Castle in the Sky 2/?

[miari]

This took me so long :(

Donghae had a momentary panic attack when he woke the next morning. It took several deep breaths and a few long blinks to remember where he was.

And to remember the thief, the thief that had also seen the castle; Donghae didn’t know what to think of that. On the one hand, he was positively elated that there was someone who had essentially lived his life, lived through the teasing, and the fear, and the pain. On the other, Ryeowook was a thief, and knowing a thief, never mind hanging around one, was never safe.

He stretched, deciding that he was too hungry to fret, and stumbled onto his feet. Ryeowook was no where to be seen, which didn’t particularly mean much, because after last night, Donghae believed it entirely possible that there were several rooms to this hideout, or at least, several tunnels. Ryeowook could be anywhere.

He was reaching for an apple that was out on the table when he remembered a job that he had that morning. He wasn’t one to swear often, but he figured that the occasion called for it, especially considering that he was at least a half hour late.

He dashed out in the direction he vaguely remembered the entrance to be and was relieved to find his outcraft unharmed, right where had left it. He punched in ignition codes and feared for his life as he exited the cavern, wondering again how Ryeowook had managed to cut the hole so that it appeared small but wasn’t.

The bath house manager was not at all pleased that Donghae was late, but after he fixed the steam heater (accidentally), he was forgiven and the manager even gave him a little food.

He was resting, casually, washing down lunch with Ryeowook’s apple, when said thief dashed around a corner and bowled into him. “Hide me,” he squeaked, and Donghae had a small bout of déjà vu.

“What,” he said flatly.

Ryeowook eye’s pleaded with him and Donghae had an inner, mental battle. “Did you steal something again?” He asked. “Just because we can both see the castle, it doesn’t mean that you can use me to get away with your-“

There was the sound of shouting and Ryeowook whimpered pathetically.

“Oh my god, fine, get in,” Donghae shoved Ryeowook into his outercraft and hoped that there wasn’t a thread of coveralls or smudge of grease visible.

It took a few minutes, but soon five guards were huffing up the path toward him. He paused in his work and wiped his brow, grimacing as he felt the grime from his hands streak his forehead.

“Oh. It’s you again.”

Donghae resisted the urge to pull a face. He was cursed; he was sure of it.

“You’re a busy fellow,” the Guard That Had Almost Killed Him said conversationally, smiling like the two of them had been friends for years, “And somehow always around when we’re chasing that kid.”

“I’m just a good mechanic,” Donghae returned flatly, “And it’s not my fault you lose him all the time. What did he do now?”

The guard waved his hand exasperatedly, “What he always does; steal things, mess with our sensors, the usual. We’ve been after him for years.” He gestured for the rest of the unit to continue on without him.

“Annoying,” Donghae offered casually, stepping away from his outercraft a bit, as the guard seemed intent on having a lengthy conversation. Asshole.

“We’ll catch him,” the guard said, “Eventually.” He cocked his head, “So, you’re a good mechanic you say?”

“I’d like to think so,” Donghae said carefully, “It keeps me fed, at least,” mostly.

The guard took a step forward. “We have a few outercraft, my guard unit, I mean, that have some horrible glitches that our mechanics can’t seem to fix. How would you like to take a look at them? We’d pay you, of course, with glass. A couple pieces per outercraft fixed.”

Donghae had his refusal on his tongue (“I’m too busy, but thanks,”) until the guard had said glass. Paid with glass; actual glass.

Really, it was far too tempting to turn down.

“I suppose I could look at them, but if your mechanics can’t figure it out, I’m not sure that I’ll be of any use.”

“You’ll be great,” the officer assured him, “Tomorrow morning, then? At the Edge Post.”

He didn’t mention which one and there wasn’t a need. Donghae remembered it all too well. “Sure.”

The guard smiled started to jog away, tripping over his own feet. He laughed a bit and then continued on his way.

“Wait,” Donghae took a step forward, “What’s your name? Just--just in case?”

The guard smiled, “Jongwoon,” he said, “You can call me Jongwoon.”

Donghae nodded. “Right.”

He was still a little dazed by the promise of actual pieces of glass, as Jongwoon The Guard disappeared around a corner. “Sweet.”

“That is not sweet,” Ryeowook’s voice hissed from the outercraft, and Donghae glanced over to see his eyes peeking over the edge, “Trust me, he is anything but sweet.”

Donghae walked over to the outercraft and plunked his elbows onto the rim, making Ryeowook scoot back. “Do I sense a history, or are you generalizing?”

“Um.” Ryeowook bit his lip.

“If you don’t tell me right now, I’m going to call him back here.”

“History!” Ryeowook squeaked, “History, okay, fine, we have something of a history, together.”

Donghae raised an eyebrow; Ryeowook let out a little moan.

“I--I used to be a guard. With him. We were guards,“ He smiled hopefully.

“And what else?” Donghae asked, taking a step in the direction Jongwoon had gone.

“We--we were--friends.”

“Right,” Donghae said, taking a few more steps.

Ryeowook whimpered again, “Um, he might have been--romantically interested in me?”

“And you weren’t?”

“I was,” Ryeowook said desperately, as Donghae continued backing up, “I was interested and we dated, okay? Is that what you want to hear? We dated and it was fantastic and now we don’t. Happy?”

Donghae felt a little pang of guilt as a flash of hurt crossed Ryeowook’s face. He walked back over and watched as Ryeowook let out a sigh and flopped backwards in his seat. Not that the guilt was a sign of him feeling apologetic, because he wasn’t.

“You were a guard,” he clarified.

“Yes. Why?”

“So you deserted?”

“Something like that.”

Donghae took a deep breath. Hanging around a deserter was so much more of a problem than hanging around a thief. Hanging around someone who was both....

“Great. Just great.”


~~~~~


Ryeowook was a special person. Donghae had planned to walk away, to never look back, Castle be damned, but somehow, he was back in Ryeowook’s hideaway eating cookies. Cookies. Donghae couldn’t remember the last time his mouth had had a half decent cookie in it, and these were way more than half decent.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Ryeowook said, “I really am. I just didn’t think you’d like it.”

“I don’t,” Donghae said shortly, reaching for another cookie.

Ryeowook bit his lip. “Look, don’t we--shouldn’t we stick together?”

What for? Donghae wanted to ask, because he could sense the danger rolling off of Ryeowook in waves. Not that he wasn’t dangerous himself; trouble tended to follow him (or he it,) but he hadn’t deserted; he didn’t steal.

“I want to show you something,” Ryeowook said, and Donghae sat back, licking chocolate crumbs from his lips. “I think that you’ll like it.”

Ryeowook beckoned and they walked back down the tunnel towards the trick entrance. “I got this a long time ago.”

“Got?” Donghae tried to clarify.

“I didn’t steal it, if that’s what you’re asking. I only started stealing so that I could save up all the money I earned to buy this.”

Which makes it all better, Donghae thought wryly.

Ryeowook tugged Donghae down a path veering away from the main part of the hide out. It was a little creepy. Ryeowook held out a torch in front of him, and the way the shadows flickered on the wall were reminiscent of several, spooky stories Donghae did not want to remember.

The cavern that they entered was something out of Donghae’s nightmares. Large, dark, and dripping with...something. Ryeowook looked far too excited for his own good. “It’s scary at first,” he said, “It took me a good year before I was able to walk around here, but I promise that it’s safe.”

Donghae was pulled forward and he thought he had momentarily lost his mind when a outercraft came into view.

“It’s a Lights outercraft,” Ryeowook explained.

Donghae took a step forward, hardly able to believe it. A Lights outercraft. Tougher, and made for flying at the top of the Dome where the Lights were, it was able to fly faster, resist the Lights heat, and generally perform in a spectacular manner.

“I’ve got everything,” Ryeowook whispered, “Fuel, goggles, gloves, even a booster. I want to give you this, Donghae,” he said as Donghae ran his hands over the smooth canvas, “I can’t pilot for crap, as you know, so if you take it, maybe we can fly up and reach the Castle. Don’t you think?”

Donghae raised his head and regarded the other man in the semi-darkness. “You’re serious.”

“Yes. Donghae, I saw the Castle this morning, just before I left. It’s here.”

Donghae’s breath caught. It had been months since he had seen the Castle. If Ryeowook had seen it, that meant the Castle was going to be floating around the Lights for a good week or two, at the very least.

“Donghae, let’s fly up and see it.”

Donghae wanted to do more than that. He wanted to land on it, wanted to land and sweep the Castle’s princess off her feet. He wanted to marry her and inherit the Castle and fly around on it for the rest of his life. He wanted out.

“I want out, Ryeowook,” he whispered, fingering the canvas of the special outercraft.

“I know.”

Ryeowook was smiling at him.

That night, after Ryeowook cooked them a feast, and they were more than a little tipsy off of wine, they made a promise. Before the week was out, they would fly up to the Lights and search out the Castle, come what may.

When they woke, slightly hungover, but grinning at each other like fools, Donghae didn’t regret it.

They took Donghae’s outercraft into town the next morning. They had eaten before they left and so didn’t have to spend money on food. It was glorious.

Donghae landed close to the Outlier Edge Post and Ryeowook climbed out carefully, throwing furtive glances around, afraid of Outliers appearing at any second.

“Where can I meet you when I’m done?”

“Wherever,” Ryeowook shrugged, hugging the outercraft’s shadow nervously. “I need to buy some food. I’ll find you.”

Donghae rolled his eyes and turned away. “Just, not like you usually find me. No stealing.”

He heard Ryeowook scoff.

“Hey!”

He thought that maybe it had been Ryeowook, but the voice had come from completely the opposite direction. Also, it wasn’t an indignant, “Hey!” or even a friendly “Hey!” Neither was it a “Hey there, sexy,” or a “Hey, aren’t you the dude I saw picking his nose in a shop window?”

It was a hey that made Donghae want to turn and run. He glanced sideways at Ryeowook and didn’t like the petrified facial expression his friend wore. “Guards.”

Donghae spun, slowly, and swallowed when he saw Jongwoon the Guard gaping at him. “Why are you with him?” Jongwoon asked, pointing.

“Who?” Donghae asked, stalling for time as he heard Ryeowook scramble into the outercraft.

“Is that yours? Are you a thief too? Is that why you’re always around when we’re chasing him?”

Jongwoon looked ready to pull out his gun, so instead of answering his questions, Donghae hopped in beside Ryeowook and punched in the ignition codes.

“Hey.”

“I’m going to die,” Ryeowook announced, before Donghae shot them up into the air and back towards the hideout.

“Are they following us?” Donghae asked.

Ryeowook only groaned, his head between his knees. “Ryeowook! Focus.”

The former guard glanced behind them. “No, but go faster just in case. Jongwoon can sometimes be slippery.”

It took them ten minutes to reach the hideout. Donghae circled it a few times, scrutinizing the surrounding area to make sure that they weren’t being watched, before diving through the secret entrance (that he was now quite used to,) and landing haphazardly.

“Come on,” Ryeowook pulled his hand, “Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?”

“Up,” Ryeowook said, grinning at him.

Up. Up to the Castle, is what he means, Donghae thought.

They took nothing with them, just barreled down the tunnel to the Lights outercraft and hopped inside, slightly breathless with excitement.

“Fuel?” Donghae asked, caressing the controls.

“Plenty,” Ryeowook assured him, “Plus extra if we run out before we find it.”

They stared at one another for a moment, Ryeowook still smiling. Donghae wanted to smile, but he couldn’t overwhelmed as he was. Ryeowook strapped some goggles onto himself and then Donghae.

“Fly,” Ryeowook whispered, and stilled Donghae’s hands, laying one of them on the ignition pad. “Fly us up, Donghae.”

A tingle ran through their joined hands. Donghae took a breath and then punched in the code and gripped the controls hard. They hovered for a moment.

“Ready?” Ryeowook whispered, “Ready, Donghae?”

Donghae let the smallest of smiles tug at his mouth and instead of answering lurched the craft forward, flying back out of the tunnel and then past his outercraft and out. He shared a grin with Ryeowook before they were going up, climbing, climbing, climbing until Donghae thought that it would knock the wind out of him.

He spared a glance towards Ryeowook and saw him gripping his restraints. “Alright?” Donghae shouted over the whipping of the wind around his ears. He was so thankful for the goggles; without them, his eyeballs would have been ripped from his sockets, for sure.

“Fine,” Ryeowook managed, “This is for the Castle. All for the Castle. Fly.”

Donghae did, until the canvas houses became small specks and the grass was nothing but a fuzzy green blob. The Dome’s edge became more visible the higher they flew and Donghae let out a whoop that probably drifted all the way back down to the ground.

He swerved around the bobbing Dome Lights, his jaw dropping when he saw that they were flames incased in glass; perpetual, glowing masses of heat that existed for the sole purpose of spilling out refracted light. It was beautiful.

“Beautiful,” Ryeowook whispered as Donghae slowed, “So, so beautiful.”

Donghae flew on, afraid that if he stared too long he would cry (Ryeowook already was.) He began to ascend again and they flew faster and faster, some of the Lights becoming larger and larger, the top of the Dome becoming more and more visible.

The Lights flashed by him as he wove through them, spinning, flipping, shrieking in glee. Where is it? Where are you, Castle, where are you hiding? “You can’t hide from me!” Donghae yelled, and at that moment, he was sure that he was the happiest person who had ever lived. Freedom felt good.

“There!” Ryeowook let go of his restraints suddenly, and pointed to their right.

Donghae felt his heart jump up into his throat as he saw the Castle for a second before it vanished behind a light twice it’s size.

He jerked to the right, making Ryeowook laugh nervously as their shoulders knocked, and then they were racing after it, dodging the really small Lights as they sped around them as if they had lives of their own. His hands shook as he slowly realized that he was going to see the Castle up close. He was going see it and land on it if he could. He was also going to marry the damn princess.

“Left,” Ryeowook shouted suddenly, and Donghae turned without even thinking about it.

The Castle was in front of him for about thirty seconds. Donghae saw glass, colored and clear before he was overwhelmed and had to look away.

“Did you see that? Did you see the color? The way the light bent? Oh, Oh Donghae. Donghae.”

“I saw,” Donghae said, I saw it, “And I’m not letting it get away from me.”

Ryeowook always saw the Castle first; Donghae was grateful for him shouting instructions because he was too busy checking his instruments (which were flighty at this altitude) and his canvas wings (which were stressed at such a high speed) to be looking for the Castle. Besides which, if he did see it he’d want to stare and that would distract him from actually flying.

“Outliers!”

Donghae tossed a glance behind himself and almost swallowed his tongue. A guard was shouting something through a megaphone but Donghae ignored him. No Outlier was going to stop him now, not if they brought out every craft and gun they owned. No, sir. Nothing was going to stop him from getting to the Castle and landing and sweeping his princess off her feet.

“Donghae!”

Donghae threw the craft from side to side, up and down, barreling around Lights as they avoided the Outlier craft (which was significantly bigger than their own.)

“Right!” Ryeowook yelled.

They were close now. Oh so very close.

Ryeowook’s direction changes became more and more frequent and Donghae was afraid that they would get dizzy as they spun in circles and barrel rolled to both follow the Castle and avoid Outliers.

And then, quite suddenly, the Castle appeared out of nowhere and Donghae almost smashed into a spire of wood. “What-“

“Grass!” Ryeowook shrieked, “Land on the grass!”

Donghae pushed the wood and the glass and the stone out of his mind and focused on a patch of green barely bigger than Ryeowook’s hideout and dove at it, hoping that it was sturdy enough and they wouldn’t break through it and come out the other side. One never could tell.

“Oh my God we’re going to die,” Ryeowook moaned, and Donghae stuck in his tongue out in concentration as the solid (please, please, please be solid) ground loomed in font of him like the impending doom that it was.

At the last second, Donghae yanked up on his controls and they leveled out, scoring a long mark in the turf as the outcraft came to a shuddering halt.

“Get out!” Donghae yelped and unbuckled Ryeowook, looping his arms underneath Ryeowook’s and leaping out before the outercraft finally came to a grinding halt. They hit the ground rolling; unfortunately, the outercraft spun on a wing and they ended up rolling towards it, rather than away.

“Shit,” Donghae cursed, and he hauled Ryeowook onto his feet. They only got two feet away before part of the Lights outercraft exploded and sent them flying.

Donghae hit the ground hard, knocking his head, and he gasped. He decided not to move his body (he couldn’t, really,) and just tilted his head. Ryeowook was on all fours, looking ready to hurl lunch all over the grass. Donghae tried to say not on me, but it came out as a bunch of garbled syllables.

Ryeowook looked up, concern apparently overpowering his airsickness, and crawled over to him. He seemed relatively unhurt aside from a few scratches on his face.

Donghae straightened his neck and gripped Ryeowook’s hand tight as the Outlier’s loomed above them. It didn’t look especially promising. “It was nice knowing you,” Donghae said, and Ryeowook curled into his side as the Outlier guns were trained onto them.

He shut his eyes and flinched as he heard the sound of heavy artillery going off, waiting for whatever being blown to bits would feel like. When it didn’t come, he cracked an eyelid and blinked at the form standing over them. “Get away,” he hissed, but it again sounded a little funny to his ears.

“Outliers,” the form spit derisively.

Donghae’s brain started to fog and he frowned. He wasn’t an Outlier. Who was this person? Where was the Outlier craft? He peered past the dark form, back lit as it was by a light, and was surprised that he could no longer see the ship. Only smoke.

He groaned as the pain in his leg flared.

“What do we do with them?” An unfamiliar voice.

“Lock them up for now; we’ll find out who they are when they wake up.”

<i>Two people?</i> Donghae thought fuzzily. Did the Outlier’s get them or...or were these people from the Castle?

He was in too much pain to care and allowed himself to be lifted gingerly. The last thing he saw before blacking out was a man, arms crossed, glaring at him over the rims of glasses. How handsome, Donghae thought vaguely, before losing consciousness altogether.


~~~~~

I hope this wasn't too rushed. I had lots more planned before they actually got to the Castle but...it would have been too long.

Also, I had to put Yesung in there somewhere. I love to experiment with characters and pairings, which is why this is Henwook and not Yewook, but I already know that I don't think I'm experimenting with those two ever again. I don't like not writing Yewook... :/

This chapter is brought to you by the Avatar movie soundtrack. It is epic, and fits with this chapter because that's essentially what I listened to while writing it. Esp. the flying part.