What Doesn't Kill You: Chapter 5
Title: What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger
Pairing: HanChul, KyuChul, EunKiHae, KangTeuk, YeWook, other may appear in the future
Rating: R
Genre: AU, Action, Superhero (is that a genre?)
Summary: When Cho Kyuhyun was infected with the GAM Virus, he’d thought he was going to die. Everyone who got it did. If you contracted the virus, you were as good as gone. There was no treatment, no cure, and nothing to aid you toward a quick death. It was slow, painful, and most people committed suicide-or had loved one’s aid them in doing so-before the disease took them willingly.
Or that’s what he’d thought, anyway.
Notes: A more "filler" style chapter. Chapter 6 will involve more actual plot. This one involves lots of hinted EunKiHae (oh dear, my bias is showing) I'll be writing more YeWook and KangTeuk parts soon. :D
Chapter 4 < -------- > Chapter 6
Character Profiles
Side Story: Siwon
Side Story: Hangeng
---
The morning after their mission, Heechul walked out of his bedroom with a determined look on his face. He made a beeline for Shindong, who was sitting in the living room, fiddling with a rubix cube. He slammed the magazines down in front of him. “I’ve already circled what I want in red.”
Shindong blinked, before looking the magazines over. “…that time already?” He seemed oddly resigned to his fate, whatever it was. Kyuhyun simply watched the scene from behind the fantasy novel he’d found amidst the medical and botany books on the living room bookshelf.
“That time already? Have you seen the state of this apartment? Of that couch? Of your clothes?” Heechul looked Shindong up and down for emphasis. Shindong did not seem impressed-or flattered-by Heechul’s comment.
Eunhyuk grinned, coming up behind Heechul and leaning his chin on Heechul’s shoulder. “Hyung, I circled what I want in green, ok?”
Shindong let out a sigh.
“Hey, hey! When did you get those?” Kangin reached for the magazines hastily. “You probably took all of the good stuff too, bastards!” He began flipping through one of them hastily. “Where’s my blue marker?”
“I circled mine in purple.” Yesung intoned from the couch, half-asleep. Ryeowook was massaging his scalp, and he seemed to be having a problem keeping his eyes open. It reminded Kyuhyun of the shark documentary he’d watched earlier that morning, then one that said that sharks went into a trance-like state when you flipped them onto their stomachs. Of course, Ryeowook was not a marine biologist and Yesung wasn’t a shark (he’d be a turtle, probably) but Kyuhyun had been watching those animal documentaries all morning.
“Mine are in pink!” Sungmin sang, fiddling with his iPod.
Kyuhyun was confused, very very confused, and he looked to Leeteuk for some kind of explanation. The other man simply sighed, grabbing one of the magazines, “I guess I’ll use orange then.”
Donghae had gone off somewhere and came back with a handful of assorted writing instruments. He proudly brandished a metallic lavender crayon and dove for the magazine Kangin had begun perusing. “Come on hyung, I need to circle my stuff!”
“No way in hell! I got it first!”
“It’s not like you’ll want the same things.” Kibum drawled from the hallway, half-leaning against the wall and half-supported by his crutches. “Donghae just wants to see the plushies.”
“Sungmin probably already got them all!” Donghae whined.
Kibum sighed and hobbled over toward the chaos as gracefully as a man with a cast could. Leeteuk quickly stood, “Sit down, Kibum, you shouldn’t be walking around so much yet. Kyuhyun-ah, let’s give Kibum this couch, alright?”
“Uh, ok.” Kyuhyun nodded, standing. He found himself now occupying the floor, dodging Kangin’s elbow and Donghae’s foot as the two grappled for the coveted magazine. Ryeowook grabbed it while the two were distracted and picked up a yellow high-lighter, humming to himself.
“Hannie’s things are in black.” Heechul was heading to the kitchen for his breakfast. “Has anyone made any coffee yet?”
“I just started a pot.” Ryeowook chirped, circling something in yellow with a gleeful smile on his face. Leeteuk was sharing his magazine with Kibum, who had picked up a pencil. Heechul entered the kitchen, and they heard him rummaging around in the cupboards for a cup.
“Hm, let me see…” Leeteuk circled something and stopped, gaze going to Kyuhyun, who sat on the floor staring around rather hopelessly. “Kyuhyun-ah, come here. You can look with Kibum.” Kyuhyun slowly stood and shuffled toward the couch, taking the turquoise sharpie that Leeteuk handed him and staring down at it in confusion.
“Just circle the things you want.” Kibum finally explained, holding up the magazine. “I’m done.”
Kyuhyun took the magazine tentatively. It was a clothing magazine, and as he flipped through the pages he saw pink, green, purple, and red circles sprawled across the page, surrounding articles of clothing and preferred sizes.
Leeteuk had headed over to where Ryeowook sat with the other magazine. “I think we should get Kyuhyun-ah a new mattress set…”
“Get the kid a bed.” Heechul finally muttered from the doorway of the kitchen. Everyone turned to look at him. He was sipping his coffee contentedly, gaze fixed on Kyuhyun.
“We can’t. There isn’t enough room for three beds in that bedroom.” Leeteuk shook his head, even as Heechul walked the few feet to the couch.
“Bunk beds.” He turned to the page in the magazine. “For Hannie and I.” Then he was gone, humming to himself as he headed down the hall.
“Did Heechul hyung…just give Kyuhyun the free bed?”
---
Getting new magazines was a big deal in 1502 Yumyeong Apartments. It was equivalent to spring cleaning and Christmas all wrapped up in one.
Currently, everyone was grabbing their unwanted belongings and throwing them in a heap on the living room floor. Kibum watched from the couch, leg propped against the pillows, looking up every once and a while from his anatomy textbook to see the progress.
“When are we getting a new technology magazine? The TV sucks.”
“You just want a new game system. Hey, do you want to keep this shirt?”
Sungmin and Heechul were nowhere in sight. Their chosen items had been circled in the magazine and then they’d disappeared. Everyone was too busy to notice or care for the time being.
“Did you circle the clothes you wanted?” Ryeowook asked Kyuhyun cheerfully. Ryeowook had spent most of the morning circling cooking utensils and kitchen appliances from the Homemaking Magazine, including a new fridge and stove that Kangin would be forced to install later.
Kyuhyun nodded. “Yeah but um…are we ordering stuff?” Because he still had no idea what was going on.
Ryeowook laughed. “Of course not. Shindong will get all of this for us.”
---
The idea of getting the bunk beds was nice, in retrospect. The only problem was the fact that there were two beds and two dressers squeezed into a tiny apartment room…and somehow one of those beds had to leave.
This job had been designated to the “strong boys” minus Hangeng, who was helping Ryeowook hook up the fridge (there was no direction manual, after all, so they were pretty much winging it) and Sungmin, who was currently AWOL.
“Why do they need a bunk bed? Is Heechul hyung that much of a diva that he can’t even share a bed with his boyfriend?” Kangin whined, hefting the bed frame up. “Aish! Where is that bastard, anyway?”
Eunhyuk and Donghae were ahead of them, trying to maneuver the mattress so it would fit through the door. Donghae poked his head around the mattress to reply. “You know that hyung is worried about touching Hankyung hyung while they’re sleeping.”
“He wears his gloves.” Kangin defended.
“It’s his lips he’s worried about.” Donghae put his hands on his hips.
“Donghae! The mattress!” Eunhyuk yelled out, stumbling under the weight. Donghae hurriedly turned to pick up the end he’d been holding earlier.
“Hyung…” Siwon pouted, “Can you hurry with the mattress? The frame is heavy.” He braced his arms, trying to keep from dropping the other end. Kangin grumbled something under his breath and shifted his part of the bedframe.
Donghae and Eunhyuk managed to scoot the mattress through the doorway, nearly tripping over a pile of discarded clothing in the process. Eunhyuk yelped, stumbled, and it was only thanks to Kibum propping up the mattress with one of his crutches that they managed to keep the situation from turning into a disaster.
Shindong was lying on the floor with a magazine over his face. Kyuhyun had to resist the urge to poke him with one of the pencils left over from the earlier free for all. “Why aren’t you helping?”
“I’m saving my energy.” Shindong swatted his hand away (Kyuhyun had been unable to resist the urge to poke). “What about you?”
“Leeteuk hyung told me to stay with Kibum hyung in case he needed anything while everyone else was busy.”
“He can limp to the bathroom if he needs to.”
Kibum, who had freed himself from the inevitable disaster that was Eunhyuk and Donghae’s mattress moving, smacked Shindong in the stomach with his crutch before going back to his textbook as the stockier man rolled on the ground in pain.
Kyuhyun laughed, and the sound was odd, even to his own ears. When was the last time he’d actually been happy? He felt guilty a second later. He wasn’t allowed to feel happy, was he? His family was dead. They were all living with the constant fear of capture and death themselves. It just didn’t feel right.
Kibum seemed to notice Kyuhyun’s worried silence, because he nudged him with his foot-the one not covered in a cast-“Don’t think about it.”
“Huh?”
“You can’t let the past dictate everything for you.”
Kyuhyun nodded slowly, unsure if it was awkward because Kibum was trying to give him emotional advice or simply because Kibum was talking to him. The two had slowly become less awkward but Kibum tended to say very little to everyone aside from Eunhyuk and Donghae.
Kibum didn’t give the silence a chance to turn awkward, because he had gone back to his book. Kyuhyun looked at the magazine he’d been looking through earlier, then looked back to Shindong.
He still had no idea how this was going to work.
Shindong had finally sat up, grumbling at Kibum before he snatched the magazine out of Kyuhyun’s hands. “…looks like it’s time to get to work.” He flipped open the first page. “I guess I’ll start with more kitchen supplies, since they’re still moving things out of the bedrooms.”
“Can we throw the mattress out the window? It won’t fit in the elevator!” Eunhyuk called from the hallway.
“What? NO!” Leeteuk marched out of he and Kangin’s shared room, arms laden with unwanted clothing that he deposited onto the pile that had already begun accumulating. “That idiot..” He headed for the door, and Kyuhyun could hear him yelling orders at Eunhyuk all the way down the hall.
“Can I watch?” He asked, looking pointedly at Shindong. He wanted to know what the hell was going on and why Shindong was in charge of it.
Shindong nodded tiredly. “I guess.” He rubbed his stomach, sending Kibum one last glare before standing. “Come on, Ryeowook and Hankyung are already in the kitchen.”
---
The kitchen looked like a war zone. A very organized war zone, but a war zone nonetheless. Hangeng was standing in the spot where the old oven had once stood, watching Ryeowook flit from cupboard to cupboard.
The tinier man was pulling pots and pans out and placing them on any available space on the counter, which was limited. Several stacks of things were piled on the floor in cardboard boxes.
Shindong looked around the kitchen. “Is there even room for me to give you anything?”
“Oh yes!” Ryeowook nodded. “Just start pulling things out and I’ll put them away. Did you see that new blender?”
Shindong sighed. “Yes, I saw the blender.” Only Ryeowook could be so excited about kitchen supplies. Shindong would have been more excited-when Ryeowook got new kitchen appliances it meant he cooked more and that meant Shindong could eat more-except that had knew he was going to be exhausted by the end of the day.
He opened the magazine and scanned the page. “Oh, here’s a new dinnerware set.” He placed the magazine on the ground and crouched next to it, before he reached down.
Kyuhyun almost jumped back as he watched Shindong’s fingers disappear into the magazine, followed by the rest of his hand. “What the hell?”
“His gift.” Hangeng managed, watching as Shindong began to pull plates out of the magazine and handing them to a smiling Ryeowook.
So Shindong could pull things out of magazines? Was that why their computer room was so high tech and the rest of the apartment was shitty? Hadn’t someone said something to him about not having the proper magazines before? “But…why didn’t the government want that power? Aren’t you one of the useless ones?”
“Do you want a new bed?” Shindong sent him a glare over his shoulder before continuing his work. “There are limitations, you know.”
Kyuhyun had sat down on the only chair not covered by boxes of cups and plates. “What kind?”
“Nothing lethal.” Shindong grunted. “and it has to be something that actually exists in the world. Donghae wanted me to pull a Transformer out at some point from that American movie, it didn’t work.”
Ryeowook began putting the plates away as Kyuhyun listened to Shindong’s explanation. It seemed like Shindong’s power had a lot of limitations, all of which weren’t necessarily dangerous but a bit annoying. He supposed it made sense why the government wouldn’t want him.
“It doesn’t work on anything living or organic either.” Shindong continued, flipping another page and reaching down. His hand came back out holding a stainless steel mixing bowl, which he handed to an excited Ryeowook.
“I remember when you tried to get Yesung that turtle he wanted…” Hankyung murmured.
There was a collective shudder from everyone else in the kitchen, and Kyuhyun thought it was best not to ask what had happened to the poor turtle even if he was dying to know.
“At least we tried it on the turtle before Eunhyuk handed you his porn magazine.” Ryeowook chirped.
---
It was later that night, as everyone lounged around the newly refurbished living room celebrating a job well done, when Sungmin and Heechul appeared.
Eunhyuk and Donghae had monopolized the new loveseat, having grabbed Kibum and placed him securely in their laps. The younger boy had been embarrassed at the public display of affection and was currently trying to hide his flushed face behind his medical journal as Donghae messed with his hair and Eunhyuk poked his cheek playfully.
Shindong, Kyuhyun, and Hangeng occupied the other couch, as Yesung sat on the floor looking through their DVDs to find a movie to watch. Kangin was sitting in front of the chair where Leeteuk had curled up, almost asleep, arguing with Yesung about what movie to watch.
“Not Titanic again.” Kangin groaned.
“But it’s our favorite!” Donghae and Eunhyuk chorused, and Yesung nodded in agreement.
“I don’t care what we watch, as long as you keep it down low.” Leeteuk winced, reaching up to rub his forehead.
“Hyung, why don’t you go to bed?” Ryeowook asked from the doorway, holding a bowl of chips that he’d grabbed from the cupboard.
Leeteuk shook his head. “I’ll be fine. I just need to close my eyes for a while…” Kangin snorted as Leeteuk began to drift off.
“Ya, that idiot wore himself out, didn’t it? What kind of dongsaengs treat their hyung that way huh?”
At the sound of Heechul’s voice, Kangin turned to retort, “What about you, disappearing and leaving us to-what the hell?”
“…what…” Yesung blinked.
“…did you do…?” Shindong finished.
Heechul’s hair was now a stunning platinum blond and Sungmin’s…Sungmin’s was-
“It’s pink.” Kyuhyun deadpanned.
Sungmin smiled brightly. “It’s called Manic Panic Cottony Candy!”
“…why am I not surprised at all?”
Siwon gave a soft sigh, because now there was one more pink thing to add to their room…and this one talked.
Heechul sat down in Hangeng’s lap, leaning back as the Chinaman unconsciously wound his arms around his waist to hold him in place. “Do you like it, Hannie?”
“Mmm.” Hangeng agreed tiredly, resting his head against Heechul’s back and closing his eyes.
Kyuhyun watched from where he sat beside Shindong and he couldn’t help that odd churning that began in the pit of his stomach. He couldn’t identify what it was, but it was uncomfortable, and it only intensified when Hangeng kissed the back of Heechul’s head and Kyuhyun remembered that Heechul had been avoiding him the past few days like the plague.
“Is that what you two have been doing all this time?” Leeteuk asked tiredly. He’d opened his eyes to see what all the commotion was about and didn’t seem fazed by the new hair colors.
Their smug grins were enough of an answer, and it didn’t take long for Kangin to grab a pillow and throw it at Sungmin (who caught it and sent it back with terrifying accuracy) and then the entire living room became a battlefield.
Pillows (and the occasional stuffed animal) flew through the air. Everyone was laughing and shouting and once again Kyuhyun found himself having fun. The familiar pang of guilt welled up in his chest, but then Heechul stumbled into him, laughing, breathless, “Come on, let’s save Kibum before he gets smothered.” Pulling, tugging, and even through their gloves, Kyuhyun felt that their fingers fit together perfectly. It was an odd warmth, and his leather gloves were slick with sweat, sticky and uncomfortable.
But the guilt had eased, pushed aside by that comforting pressure of Heechul’s hand, and Kyuhyun allowed himself to be pulled across the battlefield to where Kibum was holding off Yesung and Ryeowook by using Eunhyuk as a human shield.
Kyuhyun didn’t even mind when Hangeng came up on Heechul’s other side, whispering something in his ear in breathless Chinese that made the feminine man grin. It didn’t matter, because Heechul was talking to him and their fingers were still entwined.
---
Donghae woke up in his new bed-the sheets smelled weird, like the plastic it had been packaged in-because something felt wrong. Eunhyuk was snoring to his left, one socked foot nudging against Donghae’s knee.
Donghae sat up, yawning, rubbing his eyes. He figured that the wrong feeling was Kibum’s absence. The bed-or beds, they’d pushed the two together because it was easier for three people to sleep that way, and Kibum liked to stretch out in his sleep-felt empty with only himself and Eunhyuk on it.
Kibum was probably still sleeping on the couch. Ryeowook had said that it would be best if he slept there until they could take the cast off. He would heal faster that way, and Kibum had agreed. Donghae didn’t like it, but he supposed that the sooner Kibum got better the sooner that the three could sleep together again and Donghae would have someone to make fun of Eunhyuk's smelly feet with.
Donghae slipped out of the bed, bare feet cold on the carpet. He wiggled his toes, digging them in, before he shuffled across the floor to the door. He hit his knee on the dresser on his way, cursing softly. Eunhyuk didn’t stir.
The hallway was just as dark as the bedroom, and he got through by feel more than anything else, hand skimming the wall until he reached the end and he turned, heading to the living room. The light in the kitchen was on-it was always on-so he could finally see well enough to make out the couch where Kibum slept.
Only Kibum wasn’t there.
Donghae blinked. There wasn’t any light coming from the bathroom…he looked into the kitchen. It was also empty. He frowned, giving a soft sigh. He knew exactly where to look.
Donghae found Kibum in the medical room. He was propped against the counter, swirling a vial of something unknown, his crutches propped a few feet away. His injured leg was held slightly behind him and he looked awkward and uncomfortable.
“You should be sitting down.”
“You should be sleeping.” Kibum shot back, hobbling a few inches to place the vial in a test tube rack before scribbling down some notes.
“You really shouldn’t be on your feet.” Donghae reiterated worriedly. He didn’t like to sound like he was nagging, but he knew that if he didn’t say anything Kibum would work himself to death. Kibum wanted so much to be useful that he disregarded his own health most of the time.
Kibum didn’t respond, simply grabbed his crutches and limped to the side of the room where a few microscopes were. “Did you find the medical magazine I mentioned?”
“We’re still looking for the right volume.” Donghae murmured apologetically, “I’m sorry.”
Kibum nodded, bent over the microscope. “It’s fine.” It clearly wasn’t.
“What do you need it for?”
“Equipment,” Kibum murmured, “Special equipment.”
“To do what?”
Kibum glanced at him sideways from the microscope, looking pensive. He seemed to think about whether or not to tell Donghae first before he finally spoke, his voice soft. “…I’m going to make a cure for GAM.”
---
“Patty cake, patty cake, baker’s man. Bake me a cake as fast as you can!”
Laughter. Warmth.
“Roll it, and pat it, and mark it with a C, and put it in the oven for Cinderella and me!”
“Heejin-noona! I’m not Cinderella! I’m not!”
“But you’re so pretty, Chullie. You’re the perfect Rella.”
“Am not.”
“Are too.”
“Am not.”
“Just finish the song!”
“I don’t wanna.”
“Aish, you’re such a spoiled princess. Maybe you’re really just one of Cinderella’s evil stepsisters.”
“Am not!”
He was choking. He couldn’t breathe. He put a hand to his throat, fingers brushing against his windpipe as he wheezed into his pillow, eyes clenched shut.
He heard the soft creaking of someone moving below him. “Heechul?” His name was swallowed up by the darkness, and Heechul breathed in a few more times, wondering why his throat felt like he’d just swallowed cotton and why he couldn’t stop shaking.
“Chul?”
He clenched his eyes shut, letting out a choked breath, before whispering hoarsely, “Go to sleep.”
He didn’t know if Hangeng listened or not, because he was already drifting back into oblivion.