Title: Concordia Discors [Chapter Two]
Authors:
akaanee and
minwhorePairings: Chanyeol/Baekhyun, onesided!Sehun/Luhan, Kai/Luhan, Kris/Tao
Rating: PG-15
Summary: For many centuries humans and demons have been at odds. And now the battles fought rise to a crescendo where tables are turned, many are sacrificed, and hopes are both found, and lost.
Author's Notes: nicole wrote most of this chapter since i was uselessly sick these past few days. i only contributed a little bit and basically just reading through orz so sing your praises to her everyone \o\ oh and enjoy the lightning-speed update folks! it'll probably get slower after this one since both of us have a gazillion fics that we neglected lmao
Chapter Two
Baekhyun was walking out of his shared room with Chanyeol when two men entered the cottage. Chanyeol was already chattering with the two arrivals excitedly, hands flailing in the air, and Jongin seemed to be irritated with something, leaning against the wall near the door and glaring at nothing. Baekhyun stayed in the back, hoping to be able to observe these new arrivals without getting dragged into the conversation too early.
The first man was as tall (if not just a smudge taller) than Chanyeol. Baekhyun blinked in surprise - how was that even possible? His handsome face was set in a stoic expression and Baekhyun inwardly grimaced, immediately realizing that this one just might be troublesome to convince.
Switching his eyes to the second one, Baekhyun was taken aback when he met the wide-eyes of the other human. There was a quiet confusion that set his face apart and made it memorable but Baekhyun saw the subtle intelligence lurking in his brown eyes. It took him a second to control the mild burst of panic, quickly putting up his front and smiling shyly at the other. The human didn’t smile back though, continuing to observe Baekhyun quietly. Baekhyun could almost imagine a cold sweat breaking out on the back of his neck.
“Ah!” Chanyeol exclaimed loudly, causing the two to break their stares. Chanyeol was looking at him excitedly. Jongin straightened subtly, trying to pull off a disinterested look as he glanced at his shoes. Baekhyun, however, could tell that he was listening very closely from the way his head was tilted. “That’s him! Baekhyun, come over here!”
Making sure his features were set into a timid guise, Baekhyun walked up to the two new arrivals, giving a hesitant grin. Chanyeol seemed to immediately notice Baekhyun’s discomfort, slinging a pleasant arm around his shoulders. It was weird, but Baekhyun liked it when Chanyeol did that. It was always warm when Chanyeol came close to him.
“Baekhyun,” Chanyeol started, grinning down at him. Baekhyun beamed back at him, smirking inwardly when Chanyeol’s ears turned pink. Chanyeol cleared his throat and turned, gesturing first to the other human giant, who was looking at Baekhyun with a completely blank face. “This big lug is Wufan. We call him Kris though, so don’t hesitate to either, okay?” After Baekhyun nodded, Chanyeol turned to the other human. “This guy is Kyungsoo. He’s the smart guy of our group.”
Ah, Baekhyun thought, locking eyes with Kyungsoo again. So my initial assumption was right. He’s the one I’ll really have to look out for.
“Nice to meet you,” Baekhyun said slowly, biting his lip to add more credibility to his farce before giving them a smile.
The two didn’t say anything for a second, studying him as if trying to dissect his very thoughts and feelings. It was disconcerting, but Baekhyun willed himself not to back away from it.
Finally, Kyungsoo gave a tiny smile. “Nice to meet you, too, Baekhyun.” Baekhyun was surprised, to say the least. Had Kyungsoo given him approval?
“I do have a question for you, Baekhyun...if you don’t mind,” Kyungsoo said. Baekhyun scrunched his face up in confusion. An uneasiness began to slowly unravel in Baekhyun, causing the palms of his hands to warm up and glow a little. Luckily no one was looking down to catch it.
Calm down, Luhan whispered soothingly to him. I don’t think he suspects anything that we don’t want him to suspect.
This isn’t as fun anymore, Baekhyun grumbled, though he knew he was lying through his teeth. Why can’t I just kill them all right now before they do something to me?
Because there’s no lasting thrill in that. And we both know how much you like those. Apparently, Luhan knew he was lying, too.
Dammit, Lu, Baekhyun inwardly grumbled, but his friend was already gone from their link, leaving Baekhyun to deal with this mess alone.
“Okay,” Baekhyun said out loud, his tone making it seem like it had been a question instead of an affirmation.
“You’re a monster, aren’t you?” Kyungsoo asked. Baekhyun blinked in surprise, silent. He felt Chanyeol’s arm grow taut around his shoulders and suddenly the room grew tense. Debating with himself for a second, Baekhyun decided to go with the flow. Kyungsoo had obviously seen his cat-like pupils.
He gave a cautious nod, biting the inside of his cheek as he looked up at Chanyeol. The Hero was frowning, creating two light wrinkles on his face. Baekhyun resisted the very faint urge to smooth the wrinkles over with a finger.
“What?!” Jongin exploded, shooting up from his spot to glare daggers at Baekhyun. It was weak compared to Luhan’s glare, but Baekhyun forced himself to flinch. Acting was really tiresome sometimes. “You’re a monster? I knew there was something fishy with you!”
“Kai,” Chanyeol said, voice soft as he used his nickname on Jongin. Jongin immediately quieted at the warning him tone in his voice, tsking quietly in annoyance as he looked away angrily. Slowly, Chanyeol removed his arm from Baekhyun’s shoulders, looking at Baekhyun square in the eye. “You’re a monster?”
Baekhyun acted confused, nodding his head. He pointed to his eyes. “I thought you realized it already...”
Chanyeol stared hard at him and Baekhyun couldn’t help twitching his hands, trying to stop the automatic fight-or-flight response of heat build up.
Finally, Chanyeol blinked in surprise, his face becoming soft and boyish again. “Oh, well, what do you know.” He laughed sheepishly, grinning and slinging his arm back over Baekhyun’s shoulders. Baekhyun blushed, not expecting such an action. Before he willed the blush away, however, he stopped himself. The blush would help later on, if anyone happened to be watching him now.
Kyungsoo’s lips were quirked up in a knowing smile. Jongin and Wufan didn’t look like they were buying his act at all, though.
“If you’re a monster,” Wufan spoke. Baekhyun looked at him - it had been the first time he’d heard anything from Wufan’s mouth. “Then why befriend the Hero? Why follow him home? Surely you know what his job is.”
Chanyeol made a move as if he was going to protest at the question but Wufan shot him a dangerous look, silencing the Hero effectively.
Baekhyun remembered the story Luhan had set up for him earlier, inwardly grinning. Even with the new exposure of him being a monster, everything was still going according to plan.
“Wh...” He faltered, becoming enthusiastic in his acting again as he glanced up at Chanyeol. Chanyeol smiled down at him, pulling Baekhyun closer as if in hopes of giving strength to him. Baekhyun looked back at the others - more specifically at Wufan and Jongin, who were impatient to find out his motives. Kyungsoo already seemed to have thought of something, an indulgent expression on his face as he waited.
“When I first met the Hero, he was unbelievably kind,” Baekhyun said, a small smile blooming across his face. “He was gentle with the monsters that had gathered around him while he had been sharpening his sword. I’d never seen a human be nice to monsters before. I thought to myself, ‘Maybe it won’t hurt this time to try and talk to someone,’ and to my surprise, he welcomed me with open arms. It was nice not to have to be guarded around someone.”
Kyungsoo's eyes softened in understanding, and in Baekhyun’s mind Luhan laughed. The other monster had obviously tuned back in to see what was going on.
His soft heart is overpowering his rational thinking, Luhan said gleefully. It was almost as if Luhan were getting more fun out of this than Baekhyun himself. Baekhyun resisted the urge to shake his head at his friend.
But Jongin still looked unconvinced and, likewise, Wufan's face was still blank of emotions. It was rather daunting, so Baekhyun tried a different argument.
"I guess I’m just tired of being chased around all the time. A -- and Chanyeol doesn't kill monsters," for an added effect, he hesitated and bit his lip, then looked up at Chanyeol from beneath long lashes, voice quiet. "Do you?"
Baekhyun gave himself a mental pat on the back as his small, scared voice hit its mark. Chanyeol gulped visibly and shook his head, subtly pulling Baekhyun even closer to his side, if that was at all possible.
He's smitten~, Baekhyun thought in a sing-song voice, and he could almost imagine Luhan rolling his eyes at him.
"I'll protect you," Chanyeol said determinedly, squeezing Baekhyun's shoulder in his large hand. "I won't let anybody hurt you. Human or not, you're my friend now, too, and that's what friends do! Right guys?"
Chanyeol looked around hopefully at his friends, and the three wore different expressions. Jongin looked generally uneasy and Wufan was staring off to space as if contemplating. However, Kyungsoo was smiling widely, opening his arms as though getting ready to embrace Baekhyun.
"Welcome to our little family, Baekhyun!" he said, and Baekhyun could dance in glee at how easy it was for the wide-eyed boy to believe the lies he spun. He might have been the smartest of the group, but he was easily affected by emotions, whether they be real or fake. "Well, we're not much, but I hope you like it here with us. There's a lot you have to learn, and rules you have to obey though!"
"Wait," Jongin interrupted, face slightly bothered as if he had just thought of something appalling. All eyes turned to him. "Where's he going to sleep? I'm not sharing my room with him and you can't make me!"
"Jongin!" Chanyeol said in a stern voice, pushing Baekhyun behind him protectively. Baekhyun’s lips twitched up because Chanyeol had so easily shown him his back. "Don't speak to Baekhyun like that! And besides, Baekhyun's sharing a room with me, so Kris will be your new roommate from now on."
Wufan nodded calmly at this but Jongin's eyes widened in horror.
"I'm not sleeping in a room with him and his crazy sleep talk!" he cried, pointing at Wufan with an accusing finger. The latter frowned at him disapprovingly.
Baekhyun watched the three bicker on amusedly, idly thinking how foolish humans were. He could feel Luhan on the back of his mind watching with the same silent amusement, sharing his thought. Kyungsoo, who had also been watching on the sidelines, shook his head with an affectionate smile on his face, then turned to Baekhyun. He skipped over and tugged on Baekhyun’s arm, leaving the three to settle their arguments themselves.
"Come on," he said, fingers gentle around Baekhyun's wrist. "I'll show you around."
Chanyeol watched Baekhyun that night at the dinner table. Despite Jongin and Wufan being a bit chilly to the little monster, Baekhyun seemed to become friendlier, adjusting fairly quickly to his new surroundings. Kyungsoo was talking with Baekhyun, telling a story about how he had gotten accused of stealing from a merchant because of how his face had looked. When Baekhyun smiled and laughed behind a hand at the punch line, the whole room seemed to light up.
Chanyeol traced Baekhyun’s face in his mind. It didn’t bother him that Baekhyun was a monster. In fact, it bothered him more that, if Kyungsoo hadn’t mentioned it, he wouldn’t have noticed that Baekhyun was a monster until who knew when.
“So, Baekhyun,” Jongin interrupted the nice conversation, looking slightly curious despite everything else. Baekhyun blinked, clearly confused at why Jongin was even trying to talk to him when it had been obvious that Jongin didn’t like him just a few seconds ago. “Do you have any powers?”
The table stilled; it was obvious from the others’ faces that they wanted to know as well.
Frowning, Chanyeol thought about maybe protesting this question but even he was curious about this subject. He watched Baekhyun cautiously though, waiting for any true signs of unease, in which Chanyeol would then change the subject. But none came, with Baekhyun looking as if he had been waiting for this question.
Baekhyun nodded, his hands fiddling in front of him. “I can control light,” Baekhyun said softly. It was good that everyone on the table was so quiet, or Chanyeol wouldn’t have heard Baekhyun’s answer.
Light...? Chanyeol redirected his gaze for the first time from Baekhyun to look at Kai.
“So you have a unique power like Jongin,” Kyungsoo remarked, saying what everyone else was thinking. Baekhyun looked adorably confused, cocking his head to the side.
“Jongin has the power to control the dark.” Chanyeol smiled at the charming expression Baekhyun wore. Their new member was really cute. It was quite a contrast to Jongin, Wufan, and Yixing, that was for sure.
“Can we not talk about me?” Jongin muttered.
“Just how powerful are you?” Wufan butted in, eyes narrowed into a glare. Chanyeol pursed his lips, subconsciously scooting his chair closer to Baekhyun’s. Baekhyun dropped his eyes to the table for a second, hand gripping the other to stop the nervous shaking, before meeting Kris’ eyes.
“I’m not that powerful,” Baekhyun said. “I can only do three things with my powers, and that's only if there's a source of light in the area. My powers are useless in the dark.” He stopped then, looking unwilling to elaborate. Jongin tapped his fingers against the table rudely. Chanyeol resisted the urge to punch his best friend, irritated at how he was acting. Really, where were Jongin’s manners?
He reached under the table to squeeze Baekhyun’s knee reassuringly, a slight blush taking over his face when Baekhyun gave him a grateful smile. Chanyeol was beginning to think he had a thing for Baekhyun’s smile with the way he’d been reacting as of late.
“First, I can glow.” Baekhyun demonstrated, holding out his shaking hand to show his hand emitting light. Chanyeol watched, transfixed, as it moved, bleeding upward slowly on Baekhyun’s arm. The light was easily seen through Baekhyun’s shirt. Then, the glow dimmed. “Second, I can make a laser with my finger. And third, I can make a ball of light that can blow things up. I won’t showcase those two for obvious reasons.” Baekhyun’s cheeks turned pink.
“Wow,” Jongin breathed, awed. He had probably forgotten the fact that he was supposed to be irritated with Baekhyun. Chanyeol and Kyungsoo nodded in agreement, both eyes wide. Jongin continued, “It’s almost as impressive as my power.”
Wufan still didn’t look impressed though. If anything, his eyes narrowed even further.
“Then have you killed with your power?” Kris asked.
“...” Baekhyun hesitated. “I have.” At the looks he got, he quickly raised his hands in protest. “But only when it was necessary, I promise!”
“You can’t kill anyone anymore if you’re in this group,” Jongin said. “Even if something happens, you can’t ever kill again. Ever. As in never. You know, that word that means -”
“We get it, Kai,” Chanyeol interrupted, exasperated.
“I won’t,” Baekhyun promised.
Three days later, as they packed up to head to their next destination, another person skipped in through the door, smile wide and carrying an armful of sweet-smelling herbs. He greeted everyone with a cheerful sing-song voice as he deposited the herbs to a bag Kyungsoo handed to him. That was when he noticed Baekhyun at the table, munching on some bread and watching him interestedly.
"Oh," he said, sounding only mildly surprised. "You must be Baekhyun. Hello!"
Baekhyun was surprised he knew who he was, but the man waved his hand dismissively, still sorting out the herbs.
"Oh, when I received the falcon last night from Chanyeol telling me we'd be leaving today, he also told me about our new travel companion. I'm Yixing, by the way," he said, pushing his spectacles further up his nose. He skipped over to the table cheerfully, leaning across to Baekhyun. "Nice to meet you, little demon!"
Yixing, Baekhyun saw, was just like Kyungsoo. He was easily touched and affected by emotions, and Baekhyun knew that it would be the reason for Yixing’s downfall. He shook Yixing’s hand and smiled, and in return Yixing flashed him a dimpled grin.
"Yixing's a healer," Kyungsoo said, slinging an arm around Yixing's shoulders. "You'll hardly see him around us because when we hit a rest stop, he'll spend most of his time in the local hospital, treating the sick. Unless if we're fighting someone, because then we need him to be close enough to heal us."
Yixing ducked from under Kyungsoo's arm and reached for an apple on the table, shrugging. "It's not a very special power."
"Oh, but it is a special one," Jongin emerged from the bathroom and charged towards Yixing, tackling him to the floor. The healer squealed and groaned as he hit the floor, then started laughing hysterically when Jongin tickled his sides. "I haven't seen you in ages, man!"
Baekhyun let out a small chuckle from his throat as Yixing wheezed for breath, Jongin on top of him and still tickling him mercilessly. The door to his and Chanyeol's room opened, and Baekhyun turned around to see Chanyeol shuffling out, yawning and scratching the back of his head sleepily. He dropped to the seat beside Baekhyun after kicking Jongin (who was now sitting on Yixing's chest and squashing him down with his weight) before he killed their healer.
“Rude!” Jongin called, rocking back on his heels to glare at Chanyeol. The rest of the people in the cottage ignored him. Kyungsoo was more asleep than awake, head buried into his forearms as he rested on the table. Wufan was leaning against the wall near the door, eyes closed; Baekhyun got the feeling that Wufan wasn’t as tired as he was making the others believe though.
"Good morning," Chanyeol greeted everyone (specifically Baekhyun), face still droopy with sleep.
How foolish, being completely unguarded around someone who's practically a stranger, Baekhyun chuckled to himself as the need to kill resurfaced, not even noticing the bread he had been holding had begun to sizzle.
Suddenly, Luhan lashed out with his mind and Baekhyun jumped, quickly calming down. Baekhyun looked around furtively, hoping that no one had seen his little slip up. But Chanyeol had noticed, eyeing the burnt bread cautiously.
"Baekhyun, are you okay?" he asked, putting a hand on Baekhyun's forehead as if looking for a fever.
"O -- oh, I'm fine," he stuttered, trying to quickly think up an excuse. Luhan hissed one angrily at him, and he said it without a second thought. "I'm just nervous around you!"
Chanyeol blushed at his words, and Baekhyun, only realizing what it could mean, blushed as well.
You dick, he cursed in his mind, and Luhan cackled. No need to be so straightforward!
"Well just -- just be careful," Chanyeol said weakly as he turned to reach for some bread and Baekhyun nodded, still cursing Luhan.
I’ll get you back for that one, Lu.
Sure you will, Baekhyun.
Luhan smiled cheerfully to himself, biting down into a juicy apple and allowing some of its sweet fluid to run down his chin. He shivered, moaning to himself when tang hit his taste buds and closing his eyes in order to savor it more. Apples always had been his favorite fruit to snack on.
“You’re a genius, Luhan,” he said to himself, grinning. He wiped the sticky apple juice from his chin with his thumb, popping the digit into his mouth and sucking away what was left. “You are a wonderful, marvelous, ridiculously awesome genius. Really, where would Baekhyun be without you? Killing himself with boredom, I would think!”
Done with his apple, he threw the core somewhere and stood up on the branch he was sitting on, dropping down to the ground gracefully. Luhan stretched the kinks out from his body, tugging the robe he’d brought with him around his body.
Propping the hood up, he set out to the next town. “Maybe I should start practicing my acting?” he mused out loud, stopping to do a few poses. He scrunched up his face, slowing down thoughtfully as he stared up into the sky.
Then he made his face sweet, lashes lowering over his eyes timidly, a small smile curving his lips. “Oh, hello! My name is Luhan,” he recited, already getting into character. A giddy feeling flashed in the pit of his stomach.
He couldn’t wait to see Baekhyun again. And this time, he wouldn’t just be watching from the sidelines.