Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Mark felt a prickle at the back of his head as fire engulfed Donghyuck’s hand, the flames licking up his wrist. By the time Donghyuck struck out and the ball of fire soared through the air like a miniature sun, Mark was already in motion, diving to the side and rolling on the ground before the projectile even got close to him. 

“Honestly, Hyuck, are you even trying?” Mark laughed, tossing the comment over his shoulder at the boy standing in a fighting stance on the other side of the training room. 

Donghyuck’s eyes narrowed and blazed brighter, his hands quickly igniting again as he hurled blast after blast towards Mark. Mark yelped and leapt to the side, the back of his skull tingling as his muscles acted on their own, dodging each fireball. 

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean that!” he yelled as he dropped low and slid to duck under another wave of flames. 

“Too late, Mark Lee!” 

Mark glanced over just in time to see the mischievous grin tugging at Donghyuck’s lips as he cast out a hand and raised it high, a column of flame rising over the ground in response to its master. The moment Mark registered the obstacle, his body immediately carried him into motion, legs pumping to build up speed. He felt a tickle at the back of his neck and chose that exact moment to jump, launching himself in the air. Tucking his legs in, he leaned to the front so that he rotated forward midair, landing squarely on both feet. 

Looking up, he met Donghyuck’s eyes, wide like saucers with his mouth opened just as wide. 

“What?”

“You just did a flip, like, ten feet in the air.” 

Mark sent him a look of disbelief, and Donghyuck gestured insistently behind him. Turning around, Mark saw the remnants of the fire column Donghyuck had conjured, now more smoke than fire, but sure enough, the last flames were in fact standing at least ten feet tall. Ten. Feet. 

“The hell were you thinking, man?” Mark spluttered. Ten feet.  

Donghyuck threw his hands up defensively. “Isn’t that what we're training to do? Improve our powers?”

“Sure, but do you see how fucking tall that thing is? That’s like a solid two Johnnys.” 

The other boy snorted. “Nah, it’s more like two Tens. Way shorter.” 

Mark laughed, the indignant thought of nearly being burned alive momentarily forgotten. “Dude, if Ten hears that you called him short he’s gonna teleport you to the middle of nowhere and leave you to die.” 

“He’s away from home, thank god.” 

Mark laughed again as he crouched down to pick up his backpack, hauling Donghyuck’s bag towards its owner. “Jeez, what’s in your bag, man? This thing weighs a ton.” 

“I have Bio today.” Donghyuck’s mouth twisted into a scowl. “I hate Bio.” 

Mark was about to make a jab at him, but he noticed that the fiery mischief in Donghyuck’s eyes had burned away, leaving cold embers. Maybe this wasn’t the time. Come to think of it, Donghyuck had been putting an unusual amount of energy into training today, his fires blazing a little more hotter, his eyes burning a little more dangerously. Maybe he had something on his mind. 

“Hey, Mark Lee,” Donghyuck spoke up, just as Mark was about to ask him if he was alright. “Your spidey sense has improved a hell of a lot.” The playful glint was back in his eyes, flickering softly. 

“How many times do I have to tell you it’s not a spidey sense,” Mark protested, rolling his eyes.

“Right, right.” Donghyuck smirked. “It’s your Mark tingle.” 

“Someone seriously needs to stop you from watching Marvel movies,” Mark complained, but still, he laughed along with the other boy, automatically slinging an arm around Donghyuck’s shoulder. 

As the pair left the training room, Donghyuck elbowed Mark in his side. “Dude, I think you singed your hair. You need to jump higher next time.”

The audacity. Mark leaned over to smack the other boy, but Donghyuck darted out of his reach. He easily had the ability to get back at Donghyuck, but he let the boy run off with a gleeful cackle.  

A turn around the corner of the hallway revealed Taeyong, who grabbed onto Donghyuck to stop him from running. “Morning boys, good training session?” he asked, patting down Donghyuck’s messy hair and rubbing at a scorch mark burned into his shirt sleeve. He got a chorus of yes, hyung in response. “By the way, Hyuck, remember to lock your wrist for better control of your fire.” 

“Wait,” Donghyuck interrupted. “How did you know I didn’t do that? Weren’t you just downstairs–” Taeyong raised an eyebrow. “–oh right.” 

Mark didn’t blame him. Even after so many years it was hard get used to the fact that the older man could be in so many places at once. Honestly, Taeyong was everywhere.  

 “And,” Taeyong continued, "your focus was off today. If your mind’s not up to par your powers won’t be either.” 

Donghyuck listened quietly – uncharacteristically so, might Mark add – as Taeyong gave him more pointers about his performance earlier. His hands were clasped behind his back as he looked intently at Taeyong with big sparkly eyes. Unfair. Donghyuck never looked at Mark like that, the brat. 

Taeyong’s serious expression softened a little when he bade them goodbye and Donghyuck threw his arms around the other man, cheering “thanks hyung!” 

Patting Donghyuck’s back, Taeyong suddenly asked as if he’d just remembered, “Hyuckie did you do your Bio homework?”

Said boy jumped a little and leapt away from Taeyong. “Haha! Gotta go or we’ll be late for school! Bye hyung!” He bolted down the hallway leading to the stairs.

With a defeated shake of his head, Taeyong smiled at Mark. “Raising fifteen kids is pretty hard.” Mark just laughed: he knew exactly how much of a handful their little band of metahumans was. Still, as loud and troublesome as they were – Mark included – none of them would be where they were today without Taeyong. “Great front flip by the way. You’ve improved so much.” 

Mark beamed as he headed downstairs after Donghyuck. 

The kitchen was relatively empty considering the time – most of the college students had either already left for morning classes or were still upstairs asleep. Jaehyun, one of their college sophomores, was nursing a cup of exceptionally black coffee while fixing on his vambraces on his forearms and tugging his sleeves over them. Taeyong had called in a favor with Baekhyun and gotten them specially made for Jaehyun. Jisung was frantically scribbling over his homework assignment while Chenle laughed over his shoulder, the sound of it just a few decibels too loud for the time of day. 

Another duplicate of Taeyong – or maybe it was the same one as earlier, Mark honestly had no idea – bustled into the kitchen, adjusting his glasses while carrying an armload of laundry. “Can someone get Jaemin?” he asked no one in particular. “He’s gonna be late for school.” 

All eyes turned to Renjun and Jeno, who were sat at the corner of the table working their way through breakfast. The pair looked at each other expectantly, each waiting for the other to go. Renjun then held out his fist. “Rock, paper, scissors, shoot,” they chanted, Renjun whooping when he won and Jeno groaning. It was an impressive front, but Mark saw the tiny smile tugging at the corners of Jeno’s mouth right before he dashed off, running until he became a blur and a streak of light. He returned a moment later with a dusting of pink on his cheeks and Jaemin in tow, who was caught in the middle of a stretch and a yawn. 

He seemed to register that he was in the kitchen and no longer in his room a moment later, murmuring a drowsy “hi, everyone,” then reaching for a cup of warm water. “What a nice morning.” 

“Alright, alright kids,” Taeyong herded them all together. “Time for school.” 

They were halfway out the kitchen when Jaemin, now fully awake, exclaimed, “oh sorry! Forgot my phone!” They all let out a collective groan as Jaemin darted back upstairs in search of his phone. Jeno’s soft smile didn’t escape Mark, and he bet that one of them was going to ask the other out soon enough. He decided he would pester Jeno later. 

Tuning out of his thoughts and turning his attention back to their group, Mark overheard a snippet of Donghyuck’s conversation with Chenle. “–worried, Hyuckie,” Chenle was saying, unusually serious. "You should tell someone.” 

“No,” Donghyuck interrupted, almost snapping at Chenle. He froze when the younger boy shrank back. “No,” he repeated with a sigh, the lines of his shoulders drooping. “Please Lele, I’ll tell them when I’m ready.” 

Mark furrowed his brows. Chenle was worried about Donghyuck? Something about him had seemed off during their training session, and didn’t Taeyong say he hadn’t been focused? Chenle was an empath, he could feel other people’s emotions. If he was worried about Donghyuck, then maybe something really was up with Donghyuck. 

Jaemin returned a moment after, waving his phone triumphantly in his hand, and the group finally made it out of their apartment building to head for school. Waving goodbye, Chenle disappeared behind the door. The boy’s empathic abilities prevented him from going to school with the rest of them – the waves of emotions rolling off hormonal high schoolers had proven too much for him. Jeno and Jaemin walked together, close enough that their hands brushed every so often, and Renjun tiptoed precariously so that he could throw an arm around the much taller Jisung while teasing their youngest, and Mark automatically fell into step with Donghyuck. 

“Hey, Hyuck,” he started tentatively. “Everything alright?” He scolded himself for his incredibly smooth and subtle segue. 

Donghyuck grimaced. “I have Bio first period.” He made a face. 

Bio? Donghyuck had already complained about that class earlier that morning. What was wrong with it? When he asked as much, the younger almost flinched, but then he simply said, “nothing hyung! It’s just too early for class!” Mark knew that Donghyuck's big smile was a little too much on the fake and plastic side for his liking. But he also knew that no matter how much he persisted, Donghyuck would be equally as stubborn. Maybe Donghyuck really was just tired. 

Everyone was huddled around a phone when Mark arrived in first period Math. “What’s going on?” he asked Lucas, sliding up next to his friend while tiptoeing to peer over everyone’s shoulders and heads at the phone. 

“You didn’t hear?” Lucas moved to the side a little so that Mark could get a better look. “EXO were fighting some supervillains downtown. It looked pretty serious.” He returned his attention back to the phone and let out an awed whoa! as Sehun conjured a blast of wind in the video, knocking the villain backwards.  

Mark had, in fact, heard: all sixteen of them had crowded around the TV in their living room last night watching the fight live. Except their footage had been just a bit higher quality than the shaking, blurry video some hapless bystander had taken and posted online, because Baekhyun had promised to send Taeyong all videos taken from the superhero team’s own surveillance cameras. It let Taeyong – and Taeil, Johnny, and Yuta – use EXO as a reference when training the others. Donghyuck had sat next to Mark when they were watching the fight, screaming into Mark’s ear about the size of that fire blast hyung! Did you see Chanyeol-sunbaenim! Donghyuck might deny it if he was asked, but he was definitely a fanboy.  

Mark watched Baekhyun cast out a beam of light in the video, the blinding light filling the whole phone screen, and in the next moment Kai teleported next to one of the supervillains and subdued him, while Xiumin trapped the other villain in a block of ice, freezing her over. A few of Mark’s classmates watching the video let out whoops and cheers, but there were words of disdain mixed in by others. 

“They’re just a bunch of freaks running around in costumes.” 

Stiffening, Mark turned to the girl who had spoken. She was frowning down at the video on the phone with a look of disapproval, while a couple of her friends nodded in agreement. 

“Yeah,” someone else said, “they’re not even human. They don’t fit in.” 

Mark wasn’t really human either, none of his friends were. Did they not fit in? 

“EXO have saved so many lives,” another classmate spoke up. “If they use their powers for good then who cares if they’re metahumans?”

“But who decides if they’re doing good? They’ve caused so much destruction while fighting supervillains too.” 

The hair on the back of Mark’s neck stood on end, and he balled his hands into fists as he forced himself to sit down in his chair. He supposed his classmates were right – they were all misfits. There was a reason the sixteen of them lived in an apartment building Taeyong had bought with EXO’s help, because they couldn’t live at home. They were too dangerous, too unwanted to stay with their families. Mark usually found it easy to keep his lives separate: at school he was just another student, passable at Math and good at English and Music, a member of the basketball team. But he was also a metahuman with his so-called spidey sense and enhanced agility, speed, and strength, who trained everyday with Taeyong and Donghyuck and all the others. Once in a while, his lives would blur together in moments like these, and he was left not knowing who the hell he was. 

“Hey, you ok?” Lucas asked as he plopped down next to Mark. Mark gave him a smile and a nod that he hoped didn’t look too strained. His friend still held himself with that easy openness he always had and didn’t seem too affected by their class’ discussion. But why would he, when he didn’t have powers and fit in perfectly?

“I was just wondering,” Lucas continued as he leaned back in his seat. “What do you think about EXO and all the metahumans?” 

Mark felt a little tingle at the back of his head as he whipped around to face Lucas. The other boy, balancing his chair on two legs and stretching his legs out, didn’t seem to notice his sudden movement. Lucas didn’t know, Mark reminded himself. Then why does he sound like he’s probing for something? a little voice at the back of Mark’s mind asked. He was probably overthinking. He definitely was.  

Reaching out in what he hoped was a casual motion to cover his nerves, he brushed away a stray feather from Lucas’ jacket. The older seemed to flinch a little with his eyes widened when he saw the feather, but then quickly schooled his expression so fast that Mark wondered if he’d imagined the whole thing. Strange.  

“I think that they just want to be themselves,” Mark answered Lucas’ question, just as the bell began to ring. “And I think they deserve as much."

“Six weeks!” Lucas cried out, over the sound of Hendery and Dejun bursting into laughter. “For six weeks they watched me water a plastic plant! A fake!” he wailed at Mark. 

Mark chuckled as he watched the older boy lament about his beloved plant to their lunch table with his mouth half full of sandwich. “How could you!” 

“Kun-ge told us not to. It was so worth it,” Hendery snickered. 

“Kun-ge?” Mark repeated. It was name that Mark had heard thrown around in their conversations but had no idea who it belonged to. 

“My hyung,” Lucas told him with a grin. “But I think he’d trade me out for any other dongsaeng if he ever got the chance.” 

“I don’t think he would, I know he would,” Dejun added behind a laugh.  

“Don’t tell him we said this, but Kun-ge is the best.” Hendery leaned in close, as if he was telling Mark a secret. “He’s got this, like, magical stash of junk food hidden away in this drawer in his room. I swear whenever he opens it it shines with golden light and angels start singing. It’s the best thing.” 

"You two know Lucas’ hyung pretty well too, huh,” Mark observed.

Hendery and Dejun glanced at each other. Before either of them spoke, Lucas piped up while still chewing. “Of course they do! We live toge–"

“We spend a lot of time at Lucas’!” Dejun cut in, his smile coming with a hint of a grimace. 

“Yeah!” Lucas quickly agreed, his eyes widening. “They hang out a lot at mine.”

Laughing along with the others about the next story Hendery immediately launched into, Mark wrote off his friends’ slightly strange behavior as nothing out of their ordinary antics. Even as they made fun of some embarrassing thing Dejun had done, some corner of his mind wondered what it was like to be able to hang out at a friend's house all the time. It wasn’t like he didn’t have friends – he had Donghyuck and everyone else he lived with, but that was exactly it, he lived with them. He’d never find out what it was like to play video games at his friend’s house until it was dark outside and his mom called him home for dinner. Sure, it wasn’t like Lucas had never invited him over, but Mark had to train so much anyways to control his abilities that he didn’t have the time. Plus Taeyong had always said that they should spend as little time in the outside world as possible, because it was simply safer – as soon as school ended, it was straight home for Mark and Donghyuck and the younger kids. A voice in Mark’s head told him he was being unreasonable and immature. He was born different and he had to live with that. He agreed with the way Taeyong did things, and he’d practically lived with these rules for his whole life. But he supposed he’d never have normal.  

“–Ten-hyung–” Mark snapped back to attention when he heard his older friend’s name mentioned. His friends knew Ten? Did they know about Ten’s powers? Mark had always thought Ten kept to their house when he wasn’t at college, preferring to either help Taeyong run the place and train the others or bother Taeyong to death. But recently he’d seemed to absent more often. Maybe he was branching out, finding a normal life. 

“You guys know Ten?” Mark asked. 

“Yeah! He’s friends with Kun-ge,” Lucas replied. Once again, the line between Mark’s two lives seemed to blur. 

“Anyways, Ten and Jun were decorating this cake for us once,” Hendery continued his story, "and it was the ugliest thing ever!”

"Mainly because of Dejun,” Lucas chuckled. “I swear Ten wanted to cry.” 

“Hey, it wasn’t that bad,” Dejun protested, “I was getting the hang of it!” 

“It’s ok, dude,” Mark told his friend solemnly. “I’d always decorate a cake with you.” 

Hendery snickered and Mark moved his hand from patting Dejun on the back to smack the other boy. “Ow! I’m sorry! But you can’t even fry an egg, I can’t even imagine what you baking a cake would look like.” He burst into another fit of laughter. Dejun made a valiant attempt at defending Mark while Hendery dramatically reenacted frying of the infamous egg. 

Dejun suddenly trailed off, his head snapping up to look at something in the distance. Mark flinched at the sudden movement and Lucas suppressed a chuckle behind his hand at Mark’s response. Ignoring Lucas, Mark looked over his shoulder to try and find what had caught Dejun’s attention, but saw nothing out of the ordinary in the cafeteria. Turning back to the others, he found Dejun’s eyes clouded with a cross between concern and confusion, along with something else Mark couldn’t quite identify. Then, just as quick as it had started, Dejun snapped back to attention and blinked a few times. Mark looked at Lucas and Hendery, expecting one of them to comment on Dejun’s strange behavior, but instead saw the three of them exchange a look. What was going on? 

“Mark, I think you should go to the quad,” Dejun said, and Mark was surprised to hear the sudden seriousness in his voice. 

“The quad? Why?” 

“It’s Donghyuck.” 

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” A boy was towering over Donghyuck when Mark arrived in the quad. Donghyuck may have been smaller, but his eyes were blazing with a dangerous fire and his hands were balled into fists, threatening to ignite at any moment. 

“You’re a freak, and no one wants you here,” the boy sneered. 

The back of Mark’s head prickled, and before he realized what he was doing, his body had carried him to Donghyuck and he was standing between Donghyuck and the other boy. 

“Hey, man, what’s your problem.” Mark tried to force as much calm into his voice as he could, even as his heart began to pound and the blood rushed faster in his veins. 

“My problem,” the boy scoffed. “Is your friend right here. He’s a freak.” 

“No, he’s not,” Mark said, his voice low. “And trust me, you don’t want to mess with him.” 

“Who’s going to stop me? You?” 

The boy reached out to shove Mark, but in a split second he grabbed the boy’s wrists, twisting them to the side and pinning them down. The boy’s eyes widened, then narrowed, and he wrenched himself free from Mark’s grip. He tried to strike out again, but Mark’s instincts, honed from all his training, kicked in, and he easily sidestepped the punch thrown at him, turning back to aim a hit at the boy’s solar plexus. Adrenaline coursed through him as the other fell to the ground, and just as Mark was about to close in he felt a hand grab his arm. 

“Hyung!” Donghyuck’s voice was unsteady, and Mark thought he detected fear in the younger’s eyes. His hand was warm on Mark’s skin, his touch almost a burn, and Mark felt some of the tension in his body melt away. “Hyung, it’s not worth it.” 

Mark stepped back from the boy on the ground, and he felt a twinge of disappointment when Donghyuck pulled his hand away and the glowing warmth left his body. Looking down, he met Donghyuck’s gaze, and he wasn’t sure what he saw in the embers of the younger’s eyes. Gratefulness? Relief? Annoyance? Frustration? 

He supposed he wouldn’t find out, Donghyuck simply walked away, leaving Mark alone in the middle of the quad. 

Mark found Jeno and Jaemin standing in the corner, both of them out of breath – or mostly just Jaemin – like they had run there. There was a deep furrow between Jaemin’s brows, and with each second in which he glared at the boy on the ground clutching his chest, the clouds grew grayer and the sky grew darker. 

“Who is that?” Mark asked. 

“Chungsoo,” Jeno answered with a frown. “He’s in Hyuck’s Bio class.” 

Mark got detention, something he shouldn’t have been surprised about considering that he had punched a guy. He swore he didn’t even hit the boy – Chungsoo – that hard, had definitely pulled his punch. What he was surprised about was the fact that he didn’t see Chungsoo in detention. If Chungsoo ever tried anything with Donghyuck a second time, Mark would make sure he didn’t get away with it again. 

There was only one other person in detention that afternoon, a guy Mark recognized to be a year younger than him but didn’t know the name of. Mark picked a desk on the other side of the room and pulled out his notebook, intending on finishing his homework. 

“The Mark Lee, getting detention?” There was no judgement in the boy’s voice, only an ease and a hint of mischief that seemed familiar. 

Mark glanced up at the teacher at the front of the room, only to find that she was asleep behind a stack of books. 

“Do I know you?” Mark didn’t mean to be rude, he’d just had a long day. 

“Heard you punched Chungsoo,” the boy continued, ignoring Mark’s question. “He’s an asshole anyways, you did us all a favor. Everyone hates him.” 

Mark hummed noncommittally, but filed away that bit of new information about Chungsoo. 

“I’m Yangyang, by the way.” Mark noticed the slight accent in his voice. “I’m friends with Lucas, and Hendery and Dejun.” 

That was something Mark did not know. He lifted his gaze up from his homework to look at Yangyang to find the other boy leaning back on his chair, balancing it on two legs. Strangely enough, he recognized a certain openness and surety to his shoulders similar to Lucas’, the playful glint in his eyes not unlike the one in Hendery’s. 

“Have they never mentioned me? Why am I, like, not surprised. They call me their favorite dongsaeng then don’t even talk about me!” 

Mark found himself laughing along with Yangyang, and didn’t protest when he dragged his chair over to sit with Mark. 

“What are you in detention for?” Mark asked. 

Yangyang waved his hand dismissively. “Apparently I have too much energy in class.”  

The younger boy did, in fact, as Mark found out over the next hour, have a lot of energy. He simply did not stop moving, constantly playing with a pen or bits of paper, leaning back and forth on his chair, running a hand through his hair and messing it up. The energy practically radiated off of him, tangible. He also did not stop talking. Mark supposed he could’ve found it annoying, but it was so refreshing to hear someone be so open, so willing to be so truthful. Mark lived with fifteen people who all lived with a secret, and he himself couldn’t open up to Lucas, Hendery, and Dejun fully because of his own secret. But Yangyang didn’t seem to mind that Mark didn’t share much about himself, instead seeming to be delighted to have someone to talk to. 

And so Mark found out that Yangyang was Taiwanese but grew up in Germany – he sang a few lines from a German children’s song about a crocodile for Mark. He liked rap music and also thought that his Kun-ge was the best. He liked playing video games with Dejun even though the other sucked – something Mark knew firsthand – and offered to play Mario Kart with Mark next time. Before Mark could accept or decline his offer, he sped on to talk about something else. Mark didn’t mind. He felt normal.  

As the teacher, now awake from her nap, gave them a dismissive wave indicating that their hour was up, something occurred to Mark. 

“Do you know Donghyuck?”

“Yeah,” Yangyang answered, shouldering his backpack and bouncing on the spot. 

“Can you…” Mark trailed off. What was he asking of Yangyang? He thought about Donghyuck’s plastic smile from that morning, the cold ember eyes after Mark had punched Chungsoo. Would Yangyang want to be Donghyuck’s friend? It seemed unreasonable of Mark to ask that of Yangyang, for Mark to want to keep an eye on his Donghyuck. 

“Yeah, man. I will.” Yangyang shrugged lightly, as if it were the simplest, easiest thing. Mark wasn’t sure what he was agreeing to, but he felt something lift off of his shoulders.

Chapter Text

Mark found the others crowded in Jeno’s room. “So, what are you guys doing tonight?” 

“Homework,” Jisung groaned, even as he furiously pressed the buttons on his game controller. 

“I’m gonna save the world,” Chenle supplied, also fiddling with the game controller in his hands. 

“Drowning some kittens,” Renjun offered as he suddenly appeared in the room with a puff of light. 

“Jisungie your answer is wrong, and I’ll answer for Jeno,” Donghyuck piped up. “Jaemin,” he said with a slight smirk.  

“What was the question again?” Jeno asked, confused, and Jaemin just smacked Donghyuck on the arm with a shy grin on his face. 

It didn’t quite escape Mark that that was probably the brightest Donghyuck’s eyes had been since what happened that day at school. As he sat down next to Donghyuck and picked up a controller to join the younger boys’ game and Donghyuck slipped an arm around his, he noticed the way Donghyuck’s touch was startlingly cold on his skin, his usual glowing warmth absent. He didn’t quite know what to do. 

Mark settled for letting Chenle beat him at their video game, then letting Jisung set a winning streak for the next three rounds. Or rather, he genuinely sucked ass at the game and was unable to beat the other two. The one time Mark did come close to winning, however, he got distracted by how Renjun, face clouded with concern, had wrapped an arm around Donghyuck, whose head was hung low. By the time Mark returned his attention to the game, he was deafened by a shout of “ha!” from Chenle, and promptly lost the game. 

They were well into their thirtieth round of the game when Donghyuck, now sprawled across Mark’s lap with Mark resting the controller in his hands on his head, announced, “I think we should go out. Just the seven of us, go somewhere now.” Mark’s gaze slid down to meet the younger’s and he found a certain resolution that he hadn’t seen all day. The determination burned fiercely, and Donghyuck’s eyes flickered bright with flames. 

“Okay,” Mark said automatically, because Donghyuck’s glow was back, that familiar warmth spreading across Mark’s skin once again where the younger boy was touching him. 

“Are you sure, Hyuckie?” Jeno asked, tentative. “It’s late already. You know how Taeyong is about…” 

He trailed off, but Mark knew he was talking about the curfew Taeyong enforced with the many iron fists of his many self duplicates. It was something they had all grown to live with over the years – something for their own good. 

Donghyuck got to his feet, his touch lingering on Mark’s skin for a moment before he stood up. There was a certain spring to his step. “I just need a break, y’know? From school…” he thought for a moment as if searching for a word. “From all this,” he gestured vaguely. “Mark-hyung agrees right?” the younger asked hopefully.  

It was too late to take back his words, wasn’t it. If Taeyong found out – and Mark had to be honest, he probably would – they would all be dead. But Mark took a look at the bright flames in Donghyuck’s eyes, how he was bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet, and any resolve he had left melted away. Sometimes he hated Donghuyck. 

“Yeah,” he found himself saying. “It’ll be fun guys, getting away from everything for a little bit.” 

“You know what?” Renjun stood up too. “Let’s go for it, what the hell. If Taeyong catches one of us and kills us then we all go down together.” 

Donghyuck stared at Renjun with his jaw slightly open. “You? Agreeing with me?” 

Leveling him with an unimpressed look, Renjun said, “as much as it seems like I don’t, I actually like spending time with you guys.” 

“Renjunnie, I’m touched.” 

“Wow,” Jaemin exclaimed. “If Injun agreed then I’m coming too.” 

Jeno shrugged and got to his feet as well. Only Chenle and Jisung remained sat on the ground, the former looking down at his lap while the latter glanced between the older boys and Chenle. 

Shit. “Chenle, we don’t have to if – if you can’t then we–” Shit, how was Mark supposed to say this?

The boy in question looked up at the others, a sudden determination in his eyes. “I’ve been training a lot with Winwin-hyung. I think… I think I’ll be able to control my powers, I won’t be overwhelmed.” 

Donghyuck crouched down next to Chenle, his eyes and voice soft. “Are you sure, Lele?” When the other gave him a firm but slightly strained nod, he said, “it’s late, there won’t be as many people out as normal. And as soon as you feel like their emotions are too much, we’ll go straight home. I promise.” 

The seven of them trooped out of Jeno’s bedroom, attempting their version of sneaking down the hallways quietly. They passed Johnny and Jaehyun once, giving the pair bright innocent smiles as they sidled past. It seemed like they would get away with their plan, until they rounded a corner and found Sicheng on his way back to his room, holding his phone to his ear with one hand and a mug of tea in the other. For a moment, all seven of them froze and Sicheng continued to speak rapid Chinese into his phone. Mark caught him say something that sounded like Kun a few times, strangely enough. 

Sicheng pocketed his phone then, and gave their group a good look. No one said anything, but Sicheng knew immediately anyways because their thoughts were so loud, they may as well have shouted their intentions. He tilted his head to one side as he considered them.

After a painfully long moment, Sicheng stepped to the side of the hallway, making way for them to pass. Shocked, they all remained rooted to where they were standing. By the look of the small grin tugging on the ends of Sicheng’s lips, Mark knew he must’ve heard their thoughts, most likely a jumble of incoherent confusion, if Mark’s own thoughts were anything to go by. 

“I know you need this,” Sicheng said, but Mark could tell the words were aimed at Donghyuck specifically. Mark wondered what else the mind reader knew about what was going on with the younger boy. Sicheng rested a hand on Donghyuck’s shoulder. “Be careful okay?” He looked at all of them in turn, then focused on Chenle. “Especially you. But I know you can do this. Have fun,” he added with a smile. Patting Donghyuck one more time on the shoulder he moved to leave. 

“Thank you, hyung,” Donghyuck murmured. There was a depth to his words that Mark didn’t quite understand, but Sicheng seemed to. 

They reached the front door without any other obstacles, surprisingly. Chenle paused behind the others, quietly peering outside then shifting his gaze to his feet, then looking up uncertainly again. Mark knew how long it had been since Chenle had left their home, knew how hard it could be for him to be out in public; he placed an arm around the younger and tried sending comforting feelings across to Chenle. Chenle seemed to pick up on Mark’s effort and sent him a grateful, slightly sheepish smile. 

“Come on, Lele, you can do this!” Jaemin cooed. “Look,” he said, pointing at the night sky. As Chenle tilted his head up, the clouds cleared at Jaemin’s will, and the stars peeked out, shining brightly. “There’s nothing to be afraid of out here, it’s beautiful.” 

All the boys murmured words of encouragement for their friend, and Chenle visibly stood straighter, steeling himself. With a nod at no one in particular, he took the final step out of their building and into the outside world. Despite the quietness of the street, save for a family walking their dog and a delivery man, Chenle inhaled sharply and briefly shut his eyes. Mark knew how strong and sensitive the boy’s powers were, how he must have felt all the unfamiliar emotions surging at him from the apartment complexes surrounding their own. 

“I’m okay,” he murmured, slowly opening his eyes. “I’m okay.” Confidence was creeping back into his voice, his ever present smile returning to his face. 

It seemed too easy, Mark thought, leaving the building and Chenle getting used to being out so quickly. But Donghyuck let a carefree laugh then, and Mark didn’t really mind anymore. He was practically glowing, and Mark found it easy to cheer along with the others. 

They ended up watching some comedy spy movie at a movie theater in a nearby mall. Mark wouldn’t say it was a great movie, but the way Donghyuck kept laughing might have made it worth it. It seemed especially worth it when Donghyuck leaned his head on his shoulder towards the end, his warmth burning into Mark until he felt like he could melt. Mark most definitely was not attacked by a flurry of butterflies in his stomach, and the sudden desire to intertwine his fingers with Donghyuck’s most definitely was not there. Chenle, sitting on the other side of Mark, had snorted then, and Mark really hoped it was because of the movie and not the waves of jittery affection emanating off of him. 

When they walked home, the gap between Mark and Donghyuck was smaller than normal. Small enough that their arms brushed together every so often. If Mark reached out just the slightest bit, he’d be able to link his fingers with Donghyuck. He pushed the thought away and tried to focus on the group’s conversation. But his mind was unable to stray away from the little touches – Donghyuck’s hand brushing his when he reached for his soda in the movie theater, their knees bumping into each other whenever Donghyuck shifted. He smiled as heat rushed to his cheeks. 

But evidently, his emotions were perhaps not as subtle as he thought, because Chenle started cackling, his laugh piercing Mark’s ears. 

Mark huffed and shoved the younger boy, and Donghyuck laughed, a melodic sound that made Mark’s heart warm. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. He was being so sappy. But then again, Donghyuck was being extra clingy and affectionate that night, so maybe it was warranted.  

But, as Mark forcefully filed away his sentimentality, he knew better. A clingy Donghyuck was a Donghyuck that had something on his mind, Mark knew that much. 

“Are you okay, Hyuck?”

“Well that was sudden. Are you my therapist, Mark Lee?” The corner of Donghyuck’s mouth lifted, but the smirk didn’t quite reach his eyes, so Mark saw through it, especially when one of Donghyuck’s hands subconsciously lifted so that he could chew on his nails. Mark knocked the hand away and the younger boy pouted. “What do you think, hyung?” he asked. It was a genuine question, Mark realized; Donghyuck’s eyes were wide and almost expectant, alight with hope. 

Should he ask about Chungsoo? Would Donghyuck even want to talk about it? In the end, Mark didn’t say anything, just laughed uncertainly. 

The younger boy’s eyes fell slightly, and Mark’s heart fell a little with it. He should’ve said something. People were so hard to deal with. He wished he could be like Chenle or Winwin, understand everything that went on in everyone’s heads. 

But Donghyuck bumped Mark’s shoulder with his own, and Mark felt a little bit of warmth bloom on his skin. “Oh, Mark Lee. I’m a big boy,” he said with a grin that had some of his regular cheekiness. “Don’t worry! I had a lot of fun today, I feel a lot better.”  

With the newfound discovery of their mutual friend Ten, Mark and his friends were compiling the ultimate list of dirt. 

“–so he was in the bathroom right,” Hendery was saying, “and we had his birthday cake, so we were like, yo, Ten! And he actually opens the door and we start singing happy birthday. He slammed the door in our face, of course, but for a moment he just kinda stared at us – and I remind you he was on the toilet. Shitting." 

Mark clapped excitedly as another memory of Ten resurfaced. “Oh my god, do you guys remember? The talent show. When Ten sang Baby.” 

All four of them burst into renewed hysterical laughter, so loud that people on the lunch tables next to theirs gave them strange looks. They had been in middle school when high school freshman Ten had got on stage for the annual talent show and delivered his legendary performance of Baby. It was good and Ten was a good singer, but he couldn’t quite escape the memes that had followed. Mark had an especially fond memory of Yuta chasing Ten around the house with a video of his performance. He’d never seen Ten teleport so fast.

“High school Ten-hyung was a mess,” Mark laughed. 

“He’s still a mess,” Dejun pointed out. 

Lucas wiped tears from his eyes. “Oh my gad, my stomach hurts from laughing.”  

“Oh my gad,” Hendery repeated, snickering at Lucas’ dramatic pronunciation.  

The four of them had always clicked. Even when Mark closed himself off, afraid of other people finding out his secret, he still could feel so, so comfortable with these three morons. Which is why he proceeded to join in on their inexplicable chanting of “oh my god” in various accents. 

“That sounded British,” Lucas commented on Dejun’s latest iteration of “oh my god.” “Hendery!” he prompted his friend. 

“Woul’ cha’ like a cup o’ tea?” Hendery said, right on cue.

“Tha’s a lot’a suga’,” Mark supplied. 

As idiotic as they were, Mark knew he wouldn’t survive high school without Lucas, Hendery, and Dejun. They made it easy for him to just be Student Mark, to draw a clear line between his metahuman self and his normal self.  

Lucas waylaid Mark on his way out of a particularly boring Chemistry class. “Hey dude!”

Mark groaned and flopped his head onto Lucas’ shoulder. “I wanna go home.”  

His friend laughed. “That bad?” 

Continuing to walk without lifting his head off Lucas, he said, “do you ever wanna, like, run away from high school and live somewhere else? Maybe be an ice cream man in some remote ass town. You know, the good, simple life.” 

Mark bet that an ice cream man wouldn’t have to worry about grades, or whether or not he was normal, or whatever Donghyuck had going on. He didn’t realize he was thinking out loud until Lucas elbowed Mark, wiggling his eyebrows. “So you and Donghyuck, huh.” 

Heat rushed to Mark’s cheeks. “Dude. No.” He swatted at Lucas’ arm, the impact causing another feather to flutter off of the boy’s jacket. Lucas flinched. “Are you okay, dude? I swear you shed.” 

Lucas chuckled and it sounded like nervous laughter to Mark. 

“Anyways,” Lucas continued. “I’m sure Donghyuck’s fine. Plus, if he wasn’t he’d tell you.” He shrugged easily. 

Donghyuck would tell Mark. Right? He was thinking too much. It felt strange though, the idea that Lucas – Student Mark’s friend – knew Donghyuck – Metahuman Mark’s friend. It was strange knowing that his life was split so clearly in half, and the school’s Donghyuck would never be his Donghyuck, the one who would play video games in his room and lie with him on the ground after training and sit next to him in movie theaters.  

Mark really hoped he wasn’t thinking out loud. 

“Hey Lucas."

“Hm?” 

“If you were–” he thought back to their Math class’ conversation the other day. “–let’s say you were a superhero. A member of EXO. Would you tell people who you were? Or would you keep your identify a secret?”

Lucas replied almost immediately, as if he’d thought about it before. “I’d tell people. I don’t see why someone would keep their superhero life and personal life separate? They’re both a part of you. You’d feel so much freer, like you were flying without anything tying you down, don’t you think?”

That felt strangely personal. 

“Mark,” Lucas continued as they made their way into the cafeteria. “While we’re on the topic, I’ve been wanting to tell you something–”

He was interrupted by the shouting that erupted across the cafeteria. Mark stumbled as someone pushed passed him, and Lucas had to put a large hand on his shoulder to help him regain his balance. “The hell is going on?” Lucas said instead, brow furrowed.

The pair waded their way through the crowd that was steadily forming, squeezing past students whispering concerning questions of what’s going on and are they gonna fight. Mark ducked around a few squealing girls and found himself at the front of the crowd the students had formed, the back of who he now recognized to be Chungsoo’s facing him. Donghyuck was stood in front of Chungsoo, his stance exuding anger as he glared at the boy with fiery eyes. Donghyuck might have looked confident and strong, but Mark saw the tense lines of his shoulders, the way his hands were balled into fists at his sides but his fingers still nervously picked at his nails. He could fool Chungsoo and everyone else, but not Mark.  

Chungsoo spat insults at Donghyuck and Mark could hear the contempt in his voice. He could hear his voice, but he couldn’t make sense of any of the words as blood rushed in his ears and his heart pounded louder than he could think. That guy was messing with Donghyuck, his Donghyuck, again. Donghyuck wasn’t looking at him, but he could feel the burn of his gaze, the way his entire body looked ready to catch on fire at any moment.  

Then inexplicably, Donghyuck’s eyes did find Mark’s in the crowd, and Mark felt flames lick at his heart. Do something, the younger’s eyes seemed to be daring Mark. Do something, he challenged. But even as the back of his neck prickled and he felt muscles tense at the ready, he found himself rooted to the ground. He was only able to watch the scene unfold, as his own anger painted everything in shades of red.  

The tension was brimming, filling to the top and threatening to spill at any moment. Mark knew that soon enough Donghyuck and Chungsoo wouldn’t only be exchanging harsh words. He knew Donghyuck would act, could act, and shit would go terribly wrong. He begged that someone, anyone would do something, but he himself was unable to tear his eyes from Donghyuck, even when his burning gaze was no longer focused on Mark.  

But Yangyang – Yangyang, of all fucking people – suddenly pushed his way out of the crowd. He gave Mark a pointed glance – an exasperated one, really – and stalked his way forward, carrying himself with unexpected purpose that Mark didn’t know he was capable of. Still, he was practically vibrating with energy just like he had when Mark had last seen him, but this time it was so, so much more, if that was even possible. Energy practically radiated off of him, and if Mark wasn’t so distracted, his trained eye would have told him that Yangyang was manifesting energy just as strong as Johnny’s powers. 

By the time Mark could think and focus properly again, the incessant drumming of his heart returning to normal and the red haze of anger fading, Chungsoo had disappeared and Yangyang had an arm looped around Donghyuck’s shoulder. Yangyang made it look so simple, so easy. It didn’t feel like that to Mark, at least not right now. 

The crowd had grown tired of the lack of action by then, and Mark was forced to move away unless he wanted to be trampled over. He looked back once more, meeting Donghyuck’s eyes. They were cold embers, emotionless and dark. It caught Mark off guard, throwing him off balance, and he found himself unable to hold the younger’s gaze. He looked at Yangyang instead, the other boy tilted his head, as if asking Mark a question. It didn’t feel judgmental. Mark was grateful for that.

While sitting on the ground against the wall of the training room the next day, Mark had a revelation. Donghyuck was avoiding him. It took him a while to realize that, but the stark contrast of the younger’s affection before and sudden lack thereof was painfully obvious now. 

Upon making this discovery, Mark had a second revelation. He cared, very much so. He missed Donghyuck, the boy who liked to play video games with him until the sun rose and always cooked for him and would lay on the floor of the training room with him after particularly grueling sessions. Mark wasn’t quite sure what to do with this information his brain had supplied him with. 

“Just talk to him,” Renjun said. Had Mark been thinking out loud?

“Yes, you are,” the younger replied flatly, then burst out laughing at the face Mark made in response. Renjun then scrunched his face up in concentration, and promptly disappeared with a crack and a puff of light. He appeared a few meters away with another crack and puff of light. The pair had been training since they got home from school that day, and Renjun apparently still thought he needed more practice. Mark meanwhile, had flopped onto the ground and propped himself up against the wall, trying to cool down. 

When Renjun teleported again, Mark said, “you need a break, dude. You’ve been at it for hours.” 

“I’m trying to increase how many times I can go in a minute. My record is sixteen.” Renjun seemed very determined. “Anyways, Hyuckie.” It was more of a statement than a question. 

Mark sighed, leaning back and hitting his head on the wall in the process. He found it quite therapeutic and did it again. “I don’t know why he’s avoiding me.”

Renjun paused in his teleporting to give Mark the most judgmental look Mark had ever seen. “He told me about what happened in school,” Renjun prompted. 

Mark thought for a moment. “With Chungsoo?” He sighed and slumped against the wall. “I don’t know what happened to me. I wanted to do something – I swear, man – but I just couldn’t. I fucking couldn’t. And I feel like shit.” 

“Have you ever considered talking to Hyuck about it?” Renjun said after another crack resonated in the room.  

“I don’t think he wants to. I’ve tried asking him about it. Honestly, I think he’s handling it himself pretty well, and that shit’s only happened twice. Right?” 

“You’re a bit of an idiot.” A pause. “He ditched school today, you know. And he didn’t show up to training.” 

Mark did know, was painfully aware. “I guess Ten wasn’t here to train with him. Maybe Hyuck, like, annoyed him away with how he talked Ten’s ear off about his Nintendo dog last time they trained. Come to think of it, where has Ten been? I don’t see him around the house much these days–"

“You’re rambling. And don’t change the subject.” Another crack and a puff of light. 

“What!” Mark protested. “I don’t know what to do.” He sighed again. “Can I be honest? I just – I guess I just want to be normal. And I think that getting involved in my friend’s business – my metahuman friend’s business – isn’t very normal. And I feel like shit for saying that.”  

“Why is that, Mark? You keep your school life and your life here so separate. What’s so good about being normal?” 

Mark knew Renjun was right. He only hung out with Lucas, Hendery, and Xiaojun in school. He’d still talk to Donghyuck and Renjun and the others if he saw them, of course, but he wouldn’t go out of his way to find them. He did go out of his way, however, to maintain the fine line between his two lives. Why? 

“Please, just talk to him,” Renjun continued, “he’s being all emo, and an angsty Donghyuck is worse than a clingy one, you know that.” Mark did know that. “Just talk to him. If you don’t want to talk to him in school, then talk to him here. One of you has to start. Okay?” 

Mark wasn’t sure if Renjun expected an answer, but at that moment he teleported again, and a split second later he reappeared half inside the wall. His head and torso stuck out, and the bottom half of him was out of sight. Mark couldn’t help it, he laughed. It was a nervous laugh at first, coming from the tension and uncertainty remaining inside him from their conversation, but it quickly melted into genuine joy at the absurd distraction Renjun had presented him with. 

“Get me out of here!” Renjun planted him palms flat agains the wall and tried to heave himself out. It didn’t work. “Stop laughing, you fucker! Get Taeyong-hyung!” 

Chapter Text

Donghyuck didn’t show up to training the day after as well. So instead of dodging fireballs, Mark found himself fending off five Taeyongs in close combat. He wasn’t doing that well, to be honest, but he was making an admirable attempt, in his opinion. 

His neck prickling, Mark ducked away from one of Taeyong’s strikes, his arms then lifting automatically to block a different Taeyong’s kicks. Moving out of instinct, he twisted away then lunged forward to aim a blow at the first Taeyong. The blow landed on the older man’s side, and Taeyong gave a satisfied hum before another one of his duplicates launched a flurry of kicks at Mark. Mark managed to evade the attack, but the next hit him squarely in the chest and he fell back, landing on his ass. 

One of the Taeyongs extended a hand to Mark. “What’s up with you today?”

Grumbling, he took Taeyong’s hand and pulled himself up. What was up with him? His instincts were there, his senses heightened so that he could see almost every one of Taeyong’s moves coming. But his arms and legs felt like lead, like he was trying to wade through quicksand. It had felt like that that day in the cafeteria when he saw Donghyuck.  

“Hyung, do you think we’re normal?”

“No,” Taeyong answered simply. “Get back into your stance. Spread your weight evenly.” 

Mark bounced on the balls of his feet. “But should we be normal? Shouldn’t we want to?”

A Taeyong duplicate aimed a punch at Mark, but he darted away, putting his arms up to guard himself before throwing a punch of his own. While four of the Taeyongs continued to pummel him, one of them stepped away, raising a hand to his chin as if he were pondering. “No, Mark, because there’s no such thing as normal. Everyone’s born different, so what you have to do is be yourself, no matter what that may be.”

“But what if people don’t like who I really am?” Mark panted, dodging one of Taeyong’s kicks. 

The Taeyong speaking considered him with serene eyes. “They may not. They might criticize you. And they might be doing so with good reason, but the least you can do is try. Life is tough–” Mark made a successful jab and Taeyong gave another satisfied hum, which was interrupted by a huff from Mark when one of the duplicates retaliated with a hook and kick combination. “No, life isn’t tough. There are tough moments. There are people who make those moments tough. You can’t change that. But you can change how you look at them. You can choose to face them with your head held high and your fists up – no seriously, put your guard back up, Mark – and show them who you are. You can’t change who you are, but who you are is enough.”  

Mark took a hit to his stomach and staggered back – and not just from the force of the hit. Renjun was right, he really was an idiot. “It’s just so – so hard, hyung.” Mark wasn’t sure if he was surprised to hear the waver in his voice. 

Taeyong paused, all five of him considering Mark with softened eyes. His duplicates then merged back into one, and he crossed the distance between them with a few strides. He wrapped his arms around Mark, and at that moment Mark didn’t give a shit that they were both sweaty and gross, that he hadn’t gotten a hug from Taeyong in years, that he couldn’t make sense of any of his jumbled up thoughts. He felt like he belonged. 

“I know it is, Markie,” Taeyong murmured into his hair. “But the only way others will accept you for who you are is if you accept yourself. Come on, let’s get you down to dinner.” 

Keeping his arm around Mark, the older steered him out of the training room while two duplicates of him appeared to clean up the room. Typical Taeyong, Mark remotely thought while he numbly let him herd him out the door. Outside, at the medical station they had set up next to the training room in case of mishaps and emergencies, they found Taeil sitting with who Mark immediately recognized to be Donghyuck. The healer was tending to something on the younger boy’s face. Donghyuck turned when he heard them approaching, but quickly whipped back around just as fast. Mark only saw his face for a fraction of a second, but he had seen the remnants of bruising around Donghyuck’s eye, mostly already faded from Taeil’s ministrations. But there was no doubt that he had a black eye. Mark knew the younger hadn’t been training, plus no one would go as low as punching him in the face. So where had he gotten it from?  

Donghyuck shrunk into himself, shifting from side to side as he fiddled with his fingers under his sweater paws. Mark had never realized how small the boy could look. 

Taeyong kept guiding Mark along with a firm but comforting hand on his shoulder, and soon enough the pair had passed Donghyuck and Taeil. Glancing over his shoulder one more time, Mark met Donghyuck’s eyes. They were still glowing, ever so slightly. 

Mark found Dejun leaning against his locker the next morning at school. His friend was shifting his weight almost nervously, an apprehensive look on his face as his eyes roved over the throng of students making their way to their first class. Dejun’s eyes lit up when he saw Mark, though. 

“Hey, dude,” Mark greeted him as he spun the combination of his locker to grab his Math books. “You okay? You look kinda tense.”

Dejun practically flinched, his eyes snapping up to meet Mark’s. They were clouded with worry, and something else Mark thought looked familiar but couldn’t quite identify. “I’m alright. I just have a bad feeling.” 

“About what?”

“Oh, you know… just… things.”  

Mark gave him a look. This wasn’t quite abnormal, with how Dejun was a bit of neurotic mess anyways, but Mark could tell something was up. At least more up than normal. Dejun reached into his bag and thrust out a little Tupperware box of watermelon cubes. 

“For me? Dude, I love watermelon,” Mark grinned. 

“I know,” Dejun replied with a small smile, clasping his hands behind his back. He looked away from Mark briefly, eyes clouding over again, then shook his head slightly as if he was clearing it. “I’ll see you at lunch, okay? Don’t get into trouble.” 

“When have I ever gotten into–” Mark started to protest.

Dejun arched an eyebrow. “You literally got into detention–” 

“Okay, man, okay!” Mark waved a dismissive hand to dispel the bad vibes of detention. 

His friend laughed, his frame visibly relaxing. “I’ll see you later, dumbass.” He gave Mark’s shoulder a pat and headed down the hallway. “I’m serious though!” he called over his shoulder. “Don’t do anything dumb! I’ll know!”

Despite the slightly ominous start to his day, Mark thought it was going pretty well. He got to partner with Lucas for their Math project, and actually understood his Chemistry class. He might’ve embarrassed himself a bit in English by stumbling over a passage he had to read – ironic, really – but he didn’t get into any trouble, contrary to what Dejun had seemed to believe. Plus, the watermelon his friend had brought him was really sweet. 

Mark saw Dejun next at their lunch table, huddled up with Lucas and Hendery in deep discussion. They stopped abruptly when Mark neared their table, and Dejun immediately smiled widely and patted the seat next to him. He threw an almost uncharacteristic arm around Mark when Mark sat down. 

“What’re you guys talking about?” Mark asked. Subtle. 

The three of them glanced at each other briefly, before Hendery piped up, “Lucas has something he wants to tell you–” Lucas promptly elbowed him. And Mark thought he wasn’t subtle. He vaguely recalled Lucas saying that he wanted to tell Mark something that day in the cafeteria before Donghyuck and Chungsoo’s confrontation had distracted them.  

“I – uh…” Lucas stretched back to scratch the back of his neck, the motion causing a few stray feathers from his jacket to fall to the ground. “I was just wondering if you wanted to come to mine after school to hang out! Hendery could bring his Nintendo switch!” 

Hendery gave Lucas a strange look that Mark was pretty sure was mirrored in his own eyes as well. “I don’t think I’m free today?” His voice trailed up in confusion. 

Lucas shrugged easily, his laid-back demeanor returning slightly. “That’s okay, man. Next time.” 

Hendery hurriedly launched into a recounting of something funny that had happened during his Physics class and they fell back into their usual rhythm, smoothing over the sudden strangeness. Lucas and Hendery seemed have quickly forgotten about whatever Lucas had wanted to tell Mark, and Mark would’ve forgotten about it as well if Dejun wasn't glancing over his shoulder every few minutes. His friend would laugh along with whatever the others were saying, then zone out for a while before looking around. His movements were small, only turning his head ever so slightly to get a glimpse of whatever he was looking for, but his arm was still wrapped around Mark and Mark felt every little shift. 

“Hey Mark, do you want anything else to eat?” Dejun asked. “Ice cream or chips or something?”

“Get him ketchup chips!” Lucas supplied.

Mark laughed. He hated ketchup. “They don’t sell ketchup chips here,” he huffed at the old joke. 

“I’ll get you regular chips,” Dejun decided, patting Mark on his head as he stood up. 

“Why’re you being so nice to me today?” Mark asked with a laugh, only half-joking.

Dejun just smiled at him as he departed for the snacks counter. He suddenly froze mid-step, his frame tensing, the movement abrupt. He whirled around with wide eyes clouded over with confusion and that now-familiar something else. And just as he opened his mouth to speak, the fire alarm sounded, blaring loud and ringing in Mark’s ears. 

Yelling erupted in the cafeteria as everyone scrambled for the exit, worried shouts mixed in with tentative whoops of excitement at the prospect of skipping class for a fire drill. Mark knew it wasn’t a drill. He could feel it, prickling at the back of his neck. As he filed out with everyone, he only hoped that all his friends would get out safe, that Donghyuck– 

Donghyuck. Fire. 

Something was wrong. Something was very wrong; everything in him screamed at him to find Donghyuck and make sure he was alright. 

“Mark!” Dejun shouted over the chaos of students in the cafeteria. “He’s upstairs! In the Bio lab!” His friend's eyes were still clouded over, but Mark identified what he couldn’t before. Beneath the gray of his eyes, Mark saw the sharp focus, the adamant certainty. Dejun knew. Just as how he knew that Donghyuck was in the quad that afternoon with Chungsoo, how he knew something would happen since that morning when he showed up at Mark’s locker.  

Giving Dejun a firm nod, Mark turned on his heels and ran, ran towards the stairs for the Biology lab. He vaguely heard Lucas yell for him to wait, vaguely saw his friends try to push past the crowd to follow him in his peripheral. But he kept running. His body kicked into autopilot, his legs pumping and carrying him with energy he didn’t know he had.  

A cough wracked his chest as he skid around a corner, smoke suddenly filling his lungs. He was getting close. He sprinted down the hallway and began to hear yelling, the sound of it crescendoing as he neared the lab. The door to the classroom was on fucking fire, the flames burning through the wood and licking at the edges of the walls. Mark prayed that Donghyuck was alright. Pulling his shirt up to cover his nose and mouth, he took a deep breath and plunged past the fire into the lab. 

Sure enough, Mark found Donghyuck facing Chungsoo, just as he had seen them twice before. Donghyuck’s hands were alight with flames and he was yelling words that would’ve made Taeyong smack him if he heard. Chungsoo’s face was contorted with an ugly sneer, a hateful condescending smirk. His stance was lazy enough, but Mark could detect a tenseness to his shoulders that told him Chungsoo’s indifference was feigned. A fight was going to break out. 

“Hey!” Mark yelled. He wasn’t really sure what he was going to say or do next. Good idea, Mark. 

“Oh it’s your little boyfriend, Donghyuck,” Chungsoo jeered. Mark hated the way Donghyuck’s name sounded on the bully tongue. “Has he come to protect you?”  

“If you think he needs protecting then I’m sorry to tell you, you’re wrong,” Mark answered, his voice low as he slowly moved into the room, making his way towards Donghyuck. 

Chungsoo scoffed. “I’m so tired of this. Let’s end this one and for all, yeah?” 

He thrust out a hand, and a table rose off the ground – a fucking table flew through the air towards Mark. Chungsoo was a metahuman. Oh, that made things just a bit harder. The hair on the back of Mark’s neck stood on end and he instinctively rolled to the side, the table sailing past him. At the same time, the table was engulfed in flames, burning to a crisp. Mark whirled around to see Donghyuck standing behind him, a hand cast out, a small grin pulling at the corners of his lips. 

“You came.”

Mark pulled Donghyuck down with him before a set of test tubes crashed against the wall next to them and they huddled behind one of the lab’s workstations. “Of course I did,” Mark answered. The words that he hadn’t been able to find all week came easily now. “And I’m sorry I didn’t before. But I’m here now. And I’ll always be.” It probably wasn’t his best attempt at winning back Donghyuck’s favor, but it was the best he could do at the moment, with lab equipment flying over his head and Donghyuck’s touch burning where they were holding hands. 

Donghyuck considered him with fierce, glowing eyes. After a moment, he beamed, satisfied with Mark’s fumbling words. A grin broke across his face, and he was absolutely shining. “What do you say, Mark Lee? Let’s take this son of a fucking bitch.” 

Mark couldn’t help but grin back. Without another word, Mark slid out from behind the workstation and charged at Chungsoo. Without giving him time to react, he launched into a hook and kick combination he had learned from Taeyong, his attack landing square in Chungsoo’s stomach. The other boy doubled back, before narrowing his eyes and pushing his hand out, causing a textbook to hurl through the air at him. The book quickly caught on fire, the flames then swirling through the air and forcing Chungsoo to step back. Before he could recover, Mark advanced again with a flurry of punches. It was like all the countless times he and Donghyuck had trained together. The rhythm was still there, the two of them perfectly in time with each other. 

“Just like old times, huh?” Mark called over his shoulder.

“What do you mean old times I train with you everyday!” Donghyuck hollered back as he cast out an arc of flames.  

“You didn’t show up to training this week!”

“Fuck you, Mark Lee!” 

Feeling a tickle at the back of his head, Mark dodged another projectile and went in for a kick, wincing when Chungsoo managed to return a hit that struck Mark’s shoulder. 

“Why are you doing this?” Mark demanded when Chungsoo cast his hands out again. “You’re a meta, just like us.” 

Chungsoo scoffed. “It’s people like you two that I hate,” he sneered as he attacked again. "Your little friend is so fucking proud of his mutation, like it’s something he should be grateful for. That’s not how the world fucking works. They don’t care about us because we’re not normal. You shouldn’t have these powers. I shouldn’t. You need to fucking understand that.” His last words with punctuated with a forceful punch and Mark doubled back when it hit him. 

“If you don’t accept who you are no one else will,” Mark told him, remembering what Taeyong had said. He stayed light on his feet and kept his fists up, just as Taeyong had taught him to. He closed in for an upward jab. 

“Save your bullshit!” Chungsoo roared.  

Perhaps Mark really should’ve saved his words, because he seemed to have touched a nerve. Chungsoo thrusted both arms out, and the whole room shook. The tremor caused lab equipment and books to fall off shelves, the sound of crashing and thudding filling the room. Mark saw Donghyuck fall to the ground and turned to rush towards him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Chungsoo cast a hand out again. A cloud of broken glass rose to his will and streaked through the air, straight towards Donghyuck. No. Mark threw himself forward to push Donghyuck out of the way.  

But for all of his enhanced speed, he wasn’t fast enough. As he sprinted to Donghyuck, his heightened senses made it seem as though the glass was sailing through the air in slow motion, slow enough that Mark could see its trajectory, so clearly aimed at the boy crouched on the ground. He wasn’t fast enough. In the next split second, the shards buried themselves into Donghyuck’s leg, and he screamed. 

In an instant, Mark whirled on Chungsoo. There was a light of satisfaction in his eyes, but Mark could see fear creeping in as well. “What the fuck did you do.” That was Donghyuck, his Donghyuck. Adrenaline was coursing through his veins and he could feel his muscles tense, ready to move at any moment. His vision was becoming hazy, his mind zeroing in on Chungsoo and his anger and nothing else, losing focus of his surroundings. He couldn’t think straight, but Mark knew that he could trust his body, the powers he had honed through training for hours every day. His powers were a part of him. So he let himself act, moving out of trained instinct and following the prickle at the back of his neck. 

By the time Mark’s mind caught up to his body, Chungsoo was on the ground, knocked out cold. Well, that was satisfactory. 

Mark rushed towards Donghyuck, propping his head up on his lap. “We need to get you out of here. We’ll go back home, Taeil can heal you. Don’t worry, okay? Does it hurt? Oh my god it must hurt.” The words kept spilling out of his mouth, uncontrollable. 

Donghyuck smiled. “You’re a bit of a dumbass, Mark Lee.” His breathing sounded labored, but if he could still call Mark names Mark decided that he must still be fine. 

“Shut up, I’m here, aren’t I?”

Donghyuck tried to shove him lightly, but Mark just grabbed both of his hands and held them in his own. “Do you still wanna be normal, Mark Lee? ‘Cause I thought we were pretty fucking cool just now, fighting like a team. That’s not normal.” He smiled again. “Fuck normal,” he added as an afterthought. 

“Fuck normal,” Mark repeated with a laugh. Donghyuck was right, he realized. 

Running his thumb along Donghyuck’s hand, Mark reached his other hand up to card through the younger’s hair, smoothing it out of his face. Donghyuck’s eyes slipped shut and he sighed. His skin was warm under Mark’s touch, and he was glowing. Mark hadn’t seem him like this in a while; he’d missed it. Donghyuck shifted, trying to push himself up to sit, so Mark quickly supported him, letting Donghyuck lean on him to steady himself. The small smile Donghyuck gave him made him feel warm inside. Or maybe that was just Donghyuck’s burning touch. Mark couldn’t be sure. 

Donghyuck tilted his chin up slightly to look at Mark. Mark definitely felt warm inside. Once again, his mind zeroed in, unable to focus on anything except the other boy’s eyes, dancing with flames. He blinked once and found his hand slotted into the space where Donghyuck’s jaw ended. Donghyuck didn’t look away, his eyes fixed on Mark as if he were daring him, challenging him. 

“Look out!” A voice cut through the silence, bursting their little bubble.

Eyes snapping up, Mark found Chungsoo awake, his hand cast out, but his whole body was frozen, his jaw agape as he stared at something behind Mark. Mark turned around and what he saw made him mirror Chungsoo’s expression. 

It was Dejun and Lucas. Dejun’s eyes were cloudy, filled with that sharp, certain focus and sense of knowing that Mark had seen earlier. Beside him, Lucas hovered in the air, his wings spread out behind him. They were  as big as him, spread wide and fanning slowly, each feather so white his wings practically glowed. So that was why Mark kept finding fucking feathers on his friend. It was Dejun and Lucas, and a fucking tiger, growling at Dejun’s feet. It was absolutely terrifying and so out of place, but at the same time Mark thought he recognized the glint of mischief in the animal’s eyes. He couldn't believe his eyes.  

“You’re outnumbered, man, give up,” Lucas said, glaring at Chungsoo, who looked like he was torn between using his telekinesis to launch textbooks at the others or cowering in fear – understandably so. 

“You’re all a bunch of misfits.” 

Mark looked at his friends, at Donghyuck. “Yeah, we are. So what?”

Lucas, Dejun, and Hendery sat to one side of their lunch table while Donghyuck sat on Mark’s other side. No one said anything, but Mark could tell the silence was far from awkward. Dejun was smiling at Donghyuck, Hendery grinning, and Lucas was downright smirking at Mark while wiggling his eyebrows. Donghyuck considered his friends with his chin tilted upwards, as if he were sizing them up. Mark was left looking back and forth between his friends, between the two sides of his life. 

“So,” he coughed. Smooth. At least he made everyone laugh. 

“So!” Lucas repeated with a laugh, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table. “Donghyuck! Man, your powers are so cool! Mark talks about you all the time but he never quite mentioned that part.” 

“No I don’t,” Mark spluttered. Donghyuck elbowed him, but visibly sat up straighter and beamed. 

“How long have you had your powers?” Dejun asked him. 

“Since I was five,” Donghyuck replied proudly. “What about you?”

“I was eight. I foresaw that my friend would walk into a glass door. Needless to say, he was pretty confused when I started screaming at him. He still walked into the door, though,” Dejun said with a laugh. 

“We like to say that he has the most heroic manifestation story,” Hendery whispered to Donghyuck conspiratorially. 

“How many animals can you turn into?” Donghyuck asked Hendery, leaning over Mark so that he could hear the other boy better. 

“I think I’m at thirty eight right now.” 

“He pulls off a donkey the best though,” Dejun told Donghyuck. “He already looks like one.” Dejun laughed triumphantly at the face Hendery pulled at him. 

The conversation took off smoothly into a discussion about the merits and drawbacks of their powers, with Lucas trying to brag while Dejun pointed out how he always complained about his feathers getting everywhere. Honestly, Mark wasn’t even surprised that Donghyuck fit in with his friends so well. The younger had always had the talent of knowing what to say, and he’d quickly picked up on how to work himself into the rhythm of their conversation. Soon enough, it felt like Donghyuck had always been friends with them, like there had never been a line drawn between Mark’s lives.

Mark tuned back into their conversation when he heard his name. 

“–he’s got a spidey sense? Mark you’re basically Spider-Man!”

“Exactly. Spider-Mark,” Donghyuck said, smug, as if he’d proved his point. 

“You know I can’t shoot webs right.” 

“That’s okay,” Donghyuck replied, “Mark can shoot other white stuff–”

Mark slapped a hand over Donghyuck’s mouth, then yelped. “Did you just lick me?” 

His friends broke out into laughter, the sound of Lucas’ especially boisterous. Yeah, Donghyuck fit right in. 

Later, as they were on their way out of the cafeteria, Lucas fell into step beside Mark. “Hey dude,” he said. “Yesterday in the Bio lab. You and Donghyuck were totally about to kiss, weren’t you.” 

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” Mark huffed, turning away so that his best friend wouldn’t see the heat rushing to his cheeks. But with how well Lucas knew him, he probably didn’t need to see to know. 

Mark looked up just in time to see Renjun, Jaemin, and Jeno at their lunch table. Jeno’s head rested on Jaemin’s shoulder, while Renjun scrolled through his phone, seemingly indifferent at their affection. When Renjun spotted Mark, he gave him a big thumbs up. Remembering their conversation that day in the training room, Mark smiled back. One day, he would introduce them to his other friends as well. From a nearby table, Yangyang winked at Mark. Yangyang too. There wouldn’t be anymore lines dividing his life. 

Mark felt a prickle at the back of his head as fire engulfed Donghyuck’s hand, the flames licking up his wrist. By the time Donghyuck struck out and the ball of fire soared through the air like a miniature sun, Mark was already in motion, dodging to the side before the projectile even got close to him. Across the training room, Donghyuck gave him a smirk before raising both hands, a wave of fire arcing towards Mark. Pausing to ready himself, he eyeballed the height of the flames, but didn’t think too much into it. He trusted his body. He sprinted forward with his mind clear, and before he knew it he had launched himself into the air, sailing forward and executing a dive roll over the wall of fire. Donghyuck whooped when he hit the ground running, and Mark let out a laugh as well. 

“That was even higher than last time!” Donghyuck exclaimed, pointing at the wave of fire. 

“One day you’re gonna reach my limit and I’m literally gonna burn to death.” 

“Well that day isn’t today! You were amazing!” 

If Mark felt heat creeping into his cheeks, he was ignoring it. He laughed instead, reaching over to shove the younger boy. Donghyuck dodged him easily out of habit, dancing away while cheering. Sitting on the ground against the wall, Mark took a drink from his water bottle, leaning his head against the wall. He let his eyes slip shut. It was moments like these when he felt completely in his element, using his powers, being with Donghyuck. He heard Donghyuck settle down on the ground beside him. 

Mark felt a tickle at the back of his neck and held up his fists automatically, effectively knocking away the hand Donghyuck had been reaching out with. The other boy yelped. “Jeez! I’m just trying to hold your hand.” 

“Oh! I–” Mark spluttered, feeling himself blush, much to his chagrin. 

Donghyuck just grinned and reached out again, intertwining his fingers with Mark’s. His hand was warm and Mark felt himself melt inside. When he looked up to meet Donghyuck’s eyes, they were glowing with bright flames. Mark felt himself smile. All the tension in him was dissolving, everything else melting away until it was just Mark and Donghyuck. Before his mind caught up with his body, his other hand was sliding up to cup Donghyuck’s face lightly. The other boy’s skin was burning against his. When the other boy didn’t stop him, he leaned in slightly.

“Are you going to kiss me, Mark Lee?” Donghyuck murmured, his voice impossibly soft. 

“Is that okay?”

And then in the next moment, Donghyuck’s lips were on his, just the barest brush, gentle and almost shy. Mark wanted to laugh at the thought of Donghyuck being shy, but his mind was unable to focus on anything apart from the warmth filling his heart. Yes, the kiss was awkward, tentative, chaste, but they would get better at it – together, like how they did everything else. 

“Mark?” Donghyuck whispered, his lips still so close to Mark’s.

“Yeah?"

“What if we did the spider-man kiss?"