Chanyeol centric
Continuity: Following #32 & 31 (OT3 has happened and Kyungsoo no longer has his gift).
#35:Chanyeol in Wonderland

The most amazing thing by far about this planet was that it had a writing system similar to that on their own world. Kris tried to explain that it really wasn’t all that hard to imagine, after all there’s a limited number of ways for writing to develop and contact between the two worlds had been established more than once. Chanyeol kind of tuned him out after that, choosing to believe it was an extraordinary coincidence instead. He thought it was the more interesting choice. However amazed he was, Chanyeol had never been very big on reading before and he certainly wasn’t all too inclined to start when he landed on a strange world. Suho once said it was silly, Chanyeol had such a wonderful imagination, books could be so much fun for him. Chanyeol had responded that the things he imagined were far better than anyone else’s ideas, why should he bother? That was before Chanyeol found Alice.

He picked up the book because the title caught his eye—he’d never seen the name Alice before, and Baekhyun was taking too long perusing the shelves of books in the abandoned store, so Chanyeol thought he’d at least try to distract himself. It wound up being the best decision he’d ever made. He walked out of that store with his eyes glued to the book, and he read it nonstop until he finally finished. It only took 3 hours, but that was because he read too fast. When he forced himself to read slowly, it took him another six.

Chanyeol was enthralled by the story of a girl who fell down a rabbit hole and found herself in one of the most exciting worlds he had ever heard of. He eagerly showed the book to Kris, who gave him a wary look.

“You know that’s fake, right? It’s fiction.”

“It could be real,” Chanyeol insisted, bouncing on his toes. “Somewhere in the universe there could be a world like this. I can throw fire from my hands and you think a place where talking animals exist is farfetched?”

It made perfect sense in Chanyeol’s head, even though few seemed to agree with him. Lay entertained the idea, but for the most part Lay entertained anything people said. A lot of things which made sense to Chanyeol didn’t make sense to others, and that was why Chanyeol found that he could sympathize with Alice. He wondered if anyone would believe her story when she got back to her old world, or would they think she made it up?

“She did make it up,” Baekhyun explained. “It was a dream.”

It was real to her, Chanyeol thought. And if it’s real to someone, how made up can it be?

It wasn’t the first time Chanyeol had thought about other places, places where the impossible was real. He hadn’t imagined such a thing in a long time, but now taking tips from Alice, he found himself doing just that. He recreated the world he was stuck on inside his head, his own Wonderland.

Chanyeol started by making a list of all the things Alice’s Wonderland that he wanted. Talking flowers were a start, followed by the talking animals. He decided that he could do without all the foods that made people grow and shrink, though. He also decided to have a place that would always serve tea no matter what time of day it was, but it would be nice tea that was sweet and could be hot or cold, and tea that made people feel better wouldn’t taste awful.

Then Chanyeol moved on to the really hard part—deciding what to imagine for himself. For that Chanyeol found himself a blank notebook and started to write things down. He decided that the trees would be all different colors all the time. Not just green but blue, red, orange, pink, purple; all shades and all variations. Then he decided that the ground would vary in color too, just like the trees, and in some places the ground would be springy so he would be able to bounce across it, in other places the ground would laugh when he walked on it. It would never be too hot or too cold, and the stars would come out whenever he asked them to. Candy would grow on trees and it wouldn’t get sticky or dirty, so he could always eat it whenever he wanted to. The water would always be clean, the rain would never fall on him and dirt would never get in his eyes.

More and more, Chanyeol found himself imagining his Wonderland. He would stare at trees as he walked by and think really hard until he could convince himself that they were bright blue and neon pink. He started talking to Daisy and Keen, imagining that they were talking back. Sometimes Baekhyun would walk up to him and ask why the hell he was bouncing around like he had springs on his feet. He reread Alice in Wonderland so many times that he lost count, but he could recite the book word by word if he wanted to. Chanyeol even had dreams about meeting Alice and having tea with her.

Eventually, Wonderland became an escape for him. When he looked around at the faces of his brothers, he realized that they were miserable. Kyungsoo wanted his gift back and often sat by himself with his hands buried in the ground. Kai was still struggling to overcome his abandonment and suffered from bouts of fury and sadness that even Chen couldn’t pull him out of. Chen was afraid to close his eyes at night, Tao jumped upon seeing shadows and hesitated to use his gift, Sehun wanted to be everything for Lu Han but couldn’t. And that was only the beginning. Chanyeol didn’t know how to deal with hurt, ever since he was young he’d never been anything but happy. Perhaps that was why he and Baekhyun fought so much, because sometimes Chanyeol just didn’t understand why Baekhyun was so upset and let things linger with him when he clearly wanted to let them go.

One night Baekhyun turned to Chanyeol and gave him a hard stare. “It’s only been three months since you found that book but I’m starting to think you love it more than you love me, and I’ve known you for decades.” And then he walked off to sit with Xiumin.

Slowly Chanyeol began to realize that he’d been selfish. Rather than use Wonderland as an escape, he ought to have included his friends in it. He started to rework his Wonderland, making rules for it. Well, not rules as in laws for people, but rather laws for the universe at large. It took about a week, but finally Chanyeol got it ready, and when he did he waited until everyone was gathered together around a fire, chatting quietly, and then he showed his notebook to Baekhyun.

“What’s this?” Baekhyun asked as he took it.

Chanyeol flipped the book open to the most recent thing he’d written. “Read it,” he said quietly.

“Out loud?” Baekhyun asked, getting the attention of Kyungsoo, who was sitting next to him.

“Sure,” Chanyeol said happily, draping his arm around Baekhyun’s shoulder.

Baekhyun began to read, and one by one everyone went quiet and listened.

Twelve boys and their two dogs found themselves tumbling down a rabbit hole one day and landing in Wonderland. It was a bright place filled with brightly colored trees and grass, and candy that grew on bushes. To their amazement, the group discovered that their dogs could now talk! But while all that was great, it wasn’t what made the place so special. What really made it a Wonderland was how much it helped them. On this world, things happened a little differently.

Nobody ever lost their memories. They remembered their loved ones no matter what and they never forgot the things that mattered most to them. Everyone could fall in love with whoever they wanted and not have to worry about hurting other people’s feelings because of it. There were no shadows for people to jump at. No one was ever abandoned or forgotten about, or left to grow up alone. No one could get hurt by the things that made them special. Gifts and talents were accepted by everyone, differences were welcomed. The earth was alive and wriggling, flowers and animals could talk to anyone who had the patience to listen and an interesting story to tell in return. Spiders and bugs stayed far away from shoes and beds, and they didn’t bite. Nobody made people do things they weren’t ready for. Confidence flowed in rivers and could be drunk when people were feeling a little unsure of themselves. Whenever anyone got hurt it wasn’t serious and could be healed easily.

And no matter what, nobody forgot that they were loved, that they were surrounded by people who cared about what happened to them. They never had to face the world alone, before they were ready to. Happiness was as easy and close as a hug from a friend or a lover. There wasn’t a useless thing about a person, and everyone knew it. The twelve boys never had to feel scared, sad or unwanted ever again because they had each other, and that was all that mattered.

When Baekhyun finished he dropped the book and buried his face in Chanyeol’s shirt, crying hysterically. All around there were similar scenes. Suho was trying very hard to comfort Kai, Kyungsoo was weeping into his hands while Lay patted his shoulder. Sehun and Lu Han had their arms around each other’s shoulders, Tao and Chen were clinging to Kris, who was trying to discreetly find some tissues and Xiumin had given himself hiccups from trying not to sob. The dogs were the only ones who looked remotely confused, Daisy trying to everybody’s face and Keen obviously having decided that it wasn’t his problem anymore.

Baekhyun pulled back and kissed Chanyeol softly on the lips before dissolving in tears once again. “I love you,” he whispered as Chanyeol hugged him tightly.

“I love you too, and I always will,” Chanyeol promised. “I’m sorry I wasn’t paying attention to you recently, but I swear I never stopped loving you.”

Chen pushed himself away from Kris and walked over to Kai, taking his hands. “You know we love you, right?” He asked tearfully. “And you didn’t deserve all the bad stuff that happened to you, and you’ll never ever be alone again.”

“I know,” Kai hiccupped. “I really do but…it’s so hard,” he sobbed, burying his head in Chen’s neck. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, any of you and that scares me…”

“We’ll always find you,” Kris said suddenly. “We’ll always find each other again, this just proves it. this is the second time we’ve all been separated and found each other again. It’s destiny, we’ll never be rid of each other.”

There was a bubble of laughter from around the group and Suho looked up at Kris as though the sun rose and set on him. “I love you so much,” he sighed, and then he turned to Tao. “And I love you too, Tao.”

Then the three of them were enveloped in such a close hug that Chanyeol couldn’t tell whose arm belonged to whom. Seeing that Chanyeol decided that they should try it with all of them. “GROUP HUG!” He shouted, pulling Baekhyun up.

In the end they wound up nearly crushed when their group hug over balanced and they all crumpled to the floor, but they were laughing and smiling so it didn’t matter. Sehun wound up landing on top of Lu Han and while the two of them hadn’t been much for PDA after their marriage, Sehun leaned down and kissed Lu Han right there in front of everyone.

“I love you so much,” Sehun breathed as Lu Han blushed (actually blushed—Chanyeol hadn’t seen him do that in years!). “I’m so glad I have you back, even if you don’t remember everything I’m just glad we’ll get to have new memories together.” And then Sehun kissed him again.

Kai threw a stick at them. “Get a room,” he laughed.

Chen gave him a serious look. “Don’t make fun of them, that’s going to be us someday you know.”

Kai jumped and stared at Chen. “Huh?” He said dumbly. “What…did you…?”

Chen blinked at him. “Well you know…we’ll get married too one day.”

Kai gaped at him. “You…you really think so?” He asked timidly, seeming to have forgotten everything outside of Chen. “You really want me?”

Chen gripped Kai’s hands tightly. “Have I not made that abundantly clear to you yet?” He asked. “Of course I think so, of course I want you! In fact…” He stood up, hauled Kai to his feet and then promptly got down on one knee. “Will you marry me Jongin?”

Kris clapped his hand over Suho’s mouth just as he shrieked.

Kai started to cry again and he choked out a yes, falling to his knees and nearly knocking Chen on his back as he went in for a kiss.

Chanyeol turned to Baekhyun wide eyed, at once wondering if he should propose as well. Baekhyun glared at him.

“Don’t you dare, not unless you have a ring for me.”

Chanyeol laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Not on me, no.”

“Then get me a ring before you ask me to marry you,” Baekhyun said with a smile. “Besides, this is their moment.”

Chanyeol secretly disagreed, he thought this kind of happy moment was for all of them.

CAN WE ALL JUST FIRST OF ALL SQUEAL BECAUSE EXO IS FINALLY COMING BACK!!

CAN WE SECOND OF ALL SQUEAL BECAUSE BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS “AT WORLD’S END” WILL PROBABLY HAVE PASSED 20,000 VIEWS.

WE’LL NOW SQUEAL OVER CHANYEOL IN WONDERLAND BECAUSE I AM A CLEVER WRITER. And then we’ll feel sad because the babies still have a lot of emotional baggage. Kai especially because, if I didn’t make it clear by now, he has MAJOR issues. He’s still recovering from those 8 years he spent with “comatose” Lu Han and heartbroken Sehun—watching your friends go through that is just like…oooh I have so much more to do with that. And Sehun and Lu Han still have baggage too. So does Kyungsoo. And Suho, Kris, Xiumin…ANGST. ANGST EVERYWHERE. WADE THROUGH IT.

Okay, now we can squeal because KAI AND CHEN ARE ENGAGED!!!

I didn’t set out with that in mind…actually this drabble wasn’t nearly as happy as I hoped to make it. I wanted something crack-ish for a change, but I guess this is a fitting way to celebrate the impending comeback.

AND HOLY AM I EVER EXCITED FOR THAT!!! I CAN’T WAIT TO HEAR MY BABY KRIS’ VOICE IN SOME NEW RAPS AND THANK YOU THE UNIVERSE FOR PUTTING MY LADY AND BABY DON’T CRY ON THE ALBUM.

Okay I’ll leave you with this, I have a final exam tomorrow at 8:30 AM. Uuuuugh.

Also, I have two seperate Word documents for the drabbles. Once the first document hit 100 pages (after drabble 19) I started another one, and this second document now has 90 pages. So in Microstoft Word I have 190 pages of AWE drabbles. I don't even want to know how many words that is.