Super Junior {Hankyung/Heechul ; Run (epilogue)}

[black_goose]

Title: Run (epilogue)
Fandom: Super Junior (AU)
Pairing: Hankyung/Heechul
Word count: 4,735
Rating: R (for violence and mature themes)
Summary: Hankyung and Heechul have been living together for four years now, and their relationship seems pretty much perfect. However, Hankyung has more skeletons in his closet than he has let on, and now his past is about to rear its ugly head in the worst way possible. The thing about lies is that they're remarkably difficult to ignore.
A/N: it's over ;~; why is this bit so long lol idek. I can't lie, I LOVED writing this fic. It kind of hits all my romantic notion checkboxes. I just, I love it. It's been a looooooong time since I liked something I wrote so you know. That's good. I really want to thank civilized_era for everything she's done in the course of this fic. A lot of the inspiration for scenes for this come from talking to her about the plot, and she was so supportive during the writing ♥ thanks for convincing me to write this, Jeny~ even if a lot of it was just that you wanted the fic for yourself :| also, judging by the soundtrack to this -- which I'd love to upload for you all but I don't have most of the songs as an mp3 -- I think you can all tell that I'm a big fan of Snow Patrol :|

Run (epilogue)


YOU'RE ALL I HAVE - Snow Patrol

The alarm rang at 6.30am. No one in the house moved for a long time, before Hankyung grumbled, "fine, fine, okay," and sat up to knock it off. Heechul mumbled beside him, hand snaking out to grab him around the waist. Hankyung felt his eyes closing again, and shook his head to wake himself up. It didn't work; he let Heechul pull him back down onto the bed. Lips pressed dryly against his throat as Heechul shifted closer, head on his chest. Hankyung fell back asleep.

When he woke up again, it was 8.00am; the time was reflected onto the ceiling. He stared in horror for a total of thirty seconds before jerking upright, managing to catch Heechul on the jaw with his shoulder. Heechul shrieked in pain and rolled away and actually fell out of the bed. "Ah!" Hankyung said, and hung over the side. "Hey, babe, okay?"

"No," Heechul said, massaging his jaw. "No, I am not okay."

"Oh well." Hankyung held out a hand. Heechul averted his eyes and got to his feet himself. Hankyung suddenly remembered why he'd been rushing in the first place. "Shit, we're so late, we're going to be so late." He practically bounced off the bed, racing out of the door into the hallway.

From behind him, Heechul said, "Can I please go back to bed?"

"Yeah," Hankyung called over his shoulder. "Yeah, feel free. Donghae--" He burst into Donghae's bedroom. The boy was practically falling out of his own bed, skinny limbs thrown out everywhere, head hanging over the edge, hair almost brushing the ground. Hankyung rolled his eyes and hauled him back onto his bed properly before giving him a tiny shake. "Donghae, wake up, you're going to be late for school."

Donghae, ever one to pick up bad habits from Heechul, grumbled at Hankyung and flung an arm around, presumably to push him away but in reality he almost caught Hankyung on the nose with his fist. "Donghae!" Donghae's eyes flew open.

"Hyung," he whined. "Can't I sleep more?"

"Donghae, it's past eight o'clock, you're going to be late for school."

"Oh." Donghae was blank for a moment, before understanding dawned. "Oh! Hyung, I can't be late for school!"

"I know, that's why you need to get up right now."

Donghae groaned in frustration and clambered out of his bed. Hankyung ushered him into the bathroom. "Brush your teeth and clean your face. Breakfast will be ready in five minutes." Donghae saluted him in the mirror, and set about following the orders. Hankyung raced down the stairs to the kitchen only to find that Heechul had beaten him to it, and had already started making the coffee. "Life-saver," Hankyung said, slipping his arms around his waist and kissing his cheek.

"You owe me for making me get up so early," Heechul said, pushing him away. "Why did you lie in, honestly?"

"Possibly because someone kept me awake until the early hours of the morning watching some really bad horror film on the television."

"It was not really -- okay, yeah, it was bad."

"See?"

"Whatever. It's still too early."

There was a clattering on the stairs which signalled Donghae's approach. He'd been quicker than Hankyung had anticipated, so he left Heechul and started pouring out cereal and milk at super quick speed. By the time Donghae was sitting at the counter, Hankyung had a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice all ready for him. "Here!" he said brightly, already feeling like the day had been too hard and that he should be allowed to crawl back into bed.

Donghae, on the other hand, was his usual bright, cheerful self. Heechul took the seat next to him to drink his coffee, and the two chattered about their plans for the day. Heechul was going to read, then write something; Donghae was going to bring his friend home from school. This was news to both Hankyung and Heechul.

"Do we have anything decent for dinner?" Heechul asked Hankyung, unsure. Hankyung thought about it.

"I'll pick something up on my way home from class," he decided, and flicked Donghae on the forehead when he laughed at him.

Normally, Hankyung would walk Donghae to school; they decided today that it might be more helpful to drive there. Once Donghae was in his uniform, and Hankyung had showered and pulled on something that could technically be considered decent enough for going outside the house in, they were on their way, Donghae messing around with the radio so much that by the time they arrived in front of his school, with mere minutes to spare, he still hadn't chosen a station.

"So who's coming over tonight?" Hankyung asked, as Donghae unbuckled his seat belt and reached down to grab his bag from the foot well.

"Siwon." He opened the car door. "Bye, hyung!"

"Bye, Hae."

Back home, Heechul was in the shower when Hankyung arrived. He changed out of what he'd thrown on -- he saw now that he'd actually put on one of Heechul's t-shirts, which explained why it was so tight. He'd have to throw it away so that Heechul wouldn't see how much he'd stretched it -- and got dressed into a pair of jeans and one of his own t-shirts (he checked). He was just lacing up his combat boots when Heechul came out of the bathroom, towel up high around his waist.

"When's your first class?" he asked as he opened the wardrobe and pulled out a shirt.

"In--" Hankyung checked his watch "--half an hour."

"You'd better run," Heechul said, raising an eyebrow.

"That's what I'm doing." Hankyung finished up his lace and dropped his foot so he could stand up and pull Heechul against him. He ran his fingers down the skin stretched over his spine. "Just wanted to kiss you before I left."

"Then do it, and go. Idiot."

Hankyung smiled before pressing his lips to Heechul's, slow and languid. He let his eyes close; ended up backing Heechul up against the wardrobe, fingers fumbling with the knot at his waist before Heechul pushed him away. "Would you just go to class," he said, rolling his eyes. Hankyung rolled his eyes back and left the room, ran down the stairs, gulped down the last mouthful of a lukewarm cup of coffee in the kitchen, grabbed his jacket and car keys. "Hey!" Heechul leaned over the railing at the top of the stairs to shout down at him. "Don't forget your essay, I did not proof read that shit just for you to forget it."

Hankyung paused, his hand already on the handle of the front door. "Oh, you're right." He went into the living room for the first time that day and picked up his Dance Theory essay from the coffee table. "Thanks!" he called back up the stairs. He got a muffled call of something back; Heechul had clearly closed the bedroom door.

He ended up being late to his first class, but then he hadn't really expected any different. He slipped into the back of the room and swore to get some notes on the half hour he had missed from a classmate. They were generally good people that he got on with, though most of them weren't twenty-eight years old, with a long term partner and a kid to look after. He was willing to bet none of them were, or ever had been, part of a witness protection program, but then he probably wouldn't know even if they were.

His next lecture passed in a blur of note making, names of dancers which he noted down and swore to look up later on. At lunch he managed to snag some notes from a boy in his first class, and spent the two hours he had spare copying them up and doing some research of his own. Noting the time, he called Heechul, sitting in the corner of the cafeteria.

"I swear," Heechul answered the phone with, "we had packets of kimchi instant noodles." There was the sound of banging on his end, probably cupboards.

"You ate them," Hankyung said, reminding him. "Remember? A couple of days ago. You and Donghae were doing his homework and eating them."

"I thought we had more."

"No."

"Damn it. Now what am I supposed to eat for lunch?"

"Heechul, we have a lot of stuff. Find something."

"We have a lot of stuff that I don't know what to do with. Like, we have pasta. And tinned peaches. Why do we have tinned peaches, Hankyung? Explain this to me. I do not like peaches. Do you like tinned peaches?"

"I like peaches. Not sure about tinned ones."

"I guess we could feed them to Donghae at some point." Hankyung heard the scrape of tin on wood; Heechul putting the tinned peaches back. "That boy will eat anything."

"He might not eat tinned peaches."

"Why the hell do we have tinned peaches, Hankyung?"

"I have no idea," Hankyung admitted. "Maybe you went shopping when you were drunk and thought it was a good idea."

"Have I ever done that? No. I have never done that."

"There's some pasta sauce in the cupboard next to the cooker. Just stick it in the microwave and cover your pasta in it. It'll do for lunch."

"Baby, you think of everything," Heechul mock-purred down the phone. "Yay for lunch."

"Yay for lunch," Hankyung agreed. A thought struck him. "Hey, did you give Donghae any money to buy lunch?"

"What, no, I thought you had done."

There was a pause. "We're the worst parents in the world," Hankyung decided.

"No, we're the best, this is just a mishap. Besides, you know that Siwon kid gets too much food from his overbearing witch of a mother. He'll share with Donghae, we're making him dinner anyway."

"I hope you're right."

"Hankyung!" Heechul sounded offended. "When have I never been right?"

"Well, there was--"

"It was a rhetorical question, you fucking moron."

"Ah. Okay. Got you."

"When is your last class?"

"My next one is my last class. Chinese. Finishes at three."

"Don't forget the stuff for dinner."

"How could I ever forget?"

"Yeah, yeah. Goodbye!" Heechul trilled the last word, loud and obnoxious.

"Bye. I love you."

"Mmmm. I -- fucking hell. Pasta's boiling over." Hankyung laughed as Heechul hung up, before gathering his stuff up and heading to his Chinese class. He considered it the easiest class he'd ever taken, mainly since it was his own language. Their easy marking scheme ensured that he was getting almost straight As. Minoring in Chinese was going to be the best decision of his schooling career.

At three o'clock, he was finished. He'd honestly thought that the thought of "freedom!" at the end of classes would have been something which he'd have grown out of, but apparently not. Maybe it was something that you never grew out of. Maybe it was the fact that it was a Tuesday, and tomorrow he had absolutely no classes. Whatever it was, he was decidedly cheerful when he reached the car.

Even the supermarket couldn't do much to affect his mood. The old lady he got stuck behind slightly dampened it, but didn't bring about any significant drop. He grabbed enough food to make dinner for four people, and managed to get through the check out without much trouble. There was no traffic on his way home; schools hadn't yet got out, and the offices were still far from closing.

The house was still when he let himself in. Unlike not too long ago, it didn't worry him. "Hey," he called, going into the kitchen and dumping his bags. "Did you eat?"

There was a muffled noise of either annoyance or acknowledgment, Hankyung wasn't too sure which. Slipping his coat from his shoulders, he hung it on the coat rack as he headed up the stairs. He knocked lightly on the door to Heechul's reading room and opened the door. Heechul was bent over some hardback, hair loose around his face. He didn't look at Hankyung, as he tucked it behind his ears only for it to fall back.

"You should tie it up," Hankyung noted, coming further into the room. Heechul hmmmed in either agreement or disagreement, it was, again, hard to tell. "Interesting book?"

"Interesting enough." Heechul marked his place and closed it. "How was class?"

"Boring enough." Hankyung watched as Heechul leaned forward to put the book, something English, he noted from the title, on the pile he had taken it from off. Heechul winced a little, hand coming up to his shoulder. Hankyung covered his fingers with his own, and began to massage the joint. "You shouldn't sit for so long."

"Be quiet, I'm fine." Heechul pulled away a little, but then made no protest when Hankyung pulled him into him, twisting their positions until Heechul's back was towards him and Hankyung could massage his shoulders properly.

"I know you're fine," Hankyung said, kissing the back of his neck. "But you know I'm right."

"I know you're smug. Did you get stuff for dinner?"

"I did." Hankyung could feel the tension in Heechul's body falling away; his arm, when he reached up to brush his hair from his face again, was languid. "Even Donghae will be happy enough with the amount of food I bought."

"Good. Maybe we can live off the leftovers until I remember to go shopping. Like we're real college students."

"Something like that."

There was, from below, the sound of the front door crashing open, and Donghae talking loudly to someone. "Lo," Hankyung said. "The spawn has arrived." Heechul fought down on his laughter. Hankyung pulled him towards him and kissed him softly, right before Donghae shrieked "Hyung!" up the stairs.

Heechul pulled away and picked up a book. "We're up here, Donghae!"

Hankyung stood up and went to the door to intercept the boys, but Donghae ducked under his arm and threw himself at Heechul, almost climbing on him in his haste to tell him about his day. Siwon, abandoned on the hallway, bowed a little to Hankyung, who smiled his welcome. "You might as well come in too," he said, and Siwon grinned and came into the room too.

The house was not the same one that they'd lived in before Hankyung had explained about his past. True to his suspicions, that one had been burnt down, almost completely. Everything they had owned had been destroyed, including Heechul's lifetime collection of books. They had been insured, but in terms of real value, they had been priceless. Heechul was slowly building his collection back up, but it was not, and would possibly never, be as good as before. Money wasn't as free, not now that Hankyung was back at university training to be a dance teacher, and they had Donghae to look after. The compensation Heechul was received for his injuries wouldn't last forever, not now that they had a mortgage to pay on a house that hadn't been given to them by the Chinese government. It was bigger house, four bedrooms, two bathrooms; at least Hankyung didn't need a study anymore.

Eventually, Heechul managed to convince Donghae to leave him alone in order to begin his writing, and Hankyung brought the two boys downstairs and sat them in front of the television, sitting with them for a short while and watching some stupid cartoon which didn't make any sense to him, but seemed to be hilarious to the two ten year olds. After deciding that he was officially too old for such things, he pulled out his laptop and started his Chinese literature essay.

He had most of it finished when he decided to make dinner, the two boys beginning to complain of being hungry -- Donghae was particularly loud in his complaints. "Fine, fine," Hankyung said, rolling his eyes and heading into the kitchen to start it. When he finished, Heechul had not stirred. "Heechul!" he shouted up the stairs, Donghae and Siwon sitting patiently (or in Donghae's case, not so patiently, as he was swinging his legs back and forth looking cross). "Heechul, dinner!"

Heechul appeared at the top of the stairs. He'd taken Hankyung's advice and pulled his hair back out of his face with a tie, although most of it was now hanging down, since he could never quite shake the habit of running a hand through it. "I never realised how hungry I was," he noted with a wry look on his face as he started down the stairs.

"Didn't you eat at lunch?"

"I think so."

"You mean you don't know?"

"Well, I remember making the pasta bu--" He broke off as his left leg gave way underneath him, and he almost fell down the last few stairs. Hankyung caught him, stopped him hitting the floor, and helped him regain his balance.

"You okay?" he asked, tucking Heechul's hair back.

"Yes." Heechul pulled away. "Yes, I'm fine, don't fuss."

"Not fussing," Hankyung said with a shrug. "Just asking."

"Yeah, well." Despite his fall, Heechul barely had a limp as he made his way into the kitchen, Hankyung following along behind. He sat at the table, where Donghae looked at him worriedly.

"Hyung, are you okay?"

Heechul smiled. "Fine, Donghae. Just slipped."

"Oh, okay."

Hankyung put the food on the table and handed plates out. Their dinner was punctuated with conversation between Donghae and Siwon that Heechul and Hankyung ended up getting dragged into, until they were all talking as they ate, Donghae the most exuberantly. He was just in the middle of talking about how he was going to take art when he got to high school, when Heechul turned to Hankyung.

"We need to buy paint," he said. Hankyung frowned at him, then nodded, understanding.

"Paint?" Donghae missed nothing. "Why paint?"

"We're going to paint the spare bedroom," Heechul said. "Well, Hankyung is. I'm going to stand around and make sure he doesn't miss any spaces."

"Why are you -- wait, is it for --" Heechul nodded. "Really? When? When?"

"Next month." Heechul couldn't help the laugh that came when he saw the expression on Donghae's face. "You look like I told you it was Christmas every day."

"Well, it's exciting!" Donghae sounded overjoyed rather than defensive. "Do you know a name yet?"

"Han-mi," Heechul said, grinning at Hankyung, who stuck his tongue out at him. "A girl."

"I'm confused," Siwon admitted.

"I'm getting a little sister," Donghae said proudly.

"How?" burst out Siwon, then looked embarrassed. "I mean, you're--"

Heechul raised an eyebrow; someone had been given the birds and the bees talk earlier. Well, his mother, along with being an "overbearing witch" was also very religious. She probably didn't want Siwon to turn out like either of Hankyung and Heechul. "Adoption, Siwon," Hankyung said kindly. "The same way Donghae came to live with us."

"Oh." Siwon at least looked happy enough with that explanation. Contrary to what his mother might think -- and Heechul knew what Siwon's mother thought, since she'd said it to his face one day when he'd been picking Donghae up, had walked straight to his face and said it -- 'a child like Donghae' could only be a good influence on Siwon. Liberalise him somewhat, broaden his horizons. That could only be a good thing.

"I," Donghae said proudly, "will be the greatest older brother in the world."

Heechul reached over and pinched his cheek. "I'm sure you will, Haebaby." Donghae pushed him away, frowning and blushing.

"Don't call me that, hyung," he said.

"Why not, it's cute. You're cute. I like cute."

"Well, I don't want to be cute," Donghae said firmly. "I need to be manly. So I can protect my younger sister. Not cute. She can be cute."

Heechul stared at him. "Donghae, you are so cute."

"Hyung!"

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding. God," he said to Hankyung, "they grow up so fast."

"Or maybe we're just getting old," Hankyung said, to which Heechul snorted and rolled his eyes.

"Speak for yourself, grandpa."



Donghae sat between them on the sofa, dressed in his pyjamas, hair still wet from his bath. His elbow kept catching Heechul in the rib as he shifted forward, drawn into the drama they were watching, which meant Heechul kept shifting away to no avail. His laptop was open on his lap; he'd been in the middle of typing when they'd realised they were missing their show, which had resulted in mild panic on Donghae's behalf. Hankyung had his arm slung along the back of the sofa, fingertips just resting on Heechul's shoulder.

The drama finished, and soon afterwards Donghae smothered a yawn with his palm, trying to make the movement go unnoticed. For Hankyung, it did -- it was Heechul who noticed with his eagle eyes for those things. "Donghae," he said commandingly. "Bed. Now."

"But hyung--"

"Or I will call you Haebaby in front of your classmates next time I drop you off."

Donghae pouted. "That's not fair, hyung."

"Life's not fair, Donghae," Heechul said brightly. "I'm just teaching you a very important life lesson."

Donghae laughed at that, never one to be upset for long, and stood up on the sofa so he could get some height up in order to be able to lean down and kiss Heechul goodnight on the cheek. He wasn't any taller than he had been a year earlier, something that irked him a little, especially since Siwon was such a beanpole. Things like this, they were small victories for Donghae. With that, he hopped down from the sofa and made his way up the stairs, Hankyung following him to tuck him in.

He kissed Donghae's forehead, then walked to the door and switched the light off, leaving the door open just a little. Sometimes, he got the feeling that Donghae didn't really believe that this really was his life. After a father who had died of cancer, and a mother who died suddenly in a car accident along with his cousin and his aunt, Donghae no doubt felt susceptible to sudden changes in his life. Hankyung didn't know if leaving the door opened helped alleviate any fears that Donghae might have, but he at least hoped that it reassured Donghae that, metaphorically, the door was always open.

Still, despite that, Donghae did seem to have settled in Seoul easily enough, though a small amount of naivete from his life in the tiny seaside village remained -- he still didn't quite understand the concept of 'strangers'. He seemed comfortable at the school that they'd enrolled him in, had quickly made a friend in Siwon, along with others. It hadn't been easy, but finally, he was theirs.

Hankyung sat back down on the sofa. "What are we doing tomorrow?" he asked.

"Buying paint," Heechul said, sounding a little distracted.

"Beyond buying paint," Hankyung prompted.

"I don't know. Quiet, I'm writing." Hankyung obediently fell quiet until Heechul was finished with his tapping at the keyboard and had saved his work triumphantly. Then he closed the laptop and set it by his feet. "We need to get some more clothes for Donghae, he needs more than one pair of jeans."

"You need another pair too," Hankyung said, remembering what he'd noticed that morning in the wardrobe. "Your black ones are beginning to fray around the bottom."

"What, really?"

"Yeah, I noticed this morning."

"Fuck."

"Yeah."

"Thank god I have you to let me know when my jeans are fraying at the bottom." Heechul turned to him and kissed his quickly. "How about helping me out of these ones?"

Hankyung snorted with laughter. "That was corny," he said as he climbed to his feet, a hand out wordlessly to help Heechul. "Did you run out of creativity writing?"

"No," Heechul shot back, taking his hand and letting himself be pulled to his feet, standing on his leg awkwardly. "I just figured that if I said anything clever, it might go over your head."

"Touche," Hankyung said, and saw Heechul looking at the stairs. "Want me to carry you up, Princess?" he teased. Heechul glared at him.

"No, thanks," he said with a sniff, and started up the stairs. Hankyung felt like a dick for teasing him like that, but knew that Heechul would, on some level, appreciate him for it. This way, he was at least proving that he could do it, and Hankyung could follow on behind and make sure that he did. They got to the top of the stairs with almost no trouble, though Heechul's expression was slightly pained.

"Lie down," Hankyung said, closing the bedroom door behind him. Heechul looked like he was going to protest against the semi-order, but was too thankful to be able to sink down onto the bed, taking the weight off his leg. Hankyung gently helped him into the center of the bed and kissed him deeply, one of his hands against Heechul's hip. Heechul's hands cupped his face, tongue familiar against his own. He broke their mouths apart to kiss down Heechul's jaw, then down his throat. His hands began to pull Heechul's t-shirt up.

"Hankyung," Heechul said warningly, reaching out, trying to hit the light switch to put them in darkness. Hankyung caught his wrist and pulled it back to the head.

"No, Heechul," he said. "You don't need to worry about it."

"But it's --"

"It's nothing."

To prove his point, he slowly slid the material up so that the scar on Heechul's stomach was exposed, the knitting of skin where piping had impaled him. Hankyung pulled the t-shirt over Heechul's head, and then dropped his head so he could kiss the scarring, over and over again, until Heechul was laughing and pushing his head away. Hankyung kissed him shortly again.

"Don't hide it," he said. Hankyung could never quite put into words why he hated it when Heechul consciously hid his scar; it was as though it was a sign of what they had gone through together, a sign that Heechul was still here despite it all. Hankyung would give anything to be the one in Heechul's place, the one with the supposed blemish on his body, but he couldn't change the past. "You don't need to hide it."

"It's ugly, Hankyung."

"It's not."

"You just feel guilty. You're supposed to say that."

"I do feel guilty," Hankyung admitted. "Every single second of every single day."

"Well, don't. It's not your fault."

"I was the cause of it, and I promised you that I would never let you get hurt."

"Like I said at the time, you promised me a lot of things."

"And you got your phone and your car. Well, a shared car."

"That doesn't count."

"And you got your kid. You're getting another one, too, how greedy are you?"

"Shut up."

There was silence for a while.

"Maybe we should take Donghae, and Han-mi when she arrives, to see my parents," Hankyung said thoughtfully.

"We should," Heechul said.

To say that Hankyung's parents have been overjoyed at hearing that their son was alive, and well, and safe, would have been an understatement; their happiness only grew when he finally (finally finally) introduced Heechul to them. It had been in the hospital, Heechul still recovering what had happened to him, in his hospital bed bored and flicking through television channels, when Hankyung had burst through the doorway talking in Mandarin to an older couple. Heechul had muted the television, surprised. "These are my parents," Hankyung had said, beaming at him; a woman with his smile and a father with his eyes.

"We should take them to China," Hankyung continued. "Donghae would like China. You'd like it too, it's a beautiful place."

"We'll take them," Heechul decided. "Donghae's dying to try out his Mandarin skills, and it'll be good. You should be able to spend time with your family after all this time."

"So thoughtful," Hankyung said.

"Are you mocking me?"

"Just a little bit." Hankyung laughed at the look on Heechul's face at that, and then Heechul lifted a hand and covered Hankyung's mouth with it.

"Quiet," he murmured, his free hand unbuttoning Hankyung's jeans. "You'll wake the kid." Hankyung smiled slowly, lazily, then, with one hand possessively resting against Heechul's hip, he reached up and pressed the light switch down.