Title:Ortus/Chapter 1 - "Falling"
Author: kaybee38
Rating: PG
Pairings: brothers!Joong-Ki/Onew
Genre: fantasy, sci-fi
Disclaimer: SHINee is owned by SM Entertainment only
Summary: This is the sidestory series to my ongoing SHINee AU fic
Ignis. Ortus is latin for "origin" or "source of birth" and covers the manifestation stories of the SHINee boys in detail, and delves into how they all got their powers. Manifestation of their "gifts" tends to hit at puberty, so in this series they are all young. I will be strategically be posting these chapters only after posting certain Ignis chapters. A big thank you to
stjoan4eva and
kinnosuikazura for helping me flesh this story out and saving me from my own cray-cray. NOTE: If you read this series before you read Ignis, you'll ruin a bunch of surprises for yourself. umjussayin.
A/N: This takes place on Onew's 13th birthday, and Joong-Ki, his older stepbrother is 16 in this. Onew stops time for the first time.
Onew- “Falling”
“Only when the clock stops does time come to life.” ~William Faulkner
1918
“Happy Birthday!” Onew’s family all shouted at once when he sleepily rounded the corner into the kitchen. Mrs. Lee smothered him with hugs and kisses as he walked towards the table. She smelled like butter, flour and rosewater, 3 out of 4 of Onew’s favorite things.
“I can’t believe my little boy is 13 today!” she said with tears in her eyes as she brushed the hair out of his face. “It seems like just yesterday I held my breath as I looked into your face for the first time.”
“M-o-o-o-m” Onew whined and rolled his eyes. He hated when she reminisced and got all sappy and emotional. It was embarrassing. Just as she released him from her grip, Onew felt a sharp pain in his arm.
“Birthday punch!”
“Joong-Ki! Stop hitting your brother!” Mrs. Lee scolded as she swatted her oldest son with a dishtowel, but Joong-Ki scooted past her too quickly and ran back over to the dining room table where Jae was bringing in the rest of the breakfast feast.
“They’re gonna break something.” Jae said shaking her head. “ You two never listen.” Onew’s stepsister always sounded older than her 18 years, and he often teased her and called her “mommy” just to get on her nerves.
“Go sit down boys. You too Mister.” Mrs. Lee leaned in to give her husband a quick kiss. Onew was busy chasing his stepbrother around the kitchen, trying to return his punch when he slipped and fell into the breakfront. Onew lay on the hardwood floor completely still for a few moments as the china shook and the crystal tinkled from the impact, hoping that if he stopped moving nothing would fall and break. He was lucky this time and he let out the breath he was holding a minute later as his older stepbrother stood over him giggling. Mr. Lee shook his head at his accident prone son as he helped him up from the floor.
“Alright boys. Let’s go. You heard your mother. Into the dining room with both of you.”
Breakfast was delicious and Onew felt really full as he hopped down off of his chair with his empty plate and proceeded to clear the table of dishes. Jae came back into the room and gasped as she ran over to the boy struggling under the weight of the stack of porcelain plates in his arms and shook her head. Jae knew Onew was just being thoughtful, but their mother would have a fit if he broke any more servingware. She carefully took the plates from the boy’s arms and smiled.
“I appreciate the help, but it’s your birthday! You should be opening presents and enjoying yourself. Now scoot!”
“Presents?” Onew’s eyes went wide as Jae nodded and his stepmother stepped into the room behind them, joining their conversation.
“Yes! In fact, I think your father has something special for you. He asked me to tell you to meet him out in the shed.”
“Really?” Mrs. Lee nodded, “…You should go see him, then go outside and play alright? I’m making your favorite for dinner tonight.”
“CHICKEN?!” Onew’s stepmother laughed as her adorable stepson danced around the dining room, his grin wide and his eyes disappearing into little half moons, his chubby cheeks competing with his smile. Suddenly, remembering his father, he opened his eyes wide before he ran off to grab his coat as fast as his legs would carry him. Onew ran to his father’s workshed on the side of the house. Mr. Lee had the reputation of being one of the finest watchmakers in the district and his shop in town was always busy. His father always seemed to be working on some type of timepiece at home too, but after he’d accidentally scratched the dining room table when he dropped a wall clock frame he was repairing, his wife had banned his tinkering to the shed on the side of the house. Onew didn’t bring a hat or gloves with him because his father had dragged a coal burning stove out to the shed long ago and it adequately heated the small space during winter.
Onew kicked the dirt from his shoes as he leaned all of his weight on the wooden door of the shed, when suddenly it gave way as his father opened it from the other side effectively pulling the boy off balance. Onew’s fot caught on the saddle and his body went careening into the room. His father caught the clumsy birthday boy with a chuckle.
“Hey there. Take it easy.”
“Hey Dad. Sorry I didn’t know you were gonna open the door.”
Dusting himself off a bit Onew looked around the room for anything that could be considered a present.
“Um...mom said you wanted to see me?”
His father smiled, knowing what the boy was looking for and ruffled his hair a bit.
“Yes. I have your birthday present. Come over here.” Onew’s father beckoned him to follow as he walked to the other side of the shed and reached for a box covered with a canvas cloth on the top shelf along the far wall. Onew excitedly walked over to his father’s worktable which was strewn with the guts of another clock his father was trying to save from the scrap heap, along with a few watches he was also repairing over the weekend for customers.
His father moved his tools and the frame of the clock out of the way and placed the fabric-covered box on the table between himself and Onew, who was on his tiptoes, with his face scrunched up looking around the box trying to guess what lay inside. His father smirked at his inquisitive son’s facial expression and pushed the box across the table.
“Happy 13th birthday son.”
Onew smiled and quickly removed the fabric revealing a medium-sized mahogany wooden box with a brass clasp at the front. The box had a rossette inlay at each corner, and long stripes of oak around the front and sides. It looked a bit worn, with a few scratches and dings, but Onew didn’t see any of that, he was too busy trying to guess what was inside. When Onew opened the box a small clock face unfolded and swung down from the lid. He lowered the lid a bit so that the bottom of the clock face stopped winging and came to rest on the lip of of the base at an angle. It was a box desk clock.
A broken one.
Onew tried to hide his disappointment.
“Um…thanks Dad, but..I think it’s broken.” Onew pressed his ear to the face of the clock confirming his suspicions the clock wasn’t ticking.
“I like it though. It’s really nice!” He sheepishly looked up at his father, not wanting to hurt the man’s feelings, but was surprised to see the older man grinning down at him. He shook his head and wagged his finger at his son.
“No Onew, it’s not broken. It’s stopped. Broken means that it can’t be repaired. Stopped means that you have the power to start it again.”
Onew reached further into the box and found the winding key. He looked at it for a few moments before looking up at his father.
“Will you teach me?”
His father smiled broadly, those were the words he’d always wanted to hear from his son. He never wanted to force Onew into the “family” business, but he did want to teach his son a trade, so that he would never go hungry.
“Absolutely.” He said with a grin.
Onew’s father spent the next hour taking apart the little clock, identifying parts and showing him the purpose and uses for some of his tools. He even gave Onew his own small workspace out in the shed so that he could come and work on his little project whenever he wanted.
“Ah! I almost forgot!” His father exclaimed as he reached into his pocket and hid something in his hand.
“I also have this for you.”
His father then leaned forward, and dramatically waved one hand over the other like a magician as he unfolded his outstretched hand to Onew. In it was a beautiful handmade glass marble.
“A NEW one!” Onew grinned and jumped up and down happily. He held up the glass orb to the light streaming in from the one tiny window in the shed. The light bounced off of the swirl of the turquoise cats eye at the center of the orb and reflected almost in sparkles into the clear glass around it, lighting up the room. It was bigger than the rest of Onew’s collection and he knew it would make an excellent shooter. He glanced at the table with the clock and back up to his father.
“Can I try it out?”
His father smiled. “Yes, I think that’s enough of a lesson for today, pack up the clock neatly in your space and go find your brother and you can play until dinner.”
_______________
Onew’s stepmother made sure that he had his wool hat and scarf on when he went back out to play. His marbles jiggled in the leather drawstring pouch in his hands covered by his “marble gloves” as he liked to call them. They were simply a pair of gloves his stepmother had knit him, leaving the tips of the fingers open so that he could still shoot effectively.
“Joonie!!!” Onew called out into the yard.
When Onew’s father and Joong-Ki’s mother first met, Mr. Lee tried desperately to teach Onew how to say his new stepbrother’s name, but Onew had trouble with his consonants and in the end the parents conceded that the older boy didn’t seem to mind, and the nickname just stuck.
“Over here!” Joong-Ki answered. Onew found the older boy by the side of the house just finishing drawing a large circle with a stick in the dirt.
“Ready to lose again?” Joong-Ki stood and taunted with a smirk, tapping the stick against his pants leg.
“Oh not today dear brother, not today.” Onew said with a smile holding up the bright new marble for Joong-Ki to marvel at.
“WHOAH! Where’d you get that?”
Joong-Ki’s eyes went wide as he reached for the glass ball, but Onew was faster and switched hands at the last second, placing the pouch with other marbles in the older boy’s hand instead. Joong-Ki scowled at Onew but dropped to a crouched position and set the marbles up within the circle. Onew saw a bit of his breath in the air as he looked around noting that this wasn’t their usual location for the game, but also recognized that the patch of earth that his brother found was the only dirt that didn’t seem to be frozen. The space his stepbrother had picked was a good one; relatively level and halfway between the house and the well that was being dug about 100 meters away, makeshift lumber placed around it to mark it’s location. His father had started the work too late in the season to finish and so the well wouldn’t be finished until spring. Onew was pulled from his observations by his brother’s voice.
“Hey birthday boy! I’m letting you go first only because it’s your birthday and I feel bad that I’m going to have to trounce you once again.”
It was Onew’s turn to scowl as he walked around the circle a few times trying to find the best angle to start the game. Joong-Ki hated when Onew did that, he didn’t see the point. He knew that Onew had a powerful strike, but it was direction and consistency that Onew lacked, so to Joong-Ki the first shot could be from anywhere.
“It would be great if you could actually shoot before your 14th birthday if possible.” Joong-Ki taunted again.
“Shut up.” Onew said as he stopped his observations and dropped to his knees. He put his face almost to the ground as he eyed up the angle and grinned, the odd position made him look as if the ground itself had just told him a very funny joke. Onew pushed himself back up on one knee, wiping a bit of the dirt off of his dungarees, bracing his left forearm against that knee, he rolled the new turquoise marble in his right hand, aimed and shot. The ball flew from his hands like a shot and hit the others with a resounding crack knocking at least 8 other marbles out of the ring.
“What were you saying Joonie?” Onew mocked as he giggled happily and picked up the marbles that he had just won. Joong-Ki grimaced as Onew knelt to take another shot, this time more marbles left the ring, but as Onew scrambled up to retrieve them, one slipped out of his hand and rolled away.
“I’ll get it.” Joong-Ki said, hopping up to run after the errant glass ball as it rolled through the grass. Onew looked up just as Joong-Ki bent to scoop up the marble, and his eyes went wide at what he saw. Joong-Ki’s foot had slipped out from underneath him. He managed to stay upright, but not without losing his balance and stumbling backwards…towards the open well.
Onew yelled his stepbrother’s name and stumbled forwards, his foot skidded on a few marbles as they dropped from his hands and he too slipped and fell face first into the dirt. The wind was knocked out of him then, and suddenly everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. As he gasped for breath the last thing Onew saw before he squeezed his eyes shut was Joong-Ki’s petrified face and the older boy’s hands in the air grasping for purchase as he fell backwards into the well.
No.
That was the only thought that went through Onew’s mind as he lay in the dirt. His eyes were squeezed shut, his hands balled into fists and he was shaking like a leaf.
This isn’t happening. No.
After what seemed like an eternity, Onew realized that he never heard his brother scream, or his body hit the bottom of the well, or the birds chirping, or the wind rustling through the trees. He couldn’t feel the cold air on his face, or smell dinner cooking anymore.
It was completely silent.
Onew’s eyes shot open, and he slowly looked around before gingerly pushing himself up to a kneeling position and tried to get his bearings. Suddenly his stomach lurched and he quickly stumbled to the side of the house and vomited into the gutter. He was dizzy and disoriented and it took a few minutes for his body to calm itself before he recovered from shock and remembered what had just happened.
“JOONIE!!”
Onew screamed as he spotted a length of rope that the workmen or his father must have left nearby, and grabbed it as he ran to the well. When he reached the edge he dropped it and his eyes almost fell out of this head. Peering into the well, Onew could see his stepbrother, frozen mid-air, mid-fall, arms reaching for the sky, eyes wide open with fear, jacket falling open, one shoe dangerously close to falling off. Onew poked at the shoe which slipped right off of his brother’s frozen foot and fell down into the well landing with a soft thud. Onew jumped back away from the scene as if it was a hot stove and he had accidentally burned himself.
“Am I dreaming? Are you a dream?”
Onew paced and talked to himself aloud as if a dream would actually answer him and confirm his suspicions. Giving it more thought Onew decided that dream or not, he had to save his stepbrother. He ran back to the well and crouched on the edge behind Joong-Ki and grabbing the older boy by his outstretched arms pulled him up with all of his strength and stepped back away from the well until the boy’s dead weight was too much for him to handle and he collapsed in a heap with Joong-Ki’s body on top of him. He rolled out from under his brother and pulled him further from the well, then hopped on top of him feeling for a pulse, and slapping the boys face trying to wake him up.
“C’mon Jooonie. Please wake up! PLEASE!”
Onew was crying now, he was so frightened and confused and all he wanted was for his brother to blink, to breathe, something. Onew knew his mother had died before he knew her and Joong-Ki’s dad had died not long after he was born. Although Joong-Ki and him were only related by marriage, he loved him like a blood brother and couldn’t bear the thought of losing him too. Onew pulled Joong-Ki’s body up into a sitting position and wrapped both of his arms around him as he rocked them back and forth sobbing.
“Oh God please don’t let him be dead! Just let everything go back to the way it was please, I’ll do anything!” Onew squeezed his eyes shut.
In an instant, sound came roaring back into Onew’s ears as if he’d pulled his fingers out of them and his brother was coughing, pawing at his back and trying to speak, as Onew was squeezing the breath right out of him.
“O-Onew. L-let go. I can’t…”
Onew’s eyes shot open and he pulled away and stared at Joong-Ki happily.
“OH THANK GOD YOU’RE ALRIGHT!!” Onew went to hug Joong-Ki again, but the older boy scrambled back across the dirt staring at him.
“How did you…I mean…I was falling, I fell right?” Joong-Ki looked back at the well and inched away from it as he saw the splintered wood, confirming that he indeed had fallen into the well. Onew was at a loss for words, so he just nodded in response.
“But now I’m here.” Joong-Ki said slowly, pointing at the ground. Onew nodded again.
Joong-Ki leveled his gaze and narrowed his eyes at Onew as he looked at him sideways.
“Onew start talking. What the hell is going on? And where's my shoe?”
Onew opened his mouth to speak but before he could utter a word his father was running over from the shed.
“Hey! Are you boys alright? I heard Onew yell your name Joong-Ki.” His father looked over to see the broken fencing around the well and looked back at the boys with fear and anger in his eyes,
“How many times have I told you two NOT to play around the well? One of you could have been badly hurt!”
Joong-Ki opened his mouth to protest, but his stepfather cut him off.
“Not a WORD! Playtime’s over. Go inside to your rooms and stay there until I call you. Dinner is almost ready. And Onew you’re lucky it’s your birthday otherwise you two would be going to bed without dinner. No more playing around on this side of the house am I clear?”
“Yessir.” Both boys said from the ground. Onew really didn’t care what he agreed to at that moment, he’d give anything for his father to stop yelling. His head was pounding.
“Now inside. The both of you!” his father held out a hand to each boy to help them up, but the moment Onew stood up on shaky legs the whole world seemed to go sideways and he passed out int his father’s arms.
_______________________
Onew went to bed without dinner that night anyway and the next night as he battled a fever and slipped in and out of consciousness. Onew barely stayed conscious long enough to know what was happening to him, he would wake up and be freezing one minute and burning up sweating profusely the next. Every time he tried to raise his head, he felt as if some invisible force was holding it down. He writhed in his sleep and awoke anxious, disoriented, exhausted and out of breath but could never remember his dreams. It was as if the longer he slept, the more tired he became.
The doctor was called, but couldn’t find anything wrong with the boy. He explained in all his years of practice, he’d never seen anything like it. Onew’s heartbeat and pulse were strong, but it was obvious that he was fighting some sort of virus that kept spiking his fever. The only thing he could prescribe was fluids and rest. Joong-Ki kept vigil at his brother’s side, bringing him damp cloths for his fever, comforting him when he had a fitful sleep, giving him sponge baths, spoon feeding him and changing his bedpan. Even thought they shared a room, he wouldn’t sleep in his own bed, instead he had pulled the sheets and blanket from the bed and made a pallet on the floor next to Onew’s bed in case he needed anything. His mother even let him eat his meals in the room with Onew and stay home from school for a couple of days, as the older sibling was inconsolable when not allowed to be in the room for more than five minutes. His mother and stepfather were equally as scared, for Onew because he just could’t seem to break the fever long enough to regain consciousness and for Joong-Ki because they didn’t know if what Onew had was contagious and if their other son would soon fall ill. Jae stayed away from the room for that reason, but Joong-Ki could hear her stifling sobs late at night from the other side of the door sometimes. Finally, on the evening of the third day, Onew’s fever broke and he was finally awake and lucid….and hungry.
Jae was happy to make more chicken for Onew as she was just as relieved as the rest of the family to know that he had recovered. His stepmother brought the food to him herself and watched Onew eat happily from his bed, pleased that his healthy appetite had returned. While he was enjoying his meal, Onew’s father stepped into the bedroom and beckoned for Joong-Ki. Once in the hallway, Mr. Lee hugged the boy and thanked him for taking such good care of his stepbrother.
“You are truly the brother I always wanted and needed for Onew. And for that I thank you. And I know his mother in heaven thanks you as well.”
“He's my brother, I’ve never thought of him any other way, and you’re my dad. ” Joong-Ki replied. Tears pricked at the corners of Mr. Lee’s eyes as he hugged his stepson. The boy looked exhausted, happy, but drained from the long days and nights spent caring for Onew. Mr. Lee guided Joong-Ki across the hall to his own bedroom and closed the door.
“Sit down son. I need to…” Mr. Lee suddenly looked at a loss for words and he cleared his throat as he walked to the dresser and pulled out his pipe from a small box on top of it.
“...I need to talk to you about something.”
“Am I in trouble or something?” Joong-Ki asked. His father didn’t usually smoke his pipe unless one of them was in trouble and he was contemplating their punishment or something was really wrong and he needed to clear his head. Mr. Lee smiled gently as he opened another small metal hinged box on the dresser full of tobacco. He pinched out a bit and began filling the well of the pipe with it.
“No son. Not at all. It’s actually about Onew.” Mr. Lee tried to keep his voice steady and made sure that Joong-Ki could't see the pained expression on his face.
Onew’s mother had told his father of the symptoms that would occur in detail before her death. He knew the day would come, but had hoped and prayed that Onew would not have to go through what his mother had and held out hope that after the boy’s 12th birthday the trait had skipped a generation. But the past 72 hours had proven otherwise and Mr. Lee was determined that his son not suffer the same fate as his mother. Even if it meant keeping her real identity a secret.
“Joong-Ki, I need you to tell me everything that happened when you were playing marbles outside by well.” Finished stuffing his pipe, Mr. Lee lit a match and held it to the well of the pipe and took a seat in the rocking chair by the bedroom window. After taking a few puffs he continued.
“And I mean everything.”
_________________
A/N: For the time being, it's not important where they are. (I know some of you are going to ask me). I tend to write AU fics without a specific location so that I won't have to worry about historic accuracy, because I research stuff so much that the fic would just never get done save for me trying to perfect everything. So I'll give you the year, and locale like city or country, I hope that's enough. ^___^
Yes. Onew's mother had powers and I will write more about that, but I don't want to talk about her much cuz it'll give away too much for both Ignis and Ortus. No, his father does not have any powers. Jae is a fictional character I made up to be Joong-Ki's sister and Onew's stepsister. No she is not the female version of any other K-Pop member.
For those of you who don't know the way you play marbles: First you draw a circle and place all the playing marbles inside of it, then each player has his or her own "shooter" which is usually a marble bigger than the rest. You use your shooter marble to knock the other marbles out of the circle. If you knock any out of the circle you collect those and get to take another turn, if no marbles leave the circle then the turn goes to the next player. The game is finished when there are no more marbles in the circle, and the winner is the one with the most marbles. It gives new meaning to "lost his marbles" right? The phrase means more than crazy, it also meant "loser" back in the day.
Oh yeah, and I always leave clues to things in both fics, so pay attention! You never know when I might make reference to something from a previous chapter in both stories!
This is the clock that Onew got for his birthday...
And this was my inspiration for the marble...
Thanks for reading!! Comments as always are love!