That night, Luhan’s sleep was punctuated with horrible nightmares and surprisingly sweet dreams. He blamed it on the honey liquor, but deep inside, he knew it was rather the kiss. He woke up several times, but each, Sehun’s quiet breath and are you okays allowed him to fall back asleep almost instantly. Morning came slowly, but it came, and when he left his bedroom to have breakfast, Luhan wasn’t too tired. Now that he wasn’t feeling dizzy anymore, he could think properly. He knew he would have to be careful from then. People had not to hear about the two of them doing what they were doing. Let alone that fact they were both boys, Sehun was a stranger, and this was the worst.

                Luhan tightened his grip on his cup of tea and sipped a little, before smiling at Sehun, who was eating his budwig cream hungrily. “Sorry about last night, I had drunk too much,” he said quietly. The young man’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth in upset surprise.

                “I – you… You didn’t mean it? The kiss and…you didn’t…?” he asked pitifully.

                Luhan gasped. “No! I mean, yes, I did mean it! I was just talking about me waking you up so many times…”

                “Ah, good,” Sehun had a relieved smile. “And it’s okay, don’t worry.”

                “Thanks,” Luhan said. He finished eating, then washed the dishes quickly and went to the bathroom. While he showered, he head Sehun climb the stairs. So that it would be more convenient, they’d decided he would have showers in the morning and Sehun in the evening. When he went to his bedroom, Sehun was still changing. “Sorry!!” Luhan squealed, closing his eyes tight. He heard Sehun’s joyful laugh take flight lightly. A few seconds later, two hands came squeeze his shoulders.

                “You can open your eyes,” Sehun said. Luhan could almost hear in his words the smile he had on his lips. He opened an eye then the other, relieved to see the young man had put on clothes. He looked at his chest, and noticed he was wearing a thin necklace with a cross-shaped pendant. While he smiled at it, Sehun asked, “Are we going to the Fountain today?”

                “Sure, it’s Sunday,” Luhan answered. He had an idea. “Look, there’s bread and dried meat and salad, and it’s not raining…we could go there and then have a picnic in the forest. Unless you don’t want to. But if we find a nice place, it would be great,” he said. Sehun’s face brightened even more if it was possible, and he nodded enthusiastically. Luhan grinned. “Then let’s make sandwiches.”

                Luhan didn’t forget to take with him the purse filled with mint and salt. Sehun and he left at around half past eleven, and fortunately, the clouds had been nice enough to make room for the sun, which was shining quite bright for an end of November. Sehun looked amazingly happy. So happy that when they reached the edge of the woods, he grabbed Luhan’s hand to squeeze it. By the time they reached the Fountain, Luhan had the feeling his entire arm was a dead branch brought back to life by Sehun’s touch with new buds and leaves and birds on it. Their fingers were still interlaced when Sehun held out the purse for him to throw the mint and the salt into the water. Side by side, they watched the animated ripples created in the air by the fairies.

                But their little bubble of happiness was popped when a voice sounded all of a sudden in the clearing. “Hey there.” Luhan started and abruptly let go of Sehun’s hand in fright. He turned around, and found himself facing Jongin, the clothes shopkeeper’s son. Jongin was a tall, always-smiling boy, who was also amazingly lazy. Just like Yixing, Luhan didn’t know him well, but Jongin was cool. However, he was a villager as well, and he had not to know about his and Sehun’s blooming relationship. Luhan swallowed and smiled the best he could.

                “Hi, Jongin,” he said, efficiently allowing Sehun to learn the boy’s name. Jongin nodded at Sehun.

                “That’s you, Sehun, I suppose,” he said. The young man smiled. “Hehe, I won’t bother you for too long,” Jongin chuckled. He took a purse similar to Luhan’s out of his pocket and threw a little of its content into the Fountain. “See you ‘round,” he waved before leaving. Sehun had crossed his arms. Luhan had a little smile.

                “Let’s find somewhere to sit, I don’t want to meet Baekhyun on top of him,” he said, and Sehun laughed. They walked away from the Fountain, deeper in the forest. Even if at first, Luhan’s hand remained tightly balled in the fist that had formed when he’d heard Jongin’s voice, Sehun’s fingers brushing softly managed to soften it, and a little while later, they were holding hands once again. It wasn’t long before they spotted a flat and smooth rock, on which they decided to sit down. Luhan took the food out of his bag, and they started to eat happily. The woods were quite chilly and humid, but it was truly pleasant to be there. “I love this season,” Luhan said honestly.

                “I do, too,” Sehun smiled. Luhan chuckled. He spotted a fairy fluttering in mid-air and followed her with his eyes. But a loud bird with blue s made her fly away quickly. Luhan turned towards Sehun to tell him so, when a sunbeam reflecting in something made him blink. He let out a surprised ‘oh’ and realised it had been Sehun’s necklace. He looked at it more closely. One of the branches of the cross was longer than the other, but they were perfectly perpendicular to each other. The pendant was simple, but harmonious.

                “What is it?” Luhan asked, grabbing it between three fingers. Sehun shifted to sit a little closer to Luhan and allow him to see better.

                “The cross? Well, it’s a symbol of my religion, that’s why I wear it,” he smiled softly.

                Luhan frowned. “A symbol of your – what?” he asked, puzzled.

                “My religion,” Sehun repeated.

                “What is it?”

                “Oh,” Sehun said. Luhan saw he was thinking about an answer to give, but it was probably quite complex, as Sehun rubbed the back of his neck, biting his lip slightly. Luhan kept touching the little cross dreamily, waiting. “It’s something I believe in,” the young man said finally. “Don’t you have something like that? Don’t you have a God?” he asked then. Luhan titled his head. He didn’t know what this word meant. However, it sounded eerily familiar. Slowly, he shook his head.

                “We don’t,” he said.

                “You have rituals, though. At least one,” Sehun objected. Once more, Luhan frowned in incomprehension. “The Fountain, every Sunday,” the dark-haired boy said. Luhan knew what he was talking about, but it made no sense to his mind. “You don’t go there every week, especially on Sundays, for no reason…it has to mean something!” Sehun said fervently.

                Luhan furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Going to the Fountain was an old tradition; at least he thought so, because when he’d arrived in the village, everyone had already been doing it for years and years. But other than pleasing the fairies, he’d never heard about any reason to do it. Moreover, Sundays weren’t different from the rest of the weeks – the only thing that changed on these days was that Luhan didn’t work. But in spite of all of this, Sehun’s words had a strangely reassuring sound to them. “What’s your religion? What is it like?”

                Sehun smiled. “It’s a little complicated. There are many religions in the world. But according to mine – to ours – God created our world…and his…ha, his son died on the cross to pay for our sins. We believe in them and do everything to live a good life. It’s also something related to faith, happiness and love,” he said softly, pushing Luhan’s hair backwards to kiss his forehead. Luhan’s heart skipped a beat, like stopped then restarted by the sudden physical contact. Sehun’s explanation was still a little mysterious, but it sounded somehow beautiful, even if the whole religion thing was, to Luhan’s mind, closer to a dark fresh room waiting to be lit up than to a clear and obvious story. Pulling gently on Sehun’s necklace to make him come closer, he closed his eyes.

                “You’ll teach me things.”

~

                In the beginning of the afternoon, Sehun mentioned the fairy halls Luhan had talked about a few weeks before. As the weather was still agreeably clear, Luhan suggested they went to the Tree. Sehun hadn’t seen it yet, and it was quite exceptional too, so they picked their things and got going. Reaching the Tree would take them almost an hour, as it was in the opposite area of the woods, but Luhan liked walking, especially with Sehun’s hand protecting his like a living glove. Luhan’s soft leather boots were making almost no noise despite the thin dead leaves strewing the ground.

                Sehun had grabbed his little cross and was chanting a strange and low poem, as if the trees were able to understand him. Luhan was smiling. Sehun’s words sounded like cotton in his ears. Some of these words, he didn’t understand them, once again. But the young man seemed so happy to pronounce them and so engrossed in the poem that he didn’t dare to ask what it meant. When Sehun finished speaking, he squeezed his hand affectionately. It was as if he’d just squeezed Luhan’s heart. The blonde-haired boy felt a strange warmth sweep over him, similar to the one produced by the honey liquor. He looked up at Sehun timidly. The wind was gently pushing his hair backwards, and it was swaying like brown flames. Luhan’s eyes were greeted by a cheerful smile. Blushing, he looked away, focusing on the path to follow.

                To go to the Tree, there was tiny path, traced with the passing years by people’s feet. Strangely, instead of being a straight line, it winded through the forest in a hundred curves and loops. When they reached the Tree, Sehun’s face brightened considerably. “It’s amazing,” he said. The Tree was much bigger than the surrounding others, but what made it so different was the numerous fairies perched on its branches, who seemed to be faint moving fruits of light, and above all, the fact that all the leaves were still bright green while the rest of the forest had long since taken on yellow, orange and brown hues. The whole Tree seemed to be out of time, like borrowed from another world where spring lasted all year.

                Luhan felt a smile form on his lips as he watched Sehun walk admiringly around the trunk. “Do the fairies here like mint and salt too?” he asked Luhan after a while.

                Luhan nodded. “Yes, they do. But it’s more difficult to give it to them as it can’t be thrown in the water. There’s a way, though…” he added, amused inwardly at how impressed Sehun would be if they did it. “Here,” he said, taking his purse and pouring a little of its content into Sehun’s hand. Then he put it back into his pocket and grabbed Sehun’s wrist to raise the young man’s hand. “Wait a little,” he said. At first, nothing much happened. Then, bit by bit, a couple of rippling clouds fluttered towards Sehun, flying in circles around him before landing on his hand gently. Luhan let out a low giggle. In Sehun’s palm, the salt and the mint started to vibrate too, and slowly faded away in twinkling lights.

                The dark-haired boy was frozen on spot, his mouth slightly open in a petrified and mute exclamation. He didn’t make a single move until the fairies left his hand in an almost inaudible flapping. “They…they touched my hand,” he said slowly. Luhan grinned.

                “It’s wonderful, isn’t it?” he replied. Sehun nodded affirmatively. Luhan smiled for a minute. There was something more to do there. Something he’d been thinking about quite a long while. Just like the Fountain, the Tree was a place to go with your special someone. But maybe it was too early to do what Luhan was imagining… He looked up at the leaves.

                “What’s the matter?” Sehun asked. Luhan met his eyes. If they did it too soon, it go wrong.

                He smiled. “Nothing. Let’s go?”

                He would wait.

~

                Winter came all of a sudden, and seemed to fall from nowhere. One night, Luhan and Sehun went to bed as usual, and the next morning, fifteen good centimetres of snow were there, covering the ground, white mantle of some mysterious cold spirit. It was hard to hold Sehun back from going outside right away to play with it. “But – I’ve never seen so much snow!” the young man protested.

                “You’ll freeze to death, put on gloves at least,” Luhan smiled shyly, handing him a pair.

                “Come with me,” Sehun said.

                Luhan shook his head mischievously. “No, I have things to do,” he said.

                “Oh, please…” Sehun begged. Luhan hadn’t played with the snow in years. Not really waiting for his answer, Sehun grabbed a beanie on the coat hanger, clamped it on the blond boy’s head, and dragged him outside by the hand. The white snow blinded Luhan and he closed his eyes tight until he felt Sehun’s hand was gone. He opened his eyes slowly and looked around, puzzled.

                “Sehun?” he called.

                And suddenly, one of the weirdest sensations he’d ever experienced hit him like a blow.

                Or rather like a snowball.

                Sehun’s laugh may have been muffled by the thick snow just like any other noise at the moment, but it didn’t fail to make Luhan’s heart flutter. However, the icy pain – no, not pain, surprise – in the back of his neck was there indeed, terribly real. Luhan opened his mouth in a silent cry, desperately trying to reach the snow behind him with his hands to throw it away. “Got you!” Sehun exclaimed. Luhan heard him laugh again at his hopeless attempts to get rid of the snow. “Here, here,” the young man said softly after a minute. He gently brushed the white snowflakes off Luhan’s skin and blew warm air on it.

                “That wasn’t nice,” Luhan sulked.

                “I know, sorry,” Sehun said. “You can hit me back if you want to.”

                “Of course I do. Close your eyes,” Luhan told him. Sehun complied. Meanwhile, the blond-haired boy picked up a fair amount of snow in his hands. He waited until Sehun asked if he could look. And he threw the entire load right onto his face. It didn’t even fall; it just stayed where it was until Sehun let out a strangled cry. (But a lot of snow still remained.) Luhan burst out laughing.

                “Alright alright alright,” Sehun shivered.

                “You look so pretty with all that stuff on your face,” Luhan teased.

                “Get rid of it, I’m freezing,” Sehun replied.

                “Make me.”

                “Come on…”

                “Oh, and how should I do that?” Luhan chuckled, crossing his arms.

                “Kiss it off,” Sehun said. Luhan’s smile faded slightly. “Come on,” Sehun added, opening an eye then closing it again. Luhan looked around carefully and took one step closer to Sehun. He tiptoed to reach his forehead and placed a kiss on it. The snowflakes under his lips felt like little tiny cold flowers disappearing shyly when they were touched. Luhan kissed Sehun’s temples, his cheekbones, his jawline, his chin, melting the thin layer of snow every time. A kiss on both his cheeks, the tip of his nose, and he smiled. Sehun didn’t open his eyes. Luhan blinked.

                And he realised what Sehun was waiting for.

                His heart about to explode, he got closer to Sehun’s face, and gently pressed their lips together. If there was any snow left on Luhan, it disappeared instantly, melted away by the sudden wave of warmth that washed over him. Sehun’s gloved hands came cup his face softly as he tilted his head to find the perfect angle. Right then, there was a curved vertical movement that drew Luhan towards him, and he raised his chin to follow it, and both their bodies were pressed together, the rustling of their winter clothes breaking the silence from time to time.

                He was actually happy Sehun had forced him to go outside. But even that little, brief thought was shooed away from his mind when Sehun’s tongue timidly the outline of his lips, physically asking for entrance. Luhan opened his mouth to let him in, his heart beating a little faster. He didn’t know where to put his hands, and after hesitating for a little while, he decided to place them on Sehun’s back, arms tightly circling his chest. Sehun’s thumbs were his cheeks.  Their lips were only parting for the mere seconds needed to breathe in and out. Luhan was pretty sure that with all the warmth radiating from the two of them, all the snow in the garden would have melted soon. It was impossible, but he pulled Sehun closer to him, chest against chest, heart against heart.

                It was in fact only the fourth kiss they exchanged. The first one had been the night Luhan had won a Nim game for the first time. The second one, a week later, before going to bed after a long day of work. The third one, at the Fountain, the previous day. Luhan was fine with that slow rhythm for the moment, even if kissing Sehun had a real taste of heaven. But he liked taking things carefully.

                He didn’t even know how long they remained against each other in the garden. He only realised that snow had started to fall again gently. Sehun parted slowly from him and had a smile filled with emotions Luhan couldn’t decipher. When he opened his mouth to speak, Luhan know almost instinctively that he was going to say something serious. “I love you, Luhan,” Sehun whispered. Luhan wondered why everything was still all white around him, because his whole body was on fire.

                “I – love you,” he managed to choke, the words dying on his lips. Sehun laughed happily and hugged him right. Don’t do that. I’m going to burn you, Luhan thought. But Sehun only cradled him gently without catching fire.

                “Let’s go inside, I want to cuddle,” the young man said in a childish tone that made Luhan’s heart melt instead of the snow.

                He nodded, holding back a beam. “Okay.”

                It was market day, but since the snow was still falling, Luhan decided they would stay at home. There was enough food in the cupboards, and if they ever needed anything, it could always wait until the next Monday, when the shops would be open. Sehun did obtain his cuddling session, by the fireplace with hot cups of tea that made Luhan’s hands and cheeks redden. Sehun’s chest was constantly raising and lowering as he breathed, gently pushing against Luhan’s every time. “Tell me a story,” Sehun said suddenly.

                “What sort of story?” Luhan asked back, slightly surprised, once again, by Sehun’s strange interests.

                “About yourself.”

                “Ah,” Luhan bit his lower lip. “What do you want to know?”

                “How you arrived here.”

                Luhan didn’t reply right away. Sehun had already mentioned the fact he was a stranger, but without asking further explanations. It was a story he didn’t particularly enjoy telling, in fact. But when Sehun kissed the tip of his nose, he gave in to him. As always. And he started collecting the fragments of memories dispersed in his mind that he needed to put into words.

                It had happened about ten years before, when Luhan was just a little child. He didn’t remember where was the place where he’d been living. Only the abrupt necessity to leave. He had left, and he had travelled, for long, with then without people, until he’d met a group of children playing in a field that was surely miles and miles away from the place he came from. You’re lost? Then you could stay with us!, they had said, with their innocent ten-year-old generosity. Luhan, exhausted, desperate, starving, had accepted right away.

                Who’s this?, the parents had asked.

                A new friend.

                I’m lost, Luhan had added.

                Where are your parents?

                Luhan didn’t tell Sehun what he had replied, but he was sure the young man guessed as he gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. Luhan had a trembling smile and carried on.

                The villagers couldn’t possibly let a child die by refusing him, so he’d been given a house to sleep and food. At first, he’d lived at Kyungsoo’s, then at an old woman’s, who had died five years later. Luhan had found out she’d left the house for him, so he’d started working to provide for himself from then. “Here I am,” the blond boy finished in a whisper. He waited for a while before adding, “People still consider me as a stranger, even unconsciously. They used to call me wheat head. Because I’m blonde-haired,” he smiled.

                “I love you hair,” Sehun said, nuzzling it.

                Luhan let out a low laugh and tightened his grip on his hand. “But what about you? Why did you run away?” he asked. For a fraction of a second, Sehun’s features hardened, so imperceptibly Luhan found himself wondering if it hadn’t only been a trick of the moving light from the fireplace. Almost instantly, a soft smile formed on the young man’s lips, washing Luhan’s doubts away.

                “Oh, it’s nothing interesting, really,” he said. But Luhan was used to that type of replies. It was terribly usual for the villagers to use them in order to avoid talking about something they weren’t particularly proud of. Smile, laugh, brush things away and change the subject. Anxiously, he waited to see whether Sehun would do all of that. “You would be bored,” Sehun chuckled. “Don’t you think it’s getting cold? We should put some more wood into the fire,” he added. Luhan’s heart ached slightly. So Sehun didn’t want to tell him his own story… With sudden fright, he wondered what it would tell. Maybe Sehun was actually someone bad… No, Luhan pushed that thought away as firmly as he could.

                He smiled. “Yes, you’re right,” he said, even thought the fire was absolutely fine. When he realised he’d been digging his nails into his palms, it was too late and Sehun had already seen it. And Luhan was sure he’d understood what he himself had concluded.

                “Trust me, you wouldn’t really enjoy the story,” the young man said in hushed tones. Luhan looked down and laughed quietly. After all, everyone had secrets and was allowed to keep them. Maybe one day Sehun would be ready to tell him.

                He would wait for that too.

~

                “You know, Christmas is in a week,” Sehun said joyfully as they were coming back from work. Everything was already plunged in the early winter darkness, but the snow reflected moonlight so well that it gave the feeling the ground was a beautiful glowing carpet.

                “What’s this?” Luhan asked.

                “Oh. A really, really big thing in my…religion, Sehun laughed embarrassedly. “On the 25th of December, long, long ago, someone truly important for us was born,” he said.

                Luhan nodded. “And will you be celebrating?” he asked.

                “Well, usually, there’s a Mass and then a meal you share with your family, but…” Sehun said. My family isn’t there, Luhan finished his sentence in his head.

                “You can share it with me even if I’m not…like you, can’t you?”

                “Oh, sure,” Sehun said enthusiastically. “Thanks a lot. I guess I’ll just take some time to do my things,” he added, and Luhan smiled.

                The next week, like Sehun had said, Luhan and him cooked turkey. They would eat it for dinner on the 24^th, then stay up late until midnight. Sehun would go out for a while and then come back, of course. It went as planned, and the young man even told Luhan more precisely what Christmas was and how it would traditionally have been celebrated. When they went to bed, Sehun was so glad he held Luhan’s hand until they fell asleep.

                However, they were woken up really early in the morning by people shouting not far away from his house. They got up hastily to see what was happening, and went outside quickly. As they walked towards where the screams were coming from, Luhan wondered more and more what caused them. There was a small but growing crowd. Everybody was staring at something. “What’s the matter?” Luhan asked one of the villagers anxiously. A few people moved to let him see.

                And Luhan wished he’d never seen what he saw then.

                On the ground, two shiny wings were resting, visibly torn and slashed, as well as a small pool of silver liquid. Luhan knew fairies were invisible. He knew their thin insect-like wings and their shiny blood couldn’t be seen.

                Except when they’d been killed.

A/N: How do you feel about this? Please tell me!

Thank you for reading and commenting, you make me feel so, so very happy ♥