Work Text:
CLANG!
CLANG!
The sound of pickaxe against stone was all he could hear. Around him, the clamor echoed alongside a dozen others of a similar vein.
The worker believes there was a time before this, but all memory of it must have been lost in a similar way to his name. The way everything that wasn’t reminiscent of grating industrial machinery and sweltering stone was.
The worker knows he used to be a person, once. He knows it in the way he instinctively looked to the sky before sleeping, and in the way shrivels of disappointment built up when all he saw were the floodlights he’d helped power.
He knew it in the way he would reach out in his sleep and wonder why his arms met air where he felt a body should be.
No matter how many signs showed up, the worker ignored them. There was no point in keeping track when they would only be forgotten with the next order.
Then, a boy showed up.
He went up to the worker with desperation in his teal eyes and opened his mouth.
He yelled. He screamed. He begged.
But nobody listened to him. They just kept working, because that was all they could do.
Strangely, the next thing the boy did was take the worker by the hand and begin to drag him somewhere. Even stranger, the worker didn’t try to resist it.
Then his employer came out, and he was pulled out of the boy’s comforting grip in favor of being pushed aside by hands that somehow managed to be cold even when surrounded by fire. He stood by as the two fought, watching as the boy’s confidence diminished with every word exchanged between them. Things came to a head when the boy looked towards the worker and clenched a fist before yelling something at the employer.
A shiver ran down the worker’s spine as he watched the interaction. Something within him desperately wanted the boy to backtrack, but logically he knew it was too late for that to happen even before the smile came onto his employer’s face.
An order was barked out, and the other workers descended upon the boy.
They punched him in the stomach, hit him across the jaw, and a particularly violent one slammed his head against the ground in a way that surely would have broken his nose if he hadn’t been quick enough to brace against it. They were following their orders perfectly as the employer slipped away with his blonde curls bouncing atop his head.
The worker did not do the same. Oddly, he wished to pull the others off the boy and something in his chest ached with every hit the other sustained.
He didn’t, for he could not bring his legs to move.
The moment lasted for eternity, watching as the boy was pounded into a shuddering mass on the floor. The others receded, returning to their posts as if they hadn’t just practically mutilated a person. It took the worker a moment to finally move, only managing to stumble forward once the boy had risen to his knees and stopped there to stare dejectedly at the floor.
With a sly smirk, the employer left, and the worker took a stilted step towards the boy. Then another, and another until he was right beside him. He was spared a cursory glance, a deep pain gleaming in the other’s eyes as he forced himself to look away.
“Leave me alone.” He muttered weakly, and for a reason the worker couldn’t remember, he responded.
“Cheer up.”
The words came out unbidden, but they caused a reaction. The boy shot up, whipping his head to stare at the worker. Then, his mouth opened, and he tentatively, nervously, murmured a name.
The world turned to color, and a corresponding name fell from the worker’s lips. One that tasted of freedom and felt like sunlight, one that saying was as natural as breathing. The two embraced, holding each other as if it were the only thing they knew how to do.
They were given a challenge, he thinks. The boy needed to lead, and all the worker had to do was follow. The way he always would.
For a minute, everything was okay.
Then the boy turned around, joy and relief shining in his eyes and…
The worker couldn’t remember what happened next.
As he reached for his pickaxe, he only knew one thing.
CLANG!
CLANG!
He had work to do.
He failed the test.
Till was vaguely aware of the others around him. Some having already left, others watching him in pity, but all he could focus on was the ground in front of him. The ground where Ivan had stood. The ground that swallowed him whole.
Till was panicking. He had tried everything to get Ivan to respond, to look at him with something, anything other than that blank gaze which he’d worked so hard to rid the other of over the years.
But nothing was working.
He talked. He yelled. He even resorted to begging after a point, but even still, Ivan didn’t wake up. He just looked at him with those unseeing eyes and that emotionless stare. Till decided to deal with that later, when he grabbed the boy’s arm.
If Ivan couldn’t remember him here, Till would just make him remember when they were out of this dumb town.
Unfortunately, this plan was interrupted by a certain blonde bastard walking down the stairs.
BANG!
Till slammed his fist against the cold stone floor.
How could he be so stupid?
Ivan smiled reassuringly at him as they waited for the verdict. “Are you really that worried, Till?” He said it in a teasing manner, but just the way his face twitched over the name revealed how much this entire thing had affected him. How it was going to keep affecting him if Luka decided that letting them go was too much of a hassle.
Till hated this.
“Of course not.” He scoffed, because it was better to fall into their old dynamic rather than admit how scared he was. Admit how guilty he felt for letting it become this bad in the first place. For letting Ivan get desperate enough to take that offer at all.
He felt a weight on his shoulder and looked over to see a head of black hair.
“We’ll be fine.” Ivan said, in that light and confident way he always did. The words sounded natural enough that Till almost believed them too.
BANG! Tears forming at the corners of his eyes-
There were arms wrapped around his torso, panic flared as he recognized the coarse hands at the end of them.
“As long as I’m behind you it’s fine right?”
They still shouldn’t be risking it… however nothing had taken him away yet, right? He wasn’t sure they should be testing the god’s tolerance for this, but it was too late to take it back now. At least the arms reminded him that he wasn’t alone.
BANG! A jaw clenched so hard it could crack-
Ivan was humming now. An old song that Till was sure had been left in the past. A love song for a stranger who no longer meant anything.
“Quit that.” He bit with no real heat. He didn’t actually want the other to stop, but he could practically feel the teasing smirk etched into the man’s face even without looking at him. If he were humming absentmindedly then he wouldn’t have chosen the song Till was writing when they met.
“Not a fan of that song? How about this one!” He responded cheerfully, and then immediately switched to the upbeat tune of the song Till confessed with. He had to resist an embarrassed groan.
At least Ivan’s voice was nice.
BANG! Scathing pain bursting across his knuckles-
Recently, Ivan had taken to placing a hand on his back.
Maybe he could feel how anxious Till had been getting lately. Every twitch being an indication of how isolating it felt to lead without being able to truly ensure people followed.
Luckily, the warmth from the other’s palm calmed him down enough to keep him from doing anything stupid.
Till raised his hand, but he didn’t slam it down again.
So many reassurances, yet he still looked back.
He took a shuddering breath, slowly turning around to see two girls around his age. One with pink hair, and the other with black. It appeared that the rest had taken off during his breakdown.
He put his arm down slowly before standing, noting how the pair, thankfully, didn’t flinch when he moved. Choosing to put his emotions to the side until he was alone, he cleared his throat.
“I can get you two a place to rest for the night.” The duo agreed easily, likely not retaining enough memory to have another choice. After taking a moment to collect himself, they set off for the station. His home.
He would be returning without Ivan. He would be sleeping alone in their bed tonight. He would be eating alone at the bar tomorrow.
But for now, these girls needed him. He could wait until they were settled to deal with that.
“Is there something wrong, my dear?” Luka questioned, wrapping his arms around her tighter and looking up from where his face had been buried in her neck. Hyuna had been distracted lately.
That isn’t to say she had been the most attentive in the past few decades, but they hadn’t been doing very well back then. Things were moderately better now that Luka had acquiesced to sharing the love of his life with the mortal world, but it appears that even that hadn’t been enough to keep Hyuna’s mind unclouded.
Her brows furrowed.
“Did you have to be so harsh on them?” She asked softly, her hair swaying softly as Luka’s fingers ran through it.
“The boys?” He asked, as if there was anyone else who could’ve caught her attention over the last century. He hummed as Hyuna nodded.
Admittedly, he hadn’t been paying as much attention to them as he should. There wasn’t anything special about them at first glance, desperate men and heartbroken lovers weren’t exactly uncommon, but after they saved his marriage and made him realize how close he was to losing the only thing that mattered, he really should have given them a second glance.
Unfortunately, he didn’t. He sent them on their way with a half-baked trial and trusted Hyunwoo to make sure it didn’t come back to bite him later when the rest of the group got out.
Clearly, he put too much faith in the man.
“You know how I’d look if I wasn’t.” He excused. Gnats questioning his rule came up often, and if Luka had sent the boys back without a token of resistance then there would be rumors of his excess soft-heartedness before they even made it back through the crack. It would be irritating to deal with that again so soon after the last incident.
“We both know you don’t care about that.” Hyuna shot unsympathetically. Sometimes she could be so cruel to his plights, but he supposed he brought it upon himself when he created the town. He closed his eyes and nuzzled further into her shoulder, its warmth seeping into his temple.
“It’s annoying to squash those claims down.” He responded calmly. Even if he didn’t mind them, they still wasted time that could be better spent elsewhere. Like with Hyuna, or preparing for her to come back if she wasn’t there.
She remained silent, so Luka pulled back from their embrace so he could softly grab her chin and coax her eyes to meet his own.
“Would it make you happy, love?” He prodded tenderly. While he would accept her in any form, Luka always loved it most when she was happy. While he couldn’t understand her attachment to those of the mortal world, he would be glad to indulge in her hobby if she so wished.
Hyuna hummed as she watched him with half-lidded eyes.
“It would be better than watching him mourn so often.” She mumbled, no longer seeming as distracted as before. Luka leaned in closer, releasing her jaw in favor of pulling her head towards his and pressing them together as he kissed her cheek.
“I’ll think about it next spring, but for now…” His voice dropped an octave, tainted with newfound desire.
“Please allow me all of you this winter.” Then he pressed their lips together, enjoying the taste of spring and sun that he hadn’t had in so long. It only too a moment for her to relent, kissing him back with matching fervor, and Luka smiled into it.
He was her only weakness, after all.