After a while of just being cradled by Chan, Byungho slowly calmed down. He still felt a kind of throbbing pain in his chest and a restricting feeling on his neck from crying, but it was slowly fading. The brunette couldn't feel the numbness from before anymore, which at first seemed like a relief, but then he remembered what had been linked to this numbness.

Only a barely noticeable movement was required for Byungho to check if his wings were indeed visible. He could feel their weigh on his back, which made him internally panic, because if they were physically there for him Chan was able to see them.

"Byungho? What's wrong?", Chan asked in a soft tone. The wolf hybrid had noticed Byungho's panic and seemed to be wondering why, even though the answer almost surrounded him.

Byungho didn't answer because he was still trying to find the right words to explain why he had gigantic black wings, that were hidden underneath a spell. When Chan wanted to gently pat his hair to calm him, the brunette involuntary flinched and automatically backed off. The gigantic, black wings, which had previously surrounded Chan and Byungho, now folded themselves behind the brunette's back, taking on their smallest, visible form.

Byungho tried to calm his beating heart and rapid breathing. He tried to convince himself that he was okay even though he clearly wasn't. His wings shouldn't be visible. He should have stayed far away from Chan. He knew this would happen! Why didn't he just stay away? He could have easily stopped Hyunjin from dragging him to the rest of Stray Kids, to Chan. He could have prevented all of that if he had taken one small opportunity to just say no. He ...

"Byungho!", he heard Chan's voice piercing through his many thoughts. He looked up from the ground he had been mindlessly staring at and was met with Chan, who had gotten a little closer to him again.

"Calm down, Byungho. It's okay", Chan tried to reassure the older male in a soft voice. Byungho looked at Chan, whose warm, dark brown orbs didn't express things like shock, betrayal or fear. They were just gentle, soft and understanding as well as filled with concern and empathy.

"It's okay", Chan repeated again, slowly making another step towards Byungho. The brunette just looked at his boyfriend for a minute before looking back to the ground. Did Chan even see his wings? Why wasn't he even a little shocked? How could he be so calm while facing something he had never seen before, something even the angels up in heaven hated with all their heart?

"Byungho?", Chan called his name again in his soft voice. Almost automatically did Byungho look up again. He was face to face with Chan, who slowly reached forward to take Byungho's hand again, intertwining their fingers.

"It's okay", he repeated once more and only now did Byungho truly understand what he meant with that. He meant that he was okay with everything, Byungho not being a warlock like he had said for years and that he hid what he really was from him for such a long time.

Byungho felt how his eyes got watery again. He was such an idiot for not trusting Chan from the beginning. He was Chan after all, one of the people that just accepted you for who you were and always supported you no matter what.

"I'm sorry, Channie", the brunette barely managed to say. Chan showed the other a soft smile and shook his head before he gently laid his free hand onto Byungho's cheek, gently wiping away the traces of the brunette's tears. The warmth of the wolf hybrid's hand on his cheek comforted Byungho more than he had thought, but it was the understanding and empathetic glimmer in the dark orbs of his boyfriend that made him feel truly okay for the moment.

"There's nothing to be sorry for", Chan softly said and put their foreheads together, closing his eyes. Byungho did the same and just let himself be fully comforted by Chan's presence and words. Maybe it was the mate bond they shared or something different but a comfortable warmth began flowing through Byungho's body that gave him a certain strength. A strength he didn't know he had in him.

When he slowly opened his eyes again to see his boyfriend and once again looked into Chan's dark brown orbs he was sure that he loved the wolf hybrid with every inch of his body. He would protect Chan with all his might and at all costs, because there was no way he could live without him anymore.

"Thanks, Channie", the brunette mumbled. Chan lightly shook his head without disconnecting their foreheads. "There is nothing to thank me for either. I'm here for you Byungho no matter what.", Chan answered in a rather quiet but still soft voice.

Byungho couldn't help but lightly smile at that. Chan really was one of a kind. He just wished he could have introduced Chan to his mother. They would have surely liked each other a lot due their similarities in personality, but another part of Byungho really wanted to tell his mother just how much he loved the wolf hybrid and how much he treasured him. But there was another person, who should know that first.

"I love you, Channie", Byungho mumbled without really thinking about it. When he saw the surprise in the wolf hybrid's eyes he feared he had made a mistake for a short moment but when the surprised glimmer in the other's eyes was replaced by affection he knew there was nothing to regret.

"I love you too", Chan answered before he closed the little gap between them and kissed Byungho. The brunette was taken a bit off guard but he almost instantly kissed back. The warmth that spreed through Byungho's body previously, came back the moment his lips touched Chan's. It swirled around in every cell but Byungho could feel that the center of the warmth was in his chest, where his heart was beating steadily.

When they pulled away from each other to catch a breath, Chan looked a bit surprised when he looked at Byungho. It made the brunette a bit anxious again because he had no clue why Chan was surprised now. 

"What's wrong?", he asked and tried to see what Chan was looking at but he couldn't see anything special.

"Your wings, they are .... they are gone again", Chan answered, like he couldn't really understand how that worked even though he must have seen them appear too. Byungho chuckled lightly at his boyfriend's cluelessness when his anxiety was replaced by warmth.

"They can do that through a spell", Byungho explained, moving his shoulders a bit to see if they were properly hidden. He looked back at Chan, who seemed to have transformed into a curious little child with his eyes shining like little stars. 

"That's pretty amazing if you are asking me", the wolf hybrid commented, making Byungho lightly chuckle. Chan somehow managed to take a bit for the negative view Byungho had on his wings away with just that simple action.

"Can you make them appear again? Only if you want of course", Chan carefully asked, seemingly trying to not pressure the brunette. Byungho looked at Chan and saw no reason why he should say no. The wolf hybrid just seemed curious and fascinated but a part of Byungho was just glad they were hidden again, so he was a bit conflicted, which didn't go unnoticed by Chan.

"It's okay if you want them hidden. It's your choice", the wolf hybrid reassured the brunette. Byungho let out a breath and mumbled a small "Thanks" without really noticing. Chan once again shook his head with a smile.

"There is still nothing to thank me for", the wolf hybrid said, raising their hands, which were still intertwined and pressed a small kiss onto the back of Byungho's hand. Byungho could just internally say over and over again that he really loved Chan with all his heart, which was why Byungho also thought the wolf hybrid should know the truth about him.

"Channie I want to introduce you to my family and tell you everything about me but I ... I'm not sure-", Byungho began explaining, feeling like a part of him just wanted to stay silent, to just say nothing and leave it the way it was. He wanted to force himself to continue because there was no logical reason for him to stay silent anymore but Chan interrupted him with a small kiss on the lips, which baffled the brunette, rendering him speechless.

"Don't force yourself. I can wait for the moment when you are really ready to tell me", the wolf hybrid smiled and it just made Byungho's heart melt in an instant. Despite knowing real angels the only true ones in Byungho's mind were his mother and Chan, because they were kind and understanding like the angel which were featured in the bed time stories parents told their children before they went to sleep.

The brunette just breathed out a "Okay" and just pulled the wolf hybrid completely into him, wrapping his arm around his waist. "Let's just stay like that a while longer", Byungho mumbled, not wanting to let go of his boyfriend. Chan hummed as response and just relaxed, leaning onto Byungho a little bit, so there was no space left between them.

It was the moment where Byungho had the feeling he was holding a big part of his world in his arms and for a short second he felt a very familiar warmth beside him. The feeling reminded him of his mother, but knew no one was standing right beside him, smiling at him. Even though he knew that he couldn't help but let a content little smile crawl onto his lips.

He will be okay. 

—————————

"Hyung I think we have been ditched", Jeongin muttered to Hyunjin when he walked beside his cousin towards the big hall where the meeting would be held. Hyunjin, who had been scolded by his mother a few minutes ago, looked at his cousin with a bit of confusion in his eyes.

"Why ditched?", the siren asked in a quiet voice, so he wouldn't alert his mother, who was walking in front of the two teenagers. Jeongin rolled his eyes at that. His cousin sure was clueless sometimes.

"Minho-hyung, Felix-hyung and Jisung-hyung left us to search for Changbin-hyung, Chan-hyung, Byungho-hyung and probably also Seungmin but they haven't shown up yet", the blond explained but Hyunjin just squinted at him. The siren didn't seem convinced nor was Jeongin sure the other understood his point. Hyunjin wasn't the best at processing information when he was tired.

"We aren't sitting with them, so maybe they are already in the hall or just somewhere else", the siren tried to defend the rest of their friends, but Jeongin only scoffed. The kitsune was pretty sure they were the only ones from Stray Kids, who would attend the meeting with all the other groups and they weren't even participating in the rescue mission.

Suddenly, Jeongin picked up a faint but fresh trace of a familiar but unpleasant scent, which made him stop walking and look around, searching for the owner of the scent. Hyunjin seemed confused by Jeongin's sudden change in behavior and also stopped walking.

"What's wrong, Jeongin?", the siren asked worriedly. Jeongin didn't look at him and continued to search for the person, whose scent he had picked up while he also tried to remember why he knew it. It was such an unpleasant one, it should be easy to recognize. Then it hit him why the scent was familiar, he had smelled it on Jisung occasionally but it wasn't the warlock's scent.

"Cover for me", the kitsune simply said to Hyunjin before sprinting off. He heard that his cousin complained but the siren didn't follow him, so he will probably do what his younger cousin said. Jeongin ran down the corridor and tried his best to pick up the scent again to trace it, but it seemed to be gone.

Jeongin let out a frustrated huff and wanted to run back to his aunt and Hyunjin when he noticed the faint trace of the unpleasant scent again. Like a bloodhound, he followed it to the staircase. When he was walking down the stairs, he lost the scent again.

"What's up with this scent?", Jeongin wondered silently to himself while looking around again. He opened his mouth slightly in hopes of being able to pick up the scent more easily. The kitsune mustered every inch of the staircase in hopes of finding a sort of clue. When he looked up to the stairs that lead to the next upper floor he picked up a small trace of the scent again.

Without thinking too much, he walked the stairs back up and followed his nose until the scent disappeared again. Jeongin looked around again, trying to make sense of this confusing situation until he remembered something. The stairs were enchanted.

"Oh that's clever", Jeongin thought to himself and took a step back again. The scent reappear again like the person had suddenly disappeared when they reached a certain spot on the stairs. It was the most obvious clue for a teleportation spell you could get.

"Walking up to get down. It's almost genius", the kitsune chuckled to himself and searched for the spot where the spell should be visible for a trained eyes. When he couldn't find it he just transformed into his kitsune form. His eyes became a bright orange and his fluffy fox ears and tail became visible.

Jeongin searched for the spot again and finally found it. He walked towards it and reached out his hand. He could feel a teleportation spell along with a lot of other spells pulsing underneath his palm. Yuta really put a lot of work into these spells, which was why Jeongin had no intentions to damage them in any way. No, he would trick them.

When the young kitsune was sure he had understood every aspect of the teleportation spell and everything connected to it he retracted his hand and stepped back a bit. The teleportation spell was coupled with a recognition spell, so not everyone could just enter wherever this spell led but there was a kind of emergency mechanism hidden in it, so the only thing Jeongin needed to do was trick the spell system into recognizing a emergency situation.

The young fox spirit grinned a bit and started to create an illusion, but not a simple one; oh no a kitsune-level illusion. In the illusion he created multiple people which the spell system should be able to recognize for a brief moment before realizing it was a trick. That little moment should be enough for Jeongin to get teleported to the location where he could continue to follow the person with the unpleasant scent.

"I love it when spells like that can be tricked with a little illusion", Jeongin thought to himself while he continued to set up the illusion. He let the people in his illusion seem panicked and made them run around, trying to escape a nearing threat. The spell system reacted to the illusion for a brief moment.

Jeongin leaped forward and got teleported just a second before the spell system realized it had been tricked and made the illusion disappear but the young kitsune had reached his goal. He stood on the stairs which lead down to the basement floors of the NCT headquarter.

The scent was strong here, which meant Jeongin was on the right track. Staying in his kitsune form, the blond follow the scent. He walked down the corridors and noticed that there were a lot of unfamiliar spells casted over the basement floor's walls. The doors seemed to be a lot stronger than the ones he knew from the headquarter too. It was almost like those doors were meant to hold people captive.

"So, you want to lock me up without reason? Is that it? You can't do that even with your high status", Jeongin suddenly heard a man's voice. The kitsune tried to walk even more softly, so he wouldn't make a sound while his fox ears twitched around while trying to listen carefully.

"At one point you will be locked up trust me. But for now we just need to know some information from you", the young kitsune heard the familiar voice of Johnny answer. It confused him a bit if he was honest. Why would Johnny talk to someone who probably knew Jisung? Was the warlock with the blue hair in some sort of trouble?

Jeongin continued to sneak forward until he reached a corner. He carefully peeked around the corner to see who Johnny was talking to without being noticed. The kitsune spotted Johnny along with two other males. Both other males were smaller than Johnny but the man with the messy green hair, who stared at Johnny like he was his archenemy was the one with the unpleasant scent. The other male Jeongin had never seen in the headquarter before, but he stood beside Johnny like they were on the same side. He was a bit smaller in both height and stature than the harpy next to him. His hair was dark brown, almost black while his eyes had the calming color blue.

The kitsune quietly sucked in some air through his nose to maybe get a clue on what the male beside Johnny was. Jeongin scrunched up his whole face when the unpleasant scent of the man with the green hair filled his nostril but luckily it mixed a bit with Johnny's and the one of the unfamiliar male. The blond boy could smell a bit of vampire in the scent mix, which was probably the species the male with the dark brown, almost black hair belong to, since the man with the green hair was obviously a warlock.

"What should I know about that interests people like you?", the man with the green hair from spat.  Jeongin hadn't spend much time looking at the man, which made him even more disgusted when he took note of the way the warlock looked like he hadn't showered in a while, which matched his scent. His green beard was untended and as far as Jeongin could tell he also had yellow teeth. Jeongin involuntarily scrunched up his nose again and slowly got an idea who this man was. He could very well be Jisung's uncle, which would explain why Jisung used to have a bit of his scent on him when he still lived with him.

"We should talk about that in private. For your own sake", Johnny said in a very neutral tone. The tall male with the brown hair seemed mildly irritated but he kept himself together. The man with the green hair only snorted and crossed his arms over his chest, seemingly not wanting to cooperate. It was a wonder he was at the headquarter in the first place.

"Like hell I will walk into that room. I have been dragged here against my will by a bunch of vampires and now you want me to do what you want? That ain't gonna happen", the man scoffed and Jeongin saw that Johnny was slowly losing his patience. The harpy's brows twitched with mild irritation and Jeongin asked himself if the warlock with the green hair was aware of the fact, that harpies were really dangerous when they were angry.

"Alright then just spit out what-", Johnny wanted to start questioning the man, but the vampire beside him kept him from it by a seemingly simple gesture Jeongin couldn't make out from his point of view.

It was like Jeongin only blinked and the vampire was gone and next thing he knew someone behind him casually asked: "What are you doing here, kid?". Jeongin swirled around, facing the vampire, who stood beside Johnny not even a second ago.

"I was only- I totally didn't-", Jeongin tried to quickly explain himself but he had honestly no clue what to say for once, so he just stumbled over some random words that came into his mind.

"You shouldn't be here, Jeongin", Johnny said, looking over to Jeongin and the vampire. The young kitsune looked at the harpy and felt a bit of embarrassment heat up his face. He felt like a scolded child, which he kinda was right now.

"I know I shouldn't be here. I just couldn't help it when I picked up this strangely familiar scent", Jeongin mumbled as an explanation. Johnny sighed and rubbed his temples, looking like he really had a lot of other things to worry about. Jeongin felt sorry for being so curious but he couldn't help it.

"Seems like not even the great guardian groups have anything under control", the man with the green hair scoffed, which made Jeongin want to punch him. Those great guardian groups he seemingly didn't like were the ones that currently tried their uttermost best to save the supernatural world from a war.

"Hey Jeongin", the kitsune heard the vampire beside him whisper. "We could use a little magical trickster help here", he stated in a quiet voice and Jeongin didn't even hesitate to agree to it with a nod. It would be his pleasure to trick this man, who he guessed to be Jisung's uncle into revealing whatever Johnny and this vampire wanted to know from him.

The vampire casually walked back over to Johnny again and seemingly whispered his plan into the harpies ear. Johnny apparently didn't like the vampire's idea too much, judging by the way he sighed.

Jeongin focused on the warlock with the messy green hair and unpleasant scent. He was trying to hide his confusion. In all honesty, Jeongin had never seen a more badly hidden confusion than that one.

Jeongin walked over to the three older males and felt a bit small when he stood next to Johnny, but the vampire, who had asked him for help, was around the kitsune's height so it wasn't so bad. The man with the green hair looked at the kitsune with a little bit of fear in his eyes, which made Jeongin smile a bit devilish. He was scared of him, he could work with that.