A/N:: I fully admit taking bits of ideas/the setting of this chapter from L's toaster 'verse. I hope she'll forgive me. But it had to be done. ((Also - I apologize if the "Family" stuff is getting a little too... heavy-handed.))
She was sitting in the middle of a crowd of people who all seemed delighted to see her, there was a restless and nervous energy as they all waited for the performances to start, she was full of compliments and Woohyun had sought out coffee for her and Sungyeol, but she didn't hardly noticed.
Dawn Summers was exhausted.
Excited to see Dongwoo's performance, yes - of course. Thrilled to be surrounded by friends who were so happy to see her and each other. Happy to be out of the house on a weekend evening for any reason other than patrolling. (Still wondering why Buffy and Spike hadn't tried to talk her out of it.)
She was also barely hanging on.
The coffee in her hand would only do so much, she knew.
It wasn't as if she wasn't used to this. But usually on Saturday afternoons, she napped.
Okay, so she had a regular napping schedule. So she was the younger sister to the Slayer. She depended on those mid-afternoon naps to keep her going.
And really, it wouldn't have mattered so much that she missed today's. Saturday afternoons were rarely an exact science. Only the night before, she had stayed up late trying to get a translation done for Giles by morning in London; and only a couple hours after she had sent off the email, she was woken up when Buffy and Spike came home from patrol.
To be fair, they had tried to keep quiet. They always tried. She always heard them anyway.
And when she walked into the kitchen to see Spike pushing Buffy's dislocated shoulder back into place, a huge gash on his own arm spilling fresh blood all over the counter... well, it ended up being a long night.
And though they sent her to bed with the chance for at least five hours of uninterrupted rest before she needed to be up and at the Magic Box... sleep had completely eluded her. As of late, she'd had a strange tickling at the back of her mind - like she was forgetting something desperately important, but she couldn't figure out what it was. She felt, some nights, like the answer was turning her round and round in her brain on purpose. It was unsettling - made her feel nervous and on edge. Mostly at night.
Sungyeol said something and Woohyun laughed, breaking Dawn's train of thought. She looked around and then turned to Sungjong, who was sitting on the other side of her, with Suji cheerfully munching on candy beside him, "Where are Myungsoo and Sunggyu?" It was odd to see Sungyeol without Myungsoo beside him. (Though she had noticed that he seemed just as close with Woohyun - a friendship she would never have pegged as being so intimate.)
Sungjong raised his eyebrows, "You don't know?"
Sungjong seemed to exist in a permanent state of incredulity when dealing with other humans.
Fei reached up from where she was sitting behind them and brushed Dawn's hair away from her face gently, "Oh they're just backstage with Dongwoo - he was feeling awfully nervous."
Sungjong rolled his eyes, "Dongwoo never gets nervous before a performance-"
Dawn heard Woohyun mutter something under his breath and Sungyeol whisper something back - as if in comfort.
Hoya tugged on a lock of Sungjong's hair from his seat next to Jia, "Everyone gets nervous sometimes, Jjongy."
Suji tapped Sungjong's arm and dramatically whispered something in his ear. He fixed Dawn with a bright smile afterwards, putting his arm around Suji and squeezing her to him, "Right. He's … nervous."
Everyone was smiling just a bit too broadly... but Dawn really didn't have the energy to try to puzzle any of it out. She shrugged and took a long gulp of her coffee. After a few more moments of chatter, the lights dimmed and the performances began.
Some of them weren't very good. And when Dawn realized that Dongwoo was the very last to perform, she started getting antsy. She wished she could look at a program, keep herself aware of how much time had passed, how much more was left to sit through, but everyone appeared to lose theirs in some bizarre twist of fate.
Not that she was irritated.
After the intermission, Hoya squeezed Jia's hand shortly and then left to join Dongwoo, Myungsoo, and Sunggyu backstage. Dawn had heard the two of them making snarky comments to each other about the performers, their costume choices, the music choices... anything really, throughout the entire first half of the recital. Fei kept shushing them, but still there came a steady stream of comments - quietly enough so that not many people could hear, Dawn only picked up some of what was being said, but Fei was sitting next to Jia and could hear every word... Mostly what Dawn could hear was Fei scolding them (or occasionally laughing) and the rare chuckle from Sungjong when their voices carried.
The second half of the recital comprised of only three performers - according to the announcement made over an intercom. She could only hope it was correct, since Sungjong had given her such a sneer when she asked him to look at the program (mysteriously found and in his hands once more) that she didn't dare push it.
She leaned her head against Sungyeol's shoulder and yawned; finally allowing herself to show how tired she was. Yeollie rested his cheek against the top of her head, "You okay?"
She nodded. "Just … tired."
He wrapped one of his long arms around her and pulled her into his chest, "You won't regret staying. I promise."
Dawn just nodded in return. She didn't regret being there, she just needed to rest her head for a moment. When the lights started flickering - signalling wanderers back to their seats - Fei pressed a second cup of hot coffee into her hands silently before going back to her own seat (shooing off Sungyeol's inquiries for his own).
The second half was far more interesting than the first, Dawn thought. Though it could have just been the coffee. Or Sungyeol's mounting nervousness beside her.
In the darkness before Dongwoo began, Dawn turned to him and whispered harshly, "What are you so nervous about, anyway?"
Woohyun grabbed Sungyeol's hand with both of his and shot Dawn a glance, "Not nearly as nervous as me." His smile towards the stage was more like a grimace, Sungyeol draped his other hand over Woohyun's and Dawn turned away as they comforted each other.
Drama Queens.
She heard Suji squeal softly, "This is it!"
A single spotlight illuminated Dongwoo appeared - dressed in skintight white shorts and a tanktop, in the shadows behind him Dawn saw Hoya dressed in a black echo of Dongwoo's outfit. On the left side of the stage, almost hidden, there were two stools and microphones, dimly lit with a bluish glow. Dongwoo smiled at the audience.
"We don't usually announce anything before... But I just wanted everyone in the audience to know how much this was truly a group effort. Without my... family, this dream could not have come true." He paused for a moment, as if waiting, then held out his arm to the stools, "I literally forced some of them to come on stage with me tonight, so please accept our hard work." He bowed.
Then everyone waited in silence as two black-clad figures took seat on the stools.
Everyone except Dawn, who gasped a little too loudly. And little Min behind her, who giggled with excitement and was shushed by Fei.
Myungsoo - holding a guitar, sat on one stool. Looking terrified for his life.
On the other sat Sunggyu.
It all began at once, Myungsoo softly strumming on the guitar; Dongwoo's controlled, fluid movements; Hoya a shadow, an echo hovering in the background; the beat of their feet on the ground; Sunggyu's voice.
Sunggyu's voice.
The four of them seemed born to harmonize together, Dongwoo's movements the logical extension of Sunggyu's surprising voice, Hoya the shadow to the dance, an echo of Myungsoo's guitar, the pounding feet on the floor keeping a perfect rhythm to the music, tying the sound and movement together perfectly. All completely controlled, completely at one with each other; yet free... a perfect explosion of energy and symmetry, freedom and restraint.
It was an exercise of balance in every way.
Of finding balance.
At times, Sunggyu's voice turned thick, raspy, and with it, Dongwoo's motions became slower, there was a sense of moving stillness in his motions. At other times, Sunggyu's voice became sweet, soft, while Dongwoo moved faster, more erratically, his feet pounding on the floor as if to drown out the sound of Sunggyu's words. Woohyun and Myungsoo's parts likewise ebbed and flowed around and between each other, between the other three - a complete composition of push and pull.
Dawn saw, too - these four: two extroverts with smiles for everyone, two introverts brimming with so much need; two dancers - complete in their bodies, two artists - complete in such a different form of expression. These personalities that balanced each other, that worked and lived well side-by-side; that were even more complete with the other three there, too. The seven of them pushing and pulling and demanding balance of each other - finding it only through a constant give and take.
It was genius. It was perfect. It meant so much more to those sitting there beside her, she sensed. They all could see Dongwoo performing his ridiculous family unit, expressing the energy and collision of their lives through raw movement and sound. She heard Fei sniff softly and Jia murmer to her. She felt Sungyeol shift as he put his arm around Woohyun.
Family.
Dawn would never admit this, but everything seemed to blur together after a while. She knew that Dongwoo was beyond incredible - that Hoya's presence revealed his own talent, while still existing primarily to accentuate Dongwoo's movements - but she hardly saw them; the flashing of black and white on the stage, tumbling and leaping over and around each other, blurred.
All she was really ever conscious of was Sunggyu's voice.
(And also a little bit, the look of pure rapture and ecstasy on his face as he sang.)
(It was erotic, his face, she decided; but wouldn't let herself admit.)
She leaned forward a little bit in her chair, trying to get closer to the sound, to its raw sensuality. Sensual not just in Sunggyu's sudden (and surprising) evocative sexuality... but also just in the raw physicality of it. As if the notes were made tangible as they passed from his lips; as if she could reach out and touch them; as if she would finally understand something absolute when she held his voice in her hands. As if he were touching her somewhere she had never known could be exposed.
She was the only one that didn't notice him watching her as he sang.
As the song started to dwindle down, Sunggyu's voice softening, stretching out, wriggling back into the hidden spaces from which it came, an irrational thought began to take form. When all that was left was Dongwoo's body on the stage, moving in silence, hard and fast in an explosion of emotion, Dawn was jolted back to reality. And when all was still - in that split second between Dongwoo's final head bow and the crowd erupting into applause, that thought finally took root:
Xander is never going to believe they aren't demons now.
