(no subject)
Prompt #:
Title: Split Reel
Word Count: 6,300words
Rating: PG
Warning(s): None
Summary: Chanyeol dreams of a Hollywood type of love. Literally. Every night he dreams of a different genre and the only thing that doesn't change is the man with dark eyes and thick full lips.
Author's Note:
The feeling of fatigue is a familiar one lately, weariness seeping into his bones until the soreness in his shoulders is a constant presence.
It’s been a very long day. A patient refused to take off her nose ring for a brain scan, and due to a lack of staff, Chanyeol was sent in to mediate the situation. She then moaned dramatically about seeing the tunnel of the light and almost had a heart attack when she saw the MRI machine, shaped like, well, a tunnel. With light.
It had taken a lot of talking to keep her placid enough to quietly undergo the brain scan, and the whole process had landed Chanyeol three long scratches down his forearm.
"Your new girl likes it rough, huh." Jongdae, a second year houseman leers at him and waggles his eyebrows.
"Shut up," Chanyeol mumbles, swatting him lightly with a clipboard of the patient's information.
This is why he keeps to the paediatric ward. At 185cm, Chanyeol makes an unlikely candidate as a nurse, yet he’s one of the more popular nurses in the hospital. He absolutely loves children, especially when they curl their fingers around his hand and flash him smiles with missing front teeth to thank him for being their nurse. Children love the fact that Chanyeol is a little larger-than-life; they flutter around him like noisy butterflies attracted to a flashy, neon coloured flower.
Even when he's swamped with too many cases and surrounded with young sickness, Chanyeol smiles pleasantly, because that is just who Chanyeol is, forever smiling forever optimistic. He gets loaded with more than his share of work sometimes because he is willing and his co-workers are manipulative but he doesn't really mind.
Lately though, he thinks he minds just a little.
When Victoria, one of the nurses who came in on the same batch as he did, uses her pretty little smile to get out of being assigned the difficult girl who complains too much and refuses to eat her medicine, Chanyeol finds himself almost snapping at her. The rush of irritation that overwhelms him catches him off guard, but he recovers quickly and accepts the clipboard of information. Even though the smile is back on his face, he can tell that Victoria is taken back from the fleeting look of surprise on her face.
Chanyeol isn't sure why he's been feeling so distracted lately.
Or actually, he might have an idea. It's the dreams.
He walks down the street and suddenly he sees flashes of tan skin, collarbones showing through a thin sweater, long slim fingers splayed across jutting hips.
And that's only what he sees when his eyes are open.
At night, the images that assault him include hints of a smile, too bright, too teethy. Long lashes over a large, unblinking eye, irises blown up. The images that comes to him the moment he closes his eyes are even more vivid, a multi-colour burst behind his eyelids. There are glimpses of a smirk, suggestive and seductive, tugging at the side of pink glossy lips.
For weeks now, he has seen the same man in his dreams. It comes in bits and pieces, a slowly building picture of his face. Every time, Chanyeol remembers feeling cornered and a thrill of excitement, but when he wakes, all that's left is the feeling of unsettling warmth and the vague shadow of a person who has stolen his breath away.
Chanyeol thinks that he should be terrified at the brief bursts of images, worried even about his constant dreams, but he likes it in a way. He closes his eyes and he's transported to a whole new world.
In this world, he's plain old park Chanyeol, the cheerful nurse who manages all sticky situations and toughs it out through hard shifts. He's trustable and reliable, always there to help in time of a need, always ready to jump in as a friend. He is predictable.
But in his dreams he feels beautiful and even if he can't explain it, he feels wanted.
As long as his daydreams, his hallucinations, don't get into the way of his work, he won't do anything about it. I deserve this much, he reasons.
Chanyeol wakes up gasping.
His heart clenches like someone has clamped a fist over it and his chest feels too tight, heart swelling against his ribs. His hand shakes as he reaches out to steady himself against the wall and he stares at the trembling hand, fingers curling immediately in horror.
In his mind, he runs over the symptoms immediately and tries to self-diagnose himself but his brain is a haze of confusion and dizziness. Short of breath. Racing heartbeat. Or a stopped one?
It takes him a few moments to set aside his panic and realise that this isn't his room. He's on a cold cement floor and to his horror, he smells the familiar metallic stench of blood in the air even before he sees splatter of dark on the walls. In the distance, he hears the wails of police sirens and there are gunshots, muted but close enough to alarm.
He needs to get out of here.
Chanyeol scrambles to his feet and almost trips when a hand grabs his wrist roughly, grip tightening when Chanyeol tries to pull away on instinct.
He stares right into a familiar pair of deep set eyes. "This way," the man urges, but Chanyeol is momentarily transfixed by the way his lips move, too familiar for him to not notice.
This is the first time he has seen the man in his dreams clearly enough to make out all his features and Chanyeol can only stare. He's tall, just an inch or two shorter than Chanyeol's own gangly height, but where Chanyeol is all arms and legs, this man wears his leather jacket and ripped faded jeans like second skin. He has slicked back blond hair and plush lips, and a slope of a jaw that could only be crafted out by the hands of the most talented surgeon.
The man doesn’t even need the James Dean hair, which only make his eyes seem more sultry, for Chanyeol to know he spells danger.
It takes another tug and a noise of impatience from the handsome man before Chanyeol's legs decide to cooperate.
"You almost got your cover blown, dumbass," the man says, pulling them both through a dimly lit hallway.
“Hey, where are we going?” Chanyeol’s mind whirls with confusion, torn between trying to understand how he got here to being distracted by the warm grip on his wrist.
“Watch out!” The man whirls them around just in time for what looks like a bullet to shoot past. It couldn’t have been a real bullet, because things like guns and bullets only appear in dramas and-
The man slams them both against a wall, his arm snaking behind Chanyeol’s back to cushion the blow.
This close, he can feel the man’s breath on him and note how he’s just a little shorter, but with enough self-confidence to make him feel taller than he really is.
Chanyeol recognises this pose from the manga his sister reads, when the attractive male character closes in on the female character. He had scoffed at how his sister squealed about kabe-dons, but pinned under the man's gaze, it hits him with a jolt that the thrill comes exactly from this vulnerability.
"I can't be here to save you all the time," the man chuckles, voice low enough to send a chill down Chanyeol’s spine.
If he’s put in a situation like this, he might as well play the part of the fluttering heroine.
Chanyeol holds his breath, already engrossed in the role he never knew he was playing, “Why do you need to save me?”
Chanyeol has never smelled gun powder before until the bullet drives through the man’s left shoulder, narrowly missing Chanyeol’s own arm.
The man lets go off Chanyeol immediately, hand flying up to to grab at his shoulder. “Fuck.”
And Chanyeol wakes up, gasping and clutching at his bedsheets.
It was a dream all along.
When Chanyeol shuffles his way to work, the smell of gunpowder follows him as he goes through his shift, tending to crying children and terrified toddlers. No one else seems to notice the lingering smell on him. The experience leaves him shaken for the rest of the day.
It's another summer night, too humid and hot for the covers but Chanyeol snuggles under them anyway. He’s always liked being surrounded by his blankets and pulling them around him like a cocoon. Sleep envelops him all too easily when he’s comfortable like this.
He wakes up sometime past 3am and when his mind clears, he doesn't expect this.
He doesn't expect this at all.
Ethereal, is the first word that pops up in his mind. Exquisite is the next.
Chanyeol gasps, and the figure in front of him pouts, lips pursued. Then he dims, the glow around him literally softening, and Chanyeol breathes a little easier, because the man in front of him is down to acceptable levels of amazing now. Acceptable levels, as in Chanyeol no longer wants to weep at the sight of perfection, no longer wants to drive a knife through his heart, because he's seen the only thing worth looking at in the world, and he has no more reason to live.
It's the man in his dreams.
"Chanyeol," the man says, his lips pulling apart to flash neat, white teeth. Chanyeol gets a sense of deja vu, too familiar this scene is. The man is kneeling on his covers, knees placed between Chanyeol's splayed legs. His hands are folded demurely on his thighs and it makes for an oddly arousing sight.
"Who are you?" Chanyeol manages to whisper, afraid of speaking too loudly, because his dream might crack and break and then Chanyeol will wake up alone in his dark room and face the bland reality again.
"I am Kai."
Chanyeol's mind flashes through a series of scenes, faded and blurry and yet suddenly sharp, and he realises he's been dreaming of Kai longer than he remembers.
"You must be Chanyeol." Chanyeol forces himself to focus his attention back on Kai, but his brain is starting to hurt. Kai is blinding, like someone set the exposure on a photograph too harsh. Then the next second he is soft edges and blurred skin, focus slipping.
"Chanyeol," Kai repeats and when Chanyeol opens his mouth to echo his own name, his lips are met with another's. Kai has closed the gap between them, tongue gently nudging Chanyeol's mouth open.
Addiction. This is how the patients at the hospital must feel when he injects a dose of morphine into their bloodstream, relief coursing through their veins, a sigh escaping their lips as pleasure, numbness, takes over pain. Chanyeol reaches up to tangle a hand into Kai's hair, the dirty blond tresses slipping easily through his fingers, too silky to provide enough friction for him to get a good grip on.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for months,” Kai whispers then leans back in to suck on Chanyeol’s bottom lip. Chanyeol can only moan his response, the thrill of the unexpected but not unwanted kiss rushing through him.
Kai's tongue scrapes the inside of Chanyeol's cheek once, as if leaving a mark or having a last taste, and he's gone, disappearing into the darkness.
Chanyeol wakes up with his heart in his throat, a steady drumming in his ears. The smell is back, mint and coffee wafting around the room.
He realizes that he forgot to ask the all important question. What are you.
He goes through the day like a zombie. Even Baekhyun, another houseman who is usually too preoccupied with himself to care about others, drops by to ask about it.
"I could ask to assign your work to someone else," Baekhyun says, a comforting hand on Chanyeol's shoulder. "Today is a slow day anyway."
"It's always good to have a slow day in a hospital," Chanyeol replies wryly. He doesn't feel like joking but Baekhyun's concern feels like too much right now and he needs to get the other off his back. Without waiting for Baekhyun's answer, Chanyeol mumbles something about going to the washroom and strides off. He can feel Baekhyun's disapproving frown on him all day.
The next time he dreams, Chanyeol finally gets to speak to Kai.
He was half expecting to see Kai pop up somewhere, but he definitely did not expect to open his eyes and immediately start drowning, the strong taste of chlorine filling up his mouth and nose before his instinct registers and he starts kicking his feet.
A strong arm loops under his arms and starts dragging him towards shallower waters and Chanyeol lets himself be pulled out of the pool and onto the cold tiles. The warm hand gently smooths Chanyeol’s hair out of his face and Chanyeol’s vision clears enough to register that he’s in a huge gymnasium of some sort, with Kai hovering over him looking worried.
Kai helps him sit up and strokes his back as Chanyeol tries to cough out the taste of acrid pool water in his mouth.
Even through his frantic breaths, he can see that Kai is even more devastating when he’s wet.
“Always the damsel in distress, eh?” Kai says when it becomes clear that Chanyeol will live.
If this was a sports anime, there would be sparkles and blue flashes of light right in his vision, but Kai doesn’t need special effects to be blinding. He’s more impressive now that he’s completely shirtless to reveal a toned physique, only wearing a tiny pair of swimsuit bottoms that has Chanyeol both itching to tear his eyes away out of common courtesy and to stare shamelessly.
Chanyeol quips instead, “You look good in those briefs.”
Kai looks down at himself in surprise and grins when he registers what he’s wearing. “Not half-bad yourself.”
“So is there a pattern to this? I get myself almost killed and you swoop in to be my knight in shining armour?” Chanyeol cocks his head and amends, “Well, speedos.”
“I hope you don’t have to die for me to meet you,” Kai says, leaning back to settle against a pool deck chair, stretching the long pane of his stomach while doing so. “I like seeing you alive.”
“I don’t know, I kind of like leaving my life in your hands. It’s dangerous.” The words leave him before he thinks about it, and Chanyeol is mildly surprised at himself. He’s flirting with a stranger he’s only met three times- in three dreams?
Kai fixes him with a heated stare and Chanyeol feels more breathless than he had been when water was filling his lungs. “Maybe you should run away before I catch you.”
It becomes routine after that. Whenever the day drags too long and Chanyeol is on the second 24 hour shift of the week, all he has to do is catch a quick half an hour nap and wake up completely refreshed.
Jongdae is constantly amazed at his ability to power nap and Chanyeol only smiles to himself, keeping the smell of the waffles and cinnamon to himself.
Every time he closes his eyes, Kai is there to greet him with a teasing grin and even more teasing touches.
Together they explore magical worlds and fight demons, rescue princesses and float through space.
Once, Chanyeol wakes up in mid-air and realises he's soaring through the sky on the back of a- holy shit, is this a dragon? The dragon turns its head back and Chanyeol immediately knows from its mirth-filled eyes that this is Kai.
Another time, Chanyeol opens his eyes to find himself on a resort island, lying among cabanas and the sparkling sea. Kai is gorgeous under the sun and Chanyeol feels a little drunk even as he tumbles his way over to find Kai, hands automatically reaching out for him.
They’ve given up the pretense of being strangers by now, getting along like friends with just the slightest sizzle between them. Together they test the boundaries and flirt openly, but neither make a move to bring it beyond a shaky friendship, and Chanyeol is satisfied to just float along with Kai in dream after dream.
“Chanyeol!”
Chanyeol bites back a sign when he hears his name being called. Looks like his break is over. He packs the remains of his lunch, only half touched because he wasn’t hungry, back into the fridge.
“Could you please help check on room 306?” Victoria asks, voice sweet as ever. “The patient’s guardian requested to meet a nurse to talk about his progress.”
He could never turn her down, not when he knows she uses whatever free time she can steal to video call her family back in China. “On it!” Chanyeol salutes and she gives him a grateful smile, her shoulders sagging slightly in relief.
Room 306 belongs to a sweet kid named Taemin, who watched too many superhero movies and believed he could fly. It turns out 8 year boys are not blessed with the power of flight and Taemin ended up with a broken leg and a few bruised ribs, landing him in the hospital for a few days to properly monitor his progress.
Chanyeol knocks on the door and lets himself in, interrupting Taemin and his guardian just as they seem to be sharing a laugh over a story Taemin is telling.
Taemin’s guardian shoots to his feet immediately and bows a few times. "Nurse? Thank you for taking care of-"
He trails off the same time that the realisation hits Chanyeol. "You're Kai."
The man's face changes in split second, from genial courtesy to a furrow of his brow that is quickly smoothed out. It’s unmistakable, the same face that has been appearing in his dreams for weeks now. Chanyeol probably spends more time with Kai in his dreams than he does with his family.
"Jongin?" Taemin tugs on his sleeve, seemingly sensing the sudden tension in the room. He cranes his head up and pouts slightly to get his guardian’s attention.
Kai- Jongin smiles pleasantly at Chanyeol and gives a small bow, stiff and formal. "Sorry, you must have the wrong person."
“Jongin, it hurts,” Taemin whines. He tugs on Jongin’s sleeve harder, pulling him down until Jongin sits on the bed with a bark of laughter.
“I almost crushed your good leg, silly!” He ruffles Taemin’s hair and pulls the covers up to tuck him in. His full attention is on the boy now. “Visiting hours are almost over, so I’ll come back tomorrow okay?”
Chanyeol looks on in silent confusion. This man looks so much like Kai, even sounds like Kai, but he’s not him. He doesn’t possess the same confidence that Kai carries, doesn’t drawl his words like Kai tends to do. Even his features look softer, more filled out than the sharp, almost Ken-like beauty that Kai has, but at the same time, Jongin is so awfully familiar.
“If you don’t mind,” Jongin says curtly. “I’ll like to say goodbye to Taemin.” He glances at the door pointedly and it’s as clear a message as any. Still confused, Chanyeol bows his apologies and makes a quick exit.
It’s only when he’s shut the door and is leaning against the cold wall outside to clear his head that Chanyeol realises he didn’t get to speak to Jongin about Taemin even though his presence was requested.
Victoria whizzes past just then, holding a clipboard to her chest and looking livelier than she had been fifteen minutes ago. She must have had a chat with her family.
Chanyeol takes the chance to snag her by the sleeve and jerks her to a stop so sudden that she has to catch herself against the wall to avoid falling over. “Chanyeol!”
"Who is he?” Chanyeol asks urgently, still clutching onto her sleeve. He jerks his head towards the door. “The man inside with Taemin."
Victoria frowns at him and brushes his grasp off her arm. "I don’t know, he's just the patient's guardian But not his sibling or parent, I think. He’s not the one who admitted Taemin. Is everything alright?”
Chanyeol forces a quick smile and shakes his head. “Just never seen him around before.”
In all honesty, Chanyeol’s a little amazed at the scenes that his imagination can pull up.
Tonight, he likes this scene.
Chanyeol feels like he’s in a James Bond movie, swirling a martini in his hand and leaning against the cocktail tables casually. His job as a nurse means that he barely has the time or energy to go out, much less afford to be in bar as swanky as this.
From the way the girls around him are eyeing him though, Chanyeol feels good. The suit he has on fits him like a glove and he’s always thought of himself as lanky and uncoordinated, but it turns out clothes do make a man.
And there’s his James Bond.
Kai makes his way through the crowd with a cocky confidence that has heads turning to him automatically, girls whispering about the handsome stranger.
He’s heading straight for Chanyeol and Chanyeol can’t help but smile a little smugly. A full blown grin has settled on his face by the time Jongin reaches him and the attention on them intensifies. Chanyeol usually doesn’t have much time to care about his appearance with how hectic his job can get but he’s feeling pretty darn special right now.
“Nice hair,” he quips.
Kai smooths down his hair, the blond now dyed into a dark brown and slicked back to reveal his forehead. “Felt like a change.” For a brief moment, Chanyeol thinks of the man he met back in the hospital, how Kai’s shade of hair looks eerily similar to Jongin’s, but then Kai steals his martini for a sip and subsequently steals his attention.
"May I ask for a dance, handsome stranger?" Chanyeol asks, voice steady and not betraying his nerves. He’s emulating every cheesy romance drama he’s ever watched, filled with an adrenaline that bubbles deep in his gut.
“I’m afraid I have two left feet. Besides, we’ll make a scene.”
“Two good looking men just enjoying a dance, what’s so scandalous about that?” Chanyeol tucks an arm over his stomach and bows.
Kai laughs and playfully curtsies back at him, allowing himself to be led onto the dance floor.
Kai is rarely so openly friendly, usually with his shoulders drawn tight even when Chanyeol is making him laugh. Tonight, Chanyeol can smell a hint of alcohol on Kai’s breath and it must be why he seems more relaxed than Chanyeol has ever seen him.
Under the glittering light of the chandelier, Kai seems to glow. He’s lying about not being able to dance because he naturally takes the lead, guiding Chanyeol’s unexperienced feet with soft whispers.
Still, the thought comes unbidden to him. This is a grace Jongin did not possess. Has he met Jongin before in another place, another time, and the man left an impression deep enough to manifest in Chanyeol’s every dream?
“Hey, you have the hottest bachelor in the room dancing with you, but you can’t even pay attention to him?” Kai drags his attention back by looping an arm around Chanyeol’s back, tugging him in closer. He sounds like a petulant girlfriend and it sends a thrill down Chanyeol’s spine.
He’s fond, Chanyeol realises with a start. He’s not even a child anymore, much beyond the age of imaginary friends, but it turns out it is possible to fall in love with an illusion.
Kai laughs loudly, twirling his way out of Chanyeol’s arms to execute a quick pirouette before tucking himself back into Chanyeol’s side, this time pressing closer than before.
Chanyeol knows by instinct that if he tries to initiate a kiss, much like the first one they shared months ago, the moment will break.
But just like this, holding Kai in his arms, he is content.
When Chanyeol wakes, there is warmth pressed to his side and hair against his cheek.
It almost seems like a dream but Chanyeol can't tell anymore. He's long lost hold of reality, drifting in and out of dreams that feel more vivid than real life. It should scare him how he doesn't even know which he prefers more.
Kai blinks sleepily, his hand stretching out languidly and falling back to hug Chanyeol's torso. He looks soft and warm, feels soft and warm in Chanyeol's arms, and Chanyeol can barely dare to breathe for fear of crashing back into reality.
"Good morning," Chanyeol whispers. He itches to reach out to brush the hair out of Kai's eyes, but he shouldn't be greedy. This is enough. This has to be enough.
Kai smiles, a slow spreading smile that has his eyes softening as he relaxes against Chanyeol. He arches his neck and for a brief happy moment, Chanyeol thinks Kai is going to kiss him.
Chanyeol shifts his head towards Kai on instinct, but a sharp intake of breath from Kai makes him freeze.
Kai is staring at him, eyes wide and uncharacteristically vulnerable and open. “Sorry- sorry, I just-”
And Chanyeol wakes up again, alone in his own room.
Work is harder that day. He usually doesn’t think of his job as work, more like a noble cause that he enjoys to a certain extent, but today it feels like a job.
“Going to pop out for lunch today,” he tells Victoria and she takes pity on him enough to let him go with a nod.
“Take your time,” she smiles at him. “I can cover our patients today.”
That’s more than enough reason for him to walk a few blocks away to the park nearby for a quiet lunch.
He’s casually browsing the shelves of the supermarket in search for something to eat for lunch when he notices a familiar man standing on his tiptoes trying to reach something on the upper shelves.
“Jongin?”
Jongin startles at the sudden calling of his name and starts tipping backwards, his balance slipping.
The nights spent running around avoiding criminals must have trained his reflexes because in a flash, Chanyeol has his arm snug around Jongin’s back, cushioning his fall backwards.
“Be careful,” Chanyeol says, still holding onto Jongin. Jongin melts into his touch, almost too familiar for an acquaintance.
“Looks like I’m the one saving you this time,” Chanyeol says without thinking.
Jongin's eyes flicker down to Chanyeol's lips, only a brief moment but just enough for Chanyeol to catch it. He expects Jongin’s reaction and releases him before Jongin can push him away.
“The nurse right? From the hospital,” Jongin says. He rubs his arm where Chanyeol grabbed him awkwardly.
“Yes, how is Taemin?”
Jongin latches onto the topic eagerly. “He’s been running around already. Kids have super healing strength, I think.”
Chanyeol opens his mouth to reply but the crackle from Jongin’s walkie talkie interrupts him. “Jongin? Could you help to clean up the cereal aisle?”
“I have to go.”
Chanyeol reaches up to grab the last remaining jar of pickles off the top shelf and hands it over to Jongin. “Here, what you were trying to get.”
“T-thanks.” With a quick nod, Jongin clutches the jar to his chest and hurries away to his manager.
Chanyeol hangs around the supermarket for the longest time, only leaving when the other employees start eyeing him suspiciously.
Chanyeol can’t process anything beyond the fact that Kai is in a very short dress.
“Nice outfit,” Chanyeol leers.
“Shut up.” Kai tries to escape from Chanyeol’s attention by running up a fire escape but from down below, all it does is give Chanyeol a perfect view up his fluttering loins cloth dress.
Chanyeol grins. He loves warrior princesses.
Scratch that, he loves mermaids.
Kai is wearing this shell bra thing and the purple contrasts so nicely with his skin, but what Chanyeol can’t tear his eyes away from is the shiny tail that stretches behind him, flicking with annoyance when Chanyeol stares a tad too long.
“Stop staring at my crotch,” Kai growls.
Chanyeol forces his gaze up to Kai’s face and laughs when he sees Kai frowning at him. “I don’t even know where your crotch is.”
"I hate you."
“Can I touch?” Chanyeol asks carefully, waiting for Kai’s small nod before he runs a finger down the cold, shiny scales.
Kai shivers at the first touch to his newfound tail, enough to make Chanyeol draw away with a start. “You have a great imagination,” Kai says. “I never know what to expect when I find you.”
Chanyeol stills. “So you know these are all dreams?”
The question catches Kai off-guard and he splashes his tail in the water for a while, mulling over his answer. Chanyeol has almost forgotten his question in favour of tracing the coloured scales on Kai’s tail before he answers, “I belong in your dreams. Of course I know.”
Victoria pokes her head into the break room one afternoon. “You have a visitor!”
He’s surprised to find Jongin and Taemin standing in the hallway. Taemin squeals out a hello and bulldozes into Chanyeol’s leg, hopping on one foot to avoid hurting the other which is wrapped in a cast again.
“He insisted to come back and see you,” Jongin says.
Chanyeol kneels down and taps Taemin on his nose, drawing a few giggles from the boy. “What did I tell you? Superheroes can’t fly.”
“I just wanted to test it out once more!” Taemin pouts. “But now I know.”
“Now you know. “ Chanyeol tells him solemnly and looks up at Jongin.
“He leapt off a swing and fractured his other leg. He’s fine,” Jongin quickly assures. “We scolded him badly for making us worry, but maybe you can get it through to him that he shouldn’t leap off high places.”
“Listen here, little guy,” Chanyeol says mock sternly, putting his hands on his hips. “Do you know how I grew up to be so tall and handsome?”
Jongin scoffs but Taemin is enthralled. “How?”
“Every time you hurt your legs and arms, it affects their ability to grow.” He widens his eyes and leans in closer to whisper, “I heard that if you bruise them enough, they’ll anti-grow and you’ll be stuck as a small boy forever.”
“Is he telling the truth?” Taemin asks, horrified.
“Would nurses lie?” Jongin answers, tapping his chin.
“Not more than secret agents,” Chanyeol jokes and it clearly affects Jongin in the way he blinks a little more furiously. Emboldened, Chanyeol drops the teasing note from his tone and says, “Jongin, let’s talk.”
“Hyung?” Taemin catches Jongin’s arm, worrying his lip as he glances between the two men.
“It’s okay, Taemin. I’ll just go talk to Chanyeol. Why don’t you go play with the other kids?”
Taemin looks back at them once more and hurries off, giddy at a rare chance to play unsupervised with the rest of the kids.
“How long have we known each other?” Chanyeol asks after they’ve settled in the bench on the park near the hospital, shoulders close enough to brush with each movement. They filled up the conversation on the way to the park with small talk that ran circles around the real topic at hand, carefully discussing Taemin’s misguided bravery and how Jongin became Taemin’s pseudo-guardian after being neighbours since Taemin was born.
Jongin hums and tightens his hold around his warm cup of hot chocolate. He made no comment about it earlier when Chanyeol ordered without asking him. It was always Kai’s choice of drink anyway. “Taemin was first admitted in the hospital in March?”
Jongin isn’t meeting his eyes and Chanyeol says gently, “You know what I mean.”
On impulse, he reaches out to hold Jongin’s hand as a means to reassure him. Jongin’s hand twitches in his light grip, but a small smile finally appears on Jongin’s lips, melting the tension in the air.
It’s the first time he’s holding Jongin’s hand but it isn’t unfamiliar. This reminds Chanyeol of the time when he dreamed of running around New York City with Kai, and they sat in Central Park eating hot dogs and cooing at the real furry dogs. Maybe Jongin is thinking about it too.
He doesn’t rush Jongin, just rubs circles into Jongin’s palm and lets Jongin take his time.
"I'm a dreamweaver," Jongin finally says and turns to face Chanyeol for the first time, squeezing his hand. Chanyeol nods and laces their fingers together. "My grandmother used to tell me stories about being a dreamweaver. I thought she was pulling my leg.”
Months ago, Chanyeol would've laughed but now he just wants to believe. "Why me?" After meeting Jongin the first time, he did a bit of internet research and came across a dreamweaver theory among many others, telling of some people who were born with a gift to travel in and out of dreams. He could barely find anything beyond fictional stories and a forum filled with stories that sounded more like vivid dreams than what would be considered dreamweaving, but by then Chanyeol has had enough dreams to believe it completely.
"I don't know," Jongin shakes his head. "You're the only one I see. What’s the first dream you remember?"
“The first time I saw you was when you saved me from the bullet, but I think I’ve seen you much longer than that.”
Jongin laughs. “Ah yes, when you believed you were an action movie heroine. I’ve been appearing in your dreams much longer before that, but it wasn’t until some weeks before that when I could physically manifest in front of you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“And have you laugh in my face?” Jongin says bitterly. “My grandmother tried telling people before. Even I thought she was crazy.”
“How about even after you knew I recognised you?”
“I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to approach you.”
“I approached you first!”
Jongin doesn’t reply to that, just shakes his head again.
Chanyeol thinks about the times he was caught off-guard by how beautiful Kai looked when he laughed, of how waking up with Kai by his side seemed more like a dream than anything else. He can barely remember a time when he didn’t dream, when he was still Park Chanyeol the nurse and not the person who has travelled through time and universes with Kai.
He holds their linked hands up. "We could have this. In real life."
"In the dreams, I can be whoever I want." Jongin sounds small, a vast different from the suave casanova that has stolen Chanyeol's heart. "But here. I'm just a broke college student."
This sounds all too familiar to Chanyeol. Months ago, he too felt insignificant and lost. The dreams brought him to more places than he could have imagined and gave him something to look forward to.
"A broke college student is exactly what I want.” At Jongin’s scrunched nose, Chanyeol amends, “you know what i mean. If you find the normal life too boring, then I can be your prince. I can be your knight in shining armour." He knows he sounds like a bad novella but Jongin cracks the smallest of smiles and it’s working.
“I don’t remember you being cheesy.”
Ignoring the fact that they’re in public, Chanyeol gently pulls Jongin closer and wraps his arms around him, quickly taking Jongin’s hot chocolate from his hand and placing it beside them. "In the real world, when I hold you like this, I can feel your heart beat a little quicker."
Jongin tenses against him, so he places a palm on the small of Jongin's back and Jongin instantly unfurls his shoulders.
"In the real world, we are not in danger every time we meet. Well, I am," Chanyeol cuts off and laughs, making Jongin furrow his eyebrows. "In the real world, I'm in danger of growing even fonder of you, until I think I could love you. I don't know yet, but I'm eager to try, because in this world, I can."
“You are disgustingly cheesy.” Jongin's hands are warm in his. They're smaller than he remembers but then he has all the time in the world to create new memories, the right memories.
"The person in my dreams- our dreams were all you. And even if you're a little on the scrawny side, and with terrible taste in fashion, and you're so much tinier than I expected, you’re the one I’m interested in. You’re the one I think of even when I’m awake, because I can’t get enough of you even if I see you in every hour I sleep."
Jongin hits Chanyeol on the shoulder in mock anger, but his voice sounds softer. "You're just unfairly huge."
"Oh, I would assure you so," Chanyeol winks with an exaggeratedly lewd smirk.
Jongin’s smile is all the more blinding than he remembers Kai’s to be.
“Shut up,” Jongin orders. In a swoop of bravado, he straddles himself on Chanyeol’s lap and grabs Chanyeol by the collar to pull him in for a bruising kiss, suddenly more Kai than Jongin, until Chanyeol's mouth is swollen and red, parted and panting for breath.
The scene is mid-day in a park, the sound of children laughing behind them, but Chanyeol’s heart has never raced so fast. With Jongin on his lap like this, he can finally drink in Jongin’s hooded eyes, the way his lips are chapped, probably from his habit of worrying his lips.
Chanyeol’s hands fit snugly around Jongin’s waist and he can’t help but notice how thin Jongin’s waist is. “You’re beautiful.”
“You’re impossible.” Jongin shakes his head in disbelief. He cups Chanyeol’s face tenderly, leaning into to brush a feather of a kiss across Chanyeol’s open, waiting mouth and murmurs, “I’ll let you be my prince just this once.”
Chanyeol doesn't need to dream anymore when his reality is much, much better.
Title: Split Reel
Word Count: 6,300words
Rating: PG
Warning(s): None
Summary: Chanyeol dreams of a Hollywood type of love. Literally. Every night he dreams of a different genre and the only thing that doesn't change is the man with dark eyes and thick full lips.
Author's Note:
The feeling of fatigue is a familiar one lately, weariness seeping into his bones until the soreness in his shoulders is a constant presence.
It’s been a very long day. A patient refused to take off her nose ring for a brain scan, and due to a lack of staff, Chanyeol was sent in to mediate the situation. She then moaned dramatically about seeing the tunnel of the light and almost had a heart attack when she saw the MRI machine, shaped like, well, a tunnel. With light.
It had taken a lot of talking to keep her placid enough to quietly undergo the brain scan, and the whole process had landed Chanyeol three long scratches down his forearm.
"Your new girl likes it rough, huh." Jongdae, a second year houseman leers at him and waggles his eyebrows.
"Shut up," Chanyeol mumbles, swatting him lightly with a clipboard of the patient's information.
This is why he keeps to the paediatric ward. At 185cm, Chanyeol makes an unlikely candidate as a nurse, yet he’s one of the more popular nurses in the hospital. He absolutely loves children, especially when they curl their fingers around his hand and flash him smiles with missing front teeth to thank him for being their nurse. Children love the fact that Chanyeol is a little larger-than-life; they flutter around him like noisy butterflies attracted to a flashy, neon coloured flower.
Even when he's swamped with too many cases and surrounded with young sickness, Chanyeol smiles pleasantly, because that is just who Chanyeol is, forever smiling forever optimistic. He gets loaded with more than his share of work sometimes because he is willing and his co-workers are manipulative but he doesn't really mind.
Lately though, he thinks he minds just a little.
When Victoria, one of the nurses who came in on the same batch as he did, uses her pretty little smile to get out of being assigned the difficult girl who complains too much and refuses to eat her medicine, Chanyeol finds himself almost snapping at her. The rush of irritation that overwhelms him catches him off guard, but he recovers quickly and accepts the clipboard of information. Even though the smile is back on his face, he can tell that Victoria is taken back from the fleeting look of surprise on her face.
Chanyeol isn't sure why he's been feeling so distracted lately.
Or actually, he might have an idea. It's the dreams.
He walks down the street and suddenly he sees flashes of tan skin, collarbones showing through a thin sweater, long slim fingers splayed across jutting hips.
And that's only what he sees when his eyes are open.
At night, the images that assault him include hints of a smile, too bright, too teethy. Long lashes over a large, unblinking eye, irises blown up. The images that comes to him the moment he closes his eyes are even more vivid, a multi-colour burst behind his eyelids. There are glimpses of a smirk, suggestive and seductive, tugging at the side of pink glossy lips.
For weeks now, he has seen the same man in his dreams. It comes in bits and pieces, a slowly building picture of his face. Every time, Chanyeol remembers feeling cornered and a thrill of excitement, but when he wakes, all that's left is the feeling of unsettling warmth and the vague shadow of a person who has stolen his breath away.
Chanyeol thinks that he should be terrified at the brief bursts of images, worried even about his constant dreams, but he likes it in a way. He closes his eyes and he's transported to a whole new world.
In this world, he's plain old park Chanyeol, the cheerful nurse who manages all sticky situations and toughs it out through hard shifts. He's trustable and reliable, always there to help in time of a need, always ready to jump in as a friend. He is predictable.
But in his dreams he feels beautiful and even if he can't explain it, he feels wanted.
As long as his daydreams, his hallucinations, don't get into the way of his work, he won't do anything about it. I deserve this much, he reasons.
Chanyeol wakes up gasping.
His heart clenches like someone has clamped a fist over it and his chest feels too tight, heart swelling against his ribs. His hand shakes as he reaches out to steady himself against the wall and he stares at the trembling hand, fingers curling immediately in horror.
In his mind, he runs over the symptoms immediately and tries to self-diagnose himself but his brain is a haze of confusion and dizziness. Short of breath. Racing heartbeat. Or a stopped one?
It takes him a few moments to set aside his panic and realise that this isn't his room. He's on a cold cement floor and to his horror, he smells the familiar metallic stench of blood in the air even before he sees splatter of dark on the walls. In the distance, he hears the wails of police sirens and there are gunshots, muted but close enough to alarm.
He needs to get out of here.
Chanyeol scrambles to his feet and almost trips when a hand grabs his wrist roughly, grip tightening when Chanyeol tries to pull away on instinct.
He stares right into a familiar pair of deep set eyes. "This way," the man urges, but Chanyeol is momentarily transfixed by the way his lips move, too familiar for him to not notice.
This is the first time he has seen the man in his dreams clearly enough to make out all his features and Chanyeol can only stare. He's tall, just an inch or two shorter than Chanyeol's own gangly height, but where Chanyeol is all arms and legs, this man wears his leather jacket and ripped faded jeans like second skin. He has slicked back blond hair and plush lips, and a slope of a jaw that could only be crafted out by the hands of the most talented surgeon.
The man doesn’t even need the James Dean hair, which only make his eyes seem more sultry, for Chanyeol to know he spells danger.
It takes another tug and a noise of impatience from the handsome man before Chanyeol's legs decide to cooperate.
"You almost got your cover blown, dumbass," the man says, pulling them both through a dimly lit hallway.
“Hey, where are we going?” Chanyeol’s mind whirls with confusion, torn between trying to understand how he got here to being distracted by the warm grip on his wrist.
“Watch out!” The man whirls them around just in time for what looks like a bullet to shoot past. It couldn’t have been a real bullet, because things like guns and bullets only appear in dramas and-
The man slams them both against a wall, his arm snaking behind Chanyeol’s back to cushion the blow.
This close, he can feel the man’s breath on him and note how he’s just a little shorter, but with enough self-confidence to make him feel taller than he really is.
Chanyeol recognises this pose from the manga his sister reads, when the attractive male character closes in on the female character. He had scoffed at how his sister squealed about kabe-dons, but pinned under the man's gaze, it hits him with a jolt that the thrill comes exactly from this vulnerability.
"I can't be here to save you all the time," the man chuckles, voice low enough to send a chill down Chanyeol’s spine.
If he’s put in a situation like this, he might as well play the part of the fluttering heroine.
Chanyeol holds his breath, already engrossed in the role he never knew he was playing, “Why do you need to save me?”
Chanyeol has never smelled gun powder before until the bullet drives through the man’s left shoulder, narrowly missing Chanyeol’s own arm.
The man lets go off Chanyeol immediately, hand flying up to to grab at his shoulder. “Fuck.”
And Chanyeol wakes up, gasping and clutching at his bedsheets.
It was a dream all along.
When Chanyeol shuffles his way to work, the smell of gunpowder follows him as he goes through his shift, tending to crying children and terrified toddlers. No one else seems to notice the lingering smell on him. The experience leaves him shaken for the rest of the day.
It's another summer night, too humid and hot for the covers but Chanyeol snuggles under them anyway. He’s always liked being surrounded by his blankets and pulling them around him like a cocoon. Sleep envelops him all too easily when he’s comfortable like this.
He wakes up sometime past 3am and when his mind clears, he doesn't expect this.
He doesn't expect this at all.
Ethereal, is the first word that pops up in his mind. Exquisite is the next.
Chanyeol gasps, and the figure in front of him pouts, lips pursued. Then he dims, the glow around him literally softening, and Chanyeol breathes a little easier, because the man in front of him is down to acceptable levels of amazing now. Acceptable levels, as in Chanyeol no longer wants to weep at the sight of perfection, no longer wants to drive a knife through his heart, because he's seen the only thing worth looking at in the world, and he has no more reason to live.
It's the man in his dreams.
"Chanyeol," the man says, his lips pulling apart to flash neat, white teeth. Chanyeol gets a sense of deja vu, too familiar this scene is. The man is kneeling on his covers, knees placed between Chanyeol's splayed legs. His hands are folded demurely on his thighs and it makes for an oddly arousing sight.
"Who are you?" Chanyeol manages to whisper, afraid of speaking too loudly, because his dream might crack and break and then Chanyeol will wake up alone in his dark room and face the bland reality again.
"I am Kai."
Chanyeol's mind flashes through a series of scenes, faded and blurry and yet suddenly sharp, and he realises he's been dreaming of Kai longer than he remembers.
"You must be Chanyeol." Chanyeol forces himself to focus his attention back on Kai, but his brain is starting to hurt. Kai is blinding, like someone set the exposure on a photograph too harsh. Then the next second he is soft edges and blurred skin, focus slipping.
"Chanyeol," Kai repeats and when Chanyeol opens his mouth to echo his own name, his lips are met with another's. Kai has closed the gap between them, tongue gently nudging Chanyeol's mouth open.
Addiction. This is how the patients at the hospital must feel when he injects a dose of morphine into their bloodstream, relief coursing through their veins, a sigh escaping their lips as pleasure, numbness, takes over pain. Chanyeol reaches up to tangle a hand into Kai's hair, the dirty blond tresses slipping easily through his fingers, too silky to provide enough friction for him to get a good grip on.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for months,” Kai whispers then leans back in to suck on Chanyeol’s bottom lip. Chanyeol can only moan his response, the thrill of the unexpected but not unwanted kiss rushing through him.
Kai's tongue scrapes the inside of Chanyeol's cheek once, as if leaving a mark or having a last taste, and he's gone, disappearing into the darkness.
Chanyeol wakes up with his heart in his throat, a steady drumming in his ears. The smell is back, mint and coffee wafting around the room.
He realizes that he forgot to ask the all important question. What are you.
He goes through the day like a zombie. Even Baekhyun, another houseman who is usually too preoccupied with himself to care about others, drops by to ask about it.
"I could ask to assign your work to someone else," Baekhyun says, a comforting hand on Chanyeol's shoulder. "Today is a slow day anyway."
"It's always good to have a slow day in a hospital," Chanyeol replies wryly. He doesn't feel like joking but Baekhyun's concern feels like too much right now and he needs to get the other off his back. Without waiting for Baekhyun's answer, Chanyeol mumbles something about going to the washroom and strides off. He can feel Baekhyun's disapproving frown on him all day.
The next time he dreams, Chanyeol finally gets to speak to Kai.
He was half expecting to see Kai pop up somewhere, but he definitely did not expect to open his eyes and immediately start drowning, the strong taste of chlorine filling up his mouth and nose before his instinct registers and he starts kicking his feet.
A strong arm loops under his arms and starts dragging him towards shallower waters and Chanyeol lets himself be pulled out of the pool and onto the cold tiles. The warm hand gently smooths Chanyeol’s hair out of his face and Chanyeol’s vision clears enough to register that he’s in a huge gymnasium of some sort, with Kai hovering over him looking worried.
Kai helps him sit up and strokes his back as Chanyeol tries to cough out the taste of acrid pool water in his mouth.
Even through his frantic breaths, he can see that Kai is even more devastating when he’s wet.
“Always the damsel in distress, eh?” Kai says when it becomes clear that Chanyeol will live.
If this was a sports anime, there would be sparkles and blue flashes of light right in his vision, but Kai doesn’t need special effects to be blinding. He’s more impressive now that he’s completely shirtless to reveal a toned physique, only wearing a tiny pair of swimsuit bottoms that has Chanyeol both itching to tear his eyes away out of common courtesy and to stare shamelessly.
Chanyeol quips instead, “You look good in those briefs.”
Kai looks down at himself in surprise and grins when he registers what he’s wearing. “Not half-bad yourself.”
“So is there a pattern to this? I get myself almost killed and you swoop in to be my knight in shining armour?” Chanyeol cocks his head and amends, “Well, speedos.”
“I hope you don’t have to die for me to meet you,” Kai says, leaning back to settle against a pool deck chair, stretching the long pane of his stomach while doing so. “I like seeing you alive.”
“I don’t know, I kind of like leaving my life in your hands. It’s dangerous.” The words leave him before he thinks about it, and Chanyeol is mildly surprised at himself. He’s flirting with a stranger he’s only met three times- in three dreams?
Kai fixes him with a heated stare and Chanyeol feels more breathless than he had been when water was filling his lungs. “Maybe you should run away before I catch you.”
It becomes routine after that. Whenever the day drags too long and Chanyeol is on the second 24 hour shift of the week, all he has to do is catch a quick half an hour nap and wake up completely refreshed.
Jongdae is constantly amazed at his ability to power nap and Chanyeol only smiles to himself, keeping the smell of the waffles and cinnamon to himself.
Every time he closes his eyes, Kai is there to greet him with a teasing grin and even more teasing touches.
Together they explore magical worlds and fight demons, rescue princesses and float through space.
Once, Chanyeol wakes up in mid-air and realises he's soaring through the sky on the back of a- holy shit, is this a dragon? The dragon turns its head back and Chanyeol immediately knows from its mirth-filled eyes that this is Kai.
Another time, Chanyeol opens his eyes to find himself on a resort island, lying among cabanas and the sparkling sea. Kai is gorgeous under the sun and Chanyeol feels a little drunk even as he tumbles his way over to find Kai, hands automatically reaching out for him.
They’ve given up the pretense of being strangers by now, getting along like friends with just the slightest sizzle between them. Together they test the boundaries and flirt openly, but neither make a move to bring it beyond a shaky friendship, and Chanyeol is satisfied to just float along with Kai in dream after dream.
“Chanyeol!”
Chanyeol bites back a sign when he hears his name being called. Looks like his break is over. He packs the remains of his lunch, only half touched because he wasn’t hungry, back into the fridge.
“Could you please help check on room 306?” Victoria asks, voice sweet as ever. “The patient’s guardian requested to meet a nurse to talk about his progress.”
He could never turn her down, not when he knows she uses whatever free time she can steal to video call her family back in China. “On it!” Chanyeol salutes and she gives him a grateful smile, her shoulders sagging slightly in relief.
Room 306 belongs to a sweet kid named Taemin, who watched too many superhero movies and believed he could fly. It turns out 8 year boys are not blessed with the power of flight and Taemin ended up with a broken leg and a few bruised ribs, landing him in the hospital for a few days to properly monitor his progress.
Chanyeol knocks on the door and lets himself in, interrupting Taemin and his guardian just as they seem to be sharing a laugh over a story Taemin is telling.
Taemin’s guardian shoots to his feet immediately and bows a few times. "Nurse? Thank you for taking care of-"
He trails off the same time that the realisation hits Chanyeol. "You're Kai."
The man's face changes in split second, from genial courtesy to a furrow of his brow that is quickly smoothed out. It’s unmistakable, the same face that has been appearing in his dreams for weeks now. Chanyeol probably spends more time with Kai in his dreams than he does with his family.
"Jongin?" Taemin tugs on his sleeve, seemingly sensing the sudden tension in the room. He cranes his head up and pouts slightly to get his guardian’s attention.
Kai- Jongin smiles pleasantly at Chanyeol and gives a small bow, stiff and formal. "Sorry, you must have the wrong person."
“Jongin, it hurts,” Taemin whines. He tugs on Jongin’s sleeve harder, pulling him down until Jongin sits on the bed with a bark of laughter.
“I almost crushed your good leg, silly!” He ruffles Taemin’s hair and pulls the covers up to tuck him in. His full attention is on the boy now. “Visiting hours are almost over, so I’ll come back tomorrow okay?”
Chanyeol looks on in silent confusion. This man looks so much like Kai, even sounds like Kai, but he’s not him. He doesn’t possess the same confidence that Kai carries, doesn’t drawl his words like Kai tends to do. Even his features look softer, more filled out than the sharp, almost Ken-like beauty that Kai has, but at the same time, Jongin is so awfully familiar.
“If you don’t mind,” Jongin says curtly. “I’ll like to say goodbye to Taemin.” He glances at the door pointedly and it’s as clear a message as any. Still confused, Chanyeol bows his apologies and makes a quick exit.
It’s only when he’s shut the door and is leaning against the cold wall outside to clear his head that Chanyeol realises he didn’t get to speak to Jongin about Taemin even though his presence was requested.
Victoria whizzes past just then, holding a clipboard to her chest and looking livelier than she had been fifteen minutes ago. She must have had a chat with her family.
Chanyeol takes the chance to snag her by the sleeve and jerks her to a stop so sudden that she has to catch herself against the wall to avoid falling over. “Chanyeol!”
"Who is he?” Chanyeol asks urgently, still clutching onto her sleeve. He jerks his head towards the door. “The man inside with Taemin."
Victoria frowns at him and brushes his grasp off her arm. "I don’t know, he's just the patient's guardian But not his sibling or parent, I think. He’s not the one who admitted Taemin. Is everything alright?”
Chanyeol forces a quick smile and shakes his head. “Just never seen him around before.”
In all honesty, Chanyeol’s a little amazed at the scenes that his imagination can pull up.
Tonight, he likes this scene.
Chanyeol feels like he’s in a James Bond movie, swirling a martini in his hand and leaning against the cocktail tables casually. His job as a nurse means that he barely has the time or energy to go out, much less afford to be in bar as swanky as this.
From the way the girls around him are eyeing him though, Chanyeol feels good. The suit he has on fits him like a glove and he’s always thought of himself as lanky and uncoordinated, but it turns out clothes do make a man.
And there’s his James Bond.
Kai makes his way through the crowd with a cocky confidence that has heads turning to him automatically, girls whispering about the handsome stranger.
He’s heading straight for Chanyeol and Chanyeol can’t help but smile a little smugly. A full blown grin has settled on his face by the time Jongin reaches him and the attention on them intensifies. Chanyeol usually doesn’t have much time to care about his appearance with how hectic his job can get but he’s feeling pretty darn special right now.
“Nice hair,” he quips.
Kai smooths down his hair, the blond now dyed into a dark brown and slicked back to reveal his forehead. “Felt like a change.” For a brief moment, Chanyeol thinks of the man he met back in the hospital, how Kai’s shade of hair looks eerily similar to Jongin’s, but then Kai steals his martini for a sip and subsequently steals his attention.
"May I ask for a dance, handsome stranger?" Chanyeol asks, voice steady and not betraying his nerves. He’s emulating every cheesy romance drama he’s ever watched, filled with an adrenaline that bubbles deep in his gut.
“I’m afraid I have two left feet. Besides, we’ll make a scene.”
“Two good looking men just enjoying a dance, what’s so scandalous about that?” Chanyeol tucks an arm over his stomach and bows.
Kai laughs and playfully curtsies back at him, allowing himself to be led onto the dance floor.
Kai is rarely so openly friendly, usually with his shoulders drawn tight even when Chanyeol is making him laugh. Tonight, Chanyeol can smell a hint of alcohol on Kai’s breath and it must be why he seems more relaxed than Chanyeol has ever seen him.
Under the glittering light of the chandelier, Kai seems to glow. He’s lying about not being able to dance because he naturally takes the lead, guiding Chanyeol’s unexperienced feet with soft whispers.
Still, the thought comes unbidden to him. This is a grace Jongin did not possess. Has he met Jongin before in another place, another time, and the man left an impression deep enough to manifest in Chanyeol’s every dream?
“Hey, you have the hottest bachelor in the room dancing with you, but you can’t even pay attention to him?” Kai drags his attention back by looping an arm around Chanyeol’s back, tugging him in closer. He sounds like a petulant girlfriend and it sends a thrill down Chanyeol’s spine.
He’s fond, Chanyeol realises with a start. He’s not even a child anymore, much beyond the age of imaginary friends, but it turns out it is possible to fall in love with an illusion.
Kai laughs loudly, twirling his way out of Chanyeol’s arms to execute a quick pirouette before tucking himself back into Chanyeol’s side, this time pressing closer than before.
Chanyeol knows by instinct that if he tries to initiate a kiss, much like the first one they shared months ago, the moment will break.
But just like this, holding Kai in his arms, he is content.
When Chanyeol wakes, there is warmth pressed to his side and hair against his cheek.
It almost seems like a dream but Chanyeol can't tell anymore. He's long lost hold of reality, drifting in and out of dreams that feel more vivid than real life. It should scare him how he doesn't even know which he prefers more.
Kai blinks sleepily, his hand stretching out languidly and falling back to hug Chanyeol's torso. He looks soft and warm, feels soft and warm in Chanyeol's arms, and Chanyeol can barely dare to breathe for fear of crashing back into reality.
"Good morning," Chanyeol whispers. He itches to reach out to brush the hair out of Kai's eyes, but he shouldn't be greedy. This is enough. This has to be enough.
Kai smiles, a slow spreading smile that has his eyes softening as he relaxes against Chanyeol. He arches his neck and for a brief happy moment, Chanyeol thinks Kai is going to kiss him.
Chanyeol shifts his head towards Kai on instinct, but a sharp intake of breath from Kai makes him freeze.
Kai is staring at him, eyes wide and uncharacteristically vulnerable and open. “Sorry- sorry, I just-”
And Chanyeol wakes up again, alone in his own room.
Work is harder that day. He usually doesn’t think of his job as work, more like a noble cause that he enjoys to a certain extent, but today it feels like a job.
“Going to pop out for lunch today,” he tells Victoria and she takes pity on him enough to let him go with a nod.
“Take your time,” she smiles at him. “I can cover our patients today.”
That’s more than enough reason for him to walk a few blocks away to the park nearby for a quiet lunch.
He’s casually browsing the shelves of the supermarket in search for something to eat for lunch when he notices a familiar man standing on his tiptoes trying to reach something on the upper shelves.
“Jongin?”
Jongin startles at the sudden calling of his name and starts tipping backwards, his balance slipping.
The nights spent running around avoiding criminals must have trained his reflexes because in a flash, Chanyeol has his arm snug around Jongin’s back, cushioning his fall backwards.
“Be careful,” Chanyeol says, still holding onto Jongin. Jongin melts into his touch, almost too familiar for an acquaintance.
“Looks like I’m the one saving you this time,” Chanyeol says without thinking.
Jongin's eyes flicker down to Chanyeol's lips, only a brief moment but just enough for Chanyeol to catch it. He expects Jongin’s reaction and releases him before Jongin can push him away.
“The nurse right? From the hospital,” Jongin says. He rubs his arm where Chanyeol grabbed him awkwardly.
“Yes, how is Taemin?”
Jongin latches onto the topic eagerly. “He’s been running around already. Kids have super healing strength, I think.”
Chanyeol opens his mouth to reply but the crackle from Jongin’s walkie talkie interrupts him. “Jongin? Could you help to clean up the cereal aisle?”
“I have to go.”
Chanyeol reaches up to grab the last remaining jar of pickles off the top shelf and hands it over to Jongin. “Here, what you were trying to get.”
“T-thanks.” With a quick nod, Jongin clutches the jar to his chest and hurries away to his manager.
Chanyeol hangs around the supermarket for the longest time, only leaving when the other employees start eyeing him suspiciously.
Chanyeol can’t process anything beyond the fact that Kai is in a very short dress.
“Nice outfit,” Chanyeol leers.
“Shut up.” Kai tries to escape from Chanyeol’s attention by running up a fire escape but from down below, all it does is give Chanyeol a perfect view up his fluttering loins cloth dress.
Chanyeol grins. He loves warrior princesses.
Scratch that, he loves mermaids.
Kai is wearing this shell bra thing and the purple contrasts so nicely with his skin, but what Chanyeol can’t tear his eyes away from is the shiny tail that stretches behind him, flicking with annoyance when Chanyeol stares a tad too long.
“Stop staring at my crotch,” Kai growls.
Chanyeol forces his gaze up to Kai’s face and laughs when he sees Kai frowning at him. “I don’t even know where your crotch is.”
"I hate you."
“Can I touch?” Chanyeol asks carefully, waiting for Kai’s small nod before he runs a finger down the cold, shiny scales.
Kai shivers at the first touch to his newfound tail, enough to make Chanyeol draw away with a start. “You have a great imagination,” Kai says. “I never know what to expect when I find you.”
Chanyeol stills. “So you know these are all dreams?”
The question catches Kai off-guard and he splashes his tail in the water for a while, mulling over his answer. Chanyeol has almost forgotten his question in favour of tracing the coloured scales on Kai’s tail before he answers, “I belong in your dreams. Of course I know.”
Victoria pokes her head into the break room one afternoon. “You have a visitor!”
He’s surprised to find Jongin and Taemin standing in the hallway. Taemin squeals out a hello and bulldozes into Chanyeol’s leg, hopping on one foot to avoid hurting the other which is wrapped in a cast again.
“He insisted to come back and see you,” Jongin says.
Chanyeol kneels down and taps Taemin on his nose, drawing a few giggles from the boy. “What did I tell you? Superheroes can’t fly.”
“I just wanted to test it out once more!” Taemin pouts. “But now I know.”
“Now you know. “ Chanyeol tells him solemnly and looks up at Jongin.
“He leapt off a swing and fractured his other leg. He’s fine,” Jongin quickly assures. “We scolded him badly for making us worry, but maybe you can get it through to him that he shouldn’t leap off high places.”
“Listen here, little guy,” Chanyeol says mock sternly, putting his hands on his hips. “Do you know how I grew up to be so tall and handsome?”
Jongin scoffs but Taemin is enthralled. “How?”
“Every time you hurt your legs and arms, it affects their ability to grow.” He widens his eyes and leans in closer to whisper, “I heard that if you bruise them enough, they’ll anti-grow and you’ll be stuck as a small boy forever.”
“Is he telling the truth?” Taemin asks, horrified.
“Would nurses lie?” Jongin answers, tapping his chin.
“Not more than secret agents,” Chanyeol jokes and it clearly affects Jongin in the way he blinks a little more furiously. Emboldened, Chanyeol drops the teasing note from his tone and says, “Jongin, let’s talk.”
“Hyung?” Taemin catches Jongin’s arm, worrying his lip as he glances between the two men.
“It’s okay, Taemin. I’ll just go talk to Chanyeol. Why don’t you go play with the other kids?”
Taemin looks back at them once more and hurries off, giddy at a rare chance to play unsupervised with the rest of the kids.
“How long have we known each other?” Chanyeol asks after they’ve settled in the bench on the park near the hospital, shoulders close enough to brush with each movement. They filled up the conversation on the way to the park with small talk that ran circles around the real topic at hand, carefully discussing Taemin’s misguided bravery and how Jongin became Taemin’s pseudo-guardian after being neighbours since Taemin was born.
Jongin hums and tightens his hold around his warm cup of hot chocolate. He made no comment about it earlier when Chanyeol ordered without asking him. It was always Kai’s choice of drink anyway. “Taemin was first admitted in the hospital in March?”
Jongin isn’t meeting his eyes and Chanyeol says gently, “You know what I mean.”
On impulse, he reaches out to hold Jongin’s hand as a means to reassure him. Jongin’s hand twitches in his light grip, but a small smile finally appears on Jongin’s lips, melting the tension in the air.
It’s the first time he’s holding Jongin’s hand but it isn’t unfamiliar. This reminds Chanyeol of the time when he dreamed of running around New York City with Kai, and they sat in Central Park eating hot dogs and cooing at the real furry dogs. Maybe Jongin is thinking about it too.
He doesn’t rush Jongin, just rubs circles into Jongin’s palm and lets Jongin take his time.
"I'm a dreamweaver," Jongin finally says and turns to face Chanyeol for the first time, squeezing his hand. Chanyeol nods and laces their fingers together. "My grandmother used to tell me stories about being a dreamweaver. I thought she was pulling my leg.”
Months ago, Chanyeol would've laughed but now he just wants to believe. "Why me?" After meeting Jongin the first time, he did a bit of internet research and came across a dreamweaver theory among many others, telling of some people who were born with a gift to travel in and out of dreams. He could barely find anything beyond fictional stories and a forum filled with stories that sounded more like vivid dreams than what would be considered dreamweaving, but by then Chanyeol has had enough dreams to believe it completely.
"I don't know," Jongin shakes his head. "You're the only one I see. What’s the first dream you remember?"
“The first time I saw you was when you saved me from the bullet, but I think I’ve seen you much longer than that.”
Jongin laughs. “Ah yes, when you believed you were an action movie heroine. I’ve been appearing in your dreams much longer before that, but it wasn’t until some weeks before that when I could physically manifest in front of you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“And have you laugh in my face?” Jongin says bitterly. “My grandmother tried telling people before. Even I thought she was crazy.”
“How about even after you knew I recognised you?”
“I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to approach you.”
“I approached you first!”
Jongin doesn’t reply to that, just shakes his head again.
Chanyeol thinks about the times he was caught off-guard by how beautiful Kai looked when he laughed, of how waking up with Kai by his side seemed more like a dream than anything else. He can barely remember a time when he didn’t dream, when he was still Park Chanyeol the nurse and not the person who has travelled through time and universes with Kai.
He holds their linked hands up. "We could have this. In real life."
"In the dreams, I can be whoever I want." Jongin sounds small, a vast different from the suave casanova that has stolen Chanyeol's heart. "But here. I'm just a broke college student."
This sounds all too familiar to Chanyeol. Months ago, he too felt insignificant and lost. The dreams brought him to more places than he could have imagined and gave him something to look forward to.
"A broke college student is exactly what I want.” At Jongin’s scrunched nose, Chanyeol amends, “you know what i mean. If you find the normal life too boring, then I can be your prince. I can be your knight in shining armour." He knows he sounds like a bad novella but Jongin cracks the smallest of smiles and it’s working.
“I don’t remember you being cheesy.”
Ignoring the fact that they’re in public, Chanyeol gently pulls Jongin closer and wraps his arms around him, quickly taking Jongin’s hot chocolate from his hand and placing it beside them. "In the real world, when I hold you like this, I can feel your heart beat a little quicker."
Jongin tenses against him, so he places a palm on the small of Jongin's back and Jongin instantly unfurls his shoulders.
"In the real world, we are not in danger every time we meet. Well, I am," Chanyeol cuts off and laughs, making Jongin furrow his eyebrows. "In the real world, I'm in danger of growing even fonder of you, until I think I could love you. I don't know yet, but I'm eager to try, because in this world, I can."
“You are disgustingly cheesy.” Jongin's hands are warm in his. They're smaller than he remembers but then he has all the time in the world to create new memories, the right memories.
"The person in my dreams- our dreams were all you. And even if you're a little on the scrawny side, and with terrible taste in fashion, and you're so much tinier than I expected, you’re the one I’m interested in. You’re the one I think of even when I’m awake, because I can’t get enough of you even if I see you in every hour I sleep."
Jongin hits Chanyeol on the shoulder in mock anger, but his voice sounds softer. "You're just unfairly huge."
"Oh, I would assure you so," Chanyeol winks with an exaggeratedly lewd smirk.
Jongin’s smile is all the more blinding than he remembers Kai’s to be.
“Shut up,” Jongin orders. In a swoop of bravado, he straddles himself on Chanyeol’s lap and grabs Chanyeol by the collar to pull him in for a bruising kiss, suddenly more Kai than Jongin, until Chanyeol's mouth is swollen and red, parted and panting for breath.
The scene is mid-day in a park, the sound of children laughing behind them, but Chanyeol’s heart has never raced so fast. With Jongin on his lap like this, he can finally drink in Jongin’s hooded eyes, the way his lips are chapped, probably from his habit of worrying his lips.
Chanyeol’s hands fit snugly around Jongin’s waist and he can’t help but notice how thin Jongin’s waist is. “You’re beautiful.”
“You’re impossible.” Jongin shakes his head in disbelief. He cups Chanyeol’s face tenderly, leaning into to brush a feather of a kiss across Chanyeol’s open, waiting mouth and murmurs, “I’ll let you be my prince just this once.”
Chanyeol doesn't need to dream anymore when his reality is much, much better.