Yixing should have known, should have realised, the first time Junmyeon sought him out with superficial burns stretching from his fingertips to his shoulders. 

“There was an… accident,” Junmyeon says, wincing as Yixing carefully examines the burns and heals them. “But it sparked an idea! Water is a conduit –” 

Spark.

How Yixing would come to despise that word.

🗲💧🗲

Furious knocking on the front door and intelligible shouts tear Yixing away from his cosy reading spot. He is no stranger to late-night visits, but he is not prepared for the sight that meets him at the doorstep. 

Junmyeon, lifeless in a stranger’s arms, severe burns and blisters taking up almost every inch of skin visible to the eye. 

And the stranger, who can only be Jongdae, is looking despairingly at Yixing and begging him to save Junmyeon.

The urge to maim Jongdae must wait. Focusing his energy on Junmyeon, Yixing heals until he is swaying on his feet, his energy depleted from an earlier call. Jongdae reaches out to steady him when he stumbles, but Yixing shoves him away.

“Don’t,” he spits, glaring at Jongdae’s miserable face with such scorching fury the likes of which he has never before felt towards another person. “This is your fault. Why must you stay when you cannot keep him safe?”

Tormented, Jongdae whispers, “I love him.” 

Yixing seizes the pity welling within him at the sight of Jongdae’s despair and banishes it to somewhere far away: He will not feel sorry for someone who so readily exposes Junmyeon to danger. 

“You love him?” Yixing demands, ignoring the sound of his own heart breaking within his ribcage. “If there were even a speck of truth to that, Junmyeon would not be lying here with Lichtenberg scars covering more than half of his body! You love him? Then you stay away!”

Jongdae looks towards Junmyeon with such grief that Yixing wants to scream; wants to plunge his hands into his chest and rip out the wretched remains of his wretched heart.

It isn’t fair. 

That night, tears soak his pillow, and his cries are muffled so as to not alert his childhood friend’s charity case of his own pain. His chest aches from the sobs, from the heartbreak, because of course.

Junmyeon loves Jongdae.

🗲💧🗲

From what Yixing has been told or guessed himself, the story goes like this: Junmyeon encounters Jongdae, a lightning sorcerer with a shaky control over his powers. Junmyeon, ever-friendly Junmyeon who hasn’t a shred of self-preservation, sticks to Jongdae’s side to help him when his powers threaten to overwhelm him, which oftentimes brings Junmyeon to Yixing’s doorstep, cringing in both pain and apology. 

And Yixing cannot, will not, ever close the door in his face, but still he wishes his heart were as simple to patch up as Junmyeon’s wounds. Junmyeon leaves with a smile and a heartfelt gratitude every time, a promise to take better care, and Yixing watches him leave, knowing he’ll be back with more burns for him to heal.

He hates Jongdae. He wishes he hadn’t come into Junmyeon’s life and dragged him into the storm of his existence. Had it been anyone else, Yixing would have been able to get over it.

But Jongdae is dangerous. Jongdae hurts Junmyeon. Jongdae never cares enough to come along when Junmyeon requires Yixing’s help after Jongdae hurt him, except that one time that nearly cost Junmyeon’s life.

Jongdae heeded Yixing’s words and backed off, but Junmyeon reeled him back in, and nothing has changed – except Junmyeon wears the scars proudly, claiming it’s a testament to their hardship and relationship, which has passed the threshold of friendship, and Yixing – Yixing wants to laugh. He wants to cry. He wants to scream.

Whose hardship? Yixing is the one ensuring Jongdae’s outbursts do not result in anyone’s – Junmyeon’s – death. Yixing is the one subjected to hours of his love blathering about Jongdae, smiling through it all and keeping a firm hold on his emotions that Jongdae could only dream of having on his power. 

“Are you all right?” Sehun asks, concern seeping into the pout of his lips and the pull of his eyebrows. “You seem… really sad lately.”

Yixing smiles and smiles and does not stop smiling. “Of course.”

The love he has for Junmyeon is but an ember that refuses to die. It sparks at every smile from Junmyeon, every laugh and every touch and every look, as though it believes there is hope.

Yixing sometimes wishes the sparks would light his insides on fire so that the pain of heartbreak would burn up together with the rest of him.

🗲💧🗲

“You scare him,” Junmyeon says.

Yixing, silently fuming while he heals the burns on Junmyeon’s legs, needs a moment to register the words. “Me?”

Junmyeon hums. “He accompanies me to the door where he bids me farewell, knowing I’m safe with you. I have tried to invite him inside, but he just mutters that it’s better if he doesn’t.” He looks inquiringly at Yixing, who avoids his gaze. “Why is that so?”

“I may have… told him off,” Yixing admits. “He hurts you –”

“I allow it,” Junmyeon cuts him off. “Don’t be an when I’m the one encouraging him.” 

Yixing bristles, but Junmyeon shakes his head. 

“It has been a while, hasn’t it? His control is improving.” Junmyeon beams. “Do you know what a Faraday shield is? I’ve gotten better, faster, at bringing one made of water up when I see the sparks. Sometimes, I know before he does.”

He smiles up at Yixing, who is defenceless against it. “And when things go awry, we have you. I will always have you to thank for patching me up.”

At that moment, Yixing resents Junmyeon a little, and Jongdae a little more. 

He resents himself the most for wanting desperately to teach Jongdae a lesson, and for knowing he could never.

He loves Junmyeon too much to ever see him suffer.

🗲💧🗲

If Junmyeon’s water is a conduit for Jongdae’s lightning, let then Yixing’s tears be a conduit for his love.

This last round of Tinysparks had two 'themes': Spark and Tiny. I wrote a story for each; this one was for Spark. 

(I gave the words to a friend and asked him to note down his thoughts, and a 'a trigger happy/unstable fire mage' was what led me on the path of electricity, and he then suggested to include a water/ice mage for some conduitivity and synergy. So I did. Another friend from a writing Discord helped with the rest of the angsty plot, so WHOO :D)

Also, my life motto: "When in doubt, do titles in Latin."