Flight [TOP/Daesung]
Title: Flight
Pairing: TOP/Daesung
Word Count: 1506 words
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG
Summary: Seunghyun is being forced to fly.
Seunghyun is a mess he doesn’t want to clean up, and so Jiyong resorts to dragging him out of the house and enrolling him in a summer course in airplane flight. Maybe you’d get your heart fixed up there, Jiyong says as he pushes him through the door. (And maybe leave your head in the clouds while you’re at it.) But Seunghyun is nursing a broken heart, and he doesn’t really care what his friend says, or about anything, really. The younger man shakes his head and leaves a quiet Seunghyun fiddling the ad for flight lessons.
-
Seunghyun doesn’t want to learn. He doesn’t want to go out and interact with people, much less fly in the air. He’d much rather stay inside and sulk in his corner. Let the photographs and letters and regrets flood me. That was actually his new motto. He planned to mull over his mistakes and wonder about what-ifs and yes, in some masochistic way, he’d like that. Very much. Anything over flying in the air.
But he knows that if he doesn’t follow Jiyong, there will be serious consequences - and that, Seunghyun is sure, will lead to the elder’s death by dragon. So Seunghyun obeys and stuffs a few pictures in his bag just before leaving for his first lesson.
Seunghyun still doesn’t want to learn.
-
The first thing Seunghyun sees is a vintage mechanical bird resting on its platform, looking as old as one of those century eggs he eats at home. (How old were they really, anyway?) Seunghyun doubts that the contraption won’t crash into a million pieces and once again Seunghyun is pessimistic about the whole thing.
He inspects the airplane with the slightly rusty brown wings and the new set of wheels. Instead of being a plane fit for one, the black leather seats in front have been stretched to accommodate two people. The paint of the body itself is starting to chip off. A lone bulls-eye target is painted right before where the tail starts, which Seunghyun thinks doesn’t make all that much sense because who would want to call trouble towards themselves? But Seunghyun shrugs because he will never know the answer and because he doesn’t care all that much.
For a moment, Seunghyun is reminded of a veteran eagle poised to take flight. Old but powerful and maybe even extremely deadly. He’s not quite sure if he wants to tame such a beast. He’s not quite sure if he has the patience to, either. A heart split in the middle can apparently do things to a person’s capacity for anything.
Immersed in his thoughts, he barely registers a low voice calling out his name from behind him. He turns to look.
The flight instructor Seunghyun gets has tan skin, a wide smile, unruly hair - and is absolutely beautiful.
As his teacher approaches him, Seunghyun shakes these thoughts out of his head because they’re rather inconvenient. No, he thinks, it will not be like that.
It’s stupid. You’re stupid. Don’t be stupid.
It cannot be like that.
(As he is being taught the basics of flying, Seunghyun finds that he can only concentrate on his instructor’s smile, his attempts at resistance failing.)
-
You’ve got to learn to wait for the right moments, Daesung says as he glides a hand over Seunghyun’s tense knuckles on the steering wheel. You’ve got to be patient. Seunghyun takes a deep breath and prays that this eagle won’t lash out on him.
His start is rocky and stilted, but Daesung only smiles and tells him you’ll get it right. Seunghyun thinks that he’ll never be able to get anything right if distraction sits a few inches away from him.
(He thought he heard Daesung mutter time heals under his breath, but he’s not quite sure.)
-
Sometimes Seunghyun does feel broken, when the hands on his alarm clock tick and he’s reminded that a hole was ripped right through his heart.
Sometimes the memories weigh him down so heavily that it suffocates him, leaving no space for any kind of healing to take place. Sometimes Seunghyun is just so sad without explanation and dread just fills him up and chokes him. Sometimes, Seunghyun overflows, and the vicious cycle repeats.
Sometimes (most times), Seunghyun crashes.
-
But there is hope, Jiyong told him before, when everything was gray and wilting. You will find it soon.
Seunghyun thinks Jiyong has gone crazy with all these love and happy-ever-after business.
What hope?
-
As the weeks trudge by, Seunghyun becomes stubborn because he will not and cannot ever admit the change, most certainly not to Jiyong.
However, he will not deny it.
Up here, the sky stretches into infinite possibilities he never really knew existed. Up here, there’s nothing but the space between the clouds and the shafts of light on the wings. Up here, he is free. Free to think about only the wind on his face - and maybe the man sitting next to him.
As ironic as it seems, Seunghyun flies but falls harder.
And this is something he will deny.
-
What happened to clear-and-rational-Seunghyun and less-than-hopeful-Seunghyun, he will never know.
Get mad at me, Seunghyun wants to scream, get mad at me for once! But no, Daesung must have some microchip implanted in his cheeks because he just keeps smiling and smiling and smiling and Seunghyun’s heart just keeps on pounding and pounding and pounding.
Seunghyun knows he’s going to lose control, whether in flight or on the ground, but Daesung is right there to catch him and Seunghyun doesn’t quite know what to feel.
Seunghyun is trying to stop losing control.
He pleads so desperately to his brain to kick some sense into him. He doesn’t want to crash, not anymore. It wouldn’t be good for anyone or anything, most especially the healing wounds in his chest.
But Seunghyun’s heart swells at just the thought of Daesung.
-
And so -
Maybe -
Seunghyun thinks he’ll take his chances.
-
Sometimes Seunghyun just has to run to Daesung and he would make all the hurt go away. Sometimes he’d tap the other man’s hand and plead with his eyes and Daesung would understand. Sometimes the dread just drains right out of him and sometimes Seunghyun smiles because of Daesung.
(Okay, maybe it’s all the time now.)
-
Seunghyun thinks that it would be nice to fall deep, deeply in love with this man right here, hair like cotton candy curls and eyes liquid like honey. Up here in the clouds where only the sun can peek and the moon can whisper about them. It would be nice, yes, and Seunghyun would be willing.
Seunghyun would be willing.
Somehow, they’re the magic words that send Seunghyun flying higher and falling faster at the same time.
He sneaks glances at Daesung whenever he thinks the younger man isn’t looking, and his heart swells yet again.
(Is this the hope Jiyong was talking about?)
-
Seunghyun was never really a good pretender. He tried to pretend that he was still broken. He tried to pretend that he could never fall in love again. In the end, he was only fooling himself.
In the end, Seunghyun does learn.
Seunghyun runs a hand against the plane’s chipping paint, as a form of thank you and goodbye. He stares fondly at the bulls-eye that had become even more faded from his use. This old eagle had become his friend.
You can fly her anytime you like, Daesung says, she’ll be waiting for you. Come back again, yeah?
For the first time, Seunghyun isn’t glad to see his instructor smile. He feels almost hurt even, like Daesung is glad to see him go.
In the end, what can he do?
Seunghyun smiles with eyes full of thanks and longing. He faces the exit and prepares himself to leave.
He feels like he’s turning his back on his memories and his heart.
-
Damn it, Seunghyun thinks, damn it.
This isn’t fair.
You can’t just heal a heart and break it again, Daesung.
This isn’t fair.
Seunghyun has a hard time leaving his spot.
-
Is there something wrong, Seunghyun? Daesung asks.
Seunghyun turns to face the other man. Yes, Daesung, there is something very wrong, he says. I don’t want to leave.
Confusion flits through Daesung’s face as he takes in what Seunghyun just said. You can always come back here anyway; like I said, the plane will be there waiting -
Yes, she will. But you won’t.
(Seunghyun picks that moment to confess.)
-
Daesung smiles.
And then Daesung kisses him, slow and sweet, like honey dripping.
And Seunghyun crashes, but in a good way. For the first time.
-
Daesung laughs and blushes and Seunghyun makes a mental note to thank Jiyong later. Seunghyun likes seeing Daesung laugh and blush and Seunghyun’s heart swells.
Seunghyun wonders if he could still trust himself with flying, now that he thinks he’ll get a heart attack anytime soon from being so happy.
But for now, it doesn’t matter.
Seunghyun’s already decided that he’s going to let the wind carry them anyway.
-
A/N: I had this idea for a while and was only able to complete it now. ^^ Comments are love~
Pairing: TOP/Daesung
Word Count: 1506 words
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG
Summary: Seunghyun is being forced to fly.
Seunghyun is a mess he doesn’t want to clean up, and so Jiyong resorts to dragging him out of the house and enrolling him in a summer course in airplane flight. Maybe you’d get your heart fixed up there, Jiyong says as he pushes him through the door. (And maybe leave your head in the clouds while you’re at it.) But Seunghyun is nursing a broken heart, and he doesn’t really care what his friend says, or about anything, really. The younger man shakes his head and leaves a quiet Seunghyun fiddling the ad for flight lessons.
-
Seunghyun doesn’t want to learn. He doesn’t want to go out and interact with people, much less fly in the air. He’d much rather stay inside and sulk in his corner. Let the photographs and letters and regrets flood me. That was actually his new motto. He planned to mull over his mistakes and wonder about what-ifs and yes, in some masochistic way, he’d like that. Very much. Anything over flying in the air.
But he knows that if he doesn’t follow Jiyong, there will be serious consequences - and that, Seunghyun is sure, will lead to the elder’s death by dragon. So Seunghyun obeys and stuffs a few pictures in his bag just before leaving for his first lesson.
Seunghyun still doesn’t want to learn.
-
The first thing Seunghyun sees is a vintage mechanical bird resting on its platform, looking as old as one of those century eggs he eats at home. (How old were they really, anyway?) Seunghyun doubts that the contraption won’t crash into a million pieces and once again Seunghyun is pessimistic about the whole thing.
He inspects the airplane with the slightly rusty brown wings and the new set of wheels. Instead of being a plane fit for one, the black leather seats in front have been stretched to accommodate two people. The paint of the body itself is starting to chip off. A lone bulls-eye target is painted right before where the tail starts, which Seunghyun thinks doesn’t make all that much sense because who would want to call trouble towards themselves? But Seunghyun shrugs because he will never know the answer and because he doesn’t care all that much.
For a moment, Seunghyun is reminded of a veteran eagle poised to take flight. Old but powerful and maybe even extremely deadly. He’s not quite sure if he wants to tame such a beast. He’s not quite sure if he has the patience to, either. A heart split in the middle can apparently do things to a person’s capacity for anything.
Immersed in his thoughts, he barely registers a low voice calling out his name from behind him. He turns to look.
The flight instructor Seunghyun gets has tan skin, a wide smile, unruly hair - and is absolutely beautiful.
As his teacher approaches him, Seunghyun shakes these thoughts out of his head because they’re rather inconvenient. No, he thinks, it will not be like that.
It’s stupid. You’re stupid. Don’t be stupid.
It cannot be like that.
(As he is being taught the basics of flying, Seunghyun finds that he can only concentrate on his instructor’s smile, his attempts at resistance failing.)
-
You’ve got to learn to wait for the right moments, Daesung says as he glides a hand over Seunghyun’s tense knuckles on the steering wheel. You’ve got to be patient. Seunghyun takes a deep breath and prays that this eagle won’t lash out on him.
His start is rocky and stilted, but Daesung only smiles and tells him you’ll get it right. Seunghyun thinks that he’ll never be able to get anything right if distraction sits a few inches away from him.
(He thought he heard Daesung mutter time heals under his breath, but he’s not quite sure.)
-
Sometimes Seunghyun does feel broken, when the hands on his alarm clock tick and he’s reminded that a hole was ripped right through his heart.
Sometimes the memories weigh him down so heavily that it suffocates him, leaving no space for any kind of healing to take place. Sometimes Seunghyun is just so sad without explanation and dread just fills him up and chokes him. Sometimes, Seunghyun overflows, and the vicious cycle repeats.
Sometimes (most times), Seunghyun crashes.
-
But there is hope, Jiyong told him before, when everything was gray and wilting. You will find it soon.
Seunghyun thinks Jiyong has gone crazy with all these love and happy-ever-after business.
What hope?
-
As the weeks trudge by, Seunghyun becomes stubborn because he will not and cannot ever admit the change, most certainly not to Jiyong.
However, he will not deny it.
Up here, the sky stretches into infinite possibilities he never really knew existed. Up here, there’s nothing but the space between the clouds and the shafts of light on the wings. Up here, he is free. Free to think about only the wind on his face - and maybe the man sitting next to him.
As ironic as it seems, Seunghyun flies but falls harder.
And this is something he will deny.
-
What happened to clear-and-rational-Seunghyun and less-than-hopeful-Seunghyun, he will never know.
Get mad at me, Seunghyun wants to scream, get mad at me for once! But no, Daesung must have some microchip implanted in his cheeks because he just keeps smiling and smiling and smiling and Seunghyun’s heart just keeps on pounding and pounding and pounding.
Seunghyun knows he’s going to lose control, whether in flight or on the ground, but Daesung is right there to catch him and Seunghyun doesn’t quite know what to feel.
Seunghyun is trying to stop losing control.
He pleads so desperately to his brain to kick some sense into him. He doesn’t want to crash, not anymore. It wouldn’t be good for anyone or anything, most especially the healing wounds in his chest.
But Seunghyun’s heart swells at just the thought of Daesung.
-
And so -
Maybe -
Seunghyun thinks he’ll take his chances.
-
Sometimes Seunghyun just has to run to Daesung and he would make all the hurt go away. Sometimes he’d tap the other man’s hand and plead with his eyes and Daesung would understand. Sometimes the dread just drains right out of him and sometimes Seunghyun smiles because of Daesung.
(Okay, maybe it’s all the time now.)
-
Seunghyun thinks that it would be nice to fall deep, deeply in love with this man right here, hair like cotton candy curls and eyes liquid like honey. Up here in the clouds where only the sun can peek and the moon can whisper about them. It would be nice, yes, and Seunghyun would be willing.
Seunghyun would be willing.
Somehow, they’re the magic words that send Seunghyun flying higher and falling faster at the same time.
He sneaks glances at Daesung whenever he thinks the younger man isn’t looking, and his heart swells yet again.
(Is this the hope Jiyong was talking about?)
-
Seunghyun was never really a good pretender. He tried to pretend that he was still broken. He tried to pretend that he could never fall in love again. In the end, he was only fooling himself.
In the end, Seunghyun does learn.
Seunghyun runs a hand against the plane’s chipping paint, as a form of thank you and goodbye. He stares fondly at the bulls-eye that had become even more faded from his use. This old eagle had become his friend.
You can fly her anytime you like, Daesung says, she’ll be waiting for you. Come back again, yeah?
For the first time, Seunghyun isn’t glad to see his instructor smile. He feels almost hurt even, like Daesung is glad to see him go.
In the end, what can he do?
Seunghyun smiles with eyes full of thanks and longing. He faces the exit and prepares himself to leave.
He feels like he’s turning his back on his memories and his heart.
-
Damn it, Seunghyun thinks, damn it.
This isn’t fair.
You can’t just heal a heart and break it again, Daesung.
This isn’t fair.
Seunghyun has a hard time leaving his spot.
-
Is there something wrong, Seunghyun? Daesung asks.
Seunghyun turns to face the other man. Yes, Daesung, there is something very wrong, he says. I don’t want to leave.
Confusion flits through Daesung’s face as he takes in what Seunghyun just said. You can always come back here anyway; like I said, the plane will be there waiting -
Yes, she will. But you won’t.
(Seunghyun picks that moment to confess.)
-
Daesung smiles.
And then Daesung kisses him, slow and sweet, like honey dripping.
And Seunghyun crashes, but in a good way. For the first time.
-
Daesung laughs and blushes and Seunghyun makes a mental note to thank Jiyong later. Seunghyun likes seeing Daesung laugh and blush and Seunghyun’s heart swells.
Seunghyun wonders if he could still trust himself with flying, now that he thinks he’ll get a heart attack anytime soon from being so happy.
But for now, it doesn’t matter.
Seunghyun’s already decided that he’s going to let the wind carry them anyway.
-
A/N: I had this idea for a while and was only able to complete it now. ^^ Comments are love~