[EXO] [PD7] Play Date 1/2
Title: Play Date 1/2
Fandom: EXO (sort of fused with Final Fantasy VII)
Series: Phoenix Down (#7)
Pairing: Lu Han/Jongin
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, crossover (sort of)
Word count: 14,397
Disclaimer: Not mine, damnit. Especially not the lines from the play scene of FFVII.
Summary: Lu Han won't tell Jongin what his plans are for their first date, but everyone has fun at the Gold Saucer...right?
A/N: 7th in the Phoenix Down series, so please see Sweet as Honey, Sharp as a Sword for explanations. This one takes place during On the Road (Where You Don't Look Back), while the entire party is stuck at the Gold Saucer for the night. I couldn't resist the urge to have a "Gold Saucer date scene" for Lu Han and Jongin. ^_^ (Of course nothing ever goes smoothly, which is why this is for the h/c bingo square, 'panic attacks'.)
Play Date 1/2
Jongin has no idea where they're going. They're not leaving the Gold Saucer, he knows that much, but he hadn't exactly seen much of the park before his nap, and as soon as Kris and Yixing had returned to the hotel they'd sat down to dinner, leaving him no time to explore. It's a bright, colourful world out there, and although it seems somehow wrong to be wandering around a theme park when they're in the middle of an urgent quest, it's also a much-needed break from dried-up corpses and monster encounters.
Lu Han takes his hand as they leave the hotel, holding it tight as they pick their way down the creaking stairs and through the gravestones outside. The eerie piped music sounds creepier now than it had to a very sleepy Jongin some hours earlier, hinting at all sorts of nefarious creatures lurking in the shadows, waiting to do them harm. Not that they have anything to fear, of course. As long as Jongin's body will serve him, he's never unarmed, and although Lu Han's not carrying his scimitar, Jongin's sure that by no means makes him helpless. He's not armoured, either, plainly dressed in jeans and a startlingly multicoloured T-shirt.
But that's okay. There are no monsters roaming here, Jongin knows. They're safe to enjoy their evening together. That's...a novelty, really. They've never been anywhere like this together. It feels liberating, walking hand-in-hand between the graves, sometimes swinging their arms like a pair of kids in high spirits. Lu Han's eyes gleam with childish glee rather than the instant death they promise his enemies, and Jongin loves it.
He'd also love to know where they're going.
He plants his feet next to an open grave, tugging Lu Han - carefully - to a halt. Lu Han turns, wobbling for a moment on the uneven ground, so Jongin catches his other hand with his free one. Lu Han doesn't object, grinning down at their pairs of linked hands.
"Where are we going?" Jongin asks. "All you told me before dinner was that you had plans. Are you ever going to tell me what they are?"
"Nope." Lu Han's grin widens. "You'll just have to wait and see. You'll have fun, I promise. Everyone does, here."
"You've been here before?"
"Yes, but not this me, if that makes sense? I know my way around, though."
"From coming here with other people?" Jongin knows, intellectually, that all the Lu Hans are in fact a single man, and that man happens to be very, very attached to him. But he still doesn't like thinking about all the other versions out there with other masters.
Lu Han clearly picks up on the jealous undertones, because he tightens his grip. "But not like this. I thought we could..." He slows, suddenly seeming shy. It's not a look Jongin sees often on his usually forthright Summon, but it's one he treasures. One more reminder that Lu Han's only human, just like him, even if he does have some unusual abilities in this world.
"We could?" Jongin prompts, squeezing back in encouragement.
"Go on a date," Lu Han says. "We haven't done that before. Everything else, but..."
"Everything else," Jongin agrees, laughing. They're doing this all backwards, as he understands the practice. It's not as if he's had much experience. He's pretty sure it doesn't count as a date if the person you're with is renting your body by the hour, even if he offers you drinks first.
Fortunately, there's no money changing hands here. Jongin's with Lu Han because he wants to be, and even after all these months that's still novel enough for him to feel pleasantly surprised when he thinks about it.
"So?" Lu Han says, both impatient and hopeful, and Jongin nods at him. At least there won't be any first date jitters, not after everything they've been through together. It's hard to stay shy around someone who's made himself at home in both your mind and your body.
They have to unlink hands to keep walking - an attempt at sidestepping in unison almost sends them both stumbling into the open grave - but remain close, fingers brushing at their sides until they have to separate to take the portal through to the station. Once back in the bright yellow room, Jongin eyes the map.
"There are other things I want to do later," Lu Han says, the mischief written all over his face sending a little shiver down Jongin's spine, "but for now let's go to Wonder Square."
"What's in Wonder Square?"
"Games," Lu Han says. "Play with me?"
Jongin can't resist that. His life hasn't allowed him many opportunities for play - other than of the adult variety - and tonight feels like a chance to take back some of his fractured childhood. Maybe if he and Lu Han had grown up together they'd have played games, or kicked a football around the old scrapyard by the ballet school. The Gold Saucer is a fancy theme park, the kind of place he'd never even considered being able to visit as a child; it's no scrapyard, or crumbling, deserted shack only fit for use in hide-and-seek. No risk of cutting himself open on a corner of rusted metal here, or of being set upon by gangs looking to either recruit him or leave him for dead. This is a safe place. He can relax. He can play.
"I hope you're a good loser," he says sweetly, and Lu Han only grins at him.
"I can pretend to be one, but I don't usually have to."
Jongin steps out into Wonder Square first, surprised to find it open to the sky. The sun is setting over the Corel Desert and everything is tinted a thick, rapidly darkening orange. It's not ominous, like the red skies they've left behind, the kind they see in dreams. This is warm and welcoming, the approaching darkness offset by the bright, glowing lamps that border the square and the videos playing on the big screens. There's no evidence of games of any kind out here; rather, it's a place to relax, to sit on one of the many benches and watch the sun drop down below the buildings, to take a break before continuing to explore the Gold Saucer.
Maybe later. Their evening's only just begun.
Lu Han leads the way up some stairs on the left, through a glass-walled corridor and into a large room bursting with more colours than his shirt, filled with people playing games. Jongin doesn't recognise too many of the machines. There are games for people to play alone, and games for them to play against others. Games of physical strength and dexterity; games requiring mental agility or plain simple luck. Jongin slowly turns to see them all, unsure where to start.
"Feel like dancing?" Lu Han says, pointing to an unoccupied machine in the corner. It's in a couple of parts: a cabinet with a screen up top and giant speakers underneath, and a raised platform on the floor with two large, curved safety bars at the back.
"Dancing? Here?"
"I know it's not what you're used to, but I thought you might enjoy it anyway."
It's been a while since Jongin danced before an audience, but fortunately no one here is paying him any heed whatsoever, too absorbed in their own games. He listens to Lu Han's explanation of how he needs to step on the correct arrows as they appear on the screen, according to the beat of the song. It's not exactly dancing as he knows it. Nevertheless, it sounds like fun, and he steps willingly onto the platform.
"What about you?" he asks when Lu Han doesn't immediately follow. "The platform's for two, right?"
"Play it in single player mode first," Lu Han says. "It wouldn't be fair for me to go up against you when you've never tried it before."
"You care about it being fair?"
"I care when it's you." Lu Han reaches over the safety bar and slides his fingers around Jongin's hips, pressing just hard enough for Jongin to feel he means it. "Anyway, it's more fun for me to have some real competition."
Jongin looks back over his shoulder to smirk at Lu Han - real competition, indeed - and then the fingers are gone, and the music's begun, and he can't spare so much as a thought for anything else, his entire focus on moving his feet correctly as the arrows scroll up the screen. At first it seems like a puzzle, one he has to train himself to solve. He hopes no one's watching when he stumbles, brain and body not yet synchronised with the display, and steps on the wrong arrow pad by mistake. He figures Lu Han's probably getting a laugh out of this but there's only silence behind him.
Jongin's used to knowing the moves before he makes them, not reacting to commands on a display. He can't improvise either - not yet, although he thinks he might be able to add some flair of his own once he's mastered the steps. He's confident in this, at least. His body is his weapon; his survival is dependent on being able to exercise total control over it.
And like everything else, that takes practice. The first minute is an embarrassing, uncoordinated mess of flailing limbs and mis-steps. By the second minute, the mis-steps have given way to slow certainty - everything in the right place, just not necessarily at the right time.
By the the third, he's flying.
"Are you sure you've never done this before?" Lu Han asks when the song finishes and Jongin turns around, a little breathless but triumphant. His final results are not brilliant, but he knows the next song will be easier now he's got the hang of it.
"Positive." Jongin reaches out a hand, resting it on the back of Lu Han's neck to gently draw him forwards, and up onto the platform. Lu Han comes willingly. "Think I'll be much competition for you?"
"Let's find out."
Lu Han switches the game to Versus mode. The arrows begin to scroll again, this time with different moves. Jongin's ready for them now. Flashes of light on the screen match the beats of his heart, every step an instinctive reaction. He doesn't even have to think about it. He risks a glance at Lu Han, who's clearly no stranger to the game himself. His movements are not as smooth as Jongin's, and Jongin senses that this is more Lu Han trying to beat a game than actually dancing, but that's beside the point because in the end...that's what they're doing, isn't it? Dancing together, side by side on the platform.
Jongin's had more romantic dances. He's also had far less romantic dances, because some of his fellow ballet students were about as charming as slugs (though thankfully more graceful). At any rate, he's never danced with anyone who's been to him what Lu Han is now - whatever that might be - and even if it's just the two of them enacting a sequence of pre-programmed steps on a light-up platform, surrounded by total strangers hammering away at arcade games, he's still going to file it away in his memories as one of the brighter moments in these dark, troubled times.
When the song finishes Jongin glances across again. Lu Han's eyes and the corners of his mouth are creased with laughter; his hand flails wildly to bat Jongin on the arm, and Jongin's not sure the two of them have ever been this carefree together before.
"Looks like you won that round," Lu Han says with a nonchalant air, pointing to the on-screen results. "Barely."
That's not strictly accurate and they both know it, but Jongin decides to forgo obnoxious victory celebrations in favour of another round, because it feels so good to move his body without a fatality as the result. "Now you're warmed up too," he says. "Best two out of three?"
Two out of three it is. The first round goes to Jongin, but Lu Han takes the one after that - honestly, because there's no way Jongin's deliberately letting him win, and Lu Han does have the advantage of practice.
Jongin takes the final round. By now he's barely conscious of the arrows on the screen, brain translating the coloured pixels into sharp, precise actions and adding enhancements of his own without any need for thought. He's feeling the music more than hearing it.
"What was with all the arm movements?" Lu Han asks him afterwards, when they're leaning against the bars to catch their breath. "Those weren't part of the game."
"They were part of my dance," Jongin answers. He knows it sounds sort of pretentious, but it's the truth. His life is composed of a series of intricate motions - sometimes planned, sometimes improvised, never still. Even when he's at rest, the motion continues. The rise and fall of his chest as he breathes. The steady beat of his heart as it pumps blood around his body. The synapses firing in his brain. The only difference is the scale.
Lu Han bumps his shoulder loosely against Jongin's. "This was the closest thing I could think of - there's nowhere here for you to dance, unless you want to start doing impromptu performances outside."
"I think I'd need a drink first." Jongin doesn't have many opportunities to dance without witnesses, these days, unless he resorts to dancing in the shower. That doesn't mean he wants a repeat of his time in Junon, doing tipsy pirouettes in the street for the entertainment of anyone watching. He knows he gets weird around Lu Han when he's drunk, too, and he's not keen on that happening again.
Neither's Lu Han. "I think not. Did you have fun?"
Jongin leans down ever so slightly, so his head rests on Lu Han's shoulder. "What do you think?"
"I think lots of things, but most of them would get us thrown out of Wonder Square and I want to play more games first."
The next game they play is a basketball one, intended for a single player to score by throwing the ball through the hoop. Jongin has the height advantage. It doesn't do him much good, however - not when Lu Han insists on standing ridiculously close and being a distraction.
"You're lucky I haven't broken your nose," Jongin says, after the third time his elbow almost catches Lu Han in the face. It's hard to draw his arms back freely.
Lu Han shrugs, swiping the ball from Jongin so he can take his turn. "It would only last until I disappear. I've had a lot worse than a broken nose from your world, and it never sticks."
He takes a step back, raises his arms over his head, and with a quick jerk of his wrists bounces the ball neatly off the backboard and down through the hoop. He's mentioned playing sports with his fellow Summons before; Jongin figures he's probably had more practice at this, too. They're taking ten shots each; whoever scores the most wins the game.
"Must be nice, not needing someone to fix you up all the time." Jongin's drunk more Potions than he can count, and been healed by Restore materia a fair few times. At least now he's with Yixing, he doesn't have to pay for it.
"I didn't know that when I first came here here. I thought..." Lu Han pauses, lowering the ball he's holding, staring absently at the hoop as though he's forgotten all about trying to score. "I thought I'd bleed to death and that would be it."
"The Kalm Fangs?" Jongin asks, soft and low. Lu Han's only told him a little about the first time he crossed between worlds. Being suddenly confronted by a pack of savage wolves must've been terrifying for him.
"Yeah." Lu Han nods, eyes dropping to stare at the ground. "I didn't have armour then. Didn't even know it was an option."
He sounds so cold, so lost, that Jongin immediately slides an arm around his shoulders, squeezing tight in the hopes of conveying some of his own warmth. He doesn't like to ask for details. "But...you were okay afterwards, right? Physically?" He knows better than most how long scars on the soul can linger, whether they have physical counterparts or not.
It's something he hasn't thought about much. Every time he's watched a Summon attack, it's been a one hit kill - or multiple hits, in Lu Han's case, but he doesn't use magic. Either way, their enemies end up dead, and the Summons never acquire so much as a scratch. He's never seen them sick or injured. It's part of their mystique, and one of the reasons he'd spent so long thinking of them as all-knowing, all-powerful super beings. He knows better now.
"I didn't wake up at home, covered in blood," Lu Han says. "I should've."
He raises the ball overhead again, keeping it just high enough that he doesn't hit Jongin in the face with it as he draws it back, and shoots. The ball falls short. It hits the flat surface of the machine with a thud, and rolls back towards them for another go. It's the first time Lu Han's missed.
"I'm glad you didn't," Jongin says. "Yixing wouldn't have been there to fix you up."
Lu Han's short, bitter laugh is nothing like his normal expressive self, but it's a start. "I'd have gone to hospital, the same as anyone over here who didn't have access to Restore materia or Potions. The doctors use different equipment, but they do the same thing, really. Healing's just a lot slower without magic."
"I know." Most of the injuries Jongin's acquired over the years he's had to let heal the slow way. Growing up in the slums had made him an expert in gauging how much damage he could take before he had no choice but to pay for healing, and it was never with Magic materia, usually just a Potion, probably stolen from a hospital by one of his less than upstanding neighbours. Travelling with Yixing is a definite blessing. "There's really no magic in your world? None at all?"
The flash of disbelief across Lu Han's face says he knows very well that this is a diversionary tactic, but he lets it slide. "None."
"Did you ever try to take anything back to see if it would work? Like a Potion or something?"
"Once," Lu Han admits. "I had a bad cold, and I thought I'd take a Potion back to myself. It dried up completely before I could drink it. Some of the others have tried taking things home too; taking that piece of Dark Dragon hide back with me worked okay, but it's not like I could've used it to do something magical."
Personally, Jongin thinks the collar Lu Han made from that hide was pretty magical in itself. He's still wearing it now, the purple-black band a comforting weight against his throat, a reminder of the feelings that went into its creation. "Could you take me back?" he says boldly.
Lu Han smiles at him, wistful yet full of promise. "Don't think I don't want to. But we've tried that before, too. It wouldn't harm you, but you wouldn't go, either. I can only see you there in my dreams."
Jongin snorts at his Summon's corniness and swipes the ball to take his turn.
Despite Lu Han's slip, he's the eventual winner, finishing the game with eight points to Jongin's six. Nobody ends up with a broken nose, though Lu Han does his best to remedy this when he insists on stealing a victory kiss while Jongin's in the process of turning his head. It's sort of embarrassing, given where they are, but no one's paying attention anyway.
They're trying to decide what to play next when Jongin feels a tap on the shoulder. He whirls around, fists at the ready, only to find himself face to face with...another Lu Han?
Jongin gapes at the newcomer, who's even more casually dressed in denim shorts, a light blue T-shirt with some sort of cartoon duck on it and a cap with the bill facing backwards, but is, in every other way, identical to the man beside him, right down to the scar by his lip. He knows, in theory, that there are multiple Lu Hans running around out there, the same as there are multiple Baekhyuns, and Minseoks, and so on. Really, he should've encountered another one ages ago.
It's just that he never has.
"If you don't close that mouth I'm going to assume it's an invitation," the second Lu Han says, and Jongin's jaw snaps back into position on the double.
Jongin's own Lu Han gives his doppelganger a high-five, the two of them wearing identical expressions of glee. They've got Jongin standing between them, the odd one out in this trio, the only one wearing a different face - and his face, he's sure, is showing nothing but confusion right now. This is someone else's Lu Han, but whose?
"My master's over there, arm wrestling," the second Lu Han says, putting Jongin out of his misery. He can just about make out the figure of a woman with short, dark hair, dressed similarly to her Summon, throwing herself into the game with great enthusiasm. "We're going to go over to Speed Square and shoot things when she's done. Don't worry;" he pats Jongin on the hip, "I'm not sticking around to mess with your pretty little head."
A very, very small part of Jongin half-wishes he would, because Lu Han's the first person he's ever felt this way about, and therefore another Lu Han can only be a good thing. The rest of him, however, accepts that this is probably asking for trouble.
"I don't think you could handle two of me," Jongin's Lu Han teases as the other one walks away.
"It wouldn't be the first time." Jongin's threesome experience is limited to a handful of customers at the Honey Bee Inn - two of whom had been identical twins. But this isn't quite the same thing and he knows it.
"It would be for me," Lu Han says, "and I'm not that interested in talking to myself. I don't usually meet me."
"Did you know he was here?"
"He's me. Of course I knew." Lu Han's brow furrows in concentration. "How can I explain this? It's like having one brain that inhabits lots of bodies, only the bodies and parts of the brain are semi-autonomous, and other parts aren't? The body that's back home is like the control centre, but they're all me. I can tune into the others, but it's not exactly like they're 'others'."
"You're giving me a headache," Jongin says. "I'm going to pretend the rest of you don't exist now."
"I do that all the time. Although..." Lu Han sounds thoughtful, which means he's up to something Jongin may regret later. "It can be very useful, being in multiple places at once."
Jongin's afraid to ask. He gets himself a soda from the vending machine in the corner, sipping at it while he waits for more games to become free. Lu Han steals a few sips of his own, fastidiously wiping the neck of the bottle each time before letting it come into contact with his lips. Jongin finds this hilarious.
"It's not like you haven't swallowed any of my bodily fluids before," he says, deliberately not bothering to wipe the bottle before putting it to his own lips.
"That's different," Lu Han retorts, though he refuses to say how.
By the time they've finished sharing the soda, the other Lu Han and his master have left the room and Lu Han's got his heart set on the Wonder Catchers. They're filled with mounds of soft toys, each one cuter than the last. There are cuddly yellow ducklings, and sleek spotted leopards, and fluffy white alpacas. There are soft, squishy seals, and dolphins with playful eyes. There are even chocobos in all the colours of the rainbow - or at least all the colours of Lu Han's shirt.
Jongin hangs back and watches as Lu Han drops his coin in the slot and reaches for the controls with an intensity better suited to fighting battles. There's no danger of death here, though. It's man versus machine, in a struggle for plushies, and it's by no means an easy one. On his first go, Lu Han manages to manoeuvre the crane into position above one of the ducklings, but his grasp on its beak is too shallow and in trying to firm it up, he only succeeds in knocking it aside.
Undeterred, he drops in another coin. The duckling's at an awkward angle now so he gives up on it, choosing a pale pink chocobo as his new target. The crane closes around it and Lu Han brings it up slowly, easing it across the plushie pile. Before he reaches the drop zone, the time runs out and the arms open, releasing the chocobo before returning to the centre. The plushie's still too far away. Lu Han curses and makes a third attempt.
His eyes light up as he manages to capture the pink chocobo again. It's not getting away this time. The crane wends its way back towards them, and for a moment it looks like the clock will run out again...but it reaches the drop zone just in time for the chocobo to tumble down into the box below. Triumphant, Lu Han plucks it out and dusts off its little pink head.
"For you," he says, presenting the chocobo to Jongin.
Jongin blinks. "You won me a pink chocobo?"
"I didn't see any deer," Lu Han says, shoving it at him. "Here, take it. On the nights I'm not around, you can cuddle it and think of me."
There's only one response Jongin can possibly make to that and he does, whacking Lu Han solidly on the arm with one hand while cradling the chocobo to his chest with the other. It's sort of cute, though he'd rather not be seen walking around with it by anyone he knows. Lu Han takes the smack in lieu of thanks and hits him back to say he's welcome.
Fortunately for Jongin, Lu Han's satisfied after having won just the one plushie. Neither of them fancy the remaining games on this floor, but upstairs is a whole new challenge. A room full of simulators...and one where winning involves feeding the correct number of nuts to small, cute animals. Evidently this one is not manly enough for Lu Han, who rejects it in favour of a motorbike simulator.
"You might recognise the location," Lu Han says, and when Jongin sees the scenery passing by on the screen, he recognises it immediately. Midgar. Not, thankfully, the slums he grew up in, but he's covered his fair share of ground in the city and he knows this road.
It's a single-player game. Jongin goes first, straddling the bike and gripping the controls. The bike's in constant motion, once the game starts - he steers with his whole body, leaning left and right as he follows the truck on the screen, driving full-throttle out of Midgar. It's nothing like riding a chocobo; he thinks he could get used to it, with practice. Watching the roads and night skies fly past on the screen is exhilarating to the point where he can practically feel the wind blowing through his hair and skimming his cheeks as he rides. Were it not for the enemy riders zooming along next to his avatar, eager to destroy the truck, he could almost pretend he's riding for pleasure.
But he can't ignore them, or the game's over. A red rider appears on his left and he slams his hand down on the button, swiping his on-screen sword across the rider's back. The enemy biker falls away.
It's strange, fighting with a blade, even if it's not real. Jongin's used to having only his body as a weapon - as long as his strength holds out, he's never unarmed. Besides, blades were what the gangs had, back in the Sector 7 slums. Cheap, basic knives for thugs who couldn't afford anything fancier, but the price made no difference if they pierced your skin.
The blade on the screen now is more like an animated version of Kris's broadsword, and Jongin thinks the whole scenario is not terribly realistic. Not on a motorbike. Wouldn't he overbalance, swinging the sword from side to side like that? He mashes buttons to wipe out the red and orange riders, careful not to tilt too far, and imagines what it would be like to ride like this outside, with Lu Han sitting behind him, arms wrapped around his waist as they fly through the darkened streets.
There's a burst of orange light across the screen; Jongin blinks at what must be sunrise, only that doesn't seem to fit with the game's midnight escape. He can't even see the truck. All the riders have fallen away and he's alone on the road.
No. Not quite alone. There are hands pressing against his stomach, fingers curling under the hem of his jacket and tickling the skin beneath. Lu Han always teases, but he knows better than to distract Jongin when they're going this fast, the miles falling away behind them as they chase the sun on its way over the horizon. His chest is warm against Jongin's back; despite the wind's chill, Jongin's whole body is flush with the heat that comes from such intimacy. There's no one out here to see them. Everyone else is still asleep, saving their strength for the struggles to come.
Sometimes Lu Han rides his own bike; sometimes, he's content to share Jongin's, the two of them leaning as one into corners, rarely speaking, but comfortable with each other as though they've spent a thousand lifetimes together. Perhaps they have and this is merely the latest. It won't be the last.
Sunrise suddenly gives way to midnight, the truck and its pursuers returning to the screen. Jongin's disoriented by the change of scene. What was that? Daydream? Hallucination? His hands fall slack beside the controls. He's lost points, he can tell - the truck has obviously been hit while he was unaware of the game. Catching up doesn't seem important, somehow. There's nothing in this game as real as the dream he's just had, though he knows full well he's never ridden a motorbike before.
There's a light touch at the small of his back, Lu Han asking if he's okay. Jongin gives himself a brisk mental shake, sliding his fingers back over the buttons. Finish the game first, then figure it out.
In the end, he scores well over ten thousand points - enough for the machine to spit out a prize voucher. Jongin stares at it for a moment, puzzling over what to do with it, but an attendant pops up beside him and takes it off his hands, exchanging it for a small bag of goodies. She warns him to be careful how he handles the contents before disappearing to help someone else.
"I saw the high score table," Lu Han says. "You beat the reigning champ. You must've been really on form tonight, to do so well without even playing the whole time."
"About that..."
"Hmm?"
"When I stopped playing, did I...did I seem like..."
"I can't answer you if you can't get the question out," Lu Han says. "Seem like what?"
"Like...um..." Jongin chews on his lip for a few seconds, trying to formulate something that doesn't make him sound unstable. "Like...I was somewhere else?"
"You were right here the whole time - I was watching."
"Did you sit behind me?"
Lu Han pats the seat, which Jongin has now vacated. "Does it look like there's room for two? Anyway, wouldn't you have noticed if I'd tried?"
He has a point about the lack of space. The simulator bike is much smaller than the real thing. "I'm not sure," Jongin says hesitantly. "It felt like you were, and we were riding together. But I didn't see the game screen - I saw a sunrise."
Lu Han's mouth forms a little 'o' of surprise, before realisation slowly dawns on him and he breaks into a smile. "I had a dream like that once, only it was at sunset. We were going away the next day, and we wanted to drive after it one more time."
"Did it really happen?"
"I believe it did, but," Lu Han shrugs, "it's hard to tell what's a piece of the past, and what's wishful thinking - at least where you're concerned. This is the first time for you, isn't it? Remembering something from before?"
Jongin nods. "I thought it would be like the dream with the tree. You said it would be something we wouldn't want to remember."
"That's the part I don't like remembering. But there are other things that are much more pleasant to think about. Things with you, for instance."
Jongin wonders, not for the first time, what sort of memories Lu Han has of him. If he was someone else back then, are they really of 'him' at all? Or a stranger who wore his face, who shared heart and soul with a different Lu Han. He's never asked what Lu Han remembers about them, and maybe it's for the best if he doesn't know. He's certain matters ended badly with the tree.
Lu Han doesn't wait for him to ask. "I remember watching you learn to teleport. You could only go short distances at first, and you weren't very good at controlling your landing sites. You misjudged one day and landed up in the river. I laughed so hard, my stomach still hurt from it when I realised I'd been dreaming."
"Do you remember anything that doesn't make me sound stupid?" Jongin asks, feeling his face grow warm with embarrassment.
"Pieces of things." Lu Han laughs, but doesn't elaborate. "For later."
Jongin hopes his past self wasn't a total klutz. He's clearly not going to find out right now. "I wonder what I've won?" he muses, finally remembering that he's holding a prize bag. "I guess it can't be money."
"You can win useful things here sometimes." Lu Han reaches for the bag. "I hope it's not Loco Weed. I don't want to have to try to cure your confusion again."
It's not Loco Weed. It is, however, a mixed bag of magical items that Jongin can use on monsters. He's not entirely certain what all of them are, but Yixing will know, and they can use all the resources they can get. Only having Summons and short-range attacks is turning out to be a real liability. If materia weren't so expensive, buying Magic materia would be a tremendous help.
"Hmm, there's a Spider Web," Lu Han says with a fond smile, and Jongin knows he's remembering the last time they used one together, back in Junon, with slow, tender touches that seemed to go on forever. "And I think that's a Mute Mask - shame I can't take it home to use on Baekhyun. Those look like Dazers, and...I don't think I know that one."
Jongin peers inside the bag. "The little green and red thing?"
"Yeah. I'm not even sure it's supposed to be in there; it looks like a vegetable..." So saying, Lu Han reaches into the bag to extract the mystery object for closer examination.
Next thing Jongin knows, the bag's on the floor and Lu Han's nowhere in sight.
Part 2
Fandom: EXO (sort of fused with Final Fantasy VII)
Series: Phoenix Down (#7)
Pairing: Lu Han/Jongin
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, crossover (sort of)
Word count: 14,397
Disclaimer: Not mine, damnit. Especially not the lines from the play scene of FFVII.
Summary: Lu Han won't tell Jongin what his plans are for their first date, but everyone has fun at the Gold Saucer...right?
A/N: 7th in the Phoenix Down series, so please see Sweet as Honey, Sharp as a Sword for explanations. This one takes place during On the Road (Where You Don't Look Back), while the entire party is stuck at the Gold Saucer for the night. I couldn't resist the urge to have a "Gold Saucer date scene" for Lu Han and Jongin. ^_^ (Of course nothing ever goes smoothly, which is why this is for the h/c bingo square, 'panic attacks'.)
Play Date 1/2
Jongin has no idea where they're going. They're not leaving the Gold Saucer, he knows that much, but he hadn't exactly seen much of the park before his nap, and as soon as Kris and Yixing had returned to the hotel they'd sat down to dinner, leaving him no time to explore. It's a bright, colourful world out there, and although it seems somehow wrong to be wandering around a theme park when they're in the middle of an urgent quest, it's also a much-needed break from dried-up corpses and monster encounters.
Lu Han takes his hand as they leave the hotel, holding it tight as they pick their way down the creaking stairs and through the gravestones outside. The eerie piped music sounds creepier now than it had to a very sleepy Jongin some hours earlier, hinting at all sorts of nefarious creatures lurking in the shadows, waiting to do them harm. Not that they have anything to fear, of course. As long as Jongin's body will serve him, he's never unarmed, and although Lu Han's not carrying his scimitar, Jongin's sure that by no means makes him helpless. He's not armoured, either, plainly dressed in jeans and a startlingly multicoloured T-shirt.
But that's okay. There are no monsters roaming here, Jongin knows. They're safe to enjoy their evening together. That's...a novelty, really. They've never been anywhere like this together. It feels liberating, walking hand-in-hand between the graves, sometimes swinging their arms like a pair of kids in high spirits. Lu Han's eyes gleam with childish glee rather than the instant death they promise his enemies, and Jongin loves it.
He'd also love to know where they're going.
He plants his feet next to an open grave, tugging Lu Han - carefully - to a halt. Lu Han turns, wobbling for a moment on the uneven ground, so Jongin catches his other hand with his free one. Lu Han doesn't object, grinning down at their pairs of linked hands.
"Where are we going?" Jongin asks. "All you told me before dinner was that you had plans. Are you ever going to tell me what they are?"
"Nope." Lu Han's grin widens. "You'll just have to wait and see. You'll have fun, I promise. Everyone does, here."
"You've been here before?"
"Yes, but not this me, if that makes sense? I know my way around, though."
"From coming here with other people?" Jongin knows, intellectually, that all the Lu Hans are in fact a single man, and that man happens to be very, very attached to him. But he still doesn't like thinking about all the other versions out there with other masters.
Lu Han clearly picks up on the jealous undertones, because he tightens his grip. "But not like this. I thought we could..." He slows, suddenly seeming shy. It's not a look Jongin sees often on his usually forthright Summon, but it's one he treasures. One more reminder that Lu Han's only human, just like him, even if he does have some unusual abilities in this world.
"We could?" Jongin prompts, squeezing back in encouragement.
"Go on a date," Lu Han says. "We haven't done that before. Everything else, but..."
"Everything else," Jongin agrees, laughing. They're doing this all backwards, as he understands the practice. It's not as if he's had much experience. He's pretty sure it doesn't count as a date if the person you're with is renting your body by the hour, even if he offers you drinks first.
Fortunately, there's no money changing hands here. Jongin's with Lu Han because he wants to be, and even after all these months that's still novel enough for him to feel pleasantly surprised when he thinks about it.
"So?" Lu Han says, both impatient and hopeful, and Jongin nods at him. At least there won't be any first date jitters, not after everything they've been through together. It's hard to stay shy around someone who's made himself at home in both your mind and your body.
They have to unlink hands to keep walking - an attempt at sidestepping in unison almost sends them both stumbling into the open grave - but remain close, fingers brushing at their sides until they have to separate to take the portal through to the station. Once back in the bright yellow room, Jongin eyes the map.
"There are other things I want to do later," Lu Han says, the mischief written all over his face sending a little shiver down Jongin's spine, "but for now let's go to Wonder Square."
"What's in Wonder Square?"
"Games," Lu Han says. "Play with me?"
Jongin can't resist that. His life hasn't allowed him many opportunities for play - other than of the adult variety - and tonight feels like a chance to take back some of his fractured childhood. Maybe if he and Lu Han had grown up together they'd have played games, or kicked a football around the old scrapyard by the ballet school. The Gold Saucer is a fancy theme park, the kind of place he'd never even considered being able to visit as a child; it's no scrapyard, or crumbling, deserted shack only fit for use in hide-and-seek. No risk of cutting himself open on a corner of rusted metal here, or of being set upon by gangs looking to either recruit him or leave him for dead. This is a safe place. He can relax. He can play.
"I hope you're a good loser," he says sweetly, and Lu Han only grins at him.
"I can pretend to be one, but I don't usually have to."
Jongin steps out into Wonder Square first, surprised to find it open to the sky. The sun is setting over the Corel Desert and everything is tinted a thick, rapidly darkening orange. It's not ominous, like the red skies they've left behind, the kind they see in dreams. This is warm and welcoming, the approaching darkness offset by the bright, glowing lamps that border the square and the videos playing on the big screens. There's no evidence of games of any kind out here; rather, it's a place to relax, to sit on one of the many benches and watch the sun drop down below the buildings, to take a break before continuing to explore the Gold Saucer.
Maybe later. Their evening's only just begun.
Lu Han leads the way up some stairs on the left, through a glass-walled corridor and into a large room bursting with more colours than his shirt, filled with people playing games. Jongin doesn't recognise too many of the machines. There are games for people to play alone, and games for them to play against others. Games of physical strength and dexterity; games requiring mental agility or plain simple luck. Jongin slowly turns to see them all, unsure where to start.
"Feel like dancing?" Lu Han says, pointing to an unoccupied machine in the corner. It's in a couple of parts: a cabinet with a screen up top and giant speakers underneath, and a raised platform on the floor with two large, curved safety bars at the back.
"Dancing? Here?"
"I know it's not what you're used to, but I thought you might enjoy it anyway."
It's been a while since Jongin danced before an audience, but fortunately no one here is paying him any heed whatsoever, too absorbed in their own games. He listens to Lu Han's explanation of how he needs to step on the correct arrows as they appear on the screen, according to the beat of the song. It's not exactly dancing as he knows it. Nevertheless, it sounds like fun, and he steps willingly onto the platform.
"What about you?" he asks when Lu Han doesn't immediately follow. "The platform's for two, right?"
"Play it in single player mode first," Lu Han says. "It wouldn't be fair for me to go up against you when you've never tried it before."
"You care about it being fair?"
"I care when it's you." Lu Han reaches over the safety bar and slides his fingers around Jongin's hips, pressing just hard enough for Jongin to feel he means it. "Anyway, it's more fun for me to have some real competition."
Jongin looks back over his shoulder to smirk at Lu Han - real competition, indeed - and then the fingers are gone, and the music's begun, and he can't spare so much as a thought for anything else, his entire focus on moving his feet correctly as the arrows scroll up the screen. At first it seems like a puzzle, one he has to train himself to solve. He hopes no one's watching when he stumbles, brain and body not yet synchronised with the display, and steps on the wrong arrow pad by mistake. He figures Lu Han's probably getting a laugh out of this but there's only silence behind him.
Jongin's used to knowing the moves before he makes them, not reacting to commands on a display. He can't improvise either - not yet, although he thinks he might be able to add some flair of his own once he's mastered the steps. He's confident in this, at least. His body is his weapon; his survival is dependent on being able to exercise total control over it.
And like everything else, that takes practice. The first minute is an embarrassing, uncoordinated mess of flailing limbs and mis-steps. By the second minute, the mis-steps have given way to slow certainty - everything in the right place, just not necessarily at the right time.
By the the third, he's flying.
"Are you sure you've never done this before?" Lu Han asks when the song finishes and Jongin turns around, a little breathless but triumphant. His final results are not brilliant, but he knows the next song will be easier now he's got the hang of it.
"Positive." Jongin reaches out a hand, resting it on the back of Lu Han's neck to gently draw him forwards, and up onto the platform. Lu Han comes willingly. "Think I'll be much competition for you?"
"Let's find out."
Lu Han switches the game to Versus mode. The arrows begin to scroll again, this time with different moves. Jongin's ready for them now. Flashes of light on the screen match the beats of his heart, every step an instinctive reaction. He doesn't even have to think about it. He risks a glance at Lu Han, who's clearly no stranger to the game himself. His movements are not as smooth as Jongin's, and Jongin senses that this is more Lu Han trying to beat a game than actually dancing, but that's beside the point because in the end...that's what they're doing, isn't it? Dancing together, side by side on the platform.
Jongin's had more romantic dances. He's also had far less romantic dances, because some of his fellow ballet students were about as charming as slugs (though thankfully more graceful). At any rate, he's never danced with anyone who's been to him what Lu Han is now - whatever that might be - and even if it's just the two of them enacting a sequence of pre-programmed steps on a light-up platform, surrounded by total strangers hammering away at arcade games, he's still going to file it away in his memories as one of the brighter moments in these dark, troubled times.
When the song finishes Jongin glances across again. Lu Han's eyes and the corners of his mouth are creased with laughter; his hand flails wildly to bat Jongin on the arm, and Jongin's not sure the two of them have ever been this carefree together before.
"Looks like you won that round," Lu Han says with a nonchalant air, pointing to the on-screen results. "Barely."
That's not strictly accurate and they both know it, but Jongin decides to forgo obnoxious victory celebrations in favour of another round, because it feels so good to move his body without a fatality as the result. "Now you're warmed up too," he says. "Best two out of three?"
Two out of three it is. The first round goes to Jongin, but Lu Han takes the one after that - honestly, because there's no way Jongin's deliberately letting him win, and Lu Han does have the advantage of practice.
Jongin takes the final round. By now he's barely conscious of the arrows on the screen, brain translating the coloured pixels into sharp, precise actions and adding enhancements of his own without any need for thought. He's feeling the music more than hearing it.
"What was with all the arm movements?" Lu Han asks him afterwards, when they're leaning against the bars to catch their breath. "Those weren't part of the game."
"They were part of my dance," Jongin answers. He knows it sounds sort of pretentious, but it's the truth. His life is composed of a series of intricate motions - sometimes planned, sometimes improvised, never still. Even when he's at rest, the motion continues. The rise and fall of his chest as he breathes. The steady beat of his heart as it pumps blood around his body. The synapses firing in his brain. The only difference is the scale.
Lu Han bumps his shoulder loosely against Jongin's. "This was the closest thing I could think of - there's nowhere here for you to dance, unless you want to start doing impromptu performances outside."
"I think I'd need a drink first." Jongin doesn't have many opportunities to dance without witnesses, these days, unless he resorts to dancing in the shower. That doesn't mean he wants a repeat of his time in Junon, doing tipsy pirouettes in the street for the entertainment of anyone watching. He knows he gets weird around Lu Han when he's drunk, too, and he's not keen on that happening again.
Neither's Lu Han. "I think not. Did you have fun?"
Jongin leans down ever so slightly, so his head rests on Lu Han's shoulder. "What do you think?"
"I think lots of things, but most of them would get us thrown out of Wonder Square and I want to play more games first."
The next game they play is a basketball one, intended for a single player to score by throwing the ball through the hoop. Jongin has the height advantage. It doesn't do him much good, however - not when Lu Han insists on standing ridiculously close and being a distraction.
"You're lucky I haven't broken your nose," Jongin says, after the third time his elbow almost catches Lu Han in the face. It's hard to draw his arms back freely.
Lu Han shrugs, swiping the ball from Jongin so he can take his turn. "It would only last until I disappear. I've had a lot worse than a broken nose from your world, and it never sticks."
He takes a step back, raises his arms over his head, and with a quick jerk of his wrists bounces the ball neatly off the backboard and down through the hoop. He's mentioned playing sports with his fellow Summons before; Jongin figures he's probably had more practice at this, too. They're taking ten shots each; whoever scores the most wins the game.
"Must be nice, not needing someone to fix you up all the time." Jongin's drunk more Potions than he can count, and been healed by Restore materia a fair few times. At least now he's with Yixing, he doesn't have to pay for it.
"I didn't know that when I first came here here. I thought..." Lu Han pauses, lowering the ball he's holding, staring absently at the hoop as though he's forgotten all about trying to score. "I thought I'd bleed to death and that would be it."
"The Kalm Fangs?" Jongin asks, soft and low. Lu Han's only told him a little about the first time he crossed between worlds. Being suddenly confronted by a pack of savage wolves must've been terrifying for him.
"Yeah." Lu Han nods, eyes dropping to stare at the ground. "I didn't have armour then. Didn't even know it was an option."
He sounds so cold, so lost, that Jongin immediately slides an arm around his shoulders, squeezing tight in the hopes of conveying some of his own warmth. He doesn't like to ask for details. "But...you were okay afterwards, right? Physically?" He knows better than most how long scars on the soul can linger, whether they have physical counterparts or not.
It's something he hasn't thought about much. Every time he's watched a Summon attack, it's been a one hit kill - or multiple hits, in Lu Han's case, but he doesn't use magic. Either way, their enemies end up dead, and the Summons never acquire so much as a scratch. He's never seen them sick or injured. It's part of their mystique, and one of the reasons he'd spent so long thinking of them as all-knowing, all-powerful super beings. He knows better now.
"I didn't wake up at home, covered in blood," Lu Han says. "I should've."
He raises the ball overhead again, keeping it just high enough that he doesn't hit Jongin in the face with it as he draws it back, and shoots. The ball falls short. It hits the flat surface of the machine with a thud, and rolls back towards them for another go. It's the first time Lu Han's missed.
"I'm glad you didn't," Jongin says. "Yixing wouldn't have been there to fix you up."
Lu Han's short, bitter laugh is nothing like his normal expressive self, but it's a start. "I'd have gone to hospital, the same as anyone over here who didn't have access to Restore materia or Potions. The doctors use different equipment, but they do the same thing, really. Healing's just a lot slower without magic."
"I know." Most of the injuries Jongin's acquired over the years he's had to let heal the slow way. Growing up in the slums had made him an expert in gauging how much damage he could take before he had no choice but to pay for healing, and it was never with Magic materia, usually just a Potion, probably stolen from a hospital by one of his less than upstanding neighbours. Travelling with Yixing is a definite blessing. "There's really no magic in your world? None at all?"
The flash of disbelief across Lu Han's face says he knows very well that this is a diversionary tactic, but he lets it slide. "None."
"Did you ever try to take anything back to see if it would work? Like a Potion or something?"
"Once," Lu Han admits. "I had a bad cold, and I thought I'd take a Potion back to myself. It dried up completely before I could drink it. Some of the others have tried taking things home too; taking that piece of Dark Dragon hide back with me worked okay, but it's not like I could've used it to do something magical."
Personally, Jongin thinks the collar Lu Han made from that hide was pretty magical in itself. He's still wearing it now, the purple-black band a comforting weight against his throat, a reminder of the feelings that went into its creation. "Could you take me back?" he says boldly.
Lu Han smiles at him, wistful yet full of promise. "Don't think I don't want to. But we've tried that before, too. It wouldn't harm you, but you wouldn't go, either. I can only see you there in my dreams."
Jongin snorts at his Summon's corniness and swipes the ball to take his turn.
Despite Lu Han's slip, he's the eventual winner, finishing the game with eight points to Jongin's six. Nobody ends up with a broken nose, though Lu Han does his best to remedy this when he insists on stealing a victory kiss while Jongin's in the process of turning his head. It's sort of embarrassing, given where they are, but no one's paying attention anyway.
They're trying to decide what to play next when Jongin feels a tap on the shoulder. He whirls around, fists at the ready, only to find himself face to face with...another Lu Han?
Jongin gapes at the newcomer, who's even more casually dressed in denim shorts, a light blue T-shirt with some sort of cartoon duck on it and a cap with the bill facing backwards, but is, in every other way, identical to the man beside him, right down to the scar by his lip. He knows, in theory, that there are multiple Lu Hans running around out there, the same as there are multiple Baekhyuns, and Minseoks, and so on. Really, he should've encountered another one ages ago.
It's just that he never has.
"If you don't close that mouth I'm going to assume it's an invitation," the second Lu Han says, and Jongin's jaw snaps back into position on the double.
Jongin's own Lu Han gives his doppelganger a high-five, the two of them wearing identical expressions of glee. They've got Jongin standing between them, the odd one out in this trio, the only one wearing a different face - and his face, he's sure, is showing nothing but confusion right now. This is someone else's Lu Han, but whose?
"My master's over there, arm wrestling," the second Lu Han says, putting Jongin out of his misery. He can just about make out the figure of a woman with short, dark hair, dressed similarly to her Summon, throwing herself into the game with great enthusiasm. "We're going to go over to Speed Square and shoot things when she's done. Don't worry;" he pats Jongin on the hip, "I'm not sticking around to mess with your pretty little head."
A very, very small part of Jongin half-wishes he would, because Lu Han's the first person he's ever felt this way about, and therefore another Lu Han can only be a good thing. The rest of him, however, accepts that this is probably asking for trouble.
"I don't think you could handle two of me," Jongin's Lu Han teases as the other one walks away.
"It wouldn't be the first time." Jongin's threesome experience is limited to a handful of customers at the Honey Bee Inn - two of whom had been identical twins. But this isn't quite the same thing and he knows it.
"It would be for me," Lu Han says, "and I'm not that interested in talking to myself. I don't usually meet me."
"Did you know he was here?"
"He's me. Of course I knew." Lu Han's brow furrows in concentration. "How can I explain this? It's like having one brain that inhabits lots of bodies, only the bodies and parts of the brain are semi-autonomous, and other parts aren't? The body that's back home is like the control centre, but they're all me. I can tune into the others, but it's not exactly like they're 'others'."
"You're giving me a headache," Jongin says. "I'm going to pretend the rest of you don't exist now."
"I do that all the time. Although..." Lu Han sounds thoughtful, which means he's up to something Jongin may regret later. "It can be very useful, being in multiple places at once."
Jongin's afraid to ask. He gets himself a soda from the vending machine in the corner, sipping at it while he waits for more games to become free. Lu Han steals a few sips of his own, fastidiously wiping the neck of the bottle each time before letting it come into contact with his lips. Jongin finds this hilarious.
"It's not like you haven't swallowed any of my bodily fluids before," he says, deliberately not bothering to wipe the bottle before putting it to his own lips.
"That's different," Lu Han retorts, though he refuses to say how.
By the time they've finished sharing the soda, the other Lu Han and his master have left the room and Lu Han's got his heart set on the Wonder Catchers. They're filled with mounds of soft toys, each one cuter than the last. There are cuddly yellow ducklings, and sleek spotted leopards, and fluffy white alpacas. There are soft, squishy seals, and dolphins with playful eyes. There are even chocobos in all the colours of the rainbow - or at least all the colours of Lu Han's shirt.
Jongin hangs back and watches as Lu Han drops his coin in the slot and reaches for the controls with an intensity better suited to fighting battles. There's no danger of death here, though. It's man versus machine, in a struggle for plushies, and it's by no means an easy one. On his first go, Lu Han manages to manoeuvre the crane into position above one of the ducklings, but his grasp on its beak is too shallow and in trying to firm it up, he only succeeds in knocking it aside.
Undeterred, he drops in another coin. The duckling's at an awkward angle now so he gives up on it, choosing a pale pink chocobo as his new target. The crane closes around it and Lu Han brings it up slowly, easing it across the plushie pile. Before he reaches the drop zone, the time runs out and the arms open, releasing the chocobo before returning to the centre. The plushie's still too far away. Lu Han curses and makes a third attempt.
His eyes light up as he manages to capture the pink chocobo again. It's not getting away this time. The crane wends its way back towards them, and for a moment it looks like the clock will run out again...but it reaches the drop zone just in time for the chocobo to tumble down into the box below. Triumphant, Lu Han plucks it out and dusts off its little pink head.
"For you," he says, presenting the chocobo to Jongin.
Jongin blinks. "You won me a pink chocobo?"
"I didn't see any deer," Lu Han says, shoving it at him. "Here, take it. On the nights I'm not around, you can cuddle it and think of me."
There's only one response Jongin can possibly make to that and he does, whacking Lu Han solidly on the arm with one hand while cradling the chocobo to his chest with the other. It's sort of cute, though he'd rather not be seen walking around with it by anyone he knows. Lu Han takes the smack in lieu of thanks and hits him back to say he's welcome.
Fortunately for Jongin, Lu Han's satisfied after having won just the one plushie. Neither of them fancy the remaining games on this floor, but upstairs is a whole new challenge. A room full of simulators...and one where winning involves feeding the correct number of nuts to small, cute animals. Evidently this one is not manly enough for Lu Han, who rejects it in favour of a motorbike simulator.
"You might recognise the location," Lu Han says, and when Jongin sees the scenery passing by on the screen, he recognises it immediately. Midgar. Not, thankfully, the slums he grew up in, but he's covered his fair share of ground in the city and he knows this road.
It's a single-player game. Jongin goes first, straddling the bike and gripping the controls. The bike's in constant motion, once the game starts - he steers with his whole body, leaning left and right as he follows the truck on the screen, driving full-throttle out of Midgar. It's nothing like riding a chocobo; he thinks he could get used to it, with practice. Watching the roads and night skies fly past on the screen is exhilarating to the point where he can practically feel the wind blowing through his hair and skimming his cheeks as he rides. Were it not for the enemy riders zooming along next to his avatar, eager to destroy the truck, he could almost pretend he's riding for pleasure.
But he can't ignore them, or the game's over. A red rider appears on his left and he slams his hand down on the button, swiping his on-screen sword across the rider's back. The enemy biker falls away.
It's strange, fighting with a blade, even if it's not real. Jongin's used to having only his body as a weapon - as long as his strength holds out, he's never unarmed. Besides, blades were what the gangs had, back in the Sector 7 slums. Cheap, basic knives for thugs who couldn't afford anything fancier, but the price made no difference if they pierced your skin.
The blade on the screen now is more like an animated version of Kris's broadsword, and Jongin thinks the whole scenario is not terribly realistic. Not on a motorbike. Wouldn't he overbalance, swinging the sword from side to side like that? He mashes buttons to wipe out the red and orange riders, careful not to tilt too far, and imagines what it would be like to ride like this outside, with Lu Han sitting behind him, arms wrapped around his waist as they fly through the darkened streets.
There's a burst of orange light across the screen; Jongin blinks at what must be sunrise, only that doesn't seem to fit with the game's midnight escape. He can't even see the truck. All the riders have fallen away and he's alone on the road.
No. Not quite alone. There are hands pressing against his stomach, fingers curling under the hem of his jacket and tickling the skin beneath. Lu Han always teases, but he knows better than to distract Jongin when they're going this fast, the miles falling away behind them as they chase the sun on its way over the horizon. His chest is warm against Jongin's back; despite the wind's chill, Jongin's whole body is flush with the heat that comes from such intimacy. There's no one out here to see them. Everyone else is still asleep, saving their strength for the struggles to come.
Sometimes Lu Han rides his own bike; sometimes, he's content to share Jongin's, the two of them leaning as one into corners, rarely speaking, but comfortable with each other as though they've spent a thousand lifetimes together. Perhaps they have and this is merely the latest. It won't be the last.
Sunrise suddenly gives way to midnight, the truck and its pursuers returning to the screen. Jongin's disoriented by the change of scene. What was that? Daydream? Hallucination? His hands fall slack beside the controls. He's lost points, he can tell - the truck has obviously been hit while he was unaware of the game. Catching up doesn't seem important, somehow. There's nothing in this game as real as the dream he's just had, though he knows full well he's never ridden a motorbike before.
There's a light touch at the small of his back, Lu Han asking if he's okay. Jongin gives himself a brisk mental shake, sliding his fingers back over the buttons. Finish the game first, then figure it out.
In the end, he scores well over ten thousand points - enough for the machine to spit out a prize voucher. Jongin stares at it for a moment, puzzling over what to do with it, but an attendant pops up beside him and takes it off his hands, exchanging it for a small bag of goodies. She warns him to be careful how he handles the contents before disappearing to help someone else.
"I saw the high score table," Lu Han says. "You beat the reigning champ. You must've been really on form tonight, to do so well without even playing the whole time."
"About that..."
"Hmm?"
"When I stopped playing, did I...did I seem like..."
"I can't answer you if you can't get the question out," Lu Han says. "Seem like what?"
"Like...um..." Jongin chews on his lip for a few seconds, trying to formulate something that doesn't make him sound unstable. "Like...I was somewhere else?"
"You were right here the whole time - I was watching."
"Did you sit behind me?"
Lu Han pats the seat, which Jongin has now vacated. "Does it look like there's room for two? Anyway, wouldn't you have noticed if I'd tried?"
He has a point about the lack of space. The simulator bike is much smaller than the real thing. "I'm not sure," Jongin says hesitantly. "It felt like you were, and we were riding together. But I didn't see the game screen - I saw a sunrise."
Lu Han's mouth forms a little 'o' of surprise, before realisation slowly dawns on him and he breaks into a smile. "I had a dream like that once, only it was at sunset. We were going away the next day, and we wanted to drive after it one more time."
"Did it really happen?"
"I believe it did, but," Lu Han shrugs, "it's hard to tell what's a piece of the past, and what's wishful thinking - at least where you're concerned. This is the first time for you, isn't it? Remembering something from before?"
Jongin nods. "I thought it would be like the dream with the tree. You said it would be something we wouldn't want to remember."
"That's the part I don't like remembering. But there are other things that are much more pleasant to think about. Things with you, for instance."
Jongin wonders, not for the first time, what sort of memories Lu Han has of him. If he was someone else back then, are they really of 'him' at all? Or a stranger who wore his face, who shared heart and soul with a different Lu Han. He's never asked what Lu Han remembers about them, and maybe it's for the best if he doesn't know. He's certain matters ended badly with the tree.
Lu Han doesn't wait for him to ask. "I remember watching you learn to teleport. You could only go short distances at first, and you weren't very good at controlling your landing sites. You misjudged one day and landed up in the river. I laughed so hard, my stomach still hurt from it when I realised I'd been dreaming."
"Do you remember anything that doesn't make me sound stupid?" Jongin asks, feeling his face grow warm with embarrassment.
"Pieces of things." Lu Han laughs, but doesn't elaborate. "For later."
Jongin hopes his past self wasn't a total klutz. He's clearly not going to find out right now. "I wonder what I've won?" he muses, finally remembering that he's holding a prize bag. "I guess it can't be money."
"You can win useful things here sometimes." Lu Han reaches for the bag. "I hope it's not Loco Weed. I don't want to have to try to cure your confusion again."
It's not Loco Weed. It is, however, a mixed bag of magical items that Jongin can use on monsters. He's not entirely certain what all of them are, but Yixing will know, and they can use all the resources they can get. Only having Summons and short-range attacks is turning out to be a real liability. If materia weren't so expensive, buying Magic materia would be a tremendous help.
"Hmm, there's a Spider Web," Lu Han says with a fond smile, and Jongin knows he's remembering the last time they used one together, back in Junon, with slow, tender touches that seemed to go on forever. "And I think that's a Mute Mask - shame I can't take it home to use on Baekhyun. Those look like Dazers, and...I don't think I know that one."
Jongin peers inside the bag. "The little green and red thing?"
"Yeah. I'm not even sure it's supposed to be in there; it looks like a vegetable..." So saying, Lu Han reaches into the bag to extract the mystery object for closer examination.
Next thing Jongin knows, the bag's on the floor and Lu Han's nowhere in sight.
Part 2