[ILC/016] Dream Chasers
Title: Dream Chasers
ILC/Pairing Assigner:
kendayawind &
shadowcrawler12
Pairing: Kyuhyun/Henry
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, Romance, Songfic
Disclaimer: I don't own them, SME does. Plot is mine.
Challenge: Initial Line Challenge
Summary: He's often indulged in his own world; a bit too much of a dreamer, not enough of a chaser. Someone makes up for it.
Warning: Un-beta'd. MAJORLY OOC. Poorly written.
Song Used: Hangeng 韩庚 - My Kingdom Theme Song 如梦令
He'd chose to imagine a more loving home, where his vivid imagination can let him pretend for the moment that a faint warmth engulfed him, that those confined smiles weren't the only things awaiting him. If anything was there to anticipate his presence at all.
But in the end, it's reality that blankets him and not his imagination.
No one comes home for him. No one.
(直到你转过身投入了人烟 （Up until you've turned around, mingled into the crowd of people.))
-
Kyuhyun wakes up with a start; he wakes to the sound of nothing, to no one. He purposely fell asleep on the living room couch the night before, hoping to welcome his parents home from work - or whatever else they were returning from - disregarding the late hours, disregarding the fact that he has but a few hours to sleep.
Not a single sign of either of his parents could be detected in the state of their abode, his home. And he realizes he's been waiting for something that would never come, people who would never care. Not for him.
(直到你醒过来一切都没变 （Up until you've awaken, nothing has changed.))
-
He's cleaning the stairway; broom in one hand, mop in the other, right leg kicking the bucket of water past the door as he hops on his left, blue uniform sweat-slicked to his skin, perspiration pooling on his forehead. He hears resilient music coming from above and he leans over the side of the rail to glance up the swirl of stairs.
Kyuhyun sees nothing, but the music is still playing. He decides that it's music from the heavens, his only comfort in the long, exhausting day, and sways slightly to the tune as he resumes maintenance on the steps that may, or may not, lead to his future.
Just as he reaches the last flight of stairs to the top, the music stops.
So does his imagination.
(誓言在那一天 兑现 （the vow is carried out on that one day.))
-
The door creaks open but Kyuhyun finds himself too anxious to face the person stepping from behind the door. The person pauses when they discover him, hidden in the glory of his scrubs and a face mask, before excusing them-self and pulling the door open again.
"Wait," Kyuhyun calls out. "Aren't you going down? There's no elevator in this building, this is your only way out."
The person turns, the box of his instrument slumped over his shoulder slightly banging against the wall, which startles both of them. "I know," he replies, "but you just cleaned... I don't want to make a mess of footsteps after you just washed the floor."
Kyuhyun's gaze is still fixated on the ground. This is an opportunity, he thinks, an opportunity for him to keep dreaming. "The floor is still wet," he dares to speak back, "maybe it is a good idea to wait until it dries."
He doesn't see the boy nod, but he can feel it.
"Do you think..." Kyuhyun mutters, "do you think you can play that song one more time?"
The boy chuckles and Kyuhyun finally lifts his eyes to look into the strangers face. The kid has got to be younger than him, and doesn't quite look Korean, but that smile could almost, almost, be a convincingly warm one.
"Sure."
Kyuhyun can't help but smile back, even though it's hidden behind the mask. The smile is in his eyes though, and the boy grins wider. "I'm Henry," he introduces himself, holding the door open for Kyuhyun, "what's your name?"
There is a moment of hesitation - Kyuhyun thinks this moment can break his fantasy world if he allows himself to be revealed so starkly - but the consistency, the beauty in the boy's smile, drags his facade down. "Kyuhyun," he all but whispers.
"Kyuhyun," Henry repeats, trying the name and willing it to roll off his tongue as smoothly as he can manage. "I like it."
(人们在那一天再见 （People meet again on that one day.）)
-
They meet in the music room of that study hall often, almost as though Henry waits for him. Playing the same songs, wearing the same smile.
Kyuhyun learns a lot about Henry; about the kids purpose for studying in South Korea, about his obsession with music, how Henry desires the independence that Kyuhyun possesses (but does not want), and how Henry aspires to become a musician - not a singer, not a performer, but a composer, a producer, a creator of life in the form of art (and heart) and not science.
And Kyuhyun doesn't quite realize it, but Henry desires him, too.
Both of them do know, though, that Henry is here to chase his dreams.
Kyuhyun, on the other hand, is here to dream.
（还在风雨里挥舞的清风长剑。 还在岁月里奔跑的痴心少年。 （The breezy, long sword that still dances in the wind and rain. The infatuated youth that still sprints through time.）)
-
Henry plays a song for Kyuhyun one evening, a song he's never played for anyone before. The hall has been cleared of people, leaving only the two of them behind in their own world of music, of dreams, of imagination.
The song has a soft rhythm, but each stroke of his bow to the strings of the violin is short, strict, and powerful. The notes play a sad tune - a story of tragedy, perhaps - but it is beautiful, so beautiful that Kyuhyun feels his heart clench in his chest. It reminds him of his lonely nights spent at home, of the faces that can barely lift a smile from his parent's lips, and he is forced to clutch a fist to his chest that is tightening.
It's probably a curse, that even his own parents can't appreciate his existence.
But if that were true, then Henry must have been a blessing - the one sent to make up for all he's lacked throughout the years.
"It's amazing," Kyuhyun says when Henry finishes the last lift of his bow. "Have you titled it?"
Henry smiles weakly. "Do you have anything in mind?"
"Dreams," Kyuhyun replies honestly.
"Dreams," Henry repeats, nodding his head slowly, "I like that. Dreams it is."
Kyuhyun doesn't get to see Henry's blinding smile that evening. For some reason, he doesn't think he'll ever get to see it again. A sixth sense, maybe.
When he gets home that night, he's alone again. So alone.
(那流水般的舞台 从来就没人离开。 没人回来。 （No one has ever left that stage that is like flowing water. No one comes back.）)
-
"I like you, Kyuhyun," Henry confesses, three weeks after they've stopped meeting up in the musical hall after that one night. "In the way that surpasses friendship; in the way that I need - no, love - music."
All Kyuhyun can do is gape up at Henry, who's hovering over him one staircase above.
Henry shakes his head and hops down the rest of the steps, lowering himself to sit beside Kyuhyun. Said boy looks down at his hands, covered by filthy, yellow gloves. "Did you hear me? I said I like you."
"I heard you," Kyuhyun said. There's a blush creeping to his cheeks, but it's hidden behind his mask. As always.
"Your answer?" Henry presses.
Kyuhyun can't quite hitch his breath. It's almost like a dream to him, he thinks, it's all so surreal that he can't believe it's true. He bites down on his jaw and his brows furrow; it's got to all be in his head, none of this can be real.
"Kyuhyun," Henry stresses.
Kyuhyun shuts his eyes.
Suddenly, he feels a pair of warm hands remove the mask from his face. Soon after, a pair of soft lips engage in his own.
He stops breathing altogether.
Henry takes the base of his neck with one hand and cups Kyuhyun's cheek with the other, pulling them closer together, wanting to eliminate all distance between them. Kyuhyun has always felt so distant, so unreachable.
Kyuhyun is the first to pull away.
"I can't breath," Kyuhyun gasps. He can hear Henry coughing for air beside him, but he's too embarrassed to look. They both have beet red faces. "I... I can't breath."
Henry glances over briefly. "An answer, Kyuhyun. Now."
"It's not a dream," Kyuhyun mumbles to no one, to himself. "You want me?"
The boy tilts his head, his hand resting on Kyuhyun's arm. "O-of course I do," he stutters, "why else would I kiss you? Why would I confess to you if I didn't want you?"
"That song..." Kyuhyun says, innocent eyes meeting gazes with Henry's more passionate ones, "Dreams. Was it written for me?"
Henry finally smiles. "I was hoping you'd realize that the day I actually played it for you."
"So, it was," Kyuhyun lowers his head. "But it's so sad."
"It's not sadness," Henry corrects. Kyuhyun raises his head to lock eyes with the boy. Henry grins. "It's longing."
Kyuhyun sighs, and it's a sigh of relief. "Longing," he smiles, "wanting, needing." Henry is tensing, worried. Kyuhyun laughs. "Me too."
Henry's smile is smothered by Kyuhyun's lips, his fervent kiss. They retire to the music room, fingers tangled, bodies close in each others embrace, the corners of their lips forever lifted by their spirits, their passion.
And Henry plays the song for Kyuhyun again; this time void of any sadness, void of any doubt and hesitation. Kyuhyun listens to it with a full heart, mind dancing to the song not with dreams, but with visions of their future together.
Happiness is struck in each chord Henry plays, beauty in every scene Kyuhyun envisions. Not quite done chasing, not quite done doing, but complete in every way. Sated.
No one goes back to that old home anymore - Kyuhyun's found a new home of his own.
(Henry - Henry has always been there (at Kyuhyun's new home); waiting. Kyuhyun's a part of his dream, too.)
-----
To read kendayawind's Henkyu, click here!
-----
[ILC15: Kangteuk] ♦ [ILC17: Hyukmin]
-----
A/N: This took forever and a day because I just wasn't feeling the initial line Nyx assigned me ;A; I still can't feel it, and it's so forced in this story... but I tried, I really did. I just hope it wasn't too terrible of a read. T.T Thanks for reading!!
ILC/Pairing Assigner:
kendayawind &
shadowcrawler12
Pairing: Kyuhyun/Henry
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, Romance, Songfic
Disclaimer: I don't own them, SME does. Plot is mine.
Challenge: Initial Line Challenge
Summary: He's often indulged in his own world; a bit too much of a dreamer, not enough of a chaser. Someone makes up for it.
Warning: Un-beta'd. MAJORLY OOC. Poorly written.
Song Used: Hangeng 韩庚 - My Kingdom Theme Song 如梦令
He'd chose to imagine a more loving home, where his vivid imagination can let him pretend for the moment that a faint warmth engulfed him, that those confined smiles weren't the only things awaiting him. If anything was there to anticipate his presence at all.
But in the end, it's reality that blankets him and not his imagination.
No one comes home for him. No one.
(直到你转过身投入了人烟 （Up until you've turned around, mingled into the crowd of people.))
-
Kyuhyun wakes up with a start; he wakes to the sound of nothing, to no one. He purposely fell asleep on the living room couch the night before, hoping to welcome his parents home from work - or whatever else they were returning from - disregarding the late hours, disregarding the fact that he has but a few hours to sleep.
Not a single sign of either of his parents could be detected in the state of their abode, his home. And he realizes he's been waiting for something that would never come, people who would never care. Not for him.
(直到你醒过来一切都没变 （Up until you've awaken, nothing has changed.))
-
He's cleaning the stairway; broom in one hand, mop in the other, right leg kicking the bucket of water past the door as he hops on his left, blue uniform sweat-slicked to his skin, perspiration pooling on his forehead. He hears resilient music coming from above and he leans over the side of the rail to glance up the swirl of stairs.
Kyuhyun sees nothing, but the music is still playing. He decides that it's music from the heavens, his only comfort in the long, exhausting day, and sways slightly to the tune as he resumes maintenance on the steps that may, or may not, lead to his future.
Just as he reaches the last flight of stairs to the top, the music stops.
So does his imagination.
(誓言在那一天 兑现 （the vow is carried out on that one day.))
-
The door creaks open but Kyuhyun finds himself too anxious to face the person stepping from behind the door. The person pauses when they discover him, hidden in the glory of his scrubs and a face mask, before excusing them-self and pulling the door open again.
"Wait," Kyuhyun calls out. "Aren't you going down? There's no elevator in this building, this is your only way out."
The person turns, the box of his instrument slumped over his shoulder slightly banging against the wall, which startles both of them. "I know," he replies, "but you just cleaned... I don't want to make a mess of footsteps after you just washed the floor."
Kyuhyun's gaze is still fixated on the ground. This is an opportunity, he thinks, an opportunity for him to keep dreaming. "The floor is still wet," he dares to speak back, "maybe it is a good idea to wait until it dries."
He doesn't see the boy nod, but he can feel it.
"Do you think..." Kyuhyun mutters, "do you think you can play that song one more time?"
The boy chuckles and Kyuhyun finally lifts his eyes to look into the strangers face. The kid has got to be younger than him, and doesn't quite look Korean, but that smile could almost, almost, be a convincingly warm one.
"Sure."
Kyuhyun can't help but smile back, even though it's hidden behind the mask. The smile is in his eyes though, and the boy grins wider. "I'm Henry," he introduces himself, holding the door open for Kyuhyun, "what's your name?"
There is a moment of hesitation - Kyuhyun thinks this moment can break his fantasy world if he allows himself to be revealed so starkly - but the consistency, the beauty in the boy's smile, drags his facade down. "Kyuhyun," he all but whispers.
"Kyuhyun," Henry repeats, trying the name and willing it to roll off his tongue as smoothly as he can manage. "I like it."
(人们在那一天再见 （People meet again on that one day.）)
-
They meet in the music room of that study hall often, almost as though Henry waits for him. Playing the same songs, wearing the same smile.
Kyuhyun learns a lot about Henry; about the kids purpose for studying in South Korea, about his obsession with music, how Henry desires the independence that Kyuhyun possesses (but does not want), and how Henry aspires to become a musician - not a singer, not a performer, but a composer, a producer, a creator of life in the form of art (and heart) and not science.
And Kyuhyun doesn't quite realize it, but Henry desires him, too.
Both of them do know, though, that Henry is here to chase his dreams.
Kyuhyun, on the other hand, is here to dream.
（还在风雨里挥舞的清风长剑。 还在岁月里奔跑的痴心少年。 （The breezy, long sword that still dances in the wind and rain. The infatuated youth that still sprints through time.）)
-
Henry plays a song for Kyuhyun one evening, a song he's never played for anyone before. The hall has been cleared of people, leaving only the two of them behind in their own world of music, of dreams, of imagination.
The song has a soft rhythm, but each stroke of his bow to the strings of the violin is short, strict, and powerful. The notes play a sad tune - a story of tragedy, perhaps - but it is beautiful, so beautiful that Kyuhyun feels his heart clench in his chest. It reminds him of his lonely nights spent at home, of the faces that can barely lift a smile from his parent's lips, and he is forced to clutch a fist to his chest that is tightening.
It's probably a curse, that even his own parents can't appreciate his existence.
But if that were true, then Henry must have been a blessing - the one sent to make up for all he's lacked throughout the years.
"It's amazing," Kyuhyun says when Henry finishes the last lift of his bow. "Have you titled it?"
Henry smiles weakly. "Do you have anything in mind?"
"Dreams," Kyuhyun replies honestly.
"Dreams," Henry repeats, nodding his head slowly, "I like that. Dreams it is."
Kyuhyun doesn't get to see Henry's blinding smile that evening. For some reason, he doesn't think he'll ever get to see it again. A sixth sense, maybe.
When he gets home that night, he's alone again. So alone.
(那流水般的舞台 从来就没人离开。 没人回来。 （No one has ever left that stage that is like flowing water. No one comes back.）)
-
"I like you, Kyuhyun," Henry confesses, three weeks after they've stopped meeting up in the musical hall after that one night. "In the way that surpasses friendship; in the way that I need - no, love - music."
All Kyuhyun can do is gape up at Henry, who's hovering over him one staircase above.
Henry shakes his head and hops down the rest of the steps, lowering himself to sit beside Kyuhyun. Said boy looks down at his hands, covered by filthy, yellow gloves. "Did you hear me? I said I like you."
"I heard you," Kyuhyun said. There's a blush creeping to his cheeks, but it's hidden behind his mask. As always.
"Your answer?" Henry presses.
Kyuhyun can't quite hitch his breath. It's almost like a dream to him, he thinks, it's all so surreal that he can't believe it's true. He bites down on his jaw and his brows furrow; it's got to all be in his head, none of this can be real.
"Kyuhyun," Henry stresses.
Kyuhyun shuts his eyes.
Suddenly, he feels a pair of warm hands remove the mask from his face. Soon after, a pair of soft lips engage in his own.
He stops breathing altogether.
Henry takes the base of his neck with one hand and cups Kyuhyun's cheek with the other, pulling them closer together, wanting to eliminate all distance between them. Kyuhyun has always felt so distant, so unreachable.
Kyuhyun is the first to pull away.
"I can't breath," Kyuhyun gasps. He can hear Henry coughing for air beside him, but he's too embarrassed to look. They both have beet red faces. "I... I can't breath."
Henry glances over briefly. "An answer, Kyuhyun. Now."
"It's not a dream," Kyuhyun mumbles to no one, to himself. "You want me?"
The boy tilts his head, his hand resting on Kyuhyun's arm. "O-of course I do," he stutters, "why else would I kiss you? Why would I confess to you if I didn't want you?"
"That song..." Kyuhyun says, innocent eyes meeting gazes with Henry's more passionate ones, "Dreams. Was it written for me?"
Henry finally smiles. "I was hoping you'd realize that the day I actually played it for you."
"So, it was," Kyuhyun lowers his head. "But it's so sad."
"It's not sadness," Henry corrects. Kyuhyun raises his head to lock eyes with the boy. Henry grins. "It's longing."
Kyuhyun sighs, and it's a sigh of relief. "Longing," he smiles, "wanting, needing." Henry is tensing, worried. Kyuhyun laughs. "Me too."
Henry's smile is smothered by Kyuhyun's lips, his fervent kiss. They retire to the music room, fingers tangled, bodies close in each others embrace, the corners of their lips forever lifted by their spirits, their passion.
And Henry plays the song for Kyuhyun again; this time void of any sadness, void of any doubt and hesitation. Kyuhyun listens to it with a full heart, mind dancing to the song not with dreams, but with visions of their future together.
Happiness is struck in each chord Henry plays, beauty in every scene Kyuhyun envisions. Not quite done chasing, not quite done doing, but complete in every way. Sated.
No one goes back to that old home anymore - Kyuhyun's found a new home of his own.
(Henry - Henry has always been there (at Kyuhyun's new home); waiting. Kyuhyun's a part of his dream, too.)
-----
To read kendayawind's Henkyu, click here!
-----
[ILC15: Kangteuk] ♦ [ILC17: Hyukmin]
-----
A/N: This took forever and a day because I just wasn't feeling the initial line Nyx assigned me ;A; I still can't feel it, and it's so forced in this story... but I tried, I really did. I just hope it wasn't too terrible of a read. T.T Thanks for reading!!