10,000 Miles
Barriers
The night is cold and the wind blows through the hills and over planes of tall grasses that dance like smooth ocean waves. Above, the sky is lit up with hundreds of thousands of twinkling lights, the next seeming brighter than the previous. But nothing is quite as bright as the full moon, swollen and brilliant in all its late autumn glory, illumnating the vast landscape below. They are all unknowing of what is unfolding beneath them.
Amidst the peace of the cool night, a young boy - tall, thin, and so very pale - is curled up on a bed of grass, a blanket wrapped tight around his shoulders as he waits for the pain to leave him. He's felt it for too long, the ache that comes when something dies because of his curse, the pressure of the weight that has rested on his shoulders for all these years. It hurts and Chanyeol only wants it to stop; he's ready to stop.
Around him, the life of night emerges and soon he's surrounded in an endless sea of twinkling lights. They pay no mind to the boy as they dance to a song only they can hear, a song that Chanyeol so desperately longs to know. He watches them as they blend and move with the sky above, with the stars and the stories that he has long since forgotten; they're not important anymore.
"Chanyeol...?"
The break in the silence startles the boy but he does not move; he's too tired and just lying there hurts. A moment later, when silence returns, tears begin slipping down his cheeks. Chanyeol had hopes he might be alone when he leaves, because just watching Wufan try to accept the truth has been hard enough. But that hope is shattered with one simple word, a name, spoken by a voice that still holds so much life and warmth and comfort.
"Chanyeol..."
It comes again, and this time he knew he was found. There is no escaping him now, not when he can't move, can't breathe, can't speak. Wufan is here and there's not a thing he can do to make him leave. The tears come faster now and Chanyeol wishes that the sky would claim now, before he sees Wufan, before he feels him there at his side.
"Chanyeol, what are you doing?" It's a stupid question, really, because Wufan knows exactly what he's doing. Chanyeol thinks he can make things easier like this, by going off on his own, by leaving him without giving a proper goodbye. It hurts Wufan to know that his beloved would think that he shouldn't be there, but he understands; he understands more than anyone that Chanyeol is done.
Wufan doesn't wait for an answer, doesn't expect one, and he settles down at Chanyeols' side, one arm falling over the boy's small, blanketed frame while another folds beneath his own head. He watches the younger boy, eyes taking in the lifelessness that already begins to ghost over his features. It won't be long now before the boy is gone, and it's that thought that make Wufan realize that he can't let him go, that he won't let him leave him behind.
His arms tighten around Chanyeol's form as he hears his breath shorten, feels his heart beat fade from beneath his fingers and it's as the boy is taking his final breath that Wufan leans in. For the first time he accepts this fate, because he knows he will not have to live without his love, his precious gem, his beautiful star.
"I'm coming with you."
The words are a whisper as Wufan presses his lips against Chanyeol's, and for a brief moment, he can feel the boy's skin against his, the heart beat as it fades with his own.
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