Phoenix: Blow a spark || ATEEZ

26| Darkness lure in your eyes

Wordcount; 1,250 words

An hour later, the three Phoenixes left the house as they had to get home for dinner.

San was still on edge, his hand resting at the small of Wooyoung's back when they all went back to the Sacramental. Jongho had dozed off on the couch, it seemed, and Mingi was quick at grabbing a deep green blanket on the backrest of the furniture, sweetly tucking it around the younger. Wooyoung nestled himself into San's side to gain his attention when San had stalled to stare into thin air - thinking about all the worries there cradled his head at the current time.

At some point, he knew that Jongho was right. 

They had to make up with Hongjoong, sooner or later. But at the same time, he still didn't feel like the burning pit of rage in his head had waned off yet.

Too much was just happening at this moment, and San didn't know what to be the most concerned about.

San sighed heavily, the sound making Wooyoung turn around and look up at him with a big, adorable pout. But the boy didn't want to talk about any feelings now. Instead, he waved him off and decided to find his mom.

"I'll go ask if you can stay and eat dinner with us. I'll be right back," he told them - mostly Mingi and Wooyoung, as Jongho actually had fallen asleep.

_____

The moment before, he had been staring at Wooyoung's mole on his lower lip, and now he was staring at the dark figure standing further down the gravel path. He knew the blistering embers were rising from his skin as the words of his provenance appeared across his cheek, but he could not mind them much when this stranger seemed to have been following them on their walk through the forest. It was clear that the stranger knew that he had seen him.

It was fucking with his brain. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the black silhouette again. Especially not when his aura was stirring so powerfully around him - as if unstoppable amounts of magic coursed through him like a wealth of source. And the boy couldn't fully grasp how that was possible.

"SAN!!" suddenly, Wooyoung's hands gave his chest a harsh push, making him stumble a few steps backward before he snapped out of his daze.

Oh, his Wooyoung was worried - his eyes stood wide open and his bottom lip was trembling, yet the boy didn't quite understand why.

"San, you're.." he started, hands carefully gesturing to his eyes before San finally got the memo and lifted his hands to touch his face. His fingers were met with a wet substance that he dried off and moved in front of his face to glance at. They were coated in an ink-black colour.

He looked at Wooyoung who swallowed thickly before he said monotonously: "Someone is following us."

"What do you mean?" the other questioned, a tint of nervousness to his words.

"There," San pointed with his head, "Someone's there, Wooyoung, he's so powerful, I-I nearly can't move my feet."

Wooyoung's hands immediately reached out for his, pleadingly pulling him closer as he tried looking in the direction that San was telling him, "Where? I can't see anyone. What in the world are you talking about!?"

The sound there escaped his throat was gut-clenching low and Wooyoung startled with a loud gasp, his entire body tensing as he scouted around them with pupils forming into two slits. Magic sparked through him, but San couldn't stop looking at the dark figure, slowly, step after step... coming closer.

"San, please, San stop- you're scaring me!"

Dark crooked magic reached out for him before tying around his neck, throwing Wooyoung off him before bringing him to his knees, sight going black for how much liquid was oozing out of his eyes. Faintly he heard Wooyoung's curses while his screams were hushed by the wind pressing into his mouth. San's fingers dug into the withering leaves and wet soil when unknown forces pushed his face against the ground. Wooyoung was screaming somewhere behind him but he couldn't see anything.

An intense pain spread from his right arm and continued up through his shoulder before reaching his neck and pinching into his eyes. Warmth surrounded him in a matter of no time and San breathed the ashy air when desperate hands turned him around on his back and rhythmically tapped his cheeks. Or drying the black liquid out of his eyes.

Grimacing, San fluttered his eyes open - met with Wooyoung's wet face. He instantly clasped a hand for his mouth in pure terror of what had just happened.

"S-san.." the younger whispered through hushed whimpers, "Wha-what was that?"

The soothing sounds of the crackling fire brushed along San's heavy limbs and he honestly couldn't even answer Wooyoung's question. It seemed like they had just crossed paths with an ancient very dark soul.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" he asked Wooyoung instead, quietly receiving a weak 'no' in return. The other bit his lips, "My protection spell seemed to work out.." Wooyoung drew in a deep breath, "But are you okay?"

"I am fine.." San said and pulled himself up to sit. His bleary eyes turned to gaze in the direction where the man had been standing, beyond all of the flames dancing in a ring around them.

No one was to be seen now.

_____

San noticed the way Wooyoung was hesitantly looking at him when he pulled his stained shirt over his head. His orchid eyes wandered across his bare chest in small stretches, going from one point to another before stalling there for a moment and continuing his trail down. It was all too clear to see he was pondering about something that told itself off despite how much he wanted to ask what was on his mind.

He dumped the shirt into the laundry basket before stepping over to the younger and drawing him into his arms. Drawing in a deep breath of Wooyoung's calming scent of lavenders and burnt wood.

"Please tell me that you did actually not see anyone on our walk and that it all was just a really bad dream," the younger muttered into his bare shoulder. San brushed a hand through Wooyoung's lush dark hair and leaned back to look the other in the eyes.

"I'm sorry," San told him, pulling a strand of long hair behind the other's ear and sighing another time, "Something weird is going on, and I have a feeling that this must have roots deep down. I really don't know what it is, though."

The air fizzled with emotions. Wooyoung tiptoed and reached out for the hind of San's neck and pulled them even closer until their lips were millimeters from touching and he then whispered as to barely let his words trade with the air, "Do you.. do you think this has something to do with the dark magic that we are practicing?"

San pinched his brows together, pensively. Then their noses bumped together and soon he let his heated thought slip away when Wooyoung's little mole on his lower lip was fitting sweetly into his.

"No, I don't think this has anything to do with the few dark spells that we've done so far. This is far more complicated than that."

The younger's hand slid down from San's neck, trailing across his pecs and down against the sturdiness of his stomach before resting against the waistband of his pants. San exhaled softly, letting his lips slightly part and their kiss had them soon locked together for the rest of the night.

☯