Prompt: Kris/Lay, embracing the darkness.

Embrace

EXO-M was ready to do one last rehearsal for the debut stage when the lights suddenly shut down. The staff and the other members make a commotion because of the sudden darkness, but Lay merely stands there and blinks, turning his head slightly to the right, where he knows Kris is standing, unmoving.

Lay lifts his hands and arms up in front of him and slowly makes his way through s in the darkness. He ignores the hiss Chen throws his way when he steps on his foot and the groan Lu Han makes when he accidentally pokes his face.

He finds Kris still standing in his place, frozen, as he expects him to be. One thinks that Kris, the great Duizhang, isn't afraid of anything. But if there is one thing that Kris is afraid of, it's being enshrined by the dark. So Lay puts his arms down and gently wraps his hand around Kris' bigger one, and, slowly, Kris turns to him. Without any hesitation, Kris takes a step forward and accepts his invitation of an embrace.

With Kris in his arms, Lay's reminded of the many other times that Kris has done the same for him. Because back in their trainee days, when Lay was Yixing and Kris was Wu Fan, Yixing's the one who's been afraid of a different kind of darkness. This darkness is one that makes him afraid of never making it, of not living up to expectations, of being set aside and being forgotten.

He remembers how Wu Fan held him through it all, his hand within arms reach, his shoulder ready to be cried on, his lips full of warm comfort. And he thinks that if only for that, if only for all those other times, he thinks he's willing to offer Wu Fan the same kind of embrace, the same kind of hand to hold, a comforting shoulder, and more words of encouragement and love.

Because if he doesn't, he knows Wu Fan can find it in someone else, in someone like Lu Han, whose arms are open wide for anyone willing to fill in the space in between.

But he doesn't want to lose Wu Fan like that. He can't. Maybe he's selfish, but he is sure that Wu Fan is the only one who can help him cope with his fears, the only one who can calm them down, the only one who can crush them.

So he wraps his arms around him and holds on.