Star light, star bright (the only star I see tonight)
Title: Star light, star bright (the only one I see tonight)
Pairing: Luhan/Xiumin, slight!Jongin/Sehun
Rating: PG
Word count: ~2k
Summary: It's a story that wasn't supposed to be written but it was.
Note: filling this prompt at exopromptmeme
(luhan/xiumin) Stardust AU. Can go either way with who is the star and who isn't.
Star light, star bright
(the only star I see tonight)
It's not supposed to happen, but it does. It's past explicable and very disconcerting but somewhere along the line, a stable boy falls in love with someone (or rather something) that never would and never could be his.
~ // ~
In the grand scheme of the kingdom and all who resides within its walls, Minseok is insignificant. He's a poor stable boy of a notoriously spoilt and bratty Lord by the name of Kim Jongin. Minseok slaves away, day and night, for naught but a hard bed to rest upon and meager meals to curb the sounds his churning stomach would make.
One day, the gods beseech Lord Jongin with love. He's enchanted by long thulian locks, thin red lips and a dainty pale face that belongs to none other than the infamous, Princess Sehunah.
Lord Jongin scales all heights for her attention, showering her with nothing but suffocating extravagance. Yet nothing would stir her out of stoic disinterest. And when Lord Jongin has all but given in courting the young beauty, she exclaims (with a flip of her rose-tinted hair and the narrowing of her haughty eyes) that she will "consider you as a man I will betroth if you will fetch me a star from the highest heavens".
And, without considering the precarity of the task, Minseok takes it upon himself to fulfill this wish on Lord Jongin's behalf in exchange for freedom. The bargain seems fair because he had always dreamt of soaring -- flying untethered with the sun in his face and the wind behind his back.
For two decades and more, Minseok had dreamt of being free and it was finally within his grasp. Yet each time he feels him by his side and each time he smiles, Minseok finds himself willing to exchange his dreams for this.
~ // ~
"Minseok"
A voice calls out behind him from where he's tending their fire. The syllables are poorly pronounced yet comfortingly familiar and there's only a smile on Minseok's face when he turns around to see him beckoning.
"Come and take a look at this!"
He appears otherworldly in the dark, far from dazzling and indescribably beautiful, with his soft hair glimmering subtly like the waning silver moon. There's unguilded excitement painted across his flawless features and Minseok can do nothing else but comply.
"What is it, Luhan?" he asks, peering around the boy who's gesticulating at a spot in the shrubs.
"There, there. In the grass,"
The sleeve of Minseok's shirt, too short for the length of Luhan's much longer arms, flaps from the motion. His eyes are wide and twinkling brightly in the night, seeing past what Minseok can't even if he squints.
"Where? I can't see, it's too dark," he mumbles as he stills Luhan's movement, circling his fingers around his wrist.
He can't stop the way his heart skips at the sudden contact because, even now, a month into their journey home, Luhan's warmth still surprises him. It's almost scalding to the touch, like a flame, but oddly safe the tighter he holds on warming him from his core.
"Here, Minseok. Look," Luhan speaks up from where he's now crouching, tugging Minseok down beside him with glittering eyes and an iridescent smile.
And moments like these have Minseok's heart racing and a million butterflies escaping because these moments are the ones where Minseok forgets what Luhan is, who he is and what his life stands for. Moments like these have Minseok seeing only them and the way their universe collides and exists within each other like they are the only ones who matter.
And in a perfect world, they are; in an ideal world, they do.
He reckons it might have been between the first time Luhan sat in front of him upon their stead, gripping the reigns far too tightly and whimpering at every jolt, and the time when Luhan had crawled out of his own blankets to snuggle beneath Minsoek's with a tired smile because it was far too cold to sleep alone.
But, honestly, Minseok thinks that it probably started way before; back to a time when they first met because love is a funny thing. And even as an adult, when it comes to love, he believes in fairytales. He believes in firsts and dreams that they will last.
The day they met is as clear as shallow waters on a summer's day, if that be any indication of how he feels. He remembers his slack-jawed astonishment when he saw a star fall from the sky and diffuse in a field of barley, his sudden burst of bravery when he stumbled within the burnt circumference of gold, his fear when Luhan collapsed into his arms with a grateful smile, and his breathlessness when he realised how perfectly Luhan filled that empty space as if that was where he was destined to belong.
With Luhan, the phantom weight of his status, his inabilities and responsibilities are gone. Stable boy Minseok of the Kim household seems so far away because when Luhan is around, he's simply Minseok.
But as he kneels down beside Luhan and sees what Luhan is pointing at, it all floods back in waves. His smile fades instantly, blood drains from his face and fear floors him. He reels back, his heart beating rampantly out of fear.
Luhan notices the sudden change, always quick to decipher Minseok's every expression and gesture. He tugs at his sleeve persistently as he whispers with anxiety, "What's wrong? Minseok? You're scaring me,"
This close, there is nothing to hide.
He wants nothing more than to brush away the worry and kiss away the nerves because Luhan should not be made to feel this way for his mistakes, for his selfishness, for his decision to take the left fork in the road instead of the right just so their journey would last a little longer.
Minseok had always been one of reason, careful to avoid trouble, forgetting about himself and putting others before him. But a moment's misjudgement, has him condemning both of them to doom.
He never knew that it would come to this. But Lord Jongin must have noticed, must have started getting suspicious and the arrow at the centre of a broken tree stump, bearing feathers of gold and ruby, proves thus.
He detaches the note that the silver tip pierced through, with hesitance and dread, and regards the words even a commoner (like him) could decipher.
Mine
Bile rises in his throat from the threat that lies behind that very word and premonition hangs as heavy as chains upon his shoulders.
He didn't even notice that he had been shaking until he feels Luhan's hands clasp firmly over his and looks up to see his face of concern.
"Luhan," he begins, quaking from the fear of consequences because of poorly-made choices, "I'm so sorry. I'm such a selfish bastard. I'm so sorry,"
There was only shame in his confession, guilt making him an honest man, because he had shackled Luhan to his own mistakes and he doesn't deserve that. But Luhan, clueless Luhan, only looks at him in confusion and without judgement.
"Minseok? What are you saying? Why? What does the note say? What does that stick thing even mean?"
Minsok doesn't know how to answer, doesn't think he can answer. Because how does one tell someone who parlayed with death that they'll be condemned on his behalf?
He's stooped with paranoia as if Lord Jongin's men are observing them through the shrouded forest with their swords unsheathed and their bows strung.
"I'm just so sorry," he bows his head but Luhan stops him, cupping his face and tilting his head up.
Their eyes connect and he tries to flinch but when he looks, he sees the worry in Luhan's eyes -- trying to decipher, trying to understand. Luhan's eyes tell a million stories and contain a trillion stars, an entire galaxy that's so vast and incomprehensible. Yet no matter how foreign and no matter how indescribable, Minseok has never felt more safe and more at home.
It's then that he realises that there's no way he can lose this. He's too far in and unable to right his wrongs because there's no way he can give up now. It's only been a month but that can stretch into a lifetime. And with Luhan, Minseok finds that it does.
"M-Minseok?" Luhan reiterates, breaking him out of his thoughts.
He didn't even notice, but his silence is frightening. And Luhan looks so lost in front him, fragile and torn at the seams. It's so very different from the vibrancy he's known for and Minseok hates that he's the cause of this.
He had promised, on the day that they met that he would only, "keep you safe".
And perhaps it's due to sudden clarity (or stupidity) but Minseok tosses away his deal with the lord. It's probably what idealists would call love that has Minseok doing this, giving up his dreams for Luhan because a month was all it took for him to see that Luhan is all he needs.
He shuffles a little closer, until their noses almost touch and he mumbles his apology, once again, "I'm sorry, I promised to keep you away from harm but I'm so powerless, I can't."
"Minseok, it's okay," Luhan begins but he's rendered speechless when Minseok closes the final distances between with a slight brush of their lips.
It's only chaste and feather-light before he pulls away but it's enough. Luhan had felt soft and pliant against him. His breath had hitched upon contact as if he didn't quite know how to respond. Yet Minseok finds that it's alright even if Luhan doesn't because it's everything that he had imagined kissing Luhan to be; breathtaking and clichedly magical.
He can feel Luhan shaking and Minseok circles his arms around him to reassure him because it was no accident. Luhan, though taller, feels so small in his arms and when he looks at Minseok with his eyes so far away and his lips slightly parted in surprise Minseok only wants to hold him even closer. But before he can, Luhan falls back into him with a kiss that speaks of forgiveness.
A quiet moan resounds, almost indiscernible, and they can't quite figure out who it comes from. But those details don't really matter because all that does is the way their lips fit together with Minseok tilting his head to perfect their angle and Luhan kissing back at a rhythm that isn't rushed and entirely their own.
"You're mine," Minseok mumbles against Luhan's lips, when they're both breathless, biting his upper lip tenderly.
"All your's," Luhan confirms, snuggling a little closer, and Minseok's heart jolts at his answer.
He can feel Luhan's breath fanning shallowly against his mouth, sharing the air he breathes when they both inhale. He can see the way Luhan's nose slopes and the way his eyes shimmer expectantly, a little darker than before but glittering nonetheless. And Minseok smiles without fear and Luhan grins; fitting perfectly into a space that only he can fill within Minseok's arms and, closer still, into his heart.
When Luhan is around, the world just fades and recedes into the dark as if Luhan is his only source of light.
With Luhan, it feels as though nothing can go wrong and everything is suddenly made right.
It's then and there that Minseok makes a new covenant with their fingers intertwined. It's one that he will keep because, this time, there's no way he will fail.
"I promise, I will never let you go no matter how hard it is because once you've found your star, you learn to be afraid of the night. And no one can survive, living a life in fear, without their only source of light,"
~ // ~
It's not supposed to happen, but it does. It's not how stories are supposed to be written but it's how their is; a story about a stable boy and his beloved star.
a/n: So. Just as a warning, I'm a lj and fic-writing noob who doesn't know shit about Stardust.. Shoot me /sobs
And THANK YOU to the lovely and wonderful yutings for helping this noob figure out how to use lj like the pro she is. ei lahh yew <3
Pairing: Luhan/Xiumin, slight!Jongin/Sehun
Rating: PG
Word count: ~2k
Summary: It's a story that wasn't supposed to be written but it was.
Note: filling this prompt at exopromptmeme
(luhan/xiumin) Stardust AU. Can go either way with who is the star and who isn't.
Star light, star bright
(the only star I see tonight)
It's not supposed to happen, but it does. It's past explicable and very disconcerting but somewhere along the line, a stable boy falls in love with someone (or rather something) that never would and never could be his.
~ // ~
In the grand scheme of the kingdom and all who resides within its walls, Minseok is insignificant. He's a poor stable boy of a notoriously spoilt and bratty Lord by the name of Kim Jongin. Minseok slaves away, day and night, for naught but a hard bed to rest upon and meager meals to curb the sounds his churning stomach would make.
One day, the gods beseech Lord Jongin with love. He's enchanted by long thulian locks, thin red lips and a dainty pale face that belongs to none other than the infamous, Princess Sehunah.
Lord Jongin scales all heights for her attention, showering her with nothing but suffocating extravagance. Yet nothing would stir her out of stoic disinterest. And when Lord Jongin has all but given in courting the young beauty, she exclaims (with a flip of her rose-tinted hair and the narrowing of her haughty eyes) that she will "consider you as a man I will betroth if you will fetch me a star from the highest heavens".
And, without considering the precarity of the task, Minseok takes it upon himself to fulfill this wish on Lord Jongin's behalf in exchange for freedom. The bargain seems fair because he had always dreamt of soaring -- flying untethered with the sun in his face and the wind behind his back.
For two decades and more, Minseok had dreamt of being free and it was finally within his grasp. Yet each time he feels him by his side and each time he smiles, Minseok finds himself willing to exchange his dreams for this.
~ // ~
"Minseok"
A voice calls out behind him from where he's tending their fire. The syllables are poorly pronounced yet comfortingly familiar and there's only a smile on Minseok's face when he turns around to see him beckoning.
"Come and take a look at this!"
He appears otherworldly in the dark, far from dazzling and indescribably beautiful, with his soft hair glimmering subtly like the waning silver moon. There's unguilded excitement painted across his flawless features and Minseok can do nothing else but comply.
"What is it, Luhan?" he asks, peering around the boy who's gesticulating at a spot in the shrubs.
"There, there. In the grass,"
The sleeve of Minseok's shirt, too short for the length of Luhan's much longer arms, flaps from the motion. His eyes are wide and twinkling brightly in the night, seeing past what Minseok can't even if he squints.
"Where? I can't see, it's too dark," he mumbles as he stills Luhan's movement, circling his fingers around his wrist.
He can't stop the way his heart skips at the sudden contact because, even now, a month into their journey home, Luhan's warmth still surprises him. It's almost scalding to the touch, like a flame, but oddly safe the tighter he holds on warming him from his core.
"Here, Minseok. Look," Luhan speaks up from where he's now crouching, tugging Minseok down beside him with glittering eyes and an iridescent smile.
And moments like these have Minseok's heart racing and a million butterflies escaping because these moments are the ones where Minseok forgets what Luhan is, who he is and what his life stands for. Moments like these have Minseok seeing only them and the way their universe collides and exists within each other like they are the only ones who matter.
And in a perfect world, they are; in an ideal world, they do.
He reckons it might have been between the first time Luhan sat in front of him upon their stead, gripping the reigns far too tightly and whimpering at every jolt, and the time when Luhan had crawled out of his own blankets to snuggle beneath Minsoek's with a tired smile because it was far too cold to sleep alone.
But, honestly, Minseok thinks that it probably started way before; back to a time when they first met because love is a funny thing. And even as an adult, when it comes to love, he believes in fairytales. He believes in firsts and dreams that they will last.
The day they met is as clear as shallow waters on a summer's day, if that be any indication of how he feels. He remembers his slack-jawed astonishment when he saw a star fall from the sky and diffuse in a field of barley, his sudden burst of bravery when he stumbled within the burnt circumference of gold, his fear when Luhan collapsed into his arms with a grateful smile, and his breathlessness when he realised how perfectly Luhan filled that empty space as if that was where he was destined to belong.
With Luhan, the phantom weight of his status, his inabilities and responsibilities are gone. Stable boy Minseok of the Kim household seems so far away because when Luhan is around, he's simply Minseok.
But as he kneels down beside Luhan and sees what Luhan is pointing at, it all floods back in waves. His smile fades instantly, blood drains from his face and fear floors him. He reels back, his heart beating rampantly out of fear.
Luhan notices the sudden change, always quick to decipher Minseok's every expression and gesture. He tugs at his sleeve persistently as he whispers with anxiety, "What's wrong? Minseok? You're scaring me,"
This close, there is nothing to hide.
He wants nothing more than to brush away the worry and kiss away the nerves because Luhan should not be made to feel this way for his mistakes, for his selfishness, for his decision to take the left fork in the road instead of the right just so their journey would last a little longer.
Minseok had always been one of reason, careful to avoid trouble, forgetting about himself and putting others before him. But a moment's misjudgement, has him condemning both of them to doom.
He never knew that it would come to this. But Lord Jongin must have noticed, must have started getting suspicious and the arrow at the centre of a broken tree stump, bearing feathers of gold and ruby, proves thus.
He detaches the note that the silver tip pierced through, with hesitance and dread, and regards the words even a commoner (like him) could decipher.
Mine
Bile rises in his throat from the threat that lies behind that very word and premonition hangs as heavy as chains upon his shoulders.
He didn't even notice that he had been shaking until he feels Luhan's hands clasp firmly over his and looks up to see his face of concern.
"Luhan," he begins, quaking from the fear of consequences because of poorly-made choices, "I'm so sorry. I'm such a selfish bastard. I'm so sorry,"
There was only shame in his confession, guilt making him an honest man, because he had shackled Luhan to his own mistakes and he doesn't deserve that. But Luhan, clueless Luhan, only looks at him in confusion and without judgement.
"Minseok? What are you saying? Why? What does the note say? What does that stick thing even mean?"
Minsok doesn't know how to answer, doesn't think he can answer. Because how does one tell someone who parlayed with death that they'll be condemned on his behalf?
He's stooped with paranoia as if Lord Jongin's men are observing them through the shrouded forest with their swords unsheathed and their bows strung.
"I'm just so sorry," he bows his head but Luhan stops him, cupping his face and tilting his head up.
Their eyes connect and he tries to flinch but when he looks, he sees the worry in Luhan's eyes -- trying to decipher, trying to understand. Luhan's eyes tell a million stories and contain a trillion stars, an entire galaxy that's so vast and incomprehensible. Yet no matter how foreign and no matter how indescribable, Minseok has never felt more safe and more at home.
It's then that he realises that there's no way he can lose this. He's too far in and unable to right his wrongs because there's no way he can give up now. It's only been a month but that can stretch into a lifetime. And with Luhan, Minseok finds that it does.
"M-Minseok?" Luhan reiterates, breaking him out of his thoughts.
He didn't even notice, but his silence is frightening. And Luhan looks so lost in front him, fragile and torn at the seams. It's so very different from the vibrancy he's known for and Minseok hates that he's the cause of this.
He had promised, on the day that they met that he would only, "keep you safe".
And perhaps it's due to sudden clarity (or stupidity) but Minseok tosses away his deal with the lord. It's probably what idealists would call love that has Minseok doing this, giving up his dreams for Luhan because a month was all it took for him to see that Luhan is all he needs.
He shuffles a little closer, until their noses almost touch and he mumbles his apology, once again, "I'm sorry, I promised to keep you away from harm but I'm so powerless, I can't."
"Minseok, it's okay," Luhan begins but he's rendered speechless when Minseok closes the final distances between with a slight brush of their lips.
It's only chaste and feather-light before he pulls away but it's enough. Luhan had felt soft and pliant against him. His breath had hitched upon contact as if he didn't quite know how to respond. Yet Minseok finds that it's alright even if Luhan doesn't because it's everything that he had imagined kissing Luhan to be; breathtaking and clichedly magical.
He can feel Luhan shaking and Minseok circles his arms around him to reassure him because it was no accident. Luhan, though taller, feels so small in his arms and when he looks at Minseok with his eyes so far away and his lips slightly parted in surprise Minseok only wants to hold him even closer. But before he can, Luhan falls back into him with a kiss that speaks of forgiveness.
A quiet moan resounds, almost indiscernible, and they can't quite figure out who it comes from. But those details don't really matter because all that does is the way their lips fit together with Minseok tilting his head to perfect their angle and Luhan kissing back at a rhythm that isn't rushed and entirely their own.
"You're mine," Minseok mumbles against Luhan's lips, when they're both breathless, biting his upper lip tenderly.
"All your's," Luhan confirms, snuggling a little closer, and Minseok's heart jolts at his answer.
He can feel Luhan's breath fanning shallowly against his mouth, sharing the air he breathes when they both inhale. He can see the way Luhan's nose slopes and the way his eyes shimmer expectantly, a little darker than before but glittering nonetheless. And Minseok smiles without fear and Luhan grins; fitting perfectly into a space that only he can fill within Minseok's arms and, closer still, into his heart.
When Luhan is around, the world just fades and recedes into the dark as if Luhan is his only source of light.
With Luhan, it feels as though nothing can go wrong and everything is suddenly made right.
It's then and there that Minseok makes a new covenant with their fingers intertwined. It's one that he will keep because, this time, there's no way he will fail.
"I promise, I will never let you go no matter how hard it is because once you've found your star, you learn to be afraid of the night. And no one can survive, living a life in fear, without their only source of light,"
~ // ~
It's not supposed to happen, but it does. It's not how stories are supposed to be written but it's how their is; a story about a stable boy and his beloved star.
a/n: So. Just as a warning, I'm a lj and fic-writing noob who doesn't know shit about Stardust.. Shoot me /sobs
And THANK YOU to the lovely and wonderful yutings for helping this noob figure out how to use lj like the pro she is. ei lahh yew <3