~*Chapter Fourteen *~

Baekhyun waited until your breathing had returned to normal and you could stand up without falling back down again before helping you walk back up the rock steps to the cliff’s edge.

“Are you sure you’re OK?” he asked once you had finished coughing up your lungs for the second time.

“I’m fine,” you waved him off breathlessly. You weren’t so sure though, your lungs felt tight  and breathing was hard right now, your head also hurt again and your eyes stung from keeping them open in the slightly salty water. Being the stubborn person you were though, you dismissed him, not wanting his sympathy.

He stuck his lips out in to a small pout as he helped you back up the last step before joining you on the edge of the cliff where you had sat down again, dangling your feet over the edge. He sat down next to you, swinging his feet with yours, making sure that he didn’t lose synchronisation.

“Do you want to do something fun?” he asked suddenly, breaking you out of your small trance. You were watching the waterfall glitter against the setting sun; it looked even more beautiful – if that was possible.

“Like what?” you asked, leaning back on your palms, turning your head to look at him.

His lips stuck out even more as he rolled his eyes, pondering what to do. His lips curled in to a sly smirk as he formulated a plan, “Come with me,” he said, getting up and offering his hand out to you. You stared at it. Flashbacks from the asylum played in your mind and you let out the breath you had kept in.

Baekhyun rolled his eyes and grabbed your hand, yanking you to your feet. You yelped and protested but he just laughed, “Do you trust me?”

There it was again. Another line from the asylum.

“No.”

“That stung,” he mocked, putting a hand to his heart as he closed his eyes, pressing his lips in to a firm line as if he was in pain. You couldn’t stop the small smile that crept on your lips as you watched him acting terribly. “Come on,” he said, pulling you along as he started walking, “It’ll be fun, I promise.”

“Yeah, you promise a lot of things…” you mumbled begrudgingly as you followed along, pushing your drenched hair out of your eyes. He didn’t seem to hear that last comment and you didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing.

Once Baekhyun had led you out of the jungle and in to a clearing, he turned around to face you, “We’re going to fly from here, OK?”

You stared at him, not really wanting to follow him and wanting nothing more than to go back to ‘your’ bed so you could just sleep and feel better.

He took your silence as a yes and intertwined his fingers with yours making you recoil in shock. “Trust me,” he said again with a smile. You sighed and let him hold your hand as his feet left the ground, taking yours with him. You still weren’t used to the feeling of flying. It made your legs feel like jelly; like when you went on a rollercoaster and you felt like you were freefalling. It felt odd to have nothing beneath your feet and to feel weightless.

He began to ascend above the trees, gradually going higher and higher until the floor beneath you was nothing but a sheet of green leaves. You then flew over them; like you had over your homeland back on Earth. Baekhyun never let go of your hand and at one point, you swore you felt him squeeze it tighter; or maybe it was your imagination.

***

Baekhyun finally stopped when he arrived at the biggest rock you had ever seen. It was jagged and some parts of it looked really sharp, but there were little nooks that were the perfect size for you both to sit in. When you sat in the top most nook, your backs were facing the sea and when you peered over the top, you could see Kris’ ship that was quite close, perfectly.

Baekhyun sighed, stretching his arms before placing them behind his head, “I love coming here,” he smiled.

“Yes, it is nice, the view is lovely,” you agreed, looking around admiring the orange and red gradient that was beginning to replace the blue sky from earlier.

“Oh, I don’t come here to look at the view,” he scoffed picking up a couple of stray rocks. He flew upwards and hovered over the top of the rock, rolling the stones around in his right hand.

“What are you doing?” you asked, getting up and standing on your tiptoes so you could see what he was doing.

He put a finger to his lips and smiled behind it as he pointed to Kris’ ship. He threw the rock as hard as he could, hitting the side of the boat with a loud smack.

“And now we wait for the show,” he smirked. You looked at him, puzzled; your brows drawn together as you studied his amused face. He suddenly pushed your head down and brought you back behind the safety of the rock.

“What are you doing?” you snapped in a hushed whisper.

He didn’t answer, he just pressed his finger to his lips again before reaching down and grabbing something from his pocket. He pulled out a little thatched bag and dug around inside until he pulled out a wooden pipe. He then tipped the bag upside down on to the rock floor so dozens of red berries came spilling out. He picked up a handful before popping his head above the rock again, bringing you with him. He pointed to Kris’ ship that now had the whole crew assembled out on the deck. They were all looking around helplessly, probably for the source of the loud bang moments ago. Baekhyun loaded up the wooden pipe with one of the juicy red berries and then pointed down at Kris who was wearing the purest, whitest of white coats you had ever seen. It was lined with gold stitching and he looked like a prince wearing it. Your eyes widened when you realised what he was about to do.

He drew in a breath and closed one eye as he lined up his shot. You were about to protest but it was too late. You looked over at Kris and saw that there was now a crimson red splat decorating the broad of his back. It dripped down the white fabric and you grimaced knowing how hard it was going to be to get that stain off, especially when Neverland clearly didn’t have any machinery.

Despite how distressed you were, you still had to bring your hand to your mouth to stop yourself from laughing out loud. Baekhyun chuckled silently before loading the pipe up again. He lined up his shot once more and managed to shoot the berry almost on to the exact same spot; you were amazed that Kris hadn’t noticed yet.

“He’s going to skin you alive,” you whispered, still laughing.

“Yeah, I’ve heard that before,” he shrugged, handing you a stone. “Here, chuck that, we’re gonna need to keep them out on deck longer if I want to dye his whole coat red.”

You smirked and took the stone from him, your heart was beating rapidly in your chest as the adrenaline kicked in. You were scared, you weren’t usually a rebel and you knew that Kris would almost certainly kill you and Baekhyun when he found out about this. But you couldn’t stop yourself; Baekhyun just seemed to make you do the craziest things, even if you were meant to hate him.

You pelted the rock as hard as you could and somehow, you managed to hit the side of the boat like Baekhyun had with equal force, gaining another loud crack as it hit the wood.

“What is that?” you heard Kris shouting. The rest of EXO-M had wandered around to the front of the boat, leaving Kris venerable to Baekhyun’s berry assault. Baekhyun showed no mercy either, he lined up shot after shot hitting Kris in all different places all over his back. You couldn’t stop laughing at the fact that he still had yet to notice. How could he not be feeling the berries splat against his back?

All was going too well however. Kris turned around right as Baekhyun shot another berry out of the wooden pipe. It his him right where his heart was; splattering all over the chest of his buttoned up coat, some of the juices flying up and staining his face. Kris stopped dead in his tracks and looked down at his ruined coat before slowly looking back up, staring straight at the both of you who were peering over the top of the rock with wide eyes and hanging mouths.

Baekhyun quickly grabbed your hand and pulled you away, jumping off the rock and in to the air. He flew, dragging you along with him, much faster than usual until you were well in to the jungle again, concealed by the camouflage of the trees. You sat down on one of the highest, sturdiest branches and it was then that you both burst in to fits of laughter, you doubled over, clutching your sides as you replayed Kris’ reaction in your mind. You felt sorry for him, yes, but it really was too funny to think twice about. Baekhyun was laughing loudly, wiping tears from his eyes overdramatically.

“See, I told you it would be fun,” he cried in between his fits of laughter. You had to admit, it was the most fun you’d had in ages and it had taken your mind off how bad you felt after your near death experience with the mermaids.  It felt like you had the old Baekhyun back, making you laugh and feel better. Making you forget about the little things, the bad things and the things you wanted to banish from your mind forever. When he was like this, when he was the old Baekhyun, he was your remedy, your medication, your cure.

“It was fun,” you breathed, “But he is seriously going to kill you for that. That coat looked so expensive…”

“Yeah, it was, but who cares, Kris is a-”

“Kris is a what you little ?” you recognised the deep voice scream up at you from the ground.

Baekhyun looked at you with wide eyes and you burst in to laughter again as he grabbed your arm and leapt in to the air, pushing off from the branch with his feet. You held on tight to his arm as you soared above the trees trying your hardest to stop laughing. Your cheeks and sides were hurting and you seriously felt like you were going to throw up, in a good way.

You flew all the way back to the tree house, stopping when Baekhyun landed right at the top of the ladder on the small veranda. He opened the door for you and you walked in to the living room. You hadn’t noticed that you were still quite wet and your hair was practically still dripping until the Lost Boys looked you up and down with wide eyes.

“What happened? Are you OK?” Chanyeol asked, getting up and making his way to you where he put his hands on your shoulders and manoeuvred you around to get a closer look at you.

“She was dragged in the blue lagoon by the mermaids,” Baekhyun said calmly, stifling a yawn. He ran a hand through his damp hair that had dried slightly thanks to the wind passing through it when you flew. “Of course, I saved her,” he said proudly, smiling to himself. You rolled your eyes at him and turned back to Chanyeol who still looked concerned.

“I’m fine,” you reassured him with a smile, “I’m going to go and change,” you chuckled, motioning to your soaked clothes. Chanyeol nodded and let go of your shoulders, stepping back.

As you were about to close the door behind you, you snuck a glance at Baekhyun who was already staring at you. You thought he would have turned away quickly when you noticed him staring, but he just gave you a wink and you started laughing again, shaking your head before closing the door and climbing the stairs to your room.