it wasn’t anything an icy cold shower couldn’t handle. It usually calmed the beast inside him, mimicking the temperature of the wind as if running. It’s true, he hadn’t gone running in a long time, and he really wanted to go while the others were out, but he couldn’t take that chance.
The tall musician walked out of the room, closing it quietly behind him and making a quiet beeline for the bathroom. Thick brows furrowed, beaded with the sweat he wiped away with the back of his hand. Chanyeol leaned heavily against the door, with eyes shut tight and his head turned skyward, mentally trying to hold himself in check.
Sufficiently calmed, he shed the remainder of his clothes and started the shower. Letting it run, he glanced at his reflection in the mirror, mismatched gaze locking with each other.
“This had better work,“ he muttered to himself. He stood under it for the better part of half an hour, hands braced against the wall with his head bent under the spray. The icy water beat against his skin, but it provided little relief to the unusual discomfort. He felt caged. He needed to get out.
He had to go before--.
“Buddha, weep with me,” Baekhyun groused, not for the first time, from behind half closed eyelids. “I have natural business to take care of.”
“Someone still in the bathroom?” Jongin asked sleepily, mouth dropping obscenely around a yawn.
“Guess so,” Jongdae shrugged, scratching his head and turning away to pad into the kitchen. They had all woken up some time later, Zitao switching the television station to something he preferred to watch. The rain at that point, if possible, was beating on the earth and the windows harder than before. There was a harsh flash of lightning and an angry roar of thunder as the scraping of the wind seemed to regurgitate the rasping rain against the windows.
Baekhyun frowned and stood to his feet, left hand coming to cup his privates lightly. “Well, whoever’s in there needs to get all the hell out because I need to piss.”
Min Shuo chuckled. There was nothing like a testy Baekhyun just after waking. He walked past the irritated singer and pat him on the shoulder, saying, “The struggle is real,” before following Jongdae into the kitchen to hunt for his own snack of choice.
“You always hog the TV,” Yixing burst, flinging his arms wide open as he glared wide-eyed at the youngest Chinese. “You even watched TV before you slept. Let me play a game, damn it!”
Zitao merely shifted the channel and glanced up at Yixing before continuing to give his undivided attention to the screen. “You should have played while we all were asleep, then.”
“How the hell could I do that while I was out like the rest of you?” The older man groused. “Go practice your Wu Shu or something! , man, just let me game for a while.”
“Boys, boys,” Lu Han said, moving to stand in the middle of the small battlefield, raising his hands in neutrality. “Why is everyone so afraid of love?”
“Love!” Came the sudden cry before a small cushion collided with Lu Han’s head. The twenty-three year old victim, eyes still closed from the impact, just nodded before immediately taking off after a quickly retreating Kyungsoo.
Instant chaos.
Baekhyun rolled his eyes and moved to go to the bathroom. The bathroom had been occupied ever since they all woke, him being the first since nature beckoned him oh-so sweetly.
Whoever decided to put twelve guys in a place with one bathroom needed to be - several times and slapped to thy kingdom come, he thought morosely.
Baekhyun stood, expression stormy, in front of the closed door where it sounded like the shower was on full blast.
“Hey,” he called through. “Let me in, I need to pee.”
After getting no answer, he knocked on the door with a bit of force. “Hey!”
Thoroughly annoyed, now, he tested the lock. Finding it free to turn made him roll his eyes as he proceeded to enter, only to yell in surprise and step back abruptly, closing the door. He stumbled back into the opposite wall, wiping his face of the powerful spray of water that had assaulted him.
“What’s wrong?” Jongin asked with a smirk. “Saw too much?”
Baekhyun straightened up and wiped his hands on his clothes. “I just got sprayed.”
Jongin frowned, taking a sip of water from the cup he held in his hand. “But the showerhead isn’t detachable.” The nineteen year old turned the knob. “I’m coming in,” he announced before opening the door, promptly closing it again and spluttering as he also tried to rid his countenance of the unexpected incursion.
“What the hell was that?” Jongin all but yelled, pushing himself away from the wall, scowling at the closed door.
Wu Fan groaned, struggling to tear himself from the confines of sleep, left hand reaching out in search of the familiar body of his lover. He frowned, however, meeting the area suspiciously cold. Prying his eyes open, he confirmed that his boyfriend was, indeed, not there pressed into him like he was before sleep took over.
With a grunt he rolled over to stand beside the bed and stretch when something collided against the wall outside. He shrugged it off, believing it to be a few of the others naturally horsing around, probably with Chanyeol as the usual ring leader. The second and third slamming of a door and against the wall prompted him to get up however. Rolling his eyes, he padded around the foot of the bed and opened the bedroom door. Sticking his head out and looking to the right at the small crowd around the bathroom, his brows furrowed.
“What’s going on?” he asked, slightly annoyed. His expression shifted to one of bewilderment, one of his slanted brows raising in question. Four of the boys were liberally soaked from the face to their chest in water.
He looked to Jongin, one of the likely perpetrators.
The younger man merely stepped back with a droll expression, motioning to the door with a flourish. Everyone else made a path and Wu Fan sighed, moving to open the door. He’d nearly shut the door himself, spluttering at the onslaught of untamed water assaulting his face. He pushed forward, squinting through the shower and…
Wind?
He shut off the shower and put up an arm to shield himself from water that seemed to still be coming in. Inhaling, he realized it was rain water and dared to look to see the broken bathroom window. Frowning through the howling wind and invasive rainwater, he turned around to face the others, but pointedly at Yixing.
“Get me something to cover the window. A garbage bag and duct tape or something.”
Stepping back into the hall and closing the door behind him as he waited, he cast an expectant glance at everyone else. They all responded with various expressions of obliviousness as his eyes passed over each face. Then his frown deepened.
“Where’s Chanyeol?” he asked.
Eyes widening and brows knitting together, Wu Fan barreled back into the bathroom and into the tub, sticking his head out and looking to and fro. There was nothing but gray sheets of rain and barely visible rooftops and what he knew to be almost nonexistent streets and light traffic almost ten stories down.
There was no way even a wolf would chance a drop like that, especially if he expected to survive the fall.
Heart clenching, Wu Fan’s mind raced, blocking out all the hushed and near-frantic questions and half-hearted reassurances from the other members. He his heels and exited the bathroom, nearly knocking Yixing down in passing. He put on the nearest pair of shoes at the door, knowing there was a high chance it wasn’t his, and stalked out of the dorm’s entrance, purpose etched into his features. Foregoing the elevator, Wu Fan resisted the urge to Shift to get down the steps faster, already skipping them three at a time to get to the ground floor. Faintly, he heard quick footfalls behind him, but he disregarded them his mind focused on Chanyeol.
“Yixing,” Sehun said, drawing the stunned man’s attention to himself. “You, Kyungsoo and Tao, fix the window. I’m going after him. Jongdae, check the fire escape and see if the idiot’s there.”
“I’m not missing this,” Jongin declared, already rounding the other two, closely followed by Lu Han and Baekhyun, Sehun hot on their heels.
Wu Fan raced through the lobby, unaware of the indignant shouts of the security guard as he charged through the entrance. He felt the presence of some of his pack mates behind him as he scoured the immediate area for his lover; there was no sign of him.
“Chanyeol…”
He hit the ground hard, the mud clinging to his fur like metal to a magnet. Clenched eyelids parted to reveal marginal strips of color, one maroon and one amethyst. Chanyeol got to his paws, limping slightly over to the pond in the middle of the park, his feet slowly leaving the earth as wings on his back carried him the rest of the way to float above the pond water. Amidst the hard ripples was the distorted reflection of a wolf’s countenance, falcon’s wings, and the undulated image of a snake.
A shiver shook his spine. He felt her here.
Mother…
Dropping heavily to the ground, he reverted back to his human form, left hand over his chest to summon the Pearl once more, peering at the flame. It was no longer at its shield, but seeming to shy away from it.
Chanyeol bit his bottom lip, dark hair dribbling water into his squinted eyes, the rain urging its action by beating into his face. Clenching his eyes shut, and turning his face to the heavens, he fell back, bracing himself with his elbows.
His shoulders shook, his teeth bared and clenched as the sobs broke free. He knew the day was coming, but it didn’t mean he wanted it to.
Neither could he stop it.
Then, his jaw went slack, his heart full and his body weak as an inhuman wail rose to collide with the thunder’s boom.
A/N: I hate my writing style. I seriously do. It takes too long to get down on paper and even worse to type up on the fly and because of the way I think it just makes it extra hard and--.
HERE IS YOUR UPDATE A MERE DAY LATER.
I swear…
But I do hope you enjoyed it! This is what the power of comments can do. If you keep the comments coming, you get more updates. And they may just be better. ♥
So for those lovely people who are still around. I'm going to reread this and do my best to complete it. Thanks a bunch for not giving up lol, even if you prolly forgot this thing.
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