Written by: "Freakinjellyfishes"

Pairing: Gyuyeol

Prompt: Where Sungyeol can't live without Myungsoo/Woohyun/Sunggyu as if the other man was his oxygen to live.

 

---

 

There’s Magic Somewhere

(Words: 3,178)

 

Sunggyu leaves for the first time when Sungyeol is fifteen years old.

 

It’s rather unceremonious, really. After almost ten years of roaming through the earth together, supplying themselves with menial jobs here and there, the older guy announces he is to be gone for a good time and Sungyeol must keep on with his studies. (Assuming of course, that Sunggyu acting like a mentor once in a while counted like basic education.) There’s no room to question this; his relationship with Sunggyu has never been a democratic one.

 

So yeah, Sunggyu leaves Sungyeol at the doorstep of the victorian-like building on the day of the introduction ceremony, a couple of bags on the side and cardboard boxes full of trinkets that belong to them both.

 

Truthfully, Sungyeol would rather go with Sunggyu. He doesn’t see the point of staying in prestigious prep school, seeing that his plans for the future involve in no way a normal job unless magic is involved and, knowing Sunggyu as well as he does, he knows that Sunggyu is aware of this as well. But still, his mentor must have his good reasons for dropping him off at a school like this.

 

Sunggyu peppers Sungyeol’s cheeks with kisses and mutters, “be happy” before he leaves.

 

--

 

Four years later, a couple of weeks before his graduation ceremony, Sungyeol receives a letter from Sunggyu. He doubts of the address written on the envelope.

 

“‘Dear Sungyeollie, I’m happy that you’re finally graduating. I’ll be there for the ceremony,’” he reads aloud to his roommate and best friend, Woohyun. “I can’t believe he still calls me that. But anyway, ‘Even though all I’ve heard from you are good news, I still want to see you…’”

 

He doesn’t finish reading aloud because what’s next is just for him to keep. Woohyun stares at him with curiosity while Sungyeol clutches the piece of paper.

 

I can’t wait for us to be together, however short our time might be.

 

“And? Are you gonna go with him or what?” his friend asks.

 

Sungyeol shoves the letter into his pocket. If he’s missed me as much as he says, why hasn’t he contacted me in all these years?

 

“I guess,” he says. “It’s not like I have a place to go.”

 

--

 

Meeting Sunggyu for the first time in years is, at the lack of a better word, weird. After all, the man hasn’t changed at all. He’s kept his “half a century old” look, despite his age being ten times older than that. As one of a person who discovered the uncommon spell of eternal youth centuries ago, Sunggyu’s features still look as young and charming as when he took five-year-old Sungyeol as his protégé.

 

But the look on his face, oh man. Sungyeol almost wants to laugh out loud when he sees the older man’s mouth fall open.

 

“You’re kidding me,” Sunggyu says, striding toward him.

 

Sungyeol takes off his cap and twirls the tassel, unable to stop the smile on his face. “I’ve changed a lot haven’t I?”

 

Sunggyu stops in front of him and observes him more delicately, his gaze sweeping from bottom to top. “Indeed. Hold tall are you?”

 

“About 180?” He scratches the back of his head. “But I’m still growing so I’m not sure.”

 

Sunggyu whistles, but says nothing, and Sungyeol shifts on his place, uncomfortable under the scrutinizing. He kind of understands how Sunggyu must be feeling, though. How must it feel to see people close to you change so much while you remain the same? Even though together they roamed the country for ten years, Sunggyu stopped seeing him for four years.

 

“So?” He asks, glancing at his ex-classmates. Some of them are laughing with his friends, some others spend time with his family. Woohyun catches him staring and waves, beckoning him. When Sungyeol makes no sign of moving, it’s him who decides to jog over to where they are.

 

“Hey, Yeol,” he says, approaching them. “What’s the plan for tonight?” Woohyun pauses for a second when he realizes Sunggyu is next to them, “Ah, sorry. Sunggyu, huh?”

 

“Kim Sunggyu,” the man replies, glancing at Sungyeol probably because of Woohyun’s disrespectful introduction.

 

“Ah, I’ve told him about you,” Sungyeol says, elbowing his friend in the ribs. All Woohyun does is grin for a second or so.

 

“A thing or two.” Woohyun shrugs, and Sungyeol clears his throat in an attempt to relieve them from the awkwardness. “Anyway, I’m gonna go over there to talk to Min. See ya later!”

 

He hurries away with a quick wave and, after hesitating for a second or so, bows slightly to Sunggyu.

 

“Your friend is… rather interesting,” Sunggyu mumbles, looking around. “I think I need a drink.”

 

“Me too,” Sungyeol mumbles unconsciously, but when Sunggyu’s surprised eyes turn towards him, he says, “I mean, what? Who’s drinking? Surely not me.”

 

Sunggyu narrows his eyes, but then breaks into a smile and nudges him. “Aish this guy, growing up so fast without my consent.”

 

And Sungyeol would like to reply something witty in return, but he’s too focused on the way Sunggyu stays close to him after hitting him with his elbow, their fingers almost touching. He sighs, all or nothing, and grasps Sunggyu’s hand.

 

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go grab a beer to celebrate or something.”

 

--

 

The second time Sunggyu disappears is shortly after summer, after twenty-three-year-old Sungyeol drops out of college and starts working with an apothecary, selling spell ingredients.

 

They’ve been together for a while by then—except not really together in the way Sungyeol would want to, but hey, he’ll take whatever he can get and if what he’s getting are good-night kisses in the corner of the lips before each one goes to his respective bedroom, then so be it—but not even that stops Sunggyu on the morning of a windy September day, bags in hand and a pendant hanging from his hand as he extends it to Sungyeol.

 

“For you,” is all he says.

 

Sungyeol puts down his cup of coffee and grabs the object from his mentor’s hand. “And this does?”

 

“It has a couple of protection and localization spells,” Sunggyu replies, shrugging. He has a soft smile on his face. “I’ve had it for so long, but the magic wore down, so I fixed it to give it to you. Put it on, put it on!” And after Sungyeol does as told, “Ah, it suits you so well. You look charming.”

 

Sungyeol twirls the piece of Obsidian between his forefinger and his thumb. “Are you really leaving?”

 

Sunggyu’s smile dies a little. “It’s necessary, but I’ll come back as soon as I can.”

 

“But I don’t want you to,” he mutters, looking down. It feels like confessing a dangerous crime.

 

Silence stretches between them for a good while after that, until Sunggyu’s sigh breaks the spell. For a second, Sungyeol allows himself to feel the childish hope that tells him if he’s honest, Sunggyu will stay, but his mentor’s next words are enough to crush it.

 

“I’m sorry, Yeollie. But I have to go. I’ll be back soon, I promise.”

 

--

 

If one of Sungyeol’s great qualities is that of honesty, Sunggyu’s must be that he makes a pretty convincing liar.

 

Three years year, there’s still no sign of him.

 

Twenty-six-year-old Sungyeol stacks a cardboard box on top of another two and dusts off his hands. After that, a man extends a small envelope to him with his pay for the day. Sungyeol takes it out and counts it carefully.

 

Later, when he’s done, he nods and puts the envelope in the inside pocket of his jacket. “Nice to do business with you.”

 

They bid their farewell to each other, not with a lot of fanfare, and Sungyeol exits the old storage facility at the outskirts of the city. Woohyun’s waiting for him outside, leaning on his beat down motorcycle and toying with his helmet.

 

He’s known the guy for enough time to realize that the stifling uniforms and strict environment of the institution they went to wasn’t for him. It wasn’t for Sungyeol, either, but at least he’d known that from the beginning. Woohyun, however, looked like he was ready to take anything they gave him, eager to do anything to please their instructors from day one.

 

(Oh how quick that façade crumbled.)

 

But this. Oh, the taste of illegally-produced spell ingredients and black magic instruments, this was what Woohyun was made for.

 

“I have your part,” Sungyeol tells his friend. “We’ll count it at home.”

 

Woohyun nods before putting on his helmet. “It’s not like this is the only errand we have tonight.”

 

He climbs onto his motorcycle when Sungyeol grumbles in agreement and does the same. Together, they set off to their new destination. It’s gonna be a long night.

 

--

 

Selling illegal enchantment materials isn’t exactly his dream job, but Sungyeol can’t really complain because they pay is good and, while he still has to live with the motormouth he has for a friend, his apartment is pretty damn spacious.

 

After Sunggyu left him with so much as telling him to keep the obsidian necklace and a lousy goodbye, he doesn’t think his life fell apart immediately. It was more of a thing that happened over the course of years: he was fired from the apothecary’s store, couldn’t keep a job, couldn’t keep the apartment Sunggyu and he lived in for three or four years, and the mess that was Woohyun appeared on his life with the only option he had left.

 

And all in all it isn’t that bad. Sometimes they nearly die while smuggling ingredients to gangs and stuff, but there’s nothing Woohyun’s health-curing spells can’t help. His necklace glows once in a while too, a softish purple shining in the middle of the night that doesn’t let Sungyeol sleep until Woohyun throws a pillow at it and the magic stops. It’s kind of curious, really, but Sungyeol likes to think it’s just Sunggyu checking up on him somehow.

 

But other than that, nothing interesting happens.

 

While making dinner, at the kitchen, Woohyun asks, “Do you wanna do this next friday too? I might have a new contact. I think we’ll get a good sum if we do this correctly.”

 

“And what’re they looking for?” Sungyeol asks distractedly, watching his friend move around their rundown kitchen effortlessly. In a universe where they wouldn’t have the necessity to do illegal things for a living, he might have been good with tasks that require good hand-eye coordination. Like cooking, maybe dancing. Even when drunk, Woohyun makes a pretty interesting dancer.

 

Sungyeol then can’t help but think of Sunggyu in the same situation. Would his movements be as sharp as Woohyun’s? Probably not. Sunggyu had always been soft; a little strict sometimes, and maybe even shy, but he always came back to the gentleness that had made Sungyeol follow him in the first place.

 

Sunggyu.

 

Hm.

 

Where is he?

 

“Unicorn horns.”

 

Sungyeol frowns. “What.”

 

Woohyun shrugs, placing dinner (or maybe breakfast? Who worries about semantics at three in the morning) in front of him. “That’s what they’re looking for.”

 

“Ahh right,” he mumbles before digging in. “And where are we going to get unicorn horns? They’re not even native of this country!”

 

Woohyun grins, a dimple showing. He leans over to ruffle Sungyeol’s hair before the other slaps it away. “I might just know the right person.”

 

--

 

The third time Sunggyu leaves (or rather tries to leave) is when he comes face to face with Sungyeol, on a stormy December day, at the port.

 

Luckily, Sungyeol manages to catch him by his jacket. Unluckily, the material is slippery and his grip isn’t that strong. Sunggyu rushes to the other side of the boat, and it’s kind of funny, considering he has no way to go unless he jumps to the water. Sungyeol widens his eyes. Except maybe Sunggyu is capable of that, if he’s so bent on avoiding Sungyeol.

 

Next to them, Woohyun snorts.

 

“You!” Sunggyu—after abandoning his ridiculous idea of jumping off the boat—points his finger at Woohyun. “Why did you bring him here?”

 

Wait.

 

Woohyun shrugs. “I thought it was about time.”

 

Waait.

 

“Of course it’s not! I think we’d agreed on keeping this a secret until it was time.”

 

Waaaaait.

 

“It doesn’t count if you’ve been avoiding ‘the right  time’ for years. Also I need my unicorn horns thank you very much.”

 

Waaaaaaaait

 

“What’s going on here?” Sungyeol interrupts him, nearly screeching in the process. Hanging from his chest, the pendant makes a heartbeat-like movement.

 

Sunggyu stares at him for a couple of seconds, the same childlike expression on his face as when Sungyeol impressed him with something, before he sighs. “I guess I owe you some kind of explanation.”

 

“No .”

 

The older man makes a hmph-like sound, tugging off his rubber gloves. He tosses them at Woohyun’s face. “Look for your goddamn horns on the deck, I’m gonna have lunch with Yeollie.”

 

--

 

So.

 

“Remember how we met?” is the first thing that comes out of Sunggyu’s mouth after they find a decent restaurant and sit down to talk. A little bit after that, the waitress brings them the menus and asks if they want any drinks.

 

With his arms crossed and his best attempt at a serious face, Sungyeol responds, “Yeah. I was a little cold and you offered me your jacket.”

 

“You were about to die from hypothermia,” Sunggyu corrects, “and I took you home and fed you the best broth you’ve ever tasted in your life.” Sungyeol opens his mouth, but Sunggyu is faster, “Your words, not mine.”

 

“Yeah well,” the young man looks away and his lips. “What does that have to do with anything?”

 

“I’m getting there, hold on.”

 

The waitress walks up to them and asks for their order. Only then does Sungyeol realize he hasn’t looked at his menu once. Luckily, Sunggyu orders for the both of them without problem.

 

“Anyway, going back to the story. I was pretty scared of you back then,” Sunggyu goes on. “You were a loud and bratty kid, also very stubborn. And to be honest, that didn’t change through the years. Even when I left you at the boarding school, you still had that kind of rebellious spirit.”

 

Sungyeol clears his throat, leaning back. “Is that why you got rid of me?”

 

“What? No! Never. I just wanted you to get a decent education,” Sunggyu hurries to reply, but even then, Sungyeol is skeptic.

 

“Right.”

 

“What?” Sunggyu raises both palms up, as if he’s in an interrogation. Not so far from the truth, actually. “Okay, so maybe I was a little scared back then, because you were so young and I’m—you know.”

 

“You’re old.”

 

Sunggyu reaches over to smack Sungyeol in the back of the head. “I might be well into my two hundreds, but i look pretty good for that age.”

 

Sungyeol rolls his eyes. “We’re getting side-tracked.”

 

“What, you don’t want to keep talking about my handsome face?” Sunggyu fakes hurt. “You used to tell me my face was beautiful, especially my jawline.”

 

Sungyeol wants to retort something, but the overwhelmingly warm sensation on his cheeks are too much for him. “I was ten!”

 

“Still, I don’t think your opinion has changed that much, has it?” Sunggyu crosses his arms above the table, raising his chin a little, and yeah. Ten-year-old Sungyeol wasn’t wrong. “See? Caught you staring!”

 

“You’re childish.” Sungyeol throws a napkin curled into a ball at him, and Sunggyu can’t retaliate because the server comes up to them with their food.

 

--

 

The weather isn’t as cold as it should be, given that is December, but the wind makes up for it. There might even be a thunderstorm tonight. Sungyeol rubs his hands together to keep warm and chants a spell so that a small flame surfaces between them.

 

“I guess I can’t hold your hand anymore,” next to him, Sunggyu says.

 

Sungyeol steals a look at him. “For what? To cross the street?”

 

“Nah,” Sunggyu shrugs. “Because I like holding hands with you.”

 

Sungyeol furrows his eyebrows, but otherwise stays quiet, or at least until he gets the brilliant idea to offer Sunggyu his elbow because it’s cold and in all honesty, he’s missed the older guy. Sunggyu is quick to hook his arm around Sungyeol’s and rest on his shoulder as they wait to cross the street.

 

They’re wandering around, not much talk between them, and although Sungyeol is dying to know all the answers to Sunggyu’s enigmas, he likes to pretend they’re on a date where no words need to be exchanged. Sunggyu’s always understood every unsaid things, every secret Sungyeol’s tried to hide from him.

 

“I guess after living so much you get very good at reading people,” he mumbles to himself without thinking.

 

Sunggyu hums. “You think so?”

 

“I know so.” Sungyeol deems the park they’re in a good place to stop. He untangles Sunggyu’s arm from him and stands in front of Sunggyu. It’s probably time to face the truth anyway. “Other than that, why would you’ve sent me away? And then disappear for so long?”

 

Sunggyu only raises his eyebrows. “Don’t forget I left you with the worst babysitter in the universe.”

 

“Wait what? Who, Woohyun?” Sungyeol asks. “He’s not a babysitter, he’s my friend.”

 

“I think I need to clarify that too. Woohyun has been my familiar for a couple of decades. Five to be precise. And he wanted to get an education in this century you know?” Sunggyu inches down as he speaks, as if waiting for Sungyeol to explode. “That he became your friend was rather a bonus. Please don’t be mad at me, Please don’t be mad at me, Please don’t—”

 

“Stop.” Sunggyu slaps his own forehead. “Hyung, what else have you been keeping from me? And aren’t familiars supposed to be animal spirits? Like dogs?”

 

“He’s a wolf, technically, but I think he likes being a human more nowadays.”

 

Sungyeol nods. “That explains a lot of things.”

 

They remain quiet after that, with the wind gushing through and lifting the edges of their coats as they stare at each other.

 

Later, after digesting Sunggyu’s words, Sungyeol comes to a decision. He’s annoyed at Sunggyu’s choices, yes, but he can’t say he’s mad at the guy. After all, he’s always trusted Sunggyu to do the best for him, and like all immortals, he’s lived through so much he might’ve become shy and wary.

 

Too careful for…

 

For that.

 

“In a way I pulled away because I was scared,” Sunggyu speaks out suddenly. Finally a time to become sincere to each other, Sungyeol thinks. “I mean, I’m eventually going to out-live you, right? And you had so many things to see and so many ways to go on your own in this world that I didn’t want to take that away from you. But I couldn’t leave you completely unprotected, you know?”

 

“Such a fatherly figure,” Sungyeol mutters, but all Sunggyu does is brush his bangs aside. He has to stretch, though, nearly getting in the tip of his toes.

 

“But that’s not what you want from me, right?” Sunggyu looks up at him with the kind of expression that makes Sungyeol miss him even when they’re standing close they’re pretty much breathing the same air. “Come here,” he says before pulling him into a hug, even though Sungyeol doesn’t need the words to wrap his arms around Sunggyu’s neck and hug him tight.

 

“You’re not allowed to leave anymore, and this is not up to discussion,” he says against Sunggyu’s ear. “And please stop making decisions for me. That was nice twenty or maybe even ten years ago, but from now on we gotta talk things out. And if we find a way, we’ll have eternity to figure stuff out.”

 

From his place, with his head now resting comfortably on Sungyeol’s shoulder, Sunggyu drops a small kiss in the exposed skin and says, “Couldn’t ask for more.”