#elf Felix | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kimistorm · 7 months

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The Forest Calls

➢ pairing: Human! Lee Felix x Forest elf! Reader x slight! Forest elf! Hwang Hyunjin

➢ genre: romance, fantasy, soul mate vibes

➢ warnings: Descriptions of injuries

➢ word count: 6.6 k

The warm, yellow sun filtered through the green leaves on the trees, dappling the brown ground below with gentle golden spots. You were lightly making your way through the forest floor, careful to not trip over roots or fallen logs or step on any saplings. Earlier, you heard the worried murmurs of an intruder in the forest, and you couldn’t keep your curiosity at bay. So you made an excuse and slipped out to find out what happened. The birds around you chirped in what seemed to be a joyful way to any average listener, but you could hear the hidden message. Whoever the intruder was, they were still here.

The forest seemed to still, and that’s when you knew you were close. The animals feared whoever was intruding on their home and quickly fled. Even the wind seemed to pause and the rustling of leaves was nonexistent. But the sun shone down as constant as ever, perfectly illuminating the blond boy who was collapsed conveniently in the middle of a clearing.

Even from your position at the edge of the clearing, you could see he was hurt, and it took a lot of self control to keep yourself from rushing straight to him and healing him on the spot. Humans from the towns at the edge of the forest knew nothing about the elves living amongst the trees. That was on purpose. It took compliance from every elf in the forest to keep your existence a secret, you wouldn’t want to be the one found breaking that rule.

You carefully skirted around the edges, keeping an eye on his fallen form. You could see from his ears that he was human, but unlike many of the humans who you often avoided, he didn’t have a bow and arrow to his form. A quick glance showed the torn up trail that came from him. From the crushed plants and spots of red dotting them, it was clear he was the cause, and that he was badly injured.

His body was heaving faster than you would’ve expected for someone who was laying that still, but a glance at his crunched face showed he was in pain. You bit your lip, it was against the code to interact with a human, but he looked so innocent and broken, that you wouldn’t be able to leave him alone.

With a glance to check that nobody else was around (and giving a warning glare to the blue-jay on the branch who quickly flew away), you eased forward into the clearing. Your eyes continuously flicked between his fallen form and where you were stepping to make sure you weren’t going to step on any branches and snap them.

When you were within range, you carefully smoothed down the hair on his head, brushing away the strands falling in front of his eyes with a slightly glowing hand that shed sparkles of light. He didn’t move, but his face relaxed. You couldn’t help but smile at that. His face had a soft, youthful quality to it, and you were glad to see it no longer in pain.

You started at his hands and arms. The short-sleeved shirt he was wearing did little to protect his arms and hands from the sharp branches in the forest, resulting in many lacerations that were already starting to clot. It wasn’t the most concerning, but you liked seeing the angry red scratches disappear after a few moments with your magic. You then moved to his legs, where you could see a growing spot of blood on his shorts covering his knee, and the red liquid trickling down his calf. You couldn’t do anything to clean off the blood (other than splash water on it, which you didn’t have), so you focused on the open wound. It took longer than the scratches to close up, but you easily healed the wound. Both legs were dotted with bruises, so you set forth with healing those as well, knowing that touching them would bring pain.

The rest of his body was covered and simple shoes were adorning his feet, without knowing where or what his other injuries were, you couldn’t do anything to heal them, so with a satisfied hum, you sat back onto your heels and glanced at his face, only to shriek and fall backwards when you saw brown eyes staring back at you.

There was a silence between the two of you. He was looking up at you with wide, shocked eyes, while yours stared back in fear. Brushing his hair down earlier should’ve kept him asleep, but clearly something went amiss. Your hands started to tremble as you thought about your next course of action, you’d have to wipe his memory. He could certainly see your pointed ears, and if that wasn’t enough proof that you weren’t human, the healing work that you were doing was a clear indicator.

He was the one to break the silence first, “who are you?”

“I’m nobody,” you quickly responded, not wanting to give him any information.

“Did you-” he experimentally flexed his wrist and looked in shock at the unblemished skin on his arms, “did you heal my injuries?”

You nodded, no point in lying to him when the proof was literally ingrained into him, “are there any places I missed?” you were this far in anyways, may as well go all the way. He gaped at you, still not comprehending what was happening to him. The silence stretched on uncomfortably, with you gazing at him expectantly, and him frozen in shock. “Anything?” you prodded, trying to snap him out of his stupor, “bruises? Open wounds?”

He blinked his eyes and vigorously shook his head, “nothing you need to worry about.” The words were mumbled under his breath, but you could easily hear the words that you weren’t sure were supposed to reach your ear.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s anything small,” you cautiously put a reassuring hand on his shin, “I just want to help.”

He ducked his head in embarrassment, “well, I.” He shook his head again, “don’t worry about me, you’ve done plenty already.”

Your brow furrowed. From the stories you heard, humans were generally greedy creatures. They were eager for magic and easily took advantage of anything and everything. You couldn’t help but inwardly smile at your gut feeling, whoever this kid was, he was a good boy. “What’s your name?” you gently asked and his eyes widened in fear. “Don’t worry,” you reassured with a smile as you took a guess as to what he was scared about, “I’m not a fae. I won’t take your name.”

He slowly nodded and allowed his defensive posture to loosen, “Felix.”

You smiled brightly, “it’s nice to meet you Felix! What were the other places where you’re injured?” Once again, he shook his head vehemently.

“I appreciate your help, but you should leave me alone, I’m sure you have more pressing matters to deal with.” His eyes were kept turned to his hands that were nervously playing with each other.

You couldn’t help your small frown, the more you talked to Felix, the more you wanted to help him. “But we’re friends!” there was a twinge of guilt from you as you tried another approach to getting him to open up, but in your mind, this was just a few words. It wouldn’t do any harm.

Rightfully so, he looked at you with a distrusting look, “I don’t even know your name.”

You tried to keep your face passive. The fae were right to some degree, names had power, and giving him your name, or even a name, would make it that much harder to remove his memory. You would no longer be another nameless face, “(y/n).” You replied after a moment’s hesitation.

A small smile finally broke on his face, “it’s nice to meet you (y/n).”

You grinned back, “same goes to you!”

After the silence dragged on again, and Felix definitely noticed you pointedly looking at parts of his body that you couldn’t heal, he sighed quietly. “I have some bruises on my back, and a cut on my side.”

Your eyes widened as you noticed the red spot on his shirt, how did you miss that before? Now that you knew what you were dealing with, you leaned forward to hover your glowing hands over his body. He watched you in frozen fascination, still not believing what was happening, but he couldn’t deny it. The aching in his back faded away, and the stinging in his side silenced.

He let out a big sigh of relief that he didn’t know he had. Now that the pain was gone, it felt like a huge load of tension just rolled off his shoulders, “thank you.” You could hear the genuine tone in his voice and you felt your heart grow.

“Any last wounds?” you asked carefully, you wanted to make sure you finished your job, but you couldn’t help wanting to drag this moment out just a little longer. Something about him made you feel calm and warm, even though you hardly knew him. He shook his head, opting to remain silent.

You bit your lip, you didn't want to do it, but to protect everyone, you had to. Without another word, you leaned forward to place your hands on his head. The soft golden glow from your hands changed to an icy blue with crystal flecks accompanying it.

Felix’s eyes widened and he yelped, all of your other magic didn’t require you touching him, so why was this different? And why were your hands blue now? Even in his shocked state, he was able to come up with some reasonable conclusion. If stories of elves were unheard of (save for the fantastical stories nobody remotely believed were true), then that meant elves were capable of a special kind of magic. “Are you going to wipe my memories?” the fear in his eyes had returned. He didn’t want to lose you. You were such a kind soul and he felt safe in your presence. To not even have a memory of the gentle soul who took care of him seemed cruel.

“Sorry.” You blocked your ears from his protests as you focused on your magic. His eyes took on a glazed look and you focused on removing all images of you, your name, all thoughts of elves in the forest, and all feelings of magical healing. Satisfied with your work, you quickly pulled away and hid in the trees. Your green outfit aided you as you climbed up to hide within the leaves that provided you with enough cover to avoid being seen, but allowed you to carefully watch the boy.

After a few moments, he blinked and shook his head to clear his foggy mind. He looked around in bewilderment, but not in a way as if he was looking for you, but in a way to get ahold of his surroundings. To your relief, he shrugged it off and followed the trampled trail that he created earlier.

“You did what?” Hyunjin’s eyes widened in shock and you rushed to clap a hand over his mouth to keep him from screaming anymore.

“Not so loud!” you hissed back at him, your eyes narrowed to emphasize your point.

He nodded as he peeled your hand off his face, “that’s super dangerous!” he continued in a hushed whisper.

You groaned and rested your head in your hands, “I know, but I couldn’t just leave him there! He looked our age Jinnie.”

“Then he’s old enough to take care of himself,” he crossed his arms and shook his head disappointingly at you.

“Would you have left a hurt person to fend for themselves?” you pleaded with him, hoping he saw your point.

He let out a sigh, but you knew from that sound that you got a point. He was about as kind-hearted as you and also hated seeing others in pain. “We both know my memory wiping skills are better than yours.”

You coughed in embarrassment, “yeah.”

“Just,” he sighed and rubbed his face, “don’t see him again, yeah. We don’t want that to undo the work you did. He might be young and naive, but that doesn’t mean he won’t tell anyone.” You nodded in agreeance.

Once again, the birds were chirping about an intruder in the forest. This time, you were already out of the haven, doing your part for the forest by going around and fixing broken trees and giving seedlings a little push of energy to keep growing. You were glad you had your bow on you, from the panicked chirps, it seemed like this intruder wasn’t very friendly.

The animals easily told you everything they knew, and it wasn’t long until you were lightly running through the forest after the intruder. Yes, you specialized in healing and growth, but that didn’t mean you were totally defenseless. If this intruder needed to be scared off, you were more than prepared to do so.

You felt, rather than heard the forest still and you slowed your pace to match the atmosphere. You quietly moved forward to find your target, your hand millimeters away from the ground as black smoke rose from the ground underneath your fingertips and started to form a wispy bear that would hopefully scare off whoever it was.

You saw a patch of blond hair and knew you found your target. You peered past leaves and your breath hitched when you saw mulleted blond hair that you recognized. You must’ve let out an audible gasp as he turned around and stared straight at you. There was a moment of silence, you were too scared to move, and then your worst fears came true, “(y/n)?”

You ran.

You heard him yelling your name and stumbling after you, snapping twigs and getting smacked with branches. You fared better. Living your entire life in the forest meant you mastered the art of lightly running through the trees without getting hit in the face, and before long, you left him behind.

Luckily, even through your panic, your feet guided you towards the edge of the forest which would hopefully lead Felix out and nowhere near your haven. “(y/n)?” you spun around at the sound of the concerned voice and saw Hyunjin’s lithe form sliding down one of the trees. A bow was also strapped around his back and it was clear he was doing a round of the border of the forest to make sure humans weren’t destroying your home. “What happened?”

“He saw me again.” You answered a little breathlessly.

Hyunjin was quick to catch on and worriedly shook his head, his eyes wide open in shock, “did he recognize you?” you shamefully nodded. There was no denying that it was your name that fell out of Felix’s lips. “No, no, no, (y/n) this is bad.”

“I know!” you couldn’t help but throw your arms in defeat, “but what can I do?”

“Did you just,” Hyunjin jerked a thumb in the direction of the heart of the forest, “leave him there?” you nodded again, this time a bit more sheepishly, and he facepalmed. “We need to find him before someone else does.” He started briskly and began to quickly walk in the direction that you came, “if he tells them he’s looking for you, you’re in big trouble.” He added over his shoulder as you ran to catch up to him.

“Are you going to wipe his memory this time?” you asked quietly as the two of you watched for the blond.

“Yes.” There was a sinking feeling in your heart and you looked away in sadness, not that he noticed. But this was weird. Why were you feeling sad about this? This was the right decision, and you didn’t want him to remember you. Right? That was why you ran. But there was a flutter in your heart when you saw he recognized you. Or was that fear? And maybe, you knew that your memory repairs would be decent at best, which was why you were okay with doing it to Felix, because there was a chance he’d remember you. If Hyunjin did it, there’d be no coming back. He’s just too good. You glanced over to your best friend. The serious look on his face looked out of place. He was normally so smiley and ethereal, it was strange to see such a cold expression. You really messed up this time.

It didn’t take long to find Felix, though you were definitely aided by the birds. He was carefully treading through the forest, eyes wide open as he searched around for something.

“Stay here,” Hyunjin commanded as he pointed at you. You stiffened at his serious tone and froze in place, for once, obeying his request. He gave a flick of his wrist and his hand held a glowing blue ball that was giving off tiny white shards. Using his other hand to push aside the bush blocking the two of you from Felix’s sight, he stepped into Felix’s view.

You didn’t blame Felix for yelping in fright, and you felt your heart clench when you heard Felix’s pleas. He was begging for Hyunjin to not wipe his memories and asking for you. You leaned against the nearest tree, held your hands to your ears and screwed your eyes shut. You couldn’t bare to witness this.

It felt like an eternity until you felt a hand gently brush your shoulder. You opened your eyes and looked up to see Hyunjin giving you a sad smile and extending a hand out to you to help you to your feet. “I’m sorry,” he murmured as he pulled you to your feet.

There was a choke and a quiver to your voice as you responded, “I understand.” you risked glancing past him to see Felix sitting in a daze. His eyes still glazed over as he stared unblinkingly at the tree in front of him.

“Come on, let’s go.” Hyunjin coaxed in a soft voice as he gently pulled your arm away. Your eyes were still on Felix until he was completely hidden by the bushes and trees. It felt like you left him in a state that was hardly better than the one when you first met him.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know.”

“I didn’t know what else to do.”

“I know.”

“I thought I was doing what was right.”

“I know.”

There was a hesitant pause, and Hyunjin’s pleading tone melted into a scared one, “are you mad at me?”

“No.” You sighed and turned towards your black haired friend who was looking apprehensively at you and nervously playing with his fingers. “I understand why you did it, I just,” you let out a groan and buried your face in your hands, “I don’t know why I’m so upset.” You pulled you knees up to your chest and morosely laid your head on them. Hyunjin moved to sit closer to you and began rubbing your back reassuringly, the same way he’s always done it since the two of you were kids.

You couldn’t seem to forget the blond human who accidentally trampled his way into your life. Even though as far as you knew, he hasn’t set foot in the forest since Hyunjin met him, you still kept on seeing his face in your dreams. You could hear his pained voice calling for you, and could see a saddened look on his face, but no matter what you did, he was always just barely out of reach. As soon as you got close to him, he would disappear. “I keep on seeing him in my dreams.” You quietly confessed into your knees, but Hyunjin heard it, and the reassuring rubs froze.

“You keep on seeing him?” Hyunjin echoed, and while you couldn’t see it as your eyes were trained on he ground in front of you, there was a touch of fear creeping into Hyunjin’s eyes.

“Yeah.”

“(y/n),” there was a serious edge to his voice and he moved himself to make eye contact with you, “you didn’t accidentally bond with him, did you?”

You shook your head, nearly aghast at the thought, “no way!” you awkwardly laughed as you avoided his gaze and mumbled, “how does one even go about that anyways.”

“That’s the thing!” Hyunjin grabbed you to make you face him. As you searched his face, you saw mainly fear, but also a glimmer of excitement, and was that guilt? “Nobody really knows, so maybe that’s what you did! The elders always say that’s the magic of love.” He couldn’t help but bite out the last line. Even among elf standards, Hyunjin looked ethereal, and several other elves threw themselves (figuratively and literally) at him in attempts to bond. None of them ever worked, much to the dismay of the others. In some ways, it gave Hyunjin a bit of relief, knowing he had some kind of barrier to shield himself from their feelings, but in other ways, it made him resent it.

You frowned, “don’t these things happen between elves?”

“Typically.”

“I thought you didn’t believe in it.” You pointedly stared at him and did nothing to hide the accusing tone in your voice.

“It’s my only suggestion as to why you have this kid in your mind 24/7.”

“I have you on my mind 24/7 too.” You pouted quietly and looked away from him again, not really wanting him to hear your words.

But his hearing was too sharp, and he easily heard what you were trying to hide, “you do?” the shock in his voice made you turn back around to see black eyes widened in disbelief, jaw dropped in shock, and a hand slowly coming up to hide his mouth.

You smiled shyly, “ever since you left on the mission to the forest near Sancheong.”

Hyunjin’s voice was breathless, “but that’s been years.” You nodded with the same shy smile on your face, not trusting your voice.

“I’ve had you on my mind all the time too,” he rushed out to say, “since a little before then.”

“Do you think we maybe,” your words trailed breathlessly. You didn’t want to say it to risk breaking the friendship you had, but the excited gleam in his eyes reassured you.

“I don’t know,” his hands clutched at yours, “but I’d like to find out.”

You sighed when you saw Felix in a bowl-like clearing. Just like every other time you met him, he would turn around and either plead or scream at you. Both the result of you (and Hyunjin) wiping his memories. You would try to apologize, rush to give him a sincere hug and heal the cuts on his face, wishing you could do something to heal the wounds in his heart, but he wold always fade away right before you got to him. Which left you grasping at thin air. You were tired of chasing after him, so you decided to ask him from the start, “are you going to disappear on me again?”

“Again?” his figure spun around in shock and dark eyes squinted in confusion.

Oh. “Guess not.” You hummed, more to yourself than him as you sat down on one of the rocks and watched him from your position slightly above him.

“You’re that elf!” he pointed a finger wildly at you, eyes open in shock and mouth working on stumbled words, “the one from my dreams!”

“Your what?”

Hands went up to his hair in frustration, “I keep on seeing you in my dreams and I have no idea why! As soon as I try to find out more about you, you just run away!”

“No!” you stood up from the rock to unleash some of your anger, “you’re the one who keeps disappearing! Why beg for me to come back when you just leave?”

“What are you talking about?” his bewildered shout sent a few birds cawing and taking flight from one of the branches.

“This is not a dream.” You gasped and you had to sit back down before your legs gave out.

He nearly scoffed, “yeah, I can assure you that.”

“You shouldn’t be seeing me,” you scrambled to your feet and tried to run away, but only successfully slid on the gravel and smacked your face into a branch. You (rather ungracefully) fell backwards head over heels into the clearing and into Felix’s steadying grasp. “No,” you denied and pushed yourself away from him, “stay away from me!”

“What did I do to you?” he demanded as he pushed himself up to his feet after being knocked back, “you’re the one who’s visiting my dreams!”

“I’m sorry Felix, but it’s best if you don’t understand.” You rushed to run away again, but a hand on your arm stopped you from making your escape.

“You know my name.” His quiet voice stopped you in your tracks, “I never told you my name.”

“Please,” there was desperation in your voice. You knew the longer you were here with him, the more danger there was of yet a third memory wipe, and the more likely you were to spill everything. There was something comforting about his presence, you felt bad about constantly lying and keeping him sheltered, but what could you do? “Let me go. It’ll be easier for the both of us.”

“But why?” your heart broke at the sound of his betrayed voice and the saddened look that dawned on his face, “why do I see you every night but I never get to know who you are?”

“Because life is cruel that way,” you murmured softly and peeled his hand off of yours.

You barely crested the top of the hill when you heard him call after you, “will you ever give me an answer?”

Sadly, you looked down at him, “I don’t know.”

“What’s on your mind?” Hyunjin asked softly from his position resting on your legs.

“It’s nothing,” you were starting to have doubts whether you bonded with Hyunjin, but you didn’t want to say that to his face. Felix having dreams of you, even when he didn’t seem to know you at all, plus the startling parallels between the two led you to believe there was more magic at play than what you had intended.

On the other hand, you and Hyunjin were testing out the waters, seeing if you had bonded, and you were enjoying it. You more freely shared cuddles and held hands, and you knew Hyunjin loved it since it kept his admirers at bay.

A frown settled on his face, “I can tell when you’re hiding something.”

You smiled brightly at him, “it’s really nothing. I just am missing my bow, I needed Chan to help me fix it up.” It wasn’t exactly a lie.

Hyunjin stared at you for a couple of seconds before nodding. “The raspberries are about ready for picking, would you like to go with me?”

“Is this you getting me to help you with your work?” you teased as you poked his cheek.

He scoffed, rolled his eyes, and swatted your hand away, “no. I’m asking you on a date.”

Oh. You felt the blood rush to your cheeks and from the smirk on Hyunjin’s face, you knew he saw it too. “Would you be interested?”

“Of course.”

“It’s you again.” You let out a yelp when you heard Felix’s voice. Now that he wasn’t trampling through the forest like a lost dog, he was a lot more stealthy. That, and you were caught up in making flower crowns to use for the upcoming festival. Wordlessly, he carefully sat down next to you, and you let him. Your hands stopped moving the stalks to make the crown and you watched him warily out of the corner of your eye. Though you only watched him in your peripheral vision, you didn’t miss the way he winced when he sat down next to you. “Will you tell me now?”

“I can’t.”

“What’s stopping you?” there wasn’t any malice or hurt in his voice, just confusion and curiosity.

“Everyone.”

He looked around to see if he could spot anybody spying on them through the trees, “we’re alone now.”

You saw the bruises on his neck as he searched around and that protective instinct that drew you to him in the first place started drawing you in again. “Can you keep a secret?”

He looked at you in surprise, in all of his interactions with you, you always kept things curt or didn’t say anything at all. “Of course. This meeting right now is a secret.”

You turned to fully lock eyes with him, “but this is a bigger secret, and I need you to swear on your life.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay, I swear on my life that I’ll keep whatever you’re about to tell me a secret.”

“It’s me.” He blinked at you in confusion. “I need you to keep me a secret.” You gestured towards your ears in hopes to make your point.

“Oh, you mean the existence of elves.”

You nodded, pleased that he was able to pick up what you put down, “exactly.”

“Okay,” he nodded eagerly, “I’ve been doing that this whole time anyway.” You let out a sigh of relief that you didn’t know you were holding. “So what else are you trying to tell me?”

“Where else have you been hurt?” you asked him simply as you put the half-finished flower crown on your lap to the side.

There was a flash of fear that crossed his face and he pulled at his collar nervously, “what are you talking about?”

“I can see it,” you deadpanned, your eyes going straight to the bruises on his neck that he failed to cover.

“It’s nothing,” he shied away and ducked his head, “don’t worry about it.”

You gently placed a hand on his arm to get your point across, “I will worry about it more if you don’t tell me.”

“But you shouldn’t.”

“But it’s nearly ingrained in me to.” You told him as your palm glowed a soft yellow. You reached towards his neck and you didn’t miss the way he flinched at your coming hand, but he relaxed as the tense muscles loosened and the dull pain of the bruise faded away.

“You can heal wounds.” It was mostly a statement to himself than to you, but you smiled and nodded encouragingly.

“So tell me where the rest of your wounds are, so I can heal them.”

“They’ll get suspicious,” Felix shook his head, “humans can’t heal this fast. They’ll wonder what I did.” You frowned at this. He had a point. You could tell this time, and from the first time you healed his wounds, that these were not self-inflicted. “But, just being here with you is enough.” He added and looked up at you pleadingly, “will you let me?”

You sighed, this wasn’t the outcome you wanted, but you couldn’t deny the draw you felt towards him. “Yes.”

Several weeks passed like this. You and Hyunjin became more affectionate with each other. You and Felix met up in the forest. You felt bad for stringing them along, but you didn’t have the heart in you to turn either of them down. But you also knew, the longer you kept this up, the harder the fall would be.

You sighed as you played with the small lake at the base of the waterfall. The water trickled down over the moss covered rocks, and fireflies danced around, making the scene feel just a bit more magical, even though you knew fireflies were not a cause of magic.

“What am I going to do,” you sighed to yourself and the water rippled around your hand that you were swishing through the water. You found this place on accident, but it quickly became your oasis. You used to come here maybe once a month, Hyunjin provided the source of comfort and peace. Recently, you’ve been sneaking away here nearly every other night.

Your conscience ate away at you, telling you that you were a bad person. Screaming at you to make a decision. You didn’t want to face it. You didn’t want to lose the most important people in your life. But deep inside, you knew your heart had already chosen.

“Have you ever used these for swinging?” Felix asked as he looked up at the thick branches coming from the tree you were sitting under. It was your secret meeting ground, and you and Felix met a few times a week here. Typically a little after night had fallen so Felix could sneak away.

You tilted your head to the side in curiosity, “swinging?”

His blond hair bobbed as he nodded excitedly, “yeah, you take a flat piece of wood,” he gestured with his hands the size of wood that would make a perfect seat, “a couple of ropes and throw it over the branch.” He continued this charade and tossed a hand over his head to show what he meant, “then you just tie it to the wood and there you go!” You couldn’t help but stare at him dumbfounded, completely not understanding his explanation at all. He noticed your blank stare and ducked his head nervously, “sorry, that must have been confusing. I’ll show you one day! It’s a ton of fun.”

You still couldn’t wrap your head around the concept Felix was trying to explain. What could be fun about a piece of wood and two pieces of rope? Sure, when you were younger you and the other elves made games out of rocks and fallen logs, but that quickly got boring once you got older. Judging from the glimmer of excitement in Felix’s brown eyes, even at his age, there was something enthralling about ‘swinging.’ “But why?”

“Excitement!” he responded easily, “it feels like you can fly!” he paused quickly and gave you a curious glance, “can you fly?”

You shook your head, “we’re not fairies,” you teased with a smile, “we definitely are land creatures, not unlike humans.”

“Can you swim?” the almost child-like curiosity on Felix’s face made you smile.

“Yes, but I’m not great at it,” you confessed. It’s not that you didn’t know how to swim, in an emergency you could swim yourself to safety, but you weren’t particularly fast, nor were you particularly fond of the feeling.

“I like it,” Felix told you as he absentmindedly played with the grass around the two of you and leaned back to smile into the sky, “it’s always nice and cool, and it’s fun to splash people with the water.” You nodded to show your agreeance, recalling all of the splash wars you’ve gotten into with friends. He then eagerly turned to you, “I’ll bring materials to make a swing next time, and then you can know how fun it is!”

You laughed at his bright face, “I’m looking forward to it.”

“Felix?” you rushed towards your friend in worry when you saw him stumbling towards you, a large, swollen bruise growing on his temple and blood trickling down his leg. He allowed half of his weight to be taken by you as you led him to a rock in a clearing. “What happened?”

“They didn’t like me taking the rope.” Was his quiet answer as you lightly ran a hand over his open wounds. Not with enough magic to completely heal it, but enough to stop the bleeding and jump start the healing so it would heal without a scar. “I’m sorry I can’t show you what a swing is.”

“Don’t worry about it!” you quickly reassured, “I’m more concerned about your health than a swing.” You led him to the large tree and set him to the ground. You made quick work of stopping the bleeding.

You looked at him with a pensive bite of your lip, and he noticed, “what?”

“Your rib is fractured.” The two of you agreed that you couldn’t help him too much. You could numb the pain of some places, speed up the clotting of any particularly bad wounds, but never completely heal anything. “Let me heal it?”

Felix sighed as you looked at him with pleading eyes. “Fine.”

Your hand glowed again, and you brought it closer to him to heal the damaged bone. Felix gazed at you with awe and adoration, even after doing this several times, the magic still was as incredible as the first time he saw it.

After you were done, the two of you fell into comfortable small talk. You told him a bit of your day, he told you less of his. And it wasn’t long until you could see the sky starting to brighten. This was the worst part of the night, when it ended and Felix left.

He moved to stand up but was halted by you. “Stay with me.” Your hand stopped him from standing up and going back to the town, “I know they don’t treat you right where you live, so stay here.”

He looked at you apprehensively, “am I even allowed to?”

“No.” You let out a yelp and the two of you turned in shock to see Hyunjin step out from behind a tree.

“Hyunjin,” you gasped when you saw your best friend with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. “Wait! Don’t erase his memory!”

“We never bonded.” He hardly gave Felix a second glance as he stared at you. You could only gape at him in shock. You had an inkling, but for him to say it bluntly like that… “I asked Sana to take a look at us, and she said I haven’t bonded, but you have.”

“What does that mean?”

There was a bittersweet smile on his face as he finally looked at Felix, “I’m pretty sure you bonded with him, so the two of you will live your happily ever after.”

“And us?” you were scared to hear what he was going to say. You didn’t want to break your friendship apart, he was too precious to you. But if Felix couldn’t stay in the forest, and the two of you were going to live some happily ever after, that meant you would have to leave to be with Felix. As much as you loved Felix, were you ready to leave behind everything you know and everyone else you love?

“We continue to be best friends.” You looked wildly between Hyunjin and Felix for answers, though Felix looked to be even more bewildered than you. “Sana and I will vouch for Felix, under normal circumstances,” there was a hint of a glare directed towards the human, “this wouldn’t be allowed. But some dimwit I know managed to get themselves stuck in a bond.”

“Hey!” you slapped him for the dimwit comment, “it’s not like you know how bonding works either!” he let out a dramatic scream as he clutched at his arm where you slapped him.

“Does that mean I get to stay?” Felix asked slowly as he stared between you and Hyunjin.

You gave Hyunjin another look, asking for his confirmation. When he nodded, you let out a cheer before wrapping your arms around Felix in a tight hug, one that accidentally caused him pain as you pressed against his bruises. “Yes,” you murmured in delight, “you can stay.”

➢ Masterlist