Always for ukexing
Title: Always
For: ukexing
Rating: PG-13
Length: ~3700 words
Summary: Sehun doesn't remember a time when Jongin wasn't there.
Notes: to my recipient, I hope I didn’t butcher your prompt too much, I really hope you like it!! :3 and this story is based on The Mortal Instruments world, I own nothing of it and neither do I own EXO. thank you, rissa for helping me read through this and all mistakes are mine and mine alone.
Sehun was old, for the lack of a better adjective. He lived one life, watching time fly by and seeing the people he cared for die. Only they were reborn and then gone, it was a neverending cycle.
Then one day, maybe yesterday, maybe it was twenty years ago, he woke up and realised that there was something different.
Every time Jongin was reborn, Sehun’d feel a tug in his chest and those moments made hope bloom in his heart. But the fire faded immediately when he remembered all the other times he had to watch Jongin die.
He remembers trying to kill himself, once, twice, thrice. He forgets how many times he’d tried to end his life and follow Jongin to the afterlife.
But he failed, every single time.
∞
All warlocks had soul mates. Jongin was Sehun’s the moment he popped into existence, his shrill cry was embedded into Sehun’s heart and in the times between the reincarnations, Sehun uses the little bits and pieces he has of Jongin to remember him by and hope that time would fly by.
Something was strange this time, Sehun felt his heart sink to the bottom of his stomach after the tug. He never once anticipated Jongin to be born immortal, to one of the Downworlder species. Even if they could live out the rest of their lives together, the curses placed on the Downworlders was everything he didn’t want for Jongin.
But he didn’t expect Jongin to be born a Shadowhunter. Soft, shy Jongin with his lip-biting habit that was present in all his lives, Jongin wasn’t a hunter, he was far from it.
Fear gripped Sehun’s heart like a cold hand, because Shadowhunters, most of them, didn’t live past their twenties. His Jongin was going to leave him sooner than he expected, and he would have go back to waiting all over again.
People said that Sehun was silly, spending the entirety of his all too immortal life waiting for his time with Jongin, time that flew past with a blink of his eye. But Sehun lived on the few decades he had with Jongin because he knows that Jongin will always come back to him.
He’d give anything, anything at all, to have Jongin not be a Shadowhunter. He’d rather his soulmate lived out this one life in secrecy, as a werewolf or even a fairy, but never, never as a Shadowhunter.
But the tug in his chest was more than enough to refute his silly hope, Jongin was a Shadowhunter and Sehun was helpless to the will of the gods.
He began to pack up, letting the door click shut behind him as he heads towards the airport.
He was more than capable enough to send himself and maybe an entire army to Korea with a snap of his fingers. but Sehun had a thing for planes.
The mundanes had outdone themselves in the aerospace industry and planes were, to Sehun, the best thing to grace this earth, other than him of course, and Jongin.
∞
He doesn’t bring much with him to Seoul, Sehun was starting a new life with Jongin there anyway, he doesn’t need much.
As time flew by, Sehun settled down in the bustling city, living in a penthouse near the Seoul Institute. The warlock stands by his floor-to-ceiling windows every morning, looking down at the backyard of the Institute most mundanes saw as a run-down church. He watches Jongin grow up, from a wee toddler waddling around in his footie pyjamas to a grown teenager with dark eyes and a grin that could light up the world.
Sehun falls in love with every Jongin he’s met and this time’s no exception. His Shadowhunter mate was a beautiful boy and the warlock couldn’t wait to meet him, or rather, have Jongin meet him.
∞
He planned their first meeting out in his head so many times, he’d wait for Jongin in front of the institute, hand strategically placed on the iron-wrought gate to show his defined arms off, or he’d invite the Kims to a party at his place and sidle up to Jongin with a small smile and kohl lining his eyes seductively.
This, however, was not how he expected to meet Jongin for the first time in the latter’s nth life.
This refers to the chaos that broke out in one of the nightclubs in Gangnam. A brawl between a vampire and a werewolf sent the club into a flurry of shouts and violence, a bolt of blue flies past Sehun’s face as he steps in, barely missing his nose.
As the High Warlock of Seoul, he had the responsibility to keep the peace in the city and prevent the very thing that was happening in the club. Any more of magic and whatever the Downworlders were capable of was going to break the illusions they put up and the humans were going to find out the hard way that beings beyond their comprehension walked among them.
Sehun reaches just in time to slap away a punch thrown in his direction and he slowly but surely ventures into the heart of the commotion. Standing in the centre of the dance floor with their seraph blades glowing in the dark were the Kims.
The Kim family was one of the most prestigious Shadowhunter families in Korea and it was rumoured that the first Kim nephilim was one of the first few Shadowhunters, borne out of the Mortal Cup.
Jongin, Sehun’s Jongin, was right in his line of vision, runes appearing in the air around him following the movements of the stele. His brothers, Junmyeon and Jongdae, were by his side and together, they formed a triangle, pushing the Downworlders into the corners of the dark club with the speed at which runes were drawn.
Sehun coughs and steps forward into the light, grinning at the Kim brothers.
“Hello, Shadowhunters.” With a regal wave of his arm, the Downworlders stopped their agonised screeching and whining, falling silent to barely a whisper.
Jongin watches with wide eyes as the creatures of the night begun to pick themselves up and stand almost ceremoniously behind the man, he realises who is it that is standing in front of them, a beat behind Jongdae.
“Y-You’re the new High Warlock of Seoul… Oh Sehun?”, his brother asks with ill-concealed awe in his voice and Junmyeon smacks the back of his neck.
“Jongdae! We’re not supposed to fraternise with the Downworlders!” Junmyeon’s low hiss travelled with no effort into Sehun’s ears and his cheshire grin widens immeasurably.
But Jongin is oblivious to all the small squabble right by his ear because this Sehun was beautiful and there was something about him that made Jongin walk over to him, shaking off Junmyeon’s attempt to stop him (“Jongin, no!”).
There was almost a glaze over Jongin’s dark eyes and Sehun reached out for him, grabbing his waist with a chuckle to the horror of the saintly Kim Junmyeon. Jongdae watches with bated breath as Jongin’s fingers caressed the warlock’s cheek and the latter pulling his youngest, most innocent brother close.
“Oh Sehun, you let go of him now, right now!” Junmyeon was by Jongin’s side almost immediately, pulling the two boys, if you could even call them that, apart with a huff. Pointing at Sehun’s sharp nose with a growl, Junmyeon pushes Jongin back to their little space.
“Touch my brother again and I will kill you, with no hesitation, you’ll be reduced to no more than a pile of ash on the floor right at the spot if you dare even to come close to Jongin again.” He brandishes the stele manacingly at Sehun before storming out of the club, gesturing for his brothers to come along.
But the longing in Jongin’s gaze behind him made Sehun’s heart kind of, almost, maybe skip a beat and he smiles softly, nodding in a promise. He wasn’t letting Jongin go. He remembers Sehun this time, it was a far cry from the past few times where he assumed Sehun to be an obsessive stalker with a thing for pouty, shy boys.
∞
It’s almost strange how Jongin changed every lifetime but yet he didn’t, Sehun was always able to recognise him in his mannerisms and the shy little grin that was rare to those who weren’t close to him. Sehun was lucky to always be in Jongin’s Nice List and he wasn’t going to let Kim Stick-Up-My-Ass Junmyeon separate them.
If it was that easy to kill Sehun, then he would have died with Jongin the very first time. A mere rune wasn’t enough to kill him, maybe not even an army of Shadowhunters casting them at the same time was enough.
Maybe he was born to be Jongin’s eternal protector and shelter, his other half, his soulmate because Sehun couldn’t imagine a life without Jongin.
Back at the institute, Jongin was sat down in the drawing room with Junmyeon pacing the length of the room by the floor-length windows and Jongdae against the wall, staring intensely at him.
“Stop staring at me, hyung! And hyung, stop pacing! You’re making me dizzy!” He fiddles with his stele, frowning up at his brothers.
“Kim Jongin, I need you to tell me the truth, did that warlock cast a spell on you? Are you feeling okay? Was it some supernatural force that pulled you towards him?” The eldest Kim stops wearing the carpet down and crosses his arms, a furrow between his brows. “That wasn’t like you, Jonginnie, you wouldn’t have done that in the past!” Jongdae adds, pulling up a chair to sit on.
A sigh escapes the youngest and he leans back in the armchair, “I-I don’t know! I just felt like I should y’know? There was something and I just- But I was completely willing! The compulsion was too great and hyung, guess what?”
The tone of incredulity in Jongin’s words made Jumyeon look up from the book he was perusing. “What?”
“I felt as if I knew him! There were strange flashes in my head and images that popped out of nowhere, they were of me and S-Sehun!” He finishes with a laugh, shaking his head. “Hyung, I’m not going crazy, am I?”
“Jongin, you’re seeing strange pictures in your head about a man you’ve never met. Unless you’re somehow fated with the warlock or something, you’re probably not normal.” Jongdae said all of this in a deadpan voice, trying to make his brothers laugh and loosen the tense atmosphere but it clearly failed judging by how Junmyeon looked up at him darkly.
Pointing to a page in the book he was flipping through, “Maybe you guys should take a look at this.”
It was titled, “Soulmates, reincarnation and how to identify a fated pair.”
Jongin’s legs went weak.
∞
Sehun on the other hand, stood at the iron-wrought gates of the Seoul Institute bright and early the next morning, a wide grin etched on his lips. He had a bouquet of sunflowers in his hands but the lilac crepe paper holding the stems together were going damp from the clutch of his sweaty palms.
To be completely honest, this was the oldest trick in the book, even for Sehun who was centuries old. But why fix it if it isn’t broken? It has to be the best way to get someone to go on a date if everyone used it, right?
At least that was how the warlock tried to convince himself that he was not looking like a total idiot standing out here in the morning sun, waiting at the doors of a place he could never enter.
Warlocks were impure, and the wards of all the Shadowhunter institutes would never allow him in and he wasn’t stupid enough to try. To be mistaken as an intruder to a house full of Shadowhunters was one of the most stupid things to do, just a close second behind throwing his neck right into the path of an angelic sword.
So Sehun stands there in his three-piece suit, waiting for the gates to finally creak open once they see that the High Warlock of Seoul is discreetly asking for an audience.
Jongin wakes up to a racket, sleepily rubbing his eyes as he stumbles down the stairs to the hall of the institute, only to see Junmyeon arming himself with what looked like all the holy weapons in their arsenal, which was alot to say the least.
Jongdae, the useless boy was just standing there watching their brother with a smirk, looking up at Jongin. “He’s awake, Hyung. Let him settle the warlock.” Confused, the youngest Kim stares at his brothers, a furrow appearing between his brows.
“W-what’s going on? What warlock?” He wasn’t about to reveal that he’d been dreaming about the man, Jongdae was going to poke fun at him and Junmyeon would kill the warlock for ‘tainting’ pure, innocent Jongin.
“That warlock who cast a spell on you, that’s who.” Junmyeon grits out, glaring at the double doors with an almost savage look in his eyes.
“He’s outside. Has been for awhile now, Hyung saw him first thing when he woke up and well, you see what he wants to do…” Jongdae supplements helpfully, shrugging. “Maybe you should go instead of Junmyeon, he seems to like you. And I don’t think he brought the flowers for me.”
Jongin goes to peek out of their French windows and he sees Sehun’s blonde hair almost shining in the sunlight, the huge bouquet of sunflowers still bright in his hands. “How long has he been standing there for?”
“Since dawn, apparently.” Junmyeon scrunches up his nose disapprovingly. “You stay in here, Jonginnie, Hyung will get rid of him for you.”
With a firm hmph, Jummyeon pushes open the doors, storming out with the will of a thousand soldiers.
“W-wait, Hyung! Don’t be rash! He means no harm!” Jongin rushes out after his slightly overprotective brother and pulls him back, stopping him from opening the gates.
“I’ll go, Hyung. I- He’s a good person, I’m sure!”
Junmyeon frowns and he shakes his head, “You never know! He’s a warlock and they’re as devious as you can get!”
Sehun watches the scene unfold him behind the gates and he laughs, it wasn’t the first time someone had thought that of him, but what made him happier was that Jongin was defending him.
It was true, true love never faded even with time, Jongin today isn’t the Jongins in the past, but he’s still Sehun’s Jongin and will always be.
“I swear on the angel that I won’t hurt Jongin! Not now, not ever!” He shouts above the squabbling pair, smiling his most charming smile and crossing his fingers in the hope that he didn’t look like a predator or anything like that.
Junmyeon was objecting to him even meeting Jongin, how were they supposed to be together then? This Jongin was never going to disobey his brother, judging from how wobbly his voice was from just speaking up against Junmyeon.
The eldest Kim stares at him, dark eyes seemingly boring a hole in his face as he tried to decide if Sehun was to be trusted. Warlocks were dangerous, Downworlders as a whole were dangerous. Their parents’ death was evidence enough and now a warlock wanted to date his little brother?
The “no!” was at the tip of his tongue when Jongin tugs softly at the hem of his shirt, gazing at him with pleading eyes. “Please, Hyung? I-I always listened to you, just this once? Let me talk to him? I promise, I’ll kill him if he hurts me, I promise!”
Jongin was a sheltered child, only seven when their parents died. Junmyeon had been Jongdae and Jongin’s mother, father and friend. He vowed to protect them from anything that put them at risk, or how was he to answer to their deceased parents?
This Sehun was a danger, both to their world and to Jongin but he was clearly what Jongin wanted and if, just maybe, he was the one who was Jongin’s other half, the one to complete his brother.
Junmyeon wasn’t going to be able to live with himself if he stopped Jongin and his brother loses The One. Warlocks had mates and he could only hope and pray that Jongin was Sehun’s and the warlock wasn’t going to hurt his little brother.
“Fine, go. But if he hurts you, even a hair, tell me and Hyung’ll kill him for you, okay?” Junmyeon says firmly, pulling Jongin into a hug.
For some reason, he felt that if he let Jongin go this time, he was going to come back a different person. He was still going to be Kim Jongin but also, Sehun’s Jongin.
Pushing the gates open, Junmyeon holds Jongin close as he glares at Sehun. “You hurt him even the littlest and I’ll skin you alive, but never enough to kill you. I’ll wait for you to heal and then do it again and again till I feel like it, then, I’ll kill you.”
The warlock bursts out into a chuckle and he nods, expression turning serious immediately. “I promise. If I hurt him, I’ll even come to you and let you have your revenge.”
Jongin smiles up shyly at Sehun as Junmyeon lets go of him, patting him on the back gently. “One call and I’ll be there if you need me, I’ll let Jongdae torture him before I kill him.”
His younger brother’s raucous, almost sinister, laughter could be heard from within the institute and Jongin giggles, nodding as he waves back at Junmyeon. “I’ll be home after dinner!”
Sehun grabs his hand and holds it firm as he stuffs the bouquet in Jongin’s other hand, “I’ll make you dinner,” whispering into the younger boy’s ear huskily.
∞
The Shadowhunter gingerly steps into Sehun’s penthouse, afraid of dirtying the neat apartment with his boots, dirty from traipsing around the less than proper areas of Seoul. But Sehun tuts at him with a forgiving grin, pulling him close.
“You can take off your shoes, Jongin. From now on, this is as much your home as it is mine.” He pushes Jongin’s fringe away to press a soft kiss on the exposed skin, making the latter gasp and pull away slightly.
“S-Sehun, I-,” Jongin looks down, lashes brushing his cheeks and Sehun laughs, tilting the younger boy’s head up. “Was that too much for the first meeting? I’m sorry, but I’ve just- been waiting so long for you…”
The warlock sits him down on the couch, settling down beside him. “I waited eighteen years for you to grow up, Jongin, it was a long, long, long wait. I missed you.” He reaches to entwine their fingers together, leaning in to bury his face into Jongin’s chest.
“I-”
“Am I creeping you out?” Sehun’s voice is muffled from the cotton of Jongin’s sweatshirt covering his mouth but the warlock refuses to look up. He was centuries old for Raziel’s sake and here he was, reduced to a blushing schoolboy confessing to his crush for the first time.
Jongin’s little tinkle of a laugh sounds above him and Sehun pouts, looking up in indignance. “Why are you laughing at me? I- I haven’t been with anyone in the years I spent waiting for you, Jongin… You’re mean.”
The younger male laughs even harder at Sehun’s words and he smacks the warlock’s arm playfully. “You calling me mean? That’s a pot calling the kettle black, Sehun-ah.”
Sehun growls lowly and he pulls the Shadowhunter into his arms, putting their faces so close together. He could see every single tiny pore on Jongin’s skin and he wanted to kiss every inch of the boy’s skin.
“Call me hyung! I’m at least a few hundred years older than you, you insolent brat.” But Sehun’s voice was laced with a gentleness that hasn’t been there since Jongin died decades ago.
It was a tone reserved for Jongin and for him only. The stern, unfeeling High Warlock of Seoul was just a simple man in love when Jongin was around and the years with Jongin always made Sehun a happier, better person.
He was sure that this time was going to be no different.
∞
Sehun wasn’t skinned alive by Junmyeon or Jongdae, not after the first date, or the second, the third and he was even given a grudging and highly reluctant pat on the back when Jongin married him in a little ceremony.
He knew that Jongin was going to age, grow old and eventually leave him again, but it didn’t matter.
Because he knew that they would always find each other, Jongin’s memories would come back to him the moment he sees Sehun again in the future(s) and all of them would have Sehun in them, just as Jongin is in Sehun’s.
∞
“Do you remember me yet?” The warlock asks softly, running his fingers through the younger boy’s soft brown locks.
Jongin seems to lean into his touch and he smiles shyly, nodding tentatively. “I remember bits and pieces, not everything yet…. B-But this time, we can make more memories, right?”
He remembers opening the door for Sehun in the evenings, dinner already on the table as he removed Sehun’s fur coat with a small kiss to his mouth, snow raging around their small cottage in the deep mountains.
He remembers Sehun proposing the day Queen Victoria was crowned, their happiness for Great Britain and also for themselves.
He remembers the human wars, the fear gripping at his heart every time Sehun went out of his sight, but he always came back safely.
He remembers all the lives that he was human in, not a part of the magical world that he loved, but Sehun still loved him despite all that Jongin couldn’t understand about the warlock.
He remembers Sehun, all the times they spent together and he wants to remember more. To fill his heart with all that was his soulmate and when they eventually started a family, Jongin wanted to have neverending stories to tell their children.
∞
The story of Jongin and Sehun that spanned centuries but never faded.
For: ukexing
Rating: PG-13
Length: ~3700 words
Summary: Sehun doesn't remember a time when Jongin wasn't there.
Notes: to my recipient, I hope I didn’t butcher your prompt too much, I really hope you like it!! :3 and this story is based on The Mortal Instruments world, I own nothing of it and neither do I own EXO. thank you, rissa for helping me read through this and all mistakes are mine and mine alone.
Sehun was old, for the lack of a better adjective. He lived one life, watching time fly by and seeing the people he cared for die. Only they were reborn and then gone, it was a neverending cycle.
Then one day, maybe yesterday, maybe it was twenty years ago, he woke up and realised that there was something different.
Every time Jongin was reborn, Sehun’d feel a tug in his chest and those moments made hope bloom in his heart. But the fire faded immediately when he remembered all the other times he had to watch Jongin die.
He remembers trying to kill himself, once, twice, thrice. He forgets how many times he’d tried to end his life and follow Jongin to the afterlife.
But he failed, every single time.
∞
All warlocks had soul mates. Jongin was Sehun’s the moment he popped into existence, his shrill cry was embedded into Sehun’s heart and in the times between the reincarnations, Sehun uses the little bits and pieces he has of Jongin to remember him by and hope that time would fly by.
Something was strange this time, Sehun felt his heart sink to the bottom of his stomach after the tug. He never once anticipated Jongin to be born immortal, to one of the Downworlder species. Even if they could live out the rest of their lives together, the curses placed on the Downworlders was everything he didn’t want for Jongin.
But he didn’t expect Jongin to be born a Shadowhunter. Soft, shy Jongin with his lip-biting habit that was present in all his lives, Jongin wasn’t a hunter, he was far from it.
Fear gripped Sehun’s heart like a cold hand, because Shadowhunters, most of them, didn’t live past their twenties. His Jongin was going to leave him sooner than he expected, and he would have go back to waiting all over again.
People said that Sehun was silly, spending the entirety of his all too immortal life waiting for his time with Jongin, time that flew past with a blink of his eye. But Sehun lived on the few decades he had with Jongin because he knows that Jongin will always come back to him.
He’d give anything, anything at all, to have Jongin not be a Shadowhunter. He’d rather his soulmate lived out this one life in secrecy, as a werewolf or even a fairy, but never, never as a Shadowhunter.
But the tug in his chest was more than enough to refute his silly hope, Jongin was a Shadowhunter and Sehun was helpless to the will of the gods.
He began to pack up, letting the door click shut behind him as he heads towards the airport.
He was more than capable enough to send himself and maybe an entire army to Korea with a snap of his fingers. but Sehun had a thing for planes.
The mundanes had outdone themselves in the aerospace industry and planes were, to Sehun, the best thing to grace this earth, other than him of course, and Jongin.
∞
He doesn’t bring much with him to Seoul, Sehun was starting a new life with Jongin there anyway, he doesn’t need much.
As time flew by, Sehun settled down in the bustling city, living in a penthouse near the Seoul Institute. The warlock stands by his floor-to-ceiling windows every morning, looking down at the backyard of the Institute most mundanes saw as a run-down church. He watches Jongin grow up, from a wee toddler waddling around in his footie pyjamas to a grown teenager with dark eyes and a grin that could light up the world.
Sehun falls in love with every Jongin he’s met and this time’s no exception. His Shadowhunter mate was a beautiful boy and the warlock couldn’t wait to meet him, or rather, have Jongin meet him.
∞
He planned their first meeting out in his head so many times, he’d wait for Jongin in front of the institute, hand strategically placed on the iron-wrought gate to show his defined arms off, or he’d invite the Kims to a party at his place and sidle up to Jongin with a small smile and kohl lining his eyes seductively.
This, however, was not how he expected to meet Jongin for the first time in the latter’s nth life.
This refers to the chaos that broke out in one of the nightclubs in Gangnam. A brawl between a vampire and a werewolf sent the club into a flurry of shouts and violence, a bolt of blue flies past Sehun’s face as he steps in, barely missing his nose.
As the High Warlock of Seoul, he had the responsibility to keep the peace in the city and prevent the very thing that was happening in the club. Any more of magic and whatever the Downworlders were capable of was going to break the illusions they put up and the humans were going to find out the hard way that beings beyond their comprehension walked among them.
Sehun reaches just in time to slap away a punch thrown in his direction and he slowly but surely ventures into the heart of the commotion. Standing in the centre of the dance floor with their seraph blades glowing in the dark were the Kims.
The Kim family was one of the most prestigious Shadowhunter families in Korea and it was rumoured that the first Kim nephilim was one of the first few Shadowhunters, borne out of the Mortal Cup.
Jongin, Sehun’s Jongin, was right in his line of vision, runes appearing in the air around him following the movements of the stele. His brothers, Junmyeon and Jongdae, were by his side and together, they formed a triangle, pushing the Downworlders into the corners of the dark club with the speed at which runes were drawn.
Sehun coughs and steps forward into the light, grinning at the Kim brothers.
“Hello, Shadowhunters.” With a regal wave of his arm, the Downworlders stopped their agonised screeching and whining, falling silent to barely a whisper.
Jongin watches with wide eyes as the creatures of the night begun to pick themselves up and stand almost ceremoniously behind the man, he realises who is it that is standing in front of them, a beat behind Jongdae.
“Y-You’re the new High Warlock of Seoul… Oh Sehun?”, his brother asks with ill-concealed awe in his voice and Junmyeon smacks the back of his neck.
“Jongdae! We’re not supposed to fraternise with the Downworlders!” Junmyeon’s low hiss travelled with no effort into Sehun’s ears and his cheshire grin widens immeasurably.
But Jongin is oblivious to all the small squabble right by his ear because this Sehun was beautiful and there was something about him that made Jongin walk over to him, shaking off Junmyeon’s attempt to stop him (“Jongin, no!”).
There was almost a glaze over Jongin’s dark eyes and Sehun reached out for him, grabbing his waist with a chuckle to the horror of the saintly Kim Junmyeon. Jongdae watches with bated breath as Jongin’s fingers caressed the warlock’s cheek and the latter pulling his youngest, most innocent brother close.
“Oh Sehun, you let go of him now, right now!” Junmyeon was by Jongin’s side almost immediately, pulling the two boys, if you could even call them that, apart with a huff. Pointing at Sehun’s sharp nose with a growl, Junmyeon pushes Jongin back to their little space.
“Touch my brother again and I will kill you, with no hesitation, you’ll be reduced to no more than a pile of ash on the floor right at the spot if you dare even to come close to Jongin again.” He brandishes the stele manacingly at Sehun before storming out of the club, gesturing for his brothers to come along.
But the longing in Jongin’s gaze behind him made Sehun’s heart kind of, almost, maybe skip a beat and he smiles softly, nodding in a promise. He wasn’t letting Jongin go. He remembers Sehun this time, it was a far cry from the past few times where he assumed Sehun to be an obsessive stalker with a thing for pouty, shy boys.
∞
It’s almost strange how Jongin changed every lifetime but yet he didn’t, Sehun was always able to recognise him in his mannerisms and the shy little grin that was rare to those who weren’t close to him. Sehun was lucky to always be in Jongin’s Nice List and he wasn’t going to let Kim Stick-Up-My-Ass Junmyeon separate them.
If it was that easy to kill Sehun, then he would have died with Jongin the very first time. A mere rune wasn’t enough to kill him, maybe not even an army of Shadowhunters casting them at the same time was enough.
Maybe he was born to be Jongin’s eternal protector and shelter, his other half, his soulmate because Sehun couldn’t imagine a life without Jongin.
Back at the institute, Jongin was sat down in the drawing room with Junmyeon pacing the length of the room by the floor-length windows and Jongdae against the wall, staring intensely at him.
“Stop staring at me, hyung! And hyung, stop pacing! You’re making me dizzy!” He fiddles with his stele, frowning up at his brothers.
“Kim Jongin, I need you to tell me the truth, did that warlock cast a spell on you? Are you feeling okay? Was it some supernatural force that pulled you towards him?” The eldest Kim stops wearing the carpet down and crosses his arms, a furrow between his brows. “That wasn’t like you, Jonginnie, you wouldn’t have done that in the past!” Jongdae adds, pulling up a chair to sit on.
A sigh escapes the youngest and he leans back in the armchair, “I-I don’t know! I just felt like I should y’know? There was something and I just- But I was completely willing! The compulsion was too great and hyung, guess what?”
The tone of incredulity in Jongin’s words made Jumyeon look up from the book he was perusing. “What?”
“I felt as if I knew him! There were strange flashes in my head and images that popped out of nowhere, they were of me and S-Sehun!” He finishes with a laugh, shaking his head. “Hyung, I’m not going crazy, am I?”
“Jongin, you’re seeing strange pictures in your head about a man you’ve never met. Unless you’re somehow fated with the warlock or something, you’re probably not normal.” Jongdae said all of this in a deadpan voice, trying to make his brothers laugh and loosen the tense atmosphere but it clearly failed judging by how Junmyeon looked up at him darkly.
Pointing to a page in the book he was flipping through, “Maybe you guys should take a look at this.”
It was titled, “Soulmates, reincarnation and how to identify a fated pair.”
Jongin’s legs went weak.
∞
Sehun on the other hand, stood at the iron-wrought gates of the Seoul Institute bright and early the next morning, a wide grin etched on his lips. He had a bouquet of sunflowers in his hands but the lilac crepe paper holding the stems together were going damp from the clutch of his sweaty palms.
To be completely honest, this was the oldest trick in the book, even for Sehun who was centuries old. But why fix it if it isn’t broken? It has to be the best way to get someone to go on a date if everyone used it, right?
At least that was how the warlock tried to convince himself that he was not looking like a total idiot standing out here in the morning sun, waiting at the doors of a place he could never enter.
Warlocks were impure, and the wards of all the Shadowhunter institutes would never allow him in and he wasn’t stupid enough to try. To be mistaken as an intruder to a house full of Shadowhunters was one of the most stupid things to do, just a close second behind throwing his neck right into the path of an angelic sword.
So Sehun stands there in his three-piece suit, waiting for the gates to finally creak open once they see that the High Warlock of Seoul is discreetly asking for an audience.
Jongin wakes up to a racket, sleepily rubbing his eyes as he stumbles down the stairs to the hall of the institute, only to see Junmyeon arming himself with what looked like all the holy weapons in their arsenal, which was alot to say the least.
Jongdae, the useless boy was just standing there watching their brother with a smirk, looking up at Jongin. “He’s awake, Hyung. Let him settle the warlock.” Confused, the youngest Kim stares at his brothers, a furrow appearing between his brows.
“W-what’s going on? What warlock?” He wasn’t about to reveal that he’d been dreaming about the man, Jongdae was going to poke fun at him and Junmyeon would kill the warlock for ‘tainting’ pure, innocent Jongin.
“That warlock who cast a spell on you, that’s who.” Junmyeon grits out, glaring at the double doors with an almost savage look in his eyes.
“He’s outside. Has been for awhile now, Hyung saw him first thing when he woke up and well, you see what he wants to do…” Jongdae supplements helpfully, shrugging. “Maybe you should go instead of Junmyeon, he seems to like you. And I don’t think he brought the flowers for me.”
Jongin goes to peek out of their French windows and he sees Sehun’s blonde hair almost shining in the sunlight, the huge bouquet of sunflowers still bright in his hands. “How long has he been standing there for?”
“Since dawn, apparently.” Junmyeon scrunches up his nose disapprovingly. “You stay in here, Jonginnie, Hyung will get rid of him for you.”
With a firm hmph, Jummyeon pushes open the doors, storming out with the will of a thousand soldiers.
“W-wait, Hyung! Don’t be rash! He means no harm!” Jongin rushes out after his slightly overprotective brother and pulls him back, stopping him from opening the gates.
“I’ll go, Hyung. I- He’s a good person, I’m sure!”
Junmyeon frowns and he shakes his head, “You never know! He’s a warlock and they’re as devious as you can get!”
Sehun watches the scene unfold him behind the gates and he laughs, it wasn’t the first time someone had thought that of him, but what made him happier was that Jongin was defending him.
It was true, true love never faded even with time, Jongin today isn’t the Jongins in the past, but he’s still Sehun’s Jongin and will always be.
“I swear on the angel that I won’t hurt Jongin! Not now, not ever!” He shouts above the squabbling pair, smiling his most charming smile and crossing his fingers in the hope that he didn’t look like a predator or anything like that.
Junmyeon was objecting to him even meeting Jongin, how were they supposed to be together then? This Jongin was never going to disobey his brother, judging from how wobbly his voice was from just speaking up against Junmyeon.
The eldest Kim stares at him, dark eyes seemingly boring a hole in his face as he tried to decide if Sehun was to be trusted. Warlocks were dangerous, Downworlders as a whole were dangerous. Their parents’ death was evidence enough and now a warlock wanted to date his little brother?
The “no!” was at the tip of his tongue when Jongin tugs softly at the hem of his shirt, gazing at him with pleading eyes. “Please, Hyung? I-I always listened to you, just this once? Let me talk to him? I promise, I’ll kill him if he hurts me, I promise!”
Jongin was a sheltered child, only seven when their parents died. Junmyeon had been Jongdae and Jongin’s mother, father and friend. He vowed to protect them from anything that put them at risk, or how was he to answer to their deceased parents?
This Sehun was a danger, both to their world and to Jongin but he was clearly what Jongin wanted and if, just maybe, he was the one who was Jongin’s other half, the one to complete his brother.
Junmyeon wasn’t going to be able to live with himself if he stopped Jongin and his brother loses The One. Warlocks had mates and he could only hope and pray that Jongin was Sehun’s and the warlock wasn’t going to hurt his little brother.
“Fine, go. But if he hurts you, even a hair, tell me and Hyung’ll kill him for you, okay?” Junmyeon says firmly, pulling Jongin into a hug.
For some reason, he felt that if he let Jongin go this time, he was going to come back a different person. He was still going to be Kim Jongin but also, Sehun’s Jongin.
Pushing the gates open, Junmyeon holds Jongin close as he glares at Sehun. “You hurt him even the littlest and I’ll skin you alive, but never enough to kill you. I’ll wait for you to heal and then do it again and again till I feel like it, then, I’ll kill you.”
The warlock bursts out into a chuckle and he nods, expression turning serious immediately. “I promise. If I hurt him, I’ll even come to you and let you have your revenge.”
Jongin smiles up shyly at Sehun as Junmyeon lets go of him, patting him on the back gently. “One call and I’ll be there if you need me, I’ll let Jongdae torture him before I kill him.”
His younger brother’s raucous, almost sinister, laughter could be heard from within the institute and Jongin giggles, nodding as he waves back at Junmyeon. “I’ll be home after dinner!”
Sehun grabs his hand and holds it firm as he stuffs the bouquet in Jongin’s other hand, “I’ll make you dinner,” whispering into the younger boy’s ear huskily.
∞
The Shadowhunter gingerly steps into Sehun’s penthouse, afraid of dirtying the neat apartment with his boots, dirty from traipsing around the less than proper areas of Seoul. But Sehun tuts at him with a forgiving grin, pulling him close.
“You can take off your shoes, Jongin. From now on, this is as much your home as it is mine.” He pushes Jongin’s fringe away to press a soft kiss on the exposed skin, making the latter gasp and pull away slightly.
“S-Sehun, I-,” Jongin looks down, lashes brushing his cheeks and Sehun laughs, tilting the younger boy’s head up. “Was that too much for the first meeting? I’m sorry, but I’ve just- been waiting so long for you…”
The warlock sits him down on the couch, settling down beside him. “I waited eighteen years for you to grow up, Jongin, it was a long, long, long wait. I missed you.” He reaches to entwine their fingers together, leaning in to bury his face into Jongin’s chest.
“I-”
“Am I creeping you out?” Sehun’s voice is muffled from the cotton of Jongin’s sweatshirt covering his mouth but the warlock refuses to look up. He was centuries old for Raziel’s sake and here he was, reduced to a blushing schoolboy confessing to his crush for the first time.
Jongin’s little tinkle of a laugh sounds above him and Sehun pouts, looking up in indignance. “Why are you laughing at me? I- I haven’t been with anyone in the years I spent waiting for you, Jongin… You’re mean.”
The younger male laughs even harder at Sehun’s words and he smacks the warlock’s arm playfully. “You calling me mean? That’s a pot calling the kettle black, Sehun-ah.”
Sehun growls lowly and he pulls the Shadowhunter into his arms, putting their faces so close together. He could see every single tiny pore on Jongin’s skin and he wanted to kiss every inch of the boy’s skin.
“Call me hyung! I’m at least a few hundred years older than you, you insolent brat.” But Sehun’s voice was laced with a gentleness that hasn’t been there since Jongin died decades ago.
It was a tone reserved for Jongin and for him only. The stern, unfeeling High Warlock of Seoul was just a simple man in love when Jongin was around and the years with Jongin always made Sehun a happier, better person.
He was sure that this time was going to be no different.
∞
Sehun wasn’t skinned alive by Junmyeon or Jongdae, not after the first date, or the second, the third and he was even given a grudging and highly reluctant pat on the back when Jongin married him in a little ceremony.
He knew that Jongin was going to age, grow old and eventually leave him again, but it didn’t matter.
Because he knew that they would always find each other, Jongin’s memories would come back to him the moment he sees Sehun again in the future(s) and all of them would have Sehun in them, just as Jongin is in Sehun’s.
∞
“Do you remember me yet?” The warlock asks softly, running his fingers through the younger boy’s soft brown locks.
Jongin seems to lean into his touch and he smiles shyly, nodding tentatively. “I remember bits and pieces, not everything yet…. B-But this time, we can make more memories, right?”
He remembers opening the door for Sehun in the evenings, dinner already on the table as he removed Sehun’s fur coat with a small kiss to his mouth, snow raging around their small cottage in the deep mountains.
He remembers Sehun proposing the day Queen Victoria was crowned, their happiness for Great Britain and also for themselves.
He remembers the human wars, the fear gripping at his heart every time Sehun went out of his sight, but he always came back safely.
He remembers all the lives that he was human in, not a part of the magical world that he loved, but Sehun still loved him despite all that Jongin couldn’t understand about the warlock.
He remembers Sehun, all the times they spent together and he wants to remember more. To fill his heart with all that was his soulmate and when they eventually started a family, Jongin wanted to have neverending stories to tell their children.
∞
The story of Jongin and Sehun that spanned centuries but never faded.