In four days, it will be exactly six months since their last encounter with the Red Forces. 

Six months since the Red Forces took Yixing.

Yixing, as he was wont to do, had carefully steered clear of the fighting to mend their wounds from afar. Eventually, Zitao had been struck down by a hooded man and Junmyeon had known, with dawning horror as he struggled to keep the upper hand against his opponents, that he could not save Zitao from the gun aimed at him. Yifan could, however, and had thrown himself at the man and wrestled him away from Zitao before he could pull the trigger. Yixing had darted to Zitao’s side to heal the wounds in his gut that would have otherwise been fatal, which had put him in a compromising position in the midst of the battlefield.

No one, least of all Yixing himself, who had been swaying on his feet from overexertion afterwards, had been able to stop the Red Forces from grabbing him. He was there one second, eyes wide and panicked, and then – he was gone.

The words on the page blur before Junmyeon’s eyes, but he refuses to shed more tears. Yixing isn’t gone – he may not be physically here, hasn’t been for what feels like several lifetimes, but he’s not dead. 

Yixing is alive, or Baekhyun would have known.

Yixing is alive – but what have the Red Forces done to him? What are they doing; what will they do? It drives him insane to know nothing. He feels the loss of Yixing’s presence more and more for each day that goes by. He still has Minseok, and Minseok is a pillar of comfort during the nights when he can’t fall asleep, but it’s not the same without Yixing. They are not the same.

He closes the book, too wound up to focus on its content. Minseok said he’d come to bed soon, so Junmyeon bides time by staring at the ceiling and wondering, for the nth time, how they are ever going to find and rescue Yixing.

He must have dozed off, for when he blinks his eyes open, befuddled, it’s to a slight discomfort in his chest and the distinct feeling of another presence in the room. 

He expects to find Minseok, but instead he sees Yixing, and for a moment he fears he’s dreaming. His heart constricts and he lurches out of the bed. “Yixing?”

“Junmyeon,” Yixing murmurs, which – is wrong. Something is wrong. His voice is flat, eyes devoid of any emotion, his face an empty canvas. 

“Are you all right?” Junmyeon demands, lifting his hands to pat concernedly at Yixing’s cheeks. “What happened? Are you –” He cuts himself off with a wince and rubs at his chest. “Sorry, I don’t know –”

“It’s a heart attack,” Yixing says quietly, and Junmyeon stills. 

“What?”

Yixing lays his hand on Junmyeon’s chest, fingers splayed. “You are having a heart attack.”

Junmyeon blinks twice in confusion, and then dread slowly begins to seep in. “No. Look at me. Xing –”

There is no familiarity in Yixing’s gaze, and Junmyeon’s heart gives another pang. Hysteria wells up in him and he stumbles away from Yixing’s outstretched hand. He doesn’t understand what is going on, but his heart – 

“Yixing,” he cries, collapsing to his knees and grasping at his chest. “No, please, don’t –”

Yixing is silent as the grave, and Junmyeon needs to – needs to call for help, for Minseok, anyone, needs to do something, but he feels short of breath and he cannot, , he cannot hurt Yixing. How could he?

“Please,” he sobs, fingers curling into the carpet. “Please, Yixing, please. It’s me.”

But Yixing doesn’t recognise him.

ও

Minseok is in the kitchen with Zitao and Baekhyun when it happens. The bowl of whipped cream for the hot cocoa (because Junmyeon is having one of his bad days and Minseok wanted to do something nice) drops from his hands. Zitao yelps in alarm and Baekhyun looks towards him in concern, but Minseok is already off running towards their bedroom.

Junmyeon is dying, Junmyeon is dying, Junmyeon is dying why is he dying?

He nearly tears the door off its hinges but freezes in the doorway at the sight of Yixing? Junmyeon is curled up on the floor, and horror and elation and confusion make for a peculiar cocktail of emotions.

Junmyeon looks up at him, eyes watery, but he can only muster a pitiful whine as his eyes flutter closed.

“No,” Minseok croaks. “Yixing.”

The next thing he knows, Zitao is catching Yixing as he drops and gently lowering him to the floor, and the odd tightness in Minseok’s chest is subsiding. 

Junmyeon is not moving and his breaths are small nearly-soundless gasps. Someone rushes past Minseok – Baekhyun – to crouch by Junmyeon’s side, but the bond between Minseok and Junmyeon is held together by no more than a single loose thread and it’s all he can focus on. 

“Zitao,” Baekhyun orders harshly, and it’s the sight of his fingers at Junmyeon’s throat, the harried look on his face, and his damning words that tip Minseok’s world off its axis, “halt Junmyeon’s time. Halt it!”

There’s a steadying hand on his shoulder, large and warm, but Minseok hardly cares as he watches, as through a veil, Zitao scramble to keep death at bay. 

But then what? Minseok can only assume Yixing did this (why?) and Zitao isn’t strong enough to keep Junmyeon stagnant in time forever. 

The tears come entirely unbidden and wrenches a sob from him. He collapses to his knees, Yifan’s voice soothing as he speaks somewhere above him and rubs Minseok’s shoulders, yet he is numb.

The Red Forces took Yixing from them, and now he is here, but the Yixing Minseok knows would have sooner put a bullet through his own head than hurt the people he cares about.

And now Minseok can only look despairingly between the two men he loves and wonder if he has lost them both.

The challenge: EXO Universe, aka their music videos. I went for MAMA 'cause I'm weak.

If he can mend your heart... he can break it, too, right?

The word limit of 1.000 words severely restricts any fun I could have had.

(Yes, I just left you on a cliffhanger with a 1.000 words fic. No, I do not regret it. Yes, I would do it again.)

This is inspired by a fic idea a friend/beta of mine and me had years ago. We had such a good time imagining how their powers might be used to kill mercilessly, and when it occurred to us that Yixing could probably just stop people’s hearts with a flick of his wrist… well. Fun times, I say.

At least the plot we had wouldn’t have ended up with Junmyeon hanging onto dear life by a thread and Zitao’s power, but rather alive and well :D (And at least I didn’t go with the original ending I had for this, which would’ve left Junmyeon very dead. Whoo!)

Thank you for reading!