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jongdae flashes down to earth in an instant, white static flickering around his shiny black boots. he takes a slight pause to let loose his discharge, but count to three and he's already gone, sweeping off to his next destination.

kyungsoo flashes down with a crash and a bang. he's three seconds too late.

"why?" he asks joonmyun's million faces, falling falling down to the ground.

"you're thunder," the puddle at his feet tells him. "you can never meet him, you may only follow in his footsteps."

"why?" he wails to the sky. "why can baekhyun embrace him each time he falls? why can sehun play with his sparks? why can chanyeol be born from his fingertips? why can you all meet him while i can only be forever three seconds behind?"

he doesn't know why but he starts crying, fat tears falling down his cheeks. in an instant, joonmyun is beside him, swiping cool fingers under his eyes.

"kyungsoo," joonmyun whispers, "you mustn't stop now. your heart may ache and your tears may fall, but little thunder, you must follow him. there's a time and place for this, but this is not it! go, please!"

kyungsoo glares balefully at the puddle. "i've followed him for thousands of years, and yet -" he chokes on a sob, "no, you're right, i'll just- i'll just go do my duty then!"

the thunder spirit angrily brushes away his tears and leaps back up into the sky, continuing the chase after his master, steel-toed boots leaving loud rumbling thunder in his wake.

chanyeol, birthed in a tree when jongdae touched the earth scorches the leaves around him merrily. his flames crackle and bend in a blazing halo around his head, seemingly unbothered by the water drizzling down on him. "he seems rather lonely, doesn't he?"

joonmyun spins around, not registering the fire spirit's presence until he spoke. "chanyeol!"

chanyeol grins at joonmyun, waving a hand in greeting, "wotcher joonie!" by then, chanyeol had spread to another tree to continue feeding his insatiable flames. the two tree's forms started to wither and blacken under the hungry fire spirit but he seems to either not take notice of this, nor care.

"stop that! you'll burn up this whole forest!" joonmyun plants his hands on his hips and flings droplets at the fire spirit to keep him in check, ignoring the slightly pained yelp. "lonely? what do you mean, lonely? he may be pining, but he's got us, his friends!"

chanyeol is surprisingly silent, seemingly weighing the words in his mind before speaking them out. this is rare for the impulsive spirit and joonmyun finds himself anticipating what the normally troublesome spirit has to say.

"joonmyun," chanyeol finally says, "what's a crowd when the one you want isn't by your side?"

joonmyun blinks as chanyeol smiles one more time before he finally succumbs to joonmyun's raindrops falling on him from above. smoke rises from the charred trees and joonmyun wonders where the fire spirit is headed to next. he crooks a finger and a whisper sounds in his ear as sehun winds obediently around the water spirit.

"i'll go talk to him."

joonmyun hopes that one day kyungsoo will find his own happiness.

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have i ever mentioned that comments are very much appreciated?? ;)