Healing
Infinite Kingdom
Healing
“Where’s Myungsoo? Lately it seems impossible to find him at meal time” Sunggyu wondered. Woohyun mused at his dinner; “I hear he’s been hanging out at the stables for almost a week now.” Sunggyu raised an eyebrow; “I didn’t expect him to be such an eager horseman.” “Oh, I don’t think it’s the horses pulling him there” Woohyun said in a suggestive tone.
Sunggyu seemed to make the connection; “No way! His mother will be furious if he found himself some country girl. She’ll surely make it my fault somehow”. Sunggyu halted his ranting as he saw Woohyun curl his lip in a supercilious smile. “What is it, then?” Sunggyu inquired, impatient. “It’s general Howon’s adoptive brother, that cute kid named Lee Sungjong” Woohyun answered.
Sunggyu started to guffaw loudly, until he seemed to realize something; “She really is going to kill me”.
* * *
Only after sitting in a library going through references to healing powers for an entire evening did Sungyeol consider that perhaps his rouse was going too far; perhaps it was time to split. But there was something keeping him in place; the new development of things was just too curious.
So for the past two days the trickster had been going around, digging with all his might. Even if most of the stories and writings he came up with seemed to be complete rubbish (written by a kindred spirit, no doubt), he refused to give up.
In the end, as always, Sungyeol had to resort to improvising. He watched in awe as Sungjong performed his little miracles; first with plants, then a beetle with a cracked elytron and finally, as Sungyeol got bolder, they got to watch a bird that had had a broken wing just a moment ago fly to the skies. Sungjong had been excited with each development. He was clinging to Sungyeol’s every word and hardly refused to leave him alone.
After finding out about the boy’s powers, Sungyeol had started to get remarkably more interested in his psyche as well. He soon had the boy figured out; his interests, family and friends. True to his nature, Sungyeol had started stirring up quite a mess. He had told Sungjong to share his gift with the world, and what better way to begin than telling his adoptive brother…
* * *
Dongwoo’s apartment was a bit cramped. His little family seemed to have gained a new member. For two years already Hoya, Sungjong and Dongwoo had been enjoying dinners together once or twice a week. When Myungsoo had found out about this tradition, he had invited himself over like the persistent little tick he was. Now the usually cheerful family dinner was filled with an awkward atmosphere.
Sungjong had been giving Hoya the silent treatment since their argument two days back; he was directing all his attention towards Myungsoo, pretending that Hoya wasn’t even present. Hoya was trying hard not to look like he’d just drank two months old milk and Dongwoo was left to keep the conversation going.
In the middle of the dinner Myungsoo suddenly poked Sungjong’s face. Sungjong looked at him, as if to ask what he wanted. Myungsoo merely grinned as a response. Sungjong seemed to catch up; he reached to open Myungsoo’s shirts first button. As a response Myungsoo seized Sungjong’s arms and leaned closer. If Sungjong hadn’t leaned away their faces would have definitely contacted.
The two bystanders, Hoya and Dongwoo, continued stuffing food inside their mouths, pretending not to see the show that the teenagers were playing in front of them. Hoya directed his murderous stare towards a loaf of bread.
Their “fight” continued like that, Sungjong weakly teasing Myungsoo and Myungsoo totally overreacting and punishing the younger with a kissing attempt. He was smiling creepily the whole time, as if seeing how frail Sungjong’s arms were and how easy it was to bully him was bringing him tremendous joy.
After a while Dongwoo and Hoya were just openly staring and Dongwoo laughed: “What are you, four?” when Sungjong had tried to open a button of Myungsoo’s shirt again, which had led to a lighthearted brawl of hands, amongst which Sungjong’s elbow hit a glass vase of the table.
Even Hoya’s reflexes couldn’t stop the vase from shattering to thousands of pieces. As Dongwoo scolded the two youngsters, Hoya crouched down silently to pick up the shattered glass. A formless anger was clouding his mind and caused his hand to slip at the wrong moment; one of the pieces cut his hand so deep that blood just gushed out.
Hoya hissed in surprise, drawing everyone’s attention to him. Sungjong’s eyes widened with the sight of blood. Without a second thought he reached for the bleeding hand and held it between his own. “What are you…?” Hoya began, but fell silent as something other than the sting from the cut tingled through his nerves. Gentle warmth of some kind, right where there should have been a bleeding wound.
And, surely enough, he saw a dim golden glow where Sungjong’s hands cradled his. Snapping out of his haze, Hoya jerked his hand away, looking panicked. “What did you do?!” he exclaimed. Dongwoo had also stood up, but Myungsoo just looked between them with a mildly curious expression and went back to eating. He looked like a kid munching popcorn in the theatre, just watching the show.
Sungjong tried to reach for Hoya’s injured hand again, except it wasn’t injured. There was blood, yes, but it was no longer running. “I think I just healed you.” Sungjong said.
Hoya stared at his hand like it wasn’t his own. His expression softened to mirror the confusion on Dongwoo’s face. Dongwoo leaned in to examine the hand as well, seemingly unable to believe his own eyes. “It seems that you did” he finally said after an unnerving silence.
“Wait. Since when have you been doing… this?” Hoya asked, gesturing towards his hand. “It’s just like I told you. Sungyeol has been teaching me magic.” Sungjong had thought that this had been as good a time as any to reveal his ability. Sungyeol had even encouraged him to do it. But looking at the expressions of the closest thing he had to a family, he started to feel regret piling up inside.
After Dongwoo had gotten through the initial shock, however, he seemed to understand the full potential of Sungjong’s healing. “How much are you able to do?” he asked. “I don’t really know. Up until a week ago I didn’t even know I could do this.” Sungjong said, relieved that at least Dongwoo-hyung didn’t judge him. Hoya scratched his hand and then did something unbelievable. He took out his knife and, before Sungjong had the time to even realize what he was doing, let alone stop him, cut his palm open once more.
“Do it again” he said with strange resolution in his voice.
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A/N The ultimate Myungjong scene that I based the dinner-part on (incase a myungjong fan that hasn't seen it still exsist);
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