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(I Can Be Your) Hero series
Part 01: Put on underwear over your pants and put on a cape
***
“I’m going out for groceries! Anybody want anything?”
Five different voices answered in varying degrees of clarity from all corners of the house, including one that only resonated within the confines of Kihyun’s mind. He tried to make his displeasure known to Changkyun that he didn’t appreciate being given a shopping list mentally, which was probably why a folded piece of paper with all the requests that had been hollered at him came flying into his palm not a minute later.
“Thank you, Changkyun!” Kihyun shouted back, looking at the neatly listed items his housemates needed, already categorized under each of the requester’s names.
Just as Kihyun was wondering why in the world Changkyun would need a bag of ice when they had Minhyuk around, a large shadow loomed over him, blocking the light from his reading. He looked up, unsurprised to find Hyunwoo staring down at him with a small smile on his face. For a man who usually knocked over half the things he came across whenever he walked, Hyunwoo could be cat-footed when he needed to be.
“I’m coming with you,” he said, grinning.
Kihyun’s eyes narrowed at him. “You just want to get out of the house because Jooheon hasn’t turned back from being a bee and his buzzing is getting to you, isn’t it?”
“I’ll help carry the groceries for you,” Hyunwoo offered, not denying Kihyun’s accusation.
Kihyun rolled his eyes, folding the list and slipping it into his pocket. “Fine, but you’re driving as well.”
“As if you’d have it any other way,” Hyunwoo said, leaning down quickly to peck Kihyun on the cheek.
Okay. Ew. Keep the PDA to yourselves, please. Some of us are trying to enjoy our G-rated day here.
“CHANGKYUN, IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY, SAY IT TO MY FACE!” Kihyun yelled.
The entire house shook with the sound of Kihyun’s voice, windows trembling and telltale sounds of glass beginning to crack. There were some shrieks and several more groans throughout the house, bursts of cool air from somewhere upstairs and a shout of, “Hyungwon, do something, you useless prick!” It took a couple of seconds, but the house eventually settled again and Kihyun had to let out an exasperated sigh.
“Sorry,” came Changkyun’s meek voice from the top of the upper floor landing.
Hyunwoo chuckled, a hand gently tugging at Kihyun’s arm. “Let’s go before you scream the house down.”
***
They came out of the grocery store with two fully-packed boxes of food, drinks, and other necessities (some quite questionable, like Hyungwon’s very particular request for ‘heavily bruised peaches’, but Kihyun would rather not question that).
“It looks like we emptied out the grocery store,” Hyunwoo commented, slipping the second box into the boot of the car carefully.
“You know very well this will only last us a few days. A week, if we’re lucky,” Kihyun said, shutting the boot and moving to the passenger’s seat.
It was as Hyunwoo revved up the car that they both felt it: the ground beneath them quaking with a force so great, Kihyun felt the car jostle. They both froze in their seats.
“Hyunwoo, please tell me that was you moving the car just now,” Kihyun said, glancing over at him.
Hyunwoo met his wide eyes, their gazes conveying what they knew this meant but unwilling to voice it out loud without confirmation. “Ki, you know that wasn’t me.”
“Changkyun, any earthquakes in the area?” Kihyun inquired out loud, knowing that Changkyun would catch his mental message nonetheless.
Nothing in the vicinity and no reports in the entire country , Changkyun relayed back to Kihyun’s mind. Are you guys alright? Do you need backup?
“We’ll be alright for now. We still don’t know what we’re dealing with, but we’ll keep you updated,” Kihyun responded back before turning back to Hyunwoo. “Not an earthquake. We should try to see what’s going on. It could still just be a building demolition or a construction accident.”
Hyunwoo nodded, getting out of the car just as Kihyun did, pulling out two masks out of the glove compartment as he did. He handed the black one to Hyunwoo, gripping the silver one tight in his own hands. Another thump resounded, shaking the entire ground, followed by another shortly after. Panicked screams began to be heard from a distance away. The possibility of this being anything benign was starting to become slim. A glance from Hyunwoo—face now fully concealed, even if slightly comedic with the plaid shirt and shorts he had on—told Kihyun that his partner had deduced as such.
“Can you feel out the vibrations to see how big this thing is?” Hyunwoo asked, voice ringing clear in Kihyun’s head, Changkyun clearly having already expanded his telepathic communication to their internal group. Now all seven of them could let their voices carry through their thoughts.
“On it,” Kihyun said, slipping his own mask on.
Kihyun took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, letting out concentrated air through his mouth, a high-pitched whistling sound emitting through the air he let out, almost inaudible. The vibrations bounced back to Kihyun almost immediately, filling him in on the approximate size and location of the threat.
“Big,” Kihyun said. “Very big. Solid. About five kilometres west.”
“Can I take it?” Hyunwoo wanted to know.
Kihyun looked at Hyunwoo, chewing his bottom lip. He hated making the call on these things, hated having to perceive an estimate of the threat in proportion to his group mate’s abilities. His conviction wavered, even if his mind had done the approximate calculation of risk. He was glad that Changkyun remained the only one able to hear his unspoken thoughts.
We can have Hyungwon-hyung there right now, if you want. Just say the word, hyung .
Kihyun’s silence was all too readable for Hyunwoo. He could see the conflict Kihyun was trying to detangle himself from and it was something much too familiar for them.
“Ki, trust your head,” Hyunwoo said. “You know whether I can take this thing or not. I trust your judgment.”
The fingers that tentatively touched Kihyun’s made his heart lurch. His mind was saying one thing but his heart was saying another. Another earth-shaking rumble broke Kihyun out of his conflicted reverie. There was no time to ponder about the heartache that came with putting a loved one in danger, even if his skills gave him sufficient information to reasonably ensure that that would not be the case.
“Okay,” Kihyun finally said to Hyunwoo. “Hyungwon please be on standby with Changkyun to teleport. Hyunwoo-hyung and I should be able to handle this on our own. But just stay on guard, just in case.”
‘Got it,’ they could all hear Hyungwon respond back.
“Hoseok, do you see anything?” Hyunwoo asked.
‘No. My vision is all clear,’ came Hoseok’s reply.
At that, Kihyun felt a little more at ease. If Hoseok hadn’t gotten any premonitions, chances were that the threat didn’t warrant a big enough danger for Hoseok to foresee something.
“Ready?” Hyunwoo asked, this time gripping Kihyun’s hand.
Kihyun let himself smile and return the squeeze, heart a little comforted. “Let’s go.”
***
The living room where five men had gathered began to gradually drop in temperature. Before anyone could comment further, a small flurry of snowflakes began fluttering from seemingly nowhere, creating a thin, white sheet curtaining their vision.
“Minhyukie-hyung!”
The snowflakes froze mid-fall, the scene before them akin to a time-frozen moment in a science fiction movie. Jooheon’s call had brought the abrupt attention of the person from whom those snowflakes had originated.
“Huh?” Minhyuk turned to Jooheon from where he had been staring straight ahead without blinking.
“You’re making it snow again, hyung,”
Minhyuk looked around him, realizing consciously, for the first time, that he had subconsciously started a winter wonderland in their own living room. Jooheon was batting away at nearby snowflakes with his hand, looking laughably too similar to a cat that nobody would dare voice in fear of Jooheon falling into one of his sulky moods. Changkyun was staring at the snowflakes surrounding him, all of which a good distance away from his form, his psychic powers undoubtedly having created a shield of sorts between him and the cold droplets. Hyungwon had his eyes closed, unbothered by whatever was happening around him, staying serene and in energy-preservation mode in case he was called to help their two other teammates out. Hoseok sneezed.
“Oh,” Minhyuk said, waving a hand around and making the snow gather into one ball before throwing it out an open window. “Sorry.”
“Any updates from Hyunwoo or Kihyun?” Hoseok asked Changkyun, rubbing his nose that had gone slightly red from the cold.
“They haven’t said anything since they asked to close the comm line,” Changkyun said.
“I don’t think we should have closed the comm line,” Minhyuk said, repeating the stance he’d taken half an hour earlier.
“They said they were getting distracted and they needed to focus,” Changkyun said. “We have to trust them.”
“Yes, but now we don’t know how they’re doing!” Minhyuk exclaimed, standing up. “They could be dead in a ditch, for all we know!”
The outburst had come with a ring of icy shards spiking out of Minhyuk’s fingers, thankfully missing any of the other four in the room and landing with consecutive thuds against a wall. A hand stretched out to grip onto Minhyuk’s wrist before he could let his emotions get the better of his powers again. Ice crystals had begun to form on his hands, but the cold didn’t seem to deter Hyungwon, his hold remaining strong even as the ice crept onto his fingers.
“Min, calm down,” Hyungwon said, tone even but strong, eyes slowly catching Minhyuk’s. “Changkyun can still hear Kihyun and Hyunwoo-hyung’s thoughts. He’d tell us if they were in trouble. And I’m sure Hoseok-hyung would be able to feel their pain if anything happened to them.”
Minhyuk looked down at Hyungwon, still sitting calmly cross-legged where he’d been but the grasp he had on Minhyuk was vice-like. There was a small tug where their hands connected and Minhyuk followed the gesture, letting Hyungwon pull him down to sit next to him again. His eyes saw the ice that had formed on Hyungwon’s hands.
“I’m sorry,” Minhyuk said, a cold puff of air surrounding their hands and removing the ice, but a frigid air continued to breathe around him. It didn’t seem to bother Hyungwon much, but it was clearly an indication of Minhyuk’s still unsettled emotions.
Hoseok scooted over closer to Minhyuk and laid a hand on his shoulder, closing his eyes as he did. Slowly, the cold began to dissipate and Minhyuk let out a deep exhale that fogged before him. Hoseok didn’t let go until Minhyuk’s form began to slump into Hyungwon and he was caught in Hyungwon’s arms before he could fully fall unconscious.
“Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea, hyung,” Jooheon said. “What if we need Minhyuk-hyung to help Kihyun-hyung and Hyunwoo-hyung?”
Hoseok let out a sigh before he leaned himself against a chair, taking in deep breaths. “I think we’ll be okay,” he said, glancing over at Changkyun with a knowing smile.
For a moment, Changkyun wasn’t sure why Hoseok was smiling at him, but then a familiar voice invaded his mind, grumbling and scowling, unlike the last time he had heard the voice screaming at his partner as they fought off an other-worldly creature. Changkyun thought it was the right time to open their mental connection again.
‘I swear to God, nobody ever helps me in this household. I have to do EVERYTHING myself. Useless superhumans. What good are their powers if they can’t even—.’
“They’re home!” Changkyun announced amidst Kihyun’s rambling, just as they could hear the sound of car doors closing in the driveway.
The rush for the door was immediate and instantaneous, the only ones not joining the stampede being Minhyuk and Hyungwon who couldn’t move without Minhyuk being awake. Apparently Hoseok’s empathy had gone a little overboard in calming him down just a tad too much.
Kihyun was lugging a large cardboard box, his smaller form engulfed by it as he made for the front door. His face was completely unhindered, though, and they could see the full force of his displeasure.
“Took you long enough,” he huffed, unceremoniously handing the box over to a nonplussed Hoseok who was only beginning to smile now that he knew for sure that Kihyun and Hyunwoo’s ease hadn’t merely been his senses being optimistic.
Jooheon had taken to jumping on Hyunwoo as he climbed out of the car with a hug, a shriek of joy, and rapid-fire questioning of what had taken place for them to ask for the comm line to be cut off.
“We just needed to concentrate better,” Hyunwoo said but the brief glance he made towards Kihyun gave away his feigned offhandedness. Yet it seemed only Changkyun and Hosek picked up on it.
Is Kihyun okay? Changkyun quietly asked Hyunwoo.
He’ll be alright, Hyunwoo assured. Just a little shaken. You know how he gets when he overthinks. Thank you for convincing everyone to cut off comms.
Hyunwoo gave Changkyun’s shoulder a squeeze to emphasize his gratitude as he walked in with a box under one arm and Jooheon trailing behind, still demanding a play-by-play recount of what had happened. Hoseok had already gone inside with the box Kihyun had handed him, leaving the man in question and Changkyun left outside just by the door.
Kihyun looked at Changkyun, fully aware that the boy had been instrumental in preventing his breakdown from being known by their little group. He also knew that Changkyun would never read his thoughts unless he let him, his principles on privacy held firm despite what his powers offered. But he had one important message for Changkyun nonetheless.
Thank you.
The hug he gave Changkyun was brief but tight. Changkyun understood the sentiment even if Kihyun’s mind remained blank. Sometimes, in a world of unexpected and bizarre threats, sometimes the most frightening factors were those that they kept to themselves: their thoughts, their feelings, their fears. Changkyun would never tell anyone, but it felt like the biggest danger that could possibly threat their well-being was themselves.
***