Chapter 1: Among the snowdrops

Chanyeol feels… calm.

As a clear breeze dances nimbly across his face and something rustles gently beside his ear, he feels lighter than air. Like he is lying on a bed of flowers beneath the open nighttime sky… No worries in the world…

Wait.

His eyes flash open and he sits up. A small gasp of wonder tumbles from his lips unnoticed as he stumbles up, dark eyes wide to get a better look around him.

At his feet and all around him for as far he can see, there is a sea of pale blue-tinted white flower petals, rustling and glimmering with their own glow. Above him the dome of the sky, peppered with pinpoint stars, seems to stretch infinitely in a curved vault, wrapping and enveloping the space in its elegance.

Where am I? Chanyeol wonders in awe.

The sudden sound of retching shatters the delicate splendor of the moment and Chanyeol looks around for the source.

Behind him, a tall broad-shouldered figure is hunched over, coughing, spluttering, and turns around to face him. “! That was ing awful! I kissed something vile!” he curses, wiping the back of his hand over his mouth. “Why do I have to do that to bring someone here?”

Chanyeol’s lip twitches. If he were in a manga, the red-haired man is pretty sure that were would be a large sign that says “something vile” pointing straight at him.

What a jerk, he thinks. Wait, he stops himself, remembering the last thing before he out. Didn’t he say that he can grant my wish?

“Yes, I did.”

Jumping, Chanyeol looks up to see the man standing before him. He involuntarily shivers as those depths, now dark blue, seem to pierce right through him.

“D-did you read my mind?” he whispers, instinctively stepping back.

The older rolls his eyes. “Every time you ask the Gods for something, do you bother to say it aloud?”

It takes a moment to for Chanyeol to process this. “A- a God?” he repeats, dumbstruck.

With a sound like a tsk, the blonde responds by crossing his muscled arms across his chest, thick eyebrows weaving together.

Chanyeol scans him over, aware that the other is watching him as well. He is not much taller than Chanyeol himself, wearing a tunic made out of a flowing fabric not unlike clouds. Gold jewelry winks in the low light from his wrists, ankles, biceps, strong collarbone, and ears.

Although he exudes an aura of wild confidence, Chanyeol doesn’t think that Gods curse or roll their eyes.

“No way,” Chanyeol says, shaking his head. “You’re lying.”

“The Gods do not speak false,” the other answers, impatience around the edges of his voice. The human gets the sense that this man had said that many times before.

Chanyeol still looks unconvinced.

“Now,” the God says, tone commanding. “Let us discuss the details of our agreement…”

The flowers toss up as Chanyeol stumbles haphazardly through the field of white, eyes searching.

“It should be around here somewhere…” he mutters to himself, spinning around in a circle to make sure that he hadn’t missed it. He thinks back to what the other had said.

The God’s request was simple.

“If you head straight ahead,” Kris (the God had asked Chanyeol to call him this) had said, pointing towards the west, “you’ll find a building. Inside, you’ll find a single boy. And if you go that way,” he pointed in the opposite direction towards the east, “you’ll come to a great cliff.”

Chanyeol had nodded that he understood.

“That is the ‘end’ of this world,” Kris explained. “All you have to do is lead the boy out of the building and leave with him for your world at the end of this one.”

This settled in the human’s mind for a moment before he said, slowly, “So I just go with him to the cliff?” The God didn’t need to be a mind-reader to sense the open skepticism.

The God nodded. “Exactly. However,” he said warningly, a smirk not far from the corner of his lips, “he doesn’t believe that he can escape here. He won’t believe that there is a way out. It is your task to convince him to follow you.”

“Does…the cliff really exist?”

There was a very heavy pause, then the knowing smirk had widened in way that made Chanyeol feel strangely unsettled.

“It does.”

Gods only speak the truth, Chanyeol figures. God or not, I guess I’ll believe him.

But, inside, he starts to wonder how much longer it will take. He feels like he has been running for hours, he should’ve gotten somewhere, but the continuous night and limitless field offers no clues to the time nor the distance.

Then he sees something.

In the distance, the smooth top of a gleaming building peeks over the horizon like the shining moon beginning its ascent across the nighttime sky.

As he slows to a stop at the base, there is no doubt in the human’s mind that this is the right place.

There is no end to the beauty in this world, Chanyeol thinks, almost overwhelmed.

The building is a strange combination of ancient finery and new faultless splendor. While the structure of the columns that form the walls are in disarray and pieces rise from the floor, the actual material appears to be stronger and even more perfect than new marble. And, as everything is in this world, the ground is covered in the white flowers as if it had been a snowstorm.

Chanyeol runs a hand against the cool marble of a Corinthian column, gazing up at the small box of sky he can see from the towering pillars.

It’s a lot bigger than I thought, he notes.

From what he can see of the ground, it’s easy to tell that this building is hundreds, maybe even thousands, of years old. His interest is piqued. He is about to explore and scrutinize the design when something dark red against the white and midnight blue catches his eye.

Chanyeol turns a corner and gasps. None of the magnificence he has seen thus far compares to this shape before him. 

Lying among the bed of flowers is a ruby-haired boy not much older than him, pale as the petals around him. Slender arms ringed with unfamiliar gold jewelry are crossed delicately across a sword and a narrow chest that slowly rises in the rhythm of deep sleep.

The human is fleetingly afraid that the sound of his heart thudding rapidly against his chest will wake this being.

“No way,” Chanyeol breathes.

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A/N: So that's chapter one, kinda short I know. Things will start picking up in the next chapter, I promise xD Sorry Kris for writing you like this sorry, not sorry xP

Thanks for reading~ <3 And I'll leave you with skinship!Baekyeol~