Soaring, Tumbling, Freewheeling [Part 2]
Title: Soaring, Tumbling, Freewheeling
Pairings: BaekYeol, KaiSuho
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 11664
Warnings: Inconsistent time, places, and figures. Excessive fourth-wall breaking.
Genre: Romance, fantasy, fluff.
Summary: Classic scenes on flying carpet. Except Baekhyun is not your average Aladdin and Chanyeol is not purely Jasmine, either.
[Part 1]
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“What is your second wish?”
“Is my first wish even granted?”
“Well, that’s up to the Lady Fate. I’m only a messenger,” Suho replies. Baekhyun promptly face-plants into the soil.
“Can we just cancel that wish and settle on a more physical one? I’m not keeping faith in her.”
“Nope, sorry, once a wish is said it cannot be undone,” Suho shoots him an empathetic look. “But it can be bargained, so be rest-assured.”
It’s more complicated than what they say in the tales.
“Oh, I receive a signal from Lady Fate,” Suho informs charmingly.
“Which says?”
“Umm…” The genie concentrates on something Baekhyun can’t see. Probably mental connection of some sort. “Oh, okay, Ma’am, I’ll tell him.”
“Yeah?”
“She said, genies are not supposed to prolong one’s life nor to cause death. It’s in the rule. I apologize.”
“Maybe it’s not in the rule,” Baekhyun says bitterly. “She plain hates me.”
“Oh no, Master, Lady Fate is neutral and impartial,” Suho says gently. “Cheer up! It means you still have all three choices intact.”
True enough. Baekhyun is back to weighing between economic wealth and life safety when a certain twitchy smile pops up in his mind. He tries to wave it off but the smile barges in his consciousness, quite menacingly bulldozing away any other thought.
“Suho-sshi?”
“Yes?”
“Can we make someone fall in love?”
Baekhyun can’t decide which one is more horrifying, the question itself or the dreamy tone it comes out with.
Suho looks at him for a long time. “I’ve been told that it’s the most popular wish, even more than prosperity and good looks…” Another mental signal seems to knock on the genie’s mind again. “… but sadly, we can’t.”
Of course. Even if the Lady Fate didn’t hold personal grudge against him, Baekhyun would just trample on his initial first wish and grant himself a tragic death if he uses magic to make Chanyeol love him.
Oops.
There are only so many times a person wants to head-desk in one day.
He figures this is the very definition of ‘love at the first sight’ or, as the wiser men paraphrased, ‘too much too soon’. He certainly is not in love with a prince who he just met for a grand total of half a day. A prince who stole female wig and flailed clumsily at seeing a stray puppy.
A prince who smiled those ridiculous twitchy smiles. And took his first kiss. And carried him on his back.
No no no. Baekhyun shakes his head vehemently. Chanyeol kissed him just because he needed to escape the guardians. The prince carried him just because he was guilty of stepping on Baekhyun’s shinbone. Look where all of those bring him to? Instead of love, the prince deserves some slaps and a lot of vile curses.
Which, Baekhyun decides after more moments of agonizing inner clash, he could never do to someone like Chanyeol.
Oh, heart of the young.
“Cheers for me,” Baekhyun says grimly, watching as stars pop up one by one on the clear navy sky. A gust of evening breeze brings fresh scent of the river to his nostrils. Chanyeol, he thinks, must have not seen sceneries like these before. Why does everything begin and end at Chanyeol?
“Suho-sshi?”
“Yes?”
“I want to fly.”
Suho gives him a look. “Pardon?”
“I want to fly,” Baekhyun repeats, believing he already turn insane in a mere couple of days. Well, reality is a lie, remember?
The handsome genie looks decidedly uncomprehending, and maintains to look gorgeously uncomprehending at that.
“Now that’s a novel wish.”
Baekhyun’s tone is half-sour, half-dreamy. “Another cheer for my splendid creativity. What does she say about this?”
“Lady Fate?” the genie pauses. “Oh, she said… okay.”
“Whoa,” the young villager mutters. “Surprise. Wonder how-”
A heap of Azerbaijani carpet meets Baekhyun’s unprepared head.
‘100% woolen’, the label claims.
Suho’s smile is exceedingly charming when he says, “Your first wish is granted.”
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---oOo---
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Chanyeol snots hard into his silk handkerchief, forgetting all the manner lessons they taught him since he was two. He refuses to speak to anyone, the Sultan included, implying just how upset the usually cheerful prince is.
He can’t believe it. He absolutely can’t believe it.
Chanyeol has tried to explain with all logicality he possesses that there is no way Byun Baekhyun is a kidnapper, not when the poor villager is the one being carried by his so-called hostage. It doesn’t make sense in his head. He’s sure it also doesn’t to anyone with healthy mentality, which he dearly hopes still make up more than half of South Korean population.
Is it so wrong of him for wanting to taste freedom once in a while? By ‘a while’ he means nineteen years, five months, nine days and counting. That’s inhumanely unfair, so to speak. Even if he were in fault, what does Baekhyun have to do with this? He is just an innocent villager. Maybe a little too honest and exasperated, but still.
Chanyeol never likes someone more than he does Baekhyun.
After using method akin to sexual assault, which involves kissing the shorter man square on the mouth in a dirty corner between vegetable and poultry stalls, Chanyeol figures than he more or less deserves a physical punishment for his action. Not to mention, of course, the damage he might have inflicted on the other man’s skeletal system. In short, Chanyeol thinks Baekhyun should hate him instead of agreeing to walk together around the town and even offering to pay for the buns.
Baekhyun is the kindest person he ever knows. One of the most good-looking, too, though the shorter man didn’t seem to realize.
“Even if he didn’t hate me earlier, he must do now,” Chanyeol wails forlornly to no one in particular, embracing a blue velvet pillow that is already wet with tears and the like. Chanyeol isn’t used to being hated by anyone, or even any creature in the animal taxonomy kingdom for that matter. Every living being just seems to take a liking to him. He isn’t ready to be hated by someone, moreover if that someone is Byun Baekhyun.
His first friend.
… and first kiss.
Chanyeol indeed haven’t planned anything before the kiss incident; it just kind of happened. But after it happened, there comes the aftermath. Chanyeol can no longer forget the feeling, the thrumming of heart inside its cage, the dire desire to feel again.
He doesn’t expect such a long-lasting aftereffect. He doesn’t know if the other man thinks the same about him. It frustrates him to no end.
The prince flops onto his bed, back flat on the soft-sheeted divan. He sighs heavily. More than anything, he is now praying day and night that Baekhyun is safe somewhere warmer than the prison. He never went to the prison before but from the literatures he read, it isn’t a pleasant place to sleep in.
The light in Chanyeol’s eyes looks significantly dimmer than usual, reflecting without really seeing the intricate details on his golden ceiling. Glimmering jewels and luxurious facilities in the palace do nothing but make him feel more suffocated. A silver tray full of enough lunch to feed a household is sitting untouched on his table.
His thought strays to a kid between bun and tailor shops. He recalls what Baekhyun told him. ‘Orphan’, he tests the word on his tongue, deciding that it tastes too lonely. Such a foreign concept, but ironically not that unfamiliar.
“There are too many people of that kind. It seems the royalties are too caught up in their golden palace to notice.”
Baekhyun’s voice resounds in his head. The tone is not vengeful, more like stating a fact with tads of resignation. It bites at Chanyeol’s heart. As the Sultan’s youngest son, he never gets to witness poverty. Even when the royal family makes a trip around the country, they’re only shown pleasant views of prosperity.
The prince rolls back and forth on his bed, watching with distant expression as the sky gradually grows darker. ‘Lovesick’ is an equally alien term in Chanyeol’s dictionary. None of the intensive education he received teaches him on how to deal with it. In fact, the prince isn’t ready to name this untamed feeling. What if it’s only a one-time thing? How if another person in another time manages to whisk his heart the same way he did?
What if Baekhyun is not the one?
Chanyeol’s eyes are fixed on some point at the window, watching as stars begin to dot the smooth night canvas. Unsorted thoughts are racing wildly in his head. Could it be just the thrill of tasting freedom? Could it be an excitement coming from the situation and not the companion? Would he feel the same if he spent that fateful day with another person… someone who’s not Baekhyun?
This is getting nowhere.
It takes the prince five full seconds before he realizes that something is interrupting his view on the night sky. That something, in fact, is a head.
Chanyeol has all the right to scream his lungs out.
“AAAA-“
“Ssssssshh!!!”
The prince needs another five seconds to recognize the face. When he does, the tall prince promptly yells again.
“BAEKHYU-“
“SSSSSHH!!!”
Chanyeol pouts, totally bratty in anyone’s point of view but it only spells cute to Baekhyun, who is mostly biased. The pout doesn’t live long; washed away by a mighty grin that takes over half of the prince’s features-and also Baekhyun’s heart. Or sanity, to put it less amorously.
“You’re alive!” The prince squeals happily. He hurriedly scurries to the window and unlocks it. At that moment, Chanyeol remembers he lives on the eighth floor of his palace’s west tower.
“Thankfully yes, at least to see my twentieth birthday,” Baekhyun says through chattered teeth. In the haste of planning a romantic escape, he has forgotten a few trivial factors. For example, how to stay alive and unfrozen by the time the journey is done.
Seoul isn’t known to have the friendliest temperature at night.
“Whoa, Baekhyunnie! You’re sitting on a flying carpet!”
Lovesick or not, the addressed boy manages to scowl, albeit fondly. “Thank you, Captain Obvious.”
The prince only beams some more, eyes twinkling in mischief. “At least I save you from having to explain the magic. I read about this legend somewhere in the history textbook.”
“In that case,” Baekhyun produces a gleaming lamp from under his vest. Tapping on the lid carefully, a certain genie puffs out of his resting haven.
“Kim Joonmyeon at your service. For convenience’s sake, you may call me Suho. I’m a genie.”
“Hello, Suho-nim,” Chanyeol parades his prideful rows of pearly teeth, apparently delighted at a new potential friend.
“Just Suho is enough, Your Highness.”
“Hello, Suho,” the prince repeats gleefully. “You may call me Chanyeol.”
“Hop on,” Baekhyun says. Chanyeol has the common sense to grab three heavy fur coats before settling on, one of which he abandons upon Suho’s gentle reminder that genies do not need the clothing.
“Whoa, whoa, this is so cool!” The prince squeals in excitement, testing the flowing fabric by bouncing up and down. “This is real!”
“Reality is a lie,” Baekhyun counters wisely, more than slightly unimpressed by how the carpet threatens to tip him off. Before he can settle safely, a loud smooch has graced his left cheek.
“Happy birthday!”
Tip him off, stupid carpet, it’s not like Baekhyun would regret dying right at this moment.
While Baekhyun is still fighting both the carpet and the wild blush on his cheeks, Chanyeol asks curiously, “Baekhyunnie, how did you escape the prison?”
“It’s a long story.” Baekhyun implies not-so-subtly to drop the topic. More importantly, he’s trying not to think about a certain wizard’s rage, whose whereabouts and reaction are currently unknown. “For now, just enjoy the ride.”
With a deep breath and chants of prayer, they both set off to a whole a new world.
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Which, after a couple of hours that gives Chanyeol enormous thrill, doesn’t provide Baekhyun the same enjoyment.
“WHOA, BAEKHYUNNIE, LOOK LOOK! Isn’t that Taj Mahal?”
The addressed boy stays silent.
“I think it is, Your Highness,” Being a good genie he is, Suho answers in his master’s place.
“I said don’t call me that,” the prince pouts. He instantly cheers up again, however, at the slightest change of landscape. “OOHHH, that’s The Great Wall isn’t it?!”
“I think it is, Chanyeol-nim.” Once again, it is Suho who replies. He kindly explains the exact coordinates of both world wonders, just to be helpful.
Night breeze whirls around them as the carpet dashes on. From up there, the stars are glowing like millions shards of diamond. Under them, artificial lights are dancing in their own merry flicker. While the prince is used to seeing festive lanterns and crystal lamps back in the palace, he’s never seen such a sea of light from this point of view. Seeing the magnitude of this world and everything it has to offer; slopes of valleys and waves of the ocean, woven rooftops and span of endless woods.
The view is absolutely breathtaking. Chanyeol takes this as a cue to start singing, “Unbelievable sight~ Indescribable feeling~ ♫”
“I agree about the feeling part, though I wouldn’t know about the sight.” For the first time after the ride started, Baekhyun voices his opinion.
“Eh?” Chanyeol turns to look at his companion, who apparently has his eyes squeezed tight during the entire journey. The prince’s voice dies at ‘Don’t you dare close your eyes~’
“Master?” Suho probes concernedly.
“Baekhyunnie?” Large eyes blink, reflecting the stars. Chanyeol nudges his companion unsurely. “Are you okay?
The aforementioned boy looks an interesting mix of green and blue. “Do you know what an airplane is?”
“What I’m sure is, it won’t be invented until some centuries later,” Chanyeol replies tentatively. “But for the sake of this story, let’s pretend I do.”
“Well,” Baekhyun continues, throwing a pointed look in Suho’s general direction from behind closed eyelids. “People can get airsick on its solid steel floor. What do you think about this… flowing un-solid un-steel thing?”
Chanyeol has the grace to ponder. “It will… kill your vestibular system? Make you throw up ten full buckets?”
“Exactly.”
Chanyeol bobs his head empathetically. He can more or less understand. The prince isn’t fond of his own usual means of transportation, which runs on human force and is not that steady after all, but at least the palanquin doesn’t try to send him down from a hundred miles above the sea level.
“Will singing make it better?” The prince asks concernedly, tugging at the shorter man’s sleeve. “Repeat after me: Soaring~ tumbling~ freewheeling~ ♪”
The carpet decides to obey word per word.
“Great God,” Baekhyun chants a series of prayers.
It takes approximately five more seconds before the ride settles back on its correct track. Shivering slightly, Baekhyun feels a warm hand find his freezing one. The shorter man peeks slightly from under his lids to meet the prince’s downcast gaze.
“So,” Chanyeol says slowly, somewhat sadly. “Baekhyunnie, are you regretting this?”
Baekhyun sighs, heaving a deep breath before fully opening his eyes. He squeezes the offered hand. “Not that, Prince Charming.”
“You’re saying you’re going to throw up ten full buckets right here and right at this second.”
Baekhyun shakes his head, miraculously not nauseous after the brave motion. Whether it’s the handholding effect or Suho’s generous invisible gift, he is eternally thankful.
“I’m not going to rain on innocent people down there with dubious material of my dinner.”
Chanyeol looks up. “You’re saying that…”
“What I’m trying to say is,” Baekhyun mumbles, turning to face the prince. Oh, there’s nothing he wishes more than to smooth down the sad furrow between those brows. “Since airplane will not be invented until centuries later, this is the best thing I could have had at this moment.”
Chanyeol lightens up. “Really?”
“Really. And you,” Baekhyun deadpans, but the warmth in his eyes is hard to deny. “You are the best thing that can happen to me. Within the next one hundred years, at least.”
Cheesy lines. Exchanged smiles. Simple lip-lock. There may not be blasting fireworks or diamond rings, only occasional chilly breeze and Suho who has smilingly retreated into his lamp-but that does not stop Baekhyun from having the most memorable birthday of his life.
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---oOo---
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When the couple whooshes back to Chanyeol’s rightful tower, a certain grim-faced wizard has been waiting for them, floating in the air. It’s only fortunate that the carpet has automatic built-in brake, lest they would be engaged in the epic crash of the year.
Chanyeol goes all round-eyed and curious when he sees a person standing by his window (eighth floor, okay), whilst Baekhyun almost visibly deflates at the sight, though not fully surprised.
“Byun Baekhyun,” Kai spells tightly. “I come to claim what is rightfully mine.”
“Uhm, okay,” the young lad reaches for the genie lamp. Though he knows he should play fair and hand it to Kai, there’s a weight settling in his stomach. Even if he’s only known Suho for a couple of days, he already feels somewhat attached to the genie.
“Who is he, Baekhyunnie?” Chanyeol asks.
“Oh? Uhm, it’s Kai,” Baekhyun doesn’t know how to explain in short. After all, he doesn’t know Kai that well either. “He’s the one helping me escape the prison.”
The prince tilts his head. “Kai? Why do I feel like I know that name?” he questions himself. “Oh! Aren’t you the only wizard left from Jafar’s descendants? I read it in a history book, I think.”
Baekhyun turns to look at him in surprise. “Jafar?”
“You don’t know? A scary wizard who was once the advisor of Iraqi former Sultan. My grandpa’s brother. Jafar betrayed the former Sultan, though, and managed to take the former Sultan’s place for a few months. It was one hell of a chaos. Thankfully Aladdin came to fight him.”
The mesmerizing extent of a prince’s wisdom. Baekhyun comments helpfully, “Wow, Aladdin. A national hero, isn’t he?
“Yup,” Chanyeol’s thick hair sways as he nods. “I heard he borrowed the power of a genie to accomplish this feat. A wizard like Jafar also depends on genie’s power to achieve their fullest potential.”
Baekhyun’s mouth forms an ‘O’. True, Kai told him something like this in their first meeting, but Baekhyun didn’t really understand and was too caught up in desperation that he skipped most of the explanation.
“Well said,” Kai raises a satisfied brow at the explanation. “South Korea’s precious prince, of course.”
“What do you want?” the prince asks again, this time with a degree of hostility that makes Baekhyun’s soft hair stand. He has never imagined Chanyeol could speak so demandingly. So, the low-toned timbre can be put into use after all. “An old prophecy said, wizards are destined to rise up against the royalties and attempt to take the throne.”
“Well, like you have explained so thoroughly,” Kai flicks a strand of hair that billows in the wind. “I come to claim the genie lamp. I ordered Byun Baekhyun to get it in exchange for his freedom.” The wizard pauses for a while, inspecting the flying carpet from with judging eyes. “It seems that he used it for his own advantage, instead.”
The prince glares defiantly. His usually cheerful eyes look menacing. “If you want the genie to help you do what your grandfather did several centuries back, it’s a big fat bold no.”
“Jafar is not my grandfather,” Kai deadpans instead, but realizing their familial relationship isn’t that simple to explain. Nor that important.
“According to the history, he tried to be a Sultan by forcing to marry the princess.”
“Whoa, Chanyeollie, that means your sisters have to be careful,” Baekhyun frowns.
The prince glances at him. “I don’t have sisters.”
Baekhyun promptly jumps up at the revelation, feet planted precariously on the unsteady fabric. “That means, Chanyeollie, he is after you!”
“Wait, wait,” Kai wrinkles his nose. “I think there’s a misundersta-“
“Jafar was also known for his smart sweet-talking,” Chanyeol adds solemnly.
Kai rolls his eyes. “Hello, Your Highness, maybe it’s better if you don’t stick your foot in-“
“NO! I can’t accept this! You cannot be after Chanyeollie!” Baekhyun points an accusing finger at the wizard. The said wizard already has a vein pop on his temple.
“Listen, Byun Baekhyun, I’m only after-“
Too late, the young lad has already tapped his reliable genie lamp. In no time, Suho already floats out gracefully. “Master?”
“I want a magic wand,” Baekhyun states firmly, eyes blazing. Kai can be the strongest wizard or a Sultan or anything, but he absolutely can’t have his Chanyeollie!
“Your second wish is granted,” the handsome genie replies, handing a wooden wand into his master’s palm. Trust the Lady Fate to be quick when needed.
Kai snorts. “You got to be kidding me. I’m the strongest wizard in East Asia and Middle-East…”
The wizard trails off upon finally seeing the genie’s face. The Kim genie. The legendary genie comparable to Hwang Jini and Dae Janggeum.
Darn. Kai is, was not attracted to male, but this genie is plain gorgeous.
This one is comparable to Choi Siwon. Or at least, Choi Siwon’s great-great-great-great-grandfather who shares the same blessed set of genes.
Kai is not drooling, okay. He is just off guard.
“Baekhyunnie, he is off guard!” Chanyeol points out the obvious.
Our hero takes the chance and sets into action. While knowing next-to-nothing about magic spell, the wand apparently comes with a handy How-To. He quickly trudges through the guide and finds it by chance in page 92.
“Expelliarmus!”
Kai’s magic stick is knocked away by invisible force and falls eight stories down to a bed of grass. Still dumbfounded, the wizard doesn’t move when the carpet zooms in on him. Unable to find the right spell, Baekhyun decides to take things into his own hands. Literally.
The young lad takes to punch the wizard on the jaw. This seems to wake Kai up from his trance. Angered, the young wiz hollers, “One for one!” and kicks Baekhyun on the shin.
Why must it on the shin?
Given the said shin is yet to recover, Baekhyun groans gutturally while clutching his injured leg. In the spare moment of weakness, Kai throws himself on the fallen hero, knocking the brand new wand down as well. They are soon engaged in a very physical, very humane wrestling match. Magic be damned.
“One does not simply hurt my Baekhyunnie!” Chanyeol clearly refuses to sit as a passive bystander. For the might of six feet tall grown-up he is, he joins the tangle of limbs taking place several feet up in the air.
“That’s my hair! How dare you…”
“Someone get off of my legs!”
“LOOK WHERE YOU’RE TOUCHING, PERVY!”
“STOP PULLING MY HAIR! Fight like a man!”
“MY LEGS!”
Things go from messy to downright awry. Suho can only hover around helplessly, unable to do anything since his master doesn’t give him an order. From the side, at least, he can do the math.
The carpet is 4 x 6 square inches. Three sitting grown-ups already consume most of the space. Not to mention three grown-ups who shove and punch each other off their wits.
See? One of them is already rolling dangerously to the edge.
“Master!”
“Baekhyunnie!”
“Chanyeollie, stay where you are! Don’t try to catch me!”
“HOW CAN I?!”
“Eat that, you son of Muggles.”
“NOOO! Chanyeollie, don’t!”
“You jump, I jump!”
“I DIDN’T JUMP! Not on my free will!”
“Bye bye, mere mortals.”
“YOU! You come with us too!”
“STOP PULLING MY HAIR!”
In the end, all three of them slice through the air in adrenaline-pumping free fall.
“I so knew that carpet is good for nothing,” Baekhyun closes his eyes, waiting for the impending harsh reunion with Mother Earth.
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A few while later, they find themselves safely cushioned on the palace’s well-groomed bushes. One bush for each.
Suho sighs, floating down gracefully without a scratch. “Master, are you okay?”
“As okay as I can be,” Baekhyun breathes out heavily, torn between wanting to laugh or cry.
“Your Highness, are you alright?”
“I said don’t call me that,” Chanyeol answers wryly. “But I’m fine, thanks. Though this is crazy.”
The genie nods in genuine relief. “Good to hear that.”
“Hey,” a voice comes from their side. Kai’s limbs are spread, resembling a star on the giant bush. “I’m your future spouse. How come you don’t question my well-being?”
“I apologize for my rudeness, Sir,” Suho bows with his signature aristocracy. “Kim Joonmyeon at your service.”
“You’d better give me good service,” Kai replies breathlessly. “I’m Kim, too. Kim Jongin.”
Suho’s eyes light up at the sacred information. “Really?”
“Do you know him, Suho?”
“In the human history books his name is written as Kai. In the genie world, he’s known as the Kim wizard.”
Kai frowns disapprovingly. “I’m not that old. How come I was in the history books?”
“Old prophecy,” Chanyeol answers for him. “Your birth was already known way before it happened.”
“It is said that the Kim wizards are destined to mate with the Kim genies,” Suho says, suddenly shy.
“And after that?” Baekhyun asks. He wonders if in the tales there are idle moments like this after the hero’s final battle. “Is he going to take over the Sultan’s throne and force the crown prince to marry him?”
“Are your ears not in their right places?” Kai snaps irately, still spread out on the greeneries. “Wizards are destined to mate with the genies to achieve their potential. To mate, you know? Being lovey-dovey et cetera. To achieve our full potential. It has nothing to do with the royalties.”
A long pause stretches over the three exhausted humans and one shy genie.
“So,” Baekhyun says slowly. “What’s the point of this battle?”
“What’s the point of asking?” Kai throws a stray wooden twig in Baekhyun’s general direction. “None, you idiot.”
“Besides,” Chanyeol muses thoughtfully. “I’m not the crown prince. My older brother is.”
Simultaneously, they sigh.
How anticlimactic.
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---oOo---
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“Are you sure this is okay?”
“Of course, Master,” Suho’s smile is blinding. If he’s been compared to a lot of beauties back then, he is simply incomparable now. The genie is positively glowing. “We are destined to be from the very beginning.”
“Stop worrying so much, mere mortals,” Kai ensures sourly, still mourning the unfortunate event of his hair-fall incident. “We are okay together.”
“Take care of Suho-sshi, wouldn’t you?” Chanyeol wipes a happy tear. Ah, the joy of love.
“Yeah, yeah,” Kai tries to look nonchalant, though unable to hide his affectionate gaze. The genie lamp is held protectively in his arms. “You take care of this good-for-nothing villager, too.”
“Hey!”
“Of course I will!” Chanyeol giggles cheerfully, hugging Baekhyun tightly for good measure. The shorter man promptly forgets what he tried to protest about.
“You still have one remaining wish, Master,” Suho reminds him. “What would you want to ask?”
Baekhyun tries to speak amidst the prince’s enthusiastic cuddle. “Honestly? I have no idea. Just leave it be,” he answers. “I think I already have everything I need.”
Suho’s face breaks into a soft smile as Kai mutters ‘whipped’ under his breath. “I can’t make you love each other with magic. You don’t seem to need it, either,” the genie says. “How about I grant you a ‘happily ever after till death do you part’?”
“That’s good too,” Baekhyun muses. A confident smile blossoms on his face. “But I think we can manage on our own. Instead, I want your freedom, Suho. Is that okay?”
“Pardon?” Suho looks down at his nonexistent legs, connecting by a wisp of smoke to the lamp. His stare shifts to Kai’s pair of perfectly long, muscular legs. “Oh.”
“That’s a splendid idea,” the wizard nods in agreement. In his head, there are so many activities he plans them to do when Suho takes a human form.
Jogging, for example.
“That’s it, then,” Baekhyun grins widely. “My third wish is, I want Kim Joonmyeon’s freedom.”
“The third wish is granted,” the genie throws a grateful look to his master. Blinding shine envelops the magical creature like a halo, forcing the witnesses to swuint at the brightness. As soon as the light dims and he stands on his own legs, Suho runs to engulf Baekhyun in a hug.
“Let me express my gratitude, Master. Thank you very much.”
“I’m no longer your master. Are you even a genie still?” Baekhyun says, patting his might-or-might-not-be genie friend on the back. “Do remember to visit me and Chanyeollie once in a while, would you?”
“Anytime,” Suho whispers earnestly, sounding suspiciously close to tears. “I’m still a genie, though with considerably less power. And a whole lot happier.”
When they finally part, Kai takes Suho’s hand protectively and nods for the final time.
“Till next time.”
“Till next time,” the remaining pair repeats in unison, watching as the two miraculous beings set off to the sky and disappears between cotton clouds. The day is still young, promising a long way ahead for them. Would it be full of happiness? Would there be tears? They can’t answer it now, but at least when they have each other, happiness is near.
“So…”
“So?”
“I haven’t figured out how to attain the Sultan’s approval,” Baekhyun admits sheepishly. “A mere villager and a prince, how come?”
“I also haven’t met your parents,” the prince nods accordingly. And then it happens, the twitchy smile Baekhyun loves the most. A hand is held for him to take. For some unfathomable reason, he feels safe and peaceful. “But we can manage on our own just fine, can’t we?”
Reality may be lie. Magic may be true. As long as love is concerned, they need no magic to make dreams come true.
… though a little magic doesn’t hurt, once in a while.
“Yes, we can,” Baekhyun smiles, taking Chanyeol’s offered hand. The palm is soft and warm, like fresh scent of dawn after long winding night. “Let’s head to a whole new world.”
They know there is no ‘happily ever after’ in life. They also know; both of them are too far gone to imagine living on without each other. The road may be endless, but as long as they walk hand-in-hand, isn’t that happiness too? As long as they’re soaring and tumbling and freewheeling together, that’s happiness for them.
.
.
.
“I’m like a shooting star
I’ve come so far
I can’t go back
to where I used to be.”
- A Whole New World (Alan Menken)
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FIN