Kyuhyun never wanted to go shopping anywhere for anything with Yesung ever again. As he dragged himself and the two bags of clothes that took forever for the angel to choose at the store, he finally made it back to their room. He was tired, his feet hurt, and his head hurt, and Yesung, despite being tired, still seemed to have enough energy to still annoy the hunter.

Once they got back in the room, Yesung took off with his bag of clothes while Kyuhyun dragged himself and a pair of pants along with a shirt with him to the bathroom. He was going to take a quick shower, get changed so that he didn’t smell horrible anymore, and collapse onto the bed. At least the hot water running over his body helped relax and ease the ache in some of his muscles, but it didn’t compare to the relief that his feet had once they were resting on the bed.

“Kyuhyun, you’re going to sleep so early?” Yesung asked, but then looked out the window and saw that the sun that had already set, darkness was creeping up now. “Oh, well, it is kind of late.”

“Yes, you should sleep too, at least then you’ll be quiet for once,” Kyuhyun muttered, turning his back to the angel.

“Ah, suppose I should. My feet are hurting, even with my shoes on,” he replied, sitting at the bottom of the bed and taking his shoes off. “I thought shoes weren’t supposed to hurt my feet but these are making my whole foot ache.”

“That’s because you’ve been walking and standing all day. Your shoes won’t stop your feet from hurting then. Even mine hurt.”

“They do? I’m sorry, Kyuhyun, I didn’t mean for your feet to start hurting,” Yesung apologized, his voice full of guilt.

Kyuhyun glanced over his shoulder and sure enough, he saw that lip poked out on Yesung’s face with that sad look in his eyes. He sighed, “Its fine, Yesung, just let me rest.”

“Okay…” he trailed off, but the hunter knew he wasn’t finished, “the hot spring won’t help your feet?”

“I’m too tired to walk down there to it.”

“I can try to carry you down there, or at least, you can lean on me and I can try to drag you to the bathhouse, since my powers haven’t been helping me out lately,” Yesung mumbled, hesitating in taking his shirt off, in case the man did decide to take the angel’s offer.

“I’m fine, Yesung, I really just don’t want to move at all.”

“Alright,” the angel nodded, continuing with taking off his shirt and placing it on one of the chairs. He walked over to the bed and lied down on his side. His mind was still thinking about what he said seconds ago. His powers had been weird lately, he was strong and had all his abilities, or at least, most of his abilities when he woke up, so why weren’t they working anymore? “Kyuhyun?”

“Hmm?” The voice hummed that was slightly starting to sound irritated.

Yesung paid no mind to it, his thoughts still running through his head, “Why don’t my powers work anymore? I could heal your feet if I had them, I could carry you down to the bathhouse, and my feet wouldn’t get stone bruises at all. I could do so much with my powers, I could’ve even healed that man’s wife earlier so she would’ve been better and he could’ve given us a ride to the next town.” His voice lowered to a whisper, “So why can’t I use them?”

Kyuhyun stayed quiet for a moment until he heard a sniffle, he looked back before turning over to see the angel wiping at his eyes, his bottom lip trembling. The sight made Kyuhyun’s heart hurt, especially since he knew that he was the reason for those tears, he was the reason for Yesung’s loss of power, he was the one that tricked the angel into wearing the spellbound necklace. All because of his client’s request.

He reached out and grasped Yesung’s wrist that led to the hand that was wiping at his eyes, bringing it down so he could meet Yesung’s eyes. A bad mistake when he saw those watering eyes, “Y-Yesung, I’m sure it’s just because you’ve been sleeping for so long.”

“But I had my powers when I woke up. I killed two of those men that were trying to hurt me, I was about to kill Eunhyuk with my strength, but now everything’s gone,” the angel whimpered, burying his head into Kyuhyun’s shirt as he started crying. “I-I can’t even release my w-wings anymore; th-they won’t come out for me. H-How can I-I help you protect me when I don’t even have my wings to protect me?”

Kyuhyun sighed to himself, hesitantly bringing his arm around to hold the angel and rub his back to try and soothe him. He didn’t know what to say, until Yesung spoke up again.

“I-Is this the council’s punishment too? D-Did they st-strip my powers so I-I couldn’t harm anyone else while you lead me to my next place of rest?” Yesung pulled back slightly to look up at Kyuhyun, his hand still clutching to the man’s shirt. “Is that why?”

The hunter cleared his throat, seeing those tears running down Yesung’s cheeks made his heart feel like it was stuck in his throat, so he swallowed it back down, “It could be, they never tell us anything other than the basics. Maybe one of the members was watching you when you woke up and saw that you almost killed Eunhyuk. They may have stripped them so you wouldn’t rebel and kill us.”

After a small sniffle and wiping at his runny nose, Yesung sighed to himself, “I guess they would end up doing that. I am still sorry about almost killing Eunhyuk though.”

“I know, and all is forgiven with that, Yesung, you don’t have to keep apologizing for it. He’s already forgiven you.”

The angel tried to nod, “Also… thank you, Kyuhyun, for putting up with me. I know I can be annoying at times and I irritate you, but thank you for protecting me.”

Kyuhyun chuckled to himself, “It’s my job to do so. I have to protect you.”

“Yeah, but you could just hand me off to the people trying to hurt me and claim it as an accident,” the angel lowered his gaze to his fingers now playing with the man’s shirt. “So thank you for not handing me off to those people.”

“Well, you’re welcome…” he replied, then sighed, “To be honest, I wouldn’t give you over to those people anyway. They’d kill you, or torture you until they could find a way to kill you. I won’t let them do that.” But even after he stated it, he felt guilt build up in his being. Wouldn’t he just be throwing Yesung into the lion’s den once they returned to his employer’s mansion? Especially if Mr. Choi was the one that and tortured the angel.

“Thank you, Kyuhyun,” the angel quietly repeated, and after a few minutes, Kyuhyun heard a soft snoring.

The hunter looked down to see Yesung’s eyes closed, his lips open, and he looked like he was starting to drool on Kyuhyun’s shirt. Instead of rolling his eyes at the fact that he’d have a wet spot on his shirt now, they softened at the sight, Yesung looked so beautiful asleep. Maybe that’s why the angelic council gave him that punishment, maybe they really wanted to see the peaceful look upon the angel’s face.

He still felt guilty for lying to the angel, he felt guiltier every day when he realized just how much he was beginning to get used to the angel. And so that raised several questions to himself, would he able to hand Yesung over to his employer? Would he be able to live with his decision afterwards, with knowing what lie ahead for the angel? Would he?

His mind slowly gave way to sleep as he kept questioning himself. Maybe he’d have an answer to his questions when morning came.

A hand caressed his cheek, causing him to open his eyes. He shrank back when he saw Mina in front of him, an amused grin spreading across her face at his reaction. She chuckled to herself and ran her hand down his chest to lie over top of his heart.

“Darling, I'm slowly being replaced inside here,” she said, her nails digging into his chest, causing him to gasp and then cry out when she broke the skin. “You’re replacing me, he’s taking over.”

“Wha-what? St-stop, please!” He pleaded, seeing blood running down Mina’s arm now, the pain was becoming unbearable.

“Oh, this is nothing compared to what’s going to happen to you, darling, just like when I lied to you. You’ll feel this pain. He’ll feel this pain. You’re going to rip out his heart when he realizes you’ve been lying to him,” she smiled cruelly, twisting her fingers causing Kyuhyun to cry out and he would’ve fallen to his knees but then he noticed he wasn’t standing or sitting. He was in the hotel room, lying on the bed.

“You know this won’t end well. You’re taking him back to that heartless man; you’re taking him back to his worst nightmare…” Mina chuckled, “But I suppose if you had lied to me and made me believe in such foolish things as you have with him, that man could serve to be a relief. He’d know what was coming then, and it wouldn’t be one of your lies.”

“Sh-shut up! I-It’s my job! I-I can’t—” he gasped out when he felt her fingers dig further into his chest.

She laughed, reaching up to kiss his lips, “More lies. Do you ever get tired of them, darling? You hated when I lied to you, you hated me with everything in your being. I’m dead and you’re still dreaming of me, you’re still tortured by me, all because of my lies.”

Her freehand came up to grasp his chin, despite his struggling to get away, she turned his face to the side and lying beside him, he saw Yesung. Sleeping just as peaceful as earlier when he saw him fall off to sleep. “Do you suppose he’ll have nightmares of you once he realizes your lies? Do you think that once that man’s done with him for the night, and when he’s lying there, perhaps, crying himself to sleep, he’ll think about you. He’ll think about your promises to protect him, he’ll allow all his memories to eat him alive until he awakes and that same physical torture will continue. He’ll be haunted by the memories of you and the man that holds him captive.

“You’ll be just as horrible as I was, and still am by living in your memories.” She caressed the side of his face, but Kyuhyun didn’t acknowledge it nor the hand that was slowly pulling out of his chest, his mind still trapped in what she said, still trapped in staring at that angelic face sleeping, still trapped in the idea of Yesung being back in the clutches of his employer. “Darling, he’ll hate you, just like you’ve convinced yourself that you hate me—”

He woke up with a start, he looked down at his chest to see that he wasn’t bleeding, he wasn’t in any pain unlike in the dream and Mina was nowhere around. He sighed to himself in relief, then glanced over to see Yesung still sleeping, he was glad for that, because if he’d woken the angel, he knew that Yesung would start asking a lot of questions. Questions that he did not want to focus on right now.

But what Mina was saying, it made Kyuhyun’s stomach feel uneasy. He was the same as her; he was lying to Yesung, leading him to his demise. Mina had lied to him the whole time, once they’d captured her and was taking her back to their employer, she was filling his head with so many lies that he believed, lies that messed with his head, and lies that still mess with his head. She used every tactic that she could to blind him into letting her go, and when he did, she destroyed him.

So wasn’t she right? Wasn’t everything she said in his dream true? He was leading Yesung on, telling him so many lies that even he was running out of, just to get him to cooperate with them until he was able to return to their employer and dump him off there. It was true that he felt betrayed and the worst of all, it fueled his thirst for money, it fueled his ability to be so cruel to the monsters that he faced after Mina, but the betrayal that the angel would face, he wouldn’t be able to pick up the pieces and go on. Instead he’d be forever trapped in the hands of their employer, if he decided to continue on with the mission.

He lied back down; his gaze moving over the angel’s sleeping face. Was he really going to go through with this? Would he be able to go through with this?