It’s been 3 hours since Jiyong left, and deafening silence has fallen upon the apartment. Yixing and Suho are still cuddled up asleep in the human’s bed, and Taoris have fallen asleep on the sofa, effectively cutting off all access to that.

Chanyeol snuck off to his room around and hours ago to check up on Baekhyun and he still hasn’t come out, just sat watching his roommate sleep. Not in a creepy way, but just to make sure he doesn’t have any nightmares and such, hunhan also escaped to Sehun’s bedroom but they’re engaging in their own little conversation to break the deathly silence that they hate.

Jongdae also tried to bring a little noise to the place, turning his music up and claiming they should play musical statues.

But the truth is, they’re all shook up. Every one of them. The humans are disturbed that when they saw their roommate in pain or distress, the first thing they felt themselves was pain that they could even let that happen. And the little people can’t believe it either. Some are trying to figure out what that means for them, and others are analysing their friends’ actions. Others are sleeping to avoid the thinking process.

* *

“So…”

“Yeah.”

“Interesting.”

“Definitely.”

About two minutes of awkward silences and carpet twiddling ensues before Kyungsoo suddenly stands up and throws his arms up.

“Okay, why don’t we just talk about what happened?”

Jongin looks down at the boy who’s now pacing. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Okay then, we’ll work with prompts. How’s that?”

“I guess.”

Kyungsoo contemplates what to ask first, since he has so many questions!

“Okay, let's start with this,” the little guy says confidently as he fiddles with the hem of his jumper. “Why were you so worried about me?”

Jongin scoffs and turns his head away briefly, looking back at the Kyungsoo with a look of disbelief. “Seriously?” Kyungsoo nods firmly. “I don't like the thought of anyone hurting you. I didn't want it to happen right before my eyes, especially when I couldn't stop him from doing it.”

“Why would you want to stop him?”

“Because nobody's allowed to hurt you. Science or not. If he hadn't said that thing about you being in danger, I would have run away with you and locked all the doors on the way.”

“B-but why?” Kyungsoo stutters as he tries to get his head around what Jongin's saying. It doesn't make any sense to him that somebody would go to that much effort to keep him from getting hurt. Probably because it never happened before he came to this apartment.

“I'm not making myself clear enough, am I?” Jongin takes a sigh. “I want to protect you properly, Soo.” Jongin then reaches his hand out and just taps the back of Kyungsoo's knees, meaning he falls back onto Jongin's hand and is then lifted up to eye's level about a foot from the human's face. “I want to steal you away and make sure the world can't hurt you, because whoever it is, they're not worthy. I'm not saying I am, I just...ugh, why is this so hard?!”

Kyungsoo chuckles. “Just spit out whatever you're trying to say.”

“I don’t even know. The only thing I can be sure about and put into words is that I don't want to let you go. Not from this room, not from my hand. I want to keep you safe constantly. And I'm stumbling over my words again.” Jongin sighs heavily as he drops his head in failure of the most basic function – talking.

“That's good enough for me.”

Jongin lifts his head and peers through his eyelashes, seeing Kyungsoo staring back at him with puppy dog eyes and a cute pout, making Jongin smile widely and relocate them from his bedroom floor to the bed where they just lay there. Kyungsoo snuggles himself into the human's shirt, clinging onto it like it's his lifeline.

* *

“Can I take this off yet?”

Jongdae looks over to his bedside table where Minseok is twisting his hand around, still covered in tissue thanks to Jongdae. It's not that he doesn't like it there but he just tried to itch his head and ended up tickling his ear.

“Sure you can, come here.” Jongdae beckons over to next to him where Minseok jumps and skips, dropping onto the pillow with a childish smirk from his jumping. Jongdae just shakes his head.

Carefully and gently, Jongdae tugs at where he tucked the end of tissue and removes the tissue fully, discarding it on his table when he's done.

“How do you feel? Dizzy? Faint?”

“I feel fine, Jongdae,” Minseok frowns. “I'm a man, I can handle a few drops of blood missing.”

“I know, I know, I was just checking. Shoot me for caring,” Jongdae groans as he jumps on his back on his bed and the smaller guy crawls onto his chest to sit with his legs crossed.

“Okay.”

Minseok reaches into his hoodie pocket and pretends to pull out a gun, aiming his fingers at Jongdae’s head and making a bang sound, Jongdae dropping his head to the pillow with his tongue poking out the side of his mouth. Minseok turns theatrical.

“Oh, Jongdae! I-it was an accident!” he screeches in a southern American accent of a woman, running up beside the human’s head to start frantically panicking in his role. “Tell me you ‘aint dead!”

Jongdae makes no effort to move, only spurring Minseok’s character on.

“Oh no, Lord tell me you ‘aint left me with these crazy kids! I can’t handle them all on ma own!” That’s when something pokes through Minseok’s facade and the words come tumbling out of his mouth without his permission. “Imma treat this like a fairy-tale, you gotta wake up for me!” Even though the words weren’t part of the act, apparently the accent sticks like glue.

And before Minseok or Jongdae can comprehend what the words meant, the little man confirms it by leaning over and delivering a peck of his lips to Jongdae’s cheek, the human tuning his head in shock with wide eyes.

“Praise be to the heavens, Sleeping Beauty has awoken!” Minseok announces in his accent and voice still, not letting it drop to show how he’s freaking out from what he just did. It may have been him doing it, and his brain commanding his limbs, but is that what his heart wanted? Did he really want to kiss Jongdae?

“Y-you…you kissed me,” Jongdae mutters as he