[_starcandy Challenge] In Shadows
Title: In Shadows
Rating: PG
Genre: general (I honestly have no idea on this one... :/)
Prompt: #43: Flowers
Word Count: 726
Notes: Had an awful day yesterday. This was meant to be a piece for me to take out all my frustrations on poor Changminnie. Instead, when I started writing, my muse latched onto my melancholy rather than my anger. So this is what you get. *shrugs*
Summary: A little peace and quiet. A chance to reflect. A time to listen.
You lay in a field, a sky above you so blue it's almost hard to believe it's real. not real. none of it's real. The flowers grow tall around you, taller than that even, that you wonder where they end. Where they begin. Where you end. where it all ends. And it's all peaceful, quiet and serene and repetitive and monotonous and calming.
A breeze ruffles the leaves and your hair like busy fingers with a nervous habit. fingers in your hair, on your skin, but touching your heart. pulling out your secrets one by one and cradling them gently. you trust them to be forever gentle. you trust them. You relax into the caress, closing your eyes as the sun warms your face and that soft breeze cools the sunlight.
You lose track of time, how long you lay there. Moments, hours, days. They're all the same thing here, maybe. A shadow passes over you every once in a while, blocking the warmth streaming over you, from a mysterious source you never quite see. There are no trees or clouds in sight. There haven't been since you arrived, whenever that was. a lifetime ago.
Voices call to you from that shadow. Quietly, gently, barely more than a breath. "never leave me," and you promise because you can do nothing else. "Come back to me," it says. "Come back to us. Don't stay there alone." But you push it away because it's so peaceful here, quiet and serene and calming. Not at all like there. Not at all noisy or chaotic or harsh in any way. it changes so slowly, fingers once gentle slowly increasing their grip until they're bruising and harsh but it'd happened so slowly, so subtly, that you hadn't even noticed. hadn't realized. how had you not realized? so stupid, so naively trusting. you trusted them. It's nice here. Not at all like there.
The voice gets louder over time, though. Clearer. Harder to ignore. "Please come back. Please. I'll never let you be hurt again if you do, I promise. Never again. Please, Changmin-ah." It's the loudest when it says your name, reverberating in your ears though the volume never changes. Resonant. Pleading. demanding. insistent. "changmin. changmin. you can't leave me. not now."
You stare up at the flowers high above you, silhouetted against the not-real-blue sky. The sun is high, the sky bright, but there's no real glare. You can still make out the color of every individual flower so far out of your reach, purples and reds and yellows and pinks and no orange. orange is a ridiculous color. unsophisticated. you do have better taste than that, don't you, changmin? You stretch your hand up, just to check, and the stalks seem to shoot up even more. away from you.
As you watch the flowers dance away from you, the voice returns. "You can hear me, can't you, Changminnie?" min. minnie. it's a child's name. you're not a child anymore, changmin. "I'm sorry, you know? We all are. We should have seen it. We should have known. We should have saved you before it got this far. But please, Min. Please come back. Give us another chance. Give me another chance."
You hold your breath, waiting, staring up into that blue-blue sky, because you know more is coming. Something else. You wish there were some clouds to imagine shapes out of, the way you used to with... "I didn't want to say it this way, Min. I wanted you to be awake and looking at me. Giving me a one-touch in response, whether you accepted it or not. But I can't wait anymore, and you need to know. I love you, Changminnie. So much, for so long. I should have told you so much sooner, but then you met him and seemed so happy. I couldn't take that away from you, so I let you go. I should have held on tighter, but I didn't, and I'm sorry. But loving you... That has never changed. Not in the slightest. I love you."
The sky above you hasn't changed. Still so, so blue. The breeze is still gentle, the flowers still vibrantly colorful. But it's all different now, all so completely not-the-same. You stare up at the peaceful scene for another long moment, and then your eyes flutter open.
"Jaejoong?"
Rating: PG
Genre: general (I honestly have no idea on this one... :/)
Prompt: #43: Flowers
Word Count: 726
Notes: Had an awful day yesterday. This was meant to be a piece for me to take out all my frustrations on poor Changminnie. Instead, when I started writing, my muse latched onto my melancholy rather than my anger. So this is what you get. *shrugs*
Summary: A little peace and quiet. A chance to reflect. A time to listen.
You lay in a field, a sky above you so blue it's almost hard to believe it's real. not real. none of it's real. The flowers grow tall around you, taller than that even, that you wonder where they end. Where they begin. Where you end. where it all ends. And it's all peaceful, quiet and serene and repetitive and monotonous and calming.
A breeze ruffles the leaves and your hair like busy fingers with a nervous habit. fingers in your hair, on your skin, but touching your heart. pulling out your secrets one by one and cradling them gently. you trust them to be forever gentle. you trust them. You relax into the caress, closing your eyes as the sun warms your face and that soft breeze cools the sunlight.
You lose track of time, how long you lay there. Moments, hours, days. They're all the same thing here, maybe. A shadow passes over you every once in a while, blocking the warmth streaming over you, from a mysterious source you never quite see. There are no trees or clouds in sight. There haven't been since you arrived, whenever that was. a lifetime ago.
Voices call to you from that shadow. Quietly, gently, barely more than a breath. "never leave me," and you promise because you can do nothing else. "Come back to me," it says. "Come back to us. Don't stay there alone." But you push it away because it's so peaceful here, quiet and serene and calming. Not at all like there. Not at all noisy or chaotic or harsh in any way. it changes so slowly, fingers once gentle slowly increasing their grip until they're bruising and harsh but it'd happened so slowly, so subtly, that you hadn't even noticed. hadn't realized. how had you not realized? so stupid, so naively trusting. you trusted them. It's nice here. Not at all like there.
The voice gets louder over time, though. Clearer. Harder to ignore. "Please come back. Please. I'll never let you be hurt again if you do, I promise. Never again. Please, Changmin-ah." It's the loudest when it says your name, reverberating in your ears though the volume never changes. Resonant. Pleading. demanding. insistent. "changmin. changmin. you can't leave me. not now."
You stare up at the flowers high above you, silhouetted against the not-real-blue sky. The sun is high, the sky bright, but there's no real glare. You can still make out the color of every individual flower so far out of your reach, purples and reds and yellows and pinks and no orange. orange is a ridiculous color. unsophisticated. you do have better taste than that, don't you, changmin? You stretch your hand up, just to check, and the stalks seem to shoot up even more. away from you.
As you watch the flowers dance away from you, the voice returns. "You can hear me, can't you, Changminnie?" min. minnie. it's a child's name. you're not a child anymore, changmin. "I'm sorry, you know? We all are. We should have seen it. We should have known. We should have saved you before it got this far. But please, Min. Please come back. Give us another chance. Give me another chance."
You hold your breath, waiting, staring up into that blue-blue sky, because you know more is coming. Something else. You wish there were some clouds to imagine shapes out of, the way you used to with... "I didn't want to say it this way, Min. I wanted you to be awake and looking at me. Giving me a one-touch in response, whether you accepted it or not. But I can't wait anymore, and you need to know. I love you, Changminnie. So much, for so long. I should have told you so much sooner, but then you met him and seemed so happy. I couldn't take that away from you, so I let you go. I should have held on tighter, but I didn't, and I'm sorry. But loving you... That has never changed. Not in the slightest. I love you."
The sky above you hasn't changed. Still so, so blue. The breeze is still gentle, the flowers still vibrantly colorful. But it's all different now, all so completely not-the-same. You stare up at the peaceful scene for another long moment, and then your eyes flutter open.
"Jaejoong?"