The Nutcracker (Seventeen SoonChan story)

Chapter 10 - Waltz of the Flowers

A/N: This is one of my fav chapters ^^

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'The Sea of Storms' mumbled Nutcracker.

The small group of four was standing on top of a hill, staring down at the sea ahead of them. The wind was blowing like crazy, making the waves tower even meters high before crashing back into the water.

'Looks... stormy' said Minghao unsure. Jun turned towards the other three.

'Okay. Seeing that someone lost all our supplies' he glared at Minghao 'I suggest we part ways. The captain and I prepare a boat for us' he gestured towards the dock with a few tiny boats waiting to be used 'and you two go and find us some food' he pointed at Soonyoung and Chan. Without waiting for a reaction he turned his back towards them and walked in the direction of the dock. Minghao shrugged towards the two apologetically and jogged after the older.

'Let's find some supplying before he decides to just leave without us' suggested Soonyoung. Chan nodded in agreement and followed him in the opposite direction from the dock. 'We could take the longer route' gestured the nutcracker towards where they came from 'but here's a shortcut. It's faster this way, just be careful.'

They went down on the other side of the hill. It was really steep so Chan was a bit skeptical at first, but he decided to try to step on the tussocks. Soonyoung was already a few steps ahead of him as he started walking after him.

To his misfortune it wasn't as simple as he imagined it in his head because the steep hill and gravity together were too much even for a dancer. His pace quickened up after a few steps and he had to keep up with his feet if he didn't want to fall. He ended up basically running down the hill. He stormed past Soonyoung who was slowly walking downwards, earning a questioning glance from the nutcracker.

Then if that wasn't enough, Chan suddenly tripped in his own foot and with a clumsy loop he landed in the grass at the bottom of the hill, then rolled a few meters before stopping on his back and staring up at the sky blankly. The nutcracker's worried face appeared in his field of vision.

'Wow' Chan breathed out. 'That was actually faster' he said and the two of them broke out in laughter. Soonyoung helped Chan stand up.

'Are you okay?' he asked between two fits of laughter. Chan dusted the grass off of his pajamas (which were still his only clothes since he left home).

'I'm fine. Next time let's take the longer route' he added. Soonyoung nodded with a grin and stepped forward. He furrowed his eyebrows.

'Hm' he hummed. 'In my memories this place looked nicer. There used to be an apple garden here. And' he pointed at the ground in front of them 'there was a well here. But this place is abandoned and the plants are all dry. What could've happened?'

'The Mouse King, that's what happened' sighed Chan. Then he stepped forward and crouched down. 'Look!' he pointed forward and grabbed a stone from the ground, throwing it out of the way. He continued throwing the stones away until both of them could see the circular shape on the ground.

'The well!' gasped the nutcracker. 'Looks like someone covered it' he sighed and grabbed his sword. He inserted it in the small gap at the side of the circle and forced it up. The circular lid landed on the ground and suddenly Chan could hear familiar sounds. It was chirping.

A bunch of fairies flew out of the well. They didn't look like the snowflakes they met before. They wore colorful pastel clothes made out of flower petals and some of them even had matching hair colors. One of the fairies flew in front of their faces and floated there while chirping excitedly. This fairy was a black haired tiny boy who wore clothes made out of green leaves.

'Doyoung! Hi, haven't seen you in a while!' grinned Soonyoung and held his hand out. 'High-five!' The fairy flew closer and clapped his tiny hand to the nutcracker's wooden one. His hand was about the size of Chan's thumbnail, or even smaller. The fairy continued chirping while gesturing wildly. Nutcracker turned to Chan.

'You were right. The mouse army marched through the garden and locked them up' he gestured towards Doyoung and the fairies. Doyoung then turned to his fairies and chirped something to them. They all nodded and started flying in all directions around the garden. Wherever they flew the trees started blossoming and even grew apples in a second. The grass greened out and flowers appeared everywhere. Chan would swear he could even hear faint music.

Doyoung brought a flower back to them and clumsily put it in Chan's hair. The boy giggled and adjusted the flower. The fairies started dancing around them.

'We should pick some apples. It will do as resupply' suggested Chan and the two of them walked further into the garden. Chan saw from the corner of his eye that some of the fairies were whispering among themselves while looking at him. They suddenly surrounded him and started chirping to him loudly. He looked over to Soonyoung cluelessly.

'They said you're p-pretty' stuttered the nutcracker. If he wasn't made out of wood, he probably would've blushed. Chan giggled.

'Thank you' he said.

They continued picking apples with the dancing fairies around them. Doyoung and another fairy with blue hair started circling around Chan.

'I'm not falling for this again' he muttered, remembering how Taeyong, the snow fairy tricked him into falling into Soonyoung's embrace. However the fairies' flying made him back a few steps.

'Stop it!' he chuckled and counted the apples in his hands. 'Do you think this will be enough-?' he turned around, accidentally crashing into Soonyoung, making both of them drop the apples. He could swear he heard the fairies cheer. The nutcracker chuckled.

'Deja vu much?' he smiled. Chan glared at the fairies who giggled and continued dancing. Soonyoung followed them with his eyes.

'You said you liked dancing' he spoke up. Chan nodded, avoiding his gaze. The nutcracker looked at him for a few seconds before holding his hand out towards him anxiously.

'Maybe... we could... may I have this dance-?'

He couldn't finish the sentence because the ground under them suddenly started moving and a roaring sound echoed through the area. Chan gasped as both of them lost their balance and they caught each other for support. Doyoung and the fairies stopped chirping and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The two of them looked towards the other side of the garden where the sounds came from. A huge shadow towered over the garden. It was a several feet tall giant made of stone.

'WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!?!' yelled Chan as his face lost all its color.

'I have no idea but it's coming towards us! Run, Channie, run!!' shouted Soonyoung and the two of them started running back towards the dock.

To be continued...

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A/N 2.0: Fun fact Chan rolling down the hill was inspired by one of my favorite scenes of the series Columbo lmao