He heard voices surrounding him, but he didn’t raise his head, still clinging to the lifeless body of Kyuhyun. He didn’t care about his surroundings at all; his world had been taken from him, all because he’d arrived too late. If he’d just come sooner, if he’d just let Chungho and Seunghun lead him to the location instead of going to back to the apartment, or if he’d never left the apartment in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened. It was all his fault. No one would’ve taken Kyuhyun if he’d stayed, or at least, he’d die protecting the angel.

“Yesung?”

It was a familiar voice that filled his ears, one that he thought he’d never hear again calling his name. Years ago, that voice saying his name would’ve caused his heart to skip a beat, his stomach to flutter, and all the pain in the world would’ve faded, but not this time. Instead, he wondered what he ever did to deserve this, his past lover was haunting him now, and the love of his life was gone despite how much he clung to the still body.

A hand came to rest on his shoulder and started to pull him, to get him to release Kyuhyun’s body, “Yesung, come on, we can save him now.”

Yesung started to glare as he raised his head to look at his past lover, because there was no use in giving him false hope when he knew that Kyuhyun was dead, but he stopped when he was met with a blinding light surrounding them. Squeezing his eyes closed, he tried to will them to adjust to the whiteness around them but as soon as he opened his eyes again, he was still blinded. He could barely make out the dark brown hair of Siwon.

“Ah, one moment,” Siwon replied, covering Yesung’s eyes with his hand. The demon felt something warm against his eyes and when Siwon removed his hand, he could see.

The brightness wasn’t hurting his eyes anymore and he could plainly see Siwon standing there, in his white suit that could’ve blended in with their surroundings, and that smile, that would’ve made Yesung weak in the knees before was, plastered on his face. He looked down at Kyuhyun in his arms and saw that the bite marks on the angel’s neck were gone, dried blood caked onto the angel’s neck but the wounds were gone. He still couldn’t hear a heartbeat though.

“May I…?” Another voice caught him off guard, a softer voice that of a female’s. He looked up to see a bright eyed angelic girl with brown hair, her hands outstretched towards Kyuhyun’s body. “I can heal him now.”

Yesung was speechless, shocked by her statement, Siwon took that opportunity to retrieve Kyuhyun’s body from Yesung’s grasp, moving him over to a white bed to lie him down on. The demon followed, almost like he was drawn to stay beside the angel’s side, even if he was dead. He finally found his voice when he saw the angel girl’s hands moving over Kyuhyun’s body, examining all the areas where the wounds were.

“B-But… his heart… I-I can’t hear it beating. H-He’s dead…” Yesung mumbled, still at a loss of words.

“I’m not too sure about that, Yesung,” Siwon started, placing his hand on the demon’s shoulder, “When Sungmin hyung and I arrived, we found Death, or as you demons call him, Kibum, waiting there with Kyuhyun’s soul still by his side.”

Yesung’s head snapped towards Siwon, his eyes widening, “What? But I saw—I saw Kibum take him—he left with Kyuhyun’s soul--”

Siwon nodded, “He did, Kibum told us that he left to keep Kyuhyun’s soul safe, he’s allowing the angel a second chance. That’s why Seohyun here,” he motioned to the female angel, “is trying to heal him.”

The demon stared at Siwon in awe. Kibum was giving Kyuhyun a second chance at life? What was the reason behind it? Surely, it wasn’t for Yesung’s sake, he’d had almost everything else that he held dear to him taken away, why would Kibum decide to take pity on him this time? He shook his head, he shouldn’t be thinking that way, Kyuhyun was being allowed a second chance at life, Kibum was granting him that, which that alone made Yesung want to shout his gratitude from mountain tops to Death.

“If you listen hard, you can hear the faint traces of his heartbeat already,” Siwon informed the demon with a small smile.

Yesung did as the angel said, focusing as hard as he could on the sounds in the room, he could hear another faint heartbeat coming from somewhere else in the room, but it wasn’t Kyuhyun’s. He stepped up to the bed, trying harder to hear the heartbeat but the demon’s attention was quickly averted from Kyuhyun to the sound of Heechul’s voice coming from behind them.

“Hankyung! Love, wake up!”

Lying on another bed, like the one Kyuhyun was on, was the still body of Hankyung’s, Heechul was being held back by an angel to keep him out of the way as two other female angels healed the human. Yesung was confused by that, wasn’t Hankyung’s own healing ability enough to heal himself? Aside from that, what happened to the human to cause him to need the healing of angels?

“Apparently, whoever the demon was that had this all planned had attacked Prince Heechul and his human lover as well,” Siwon noted, explaining the situation to Yesung upon seeing the confusion on the demon’s face. “It’s a good thing that we came when we did, Heechul was bleeding to death and Hankyung…” he paused, watching as the human finally stirred awake, “well, he didn’t look so good.”

Yesung watched as Hankyung’s eyes opened before immediately shutting again, blinded by the brightness of the place. With a quick touch of one of the angel’s hands to his eyes, he opened them again, this time, able to see his surroundings. Just as he rose to sit up, Heechul broke free from the angel and ran to the human, wrapping his arms around Hankyung, and holding onto him as if his life depended on him. But Yesung knew that’s exactly how it was, Heechul’s existence revolved around the human, he’d be lost if anything happened to his lover.

“Hankyung, I’m never letting you out of my sight again,” Heechul muttered, his head buried in the neck of the human as he clung to him, refusing to let go.

Hankyung breathed a chuckle, clutching tight to the demon prince as well, tears running down his cheeks, “That’s fine with me, Heechul. I love you.”

“I love you too,” the demon prince whispered, kissing the side of Hankyung’s head.

Yesung smiled at the two, it was a rarity for Heechul to show affection in the presence of anyone except Yesung and a few others, but he knew that right now, Heechul didn’t care if the whole world was watching. His world was almost taken from him, and he was making sure Hankyung knew how much he cherished the man.

“Siwon?” A familiar voice called for the angel, a voice that Yesung did not want to hear but figured he would, considering they were surrounded by angels already. Standing near the door of the room, Sungmin beckoned for the angel beside Yesung. “Will you come here a moment?”

The angel nodded to Yesung with a small smile before walking over to Sungmin. Yesung turned back to the female angel, Seohyun, as she was still healing different wounds and bruises on Kyuhyun. Some of the areas, he didn’t even know there was damage done to the angel. Kyuhyun’s wrists were covered in scrapes as if something was digging into his skin, some faded scratches were scattered on his stomach where Seohyun lifted his shirt, leading along to his back as well. Yesung’s eyes widened when he noticed the hand-shaped bruises on one side of Kyuhyun’s hip.

He quickly lifted up the other side of Kyuhyun’s shirt, brushing Seohyun’s hands out of the way, to see matching prints on the other side too. His eyes widened, he gulped down the bile that was working up his throat, he just hoped it wasn’t what it appeared. He could smell faint traces of Daeshim coming from the angel and from the bruises on Kyuhyun’s hips, he hoped that the wretched demon didn’t have his way with the angel, he prayed for it to not be the case.

He glanced at the female angel, motioning to the bruises, “These bruises, are they the only ones in this area? He wasn’t… no one attacked him, right? I mean—he didn’t get…”

Her eyes widened and she shook her head, “No, I know what you’re saying, but no, those were the only bruises there. He wasn’t...” she looked horrified to even say it, “um, he wasn’t .”

Sighing in relief, Yesung let go of the shirt, covering those bruises that he detested, but they would be gone once Seohyun healed him, he murmured, moving out of the angel’s way, “Thank the heavens.”

She started healing every spot that she found an injury on her angelic brother, she spared Yesung a glance, smiling at the demon softly, “You care greatly for him, don’t you?”

“I love him,” he said, surprising her, while he grasped hold of Kyuhyun’s hand that she just finished healing the wrist of, intertwining their fingers together, “More than anything.” He didn’t look away from the angel’s face; Kyuhyun looked like he was just sleeping, like he hadn’t just seen Death and returned, he looked as peaceful as the morning after the night they first made love.

Seohyun didn’t say anything for a moment, rethinking what Yesung had said as she healed all the wounds on Kyuhyun, his heartbeat was slowly starting to beat at a normal pace instead of the soft and sluggish one he had before. She knew that it was only a matter of minutes before the angel regained consciousness, but she finally voiced the thought going through her mind at Yesung’s statement.

“I didn’t know a demon could love an angel,” she glanced over at him, before returning her attention to Kyuhyun.

Yesung shrugged, a small smile gracing his lips, “I didn’t know angels would help a demon prince and his human lover,” he nodded towards Hankyung and Heechul when she looked up at him, “but there’s a first for everything, isn’t there?”

Allowing a smile to cross her lips at the irony of the situation, she nodded to herself, “Alright, I’ll give you that one, but I still find it odd. You’re supposed to want to kill us, not want to be with one of our kind.”

“Heechul hyung had laws for us set against the killing of angels--”

“But the want would still be there, wouldn’t it? Despite the laws against it…”

The demon opened his mouth to reply, but another voice caught them both off guard, a soft, scratchy sounding voice. One that made Yesung’s heart soar to his throat.

“Ye-Yesung’s dif-different.”

Seohyun and Yesung’s heads turned to the angel lying down to see that he had stirred and his eyes were slowly opening. Kyuhyun had woken up. The angel felt tired, almost as if he had no energy but he supposed that it was something to be expected since he had died. He tried to smile when he felt the small hand intertwined with his, squeezing it slightly, he knew that Yesung would be by his side, he could hear the demon’s deep, husky voice the whole time that he lied there, barely conscious but aware of his surroundings.

“Kyuhyun?” And there it was, that beautiful voice calling his name, he could never tire of hearing that.

“Y-Yesung wouldn’t h-hurt me,” Kyuhyun whispered, his hand barely able to squeeze Yesung’s hand due to his body still being weak.

Yesung clutched at his hand, his other hand coming up to caress the angel’s cheek, his eyes filling with unshed tears as Kyuhyun leaned into his touch, a smile finally crossing the angel’s face despite the struggle with no energy. Those dark brown eyes gazed up at Yesung, happy to see that face again. He had saw the demon once Kibum had collected his soul, he saw the way he cried over him, and he wanted nothing more than to reach out and comfort the demon, let him know that he was coming back to him, but he couldn’t.

But he was here now, he was alive again, he was able to hold the demon again, and that’s all he wanted to do.

Seohyun stared back and forth between the two, taking in the way the demon looked at the angel and the way that Kyuhyun looked back at Yesung. It was plain as day. Love. They were in love with each other, despite being immortal enemies, despite the hatred that was supposed to be between the two beings, they loved each other. As much as it amazed her, surprised her, she couldn’t help but smile upon witnessing it.

As quickly as she could, she finished healing Kyuhyun back to his full strength. She could sense that he was still weak, tired, and she could see that he wanted nothing more than to hold the demon, so she worked to provide that opportunity to him. Once she was finished, she stepped back, turning towards the others in the room, allowing the two a little bit of privacy.

Kyuhyun took advantage of it, moving to sit up and wrap his arms around Yesung’s middle, burying his head into that warm chest. Yesung’s arms wrapped around him, holding him as close as possible, grateful that he was able to do this once more. The angel was no longer in death’s grip; he was alive and breathing again. All was right in his world again, even if it was falling apart with everything else going on, this was all he needed right here, in his arms, breathing the same air as him.

It was a miracle that they got to him in time, from all the blood that had pooled around the angel leader’s body and the faint traces of a very weak heart, they assumed that he wouldn’t make it. A wound caused from an angelic dagger, especially the leader of angels’ dagger, was hard to heal. But once they’d reached the angelic realm and several of the angels started lending their healing abilities to help save their leader, he was healed. His chest held a tiny scar from the place that Hyunseung stabbed him, and he knew that even with his own healing abilities that the scar was going to stay there for all eternity. A small reminder of how close to death he was.

Leeteuk had finally regained consciousness, and despite the other angels telling him to rest, he was more concerned with the others. He knew that his angels would heal the demon prince due to their treaty and he hoped that they could save Kyuhyun, despite the cries from a certain demon, believing that the angel was dead. He had lost consciousness not too long after hearing the cries but before he did, he thought he could still faintly hear a heartbeat coming from the angel. He just hoped that help arrived in time to save his dongsaeng.

“Leeteuk-hyung, you really should rest. The others are fine, I assure you,” Sungmin pleaded as he followed the angelic leader through the corridor.

The leader waved him off, “I’m aware but I still want to see them, Sungmin.”

The angel bowed his head and remained silent as they walked into the healing room of the palace, following after the leader. He looked up to see his lover, Siwon, conversing with Yesung as the two stood beside the bed that his dongsaeng rested on. Jealousy shot through him at the sight, he knew that Siwon didn’t remember who Yesung was, and didn’t have the slight clue about the past between them when he was still human, but he was more concerned about Yesung trying anything.

He called for the angel to come and join him by his side, while Leeteuk headed over to check on the demon prince. The angelic leader watched for a moment as Heechul and his human lover clung to each other. His gaze softened at the sight, vaguely, he could remember what it was like having someone he cared greatly for, but unlike the two in front of him, his lover was taken away.

“Prince Heechul?” He called, not wanting to ruin their moment, but they had more pressing issues to worry about. He needed to get his dagger back before Hyunseung caused more problems for them.

The demon prince slowly pulled away from Hankyung, glancing over at Leeteuk, flashing a soft grin, “Good to see you didn’t croak on us, Leeteuk hyung.”

While a few angels that were following the leader murmurs at the remark, the angelic leader simply chuckled, “Yes, I have the best healers here, I wasn’t going anywhere.”

“That’s good to know,” Heechul replied, then looked back at Hankyung and smiled, “And thank you for having your healers save us as well. I wouldn’t be able to live if anything happened to Hankyung.”

Hankyung’s hand found Heechul’s and laced their fingers together, “I wouldn’t either, Heechul.”

Leeteuk smiled at the two before looking at Heechul, “I’m aware. You two are very lucky to have someone so dear to you.” He hesitated a moment when he saw the demon prince kiss Hankyung but he cleared his throat, “But I’m afraid that there are more pressing matters at hand right now.”

Heechul’s gaze returned to Leeteuk’s, “Hyunseung.”

“Yes, he has my dagger, and if he knows as much about it as he claims, I fear for your kingdom,” he said then motioned towards himself and the angels behind him, “and for our lives.”

“I know, but he won’t get anywhere with that, Leeteuk. I have enough demons in the Underworld that will fight by my side to keep my throne.”

“Do you suppose they’d be willing to fight along side us? It’s my dagger he took, I don’t want to sit by and let you fight for what’s mine as well as what’s yours,” Leeteuk spared a glance at the angels behind him, many were terrified of the idea of fighting with demons as their comrades as well as being in the Underworld, but others appeared willing to do so. Anything for the good of the angelic realm, he believed.

Heechul saw the expressions and chuckled, “Are you sure you’d have enough angels that would want to help us? But like I said, there’s plenty of demons that can help me take back what’s mine, and I’ll gladly return your dagger to you.”

Leeteuk nodded, “I’m aware, but I want to go with you and fight.” He heard several gasps behind him but he continued, “It’s both of our lives in danger here, I’m not going to just stand by and watch that demon do as he wants.”

“The more the merrier,” Heechul shrugged, “But I want you to be heavily guarded as well, I’m not going to risk placing our treaty in the hands of any other angel aside from you, should anything happen to you.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. Sungmin and Siwon will more than likely accompany me, while the others will follow our orders. Just make sure the demons that are helping you don’t turn on us as well.”

“The ones that abide by my laws already know not to attack you, and in the time of war, they’ll be too busy fighting for my sake than to break any of my laws,” Heechul remarked, “You’ll be safe.”

“Alright, as soon as everyone’s healed, we’ll return to the human realm and create a battle plan before storming your kingdom--” Leeteuk stopped as he glanced around the room, his gaze stopping and widening at the sight he was greeted with.

Wrapped in each other’s embrace was his dongsaeng and Heechul’s child, their lips pressed against each other’s. He distinctively heard the gasps and muttering of the other angels around him but he didn’t pay attention to any of those, still in shock at the sight. He recalled the way the demon wept over Kyuhyun when he knew the angel was dying, drained almost dry by those two vampires of Hyunseung’s, but to witness this firsthand, he didn’t know how to react nor how to feel about it.

“I suppose I should inform you that my rabid dog and your dongsaeng are together. One would say even in love,” Heechul’s voice filled his ears as he stared at the two.

Sighing, he shook his head, “I knew this would happen--”

“Don’t you mean that your dog is just using my dongsaeng?” Sungmin’s voice interrupted Leeteuk’s as the angel glared at the demon prince. “Kyuhyun’s too innocent to see through his lies.”

Heechul growled at the angel, “Does that look like he’s using your dongsaeng?” He asked, pointing towards the two.

Sungmin scoffed, “He can be very convincing to someone innocent, how else would he lure Ryeowook into his game of lies and then have him killed?”

“Sungmin, stop,” Leeteuk replied, glaring at the angel. “Leave Ryeowook out of this, please.”

“But Leeteuk-hyung--”

“We have more pressing issues than this,” he motioned towards the demon and angel, “I’ll figure out what to do afterwards.”