Cataclysm//NCT Dream TUA Au

one

Renjun is thirteen when he jumps forward in time. He gets into an argument with his dad the same as any other day and sees the promise of punishment in his eyes. Hes done dealing with it. He turns and runs out the door and ignores his siblings' call of his name at his back. With any luck hell be able to return to before he even had his stupid fight with Dad and rub it in the bastards face.

He jumps forward for the first time and laughs in delighted glee when he realizes hes done it. The shops around him have changed and the style of dress is different. He does it again and again until he lands in the rubble of his childhood home with acidic air burning his mouth and ash falling in his hair.

He looks around desperately for some sign of life and doesnt see any. He pulls his fists towards his chest and like so many times before his powers sputter out around him. Hes completely exhausted himself. He tries over and over again before he finally gives up for the night.

Instead, he decides to start his search for other people again and throws up when he finds them. His siblings are older, more filled out, and taller in their teen years than they were when Renjun left, but he recognizes them all the same. Their bodies are coated in blood. His old bastard of a father had warned him against time travel, and he guesses the old man was right.

Renjun checks his brothers pulses over and over again just in case but eventually reality sets in. He digs his siblings' graves himself with slow care and love in every push during the first and second weeks of his hell trip to the future.

The first brother Renjun buries, on the third day of being stranded in the future, is Donghyuck. He pulls his brother out of the rubble as carefully as possible and sobs as he realizes hed died trying to protect Jisung. Hes slumped over the boy with some type of sharp metal piercing his side and Jisungs chest. Renjun spends longer than hed admit sobbing over his desperate brother trying so hard to save his little brother, but theres no one to tell. It seems even the animals have died out.

Eventually, he gathers the strength to bury his brother. He has to stop himself from crying again as he sees the evidence of the years hes missed. Donghyuck mustve dyed rainbow streaks into his hair at some point because the faded color reflects in the harsh sun. Hes skinnier than Renjun would expect him to be and his hands are tattooed. There are smears of eyeliner around his eyes from where he mustve cried before he died, and his clothes arent from the academy. Renjun barely recognizes him.

He buries the other boy while crying over him until his throat aches and his face is itchy. He cant keep going after him so he sits beside his brother's grave and desperately wishes he had Donghyucks power instead before chastising himself. Donghyucks power had never let him see who he desired, and theres no reason for Renjun to believe it would work any better for him.

The next day he buries Jeno and Jaemin and tries not to think about how they mustve died holding hands. Jeno is heavier than Donghyuck, and Renjun exhausts himself all over again while dragging his brothers body to the grave. He has to take about a day break in between moving Jenos body and Jaemins. In the meantime, he utters his remorse for separating them and for leaving them. It takes him a while before hes able to move Jaemin but on the fifth day he gathers up his other brother, who is still too light even in death, and gently lays him to rest next to their other brother while reattaching their hands.

The effects of time arent as apparent on Jeno and Jaemin as they were on Donghyuck, but theyre there nonetheless. Jaemins hair is a faded pink their dad mustve had a fit when he saw, but he sports no new tattoos. Jeno looks almost the same with his black hair and plain workout clothes, but hes changed subtly. The absence of his easy smile and the blankness of his expression ages him unsettlingly as well as the height he mustve eventually gained.