Phoenixes {NCT}

20 - War

I was wide awake at 3 am.

I could not believe how far I had come.

Reflecting upon my situation right now, I turned to look at Mark. He had a hand softly covering his forehead, and the other was on his stomach, with a slight touch of pale moonlight on his face. I didn't know what was happening to me. I had started to think about Mark very often. Though I knew I should not be distracted at all I couldn't help it. As if the inside me was whispering something to me. It always spoke to me whenever I felt alone.

Looking at how soft Minhyung was looking right now, I felt like snuggling into his blanket and cuddling while he was asleep.

My heart fluttered at the thought of it.

But then I decided to do it. I couldn't hold myself back.

I got up and slowly picked up his blanket and snuggled myself in and hugged him, not too tight to wake him up, but I had the very urge to kiss him on the cheek as he was looking so freaking adorable right now. So I gently kissed him near his cheek close to his chin and all I could do was smile at him.

I always had a nose which could sharply smell the alcohol and smoke.

Today was going to be a big day. A situation of life and death as mentioned by Taeyong earlier.

And I fell asleep again.

I woke up with the sound of phoenixes cawing on the outside of our dorms, an alarm and warning about the war. Mark and I woke up and he looked at me confused but then just smiled and got up.

"Good morning... what's the time?" I groaned and tried opening my eyes and saw that there still wasn't any daylight!''

"It's... 4.." I said as I went back into my blanket.

"Get up! Are we getting late?" he said and within 2 seconds I was up and ready and already transfigured into a phoenix. His voice sounded raspy and cold... I was almost scared.

I could feel the uncertain nervousness in my stomach and could feel how much pain I had been in because of the constant falls from the trees during practices. Today was the day where I would let out all my anger on those filthy little brats who captured my family, and almost took over our city.

We were out in the open and we flew to the forest and each of us waited...

silently...

We were sitting on every treetop.

Waiting.

Waiting for something.

Just the sound of the rustling trees, the wind, and our breaths. Mark and I were sitting very close. Keeping an eye in every direction every second.

Maybe he understood and realized how tensed I was so he held my hand and gave it a light squeeze indicating that everything will be alright. I looked at him and that's when he noticed those tears. Yes. I was scared. I had been part of war before but this war ... ... this one was just a matter of life and death. Today I would either start a new life or end it right here.

He panicked a little and he just hugged me reassuring me... "shh... everything will be alright"

He reminded me of mom. She used to say things like this when she thought I was asleep. I just... didn't get why she said those things only at night. Why did she not want me to know that she was a wonderful woman? Why was she-

A thud was heard and all of us looked down in the direction of the sound and saw Chenle. He had fallen. There was blood coming out of his head and that's when Jisung screamed "NOO" and dived toward him. He took him in his hands just before there was a dart-like thing thrown towards him.