stilled photograph {tao/kai}
stilled photograph
tao/kai
supernatural!au ; r
violence, coarse language
written as entry 17 in sncj_reversebb's 2012 reverse big bang. art: here
He can kill me, Kai thinks, feeling the coolness of the blade that presses to his neck and the heaviness of the hilt that’s against his heart. It’s a sickening feeling, really, to think that he’s been bested, that someone has finally gotten past him and tricked him. He’s never fed into lies, he’s never trusted anyone-he’s been trained to love no one and to work on logic, not instinct.
And now, foolishly he may add, he has done the complete opposite of what he was supposed to do. He bites down on his lip, feeling the harsh burn of the knife.
It’s even more painful because he isn’t doing anything. He is just keeping it there, waiting for Kai to snap. He wants a show, he’s paid his admission fee in full-he’s been paying since the beginning. He knows how hard it is even to breathe, and in the misty fog, it’s hard to see. The only thing Kai can see is the spots at the corner of his eyes and the knives.
And his hand-Zitao’s hand.
No-Tao’s hand.
He’s a complete different person. And it wasn’t just because he changed his name, like all the players in this game eventually do. Kai had changed his name, too, but he couldn’t remember his real name, nor could he remember Xiumin’s or Suho’s, but for some strange reason, he was always able to remember Tao’s real name.
Maybe because Tao has always been different.
**
“Kai-sshi!” a shrill voice calls, and Kai turns away from his spot near the pond to stare at the ravenette that charges over at him.
Kai has a good memory, even for a five-year-old, so he knows that he has never met this guy before. But the guy knows his name-and that makes Kai tense up. Max, their instructor, has told them that if your opponent knows your name and you don’t know his, your opponent is one step higher than you, he is superior. It is imperative that you know everything about your opponent before you face him.
“I hear you can teleport.” The boy’s eyes are big and round and filled with something that Kai has never seen before. And he’s doing something weird with his lips-too. Suho-hyung has talked about how, when some people are happy, which is by far the stupidest emotion according to instructor Kangin, they turn their lips up, and this is called a smile. Kai decides that this boy is smiling, therefore he is happy-therefore he is foolish.
Kai nods and hums, “Just a little bit for right now-but soon, Max-sunbae says that I will be able to go anyplace in the world. It’s fun and it makes me feel strong and powerful.” He sits down on a rock adjacent to the pond, watching the koi fish swish back and forth, and their orange-and-white hides glowing in the sun.
The boy sits down on the grass beside him, his bare feet inches from being swept away by the cool pond’s waters. “You must be lucky. A lot of us don’t know our powers, yet.” Kai looks down-maybe that’s why he has never seen him before. Kai remembers spending hours locked up, trying his best to harness the feeling that grew from the pit of his stomach and spread out to his fingertips-all the while, Max watching him.
It wasn’t until he was finally able to jump from one place to another did Max’s eyes open fully and he opened the door to the outside. It smelled like freedom and flowers, and Kai tried to spend as many hours outside as possible, adventuring. He would eventually go back inside the house, and train and help Max and Kangin make dinner, of course.
“You’ll find it soon, I promise,” Kai says, patting the boy’s head. He’s about to stand up, for the sunset appears behind the clouds and Suho will need help cleaning, when the boy touches his ankle and smiles.
“I’m Zitao,” he introduces, “Pleased to meet you.”
**
It’s surprising that the young boy that had given him such a beautiful smile and charming attitude at the age of six was the same one that was currently trying to cut his head off fourteen years later at twenty. Kai balls his fists-he’s weaponless. He never had needed a weapon, because he was always able to teleport away. He was never trapped and escape was easy.
This is different. Even if he tried jumping away, in the point three seconds it takes him to disappear in the smoke, it is possible that Tao could cut his throat, kill him, so when he appeared at where he wanted to go, his head would roll onto the floor and his body would crumple. Tao has studied him, read him like a book, learned his weaknesses and his strengths, and Kai is foolish. So damn foolish.
Tao leans in so that their cheeks brush. Kai looks from the corner of his eye. Tao’s hair is still as dark as ebony and his eyes are still as puzzling as the dark side of the moon, with his hands pale and clammy compared to Kai’s dark complexion. Tao shines in the fog, his skin glistening like stones on the beach at night, even with the large cut on his left cheek.
“Are you thinking about me?” Tao asks, his hot breath tickling Kai’s ear and he flinches. “No, you don’t want to move.” He presses the knife even close to Kai’s Adam’s apple and he’s surprised that he isn’t drawing blood just yet. Tao smiles, kissing behind Kai’s ear. “That’s great. I want you to think about me. I want my name to be the last thing on your mind.”
“How?” Kai asks, his voice dry from the dehydration of surviving in the fog for so long. Tao smirks, pressing his second knife closer to Kai’s heart, the hilt so heavy, even if Kai isn’t holding it up.
“I found my power after I was exiled,” he explains, “Just like you said. I would eventually find my power. And thank you for being such a nice test dummy to what I’m able to do.” His cheek is cold, like the blade to his neck. “To catch you is like catching a hummingbird. I’m surprised I was able to get you so easily.”
Tao chuckles. “I can stop time. And I knew you would be the one that they would send to kill me. To get rid of the problem.”
**
“Fight me,” Zitao asks when Kai is practicing his fencing by himself. It’s one of those things that Max has always tried to get him interested in, even if the younger has always complained that he could just jump and he wouldn’t have to know how to fence. But Kai is a fighter, and like the rest of them, he needs to know how to use at least three weapons. Swords have always been easier.
Eight-year-old Zitao looks tired, especially for someone his age, and Kai wonders how many nights has he spent awake, looking up at the ceiling, wondering. Out of the twelve kids that had arrived to train under Kangin and Max’s teachings, Zitao was the last one to still have not discovered his power. He knew this from how Xiumin would always put pity on him during practices or when an angry Kangin would scream at him for being lazy and useless.
“I didn’t know you fenced.” Zitao looks up from his sword to glare at Kai. He looks so much older for someone just a year older than him. But everyone has hardened here. This ‘happiness’ that used to radiate from Zitao has dwindled and dissipated, so much that he couldn’t even remember the last time he had smiled.
“Don’t call it fencing. Someone’s gonna die,” Zitao bites back, lifting up his sword so it’s level to Kai’s neck. Kai nods, he guesses that some people really just don’t enjoy jokes or something. Jokes-Suho told him that it was when someone tried lifting another person’s spirits by saying something foolish. Kai had thought that Zitao would enjoy this ‘joke’, but it had seemed like he didn’t like these ones.
“This is practice, though,” Kai says, bending at the waist, and Zitao copies the motion. When they stand back up straight, they level their swords. Zitao smirks, but doesn’t reply, and that doesn’t help the sickening feeling in Kai’s stomach at all.
Zitao lunges and Kai dodges effortlessly. He takes a step closer, doing another block, before cutting Zitao’s pants. Zitao growls, leaning forward and cutting Kai’s cheek. It burns, and Kai grinds his teeth, stepping to the right and tripping Zitao with his left foot, stepping onto his chest with his right. Slowly, he pants, dropping his sword so that it is at Zitao’s chin.
“Get off of me,” Zitao growls.
“I was making a point,” Kai bites back, “Practice your defense. You can fight, fight and fight some more, but if you have no defense, the things that you love the most will be ruined and killed.” Kai steps off of him, throwing his sword down onto the dirty ground, biting down hard on his lip as he leaves.
**
“Defense,” Kai growls, and Tao laughs into his ear, turning his head so that their heads are together-so that they’re so close that they could be one. Kai lifts his hand up and rubs Tao’s hand, running his fingers down to the cool feel of the blade, the one that cuts at the sensitive area of his neck, and purposely he cuts his finger.
Tao grabs his finger and sucks at the blood-Kai hisses. Tao dips his tongue into the cut and a thousand chills run through Kai’s body. “Yes, defense. What did you say, that day? ‘You can fight, fight and fight some more, but if you have no defense, the things that you love the most will be ruined and killed?” Tao laughs, biting down on Kai’s finger.
Tao lets the other sword drop to the floor of the fogged room. “I’m almost tempted to spin you around right now, and just strike you through the heart. Would you like that? You have always been one for quick things, quick fixes, and happy endings. Well, Kai-ah, whatever Suho-hyung has told you about fairy tales and happiness is wrong and fake, we as a people just live to stay alive and nothing more.”
“And to think that you were always the one smiling,” Kai says, as Tao lets off on the sword against his neck. He’s surprised that he doesn’t push it up, next to his neck again, and just sighs, looking out into the distance. The fog that surrounds them reminds Kai of the wisps of black that he leaves each time that he teleports, leaving the people in a daze as thick as the cloud of smoke.
Tao still doesn’t seem to like jokes, then.
He spins Kai around, and that’s the time that Kai teleports away. He’s shaken, and he knows that he can never teleport very far when he isn’t in tip-top performance, so he only gets a few meters away. Tao’s eyes burn hate and Kai pants, hands on his knees, glaring back at him.
“Let’s end this. The fighters want you dead, and you want me dead. We’ll fight to the death, Zitao.” At his real name, something flashes in Tao’s eyes, before he straightens up and nods.
“Fine, to the death.”
**
“Suho,” Kai asks, nudging the elder. He turns and smiles at Kai.
“What is it, Kai-ah?” he replies, smiling in hopes of making Kai’s worried-filled face disappear and be replaced by a happier feeling. Even if Max doesn’t like smiling that much, he can’t deny Suho’s addictive smile, so elder was used to smiling-and that always brightened up the room, compared to the scowl that Kris always had on.
“Tao,” Kai says-biting down on his tongue to make sure not to say his real name, “Max took him from his room this morning. Do you know what happened to him?”
Suho is confused for a second, before looking down at the dirty ground and rubbing his arm anxiously. Twelve-year-old Kai is curious, and Max is always reprimanding him for his curiosity, so much that he has been sent to the punishment room so many times this week. It’s cold and it’s only Luhan and him that ever end up there lately.
He knows now that Suho knows information-it’s him and Lay that know things, but Lay didn’t seem to know what had happened to Tao. So Suho was the next person to ask.
“You know that he hasn’t found his power yet,” fifteen-year-old Suho says, and Kai nods, “And Max is getting really pissed at him. He’s great at fighting, but without his power…” Suho exhales and Kai watches as he reaches into his jeans and lights up a cigarette, putting it to his lips. Max doesn’t like things like cigarettes or alcohol in the camp, but Max smokes himself, and Kangin has soju in his room.
“I think that Max has finally give up on him,” Suho says, and when he talks, the gray smoke that leaves his lips reminds him of his own smoke-the one that he saw from one side of the room when he first teleported, those many years ago. “Poor Tao-ah, he’s such a good kid, too. He works a lot more than the rest of us.”
“But we have our powers,” Kai reminds him, and Suho sighs.
“Yeah.”
**
“Kai-ah,” Max calls, and he turns, to see his instructor holding Tao by the scruff of his neck. “I want you to teleport as far as you possibly can, drop him, and leave him there. Come back as soon as you possibly can. If you need help, just call me and I’ll find you.”
Max turns and walks away, and Kai stands there in the field, right next to pond-where they met so many years ago. Thirteen-year-old Zitao looks rough, like his spirits have been crushed. He looks so deflated and Kai wants to smile, to tell him that he’ll bring him to his parent’s house and to just say the address-but Zitao is Chinese, not Korean, and so Kai won’t know the area.
“Let’s go,” Kai says, grabbing Zitao’s hand. He sighs and nods.
They’re transported to the East Sea, where Kai remembers being dropped off by his parents, those many years ago, when Max notified his family that he was a born fighter, a mutant, and he would be best in his care. Zitao looks around, before walking to the right, and with pants on, he wades into the water, letting the cold waves lick at his calves.
“Are you leaving me here?” Zitao asks, turning around to stare at Kai.
“Max-sunbae says so.”
Zitao sighs, kicking the water. Suho would love it here-Xiumin, too. They would love using their powers-and maybe Kris and Chanyeol could open their wings and let their phoenix and dragon fly through the air and mingle, their godly bodies reflecting in the water.
“I have a power, right? If I find my power, I’ll be allowed to be brought back in, right?” Zitao asks, and Kai sighs-because he can never give him a clear answer. He seems to understand this, for he sits down in the waves, letting the sun hit his pale face.
“Kai,” he calls as he’s about to leave, and Kai hums. “If we ever meet again, I’d like to think that we’re not facing each other, killing each other.”
“I hope so too, Zitao-hyung.” Zitao seems to like this, for he smiles brightly, and Kai thinks that he has never looked more beautiful.
**
“Kai,” Max asks nineteen-year-old Kai when he’s training with Sehun and Lay. The two nod and disappear, headed off somewhere else, even if Kai hates being all alone with Max, because he’s cold, he’s strong, and he’s so much more powerful than Kai is. Baekhyun was his apprentice, but with one annoyed instructor, he had ended up blinding him, and now Baekhyun had the power of light, but was never able to see the beauty he could create.
“Yes, Max-sunbae?” Max smiles, wrapping his arm around Kai’s shoulders and he feels terrible-so self-conscious.
“It’s Tao. He’s managed to kill some of my fighters, and I want him gone. You’re the ace of the eleven. I’ve tracked him down and all you have to do is kill him.” Kai realizes that he says eleven instead of twelve.
“I don’t want to.”
Max slaps him, his hand lighting up with his blinding light. “I will rip a hole in you if you ever dare disobey me again, Jongin!”
And Kai disappears.
**
Tao lunges forward and Kai leans back, dodging him. He runs and grabs a sword from the floor and points it at him, and when it reaches his chin, cutting just a little bit of his skin, Kai sees something.
It’s the same expression from before. It’s the same child-it’s always been Zitao. It has never been Tao, someone that is vengeful and has worked so hard to kill the people that have exiled him. It has always been Zitao, a hard-working boy that only wanted to be accepted, only wanted to be someone that someone could look up to.
So Kai drops his sword and falls to his knees. “Kill me.”
Zitao blinks, looking down at Kai for the first time-noticing his full lips, but also the bruises on his skin that he has never seen before. He has never seen the cuts or the scars that run down his arms-and it hits him. Zitao has never been the only one that has been working since the beginning. Kai has also been working. Kai has also worked hard.
He drops to his knees in front of him and pulls his chin up, pressing their lips together. “Let’s run away.”
“That’s stupid, there are no happy endings like that,” Kai says.
Zitao smiles, running his hand down Kai’s neck. “I’ll take my chances. As long as you are able to run, I’ll love you, and protect you.”
So Kai says yes.
--
end.
a/n: thank you for all the people that told me, "you have to finish this!" and didn't bug me when i was writing this. thank you so much. and thank you artist-sshi and the commentors!
a/n1: fluffy stuff aside, i hope you liked this!
tao/kai
supernatural!au ; r
violence, coarse language
written as entry 17 in sncj_reversebb's 2012 reverse big bang. art: here
He can kill me, Kai thinks, feeling the coolness of the blade that presses to his neck and the heaviness of the hilt that’s against his heart. It’s a sickening feeling, really, to think that he’s been bested, that someone has finally gotten past him and tricked him. He’s never fed into lies, he’s never trusted anyone-he’s been trained to love no one and to work on logic, not instinct.
And now, foolishly he may add, he has done the complete opposite of what he was supposed to do. He bites down on his lip, feeling the harsh burn of the knife.
It’s even more painful because he isn’t doing anything. He is just keeping it there, waiting for Kai to snap. He wants a show, he’s paid his admission fee in full-he’s been paying since the beginning. He knows how hard it is even to breathe, and in the misty fog, it’s hard to see. The only thing Kai can see is the spots at the corner of his eyes and the knives.
And his hand-Zitao’s hand.
No-Tao’s hand.
He’s a complete different person. And it wasn’t just because he changed his name, like all the players in this game eventually do. Kai had changed his name, too, but he couldn’t remember his real name, nor could he remember Xiumin’s or Suho’s, but for some strange reason, he was always able to remember Tao’s real name.
Maybe because Tao has always been different.
**
“Kai-sshi!” a shrill voice calls, and Kai turns away from his spot near the pond to stare at the ravenette that charges over at him.
Kai has a good memory, even for a five-year-old, so he knows that he has never met this guy before. But the guy knows his name-and that makes Kai tense up. Max, their instructor, has told them that if your opponent knows your name and you don’t know his, your opponent is one step higher than you, he is superior. It is imperative that you know everything about your opponent before you face him.
“I hear you can teleport.” The boy’s eyes are big and round and filled with something that Kai has never seen before. And he’s doing something weird with his lips-too. Suho-hyung has talked about how, when some people are happy, which is by far the stupidest emotion according to instructor Kangin, they turn their lips up, and this is called a smile. Kai decides that this boy is smiling, therefore he is happy-therefore he is foolish.
Kai nods and hums, “Just a little bit for right now-but soon, Max-sunbae says that I will be able to go anyplace in the world. It’s fun and it makes me feel strong and powerful.” He sits down on a rock adjacent to the pond, watching the koi fish swish back and forth, and their orange-and-white hides glowing in the sun.
The boy sits down on the grass beside him, his bare feet inches from being swept away by the cool pond’s waters. “You must be lucky. A lot of us don’t know our powers, yet.” Kai looks down-maybe that’s why he has never seen him before. Kai remembers spending hours locked up, trying his best to harness the feeling that grew from the pit of his stomach and spread out to his fingertips-all the while, Max watching him.
It wasn’t until he was finally able to jump from one place to another did Max’s eyes open fully and he opened the door to the outside. It smelled like freedom and flowers, and Kai tried to spend as many hours outside as possible, adventuring. He would eventually go back inside the house, and train and help Max and Kangin make dinner, of course.
“You’ll find it soon, I promise,” Kai says, patting the boy’s head. He’s about to stand up, for the sunset appears behind the clouds and Suho will need help cleaning, when the boy touches his ankle and smiles.
“I’m Zitao,” he introduces, “Pleased to meet you.”
**
It’s surprising that the young boy that had given him such a beautiful smile and charming attitude at the age of six was the same one that was currently trying to cut his head off fourteen years later at twenty. Kai balls his fists-he’s weaponless. He never had needed a weapon, because he was always able to teleport away. He was never trapped and escape was easy.
This is different. Even if he tried jumping away, in the point three seconds it takes him to disappear in the smoke, it is possible that Tao could cut his throat, kill him, so when he appeared at where he wanted to go, his head would roll onto the floor and his body would crumple. Tao has studied him, read him like a book, learned his weaknesses and his strengths, and Kai is foolish. So damn foolish.
Tao leans in so that their cheeks brush. Kai looks from the corner of his eye. Tao’s hair is still as dark as ebony and his eyes are still as puzzling as the dark side of the moon, with his hands pale and clammy compared to Kai’s dark complexion. Tao shines in the fog, his skin glistening like stones on the beach at night, even with the large cut on his left cheek.
“Are you thinking about me?” Tao asks, his hot breath tickling Kai’s ear and he flinches. “No, you don’t want to move.” He presses the knife even close to Kai’s Adam’s apple and he’s surprised that he isn’t drawing blood just yet. Tao smiles, kissing behind Kai’s ear. “That’s great. I want you to think about me. I want my name to be the last thing on your mind.”
“How?” Kai asks, his voice dry from the dehydration of surviving in the fog for so long. Tao smirks, pressing his second knife closer to Kai’s heart, the hilt so heavy, even if Kai isn’t holding it up.
“I found my power after I was exiled,” he explains, “Just like you said. I would eventually find my power. And thank you for being such a nice test dummy to what I’m able to do.” His cheek is cold, like the blade to his neck. “To catch you is like catching a hummingbird. I’m surprised I was able to get you so easily.”
Tao chuckles. “I can stop time. And I knew you would be the one that they would send to kill me. To get rid of the problem.”
**
“Fight me,” Zitao asks when Kai is practicing his fencing by himself. It’s one of those things that Max has always tried to get him interested in, even if the younger has always complained that he could just jump and he wouldn’t have to know how to fence. But Kai is a fighter, and like the rest of them, he needs to know how to use at least three weapons. Swords have always been easier.
Eight-year-old Zitao looks tired, especially for someone his age, and Kai wonders how many nights has he spent awake, looking up at the ceiling, wondering. Out of the twelve kids that had arrived to train under Kangin and Max’s teachings, Zitao was the last one to still have not discovered his power. He knew this from how Xiumin would always put pity on him during practices or when an angry Kangin would scream at him for being lazy and useless.
“I didn’t know you fenced.” Zitao looks up from his sword to glare at Kai. He looks so much older for someone just a year older than him. But everyone has hardened here. This ‘happiness’ that used to radiate from Zitao has dwindled and dissipated, so much that he couldn’t even remember the last time he had smiled.
“Don’t call it fencing. Someone’s gonna die,” Zitao bites back, lifting up his sword so it’s level to Kai’s neck. Kai nods, he guesses that some people really just don’t enjoy jokes or something. Jokes-Suho told him that it was when someone tried lifting another person’s spirits by saying something foolish. Kai had thought that Zitao would enjoy this ‘joke’, but it had seemed like he didn’t like these ones.
“This is practice, though,” Kai says, bending at the waist, and Zitao copies the motion. When they stand back up straight, they level their swords. Zitao smirks, but doesn’t reply, and that doesn’t help the sickening feeling in Kai’s stomach at all.
Zitao lunges and Kai dodges effortlessly. He takes a step closer, doing another block, before cutting Zitao’s pants. Zitao growls, leaning forward and cutting Kai’s cheek. It burns, and Kai grinds his teeth, stepping to the right and tripping Zitao with his left foot, stepping onto his chest with his right. Slowly, he pants, dropping his sword so that it is at Zitao’s chin.
“Get off of me,” Zitao growls.
“I was making a point,” Kai bites back, “Practice your defense. You can fight, fight and fight some more, but if you have no defense, the things that you love the most will be ruined and killed.” Kai steps off of him, throwing his sword down onto the dirty ground, biting down hard on his lip as he leaves.
**
“Defense,” Kai growls, and Tao laughs into his ear, turning his head so that their heads are together-so that they’re so close that they could be one. Kai lifts his hand up and rubs Tao’s hand, running his fingers down to the cool feel of the blade, the one that cuts at the sensitive area of his neck, and purposely he cuts his finger.
Tao grabs his finger and sucks at the blood-Kai hisses. Tao dips his tongue into the cut and a thousand chills run through Kai’s body. “Yes, defense. What did you say, that day? ‘You can fight, fight and fight some more, but if you have no defense, the things that you love the most will be ruined and killed?” Tao laughs, biting down on Kai’s finger.
Tao lets the other sword drop to the floor of the fogged room. “I’m almost tempted to spin you around right now, and just strike you through the heart. Would you like that? You have always been one for quick things, quick fixes, and happy endings. Well, Kai-ah, whatever Suho-hyung has told you about fairy tales and happiness is wrong and fake, we as a people just live to stay alive and nothing more.”
“And to think that you were always the one smiling,” Kai says, as Tao lets off on the sword against his neck. He’s surprised that he doesn’t push it up, next to his neck again, and just sighs, looking out into the distance. The fog that surrounds them reminds Kai of the wisps of black that he leaves each time that he teleports, leaving the people in a daze as thick as the cloud of smoke.
Tao still doesn’t seem to like jokes, then.
He spins Kai around, and that’s the time that Kai teleports away. He’s shaken, and he knows that he can never teleport very far when he isn’t in tip-top performance, so he only gets a few meters away. Tao’s eyes burn hate and Kai pants, hands on his knees, glaring back at him.
“Let’s end this. The fighters want you dead, and you want me dead. We’ll fight to the death, Zitao.” At his real name, something flashes in Tao’s eyes, before he straightens up and nods.
“Fine, to the death.”
**
“Suho,” Kai asks, nudging the elder. He turns and smiles at Kai.
“What is it, Kai-ah?” he replies, smiling in hopes of making Kai’s worried-filled face disappear and be replaced by a happier feeling. Even if Max doesn’t like smiling that much, he can’t deny Suho’s addictive smile, so elder was used to smiling-and that always brightened up the room, compared to the scowl that Kris always had on.
“Tao,” Kai says-biting down on his tongue to make sure not to say his real name, “Max took him from his room this morning. Do you know what happened to him?”
Suho is confused for a second, before looking down at the dirty ground and rubbing his arm anxiously. Twelve-year-old Kai is curious, and Max is always reprimanding him for his curiosity, so much that he has been sent to the punishment room so many times this week. It’s cold and it’s only Luhan and him that ever end up there lately.
He knows now that Suho knows information-it’s him and Lay that know things, but Lay didn’t seem to know what had happened to Tao. So Suho was the next person to ask.
“You know that he hasn’t found his power yet,” fifteen-year-old Suho says, and Kai nods, “And Max is getting really pissed at him. He’s great at fighting, but without his power…” Suho exhales and Kai watches as he reaches into his jeans and lights up a cigarette, putting it to his lips. Max doesn’t like things like cigarettes or alcohol in the camp, but Max smokes himself, and Kangin has soju in his room.
“I think that Max has finally give up on him,” Suho says, and when he talks, the gray smoke that leaves his lips reminds him of his own smoke-the one that he saw from one side of the room when he first teleported, those many years ago. “Poor Tao-ah, he’s such a good kid, too. He works a lot more than the rest of us.”
“But we have our powers,” Kai reminds him, and Suho sighs.
“Yeah.”
**
“Kai-ah,” Max calls, and he turns, to see his instructor holding Tao by the scruff of his neck. “I want you to teleport as far as you possibly can, drop him, and leave him there. Come back as soon as you possibly can. If you need help, just call me and I’ll find you.”
Max turns and walks away, and Kai stands there in the field, right next to pond-where they met so many years ago. Thirteen-year-old Zitao looks rough, like his spirits have been crushed. He looks so deflated and Kai wants to smile, to tell him that he’ll bring him to his parent’s house and to just say the address-but Zitao is Chinese, not Korean, and so Kai won’t know the area.
“Let’s go,” Kai says, grabbing Zitao’s hand. He sighs and nods.
They’re transported to the East Sea, where Kai remembers being dropped off by his parents, those many years ago, when Max notified his family that he was a born fighter, a mutant, and he would be best in his care. Zitao looks around, before walking to the right, and with pants on, he wades into the water, letting the cold waves lick at his calves.
“Are you leaving me here?” Zitao asks, turning around to stare at Kai.
“Max-sunbae says so.”
Zitao sighs, kicking the water. Suho would love it here-Xiumin, too. They would love using their powers-and maybe Kris and Chanyeol could open their wings and let their phoenix and dragon fly through the air and mingle, their godly bodies reflecting in the water.
“I have a power, right? If I find my power, I’ll be allowed to be brought back in, right?” Zitao asks, and Kai sighs-because he can never give him a clear answer. He seems to understand this, for he sits down in the waves, letting the sun hit his pale face.
“Kai,” he calls as he’s about to leave, and Kai hums. “If we ever meet again, I’d like to think that we’re not facing each other, killing each other.”
“I hope so too, Zitao-hyung.” Zitao seems to like this, for he smiles brightly, and Kai thinks that he has never looked more beautiful.
**
“Kai,” Max asks nineteen-year-old Kai when he’s training with Sehun and Lay. The two nod and disappear, headed off somewhere else, even if Kai hates being all alone with Max, because he’s cold, he’s strong, and he’s so much more powerful than Kai is. Baekhyun was his apprentice, but with one annoyed instructor, he had ended up blinding him, and now Baekhyun had the power of light, but was never able to see the beauty he could create.
“Yes, Max-sunbae?” Max smiles, wrapping his arm around Kai’s shoulders and he feels terrible-so self-conscious.
“It’s Tao. He’s managed to kill some of my fighters, and I want him gone. You’re the ace of the eleven. I’ve tracked him down and all you have to do is kill him.” Kai realizes that he says eleven instead of twelve.
“I don’t want to.”
Max slaps him, his hand lighting up with his blinding light. “I will rip a hole in you if you ever dare disobey me again, Jongin!”
And Kai disappears.
**
Tao lunges forward and Kai leans back, dodging him. He runs and grabs a sword from the floor and points it at him, and when it reaches his chin, cutting just a little bit of his skin, Kai sees something.
It’s the same expression from before. It’s the same child-it’s always been Zitao. It has never been Tao, someone that is vengeful and has worked so hard to kill the people that have exiled him. It has always been Zitao, a hard-working boy that only wanted to be accepted, only wanted to be someone that someone could look up to.
So Kai drops his sword and falls to his knees. “Kill me.”
Zitao blinks, looking down at Kai for the first time-noticing his full lips, but also the bruises on his skin that he has never seen before. He has never seen the cuts or the scars that run down his arms-and it hits him. Zitao has never been the only one that has been working since the beginning. Kai has also been working. Kai has also worked hard.
He drops to his knees in front of him and pulls his chin up, pressing their lips together. “Let’s run away.”
“That’s stupid, there are no happy endings like that,” Kai says.
Zitao smiles, running his hand down Kai’s neck. “I’ll take my chances. As long as you are able to run, I’ll love you, and protect you.”
So Kai says yes.
--
end.
a/n: thank you for all the people that told me, "you have to finish this!" and didn't bug me when i was writing this. thank you so much. and thank you artist-sshi and the commentors!
a/n1: fluffy stuff aside, i hope you liked this!