Kai had one memory from when he was a baby, just born, when everything was wet and cold and bright and the universe had just expanded a thousandfold. He hadn't wanted to open his eyes. He'd known, somehow, that once he opened his eyes, there would never be darkness again. He could feel the colors pressing around him, their lips and waiting for his eyelids to crack open and let them in.

His psychologist in the eigth grade explained to him that it was impossible to remember anything before you were two. Kai's parents had been trying the supportive, psychological approach to his synesthesia, and thought if they could send him to enough hours of therapy he would eventually have a breakthrough and be fixed.

Maybe he was a freak of nature. But when he opened his eyes, and his mother fairly screamed in relief, he was assulted, and, as babies do, he'd cried. Perhaps partly because of the overstimulation but also because he was mourning the darkness.

The same worry burned in him now, as his mind slowly rose from its stressed sleep. He was first aware of his body and its weight in the bed, and then the feeling of the sheets against his fingertips, and then the silence in his room. There. A slight rustle of paper, a slight shift of bodyweight that wasn't his. His mind rebelled and tried to bury back down, unconcious where it was comfortable, but it couldn't; he couldn't.

His eyelids tickled his cheeks a little as they fluttered, blurred brightness his mind. Slowly, as if he could feel it, his pupils contracted, the light focusing into shapes and colors, as he slowly woke up. The air in the room was stale but warm. He moved his body up the pillows, his muscles aching and something dragging against his stomach.

Kyungsoo looked up from his book, the light from the window hitting half his flushed face--he'd had it in one hand, curled up in the chair next to the bed. When he saw Kai looking at him, his lips popped open, his eyes widening, his eyebrows migrating up his forehead a little. Kai felt a slow swell of bliss, of total happiness and comfort, just sitting there, his mind still fuzzy, staring at Kyungsoo in the sunlight as the singer was about to speak.

"Hi." It was no more than a breath, a puff of air, but Kai had to look up to keep the tears from his eyes when he saw the french lilac, all on its own, in that room. Kai didn't know what Kyungsoo had had to do to be there when he woke up. After all, Kyungsoo wasn't next of kin or affiliated to him in any way. But then again, Kai's list of official next of kin had dwindled down to only Jinah.

"Hi," he replied, his voice scratchy. Kyungsoo unfolded himself, leaving his book facedown on the chair behind him, and dissappeared from the room a moment, returning with a cup of water. He approached the bed again carefully, his eyes shining in what looked like relief. Kai opened his mouth to speak again but Kyungsoo smiled and just brought the cup to his lips.

"Drink," he murmered, and Kai reflexively did as he was told. The cold water hitting his gut suddenly brought the pain from his stomach into focus, and he winced, tugging at the sheets to try to see.

"It's not as bad as it seems," supplied Kyungsoo. "It didn't hit any vital organs."

Kai relaxed back into the bed, unused to someone being so attuned to what he needed and what he wanted to know. "Why are you here, then?" he asked. "You must have some kind of... some kind of scedule or something. How long have you been waiting for me to wake up? How long was I asleep?"

Kyungsoo shook his head. "You were only asleep through the night and part of the morning." He ran a hand through his stressed hair. "It really did look worse than it was, I guess. But there's a storm watiting for us outside that door." He chewed on his lip. As Kai looked closer, he noticed dark shadows under his boyfriend's eyes and a tense, trembling jaw. He looked flush with exhaustion and the stuffy heat of the room.

He swallowed. "Babe," he began. "Would you open the window? It's stuffy."

"But... the noise..." A small hand found Kai's on the bedheets. "I wanted it to be just my voice for a while, I thought that might be nice..." 

Kai made a small sound of appreciation in the back of his throat. His heart ached; no one had ever been nearly so kind, not even his psychologists. "I don't want you to pass out," he replied gently. 

Kyungsoo's eyes widened, but he padded over to the window and opened it after only a minimal amount of effort. A gentle breeze rolled through the window and Kyungsoo swayed a little with it, closing his eyes before coming back over to sit next to Kai on the bed. "So," he said gently. "Jinah went back to her apartment, but she said she'd come if called. I called Yixing back, he'll be here in a few minutes. He's already picked up your painting from your parent's house, and whatever else was salvageable. Did you know that your mother and Jinah carried that painting out of the burning house? Umm... what else is there." his eyes were skipping back and forth as he ran through a list clearly fraying and inked and crumpled in his mind. "Jinah... seemed actually sorry. I don't know. There's some stuff we still have to sort out."

"When is this going to heal?" Kai put a hand on the dull ache in his stomach.

"Oh! You should be able to move around sometime tomrrow, and after that it's just a matter of not hitting it and stuff, to my understanding. I mean, don't go--go running or anything, but--" Kai smirked to himself. No for a few more days, and this beautiful angel all his.

"You still haven't told me how you got out of your scedules."

"Simple." Kyungsoo smiled sheepishly, sharing some secret that was delicious as long as it came from those lips."I'm sick and in the hospital with a wound to my abdomen. I used to come here for IV drips when I was working nonstop so I know most of the staff really well. I'm going to try this new thing where I separate work from personal life."

Kai eyed his boyfriend skeptically, reaching out an arm to wind around Kungoso's waist, nestling them both into the bed. "Do me one more favor, then?"

"Anything."

"Sing us both to sleep."

Kyungsoo looked up at Kai with mild suprise. "Kai?" Kai loooked down, and Kyungsoo grinned,

"There it is."

"There what is?"

"The whole time I've known you, whenever I've said your name, there's been this split-second hsitation, like I'm saying your fake name and it takes you a second to remember that your name is Kai. But now, it's gone. Gold star, you." And bless him, his nose scrunched up and there were stars in his eyes as he looked up at Kai. Then Kyungsoo cleared his throat.

And a single lilac note stretched out between them, making a horizon of smooth sound that kept going until Kai's eyes slipped shut, and he dreamed about color instead of blackness, Kyungsoo's warmth pressed comfortingly against him.

Author's note: can you believe it's almost over? Here's a short chapter to heal you all from the hell I put you through last update. I'm getting nostalgic, this story has been so great to write. What kind of ending is your favorite? Sweet? Triumphant? y? ty? Let me know, I love comments!