Summary: All is well when Chanyeol returns from his patrol. The red force is probably still licking its wounds from their last confrontation, right? ...right?
Word count: 4 k
Warnings: major character death, revival / coming back from the dead, coming back wrong
A/N: Happy Holidays @exo-xexo! I (admin j aka @breeze-of-sunlight) am your secret santa~
I wish for you to be able to end this year peacefully and find some rest in the coming weeks. Hopefully you'll enjoy this little fic - let me know what you thought of it if you want!
For all those unfamiliar, this fic was posted as a part of the @exols-silver-christmas event 2024. Please check out the gifts from this and the past years if you want to see some beautiful creations by all kinds of EXO-Ls.
Happy holidays to you too, santa admin. As usual, thank you so much for hosting!
May you find time for yourself in these last days of the year, dear reader.
"Chanyeol, duck!", is the last thing Chanyeol hears before something hits his shoulder and promptly dissolves into goo all over his neck and back.
And it had been such a good day until now.
He can hear Kai and Sehun cackling behind him as he tries to shake off the worst of it and pull the more resistant parts of the novaberry from the hair on his nape. "Real mature guys, incredibly funny! You're off duty for five seconds and immediately behave like little shi-"
"Sorry, I tried to warn you, but I guess my timing was off.", Suho tries to placate as he makes his way to Chanyeol opposite of where the still snickering duo stands.
"Apology accepted, but only if you send these two right back on patrol again."
Suho huffs a laugh at that and brushes off a piece of the berry Chanyeol had missed. However, a frown replaces his easy grin and he turns to address the others. "Could you come over here, please? I need to ask you all something without yelling my lungs out".
"Sure", Kai hollers back and reaches out to grab Sehun's neck. The later only has a short second to let out an undignified squawk before they get teleported across the field and materialize next to Suho.
"Ugh, I hate it when you do that! Could at least warn me beforehand?"
"I could."
"But? You won't?"
"Boys,", interrupts Suho, long suffering of his brother's antics, "could we please focus for one second?"
"One.", echo Kai and Sehun at once but stay silent afterwards. Chanyeol can smell Suho’s hair greying.
"Have any of you noticed anything different or suspicious on you patrols today?", Suho makes a point of staring each man in front of him down until they shake their heads one after the other. "Has anyone heard back from Baekhyun yet?"
Chanyeol feels his face drop. "No, why? Is something wrong? What's going on?"
Sighing heavily, Suho lowers his head and pinches the bridge of his nose. "There might be." When he raises his head back up, he admits " Baekhyun is not yet back from his mission. I talked to the others too, but no one has heard from him since he left this morning. And we can’t reach him via transmitter right now. Quite frankly, I'm worried."
And you're definitely not alone with that. Chanyeol adds mentally. Baekhyun has never been their most serious member. On the contrary, nothing seems to bring him more joy than to aggravate the others. But not coming home from a standard patrol? Not even trying to contact them about any anomalies altering his usual routes? That's simply not a line even he would cross for the sake of a prank. He must just have forgotten.
"Kai,", Suho pulls Chanyeol back from his thoughts, "I want you to teleport to his usual checkpoints. See if you can figure out whether he's been there today."
Kai nods solemnly, the mischief from a few moments ago long forgotten.
"I don't want you to face this alone and walk into a potential trap. Take Kyungsoo with you."
"Wait, hold up!", Chanyeol interrupts, "What do you mean 'Take Kyungsoo with you'? I'm literally right here?"
“Chanyeol, do not take this personally, but Kyungsoo tends to be a lot more levelheaded than you are in these situations”, Suho tries to calm him down. And Chanyeol can see the reasoning in that, but-
"And we literally need you right here, idiot.", Sehun raises his brow at him. "We're already down a guardian who can cast a shield of light over the tree of life. If this happens to be a trap, we don't need our actual firewall gone too."
Feeling his cheeks heat from being scolded by his younger brother, Chanyeol turns away from the group. A petty fine barely had the time to leave his lips when their transmitters light up simultaneously.
"Guys,", Xiumin’s grim voice filters through the devices, "we found him."
There have been few days Chen has felt so much negativity in their hallowed halls. Or rather, beneath the tree of life. For good reason. While the tree is not all powerful, it at least grants its guardians one thing: quasi-immortality. In the long time they've been guardians, they have never had one of them dying.
That doesn't change the fact that Baekhyun’s cold body lies before them anyway. Looking all the more fragile between the massive roots.
But it simply must be him, from his long fingers to the small freckle over his lip, Chen is certain about it. This is Baekhyun. Xiumin could have dumped an entire frozen ocean's worth of ice over Chen's head and he still couldn't have been more frozen in pace.
Chanyeol, as expected, is not quite as silent about the matter.
"Lay, I know your power is health stuff and all, but how in the world is this supposed to work? He's not missing a finger; he's missing a heartbeat."
"'Health stuff and all'? Watch your tongue, Chanyeol. I know this isn't easy for you, but damn, neither is it for us!", Xiumin hisses back, feline eyes narrowed in agitation.
Lay, with his usual calm collectiveness when faced with a patient to attend, pulls Baekhyun's head into his lap and settles a hand over his brow. "Could you all please stop snapping at each other? This is going to be dancing on the edge of the possible already. If you keep distracting me, it's certainly going to go south."
"Besides,", he raises his head to stare into Chanyeol's eyes calmly, "it's not like we have any different options, do we?"
Chanyeol tsks in lieu of an answer but otherwise drops his arguments and resumes pacing. Chen tries to reach out to offer him tactile comfort but his hand gets pushed away. No one but Baekhyun himself could calm him down, it seems. Chen refocuses on the situation at hand instead.
With bated breath the guardians watch as Lay closes his eyes and tries what they've thought was impossible up until now. While Chanyeol is right and their powers have their limits, performing this act of revival right below the tree of life is the best chance they're going to get. If Lay manages to tab into the trees power source, then surely, surely...
Lay shifts his hands, running the tips of his fingers down Baekhyun's head from scalp to chin and then settling next to his temples. The rest of them watches, watches and stares as Lay's hands start glowing. And they glow. They glow and glow and glow and begin shaking slightly after minutes (or hours? Who can say.) pass by. Baekhyun's chest still isn't moving.
Inhaling deeply, Lay tilts his head back in a way easily recognizable to the rest of them. He's trying to tap into the tree's power. Usually, the tree would start winding roots or branches around whoever asked for aid - the energy is easier to transfer that way.
Right now, though? The tree does nothing of the like. The branches stop swaying in the gentle breeze, the leaves becoming completely silent. Adding to the eerie atmosphere that has befallen them.
The tension under the tree could be cut with a knife, even Chanyeol has stopped pacing and worriedly glances back and forth between Baekhyun and the tree. Until Lay finally drops his hands, covered in sweat from head to toe, and breathes heavily as though he held his breath the entire time. While he leans down, he whispers something against Baekhyun's face - too quiet for Chen's ears to catch. Lay presses their foreheads together and then slowly wiggles himself out from beneath the body.
Before Chen can react, he hears a gasp next to him and Chanyeol shoots off to kneel down in front of Baekhyun. "No, no way! Baekhyun, can you hear me?"
In full disbelief Chen also storms forward to sink down next to Baekhyun. He faintly notices how Suho grabs Lay by the shoulders to support their healer after was undoubtedly the most complicated use of his powers to this day.
Baekhyun in the meanwhile has not only opened his eyes but is also currently wiping the tears from Chanyeol's face. "What's going on? Why are you crying Yeollie?"
Which of course only results in Chanyeol sobbing harder.
Chen catches one of Baekyhun's hands between his own. "Baekhyun,", Chen begins when he caught the other's attention, "you've been dead for at least the last hour."
Baekhyun's face falls slowly, as if he had to remember how to do it first.
"What?"
"Don't you... don't you remember anything at all? Xiumin said he found you on his patrol, but-", Chen stammers, squeezing the hand harder as Baekhyun beings staring off into the distance.
"But you had no pulse", Xiumin finishes for him, leaning over his younger brothers’ backs. "Baekhyun, are you sure you can't remember anything else?"
"How about you let him come back to himself first?", Chanyeol's head snaps around and he glares alternatingly at his two members. At least until Baekhyun tries to sit up and lets out a long gasp of agony.
"Where... are we exactly?"
Chen makes a bewildered eye contact with Chanyeol as they try to stabilize Baekhyun between them, "Baek, we're under the tree of life. You're home".
"Huh", Baekhyun breathes and cranes his neck around slowly. His eyes dance up the bark of the tree up into its crown. Even slower, Baekhyun tries to lift one arm and reach out to one of the branches dangling above him.
The branch, however, flees his grasp as if repulsed by him. Chanyeol catches it with a still furrowed brow and brings it close to Baekhyun, who in turn promptly touches it. As if burned the branch jerks back and turns black where Baekhyun has laid his hand. The discoloration spreads along the branch, twitching as though it's in pain. The leaves start rustling in convulsion. Chen has never seen the tree act like that, much less after touching one of them.
Xiumin, quick as always, reacts first and summons a blade of ice to cut off the branch above the growing discoloration. The still twitching appendage falls with a heavy thud. In a radius around it the roots begin twitching and rearranging themselves, not wanting to come in contact at all.
With an open mouth Chen tears his gaze away and studies Baekhyun instead. It's as though the man's face has turned to stone, nothing but apathy to be read there. "Interesting."
And suddenly, as if the past hours hadn't happened, Baekhyun smoothly rolls to his feet and dusts off his pants with an air of disinterest.
"Woah there, take it slow Baek! You really shouldn't strain yourself", Chanyeol rises next to him, although with far less grace and holds out his hands as though scared the other will collapse at any second.
"Oh, don't worry,", Baekhyun's gaze fixes on Chanyeol, "Lay did a pretty sound job there."
Something is off about his smile, but Chen can't pin it down. Has this quiet intensity behind his eyes been there a minute ago? Why does he look at them like a predator stalks his prey?
A soft wheeze pulls Chen's attention to Lay instead. The healer has braced himself on hands and knees, one hand lifting to cover his heart. Although he had managed to slow down his breathing before, it now seems to get worse again. Suho has started quietly murmuring to him again, gently stroking his back to calm him down. Kyungsoo lets himself down next to him, naturally gifted at grounding people and offers him a shoulder to lean on.
Baekhyun, apparently, has also noticed their struggling healer and coos mockingly. "Aw, poor one. Did you overexert yourself trying to save your friend, huh? You tree huggers are even more pitiful than initially estimated."
And this? This is the straw that breaks the camel's back. Despite all his teasing and shenanigans, Baekhyun would never let one of them suffer without offering help - let alone make fun of anyone in need.
So. What if Lay hadn't brought back their Baekhyun at all? What if he summoned something entirely else into their friend's body.
"You're not really Baekhyun, are you?", Chen asks in a low voice. He subtly shifts into a more battle-ready pose and summons a small string of lightning to dance around his fingers. The quiet flickering of the electricity suddenly grows a lot louder as Chen feels a wave of power and relief wash through him. It's the most encouraging signal the tree has sent him all day.
"Who are you?"
Baekhyun's eyes are widening in pure joy at the open challenge, his smile turning even more manic. "Wouldn't you like to know, weather boy?"
Before any of them can react, Baekhyun performs a spinning move and summons an orb of unforgivingly blinding light. Chen flinches and covers his eyes, afraid of being blinded even though he was only exposed for a split second. From Chanyeol's pained scream he concludes the others aren't faring any better.
He wills his lightning back down again, knowing far too well how foolish it is to shoot at a target he can't sense in any way.
Kyungsoo, however, does not seem to have such reservations. A rumble goes through the ground as he summons an earthquake. Additional to not being able to see, now Chen can't hold his balance either. While sinking to the ground as carefully as he can manage, he at least hopes Kyungsoo manages to shake Baekhyun off his feet as well.
Instead, he feels the telltale rustle in the air that comes with Kai's teleporting and the light vanishes. Soon after, the world stops shaking and Chen warily blinks open his eyes.
But Baekhyun is nowhere in sight. And although Kai is still here, his limbs are entangled with Sehun, the two of them must have fallen into one another when the earthquake caught them all by surprise.
"What? Where is he?", Chanyeol asks while heaving himself off the ground, turning in one direction after the other. Chen would comment on him looking like a helicopter during takeoff if the situation wasn't so dire. “He can't have gotten far in so little time!”
"Guys.", Suho gasps an interjection, "Our tree!"
And sure enough, there is a dark, rotting hole in the tree’s bark. Oozing a dark liquid as if it's bleeding, spreading from where Baekhyun must have made contact. The tree’s branches have drooped as though all life was sucked from them; its roots aren't so much as twitching although some of them are currently squished between two slates of earth in a way that must hurt.
A forlorn no is hushed from Lay's lips. He struggles to push himself upright, but instead just falls back against Kyungsoo's chest. "What have we done?"
"He's gone", Xiumin states grimly. Gaze sweeping over the meadow and through the forest surrounding them. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. If it wasn't for the last hour, one might even say it was peaceful.
Chen picks the pebbles that bore into his skin during the earthquake out of the palms of his hand. "We have to find him immediately. Maybe if we can get that possession or whatever that was out of him, it'll teach us how to reverse the damage."
Kai, who has by now managed to detangle himself from Sehun and pulled the latter to his feet, fetches a holomap from one of his endless pockets and boots it up. With the three-dimensional star map projected in front of him, he walks up to Xiumin.
"Show me where you first saw him. Maybe I'll be able to track from where he came - and see if he passes by there again."
Xiumin begins gesturing around the map, trying to point out certain coordinates as precisely and quickly as he can manage.
Meanwhile, Chen sees how Sehun rids himself of most things in his pockets and even begins taking off his shoes. Clearly preparing to take flight through the woods for long hours. Searching where the rest of them can't follow him with their larger space shuttles. At least not efficiently.
Chen feels the telltale rustle of teleportation behind his back. The sensation makes him pause for a second.
Kai couldn't have teleported earlier, except if he teleported himself into Sehun. Which seems unlikely at best. Yet, Chen is sure he felt the same sensation right now as he did before Baekhyun disappeared. You get familiar with the supernatural surrounding you when you live together, after all.
"Now that we're talking about it, how did Xiumin manage to find Baekhyun? Their routes are nowhere near each other."
Xiumin swivels around: "Are you trying to say this is my fault? That I'm a traitor - or possessed by that whatever-it-is as well?".
"Calm down, Minnie, no one here believes you're an imposter", Suho placates, trying to keep them united even when his own nerves must be lying raw. "What's your point, Dae?"
"I'm just saying, what did Baekhyun even do out there? If he went that far off his actual checkpoints, he must've sought out Xiumin specifically. Do you maybe think that he saw the thing coming and tried to warn you?"
"And when he realized he couldn't he sacrificed himself instead", Suho furrows his brow.
"Just a thought."
"Or,", Sehun pipes up, "did any of you stop and think about whether or not we have the real Baekhyun in general?"
Chen is certain he can hear the grass grow over the silence that descends above them.
"Sehun, what the-?"
"No, hear me out.", Sehun intercepts, "We found a body, that miraculously looked like Baekhyun somewhere he shouldn't have been in the first place. When Lay breathed life back into him, the tree of life did not help at all. Don't you think it would be a little keener to help one of its protectors get back on his feet? The twig that thing touched literally wilted at first touch, there's an enormous hole in the tree - that keeps on growing, by the way."
"And we have no actual means to find out how Baekhyun got where he ended up being", Suho adds on. "Fuck, Sehun, you might be right. This basically reeks of red force, doesn’t it?"
"Did we just bring a red force clone of one of us to life?", Chen asks breathlessly.
"Did said clone manage to escape so that he can now spread the knowledge he gained to his master?", Xiumin comments wryly, his lips pressed together in a thin line.
"We're screwed", Chanyeol exhales as he drags his hands down his face slowly. "If the red force knows where the tree of life stands, how long do we have until it starts attacking?"
"And how long", Lay pipes up from where he lays in Kyungsoo's arms, "until we can't trust each other anymore because we can't tell us apart from any clones."
And truth be told, Chen hadn't even considered that. "You think there are more of them? But how? There is no other Lay, no- no, X-Lay, right? How is that X-Baekhyun supposed to bring them to life?"
"No, I don't think X-Baekhyun can do that. But think of it, if the tree can create guardians, it's not too far off to assume the red force can too. And if it's goal with X-Baekhyun was to simply scout the area and find the tree, there's no reason to send all of its subjects and risk potential fallouts."
"And it comes with the added benefit of taking out some of us as well," Kyungsoo murmurs, stroking a comforting hand up and down Lay’s arm.
"I'm not down, I'll be fine in a few minutes."
"Just don't strain yourself. We still need you."
Suho starts massaging his temples. "That would also explain his quick getaway. If there already is a Kai clone, we can stop wondering how he pulled that off."
"So, what now?", Xiumin stares down the hole in the tree darkly. "The force weakened the tree so now it can come back with the big guns and completely claim it? And all we can do is set up wards and hope for the best?"
Chen doesn’t have it in him to respond in any way. He hasn’t felt this foolish and helpless in forever.
"We might not be completely defenseless", Kyungsoo answers quietly instead. "There's something I've read a… while ago. But it's experimental and I might not remember all the details."
Suho sighs heavily. "I can't say I'm thrilled at the thought of more experiments today."
"It's not like we have a lot of other options, though", Kyungsoo counters. Suho nods in agreement and waves his hand to encourage Kyungsoo to keep talking.
"Simply put, we would essentially split the tree in two. Hide each half in a pocket dimension. Each a mirror world of the other. The same skies over different grounds. The same grounds under different skies. That way the red force can't find it based on where it is now.
Over time the tree could grow and heal itself. When it's strong enough, we'll reunite it again. Until then we have to find Baekhyun, the real Baekhyun. And we best get rid of any clones or other units of the red force as quickly as we can. I'd rather not take any chances here."
Sehun raises a brow in disbelief: "Won't we just make ourselves vulnerable if we split up? What if they find one half of the tree, charge in there with full force and completely destroy that half of the tree? This just sounds like we're presenting the tree on a silver platter."
Kyungsoo heaves a heavy sigh, as if the worst still lies ahead of him. "There's another thing. Due to the split of our current dimension, we will create some problems with space-time. Which means we're most likely not going to be able to get in touch the conventional way. I'm not sure if we'll even be able to contact each other at all.
But that also means the force will get separated. It won't be able to reconnect to its other units and neither can it switch dimensions at will. Not unless we can too. The only other way for it to do that is to wait out until the two dimensions have aligned and we merge the tree once again."
Chen isn't sure how many more hits he'll be able to take today. He locks eyes with Chanyeol, who looks back at him with similarly forlorn expression. When he lets his gaze drag over the different faces of his friends, his family, he sees the same silent emotions. In the way Sehun picks anxiously at his fingernails, in the way Suho is again pinching the bridge of his nose, in the way Lay stares up at the trees crown with glassy eyes. In the tear he can feel rolling down his own cheek.
"This is goodbye then?"
"Yes", answers Kyungsoo, voice barely above a whisper. "But only for a while."
Suho turns away from the group, hands already on his transmitter. "I'll page Kai. We should meet at the ritual grounds. You guys should get a headstart, we won't be far behind."
Chanyeol and Sehun relieve Kyungsoo of his Lay-safekeeping-duties, their taller frames better equipped for carrying around a person. Lay keeps on protesting vehemently that he can walk on his own, but his complaints fall on deaf ears. Neither of them is willing to let go of their friend in what could be the last time for millennia.
Suddenly Chen's field of vision is obscured by a face. Xiumin's worried face. "It will be okay", he promises quietly. "We'll be back together in no time, you'll see. And the tree will have blossomed brighter than ever! Won't that be nice?"
"Yeah, sure it will", Chen snivels softly and tries to muster up a smile for Xiumin's sake. He clearly isn't very successful judging how the grief grows stronger on Xiumin's face as well.
"Just never lose yourself, okay?", Xiumin's finger rise to gently swipe away the tears Chen hadn't noticed rolling down his face in streams now.
"Just be brave. A new world shall open up."
A/N: And that's a wrap! I took some liberties with the whole MAMA intro, but I hope you guys like it anyway :] Please consider leaving me a comment or a reblog, that would make my day! And if anyone's in the mood for it, here's the link to the EXO-K MAMA mv. Take care, everyone!
Author Note: Hello @chicken-fifi I am your secret Santa this year! I hope you like this little story! I put a little spin on it, but I hope you still like it! Happy holidays! @exols-silver-christmas
WC: 3,760
Characters: Do Kyungsoo, Reader, Zhang Yixing (very briefly).
Kyungsoo has been pretty quiet lately; it has you worried. Everything has been going well lately, but something about this feels wrong. You have been coming home later than expected, trying to get everything together for the holidays in and out of the classroom. Kyungsoo has also been coming home later than usual. Right now, as much as you hate it, it’s normal for one of you to be asleep when the other comes home.
Tonight, despite being exhausted, you decided to stay up longer and make dinner for yourself and Kyungsoo. You want a nice dinner with him and go to bed simultaneously, just for one night. The dinner table is, and now you wait for Kyungsoo to get home. The clock behind you is ticking slowly, and the house is so warm. You’d rather go lie down in your room than wait, but you want to pretend to have a normal night with Kyungsoo.
Surely, it would be okay to rest your eyes for a moment, Kyungsoo should be home any minute. When someone nudged your shoulder, you opened your eyes again. Glancing at the clock, you were surprised to see half an hour had gone by. The food in front of you no longer had stream coming off of it, you turned to see Kyungsoo standing beside you with his hand on your shoulder.
“Come on, let’s get you to bed. I’ll take care of the food.” Kyungsoo held out his hand for you to grab.
“No- I wanted to have dinner together…” You pushed his hand away.
“Okay, we can have dinner. Let me warm it up, okay?” Kyungsoo leaned down to place a gentle kiss on your head.
You said nothing as Kyungsoo took the food, the food that was warm once upon a time, to heat it. Annoyance scratched at your heart as you took in the sight. It’s not fair; you made dinner, and it was steaming before. Why wasn’t he home at the time he usually came home? You planned everything out perfectly, and he’s half an hour late?
“I think you’re right. I need to go lay down.” You stood up slowly, ignoring Kyungsoo as he turned around.
There are too many emotions running through your mind right now to have dinner with your significant other right now. Tomorrow is a new day, a chance to start fresh. It’s not going to bed angry, which is terrible for your health; it’s getting ready to start over tomorrow. That’s how you justify slipping into your bed and turning your back to his side. Falling asleep this time is much harder than when you were resting your eyes.
The following day, after a good night’s rest, you opened your eyes and turned to face him. The smile slipped off of your face when you noticed he was already gone. This is not how you wanted to start over. Taking a deep breath, you look at the clock next to your bed. It’s time to get going for the day, and then you can start over again tomorrow. Getting through today it’s going to be like every other day. You’ve done this so many times; you can do it again.
That’s what you thought, anyway. Once you finally made it out to the living room, you noticed Kyungsoo in the kitchen. Looking at the table, he made breakfast on two plates. Breakfast together is almost as good as dinner together. Kyungsoo smiled at you and gestured for you to sit down.
“I’m sorry I was late last night. There was so much going on.” Kyungsoo sat down across from you.
“It’s okay. I was a little disappointed last night, but things happen. I know that.” You shrugged; you didn’t want to talk about yesterday anymore. It’s in the past, and that’s where it belongs.
“You haven’t told me about your plans for your Classroom Winter Party this year.” Kyungsoo looks up from his food to give you his whole attention.
“It’s been difficult this year. I- Something is different this year.” Despite wanting to meet his gaze, you couldn’t. Being a teacher is amazing; it’s your pride, joy, and life. This year, however, things have changed.
“Do you not want to do it this year?” Kyungsoo asked; you thought about his question for a moment.
“It’s usually your favorite party of the year. Do you need help planning it?”
“No. I’m okay. I just haven’t figured out some of the details yet. I haven’t picked a day. Can you send me your schedule so I can see what you have available? The kids always love seeing you.” You smiled at him, poking at your food a little bit.
“Yeah, I can send it to you. Let me know if you need anything, okay?” Kyungsoo watched you carefully for a moment, then continued to eat his own portion of the meal.
“I have to get going soon. I have already packed your lunch away. It’s in the fridge.” Kyungsoo put his plate in the sink and walked around the table to give you a kiss.
“I’m hoping to be home earlier tonight, but I can’t promise anything. If you get home and you’re tired, don’t wait. I’ll understand.” Kyungsoo tells you sternly. You rolled your eyes and continued poking your food around.
Looking at the time, you sighed. It would be best if you got going, too; you don’t want to be late for school. The Winter Party is your favorite one of the year; it’s just nice for the kids to have a little send-off before the second semester. You’re just having a little trouble planning it this year. A lot of the parents seem withdrawn or too tired from their own jobs to participate in your family activities, and the kids (as much as you try to help them) seem anxious rather than excited to learn. Just like the rest of this year, the drive to school became a blur.
Seeing the children getting ready to learn always brings a smile to your face. The children quickly make their way into the classroom and find their desks to sit at. Your classroom helper follows the last child in. Today is the special day of the week that all your kids look forward to. Today, the kids will eat their breakfast and line up to begin their day with music. A lot of the specialty classes have been cut from your curriculum, relying solely on you to find a way to get those classes squished into your day with all the other activities. Music, however, is one you heavily fought for at the board meetings.
“Mrs. Do! We can go to music now?” One of your kids grabbed onto your hand and pulled down as they jumped excitedly. One of the two kids that decided breakfast was not important today as most of it was still on their trays.
“Not yet, we have to wait for our other teacher to come get us and our friends, right?” You gently pulled your hand from the child and motioned to the rest of the class.
“We have to make sure we make good choices and show our friends, right? Breakfast first, then it’ll be time for music.” You helped the child find their seat, she sat down and immediately started to eat a little bit. Your helper motioned you over to her.
“I finished making the invitation for the Family Winter Party, what do you think?” She pulled up the rough draft of the invitation for you to look at. Of course, it looks amazing. Your helper is so artistically talented.
“It looks perfect. While the kids are napping, can you run to the office to make enough copies for them?” You asked. Before your helper could answer, a knock at the door grabbed your attention. The kids, as if reading your mind, jumped up. All excitedly trying to get to the door to see if it was their music teacher.
“Hey, hey! Friends, let’s make a better choice. Who gets to answer the door?” You asked them loudly.
“Mrs. Do answers the door.” The kids repeated, some of them more annoyed than others.
“Good morning, Mrs. Do. I’m here to pick up our friends.” Mr. Kim greeted you warmly.
“Good morning, Mr. Kim. I’ll get them all cleaned up and ready to line up for you.” You smiled at him.
As you turned around, you noticed the children were practically buzzing with energy. You smiled at them and started to sing the clean-up song. As soon as the children heard it start, they carefully moved around each other, trying to get to the various trashcans around the room. They tried, not necessarily succeeding, to avoid tripping over each other to get to their spot in line. Once everyone was settled, as much as they could be, you released them into Mr. Kim’s care.
“Alright, what do we still need for the party? We have the invitations ready to go into their backpacks at the end of the day, do you want to make extra copies to give to the parents directly?” Your helper asked.
“I feel like that might be too much. I don’t want to make anyone feel bad if they can’t come. I also don’t want to force them into coming if they don’t want to. Making enough copies to put in their backpacks will be good enough. Are you still okay to grab those things from the store, the list I sent you? We need to be extremely vigilant for allergens.” You pulled out your laptop and started scrolling through the emails sent to you this morning.
“I know the drill. We don’t have to worry about that. What day do you want to do it?” That question gave you a moment to pause.
“Let’s do it a couple of days before the last day of the semester. That way, it’ll give parents some time to prepare while also not overwhelming the school with another parent activity.” You pulled up an email and started typing out everything that’s in stone to send to your principal, wanting her also to be involved as much as she can.
“Is Kyungsoo coming this year?” Taelin, your helper, asked.
“I don’t know yet. Let’s plan on him coming, that way if he doesn’t, we have extra stuff in case more families come than we plan on. It’s always better to be over-prepared than under when it comes to things like this.
Before you know it, your planning time was cut short as the children came back from their music lesson. Time always seems to fly when you’re trying to plan a family activity. You gave your laptop to Taelin and met the kids at the door.
“Alright, friends, let’s go to our seats and get ready for math.” A few complaints flooded the room as the children settled into their seats. Today, you and Taelin set up little counting stations on each desk and watched as the kids began counting to the best of their abilities.
You couldn’t help feeling anxious as time seemed slowly around you. When their timer rang, signaling the end of math, Taelin brought the kids over for the reading time on the carpet. Like the kids, you couldn’t wait to go home and spend a little time with Kyungsoo, he promised he could take a little time off of work to spend with you this holiday break.
When the kids lay down for their nap, you finally found time to breathe. You pulled out your phone and texted the date you, Taelin, and the principal decided on for the family activity to Kyungsoo. You weren’t expecting an answer. Taelin plopped down beside you, handing over the food she ordered for you. It didn’t taste very good, but you ordered it a couple of hours ago when you realized you left your lunch at home. You’re only getting to eat now when the day is almost over. You still have an hour and a half before the end of the day, so you put on a bright smile after naptime and keep the kids distracted while Taelin sets up the center stations for the end of the day.
By the time you get home, you’re once again exhausted. A familiar state you’ve found yourself way too often. Kyungsoo isn’t home, but you don’t have the energy to wait for him tonight. So, you sit at your dining room table, eat your lunch that you forgot to take with you, and then you head to bed. As you lay your head down for the night, you hope to dream of a night with Kyungsoo, the fireplace, and the snow gently falling outside past the window of your living room.
“Good morning!” Kyungsoo said excitedly, you glare at him suspiciously.
“You’re quite energetic this morning, what gives?” You joked as you pulled your bathrobe around you tighter.
“I know you and Taelin have been planning for the party, so I thought I would go out and get you the things you need most!” Kyungsoo show you all the shopping bags he was hiding behind his back.
“Wow, that’s a lot of stuff… Are you going to come and help decorate?” You asked slyly.
“Of course, how could I expect you two to put it up all by yourselves?” Kyungsoo asked. Your eyes widened, and you turned to face him.
“Really? You’re able to come this year?” You ask carefully.
“Yep! I already told the boys where I needed to be that day. They took it very well. Although they’re worried about how they’ll get through the day without me.” Kyungsoo joked as he placed his arms around your waist, pulling you closer.
“Well, they’ll just have to manage without you. I think you gave me the energy boost I need for this week.” You wrapped your arms around his neck as he gently started to sway, making you sway with him.
“I’ll be there with a special surprise for you.” Kyungsoon teased.
“Or really? What kind of surprise?” You tilted your head, as if he would tell you so easily.
“A fun one,” That’s it. That’s the only answer he gives you as he pulls away from you. He leaves you standing there, in a living room filled with Winter Party decorations, alone. You’d shake that man if you didn’t love him so much.
As soon as you got to school, you told Taelin about everything Kyungsoo grabbed for the two of you.
“That’s pretty much everything on the list!” She said excitedly, mainly because now she doesn’t have to be the one to go to the store now.
“I think everything is going to turn out alright this year.” You leaned against your desk and smiled at Taelin.
The rest of the week went incredibly slowly for you AND your students. All the kids could talk about is the wonderful “birthday” party Mrs. Do and Taelin are throwing for Winter. You have mentioned that it’s not a birthday party for winter, but the kids seem to be ignoring that. Surprisingly, most of the families you sent invitations to have agreed to come for the party. This is the first time, if everything goes well, that you’ll have twenty out of twenty-five families showing up for a family activity.
The night before the big day, you check the party supplies Kyungsoo grabbed from the store, to make sure there was enough for everyone that came. Of course, everything is perfect. You expect nothing less from Kyungsoo. Despite going to bed alone that night, the smile on your face was blinding. Tomorrow is going to be a perfect day. Or at least that’s what you’re hoping for.
The next day, the day of the party, Taelin did her best to help you with the kids. All of them knew what would happen after school, they were all so excited. You can’t fault them for being excited. A group of five of them had to be stopped from caroling ‘Happy Birthday’ during carpet reading time, two kids have run out of them room and tried to invite various faculty that they found in the hallways, and three additional children refused to eat their lunches. They didn’t want to be full for the party.
The day could not end faster. As soon as all the students left, you and Taelin headed to the gym to set up the party. The lunchroom staff left the tables down that you asked for and the gym teacher left the equipment unlocked, so you can get your activities that are too big for your classroom. While setting up Taelin, you constantly checked your phone. Kyungsoo said he would come to help you set up, but he hasn’t texted you at all today. When you woke up this morning, he was already gone for the day. Despite only having Taelin by your side, the two of you managed to decorate the gym with the beautiful decorations Kyungsoo got for you. All the food was set out, and the drink station was working wonderfully. The family activities were set up around the gym, away from the tables. The only thing you’re missing is Kyungsoo.
Taelin offered to let in the families as you checked your phone again. Still nothing. No calls, no texts, you haven’t missed anything coming in from Kyungsoo. Hearing the quick paced patters on the ground, you put your phone away to greet whichever student is bulldozing their way down the hall. Once several families arrived, you showed them around the different stations with art, sports, music, and of course where the refreshments are. Taelin started the holiday music and the kids dispersed around the room tugging their families with them.
You checked your phone again, but still nothing from Kyungsoo.
The worst part of it is: you can’t be mad at him. His job requires a lot of his attention and energy. Anything could have happened, making it impossible for him to text or call you, let alone come to your holiday party. You put your phone down and followed Taelin to greet more families as they arrived. Because of the music, you couldn’t hear the ping! that came from your phone after you put it away. Twenty minutes into the party, all the families had arrived, and you were listening to the song some of your students made up with the instruments you put out. It was a very interesting version of ‘Happy Birthday, Winter.’ One you’ve never heard before.
“Mrs. Do! Mrs. Do!” One of your students ran up to you and tugged on your arm.
“One second, dear. I’m listening to the song your classmates made together.” You smiled at the girl and turned your attention back to the kids performing for you.
“No! Mrs. Do! Mr. Do is here!” She yelled at you, tugging your arm harshly. All of your students have seen your husband at least once. He likes to pop in sometimes through the year to bring you your lunch, or flowers, or sometimes to say hi. That’s when he has the time to do fun things like that.
“He’s not here dear, I’m sorry he couldn’t make it.” You sighed as you gently stopped her from ripping your arm off.
“Mr. Do!” A chorus of voices yelled out, too many to be a coincidence. You spun around to see Taelin letting Kyungsoo and…. Yixing into the party.
“Silly mommy! That’s Mrs. Do’s boyfriend! Like you and Daddy!” A little boy pulled his parents over to meet the infamous “Mr. Do”.
Kyungsoo is like a magnet for these kids, they always love when he visits. Some of the children then began to sing ‘Happy Birthday, Winter’ to Kyungsoo and Yixing.
“You’re late, boys.” You cross your arms over your chest.
“I know darling, sorry. I brought a helped with me though.” Kyungsoo gestured to Yixing.
“Hi, sorry we made him late. The boys and I thought we could bring something so we could add it to the party. I volunteered to come with and help with the clean up after the party.” Yixing smiled apologetically.
“The boys couldn’t decide what to add, so they bought this big thing-“ Kyungsoo smacked the machine behind Yixing.
“And what does that do?” You asked cautiously. Knowing Baekhyun, Jongdae, and Chanyeol, that machine could do a lot of things. It could be a weird looking candy machine, confetti machine, or anything really. The stars are the limit for those three.
“It’s a fake snow machine. Kyungsoo and I are going to go set it up in the back away from the food, we brought a tarp to put down too.” Yixing smacked the machine too, you don’t like how hard they’re smacking that thing and smiled at you.
“We also brought a Polaroid to take pictures and give to the families before they leave.” Kyungsoo gave the camera to you.
“That’s perfect and such a good idea!” You thought about your praise for a moment, then… “The camera. I’m not sure about the fake snow machine yet. Let’s set it up and see what happens.”
“You got it, Boss.” Yixing winked at you.
“Mom! Did you meet Mrs. Do’s boyfriend yet?!” You heard a child from behind you screech out. Taelin came over and took the camera from your hands, so she could start taking photos for the families.
It took a long time to get here. It felt like forever. Looking around the gym and seeing all the families enjoying their time together… This is why you put energy into their family activity nights. Seeing Kyungsoo and Yixing set up the machine and turning it on, making the Winter Party just a little bit more magical, warmed your heart. The machine turned on and Kyungsoo gathered all the children around the area him and Yixing set up, you watched as “Mr. Do” announced not to eat the fake snow and telling the kids it’s only for the pictures.
You can’t wait to clean everything up and go home. Push Kyungsoo onto the couch so the two of you can snuggle up and watch a cheesy Christmas movie. For now, however, you're content with seeing Mr. Do give the families fake snowballs for their pictures and other props you didn’t know he had on him.
This semester has been very difficult for you, that much is clear.
I have settled on a fanfic and hope you'll like it! ^^ It's been a minute for me to actually write one.
Sorry for only reaching out again so late - work also has me in its maws. I'm almost done with the fic and just wanted to make sure that you're fine with some of its core aspects. If not, that's okay too! I can still switch things up :]
I'm afraid it won't be a feel-good story, but rather angsty. It focuses on the exos and their powers in the struggle against the red force. Most importantly: character death and the revival of said character are a big part of the fic. Is that alright with you? I can understand if it's not - especially not during Christmas season - so please tell me how you feel about this.
Hope you're doing okay and work leaves you be~!
xoxo
that sounds pretty darn awesome to me! I'm sure that I'll love it! Thank you for asking, but this sounds pretty awesome! I totally understand work getting in the way, I've been pretty stacked for the holiday season, so I totally get it!
I was just wondering whether or not my last ask reached you. No worries if you haven't had the time to answer yet, I just want to make sure I can get your preferences and don't have to ask the project's admin for your prompt. ^^'
XOXO
Hi! I did get it! Work has kept me quite busy this season. I do like Halloween a lot, but love Christmas more. I love giving gifts! I prefer fanfiction, but if you're not comfortable with that then that's okay! I'm totally okay with being surprised with whatever you deem is your best creative outlet. I LOVE the idea of Exo and them having their specific powers, I love fantasy. I'm totally okay with whatever you love to do.
If you have any specific questions you want me to answer throughout this time, please feel free to ask! I will answer much faster this time, promise!
Lumi do you know which comic it is where clark turns semi-evil and wants to destroy the world because it’s too corrupt and everything deserves to be destroyed, and bruce says “even dick grayson?” because his son is literally the best person he knows, and clark can’t answer him? I’ve been looking for it forever 😭
Hi! I know the one you're thinking of, it's Infinite Crisis #3 (2006) and it's not our Clark that wants to fold our world into the "historical fabric" of another world, it's Superman from Earth-2.
He's saying that what happened here isn't Batman's fault, he couldn't trust the people around him, so he fucked it up, but on this Superman's Earth, things are different, he can trust those people.
To which Bruce's response is, "And what about Dick Grayson? Is he a better man on your Earth than he is on mine?" and Superman has to admit, no, our Earth's Dick Grayson isn't worse than his. It shows that Batman does trust people, he does believe in people, and that this world isn't inherently worse than Earth-2 and it's worth fighting to save.
It really shows that Dick Grayson is Bruce's moral barometer in so many ways, that he's the hard line in the sand Bruce will draw at how this world has worth because it created someone like Dick Grayson, and how no matter how distrustful he can be or how he might fuck up sometimes, he'll always cross back over into trusting other people because he trusts Dick Grayson.
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