Baekhyun saw Mei leaving the funfair and clapped his hands. Finally. He was getting bored sitting around.

'Come on!' He poked Chanyeol, who was dozing off beside him. He woke with a start. 'Wha…?'

'Time to put the plan in action!' Baekhyun told him cheerily, then looked around. 'Ya, where's Chen?'

'Dunno.' Chanyeol yawned. 'You sure the plan's go?'

'Sehun and Kai isolated her.' Baekhyun informed him, pointing towards the stall where Sehun was bickering with Tiffany. 'See?'

Chanyeol nodded, then stretched, his long legs causing problems for passerbys. He stood up. 'Let's go!'

Baekhyun ignored him, looking around for the Chen and D.O. – they were part of the attack team as well. Not seeing either of them around, he dialed Chen's number.

'What?' Chen sounded strained.

'What's wrong with you?' Baekhyun asked, trying to figure out the background noise. 'Where's D.O.?'

'I have no idea!' Chen replied. 'Last I saw him, he was harassing a group of girls by barging in on their stall and sniffing around. I barely got him out before they beat him to a pulp!'

'D.O's harassing girls?' Baekhyun perked up. 'That I have to see!'

'Me too!' Chanyeol put his ear next to Baekhyun's so he could hear Chen as well.

'Great, you can help me find him then, 'cause I have no idea where he ran off to.' There was static and then a lot of loud music that made their ears cringe, then Chen came back online. 'Sorry, I thought I saw him. He's not here either!'

'Why is he sniffing…oh, he's looking for her…?' Baekhyun muttered.

'I think so.' Chen's voice faded in and out again. 'Ya, help me look for him.'

'What about the Plan?' Chanyeol asked. Baekhyun grinned – D.O. sniffing around stalls and making Chen chase after him to save his sounded more tempting then attacking Mei and letting Luhan be the hero who saved her.

'We'll find D.O. first, then we'll proceed with the plan.'

………………………….

D.O. was going crazy.

That intoxicating scent was eluding him and he was going crazy trying to find it. He had to have another taste of it, he had to. It was like the perfect mixture of all his favorite aromas – all of them combined together into one potent mixture that blew his mind.

And the tiny whiff he'd smelled that day was roaming around in his head, not letting him settle down. He'd been on the edge this past day and had grabbed at the chance to visit the funfair again with both hands.

Soon as they'd arrived, he had separated from the group and was now systematically visiting each stall, hoping against hope that he'd find her scent somewhere. An act that was obviously being looked upon suspiciously.

The girls inside one stall had nearly poked his eye out – simply because he'd ducked under the table to smell – what the hell was wrong with them? He was minding his own business, why couldn't they repay the favor?

He looked up angrily, with every intention of telling that to the girl nearest to him. She gulped and backed up a little, holding up a shoe to threaten him – the reek of fear was rich in the air and he supposed he was again sporting an evil look. Well, if it got them to back off…

'Ya, what the hell are you doing?' Suddenly he was yanked out from under the table. He turned with a growl, then blinked as he was unceremoniously dragged outside. Chen glared at him. 'What the hell?'

D.O. pushed him away with a jerk, and ignoring Chen's hurried 'Please excuse him, he is just confused…' started marching towards the next stall. He had no idea where Chen went – nor did he care. All he could think about was capturing that seductive scent. He would find that scent again and trace it back to its owner and then he'll capture her properly and then…

'You seriously need to work on your smile. It's scary!'

He ignored Baekhyun's comment, just as he ignored Chanyeol's cheerful 'D.O.ya!' and kept his course.

They started following him, commenting on his actions and messing up the already mixed up scents around the stalls when they barged in behind him. Since they were already so stinky, their typical stench overcame all the other odors.

Finally, he pushed them all outside – along with the shocked owner of the stall – and went through every inch of the place. No luck.

'You can go back.' He told the owner, handing her a bunch of keys she'd dropped on the floor. 'I replaced everything and if anything's missing, these three will help you find it.'

'What?'

'Hey, where are you going?'

Oblivious, he went to the next stall. And the next. And the one after that. No luck there either.

He was getting dejected. With all the people coming and going, it wouldn't be surprising if he didn't ever smell that scent again. Not giving up, though, he kept moving. He would go through every single stall until…

There! The smell was faint – very faint – but even a trace would do right now. He hurried towards the curtained stall – The Divining Eye – and lifted the drapes, eager for another mind-blowing spell of that scent.

And stopped short at the sight in front of him.

Sitting behind the table, staring intensely into the crystal ball, in full mystic glory was…

'Lay?'

Lay glanced up, his face breaking into a welcoming smile. 'D.O.!' He waved, then beckoned him over. 'Can I interest you in a reading?'

'What are you doing here?' D.O. asked, surprised. Lay was wearing a long curly wig and with all the scarves and beads draped over his shoulders, he was looking like a real gypsy. 'I didn't know you had a stall…'

The curtains behind him parted again, then a girl spoke, 'I brought four potato cheese sticks, that okay with you?'

Then, 'Oh excuse me, I didn't see you there!'

……………………………

Raina was really glad she'd found Mickey Mouse – Lay – because otherwise, she would've been completely lost. After Kyra's unusually accurate readings, a lot of customers had shown up, bringing their friends over. So, she'd tried to handle things alone. But when you relied on body language for your readings… well, that was no comparison to genuine Seeing.

She'd left the stall to find something to eat and had bumped into Lay instead, bent over some poor plant that had been left in the sun for too long. It was drooping and Lay was patting it. She'd laughed at his antics, making him straighten in a hurry.

'Oh… hi?' he didn't look like he'd recognized her, so she refreshed his memory. 'I gave you a reading…'

'Oh… yes, I remember now!' An adorable dimple appeared in his cheek as he smiled. 'Nice to meet you again.'

'You too.' Then she nodded towards the pot. 'You're really into plants, huh?'

'Hmm?' He looked confused. She giggled. 'Never mind. Did you water it?'

He looked lost for a moment, then nodded. 'Yes. Now it's all better.'

It was too. Where it had been drooping before, it looked fresh and turgid. That was some really fast acting water, she thought, then remembered Kyra's request.

'Oh hey, we didn't introduce ourselves properly before. Let's start over. Hi, my name's Raina. What's yours?'

'…Lay.'

'You have to think about it…' she chuckled again, 'you're cute.'

He looked even more dazed than before. She looked around to see if he was with someone. 'Are you busy?' she asked him.

'No?'

'Why're you asking me?' she laughed. 'Are you free?'

'Yeah… I guess.'

'Great, then you can help me!'

And so, she'd dragged him over and convinced him to wear the costume; luckily, he seemed to be enjoying himself. He'd really gotten into the role of the oracle, nervousness forgotten and had soon attracted so many customers. Raina was really grateful. So she'd offered to treat him and had gone out to buy some of his favorite foods – all junk and candies, which made him that much more adorable in her book.

And now, she'd returned to find another potential customer standing in her stall. Although he didn't look interested in a reading at all. Instead, he was staring at Lay intensely.

'What're you doing here? I didn't know you had a stall…'

A friend, then. She parted the curtains, using her elbows because her hands were loaded and announced her arrival. 'I bought four potato cheese sticks, that okay with you?'

Then, 'Oh excuse me, I didn't see you there!'

She placed all the food on the table in front of Lay, then smiled at the guy. 'Hi, you're a friend of Lay's?'

The guy didn't answer, instead leaning forward to sniff Lay's wig. Raina watched in some surprise when he pried it off from his head, turning it this way and that, sniffed it then turned to look at her. The intensity of his gaze was scary. 'Who wore this before him?' He demanded.

She tilted her head, wondering if she should tell him to mind his own business. Then took in the desperate look in his eyes.

'The seer wears it.' She told him, taking pity.

 'Who's the seer?' He demanded, leaning forward eagerly, his eyes wide.  

'A friend.' Well, she wasn't telling a total stranger about her best friend. He could be crazy for all she knew – in fact, if the look in his eyes was anything to go by, he was already nearing the edge.

The guy closed his eyes and pursed his lips, snapped. 'Who is she?' Then eagerly, 'Where is she?'

Oh yeah, she was right – the guy was obviously unstable. Thank goodness Kyra had gone back or she would've had to handle this psycho in addition to the ones she dealt with on a daily basis. 'That's confidential.' She told him, then pointed towards the exit. 'You can leave now… unless you'd like a reading?'

Instead of replying, he sighed and dropped into the seat in front of Lay and looked up at him. 'Help me!'

Lay nodded, then got into the gypsy mode, staring at the crystal ball.

Satisfied the guy wasn't crazy – not too much, anyway – she took a seat in her corner and waited in expectant fascination for Lay to once again demonstrate his talent.

……………………

Lay had told Raina he had no idea how he foresaw stuff.

That was before. Now he knew, exactly, how to do it and she had helped him figure it out. She'd told him to focus on the person in front of him and then, let their energy direct him.

He'd done exactly that and grabbed on to the life force that he, as a healer, could see around every living creature. He followed that life line and let it take him where it went, much like music notes and pushed aside the veil that covered the future. Where before he could only do that unconsciously, now he could see the future at will.

Sometimes, though, the future was best kept secret.

He blinked as his eyes filled up, the darkness and death and tragedy in his brother's future tearing at his heart. No, sometimes, not knowing the future was for the best. He was only a healer, after all. Increasing anybody's life span was beyond his capacity.

He was so helpless.   

'What?' D.O. leaned forward, reading the expression on his face. 'What is it?'

Lay shook his head, not sure how he could phrase it even if he agreed to tell him. Instead, he grabbed his hand and sent out a soothing bolt of healing energy – as long as he could, he would make sure that he felt no pain, not even the slightest scratch. Because soon… too soon, they would all suffer through a terrible ordeal, D.O. perhaps, the most. And this was all he could do.

So helpless.

Just then, the curtain parted again and his Shadow stepped inside.

'Lay?' Baekhyun's voice held confusion and a measure of laughter that vanished quickly when he saw the tears. Lay blinked, not wanting to worry him; then his eyes filled up again at the person standing behind him.

Surrounded by darkness, his life force already on a short thread that was fast approaching the end and completely oblivious about it, stood Chen.

…………………………

Chen was normally very good at keeping up with stuff; even Lay's random and sometimes completely nonsensical talk didn't faze him.

Normally.

Nothing about this situation was normal.

His Shadow was acting like a crazed psychopath on the rampage for his next target, sniffing around and continuously reminding him of that guy from that movie Scent – a psychopath who sniffed out s before killing them. Sheesh, the analogy was so appropriate, it was eerie.

Almost as eerie as finding Lay in that gypsy costume. The scarves and beads were good enough alone but that high quality curly wig, gripped and being squeezed terribly and occasionally sniffed by D.O. – exactly like a psychopath – was the thing that truly conveyed the owner's good taste. Whoever had set up this stall had his compliments for providing the necessary funky aura.

'Nice place!' he commented, looking around. Then smiled at the girl who was sitting in the comer. 'Yours?'

'Yeah. Thanks!' she smiled back at him, then turned to look at Lay worriedly.

Now that he looked around, everyone inside the stall was looking at Lay but Lay was looking at him.

And crying.  

He had no problem being looked at – heck, he liked attention and it didn’t really matter whose it was – but the tears… nah, that was bothersome. And his eyes were turning red – a sure sign that Lay was terribly distressed. He didn’t like causing distress. Too much.  

'What?' he demanded. After all, if someone cried while looking at him, he preferred them to shed tears of joy – or sheer amazement at his funkiness. Not grief. That was too sad.

Lay sniffed, trying to control his too sad tears, hiccupped. 'Nothing.'

'You at lying, you know.' Chen told him, moving to stand behind D.O.

Lay stood up, the scarves overflowing his shoulders and moved from behind the table to stand right beside him. Patted his shoulder and Chen felt the revitalizing energy bolting through his body.

He stared at Lay who'd tears in his eyes again, though he blinked them back. 'Just… be very careful.'

'Ya, if I'm in danger…' Chen began indignantly. Lay smiled sadly.

'We are all in danger, aren’t we? All the time… and there are things we can't fight or push back no matter what we do.' He started choking a little, the words breaking. 'But we still fight to the very end. That's who we are. We'll keep fighting…'

His words, trailing into mumbles, sounded directed more towards himself than anyone else. Chen wasn't sure how to make head or tail of this but he'd take Lay's advice and be very careful. After all, he valued his life.

But even more than that, he didn't like seeing Lay cry. Hell, he didn't like seeing anyone cry – crying was sad. He had enough problems without adding sadness to the list. His or anyone else's.

He patted Lay's back comfortingly, moving a little so Baekhyun could pat him as well. 'I'll be careful.' He told Lay, 'Now, stop crying will you?'

'Yeah, stop that.' D.O. got up to comfort him as well. Then the wig at his face. 'And will you please tell me who this belongs to?'

Lay gave a watery laugh at Baekhyun's angry 'Try to be sensitive!', then wiped his eyes. And stretched his hand for the wig. D.O. handed it back eagerly but Lay simply patted it into shape and put it back on his head. 'I'm sorry but that information is confidential.'

'Ya!' D.O. looked ready to fight but Lay held up a hand. 'You'll find out soon enough.'

His Shadow didn't look like he cared much for waiting – a sentiment they shared, Chen supposed – but after giving Lay a creepy glare and simply getting a dimpled smile in return, he growled, pushed them aside and marched outside.

Then dashed back in and snatched the wig off Lay's head again. 'I'm keeping this!' He told them, then marched back out. Lay blinked, slow to catch up as usual but they laughed, then patted his back again before rushing back out.

Now that they'd found D.O., it was time to get rolling.

……………………..

A/N

Unexplained hints and plot holes coming up :/ Just a heads up ^^