Touch
title: touch
summary: one touch and luhan sees the future.
pairing: luhan/jongin (lukai)
rating: pg
notes: it’s nearing my trial exams and i got inspiration to write. i think my muses are trolling me but ah well :) hope you enjoy this! this is a superpower!au. powers are from the mama mv.
___
luhan has always known he is different. when he was five, he started getting little flashes of things to come, things that always happen maybe right after he has the flash, maybe a few days or weeks after but the common denominator is always the same; the flashes he gets always happens.
luhan doesn’t tell anyone about it but his grandmother, who’s always known her precious little grandson is special. she tells him stories of the past, of when people with powers like luhan were revered, loved by all. luhan’s scared but his grandmother always tells him to love himself, powers and all because, “if you don’t love yourself first luhan-ah, who will love you for you?” she always asks, cupping his cheek with a wrinkled hand, a small, loving smile on her lips.
so when luhan at ten gets a vision of his grandmother passing away in her sleep, that same wise smile on her face, he cries, sobs wracking through his body but he is happy at the same time because at least his grandmother doesn’t have to suffer. he doesn’t tell his popo about the vision but he spends every single day he has with her to the best that he can and when his grandmother does pass away, he doesn’t cry, he smiles, he takes her wrinkled hand and presses a kiss to the back of it, murmuring “wo ai ni,” against it before moving away for his crying mother to mourn.
at twelve, luhan’s powers change. he can touch something and see its past, present and future. he has no control over it so he always has to spend time wondering which is which. he learns about it quite by accident really, having picked up his puppy - a gift from his uncle - before he jerked, seeing flashes of his puppy rolling around with its brothers and sisters and its mother cleaning it. after that, luhan tries to avoid touching people or things in general so that he doesn’t learn things about them that he doesn’t want to.
over time, luhan learns that keeping his mind clear and his emotions under control helps him control his powers that have long since evolved from just visions to touching things and getting visions to being able to move things with his mind. at eighteen, after graduating from high school as he shakes the hand of a woman dressed smartly in an office suit, pencil skirt and high stilettos and all, he gets a vision of a university - kyungsan - in korea and he smiles. he knows he’s going to get the scholarship that he applied for.
a month later, he kisses his crying mother goodbye and hugs his proud father goodbye before boarding the plane, never once looking back because he knows korea, seoul holds his very future.
___
it’s been a year since he’s arrived at korea and luhan has enjoyed every single minute of it, even the late nights to finish his economics assignments and nights out with yixing, a guy from china in his class and minseok, a chubby-cheeked korean boy who is yixing’s good friend. over time, luhan learns that he isn’t the only one with powers. he learns after a particularly bad accident wherein he was run over by a speeding bicycle - which he foresaw by the way but allowed it to happen because... just because - that yixing can heal. the older boy had healed up his fractured wrist and scraped knees right there just as luhan was about to cry but was too shocked to because yixing?
“sorry i never told, “ yixing says afterwards over dinner in chinatown with minseok and chanyeol, the giant on the bike who ran him over. “i didn’t want to chase you off with my freakishness,” there’s a bitter smile on his lips and minseok squeezes his hand, smiling brightly.
“you’re not hyung!” minseok says chirpily. “i have powers too!”
on the same day, luhan learns that chanyeol can control fire and fly and minseok can manipulate particles into solid forms. they too learn that luhan is telekinetic and can see the past, present and future.
____
luhan never really expected this to happen. as far as he knows, jongin was never supposed to end up in his present or future. perhaps as a friend of a friend but not as someone he loves. he meets jongin during a night out to a club with sehun from business management classes, minseok, yixing and baekhyun who is chanyeol’s “one and only! i love him to bits!” chanyeol had proclaimed, hugging a red faced baekhyun close to him.
sehun ends up dragging a reluctant luhan out to the dance floor and dancing with him, bodies pressed close as they danced. sehun smiles, eyes turning into little crescents as he leans in, pressing his lips to luhan’s ear. “there’s someone i want you to meet,” he murmurs and a shiver rolls its way down luhan’s back when he sees a boy, taller than sehun just by that much making his way over, his steps sensuous and graceful and it contradicts the sweet, almost shy smile on his face as he reaches sehun.
he presses a kiss to sehun’s cheek as sehun tugs him to join their dance. they move as three, jongin’s movements elegant and natural, seduction in every roll of his hips and arch of his back. luhan can’t help but stare because, damn, there’s no way no one can ignore him what with the way he moves. he misses sehun’s smirk as the younger shoves him into the dancing boy. “dance with jongin. i’m going to get a drink!” he shouts over the pounding music, leaving them to stare at each other, awkwardness evident between them.
even under the strobe lights, luhan doesn’t miss the red flush on jongin’s cheeks and he smiles, eyes half-lidded as he rolls his body into his, arms slinging low on jongin’s waist. “shall we get out of here?” luhan asks, voice husky, feeling jongin shiver in his hold and he smiles triumphantly. “coffee?” jongin asks. luhan hums an assent and they make their way around gyrating, sweaty bodies and leave the club hand in hand, jongin smiling shyly, so different from the quiet, seductive confidence he had in the club and luhan, luhan’s heart flutters in his chest.
____
luhan doesn’t see jongin for a week and a half after the night in the club and their midnight coffee date. but he somehow manages to see that he’ll bump into the younger just outside the performing arts building on campus. so luhan goes there for lunch, sipping on apple juice and munching on bibimbap when jongin brushes by him. luhan smiles a small private smile before calling out to a distracted jongin, who didn’t realise he’d walk past the doe-eyed man.
“jongin,” luhan says and jongin turns, eyes widening comically before his lips curve into a small smile. “hi hyung!” he says enthusiastically, backtracking his way to the chinese man. “i didn’t know we went to the same university! what course are you taking?”
“i’m majoring in economics,” luhan replies, tilting his head up to get a good look at jongin. the younger has sweat beaded at his temple and his hair is ruffled, making him look winded. “i’m assuming you’re a performance arts major?”
“yeah, for dance. i minor in photography,” he answers happily. “dance class just ended so i was going out for lunch,”
“mind if i joined you?”
“no,” jongin smiles and luhan slips his arm through jongin’s and they walk to the cafe on campus.
____
they end up getting to know each other’s schedule well enough that they’ve begun to have lunch together or take short coffee breaks in between classes just to talk. luhan finds himself liking the young dancer more and more, which doesn’t escape sehun’s - who is jongin’s best friend - notice. as they are having lunch in a little chinese restaurant five minutes away from the condominium luhan stays at with yixing, minseok and chanyeol, sehun suddenly says, “you like jonginnie,”
luhan chokes on his sip of chinese tea and coughs. “w-what? no! what gave you that idea?”
sehun rolls his eyes. “don’t lie to me hyung. you’re so obvious it’s painful,” his lisp getting more apparent because of his irritation. “don’t jerk him around okay. if you hurt jongin, as pretty as you are hyung, i will bash your face in. or suffocate you,”
luhan raises a brow, looking pointedly at sehun’s thin wrist and slim stature. sehun smirks and a sudden breeze picks up around them, tugging at the chinese man’s honey brown locks before it fades. luhan’s jaw drops as the younger laughs. “holy shit,” he says breathlessly. “and you didn’t tell me?”
he reaches over and smacks sehun, just in time for jongin to join them, fending off luhan’s abusive hands and pressing a kiss to sehun’s cheek. “what did you do now sehun-ah?” jongin questions. sehun wiggles his fingers in jongin’s direction and jongin’s lips quirks into a smile. “oh,” he hums and takes the seat next to luhan, leaning over and pressing a kiss to the older’s cheek. he doesn’t say anything beyond that and waves over the waitress to place his order, turning the conversation instead to classes and the holidays that are almost upon them.
“we should go to the beach!” sehun exclaims excitedly, jabbing his chopsticks into the steamed pork bun. luhan wrinkles his nose. “let’s go somewhere cooler. summer is too hot for me,” he whines. “i’d fry up within minutes if we go to the beach,”
jongin’s eyes crinkle into half crescents as he slings an arm around the doe-eyed man. “sunblock hyung,” he smiles. “they invented sunblock for a reason. besides, i’m pretty sure a beach can tolerate chanyeol hyung’s craziness,”
luhan, unable to say anything under jongin’s bright smile and prettily crinkled eyes decides to drink his tea instead, kicking a smirking sehun’s shin under the table. “whipped,” sehun mouths as jongin gets distracted by a fishball and luhan groans inwardly.
____
the beach turns out to be a good and bad idea rolled into one. the good thing is everyone is happy to splash around in the vast ocean and build sandcastles together. the bad thing is, luhan has to deal with his erratic heart and his imaginative mind at the sight of a topless jongin never mind a topless wet jongin who has just come out from the ocean, running away from an angry sehun whom both jongin and chanyeol had dunked in the ocean unceremoniously moments ago.
luhan stares at jongin as he shrieks when sehun splats mud on his back and baekhyun prods him. “lulu, your sandcastle is crumbling,”
luhan whines when he sees the mound of sand that was once an impressive sandcastle and baekhun laughs. yixing, who is relaxing under the shade of the umbrella half smirks. “you should get kyungsoo to help you with your sandcastle baekhyunnie. luhannie is too distracted by jongin,”
“i am not!” luhan squawks just as kyungsoo wanders over, calling excitedly. “yixing hyung! i found more of your people!”
he gestures excitedly at two tall men, one with blonde hair and the other with a shy smile and prominent dark marks under his eyes. “this is wufan and zitao! i met them when minseokie and i were getting ice creams!”
“they aren’t my people kyungsoo-yah,” yixing grumbles good-naturedly. “go help baekhyun with his sandcastle. i think luhan is suffocating himself in the sand,”
“nice to meet you guys,” yixing says, switching to his mother tongue and ‘his’ people brighten up almost visibly at that. it’s no surprise that when they have a barbeque that night, wufan, zitao and jongdae who is a friend of both the chinese men. the back patio of their rented beach house is in an uproar and noisy because you can’t expect twelve men to be put together and be quiet.
throughout it all, luhan watches jongin, heart fluttering in his chest and when the younger brushes past him to get to joonmyeon, he sees him and jongin cuddled up in bed and smiling at each other and he pulls jongin back to him, their lips meeting seamlessly amidst the catcalls of their friends.
____
when summer holidays end and they’re back at university for their new term, luhan finds that there are more and more of jongin’s things in his room and his apartment that he shares with yixing, minseok and chanyeol. “ask him to move in,” yixing says after picking up a hoodie that is clearly jongin’s because it was something luhan had bought for him on one their dates.
“what? but what about you guys? there won’t be enough space!” luhan exclaims. the healer ruffles luhan’s hair. “where have you been lulu? chanyeol is moving out next week remember? he and baekhyun got an apartment together,”
“oh,” luhan says sheepishly. “i’d forgotten. okay, then if you and minseok don’t mind jonginnie moving in then i’ll ask him,”
yixing nods as he folds up the hoodie and hands it to the telekinetic man. “have you told him about your powers though?” he asks. luhan chews on his lower lip worriedly and shakes his head. the healer gives him a sympathetic look. “perhaps you should tell him about it first before asking him to move in. i’m sure jongin will accept it after all sehun, joonmyeon and kyungsoo all have powers and he grew up with them,”
“okay,” luhan says. “but it’s still worrying for me,”
yixing says nothing and envelopes the older in an embrace.
____
luhan had planned on telling jongin about his power during their lunch break the next day but he doesn’t expect zitao, who is an applied music major, to tag along. “hey hyung, wufan hyung isn’t around today so i offered to have lunch with zitao,” jongin says apologetically. zitao gives the older chinese man a small smile.
“i could catch up with jongdae if you want to spend time alone?” he says uncertainly. luhan shrugs and pats the younger man’s arm. “it’s fine,” he says easily, thinking to tell jongin about his powers during dinner. “let’s go. minseok said there’s this good noodle shop he ate at the other day that’s ten minutes away,”
“noodles,” jongin cheers, twining his fingers with luhan’s, shooting the older man a shy smile before engaging zitao in a conversation. as they walked, the three of them chattered amicably, zitao getting more outspoken along the way until he spots an crepe stand. “ge! can i buy one?” zitao says pouting adorably.
“aish,” luhan says, wavering in the face of the pout and giving in when jongin tilts his head, lips curving into a pitiful pout as well. “fine, fine. i’ll cross the road first and get us seats,”
he smiles as the two cheer, making their way to the stand and without looking, crosses the road.
“LUHAN!” jongin shouts. luhan turns and his eyes widens at the oncoming car, frozen as he heart thuds in his ears. in slow motion, zitao raises his arm and time seems to slow around them as luhan watches jongin disappear in a cloud of black smoke, and something jerks him upwards and finds himself on the opposite side of the road, jongin clinging to him, head tucked in the crook between luhan’s neck and shoulder, hot tears pooling in the chinese man’s clavicle.
zitao watches them from across the road, arm still raised and he crosses over, the cars stopping as he steps onto the road until everything but the three of them come to a standstill. “ge, are you okay?” he asks gently, kneeling by luhan and jongin.
“zitao, y-you,” luhan stammers.
zitao smiles serenely. “i can stop time,”
luhan blinks rapidly, still shocked as he chokes out, “that’s pretty cool,”
the younger man blushes before gesturing at the crying jongin. luhan seems to spur into action, arms coming around to hold the dancer close as he cries, shoulders trembling as he murmurs into the skin of luhan’s neck over and over. “i thought i’d lost you,” “forgive me,” “i never wanted to hide my powers from you,”
“it’s okay,” luhan whispers, rubbing circles at the base of jongin’s neck, his skin clammy and cold. “it’s okay. looks like we’re even jongin-ah. i’m telekinetic and i can see the future and you... you can teleport,”
and he smiles, a huge burden lifted off his shoulders as zitao waves a hand, time starting up again bit by bit and people continue on with their lives, never knowing it stopped for one moment as they walk past the three of them without giving them a second glance.
_____
after that incident, jongin agrees to move into luhan, yixing and minseok’s apartment and zitao and jongin and luhan have lunch together almost every day, sometimes joined by wufan and jongdae or sehun and kyungsoo.
one evening, after one of luhan’s lectures ran late, the doe-eyed man is rushing to get home when he bumps into a long haired and pretty girl. “sorry,” she says, smiling apologetically before rushing off. luhan has no chance to reply but he notices that she’d drop a pen with her name inscribed on it.
soojung
luhan bends and picks it up, planning to call out to her when a vision hits him and he gasps. he sees jongin and this girl together. jongin is smiling down at her, an arm around her waist as she cradles a baby in her arms. the baby is a perfect mix of both jongin and soojung and luhan watches as soojung tilts her head up and presses a kiss to jongin’s chin.
luhan drops the pen as he breathes heavily, eyes blurring with tears. with some measure of clarity, luhan knows that, that is supposed to be jongin’s future. that luhan was never meant to entangle himself within jongin’s life the way he has now.
he stumbles home with the pen in his back pocket and into jongin’s arms when the younger opens the front door, smile and greeting slipping off his face when he sees luhan’s puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks.
“hyung?” he says unsurely, voice small.
luhan wordlessly presses the pen into the teleporter’s hand and he reads the name. “soojung? who is this?” jongin asks, eyes wide, vulnerable.
“she was supposed to be your future,” luhan chokes out, voice low and cracked. “you were supposed to marry her and have children with her and be in love with her. i was never supposed to be in your life the way i am now,”
“hyung!” jongin cries out, shaking the older man. “stop it! i don’t care!”
he hugs luhan tight, almost suffocating and painful. “i don’t care. i have you and that’s enough,” he murmurs into the older’s honey coloured hair. “don’t regret us. please don’t regret us. because i don’t and i don’t care if i was supposed to marry her because i have you and that’s enough,”
he pulls back, thumbing away luhan’s tears. “i love you,” he says, smiling brightly and in such a carefree manner that it takes luhan’s breath away.
slowly, carefully as their present and future flows around them, their threads of fate tangling into intangible knots, luhan smiles back, wide and beautiful as he leans up, letting jongin taste his ‘i love you’.
____
it’s some weeks later when luhan and jongin are at a cafe buying coffee to go when luhan spots soojung. he murmurs his order to the young dancer and excuses himself to go over to her. “excuse me,” he says politely. she looks up at him from her book and smiles. “you dropped this the other day when we bumped into each other,”
she takes the pen from in and smiles, relieved. “oh! i thought i’d lost this! thank you so much!”
“it’s precious to you,” luhan states and a light pink dusts itself on her cheeks. “yes, he gave it to me,” she nods to someone behind luhan and the man turns to see a taller man with largish eyes entering the cafe. “minho gave it to me as our fourth month anniversary. i would cry if it had really been lost. thank you for returning it to me!”
she stands, closing her book and bows to luhan, brushing by him to get to minho and in that split second, luhan sees her with minho instead of jongin in the future that was supposed to be the dancer’s and he smiles a secretive smile, waving jongin off when the younger comes over with their drinks.
“and you must always remember luhan,” says his grandmother to an eight-year-old luhan. “you can never say for sure that the future you are seeing will happen,”
“why not popo?” he questions curiously.
she smiles lovingly down at her grandson. “because the decisions we make in life changes our ever moving future,”
.end