“What are you guys doing up here?” JB asked, poking his head through the door of the bedroom that VIXX was hiding out in, “EXO will be here soon.”

“Yeah,” N nodded, “and that’s why we’re hiding out.”

“Not quite following you,” JB frowned.

“EXO’s gonna take Hyorin,” Hyuk sighed.

“We aren’t going to be her demons anymore,” Hongbin added, face buried in the pillows.

“Oh.”

“So you’re just gonna sit around here and do nothing?” Jackson questioned, pushing open the door and entering with his brothers close behind.

“That’s sad,” Mark scoffed, “like really sad.”

“Didn’t think I’d ever see you guys give up,” Jr sighed, “I mean, after everything you guys have done keeping Hyorin safe…….”

“So what do you expect us to do?” Ravi hissed, “tell her that we love her? That we don’t want her to leave?”

“Obviously,” Got7 chorused.

“What do you have to lose?” JB told them.

VIXX shared a look, wondering if they should bite the bullet and confess to Hyorin. She was leaving after all, so if she rejected them……….they could part ways with no regrets and heal their broken hearts. But if Hyorin accepted their love…………..how in the heck would they handle that.

--

“Mom!” Hyorin cried, rushing into her mother’s arms, “Dads!”

“You’re alright,” Suho was the first to pull Hyorin into a hug after Mi Sun let go.

“VIXX looked after you well?” D.O questioned, carefully looking over Hyorin to make sure that she didn’t have a single scratch on her.

“They did a fine job of looking after her,” Yong Guk spoke up, drawing everyone’s attention to the fact that SHINee, Zelo, and Rina were waiting in the living room.

“Wait,” Sehun frowned, “why are SHINee and Zelo here?”

“And who’s that woman?” Kai added.

“We’ve got a lot to talk about,” Onew sighed.

“Why don’t we let Mi Sun and Hyorin catch up?” Key suggested, “I’m sure they want to have some mother-daughter time. We can explain everything that’s happened to you.”

“Fine,” Kris said, pressing a quick kiss to Hyorin’s head before Mi Sun lead her out into the backyard.

“Hope VIXX locked their door,” Taemin whispered to Minho who nodded, no doubt in his mind that EXO wouldn’t take some things all that well.

--

“So,” Mi Sun said once Hyorin had told her everything, “after all of that, I’m sure you’re looking forewords to coming home with us. Going back to normal probably sounds good, right?”

“Yeah,” Hyorin said, but her mother could tell that she didn’t really mean it.

“You don’t want to leave, do you?” Mi Sun said, a knowing smile on her face.

“Not really,” Hyorin admitted, “I want to be back home with you and everyone, but………I don’t want to leave everyone.”

“You don’t want to leave everyone,” Mi Sun asked, “or you don’t want to leave VIXX?”

“Both,” Hyorin said, “I mean, especially VIXX, but…….I can’t just leave Got7 and Rina either. None of them know what they’re going to do now, so…….”

“You want to help them,” Mi Sun nodded in understanding, “but mostly you want to stay with VIXX.”

“Yeah.”

“Are you in love with them?”

“No,” Hyorin sighed, “maybe. I really like them, all of them, and I said I love them, but…..”

“You’re still falling,” Mi Sun smiled, “I know the feeling. When your fathers confessed, I was still falling for them. But before long, I was completely in love with them.”

“Yeah,” Hyorin smiled slightly, “you’ve told me a bunch of times.”

“Point is,” Mi Sun laughed, “I was in your position at one point, so I get it.”

“I……don’t know what to do,” Hyorin sighed sadly, “I….I want to stay here and…..and see if maybe…..I……I love them. But…..then that means I can’t go back with you and the appas.”

“I think you should stay here,” Mi Sun said after a moment, “It’s not like you’re never going to see us again, right?”

“Are you sure?” Hyorin questioned before remembering her fathers just inside the house, “what about the appas? What are they going to say?”

“Let me deal with them,” Mi Sun assured her daughter, “I think I can convince them to let you stay.”

--

“Dads?” Hyorin said, opening her bedroom door to find her fathers packing up her things, “what are you doing?”

“Packing,” Luhan explained, “we’ve got an early flight, so best to get the packing done now.”

“I get that,” Mi Sun said, “except that Hyorin isn’t coming with us.”

“What?” EXO turned to face the pair, beyond shocked.

“She’s staying here,” Mi Sun told them, tone leaving no room for argument, “she’s got school and friends here. Plus Rina and VIXX can train her much better than you all can. It just makes sense.”

Before EXO could start to argue, Mi Sun started to drag all of them out leaving Hyorin to unpack everything. The half demon waited for one of her fathers to come back in, insisting that she was going with them, but that never happened. Carefully, still expecting to be told that she was going, Hyorin set about unpacking everything.

“What are you doing?” Xiumin frowned at Mi Sun, “why isn’t Hyorin coming with us.”

“I told you,” Mi Sun smiled, “she can’t be dragged out of school, not this late into the year. And she can train with her powers much better here than at home.”

“Valid points,” Chen admitted, “but you aren’t telling us something.”

“She’s in love, isn’t she?” Baekhyun scowled, already planning ways to kill VIXX for stealing his baby’s heart.

“Not yet,” Mi Sun told them, “she’s still falling.”

“I’m going to kill them,” Lay growled and Mi Sun grabbed his arm to make sure that he didn’t go off to make good on his threat.

“She’s got to find someone eventually,” Mi Sun pointed out, “and wouldn’t you rather it be someone you know? You can trust the six of them to protect her, to love her, to never hurt her. I mean, they ran away from her just to make sure that they couldn’t be used to hurt her. They really love her.”

“You’re right,” Luhan sighed, “and I hate it.”

“Still not happy about it,” Suho frowned, “but…….they’re good for her. And her for them.”

“So go tell VIXX to stop moping,” Mi Sun told the twelve, “tell ‘em that Hyorin is staying. And, you know, give them the normal ‘hurt my daughter and I’ll hurt you’ warning.”

“Fine,” all twelve sighed before heading off to find VIXX.

“Oh!” JB blinked in surprise when he and his brothers bumped into EXO on their way down stairs, “hi.”

“You’re Got7, right?” Kai asked, smiling slightly, “thank you for looking after Hyorin.”

“She helped us more then we helped her,” Youngjae insisted, “we’d still be under Nayoung’s control if it wasn’t for her.”

“You should all be very proud of her,” JB nodded, “you raised a great young woman.”

“We are proud,” Tao smile brightly.

Got7 then left and EXO exchanged glances. Maybe they shouldn’t be so worried about Hyorin. VIXX could look after her but……maybe she wasn’t the little girl that they’d sent off all those months ago. She’d….she’d grown and could handle herself.

“Hey,” Suho said, “let’s go talk to VIXX.”

--

“Hey,” N flashed EXO a small, sad smile when he opened the door to find the twelve of them waiting on the other side, “how are you?”

“Hyorin is going to stay here,” Kris said, cutting straight to the point as soon as he saw the sad look on VIXX’s faces.

“Huh?” Ken sat up and EXO watched as hope appeared on his face, “what….what are you talking about?”

“She’s going to stay here,” Suho explained, a small smile forming on his face as he saw how the news made the six demons before him light up in happiness.

“It’s what she wants,” Sehun said, trying to shrug it off like he wasn’t upset that his child wasn’t going to be returning home with him and the others.

“Really?” Leo asked, trying his best not to sound too happy.

“Really,” Chen nodded before a dangerous glint appeared in his eyes, “but if you hurt our baby girl…….”

“We’ll kill you in a way you can’t even imagine,” Lay finished.

“We know,” N nodded, happiness fading into seriousness, “we’d kill ourselves before that happened.”

“She means everything to us,” Ravi added, “we’d never hurt her.”

“Good,” Kai smiled, “we’re gonna go, see if we can get some daddy-daughter time before we have o leave in the morning.”

With that, EXO left and VIXX shared a cheer of pure joy.

“Tomorrow,” Hongbin spoke up, “we confess to her tomorrow.”

“Yep,” Hyuk nodded, “and hope she accepts us.”

“I think she will,” N smiled.

--

“Hey,” N said, dropping down beside Hyorin on the back steps.

“EXO and your mom gone already?” Hyuk asked, sitting down on her other side.

“Yeah,” she nodded, “a few hours ago. You guys sleep way too late.”

“We’re still recovering from the power drain,” Ken explained, “Nayoung made us use our powers a lot while we were in her control. And for stupid stuff, too.”

“She wanted entertainment,” Leo huffed.

“I’m amazed we had the strength to find off SHINee like we did,” Hongbin admitted, “I thought for sure that they’d clean our clocks easily.”

“Same,” Ravi nodded, “but we’re feeling much better now.”

“Good,” Hyorin smiled and the group fell into comfortable silence.

“Hyorin,” Hyuk finally spoke up, “we have something we want to tell you.”

“I have something I want to tell you guys, too,” she replied.

“You go first,” Hongbin told her, nerves over confessing playing with his determination to just confess already.

“Alright,” Hyorin said, taking a deep breath, “I like you. All of you. A lot. It-It’s not love, not yet, but…..I…I want to try…..to…to see if….”

“If it will become love,” N summarized, smiling brightly.

“That’s fine with us,” Ken grinned, moving to hug Hyorin from behind, “we love you, Hyorin. And we’ll wait forever if that’s what it takes.”

The group fell into silence again, all smiling happily. Yes, Hyorin wasn’t in love yet, but none of them doubted that she’d get there very soon.

A/N: and that wraps up ‘Trusting Demons’. I’m really going to miss this story, I had so much fun writing it. But all good things must end so……… I’m in the early planning stages for a couple of follow up to this, one with Got7 at the center and another with SHINee. No promises that either will be out any time soon, but......I’ll tell you guys when I do start posting them. Until then, thank you so much to all who’ve subscribed or upvoted, means a lot that you guys liked this story <3