Reaching for the Moon
Ashakiran
Reaching for the Moon
Year 3235, 1th Cycle, 3rd Period
“I’m not promising anything,” Eunhyuk warned, looking all together more worried than he should have.
“I know that!” Heechul snapped right back at him, his fingers touching the flight panels lightly. There was a hum of life coming from the machine that spoke of something happening. He had heard it before, the one time he had been allowed to go to the port. For all intents and purposes, the little ship that Heechul has salvaged sounded just like a ship preparing for flight. Those ships, of course, tended to have a thick glass like plate on the front and enough side paneling that he wouldn’t be able to see the engine room from where he stood several trees away. It was, as they called it, a work in progress.
“Please work,” he murmured to no one in particular as he watched the four young men that had worked so hard, scurry around it.
“Jungsoo,” a voice said softly from beside him and a warm hand pressed gently to the small of his back. The simple touch brought comfort but didn’t ease the tight bundle of nerves that were piling in his stomach. “It isn’t going to do anything.”
“Don’t say that Youngwoon,” the older man hissed.
“Why? It is just an outdated hunk of metal. I mean it’s hard to find parts for the bucket of rust and I’m pretty sure it isn’t going to fly anywhere anytime soon,” Youngwoon stated in confusion.
“You don’t understand,” Jungsoo whispered, deliberately keeping his voice too soft to be heard by the men that were snapping at each other in the half finished ship. “If this doesn’t work, it might just kill Heechul.”
Youngwoon frowned and he could feel the other man watching him. “It’s just a ship. Isn’t it?”
For all of the man’s attempts, he would never be able to understand, there were some things that just couldn’t be grasped if they had never been lived. Through no fault of his own, Youngwoon had lived an easy life until he had chosen differently. He would never understand what it meant to take something broken and try to put it right again, never understand what it would mean to them and Jungsoo wasn’t certain he could properly explain. “It’s never just a ship.”
“Is this one of the weird metaphors between you and Heechul that I am just bound never to understand and will have to live with that if I want to be part of your life?” Youngwoon asked. Although the question carried with it hints of hurt for secrets he would never know, there was also a good deal of warmth to it.
“It wouldn’t mean the same if I just explained it to you,” Jungsoo confirmed gently.
“Fair enough,” Youngwoon agreed, sliding his hand around the man’s back until it rested on his hip. He used the hold to pull the older man into his side, and Jungsoo shifted without protest.
“All I am saying is that you might over load the circuits!” Kyuhyun was yelling from inside what had at one time been a fully functioning cockpit.
“I thought you said this thing was flight ready?!” Heechul snapped back.
“We told you it might be able to fly in the near future!” Kyuhyun shouted, and Eunhyuk shrunk back a step from the building tempers. “We didn’t tell you to march your prissy ass all the way out here and try to make it do so now!”
“You shouldn’t say something like that if you aren’t ready to back it up!” Heechul yelled, slamming his hand down on a panel. Jungsoo winced and prayed there wasn’t anything important beneath his palm since the man could hit quite firmly when he wanted to.
“I can back it plenty! Do you see all the lights?!” Kyuhyun waved his arms around to indicate the flashing lights. Jungsoo had to give the fifteen-year-old credit, many older men had backed down when faced with Heechul’s anger. “Or is that too high tech for you to understand?”
Heechul snarled, “I’ll show you high tech!”
“We might want to,” Kibum who had grease smear across one cheek spoke up at last, “actually try to, you know, get this thing off the ground. You have about a minute before your engine dies, flight test or not.”
Heechul glared at him in retaliation for speaking and then turned the force of his glare on the youngest man standing there. “Well do you know how to fly this thing or not?” he snapped.
“What?” Kyuhyun offered the man a crooked smirk, “they didn’t teach you how to fly a pile of rust in school.”
“No,” Heechul sneered, “My schooling involved information more along the lines of different ways to spread my legs and how to moan in more ways then you could imagine.” The comment was a low blow, and brought up what they all knew to be their dark past, but it also did the job Heechul had intended it to. Kyuhyun’s mouth snapped shut and he turned to the control panel and set to work without further comment.
After a moment of his fingers flying over the controls he stepped to the side and gestured to the controls. “Just pull back on that there. If she is going to do anything at this point, that will make her do it.”
Nodding Heechul stepped forward and firmly wrapped his fingers around the controls. A brief second of panic flitted across his face, invisible to all but Jungsoo who knew him too well to miss it. Then it was gone, replaced by calm determination as the muscles in his arm tightened as he pulled back on the controls. There was a moment, in which everything seemed to slow. A moment in which Jungsoo wondered if it would all be for nothing, if the ship would sputter and die and he would be left to put the remains of Heechul back together, again. The moment seemed to stretch on forever and then Heechul growled, low in his throat. He gave the controls a solid jerk as if by will alone he would move the ship and a second later it shuttered up from the ground.
The motion only lasted a second, but it was violent enough to send all of the men on the ship but Heechul to their rear ends on the floor. Stubbornly he stood, fingers still wrapped around the controls, as his ship hovered for just a moment and then with a sputter, died and crashed back to the ground.
“Well I’ll be damned,” Youngwoon muttered beside him.
“Language,” Jungsoo corrected absently but his full focus was on Heechul, who stood in the cockpit of his ship with the widest smile Jungsoo had ever seen splitting his face.
“Sorry,” Youngwoon replied automatically as well. “I still don’t see what the big deal is. So he got it off the ground. That isn’t going to get it into space.”
Jungsoo couldn’t be bothered to answer him at the moment because Heechul had looked over and met his eyes, and for a long moment, understanding passed between them. He knew what this meant to Heechul, and for Heechul.
Then, as easily as it had started the gaze was broken and Heechul’s eyes fell on Youngwoon, then lit with greed. “Yah! You! Get up here! My grease monkeys have a list of stuff they need from you!” he yelled.
“Excuse me!” Kyuhyun snapped, clearly over his earlier silence, as he climbed to his feet. “I am no one’s grease monkey!”
“Fine you can be my grease hippo, Eunhyuk will be my monkey,” Heechul said flippantly.
“I’ll be your what?!” Kyuhyun exploded.
“My hippo. Or whatever animal you like really,” Heechul told him casually and then he glanced back towards Youngwoon. “Are you coming?” he asked, the simple question promising all sorts of pain if it wasn’t obeyed.
“I almost wish the dumb thing hadn’t worked,” Youngwoon grumbled as he gave Jungsoo’s waist a gentle squeeze before releasing him and moving forward. “Yeah, yeah. Don’t get your panties in a bunch!”
Smiling Jungsoo tuned out there banter as he stepped back to lean against a tree and simply observe them move about the half reconstructed ship. If he was honest with himself, he hadn’t thought that Heechul would pull it off, no matter how desperately they both wanted him to. He had to be realistic about things, but he was glad to be proven wrong. It had worked and it had, as he had suspected it would, given Heechul one thing that Jungsoo had never been able to provide. Through all the nightmares and pain, the blood and the tears, it had given Heechul something that he could hold onto with his own to hands.
Youngwoon, and people like him could never truly understand what it was, simply because they had never been without it. After twenty years of life, Heechul had finally found something to carry him through the rest of his days, simple hope. Hope that there was something else for them then endless days of forested danger. Hope that he could see all the things he had read about, all the things he had dreamed of. Hope that, despite everything he knew, everything he had seen, he could, through some miraculous way, take that which was broken and make it whole again. It was that promise, the hope, that Jungsoo knew would, at last, begin to heal the hurting heart.
Masterlist
AN: Yay! It feels so good to be writing again. I am finally getting out of my slump I hope! I'm not going to promise anything, but I am going to try to write something everyday for the next 30 or so days to get myself back in the swing of things. So even if it is just a little snippet, I hope you all look forward to it!
For those of you old readers, this is that one space verse that I wrote about a long time ago. Yeah that one. It's back! For you new readers, check out the masterlist to see what it is all about.
Reaching for the Moon
Year 3235, 1th Cycle, 3rd Period
“I’m not promising anything,” Eunhyuk warned, looking all together more worried than he should have.
“I know that!” Heechul snapped right back at him, his fingers touching the flight panels lightly. There was a hum of life coming from the machine that spoke of something happening. He had heard it before, the one time he had been allowed to go to the port. For all intents and purposes, the little ship that Heechul has salvaged sounded just like a ship preparing for flight. Those ships, of course, tended to have a thick glass like plate on the front and enough side paneling that he wouldn’t be able to see the engine room from where he stood several trees away. It was, as they called it, a work in progress.
“Please work,” he murmured to no one in particular as he watched the four young men that had worked so hard, scurry around it.
“Jungsoo,” a voice said softly from beside him and a warm hand pressed gently to the small of his back. The simple touch brought comfort but didn’t ease the tight bundle of nerves that were piling in his stomach. “It isn’t going to do anything.”
“Don’t say that Youngwoon,” the older man hissed.
“Why? It is just an outdated hunk of metal. I mean it’s hard to find parts for the bucket of rust and I’m pretty sure it isn’t going to fly anywhere anytime soon,” Youngwoon stated in confusion.
“You don’t understand,” Jungsoo whispered, deliberately keeping his voice too soft to be heard by the men that were snapping at each other in the half finished ship. “If this doesn’t work, it might just kill Heechul.”
Youngwoon frowned and he could feel the other man watching him. “It’s just a ship. Isn’t it?”
For all of the man’s attempts, he would never be able to understand, there were some things that just couldn’t be grasped if they had never been lived. Through no fault of his own, Youngwoon had lived an easy life until he had chosen differently. He would never understand what it meant to take something broken and try to put it right again, never understand what it would mean to them and Jungsoo wasn’t certain he could properly explain. “It’s never just a ship.”
“Is this one of the weird metaphors between you and Heechul that I am just bound never to understand and will have to live with that if I want to be part of your life?” Youngwoon asked. Although the question carried with it hints of hurt for secrets he would never know, there was also a good deal of warmth to it.
“It wouldn’t mean the same if I just explained it to you,” Jungsoo confirmed gently.
“Fair enough,” Youngwoon agreed, sliding his hand around the man’s back until it rested on his hip. He used the hold to pull the older man into his side, and Jungsoo shifted without protest.
“All I am saying is that you might over load the circuits!” Kyuhyun was yelling from inside what had at one time been a fully functioning cockpit.
“I thought you said this thing was flight ready?!” Heechul snapped back.
“We told you it might be able to fly in the near future!” Kyuhyun shouted, and Eunhyuk shrunk back a step from the building tempers. “We didn’t tell you to march your prissy ass all the way out here and try to make it do so now!”
“You shouldn’t say something like that if you aren’t ready to back it up!” Heechul yelled, slamming his hand down on a panel. Jungsoo winced and prayed there wasn’t anything important beneath his palm since the man could hit quite firmly when he wanted to.
“I can back it plenty! Do you see all the lights?!” Kyuhyun waved his arms around to indicate the flashing lights. Jungsoo had to give the fifteen-year-old credit, many older men had backed down when faced with Heechul’s anger. “Or is that too high tech for you to understand?”
Heechul snarled, “I’ll show you high tech!”
“We might want to,” Kibum who had grease smear across one cheek spoke up at last, “actually try to, you know, get this thing off the ground. You have about a minute before your engine dies, flight test or not.”
Heechul glared at him in retaliation for speaking and then turned the force of his glare on the youngest man standing there. “Well do you know how to fly this thing or not?” he snapped.
“What?” Kyuhyun offered the man a crooked smirk, “they didn’t teach you how to fly a pile of rust in school.”
“No,” Heechul sneered, “My schooling involved information more along the lines of different ways to spread my legs and how to moan in more ways then you could imagine.” The comment was a low blow, and brought up what they all knew to be their dark past, but it also did the job Heechul had intended it to. Kyuhyun’s mouth snapped shut and he turned to the control panel and set to work without further comment.
After a moment of his fingers flying over the controls he stepped to the side and gestured to the controls. “Just pull back on that there. If she is going to do anything at this point, that will make her do it.”
Nodding Heechul stepped forward and firmly wrapped his fingers around the controls. A brief second of panic flitted across his face, invisible to all but Jungsoo who knew him too well to miss it. Then it was gone, replaced by calm determination as the muscles in his arm tightened as he pulled back on the controls. There was a moment, in which everything seemed to slow. A moment in which Jungsoo wondered if it would all be for nothing, if the ship would sputter and die and he would be left to put the remains of Heechul back together, again. The moment seemed to stretch on forever and then Heechul growled, low in his throat. He gave the controls a solid jerk as if by will alone he would move the ship and a second later it shuttered up from the ground.
The motion only lasted a second, but it was violent enough to send all of the men on the ship but Heechul to their rear ends on the floor. Stubbornly he stood, fingers still wrapped around the controls, as his ship hovered for just a moment and then with a sputter, died and crashed back to the ground.
“Well I’ll be damned,” Youngwoon muttered beside him.
“Language,” Jungsoo corrected absently but his full focus was on Heechul, who stood in the cockpit of his ship with the widest smile Jungsoo had ever seen splitting his face.
“Sorry,” Youngwoon replied automatically as well. “I still don’t see what the big deal is. So he got it off the ground. That isn’t going to get it into space.”
Jungsoo couldn’t be bothered to answer him at the moment because Heechul had looked over and met his eyes, and for a long moment, understanding passed between them. He knew what this meant to Heechul, and for Heechul.
Then, as easily as it had started the gaze was broken and Heechul’s eyes fell on Youngwoon, then lit with greed. “Yah! You! Get up here! My grease monkeys have a list of stuff they need from you!” he yelled.
“Excuse me!” Kyuhyun snapped, clearly over his earlier silence, as he climbed to his feet. “I am no one’s grease monkey!”
“Fine you can be my grease hippo, Eunhyuk will be my monkey,” Heechul said flippantly.
“I’ll be your what?!” Kyuhyun exploded.
“My hippo. Or whatever animal you like really,” Heechul told him casually and then he glanced back towards Youngwoon. “Are you coming?” he asked, the simple question promising all sorts of pain if it wasn’t obeyed.
“I almost wish the dumb thing hadn’t worked,” Youngwoon grumbled as he gave Jungsoo’s waist a gentle squeeze before releasing him and moving forward. “Yeah, yeah. Don’t get your panties in a bunch!”
Smiling Jungsoo tuned out there banter as he stepped back to lean against a tree and simply observe them move about the half reconstructed ship. If he was honest with himself, he hadn’t thought that Heechul would pull it off, no matter how desperately they both wanted him to. He had to be realistic about things, but he was glad to be proven wrong. It had worked and it had, as he had suspected it would, given Heechul one thing that Jungsoo had never been able to provide. Through all the nightmares and pain, the blood and the tears, it had given Heechul something that he could hold onto with his own to hands.
Youngwoon, and people like him could never truly understand what it was, simply because they had never been without it. After twenty years of life, Heechul had finally found something to carry him through the rest of his days, simple hope. Hope that there was something else for them then endless days of forested danger. Hope that he could see all the things he had read about, all the things he had dreamed of. Hope that, despite everything he knew, everything he had seen, he could, through some miraculous way, take that which was broken and make it whole again. It was that promise, the hope, that Jungsoo knew would, at last, begin to heal the hurting heart.
Masterlist
AN: Yay! It feels so good to be writing again. I am finally getting out of my slump I hope! I'm not going to promise anything, but I am going to try to write something everyday for the next 30 or so days to get myself back in the swing of things. So even if it is just a little snippet, I hope you all look forward to it!
For those of you old readers, this is that one space verse that I wrote about a long time ago. Yeah that one. It's back! For you new readers, check out the masterlist to see what it is all about.