This is really long, 2429 words without this author's note. There will be a short part. 2 after I finish a few more of my requests. Look out for it! Enjoy! :D
Request by Kpopular7887
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Wonshik had never missed Taekwoon's warmth so much. It was things like this, when they had been ripped away from you by an act of fate, did you realise how much you needed it.
When Taekwoon's muscles turned limp, fingers slipping down Wonshik's palm for the last time, did the younger man sob. It was when what was left of the colour on Taekwoon's cheeks fled and stole his warmth with it, his beating heart, his shallow breath, did Wonshik's world cripple and shatter around him to the sound of a heart monitor screeching a single continuous tone in his ear. It was a never-ending earthquake, his brain rattling, his legs barely able to get to one side of a room to another as he tried to run for help, but there was no one.
Wonshik refused to bury Taekwoon's body.
He preserved it.
[ TAKE L01 ]
Wonshik's eyes stared up at the camera propped up in the corner of the room, fingers fiddling with the settings. "Ah, it's recording." He mumbled, staring into the lens and taking a deep breath.
"Take one."
Wonshik's eyes flitted back to the large steel instrument with Taekwoon's preserved body hoisted up on it, eyes closed as his brows twitched down painfully, turning back to the camera. "It's been a month and a half, and I've used older prototypes to bring Taekwoon back to life. I've halted my work and am using my... my life savings... to live."
It was then when did Wonshik start up the machine, a metallic hum and whirring growling through the laboratory. The lifeless half-organic body of Jung Taekwoon was being galvanized back to what would hopefully be life, the younger eyeing him carefully as Taekwoon's muscles began to twitch with the electric current.
"Taek...woon..." He began, eyes wide as the older man's eyes slowly opened blankly, bionic pupils focusing on the teary boy right in front of him, fingertips cautiously caressing the androids' face. "Taekwoon, it's me, it's Wonshik-"
Blood began to bubble and dribble down Taekwoon's mouth, his eyes looking but not seeing and Wonshik made an incoherent, high-pitched gargling sound of fear, horror and panic. His eyes shifted uncontrollably. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'll turn you off, let me-"
It was when did the machines whirred to a halt and Taekwoon's body went limp once more did Wonshik's knees finally buckle as he curled over in a sob.
I failed ....
[ L04 ]
Taekwoon was hot, too hot, way too hot. He was overheating. This wasn't warmth, this was a fire.
[ L05 ]
A part of the machine exploded and Wonshik was knocked off his feet. The scrapes against his forearm are only a reminder that he was failing over and over...
again.
[ L06 ]
Wonshik was spending more on alcohol than rent these days. Nothing else could wash away the fact he was failing, time and again, that Taekwoon was dead, that Taekwoon was...was...
[ L07 ]
Can't you hear me?
[ L10 ]
Wonshik turned on the camera, dark blue rings weighing down below his eyes, hair dishevelled, hands with healing cuts. "Take 10." Wonshik murmured, lips exhaling a sigh as his eyes watered, the boy grimacing as a hand cupped over his eyes, dipping his head.
The machines whirred again. Every time, no matter how many adjustments he did, to the machine or to Taekwoon himself, the man would react badly, internally bleed, the machinery being too much for the organic parts inside him. Wonshik had since extracted the other's kidney, liver, lungs and replaced them for a synthetic copy. Taekwoon was becoming less and less human, and Wonshik found himself having to avoid looking at the lifeless body, the blank eyes...dead.
Taekwoon's eyes opened as the machine whirred, Wonshik slowly dropping his hand as wide eyes stared in anticipation. It was the tenth time, yet every time the machines began to whirr, Wonshik's being felt of dizzy with anticipation.
He didn't bleed. His face didn't contort in horrendous pain. Taekwoon's eyes were tracking Wonshik's movements as the younger man ran over, almost tripping over his feet, his hands sliding up to cup Taekwoon's cheeks.
"Taekwoon?" Wonshik whispered, but the man's eyes stared at him.
"Are you in pain?" Wonshik gave a sorrowful smile. "Am I hurting you again?"
Taekwoon didn't answer, his eyelashes slanting down to Wonshik as the boy connected his lips to the android desperately, needing some kind of reaction, needed to spur the humanoid's past memories, quicken his beating heart. He pulled away, though Taekwoon's expression was no different and his lips barely moved. the younger latter grimaced.
"Talk to me." Wonshik said.
There was a spark and a sizzling sound, and Taekwoon's face began to contort in pain again and Wonshik inhaled sharply, scrambling over to the machine and pulling the lever down before something worse happened. He slumped against the panel as Taekwoon lifelessly slumped again, the other's fingers slipping from the handle as he put his head in his crossed arms, wretched sobs shaking his body. He'd never wanted warmth so much.
Failed again...
[ L12 ]
I can't... I can't I cant do it anymore.
[ L14 ]
Help me.
[ L15 ]
His phone buzzed with concerned texts from Hakyeon, Hongbin and Sanghyuk, who he hadn't seen in over five months now. He had told the trio to leave him alone, to let him grieve on his own, to let him 'try and recover' from Taekwoon's tragic death and had gone on a long trip away. Neither of them knew that Taekwoon was not buried in the ground but being preserved in Wonshik's laboratory that was usually reserved for making AI robots.
He couldn't tell them. He couldn't tell anyone. He couldn't trust anyone.
Considering what he was doing was considered illegal.
Wonshik slumped against his desk with a mug of coffee in his hand, bloodshot eyes overlooking where Taekwoon had been positioned again for the thirteenth time for the next take. He had taken almost everything out inside the man other than the brain and the heart. He needed the brain, but tried to keep the heart for sentimental purposes. That while Taekwoon might of died and been brought back to life with a body of bionics, he'd still have a beating heart.
He turned on the camera.
"Take fifteen." Wonshik said through exhausted lips.
He pulled the lever.
Wonshik's eyes slowly turned to look at Taekwoon, his head raised, eyes blinking up. The younger just gave a sorrowful smile as the android looked around like always, taking in his surroundings, only to land on it's somehow creator.
Wonshik's heart skipped a beat, biting his lip hard as his hand on the lever began to shake, looking for any signs... that Taekwoon might begin to bleed again, or convulse, or spark...
"Taekwoon?" Wonshik said quietly, the android's head turning again. The younger's mouth went dry, he had heard him. The bionic ears were working, and just at that, Wonshik felt like crying. "Can you hear me?"
Taekwoon blinked, and gave a small nod. A squeak escaped from Wonshik, hand slipping away from the lever and trotting over, putting his hand softly on Taekwoon's shoulder. It had been the first time Taekwoon had answered him, acknowledged his voice or words or questions. His lips were twitching down, head dipping at the fact Taekwoon had answered him. A small nod, but an answer.
"You can understand? You can hear?" Wonshik asked, his hand on Taekwoon's shoulder slowly tightening in anticipation. The way Taekwoon was looking irked him, more robot and not human. "Don't you... know who I am?"
Taekwoon blinked again, his eyes blinking small blue lights as if registering what Wonshik was saying before shaking his head.
"I'm Wonshik, your boyfriend." He choked out, now desperately trying to see through tears, cupping Taekwoon's face. There was no warmth. It wasn't Taekwoon. This wasn't him.
"Weve been dating for five years, we were planning on spending our life together, you remember that, right? We were meant to adopt those cats, and sponsor that monkey, because it looked like Hakyeon, right?" he was smiling, though he felt like screaming when he was given no response. His head slowly lowered and forced himself to back away.
He pulled down the lever.
Three minutes later, he looked down at the coffee mug shards on the ground caused by a moment of anger and distress. He'll have to buy more.
[ L23 ]
"Take twenty-three." says Wonshik looking up at the camera, realising as he looked at himself on the screen on the video camera that he had never looked so exhausted. He was. He was terrified.
The times before since Taekwoon had begun to respond to his questions, it had been the same. The only difference was that he knew now that Taekwoon didn't seem to be hurting, but then again, he didn't know if the man could really feel pain anymore. Wonshik had now made his heart half steel, trying to keep as much organic flesh as he could.
Taekwoon couldn't seem to speak either, so he had to make adjustments to the machinery inside the man's throat in hopes that it would be able to produce sound. Despite Taekwoon being able to answer yes or no questions by movements of his head that didn't have anything to do with his previous life, Wonshik couldn't figure out what was happening, why Taekwoon couldn't remember him. He figured to extract the man's memories and create a synthetic version and then implant them into his new database, his brain now underlying with robotics. As He had been piling Taekwoon with as many memories he could, he continuously tried to forget the fact that Taekwoon was slowly turning less and less human, less of the man he was.
Perhaps Wonshik was selfish for not letting him rest in peace, but was it truly so bad to give someone their life back?
Wonshik whirred the machine to life, the sound now both his worst nightmare but only hope. As Taekwoon's eyes opened yet again and focused on the young boy, the eye-contact becoming more and more unbearable every time it happened. Wonshik waited for the blank stare, the hawk-like IA tracking of his movements.
"... W-Wons-shik?"
He had seen it. He had heard it. He didn't believe it. He froze, hand clutching the lever as his hands shook, the waterworks beginning what seemed like again and again and again.
He watched as Taekwoon stared at him in confusion. Taekwoon had expression on his face, and Wonshik's knees almost gave out . It was the first time Taekwoon's face had moved in anything but pain since he died.
"Wonshik...?"
"Taekwoon," Wonshik choked, his voice coming out barely a whisper. Taekwoon was speaking, it was the first time he'd heard his voice, in... only to realise something else. "You remember me."
He remembers...
Taekwoon blinked in a concerned expression, and Wonshik's face contorted into a sob. He found his feet fumbling over to him before he could realise, his body colliding into Taekwoon's and wrapping his arms around his lower waist where the power cords weren't plugging into his back. Wonshik pressed his grimacing face against Taekwoon's shoulder, heaving a heavy sigh of relief.
"After twenty-three times, you remember me, Taekwoon, you... you finally remember- oh god, Taekwoon. You're back, you're home, you're alive-"
He bit his lip and blinked back tears as his face broke in realisation. Taekwoon wasn't moving or reciprocating anything at all.
Wonshik's feet staggered back to look back at Taekwoon with shaking lips. "What's wrong, are you in pain-?"
Taekwoon looked at the person who was in front of him , clearly lost with what was happening. "I can't move my body. I'm paralyzed from the waist down," His soft, feathery voice was so gentle, yet it hit the boy like a truck. "Wonshik..."
"Y-yes?"
"Didn't I die?"
Wonshik licked his lips. "I revived you."
Taekwoon made a pained expression, eyelashes fluttering down, and at first the younger thought something bad had happened again, but Taekwoon looked back up at him. "How long has it been since I-"
"Eight months... and 3 days."
Taekwoon's lips parted in shock, his soft features looking into Wonshik in disbelief, only to look away and hang his head. He looked guilty, he looked upset. He didn't want this, he wanted Taekwoon to be ecstatic for being able to be given a second chance at life, not-
"You could of moved on by now, Wonshik." Taekwoon whispered.
"No," the younger replied over Taekwoon's voice, whose voice hitched, his face flinching. "Never, I-"
"Twenty-three times?"
The other nodded, giving a small grimace, heavy bags weighing down his features, stringy hair that desperately needed a cut sticking out in all directions.
"You're not looking after yourself." Taekwoon murmured.
Wonshik sighs and covered his eyes with his hand, feeling like he was about to wail. Taekwoon had never wanted to hug the man so much in his life, but he couldn't, his body refused to move, and while the man felt guilty for what Wonshik had become because of him, he felt a whole surge of affection.
Taekwoon's lips pressed together, racking his memories of his time with Wonshik studying and working on their engineering projects together.
"My circuit. Something's probably pressing against to whatever wires you've used to send messages from my brain down to my body. If you can get the messages up and down I'll... " Taekwoon looked down a little. "Be... able to move."
"Okay." Wonshik said shakily, swallowing back shuddering breaths as he slowly walked towards Taekwoon again, a hand raising to caress the man's cheek.
"Can you feel that?" Wonshik whispered as Taekwoon's face softened, nodding slowly. He felt warmth, he felt Taekwoon, that he was there, and not just an artificial intelligence inside a metal shell.
Wonshik gave a small watery smile, leaning in to press his lips against Taekwoon's, finding himself whimpering against them as Taekwoon kissed back. The latter had kissed back, preciously, sweetly, as if pouring his affection into Wonshik in case this was the last time he saw him.
"I love you," whispered Taekwoon almost inaudibly against his lips.
Wonshik smiled geniunely for what felt like the first time in months, kissing Taekwoon quickly before "I love you too," was reciprocated.
"I'll fix you up. I'll... I'll bring you back. You'll be alive again. I promise." Wonshik whispered, and Taekwoon nodded.
Pulling down the lever had never been so hard.