Before We Go Up in Flames
Description
Being a superhero comes with its own share of victories and losses. Triumphs and sacrifices. Mistakes and consequences. Yet there are some things you can't reverse, despite how many tomorrows you're willing to give up to fix just one yesterday.
Chanyeol is only given a week to do it all over again, although he already knows how it ends.
But that doesn't mean he's okay with that. And he'd give anything he can to change it.
After all, how could you fit the love of a lifetime into just one week?
Genre: Angst, slight!fluff, maybe tragedy? Action-ish (not really bc im lame but kinda)
Pairings: Chanbaek/Baekyeol
Length: Three-shot | Complete | 48k
Warnings: [[ Violence, blood, a lot of talk about death (Spoilers! c; ) Character Death (Or uhh murder otl I am so sorry) ]]
(kind of recommend you read at least the first parts of the warnings, just in case.)
Foreword
“So when it comes to light… aren’t you and Jongdae almost the same?”
He sees a streak of lightning split through the dark. He sees the light reflect off the rain. He sees a battlefield.
Baekhyun hums. “Not… exactly. Let’s say I’m a lightbulb and Jongdae’s a battery.”
He sees the determined look on Baekhyun’s face. He sees the anger burning in his eyes. He sees the scowl on his lips.
“As in…” Baekhyun rolls the words around on his tongue, trying to recall lessons from high school physics classes he never paid much attention to, too busy playing with the lights or doodling in his notebook. “Okay, let’s say a lightbulb works as a resistor, which dissipates voltage.”
He sees Jongdae dancing with lightning crackling around his body, and he lets out a loud, deranged laugh as it whips toward Baekhyun, and Baekhyun dances along, dodging each deadly spark, until he catches on to the edges of the whips to surprise the smug look right off Jongdae’s face.
“Jongdae is essentially a fixed voltage source with nowhere to direct his power except through wires and other components. But the more voltage given to me, the more current that runs through my veins, the brighter I’ll shine.”
He sees Baekhyun’s body glowing brighter, hotter, a smirk spreading across his lips as he holds on to the electricity, trying to balance the power with his own and deplete his enemy’s.
Baekhyun’s face darkens, and his voice softens. “But you can be given too much voltage.”
He sees his face twist in pain until it all releases, eyes wide, jaw slack, an overflow of electricity sparking through his body, leaking out of places it shouldn’t leak.
“And once I can’t resist it anymore… well…”
He sees Baekhyun fall. He sees electricity coiling around his body like snakes, like thorns. He looks away so he doesn’t have to see what happens next.
Baekhyun closes his eyes and gives Chanyeol a soft smile. “...that’s how lightbulbs burn out and burst, isn’t it?”
Chanyeol wakes up, panting in the dark. Another nightmare.
~*~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~*~
A/n: Hey guys :) The way that this fic is posted to AFF is the way it was intended to be read, but these chapters got ridiculously long, so if you’re okay with reading chapters that have 10k+ words, then go ahead and continue. If you’d rather read the chapters in shorter bursts, each under 10k, I’ve split them up on livejournal for your convenience :)
So this is a mix between something I planned to do a long time ago and part of a plot given by Baekyeol-prompts (prompt #35 – but the prompt is a little bit spoiler-ish, so beware before clicking on that link.) This is an old fic with an old plot and a kinda old writing style that I went ham trying to cover up, so it might seem different and more basic than it should (I hope it doesn’t), but eh. Eh.
I’m actually super nervous about this one because this fic has been my baby for the past couple of months, and I really hope it doesn’t disappoint you ;n; It’s so much different from what I usually post, but I’ve missed writing these things so……… I really hope you don’t hate it lol.
I also sorta messed with Kyungsoo’s power in this a little (read: a lot), so uhh, I guess it includes manipulation of metals as well. Just putting this out there so you’re not confused later.
Have fun u___u
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