[oneshot] silver bullet
Title: silver bullet
Pairing: top-centric, top/bom
Rating: pg13
Genre: au, slice-of-life
Warnings: swearing
Author: gdgdbaby
Notes: advent calendar day 3, for samstrident. teenaged seunghyun learning to be the chrestomanci (and a functional adult), set some time after the events of the lives of christopher chant. 1,254 words.
Seunghyun can still see Bom's extra set of arms if he tilts his head just so and squints. Sometimes they're tucked neatly behind her back as she goes about her business in the castle, or spread out before her with the first set as she casts a spell for Sean, a scorching line of fire jumping from her palms and blazing down the center of the room. He likes them best when they're having a disagreement, translucent hands slammed decisively around her hips as one of the corporeal ones reaches up to stick a finger in his face, her eyes flashing with every twist of her mouth.
So the first sign that something's wrong is when they disappear altogether. They're in Gangnam with Jinu and Sean, at a fancy restaurant with too many spoons and forks, and Seunghyun's tucking into his dessert. Something sweet and sparkling and gelatinous, and he's plowed his way through half of the mound on his plate before he turns to Bom and realizes her arms are gone. Completely. He stares so hard trying to find them again that he goes a little cross-eyed from the effort.
Bom sends him a strange look over her sorbet. "What's wrong?" She peers closer and her face goes white. "Seunghyun? Are you-?"
Oh, fuck, Seunghyun thinks, right before he faints.
He wakes up in the hospital wing of the castle. Teddy's voice floats over the general bustle, bemused and insistent. "There was silver in the food? Who puts silver in food?"
"It was part of the coloring, apparently," Sean says, sounding very tired. "We should've checked first."
Seunghyun tries breathing. A long raspy noise comes out of his mouth as his throat unclogs. He coughs into his hand and cracks his eyes open. Teddy's leaning against the foot of his bed, arms crossed, eyebrows bunched together. "How're you feeling?" he asks, and Seunghyun's about to answer when the door slams open and Bom barrels inside, a tray of food sloshing in her hands.
"Honestly," she says, before anyone can get a word in edgewise. "What were you thinking? You know you're sensitive."
"It tasted good," Seunghyun mumbles. He still can't find her extra arms. He sticks his jaw out when he raises his gaze to her face and sees her glaring back at him. "Look, you didn't notice either, did you?"
Which turns out to be the wrong thing to say. Sean hastily hops out of the way as Bom slams the tray of food down onto the table next to Seunghyun's bed. She sends him another disgusted look before whirling back out the same way she came.
Seunghyun blinks at the doorway, bewildered. Sean sighs down at him. "As we were saying," he murmurs, "can you get to your magic?"
Seunghyun reaches out and hits what feels like a padded wall. "Nope. Nothing."
"Jiyeon says it's going to take several days for all the silver to cycle out of your system," Teddy explains. "Best to let it happen naturally. In the meantime-"
"I've drawn up several written assignments for you to complete," Sean finishes, eyes curling with his smile. "There's no reason for you to fall behind on your studies even if you're momentarily impaired."
"That's great," Seunghyun says weakly. "Thanks, hyung."
After Seunghyun's brief joyride as interim Chrestomanci, he'd erroneously assumed that his success meant he'd be given more freedom to make decisions for himself. Yang-goon's return and reinstatement dashed much hope for that. Seunghyun continued on with his lessons. Bom was allowed to stay at the castle under the presupposition that she would take up training as an enchantress alongside Seunghyun, and they were joined by several other pupils in the months that followed: Lee Seungri the former bootboy, Kang Daesung from Incheon, Dara Park, who'd been living in the Philippines with her mother and brother before she was brought to the castle. Jiyong and Youngbae, kids Seunghyun met during one of his late night outings to Itaewon back when he thought he might make a career out of rapping, and had the strongest musical magic any of them had ever seen.
Losing his magic because of an unfortunate silver allergy means he can't even slip out through the crack in the wards into any of the other series as he sleeps. No spirit dreaming-no dreaming at all, just a few hours of dreamless sleep before he wakes up again, mouth dry and sour. The morning after he's moved back into his rooms, he wakes up to Youngbae and Jiyong sitting on either side of his bed. Youngbae's dozed off in his chair, mouth open. Jiyong's scribbling in one of his notebooks.
"Hey," Seunghyun mumble. He scrubs the back of his hand over his eyes, and it comes away with sleep gunk crusted against the knuckles.
"Yo, wassup," Jiyong says, because he's been going through another American rap phase. He looks up and grins. "Classes are pretty boring without you."
Seunghyun snorts. "I'm sure. What are you working on?"
Jiyong shows him the last page in his notebook. He scans Seunghyun's face and chews on his lip as Seunghyun reads the lyrics. "Bom's pretty mad, you know?"
"It hadn't occurred to me," Seunghyun mutters. He fiddles with the edge of his blanket. To his left, Youngbae lets out a gentle snore.
"You have to understand," Jiyong says, turning his face down toward his notebook again, pen cap held between his teeth, "she doesn't think you take care of yourself well enough. She thinks nine lives-well, three now-make you irresponsible."
"I take care of myself just fine," Seunghyun says moodily.
"Things are volatile around you because you have so much power," Jiyong says, shrugging. "You ate silver. What if it never came out and you were magic-less forever?"
Seunghyun rubs his hand against his neck, sighing. Youngbae jolts up with a snort and stares at both of them from his seat. "Morning," Seunghyun says, dry. They spend the next three hours going over the theory of invisibility charms together, which ends with Youngbae disappearing Jiyong's notebook and crying tears of laughter watching Jiyong lose his shit trying to find it again.
After two more days of bed rest, Seunghyun walks into their practical lessons a little more contrite than usual. Sean nods at him from the far side of the room and asks him to do a simple levitation charm. He grins and lifts Daesung three feet with a wave of his arm, makes him do a neat cartwheel in midair. Daesung's rolling his eyes when he's grounded again.
"We'll be working with invisibility today," Teddy calls. He summons a variety of items from around the castle and arranges them in the center of the room. "First with random objects, and then on yourselves."
Seunghyun hangs back with Bom as the others walk over to survey them curiously. She gazes at him, mouth pinched. Her extra set of arms stays clenched at her side as her real ones fold across her chest.
"I'll be more careful next time," he mumbles quickly under his breath, staring off over her shoulder. "Sorry to make you worry."
"Will you?" she says archly. "Are you?" But there's a softening around her chin, and she moves to meet his gaze head-on. "Sorry for getting angry."
"No," Seunghyun says, striding forward with her. "You were right."
Her face dimples when she smiles. "Baby steps."
Later, when Bom's arms disappear with the rest of her body, it's because she meant for them to.
fin
Pairing: top-centric, top/bom
Rating: pg13
Genre: au, slice-of-life
Warnings: swearing
Author: gdgdbaby
Notes: advent calendar day 3, for samstrident. teenaged seunghyun learning to be the chrestomanci (and a functional adult), set some time after the events of the lives of christopher chant. 1,254 words.
Seunghyun can still see Bom's extra set of arms if he tilts his head just so and squints. Sometimes they're tucked neatly behind her back as she goes about her business in the castle, or spread out before her with the first set as she casts a spell for Sean, a scorching line of fire jumping from her palms and blazing down the center of the room. He likes them best when they're having a disagreement, translucent hands slammed decisively around her hips as one of the corporeal ones reaches up to stick a finger in his face, her eyes flashing with every twist of her mouth.
So the first sign that something's wrong is when they disappear altogether. They're in Gangnam with Jinu and Sean, at a fancy restaurant with too many spoons and forks, and Seunghyun's tucking into his dessert. Something sweet and sparkling and gelatinous, and he's plowed his way through half of the mound on his plate before he turns to Bom and realizes her arms are gone. Completely. He stares so hard trying to find them again that he goes a little cross-eyed from the effort.
Bom sends him a strange look over her sorbet. "What's wrong?" She peers closer and her face goes white. "Seunghyun? Are you-?"
Oh, fuck, Seunghyun thinks, right before he faints.
He wakes up in the hospital wing of the castle. Teddy's voice floats over the general bustle, bemused and insistent. "There was silver in the food? Who puts silver in food?"
"It was part of the coloring, apparently," Sean says, sounding very tired. "We should've checked first."
Seunghyun tries breathing. A long raspy noise comes out of his mouth as his throat unclogs. He coughs into his hand and cracks his eyes open. Teddy's leaning against the foot of his bed, arms crossed, eyebrows bunched together. "How're you feeling?" he asks, and Seunghyun's about to answer when the door slams open and Bom barrels inside, a tray of food sloshing in her hands.
"Honestly," she says, before anyone can get a word in edgewise. "What were you thinking? You know you're sensitive."
"It tasted good," Seunghyun mumbles. He still can't find her extra arms. He sticks his jaw out when he raises his gaze to her face and sees her glaring back at him. "Look, you didn't notice either, did you?"
Which turns out to be the wrong thing to say. Sean hastily hops out of the way as Bom slams the tray of food down onto the table next to Seunghyun's bed. She sends him another disgusted look before whirling back out the same way she came.
Seunghyun blinks at the doorway, bewildered. Sean sighs down at him. "As we were saying," he murmurs, "can you get to your magic?"
Seunghyun reaches out and hits what feels like a padded wall. "Nope. Nothing."
"Jiyeon says it's going to take several days for all the silver to cycle out of your system," Teddy explains. "Best to let it happen naturally. In the meantime-"
"I've drawn up several written assignments for you to complete," Sean finishes, eyes curling with his smile. "There's no reason for you to fall behind on your studies even if you're momentarily impaired."
"That's great," Seunghyun says weakly. "Thanks, hyung."
After Seunghyun's brief joyride as interim Chrestomanci, he'd erroneously assumed that his success meant he'd be given more freedom to make decisions for himself. Yang-goon's return and reinstatement dashed much hope for that. Seunghyun continued on with his lessons. Bom was allowed to stay at the castle under the presupposition that she would take up training as an enchantress alongside Seunghyun, and they were joined by several other pupils in the months that followed: Lee Seungri the former bootboy, Kang Daesung from Incheon, Dara Park, who'd been living in the Philippines with her mother and brother before she was brought to the castle. Jiyong and Youngbae, kids Seunghyun met during one of his late night outings to Itaewon back when he thought he might make a career out of rapping, and had the strongest musical magic any of them had ever seen.
Losing his magic because of an unfortunate silver allergy means he can't even slip out through the crack in the wards into any of the other series as he sleeps. No spirit dreaming-no dreaming at all, just a few hours of dreamless sleep before he wakes up again, mouth dry and sour. The morning after he's moved back into his rooms, he wakes up to Youngbae and Jiyong sitting on either side of his bed. Youngbae's dozed off in his chair, mouth open. Jiyong's scribbling in one of his notebooks.
"Hey," Seunghyun mumble. He scrubs the back of his hand over his eyes, and it comes away with sleep gunk crusted against the knuckles.
"Yo, wassup," Jiyong says, because he's been going through another American rap phase. He looks up and grins. "Classes are pretty boring without you."
Seunghyun snorts. "I'm sure. What are you working on?"
Jiyong shows him the last page in his notebook. He scans Seunghyun's face and chews on his lip as Seunghyun reads the lyrics. "Bom's pretty mad, you know?"
"It hadn't occurred to me," Seunghyun mutters. He fiddles with the edge of his blanket. To his left, Youngbae lets out a gentle snore.
"You have to understand," Jiyong says, turning his face down toward his notebook again, pen cap held between his teeth, "she doesn't think you take care of yourself well enough. She thinks nine lives-well, three now-make you irresponsible."
"I take care of myself just fine," Seunghyun says moodily.
"Things are volatile around you because you have so much power," Jiyong says, shrugging. "You ate silver. What if it never came out and you were magic-less forever?"
Seunghyun rubs his hand against his neck, sighing. Youngbae jolts up with a snort and stares at both of them from his seat. "Morning," Seunghyun says, dry. They spend the next three hours going over the theory of invisibility charms together, which ends with Youngbae disappearing Jiyong's notebook and crying tears of laughter watching Jiyong lose his shit trying to find it again.
After two more days of bed rest, Seunghyun walks into their practical lessons a little more contrite than usual. Sean nods at him from the far side of the room and asks him to do a simple levitation charm. He grins and lifts Daesung three feet with a wave of his arm, makes him do a neat cartwheel in midair. Daesung's rolling his eyes when he's grounded again.
"We'll be working with invisibility today," Teddy calls. He summons a variety of items from around the castle and arranges them in the center of the room. "First with random objects, and then on yourselves."
Seunghyun hangs back with Bom as the others walk over to survey them curiously. She gazes at him, mouth pinched. Her extra set of arms stays clenched at her side as her real ones fold across her chest.
"I'll be more careful next time," he mumbles quickly under his breath, staring off over her shoulder. "Sorry to make you worry."
"Will you?" she says archly. "Are you?" But there's a softening around her chin, and she moves to meet his gaze head-on. "Sorry for getting angry."
"No," Seunghyun says, striding forward with her. "You were right."
Her face dimples when she smiles. "Baby steps."
Later, when Bom's arms disappear with the rest of her body, it's because she meant for them to.
fin