fanfiction: white wishes [One-Shot]
White Wishes
Jongkey | PG-13
In a grey world, white wishes prevail.
Words: 3,152
a/n: take a wish and make it better. Listen to this song while you read. Happy holidays a bit early! ♥
Key wasn’t really the sort to let his heart run away with him. There were times when his body would, but never his heart. His heart remained cold as emotionless granite. Even when fingers would trail up his trembling thighs and press him into warm sheets, even when a hot mouth met his in a clash of teeth and lips, melding together in a confusing union, he never felt a flutter from his heart.
In the morning, he’d wake up, his hair splayed across his pillow. There would be a weight against his waist and when he’d glance down; his fingers would be twined with a wonderfully warm hand. He’d roll over, his back pressing into the back of his bed partner. For an instant his enhanced senses would feel a heartbeat, and then he’d pull away, rolling onto his other side to place his hand against the human’s smooth cheek.
Key’s eyes would flash a color akin to silver, and then he’d press in close, touch his lips to the humans. He’d stay there, hesitantly, for a moment. He’d slide his artificial fingers through fine blond locks, his sensory detectors overflowing with the unique feeling. His human would release a puff of air. The doll would feel it, touching his skin and sliding over him with such softness, such a unique love, that he’d have to close his eyes and pretend that he could feel emotion inside his artificial body.
Then, when nothing happened, when nothing changed, when his heart didn’t melt, he pulled away with a sigh and untangled his robotic body from sheets. He washed dried cum off his body in the shower, his crimson streaked hair obscuring his vision. Water breathed down his skin, sliding down like fingers of his human.
He closed his eyes against the water sliding against his pupils painfully. Sometimes he marveled at the amount of detail his makers had placed in him. Of course, he was of finest quality. His makers were the very best. He shut off the water, stepping out onto the tiles and drying himself off with a white fluffy towel. He was a made to be a companion. In a world where people were short to come by, where meeting a soul mate was nearly impossible, he was created to be the perfect friend, lover, whatever he was needed for.
His eyes caught his pale reflection in the mirror. He let his lips turn up into a smile, frowning when there was no joy attached. His eyes didn’t glow like his humans did, his heart didn’t beat, nor did his laugh didn’t trickle over the ears of all who could hear. There was nothing-the smile was meaningless. His released sigh sounded like a train wreck instead of a calm sunny day. Frustration building, he dressed and cooked breakfast for his still sleeping human.
Eggs in the frying pan, rice in the cooker, a few sausage links later, and he’d set a plate brimming with food on the counter. His scent detector would be overflowing with the odd smells of food. Sometimes he wondered what eating felt like. He was sitting on one end of the table when his human entered the room, dressed in dark silk boxers and adding the human scent of their activities from last night to the already poignant air.
“Good morning,” husky breath touched his skin as the young man placed a kiss against his cheek. He closed his eyes, pretending he could feel. His face stretched as his lips upturned into a smile. He looked on as his human ate, placing his head in his hands. His human loved him. His human was a brat, his human liked to yell and threw hissy fits and was a problematic jokester, but Kibum belonged to him. He couldn’t really try to have it any other way, it was against his programming.
“Hey Key,” Jonghyun spoke between mouthfuls. His robot watched him with lazy dark eyes. “Let’s go out today.”
Key shrugged, his dark grey shirt shimmering slightly at the movement. “Where do you want to go?” He asked, fingers locking together as he rested his chin on them.
Jonghyun shrugged. “I don’t know.” He murmured, his fork shoving a whole sausage into his mouth. Key made a noise in the back of his throat, sure that wasn’t healthy. “Let’s walk to the park.”
“It’s winter,” Key immediately stated, the voice of caution instilled in him. He cleared the table swiftly as Jonghyun got up to go shower. Key was washing things in the sink when Jonghyun’s arms circled his waist and the warm human body pressed close, face nuzzling in his hair.
“You’re so soft,” the boy murmured, soft breath ticking his skin. Key closed his eyes, leaning back against the boy. Human’s were so rare as it was nowadays. If it weren’t for him the human would be alone. Key knew that more than anything, human’s couldn’t handle loneliness. He turned his head until their lips met, his arms wrapping around Jonghyun’s, hands wet with soapy water which sunk into the boy’s trademark shirt.
When they pulled away, Jonghyun’s eyes were hazed over, his heart sounded like a bell against Key’s chest. Key’s lips turned up; because he knew he was supposed to smile. His fingers slid down until they held Jonghyun’s fine, strong hands. Leading the boy to the coat closet, he pulled the winter gear out and donned him, knowing he was too dazed to work the ties of his own jacket. He knew he’d get the zipper caught on his shirt and pierce his own chin when he forced it to work too fast. Tenderly, he pulled crocheted hat over Jonghyun’s head, tilting his chin to catch their lips together.
“I’m not a baby,” Jonghyun breathlessly managed.
Key’s lips quirked into a smirk, “are you sure?” His laugh danced away all retorts, as the robot donned his own coat and a hat. As they left, their fingers twined together. Jonghyun’s fingers felt like the softest yarn against his sensory detectors. Hand in hand, they headed towards the silent park.
The world was quiet. According to his database of a memory, the city hadn’t been like this, once. But then after the Great War, everything changed. After the north and the south and the wars and the chaos of humans, the world became blanketed by dust. Snow used to be white; now it was grey riddled with ash.
Humans killed humans, and then there were too few humans remaining to kill. The humans that were left became lonely, so they used their technology to create the robots. After a few years, they were able to create ones like Key; so realistic that a human could fall in love with them.
Key knew the way Jonghyun looked at him. It was a look of love. He wished he could cry sometimes. The softness of his human’s excited hand as he was pulled down the silent street made him wish that his heart could beat. He wished for empathy. He wished for humanity. He wished, he wished so hard for his iron insides to turn mortal so he could feel, so he could be soft, so that he could be hit by a truck and die.
He wished for something inside of him to be louder than the silent whir of his internal memory fan. He wished and wished. But wishes couldn’t come true, not in a world where ash fell, not snow.
Once they made it to the park, the chill air made them sit down on a bench. In the once-spring the lake would reflect the blue of the sky. There would be lily pads in one corner and ducks would float on the surface. Now there were no colors, only ash.
Jonghyun was chatting, disturbing the silence with his loud voice, creating a sense of life to a world that was slowly losing it to artificial simulation. Key’s head tilted, hair falling into his eyes as he watched the boy’s animated face. He documented the moment-the memory-because these were precious. Humans were fragile. Jonghyun’s skin was pale, his eyes rimmed with red as the ash often bothered them. Key would have made him wear goggles, but he knew the human would have ripped them off and pressed them back onto the shelf. He knew it was futile.
His fingers twined with Jonghyun’s, running his smooth skin across the bumps his human veins made, wondering what it felt like to have blood coursing through a body. Human bodies were the most fascinating, and he was just a cloned interpretation of what they needed.
“What if the world was blue?” Key asked, a bit jokingly, his eyes catching on the color of one vein through the pale skin.
“Then we’d be underwater,” Jonghyun laughed. Key wished the laugh could make the grey disappear and bring life back to the world so that his human could see it the way it looked in his database of pictures and clips. When grass grew on the ground, when snow was white, when the sky was bright blue, not grey, when water was crystal instead of murky.
“Then you’d better grow gills,” Key laughed, his fingers brushing the side of the human’s neck, feeling the pulse beating there in a mirror of his heart. He froze, surprised. He’d forgotten for an instant. It had been only a moment, but he’d forgotten that he wasn’t human. That he wasn’t mortal-that he wouldn’t have Jonghyun forever.
Jonghyun’s smile slipped off his face slowly, catching Key’s fingers with his own. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Key’s smile faded away like color. “Not yet.”
Jonghyun sighed heavily and jumped to his feet. He leaned over and balled up a handful of snow and ash. Before Key could register and act on it, the human threw it in his face, grey mixing with crimson and the dark brown of Key’s hair. The robot blinked at his human, who took off running as fast as his short legs could carry him.
Key was on him in an instant, throwing away all thoughts of solemnity, tackling him as lightly as he could manage so as not to break any bones or bruise soft skin, bowling them both over into piles of grey ashy snow. They made their own noise, breaking the deafening barriers of quiet, tearing at the seams of the blanket of silence.
They rolled, over and over, round and round, in small mounds of grey. The substance mixed with their clothes and froze into a sticky mess against skin and prototype. They stopped; kissing. Breathlessness making the human’s mouth sloppy, something unexplainable was making the robot tremble.
Their tongues meshed together, heated and passionate mouths clashed. Key’s eyes caught on the way Jonghyun’s blond locks seemed to shine, how those amber eyes glowed as cold hands cupped Key’s face, how Jonghyun’s shoulders trembled as Key slipped his arms around them. His human was beautiful. His human loved him.
His human was everything. Key crushed his eyes closed, shutting them tightly to stop what he couldn’t have. He pressed his lips against Jonghyun’s, wondering what it would be like to feel the love he wanted to feel.
Wondering what humanity was like.
It was dark when the two finally started to leave the park, fingers linked and shaking ashy snow out of their clothes and hair. Jonghyun’s laugh was still ringing in the air, Key’s artificial one joining his. He wanted to know what it felt like when a human laughed. Key was infatuated with the light of Jonghyun’s face. When he laughed, he glowed.
Jonghyun glanced towards the sky carelessly, his breath releasing puffs of clouds with each exhale. The human froze, his eyes widening impossibly. “Whoa, Key!” He pointed upwards, into the dark. Key looked up, eyes widening at the shining, shimmering star that was showing clearly, not overtaken by any sort of expanse of grey.
In fact, the ashy snow had stopped falling; Key had just been too sidetracked to notice. Jonghyun’s hand tightened around his as a cold gust of wind blew. Jonghyun pressed close, hiding his face in Key’s shoulder, but the robot had no need, watching the wind blow away the grey that surrounded them, exposing a clear sky full of stars.
“Jjong,” Key murmured against cold hair. The human tipped his head upwards, eyes widening again and mouth dropping open in the look of innocent astonishment at his first real glance of stars in the last ten years.
“Stars,” he breathed, and even though there was a much stronger wind around them, whisking everything away, Key could still feel the breath against his skin. The wind ebbed away, leaving the two standing in a dust pile of grey in the middle of an empty street corner.
Then something started, like magic.
Light fluffy puffs started to float downwards. For an instant the robot thought they were the stars falling, but then one touched him on the nose. He went cross-eyed as he stared at it. Jonghyun laughed at his face, the hand Key wasn’t holding rising to meet a flake, staring as it melted in his warm palm.
“Snow,” he murmured, before Key could tell him. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes, letting it out in a swift puff of condensation. It was as though all the dead things in the world were finally leaving. It was as though life was coming back into the world in the form of crystallized beauty. In the form of white hopeful worlds, not one any similar to the other-each its own little form of hope.
Key pressed his lips against Jonghyun’s, so suddenly that it caught the human off guard. “Make a wish,” he murmured against chilly blue lips.
So he did, as his robot pressed his hands against the sides of his neck, feeling the pulse radiating through him, feeling the breath rolling between them in little gasps, their foreheads touching together. When Jonghyun opened his eyes again, it was with a crooked apologetic smile.
“Can we go inside? It’s cold.” The boy chattered.
When they got home, Key laid their clothes against the radiator and made his human a mug of hot chocolate. They settled together on the gentle couch, Jonghyun’s feet on the coffee table with his hands wrapped around his mug. Key’s head was in his lap as he idly crocheted another hat for his human.
They must have fallen asleep like that, with snow falling softly on the outside world. Jonghyun’s fingers were tangled in Key’s hair when he woke up, groggy. He blinked sleep away, wondering what woke him. He could feel something odd bubbling up inside him, but there was something cold frosting his skin over so he curled his body inwards, his face hiding in his human’s shirt.
Something murmured inside of him, not the swift whir of his fan, or the churn of his joints when they moved, but something different, something odd. He felt groggy, he felt…he felt.
He felt.
Breath caught in his throat, the sensation making him snap up in alarm. The room spun, and he had to raise a hand to catch it so he wouldn’t fall over. He dropped back down, heavy in Jonghyun’s lap. His human woke up with a start, and their eyes locked for a moment.
Boom, boom.
In his chest, something pounded away like a drum. He pushed away from Jonghyun and…the couch ran out of room, sending him into a pile of flailing limbs on the floor, wedged between the coffee table and the couch.
He registered everything, the cold, the breath, the sensation of pain in his backside, the feeling in his heart-and he screamed.
His voice choked when he ran out of breath, and he was left gasping, floundering as he tried to right himself, but he was having trouble controlling the way his legs walked because he felt like a mess of jelly. His heart was pounding in his ears, mixing with Jonghyun’s ecstatic laugh.
“You’re human?” The words left Jonghyun’s mouth in a gasp of incredulity. “It worked?” Key’s new heart leapt to his throat as tears sparked the corners of his eyes. Shaking, Key lifted himself onto the couch and out of his undignified position.
He cupped Jonghyun’s warm face in his hands, pressing a kiss to his lips. Jonghyun’s were moist, chapped, tasting like something sweet and yet all together sour. He moaned into it, but then he had to pull away to breathe. His heart was slamming against his ears. He flicked his gaze up into Jonghyun’s brown ones.
“I wished,” Jonghyun was crying, moist tears dripping onto Key’s hands. A swift movement from his thumbs wiped them away. “I wished for it and it came true,” the boy retried.
There was an odd knotting sensation in Key’s chest, and his vision disappeared suddenly. Salty tears dripped into his mouth as he cried, laughing a little as he pressed his lips to Jonghyun’s again and again. “Why are you crying?” Key asked, blinking tears away.
“Why are you?!” Jonghyun shot back, soft fingers dashing tears away from his cheeks just as Key had done for his human moments ago.
Key’s laugh made it even harder to breathe, and finally, he could feel the joy, the rising of his chest like a great swelling wave, like a bird, soaring from its nest for the first time, the air currents carrying it up and up into the great expanse of blue sky. He pressed his lips against Jonghyun’s again, going still as he dropped his head against his shoulder, sucking in breath after breath and feeling that never ceasing pulse against his skin.
Then he was crying again, his heart pounding, tremors pulsing his body into motion. He looked up into Jonghyun’s eyes and was suddenly crawling into his lap to see his face better. He wrapped his arms around his, his fingers digging into his shirt so he wouldn’t go anywhere. “I love you,” he claimed, eyes shining. “I’ve loved you since forever but I couldn’t feel it until now.” His heart was pulsating, groaning, moaning in his chest, because nothing could contain it. He felt like it was going to burst.
“Yeah?” Jonghyun asked, hands lighting on Key’s hips. For an instant he thought the boy was going to reject him, and then their lips touched, once more. Key tilted his head and sunk into it. They both closed their eyes, Jonghyun’s hands fisting in Key’s shirt and Key’s fingers tangling in bond locks.
Their union was interrupted by a reporter on the television sending his holiday greetings. Key started off Jonghyun’s lap and onto the floor in surprise, the words ‘Merry Christmas’ lost in an eruption of joyous giggles from the two hopelessly in love boys.
Merry Christmas! ♥
no matter what happens to us in the future, let us never forget our humanity.
finished 12.10.2009
Jongkey | PG-13
In a grey world, white wishes prevail.
Words: 3,152
a/n: take a wish and make it better. Listen to this song while you read. Happy holidays a bit early! ♥
Key wasn’t really the sort to let his heart run away with him. There were times when his body would, but never his heart. His heart remained cold as emotionless granite. Even when fingers would trail up his trembling thighs and press him into warm sheets, even when a hot mouth met his in a clash of teeth and lips, melding together in a confusing union, he never felt a flutter from his heart.
In the morning, he’d wake up, his hair splayed across his pillow. There would be a weight against his waist and when he’d glance down; his fingers would be twined with a wonderfully warm hand. He’d roll over, his back pressing into the back of his bed partner. For an instant his enhanced senses would feel a heartbeat, and then he’d pull away, rolling onto his other side to place his hand against the human’s smooth cheek.
Key’s eyes would flash a color akin to silver, and then he’d press in close, touch his lips to the humans. He’d stay there, hesitantly, for a moment. He’d slide his artificial fingers through fine blond locks, his sensory detectors overflowing with the unique feeling. His human would release a puff of air. The doll would feel it, touching his skin and sliding over him with such softness, such a unique love, that he’d have to close his eyes and pretend that he could feel emotion inside his artificial body.
Then, when nothing happened, when nothing changed, when his heart didn’t melt, he pulled away with a sigh and untangled his robotic body from sheets. He washed dried cum off his body in the shower, his crimson streaked hair obscuring his vision. Water breathed down his skin, sliding down like fingers of his human.
He closed his eyes against the water sliding against his pupils painfully. Sometimes he marveled at the amount of detail his makers had placed in him. Of course, he was of finest quality. His makers were the very best. He shut off the water, stepping out onto the tiles and drying himself off with a white fluffy towel. He was a made to be a companion. In a world where people were short to come by, where meeting a soul mate was nearly impossible, he was created to be the perfect friend, lover, whatever he was needed for.
His eyes caught his pale reflection in the mirror. He let his lips turn up into a smile, frowning when there was no joy attached. His eyes didn’t glow like his humans did, his heart didn’t beat, nor did his laugh didn’t trickle over the ears of all who could hear. There was nothing-the smile was meaningless. His released sigh sounded like a train wreck instead of a calm sunny day. Frustration building, he dressed and cooked breakfast for his still sleeping human.
Eggs in the frying pan, rice in the cooker, a few sausage links later, and he’d set a plate brimming with food on the counter. His scent detector would be overflowing with the odd smells of food. Sometimes he wondered what eating felt like. He was sitting on one end of the table when his human entered the room, dressed in dark silk boxers and adding the human scent of their activities from last night to the already poignant air.
“Good morning,” husky breath touched his skin as the young man placed a kiss against his cheek. He closed his eyes, pretending he could feel. His face stretched as his lips upturned into a smile. He looked on as his human ate, placing his head in his hands. His human loved him. His human was a brat, his human liked to yell and threw hissy fits and was a problematic jokester, but Kibum belonged to him. He couldn’t really try to have it any other way, it was against his programming.
“Hey Key,” Jonghyun spoke between mouthfuls. His robot watched him with lazy dark eyes. “Let’s go out today.”
Key shrugged, his dark grey shirt shimmering slightly at the movement. “Where do you want to go?” He asked, fingers locking together as he rested his chin on them.
Jonghyun shrugged. “I don’t know.” He murmured, his fork shoving a whole sausage into his mouth. Key made a noise in the back of his throat, sure that wasn’t healthy. “Let’s walk to the park.”
“It’s winter,” Key immediately stated, the voice of caution instilled in him. He cleared the table swiftly as Jonghyun got up to go shower. Key was washing things in the sink when Jonghyun’s arms circled his waist and the warm human body pressed close, face nuzzling in his hair.
“You’re so soft,” the boy murmured, soft breath ticking his skin. Key closed his eyes, leaning back against the boy. Human’s were so rare as it was nowadays. If it weren’t for him the human would be alone. Key knew that more than anything, human’s couldn’t handle loneliness. He turned his head until their lips met, his arms wrapping around Jonghyun’s, hands wet with soapy water which sunk into the boy’s trademark shirt.
When they pulled away, Jonghyun’s eyes were hazed over, his heart sounded like a bell against Key’s chest. Key’s lips turned up; because he knew he was supposed to smile. His fingers slid down until they held Jonghyun’s fine, strong hands. Leading the boy to the coat closet, he pulled the winter gear out and donned him, knowing he was too dazed to work the ties of his own jacket. He knew he’d get the zipper caught on his shirt and pierce his own chin when he forced it to work too fast. Tenderly, he pulled crocheted hat over Jonghyun’s head, tilting his chin to catch their lips together.
“I’m not a baby,” Jonghyun breathlessly managed.
Key’s lips quirked into a smirk, “are you sure?” His laugh danced away all retorts, as the robot donned his own coat and a hat. As they left, their fingers twined together. Jonghyun’s fingers felt like the softest yarn against his sensory detectors. Hand in hand, they headed towards the silent park.
The world was quiet. According to his database of a memory, the city hadn’t been like this, once. But then after the Great War, everything changed. After the north and the south and the wars and the chaos of humans, the world became blanketed by dust. Snow used to be white; now it was grey riddled with ash.
Humans killed humans, and then there were too few humans remaining to kill. The humans that were left became lonely, so they used their technology to create the robots. After a few years, they were able to create ones like Key; so realistic that a human could fall in love with them.
Key knew the way Jonghyun looked at him. It was a look of love. He wished he could cry sometimes. The softness of his human’s excited hand as he was pulled down the silent street made him wish that his heart could beat. He wished for empathy. He wished for humanity. He wished, he wished so hard for his iron insides to turn mortal so he could feel, so he could be soft, so that he could be hit by a truck and die.
He wished for something inside of him to be louder than the silent whir of his internal memory fan. He wished and wished. But wishes couldn’t come true, not in a world where ash fell, not snow.
Once they made it to the park, the chill air made them sit down on a bench. In the once-spring the lake would reflect the blue of the sky. There would be lily pads in one corner and ducks would float on the surface. Now there were no colors, only ash.
Jonghyun was chatting, disturbing the silence with his loud voice, creating a sense of life to a world that was slowly losing it to artificial simulation. Key’s head tilted, hair falling into his eyes as he watched the boy’s animated face. He documented the moment-the memory-because these were precious. Humans were fragile. Jonghyun’s skin was pale, his eyes rimmed with red as the ash often bothered them. Key would have made him wear goggles, but he knew the human would have ripped them off and pressed them back onto the shelf. He knew it was futile.
His fingers twined with Jonghyun’s, running his smooth skin across the bumps his human veins made, wondering what it felt like to have blood coursing through a body. Human bodies were the most fascinating, and he was just a cloned interpretation of what they needed.
“What if the world was blue?” Key asked, a bit jokingly, his eyes catching on the color of one vein through the pale skin.
“Then we’d be underwater,” Jonghyun laughed. Key wished the laugh could make the grey disappear and bring life back to the world so that his human could see it the way it looked in his database of pictures and clips. When grass grew on the ground, when snow was white, when the sky was bright blue, not grey, when water was crystal instead of murky.
“Then you’d better grow gills,” Key laughed, his fingers brushing the side of the human’s neck, feeling the pulse beating there in a mirror of his heart. He froze, surprised. He’d forgotten for an instant. It had been only a moment, but he’d forgotten that he wasn’t human. That he wasn’t mortal-that he wouldn’t have Jonghyun forever.
Jonghyun’s smile slipped off his face slowly, catching Key’s fingers with his own. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Key’s smile faded away like color. “Not yet.”
Jonghyun sighed heavily and jumped to his feet. He leaned over and balled up a handful of snow and ash. Before Key could register and act on it, the human threw it in his face, grey mixing with crimson and the dark brown of Key’s hair. The robot blinked at his human, who took off running as fast as his short legs could carry him.
Key was on him in an instant, throwing away all thoughts of solemnity, tackling him as lightly as he could manage so as not to break any bones or bruise soft skin, bowling them both over into piles of grey ashy snow. They made their own noise, breaking the deafening barriers of quiet, tearing at the seams of the blanket of silence.
They rolled, over and over, round and round, in small mounds of grey. The substance mixed with their clothes and froze into a sticky mess against skin and prototype. They stopped; kissing. Breathlessness making the human’s mouth sloppy, something unexplainable was making the robot tremble.
Their tongues meshed together, heated and passionate mouths clashed. Key’s eyes caught on the way Jonghyun’s blond locks seemed to shine, how those amber eyes glowed as cold hands cupped Key’s face, how Jonghyun’s shoulders trembled as Key slipped his arms around them. His human was beautiful. His human loved him.
His human was everything. Key crushed his eyes closed, shutting them tightly to stop what he couldn’t have. He pressed his lips against Jonghyun’s, wondering what it would be like to feel the love he wanted to feel.
Wondering what humanity was like.
It was dark when the two finally started to leave the park, fingers linked and shaking ashy snow out of their clothes and hair. Jonghyun’s laugh was still ringing in the air, Key’s artificial one joining his. He wanted to know what it felt like when a human laughed. Key was infatuated with the light of Jonghyun’s face. When he laughed, he glowed.
Jonghyun glanced towards the sky carelessly, his breath releasing puffs of clouds with each exhale. The human froze, his eyes widening impossibly. “Whoa, Key!” He pointed upwards, into the dark. Key looked up, eyes widening at the shining, shimmering star that was showing clearly, not overtaken by any sort of expanse of grey.
In fact, the ashy snow had stopped falling; Key had just been too sidetracked to notice. Jonghyun’s hand tightened around his as a cold gust of wind blew. Jonghyun pressed close, hiding his face in Key’s shoulder, but the robot had no need, watching the wind blow away the grey that surrounded them, exposing a clear sky full of stars.
“Jjong,” Key murmured against cold hair. The human tipped his head upwards, eyes widening again and mouth dropping open in the look of innocent astonishment at his first real glance of stars in the last ten years.
“Stars,” he breathed, and even though there was a much stronger wind around them, whisking everything away, Key could still feel the breath against his skin. The wind ebbed away, leaving the two standing in a dust pile of grey in the middle of an empty street corner.
Then something started, like magic.
Light fluffy puffs started to float downwards. For an instant the robot thought they were the stars falling, but then one touched him on the nose. He went cross-eyed as he stared at it. Jonghyun laughed at his face, the hand Key wasn’t holding rising to meet a flake, staring as it melted in his warm palm.
“Snow,” he murmured, before Key could tell him. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes, letting it out in a swift puff of condensation. It was as though all the dead things in the world were finally leaving. It was as though life was coming back into the world in the form of crystallized beauty. In the form of white hopeful worlds, not one any similar to the other-each its own little form of hope.
Key pressed his lips against Jonghyun’s, so suddenly that it caught the human off guard. “Make a wish,” he murmured against chilly blue lips.
So he did, as his robot pressed his hands against the sides of his neck, feeling the pulse radiating through him, feeling the breath rolling between them in little gasps, their foreheads touching together. When Jonghyun opened his eyes again, it was with a crooked apologetic smile.
“Can we go inside? It’s cold.” The boy chattered.
When they got home, Key laid their clothes against the radiator and made his human a mug of hot chocolate. They settled together on the gentle couch, Jonghyun’s feet on the coffee table with his hands wrapped around his mug. Key’s head was in his lap as he idly crocheted another hat for his human.
They must have fallen asleep like that, with snow falling softly on the outside world. Jonghyun’s fingers were tangled in Key’s hair when he woke up, groggy. He blinked sleep away, wondering what woke him. He could feel something odd bubbling up inside him, but there was something cold frosting his skin over so he curled his body inwards, his face hiding in his human’s shirt.
Something murmured inside of him, not the swift whir of his fan, or the churn of his joints when they moved, but something different, something odd. He felt groggy, he felt…he felt.
He felt.
Breath caught in his throat, the sensation making him snap up in alarm. The room spun, and he had to raise a hand to catch it so he wouldn’t fall over. He dropped back down, heavy in Jonghyun’s lap. His human woke up with a start, and their eyes locked for a moment.
Boom, boom.
In his chest, something pounded away like a drum. He pushed away from Jonghyun and…the couch ran out of room, sending him into a pile of flailing limbs on the floor, wedged between the coffee table and the couch.
He registered everything, the cold, the breath, the sensation of pain in his backside, the feeling in his heart-and he screamed.
His voice choked when he ran out of breath, and he was left gasping, floundering as he tried to right himself, but he was having trouble controlling the way his legs walked because he felt like a mess of jelly. His heart was pounding in his ears, mixing with Jonghyun’s ecstatic laugh.
“You’re human?” The words left Jonghyun’s mouth in a gasp of incredulity. “It worked?” Key’s new heart leapt to his throat as tears sparked the corners of his eyes. Shaking, Key lifted himself onto the couch and out of his undignified position.
He cupped Jonghyun’s warm face in his hands, pressing a kiss to his lips. Jonghyun’s were moist, chapped, tasting like something sweet and yet all together sour. He moaned into it, but then he had to pull away to breathe. His heart was slamming against his ears. He flicked his gaze up into Jonghyun’s brown ones.
“I wished,” Jonghyun was crying, moist tears dripping onto Key’s hands. A swift movement from his thumbs wiped them away. “I wished for it and it came true,” the boy retried.
There was an odd knotting sensation in Key’s chest, and his vision disappeared suddenly. Salty tears dripped into his mouth as he cried, laughing a little as he pressed his lips to Jonghyun’s again and again. “Why are you crying?” Key asked, blinking tears away.
“Why are you?!” Jonghyun shot back, soft fingers dashing tears away from his cheeks just as Key had done for his human moments ago.
Key’s laugh made it even harder to breathe, and finally, he could feel the joy, the rising of his chest like a great swelling wave, like a bird, soaring from its nest for the first time, the air currents carrying it up and up into the great expanse of blue sky. He pressed his lips against Jonghyun’s again, going still as he dropped his head against his shoulder, sucking in breath after breath and feeling that never ceasing pulse against his skin.
Then he was crying again, his heart pounding, tremors pulsing his body into motion. He looked up into Jonghyun’s eyes and was suddenly crawling into his lap to see his face better. He wrapped his arms around his, his fingers digging into his shirt so he wouldn’t go anywhere. “I love you,” he claimed, eyes shining. “I’ve loved you since forever but I couldn’t feel it until now.” His heart was pulsating, groaning, moaning in his chest, because nothing could contain it. He felt like it was going to burst.
“Yeah?” Jonghyun asked, hands lighting on Key’s hips. For an instant he thought the boy was going to reject him, and then their lips touched, once more. Key tilted his head and sunk into it. They both closed their eyes, Jonghyun’s hands fisting in Key’s shirt and Key’s fingers tangling in bond locks.
Their union was interrupted by a reporter on the television sending his holiday greetings. Key started off Jonghyun’s lap and onto the floor in surprise, the words ‘Merry Christmas’ lost in an eruption of joyous giggles from the two hopelessly in love boys.
Merry Christmas! ♥
no matter what happens to us in the future, let us never forget our humanity.
finished 12.10.2009