Anniversary

A small talk about the past.

Set: Around 3 weeks after XMTS? Although there aren't really any XMTS spoilers if you haven’t read.

er also i promise i’ll write smtg else that isn’t baekhei i sometimes forget there r other characters like luhan who deserve a chance to shine and i unfairly robbed them. i love luhan he carried 19-22 year old baekhyun so hard soon i'll write their meeting i promis 

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The morning found Hei alone on the bed, tucked snugly in with the duvet so that it wasn’t cold. Baekhyun was nowhere to be seen, which was odd, because she was usually the first one to wake up.

Rubbing her eyes, Hei pushed herself up. The room felt degrees cooler without the blanket. It was pushing summer, but there was still a bite to the air, especially in the mornings. Her nightgown was much too thin, so, shivering, she changed into a warmer dress, washed up, and headed out. Hei didn’t mind the coldness as much, partly because she had grown accustomed to much worse. Without Yuxuan’s medicine, she spent half of her mornings miserably in the washroom, retching her guts out, sometimes with Baekhyun sympathetically patting her back and holding her hair, other times alone and irritated. Today was a rare good one where the morning sickness had not kicked in.

The kitchen was much toastier, and Hei soon realized that it was because Baekhyun had left her breakfast, sitting on the stove, which was still heated. Rubbing her cold hands together, she shuffled towards the stove and carefully began moving breakfast to the table. Baekhyun had clearly already eaten, since she could see his washed bowls and plates drying at the side, but he himself was nowhere in sight.

Hei sat down, warming her hands against the bowl of soup. He’d come back the day before in time for dinner, but he had been exhausted, and it was all she could do to coax him to finish the meal before Baekhyun had collapsed on the bed before the sun even went down. As heartwarming and thoughtful as leaving a warm breakfast had been, it would’ve been nicer to eat it together.

Still, there wasn’t much to fret about. The soup was surprisingly good (Kyungsoo staying indefinitely near them had resulted in Baekhyun grudgingly taking a few culinary lessons which was an absolute blessing. She’d also begun to get really strange food cravings and Baekhyun had almost managed to make every dish with occasional guidance from Kyungsoo, no matter how odd it was). Hei finished eating, washed her dishes, fixed herself a cup of chamomile tea, then headed to the living room with a book. The clouds were beginning to clear and there was enough natural light coming from the window for her not to have to light a lamp.

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed. The half cup of tea that was left was lukewarm when Hei reached for it again. She put it down, not keen on drinking it at the temperature, when the lock of the front door clicked.

Setting down the book, Hei headed down the hallway. Baekhyun was shrugging off a coat with one hand, and in his other he held a bouquet of… she squinted, not quite able to tell.

“Morning,” he greeted when he saw her. “Sorry I left without telling you.”

Hei peered at the bouquet. Baekhyun often bought her flowers so that wasn’t the surprising part, but lilies…

He must’ve seen her looking. “Nine years,” Baekhyun filled in helpfully. “Since the day I left.” A hint of a smile touched his face. “They’re not for you this time.”

Nine years. Nine years since he’d left Vasileia. “It’s today?” she asked.

He shifted. “Yeah. I was going to put these under the tree in the garden. Want to come?”

Baekhyun didn’t say anything as he made his way through the house towards the door of the backyard, Hei following close behind. He was much quieter than usual. He wasn’t necessarily upset—she’d seen him upset about his family and knew enough to tell that this wasn’t it, but he still seemed distant. Not that she could particularly blame Baekhyun for it.

The wind was still a bit chilly when they stepped into the garden, but it wasn’t all that horrible. Baekhyun made it to the tree in a couple of strides and set the bouquet of lilies down beneath. He sat down in front of it, legs crossed, gaze fixed on the white flowers.

After a moment of hesitation, Hei settled down beside him as well. She didn’t want to disturb him, but, she reasoned, Baekhyun wouldn’t have asked her to come if he didn’t want her there.

She touched his arm lightly. “Are you okay?”

He looked away from the flowers and towards her briefly. “Yeah.”

Hei offered him a hand, which he took. Lilies weren’t a sort of flower she was accustomed with. The streets of Hua mostly had potted plants, and while Hei had seen the occasional patch of lilies grown in gardens, she was most familiar with the flowers in their own backyard, or the ones Baekhyun liked to bring for her.

“It doesn’t feel like it’s been nine years,” Baekhyun finally said.

Taking it as a cue that he was ready to talk, Hei replied, “Who are the flowers for? Heejin?”

He made a slight noise in the back of his throat, a shaky, dry chuckle. “Would’ve been great if she were the only one who died that day.”

Hei remembered him telling her briefly about leaving Vasileia, how he’d been forced to kill his way out in order to escape. It had become easier, talking about his past, but it still wasn’t something either of them chose to focus on. And for good reason.

It felt morbid to call such a day an anniversary. Still, Hei nudged him gently on the side. “You’ve never really told me what exactly happened that day.”

Baekhyun blinked at the flowers. “I haven’t,” he admitted. “I don’t like to think about it. I used to drink myself into oblivion every time the date came around, and last year, we missed it because we were in Hell’s Gate.”

“And this year?”

He stared at the flowers. “Didn’t feel right not to do anything.”

Hei didn’t want to press. They spent a couple more minutes in silence when Baekhyun finally spoke up again. “I didn’t actually see them kill her. I broke out of the cell they were keeping me in and tried to find her, but when I did, someone had slit already. It was—it was supposed to be a public execution, but I guess news got out that I’d escaped and my father just wanted her dead before I could find her, so he had someone kill her and—” His voice caught. “That was that. He didn’t bother with anything else, because to him, Heejin wasn’t significant enough to even deserve a proper execution, much less a burial.” The fingers around her own tightened, and Hei squeezed back in encouragement.

Baekhyun went silent for a couple long moments more. “You know,” he started slowly at last. “I missed her in the beginning, a lot. I really did like her, but I was sixteen and confused and lost, and she was the first person I met outside my family that genuinely cared about me, and it meant a lot. But after the initial hurt of losing her, I think the worst part—the thing that I carr