Hell and Back (EXO x Reader)

Recovery (No Trials)

Word count: 1275

Chapter warnings: None

-----

"I'm not tired!"

"I know you are."

"But what about-"

"Just go to sleep."

"But you're-"

"Sleep."

"But Tao is-"

"Y/N!" Lay demanded, turning over in the bed to face her. "You need to go to sleep. If not for your sake, then for mine. We'll deal with all this in the morning." They were in her bedroom, which, obviously, only had her own bed. She had offered to sleep on the floor or the couch, or even a chair, but Lay had countered with the same offer. She had stayed in the same bed as Kai, so finally she just agreed to do the same in this situation. It wasn't like it was weird, she had known them for... well, it may as well have been forever.

They were all finally going to get some rest. After Suho had forced them to do so many challenges, they were all exhausted, and Y/N was no exception. Still, she was so worried about Tao, she wanted to look for him as soon as possible. When she had checked the app, he had disappeared, so the boys tried to convince her that he had just dropped out without them knowing. After all, he could have paused time and taken her phone whenever he'd pleased. She had reluctantly agreed to go home, regardless of her fighting it once again now.

Suho had wanted to escort her home himself, but he also needed to look out for the rest of the boys. He delegated the task to Lay, who seemed responsible enough, as well as having his healing ability. If anything was still wrong with her, he'd be able to fix it. When the group had split ways, they received no notification to stay together, so they assumed it would be allowed this time. She had no idea why it allowed what it did at what times, but she wasn't going to complain about it now. Even with Lay tailing her, going home would be nice, not to mention peaceful.

They had both showered- Y/N first, so that she could get dressed while Lay was still in. She had plenty of ambiguous clothes, as this wasn't the first time they'd had to borrow from her. Most of the time, they ended up spilling something on themselves, leaving it for her to wash and return, and never taking it back. He thanked her with a nod as she handed him the change, expecting her to be asleep when he'd returned. She wasn't.

Now, she was arguing with him over what they were doing. Honestly, she knew that if she were to allow her eyes to close, it would be over for her. Her body was racked with the effects of the day's events. Each task made her forget about the gravity of the last, and it was driving her insane. They weren't even halfway done- not to mention Tao had done so many of them by himself for them. Would it all be worth it, just for that reward?

The reward... the reward that only she would get. They didn't even know she had picked it herself. How was she going to break it to them? And after all the suffering she was putting them through. They'd hate her... But wouldn't they understand? She knew that they could be dense, but living life in this world without any abilities, they knew it was awful. They had to have, because they babied her constantly. Still, would it be enough for them to forget about her selfishness? As she thought about this, as well as argued with Lay, she noticed him make a strange, dissatisfied face.

"Are you okay?" She asked, worrying about him in place of Tao.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He reassured her.

"What was the face for?"

"Oh, my jaw was kinda cramping up... I tried to swallow and my throat is just sticking. It's kind of weird." Her eyes narrowed, concerned.

"Do you want to go see a doctor?"

"Y/N, stop making excuses to stay up. Please just go to sleep. I'm tired."

"Then go to bed."

"I'm not going to sleep until you do." It was written all over his face- he desperately wanted to sink into unconsciousness, but he was too concerned with her to do so. It made her feel bad... Maybe she could just pretend to sleep.

"Alright... Goodnight." She said, shutting her eyes and laying down. He was suspicious of her sudden compliance. However, just as she had worried, the darkness was quickly taking hold of her, and before she knew it, she was out cold.

She had no real dreams that she could remember... this wasn't an odd occurrence. Half the time, she either didn't remember her dreams at all, or they were too insane to decipher. Still, when she woke up, she was left feeling like someone had been trying to get her attention, trying to get in contact with her. It was like a little voice in the back of her head... Still, reaching out for it was uncomfortable, and it was much easier to just scratch that itch away.

When her eyes fluttered open, the light filling the room was warm and bright, even through the blinds. Looking to her side, Lay wasn't next to her anymore. She hoped that he had managed to get some sleep. Looking over to her clock, she practically jumped out of bed as she realized it was past noon. Sliding on her floor and moving out the door, she shouted,

"Lay?!" Frantically hoping that he hadn't left her behind to go join the rest of the group.

"Woah, calm down." She heard him laugh. Moving to the kitchen, she realized he was cooking breakfast.

"Are you... how long have you been up?"

"Not long, actually, only a few minutes ago. I figured you wouldn't be far behind, and I was starving." Holding up the dish, he asked, "Do you want any? I'm not as good as Kyungsoo, obviously, but it'll do."

"...Yeah, that would be great."

As they sat down to eat, she debated what questions to ask. He had seemed really sensitive about her demands to find Tao, so she doubted that would be a good plan. Not only that, but it seemed like more of a group discussion. Speaking of which-

"Where is everyone? Are they up?"

"I talked to Suho a little bit ago. He said that they were all slowly getting into gear, so I think we're fine. We all needed the sleep anyway." She nodded in agreement, shoveling another bite in her mouth. So he must have been up for more than a few minutes if he had already had time to talk to Suho. "Do you still have your item?" He asked suddenly. Tilting her head, she tried to figure out what he meant, before she realized. Swallowing, she nodded.

"Yeah, the knife. Why?"

"Just want to make sure we cover all our bases." She hadn't realized how responsible he was trying to be. Honestly, everyone thought of Suho and Kyungsoo as the uptight, rule-sticklers annoying everyone else to do what they were supposed to. For as many jokes as he made, he wasn't as much of a goof-off as he seemed. Now that she thought back, he had actually been doing a lot to help.

Before she could say anything else, he looked down at his phone, evidently having received a text message.

"Oh, that's them. You finishing up? We can probably get dressed, then meet up. Sound good?" She nodded contentedly, preparing to finish her meal and get on with the trials.