We Are Fighting Dreamers! for vixxismydrug
Title: We Are Fighting Dreamers!
Recipient: vixxismydrug
Characters: N, Hyuk
Rating: G
Wordcount: 2,452
Summary: In his fever dreams, Sanghyuk is a ninja.
Notes: My eternal gratitude to my beta for doing a fabulous last minute job making sure I can English properly. I hope you enjoy this!
Sanghyuk was glad he had a full schedule that would frequently take him away from the other boys that summer. Much as he loved his group members and spending time with them, he felt that he was more than ready to fly solo and try things without the others constantly watching over his shoulder.
(That, and because he felt it was really time that he picked up some of the slack of promoting VIXX, in showing off how talented and hard working his group was. He knew how much trouble Hakyeon-hyung had gone through to get their name out there, even more so now as he was beginning to shoulder some of that burden.)
Spending whole days out in the sun, though, was beginning to take its toll on him, and after a week of moving between the boiling heat of the outdoor film set and the arctic cold of their dorm and practice rooms, Sanghyuk was beginning to feel the tell-tale signs of an impending cold creeping up the back of his throat and nose.
At first, he debated telling their manager; Mickey-hyung would know what to do, having looked after the six of them for three years already, but Sanghyuk knew that if he did, then their manager would insist on cancelling his schedule for a day so he could stay at home to rest and recuperate. That would set off Hakyeon's mothering instincts, and that was the last thing Sanghyuk wanted, especially not when Hakyeon was on express orders to keep his stress level as low as possible.
Sanghyuk wondered if it would be worth going to see a doctor himself, to get some medicine without letting anyone know, but he knew that doing so would run the risk of being spotted by fans, making matters worse.
That left Sanghyuk with one option: to keep quiet and weather through it like a trooper. So that was what he did, sneaking painkillers into his bag, taking a couple of tablets on the odd occasions he could take a nap in an attempt to stem the cold before it developed any further.
It worked, somewhat, for two days, the feeling not getting any worse, but also not any better.
So when Sanghyuk collapsed onto his bedding on the third day, he felt like he shouldn't have been surprised that whatever he had caught had developed into a full blown illness. As it was though, he simply felt too tired to push himself up and into the bathroom to wash off his make-up and get ready for bed. His head felt heavy and the longer he lay there, the harder it became to breathe through his nose.
All he wanted to do now was sleep. Sleep for as long as he physically could, sleep away the uncomfortable feeling wracking his body.
The last thing he remembered before giving in to unconsciousness was the feeling of fingers running through his hair - Hakyeon's fingers, familiar and gentle. It was an unexpected but not unwelcome comfort before letting go.
When Sanghyuk woke up, he found himself in a place that was both unknown yet eerily familiar.
Looking around, he found himself in a small studio apartment, stretched out on a bed tucked right into the corner of the room. There was little in the way of decoration, the wooden panels of the wall and floor mostly bare except for the stretch of wall between the bathroom and front doors, where three frames hung side by side: a certificate, a family photograph, and a photograph of his friends.
Pushing himself up from his bed, he instinctively turned to look down at the small cabinet beside his bed, and that was when everything clicked into place in his mind.
He was in the Hidden Village of Konoha, the polished surface of the ninja headband gleaming up at him from his bedside table telling him so.
For a moment, Sanghyuk felt panic well within his chest; he was certain that he was Han Sanghyuk, an idol in the boyband VIXX and budding actor, not a ninja. But before he could think too much about it, there was a loud banging on the front door. He jerked, not having expected anyone at all.
"I know you're in there, Hyuk," yelled a voice - an oh-so-familiar voice. "Open the door!"
Sanghyuk scrambled off his bed and towards the door, pulling it open before his visitor could beat his fist down on it again. Just as he had expected, Hakyeon stood on the other side, his expression that mix of a frown and a scowl he always wore when he was annoyed about something.
"Hakyeon!" he called out in relief, happy to see such a familiar face. He leaned forward, throwing his arms around Hakyeon's shoulder. "I'm so glad to see you."
As Sanghyuk was hugging Hakyeon, he couldn't see the expression change on the other's face, but he did hear the confusion in his voice when Hakyeon said, "I'm glad to see you too, Hyuk, but who is this Hakyeon person you just called me?"
Sanghyuk snatched himself away, as though he had been burned, tottering a step backwards.
"Hyuk?" the Hakyeon lookalike asked, peering at him in concern. "Hyuk, are you okay?"
"You're not…" Sanghyuk began, staring wide-eyed at the man who looked just like Hakyeon but claimed not to know.
"I'm not…?" the doppelganger said, tilting his head to the side just like Hakyeon would. They remained like that for a moment, the man on the other side of the door waiting for Sanghyuk to continue, but when it was clear that Sanghyuk wouldn't, he clicked his tongue, as though impatient. "Never mind that - you're late!"
That startled Sanghyuk out of his earlier surprise. "I am? What for?"
Not-Hakyeon fixed him with a look that was both surprised and unimpressed.
Sanghyuk hastened to back-pedal, the words tumbling out of his mouth before he even knew what exactly he was saying. "Oh, right, yes, I'm late! Let me just…"
He stumbled backwards into the apartment, but he didn't get far: not-Hakyeon grabbed onto his wrist and gently tugged him forward again, peering into his face.
"Are you okay, Hyuk?" he asked, voice surprisingly gentle for having been so impatient just moments earlier. "You look a little pale. Would you rather stay at home and rest? I can give you permission to skip today's mission if you'd rather not. It's just a reconnaissance mission - it's not something I can't do by myself."
Sanghyuk shook his head. He wasn't unwell, just… confused, lost. This mission that he was late for, which this Hakyeon lookalike had come to fetch him for, he could physically do - he was sure of it, even if he wasn't sure what it entailed.
He said as much to the other man, and not-Hakyeon nodded in tentative acknowledgement.
"I'll meet you at the village gate then," he said, taking a step backwards into the corridor outside, "in ten minutes."
Sanghyuk nodded, and the other man left.
Retreating back into his apartment, Sanghyuk looked around, searching for any clues as to what he should do next. He found it quickly, in the form of a small packed bag sitting on a dining chair he hadn't noticed earlier. He - or rather, Hyuk - had probably packed that last night, before going to bed.
On the table just in front of the bag, Sanghyuk saw a scroll laid out flat. It was their mission objective, he realised as he read the printed words, the one that had been given to him and N - which could only be not-Hakyeon's name in this world. And just as N had said, it was to be an intelligence-gathering mission, at a tower that had appeared in the middle of the sea separating the Country of Fire and the Country of Water.
A note had been written at the end of the scroll, in his own handwriting - a word of warning:
Water Country has already sent out a recon team. No-one returned. Potentially very dangerous.
As promised, N was waiting for him just inside the village gate when he arrived a minute later than their agreed ten - it had taken him a little longer than he had planned to get used to using chakra. He soon got the hang of it though, and it was with a perfect touchdown that he landed in front of his teammate.
They didn't say a word to each other, simply nodding before dashing out of the open wooden gates, heading due east. They both knew that the sooner they finished their mission, the sooner they could go home and put their feet up, but the journey to the sea could take up to two days and his unplanned lie in had already cost them some precious time.
They saw little of the world outside of the village, keeping mostly to the thick foliage provided by the treetops, and even when they broke their journey for the evening, they camped up in the tree branches.
It was nearing sunset on the second day when they arrived at a village on the coast, from whose harbour they got their first glimpse of the tower they had been sent to investigate. It stood in the middle of the sea, surrounded by water, looking eerily lonely.
Sanghyuk wondered where it had come from… and what they would find in it.
"Let's stay the night at the inn," N murmured as he squinted into the distance. "We'll need all the energy we can get for tomorrow, and we'll get better rest in beds than in the trees."
Sanghyuk hummed in agreement, and the two of them promptly set off towards the inn.
The tower stretched a lot higher than either N or Sanghyuk had anticipated it to when they arrived the next day, and as they sat floating in the boat at its visible base, both of them wondered how long it would take for them to scale the structure.
No time at all, it turned out. Once they had stepped inside to find the roof so far above them that they could barely see the end, but instead of stairs leading up, they found an archway with stairs leading down, and it was very dark.
"I hadn't expected this," whispered N, his voice feeble. The grip he had on the stone was turning his knuckles white, and it comforted Sanghyuk for just a brief moment that even in this world, N was still a bit of a scaredy-cat.
"We've got to go down, though," Sanghyuk pointed out. "We have a mission to complete."
His teammate made a faint noise of… he couldn't tell if it was agreement or distress. Either way, N breathed in and out a few times, slowly, calmly, before pulling out a small, collapsible lantern from his hip pouch, and a single candle.
With a strike of a match across the box, the candle was lit.
"Nothing for it, then," N murmured. "Into the darkness we go."
N led them down, down, into the depths of the ground beneath the tower, with only the feeble light of a single candle in the lantern illuminating their unsteady path.
They could see very little ahead, everything swallowed up by the yawning chasm of darkness around them. Sanghyuk would accidently stray a little further away from their path than was probably safe more than once, sending some loose pebbles beneath their feet rolling somewhere, past the edge of the steps and away into the distance. N had hissed at him to be careful, to not walk further away from where they could not feel the wall beneath their fingertips, but after the fifth time, he simply carried on, leading them deeper underground.
How long they had been walking for, Sanghyuk did not know; he had lost track after the first ten minutes. All he knew was that however far down this staircase went, they would have to reach the bottom, and they would have to get there in relatively good shape. There was no knowing what would greet them at the end of the trek, and if any of them were tired out, it could mean the end of them. He had read enough books, watched enough shows and movies to know that the obstacle at the end of the tunnel wouldn't be an easy one to overcome.
Overwhelmed by his thoughts, he felt his knees buckle beneath him and his fingers lost their grip on the stone wall. His sudden collapsing weight, plus the small bag he had slung on his left side, sent him toppling over the edge. He fell, cold wind whooshing past his face.
"Hyuk," N's panicked voice yelled from above, "Sang-"
"-hyuk!"
Sanghyuk gasped as he jolted, suddenly awake. Bewildered, he looked around him, blinking uncomprehendingly.
"Sanghyuk." It was N's voice - or maybe it was Hakyeon now, the realisation that he was now in his bedroom of VIXX's dormitory slowly sinking in. "Sanghyuk, are you with me?"
He looked up at the person just to his side, and took in the sight of Hakyeon's furrowed brows and nervous expression. He opened his mouth to say something, but found that no sound came out, his throat sore.
He felt hands on his lower back and across his shoulder, and then he was gently being pushed up by Hakyeon, who shifted so he could lean back on the leader. A glass of cool water was held to his lips, and he drank a mouthful, and then a second, before pushing the glass away.
"Thank you, Hakyeon-hyung," Sanghyuk croaked.
The hand on his shoulder tightened its grip for the briefest of moments. "You overworked yourself," Hakyeon said, his tone containing only the slightest hint of a scold. "I found the painkillers in the bottom of your bag - you were going to try and tough it out, weren't you?"
"Sorry," Sanghyuk mumbled, looking away. "I didn't want you to worry."
Hakyeon let out a breath slowly, measured, and when he spoke again, there was only concern in his voice - no judgement, no anger, just pure worry. "Next time, let me or Mickey-hyung know, okay? Don't try to work yourself to the bone."
"Okay," Sanghyuk agreed.
"Good."
Sanghyuk felt himself being gently lowered back onto his bedding, and then a cold cloth was draped over his forehead.
"Get some more rest," Hakyeon said, gently patting Sanghyuk on the forehead over the cloth. "You have a lot of work to catch up with once you're better."
And instead of arguing, as he usually would, Sanghyuk simply obeyed the leader's words, and closed his eyes.
He hoped he'd be transported back to the ninja world again.
Recipient: vixxismydrug
Characters: N, Hyuk
Rating: G
Wordcount: 2,452
Summary: In his fever dreams, Sanghyuk is a ninja.
Notes: My eternal gratitude to my beta for doing a fabulous last minute job making sure I can English properly. I hope you enjoy this!
Sanghyuk was glad he had a full schedule that would frequently take him away from the other boys that summer. Much as he loved his group members and spending time with them, he felt that he was more than ready to fly solo and try things without the others constantly watching over his shoulder.
(That, and because he felt it was really time that he picked up some of the slack of promoting VIXX, in showing off how talented and hard working his group was. He knew how much trouble Hakyeon-hyung had gone through to get their name out there, even more so now as he was beginning to shoulder some of that burden.)
Spending whole days out in the sun, though, was beginning to take its toll on him, and after a week of moving between the boiling heat of the outdoor film set and the arctic cold of their dorm and practice rooms, Sanghyuk was beginning to feel the tell-tale signs of an impending cold creeping up the back of his throat and nose.
At first, he debated telling their manager; Mickey-hyung would know what to do, having looked after the six of them for three years already, but Sanghyuk knew that if he did, then their manager would insist on cancelling his schedule for a day so he could stay at home to rest and recuperate. That would set off Hakyeon's mothering instincts, and that was the last thing Sanghyuk wanted, especially not when Hakyeon was on express orders to keep his stress level as low as possible.
Sanghyuk wondered if it would be worth going to see a doctor himself, to get some medicine without letting anyone know, but he knew that doing so would run the risk of being spotted by fans, making matters worse.
That left Sanghyuk with one option: to keep quiet and weather through it like a trooper. So that was what he did, sneaking painkillers into his bag, taking a couple of tablets on the odd occasions he could take a nap in an attempt to stem the cold before it developed any further.
It worked, somewhat, for two days, the feeling not getting any worse, but also not any better.
So when Sanghyuk collapsed onto his bedding on the third day, he felt like he shouldn't have been surprised that whatever he had caught had developed into a full blown illness. As it was though, he simply felt too tired to push himself up and into the bathroom to wash off his make-up and get ready for bed. His head felt heavy and the longer he lay there, the harder it became to breathe through his nose.
All he wanted to do now was sleep. Sleep for as long as he physically could, sleep away the uncomfortable feeling wracking his body.
The last thing he remembered before giving in to unconsciousness was the feeling of fingers running through his hair - Hakyeon's fingers, familiar and gentle. It was an unexpected but not unwelcome comfort before letting go.
When Sanghyuk woke up, he found himself in a place that was both unknown yet eerily familiar.
Looking around, he found himself in a small studio apartment, stretched out on a bed tucked right into the corner of the room. There was little in the way of decoration, the wooden panels of the wall and floor mostly bare except for the stretch of wall between the bathroom and front doors, where three frames hung side by side: a certificate, a family photograph, and a photograph of his friends.
Pushing himself up from his bed, he instinctively turned to look down at the small cabinet beside his bed, and that was when everything clicked into place in his mind.
He was in the Hidden Village of Konoha, the polished surface of the ninja headband gleaming up at him from his bedside table telling him so.
For a moment, Sanghyuk felt panic well within his chest; he was certain that he was Han Sanghyuk, an idol in the boyband VIXX and budding actor, not a ninja. But before he could think too much about it, there was a loud banging on the front door. He jerked, not having expected anyone at all.
"I know you're in there, Hyuk," yelled a voice - an oh-so-familiar voice. "Open the door!"
Sanghyuk scrambled off his bed and towards the door, pulling it open before his visitor could beat his fist down on it again. Just as he had expected, Hakyeon stood on the other side, his expression that mix of a frown and a scowl he always wore when he was annoyed about something.
"Hakyeon!" he called out in relief, happy to see such a familiar face. He leaned forward, throwing his arms around Hakyeon's shoulder. "I'm so glad to see you."
As Sanghyuk was hugging Hakyeon, he couldn't see the expression change on the other's face, but he did hear the confusion in his voice when Hakyeon said, "I'm glad to see you too, Hyuk, but who is this Hakyeon person you just called me?"
Sanghyuk snatched himself away, as though he had been burned, tottering a step backwards.
"Hyuk?" the Hakyeon lookalike asked, peering at him in concern. "Hyuk, are you okay?"
"You're not…" Sanghyuk began, staring wide-eyed at the man who looked just like Hakyeon but claimed not to know.
"I'm not…?" the doppelganger said, tilting his head to the side just like Hakyeon would. They remained like that for a moment, the man on the other side of the door waiting for Sanghyuk to continue, but when it was clear that Sanghyuk wouldn't, he clicked his tongue, as though impatient. "Never mind that - you're late!"
That startled Sanghyuk out of his earlier surprise. "I am? What for?"
Not-Hakyeon fixed him with a look that was both surprised and unimpressed.
Sanghyuk hastened to back-pedal, the words tumbling out of his mouth before he even knew what exactly he was saying. "Oh, right, yes, I'm late! Let me just…"
He stumbled backwards into the apartment, but he didn't get far: not-Hakyeon grabbed onto his wrist and gently tugged him forward again, peering into his face.
"Are you okay, Hyuk?" he asked, voice surprisingly gentle for having been so impatient just moments earlier. "You look a little pale. Would you rather stay at home and rest? I can give you permission to skip today's mission if you'd rather not. It's just a reconnaissance mission - it's not something I can't do by myself."
Sanghyuk shook his head. He wasn't unwell, just… confused, lost. This mission that he was late for, which this Hakyeon lookalike had come to fetch him for, he could physically do - he was sure of it, even if he wasn't sure what it entailed.
He said as much to the other man, and not-Hakyeon nodded in tentative acknowledgement.
"I'll meet you at the village gate then," he said, taking a step backwards into the corridor outside, "in ten minutes."
Sanghyuk nodded, and the other man left.
Retreating back into his apartment, Sanghyuk looked around, searching for any clues as to what he should do next. He found it quickly, in the form of a small packed bag sitting on a dining chair he hadn't noticed earlier. He - or rather, Hyuk - had probably packed that last night, before going to bed.
On the table just in front of the bag, Sanghyuk saw a scroll laid out flat. It was their mission objective, he realised as he read the printed words, the one that had been given to him and N - which could only be not-Hakyeon's name in this world. And just as N had said, it was to be an intelligence-gathering mission, at a tower that had appeared in the middle of the sea separating the Country of Fire and the Country of Water.
A note had been written at the end of the scroll, in his own handwriting - a word of warning:
Water Country has already sent out a recon team. No-one returned. Potentially very dangerous.
As promised, N was waiting for him just inside the village gate when he arrived a minute later than their agreed ten - it had taken him a little longer than he had planned to get used to using chakra. He soon got the hang of it though, and it was with a perfect touchdown that he landed in front of his teammate.
They didn't say a word to each other, simply nodding before dashing out of the open wooden gates, heading due east. They both knew that the sooner they finished their mission, the sooner they could go home and put their feet up, but the journey to the sea could take up to two days and his unplanned lie in had already cost them some precious time.
They saw little of the world outside of the village, keeping mostly to the thick foliage provided by the treetops, and even when they broke their journey for the evening, they camped up in the tree branches.
It was nearing sunset on the second day when they arrived at a village on the coast, from whose harbour they got their first glimpse of the tower they had been sent to investigate. It stood in the middle of the sea, surrounded by water, looking eerily lonely.
Sanghyuk wondered where it had come from… and what they would find in it.
"Let's stay the night at the inn," N murmured as he squinted into the distance. "We'll need all the energy we can get for tomorrow, and we'll get better rest in beds than in the trees."
Sanghyuk hummed in agreement, and the two of them promptly set off towards the inn.
The tower stretched a lot higher than either N or Sanghyuk had anticipated it to when they arrived the next day, and as they sat floating in the boat at its visible base, both of them wondered how long it would take for them to scale the structure.
No time at all, it turned out. Once they had stepped inside to find the roof so far above them that they could barely see the end, but instead of stairs leading up, they found an archway with stairs leading down, and it was very dark.
"I hadn't expected this," whispered N, his voice feeble. The grip he had on the stone was turning his knuckles white, and it comforted Sanghyuk for just a brief moment that even in this world, N was still a bit of a scaredy-cat.
"We've got to go down, though," Sanghyuk pointed out. "We have a mission to complete."
His teammate made a faint noise of… he couldn't tell if it was agreement or distress. Either way, N breathed in and out a few times, slowly, calmly, before pulling out a small, collapsible lantern from his hip pouch, and a single candle.
With a strike of a match across the box, the candle was lit.
"Nothing for it, then," N murmured. "Into the darkness we go."
N led them down, down, into the depths of the ground beneath the tower, with only the feeble light of a single candle in the lantern illuminating their unsteady path.
They could see very little ahead, everything swallowed up by the yawning chasm of darkness around them. Sanghyuk would accidently stray a little further away from their path than was probably safe more than once, sending some loose pebbles beneath their feet rolling somewhere, past the edge of the steps and away into the distance. N had hissed at him to be careful, to not walk further away from where they could not feel the wall beneath their fingertips, but after the fifth time, he simply carried on, leading them deeper underground.
How long they had been walking for, Sanghyuk did not know; he had lost track after the first ten minutes. All he knew was that however far down this staircase went, they would have to reach the bottom, and they would have to get there in relatively good shape. There was no knowing what would greet them at the end of the trek, and if any of them were tired out, it could mean the end of them. He had read enough books, watched enough shows and movies to know that the obstacle at the end of the tunnel wouldn't be an easy one to overcome.
Overwhelmed by his thoughts, he felt his knees buckle beneath him and his fingers lost their grip on the stone wall. His sudden collapsing weight, plus the small bag he had slung on his left side, sent him toppling over the edge. He fell, cold wind whooshing past his face.
"Hyuk," N's panicked voice yelled from above, "Sang-"
"-hyuk!"
Sanghyuk gasped as he jolted, suddenly awake. Bewildered, he looked around him, blinking uncomprehendingly.
"Sanghyuk." It was N's voice - or maybe it was Hakyeon now, the realisation that he was now in his bedroom of VIXX's dormitory slowly sinking in. "Sanghyuk, are you with me?"
He looked up at the person just to his side, and took in the sight of Hakyeon's furrowed brows and nervous expression. He opened his mouth to say something, but found that no sound came out, his throat sore.
He felt hands on his lower back and across his shoulder, and then he was gently being pushed up by Hakyeon, who shifted so he could lean back on the leader. A glass of cool water was held to his lips, and he drank a mouthful, and then a second, before pushing the glass away.
"Thank you, Hakyeon-hyung," Sanghyuk croaked.
The hand on his shoulder tightened its grip for the briefest of moments. "You overworked yourself," Hakyeon said, his tone containing only the slightest hint of a scold. "I found the painkillers in the bottom of your bag - you were going to try and tough it out, weren't you?"
"Sorry," Sanghyuk mumbled, looking away. "I didn't want you to worry."
Hakyeon let out a breath slowly, measured, and when he spoke again, there was only concern in his voice - no judgement, no anger, just pure worry. "Next time, let me or Mickey-hyung know, okay? Don't try to work yourself to the bone."
"Okay," Sanghyuk agreed.
"Good."
Sanghyuk felt himself being gently lowered back onto his bedding, and then a cold cloth was draped over his forehead.
"Get some more rest," Hakyeon said, gently patting Sanghyuk on the forehead over the cloth. "You have a lot of work to catch up with once you're better."
And instead of arguing, as he usually would, Sanghyuk simply obeyed the leader's words, and closed his eyes.
He hoped he'd be transported back to the ninja world again.