Like Friends, // but // Not Really

Overhead, the skies are turning gray and the clouds seems to be rolling in. It’s a clear sign that there’s a storm brewing. In the distance, the crack of thunder roars across the sky. The sky seems angry because now it’s starting to rain heavily. In a large building, not too far off, a man stares blankly out the window, as his curtains start getting drenched.

"You okay?" A voice asks the man, startling him from his seat, so he sits up straighter than usual. The bodiless voice snickers, and asks again. “Are you okay, Chen?" Finding out it wasn’t anybody important, Chen relaxed and allowed himself to slouch again, not bothering to answer the man.

"Oh, I’ll take that as a no." The man casually shrugs his shoulders, giving off a sarcastic vibe. Chen starts getting impatient and immediately taps his foot against the floor. As he’s doing that, he’s accidentally letting sparks loose and charges start flying.

"—You’re funny, hehe." The man giggles. Giggles. At Chen, and he couldn’t believe his own ears. He turns his focus towards the other man and snaps at him. “Do you need something? Because if not, you can kindly leave, Suho."

Suho, the giggling man, holds his hands up in a defensive stance, but continues to smile a douchebag kind of smile. The kind of smile that makes you feel creeped out and wants you to punch him. That’s the kind of person Suho is. Sarcastic, playful, cruel. Always smiling, always giggling. But on the inside, he’s a little devil incarnate. What’s strange is that Suho can manipulate water, while Chanyeol has fire. Chanyeol was a simple and happy man, someone Chen preferred over Suho anyday.

"I’m just here because I’m bored. Can’t a friend come visit another friend when they’re lonely? You can’t possibly hate me. — I know! Let’s go down to the training arena. I heard Xiuminnie and Kyungsoosoo were gonna spar!" Suho talks with his hands, so while he speaks, his hands gain a mind of their own and move all over the place. He says it adds emphasis to what he’s saying, but Chen is just annoyed.

Still… A match between Xiumin and Kyungsoo sounds pretty good. To the occupants of the place, Xiumin and Kyungsoo appeared to be delicate and soft, but when it actually came down to it, they’re some of the ruthless fighters out there. If you asked around, people would say they’d never want to fight them in a million years. 

Lee Sungjong says, “Kyungsoo’s scary when he’s serious… Even though I could technically dodge most of his attacks due to my duplication, he had this look in his eyes…."

Cho Kyuhyun tells us, “Xiumin’s special. The way he wields his power and carries himself, it’s captivating. It’s elegant? But one wrong move and he’ll have you pinned and begging for mercy…"

Chen has heard a few things about them, but he definitely wants to see it in person. However, the least person he wants to spend time with is Suho. But what else is he supposed to do? So he just stands up from his seat near the window, closes the glass, and walks past Suho, bumping his shoulder in the process.

"You better hurry, so you don’t miss it." Chen calls out to the other, as he’s left huffing and puffing in annoyance at being left alone.

`

The base that’s occupied by many people houses different aspects. It’s a large land plot and in this particular bulding, there just happens to be a sparring arena. This is where people usually practice fighting and other people can watch, as well. Chen quickly finds a seat and is thankful that the session hasn’t begun, yet.

Just when Chen thought he would be alone, Hoya sits next to him. "—Who knew Kim Jongdae actually left his room? Hah. Is he going to watch his little boyfriend and cheer him on?" Just as he’s about knock Hoya down a few, another voice interrupts them, the voice belonging to someone Chen recognizes at Sungjong.

"Don’t be rude, Hoya. Your jealousy is evident." Sungjong flashes the lightning user a smile, and asks to switch seats with Hoya to which he complies. Whipped, he thinks to himself, as he’s snickering. “I’m sorry about Hoya. He got beat by Kyungsoo awhile back and he’s still not over it. You two are cute together, though."

Just as Chen is about to supply his two cents about him and Kyungsoo not dating, the lights start dimming and there seems to be a loud applause as the fighters come out their respective sides. He watches as Xiumin walks slowly, a grin seemingly etched into his face. He then looks at Kyungsoo, who’s smirking and tightens the fingerless gloves on his hands.

The air particles around Xiumin became frozen, and as he punched his fists together, the air particles froze quickly, forming three floating icicles. Kyungsoo seemed indifferent to the action of the other, simply copying the other’s attack, but instead of the floating icicles, they were floating rock pillars.

It became apparent to Chen that the audience had gotten quiet and were now awaiting the match before them. Xiumin and Kyungsoo were having some kind of staredown, before Xiumin made the first move. He snapped his fingers and the icicles went flying. In retaliation, Kyungsoo moved the rock pillars in front of him to block the attack.

Both the icicles and the pillars shatter and Kyungsoo quickly maneuvers himself to a standing position and launches a barrage of rock blasts. Xiumin reacts just as fast and dodges out of the way, slamming his hands into the ground, so a line ice pillars burst out of the ground and head straight for the smaller male. Kyungsoo flips his lithe body into the air and focuses his vision on the ground around Xiumin’s feet. He waves his hands and the ground under his feet turn into quicksand. 

It’s too late for Xiumin to react and his feet are currently stuck in the quicksand. Just as that happens, Kyungsoo turns the quicksand back into the regular hardened ground, trapping Xiumin. All Chen can hear the shouts and cheers from the audience watching, but he’s too focused on watching Kyungsoo’s every move. Who knew someone like him could be so badass?

Kyungsoo steps closer to Xiumin and playfully taps his head. “Give up, Xiu?" The other merely laughs and shakes his head. “I’m having too much fun, Soo. Did you really think this would stop me? It might have stalled for a little bit, but you forgot what I could do, right?"

This, in turn, makes Kyungsoo wary and steps away from the other. He watches in silence as Xiumin’s body starts changing form and now he’s akin to something like snow. It easily moves out of the ground and Xiumin changes his body back to normal, grinning all the while. 

"Hey Xiu… What would you do if I crushed a few of your bones…?" Kyungsoo asks and suddenly the arena goes quiet again. Xiumin stares hard and shrugs his shoulder. “As long as I can freeze your blood, Soo."

The earth manipulator laughs a bone-chilling laugh and charges towards Xiumin, aiming a punch towards the other’s face. Xiumin expected that as much and quickly backs again, the punch missing his face. — Suddenly, blood starts rolling down his cheek and it has him surprised.

"Oops, did I do that?" He asks innocently, feigning pretend. His arm goes up into the arm and suddenly a stream of sand starts forming in the air. Xiumin grins and gives the other a thumbs up. “ing Soo — that’s a dirty trick. Good on ya, but I’m not gonna lose that easily."

Xiumin lifts his arm up as well, and a stream of snow and ice forms as well. The snow stream takes the form of a serpent, while Kyungsoo’s sand stream takes the form of a dragon. The audience is suddenly in an uproar and you can’t even tell who’s rooting for who. Chen watches with fists clenched tight, and as he turns his head to his right, he notices Sungjong with a smiling expression looking down at the battle.

"Amazing, isn’t it? — He’s amazing, right?" Sungjong questions, and Chen immediately answers. “Of course, Kyungsoo’s amazing. He’s not a weakling." Sungjong simply laughs and continues to watch, which Chen doesn’t understand why he was asked the question anyways.

Suddenly, the two fighters send their attacks at each other and it ends up with a giant blast sending the two fighters away. As the smoke clears, the viewers see that Xiumin’s panting heavily on his knees, while Kyungsoo’s fully out cold. “Damn — he’s good… Flung a hardened sand spike at me at the last minute." The audience erupts into cheers and Chen notices a pair of nurses carrying Kyungsoo to the infirmary. Quietly, he slips away and heads straight there, missing the knowing look on Sungjong’s face.

`

Chen quietly knocks on the door of the infirmary and he sees that Yixing opened the door. He willingly lets the other enter and with a wave of his hand, points him to the direction of Kyungsoo. Chen furrows his eyebrows at Yixing not questioning who he was here for, but forgets about it moments later when he’s standing at Kyungsoo’s bed and he’s actually awake.

"Chen — what are you doing here?" He asks softly, typing away on his cellphone. Tch, still just a brat, thought Chen. His gaze softened and he reached a hand out to Kyungsoo’s hair. “I was worried for you. Can’t I? Or am I not allowed?"

"Naw, go right ahead. I’m flattered, actually. You’re cute." Chen always forgot about Kyungsoo’s straight-forward personality. He wasn’t afraid to say things at all. And something like this caused a blush to appear on his face. 

"People think we’re dating." Kyungsoo tears his gaze away from the phone and looks up at Chen with a bored look. “Yeah — am I supposed to do something about that, Chen? You hang around me a lot… You buy me things. You do a lot of boyfriend things. Not gonna lie."

Chen starts blushing again and looks down at his feet and starts fidgeting, a hand going up behind his neck in embarrassment. “I just—no. Nevermind." Kyungsoo laughs and pats the side of his bed for the other to sit down.

"You’re cute. Why would it be so wrong to date me, Chen? Am I ugly? Am I too fragile?" Chen hates being pressed and suddenly he feels really small when the other starts asking him all these questions. He never really thought about it, but no. He isn’t ugly. He’s handsome and beautiful and adorable at the same time. He’s not fragile. He has the will-power and the actual strength, too. 

Maybe it’s Chen’s own insecurities. He’s not strong like Kyungsoo. He can’t control his power that well and he’s always letting out discharges. What if he hurts Kyungsoo? He’s not that good-looking, as much as Kyungsoo likes to disagree. He’s not good at all, so why would Kyungsoo want to date him? He could do so much better. Heck — Chen thinks Kyungsoo looks good with Suho. And he hates Suho. 

"Chen? Stop. — Why do you get like this? You’re amazing and perfect, and stop thinking like you’re not. I can see it in your eyes." Kyungsoo hits the other’s shoulder and Chen groans because it actually hurts. Kyungsoo’s eyes widen considerably and he mumbles an apology. 

"I like you, Chen. So stop being a depressing little and date me." Chen smiles and ruffles the other’s hair. “You’re really dominant, aren’t you?" 

Kyungsoo just smiles a knowing smile and shrugs his shoulders. “I’m really submissive in bed, now that I think about it." Here comes Kyungsoo’s straight-forward personality again and this leads to a blushing red faced Chen who collapses to the ground. 

A squeak escapes past the lips of Kyungsoo as he calls for the nurse. “Oh my god! Yixing, come quick! Chen fainted!" 

This was pretty random, actually. This basically has no plot to it, whatsoever. If you don't understand this, then I can tell you. LMAO. So basically, Chen's a newbie when it comes to controlling his powers. Ummm, people mistake him and Kyungsoo to be dating. Kyungsoo + Xiumin are some of the strongest fighters at the base. The base is filled with like a bunch of other kpop idols, okay? So you got that. LOL. Ummm... They pretty much get together at the end... and Yixing's a nurse! How hot is that!