Lay + side!chen, 978 words.

“My squishy. You are my squishy and I will never ever leave you and I will protect you forever and ever until I die.” Lay presses his tiny body flat against the wall and scoots closer to the dull brown moth perched close to the surface. He squishes his cheeks against the wall until his lips are involuntarily puckered from the force just to get a better look at the moth.

“I shall name you Timothy.” He pauses thoughtfully for a second.

 “Ti-moth-y.” Lay giggles.

His eyes sparkle as he gazes fondly at the slightly quivering insect which honestly seems a little scared of him. But he doesn’t care, because now he has a playmate for his lonely little pet rock which was beginning to complain about how friendless it felt since Lay brought it back home from the mudflat.

“Timothy you can be Rocky’s girlfriend.” Lay coos as his breath makes the wings of Timothy flutter slightly. “Timothy I love you I’m sure Rocky will too.”

“Tee hee you can be Rocky’s girlfriend.” Lay sniggers and starts blushing. “Mr Rocky Timothy and Mrs Timothy Rocky hee hee you may now kiss the bride muah eeeeew Timothy that’s so gross only girls do mushy stuff cooties eeeeew I don’t know you.” He whispers as he starts planning their wedding.

Timothy crawls a centimetre away from Lay, probably annoyed by the disturbance of the general peace, which Lay always seems to disrupt.

Lay gasps and edges closer, his chubby cheeks getting pulled back as he drags his face across the wall closely in an attempt to not scare off Timothy yet get as close as he can.

“Ew it’s a bug ew ew ew kill it quick!” Someone jerks his shoulders back and simultaneously shrieks urgently in his ear. A short hand extends past his ear, index finger outstretched to squish Timothy.

“NOOO!” Lay squeals and slaps away Chen’s arm. Chen lets out a squawk of surprise and lurches into the room behind, flailing wildly as he falls. “DON’T TOUCH TIMOTHY.” He yells and slams a cupped hand over his pet moth protectively.  “GO AWAY DON’T HURT HER.” He yelps at his brother.

Chen whimpers from his half-lying down position and stares up at Lay with watery puppy eyes. “You- You’re so mean!” Chen wails as he scrambles to his feet. “You big meanie! I’m gonna tell daddy!” Crocodile tears stream down his cheeks as he quickly scuttles off into the distance. Lay gasps and a few tears of his own well up in his eyes as he removes his protective hand on Timothy to chase after Chen, because no he can’t tell daddy what is he thinking good bros suffer together not betray each other.

He takes one single step away from Timothy’s wall only to find that his hand comes away feeling sticky and flaky-feeling. Fear dips low in his stomach and he doesn’t even have to look at his hand to confirm one thing.

He’s a murderer.

***

Lay stumbles through the corridors, the remnants of Timothy squished in the flat of his palm which is held out directly in front of him to remind him of all his sins. He heads straight to Kris and Suho’s room, because the only right thing to do now is to turn himself in for being a murderer. A cold blooded killer with no soul. He wails as he goes, mourning the loss of Timothy and Rocky’s married life and drawing all the attention of everybody in the rooms as he walks his lonely road.

They all either whine at him to keep quiet or chuck toys weakly at his back, but none of that bothers him. He keeps his attention fixed on what Timothy has become by his own hands and lets the sadness, the anger, the guilt overwhelm his being.

When he gets to the master bedroom, he simply stands there, hand outstretched, vision blurry from the tears and hand feeling really, really gross now. Timothy is barely more than a dark brown smudge on his palm, a delicate wing or two still attached to the smeared corpse. They flutter as Lay’s hand trembles, making it seem like Timothy’s still alive and flying and doing mothy things.

Without any warning, Suho appears in the open doorway, looking down in surprise at the pitiful state Lay’s in. His eyes widen when he sees the flattened bug, but he manages to keep all further comments to himself, apart for one simple question.

“What happened?”

Lay slowly looks up into Suho’s concerned eyes before sniffling once heavily and choking out his answer between hiccupping sobs.

Suho listens intently, understanding something about Timothy and marriage, and nothing about how everything’s related to the dead insect in Lay’s hands, just that it needs to be cleaned off quickly before one of the kids freak out or something.

Finally, after Lay’s done and his bawls reduced to just a little sniffle, Suho in a sharp breath and pats Lay’s shoulder sympathetically.

“Do you want a...funeral? For Timothy?” Suho starts to nod alongside Lay’s frantic head bobbing. Suho sighs and picks Lay up in his arms. “Yeah ok come on. Let’s go to the garden.”

***

They scrape Timothy off Lay’s hand and the wall onto a small sheet of paper and Suho burns it carefully, using Rocky as an elevation to make sure they don’t torch down the garden. Kris and Chen and Xiumin come out to observe the cremation too, mourning with Lay.

After everything turns into ash, they leave Lay out there for a while, letting him think as he sits on the front porch, staring at the pile of dust on Rocky. The tear tracks on his cheeks have completely dried and disappeared, but the pain still remains fresh and cutting.

He’s learnt a lot of things today. He’s learnt how to let go.

************

based off this text post i saw on tumblr. I know I've never written much Lay on here so I hope this makes up for it :D dO I SMELL A CRAPPY ENDING THO man i never know how to end these things

oh ye I'm gonna be writing a backstory type thing on Kris and Suho's relationship bc I never really explained it explicitly ((i'm not too sure myself but it'll work out im sure)) over here so yea check it out I might update it not so soon because I'm kind of busy nowadays but I will write it nontheless :D It seems fun so why not heh

Thanks so much to StrawberrySwing, aaonhh, izie114, --babystar, bogoshipda, xLeeHyunMinx, jessefany92, KatyMikayla, onions, EXOGirls, 100percentASIAN, mennie68, budhakz_marshie, YUnoGoogleIt, AptonKey, AhSongyi, flow0714, syooper, PhiaShy99, shenez73, BBplusZEA, hyunntps, MyHeaven, banabestfriend26, ChaeYo, Derp_Yeollie, nikkiniknik_21, GothicMermaid, nandavipbana, minyu12, chocochipsdeer, proudtobeab2ty, BluMonster, gvnluvkpop, ExoChen_LovePink, slowdownheartbeat, kmishihara, Mokuren, miramiumiu, LittleShawn, miyamotomorgan, Sugarcakes, baekhybby, music4ever, kawaiigirl12345, Himchansylvania, YoseobiesLover, asdffghjkl, heegee8, XP_BiteMe, KL-mars, SNSDandMBLAQ, Callagirl, pinktokkimin, pipoomica, Vakore, turntechGodhead, soph688, VanillaLaLa, HunHan16, GwagHyeYu, Inspirit271, Krisppy, missycherie, Nabtaro, MingiLovesGD, lovetoreadlol, MayAndJune, mitsuka501, Awake-In-The-Night, deerluluhan, piratess, minki_, ---EternallyDreaming, UKissSpider, hithere--, and yourEXOticELF for upvoting!

And thank you so much for subscribing and commenting and leaving your childhood stories :D You guys are awesome yo don't stop believin hold on to that feelin street lights yeaaa