#53 Flower God, God of Spring
Prompt Number: #53
Author:akaikawa
Title Flower God, God of Spring
Words: 1,936 words
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: idk weird abstract shit? Time skips; gender fluid characters
Summary: Baekhyun comes and goes like the spring. Kris's life flourishes while Baekhyun is in it.
Author’s Note: poem is an excerpt from "Flower God, God of the Spring..." by Robert Louis Stevenson; quote is from Osho
✿✿✿✿✿
Flower god, god of the spring, beautiful, bountiful,
Cold-dyed shield in the sky, lover of versicles,
Here I wander in April
Cold, grey-headed; and still to my
Heart, Spring comes with a bound, Spring the deliverer,
Spring, song-leader in woods, chorally resonant;
Spring, flower-planter in meadows,
Child-conductor in willowy
Fields deep dotted with bloom, daisies and crocuses:
Here that child from his heart drinks of eternity:
O child, happy are children!
✿✿✿✿✿
Baekhyun is full of life, lips pink and supple; Kris is reminded of a small budding rose. Whenever Baekhyun smiles, Kris feels overwhelmed, enamored, in love.
Kris loves Baekhyun's lips the most after they've been kissing his own. They become a deeper pink, glossy. Kris always kisses Baekhyun slowly, drawing out the moment. Kris pulls away, Baekhyun’s eyes still shut and mouth slightly parted, breath coming out like a gentle breeze.
Baekhyun’s eyes flutter open, and a sweet smile spreads over his face. Baekhyun looks different every time Kris meets him. This time, Baekhyun’s hair is a soft pink and his eyes are a golden brown. Kris knows he looks different this time too. His hair is a yellow color, his eyes a deep brown, framed by small wrinkles. His frame is bigger than Baekhyun’s this time too.
Baekhyun sleeps soundly next to Kris, his breath deep and gentle. Kris is awake, watching over him. The weather is getting warm again, and Kris knows that he doesn't have much time left with Baekhyun.
But no matter what Kris looks like, Baekhyun will find him without fail.
✿✿✿✿✿
In another life, another time, Kris is an explorer. A female pioneer. The first of her tribe to venture out into the world. Kris is excited. She’ll get to see new sights, meet new people. Her experience in this lifetime has been limited, restricted by customs of an old people. When she got the chance to leave, she did. A foreigner from a different land giving her the opportunity to accompany him and join him on his expedition. Kris boards his ship and pushes thoughts of her crying mother out of her mind.
The first land they visit has colors Kris has never seen. The colors are richer than anything she’d ever encountered at home, where everything mostly is comprised of different shades of brown. Everything is here so green.
Kris runs off into the forest, wanting to see more. There’s flashes of color as she ventures deeper: red, pink, blue, yellow, orange, colors Kris doesn’t have a word for. She slows to a halt when the trees break, a large meadow spreading in front of her.
In the center of the meadow lays a small child. Kris approaches tentatively, confused as to why this figure feels both new and old to her. Kris kneels in front of the child, trying to get a better look. But at that moment, the child awakens, eyes wide and searching.
Kris knows those eyes. They’re a deep green, freckles of gold in them.
The child smiles, and rising and embracing Kris in a hug. Kris wraps her arms around the child, who is not that much smaller than her. She knows this touch.
“Baekhyun.”
✿✿✿✿✿
Out of all the times that Kris had met Baekhyun, there was only one time that he’d seen him get mad.
In this life, Kris was an industrial worker, spending his days laboring under the sun, the back of his neck red and rough. Day in and day out he went out to the fields, cutting down trees to clear the way for the new railways that are supposed to be installed in the following weeks.
Kris does his work mindlessly. It’s been many lifetimes since he’s last seen Baekhyun, his memories of him faint. But somehow, he remembers.
Kris is using a saw to bring down a small tree when he sees Baekhyun again, in the distance. Without a second thought he drops his saw, running to the yellow spec in the distance.
But no matter how much he runs, it feels like Baekhyun stays the same distance away. Kris slows to a halt, chest heaving, sweat dripping from his temples. He puts his hands on his knees to catch his breath. And then, a gentle breeze rustles through, going through his sweat dampened hair.
When he looks up Baekhyun is standing in front of him. His hair is a wheat yellow, and his eyes are sad. He puts a soft hand on Kris’s face.
“It’s been a long time.”
“Too long.” Kris feels tears pricking his eyes.
“How did you end up doing something like this?” Baekhyun points behind Kris, where the trees have been cleared out.
“For progress.”
“Progress?”
“The trains, they’re coming through here. The country is expanding.”
“But at what cost, my love?”
Kris furrows his eyebrows in confusion. “Cost?’
“If you see a pretty flower, what would you do?”
“I would pick it and give it to you.”
Anger flashes through Baekhyun’s golden eyes, like a fire crackling and gaining strength in a gust of wind. “Do you remember? In the lifetime you spent as an aid to a philosopher? Or is that you will spend it with him?”
Kris remembers, faintly. All of his memories, past and future, are somewhere in his mind, just waiting to be remembered. But he doesn’t remember details; it’s more like fleeting memories, feelings of being with Baekhyun.
Baekhyun puts his thumbs on Kris’s temples, rubbing slow circles into them. “Remember, please. Remember what is important. Remember who I am.”
When Kris opens his eyes, Baekhyun is no longer there, but the whisper of a voice remains:
If you love a flower, don’t pick it up.
Because if you pick it up it dies and it ceases to be what you love.
So if you love a flower, let it be.
Love is not about possession.
✿✿✿✿✿
Flowers bloom wherever Baekhyun steps. For Kris, Baekhyun is like spring, a breath of new life.
Sometimes, Kris gets to meet Baekhyun many springs in a row. Sometimes, Kris spends many lifetimes by himself without seeing Baekhyun.
Kris remembers everything, for the most part.
In fact, Kris remembers the first time he'd met Baekhyun, many lifetimes ago. He didn't look like he does now. His skin was darker then, his frame was smaller, had long hair that brushed his shoulders.
✿✿✿✿✿
Kris goes to the river in the forest, to wash up and gather water for the day. It’s his responsibility to get water for the elders. He spots someone at the edge of the water, sitting in a patch of flowers. Kris tilts his head in curiosity, confused and in awe of the young man among the flowers, hair iridescent. Baekhyun turns his head towards Kris as he approached, eyes wide.
"Who are you? And how is your hair yellow like the daisies you're sitting in?" Kris asks.
"You can see me?"
"Of course!"
Kris sees Baekhyun smile for the first time, there by that river.
"You're beautiful," Kris finds himself saying. "I've never met someone whose smile is prettier than a flower."
Baekhyun's smile goes wider, but his eyes are tinged with sadness.
"Thank you."
"What's your name?"
"Baekhyun."
"Nice to meet you."
Kris doesn't remember what his name was back then. He doesn't remember much about his other lives, just that Baekhyun has always been there.
Just like spring follows winter, without fail, Baekhyun would always find Kris.
✿✿✿✿✿
It isn't until they meet for the fourth time that Kris realizes that others can’t see Baekhyun as well.
This time, Kris has hair that goes down to her waist, but fashion calls for it to be pulled high, piled on top of her head in extensive and elaborate curls and designs. Kris had been taking a walk through the garden, something she had been taking the liberty of doing ever since the weather had been getting warmer again.
Kris bends over to inspect the flowers that are just little buds at this time. She stills when she feels a presence behind her. A warmth spreads over her body; it’s a radiance like feeling the sun come through a window. And it’s something that is familiar to Kris, something that has been for many lifetimes now. In this body she hasn’t experienced this feeling since she was a young child.
And it’s because she recognizes it that she doesn’t startle or jump when arms wrap around her from behind, a face nuzzling into her neck and inhaling deeply.
“I missed you,” rings a voice that chimes like bells.
“You smell like lavender,” Kris replies. “My favorite.”
Before Kris can turn around to face her embracer, a voice calls out from beyond the garden. “Kris! Where are you? Mother is looking for you!”
Had Kris been out here that long? She knows she tends to lose track of time when she’s in the gardens. “I’m coming!”
Kris puts a hand on the grip on her waist, taking one of the hands and lacing it into hers. She walks through the garden briskly.
“What were you doing out there so long?” asks Kris’s sister. Her dress matches Kris’s though it’s in a darker shade of blue.
“My friend Baekhyun came to visit.”
“Baekhyun? You mean your imaginary friend from when we were kids?” Kris’s sister has an incredulous look on her face.
“Imaginary?” Kris glances backwards, looking at Baekhyun for the first time. He’s taller than Kris, though the difference in height is much smaller than when Kris was a child. Baekhyun’s hair is a light purple, in small ringlets that drop down to his shoulders. He gives Kris a small, sad smile and slightly shakes his head.
Kris drops Baekhyun’s hand, acting like it was a movement to adjust her dress and gives a nervous chuckle. “Well, you know, for old times sake. We used to play with him in the garden, after all.”
When Kris turns around, Baekhyun is gone, a small, singular white daisy where he’d been standing.
✿✿✿✿✿
In another time, Kris is living in England when he meets Baekhyun. He almost misses him, attention on his phone screen instead of the young man seated across from him on the tube. He tucks his device into his pocket before rising to get off at the next stop. That's when he meets Baekhyun's eyes. Baekhyun’s eyes are a striking gold; an image of a sunflower field comes to mind.
That's how Kris knows that winter is over, and another year has passed.
Baekhyun slips his hand into Kris's and together they walk back to Kris's flat together.
✿✿✿✿✿
They never have enough time.
For Kris, summer is the saddest season. A time of mourning. For Kris, winter brings hope, is full of anticipation for when he might see Baekhyun again.
Kris is waiting for his final breath to take him. His wife is there, holding his hand. His children and grandchildren stand at the foot of the bed. The only noise in the room comes from the steady beat of his heart monitor. Kris looks out the window, at a tree that is growing outside.
"Today's the first day of spring, grandpa," Kris hears. Kris closes his eyes, a trace of a smile on his face. He feels it, the warmth of spring. When Kris opens his eyes, his family is no longer with him; instead Baekhyun is standing next to him.
"Hello, Kris."
"Hello, Baekhyun. Long time no see."
Baekhyun smiles, and Kris feels his chest get expand, a warm feeling taking over him. Baekhyun takes his hand, and Kris knows that this time, spring will be here to stay.
End of the Fic Author’s Note: So if you couldn’t tell, Baekhyun is the god of spring, and Kris is his soulmate and so he keeps getting reincarnated until they can be together.
Author:akaikawa
Title Flower God, God of Spring
Words: 1,936 words
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: idk weird abstract shit? Time skips; gender fluid characters
Summary: Baekhyun comes and goes like the spring. Kris's life flourishes while Baekhyun is in it.
Author’s Note: poem is an excerpt from "Flower God, God of the Spring..." by Robert Louis Stevenson; quote is from Osho
✿✿✿✿✿
Flower god, god of the spring, beautiful, bountiful,
Cold-dyed shield in the sky, lover of versicles,
Here I wander in April
Cold, grey-headed; and still to my
Heart, Spring comes with a bound, Spring the deliverer,
Spring, song-leader in woods, chorally resonant;
Spring, flower-planter in meadows,
Child-conductor in willowy
Fields deep dotted with bloom, daisies and crocuses:
Here that child from his heart drinks of eternity:
O child, happy are children!
✿✿✿✿✿
Baekhyun is full of life, lips pink and supple; Kris is reminded of a small budding rose. Whenever Baekhyun smiles, Kris feels overwhelmed, enamored, in love.
Kris loves Baekhyun's lips the most after they've been kissing his own. They become a deeper pink, glossy. Kris always kisses Baekhyun slowly, drawing out the moment. Kris pulls away, Baekhyun’s eyes still shut and mouth slightly parted, breath coming out like a gentle breeze.
Baekhyun’s eyes flutter open, and a sweet smile spreads over his face. Baekhyun looks different every time Kris meets him. This time, Baekhyun’s hair is a soft pink and his eyes are a golden brown. Kris knows he looks different this time too. His hair is a yellow color, his eyes a deep brown, framed by small wrinkles. His frame is bigger than Baekhyun’s this time too.
Baekhyun sleeps soundly next to Kris, his breath deep and gentle. Kris is awake, watching over him. The weather is getting warm again, and Kris knows that he doesn't have much time left with Baekhyun.
But no matter what Kris looks like, Baekhyun will find him without fail.
✿✿✿✿✿
In another life, another time, Kris is an explorer. A female pioneer. The first of her tribe to venture out into the world. Kris is excited. She’ll get to see new sights, meet new people. Her experience in this lifetime has been limited, restricted by customs of an old people. When she got the chance to leave, she did. A foreigner from a different land giving her the opportunity to accompany him and join him on his expedition. Kris boards his ship and pushes thoughts of her crying mother out of her mind.
The first land they visit has colors Kris has never seen. The colors are richer than anything she’d ever encountered at home, where everything mostly is comprised of different shades of brown. Everything is here so green.
Kris runs off into the forest, wanting to see more. There’s flashes of color as she ventures deeper: red, pink, blue, yellow, orange, colors Kris doesn’t have a word for. She slows to a halt when the trees break, a large meadow spreading in front of her.
In the center of the meadow lays a small child. Kris approaches tentatively, confused as to why this figure feels both new and old to her. Kris kneels in front of the child, trying to get a better look. But at that moment, the child awakens, eyes wide and searching.
Kris knows those eyes. They’re a deep green, freckles of gold in them.
The child smiles, and rising and embracing Kris in a hug. Kris wraps her arms around the child, who is not that much smaller than her. She knows this touch.
“Baekhyun.”
✿✿✿✿✿
Out of all the times that Kris had met Baekhyun, there was only one time that he’d seen him get mad.
In this life, Kris was an industrial worker, spending his days laboring under the sun, the back of his neck red and rough. Day in and day out he went out to the fields, cutting down trees to clear the way for the new railways that are supposed to be installed in the following weeks.
Kris does his work mindlessly. It’s been many lifetimes since he’s last seen Baekhyun, his memories of him faint. But somehow, he remembers.
Kris is using a saw to bring down a small tree when he sees Baekhyun again, in the distance. Without a second thought he drops his saw, running to the yellow spec in the distance.
But no matter how much he runs, it feels like Baekhyun stays the same distance away. Kris slows to a halt, chest heaving, sweat dripping from his temples. He puts his hands on his knees to catch his breath. And then, a gentle breeze rustles through, going through his sweat dampened hair.
When he looks up Baekhyun is standing in front of him. His hair is a wheat yellow, and his eyes are sad. He puts a soft hand on Kris’s face.
“It’s been a long time.”
“Too long.” Kris feels tears pricking his eyes.
“How did you end up doing something like this?” Baekhyun points behind Kris, where the trees have been cleared out.
“For progress.”
“Progress?”
“The trains, they’re coming through here. The country is expanding.”
“But at what cost, my love?”
Kris furrows his eyebrows in confusion. “Cost?’
“If you see a pretty flower, what would you do?”
“I would pick it and give it to you.”
Anger flashes through Baekhyun’s golden eyes, like a fire crackling and gaining strength in a gust of wind. “Do you remember? In the lifetime you spent as an aid to a philosopher? Or is that you will spend it with him?”
Kris remembers, faintly. All of his memories, past and future, are somewhere in his mind, just waiting to be remembered. But he doesn’t remember details; it’s more like fleeting memories, feelings of being with Baekhyun.
Baekhyun puts his thumbs on Kris’s temples, rubbing slow circles into them. “Remember, please. Remember what is important. Remember who I am.”
When Kris opens his eyes, Baekhyun is no longer there, but the whisper of a voice remains:
If you love a flower, don’t pick it up.
Because if you pick it up it dies and it ceases to be what you love.
So if you love a flower, let it be.
Love is not about possession.
✿✿✿✿✿
Flowers bloom wherever Baekhyun steps. For Kris, Baekhyun is like spring, a breath of new life.
Sometimes, Kris gets to meet Baekhyun many springs in a row. Sometimes, Kris spends many lifetimes by himself without seeing Baekhyun.
Kris remembers everything, for the most part.
In fact, Kris remembers the first time he'd met Baekhyun, many lifetimes ago. He didn't look like he does now. His skin was darker then, his frame was smaller, had long hair that brushed his shoulders.
✿✿✿✿✿
Kris goes to the river in the forest, to wash up and gather water for the day. It’s his responsibility to get water for the elders. He spots someone at the edge of the water, sitting in a patch of flowers. Kris tilts his head in curiosity, confused and in awe of the young man among the flowers, hair iridescent. Baekhyun turns his head towards Kris as he approached, eyes wide.
"Who are you? And how is your hair yellow like the daisies you're sitting in?" Kris asks.
"You can see me?"
"Of course!"
Kris sees Baekhyun smile for the first time, there by that river.
"You're beautiful," Kris finds himself saying. "I've never met someone whose smile is prettier than a flower."
Baekhyun's smile goes wider, but his eyes are tinged with sadness.
"Thank you."
"What's your name?"
"Baekhyun."
"Nice to meet you."
Kris doesn't remember what his name was back then. He doesn't remember much about his other lives, just that Baekhyun has always been there.
Just like spring follows winter, without fail, Baekhyun would always find Kris.
✿✿✿✿✿
It isn't until they meet for the fourth time that Kris realizes that others can’t see Baekhyun as well.
This time, Kris has hair that goes down to her waist, but fashion calls for it to be pulled high, piled on top of her head in extensive and elaborate curls and designs. Kris had been taking a walk through the garden, something she had been taking the liberty of doing ever since the weather had been getting warmer again.
Kris bends over to inspect the flowers that are just little buds at this time. She stills when she feels a presence behind her. A warmth spreads over her body; it’s a radiance like feeling the sun come through a window. And it’s something that is familiar to Kris, something that has been for many lifetimes now. In this body she hasn’t experienced this feeling since she was a young child.
And it’s because she recognizes it that she doesn’t startle or jump when arms wrap around her from behind, a face nuzzling into her neck and inhaling deeply.
“I missed you,” rings a voice that chimes like bells.
“You smell like lavender,” Kris replies. “My favorite.”
Before Kris can turn around to face her embracer, a voice calls out from beyond the garden. “Kris! Where are you? Mother is looking for you!”
Had Kris been out here that long? She knows she tends to lose track of time when she’s in the gardens. “I’m coming!”
Kris puts a hand on the grip on her waist, taking one of the hands and lacing it into hers. She walks through the garden briskly.
“What were you doing out there so long?” asks Kris’s sister. Her dress matches Kris’s though it’s in a darker shade of blue.
“My friend Baekhyun came to visit.”
“Baekhyun? You mean your imaginary friend from when we were kids?” Kris’s sister has an incredulous look on her face.
“Imaginary?” Kris glances backwards, looking at Baekhyun for the first time. He’s taller than Kris, though the difference in height is much smaller than when Kris was a child. Baekhyun’s hair is a light purple, in small ringlets that drop down to his shoulders. He gives Kris a small, sad smile and slightly shakes his head.
Kris drops Baekhyun’s hand, acting like it was a movement to adjust her dress and gives a nervous chuckle. “Well, you know, for old times sake. We used to play with him in the garden, after all.”
When Kris turns around, Baekhyun is gone, a small, singular white daisy where he’d been standing.
✿✿✿✿✿
In another time, Kris is living in England when he meets Baekhyun. He almost misses him, attention on his phone screen instead of the young man seated across from him on the tube. He tucks his device into his pocket before rising to get off at the next stop. That's when he meets Baekhyun's eyes. Baekhyun’s eyes are a striking gold; an image of a sunflower field comes to mind.
That's how Kris knows that winter is over, and another year has passed.
Baekhyun slips his hand into Kris's and together they walk back to Kris's flat together.
✿✿✿✿✿
They never have enough time.
For Kris, summer is the saddest season. A time of mourning. For Kris, winter brings hope, is full of anticipation for when he might see Baekhyun again.
Kris is waiting for his final breath to take him. His wife is there, holding his hand. His children and grandchildren stand at the foot of the bed. The only noise in the room comes from the steady beat of his heart monitor. Kris looks out the window, at a tree that is growing outside.
"Today's the first day of spring, grandpa," Kris hears. Kris closes his eyes, a trace of a smile on his face. He feels it, the warmth of spring. When Kris opens his eyes, his family is no longer with him; instead Baekhyun is standing next to him.
"Hello, Kris."
"Hello, Baekhyun. Long time no see."
Baekhyun smiles, and Kris feels his chest get expand, a warm feeling taking over him. Baekhyun takes his hand, and Kris knows that this time, spring will be here to stay.
End of the Fic Author’s Note: So if you couldn’t tell, Baekhyun is the god of spring, and Kris is his soulmate and so he keeps getting reincarnated until they can be together.