“They knew that looking back on the tears would make them laugh but they never knew that looking back on the laughs would bring tears.”
 

Passing by in the evening, the cars were rushing on the street, the sun a big circle in the sky. The wind blowing just a bit, just so that it won’t be too hot or too cold. There were trees on each side of the road, there was a hill surrounded by a lake on the right. On the hill there stood a headstone, in all its glory, with someone’s name scribbled in the hard and cold rock. No one went to the island to see what it said, no one approached the little mystery land that floated on water because they all knew, and everyone knew the same thing.

The legends spoke of the great King Britain once had, the myths spoke of him with admiration and respect, and they all knew the story. The lake to which Jaehyun consigns the body of his King, after the Battle of Camlann. It is the final resting place of both Sir Dong Young and the queen's brother Sir Taeil. It is also home to the Sidhe, the immortal race of winged blue creatures who Jaehyun battles with for Taeyong's soul in The Gates of Avalon.

The Lake is the only other gateway to the land of the dead other than the Pool of Nemhain and it is also the final home of Taeyong's great sword Excalibur.  The Lady of the Lake, kept Excalibur in her keeping after Jaehyun was told by the great dragon to remove its power in case the sword fell into the wrong hands, its magic could be a force for great evil.

It said that it was the island of Avalon, where the king laid to rest until he was needed again, that in the waters that surround the small land drowned Excalibur and when the king will rise again, he will pick his sword from the bottom of it and Britain will be great again.

The only problem was that this was all just child talk, just a legend, and no one believed in these types of stories anymore. No one, except, Jaehyun.

Jaehyun passed by the same road, looked at the island over and over again. At night he wished upon stars, at day he would pray, and every time he passed the island he wished again and again for the same thing: the legend to be real, his king would rise again, his waiting to be over.

Jaehyun lived to see the downfall of Camelot, Jaehyun lived to see generations move on, he lived to see the demise of civilizations, the downfall of magic. He lived through it all and he waited alone for one thing. As years passed he thought he was never going to see him again. His thoughts were darker and darker, because being alone killed him.

At first, he would cry at night, then when he couldn’t take the pain anymore he thought about dying, but he didn’t want to die and never see Taeyong again so he survived through it all. Then the more time it passed the more he wanted to revive his loved one. He wondered the world for any type of spell, for any type of sacrifice, he was ready to do everything just to see him breathe again.

With time, he realized his magic was fading, the more it passed the weaker he got and then he found a book, an old magic book that spoke of a time where magic would not be needed and it would vanish for good. He started to panic, he started to become afraid, because that couldn’t happen. If he no longer had magic then how was he going to revive Taeyong if he never woke up? How was he going to make Taeyong remember his past and him if the case was he could never remember his past life? He didn’t know what it was to awaken from the dead. He didn’t know what he would do what it would happen when Taeyong would actually come back to life and didn’t remember anything.  He didn’t want to believe it so he tossed the book and never touched it again.

Centuries passed and by the time he started to think about giving up he thought about ending it for real. He was all alone and no one really tried to approach him. He was an outcast and wherever he went he couldn’t stay, because they couldn’t find out about his magic, no one could know.

He found out soon enough that the world was just like in the past afraid of what they don’t understand, but the ore time passed the worst it got and he had to learn once more how to hide his powers, how to hide his gift until he would need it again. He tried dating for a while, he tried to stop himself from the self-pity he inflicted in himself, but he realized he couldn’t love anyone else, because his heart belonged to someone already and even in death he could not move on. . He tried to follow the trends, he tried to follow up with the civilizations moving on and he was the only one that was left behind.

The big problem he had was that he couldn’t age. The spell he cast on himself the day Taeyong died was made that he would age again when Taeyong would rise again and they would grow old together. Because that was the right thing to do, because he promised to himself that he would grow old together with Taeyong, that they would be happy and maybe this time, his love would be returned.  For him to break the spell meant he had to touch Taeyong, because even if along the years he found people who looked like his beloved when they touched the spell did not break and once more his hopes in finding his king would dim.

He kept moving forward, but in the end he was still stuck on the same road he first left his Taeyong, he was trapped there, like a ghost wandering around its place of death. He didn’t know how to move on, he didn’t know how to give up, and he didn’t want to either.

His hairstyle changed over the years, his hair grew too long, an ash-burn color blended his hair at first but the more the years passed he went black, he decided to style it and went for a curly look but soon enough he stuck to the normal straight hair with bangs covering his face. His clothes had to be changed too, but one thing he liked to keep and even if it was barely holding on, even if it was almost of no use anymore he kept it. The red scarf around his neck was still there, after all these years the red scarf made it through the centuries. He thought that maybe, when Taeyong would rise again and he wouldn’t recognize him anymore, he could show him his scarf, maybe, just maybe, he would remember the importance of it. Because after all, it was Taeyong who gifted the scarf to Jaehyun when they were still ten years old and he kept it close ever since.

There was a coffee shop he like to visit, where the name and the atmosphere reminded him of home. He missed his home, he missed Camelot, he missed his room and the castle walls. He missed the warmth of his bed when Taeyong slept in his arms but in the end he reached the same conclusion, it wasn’t Camelot he missed it was Taeyong.

The coffee shop was not far from the island that he liked to visit, to remind himself that there was still hope, to make sure he wasn’t giving up and with each day that passed he would wait for him in the same place, next to the shore, gazing in the distance at the headstone that after so many years stood firm on the top of the hill.

Sometimes he would remember the time he had to carry Taeyong in his arms, the coldness of his body and he wished to feel his warmth again, he wanted the hands that limped to the side to raise and embrace him once more, he wanted to see the pink color of his lips and the blush on his cheeks. The gleam of his eyes, but most of all he wanted to see that smile, that big goofy smile that he would show and then rapidly cover with his hand. Tears kept falling and his steps were heavy, and he felt like giving up, falling down and dying with him, the lifeless body in his hands felt like it weighted a thousand kilos and his hands couldn’t stop from trembling. The way his tears didn’t stop from falling even when he had to place Taeyong down on the wooden boat, he remembered how he grabbed his hands and placed them to his chest so they could rest there and how he kissed his cold forehead and then stood in the water and watched how his king disappeared into the mist of the island and he was gone forever.

The name of the coffee shop was ‘Camelot’, and he thought the patrons named it because of the closeness of the shop with the island. Probably to attract more customers. The outside looked peaceful and the flags that were on the corners, made it look like a castle door. They were just as he remembered, red and yellow, with a dragon in the middle. The doors were made of hard wood and the windows resembled the ones of a castle. The interior was calm, with medieval music playing in the background. The walls were decorated with swords and shields and they even tried to hang a poster of the castle they thought resembled the one he lived in. Everyone who came inside thought that was how the castle of Camelot looked like, when in fact, only Jaehyun knew of its mighty glory.

The tables were all round and the seats were small, making every table look like the round table from inside the castle walls. Everything about the coffee shop reminded him of home, the shop was like a cheap replica of the castle and even if it wasn’t real, it felt like home and it was enough.

As he opened the door, a bell jingled and music welcomed him. He went to his seat, far in the back, where there was a window and he could watch the island from. The first time he found the shop he was a bit taken aback, but with time he was a regular and now he came here almost every day.

“What can I get you?” a waiter asked and Jaehyun was a bit taken by surprise because normally they would just bring him his order. He always ordered the same thing and soon the waiters and everyone in the staff knew that when he would come through that door every morning at 10:30, he would order his food and tea and he would sit by the window and read a book or just look out in the distance with a sad look on its face, longing for something they didn’t understand.

“Oh, the usual, the full breakfast meal, bacon, sausages, eggs, and the other cooked foods, with tea, Earl Grey, would be good.” Jaehyun said politely and smiled to the boy. His hair was orange, with a bit of blonde, and somehow his eyes reminded him of someone. He watched as the boy smiled back and went to the counter to ask for the order.

He noticed something was off at the store, the personal was changed, and these were not the people he knew. He had to miss his orders this weekend because he had something important to do at the hospital. He was a doctor, because his powers were normally used for healing and he didn’t forgive himself for not being able to save Taeyong he became a doctor so he could at least save others.

He looked around and in the corer there were two boys talking with each other, smiling and laughing, and by the looks of it they too resembled people he thought he knew. One was a bit smaller than the other, but nevertheless he knew that smile, he knew that laugh and the way he moved. The other one was a bit more serious at first but when he started laughing he looked so happy and smitten, he didn’t know what to say about them, the whole scene looked rather familiar. The way they acted all funky and goofed around, he almost saw the scene happen in his memories.

Then he shifted his eyes to the orange haired boy, and something about him seemed even more familiar than the two of the boys he noticed before. His movements and the glint in his eyes when he turned to Jaehyun and smiled again noticing his stare. He turned back and started talking with another boy, someone that sat down on a chair and you could only see the top of his head.

He felt weird, like he was about to get caught on hidden camera. He thought he missed something, maybe he was so homesick that he couldn’t make the reality from fantasy, maybe he was finally losing it and maybe he was going crazy but the more he stared the more everything fell into place and before he could voice it out someone came from behind the counter doors and flashing a smile towards Jaehyun he placed the plates down and said,

“Here is your order, sir. Sorry for the wait, I’m new here.”

“It’s oka –“He stopped mid-sentence when he caught sight of the boy standing in front of him. Silver hair sticking out and being parted to the sides, long white sleeved shirt that covered his arms, a black apron circling his waist and red tight pants embracing his thin legs.

“Sir? Are you feeling alright?” He asked with a look of concern on his face and gave him a smile once more. He bent down a bit to look at his face and Jaehyun almost fell of the chair.

He regained his balance and trying to grab something from the table he managed to make a fool of himself and spill the tea all over the table and with a horrified look on his face he looked up and saw that the boy was laughing at him.

He couldn’t believe his eyes. It was the perfect embodiment of the one he longed for. His eyes that turned to crescents when he smiled and as a giggle left his beautiful plump lips he raised his hand and covered his mouth and laughed some more.

“I’m alright, I’m alright.” He said when he saw that the boy was bending to grab some napkins to clean the tea from the table. Jaehyun just watched, he was staring at him like a deer caught in the highlights. He thought his eyes would pop out from his head.

“Do I have something on my face?” The silver haired boy said as he touched his face with his free left hand. Jaehyun was still staring, he followed his every move. And the only thing that went through his mind was that he wanted to touch him.

“I guess not.” He answered to his own question.

Jaehyun was smitten and he didn’t know what to do, he just stared as the boy went to take the orders from some other customers that were in the café and as he looked all he thought was that it was him, this one was the real one, this was not a dream, he wanted to be real, he wanted for this to be real and even if this was just a dream he wanted to never wake up again.

He tried to finish his food but he failed because as soon as he tried to grab the fork it stumbled and fell to the ground and the boy heard the tinkle and turned around to see the eyes of Jaehyun staring at him again. He just smiled and came to his table once more and Jaehyun followed his moves with his head. The boy then moved left and hopped right and so did Jaehyun head. His eyes followed his every move and he needed someone to slap some sense into him because if he kept going he was going to turn into a creep.

“Are you sure you’re alight, sir?” The boy said again, trying to make Jaehyun react.

Jaehyun stared some more and before the boy could turn he got up and grabbed his hand and the moment he touched his hand it was bliss. Like fireworks exploded in his soul, his body reacted to the touch and everything started to crumble and before he knew it he was hugging the boy and as he held him tight he kept repeating the same word over and over again.

“Taeyong.”

A/n: soooooooooooo, a little cliffhanger and I hope you don’t mind haha! Also sorry for the angst, im trying and im like reallllllly trying to write fluff but im too deep in angsty feels and I just forgot how fluff looks like.

Also, I want to thank to the new subscribers and for the upvote! It means a lot so thank you! Thank you for reading this and feel free to tell me what you think in the comments! I will be happy to read and reply to them!