part iii.

Walking was hard. It was awkward, and it was hard. He wasn't falling, or anything, but his movements were gawky and awkward at best. He was walking, though, on two human feet, and he was on his way through LuHan's village. He was on his way to see LuHan. 

After his meeting with the Ten Wizards, he had lost consciousness and had woken up in a field somewhere in LuHan's village, after who knows how long. (The mechanics were not explained to him.) SeHun looked up into the sky, and he knew it was almost the usual time that LuHan left his house. SeHun decided to catch him before he left, so that they could walk together to their clearing, so that he could hold LuHan's hand as they made they were through the forest to the one place both LuHan & SeHun both felt at home. 

SeHun almost tripped over a bucket in his haste to get to LuHan. The sun was hot, and he was sweating, but after dealing with Chanyeol's flames and his phoenix, he felt he could brave most heat now. The sun was high in the sky, and people were returning to their homes. No one noticed the tall, awkward, beautiful teenager, walking awkwardly, determinedly, arms stiffly at his sides, moving in synchronization with his legs. He stumbled over the root of a tall apple tree.

Then he was there.

LuHan was right in front of him, carrying a large sack towards his house, his mother waiting at the door. He looked beautiful, the light hitting his hair just right, making it look as if it were real gold, glistening in the sun. He looked different, though. There were dark circles around his eyes, which had lost the gleam they always had when LuHan was in the forest with SeHun.

SeHun tried to call his name.

Nothing came out. He opened his mouth again, but only a sad croaking sound was emitted.

He did not know how to speak the human tongue.

He could not talk.

He understands why SuHo had asked him if he was sure about his wish. 

He only asked to be human; he never included the ability to speak in his wish. He had to learn to speak on his own. He only asked to become human to be able to be with LuHan, not speak with him. 

LuHan entered the house, locked the door. 

He did not see the tall teenage boy, with hair the color of black coffee, with just the right amount of milk, standing across the street, tears spilling down his beautiful face. 

*

LuHan was lonely. He did not know how many days it had been. He was back to the him that had no friends, no happiness, clinging only to the memories of the clearing, the rabbit, the flowers pressed between the pages of his sketchbook, untouched for at least a month now, not that he was counting. His room was lonely, the colors seemed drab and faded. He did not know how to jerk himself out of this stupor. He was stuck. He missed SeHun, he missed the one friend he truly had. He cried himself into his afternoon nap for the umpteenth day in a row.

*

SeHun sat in their clearing. It remained unchanged. LuHan had not been here for days, weeks, apparently. LuHan did not come here anymore, and SeHun cried some more. What happened while he was gone? Why didn't he make his wish more specific? Everyone told him when he was younger that wishes were supposed to be specific, why didn't he listen? Why didn't he--

Something was wrong. He looked up. Two seconds ago, there were leaves falling. In that moment, they were suspended in the air, unmoving. The lake was stilled. There was no wind, everything seemed to stop. Tao, his mind told him. The boy with the scary eyes that had cried for him, who he somehow remembered as having the power of time control. SeHun stood up (awkwardly). He tried to call out, and remembered he could not speak. He had gotten used to the brief time he had, in which he could speak to the strange wizards.

Tao appeared with Kris, the dragon-boy's hand clutched in his, Kai and SuHo following, their hands also chained with the other two. (SeHun assumed Kai had teleported them.) Tao looked like he had cried again. The shoulder of Kris' robe looked wet. Kai and SuHo walked with purpose, a serious look on their faces. 

"You slept for a while," Kris said, his deep voice strangely comforting to SeHun. "About a month."

SeHun's jaw dropped. He had left LuHan all alone, for a month. Is that why he doesn't come here anymore?

"We tried to warn you," Kai said, jaw tight. "We tried to tell you to think carefully about it, but you in all your stupidity--"

"He was in love," Tao cut across angrily. "He was in love, and he only wanted to be with LuHan. You can't blame him for that, you can't, Kai." Kai stayed silent.

"We really did try," SuHo said, a sad smile on his face. "It's just, the rules, they state that we're not exactly allowed to give advice about wishes. Kai and I got punished for even trying to warn you." Both boys flinched. 

SeHun stayed silent.

"Did you bring it?" Tao snapped angrily at Kai, suddenly. Kai flinched again, disappeared, and reappeared within a span of milliseconds, a variety of books, papers, and pens in his hands.

"The guys were pretty worried about you," Kai stated matter-of-factly, still looking upset. "Chanyeol wanted to come here himself, but he's got a mission right now, and same goes for everyone else, but those who did come, came, and the rest wanted us to give you this." He dropped the stack in front of SeHun.

SeHun raised an eyebrow, as if to ask, "What is this?"

"They're school books," Tao said, his voice gentle for the first time since appearing in the clearing. "They'll teach you how to write, and maybe you can learn how to speak as well."

"Yes," Kris agrees. "It's possible that your vocal cords have yet to develop, and you are as of yet unable to emit sounds because of it. It may develop over the next couple of days, maybe weeks, and if it does, you can use this to learn."

SeHun takes note of the words "possible," "may," "maybe," and "if." SeHun adds this to his observation of Kris being Tao's source of comfort, and wonders if he's only saying this to cheer the younger up. SuHo seems to sense this.

"It's true," SuHo says. "Usually, it takes a while for everything to be completely functional. Just because you can't talk now, doesn't mean you won't be able to talk forever." He smiles his sunshine smile, and SeHun is calmed slightly.

"We're all rooting for you," Kai adds seriously. "We want you to succeed, and we'll check on you from time to time, just to help you out."

SeHun is thankful, and wonders if he has ten other friends now, aside from LuHan.

*

SeHun is learning how to write. It's taken at least three days, but he finally knows how to hold a pencil properly, and how to use the eraser, and how it works on paper. He learned how to apply less pressure onto the pencil on the fourth day, because otherwise, it snaps, and he has to wait for Kai to come in and bring him a sharpener, that makes the pencil pointy again. 

It's day six, and he knows how to write the lowercase and uppercase letters "A," "B," and "C." Baekhyun and Chanyeol popped in the other day, and happily told them they could now begin to write their names. Baekhyun bragged about how he already had the first two letters of his name, and Chanyeol said he had an "A," too, thank you very much, and Baekhyun argued that it was the third letter, and Chanyeol argued that it should count, and they just argued. It was pretty amusing. SeHun had smiled for the first time in his human history, and Chanyeol said he was pretty. Baekhyun pouted, but complimented him as well.

SeHun looks at the clearing. He is perched upon the stone opposite LuHan's throne, and his position, back against the stone, staring up at the sky, the throne in view, comforts him. It reminds him of his original form, and his time with LuHan. We looks up at the sky peeking through the trees. The sky is clear today, a beautiful shade of blue.

SeHun decides to tell LuHan about it when he learns to talk.

*

LuHan is so lonely, it hurts. He is unsure of what to do with himself, so he reads. He opens the dictionary randomly, reads the meaning of strange words, closes it again, and repeats the process.

He stumbles upon one word, "floriography." It is a noun. It means, "communication through the use of flowers." 

Then LuHan starts to wonder.

*

SeHun can write all letters from "A" to "M," now. He was having a hard time with "N," because it always ended up turning into a haphazard "M," but Kai was there, leaned over his shoulder, watching his frustrated writing.

"You know," he began, a smirk on his face. "That letter, 'N,' is the last letter of your name. It's also the last letter of LuHan's name." 

After that, SeHun is able to write "N" more perfectly than other letter. He wonders what other letters he and LuHan have in common in their names. Kai seems to understand this .

"Well, you both have the letters 'H,' 'U,' and 'N,'" he begins, and seeing SeHun's confusion, adds, "Oh, and 'U' is a letter you'll learn later on towards the end!

SeHun tries to work faster.

*

He can now write all twenty-six letters of the alphabet. He's learning how to spell now, putting letters together to form words. He spells his name first, writing LuHan's name write under it. He seems their common letters and he smiles. He writes Kai's name next, because they have a good relationship, and because it only has three letters. Kai makes him write "Jongin" next to it when he sees, just because. Chanyeol and Baekhyun argue over whose name should be put first, and everyone else shows up, and they all ask SeHun to write their names, too. SeHun happily obliges. They tell him his penmanship is neat, and pretty. 

Chanyeol laughs and adds, "Like him!"

Baekhyun hits him.

SeHun opens his mouth, and he laughs.

Everyone stares in shock.

*

Lay and Kris are trying to teach him how to create the sounds of the alphabet. Lay keeps messing up, and Kris has to clean up the mess for him. SeHun is very confused by the end of it, and Kai teaches him from the beginning. 

He can now say his name. 

It still sounds like "Thehun."

Sehun smiles, though, and Kai says it's pretty cute.

*

It takes LuHan weeks, but he finally finds the courage to open up the book of plants and flowers again. When SeHun first started bringing him unidentifiable flowers, he had only looked up their names. He had never thought to check what they meant.

*

SeHun can now hold conversation with the various boys visiting him. It was easy to translate his thoughts into words once he got the basics. Baekhyun tells him he's pretty funny and smart. Kai likes to argue with him a lot, but they're the closest. Tao cries when SeHun thanks him for being so emotionally invested in his case.

He can also write long essays, letters, poems. He writes things for LuHan all the time. He decides he likes writing poems the most, because they seem the most free. He has pages, and pages, and pages, and pages covered in poetry dedicated to LuHan.

*

GLOXINA: Love at first sight.

LuHan chokes slightly, closes the book, tears up, and refuses to open it again for another few days.

What happened?

*

Today, SeHun is going to walk into the village, and he is going to talk to LuHan. Today, LuHan will understand.

*

A tall, beautiful teenage boy grabs LuHan's wrist today, opens his mouth, closes it again, opens it again, and lets go of his wrist. 

"Excuse me," LuHan starts, slightly afraid. "Are you alright?"

The boy drops something and runs away, and LuHan is confused.

His eyes seemed familiar.

LuHan looks down and finds a daisy.

SeHun?

*

I couldn't talk to him, why couldn't I talk to him? I praticed so hard for this, I learned everything, studied every day, I even talked to Kai and everyone, and they said I was doing great, why could I talk to him? What happened? He looked afraid of me, did I scare him? Does he know who I am? Does he not like it? Am I not someone he'd like? What if--

Kai finds him trembling behind a tree somewhere, teleports him back to the clearing, and he pushes SeHun into the lake. SeHun is about to drown, and Kai remembers he hasn't learned how to swim like a human yet, and jumps in to pull him out. SeHun is coughing.

"What were you doing?" SeHun turns to Kai angrily. "What was that for?"

"You were scaring yourself by thinking," Kai states matter-of-factly. "You were shaking, you were scared. I didn't know how else to help you."

"You do know," SeHun says angrily. "That I'm not originally human, right?"

"I remembered a little later on."

SeHun goes for his throat.

About half an hour later, they're rolling around in the grass and fallen leaves, laughing. SeHun stops, sits up, and looks to the lake.

"I messed up."

"I figured."

"I couldn't talk."

"You're talking pretty well right now."

"It's different."

"Because I'm not your lovely little LuLu?"

"I'll hit you again."

Kai laughs, but offers no retort.

"I think," SeHun says, brows furrowed. "I think that maybe it's him. I think it was seeing him, hearing him, it made me lose everything for a second. I worked so hard, too. I just... He made me forget for a while. My chest really hurt, too. I felt like a scared little rabbit again."

Kai is silent for a while.

"Why don't you write?" 

*

DANDELION: Faithfulness, happiness, love's oracle.

BALSAM: Ardent love.

AZALEA: Love, romance, first love, fragile passion, temperance, abundance. Take care of yourself for me. Ephemeral passion.

LuHan finally got the courage to open the book up again, and he's crying again, and he's singing to himself softly, trying to calm himself down.

Why did he disappear?

*

SeHun writes, and writes, and writes and writes. He's trying to find the right words, and he thinks, that finally, finally, he has them.

*

LuHan has dreams about a human boy, with slit-like eyes, highlighted by the barely-there circles around said eyes. He dreams about how they turn into little curves when this boy smiles, imagines what he'd look like swaying along to his songs, and he thinks, SeHun?

*

LuHan wakes up, his room becoming too hot for him. He moves towards his desk, and reads with the moonlight seeping in through the window.

HYACINTH, PURPLE: I am sorry, sorrow, please forgive me.

APPLE BLOSSOMS: Good fortune, promise. Preference. Better things to come.

ARBUTUS: Thee only do I love.

He contemplates for less than three seconds before he is off, running out of the house, sketchbook in his hand, into the night, into the forest.

* 

SeHun has just finished, has just finished his piece for LuHan, and it's a mess, he thinks it's a mess, but it's the best he can do, with so little food and water in him, and no sleep. He decides to leave it at LuHan's house tomorrow, hopes he'll understand, hopes he'll come to the clearing.

Then he hears a noise. He wonders if it's Kai, wonders if maybe he brought Chanyeol with him, and if they're stumbling through the forest in the dark. 

That is, until a boy stumbles through, and falls into the clearing, and he sees his golden brown hair. The boy looks up, LuHan looks up, and SeHun's staring, trying to speak again, and LuHan holds up his sketchbook, a crazed look in his eyes.

"Did you mean it?" LuHan asks.

SeHun is confused.

"I mean," LuHan begins, looking confused. "You're SeHun right, I don't know how you went from a rabbit to this, but you left that daisy, and just... you're SeHun, right?"

SeHun nods.

"You can't talk?"

SeHun opens his mouth, and closes it again. He walks forward and hands LuHan a paper.

upon seeing you i was unsure of
your golden brown hair shining in the sun,
your doe-like eyes: the idea of love
terrifying to me. should i have run?

i wondered, then had to think again with
those eyes, your eyes, intensity: seeping
into my very being. i was rid
of sanity, only you ading.

i journeyed far to make my wish come true,
and i fought hard for these words to come out.
i tried with flowers, i tried to tell you,
yet now it seems that it was the wrong route.

euphorbia: my persistence? for you;
snowdrop: my hope for you only burns on;
blue violet: i will always be true;
red camellia: your warmth breaks me, undone;

the arbutus, yet again: thee only do i love.

"It's hard for me to talk with you," SeHun croaks out. "I look at you, and it's hard to breathe. I'm--" his voice cracks a little, "--I'm still trying to feel my way around this, human thing, but--"

And then LuHan is on his tiptoes, leaning up, pressing his lips against SeHun's, his face still wet from tears.

SeHun is still shocked, when LuHan leans back, a smile on his face, and he finds the other boy's hand in his pressing something into it, and he turns slowly, and he sees three things.

A flowering branch from an arbutus tree, the same one SeHun left for him ages ago, a crushed daisy, the first flower SeHun had ever left him, and a new flower, yellow and white.

"A jonquil," LuHan whispers. "It means, 'love me.' It means, 'affection returned.' It means, I love you, too."

________________

definition of flowers (complete):
I.

DAISY: Innocence, gentleness, loyal love, I'll never tell, purity, beauty.

GLOXINA: Love at first sight.

ZINNIA, YELLOW: Daily remembrance.

TULIP, VARIEGATED: Beautiful eyes.

GERANIUM, SCARLET: Comforting, consolation.

HEATHER, LAVENDER: Admiration, solitude, beauty.

HYACINTH, BLUE: Constancy. Sincerity.

DANDELION: Faithfulness, happiness, love's oracle.

BALSAM: Ardent love.

AZALEA: Love, romance, first love, fragile passion, temperance, abundance. Take care of yourself for me. Ephemeral passion.

HYACINTH, PURPLE: I am sorry, sorrow, please forgive me.

APPLE BLOSSOMS: Good fortune, promise. Preference. Better things to come.

ARBUTUS: Thee only do I love.

II.

EUPHORBIA: Persistence.

ROSE, DARK PINK: Thankfulness.

VIOLET, PURPLE: Thoughts of you, blue love.

SNOWDROP: Hope and consolation.

NASTURTIUM: Conquest, victory in battle.

TULIP, YELLOW: Hopeless love, there's sunshine in your smile.

VIOLET, BLUE: Watchfulness, faithfulness, I'll always be true.

SALAL: Zest.

CACTUS: Bravery and endurance. Grandeur.

CALLA LILY: Magnificent beauty.

CAMELLIA, RED: You're a flame in my heart. Unpretending excellence, innate warmth, alas my poor heart.

III.

JONQUIL: Sympathy, love me, affection returned, desire. Desire for affection returned.

____________

author's note: LOL SO YEAH THE END THIS WAS THE WORST PART. (If you follow me on Twitter, I was writing this around the time I was spouting rewritten poetry for SeHun, so yes. nn)