liquid gold

fairy (noun): a mythical being who had magical powers, known in many sizes and descriptions, although often depicted in modern illustrations only as small and spritely with gauze-like wings; A sprite.

Luhan thinks he’s lucky- he loves yellow. He also really likes orange because one time Jongdae offered him a small bite of his tangerine and Luhan could feel the sugar melting on his tongue (“It’s no surprise these tangerines are the best, I helped them grow with my dust” Jongdae had said with a proud smile on his glowing face) but yellow, oh, yellow is his favorite color out of the whole spectrum. The first time Luhan opened his almond eyes on a hot June morning, yellow was everything he could see. It gave him warmth, protection, safety, and when the sunflower slowly opened its petals to greet the sun, Luhan stared at that star until he couldn’t see anything else around himself anymore and black dots started to appear in the sky. Then, after rubbing his small fists against those sleepy eyes of his, he lifted himself up and looked around to admire what he now calls fields of gold: an infinite, glowing, beautiful multitude of sunflowers.

He was, in fact, born in one. Luhan still looks a bit like a sunflower too, with his mop of honey blond hair and dark bronze painted fingertips, frail see-through wings and glimmering golden skin. He was born with no shoes and no clothes, but he quickly learnt how to fabricate some with the help of leaves and petals stolen from random flowers. Luhan’s hands were still clumsy as they tried to wrap a rose petal around his waist- it felt so weird, he didn’t even have any rope to keep the whole outfit together, but the velvety sensation felt really good against his bare skin. Later, when he met another fairy by chance, Luhan wasted no time and thankfully accepted the new pair of pants the fairy sewed for him. He didn’t accept shoes though, already feeling guilty enough. Kyungsoo, that was the fairy’s name, shook his head and gave him a light blanket made of dried leaves to protect him from the winter as a present (“No need to thank me. If you need more clothes, you know where to find me” Kyungsoo had said and waved from afar, disappearing between tree branches) and that’s how Luhan found clothes and his first friend.

But again, Luhan thinks he’s really lucky. He sits on his bed, or well, on his sunflower, and watches as his short legs swing in the air. The sunlight bathes him in white, warm light, and even though he’s a rather young fairy, he remembers the fields of gold by heart already. Luhan met another fairy a couple of years ago, a fairy named Tao with hair redder than fire and smoother than silk, who was born in the prettiest poppy Luhan had ever seen. Tao hated red more than his life and the fact that he was basically made of red, well, only brought sadness in that little fairy’s life. That’s the reason why Luhan thinks he might be the luckiest of them all, because Mother Nature dipped him in gold and yellow and Luhan couldn’t have asked for anything better.

Luhan doesn’t know much about his birth, sadly. He only recalls the sensation he felt when he suddenly woke up and the first ray of sun kissed his face with love and tenderness. He doesn’t know who gave him his name, or who taught him to fly. He doesn’t even know why he was born in a sunflower, but that doesn’t bother him much. Kyungsoo once told him to just be happy with what he received and Luhan considers himself more than just happy, so that’s okay. He stopped thinking about his origins a long time ago, and now that he’s three years and four months old and as tall as a thumb, he has other things to worry about.

Like his job.

Some fairies do have jobs, but finding a talent isn’t really that automatic. A fairy needs to know itself very well before deciding which kind of job suits it the best, and Luhan spent a couple of months trying to discover his inner talent. He tried to take care of animals like Baekhyun, but a squirrel almost bit his hand off. He tried to clean the lake with Suho, but his wings got so wet that he almost drowned. Luhan tried also to deliver little messages here and there but he wasn’t fast enough, so Chanyeol just patted his shoulder and told him to keep trying somewhere else. For a second it felt like Luhan had no talents at all, like he was useless, but eventually a miracle happened on a cold morning in October. He asked Minseok if he could help him paint leaves (“Winter is getting near, we need to be quick!” Minseok exclaimed while carrying cans of different colors and brushes) and the latter nodded with gratitude. When the tip of Luhan’s brush touched the first leaf, Luhan automatically understood that this was his job. He painted and painted and painted until his wings couldn’t flutter anymore and his limbs were this far from just falling off his tired little body. Luhan was happy though, and so was Minseok, who happened to find a co-worker as fast as a thunder and also a best friend.

—

Luhan brings a glittery hand towards his forehead to swipe off the sweat. August is such a mean month to fairies, the sprite finds himself thinking as he dips the tip of his brush into some red paint. Young poppies need to be painted again because they can’t remain light pink forever, but it’s hard to focus when the sunlight burns his neck like a flame and the fairy dust in his little sack is almost finished. Luhan sighs and lifts up his eyes; he seriously hopes the dust will be enough for him to finish the whole field, because honestly he doesn’t want to fall on his and his legs are way too tired to walk. He dips the brush once more and starts painting another flower.

“Luhan, did you know that Jongdae was almost caught by a human the other day?” Minseok suddenly asks, his poppy already half painted and a hint of worry in his soft voice. Luhan shakes his head negatively, feeling shivers run down his back. Fairies and humans are not really enemies, but everybody agrees on the fact that it’s better if these two species just…don’t live together. Some humans don’t even believe in fairies, and Luhan still remembers how his friend once described a kid (“He was taller than trees, bigger than waterfalls! His hands could crush stones! Let me tell you, if you see a human just fly away and don’t ever look back” he had said, wings still shaking and knees pressed against his chest) and honestly, he doesn’t want to feel what he felt.

“Jongdae said the girl wanted to pick a few cherries and then she saw him, but he was quicker and disappeared in a bush nearby” Minseok keeps talking as the poppies that need to be painted become lesser and lesser by the minute.

“Please be careful on your way home, okay? People pick sunflowers all the time” the blue winged fairy begs with a sad smile, finishing his last flower with a final of red paint.

“Thank you Minseok, I’ll be careful. Take care” Luhan waves his little shimmering hand in the air and bids his friend goodbye, noticing just now how the sun is about to go to sleep. He hates flying when the sky is dark because he just wasn’t born to do so, and his eyesight is worse than bats’, so with a last sprint he flies towards the fields of gold. Being paranoid isn’t really a part of his personality, but after hearing Minseok’s scary announcement, Luhan can’t help but feel pairs of eyes fixed on his little glowing frame. He’s not scared, he tells himself. He’s not scared, but when a bird flies a bit too close and the wind blows a bit too hard for his taste, the fairy flies faster and doesn’t dare look behind his shoulder. A sigh of relief escapes from his lips as he spots the fields in the horizon: he’s home, safe and sound.

He finds his sunflower right away; can of paint hidden underneath a leaf and eyelids heavy as a stone, Luhan crawls on his dark carpet and watches as the familiar yellow petals start to gently close on himself. He politely wishes goodnight to the sun and welcomes the moon with one last glance towards the lilac sky, then everything turns black and the tiny fairy falls asleep with his legs close to his torso and soft blond locks on his pretty face. He dreams about lands he has never visited and seas he has never crossed, he dreams about running through golden wheat fields, he dreams about dipping his feet into the waters of a running river, he dreams all of this and so much more, but at some point something feels wrong.

Luhan can’t understand if he’s shaking in his dream or if someone is actually shaking his sunflower, but as soon as his eyes flutter open gracefully, his worse nightmare becomes reality and he has to hold onto the seeds because something or someone really wants to pick his flower. The fairy struggles as he feels himself being thrown everywhere, tears forming on the side of his eyes and ears filled with voices he can’t recognize. Is that a human? Does he wants to kill Luhan? Should the fairy run away? He might tear a petal apart and fly away, but just like it started, suddenly the flower stays still and Luhan wipes his tears away with relieved but scared movements. What the hell is happening, Luhan wonders when the voices just can’t stop echoing inside the flower in a messy and annoying noise.

“Don’t pick that one, it’s still closed. Let’s go, Sehun!”

Luhan freezes. He tells himself to just wait, but apparently listening isn’t really his forte, so he scoots closer to the edge and takes a peek from between two petals. He sees a small human running around with his hands in the air and a bigger human shaking his head negatively. He seems mad, but then a smile appears on his lips and the boy jumps right into his arms. They walk away slowly, occasionally pointing at flowers and at the sun that’s about to rise. Luhan presses a hand against his beating heart and sobs. How the hell is he supposed to sleep now? He just saw his relatively short life flash right in front of his eyes. Luhan waits for a couple of minutes before leaving his little home to fly somewhere else, somewhere safer and far away from those two humans.

He reaches the lake and spots the lotus flower he knows too well; he doesn’t even have to ask for permission- Luhan slowly slides inside and hugs the fairy that’s still sleeping right in the center, pink short hair sprawled everywhere and little snores echoing around them. Minseok doesn’t mind, after all. He never has and probably never will.

Luhan ends up sleeping with Minseok for a month or so, or at least until the pink fairy tells him that he just can’t live in fear for the rest of his existence.

“I know that what happened really scared you, Luhan, but you just need to let go” Minseok says at some point, both literally and figuratively, shaking the arm that Luhan’s been holding for the whole morning. It starts to hurt and they can’t even work properly, glued to each other like ivy on tree barks. Luhan drops Minseok’s arm and sighs, but deep down he knows his friend is right. He just can’t go on like this: he needs to return to his flower and just hope for the best. Luck needs to be on his side too, right?

When Luhan’s bare feet touch the seeds of his sunflower, things seem to get a little better. He missed sleeping there, with soft yellow walls surrounding him and protecting his tiny body like a warm hug. He missed stirring his limbs bathed in sunlight and he also missed watching the fields of gold during sunsets, where bronze meets orange and light blue meets pink in a beautiful mixture of shades and shadows. Feeling at home is probably the best sensation Luhan has ever felt until now. Sleeping in that lotus flower also made his wings humid and his skin even more humid, so maybe leaving the lake was the right thing to do.

Luhan shakes some fairy dust off his legs and ankles. Sometimes he really hates flying, dust gets everywhere- even behind his pointy ears, so he has to spend extra time trying to get them clean the best he can. He’s thinking about visiting Kyungsoo to ask for another blanket - Jongdae said this winter will be so cold that fields will freeze and Luhan doesn’t want to turn into a popsicle - when a voice reaches his eardrums, his poor eardrums that Luhan is trying so desperately to save by pressing the palms of his hands against his ears. He looks around with scared eyes and trembling shoulders, throat dry and a very bad feeling in his tummy; he should have stayed with Minseok, oh Mother Nature, he’s so going to die right now and he’s still so young and he totally doesn’t deserve this-

“What are you?” a soft whisper makes Luhan’s head turn around so fast that he might break his neck, and maybe that wouldn’t be so bad because there are huge brown irises looking directly at him and the fairy screams from the top of his lungs, stumbling backwards until his feet can’t feel the ground anymore. Something warm and slightly sticky catches him before he can become hummus for his own sunflower, bringing the little creature even closer to his young face.

“P-please don’t eat me!” Luhan cries out, shaking like a leaf and eyes already watering. He recognizes the human right away, he is that annoying boy that almost destroyed his house, and Luhan feels so many emotions all at once that he thinks he might explode like a pretty firework.

The kid furrows his eyebrows but doesn’t try to eat the fairy- not yet, Luhan thinks.

“Ew, I don’t wanna eat you. My grandma told me about fairie