[dbsk] the fallen (2/3)
The Fallen [2/3]
Yoochun/Junsu
1500 words
Junsu finds a bruised man during a rainy day. The man claims to be Yoochun, a descendant of the Majeh* and a succubus**, but damned by both heaven and hell with a bounty on his head. And for saving his life, he grants Junsu just one wish.
(Based on the manga, Ororon.)
Part I.
the fallen
The Middle
“Look,” Jaejoong breathes out as calmly as he could as they step out of the grocery store. “You should carry these bags since you were the one who greedily bought them.”
He shoves five grocery bags against Junsu’s chest and promptly lets go.
“But,” Junsu says a little too hard, “if you’re so powerful then why don’t you carry all these bags yourself?” He adds a pout for emphasis.
“I don’t want to waste my energy on something so…human as this. Besides, you were the one who grabbed all those i-,” Jaejoong halts, body tense and taut as he sniffed the air.
“We have to go.”
“Go where?”
“Yoochun.”
A broken door greets them followed by shards of wood and glass on the ground, a trail of chaos and blood littering the hallway. Junsu’s throat constricts, eyes scanning frantically for any signs of Yoochun.
Jaejoong dashes out to the backyard as Junsu follows wordlessly. There are words seemingly stuck inside Junsu’s mouth clashing against his teeth and tongue, but they never make it out.
The scene they enter is gruesome. The white bed sheets that were hanging on the clothes string are now crumpled on the ground, a mesh of cotton, blood and dirt.
He looks up and sees a man with tainted hands. This is the first time Junsu sees a murderer.
The heart is an important vessel of the body. It pumps blood, circulates oxygen and energy through the arteries, and gives what the body demands. It sustains life.
The heart on Yoochun’s palm stops beating and, for a moment, he feels his own break. He watches as Junsu runs outside to the empty streets, and leaves behind a trail of fear. He feels wetness flowing down his cheeks, tastes the salty bitterness of his emotions, and wonders if this is what humans call tears.
He leaves during sunset, the hazy in-between when the sun departs as the moon rises. Take care of him, a mere whispered breath that enters Jaejoong’s consciousness as he sees Yoochun fade, a mist of suspended dust and tears in the late afternoon sun.
Jaejoong calls Changmin as his last resort when Junsu doesn’t come back by eight. He knows that he can’t extend his scope beyond what he has right now without giving his location away, and that would eventually attract bigger problems.
Jaejoong thinks that Changmin is okay for a human, with his snarky demon jokes, the way he keeps Junsu grounded like a hamster in a wheel, but with an enormous, underlying affection for the other.
The first time Changmin heard their story months ago, his eyes gave away his suspicion as he looked at Jaejoong.
But Jaejoong didn’t sense any fear.
Changmin’s huffing like crazy by the time Jaejoong opens the door for him. (He had fixed whatever he could during the time that Junsu was gone, but he still couldn’t erase the smell of blood in the air. Magic can only fix furniture, not broken hearts. )
They start looking for Junsu almost immediately. Changmin uses pieces of memories and habits to trace Junsu while Jaejoong relies on his instincts and his sense of smell.
They eventually find him in a park sitting underneath a tree. The way Junsu’s curled around it, eyes closed and breathing shallow, makes him look like he’s in a deep sleep. Almost peaceful.
Changmin steps closer. “Junsu-yah…”
Junsu’s eyes open. The tiny, red veins on his eyes are pronounced, the rims swollen, but there’s not even a hint of sleep.
“I didn’t listen to him,” Junsu starts, eyes looking distant. “I first met him here, you know. He was lying under this tree and it was raining hard and I was just…curious.”
“He told me to stay away, but I didn’t listen,” Junsu rambles, tears falling as fast his words. “Because when I looked at his eyes, I saw myself in them.”
Changmin ends up carrying Junsu back to the house when the latter had passed out from exhaustion halfway.
(“Yah, Kim Junsu! This is not the time to be falling asleep! Yah!” Changmin tries to shake the other man who’s half leaning on him and half lying on the street.
“You could just carry him, you know.”
Changmin narrows his eyes at Jaejoong. “Unfortunately, I don’t have the seemingly limitless energy you have. Just a human, remember?”
“I could give you some of that power.” Jaejoong smirks.
“You could?”
“No, not really.” Jaejoong laughs.)
When they finally reached the house, Changmin promptly drops Junsu at his bed not even bothering to take off his socks and day old clothes.
Jaejoong is in the kitchen making tea when Changmin pulls out a chair and sits beside him.
“So what’s your story?”
Jaejoong looks at him with a smile on his face. “What makes you think I have a story?”
“Well,” Changmin starts, and grabs a cup of hot water to make some tea for himself. “I heard from Yoochun that all of his brothers are trying to dethrone him, but you don’t seem like it.”
Jaejoong shrugs. “I owe him one.”
“No offense, but demons don’t exactly have a very nice reputation with all that killing and torturing and backstabbing stories.” Changmin can be very stubborn and shameless if he wants to be.
Jaejoong’s eyes glaze over for a moment, and the next time he opens his mouth his voice holds a different tone. “Demons can fall in love too, you know. I was one of its casualties. When my father found out about it, he was furious.” Jaejoong continues to stir his tea, one palm enclosed on the cup.
“It wasn’t so much that I fell in love with a male - demons are known for debauchery in all forms after all, but it was that I had fallen for an angel.”
The smile on Jaejoong’s lips disappears, his face crumpling as he tells the story. “The Heavens had abandoned him and Hell had put him on a trial. My father presided over it and, being one of his prized sons, I had been exempted from direct punishment. Corruption, if you'd like to call it. While the other demons were shouting for his death, there was one young demon that pleaded for his life. My younger brother, who seemed like an infant to everyone’s eyes, had asked the King to spare the angel’s life. For someone born from the Demon King and a cold succubus, he’s pretty warm, isn’t he?” Jaejoong lets out a bitter laugh.
“The King granted his favorite son’s wish, but he branded a curse on the angel. That if he ever so much as touched me, the flames of Hell will consume him. The Heavens let him wander off to live the rest of his life as a human exiled on Earth. Maybe as an act of pity to let him live his life quietly, away from the judging gazes of the other angels, and to find an ending to his sad story. Or maybe as their form of punishment to let time age his beauty away and let him experience suffering as humans do.”
Jaejoong stops for a while as he reaches over for some more tea. He is slow to continue. “By the time I saw him again, he was past seventy human years. Age had sagged his skin and weakened his bones, but his eyes held the same clarity that I remembered. He was so happy when he saw me again that he couldn’t help but brush his fingers against my cheek. He didn’t even say anything when the flames surrounded him. The only thing that I managed to say was his name.”
“Yunho,” Jaejoong whispers. “That was his name.”
By the time he finished the story, it’s already past one in the morning. The tea on Changmin’s cup has turned cold, and he lets out a breath he didn’t know he’s been holding.
Jaejoong wakes up to the sound of padding on the floor. The footsteps are loud against the wooden floor, inexperienced in the ways of sneaking.
“Junsu,” Jaejoong groans from the couch he’s been sleeping in. There’s a sound that suspiciously sounds like a squeak and the footsteps stop.
“Hyung.”
“What are you doing up this late?” Jaejoong cracks open one eye and looks at Junsu. “Or this early?”
“Uhhh,” Junsu stares back and starts fiddling with the hem of his shirt. “I was just thinking of maybe going to look for him.”
“Come here,” Jaejoong sighs and lifts himself off the coach and tugs at Junsu’s wrist. “You won’t find him if he doesn’t want to be found. So just rest for now and we’ll look for him once everyone’s gotten their beauty sleep.”
Junsu just smiles softly and lets Jaejoong pull him over to fall on the couch.
The wooden bench under Yoochun’s body feels cold and wet. He’s at the other side of town that Junsu used to tell him to stay away from. “Bad things happen there,” Junsu had said once.
The shadows have been following Yoochun ever since he had reached the area. The collective darkness of the shadows alerts him that it’s just one entity.
“Come out,” Yoochun says.
The shadows merge to form one body. It’s a woman, Yoochun notices as he lets his eyes wander up to rest on her face, a woman with the face of his mother.
(to be continued.)
AN: Oh wow, I am so sorry for the extremely (more than a year) late update! DDD: My mental capability of writing fic is really unstable, and real life and uhhh other fandoms (*cough*EXO*cough) have me busy. This also turned out to be longer than expected (originally just two parts and now it's three), but I am working on the third part now and hope to release it soon. Like within the year soon. :D If you've read the first part before, thank you so much for keeping the interest to still read this second part! :D
Yoochun/Junsu
1500 words
Junsu finds a bruised man during a rainy day. The man claims to be Yoochun, a descendant of the Majeh* and a succubus**, but damned by both heaven and hell with a bounty on his head. And for saving his life, he grants Junsu just one wish.
(Based on the manga, Ororon.)
Part I.
the fallen
The Middle
“Look,” Jaejoong breathes out as calmly as he could as they step out of the grocery store. “You should carry these bags since you were the one who greedily bought them.”
He shoves five grocery bags against Junsu’s chest and promptly lets go.
“But,” Junsu says a little too hard, “if you’re so powerful then why don’t you carry all these bags yourself?” He adds a pout for emphasis.
“I don’t want to waste my energy on something so…human as this. Besides, you were the one who grabbed all those i-,” Jaejoong halts, body tense and taut as he sniffed the air.
“We have to go.”
“Go where?”
“Yoochun.”
A broken door greets them followed by shards of wood and glass on the ground, a trail of chaos and blood littering the hallway. Junsu’s throat constricts, eyes scanning frantically for any signs of Yoochun.
Jaejoong dashes out to the backyard as Junsu follows wordlessly. There are words seemingly stuck inside Junsu’s mouth clashing against his teeth and tongue, but they never make it out.
The scene they enter is gruesome. The white bed sheets that were hanging on the clothes string are now crumpled on the ground, a mesh of cotton, blood and dirt.
He looks up and sees a man with tainted hands. This is the first time Junsu sees a murderer.
The heart is an important vessel of the body. It pumps blood, circulates oxygen and energy through the arteries, and gives what the body demands. It sustains life.
The heart on Yoochun’s palm stops beating and, for a moment, he feels his own break. He watches as Junsu runs outside to the empty streets, and leaves behind a trail of fear. He feels wetness flowing down his cheeks, tastes the salty bitterness of his emotions, and wonders if this is what humans call tears.
He leaves during sunset, the hazy in-between when the sun departs as the moon rises. Take care of him, a mere whispered breath that enters Jaejoong’s consciousness as he sees Yoochun fade, a mist of suspended dust and tears in the late afternoon sun.
Jaejoong calls Changmin as his last resort when Junsu doesn’t come back by eight. He knows that he can’t extend his scope beyond what he has right now without giving his location away, and that would eventually attract bigger problems.
Jaejoong thinks that Changmin is okay for a human, with his snarky demon jokes, the way he keeps Junsu grounded like a hamster in a wheel, but with an enormous, underlying affection for the other.
The first time Changmin heard their story months ago, his eyes gave away his suspicion as he looked at Jaejoong.
But Jaejoong didn’t sense any fear.
Changmin’s huffing like crazy by the time Jaejoong opens the door for him. (He had fixed whatever he could during the time that Junsu was gone, but he still couldn’t erase the smell of blood in the air. Magic can only fix furniture, not broken hearts. )
They start looking for Junsu almost immediately. Changmin uses pieces of memories and habits to trace Junsu while Jaejoong relies on his instincts and his sense of smell.
They eventually find him in a park sitting underneath a tree. The way Junsu’s curled around it, eyes closed and breathing shallow, makes him look like he’s in a deep sleep. Almost peaceful.
Changmin steps closer. “Junsu-yah…”
Junsu’s eyes open. The tiny, red veins on his eyes are pronounced, the rims swollen, but there’s not even a hint of sleep.
“I didn’t listen to him,” Junsu starts, eyes looking distant. “I first met him here, you know. He was lying under this tree and it was raining hard and I was just…curious.”
“He told me to stay away, but I didn’t listen,” Junsu rambles, tears falling as fast his words. “Because when I looked at his eyes, I saw myself in them.”
Changmin ends up carrying Junsu back to the house when the latter had passed out from exhaustion halfway.
(“Yah, Kim Junsu! This is not the time to be falling asleep! Yah!” Changmin tries to shake the other man who’s half leaning on him and half lying on the street.
“You could just carry him, you know.”
Changmin narrows his eyes at Jaejoong. “Unfortunately, I don’t have the seemingly limitless energy you have. Just a human, remember?”
“I could give you some of that power.” Jaejoong smirks.
“You could?”
“No, not really.” Jaejoong laughs.)
When they finally reached the house, Changmin promptly drops Junsu at his bed not even bothering to take off his socks and day old clothes.
Jaejoong is in the kitchen making tea when Changmin pulls out a chair and sits beside him.
“So what’s your story?”
Jaejoong looks at him with a smile on his face. “What makes you think I have a story?”
“Well,” Changmin starts, and grabs a cup of hot water to make some tea for himself. “I heard from Yoochun that all of his brothers are trying to dethrone him, but you don’t seem like it.”
Jaejoong shrugs. “I owe him one.”
“No offense, but demons don’t exactly have a very nice reputation with all that killing and torturing and backstabbing stories.” Changmin can be very stubborn and shameless if he wants to be.
Jaejoong’s eyes glaze over for a moment, and the next time he opens his mouth his voice holds a different tone. “Demons can fall in love too, you know. I was one of its casualties. When my father found out about it, he was furious.” Jaejoong continues to stir his tea, one palm enclosed on the cup.
“It wasn’t so much that I fell in love with a male - demons are known for debauchery in all forms after all, but it was that I had fallen for an angel.”
The smile on Jaejoong’s lips disappears, his face crumpling as he tells the story. “The Heavens had abandoned him and Hell had put him on a trial. My father presided over it and, being one of his prized sons, I had been exempted from direct punishment. Corruption, if you'd like to call it. While the other demons were shouting for his death, there was one young demon that pleaded for his life. My younger brother, who seemed like an infant to everyone’s eyes, had asked the King to spare the angel’s life. For someone born from the Demon King and a cold succubus, he’s pretty warm, isn’t he?” Jaejoong lets out a bitter laugh.
“The King granted his favorite son’s wish, but he branded a curse on the angel. That if he ever so much as touched me, the flames of Hell will consume him. The Heavens let him wander off to live the rest of his life as a human exiled on Earth. Maybe as an act of pity to let him live his life quietly, away from the judging gazes of the other angels, and to find an ending to his sad story. Or maybe as their form of punishment to let time age his beauty away and let him experience suffering as humans do.”
Jaejoong stops for a while as he reaches over for some more tea. He is slow to continue. “By the time I saw him again, he was past seventy human years. Age had sagged his skin and weakened his bones, but his eyes held the same clarity that I remembered. He was so happy when he saw me again that he couldn’t help but brush his fingers against my cheek. He didn’t even say anything when the flames surrounded him. The only thing that I managed to say was his name.”
“Yunho,” Jaejoong whispers. “That was his name.”
By the time he finished the story, it’s already past one in the morning. The tea on Changmin’s cup has turned cold, and he lets out a breath he didn’t know he’s been holding.
Jaejoong wakes up to the sound of padding on the floor. The footsteps are loud against the wooden floor, inexperienced in the ways of sneaking.
“Junsu,” Jaejoong groans from the couch he’s been sleeping in. There’s a sound that suspiciously sounds like a squeak and the footsteps stop.
“Hyung.”
“What are you doing up this late?” Jaejoong cracks open one eye and looks at Junsu. “Or this early?”
“Uhhh,” Junsu stares back and starts fiddling with the hem of his shirt. “I was just thinking of maybe going to look for him.”
“Come here,” Jaejoong sighs and lifts himself off the coach and tugs at Junsu’s wrist. “You won’t find him if he doesn’t want to be found. So just rest for now and we’ll look for him once everyone’s gotten their beauty sleep.”
Junsu just smiles softly and lets Jaejoong pull him over to fall on the couch.
The wooden bench under Yoochun’s body feels cold and wet. He’s at the other side of town that Junsu used to tell him to stay away from. “Bad things happen there,” Junsu had said once.
The shadows have been following Yoochun ever since he had reached the area. The collective darkness of the shadows alerts him that it’s just one entity.
“Come out,” Yoochun says.
The shadows merge to form one body. It’s a woman, Yoochun notices as he lets his eyes wander up to rest on her face, a woman with the face of his mother.
(to be continued.)
AN: Oh wow, I am so sorry for the extremely (more than a year) late update! DDD: My mental capability of writing fic is really unstable, and real life and uhhh other fandoms (*cough*EXO*cough) have me busy. This also turned out to be longer than expected (originally just two parts and now it's three), but I am working on the third part now and hope to release it soon. Like within the year soon. :D If you've read the first part before, thank you so much for keeping the interest to still read this second part! :D