#request:done

Sanghyuk was ten when he slipped off one of the lower hanging branches of the High Tree and fell face first into the muddy ground beneath. It was the first time in his life that he had touched the ground, and despite the little pain in his arms and legs, he felt adventurous.

It was also the first time that he realized why it was forbidden for the young to wander off and away from the safety of the High Tree — especially for the offsprings of the main dynasty.

It didn’t take the Gnomes long to emerge from the ground, plopping up around Sanghyuk in the blink of an eye and so fast that the young Sylph didn’t even have time to flap his wings. It took them even less time to start pulling Sanghyuk with them, deeper into the soil under the tree, and they would have succeeded in no time, if Sanghyuk wasn’t so damn lucky.

“Oi, hold it there!” a cry had come from the branches above, the flapping of dozens of pairs of wings heard around as the guards landed next to Sanghyuk to pull him from the grasps of the Gnomes. The earth spirits screeched and hissed as they retreated, the grips of their little round hands relenting on Sanghyuk’s skin as they disappeared back into the depths from where they came.

Sanghyuk didn’t even have time to fully realize what had happened when he found himself flown back up into the safe branches of the High Tree, and it was only then that the adrenaline subsided and the fear washed over him, a little on the late side.

“I— I’m so sorry, I—“ he started, looking up with fearful eyes at the guards that looked him straight in the eye with a serious expression; it made Sanghyuk feel small, and he couldn’t bear their gaze, so he looked down.

“It’s alright, I told them that you fell,” a voice piped up then, bright and warm like the rays of the sun dancing along Sanghyuk’s skin. It made him look up, see who it was that was talking to him, when he saw a young Sylph not that much older than him with the biggest grin on his face Sanghyuk had ever seen.

“I saw you playing around, wondering if I should ask you if I could join when I saw you slip. I knew the Gnomes would come fast, so I alerted the guards. Just in time, too!” the young one said, bringing one of his hands in front of his chest in a gesture full of pride. Sanghyuk shuffled his feet a little, feeling overwhelmed but thankful, and he might have been a little intimidated by the bright smile and the big sparkly eyes.

“I’m Jaehwan. What’s your name?” the young Sylph asked, and it took Sanghyuk two tries and a lot of stuttering to get his name out.

“S— Sang—“, he started, the fear still holding unto his bones. It was only after another encouraging smile from Jaehwan that Sanghyuk was finally able to loosen his tongue. “Sang— Sanghyuk! My name is Sanghyuk.” The grin that Jaehwan gave him after that was one Sanghyuk was sure he’d be remembering for centuries.

“Nice to meet you, Sanghyuk!” Jaehwan had answered, and with that he had taken his hand and flown off to the next branch, leaving the troop of guards behind on the lower branches.

“T—Thank you for saving me,” Sanghyuk had mumbled when they landed again, eyeing the bright brown color of Jaehwan’s wings, matched with his hair. They were pretty, the ones in his family all coal black as was their hair color, one of the proofs of being from the main dynasty. He always disliked it, that plain dark color, and he always felt more out of place with it than anything. He was envious of Jaehwan’s bright feathers and slightly curly locks, and he wondered how it felt to be as carefree as the other Sylph seemed to be.

“Don’t thank me! I’ll protect you from now on. That’s a promise!”

It had filled Sanghyuk with surprise, how Jaehwan had just so simply given his word to him, as if it was the most easy thing in the world. To Sylphs, a promise meant responsibility and devotion, because it was of the highest honor to never break a word that was given. It was the utmost rule, even higher than not touching the ground without the High Sylph’s permission.

And as fast as Jaehwan had made his promise to Sanghyuk, he had become his friend.

◆◆◆◆

“I’ll race you from the lowest branch to the highest leaf, Han Sanghyuk!”

It’s the first thing Sanghyuk hears as he awakens, the sun shining through the arch of the wooden window blinding his eyes. He doesn’t need them to know it’s Jaehwan who’s flying up and down in front of his window, caramel colored feathers rustling in the breeze of the early morning, just as he’s done in the past twelve years since that little stumble of Sanghyuk’s down unto the ground had made their paths cross.

He’s not even fully awake and yet there’s already a smile on his lips as he stumbles up and over to the window, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

“You know you can’t beat me in technique, so you’re trying to beat me in speed? You never give up, do you?” he chuckles out into the fresh air of the morning. When he finally opens his eyes he’s met with Jaehwan’s face so close to his that Sanghyuk’s eyes have to cross to focus on him.

“Give up? I’ve never heard those words!” Jaehwan laughs as he does flips back in the air, the wind of his movements tousling Sanghyuk’s morning hair even further. “You, on the other hand, should get dressed, otherwise you’ll give up by default!”

Sanghyuk snorts just a little, but retreats to get changed. It won’t take him long to show Jaehwan just how much better he is in a race.

When he comes back out, though, Jaehwan is sitting on the side of the little open balcony, looking away into the distance; it’s a view Sanghyuk has seen him eye a lot, down the river flowing past the east side of the High Tree to the valley at the foot of the mountain, where the city of the changeling folk lies, big and compelling.

“Are you thinking about breaking out again?” Sanghyuk teases as he takes a seat next to Jaehwan on the wood, their thighs touching. It sends a little tremor up Sanghyuk’s spine and through his wings, making them spread out to their full state to shake it out into the tips. He almost knocks Jaehwan off the balcony in the process, earning himself a disbelieving chuckle.

“Really, I have that effect on you?” The brown haired Sylph grins as he jumps off the balcony as he spreads his wings, making a little round before stopping and keeping afloat right in front of Sanghyuk. It makes Sanghyuk’s smile grow, his eyes twinkle a little bit in reflection of Jaehwan’s, and the soft strokes of Jaehwan’s wings against the skin of Sanghyuk’s legs make his head spin.

“Woah there, back off tiger,” Sanghyuk whispers with a little glint in his eyes. “Not here, and you know that.”

There’s a pout on Jaehwan’s face but he soars up and lands on one of the branches close to the balcony, the grin back on his lips just in time for his feet touching the tree.

“Fine. Let’s do something else then.” he replies, and there’s something on his face that has Sanghyuk’s features turn a slightly bit more serious. “Let’s go fly down the mountain.”

The words ring alarm in Sanghyuk’s ears. “You know we can’t. We aren’t allowed to go without—“

“Without permission from your father, yes, I know,” Jaehwan finishes for him, but the mischievous smile he’s sporting makes Sanghyuk feel like he doesn’t actually care. “But it’s not that hard to just fly off, you know, and be back before anyone notices.”

Sanghyuk doesn’t reply; he’s torn both between doing the right thing after the rules set down for them, and the curiosity that has been gnawing at his stomach for the past years. It’s dangerous, he tells himself, has tried to tell Jaehwan countless of times before — his simple little stumble off to the ground as a kid has shown him that much. Jaehwan seems to grasp his thoughts, though, and in a second he’s by Sanghyuk’s side.

“We won’t actually get to the ground. And it’s just a flight to check out how it looks — I don’t want to stay. And if we do cross humans… They can’t see us.” Jaehwan tries to smile encouragingly, just the way Sanghyuk remembers it over all these years, and it makes his resolve crumble a bit.

“But what if…” he trails off, eyes shifting to the green grass a mile away; there’s just the hint of a shudder passing through him at the memory.

He feels a hand take his, Jaehwan’s fingers interlacing with his and squeezing just a little. It makes Sanghyuk look up, and there’s that expression on Jaehwan’s face again — the bright smile and the determination that made Sanghyuk fall for him in the first place.

“I’ll protect you, remember? I’ll honor my word.”

pretty much pick any picture and open it up in photoshop

additional stuff i did for the gikwang edit in case you want to know too: