Prompt #8

Minseok pushed his foot into the grass and instantly recoiled, taken aback by how warm the ground felt. Autumn was nearly over, a chill was in the air, but the world was still too hot for his liking. He had emerged from his home the night before, right after the first frost of the year. A cold front drawing him out before it passed.

As happened every few years, the first frost was not permanent. A taste of what was to come but not a steady state. It was enough to awaken him from his slumber, to drag him from his home to prepare for what was to come. A sign his work was near.

It was, as his fellow frost faeries liked to remind him, his favorite time of the year.

“Luhan should still be awake,” Wheein would poke Minseok in the arm, a smile plastered on her face as she delighted in his embarrassment.

“Off to see Luhan?” Hoya, the second in command of the frost kingdom, would yell across the courtyard the second Minseok made an appearance.

He could deal with the teasing, the jokes, the jabs and poor attempts at humor because they meant well. Frost faeries were rumored to be cold but they were anything but. Deep down they were warm, especially to each other.

Minseok watched as leaves fell from the trees, adding to the burst of oranges and reds that coated the warm grass. Soon he would help cover the leaves in snow, using his power to bathe the world in white. By then Luhan would be gone, just like every year before. His work would be done as Minseok’s work began.And when the snow ceased to fall, Minseok would return to his slumber, Luhan yet to fully awake.

They had first met soon after humans had started to forge tools of iron, working metal over fire to create strange instruments that had little meaning to the faerie. It was a happy accident when they crossed paths, a start to something that spanned centuries.

“Were you waiting long?”

Luhan had a habit of sneaking up on people – humans, faeries, even the little spry gnomes that darted between the trees.

“Hey.” The breath Minseok had been holding came out as steam, his sapphire colored eyes fixed on the beautiful summer faerie before him. “I just got here.”

Luhan was everything a frost faerie was not. He was warm, his eyes a golden brown. His hair was honey colored, his skin possessed a glow. He carried life with him, in every move, every smile. While Minseok made the world go to sleep Luhan caused it to awaken.

The summer faerie sat on the wooden bench, a manmade contraption that Minseok favored for one reason – it kept his feet off the warm ground.

“I was lulling the oaks to sleep.” Luhan dragged his hand through his messy locks. “Though I dare say they want to stay up well past their time this year.”

“Shouldn’t you be leaving that to me?” Minseok couldn’t help but smile when he was around Luhan. No matter what inane thing they were discussing it made Minseok happy. It was, unequivocally his favorite pastime - watching the summer faerie smile, listening to him as he rambled about how the tulips refused to move earlier that year, or questioning why the pines dismissed his attempts at talking them into a seasonal cycle.

“Then what should I do? Stand around until I have to sleep?” Luhan scooted over until his arm was touching Minseok’s. “I like to stay busy.”

“I can think of other things you could do.” Minseok mumbled. He wasn’t normally shy, not unless he was talking to Luhan. It had been going on for hundreds of years, this bashful flirting during the last days of autumn. An act with a desired end, a well-rehearsed interaction that they both came back to every year, as hungry as they had been the year before.

“What would that be?” Luhan always played along, pretending not to know, not to feel the same way.

“A frost faerie is a sluggish creature by nature.” Minseok cleared his throat. “And a summer faerie is full of life.”

“That is true.” Luhan was smiling, that devastatingly blinding smile.

“Perhaps you could wake me up?” Minseok turned his head, an expectant look on his face. It was the same line he had used for the last five decades, after he had finally retired ‘The summer is hot, the winter is cold, but this is autumn. Should we perhaps see if we can make each other warm?’ He still cringed when he thought back to the century and a half he had uttered those words.

“And how would I do that?” Luhan moved his face closer, his warm breath hitting Minseok’s cold face. It was a delightful tickle against his frozen skin.

Minseok’s gaze fell to Luhan’s lips. “Perhaps if our bodies touched a little more…”

“Like this?” Luhan raised his hand to rest on the side of Minseok’s face, cupping his cheek.

“I am so tired.” Minseok mocked a yawn.

“Does this help?” Luhan turned his body, wrapping his other arm around Minseok’s waist.

“Not enough.” Minseok smirked.

“Or this?” Luhan pressed his lips to Minseok’s, their kiss a mix of cold and hot, summer and winter, life and death.

Minseok parted his lips, wanting more. Luhan obliged, slotting their mouths together as he into Minseok’s mouth.

When they parted, a small cloud of steam escaped.

“How do you feel now?” Luhan caressed Minseok’s cheek then moved his hand to the winter faerie’s neck, lightly caressing his ice cold skin.

“A little better, but still tired.” Minseok lifted his eyebrows in challenge.

“Let’s see what I can do.” Luhan laughed as he lowered Minseok onto the wooden bench, his hands and mouth meeting the challenge.

Without a doubt, it was Minseok’s favorite time of year. Autumn, a time when summer and winter could meet, even if it was only for a few brief days.