Upon A Time (JoongNine AU)

Upon A Future

Joong

"Wake up honey, time for work", a gentle voice was waking me up with a light kiss on my heavily closed eyes. I was too tired. The filming ended at midnight, and now I had to wake up again. Another kiss landed on my cheek, and giggles. I smiled before I opened my eyes. Those dimples on both cheeks, a missing tooth smile, and chubby hands that held my jaw.
"My princess...good morning. Did you sleep well?", I said as I showered her with smooches, that earn a series of gleeful giggles that sounded liked music to my ears.

"Aria baby, daddy need to go to work, now, come and let help to make breakfast...you could decorate the pancake with berries and banana", the gentle voice again said softly.

"Just a minute more. I need to tell daddy a secret", Aria said with a puppy eyes, pleading for a little more time.

"Alright baby. Honey, your manager is already on his way to fetch you, so you don't have much time. I'll be at the kitchen", as soon as the door was closed, Aria turned and said, "A fairy gave me a coin, and took my tooth, just as you said, daddy", she said while showing me the coin.

"Good girl, your new tooth will grow faster, but you're still daddy's pretty baby, even with a tooth missing. You should keep the coin safe...", I said and she smiled more.

"But daddy, the fairy told me, to give this coin to you...", Aria said. This must be one of her active imagination in play, they said kids tend to have this at their growing age. Sometimes, I felt guilty for not having enough time to spend with her, and learnt her habits.

"Really? ...Wow, did the fairy say that?", I asked, pretending to be surprised, to play along with her. She nodded vigorously, "I saw her daddy. She's very beautiful and glittering! Just liked that fairy doll that I have!".

"Then, why did the fairy ask to give this coin to daddy? Is it for luck? But, how about my princess, this is your lucky coin though...", I asked and pouted a bit.

"No. Not for luck. She said it's for happiness...", her word was innocent, but shocked me too. Why happiness? Am I not happy right now? But, I have a wife, and my Aria, "I want you to be happy, daddy, so it's okay, that I am giving you this. I love you". She jumped and kissed my cheek again, laughed, as I kissed her in double, back, and she scurried down the bed while rubbing her wet cheek, and went out of the room.

I rubbed the coin and sighed. Why am I worrying about a make believe stuff from my little angel? But, rather than happiness, time is what I needed the most. It seemed, time was not enough for me to do everything at once. Without realizing it, my daughter was already five years old, next year she would start going to the kindergarten, and yet all I had with her, was a little giddy greeting in the morning, or sometimes just a few days off work from any schedule.

But...maybe the fairy was right too. I went through day by day, liked a puppet that it's string was set to follow a certain movement. My company's director, my manager, the fans, the crews, the press, the photographer; almost everybody needed a piece of me, a portion of my time, until suddenly, because of this small coin and a small messenger who uttered that words; I suddenly realised...there's actually, no time left for myself...nor my loved ones. We ended getting the short end of the stick.

I closed my eyes, and really put my heart to it, when I said these words, as if this was really a coin left by a fairy, "I wish to have time, to find myself again...and be there for my loved ones", though I didn't know why the message is for happiness, maybe I should just include that too, "and...happiness, as well", I opened my eyes, kissed the coin and laughed at my own silliness. Yeah, a little wish, won't hurt anyone. I went down the bed, took my towel, entered the bathroom to take a shower and get ready. There's a flight to catch at ten, so, I needed to hurry.

****

"Excuse me, but I need to go in. Your legs are stretched out", I heard the voice asking me to move my legs. My head was covered with a beanie and my eyes, a sleeping mask. I still felt quite sleepy and wanted to take a nap as soon as I was seated. Why doesn't he come first if he is seated at the window side? I grumbled internally. Business class consisted of only two seats per aisle. I just pulled my stretched legs up, and I could hear the passenger besides me moved to wear the seatbelt, and flipping something, maybe a magazine, while waiting for the flight to take off. After the disturbance, I went to sleep undisturbed...until a hand was shaking me to wake up.

"Wake up, there's an emergency announcement...we need to be alert, there's a disturbance", the voice said hurriedly. I pulled myself to sit straight in shock, a little disoriented, and pulled my sleeping mask off and looked to my side. My eyes widened, so did the person beside me...

"Nine..."

"Joong..."

We both said that the same time. The moment was only broken, when the flight shook violently, almost liked a small earthquake. People had started to panic, murmurs that were getting louder, some kids crying, some vomiting sounded from somewhere, must be the passenger felt nauseated at the violent shaking.

Nine was getting pale. I remembered that he was somehow a little afraid of height, and it took a lot of mental strength for him to take a flight. When the oxygen masks, fell down from the ceiling above and the announcement to wear them sounded throughout the flight, a little fear, crept inside my heart too. During the safety demo, this...was the indication, that the air pressure was problematic.

After we both put on the masks, he leaned back on his seat and closed his eyes. There's an obvious tremor of his hands. Oh no! Not good, he has started to be anxious and hyperventilating. Instinctively, I laced our fingers together and held his hand tight to make him feel a little secure. He opened his eyes in surprise and looked at our joint hands. If the situation was not that serious, this would be totally awkward, but also melancholic, too.

The emergency announcement sounded again. The pilot said, everything would be alright, for us to sit tight, and stay calm. But, it seemed, after a while, neither the sudden drop of the flight pressure, nor the shaking was under control. When it's getting harder to breathe, I understood, that we were not going to make it, but I shouldn't alarm Nine, as he's already under enough pressure.

Though my thought went to my family first; the face of my princess; my wife flashed through my mind, somehow, I couldn't help to release the feeling that came crashing inside of me as soon as I saw his face just now. I looked at Nine, who sat at my side and called his name.

"Nine...", he turned and looked at me too, might be, he understood that the situation was not getting any better, as my grip of his hand, was tightened to almost crushing, "I'm so sorry, for everything. And...I love you".

The last thing that I saw, was his damp eyes, a little nod, and then, the last smile. Before he could utter anything back; everything had turned to darkness.