Taeyong woke up, Renjun's small body still slotted beside his own. He smiled down at the sleeping boy who was letting small puffs of air out of his nose, tickling Taeyong's arm.
Taeyong stoked Renjun's hair, before bringing the younger further into his arms, still thinking over the night before.
How could they do that to you? Taeyong thought, sniffling a little, trying to keep in the emotions that threatened to spill out again.
As he held the younger in his arms, he knew what he needed to do, and with Renjun, he'd be able to achieve it.
He let his thoughts of revenge lull him to sleep, knowing that Abigail would lose in the end.
Yes, he thought, in the end.
. . .
Renjun woke up, a bright light shining through his surrounding, making him see the pink tone of the skin that covered his eyes.
Groaning, he felt that his spine was sore from the sitting from last night. Or technically morning too.
He tried to sit up,eyes still closed, until he realized that arms were still holding him down, making him groan again and lightly smack the hand.
The other person whined this time, not wanting to get up, making the younger snort at him when he turned over, letting go of Renjun.
Renjun opened his eyes as he felt the arms go away, and looked over at Taeyong's body which was now facing away from him.
Renjun gave the body a smirk, as if he had just won a great war, and quickly got of the bed.
He stumbled slightly, becoming light-headed from the sudden movement of his body, and quickly gripped the mattress he stood by.
After he had grabbed the side of the mattress, Taeyong jumped, feeling the sudden shake, and quickly turned to see what the matter was with Renjun.
Renjun noticed the older looking back at him and smiled sheepishly.
"Sorry. I just got a little light-headed," he answered, even though Taeyong didn't ask anything.
Taeyong nodded, but moved to get out of the bed.
"Hyung, you can stay in bed, I'm just gonna get up," Renjun quickly said, trying to stop the older.
"And I can't get up too?" Taeyong asked with a playful smile. Renjun blushed from embarrassment.
"I-I mean, yeah. But I thought you wanted to sleep?" he said, but seemed to make it into a question.
"Yeah, I was going to, but there's no reason for me to stay. Plus, now is definitely not the time to be lazy," Taeyong said, standing up and ruffling Renjun's hair. Renjun only smiled at him, grateful that he had someone like the older to take care of him now.
It was hard acting like an adult during childhood, having to take care of yourself in an isolated surrounding. Now he felt like he could actually be a kid again, and not have to worry about the consequences some of the time, because now he's not in such a place, but instead a loving home, with a group of mildly interesting people that he knew could protect him.
He could be happy openly now.
Just that thought made both Renjun and Taeyong smile even bigger, before the both headed out of the room.
They both wore their bright smiles on there way down the stairs, only to be greeting with slight darkness and everyone still in the living area, only sleeping.
Taeyong laughed at the sight, not used to seeing about nineteen boys crowding the three couches that sat in the living area.
Most were grouped together for probably warmth reasons, but for some reason Yang Yang was just laying on the arm rest, halfway leaning off, making his head lay at an awkward angle. Taeyong winced to himself, knowing that it would hurt the younger's neck later on.
Renjun walked into the kitchen, just now noticing the narrow hallway that lead to it, and started to look around for some food, hoping that there would be enough for all twenty one of them.
Luckily, the fridge and cabinets were filled with food, meaning endless possibilities as what to eat and what to make for everyone.
He accidentally moved a pan, and making a loud noise when it hit another pan. Hissing slightly, he stayed in his squatting position from the cabinet he had gotten the pan from, waiting for someone to barge in and start yelling at him.
But nobody came, making him sigh in relief.
But Taeyong had heard it while he was still in the living area, and had went to go to the kitchen, but as he was going, Kun had woken up beside the awkwardly angled sleeping Yang Yang, and quickly fixed the younger, before noticing Taeyong.
"Oh," he said, not expecting anyone else to be awake, "you're up? Does that mean tha-"
Kun was cut off by a noise coming from the kitchen, answering his upcoming question.
"How about I help you guys get some food for all of us," he said, getting up carefully in order not to wake anyone else up.
Taeyong nodded, knowing that the other would get up even if he said no.
The two walked quietly over the the kitchen entrance, and was shocked when they saw the setup Renjun had done.
Everything was in order for a nice breakfast. He had two cartons of eggs opened, vegetables already washed sitting in a strainer, with some type of meat still in it's packaging. Renjun was looking under the island that sat in the middle of the kitchen, looking for a good sized pan to try and make some pancakes to go with his omelettes and toast he was planning to make.But this was not going to be the easiest, considering there were twenty-one of them.
It wasn't until he heard a slight clearing of someone's throat, that he peeked his head up over the countertop, greeted with the sight of Taeyong and Kun.
The two older boys couldn't help but smile widely at the sight of Renjun peeking over the island, the sight absolutely adorable.
Slowly Renjun stood back up, smiling sheepishly, slightly embarrassed at the looks the two were giving him.
Kun quickly walked towards the set up that Renjun fixed, wondering what he was going to make.
"What's the plan for today's breakfast?" he asked, standing next to Renjun as Taeyong went to stand across the island from Renjun.
"I was thinking omelettes? For protein?" he said, although it sounded more like a question.
Kun and Taeyong nodded at his suggestion, going with the idea.
But the 'protein' part caught in the stream of Taeyong's thoughts.
He knew that Abigail was going to go after them, and soon. So it was about the time for them to start training, and even though most of Dream wasn't anything to being Defects, they'd need to be prepared as well.
Shaking off the thoughts about the upcoming battle, Taeyong went to cut up some of the vegetables for Renjun and Kun, who were preparing the other foods.
They carried on, silence enveloping them as they worked. Renjun decided to be in charge of the omelettes as Kun worked on the pancakes, starting with the batter.
Renjun watched silently as Taeyong chopped up the bell peppers, and onions.
"Don't cut all the peppers into small pieces," Renjun told him as he saw that Taeyong was doing that, and the older gave him a confused look before Renjun explained, "Some of us Dream like the pieces larger for the omelettes."
Although still confused as he was going to have to cut more peppers since he cut all of the relatively small, he cocked his head to the side before putting it back, a little frustrated that he was just now told that.
But he knew that these were the things he needed to know since they received new guests.
Renjun's small voice caught both Kun's and Taeyong's attention.
"Do you guys have any music?" he asked, looking at the older boys with round curious eyes.
That made Taeyong think a little.
Until it hit him.
Renjun shouldn't have ever known music.
"How do you know about music?" he asked, making the youngest freeze as he held a cracked egg shell in his hand.
"Abigail," he trailed off, thinking of one of the only good times and experiences that he had with that woman. She had shown him music, something that was supposed to be completely extinct at this time and place, but she still had some, and he was curious and shared it with him.
As soon as he was able to hear a sweet lilt of notes, his heart felt it. As every instrument made a new note, and would flutter 'round, making Renjun's heart sway with it, as it descended and crescended, and he couldn't help but feel moved.
As the instruments dipped and flew with each note, he felt himself do the same, and had long since fell in love.
But as soon as it was over, the pain of silence made his time by himself even lonelier, and since he knew the only time he would be able to fill that silence with the ever so enticing sound of music with Ms. Abigail, but he was helpless. The only thing he could think of was replicating the sound.
And he did it with his own voice.
That's when he grew another love with music. Only this time it was with singing.
"Yeah, we have some music," Kun answered, feeling the atmosphere lighten at his words as Renjun looked at him with hopeful, wide eyes, and couldn't help but laugh at the pure happiness the boy seemed to radiate.
"Can we listen to it while we finish preparing?" he asked, making both Taeyong and Kun look at each other.
"I don't see why not," Taeyong said, quickly leaving the kitchen, and left Renjun and Kun in the kitchen to continue preparing.
Renjun took over what Taeyong was doing, chopping up the long pieces of bell pepper himself, so that the older wouldn't have to be forced to do more. He felt bad that he had told Taeyong after he had nearly finished the chopping already, so this was the most he could do to make it up to him.
Suddenly the room was filled with music, music that Renjun himself wasn't familiar with, but with his absorption of music, he'd catch the melody soon, and finally be able to sing along with the lifting notes.
After finally getting all of the ingredients, Renjun looked at the huge bowl, only praying that it would suffice for the amount of people he needed to feed.
He started making small omelettes, so that everyone could have their own little one, without missing out on eating their own pancakes that Kun was making.
The time seemed to fly, Renjun finally catching the melody of song, eventually joining in, until the song ended, and another would turn on and Renjun would be on another adventure, letting the songs flow through.
Taeyong ended up being a middle man, helping Renjun when he needed it, and the same for Kun as well.
By the time they were done, Renjun had one question.
"Where are they all going to sit to eat? And who's gonna wake them up?" he asked, looking at the steaming food ready to be eaten.
Taeyong smiled, before opening the curtain at the end of the kitchen that Renjun seemed to miss.
Wow, he seemed to miss everything, huh?
It was the room that him and Taeyong were in for the information swap, or whatever they were to call it.
Except the sunlight shone through the windows freely, illuminating the table and it's seemingly endless seats, definitely enough for the twenty one people that were meant to eat soon.
Renjun looked at Taeyong again, raising an eyebrow.
"You didn't say who should wake the rest," he said, crossing his arms, showing a bit of sass at the older. Instead of scolding him for the sudden sass, Taeyong could only smirk, comeback ready.
"Since you asked," Taeyong said slowly, making Renjun's smirk slightly fall, "you get to do it."
All that was heard of the younger was him groaning loudly walking away from the older two, his groans trailing off as he went towards the living room from the kitchen.
Kun looked at Taeyong, smiling lightly.
"He's a good kid."
Taeyong only nodded knowingly.