Baekhyun can fully understand Chanyeol’s doubts and trepidation towards the town pack, even though he would never admit it. Maybe it’s the whole living in harmony with humans thing, or maybe it’s the issue about trespassing, or even just the fact that the other pack is older and more experienced in most aspects of life than they are – an assumption of course but a very solid one, based on the lifestyle on display. Either way, whatever the worry, Baekhyun gets it.

He just doesn’t let it get to him.

There are things one picks up on fast; things that are based on instincts that span generations back; skills that appear to be fairly individual. While everyone’s sort of different though – like Suho and her innate ability to sniff out water from at least twice the distance Baekhyun can, or Chanyeol’s knack for staying on her feet no matter how she trips and stumbles – no one’s really excluded. And Baekhyun, well, he’s simply learnt that first impressions are usually more than enough for him to judge a person’s worth.

Which is why, when a bright and cheerful Jongin tugs him into the warm parlour within seconds of his arrival to introduce him to the two pack members any of them has yet to meet, Baekhyun feels a great wave of relief wash over him.

He knows an enemy when he sees one after all, and neither stranger sets off the warning bells.

“Ah, you must be Baekhyun?” one of the men asks, face juvenile apart from the very set of his features, a strikingly mature calm mask, and Baekhyun recalls what little Jongin had bothered sharing about the two so far. He smiles easily, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he shrugs.

“And you must be Minseok,” he replies, tossing in a polite nod before looking over at the slyly smiling man on the other couch, “and Jongdae, right? Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Jongdae says, propping his chin on the back of his hand as he and Minseok exchange a look that Baekhyun isn’t quite sure he gets. Judging from Jongin’s pinched expression he’s equally confused and twice as bothered by it. “I heard the two of you hit it off pretty well yesterday… despite a rough introduction.” Baekhyun narrows his eyes just slightly – there’s something about the way Jongdae put it that sort of irks him in a familiar way.

“Come on, no need to tease the kids,” Minseok chides, but the smirk tugging at his lips says he finds it – whatever it is – just as entertaining.

Fortunately it’s at this point that Yixing appears in the doorway, one hand on each of their shoulders, and wordlessly, though not without a reprimanding look at the other two, ushers them into the kitchen. A foreign feeling sort of wells up inside of him as Baekhyun slips into one of the chairs at the table, cocoa and snacks set out for two. It’s reminiscent of something he used to know but can’t place anymore. He rubs his thumb over the coarse tablecloth, chews on the inside of his bottom lip as he thinks, tries to find the right word.

“…-ay?”

“Huh? Ow!” Baekhyun hisses as he rubs his sore shin, hoping his glare conveys just how much he’s suffering. “What the hell was that for?!”

“Language,” Yixing calls over her shoulder, and Baekhyun musters the decency to answer with an embarrassed ‘yes ma’am’ that only seems to tick her off some, Jongin snickering remorselessly around a cracker.

“Thanks a lot,” he mutters, letting a snack of his own silence his emerging grumbles.

“So, when are the others showing up?” Jongin leans forward a bit to get a better view of the front yard, as though expecting them to come marching to the porch any second. “I mean, we were sort of expecting all of you to fall through the door at once. Figuratively anyway.”

“Nah, I think Chanyeol’s been letting her nerves get the best of her, so they told me to go ahead. Nothing unusual really.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes at the disappointed look on the other’s face. “Don’t worry; they’ll be here sooner or later.” With Jongin clearly relieved, he can’t help but grin. “Did you enjoy wrestling with Yeollie that bad? We could go get them you know, if you’re in a hurry to see her again?”

Jongin just stares at him then, and rather dumbly at that, before flushing insanely. “That’s- I-I don’t- I mean- I- it’s not like that!” he babbles. And Baekhyun is too stunned to even laugh, because today’s blush is sort of different from the slight tint of exertion he’d been shown after yesterday’s play fighting. As in a really embarrassing different that sort of makes Baekhyun’s cheeks heat up as well. Jongin seems to really be struggling with his words, since the next thing he blurts out is a loud “I’m not crushing on anyone, okay?!”

“…uh…” Minseok looks a bit stunned where he stops in the doorway, taking a few seconds before shaking his head with a sigh. “Alright, thank you for the clarification Jongin,” he says as he grabs the cracker box from the cupboard.

“Seriously, I’m not,” Jongin reinforces at that, cheeks still flaming as he glares at Minseok’s back.

“Whatever you say, runt, whatever you say…”

Baekhyun observes Jongin’s fuming face for a few moments, sipping his cocoa slowly. “…you do know I was just pulling your leg, don’t you?” he asks, just to make sure, and Jongin pouts sourly, kicking his leg again as he mutters out an answer.

“Of course I know you weren’t serious…”

“But…?”

“But nothing,” Jongin scoffs, and Baekhyun kicks back harder in retaliation, because he can tell something just went unsaid and he has no clue what it was. And it sort of bothers him more than it should, because Jongin is clearly in that much worse of a mood because of it.

“Suit yourself.”

“Ow? Baek, do you really have to- hey! Come on! Stop it!”

Baekhyun laughs darkly, still enjoying his hot beverage as he keeps abusing Jongin’s shins, legs swinging at a casual pace. He can tell the exact split second when Jongin decides to join in, and he almost chokes at the hard kick to his knee. “Not cool!”

The playful glimmer is back in Jongin’s eyes as he shrugs. “You asked for it.”

It takes a whole twenty minutes before they conclude a ceasefire, and by that time Baekhyun swears his legs feel like tenderized meat. Per definition he’s pretty sure that’s exactly what they are. He’s got the strangest urge to poke at them all the same, check for blooming bruises, but reins himself in before he has the chance to potentially do any more damage.

“I’m sorry, but this really speaks volumes about your intelligence,” Jongdae comments as the two of them stumble into the parlour, dropping onto the rug with pained groans. “And I was hoping you’d be a good influence on him too.”

Baekhyun just grunts in acknowledgement, too beat to do anything but poke Jongin in the ribs with his elbow. Which really wasn’t a good idea either, as proven by the shove he gets in turn.

But then the rug is awfully fluffy. Really soft and comfortable. And the fire just heats the room up perfectly and crackles all merrily and smells a little like outdoors. He turns his head, yawning, to share a look with Jongin, who also seems to be struggling to keep his eyes open. The others are ridiculously quiet, and with a lazy glance around Baekhyun finds out the disheartening reason why, Jongdae chuckling at the groan he lets out as he rolls over to bury his face in the fuzzy rug.

“Bunch of bookworms…”

Jongin bumps their shoulders together with a grunt, a different sort of warmth from the fire blooming as he settles there with a slurred mumble. The only word Baekhyun makes out is ‘rude’, but right now manners are about the last thing he’d care for. Falling asleep in the midst of an entirely separate pack isn’t a habit he should pick up, yet he can’t resist closing his eyes. It’s just for a short nap after all.

*

The pups are a handful. Cute. Precious really. But a handful nonetheless. Biting, whining balls of fur that never seem to be quiet when the pack needs to rest and are fast asleep when it would be better to be up and alert.

They’re growing quickly though, and their parents and older siblings, while mostly accepting, clearly don’t want an outsider around for the little ones to get attached to. It’s no surprise really. Apart from the more successful hunting trips there isn’t much else to contribute with. Any individual who is not family is, in the end, not worthy of their trust, and barely even makes for decent company.

Maybe it’s time to move on either way. New season, new place, new pack. The way it’s always been.

The family of wolves doesn’t protest but for a few whimpers – the pups don’t understand what’s happening, but will probably forget about the loss of their large playmate before spring is over. It’s an awfully silent goodbye this time. The melting snow crackles with each bound, sunlight filtering through the trees as the distance between them grows, but even the birds seem hesitant to sing.

Loneliness has never been an issue, most likely never will be, but the quiet hits home after hours apart, the air cold and still, nipping at bare skin for a short moment.

“Well this . Where to next…”

*

Suho is surprised to walk up the steps to a quiet house. The silence is almost eerie – she’d been expecting havoc and destruction, maybe a broken window or two. Baekhyun being thrown at them as they’re told to leave and never set foot in this territory again was also an option she’d imagined and refused to really entertain further.

Chanyeol’s nerves must’ve rubbed off on her, because she’s a lot more apprehensive than usual.

When the door opens though, there’s no sign of anything having gone wrong. The man who greets them is smiling, catlike lips curved up pleasantly as he gestures for them to be quiet. “The kids are asleep,” he says as he lowers his hand, stepping aside to let them in and closing the door softly behind them. Suho doesn’t have to think long to figure what he means with ‘kids’. She stills after shrugging out of the jacket, eyes drifting from the man’s outstretched hand to his eyes, gaze soft and steady. “I’m Jongdae.”

“Oh.” She takes his hand, jolting from the light static that prickles at her fingers, the two of them sharing an awkward laugh before she remembers to introduce herself. “Suho.”

“Thought so – it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Ah, yes, likewise…”

A sharp cough grabs her attention, Chanyeol grimacing a bit as she flicks her eyes down and then back to her face again. Suho finally follows her nervous glances, and suspects Jongdae had come to the same realization, seeing how they seem to tug their hands back almost simultaneously, another embarrassing laugh following naturally.

“This is Chanyeol.” Suho pats the girl’s arm, just to get rid of the sudden nerves, and Jongdae clears his throat, holding his hand out again. It isn’t surprising that Chanyeol doesn’t do the same, her own hands stuffed in her pockets as she shifts in place. Her face still hasn’t lost its slight pallor from earlier.

“Jongin’s told us a lot about you,” Jongdae says casually, dropping his hand without any sign of having taken offense. Suho smiles and hopes the statement wasn’t literal.

Sleeping on the floor between the couches in the parlour are Baekhyun and Jongin, looking like they passed out in the middle of a wrestling match. Yixing smiles up at them from her seat next to a man Suho can only assume must be Minseok, who puts down his book on the side-table with a slight smile of his own. Her assumption is proven correct as he introduces himself, no handshakes this time because of the obstacle in the middle of the room, and politely invites them to sit.

Immediately Suho is made aware of a minor problem, Chanyeol’s fingers gripping the back of her t-shirt tightly, lips pursed. Right, Suho thinks, because the couch she’d made to sit in was really not that big, and on the other one Chanyeol would have to sit either next to Minseok – a complete stranger – or Yixing – an almost complete stranger.

“Do you want anything to drink?” Jongdae gets up, waving for them to sit as he circles around them, careful not to step on any of the boys’ protruding limbs. “There’s still some hot chocolate left, right Xing?”

“Yep, just be careful when you reheat it.”

“That sounds great, thank you,” Suho answers as she drags Chanyeol down on the cushions with her, trying hard not to roll her eyes at the girl’s excessive unease. So far there’s been no sign that anything’s wrong or that they’re unwelcome – much like the day before. And even though Minseok gives off the feeling of someone with authority, there doesn’t seem to be much malice even in the smug expression he stares after Jongdae with.

A sudden, loud snort makes all of them jump, and Suho can’t help but chuckle. “Did they fall asleep like that?”

“Hardly,” Minseok says with a scoff.

Yixing agrees with a few tired nods. “They were actually quite cute the first couple of minutes, before they started grappling in their sleep. Jongin is usually a very calm sleeper too.”

“Can’t really say that about Baekhyun,” Chanyeol mutters, her first words since arrival, and Suho winces. It’s true that Baekhyun tends to flail about, and Chanyeol just so happens to be the usual recipient of a random midnight punch or two.

“Nothing much we can do about that, sadly,” she supplies, shrugging.

Unfortunately, no one else seems to have anything to add to that specific conversation, and silence fills the room after the short exchange. It’s uncomfortable and stifling, questions hanging in the air and waiting to be voiced, yet no one wants to be the first to do it. Yixing has picked up the daily paper from somewhere, reading calmly despite the tension. Unlike her Suho can’t quite relax and combs fingers through her hair to occupy herself, watches out of the corner of her eye as Chanyeol crosses both arms and legs stubbornly, one foot bobbing along to the quick beat the other taps against the floor.

By the time a mug appears in front of her, Suho almost knocks it over out of surprise. Jongdae murmurs a soft ‘careful’ as he holds it out again, and she thanks whatever graces that she manages not to spill anything.

“So…” Jongdae moves his hands as though wishing for someone to fill him in, Yixing chuckling as she and Minseok scoot over to make room for him to sit, which he does with a pointed look to the other man. “I’m guessing I didn’t miss anything?” Suho sips her cocoa as she observes their weird stare-off, sighing at the bittersweet flavour. Sometimes she really misses living like normal people.

“Okay, fine, I guess I’ll go first,” Minseok finally snaps, leaning forward with narrowed eyes. Suho gulps. The expression on his face seems suddenly very serious, wary and calculating as he stares them down. It’s unsettling to an extent, but seeing as Baekhyun is deep asleep in the very same room she can only assume she’s talking to a decent person. “Why did you come here?”

“…Why?” She wets her lips, peers over at Chanyeol for a moment only to make sure she isn’t assuming the worst. For now she seems able to focus on her drink instead of the conversation. “Did you mean here as in your home, or here as in your territory?”

Minseok’s brow creases further, which is sort of concerning, but Suho doesn’t really care – she just really wants the time to think through her answers, mind working at a slower pace than usual. Pressure always has been her worst enemy.

“The territory, of course – I know you were invited here today, but we don’t usually come across strangers in our woods. I want to know what your plans are.”

“Plans…? There are no plans, not regarding this place,” Suho responds honestly and without the consideration she’d have liked, her own brow furrowing at the sheer absurdity of his suggestion. “Meeting you all wasn’t a planned event. We were going to pass right by, keep going northeast, but then Baekhyun ran off to explore and, well, here we are. We had no idea there was a resident pack here.”

“Really? You couldn’t tell by scent or anything?” There’s a hint of accusation to his sharp tone, no doubt fed by disbelief in a werewolf’s ability to cross another’s territory without even telling they’re doing so. Maybe he himself has never met another tiny pack nestled amongst ordinary humans. Suho reckons he might’ve been more understanding if he had.

“Not until we were already close to town – you seem to blend in too well.” She stares back coolly, keeps her back straight.

“…alright. And what are you thinking now?”

“I’m thinking that I don’t particularly like the tone you’re using. We were invited back to meet and talk, but your attitude right now makes me feel like a criminal. As for any new plans, there are none.”

“So you’re not going to stick around?” Yixing raises her brows as she looks down to the sleeping boys. What had been building into a slightly hostile atmosphere changes immediately, all eyes on the two. “I’m not trying to tell anyone what to do, but I do know they’ve taken a liking to each other.”

“Anyone can tell…” Chanyeol mumbles, finished with her chocolate now, fiddling with the empty mug. Her dull expression doesn’t suit her at all.

“Of course they get along, but that doesn’t mean we can just root down here.” Suho is aware how clipped her words are, but refuses to feel bad about it. “We’ve been on the move for a long time. We’ve met people we‘ve gotten along with before.”

“Shifters?” Jongdae’s levelled stare makes her squirm slightly in her seat.

“People.”

“Human people,” Chanyeol clarifies unnecessarily, and Suho sighs at the memories. Compared to Chanyeol and Baekhyun she’s always been good at keeping her distance and uprooting again when it’s called for. She’s wondered many times when they’re going to protest, but so far they’ve always been in agreement.

“…there’s no need to hide here.” Yixing smiles as though they aren’t still in the middle of a serious chat, her position clear already. Judging by Jongdae’s nodding he agrees fully.

“Not from you, no.”

Minseok sighs, rubbing a hand over his face as he sinks back into the cushions. “This is a popular place to rent lodges – hunters come from all over during high season – but right now there aren’t many outsiders around. Everyone in this town are used to wildlife, including wolves.”

“…should we be taking this as some kind of invitation to stick around for a while?”

“Did you really think I was going to send you all away when it’s like this?” Minseok retorts with a scoff, nodding to Baekhyun and Jongin as though it’s obvious that they should stick together. “Look, I don’t like playing the bad guy, but you can never be too sure when it comes to the safety of your family.”

Suho can feel some more of the tension seep out of her as Jongdae and Yixing both start a round of light-hearted bashing of his methods, relief taking its place because hell if she’d be able to keep a straight face for much longer. Chanyeol seems to lose all composure entirely, flopping onto Suho’s lap with an exhausted sigh.

“That talk just knocked a decade off my life,” she grumbles.

“Tell me about it,” Baekhyun grunts from the floor, newly awaked, bleary-eyed and struggling to untangle himself from Jongin with very little success. “Damn it, wake up fatass…”

“Baekhyun—“

“So, are we staying?”

With five sets of eyes on her, waiting for the final call, Suho thinks that there really isn’t much of a choice. There probably wasn’t from the very beginning.

She sighs and combs her fingers through Chanyeol’s messy hair.

“I guess we are.”

*

“You’re too slow, Sehun.” Kyungsoo stops at the edge of a clearing to wait for the kid to catch up. The sky overhead is already beginning to change colours, sun long gone from sight, hidden behind the treetops. There doesn’t seem to be anything lurking about, no suspicious scents or sounds. But they have crossed the border into familiar territory.

“You know… I’m not used… to this…” Sehun pants as he stumbles out from the treeline, Kyungsoo following barely in time to catch him from dropping onto the muddy mess of a forest floor.

In all though, Sehun is looking a lot better than before, the smaller cuts and bruises already starting to fade, but he still tires faster than he should. Still has some trouble breathing without pain as well, if his grimace is anything to judge from.

“The sooner we get there, the sooner you can rest and I can move on.”

“I can’t believe I thought you were nice,” Sehun grumbles, sinking onto his knees despite Kyungsoo’s efforts to keep him standing. “Besides, there’s no guarantee we won’t be chased out when we get there.”

“We’re already getting close Sehun, as in half the night away close.”

The runt shoots him a suspicious look, sniffs the air, looks up at the faint stars for a heartbeat, and then has the audacity to snort. “And you think it’s a good idea to turn up in the middle of the night? That’ll really make them love us.”

“I’m not stupid, but it’s better to close the distance sooner rather than later – this is the edge of a decent sized territory and I don’t have any intentions of saving you again if a different pack turns up round the border.”

“…oh.”

Kyungsoo hasn’t had any experience raising kids, but he imagines looking after Sehun isn’t all that different. He’s a near full grown shifter, but can’t do much more than change in and out of his pelt. He can’t hunt, can’t track and doesn’t seem to know the tiniest bit about his own race, or wolves for that matter. Why he’d even thought of going off on his own is a damn mystery, seeing how he’d have died a dozen times only over the past few days if Kyungsoo hadn’t been around to look out for him.

He peers down at the boy, who by now seems highly comfortable in the cool mud, and quite comfortable in his own skin compared to his initial discomfort with the lack of clothes. Nevertheless they have to keep moving if they want to get anywhere, so he grips the kid under his arms and lifts him to his feet, Sehun muttering under his breath.

“Come on, give it a couple more hours and I’ll let you sleep in the mud for as long as you want.”

“This is not a couple of hours! Liar! Slaver!”

“Dear god kill me now…” Kyungsoo grumbles before turning on his heels to drag the boy along the narrow path through the underbrush, searching the semi-darkness as best he can for any signs of life, or possibly a good place to crash for the remainder of the morning. “You’re alive, aren’t you?” he snaps as Sehun manages to wriggle out of his grip.

“You said a couple of hours.”

“Yeah, and you were able to run for a lot longer than that – that’s a good sign of recovery.” He shuts off when the brat starts spewing insults – childish ones but insults nonetheless – focusing instead of making his way around. Somehow shifting doesn’t feel like a good idea, a gut feeling telling him that it’s better to leave as weak a trace as possible.

Sehun clearly isn’t of the same opinion, padding past him with weak grunts and snuffles before circling back around to get behind him again. Over and over and over, like he’s suddenly got all the energy in the world.

Kyungsoo’s patience finally snaps when the runt starts nipping at his calves, and he shifts so fast that Sehun yelps in shock of being countered, the two of them crashing through the woods much too carelessly. He’s clearly become spoilt from being looked after too well, and Kyungsoo really wants to teach him a lesson about attitude.

He’s so badly caught up in doing so that he doesn’t notice what they’ve stumbled onto until he hears the loud barks, sees the soft orange glow of the windows.

Whatever half-serious, disciplinary play-fighting they had going on seconds before is cut to an abrupt end as he shoves Sehun back into the cover of the patchy darkness. He doesn’t even have to speak for the kid to understand his useless attempts at communicating the word ‘run’ and they break off in opposite directions.

The dogs are still barking insanely as he circles the perimeter of what he can only assume is some sort of cabin, but it doesn’t seem like the man on the porch has any intentions of actually setting them loose and go on the chase. At least not until his companion passes him a rifle and they start stumbling down the steps, voices loud and excited. Kyungsoo isn’t sure what difference running in circles like a headless chicken makes, but he hopes that the hounds will be confused at the very least. He needs them distracted.

He shouldn’t have made the kid run so hard for so long. It’s worrying now that they’re apart, to think he might run out of energy, caught up to by the hunters.

“Don’t be an idiot,” he mutters as he leans against a mossy trunk to catch his breath, despite knowing Sehun is too far to hear. The sounds of the small group following him are faint but still there, yet he’s reluctant to move further away at the risk of losing complete track of the runt. It’s been a while since he ran around these parts and he’d rather not spend hours searching him out. He sighs, voicing his wishes only to get them off his chest. “Hide well, stay quiet, don’t go too far, don’t—“

Kyungsoo doesn’t even bother staying silent when a sharp howl rises in the distance, groaning loudly and letting a few cusses slip.

To then suddenly be silenced by a hand over his mouth and pulled into the closest bush is not something he was prepared for, fighting back for only a second until he pauses to actually breathe, immediately getting a sense for the body he’s pressed up against. He stills in the person’s hold and lets out a deep huff when he’s released, glaring in the general direction of his old acquaintance.

“It’s been a while Soo.” Her voice is little more than a mocking whisper, and though he knew exactly who it was only by her scent, Kyungsoo finds the confirmation more than a little bit untimely, and extremely frustrating. Her eyes glimmer in what little morning light manages to break through the vegetation, watching as he listens for his pursuers. The wicked giggle she gives doesn’t help his mood. “Lost someone?”

Kyungsoo doesn’t feel the even the tiniest bit of remorse as he gives her a violent shove, the girl toppling over with a yelp.

“Shut up Tao, and help me get to him before the humans do.”

Word count: 4648

Phew, finally. Idek why it took so long for this but, yeah. Everyone's finally in the story. *whoop* Alright, back to schoolwork it is... Someone shoot me.

Gonna go ahead and ask for comments, just because (it's always a great feeling to get some feedback, so yeah). *le puppy eyes* Pretty please? <3

Bye for now~

/argenou