Castles of Sand: Part Four
Title: Castles of Sand
Genre: Fluff
Character: Dongho
Rating: PG
Summary: Dongho's a special kid.
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It wasn’t unusual for kids in Dongho’s neighborhood to be born with a little something extra. Dongho himself was gifted, along with his two brothers and one of two sisters. The unlucky, ungifted one was jealous and vocalized it more often than necessary, but no one cared about listening to her anyways. It was all about the four that had it, had what made them different that her.
Taemin could levitate things. As he got older, his strength increased and he could pick up larger objects. At age eight, he was strong enough to pick up a chair with his mind, something his parents were overly excited about.
Key had wings. Two extensions of skin, bone, and glossy black feathers protruded from his back, between his shoulder blades. Some gave him odd looks and names to match, but most didn’t mind the mutation and a lot of people actually liked it.
Suzy could start fires without the help of matches or torches. The feat took time and concentration but she never failed to light the spark. Sometimes Suzy enjoyed starting fires a little more than she should but no one blamed her. If they could do the same thing, they’d do it as often as she did too.
Then there was Dongho, the youngest of the middle children. Younger than Key and Suzy - and Hanna, but no one cared. He was older than Taemin. Dongho had the ability to manipulate sand. It was useful for the times Suzy decided to be childish rather than act her age, when she’d set fire to things that were never meant to burn. Dongho smothered the flames with sand, leaving behind a charred vase of flowers or the ashes of Dongho’s homework.
While Taemin was trying to levitate something heavier than a chair, Suzy was off contributing to global warming, and Key was flying with his weird bird friends or showing off to his grounded neighbors, Dongho built castles.
It wasn’t the coolest thing he could do, but no one ever complained when he let them inside to examine the castles he builds. The sand holds together because Dongho wanted it to. If he wanted to be evil, he could tell the sand to collapse on top of everyone inside it.
But Dongho was good. He built a taller tower for Key to fly to. A room of sand for Suzy so his sister wouldn’t set the house on fire when she wanted to “practice.” He couldn’t think of much for Taemin but let the younger boy attempt to lift him into the air whenever Taemin wanted.
They grew up like that together. Hanna moved out as soon as possible to get away from her four siblings and find work to support herself, but no one cared. No one noticed the moving truck parked in front of their house, because if it wasn’t for one of them or any of their friends, it wasn’t interesting. The gifted ones never worked. They didn’t need to. They all lived in the castles of sand Dongho made for them, and sometimes there would be the occasional passerby looking for a new home. The four collected people until they had a family of their own. None of them went to work, they all had everything they needed within each other.
Dongho provided shelter. Suzy kept them warm in the winter and cooked the food Sungmin conjured. Key and Taemin entertained the others, lifting them into the air with both wings and mind. Yoseob was a walking water faucet.
Even when Dongho was in an actual house made of plaster and siding rather than grains of sand, even when his parents were still alive, Dongho never felt more at home than he did then.