#38:Wish Upon A Star
Continuity: After #36
Pairing: 2Jong/KaiChen/ChenKai/whatever

If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do

When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true

Chen had never imagined that he would be the one to propose to Kai, he had never actually imagined them having a fancy proposal. He’d just thought that one day they’d look at each other and say, “I want to marry you,” and that would be it. Nobody would get down on one knee, they wouldn’t have rings, they wouldn’t even have a big ceremony—they had disturbed the Tree enough in the last ten years, it needed a break to focus on healing the world. He figured that he and Kai would just casually bring it up to the other members, maybe Lu Han would insist on some kind of ceremony, but there wouldn’t be a big fuss.

When Chen was a child, he had never imagined his wedding. There wasn’t anyone in his village he particularly wanted to marry, so he didn’t think about it. and then growing up he was too timid to believe that such a thing could ever happen to him. Now that the possibility was there though, and now that everyone knew about it, Chen found himself thinking about his marriage quite a bit. If he had imagined his wedding, he would have never imagined that he’d be getting married while traveling around an empty world, basically waiting for the first people to pop up. Chen found himself thinking back to his village and what their traditional wedding was like. The more he thought about it, the more he thought that it was something he would have liked.

While walking along, trying to get to Beijing, their group came upon a huge field full of flowers. It reminded Chen so much of his hometown that he nearly started to cry. He had grown up in the North, which was famous for large cities, but even in the north there had been rural areas, and Chen had grown up in a town that was more a collection of grain fields than an actual, cohesive town. Perhaps that was why he was naturally so solitary.

Seeing the field, Chen right away took off running to the tall grasses, tossing a ‘Be right back’ over his shoulder to the rest of his group. He ran until he couldn’t breathe, until grass and flowers were all he could see, and then he flopped down on his back and stared up at the sky. It was so blue here, devoid of the orange tint that the sky tended to have in other places. It was so quiet and calm, he never wanted to leave.

Chen raised his hand and trailed his fingertips along the blades of grass. He couldn’t believe the flowers were still blooming here, Kyungsoo and Lay must have been thrilled. Sitting up, Chen grabbed a handful of the grass and selected a few of the prettiest flowers. It had been years since he had last done this, but even a rejected child knew how to do this in his village. He began to wind the grass together, braiding the flowers in. He was only about halfway done when he felt Kai pop up beside him.

“It’s gorgeous here,” Kai sighed, sitting down and resting his chin on Chen’s shoulder. Chen leaned back until he was resting against Kai’s chest, and Kai’s arms went around his waist.

“What are you making?” Kai asked.

“A flower crown,” Chen said. “I haven’t made one in a while. Kai, have I ever told you what weddings are like where I come from?”

“No,” Kai said, surprised. “I thought they were the same across the north.”

“Not in my village,” Chen said softly. “For us, when a couple gets married they…well of course they get the proper paperwork, and their family goes with them to the local council and whatever, but when they get back they have another ceremony.” He paused to get a few more flowers, continuing when he was resettled. “It’s very private, I mean everyone knows what to do but when it comes down to it, the ceremony is only between two people. They go off together to some place quiet and isolated, some place like this. They talk about their future, imagine how their lives will play out, make rules for their household and discuss how they’ll raise their kids and take care of their land. While they do this, the couple makes flower crowns for each other. They gather the best grass and flowers, and when they’re ready they exchange crowns. They stay out there, alone together, until the last flower in the crown wilts. Then they come home and start their life together.”

Chen sighed, fingers stilling on his crown. “It’s a little sad, because the gift you’ve made for your lover is going to die, but it’s symbolic for life. Sometimes things don’t work out how you want them to, sometimes a flood wipes out your crops or you can’t have kids, but it’s not about the things you don’t have, it’s about the love that stays with you even after the last flower has wilted. There will always be more flowers you can weave into a crown, and there will always be another day with the one you love.”

Chen pretended not to notice that Kai was crying.

“That’s beautiful,” Kai said after a moment, clearing his throat a little. “And you’re very good at making those crowns.”

Chen held up his completed masterpiece and smiled. “It’s not as good as it could have been, but I’ve been making these since I was a baby. Everyone in my village did, it’s the first thing we learn.”

Kai the braiding and the flowers. “Can you teach me how to make one?” He asked.

Chen shrugged. “Sure, we have time.”

But Kai shook his head and pressed a lingering kiss to Chen’s cheek. “Teach me now,” he murmured, his lips brushing Chen’s skin. “I want to be able to do this for you. You want a ceremony like that, and so do I.”

Chen turned around, eyes wide in surprise. “Really? You want to do that?”

Kai nodded eagerly.

“But…the others will want to have a ceremony with us,” Chen sputtered. “You want Suho to be there when we exchange vows.”

“We can do that too,” Kai assured, taking Chen’s hands. “But I can see how much you want this, and I think it’s beautiful. I just want us to go to a beach for our ceremony, do you think we can do that? Maybe get some flowers here and then I can see if I can pop us over to a beach.”

Chen knew that to do that would make Kai exhausted, so for him to say it he must have been very serious. He found himself tearing up, imagining sitting with Kai as they watched the sun set over the water, their flower crowns tangled in their hair. He could imagine falling asleep under a sky full of stars, tracing the lines in Kai’s palm as they were lying side by side.

“I think we can do that,” Chen choked, and as Kai kissed his tears away Chen wondered how they could possibly have a more perfect moment than this one. Even when Keen came bounding up, Daisy hot on his heels, and the two dogs pounced on Kai and Chen and them half to death, the moment was still absolutely perfect.

Chen had imagined that they might have a joint ceremony with Baekhyun and Chanyeol, but the two of them decided that they wanted their weddings to be their own. Kai and Chen didn’t have their ceremony until after Kai was confident that he could make an acceptable flower crown without any help, which took him about a month. He would practice every night, using anything he could get his hands on. He even used tree branches at one point. The other members of their group would watch in a mixture of awe and amusement as Kai struggled to braid the grasses and flowers together and Chen gave him encouraging words and helped to guide his hands when he stumbled. More than once it seemed like Suho and Kris were especially touched, watching the pair of them, and Chen figured it was because he and Kai had been practically raised by the two leader.

Finally the day came when they had their group ceremony. Suho wrote up a marriage contract, which Kai and Chen signed, and then each member of the group gave the pair of them a few words of encouragement or a wish for their future together.

Suho made a speech about how wonderful it had been to watch Kai grow up and fall in love, and Kris did the same for Chen. Everyone cried, Kai possibly more than anyone else, and when he hugged Suho, Chen heard him whisper into his leader’s ear, “I love you, hyung. You’re more a brother to me than anyone else has ever been.”

After Kris’ speech, Chen hugged him tightly and thanked him for all the care Kris had ever shown him. Kris ruffled Chen’s hair and said that Chen was truly everything Kris had ever imagined he could grow up to be and more.

Then the twelve of them had lunch together, Chen made Lay promise to take good care of Keen while he was gone, Kai packed a bag of food and water and Chen made sure to bring plenty of spare clothes. When they were ready, Kai and Chen walked off by themselves. Kai pulled Chen close and Chen closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were standing in the same flower field where Chen had first showed Kai how to make the crown.

Chen had to laugh at how particular Kai was when he chose the grasses and flowers. He fussed over the color of each flower and the length of each blade of grass. Kai was frantic about what color flowers he should use, and Chen assured him that he would love it no matter what.

“It has to be perfect!” Kai insisted. “You only get one wedding flower crown right?”

“Unless we get married again,” Chen said as he gathered some grass. “You know, Sehun and Lu Han are thinking of having another wedding ceremony.”

“What for?” Kai demanded. “It’s only been five years!”

“I think they want to do something personal, like this,” Chen said with a happy sigh. “Really, they deserve it. Are you done picking everything?”

“No!” Kai yelped. “I want the freshest looking plants I can find, I want them to take forever to wilt.”

Chen nearly dropped everything he was holding. “Aw, Kai!” he cried, “That’s so sweet of you to say!”

But ten minutes later Chen threw up his hands. “For the Tree’s sake, come on! Let’s go to the beach!”

Kai laughed and straightened up from his pile of collected flora, having finally picked the best specimens. He ran to Chen and almost knocked him down with a hug, and when Chen regained his footing he realized that he wasn’t standing on dirt but sand.

The twelve of them had only been to a beach on this world once before, and Chen was mesmerized by the sight of sand stretching for miles in front of him, and when he turned his head he saw the ocean laying out even further across the landscape. Along the beach were all sorts of fancy houses, and behind those were large apartment buildings. The sun was still high in the sky, which was mostly blue in this area, and there wasn’t a rain cloud in sight. It was so beautiful.

“This is gorgeous,” Chen sighed as he looked around.

Kai smiled shyly. “Is it? I wasn’t sure if…if it was okay that we were near a city, I just thought that if it rained really badly we might want to take cover somewhere.”

“That’s good thinking,” Chen assured. “And really, I think that since we’re alone here, it’s okay to be near a city.”

Kai sighed in relief and then pulled a blanket out of his bag and spread it out on the sand. “So, do we start now?” He asked.

Chen plopped down and patted the space next to him. “Now is as good a time as any.”

When Chen was assured that Kai wasn’t having any problems starting the crown (as he so often had) he began work on his own. Now that the moment had actually arrived, he found himself suddenly nervous. Kai had been right after all, you only got one wedding crown. To distract himself, he initiated conversation.

“So we’re supposed to talk about our future together,” Chen reminded Kai.

“We’ll be Guardians until the end of time,” Kai said. “We’ll live with the others forever, we’ll train the future generations, and then we’ll defeat that thing back on our planet.”

There was a brief silence in which Chen debated opening his mouth. “That’s odd,” He finally mumbled.

“What’s odd?”

Chen swallowed. “Well, you said back on our planet…you didn’t say home.”

Kai hesitated. “It’s not my home,” he said at last. “That place has too many bad memories. They outweigh the good ones.”

Chen kept his eyes on the braid he was making, weaving in a purple flower. “But what about this planet?” He asked. “We have some pretty awful memories here, too.” You especially, he thought.

Kai sighed. “I do, but…I think I can live with that. I just don’t ever want to go back to those woods again.”

“Kris and Tao want to go back,” Chen mumbled. “They want to know what happened to them in that place.”

“I just won’t go with them,” Kai said quickly. “But anyway, the only home I know is with you and our brothers, that’s all I need.”

Chen looked up and saw Kai smiling at him, but he quickly looked back down.

“Are you alright?” Kai asked.

“I don’t know,” Chen admitted. “Kai…I don’t know what I want.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know where I want to stay. At some point we will have to go back home, and…well depending on what it’s like once Mama is gone…who is going to take care of our birthplace?” He looked up again. “We can’t split into two groups. Not the way it was originally set.”

Kai paled slightly but shook himself. “We won’t,” he said firmly. “The older Guardians can’t make us. What’s the worst they can do, take away our Guardian status? Force us to bring anyone who will be on this world back to them? if they do that then we can always leave again. We can go anywhere we want, make our own society.”

“Only if it comes down to it,” Chen said. “But I think…if the older Guardians can handle our world, I would want to come back here.”

But at the same time, he really wanted to go home. He didn’t think he and Kai would ever see eye-to-eye on this matter, but they could cross that bridge when they got to it.

Kai seemed to relax and he smiled again. “I really don’t like it there,” he said. “It’s too traditional. And just knowing that the whole time we were playing in the Sanctuary, something awful was living under us…” he shuddered.

Chen bit his lip. “I know you don’t like to talk about it,” he said slowly, his heart pounding, “But…what do you remember about that day?”

Kai’s hands shook a little.

“You don’t have to tell me,” Chen said quickly.

“No,” Kai said quietly. “I do. You deserve to hear it.” He put his crown aside and took a deep breath. “I remember being really tired after the hike. I was next to Tao, and we were both exhausted. We were the first ones to fall asleep, I think that’s why it grabbed us. I don’t…I don’t remember walking off the path. It’s like I was sleepwalking, because I can’t remember anything. The only thing I know is that I was falling, that’s when I snapped out of it. I just reached out for something to grab, and it turned out to be Tao’s hand, I think that was actually in the second right before we fell…and Tao had the tree root…I looked down…” Kai shook his head. “Well, you know what happened then.”

Chen scooted forward and hugged Kai. “I can’t even imagine how scared you must have been.”

Kai hugged him back for a few moments, and then slowly moved back, letting his arms fall. He looked like he wanted to cry, but then he grinned.

“We should get back to making these crowns before they wilt on us,” he said cheerfully, and Chen decided that he was right.

“So,” Chen said as he went back to his crown, “How are we going to raise our kids?”

Kai burst into laughter and fell backwards. “You mean whatever Guardians come after us?” he gasped when he finally calmed down.

Chen grinned and shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

“You know they’ll be girls first,” Kai said seriously. “How much do any of us know about girls?”

“Oh please,” Chen scoffed. “We were abandoned as children, raised ourselves, discovered an evil force, left home, crash landed on a foreign planet, found our way back together, dealt with separation and issues with our gifts and love and a dozen other things. I think we can handle twelve girls.”

Kai leaned forward and kissed Chen gently. “I love it when you talk positive,” he whispered. When he leaned back, he placed the completed crown on Chen’s head, and Chen did the same for him. Then they laid down on their blanket and watched the sunset.

It was only the second day, but already the flowers were starting to wilt a little. Kai had noticed it while they were watching the sun dip below the waves.

“They’re weak plants to begin with,” Chen reminded Kai as he the browning blooms. “Too much pollution. Maybe we can do this again in a few decades.”

Kai hummed in agreement and put the crown back on Chen’s head. They were still on their beach blanket, Chen lying on his stomach and tracing patterns in the sand. Kai was half on top of him, and as Chen began to draw again he felt Kai’s lips on the back of his neck.

“I hope we do this again sooner than that,” he whispered, his hand sneaking around Chen’s waist and wedging between his hip and the blanket. Chen shivered as Kai’s fingers teased the hem of his shirt. “I would like to be alone with you like this more often.”

Chen turned his head caught Kai’s second kiss with his lips, grinning when Kai jumped in surprise. They kissed for a while, and when they finally regained a sense of time Chen realized that the stars were already out.

“Let’s look at the stars,” he said, rolling onto his back and pulling Kai down with him.

“I bet they haven’t changed much since last night,” Kai teased, but he did as Chen asked.

The stars were so beautiful on this world, there were stars and constellations that Chen had never seen before, and it fascinated him. Chen grabbed Kai’s hand and squeezed it. “Kris told me that people on this world say if you make a wish on a star, it will come true.”

Kai was quiet for a moment, and then he whispered, “I wish we never had to leave this place. Nothing hurts here.”

Chen realized that Kai was crying, and he quickly sat up and pulled his husband up with him. Kai had tears streaming down his face and his crown was all askew. “Are you alright?” Chen asked, cupping Kai’s cheek. “Hey, it’s going to be okay now—I can protect you.”

Kai giggled and it morphed into a sob. “I’m sorry,” he hiccupped. “It’s just…I have so many bad memories and…I have nothing bad associated with open fields or oceans…everything bad that happened to me happened in a city or a forest…I just want to stay here forever.”

Chen carded his fingers through Kai’s hair and kissed his forehead. “But that’s what’s so good about us being married,” he said, a little choked up himself. “We can make so many good memories now, we already have. It’s okay if you’re scared, or if the bad memories sometimes make you uncomfortable, that’s why I’m here, to make them go away.”

Kai looked up at Chen with watery eyes. “And you’ll never leave me, right?”

“Are you kidding?” Chen asked. “It would be like me trying to get up in the morning without my head. Impossible to do.”

Kai laughed and pulled Chen in for a kiss. “I do have one more thing to ask you though,” He whispered. “Can you call me Jongin more often?”

Chen kissed his husband’s cheek. “Of course, Jongin. Can you call me Jongdae more often?”

Jongin tackled him to the ground and kissed him senseless. “Of course I can, Jongdae. My Jongdae.”

This was so freaking long and I’m still not really done with it, so I’m going to split it into two parts. After the hell I put all of you (and myself) through last chapter, I think we could all use some two part fluff.

Warning ahead of time, the next part…will probably have an M rating. It’s their honeymoon, I have to do it .___.