Timeless [Chapter 2/?]
Title: Timeless [Chapter 2/?]
Author: cablackwood
Pair: Kyuhae
Rating: PG (will go up in certain chapters)
Genre: Angst, Romance
Summary: Kyuhyun’s and Donghae’s love for each other is strong. Neither would want to cause the other pain, they would give up their lives to make the other happy and to make sure that they would not feel one ounce of sadness. But is it strong enough to last lifetimes? Only after Kyuhyun visits the doctor and finds out that he only has a few years left to live will they find out.
Words: 2,882
It had been a month since Kyuhyun had gotten the diagnosis, and Donghae was finally feeling brave enough to leave Kyuhyun’s side. He had spent every moment with him, even after Kyuhyun had gone back to work three days later, Donghae stayed with him. He sat in the back of the class room, watching Kyuhyun teach his singing class. He would tune out every other sound in the room but Kyuhyun’s voice. He would put all his energy into listening to his voice and before Donghae knew it, it was time to go home where they would do the same routine. Donghae would cook, all while keeping an eye on Kyuhyun, who tried to appease his boyfriend and stayed in the kitchen. They would then eat, Donghae sitting at Kyuhyun’s side, one hand on KH’s knee or hand or back. Once they were done, they would go into the living room and watch TV for a few hours. Donghae would lie on Kyuhyun’s lap, either his head, legs, or even sit on his lap; he would keep some type of contact with Kyuhyun.
After that, Kyuhyun and Donghae would take a shower, Donghae always forcing himself in with Kyuhyun. And after that they would both lay in bed, Donghae’s arms wrapped around Kyuhyun’s waist and Kyuhyun’s arms wrapped around Donghae’s. They did this for three weeks before Kyuhyun had finally convinced Donghae that he should go back and teach his class. Shindong and Eunhyuk could only handle so many days without Donghae’s help and they needed him to return. So they had gotten a hold of Kyuhyun and asked him to get Donghae to come back. That had taken about four days of convincing Donghae that nothing was going to happen, that the both of them would come home and everything would be alright, but eventually Kyuhyun was able to do it…two fights and five crying fits later.
Since Donghae had stayed by Kyuhyun’s side for those first three weeks, none of their friends knew about Kyuhyun’s illness and they didn’t know why Donghae refused to leave Kyuhyun’s side. Even Kyuhyun hadn’t had time away from Donghae enough to tell his friends, even Sungmin, who he told everything to, like Donghae did with Eunhyuk.
The first day back from his break, Donghae walked into the dance studio and was welcomed with tons of hugs and many questions asking where had he been and if he was alright. Donghae had kept a straight face while answering all of them, telling them that he had some business to take care of and he needed to be away for a while. But Eunhyuk, being his best friend, saw through the wall he was building up and eventually Shindong saw it too.
It wasn’t until three days after he had come back that they had asked him about it. They had noticed that every chance he got, he called Kyuhyun and talked to him about what seemed like nothing and every time he hung up it looked like he was on the brink of tears. And every day he spent his lunch with Kyuhyun, where when he usually spent it with Eunhyuk and Shindong. Donghae was acting like he did at the beginning of his and Kyuhyun’s relationship. But his time there was something that he was hiding.
Class had ended and Donghae was on his way out the door when Eunhyuk caught up with him.
“Donghae wait,” Donghae paused, his hand on the door, “Can Shindong and I talk to you?” Eunhyuk was wiping off the sweat that was running down his face. Shindong was seated in one of the chairs that lined one of the mirror walls with a towel around his neck doing the same as Eunhyuk. He waved Donghae over to take a seat next to him.
Donghae eyed the chair. He didn’t want to stay behind with them. He wanted to get home and see Kyuhyun. Ever since Kyuhyun had gotten the diagnosis, Donghae never spent any time that he didn’t have to away from Kyuhyun. So he had quit hanging out with his friends. He didn’t want to tell them just yet, he didn’t know of he was ready to. He felt that if he said it out loud than that would mean that it was true and that he would soon be losing the love of his life.
“I don’t know,” Donghae finally spoke, it was really the first words he had spoken since he had come back that wasn’t to the class, “I need to go.” He started to turn and leave when Eunhyuk came over and placed a hand over his shoulder.
“It will just be a minute. We just want to talk to you.” Without waiting for an answer, Eunhyuk pulled Donghae away from the door and walked over to where Shindong was sitting.
Donghae was forced to sit in the chair next to Shindong. “But hyung, I really need to go.” He begged, giving Eunhyuk his puppy eyes. No one was able to resist those eyes, and all of his friends knew it. Eunhyuk waved them off though, and that was a first.
“No, those aren’t going to work.” He sat down on the floor in front of Donghae. “You’ve been acting different since you came back. Something is wrong and you’re not telling us. You know we’re here for you, right?” Shindong nodded, saying Eunhyuk words were true.
“Thanks, but I got to go.” Donghae stood to get up and leave, again, but Shindong grabbed his arm and pulled him back into the seat.
“Donghae, what Eunhyuk mean is ‘we are here for you, but tell us what is wrong now’.” And it was true, they were there for Donghae, but them being Donghae’s best friends, they were a loud to push Donghae into telling them. It hurt them slightly knowing that Donghae wouldn’t just come out and tell them what was wrong. He told them everything and since he wasn’t telling them now, they knew it was something big and they knew Donghae couldn’t go through it by his self. And they weren’t going to let him either.
Donghae sat there just staring at them. He wasn’t ready just yet but he knew that his friends would help him through this and he wanted all the comfort he could get. Donghae looked off to the side, looking away from his friends probing eyes. Much like Kyuhyun, they could see straight through him and they would see the pain there and he didn’t want to break down in front of them. He was doing enough of that in front of Kyuhyun. And he still felt bad about it.
Shindong draped an arm over Donghae shoulders while Eunhyuk placed his hand on his knee.
“Donghae, what is it?” Shindong asked, “Is something up with your family?”
“Is our boss working you too hard? You know you can take all the time off you need.”
“Yeah, you know you work harder than either one of us. If you need the time, you can take it.” Shindong suggested.
Donghae really wanted to take more time off, just so he could spend it with Kyuhyun, but he had a feeling that he was slowly starting to get on Kyuhyun’s nerves. When Donghae is with Kyuhyun, he never lets him out of his sight, and if he does it’s only for a moment. He had finally stopped going into the bathroom when Kyuhyun went but he had gone to waiting outside of the door. He wouldn’t blame Kyuhyun if he was getting on his nerves. And he could only go to Kyuhyun’s classes for so long. Donghae deals enough with his own students; he didn’t have enough energy for Kyuhyun’s too.
“Are you okay? Are you healthy?” Eunhyuk asked.
Donghae shook his head, “That’s not it.” It wasn’t his health. He knew the next question that was coming and he wasn’t sure he was ready for it.
“Is it Kyuhyun?” EH asked. He knew he had gotten it right when he saw and felt when Donghae had gone stiff. Shindong felt it too.
“What’s wrong with Kyuhyun? Did he do something to hurt you?” Shindong sounded a little angry at the thought that the young man might have done something to hurt his dongsaeng.
Donghae felt his eyes start to sting. He was about to cry and he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to hide that. He was never really able to hide when he cried. That’s why he never tried after someone had seen him cry. It wasn’t worth the effort. He tried to discreetly wipe away the tears that were about to fall, but he wasn’t so good at being discreet.
“What did he do?” Eunhyuk got up and sat in the seat that was on the other side of Donghae. When he sat down he saw just how much pain he was in. He could see it in his eyes. There was pain there he had never seen in all the years that he had known him. He could see the world falling apart in his eyes and he felt his heart clench.
“Did he hurt you? Do we need to break out the bats?” Eunhyuk joked only mildly. Eunhyuk had always promised to Donghae (when they were younger) that when he was with whoever he chose, if they broke his heart or did anything to hurt him, then he would hunt whoever it was down with a baseball bat. “Donghae, talk to us.” Eunhyuk pleaded.
Donghae broke. The tears that he fought back fell from his eyes and ran down his cheeks and landed on his shirt. “Kyuhyun’s sick.” He finally said it out loud and the reality sank in. He was going to lose the one he loved. He was going to lose him in four years. Four years would have sounded like a long time at any other moment, but four years to him at that moment felt like it was going to be tomorrow. It felt like he was going to wake up tomorrow morning and he would see Kyuhyun’s side of the bed empty and he would remember that he had died. And he wasn’t able to do anything about it, like he had promised Kyuhyun. They had promised that they would try to stop it. But there was nothing they could do.
Donghae didn’t know he was wrapped in Eunhyuk’s arms until he felt him rubbing his back, much like Kyuhyun had done the day they found out, and that thought made him cry even harder into Eunhyuk’s chest. His cries wracked his body and he shook as every sob escaped his mouth. He could feel his tears soak Eunhyuk’s shirt.
There was a moment when Donghae’s sobs had quieted and Shindong had asked, “What’s wrong with him?” It was minutes before Donghae could answer, he had broken down again as sobs and tears fell from his body for the nth time since Donghae had heard Kyuhyun’s condition. He never knew he could cry this much about a single thing. He never thought he could cry this much in his entire life.
Once they were able to calm Donghae down he was able to tell them what had been eating him away for the past four weeks. “Kyuhyun had Huntington’s Chorea.” Donghae grabbed the tissue that Shindong had offered to him and wiped the tears away.
Both Eunhyuk and Shindong paused. Eunhyuk had heard of the disease but he didn’t know very much about it. All he knew was that it was bad and that it would eventually lead to death. That’s when Eunhyuk knew why Donghae was crying so much. Kyuhyun was dying and there was nothing that could be done. There was no known cure or it.
“How long?” Shindong asked, dreading the response that he would get. Like Eunhyuk, he did know about the disease but he knew much more about what it is. He knew that it lead to uncontrollable movements and dementia and then after those had settled in, he would eventually die. There was no curing it; it was just a question of time. How much time would Kyuhyun have?
Donghae felt numb. He had cried more in the past month than he had ever cared to do and his body was tired. Crying this much was taking a tool on his body and he felt weakened by it. When he answered, he found himself not crying but just empty of any feeling.
“The doctors give him four years.”
Both Eunhyuk and Shindong cursed. Four years was not very long, especially when the typical time line was ten to twenty years. But that was in middle aged adults, not young adults. The rules were slightly different for them. For Kyuhyun.
“How is he taking it?” Eunhyuk asked.
Donghae laughed for what seemed like years. “I’m taking worse than he is,” Donghae threw away the soiled tissue, “I’ve cried enough for the both of us.”
“He hasn’t broken down yet?”
Donghae shook his head, “If he has, he hasn’t done it in front of me. But Kyuhyun has never been one for crying.”
All three of them chuckled at this. It was true. Kyuhyun was never the type to cry. Even at the death of a family member, he was still unable to cry. But Eunhyuk and Shindong both knew that he was being strong for Donghae. If Kyuhyun broke down and cried then Donghae wouldn’t know what to do. He would lose hope and Kyuhyun would never let that happen. He would not allow any sadness that could be prevented to come near Donghae. He loved him too much for that.
It was an hour later before he left the studio.
Kyuhyun walked into the house. He pulled off his shoes and coat and placed them by the door. He had gotten home sooner than he usually does. He had another appointment with his doctor and this time it was so he could get the medication for him to take to prolong his ‘death sentence.’
Kyuhyun didn’t tell Donghae about this one. He was just starting to go on with life the way that he used to, if that was possible now, and he didn’t want to force Donghae back into that darkness that he seemed to have lived in for that first month.
Kyuhyun made his way to the bathroom, all his medication in his hands. It was like he had the whole pharmacy in his hands. He had at least a good twenty medications in his hands and he was to take all of them every day. And this was how he was going to live for the next couple of years, taking a cocktail of pills. He had to take certain pills in the morning, some with meals, some after strenuous activities, and more before he went to bed. And he was to take some even in between these. Pills, pills and pills. Now his sickness was starting to sink in.
As he eyed the pills as he placed them into the pill holder he had also acquired, he saw himself in three years, needing someone’s help just to take the very pills that were to help him later on. He saw himself not being able to hold Donghae, kiss him, or even simply touch him. He didn’t know if he was going to be able to take that.
“Kyuhyun?” He heard come from the living room. Kyuhyun looked in the mirror and saw that a lone tear had fallen from his eye and he quickly wiped it away as he answered, “In the bathroom!” He heard as Donghae walked further into the house.
“Kyuhyun what are you doing home so early?” Donghae asked as he walked into the bathroom. When he entered the room, he paused, eyeing the pills that Kyuhyun was placing into a little pill holder. There were pills of all colors and sizes. And as he watched Kyuhyun put them into the container, he saw him take one.
“Kyuhyun?”
Kyuhyun turned to face Donghae and smiled slightly but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I went to the doctor today to get these.” He pointed to the boxes and the bags that were scattered over the counter, “This is all that I have to take for…” Kyuhyun waved his hand, indicating that he would know what they were for.
“You have to take all of these?” Donghae said softly. It wasn’t just because he knew what they were for; he was just surprised that he would have to take all of these.
Kyuhyun nodded, “Yeah, all of these and then I have to go once a week to get even more medication. I have to go to a clinic and they give me this IV.”
Donghae paled some. He never would have thought this much would go into his treatment.
Kyuhyun saw the look on Donghae’s face and he stopped what he was doing. “Hey,” he pulled Donghae into his arms, “It’s alright.”
Kyuhyun didn’t know that Donghae had been crying for the past hour, so he was surprised that Donghae just shook his head and hugged him back.
“So,” Kyuhyun smiled, “What’s for dinner?”
A/N: It seems I am coming down with something and I must stare off into space because of these pills! *stares off into space* So, I have a feeling all the stories I was going to post later this week might be delayed a bit L May not be true, considering how much I was able to write last night, but…..MAN! I feel loopy!
So forgive me if I missed a few things while I was going over this, trying to correct grammar, spelling, stuff like that. Trying to edit while hopped up on pills is probably not the best thing