Nomadic Dwarf

[nomadic-dwarf]

Kim Dokja has always known he was going to die.

Or so he believed.

As the scenarios continue and his planned sacrifice inches closer, Dokja begins to dream. In them, the sky splits open. The ocean swallows him whole. Yoo Joonghyuk asks him a question he cannot answer.

“You can't die because you're scared, right?”

https://archiveofourown.org/works/87287221

[nomadic-dwarf]

If you asked Yoo Joonghyuk what he thought of Kim Dokja, he would say...he didn't know.

Kim Dokja was something of an enigma—powerful, maddeningly unreadable. Still, he held people gently, soft and nurturing where no one else was. He was the worst kind of person—a bastard that gave parts of himself to protect the people he loved most.

Today, Yoo Joonghyuk would realize just how much Kim Dokja was willing to sacrifice to keep his loved ones safe.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/66549829

[nomadic-dwarf]

This was a little extra I wrote way back when I wrote the first version of Lavender Beneath The Ruins. I couldn't quite find a way to slot it into the revised version, so I decided to share it here!

Extra: The Shape of Memory

Joonghyuk had always been cold.

Before the Facility, he would have days when the cold would seep up his spine and crawl through his limbs, numbing his face and cheeks. On those days, he bundled himself sky-high in thick blankets, his baby sister cuddling close to him to warm him up, giggling under her breath.

This was one of those days.

He didn't know what caused it, whether it was the merciless draft or the light snowfall outside, but Joonghyuk sat shivering on his bed, one of the Facility's paper-thin blankets wrapped tightly around his thin body.

Joonghyuk would have loved to wait it out, bear the agonizing and minute trembles that shot through his body. He would have been content with it, if not for Dokja's annoyed glare aimed at him from across their room.

"W-what?" Joonghyuk asked, annoyed, his teeth chattering uncontrollably.

"You're loud. And it's literally midnight." He replied with a roll of his eyes.

"N-ot my f-fault."

Dokja just sighed, almost dramatically, before shoving over his own blankets and moving towards Joonghyuk.

Joonghyuk barely suppressed an indignant sound when Dokja yanked his hands out from the safe warmth between his knees and stared at them dryly. Then, he cupped his hands in his warmer ones.

"Sitting like that isn't helping you."

"It i-is."

"You're fingernails are blue, Joonghyuk."

Joonghyuk was going to punch him. But the undeniable comfort from Dokja's heated palms, soothing over his icy fingers and sending a slow warmth down his arms, kept his mouth shut.

He didn’t stop Dokja from sitting beside him, from pressing their bodies subtly together, letting Dokja's warmth bleed into Joonghyuk's frozen frame.

The warmth was nice.

It felt like home.

Full fic:

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[nomadic-dwarf]

After the end of everything—after the final page has been turned—Kim Dokja begins to fall apart.

Some stories were never meant to end happily.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[nomadic-dwarf]

"Did you regret it? Loving this story?”

“No. But I regret that it wasn’t enough.”

Or: Two emotionally compromised idiots have a conversation.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[nomadic-dwarf]

When the first petal tumbled from his lips, thin and white, Dokja knew exactly who it was for.

The one person who had been his anchor through years of pain. The same person who exposed his life to the world.

His mother.

In the quiet, Dokja crumbled apart.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[nomadic-dwarf]

Over the years, Yoo Joonghyuk has taken more injuries than his body knows what to do with. They haunt his dreams, leave him sleepless and aching.

Lucky for him, a certain squid knows how to help.

Or: a lesson in tea, touch, and warmth.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[nomadic-dwarf]

An eternity alone can change a person. Kim Dokja knows this better than anyone.

Even in the safety of the new world, he can’t sleep without the gnawing fear of dreaming again—of salvation, of safety, of comfort.

Yoo Joonghyuk, who has crossed lifetimes to reach him, now faces a single, endless task: to anchor a god who is afraid of his own dreams.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[nomadic-dwarf]

Kim Dokja has always loved Yoo Joonghyuk.

It is a simple truth—one that has remained unchanged for years, through the end of the world and everything that came after.

It remains true, even when Yoo Joonghyuk calls him in the middle of the night, voice warm with happiness, and says:

I’m getting married.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works