Grab Bag Round: Two's Company, Three's A Crowd (But We'll Make It Work)

Title: two’s company, three’s a crowd (but we’ll make it work)
Rating: PG-13
Focus: Suho-centric. Lay/Suho, Chen/Suho & beginnings of OT3
Length: 4.5k words
Summary: Junmyeon figures that if love were the ocean, falling in love would probably be as scary as walking into the large body of water.
Tags: soulmate AU, magic, angst, unresolved polyamory dynamics. Mentions of near death experiences (drowning)


Notes:  first of all, hi, prompter! I’m very honored to have picked up your prompts for this grab bag edition! I’ve tried my best to incorporate all of your prompts into my work and I hope I’ve done them justice and that you’ll enjoy this fic.

Secondly, I would like to thank the mods for holding such a great idea for round 4 and for being so supportive and motivating throughout this round of 91daes!

Finally, it seems that I can’t write good endings and I didn’t want to rush any resolution of issues since it wouldn’t seem very realistic in terms of relationships. Also, I’m not familiar at all with electric shocks and so what I’ve written is probably really far off from actual facts to fit better with the narrative!

this fic is un-beta’d so all mistakes are mine, also I’m sorry for the weird switching in tense. Opening quote is from Madclown’s Lie.

▲▼▲ “I went into the ocean without knowing how to swim, and went to you, not knowing how to love. ” ▲▼▲ Junmyeon almost dies the first time he falls in love. It was the ocean that he had fallen in love with; it was the ocean that drew him in. In his defence, the first time he had gone into the waters unattended was when he was five. Old enough to know better than to break away from his parents and dash towards the ocean, young enough to not care. At age five, Junmyeon thought that he could do anything he wanted and walk away unscathed. It’s comfortable in the beginning, with a hint of excitement as the waters reach ankle height. Waves laps gently at his exposed calves, as if asking him to ‘come closer, take another step in’. And he does, he takes that next step and the step after that, moving deeper and deeper into the deep mesmerizing blue of the ocean. The edges of his shorts get soaked with salt water but he pays it no mind, not when he was nowhere deep enough. All he knew was that the ocean was calling out to him and that he had to get closer, much closer. Later when he wakes up to the sun shining down on him and his mother sobbing over him (“oh, thank god, thank god!”), he would realize that he remembers nothing save for wading deeper and deeper into the deep dark blue. Junmyeon allows himself to be pulled into a too tight embrace by his mother, taking in sweet breaths of air into his burning lungs. His father tells him much later that he had called out to him only to be ignored and left panicking when the waves swallow up his only son. The one thing he had utmost control over in the world was the one thing that almost stole his only child away from him. ▲▼▲ There’s a story that has been told to him over and over in his mother’s soft voice as she coaxes him into falling asleep. A tale about finding love and unlocking magic, the love story of how his parents met and how his family came to be. Junmyeon never really grasped the whole concept of it all, not at the tender age of six where everything seemed to fictional. He understood the magic which origins nobody could explain. He’s witnessed magic firsthand during bath time with his father: water streaming upwards, forming figures and shapes and tickling his sides before his father released his hold on it. He’s experienced it first hand in how his mother cushioned his falls with gusts of wind, he’s felt the weight of it when she had tried to force air back into his lungs after he had drowned. It’s easy to understand the magic since it was something he could see, something he could touch. Love though… it wasn’t something he could comprehend as easily. Junmyeon’s both seen and experienced love, of course. He’s seen the love his parents had for each other, he’s experienced the love they had for him and him them. Even in the books he’s read, in the cartoons he’s watched, he’s seen love all around him and yet… it was still something complex, something too abstract for him to fully understand. And if he ever got frustrated about his lack of understanding or voiced out his confusion about why he couldn’t do what his parents could with the air and water around them (“I don’t understand! I found love, eomma, I love you and appa, so why don’t I have magic too?”), his mother would assure him that he would find that one love that was meant for him eventually. “And until that day comes, you’ll find other forms of love along the way.” As he lies in bed at age six, Junmyeon wonders if love might be similar to the ocean. It was something beautiful and mysterious (and dangerous, always dangerous for those are careless. Ever ready to pull him down by the ankles and fill his lungs). And if love were the ocean, falling in love would probably be as scary as walking into the large body of water. ▲▼▲ The reality was this: everyone’s borne with dormant magic within him or her and the key to unlocking it was someone; a special person destined for them, a match made in heaven, a soulmate. It’s a game of luck, really, whether or not they ever get to meet. The luckier ones had soulmates who were people familiar to them, a friend, a neighbor, a schoolmate. Those with average luck are the ones who had strangers as theirs, a random face in a crowd that they get drawn to. The statistically minority, that 2% of the population with no luck at all, never had the chance to ever meet their soulmates (some so far apart from each other that finding each other was close to none. some gone before the chance ever came about). At age sixteen, Junmyeon learns the history and technicalities behind the fairytale he grew up with (less a bedtime story now that reality bleed through) from a compulsory seminar held by his school. He learns about the social events that the government had sponsored in order to maximize the opportunity of soulmates meeting, about the registration process that comes after the meeting of his special someone. At age sixteen, Junmyeon wonders if he would have the opportunity in meeting his soulmate or if he would end up being a part of that 2% that never does. The lingering fear of never finding that one love, stemming from the tender age of 6, loosens its tight hold on his airway as he clutches onto the seminar brochures and signs up for multiple mixers. After all, some things were best left to faith and some things were better taken into one’s own hands. ▲▼▲ When fate decides to intervene with his carefully laid out plans, he realizes how he was simply a pawn in this game of predestined matches, a piece of a puzzle being passed around until he found his place next to someone. Junmyeon realizes how powerless he really is when fate had decidedly brought him along as a witness of his date (a junior at school who had the prettiest lips, a strong love for food and a battalion of dad jokes) meeting his soulmate. Fate: 1, Junmyeon: 0. ▲▼▲ “Is there something wrong with me?” “There’s nothing wrong with you, sweetie.” “So why is everyone meeting their soulmate except me?” “You’ll find yours soon, I promise.” ▲▼▲ Junmyeon almost dies the first time he meets his soulmate at age twenty. Dying might seem like a stretch of facts but in his defence, tripping down a couple of stairs after colliding with someone might really have caused death. In his case though, he suspected that the only thing the fall had caused was a possible concussion. Junmyeon groans as he opens his eyes to a face hovering near his own, the stairwell lights shining down around him like a halo. “Are you alright? I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there I–” Junmyeon squints, “Are you an angel?” “I–” The angel laughs. “No, no, I’m not.” “You look like one,” he lets the non-angel help him up to his feet, wincing a little as he stands. “An angel wouldn’t have caused an accident like this,” With an apologetic smile, the other male takes a step back from Junmyeon. “Does it hurt anywhere…?” “Nah, I’m fine. I just hope I can say the same about my coffee though…” He trails off, eyes drawn to his plastic coffee cup lying on its side with its cover flung wide open. Where there was supposed to be a mess of dark liquid was nothing, instead the coffee stayed within its container, perpendicular to the floor. “Hello, fine,” the other male chuckles. “I’m Yixing.” “I–” Junmyeon looks back at him (the non-angel, his soulmate, Yixing). “I think you’re my soulmate.” The coffee spills out of its cup. ▲▼▲ They get registered on a Tueday. It’s the only day that Junmyeon ends his classes early enough to make it for an afternoon slot and it’s the one day Yixing could have off from his internship at the hospital. After a long talk (for which a business law class might had been skipped for) and three dates (were they dates or casual meetings? What counted as dates? “Hmm, I think if we had a nice time together and one person pays for the entirety of the day, it’s a date.” “So are we dating?” “Maybe! In that case, would you like to go on another date with me, Junmyeon?”), here they were: casually holding hands in front of the local district hall. The registration process itself doesn’t take long (simple filling up of forms and a thumbprint seal does it) and whatever papers they come out with holds lesser significance as compared to a marriage certificate but Junmyeon still gets nervous. “It’ll be okay,” Yixing reassures him, fingers laced between his. “I researched about it, it’s really easy!” Junmyeon nods, offering Yixing a smile. He can’t bring himself to tell the other boy that it wasn’t the process that he was nervous about because it was the partial cause of his nervousness. He doesn’t tell him that the bulk of his worry was because of Yixing. In all honesty, he doesn't have to because Yixing already knows. Yixing’s done the research. Yixing doesn’t have elemental magic. In fact, Yixing doesn’t have any magic at all. And when the forms ask for proof of their bond, Yixing has nothing to show that Junmyeon is his soulmate. ▲▼▲ There are cases of people who were borne without magic, people like Yixing, but they are rare enough to be considered a myth. In a world were magic is an indication of a shared bond, the lack of it in someone marks a problem. It leads to the idea that someone didn’t belong in the relationship, that someone was still searching for their other half. That someone was cheating on a person they had not met. In the eyes of the registry, a soulmate bond where one party had no magic was not recognized. In the eyes of the registry, what Yixing and him would not count. Junmyeon knows this, Yixing knows this, they had done the research. So when the forms asked about the nature of their magic, Yixing lies. ▲▼▲ His relationship with Yixing is easy. His relationship with Yixing is fun. It’s nothing as grand as what Junmyeon has seen in movies and books; it’s nothing as dramatic as the local drama series portray. It’s simple and light and free of tragedies. (Though his mother had jokingly asked if Yixing would like for her to play the role of an overbearing mother. Yixing had laughed before mentioning that he would be willing to take up the challenge if that meant that he could proof his affections for her son.) There’s no need for them to fall head over heels in love, and they didn’t, because love doesn’t work that way. Love is like the ocean, you would have to wade into it, take one step after another until you’re surrounded by nothing but the deep blue. So they do. They start off with a casual friendship, they start off with getting to know each other over time spent together. They meet up when time allows, they don’t when they get too busy. There’s no obligation in forcing themselves to go into something bigger, something more committed than they had. The thing about wading into the ocean is that you won’t know how far you are from the shore until you look back. Looking back now, Junmyeon finds it difficult to pinpoint when they eased from friendship into possible romance. He can’t tell when he had realized that he didn’t mind spending the rest of his life with Yixing. He can’t pinpoint when it had become more comfortable for the two of them to press kisses on each other’s cheeks than to exchange quiet goodbyes at the end of the day. It might be love, but it might not. All he knows is that it isn’t just friendship anymore. And if what they have right now is love, Junmyeon decides that people have been complicating the idea of love too much. ▲▼▲ Though it doesn’t go to say that it has never crossed his mind that perhaps, his soulmate is still looking for someone that was his. Perhaps it’s him that there was a problem with, perhaps someone above had decided to make a joke out of his existence by giving him someone who he was never meant for. The thoughts that creep up on him the late nights where he goes a week without meeting Yixing due to the hectic schedules of a intern nurse and a business major student council head. The thoughts sneak up on him as he shows off little water tricks he had picked up from his father (“Dad’s gonna teach you have to impress him. Watch closely, Junmyeon-ah.”) with Yixing pressed against his side. When he mentions this to his soulmate, the other boy simply shakes his head. “You’re mine as much as I am yours.” ▲▼▲ “Mom… do you think that Yixing and I are right…?” “I think, if he makes you happy and if you make him happy, that’s as right as it can be.” ▲▼▲ Junmyeon almost dies the first time his soulmate meets him at age twenty-three, and he wonders if all these instances of near death served as punishment for the disregard he had about soulmates in his younger days. (He half wonders if this was punishment for having someone who wasn’t his.) This time, he doesn’t collide into someone and fall down the stairs. This time, the possibly of death isn’t an exaggeration. It starts with the accidental brushing of fingers along the corridor, which leaves a jolt through his fingers. He brushes it off as static electricity and continues down the corridor. It ends with his legs buckling from the pain that overwhelms him from shock of electricity that surges up his arm when a hand wraps itself around his wrist. The last thing Junmyeon remembers before passing out is the look of fear and concern on a stranger’s face. He wakes up to scratchy bed sheets and his father sitting by his bedside reading a magazine. A quick glance around reveals that yes, he’s still in the hospital and no, it’s not because he had extended his visit over Yixing’s lunch break. His arm is bandaged from wrist to shoulder and it aches. “Ow.” His father glances up from the glossy pages at his son’s groan. “Hey there, champ.” “Hey,” His voice is hoarse, throat dry from the lack of water. His father exchanges his magazine for the cup of water sitting on the bedside table and offers it to Junmyeon. “Slow down, slow down,” His father shakes his head, shifting his grip on the cup. “You’re going to choke yourself.” Pulling away from the now empty cup, he clears his throat. “What happened?” “You got a nasty electric shock. It’s not too serious but your arm’s got the worst of it. The doctor mentioned something about burns but they should heal in time.” “Ah,” That would explain the pain that had coursed through his arm and the bandages. “Where’s mom?” “Your mom’s outside, talking to someone.” “Yixing?” “No, it’s not Yixing. He’s probably doing his rounds right now.” His mother enters the room before he could ask whom it was that she was talking to and rushes across the room to fuss over him. (“Why didn’t you tell me he was awake?” “You were talking!” “Your father, I swear. How are you feeling, sweetie?”) Despite the ache in his arm, Junmyeon allows himself to be pulled into a bone-crushing hug. “Dad said you were talking to someone. Was it the doctor?” “Oh! It wasn’t the doctor, no. Actually, there’s someone I think you should meet,” She pulls away from her son, turning to gesture for the stranger standing silently by his door to come closer. It was the face that he had seen before passing out. “Junmyeon-ah, this is Jongdae.” “Hello,” Junmyeon steals a glance at his father who shrugs in response to his unasked question: who and why? “Hello. I–uh, I’m sorry. About the electric shock. I didn’t mean for that to happen.” “It’s okay,” He moves to shrug, which was a bad decision on his part when a twinge of pain shoots through his upper arm. “It was an accident.” “Ah, yeah. It was an accident, it’s just… this has never happened before.” Junmyeon nods, confusion evident in his expression. Clearly he was missing out on something that he was supposed to have understood, there had to be a larger reason than apology for his mother to have spent time away from him to talk to Jongdae. There had to be something bigger for her to have thought that he should meet the other boy. He turns to look at her. “Sweetie…” She takes a step forward, resting a hand on Jongdae’s shoulder. “What he’s trying to say is that you’re it. You’re his soulmate.” ▲▼▲ “I’m not letting you go. It’s selfish, and greedy. But I’m not letting you go.” “Good. Because I’m not going anywhere.” “We’ll work this out, I promise.” “Of course! So… when do I get to meet him?” ▲▼▲ When Junmyeon first meets Jongdae upon being discharged, he spends the first ten minutes reassuring the younger male that yes, he was fine now. That the scars would fade off over time. That there was no need to apologize for the accident. That Jongdae could sit closer if he would like since the wooden table between them was a distance enough to prevent any other possible accidents with Jongdae’s electricity. The younger male merely nods, inching his chair forward a little, before resting his hands on his lap once more. Junmyeon spends the next thirty learning about more Jongdae. He learns that Jongdae is a year younger than him. He learns that Jongdae is a musical major and had been the lead for major school productions. He learns that Jongdae’s family consisted of mostly fire elementals, so it came as a surprise that his ended up being electricity. He learns that Jongdae has been searching for him for years, going to mixers and blind dates. He learns that Jongdae’s amused by how they had been brought together by sheer luck and his friend’s clumsiness (“Chanyeol thought it would be perfectly fine to surprise Minseok-hyung from behind but look where that got him. Frostbite sure is no joke.”) which was the reason behind Jongdae being at the hospital in the first place. The last thirty minutes goes to Junmyeon telling Jongdae about himself. About how he was in his final year as a business major and that he was looking at a couple of corporations to apply to. He tells Jongdae about his water-wind parents and how it didn’t come as a surprise that he ended up as a water elemental (much to the pride of his father) and tells him about how he learnt to control his control over water under the guidance of his father. He talks about how he met his soulmate, laughing about how the important meetings of his life always ended up being accidents. Things get a little shakey when Junmyeon talks about Yixing and the years they had together because as much as Yixing was his, he was Jongdae’s. He falters when Jongdae offers him an apology, this time for being an intruder into something that Junmyeon already that. He thanks the younger male but tells him that there was no need for apologies. They fall silent. Things like these were out of their control, matches made in heaven, a pre-destined partnership. What was meant to would come to be, and if that meant that the three of them were to end up with this complication, then here they would be. There was no use thinking about what if’s at this point of time, not when nothing would change. Perhaps if fate hadn’t play its part, Junmyeon would have never met Yixing and ended up only meeting Jongdae instead. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. Junmyeon had Yixing. Jongdae had him. This was what they had. When Junmyeon asks if Jongdae would like to meet Yixing, Jongdae accepts. ▲▼▲ Yixing meets them at the hospital cafeteria over his lunch break, the only time he could really spare over the week due to it being flu season. (“Sickness waits for no one,” he shrugs as he stabs a straw into his juice box. “If it did, I might be out of a job.”) Things go better than expected, not that Junmyeon has very good expectations of three way meetings between supposed conflicted relationships, thanks to the local drama scene. There’s no screaming, no passive-agressiveness, no throwing of water into each other’s faces. All in all, Junmyeon thinks it’s a win. Jongdae’s still quiet and nervous, hestitant with his answers as though afraid to offend anyone, while Yixing talks enough for the both of them cheerfully in between bites of his bulgogi set. He listens to the younger male diligently as Jongdae shares his story to Yixing, asking questions and nodding along. In exchange, Yixing tells Jongdae about his family back in Changsha, pouts a little when he mentions how seldom he gets to visit now that he’s a full fledged nurse. He talks about his work in the hospital and the people he’s met in his time here. He tells Jongdae about how he had tripped Junmyeon down the stairs on their first meeting. Tells Jongdae about Junmyeon’s parents, about Junmyeon’s embarassing stories (“You should see his face on the rollercoaster, it’s the funniest thing ever.”) and about the really bad jokes Junmyeon has shared over the years. When the end of his lunch break draws near, Yixing ushers his boyfriend away. “I want to talk to Jongdae alone. Go to the bathroom or something.” “What?” “I want to talk to Jongdae. Alone. Without you. We have secrets to spill. Buy me some chips, please!” Grumbling, Junmyeon gives in to the Yixing’s request. “Alright, alright.” Waving his boyfriend away, the nurse lets out a chuckle before turning back to face the younger male. Jongdae fidgets, uncomfortable with the fact that it was just the two of them now. This was it, this was how he was going to be threatened and chased away. “Here! These should be helpful,” he pulls out a pair of latex gloves and presents them to Jongdae. At the younger male’s confusion, Yixing smiles. “You won’t shock us if you have these on, I promise. We’ll find something better later, these are all I have now.” Jongdae nods, staring at the pair of gloves that Yixing drops into his hands. “I– thank you.” “Also, if you have any questions about Junmyeon, don’t hestitate to ask me, alright? I’ll help you out. We’ll work it out.” “Thank you,” Jongdae hestitates once more, glancing up at the older male. “But why are you helping me? Wouldn’t it be easier for me to… leave…?” “Why would you leave?” “Because I’m intruding, I don’t–” “He’s yours as much as I’m his, Jongdae-ssi,” Yixing interrupts. “There’s nobody else I would be willing to share with him but the person for whom he was meant for. We’ll make this work.” When Junmyeon returns with a pack of chips in hand, he’s greeted with the sight of Jongdae’s gloved hands in Yixing’s. Yixing shoots him a grin, passing Jongdae’s hand over to Junmyeon as he grabs hold of the chips. “I’ll see the both of you soon!” They could make this work. ▲▼▲ They get registered on a Tuesday. It’s the only day Yixing could wrangle a lunch break at meet them at the local district hall. After three long talks across two weeks between the three of them, Junmyeon had given in to the insistence of Yixing wanting to be there for the registration despite him not needing to. There were better uses for his hour-long lunch break, Junmyeon argues, he could grab a proper meal and get some actual sleep but Yixing waves it off. (“I’ll be there, wait for me, okay?”) And so they do, they wait outside the distract office. Jongdae and him don’t hold hands, not because they can’t but because Jongdae doesn’t want to even though he has his leather gloves on. (“I can’t risk hurting you.” “You won’t, you’re wearing your gloves.” “I’m still not risking it.”) It’s a quiet wait in the late autumn afternoon once they had run out of topics to talk about before the final person of their trio arrived. The silence wasn’t uncomfortable; in fact, it’s something that they’ve gotten used to after all the times they’ve settled into the lack of conversation whenever they were left alone for extended periods of time without having Yixing or Junmyeon’s parents around. The sound of running marks the arrival of Yixing who waved cheerfully at the pair as he made his way towards them. “Sorry, sorry! I missed the bus down. Did you wait?” “Of course, we did!” Jongdae chuckles when Yixing reaches out to him, lacing their fingers together. “You told us to, remember?” Junmyeon adds, shaking his head in amusement when Yixing’s hand had wrapped around his wrist. “Go! I’ll be here when you’re done,” Yixing pulls the both of them towards the building, offering them two thumbs up when they turned back to glance at him. “Now, it’s my turn to wait.” ▲▼▲ It’s tough being in a relationship with a person, let alone two. Despite being the one who was the link in their relationship, Junmyeon was more often than not the first one to flounder when it came to establishing dynamics. The whole is more than the sum of its parts and this was was more than trying to fit someone new into something that Yixing and him had shared for years. It didn’t help that Jongdae wasn’t able to get over the guilt of having hurt Junmyeon once before. It didn’t help that Jongdae had decided to keep his distance when they had first met as a trio out of fear that he would hurt either of them during their time together. It didn’t help that he refused to touch either of them even after they had managed to close the distance between them. What helped was the balance that Yixing had brought back to the disbalance that was created when Jongdae came into the picture. What helped was the patience that Yixing had when it came to dealing with both Junmyeon’s frustrations and Jongdae’s worries. What helped was Yixing’s suggestion of getting Jongdae a pair of leather gloves instead of the disposable latex ones so that he could have the opportunity to reach out for them whenever he wanted to. What helped was the fact that Yixing had more than enough love to share amongst the three of them. They weren’t perfect in any sense of the word, no. But perhaps, one day, they would get there.