“The fire’s stopped,” Sehun spoke up as he gazed at the slowly diminishing cloud of smoke.

Several hours has passed since they evacuated, and the sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon. They six of them hadn’t gotten a single wink of sleep, all waiting in anticipation of what they would soon find out. Mira wouldn’t be dead. It was impossible. She’s an Ultimate; she’s indestructible. Those were the thoughts that had been running through their heads the whole night to mitigate the guilt they felt for leaving her behind.

“We should go find her,” Suho cleared his throat as he climbed back to his feet.

“Oh, so now you care?” Jongin muttered under his breath as he fastened the strap of his backpack. “Nice to know you have a heart.”

“Don’t be an , Jongin,” Kyungsoo shot back with a sharp glare. “We all know that Suho’s call was for the best of us all.”

Jongin knew he was right, so he didn’t respond.

“I think the more important question here,” Chanyeol cleared his throat. “Is how are we supposed to find her? The forest stretches on for miles, and we don’t exactly have the same tracking abilities as her.”

His words brought up a valid point, and they all fell silent in contemplation. They really had no way of figuring out where she was, and if they entered they would simply be blindly searching.

“But we can’t do nothing,” Sehun argued with a defeated expression on his face.

“We can wait until she finds us,” Chanyeol suggested.

“That’s only if she’s al…” Sehun cut off mid sentence.

“We’ll wait,” Suho announced firmly. “We’ll wait for three days, even if that ends up putting us behind schedule. We owe her that much.”

***

“Those little s really are planning on making me go to them, aren’t they?” Mira muttered under her breath after her shadows reported back to her on where six bodies were situated.

“We should just leave them there,” Haiku suggested brightly. He smiled up at her hopefully, “They didn’t make the effort to come find you, so why should we have to go find them?”

Much to their relief, Haiku had been completely unaffected by Hwajae’s powers, and had easily found them after the fire had subdued. 

“They’re probably worried,” Mira sighed. “They don’t know what happened to us.”

“Are they scary?” Hwajae murmured quietly as he kicked the rocks at his feet.

“Didn’t I answer you already?” Mira smiled teasingly. “They’re not scary, I promise.”

“But they’re humans,” Hwajae pointed out, his nose scrunching up a bit at the word.

“Yeah,” Mira nodded. “But they are good humans, I promise you.”

Hwajae seemed satisfied with her answer, but she wouldn’t be fazed if he asked once more. They had gone through that entire conversation around five times before this one.

“How far are we?” Haiku complained as he rested his cheek in the palm of his hand. “I’m tired.”

“Yah, I’m going to kick you out and make you fly if you complain any more,” Mira warned as she tapped her pocket with her finger. “And we’re almost there, okay? Maybe five more minutes.”

True to her word, the group of them caught sight of the males just a few minutes later.

“Hey you unloyal brats,” Haiku called out nonchalantly as he smacked his little fist on the back of Sehun’s head. “Must feel nice after resting here for all this time, huh?”

Six heads immediately spun around at the sound Haiku’s voice, and they all let out simultaneous breaths of relief after seeing that they were all relatively unharmed.

“Mira, are you okay?! We saw the fire!” Sehun cried as he came rushing towards the Ultimate. He stopped short once he saw Hwajae hiding himself behind her. “Is that…?”

“This is Hwajae,” Mira introduced the younger as she lightly pushed him in front of her. “He is the Ultimate of fire, and he’s agreed to join us on our mission.”

Her words were met with silence, everybody not knowing exactly how they were to respond.

“Well, that was a lot easier than trying to get you on board,” Jongin piped up after a few seconds. 

“You’re one to talk,” Haiku scoffed as he shot Jongin a side glance. “Did you even help?”

Jongin flushed but kept his mouth shut, knowing fully well that Haiku’s words were justified. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Chanyeol frowned as remembered the fire. He eyed her up and down to look for any apparent injuries.

“I’m fine,” Mira nodded reassuringly. “I’m an Ultimate, after all, so this kind of stuff doesn’t have an effect on me. Right, Hwajae?”

Hwajae glanced at her with uncertainty and chose not to respond.

“Hello, I’m Sehun!” Sehun grinned as he crouched down to greet the younger Ultimate. “It’s great of you to join us!”

Hwajae responded with a stuff nod and nothing more.

“He’s shy,” Mira explained as she wrapped a hand around Hwajae’s shoulder.

“I’m not,” Hwajae responded with a nonchalant expression. He glanced at Sehun as if he was worse than gum underneath his shoe. “I just don’t want to waste a breath on you since you look like an idiot.”

There was a beat of silence.

Mira glanced down at the younger with surprise for his sudden change of attitude. This certainly wasn’t how he had acted when he had been alone with her earlier. Sehun’s eyes widened in disbelief, and he let out of a kind of splutter while Chanyeol and Jongin laughed loudly behind him.

"Are all Ultimates this hostile?” Chanyeol sniggered, raising his hands in surrender when Mira and Hwajae shot him a dirty look.

“Well now that we've reunited, we should get a move on,” Kyungsoo announced after a moment of pause. He glanced at Mira and his expression softened just the slightest bit. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Oooo is Soosoo actually displaying some emotions?” Chanyeol grinned as he wrapped his arm around Kyungsoo’s neck.

Kyungsoo didn't even glance at him. ”Get your hand off or I'll slice your throat."

Hwajae's ears perked at the elder’s response, and he stared up at him.”I like him."

Kyungsoo glanced down at him, and after a few moments of straight eye contact, he nodded his head in acceptance. Kyungsoo extended a hand, "I'm Kyungsoo."

Hwajae moved forw