pairing: BaekLay
length: 2787 words

It all happened so suddenly.

One moment, Yixing was lying atop a hill, flat on his back, and mindlessly staring up at the sky.

The next, he was completely surrounded by white and yellow and blue and just about every shade in between red and pink while floating—or sitting; it sounded much safer that way—on what looked like a giant cloud if the wispy white edges that gradually feathered out into nothingness were anything to go by.

Yixing let out a high-pitched shriek, belatedly realizing that he was suspended up in the air with nothing solid underneath him. But when he instinctively scooted backwards, instead of falling through the cloud as expected, Yixing somehow remained suspended in the air. The cloud beneath him didn’t actually feel solid, but it did lightly bounce whenever he shifted, which was incredibly stress-inducing in itself. But after gently patting the cloud with his hand several times and seeing that it wasn’t completely breaking apart underneath him, Yixing shakily exhaled and drew his knees up to his chest.

“You know you can stand, right?” a voice suddenly interjected.

With another shrill squeal, Yixing jolted in place and whipped his head around, eyes wide and frantic, in search of the source of this mysterious voice. To his left, there was a blurry silhouette, somewhat masked by the handful of colors that painted the sky. After slightly shaking his head and narrowing his eyes, Yixing was able to gradually make out more details of the shadowy figure and everything soon sharpened into a young man who looked around his age.

The other male slowly stepped closer and the colors gradually receded to fully showcase his jet black hair, his dark brown eyes, and his skinny frame. His expression was completely unfathomable, but Yixing barely registered that as his mind raced a mile a minute to try to figure out how on earth he was existing—with another human being, no less—on a bunch of clouds in the sky.

Unless this other man wasn’t a human.

In which case, was he dead?

Or was he about to die?

Or was he suddenly crossing the threshold between life and death, and this young—or old, Yixing had no idea anymore—man was here to lead him to the afterlife? To the great beyond? To nothingness?

Yixing felt his limbs go weak and his head began to spin with nausea.

“Uh…did you not hear me? You can stand up, y’know,” the other male reiterated once he reached the cloud that Yixing was perched on, deftly avoiding the wispy edges. He then took another look at Yixing’s pallid face before plainly adding, “You’re in shock, aren’t you?”

“Well, yeah, I… Just a minute ago, I was on the…the hill that overlooks my house and…and now…now I’m… Argh, I have no idea what happened to me!” Yixing spluttered as he automatically backed away from the stranger.

“Chill out. You’re fine,” the young man nonchalantly replied as he extended a hand to Yixing, who flinched away.

“Wh-who are you?” Yixing’s voice then dropped to a barely audible whisper as he asked, “A-are you…d-dead?”

“No and neither are you,” the young man flatly said. “C’mon, let’s find a more comfortable place to talk. I’ll explain more there.”

Yixing grimaced while his gaze flicked between the other male’s outstretched hand and the other clouds floating around them before heaving a loud sigh. “Okay…” Yixing wobbled as he gradually regained his footing, trying not to psych himself out whenever the cloud shifted beneath his feet.

However, the stranger ignored his fumbling and carelessly began tugging Yixing towards a dense expanse of yellow in the distance. “Make sure you avoid the edges,” the young man cautioned as they traversed the sky, hopping from cloud to cloud.

“Wh-why?” Yixing shakily asked as he narrowly avoided the dissipating edge of a particularly narrow cloud.

“Because you’ll fall and no one will be able to catch you,” the other man bluntly answered.

Yixing’s face turned white as a sheet at that and he weakly nodded. “By the way, you never told me your name,” Yixing feebly pointed out after several seconds of complete silence.

“You can call me Baekhyun.”

“Er, nice to meet you, Baekhyun. I’m Yixing.”

“Cool.”

Yixing frowned at the cold response, but a thin cloud zipped underneath him all of a sudden, causing him to latch onto Baekhyun’s arm more tightly to prevent himself from tripping over thin air. He let out an involuntary squeak, causing Baekhyun to snort derisively, and Yixing’s frown deepened while his cheeks burned fire red. “I’m trying not to fall!”

“You don’t need to make such a big deal out of it,” Baekhyun callously replied.

“Well, sorry for not becoming a cloud-jumping master in five minutes,” Yixing shot back as he slightly pulled away while firmly keeping his hands locked on the other male’s arms. “My entire world just turned upside-down, so I’d appreciate a bit of grace at this time, if you don’t mind.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

Yixing’s frown returned and he took great pleasure in glaring daggers into Baekhyun’s back without the other male seeing. “Jeez, if you’re going to be such a wet blanket, why did you even approach me earlier?”

“Because I had to,” Baekhyun answered hollowly.

Yixing waited for the other man to elaborate, but when no further explanation came, he pressed his lips together in a thin line and noiselessly continued following Baekhyun towards the expanse of yellow. The blurry edges slowly sharpened into buildings of all shapes and sizes, crowded together under a gigantic glass dome. The clouds became denser the closer they walked to the dome city and Yixing breathed a short sigh of relief when he realized he no longer had to worry about accidentally falling through the sky, now that the smaller clouds had all merged into one gigantic cloud.

Once the pair reached the dome, Baekhyun led Yixing to a round glass door and the taller male could instantly feel a pressure difference the moment he stepped through. He instantly felt lighter and freer inside the dome, and his anxiety—while still very much there—had lessened just a bit as he gazed around the relatively more familiar settings.

The city within the dome didn’t look much different from the cities back on Earth. There were skyscrapers that seemed to go for miles and miles, cozy cottages and villas spread out in every direction, and little brick walls that lined the streets. However, the lack of greenery and people soon became apparent the more that Yixing looked around, and his grimaced gradually returned and widened with every second that passed.

Baekhyun seemed to pay no mind to Yixing’s growing distress as he led the taller male to a nearby picnic table. The young man surreptitiously glanced around before releasing a small sigh and letting his shoulders sag slightly.

“I…don’t see anyone else here…”

“Doesn’t mean we can’t be too careful,” Baekhyun airily replied.

Yixing’s grimace then morphed into a confused frown. “What do we have to be careful of?”

Baekhyun purposefully avoided the question and instead pulled out a golden coin. He then balanced the coin on its ridged edge atop the table, holding it in place with his left hand, before giving it a deft flick with his right hand. “Heads or tails?”

“I’m not answering this until you tell me—”

“Heads or tails?”

Seeing that Baekhyun was refusing to budge until he answered the question, Yixing gruffly replied, “Heads,” causing the other man to nod.

“We’ll see where it lands.”

Yixing kept his eyes glued to the spinning coin, expecting it to tilt and fall in a matter of seconds like most coins did.

However, Baekhyun snapped his fingers in front of his face and firmly ordered, “Focus here, not on the coin. You’re wasting energy by watching it.”

The taller male’s frown duly returned, but he managed to hold in the retort that was resting on the tip of his tongue and refocus his gaze on the other man instead. “You said you’d explain what was going on,” Yixing reminded him as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “So I’d really appreciate it if we could get to the main point sooner rather than later.”

Baekhyun’s hands stiffened for a brief second before the young man let out an audible exhale and locked eyes with Yixing. “It’s complicated to explain, so listen carefully since I’m only going to say this once, okay?”

Yixing nodded, keeping his clammy hands clasped together under the table.

The shorter male sighed deeply again before finally gesturing to their sterile surroundings. “This is Castella. It’s…basically a magical fort that’s suspended in the sky and it exists everywhere on this particular spatial plane.”

“Everywhere?”

“Yeah, I don’t really understand the magical mechanics behind it, but no matter where you are on this specific spatial plane, it’ll appear nearby. You can’t escape it, no matter how far you try to run,” Baekhyun explained with a grim expression.

A cold shiver ran up Yixing’s spine and he unclasped his sweaty hands to grip the edge of his seat. “Do… Do you know why I got transported here?” he shakily asked.

The young man shook his head. “There’s no discernible pattern that I can derive, but I’m working on it.”

Trying to ignore the gnawing sensation that was growing within his chest, the taller male asked, “How do I get back to Earth then? Will I get transported back or something?”

Baekhyun’s gaze immediately darkened. “You can’t.”

Yixing balked. “Huh? What… What do you mean?”

“None of us can leave this plane,” the young man grimly confirmed. “We’re permanently tethered here by the magic that upholds Castella. There’s no magical exit or route back down to Earth. Once you’re here, that’s it.” There was a slight pause before he bleakly added, “Nonetheless, we still have to be careful and steer clear of the edges. Because if you do somehow fall off of the edge…”

The unstated ending of Baekhyun’s statement spoke volumes.

Yixing gulped loudly as he swept his gaze around Castella once again. “So what you’re saying is that I’m doomed to live here for the rest of my life?”

“I’d say the rest of eternity is a bit more accurate, considering you’ll never age from this point on,” Baekhyun dryly pointed out.

Another low whimper involuntarily escaped Yixing’s lips and his knuckles turned completely white from how tightly he was gripping the edge of his seat. “How… How long have you been…stuck here?”

“I stopped counting after the third year, but I imagine it’s been probably closer to ten—maybe even fifteen—at this point.”

“Oh my god…”

Baekhyun only shrugged. “Time doesn’t exist here, so it honestly doesn’t matter.”

The heavy aura of the dome city’s emptiness pressed down on him even more, almost as if he were being suffocated. Taking a deep breath to center himself again, Yixing gingerly asked, “Um, you said ‘none of us’ earlier… What—what does that mean? I, uh… I don’t really see…anyone else here…except for us…”

“Oh, there are definitely others. Probably not as many as you’d expect, considering how long Castella has been here, since a number of folks did…prefer the edge…” Baekhyun carefully said, causing Yixing’s face to whiten like a sheet again. “But most, if not all, stay in their allocated home within the city. For a lot of them, it’s like living in paradise. There’s no need to work, no need to earn money, and everything you could ever need is provided at an unlimited supply. Even I relished the freedom to sleep in however long I wanted, to eat whatever I wished for, and to live life with no strings attached.”

“But…”

Baekhyun let out a small snort. “You already figured out that there’s a catch.”

Yixing fidgeted in his seat while nervously saying, “I mean, you wouldn’t have bothered to go outside if there weren’t…right? And the others who didn’t consider this to be paradise…” The taller male bit his bottom lip, unwilling to verbalize any further.

“For me, it became meaningless. No genuine interactions when everything is simulated to your exact liking. No spontaneity when a schedule doesn’t exist and no obstacles arise for you to suddenly navigate around. If you manage to peel back the shiny layers on the outside, the reason to stay crumbles very quickly.” Baekhyun’s gaze shifted back to the perpetually spinning coin. “Of course, not everyone is like us and they enjoy living in Castella without any bit of stress. And I don’t blame them for it. Life on Earth was unbearable for so many. Castella has given them new purpose without truly giving them a life’s purpose. They don’t want to become the next Nobel Prize winner or discover a new fauna species or set Olympic records. They just want to enjoy the freedom that they never had on Earth. And I can’t blame them for it.”

“Then…what changed for you?” Yixing slowly asked.

Baekhyun briefly pursed his lips together before leaning closer towards the taller male, his voice dropping an octave upon saying, “I…might have stumbled across some…information by chance. I was alerted of the existence of a place called the Caelus Vault, which is hidden somewhere on this plane. If we can somehow crack it open, I might be able to help you find a way to get back to Earth, if that’s what you want.”

Yixing nodded vigorously, a glimmer of hope returning to his brown eyes. “Yes, please!”

“Not that you’ll be able to since you won’t be leaving my side, but you swear not to breath a single word about this to anyone else, right?” Baekhyun hissed under his breath, drawing even closer to Yixing until the tips of their noses barely brushed against each other. “It’ll jeopardize the entire operation if anything about this gets leaked.”

“I swear,” Yixing fearfully squeaked. Once Baekhyun moved away, visibly satisfied by his answer, the taller male warily asked, “Why me though? You just met me. You don’t know anything about me.”

“Which is perfect. The less we know about each other, the less likely we’ll be able to manipulate each other or put ourselves at risk of being coerced by anyone else.”

“But…how can you just instantly trust me with something so…important?” Yixing pressed, completely flabbergasted by Baekhyun’s palpable indifference. “It—it doesn’t make sense at all!”

“None of this makes sense, Yixing. If any of it did, we wouldn’t be here. Although it might not seem like it, at its core, Castella runs on randomness. So you’d better get used to it.”

The taller male slumped back in his seat, arms crossed over his chest. “I still don’t get it, but…I guess as long as I can get back home, I’ll help you out.”

“Perfect. Follow me,” Baekhyun commanded as he placed a hand over the spinning golden coin and swiftly swept it into his pocket without revealing its open face. “I need to get you situated and suited up.”

“Wha—suited up?”

“You need to be properly equipped for this,” Baekhyun wryly pointed out while standing up. “We’re dealing with a complex combination of magic and technology after all. You’re useless as you are right now.”

By now, Yixing knew there was no point in arguing with the other man. So he just sighed and nodded as he stood up, slightly stumbling as he did from sitting so tensely just then. “You promise you’re not leading me into a trap, right?” Yixing checked one more time as he began following Baekhyun deeper into the city.

“No, I’m not,” Baekhyun calmly answered. “And even if I were, I wouldn’t reveal that to you. So you’ll just have to trust me. Just like I trust you to have my back while we go find the Caelus Vault.”

Yixing slowly nodded. “What happens once we find it?”

“Depends on what’s in there. We might have to go on another goose chase if the information we get ends up pointing us in a different direction, which could very well happen.”

“You’re… You’re not inspiring a lot of confidence in me, Baekhyun…”

“That’s fine,” the young man airily replied. “It’ll make more sense as we move forward. Or maybe it won’t.” Baekhyun shrugged again. “In any case, we’re partners now. So keep close, keep quiet, and don’t draw any unnecessary attention towards us.”

Yixing exhaled deeply before staring resolutely ahead of him, keeping his eyes trained perfectly on Baekhyun’s lithe figure. “…Okay. I trust you.”

Baekhyun slightly turned back and for the first time since they’d met, there was a small grin on his youthful face. “Perfect.”

♈♈♈