[DC/11] Like Metal and Glass [Kyuhyun/Henry, PG-13]
Prompt 11. Colors, “kneeling on glass”. Kyuhyun/Henry
Rating: PG-13 | Genre: AU!General, Romance | Disclaimer: I don't own them, SME does. Plot is mine. | Summary: They both expect to break someday, but Henry knows someone will be there to collect his pieces. What about Kyuhyun?
Warning: UN-BETA'D. Rushed and long.
A thousand stories above the ground, and he stares down through the transparent glass floors. It’s an odd thrill, but he likes this feeling; the feeling of being above everyone else, higher than the Earth but just beneath the skies.
It makes him feel as if he owns the world.
“It’s time to meet with the consultants,” his assistant reminds from the side.
Kyuhyun sighs, pushing himself away from the bar by the window and straightening his suit as he heads for the elevators. “How many are there?”
“You are meeting with two today, sir.”
“So there are more,” Kyuhyun furrows his brows. “How many more?”
His assistant flips through his notebook, running a finger down the list of names. “About eleven.”
“If they didn’t want me to tear this place down so badly, they shouldn’t have told me to plan it in the first place,” Kyuhyun groans. “They make it seem as if I’m the bad guy.”
“Aren’t you?” His assistant asks.
Kyuhyun smiles weakly. “I am.”
-
When he looks at the two consultants, all he sees is a blur of colors. In the not so literal sense.
“In Henry’s opinion, the best way to take apart this structure is story by story. Starting from the top,” one of the consultants explains.
Kyuhyun crosses his arms over his chest, tilting his head. “Obviously.”
The man frowns. “Henry doesn’t want it to be broken apart. He wants it taken apart, piece by piece.”
“How is that possible? The glass windows are too big - it’s simply not worth the man power and effort,” Kyuhyun argues. “I can’t agree to it.”
The one called Henry shifts his weight from one leg to the other. He reaches out subtly to tug on the other man’s sleeve. White reaching out for Black. The man nods at him. “Then I suggest that you put someone else in charge; someone more capable.”
“Siwon-ssi,” Kyuhyun’s assistant tries to console, “Kyuhyun is not trying to degrade your ideas, nor is he saying your opinions are unimportant - please don’t take his words to offense. Why don’t we treat you two to a drink while we further discuss the construction plans?”
Siwon glances over at Henry, who nods timidly.
“Okay,” Siwon agrees. “Only because of you, Shindong-ssi.”
-
“I don’t understand,” Kyuhyun whispers to Shindong, watching as Siwon fishes into his messengers bag for something in the distance as Henry waits patiently. “We’ve got eleven other consultants that we need to and will meet with - why do we have to cater to these two?”
Shindong looks Kyuhyun in the eye firmly. “Why do you think we’re meeting with them, out of all the eleven others, first?”
Kyuhyun doesn’t reply, but he knows.
“They have their reasons, Kyuhyun. Don’t disregard them. Especially Henry-ssi; he may look young and vulnerable, but he’s smart. He’s got good foundations for his work.”
“Who is he?” Kyuhyun asks.
Siwon hands Henry a bottle, and Henry pours a couple capsules into his palm before returning it. After Henry swallows them with ease, Siwon breaks into a smile and pats the boy on the crown of his head. Henry smiles, too.
“Ask him.”
When the two approach the table, Kyuhyun is sitting properly at the edge of his chair. “So, why are the two of you so anxious about this project?”
Henry looks down and sets his folders on the table as Siwon faces Kyuhyun to answer the question. “Our grandfather was the one who built this tower,” he explains, “Henry wants to be the one who takes it down.”
Kyuhyun scoffs. “What?”
Siwon chews on his bottom lip, seeing Henry flip the pages of the folder open out of the corner of his eye. “Henry and our grandfather were very close. Our grandfather told him, before he passed away, that if anyone were to take this place apart, he wanted it to be Henry. With his own two hands.”
“Why doesn’t he speak?” Kyuhyun asks. Shindong nudges him in the elbow, but he brushes him off.
“He doesn’t have to,” Siwon raised a brow, “I can do it for him.”
Kyuhyun kept his eyes trained on Henry, who acted aloof - as if he weren’t a part of this conversation at all - but Kyuhyun knew he was listening. By the small reactions; twitch of his brows, brush of his fingers over the paper, the way he bit down on his lips, it all gave him away.
“You can’t always be there for him,” Kyuhyun deadpanned. “He has to learn to make it on his own.”
Shindong cleared his throat, but Kyuhyun ignored him.
Siwon lowered his eyes. “I know that I can’t always be here for him, but someone will.”
“Hyung,” Henry mutters under his breath. Siwon looks at him and smiles. Henry reaches over to squeeze his hand.
The older boy ruffles the younger one’s hair affectionately. “I know,” he says.
Kyuhyun and Shindong don’t hear the unsaid words, but they both think they understand. If anything, the desperate look in Henry’s eyes said it all.
I don’t want to be alone.
-
He’s standing at the top of the world again. When he looks down, it’s not the peaceful scene of foreign people pacing beneath him; it is the sight of monster trucks, laborers, yellow construction hats walking back and forth.
When he turns to the side, Henry is standing not too far away, staring into the distance.
“It must hurt you to know this place is about to vanish.”
Henry does not reply or respond; he merely blinks ahead at Kyuhyun’s words.
“Why don’t you try to stop me? Why don’t you ask me to quit this project and keep the building?” Kyuhyun inquires.
The boy finally sighs and turns to face him, his brown eyes unreadable but filled with emotion - want. “Even if you wanted to, you wouldn’t be able to stop it,” he says.
Kyuhyun is taken aback by his words; strong, but so emotionless. “How do you know?”
“Because like me, you have no choice.”
“What?” Kyuhyun laughs. “I don’t care whether or not this place stays.”
The corners of Henry’s lips lift, and he smirks at the taller boy. Henry straightens himself out, stretching his arms above his head. “Only here can you feel as if you’re really at your peak. When you look down at the world, they are but mere beings walking beneath you. Here, you feel safe - valuable.”
Kyuhyun doesn’t bother to deny it.
“That’s how my grandfather felt, too,” Henry continues. “He felt so small when he walked amongst the crowds, sitting before his panel of co-workers, consultants, and judges. But once this place was built and he stood up here, looking down, he felt as if he owned the world.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Kyuhyun asks, taking steps closer to the boy.
When they were standing beside each other, he towered over Henry. Henry gazed up at him, a small smile on his thinned lips. “Because you remind me of him - my grandpa, I mean.”
Kyuhyun felt the desire to reach out and stroke the boy’s cheek; he looked like a lost child, his eyes drowned out of fear, filled with hope and want. He wanted to tell him it would all be okay; that when it’s all over, there is still a place for him somewhere out there.
There’s always a place.
Henry looked away. “When my grandpa told me that, I wanted to crash this tower down.”
The taller boy leaned towards the window, supporting himself by the rail. “Why?”
“Because when he said things like that, he felt so distanced from me. It was as if he didn’t want anything to do with the world - he wanted to be isolated, alone. I felt as if he didn’t want me, or any of us, for that matter.”
Kyuhyun hummed, staring up at the sky. Is that also how he felt, when he looked at everyone the thousand stories beneath them? Did he want to be faraway - closed off from the rest of the world?
“And now he really is too far for me to reach,” Henry laughed bitterly.
“I know why you let Siwon-ssi do all the speaking now,” Kyuhyun analyzed.
Henry glanced at him with interest.
“When you speak, nothing beautiful comes from your lips. It’s all depressing, filled with grief. Listening to Siwon-ssi’s rude remarks is much better than listening to you.”
Henry grins, nodding subtly as he looks towards the city building before him again. “I agree.”
“Speaking to you is like kneeling on glass,” Kyuhyun sighs, “however transparent you seem, it’s like everything I say might make you crumble if I put too much pressure into it, because you look so fragile. In truth, you’re like steel - you don’t break easily.”
Henry silently agrees, looking on with no response.
Kyuhyun leans towards him, his face inches from the other’s. “But all metals break eventually, no matter how strong - black or gray.”
“I have someone who will always be here and willing to catch the pieces if I break,” Henry counters, facing Kyuhyun. Their faces are close, so close. “Do you?”
“No,” Kyuhyun shakes his head, pulling himself away before he does something regrettable. “I don’t believe so.”
Henry smiles, reaching out and running the back of his fingers over Kyuhyun’s cheek tentatively before he backs away from him. “You don’t know that for sure.”
When Kyuhyun turns around to press Henry for an explanation, Henry is already standing by Siwon’s side, going over floor plans with him. He feels the blush surge to his cheeks, tapping at them softly to make the redness disappear.
“I’m sending in a construction proposal tonight, Shindong hyung,” Kyuhyun announces when Shindong appears beside him. “Prepare my crew at the office for a meeting right after our schedule here; tell them it’s urgent.”
“What fo-”
Kyuhyun grins at him, raising a hand to pat his shoulder.
“I’m building a tower. We’re naming it ‘Ansia’, and Henry-ssi will be in charge of constructing it. Quick, we’re running out of time. I want it done before this place is completely torn down.”
Shindong frowns. “What are you-”
“No time for questions,” Kyuhyun urges, “it’s a gift.”
Shindong sighs, nodding as he runs for the elevator with his cellular in hand.
Kyuhyun smiles happily, his eyes not once leaving Henry’s figure. When Henry glances back at him, he beams, and Henry appears confused.
A place I’ll share with you, so you’re never alone. We can catch each other’s pieces, shards that are like metal and glass. Because we will break someday, and someone will be there. Why not you and I? To collect the broken pieces, when the world breaks the unbreakable. When the world breaks us, and all that we carry.
Something like love.
-----
[DC10: Kyuhyun/Victoria] ♦ [DC12. Donghae/Sungmin]
-----
A/N: Ansia means 'an intense desire for something in particular' (Italian). Can you guess, in Kyuhyun's case, what it is he desires? ^-^
Rating: PG-13 | Genre: AU!General, Romance | Disclaimer: I don't own them, SME does. Plot is mine. | Summary: They both expect to break someday, but Henry knows someone will be there to collect his pieces. What about Kyuhyun?
Warning: UN-BETA'D. Rushed and long.
A thousand stories above the ground, and he stares down through the transparent glass floors. It’s an odd thrill, but he likes this feeling; the feeling of being above everyone else, higher than the Earth but just beneath the skies.
It makes him feel as if he owns the world.
“It’s time to meet with the consultants,” his assistant reminds from the side.
Kyuhyun sighs, pushing himself away from the bar by the window and straightening his suit as he heads for the elevators. “How many are there?”
“You are meeting with two today, sir.”
“So there are more,” Kyuhyun furrows his brows. “How many more?”
His assistant flips through his notebook, running a finger down the list of names. “About eleven.”
“If they didn’t want me to tear this place down so badly, they shouldn’t have told me to plan it in the first place,” Kyuhyun groans. “They make it seem as if I’m the bad guy.”
“Aren’t you?” His assistant asks.
Kyuhyun smiles weakly. “I am.”
-
When he looks at the two consultants, all he sees is a blur of colors. In the not so literal sense.
“In Henry’s opinion, the best way to take apart this structure is story by story. Starting from the top,” one of the consultants explains.
Kyuhyun crosses his arms over his chest, tilting his head. “Obviously.”
The man frowns. “Henry doesn’t want it to be broken apart. He wants it taken apart, piece by piece.”
“How is that possible? The glass windows are too big - it’s simply not worth the man power and effort,” Kyuhyun argues. “I can’t agree to it.”
The one called Henry shifts his weight from one leg to the other. He reaches out subtly to tug on the other man’s sleeve. White reaching out for Black. The man nods at him. “Then I suggest that you put someone else in charge; someone more capable.”
“Siwon-ssi,” Kyuhyun’s assistant tries to console, “Kyuhyun is not trying to degrade your ideas, nor is he saying your opinions are unimportant - please don’t take his words to offense. Why don’t we treat you two to a drink while we further discuss the construction plans?”
Siwon glances over at Henry, who nods timidly.
“Okay,” Siwon agrees. “Only because of you, Shindong-ssi.”
-
“I don’t understand,” Kyuhyun whispers to Shindong, watching as Siwon fishes into his messengers bag for something in the distance as Henry waits patiently. “We’ve got eleven other consultants that we need to and will meet with - why do we have to cater to these two?”
Shindong looks Kyuhyun in the eye firmly. “Why do you think we’re meeting with them, out of all the eleven others, first?”
Kyuhyun doesn’t reply, but he knows.
“They have their reasons, Kyuhyun. Don’t disregard them. Especially Henry-ssi; he may look young and vulnerable, but he’s smart. He’s got good foundations for his work.”
“Who is he?” Kyuhyun asks.
Siwon hands Henry a bottle, and Henry pours a couple capsules into his palm before returning it. After Henry swallows them with ease, Siwon breaks into a smile and pats the boy on the crown of his head. Henry smiles, too.
“Ask him.”
When the two approach the table, Kyuhyun is sitting properly at the edge of his chair. “So, why are the two of you so anxious about this project?”
Henry looks down and sets his folders on the table as Siwon faces Kyuhyun to answer the question. “Our grandfather was the one who built this tower,” he explains, “Henry wants to be the one who takes it down.”
Kyuhyun scoffs. “What?”
Siwon chews on his bottom lip, seeing Henry flip the pages of the folder open out of the corner of his eye. “Henry and our grandfather were very close. Our grandfather told him, before he passed away, that if anyone were to take this place apart, he wanted it to be Henry. With his own two hands.”
“Why doesn’t he speak?” Kyuhyun asks. Shindong nudges him in the elbow, but he brushes him off.
“He doesn’t have to,” Siwon raised a brow, “I can do it for him.”
Kyuhyun kept his eyes trained on Henry, who acted aloof - as if he weren’t a part of this conversation at all - but Kyuhyun knew he was listening. By the small reactions; twitch of his brows, brush of his fingers over the paper, the way he bit down on his lips, it all gave him away.
“You can’t always be there for him,” Kyuhyun deadpanned. “He has to learn to make it on his own.”
Shindong cleared his throat, but Kyuhyun ignored him.
Siwon lowered his eyes. “I know that I can’t always be here for him, but someone will.”
“Hyung,” Henry mutters under his breath. Siwon looks at him and smiles. Henry reaches over to squeeze his hand.
The older boy ruffles the younger one’s hair affectionately. “I know,” he says.
Kyuhyun and Shindong don’t hear the unsaid words, but they both think they understand. If anything, the desperate look in Henry’s eyes said it all.
I don’t want to be alone.
-
He’s standing at the top of the world again. When he looks down, it’s not the peaceful scene of foreign people pacing beneath him; it is the sight of monster trucks, laborers, yellow construction hats walking back and forth.
When he turns to the side, Henry is standing not too far away, staring into the distance.
“It must hurt you to know this place is about to vanish.”
Henry does not reply or respond; he merely blinks ahead at Kyuhyun’s words.
“Why don’t you try to stop me? Why don’t you ask me to quit this project and keep the building?” Kyuhyun inquires.
The boy finally sighs and turns to face him, his brown eyes unreadable but filled with emotion - want. “Even if you wanted to, you wouldn’t be able to stop it,” he says.
Kyuhyun is taken aback by his words; strong, but so emotionless. “How do you know?”
“Because like me, you have no choice.”
“What?” Kyuhyun laughs. “I don’t care whether or not this place stays.”
The corners of Henry’s lips lift, and he smirks at the taller boy. Henry straightens himself out, stretching his arms above his head. “Only here can you feel as if you’re really at your peak. When you look down at the world, they are but mere beings walking beneath you. Here, you feel safe - valuable.”
Kyuhyun doesn’t bother to deny it.
“That’s how my grandfather felt, too,” Henry continues. “He felt so small when he walked amongst the crowds, sitting before his panel of co-workers, consultants, and judges. But once this place was built and he stood up here, looking down, he felt as if he owned the world.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Kyuhyun asks, taking steps closer to the boy.
When they were standing beside each other, he towered over Henry. Henry gazed up at him, a small smile on his thinned lips. “Because you remind me of him - my grandpa, I mean.”
Kyuhyun felt the desire to reach out and stroke the boy’s cheek; he looked like a lost child, his eyes drowned out of fear, filled with hope and want. He wanted to tell him it would all be okay; that when it’s all over, there is still a place for him somewhere out there.
There’s always a place.
Henry looked away. “When my grandpa told me that, I wanted to crash this tower down.”
The taller boy leaned towards the window, supporting himself by the rail. “Why?”
“Because when he said things like that, he felt so distanced from me. It was as if he didn’t want anything to do with the world - he wanted to be isolated, alone. I felt as if he didn’t want me, or any of us, for that matter.”
Kyuhyun hummed, staring up at the sky. Is that also how he felt, when he looked at everyone the thousand stories beneath them? Did he want to be faraway - closed off from the rest of the world?
“And now he really is too far for me to reach,” Henry laughed bitterly.
“I know why you let Siwon-ssi do all the speaking now,” Kyuhyun analyzed.
Henry glanced at him with interest.
“When you speak, nothing beautiful comes from your lips. It’s all depressing, filled with grief. Listening to Siwon-ssi’s rude remarks is much better than listening to you.”
Henry grins, nodding subtly as he looks towards the city building before him again. “I agree.”
“Speaking to you is like kneeling on glass,” Kyuhyun sighs, “however transparent you seem, it’s like everything I say might make you crumble if I put too much pressure into it, because you look so fragile. In truth, you’re like steel - you don’t break easily.”
Henry silently agrees, looking on with no response.
Kyuhyun leans towards him, his face inches from the other’s. “But all metals break eventually, no matter how strong - black or gray.”
“I have someone who will always be here and willing to catch the pieces if I break,” Henry counters, facing Kyuhyun. Their faces are close, so close. “Do you?”
“No,” Kyuhyun shakes his head, pulling himself away before he does something regrettable. “I don’t believe so.”
Henry smiles, reaching out and running the back of his fingers over Kyuhyun’s cheek tentatively before he backs away from him. “You don’t know that for sure.”
When Kyuhyun turns around to press Henry for an explanation, Henry is already standing by Siwon’s side, going over floor plans with him. He feels the blush surge to his cheeks, tapping at them softly to make the redness disappear.
“I’m sending in a construction proposal tonight, Shindong hyung,” Kyuhyun announces when Shindong appears beside him. “Prepare my crew at the office for a meeting right after our schedule here; tell them it’s urgent.”
“What fo-”
Kyuhyun grins at him, raising a hand to pat his shoulder.
“I’m building a tower. We’re naming it ‘Ansia’, and Henry-ssi will be in charge of constructing it. Quick, we’re running out of time. I want it done before this place is completely torn down.”
Shindong frowns. “What are you-”
“No time for questions,” Kyuhyun urges, “it’s a gift.”
Shindong sighs, nodding as he runs for the elevator with his cellular in hand.
Kyuhyun smiles happily, his eyes not once leaving Henry’s figure. When Henry glances back at him, he beams, and Henry appears confused.
A place I’ll share with you, so you’re never alone. We can catch each other’s pieces, shards that are like metal and glass. Because we will break someday, and someone will be there. Why not you and I? To collect the broken pieces, when the world breaks the unbreakable. When the world breaks us, and all that we carry.
Something like love.
-----
[DC10: Kyuhyun/Victoria] ♦ [DC12. Donghae/Sungmin]
-----
A/N: Ansia means 'an intense desire for something in particular' (Italian). Can you guess, in Kyuhyun's case, what it is he desires? ^-^