-0-

The next time Baekhyun opened his eyes, he felt like he weighed nothing. Then, bit by bit, the memories came back to him and not just memories of his life, but of his life before that. He lay still and let himself soak them up slowly.

Then he got up and saw the white cotton under his feet and he knew where he was but not where he should have been.

-0-

Chanyeol’s father was an alcoholic. Not that the seven year old Chanyeol knew what this meant, but he knew to stay away from him when he got his bottles out.

But he had never known this side of his father until today.

“You killed your mother.” His father slurred at him, and Chanyeol didn’t understand. He thought mommy was in heaven. He shied away from the man towering in front of him like he didn’t recognize him anymore, and he didn’t, because Chanyeol’s father might be a rotten drunk but he had never hit him before.

It was like Chanyeol’s father was making up for all the times he never hit him, now.
“You killed her!” He screamed; Chanyeol sobbed because he didn’t know why he was getting hit and he didn’t know why he was running and where he was going, or even that there was glass in the dirt where he was running barefoot but he had already ran so far out into the fields that he couldn’t go back now and couldn’t move—

The sun was so incredibly bright on the day when seven year old Chanyeol bled out in the field.

-0-

Baekhyun rode his cloud round and round in circles, following one wind and then another, venturing into the cloudless African skies and then back into the rainy UK. He was always looking for someone among the clouds who’s face twitched slightly when he laughed and who used to warm his lover’s hands with his breath in the cold.

He never did find him, but he made friends and once, when he was drunk enough on that honey concoction going around, they asked the printing mill if they knew of Chanyeol since the printing mill knew everyone and kept records of stuff that happened to people.

In the hangover that followed, Baekhyun began searching the earth instead of the clouds.

-0-

It took him years. Years in which he wondered why Chanyeol hadn’t returned to the skies like he was supposed to, like all veterans were supposed to. The fact that he knew what his aura felt like made the search a lot easier but there were still times when Baekhyun’s cloud almost dried out because he kept it unwatered to make it transparent. As he watered his cloud less and less, his searching skills got better and better. Soon he couldn’t move his cloud without a strong wind to push it.

Kibum told him there was something seriously wrong with him but Baekhyun didn’t care. There was no point in pretending that he didn’t ache from inside.

-0-

He was old. His grandkids thought he was delirious, because he spent all day talking to the sky.

He was useless. He would go to sleep wishing that he wouldn’t have to ever wake up again, and it was on the day that his wish was finally granted that Baekhyun found him.

-0-

And so it continued like this for what seemed like centuries. Baekhyun would never find him on time. He lacked the courage to let himself dry out because he wasn’t sure what happened to people who let their clouds dry out twice. And he missed him. He missed him so much.

Once he found him when he was a child who went swimming and never came back, once when he was a soldier who got shot on his first day in the field and sometimes when he had lived a long happy life and was ready to die.

And all Baekhyun could do was watch from the clouds and hope that this time, please this time let Chanyeol return to the skies but he never did.

-0-

He was lying on his roof with a flashlight and a book and a blanket, mouthing the words slowly as he read them. The book was four levels above what the teacher had told the rest of his third grade class to read, but Chanyeol was always an overachiever.

Soon though his eyes tired of reading in the dim light and he lay back and tucked his arms underneath his head. There wasn’t even any stars and no moon tonight to help him read, he huffed.

Damn sky. He imitated punching the sky and let his arm just hang there because something felt different.

-0-

And that was how Baekhyun found Chanyeol again. He lay stomach-down on his wispy cloud, giddy with relief that Chanyeol looked happy this time.

-0-

 Chanyeol’s fist slowly opened into the night sky; for the faintest of moments, Chanyeol thought someone was gently prying it open.

-0-

Baekhyun’s already-wispy cloud suddenly felt brittle and icy around him. He tried to move—it cracked like glass and fell all those miles below. Baekhyun himself fell soon after, clutching after the last bits of his cloud still suspended in the sky; but in vain.

-0-

How would we be able to tell if we’d met someone before? He had asked his cousin, lying on his cousin’s roof.

Because you’d remember them, silly. Chanyeol had poked his forehead and he had swatted the hand away.

It was amazing that they were best friends since they had a seven year old difference between them. His parents told him Chanyeol had been taken with him since the moment he was born. Baekhyun knew how that felt. They were both in different universities now but always came back to Chanyeol’s parents’ house for Christmas. It was their unspoken promise.

They were so completely alone up there under the stars that Baekhyun even considered telling him about the ring he’d bought for his girlfriend but hadn’t given to yet since he felt…weird.

Of course, Chanyeol would call him a sissy and they’d get into another tickling match and probably end up throwing the flashlight off of the roof while playing like they did that time when it hit Onew in the head and he got a concussion.

He opened his mouth to say something; Chanyeol blurted it out first: “Heard you’re asking her to marry you.”

Baekhyun ducked his head and blushed.

“You’re a little young, don’t you think? I mean, at least finish undergrad.”

“I don’t really want to ask her anymore.” Baekhyun admitted, and Chanyeol saw the uncertainty lacing his eyes like he always did. He wrapped his arm around his cousin and lay with him pulled close. The stars twinkled as wisps of cloud of flew past them.

It was a beautiful night and Baekhyun felt miserable.

“Can I just—“ He wriggled to make Chanyeol get off him because he always ended up pinned underneath him and then sat up. Chanyeol looked at him expectantly.

“Can I just…” He began again, and then just crashed their mouths together instead. After a terrifying moment where Baekhyun panicked and wrote his will in his head, Chanyeol kissed back.

Suddenly the night felt as wonderful as it looked.

-0-

Sungyeol was still working at the printing mill when he was told to record the story of how Byun Baekhyun had been forsaken by the skies for reaching out to a living soul.

This stirred something in his memory but he couldn’t pinpoint it. Something seemed off.

Then he remembered what happened to Chanyeol, and knew he had to figure this out.

He snuck around a little, accessed archives he wasn’t supposed to, and sent some people to watch the ground for him. It was tiring work.

It turns out he need not have sent them since he found Chanyeol himself one random day.

Shut up Baekhyun, those cupcakes were mine and you knew it. Chanyoel was saying to the slighter man next to him but there was no bite in his words. He was just as he remembered him.

 He hid a smile.  And then his eyes widened with realization. Baekhyun. Byun Baekhyun.

Sungyeol couldn’t chase the tears out of his eyes as he figured out what had happened to the two of them.

-0-

He made it a point to check in on his best friend from time to time. And soon, on this Byun Baekhyun that Chanyeol loved so much.

They chased each other across lifetimes, sometimes meeting and sometimes not. They looked the happiest when they were able to grow up together.

But, as Sungyeol could tell, they were always happy when they were around each other. Watching them meet for the first time was a different kind of wonderful.

He got to check in on them a lot less often after he met Myungsoo because Myungsoo wouldn’t let him dry out his cloud enough to see them, but Sungyeol wasn’t worried about them anymore. They had each other.

-0-

A/N: I WROTE THIS ALL IN ONE SITTING AND... Um, it gets weirder every time I read it? Anyways, if you enjoyed it even a bit, please comment/subscribe. :)