around the stars and back again
Title: around the stars and back again
Author: healthywounds
Fandom/Characters/Pairing: Seventeen; Hoshi/Joshua
Rating/Warnings: G
Challenge # & Prompt: #019: sense
Word Count: 579
“Keep your eyes closed,” Joshua whispered, so soft Soonyoung could barely hear it. “You’re not allowed to see anything until I say so.”
“Okay,” Soonyoung mumbled back hesitantly. He wished Joshua would’ve just put a blindfold on him instead, would have been much more comfortable knowing he couldn’t see even if he wanted to, but maybe there was something to be said for Joshua’s overabundant trust that he neglected to use one even when he knew Soonyoung would be so eager to tear his eyes open.
All he felt was Joshua’s hand around his wrist, warm and soft and comforting as it pulled him along. He heard gravel crunching under his shoes and he wished he knew where they were, wished he knew why the breeze was drawing goosebumps on his skin and the air smelled like pine. He wished Joshua would hold his hand instead of his wrist, too, lace their fingers together so he could feel the subtle heat coming from those fingertips as his own started to grow cold.
If he had a better sense of the passage of time, he would have been able to gauge how long they spent walking, but as the case was, all he knew was that it was a while. Joshua had a way of making him forget seconds were ticking by at all, a way of fooling him into thinking an hour could last forever until the sun went down and they’d accidentally spent forever together six times.
“Not much longer,” Joshua promised, voice hushed and sweet, a teaspoon of honey, a single cube of sugar. Soonyoung felt his hand finally slide down, fingers slipping between Soonyoung’s own to that place they fit so well. The gravel grating in his ears inexplicably started to sound a lot more like music.
It was at least an eon more before any words drifted to Soonyoung’s consciousness again. “You can open your eyes now,” came Joshua’s voice, and Soonyoung was ready and willing to do so, snapping his eyelids apart faster than he knew he could.
Breath was short in coming when he could finally see again. A clearing near the peak of a low mountain, trees on all sides slightly below, and above them, the universe. The moon couldn’t possibly be that big, could it? Surely not from so far away. Yet it was there, bright and immaculate and enormous, and Soonyoung was really here to see it looking so beautiful. Stars dotted the inky blackness around it, a luminous meadow framing a lake of silver snow, twinkling with a distant fire Soonyoung knew he could never feel.
“Isn’t it gorgeous?” Joshua asked him, words filled to bursting with muted awe, with something so akin to love Soonyoung might have mistaken it.
“It is,” Soonyoung agreed after a beat, words in time with the pulse of his heart. “So beautiful.”
“I wanted you to see it,” Joshua said eventually. “I wanted to see it with you.”
A gentle squeeze reminded Soonyoung of Joshua’s hand in his, and he took the chance squeeze back, as if to say, Thank you. As if to say, I’m so glad I got to see it. As if to say, I want to see anything and everything so long as it’s you beside me. Joshua hummed and gripped Soonyoung’s hand a little tighter in return.
Thank you. He felt the unspoken words like heat racing through his nerves. I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.
Author: healthywounds
Fandom/Characters/Pairing: Seventeen; Hoshi/Joshua
Rating/Warnings: G
Challenge # & Prompt: #019: sense
Word Count: 579
“Keep your eyes closed,” Joshua whispered, so soft Soonyoung could barely hear it. “You’re not allowed to see anything until I say so.”
“Okay,” Soonyoung mumbled back hesitantly. He wished Joshua would’ve just put a blindfold on him instead, would have been much more comfortable knowing he couldn’t see even if he wanted to, but maybe there was something to be said for Joshua’s overabundant trust that he neglected to use one even when he knew Soonyoung would be so eager to tear his eyes open.
All he felt was Joshua’s hand around his wrist, warm and soft and comforting as it pulled him along. He heard gravel crunching under his shoes and he wished he knew where they were, wished he knew why the breeze was drawing goosebumps on his skin and the air smelled like pine. He wished Joshua would hold his hand instead of his wrist, too, lace their fingers together so he could feel the subtle heat coming from those fingertips as his own started to grow cold.
If he had a better sense of the passage of time, he would have been able to gauge how long they spent walking, but as the case was, all he knew was that it was a while. Joshua had a way of making him forget seconds were ticking by at all, a way of fooling him into thinking an hour could last forever until the sun went down and they’d accidentally spent forever together six times.
“Not much longer,” Joshua promised, voice hushed and sweet, a teaspoon of honey, a single cube of sugar. Soonyoung felt his hand finally slide down, fingers slipping between Soonyoung’s own to that place they fit so well. The gravel grating in his ears inexplicably started to sound a lot more like music.
It was at least an eon more before any words drifted to Soonyoung’s consciousness again. “You can open your eyes now,” came Joshua’s voice, and Soonyoung was ready and willing to do so, snapping his eyelids apart faster than he knew he could.
Breath was short in coming when he could finally see again. A clearing near the peak of a low mountain, trees on all sides slightly below, and above them, the universe. The moon couldn’t possibly be that big, could it? Surely not from so far away. Yet it was there, bright and immaculate and enormous, and Soonyoung was really here to see it looking so beautiful. Stars dotted the inky blackness around it, a luminous meadow framing a lake of silver snow, twinkling with a distant fire Soonyoung knew he could never feel.
“Isn’t it gorgeous?” Joshua asked him, words filled to bursting with muted awe, with something so akin to love Soonyoung might have mistaken it.
“It is,” Soonyoung agreed after a beat, words in time with the pulse of his heart. “So beautiful.”
“I wanted you to see it,” Joshua said eventually. “I wanted to see it with you.”
A gentle squeeze reminded Soonyoung of Joshua’s hand in his, and he took the chance squeeze back, as if to say, Thank you. As if to say, I’m so glad I got to see it. As if to say, I want to see anything and everything so long as it’s you beside me. Joshua hummed and gripped Soonyoung’s hand a little tighter in return.
Thank you. He felt the unspoken words like heat racing through his nerves. I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.