(no subject)
Title: Apologia Pro Vita Sua (Chapter 11)
Authors: Scorpions angelinaii, murasaki_plum, nemesis_cry
Characters/Pairings: All (kangteuk, shichul, kihae; potential kyuwook, eunkihae, shihanchul, yeshdong, yewook, minry)
Rating: PG-13 to R
Genre: AU, organized crime, postcyberpunk
Summary: In a world where money and crime go hand and hand, survival is not determined by the fittest, but the ones who will fight to live.
Warnings: violence, swearing, sexual situations
Introduction and Chapter 1 | Chapters 2 & 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10
Banner by angelinaii
Eunhyuk hated chairs. As long as he could remember, every waking moment had him stuck sitting on an uncomfortable and ancient wheelchair. When he got older and outgrew one chair, a rickety chair would be brought home to take its place. He never minded that he lost both of his legs when he was an infant. He never had a chance to use the limbs long enough to miss them. It was the chairs he hated.
He couldn't go anywhere. If the axles weren't broken, the apartment he lived in with his family was too cramped to roll from one place to another. On the rare occasion they carried him down the steps to his parents' restaurant, Eunhyuk was confined to a table. It grew boring watching others move about, especially for a naturally exuberant child. Eunhyuk had a deep desire to move farther than the chair he was stuck in.
Eventually chairs were abandoned--his parents found their son trying to move around with only his hands and torso. Crawling was difficult without knees, but he grew skilled in lifting himself up on his arms. His favorite method was to go into a handstand and imitate walking that way...at least until his mother would find him and yell at him to stop before he broke something.
On his 8th birthday, Eunhyuk's parents gave him an unexpected present: new legs. He was too young at the time to wonder about how his parents could afford the surgery. That sort of thing was far above his family's modest means. Even restaurant owners could not change that they worked and lived in the Bottoms. Funds were hard to come by unless you made deals with those who had money.
It didn't matter, his new legs brought freedom. His new legs also brought inescapable debt. As soon as Eunhyuk could stand and take his first steps, men in tailored suits began visiting the restaurant almost daily. They ordered food without expecting to pay, they'd pull Eunhyuk's father aside to ask for favors, and they would help themselves to whatever sat in the register on their way out. His father never protested when it happened; the men would casually talk about what happened to those that couldn't fill their requests, and they always made a point to inquire about Eunhyuk's health in passing.
Eunhyuk soon learned how to run. His legs could carry him faster than human legs ever would. When it became apparent that something needed to be delivered somewhere within a certain time frame impossible for his father to make even in a car, his father reluctantly called for Eunhyuk to take it.
"Take this and come straight back. No questions, you hear me?"
It wasn't until Eunhyuk was older and more aware of the world he lived in that he discovered why he was given new legs. The man who paid for them needed a new runner. Without realizing it, Eunhyuk carried drugs, money, stolen goods, and bombs. When Eunhyuk learned what he carried in those unmarked packages, he continued deliver them without question. He knew what would happen to himself or his family if he didn't.
One day changed everything in his life. The men in suits came to the restaurant as usual, the unmarked package tucked beneath the usual muscular arm. Before Eunhyuk could receive instructions about which shady location he would have to run to, the small group of teenagers that recently started to loiter inside the restaurant stood from their seats.
"I'm sorry, but they don't do deliveries anymore." The apparent leader of the pack spoke clearly, his thin arms crossed at his chest. He walked over to stand in between the man and Eunhyuk, taking the package from the youth's fingers. The man glanced uncomfortably behind his shoulder as the teen inspected the package, but was wise enough to not protest when it was handed to him. "It is true that this family's debt to my father didn't go away when he died. However, I'm claiming my right to collect on it. Surely there will be no conflict in this?"
For men who claimed they had nothing to fear to Eunhyuk's family, they were spooked at the sight of a mere teenager. The slightly threatening murmurings from the men dimmed as the other teens moved from where they were to stand behind Eunhyuk. He learned later that at that moment those men from Judoh had just seen a ghost. None of the goons reactions seemed to phase the teen standing next to Eunhyuk, in fact the boy merely shrugged. "You may leave."
He watched the foursome hesitate and finally shrug themselves, as if loathe to teach the lanky teen a lesson. Who the hell spoke to the H & E like that and got away with it?
Pushing back a light brown fringe from his eyes, the boy turned to Eunhyuk and smirked. "You work for me now." And then, darting a look to his legs: "How fast can you run in those things?"
Nothing should have changed. One master or another should have been the same and he certainly didn't welcome the transition. But where the H & E only took and gave nothing but pain and more threats in return, that group of teenagers offered him purpose and explanations when he asked for them.
They didn't offer a way out of his parents' deal, but soon he forgot to resent them for it.
***
"Hey, I heard your legs are still offline." Eunhyuk could hear Donghae's voice from the entrance of the room, he didn't even need to look over to know that the other had a sheepish grin on his face.
"So you decided to stop by and keep me company?" Eunhyuk asked as he turned his head to the side to look in Donghae's direction. "Where did you get that?"
Donghae rolled the wheelchair back and forth. "Thought you'd get bored waiting, figured something was better than nothing."
The chair was nothing like any of the chairs Eunhyuk was stuck in as a child. It looked high-tech and expensive, and while Donghae was currently shacked up with a well-off banker in Judoh, he doubted that Donghae came by it legally. "Where did you get that?"
"It's not hot, if that's what you're thinking. Kibum wired me funds to buy it." Donghae wheeled the chair into the room and stopped close to Eunhyuk for him to inspect.
"Where did he get the money?" Eunhyuk pushed himself up into a seated position, the younger of the two was immediately at his side to prop him up.
"He pulled it from his trust fund." Which in the code the three of them shared meant that Kibum stole it. Considering that Kibum's day job was a e-broker at a bank that sort of thing was easy, they just had to trust him that he knew what he was doing. "Gave me the checkcard this morning and told me to get you something nice."
"You didn't ask him?" Eunhyuk was equally touched by the news as he was surprised. Even though Kibum was the youngest of the three of them, he was unquestionably the most mature and responsible. It was rare he would steal funds without serious cajoling or under direct orders from one of the leaders of the triad.
"Nope. He beat me to it, I think he knew I was going to ask." Donghae grinned and hugged his arms around Eunhyuk's waist.
"I bet you cried, sulked, and locked him out of your room." Eunhyuk countered teasingly and nudged their shoulders together.
The surprised expression Donghae gave him was worth getting shoved off of the makeshift bed and onto the floor.
***
He was unimpressed by Donghae when he first saw him. With his boyish grin, tri-colored hair, and an askew baseball cap, Donghae looked like one of the wannabe gangster kids that loitered the streets. What set him apart from them were the visible tattoos; the black butterfly inked on the back of his neck looked new.
"So who are you?" Eunhyuk asked as Donghae approached him like they were lifelong friends and not people meeting for the first time.
"I'm Donghae, and you're Eunhyuk, the runner Eeteuk stole from H&E." It rankled to be spoken of as a commodity and not a person, but there wasn't much Eunhyuk could do to argue Donghae's statement. It was the truth.
"You're one of Eeteuk's people?"
"I negotiate. You know, try for the win-lose outcome in our favor."
Eunhyuk took in Donghae's wide-eyed, eager smile that begged for approval. All Eunhyuk could respond with, and with incredulity, "So you're here to negotiate?"
"I already did that. Now I've got time to waste. What are you doing?" Donghae asked in a way that Eunhyuk couldn't make up his mind whether it was endearing or outright annoying.
"I'm waiting for a package that needs to be taken to Judoh for Eeteuk." Eunhyuk answered, only to have said envelope dangled in front of his face by Donghae. Annoying.
"It's just money to pay off stealing you under their noses." Donghae explained without prompting, being completely open and candid toward Eunhyuk for no discernible reason. He was just the messenger, he didn't need to know why. "Not cheap. And don't worry about them trying to break your legs or kill you or anything. They've got people staking the place out, this is just a test to see what H&E will do with it. Good luck!"
The cheery 'good luck' was what broke him, and for the first time in a long time Eunhyuk laughed. "You're stupid."
"You have pretty eyes." Donghae retorted, grinning at his lack of insult as he skipped backwards. "And you have five minutes. Ten if you bring me something back."
***
"I don't want it." Eunhyuk announced once their laughter receded and his attention was drawn back to the wheelchair at the foot of the bed. He started to pull himself back up on the bed, the weight of his dead legs making the task harder than he remembered. "Kyuhyun will get them back online soon enough, I just have to wait."
"Kibum's going to be pissed." Donghae looked crestfallen, but for once didn't try to argue or throw a fit. Instead, he pried Eunhyuk's hands from the bed. Ignoring the protest, he wheeled the chair around and pressed down the brake. "Come on, go out to lunch with me. When was the last time you ate?"
"I'll eat later." he sighed and reached to grasp at the bed behind him. "I don't need you to-"
"It's been awhile since you've been to see your folks," Donghae hooked his arms under Eunhyuk's arms and lifted. He half-dragged, half-carried his friend until he was seated in the wheelchair. "I already told them we were coming so..."
"I have no choice in the matter." Eunhyuk groused but didn't bother to fight as Donghae pulled the blanket off of the bed and draped it across his lap. The cushions of his chair were soft, comfortable, but he still wanted nothing more to push himself out of it onto the unforgiving floor. "I want to stay here and wait."
"If Kyuhyun's ready to fix you, we'll be here in a flash. You're not the only one who can move fast." Donghae murmured, knocking their heads together as he took Eunhyuk's hands. "I need you to come with me, alright?"
Sulking, Eunhyuk sighed, trying to pull away but giving up when he found the other man's grip unshakable. "I don't need a babysitter," he huffed, glaring. If Donghae had been anyone else, the comment might have annoyed or angered. As it was, the other man simply grinned.
"You sure? You are acting like a child..."
Eunhyuk wanted to kick him, but lacking legs, he simply rolled his eyes and fell back dejectedly against the wheelchair. "You suck," he snapped half-heartedly. "Just so you know."
"Still adorable." Donghae smirked, lightly slapping Eunhyuk's cheek. He leaned over and unlocked the wheelchair's brake. "Don't worry, I'll do my best not to push you into the path of oncoming traffic."
Authors: Scorpions angelinaii, murasaki_plum, nemesis_cry
Characters/Pairings: All (kangteuk, shichul, kihae; potential kyuwook, eunkihae, shihanchul, yeshdong, yewook, minry)
Rating: PG-13 to R
Genre: AU, organized crime, postcyberpunk
Summary: In a world where money and crime go hand and hand, survival is not determined by the fittest, but the ones who will fight to live.
Warnings: violence, swearing, sexual situations
Introduction and Chapter 1 | Chapters 2 & 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10
Banner by angelinaii
Eunhyuk hated chairs. As long as he could remember, every waking moment had him stuck sitting on an uncomfortable and ancient wheelchair. When he got older and outgrew one chair, a rickety chair would be brought home to take its place. He never minded that he lost both of his legs when he was an infant. He never had a chance to use the limbs long enough to miss them. It was the chairs he hated.
He couldn't go anywhere. If the axles weren't broken, the apartment he lived in with his family was too cramped to roll from one place to another. On the rare occasion they carried him down the steps to his parents' restaurant, Eunhyuk was confined to a table. It grew boring watching others move about, especially for a naturally exuberant child. Eunhyuk had a deep desire to move farther than the chair he was stuck in.
Eventually chairs were abandoned--his parents found their son trying to move around with only his hands and torso. Crawling was difficult without knees, but he grew skilled in lifting himself up on his arms. His favorite method was to go into a handstand and imitate walking that way...at least until his mother would find him and yell at him to stop before he broke something.
On his 8th birthday, Eunhyuk's parents gave him an unexpected present: new legs. He was too young at the time to wonder about how his parents could afford the surgery. That sort of thing was far above his family's modest means. Even restaurant owners could not change that they worked and lived in the Bottoms. Funds were hard to come by unless you made deals with those who had money.
It didn't matter, his new legs brought freedom. His new legs also brought inescapable debt. As soon as Eunhyuk could stand and take his first steps, men in tailored suits began visiting the restaurant almost daily. They ordered food without expecting to pay, they'd pull Eunhyuk's father aside to ask for favors, and they would help themselves to whatever sat in the register on their way out. His father never protested when it happened; the men would casually talk about what happened to those that couldn't fill their requests, and they always made a point to inquire about Eunhyuk's health in passing.
Eunhyuk soon learned how to run. His legs could carry him faster than human legs ever would. When it became apparent that something needed to be delivered somewhere within a certain time frame impossible for his father to make even in a car, his father reluctantly called for Eunhyuk to take it.
"Take this and come straight back. No questions, you hear me?"
It wasn't until Eunhyuk was older and more aware of the world he lived in that he discovered why he was given new legs. The man who paid for them needed a new runner. Without realizing it, Eunhyuk carried drugs, money, stolen goods, and bombs. When Eunhyuk learned what he carried in those unmarked packages, he continued deliver them without question. He knew what would happen to himself or his family if he didn't.
One day changed everything in his life. The men in suits came to the restaurant as usual, the unmarked package tucked beneath the usual muscular arm. Before Eunhyuk could receive instructions about which shady location he would have to run to, the small group of teenagers that recently started to loiter inside the restaurant stood from their seats.
"I'm sorry, but they don't do deliveries anymore." The apparent leader of the pack spoke clearly, his thin arms crossed at his chest. He walked over to stand in between the man and Eunhyuk, taking the package from the youth's fingers. The man glanced uncomfortably behind his shoulder as the teen inspected the package, but was wise enough to not protest when it was handed to him. "It is true that this family's debt to my father didn't go away when he died. However, I'm claiming my right to collect on it. Surely there will be no conflict in this?"
For men who claimed they had nothing to fear to Eunhyuk's family, they were spooked at the sight of a mere teenager. The slightly threatening murmurings from the men dimmed as the other teens moved from where they were to stand behind Eunhyuk. He learned later that at that moment those men from Judoh had just seen a ghost. None of the goons reactions seemed to phase the teen standing next to Eunhyuk, in fact the boy merely shrugged. "You may leave."
He watched the foursome hesitate and finally shrug themselves, as if loathe to teach the lanky teen a lesson. Who the hell spoke to the H & E like that and got away with it?
Pushing back a light brown fringe from his eyes, the boy turned to Eunhyuk and smirked. "You work for me now." And then, darting a look to his legs: "How fast can you run in those things?"
Nothing should have changed. One master or another should have been the same and he certainly didn't welcome the transition. But where the H & E only took and gave nothing but pain and more threats in return, that group of teenagers offered him purpose and explanations when he asked for them.
They didn't offer a way out of his parents' deal, but soon he forgot to resent them for it.
***
"Hey, I heard your legs are still offline." Eunhyuk could hear Donghae's voice from the entrance of the room, he didn't even need to look over to know that the other had a sheepish grin on his face.
"So you decided to stop by and keep me company?" Eunhyuk asked as he turned his head to the side to look in Donghae's direction. "Where did you get that?"
Donghae rolled the wheelchair back and forth. "Thought you'd get bored waiting, figured something was better than nothing."
The chair was nothing like any of the chairs Eunhyuk was stuck in as a child. It looked high-tech and expensive, and while Donghae was currently shacked up with a well-off banker in Judoh, he doubted that Donghae came by it legally. "Where did you get that?"
"It's not hot, if that's what you're thinking. Kibum wired me funds to buy it." Donghae wheeled the chair into the room and stopped close to Eunhyuk for him to inspect.
"Where did he get the money?" Eunhyuk pushed himself up into a seated position, the younger of the two was immediately at his side to prop him up.
"He pulled it from his trust fund." Which in the code the three of them shared meant that Kibum stole it. Considering that Kibum's day job was a e-broker at a bank that sort of thing was easy, they just had to trust him that he knew what he was doing. "Gave me the checkcard this morning and told me to get you something nice."
"You didn't ask him?" Eunhyuk was equally touched by the news as he was surprised. Even though Kibum was the youngest of the three of them, he was unquestionably the most mature and responsible. It was rare he would steal funds without serious cajoling or under direct orders from one of the leaders of the triad.
"Nope. He beat me to it, I think he knew I was going to ask." Donghae grinned and hugged his arms around Eunhyuk's waist.
"I bet you cried, sulked, and locked him out of your room." Eunhyuk countered teasingly and nudged their shoulders together.
The surprised expression Donghae gave him was worth getting shoved off of the makeshift bed and onto the floor.
***
He was unimpressed by Donghae when he first saw him. With his boyish grin, tri-colored hair, and an askew baseball cap, Donghae looked like one of the wannabe gangster kids that loitered the streets. What set him apart from them were the visible tattoos; the black butterfly inked on the back of his neck looked new.
"So who are you?" Eunhyuk asked as Donghae approached him like they were lifelong friends and not people meeting for the first time.
"I'm Donghae, and you're Eunhyuk, the runner Eeteuk stole from H&E." It rankled to be spoken of as a commodity and not a person, but there wasn't much Eunhyuk could do to argue Donghae's statement. It was the truth.
"You're one of Eeteuk's people?"
"I negotiate. You know, try for the win-lose outcome in our favor."
Eunhyuk took in Donghae's wide-eyed, eager smile that begged for approval. All Eunhyuk could respond with, and with incredulity, "So you're here to negotiate?"
"I already did that. Now I've got time to waste. What are you doing?" Donghae asked in a way that Eunhyuk couldn't make up his mind whether it was endearing or outright annoying.
"I'm waiting for a package that needs to be taken to Judoh for Eeteuk." Eunhyuk answered, only to have said envelope dangled in front of his face by Donghae. Annoying.
"It's just money to pay off stealing you under their noses." Donghae explained without prompting, being completely open and candid toward Eunhyuk for no discernible reason. He was just the messenger, he didn't need to know why. "Not cheap. And don't worry about them trying to break your legs or kill you or anything. They've got people staking the place out, this is just a test to see what H&E will do with it. Good luck!"
The cheery 'good luck' was what broke him, and for the first time in a long time Eunhyuk laughed. "You're stupid."
"You have pretty eyes." Donghae retorted, grinning at his lack of insult as he skipped backwards. "And you have five minutes. Ten if you bring me something back."
***
"I don't want it." Eunhyuk announced once their laughter receded and his attention was drawn back to the wheelchair at the foot of the bed. He started to pull himself back up on the bed, the weight of his dead legs making the task harder than he remembered. "Kyuhyun will get them back online soon enough, I just have to wait."
"Kibum's going to be pissed." Donghae looked crestfallen, but for once didn't try to argue or throw a fit. Instead, he pried Eunhyuk's hands from the bed. Ignoring the protest, he wheeled the chair around and pressed down the brake. "Come on, go out to lunch with me. When was the last time you ate?"
"I'll eat later." he sighed and reached to grasp at the bed behind him. "I don't need you to-"
"It's been awhile since you've been to see your folks," Donghae hooked his arms under Eunhyuk's arms and lifted. He half-dragged, half-carried his friend until he was seated in the wheelchair. "I already told them we were coming so..."
"I have no choice in the matter." Eunhyuk groused but didn't bother to fight as Donghae pulled the blanket off of the bed and draped it across his lap. The cushions of his chair were soft, comfortable, but he still wanted nothing more to push himself out of it onto the unforgiving floor. "I want to stay here and wait."
"If Kyuhyun's ready to fix you, we'll be here in a flash. You're not the only one who can move fast." Donghae murmured, knocking their heads together as he took Eunhyuk's hands. "I need you to come with me, alright?"
Sulking, Eunhyuk sighed, trying to pull away but giving up when he found the other man's grip unshakable. "I don't need a babysitter," he huffed, glaring. If Donghae had been anyone else, the comment might have annoyed or angered. As it was, the other man simply grinned.
"You sure? You are acting like a child..."
Eunhyuk wanted to kick him, but lacking legs, he simply rolled his eyes and fell back dejectedly against the wheelchair. "You suck," he snapped half-heartedly. "Just so you know."
"Still adorable." Donghae smirked, lightly slapping Eunhyuk's cheek. He leaned over and unlocked the wheelchair's brake. "Don't worry, I'll do my best not to push you into the path of oncoming traffic."