#*cabin au

He woke up as he started to shiver, blinking away his confusion and looking around taking in the foreign environment before he remembered they moved to the middle of the woods for the week. He sat up tiredly, his back complaining already from the uncomfortable position he had fallen asleep in on the old couch.

Running a hand through his messy and unstyled hair (something he was glad for because he wasn’t going to have to inhale tons of hairspray for a whole week) he turns off the old TV and heads to his shared room with Jaehyun, looking forward to hiding under his blankets and warming his freezing feet. The small man stops frozen on the doorway, blinking at the scene before him and covering his eyes while quickly and soundlessly closing the door again, afraid to see some kind of nudity he did not ask for.

He knew that Taeyong had gone into the room after Jaehyun and Taeil had understood. He really did not mind. They always need alone couple time but he assumed that as Taeil drifted off to sleep Taeyong had gone to his own bed. Taeil stood in front of the door for what seemed hours, deciding whether to quietly send Taeyong to his own bed or to leave him there and risking seeing and hearing things that he would regret for the next years of his life. With a deep breath he opens the door again, avoiding his gaze towards the tangled bodies on the bed and focuses on simply collecting his pillow and some blankets so he wouldn’t freeze to death in his sleep, deciding waking Taeyong up was too big of a crime at that hour.

He hears the sound of grinding teeth and nearly has a heart attack, instinctively looking to where the sound is coming from with wide scared eyes. Jaehyun always had that habit from the few times they had slept on the same room, scaring Taeil everytime and making him wonder, now, how it was possible for Taeyong to continue to sleep peacefully tucked in against Jaehyun’s chest. Turns out they weren’t naked like Taeil had feared, instead only snuggling close to each other, legs tangled underneath the thick blanket that Jaehyun was starting to kick off, making Taeyong whine slightly in his sleep and curl up even more against Jaehyun.

Taeil left quicker than the speed of light, afraid he would either gag or coo at the scene before him. He scratches his head as he looks at his options. He either risked himself getting pranked by Haechan the next morning, getting squashed by Johnny’s foot the next day if he slept on the floor of his room with Sicheng, getting drooled on by Chittaphon or freaked out by Yuta’s Japanese mumbles during the night.

Taeil hugged his bright rain coat tighter to himself, having discarded his umbrella a long time ago because the wind would not give it a rest. Though the storm seemed to have calmed down, raindrops still fell hard on Taeil’s head and face.

They had decided to pair up and spread around the property in search of Dogyoung who, according to Johnny, had apparently ran out the door scared of the thunder and the loud noises of the door suddenly opening. Taeil looked at Haechan, frantically calling for the puppy and looking around with his own flashlight, his hair all mussed and stuck to his forehead as he was the one who had ran out of the door first in search of Dogyoung, not bothering pulling his hoodie up.

“Haechan, we’ve looked here already… We should search somewhere else…” Taeil pulled his hoodie up to his head and patted his back, a worried frown adorning his face. The younger had a blank expression yet his eyes were wide and never still, his face lighting up with hope whenever a shadow moved and looking broken when he realized it wasn’t his pet.

The young man shrugged off Taeil’s touch and continued to call out for Dogyoung, searching yet again on the same places he had just looked into. Taeil only sighed.

“We are supposed to meet in front of the house with the others, come on maybe they found him?” Taeil tries again only to continue being ignored by Haechan. With a sigh he turns away and makes his way to the front of the house where the rest of the group is gathered, drawn tired faces, hair plastered to foreheads from the rain.

“Did you guys find anything?” Taeil shivers, his feet soaked from walking around all night. Yuta shakes his head tiredly and Jaehyun looks towards the direction where Taeil had come from.

“Where is Haechan? Still looking?”

“I have never seen him like this… He really was attached to the puppy” Taeyong frowns and lightly kicks a bit of mud accidentally hitting Sicheng’s shoe, his shoulders sinking guiltily as Sicheng lets out a surprised noise. At that moment Haechan’s figure appears, making everyone share worried looks between each other.

“Have you guys found him?” He says quietly, looking up from under his eyelashes with an expectant twinkle in his eyes, his fingers fidgeting with his flashlight. It was then that Taeil noticed the redness in his eyes and nose and realized the young boy had been crying. Johnny seemed to have also noticed by the way his eyes shifted nervously away, mouth set in a thin tense line as he brushed his soaked hair back multiple times. Haechan sniffed once and wiped at his face tiredly as the group discussed what other places they could look into ( this time both Chittaphon and Sicheng had their arms around Haechan’s shoulders in a comforting manner ) before Jiyeon’s loud shriek was heard from inside the house, drawing the attention from everyone.

Yuta was the first one to move, running up the steps and into the house, the rest following, calling out for Jiyeon as the girl kept screaming.

She was standing on the couch, clutching a pillow while blindly pointing at the floor, blabbering something in a crying tone.

“Jiyeon? Love, what happened? What is it?” Yuta was staring around, eyes wide and searching while approaching his girlfriend slowly and with his hands raised.

“A RAT! THERE IS A HUGE RAT! AND IT TOUCHED MY LEG!” she screamed and whined after, Yuta managing to wrap her in a tight comforting embrace while looking down slightly panicked.

“Where did it go?” Taeyong asked. Everyone was starting to spread across the room with cringes; Chittaphon was already standing on top of a bean bag with a broom in hand.

“Seriously this is great, now we have a rat living inside the house… Chewing at our chargers and food, transmitting diseases...” Jaehyun crossed his arms with a click of his tongue.

“I don’t know… I think it went under the couch… JUST SOMEONE GET RID OF IT! IT TOUCHED MY LEG.” She whined again and hid her face against Yuta’s chest. The rest were left staring at each other, deciding who would be a man and look under the couch. Johnny rolled his eyes and laughed, kneeling by the couch with a shake of his head.

“Seriously… It’s only a cute little rat people.” He smirks and leans down, looking under the couch with his flashlight “Uhm… Jiyeon, I don’t think---” he makes a surprised gasp and jumps a bit, throwing his head backward in laughter before leaning back down and pulling out a shadow.

“DOGYOUNG!” Sicheng exclaimed and Haechan, who was looking miserable in a corner, immediately perked up and pushed his way towards the excited puppy which was licking at Johnny’s face. Haechan picked the pet in his arms and hugged it with a laugh, all the tension of the night dissipating with the rain.

The storm seemed to never end, heavy strong and continuous raindrops hitting the old fragile roof of the cabin, gusts of wind making Taeil apprehensive over whether the cabin would be able to withstand such tempest. Corners of the house were already dripping and Sicheng had helped Taeyong place buckets and big bowls on the floor to keep the place from flooding entirely.

Everyone sat in the living room, Taeyong was preparing dinner with Haechan helping along, getting lightly smacked by the dishtowel everytime the maknae complained at a task while Jaehyun was sitting on a bean bag playing Pokémon. The rest, including Taeil, lounged on the couch either watching TV, reading manga or books with Dogyoung happily seeming to ignore the storm outside that made the lights of the house shake each time thunder rumbled, the puppy opting to chew a toy instead.

“I bet the lights are going to go out.” Jaehyun said with a sigh, not bothering to look away from his game and Yuta frowned worriedly, big eyes looking up at the lights, shaking once again.

“It’s raining so much you can’t even see the lake, I wouldn’t be worried about the lights.” Johnny said simply looking away from the window and nodding towards the ceiling, a drop of water hitting him right on the forehead. As soon as the words were out the small cabin went into darkness and chaos.

The flash from the thunderbolt lit up outside, the lights shaking weakly once again before completely going out just as a big gust of wind managed to open the front door with a loud “bang!”. Yells (mostly Chittaphon’s loud shrieks) and crashing noises along with Dogyoung’s barks were heard and Taeil attempted to grab the puppy, it ending up escaping from his fingertips as his knees hit the floor painfully. Johnny immediately closed the door, Taeyong’s loud orders raising above all the panicked shrieks and the house fell into darkness, the sounds of heavy shaky breathing echoing through the walls.

“Is everyone okay? Haechan went to find flashlights and candles…” Taeyong’s voice was heard from the kitchen door and Taeil could make out his thin frame out of the darkness as he rubbed his knees painfully. He could also make out the shape of Yuta holding on to Jiyeon like life depended on it, his girlfriend chuckling and whispering soothing words to the scaredy cat and Chittaphon’s whines as he hugged his knees fearfully.

“Pikachu used Flash.” Jaehyun stated deadpan and raised his Nintendo, the bright light from the screen providing a bit of light. Sicheng’s loud nervous laughter is heard and both boys throw high fives at each other as Taeyong facepalms and mumbles something that sounded like “I am dating a dumbass” though with a dumb grin on his face, relief flowing in the room.

“Okay I have the flashlights and the candles… Is everyone okay?” Haechan appeared holding flashlights and candles in his arms, all evidence of the typical devil maknae gone with the situation leaving only the maknae looking worried and small again. After everyone had been given a flashlight does he question with a frown as he looks at the floor, searching “What about the puppy? Where’s Dogyoung?”

Silence settled in the small living room again, Jaehyun raising his head from his game and frowning in thought. The silence dragging on for centuries as everyone in the group tried to think where they had seen the small pet, the lights pointing towards the floor to look for any evidence until Johnny slowly raised his hand, sudden apprehension settling on his features.