Summary:
He's not afraid of dying. She's not afraid of death.
All things are pre-Furious 7. Also headcanons because isn't that what all fics are?
Chapter 3: Who We Are: Of Fate and Free Will
I. Red Flames, Red Blood, Red Sirens, Red Thread
It's a lazy Thursday afternoon as she's rifling through his various IDs. Han Seoul-Oh, an old one that is clearly not even his picture. She stops short at one that reads "Han Lue." She rummages her mind trying to find out why she knows that name.
"You're Han Lue?" she questions.
"Yes, sometimes," he answers aloofly, not looking up from the magazine he is reading, not getting her point.
"Han Lue, from around L.A. with the red mustang? Dom gave me your number before Rio, he said you might be around in case I needed help. I called around but one of your friends said I had just missed you," she explains.
"Small world," he responds offhandedly, then goes back to his reading material.
..
He hadn't given that incident much thought at the time but now that she is gone he ponders.
He's reminded of a story he heard once about a red thread that tied people's fates together.
He tortures himself with thoughts of meeting her in another place, in another time. Not "if" but "when." destined lovers, regardless of circumstances. He wonders if this is his destiny, doomed to love her so briefly. But even a hundred years would have felt brief. The fates needed a tragic story, but why did they choose them?
Deep down he knows that no one controls her. She saw the fates trying to snip the thread free and ripped if off herself. He would have done the same to save her. It's not real. It's just a story.
What he doesn't know is what a red string can mean to her. An old folklore that some in her culture believe. A thread tied around a wrist to ward off evil. The thread that could mean meeting the one a person would marry when it fell off naturally.
Was this the string cruelly entwined to his fateful one, so close to falling off by itself but also the very same one that would tear them apart?
..
He's not afraid of dying. In his last moments, the red flames engulf him, red blood rushes to his head, red sirens are blaring, but all he feels is the red thread tugging at his heart, pulling him back to her.
He needs it to be real, even if it's just a story.
...
II. Kindred Spirits in a Crazy World
She believes in a higher power, something bigger than herself and this world.
She prays but not as much as she used to, she's pragmatic. She can separate herself from it; overlook the blinding faith someone like Dom has so strongly.
He's never been spiritual, maybe even scoffed at the overzealous in his youth, but now that he's older, he sees the value of it.
He bows his head with the family at dinner. It means something to them and they mean something to him. It is respect and understanding, of kindred spirits who found each other in this crazy world.
Sometimes she prays in the mornings, mostly moments of silence with whispers throughout. She's never more relaxed, and he thinks it's enough to believe in her belief of it.
..
She doesn't like to think of the far off future, all it holds is murky waters.
She thinks she must have at some point, as a wide-eyed child, perhaps. She's seen too much pain in the world, but she also knows there is hope and wonder. She just can't afford to think about them.
..
She's not afraid of death. In her final moments she doesn't regret a single thing. All she sees is what will remain. He will live.
He is the only thing that is real.
A/N:
Director Justin Lin tweeted that Gisele and Han's last names aren't revealed and that Han Seoul-Oh is an alias, google it!
There's an early draft of FAST FIVE on the internet. I don't know how legit it is but the cues/descriptions for Han/Gisele are the BEST. They are described as "KINDRED SPIRITS" with "an energy between them." He falls in love after seeing her drive "with one long unbelievable DRIFT MOVE [yes, written in caps], and this is after Han drifts in his trial run. I never noticed her drifting. So perfect. So heartbreaking.
Google "Fast Five draft Chris Morgan," and it should be an link
This version of Han/Gisele is more openly flirty/less guarded, but maybe they remembered that it didn't work in 4 (with Dom) so they toned it down. I like the subtlety, yet it was equally hot and adorable.
