Gone(1/?)
Title: Gone
Pairing: Hyukjae/Donghae
Rating:PG
Genre: Angst, Science Fiction
Disclaimer: I own nothing, a short chaptered fic.
Summary: Donghae's uneasy about the new technology Eunhyuk's company wants him to try out. He's more than just scared
Donghae's POV.
I'm sitting at the kitchen table with a lid over your dinner. Anymore warming in the halo-cooker will make the pasta limp and the zucchini mushy, and I can't stand seeing you eat food like that after working so hard at the office, like I know you do.
The sun has long since set, and the volumetric clock set in the wall across from me is blaring at me to do the dishes, clear the table, watch the news and go to sleep. It beeps incessantly as th seconds tick past, then the minutes, blowing it bugle horns at ever increasing volumes as it gets more impatient.
After half an hour, I cross the room and switch if off.
This is when you enter the room, your shirt crumpled and sticking to your moist back after those long hours on the train home, your hair all over the place despite the gel I help you comb through it every morning. I run and hold you, smell your neck and the sweat that clings to it, and prepare for the day's worth of complaints that you're going to fire at me. Then I look up and realise that today, for the first time, you're smiling.
"What, Hyuk, did you see a hottie at the office today?"
Your grin stretches even wider, and you press me to you even more tightly. "No, silly Hae, you know that you're the only one in my heart."
Despite the childish pout I have plastered on my face, I can't help but smile and return the hug.
I lead you to the table, lifting the lid off the macaroni and ordering you to eat. As you do so, I sit opposite you, waiting for you to tell me what's happened, as I am sure you will.
Finally you look up from your dinner, your eyes twinkling with some sort of amazing secret shining behind them. "By the way, you don't need to wake up early for me tomorrow."
"Why? Have you finally learnt how to button your shirt by yourself?"
"I never said that I didn't know how to do it. I'm just completely incapable of functioning independently at six-thirty in the morning." you retort, twirling your fork with one hand and fumbling in your pocket with the other. "It's just that from now on, I won't need to wake up so early anymore."
I look up with a start. We live two hours away from the mega-corporation that you work at. We live here solely because we have to; because we can't find a house anywhere else; because we can't find a house big enough, a house small enough, a house in a good neighbourhood. There is no way that you could get to work on time if you didn't wake up before the sun did.
Then I notice what you're holding in your hand. It is a roundish object, a few buttons on a translucent shell that covers miles of circuitry, yet it's not bigger than the palm of your hand. It hands from an extendable keychain that you twirl around your finger, flashing your teeth with a hint of pride.
"What is it?"
"Oh, it's just the thing that'll save me hours standing with my face in someone else's hair," you say, presenting the strange gadget to me with a flourish. "Do you remember the teleportation project that the R&D department's been working on for years? Well, that's the prototype."
"Teleportation?" I stare at the gadget incredulously. "It looks like a children's toy. If this is a joke, it's not a very good one."
"No, I'm serious! Check it out."
You snatch it back, press the buttons at a speed that only a seasoned office drone could achieve, and suddenly a volumetric keyboard and screen materialise in front of you. A single moment passes as your fingers fly across the keys, and you swivel the screen towards me as holographic displays illustrate your words.
"To teleport someone, you have to pinpoint the trillions upon trillions of atoms that make up the human body, analyse all of them, then send the information to the location you want that someone to end up and reconstruct his body right here."
The person on the screen dissipates into a cloud of infinitesimal particles and appears an instant later across the table. I cannot help but feel uneasy as his body is ripped apart.
"The problem's always been that the atoms always end up getting assembled incorrectly on the other side. If even one atom is out of place, the person could end up with some serious defects."
You snap the display off. "But we've finally been able to get that right. The product's in beta testing now. Soon, we'll be able to distribute these everywhere. We'll take over the markets!"
Your face is radiant, filled with triumph and intoxicated with the future. But I cannot share your joy. "Then...why are you doing this? Why are you putting yourself in so much...danger?"
You scoop up the last of your dinner, and then walk around the table. I can't help but gasp as you put your arms around me.
"Do you think I enjoy seeing you getting up in the dark for me, making breakfast with your eyes half-closed? Do you think I like coming home and seeing you waiting up for me every night?"
Your voice is low and trembling now, and I know I have to take you seriously. "I hate us being like this. I want to spend every moment I can with you."
I'm crying now, the easy tears coming to my eyes even as I smile up at you.
You lean in, but my heart twinges again, and I tug at your shirt. "But I don't like you risking your life as some sort of...lab rat."
"Stop imagining things! I'm going to be fine."
You let your lips touch mine for a long moment, ad then head upstairs. Trust me, things are just going to get better from now on."
I wake up as the sun shines in my eyes through the window.
When I roll over, certain that we've overslept, you're not there.
Without thinking, I run out to the front door. But, of course, you're not there.
You must have left without saying goodbye to me, excited as you were the night before.
I didn't get to kiss you goodbye before you left. I didn't get to say goodbye at all.
***
I'm standing at the halo-cooker stirring a pot of soup when I hear a sound like all the air is being sucked out of the room and suddenly you're behind me, laughing, licking my spoon.
"Wow, you're early today."
I fake a deadpan expression, but you are unperturbed, flexing your arms and checking your shirt, which looks as clean as it was when I hung it up for you the night before.
"So? Any missing arms? Is my nose on the back of my head?"
I start to shake my head, but you catch me in a bear hug before I can even move. "I'm alive, you worrywart! I feel great!"
And I'm feeling great too. Taking the spoon from you, I ladle some soup into your bowl and set it on the counter. "It's kimchi stew tonight. Let's see if you still like it when it's hot."
You beamed at me and dug in hungrily, I smiled in amusement.
***
Later that night, when you're taking off your shirt, I notice something missing. I grab hold of your arm, and immediately you turn to look at me, your eyes full of concern.