"Alright so BTS just arrived at our headquarter this morning. KARD joined us yesterday night. MonstaX and ACE will arrive later today and we are still waiting for GOT7 but according to Jackson they will arrive in Yellow Wood on the 11th of February, which is tomorrow. IZ and most members of Day6 are already here and ONEUS will also join us later today", Johnny reported, walking up and down in front of Taeyong's desk. The harpy was looking at a file in his hands, where the things he said were summarized.
"We are still trying to get into contact with the Kim family but no avail. Hwang Minji on the other hand has arrived here yesterday evening. A very impressive lady, may I add", the harpy continued and looked up briefly to see his leader's reaction. Taeyong, who sat behind his desk, raised an eyebrow at the last statement but said nothing.
"The sudden disappearance of the Kim family is a mystery but according to Day6 we don't need to worry about them since the father and head of the family is a very capable magic user and probably managed to hide his mansion and everyone, who lives in it, even from our eyes", Johnny concluded, stopping his pacing to fully look at Taeyong. The guardian's face remained rather expressionless, tempting Johnny to humor his leader a bit.
"Any questions?", the harpy asked, using his "teacher voice" but with a bit of humor. He looked at the guardian with the scarlet red hair like he was his student but made it just a tad funnier, so he would get a smile from Taeyong. It worked because the other male's lips did curve up in a small, almost unnoticeable smile.
"No, Mr. Suh", the guardian answered with an amused huff. The harpy mirrored the little smile of his leader before he closed the file and put it onto Taeyong's desk. Despite having succeeded in making Taeyong smile the guardian still looked tired. If you looked close enough you could even see dark circles forming under his eyes.
Taeyong was often tired the last two days, which was why a lot of things he usually did were carried out by Taeil, Kun or Johnny instead of him. The harpy knew very well that the reason for his leader's exhaustion was the search for Jaehyun and Ten.
The guardian was the one who came up with the idea of using a technique, which would track down Ten and Jaehyun's location by the soulmate bond both Demi-dragons shared with their leader. Yuta, Sicheng and Taeil were the ones Taeyong trusted to perform this spell technique on him and you didn't need to know a lot about magic to know that this technique was extremely exhausting for the three magic users but especially drained Taeyong's energy. After all, for this technique to work Taeyong was the one, who had to feel where Ten and Jaehyun were by following the bond, which connected them. A side effect of this was that Taeyong could feel a huge part of the pain they must be experiencing.
Johnny had told Taeyong multiple times that the spell technique could also be performed on him since he too shared a soulmate bond with both demi-dragons but the guardian was stubborn and insisted on doing it alone, so it would be faster. This lead Johnny to believe that whatever it was exactly Taeyong could feel through the soulmate bond, while he went through this procedure, it wasn't anything good or pleasant.
It scared Johnny to know that people he loved and cared about were suffering and he could do nothing to help them. Even Taeyong, who sat right in front of him, was suffering in silence because the guardian felt responsible for everything bad that happened to his group and tried to make up for it by enduring something tiresome and draining. The only thing Johnny could do at the moment was to make sure he didn't worry Taeyong and be there for him if he was needed.
"How is it going with the search by the way?", Johnny asked, his voice becoming softer with each word. Taeyong meet his eyes and let a short sigh escape him before his gaze dropped back onto the table.
"We will hopefully have their exact location soon. Currently we know the surroundings of their position but we don't have a precise location yet but we will continue working on that today", the guardian answered while drawing invisible patterns with his pointer finger onto the smooth surface of his desk. The guardian's dark blue eyes were focused on the desk rather than Johnny but the harpy could still see the exhaustion and pain in the beautiful deep blue orbs.
"Did Yuta already map out the surroundings?", Johnny questioned, his voice still soft. His eyes remained on the guardian with the red hair, who seemed to refuse to look at him for some reason while his mind noted that Yuta was probably the busiest member of NCT right now.
The warlock with the purple hair was their best magic user because he could do anything with he set his mind to it. He was the one, who kept the barriers surrounding the headquarter in check, who helped Taeil and Sicheng with the injured members of the moon pack, who was researching the odd black crystal Taeyong had taken from the huntress Emily and who helped with the search of Ten and Jaehyun.
"Yuta is working on the maps with a bit of help from Renjun and Haechan, I think, but he won't be able finish it without Ten's and Jaehyun's exact position", Taeyong replied to Johnny's question. The harpy mentally winced, thinking about the amount of work Yuta had right now. He would offer the warlock his help if he was a magic user but he really couldn't say that it was uncommon for Yuta to have so many tasks at hand. It made him to NCT's magic genius, after all.
"So everything works according to plan until now", the harpy commented. Taeyong lightly nodded and leaned back into his chair. With his back resting against the big chair, he seemed smaller than he actually was.
"Sadly we aren't working at the tricky part yet, so we shouldn't jinx it", Taeyong reminded, crossing his arms over his chest. His blue eyes still refused to meet Johnny's dark brown orbs. The harpy knew his leader just tried to hide how vulnerable he was but it still made him feel a sting.
"It's never bad to celebrate a little victory", the harpy disagreed and walked around his leader's desk. Taeyong followed his movement, letting their eyes finally meet when Johnny stood beside the guardian. The deep blue orbs of the male with the red hair shimmered with exhaustion, hidden pain and sadness. It made Johnny's rib cage tighten just by looking at his leader.
"Don't you want to rest before continuing the search?", the harpy asked in a soft tone while he brought up one hand to gently run his fingers through the guardian's red hair as a sort of comfort. Taeyong's hair had always been surprisingly soft. The guardian sighed quietly while letting his eyes fall close. He leaned into Johnny's touch, which made the harpy smile a little bit.
"Sicheng will come to get me as soon as he finished his training, which should be over in around twenty minutes. I wouldn't do much resting", the guardian mumbled as an answer. He shifted a bit in his seat just so he could lean more into the harpy's gentle touch.
"Still better than nothing", Johnny replied while he continued to run his fingers through his leader's (and lover's) hair. He was glad the action seemed to be soothing for the guardian.
"I won't argue with you about this now", Taeyong sighed and let his head lean on Johnny's side. The harpy didn't mind that and went from running his fingers through the other male's red hair to just gently patting his head.
"Alright I won't argue", the harpy lightly laughed, knowing that the guardian was at least relaxing now.
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"Felix kick a bit higher. Remember that you want to hit your opponent's head", Kun instructed the cat hybrid when he walked by the ginger and Jeongin. The ginger nodded and did the high kick he had been training again. This time he perfectly hit the spot of Jeongin's magic shield he wanted to reach in the first place.
"Woah. That was really high, hyung", the kitsune commented, who let his shield disappear. Felix showed a proud grin. He liked receiving compliments from the kitsune, even though he wouldn't admit that to anyone. Especially not Minho because he would get teased for it.
"Well, your magic shield is pretty good too. You only had to renew it once even though I kicked it don't know how many times", the ginger complimented. Jeongin smiled wide at that, which made Felix immediately mirror it.
Suddenly the two heard a crash, which made them turn around immediately. Something - or better someone - rather large had managed to crash into one of the blocks in the trainings hall. By the sounds of it whoever that was took a pretty strong blow. Kun was already at the scene, helping a gigantic black wolf up.
"Oh my gods. I am so sorry, Jeno. I didn't think the hit would be that strong", you could hear Changbin say worriedly, who ran towards the werwolf with his vampiric speed. He seemed a bit panicked, which was a natural reaction. Just how much strength did Changbin really have?
"Don't worry about it. The trainings hall isn't enchanted for nothing, meaning I am totally fine", Jeno answered, shaking himself to get his fur back into order. Sometimes it was almost unfair how easily werewolves could fix their fur but much more impressive was the fact that Jeno took the strong blow from Changbin like it was nothing.
"Don't overdo it, you two. You have a little too much uncontrolled energy today", Kun warned them. He seemed like a scolding mother with his hands on his hips and according to YangYang Kun could pass as one easily.
"We will be careful now", Changbin said with a little nod. Felix was glad Changbin seemed more like himself again but he was unusually nervous and not not very concentrated today. He couldn't keep still and seemingly didn't have his strength under full control.
"Alright back to training everyone", Kun called out, letting everyone resume to their previous position. Felix and Jeongin looked at each other before they got back into to their training.
"I think Changbin-hyung is more tired than anything. Just like Hyunjin-hyung. They probably went to bed late yesterday", Jeongin mumbled. Felix nodded in agreement. He didn't even notice when Changbin came to their room yesterday. After all he hadn't notice Jisung coming in either. Felix assumed Changbin must have gone to bed quite late since Jisung had been a little mad at him this morning. The warlock had mumbled something along the lines of a broken pinky promise.
Hyunjin, Jeongin and their mother/aunt had a room together, which was located next to the one that Felix, Changbin, Minho and Jisung occupied. Felix knew Jeongin was a rather light sleeper, so it was no surprise he knew that Hyunjin came to their room late at night.
Jeongin and Felix continued to train together while being supervised by Kun and Sicheng. It was a constant change between Felix attacking and Jeongin blocking and Jeongin attacking while Felix had to dodge. At some point they synchronized so much you couldn't call it combat training anymore.
"Alright everyone. We will take a break for some time. If you want you can continue your training but don't overdo it", Kun announced loudly, so everyone in the hall could hear him. Everyone stopped their training for rather obvious reasons. Everyone wanted a break. They have been training for two hours already.
After the announcement of the break Kun and Sicheng left the training hall rather quickly. They probably had to get to a meeting or something. The older members of NCT were kept quite busy, after all.
"I really need that break", Jeongin sighed, letting his arms drop to his sides. Felix chuckled at the younger's reaction while stretching a little bit. He didn't really feel tired but he figured he needed the break anyway,
"Stop laughing at me. Magic can be exhausting", the kitsune retorted and cracked his knuckles to let his fingers relax. Jeongin often let his cracked his knuckles after training as Felix had observed over the last few days but that was not the point now.
"Oh? So physical exercise isn't tiring?", the ginger asked teasingly, knowing Jeongin was more of a magic user than physical fighter even though he could do both as a kitsune. The blond fox spirit just huffed as an answer and continued to do some kind of stretching excises with his fingers.
"This was so exhausting", the two could hear Jisung whine not far away. They turned their heads into the direction of the warlock's voice and saw how Jisung, Minho, Chan, Hyunjin and Yedam walked towards them. Changbin wasn't with them, which confused Felix a bit. Did the vampire leave early or was he called to a meeting?
"Stop whining hyung. We are still training the basics", Jeongin huffed, crossing his arms over his chest while looking at Jisung. Felix stopped himself from adding that Jeongin had whined about that too just some seconds prior.
"I know we are still learning the basics but they still exhaust you if you have to perform them over and over again", the blue-haired warlock continued to whine and dramatically clung onto Minho for support. The cat hybrid with the hazelnut brown hair seemed entirely unbothered by that action.
"I never thought magic basics could look so complex", Chan commented, letting Felix's attention drift over to the male with the messy silver hair. The wolf hybrid wasn't allowed to train with the rest of his group due his injuries, even though they healed very good according to Sicheng. That was the reason Chan just observed the training and sometimes voiced his thoughts. It was actually really useful to have an unbiased opinion on your technique from someone, who didn't saw the terrible first-try performances.
Talking about terrible first-try performance Felix really wanted to know where Changbin was. The vampire seemed to be doing better but his sudden disappearance made Felix worry about him again.
"Quick question. Where is Changbin-hyung?", Felix chimed in before he forgot to ask. Hyunjin turned his head towards Felix after a short yawn. The siren really was tired.
"Changbin went to talk to his vampire hyungs. They should be around since they probably need to organize some things", Hyunjin answered. Felix gave the siren a little nod to show he understood.
"It's getting a little full in the headquarter since some other groups arrived", Yedam commented, speaking up for the first time. Felix knew NCT had called for their allies but he hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary today. In that point you had to add that he had only walked from his room to the training hall, so he didn't see anyone besides the once you trained here.
"You already saw members of other groups in the headquarter?", Jeongin asked the young wolf hybrid with the black hair. Yedam nodded while he showed a little smile. Felix somehow didn't like it when Yedam smiled at Jeongin, which was ridiculous if he was honest with himself.
"I honestly didn't think so many of our teachers from Miroh High were somehow connected to NCT", the wolf hybrid mumbled that last part, making the others laugh lightly. Felix knew some of the teacher at Miroh High were in groups, which was natural, since some showed their group symbol and it was sometimes a huge topic in the cafeteria.
"As long as we don't get homework I'm fine with all the teachers being here", Jisung joked, earning another round of laughter. Jeongin looked like he suddenly got an idea, which made his face lit up in an adorable way.
"Oh, if Mr. Lee is here I will ask him to help me with some spells though", Jeongin said while he smiled wide, showing off his dimples.
"That's not even that stupid", Jisung commented and nodded along while he was still leaning onto Minho. The older cat hybrid didn't seemed to mind but Jisung was his mate, so he probably had a sort of privilege.
"Of course it's not a stupid idea. It was mine after all", the kitsune teased, showing Jisung a grin. Jisung showed a playful scowl and straightened his back, so he wasn't leaning onto Minho anymore.
"Don't get too cocky", the warlock playfully warned. Jeongin stuck his tongue out at that, openly provoking the warlock with the blue hair. Still, Felix couldn't help but think how cute Stray Kids' youngest was.
"Okay that's it", Jisung said, starting to chase the kitsune. And what did Jeongin do? He used Felix as a shield. The rest could only lightly laugh or huff with amusement while Jisung tried to get hold of the young fox spirit, who basically just ran around Felix. The ginger got dizzy from watching them ran around him.
"Minho-hyung control your boyfriend a little", Felix whined, hating how funny his vision got because of Jisung and Jeongin running around him.
"Alright alright", the older cat hybrid said, catching Jisung smoothly in his arms. The warlock playfully fought against Minho's hold but gave up quickly. If Felix wasn't feeling so dizzy he would have noticed how Jisung melted a bit into Minho's hold.
"You are my hero, Felix-hyung", Jeongin, who was currently clinging onto Felix's back, mumbled. The ginger couldn't help but shiver a bit when the felt Jeongin's breath fan over his neck but he hoped nobody noticed it.
Suddenly Felix's ears picked up some voices in the distant and soon enough a familiar smell entered the training hall. It was a scent Felix hadn't come across in a while. The ginger looked at his brother, who obviously noticed the scent too, according to his mimic, which had gotten dark within a second.
"What's wrong you two?", Chan asked, sounding a little concerned about the two other hybrids. The male with the silver hair looked back and forth between the two Lee brothers. Felix let his eyes wander over the trainings hall, searching for the source of the familiar scent.
"We just noticed an old friend", Minho mumbled, looking at the entrance of the trainings hall. Felix followed his brother's gaze and lightly bit his lip when he saw three males standing at the entrance of the hall talking to each other. He didn't know who the male with the pink hair or the brunette was but the blond guy was very familiar to him.
The blond male had seemingly noticed the Lee brothers too now because he stopped his conversation with the two unknown males and looked directly into Felix and Minho's direction. He didn't seem very pleased, which confused his two companies as well as Minho's and Felix's friends.
Felix felt a certain nervousness crawling up his skin when he locked eyes with the blond guy. About a year ago he would have been glad to look into the amber orbs of the blond male but now he feared Minho would fight that guy with all his might.
"Who is that?", Jeongin asked Felix quietly, laying his hands onto the ginger's shoulder as a form of silent support. The young cat hybrid was glad for the little gesture because it kept him grounded while a lot of memories came up. Those memories weren't pleasant to him.
"He is the one, who should have been leader of the Sky Clan instead of my parents", the ginger replied in a whisper, "Kim Taehyung".