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wisps of light that made it through the blinds finally mute into a somber glow surrounding the windowpane. the room is far from pitch black, but the growing darkness still makes donghyuck feel a little hollower than he was minutes ago.
it's a peeving sensation that comes with his powers. donghyuck has never been scared of the dark, but he's always hated it. hated how the sun disappears and draws away some of his magic with it- the magic that’s been tied to the sun from before he was born. the same magic that flows through his very being and has seamlessly blended in with his identity. they call him the sun witch sometimes. other times they just call him the sun- haechan. full sun. except, the giant celestial orb that goes by the same name isn’t out anymore, and donghyuck doesn’t feel complete. he mentioned it to jeno once, when they were getting buzzed at renjun’s apothecary.
why do you keep calling me haechan? it’s 2am, I’m just donghyuck now.
(it was actually 4am. jeno had blinked a few times at the admission. he seemed confused, but he gingerly placed one of his cats on donghyuck’s lap and patted his head until the sun came up.)
donghyuck doesn’t do this. he doesn’t usually sit around and mourn the sun’s decline. he’s lived with it all his life and he’s learnt to wield his luminescent magic in ways that could convince a witch his powers mirror the moon, or perhaps he draws his powers from the fires that tend to break out whenever yangyang joins him. or quite possibly from chagrin of his opponents, by the looks of it when he’s in a melee (which is, unsurprisingly- given you know the boy, very often).
lee donghyuck is a formidable witch, both at day and well into the night.
and yet, despite everything, that little chip in vitality never quite goes away. he’s banished the feeling to the back of his mind and to the pit of his soul, and he banishes it still, every day. feeling your magic getting leached away by nothing but the very laws of your cosmos- frankly, it’s terrifying. routine gives him an edge on this inevitability, but on some days his senses are heightened and his magic grows fickle. his magic opposes his own self, almost as if it tries to escape his vessel- and then it does. some of it slips away along with the last rays of his sun.
it’s impossible, on those nights. it’s impossible to be unaware of the emptiness.
donghyuck’s managed to bury himself in the blankets on the small bed in the corner of his room. he squeezes his eyes shut, and then considers hexing himself when sleep doesn’t readily welcome him like he’d hoped it would today. he’s about to reach for his enchanted compact mirror to call renjun for a sleeping drought when he hears a scuffle outside his door.
the door clicks open and the boy outside immediately hits his forehead on the doorframe as he stumbles into the room. donghyuck feels his lips twitch. mark lee falling on his face because he keeps tripping over his own two feet has always been a sight for donghyuck’s sore eyes. or maybe it’s just the sight of mark in general that makes donghyuck more prone to smiling wider.
“hyuck, ‘m so sorry,” the witch rushes out, shrugging off his bags and his coat, hands desperately trying to flatten down his thoroughly windswept hair. he’s at donghyuck’s bedside in an instant, eyes wide and rueful.
“I’m late, I know, I should’ve been here, but they gave us a project for extra cred and the deadline got cut to the start of winter break and there’s barely a week left and my professor said he won’t be taking individual submissions this time and I- I didn’t realize it would take so long to pack it up and be back h-”
“mark.”
“-ome to you,” mark let out a small breath. donghyuck shakes some of the blankets off of his figure to bring out his hands and cup the older’s face.
“it’s okay,” he says, voice soft against mark’s lips before he leaves a kiss at the corner of his mouth. mark closes his eyes at the movement but the frown doesn’t leave his face. his hands come and curl around donghyuck’s wrists. there’s barely any light in the room, but he can tell when he opens his eyes to properly look at donghyuck. any witch who’s ever seen donghyuck under the sun could, if they saw him this way. some of the conduits could probably tell his magic had depleted just by standing next to him. mark tries not to mention it.
“I- um, I just set a new record, though,” mark says, almost bashfully. donghyuck perks up. it’s a bold assumption, but he asks anyway.
“no way, eight minutes?”
“and fifteen seconds.”
donghyuck gapes.
“that’s... a twenty seven second leap? what the hell, mark,” donghyuck all but cries out, “that’s incredible- fuck, you’re incredible.”
there’s a hint of a smile on mark’s face now, and donghyuck probably wouldn’t be able to tell how red his ears get if they weren’t this close.
“yeah well, what’s the point,” mark mumbles, burying his face in the younger witch’s neck, “if I can slow down time but can't even get home before sundown.”
it doesn’t matter, donghyuck wants to chastise. but it does, he knows it does. it always has, to mark.
“you possibly just set a precedent for temporal magic, you loser,” donghyuck detaches his hands from mark's to wrap them around his shoulders instead, “how are you still this disappointed?”
“I don’t care,” mark says, indignant.
“you should,” donghyuck insists.
mark may have cut ties with his family after they tried to obliviate the human college he was attending every day after their regular academy hours, but he’s still one of their community’s finest witches. mark wasn’t born with a specialty as gaudy as those of his family of cosmic witches, nor like donghyuck’s for that matter, but over the past few years his abilities have proved to be potentially lethal. the boy works painstakingly on both his magic and aeronautics course work, and donghyuck can’t be any prouder.
“come here already,” donghyuck whines, kicking the blankets. mark doesn’t hesitate to slip under them from where he was kneeling beside the bed. it’s warm under the covers, with donghyuck wasting no time to leech onto him.
donghyuck has always been warm, soft. comforting. even when he’d dedicated his childhood to being a menace to mark lee, there was comfort in their bickering. stupid arguments resulting in singed eyebrows and bruised faces stretched out to quiet confessions under the stars that no one else would take their words for.
“mark, you know you don’t have to do this every day, right?” donghyuck says, voice wavering. the answer should be an obvious yes, but he’s starting to wonder if it really is as obvious as he'd hoped.
“I don’t do it everyday,” mark says instead.
“that’s not what I asked.”
mark sighs, shifts the younger’s head to one of arms so he can turn to face him. he doesn’t say anything for a while, only studies the younger witch’s face until he’s squirming.
“jaemin said you blew up a cauldron in qian’s class today.”
“okay, listen, a handful is a very vague instruction for measurement, okay? I have small hands, it’s not my fault, if anything it’s a flaw in the curriculum.”
“he said your tincture turned yellow, hyuck. I took the same class last year, that doesn’t happen because of the ingredients. it means your magic has been acting out all day and that only happens when-”
“why does my magic sound like a rebellious teenager,” donghyuck snorts, “is that what keeps happening? does my magic just go it’s not a phase mom-”
“hyuck.”
“no one understands me I’m running away-”
“donghyuck.”
“alright, fine,” donghyuck makes a show of relenting, “fine- I feel like shit. is that what you wanted to hear?”
“you know that's not-”
“then good. because I don’t,” he hugs the boy tighter and pushes his face to mark’s chest, “-feel like shit. not when you’re here.”
mark doesn’t say anything, but donghyuck can faintly hear his heartbeat changing pace. It’s always been easy to fluster mark, and it came even easier to donghyuck than to others. but there’s something fragile about moments like this, moments they’re both too honest in. it’s these moments that changed their dynamic ever since donghyuck sobbed into their first kiss after he’d called mark a dumbass and the love of his life in the same breath.
“I should have been here,” mark says as he puts his feet on donghyuck’s legs for warmth. donghyuck shivers, but he’s quick to snap at mark’s words.
“will you shut up and just cuddle me,” his words were supposed to sound angry, but they’re all cute and muffled because he’s pressed too closely against mark. mark noses his hair, leaves a kiss on the boy’s head before he speaks.
“but it’s all I can do for you.”
donghyuck stills.
it’s a little stupid, for mark to think slowing down time at sunset so donghyuck can feel whole for eight minutes and fifteen seconds longer on a bad night is all he has to offer. it’s a little stupid that mark might believe that little edge his magic gives donghyuck is what made him fall in love with the older, when really it’s everything beyond that.
mark lee wasn’t always just mark- before that, he was minhyung. minhyung, although from a family of some of the most revered witches of the century, seemed to be an ordinary young witch- no hints of blooming powers of cosmic manipulation like the rest of his lineage. minhyung’s only advantage seemed to be his work ethic, and perhaps his reflexes, which were always sharper than the average person’s. only after he’d accidentally used his abilities while a young lee donghyuck and na jaemin were clinging on to him did they figure out his reflexes were actually opportune moments he created by slowing down time.
it isn’t easy, by any means. manipulating time is a form of magic unheard of for decades, with barely any existing models for mark to learn to control his powers from. mark’s excellence in the academy had nothing to do with his specialty anyway, his image made from his proficiency in enchantments and alchemy and whatnot. for the longest time, mark had been willing to leave his powers as what they looked like to others- quick reflexes.
ultimately, what made mark change his mind and spread himself thin trying to nurture his specialty was none other than lee donghyuck. it was a few days after sixteen-year-old mark had decided to stop using his other name upon leaving his family and joining donghyuck’s coven. mark had allowed the sun witch to complete a ritual at full strength by keeping the sun on him for about four seconds longer before the dusk could siphon away a portion of his magic.
donghyuck was ecstatic. mark was a little in love.
thinking back, that’s all there was to it. donghyuck was why mark had started trying to stretch out his time dilation durations. once mark had made it to half a minute- long enough to create the illusion of enhanced speed to spectators, donghyuck had started helping him track the time comparisons.
almost every day before sunset, the two of them would find each other so mark could get more practice and donghyuck could get more sun (and more time with his best friend without getting his attempts at skinship shrugged off for once, but mark doesn’t find out how that had played into it until years later). it’s routine now- donghyuck finding his hand intertwined with mark’s as the world slows down around them at dusk, quite literally.
six years later, the boys have learnt to stop using mark’s time magic as an excuse to hold each other. as it turns out, despite being two of the most gifted witches of their generation, they’re both quite dense.
it’s stupid, how mark still doesn’t see it. how donghyuck has always been there crowding him, before his time dilation powers had even evolved to be anything more than some kind of spidey sense.
but it’s all I can do for you, he says. like mark lee didn't flip over his world just by existing. like crawling onto donghyuck’s tinyass bed to cuddle him hasn’t already worked wonders.
“that’s not true,” donghyuck tells him, as steadily as he can. he hates it when mark gets like this, all small and helpless and disappointed in himself.
he used to resort to chaos, when they were younger. loud stories and deliberately made stupid decisions to startle a laugh out of mark. but things are different now, and as much as he loves making mark laugh, there are more ways than one for donghyuck to distract him. mark's in over his own head, but heavens forbid donghyuck ever lets mark lee think in peace.
“I need you,” he presses a kiss on mark’s cheek, “and not just at sunset, idiot,” another kiss on his jaw. he brings their foreheads together and looks down to mark’s lips, “I always need you,” a gentle kiss on his lips, “you, mark. not your magic,” and another one. mark melts into it. It’s impossible not to, when donghyuck kisses the way he does. he sounds duly distracted when he starts talking again.
“I know, I know hyuck, and I love you too, but-”
“mark,” donghyuck stops him, “I love you and your stupid voice, even when it’s that weird human science language you talk in sometimes- but I need you to shut up right now.”
he takes in a breath. his voice comes out quieter than he'd intended.
“you’re- you're the first person who believed me when I said I thought the sandman was stealing my magic every night, remember that?" it was a funny theory, but it had made sense to a young donghyuck, and a slightly older mark too, "you’re the only one who didn’t tell me I’m lying to get attention, or that I’m just being dramatic at nightfall because I’m scared of the dark. you’re the first person who listened to me and when my dad told me I need to stop being a brat and get over my fears you said-”
“but hyuck’s not scared of anything,” mark completed for him with a soft smile. he would say it again, if someone needs to hear it. lee donghyuck is fearless, everyone learns that with time.
“you’re the only person who’s ever tried to help me keep my magic," his voice gets shakier, "instead of telling me it makes sense that I’ll be weaker at night since I get my powers from the sun. that it’s fair.”
“it’s not,” mark says resolutely, like he has countless other times. “your magic is yours, it’s not like you’re borrowing it from the sun? your powers just happen to align with its energy. you’re a luminary witch, not a celestial one- why don’t people understand that?” he’s getting worked up again, so donghyuck lets go of his hold on mark’s shirt to smooth out the crease on his forehead with one hand, and rests the other on his cheek.
“not everyone’s got a golden mind like yours, markie.”
“didn’t you call me an idiot like a minute ago?”
“a man of multitudes, truly. how do you do it?”
“why are you like this,” mark laughs a little, donghyuck grins.
“because I can be, with you. do you have any idea how much that means to me?” donghyuck starts to card his hands through mark’s hair, “I’m supposed to be feeling like crap right now. I can’t feel a part of magic anymore and it fucking sucks, you know?” he scoots closer to mark, whispers his next words like it’s a precious secret.
“well guess what? I don’t give a shit.”
mark lets out a surprised squeak. he’s ready to contradict donghyuck in his little therapist way, tell him it’s okay to feel awful because that’s valid but donghyuck shakes his head.
“what I’m saying is it’s not great, but I’m okay,” donghyuck tells him easily, “you’re here, and I feel okay. I feel happy. just as happy as I would be under the sun for those eight minutes and- what was it?”
“fifteen seconds.”
“shit, yeah. eight minutes and fifteen seconds, which, again, is insane by the way.”
donghyuck marvels at the witch in front of him. the thought of eight minutes of the world falling behind a witch as deft as mark lee is absolutely devastating. he could take apart worlds if he wanted to. instead, the boy stays here, tucked in donghyuck's cramped up bed, because he has to be talked out of thinking his temporal magic is useless if he can't use it for his boyfriend.
“you make me happy too, hyuck,” mark whispers into the space between them. donghyuck believes him. it would be hard not to, when mark looks at him that fondly before he pulls him closer by the back of his neck and kisses him breathless. it feels like the world around them stops spinning, when they're together like this.
(sometimes, it almost does. mark's powers get a little out of hand when he's too riled up, and donghyuck happens to be on a constant mission to create those circumstances.)
later, when they've caught their breath and donghyuck's snug on top of mark, head on his chest and mark's hands in his hair, mark has a confession.
“it takes less from me when you’re there with me, you know," his voice is soft. so soft, that if anything, it adds to the quiet. "you make me stronger."
it comes naturally to donghyuck, what he says next.
“and you make me whole, mark,” donghyuck whispers back, “it’s always been you.”