Chanyeol stops me. "Are you okay?" I blow out air. "Just dandy." Chanyeol looks hurt. I shake my head. "I'm sorry. It's just that I don't like to be stared at. It makes me think I've done something wrong." My mate's face softens. "It's okay. I understand. Let's get food." We grab various items. Some to share and others to eat alone. We walk over to where the other four are waiting. As soon I as I sit down, the receptionist lady came up and sat down beside me. I uncomfortably pop a grape into my mouth. As I'm eating, she speaks. "You know, you're so much more better looking than that one wolf that came in earlier this morning. That poor little pathetic pup was all beaten up and practically dying. Wonder where it is. Probably dead in the woods somewhere. Ick."

I let out a fake cough. "Use proper grammar please. And for your information, that 'poor little pathetic pup'" I use air quotes. "Is sitting right in front of you." I ignore her shocked face. "And if you have nothing better to say, leave me in peace." She stomps off angrily, her heels clicking on the tiles. The wolves that have gathered around us clap. Chanyeol whispers in my ear. "She isn't too popular in the pack. I'm sorry you had to deal with her." He breaks off a piece of bread and holds it out to me. Instead of taking it with my hand, I pluck from his hand with my mouth, giving his fingers a little kiss as I do so. "Thanks, Chanyeollie."

The packmates around us 'aw' at the nickname. I smile. It's nice to not be judged. The rest of dinner is spent answering questions, laughing, eating, and having a good time. We finish up and I snag an extra brownie on the way out. I bite into it happily as we walk up the stairs. Chanyeol steals a little bit of my brownie and pops it into his mouth. "So, meet anyone you like?" I nod. "There was this one guy, Junmyeon. He was really nice. Wonder who his mate is." Chanyeol wipes the crumbs off my lips. "Yixing." I raise my eyebrows. "Pardon?" Chanyeol laughs. "Yixing is his mate."

"Wow." I take another bite of the brownie. "It's a small world."

Chanyeol pulls out a golden key attached to a chain. "Oh, before I forget. Here's our room key." He drops the item into my free hand. I clutch it tightly. "Cool."

Once Chanyeol opens the door, I flop onto our bed. I'm drained. I turn to Chanyeol, who has turned on the light to the adjacent bathroom. "Yeol? Can we wash up and go to sleep? I'm tired." He comes over and kisses my forehead. "Sure." I stand up. "Um, I don't have any sleepwear." Chanyeol pulled out his phone. "No problem, I'll text Gamma Luhan to lend you some clothes. You look to be about the same size." He looks up. "Towels are in the basin under the sink. Toiletries and other stuff in the cabinet next to the shower."

I peck his lips and walk into the bathroom. I bend down and take a light blue bath towel from the basin. I walk into the room with the shower, lock the door and take off my clothes. I throw my clothes into a nearby hamper and hop into the shower.

It takes me a good two minutes to figure out how the shower works. When I finally turn it on a blast of water sprays me in the face. I fumble for the shower controls and manage to turn the water off. Well, that's one way to wash my face. I wipe most of the water off with my hand. Bleh. I adjust the shower head and turn the water back on. Much better. I rinse myself, then turn the water off and apply shampoo. It smells of pine mixed with that smell that shampoo always has. Nice.

I take special care to lather my hair thoroughly. I didn't really get a chance to wash my hair this morning. I rinse it off and apply conditioner as well as body wash. I turn on the water again and scrub myself clean. Just as I'm turning the water off, Chanyeol knocks on the door. "Baek? I have the clothes." I grab the towel. "Just a second!" I quickly dry myself and wrap myself with my towel. I unlock the door and open it just enough for Chanyeol to slip his hand in. "Thanks!" I close the door and get dressed. The towel gets hung to dry and I walk out. Chanyeol ruffles my hair and separates it to help it dry. I shake my head quickly, showering him in water droplets.

He gives me an amused look. "Baekhyun, you are so going to regret that." I turn around. "What are you going to do?" Chanyeol attacks my ribs. "If I had told you it would take the fun out of it." He whispers slyly. "Chanyeol! Let me go!" I yelp. Chanyeol stops tickling me but keeps me locked in his hold. "Oh Baek, I could never let you go. I love you too much." He kisses my jawline. I sigh. "How do you just change the topic like that?" Chanyeol cups my chin and looks at me fondly. "The perks of being an alpha. You learn to become a smooth talker." He kisses me, and I can taste the mint on his breath. He must have just brushed his teeth. "Now, as much as I would love to stay like this, I need to shower and you need to brush your teeth. Get up."

I reluctantly get up and head towards the shower. I grab a toothbrush from the cabinet and go to the sink. I turn the tap on and hear the click of the door as Chanyeol locks the door behind him. I obviously finish before him so I return to the room, trying to find something to do.

I smile when I see the flash of gold from my key on the desk. I grab a fine tipped paint brush and a little black paint on a tray the size of a bottle cap. I take Chanyeol's phone from his nightstand, turn it on and snap a photo of my mark. I take everything to the desk, grab a sheet of paper and sketch out the design of my mark with a pencil using the picture as a guide.

Once I'm satisfied I take a fine tip permanent marker and carefully draw out the design onto the key. It takes me a while, but I finally manage to fill it in with the paint. Because I took so long, and because I didn't use a lot of paint, it was already dry by the time I finished. I did the same to the other side, it didn't take as long because I now had experience. But still, the paint dried before I finished. I hold the key in my palm and look at it. Not bad.

I'm fixing up the blemishes when Chanyeol comes out of the shower. I don't pay him any mind, too engrossed in my work. He comes over to me. "Hey Baek? Have you seen my phone?" He leans over my shoulder. "What are you doin- Woah! That's so good! I didn't know you could do that!" I give him the key. "Do you like it? Your phone's right here by the way." He turns the key over. "Wow! How did you do this?" I chuckle, gesturing to the supplies. "Paint and a little bit of patience." Chanyeol pecks my cheek. "You need to do my key one of these days." I take my key back. "Sure. I'll probably do other wolves' too, as gifts or something." He laughs. "That's your Christmas shopping taken care of." He grabs his phone. "What were you doing with my phone anyways?" I stand up, walking towards our bed. "Did you really think I could have done that from memory?"

Chanyeol unlocks his phone and looks at the camera roll. He clicks it off and sets it on his nightstand. "I'll keep the photo." I hum, crawling under the cover and making myself comfortable. Chanyeol flicks off the lights and joins me under the covers. He interlocks our legs and hugs me close. I fall asleep to the sound of his breathing.

Chanyeol's POV

I jolt awake to a throbbing pain in my stomach. I feel like I've just been kicked. It's still dark outside. Maybe two in the morning. Baekhyun is thrashing beside me. What's happening?

Baekhyun falls still and I can hear him whimper. "No, please stop. Please." He makes a sound of pain. "Please, don't hurt me anymore." Hurt him? Who's hurting him? He thrashes around again. "Please! Stop! Chanyeol! Chanyeol, help me!" I grab his shoulders. "Baekhyun! I'm right here! Baekhyun!" I'm careful not to get kicked again.

In the moonlight, I can make out Baekhyun's face, contorted in fear and glistening with sweat. Whatever's going on in his head must be scaring him out of his wits. He wasn't even scared when I almost killed him yesterday. I shake him again. Baekhyun grabs my shirt and starts crying. "Please, stop." He sobs violently into my shirt. "Baekhyun!" I hiss. "Snap out of it!"

Baekhyun suddenly snaps back into reality. "Chanyeol?" I kiss his tears away, not caring about my shirt, which is soaked with his tears.

Baekhyun's POV

"I'm sorry that I woke you up." I say as he peppers my face with kisses. Chanyeol stops kissing me and cups my face. "Why are you sorry? You know I don't want you to suffer. I would rather you wake me up so that I could comfort you." I brush our noses together. "I know, it's just that you're busy as it is, I don't want to deprive you of sleep too." Chanyeol rolls over and turns on the lamp on his nightstand. "Do you want to talk about your nightmare?"

"Can we?"

"Of course." He sits up and pulls me onto his lap.

I lean my head on his chest, inhaling his scent as I begin, "It was about my old pack. I was being tortured, for what reason I don't know. I was chained to silver, and being hit with a silver whip. I can practically still feel the burn." I say as I rub my wrists. "I don't want to go back there, Yeol." I rub his back gently. "It's okay." I soothe. "They'll never hurt you again. Promise."

"Thank you." I murmur as I drift back to sleep, exhausted. I hear the click of the light and a rustle of the covers as Chanyeol gets comfortable, still holding me.

I wake up, not due to nightmares, but because I'm used to waking up at such an early hour. A glance at the clock tells me it's five thirty. I'm not going to be able to fall back asleep. I give Chanyeol a kiss on the cheek and roll out of bed. Deciding to make good use of my time, I grab my key, the paint supplies, and Chanyeol's master key. I'll paint our mark on his key now.

I don't want to wake him, so I grab a scarf from his closet and cover his eyes with it before turning on the desk lamp. I sit down quietly, taking a look at him before getting to work.

Chanyeol's POV

I open my eyes. It's still dark. Huh. I remove the cloth from my eyes. "Baekhyun? Where are you?" I hear the scuffling of feet on carpet and Baekhyun walks over to me, dangling my key in the air. I sit up. "Baekhyun? What are you doing up so early?" He pecks my lips and drops the key in my lap. "I finished your key. I even managed to find some sort of finishing gloss to coat it with." I take my key and look at it. "How long did this take you?" Baekhyun sneaks a look at the clock. "The good side of two hours. Not that bad." I glance at the clock. "Why did you wake up at five thirty?"

Baekhyun shrugs. "I'm used to it." He snuggles into me. "Personally, I think you wake up too late." I punch his arm playfully. "Are you calling me lazy?" Baekhyun smiles wryly. "Maybe." He traces the outline of my lips. "I like your morning voice. It's very pleasing to hear." I kiss his finger. "Do you want to do some training today?" It's probably a good idea to start training him. The sooner the better.

"Sure."

- § -

A slightly better ending point. I think. I don't really know. Why am I still typing this?

I should shut up now.

I'm sorry, I ramble. It comes out in my writing style too.

Skip these notes of you want.

I'm rambling again.

Okay, I'll go now.

This will be the last chapter for a while, maybe until New Year's. I need to write more.

Winter Break is almost here! I'm almost free!

Until next time!

(I'm looking forward to your reactions!)

Much love,
                   Ali