southern winds [3/3]
➹➷
Days pass quickly in a flurry of a million pages of carefully written plans and carefully co-ordinated formations for them all.
Sehun knows that he will play a vital part in the success of every plan that they have drawn up. He is the only one with the power to keep the dragons at bay. They will approach from over the mountains and Sehun knows that he must will the wind into their the folds of their wings and use just enough power to keep them at bay without breaking their wings like he did to Yixing. It requires a painstaking amount of control and Sehun breaks Yixing’s wings twice more and Zitao’s wings once while practicing. Thankfully, he never manages to accidentally injure Wu Fan.
Chanyeol will be with Kyungsoo, on the ground in the main army. Joonmyun produced uniforms and armour out of seemingly nowhere the day before and had told them that they will stop the soldiers from advancing from within. Kyungsoo would part the earth to create a barrier if needed to prevent any soldiers from reaching the forest on the other side of the battleground and Chanyeol was there to protect the men from flames if any dragons broke through, and to protect Kyungsoo if he was caught.
“Sehun!” Jongin calls from the table. “Do you remember anything else about the army formations?”
“Why are you asking me?” Sehun calls back. “I never paid attention to that. Ask Joonmyun, he probably has them memorized.”
Someone laughs, and Joonmyun turns to scowl at him. “I do have the theoretical formations memorized,” he says, “but from what Kyungsoo has told me, the true formations of the army are completely different and I was never part of it.”
“Oh, is that so?” Sehun asks smugly. “There’s something that Joonmyun doesn’t know after all.”
“Just shut up and come over here.”
Sehun obeys with a smile on his face.
The smile is wiped off the moment he sees what is drawn on the paper in front of him. There is almost nothing that he understands.
It must have shown on his face because a moment later he hears Joonmyun speak to him, his tone as smug as Sehun had been a moment before. “Should have paid more attention in class Sehun.”
“What is this?” he asks blankly, picking up the parchment and trying to read it from all angles. “Are you sure this is what the army looks like?”
“Well, that’s what we were hoping you could tell us,” Jongdae remarks. “That’s what these guys said the formation looked like last time you went out to fight, but we’d like you to make sure it’s as accurate as possible. You were there too, weren’t you?”
Sehun flushes with embarrassment. “I think this is right?” he tries.
He’s about to put the diagram back down when something below it catches his eye; Zitao’s name on the parchment below. His arms freeze where they are, lowering the diagram back down on the table. Sehun scans the piece of parchment.
Zitao will also be on the battlefield. He’s with Lu Han. They have been assigned to remove any dragon who gets past Sehun and makes their way down to the battlefield. Zitao will stop time for a moment, and Lu Han will throw the dragon back up into the sky with his Gift.
It’s a dangerous job, and Sehun has heard that Zitao’s Gift is the most draining of all. Any time that he delays will come directly from his lifespan and while a dragon has a lifespan so long Zitao has assured everyone that he won’t even feel it, Sehun wants to make sure that he won’t need to use the power at all.
“Okay, you can put that down and go now,” Jongdae suddenly says, snapping Sehun out of his thoughts. “You can take your darling Zitao’s plan with you if you want to read it, just bring it back or else you’ll be rewriting it for us.”
“It’s fine,” Sehun snaps and drops the diagram in his hands before walking over to the exit. “I’m going out to watch the others train for a bit,” he announces.
“You go do that,” Jongdae replies.
➹➷
Nothing seems to go particularly fast until the night Yixing sprints inside, yelling for everyone to wake up in the middle of the night. It’s one of those rare few hours when everyone sleeps, between the latest of sleepers and the earliest of risers.
It’s strange for Yixing of all people, with his quiet laugh and soft voice to raise it in any situation and when Sehun wakes, it takes him a few panicked moments to realize that it’s only Yixing.
Someone pokes a head through the entrance. “Get up,” Wu Fan’s deep voice instructs. “Something’s happened.”
Sehun doesn’t give anything a second thought before he leaps up from his pallet, and heads out, footsteps swift, into the main cave where they would always gather. He’s not the first to arrive, but he’s not the last either. Those who are already there are already huddled around Yixing’s familiar figure.
“Yixing!” Sehun gasps, catching sight of the man. “What’s wrong?”
Yixing’s back is bent and he clutches his chest, panting. A bloody gash runs down the side of his arm.
“Nothing,” he gasps. He tries to smile but it comes out a grimace. “Tired, flew here.”
Wu Fan steps up, wrapping a large arm around Yixing and supporting him over to a chair. “Don’t talk now,” he says gently. “Rest for a bit, just until the others arrive.”
Everyone else files in quietly not long after. Some, like Sehun, gasp in shock at Yixing’s condition and others simply run to his side, concern in their eyes. Lu Han actually dares to bat Wu Fan’s hand away from Yixing in order to embrace him.
“Everyone’s here?” Yixing croaks. Sehun’s eyes flicker around, and he sees that the others do the same, silently counting.
“We’ve all here,” Wu Fan confirms.
“We need to act, fast,” Yixing says. His voice is still raw, and Wu Fan offers him water. Yixing smiles, but pushes the cup away. “I flew straight from the Capitol, and we don’t have as much time as we thought before they poison the river.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I heard them myself.” Yixing’s tone takes on a testy edge. “You would do well to remember what I sacrifice in the Capitol and what sort of people spill their secrets as they use me, Wu Fan.”
“You what?”
The meaning of Yixing’s words are clear, and from the reaction, Sehun realises that he isn’t the only one unaware of the life that Yixing had lead in the Capitol to collect information for them.
“You fucking bastard.” Lu Han rounds on Wu Fan, arms coming up the fist the front of the taller man’s tunic. “What the fuck did you tell Yixing to do in the Capitol?”
“Lu Han--” Yixing tries to interrupt, but Lu Han doesn’t hear. Or if he does, he ignores it.
“Are you really that cold Wu Fan?” Lu Han continues viciously. “Are you so desperate for knowledge and power that you would sacrifice even your friends for it?”
Wu Fan winces, but he does not back down. “I saw the need for information, and there was a way to it. Yixing agreed to it freely, I did not force him.”
“That’s because Yixing’s too fucking kind to say no, you fucking took advantage of him--”
“Lu Han, that’s enough.” Although still raw, Yixing’s voice is strong. “I knew you would be like this if I had told you, so I kept quiet. I agreed with Wu Fan, and I know that a small sacrifice on my behalf will help us all. And it has.”
“But--”
“That’s enough,” Yixing says again. “What has been done is over and now we must decide on a course of action for the future.”
Sending one last venomous glare at Wu Fan, Lu Han quietens but keeps a protective arm around Yixing. He hisses the moment Wu Fan tries to move closer.
“We’re moving everything forward,” Wu Fan decides. “We had thought that it would be a good idea to wait a little longer, plan and train but there’s no time. Yixing, how long do you think we have?”
“A week at the most.”
“Shit,” Jongdae whispers. “Shit, shit, fucking--”
“Jongdae, this is not the time,” Lu Han says quietly. “Calm down, I know you’re shocked but--”
“Shut the fuck up.”
The room goes silent. Sehun can almost hear the sound of his own breathing as he looks from Lu Han to Jongdae.
“You stand there with your arm around him, screeching so freely at Wu Fan for hurting your precious friend and you dare tell me to calm down?”
Joonmyun steps up, and reaches out to grasp at Jongdae’s hand.
“Jongdae,” he says quietly. “Don’t.”
“Don’t?” Jongdae hisses. “You heard him. The rivers are going to be poisoned in less than a week.”
“Wait, what’s going on?” Baekhyun’s voices his confusion, but it only adds the to tension. “Joonmyun’s just going to be cleaning out the river earlier isn’t he?”
Jongdae rounds on Baekhyun instead, and Sehun can see the anger burning in his eyes. Although Sehun had been wondering the exact same thing, his mind trying desperately to connect the dots, he now wishes the Baekhyun had kept quiet.
“Are you in denial,” he slowly asks, “or are you just really fucking stupid?”
Baekhyun’s eyes widen. “What’s wrong?” he says, sounding bewildered and offended at the same time.
“Nothing,” Joonmyun tries to say.
“Joonmyun will be draining enough poison to kill an entire nation and beyond from the river,” Jongdae answers slowly, each word dripping anger. “Where do you think the poison goes?”
Sehun launches, and he’s not the only one. Baekhyun goes white along with him, and his eyes widen.
“Th-that can’t be--”
“What can’t be?” Jongdae snaps. “I’m sorry if you think that this has just been one huge adventure but this is happening now and people are going to d--”
“Jongdae, you’ve made your point.”
Wu Fan speaks up again, and his dark eyes move from face to face illuminated by the flickering candles.
“Go back to sleep,” he finally says. “Perhaps we will all be calm when the sun rises. We can’t achieve anything like this, we will have to be calm when the sun rises.”
When Sehun lies back on his cold pallet, he closes his eyes. Sleep does not come easily.
➹➷
Sehun does not want to open his eyes, but the night before flashes in front of his closed eyes. His friends are willing to sacrifice, and they have sacrificed.
I’ve done nothing, Sehun thinks. All this time I thought I did well, I haven’t done enough. I haven’t even thought about what I can do with my own power.
It’s the least he can do to open his eyes, and so Sehun does, getting out his pallet and leaving the blanket folded on top. He knows that Kyungsoo folds them for him, but Kyungsoo should spend his time practising his gift, not folding Sehun’s blankets for him.
Sehun isn’t a child anymore, and he knows that now.
The main cave isn’t as empty as Sehun had expected when he steps into it. He knows that Zitao and Jongin are usually awake early in the morning, but he had not expected this.
A farewell gathering.
He watches silently from the back as Jongin and Kyungsoo embrace Joonmyun in turn and even Wu Fan steps up for an awkward embrace and a pat on the head. Zitao slumps as he sobs into Joonmyun’s shoulder.
Behind them, Jongdae and Minseok stand still.
It’s not until Joonmyun turns his back to him and starts to walk out that Sehun finds feeling in his two feet. “Wait!” the word bursts from his mouth, and he runs forward, hand somehow stretching out in front of him.
Joonmyun turns around, and he breaks into a teary smile. “Sehun,” he whispers.
“Why--” Sehun asks. “Why didn’t you tell us that you were leaving this morning?”
“Because I don’t want to say goodbye,” Joonmyun replies softly. “Because then I can believe that I’ll see you all again.”
Sehun feels the tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. “Don’t go,” he pleads in a spur of selfishness. What he asks is impossible, but Sehun still wishes.
Joonmyun smiles at him and Sehun knows that smile so well. It’s the smile that Sehun will always remember when he thinks of Joonmyun. Something wet trails down his cheeks.
“Farewell, Sehun,” he answers.
➹➷
Every minute begins to mean more to Sehun. It’s the effect of knowing that it may come to an end, Sehun thinks. Once, it had not mattered to him when he thought that they were invincible with an infinite amount of life left in them, but know he knows.
With every minute that he has to spend with Zitao, Sehun soaks in every second, every touch, every moment of contact. He commits them to memory because he fears that might be all the he’ll have left.
“What will you do, if I don’t come back?” Sehun asks.
It’s the night before the battle and they had all been allowed a break. “I guess you’re as good as you’ll ever be,” Wu Fan had said. “Spend time with those you love,” he had instructed over lunch. “Don’t go into battle tomorrow with too many regrets,” Don’t die with too many regrets.
“You’ll come back,” Zitao answers. “We’ll both make it back.”
"But what if I don't?" Sehun asks again. "What if something happens and I die?"
The notion of death is no longer foreign to Sehun, even if it does still feel far away.
"I guess," Zitao frowns as he thinks. His arm sneaks its way around Sehun's waist to pull their bodies tight against each other. "I'll be sad, and I'll mourn for you, but no matter what happens, I'll live out my life to the fullest so when I join you at the end of my life, you can be proud of me and I can tell you about everything I've been able to do."
Sehun nods, and snuggles in further. "That's a good answer."
"Of course it is," Zitao laughs, rubbing the bottom of his chin on the top of Sehun's head. "I'm Zitao."
"Of course you are." Sehun laughs along with him, and he can hear their laughter so clearly tonight.
"Whatever happens tomorrow," Zitao whispers, his breath warm against the shell of Sehun's ear, "I will love you and always remember you."
Sehun shuffles back, and the cool night air brushes against his face. He keeps his arms wrapped around Zitao and lies on his side. This way, he can see every scar and wrinkle on Zitao's face. He can see the way Zitao's lips curve into a smile when he thinks of something happy, and the way he looks away to concentrate when looking for the right words.
"I'll never forget you," Sehun replies. No regrets, he hears a voice in his head say. Remember to leave no regrets.
"That's all?" Zitao teases. "Not even a kiss?"
"I'm trying to be serious here!" Sehun says, and he brings the hand trapped below Zitao's body up to punch his stomach lightly.
"Okay, okay," Zitao chuckles. "I'll be quiet."
Smiling in appreciation, Sehun moves to take Zitao's hand but Zitao is already a step ahead and he entwines their fingers. Sehun likes the comfort it gives him, to know that he's not alone.
"Before I loved you, I respected you. I was even a little scared of you," Sehun finally says. He's going to be completely honest and tell Zitao everything he's been keeping inside, too embarrassed to voice. "Before we loved each other, we were friends, weren't we?"
Zitao nods with a small, smile. He looks almost proud.
"No matter what happens tomorrow," Sehun continues, "I'll always want to treasure and remember memories of our friendship. Even if we survive tomorrow, I don't know if we'll be able to stay like this," he squeezes Zitao's hand, "forever."
"Of course," Zitao murmurs. "No one knows what will happen with time, not even I do."
"Even if we don't love each other when we're old, ugly and wrinkly," Sehun says. "I'll want to remember you. I'll want to remember our friendship most of all."
Zitao flips onto his back, but he keeps their fingers tightly entwined.
"Look up, Sehun," he whispers. "The stars are out."
Following Zitao's gaze, Sehun rolls onto his back too. The stars are indeed out, and shining so beautifully.
"It's like that day," Sehun whispers back.
"Except you didn't need to use your Gift this time."
Sehun smiles up at the night sky and allows his eyelids to flutter shut. Because tonight, there is only Zitao and their stars.
➹➷
The dawn of a new day comes slow. Sehun wakes on his own pallet back at home, his limbs tangled with Zitao's. He stretches and rubs his eyes.
Zitao raises his head. "Did you sleep well?"
"Really well," Sehun yawns and it's not a lie.
"Better have," Zitao grumbles at him playfully before poking in the chest with a single finger. "I had to carry you back after you fell asleep outside on the grass."
Sehun doesn't even flush. "Well," he replies haughtily, "it's only your duty."
"My duty?" Zitao replies, mock outrage and laughter in his voice. "I'll show you real duty."
And with that, he leaps on top of Sehun, trapping his thin body beneath. Sehun feels fingers move up and down his sides, tickling him mercilessly. He starts to laugh.
It's the morning of a battle, it's the day that a war older than Sehun will come to an end. But Sehun can't stop laughing and at this, Zitao begins to laugh as well. They are loud, boisterous and joyful.
"We'll, I hope that's not the only real duty you have," a voice remarks wirily from the entrance.
Zitao tumbles off both Sehun and the pallet in shock and Sehun scrambles into a sitting position.
"Wu Fan," Zitao whines. "We were busy. Why did you have to interrupt?"
"I'm afraid so," Wu Fan replies. "Get up, get ready. The army of men are getting into formation on the battlefield and they're planning to push into the forest if the dragons don't come."
"I'm ready," Sehun mutters as he stands up. "Let's go."
Sehun's about to follow Wu Fan out the exit when he feels a hand around his wrist. "Wait."
"What?" Sehun turns to face Zitao but is instead met with a pair of lips on his.
"We'll both make it out alive?" Zitao asks.
"We'll make it out alive," Sehun confirms.
It's a fragile promise.
➹➷
The wind drifts softly around Sehun. He stands just on the edge of the forest, facing the army of men.
They can see him, he knows. They are waving their hands at him, gesturing him over. They think he is a lost soldier and once, they would have been right. But not anymore.
Someone takes a step forward, breaking out of line. Sehun can see their division commander round on him, yelling at him to step back. The man points, craning his neck to see past his commanding officer on his war horse, straight at Sehun. The commanding officer turns, and he catches sign of Sehun; a boy standing just inside the shadows of the trees on land that men have never dared to venture into before.
Sehun hears him yell, pitching his voice so it carries. They're telling him to come back. Sehun doesn't move.
The commanding officer reins his horse and begins trot over, his face red with anger. Sehun looks away, at the sky,
He can hear the familiar trotting rhythm of the horse now, it coming closer and closer but Sehun doesn't back away. He can hear the commanding officer now, "What do you think you're doing on that side?" he's bellowing. "Get back in formation."
Then, the ground shakes below Sehun's feet. Kyungsoo.
The approaching war horse rears and bolts. When Sehun looks back across the battlefield again, the commanding officer is back on the other side, pointing at him and bellowing order. The archers ready their bows, and aim at him. Sehun only smiles.
"Sehun!"
Jongin appears next to him. "They're coming, over the mountain now."
"I understand."
Sehun begins to step out into the midmorning light. "Stay safe," he says.
"You too," Jongin replies. "I'll see you when this is over."
And then Jongin is gone again.
Sehun has figured out what he needs to do. While keeping the dragons at bay before they reach the battlefield, he needs to keep the strong around him in order to deflect any arrows aimed at him.
The wind begins to roar in his ears. He's standing in the middle of the field now, facing the mountain, waiting for the first of the dragons to appear. He knows from what Minseok had told them that more will be coming this time, more than has ever been seen. Through his wind, Sehun can hear the men talk and whisper at him, some even yell and curse.
He hears arrows being released. A moment later, he hears them all clatter to the ground around him.
The cursing continues, until they fade with the appearance of the first dragon in the sky. Sehun wonders if there's new recruits in their ranks. He wonders if they feel as he did the morning he first saw dragons. Confused, scared, and suddenly so homesick.
He hopes that they will never go through the pain of their first bloody, hopeless battle.
"They’re coming!" he hears someone screech from behind and Sehun's eyes snap back to the back.
One, two, then three; more and more dragons are appearing from behind the mountains and Sehun begins to draw his power from inside and around him and he waits, the wind harnessed inside, for the dragons to approach.
The wind behind him drops as he pushes it forward.
The first line dragons screech as they push forward, but are thrown back by the wind. They screech again and again, and Sehun covers his ears with his hands, directing all his strength in front of him.
He feels an arrowhead clatter to a stop at his heels.
The second line of attack arrives, and Sehun forces himself to focus. He holds them back. The screeching in his ears intensifies.
Something strong batters at his defences--he's losing strength, fast.
Looking up and around him, Sehun sees the sky littered with dragons of every colour, trying to break free of the wind. There's so many of them, and Sehun starts to gasp when he feels the pounding in his chest. He can feel them, pushing forward with all their power at once to break the barrier he's created to keep them out.
Blood rushes to Sehun's chest, it's beating too fast now. Sehun feels cold. The wind around him becomes quieter; it's dropping.
No, it's not.
Sehun can't breathe. All he can hear is the wind roaring again in his eyes. Defences are strong again, but Sehun gasps for air. He feels the wind draining his energy and he can't stand anymore and drops to his knees.
I need more energy, Sehun thinks. He wills himself to get back into his feet and to finish the job, but his hands shake even as he tries to push himself back onto his feet. I need more power.
The world spins and spins and spins and Sehun stumbles and then--
the wind dies.
➹➷
Sehun wakes to screams, heat and the unmistakable stench of burning flesh.
“Fuck,” he gasps. Pain tears through his throat and he chokes, bracing himself with fingertips buried inside the dirt as he coughs and coughs.
“Sehun, you’re awake!”
Sehun feels a hand patting at his back. “Kyungsoo?” he asks. “Aren’t you supposed to be over there?”
“You collapsed,” Kyungsoo murmurs comfortingly. Sweat mixes with blood as it runs down the side of his face. “Chanyeol’s protecting us now.”
Looking around, Sehun realizes that they’re enclosed in a ring of fire. “But-- the soldiers? The dragons?”
Kyungsoo bows his head. “Chanyeol trying to protect as many as he can from the flames now,” he says simply.
Sehun squints pass the ring of fire.
It’s as if his first battle is repeating itself before his eyes. Soldiers run screaming from formation as dragonfire washes over them-- there are a few groups that remain intact and still under Chanyeol’s barrier but it’s a small portion of the whole.
The ground is black again, the grass which had begun to grow back burnt dead.
Corpses that lie still on the ground don’t scare Sehun, it’s the ones still alive. The ones which crawl desperately back, and the others which lie twitching on the dirt.
“I need to go back,” Sehun mutters to himself. “Or they’ll all die.”
“You’ll kill yourself,” Kyungsoo states. “You’ve used up all your energy. The wind will take too much energy from your life force.”
“I don’t care,” Sehun replies through gritted teeth. “It doesn’t matter anymore. As long as I can hold them back.”
“You can’t--”
“Yes, I can.”
Sehun pushes himself to his feet, and he looks up at the sky. Out of the corner of the eye, he thinks that he sees Wu Fan’s dragon form trying to deflect flames.
Then he sees Zitao, utterly spent. He’s leaning on Lu Han, clutching his chest as he stops time again and again for Lu Han to throw a few dragons back. It’s not working-- there’s too many dragons and they come back too fast. Zitao is tapping away at too much of his life.
I need more power, Sehun thinks. I need more.
Something in his body snaps. Sehun feels as if something immense has been unleashed within him.
His vision blurs for a second and then it clears. He can see over the heads of a thousand soldiers and Kyungsoo is suddenly so small.
“Holy shit,” he reads on Kyungsoo’s lips.
Sehun opens his mouth, and he’s not human anymore. His roar cuts through the air like a beast’s.
The wind returns. Sehun can feel it’ it coils in his chest as he listens for it.
From a whistle to his sensitive ears, to a howl and to a roar, it returns to him like hound to a master. And suddenly, Sehun knows what to do.
He stretches his wing out behind him, and propels himself off the ground, taking flight to the sky he loves.
The wind comes with him and it pushes all that stand in his way from it. Arrows fall back to the ground before they have a chance to pierce his wings.
The rain of fire stops.
Sehun doesn’t know how long he circles the battlefield, holding his ground but all he can see are the dragons being pushed slowly back across the mountains.
They’re turning back.
Sehun feels something prod at his mind. Sehun?
It feels familiar, so very familiar.
Zi…tao?
He feels a soft warmth travel across the bond.
It’s over. Come back. Come home.
And so Sehun does, the wind in his wings guiding him home.
➹➷
Sehun is human when he touches down. The smell of burnt flesh seems to have followed him back.
It gets stronger, the further in he goes.
A body, charred black, lies on the ground.
Baekhyun is kneeling next to it, and Zitao’s shoulders are shaking.
“Chanyeol…?”
➹➷
Minseok comes home two days later.
“We did it,” he says. “I froze the water and Joonmyun drew the poison out.”
“Jongdae?” Wu Fan asks, looking around questioningly.
Minseok smiles, his eyes bittersweet. “He’ll come home when he’s ready.”
➹➷
There are no celebrations.
➹➷
Jongdae comes home a month later and Sehun doesn’t think that he’s ever been more glad to see the man.
They’re still not close, but without him, nothing feels quite complete.
“Welcome home,” Wu Fan says carefully. “How do you feel?”
“I’d feel a lot better if you lost that tone. I’m not going to break down on the spot or anything,” Jongdae retorts sharply. “Only Zitao would do that.”
“Hey! I do not!”
Jongdae’s about to tease back when Baekhyun appears, looking more sombre than usual. It’s an expression that Sehun’s only come to know in these past few weeks.
“Baekhyun?” he asks quietly. “Do you want me to come with you?”
“I’m fine.”
It’s not until Baekhyun steps outside that Jongdae speaks up.
“Where’s Chanyeol?” he demands.
“He didn’t make it,” Yixing answers quietly. “I had tried, but he was beyond help when I got to him.”
“H-how?”
“We were out among the soldiers, shielding them from the flames,” Kyungsoo says softly. “Sehun had passed out and the dragons were attacking. Chanyeol shielded the soldiers from the fire.”
“How did he--”
“He pushed his shield so far to protect them that it no longer covered himself. Chanyeol burnt himself out. He had no chance on the battlefield without his Gift to help him.”
“Oh.” Jongdae falls uncharacteristically silent.
“But Chanyeol saved so many lives. The soldiers he shielded were the same age as us, boys who had a family to return to now have a long future in front of them.”
“I know.”
Yixing smiles gently at Jongdae. He walks over gracefully, and clasps Jongdae on the shoulder. “But you, Joonmyun and Minseok who were the ones who ultimately allowed it to happen,” he says. “Without the sacrifice you made, the land would be dead.”
Jongdae nods once. “I’ve thought about everything that has happened,” he finally says. “And maybe it was worth it.”
“Jongdae?”
“He wouldn’t have wanted us to mope over their deaths,” he says more confidently. “Neither of them would have wanted it.”
Sehun looks up at him, and his lips parts slightly in surprise.
“I’m going to live my life happily,” Jongdae announces. “Much happier than any of you. Because Joonmyun liked me happy the best.”
Someone chuckles, and Sehun follows along. He looks to the side and he sees a shadow just outside the entrance.
Baekhyun is standing outside, listening to every word. Sehun walks over to him.
“Baekhyun, are you okay?” Sehun asks quietly.
“No,” Baekhyun replies. “But I think I will be soon.”
➹➷
“Sehun, do you regret--” Jongin waves his hand around around, trying to indicate everything around them. The victories, the defeats, the change in themselves, “this?”
“A bit,” Sehun replies. “How can I not? I keep thinking at night, sometimes, if we hadn’t done this--”
“Stop.”
Zitao joins them, sitting himself down on a patch of grass next to Sehun. He rests his head on Sehun’s shoulder. “We did what we had to. There’s no true victory in war, but we’ve succeeded in accomplishing what we set out to do.”
The war which had stretched generations is over, and villages were full of recovering men. Power had been stripped from the Capitol and was now distributed evenly across evenly across every territory of the nation. From each village, one man or woman would represent on a council for their district and each council would nominate a member to speak at a higher level gathering. The process would continue until the highest level of decision making was reached.
“We’ve won,” Sehun finally answers. “And I don’t regret that.”
Jongin looks thoughtful at his answer, but nods anymore.
Getting to his feet, Sehun pulls Jongin up by the elbow.
“Now up up up,” he orders. “Learn to transform before dawn or I’ll tell Kyungsoo that you don’t want supper.”
Jongin gets up onto his feet with a loud groan. “But--”
“No buts,” Sehun cuts in. Zitao laughs, and flips onto his stomach to watch Sehun’s newly found obsession of training Jongin into his dragon form.
“Whatever,” Jongin grumbles. “I’ll just take yours.”
“No you won’t.”
“Yes I will.”
“No you won’t.”
“Not if you transform.”
“Just. Give. Up!”
Sehun laughs, slinging a carefree arm around Jongin’s shoulders. He’s free, he’s home and he will never forget.
- this fic is written for scar13t as part of exoforsichuan. you wanted mama!au and heros journey for sehun so... i hope you enjoyed!
- huge huge thanks to admortems for betaing! im literally half the writer without you♡
- and thank you also to tlist for supporting and endlessly encouraging me!!!
- this is alternatively titled "dragon tales: the legend of sehun and his 11 amigos"
- my friend ersatze is the best and made me a poster for this fic here (click it)
- some music here if you're curious
- thanks for reading and comments are, as always, appreciated!!♥