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Kyungsoo hesitantly reached his hands beneath Chanyeol’s ribs- his actual ribs, felt the wax of the leaves against his fingertips and the chalk of bone on the back of his hands. “Does it hurt?” he breathes out, even though he watches Chanyeol shiver as he says it.
“No.”
Kyungsoo’s fingers get more adventurous. One hand holds back the silk of Chanyeol’s cape as the other reaches further, up and up until his wrist is shrouded by foliage and his fingertips slide against the surface of a bright red berry. Some of the petals slip free from where they were poking though Chanyeol’s ribs and hooked over the bones as Kyungsoo’s hand passes. “How did this happen?” he whispers like a prayer, but Chanyeol merely shrugs.
“I don’t know,” he answers, and it’s the truth. All Chanyeol remembers is a tickle in his chest growing ever more present, ever harder to ignore as it crept down to his belly and grew tighter and tighter until one morning he watched his skin dissolve away- a bittersweet relief as the pressure lessened and tiny blossoms emerged where his lungs should have been. His body was decaying, but Chanyeol had never felt so alive.
“You can take one. If you want,” Chanyeol says around another shudder, not missing the way Kyungsoo’s fingers linger on the tiny red pearls in his grasp.
Kyungsoo’s eyes snap up. “Will it injure you?”
They’re so close now. Chanyeol doesn’t think he’s ever been in a position quite so intimate despite having lovers before (before all of… this)- just Kyungsoo standing in front of him with his hand inside Chanyeol’s chest. He draws in a deep breath even though he’s not sure where it goes anymore. “No.”
It doesn’t take much for Kyungsoo to pluck the berry loose, letting it fall into his palm before slipping his hand out of the leaves and bringing the berry to his mouth in a moment of… not weakness, but rather… impulsivity as he pushes it past his lips and lets it burst between his teeth.
Chanyeol thinks it shouldn’t be able to, but warmth spreads throughout his chest like the juice gradually staining the seam of Kyungsoo’s lips. They haven’t broken eye contact yet, but Kyungsoo’s eyes glaze over and brighten again as if they had when the sweetness washes over his tongue, lingers in the back of his throat as he whispers. “It’s good.”
Just from watching, Chanyeol can’t help but agree.