"i see the earth!!" chenle exclaimed loudly as he pointed at the horizon where land was visible.

"you sound like you hate being there." jisung, who was standing next to him, rolled his eyes.

"it's not that i hate it, but i prefer having my two feet on the ground." chenle replied with a shrugged.

"quite surprising coming from hermes' son." mark appeared next to them, motioning to chenle's shoes that had two little wings attached for him to fly.

"water isn't my element." chenle told.

"come on, this little trip was cool. plus, i found a beautiful boat. all seven of us could have crossed the atlantic on an inflatable boat." jisung explained.

"which makes me think... where are the others?" chenle raised a brow, looking at jisung and mark.

"donghyuck is with renjun. and jaemin and jeno are still sleeping." mark said nonchalantly.

"we need to wake them up!" chenle clapped his hands. "mark, you call donghyuck and renjun! jisung, you wake jaemin up, and i'll wake jeno."

"they're sleeping in the same room." mark hummed, making chenle gasp loudly.

"EXCUSE ME?!" he yelled.

"god, stop screaming! your dolphin voice is too high for me to handle." mark groaned, almost hitting chenle.

"what did you just say?" chenle asked, ignoring mark's protests.

"jaemin and jeno are both sleeping in jaemin's cabin." mark repeated.

"for real? like... the sons of zeus and ares? together? in a bed?" chenle questioned.

"that's so not-like their father... or just them..." jisung stated.

"it seems like this little trip changed all of us..." mark sighed, placing his elbows on the railing as he watched the boat getting closer to the land.

"we changed for the better." jisung told, looking at chenle who was nodding in agreement.

"yeah..." mark said in a monotonous voice. "for the better..."

Ω

"land! land! land!" chenle jumped up and down as jisung parked the boat inside the port.

as soon as jisung was done, he opened the small bridge that would allow them to get on the land.

chenle didn't even wait for jisung to be done to jump on the platform and kiss the ground.

"god, i missed you, earth..." he mumbled, gluing his face to the concrete.

"the whole trip on the boat was three days long." renjun rolled his eyes at chenle's childishness as he walked off the boat.

"and if we had taken my father's plane, it would have been six hours long." chenle retorted, making mark snort.

"we were supposed to take the plane, but someone was too in love with donghyuck to even help us steal a car to get to the airport." mark explained as he joined chenle and renjun on land.

"you're the one to talk? my love for donghyuck was ephemeral, while yours seems to last forever."chenle tackled back.

"i don't like donghyuck!" mark replied immediately, his dark aura making an appearance.

glaring at chenle, he noticed that the boy wasn't looking at him, but at something behind him.

mark turned around, finding donghyuck standing there, a pained expression displayed on his beautiful face.

"w-wait, no. that's not what i-"

"don't bother." donghyuck swallowed the lump in his throat as he walked away from mark.

"well done." chenle declared before running beside donghyuck with renjun to comfort him.

this whole situation was so messy.

donghyuck and mark hadn't spoken since that time inside the commandant's cabin when they had almost kissed.

it seemed like, since then, everything was awkward between them.

both were trying to get closer to the other, but none of them managed to do so.

and the fact they doubted the other's feelings wasn't helping much.

but how could all this get better now that mark had said out loud that he didn't like donghyuck – when in fact, he loved him so much?

"what happened?" jeno asked, seeing mark pulling onto his hair.

"i fucked up." hades' son groaned.

"how?" jaemin raised a brow.

"by yelling to chenle that i didn't like donghyuck when he was standing next to me." mark sighed.

"don't beat yourself over this, mark. donghyuck loves you, you just need to prove him that you love him too and that he misunderstood your words." jisung added, stepping out of the boat.

"yeah... or maybe it's better if we stay like this?" mark asked.

"i'm not convinced." jaemin shrugged.

Ω

chenle, renjun and donghyuck laughed together as they walked across the alleys of the small grocery shop of the station they were in.

the four other boys had said that they were about to take a train, so they needed to buy things to eat and drink for all of them.

chenle had already stolen a few bills left and right, and had now enough money to buy a good number of things.

"do we have everything we need?" donghyuck asked, checking the items all three of them had in hand.

"i guess so." renjun nodded.

"didn't jaemin say he wanted coffee?" chenle asked, doing a head motion towards a machine that made coffee.

"i didn't talk with him since yesterday morning." renjun shrugged.

"why?! i told you that you had nothing to worry about with them!" donghyuck said.

"yeah, but... i don't know how to approach them..." renjun replied, glancing at jaemin and jeno who were sat on a bench outside with mark and jisung.

"to be quick, you could just go and kiss them." chenle told.

"how about you do that with jisung, huh?" renjun tackled back immediately.

"i do talk with jisung. i don't have any love problems compared to you two." chenle huffed.

"you still aren't together. and i consider that being a problem." renjun stated.

"don't worry, i'm thinking of taking things to the next level." chenle replied. "but you two have to do the same."

donghyuck sighed, flashes of what happened a bit earlier breaking his heart. "i'm not sure this will be possible..." he sighed. "mark doesn't like me."

"trust us, he does. he's just in denial, or something. but he does, like, a whole lot." renjun explained.

"when i look at him, i can't see his feelings... this has to mean something... maybe he just doesn't have feelings, and so, he doesn't like me..." donghyuck said.

"trust us. he likes you." chenle nodded, making donghyuck smile a bit.

"anyway, let's go and pay?" renjun asked as the two other boys agreed and headed towards the cash register.

the woman behind the machine scanned the boy's articles quickly as chenle pulled the bills out of his pockets.

"34 euros 72." she said as chenle counted the bills. "vous partez entre copains?"

"voilà!" chenle handed her the correct amount of money. "et oui!"

donghyuck and renjun both grabbed the food silently as chenle spoke with the casher in a foreign language. it was amazing how chenle could communicate everywhere he got without problems. it truly was a beautiful gift from his god parent.

a few meters away, the four boys watched chenle, renjun and donghyuck doing grocery shopping and talking to the casher.

"where are we again?" jaemin asked after a while.

"in france." jisung replied.

"are we in paris?" mark asked out of nowhere.

jisung snorted. "the sea is literally a hundred meters away."

"and?" mark asked again.

"paris is not next to the sea, like at all." jisung explained.

mark rolled his eyes. "sorry, i don't know the world map of the littorals. i barely know countries and their capitals."

"someone didn't listen in geography lessons..." jaemin teased, earning a glare from mark.

"i feel like i'm not the only one." hades' son growled.

"and you're not entirely wrong." jaemin chuckled. "but, hey! it's never too late to learn! so, how about we discover french littoral cities?"

"yeah, that's a good idea." jeno approved immediately.

"why not going to paris?" mark furrowed his brows.

"we've been to countless of metropolises, and yet, they always found us." jaemin explained. "maybe, they don't expect us to stay in smaller towns next to the sea. plus, we can take a boat and leave whenever if we're next to the sea. jisung will be able to keep us safe thanks to his powers."

mark rolled his eyes as he sighed.

"this city isn't crowdy enough. they won't hesitate to attack, even if it means destroying the city. paris is much bigger and crowdy. they won't attack us there." mark argued.

"for once, i agree with mark." jisung stated, making jeno and jaemin widen their eyes.

"what?! but you said paris was far from the sea?! we won't be safe there." jeno whisper-shouted.

"there still is the seine. it's a river. i can control water, so i can have us protected. and i can also have us a way out." jisung explained.

"and why paris and not somewhere else?" jaemin asked. "i don't object going there if you have a good reason."

"my mother is there. i want to see her, and see if dad is still taking good care of her." jisung declared making jeno and jaemin nod slowly.

there was a quick silence that was cut shortly after, when chenle, donghyuck and renjun approached them.

"we have things to eat and drink!" chenle exclaimed. "we just need to know where we're going now."

"paris." jeno replied. "we're going to paris."

"and the next train is in 10 minutes, so we should hurry." mark added as all seven of them headed towards the platforms.