with triple A batteries
by timelessnotes

It's almost five in the afternoon, and Jongin can only hear silence, with only the occasional whoosh of the ocean's waves washing ashore to interrupt the deafening noise of the silence he's surrounded with.

His thoughts are nothing but silent though.

Jongin has been screaming in his mind for hours on end, wondering how or why it has come to this. He doesn't understand how he just suddenly awoke to this deafening silence to realize everybody else is gone.

And by everybody, he means everybody.

It's not everyday Kim Jongin wakes up to realize he's the last remaining man on earth.

Jongin is staring blankly at the ocean now, pleading for some semblance of a human voice not his own to suddenly cut through his thoughts and violently shake him awake from this nightmare of a reality he's experiencing.

Jongin knows better, though.

He knows he's not going to wake up from this nightmare anytime soon.

In a moment of panic upon realizing there was nobody else on the normally busy streets of Seoul, Jongin had grabbed the nearest object that he could, and made a mad dash for the nearby port, which he knew had a beach right beside it.

With his thoughts running a mile a minute, Jongin lets his legs take him as far, as fast as they can go, until he reaches the shore.

The ocean had always been a sanctuary to him because he loved the way the sound of the waves washing ashore, as if they cleansed him of his troubled thoughts and countless sins.

But today, and every day after today, Jongin only screams, because it feels as if the waves are threatening to swallow him whole.

Jongin turns his attention to the object he had haphazardly thrown down to the sand when he reached the beach, and laughs bitterly. He laughs a hollow, bitter, pained laugh, because he realizes it is something one wouldn't expect to grab as a lifeline, as a means to survive.

He picks the object up, and stares right back into the face of an old toy robot.

Its body is worn old, with scratches and dents, and its back battery cover loose in some spots. The robot had obviously seen better years, and Jongin thinks back to the day he received the robot from a very special someone.

"Happy birthday, Jonginnie!"

A younger, chubbier Jongin, spins around at the sound of the high-pitched, squeaky voice. Little Jongin's smile widens at the sight of an older boy grinning back at him, waving a box furiously in his hand.

"Soo-hyung!"

The older boy waves at little Jongin in response and beckons him to come closer, still waving the wrapped box at him. Jongin stumbles towards his Kyungsoo-hyung, nearly tripping over shoelaces that had come undone earlier during the party.

Kyungsoo gasps in horror at the sight, and runs to little Jongin instead.

"You should do your shoelaces!" Kyungsoo reprimands him. The box is into Jongin's arms, and Kyungsoo drops down to the ground to tie Jongin's shoelaces for him.

Kyungsoo groans in disapproval when he hears the wrapper being torn off, but does not say anything more, because he knows Jongin is excited to see what he's gotten as a present from his favorite hyung.

Kyungsoo's eyes crinkle in delight as he stands up in time to see Jongin tearing away the last of the wrapper and gasp at the sight of a brand new toy robot on the cover. "This is for me, hyung?" Jongin asks in disbelief.

Kyungsoo nods, and encourages him to open the gift.

"You're nine now, Jonginnie," Kyungsoo says amidst the noise of the box being opened. "You deserve a new toy robot! I asked umma to help me save for it."

When Jongin pulls out the new toy robot from the confines of its box, both of them are left in awe and breathless at the beauty of it. It looked like a normal toy robot, sure, but it had eyes that would light up whenever Jongin pressed the green button on its stomach and it could walk on its own for a little while when winded up properly.

But that isn't the best part, Kyungsoo decides.

Kyungsoo takes the robot from Jongin, and presses the tiny red button at the back of its head, and he is pleased to see Jongin's reaction at the sound of Kyungsoo's squeaky voice coming from the robot's ears.

"This records voices?" Jongin asks, and Kyungsoo nods ferociously. He pushes the tiny button thrice in succession, and records a new message.

"Happy birthday, Jonginnie! Take care of Sehunnie, okay?" He presses the button once, and the exact message is played back to them.

Jongin thinks Kyungsoo-hyung's gift is the best he's received this year, and he throws his arms around Kyungsoo to squish him into a hug. "I'll take care of him, hyung," Jongin promises. "I'll never let him run out of batteries and die, I promise."

Jongin is snapped back to reality when he feels the tears fall.

He stares back down at the old toy robot and remembers that his name is Sehun, and that he promised Kyungsoo he won't let Sehun die.

Amidst blurry vision, he hastily wipes away the tears, and gingerly turns the toy over to check its batteries. The batteries on Sehun are haphazardly placed as if someone had hurriedly stuffed them into the back, jamming the back cover in the process.

He takes them out -- two triple A batteries -- and rights their orientation, before snapping the back cover shut again, this time making sure that the cover is snugly fit on its back. Jongin turns Sehun around to lie on its back again in the palm of his hand, and presses the green button on his stomach.

He cracks a smile when Sehun's eyes light up as they should, albeit not as brightly as they used to, but he guesses it's because Sehun has been with him for twelve years now.

Jongin is hesitant to press the red button at the back of Sehun's head, because he knows what exactly it is for, and he doesn't really want to be reminded of the squeaky voice he terribly misses and the myriad of memories that come along with it.

But something in him tells him he has to.

Jongin presses the button once, and patiently waits for the playback.

At the sound of the recorder coming on through the crackling line, Jongin drops to his knees and breaks down with fresh tears.

"Hey, Jongin," A deeper, not-so-sqeaky-anymore voice had come on. "I know you don't listen to Sehun anymore, but when you do..."

Jongin just wants the waves to swallow him whole and take him away.

"...I just want you to know that I love you. Happy anniversary."

Author's note: SO DID YOU GUYS REALIZE WHY I WARNED YOU THAT THIS ISN'T WHAT YOU THINK IT IS? u____u I wrote this in under an hour... on Twitter. Yes. This started out as a tweetfic. You can find the original, unrefined text on my tweetfic dump account @legatissimos. But if you feel like wanting to share your thoughts and ideas on this fic, do tweet me at @timelessnotes instead! ♥

There will be a bonus chapter/alternate ending to this, but the original story ends that way as it had ended above. If you feel you need more or just want a happy ending, do look forward to the bonus chapter. c: /hides from tomatoes/ also yes i know i made sehun a robot pls don't kill me lmao