30DAYCHALLENGE - day 1
before & after; a precious memory
rating: pg
pairing: kai-centric, kai/tao
notes: part of a war au inspired by t-ara's day by day m/v
prompt: 01/30 - beginning
kai can remember the beginning of this war well but no longer the time before it. the war has gone on too long that he often wonders if he had imagined the kind caress of peacetime, if he had imagined that the sky had once been blue instead of sullied by the colour of coal effusion, permanently streaked grey with soot.
sometime, a long long time ago, he remembers days where going outside didn’t mean putting on a mask to filter the toxic chemicals in the air. back in the halcyon days where summer rain felt good on one’s skin. not like now in the present, where a forecast of rain meant that one should remember to wear protective eyewear with the usual mask if one wished to keep their eyesight intact.
but does he really remember? the images are so dim now, faded into pale and weak shades of their former selves. once upon a time, kai is sure, they were vivid pictures of his youth, when scraped knees meant a bandaid and a kiss from his mother, not dread that this would come back to bite him later, when he’d try to run from the soldiers patrolling the inner circles of the city.
are all these figments of his imagination?
he would be convinced that they are, if not for one memory. he can no longer recall his face but he remembers the sound of a laugh, fragments of a quiet smile, and the sensation of a warm calloused hand in his own. he still remembers the scent of zitao’s hair and the thick accent in the boy’s voice. in his mind kai imagines how old zitao would be now - he is 18 now, nearing 19 and so that must mean zitao must be at least 19, going on 20.
he imagines how the 13 year old boy would look now. was he still clumsy, his limbs growing in too fast for his coordination to keep up with?
he focuses on the memory of zitao’s voice and the rest of his old world comes back to him for just a moment, he can smell the scent of green grass and feel summer rain on his skin and see cerulean skies dotted with white clouds once more. the memory lasts but a moment, but it takes him away from war ravaged reality and no matter how short it lasts, he relishes every single second of his beautiful dreamland.
rating: pg
pairing: kai-centric, kai/tao
notes: part of a war au inspired by t-ara's day by day m/v
prompt: 01/30 - beginning
kai can remember the beginning of this war well but no longer the time before it. the war has gone on too long that he often wonders if he had imagined the kind caress of peacetime, if he had imagined that the sky had once been blue instead of sullied by the colour of coal effusion, permanently streaked grey with soot.
sometime, a long long time ago, he remembers days where going outside didn’t mean putting on a mask to filter the toxic chemicals in the air. back in the halcyon days where summer rain felt good on one’s skin. not like now in the present, where a forecast of rain meant that one should remember to wear protective eyewear with the usual mask if one wished to keep their eyesight intact.
but does he really remember? the images are so dim now, faded into pale and weak shades of their former selves. once upon a time, kai is sure, they were vivid pictures of his youth, when scraped knees meant a bandaid and a kiss from his mother, not dread that this would come back to bite him later, when he’d try to run from the soldiers patrolling the inner circles of the city.
are all these figments of his imagination?
he would be convinced that they are, if not for one memory. he can no longer recall his face but he remembers the sound of a laugh, fragments of a quiet smile, and the sensation of a warm calloused hand in his own. he still remembers the scent of zitao’s hair and the thick accent in the boy’s voice. in his mind kai imagines how old zitao would be now - he is 18 now, nearing 19 and so that must mean zitao must be at least 19, going on 20.
he imagines how the 13 year old boy would look now. was he still clumsy, his limbs growing in too fast for his coordination to keep up with?
he focuses on the memory of zitao’s voice and the rest of his old world comes back to him for just a moment, he can smell the scent of green grass and feel summer rain on his skin and see cerulean skies dotted with white clouds once more. the memory lasts but a moment, but it takes him away from war ravaged reality and no matter how short it lasts, he relishes every single second of his beautiful dreamland.