hello how long of a while has it been hahaahA anyways this was my secret santa fic that i wrote probably a good half a year ago lmao but since it wasn't going to be "released" at all and i haven't written anything completed in 8 yrs here this is!!!! it hasn't been reread or touched so many apologies towards 

also prompt was: "Just be romantic and adorable with some sort of mythical or supernatural component but not the typical vampire werewolf thing - something new and out of the box!" so um if u know whose this was then woooo!! otherwise ty :") 

Myungsoo wasn’t sure what caught his eye first – the bright lights, the hot as guy on the screen, or the way the rabbit disappeared from one hat and appeared as two in the other.

                “It’s the hot guy, isn’t it,” Sungjong rolled his eyes from the couch chair, flipping through his flash cards. There was a history exam coming up and no amount of attractive men waving around plastic wands could ever distract him from his studies.

                Maybe.

                “No!” Myungsoo protested, sitting up and leaving his homework forgotten. “Did you see that – did you see the way he, like, he just waved his hands around and – it was so cool!”

                “It’s an illusion, Myungsoo.”

                “Magic! It’s magic!”

                “Calm yourself.” Sungjong looked up from his card to his best friend, who was inevitably pulling out his phone and searching up names and program titles and everything involving the attractive guy waving around a plastic stick. “He’s not even doing anything special –“

                “LEE SUNGYEOL.”

                “Almost, change the Yeol to a Jong and you’re calling for the right person.”

                “No Sungjong, you dumb, the guy’s name, it’s Lee Sungyeol!!”

                “I told you it was about the guy.”

                “I want,” Myungsoo exhaled, “to be a magician.”

                “No, you want to finish your homework,” Sungjong tried.

                “I want to be Lee Sungyeol’s apprentice.”

                “Myungsoo, you can look up how to do his tricks online. You just stick fake things places and pull them out and –“

                “Don’t belittle my inspiration.”

                “You just found out about him Myungsoo, let’s not.”

“I want to be known as the next Houdini. But not for, like, what Houdini did because he knows jack compared to me, but like – what other people know him as. You know?”

                “No, Sungyeol, I don’t know,” Sunggyu groaned, pushing his sunglasses up. It was 4:35 AM and certified Too Early for Lee Sungyeol’s Bull by the terms of Kim Sunggyu. “Now please, just stop talking until we get to the plane at least. I need to maintain enough energy to walk through this airport and not fall asleep standing up.”

                “Do you think I should dye my hair blond?”

                “Is that going to be a new magic trick of yours?”

                “I should –“

                “No, Sungyeol, don’t, I was joking.” Sunggyu was so, so close to wanting to gut the kid – but he couldn’t because one of the requirements of being a manager was, in fact, to not kill your client.

                And it was so hard to stand by these requirements because what Sungyeol said he could do for a magic trick, he would do it.

                “You know I can change back.”

                “It’s not the change that’s the issue, it’s the fact that you haven’t learned how to change back that’s the issue.”

                “I can just…you know, look in the book.”

                “The book can only do so much for you, Sungyeol. And we both know how much you hate to read.”

                “What’s the point of being able to do magic if I can’t do cool things like dye my hair blond? Do you know how in blond is? Very in, let me just tell you that.”

                “Your magic is limited, Sungyeol, and we both know that.” Sunggyu raised his eyebrows in order for his sunglasses to fall down to the bridge of his nose so that Sungyeol could see how much seriousness his eyes possessed. “You’re using real magic for things that illusionists could do.”

                “But I do it so much better than them.”

                “No, you just have more security than them. It’s not the same thing.”

                “You make me feel so incompetent.”

                Sunggyu snorted and looked the other way, pushing his sunglasses back up. “Wow, new vocab word. Have you actually been doing your homework instead of whooshing your hand around and making it be done?”

                “I got caught. Apparently they thought I was cheating? I haven’t mastered being able to get the work done in my handwriting but when I do – ohhhhh hohohoho, they’re in for a treat.”

                “You’re so stupid.”

                “Well you’re mean,” Sungyeol said right back and the first thing that could go through his head that minute was Next thing I learn is how to create really good comebacks.

                “Without me, you’d be spiraling down a drain,” Sunggyu coughed as he scratched his forehead underneath his bangs. “Which reminds me, have you decided on an assistant so I wouldn’t be the only staff forced to spend their life aiding your meaningless one?”

                “Staff,” Sungyeol mocked, rolling his eyes and adding air quotes. “You make us sound so formal. C’mon, you’re like…my brother. We’re chill.”

                “No, no, my temper is going to be through the roof in heat amounts if we get any closer than we are.” Stopping Sungyeol from walking, Sunggyu pushed the younger down against one of the airport seats. “And I already have a little brother back home that’s much more than I can handle.”

                Sungyeol perked up immediately, throwing his phone into his handbag and sitting up straight. “You have a brother?”

                “Sungyeol, I swear, this is like the fortieth time I’ve mentioned him. Do you ever listen to me?”

                “Not when it’s not important, but this is important – I’ll hire your brother!”

                “No, Sungyeol, Myungsoo’s, like, 5 years old. He can’t be your assistant.”

                “Five is good!” Sungyeol turned to his side, taking off his sunglasses and flinging them to his left, hoping they landed where his phone had a few seconds ago. “Then I can gradually train him –“

                “You can’t train people,” Sunggyu annunciated slowly. “You actually have magic going through your stupid, idiotic veins. Myungsoo’s not a ing wizard like you, Sungyeol, he’s a normal person. And if you tell him the way to pull a rabbit out of a hat is to wave your hand on it and think rabbit!, it’s not gonna work. And he’s not five, he’s 17. It’s called an exaggeration, he has the mindset of a 5 year old.”

                “But –“

                “We’re not discussing this anymore,” the older interrupted. “Myungsoo and my parents both don’t know I’m your manager, so stay shut. They all think I’m off as some lousy business major, so if anyone in my family finds out that this is the job I’m doing, I’m going after you first.”

                “Why me,” Sungyeol offhandedly muttered. “And that’s not even how you make a rabbit come out of a hat.”

It was 3:04 in the morning when Myungsoo woke up to his phone ringing and the only thing he could think about was how the hell he was able to wake up to a lousy default ringtone when six rounds of Big Bang alarms couldn’t even get his mind awake.

                “Hello?” he half yawned-half greeted. It was too early for this.

                “Kim Myungsoo?” the man (man?) on the other line said, and Myungsoo could notice that he sounded like he was whispering, hushed and secretly speaking into the phone.

                “Yeah…I think. Who is this?”

                “Did I wake you?”

                “…Yes?” Myungsoo wanted to scream bloody murder now, he wasn’t even tired anymore. Who cares if whoever it was woke him up, he was no awake so any stupid questions like that would only delay the time until he could go back to sleep.

                “Sorry, but this is important.”

                “Wonderful.”

                “Are you interested in becoming an assistant?”

                Myungsoo scoffed as loud as he could into the receiver, making sure the other line could hear him. It was too early for this and he didn’t even care if this person was an axe murderer, he just wanted to sleep. “Unless you’re Lee Sungyeol and I’m gonna be your apprentice, no.”

                “Oh. Oh! What a coincidence, because I’m Lee Sungyeol!”

                And four seconds later, Myungsoo’s light was on, his hands were shaking, and his speech most definitely gone. “Are you serious?”

                “Yes,” Sungyeol (Myungsoo wasn’t sure what to refer to him as. Master? Most Deserved? Overlord? Sir? Dumbledore?) whispered. “Try to be really quiet because my manager is still sleeping.”

                “Oh. Oh, wait, leaving aside the major adoration and everything, how did you get my number?”

                “Magic,” Sungyeol answered as if it were the most simple thing on earth. No special soft to loud, no sliced ending, nothing.

                As if it were real or something.

                “No, really.”

                “Yes, really. Anyways, cutting to the chase because Hyung’s another sleeping pill away from planning and executing both my murder and my funeral, are you up for it?”

                “Well – I mean – of course!”

                “Great, there’s gonna be a car in front of your house tomorrow at 8. Or today. In a few hours. I don’t know, I’m too tired to know what I’m saying. But there will be a car, and you just…get in it. Clothes and et cetra will be provided.”

                “By who? And wait, don’t you need my address –“

                “Magic, man, now good night because Sunggyu hyung just rolled over and his arms and sticking out and I think that’s a subconscious way of saying he’s gonna strangle me. Have a nice night, I’m looking forward to seeing your face!”

                Sunggyu hyung? That sounded strangely familiar because Myungsoo knew a Sunggyu and that Sunggyu was also his hyung.

                But contemplations were too much for the early mind so Myungsoo only shrugged over the forethought meaningless name and fell back asleep.

“I was so sure I dreamt it!”

                “Is that, like, a lowkey way of telling me that you dream about me?”

                Sunggyu could only groan watching the two, wanting to knock the living daylights of out Sungyeol. “I thought I told you not to mess with my little brother!”

                “I didn’t mess with him, though!” Sungyeol protested. “I specifically asked him if he wanted to. He said yes!”

                “He was half asleep.”

                “I’m still half asleep, to be honest,” Myungsoo half yawned, sitting up straighter on his bed. His mind hadn’t fully comprehended the fact that Lee Sungyeol was with Sunggyu and the both of them were standing right in front of him.

                “My family doesn’t know what I do,” Sunggyu attempted to clarify.

                “I know that,” Sungyeol said just as slowly. “Which is why I chose to teleport instead of knocking in front of your door. See, I can think!”

                “Your skills aren’t that good yet, don’t you get that? Do you not remember the Death Valley experience?”

                “In my defense it wasn’t even that bad. It’s just hot, there aren’t killers there.”

                “Death Valley?” Myungsoo squinted even harder. “Teleport?” Then, he turned his full attention on his older brother. “Hey hyung, what happened to you anyways? Mom said to never speak of it but you just left –“

                “We’re going,” Sunggyu hissed, marching over to grab his brother’s arm. “C’mon Sungyeol, we’re leaving. Now.”

                “Now?” Myungsoo’s eyes took a turn and widened as far as they could go. “Now? Where the heck are we going – I still have a project I need to do and Sungjong’s my partner and if I leave without doing my half he’s going to kill me and I haven’t packed yet and –“

                “Sungyeol.”

                “I can’t!” Sungyeol nearly pouted, stopping himself before his lips went the full way. “Look at the boy! He’s so preciously sad, he’s practically begging for help. You can’t just ignore him, look at how shiny his eyes are! And his little hair antennas –“

                “Stop embarrassing him before he decides to hide under the covers and refuses to leave. And then when my mom asks him about anything, he’s just gonna go screaming about how I’m off with some teenager teleporting to murderous towns and then where are we gonna be?”

                And this entire time, Myungsoo’s mind and attention went bizarre because what the actual . He looked from his brother’s hand tightened on his arm to Sunggyu’s actual face, his voice going off at Lee Sungyeol about how everything was his fault and nothing was making sense.

                “You , hyung.”

                “As long as I get my way, I don’t really care.”

                “C’mon, we’re going,” Sungyeol said, shutting his eyelids close. “Just…close your eyes and, like, think about nothing.”

                “Isn’t so hard for you.”

                “Hyung, I’m controlling what happens to you for the next fourteen milliseconds so it’d be great if you didn’t insult me.”

                “Let’s just go now, okay?”

                “Go?” Myungsoo’s eyes widened even further. “Wait, no, we actually can’t leave, Mom doesn’t know about it and we can’t just leave.”

                Sunggyu stared at the ceiling, then his eyes turned Sungyeol. “If we’re not out of here in half a minute, I will cut you,” he hissed from underneath his breath.

                “You can’t cut me, Sunggyu, that’s not how it works –“

                “Sungyeol.”

                “Wait, don’t cut him hyung –“

                “Myungsoo, I love you but please shut up go back to being scared because we do not have time for this.”

                Sungyeol exhaled through gritted teeth and looked behind him at the closed door, then at Myungsoo’s bed with his feet facing the outside of the room. “Hey, did you know that it’s really bad to sleep with your feet facing the door because then the demons can pull your feet –“

                “SUNGYEOL.”

                “He doesn’t want to go,” Sungyeol retorted with his voice sharp and as quiet as he could make it. “I’m not going to make him do something he doesn’t want to do.”

                “You make me do things I don’t want to do all the time, and he’s my brother, so it’s almost the same thing.”

                Sungyeol’s lips contorted themselves to form a very awkward frown and he looked at Myungsoo. “Do you wanna hold my hand?”

                Myungsoo didn’t think twice about what had happened between Sungyeol and his brother, instead incisively nodding and reaching for the older’s hand.

                “Wait, though WAIT WAIT where are we –“

“ – going…”

                The first thing Myungsoo felt was Sunggyu letting go from his right side, so he did the only logical thing he could think of – move closer to the only other source of body heat, which just happened to be Sungyeol.

                It was black. Everything was black. He couldn’t see a thing, there weren’t any “swirls” or colorful wheels, it was just…black.

                “Here, gimme a minute,” Sungyeol said in a hushed tone. Four seconds later, Myungsoo looked to his left to see Sungyeol’s face smiling at him, illuminated by a fire glowing from the magician’s left hand.

                “What is…what.”

                “Sungyeol, you never ing told me you were rusty.”

                And almost immediately, the smile dropped from Sungyeol’s face. “I didn’t tell you because you judge me harder than anyone else does. So I’m a little rusty when it comes to teleporting over two people, big deal.”

                “Big deal because we’re stuck in a ing space vortex right now, Sungyeol, we are going to –“

                “It’s not that bad, we’ll be out in a few minutes.”

                “Where are we?” Myungsoo asked suddenly, and he couldn’t help but be shocked at how timid his voice sounded. He wasn’t trying to sound meek or mild or weak, he was just scared and there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

                “I’m, as your amazing brother put it, a little rusty,” Sungyeol said, rolling his eyes and pulling the hand that was holding Myungsoo’s down so the two could sit. “There’s a lot of math and you know that goes into teleportation so you can’t really do it without thinking, you need to apply weight, mass, location, quantum physics, all this other stuff. And I don’t really do too well in school, so this should’ve been predicted, really.”

                “This literally has nothing to do with quantum physics, Sungyeol.”

                “You need to quit making me sound dumber than I already do.”

                Sunggyu just rolled his eyes, pacing around the spaceless floor and looking up at nothing.

                “How do you know if we’re out of here?” Myungsoo whispered to Sungyeol, his head leaning over.

                “You don’t really,” Sungyeol answered, shrugging. “Usually I just close my eyes and pretend that I’m there, and when I open them, I’m there.”

                “That’s not a usually, Sungyeol,” Sunggyu hissed. “That’s what you’re supposed to do.”

                Doing his best to filter out the noise of his brother and Sungyeol arguing, Myungsoo closed his eyes and leaned back, thinking of where he wanted to be. Sungyeol never clarified where “there” was, so Myungsoo just assumed it was wherever he wanted to end up at.

                “When we get back to the room, I’m going to –“

                “It’s a lair, Sunggyu, stop denying it and saying that it’s just a room.”

                “I’m not denying anything, it’s a – wait, where are we?”

                Myungsoo squeezed his shut eyes even harder, shaking his head around and sniffing the air. This was it, the smell, the everything, this was where he wanted to be!

                “Sungyeol, why the are we at my high school?” Myungsoo heard his older brother scold the magician (wizard? Myungsoo wasn’t sure). “Why did you even think about this place?”

                Opening his eyes, the youngest turned to his left to see Sungyeol’s eyebrows furrow as he looked around at his surroundings. They were under on a grassy hill under a tree, the branches and its leaves providing shade from the hideous sun in the corner. “I don’t know, I swear I was thinking of the lair! I don’t care about your dumb school!”

                “Sungjong was going to kill me if I didn’t show up for our presentation since he practically did all the work, so I had no choice but to –“

                “Sungyeol, teleport us back.”

                “I didn’t even teleport us here, don’t tell me to teleport us back!” Sungyeol defended himself, raising both arms up. His right hand, however, was still attached to Myungsoo’s.

                “Well, you’re the only one who can do this stuff – and, hey, let go of my brother’s hand, why are you holding his hand –“

                “It’s just a hand, calm yourself,” Sungyeol scoffed. He threw Myungsoo’s hand down and for a second, the younger felt a little lost and helpless. He liked the feeling of Sungyeol’s hand. It was warm and comforting.

                “You may be my client, but I swear if you become my brother-in-law –“

                “I didn’t stick a ring on the hand, I held it. Get over yourself.”

                Myungsoo quickly took his hand back, holding it with his left. “Can we please stop talking about this.”

                “See, you’re embarrassing the boy!” Sungyeol pointed out to Sunggyu.

                “I think he knows that, he just does it anyways,” Myungsoo leaned in to whisper to Sungyeol.

                “Sungyeol, take us back. Now.”

                “Fine, fine,” Sungyeol exhaled. He then stretched his neck outwards to check if there was anybody on campus not inside the classrooms that could possible see them.

                “We don’t have forever,” Sunggyu complained from the side.

                “We will have forever if someone sees us and reports us to the police,” Sungyeol snapped back. “Or if a dedicated, life-long fan sees me and begs for an autograph –“

                “Sungyeol.”

                “Sorry.” The magician tilted over to Myungsoo and said in a hushed voice, “He keeps me in line and that’s the only reason why I’m glad he sticks around. But don’t tell him that because he gets super egotistical about it.”

                “I swear, Sungyeol, if –“

                “Okay, okay.”

                Sungyeol, in his sitting position, brought his hands together in concentration and closed his eyes. His breathing started slow, but with the seconds passing by, they grew faster and with more haste. The frustration on his face was starting to grow evident, his eyes forcing themselves together more and more until the relaxed look on his face was broken and replaced with a distressed one.

                “Sunggyu,” he finally said, his voice quiet and in a whisper. His eyes opened and he stared at his lap, his inhaling and exhaling no longer balanced. “I can’t do it, it’s not working, I can’t do it!”

                He then turned to the older, his entire body frozen beside his eyes, which were promptly going back and forth, up and down, corner to corner, all in immediate anguish.

                Sunggyu fell down to the ground at once, his hands coming around to grasp at the younger’s shoulders. “Sungyeol, look at me. What’s wrong? Do you feel weird? Is it because you’re rusty?”

                “No, no it’s not!” Sungyeol cried. “I was rusty this morning, right now I can’t do anything! I feel, like, like, I really can’t do anything! My powers don’t feel…there, like I usually have this feeling inside my chest, you know, like a – a warm kind of feeling. Like when your mom hugs you really hard, or your grandma gives you cookies, or you’re just content with life, that kind of warm! But it’s not warm, I just feel really cold inside and I feel like I can’t breathe anymore and I just – I don’t know what to do, Sunggyu!”

                “Calm down, we’ll figure this out,” Sunggyu said, and Myungsoo could only stare from the side because how the was Sunggyu able to stay this calm when Sungyeol looked like he was about to blow a casket?
                “O – okay, I’m trying…”

                “Can you remember how you got us to the school?” Sunggyu asked, his words slow and carefully monitored.

                “I –“ Sungyeol stopped, his eyes widening. “I didn’t. I told you, it wasn’t me, I didn’t want to come to the school, I was thinking of the lair but then we got here – Sunggyu, how long was I out?”

                Myungsoo’s hands came down from his lap to clasp onto the grass, pulling them from their roots as he felt dirt fill his fingertips. His eyes darted around the expanse of the grass covered hill and then down at the school buildings.

                I feel warm inside. Like when Sunggyu used to drive me to the bookstore, like when Dad would bring me pastries from the café, like when…when…

                “It was me.”

                When Myungsoo said the words out loud, he finally realized what that meant. He was thinking of the school when Sungyeol told him to close his eyes, he wanted to be here more than anything, No matter how much he wanted to travel the world with his brother and the love of his life (reminder to self: don’t tell the rest of the world), he also wanted none of this to be true. He didn’t want to believe that magic was real, he didn’t want to believe that his brother had disappeared from being his brother in order to help another teenage boy live their life. He didn’t want to believe that he, like Sunggyu, would never see his mom again, and he didn’t want to believe that he would never get to work on a school project with his best friend again, no matter how much of a bully Sungjong could be.

                He didn’t want any of this to be his new reality. Instead, he wanted to close his eyes and be where he wanted most – school, where his normal routine would start to begin, where he would go into class and Woohyun would squish his cheeks maybe and Sungjong would tell them to stop being such a couple when the truth was neither of them really liked each other like that; he wanted to fail a science test and then roll his eyes at the kid who got a perfect score, he wanted to go home and ask his mom about Sunggyu one last time before she would shut him down, he wanted to turn on the TV and watch Sungyeol perform his magic and have Sungjong hit him on the arm and tell him that it was all an illusion.

                But it was all too late for that, and he should’ve known when he smelled the pine and grass fertilizer.

                Beside him, Sunggyu and Sungyeol had still been figuring out what was wrong with the magician, where his powers had gone and what was going on with his life.

                “Hyung!” Myungsoo tried to no avail – he was once again ignored. So instead, he grabbed onto Sungyeol’s shoulder and pulled the boy back to face him.

                There were tears streaking down Sungyeol’s face, his eyes red and his nose quivering. His expression screamed fright without his vocal chords being utilized and he was a mess.

                “Myungsoo, what the hell do you think you’re doing –“

                “It was me.” Myungsoo took a deep breath and then tried again. “When Sungyeol told me to close my eyes and think about where I wanted to be most, I thought about school. I wanted to be at school, where I could be a normal kid again and forget what happened this morning, no matter how much I wanted to be with you again or how much I wanted to just be with Lee Sungyeol. And then when I opened my eyes, guess where we were?”

                Sunggyu’s eyes had widened all while Myungsoo was speaking, and when his brother had finished, he answered in a hushed tone, “School.”

                “You took my powers?”

                “I didn’t…take them, they just came to me?” Myungsoo tried. He was as confused as the other two were, he just didn’t know how to portray it.

                “Do something,” Sungyeol encouraged, his right hand coming up to wipe away as many tears and snot as he could manage and his left grabbing onto Myungsoo’s hand, clutching it as if giving him all his life and support.

                For a second Myungsoo pretended not to be flustered about Sungyeol’s hand once again in his and instead focused on what the other had told him to do. “What…do I do? How do I do…something?”

                “Just think really hard. There, like, a spell, it’s more of a mental thing. You gotta focus really hard and believe in it.”

                Over the other side of the hill was a trash can chained up to a lunch table and Myungsoo just looked over Sungyeol’s shoulder at it and thought long and hard about how he wanted to move it. Even a centimeter was okay.

                But nothing  happened.

                “Did you try it yet?” Sungyeol asked, a hopeful smile on his face.

                “Yeah,” Myungsoo answered, his lips forming a small frown. “I don’t get it, nothing happened…and I feel kinda weird now.”

                Sungyeol blinked a few times and he looked around as if trying to find something. “Wait, I think I do too. I…”

                He looked up at the tree branch and then, biting his bottom lip, stared as hard as he could.

                It fell.

                “Your powers are back!” Sunggyu exclaimed from behind Sungyeol, and he rushed over between the two. “What happened to you two? Did you –“

                The two boys looked at each other, their gazes locking. It only took a few more seconds for them to communally glanced down at their interlocked hands.

                When they looked back at Sunggyu, he looked as if he were about to have an aneurysm. “You’re kidding me, I’m – I – I just…I told you guys to stop holding hands!”

“Did you find anything yet?”

                “If I found something already, I wouldn’t still be looking!” Sungyeol retorted, frustrated as hell. In his lair of 100 plus bookshelves of dumb magic things he never even bothered to read, he couldn’t even find one book  that even remotely connected to what happened between him and Myungsoo.

                And at that moment, said boy was sitting on Sungyeol’s bed, his legs pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them. It had taken a while for him to just take everything in – Sungyeol’s ‘lair’ wasn’t anything like he expected it to be. (“I told you it wasn’t a lair,” Sunggyu had said when they got to the room. “He just likes to call it that because it seems cooler.”)

                It was a modern day flat, wooden floors and glass windows galore – all except the fact that it was only one room. There was one light blue satin-covered queen bed in the corner and twin bed with plaid sheets across from it. All the walls beside the windowed one were covered in bookshelves, all without a single space left for even the thinnest novella. There was no kitchen, only a simple four-chaired table on the opposite side of the room. Dead center was a TV stand and a television that was surrounded by black leather couches.

                “If you organized your books better, we wouldn’t be going through this,” Sunggyu glared at the other. “C’mon Myungsoo, get up – we can use all the help we can get.”

                “No,” Sungyeol snapped, pushing the book he was looking at back in. “He’s in some kind of shock, let him rest for a moment.”

                “No, I’m actually fine,” Myungsoo said, and to his demise, his voice had come out a lot more softer than he’d intended it to. “I can help if you want.”

                “It’s okay,” Sungyeol said, his back still facing Myungsoo. “You wouldn’t be able to tell the books apart anyways.”

                “Well it’s not like we can either,” Sunggyu coughed. “Due to a certain person who wouldn’t organize anything.”

                Myungsoo watched in a small fright as Sungyeol’s neck snapped to the left and he glared at Sunggyu. He didn’t get what was going on, but he knew it had something to do with him.

                And he didn’t want it to. Sungyeol being mad at him was the last thing he wanted, that possibility coming after the entire I-could-be-magical thing.

                So he stood up, carefully walking across the expanse of the room to reach where Sungyeol was at, pulling books out and shoving them back in with haste.

                “…Are you mad at me?”

                Sungyeol hand stopped before he could pull out another book and he turned to look at Myungsoo. “No, I’m not mad at you. Why would you even think that?”

                “You just…you seem pissed, that’s all.” Myungsoo his lips, unsure of what to say. “And I kinda figured that you would be mad at me about the whole, you know, stealing your magic thing…”

                “I’m not mad at you, trust me,” Sungyeol said, his voice turning cold slowly. “I’m pissed, yeah, but not at you.”

                “Then at what?”

                The older let out a sigh, letting go of his stiff posture and leaning his weight onto his left leg. He looked over at Sunggyu, then back at Myungsoo. “I’m pissed at myself, mostly for dragging you into this. And it’s not just bringing you down into the ditch, it’s how I’m affecting Sunggyu, too.”

                Myungsoo thought for a moment. “This can’t hurt Sunggyu that bad, honestly.”

                “It’s not even that I’m taking you away from your life, Myungsoo. Look, when I hired Sunggyu, it was on a really hasty whim. For the both of us. I didn’t have parents or any relatives to take care of me, he just graduated from business school – it was all really quick. The thing is, the world needs balance – I know magic, but who else does too? And I don’t use my magic for , not to save people, not to take over the world, I don’t do anything except enjoy myself and entertain others, and I’m fine with that. And there’s no saying that there aren’t magical people out there who are doing bad things. When Sunggyu took me under his wing, I promised that if there did happen to be people out there like me, people who could do anything they wanted to, for evil reasons, I would protect him and his family – the family that he left for me – because it was an important thing to me. And here I am, throwing you under the bus of magical responsibilities with me.”

                “But –“

                “No buts, Myungsoo,” Sungyeol shook his head. “Don’t say something stupid like ‘It wasn’t your choice’ or ‘I’m fine with it’ because frankly, I don’t care. I’m still going to be mad at myself either way and I’m going to apologize to you no matter what. And the fact that we can’t freaking figure out what all of this between you and me is just makes everything so. much. worse.”

                At this point, the only thing Myungsoo could do was keep quiet and watch as Sungyeol pulled more books out only to give its title a four second glance and push it back into its place.

                “So…”

                Sungyeol stopped for a second, one hand in his pocket and the other still teetering off the edge of another book. His face turned to Myungsoo and one eyebrow raised in expectancy.

                And it dawned on Myungsoo, it really dawned on him how serious Sungyeol was being about this. Whether televised him was fake or not, this was an attitude Myungsoo never expected the other to have, and frankly, it scared him a bit. Was there really no place to crack a joke?

                “What are you?” 

                Sungyeol’s left eyebrow raised up to meet his other one. “What am I?”

                “You know. Like, are you a magician, or a wizard, or…you know. What are you.” Myungsoo wanted to cringe with defeat but he refused to; he was trying, he really was.

                “I’m a magician,” Sungyeol shrugged, letting go of the books completely as he pocketed both hands. “I mean, that’s as far as I’ll ever know. The true definition of a magician, you know, its denotation, is a person who uses magic. Me. But over time, the connotation of a magician just became an illusionist. And I don’t mind, it’s not like illusionists are making fun of magicians, they’re just trying to be like us. If they knew we existed, they’d admire us. And I say we as an obligatory thing, I haven’t met anyone like me yet.”

                “Then…” Myungsoo paused for a moment, motioning to the entire flat. “Where did all these come from?”

                “The black market sells useful .”

                Sungyeol couldn’t even count the amount of times Myungsoo blinked before he finally broke, laughing and saying, “I’m kidding. They’re my grandfather’s, he’s the only person I knew who could do stuff with magic. He died a while ago, and that’s where Sunggyu comes into the picture.”

                “Where did your grandfather get all these from then?”

                “I don’t know,” Sungyeol shrugged. “I never really bothered to learn. I mean if I wanted to, I could figure it out but it’s not a priority on my list.”

                “Then what is?”

                “Of the moment?”

                Myungsoo nodded back slowly, and that’s when Sungyeol admitted, “You.”

                “Oh.” The younger thought for a second before rushing out, “But you don’t have to worry about it so much, Sunggyu’s trying to find stuff and you’re trying to find stuff and I’ll help too, and between the three of us and this entire library, we’ll figure out what’s going on –“

                “Myungsoo, it’s okay, I don’t mean it that way.” Sungyeol sighed, walking backwards and falling down onto the arm of the sofa. “I know that we’ll find the answer sometime, I’m not worried about that. Like I said, I have no dire need to use my magic. When I say you’re priority on my list, I literally mean you, not you and me and this entire switcheroo thing.”

                “Oh. Oh?”

                “Like, why are you so calm about this is one big thing. And why are you so okay with it? When I called you last night too, you seemed so prepared to work with me – and don’t say it was because you thought it was a dream because no one rushes that quick even in their subconscious. And then the entire thing with you not caring that I literally peeled your existence away from what you knew your entire life and brought you into this world – that’s the worst of it.”

                “You’re kinda wrong, though.”

                “I’m…what?” Sungyeol looked up just in time to watch Myungsoo walk over and take a seat next to him.

                “I was freaking out. Oh, and I still am, it’s just I learned to accept it, you know? This is crazy because literally, not even 24 hours ago, I was sitting in my living room watching you on TV and basically ranting about how great you were to my best friend. I’m…well, if I’m not okay now, I’ll be okay soon. Don’t worry about it, Sungyeol.”             

                And with that, Myungsoo took his leave. He turned around and headed back towards the right side of the bookshelves, a hand slowly coming up to ruffle the ends of his hair.

                “I – uh, Myungsoo, I already checked those books, I don’t think you need to –“

                “Was trying to be cool, please try not to disrupt.”

“Sungyeol, can I talk to you for a second?”

                Sunggyu’s voice as he called to his friend was both stern and controlled, his fingers tightly latched onto a book and his eyes near frozen.

                Sungyeol stood up from his position on the bed beside Myungsoo (the younger had found this dumb book of baby animals sleeping and if that wasn’t the best thing in the world to be distracted by, he didn’t know what was).

                (Lowkey, Myungsoo actually didn’t find it; Sungyeol made it appear in a corner because he knew very well that it was right up Myungsoo’s alley and he needed a reason to want to take a break from looking for stuff to looking at stuff, but with this really cute guy too.)

                “What’s up?”

                “Hallway,” Sunggyu directed, nodding towards the door and starting his walk towards it.

                “Do you want –“

                “No, Myungsoo, you stay put. Sungyeol, hurry up because we haven’t got all day.”

                Sungyeol sighed, but hastily followed Sunggyu out the door and watched his manager close the door as carefully as possible.

                “What happened?”

                “I figured out…the thing,” Sunggyu said in his same sounding voice.

                “You did? Wait, that’s actually really good – why do you look so pissed off?”

                “Sungyeol, I’m not pissed off, I’m just a bit…what’s the word? Conflicted.” Sunggyu sighed, bringing the book up and opening it to a bookmarked page, then handing it to Sungyeol.

                The younger gave it a disgusted look, turning his head up to Sunggyu and saying, “It’s in Latin, I hope you know that. You might’ve been a nerd in high school but I took the easy way out and did Spanish.”

                “Sungyeol, you literally have magical powers.”

                It took a while for Sungyeol to catch on, but when he did, he just smiled and snapped at Sunggyu. It barely took him any effort to change all the meticulously written words on the page to a language he could fully comprehend.

                Except he didn’t really.

                “Yeah, um, Sunggyu, you kinda know my translating powers are like another Google Translate. I literally get none of this.”

                Sunggyu groaned in frustration, having that need to hit his head on a wall and ask every higher power  up there how he’d managed to survive working with this kid for the past few years.

                “Dammit Sungyeol,” Sunggyu hissed, grabbing the book back. “It basically says you and Myungsoo – you guys have this, this thing, okay!”

                “Well, yeah, that was kinda obvious –“

                “It’s a spiritual thing, you ,” Sunggyu sighed. “It’s like, you guys are somewhat connected? That’s not the right word but it’s the best I can do. You physically touch for shorter than five minutes, you switch powers.”

                “But why?”

                “It’s like a soulmate thing but those things are stupid so I’m not going to say that. So you know how you always have a problem memorizing new spells – or whatever you call it – with your powers? Because you’re not meant to. The things you can’t do, he does, and vice versa. You’re meant to have someone that can figure out the things you can’t, to try new things twice with, all of that stuff. A partner, but there’s no way you guys would leave each other because you need each other.”

                “What?”

                “Myungsoo!” Sungyeol turned around to see the boy holding the door open, his face virtually unreadable. It was just very obvious that he was shocked.

                “It’s not a bad thing, trust me,” Sunggyu assured. Sungyeol turned his body another 180 degrees to give Sunggyu the most skeptical look his face could manage to do because what the frick literally not even three hours you didn’t want me touching his hand and now you’re ok with us sharing powers, oh okay Sunggyu, okay.

                “I don’t – I don’t get it, why me, though? Is it some predestined thing or –“

                “No, and that’s the part that confuses me the most.” Sunggyu took this change to glare at Sungyeol, then continue. “This dumb idiot chose you, but obviously he chose you unknowingly. So tell us, Sungyeol, how you managed to handpick my brother in the crowds of billions of people on this Earth.”

                “I – I don’t know!” Sungyeol stuttered out. He was trying his best, really, to think of any sufficient answer to something that didn’t make him sound stupid in front of Myungsoo.

                And that’s when he realized, he really, really didn’t want to seem dumb in front of the guy. He didn’t want to say the wrong thing, look the wrong way, just…he didn’t want to do any of that.

                Why for?

                “Two years ago,” Sungyeol exhaled, looking at the ground. “Right before my grandpa passed away. He wanted me to try entering a foster home and a public high school in case he didn’t make it and I couldn’t find someone to take care of me. I went to this one school just to look at it, you know, and there was a picture on the wall of the office. A lot of pictures actually, but the most recent one caught my eye the most. On top it said something stupid like ‘Compassionate Catchers’, I don’t know. But there was Myungsoo’s picture, and he had this really cute smile and I just remember his hair had that side sweep…and I asked the counselor what that was, and she said that those were the people that were seen doing really nice things multiple amounts of times, that would go out of their way to help others and were acknowledged for it by the rest of the student body. And I remember the only thing I could think was that if I ever wanted a partner, it’d be him, because he was really cute and I needed someone nice because Lord knows my grandpa was the worst person to be in a duo with.”

                Sunggyu, just for a split second, had the most awed look on his face. “That makes so much more sense.”

                “What?” Sungyeol’s eyebrows arched up because that was the last thing he had expected the older to say.

                Meanwhile, Myungsoo was still attached to the door, a stricken look on his face as he forced himself not to be embarrassed.

                “The thing is,” Sunggyu began to explain, “when you decide who you want, fate does its best to get you guys together, all no matter how long it takes – me having that sudden urge to be your manager and take care of you, you all up in my business about my little brother, Myungsoo so amazed with you on TV for the first time. There’s a reason for all of this.”

                “So you already knew who I was?”

                “It’s not like I remembered, Myungsoo, it was a long time ago. A lot of things have happened.” And he was being honest, he really didn’t remember – he was just a on-the-whim thought and he never thought twice about that picture in the high school office. It was just a lucky thing for him that he had chosen a real compassionate catcher (that was still honestly a dumb title, though).

                “I’ll give you guys a minute,” Sunggyu said, and Sungyeol fought the urge to applaud him for maturing out of the dumbest protective brother phase ever.

                “I’m…confused.”

                “Same, but there’s nothing really to be confused about, you know?” Sungyeol watched at Sunggyu pushed his way through Myungsoo and the door to get back inside. “Do you, by any chance, want to…stay?”

                “Stay?”

                “Figure this entire thing out to the end. Actually get a real use out of our thing. You’ll be homeschooled with me, and that sounds kinda bad but homeschooling is actually great because you don’t have that ty feeling of actual school. And we can, like, spend a lot of time together.”

                Myungsoo breathed in as deeply as he could, then held his posture upright. This was his chance, he could finally take the biggest step he’s ever attempted to take – the step out of his pit of anxiety and shyness.

                “On one condition,” he said, holding his entire body together in case it would slowly fall apart.

                “If it’s that I go on a date with you, too late because I’m about to ask you to go on one with me.”

                Myungsoo didn’t even bother thinking of a clever response, instead just biting his bottom lip into a laugh and nodding. “’Kay.”

i'M SORRY WHEN I SAW "MYTHICAL" AND "NOT TYPICAL" i was like bam magicians how do u like thAT

but yes aaahahahahaah i forgot how awkward this was :)) anyways thanks for the 1k total subs a while back too!! 

also i went on a cleanse of this collection and did my best to delete the most cringe-worthy fics like some are still here ofc but more for memories/benchmark improvements but the truly "what the EVIE WHAT WERE U THINKING??!" ones i had to just bid goodbye to, there just was no other way

anyways that's all! hope you guys have a great friday/saturday :)

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