Somewhere
Somewhere
For: renichifreak
Song prompt: Within Temptation - Somewhere
“Where do you see yourselves in fifteen years?” the report asks, waiting patiently for them to gather their thoughts and respond. Fifteen years is a long time, especially for people as young in their career as they are. Looks are exchanged as memories of whispered conversations of hope in the dark are assembled into words to express their dreams.
“Still as Infinite of course!” Dongwoo blurts, offering a pleased smile. “We will be Infinite forever, because infinity never has an end!”
He can imagine the screams of the fans now, the tears of joy that they will be performing together forever, but forever is a very long time, longer still then anyone could imagine, save for Sunggyu.
-o-o-o-o-
“I don’t understand,” the man murmured as confusion wrinkled his features.
“Please just listen. I don’t have much time. This body is dying,” fingers pressed to the wound in his side wouldn’t be enough to save it, not this time.
“Look I’m not going to hurt you. There is no reason for you to die, even if you are the enemy,” the man said gently. Strong arms lifted his upper body in preparation to move him.
“Dongwoo! Listen to me!” he cried as his bloodied fingers curled into dirty fabric.
“What is your name? I promise that I will find this Dongwoo person that you are calling for and tell him where to find you,” the man told him gently.
“No,” he whispered, longing in his heart for the man to understand, for him to know. “My Dongwoo,” he murmured, caressing a familiar cheek with bloodied fingers. This wouldn’t be the time. This wouldn’t be the age. This version of Dongwoo didn’t even know his own name, let alone the bond they shared.
“I’ll find him,” the man promised grabbing his fingers and squeezing in a way that was supposed to be reassuring. “Tell me what name to give him?”
He could feel darkness chasing at him, and he didn’t fight it. There was no point to fighting, not this time. He knew that now. Instead he relaxed in the feeling of the arms that took him twenty years to find again and whispered the name he knew the man had never truly forgotten, “Sunggyu.”
-o-o-o-o-o-
“Sunggyu, sorry. I don’t know what is wrong with me today,” Dongwoo mumbles from his sprawled position on the floor.
As leader he is supposed to encourage and lift up, he knows that, but that never makes it easier to be near him and not have him know. “We are all tired. We will overcome this just like we have everything else.” Glancing around the room he sees the faces of the men that he has come to know so well. They feel the same as him, he is certain of it; they will just have to press on.
“Let’s try again,” he urges, offering his hand. Dongwoo’s fingers close around it and it feels right. For just a moment he feels complete again, as a grin spreads across the man’s face.
“Alright let’s do this.”
-o-o-o-o-o-
“Wait you can’t! They will eat you alive!” Sunggyu screamed franticly, images of the man being torn to shreds by the creatures flashing through his mind.
“Not hardly,” the man replied, his stripped tail flicking behind him in excitement. “For starters they are herbivores, they don’t eat meat. Which means they pretty much can’t eat me alive.”
“Dongwoo,” he gripped the other man’s arm firmly hoping to instill some sense into him. “This is a stupid idea.” The last thing Dongwoo had needed was the addition of feline characteristics to his already abundant grace and playfulness. This incarnation had been good to them, but he wasn’t ready to lose the man. Not for something foolish like this. “No.”
“Sunggyu,” the man whined, shifting closer. “Come on please?” For a creature based in feline qualities, he was certainly well versed in the use of puppy dog eyes.
“Dongwoo-”He never was able to finish his sentence as the man released a cry of challenge and joy before pulling from his hold and leaping from the tree to the forest below.
-o-o-o-o-o-
“You work too much,” the voice, unmistakable in who it belongs to, is uncharacteristically soft behind him.
“There is no such thing,” he murmurs in response, wishing the notes weren’t all blurring together on the page.
“Sure there is,” strong hands settle on his shoulders as thumbs begin to rub at the base of his neck. “When your eyes start to cross and you are writing words in two languages at the same time, I think you have been working way too much.”
The touch is so familiar, so missed, that it takes him a moment to process the words that have been said. “Hm,” he hums neither a word nor a question.
“Like that?” Dongwoo asks and he can hear the smile in his voice.
“Mmhmm,” he hums again knowing that the sound will convey his meaning.
“Come to bed and I’ll do your whole back,” Dongwoo offers.
A tingle runs down his spine at the implications that aren’t really there. They have done this a thousand times, in a hundred lives, with a thousand meanings, but in this one it has never been more then what it is. Still he can’t pass up on an offer like that.
-o-o-o-o-o-
“Is this alright my Lord?” the voice was tentative, uncertain.
“Fantastic Dongwoo,” he murmured sighing into his folded arms that cradled his head. “And it’s Sunggyu to you.”
“My Lord?” the hands working over the skin of his back stilled in shock.
Carefully, so as not to throw off the young man, he rolled onto his back so that he could look up into the shocked face. Tattoos curled over the flesh there, symbols of possession that disgusted him with the marring of the natural beauty. He was so young, kept that way by circumstances that Sunggyu could not change, but the eyes were still Dongwoo’s. There was an agelessness there, a glimpse of something more than the slave that tried to please his every wish.
“When it is just us,” Sunggyu said softly, lifting a hand so he could run his fingers through the hair that he loved, “then I am Sunggyu to you, a friend, perhaps a lover, but never a king.”
“My Lord,” the man stuttered, blushing. His fingers flexed as if he wasn’t certain what to do with his hands. “You must know that I cannot. I am… I am not capable of pleasing you. My body cannot find pleasure.”
Anger and pain ripped through Sunggyu at the memory of it but his face remained calm, his tone gentle. “There is more to being a lover then the pleasures of the flesh. You still enjoy to be touched?”
“Y-yes,” Dongwoo murmured, likely unnerved by the idea that a king would touch his skin in a manner that was nonsexual.
“I love to touch you and I love to kiss. Would you like to share a kiss with me?” Sunggyu asked gently.
A nod was the only answer he received, and he took that as permission to guide the young man’s head down to his own. The first press of lips released a small gasp from the man above him and Sunggyu drank it in, storing it up with the sounds from an eternity.
-o-o-o-o-o-
“Sunggyu, you could look a little less depressed,” Myungsoo tells him as he fight to stifle a chuckle. “It’s only one day that they are going to be gone and you have me for company.”
“I know,” he replies, trying to sound unbothered but knowing that his heart isn’t in it.
“Good to know where I rate.”
“No! That isn’t it at all!” he responds instantly, frantic to make things right.
“Kidding hyung,” Myungsoo nudges him affectionately and pulls him by the arm. “We have work to do.”
“Sorry,” Sunggyu murmurs, as he tries not to watch the van that is taking half of his soul away.
-o-o-o-o-o-
“No! Sunggyu!” the cry was horrible, tearing at the very fabric of his being as Dongwoo struggled against the arms that held him. A child, even one on his way to being a man, was no match for the arms of two adults intent on taking him away.
“No! I don’t want to go!” Tears welled in Sunggyu’s eyes at the statement and he blinked them away, the only part of his body that would listen to his directions. He didn’t want to see Dongwoo go, wouldn’t survive the loss of him again, but he couldn’t move to stop it. His body hadn’t listened to him in that sense from the day he was born to this life.
“Please!” Dongwoo’s cry was torturous and Sunggyu responded the only way he could. Images and impressions of love and hope flashed from his brain directly into the other young man through their bond. This life had been the closest to the original and Dongwoo could have remembered could have known if only they had had enough time. Yet he was an abomination in this life, a cripple, a nothing, and Dongwoo was a noble, a noble who had been caught kissing and touching an abomination. He was lucky that they would wait to kill him until Dongwoo was safely out of sight.
“NO!!!!” Dongwoo screamed. The knowledge of his fate didn’t hurt Sunggyu near as much as that single word as the young man was shoved into the carriage and taken away.
-o-o-o-o-o-
His laugher is contagious, a joyous ring of celebration at the completion of another concert. Mischief dances in his eyes as he unloads another water bottle over the protesting head of their manager and then turns to sling an arm around Hoya’s shoulder.
This could be one of his happy lifetimes, Sunggyu knows. One of the few that he will get to spend beside Dongwoo watching him grow old. He could be happy like this, but it won’t be enough. It never is. This lifetime will end, and another will come leaving him with nothing all over again. For a moment he is almost content to let that happen as he watches Hoya and Dongwoo wrestle around the room, but only for a moment.
When it passes, he is already across the room dragging an apologetic Dongwoo off his band mate. Judging by the amount of rambling words, Dongwoo thinks his is in trouble for some perceived offence, but he could never guess that it is exactly the opposite. This Dongwoo would never figure it out on his own, not in the foreseeable years, and for a split second Sunggyu is done waiting.
Lips pressing to Dongwoo’s stifle the protest as he locks the frozen young man close to him with the strength this body has. Adrenaline, desperation, and more love then he can handle, causes him to reach deep within himself for the pieces that the lifetimes took. He finds them, scattered within himself, the last remnants of what they had eternities ago. It won’t be enough, he doesn’t think, after all this time it could be that easy, but he has to try anyway. Gathering up the pieces, he searches for that precious mind that he knows so well and tries to give it all back.
-o-o-o-o-o-
“Sunggyu I don’t think-”one moment Dongwoo was speaking, trying to argue a valid point and the next he was staggering backwards with an arrow protruding from his chest.
“No!” Sunggyu screamed reaching for his mate and gathering him in his arms. “You’ll be alright,” he murmured supporting his weight as he lowered them to the floor. A hand passing over the arrow and a pull of his magic dissolved it into the basic parts of what it once was and allowed it to crumble harmlessly away from his body all but the head. It clattered to the floor, runes gleaming in the sunlight.
“Sunggyu,” Dongwoo gasped, his hands grasping for him. He could feel fear in his mind, real true panic.
“It’s ok. I’ll hold you until Sungyeol can get here to put you back together,” Sunggyu soothed, knowing without looking that both Hoya and Sungjong had disappeared, one to deal with the attacker and another to gather the specially trained healer.
“Don’t let this defeat you,” Dongwoo murmured, his fingers brushing against Sunggyu’s cheek. “It is what they want. Don’t let them destroy you.”
“You’re talking nonsense. You will be just fine,” Sunggyu argued pressing down the fear within himself.
“I can’t remember,” Dongwoo murmured, his eyes glazing over.
Panicked, Sunggyu reached for the arrow head and snatched his hands back before he could touch it. He knew that spell, for he had created it, and he knew what it would mean. “No! Damn it no! Stay with me Dongwoo!” Frantically his mind tried to construct a counter spell, but he knew better than anyone the impossibility of that task.
“Sunggyu,” Dongwoo murmured looking more confused with every passing moment. “Take it.”
“What?” Sunggyu asked, desperate for anything that could make a difference.
“Everything I am. Hold it for me,” Dongwoo mumbled. “I can’t-”
“You can’t what?” Sunggyu cried, blinking back tears.
Dongwoo reached for him, pulling him down and Sunggyu went willingly pressing his lips to the other man’s as he had done so many times before. He felt it then, a small press against their bond that was so familiar. Understanding dawned on him as he pulled in everything he could, every bit that made Dongwoo who he was and locked it away.
“I’ll find you, I swear,” he whispered as the tears fell from his eyes. “No matter how many lifetimes it takes, I’ll find you. I’ll make this right.”
“Sunggyu! What happened? Let me see,” Sungyeol cried as he rushed to their side.
“It’s too late,” Sunggyu said softly, knowing in his heart it was true.
-o-o-o-o-o-
“Sunggyu,” Dongwoo murmurs against his lips, a combination of confusion and stiffness.
He has crossed a line, he knows, one that he can never come back from. Perhaps he can blame it on the adrenaline from their concert and slip away to feel his remorse in private. “Sorry. I don’t know what came over me,” he apologizes as he pulls away.
A hand reaches out and grabs his arm firmly before Dongwoo steps in. He expects to be hit, yelled at, something along the lines of rejection. What he receives is the press of lips, instant against his own and the swipe of a tongue against the seam of them.
“That’s more like the way I thought this might go down,” he hears Sungjong say before he simply doesn’t care anymore. Dongwoo is kissing him, and Sunggyu opens beneath it just as he once did. Fingers pull him closer, melding them as close and they can get and Sunggyu can’t stop the desperation as he returns the favor. He has missed this, had lifetimes to miss this, and he isn’t willing to give up one second of it. When Dongwoo moves to pull away, Sunggyu chases after him with lips and tongue to which the other man puts up little protest.
Throats are cleared, and he doesn’t care, simply unwilling to stop now that they have finally begun again. The last thing he wanted was to do this in front of the audience of his group members, their managers, and who knows how many staff but at the moment he doesn’t care.
‘Sunggyu,’ he hears across the bond unbroken by ages. The sound of it, the feel of Dongwoo in his mind where he belongs brings tears to his eyes and clogs his throat with a sob. They stop kissing then, as Sunggyu finds it impossible to breathe let alone stand, and Dongwoo guides him gently onto a couch. Arms hold him close and Sunggyu does his best to resist crawling into the man that he has missed so much.
“I’m sorry,” he sobs when he can finally find his voice. “God I’m so sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for,” Dongwoo murmurs moving his hand in soothing circles over Sunggyu’s back.
“I made the spell that nearly destroyed you, that took your life.”
“You saved me,” Dongwoo reassures him.
“You remember?” Sunggyu can’t deny the hope that Dongwoo is perfectly fine after all this time.
“Some things. I remember you. I remember us. I remember a war. Did we?” Dongwoo pauses as if he isn’t quite sure what he wants to say.
“We won. Five years later,” Sunggyu tells him. “I’m so sorry,” he repeats again.
“Don’t be. You saved me, and found me again and again. I loved you each and every time and I love you now. Even as Dongwoo, member of Infinite, I loved you.”
“Dongwoo,” Sunggyu murmurs, at a loss for words.
“Hey Sunggyu, you aren’t going to have to kiss them all to get them to remember are you?” Dongwoo asks, humor coloring his voice.
Sunggyu looks up then and sees the amused faces of their band mates watching what likely looks like the world’s most bizarre exchange. He can’t help smiling at the satisfied grin that Sungyeol shoots him. “No,” he says firmly. “They are on their own.”
AN: Boy is it good to be writing again. I don't think I realized how much I had missed it until I picked it back up. This was supposed to be much shorter but the muses did not want to be reigned in. So it turned into this. It could have gone much much longer, but I am going to let it be right here. Let me know what you think.
For: renichifreak
Song prompt: Within Temptation - Somewhere
“Where do you see yourselves in fifteen years?” the report asks, waiting patiently for them to gather their thoughts and respond. Fifteen years is a long time, especially for people as young in their career as they are. Looks are exchanged as memories of whispered conversations of hope in the dark are assembled into words to express their dreams.
“Still as Infinite of course!” Dongwoo blurts, offering a pleased smile. “We will be Infinite forever, because infinity never has an end!”
He can imagine the screams of the fans now, the tears of joy that they will be performing together forever, but forever is a very long time, longer still then anyone could imagine, save for Sunggyu.
-o-o-o-o-
“I don’t understand,” the man murmured as confusion wrinkled his features.
“Please just listen. I don’t have much time. This body is dying,” fingers pressed to the wound in his side wouldn’t be enough to save it, not this time.
“Look I’m not going to hurt you. There is no reason for you to die, even if you are the enemy,” the man said gently. Strong arms lifted his upper body in preparation to move him.
“Dongwoo! Listen to me!” he cried as his bloodied fingers curled into dirty fabric.
“What is your name? I promise that I will find this Dongwoo person that you are calling for and tell him where to find you,” the man told him gently.
“No,” he whispered, longing in his heart for the man to understand, for him to know. “My Dongwoo,” he murmured, caressing a familiar cheek with bloodied fingers. This wouldn’t be the time. This wouldn’t be the age. This version of Dongwoo didn’t even know his own name, let alone the bond they shared.
“I’ll find him,” the man promised grabbing his fingers and squeezing in a way that was supposed to be reassuring. “Tell me what name to give him?”
He could feel darkness chasing at him, and he didn’t fight it. There was no point to fighting, not this time. He knew that now. Instead he relaxed in the feeling of the arms that took him twenty years to find again and whispered the name he knew the man had never truly forgotten, “Sunggyu.”
-o-o-o-o-o-
“Sunggyu, sorry. I don’t know what is wrong with me today,” Dongwoo mumbles from his sprawled position on the floor.
As leader he is supposed to encourage and lift up, he knows that, but that never makes it easier to be near him and not have him know. “We are all tired. We will overcome this just like we have everything else.” Glancing around the room he sees the faces of the men that he has come to know so well. They feel the same as him, he is certain of it; they will just have to press on.
“Let’s try again,” he urges, offering his hand. Dongwoo’s fingers close around it and it feels right. For just a moment he feels complete again, as a grin spreads across the man’s face.
“Alright let’s do this.”
-o-o-o-o-o-
“Wait you can’t! They will eat you alive!” Sunggyu screamed franticly, images of the man being torn to shreds by the creatures flashing through his mind.
“Not hardly,” the man replied, his stripped tail flicking behind him in excitement. “For starters they are herbivores, they don’t eat meat. Which means they pretty much can’t eat me alive.”
“Dongwoo,” he gripped the other man’s arm firmly hoping to instill some sense into him. “This is a stupid idea.” The last thing Dongwoo had needed was the addition of feline characteristics to his already abundant grace and playfulness. This incarnation had been good to them, but he wasn’t ready to lose the man. Not for something foolish like this. “No.”
“Sunggyu,” the man whined, shifting closer. “Come on please?” For a creature based in feline qualities, he was certainly well versed in the use of puppy dog eyes.
“Dongwoo-”He never was able to finish his sentence as the man released a cry of challenge and joy before pulling from his hold and leaping from the tree to the forest below.
-o-o-o-o-o-
“You work too much,” the voice, unmistakable in who it belongs to, is uncharacteristically soft behind him.
“There is no such thing,” he murmurs in response, wishing the notes weren’t all blurring together on the page.
“Sure there is,” strong hands settle on his shoulders as thumbs begin to rub at the base of his neck. “When your eyes start to cross and you are writing words in two languages at the same time, I think you have been working way too much.”
The touch is so familiar, so missed, that it takes him a moment to process the words that have been said. “Hm,” he hums neither a word nor a question.
“Like that?” Dongwoo asks and he can hear the smile in his voice.
“Mmhmm,” he hums again knowing that the sound will convey his meaning.
“Come to bed and I’ll do your whole back,” Dongwoo offers.
A tingle runs down his spine at the implications that aren’t really there. They have done this a thousand times, in a hundred lives, with a thousand meanings, but in this one it has never been more then what it is. Still he can’t pass up on an offer like that.
-o-o-o-o-o-
“Is this alright my Lord?” the voice was tentative, uncertain.
“Fantastic Dongwoo,” he murmured sighing into his folded arms that cradled his head. “And it’s Sunggyu to you.”
“My Lord?” the hands working over the skin of his back stilled in shock.
Carefully, so as not to throw off the young man, he rolled onto his back so that he could look up into the shocked face. Tattoos curled over the flesh there, symbols of possession that disgusted him with the marring of the natural beauty. He was so young, kept that way by circumstances that Sunggyu could not change, but the eyes were still Dongwoo’s. There was an agelessness there, a glimpse of something more than the slave that tried to please his every wish.
“When it is just us,” Sunggyu said softly, lifting a hand so he could run his fingers through the hair that he loved, “then I am Sunggyu to you, a friend, perhaps a lover, but never a king.”
“My Lord,” the man stuttered, blushing. His fingers flexed as if he wasn’t certain what to do with his hands. “You must know that I cannot. I am… I am not capable of pleasing you. My body cannot find pleasure.”
Anger and pain ripped through Sunggyu at the memory of it but his face remained calm, his tone gentle. “There is more to being a lover then the pleasures of the flesh. You still enjoy to be touched?”
“Y-yes,” Dongwoo murmured, likely unnerved by the idea that a king would touch his skin in a manner that was nonsexual.
“I love to touch you and I love to kiss. Would you like to share a kiss with me?” Sunggyu asked gently.
A nod was the only answer he received, and he took that as permission to guide the young man’s head down to his own. The first press of lips released a small gasp from the man above him and Sunggyu drank it in, storing it up with the sounds from an eternity.
-o-o-o-o-o-
“Sunggyu, you could look a little less depressed,” Myungsoo tells him as he fight to stifle a chuckle. “It’s only one day that they are going to be gone and you have me for company.”
“I know,” he replies, trying to sound unbothered but knowing that his heart isn’t in it.
“Good to know where I rate.”
“No! That isn’t it at all!” he responds instantly, frantic to make things right.
“Kidding hyung,” Myungsoo nudges him affectionately and pulls him by the arm. “We have work to do.”
“Sorry,” Sunggyu murmurs, as he tries not to watch the van that is taking half of his soul away.
-o-o-o-o-o-
“No! Sunggyu!” the cry was horrible, tearing at the very fabric of his being as Dongwoo struggled against the arms that held him. A child, even one on his way to being a man, was no match for the arms of two adults intent on taking him away.
“No! I don’t want to go!” Tears welled in Sunggyu’s eyes at the statement and he blinked them away, the only part of his body that would listen to his directions. He didn’t want to see Dongwoo go, wouldn’t survive the loss of him again, but he couldn’t move to stop it. His body hadn’t listened to him in that sense from the day he was born to this life.
“Please!” Dongwoo’s cry was torturous and Sunggyu responded the only way he could. Images and impressions of love and hope flashed from his brain directly into the other young man through their bond. This life had been the closest to the original and Dongwoo could have remembered could have known if only they had had enough time. Yet he was an abomination in this life, a cripple, a nothing, and Dongwoo was a noble, a noble who had been caught kissing and touching an abomination. He was lucky that they would wait to kill him until Dongwoo was safely out of sight.
“NO!!!!” Dongwoo screamed. The knowledge of his fate didn’t hurt Sunggyu near as much as that single word as the young man was shoved into the carriage and taken away.
-o-o-o-o-o-
His laugher is contagious, a joyous ring of celebration at the completion of another concert. Mischief dances in his eyes as he unloads another water bottle over the protesting head of their manager and then turns to sling an arm around Hoya’s shoulder.
This could be one of his happy lifetimes, Sunggyu knows. One of the few that he will get to spend beside Dongwoo watching him grow old. He could be happy like this, but it won’t be enough. It never is. This lifetime will end, and another will come leaving him with nothing all over again. For a moment he is almost content to let that happen as he watches Hoya and Dongwoo wrestle around the room, but only for a moment.
When it passes, he is already across the room dragging an apologetic Dongwoo off his band mate. Judging by the amount of rambling words, Dongwoo thinks his is in trouble for some perceived offence, but he could never guess that it is exactly the opposite. This Dongwoo would never figure it out on his own, not in the foreseeable years, and for a split second Sunggyu is done waiting.
Lips pressing to Dongwoo’s stifle the protest as he locks the frozen young man close to him with the strength this body has. Adrenaline, desperation, and more love then he can handle, causes him to reach deep within himself for the pieces that the lifetimes took. He finds them, scattered within himself, the last remnants of what they had eternities ago. It won’t be enough, he doesn’t think, after all this time it could be that easy, but he has to try anyway. Gathering up the pieces, he searches for that precious mind that he knows so well and tries to give it all back.
-o-o-o-o-o-
“Sunggyu I don’t think-”one moment Dongwoo was speaking, trying to argue a valid point and the next he was staggering backwards with an arrow protruding from his chest.
“No!” Sunggyu screamed reaching for his mate and gathering him in his arms. “You’ll be alright,” he murmured supporting his weight as he lowered them to the floor. A hand passing over the arrow and a pull of his magic dissolved it into the basic parts of what it once was and allowed it to crumble harmlessly away from his body all but the head. It clattered to the floor, runes gleaming in the sunlight.
“Sunggyu,” Dongwoo gasped, his hands grasping for him. He could feel fear in his mind, real true panic.
“It’s ok. I’ll hold you until Sungyeol can get here to put you back together,” Sunggyu soothed, knowing without looking that both Hoya and Sungjong had disappeared, one to deal with the attacker and another to gather the specially trained healer.
“Don’t let this defeat you,” Dongwoo murmured, his fingers brushing against Sunggyu’s cheek. “It is what they want. Don’t let them destroy you.”
“You’re talking nonsense. You will be just fine,” Sunggyu argued pressing down the fear within himself.
“I can’t remember,” Dongwoo murmured, his eyes glazing over.
Panicked, Sunggyu reached for the arrow head and snatched his hands back before he could touch it. He knew that spell, for he had created it, and he knew what it would mean. “No! Damn it no! Stay with me Dongwoo!” Frantically his mind tried to construct a counter spell, but he knew better than anyone the impossibility of that task.
“Sunggyu,” Dongwoo murmured looking more confused with every passing moment. “Take it.”
“What?” Sunggyu asked, desperate for anything that could make a difference.
“Everything I am. Hold it for me,” Dongwoo mumbled. “I can’t-”
“You can’t what?” Sunggyu cried, blinking back tears.
Dongwoo reached for him, pulling him down and Sunggyu went willingly pressing his lips to the other man’s as he had done so many times before. He felt it then, a small press against their bond that was so familiar. Understanding dawned on him as he pulled in everything he could, every bit that made Dongwoo who he was and locked it away.
“I’ll find you, I swear,” he whispered as the tears fell from his eyes. “No matter how many lifetimes it takes, I’ll find you. I’ll make this right.”
“Sunggyu! What happened? Let me see,” Sungyeol cried as he rushed to their side.
“It’s too late,” Sunggyu said softly, knowing in his heart it was true.
-o-o-o-o-o-
“Sunggyu,” Dongwoo murmurs against his lips, a combination of confusion and stiffness.
He has crossed a line, he knows, one that he can never come back from. Perhaps he can blame it on the adrenaline from their concert and slip away to feel his remorse in private. “Sorry. I don’t know what came over me,” he apologizes as he pulls away.
A hand reaches out and grabs his arm firmly before Dongwoo steps in. He expects to be hit, yelled at, something along the lines of rejection. What he receives is the press of lips, instant against his own and the swipe of a tongue against the seam of them.
“That’s more like the way I thought this might go down,” he hears Sungjong say before he simply doesn’t care anymore. Dongwoo is kissing him, and Sunggyu opens beneath it just as he once did. Fingers pull him closer, melding them as close and they can get and Sunggyu can’t stop the desperation as he returns the favor. He has missed this, had lifetimes to miss this, and he isn’t willing to give up one second of it. When Dongwoo moves to pull away, Sunggyu chases after him with lips and tongue to which the other man puts up little protest.
Throats are cleared, and he doesn’t care, simply unwilling to stop now that they have finally begun again. The last thing he wanted was to do this in front of the audience of his group members, their managers, and who knows how many staff but at the moment he doesn’t care.
‘Sunggyu,’ he hears across the bond unbroken by ages. The sound of it, the feel of Dongwoo in his mind where he belongs brings tears to his eyes and clogs his throat with a sob. They stop kissing then, as Sunggyu finds it impossible to breathe let alone stand, and Dongwoo guides him gently onto a couch. Arms hold him close and Sunggyu does his best to resist crawling into the man that he has missed so much.
“I’m sorry,” he sobs when he can finally find his voice. “God I’m so sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for,” Dongwoo murmurs moving his hand in soothing circles over Sunggyu’s back.
“I made the spell that nearly destroyed you, that took your life.”
“You saved me,” Dongwoo reassures him.
“You remember?” Sunggyu can’t deny the hope that Dongwoo is perfectly fine after all this time.
“Some things. I remember you. I remember us. I remember a war. Did we?” Dongwoo pauses as if he isn’t quite sure what he wants to say.
“We won. Five years later,” Sunggyu tells him. “I’m so sorry,” he repeats again.
“Don’t be. You saved me, and found me again and again. I loved you each and every time and I love you now. Even as Dongwoo, member of Infinite, I loved you.”
“Dongwoo,” Sunggyu murmurs, at a loss for words.
“Hey Sunggyu, you aren’t going to have to kiss them all to get them to remember are you?” Dongwoo asks, humor coloring his voice.
Sunggyu looks up then and sees the amused faces of their band mates watching what likely looks like the world’s most bizarre exchange. He can’t help smiling at the satisfied grin that Sungyeol shoots him. “No,” he says firmly. “They are on their own.”
AN: Boy is it good to be writing again. I don't think I realized how much I had missed it until I picked it back up. This was supposed to be much shorter but the muses did not want to be reigned in. So it turned into this. It could have gone much much longer, but I am going to let it be right here. Let me know what you think.