Chanyeol did not sleep that night.

He realized, upon numbly attempting to clean up, that there was blood on the frying pan. Kyungsoo’s blood.

He realized, upon picking up the bells and examining them, that the red on them was not blood. It was fabric, canvas threads caught between the links, fabric he recognized as being from Jongdae’s wagon. He was not sure if that made him feel better or worse.

He did feel a little better when Joonmyun got back to him, his voice calming but confused in Chanyeol’s ears. They’re fine, Chanyeol. They found your travelling friends and they’re fine. What made you think they weren’t?

Chanyeol thanked him, but he couldn’t formulate an answer.

He made it most of the way up the stairs before the adrenaline wore off and the despair kicked in, and barely managed to get into the privy before throwing up the lovely dinner Kyungsoo had made for him. Shakily, he cleaned himself up, and stumbled into his room with his hand already around his pendant.

“Minseok,” he said, because he had no idea what else to do. “Minseok, are you there?”

No response at first, but then a little shuffling noise, and a now-familiar voice. We’re here, Yeol, Minseok said, sounding a little breathless. What do you need?

“Advice,” Chanyeol whispered, sinking to the floor with his back to the bed. “I’m sorry, I know I said I’d only use it for emergencies, but I don’t...I don’t have anyone else.”

You have us! That was Lu Han, and his cheery tone brought the faintest trace of a smile to Chanyeol’s face. What happened?

So Chanyeol told them everything. Other than the occasional shocked noise, they let him talk, and it all poured out, not just the actual events but his fears, his devastation - his shame.

“I’m sorry,” he said finally. “I regret attacking him now, even if...But that was no excuse. I’m - I’m not as good a man as everyone believes.”

Chanyeol, Minseok said firmly, you’ve been so caught up in the possibility that you might have to fight the dragon, that you totally forgot that dragons are tricksters, too. Yifan calculated every move of that encounter to make you look bad in front of Kyungsoo. You fell for it because you are an honest and good person. You have nothing to be ashamed of.

Chanyeol wasn’t so sure about that. “What do I do now?” he asked softly.

You’ve got two choices, basically. You let them go, or you chase after them.

Frowning, Chanyeol pointed out “But Kyungsoo said - ”

I don’t give a rat’s what Kyungsoo said. Kyungsoo didn’t let you have ten words to defend yourself. Listen, I know you well enough to know that you will regret this for the rest of your life if you leave it like this. You love him, and right about now he probably thinks that was a lie. Chanyeol moaned in despair. Shut up and listen, you big baby. At the very least, you need him to know it was real. Maybe he’ll still choose to stay with Yifan, you can’t make that decision for him. But he should at least understand what he’s giving up before he makes that choice. And if you convince him, and he still chooses to stay, then it. You’re too good for that anyway.

Wow, Lu Han said. Chanyeol could practically hear his eyes getting big. You’re really smart, Minseok.

Glad somebody appreciates me, Minseok grumbled. Think about it, Chanyeol. Don’t go up there tonight, that’s suicide. But in the morning...just. Think about it.

So he did. He thought about it all night, dozing off fitfully for only an hour or so before sunrise woke him. Soon after, he set off - sleepless and unable to eat, without his armor or even his sword. He wasn’t going to be fighting anyone; to bring them would be to present himself as a threat.

It took two hours to get to the spring where he’d seen Kyungsoo bathe. It was his only starting point. But when he got there, of course, there was no Kyungsoo, no dragon footprints, no trail, no nothing. Exhausted, Chanyeol sank to the ground with his back to a tree and contemplated what he should do next. It seemed hopeless.

A flash of purple in the corner of his vision was the only warning he got that there was something else there before he felt something hit him in the cheek.

“Ow,” he murmured, rubbing at it and looking down to see what had just bounced off his face. It was an acorn.

“Where the hell have you been?”

Chanyeol blinked, and looked up.

“Baekhyun?” he asked incredulously.

The fairy pelted him with another acorn. “You’re the worst Adventurer ever!” he fumed, flying right up into Chanyeol’s face. “You should have been here weeks ago!”

Chanyeol was too tired, too despairing, to deal with Baekhyun’s shrill accusations. “I did exactly what you told me to do,” he mumbled. “And here I am.”

“You went the wrong way!” Baekhyun landed on his upturned knee and sat down, folding his arms and legs petulantly. “I told you to go west.”

Wait. What? “You told me to go towards the setting sun,” Chanyeol argued.

“Everyone knows the sun sets in the west!”

“The sun sets at fourteen degrees northwest, you little - ” Chanyeol cut himself off. This argument was both pointless and unproductive. “Look, fine, I made it, okay? Could you please just tell me what the absolute I am supposed to do now?”

Baekhyun snorted. “Kill the dragon and rescue the prince, obviously.” He eyed Chanyeol’s dirtied, flimsy clothes judgmentally. “Though I’m not really sure how you plan to do that without a weapon.”

Chanyeol’s eyes fluttered closed. “I’m not going to kill Yifan,” he muttered. He’d made up his mind on that last night.

Baekhyun stared at him.

“...What. No. What.” The flurry of wings and the breath of shifted air across his nose made Chanyeol open his eyes. Baekhyun was staring at him from less than a hand’s-width away, his eyes wide. “Oh my stars, you are an absolute idiot.”

Something uneasy stirred in Chanyeol’s chest. His brow furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

“Yifan isn’t the dragon. Kyungsoo is.”

Chanyeol stared back.

“No,” he said, rather stupidly.

Baekhyun gave him the most judgemental look he had ever had the misfortune to receive.

“But. No,” Chanyeol insisted.

His mind started to fit the pieces together.

His first vision, equally of eyes and lips as it was of fire and scales.

Kyungsoo’s utter lack of fear.

His unwillingness to talk about his past.

The way he came and went without any warning.

His protectiveness over Yifan.

“That can’t be...what.”

“Do you get it now?” Baekhyun asked impatiently. “Hellfire, you’re so slow. Look, you know what you have to do. Get your back down to town and get yourself a sword, and go rescue Yifan from that beast.”

The image of Kyungsoo’s bloodied shoulder, his betrayed expression, flooded Chanyeol’s mind. Every fiber of Chanyeol’s being revolted.

“I’m not going to kill Kyungsoo!” he exclaimed, horrified. “I love him!”

Baekhyun paused mid-air.

“Wait,” he said incredulously. “You do? For real?” Chanyeol nodded emphatically. “Huh. That’s a twist.” He flapped a tiny, pale hand dismissively. “Well, hey, that works too! I don’t really care how you separate them, just as long as you get Yifan away from that thing.”

The last piece of the puzzle snapped into place.

“This isn’t about my Quest at all, is it?” Chanyeol asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “This was never about me. This is all about you. You have a crush on Yifan.”

Baekhyun looked surprised - maybe even a little ashamed? - but he recovered quickly. “Maybe it is! But hey, Princeyeol, you still owe me one, remember?”

Chanyeol snorted. “For vague advice that didn’t even help me?”

“It’s not my problem if you didn’t interpret it correctly! You owe me.” He jabbed Chanyeol in the cheek to emphasize his point. “Get Kyungsoo to leave Yifan, or vis-versa, and we’re even. Got it?”

“Does he even know you exist?” Chanyeol asked incredulously.

Baekhyun huffed insultedly. “You let me worry about that part, cheeky. Now listen, and try not to get it wrong this time. Go half an hour that way - ” and he pointed, “ - until you come to a wide clearing, and then walk straight up the mountain, towards the peak. That’s where you’ll find them. Don’t mess up.”

He winked out of existence in a puff of purple and pink sparkle.

Chanyeol groaned and dropped his face into his hands.

Kyungsoo was the dragon.

Kyungsoo. Was the dragon.

He very seriously considered calling to Minseok again, because he needed someone to tell him what he should do with this information. But the crystal was meant as a failsafe for emergencies, not a metaphysical carrier pigeon, so Chanyeol stayed his hand.

No wonder Kyungsoo had looked so betrayed. Chanyeol had thought it was because he saw Chanyeol’s Quest as a threat to Yifan, not because it was a threat to himself.

And also, no wonder Yifan was so angry, so determined to get Kyungsoo away from him. Clearly, the two of them cared very much for each other, despite the fact that Yifan was human and Kyungsoo…

...was a goddamned dragon.

“Okay,” Chanyeol murmured aloud in the silence of the forest. “Dragon. Kyungsoo. Got it. I have absorbed that fact and am moving on.” He hadn’t, actually, but saying it aloud like that made it easier to pretend. “So what does this change?”

He frowned.

“Does it actually change anything?”

It did, of course it did. It changed everything.

Except...it didn’t change the fact that Chanyeol was in love.

He poked at the idea, trying to make it collapse, fall apart. He looked at the situation from as many angles as he could manage. He brought the idea into his mind and tested it, savored it, attempted to find a place for it in his view of reality and his plans for the future.

Yeah. He was still very, very much in love with Kyungsoo.

“Okay then,” Chanyeol said, feeling stronger and more energetic than he had all morning. “I guess now I just have to go prove it.”

He got up and started on his way.



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



It took him two more hours of walking before he finally reached the cave.

It was massive, and dark, and very high up the mountain, partially obscured by the sparse tree cover and facing away from the valley where the village lay. It wouldn’t be visible from the ground, and actually was barely visible from right in front of it. If Chanyeol hadn’t been given explicit direction, he never would have found it.

Entering the cave was something he was not quite brave enough to do, and he thought it would come across as presumptuous at best and outright hostile at worst, so instead he stood outside the cave and called out Kyungsoo’s name.

It was not Kyungsoo who emerged, but Yifan, dressed in beautiful and very appropriate dragonscale armor and carrying a sword that was nearly as tall as he was. “You’re not welcome here, Prince,” he snarled, advancing.

Chanyeol dropped to his knees, bowing his head. The action brought Yifan up short, his expression melting into confusion. “I know,” Chanyeol said. “Please, I’m unarmed. I mean no harm to either of you. I just want to speak to him.”

Are you sure about that?

It was a soundless whisper in Chanyeol’s mind, and Chanyeol realized he recognized that peculiar voiceless voice. He’d heard it in his visions, in his dreams. It only solidified for him what he already knew.

“I’m sure,” he called, raising his voice to carry well into the cave. “Kyungsoo, please.”

And Kyungsoo emerged.

Because he had been at least somewhat prepared for it, Chanyeol was able to halt his urge to bound to his feet, to reach for the sword that wasn’t there. But he was unable to stop his eyes from going wide as a massive black dragon slunk out of the cave, lifting its head and standing tall as soon as it had cleared the overhang. It came forward, circling Chanyeol in what he assumed was supposed to be a threatening way.

Chanyeol was breathless, and his heart was pounding, but neither was from fear.

You wanted to speak to me, Kyungsoo said in his mind. Though there was no voice, the cadence of it was familiar. Speak.

He’d rehearsed this in his mind a dozen times on the walk up the mountain, but looking into a face that was as large as his entire body, Chanyeol’s mind went totally blank.

“I’m sorry,” was all he could think to say.

The dragon snorted disdainfully, sending a wave of heat over Chanyeol’s face. Oh. Fire-breathing. He’d kind of forgotten that part.

Is that it?

“No,” Chanyeol said truthfully, “but it’s the most important part.”

Kyungsoo dropped his head down, pushing it right into Chanyeol’s space, close enough to touch. His eyes were slit-pupiled, but otherwise exactly the same - dark, wide, round - and looking into them, Chanyeol found his voice.

“I’m sorry you had to find out that way,” he said, “and I’m sorry I attacked Yifan, it was wrong of me. I’m sure you think my confession to you last night was a lie, and I’m sorry about that, too, because it wasn’t. Last night, when I said I loved you, I meant it.” He took a deep breath. “Right now, I’m telling you that I still love you. I mean that, too.”

The dragon blinked at him, surprised. Surprise looked very silly on a dragon face. You lie.

“Never,” Chanyeol assured him. “I might not say everything, but I would never lie.” Tentatively, he reached up a hand, pressing it to the dragon’s snout. The scales were smooth and warm. “It’s not exactly...conventional, but I don’t want to give you up because of a little misunderstanding like that.”

Was it his imagination, or was Kyungsoo pushing into his touch? He rubbed his hand up the bridge of the dragon’s skull, caressing, and yes, Kyungsoo was definitely leaning into it.

Sure, Kyungsoo murmured. One little misunderstanding. Oh, and the giant complication of us being two different species.

Chanyeol shrugged. “You’re a shapeshifter, are you not?” he pointed out. Kyungsoo was ducking his head like he wanted Chanyeol’s hand between his horns, so Chanyeol stood and reached up, rubbing firmly between them. Huge, liquid eyes fluttered shut. “I think we can figure it out.”

“You can’t seriously be considering this.” That was Yifan, standing near Kyungsoo’s flank and looking between them with distress on his face. It made him look younger, less menacing. “What, do you think you’re going to move in with us?”

Chanyeol swallowed at the pain in his tone. “I’m not trying to replace you, Yifan,” he said earnestly. “Whatever you are to Kyungsoo, I’m not...That’s not why I’m here.”

He’s my ward, Kyungsoo explained. I found him abandoned at the foot of the mountain as a babe, and raised him. Now that he is grown, he seems to think this gives him the right to dictate my life.

Yifan huffed. “I’m just trying to protect you,” he exclaimed. “You’re possibly the least threatening dragon ever.”

You waste your life away, stuck here with me.

This was clearly an old argument, and Chanyeol could plainly see both sides. “Yifan,” he said, taking a step closer to the taller man. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but...I promise you, I would give anything and everything to see Kyungsoo safe, dragon or no. You don’t have to worry about him.” Kyungsoo’s head twisted around, nudging at his arm; instinctively Chanyeol reached around to his cheek, like he would with a horse. “But no, I was not thinking about moving in, unless that is what Kyungsoo really wants. I was actually...I was more hoping Kyungsoo might agree to come home with me.”

That is quite presumptuous, Kyungsoo murmured wryly.

“I know,” Chanyeol said apologetically. “But as Yifan so dramatically pointed out, I am a Prince. I have a kingdom to run, well, half of one anyway.” He smiled softly, his fingertips scritching along the base of one of Kyungsoo’s spines. “I miss my family, my people, and I have a duty to them. I’d leave it all behind in an instant if you asked me to, but I was hoping it wouldn’t come to that.” He sighed, leaning a bit on Kyungsoo’s warm neck. “I wish I could ask you to be my Queen, to be honest. If you were female, I’d do it in a heartbeat. As it stands, though, you may have any position you wish. Personal advisor, or a Minister, or any position in the household. Or, if you’d prefer not to be so close to the action, there’s a barony with no Baron that has a large castle and lots of space, and is close enough that I could come to visit you often.”

A slow blink of huge eyes. You’ve been thinking a lot about this, Kyungsoo said in surprise.

Chanyeol smiled at him, rubbing at the back of his head in embarrassment. “Since I met you,” he admitted. “Well, no, to be completely honest, since before I met you.”

“Baron Kyungsoo,” Yifan murmured, a trace of a smile twitching at his lips. “It does have a pleasant ring to it.”

Hush, you, Kyungsoo scolded, prodding Yifan with one winged limb. Chanyeol, that is...quite an offer. I will take a few days and think on it.

Hope raced through Chanyeol’s veins. “That’s all I can ask for,” he assured Kyungsoo. “Should I - do you want me to leave?”

Hmm. Kyungsoo paced in a half-circle around him, then abruptly laid down in the clearing, his body curled around where Chanyeol stood. He dropped his head onto his front claws and regarded Chanyeol with a familiarly unreadable look. Not just yet. Sit, and tell me of your kingdom. His brow ridge raised, as if there was an eyebrow there. I will need more information before I make my decision.

“Gladly,” Chanyeol said, relieved that he wasn’t being sent away. He sat, and Yifan did the same, leaning against Kyungsoo’s flank with his arms crossed.

Chanyeol talked until the sun set.



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



Kyungsoo - back in his small, delicate-looking human form - found him again a few days later, as promised. Chanyeol’s heart leaped painfully in his chest at the sight of him.

Taking his leave of the family he was helping today - he had been watching some young children while their mother did chores - he came over to Kyungsoo and, on a whim, took his hand and kissed the knuckles. Kyungsoo let him, which Chanyeol took to be a Good Sign.

“Have you made your decision?” he asked breathlessly, settling Kyungsoo’s hand in the crook of his elbow as they began to walk.

“I believe I have,” Kyungsoo murmured. “I have distanced myself from humanity, Chanyeol, and that was purposeful. Too many young heroes see a dragon as something to defeat, something to conquer. To tie myself up in a human kingdom is to invite trouble.” Chanyeol held his breath, watching Kyungsoo’s eyelashes flutter and the sun reflect off his black hair. He’d never noticed - it was tinged green in the light, just like his scales. “But, I came to the realization that if I stay where I am, Yifan will never leave my side. He is older even than you, Chanyeol, terribly curious, terribly talented, and so passionate. It would be such a waste, chaining him to this mountain.” Kyungsoo’s eyes raised up to the mountain in question. “I will miss him, but he needs to live his own life. And, perhaps, it is time I made a new one for myself, as well.”

Chanyeol took a deep, shaky breath. “Is that a yes?” he asked tentatively.

A smile, bright and beautiful. “It is. I have not yet decided if I return your love, my Prince,” he said with a cheeky wink, “but I do quite enjoy your company. Perhaps for the moment, that is enough.” Kyungsoo took Chanyeol’s hand, and raised it to his own lips, pressing a soft, almost unbearably warm kiss to the knuckles.

Chanyeol had to bite his lip until it bled to keep from crowing his triumph to the sky.



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



Even with both Chanyeol and Yifan’s help, it took a few days for Kyungsoo to prepare to leave. He had, by his own admission, nearly a century of treasures and possessions built up in his cave.

Some of it was junk, set aside to throw away, or burn, or sell for scrap. Some of it was worth selling, so they did, taking it down to that shopkeep and trading for gold or supplies for the journey. And some was precious, too precious to lose, and the crates of items coming with them grew full - as did the ones of riches Kyungsoo was leaving to Yifan.

Kyungsoo somehow managed to wheedle out Chanyeol’s daydream about riding triumphant back to his kingdom, and took a rather unfair amount of delight in digging through his pile for the most beautiful set of armor - dragonscale, like Yifan’s, except in the fiery colors of the sunset - and the most ornate, flashiest sword.

Chanyeol did have to ask him how he had obtained these things, and Kyungsoo told him that while some of them had come from knights or princes who had seen him as nothing more than a potential feather in their cap, that many more had been purchased, or found. We are like magpies, he said, with a smile in his eyes. We are drawn to the shiny, no matter how gaudy. A large wing encircled him, drawing him close to Kyungsoo’s side. Don’t fret, Prince. I will not be a danger to your people.

(Chanyeol didn’t have the heart to ask about the pile of bodies in the underground river, but later, when Kyungsoo was out, he mentioned it to Yifan. Yifan raised an eyebrow and told him that Kyungsoo was far from the only dragon in these mountains, which, oh.)

(It occurred to Chanyeol, a bit afterwards, that if Kyungsoo ever accepted his offer to be lovers, then Yifan would sort of be his nephew. He refrained from mentioning that one, but the thought made him smile.)

It was two months to the day when they finally took their leave of the townspeople, and that actually hurt more than Chanyeol was expecting. He’d made himself an odd little home there. But then, as the sun climbed in the sky, they were off.

With Kyungsoo able to take to the sky to scope out their route, the road home was much less perilous. There was, indeed, a path almost straight to the east, cutting through a pass in the mountains and skirting around the edge of the Enchanted Forest, a path that Chanyeol would almost certainly have found if Baekhyun hadn’t given him such confusing direction in the first place.

(Chanyeol did not see Baekhyun again, but he’d done as he was asked, so he considered his debt paid. He almost wished he could see Yifan’s face when the fairy finally made himself known.)

The trip home took a week, and for that week, Kyungsoo and Chanyeol were together every moment. Chanyeol was a bit afraid they would tire of each other - or at least, that Kyungsoo would tire of him - but they found themselves becoming closer every day. Every day, Chanyeol fell more in love, and every day, as Kyungsoo’s walls slowly came down, he became more and more hopeful that Kyungsoo would return his affections some day.

They were camped in familiar territory, less than a day’s ride from home, and Kyungsoo was in human form and tucked comfortably against Chanyeol’s side.

“Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo murmured, his fingers twisting together in his lap. Something in his tone made Chanyeol look down at him in concern. “I’m afraid I have not been...entirely truthful with you.”

His brow furrowing, Chanyeol asked, “How so?”

“I...lied. When I said I was not yet in love with you, I lied.”

….Oh.

Chanyeol couldn’t breathe.

“I’m sorry,” Kyungsoo murmured softly. “I only wished to...to protect my heart, I suppose. I could not be certain, at first, that you really meant it.” He glanced up, shy. “I admire how easily you said it to me. You are brave in more ways than one.”

“Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol breathed. “Then, does this mean you believe me now?”

Kyungsoo nodded. “I do.” He turned, pulling away from Chanyeol’s side so he could kneel facing Chanyeol. “I do. I believe that you love me. And I...I love you.” He nodded, very decisively. “What you have offered me - everything you have offered me - I want. I would be a fool to refuse you. But, Chanyeol...when you said that you would ask me to be Queen. To marry you. If you could. Did you...did you mean that?”

“Of course I did,” Chanyeol said firmly. “Not only for myself, but for my people. You would be an excellent Queen.” His smile was wry. “If only who I marry was not of such political importance, I would marry you anyway.”

Kyungsoo nodded again, taking a deep, steadying breath. “That’s what I needed to hear,” he said, and stood. “I. I have something to show you.”

He closed his eyes, and didn’t move for a long moment. Chanyeol was about to ask him what he was supposed to be seeing - when he saw it. Kyungsoo’s body was changing. Not the way it did when he shifted between dragon and man, but in a different way, and when Chanyeol realized what was happening, he leapt to his feet.

Kyungsoo was even smaller than before, slight and delicate, his bone structure just the slightest bit different. His hair had lengthened, curling gently against his shoulders, and his proportions had changed.

He was a woman.

“What.” Chanyeol said, unable to believe what he was seeing. “What.”

Soft, round eyes fluttered open, still the same but seeming more massive and more innocent in that fine-boned face. “Dragons are genderless,” Kyungsoo said, and oh, his - her - voice was different too, just a little bit higher, but warm and full-bodied. “I don’t have total control of my features, but this, I can control. If you want me to be your Queen, I will serve your people gladly.”

Chanyeol sat down very hard.

“This is a dream come true,” he said numbly, and Kyungsoo laughed. She dropped to her knees astride his lap, and Chanyeol’s arms came up around her, and the way she felt both familiar and not made his heart pound. “If you’re sure. My Gods, Kyungsoo, if you’re sure, I would be honored.”

“There’s only one thing,” Kyungsoo said, tucking her head against his neck. “I can’t have children. I’m sorry, I can’t bear you heirs.”

“That’s okay,” Chanyeol murmured, her hair. “I’ll name Yura and her family my heirs. She would be more than happy to raise the future King.” Kyungsoo sighed and melted against him, and Chanyeol squeezed her tightly and said “I am the luckiest man in the world.”

The body in his arms shifted, changing, and the weight grew just a bit. Kyungsoo, his Kyungsoo, looked up at him. “And I the luckiest dragon,” he murmured.

He leaned up, and Chanyeol leaned down, and their first kiss should feel like stars bursting or angels singing, but it didn’t. It felt like the natural thing, the simple thing. It felt right.

Like coming home.



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



He’d sent word to the castle the moment he’d reached the border of his kingdom, so by the time Chanyeol rode into the palace, astride a white stallion, in armor like the sunset, with his beautiful maiden seated comfortably in front of him, there was a massive crowd to greet him. And how they cheered.

It was exactly what he’d wanted, but he barely saw it.

All he saw was Kyungsoo, the way she lit up under the adoration of the people, the way she greeted his family with grace and the way she cuddled close to him as he announced their marriage.

And when she they were surrounded by well-wishers, fielding questions and accepting congratulations, Chanyeol watched her smile, and laugh, and fell all over again.













IT’S OVER oh gosh what a wild ride this fic was

Coming in at just under 40K words and written in 30 days flat, this is the fastest I’ve ever written anything. I hope it doesn’t show too much :P How many of you guessed the twist? Was anyone actually surprised or was I just super obvious? There was also a lot that didn’t get explained because I was on a time limit, so feel free to ask me any questions you have that weren’t answered.

I could probably write another 30K fic for every single pairing in here lol but I won’t because that would be insane. I might get inspiration for something else in this ‘verse someday, though.

This fic comes to you courtesy of jumpthisship, who somehow managed to write me adorable hogwarts!chansoo in 48 hours and like totally shamed me with it lol >.<

Also brought to you by the music of Peter Hollens and Lindsey Sterling, who were on in the background throughout most of writing this, but particularly this, this, this and this.

Extra-special super-duper thanks to the non-Exo-fandom people in my life who helped me through this - to Cat for listening to me whine and holding my hand, to K for making the offhand comment that sparked the twist, and to my lovely wonderful fiance for putting up with me alternately crying at him and ignoring him for the last two weeks while I finished this thing. He is amazing and everyone should go check out his incredible photography or drop by his tumblr and say thank you for giving up his relationship for a month lol.

If you prefer, follow me on livejournal, and you can also come say hi to me on tumblr! I’ve gotten so many cute anon messages while posting this fic and every one makes me like jump up and do a dance. I wish I was kidding.

until next time, my lovelies~