Suggest a pairing (gen is fine too) & prompt and I'll do my best to write you something short. All comments are screened (until filled, of course), and I make no promises. ♥
Kris goes into the game with only one motivation: to die in the least embarrassing way possible.
"Is that what a duizhang should do?" Junmyeon asks him as they both wait to start the program. His little concerned frown makes Kris smile. Junmyeon's concept was always 'leader'; his stage name is Suho, after all. In some ways, Kris is lucky. his concept's more about dedication -- dedication from him, dedication for him.
"In Battle Hallyu," Kris tells him, a hand on Junmyeon's back, "there are no duizhangs."
Junmyeon was his first kill -- pinned to a tree with Kris' machete, the touch of Kris' hand still warm on his cheek. After that Kris' popularity takes a dip, then rises immediately. That was the point of Battle Hallyu, after all. The strongest get to survive.
*
Kris goes into the game with only motivation, and he has a perfect plan. he doesn't tell anyone the plan, because this is what duizhangs do. They keep the dirty work, the manipulation, the self-centered and ugly planning, away from the others, so that the public can have the best show possible. Kris did that during interviews, during live stages, during variety shows. When EXO get called for Battle Hallyu, Kris does it for the program too.
Here are the best shows that Kris knows:
Someone dying out of self-sacrifice.
Someone dying out of loneliness.
Someone dying out of grief, out of anger, out of the wrongness of the world.
It's a good thing, Kris thinks, that only one of them can survive. It makes having others die so much easier.
*
In his head, Kris practices the speech he'll give to Tao for days before he puts the plan in action. He's waiting for a sign. When he finally sees Sehun flayed out on the grass, Baekhyun's ring nestled between his lips, Kris knows that it's time.
Tao plays into his role perfectly. he's eager to anger and quick to strike out, and his fanclub sent him an wushu stick with a retractable razor edge that makes quick work of Kris' stomach lining. For all of Tao's latent sullen anger, though, he's also quick to regret and forgive. "Duizhang," Tao cries out, aghast, and lets Kris rest against his chest. His knees bump against Kris' back and re-open the coagulated cut along Kris' abdomen. It's a good thing, Kris thinks wryly, that I'm already dying.
"I don't know what came over me," Tao whispers. "Your stomach -- I-- I'll call for someone--"
"You idiot," Kris tells him fondly, "this is why I said you weren't cut out for this. Don't you remember where you are? Don't call someone over. They'll shoot you on the spot."
"No one has a gun," Tao says as he starts to cry. "Duizhang --"
"Tell Baekhyun I wanted you to do it," Kris says. The blood comes thick and sweet. "Tell him I wanted you to kill me with your own hands."
"Stop talking," Tao sobs.
"Promise me," Kris says, and lets his head fall away. He has a lot of time left in him before he actually passes out, but he knows where the camera is, and he knows how the audience, nurtured by TV drama shows and campy action flicks, will look for when they see death. His eyelids flutter. Tao is dark against the sky. Kris can't see his tears. Move out of the way, Kris wants to say, let the camera get your best angle. But those are shit last words to leave your youngest, so Kris just goes on pretending to die.
In his last waking moments, Kris thinks of what will happen. Tao telling Baekhyun the truth. Baekhyun's knife work, slick and fast. How tenderly Baekhyun will touch Tao's face as Tao dies. Baekhyun's anger, slick and fast, working through him in a blind rage. Chanyeol hunting for the dead, hunting for death. Kris wonders what they will do, without him to watch over them, without him playing father and older brother and owner, lording over their affections like a hoarder with an endless appetite. What Chanyeol will say when he finds Baekhyun, fingers still pink from Tao's blood.
Kris knows there are lots of reasons to be an idol. These days you have to really want it, to brave the probability of death to be one. It's a two-way road, his relationship with these three: with Tao's teary smile, with Baekhyun's shy glance, with Chanel's nose buried in the crook of his shoulder, but what Kris got from it was the same as what he got from singing embarrassing rap lyrics on stage. It reaffirmed that there was, after all, some hole in the world that only he could fill.
Dying is nothing like acting. His breathing is steady, easy. As each breath slowly fills with the scent of spilled iron, he wonders who -- what -- he loved the best. He wonders if living or dying is the kindest mercy. He thinks about how it would feel to die in the cradle built from their love, and in the end, he does.
This is how Chanyeol finds Baekhyun: sitting by Tao's body, twirling Tao's wushu stick in one hand, and idly singing the chorus of "MAMA" as he laces his fingers with Tao's limp, immobile ones.
"You fucking --" Chanyeol hisses, shocked into incoherence. "You just -- you killed him --"
"I could lie and tell you he asked me to," Baekhyun tells him. His expression doesn't change. "But I won't."
"Why did you do it?" Chanyeol snarls.
"He lied to me," Baekhyun says, shrugging. "He told me he killed Kris because Kris asked him to." He lifts the wushu stick up, showing the hint of the blade, red in the sunlight. His grin is hollow and old. "And then," Baekhyun sneers, "he had the audacity to cry afterwards."
-
Chanyeol does kill Baekhyun. There's still Jongin left, so it's not victory. Chanyeol will never know this, but Kris imagined that too, that the first two in the band would be the last two to remain. What he didn't imagine was Chanyeol folding Baekhyun and Tao's bodies together, leaving them hand in hand. What he didn't imagine was Chanyeol covering them both with his long arms, his long body, gathering them to him. What he didn't imagine was Chanyeol crying until he vomited and had to let go so as not to desecrate their inert forms.
What he didn't imagine was them loving each other, just as much as they loved him.
THERE IS NOT A CLIFF HIGH ENOUGH FOR ME TO THROW YOU DOWN jfc I hate how your writing does this to me RAWR
will never be over kris orchestrating the plan so that chanyeol is the one who's still alive out of the four of them. ALL OF MY EMBARRASSING KRISYEOL FEELINGS let me shove them down your throat
DIE IN THE LEAST EMBARRASSING WAY, killing joonmyun first, kris as always taking care of everything behind the scenes laskdjlasgd
THOSE ARE SHIT WORDS TO LEAVE YOUR YOUNGEST sob PRETENDING TO DIE, WORKING THE CAMERA ANGLE god i fucking hate how you have all this dry black humour and then BAM LAST PARAGRAPH OF ALL MY GUTTED FEELINGS
ALL OF THEM I CAN'T EVEN EXPLAIN IT BC YOU ALREADY EXPLAINED THEM IN THOSE WORDS baekhyun killing tao for killing kris, CHANYEOL HUNTING THE DEAD, HUNTING FOR DEATH fuck
LORDING OVER THEIR AFFECTIONS LIKE A HOARDER WITH AN ENDLESS APPETITE FUCK
SOME HOLE ONLY HE COULD FILL YOU ASSHOLE
WHO HE LOVED THE BEST, DYING IN A CRADLE OF THEIR LOVE FUCK
THE IMPLICATION THAT KRIS SETS THIS UP FOR CHANYEOL TO SURVIVE--- you just created my new favourite thing in fandom i hope u realize
"Is that what a duizhang should do?" Junmyeon asks him as they both wait to start the program. His little concerned frown makes Kris smile. Junmyeon's concept was always 'leader'; his stage name is Suho, after all. In some ways, Kris is lucky. his concept's more about dedication -- dedication from him, dedication for him.
"In Battle Hallyu," Kris tells him, a hand on Junmyeon's back, "there are no duizhangs."
Junmyeon was his first kill -- pinned to a tree with Kris' machete, the touch of Kris' hand still warm on his cheek. After that Kris' popularity takes a dip, then rises immediately. That was the point of Battle Hallyu, after all. The strongest get to survive.
*
Kris goes into the game with only motivation, and he has a perfect plan. he doesn't tell anyone the plan, because this is what duizhangs do. They keep the dirty work, the manipulation, the self-centered and ugly planning, away from the others, so that the public can have the best show possible. Kris did that during interviews, during live stages, during variety shows. When EXO get called for Battle Hallyu, Kris does it for the program too.
Here are the best shows that Kris knows:
Someone dying out of self-sacrifice.
Someone dying out of loneliness.
Someone dying out of grief, out of anger, out of the wrongness of the world.
It's a good thing, Kris thinks, that only one of them can survive. It makes having others die so much easier.
*
In his head, Kris practices the speech he'll give to Tao for days before he puts the plan in action. He's waiting for a sign. When he finally sees Sehun flayed out on the grass, Baekhyun's ring nestled between his lips, Kris knows that it's time.
Tao plays into his role perfectly. he's eager to anger and quick to strike out, and his fanclub sent him an wushu stick with a retractable razor edge that makes quick work of Kris' stomach lining. For all of Tao's latent sullen anger, though, he's also quick to regret and forgive. "Duizhang," Tao cries out, aghast, and lets Kris rest against his chest. His knees bump against Kris' back and re-open the coagulated cut along Kris' abdomen. It's a good thing, Kris thinks wryly, that I'm already dying.
"I don't know what came over me," Tao whispers. "Your stomach -- I-- I'll call for someone--"
"You idiot," Kris tells him fondly, "this is why I said you weren't cut out for this. Don't you remember where you are? Don't call someone over. They'll shoot you on the spot."
"No one has a gun," Tao says as he starts to cry. "Duizhang --"
"Tell Baekhyun I wanted you to do it," Kris says. The blood comes thick and sweet. "Tell him I wanted you to kill me with your own hands."
"Stop talking," Tao sobs.
"Promise me," Kris says, and lets his head fall away. He has a lot of time left in him before he actually passes out, but he knows where the camera is, and he knows how the audience, nurtured by TV drama shows and campy action flicks, will look for when they see death. His eyelids flutter. Tao is dark against the sky. Kris can't see his tears. Move out of the way, Kris wants to say, let the camera get your best angle. But those are shit last words to leave your youngest, so Kris just goes on pretending to die.
*
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In his last waking moments, Kris thinks of what will happen. Tao telling Baekhyun the truth. Baekhyun's knife work, slick and fast. How tenderly Baekhyun will touch Tao's face as Tao dies. Baekhyun's anger, slick and fast, working through him in a blind rage. Chanyeol hunting for the dead, hunting for death. Kris wonders what they will do, without him to watch over them, without him playing father and older brother and owner, lording over their affections like a hoarder with an endless appetite. What Chanyeol will say when he finds Baekhyun, fingers still pink from Tao's blood.
Kris knows there are lots of reasons to be an idol. These days you have to really want it, to brave the probability of death to be one. It's a two-way road, his relationship with these three: with Tao's teary smile, with Baekhyun's shy glance, with Chanel's nose buried in the crook of his shoulder, but what Kris got from it was the same as what he got from singing embarrassing rap lyrics on stage. It reaffirmed that there was, after all, some hole in the world that only he could fill.
Dying is nothing like acting. His breathing is steady, easy. As each breath slowly fills with the scent of spilled iron, he wonders who -- what -- he loved the best. He wonders if living or dying is the kindest mercy. He thinks about how it would feel to die in the cradle built from their love, and in the end, he does.
---
THIS IS NOT THE FIC YOU ASKED FOR
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YES IT IS
SHRIEK YES
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"You fucking --" Chanyeol hisses, shocked into incoherence. "You just -- you killed him --"
"I could lie and tell you he asked me to," Baekhyun tells him. His expression doesn't change. "But I won't."
"Why did you do it?" Chanyeol snarls.
"He lied to me," Baekhyun says, shrugging. "He told me he killed Kris because Kris asked him to." He lifts the wushu stick up, showing the hint of the blade, red in the sunlight. His grin is hollow and old. "And then," Baekhyun sneers, "he had the audacity to cry afterwards."
-
Chanyeol does kill Baekhyun. There's still Jongin left, so it's not victory. Chanyeol will never know this, but Kris imagined that too, that the first two in the band would be the last two to remain. What he didn't imagine was Chanyeol folding Baekhyun and Tao's bodies together, leaving them hand in hand. What he didn't imagine was Chanyeol covering them both with his long arms, his long body, gathering them to him. What he didn't imagine was Chanyeol crying until he vomited and had to let go so as not to desecrate their inert forms.
What he didn't imagine was them loving each other, just as much as they loved him.
Reply
WHY ARE YOU TEARING ME TO PIECES SDKHJLJHHG baekhyun TAO my ot4 lkjfdjhk how can i go to sleep like this why is this everything i love
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will never be over kris orchestrating the plan so that chanyeol is the one who's still alive out of the four of them. ALL OF MY EMBARRASSING KRISYEOL FEELINGS let me shove them down your throat
Reply
DIE IN THE LEAST EMBARRASSING WAY, killing joonmyun first, kris as always taking care of everything behind the scenes laskdjlasgd
THOSE ARE SHIT WORDS TO LEAVE YOUR YOUNGEST sob PRETENDING TO DIE, WORKING THE CAMERA ANGLE god i fucking hate how you have all this dry black humour and then BAM LAST PARAGRAPH OF ALL MY GUTTED FEELINGS
ALL OF THEM I CAN'T EVEN EXPLAIN IT BC YOU ALREADY EXPLAINED THEM IN THOSE WORDS baekhyun killing tao for killing kris, CHANYEOL HUNTING THE DEAD, HUNTING FOR DEATH fuck
LORDING OVER THEIR AFFECTIONS LIKE A HOARDER WITH AN ENDLESS APPETITE FUCK
SOME HOLE ONLY HE COULD FILL YOU ASSHOLE
WHO HE LOVED THE BEST, DYING IN A CRADLE OF THEIR LOVE FUCK
THE IMPLICATION THAT KRIS SETS THIS UP FOR CHANYEOL TO SURVIVE--- you just created my new favourite thing in fandom i hope u realize
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