post #9
TL;DR RULES
1. post anonymously unless linking to a fill posted somewhere else
2. use the subject line to indicate pairing (in alphabetical order using stage names i.e.baekhyun/chanyeol) prompt details go in the comment.
3. use trigger warnings
4. do not embed on meme. link to images/videos. label nsfw content.
5. do not repost prompts ( Read more... )
1. post anonymously unless linking to a fill posted somewhere else
2. use the subject line to indicate pairing (in alphabetical order using stage names i.e.baekhyun/chanyeol) prompt details go in the comment.
3. use trigger warnings
4. do not embed on meme. link to images/videos. label nsfw content.
5. do not repost prompts ( Read more... )
Kyungsoo’s always been separate. The key in his back makes things difficult: can’t sit against the wall like Baekhyun and Chanyeol, and he’s too small to be able to climb easily from the shelf onto Junmyeon’s saddle, so he sits on the edge and lets his legs dangle, stiffly-jointed knees swinging in short jerks. He hums to himself, listens to the snuffling sounds of sleep in the house, the parents down the hall, the baby -- no longer a baby now but a teenager. Kyungsoo sits. He’s waiting for something: feels it deeply, right down to the core of his plastic chest, but he’s not sure what, or for how long.
●●●
The girl receives a Kai doll for her fourteenth birthday.
“I’m too old for dolls,” Kyungsoo hears her complaints from all the way upstairs. “What am I supposed to do with it?”
Beside him, Sehun’s ears perk up and strain to hear the rest of the conversation. “Something about a collector’s edition,” he says after a moment, turning his paws towards the ceiling in a plush approximation of a shrug. “He’s worth something, I guess. Big money.”
Baekhyun chuckles. “He’ll fit right in, then.”
“She’ll break him,” Junmyeon intones, voice tired. “She’s not very careful with us.”
“Hyung,” Sehun says gently. “That was a long time ago. Kyungsoo’s not broken, are you?”
Kyungsoo shakes his head. His key sticks a little bit sometimes, and his paint job is starting to fade a little bit, but he’s intact. She took very good care of him, all things considered -- used to sleep with him clutched in her hot little hand, took him to school with her, threw tea parties for him and twisted his key to send him strolling across the table at dinnertime. They’d been inseparable. Once upon a time.
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“Don’t be stupid. You don’t have a heart,” Baekhyun tells him one day and Chanyeol shushes him but Kyungsoo’s not bothered -- he knows he’s different, feels like he’s full of more than stuffing and plastic.
He puts his hand against his chest and closes his eyes and feels a ripple. As quickly as it happens, it’s gone again and he’s left clutching at the lapels of his old jacket, desperately willing it to come back.
Dancer Kai, #0011 of 1000, finds a home on their shelf later that evening. They reanimate the moment the door clacks shut, circling the new addition with curious expressions. His box is immaculate, shiny and new with absolutely no trace of blemishes across the pink paper that spells out his name in curling white script. He’s tall, with a shock of dark hair and lips sculpted into a perfect pout (“Whoever made his mold is an artist,” Sehun says, voice quivering with admiration). Kyungsoo presses his nose against the crinkling cellophane and feels his face tighten into a wide grin.
“Kyungsoo, what’s the matter?” Baekhyun asks. “Are you okay? I’ve never seen your face do that before.”
He shakes his head, voice unsteady. “Nothing’s wrong. He’s beautiful.”
●●●
Kai remains in his packaging for a full week. Kyungsoo sits and watches him, eyes trained on the boy doll. He’s learning him -- the tailored pants, the white shirt, the suspenders with their tiny buttons (“She’d lose those in a second,” Junmyeon tuts). Sometimes he pushes his face against the window and tries to to coax him into talking, “I’m Kyungsoo. You’ll like it here. Everyone’s very nice. Do you want me to come get you out?”
Nothing. No response, no sign of anything, save for the occasional blink that Kyungsoo swears he’s imagining because it happens so fast.
It’s a Tuesday night -- maybe even Wednesday morning by now. Kyungsoo paces the edge of the shelf, toes scuffing against the grain of the wood. He can’t sleep -- not that he really needs to, but sometimes it’s a relief to stop thinking about things. He’s been thinking about Kai again, keeps wondering if he’s lonely or scared or maybe just a jerk -- he wants so desperately to know him, to have someone to talk to on nights like this.
“Kyungsoo.”
Clear as day, his name on Kai’s lips: a soft baritone, second syllable pitching slightly upward. It’s almost a question, tentative, as if he’s not sure he has permission to talk. Kyungsoo nearly topples over the edge in his excitement.
“Kai? You’re--” he stops. Alive seems wrong. He tries something else. “--awake.”
Kai nods.
Kyungsoo crosses his arms across his chest and frowns. “Come out.”
“I can’t,” Kai says quietly. “I’m not supposed to.”
“Says who?” With some difficulty, Kyungsoo manages to sit down, his head craning up to meet Kai’s steady gaze.
“I’m a collector’s item. I’m supposed to stay like this. I’m not worth anything out of the box.”
Kyungsoo flinches, the corners of his mouth turning down. “That’s stupid. Toys are supposed to be played with.”
“I’m not a toy.”
“Yes you are. We all are.” He tips his chin, considering his next question before he blurts, “Do you want to come out?”
Kai nods.
“Why?”
Kyungsoo thinks Kai would shrug if he weren’t held to the backing by so many wires and bits of string.
“You look lonely. I want to sit with you.”
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“It’s going to take you forever at that rate,” Baekhyun chides. “You’ll never get him open.”
“What do we do, then?” Kyungsoo asks, hands yanking at a strip of cardboard too thick to tear. “I -- I want him out here.” Baekhyun’s smile vanishes as he sees the resolute jut of Kyungsoo’s jaw, the steely slant to a pair of eyes normally wide an. He recognizes that Kyungsoo’s serious about this, that he’s never wanted anything so badly in his life (except, perhaps, to go back to sleeping in the bed with the soft pillows). That Kai is important.
“Sehun?”
The rabbit sleepily pops his head up from the bottom shelf. “Hm?”
“Where’s that pair of scissors you found? The ones we gave Chanyeol a haircut with.”
Sehun strokes his chin for a moment and disappears, emerging a moment later with a pair of safety scissors tucked under his arm. “They’re blunt,” he reminds the bear as he hands them over. “It took forever to cut through Chanyeol’s yarn.”
“I’m sure these will work,” Baekhyun says, thrusting the point against the back of the box. It gives a little under the sudden pressure and Kai wails.
“What are you doing?”
“Relax,” Kyungsoo says, splaying his fingers against the front of the box. “You’ll be out of there in no time.”
“No time” ends up translating to roughly forty-five minutes of sawing and stabbing through the heavy packaging. Baekhyun rattles off a string of curse words he must have picked up from listening to parental fights in the next room when he peels back the box and reveals half a dozen twist-ties that need to be undone before Kai’s finally free. Sehun makes quick work of them while Baekhyun rests his paws and it’s a final, anti-climactic tug before Kai is free, toppling into Kyungsoo’s outstretched arms.
“Ow,” Kyungsoo moans. “My key.”
“You alright?”
It’s unfamiliar territory to Kyungsoo when fingers push through the spaces between his to pull him to his feet but he thinks he already loves it. He flashes forward to the future, thinks about sitting on the edge of the shelf with someone by his side for once, looks forward to late night conversations, hushed, whispering into each others’ ears like they’ve got secrets to keep. He feels something where his stomach should be. Butterflies? he wonders. Maybe I’m melting. It’s warm in here all of a sudden.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he says. He feels woozy, overwhelmed at what’s just happened. He makes the unnecessary motions of dusting off his knees as something to occupy his hands as he looks up at Kai’s face in wonder. He’s even more beautiful out of the box. “Are you?”
“I’m not worth anything anymore,” Kai sounds wistful but he’s smiling. “Is that okay?”
Kyungsoo reaches out and grabs Kai’s hand to hold it tightly, face split with a broad grin. “You’ll fit right in.”
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this was really beautiful. and sad -- knowing they're all abandoned toys with feelings (but at least they got each other.) it hurts me and makes me guilty lol
thank you for writing this!! ♥♥ xo
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Kyungsoo reaches out and grabs Kai’s hand to hold it tightly, face split with a broad grin. “You’ll fit right in.”
Ahh this kills me. I'm assuming that by Kyungsoo's "You'll fit right in" comment he's saying that not one of them is worth anything anymore- at least to the girl and I don't know why but that cracked my heart a little bit ;;
WONDERFUL STORY BTW ;;
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