Baekyun was frustrated to the point where pulling his own hair out sounded like a great idea.

It was either that or deck his bestie in the kisser – and seeing as the guy was depressed, the latter option seemed too harsh.

Not that he’d any reservations about decking his bestie in the kisser when he deserved it, whether the guy was depressed or not.

But he had to respect the sick.

And the dead… his mind murmured but he hushed it quickly. He’s just sick, he told his mind, firmly reprimanding the thing which had a tendency to run away with itself, like Xiumin.

Sure, he’d take longer to get back on his feet but Baekhyun firmly believed that as long as there was breath left, the person counted as living and nothing could sway him from that belief, not even his too-talkative-for-its-own-good mind.

Someone’s running away… his mind sing-songed, making him grit his teeth. He was already on edge, the last thing he needed was getting sassed by himself.

Wow, that is just so twisted. Sure you’re not losing it???

Argh, why did he let himself have such a free reign anyway? Why couldn’t he listen to Suho when he told them to control themselves?

And why the hell was Lay equally free with his own mind and yet, the guy never got sassed like this? Was that unfair or unfair?

Jealous of our own Shadow now, are we?

Shut the up, .

Calling yourself names, tsk tsk. How far have you fallen?

Now he was experiencing exactly what his brothers went through when he let his mouth runaway. Damn, he was annoying.

Rolling his eyes, he glared at his bestie who’d started this internal who-can-be-sassier war with himself. And resisted the urge to deck him again.

But that non-smiling face and dull eyed gaze were rubbing against him in the wrong way. Where at first he’d felt rather teary-eyed at seeing his friend so upset, it was now annoying him. How much longer did he plan to wear that long face???

It had been a week already since the cubs had started university and Baekhyun had been stuck in the headquarters – much like he’d been stuck in that cramped hotel room with Kris – with an overly-emotional-and-nearing-total-burnout Lay, an equally harried Suho, a zombielike Xiumin, a silent but extremely violent D.O and worst of all, a sad Chanyeol.

He was a guy, he needed to de-stress too! If Chen were awake…

Man, I miss you. Baekhyun said the words in his head in the hopes that wherever his brother was, he could hear him and not feel like they’d forgotten him. I bet you could’ve helped lighten things up.

He stared at the numerous pipes sticking out from underneath the covers as Suho had brought highest level equipment to keep the Legend’s body alive as long as they wanted. Since Lay had healed Chen, his body held none of the signs of the torture he’d gone through and if one could ignore the pipes entering his nose and the pins sticking through his arms and the constant beep of heart-monitor, it almost seemed like the guy was sleeping peacefully.

And that was the theory he was clinging to. Chen was asleep – like a genderbent sleeping beauty, his mind provided and Baekhyun agreed – and they obviously needed to find his princess to wake him up.

What if that does happen?  His mind, like his mouth, couldn’t stay shut for long. If he really does wake up to a romantic kiss?

Baekhyun frowned at that. While he could and did roll with ridiculous ideas, that seemed too far out even to himself.

Nope, we’re just going to hope his soul comes back like Luhan suggested.

Luhan had shared that little tidbit with Suho and the rest, asking the better-read Xiumin to verify it for him. Apparently, a soul could find its way back to its body if it had the right motivation.

They were a bit unclear about what that motivation was but it was hope and seeing D.O’s lips spread into that heart-shaped smile had been a reason enough to decide they needed to find out more. Sadly, the one person who could provide them with a concrete answer, Kris, wasn’t here and they had no way to access the tomes which had been destroyed long before they’d landed on earth.

All they had was guesswork and random bits of knowledge Xiumin was trying to dig up from his past – a task no one envied him for and had, in fact, stopped him from. Most of the Legends did not have a good history, especially not the elders and Xiumin, in particular.

All of which was well and good but it didn’t do crap about getting him out of his current dilemma – whether or not hit Chanyeol.

He had tried everything up his sleeve, thrown up as many illusions as he could, did anything he could possibly imagine to cheer the guy up but nothing got a smile on his face. And now, he’d had enough of peaceful negotiations. It was time to settle it like men.

Decided, he yanked at Chanyeol’s collar. The giant swayed a little, not expecting his sudden move and put out his arms to regain his balance. Good.

‘OUCH!!!’ Chanyeol’s deep voice wasn’t as roaring as Kris’s had been but it was damn close. ‘What the ???’

‘Get the hell up from that bed or I’m gonna hit you again!’ Baekhyun threatened, already pulling back for another punch, even though the feeling of his knuckles pushing into the soft skin of Chanyeol’s cheeks made him want to shudder. He loathed getting his hands dirty.

‘What for?’ Chanyeol put up his hands to protect his face, peeking from between his eyes. Baekhyun patiently waited with his punch hovering in the air until Chanyeol deemed it was safe to lower his hands.

‘!!!’ He howled again, spitting out blood. Baekhyun did shudder this time because the blood had touched him – gross! This was why he hated fighting.

‘The hell is wrong with you?’ Chanyeol glared at him, looking scary but he was past the point of caring.

‘I’m sick and tired of your moping , dickhead!’ He had the bad tendency to mouth off whenever he was agitated and , he was agitated now. ‘We’re leaving right ing now and we’re not coming back until we settle things.’

‘I’m not going to fight with you.’ Chanyeol told him.

‘Like hell you aren’t.’ Baekhyun grabbed his prominent ear and dragged him up. ‘Just ‘cause D.O’s not willing…’

‘Who said I’m not willing?’ D.O spoke up from behind him.

‘!’ Baekhyun landed in Chanyeol’s lap, gripping him tightly around the collar. ‘Man you scared me!’

D.O rolled his eyes, cracking his knuckles. ‘We having a rumble?’

‘Two against one.’ Baekhyun immediately abandoned his friend in favor of the powerful ally. ‘We’re gonna beat some sense into this peabrain.’

‘Cool.’ D.O never had any qualms about getting up close and personal and lately, he’d given up entirely on pulling his punches. They’d all had their shares of black eyes and broken noses over the past weeks, when they accidentally touched the hive that was D.O.

Chanyeol gulped, showing an emotion other than sadness for the first time in days. Fear.

‘Can’t we…’ he muttered, wondering if he could get out of this wrestling round. ‘Talk?’

‘Too late.’ D.O smirked his signature evil-lord-planning-world-domination smirk and headed outside. Chanyeol glared at Baekhyun. ‘If I die…’

‘I’ll get Lay before that happens. C’mon, can you really tell me you aren’t excited, even the tiniest bit?’ He raised a brow. Chanyeol frowned, obviously wanting to deny. But he loved wrestling with D.O as much as the latter liked beating him up. It was their usual pastime.

Eventually, a tiniest glimmer of a smile ghosted over his lips. ‘Fine. Maybe just the tiniest bit… but if you don’t bring Lay before he kills me off…’

‘Promise.’ Baekhyun lifted his pinkie with a grin, hooking it with Chanyeol’s. ‘Go get him, tiger.’

Smiling a bit more obviously, Chanyeol raced after D.O. ‘D.Oya!’ He called and Baekhyun sighed with relief. Thank goodness for small favors.

Now he just had to figure out how to get Lay to heal Chanyeol without completely passing out.

……………………

‘You can go now!’ Xiumin’s voice sounded exhausted to his own ears. No wonder his argument held no sway over the stubborn healer. ‘I’m fine.’ He still insisted.

Lay opened his mouth, probably to refute his statement when Baekhyun burst into his room, the door banging off its hinges and slamming back into its place. Xiumin winced as the loud noise rattled inside his head, increasing the low throb to a more persistent ache.

‘I need your help!’ Baekhyun yelled at his Shadow – or at least that’s how it sounded to Xiumin. He raised a hand. ‘A little quieter?’

‘My bad!’ Baekhyun’s lowered voice still went like a drill to his head. ‘D.O’s beating Chanyeol up and I might’ve promised to get you to heal him.’

Lay tried not to show it but it was obvious the guy was in no condition to heal even a fly, let alone a fully grown man. Ergo Xiumin telling him to leave.

‘It won’t be too deep right?’ He’d been doing so much concentrated healing lately, focusing on every tiny detail inside his patient’s body, he was a little – okay, a lot – tired of it.

‘Nope, just a couple of black eyes.’ I hope, Baekhyun added mentally because with D.O like this, there was no telling. Lay nodded to both notions. ‘I guess I can…’ he glanced at Xiumin, completely unwilling to leave the elder’s side.

‘I’m going to pass out any second now.’ Xiumin reassured him. ‘Go on. I’ll be fine.’

Looking like he highly doubted that statement, Lay stood up and stumbled towards the door. Baekhyun glanced at Xiumin. ‘Sure it’s not a problem?’

‘Yeah.’ Xiumin nodded towards the door. ‘Take care of him, I think he needs it more than me right now.’

Nodding back, Baekhyun snapped his fingers and plunged the room in soothing darkness. ‘That cool?’ His whisper was soft as sleep pulled at Xiumin with both claws buried into his head.

‘Hmm…’ He was asleep before his head hit the pillow, unaware when Baekhyun slipped out.

Sadly, the bliss of dreamlessness was short-lived.

The news about the darkness breaching the defensive wall built around the Temple’s boundaries reached him before it reached the Council because he was, as usual, in places he shouldn’t be.

He’d been reading the Tome of Prophecies, unable to understand most of it but everyone in the temple grounds was talking about the Last Prophecy and he’d been curious. Most of it went over his head but what he did understand didn’t sound so good – looked like whatever the Red forces had created wouldn’t be stopped so easily – it was the endgame, the apocalypse they’d been warned about and now it had come to pass.

When the messenger stopped outside the Main Hall’s entrance, he shared his news with the guard, obviously too nervous to stay quiet. And soon as Xiumin heard it, he ran towards his home – the quarters they’d been allotted.

His father was inside the temple, his mother would probably with the other ladies but his sister was still in the room. The rooms were near the walls and she was in danger.

As he ran, he prayed with all the fervor of an eleven year old, that she hadn’t listened to their mom and had sneaked out to play again, gotten as far from the temple as possible.

There were loud rumblings and the ground shook, making Xiumin fall down. He cowered a bit but worry for his sister kept him moving. He crawled across the shaking ground, steadily heading towards the quarters when there was a loud crash.

Horror filled him and he found his feet again, dashing with all his might towards the terrible sound. The entire wall had fallen, burying nearly half the quarters under the massive debris but thankfully, his house was still standing.

Not even waiting to think, he rushed inside and stated looking for her, calling out her name. When the ground shook again and the ceiling started to cave in, he ran back out, barely missing the rock that would’ve crushed him to death. It landed on his leg instead, crushing the bones underneath it.

He screamed in pain and thrashed around, trying to get it free but it was no use. The ache was so intense, all he could feel was pain – it was like a giant throbbing ache that overpowered everything else…

He woke with a start, gasping for breath as the ache started deep inside his body, turning him into a giant throbbing ball of pain.

Biting his lip so he wouldn’t whimper out loud like he wanted to, he tried to adjust himself to a more comfortable position. But it was impossible. The pain was not on the surface – it was inside him, buried deep.

Lay had healed him a lot but he was pacing himself, working slowly but steadily. Most of his burns were now at the stage where everything looked apparently okay but hurt like hell.

It wasn’t like Xiumin could ask him to hurry along either – he was already pushing himself too much; if Xiumin showed even the slightest hint of suffering, he’d just go all out. Burning out the only healer and putting him out of commission was so not what they needed right now.

Blinking his eyes to accommodate the darkness, Xiumin blinked his eyes rapidly and tried not to think about anything – whether it was his terrible memories, the pain he was constantly in or the way the darkness made him wonder if this was what Chen had seen the last time he’d opened his eyes…

Shaking his head was painful but it was either that or shedding tears at his brother’s suffering.

I’m getting soft. The thought was both regretful and hopeful.

If he’d been the old, cold Xiumin, he wouldn’t have even thought about it twice. They were Legends, it was their job to fight Evil and if one died, so what? People died all the time.

Maybe it was earth, living together with actual people. Or maybe it was simply that time had taken its toll and done what it promised – healed. Or heck, maybe it was just Suho’s feelings leaking into him. But he had changed.

Where he’d wished to get away from his brothers before, the past week had made him realize he actually missed all the noise they made. Where once he’d dismissed Kris’s mate’s death, he was now wondering how much the guy must’ve suffered when he’d seen his mate’s torn remains.

He’d wondered, more times than he cared to count while he rested in the room Suho had kept ready for him, how his younger brothers were feeling, having to deal with all this tragedy all at once, wishing he could get up and actually help rather than just lie here and the healing energy like a leech. 

To cut things short, he was beginning to care. The ice around his heart was beginning to melt. 

And it scared him less.

Caring hurt. Caring meant you were vulnerable, caring meant you could be manipulated; caring, in short, meant nothing but trouble.

But no matter how much he repeated these thoughts in his head, his heart thudded with warmth, so foreign after being cold for so long.

And he swallowed the lump of panic forming in his throat.

………………… 

A/N

I hope you are all excited about Xiumin's story