From the Soul to the Song - Verse Twenty Two
From the Soul to the Song
Verse Twenty Two
There was a small sound from the tree line as one of five forms there let her feelings be known. It sounded much like a sharp intake of breath, but it was not, for the forms did not need to breath. The one that had made the noise clutched her hands to her chest and turned her head to look at the one beside her.
Her entire body was a soft glowing aquamarine, from the hair on her head to her toes. Her form was human in shape and structure. There were two arms, slender and delicate, and two legs of the same build. Her torso was deceivingly slender and curved in just a way to give the suggestion that she was female. Yet she wore no clothing, revealing a form that lacked the gender defining features of humans. Her entire figure glowed the same pure aqua blue as if she was composed out of light itself and not really there in substance.
Around her were four others. Two feminine as she was, one in glowing slivery white and the other the color of fresh dandelions. The remaining two possessed a slightly more masculine build yet lacked the human pieces that would have made them undeniably male. One glowed the red of a painted sunset and the other a healthy fern green. All five figures had the illusion of hair that fell at least to their waist, longer on the females.
’Can’t we do anything?’ the blue female spoke. Although she possessed a mouth, she did not use it, instead she spoke directly into her companions minds.
’No, Kanja,’ the green male said as he placed a hand gently on her shoulder. ’There is little we can do without destroying that which we are for and that which we stand for.’ He looked at the rest of his gathered Light Ones and they inclined their heads in understanding.
’Our meddling started this whole mess, it is as Avanipala said,’ the yellow female told her gently as she stepped forward and gathered the slightly smaller Kanja into her arms. ’We cannot chance further meddling.’
’But Zepherin,’ Kanja replied, holding tightly to her sister Light One. ’Why must they suffer for what we did long before they were even thought of?’
’I know it hurts you little one,’ the silvery white one, Irirangi replied. ’But for us to interfere farther would have unimaginable consequences.’
’But we cannot let him die! Avanipala, you have to do something.’ She cried out in protest.
The green male shook his head. ’I cannot. The power is within them, they only need to find it.’
’They will,’ the red one, Endellion, said confidently.
’Come away, Kanja, if watching them hurts you,’ Zepherin said as she gently tried to guide the other woman away.
’No,’ Kanja replied firmly. ’I will watch.’
’We all shall,’ Avanipala said. ’As we always have.’
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
“Hankyung!” Heechul screamed, shaking the man as if that would wake him.
“He’s gone Heechul,” a sobbing Donghae told him, as he tried to pull Heechul away and into his arms.
Heechul allowed himself to be pulled away from Hankyung who was still held in Siwon’s arms for simply a moment before he exploded. “You! Why the hell didn’t you do anything!” Heechul screamed, lunging at Vidyagauri. She took a step back, tears in her eyes. Donghae and Kibum caught him around the waist and held him fast so that he could do nothing more than scream. Heechul, oblivious to the fact that he had been grabbed, continued to scream out his pain.
Kangin lifted his hands from Hankyung’s chest and stared at them blankly. “I couldn’t do anything,” he said numbly. “I couldn’t save him.” Leeteuk put his hand on Kangin’s back but he didn’t have words to give him. Around them the members of Super Junior found what little comfort they could in each other’s arms.
Finally Heechul’s anger left him, leaving in its wake a deep sorrow. Donghae cried out at the feel of so much pain and released Heechul on reflex. Eunhyuk was there immediately, pulling Donghae into his arms and was soon joined by Kibum as Heechul pulled away to crawl to Hankyung’s side.
Heechul pulled the man’s body from Siwon, and the other man let him. He bent over his fallen lover, tears falling heavily onto his body, and simply sobbed. His tears were punctuated with mournful noises that expressed what all of them were feeling.
“Ryeowook,” Yesung said shakily, pushing the man away from him gently. “I need,” he found that he couldn’t voice what he needed, but Ryeowook, who had accepted everything Yesung had asked for without question, took a step back and tried to stop his tears. The moment the physical contact was gone Yesung was able to hear more clearly what he thought he had been catching all along. He focused, bringing all of his new abilities to play and then gasped.
“His Song is still here!” he declared loudly. “His Song, it’s here.” He had to repeat himself three more times before he got a response from anyone but then Kangin looked up sharply and met his eyes.
“The human body can be brought back once a heart stops beating. I can save him. I will save him,” Kangin said forcefully as he shifted to Hankyung’s form.
Siwon, who had finally heard Yesung, moved over and started to pull Heechul from his curled position over Hankyung’s body. Heechul snarled at him and held on tighter until Siwon began to mumble, “He can heal him. Kangin will bring him back,” over and over again. Eventually he was able to pull the sobbing man away allowing Kangin to move in.
Leeteuk stepped behind Kangin and placed his hand on Kangin’s back. “We will save him,” Leeteuk murmured quietly in agreement.
Kangin nodded and closed his eyes. He felt for the power of Leeteuk’s Song and once he had it began to focus it onto Hankyung. Kangin didn’t know what Weaving he need he simply knew what he wanted to do, cause the Hankyung’s heart to beat.
Around him, Super Junior waited with baited breath as Kangin pressed more and more energy into his Weaving, willing it to do what he wanted. Yet it was not enough. “Leeteuk,” Kangin whispered desperately.
Leeteuk dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around Kangin’s waist. “If it will save him, take everything I have,” he whispered. He felt inside himself for his own Song, felt how it flowed into Kangin in a steady stream giving him power to weave into being. Yet that wasn’t what Kangin needed. His Weaver needed access to the deep lake of power within him, access to everything he had.
“Take it,” he whispered again. Leeteuk felt for their connection and pressed it open wider and wider. He tore down the barriers within himself that were keeping all of his power from being accessed by Kangin. When the last one fell he released a little cry as he felt all of himself being laid open to his Weaver. The world before his eyes turned brilliant green and then there was nothing.
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
Leeteuk blinked as his world settled back into focus. He noticed immediately that something was very wrong. Kangin was gone as was everyone else. Leeteuk lifted his eyes and all that he could see was green surrounding him.
“Jungsoo?” Kangin’s voice called out from behind him. Leeteuk spun, happy to hear something familiar in a strange place and stopped dead in his tracks. There, in front of him stood Kangin. It wasn’t the man’s complete lack of clothing that made Leeteuk stop, he had seen all of the man before anyway. It was the huge feathered wings that sprouted from the man’s shoulders. Leeteuk looked at the feathers that were a pale grey in color and blinked.
“You have wings,” he said, stating the obvious.
Kangin laughed. “So do you Jungsoo.”
Leeteuk blinked in confusion, but sure enough he could just feel that his body had two extra appendages. When he spread one and then curled it forward so that he could see it, he discovered Kangin was right. He too had large feathered wings in the purest white. “Huh,” he pulled them back and let them fold neatly on his back in a way that seemed instinctively natural.
“Where are we?” Leeteuk asked looking around, searching for any identifying characteristics.
“My mind,” Kangin replied after a moment. “I think we are one step away from fusing like Vidyagauri warned us about. You could still go back if you want to.”
Leeteuk looked at him. “This is the only way to heal Hankyung isn’t it?” he said softly.
Kangin swallowed thickly and looked down at the ground that wasn’t there. “I think so.”
The answering smile on Leeteuk’s face was a gentle one. “Then what are we waiting for?”
“We may never be able to separate,” Kangin warned.
“I’ll learn to live with you,” Leeteuk answered as he stretched out his hand. Kangin smiled as he took it. Both men sighed as their Songs became audible. It sounded as if both pieces were flirting and darting around each other.
“Your Song is beautiful,” Leeteuk said softly, for it was the first time he had truly heard Kangin’s Song.
“Now you know how I feel every time you share yours with me,” Kangin replied.
“Well then, let’s get this show on the road.”
Kangin laughed and pulled Leeteuk in close to him. He wrapped one arm around Leeteuk’s waist and brought the other hand up to brush against the man’s cheek. “I do love you Jungsoo.”
“And you know I love you as well, Youngwoon,” he smiled softly and leaned in and pressed their lips together in a sweet kiss. Around them, through them, and in them their separate Songs danced and played until they settled, smoothly, into one.
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
Super Junior was too stricken with grief at Hankyung’s death to react with anything but stunned silence when Kangin and Leeteuk began suddenly glowing a brilliant green. The form of light that was Leeteuk, disappeared within the other man and a moment later two more forms emerged from Kangin’s shoulders. Then as quickly as it had come, the light was gone, leaving in a shimmer of green sparks.
Kangin crouched where he had been, yet Leeteuk was nowhere to be seen. Instead, protruding from Kangin’s back were two large feathered wings. The feathers began the color of new snow, but by the tips of the wings they had faded to a pale slate grey. The fluttered briefly and then settled as if they had always been there.
Kangin rose to his full height, his wings slightly open on instinct to balance their added weight. Although the conversation between the two had seemed to last a few minutes for them, it was clear that it had only been a second to everyone gathered. Kangin could feel himself, but he could feel an echo of Leeteuk inside him too. At the moment it felt as though they moved with one mind, and one purpose.
“We failed to lead,” Kangin’s mouth said softly, though the words came out as a strange layering of Leeteuk and Kangin’s voices. “We failed to protect. We failed to heal.” The man’s eyes hardened and he took on a determined air. “But we will not fail to restore.”
The rest of the gathered men were caught between surprise at what they had just seen and sorrow for their fallen friend. “We will help,” Yesung answered them firmly. “Henry will play. We will flow our Songs to him and he will give them to you.”
Kangin nodded slightly and Henry called his violin too him and began to play. He waited for a moment for the connection to settle between all of them before he closed his eyes and stretched out his hands. Then he began to weave.
Weaving after Weaving layered over Hankyung’s body, one after another until they surrounded the man in a faint green glow that was visible to everyone present. There were Weavings to provide energy and encourage growth. There were Weavings to speed the body’s normal rate and to make things work as new. Once they were all in place, waiting for the body they surrounded to be able to make use of them, Kangin made his next Weaving.
He sent it out, directly to Hankyung’s heart, pouring his energy along with any he was given from Henry into it to power it. The Weaving took hold and forced the cooling blood to move through every vein, pulling in oxygen from the open wound and the very skin itself and bringing to the cells. With it raced life and the moment things began to move, his Weavings began to actively function pulling yet more energy from him.
Once the blood was moving, Kangin willed the tissue of the heart to close and to become whole once more. He gave it the energy it needed and encouraged it to hurry. Once it was finished he forced it to work. A Weaving caused the powerful muscle to spasm once, then twice, then a third time. By the fourth the Weaving was not necessary and it unraveled into nothing. Another Weaving encouraged the hole in the man’s chest to close itself over the now beating heart.
As it strengthened and normalized, Kangin shifted his attention up the body to the man’s brain. There he felt the damage that a lack of oxygen had created, the tissue that had died in its absence. With several complicated Weavings he encouraged new cells to replace the old and dead ones. He encouraged the new growth to take its place and be just as the old was, whole and functioning.
Hankyung’s eyes fluttered open a few moments later and he blinked up through the haze of green. “I’m alive?” he said softly, his voice faint.
Kangin smiled. “You are,” he replied and then his world went black.
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
Heechul had watched as Hankyung’s body was covered in the color of spring. He had clutched to Siwon and dared to hope that Kangin could do what he said he could. Still, when Hankyung had spoken he hardly believed his ears. “Hankyung!” he cried throwing himself out of Siwon’s arms and towards the man.
Sure enough Hankyung’s eyes were open and they focused on him. “Hey,” he said softly.
“You bastard!” Heechul screamed before he was no longer capable of words and he collapsed in a mass of tears on the Chinese man’s chest.
Beside them, Kangin groaned and crumpled to the ground in a heap of feathers and limbs. The men around them immediately surged closer, most sobbing tears anew at the signs of life from their fallen friend. Yesung shifted to Kangin and found the man’s pulse strong. He carefully shifted his body so that he wasn’t laying on his wings or hurting them in anyway.
Sensing that it was no longer needed, Henry stopped playing and let his violin disappear. Zhou mi slipped his arm around the younger man’s shoulders and smiled. “He is alright,” Henry said his voice layered with joy.
“He is,” Zhou mi agreed with a teary yet huge smile. In front of them Hankyung was holding a sobbing Heechul to him with one arm while trying to reassure everyone that he was well and truly alright.
“How?” Vidyagauri asked softly. “No one should be able to bring back the dead. How did they?” No one offered her an answer.
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
The trip back inside had been an eventful one once they had decided to make it. Although fully healed, Hankyung was exhausted. Heechul had screamed and cried himself quite literally to exhaustion as well. Yet he refused to let go of Hankyung and the man hadn’t pushed him away. Siwon had offered him all the support he could but he himself was exhausted from their fight.
Kyuhyun had barely been able to summon enough energy to create a Weaving that gently lifted Kangin’s unconscious form and carried it to his room. He had placed the man on his stomach on his bed so as to not crush the feathered wings.
The rest of the members had been lenient to leave Hankyung despite the fact that he reassured him he was fine and Vidyagauri herself had said there was no chance of Keiran breaking free. Eventually it had been Heechul who had finally snarled at them all to go to their own room. They had obeyed, worried at what he, in his raw state, might do to them. Heechul and Hankyung returned to their own room and fell on the bed together. Seconds later they were asleep.
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
Hankyung judged it to be midday when he awoke again. He carefully untangled himself from Heechul who was still snoring deeply and rose from the bed. Quietly he slipped into the bathroom where he stared at his own reflection. His familiar face stared back at him as it always had and he sighed.
Hankyung climbed into the shower and took his time washing under the spray. Once the dried blood was gone, he ran his fingers over the straight scar. It ran in a diagonal slash directly over where his heart would be, as a reminder of what had happened.
When he was finished he stepped out of the shower and dried himself. Then wrapping the towel around his waist he opened the door. Before he could step into the room his eyes fell on Heechul. In his absence the man had sprawled to take over the bed, his limbs and hair tossed every which direction.
A soft smile spread on his face at the sight of his lover in a way Heechul would never want to be seen. His smile faded almost immediately as his eyes found small marks, scratches and bruises, that marred the other man’s neck, arms, and chest. It came back to him in a rush, the things that he had done or that Keiran had done through him. The times when he had pinned Heechul to that very bed and taken him so harshly that Heechul had cried out in very real pain. Though Keiran had only truly had control of him for less than a week, he had a slew of memories that sickened him. Hankyung felt bile rise in his throat at what he had done and those flashes of memory were just the start of what had happened.
Hankyung turned and raced back into the bathroom. He made it to the toilet where he collapsed and proceeded to empty the contents of his stomach.
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
Kangin sighed when he awoke and heard the soft ruffling of feathers before he remembered what had happened. He rose to kneel on the bed, taking care not to hurt his newest appendages in any way. One glance at his hands told him that they were caked in dried blood and he needed a shower immediately.
Other concerns were more pressing in his mind and he immediately felt for Leeteuk’s presence within him. He was relieved to find the man’s answering presence. It wasn’t so much speaking as it was a lazy making his existence known. It seemed as though now that they weren’t focused on the same goal, they were still one but not, at the same time.
He wondered if Vidyagauri had felt this with her husband at first and it had faded over time, since she had said she could no longer feel him. He was stricken with a pang of fear at that thought and instantly felt as though he was being scolded from the inside. There was no use panicking about what they could not control.
Kangin rose from the bed. “One thing at a time,” he mumbled, and was surprised to hear only the sound of his voice. He felt humor from Leeteuk and agreement as he made his way to the bathroom. For a moment he had wondered if his wings would fit in the shower but he was relieved to find that they fit, as long as they were folded, with little trouble.
Once under the warm spray he relaxed and let it wash the blood and dirt from his body. He found that the warm water falling on his wings sent trails of pleasure up his spine at the new sensation. Half spread, he stood letting them take the full spray of water and enjoying the sensation for several minutes.
The most amusing part had happened when he had begun washing himself. He had felt a pulse of arousal from Leeteuk at the touch of his own hand to his body. They spent the next several minutes exploring the extent of that. They were both satisfied to find that it was much like sex only better since they could acutely feel each other’s pleasure.
Drying off had been nearly as amusing their shower had been. Kangin had no idea how to go about drying his new wings and Leeteuk clearly didn’t either. He had fluttered them, sending the excess water flying all over the bathroom, to which he felt Leeteuk’s clear disproval. Then he had just let them be. He figured they would air dry as well as his hair did.
In his room he had pulled on a pair of boxers followed by a pair of jeans. Leeteuk had been amused, but Kangin had figured it was best to cloth himself. It was easier to resist temptation that way. Now that that was taken care of he moved the center of the room where he could stand with his wings somewhat outstretched so that they would dry.
He closed his eyes and turned his thoughts inward trying to call up the place in his mind where he had seen Leeteuk before. Nothing happened and he tried harder. When nothing happened a second time he heaved a frustrated sigh. He could feel Leeteuk offering him comfort and reassurance, but it wasn’t what they needed. Kangin needed Leeteuk to separate from him, otherwise it was the same as him having killed his best friend.
There was a sharp feeling of anger from Leeteuk at that thought, but Kangin didn’t change it. If Leeteuk couldn’t separate from him it would be the same as him never living again. There was the possibility that Leeteuk would eventually fade away all together, and Kangin couldn’t live with that thought.
He turned his thoughts inward once more and looked for their Song. He found it, strong and powerful. Carefully he looked inside it and attempted to separate his and Leeteuk’s separate Songs. Although he could find a few pieces that were either of theirs, he could not separate them out no matter how hard he tried. Leeteuk, when he tried, fared no better.
Kangin opened his eyes and stared at his reflection in the mirror. He tried not to tear up at the hopelessness he felt and inside him Leeteuk offered comfort. There was no comfort that the man could truly offer him though. As Kangin stared at their reflection in the mirror, he felt that they were well and truly stuck just as they were: as one. Forever.
Verse Twenty Three
Masterlist
Character Information
AN: Sorry guys I meant to have this up a little sooner but my eye appointment took longer then I expected. Although I'm sure you will all read it anyway. lol.
When I designed the true forms of the Light Ones I imagined them sort of like Kida from Atlantis when she is fused with the heart of Atlantis. (It's a Disney movie and for some reason I can't seem to find a good picture of it right now. I will link one later if I find one.
Verse Twenty Two
There was a small sound from the tree line as one of five forms there let her feelings be known. It sounded much like a sharp intake of breath, but it was not, for the forms did not need to breath. The one that had made the noise clutched her hands to her chest and turned her head to look at the one beside her.
Her entire body was a soft glowing aquamarine, from the hair on her head to her toes. Her form was human in shape and structure. There were two arms, slender and delicate, and two legs of the same build. Her torso was deceivingly slender and curved in just a way to give the suggestion that she was female. Yet she wore no clothing, revealing a form that lacked the gender defining features of humans. Her entire figure glowed the same pure aqua blue as if she was composed out of light itself and not really there in substance.
Around her were four others. Two feminine as she was, one in glowing slivery white and the other the color of fresh dandelions. The remaining two possessed a slightly more masculine build yet lacked the human pieces that would have made them undeniably male. One glowed the red of a painted sunset and the other a healthy fern green. All five figures had the illusion of hair that fell at least to their waist, longer on the females.
’Can’t we do anything?’ the blue female spoke. Although she possessed a mouth, she did not use it, instead she spoke directly into her companions minds.
’No, Kanja,’ the green male said as he placed a hand gently on her shoulder. ’There is little we can do without destroying that which we are for and that which we stand for.’ He looked at the rest of his gathered Light Ones and they inclined their heads in understanding.
’Our meddling started this whole mess, it is as Avanipala said,’ the yellow female told her gently as she stepped forward and gathered the slightly smaller Kanja into her arms. ’We cannot chance further meddling.’
’But Zepherin,’ Kanja replied, holding tightly to her sister Light One. ’Why must they suffer for what we did long before they were even thought of?’
’I know it hurts you little one,’ the silvery white one, Irirangi replied. ’But for us to interfere farther would have unimaginable consequences.’
’But we cannot let him die! Avanipala, you have to do something.’ She cried out in protest.
The green male shook his head. ’I cannot. The power is within them, they only need to find it.’
’They will,’ the red one, Endellion, said confidently.
’Come away, Kanja, if watching them hurts you,’ Zepherin said as she gently tried to guide the other woman away.
’No,’ Kanja replied firmly. ’I will watch.’
’We all shall,’ Avanipala said. ’As we always have.’
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
“Hankyung!” Heechul screamed, shaking the man as if that would wake him.
“He’s gone Heechul,” a sobbing Donghae told him, as he tried to pull Heechul away and into his arms.
Heechul allowed himself to be pulled away from Hankyung who was still held in Siwon’s arms for simply a moment before he exploded. “You! Why the hell didn’t you do anything!” Heechul screamed, lunging at Vidyagauri. She took a step back, tears in her eyes. Donghae and Kibum caught him around the waist and held him fast so that he could do nothing more than scream. Heechul, oblivious to the fact that he had been grabbed, continued to scream out his pain.
Kangin lifted his hands from Hankyung’s chest and stared at them blankly. “I couldn’t do anything,” he said numbly. “I couldn’t save him.” Leeteuk put his hand on Kangin’s back but he didn’t have words to give him. Around them the members of Super Junior found what little comfort they could in each other’s arms.
Finally Heechul’s anger left him, leaving in its wake a deep sorrow. Donghae cried out at the feel of so much pain and released Heechul on reflex. Eunhyuk was there immediately, pulling Donghae into his arms and was soon joined by Kibum as Heechul pulled away to crawl to Hankyung’s side.
Heechul pulled the man’s body from Siwon, and the other man let him. He bent over his fallen lover, tears falling heavily onto his body, and simply sobbed. His tears were punctuated with mournful noises that expressed what all of them were feeling.
“Ryeowook,” Yesung said shakily, pushing the man away from him gently. “I need,” he found that he couldn’t voice what he needed, but Ryeowook, who had accepted everything Yesung had asked for without question, took a step back and tried to stop his tears. The moment the physical contact was gone Yesung was able to hear more clearly what he thought he had been catching all along. He focused, bringing all of his new abilities to play and then gasped.
“His Song is still here!” he declared loudly. “His Song, it’s here.” He had to repeat himself three more times before he got a response from anyone but then Kangin looked up sharply and met his eyes.
“The human body can be brought back once a heart stops beating. I can save him. I will save him,” Kangin said forcefully as he shifted to Hankyung’s form.
Siwon, who had finally heard Yesung, moved over and started to pull Heechul from his curled position over Hankyung’s body. Heechul snarled at him and held on tighter until Siwon began to mumble, “He can heal him. Kangin will bring him back,” over and over again. Eventually he was able to pull the sobbing man away allowing Kangin to move in.
Leeteuk stepped behind Kangin and placed his hand on Kangin’s back. “We will save him,” Leeteuk murmured quietly in agreement.
Kangin nodded and closed his eyes. He felt for the power of Leeteuk’s Song and once he had it began to focus it onto Hankyung. Kangin didn’t know what Weaving he need he simply knew what he wanted to do, cause the Hankyung’s heart to beat.
Around him, Super Junior waited with baited breath as Kangin pressed more and more energy into his Weaving, willing it to do what he wanted. Yet it was not enough. “Leeteuk,” Kangin whispered desperately.
Leeteuk dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around Kangin’s waist. “If it will save him, take everything I have,” he whispered. He felt inside himself for his own Song, felt how it flowed into Kangin in a steady stream giving him power to weave into being. Yet that wasn’t what Kangin needed. His Weaver needed access to the deep lake of power within him, access to everything he had.
“Take it,” he whispered again. Leeteuk felt for their connection and pressed it open wider and wider. He tore down the barriers within himself that were keeping all of his power from being accessed by Kangin. When the last one fell he released a little cry as he felt all of himself being laid open to his Weaver. The world before his eyes turned brilliant green and then there was nothing.
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
Leeteuk blinked as his world settled back into focus. He noticed immediately that something was very wrong. Kangin was gone as was everyone else. Leeteuk lifted his eyes and all that he could see was green surrounding him.
“Jungsoo?” Kangin’s voice called out from behind him. Leeteuk spun, happy to hear something familiar in a strange place and stopped dead in his tracks. There, in front of him stood Kangin. It wasn’t the man’s complete lack of clothing that made Leeteuk stop, he had seen all of the man before anyway. It was the huge feathered wings that sprouted from the man’s shoulders. Leeteuk looked at the feathers that were a pale grey in color and blinked.
“You have wings,” he said, stating the obvious.
Kangin laughed. “So do you Jungsoo.”
Leeteuk blinked in confusion, but sure enough he could just feel that his body had two extra appendages. When he spread one and then curled it forward so that he could see it, he discovered Kangin was right. He too had large feathered wings in the purest white. “Huh,” he pulled them back and let them fold neatly on his back in a way that seemed instinctively natural.
“Where are we?” Leeteuk asked looking around, searching for any identifying characteristics.
“My mind,” Kangin replied after a moment. “I think we are one step away from fusing like Vidyagauri warned us about. You could still go back if you want to.”
Leeteuk looked at him. “This is the only way to heal Hankyung isn’t it?” he said softly.
Kangin swallowed thickly and looked down at the ground that wasn’t there. “I think so.”
The answering smile on Leeteuk’s face was a gentle one. “Then what are we waiting for?”
“We may never be able to separate,” Kangin warned.
“I’ll learn to live with you,” Leeteuk answered as he stretched out his hand. Kangin smiled as he took it. Both men sighed as their Songs became audible. It sounded as if both pieces were flirting and darting around each other.
“Your Song is beautiful,” Leeteuk said softly, for it was the first time he had truly heard Kangin’s Song.
“Now you know how I feel every time you share yours with me,” Kangin replied.
“Well then, let’s get this show on the road.”
Kangin laughed and pulled Leeteuk in close to him. He wrapped one arm around Leeteuk’s waist and brought the other hand up to brush against the man’s cheek. “I do love you Jungsoo.”
“And you know I love you as well, Youngwoon,” he smiled softly and leaned in and pressed their lips together in a sweet kiss. Around them, through them, and in them their separate Songs danced and played until they settled, smoothly, into one.
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
Super Junior was too stricken with grief at Hankyung’s death to react with anything but stunned silence when Kangin and Leeteuk began suddenly glowing a brilliant green. The form of light that was Leeteuk, disappeared within the other man and a moment later two more forms emerged from Kangin’s shoulders. Then as quickly as it had come, the light was gone, leaving in a shimmer of green sparks.
Kangin crouched where he had been, yet Leeteuk was nowhere to be seen. Instead, protruding from Kangin’s back were two large feathered wings. The feathers began the color of new snow, but by the tips of the wings they had faded to a pale slate grey. The fluttered briefly and then settled as if they had always been there.
Kangin rose to his full height, his wings slightly open on instinct to balance their added weight. Although the conversation between the two had seemed to last a few minutes for them, it was clear that it had only been a second to everyone gathered. Kangin could feel himself, but he could feel an echo of Leeteuk inside him too. At the moment it felt as though they moved with one mind, and one purpose.
“We failed to lead,” Kangin’s mouth said softly, though the words came out as a strange layering of Leeteuk and Kangin’s voices. “We failed to protect. We failed to heal.” The man’s eyes hardened and he took on a determined air. “But we will not fail to restore.”
The rest of the gathered men were caught between surprise at what they had just seen and sorrow for their fallen friend. “We will help,” Yesung answered them firmly. “Henry will play. We will flow our Songs to him and he will give them to you.”
Kangin nodded slightly and Henry called his violin too him and began to play. He waited for a moment for the connection to settle between all of them before he closed his eyes and stretched out his hands. Then he began to weave.
Weaving after Weaving layered over Hankyung’s body, one after another until they surrounded the man in a faint green glow that was visible to everyone present. There were Weavings to provide energy and encourage growth. There were Weavings to speed the body’s normal rate and to make things work as new. Once they were all in place, waiting for the body they surrounded to be able to make use of them, Kangin made his next Weaving.
He sent it out, directly to Hankyung’s heart, pouring his energy along with any he was given from Henry into it to power it. The Weaving took hold and forced the cooling blood to move through every vein, pulling in oxygen from the open wound and the very skin itself and bringing to the cells. With it raced life and the moment things began to move, his Weavings began to actively function pulling yet more energy from him.
Once the blood was moving, Kangin willed the tissue of the heart to close and to become whole once more. He gave it the energy it needed and encouraged it to hurry. Once it was finished he forced it to work. A Weaving caused the powerful muscle to spasm once, then twice, then a third time. By the fourth the Weaving was not necessary and it unraveled into nothing. Another Weaving encouraged the hole in the man’s chest to close itself over the now beating heart.
As it strengthened and normalized, Kangin shifted his attention up the body to the man’s brain. There he felt the damage that a lack of oxygen had created, the tissue that had died in its absence. With several complicated Weavings he encouraged new cells to replace the old and dead ones. He encouraged the new growth to take its place and be just as the old was, whole and functioning.
Hankyung’s eyes fluttered open a few moments later and he blinked up through the haze of green. “I’m alive?” he said softly, his voice faint.
Kangin smiled. “You are,” he replied and then his world went black.
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
Heechul had watched as Hankyung’s body was covered in the color of spring. He had clutched to Siwon and dared to hope that Kangin could do what he said he could. Still, when Hankyung had spoken he hardly believed his ears. “Hankyung!” he cried throwing himself out of Siwon’s arms and towards the man.
Sure enough Hankyung’s eyes were open and they focused on him. “Hey,” he said softly.
“You bastard!” Heechul screamed before he was no longer capable of words and he collapsed in a mass of tears on the Chinese man’s chest.
Beside them, Kangin groaned and crumpled to the ground in a heap of feathers and limbs. The men around them immediately surged closer, most sobbing tears anew at the signs of life from their fallen friend. Yesung shifted to Kangin and found the man’s pulse strong. He carefully shifted his body so that he wasn’t laying on his wings or hurting them in anyway.
Sensing that it was no longer needed, Henry stopped playing and let his violin disappear. Zhou mi slipped his arm around the younger man’s shoulders and smiled. “He is alright,” Henry said his voice layered with joy.
“He is,” Zhou mi agreed with a teary yet huge smile. In front of them Hankyung was holding a sobbing Heechul to him with one arm while trying to reassure everyone that he was well and truly alright.
“How?” Vidyagauri asked softly. “No one should be able to bring back the dead. How did they?” No one offered her an answer.
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
The trip back inside had been an eventful one once they had decided to make it. Although fully healed, Hankyung was exhausted. Heechul had screamed and cried himself quite literally to exhaustion as well. Yet he refused to let go of Hankyung and the man hadn’t pushed him away. Siwon had offered him all the support he could but he himself was exhausted from their fight.
Kyuhyun had barely been able to summon enough energy to create a Weaving that gently lifted Kangin’s unconscious form and carried it to his room. He had placed the man on his stomach on his bed so as to not crush the feathered wings.
The rest of the members had been lenient to leave Hankyung despite the fact that he reassured him he was fine and Vidyagauri herself had said there was no chance of Keiran breaking free. Eventually it had been Heechul who had finally snarled at them all to go to their own room. They had obeyed, worried at what he, in his raw state, might do to them. Heechul and Hankyung returned to their own room and fell on the bed together. Seconds later they were asleep.
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
Hankyung judged it to be midday when he awoke again. He carefully untangled himself from Heechul who was still snoring deeply and rose from the bed. Quietly he slipped into the bathroom where he stared at his own reflection. His familiar face stared back at him as it always had and he sighed.
Hankyung climbed into the shower and took his time washing under the spray. Once the dried blood was gone, he ran his fingers over the straight scar. It ran in a diagonal slash directly over where his heart would be, as a reminder of what had happened.
When he was finished he stepped out of the shower and dried himself. Then wrapping the towel around his waist he opened the door. Before he could step into the room his eyes fell on Heechul. In his absence the man had sprawled to take over the bed, his limbs and hair tossed every which direction.
A soft smile spread on his face at the sight of his lover in a way Heechul would never want to be seen. His smile faded almost immediately as his eyes found small marks, scratches and bruises, that marred the other man’s neck, arms, and chest. It came back to him in a rush, the things that he had done or that Keiran had done through him. The times when he had pinned Heechul to that very bed and taken him so harshly that Heechul had cried out in very real pain. Though Keiran had only truly had control of him for less than a week, he had a slew of memories that sickened him. Hankyung felt bile rise in his throat at what he had done and those flashes of memory were just the start of what had happened.
Hankyung turned and raced back into the bathroom. He made it to the toilet where he collapsed and proceeded to empty the contents of his stomach.
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
Kangin sighed when he awoke and heard the soft ruffling of feathers before he remembered what had happened. He rose to kneel on the bed, taking care not to hurt his newest appendages in any way. One glance at his hands told him that they were caked in dried blood and he needed a shower immediately.
Other concerns were more pressing in his mind and he immediately felt for Leeteuk’s presence within him. He was relieved to find the man’s answering presence. It wasn’t so much speaking as it was a lazy making his existence known. It seemed as though now that they weren’t focused on the same goal, they were still one but not, at the same time.
He wondered if Vidyagauri had felt this with her husband at first and it had faded over time, since she had said she could no longer feel him. He was stricken with a pang of fear at that thought and instantly felt as though he was being scolded from the inside. There was no use panicking about what they could not control.
Kangin rose from the bed. “One thing at a time,” he mumbled, and was surprised to hear only the sound of his voice. He felt humor from Leeteuk and agreement as he made his way to the bathroom. For a moment he had wondered if his wings would fit in the shower but he was relieved to find that they fit, as long as they were folded, with little trouble.
Once under the warm spray he relaxed and let it wash the blood and dirt from his body. He found that the warm water falling on his wings sent trails of pleasure up his spine at the new sensation. Half spread, he stood letting them take the full spray of water and enjoying the sensation for several minutes.
The most amusing part had happened when he had begun washing himself. He had felt a pulse of arousal from Leeteuk at the touch of his own hand to his body. They spent the next several minutes exploring the extent of that. They were both satisfied to find that it was much like sex only better since they could acutely feel each other’s pleasure.
Drying off had been nearly as amusing their shower had been. Kangin had no idea how to go about drying his new wings and Leeteuk clearly didn’t either. He had fluttered them, sending the excess water flying all over the bathroom, to which he felt Leeteuk’s clear disproval. Then he had just let them be. He figured they would air dry as well as his hair did.
In his room he had pulled on a pair of boxers followed by a pair of jeans. Leeteuk had been amused, but Kangin had figured it was best to cloth himself. It was easier to resist temptation that way. Now that that was taken care of he moved the center of the room where he could stand with his wings somewhat outstretched so that they would dry.
He closed his eyes and turned his thoughts inward trying to call up the place in his mind where he had seen Leeteuk before. Nothing happened and he tried harder. When nothing happened a second time he heaved a frustrated sigh. He could feel Leeteuk offering him comfort and reassurance, but it wasn’t what they needed. Kangin needed Leeteuk to separate from him, otherwise it was the same as him having killed his best friend.
There was a sharp feeling of anger from Leeteuk at that thought, but Kangin didn’t change it. If Leeteuk couldn’t separate from him it would be the same as him never living again. There was the possibility that Leeteuk would eventually fade away all together, and Kangin couldn’t live with that thought.
He turned his thoughts inward once more and looked for their Song. He found it, strong and powerful. Carefully he looked inside it and attempted to separate his and Leeteuk’s separate Songs. Although he could find a few pieces that were either of theirs, he could not separate them out no matter how hard he tried. Leeteuk, when he tried, fared no better.
Kangin opened his eyes and stared at his reflection in the mirror. He tried not to tear up at the hopelessness he felt and inside him Leeteuk offered comfort. There was no comfort that the man could truly offer him though. As Kangin stared at their reflection in the mirror, he felt that they were well and truly stuck just as they were: as one. Forever.
Verse Twenty Three
Masterlist
Character Information
AN: Sorry guys I meant to have this up a little sooner but my eye appointment took longer then I expected. Although I'm sure you will all read it anyway. lol.
When I designed the true forms of the Light Ones I imagined them sort of like Kida from Atlantis when she is fused with the heart of Atlantis. (It's a Disney movie and for some reason I can't seem to find a good picture of it right now. I will link one later if I find one.