Memorandum for tyreling 3/3
“What do you want to do today?” Kris smiles, as he holds the door open for Jongin.
Jongin shrugs and trudges in, setting his backpack on the floor - the one that Kris and Lu Han had gotten for him at some flea. “I feel like drawing,” Jongin comments, as Kris settles down on the ground next to him.
Kris winces slightly and wrinkles his nose in disdain. “You draw, I’ll watch.”
“No!!!” Jongin exclaims, breaking into fits of laughter when Kris tackles him and pokes at his sides, until Jongin’s rolling on the ground, his bangs falling in his eyes.
It ends, much to Kris’s disappointment, with Kris holding a green crayon, trying desperately to draw what he would insist is a crocodile, if anyone asks. Jongin steals a glance at his drawing and bursts into a giggling fit, as Kris throws his hands up in mock surrender and says, “You win, you win!!! Now, show me what you’re drawing.”
Jongin nods excitedly and slides the paper over to Kris, who simply gawks at it. For an eleven year old - eleven and a half, Jongin would exclaim, if Kris were to ever say that aloud - Jongin captures detail amazingly, with his pencil sketch from Kris’s sharp nose, all the way down to the creases in his favourite black blazer.
Jongin climbs into Kris’s lap and points at the picture enthusiastically, saying, “This is you. This is seonsaengnim. This is Kyungsoo and this is me.”
Kris laughs a little, at the two kids, less than half of him and Lu Han’s height, imitating a typical superhero pose. “And what are you two doing? Pretending to be Batman and Robin?”
This earns him a light whack in the shoulder from Jongin, who continues, “No! Kyungsoo and I are going to save the world when we grow up. Side by side, studying by day, fighting crime by night.”
Kris frowns a little, handing Jongin back his sketch, while Jongin sprawls out on the ground and adds more details to the sketch.
So where is Jongin in our world?
Kris leans against the back of his sofa and reaches for his phone, clicking on the most recent group photo that the police force had taken with the government body. He scans through the crowd of familiar faces, tries to imagine how each of them would look as children, but ends up drawing a blank instead.
“Hey, Jongin?”
Jongin looks up at him, his head cocked to one side. “Let’s say, hypothetically, what if you’re not in Kyungsoo’s future?”
This earns him a loud huff, as Jongin slams his fist into Kris’s leg, while Kris attempts to laugh it off. “I said hypothetically!”
Jongin blinks at him, stares down at the picture before him and says slowly, “I would track him down and ask him why, why did he break the promise that he will never leave me, even if the world were to end tomorrow.”
Kris finds himself speechless for the second time within a short time span of five minutes, as he sets his phone down on the table before them, carefully thinking through his next words. “You’re really good friends with Kyungsoo, aren’t you?”
Jongin nods happily, his eyes shining as he gestures wildly. “Seonsaengnim says we’re like brothers, or maybe twins. Where you find one, is the place that you’ll find the other.”
Then why aren’t you in Kyungsoo’s future?
He watches Jongin ramble on about their friendship, about the promises between them, about how nothing could ever tear them apart. Kris smiles a little, his mind flooding with images of Yixing describing the two of them in the same manner back when they were teenagers, back when Kris had still been naive enough to believe that there could have been a ‘them’, instead of a ‘me and you’.
“If there were ever a day that we were apart, or that Kyungsoo were to leave me behind, I would track him down and I will get him back, win or lose.”
Kris freezes, his eyes locked on Jongin, who has resumed his sketching.
No matter how hard you try to run, I will get you back - win or lose.
He doesn’t even notice when the green crayon rolls out of his grasp, snapping into half as it hits the ground, or the way Jongin’s eyes widen in confusion when Kris takes a few steps away from the hand outstretched to him.
The only thing that strikes him is that all this time, he’s been training and loving the person who’s been bent on destroying his world.
-
It comes as an obvious surprise to Lu Han when he returns home to find Kris crouched at his door step, staring blankly into the space before him.
"Yifan?"
Kris looks up, his mind still whirling in confusion, unsure of how he even ended up on Lu Han's doorstep in the first place, as he watches Lu Han fish for his keys and unlock the door.
"I was grabbing supper with Minseok. You should have called if you wanted someth-"
He stops abruptly, keys clanking to the ground noisily, when Kris pushes himself off the ground and wraps his long limbs around Lu Han, head pressed into the crook of Lu Han's neck. There are comforting hands running down Kris's back, as Lu Han attempts to close the door behind them.
"What's wrong? Don't scare me," Lu Han asks when Kris pulls away, fingers pressing against the side of Kris's face.
"Please teach me," Kris gasps, his gaze fixed on the ground. "Teach me what I'm supposed to do from this point."
Fingers press against Kris's chin lightly, pushing it up so that Kris's eyes lock with Lu Han. "I don't understand. I thought you found Kyungsoo and now your only job is to protect him."
"Drone is but a tool in this elaborate plot. Killing him doesn't solve the root of the problem unless I can get rid of Kai too."
When Lu Han frowns at him, creases pressing into his forehead, Kris lets out a huge sigh and tries to swallow the lump in his throat. Lu Han only smiles at him in return, fingers looping through the gaps of Kris's, as he shoves him down on the sofa and settles down beside him.
"Wait, I'm not in the mood to fu-"
Lu Han stifles a laugh and pulls Kris's head onto his lap. "You horny asshole."
Kris shifts slightly, trying to shield his embarrassment with the back of his hand while clearing his throat awkwardly. Lu Han busies himself by threading fingers through Kris's hair, dry and worn by cheap colored dye, and humming a soft tune under his breath.
Unknowingly, Kris leans into the gentle touch, angling his face into Lu Han's stomach and sighs softly. "Kai is the mastermind behind this whole plot; the one who wants to destroy my world."
There's a long pause, one that Lu Han fills with more humming, his fingers pressing gently into Kris's scalp, massaging softly. Kris closes his eyes and finishes, "The person that Jongin grows up to become."
The stroking stops abruptly, and Kris lets out a little whine involuntarily. When he opens his eyes, Lu Han's eyes are wide with shock as they stare ahead blankly.
"I don't understand," Lu Han says again, after a long pause. "What, I mean why would Jongin want Kyungsoo dead? They seem like such good friends. What changed?"
Kris shakes his head and covers his eyes with his hand. "I don't know. And I don't think sticking a bullet through Jongin's skull is the right way to solve this."
Lu Han sighs and resumes stroking Kris's hair. "We'll find a way to solve it, alright?"
This has Kris bolting upright, his chest constricting as he stares at Lu Han.
We, not you.
He can't; he shouldn't; he already owes Lu Han too much in this lifetime.
"I should get going. I'm sorry to impose on you so late -"
Lu Han's fingers wrap around his wrist, tugging him back down on the sofa, as he leans his head against Kris's shoulder. "Stay. Let me take care of you tonight."
"We shouldn't," Kris protests, as Lu Han plants little kisses along the side of his face.
"I'm leaving soon," he tries again, ignoring the way his body heats up as Lu Han climbs into his lap, body soft and pliant, a warm weight pressed against his.
"Lu Han!" Kris musters all his willpower and presses his palms against Lu Han's shoulder, putting space between Lu Han's lips and his reddening jawline.
Lu Han rolls his eyes and presses a hand atop Kris's, sliding it off his shoulder gently. "You should stop worrying about the future. Enjoy the present before it comes the past, Yifan."
Kris opens his mouth to protest, but the words escape him when Lu Han smiles at him, fingers pressing insistently against his shoulder as he leans in again.
He hopes, as Lu Han proceeds to kiss him breathless, that Lu Han doesn't feel the moistness slipping down his cheek from tears that he failed to blink back.
-
He wakes up with the sun shining on his face, as he reaches next to him and threads fingers through a sleeping Lu Han's hair.
Kris smiles a little at the way Lu Han wrinkles his nose, pulling the covers over his face in a miserable attempt to shield himself from the sun, before he reaches for his jacket.
"Shit," he mutters, as a familiar yellow piece of paper slips from his jacket's pocket, fluttering to the ground slowly.
Kris carefully disentangles himself from Lu Han's sheets, stretching for Kyungsoo's note, before his eyes catch on a neat scrawl at the top of the paper which he had missed previously.
Under the sunlight, Kris barely makes out a word, printed so lightly into the paper that he wonders if Kyungsoo had rubbed the word infinite times, in hopes of bringing back this guy that he seems to deeply in love with.
He leans forward, squinting a little, before his jacket slips from his grasp, landing on the ground with a thud.
Jongin.
Suddenly, everything makes sense, as Kris slides out of Lu Han's bed, shrugs into his clothes and slips the note back in his pocket.
"Yifan?" Lu Han mumbles sleepily, eyes still puffy, hair sticking up in odd directions.
"I'll call you later," Kris yells, as he dashes out of the bedroom, his fingers already hastily pressing Baekhyun's call code into his wrist watch.
-
"You do know it's ass o clock over in our world too, right?" Baekhyun grumbles, stifling a yawn as Kris bursts into the apartment.
"I know who Kai is and why he's doing all this," Kris begins, still slightly out of breath from running the journey home from Lu Han's place.
This seems to catch Baekhyun's attention, who straightens and stops dabbing at his eyeliner distractedly. "Keep going."
Kris pulls out Kyungsoo's note and lays it on the table, as Baekhyun floats over and raises an eyebrow at it. "Look, if you tilt the note at this angle..."
"Jesus Christ."
Kris jumps a little as Yixing materialises to his left, lips forming a small 'o' shape. Baekhyun, however, looks unimpressed as he presses long fingers to his temples and massage clockwise. “I thought you said this Jongin kid is D.O, what the hell is going on?”
“I made a mistake,” Kris mumbles, his eyes averting Baekhyun’s piercing ones carefully.
“So you’ve been protecting the wrong child this entire time,” Baekhyun replies dryly, though there’s an edge to his voice and Kris knows, from experience, that he’s this close to losing it.
Kris inahles sharply and answers, “I found the real child D.O. I’m sure of it this time round.”
“So who the fuck is Jongin?”
There’s a pause, one that Kris spends trying desperately to think of an explanation that could possibly delay the impending doom Baekhyun’s going to release on him.
“Fuck,” Baekhyun says aloud, and Kris can tell, from the glint in Baekhyun’s eyes that this is it, that Baekhyun’s patience has run dry.
Yixing’s eyes widen at the sudden realisation, as he exclaims, "So you're saying it's D.O's fault that things are in their state today? That he should have tried harder to stop whoever this is from turning into Kai?"
"No, I -"
"That's just it, Kris," Baekhyun exclaims with finality. "You need to give me a solution. Stop talking to me about trivial details because time isn't on our side. It never was, much less now."
Kris sighs and props his weight on the table, as he closes his eyes.
He thinks of the child who had ran out of school, eyes bright as he begged a supposed hero to be his mentor.
He thinks of the child who had blindly put his trust in volatility.
He thinks of the child who had stared at his mentor, with tears in his eyes, and bought all his empty promises.
He-
"Let me talk to him," Kris says at last, only to receive a long-suffering sigh from Baekhyun in return. "Please, I know this kid. He’s not evil by nature, it’s all the hatred buried deep in his heart due to his family background that has caused all this. Let me try to stop it, Baekhyun."
"Trust him. He's our only hope, so, trust him."
Baekhyun gives Yixing a long side-glance, only to be met with a blank stare, matched with a raised eyebrow. "Don't disappoint me, please."
Kris gives Yixing a grateful smile and nods at Baekhyun. Baekhyun manages a smile in return, his hand hovering over Kris's shoulder in the action of a pat, before he summons the blue portal and disappears into it.
"The impending storm's just around the corner. I can feel it."
Kris glances up in surprise at Yixing, who's glancing around his apartment, not meeting his eyes. "I thought you were gone."
Yixing gives him a wane smile, his eyes downcast. "Take care of yourself, Kris."
There's a long pause, where Kris contemplates on what to say, to apologise for screwing up their last meeting, but Yixing beats him to it. "I'm sorry."
"Why is it that you're always apologising when we get into a fight?" Kris asks, as he moves towards Yixing.
"Knowing that we aren't alright makes even breathing a torture."
A small part of Kris still twists uncomfortably at Yixing's words, his eyes not daring to meet Yixing's this time round. When he finally looks up, Yixing's eyes are soft, though it doesn't erase the sympathy laced within them.
"You're in love with someone, aren't you?"
Kris chews on his bottom lip, and drops his gaze back to the ground. Since when did he become such an open book to Yixing? Or maybe, that had always been the way things were between them - Kris, always open and welcoming for Yixing.
"Then, please be happy, even if it's for a little while."
He forces himself to meet Yixing's back, as Yixing summons the blue portal. Yixing throws a final backward glance, a small smile playing his lips. "You deserve to be happy too, more than anyone else."
And he disappears into the portal, which closes with a soft 'swish' behind him, the words he left unsaid still hanging thickly in the air.
May Fate be a little kinder to you in your next lifetime.
-
“An amusement park,” Kris says dryly, as he stares at huge Ferris wheel looming before him.
Next to him, Lu Han shrugs, while Kyungsoo and Jongin bounce excitedly on their heels. “Well, they seem to like it.”
Kris gives a long-suffering sigh, before he holds out his hand to Jongin, who takes it happily and proceeds to drag him to the nearest roller coaster. Maybe, this wouldn’t be as bad as it looks. Or smells, Kris thinks, as he wrinkles his nose in distaste at the sweetness floating through the air.
Except, things do take a drastic turn for the worst, because Lu Han forgets to inform anyone that he has a phobia of heights, so they end up standing awkwardly in a deserted corner of the amusement park, with Lu Han squatting on the ground, eyes squeezed shut.
“You could have just skipped the rides,” Kris comments offhandedly, trying hard to keep the amusement out of his voice, but failing miserably if the looks that Lu Han shoot him are any indication.
“Maybe we could go to the haunted house or something less thrilling instead,” Kyungsoo suggests sweetly, as he plucks bits of cotton candy off the large stick Jongin’s holding.
This earns him a pout from Jongin, who whines, “But there are still so many rides that I want to try.”
Lu Han glances up at Kris and suggests, “Why don’t you accompany Jongin to take those rides? I’ll be fine, Kyungsoo can stay here with me.”
Talk to him, that’s what you’re supposed to do, isn’t it?
Kyungsoo beams at Kris happily, small hands clinging onto Lu Han’s arm while he nods enthusiastically. Kris manages a smile, despite feeling his heart sink to his stomach, and holds a hand out to Jongin. “Let’s go then.”
-
They end up on the Ferris Wheel, much to Jongin’s displeasure, because Kris gets sick of feeling the way acid splashes around his stomach, the taste of bile at the back of his throat. “We’ll go back to those rides later, okay?”
Jongin pouts a little and sticks out his tongue at Kris. “Coward.”
“They say children see things the clearest,” Kris muses, his eyes raising a little at the way Jongin’s one-word description of him hits home, although he’s sure Jongin didn’t mean it maliciously.
Jongin seems to catch on, as he leans forward and says, “But you’re still my hero.”
“Then, can you promise me something?” Kris ventures, his mind still whirling.
One shot, you only have one shot at this.
“Anything,” Jongin answers, way too quickly, smile still bright and laced with innocence that makes Kris’s heart clench.
He’s not Kai. I won’t let him become Kai.
Kris reaches across the cabin and tugs at Jongin’s hand, eyes downcast on the small patterns that he’s tracing into Jongin’s open palm. “Promise me, that no matter what happens in future, no matter what anyone says, you won’t let it affect you. Know that I’ll always love you, even if I may no longer be by your side.”
A flash of panic crosses Jongin’s eyes, as his tiny hands clench tightly to Kris’s right hand. “Where are you going? You promised to stay by my side.”
He swallows. He’s done lying, done pretending, done cheating the one person who places all his trust uselessly in him. “I’m from the future.”
“You mean you’re a time traveler?” Jongin asks, eyes bright with confusion, a small frown etched into his sharp features.
Kris exhales and brushes Jongin’s bangs away from his eyes. “Something like that. And I. I need to go back to the future soon.”
“How soon?”
Shit, no, Kris panics a little at the sight of Jongin’s watery eyes, as he reaches across the carriage hastily, pulling Jongin into his embrace. “That’s why I need you to be strong, I need you to promise me that you won’t give up on this world. This way, you’ll come back to my side when I return to the future.”
Jongin pulls away slightly, as Kris brushes his cheeks gently, dabbing at little patches of moisture staining them. “So if I do all my homework, listen to seonsaengnim and eat all my vegetables, I’ll get to see you again when I grow up?”
Kris smiles and nods. Jongin considers this for a while, before he holds out a little fist, his pinky sticking up and Kris smiles at the familiarity of the image. “Pinky promise!”
“Promise,” Kris answers easily, linking their pinkies together.
-
It hits them when they least expect it - at Kyungsoo’s birthday celebration.
Kris feels it first, the slight shift in the air, the way the birds suddenly seem to fall silent, the stillness of the trees. “Sehun,” Kris gestures, as Sehun makes his way over. “Gather everyone and get them out of here.”
“What, why? We’re -”
“Just do it,” Kris hisses, his hand already reaching into his back pocket for his gun.
He feels a slight tug on his pants and Kris glances down, before he smiles and pats Jongin’s head. “Go with Sehun, I’ll find you lat-”
“I’m staying,” Jongin answers defiantly, his lower lip jutting out, eyes so dark that sends the hair on Kris’s arm standing at the resemblance he bears with Kai.
Kris kneels down on one knee, his hands grasping Jongin’s arms tightly. “It’s dangerous here.”
“Which is why we’re not leaving you alone,” Lu Han answers stubbornly, Kyungsoo tugging his shirt. “Let us help you.”
“Lu Han, you -”
“Am I interrupting something? A family fight?”
Kris freezes, his blood running cold under his skin, as he turns slowly, his arms raising instinctively to shield the others.
Drone hasn’t changed much, although Kris notices with slight pleasure and amusement that the place Kris had shot the other time seems to still be dented. He smirks a little as he takes a step towards Kris. “Two children. Is this your poor attempt to confuse me?”
When Kris rolls his eyes, but doesn’t give a satisfactory answer, Drone simply smiles in return. “Never mind, I’ll just kill both of them.”
“Run!” Kris yells, as he charges forward, pulling the trigger three times in Drone’s direction.
Two misses, one hit in the arm. Fuck, there’s only one bullet in the gun Yixing gave me.
Drone simply smiles, brushing crimson off his arm like it doesn’t even fucking hurt, before he dashes forward, right hand wrapped tightly around Kris’s neck as Kris manages to point his gun at what he imagines is Drone’s skull. “Deja vu with a slight twist, I see.”
“How’d you like to see me blow your head off,” Kris laughs breathlessly.
The hand around his neck tightens and Kris simply smiles in return, his thumb pushing down on the hammer of his gun easily.
And suddenly, air is gushing into Kris’s lungs, his gun lying abandoned on the ground next to him, as Kris kneels on the ground, panting hard.
“Seonsaengnim!” Kyungsoo exclaims, his hands tightening on Kris’s arm, as Kris glances up just in time to see Lu Han jump off a child’s toy car, which is pounded to smithereens within the next three seconds.
Kris gets to his feet and aims another shot at Drone, hitting him square in the eye. He turns to Lu Han and whispers hurriedly, “Get Kyungsoo somewhere safe. I’ll find Jongin and take him out.”
Lu Han’s fingers are tight around the collar of his dress shirt. “Be safe, please.”
Kris hesitates, before nodding and pressing a quick kiss to Lu Han’s forehead, giving him a gentle shove in the opposite direction just as Drone gets back to his feet, dabbing at his left eye gently. “Not appreciated, but I like you, Kris Wu. You fear nothing, not even Death, when it’s knocking on your front door.”
“I took on this mission with nothing to lose and every intention to fail. Death no longer means anything to me.”
“Good, then I’ll do you a favour. I’ll let you watch me kill your founder before killing you.”
Kris smiles and fires another shot calmly at Drone’s leg. “You little bitch,” Drone hisses, before he’s darting forward again and Kris braces himself for impact, reaching into his jacket for Yixing’s gun.
Only, the impact never comes, and when Kris opens his eyes, he sees Drone frozen mid-step, his eyes fixed on something to Kris’s right, a slow smile spreading surely across his face. Kris’s head snaps in the same direction, his blood stopping cold beneath his skin at the smudge of brown peeking out from the back of Kyungsoo’s dog house.
“Jongin!”
Kris takes off, at the same time as Drone, his body meeting Jongin’s small frame hastily, as he clings on to Jongin and rolls out of the way.
The next thing he feels is sharp, searing, white pain crippling his left arm, and Kris tries to gasp for air, Jongin’s voice ringing in his ears. He looks down and he sees crimson, on the grass, on the ground, on Jongin’s hands. “You’re bleeding,” Jongin shrieks, his hands shaking as he tries to press them against Kris’s wound to stop the bleeding.
Kris shakes his head and tries to focus his vision, before his eyes zoom in on Joonmyeon and Sehun, a short distance away, rolling out of a tractor, which is temporarily pinning Drone against a wall.
“Jongin,” Kris breathes, his hand reaching for one of Jongin’s small ones, as he pushes the small hand gun into it. “Do you know where the heart is?”
Jongin looks terrified, if the way his eyes widen and his mouth hangs open are any indication. His hands doesn’t stop shaking, even though he nods with a fierce determination in his eyes, taking the gun slowly from Kris’s fingers.
He raises it hesitantly, as Sehun and Joonmyeon continue piling more heavy objects against Drone, Sehun yelling, “I don’t think we can keep it at bay for long.”
Jongin takes a deep breath, and Kris places his hand over Jongin’s, steadying it with what little strength he has left, before pushing down on the hammer.
The last thing Kris hears before his head hits the ground is a loud bang, metal scraping against metal satisfyingly, and Jongin falling to his knees, the gun cluttering to the ground as he shakes Kris with all his might.
-
"You know, you're pretty cute as a child," Baekhyun comments offhandedly as he pats Kyungsoo on the head lightly.
Jongin narrows his eyes menacingly at him and tugs on Kyungsoo's arm protectively, pulling Kyungsoo closer to him. Kris watches Baekhyun hide a smile behind his hand and finds himself smiling along, his mind already whirling with possibilities on what changes this brings to their world, until Yixing gives a particularly hard tug on the bandage that he’s wrapping meticulously around Kris’s arm. Kris lets out an involuntary yelp and narrows his eyes at Yixing, who shrugs simply and says, “That will teach you for going on suicide missions, against my will.”
Kris glances down and bites back a smile, his stomach still twisting into knots despite everything. Maybe, just maybe, three months ago, these words would have been the reason for him to launch himself head first into the mission. Now, they just make him chuckle a little under his breath, as he replies, “Well, I kept my promise and I’m alive, aren’t I?”
Yixing puffs out his cheeks cutely and continues applying ointment on Kris’s arm, as Kris turns his gaze back to Baekhyun, who is patting a growling Jongin’s head and musing over how something so cute could be so fierce at the same time.
"Don't scare them," Kris growls, wincing slightly when Yixing gives an extra hard tug and smacks his arm, declaring his work done. "They're just kids."
Kris spares Yixing a glare, only to be returned with an innocent smile, one which still gets his insides flipping around nervously, before he turns away and makes his way over to Baekhyun.
"Are you alright?" Jongin asks, eyes bright as he stares up at Kris, ignoring the fact that Baekhyun is still mussing up his bangs.
Kris kneels down on one knee and rubs Jongin's hair affectionately. "Never better."
Jongin visibly relaxes as he buries himself into Kris's shoulder, his small frame trembling insanely, his words muffled by the denim of Kris's jacket. "Thank god."
Kyungsoo shifts his weight from one leg to another as he watches, finally launching himself forward and clinging on to Kris when Kris opens his right arm and smiles at him. Kris closes his eyes, pretends that this would slow down time, that this would let him stay by their side for a little while more.
He only lets go and gets on his feet when he feels the pads of Baekhyun's fingers pressing into his shoulders - it's time to go. Kris pulls away and reaches into his pocket, pulling out a necklace with a ring attached as a pendant and dangles it in front of Jongin’s face.
“This is the ring I got when I graduated from the Police Academy,” he begins, watching Jongin’s eyes glisten as they lock on the ring swinging from side to side before him. “Keep it safe for me.”
He reaches for Jongin’s hand, only to have Jongin pull it back hastily, exclaiming, “I can’t take something so precious to you!”
“It’ll keep you company in place of my absence,” Kris answers, insistently leaning towards Jongin and fastening the necklace around his neck.
Jongin blinks at him, his lower lip trembling before he finally nods a couple of times. “I’ll keep it safe until we meet again.”
Kris smiles and ruffles Jongin’s hair affectionately, giving him one final hug before he gets to his feet. It's only then does Kris force his eyes to meet Lu Han's brown, wavering ones. He forces a smile and asks, "Can I trouble you to look after them?"
All he gets in return is a nod, as Lu Han chews on his bottom lip and gently pries Jongin's fingers off Kris's arm, his eyes averting Kris’s carefully.
"It doesn't have to be this way."
Kris turns slowly and raises an eyebrow at Baekhyun. Baekhyun inhales deeply and drops his voice to a whisper beside Kris's ear, "There's nothing waiting for you back in our world, nothing that you want from our world that’s within your reach. That was why you dove head first into this mission in the first place."
"But it would change history and that -"
"I think, D.O wouldn't mind bending the rules a little for someone who's changed his life," is Baekhyun's response, as he glances over Kris's shoulder.
Kris turns, his eyes following Baekhyun's, a small smile gracing his features as he sees the way Jongin brushes dust off Kyungsoo's knees, sees the way Kyungsoo beams in response and pats Jongin's head. He looks beyond them and bites back the urge to sigh aloud at the sight of Lu Han staring down at them, envy reflected as evidently as the stars in the night sky in his doe eyes.
"The portal's closing in two minutes." Baekhyun's hand lands softly on Kris's shoulder, squeezing it lightly as he flashes Kris a small smile and walks away with Yixing trailing behind him, casting small, sad glances back at Kris.
Kris waits, he waits for the 'thud's of Baekhyun's shoes to fade away, waits for the guilt in his heart caused by Yixing’s eyes to melt away, before he finally looks up at Lu Han.
Maybe Baekhyun's right.
Maybe there's nothing - no one - left for him back there compared to what's waiting for him here.
Maybe, for once in his life, he should do something for himself and not for anyone else.
It seems like an eternity before Lu Han looks up from Jongin and Kyungsoo, and locks eyes with his. Behind him, Kris can hear the dull hum of one minute, as he hesitates and points at Lu Han, his mind still in a mess. Kris brings his open palm up to his forehead, pulls it across and closes it in a fist, before pressing it flat against his chest.
Forget me.
He doesn't wait for an answer, doesn't want to hear one, as he turns and sprints towards the closing portal.
-
"What's that?" Kris frowns, squinting against the sunlight as he stares up at what he used to know as a skyscraper.
Baekhyun grins and replies, "Genius isn't it? The little touch at the top is Kai's idea."
"Am I missing something?" Kris questions, raising an eyebrow at a slightly bemused Baekhyun, who fails to hide his grin.
"Don't you age at all?"
Kris tears his gaze away from the strange buildings surrounding him, just in time to see a flurry of grey launch itself into his arms. He stays rooted to the spot, slightly amused as he watches Kai walk down the podium stairs, decked in a royal blue suit, looking much brighter than the black and silver suit Kris had grown accustomed to seeing him in, at least in this world.
"Welcome back, Kris," D.O beams up at him, when Kai finally extracts him from Kris's embrace with a grimace. "Or do you prefer going by Yifan instead?"
Kris winces slightly. "Kris is fine, sir."
D.O frowns slightly at that, muttering something about feeling weird that the man who lectured him in his childhood is now bowing slightly, unnecessary formalities rolling off his tongue. Kris smiles slightly, rubbing D.O's head fondly, before retracting his hand hastily, a light pink tinting his cheeks. "No, i still like it when you do that," D.O smiles up at him, his eyes glinting with the same mirth they had, just like the day Kris first met him.
"So will someone explain to me the situation here?" He asks, and watches a brief exchange of looks between D.O and Kai.
Kai shrugs at last and answers, "He's the president and basically, I'm the man he would die without."
This results in D.O coughing vigorously as Baekhyun hides a laugh behind his hand. "He's my right hand man," D.O corrects, creases pressing into his forehead, as he shoots a glare at Kai, who simply wrinkles his nose in return.
Kris coughs behind his fist, pretends he doesn't see the arm resting on Kyungsoo's waist, before he smiles at Kai. "It's good to see the two of you getting along."
Kai smiles, drops his arm back to his side, takes two steps forward, and beckons for Kris’s hand. Kris holds it out in slight confusion, watching as Kai reach for the back of his neck, before his hand reappears with a necklace clutched tightly in it. “Kept my word,” he smiles, as he drops the necklace into Kris’s outstretched palm.
Kris picks up the ring and twirls it between his thumb and his forefinger, noticing the way the necklace is a little black at the edges, probably due to Kai wearing it day and night, but the ring still glimmers a sparkling silver - just like when Kris had first given it to Jongin.
He smiles easily at Kai, and watches Kai hesitate, shifting his weight from his left foot to the right, before he closes the remaining distance between them and wraps his arms around Kris easily. "Thank you."
"Whatever for?" Kris asks, his hand running down Kai's back smoothly, just like it did that one time when Jongin came home crying about failing a Math test.
"For saving our world from me." Kai smiles at him, and Kris finds himself smiling back, finds himself falling a little more for Kai’s natural charm.
"If there's anything you need though, really, don't hesitate to let me or Jongin know." D.O beams at him, while Kai gives a short nod and adds, "It's the least we can do for you."
Kris pauses and presses his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Well, there is one thing."
-
"Good evening, Mr Wu."
Kris throws an easy smile at the receptionist, his hands tightening around the basket of fruits in his hand as he leans across the counter and drops his voice to a whisper, "How's he today?"
All he receives from her is a smile, one laced with sympathy, clearly reflected in her grey eyes. He knows what he must seem like to everyone in this building - a young man wasting away his youth taking care of someone who would never reciprocate his feelings. Maybe he was simply doing this out of responsibility, to ease the guilt weighing down his heart, or maybe, just maybe, somehow along the way, Lu Han had found a way into Kris’s cold heart, without either of their knowledge.
"Please look after him." He sighs in slight resignation.
She bows slightly and answers, "We will, don't worry, Mr Wu."
Kris turns on his heel and knocks twice, before pushing open the wooden door. "Good evening."
Lu Han looks up at him and sets the rubric cube in his hand down on his lap, his face lighting up as Kris sets the basket down on his bedside table.
"I remember you," he exclaims fondly, and Kris's breath catches in his throat. "You visited me yesterday."
Kris forces a smile, hoping that Lu Han doesn't detect his dejection, as his heart sinks slightly. "Yes, you're right, I did."
Dementia, Yixing had declared, while D.O bit on his bottom lip and Kai kept his gaze fixated on the marble floor. He doesn't remember us either, Kai adds with what he supposes is good intention, although it does little to lighten the deadweight in Kris's chest - that despite what everyone says, he's partially to be blamed for landing Lu Han in this plight. That his departure had been too much for Lu Han to take, that his mind had forced him to lock up his memories just to numb the pain.
Kris winces slightly as the blade in his hand scrapes his skin slightly, instead of the apple and forces himself to focus. He nearly drops the apple when Lu Han's wrinkly hand catches his, and Kris watches in awe as Lu Han brings his hand up to his lips and blows softly, forcing himself to blink back the tears as a surge of memories hit him, full force.
"The man I loved once did that while scolding me for scalding myself when I was cooking," Lu Han muses wistfully. "That was fifty years ago, when we still used the stove. But you probably don't know what that is, do you, young man?"
Kris shakes his head, plays along with Lu Han's little monologue. Lu Han laughs and continues, "It's been fifty long years, and I'm still waiting for him, wondering if I've entered that future world that he told me he's from."
Kris presses the palm of his hand against his right eye, as a tear lands on the skin between him and Lu Han's joined hands. Lu Han doesn't even bat an eyelash as he asks brightly, "Do you know what love is?"
It is falling for you and unwilling for it to be otherwise even if there were a take two.
Kris smiles in return and hands Lu Han an apple, wiping away the tear streaks on his cheeks as Lu Han munches on the apple obliviously.
Everyone has a different definition of love, Kris thinks.
Yixing's love lies in the person that Kris can never hope to become.
Kyungsoo's lies in the Jongin that he and Lu Han had saved all those years ago.
Maybe Lu Han's still lies, stupidly, Kris thinks, in that foolish policeman that fate had thrown cruelly in his path fifty years back, only to be betrayed by destiny eventually.
Kris thinks, his love will lie in Lu Han's bright doe eyes and silver hair, until destiny decides that it's time for him to pay his debt with loneliness.
A/N:
- To tyreling: ahhhh, I hope I didn’t disappoint with this fic! I actually tried to use 2 of the prompts that you provided for me and I’m sorry if I twisted it waaaay too out of what you expected. Bows really low ;~; nonetheless, I really do hope you’ve enjoyed this fic, meeps.