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Chanyeol skipped down to the kitchen and poked his head in. He was greeted with the sight of the four Kim brothers, as well as D.O. and his oldest hyung eating a pile of steamed buns.

He shook his head amusedly. Always eating. When will you ever quit the habit?

"What's up?" He asked the younger kid in a loud voice to try to speak louder than the two bickering brothers.

Kyungsoo opened his mouth to reply but Kai had snapped at his hyung that was messing with his hair. He had been superly grumpy and snappy lately, Chanyeol noted. But a smile formed on his lips as he tried to hold back his laughter.

Unfortunately, the little facade the younger boy was putting up was too see-through. Every single one of them saw how much Kai had missed his older brothers and they got to finally see that twinkle in his eyes that only his brothers could create. The sort of twinkle when you finally see your own family members after such a long time, that twinkle in your eyes when you finally feel complete as a family.

Yet, they still bickered instead of greeting each other with hugs and kisses. Too manly for hugs? Chanyeol wrinkled his nose at the thought. He liked hugs.

"Yah, hyung! I spent all morning trying to-" Kai was interrupted by his third oldest brother.

"Kim Jongin, you are despicable. Look at you! Where's the muscles?!" Chen said with a scrunched up nose and poked his youngest brother's biceps. "I think you've gotten too mushy with your mate, eh? Might need to help her train you-"

Kai shot him a glare while Chen answered him with a mocking smirk. Chanyeol was busy snickering off to the side.

"Jongdae," Suho said before another fight could erupt in the household. They had already broken a vase when they came in and had created a mess in the foyer with all the blood and mud mixed in with the snow. "don't provoke him, alright?"

Chen leaned back in his seat and rolled his eyes, "Neh, hyung~" He muttered reluctantly.

"Gosh your accent sounds too Chinese nowadays." Chanyeol teased. Xiumin chuckled and cleaned his hands in the sink as he ruffled Kai's hair, who whined once more.

"You guys have grown up these past few years." He said and clapped Chanyeol on the back. "And like that little brat said, finally y'all've got some balls, eh?"

Kai rolled his eyes, "Hyung, we've been having balls, big ones in fact, you just weren't there to see them in full sight."

"What the-" Kris tripped over his feet but managed to balance himself. He furrowed his eyebrows. "Why the hell are you guys talking about balls?"

"Because my beautiful dongsaengs have finally grown some!" Xiumin said excitedly, grabbing Kai, Suho, and Kyungsoo into a tight one-arm hug and grinning when they all shot him looks. "I may need to check on that, too, if you know what I mean-"

"Yuck, ge!" The over-sized, tall maknae wrinkled his nose as he walked in and snatched a steamed bun from D.O.'s hands. The older wolf sent him a sharp glare as he munched on it and gave his hyung a sweet, innocent smile, before he turned to Xiumin. "I thought you said you weren't gay!"

"Minseok ge isn't gay, right?" Lay strode in with Sehun following closely behind him. Lay blinked in confusion and rubbed at the back of his head as everyone gave him 'what-do-you-think' looks, and some switched to the looks that said 'can-you-be-even-dumber?'. He felt offended.

"Of course he isn't, Yixing." Suho said kindly and chuckled. "You're still as gullible as ever, huh?"

"Won me lots of trouble back in China, that's for sure." Lay responded in fluent Korean, despite his slight off-tone Mandarin accent, and gave Suho a hug. 

"Definitely." Xiumin snorted and chanced a look at Kris, whose face had darkened. In fact, every single one of their faces had darkened, except for their brothers that had lived in Korea, at the very thought of China.

Sehun and Tao locked eyes briefly, and at Suho's and Kris' stern looks, Sehun rolled his eyes and gave his few-months older brother a hand clasp and bumped shoulders.

"Damn, why the hell are your shoulders so pointy?!" Sehun exclaimed.

Tao gave him the middle finger when Suho and Kris weren't watching. However, Kai saw it and twisted his finger over.

"Ow! Jongin!" Tao whined and Kai smirked when he heard the crack, then let go of his finger. "My beautiful finger!"

"Shut up, maknae." Chen said without sparing the younger a look. Sehun raised his eyebrows and Chen whirled around instantly with a grin on his lips. "Whoops~ I meant, shut up, you brat. Sorry maknae I forgot that Tao isn't the youngest anymore."

"It's not fair!" Tao cried as he held his finger. "MY FINGER! YOU BROKE IT!"

They ignored him. "And besides, my Sehunnie is much, much, more cuter than this brat I've had to deal with for the past three years." Chen finished and pulled Tao and Sehun into a head-locks. He gave them both a noogie, to which Sehun and Tao complained loudly, and laughed.

"Why is Jongdae hyung so damn different? He's too flirty!" Sehun protested against his hyung's grip. "YAH! HYUNG! GET OFF ME!"

"GE, MY FINGER!" Tao wailed. "MY FINGER, GEGE!"

Kris sighed and kicked Chen off the maknae and the crying boy. Chen flew across the kitchen and hit Chanyeol with an 'oof' sound and they both collapsed on D.O., who was trying to eat another steamed bun, but the bun was knocked out of his hands and flew into Tao's.

Tao finally straightened after he wiggled his finger around and heard a crack sound. He saluted D.O, "Thanks for the bun, again, ge!" He sniggered as D.O. stared at him in shock.

Suho cleared his throat as Tao was going to put the bun in his mouth. Tao stopped in place and his eyes flashed to the alpha's spot. Suho nodded his head towards D.O., who was frowning at Tao with a disapproving face. Tao groaned and reached out to place the bun back in the older's hands, but the bun was quickly snatched up by another hand.

Suho face-palmed, Kai groaned, D.O. wrinkled his nose and dropped his hand, Chanyeol smirked, and Sehun beamed.

The last member to join them, excluding the one currently with injuries and probably kissing EXO-K's mate or boring her to sleep, gave them a cheeky smirk and raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow interestedly. He took a bite of the bun as Tao grumbled and jumped onto the kitchen counter.

He threw the bun up in the air and caught it absent-mindedly, before locking eyes with Sehun.

With a devious twinkle in his eyes, he opened his mouth.

"Mmm, your cooking improved Kyungsoo." He commented and gave the boy a wink. D.O. cocked an eyebrow, bowed his head dramatically, and sat down as he watched the older boy survey the wolves standing in the kitchen.

"Well, let's get the ball rolling, shall we?"

You awoke with a twitch of your arm when a warm hand laid itself down upon your bare shoulder. You raised your head and looked around dazedly before your eyes darted up to meet the ones of Baekhyun's. He gave you a small smile as he rubbed at his wet hair with a towel, dressed in a grey t-shirt and basketball shorts.

The room had darkened significantly, as the moonlight shown from the window. It was cold without the warmth of his body besides you and one glance at the window showed that it was snowing heavily outside.

"I swear you sleep like the dead." He joked. You shot him a look, you noticed you've been doing that alot lately, and watched as he laughed. He looked more livelier than before, his skin was more flushed with color, and the eye-bags underneath his eyes didn't look that bad as compared to earlier.

"How are you feeling?" He asked after he'd calmed down and ran his fingers through his damp hair.

"I'm okay." You replied. He cocked an eyebrow disbelievingly. "I'm serious!" You insisted.

You really were. If you excluded the fact that your shoulder ached whenever you moved or that by the simplest touch of the small scar on your fore-arm a sharp pain would arise, you were fine. A little bit dehydrated and just slightly hungry, but nothing too serious.

Baekhyun shook his head and hung the towel over his shoulder. He turned to you and pulled you out of the bed carefully before he opened his door.

"You can walk, right?" He asked you teasingly.

You stuck your tongue out at him. "That's mean."

Baekhyun chuckled and wrapped an arm around your shoulder as the both of you walked out his room. "Why are you so happy all of a sudden?" You questioned.

"Maybe it's 'cause I see my mate besides me when I fall asleep, in my dreams, and right there in the shining sunlight when I wake up once more?" He suggested cheekily.

Your cheeks flushed red at his cheesy remark and you ducked from underneath his arm and ran down the stairs.

I can't believe he just said that. You thought with your heart racing quickly in your chest. He burst out laughing from above you.

"Damn, that was super disgusting, am I right?" He called down to you.

You gave him a look that said 'you-think?' and turned back around when you saw a grin form on his lips. He seemed really happy, but you had no idea why. Though you wouldn't disturb it, the past events were tiring even for you, and to see him smiling so freely wiped away the suffocating and stressing thoughts from the incident that had just happened. His happiness was slowly rubbing off on you and you were feeling light after a good, comfortable, and much-needed sleep from the shock of the stranger's from earlier, too.

You landed on the foyer and bounced into the kitchen with Baekhyun following you with amused chuckles. You found the living room empty despite the television cranked on and turned to a movie channel with a horror movie that was being showed. You immediat