I call for (only) you
Title: I call for only you
Genre: fantasy, angst
Rating: PG-13
Length: 3,224 words
Summary: Every year, Minseok receives mittens. But this year, he doesn't.
Minseok remembers his first Christmas, when was just a small bundle of life in the arms of his parents. Only two-hundred and seventy-seven days to the world, he has made their home experience their own indoor Christmas. He was given a pair of white fluffy mittens that day.
-
“Hyung, do you know what song we’re gonna use?”
“Huh?”
“Song. Practice. Evaluation exams. Are you thinking about him again?” Sehun face can’t mask his irritation but it appeared to be more concerned. Minseok just knew how to read their maknae’s face. Sehun will probably never be able to get what his lover did to sacrifice himself like that.
“I’m sorry. For spacing out. Yeah…” He rubs his white mittens sheepishly as Sehun shakes his head.
“Know what, I’m gonna round up the others and let’s start thinking of something.”
“Okay.” It comes out as a strained approval but Sehun only sighs before he’s out of the door and the room is glowing with white crystals. Snow.
Tomorrow’s the day he’s gonna do it.
-
Minseok’s sixth Christmas was spent with his relatives that live near the mountains. It wasn’t a very fun memory because one of his cousins almost froze to death because of him. Only his parents knew and the rest blamed it to the weather. They gave him a new pair of mittens for Christmas as the event passed nonetheless. It’s red this time, like the blood that dripped from his family the following morning when the house was being raided and guns were fired.
-
Bundled in a thick red scarf with a top of soft blond hair and sparkling doe eyes is the most beautiful irritating mortal Minseok has laid eyes on. They have been in the same group of friends who hang out every Friday for seven months now but the tips of his fingers still don’t forget the want to freeze him. Minseok, in his defense, is not antisocial nor a sociopath but he just don’t like it when people talk too much or are too loud. Only Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Jongdae are exemptions.
The creature talked non-stop and seemed to know every person their group come across in the campus making them a little late for the weekly gathering held in Junmyeon and Sehun’s shared apartment like they were ever on time.
The eight of them filed in after Sehun who opened the door for them. “Yifan and Zitao went out to get drinks. I ran out.” Junmyeon explains as he wipes his hand in a towel. Minseok’s heart leapt in little summersaults as he watched their appointed leader parade himself in a black tank top and sweatpants to his boyfriend and engage in a grueling tongue fight.
“Guys please, none of us enjoy voyeurism-“ Kyungsoo began but Chanyeol cut him with an ‘I do!’ and the grinning giant was met with a flying shoe. Before blood was shed, Do Kyungsoo was thankfully calmed down buy his boyfriend.
Minseok walked away from the fray and sat on the loveseat, hoping for Yixing to join him because Jongdae is stuck with Junmyeon but the little devil detoured and sat by Sehun instead.
“Mind if I sit with you?” A voice spoke from beside him and there was the person he don’t want most to sit with him. He looked around, hoping a space would be available to point to Lu Han but none was open so he consented with a nod. “Thanks.”
-
On his seventh birthday, Jongdae gave him two pairs of the same green mittens. He had been living in Jongdae’s house, something he inherited from his deceased parents, and was having his first Christmas without the people who brought him to this sad world. They left Jongdae a large amount of money and a modest house for a family with two children but with the parents and brother gone, it was too big for Kim Minseok and Kim Jongdae. They made do with their horrible cooking and Minseok gave Jongdae his first comic book.
-
Minseok bumped his head into the kitchen cupboard as Luhan kissed his senses out of him. Their hands roamed each other’s body, teeth angrily grazing lips, and wanton moans erupting from one’s mouth captured by the other. The angry make out continued on for thirty minutes before they felt physically weak from each other’s presence. The horrible power they have works like that.
“I hate you.” Minseok says as he goes in for another kiss.
“I love you, too.” Lu Han smiled to his lips.
-
A decade of Christmas celebration and Minseok is given a box of vials and midnight dark mittens by a delivery man. Jongdae is out to buy their dinner and he accepted the package since it was addressed to him in the exact address. He doesn’t know what to do with the vials so he kept it hidden.
-
“What are those?”
“Memories.”
“You can freeze memories? Like in Harry Potter?”
“Sort of. But once it’s been viewed like, traveled back to, I can never capture it again.”
“Still cool. All I can do is move objects and stuff, only handy when I feel lazy.”
“Can you do it in people?”
“Of course, look at you. I was able to make you love me.”
“Idiot. I loved you on my own.”
-
He tried his best at cooking so the gang was able to eat half-burnt, half-uncooked cookies but it still made the season festive with its weird crafty designs. Minseok liked his work though because it’s his first and last, he was banned by Kyunngsoo from ever stepping to his kitchen. He received another box of vial and black mittens along with canary yellow and hot pink from his two friends.
-
“I’m dating Sehun!” Yixing gladly announced to the group while the three high school students were not yet around. They’re busy for an upcoming dance evaluation exam.
“Dude, that’s pedophilia.”
“And Baekhyun’s a pedophile then. “ Yixing wittingly retorts. The rest gave him their support and blessing. He’s got this smiling face though his eyes remained the sleepy look it has as he sighed happily on his place on the floor.
“Congratulations, Xing Xing.” Lu Han genuinely said to his best friend as he made to stand up, pulling Minseok with their intertwined fingers.
“Well Lu Han?” Jongdae prods, eyebrows high above in his head.
“Uh.” He smartly articulates.
“Lu Han and I… Lu Han and I are dating.” Minseok bravely intervenes as his face started heating up,
Their friends stood up and started patting them on the back with sighs and a not-so-discreet Baekhyun with ‘Finally!’
The two later slept together holding hands as the wind soared freely outside.
-
Minseok, Jongdae, and Kyungsoo met others like them when they were in middle school, forming a ragtag group of people with otherworldly abilities. They made a silent pact of protecting each other and being brothers who will stick together no matter what. Kim Junmyeon got appointed as their leader and foundation as he is the student council president that time and everyone in school admired him. The six of them: Minseok, Junmyeon, Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Jongdae and Kyungsoo, spent their first Christmas together in the mansion of their leader Suho courtesy of Baekhyun. Minseok received another box of vials along with the same dark mittens he’s been receiving for two years now. He also received yellow and orange mittens from his new friends.
-
Minseok survived because of the accumulated wealth left to him by his father and mother’s whole family since everyone is gone and he is the only one living from their lineage. It was a painful experience, to lose people you love, people who truly cared for you, and people whose opinions matter the most. All he has now are memories in vials and a large sum of money deposited in multiple banks. Yet he was able to survive.
His family is made up of twelve men and boys whose abilities are infinite and care for each other are strong as the foundation of the earth. He’s got Lu Han, too.
Lu Han.
It’s been three month since they’ve become something other than people in the same group but never talk to each other. All along, what he felt was denial.
He still feels inadequate some times to receive Lu Han’s attention and love. Lu Han is this great, caring, attentive person who deserves everyone’s praises and admires while he’s just Kim Minseok.
“You’re not just Kim Minseok.” Lu Han suddenly barged into his personal space but he never feels the freezing of his fingertips or the reflex reaction to kick anyone who violates the sacred rule of Minseok’s Personal Space, he therefore starts a staring contest which Lu Han wins.
“I thought your ability was only to move things. And stuff.”
“I can read minds, I’ve been practicing. I can read yours the most. Because you’re not just Kim Minseok… You’re my Kim Minseok.”
If Jongdae was in his place and Junmyeon tried this on him, he would appear to gag. Junmyeon would get flushed with embarrassment but Jongdae would tackle him and they would proceed with a marvelous make out session.
Chanyeol, hmm. Baekhyun would probably smile like his retard boyfriend and they’d make googly eyes with each other ‘til the rest of them have cavities.
Yifan and Tao isn’t an item. But if Tao tried, Yifan would probably smile at him like the doting older brother he is.
Sehun would smile at Yixing if Yixing tried and those who’re watching Sehun’s smile would go immediately blind.
Kyungsoo would give Jongin his coveted heart-shaped smile and the kid would turn into mush.
But now, in this situation, what would Minseok do?
You can read me right? He tries, imploring eyes watching Lu Han’s every move.
The way Lu Han steps hurriedly to him, capturing his lips in a kiss means yes, he’s heard everything.
-
A noraebang is a karaoke place complete with the disco lights, tambourine, and high quality speakers.
It’s the first time for the group to go there with Lu Han.
Chanyeol rapped, Yixing danced, Jongin danced on Kyungsoo, everyone has been having a good time until Lu Han hit the buttons and the intro of Nobody blared from the sound system.
He apparently knew the lyrics by heart and was spurred on by the toothy, gum-showing smile Minseok is gracing him. The whole gang cheered him as he made sinful body rolls not appropriate with the music.
Everyone was happy and wasted as they stumbled into their respective bedrooms. Including Minseok who pulled Lu Han into a deep kiss that eventually led to giving himself fully to Lu Han.
-
His first Christmas with the people who call his family was spent in Beijing, in the mansion of their newest member, Lu Han. Another parentless child with special abilities that cost the life of the people surrounding him. He wasn’t sad but he wasn’t fully happy either, his eyes contained the ever same blaze of seeking vengeance in it. He is Sehun’s friend, somebody he met by chance while on a vacation in Venice and continued to keep contact with. They are lucky to have Lu Han but Lu Han thinks he’s luckier to have Minseok. As they were introduced one by one, Lu Han’s eyes glittered with the prospect of meeting new friends and probably gaining a new family but as he saw Minseok enter with his windswept bangs and small teeth, he was hooked. He made it his life mission to have Minseok. That year, he was rewarded with silver mittens, the same pair Lu Han wears in his hands every night.
-
The light creaks on the floor woke Lu Han. Even though he’s asleep, he is aware of his surrounding, something he’d learned from years being best friends with Yixing. So when seven pairs of feet roamed the house, he was awake and ready. Having calculated the physics of everything and memorized it in his heart and mind, Lu Han knew which furniture to move to incapacitate the enemy without breaking a sweat.
Except well, for one treacherous mortal who crept up from behind and hit him hard with an aluminum baseball bat. He received a few more beating before the guy helped his comrades out but see, along with a gifted mind, he’s gifted with a clear common sense so before he could pass out, he called the only person he needs right now. His brains where mushed but he still has a beating heart therefore he can still do what needs be done.
-
This year, Minseok didn’t receive any mittens.
-
Yixing is bleeding. Yixing never bleeds. Yixing is the healer. Even when he was diagnosed with hemophilia, he never bled.
So when Yixing bleeds, it never stops. The setback of being a healer is the limitation of healing one’s self. Yixing can stop his colds, he can endure headaches if he can but can remove it in a zap. His ability to heal others though, is limitless and he can go on doing that for days.
What he’s doing right now is reaching his limitation; this is Yixing pouring out his life to his best friend as the liquid that keeps us alive pour out from his body. This is Yixing crying because his best friend is rapidly losing his life for protecting that one person who ever mattered to him.
Yixing is Lu Han’s best friend but he has never really been able to reach Lu Han’s heart despite the fact that they’d been together since birth. Minseok on the other hand was different. He never even tried.
Yixing tried, thinking of Lu Han as pain filled his mind. He tried because he knows Minseok will catch Lu Han unlike Lu Han who will never really look at him the way he looks at Minseok. See, he was even ready to lose his life for that lucky bastard.
Someone will take care of Sehun, Yixing thinks. And it’s fine if he loses his life, it’s been for Lu Han to take anyway.
A lone bird flew with the help from the sudden gust of strong wind, tears marring its perfect face.
Lu Han’s eyes flutter open as he wakes up alone in Minseok’s room, Yixing’s remains having gone with the wind.
-
It’s the twenty-fourth of December and Minseok is ready. He’s wearing his favorite mittens today, silver lined with gold and a Chinese proverb that he doesn’t know but he thinks he understand.
He has been waiting for this since yesterday, while he made their university’s dance studio drenched in snow. Tao arranged it for him to be able to do this, since he’s the master of time and all. Minseok thinks Tao has known this even before Minseok and Lu Han met but he will never know because he will never be able to ask as he steps into Lu Han’s freezer.
Lu Han seemed to be suspended in his most perfect form, his eyes closed and his eyelashes long and thick. His lips were pressed into a line that hints of laughter that will never be heard again. His face, the perfect example of contentment and bliss.
Zitao granted them this one last time as a gift but sacrifices must be made and so he offered the rest of his life to become mortal.
When the ice that encases Lu Han’s form break, their life will be dependent on Zitao’s sands inside the hourglass Minseok is holding. They will experience hardships and trials because they will be mortal like the rest of the world but they will be together at least, and that’s what Minseok is looking forward too.
The thing is. Lu Han died. And Yixing’s life gave him the chance to rise up again but he needs to be frozen to completely heal himself and it took a year but all is well now.
Crack.
“Hi, Xiumin.”
“Hi yourself.”
-
“Dad, tell me again what happened to Uncle Yixing and Uncle Lu Han please?”
“Why?” The young father placed the sleepy girl to her bed and tucked her in, pouting. “You don’t like your dad’s story?”
“I love your story dad, I just want to hear how it began.”
He eyed the little kid smiling up at him with such intensity in her eyes. He sighed. “Okay. Uncle Yixing and Uncle Lu Han were the best of friends. You know, I’ve never seen them apart, until Uncle Minseok joined the picture. Uncle Minseok was really quiet and didn’t like to smile.”
The child appeared appalled by the thought. “Never smiled! Why?!”
“His parents died because of him, just like the rest of us so he was always sad. I used to send him a box of vials he could use to store memories into and a pair of black mittens like what his parents did. Anyway, Uncle Lu Han got star struck and fell hard for Uncle Minseok, not noticing how he’s spending less and less time with Uncle Yixing. So when Uncle Yixing feels alone, he talks to this friend he met in Paris and apparently they became a thing.”
“A thing?”
“An item, a couple. You know, like your father and I.”
“So you guys are toys?”
“No, ugh, but on with the story. Years passed and the bad guys who killed Uncle Minseok’s parents caught up with him but unluckily, Uncle Lu Han encountered them. He was able to beat someone but one snuck of from behind him. Uncle Yixing was able to save him but not completely. He poured all his life to Uncle Lu Han whom he loved very, very much.”
“Then?”
His throat seemed to constrict because he knows, knows everything yet he was incapable of doing something - anything - because he can never intervene with the way time works. He looked at the room filled with vials from floor to ceiling, shelves after shelves filled with memories.
“Uncle Yixing’s close friend cried for weeks and blamed Uncle Lu Han, Uncle Minseok too but he never showed it. He goes to Uncle Lu Han whenever he can. He… he… he froze Uncle Lu Han so the body can heal itself. Uncle Lu Han and Uncle Minseok lived happily after that but they missed Uncle Yixing because they’re thankful and loved him.”
“And Uncle Yixing’s best friend?” The girl yawned.
“Is standing right here.” A voice spoke from the child’s bedroom door.
The girl struggled to wake up and run to her father. “Father!”
“Sehun!”
Sehun scoffed as Song Qian jumped to his arms. “Tao, stop pretending. The wind carried everything to me. And I know you saw me.”
He heard the elder’s sigh of defeat and walked towards him so they could put the child together to sleep.
It’s sixth Christmas as a family, with six-year-old Song Qian capping the night off with different-faceted snow to create the perfect white Christmas they always have every year.
a/n:
-if you made it this far, let me congratulate you
-thank you also, for reading and the suffering
-questions will be entertained when the mods have given me the go signal
-I love luminfics for this oppurtinity
-enjoy the contest and vote the most deserving story! xoxo
Genre: fantasy, angst
Rating: PG-13
Length: 3,224 words
Summary: Every year, Minseok receives mittens. But this year, he doesn't.
Minseok remembers his first Christmas, when was just a small bundle of life in the arms of his parents. Only two-hundred and seventy-seven days to the world, he has made their home experience their own indoor Christmas. He was given a pair of white fluffy mittens that day.
-
“Hyung, do you know what song we’re gonna use?”
“Huh?”
“Song. Practice. Evaluation exams. Are you thinking about him again?” Sehun face can’t mask his irritation but it appeared to be more concerned. Minseok just knew how to read their maknae’s face. Sehun will probably never be able to get what his lover did to sacrifice himself like that.
“I’m sorry. For spacing out. Yeah…” He rubs his white mittens sheepishly as Sehun shakes his head.
“Know what, I’m gonna round up the others and let’s start thinking of something.”
“Okay.” It comes out as a strained approval but Sehun only sighs before he’s out of the door and the room is glowing with white crystals. Snow.
Tomorrow’s the day he’s gonna do it.
-
Minseok’s sixth Christmas was spent with his relatives that live near the mountains. It wasn’t a very fun memory because one of his cousins almost froze to death because of him. Only his parents knew and the rest blamed it to the weather. They gave him a new pair of mittens for Christmas as the event passed nonetheless. It’s red this time, like the blood that dripped from his family the following morning when the house was being raided and guns were fired.
-
Bundled in a thick red scarf with a top of soft blond hair and sparkling doe eyes is the most beautiful irritating mortal Minseok has laid eyes on. They have been in the same group of friends who hang out every Friday for seven months now but the tips of his fingers still don’t forget the want to freeze him. Minseok, in his defense, is not antisocial nor a sociopath but he just don’t like it when people talk too much or are too loud. Only Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Jongdae are exemptions.
The creature talked non-stop and seemed to know every person their group come across in the campus making them a little late for the weekly gathering held in Junmyeon and Sehun’s shared apartment like they were ever on time.
The eight of them filed in after Sehun who opened the door for them. “Yifan and Zitao went out to get drinks. I ran out.” Junmyeon explains as he wipes his hand in a towel. Minseok’s heart leapt in little summersaults as he watched their appointed leader parade himself in a black tank top and sweatpants to his boyfriend and engage in a grueling tongue fight.
“Guys please, none of us enjoy voyeurism-“ Kyungsoo began but Chanyeol cut him with an ‘I do!’ and the grinning giant was met with a flying shoe. Before blood was shed, Do Kyungsoo was thankfully calmed down buy his boyfriend.
Minseok walked away from the fray and sat on the loveseat, hoping for Yixing to join him because Jongdae is stuck with Junmyeon but the little devil detoured and sat by Sehun instead.
“Mind if I sit with you?” A voice spoke from beside him and there was the person he don’t want most to sit with him. He looked around, hoping a space would be available to point to Lu Han but none was open so he consented with a nod. “Thanks.”
-
On his seventh birthday, Jongdae gave him two pairs of the same green mittens. He had been living in Jongdae’s house, something he inherited from his deceased parents, and was having his first Christmas without the people who brought him to this sad world. They left Jongdae a large amount of money and a modest house for a family with two children but with the parents and brother gone, it was too big for Kim Minseok and Kim Jongdae. They made do with their horrible cooking and Minseok gave Jongdae his first comic book.
-
Minseok bumped his head into the kitchen cupboard as Luhan kissed his senses out of him. Their hands roamed each other’s body, teeth angrily grazing lips, and wanton moans erupting from one’s mouth captured by the other. The angry make out continued on for thirty minutes before they felt physically weak from each other’s presence. The horrible power they have works like that.
“I hate you.” Minseok says as he goes in for another kiss.
“I love you, too.” Lu Han smiled to his lips.
-
A decade of Christmas celebration and Minseok is given a box of vials and midnight dark mittens by a delivery man. Jongdae is out to buy their dinner and he accepted the package since it was addressed to him in the exact address. He doesn’t know what to do with the vials so he kept it hidden.
-
“What are those?”
“Memories.”
“You can freeze memories? Like in Harry Potter?”
“Sort of. But once it’s been viewed like, traveled back to, I can never capture it again.”
“Still cool. All I can do is move objects and stuff, only handy when I feel lazy.”
“Can you do it in people?”
“Of course, look at you. I was able to make you love me.”
“Idiot. I loved you on my own.”
-
He tried his best at cooking so the gang was able to eat half-burnt, half-uncooked cookies but it still made the season festive with its weird crafty designs. Minseok liked his work though because it’s his first and last, he was banned by Kyunngsoo from ever stepping to his kitchen. He received another box of vial and black mittens along with canary yellow and hot pink from his two friends.
-
“I’m dating Sehun!” Yixing gladly announced to the group while the three high school students were not yet around. They’re busy for an upcoming dance evaluation exam.
“Dude, that’s pedophilia.”
“And Baekhyun’s a pedophile then. “ Yixing wittingly retorts. The rest gave him their support and blessing. He’s got this smiling face though his eyes remained the sleepy look it has as he sighed happily on his place on the floor.
“Congratulations, Xing Xing.” Lu Han genuinely said to his best friend as he made to stand up, pulling Minseok with their intertwined fingers.
“Well Lu Han?” Jongdae prods, eyebrows high above in his head.
“Uh.” He smartly articulates.
“Lu Han and I… Lu Han and I are dating.” Minseok bravely intervenes as his face started heating up,
Their friends stood up and started patting them on the back with sighs and a not-so-discreet Baekhyun with ‘Finally!’
The two later slept together holding hands as the wind soared freely outside.
-
Minseok, Jongdae, and Kyungsoo met others like them when they were in middle school, forming a ragtag group of people with otherworldly abilities. They made a silent pact of protecting each other and being brothers who will stick together no matter what. Kim Junmyeon got appointed as their leader and foundation as he is the student council president that time and everyone in school admired him. The six of them: Minseok, Junmyeon, Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Jongdae and Kyungsoo, spent their first Christmas together in the mansion of their leader Suho courtesy of Baekhyun. Minseok received another box of vials along with the same dark mittens he’s been receiving for two years now. He also received yellow and orange mittens from his new friends.
-
Minseok survived because of the accumulated wealth left to him by his father and mother’s whole family since everyone is gone and he is the only one living from their lineage. It was a painful experience, to lose people you love, people who truly cared for you, and people whose opinions matter the most. All he has now are memories in vials and a large sum of money deposited in multiple banks. Yet he was able to survive.
His family is made up of twelve men and boys whose abilities are infinite and care for each other are strong as the foundation of the earth. He’s got Lu Han, too.
Lu Han.
It’s been three month since they’ve become something other than people in the same group but never talk to each other. All along, what he felt was denial.
He still feels inadequate some times to receive Lu Han’s attention and love. Lu Han is this great, caring, attentive person who deserves everyone’s praises and admires while he’s just Kim Minseok.
“You’re not just Kim Minseok.” Lu Han suddenly barged into his personal space but he never feels the freezing of his fingertips or the reflex reaction to kick anyone who violates the sacred rule of Minseok’s Personal Space, he therefore starts a staring contest which Lu Han wins.
“I thought your ability was only to move things. And stuff.”
“I can read minds, I’ve been practicing. I can read yours the most. Because you’re not just Kim Minseok… You’re my Kim Minseok.”
If Jongdae was in his place and Junmyeon tried this on him, he would appear to gag. Junmyeon would get flushed with embarrassment but Jongdae would tackle him and they would proceed with a marvelous make out session.
Chanyeol, hmm. Baekhyun would probably smile like his retard boyfriend and they’d make googly eyes with each other ‘til the rest of them have cavities.
Yifan and Tao isn’t an item. But if Tao tried, Yifan would probably smile at him like the doting older brother he is.
Sehun would smile at Yixing if Yixing tried and those who’re watching Sehun’s smile would go immediately blind.
Kyungsoo would give Jongin his coveted heart-shaped smile and the kid would turn into mush.
But now, in this situation, what would Minseok do?
You can read me right? He tries, imploring eyes watching Lu Han’s every move.
The way Lu Han steps hurriedly to him, capturing his lips in a kiss means yes, he’s heard everything.
-
A noraebang is a karaoke place complete with the disco lights, tambourine, and high quality speakers.
It’s the first time for the group to go there with Lu Han.
Chanyeol rapped, Yixing danced, Jongin danced on Kyungsoo, everyone has been having a good time until Lu Han hit the buttons and the intro of Nobody blared from the sound system.
He apparently knew the lyrics by heart and was spurred on by the toothy, gum-showing smile Minseok is gracing him. The whole gang cheered him as he made sinful body rolls not appropriate with the music.
Everyone was happy and wasted as they stumbled into their respective bedrooms. Including Minseok who pulled Lu Han into a deep kiss that eventually led to giving himself fully to Lu Han.
-
His first Christmas with the people who call his family was spent in Beijing, in the mansion of their newest member, Lu Han. Another parentless child with special abilities that cost the life of the people surrounding him. He wasn’t sad but he wasn’t fully happy either, his eyes contained the ever same blaze of seeking vengeance in it. He is Sehun’s friend, somebody he met by chance while on a vacation in Venice and continued to keep contact with. They are lucky to have Lu Han but Lu Han thinks he’s luckier to have Minseok. As they were introduced one by one, Lu Han’s eyes glittered with the prospect of meeting new friends and probably gaining a new family but as he saw Minseok enter with his windswept bangs and small teeth, he was hooked. He made it his life mission to have Minseok. That year, he was rewarded with silver mittens, the same pair Lu Han wears in his hands every night.
-
The light creaks on the floor woke Lu Han. Even though he’s asleep, he is aware of his surrounding, something he’d learned from years being best friends with Yixing. So when seven pairs of feet roamed the house, he was awake and ready. Having calculated the physics of everything and memorized it in his heart and mind, Lu Han knew which furniture to move to incapacitate the enemy without breaking a sweat.
Except well, for one treacherous mortal who crept up from behind and hit him hard with an aluminum baseball bat. He received a few more beating before the guy helped his comrades out but see, along with a gifted mind, he’s gifted with a clear common sense so before he could pass out, he called the only person he needs right now. His brains where mushed but he still has a beating heart therefore he can still do what needs be done.
-
This year, Minseok didn’t receive any mittens.
-
Yixing is bleeding. Yixing never bleeds. Yixing is the healer. Even when he was diagnosed with hemophilia, he never bled.
So when Yixing bleeds, it never stops. The setback of being a healer is the limitation of healing one’s self. Yixing can stop his colds, he can endure headaches if he can but can remove it in a zap. His ability to heal others though, is limitless and he can go on doing that for days.
What he’s doing right now is reaching his limitation; this is Yixing pouring out his life to his best friend as the liquid that keeps us alive pour out from his body. This is Yixing crying because his best friend is rapidly losing his life for protecting that one person who ever mattered to him.
Yixing is Lu Han’s best friend but he has never really been able to reach Lu Han’s heart despite the fact that they’d been together since birth. Minseok on the other hand was different. He never even tried.
Yixing tried, thinking of Lu Han as pain filled his mind. He tried because he knows Minseok will catch Lu Han unlike Lu Han who will never really look at him the way he looks at Minseok. See, he was even ready to lose his life for that lucky bastard.
Someone will take care of Sehun, Yixing thinks. And it’s fine if he loses his life, it’s been for Lu Han to take anyway.
A lone bird flew with the help from the sudden gust of strong wind, tears marring its perfect face.
Lu Han’s eyes flutter open as he wakes up alone in Minseok’s room, Yixing’s remains having gone with the wind.
-
It’s the twenty-fourth of December and Minseok is ready. He’s wearing his favorite mittens today, silver lined with gold and a Chinese proverb that he doesn’t know but he thinks he understand.
He has been waiting for this since yesterday, while he made their university’s dance studio drenched in snow. Tao arranged it for him to be able to do this, since he’s the master of time and all. Minseok thinks Tao has known this even before Minseok and Lu Han met but he will never know because he will never be able to ask as he steps into Lu Han’s freezer.
Lu Han seemed to be suspended in his most perfect form, his eyes closed and his eyelashes long and thick. His lips were pressed into a line that hints of laughter that will never be heard again. His face, the perfect example of contentment and bliss.
Zitao granted them this one last time as a gift but sacrifices must be made and so he offered the rest of his life to become mortal.
When the ice that encases Lu Han’s form break, their life will be dependent on Zitao’s sands inside the hourglass Minseok is holding. They will experience hardships and trials because they will be mortal like the rest of the world but they will be together at least, and that’s what Minseok is looking forward too.
The thing is. Lu Han died. And Yixing’s life gave him the chance to rise up again but he needs to be frozen to completely heal himself and it took a year but all is well now.
Crack.
“Hi, Xiumin.”
“Hi yourself.”
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“Dad, tell me again what happened to Uncle Yixing and Uncle Lu Han please?”
“Why?” The young father placed the sleepy girl to her bed and tucked her in, pouting. “You don’t like your dad’s story?”
“I love your story dad, I just want to hear how it began.”
He eyed the little kid smiling up at him with such intensity in her eyes. He sighed. “Okay. Uncle Yixing and Uncle Lu Han were the best of friends. You know, I’ve never seen them apart, until Uncle Minseok joined the picture. Uncle Minseok was really quiet and didn’t like to smile.”
The child appeared appalled by the thought. “Never smiled! Why?!”
“His parents died because of him, just like the rest of us so he was always sad. I used to send him a box of vials he could use to store memories into and a pair of black mittens like what his parents did. Anyway, Uncle Lu Han got star struck and fell hard for Uncle Minseok, not noticing how he’s spending less and less time with Uncle Yixing. So when Uncle Yixing feels alone, he talks to this friend he met in Paris and apparently they became a thing.”
“A thing?”
“An item, a couple. You know, like your father and I.”
“So you guys are toys?”
“No, ugh, but on with the story. Years passed and the bad guys who killed Uncle Minseok’s parents caught up with him but unluckily, Uncle Lu Han encountered them. He was able to beat someone but one snuck of from behind him. Uncle Yixing was able to save him but not completely. He poured all his life to Uncle Lu Han whom he loved very, very much.”
“Then?”
His throat seemed to constrict because he knows, knows everything yet he was incapable of doing something - anything - because he can never intervene with the way time works. He looked at the room filled with vials from floor to ceiling, shelves after shelves filled with memories.
“Uncle Yixing’s close friend cried for weeks and blamed Uncle Lu Han, Uncle Minseok too but he never showed it. He goes to Uncle Lu Han whenever he can. He… he… he froze Uncle Lu Han so the body can heal itself. Uncle Lu Han and Uncle Minseok lived happily after that but they missed Uncle Yixing because they’re thankful and loved him.”
“And Uncle Yixing’s best friend?” The girl yawned.
“Is standing right here.” A voice spoke from the child’s bedroom door.
The girl struggled to wake up and run to her father. “Father!”
“Sehun!”
Sehun scoffed as Song Qian jumped to his arms. “Tao, stop pretending. The wind carried everything to me. And I know you saw me.”
He heard the elder’s sigh of defeat and walked towards him so they could put the child together to sleep.
It’s sixth Christmas as a family, with six-year-old Song Qian capping the night off with different-faceted snow to create the perfect white Christmas they always have every year.
a/n:
-if you made it this far, let me congratulate you
-thank you also, for reading and the suffering
-questions will be entertained when the mods have given me the go signal
-I love luminfics for this oppurtinity
-enjoy the contest and vote the most deserving story! xoxo